Chapter 7: And It's Laid It's Home Inside
"Astrid, when you're in an emergency, check your damn phone!" Heather's voice came through the earpiece. "I've been trying to reach you for an hour!"
Astrid convulsively pulled out her phone, flicked on the display, and slumped. Thirty missed calls. "I'm so sorry, it's been nuts!"
"I bet, but, gods girl, you scared the shit out of me. Um… are you okay?"
"Yeah," Astrid confirmed. "I'm at Hic… Henry's, and they scared my father off with some legal work."
"Okay. I've been doing damage control, and I've got Merida, Cami and… Ruff with me. And, yes, she owes you an apology. Can we come by?"
She glanced up at Hiccup. "Heather and some friends want to do the war council thing. Is it okay if they come here?"
Hiccup mutely nodded in a clear and exaggerated fashion as he pulled open the refrigerator and started taking out more ingredients.
"He says that it's okay."
"We'll be there in five, maybe ten."
"Okay." She turned to Hiccup, who was looking antsy. "Can we…" She shrugged a bit awkwardly. "They're going to want to know everything."
Hiccup nodded, and she couldn't really read his expression. "The famous 'girl talk'?"
She nodded back. "Yeah. Um… I don't want to leave you out, but it would be really awkward—"
Hiccup held up a hand. "Astrid. I'll cook, and you can talk with your friends about our sex life and get the record straight. It's fine." He shifted a little uncomfortably. "But please ask them to keep the teasing to a minimum?"
She nodded and looked him over. His bruises were starting to darken, and she just wanted to kiss him, drag him off to bed, confess that she loved him, and fall asleep in his arms.
Was that so much to ask?
But instead, they busied themselves for guests, and a few minutes later, a car pulled up along the curb and disgorged her friends before driving off. She greeted them at the door, they came in and they were shortly ensconced in the obscenely comfortable couches and armchairs of the Haddock house's lounge.
Astrid hadn't been in here until now, and again there was a marked contrast between this room and that soulless living room. Hidden behind thick curtains over the doorways—almost tapestries—the furniture in here was old but well kept, featuring knit and plush throws over overstuffed black leather furniture, landscape paintings on the wall, and a modern flatscreen in an entertainment center that had clearly been designed and built back when TVs had been more cube-shaped. The coffee table and entertainment center all had more Norse motifs carved into the wood, these being runes and carvings of dragons. The deep rug at their feet was woven with a pattern of heroic Vikings on longboats fighting dragons. A fireplace—which looked like it would work with both wood and gas—occupied a nearby corner that jutted into the room, and there was a wide stone shelf around it, the edges of which were carved with more Norse motifs. More bookcases and display cases lined the back wall, and she resolved to take a closer look at their contents later.
And when she sat down on one of the couches, she also resolved to make love to Hiccup on it at some point. Gods, it was comfortable!
Pushing the image of the two of them naked and their limbs entwined on the overstuffed sofa to the back of her mind, she turned and looked at her friends; Merida and Ruffnut were seated together on the loveseat, while Heather had slumped into the Stoick-sized armchair, one of her legs dangling over the arm, looking like she was contemplating burrowing into the cushions for the winter; meanwhile, Astrid sat on one arm of L-shaped sofa, while Cami sprawled herself across the other.
Astrid looked around at her friends, realized that she was sitting stiffly, like they were here to interrogate her. She loosened up her posture and sat forward more aggressively, looking across at Ruffnut. "So, first point I guess is… Ruff? What the Hel were you thinking?"
Ruffnut shrugged apologetically, looking pained. "I thought that it was a joke!"
"A joke!?" Astrid sputtered, coming half out of her seat. "A joke!?"
"Well, yeah," Ruffnut said, looking a bit aggrieved. "I mean you? Kissing Hiccup Haddock? Like that? It had to be a joke!" She looked down. "Or at least I thought that it was until Heather messaged me." She mumbled, "I'm sorry. Please don't kill me."
Merida snorted and patted Ruff's hand. "She won't. She knows that I'd be pissed off."
Astrid rolled her eyes. "Aside from how I'm your friend, Ruff, and you know I don't like pranks… didn't the fact that my father was out looking for me last night make you think at all? I mean, you sent me a message and everything to see if I was okay!"
