A/N – Remember when I estimated there was about one chapter left? Turns out, as I went through editing, there's two! Originally, I had this ending in one chapter, but it ended up a lot longer than I thought, or wanted in a single chapter. I don't know how long the next chapter will be, but most likely, it'll be the final chapter. I might toss an epilogue together, for the closure of it all, but that's all up in the air.

Also, I'm been working with this story to make it publishable. I really like it and so far it's going pretty good. So let's just say that this story was published sometime in the future – would you pay money for it in a bookstore or online? Publishing is proving to be hard to break into, and I feel like I'm beating on sound-proof glass.

X

Chapter 36: It's Too Cold Outside for Angels to Fly (Part 2)

"What?" Astrid's eyes went big as the words fell out of his mouth. She nearly dropped her half-eaten sandwich, but caught it at the last second.

"I'm spending spring break with my mother," Hiccup repeated, more delicate this time, instead of just throwing them into the air as soon as he crossed the threshold like he had. Astrid started to shake her head, pleading with her bright eyes, but he held up his hands to stop her. "I'm not leaving you, Astrid." Not right now. "I just…I just need to think about all of…this. And I'd like to see my mom."

Astrid pulled her words back into her throat, but they never left her eyes. He reached for her, but pulled away before contact.

"Hiccup, what if this is some kind of trick? What if it's not her?"

Hiccup shook his head. "What kind of a trick would it be? I talked to her on the phone, Astrid, this isn't some…convoluted story that some psycho dreamed up. This is my mother, a normal human being, who wants to talk to the son she doesn't know." Hiccup threw his hands out when he spoke, kicking off his shoes, and storming into the bedroom. He didn't know why his anger had shot at her like that, and he didn't look back to see the effect he'd left on her face.

He stood in the bedroom, looking at the clean clothes folded in the basket beside the dresser. His clothes from the night before were on top. Had Astrid had time to wash them already? How long had he been he gone? He glanced at his phone. Not that long. She would've gone straight to the laundry room after he left.

"Do you want to borrow my suitcase?" Astrid asked from the doorway, but her voice sounded as if it were down on the street, floating in through the open window. "It's in the closet, if you do."

Hiccup turned to see Astrid's retreating form, and the doorway stood empty. From the sounds, she made coffee. He stepped to the closet and pulled out the same suitcase that he'd borrowed from her when he moved in. That felt like such a long time ago, but in reality it had only been a few months. He sat down on the floor beside the open suitcase and ran his hands through his hair. How had he gotten himself in to such a mess?

X

The plane touched down in Atlanta and Hiccup gripped the suitcase tightly as he wheeled it through the arrival gate. He'd managed just one carry-one. It was much easier than the debacle at Christmas, when they'd spent forty-five minutes waiting on their luggage. He stood awkwardly in the busy airport, with tired looking people from the plane flowing in on either side of him.

"Harold?" A familiar voice startled him, and he drew his shoulders in as he turned to see the speaker. The voice fit the person, a slender woman with a feminine face as strange as familiar. It had been her high cheekbones that he had inherited, and her tall, boney structure. Her blue-green eyes watered at the sight of him, and her delicate fingers came together over her stomach, twitching gracefully. "It is you."

"Yeah," Hiccup shrugged. He hesitated, and a word he'd never been able to use before slipped from his mouth, "Mom?"

She nodded, her bottom lip dropped a little, and she whisked back whatever she'd been about to say. "My car is just outside, come, we have so much to catch up on."

The Atlanta weather clung to his skin, not that different from the Missouri heat. The clear sky held no interference for the bright spring sun, and the smoldering heat inside of her car took his breath away, setting an immediate sweat on his chest. With a quick flick of her wrist, Valka turned the air up as high as it would go, blasting them with artic air, deleting the space for a conversation.

Valka lived in a quaint apartment uptown, in a circle drive of identical high rises. She led the way with few words, and right into her mid-tower living quarters. At first, the overwhelming green color surprised him, but upon a second look, her living room house several dozen small potted plants, all bathing in the bright light from the wall made entirely of windows. Between them were cat-tower made of beige carpet, decorated with colorful, feathered bells and tassels.

"It…smells earthy," Hiccup said as a mere observation, for the dirt and leaves did permeate the air. He desperately searched for a better complement. "I-I mean, it's a nice change from the smog and asphalt outside."

"I know, I love the first moment of walking inside and it's like I'm somewhere else entirely," Valka sighed, taking a deep breath as she closed the room. "I've set up something of a guest room for you, it's not much, though."

