If you missed all the warning signs in chapter one, this fic contains a serial killer (affectionately known as Serialcup) and so, probably not for the squeamish faint of heart.
Rather than content warn every chapter, I'm gonna do with the "what did you expect" after this - any chapter could contain violence, murder, blood, death, memories of abuse... or smut. That'll turn up eventually.
-HTTYD-
Hiccup could feel the itch under his skin, that twist in his gut that would be soothed by only one thing. The doctors office was not a good place to be feeling it, but at least it wasn't his appointment. Valka was getting a check up after her recent surgery, and just a general look over her growing list of medical complaints.
If he hadn't already put the bastard in the ground, Hiccup would probably think about killing his stepfather again just for what he'd done to his mother. Leaning back, Hiccup relived that first moment while he waited. He was still barely out of boyhood really, a long gangly thing with strength he'd not realised he had as he grabbed the knife. It was all he could do to save his mother by then; Hiccup knew it had been a really bad one, remembered the fact he barely recognised his mothers face after that particular beating. And still, when his stepfather laid on the ground between them, bleeding...
Valka had been comforting him. There was shock, of course, but mother cradled son until they had to decide what to do. Hiccup patched his mother up - something he was horrifyingly used to by then, hospital visits rare and risky when there was a victims shame, a desire not to let anyone else know. By then she was already on heavy painkillers for a poorly healed broken leg that caused her to limp, which Hiccup had to hide in his room so his stepfather couldn't take them just to make Valka suffer.
They waited until night, dragged the body out back and buried him together. Hiccup thought they could probably have made a very strong case for self-defence, given how both their bodies bore the signs of years of abuse, the fact his mother was beaten black and blue but... they'd kept the secret for too long.
That was when it started.
It was a couple of years before anything really reared up inside him. For a while they just continued on, committed to keeping the secret. Hiccup cared for his mother around going to school, though he'd missed many days for injuries or being locked in the basement, forced to listen to his mother being hurt. If Alvin had felt especially sadistic, he'd take Hiccup's leg and leave him down there, forcing the teen to hop or crawl, sometimes for days at a time. Oddly, Hiccup now found darkness comforting in a way. Not always... he'd installed many lights in the basement, where he worked on things, but the late night walks weren't just for hunting.
Hiccup was fifteen when he killed his stepfather.
He was seventeen when once wasn't enough anymore.
He'd put his mother to bed, body almost seeming to act by itself that first time as he picked out dark clothes, tugged a hat over his messy hair, heading out and just walking... he didn't feel his leg ache, despite the fact he was close to outgrowing his current prosthetic. It must have been a couple of hours before he found what he hadn't known he was looking for.
"No! Stop!"
The area around was pretty deserted. The panicked female voice would find only him. Years of putting himself between Alvin and Valka meant Hiccup had a pretty poor sense of self-preservation by then.
He went toward the sound.
The man was easily twice his size, and didn't seem to notice Hiccup watching as he tore at the womans business suit. Hiccup looked around. Picked up a rock. He felt oddly... calm, he supposed, as he approached the man. The woman saw him, mouth open in a soundless scream as Hiccup swung the rock, weight impacting the delicate temple area and with an incredibly satisfying thud, the man hit the ground.
"Get out of here!"
His voice didn't belong to him as he ordered the woman to leave, pulling her torn clothes around herself as she fled. The man on the ground twitched. Hiccup held the rock tighter, and he brought it down over and over and over, until the mans face was a bloody, unrecognisable mess. He'd stopped moving a while ago, and when Hiccup felt for a pulse there was none. A packet of cigarettes had fallen out at some point... Hiccup opened the packet, found a lighter. The spark of flame showed blood all over his hands, a few drops falling from his face and smearing over the cigarette filter as Hiccup drew on it a few times, getting it lit.
There were no screams as he put it to skin, no violent attempts to escape but for a second, Hiccup felt the sickening weight of seeing his mother hurt that way lift. He was in control now. No longer the frightened boy who couldn't protect his mother.
He wiped his hands on his jumper, though it too was covered in blood. At least it was dark. Nobody would see... hopefully. Hiccup used his hat to wipe his face, shoved it in his pocket and looked around. There was nobody...
Hiccup found himself back at home without really thinking about it, hoping he hadn't left a trail of bloody footprints right to his door. He dropped his bloody clothes in front of the washing machine, standing there in front of it in his boxers looking at the dried blood on his skin.
"Hiccup?"
His mothers sleepy voice reached Hiccup, possibly having heard him come in at such a late hour. Hiccup realised too late what she was about to walk in on, and his warning came too late.
"Don't come in-"
"Hiccup! My gods, what happened to you?"
He looked down at his messy front, shrugging.
"S'not mine."
After several minutes tense silence, Valka lowered her hands from her face.
"Did anybody see you?"
"What?"
