A/N: Wow. So...I forgot what it feels like to have a life. It's pretty nice, having stuff to do and places to go and people to hang out with all the time, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting fucked up the ass by some of the requirements for my major. THE POINT IS, updates for this fic are now thrown in the air; I'm aiming for Sundays, since that's when I generally seem to have downtime, but I honestly can't promise anything at this point in time. It's a good thing we're past the halfway point for Confessions, no?
This chapter introduces one of my favorite characters ever, so be prepared. Just saying.
Jim Povolo-sized thanks to the following for their reviews: LeDragonQuiMangeDuPoisson, 4ever2010, Voldyne, xv323, TemariTheWolf, TheodosiaHaddock, Irako of the Desert, and 123NinjaKat, and:
123NinjaKat: You're making me blush! And unfortunately, no, I don't have any advice other than to keep writing, lol. Have you ever heard of Hugh Howey? He's a published science fiction author and a good friend of mine, and he says the same thing; keep writing. I love the books, but in a completely different way from the movie; the two are completely different, but I love them both. Which never happens, because usually I love one and hate the other, so I definitely recommend reading the books, if only to warm the cockles of your heart. Ooh, definitely read the HP books when you can; I live in those things. Okay...how does one explain this...Harry is a human, and when Lily died to save him, that put a love shield on him, which protected him from death. So when Voldemort tried to kill him, the curse bounced off of Harry and hit Voldemort and somehow turned Harry into a horcrux. So this sort of gave Harry two lives, if that makes sense; his own life and then one of Voldemort's. I don't know, it's all very weird. And when Voldemort killed him, he killed part of his own soul, because he didn't know Harry was a horcrux. And then Harry was just Harry and not Harry the horcrux. It both makes sense and doesn't, lol. I was Luna for the midnight showing, and I think I'm going as her for Halloween! I do not know, I am sad to report :( Haha, don't worry, I had a Harry Potter nerd-off at a party last night XD Thanks so much for the review!
Hope you guys enjoy!
"Where were you last night?" I asked Astrid the next morning.
She glared at me, swinging her axe. "Oh, so you noticed I left?"
I rolled my eyes. "Gods, is it that time of the month or something?"
I was actually a little bit afraid she was gonna use that axe on me. "No! I'm just annoyed that my friends got up and abandoned me last night to hero-worship that loser."
"Hiccup's not a loser," I said, frowning. Then I blushed a little. "At least, not anymore. And besides, you could've come over and said hi, too, you know.
She huffed. "No, I really couldn't have."
I stared. "Well, that made sense. Thanks, Astrid; it would've been really annoying if you hadn't explained what the Hel you were talking about."
She shook her head. "You don't understand."
I put my hands on my hips. "What don't I understand—you're jealous?"
"Why's Astrid jealous?" Tuff wanted to know as he and Snotlout walked in the ring, Fishlegs behind them.
I tossed a braid over my shoulder. "Astrid's jealous that Hiccup's better at dragon training than she is."
Astrid's laugh sounded like a bark. "Oh, please, Ruff; jealous of Hiccup the Useless? He might be able to take down dragons now, but let's not forget who was top in the class before the Viking in him surfaced at the last second."
"Mornin'!" Gobber bellowed from above—there was an even bigger crowd than yesterday. He frowned. "Where's Hiccup?"
"Here!" Hiccup sprinted in, panting. "Sorry I'm late! I was…I got distracted."
"With what?" Astrid asked suspiciously.
"Never mind that," Gobber said. "Today, you'll be facing a tricky devil—even Hiccup'll have a time with this one!" Some of the Vikings snickered. Astrid smirked. Gobber motioned to Badbreath, who pulled on the lever. The bar came up, but instead of the big double doors opening, a small door that looked like it was made for a cat opened, and out came a green blur. "Meet the Terrible Terror!"
