Expressing Affection

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Something about this relationship needs to change...

o.o.o

It was all so normal that Astrid didn't think about it. Just enjoyed the kiss as usual, grinned at her boyfriend afterward without noticing the agitation behind his answering smile, and started to head back out of the forge.

Hiccup watched her go, still absently nursing the newest bruise forming on his arm. He meant to let her just keep walking as usual.

But then he squeezed his eyes shut. And when they popped open again, he was stumbling after her, calling urgently, "Astrid, wait! We need to, um, talk..."

Her smile as she turned back to him was so bright and loving that he swallowed his words again. "N...Never mind."

Yet she did notice this time, and her smile turned to a frown. She returned to him, laying her palms on his shoulders in concern. "What's wrong, babe?"

"Nothing, just forget it..."

She frowned and punched his arm again. "Hey, talk to me."

His wince seemed more exaggerated than usual, and when he bowed over in response to the blow, he took a long time to straighten back up. When she could finally see his face again, he looked resigned and a bit hopeless. "Astrid...is there any chance you could maybe please stop doing that?"

"Stop what, kissing you?" she said in astonishment.

"No! No no no, I like the kissing, the kissing part's great." He cleared his throat nervously. "I just...um...well..." He took a deep breath, then plunged ahead in a despairing sort of way. "Okay, maybe you haven't, like, noticed this, Astrid; but, crazy as it sounds, I'm...kind of a weakling. And you're, um, not a weakling, you're actually really, really strong, and, so, well, it kind of hurts. When you hit me. I mean, not 'kind of' hurts; it really hurts, because you're really strong, and I'm...this." He gestured vaguely at himself. He had long since stopped making eye contact.

"H...Hiccup-?"

"I know I said I'd get used to it! And I really, actually thought I would, because, I mean, getting kissed by Astrid Hofferson, totally worth it, seriously, it's worth it! I mean...I love you." His head was hanging as he said it. "I really do. So I...know it's worth it. It just...I kind of...it still hurts, and...I'm starting to kind of...notquiteasmuch look forward to, um. Getting kissed. Even by the most amazing and beautiful girl on Berk. On the planet. Who's you, by the way. ...Please don't hit me." He was cringing quite a lot by this time, clearly expecting to get hit.

Astrid felt like she was the one who'd just been punched instead. "...Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"

He dared to peek up at her through his ridiculously long bangs. "Because I was afraid you'd get mad and wouldn't want to kiss me anymore...?"

"You're an idiot!"

"I know." His head was hanging again.

She hated seeing him like that, especially for such a stupid reason, and she started to punch him to tell him so.

Horrified, she realized what she was doing, and tried to catch herself. She only partially succeeded; her fist glanced off his sleeve and he let out a yelp, though she hoped it was more from surprise than pain. She'd managed to divert some of the force, at least. "I'm sorry! Hiccup I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-!" Impulsively, she kissed his arm where she'd hit him. The look on his face was so adorable and delicious that she seized his shirt and dragged him close to kiss him properly, her tongue slipping past his lips perhaps a bit more gently than usual.

He looked a little dazed afterward. Somehow they'd ended up on the workbench together, several feet away from the bellows where they'd originally been standing.

"It's, it's just a habit with me, if you didn't like it you should have said something! I didn't fall in love with you because you'd be my personal punching bag, I fell in love with you because you're amazing, and I didn't know I was hurting you!"

"My staggering and rubbing at bruises wasn't enough of a clue, huh...?"

"Oh, so I'm supposed to read your-" She stared, wide-eyed, at her fist, which was once again pressed against his shoulder. She was alarmed at how automatic it apparently was, how easily and how often she hit him. His resigned, gentle little smile as he cupped his hand around her fist and kissed it nearly broke her heart. "Hiccup, I'm sorry, I really am, I-!"

"Don't worry about it, babe," he murmured soothingly. "I'll stick it out. Like I said, you're worth it."

She kissed him to make up for it, then dosed him with another kiss for free, then half-knelt there on the bench for a while, hugging his head against her chest. "Worth it," he mumbled into her left breast.

