A/N: A Patchwork Love is a twist on the friendship and relationship that develops between Hiccup and Astrid at the end of the first movie and throughout the TV show. The story I'm going to relay uses the "arranged marriage" plot, but embellishes it enough with some personal deviations. Although it is classified as Hiccstrid, the path this story will take coupled with its emotional angst will make it appear to be otherwise; I swear they come together in the end.
Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon - the movie, TV show, books, or otherwise. Rights belong to DreamWorks Animation and Cressida Cowell.
Chapter One
"The Heir, the Shieldmaiden, and the Dragon"
† • † • †
If there existed one thing - or, rather, one person - who vexed Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third more than any other, he would immediately concede it to be she: the highly esteemed Astrid Hofferson.
Fearless Astrid Hofferson personified the term "Viking" in every way imaginable - strong, fierce, bloodthirsty, and a proud warrior from an exceedingly young age. She stood at five feet and five inches and her slender build only carried one hundred and thirty pounds of female terror.
As far as attire went, the girl possessed her own unique style: a glaucous striped sleeveless tunic, woolen dark navy leggings, a thick leather skirt with metal spikes vertically lining each strap and small animal skulls along the waistline, studded spaulders that protected her shoulders, and arm band wrappings extending from her elbows down to her wrists. Astrid did not don a helmet, but chose instead to sport her kransen, a leather headband which helped keep her hair situated, save for the fringe of hair concealing her left eye. The kransen identified her marital status as single, and because the mythic skjaldmaer rarely married and opted to lead a warrior's life, it also represented her intention of becoming a proper shieldmaiden of Berk.
Although she tended to be slimmer than most others in the tribe, one would be a fool to underestimate her strength. Astrid easily became the most agile and fleet-footed fighter of her generation, championing over all the tactless males in hand-to-hand combat. All this and her reputation of being the prettiest teenager in Berk, bolstered by her thin waist, freckled pale complexion, braided flaxen hair, cold aquamarine eyes, and her adamant stance of stubborn independence, summed up the girl into one distinctive and deadly word: valkyrie.
If one wanted to find someone in Berk who embodied the complete opposite of Astrid Hofferson, one need look no further than Hiccup Haddock. This boy portrayed a Viking as precisely as a pirate resembled any form of modest civility. He stood at a measly five feet and four inches and tipped the scale at a little over one hundred pounds, his toothpick stature anything but impressive.
Hiccup wore ordinary clothing, nothing particularly remarkable since he harbored no interest in fashion. A long-sleeved celadon dyed tunic with a wide sash wrapped around his hips, a chestnut fur vest, and avocado shaded trousers became his daily wear. He did not own a helmet or any armor whatsoever, nor did he carry any weapons, except for the small dagger he kept inside his sash.
As the son of the mighty chief of the Hairy Hooligan tribe, his vice of being physically incapable of wielding a real weapon - be it a sword, axe, mace, or bola - certainly did not help his image.
The boy's ineptitude and destructive nature labeled him the village screw-up, notorious for his inability to kill even a Terrible Terror, and usually caused more damage during dragon raids than the dragons themselves, which cost the village copious amounts of food and supplies. Messy auburn hair, ghostly emerald eyes with a cascade of freckles masking his cheeks underneath, and a tiny scar on the right side of his chin did not dissuade the moniker that the other villagers slapped onto him: Hiccup the Useless.
Hiccup's frustrations sparked their first embers in the parched woodlands of his mind fourteen full moons ago, on the night Astrid and he rode Toothless together for the first time; the night she kissed him on the cheek, her vague explanation boiled down to "for everything else". Granted, his agitation did not breathe life at that exact point in time - oh no, as he silently gazed at Astrid's retreating figure from the cove, he experienced a complete spectrum of emotions:
Bewilderment.
Awe.
Wonder.
And the tiniest seed of hope which she planted into his cheekbone with that split-second peck of her lips, like a farmer sowing in his field before covering those kernels with the tilled rouge dirt of Hiccup's crimson blush. His stunned bemusement broke brusquely when he noticed Toothless, his onyx-scaled Night Fury of a dragon, sidling up next to him and darting a knowing glance with his chartreuse eyes at Hiccup, his human.
"W-W-What are you looking at?" Hiccup grilled his dragon exasperatedly, his tone equal parts peeved and elated. Toothless grunted a sigh and focused forward again to see Astrid vanish behind the shield in the entrance.
Hiccup really didn't know what to make of the tingling sensation which electrified his face, but from that memorable night onward, he discovered he somehow acquired a new ally - a friend. Of course, no one could replace Toothless as his first true friend, with a reputation of being the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself; however, nothing could trump the tantalyzing rush of having a friend - a companion - who could actually talk back to him in plain Norse. Hiccup didn't realize, though, quite how formidable being "just friends" with his lifelong crush could be.
