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Without further ado, here is the fourth chapter!
Chapter 4: Astrid
Astrid let loose a river of expletives as she knocked her knee into the car door in her haste to get out.
"Are you okay, Miss?" The taxi driver asked concernedly, leaning his head out the window.
"Fine, fine. Just...fine. Got a bit excited, that's all." She said breathlessly, slamming the door shut.
She saw the driver wince at the force she used. Thanking him for getting her to Raven's Point Park, she took off, only to realize that she left her purse and suitcase in the car. She returned back sheepishly to the smiling driver. He got out with her purse in his hand before unloading the trunk.
"Again, thank you so much," Astrid said honestly, her breath growing ragged as she thought how close she was to seeing her friends again.
"Have a nice time, Miss," He said, before getting in his car and driving off.
Astrid had already sprinted away, hauling the clunky suitcase behind her. Her plane from Dragon's Edge had been delayed due to a storm that still hadn't passed. Pushed back about six hours, she had waited anxiously in the airport, one eye on her watch, the other on the boarding gate.
As soon as the attendant had announced that flight 683 was now boarding, Astrid had sprung up from her seat like a kangaroo, pushing all the other passengers aside with small, meaningless apologies. She was desperate to see her friends again after ten long years.
Astrid had left after finishing the majority of her degree in Berk to continue it in Dragon's Edge. She plunged herself in work, creating a lifestyle that had her waking up at an ungodly hour and heading to work where she spent most of her day analyzing forensic evidence through the computer before returning home to an empty, lonely flat and a tv dinner. She was relieved to be back in Berk, where all her friends were.
Astrid cursed again as her suitcase caught against a rock. Heaving the suitcase over the obstacle, she headed straight towards the source of music and laughter. The woods were dark, but up ahead she could make out some light.
She went past a corner and finally saw them. No one noticed her yet, but she noticed the group she was most anxious to meet. Leaving her suitcase by a table, she made a beeline towards her friends.
It was Snotlout who noticed her first.
"Astrid!"
"Ast!"
"It's really you!"
Astrid hugged the black haired woman who had leaped at her. "Hey Heather, how are you?"
Heather opened her mouth to respond when the twins cut her off, almost suffocating her in their famous Thorston sandwich hug. Her friends circled her, eagerly inquiring about how her job was and if she was enjoying the life she had forged.
"I'm great!" Astrid exclaimed, swinging her head around to get a glimpse at everyone. She had stayed in touch with all of her friends, but hadn't been able to visit them because of her exhausting work schedule. Astrid answered all her friend's questions, making sure to inquire about their own lives.
Astrid felt warmth spreading through her; she had been so isolated in Dragon's Edge, only focused on work and nothing else. Meeting her friends and seeing them all happy and together reminded her of all the fun times she had, of the simple girl she had been in high school.
She promptly sat down at their offer, listening to her friends as they earnestly filled her in on what she had missed out on. She gazed around in happiness. It was as though a massive, Monstrous Nightmare sized weight had been lifted off her shoulders. All the stress from her work disappeared as she conversed with her friends.
She was talking with Heather about her friend's most recent article when she saw Snotlout jab Fishlegs in the stomach. Fishlegs glared at him, gesturing with his hands for Snotlout to keep quiet.
"What?" She asked, breaking off the conversation with Heather.
Fishlegs' eyes darted from Snotlout to Astrid, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "I think Fishnut needs his diaper changed. I'll go do it Ruffikins. See you later. Bye!" He shuffled away, leaving everyone else at the table subject to Astrid's murderous glare.
"Spill. Now."
No one spoke, avoiding each other's gazes. Astrid exhaled in frustration and turned her eyes onto the one person she could really scare.
"Snotlout?"
"Did I ever tell you look amazing when you're angry…. 'Cause you do." He blabbered, trying to smile charmly at her.
"Cut the crap, Snot and tell me," She said bitingly.
Dagur nudged Heather, still staring down at the grassy floor as though it was the most interesting thing in the whole universe. Heather shot her brother a look before apologetically meeting Astrid's eyes.
"I really...can't say."
"Hiccup's here!" Snotlout blurted out.
Astrid stiffened. "What?"
Snotlout sighed. "Hiccup's here. Behind those trees." He pointed to two trees that had grown so closely together that they had become entwined.
Astrid could barely think. Hiccup. Hiccup was here, within fifty feet of her. All at once, a wave crashed over her, anger, betrayal, love all colliding headfirst. She stood up as though in a dream, not even bothering to ask her friends to excuse her as she started to slowly walk towards the trees.
Astrid stood there, waiting by the tree like some starry-eyed idiot. She was almost trembling, her nerves completely shot. Any moment now, Hiccup would walk over here, hands in his pockets, his usual lopsided grin on his face.
She imagined his expression as she confessed her secret. His beautiful green eyes would widen. His jaw would probably fall open. His eyebrows would shoot up into his messy auburn bangs. Then, realization would take hold, probably a shy smile stretching across his features. He would probably ask her to confirm her words, to which she would laugh before nodding. Then she would move closer to him, pull his face down and finally kiss him.
Just the very thought of kissing him made her feel lightheaded and her fingers tingle. She could barely wait for him to get here.
She waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. To her disbelief, the bell rang, signalling the start of the first period and he still hadn't arrived. Telling herself that he was just stuck in traffic or slept in, she pulled out her phone to text him as she walked towards History.