Ruff winced. "I know, and I'm sorry!"
Astrid glared at her, and then took a deep breath. Screaming at Ruffnut wouldn't fix anything.
Merida spoke up as Astrid calmed herself. "And she immediately starting signal boosting your 'here's what's going on' post, if that counts for anything."
Astrid gave them a flat look, and then nodded. "Ruff, I forgive you… if you promise to help clean up the mess you just made."
Ruffnut nodded enthusiastically. "Okay! And, besides, Tuff already got chewed up by Dagur for it, and I'll have to help put him back together."
Astrid shrugged at that, and then a bit of lingering guilt made her ask, "How bad?"
"He'll heal within a week or so, and Dagur didn't break or even sprain anything!" Ruff reported with a smile and an eyeroll. "He looks like a raccoon at the moment, though."
Cami scowled. "Yeah. I'm not saying that he didn't deserve it for taking the pic in the first place—Odin knows that Tuff needs to get his ass kicked regularly anyway. But we're getting a bit off topic. We're here to discuss your boyfriend, not mine." She pointed to Astrid—and her bruise. "I read what you posted, but I need to hear it from you. Seriously? You're dating Hiccup Haddock!?"
Astrid met Cami's stare with a flat look of her own. "Yes."
"But… but… he's a nerd! A scrawny brain trust!"
Merida snorted. "And Tuff's in theater, Cami. Stones. Glass houses."
"Says the triathlon athlete who's dating another theater girl," Cami snorted. "But, no, seriously, Ast… why Hiccup? Because he was the only guy you could get?"
Astrid scowled at Cami, but before she could respond, Heather held up a hand. "Hang on, hang on!" Everyone looked at her. "Okay." She took a deep breath, and said, "I've been in on this since it started, but I'm missing bits. But let's get the biggest issue out of the way here—Astrid's dad."
Merida sighed. "Good call." She looked at Astrid, eyeing the bruise on her cheek. "So… how long has your dad been abusing you, and is this why you never let us stay over more than one night?"
Astrid met her eyes and nodded. "He's… he's always been like this. I'm not my own person. I'm just his trophy of a picture-perfect life." She motioned to her cheek. "This wasn't the first time he hit me… but it's been a very long time since he had to."
Cami nodded, scowling. "And you never had a boyfriend." She glanced at the door towards the rest of the house. "At least, not one that we were allowed to know about."
"Or a girlfriend, for that matter," Ruffnut added in. "I was starting to wonder if you were ace, like Moana."
Astrid shook her head at the mention of the Polynesian boarding student, who was also one of her friends, currently off seeing her family during the break. "No, I'm not. But I wasn't allowed. My father has a paranoia about guys our age being interested in only getting laid, and that would make me dirty in his eyes." She looked around the group, leaning forward. "Remember that sleepover when you," she turned to Cami, "'forgot' to mention that there would be boys there, and I ended up going home?"
"Yeah. I was so disappointed, because I hoped that—"
"I got screamed at for the better part of an hour when I got home, Cami," Astrid said flatly. "Told that I was bringing a disgrace on the family, that I needed to 'be careful about Men', that he expected better of me, that I was an ungrateful brat for not thinking on how my actions would impact him, and that I needed to think on what I'd just done. And then he grounded me for the weekend, locked me out of the wifi, and confiscated my phone."
Cami blinked, and bowed her head, guilt on her face. "Oh."
"Yeah. 'Oh.' And so that's my father." She drummed her fingers on the table. "So it was never about what I wanted. Just what he wanted me to be."
"And what's that?" Merida asked, sympathetic. But then, she would be.
Astrid rubbed her face. "His trophy. Class Valedictorian. Star Athlete, since I don't have a brother—and they tried. Society Debutante. Possible future wife to someone with an 'Honorable' in their name, or possibly a 'Lord' at the front." She scowled. "For Baldr's sake, I was only allowed to be friends with you lot because you all come with connections."
Heather scowled. "Well, that's blunt."
"It's the truth. You should have heard him when he found out that you were dating Eret, Heather," Astrid said. "He called Eret all sorts of slurs, because he's Saami and his parents actually work, rather than figure out how to make money, like a 'real man' does, and said that your father was an idiot for 'letting' you date him."
