Despite the rocky beginning, stick with me, it'll be worth it. =)
Something that Astrid appreciated about Hiccup was that he bathed more often than the average Viking, which was once a week. After working out with her axe, beads of moisture would line her face and drip down her hairline, and after rolling in the dirt to avoid an invisible opponent or sliding under an imaginary blow into mud, she hated the feel of dirt and grime, and immediately had to clean off – she couldn't tolerate it either on her own skin or someone else's.
Now, after a vicious swordfight with Ruffnut, just to keep her reflexes in shape, Astrid was finally sliding into a cool tub of water.
She sighed as she unwound her hair from its tight plait, the heavy weight of it now floating over her shoulders where the ends dangled in the water, only the slightest bit damp from sweat.
She glanced at Ruffnut, who was growling at her tangled braids as she dragged her fingers through the knots. Her usual scowl had dissipated for something gentler – here, where it was completely male-free, especially of her brother. Astrid thought she looked a lot prettier that way, when she wasn't worrying about appearances.
Astrid closed her eyes and sank deeper into the tub, until the cold water went up her nose, over her eyelids, and tickled her scalp. She exhaled through her nose, the water feeling amazing. Astrid could feel Ruffnut looking at her in mirth, and then Astrid broke through to the surface more completely, wiped the water out of her eyes and sighed in pleasure.
"So who won?" It was a rhetorical question, but Ruffnut still responded, "I did, of course." Then she snorted and started rubbing soap onto a rough rag.
Astrid reached for one of her own, scrubbing off the dirt on her arms and legs. "No, I'm pretty sure that I did."
"Yeah, right. I'm the best."
"I don't think you can prove it."
"Well," snarked Ruffnut, "we didn't kill each other, at least."
Astrid laughed softly, letting the water swish over her skin, and nearly jumped out of the water as another voice came from the doorway, "Well, that's an improvement."
Instinctively, Astrid crossed her arms over her chest and, frightened for her modesty, squeezed her legs so tight they felt more like stone than her own aching muscles.
"Hiccup!" she shouted.
"Astrid," he said anxiously, and she could imagine his eyes open in fear. "I'm not here to spy on you! Really, I'm not! I have a perfectly logical explanation-"
Gritting her teeth, Astrid closed her eyes, sank deeper into the tub so only her forehead could be seen, and rolled them underneath her lids in anger.
"Oh," she hissed, feeling quite deranged, "It had better be a good one, dragon boy."
She could hear him wince and begin to scramble for his lost track. "It's just…"
"Hiccup," groaned Ruffnut, effectively cutting him off. Astrid glanced at her, and saw her eyes blazing and gleaming like fiery pearls as she laid her head against the back of the tub, muscles and cords in her neck sticking up in sharp relief as she tried to reconcile herself with the ordeal she was in. "Get. Out. Now," growled the girl, her face heated in embarrassment, even though Hiccup wasn't visible. "If this is some stupid plot by my stupid brother and you're the bait, leave."
Astrid could discern understanding in this: perhaps Snotlout and Tuffnut had somehow managed to get Hiccup to stay there, arouse the rage of two violated, battle-hyped females, and lure them out in towels where the duo would be waiting. Only two things fell out of this plan: Hiccup would have never willingly agreed to it; although he'd been more gullible and easily trapped in situations like this when they were younger, now he had Toothless and no one [intelligent] bothered him. Then again, she wasn't sure how Snotlout had ever figured out how to tie his shirt closed. The other was that Hiccup wasn't doing anything. In fact, she couldn't even see him.
"Hiccup," she said slowly, curiously, "Where exactly are you?"
His answer was a low mumble. "I'm not…watching you…it's just…that I can't leave… I'm… um…I'm in the doorframe…"
"Why would you sit in a doorframe?" Astrid asked incredulously.
Hiccup sighed. "It wasn't my first choice," he admitted.
The way the bathhouse was arranged was the door led directly into a wall – with hooks and rocks to place the bathers' belongings on, and then off to the right was the corner of the structure, then to the left of that was several indents in the earth filled with water at the women's leisure. So, technically, technically, Hiccup shouldn't be able to see her, but she didn't relax. She didn't think he would invade her privacy, but if he was somehow involved with the other boys she didn't want to provoke anyone.
"So," she prompted.
"So," she could imagine him scowling as he spoke. "Tuffnut and Snotlout decided for no reason at all they wanted to punish me today. Who knows. The point is, I can't get up, they wanted me here to make you angry, and-" he stumbled over his words, "You'd come out…not properly dressed and take your anger out on me while they get to watch."
Astrid, ever a girl of action, brusquely said, "Why can't you get up?"
