And now, we return to just after the sexy times have occurred.
I don't do the christmas thing and I know there are readers who also don't, so I shall wish anyone reading this a happy holiday. And if you're reading for escapism because its a tough time, I wish you a brief holiday season you can get away from soon.
-HTTYD-
Astrid supposed it was a testament to how certain she was in her own safety that she stayed calm, and tapped Hiccup on the shoulder so he wouldn't actually kill Eret there and then.
"Hey, back up a little babe."
Hiccup growled at her, but his grip loosened enough that Eret was able to draw breath again.
"Go hide your phone."
Astrid winked as she tapped on her phone, then placed it aside.
"No need. I just emailed the picture to you."
Eret looked between them, eyes wide and the post-coital flush on his skin draining away rapidly to leave him paled and panic-stricken.
"Was this just for... blackmail?"
"Blackmail? Not at all" Astrid knelt next to Eret, running her finger down his arm "we both thought you were cute, and you're not that subtle about checking us out every time you try to arrest me. But we're not stupid. The picture is just... insurance."
"For what?"
Astrid nudged Hiccup's arm, urging him to back up a little. He was not co-operative at first but eventually got up, though he was close enough that if Eret moved toward Astrid, Hiccup could have tackled him again in plenty of time.
"Just in case. Come on Eret, you had to know coming here was a risk."
He swallowed thickly, glancing between them.
"Are you going to let me go?"
"Of course. You're not going to say a thing, you're free to go."
Hiccup eyed Astrid shrewdly, but eventually relented, pulling off the loose condom and tossing it aside before he moved into his girlfriends waiting arms. Eret didn't move for a minute, seeming very wary of turning his back on them as he pulled on trousers, then grabbed the rest of his clothes and ran. Astrid wondered what her neighbours thought of a guy in nothing but hastily-yanked-on bottoms leaving her home as she heard the front door close.
"So... that happened."
Astrid nodded, brushing a kiss on Hiccup's throat.
"You did so well love, I'm proud of you."
He watched as she rubbed his still-exposed forearm, then shrugged slowly.
"I might have shown our hand a little forcefully there. I was just worried he was gonna hurt you."
Astrid ran her hand up and down Hiccup's back, smiling at his anxious face.
"He knows who you are already. The only thing you showed him then is that you may well kill to protect me."
Hiccup frowned.
"Of course I would."
In his own weird, serial-killer way, Astrid knew that was a sign of love from Hiccup. Which in itself probably should have concerned her, but Astrid was oddly warmed by it. They were definitely a messed up pair.
"Good to know. So... since our friend bailed early, want to finish up?"
Hiccup raised an eyebrow, then let out a short chuckle.
"Uh, sure. Just let me go clean off the condom goop... what is the goop?"
Having never thought about it, Astrid shrugged and leant over to retrieve the box since Hiccup was getting up.
"Some kind of lubricant, according to the packaging."
After casting a longing look over Astrid's naked form, Hiccup took the information and left, while Astrid ended up reading the back of the box to pass the time. He was back fairly quickly, and at Astrid's pointed look, he shucked his t-shirt before joining her on the bed again.
"Are you alright to take off your bottoms?"
Astrid wasn't going to assume - he'd pushed his own limits that day already. He took a minute to nod, and let Astrid slowly remove his jeans, careful over his prosthetic before she ran her hands over his thighs. By the time Astrid laid over him, letting Hiccup feel her bare skin against his own, he'd relaxed again and she felt him harden against her inner thigh, letting out his sweet little gasps as she kissed him. His arms came up to wrap around her, holding Astrid to him. She was still wet from earlier, hand slipping down to guide Hiccup inside her.
The intimacy of Hiccup bare within her made Astrid shiver, him pliant and trusting beneath her so very different to the weight of Eret over her. Not that Eret wasn't good fun, but Astrid understood why Hiccup had only been willing if Astrid was there too, knew it wouldn't have been half as good if it had just been her seducing Eret.
