A/N: This is the sequel to my story 'I should go'. I highly recommend reading that one first, as even this prologue contains major spoilers. This story contains one or two other characters as well. I could have given them names already known to the fandom, Cami maybe or Merida, but refrained from doing so as I don't really 'know' these characters well enough to let them behave accordingly.

And: This is just the prologue... I fear it might not make much sense now but will do so eventually... But I won't update this one as frequently as 'I should go' with 2-4 chapters every day. But there should be a new one every few days.

Enough bashing now, I hope you'll like it anyway. ;)

1. Prologue

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She sat at her small kitchen table and stared down at her shaking hands. So, it was official now… She had talked about all this already, uncountable times, in fact. To the doctors, to the therapists, to the youth social workers… but it had all been theoretically at that times. Now the test result had arrived and it had become reality… And there was nothing anyone could do about it!

She wanted to scream, to thrash, to kick and hit at everything around her. This was not fair! Not after all she'd been through during the past ten years! She had given up her dreams and plans, had done everything within her power, had accepted and soon loved how her life had changed, and for what? Why in great Odin's name was this happening to her now? It was so not fair…

Her tears were running freely now, these silent drops the only reaction she allowed herself least the other person in her apartment would notice anything. She wanted to keep this secret for as long as possible, didn't want to burden anyone else with any of this. Her tears were dropping down at this cursed letter and she glared at it hatefully. It was stupid and she knew it but for a moment she blamed her fate on this simple piece of paper and felt a little better for a while, having found a culprit even though it was a false one. She picked up the letter, crumpled it into a ball and threw it across the room toward the trash can but only to have it land in a small, light green backpack aside it instead.

Well, almost… she thought to herself with an unnerved sigh and let her gaze wander toward the remaining mail on the table, mostly bills, as usual, and far too many of those for her taste, and an older newspaper. She hadn't been able to work during the past months and money started to become scarce. After this dreadful letter, going through the bills seemed so pointless… But she knew she'd have to do so eventually. Maybe those bills wouldn't affect her anymore but that didn't mean they wouldn't affect anyone.

But not now, she decided and picked up the newspaper instead, if only to distract herself for a few minutes. But it was barely able to hold her interest. World politics, financial news or the local section, nothing seemed of any importance anymore. She was about to get up and dump it all into the trash can, along with picking up the misdirected letter, too, since neither sports news nor the gossip column had ever interested her in the least when the picture on the front page of this last section caught her eyes.

Her heart skipped a painful beat and her breath left her in a huff as she recognized the face on the paper and sagged down on the chair again. She closed her eyes and took a couple of calming breaths. She had to be hallucinating! Surely, this was just some random celebrity depicted there and her brain only had concurred up that face, stressed by the horrible letter earlier as well. She gulped and after one last, deep breath opened her eyes again. The picture hadn't changed! With renewedly shaking fingers she reached for the gossip column and read.

Ladies, brace yourself. The world's hottest bachelor is off the market!

Handsome, intelligent, funny, successful, rich and hot as hel!

That's how one best describes him. And although he was known to have a steady girlfriend for years, this news might shock many of those who were still hoping.

Last weekend, Hiccup Haddock, heir of Dragonite Engineering, got engaged to his childhood sweetheart Astrid Hofferson. And although we're still waiting for an official statement, the new ring on her finger speaks volumes.

From the good authority of close friends of their's, we got the statement that they crashed their friends' wedding with this news, stealing all the attention off of the newly wed couple. We can only hope this leaves no bad blood.

Congratulations to Mr. Haddock and Ms. Hofferson!

She lowered the newspaper onto the table again, staring unseeingly down at it. So she hadn't hallucinated after all. It had been his face she'd recognized on the photo, even after all these years. Well, at least his life had changed for the better obviously since the last time she'd seen him, she thought bitterly.

After a few more minutes of thinking about this, her mood darkened further, though. She'd refrained from contacting him, hadn't wanted to burden him after he'd found a way out of that life he'd never wanted. She hadn't even tried to stay in touch, knowing fully well their lives were just too different. She knew their former friends had blamed him for his absence and although she'd known it wasn't his fault as he didn't even know, she hadn't corrected their bad opinion of him, either. She had thought of contacting him, though, when the bills had become too much for the first time, but only to find out he was in a coma after some kind of accident. She'd never tried again after that, although she'd heard he'd woken up, eventually. He wouldn't have been able to help her then or anytime later, she'd thought.

But now… Now he was rich and successful and happy with his new fiancée, while she was… She gulped down the bile at her own thoughts. None of this was his fault, really, she knew that. But life was just so unfair!

She looked up at the low sounds that escaped the other room and grimaced. Maybe he wasn't to blame for any of this but it was still his fault, and surely he could be the solution right now, too, especially in his current position. Rich, the article had said. If nothing else, he could at least pay his part so her life wouldn't become too miserable. She frowned in thought then, unsure how to approach him with this. Even with everything that had happened she still thought fondly of him and didn't want to ruin his life. She actually was happy for him so approaching him openly and revealing the truth to him wouldn't do. He was too nice a guy, would involve himself too much and surely his fiancée would not like that!

With a frown, she pondered her options and came to one silly solution. She could blackmail him. She could pretend to threaten him, get him to pay a certain amount of money and keep everything secret nonetheless. Then, he could keep living his happy life and she would be appeased, knowing her life would change for the better as well, after… after…

A new wave of tears overwhelmed her then and the enormous weight of what she'd just planned to do hit her. But it was the only solution she could think of for this mess, the only way that held some hope at least. It was wrong in so many ways, unfair and just plain evil, not something she would resign to do normally. But this letter had made her desperate...

So she walked over to her small office room, sat down at her computer and wrote another letter. She printed it out along with two photographies, one made only recently and the other more than ten years old. She put all three pieces into an envelope, sealed it and, after hesitating for a moment, wrote one line of words on the front.

With a heavy heart, she got up then and walked over to other room. The sounds of tools in use could still be heard and she opened the door after knocking reluctantly. Inside, she was met by a pair of light blue eyes that held entirely too much wisdom for their age and that were looking at her questioningly.

"Hey, darling. What do you think, shall we go on a little vacation?"

As I said, a confusing prologue... I'd like to know your thoughts and guesses nonetheless ;)