The Boy and His Night Fury (On Hold)

Chapter 13

Quote of the day

Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets
-Paul Tournier

Hiccup's POV

My newly found feelings for Astrid hadn't changed in the slightest. I knew that they wouldn't just vanish, but I was kind of hoping for them to.

It was clear to me that I liked her, but if I told her that -which I probably wouldn't- she would be surprised.

We had known each other for a day! Sure, I had helped her, but that was way to fast for someone to develop a crush. Well, that's what Astrid would think.

I had known her for my whole life, but she didn't know that. 

And that wasn't something I could go around telling her, either.

"Are you OK, Rylan? You spaced out," Astrid said, taking a bite out of her apple. We were eating dinner. Well, it was more of a lunch, but food was food.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm OK," I replied. I inwardly cringed at how fake that sounded.

"It's clear that you are not OK. Stop lying to me," she said.

"It's none of your business, Astrid," I said.

She looked a little hurt, but recovered and said, "You sound like someone I knew when you say my name."

I continued eating and said, "Really? Who?"

"Hiccup Haddock."

I nearly choked on my food. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah. I mean, I never saw him that often, but we'd talk sometimes and your voice reminds me of him. Wait. Are you Hiccup?" she asked. Was she joking? Her tone implied it, but her expression was dead serious.

I pretended to seem unfazed and said, "I am not Hiccup Haddock. He seems like a very nice person, but that is not who I am."

It hurt to lie to her, but I had to. I couldn't exactly just say, 'Hey Astrid, I'm Hiccup. The guy who had a huge crush on you? Remember? Yeah. Anyway, I was just chilling with my Night Fury, Toothless for the last three years. We defeated the queen of all dragons, by the way. Sorry I never came back to Berk, I mean, I don't think anyone liked me at all, so really, why would I?'

Yeah. That would go down great. She wouldn't freak out at all.

"You're spacing out again. Are you sure that you're OK?" she asked, looking at me with a worried expression.

She probably thought I had a mental problem by now.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why don't you tell me some stories about this Hiccup Haddock?" I asked, diverting the attention elsewhere.

It worked.

Her eyes lit up and she said, "One time, when we were little, me and him were playing house. We pretended we were married and that the chicken and lamb were our children."

I smiled at the memory.

"So I was cooking food on our 'anniversary' and then he came into the kitchen and told me he had a gift for me. I told him that I also had a gift for him. He was the chiefs son, so he got pretty much whatever he wanted. He gave me an adorable little bag with my name sewn in it with blue. He said he did blue because it matched my eyes. I gave him a stone that had found by the river. I was a little embarrassed that he had gotten me such a wonderful thing and all I had gotten him was a rock, but he said he loved it," she said.