A DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic by Raberba girl Chapter 6 (rough draft)

There was a raid the next night. Astrid threw her axe and shouted orders and swung her sword and ran and cried out warnings and killed five dragons and saved most of three flocks. Hiccup sharpened blades and pounded hot iron and whisked around the forge, he and Gobber expertly keeping out of each other's way.

When the sun rose on the carnage and the last of the attackers faded into the distant sky, Astrid went around encouraging and comforting survivors in between grimly organizing cleanup efforts, as Hiccup helped to wash and stitch up wounds. When at long last they got a chance to return home, both of them fell into their respective beds and were instantly asleep.

At the next town meeting, Hiccup saw the tired faces and despairing anger and helpless frustration of his people. He took a deep breath and brought up the suggestion that he'd been turning over in his head for a while now, about a method to collect rainwater and run it through connected troughs throughout the village to serve as a firefighting tool. "Then you'd just pull the rope over wherever the fire is, the trapdoor would open and dump-"

"Enough with the crazy ideas, Hiccup!" someone shouted.

"Yeah, they never work, anyway!"

Hiccup protested, "This one will, it's just that-" Predictably, he was shouted down, and it took Astrid having to stand up on a table and hurl her axe at the pillar an inch from the loudest man's head and bellow at the top of her voice to cut through the noise.

"ALL OF YOU SHUT UP."

The shouts died down to grumbling.

Astrid turned to her husband. "Hiccup, it's a nice idea in theory," she said, "but we just don't have the resources right now to take on a large-scale project like what you're suggesting. You know your place, you have your niche, we need you there. Leave the rest of it to us, all right?"

He gritted his teeth and nodded and slouched down, eyes fixed on the floor so he wouldn't have to see the smirks people were shooting at him.

"Now," Astrid said, "if anyone has any practical suggestions, you can go ahead and make them, but I think we need to look at this from a different angle."

That night, Hiccup went with Astrid to her bed without a fuss, but his hands on his wife were as passionless and businesslike as if he was working a machine. He performed his marital duties as quickly as possible and then, as soon as Astrid finished climaxing, he climbed off the bed and walked away. It was so abrupt that she felt cold at his absence.

"Hiccup!"

"Good night."

"Hiccup, get back here!"

"I've done my duty," he said coldly. "I'm going to bed now."

She stormed after him and seized him and dragged him back into her room. "We're doing it again, and this time you're going to do it right," she said, shoving him onto the bed.

He closed his hands on the sheets in readiness and gazed up at her defiantly.

"...Seriously?" she said. "You're going to pull this crap again?"

"I've - done - my - duty," he said, with exaggerated enunciation as if she was stupid. "We're finished for tonight."

Without thinking, she raised her hand to slap him, but froze when he flinched. She stared down at him, despising him, angrily noting the bruises on his face that hadn't faded yet. She slowly lowered her hand without striking him. "Is this about your stupid idea at the meeting today?"

"It wasn't stupid," he said, his voice sounding small and strangled like a hurt child's.

"So that's how it is?! I make a decision that's in the best interest of the village, but because you don't like it, you're going to pout like a spoiled little boy?"

He stared up at her for a while in silent fury, breathing hard. Finally he managed to say, "You have all the power in this relationship, Astrid. You are suffocating me. Whenever a crumb falls from your table, I'm going to lick it up, and if that means keeping my hands off you whenever you hurt me, then that's what I'm going to do."

"But I didn't hurt you, I- GAH! Fine!" She shoved him up again and out the bedroom door. "See if I care! I don't need you! I'll take a-!" She didn't know what the word for a male mistress was, if such a word even existed. "I don't need you!" She slammed the door in his face.

The next morning, Hiccup made breakfast as usual (it had become clear early on that Hiccup was by far the better cook of the two, so it was often he who prepared the meals they ate at home). The unusual part was that whatever was in the bowl that he set before her with a slightly smug look tasted terrible.

"Ugh, what is this?!"

"What's wrong with your breakfast, Astrid?" Hiccup asked innocently.

