"What are you doing?" Eret asked, being followed rather closely by Ruffnut as he sat down across from Snotlout. He had planned on a nice peaceful breakfast alone in Meade Hall, yet who did he "accidentally" meet? He didn't have anything against her, it was just draining, she was persistent, he could give her that.
"I am-" Snotlout began rather confidently, about to show Eret the neat stitches on the blue fabric before shoving it away as Ruffnut sat down. "Nothing."
Eret gave him a hard look before seeing his awkward glances at Ruffnut. Maybe he was working on the advice?
"Good morning, you look smoking as usual" Snotlout said, as he usually did with his morning salutations to Ruffnut. The party last night was a bit of a kick in the pants when she spent the entire night avoiding him. It had felt a bit empty, without Hiccup and Astrid to add to the conversations, and Fishlegs had never made an appearance, so he had no one to argue with. Rosethorn didn't come even come, so he couldn't try to ask her for a dance to make Ruffnut jealous AND annoy Fishlegs, that would have mad his day.
"Good morning, dragon dung" Ruffnut lazily replied, glancing around for her twin.
"Oh, so I get a good morning?" Snotlout asked, wiggling his eyebrows like it was important and Eret groaned. He shouldn't push his luck.
"Since you two obviously have so much to talk about, I'm going to go" Eret said, quickly trying to excuse himself.
"You didn't even eat anything!" Ruffnut said, frowning at him.
"After that witty banter, it seems I've lost my appetite" Eret said sarcastically. Ruffnut was about to reply only when she saw her brother run through the doors.
"You guys- you guys aren't going to believe this" Tuffnut said, holding chicken and looking rather out of breath but that didn't phase his smile.
"What are you so happy about?" Snotlout asked, knowing something had happened. Whether Tuffnut would the root of it, or if it was something else, Snotlout knew it would either be insignificant or… very bad.
"There's going to be another wedding! Oh, I just love weddings" Tuffnut said, wiping away an imaginary tear. What he did love was the free food and drink. "So romantic"
"Who's? Oh! Hiccup and Astrid got divorced but they changed their minds and they're getting married again" Ruffnut said excitedly.
"No! That's even better than what it actually is"
"I'm getting married to Eret?" Ruffnut asked as she grabbed onto Eret's well muscled arm, making Snotlout fume to himself. Eret quickly shook her off before adding his input.
"Well if its anything like the last one, we have something to look forward to"
"Are you marrying chicken?" Snotlout laughed.
"We haven't gotten there yet, but soon… her parents want an entire coop? Like what the hell?" Tuffnut replied jokingly, holding his prized chicken out.
"Well who is it?" Eret asked.
"You're not gonna believe this" Tuffnut merely said, making sure he had a good seat before talking.
~(+)~(+)~(+)~
Pudge had flown through the window, as he normally did, and spent the night curled up and trying to console his Viking.
Morning had come, and it felt like the night before was a dream, it really had to be. Rosethorn had managed to sit up before remembering the night before. With that she covered her face with her hands, starting to feel foolish.
Crying wouldn't help anything, last night was one thing, but today was a new day, and new days shouldn't be started with tears. Pudge let out a worried groan, curling up tighter around her in the nest of blankets they were in on the floor.
"I- I can't stop-" Rosethorn said, furiously wiping her eyes. She had to figure it out, she could do something right? This was all so… crazy!
"I can't just get married! I- I don't know anything about it! Do you think he knows? Do you think he knew yesterday?" She asked her dragon, half expecting a reply.
"I can't- I can't believe this is happening! I don't want to live with a boy!" Pudge looked a bit put out at that. "I'm not talking about you… I love you and all your grossness…" He gave her a nudge, glad to hear that.
"A house? How did his family just add a house to that? Who does that?" The tears were still coming, and she sniffled through most of her words, but mostly because she couldn't stop.
"I can't just… I already have to live with a brother- close quarters with him? Fishlegs is clean but- oh gods…I'm going to have to live with him… we'll be… we'll have to…. Oh gods" She said, her face turning a bit redder.
Her mother had already come by several times, asking her to come out of her room so when the footsteps drew near the door and it started to open, she had already turned away.
"Leave me alone" She managed to say, sniffling and wiping her face.
"I can't believe you didn't tell me" Rosethorn uncovered her face to see Grimhilda peeking in, talking quietly.
"You- you heard? How did- how did-" Rosethorn hiccupped before Grimhilda was at her side.
"Everyone knows- his mom is very excited, but no one knows for sure when it happened, there's a lot of rumors- I think I like Bucket's version best" Grimhilda said, setting down her basket and taking a seat on the floor in front of her friend. "Apparently, your dad lost a bet to his dad when they were like our age and then he had to give his first daughter to his dads first son- like what if that hadn't worked out? Like what if you weren't the same age?"
"That's not what happened"
"There's this other one I heard- apparently Gothi knows all about it- both your parents went to her because of course they'd go to her, she said all the signs pointed to a good marriage- plus she likes your cookies- oh oh, did you hear the one where your dads marrying you to him because other wise you were going to run off with-" Grimhilda said, pulling handkerchief out of her top which Rosethorn took gratefully.
