Tangled Vows

Chapter 29

Luckily, it didn't take long for Hiccup to recover, and the next week flew past relatively easily and remained pretty uneventful. Things had settled between Hiccup and Astrid as they had come to some sort of truth. There was still a small amount of animosity still present within Hiccup, but Astrid tried her best to move past it and pursue their new friendship.

Rushing downstairs that morning, Astrid was afraid that Hiccup would already be waiting by the door for her. She had missed her alarm and was running late. However, as she arrived at the bottom of the stairs, she saw Hiccup sitting rather peacefully at the kitchen table sipping his morning coffee with a plate of bacon, eggs and toast sitting in front of him.

He had the mug of coffee raised to his mouth but lowered it when he looked over to Astrid in confusion, noting her hurried actions. This was a look of confusion that they both shared as Astrid halted in place and furrowed her brow.

"What the hell are you rushing about for?" Hiccup asked, lowering the mug back onto the table and gesturing to Astrid's untidy braid and ragged breaths.

"What am I doing? What about you? We're going to be late opening the store." Astrid revealed worriedly, beginning to panic about being late.

Hiccup smiled to himself, the realisation dawning upon him as Astrid's words suddenly made sense of her actions. He continued to smile to himself as he took a sip from his coffee whilst shaking his head.

"Oh, I see. Yeah, the store is closed for today."

"What?" Astrid spluttered out, confused and bewildered by this new information. "Why?"

"It's the County Fair today." Hiccup revealed in confusion, surprised and unsure why Astrid didn't know this. The answer revealed itself to Astrid in a way that sounded as though this was something she should have known already.

"The County Fair?" 

"Yeah, they have it every year. Don't you remember?" Hiccup asked curiously, putting his mug of coffee back on the table and began picking at his breakfast.

"Vaguely. But why are you closing the store?"

Hiccup shook his head with a pitiful smile. "Most businesses close when it's the County Fair. Not many people go to the high street on this day, and with the small business I usually get, it's better to close up for the day. Less loss of profits that way." Hiccup shrugged, shoving a large forkful of bacon and egg into his mouth.

"Can we go?" Astrid asked suddenly, excited by the prospect of going to the fair that she hadn't been to in years. She was intrigued to see how much it had changed.

"You're not serious, are you?" Hiccup asked with a chuckle of disbelief. "Why on earth would you want to go there? There's not a lot to see there."

Astrid shrugged, "I want to go. That's a reason."

Hiccup rolled his eyes with a heavy groan.

"It's basically a farmer's convention. You really want to go to that?"

"It's not the first time I've ever been to the fair. I can't remember much of what it was like when I've been before, but I have been to a county fair before." Astrid reasoned, stubbornly putting her foot down and demanding to be taken to this fair.

Hiccup sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with a wince. "You're not going to let me say no to this, are you?"

Astrid smiled victoriously, "So, when do we leave?"

***

The County Fair was a carnival of chaos and a cacophony of noise. There were people everywhere, flooding every available space as Hiccup and Astrid tried to squeeze their way through the initial crowds. It seemed like the event was in full swing, especially because it was midday and close to lunchtime.