A/N – Does the story feel like it's slowing down to anyone else? Just me? Cool. Like I said earlier – it might have been in this story or another update – I've got a fudge tone of course work this quarter. I've been busier than any other quarter. I probably won't update as frequently as I have been, if you can call my sporadic updates frequent. That doesn't mean I will give up on these stories, I promise that I won't. I will finish them; you've got my writer's word.

X

Chapter 29: The Return

Astrid rolled over, soft sheets sliding across her bare skin, and found the other side of the bed empty. Soft morning light, pale gold, dappled through the curtains and onto the spot where Hiccup slept. The blanket angled to the side. Astrid ran her hand along the sheet. Cold.

She stretched under the blanket and wiggled her way to the floor, feet first. She slipped on the simple, well-made clothes she'd worn the evening before, prior to the midnight lovemaking that required their removal.

Hiccup sat in the living room with the note cards, each baring a candidate's name, laid out in front of him. There were few enough now that he could see them all at the same time. From the doorway, she saw their arrangement. One had been moved from the order and sat closer to him, in the middle, as if under heavy thought. He held his hand at his chin, eyes posed on the card.

She stepped to the stairs and found the railing. "You're up early."

Hiccup jumped and swept the cards aside, skewing the order. He gathered them up into a pile, bending the edges of a few in his haste. "Yeah, I-I woke up about an hour or so ago."

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Astrid asked. She sat down beside him.

He leaned back into the couch beside her and flattened his hands on his knees. "I almost did, but-"

Astrid set her hand on top of his. "But what? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good," he said, nodding several times. He didn't meet her eye as he added, "You look nice when you sleep."

Astrid squeezed his hand. She stood, not pressing the issue. "Coffee?"

"Yes, please," he said. "I was going to make it but…I realized once I got down here that I have no idea how."

Astrid laughed, stretching the sleep from her throat. "It's not hard. Do you want to learn?"

Hiccup followed her to the counter. He stood behind her, hands on her hips, and watched as she prepared the percolator. She set it on the stove.

"And as the water boils, it makes coffee," Astrid said, pointing to the clear top where they could see into the ground coffee's chamber. "Then you take out the grounds and you've got coffee."

"Huh," he said, leaning onto her.

Astrid leaned into his chest and he snaked his arms further around her waist. Her thoughts returned to the cards he moved. Everything about his behavior told her that he had done so because he didn't want her to see them, and that he had gotten out of bed without waking her for more than the reasons he mentioned.

Had he wanted time alone to think about his predicament? She understood. He'd had no need to lie about it to her. Why did he think he needed to lie? To hide it?

He kissed her neck as the water began to heat up.

"The deliberation is up today," he said to her neck. "The carriage is coming back this afternoon to pick us up."

Her entire chest heaved downward. "Really? I didn't know it would be so soon."

"Dad gave me a stiff deadline," Hiccup said, lips against her neck. He kissed her tenderly. "It seems that Dagur is waiting around for the ball and Dad wants Dagur gone as soon as possible."

"It seems like a strange reason to rush an important decision," Astrid said.

Hiccup didn't say much, a hesitation cut the edge of his inhale.

"Have you made a decision?" Astrid asked.

"I have," Hiccup said. His breath hitched. "I've decided to go another round. I can prologue it a little more."

"Oh," Astrid said, unable to tell if it was dread or disappointment that stung in her chest. "Okay."

"But we've still gone some time before they show up," Hiccup said.

The water began to hiss and boil. Astrid kept her eyes on the clear lid, waiting for the boiling water to bubble up and pop into the ground coffee chamber, splashing the murky grounds in every direction.

That meant more dates. Another deliberation. In a way she just wanted this entire ordeal to be over. She wanted to go back to her laundry, to filling linen closets and keeping the castle clean and organized. She wanted to leave it behind, but she couldn't. She had wound herself so far into Hiccup, threaded herself into him, until those seams couldn't be torn. She couldn't walk away from him and go back to being a maid in the castle. The other servants wouldn't let her, either.

Hiccup leaned around and kissed her cheek, jarring her out of her troubling thoughts.

When the coffee finished, she poured two cups and sat with him on the couch. He didn't touch the pile of cards. If she mentioned it, or the girls, he would quickly change the subject or start another crusade of love against her jaw, her neck.

Toothless lounged in the window, tail flickering, watching the sunny world outside. His head would twitch as a squirrel darted or a bird flew from branch to branch. He stared intently at a little blue bird as it decided which branch to sit on.