As always, the dawn appeared darkest before the dawn, including losing his best friend, his father, and his tribe, as Astrid so eloquently put it. But the silver lining around the storm cloud shined through - everything smoothed themselves out and gave Hiccup his almost-fairytale ending, all because of the heated ironing of Astrid's pep talk above the docks. The girl rehashed a part of his inner being the instant he lost himself in despair. In a matter of several surreal hours, the blonde Viking spontaneously matured from his jealous opponent to his only loyal supporter, even in the face of banishment by association.
Then, the battle against the Red Death came to pass, not that he could recollect much of what transpired above the volcanic island anyway. The coma Hiccup lapsed into all but erased it from his memory, save for a few glimpses of Toothless chained underwater, Astrid free-falling through the air, and a large club tail swinging up to greet him. The rank and rotten breath of the Queen still haunted his nightmares, jerking him from his restless slumber in a cold sweat, eyes wild and unseeing. On those distressful nights Hiccup appreciated that Toothless slept in his room the most, the two pairs of green eyes speaking wordless comfort to each other.
The morning Hiccup awoke from his two moon long sleep, however, only further perplexed his jumbled up emotions. The grogginess of shock persisted in clinging to the deepest recesses of his conscience as he stumbled into the effulgent outside. It didn't take long before he recognized the electrifying touch of her lips on his face.
Only this time he tasted those honey-smooth lips, rather than merely felt them.
Astrid snagged Hiccup into an embrace, locking around his lower lip, which previously jutted out in a pout. He instinctively closed around her upper lip, without any clue in Hel of what to follow up with, but he didn't need to worry - it lasted three seconds at most...three glorious, unabashed, perfect seconds - something he could definitely get used to.
Unfortunately, that marked the beginning of Hiccup's downward spiral of confusion, because no more than a few hours later and the entire village rumbled with the gossip of Astrid and he. He tried to shove the rather unpleasant rumors to the back of his mind and bury them; the people who spread those should be ashamed. Hiccup could honestly only come up with two possible explanations as to why she kissed him.
The best case scenario, the one he prayed to Odin grasped straws of truth, entailed that she finally grew fond of him and maybe even liked him, however unlikely and far-fetched the thought sounded.
The worst case scenario, the one he feared of its daunting plausibility, entailed that Astrid decided to leech off of his sudden heroic reputation and the village's newfound respect for the russet-haired boy. Many others voiced their opinions of this circumstance, sometimes going as far as labeling her names like "brown-noser", "glory-soaker", and the popular "kiss-up". Hiccup became fairly disturbed by this harsh backlash against his new friend, and made sure he defended her at every opportunity, for he knew all to well the pain that accompanied having an entire village despise you.
The next day brought new light on the situation in the form of Ruffnut Thorston. The female half of the twins dragged Hiccup in between two houses on his way back home, hurriedly whispering for confirmation of what Astrid divulged to her.
"So, how about that kiss, hm?" Ruffnut leered at Hiccup, snickering at his reddening cheeks.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he huffed indignantly, unamused.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about."
"All right," Hiccup grated, "If you're here to slander Astrid like everyone else-"
"Hold your dragons, string-bean. I'm just curious if what Astrid told me in confidence is actually true or not," she baited, a determined glint in her eyes.
Hiccup laughed out of impatience and threw his ams up, clearly past the point of tolerance, "I haven't the faintest idea of what she said, considering I haven't spoken to her since...since it happened."
Not to be deterred from her personal mission, Ruffnut pressed on, "Okay, okay, so you haven't coughed up the balls to confront her about it, I get it. Really I do. That doesn't negate the fact that you have your own..." she leaned in, placing a firm hand on his shoulder, before murmuring, "...theories."
"Like I would tell you," Hiccup deadpanned, shrugging Ruff's hand off, "Besides, I have zero experience in the ladies' department! How am I supposed to understand her motives? Clue me in!" He stepped away from Ruffnut, burying his hands through his hair and continued, "It's not like she goes around kissing everybody, so it has to mean something, right?"
She didn't respond, instead choosing to drop her gaze to the ground, shuffling her feet in a very un-Ruffnut-like fashion.
"...Right?" he prodded her, fearing the worst that despite everything, the emotions remained one-sided. "What did she say?"
This encounter revealed to be one of the sparse instances where Ruff felt awkward. The twin made the assumption that Astrid's disclosure of information would be exposed for a web of lies, and that she and Hiccup forged a secret relationship behind everyone's back. That didn't seem to be the case at all, if Hiccup's reaction exhibited any indication. Ruff's intentions of making Astrid eat her own words crumbled. The other girl's declaration fell out of her mouth before she could think better of it.
