𖣯 ✹ 🌷(úlfheðnar) ꏍ ！┈─❟
╰───►chapter thirteen; yrsa
❝ apologies gone astray! ❞

    HICCUP was yet to notice that Yrsa was watching him in the Cove. 

    Her plan after the outcome of today's training was to apologise and help him figure out a plan to get out of this. It took a lot of courage to muster like she had that night she found him to the forge to make it all the way here, ready to open up her cold heart and push away her pride. She was still thinking of what to say, sharpening her axe nervously as she waited. Toothless was sleeping; he hadn't noticed she was here yet, and if he did, Yrsa wasn't sure what he'd do. It had been a while since she came to the Cove. 

     She wanted to explain how she had felt, and that her own jealousy made it get out of hand. The last time she told someone how she felt, they hadn't felt the same way. Yrsa only hoped this time they'd stay friends ... or go back to being friends, because what they were now? It wasn't friendship. 

     Everything has been rather complicated recently, and Yrsa figured the only way to fix it was for her to just get over her problems and approach Hiccup. It was the mature thing to do, and she hasn't been mature so far; at all. 

     But that all seemed to fly past when she heard what Hiccup said. He trudged past her, hauling a full basket over his shoulder. He spoke up, probably to Toothless, not even realising Yrsa was right there, "━We're leaving. Let's pack up. Looks like you and me are taking a little vacation," he set the basket down, and Yrsa's anger flared. He was leaving━after everything? Why? He did this to himself and now he was going to run away from it? She didn't think Hiccup was such a defeatist like this. He was stubborn, not shoulder-hunched, hanging head. "Forever."

    He opened up the bag, and Yrsa exploded. "You're leaving?!" she snapped.

    Hiccup jumped, stumbling over his feet. He gaped up at her, "What the━?" recognising her, he steadied himself. "Yrsa? What━what are you━?"

   "Are you serious?" Yrsa chucked her stone she had been sharpening her axe with onto the ground. It bounced. "You're just going to leave?" She slammed the butt of her axe on the rock and stepped off. Flipping it in her grip, she marched up to him. Hiccup stumbled back. 

     "Wah━" he eyed the sharpness of her axe in the gleam of the dusk sun, "━what do you expect me to do?!" he met her tone, incredulous. "I'm not going to go against the Monstrous Nightmare."

     "You put yourself in this position!" stated Yrsa. "And now you're just going to run away from it? Are you serious?"

     This caused for anger to flash in Hiccup's own gaze. "Why do you even care?!" he snapped, pushing her axe away by the handle. Yrsa was a little surprised. "All you've been doing is trying to beat me! You just completely left us."

     "You left me!" she replied back. "You━you chose the attention over everyone else. I changed my entire dream for you and Toothless and you just go ahead and ruin our deal like it meant nothing!"

     Hiccup blanched, "You could've joined if you wanted to! I didn't want it━"

    "Oh, don't act like you didn't enjoy it━"

    "━Okay, so I did! But I've never had friends before, Yrsa!"

    "I was your friend!" 

    Hiccup scoffed, stumbling again as his feet hit a rock in their march backwards and forwards. "You never even liked me before Toothless. You hated me like everyone else!"

    Yrsa gritted her teeth. She shoved him a little. "I did like you!" she shouted. Toothless was watching them, now awake and annoyed his sleep was obstructed. He saw Yrsa push Hiccup in her anger and sat up straighter. "I liked you and your stupid, annoying, sarcastic━" she jabbed her finger at his chest each word. Hiccup leaned back, eyes wide. "But you never even noticed! You thought I was crazy like everyone else."

     Hiccup stammered, staring at her fuming face. "You━you liked me? You pushed me into a Terrible Terror's nest!"

     "I thought it was a troll cave! You were looking for trolls!" she waved her hands around, her axe grip getting loose as the blade fell back a little and away from Hiccup's body. 

     At a surprising turn of events, hearing this only made Hiccup angrier. "And so that caused you to go off at me?! What━? Because you were jealous?!"

     "Yes because I thought we were friends! I thought what everyone else thought wasn't going to matter anymore! I thought we were a team! We had a deal━and for some reason that didn't matter to you at all!" Yrsa stepped back and shook her head. "And to think I was coming here to apologise."

     Hiccup pursed his lips, "You could still━Ow!" she twisted his wrist that he held out to her. "Why would you do that?!" He fell to the ground at her feet. 

     As he tried to get up, Yrsa shoved him lightly with her foot to keep him down. "That's for breaking our deal and that's━" she let the butt of her axe fall onto his gut, winding him, "━for everything else!"

    Hiccup groaned, turning over. There was a growl from the trees, and Yrsa stopped. She had completely forgotten about Toothless sleeping. She heard Hiccup mutter, "Oh, man..."

     The Night Fury bounded towards them, ready to protect his rider. Yrsa gasped with fear and dropped her axe. Hiccup realised and scrambled to his feet, "No! NO━Toothless!" he managed to throw himself between her and the dragon as it leapt over. 

     Yrsa shuffled back, trembling. She couldn't believe it. Toothless had tried to attack her━what? Because she hurt Hiccup? She was only angry, she wasn't going to do anything, she just wanted to get her point across, she wasn't━

     Hiccup held his hands out to Toothless, calming him down. "It's okay! It's okay━" he held out the other hand to Yrsa, now trying to calm the both of them. Yrsa's breathing was shallow as she tried to stand back up, stumbling a little. Toothless returned to all fours, still glowering at Yrsa from behind Hiccup's palm. "She didn't mean anything! She's just angry! She's not trying to hurt me," he coaxed the dragon. 

     Yrsa's heart raced, thumping in her ears. She stepped back, wincing at Toothless's snarl at her movement. Hiccup held him back with his arm. "You just scared him. He was trying to protect me."