Hiccup normally got back to her text within five minutes, but ten, fifteen, thirty, fifty-five minutes passed and he still hadn't responded back to her. He didn't text her in second period either or third. She spent break in the bathroom, trying hard not to cry.
What if he had figured out what she was going to say and chickened out? What if this was his way of telling her that he had no interest in her? She told herself sternly to get a grip. Hiccup was many things, but he would never leave a friend hanging. And he always held up his promises. There was no reason he would start now.
During lunch she asked her friends if they knew what had happened to Hiccup. They all shook their heads, telling her that they would call and text Hiccup. Astrid called Hiccup herself, but a cool female voice answered instead of Hiccup's nasally voice, telling her that the phone was not reachable.
Denying herself the chance to dream up a story about what had happened to Hiccup, she stubbornly went on with her day.
On Tuesday, she waited again under the tree, only to be disappointed once again. She did it for the entire week, each day arriving at school with the hopes of seeing Hiccup's lanky shape. He never came. He never got back to her messages and calls.
Now extremely worried and hurt, Astrid went over to Hiccup's house, ready to get some answers. No one answered the door. She must of spent at least an hour waiting at his door, furiously ringing the doorbell and banging on the wood. Astrid then headed to Gobber's mechanic shop, only to find it boarded up, closed for the day.
She spent the entire weekend trying to figure out what happened to the Mayor and his son. When Astrid asked Spitelout, the City Manager, what had happened to Stoick, all he did was shrug and tell her gruffly that the Mayor had somewhere urgent to be and that was all he knew. Spitelout didn't know what happened to Hiccup however, telling her that he should be here in Berk.
Astrid begged Spitelout to give her Stoick and Gobber's phone numbers, and he finally complied. When she called them, the same female voice told her that their phones weren't available.
Astrid sunk into despair. She had no idea what happened to her best friend. At this point, given with how he had completely disappeared, she wondered if he was even alive. She couldn't believe that Hiccup would just vanish without telling her or their friends. Something awful had to have happened to him, but that thought didn't make her feel any better.
Astrid next went to the hospitals, asking for a Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, but turning up dry every time. She checked the news for anything about where Berk's mayor had gone, but all the newspapers were focusing on the start of summer and what kind of activities could be done this year.
Astrid was completely at a loss in how to find Hiccup. She couldn't spend all her time going on a wild goose chase; she still had college to focus on and had to get dorm items. In agony, Astrid gave up on her search, and started to shift towards her own life, trying to forget the fact that Hiccup had broken his promise.
It wasn't until the end of summer when she finally got some information. Snotlout had overheard his father talking to Stoick and asking the Mayor how he and his son were doing in the USA. Snotlout tried to listen in some more, but got busted by his mother. He immediately called Astrid, telling her that Hiccup was in the USA, but for what reason he didn't know.
Throughout the summer, rage had slowly built up in Astrid. She felt humiliated and let down by Hiccup and she hated it. She hated how vulnerable she felt, all because of a boy. She chucked all her previous feelings for Hiccup out the window and tried to move on, but it was all in vain. Her treacherous mind kept going back to those sweet memories, those little quirks that Hiccup did, those little somersaults her stomach did every time she saw him; it made it near damn impossible to forget.
That only made her angrier; the fact that she couldn't forget, even if she wanted to. She was confused about Hiccup vanishing. She wanted answers, but never got them. She didn't even know why exactly she was angry, but she couldn't keep the fury in when she heard that Hiccup was in the United States of America.
Heartbroken, she had spent long nights staring up at the ceiling, asking herself over and over again, 'Why did he leave?'. She thought of so many different reasons, far fetched answers, little stories she made up, hoping she could ease her pain.
In a last ditch effort, she called Hiccup once again, only for a man to pick up the phone, telling her that she got the wrong number.
From that moment on Astrid refused to let herself dwell about Hiccup. He had left without a word, not that he was really entitled to, but that didn't stop the wound from getting infected. Astrid went to college, burying herself in her coursework, turning a deaf ear to her friends' condolences.
She moved to Dragon's Edge to get a fresh start, to avoid memories of her and Hiccup's old haunts. It had worked too. She let herself get consumed by work, establishing a grueling routine that hardly let her think about her past.
Astrid shouldn't be this affected by one boy. She shouldn't have felt like her world was ending when Hiccup didn't arrive that Monday morning. She shouldn't be this clingy to the past. She shouldn't be this weak.
On her plane ride to Berk, she wondered if Hiccup would be at the reunion, but she quickly shut that dream down. Why on Midgard would he come to the reunion? He was probably happily married in the United States, glad that he had never arrived that Monday morning.
Astrid knew that Stoick had returned back to Berk two years later, but didn't have the courage to ask him what had happened. She assumed that Hiccup was still in the US, and that Stoick had returned only because of his role as Mayor of Berk.
The walk to the tree was long and daunting. It was right there, only fifty feet away, but each step felt like she was dragging a boulder with her. She was all too aware of her pounding heart and her sweaty hands.
She stopped in front of the tree, bracing herself before walking around it slowly. She gasped. He was really there, crouching on the ground with his back to her.
He straightened when he heard her gasp, slowly and resignedly getting to his feet. She barely noticed that his left leg was gone, replaced by a prosthetic leg. He turned, his green eyes wild eyed as he caught sight of her.
His breath hitched.
Astrid didn't know why she did it, but her hand had automatically drifted to his chest, wanting to feel his heartbeat. She knew she was being sentimental. She knew that she was being stupid. She knew she should have anticipated him falling to the ground in a boneless heap, his eyes rolling into his head.