CHAPTER 36: CABIN FEVER
Having told Hiccup he only had another week to wait for crutches, may not have been a good thing. Now he seemed more anxious and impatient than before. His isolation was getting to him despite the frequent company of his visiting friends, and warm family atmosphere now in the Haddock household.
Gobber had stopped by after Gothi had consulted with him about making crutches, and a pegleg for Hiccup. He stopped in for a visit and tea with the clan, took some measurements of Hiccup's legs. "So I can get to worrk on yoorr new leg."
Toothless looked up at the stalky barbarian as if to say. You can do that too? Then Toothless lowered his gaze to Gobber's wooden leg, and disappointedly thought, certainly not as sophisticated as the new tail Hiccup had made for me.
An awful thought occurred to Toothless and Hiccup as well. How could they fly again if Hiccup didn't have a left foot to operate the left foot pedal with? He had needed a working ankle to change the tail fin positions by changing the angle of the left stirrup.
One day after dragon training, Astrid came home to have lunch with her very surly boyfriend. "Hey? What's wrong with you?"
Hiccup's stubborn Viking nature was coming through loud and clear. He felt like he was a burden, and didn't want to trouble Astrid with his problems. "Nothing." He grunted. This was exactly the wrong approach to take with Astrid, if he really wanted to keep her out of the loop.
Astrid had gotten the sense over the last few days that Hiccup was becoming more frustrated, and for some reason this had gotten worse after Gobber's last visit. She did want him to open up to her so now it was time to pull out her feminine wiles.
Astrid stomped on the wooden floor to get Hiccup's attention and when he looked up she began a sultry walk over to the right side of his bed. Hiccup gulped. He had never seen her walk like that before, and was it ever nice to oggle.
Hiccup was now better dressed. With his leg having improved so nicely he was able to wear trousers again. He was going to cut the left pant leg off until Astrid had showed him how to tuck it in and up the inside.
Once she reached the bed Astrid gracefully sat next to and facing him. She leaned over his lap with her right arm and tenderly stroked his cheeks with the fingers of her left hand. "Come on you big baby boo," and she leaned in for a long lingering kiss. When she broke it off she finished with, "you can tell Astrid anything. Remember, she loves you."
Holy dragons! Hiccup gasped to himself. Who was this vixen? And can I have more?! Hiccup nodded and mumbled to Astrid "Uh-huh."
Grinning, Astrid fingerspelled "Uh-huh, what?" Her magic worked and her little performance lifted Hiccup out of his silent mode.
"I can't seem to think of a way around the foot control problem for Toothless' tail fin. No matter how hard I try, I can't think of a safe way to operate a left tail fin with a right foot. Any kind of crossover cable would just cut into his tail."
Laughing, Astrid exclaimed with Sign, "Is that all? Who says you have to limit yourself to a foot control? Your left handed. Why not a hand control?"
Shouting with glee, "You're a genius!" Hiccup embraced Astrid with a passionate kiss of his own.
It was Astrid's turn to be left breathless. "That's more like it." She both sighed and signed at the same time.
"Are you sure you weren't an inventor in a previous life?"
"Whoa there big boy. I only made a suggestion. You're the one who has to make it work. Feel better now?"
He did, so he grabbed and kissed her again to prove it.
"Ahem!" Stoick cleared his throat making both teens squeal in guilty embarrassment. "In brroad daylight? At least I caught yoo beforre any clothes came off."
"Uh, I'm sorry Chief. Hiccup was feeling down and I thought I'd cheer him up." Then Astrid realised how bad that sounded and her delicate pale skin turned bright pink.
Bellowing in laughter Stoick asked, "Did it work?"
Hiccup was enjoying this. He was the one who usually got embarrassed.
Timidly Astrid answered, "Yes, I think so, sir."
Stoick waved her over to him and he gave her a warm embrace. With his arms full of Astrid, he had to speak to her. "What did I say about callin' me chief, orr Sir, when we arre all togetherr? I love you, Astrrid, like the daughter I wish I had. I rreally wanted morre childrren but we have to take what life gives us as well." Stoick finished by kissing both her cheeks.
This time Astrid didn't want to help it. "Thank you, Papa."
Stoick squeezed her a little tighter for he couldn't believe how the sound of that word lifted his own spirits. He cleared his throat and rubbed his eyes to make it look like he was pinching the bridge of his nose. In sign Stoick added, "Now I don't mind if you two get affectionate but don't let it get to the point of removing your clothes."
Both Hiccup and Astrid groaned out "Dad!" Astrid and Hiccup looked at each other and all three had a really good laugh over that.
Énjal came back from teaching her ASL class to see the teens again sleeping together. It didn't bother her this time as they were fully clothed and it was still daylight. So she just began to make supper.
