Remember...M rating


Hiccup and Astrid were staring at each other. They knew it was early in the morning because of the dull light entering the room through the tiny cracks in the walls and ceiling. Both had managed to get some sporadic sleep last night, but the pain in their bodies and the pain in their hearts kept them awake the rest of the time.

They had drawn closer to each other, as best they could with their limbs tied together, so now their bodies were sort of touching. At least their knees were anyway. Despite their swollen lips and dry tongues, they had spent the time reaffirming their love for each other, acknowledging that at least they were going to die together. They had accepted their fate, having tried everything possible to escape their bonds, but the ropes were just too tight and their hands too swollen.

They had received no food or water from their captives and their stomachs had grumbled in protest, but it was their dry mouths which caused them the most problems, preventing them from freely speaking to each other. The trio outside were already awake and were discussing the best way to 'dispose' of their captives. Hiccup and Astrid could hear every word, but were strangely calm.

The voices were moving around the cabin outside of their door. One of the men left only to return a few minutes later. It was soon apparent what he had done, when the sound of a radio came on. It was tuned into a music station and they heard one of the men start humming along with the song. The other man laughed at his feeble attempts to stay in tune but stopped when the first man growled at him.

As the song ended, a female voice came over the radio. The two men were still arguing when Heather shushed them to listen to the broadcast.

"….a witness saw the young couple being kidnapped by three people in a white van along the highway to Berk yesterday. He then trailed the van to a dirt road outside of Ravens Point where the police expect to close in on the fugitives early this morning. He was also able to give the number plate details to the police who have identified it as the one responsible for the earlier attacks on the young couple….."

"That's it! We're done!" growled the first man.

"Don't panic, you idiot!" came Heather's harsh voice. "They're just bluffing, they don't have any of that information. We need to finish the job as planned, and then we can leave."

"No way!" yelled the second man. "It's time to go. Now! We can leave those two to rot here anyway. No one will be able to find them, but we need to get out right now."

Hiccup and Astrid held their breath as they strove to hear every word. This was their lives they were talking about.

"Alright then!" Heather snapped. "Pack up and leave now while it's too early for the cops to be out of bed. Don't leave anything behind that will identify us."

Hiccup and Astrid listened to the frenzied activity as the three gathered what items they had and carried them out to the waiting van, slamming the cabin door shut behind them and locking it. It wasn't long before the engine started and the whine of the engine as Heather quickly reversed was the last they heard, before complete and utter silence.

"What do we do now?" whispered Astrid frantically.

Hiccup tugged uselessly at the bonds on his hands for the umpteenth time. "It's no good! We've tried everything possible to get out of here. We can only hope that someone finds us soon," he choked out.

"Do you think it was true? What was said on the radio? Or was it just a bluff to flush them out?" queried Astrid thickly, her voice rasping over her dry throat.

"It couldn't be a bluff. Otherwise they wouldn't have known that they had managed to catch up with us yesterday," responded Hiccup thoughtfully. "Somehow, those crims slipped up and someone saw them….and then reported it to the police!" he croaked.

Astrid started to feel a sense of hope, but decided to squash it. Finding the trail leading to them in a mountain of dirt trails was going to be like finding a needle in the proverbial haystack. Heather and her hoodlums may have gone, but their rescuers still did not know where they were. It would be too easy to find them... too late.

She tried to lick her dessert dry lips.

"So…we get to die a slow death instead of a quick one?" she asked slowly.

Hiccup did his best to gaze into her bruised blue eyes with his one working eye, and one semi-closed swollen eye. "Not the best ending, I know."

"Well, if I have to die, than I'm glad I'm with you…Not that I want you to die, mind you," she added hastily.

He almost managed to lift the corner of his swollen lip. "I don't want us to die either, and I wish you weren't here with me. But if I have to die with someone, than I'm glad it's you. I don't think I could ever live without you anyway," he added earnestly.

Astrid contemplated him for a moment. "What if one of us does survive? And the other doesn't? What would you do if you make it and I don't?" she asked in all seriousness.

He squeezed his eyes tight against the unexpected question and the instant massive spear of pain that exploded in his heart had nothing to do with his injuries.

"I couldn't live without you, Astrid," he rasped, his emotions raw on his tongue. "I would want to die if you left me." A single tear fell from the corner of his eye, the last of its kind.

She leaned her body against his, attempting to offer some sort of comfort. She wanted to kiss him on his dry lips, but pain and the awkward angle they were forced to hold prevented her from kissing his fears away, as she so badly wanted to do.