She let him go so that she could push up his sleeve. He blushed and looked away as she stared at his bare skin, which was, sure enough, marked by more than one layer of bruises. "I did this to you...?!"

"Some of 'em are from Dad," he mumbled, "or Snotlout, or, just, other random Vikings being friendly... And this one's from Toothless, so don't feel bad; sometimes he forgets what a weakling I am, too..."

Astrid stared at him, letting his sleeve slip back down again. Amazed, she wondered what it was like, having to experience this rough world in such a fragile body. "How do you even-?! Has it always been like this for you?!"

"Not really." His wry little smile fooled her for a moment. "I didn't get touched much before I became popular."

Which broke her heart all over again. "I swear, Hiccup, I had no idea. I'm so sorry, I won't hit you anymore, and I'll try to be gentle-"

Hiccup's response was drowned out by a scoffing laugh as Snotlout came strolling into the forge. "Awww, what, the hiccup's whining about a little pain? A real man can take a hit from a girl. Come on, Astrid, you know you can always ditch this guy and have some of this instead, right?" He kissed his own biceps with gusto, prompting a show of gagging from Astrid.

Hiccup glared in annoyance. "Luckily for me, Astrid would apparently rather have me than a real man, so find someone else to glaze your muscles, Snotlout."

"You're the realest man on this island, gorgeous," Astrid murmured into Hiccup's ear, kissing his jaw and sliding her hand up under his shirt, the fingers of her other hand playing across her boyfriend's (admittedly narrow) shoulders.

"Astrid-!" Hiccup squeaked, darting glances at Snotlout.

"Ew," his cousin remarked. Snotlout sighed dramatically and slammed a sword down on the closest countertop. "Fine, whatever. When you're done being disgusting, my dad needs this sharpened. And by the way, the twins are spying on you two." He marched out again, leaving Astrid rolling her eyes, and a dismayed Hiccup looking around at the chinks in the walls.

It took Astrid a month to break herself of the habit of expressing her affection with violence, but Hiccup bore it patiently. Then he had to get both her and Toothless to stop hauling up his shirt for bruise-checks (at least, in public).

By the time he'd matured into a body that was sturdy enough to have handled at least her milder blows, Astrid had long since stopped administering anything of the sort, and they were still all the happier for it.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: (I have no idea how to write romance. *facepalm*)

This whole week, I've been busy working on my room and also planning out a long HSRMO Squirt fic (which I might not have time to actually write *sweatdrop*). I'd gone a bit too long without actually drafting anything, so I scribbled down this drabble to scratch the writing itch. The idea came from me hoping that they'll address the domestic violence issue in season 3, especially since Astrid never hit Hiccup in HTTYD2.

Ftr, "realest" is extremely poor grammar. XD

I have no idea whether Snotlout is still Hiccup's cousin in the DreamWorks version, but in the books, they are first cousins. (Snotlout is also waaaaaaay more horrible in the books than he is in the DreamWorks version. *sweatdrop*)

By the way... It's been a long time since I've been willing to take recommendations, because I simply haven't had time for them the past several years. But, despite still not having time, I've found myself actively reading HTTYD fanfiction anyway (which feels weird because I never even read much Kingdom Hearts fanfiction that wasn't written by my own friends XD). I've been avoiding FFN, because so much of it is either Mary Sue stuff and/or just way too badly written. AO3 is much better, but I'm still getting tired of having to skip over a bunch of RotBTD yaoi, and of the majority of everything else being either non-yaoi RotBTD stuff (although I like the basic crossover concept, I'm not really interested in reading those particular fandoms), or HiccStrid fics that almost inevitably include fornication and often actual smut, which I find gross and boring.

Does anyone have any decently-written platonic Hiccup/Toothless fics (on any Web site) they could recommend to me? Or even well-written HiccStrid that's not gross and sex-obsessed (or at least where the smut is marital)? Or, heck, any kind of well-written HTTYD gen fics at all? Or interesting HTTYD crossovers that aren't RotBTD (particularly Kingdom Hearts)?