"I'm sure I'll be fine," Hiccup shrugged. "I'm sure that compared to a half-deflated air mattress it'll be perfect."

"What?" Valka blinked.

"I-I slept on an air mattress when I first moved from Berk," Hiccup explained quickly, not wanting to relieve that day, or those weeks.

"Ah, did you father not help you? Surely he would have seen the benefit of a good night's sleep," Valka said as she led him down a hallway, and opened a wide pocket door.

Hiccup laughed nervously. "He, uh, wasn't really that enthused about it. He wanted me to stay and take over the business, or something."

"Ah, I see." Valka nodded, not looking at him. She turned on the light and flooded the quant room in bright white. "This is it."

There were no plants in this room, but a daybed that looked recently cleaned and smoothed, and several stacks of cardboard boxes. Hiccup stepped inside, but sudden movement made him jump. From the pattern of the blanket, he hadn't seen the orange tabby at first, but the cat stretched out its fluffy body and watched him with curious, almost angry orange eyes.

"Oh, I was wondering where you went off to," Valka said as she stroked the cat's head. "I was going to take you with me." The cat stood on his hind legs to press his entire face into her hand. "This is Cloudjumper."

"Cloudjumper?" Hiccup asked. Of course, he had a cat named Toothless.

"He had a habit of sleeping in the hanging plants," Valka smiled. She cleared her throat, "Your father said you brought a cat home with you."

"Oh, yeah," Hiccup nodded. "I found him one night, under a car in the parking lot. He was hurt, and it was snowing, and I-I brought him with me. He's missing a few teeth, so I named him Toothless." He laughed, "I think Astrid is still made at me."

Valka smiled, but then it faltered just slightly. "Astrid? Is she the one you live with?"

"Yeah," Hiccup nodded.

Valka nodded, and looked down at the floor, then at Cloudjumper. "So why didn't you bring Toothless with you? He would have been welcome."

"He doesn't like planes," Hiccup shrugged. "He hates the carrier. So I left him back with Astrid. It's a crapshoot to see who will kill the other one."

Valka smiled. "You farther never liked pets either. I brought a dog home once, before you were born, that I'd found on the side of the road outside of Berk. A dump, I suspect, and he made me take it to the shelter. They're so overcrowded these days, I'm sure that poor little thing didn't make it."

Hiccup swallowed. "I've never heard that story."

"I'm sure you father doesn't like to talk about it," Valka shrugged. "I didn't speak to him for a week after." Valka cleared her throat. "Are you hungry? Thirsty?"

"Yeah, I could use a drink." Hiccup followed his mother back into the adjoining kitchen, where she opened a cabinet filled to the top with white-labeled tins, hand-written names on each, and each just as illegible as the next. "What is all that?"

"Tea," Valka said, reaching for one near the top. She had no difficulty reaching the top shelf. Hiccup thought of Astrid, who would climb into the countertop and stand on her knees. Valka set the tin down and reached for two cups. "I make them in my spare time. All these plants aren't just for show." She smiled.

The tea smelled amazing, and tasted even better. Valka sat at the table with him in her well-lit kitchen and they talked, about Berk, and themselves, and about each other. The afternoon faded into evening with such speed that Hiccup blinked at the time. Valka ordered in dinner and soon Hiccup snuggled into the guest bed with the sounds of busy Atlanta just a few blocks away.

Hiccup sat up, and reached for his phone, still off from the flight. The bright screen lit up the room in its white-blue glow.

10 new messages.

His heart thumped in his chest, and he quickly opened them. He sighed, they were all from Astrid.

I'm sorry, I didn't meant to drop a bomb on you like that.

I think I'll use this time to deep clean the apartment. I haven't for a while.

Text me when you get there, be safe.

Did you make it? The computer says your flight made it on time. I'm assuming no news is good news.

Have you met your mother? How is she? Is she nice?

Please, text me back, Hiccup. I know you're mad, just let me know you're okay.

I found a dust bunny under the bed the fist of my fist, half of it was cat hair.

I'm pretty sure Toothless is trying to kill me. Are you that mad at me? You set your cat after me?

I'm going to bed, goodnight.

I love you.

Hiccup's thumb lingered over the message icon, but she'd sent her goodnight nearly an hour ago. She'd mostly likely asleep. He turned the screen off and slid it under his pillow.