He muttered something bitter like, "Thytkmlg," and she grimaced. "I'll be out in a minute," she said piercingly as the unfairness of the situation – for Hiccup, of course, Astrid never felt sorry for herself, she did something about it – caught up with her.
She sank under the water tensely, then scrubbed her scalp and hair in a frenzy of bubbles and cold water. Ruffnut stared at her as she emerged spluttering, clawing the thick blonde sheet off her face and gasping for air.
"Breathe much, Astrid?" she grinned. "I could do without a bath." She began to wrap her hair in towels, squeezing streams of liquid out, causing them to slide down her skin and into the water. "Let's go see what this is about!"
Astrid widened her eyes as a warning, and motioned toward the direction of Hiccup. Ruffnut leaned closer to her, and she whispered quickly, "I don't want you to embarrass him. Obviously they did something like make him stuck so he can't get up, and he's a guy, so…"
Ruffnut laughed at least twice as loud as Astrid had spoken. "It's not my fault you chose the smallest guy on the island to be your boyfriend. If he's so embarrassed, he deals with the consequences."
Astrid's eyebrows drew together in intense, calculated rage. "I'll remember that."
Quietly, without letting her eyes leave Ruffnut's sneering face, she exited the bath, dried herself quickly, and pulled on her clothes, the dragon head brooches digging comfortingly against her skin. She'd thought about discarding them for another shape; perhaps a human skull like Hiccup had, but they were heirloom and she wasn't going to throw away the history of her culture.
Then she braided her hair so tightly it pulled painfully on her head. With a glare at Ruffnut she pushed her headband on, so tense no hair slipped out from under it, the chunky bangs fluttering up behind it. If anything, it made her feel more powerful, vicious.
And she'd make him pay. Pay for interrupting her bath, pay for the fight with Ruffnut, pay for her anger, and most of all pay for whatever he'd done to her boyfriend.
She stormed out, and saw the doorframe, then almost tripped over Hiccup in her haste to get through it. With his arms crossed, one foot braced against one side of the frame, his back up against the other, head down, his left leg, his bad leg, on the opposite side, facing outside. It was true – from this position she couldn't see anything in the direction of the baths.
"Hiccup!" she squawked, catching her balance by throwing an arm up. "You really are sitting in the doorframe!"
"Exactly where I said I was," he frowned. "Don't fall on me."
"Well," aggravated, she backed up a step. "I didn't expect you to be in the doorway of the women's bathhouse!"
His face turned red and he coughed, eyes wide. "Uh-"
"What happened to you?" He didn't want to answer, she could tell.
"It's just… could you get…my…" from experience, Astrid knew not to rush him, eventually he would disclose his trouble. He whispered the last word in the wrong direction, so she barely caught it.
"What?"
He turned back toward her, looking down. "Leg," he mumbled, miserably. "Could you get my leg?"
Astrid stumbled back, cheeks burning, tears welling in her eyes. She blinked them away quickly – she couldn't show she was sorry for him. But still, the seriousness of this injury was only just starting to sink in to her – she'd predicted clumsiness and helplessness during the first few months while he learned to walk again, and now she was realizing he'd never be able to be the person he once was, that she'd forever be helping him.
She didn't mind.
But she really wished he wasn't so susceptible to whatever an able-bodied teenager wanted. As long as Toothless was out of earshot, which brought up the question of where was he?
"Your…your leg? Why?" she couldn't help but be scared. She didn't like talking about it, she didn't like thinking about it, and she didn't like being scared. So she hated his leg, she hated his disability, and she hated whoever would subject him to anything like this. Hiccup glared at her, then shifted his left leg to show where his pant leg tied off, short.
"Because Snotlout took it, okay?" snapped Hiccup, uncharacteristically vicious. He was so weak and small and adorable. "My stupid, big, brute of a cousin got mad at me because of my personality and when Tuffnut and Snotlout decide to team up on me I can't do a thing about it! And because Toothless is in the patch of dragon nip and I didn't have the heart to bring him home earlier! All right? You satisfied already? Can you just get my leg?"
Chastised, Astrid ducked her head and asked as quietly as she could and still hope to make herself heard, "Where?"
He gestured vaguely with his head back into the bathhouse, and slowly, movements jerky and awkward, she headed back in, trying to hide whatever emotion. She felt along the walls. She swept her burning gaze over every inch of the floor. Ignoring Ruffnut, who was snorting from the bath still, she even threw off her boots, pushed up her leggings, and felt all along the bottom and sides of the baths.
Nothing.
Exasperated, Astrid swung her legs out of the water, kicked her boots away from her, and laid on her back, staring at the ceiling.
