Chapter 10 – The Only Boy Awake by Meadows

When your love grew, I was there too
I should have told you
I'm the only boy awake now
Gazing at the stars, I dive into the blue and You

Wednesday, June 13th.

"Sigrid!" called Finn from next to the van, "ready, love?"

"Just a minute!" Sigrid struggled to tie her boot's shoelaces by the foot of the stairs. Huffing as she straightened, flattening her jumper, she gave a smile at Toothless, who raised his head, tongue lolling out of his mouth, his tail was wagging as Sigrid passed him by.

She poked her head in the kitchen "Astrid!"

The girl turned, hiding something behind her back, attempting to keep her poker face.

Shaking her head with a smile, she decided to ignore Astrid's sin. "Are you coming with me to the ranch today?"

"Auntie! Oh…" She hesitated, casually inching back to the counter so she could free her hands.

"Or, you could join Hiccup. He's going downtown."

The marmalade jar dropped on the counter with a clang that made Astrid cringe. "I'll do that. Yeah."

"Alright. He can drive you back before he goes home, yes?"

"Goes home?" asked Astrid.

"We're late!" shouted Finn.

Sigrid fondly rolled her eyes. "I'll see you at dinner then," she said to Astrid, and dashed off to meet her husband.

Astrid followed her to the hallway, calling out her goodbyes.

The front door slammed closed and Hiccup jumped up awake.

Blinking slowly, he turned his bed-hair to Astrid. "Sigrid's gone?"

"Uh… yeah," she answered. His voice was raspy with sleep and he looked like absolute shit. Why was she having a hard time thinking?

She tucked her hair behind her ear. She had combed it, right?

Hiccup groaned and flopped back on the sofa.

Astrid frowned, and entered the living room, sitting on the arm next to Hiccup's head. "C'mon. Sigrid's off taking care of your horse and you're here lazing around and we gotta go."

"You know it's not actually Sigrid taking care of the horse, right?" grumbled Hiccup.

"Then who is?"

"My friend, Eret. Sigrid doesn't ride anymore."

"I knew that."

Hiccup had closed his eyes and seemed to be drifting off to sleep.

Astrid scowled and poked his bruised side, earning her a yelp.

Hiccup half rose, scooting away from Astrid and glaring at her. "You've really got to stop doing that."

She transferred herself from the arm to the seat next to Hiccup, "I didn't think it'd still hurt that much."

"Well, it does," he said, scooting back again.

Her frown had turned from annoyance to concern. "Can I see?"

Hiccup seemed to realize all at once that she was asking to see him shirtless and his heart picked up its pace.

Lifting his shirt over his right side as an answer, he was hyperaware of her eyes touring his skin.

Astrid was fixated over the greenish, almost yellow splotches over his side. Her fingertips extended before she could stop them, but before they touched him, she raised her gaze to meet his green eyes in a silent question.

His lips stretched over a shaky smile and she had to make herself swallow.

Her fingers ghosted over the bruise settled on freckled skin, making him shiver.

She broke away from him, clearing her throat. "You heal fast."

His shirt came down faster than it'd gone up. "I… yeah." He hummed a tune through the awkward silence. "Right!" he said, standing up and looking anywhere but in Astrid's direction. "I've gotta go home today, so…"

"Yeah," she, too, stood up, tucking her hair back and distracting herself with making it into a braid. "You're going home today?" she asked, still struggling with braiding.

Folding the sheets he'd been using, Hiccup shrugged. "My dad's coming back tomorrow, so I have to re-stock the place and clean a bit, so he doesn't notice I've been here for so long."

"Oh." She guessed six days were a lot to not be at home for some. Astrid finished the braid by securing it with a black tie she'd been holding on her wrist.

Astrid waited for him at the front door. They'd agreed on packing what they'd need (Hiccup all his things, Astrid her phone and wallet,) and meet there when ready to drive downtown to have breakfast and do grocery shopping.

Hiccup arrived, carrying his duffel bag and a clinking, heavy-looking plastic bag.

"Toothless' things," he explained at her raised eyebrow. "I picked them up when we stopped at my house yesterday."

"Oh," she frowned, taking the bag from him, "I don't remember that."

He smiled, "you were already asleep. Never thought you'd get tired so early."

She scoffed, failing to keep the smile out of her face. "Never thought you'd be so hard to wake up in the morning," she said, waiting until Hiccup and Toothless were out to close the door behind her.

