Hello, my friends!
Surprisingly (at least for me), I did write another chapter!
Anyway, I hope you'll like it because I'm not sure what to feel about it.
If you do or don't like it, please leave me a review! These make my day! Literally ;-)
Before I let you read, I want to thank the people, who left me a review:
To the Guest, who wrote 'THIS IS BEAUTIFUL' - Thank you so, so much!❤😍I nearly had a heart attack when I read your review! But just because I didn't expect it!
To the other Guest with 'Good story, thank you for sharing it with us.' - It's my pleasure to upload this, undefinable word-thingie if you like it. Which, by the way, still surprises me!😊
Last but not least, to TheNaturalLlama3 - I will try to keep it up! Really, I'll do my best! I promise.
Now I want to thank a friend of mine, who recently told me, that even though I haven't written in about two years, he never stopped waiting for me to send him a new chapter of one my stories.
Thank you so much! And honestly, if I had known that, I probably would've never stopped writing!
I'm just going to let you read now!
Hiccup thought it was a smart move fleeing the most awkward conversation in history. In retrospective, it probably wasn't. It only helped to incriminate him further.
He couldn't help it. He thought, that if he stayed even one-second longer, both Ruffnut and Astrid would sense his embarrassment and more important, his lingering feelings for the Hofferson girl.
Thus, he did what he always did: He ran.
It may not have been the wisest thing to do, but he panicked.
Hours later, arriving at his dorm room, he realized that what he did was ridiculous. Neither girl would have found out about his emotions, that he was sure of now.
Searching for the keys in his bag, he wasn't sure if he wanted his dormmate to be awake or not. If Justin, who preferred the nickname Fishlegs, was up, Hiccup would have to talk about today's events. Not only because of Fishlegs and his ability to see right through him but also to soothe his raging insides.
Unlocking the door, the young man closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath and braced himself for the possible discussion at hand.
He pushed the entry to their shared apartment slowly open and tried to be as quiet as he could.
"Look, who's decided to come home after all. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III." Oh, joy. Apparently, Fishlegs was up and waiting for him. The use of his real name indicated that he forgot about something.
"Hey...Fishlegs...H - How ya doing, buddy?", chuckling nervously, he dreaded the following.
"Oh, I'm fine, except for the fact that my best friend since childhood forgot to call me to cancel our daily lunch meeting because he was too busy hiding and ignoring me. But yeah, I'm fine. And how are you?" If you didn't know Fishlegs, you'd think it was just plain anger that made his voice break. But the brown-haired boy knew him. It was also concern that shone through.
"Legs, I'm sorry...I'm really, very, extra sorry...I just...ah...forgot." Hiccup didn't even try to hide his guilt and remorse.
"I know you are, Hiccup. But forgetting your routine just isn't like you." Here it comes: "What is happening, Hic? You've had to know I'd worry. Normally, you would have called. What is going on?"
Deciding fighting it would only prolong it, he answered: "You remember Astrid Hofferson, right?"
Fishlegs laughed. "Remember her? I have the feeling I know her with the way you were swooning over her. Astrid is so pretty. Astrid is so intelligent. Astrid, Astrid, Astrid. She was all you were talking about. By the way, even on the other side of the planet, I could feel your affection for her."
Feeling embarrassed and exposed, he only muttered a lame "Shut up" before really telling him: "Anyhoo, I bumped into her a couple a days ago." Three days and nine hours ago. Or at least something around those numbers. He didn't want to come off as obsessed or anything. "And today I saw her and Ruffnut Thorston at the campus café. We had a very...awkward...conversation. When I walked up to them, they were talking about Astrid doing the "nasty" with someone. So, after two minutes I flew, due to the uncomfortable talk."
Fishlegs stared at him without blinking. After a few minutes Hiccup grew worried and waved his hand back and forth in front of the blonde boy's face.
"Fishlegs!"
The large boy finally snapped out of his trance.
"Sorry, I was in a weird headspace right now...Soo, you've seen your crush. The crush you've had since...forever...How's that?" The Ingerman boy grinned from ear to ear.
"And you wanna tell me, you haven't been swooning, as you put it, over Ruffnut?" The smug grin faded. Scrambling to find a witty remark, Hiccup interrupted Fishlegs before he could even begin to talk. "Don't answer that. I know the truth. However, I'm going to bed, Mister Hypocrite."