"Well...she, Astrid, said that, uh, the kiss was more or less a 'show of gratitude'...for saving the village, and all..."
Hiccup blinked rapidly, feeling his knees begin to wobble and resigning himself to sinking to sit on the grass. He controlled his shaky breath and asked, "So...all it was was a simple 'thank you'? That's it?" and finishing in a much smaller voice, "Nothing more?"
Ruff hesitated, then nodded.
"And nothing less."
His russet hair fell in front of his eyes as he stared at his mismatched legs, wondering how worthwhile Astrid believed him to be, or if she did. Of course she does, Hiccup scolded himself, he only felt bitter about the realization that Astrid sincerely held no interest in him beyond amity. Ruffnut saw her cue to leave, and as he watched her swagger off, Hiccup could not help but try to rationalize things.
Astrid always took her emotions to the extreme. If she happened to be angry, confused, or exasperated, she resorted to punching and kicking as a means to get her message across. As Hiccup continued to twiddle his thumbs, he came to the conclusion that it could quite well be the same situation for gratitude and appreciation - although it resulted in a more loving reaction. He didn't feel hard-pressed to speak to Astrid about it, though; if he could put up with her punching him, he could undoubtedly handle her kissing him. That phrase still sounded foreign in his musings, and he quickly dispelled it as he trekked off to his original destination.
Astrid certainly did not make it any easier on him or his emotional attachments as the moons passed. Hiccup became the recipient of two more intoxicating lip-locks with the blonde-haired girl; once during Snoggletog, and another after the Thawfest closing ceremony. He chose not to ask her anything about these random outbursts of affection, since his logic revealed to be sound, if slightly off-kilter.
Exuding tenderness demonstrated her gratitude to Hiccup for bringing the village's dragons back to Berk, excluding his, and for throwing the final dragon race so that Snotlout would win, because Snotlout preserving his dignity exceeded in priority over Hiccup beating Snotlout. Nothing more, nothing less.
Feeding the selfish portion of his mind, Hiccup obligated himself to question why Astrid didn't kiss him more often. Not that he wanted her lips all over his - of course not - but he did indeed rescue her numerous times on some of their adventures, and yet she never rewarded him for those. Neither did he idealize himself as entitled to romantics with his best friend, the person he bonded with the most within their age group; the problem became clear as Astrid's alternating pattern of intimacy and indifference.
The village rumors detrimentally exacerbated their societal complications. Whenever Astrid heard even remote tell-tale gossip concerning a budding young love between herself and the village hero, she scattered those thoughts immediately, falling back on her safety net that she could thank her friend in any way she desired.
Thus, over a full year since his defeat of the Red Death, the chief's son ascended from zero to hero, gained the moderate acceptance and respect of the general population, and established two best friends in a girl and a dragon. Everything finally seemed to be turning up Hiccup, after his life desperately needed an anchor of contentment to hold him fast.
Little did Hiccup know that an earthquake erupted out in the ocean of his future, and it would only be a matter of time before the life-altering tsunami of drama came crashing upon his scenic beaches, drenching all in its path with depression, fury, and tumultuous agony.
† • † • †
The inconsistent and impulsive reactions of Astrid Hofferson muddled the thoughts of another besides Hiccup Haddock; the rigid female Viking herself also managed to become caught in a maelstrom of emotional suffering. The day that the talking fishbone trumped her in dragon training she would forever remember as the day when she experienced every conceivable feeling.
She arose that morning determined, prepared to put Hiccup in his proper place - inferior to her. Don't misunderstand her; Astrid did not hate the pathetically poor excuse for a chief's heir. She considered him a nuisance, creating unnecessary and costly accidents wherever he graced his presence, and a weak child with no hope for heroics. However, her opinions of Hiccup didn't equate to publicly bullying and harassing him - Astrid could not condone that behavior. That is why she preferred to ignore him and treat the boy with indifference, meanwhile focusing vigorously on herself and her training. Astrid figured the rest of the village should follow her example, but alas, they did not, and she left it at that. Hiccup's estrangement did not deserve her pity.
Afterward came the grueling weeks of dragon training, and Astrid's sudden fall from stardom. Her indifference morphed into rage and jealousy as the insolent boy bested her time and time again in the Kill Ring, and the spectators swarmed the stands in droves to watch him instead of her. The former stand-out bristled with impatient fury each day the roar of the crowd cheered for Hiccup, for some reason hopelessly star-struck with his methods - even though the muttonhead never brandished a single weapon in his "victories".
Therefore, on the morning of the semi-final, when Gothi would decide the victor, Astrid stewed in a feverish haze; the bloodlust seized the blonde beauty with a viselike grip. It would be all for naught, as the auburn-haired usurper defeated the Gronckle with only his hands and secured himself the opportunity to kill the Monstrous Nightmare in front of the village. That final blow became the last straw.
