Chapter 28: "Why didn't you tell me?"

The next morning, Arkyn found himself in the market headed to the dress shop of all places. The leather tunic he'd worn in his flight suit during the dragon races had torn in several spots (though luckily he had a few spares by now), and although he'd already been by the leatherworks, the Viking there had informed him that he was backed up by several other projects and wouldn't be able to stitch it up that day. That left one other business that would probably be able to help, and of course it happened to be the one where Astrid's mom worked…

Arkyn arrived outside the small building and quickly glanced around to make sure nobody he knew was watching before he entered, fearing the endless number of things his friends might tease him about if they saw him there. The inside of the quaint structure had a wall lined floor to ceiling with various types and colors of thread while another held all the measuring and cutting tools a seamstress might need to do their job. A woman appeared from behind a stack of fabrics on a table and walked up to greet him, a jolly smile on her face.

"Arkyn! I never expected I'd see you in here."

The boy assumed this was Freya Hofferson herself, but if he hadn't known where to look for her then he never would have guessed as such. This was the first time he'd run into her face to face and he was caught off guard by her brown hair, which was similar in color to his own, only a little lighter. This meant Astrid had gotten her color from Riftan, who evidently shared his daughter's blonde hair.

"So you must be Mrs. Hofferson." He replied, nodding.

"I am indeed. Pleasure to finally make your acquaintance."

"And yours. I feel I should've done so sooner though." He said sheepishly. It had been 8 days since his involvement with Astrid had begun and he'd never properly introduced himself, something viewed as disrespectful back on Nomanisan.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. I've noticed your hands have seemed full lately. Now then, what can I do for you?"

Arkyn grimaced, thinking back on the strangely high number of things he'd done recently that Freya would've had the opportunity to observe- or judge. He didn't let it slow him down, however. "Listen, I know you're a dressmaker and all, but the leatherworker was busy and I sort of…destroyed a suit yesterday. Think you could stitch it up for me?" He held out the folded tunic, small yet obvious tears from his fall scoring its surface.

The woman nodded. "Of course! All I've got to do at the moment is sort fabric, so this will be a nice distraction. Feel free to stick around. This shouldn't take me very long."

Arkyn thanked her and cleared the doorway in case anyone else were to walk in, eventually finding himself standing awkwardly to the side as he watched her get to work.

Freya sensed the tension and attempted to make small talk. "Are you doing ok this morning? I couldn't see super well from the arena but that accident of yours looked pretty nasty."

"Honestly? I could be better." Arkyn said bitterly, rocking on his heels.

"I can understand that. Astrid came home pretty frustrated too yesterday. She hasn't been that angry with Hiccup since he pried her about her feelings." The woman sighed, appearing slightly dismissive of the situation she'd just mentioned.

Arkyn raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, what happened?"

"Oh this was more than 3 weeks ago now… I'm sure you know about the little moment they had after Hiccup's recovery. He just wanted to know where it was going but Astrid didn't have an answer for him. It was around that time I first learned about you, actually." She gave him a small wink, alluding to the time Astrid had spilled her thoughts towards the boy after their impromptu meeting on the cliff.

As for Arkyn, no…he hadn't known about the 'little moment' Hiccup and Astrid had shared after his recovery. "Huh…" he breathed idly, suddenly plunging deep in thought. He didn't want to seem too suspicious of the matter and acted as though he knew exactly what Freya was talking about. His theory about Hiccup's crush had just been proven true, however, which made the reason for yesterday's incident a little more apparent. Things had just gotten complicated- a little too complicated for his liking. The Beat The Dome race, which was still a couple days away, would be more important than ever now. Not sure of what to do with this information (and being mildly afraid of where it might lead), Arkyn simply decided to avoid Astrid for as long as he possibly could and worry about it later, for better or for worse. Why did it have to be today of all days? He thought as he made up his mind. This was not the sort of thing to meet head on and the boy admittedly did not have the brain capacity left to deal with it at the present time.