"Did you even finish cooking it?!"

"Would you like me to put it back over the fire?"

"Just fix it!" She shoved the bowl at him and went to go comb her hair. She was absorbed in the task until an awful smell got strong enough to jolt her attention. "HICCUP!"

"Yes?"

Smoke was pouring out of the cauldron.

"Are you crazy?! Get that thing off the fire, get it off, get it off!"

"Okay."

Once the cauldron had been moved to safety, Astrid stared at the blackened mess inside, dismayed. "Why did you do that?!"

"Do what, make you breakfast?"

She seized the front of his tunic and jerked him close, pleased to see him gasp in alarm and flinch. "You ruined it on purpose," she snarled.

"If you want good food, then learn how to cook like a real wife," he said snidely.

She slapped him. She remembered at the last second to adjust for Hiccup's fragility, but he still stumbled back and nearly fell from the force of the blow. She waited for him to straighten up and rage at her, but he simply remained stooped and silent for a long time, cradling his struck cheek, his face hidden by his hair. Finally he left the house without a word, and Astrid had to go get breakfast in the Great Hall.

She spent the rest of the day, in between or even during her duties, considering the various men of the village. Unfortunately, she came to the conclusion that they were all too old, too young, or too repulsive for her to bear the thought of them touching her intimately. She'd rather just pleasure herself, which she did for several days, allowing Hiccup to hide from her in his stupid loft.

But she wanted a man. She wanted a man inside her, and Hiccup, horrible as he was, was the only man she could tolerate being inside her, and he claimed she held all the power in this relationship but he was the one who was stifling her, controlling her, driving her mad with frustration...

She caught him by his collar before he could make it very far up the loft stairs. "Astrid-"

"I'm not going to rape you," she said shortly. She still thought it was ridiculous to call it 'rape,' even though she couldn't quite deny that it did feel sort of like that whenever she forced herself on Hiccup. "I just... It's just..." She sighed. "It can't take away from priority forgework, and you'll have to get approval from me for all the materials and equipment you use. But you can work on it, okay?"

"Work on...?" he said warily, looking a little confused.

"Your stupid water thing," she said through gritted teeth. "I'm not going to give you free rein, but you can work on it, a little. I know you use sex as currency, so is that worth you giving me some satisfaction tonight, at least?"

"...Yes." He came nowhere near pleasuring her to perfection, but he did service her adequately enough to take the edge off. The next day, after she provided him with just enough of his requested materials for him to make a start on construction, he made love to her as he had before, well enough that she could lie there peacefully afterward as he slipped back out of bed and padded up the stairs to his loft.

'Maybe we can make this marriage work after all,' she thought. She knew they would never, ever be lovers in the meaningful sense of the word, but they could be...business partners. They could figure out a system that worked to their mutual benefit.

o.o.o.o.o

The latest dragon raid left the Great Hall in worse shape than Astrid had ever seen it in her lifetime. It was unusable, the front of it basically one giant smoldering hole. Repairs needed to be made as soon as possible - not only was it bad for morale to see one of the most iconic parts of their village so badly damaged, but there were a lot of people who didn't have the means to eat some or all of their meals at home, and depended on getting food from the Great Hall. Not to mention the fact that during severe storms, the Hall's shelter was by far the safest place to be. Astrid made those repairs a priority.

She worked harder than anyone, cutting and hauling timber, measuring, sawing, anything that needed doing. Hiccup, who wasn't very suitable for the work and who was busy enough with his normal job anyway, was excused.

Astrid was surprised to see him approaching in the late afternoon, carrying a basket. "Hiccup?" She straightened up and wiped the sweat from her brow.

"Did you eat lunch?" he asked.

"Oh...no." There hadn't been enough of the communal meal to go around, so she had abstained from taking food out of the mouths of her people, and she hadn't wanted to stop work just to trek back home for a bite to eat.

"Here." He held out the basket.

Astrid stared at it. "What's that?"

"Your lunch," he said shortly. "I figured you'd...yeah."