The disgraced teenager resolved to get to the bottom of this fishy turn of events, and she would be ready to do anything, no matter what. Without further delay, Astrid stalked her prey into the forest, sneaking close behind to ensure she did not lose him again. They ended up in a tranquil cove - an ideal place to illicitly train in secret and avoid disruption Astrid mused.
Hiccup's private mentor being of an entirely different species, let alone the Vikings' sworn enemy, came as an unexpected jolt. In an instant, her rage boiled into flabbergasted disbelief and overwhelming disgust. On top of this heinous discovery, the traitor and his steed kidnapped her and forced her to choose between falling to her death and climbing up and riding that devil with him.
Pushing through her trepidation, she clambered up onto the dragon behind Hiccup. Her disbelief ebbed into a sense of apprehension and dread, which became substantiated as the beast began bucking and diving and spinning through the skies over the sea stacks and churning seas. Later, Astrid would admit to herself - and only herself - that that proved to be one of the most harrowing experiences of her life, and one in which she became genuinely afraid for her life. She clung to Hiccup, on the verge of tears, until desperation consumed her as she screamed out a sincere apology and pleaded to the Haddock boy, and then suddenly everything changed.
The closest she could describe flying on the back of the Night Fury with Hiccup would be sublime. For the first time in years, Astrid's heart leapt with joy as she held her arms aloft and allowed the moisture of the fluffy clouds to condense on her hands and face. They flew well past the setting of the sun, admiring the Northern Lights that shimmered and sparkled overhead in a radiant display of magenta, cyan, and lime.
Eventually, Hiccup directed Toothless to soar over Berk, and Astrid fell in love with the view. All her life she traipsed the paths of the village, roaming in between the houses and across the fields; never in her dizziest daydreams did the blonde ever conceive she would be able to gaze on her beloved home from the sky. The roaring fires burning in the homes like tiny candle flames danced merrily, and Astrid forgot herself entirely. She actually snuggled closer into the gangly boy's back and rested her chin on his bony shoulder, unable to stop smiling.
Astrid now knew the meaning of awestruck.
Following an unexpected trip to the dragons' nest, the trio fluttered back into the cove, their minds racing with the night's events.
"No, no, it totally makes sense. It's like a giant beehive. They're the workers, and that's their queen. It controls them," Astrid rattled on, sliding off the dragon's back before turning to dash off, "Let's find your dad."
"No, no!" Hiccup called after her, causing her to stop as he ran up behind her, "No, not yet. They'll kill Toothless. No, Astrid, we have to think this through carefully." He started walking back over to Toothless, leaving the girl gaping.
It shocked her to say the least, but her annoyance surmounted her thunderstruck quiet.
"Hiccup, we just discovered the dragons' nest, the thing we've been after since Vikings first sailed here!" Astrid exclaimed, at a complete loss for the boy's ridiculousness, "And you want to keep it a secret, to protect your pet dragon? Are you serious?!"
At her outburst, Hiccup spun on his heel to face her, a stoic determination etched across his face, and simply replied, "Yes."
Astrid couldn't put a finger on the reason, whether it stemmed from the plainness of his answer, the steely glint in his eyes, or the all-around resolute glare he bore into her, but the manner of his response resonated deep within her. The scrawny boy finally exhibited the first quality of leadership that colored him as Chief Stoick's son - loyalty. Although, not for his father, nor for his tribe; he pledged his allegiance to not abandon nor risk the life of his first friend. With that, Hiccup unintentionally gained Astrid's wholehearted respect.
"Okay," she conceded, her demeanor falling into worry, "Then what do we do?"
Hiccup turned away slightly, having that same question buzzing in his head even before their return to the island. He appreciated her saying we and not you.
"Just give me until tomorrow," his nasally voice sounded deeper and more matured in his anxiety, "I'll figure something out."
"Okay," Astrid agreed. In that instance, as her eyes raked over Hiccup's thoughtful expression, she rather irrationally remembered that the weedy boy practically kidnapped her before accidentally taking her on a, dare she say it, romantic flight. Astrid didn't want him thinking he could do that all the time even if she admitted, in retrospect, how much she treasured the exhilaration from it; thus, she slugged him in the arm and stated, "That's for kidnapping me."
Hiccup shook his head, scowling briefly, before looking baffled back at Toothless while gesturing to Astrid as if to ask, 'What, you're not going to do anything about her hurting me now?' The dragon merely warbled, shook his own head as well in a 'I've done my part. You deal with her.' fashion, and resumed lapping from the lake.