The carriage arrived early. The playful conversation fell into a dismal gray as they packed what little they'd brought and heaved it onto the carriage. Hiccup held his hand out for Astrid and helped her into the carriage, and climbed in after, and closed the door when Toothless hopped inside, much to the dislike of the carriage driver. The ride back through the countryside took less time that the previous had. A smaller crowd waited outside the castle that included Spitelout and the Queen and a small handful of servants.

"No gaggling welcoming party?" Hiccup commented.

"I'm sure Spitelout gaggles just fine," Astrid said, earning herself a warm smirk, the first she'd seen that day.

The Queen ushered Hiccup inside and into a small parlor off the deck, a sunporch of sorts. Astrid followed, as did Spitelout, who wore his dislike of Astrid proudly.

Tea and cookies had been brought and sat on a small wooden table with matching chairs. Hiccup sat down and grabbed a cookie, shoving the whole thing into his mouth. The Queen sat across from him and adjusted her chair to stare directly at him. Her thick skirts poofed over the sides of the chair, draping over.

"So?" the Queen asked, leaning forward. "Any romantic breakthroughs? I've been hearing good things from the girls. They all seem to think you've taken a special liking to them. I'm glad that you listened to my advice, Hiccup. The first round of dates didn't do anything to shine your reputation."

"I'm sure I'd need a lot of shine to get rid of the tarnish," Hiccup said. He reached for another cookie. He handed it to Astrid and motioned for her to take it. "Peanut butter. They're good."

"No, thank you," Astrid said. She didn't need to look at the Queen to feel her venomous glare. Astrid added, "Sir."

"Well," the Queen said, drawing his attention back to herself, "the preparations for the ball are nearly complete. It will be the biggest party this century. And as such, your father and I have arranged a meeting between the three of us this evening after dinner."

"Alright," Hiccup said, fingering a third cookie.

The Queen stood and walked past Astrid and through the sunporch door. Spitelout followed. The door shut and latched with a heavy clank.

"These are really good," Hiccup said about the cookies. "They're my favorite. Mom always orders some when she's trying to get on my good side."

"Does that mean she's normally on your bad side?" Astrid asked. She had not heard the Queen's tell-tale heels clicking away down the corridor, and she had the sinking suspicious that she lurked just outside the wooden door. Spitelout's Royal Guard issued boots had not clanked against the rug covered stone floor, either. Somehow Astrid didn't care. Let her hear the causal talk between the Prince and her.

Hiccup laughed. "Are you kidding? I know she doesn't like me. She could care less about my reputation. It's her reputation as a mother she's worried about."

Astrid raised a brow.

"Each time I mess up out there, it comes back to her in here," Hiccup said, motioning to himself and the chair opposite him. "Because, apparently, she's responsible for my actions regardless that she had no hand in raising me."

"She's still your mother," Astrid said.

"Hereditary chain," he said with a grin. "Now come here. Eat one of these so I can honestly say I didn't eat them all."

X

Hiccup led the way back to Hiccup's room. He remained silent for the most part, hands in his pockets, walking with his eyes focused on a point somewhere ahead. The servants they passed halted their actions, whether polishing statues or sweeping dust bunnies out from behind the suits of armor, to bow slightly. They didn't resume their duties immediately. They stared, a few pointed, and most whispered.

Astrid kept her eyes in front of her and pretended not to notice. Hiccup either did the same or didn't notice.

He opened the door to his room, walked inside and held it open for Astrid. She walked by him, into the room, and stopped dead. They were not alone in his room.

Dagur, King of the Berserkers, sat on the edge of Hiccup's bed. One of his men stood at the window, looking down at the grounds.

"What the hell?" Hiccup asked at once, moving in front of Astrid. He threw his hand up toward the intruders.

"Good afternoon to you, too, Hiccup," said Dagur in his coy tone. He got up, both hands extended in front of him as if he might hug Hiccup. "I heard you were coming home today and I thought I'd come by and greet you. The castle's been a bit empty without you."

"And you couldn't have done that, I don't know, anywhere else?" Hiccup nearly shouted. "This is my bedroom, not a lounge."

"I know," Dagur said. He dropped his arms. "I thought it would have more a personal feel than a corridor, or just some boring old room."

"It doesn't," Hiccup said. "Please get out before I have you removed."

Dagur's calm face twitched slightly, and for a tiny moment he wore a grimace, disgusted, twisted in anger and insanity, his small eyes pinned on Hiccup and thinking the worst sort of thoughts. Astrid balled her fists. She would forcibly remove him if she had to. Instead, Dagur walked toward the door, carving a path between Hiccup and Astrid. His man followed, silent and expressionless.

Hiccup shut the door behind him and locked it. For extra support, he secured the heavy deadbolt.

"Creep," Astrid spat.