The next day there was a certain awkward silence at the Ingerman and Haddock breakfast table.
Hiccup started: "So…", he trailed off, not knowing what to say.
"Yeah..." Fishlegs probably felt the same way.
The silence continued for the rest of breakfast.
Hiccup decided to finish his breakfast as fast as he could. And to flee from his best friend and their weird, uncomfortable not-talking. "Well, I've gotta go to the forge. I'll see you later."
The forge was a car repair shop, but it wasn't just a place to fix cars. At least not for Hiccup.
The garage was owned by Gobber, a man with only two remaining limbs. He didn't like to explain how he lost the other two, however, Hiccup didn't ask.
Gobber the Belch, as he called his repair shop, was like a second home for Hiccup since Gobber has been the best friend of his father, Stoick, for as long as Hiccup could remember, thus Gobber was more like an uncle than anything else.
Although Hiccup loved his weird, crazy "uncle", who's missing a hand and a foot, he wasn't there to see Gobber, the mechanic shop or even a girl. He was there for the forge, that Gobber had.
Since Gobber's ancestors were blacksmiths, he thought he should pursue his family's art and history.
But because it was the 21st century and blacksmithing alone wouldn't be enough to live, he opened the best car repair shop in all of Berk (to be fair, there was only one other one and it was always closed).
Hiccup was basically Gobber's apprentice ever since he was little.
When his mother had died, so had Hiccup's relationship with his dad. This had been the reason for him to spend more time at Gobber the Belch.
One day the blacksmith decided that if the ten-year-old wanted to stay for the afternoons after his regular school-day was over, he might as well show the lad how to do simple forging.
The Haddock boy hated it at first, though after time he fell in love with it.
He went to the forge when something troubled him (mostly his dad) or he came down there to simply think.
At some point, the then-teenager exceded Gobber's ability, thus he taught the young boy the basics of cars and bikes. Even though he was quite good at repairing vehicles, his love for forging never let him go.
So, as he entered the car repair shop, he greeted Gobber: "Morning, uncle Gobber!", he started calling him uncle years back when he spent nearly every day with the amputee.
"Morning, 'iccup!", sipping on his, what seemed to be his third, cup of coffee, the blacksmith greeted his former apprentice.
"If you're okay with it, I'll take up the forge, okay? I've got some ideas, I want to work on."
"Yeah, go on, lad! I trust you, to not burn the place down. Again." The look he sent Hiccup's way, had him chuckling. Although he was embarrassed to be reminded of the mistake, that could have burned down the entire building, he still laughed, because it was a fond memory by now. Gobber screaming at him, his stupidity and apparently at his recklessness too before breaking into a full grown laugh. A laugh that showed how relieved he was nothing had happened to the little boy, who at first hadn't understood why the older man was cracking up and even shedding some tears. It was only after a bone-crushing hug and an explanation that he grasped the meaning of the tears and amusement. After this incident, they grew even closer.
"That only happened once! Besides, it was the slip-up of a beginner... I'm an expert now!"
"That you are indeed.", was the mumbled response to his fake arrogant statement.
Hiccup went through the door leading to the forge and was soon welcomed by the unmistakable heat, that had his source in the forge itself.
Opening the door, the warmth all but slapped him in the face. He nearly stumbled backward, taken aback by the hotness. But he soon adapted and enjoyed the familiar environment. Looking for a suitable piece of metal to heat it up and to cast it into the form of a sword. A sword like it was being used by the Vikings, who lived in Berk centuries ago.
By the time he had found a perfect scrap of metal, the forge was perfectly heated to scald the hardware. After a couple of minutes, the piece was hot enough, so he got it out of the oven and onto the anvil.
Hiccup held the metal with the tongs and picked up the hammer to forge it into the blade of the sword. Balancing the heavy tool was a bit tricky, but as he had done it often enough it was a completed task in no time.
As always, when the hammer hit the hot metal, the young man felt the familiar vibrations in his whole body.
After a few more blows with the gavel, he had forgotten about everything that's been bothering him. His strange non-fight fight with Fishlegs, his confusing feelings towards Astrid and his even more confusing encounters with Astrid in the recent time.
All he concentrated on, was the constant tremor of the hammer hitting the metal.