Okay, I'm not even gonna lie—it was the cutest fucking thing I've ever seen. I'd only seen Terrors in swarms before, but never up close. They're adorable. I just wanted to pick it up and cuddle it and keep it. I don't even care how girly that sounds—it was so cute. It was tiny and green and was licking its eyeball, and if you could die of cuteness, I was totally about to. I decided to call him Spike. Yes, I was fucking naming it, is there a problem with that? Me and Snotlout grinned at each other—this was what we were fighting today? Tch, I didn't think so. Terrible Terror my ass; the name was probably ironic…
"Ha!" Tuff laughed, pointing at Spike. "It's like the size of my—" Only then Spike flew at his face and attacked him. Me and Snotlout ducked and jumped out of the way while some of the Vikings roared with laughter—damn but that thing was fast! He was gnawing on Tuff's nose now, and my brother was screaming, "Oh, get it off!" And then, weirdly, Spike jumped off his face and started chasing something on the ground. "Oh, I am hurt! I am very much hurt!" Tuff wailed, rolling around on the ground and clutching his nose.
I could see now that Spike was chasing around a speck of light, but not just a random speck of light—someone was definitely controlling it. I looked around and saw Hiccup holding his shield so that the light reflected off of it; he pushed the speck towards Spike's cage and the little dragon followed it, grunting and humming the whole way.
"Wow," Tuff said, getting up and rubbing his nose. "He's better than you ever were!"
I couldn't see her face, but I could practically feel Astrid's glare, and it made me smile, because Tuff was damn right; Hiccup had gotten a Terrible Terror back in its cage after maybe one minute. That had to be a record. Spike scrambled into his cage and Hiccup closed the door with his foot; he turned around and gave us a sheepish smile, almost like he was embarrassed that he was so good. The crowd exploded with cheers as Badbreath pulled the lever, dropping the bar.
"Well done, Hiccup!" Gobber shouted, practically dancing. It was a weird dance since he only has one leg. "I've never seen anyone take care of a Terror like that! And you didn't even have to use your axe!"
"That was awesome!" Fishlegs said.
"I almost had it," Tuff lied. His nose was still really red.
"Way to go, Hiccup!" Snotlout whooped.
"How did you know to do that?" I asked, shoving Tuff and Snotlout aside.
Hiccup turned pink. "Instinct?"
Snotlout shoved me out of the way. "Hey, cos, you wanna come by sometime and work out in my basement?"
Hiccup looked really surprised. "Uh…sure, why not?"
Snotlout grinned. "Awesome!"
"We could all work out!" Tuff said, trying to push his way between them. "We can have male bonding time!"
"That would be fun—" Fishlegs tried to say, only Tuff cut him off.
"Yeah, I was really just talking about the three of us," he said, glaring and throwing an arm around Hiccup's shoulders.
Snotlout shoved Tuff's arm off of Hiccup and put his own arm there. "Dude, who said you could come?"
Tuff stared. "But Lout…I'm your best friend."
Snotlout shrugged. "And Hiccup's my cousin. Blood's thicker than water, am I right, cos?"
"You made the first fourteen years of my life miserable," Hiccup pointed out.
I used my hip to bump Snotlout out of the way. "So, we're going to Mead Hall to hang out, if you wanna come with us," I offered, giving him my flirtiest grin.
Hiccup blushed. "Uh, you know, I actually have some things to take care of in the forge, but, uh, I'll meet up with you guys later, okay?" And before we could say anything else, he started half-walking, half-running out the ring. "See you later!"
At this point, I wasn't even going to ask.
I looked around after a minute. "Where's Astrid?"
"She stormed out of here a few minutes ago with her axe," Fishlegs said.
I rolled my eyes. "She needs a hobby, other than dismembering trees."
"Or an orgasm," Tuff sniggered.
I shoved him. "Is that all you ever think about?" Although secretly I was thinking the same thing.
"Yep," Tuff said, nodding. We headed out of the ring and towards the village.
Snotlout smirked. "I could help her there."
I snorted. "Good luck with that."
After a few minutes, Tuff turned to Snotlout. "Dude, why wouldn't I be invited to your basement?"
We waited around, but Hiccup never showed.
"What do you think he's doing?" Tuff wanted to know.
I'd been wondering that myself. "Training, probably."
"Yeah, but how?" Snotlout piped up. "Astrid goes out to train in the woods like every day after class, and she still can't beat Hiccup."
"Maybe he's training with someone," Fishlegs said.
I frowned. "Who would be training him, though? Almost all of the Vikings who are good at killing dragons went to find the nest."
"Gobber might," Tuff said. "He totally favors Hiccup."
"I can't really see Gobber cheating like that, though," Fishlegs pointed out. "His teaching methods might be a little unorthodox, but they're not illegal."