A little bewildered, she took the basket and peeked inside. Her mouth started to water a little when she saw and smelled the meat and bread. "This is...for me?"

"Yes, Astrid," he said condescendingly.

"Thank you," she snapped, genuinely grateful but offended by his tone.

"Yeah, well, enjoy. Don't forget to bring the basket back home." He turned and left. She wolfed down her food, got back to work, and forgot to bring the basket back with her when it got too dark to keep working.

The next day, Astrid packed a lunch for herself, but ended up giving it to someone else when, again, there was not enough food to go around. She straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath and got back to work.

An hour later, Hiccup showed up with a pail of food. He paused in front of her and raised an eyebrow. Whatever he saw on her face made him shake his head and hold out the pail to her.

She sighed a little as she took it. "Thank you, Hiccup," she murmured.

He gave her a bitter smile and said, "Anything for my wonderful husband." He went away, picking up yesterday's basket when he passed by it.

Astrid stared after him, strangely disturbed. 'I already knew that I wear the pants in this relationship,' she thought, and couldn't understand why Hiccup's open acknowledgment, his resignation, seemed to bother her. On a whim, she hurried after her husband. "Hiccup!"

He paused and glanced back at her inquiringly.

She came to a stop before him and said, "I...I just..." She had come to apologize, but she wasn't sure why, and now she didn't care why, because she was distracted by his unmanly posture. "Stop slouching! You look like a rebellious twelve-year-old."

"Sorry," he said, without making any move to straighten his shoulders.

"Stand up. Good grief, you may be a lousy Viking, but can't you at least fake being a proper one?"

He turned and walked away without a word. Then Astrid felt bad, which made her mad, so she made an "Uuuugghhhh" noise to vent her feelings. She ate the lunch her husband had made for her, then returned to work.

That night, when they went into her room together and got undressed and he started to reach for her, Astrid took his hands in hers. "Hiccup, wait."

He looked at her silently.

"I was thinking... I was thinking, I wasn't as grateful to you as I should have been for making me lunch the past couple of days, and...well, and, why don't you be on top tonight."

She was pleased to see that she had managed to shock him. "I...what?"

"It's your turn," she said softly. She laid back on the bed and smiled up at him, trying to ignore how uncomfortably vulnerable she felt.

He kept staring at her. "I..." It wasn't like he'd never been on top before, but it was always short-lived, and she had never invited it like this. "I can...it's fine, I-"

She shifted slowly. Then shifted again, teasing him. He swallowed and climbed cautiously over her and rested his hand on her, and she was more pleased than she expected to be by the lust in his eyes. Despite their frequent lovemaking, he rarely seemed to desire her like he did now. He leaned down and kissed her slowly.

She couldn't help herself. Her hands flew up to clutch him, she pressed deep into his mouth and crushed his body against hers. She was so caught up in passion that it took her a while to realize that he was squirming because he was struggling to get away from her.

As soon as her grip loosened, he sprang back and stared at her with the back of his hand protectively pressed against his mouth, his eyes wide.

"I'm sorry!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry, I know that wasn't very submissive, I- I'm sorry. I'm not used to this. Let's try again."

"No," he said gruffly, "I- No, let's just...keep doing what we usually do, I...I know the rules for that..."

She swallowed. "Here," she said, gripping handfuls of the sheet beneath her, "I'll do your dead fish thing. And close my eyes. You can have your way with me and I'll try not to jump at you again."

"No," he said uncomfortably, "no, I really just..." He flopped down on his back and sighed. After a long pause, he said, "Are we done for the night, or are you going to do something?"

Reluctantly, feeling like she'd failed, she [*censored because FFN is stupid*] and leaned down to kiss him. She tried to make love to him less aggressively than usual, and was pleasantly surprised about halfway through when he suddenly flipped her onto her back and kissed her hard. Usually, whenever this sort of thing happened, she would quickly regain dominance, but this time she let him stay above her and tried to follow his lead. It was not an occurrence that she wanted to happen regularly, but it was a nice reward to keep in reserve for whenever her husband earned it.

To be continued...