"Tell me about it," Hiccup said, eyes on the door. He turned to Astrid, brows high. "Are you alright?"

Astrid blinked. She still held her fists tight. She wiggled her fingers loose and shook them. "Yeah. I don't like him. He's just…he thinks he can just walk around and do whatever, like he deserves it, like he owns everything and everyone. I hate people like that."

She emptied her sudden frustrating on the air, swinging a punch that she imagined at Dagur. She had so many more creative ways to kill people as a servant, laundry shoots, laundry baskets, kitchen utensils, garage disposal, rooms that no one ever entered.

Hiccup stood at the door, hand against the wood beside the deadbolt. His eyes fell on Astrid. A pained intensity he hadn't worn a moment before ran a dagger through her chest.

"Hiccup?" she asked.

"Is that what you thought of me?" he spoke quietly.

It took a moment to register the question, his thought. She shook her head before the words came. "What? No, Hiccup, I…it's not like that. You changed."

"You did, though, before?"

His heartbroken gaze settled on her, pins and needles in her chest. She clutched at her skirt.

"Before I knew you," she said. Her voice came as a squeak. "I didn't care for you much. You were mean. People said you did nasty things to the young girls that worked for you."

His eyes fell to the floor.

"That day you ran into me," Astrid said, trying to find the right words. They all felt wrong, although true. "I-I saw it was you and I was terrified. You followed me to the linen closet and I was thinking of ways to hide your body in the linens if you tried anything."

"You were?" he asked, barely looking up at her.

Astrid swallowed. She wasn't fixing anything. She took a large step and closed the space between them, cupping his jaw in her hands, bringing his eyes up to meet hers.

"Yes, I was," she said, looking into his eyes. He drank her words. "But then I got to know you, the real you, not the you that you pretend to be. You're not that nasty prince that everyone thinks you are. You're not Snotlout. You are a kindhearted, intelligent, and tender man underneath those rumors. You've made mistakes, but everyone does."

She ran her thumb along the fine stubble on his chin.

She said, "No one is sinless."

He leaned in and she met him halfway, holding his jaw as he snaked his arms around and hugged her close. They kissed, refusing to let each other go.

"I love you," he said against her lips. He kissed her again and buried his face in her neck. "I love you so much."

Astrid wormed her hands around his neck and held him close. "I love you, too."

For a while they stayed in their embrace, until at last they parted. Hiccup called dinner to them, a setting for two, ate in the lounge down the hall from his room. Astrid remained in his room while he attended the meeting with his parents, straightening up, tucking in the sheets, and making sure the bathroom had been cleaned.

The toothbrush that she had used the other night still sat in the holder, beside his.

The sun touched the horizon and still Hiccup had not come back. She checked the inventory in the bathroom, twice, and smoothed every wrinkle out of his bedclothes. She retrieved his silk pajamas from the dresser and laid them out for him on the edge of the bed.

With nothing else to do, she sat in his desk chair. The bright gold of the sunlight drifted farther up the walls as the sunlight faded, the light glowing less and less. Astrid lit a candle in the last of the light and set it on the nightstand.

Where would she sleep tonight?

She never thought she'd ask herself such a rudimentary question. Whenever Astrid would think of leaving the castle to find work in the kingdom, her mother would tell her that she would find nothing. She would become a beggar, a whore, without a safe place to sleep at night.

How would you feel if the sun went down and you had no place to go?

She had a place to go, two of them, but she didn't know which to choose. Hiccup's bed might be only if he asked her, if he let her, while her parent's room in the castle was always open.

Hiccup's bed. Her parents' room. Neither was hers. Each option relied on someone else.

You'd be looking to a different man for a bed each night just to sleep.

Astrid inhaled and closed her eyes. The firelight flickered on the other side of her lids, casting strange shadows in her darkened sight.

The door unlocked and opened. Hiccup walked through looking exhausted.

Astrid stood. "Hiccup!"

He groaned. "They wanted to talk about the ball. Legal babble. Procedure and tradition and all that junk."

He sat on the wrinkle-free bed. Wrinkles and creases webbed out from where he sat. He rubbed his face. He looked at the pajamas, laid out beside him. "I'm exhausted. Bed sounds great."

He stood and lifted his shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor. Astrid caught it and carried it to the hamper. She followed with his discarded pants. Hiccup dressed in his pajamas and headed to the bathroom, then paused in the doorway. He looked back at Astrid.

"You staying here tonight?"

She blinked. "I will if you'd like."

"I'd really like you to," he said. "I'm sure there is something for you to sleep in, unless you'd rather sleep naked, which is fine with me. Your toothbrush is still in here, too."

She crossed the space between them and followed him into his spacious bathroom.