"Grim, if you're try- trying to make me feel better… you're not" Rosethorn said simply, blowing her nose rather grossly.
"Well I'm telling you this so then when you tell me what you're going through, it might not seem as bad- unless you were planning on running away with another guy?! But you would have told me that… now, no more tears, I brought all sorts of good stuff to make you feel better" Grimhilda opened up her basket, pulling out another handkerchief that was separating things before gently wiping away the tears from her friends face, holding her chin in her hand. "I have some stuff I bought- I told you I'd steal you for a day and todays that day, everything is all about you."
"I don't want it all about me"
"Why not? Just between us, a full day of pampering and taking care of my best friend, please just let me do that for you? I'll do your hair all nice and I have some cream that's good for the blotchiness and you can tell me as much as you want- unless you don't want to talk about it…"
Rosethorn knew Grimhilda wanted to talk about it more than anything, she always wanted to know all the details.
"Fine- I uh- I'd like that" Rosethorn sniffed, as Grimhilda let go of her face.
"Oh thank the gods- ok spare no details, I want to hear everything that happened- be as mean or nice as you want, we do street rules- which is no rules-" Grimhilda went on, pulling out all sorts of bottles and things from her basket as she talked. "I want to be the only person to know everything- well… I want to know everything so when I visit your fiancé to be I can give him a good piece of my mind- you're actually handling this better than I thought"
"I'm crying on the floor"
"You could have run away or something-"
"Even if this is horrible- I can't just run away"
"Is it really that horrible?" Grimhilda asked, pulling her out of her dragon's protection so she could reach her better. Pudge grumbled unhappily before curling back up.
"Yes! It is horrible! What else would it be?" Rosethorn asked in distress and Grimhilda eased her back to put on the face concoction.
"I don't know, it sucks- boys are gross… oh who am I kidding, I love them, but they suck! But I mean… it could be worse you know? Like you could not know him, or you could hate him, or he could be a bad person. Fishlegs is nice, he's your friend- or was- I don't know where you two are with that, you guys like the same things, he's clean, he's sweet, he's probably worse than you right now- and he doesn't even have his best friend for him cause he's on his honeymoon- what horrible timing"
"Do- do you think he's upset?" Rosethorn asked, closing her eyes as Grimhilda smeared whatever it was onto her face.
"Hm… I don't know- why would he be upset if he's getting married to you?" She joked.
"Because he's a person with feelings-"
"I'm just kidding! I don't know, I mean… I guess, he's not the type to suppress his emotions, I think he's probably a big a mess as you are… probably… I'll go see how he's doing, honestly though he's so lucky- he should be grateful! Like, you're cute, and you're funny- I would marry you if our time together wasn't so brief-"
"Grim-"
"I can't share you- really if you think about it he's a homewrecker-"
"Stop!" Rosethorn couldn't help but smile at that.
"See? There you go- you look so pretty when you smile- I'll go talk to him, tell him he's lucky and if he hurts you, I'll do something. I don't know what yet, maybe I'll enlist Tuffnut-" She had been fawning over him since she got to Berk, though he seemed to be more interested in chicken than in her.
"I see you got a new nose ring" Rosethorn said, hoping to change the topic.
"The store is doing very well, you would not believe the amount of fur Snotlout buys- I don't know if he burns it or if he uses it, but his money is practically what bought this" Grimhilda said, motioning to the gold ring coming from her nose.
"It looks nice"
"That's why I got it, maybe you should get one"
"You're not sticking me with any needles"
"I'll just ask your hubby how he feels about nose rings- who we're not done talking about-"
"Please don't go talk to him"
~(+)~(+)~(+)~
Sleep hadn't happened, of course it hadn't. He had really tried, but now he found himself reading. Dark circles from lack of sleep and coupled with stress didn't do him any justice. Books upon books laid open in front of him, Meatlug anxiously watching as he sat slouched over. He had gotten them when his parents were asleep, so he didn't have to see them. Books about housekeeping here, marriage laws there, a book of what needed to be done for a wedding was somewhere else. He couldn't entirely focus on what he was reading as he thought about Rosethorn.
How upset was she? Probably very, definitely very, she was getting married to him. That had to be reason enough, she had to be married to him. Did she cry? Was she crying? He couldn't bear that thought, it was enough to make him cry too. What was she doing? Locked away like him? What time was it? He would have to go to work, he couldn't skip two days, even in these circumstances, he needed a distraction. But self pity weighed him to the floor and instead he picked up another book, paging through it mindlessly. What was she thinking? What was she doing? What were they going to do? How would they get married if he couldn't bear the thought of seeing her? Not that he hated her or anything, but more… avoiding sounded better than confronting, what would she even do if she saw him?
The doors of the stable opened very suddenly, and all the light made him squint.
"Damn, you look… well terrible- you look terrible" The girl said, standing with her hands on her hips looking down at him.
