Hello readers. Struggling through this time as I am, I have found some solace in this writing. Retreating to the world of DragonTech helps alleviate the strain of my current life state. Anyway, enough moping from me. This chapter sends Astrid to Miami, and then next chapter will be the Gala. There is more information below regarding future plans.
Thank you all for your kind reviews. I read them all and appreciate them.
Now...MHJohn64th. You have simply loads of questions and thoughts that would simply take too much for me to answer here. Why don't you send me a PM, and we will slowly work through all your questions. Answering all of that would nearly be longer than this chapter, so we will handle that privately.
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Enjoy, and have a good week.
"I cannot believe you!" Astrid exclaimed as they boarded the DragonTech private jet, Hiccup in front of her and Rachel cackling behind her. The CEO wore an apologetic look on his face as he suffered Astrid's wrath. "Luke had a date lined up and you screwed it up for him!? Why would you do that!?"
Hiccup had just now learned that his taking Luke away from Aurora had backfired most spectacularly with the popular blonde burying Luke in a storm of social bombardment. He'd been labeled as the 'idiot of South Pointe' and word was that he'd become the target of a tidal wave of abuse. This all came from a very angry Astrid, but that wasn't really bothering him. He could deal with anger just fine. If she was disappointed in him, that would be different.
However…Luke himself seemed perfectly okay with what happened. Hiccup had been texting with him nonstop since that day, and the boy actually appeared to be happy with the way things had gone down. On top of that, he had himself a different date. A lovely redhead by the name of Merida, whom he was certain was the other girl from that day at the school. Hiccup suspected that maybe there was a bit of hormonal action going on here; Luke may not want to be talking to his sister about his potential romances. Fairly amusing, actually.
"Astrid, the girl is a predator. Just talking to her set my nerves on edge. It'll be better for Luke to not deal with her." He said calmly, taking a seat and crossing his legs. Astrid sat directly across from him, still fuming.
"Why didn't you call me about this? I'm his siste-"
"Astrid, do you really think that your brother wants to be asking his sister about girls?" Trevor asked, sitting on Astrid's right, while Rachel sat on her left.
Astrid nodded emphatically. "Of course! I am a girl, in case you didn't know!" She rebutted, crossing her arms angrily. Trevor held up a finger to her, a strange and unsettling smile on his face.
"So, you're prepared to hear all his hormone riddled questions and…observations about tits, asses, porn, sex, blowj-"
Astrid recoiled. "Alright no! But please don't continue with that thought!" She gagged.
Trevor grinned victoriously. "Exactly. The kid needs to talk to a guy, not his sister. Face it, Astrid. This is beyond your abilities. Plus, Hiccup was a ladies man. Luke is gonna be pulling in chicks like no tomorrow."
Astrid's eyes narrowed dangerously on Hiccup, and the CEO's face fell in innocence. "What?"
"You better not turn him into a ladies man!"
Hiccup shielded himself from her onslaught. "I won't turn him into anything! I promise!" He pleaded with a grin on his face. Astrid was probably angry with him, legitimately, but he knew that this was superficial in nature. He'd done nothing that wouldn't be fixed with a brief talk and maybe a stern word or two. Rachel had often told him about Astrid's intense feelings about her family and how her normal mood would be seriously altered if her family came into the spotlight.
"Astrid, chill," Trevor remarked. "Your bro will only become a ladies man if that's what he wants. We can't make him do it."
Astrid was unwilling to accept this explanation. "You can influence him!"
"Influence him to make good decisions is all we would do, Astrid," Hiccup interjected. He was elated to see that Astrid deflated a little, meeting her eyes and hoping that she saw his true intent. Maybe things had not gone so smoothly between them, but he really did like her. He wasn't going to bounce around with maybe I should, maybe I shouldn'ts, he wanted that woman. He wanted her badly, but after the beginning to the relationship, he would go about it without the use of money. Well…without money being the spotlight, at least.
"Two hours to Miami. We'll make this ride as smooth as possible." The intercom sounded with the feminine voice, and Astrid looked up curiously.
"Was that Anna's voice?" She asked.
Hiccup nodded, pointing towards the cockpit door. "Yep. She and her wife are pilots as well as security personnel. Kristoff is here as well, sitting in the cockpit with them." He said, closing his eyes and settling back into the leather chair. He would need this time to sleep, because the next few days were going to be hectic.
XXX
"This is not our hotel room." Astrid deadpanned, standing in the middle of the room while Ruffnut tossed her bag into one of the bedrooms. They had been in Miami for all of an hour and Astrid was already wondering what else she might see on this little trip. Their plane had landed, and then a limo had met them on the tarmac, with Chinese food inside. Ruffnut had been responsible for that last bit.