Ruffnut grunted angrily. She liked Eret, and the two were friends despite him turning her down before she'd started dating Merida. Heather, meanwhile, was looking like she was contemplating the benefits of murder. She and Eret were still friends, even after their disastrous first and only time together.
"I wish that you'd told me that then," Heather said.
Astrid huddled in on herself. "Are you mad at me?"
Heather shook her head resolutely. "No. At him. But it means that I passed up the perfect opportunity to kick him in the family jewels the other night for no good reason!"
Merida snorted. "I can have an accident with my bow if you want, Heather. You didn't want any siblings, did you, Ast?"
Astrid snorted harshly. "And have them raised in that corner of Niflheim? No." She drummed her fingers on her arm. "But getting back to the point, I had to be the best, because 'his child' had to be the best. What Astrid wanted didn't matter, if you catch my drift."
Cami scowled. "I got it."
"So I was second in the class ranking. That wasn't good enough. And his solution was what it had always been—taunt me with someone better. And I hated it when he did that, rubbed my failure in my face. So last year, when he told me that he was hiring Henry Haddock, 'the top of the class', to tutor me, I was fucking pissed."
Heather nodded ruefully. "I think that you would have murdered Hiccup and hidden the body if you could have."
Merida nodded in agreement, and Cami snorted.
"I thought that you were just about ready to chew horseshoes and spit out paperclips," Ruffnut said.
"Yeah, probably," Astrid admitted. She'd been an idiot, then. "But then, well… we were spending lots of time together. And he became my friend. He made me laugh, and smile, and joke…" She looked down at her hands, remembering those early, awkward days in her relationship. "Then, after last Winter Break, after when Snotlout had been bothering me every day… we were up in my room studying for Chemistry, and… and I kissed him."
Cami shrugged. "That's sweet and all, but I'm just hearing 'He was my only option.'"
Astrid deliberately mirrored Cami's shrug. "And it was that, at first. But it's not that now. You don't know what he did for me. What he does for me."
Merida inhaled sharply and then sighed. "Is this why you've been so much happier over the last school year?"
Astrid nodded. "Gods, yes."
"I was wondering about that. So… what happened that suddenly you're getting beaten up by your dad and hiding out in Hiccup Haddock's house?"
Heather interjected, "Wow, Merida. Right for the throat much?"
Merida shrugged, sending her cloud of red curls moving in a wave. "Hey, something happened. Did he find out or something?"
Astrid looked down at her knees, braced herself, and looked up at her group of friends. "You have to promise that you won't spread this part around."
Cami was about to say something, but Heather held up a hand. "Ast, we're your friends. Of course."
"Even though you didn't trust us before," Cami said, sounding hurt.
"I didn't even want to tell Heather," Astrid said. "She figured it out and confronted me over Spring Break when I had a… study session with Hiccup and I didn't cancel it to spend time with her."
Heather coughed and shrugged. "And she had this moony-lovey look on her face that was so obvious once I realized."
"And by 'study session', you mean makeouts, right?" Ruff asked with a smirk.
"Well, we did do the studying… and we made out," Astrid admitted.
Merida nodded. "All right. But what happened? Come on, Ast. You can trust us!"
Astrid looked down at her knees again, and looked at the rug. It looked so soft. She kicked off her slippers and ran her toes across it, confirming her suspicion. "You all promise not to say anything until I say it's okay?"
"I promise," Heather said immediately.
"I don't want to get punched or thrown out!" Ruffnut said. "I promise."
"You're my friend, Ast. Of course," Merida said, looking earnest.
Cami scowled, and then after a moment with everyone looking at her, said, "Fine. I promise. Now spill! What the Hel happened that you went from Miss Perfect Salutatorian with no boyfriend to hiding out in a secret boyfriend's house—who also happens to be the valedictorian—and looking like you went to a weekend fight club!?"
Astrid hugged her arms around herself, and deeply wished that Hiccup was next to her for support. She looked at her friends… and hoped that she wasn't about to lose their friendship.
"I'm pregnant."
There was a brief pause before Merida said, in a considering tone, "Well, that would do it."
Ruffnut nodded; she didn't seem surprised, while Cami was staring at her, speechless, her expression incredulous.
Heather looked shocked, and after a moment of her mouth gaping like a landed fish, she said in a tone of utmost admiration, "You slut!"