Freya sensed his apprehension and began to backtrack slightly. "You have nothing to worry about though. Astrid seems much happier now that she has you. We thought for sure she'd stay a maiden forever…" She flashed him the warmest of smiles that only someone who had been a mother for a long time could pull off, and Arkyn felt himself ease up. It was an expression he hadn't seen since losing his own mother.

"I appreciate the, uh…approval." He said quietly, feeling more awkward than if he would have just stood there in silence.

"Of course, dear." Freya quickly went back to her work, finishing up the final few stitches before holding up the newly repaired tunic for Arkyn to inspect. "There we are. All patched up." Her work was so clean that no one would have been able to tell it was ever ripped at all if they hadn't already known.

"I really appreciate this." Arkyn said, holding out a hand full of change to pay Freya for the time, but the woman closed his glove around the coins, refusing to take the money.

"This one's on the house. Consider it a token of gratitude."

"Oh, Mrs. Hofferson, I wouldn't want to take advan-"

"I insist. I enjoyed the bit of company."

Arkyn tipped her a nod of respect and quickly left the shop, mounting a waiting Stinger once outside. He rushed home faster than he knew was possible, locking himself in before taking a seat at his desk, breathing heavily. There was no time to think, however, as he had planned something earlier that day that couldn't exactly wait. There were still things to be done, although now they would have to be done alone…or so he thought.

—

It was now late evening as Astrid ascended the steps to Arkyn's house, eager to see him after another strange absence that day. It had long since gone dark and all that could be heard over the gentle breeze were a few wild Nadders that were squawking away over one of the ridges.

Astrid knocked on the door, easily being able to tell the boy was home by the firelight that flickered dimly through the small windows. "Arkyn? Are you in there?" She called out, hearing movement inside soon after.

Her enthusiasm took a hit immediately after the door opened. Arkyn looked like he'd just gone 10 rounds with a pack of Terrible Terrors, and his blank expression made no effort to lift even after he'd seen her.

"Oh, hey Astrid." He said quietly, opening the door a little wider. "Come on in a minute." Arkyn offered, not wanting to be rude in spite of the interesting news he'd learned earlier.

She obliged and took a seat in one of his chairs as Arkyn retrieved a strange looking loaf from a pan over the fire, eventually cutting it in half and putting it on two plates before sitting down himself, setting one plate and a fork before each of them. He didn't say a word as he did so, seemingly spaced out as he performed the action.

"Is something wrong?" The girl questioned, giving him a strange look of confusion. "What's going on?"

Arkyn sighed, not yet touching the food. "Well…unless I miscounted, today's my birthday." His words came out slowly and there was a brief silence while they sank in.

"Oh…" Astrid almost couldn't hear herself. "And you didn't say anything? To any of us?"

The boy shook his head. "I didn't want to bother anyone."

"Wha- why do you think that would've bothered us? We could've thrown a party or…or at least gone flying somewhere."

"You already threw me a party- the whole damn town did. Everyone saw how well I handled that. And besides, like I told you before, Nomanisan was never big on parties."

"So your parents never did…anything?"

Arkyn considered a moment. "When I turned 10 they took me up into the mountains for a few days. That was the first time they ever let me get close to a Triplestryke. I'll…I'll never forget that." His voice became shaky as his hands began clamming up under his gloves. "But now they'll never see me grow another day- not that they needed to anyway. 16 is generally when people back home were considered to be adults. I suppose I'm exactly where I need to be."

"Arkyn…you can't think like that." Astrid wore a pained expression, but the boy refused to look her in the eyes. His face remained strangely unreadable as if he were using every ounce of strength he had left to stop himself from shattering into a million pieces. Astrid reached a hand across the table to try and hold one of his, but Arkyn flinched as soon as their fingers made contact and he quickly pulled away. "Hey…" Astrid cooed in protest.

"Astrid?" Arkyn finally met her gaze, an inquisitive look now populating his features. "What 'little moment' did you and Hiccup have? After his recovery?"

Astrid was completely taken aback by the sudden 180°. How had he found out? She panicked, not knowing what to say. This was not what she had signed up for when knocking on that door just moments ago. "We umm…well…we- I might have…kissed him."