Astrid slyly opened one eye and had been surprised her mother hadn't raised a protest. Hiccup and Astrid thought they would play a trick on her mother just to see her reaction. It probably would have worked better if they had climbed under the covers, but they weren't that suicidal.
Astrid got out of the bed to take over from her mother. She was in the mood to show off her own cooking skills and this surprised her mother a little. So they swapped roles and Énjal helped her daughter out. Astrid wanted to show her love of Hiccup in another way. She wanted to impress on him her ability to handle domestic chores as well as prepare meals. She wasn't sure why because she knew she would never be the barefoot and pregnant homebound type. Nevertheless she also imagined getting married and raising children. If Hiccup was anything like his dad, he was then no chauvinist expecting his wife to stay home at his beck and call.
Hiccup had asked Astrid to get his sketchbook from upstairs. As Astrid and her mother prepared the meal, Hiccup was a little surprised Astrid had taken over.
While he worked on his new control system design for Toothless' tail fin, he would glance up every now and then to observe his girl at work in the kitchen. He knew Énjal was a fabulous cook, but judging by the stomach growling aromas coming from the cooking space today, Astrid might be just as good.
Stoick walked through the door after a hard day in the shipyard and signed, "Oh Énjal, you have to stop spoiling me like this. I'm going to grow into a whale!"
"Fat chance of that. I see you working three times harder than anyone else out there. You just burn it off." And she had to squeeze his beefy biceps just to prove it. "Tonight's dinner is not of my making, my dear Stoick. Something has motivated my daughter to take a turn in the kitchen." Énjal then winked and tilted her head toward Hiccup. Silently as to not tip off either teen, Stoick smiled and nodded his head.
Hiccup had not been disappointed. Nor had his father. They both gave Astrid the greatest compliment of asking for seconds and thirds, though Hiccup may have been trying to force his third helping down.
"Oh, milady that was so delicious, I think I ate too much." Hiccup complained happily. "Someone needs to invent stretchy pants."
"No unbuckling your pants in front of my daughter." Énjal warned. Astrid gave her mother a dirty look and the two male buffoons couldn't restrain their laughter.
Hiccup finally realised Énjal was actually happy that he and her daughter had connected so well.
"So son, what did you do with rest of your afternoon?" Stoick asked as he prepared mead for everyone. Énjal liked mead just fine but she looked skeptically at Stoick when he offered a mug each to Astrid and Hiccup. "What? It will be good for Hiccup's blood. I'm not going to keep refilling their mugs." Énjal nodded in approval of that. "I'll keep refilling yours, so I can take advantage of you later.
As if the younger couple had choreographed it they covered their eyes and ears yelling out, "Blah blah blah too much information!"
Giving Énjal a quick kiss Stoick tipped his head in the direction of their kids and signed. "Isn't payback great?"
Like some other hearing people she had seen, Énjal clapped her hands together and laughed.
It was actually the first taste of mead Astrid or Hiccup ever had. His second taste of alcohol of course. Hiccup was surprised that alcohol could taste so different from one beverage to another. He did sip it slowly at first. The first taste was a little odd but it seemed to him to get better with each mouthful. Still he was in no hurry to drink it quickly on a stomach that was still achingly full.
Astrid tested it as well and decided she liked it right away but sensibly drank it slowly.
Answering Stoick's question, Hiccup explained, "I worked on a new control system design for Toothless' tail fin. It was actually Astrid's brilliant idea!" He enthusiastically gave her the credit.
Astrid held up her hand. "All I did was make a suggestion. He has the fun of trying to make it work."
Stoick was now genuinely interested in seeing what his son had come up with. Taking his mug over to the bed he sat beside Hiccup to look at the new design.
The design Hiccup showed him looked like something that could have been from the future. Of course the technical language Hiccup used was way over Stoick's head, but his son's enthusiasm kept him riveted. The new hand control looked like a stick or a rod coming out of a flat base. All around it were eight different arrows in as many different directions. "The position of the stick will determine which direction we can fly in. Left is for a left turn, right is for a right turn. The only backward thing about it will be that I pull it back when we need to climb. And I push it forward for a dive. That's because of how the pull of the earth affects me in the saddle. The other in-between positions are to combine turns with climbs or dives. It should actually be even better for control than my old foot pedal."
Hiccup hadn't noticed when Astrid sat beside him on the other side of the bed. When he had finished his explanation, she reached for his chin, turned his face in her direction and gave a him a wonderful mead tasting kiss. Of course she had to sign, "See, I told you it was in here." And she tapped his head with her finger.
Stoick smiled at Énjal. Day by day he could swear they were coming closer to the day Hiccup would propose. Helheim, Astrid might beat him to it.
Sign of the Chapter - Joystick: Place the dominant hand fist on the palm of the other flattened hand, and wiggle the fist around as if controlling a joystick.