Then, they drove to this simply colossal building, rode the elevator to the top, and split up there. Ruffnut and Astrid were sharing was appeared to be an entire apartment, which led to her words. Ruff simply laughed at her. "No it isn't our hotel room. This is our penthouse. Where we will be staying until next week. So get your jaw off the floor."
The penthouse of this hotel had an entire wall that was just glass panes, which led out to a pool on a large balcony. Everything was either marble or leather, along with simply exquisite wooden flooring. A television that was just…obnoxiously huge, and king beds in separate rooms. She eased down onto the cool, thick leather of the couch and just rested her head against the back cushions, her mind venturing towards things that have been coming up recently. When they were in Boston, she spent time looking into opportunities where she could take control of her own fate.
When she was investigating that, at home in front of the TV or at work when she had no patients, she felt ecstatic that she would finally be in control, not be a victim to the cruel forces of circumstance. Time like this though…sitting in opulent penthouse suites, on her way to a ball as the date of a billionaire and his closest friends, she wondered if she was doing the right thing. Sometimes she thought that maybe she should just submit herself to Hiccup and be his plaything in exchange for lifelong comfort.
Of course, then she smacked herself mentally for even remotely thinking that she would be Hiccup's plaything. She knew that he wanted so much more from her, and she had an inkling that she wouldn't remotely mind being his, because she genuinely did feel something for him. All the signs were there, and all the signs told her that she should dive into this thing. A small, terrified part of her didn't want that though. Didn't want to bring someone else into the fold of the people she cared about. The more people were in your circle, the more chances you had of being hurt. Not even by them, but by things that could happen despite them. Things she couldn't control. Like car wrecks.
She'd heard back from one of the opportunities that had come up. A chance that could change things for her, but it was one that would bring her away from DragonTech. Did she want that? She was earning, and experiencing, far more here than she would anywhere else, but the facts were there; if things went sour between her and Hiccup, she could be waitressing again within a month, and that would lead her and her family straight back to square one; being poor and struggling to make ends meet.
She knew that if she pursued this, then she would undeniably have to do it on her own. No Hiccup. No Ruffnut. No Fishlegs. Not even Valka for that matter. She had a feeling that any one of them would immediately shoot her down and say that she had everything she needed right there at 1502 West 1st Street. Which she…did.
A hard sigh escaped as she thought more on it than was needed. She would either have to go for it, or leave it alone and be at the mercy of chance and circumstance her whole life. It was a question that was slowly destroying her peaceful moments of being awake, and was seeping into her nightmares as she slept. Those nightmares always consisted of the same thing; she and Hiccup fighting and losing what relationship, friendship or romance or whatever it was. Him firing her, and then bang. Back to living month to month because she had no backup plan if she lost DragonTech.
Undoubtedly, this chance would ensure that she had a future if DragonTech did go bad, but the things she would have to do in order to take advantage of it would be so bad. Hurt feelings were almost granted as a side effect, but she could deal with hurt feelings if it meant she could guarantee a good life for her mother and her brother.
"Why you looking so worried, killer?" Ruffnut asked, shoving a glass of something into her hand. Astrid smelled it and smiled widely.
"Whiskey? Well well, Ms. Thorsten, are you propositioning me?" She snickered as Ruff's face became a thundercloud.
"First, yes, I love whiskey. Second, fuck you and don't call me Ms. Thorston ever again. Third, I'm not Hiccup, so don't be trying to get some lovin' from me!"
Astrid laughed wildly at the mock anger of her boss and friend. "Whatever. Why the whiskey?"
Ruffnut held out her glass and Astrind tinged hers off of it. "Because, doofus, we have the first and second day all to ourselves, so I invited the crew over and we're all gonna get toasted!" She downed the glass that she had in her hand with an exaggerated gulp. Astrid did the same to her own drink, the burn of alcohol sliding down her throat bringing with it a comforting feeling. Maybe throwing her cares out of the window for a night would be fine.
Hours later the warm, soft edged haze of whiskey and good company filled Astrid's vision, and the cool caress of the pool making her body feel like it was floating. She had no idea when exactly they ended up in the pool, or how she ended up there in her lacy underwear, but it had happened. Nothing else had happened, like her deciding that kissing someone was fun to do or anything, but this night was turning out to be great fun.
She and Ruffnut had been a bit drunk already by the time that Tuffnut and Fishlegs arrived. Soon after, Kristoff, Anna and her wife Elsa arrived as well, and the two women were quite drunk as well. Apparently, they'd been drinking since the moment the plane touched down and the poor blonde man had been their designated driver.
The strangest thing of the night is that Astrid had finally discovered who Ruffnut's husband was. She had never pictured the rebellious, thrill-seeking, tattooed physical therapist to be married to a calm, straightforward man like Fishlegs, but there they were, cuddled on the couch that somehow had been dragged out onto the balcony to the side of the pool. Drunk Ruffnut was way different to normal Ruffnut, because it seemed that alcohol balanced her out a bit.