"Hey! This," he said gesturing to all of himself, "needs its beauty sleep!" he called to her after tossing his duffel bag and opening the backseat door for Toothless to jump through.

"Well, it's not working!" she threw him a teasing look before opening the passenger seat and climbing on.

Hiccup started the jeep and they were off on the road. He looked to his rearview mirror occasionally to see girl and dog play, both amazed and jealous at the easy friendship Astrid and Toothless had developed over their stay at Sigrid's.

"He's much sweeter to you than me."

Astrid returned to her position in the seat, amused, "he is?"

"He must like you better."

She smiled, trying to keep her hair from abandoning her braid, "well, I am much prettier."

Instead of answering, he smiled. She was quite right. "I..." he looked at Toothless through the mirror. "I see how it is, bud!"

Toothless barked.

Hiccup turned to Astrid, "he barely tolerates me."

"You must be sleeping better lately, then."

He laughed, remembering her comment from earlier. "Well, you're the authority on beauty sleep."

They smiled at each other.

The bubble burst when the jeep jumped harshly over a pothole.

Astrid recoiled, blinking twice, looking out the window. "Actually, there's something I gotta do downtown."

"Oh?" Hiccup tried not to think about why he felt so disappointed.

"I need to go to the vet's."

"Is it the Wi-fi?"

"Yeah."

He nodded, eyes firm on the road. "To Sven's we go, as Milady commands."

And then he said nothing.

Astrid looked at him; waited for him to say something. Anything. But he just kept staring straight ahead.

"Maybe Heather texted me back. Or Erik. Erik is… He's my ex-boyfriend."

"Yeah. Cool," he smiled at her briefly but returned to his mission.

Toothless barked at them to let him out when they arrived at the vet's.

Hiccup humored the dog, and it ran to greet Cami, who sat at the front desk looking like she'd been recently bitten by a zombie.

Astrid raced off to refresh her notifications while Hiccup approached Cami.

Sensing Hiccup nearby, Toothless turned to him for attention, making him kneel to hug him.

"Hi, Hiccup."

He looked up to see Cami looking at him thoughtfully.

"Cami. How's your mum?"

The girl shrugged, making her fluffy hair bounce with her shoulders. "Still stubborn. Still dying. Your dad?"

He winced.

She laughed, "yup. Just as I thought."

"I'm just hoping nobody told him about it," he straightened, struggling with his leg.

"Can I see?"

He shrugged, lifting his shirt so Cami would see.

"Damn," her eyes flashed from his skin to a place behind him before returning to him.

Hiccup shrugged again, putting his t-shirt down. He turned just in time to catch Astrid's eye. He gave her a friendly smile that earned him a conflicted emotion and rosy cheeks.

"What are y'all doing later?"

He faced Cami again. "Y'all?"

"I watched a USA series set in the south. You know how I get with the accents."

He half-laughed; he did know.

"So?"

"What?"

"What are y'all doing later."

"Oh!" he scratched his forearm before setting his hands on the counter. "Not much, really. We'll go explore. I want to show Astrid around the docks," as he watched her pace with the phone held to her ear. They would joke around and laugh together. He imagined her with the sun and the wind on her…

"She's really pretty," Cami interrupted his thoughts.

Gaze jumping from Cami to Astrid and back, he had to force an unaffected shrug. "Yeah. Sure. And funny… and smart…"

Cami gave him a level stare as she popped a piece of gum in her mouth.

He let out the breath he'd been holding. "Right. Okay. I might be slightly," he whispered urgently, leaning in and checking twice that Astrid couldn't hear him, "only slightly nearly half-in love with her."

Cami could almost feel hear his heartbeat increasing its pace; she knew him so well.

Keeping an eye on Astrid, that blushed and turned away when Cami caught her looking in their direction, she whispered back to Hiccup, covering her mouth. "Why don't you ask her out?"

His green eyes filled with furious panic, "you must be joking!" ask Astrid Hofferson out? "She's way too out of reach. And have you seen her ex-boyfriend?"

"Yeah."

"He's this giant of a guy, he looks like Angelina Jolie's had a child with Chris Hemsworth and it grew up in the wilderness like some hot Disney Tarzan-like thing! Why would she want anything to do with me?"

"I don't know," shrugged Cami, "but they did break up, didn't they?"