Hiccup's hands curled around her thighs, squeezing gently at the muscles that moved there. Gods, she loved him, reminded of it anew by how he'd put so much faith in Astrid to even invite Eret to her bed to begin with. He watched Astrid ride him with his big green eyes, lips parted as he moaned weakly. They were in no rush, savouring each other as she rocked on him slowly, letting Hiccup settle back into what he knew, where he felt completely safe. His skin was warm against hers when she leant down to press her chest to his, Hiccup nuzzling her neck before his mouth sought hers again.
"I love you."
It was a rare and sweet sentiment from his lips, and Astrid did her best not to overreact and make him feel self-conscious. So she kissed him softly, stroked his jaw.
"I love you too."
And said no more of it, though her hips twitched a little more urgently against his, and Hiccup matched her increased pace, let her guide his hand until he stroked her to a shuddering climax, soon following her over that edge until they were panting and spent as they held each other close.
Hiccup rolled them on to their sides, still holding her securely as they came down from the high. A little shuffling to get more comfortable found Hiccup with his face pressed into her chest, as he enjoyed the sound of Astrid's heart beating beneath his ear.
"So, now what do we do about Eret?"
He eventually asked, tracing idle shapes in the sweat on her stomach.
"For the moment, we wait. We didn't actually tell him anything specific he could use against us anyway, and apart from you trying to choke him a little bit, there was nothing other than your average threesome here. So if he did try to turn you in, he'd be implicating himself more than you, and he'd look pretty bad to boot."
Hiccup nodded slowly.
"Right. Are we... was this a one time thing?"
Astrid almost shrugged, but stopped herself before she accidentally nudged Hiccup off of her.
"Hmm. Well, if he wants to come back, I'm not against a repeat performance unless you are?"
He shrugged as best he could.
"I... I think I need to process it all first, and see how he reacts from now before I know if I'd feel safe enough?"
"That's fair. Nothing happens if you aren't comfortable babe."
Hiccup hummed, nuzzling into her skin as Astrid ran her fingers through his hair. They eventually got up to clean themselves up and head back to Hiccup's, where Valka hesitantly enquired as to the progress of their afternoon - she knew about the plan, because Hiccup didn't like hiding things from his mother. though she definitely didn't approve.
"Is all well son?"
"Uh, yeah. Went perfectly to plan. I think."
Hiccup glanced to Astrid, who nodded back as she picked up a biscuit from the plate Hiccup had put out to go with their cups of tea.
"Well, the part where you jumped on him wasn't planned, but it didn't do any real damage."
"You did what?"
Valka quizzed, and Hiccup looked a little sheepish.
"I uh... Astrid took a picture to use as 'evidence', and Eret sort of lunged for her phone. I might have overreacted and jumped on top of him. He's fine, honest."
In a show of how much more she trusted Astrid than when she'd first started dating Hiccup, Valka turned to Astrid for confirmation.
"He is. He left under his own steam, and the only bruises he had were from me. I bite."
Valka actually laughed lightly.
"Yes, I had noticed."
Her sea-green eyes flitted over to Hiccup, who usually bore a couple of marks on or around his neck from Astrid's teeth.
"I promise he likes it, otherwise I wouldn't."
She only hurt Hiccup in ways he liked. Not that Astrid was going to say that to Valka. Hiccup's cheeks still flushed at the comment she'd made about the biting, but Valka just chuckled to herself before washing down painkillers with her tea. Dunking another cookie in her own mug, Astrid cast her mind to their playmate from earlier and wondered how Eret was faring in his moral quandary.
Eret somehow made it back to his home, and climbed into the shower, still feeling twinges in his lower back and bruised throat from the less-than-gentle treatment he'd had at the hands of...
Fuck. He really had... Eret knew he had no excuse, no sound reason for how he'd let it happen.
There was no visible injury from Hiccup - the same could not be said for Astrid's handiwork - on his neck, but Eret could still feel the phantom pressure where a forearm had pressed hard enough to obstruct his breathing. Eret had very little doubt he had come very close to a place on the victim list of the Night Fury.
But instead, they had just let him go, and it left Eret with a massive stack of questions and very few answers.