X

Hiccup spent the next three days with his mother, hearing about her and her life, and telling her about his. She didn't push down his ideas like his father did. She asked questions with curious eyes, not glared with suspicion and disappointment. She took him out to one of her favorite getaways in the city, a little vegetation café nestled beside a small botanical garden. A sparkling waterfall cascaded down the glass wall separating them from the gardens.

"Mom, can I asked you something?" Hiccup asked over his fruit-infused concoction that his mother suggested. "A-and you're free not to answer if you don't want to."

She blinked at him, "Of course."

"Why did you and Dad get divorced?" Hiccup clenched his fist under the table.

Valka looked down at her drink.

"Why didn't you come back?" Hiccup asked, softer this time.

"I told you about the job offer," Valka said, eyes on the table. "I just couldn't pass it up. And…I wasn't happy. I tried to tell Stoick, explain it to him, but he never had the time to listen to me. My problems were never as important to him as his business, his reputation, or Berk. That's why I left. I-I thought about returning, to see you, but I…couldn't. I knew everyone on Berk loved your father, much more than me, and I knew what people would say about me, what they would assume. All of the friends I had were friends because of Stoick. You were the only person I had, and I just…I couldn't push myself to face the mess I'd left. I thought that you would be better off without me, anyway."

Hiccup gripped his knee.

"I-I'm sorry, Harold," Valka said, looking up at him through watery eyes. "I didn't know you'd turn out to be like me."

Hiccup put both hands around his drink. The condensation cooled his hands.

"Since we're confessing," Valka said quietly, looking around the spaciously set tables. "Your father was the one you told me to call you."

"What?" Hiccup asked. "You didn't call me on your own?"

"No," Valka bit her lip. "It had been twenty-three years and I thought I should leave well enough alone, but then, out of the blue, your father calls. He told me that he was worried about you, and I knew it had to be something serious for him to call me."

His father had his mother's number this entire time? Hiccup blinked, and shook the swirling information in his head. "Why?"

"He said that you were with this girl, Astrid, I assume, and he didn't want you to make the same mistake as he did." Valka's voice went quiet. "He said she was wrong for you, and he couldn't talk sense into you, and maybe I could."

Hiccup thought about standing up and walking out, but where would he go? He stood in a minefield, his parents, his home, his school, his apartment; everywhere a disaster waiting to melt into burning hot lava. He settled for resting his head in his hands, elbows on the table.

"Herald, Son," Valka said. Her soft voice eased through the confused stress that stretched through his lobes. "Tell me about her."

"What did Dad tell you? Should I just add to it or start from scratch?" Hiccup blurted out, more aggressive than he should have.

Valka shook her head and looked down at the table. "He told me she was a stripper. That Finn said she was trouble."

Hiccup sighed loudly. "She's…" He hesitated, the words on his tongue turning sour. "She told me that she was an escort, from some fancy hotel in St. Louis. I-I didn't know that when I met her, I only found out a few days ago. Then, to top that off, she told me that her parents' murder is trying to track her down to finish the job."

Valka blinked, and said nothing for several moments. "Do you believe her?"

Hiccup sighed. "I don't know. I don't want to. I want to think that everything she told me was a just a lie, some prank, but…I don't think it was."

The table slid into a loaded, uncomfortable silence. Valka sipped her drink and Hiccup swirled the condensation with his finger. A drop of it ran down the glass and darkened the napkin underneath.

"What will you do?" Valka asked. "If you need a place to stay, my home is yours, too."

"No, no, I'll be fine," Hiccup said. "I can't just leave. I-I have classes, and I've made other friends."

"So what will you do?" Valka asked simply.

"I don't know," Hiccup rubbed his face. "I just…I want everything to go back to how it was when we first met. It was all fun and happy and now it's all paranoia and awkward silences. I know I shouldn't have moved in with her so soon, I knew nothing about her. But I did, and it's done."

Valka sighed slowly, taking a drink from her cup. "Son, are you unhappy with her?"

Hiccup shrugged. "Right now? I don't know. I wasn't. Before all this…madness happened, I was happy."

"Do you love her?" Valka's question was so simple, that it left him blinking at her as if something else had been implied, but his brain drew a blank. "Do you?"

He inhaled, "I think so."

"There is no 'think so,' Herald. Either you do or you don't."

"I don't know, I mean, I don't exactly know what that means still. She makes me happy, I like having her around and talking to her, but…lately it's just…she's paranoid and jumpy and barely talks to me."

"Have you tried to talk to her?" Valka asked. "If something is bothering her?"

Hiccup opened his mouth, but the words tumbled in his throat. "Kind of?"

