Viking's Mate (Twilight OC X OC)

Chapter 42: Riley

The next few months go by smoothly, with little to nothing significant happening. I made a casual friendship with the guy I sit next to in my classes, Ned. He's chill to chat with during class and is a hard working father of three and I admire his dedication to his family. Really though, I haven't bonded with anyone else here, and I miss the familiarity of Forks and my favorite hiking spots. 

Shinobi made friends with another husky one day while at the local dog park, and now me and the lady who owns the other dog schedule regular times to meet up for them to play. There's also another dog he likes who lives in a house along our usual jogging train, and Shinobi always makes a beeline to sniff and greet that dog every morning.

Jasper has been doing great at school, he's calmed down enough to feel comfortable having small talk with his classmates. I finally took pity on Meathead and told Jas to lay off his tormenting after a few weeks. It turns out Meathead was the star wide receiver for the school's football team, and Jasper's emotional influence was causing him to play miserably. I wanted our team to win more, so I released him from his torment.

Ivar is bored in his classes. I can tell most days he doesn't want to go to them, and he often either leaves them early or just doesn't go. I can't blame him, he has no further interest in the subject, he only liked it because I was in the class with him at school. 

In his free time, Ivar has taken up several hobbies, some new, some old. He grew a little garden by my pond, and he likes to tend to it while Jas and I are practicing tai-chi. He also is doing more archery, just for fun, and even crafted a new bow for himself. That's another thing, Ivar is very good at wood crafting, as was evident by the bench he built me. And I haven't had the pleasure of hearing it yet, but I see that he also got himself a guitar. I can't wait until I can hear him play, hopefully while he's singing.

Ivar and I found a really nice comic book store in the town. He wanted to know more about Jason and the rest of the Bats, since I'm always talking about them. I told him I would wait to tell him about Konoha until after the series was done, same with Harry Potter. But my Jason, I want him to know about him as much as possible. Ivar asks me frequently about him, I think he has caught on to how much I miss him, so he asks me to talk about him lot. It helps, I have so many memories that when I share them, the little ache in my heart lessens over time. 

By now, after several months of collecting, we have a good-sized collection of comics, more than tripling the collection I already had. We have some from every iteration of each of my Robin's. Most the times I can laugh or think fondly back when we read the comics together, but the Death in the Family story arc was a hard one. I still cried, even knowing Jason comes back later. Ivar held me tightly that night, never leaving me once, and held me tightly when the inevitable nightmare came too. He appreciated getting to know my brothers better, at least in some way. It's not quite the same, but it's something.

We still go up to Forks at least once a month, usually twice. I like to be a dick to Eddy and make Bella drive me down to La Push, where she just so happens to have to hang out with Jake. The bronze vampire is not amused by my antics. 

Jake I've noticed has less of a crush on Bella nowadays. They are still good friends, but he doesn't look at her with the big puppy love eyes quite as much. He also seems to draw Bella out of her shell more, she even cracks a few jokes here and there. 

My res boys are doing well, but missing me as much as I miss them. We still text each other all the time, so we aren't as out of touch with each other, but I find I miss my bear hugs when I'm gone.

As for my free time when I'm not at school or Forks, Ivar and I are planning our wedding slowly. I have my heart set on a winter wedding, which he loves that idea too thankfully. I want to wait a year though, really make sure nothing will interrupt the plans and that way I can also be 20, which is a more sensible age to marry. At least I won't be a teen. We want to incorporate some Viking elements into the ceremony and reception, since it means something to both of us.