However, Astrid ascertained that the fault for Toothless careening thousands of feet in the air did not rest solely on Hiccup's shoulders, and he did give her a new perspective of the village, of dragons, and most importantly of himself. She wanted to thank him for that, although unsure of how she should express it.
A handshake felt excessively stuffy and formal for thanking another peer.
Anything violent would be off the table, such as punching or kicking, because that would send the wrong message.
Offering a hug could be a possibility, but she went against it for she figured it would make her gesture seem intimate; she valued her sense of personal space.
As if in answer to her dilemma, a memory surfaced to the forefront of Astrid's mind:
She resided in her usual seat at the table; Astrid's legs dangled over the edge of her chair, still not yet tall enough to set her feet on the floor. Not a pertinent problem for the child, for she barely surpassed eight winters in age.
Astrid's father, Halvard Hofferson, sat directly across from his daughter, digging away at his dinner of mutton and bread. An undeniably large man, Halvard boasted rippling muscles in his arms and torso as his thick blond hair fell to his shoulders, blending in with his trimmed mustache and beard. Reaching an impressive six feet and seven inches, he towered over most of the other villagers; only Stoick the Vast stood taller. They didn't call him Halvard the Stalwart for nothing.
Astrid picked at her food, peering at her father through the bangs which shielded her forehead. Halvard, noticing his little girl's intense gaze on him, looked up from his plate, soft sapphire eyes twinkling as he winked at Astrid. She grinned, her gapped teeth shining brightly, except for the missing top incisor she lost while fighting Snotlout the day before.
The back door opened, a gust of wind blowing into the warm interior, and Ragnfrid Arnardottir bustled in, laden with foodstuffs from the marketplace. Astrid's mother, Ragnfrid - or Ragna for short - capped her figure at just over six feet, uncommonly tall for a Viking woman, and kept her long, brunette locks tied in a bun. Over the bun she wore a traditional headcovering, to fight off the bitter winter chill outdoors.
Ragna hurried over to the kitchen area, visibly shivering as she set down her burden on the counter. Rubbing her arms, she glanced over at the fire in the hearth, which dulled to faintly dying embers, most of the wood consumed for some time in her absence.
"Hal, could you be a dear and fetch some more wood for the fire?" Ragna inquired sweetly, already in the process of putting away her purchases in their respective cabinets.
He tossed his bread onto his plate, heaved himself up and stretched his burly arms before rumbling, "Sure thing." Halvard then lumbered out the front door, returning moments later with an armful of firewood. Dropping the fuel into the hearth as if it weighed nothing, he stoked the flames until the room swam in a soft glow of flickering amber again. Hal reclaimed his chair at the table and resumed satiating his hunger.
Little eight year old Astrid watched with curiosity as her mother smiled softly and waltzed over to her father's side. Ragna hardly needed to bend over when she placed a quick kiss on her husband's cheek and murmured, "Thank you."
Hal swiveled his head around to stare fondly into his wife's sepia eyes, slowly nodding in understanding.
The present slammed into Astrid's reverie as she abruptly snapped out of her thoughts. Brushing her bangs out of her face, she flicked her gaze up at Hiccup before downcasting it again. She made up her mind.
In a beat of a dragon's wing, Astrid reached out and grabbed a handful of the boy's tunic and tugged him forward. She barely registered his initial reaction, which consisted of squeezing his eyes tightly shut and hunching his shoulders up defensively, preparing for another violent encounter with her fist. When Astrid's lips pressed firmly against his cheek, however, Hiccup wrenched his eyes open, nonplussed; he didn't expect that. As she pulled away from him, Astrid could not bring herself to make eye contact with him - not out of embarrassment, but out of illogical timidity. How could this hiccup make her feel shy? Preposterous.
"And that's for...everything else," Astrid finished meekly, turning her back on Hiccup and stepping away determinedly. She stopped after a few paces and cocked her head to look behind her. He still seemed rather lost about what occurred right then, but Astrid noted an upward curve grace his lips on his boyish face. Seeing that tiny expression of joy caused something deep inside the girl's heart to twang, a taut string subtly plucked and left to vibrate. She couldn't name the emotion, but the only way Astrid deemed to depict it with words resembled her stomach having fluttered. That proposal sounded ridiculous though; birds fluttered, not internal organs. She buried her thoughts of winged body parts and scampered off.
Astrid would not feel that fluttering inside of her again until two moons later, on the morning that the chief's son finally decided to quit being in a comatose state. The silly boy scared the yak dung out of her, making her fret for weeks over whether he might wake up or not, and yet there he stood at the top of the steps outside his front door. Even worse for the girl's conscience, it appeared as though Hiccup's voice rang with amusement while cracking jokes about his prosthetic and the fact that he lost half his damned leg.