Astrid met her best friend's eyes, smiled slightly, and said, "Sure am. But only for Hic—ahem, Henry."
"And so that's why you're here?" Cami demanded. "Because he knocked you up? I guess that's better than some guys but did he think—"
Astrid cut her off with a chop of her hand. "Cami! He's been nothing but supportive since we started being together. Hel, can you imagine any other guy in the school who would put up with being ignored and blanked like I had to? We've been together for ten months… and together for five. And did you hear a peep from him? One bit of boasting? If anyone here is the inconsiderate one, it's me! I don't deserve him, and I'm damn lucky to have him!" she said in a hiss.
Cami scowled. "You really are serious about this?"
"Yes. It started as me hopping on the one guy I was actually allowed to be around unsupervised—because my father would never believe that I was interested in a nerd with a prosthetic foot and those glasses." She loved those glasses, and had insisted that Hiccup keep them on more than once when they'd been fucking. "But now… I think of how angry I was back when we first started tutoring and have to laugh. Because… because I love him."
There, she'd said it.
Just not to him.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. Seriously. And I still need to tell him that personally. And I don't know if he feels the same way. I wouldn't blame him if he didn't. I've treated him horribly. But…" she flapped her hands slightly. "Yeah. He makes me laugh, he makes me smile, he doesn't talk down to me, he helps me build myself up, he's kind and considerate…" She looked around at them. "This morning, he stood up to my father when he came here, figuring that 'my tutor' might know. He mouthed off to him rather than give me up, and my father attacked him! And when I saw my father beating him up, I had to do something!"
Merida whistled. "Yeah, you're in love all right." She turned. "Cami, lay off Hiccup and get on board."
Cami snorted. "Fine." Then an evil grin grew on her face. "So… is he a hiccup all over?"
Astrid scowled. "What do you mean?"
"Well, how… big is he?" Cami pressed, her grin turning positively wicked. "Come on, Astrid, you must be dying to tell all of the fun bits!"
Astrid snorted. "Do you really want to know?"
"Hey, this way I can compare him to Tuff—"
"La la la lah, not hearing about my brother's sex life!" Ruffnut said, clamping her hands over her ears.
Astrid shrugged. "I'll put it this way. We fit together perfect, and I'm leaving it at that." She left out the rest of the thoughts and memories that came to mind on just how perfectly they fit together. It was like he'd been made with her in mind. And while she wasn't going to tell Cami that much, he was above average, and just long enough to really…
A sudden motion in front of her snapped her attention back. Heather was waving her hand in front of her. "You okay?"
"Uh…" Astrid stammered.
"Oh boy, he is good," Merida said with glee. "She zoned out completely."
Astrid flushed. "Yeah…" She deliberately affected a languid smile and laid back in the couch. "Mmmh."
"Okay, now you have to share!" Heather said cheerfully and leaned in. "Consider it repayment for how long I sat on this."
Astrid rolled her eyes. "All right. What do you want to know?"
"Well, what have you two done?" she asked, grinning.
"Does he go down on you?" Ruffnut chimed in.
"Do you go down on him?" Cami asked, smirking.
Astrid sighed and looked at their eager faces for a moment before she caved. "Yes and yes. But for what we've done, we've been sticking to things that we could get away with without my parents noticing. So nothing really loud, athletic, or requiring cleanup."
"Oh, so your ass is still virgin?" Cami asked. "I could give you some pointers from what me and Tu—"
Ruff slapped her hand over Cami's mouth. "And that's enough there!"
Merida laughed. "So, is he good with his mouth?"
Astrid gave her a smug smile, getting into the rhythm of the banter, and relaxing from her earlier tension. "I think Freyja blessed him specifically for me."
"That's a pretty bold claim," Cami said, rolling her eyes. "I mean, he was your first, right? So it's not like you have a lot of comparisons to make."
"As opposed to you, who has only been with Tuff and two other guys?" Heather interjected. "Neither of whom were good enough to make you bliss out at the memory, I'll point out."
"And you've only been with Eret," Cami rebutted. "Or has Justin stopped playing hard to get?"
Before Heather could reply, Astrid coughed, and they all looked back at her. "As for Hiccup… I think that he did research."
