Heather's Insistence
Heather laughed, heartily, for the first time in a long time, she really laughed. With a hand to her mouth to suppress the lavish giggle-like laughter, she looked up at the pair of them in amusement and disbelief.
"You two don't even know what you do,"
Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other and then at her, clearly at a loss.
"Do you?" She insisted wanting to make absolutely sure they really were clueless to their actions.
She sighed though the sound soon broke into a happy laugh once more.
After a few moments she stood before them her hands on her hips. A Mother-like look about her as she faced the clueless friends.
"Okay, where to begin." She mused more to herself than to them.
"You might want to take a seat this will take a while."
She paused for a moment, awaiting them to take a seat only to be sent a mimicking glare. They had that look down to a T! She thought with delight. A defiant glare, that in itself was so in sync it could be counted as an example of the point she was trying to make. They were like a couple of parents the way they did that!
"See that!" She excitedly pointed, suddenly finding the best place to start.
"The way you two just are so in sync. Look at yourselves. Both with your arms crossed, glaring impatiently and silently at me like a couple of parents with an unruly child. Not that I accept the role of an unruly child - granting I'm older than both of you - the point stands you two watch over this camp like you are the parents and not like the Captain or Chief."
"I'm not the Chief." Hiccup broke in disdainfully.
"No, but that's how you should act, but you don't! You act like part of a team."
"We are a part of a team. This team." Astrid joined in with equal irritation, gesturing to the whole Club House and the individual banners that symbolised the Gang.
"Yes, but haven't you notice that when it comes time to divide up the team that you two always pick each other?"
"That's not true!" Astrid exploded a deep share of red toning her cheeks.
"Yeah, I often team up with Fishlegs or the Twins."
"And I go with Snotlout, a lot." Astrid mournfully added.
Heather sighed. She simply didn't understand why they were so pig-headed about this – or were they really that clueless? The two bravest and smartest people in the Archipelago and they were super dens about each other! Or too terrified to take that "leap".
"Yes, yes, you do, but Astrid can you count how many times you've gone with Snotlout on just the one hand?"
"Yes, but I-"
"…and Hiccup can you count the amount of times you've paired with the Twins or Fishlegs on just the one hand?"
"Wait, what? Counting the Twins as one or two?" Hiccup asked with a bit of a laugh.
Heather rolled her eyes, amazed she had to lead them by the hand through this!
"Now can you each count the times you've gone on patrol or teamed up with each other, on just one hand?"
She added for clarity. For a moment the two of them looked at each other sheepishly. None had actually counted up the times but it was so blaringly obvious that the times they'd gone together greatly out weighted the times they paired with anyone else in the team.
Which was her point entirely!
"Okay, so what! That doesn't prove anything!" Astrid declared in a gruff offended tone. Her arms once more folded across her chest and her back slightly turned to Hiccup.
"Fine," Heather had to admit, on its own it didn't mean anything, however together will the Red Death wing span of things that they constantly did, it was a pebble amongst millions of other pebbles that made up the landslide.
"What about; the fact that you always stand so close to each other? Like unnaturally close, like there's a part of you that simply longs to be closer to the other? What do you have to say to that?"
Right on cue as if to make her point completely, the pair looked at each other and realised they'd drifted closer to each other. With a start, the two broke apart and turned away. Hiccup laughed nervously and rubbed a hand to the back of his neck, Astrid looked down at her axe she'd just picked up from the table and was pretending to sharpen the blade.
Heather just rolled her eyes once more.
"How about this then Hiccup, how is it that you only scream her name when she's in danger? Okay, you've called out my name that one time when I fell from Windsheer, but how many times can you say you've called her name?"
She asked pointing loosely towards Astrid. Hiding a smug laugh as she noted the two of them were drifting towards each other again. They were like a…a magnet! Each being drawn subconsciously to the other.
She dared anyone else to have not noticed that!
"That's crazy." Hiccup protested nervously. Running his hand up and down his other arm in an embarrassed manner, avoiding hers and Astrid's eyes.