"Maybe it's just his blood," Snotlout said, wiping his mouth as he set down his goblet. "I mean, look at his dad; the man popped a dragon's head off its shoulders when he was a baby, and Dad says Aunt Valhallarma had a way with dragons—Hiccup probably got it from them and doesn't need any extra training."
"Okay, but that still doesn't explain what he does all day," Tuff reminded him.
"He has a room in the forge where he sketches inventions," I said without even thinking. I realized the guys were staring at me and I'm pretty sure I turned red. "What?"
Tuff smirked. "Stalker much?"
I know I turned red then. "Shut up! I'm just saying, I saw it that one time I had to go get Dad's axe fixed after someone," I shoved his helmet over his eyes, "almost ruined it!"
"I wouldn't have ruined it if you wouldn't have shoved me into the wall!" he snapped.
"I wouldn't have shoved you if you wouldn't have kicked me!" I snapped back.
"I wouldn't have kicked you if you wouldn't have bitten me!"
"I wouldn't have bitten you if you wouldn't have pulled my hair!"
"I wouldn't have pulled your hair if you wouldn't have called me a vagina!"
"BECAUSE YOU ARE A VAGINA!" I shouted. A few Vikings turned to stare, but when they saw it was us, they rolled their eyes and turned back to whatever it was they were doing.
"Frigg and Thor, do you two ever stop?" Astrid, who had just walked up, snapped.
"Have you not known us the past fourteen years?" Tuff snorted.
"How was massacring the forest?" I asked.
Astrid rolled her eyes. "Fine."
"We were just talking about Hiccup," Fishlegs said.
Astrid tensed. "Oh really?"
"Yup," Snotlout said, just as clueless as Fishlegs. Seriously, did these guys not see the Look of Death in her eyes whenever they said his name? "What do you think he does all day?"
"Who cares?" she practically spat. "We never cared before—why do we care now?"
"PMS," Tuff whispered to Snotlout.
Astrid glared. "What was that?"
"Nothing," Tuff said quickly. "Nothing at all, why would you think that was anything?" But he could tell it wasn't working, since Astrid was still glaring, so he got up and stretched. "Well, gee, I think I'm gonna turn in."
"Yeah, me too," Snotlout said, jumping up.
"Me three," Fishlegs said, and the three of them bolted out of the hall. Cowards.
"Boys," Astrid huffed.
"Who peed in your oats this morning?" I snorted.
Astrid glared. "If I have to say his name, I may barf."
I rolled my eyes because I knew what she was going to rant about. "What did he do this time?"
"I just ran into him by the forge," she said, practically biting into the words. "He just…ugh, he is so weird! Why does everyone like him? He was standing by the forge and stuttering and being all…ugh…and then he just disappeared inside!"
I stared. "Um."
"I'm telling you, Ruff, it was so weird!" she said, like I hadn't heard her say it the first five times. "It's like something was pulling him…he was on the ground, and then he was flat against the doors, and then it was like something yanked him through the doors, but when I looked inside, he was gone!"
"Maybe he's just awesome like that," I said, shrugging. And she thought I exaggerated when I told stories. Puh.
Astrid scowled. "He is not that awesome," she growled. "He's not even kind of awesome. He's a loser, Ruff. Hiccup the Useless, remember?"
I rolled my eyes. "You're taking this dragon training thing way too seriously, Astrid. So somebody finally beat you at something, so what?"
"That's not the point!" she almost screamed, but you could totally tell it was the point. "The point is that Hiccup is probably more dangerous to Berk than dragons are, but just because he knocked over a few reptiles, now everyone treats him like a hero, including you! Am I the only one who remembers that this is Hiccup? That we could've salvaged almost all our supplies in the last raid if he hadn't gotten in the way? That he's such a screw-up his own father hasn't even bothered teaching him how to lead because Snotlout would be a better chief than Hiccup?"
I stood up. "Look, I love you and all, but I don't really wanna put up with you right now. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" How the Hel was I supposed to explain to her that I was just as crazy about that Hiccup, the screw-up, as I was about this Hiccup, the hero? She would never get it, and I was not about to bend over backwards trying to make her.
Astrid looked surprised and pissed. "Fine," she mumbled, reaching for her goblet. "See you."
"Bye." I felt a little bad for leaving her—but then I saw her attack her bread and felt a little less bad about it.