The flaxen-crowned girl sprinted up the hill to the boy's side, and wasted no time in throwing a solid punch into his arm. He deserved it after all.
"That's for scaring me!" Astrid declared over Hiccup's interjection of pain. He wished he could be spared any more wrath, finding no pleasure in his usefulness as a punching bag for Astrid's ire, especially after nearly dying.
"W-What, is it always going to be this way?!" Hiccup bit heatedly, ready to launch into an exaggerated tirade of grievances. "Because-"
In a conscious decision validated by two reasons, Astrid stepped forward and latched onto the front of the boy's celadon tunic once more. She leaned in and silenced Hiccup's complaining by crashing her lips onto his, tuning out the catcalls of the surrounding crowd.
Since Hiccup did save the village and destroyed a dragon as massive as a mountain, Astrid felt justified that his heroics garnered her gratitude, ergo the kiss. A much smaller part of her also desperately wanted the humble boy to shut up.
As Astrid broke away, Hiccup's eyes remained half-lidded in his state of dreamy fogginess. He stared straight ahead as he concluded his statement, "...I could get used to it."
Astrid grinned at his response, to which he smiled back warmly, and the girl discerned her heart clench a second time - that blasted fluttery feeling. She couldn't make heads or tails of the raging tempest inside her bosom, except that it made her uncomfortable. Like she felt gassy or something. Astrid didn't want to think about it. Hiccup may be the village hero now, but he did not have permission to spawn tiny dragons inside her small and knotted gut; it all seemed unnatural.
Okay, she officially lost her marbles, but that soon became the least pertinent of her problems.
Being a village of only five hundred resident Vikings, news on Berk spread like dragon fire. It took mere hours for the gossip of Astrid kissing Hiccup to evolve into common knowledge, with theories of why being tossed around like a bashyball. Astrid's most urgent predicament hailed in the form of another blonde-haired teenager, but her hair divided into three braids rather than one: Ruffnut Thorston.
"OI! HOFFERSON!" Ruff bellowed as she rapidly closed in on her target, who happened to be tending to her azure and gold Deadly Nadder, Stormfly, behind her house.
"What is it, Ruff?" came Astrid's response, poking her head around the stocky leg of the dragon. Ruff caught her by surprise when the female twin bull-rushed her and tried to pin her to the ground. Stormfly squawked in alarm as the two girls wrestled beneath her, fighting for dominance, until Astrid managed to slam her opponent into the rocky dirt, face first.
"What in Thor's name was that for?!" Astrid shrieked, twisting Ruff's arms behind her back to minimize any chance of her escaping. Ruff gave her best effort to glare at her captor, spitting a few loose strands of hair out of her mouth.
"You didn't think I would find out? You kissed my fishbone!" she growled menacingly, disregarding the obvious problem of already being overpowered, "I had dibs on Hiccup!"
"That's it?" Astrid guffawed. She expected something more disastrous, which in Ruffnut's case would mean less disaster.
"What do you mean, 'THAT'S IT'?!" Ruff spat out, "If you're trying to claim him too, then I don't stand a chance!"
A light clicked on in Astrid's head as she scrutinized the crazed girl beneath her, "Wait, wait, wait. You think I like Hiccup?"
"Well, do you?"
"Don't be absurd, of course not! He's a friend, and that's all," Astrid gainsaid, vehemently shaking her head and causing her braid to whip from side to side, similar to a pendulum.
At the other girl's rebuttal, the twin visibly relaxed, her previously tense muscles straining against the superior strength above falling limp. Astrid maintained her seat on Ruff's hamstrings despite acknowledging that her attacker made no move to recommence fighting.
"You mean it?" Ruff asked, a hint of relief breaking through the forced façade of indifference. Receiving a vigorous nod for an answer, she continued, "In that case, you mind releasing me? I can't feel my feet since your tree trunk legs cut off the blood circulation."
Astrid swatted the trapped girl's rump, feigning offense, before scrambling off and readjusting her skewed skirt. Ruffnut flipped over, but at Astrid's offered hand of assistance, she promptly ignored it.
"Anyway, that should teach you from trying to accost me again," Astrid reprimanded audaciously, hands on her hips, earning a snort from the still-seated twin.
"Yeah, yeah, we've all heard you're the Viqueen of the wrestling floor," Ruff drawled, scarcely containing her eye-roll at the girl's past insistence of the terminology, "So...if you don't like string-bean, then why did you kiss him?"
The tail end of her question inflected into a pout, which Astrid chose to actively dismiss as she resumed polishing Stormfly's scales, "It was just a show of gratitude...you know, for risking his life to rescue the other villagers." Her tongue poked out of her mouth with the laborious monotony of rubbing the dragon's side. Not entirely satisfied with that answer, Ruffnut hugged her knees to her chest and furrowed her brows.