He shook his head, still whispering, "I'm happy enough just being her friend."

Cami spied Astrid looking at them again out of the corner of her eye and taking stock of their closeness. Taking advantage of it, an impish smile growing on her lips, Cami reached to kiss Hiccup's cheek, chuckling when Astrid frowned and turned away from them again.

"What's so funny?" grumbled Hiccup, rubbing most of her red lipstick off his cheek.

"Oh, nothing," soothed Cami, leaning back on her seat. "You can be so oblivious sometimes."

Hiccup frowned at her, opening his mouth to protest, but they were interrupted by Astrid walking over.

"So, I'm ready for breakfast," she approached them, trying to paint an easy smile over her annoyance. "Hey, Cami."

"Hey, there, hot stuff. When are you coming back?"

"Tomorrow, I think," she turned to Hiccup, "ready?"

Hiccup jumped, "right. Let's go," he extended his arm in the direction of the entrance, "bye Cami!" he called without turning back.

"Think about what I said!" Cami called out to him, waving back at Astrid.

He guided him and Astrid to Helga's, where Astrid had waffles and a hot chocolate for breakfast and Hiccup had scrambled eggs and everyone's questions and jokes about his fall last Friday.

Satisfied, they decided to walk to the docks, Toothless trotting ahead of them to scout their path.

"There's something on your cheek."

"What? Oh, this…" he scrambled to wipe the rest of Cami's lipstick stain off, "it's not… we're not… we're friends."

Her cheeks flushed, "I don't really care."

"Right." He stuffed his hands in the pocket of his jeans.

Astrid sighed. "Sorry, that was rude."

"That's alright."

They walked in silence, and Hiccup was lost in thoughts and memories that Astrid interrupted some moments later.

"You seemed pretty popular, back at the breakfast place."

"I guess," he shrugged, keeping an eye on Toothless.

"I bet there are a lot of girls that wanna get to know you."

He choked, half-laughing, half-coughing. "You can't mean that," he coughed, "don't you remember me falling on my face in front of most of Berk?" he cleared his throat, "I'm lucky I still have all my teeth."

Astrid hummed as an answer, following him down the first set of steps to the dock.

"and you've never dated anyone?" she called, as he was a bit ahead from her.

"What? Faen!" he shouted, tripping and not falling only because he grabbed onto the railing.

She catched up to him, laughing as an old lady muttered angrily at them in Berkian.

Hiccup apologized to the lady again and again as he tried to calm himself, swatting at Astrid because she was still laughing openly.

"So," she prompted, descending the stairs next to him, "have you ever had a girlfriend?"

"I…" his brows furrowed, "yeah. I had a girlfriend in year 2 of Highschool. We're friends now."

"And?" Astrid started down the second set of stairs at Toothless' barking insistence.

"It didn't last very long, and it ended really badly. Sigrid had to watch me whine about it," he chuckled, cringing at the memory.

"Oh…" she seemed deep in thought.

"How about you?" he said as they reached the third set of stairs. They'd overtaken the lady that had cursed at them. "Who did you date before your ex?"

Her eyes flashed a swift blue, "this doesn't leave our conversation."

He nodded fervently.

"Erik is-was my first boyfriend."

Hiccup had to stop, "no way!"

"Yes way." She tucked her braid behind her shoulder, "I've always been too busy."

"Being busy is good, right?"

She shrugged, "I guess."

They finished the third set of stairs in silence and Astrid followed Hiccup, who guided them onto a cave-like corridor that extended seemingly for a long while, mirroring the other across the docks.

Hiccup explained to her that the people had carved this corridor from the stone as a viewpoint out into the sea.

Far away, the chief stones hoisted over the waves, the glittering sunlight reflecting off them.

They could see Berk's ferry (the same that had brought her) departing. The sounds of people chattering and coming and going in the market, greeting Toothless as he went to greet his favorite merchants.

She felt… alive…

"Wish you could see yourself right now."

She turned, to find Hiccup framing her with his fingers.

She grinned, leaning on the stone balcony. "What?"

Hiccup lowered his arms, and Astrid could see him smiling. "You just… you look really happy."

He panicked at her dumbfounded look and continued, waving his hands around, "what I'm trying to say is when you first got here you were always furious about something-oh Gods- it's okay if you're angry-it's just… what I'm trying to say is… Oh my Gods, nevermind," he finished his speech by dragging his hands over his face in annoyance at himself.