"Hiccup, I've only been with you guys for a few months and I've heard you choose her over anyone else more times than Toothless has eaten raw mutton!"
Behind them the Night Fury popped his head up at the sound of his name and fish and made an hungry agreeable sound that vibrated around the room in an adorable manner, before he lowered his head once more and returned to sleep.
"Sorry, Toothless –"
Heather added before turning back to her friends.
"She's not the only one to be in danger Hiccup, nor is she the only one to fall from her Dragon." Heather pursed a hand to her chin as a thought accrued to her.
"Though as the designer of the Dragon saddles you'd think after all these years you'd have fashioned a way to stop her from falling so easily from Stormfly all the time. It's almost as if you love rescuing her."
"That is-" Hiccup tried to intercept her musings. Heather wouldn't let him. She carried on sightlessly. Enjoying this self-imposed obliviousness they seemed to hold between them like a shield.
"You know Fishleg's told me about the Red Death battle, how the rest of the gang had fallen from their Dragons and yet you only flew in to save Astrid when she fell from Stormfly."
"But I-"
This time Astrid tried to overplay her but she treated them both the same.
"Then there's that time on Outcast Island where Astrid was dressed like me and yet when she fell from Stormfly you knew it was her! Not me."
Together this time the two of them tried to protest but she still ignored them.
"Yet, when I fell before that, you declared you'd save the Book Of Dragons over me. Rightly so of course, but have you noticed Hiccup that you value Dragons over Vikings whenever it involves anyone but Astrid. Oh, I've heard of the time Alvin kidnapped you and how Snotlout was in trouble and you were hiding behind some rock waiting for your moment to strike and you didn't give yourself up when Snotlout was in danger, no, but you immediately surrendered your life when Alvin threatened Astrid."
Hiccup opened his mouth to speak but nothing happened. Heather smiled. Delighted the evidence was piling up higher against them than a pile of freshly cooked mutton!
"This isn't fair." Astrid chipped in for her speechless boyfriend.
"You weren't even there. You can't use things against us that you didn't see."
Heather smiled. Oh, she had plenty of evidence at hand to disway that thinly veiled denial.
"No, but you forget Astrid I was there on Outcast Island. I saw Hiccup nearly kill Alvin to save you." She said pointedly. Speaking directly to Astrid with a calm, convinced tone. Her voice signifying the magnitude of that moment.
Then she turned her head to Hiccup.
"We both know that you're not a murderer Hiccup so why was it that you were prepared to throw away your humanity for her?"
Silence fell around them and Heather breathed in the deep sensation of Victory.
Needlessly she continued.
"..and Astrid how many times now have you kissed Hiccup?"
She asked with all the force of a slap to the face. Hitting them sightlessly with one of the biggest evidential proofs she had. Heather tried to suppress her triumphant glee as she delivered the equally poignant point to Astrid and watched as she reacted much the same as Hiccup, in the same stammering, nervous, embarrassed, guilty manner.
She had them, she. had. them! She thought lavishly.
"Just face it you two have been an item from the moment you took her riding on Toothless that night, Hiccup."
The pair of them gaped at her.
"Yes, yes I know about that too. You talk in your sleep Hiccup." She added matter-of-fact, with a flippant wave of her hand. Now she thought about it she'd really began to love teasing them. They were such unbelievable mutton heads!
She laughed.
"Do you know how many times you say her name? Not anyone else just hers."
Astrid looked at Hiccup in surprise and Hiccup blundered about nervously. Then irritably snapped.
"Of course I don't. I'm asleep!" His tone born of that deep seeded embarrassment that wouldn't be there had they both not known she was right.
"So to recap:" She smiled counting on her fingers.
"You call her name, more times than I drink water, when in life threatening situations, you-" She pointed to Astrid. "You've, kissed the man more times than Berks seen Snoggletogs."
"Well, that's not true." Astrid grumbled, "I haven't kissed him since Thawfest years ago!" She mumbled before gasping in surprise at what she'd admitted.
Heather just shrugged ignoring her elaborated comment.
"Poetic licence."
Then continuing to count on her fingers she added.
