The Great Beyond

Chapter 79: Whatever Comes Next (Hiccup and Reign)

So here's my usual disclaimer that I've never been to a non-Indian wedding, so although I did research, I genuinely have no idea what I'm doing outside of what I've seen in shit like The Office (I think Jim and Pam were accidentally inspiration, looking back on this story in particular)

If any of you want to know the music I was using as a reference for the wedding scene, here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA18e2UWsrs

I would listen to it at 0.5X speed, but YouTube changed something about their playback speed in the last year, so it sounds a lot more distorted than it did back when I first picked it.

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Reign's POV

A bubbling mix of emotions swirling around in my veins caused my hands to shake as I set the last few bottles of Monstrous Nightmare gel into the box, carefully shutting the lid once I was finished. So far, I had absolutely no reason to worry, but 'what if's and worse-case scenarios wouldn't stop bringing themselves to the forefront of my mind.

He had absolutely no idea about any of it, but today was the day Hiccup and I were both moving into our new home on Berk and getting married. And all of it had pretty much been happening without any of our supervision.

Gobber had assured me that preparations hadn't stopped even when Stoick was injured, but honestly, preparation wasn't what I was worried about. I mean, sure, it was good to know that our home was ready for us, considering I was sort of banking on us living in it, but it was more Hiccup's reaction to all of it that I feared. Yes, we were already planning on getting married, but what if he was really attached to that nine months idea? What if he didn't like the fact we were getting married on his home island because there was no way to get him to the Isle of Frigga without him figuring out what was going on? Or he didn't like that we were living in Mildew's old house? Or the way the house looked?

"Reign?"

Thankfully, Astrid snapped me out of my own thoughts.

"Dagur and Heather just sent a Terror Mail from Berk," she informed me. "They said they're helping to set up for now, but once we get back, they'll make sure to stay out of Hiccup's view so he doesn't get suspicious."

Currently, our group was on the Edge, gathering up the last of the things we had to bring back to Berk. It'd taken us nearly a week, but the timing had worked out well enough that our last planned day to pack up our things was the same day I absolutely needed Hiccup away from Berk, at least for a few hours. Stoick had promised they'd be finished by noon, which was coming up pretty soon.

I breathed a sigh of relief. There was something so comforting in everyone so wholeheartedly agreeing to all of this. I think, more than anything else, they were just sick of Hiccup and I putting off our wedding, but to know that I had so much support coming from both my new and old families made me feel at least a bit at ease among all of this.

"Okay, guys, circle up."

Astrid, Fishlegs, Ruff, Tuff, and Snotlout all gathered around me, thankfully keeping any remarks or comments to themselves for the time being. The latter half of that group was being surprisingly mature about all of this, which was very much appreciated.

"Stoick says we can come back to Berk within the next hour, so I'm just going to remind everyone of how things are going to go once we get back." I took a deep breath, attempting to keep down the bile threatening to rise up and spill from my mouth. "When we get back to Berk, we're going to drop everything off in the armory, then I'll take Hiccup to our new house and show him around for a while. Stoick and Gobber will give us an hour, and then they'll tell Hiccup that the seamstress wants to make some modifications to his robes, and he'll go with them and put them on. While that's happening, Astrid, Ruff, Heather, Mala, and I will be getting ready, so I'm going to need you guys to not disturb me unless it's an emergency, okay?"