     Was that supposed to be reassurance?!

      "I wasn't━" Yrsa was so stunned, her voice got stuck in the back of her throat. She suddenly felt very ashamed. "I didn't mean━" tears of embarassment and overwhelmed emotion started to form in her eyes. She did her best to wipe them away with her shaking knuckles━no, I will not cry.

     She didn't want Hiccup or Toothless to see her. 

     And so, she did the first thing that came to her mind:

     She ran for her life. 

     Hiccup watched her leave, defeated, "Da━da━dah!" he sang. "We're dead."

     Beside him, Toothless propped himself up on his hind feet and huffed at her retreating figure, statisfied before shuffling back to bed. Hicucp frowned after him, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where do you think you're going?!"

𖣯 ✹ 🌷(úlfheðnar) ꏍ ！┈─❟

     YRSA wanted to be alone.

     She wanted to run as far as she could, hide herself in a little hideyhole and cry the tears away so she could return to her stoic, harsh figure. But perhaps it was how horrible her attempt at apology went, the way Hiccup grew angry at her truth of feelings and the shock that Toothless could have hurt her for what she had done in the heat of the moment made her blubber. Part of her wanted to just forget the whole thing, run to the village, and tell Stoick the Vast everything. From beginning to finish. But of course, she couldn't. She could never do that. 

     Even after everything, she would protect their secret, because she cared; she cared so very much even though she hid it, and it was that care that made her cry because she had messed up. She had messed up so bad. She couldn't get past her stupid insecurities, her stupid jealously, her stupid need to hide who she was to what? Protect herself? But against what? 

     Tell him, that mean side of her coaxed. Tell Stoick the truth, Hiccup deserves it after what he did. 

     But he didn't. That was her. That was her. And despite how much she wanted to, just out of spite, she was hesitating. 

     Because she cared. And she liked Toothless. But most importantly, she liked Hiccup.

    Hiccup, who━while she spent most of the time hiding it from him━she always had a soft spot on. Hiccup, who━while she would never admit this to anyone━she found similarity. Hiccup, who just wanted to prove himself, like she wanted to. Hiccup, who she felt the need to protect━ever since they found the Night Fury together. Protect and keep their secret, because it was the only way she could show how she felt. To keep him safe. 

     And that was the hesitation. 

     Because she still felt strongly. She still wanted to keep him safe. 

    So, she ran; ran as fast as she could through the green blur that had become the forest around her, jumping over fallen logs and rocks, blubbering in a mess of childish tears. She was getting out of breath, but she wasn't stopping. 

     She felt bad. She felt so bad. Over everything. 

     Jumping onto a fallen tree, she leapt━

     Her feet never touched the ground.

    A pair of claws caught her around the arms and hoisted her up.

    "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" she screamed as the ground got further and further away. She clung up to the legs of Toothless, not wanting him to let go of her. But maybe this was it. Maybe this was how they got back at her. "Oh, gods━" she cursed, "━Oh, this is it, oh, Odin's Ghost, I'm going to die━" she let out a strangled hell as Hiccup and Toothless dropped her down by the trees. She found a tree branch to hold onto with all of her might only to shout when it tilted forwards as the Night Fury and his rider landed on the top. 

     Hiccup peered down at her tear-stricken face from the saddle on Toothless's back, and she gritted her teeth. She refused to let him see her like this; so cowardly and vulnerable and ... and not Yrsa. Swinging back and forth, she managed to gain enough momentum to shuffle along the branch━where it was stronger to hold her weight. "Hiccup!" she shouted, seething. "Get me down from here!"

     "You have to give me a chance to explain!" he begged, and Yrsa kicked the trunk in her anger. He didn't have to explain! Gods, he's just making her feel worse!

    "No!" she argued. "I'm not going to listen to anything you have to say!"

    "Then I won't speak," he answered back quickly. "Okay? Just ... just let me show you." Yrsa glanced, unsure, back down at the ground. That was a long way down. She tightened her grip on the branch. When she didn't say anything, Hiccup sighed and leaned down closer. "Please, Yrsa."

     She looked up, eyes red and gentle. She must look so pitiful, clinging onto this branch for dear life. She tried to avoid Toothless's gaze, which was still furious and instead fixed on Hiccup's. She wondered whether he saw how sorry she was, and how ashamed she was, because he held out his hand, ready to help her. 

     Perhaps that small breath of understanding made her pull herself up with a grunt of effort. Hoisting one leg over the branch, she took his hand to steady herself. Once both feet were up on the branch, she took a deep breath. Beside her, Toothless snarled and she flinched.

     Careful, she reached for the saddle and let go of Hiccup's hand. She pulled herself up and onto the back of the saddle she had watched Hiccup create. The Night Fury settled with the added weight, and it took Yrsa a moment to compose herself. 

    As soon as she did, she nodded a little to herself and mumbled, "O━okay, now get me down, Hiccup."

    Hiccup leaned down close to the dragon's ears, "Toothless," he placed a hand on his flank, "down. Gently."

    His wings extended out. Yrsa was a little awestruck. She's never gotten the chance to fly Toothless. She's only seen him and Hiccup, and now here she was, feeling the movement of his muscles and scales as the tree slowly returned to its vertical height. 

    "See?" Hiccup glanced back at her, smiling. Yrsa stared at him, startled by the kindness he showed after their argument. "It's all just a simple misunderstanding━Whoa!"

     Toothless sprung into the air. 

𖣯 ✹ 🌷(úlfheðnar) ꏍ ！┈─❟

    a/n: not me posting this during my art zoom ahahahah; save me, help━i'm so bored. i have two more hours to go ...

    anyway, pls don't hate on yrsa; she's fifteen, she's a kid, we all make mistakes. she's growing and learning.