"Not that I don't love your insults but-" he began.
"Relax! Doing a bit of light reading?" Grimhilda asked.
"No- yes- please go away-" He said, not wanting to talk to anyone and stood up, picking up his books.
"All I want to do is talk to you- about… things" Grimhilda said, moving her weight from her toes to her heels.
"What did you hear?"
"Everything- basically everything. When do I not know everything?" Fishlegs decided to keep a comment to himself, knowing very well being mean wouldn't accomplish anything.
"Did you- did you talk to…" He asked quietly, fidgeting with a book and keeping his eyes on it.
"Yes. Technically I'm supposed to be at my house getting more girl stuff- she made me promise not to, and I quote, "harass you""
"What did she say?" He asked suddenly, straightening up and quickly walking over to the girl. "Is she ok? How is she? When did she find out? Did she… did she cry?"
"Erm… Weeeeeellll…. Ok is a strong word… but yes, she looks better than you surprisingly- well not surprisingly, she's a rock, a soft small one… anyway, yeah, she was crying her eyes out when I got there"
It took everything to keep Fishlegs from literally clutching his heart and Grimhilda could see the pain on his face.
"I was exaggerating a bit, look, she did cry, but she's a crier, you have to know that if you two are gonna get married- I'll make you a list of stuff you should know, which is everything-"
"Grimhilda" He said, trying to keep her on track.
"Oh right. She cried yeah, she's upset yeah, she doesn't want to see you, yeah… she doesn't hate you- in all honesty she feels bad for you"
"Really?"
"She feels bad you have to marry her- which is some grade A bull shit right there if you ask me- she's the nicest person I know, you're a very lucky man Mr. Ingerman- oh my Thor, she's gonna have to change her name" Grimhilda gasped.
"And a lot of other things…"
"I know this isn't great for you two, but don't give me a reason to kill you ok?" Grimhilda said, picking up a book.
"I know I probably will- knowing you" Fishlegs breathed, taking the book from her into the pile in his arms.
"Well don't… you should go talk to her-"
"I can't do that!"
"Well you have to- Snotlout's made a bet you guys won't talk until you two say "I do" and do you really want Snotlout to win? No of course you don't, you want me to win, which is both me winning coins and Rose being happy"
"She won't be happy with me" He said morosely.
"Gods, you're so… so… you need to be nicer to yourself! She's a very happy woman most of the time, its not hard to make her happy. And besides, she likes you, she thinks you're nice, and she's just obviously going through some stuff right now, I can tell you are too with the whole not shaved, crying in a stable vibe you've got going on, but I think you two can work it out." She crossed her arms to make a point and turned on her heels. "You're the smartest people I know"
"You think so?"
"Yes. And I'll send you that list soon, ta-ta for now, I must return to your bride to be before she realizes I am breaking a promise- and I don't intend for her to find out I've broken said promise" Grimhilda hinted, looking over her shoulder.
"I won't tell her-"
"Wrong! Do not lie to your wife! You are doing very poorly so far, I hope this won't become a recurring problem, Mr. Ingerman." She chided. "But seriously, don't tell her"
"I- I don't know what to-"
"Good answer! Goodbye! And I'd leave soon because the other are trying to find you! And shave! Rose thinks you look better shaved"
~(+)~(+)~(+)~(+)~(+)~
Sorry for such a short chapter and no hiccstrid, my b. I've been super busy with school so i was like i best post this sooner rather than later. I've also been super slow cause there are parts i wish i could just skip to and write, but alas, i gotta get through this. Grim is non-heinous's, go check out her tumblr, its beautiful.
More twins and snot and eret and hicctrid to come! i'm finally getting to the parts i want to write (well not all of them, but they come in later) ;)
Review Reviews:
HideousZippleback: Thank you! yeah this was pretty much a grim centric chapter, lmao, i didn't mean for it to be like that but i love her, there shall be more stuff to come!
hopelessromantic4life: Nah son, Gothi probs didn't wanna deal with that crap cause she's a busy woman, but then again, you wanna see if the gods smile on the marriage, so its really up to you if it was gothi messing or if that was a thing, it was really just a second opinion cause the ingermans needed something extra to get the marriage going
UnbreakableWarrior: Thank you bby
unknown: I didn't know what you meant by "how long it will last?" Like how long is the story supposed to be? or how long is the story going to stay good. For the later i hope its good throughout the entire thing, i also have no idea but its good cause i'm not stressing myself to get to the end
Guest: Thank you!
hails: ;* you're the cutest thing ever
stefaniee9: Ah thank you! i can't wait to write more!
Little Indulgence: omg do you know how much i would love that? like? i would probably die on the spot. I did have a dream dreamworks asked me to write httyd 3 and i was like sorry but let me promote my oc and then me being oc trash paid off. But honestly, i doubt they would since there are more adult themes coming later on and hahaah if only you knew, also arranged marriage isnt really a thing i feel like theyd wanna depict, buT ITD BE COOL ANYWAY
nameless: :) :) :)