"You keep drifting towards each other like a pair of magnets." She exuberantly pointed out as they'd once again moved to stand cosily close to each other.
"Hiccup, you say her name in your sleep, repetitively."
Were it at all possible, the man seemed to grow an even darker shade of red and he shied away from Astrid's gaze. Heather hid a self-satisfying grin and continued.
"You pair up together on scouting missions and go out "exploring" a lot! You do everything in sync, you seem to read each other's thoughts, you finish each other's sentences. You, Master Haddock, value her life over that of even Dragons, you knew it was her and not me when she fell from Stormfly on Outcast Island, and you!"
She directed her next point to Astrid.
"Have openly, or be it unintentionally, confessed to kissing Hiccup on more than one occasion."
"You've already said that one." Astrid quipped in, a very embarrassed and distained look upon her face. Her bright blue eyes guarded and mortified.
Heather laughed a little.
"Yes, then again you have kissed him more than once, so rightfully so I can use that very shining Gronckle Iron piece of evidence more than once. After all, one kiss can be a lapse in judgment, an emotional moment or a way to say thank you. Three times however is….not."
Heather added with a grin and a bit of a quirk to the last word.
The pair looked at her agape once more.
"How did you-"
"Hiccup please, you've hardly made each of those embraces private. Every one of them has taken place in public…. that we know of!"
She added feeling herself blush at the thought. The two didn't look at each other or her. Their expressions far and beyond mortified.
"The night you first met Toothless, Hiccup did you know Astrid saw you when you were watching her and the other's put out the fires?"
Astrid's jaw actually fell open in ludicrous disbelief.
"We got a bit wayward last Snoggletog and you told me Astrid."
Heather felt a bit unnerved how deep they'd swayed into this topic, then again it hadn't been in confidence that Astrid had let slip the story, or that it had been something she'd noticed, or even that she'd noticed Hiccup long before he'd ever joined the Dragon training with the others.
"So you cannot say you didn't know how he felt. I only heard your account of that night and even I can tell that a blind man could see his feelings written on his face in that moment he saw you."
The two of them were so unbelievably mute with shock that Heather felt it best to simply continue. It was cold, but it was the truth and not one of these was breaking any secrets. It was clear for all to see and that was her point, how could they themselves not see it?
"One of the greatest pieces of suggestive proof is that you have been willing to give up both your life and your humanity to protect her."
Heather added with a gentler tone.
"So have you Astrid. Fishleg's told me about the first time you guys encountered a Death Song, remember."
She furthered her point, referring to the day they'd all been deaf babysitters for a baby Death Song that they all soon had to relocate back to the adult Dragon to raise the orphan baby.
"You don't do that for anyone else, aside from Stormfly, and Toothless, of course." Heather had to admit though it didn't really count in this particular instance.
"…and the thing that screams the most is you don't do any of this with anyone else. Hiccup you don't even stand that close to me! Astrid you have never shown such actions towards any other Viking. Okay, you don't have any better prospects-"
Snotlout walked by the open doorway – having been deliberately eavesdropping on their conversation and sarcastically retorted.
"Heard that!" Though they all knew he wasn't that insulted. For all his bravado and luid suggestions and harmless flirtations with Astrid, Snotlout had long ago resigned himself to having lost Astrid to Hiccup. Heather smiled inwardly. If even Snotlout! – Thor's sake – if even the Twins could see, why on Oden's green earth could the pair of them not see it!
"Why are you two fighting this?" She asked all her bewilderment and love-born irritation in her tone.
"Because Warrior's don't fall in love."
Astrid all but quipped sarcastically.
Heather wasn't buying that!
"Yeah they do. Just look at Stoick and Hiccup's Mother." She replied with little dentation to her belief structure.
"Oh, right and look how well that turned out." She continued in her sarcastic manner but this time there was the definite presences of sadness.
"You're not going to die, Astrid." Hiccup replied as he laid a hand upon Astrid's shoulder. Offering that reassurance, that comfort the man was so darn good at offering. Yet, as Heather silently observed them she noted once more that with Astrid, it was different. Somehow a few degrees more personal than it was when he offered it to anyone else. Like Astrid's pain was his own and he couldn't stand it if he couldn't make it better.