"Uh…Astrid, did you find it?" Hiccup's nervous voice hovered at the edge of her hearing, and she blocked him out.
If I were trying to incapacitate Hiccup, I would put his leg… where? If I were trying to incapacitate Hiccup and make him look stupid for my amusement while doing it, I would probably put it somewhere Hiccup can't reach without it…and somewhere Toothless can't fit.
It was a quick stroke of understanding, and Astrid cast her eyes upward. The ceiling and walls were connected and held by beams of thick wood, strong enough to support the house's weight, along with – Astrid knew from experience – all but the largest of dragons.
And that would be where Snotlout would have put Hiccup's leg. Where he couldn't reach, especially since he couldn't walk. With wrathful eyes, Astrid slowly, slowly sat up straight. Her hair dripped icicles down her back, and her blood began to boil.
With stiff motions, Astrid pulled on her boots, her face fixed into a scowl. Then, feeling along the top of the beam closest to the door, where Hiccup watched curiously, with no avail. She moved on to the next with patience. Nothing. It wasn't until she reached the beam directly over the baths between where she and Ruffnut had been bathing that she felt something.
It was heavier than she had expected, the wood worn smooth, the metal shined, with occasional nicks and treads along the bottom, the spring strong against the weight of her palm. She picked it up and lifted it down, then gulped, shrinking mentally from the idea of anyone having to lug it around all the time.
Then she dropped it.
It clattered against the ground, and she jumped. Hiccup called from the entrance, and she responded ashamed, picking it up more carefully this time, gripping the iron with fingers unwilling to let go. Then, walking briskly, Astrid arrived at the door, crouched, placed the leg next to Hiccup, then got up and turned to the side, leaning against the doorframe to give Hiccup privacy.
Then he staggered to his feet, reaching down to move a fold in his pant leg to make it more comfortable, and grinned at her.
"Well, I'm going to…um, go," he said awkwardly, looking down, and set off at a run up the hill his house was on, behind which would be wherever Toothless was.
She watched him go, her vision tinged with sadness as she detected his almost – almost, by now – unnoticeable limp as he struggled uphill, and then he stopped, took it off, and readjusted it. It might have made a lesser girl cry, but it made Astrid mad.
And Astrid wasn't going to let it go.
No, Astrid, instead, capitalized on Hiccup's absence – he wouldn't be back for at least a half hour – and raced to her house.
It was empty, she let herself in, grabbed her axe from the wall. It felt familiar and good in her hand after so long apart, and she reminded herself she would have to practice, still.
Then, holding it with both hands, one near the top, one near the bottom, so she could better throw it sideways or swing it, she banged out of her house and stormed into the middle of the village.
"SNOTLOUT!" she cried. "Get out here, coward."
Someone peeked around the edge of her house, she could only glimpse a vague shape in her peripheral. She let go of the axe, sending it spinning in their direction.
She knew she'd failed when the loud, girlish shriek alerted her it was only Fishlegs.
She strode over to him, grabbed the hilt of her axe, and yanked it out of the solid wood of her house. The large boy was crouching an inch below it.
She growled at him. "Where. Is. Snotlout," she ground out. Whimpering, the oversized child pointed to a juncture between houses, and someone swore.
"Great job, butt-elf," yelled Tuffnut, and then she was on them, screaming, her axe over her head as it should be, her arms aching with the familiar feeling of battle.
"C'mon, Astrid," shouted Snotlout back at her, trying to jog uphill backward. She smiled savagely, and he stumbled by himself, continuing a constant stream of conversation. "You know that weakling doesn't deserve you, you know you should just kick him down like the rest of us, you know you should be with someone more worthy-"
She cut him off, mouth set and clenched. "Obviously. Someone like you, Snotlout?" she suggested innocently. "Someone who exploits weaknesses in smaller opponents, someone who tries to invade a woman's privacy, someone who takes helpless people's replacement limbs?"
His smile dropped off his face, like he only just realized the source of her wrath.
"Don't do it again."
To punctuate her meaning, Astrid let him fall to her feet because of the steepness of the hill, then slammed the end of her axe into his head. His eyes unfocused, and then he crawled upward while she looked on. Tuffnut looked at her warily, then turned tail and ran away, leaving him at her mercy.
"Uh. I'm sorry, Astrid," groaned Snotlout. Astrid made her eyes as cold as she could, then said, already preparing to run off, "No you're not. Apologize to him."
Then he ran away.
She was surprised. But sat down, pleased with herself and her ferocity, proud of the job she'd done.
And then she noticed the sound of mismatched footsteps slowly fading away.
