Pain {Survivor AU}

Dead Love

Suggested by Forcewounds in my author note chapter. Y'all getting an Eret chapter

-----------

"So...what was the deal with you and my sister?"

Eret squinted at the younger Haddock sister, the one everyone called Bella. It was easy to see why some would probably mistaken her for Kari, they shared the same face, long auburn hair that curled, the soft freckles that dusted their faces, the same round nose, but Bella's eyes were a soft ocean blue while Kari had dark forest green eyes that she shared with her twin brother.

"Must I repeat my question Eret?" Bella asked with a small frown.

"No I heard you the first time, I just don't know why you're asking me that." Eret replied with a shrug. "You've only known me for a few weeks and now of all days you're asking me?"

"The day I came home and saw my sister's grave, I noticed the two engraved Skrills on the tombstone. I thought my father and Gobber had made them, but Astrid told me you had done it and said it was after she told you my sister wanted that for her family crest." Bella stated, smiling to herself when she noticed a surprised look cross Eret's face and what she guessed was a hint of blush blooming on his cheeks.

"Well... I-I thought it'd be nice for her to have a crest she wanted at least on her grave." Eret said and looked away. "Back in my tribe people who were close to someone who recently died would carve something that represented them on stone like their grave or on a piece of wood and leave it near their buried area."

"Snotlout told me you hardly knew my sister."

"Well yes...but we spent a lot of time around each other before she died. When Drago imprisoned us she was chained next to me, fought next to me when we were going to be dropped overboard, helped me find a friendly dragon to ride so when we hit the battlefield I was with a trained dragon."

"Huh, you knew her for like a day and that made you two 'close'?"

"Oh so I can't do something nice for the deceased rider of my dragon?" Eret asked in annoyance. "If you're asking me if I fell in love with her in less than a day, you are completely wrong."

"You blushed when I told you what Astrid told me. I asked the other riders and Tuffnut said you were literally gaping at my sister when she first landed on your ship by nearly leaping off her dragon and nearly breaking her legs from jumping twenty feet from the ground." Bella scoffed. "Look, it's fine if you had a crush on my sister, a lot of guys did when they first meet her. Like Adrien Hofferson, he was head over heels for my sister but he didn't dare to do a thing because she was betrothed to Dagur. Even when the betrothal was gone, Adrien decided to just be her friend after she told him she couldn't see herself falling in love with him. Were you in love with my sister, Eret son of Eret?"

"For the love of Asgard, I was not in love with her!" Eret snapped, pounding his fist on the table.

Striker, who was seated at the end of the bench raised his head at the sound of his rider yelling and hissed at Bella.

<Rude human,> the Skrill scoffed when his rider got up from the bench and stormed off. <Very rude.> Seeing Eret leave for the doors, Striker followed to make sure he was alright. Outside, he followed Eret down the steps until they both reached the bottom of the stairs and gently nudged he man's hand.

"I'm fine boy, I'm fine." Eret murmured, gently rubbing the Skrill's head. Striker gave a small growl and nudged him before looking to the tall cliffs. "You...you wanna visit her tonight?"

Eret found himself ten minutes later standing at the cliff overlooking Berk with Striker, a small handful of flowers in his hand and the grave the the chief's daughter next to her. He didn't want to sit down, at least not yet. Bella's words kept replaying over and over in his head. "Were you in love with my sister, Eret son of Eret?"

Maybe I was, Eret thought to himself as he looked down at the grave. Something just clicked when our eyes met. I felt some sort of warmth when she helped me up once Grump got off my back.

But then again, he probably would never had a chance with her if she had lived. Kari was the daughter of a powerful Viking chief, shield maiden to her tribe, sister to the dragon master, and rider to one of the most dangerous dragons. Yet during the time they had been together he could have sworn he felt something when she was close to him, flying under Stormfly to catch him if Astrid dropped him again, stayed near him and the dragons when the riders were scouting Drago's fort, fought beside him moments after he broke free to help him free her friends, it had to mean something. Seeing her lying dead in her father's arms with her brother and mother weeping over her cold body hurt his heart, making him want to weep with them.

Would she have loved me?