Heather softly sighed to herself. They were every bit the magic that they all craved for. The love, that absolute certainty, the depth of feeling. Their love to her rivalled all others. How could they emulate such love and not have a clue that they felt it?
How was that even possible!
"You don't know that! Hiccup. Our Dragons are not the only Dragons out there, our Dragons might not hurt us but others might. Anyway I might not be killed by a Dragon but eventually Hiccup I. will. die. I'm a warrior – I'm human."
"Astrid-"
Hiccup tried to comfort her but she turned away from him and he was forced to let his hand fall from her shoulder. For a moment there was silence around them and Heather began to feel she'd made a mistake.
What was she doing meddling in the love-life of her friends? They didn't meddle in hers. Aside from a few harmless qips….or reading every Terrible Terror she'd sent to Fishlegs!…she mused with a slight jerk of irritation.
Somehow, like all things with her two best friends, it was different.
This was different. She was beginning to understand the deeper, darker reasoning behind this whole conversation and it made her quite ill at ease.
"…and…he's the Chief."
Astrid softly added rising one hand up off her other folded arm in a flippant gesture. The whole time having held her arms across her chest, abandoning the axe she'd once held the minute the conversation turned more serious.
"I'm not the Chief." Hiccup proclaimed forcefully, though somehow quietly declared. Irritation and uncertainty clouding his words.
Astrid turned to him as if forgetting Heather was even there. The conversation now between them.
"You're going to be someday and you'll need to marry someone better-"
"Astrid!" Hiccup's gaze shot to hers in surprise and irritation but Astrid had already returned to her shell. Turning from him once more caging herself off in horror she'd let slip more than she clearly had intended to.
"Hiccup, don't."
Her tone was light but all the pain and pleading weighed her words down with the heat and heaviness of a Monstrous Nightmare.
Silence fell once more around the Club House. In its ghostly presence Heather finally understood.
"I get it." She whispered. Staring sightlessly at the ground.
"You two don't want to confess you feel for each other because you think it'll open you up to all this hurt. Neither of you can handle how deeply you love each other for fear that some love will strangle you if you ever lost each other."
Heather felt her own heart clench in sympathy, and then her whole body was riddled with shame. She'd started this, she'd pushed and pushed and she'd made them fight, she'd made them reveal more than than they were ready to admit and caused this invisible break between them all.
"Guys,.. I'm so sorry. I over stepped." She was mortified and ashamed and in a daze she couldn't seem to break from.
On muffled footsteps she turned for the door.
"Heather!"
"Heather-"
They both called her name, in sync like they often did with everything. Somehow knowing the truth, knowing the dangers of it she still couldn't help but collect these little instances of their affection, of their total rightness for each other.
Deep inside her she knew she was going to cry. She'd hurt her friends, somehow she'd discovered truths about herself and that had hurt her.
What words could she say to account for that? Apologies seemed hollow, words themselves seemed hollow. Though she felt compelled to say them even if she knew they'd not feel the true depth of her sincerity in those too simple words.
"I'm sorry."
She whispered once more before she left the Club House.
END
Eliana Robinson
30/9/16
CREATION DATE – 12/9/16
PUBLISH DATE – 30/9/16
RE-EDITED DATE – 19/1/17
Heather's Insistence Disclaimer
HEATHER'S INSISTENCE- is a Fanfiction of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON I do not own the characters or original plotline.
PLOTLINE: Heather tries to convince Hiccup and Astrid that they have got to stop denying they have feelings for each other but this topic takes on unintended consequences.
This story is NOTfor official publication or profit.
HEATHER'S INSISTENCEis a short tale in an unofficially link series between all my HTTYD fanfics and is purely meant as entertainment.
CREATION DATE – 12/9/16
PUBLISH DATE – 30/9/16
RE-EDITED DATE – 19/1/17
Part of the "Dragon Adventures" Series By Eliana Robinson
Secret Hint:Look out for "Heather's Choice"