Valka sighed. "Son, I don't know your relationship well enough to tell you what to do, neither does your father, or anyone else. Only you can make the call. If you love her, be there. Your father was never there for me, and left me on my own. He never took the time to listen and understand. If you love this girl, you need to be there for her to help her when she falls, and pick her back up."

"Even if she was a prostitute?" Hiccup said flatly. "She slept with another men, for money, while she was with me."

Valka bit her lip. "Was? She isn't anymore?"

Hiccup shrugged. "She said she stopped because of me."

"She stopped, for you. You made the difference, it seemed. Herald, I've known girls who chose that path for themselves. It's a hole that's easy to fall into and so very hard to climb out of." Valka sighed. "I will tell you this, don't judge a woman, or anyone, on their past choices. Everyone makes bad ones."

Hiccup felt the condensation drip down his fingers. "Okay, then what do you think I should do now?"

Valka smiled gently. "What do you think you should do?"

X

Astrid gratefully unlocked the apartment door, shrugged off her wet jacket, kicked off her heels, and collapsed onto the couch. God, she was exhausted. She'd worked every day this week. How did normal people do this? How did Eret manage to work every day and still be chirper and social? She massaged her stockinged feet as Toothless crawled out from underneath the couch.

Meow?

"What?" Astrid asked as lightning brightened up the closed curtain. "Yeah, Hiccup's not home to give you the good food. You'll have to survive on the dry."

Meow!

"He's coming back," Astrid told the cat.

Meow.

Astrid harrumphed. He had to come back for his textbooks, and clothes. He had to come back. He'd said he'd come back. He could have said it a million times, but Astrid had still collapsed when the door shut behind him and his suitcase. What if he didn't come back? What if he decided that she wasn't worth the things he'd left?

Tears pooled and a few ran down her powdered cheeks, running in the stale, rain-stained make-up, not for the first time that day, let alone that week. She buried her head in her hands and Toothless' tail whipped.

Meow. Toothless stood on the couch beside her, looking at her with wide yellow eyes.

"Oh, what? You want to rub it in some more?" Astrid asked. Toothless only looked at her, ears perked and tail flinching. She sighed. "I guess he's got to come back for you."

Meow.

"He probably likes you more than me right now," Astrid said to Toothless. She slumped back into the couch. "I don't blame him. I'd hate me, too."

Meow?

"You know why," Astrid groaned. "I might as well have told him I hated him."

Meow.

"That's exactly what he thought," Astrid corrected the cat. "I slept with another man, although it wasn't for love or affection, and that's cheating. If he … did the same thing, I'd be irate. I probably would have thrown things. He didn't…like he…expected it. Like he knew."

Meow!

"Has he been thinking of leaving?" Astrid asked Toothless, as if he could tell her everything.

Astrid reached into her bag for her phone, it needed a charge. She stalked to the bedroom and reached for the charge on her bedside table, when she absent-mindedly lit up the screen.

1 new message.

Astrid's chest tightened as she unlocked the screen. At the sight of Hiccup's name her heart jumped.

I'm on my way back

Astrid blinked several times. The message had been received at seven that morning. How long had it taken him to fly back? He wasn't due back until Sunday morning, and it was only Thursday. She set the phone down on the table, and retreated to the shower to take her mind away from it. He'd be home when he got home. Don't be clingy.

She scrubbed her scalp, running her nails along her head, slowly, as to stay in the shower until she heard the door. She lingered until she couldn't stand the water, and dried and retreated back to the couch. Toothless snoozed and she waited, until the clock read midnight. She nodded off several times, and eventually drug herself to the bedroom and into the blankets. The storm raged outside and the bed felt much too big, and left her feeling small.

Knock, knock. Knock, knock, knock.

Astrid stirred just as Toothless leapt onto the bed.

Meow!

Someone knocked on the door. Lazily, Astrid drug her feet out of the blanket and across the bedroom floor, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Hiccup must have forgotten his key, or his hands are full. He left his keys at his mother's. It didn't matter now, he was home, and they would work all of his out. Toothless jumped from the edge of the bed, and squeezed into the small space underneath it.

Astrid unlocked the door and swung it open, preparing to throw herself into Hiccup's arms, despite what he may think. But it was not Hiccup's narrow torso that caught her, or his gentle hands that clutched her shoulders. She made to scream, but a large hand covered her mouth, muffling it just as thunder crashed into the sky.

"Did you miss me?" Dagur asked, his grin wide and his hair wet from the rain.