Arkyn's heart dropped. He knew this would have taken place before his arrival, but not that long before. No one had ever mentioned anything like this to him. He raised an eyebrow as he spoke. "You might have?"

"Ok…I- I kissed him. In front of the whole village."

"The whole village…" Arkyn repeated, bewildered. He was trying his best not to grow angry, but it was becoming difficult. His temper would not get the best of him this time. "So literally everybody knew this but me until today?" He kept his voice calm.

Astrid nodded, looking down. She had become the one who couldn't make eye contact. "He had just killed the Red Death and gotten the amputation- which they used my axe for, mind you. My axe. Not even Hiccup knows that, but I was closest to the Chief at the time and it needed to be done quickly." Arkyn listened intently, hanging on every word. "Anyway…Hiccup was out for several days and honestly no one, not even Gothi, knew when, or if, he would wake up. When he came out of his house for the first time I guess I was just so relieved to see him that it just…happened. I don't know. It was a crazy week…for all of us."

Arkyn didn't say much for a while after she'd finished her story. "And do you still have feelings for him?" He asked quietly, afraid of what she might say.

"I-" There was a small, yet obvious hesitation from the girl. "I came over here because I wanted to be with you…"

"Astrid? Look me in the eyes and tell me that you don't have feelings for Hiccup Haddock."

Astrid finally stopped staring at the hands in her lap and looked up at Arkyn, more confident this time. "I don't have feelings for Hiccup Haddock." Well there it was. She'd said it- and she meant it. He was still just a friend. Arkyn nodded solemnly and pursed his lips, deep in thought. Astrid broke the silence. "Are you…going to break up with me?"

"Oh gods, no…" Arkyn breathed, giving the tiniest of smiles for the tiniest of moments. "No, I'm much too smart for that." He paused briefly. "But…why didn't you tell me? Why wouldn't you have said any of this before?"

The girl sighed. "I guess I just thought that if you knew, you wouldn't trust me like couples are supposed to trust each other. I'm not good at emotions like this…they're just so new to me."

"Well…" Arkyn interjected. "I'm sure you've probably guessed by now that I'm not a person who handles his trust easily. I'm the kind of guy who likes to play things pretty close to the vest, and I do wish you had been a little more forward about this."

Astrid nodded. "I understand."

"Now before we can just forget about this…is there anything else I need to know?"

"Well…" the girl began. "My dad said that sometimes…people talk about it in the Chief's council."

An exasperated rush of air escaped Arkyn's lips as he exhaled deeply, raising his eyebrows with anxiety. "Well that's…not ideal." He said slowly. "Does Hiccup know?"

"I don't know." Astrid replied. "He probably has some idea though. It would explain why he's been acting so weird lately."

"Shit…" Arkyn whispered, resting his chin on folded hands. "I wonder what he'll do when he finds out about us."

"I'd like to see him try something." Astrid said, feeling disgruntled. "He didn't leave himself much ground left to stand on after that stunt at the dragon races."

"I'm still glad I handed you my dagger. This new race seems like a more gentlemanly compromise."

"Listen…win or lose? I'll be waiting for you at the finish line."

Arkyn smiled a real smile for the first time that day. The fault of the matter aside, the girl was still the only thing keeping him from going catatonic- other than his dragon, of course. "Thank you, Astrid." He finally grabbed her hand, reaching over the table to do so. "But from now on…talk to me, ok? We're supposed to work through these things with each other."

"Excuse me, but who was the one who didn't mention their birthday was today?" Astrid half teased, half argued, although she did acknowledge Arkyn's request.

"Touché."

"Happy birthday, Arkyn."

He wouldn't have wished to hear it from anyone else.

The two teens spent the next hour eating the dessert Arkyn had made (which wouldn't have been half bad if it hadn't gone cold) and chatting with one another about various other things, including but not limited to Astrid's birthday (5 days after Snoggletog), the upcoming race, their dragons, Ruffnut's strange crush for Fishlegs, etc.

Eventually though, the night ran its course and Astrid departed, taking Stormfly home. All remained quiet for the rest of the evening, and Arkyn used up the last of the time he was awake taking care of Stinger before turning in early, anxiously awaiting the upcoming competition.