"But all six of us risked our skins to save them. I don't see you puckering up to Snotlout for it." She revelled in Astrid's grimace of revulsion.
"He didn't lose half his leg if you remember."
"So it was a pity kiss?" Ruff questioned in surprise, "Man, that's low, especially for you."
Astrid glowered at the girl's persistent interrogation, "No, you yak-brain! What I'm saying is that Hiccup was the only one who sacrificed something in the rescue - he's a hero now, and he should be treated as such."
"You couldn't have said a simple thank you?" Ruff pushed belligerently, much to Astrid's annoyance. Stormfly crowed in agitation as her rider halted her grooming a second time by whirling on the twin.
"Look, I'm expressively impulsive, all right?!" she scowled while crossing her arms, "If you need reassurance, it won't happen again." She didn't know if she could hold herself to that, because although the sensation of kissing Hiccup still felt alien to Astrid, it proved to be enjoyable at least.
Ruff opened her mouth to argue, not at all comforted by Astrid's promise, but at the sight of her eyelids narrowing dangerously over those icy pupils, the twin thought better of it. Instead, she picked herself up out of the dirt and brushed off the loose debris, then jerked her head in quick assent and plodded away. Astrid huffed as she watched the other girl depart, noting the subtle skip in her step as her silhouette vanished around a corner.
A sharp prod in the small of her back recalled Astrid's attention to her interrupted activity, the impatience of the Nadder unmistakeable via the flustered chirping.
"Sorry girl, I'll finish you up now. How about a fast lap around the island afterward?" Astrid cooed, wanting to appease her vain dragon. Stormfly chortled in agreement, lifting her wing so her blonde girl could finish polishing her dull flank.
It didn't take long for the blonde to break her promise to Ruffnut - twice. Both incidences saw the female twin hunting down Astrid, and then proceeding to badger her with accusations like "disloyalty" and "encroaching on her territory". Since when did Hiccup become some land to be conquested? Nevertheless, the resilient teenager referred to her original excuse for smooching the chief's son; nothing more than a demonstration of Astrid's appreciation.
A thought struck Astrid as Ruff incessantly harped at her - between Ruff's protective nature over Hiccup and her adamant affections for him, why didn't she make her move yet? Inquiring this of the Thorston returned a wrinkled nose and a twisted scowl, accompanied with her blunt retort, "I have."
Oh. Oh.
No wonder the girl's wistfulness soured into something similar to pining exasperation. According to her, whenever she attempted to get the clueless boy alone with her, he would stutter out some half-baked excuse before fleeing the area - and the ground - atop of Toothless. His latest reasoning for abandoning Ruffnut consisted of needing to eat supper; this occurred shortly after breakfast.
Astrid felt a twinge of guilt for her friend, but she would never admit it. If Hiccup did not want Ruff's attention, she supposed it remained his prerogative to refuse it. Why he would though persisted to be an intriguing mystery.
Maybe he kept his affections reserved for someone else in Berk.
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As the only Night Fury in the archipelago, Toothless established himself as extraordinarily unique many winters ago. His sleek ebony scales camouflaged the dragon against the midnight sky, with only the winking of the stars to betray his position. His sharp ivory teeth retracted to grant his fire blasts unimpeded passage in hitting their marks with pinpoint accuracy and precision. Eight aerodynamic ear plates encompassed his triangular head like the mane of a lion, spanning from the base of his jawline up, behind his zygomatic arches and meeting at the pinnacle of his skull. When deployed, these flaps disrupted the surrounding airflow and generated his characteristic whistling screech.
And, as fate would have it, the dragon lost his left tail fin upon being miraculously shot out of the air by a Viking runt. Despite his grounded state grievously injuring his vanity, Toothless learned to cope, and fortunately his patience paid off - his imminent killer not only set him free, but also helped him fly again.
The Night Fury swelled with gratification when he evaluated his two most distinguished attributes: his qualities of keen observation and attentive audition. After the day when Toothless placed his snout in Hiccup's outstretched palm and formed their forbidden friendship, the boy began to open up to him more, including discussing topics which involved his savage village. His new friend also spoke in an enraptured manner about a certain "Astrid".
Toothless prided himself in being one of the most intelligent species of dragon; he immediately recognized his rider's infatuation with this Viking girl. Hiccup's body exhibited many physical reactions that the dragon previously observed from the interactions of other animals: dilated pupils, accelerated heart rate, and his olfactory sensed a distinct change in the boy's scent. However, from Hiccup's dejected pining, Toothless understood the haughty girl did not give Hiccup the time of day - nor the time of night, nor any time whatsoever for that matter. She ignored his boy, and that fact alone qualified her as being as despicable as the rest of the tribe.