She had been laughing and joking with them, but soon, she got drowsy and had been laying against Fishlegs' side for the past half hour. Astrid had stopped drinking a while back, and she had regained some form of control of her faculties, although she would still undeniably fail a breathalyzer.
"Come on you," Fishlegs chuckled, getting up from the couch and picking up is wife at the same time. Astrid watched as crazy, slightly insane Ruffnut turned into a mewling little ball of cuteness.
"No, Frankkkkyyyy…I want to keep cuddling…" She mumbled, burrowing into her husband's large chest. Astrid got out of the pool, leaving a pair of women, married and drunk as hell, getting quite frisky in the pool. Kristoff had left some time ago with instructions to call him once the party was over so he could come pick up his sister and her wife.
Although she was dripping as she followed FIshlegs, and only dressed in her lacy underwear, she wanted to see the man put his wife to bed. She had no idea that Ruff would become like this, and she was curious about it. Maintaining her balance, she made it all the way to the doorway to Ruffnut's room, deciding to stay there lest she fall over going further into the room. FIshlegs gently flicked the covers back, holding his wife with a single arm before depositing her on the soft mattress. He covered her and leaned down, kissing her lightly on the forehead.
"Why don't you stay together?" Astrid asked, only lightly slurring her words, not enough to confuse understanding.
The large man looked over to her with a gentle smile. "She told you about us?"
Astrid shook her head. "Kinda. You told me that you were married, and she told me that she was married, and I sorta…" She intertwined her fingers in front of her face. "Put it together."
He rumbled a chuckle. "So it would seem. Rachel and I love each other, very deeply. So deep in fact, she and I don't mind being apart on trips like this. We live together in Charlotte, and that is enough. Besides…" He looked at her with a grin in his eyes. "The sex is great."
Astrid closed her eyes and held a hand out. "Don't want to know." She laughed along with the larger man, and the two went quiet for a minute, both looking at Ruffnut's sleeping form. Finally, Astrid cleared her throat.
"Fishlegs…what uh…what internships are good for physical therapists?" She asked. He looked over at her with a cocked eyebrow, and obvious question in his silence. Astrid scrambled and pulled the first thing that came to mind. "One of my classmates asked me to find out from you guys..."
FIshlegs nodded in understanding. "I see. Well, the best internships for any physical therapist are in two places. One of them is with the University of Otago in New Zealand, which is one of first physical therapy schools in history. Their program works with the All-Blacks rugby team, consistently one of the best rugby teams in the world. You know much about rugby?" Astrid shook her head gently. "Very physical, and nearly no protection to speak of. Graduating from that program is incredibly difficult, and they do not require any previous degrees because people fail out extremely fast. Essentially, if you're good enough, you stay in, no matter what your past is."
"And the other?" Astrid asked, the very idea of that place scaring her to her bones.
"At Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital in Seattle. A more traditional program, requiring at least a Master's degree for entrance. As far as American internships, that one is the best, and quite tough to graduate from. Certifications from either of these programs would guarantee you entrance into any job regarding therapy."
She whistled. "Wow. Heather is going to love those options…"
Fishlegs perked up at the name. "Oh! How is she?" They had met a few times when Heather came to the office with Astrid. The perfect scapegoat for the research that Astrid was doing.
"She'll be better now, thanks Fishlegs!" Astrid slurred excitedly, suddenly lurching forward and almost falling over. A strong hand steadied her, and she found herself staring into the other head's face.
He smiled. "Okay. Time for you to lay down as well. I uh…I won't tell Rachel about this incredibly promiscuous underwear you're wearing either." Astrid ignored him and allowed herself to be steered to her own bedroom, where she unceremoniously closed the door on the large man, stripping down and laying on her bed, lights left on. She lay there for at least an hour, hearing the door open and close several times, which she assumed was Kristoff coming to pick up the others. Her eyes closed finally, her alcohol riddled body succumbing to the fluffy mattress and pillows, and images of green eyes in her mind.
XXX
As I said above, next chapter will be the Gala itself. I foresee….five more chapters, give or take one on each side.
Some information.
Generally, it appeared that people wanted a sequel to this, and I am fine writing that sequel. I will, however, be taking a break from the fandom after the culmination of Only at DragonTech. I really would like to wait until HTTYD 3, but two years is a very long time. I suppose that the break will last long enough for me to think of an appropriate plot for the sequel.
Should any of you wish to put forward ideas of your own, I would be more than happy to credit you, should I make use of anything you suggest. If you send me something, I will write down the idea, as well as your name, in a separate document for the future.
Enjoy this, and I will try my best to get the next chapter out within this next week to ten days.