Astrid never liked Hiccup.
Ok, maybe once, but he was cuter as a child. Now he was the screw-up. He may have defeated a bunch of dragons, but WHO CARES! He's still a hiccup! A runt!
Whatever, she thought. He'll probably get killed by the Monstrous Nightmare. THEN who's gonna be first? She thought bitterly.
She then took in her surroundings. The forest.
How did she get here?
Astrid looked up at the sky, noticing that the sun was sinking slowly past the horizon. Didn't she leave the house at lunch? How long had Astrid been walking? She turned on her heels and escaped to the chaos of the village.
By the time Astrid got back to the town, the sky was dark and unforgiving. Thankfully, there was no dragon raid this night. It seemed they only came once every few weeks.
The first thing she noticed was the small crowd of teenage girls around the Chief's Hut. Hiccup.
She made her way toward her house in the center of the village, buying some food for herself on the way. She then noticed a thin figure sneaking through the village, desperately avoiding any light and any sign of life. The person was getting closer and closer to the Mead Hall, the place with the most people.
A spy. Astrid thought.
She would not let a spy in her home village.
She crept quietly behind the person, banning any sound, even her own heartbeat. The person paused behind a couple of barrels. Astrid made her move, once she was a couple of feet away, she pounced on the stranger and was met with a very puny yelp.
All Hiccup wanted to do was get to the hall... While avoiding as much people as possible.
The craziness could wait until later, during his meal. Now he just wanted a nice, peaceful night walk, free from any teenage fan girls following him.
Unfortunately, his walk was anything but peaceful.
Being stealthy was not the clumsy Hiccup's strong suit. No, he'd much rather use sarcastic remarks to bore his opponents to death. He was very exhausted by the end.
Hiding behind a barrel of mead, he swore to himself that he would never tumble again. Hiccup was exhausted. All of it paid off though, as he almost made it near the Mead Hall without encountering a single person. That is, until a person tackled him to the ground and painfully wrestled his arm behind his back.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The voice demanded, sounding familiar and feminine. But most importantly incredibly angry.
"A-Astrid?" The boy stuttered.
Damn my scrawny voice, he thought.
"Hiccup? What the Hel are you doing out here?" She asked, still twisting his arm. "More importantly, why are you sneaking around?"
"I am trying to avoid thirteen year old fan girls," he replied, smirking. His voice was muffled by the ground.
Astrid released her grip on his arm, but still eyed him suspiciously. He rolled from his chest to his back, and sat upright across from a very pissed Astrid. She was beautiful, but Hiccup had enough of her insults. He decided he could do better. Find someone who respected him, and wasn't hitting him all the time.
"Fangirls? Huh. Didn't all the teenagers hate you until last week?" Astrid smiled at her wonderful insult. Little did she know, Hiccup was the Sarcastic King.
"Oh, yeahhh." He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "No one cared about me." His tone changed from goofy to murderous in the blink of an eye. "All you guys ever told me was how... un-vikingly I was."
Astrid scoffed. "Seriously? It's called constructive criticism for a reason! We just want you to grow up and stop destroying the village."
Hiccup just rolled his eyes. "Sure. I don't expect you to understand. All your life, everyone just kept telling you how great you were."
The girl opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off when Hiccup said, "I'm going to leave now."
As he walked away, and up the steps of the Mead Hall, she heard him mutter, "I'll never miss her."
Miss me? Astrid thought. She knew Hiccup had a crush on her, but miss her?
Shaking her head, she walked to her house and began to absorb the conversation. Hiccup, however, couldn't help but be angry. Astrid was acting like all those years of torment were for his benefit. As if.
He stomped over to the large doors of the Great Hall, not caring about being stealthy anymore. As the doors to the hall swung open, the crowd one by one turned around to see Hiccup. The room soon filled with silence. The quiet noise rung throughout the columns and stone walls of the large room, multiplying the sound tenfold.
Puffing up his chest, he took a tray full of meat and walked over to a vacant table. As soon as he set down the steaming food, Vikings came over and started praising him. He glanced over to Snotlout and smirked at his furious look. The boy stood up and stormed out of the hall. Feeling victorious, Hiccup conversed with the other Vikings, not really caring what they were talking about.
"So, boy how've you been?"
"Great, Hoark, what about you?" He replied with a smile. Might as well be nice if this is the last time I'm going to see them.
The older Viking told a story about how his barrels of fish were stolen by a group of Nadders during the latest raid and how he scared them all off with his bare hands. (It was obviously all a tall tale).
Tomorrow. He said to himself. Tomorrow, I leave this chaos.
Nodding at a snide comment made by Hoark, he began to plan his escape.
Astrid walked through the doorway to her cozy home. Her parents were not the richest, but still made enough to sustain a nice house with plenty of food for her and her little brother. Scanning the room, she finally laid her eyes on her mom, who was busy preparing dinner in the kitchen. Her mom spun around at the sound of the door closing.
"Hey Sweetheart."
"Hi mom," she said, placing her axe down on the table in front of her, running a hand through her hair with a sigh.
"Why the long face?" Her mom asked, frowning.
She took a plate full of steaming food from the counter and put it down in front of her.
"Nothing, mother. Just tired from all the walking."
"You were gone for so long? Just walking?"
Astrid dug into her food - which tasted like chicken - and told her mom about what she did that day.