Dear Readers,

So, I KNOW it's been ages since I've posted anything for this fandom, and I apologize. I saw a certain movie about dragons and ended up becoming insanely obsessed, and that has pretty much been taking up all my time for the past month (not to mention I had finals to study for). It was kind of weird to have to switch gears from HiccupxAstrid viking?fluff mode to NikolaxHelen abnormal!fluff mode, but luckily, I did it just in time for the end of May and for KEAIRA'S BIRTHDAY! :D Obviously, this is for the Teslen fic challenge, and this month's theme was "marriage." I took a roundabout approach to it, and I hope you don't mind the lack of fluff. But I was hard-pressed for ideas. I also swear I might have seen a similar fic like this somewhere...but I think my mind is just playing tricks on me and I'm seriously going crazy because of my stupid English 101 class. But ANYWAY, enough of my random babbling. I hope you guys enjoy. Happy birthday, K!

Best regards from a dragon-loving, Teslen-obsessed bookworm,

Miss Pookamonga ;p

Jewelry

Nikola had always hated jewelry.

Well, not always. Before the incident with Dane, he hadn't been so obsessive-compulsive about everything. But afterwards, he had gradually found himself becoming consumed with anxiety about the simplest things: shaking people's hands, ensuring that everything he did was somehow connected with the number three, checking whether there were spots on his silverware, and looking at jewelry, to name a few.

He could, of course, still appreciate the beauty of priceless gems and of gold and silver chains glittering in lamplight—when they were untouched and safely locked away in glass cases. But worn jewelry was an entirely different matter. Jewelry that had been wound around necks, dangled from earlobes, and twisted around fingers and wrists on countless occasions disgusted him. Merely thinking about the innumerable amount of germs that could accumulate on even the simplest pearl earring sent his stomach reeling and his head whirling with nausea. Nikola had oftentimes been so frightened of spewing the contents of his dinners over his bejeweled female companions that he had literally refused to come within three feet of some of them at social gatherings.

So, naturally, he found it quite odd to see himself cupping the silver ring in his palm.

It had been tested before by droves of eager women; he knew that. It had been passed from hand to hand, back and forth between various couples; it had been plucked from its display by the store jeweler several times a day. It had been handled by so many different people in so many different instances that whenever Nikola had visited the store to consider it for the umpteenth time, he couldn't help but be repulsed by the sight.

And yet, when he had finally decided on the matter, the simple silver-and-diamond band had suddenly ceased troubling him.

And, however bizarre that was, Nikola knew exactly the reason behind it.

He smiled as a startled gasp met his ears and the smooth hand in his tensed in surprise, drawing him away from his thoughts. His grin broadening, he shifted the ring in his other hand and gently slipped it onto the correct finger. It was more stunning there than he had initially imagined it would be, and he stopped to gaze at it appreciatively as it rested, finally, in its proper place. When he at last glanced up, he was met with ecstatic tears and the most brilliantly beautiful smile he had ever seen.

And for the first time in his life, Nikola realized that maybe jewelry wasn't so bad after all.