Looking back, Astrid realized he was right. The more she realized how she'd started to feel, the more the imminence of her return weighed on her.

She crossed her arms over herself, turning to face the glittering ocean.

After a moment's pause that made Hiccup sweat in unearthly places, she spoke:

"I'm just… I love it here."

Letting out a relieved breath that turned into an exhausted sigh, he turned in the same direction as her.

"I love it too."

The heaviness of his voice startled her.

"I love Berk, but I'm always thinking 'this can't be it'."

"What do you mean?"

His gaze dashed a peek at her, hesitating to speak.

"Hiccup? What-"

"I love Berk. I've learnt to love it. I love the horses. I love racing against the wind on Fury's back. I love the rain, and the market, and Frieda's field but is that it?"

Astrid was so shocked by his sudden passionate speech that she didn't protest when he grabbed her arms. Gentle, but surprising.

"Have you ever seen a lion?"

"Wh-what?" she stammered. "I- yeah, in the zoo…"

He released her. "I haven't. Most of Berkians never leave Berk, and that's alright, I swear, but is this it for me?"

Astrid observed him as he turned away again. Her mind raced.

She got it now. She understood.

How many times had she stood before a changing room's mirror, fully attired and styled before a photoshoot, looking at herself and thinking: "this can't be all I'm meant to do. This can't be all there is."

"I get it," she said to him, making him turn to face her. "I want to be an actress. More than anything. I hate that I'm stuck as a model. I hate that I'm never taken seriously."

There was an almost manic look in his eyes as he nodded for her to continue.

She scowled at the thought of people's comments. "Fuck that! I'm gonna be an actress."

He copied the grin that'd been born on her face.

"I don't care what people say. I don't care what my mom says. Hiccup!" she turned to him, gripping his arms with urgency. "What do you want to do?"

His grin widened, his gaze glazing over, "I want to travel the world. I want to take pictures and show it people. I want to know more. I want to see more."

"Why don't you, then? What's stopping you?"

He wanted to say nothing. He wanted to look into Astrid's beautiful face and say that nothing would stop him, but his father's forlorn eyes as he looked at Hiccup made him pause.

"My dad," he muttered, his fire dying down- "I just don't want to do the same as mum, I suppose."

Astrid's grin turned into a grimace as she let go of him but raised a hand and placed it on his shoulder in support.

A tender smile sprouted on his face. A smile she returned.

"Henrik Haddock!"

They jumped apart at the sound of Snotlout Jorgenson stomping in his direction.

"Snotlout!" yelped Hiccup as his cousin brought him in for something Astrid liked to call a bro-hug.

"'Been looking everywhere for you -hey gorgeous," he added for Astrid, sending her finger guns, "sorry, don't have time for you today. How's your side doing," he asked Hiccup, the uncharacteristic concern flying over Astrid's annoyed head but making Hiccup wary.

"It's fine," he frowned. "I'm better." He jerked away from Snotlout's grasp on his bicep.

"Good. Ready for the race in Sommerfest?"

"All ready," he scowled at his shorter cousin.

"Perfect. I've got money on your dumb rumpe, so you better win! Or else…"

"You- you did what?"

And as Astrid watched Hiccup threaten his cousin with telling her aunt about Snotlout betting again, and she watched him gesture wildly, she realized something.

She liked Hiccup.

As in….

She like liked Hiccup.

…

..

.

Fuck.

Well! Sorry, dear.

Thank you for reading, everyone! I hope you're enjoying this story as much as I am!

Mark Andrew chapter 9 . Aug 26

Theres two different Eriks?! Astrids ex and the horse riding one that went agaisnt Hiccup? Or they related?
When will Astrid make the connection between his mom and that she was the photographer for Astrid? If I noted that to be right.
Where is Ruffnut? You have yet to even mention Tuffnuts twin! She is always where he is

There's only one Erik, and that is Astrid's ex, popular heartthrob.

The racing guy is Eret. (Did I write it wrong? I'm going to go and check asap)

Ruffnut! I promise she's coming, but I want to introduce her right.

Guest chapter 9 . Aug 27

There are definitely some questions I'd like to have answered in this story. Like how Hiccup lost his leg? I hope we get some answers soon!

Hi! thank you for reading! I hope this answered some questions!