There was a pause. Then Cami uttered a flat, "What?"
"Well, he got a lot better, very quick, and part of that was watching to see how I reacted—I sometimes felt like a science experiment, with all of the variables being accounted for—but I definitely think that he looked up how to really please a girl." She felt smug. How to please her. "I came three times last night after I got here."
Heather blinked and then grinned, Merida giggled, and Ruffnut snorted. "Damn, girl!" Cami blurted, her earlier disapproval seemingly gone. "I take back what I said before."
Merida said, "I hope that you didn't leave him hanging."
Astrid shook her head, and exaggeratedly licked her lips. "And the shower this morning was fun."
"How does he taste?" Merida asked just as the curtain was pulled aside and Hiccup came in with a tray filled with steaming pizza and a stack of plates.
There was a brief shared glance, and they all burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" Hiccup asked, suddenly wary.
"You pass inspection," Cami said. "Now gimme food!" She hopped and snagged a plate and a slice, immediately taking a bite. And then she paused. "Where did you get this?" she asked around the mouthful as everyone descended on the pizza.
Hiccup cocked his head. "What do you mean?"
"I thought I knew every pizza place around here, but I don't recognize this one" Cami said thickly, her mouth still full. "Where did you get it from? It's some of the best I've had."
There was a sudden twinkle in Hiccup's eyes, and he shared a glance with Astrid as he put the devastated remains of the pie on the table and took a slice of his own. "Some of the best you've had, eh?"
"Yeah," Cami said, swallowing and taking another huge bite. "And, seriously, did you order extra cheese with everything? This is awesome."
Heather paused as she chewed on her own slice. "Wait. I didn't hear a knock or anything for the delivery."
Hiccup sat down next to Astrid, taking small, measured bites of his slice. "Go ahead. You tell them," he said smugly.
Astrid grinned at him, turned back to her friends, and said, "It's not delivery—or frozen."
"Well, I know that it's not yours," Heather said, shuddering dramatically.
Ruffnut nodded in enthusiastic agreement with Heather. "I remember your 'yaknog' from last year."
"Hiccup made it," Astrid said.
They paused. Ruffnut's mouth hung open for a second, revealing a mouthful of chewed pizza.
"You made this?" Cami asked, incredulous.
Hiccup shrugged. "Yep. Matter of fact, there's a second pie in the oven, so I'm going to go get that out before it burns in a minute. Astrid, could you help me with drinks?"
She nodded, and they got off the couch together and went into the kitchen.
"How's it going?" he asked quietly.
She nodded, recognizing the ploy for what it was, and appreciating it. "It's… it's going okay. They wanted to know everything, and I'm telling them, but they aren't being judgmental much. Mostly incredulous. But I'm winning them over, I think."
He smiled. "Good. I would hate for you to lose your friends because of me."
She reached up, grasped his hair, and pulled him down into a quick kiss. "If they aren't willing to accept you as my boyfriend, then they're not good friends. But I appreciate that so much," she said earnestly.
The kitchen timer chimed, and Hiccup busied himself with getting the pizza out of the oven—he actually had one of those pizzeria boards that they used to take pizzas in and out of the oven, and he obviously knew how to use it.
She watched for a moment, love and pride swelling her heart, and then turned, got a stack of cups and a couple of bottles of cola from a cabinet, and returned to the lounge. Her friends had demolished the entire pie, and looked up eagerly as she came in with drinks.
"He made this?" Cami asked, her tone making it clear that she didn't quite believe it… but she wanted to.
Astrid nodded and poured herself a glass of cola.
"From scratch. It wasn't a frozen one that he prettied up?" Heather asked.
"Yep. I watched and helped a bit," she said. And then a silly thought came to her head. "And the way that you all were moaning and going 'so good' before…" she gave them a tight grin, and deadpanned, "the sex is better than the food."
Her friends all glanced at each other. Then back to her.
Then Cami jokingly asked, "Does he have a brother?"
Merida laughed, and asked even more humorously, "How does he feel about threesomes?"
"Hey!" Ruffnut said with a smirk that showed she wasn't serious, and swatted her girlfriend with the hand that wasn't occupied with holding the last surviving slice of pizza as she inhaled it.
"Fine. Foursomes," Merida said with a laugh, pouring herself a cup of cola.