It came as no surprise that the dragon seethed with anger upon seeing this "Astrid" in his cove with his rider, and charged her with protracted teeth when she assaulted Hiccup with her feet and her glorified stick. Shortly proceeding introductions, the blonde devil ran out of the bowl, presumably to her village, and Toothless snorted his approval when the aggravation left. He couldn't be bothered to care, even if his boy did. Of course, Hiccup formulated his own ideas as he climbed into the saddle and urged the dragon to follow her.
The pair ended up snagging the escapee and tossing her into the limbs of the tallest tree. Toothless eagerly wanted to leave the brat there, stranded in the foliage canopy, and became disgruntled with Hiccup's intentions to convince her to climb onto his back and have him fly her down to solid ground. The mischievous Night Fury decided he refused to allow this "Astrid" off the proverbial hook so easily; she hurt his tiny friend and would suffer his strategic admonishment.
Before his rider could take evasive maneuvers, Toothless shot vertically skyward and delighted in the shrill screaming coming from the girl. It didn't matter how much Hiccup altered his tail fin throughout the dizzying journey - the dragon flew with no destination, and only one objective.
This Viking girl would apologize to his boy if her life depended on it, because at the moment the possibility inched closer to reality.
A few chaotic minutes passed until Toothless heard the magic word ring out behind him: "sorry". He knew that Norse word equated to an apology, for he listened to Hiccup use it repeatedly during his morose soliloquies. The crack in "Astrid's" voice confirmed to the dragon of her sincerity, and so he, somewhat reluctantly, snapped his wings wide and halted the erratic flight.
Toothless' unyielding stubbornness persuaded him to not fully comply with his boy's wishes, as he took it upon himself to aid Hiccup in his mating endeavors with the female passenger by gently gliding higher into the clouds.
Eventually, the dragon's ears picked up the almost inaudible gasps of awe and admiration from the girl. Now that she finally quit being such a dolt, he could relish in the knowledge of "Astrid" enjoying the sensations cascading all around her.
As Berk's fires danced beneath them, the Night Fury detected one of the hearts pounding above him skip a beat. Burning with curiosity, Toothless swiveled his head to the right, and upon seeing their faces alight with bliss, flashed a toothy grin at the Vikings. The girl wrapped herself tighter around Hiccup and nestled her chin into his shoulder, causing the other heart to skip. Her entranced expression could be summed up with one word: content - and for that, Toothless smugly congratulated himself.
Later that night, the band of adventurers returned to the welcoming basin which the ebony dragon called home. The two teenagers trotted off a short way, deep in discussion, providing Toothless the chance to quench his thirst from the lake. From his peripheral, he spied the girl punch his boy in the arm; the dragon didn't react, no longer deeming "Astrid" as a threat on account of her sharing in the wonder of their secret.
Nonetheless, that didn't seem to resonate with his rider, as he afforded his friend a dumbfounded glower. Toothless simply responded with a bemused snigger.
Right as he dipped his muzzle into the water, a fast blur of motion reverted his attention back to the Vikings. The girl...O Smaug's scales, she attached her mouth onto his boy's cheek! She appeared to be blantantly eating his face off!
Toothless would not let this "Astrid" gnaw on his tiny friend, and almost intervened to separate them, but she released the boy before he could. That's when he realized Hiccup never made any attempt to escape her clutches, and neither did he call for help. In fact, he could hear the faint sound of Hiccup's heart speed up, and the familiar aroma of attracted stimulation waft to his flared nostrils.
Toothless surmised one conclusion from what he witnessed - Vikings practiced cannibalism as a mating ritual.
The animal kingdom revealed itself to be familiar with this concept in the past. The vigilant dragon played spectator to a pair of black spiders mating, and post-coitus the larger female ensnared, killed, and consumed her male counterpart. Toothless hoped that that wouldn't be Hiccup's fate as well if the girl decided to copulate with his rider; he needed the boy to be able to fly.
The dragon became unsure about the accuracy of his summation, however, when he didn't smell any pheromones being emitted from the blonde. Hiccup's fragrance practically engulfed him, and Toothless determined it failed to affect her - until she jogged away. His ear flaps perked forward when he heard the brief quickening of the retreating girl's heartbeat. He wished that meant his boy made a positive impression on her; Toothless would not be giving free rides to every potential mate his boy became smitten by.
He would have to excise a toll if it came to that. A ten percent fish tax at supper, no exceptions.
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A/N: Thank you for reading, and I would greatly appreciate it if you left a review! I created a progress report for this story on my profile that I update regularly, out of courtesy for my readers. Next chapter will get the ball rolling on the plot, initiated by some Hiccup/Stoick tension, so make yourself at home because this story is far from over! Diskonnekt out.
