I Promise [Jackunzel & Mericcup]

Mend the bond

The moon glowed brightly as the night became disconsolate as ever. The crickets were the music of the forest and the scenery of trees never ended.

Hiccup and Merida kept silent as they walked around the forest to grab some firewood. Hiccup gave Merida the sword he brought with him, just in case anything unusual happened… But now, they used it to cut some wood.

“Here, bring these,” Merida told Hiccup as she threw some firewood at Hiccup for him to carry.

Hiccup catches them in a clumsy way, trying to not to let them fall.

“Um… Merida,” Hiccup said embarrassingly.

“Hm?” Merida said as she looked back at him.

“Umm… Uh… Are you and your… Mother close?” Hiccup said, trying to create a comfortable aura.

“We used to be… Dunno what happened.”

“Heh… You’re not much to talk, aren’t you?” Hiccup said, putting up a small smile.

Merida chuckled a bit and finally smiled, again, “So, how’s Berk like, anyway?”

“Well, nothing special… It snows every nine months and hails every three months.”

“Every food that grows there is dry and tasteless, I guess the dragons are the only attractions there,” Hiccup said, leaving Merida chuckle.

“If you think food that’s tasteless is revolting, you should try eating sheep’s stomach,” Merida teased.

Hiccup put up a face that seemed to be disgusted just by the name of the food Merida told him. They finally had a decent conversation and they finally felt more comfortable with each other. They told their own side of stories, Merida telling Hiccup that she loved going on adventures and she would go practice her archery and swordsmanship skills on days she was free. And Hiccup told Merida how he met Toothless and what chaos they’ve been through after being the first one to ever befriend a dragon.

“I’m really impressed,” Merida said, “That’s such a brave thing to do.”

Merida looked at the ground and remembered how her mother forced her to do everything she never liked and she would just be there, like a puppet.

“I mean, look at me, I despite what my mum orders me to do but I still end up doing it.”

Hiccup went closer to Merida and tried to comfort her.

“You just keep on following her orders because you don’t want to disappoint her. You just want her to be proud of you,” Hiccup said.

“I just… Sometimes, I think that I should’ve been what she wanted to be… I saw how she looked at me when I also participated in the competition… She was so disappointed,” Merida said in a low voice.

Hiccup patted Merida’s shoulder and gave her a smile, “Being different is our strength, Merida… And I know that one day your mom will realize that.”

Merida felt enlightened by what Hiccup said. She finally had someone that she could tell her problems to who would listen to her and make her day.

The thunder suddenly roared and the clouds slowly covered the sky. The rain poured down and Merida and Hiccup were caught in it. They had to find somewhere to take shelter first to not let the firewood get dry.

As they found a temporary place to stay dry, Hiccup removes the fur coat he was wearing to dry it out and Merida squeezed her hair as it the water dripped from it. Hiccup took all of the firewood and placed it beside him to try to keep it dry. The rain was coming down real hard and it was even much harder for Merida and Hiccup to keep themselves dry. After all, they were only hiding in a small corner of rocks with leaves and some of their firewood as the roof. It looked like they would have to stay there for the night for the rain seemed endless.

“Well, I guess we’ll have to stay here for the night,” Hiccup said as he turned around to Merida.

He suddenly realized that Merida looked much more beautiful with her hair wet and not all that messy from being stuck on the branches of trees.

“Yeah, looks like it,” Merida said, still grabbing her hair.

There was once again an awkward silence. They didn’t speak a word. Hiccup hated that feeling, he thought fast. He needed to think on how to remove this awful aura again. Hiccup looked around and saw a stick. He grab hold of it and started to draw on the soil.

He started drawing scribbly lines, which made Merida curious. She went closer to Hiccup to watch him draw. This made Hiccup smile a bit, but tried to hide it from Merida.

As the scribbles were added with more details, Merida realizes that it was HER who Hiccup was drawing. Hiccup was able to put every detail of her face in the drawing, from her freckles to the tips of her hair. He gave her a warm smile and this just impressed Merida, more.

“Yeah, that’s how I remember you… Coz of that Archery thing… It was pretty cool,” Hiccup complimented.

Merida was holding her bow and arrow, pointing at her target, in Hiccup’s drawing. This was the first time she saw someone appreciate her archery skills this much. It touched her heart.

“You’re really good at these stuff, aren’t ya?” Merida said.

“I guess… I mean, I’m no good at the battlefield, so, there’s gotta be some use for this skinny body,” Hiccup teased.

Merida giggled and they both had a long, relaxing talk. They were able to be themselves and even tell jokes and later on, they both finally earned their trust.