Our Night On Valentine's Day

Admitting

"Astrid?" Merida was behind the blonde haired girl. She was crying on the rooftop and Merida was at the window, looking down to her.

"Just go Merida." She wiped away the small tears. "Go to the dance with Hiccup." She wasn't sobbing at all. Her voice hadn't change a lot. She wasn't even stutter when she said it. She was strong and still is. Just two or three tears, a blocked nose, a tightened chest and a tired voice, and that was it.

"No, hey." Merida climbed out of the window, and placed herself beside Astrid who was hugging her legs. So was Merida. Astrid was already in a light red dress with pastel orange laces.

"I said no." Merida's voice was raspy, clouds of breath escaped her mouth as she spoke.

Astrid's head lifted up to Merida's level and looked at her pale but pretty face. Merida made eye contact with her then looked away, at the opposite direction. She couldn't tell her why. She could but it was complicated.

"Why?" Astrid pleaded to know. She frowned at her and a suspicious feeling aroused inside. Her legs collapsed into a different way of sitting. She leaned in closer towards Merida till she could smell her forest-y scent.

"Because-" Merida was finding the words. Appropriate words to use in her sentence. "I don't like him that way, Astrid." Merida looked at her with sad eyes. The wind blew the strands of her hair near her ears that were free from the tied braids. "All this time, I wanted to get closer to him only because of my.." she trailed off. She was ambarassed. Ashamed.

"Only because of my mother." She covered her face with both hands and hides it between her knees.

Astrid was speechless. All this time, she'd been mad at her, annoyed by her presence, hating her. It was all for nothing. She looked back at those times where she'd been mean to her and it was just because of Merida flirting with Hiccup. She looked back at those moments where she'd always been that misunderstood kind of girl.

"Hiccup - he's a famous guy and my mother heard about him. She keeps babbling about how he's smart, talented, kind and bold and whatever," Merida spoke as Astrid stared into space. "So I wanted to be like him even though I knew that we're different people. I just wanted my mother to like me.." she trailed off. She couldn't finnish it. Merida exhaled the cold air and closed her eyes before saying, "and I don't know a lot about boys so I thought the only way to get his attention was by.." Merida pursed her lips and buried her face between her knees again. "I know, I'm so dumb." She sighed.

"No, you're not." Astrid held one of Merida's knees. "You're not dumb," she repeated. Merida peeked at Astrid a little with a frown.

Astrid faced in front then looked at the red-haired. "Look, I'm sorry for being mean to you all this time. I shouldn't have been so narrow."

"It's okay." Merida said it like she was dying peacefully. But no, she was actually happy that she got to tell someone. She cracked a welcoming smile and Astrid did the same.

Astrid then shivered at the cool surrounding resulting Merida to pull her into a warm embrace. The heat of Merida's sweatshirt made her feel comfortable and reminded her of him. She didn't say anything though and leaned her head on Merida's shoulder. She just wanted to hug her new friend and enjoy watching the sunset together.