"I feel the same way," she whispered roughly. "But if you do survive without me, promise me this…I want you to truly live, not just survive. I want you to live…for me. Travel the world…laugh…have friends…play…. fly!... whatever you want to do….Just take me with you in your heart…and live…for me. Can you do that for me, Hiccup?" she asked him tenderly.

"I…I don't know Astrid. I've always loved only you. I've dreamed of doing all those things…with you. If I tried to do any of that without you…I'd be lying to myself and everyone around me."

"And that's why I want you to do that. I don't want you to think of me and be sad. I want you to be happy when you think of me. If you chose to kill yourself slowly through grief because I was no longer there, then you would bring dishonour to my memory. I want you to be happy, to celebrate for me. If you are happy, then I would be happy. If you were sad all the time, then I would be sad. Do you understand me?" she quizzed gently, searching his face keenly.

He closed his eyes, wanting to see the beautiful, flawless Astrid he had known ever since they were kids. If she was going to leave him, he wanted his last memory of her to be perfect. It would be easier to live life as she wanted him too if he remembered her like that, not the bruised and bloodied face that was currently before him, reminding him of his guilt.

He nodded. "I will try…for you. But I'm not going to make any promises as to when that happens."

She gave a brief raspy chuckle. "Good! That's all I ask. But what about if you end up going first. Do you have any requests for me?"

His gaze on her tortured face softened, and his eyes shone. "If I left you first…you could do what you wanted. I only wish for you to be happy. If you happen to remember me in the process, I will be ecstatic."

Astrid sighed sadly, "Hiccup, I could never forget you. Even if I live to be a hundred years old…I could never forget you. You would always be my first love, my only love. I doubt I could ever find anyone to ever replace you. I would rather die an old maiden first."

He couldn't help it, he stifled a dry sob as her profession of love hit his heart.

"Oh, Astrid," he groaned, sounding so mournful it was as if his voice had been wrenched from deep within the earth itself. "Let's just hope we get out of this together…so neither of us have to live without the other." And with that he sobbed freely but no tears fell.

-oOo-

Red and blue lights flashed, the sirens wailed as several police cars surrounded a white van in the centre of the road. Doors were opened, and guns drawn as the police commanded the three inside the van to 'come out with their hands up'.

Slowly, the doors to the van opened up, Heather appeared with her arms stretched above her head; the two oversized villains did the same on the other side of the vehicle. She smirked. The police may have caught up with them, but they were never going to find their quarry.

-oOo-

Snotlout was exasperated. He was back behind the wheel of his van again with the twins, Fishlegs, Eret and Toothless along for the ride. They had travelled this same stretch of road between Berk and Ravens Point that many times over the last two days that he figured he knew every tree and rock. Almost.

At the moment, the twins were arguing over food, none of which they had offered to him, and Fishlegs was muttering something incomprehensible in his seat as he looked over some maps. Eret was sitting beside Snotlout watching the antics in the back with mild disbelief. Toothless was close behind Eret's seat, having spent the night with Fishlegs.

"Is it always like this?" Eret asked Snotlout in amusement.

"Yeah, always," replied Snotlout. He neglected to add that usually he was in the thick of it as well, but for the moment, somebody had to drive. Plus Snotlout had an overwhelming sense of guilt that had stuck to him like glue for the past week, driving him on to find Hiccup and Astrid.

He felt like it was his fault that Astrid was targeted outside the Burger House, where stupid Hiccup had to go play hero and get injured in the process. Although he had to admit if Hiccup hadn't rushed in, things would be a whole lot different for Astrid right now.

He just wished Hiccup and Astrid would jump out from the side of the road and wave them down. Then they could all go home and go back to normal. But no! And of course Hiccup had to make it hard for everyone, and get captured by the bad guys.

So now they were scanning for a spot where the white van had driven down a dirt road. Stoick had rung him earlier that morning with the news the pair had been spotted. He was under strict instructions to get there as soon as possible and start searching.

Snotlout grumbled to himself. Isn't that what he had already been doing for the past two days? Putting up with those morons in the back hadn't made it any easier. Instead of searching the countryside, they'd been too busy fighting each other, even after Snotlout threatened to leave them on the side of the road. But he hadn't been game enough to carry out his threat. He didn't want to have to come back and start searching for them as well. The twins probably would hide from him on purpose.

He snorted. It was probably going to be another long, useless day.

"Gimme some of that food!"

-oOo-

"Let me have a word with them," boomed Gobber in a menacing voice. "I'll soon convince them to tell us where they are. You won't have to know about it. Just look the other way for a few moments," he told the Detective. He added in a low, dangerous tone, "That's all it will take."

