WHO: Astrid Hofferson and Susan Pevensie WHAT: A random meeting, trying to make friends WHEN: Recently WHERE: Coffee Shop WARNINGS: Nah STATUS: Closed/Started in Gdocs, continued in comments
Astrid was really doing her best to assimilate here in Madison Valley. She was trying very hard to learn the language, and she was trying very hard to adopt the customs of the people who lived here. The thing was, their customs were so very, very different than her own.
They were so open about things. They talked so freely about things that she was most definitely not comfortable talking about like that. They thought that she was strange because she lived with her betrothed but they had separate living quarters. It wasn’t just another time and another place, it was a different culture, and she wasn’t completely sure that she liked all of it very much.
She’d recently acquired a new sword, though, and she did like that. She liked it so much, in fact, that she had immediately taken it to the park so that she could practice with it and get used to the feel of it in her hands. And she liked it very much. Hiccup was very right about Nina’s father - he was an utter genius when it came to weapons.
She’d only been there a few moments when a flicker in her peripheral vision caused her to turn around. She vaguely recognized Susan, but she didn’t know her well. She smiled a little smile, brushing the hair that had come loose from her blonde ponytail out of her face.
“Hi.”
There was no reason not to be nice. She could really use friends.
***
Susan had been at the library and was now walking back to her apartment when she heard a voice nearby. Looking over, she smiled in return at the blonde, pausing so that she could reply politely. “Hello,” she said. The woman looked vaguely familiar, but she hadn’t actually met her, and so after a moment she continued.
“I’m sorry, do I know you?”
***
Astrid blushed a little. Had she been mistaken? Were they not as open as she believed them to be? Had she made some sort of social faux pas? Her smiled wavered slightly.
“I...no.” She took a step closer. “I’m Astrid. Now know me?”
***
Noting the young woman’s nervousness, she gave her a slightly softer smile and shifted her books to the other arm so she could hold out her hand. “Hello, Astrid. I’m Susan. How are you today?”
The halting way Astrid spoke told her that English wasn’t her first language, and as such Su was careful to speak slowly and clearly so that she could be easily understood.
***
Astrid took her hand, her relief almost palpable. She hadn’t messed up too much anyway, and that was good.
“I am good,” she said slowly, her English heavily accented as well. “I think that I do wrong, I offend you somehow. I am sorry if I did.”
***
She shook Astrid’s hand gently before letting it go, then shook her head as she continued to smile. “No, you didn’t offend me. I just wasn’t sure if I knew you,” Su said.
“You’re new to town, correct? Where are you from?” Susan was still rather fond of Hermione for how welcoming and kind she’d been upon Su’s initial arrival, and she hoped to be able to do the same for someone else.
***
“Berk,” she said. “It is...north?” She didn’t know how to explain it other than that, and she’d discovered quickly that her village didn’t exist in this world. “Very cold in winters. Mild in summers. We have dragons.”
That was the most important part to her, of course. She missed Stormfly like crazy and it was so very, very strange to have spent so much time on the ground. She missed soaring through the skies.
***
“You have dragons?” Susan was a little incredulous, but she’d met and seen so many different people and things so far that she couldn’t really doubt the story. “That must be amazing. Is one here?” Her own experience with dragons was fairly limited, but she couldn’t help but be interested and curious.
Since it seemed that they were going to talk for a bit, she noted a cafe nearby, and pointed towards it. “Would you like to have some tea while we talk?”
***
“Yes! Many different dragons. All wonderful dragons but some….some not for riding.” When she asked if they were here, though, Astrid’s face fell. She missed Stormfly terribly and knew that Hiccup missed Toothless too.
“No...they did not come with us. I miss my dragon very much. She is a...a very close friend.”
It was hard to explain the bond that they had with their dragons, other than that.
***
“What’s her name?” Susan asked it politely, incredibly curious about the world Astrid had come from. She also didn’t like how sad she looked, and hoped that she’d be willing to let Susan buy her some tea. Since she hadn’t given a response, Susan angled herself towards the cafe and nodded at it as she took a step in that direction so that Astrid would start walking with her.
***
It took Astrid a moment to translate the dragon’s name from Norse to English, and even then she hoped she did it right. “Stormfly,” she said. “She is…” Again with the mental translation. “Deadly Nadder. But not deadly to me. She is my friend.”
And they’d been through a lot together through the years.
Astrid did indeed fall into step, even though she’d forgotten to accept her offer of tea. She seemed nice and she could definitely use more friends in town.
***
“Stormfly...that is a nice name,” Susan commented, then nodded when Astrid said the dragon was her friend. She herself had been friend with many different creatures, so she couldn’t really judge anyone else’s relationships.
When they reached the café, Su held the door open for the blonde, then followed her inside. “Do you have a particular tea or coffee you like?”
***
She shook her head. “I haven’t tried them all yet,” she said. “But I like chocolate.” That was a treat that she’d never had back home. And she liked it in just about everything that she’d found so far.
“We can talk? You tell me about your home?”
She was hopeful, but she knew she wasn’t quite getting her point across. That was frustrating. She had to speed up her English.
***
“Hot chocolate, you mean?” Susan made a mental note of that as she moved towards the counter to place an order for an Earl Gray tea for herself.
“Of course,” she replied at the questions, smiling at Astrid, then motioned for her to place an order. “Please, go ahead and choose something - I’ll pay.”