"Were you seen? Like... that?"
"Oh. Uh. I don't think so... the woman saw me I guess-"
"What woman?"
Hiccup did his best to explain to his mother what had happened, though he couldn't quite explain all the things he'd felt, or what made him go out in the first place.
"Oh Hiccup. What if she reports you?"
If they were normal, Hiccup thought maybe she'd be more concerned he'd killed somebody. But no. She was worried about him.
"It was dark. I was wearing a hat. She ran away pretty fast... I don't know. She might, I guess. What was I meant to do? Let him hurt her?"
Ignoring the blood on him still, Valka hugged him, shaking her head.
"If anybody asks, you were here with me. Now go get cleaned up."
Hiccup did so, returning to find his mother soaking his bloody clothes in a bucket. They'd gotten pretty good at removing their own blood from clothes with so much practice, and a cold pre-soak was a good start.
"Let me do that. Get back to bed mom."
"Oh no, I'm awake now."
He took over the soaking anyway, mixing in the detergent and watching the water turn a sickly rust-orange colour.
"Tea?"
Probably ought to be weird, he thought, as they acted like Hiccup hadn't just come home covered in someone elses blood. As they sat with their drinks, Hiccup winced as all the strain he'd put on his amputated limb began to catch up with him. He'd be slow on his feet the next day. Or that same day, he supposed, glancing at the clock that flashed "4:12" at him.
"Hiccup."
He looked at his mother, who was surveying him oddly.
"What?"
"If you... do that again... don't take your phone with you."
"I won't. Do it again, I mean."
At the time, he meant it.
The silence was getting a little awkward now. Astrid sipped her drink, unsure why Hiccup wasn't looking at her all that much. She thought he'd seemed interested...
"Do you want to leave?"
He blinked, looking up at her for a minute before his eyes dropped again.
"Oh. Uh. No. Sorry, I'm just not very good at being around people."
"I can talk enough for both of us if you want, but only if you actually want to be out with me."
Hiccup nodded slowly, taking a mouthful of his drink.
"I should tell you something."
"Oh?"
He placed the take-out coffee cup down next to him, then reached down to the hem of his jeans and lifted it. Astrid saw what he was showing her right away, his shoe hiding his foot but not the... metal? pipe-thing that was acting in place of his lower leg.
"What happened?"
Hiccup rolled his jeans back down, swallowing thickly.
"I was in a car accident as a kid. Killed my dad."
Well, now Astrid regretted asking. He didn't look angry about her prying into what was probably a pretty terrible memory. After a tense minutes silence, Astrid tried to break it.
"I'm sorry. Your leg doesn't bother me though, if you were worried. I kinda have a thing for scars. Is that weird?"
Hiccup raised an eyebrow, observing her again. He had such an interesting stare, so focused but skittish, never lingering for long.
"Well, I have a few of those."
"From the accident?"
He shrugged.
"Yeah."
Something told Astrid he wasn't being truthful, but at the same time she had no proof he wasn't, nor any reason to doubt him. Hiccup drank more of his hot chocolate before he then turned to her.
"So, are you working on another book?"
He had to know Astrid saying she wanted to know if he liked the book was a front for wanting to ask him out, but apparently he had enjoyed the book, and was now initiating the conversation about more.
"Yeah. Same as the last one, about the same guy."
"Is he gonna get caught?"
Astrid winked.
"Spoilers!"
He laughed. It was the first proper laugh he'd let out, and Astrid rather liked it. A lot.
"Oh, let me guess. River Song fan?"
"How can you not be?"
"Oh I am, but I figured thats where you got that answer from."
"You would be correct. Can I geek out to you about my book or will that freak you out?"
Hiccup smiled. It was lopsided and toothy, but it lit up his whole face and Astrid cursed herself as she felt butterflies in her stomach.
"Go ahead."
Anyone passing by might be very, very concerned by how excitedly Astrid went on about a couple of different murders plotted out for the book. Hiccup listened patiently, staying quiet but Astrid actually felt like he was listening the whole time. As she detailed another death scene, he interrupted rather suddenly.
"Sorry, but that wouldn't work."
"What wouldn't?"
"The back of the head thing. It's harder to knock someone out than you think. You have to hit them hard enough for their brain to kind of... bounce, and that is kinda tough. If you didn't hit him hard enough, you would have a pissed off guy trying to kill you."
Astrid saw him stop speaking quite suddenly, sitting back after leaning forward to get quite animated.
"Why Hiccup, you know an awful lot about this."
He shrugged, suddenly quiet.
"I uh, don't get out much. Crime documentaries. And I know someone training in forensics."
"Any other advice then, mister expert?"
His hands twitched.
"Can I show you?"
"Are you gonna knock me out?"
He shook his head.
"No. I don't think I could hit you hard enough anyway."