The Detective shuddered. Despite all the evil things he had seen in his career in law-enforcement, the thought of having to defend himself against the one-legged beefy man with a hook for a hand and a poisonous sneer on his face was one he didn't care to have. He was glad Gobber was on their side.

And Stoick. The seven foot colossal sized man with the impressive red beard was even more frightening than the man with the hook. But the two of them together?... The Detective thought to himself if those two ever decided to pair up as law enforcement, every crook and petty thief in town would pack up and leave! He smiled to himself and made a mental note to never get on the bad side of either man.

They were all currently in the police station at Ravens Point, where the three fugitives had been cornered. Heather and her two henchmen had so far, refused to tell them where Hiccup and Astrid could be found. In fact, the black haired woman had positively sneered at them, saying she would rather rot in hell than tell them where to find their 'precious' teens.

The Detective had glowered at her and had to leave the room before he did anything rash. As an upholder of the law, he was not allowed to 'break' the law. He knew time was against them. She had already told them in gruesome detail what state the teens had been in when they had left them early that morning, and that was a few hours ago. He was glad Stoick and Gobber had not heard those descriptions, because he didn't think any man on earth would have been able to stop them charging in and ripping the three of them apart.

He narrowed his eyes at Gobber thoughtfully. Maybe he could turn a 'blind eye' for a moment.

-oOo-

Snotlout complained, loudly, as Eret directed him to another possible dirt road. "We can't look down every dirt road! We want to find the right dirt road."

Eret stared at him strangely. "We won't find the right one, until we search all of them," he said slowly, waiting for his words to sink in.

He had been with the gang long enough this morning to realise that Snotlout was missing a few marbles too. He was incredulous that Hiccup and Astrid hung out with this lot. They obviously saw something in them that he couldn't. Fishlegs he understood, as he was clearly quite intelligent, even though he was a little weird, but the rest…not so much. If he ever got the chance to see Hiccup again, he'd ask him.

Snotlout pulled off the road, but they hadn't gone far when they were confronted with a solid wall of trees. Clearly, this was not it. He groaned, and shifted the gearstick into reverse, backing out of the small space.

He checked for traffic before heading back onto the road. They drove slowly down the road on Eret's advice, and kept searching for more dirt roads.

They noticed a gap in the tree line, but as the van drew closer, they realised there was no road. It was just a gap. However Toothless started whining behind Eret, his ears perked up. The closer they got, the louder he got until he unexpectedly howled.

Now, having a wolf howl in the distance is eerie enough. Having one howl right beside you while trapped in a metal box on wheels was downright scary. Guaranteed to get the attention of everyone in there.

Tuff had his hands over his ears, "Make him stop!" he yelled.

"How are we going to do that?" asked Fishlegs, his hands over his own ears.

"He's probably missing Hiccup," surmised Ruff. "He'll stop."

Snotlout went to drive on, but stopped in alarm as Toothless became more frantic, leaping onto Eret's lap and practically pushing his way through the half-opened window.

"Toothless! Stop!" begged Eret, who was bearing the brunt of the wolf's escape attempt on his lap.

Snotlout grumbled, "He probably just wants to lift a leg."

"Well, then pull over!" demanded Eret, who was being pummelled mercilessly by the furry canine.

Snotlout pulled off the road again, allowing Eret to open the door in relief. Toothless promptly launched himself out the open door and disappeared into the trees. The gang awkwardly waited for the wolf to return. But after several minutes, it was apparent to all that Toothless would not be returning anytime soon.

"Maybe he found something?" suggested Eret.

Snotlout snorted, "Yeah, like a squirrel."

"He's probably bored. Like me," put in Tuff. "Maybe he wanted to stretch his legs."

Eret was worried. "I'm gonna look for him, guys," he told them as he slid out of the passenger seat. He walked towards the trees where he had seen Toothless enter into the scrub, but as he walked he noticed something.

"Tyre tracks!" he muttered to himself.

"What did you say?" yelled Snotlout.

Eret turned around to face the car, his eyes as big as saucers. "Tyre tracks! Someone's been down here!" he called back.

"Yeah? So?" snorted Tuff from the open side door.

Eret rolled his eyes, as Fishlegs excitedly got out of the van. "How old are they?" he demanded.

Eret studied the ground more closely. "Very recent!" he called back to Fishlegs, who was trotting over to him. "See the bruised plants where the tyres have run over them?" he pointed out to the big man now beside him. "They're still green."

He looked up into the wide eyes of Fish. "Do you know what this means?" whispered Fish.

Eret nodded. "We've found them!"


Finally! But are they in time... (Sorry, just had to do that to you!)