He climbed out of the shower, wincing at the dull ache of being quite soundly fucked earlier. Pulling on some comfortingly familiar clothes, Eret swallowed as he looked at the ever-growing space in his home consumed by work on the Night Fury.
Eret knew it was Hiccup. There wasn't a doubt in his mind when he looked up into those eyes and saw nothing human there.
And, somehow, Eret had been stupid enough to end up in a situation where all the knowledge in the world wouldn't help him take down the Night Fury, because he'd tainted his own credibility the minute he let the couple take him to bed.
Even now, there was an itch under his skin, the lure of darkness that led him there to begin with not abated. If anything, it was worse. He'd seen Hiccup look vulnerable and scared, saw the scars on his skin that began to knit together all the pieces that ended up forming one of the most intelligent and ruthless killers ever to stalk the streets.
Groaning, Eret buried his head in his hands and tried to work out where the fuck he was meant to go from there. Could he face going back to his colleagues? Trying to work the Night Fury case, knowing he'd never be able to go forward, that any evidence Eret might find would have been unusable? But if he didn't, that would be just as suspicious, given his drive to work the case until he'd gone and bedded the top two suspects.
The books on serial killers he owned mocked him, jeering at how Eret had judged everyone who became obsessed with serial killers as he wondered how he'd fallen into such a trap himself.
Copies of the latest Night Fury letters were hung on his wall, and Eret felt a humourless laugh escape him at the sight of them. Assuming Hiccup had written them, he actually went to the trouble of appearing like a sadistic, psychopathic stalker of his own girlfriend. sending anonymous letters under guise of staying hidden away.
No wonder Astrid had turned down protection. She clearly felt quite safe with him. Eret was still transfixed by their dynamic, how heavily Hiccup seemed to lean on Astrid, how gently she guided him, how pliant he was to her orders. If he didn't know better, Eret would have said she'd been pulling his strings all along, but the kills had been going a long time before those two ever met, and Astrid's first book published before then too. They could have been lying, he supposed, but it seemed unlikely - the quality and detail in Astrid's books had gone from strength to strength since she began dating someone who was probably something of an expert.
How did she find out? Why did Hiccup trust her so fully? When did she decide to actively help interfere with police investigations? Eret was beginning to understand why Astrid found being arrested and interrogated increasingly comical - she knew they'd never find anything on her, because she didn't do it.
Left with so many questions, so few answers and even fewer ideas on how to go forward, Eret continued to pace around his living room.
What had Astrid meant about that picture being insurance? Surely even she didn't think he'd just drop the case?
Eret slept very little that night, and went into work the next morning in a foul mood, which was noticed along with the prominent lovebites his uniform didn't completely cover. He took his coffee and protein bar and went straight into the Night Fury room, soon followed by Teeny who naturally wanted to know all about how Eret ended up with bruises and why he wasn't in a chipper enough mood to match his apparently having gotten laid.
"Come on, something happened."
"I don't want to talk about it. Can we just work? Quielly?"
"Fine, fine. Killjoy."
Eret swore under his breath before looking over at Teeny.
"What about this room says joy to you? I'm just trying to stay professional and try to work out how we take this vicious killer off the streets!"
Teeny recoiled, blinking and Eret cursed inwardly again, dropping into his seat and instantly looking very very busy.
"Wow, definitely not a happy bunny today. I'm gonna let you cool off and go work out there."
Being left alone with his thoughts was not a better position for Eret's sanity, which felt all the more fragile for his poor sleep the night before. But at least he couldn't vent his turbulent mood on to his workmate, which was probably better for the sake of his career.
Eret felt sick with himself as he looked around, viewing the handiwork of a killer and knowing that the twisted part of himself that was drawn to Astrid and Hiccup in the first place was not gone, and that given the chance, he'd go back and put himself in harms way again for that sickening thrill.
That fact scared him more than Hiccup did.
-HTTYD-
Because I know there are concerns about his position in the story... I am actually almost finished with Eret. I think he'll be gone by around chapter 30, though as alway with me, best laid plans and all... could be chapter 87 I remember what I wsa doing and Eret's just completely mad by then. Who knows!