Astrid turned, glad he couldn't see her face as she felt his fingers, the tips roughened by whatever he did with his time. She hadn't asked. His touch was gentle on her scalp, but her skin still tingled.
"Here" he touched the dome of the back of her head "is hard for someone to hit right, but if you fell back and landed on it you'd be in a fair bit of pain, possibly unconscious. But here" he brushed fingers over the base of her skull, where it met her neck "is a more dangerous place to be hit. Anything from black outs to paralysis to death."
Biting her lip, Astrid cursed the way his touch gave her goosebumps. She barely knew him. Surely he wasn't allowed to turn her on that much? In public? Her hands bunched into fists on her lap, eyes falling closed as Hiccup brushed fingers over her temples next.
"This is a good spot. Thin bone, important blood vessels. It's one of those places a knife could go through your skull without too much work."
Astrid definitely had a problem, because the way he was talking should not be affecting Astrid like a lover whispering filth in her ear. His hands retracted, left Astrid fighting to control her breathing and feeling distinctly disappointed that he was no longer touching her. Maybe she'd been ignoring sex in favour of writing for too long...
When she turned to face him again, Hiccup wasn't looking nearly as affected, but there was a faint flush under the freckles on his cheeks that Astrid hoped meant he felt something. Trying to ignore the flutters in her belly, Astrid drank her now-cold coffee with a wince. One day her books wouldn't cost her hot coffee. Today was not that day.
"Well, thanks for that. If I'd known you would be so full of information, I'd have brought my notepad."
He chuckled shortly.
"If you ever have a question, you can send it to me. If I don't know, I'll ask my friend."
Hiccup toyed idly with something around his neck, looking something like a ring on a chain but he tucked it under his jumper before she got a good view. His phone buzzed in his pocket, face tightening in focus as he looked at his text.
"I'm sorry, I have to go. My mom has an appointment later, and she can't drive."
For some reason, the fact he said it with no trace of resentment, as though caring for his mother was not the chore some people made it out to be... it made Astrid like him even more.
"It's fine, you said you couldn't stay out too late anyway."
Hiccup nodded, offered her a small smile.
"Well, I had fun. If thats the right thing to say."
"I had fun too" Astrid replied, standing up when he did "and thanks for the writing help. I hope you don't get annoyed when I send you texts for stuff I can't find on google."
He let out another small laugh and Astrid decided it wasn't fair how pretty he looked when he did so.
"I won't. Thanks for agreeing to something so low maintenance, by the way."
"Hey, it's about the company not the location."
Nodding, Hiccup patted his pockets down to check he had everything, nodding again to himself before turning to Astrid.
"So... I'll see you around then?"
Astrid nodded in turn, then decided to Hel with it and stretched up on her tip toes, pressing a kiss to his cheek. Hiccup blinked, cheeks flushing. It was adorable.
"Right. Uh. Ok. Bye then!"
Something about how he was simultaenously able to get her hot and also become flustered by something like a kiss on the cheek only endeared him to her more. Astrid saw him limp slightly as he headed toward a bus stop nearby, and spared a second to notice he had a cute butt... or maybe more than a second. Finally dragging her eyes off of him, Astrid looked at her watch and decided she had time to grab a pastry on her way to the gym. Then it was back home to write more... that might give her an excuse to text Hiccup more. Would that make her look desperate? Probably.
She was going to do it anyway, of course. Shouldering her bag, Astrid headed off toward the treat first, then to the gym. Granted, she liked staying in shape, but mostly Astrid enjoyed the way exercise made her feel. Running was a good way to deal with writers block, and weight lifting got her blood going, was a great way for her to burn off any stress. She got sweaty, showered, went home and flopped in front of her keyboard again.
"I will finish this chapter tonight."
Astrid decided. She made a coffee, wholly expecting to drink it cold in an hour... maybe she should switch to iced coffee. Then she perched down, and three paragraphs in she found an excuse- no, a reason to text Hiccup, asking if he had any insight on how difficult blood was to get out of certain fabrics. Her murderer was wearing a nice wool suit he didn't want to throw out.
"Not sure, but I'll ask and get back to you."
It was only a little disappointing, Astrid told herself, that she had to wait a while before Hiccup answered, though she was still awake at two that morning when he did get back to her, apologising for the late hour and blaming it on his friend having a long shift.
"If it's dried, it's harder, but it's doable apparently..."
Astrid managed to write down everything he told her, but she was exhausted by then and had to bid him goodnight. She got up a little late, rushing for the bus to work and barely making the one at the right time. As she scooped up the free paper available and squeezed into a seat, Astrid sighed and glanced over the front page. The main story was politics, and it was too early for politics. The little taster of the article that continued on the next page caught her eye though.
Night Fury strikes again!
-HTTYD-
Astrid, Astrid, Astrid... she really likes serial killers too much, huh? *laughs in author*