Astrid gave her a level look. "Not sharing. He's all mine. You had your chances," she said with a smirk. "And while I feel like I don't deserve him, he's mine."
"Damn," Merida said mildly. "Sex better than this food? I can't blame you."
"So… what do you want us to do, Ast?" Heather asked, summarily licking her fingers clean of the pizza grease.
Astrid shrugged. "Cover for us. You know what's going on, and my father is going to try to drag me back home. Just… I'm not going to hide it any more. For now, I'm going to be living here—"
"Whoa!" Ruffnut interrupted. "You're moving in with him?"
Astrid nodded. "Where else would I go?"
"With one of us," Cami offered without hesitation.
Astrid smiled. "And in your house, Cami, Bertha would treat me like a guest. Here… I'm part of the family."
Heather took in a deep breath and nodded. "Okay. We're with you, Ast. But if you need a place to stay… don't forget to ask."
"I won't," she said.
And then Hiccup came in with the second pizza—well, half of it; the other half had been brought to the office to feed his dad and Gobber. That quickly vanished, and Hiccup went to bake the third pie they'd prepared, as Astrid turned back to her friends.
"Any more questions?"
Merida, pausing from her efforts to scarf down a bit of danging cheese, turned and asked, "Yes. Ast… are you happy? Or do you feel like you're being forced into this?"
Astrid sighed. "Merida… gods yes, I'm happy. This morning, when it all caught up and hit me… I was upstairs in the bathroom here, and do you know what he did?"
They all shook their heads.
"He didn't yell at me, or tell me that tears are a sign of weakness, or act uncomfortable or any of that. He walked up to me, hugged me, and supported me until I had dealt with it. And that's despite me having dumped myself and the news that he's going to be a father on him at midnight last night. So, yes, I'll take the guy who can soothe his naked crying girlfriend without trying to put the moves on her, despite him having a hard-on. But if I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it from the way that he was acting, you know?"
Heather whistled. "Damn."
Merida nodded. "I'm sold."
Cami shrugged. "If he hurts you, I'm kicking his ass, but if he's as good as you say, then I'd take that risk too."
Ruffnut cocked her head. "You're smiling. Good enough for me. And I'm sorry about the thing with the picture."
"I know. And thanks. Just help with going forward from here, okay?"
Ruffnut nodded. "So… what do you want to do about the baby?"
"What about it?" Astrid asked.
"Well… are you keeping it?"
Astrid froze, and then carefully said, "I… I haven't decided yet. And I need to talk to Hiccup. It might be my choice… but it's his kid too."
Heather jumped in. "Then we'll keep mum until you decide."
"Thanks."
Hiccup came in, holding the last of the pizza. He put it down on the table and grabbed a slice for himself before sitting down next to Astrid. "So, I passed inspection, you said. What does that mean?"
"It means that Astrid convinced us that you're acceptable boyfriend material," Merida said.
Ruffnut chimed in, "And that we're not allowed to proposition you for foursomes, even if the sex is apparently better than the cooking."
Hiccup choked. "What?!" he sputtered.
They all laughed, and Astrid leaned forward and thumped him on the back. "Don't tease him."
"Not even a little bit?" Cami asked. "Just a little?"
"No. Let him get used to having a girlfriend in public at all before you start the torment," Astrid said.
"Spoil my fun," Cami harrumphed humorously.
"Yep," Astrid said, leaning up against Hiccup possessively. "You hurt him, you answer to me."
HighKings-Ruin: No, there will not be any death or sexual assault in this story.
DeathBerryHime: Thank you! But I'm of the opinion that painting in shades of exclusively black gets boring. I'm aiming for some high contrast. I've got one bit drafted already that made one of my beta readers say that they'd felt like they'd been punched when they read it.
Antox: As well you should. Abusers don't like being forced to let go of their victims.
BrawlerGamer: Yep, Anna is here. And, yes, Mr. Hofferson also is a spousal abuser, although not physically. Emotionally. Phlegma is alluding to sex-selective abortion at the very least.
And Alvin is indeed his lawyer, and you've already twigged to one of his potential tactics.
GuardianDragonOfDearth: Thank you! That's exactly the reaction I was hoping for.
Roughgunner: thank you, and there is more to come.
