the sound of silence [Henrik]

This was all happening very, very quickly. A few days ago he’d been minding his own business in Hakon’s shop before Freyja walked in and wanted to ‘have a moment of his time’ and now here he was, getting married. Then he’d had a very awkward conversation with Aleinn as he explained what was happening. That went well. It was hard to explain things when you were still a little fuzzy on the details yourself. But he’d gotten the important bits across; ‘I’m marrying Tóra, and she’s moving in with us.’

It seemed the majority of the people who knew about this wedding were under the impression he’d agreed to it because he was a nice person, and had no real reason to object. He was twenty-five, that was a normal age for people to get married. Arranged marriages weren’t uncommon. But the truth was, he liked Tóra. Probably a bit more than could be considered logical, since they’d only met once. But she was nice, and pretty, and funny, and she’d laughed at his stupid jokes. And when he’d concluded that someone was giving her a hard time, the first thing he’d wanted to do was smash his fist through the faceless person’s skull, which wasn’t exactly a typical reaction for him.

So when Freyja had asked him if he’d marry Tóra to keep her safe, his only hesitance had been at the fact she was asking him at all. Apparently being in a relationship had turned Hakon into a bit of a blabbermouth, and as soon as Freyja had discovered he had a crush on her sister, had set her plan in motion.

Tóra had chosen to hold the wedding at the cliffs and Henrik was happy to go along with that. He’d arrived a bit early, hoping for a chance to talk to her. Something they probably should’ve made time for before the wedding, since they still hadn’t spoken at all since that first time in Hakon’s shop, but everything had come together so quickly, there hadn’t been time. Or maybe he hadn’t made the time because this whole situation was painfully awkward and he didn’t know what to say to her. But their second ever conversation should probably not be their wedding vows, he’d decided, and made his way to the cliffs.

It didn’t take long for him to spot Tóra sitting at the edge of the cliff, and Henrik made his way over to her quickly. The first thing he really noticed was her hair. It was pinned up and braided and while it looked very pretty, his first thought was that he liked it better down. A thought he kept to himself, while also reminding himself that how she wore her hair was none of his business. Clearing his throat softly, he sat down beside her and silently enjoyed the view for a few moments.

“You’re not having second thoughts, are you? If you don’t want to get married, you can just tell me,” he told her first, before nodding towards the ocean, and the waves crashing into the rocks below them. “No need to jump,” he added, turning towards her finally, with the barest hint of a smile.

“You look…” His first reaction was to say ‘pretty’ but he recalled Sofie’s threat from the night before, when she’d been at his house to see Aleinn. ‘Tell her she looks beautiful, Henrik, or I’ll kick you in the shins.’ He didn’t know how someone like Tóra could come from the same family as Sofie and Freyja. Her older sisters were pretty rude, and incredibly violent. “... very beautiful,” he finished and cleared his throat awkwardly. He wasn’t exactly good at this kind of thing.

After another few moments of silence, Henrik finally tried to say what he’d wanted to say in the first place, before he started with the uncomfortable jokes and awkward compliments. “I was thinking… this is all going to be pretty strange, right? This is only the second time we’ve spoken.” Was he making this worse? Probably. “I think it might be easier if we felt a little more comfortable with each other?” He knew he was likely the problem. His whole personality basically screamed ‘please leave me alone’ which couldn’t make him easy to interact with. But he could try. For her.

While he’d only been joking about the whole jumping thing, Henrik still relaxed slightly when Tóra said she wasn’t having second thoughts. Second thoughts were a perfectly natural reaction to an arranged marriage, he assumed. He wasn’t having them, but that was probably a little different. She was only sixteen, marrying a virtual stranger and just hoping it all turned out okay. He wouldn’t really be surprised if she had been having second thoughts.

When she told him that it got loud at her house so she came here to get away, he nodded in understanding. “I can imagine,” he answered immediately. He spent enough time around Sofie to assume their family was fairly loud. And she had three other sisters. “It’s only loud at my house when Sofie is visiting,” he added with a smile.

He could reluctantly admit to himself that he’d been pretty nervous about how all of this was going to go. He knew the whole situation was odd, and agreeing to marry someone for your own safety wasn’t at all the same as wanting to get married. But almost as soon as they started talking, he didn’t feel as strange. She’d giggled at his dumb joke, and said she wasn’t rethinking marrying him. This was already going better than he’d been anticipating.

Tóra’s reaction to his compliment was unexpected and he was a little confused until she leaned into him slightly and admitted that the hairstyle was uncomfortable. “Your secret is safe with me,” he whispered back, glancing from her face to hair for a moment. “Let me know if I can help. Maybe pull a flower out so you have to take it down later? And then your sisters can be mad at me,” he offered with a quick wink. Two of her sisters had threatened him very recently, but he wasn’t too worried. It was a wedding, after all.

She agreed that the situation was a strange one, which was actually more comforting than he would have imagined. Obviously he didn’t want her to feel awkward around him but the fact that they were both struggling a little made him feel better. When he noticed her blushing though, Henrik did feel kind of bad. He was supposed to be fixing it, not making it worse. Opening his mouth to answer her question, he shut it again when she continued, and told him she already felt more comfortable around him than she should. “I won’t tell if you won’t,” he replied, essentially admitting that he felt the same way. And while he didn’t want her to feel awkward around him at all, he was already incredibly aware of how much he liked it when she blushed. That was going to be a problem.

“Well,” he started slowly, not actually having much of a solution to their problem, but wanting to make an effort to rectify the situation. He tried to think of the people he was perfectly comfortable around and how they differed from her. Unfortunately, he could only think of three people; Aleinn, Hakon, and Haskell. “We should get to know each other?” he suggested, his face probably giving away his own uncertainty at the idea. “What do you like to do? What annoys you?” he questioned first, knowing those were two things that would certainly come in handy for him, while he tried to come up with another question or two. They didn’t exactly have a lot of time to figure this out. “You said you wanted to be a healer before? Are you still interested in that?” He had a pretty good memory and was almost certain that was something she’d told him that day in Hakon’s shop.

“Is there anything you wanted to know about me?” he wondered next, leaning into her quickly, hoping she wouldn't feel too awkward about him putting her on the spot like this. He rarely spoke this much, and it was making him feel even more uncomfortable than he already had, but maybe if they knew each other a little better, this awkwardness would begin to fade? He could hope, at least.