Notice to all: Updates/my general presence may be quite hit and miss over the next few weeks, as I am moving! I'll be online every day, and so I'll still be available to chat to etc, but writing-wise I can't say how much free time for writing I'll have while I pack up my life.
Scrumblenut - first off, thank you for the multiple reviews! Secondly, I have never seen Castle, so please don't try to base expectations of this fic on that, cus that puts us on different tracks completely. And thirdly, I'm sorry you feel that way about Eret's arc, but it was planned from the start. The story was never going to go another way.
Also, I live in the UK, and so Daylight Savings Time for me is forward one hour in spring (Spring Forward) and one hour back in autumn (Fall Back).
-HTTYD-
"I was starting to think you'd forgotten me!"
"Don't be so dramatic."
Heather winked, still ready with Astrid's usual almost the second she walked in the door.
"For real though, you haven't been by as much lately."
"I spend a lot of time at Hiccup's, and he also shows affection with baked goods, so it seems silly to come and spend money here when he keeps leaving cupcakes in my fridge. Plus I can eat those in my underwear."
Laughing, Heather shrugged.
"I honestly doubt anybody would complain if you came in here in your undies. I know I wouldn't."
She winked again, and Astrid was glad to see Heather had recovered herself pretty well after that incident where she'd almost been viciously attacked, only to be rescued by the Night Fury.
"I'll bear that in mind. Catch you later."
Astrid waved as she headed out to go to work, having finished the latest batch of baked treats from Hiccup the night before while writing, meaning a trip for her sugar hit to Heather that morning. She hadn't seen him for a couple of days, and probably still wouldn't for another two or three - Valka was sick, so Hiccup was busy with that, and Astrid didn't want to add any stress to him.
They were still waiting to see what Eret was going to do. Astrid was completely confident he wasn't going to say anything, no matter what he knew - or at least thought he knew, as he had little proof beyond his own gut feelings. But she definitely understood why Hiccup was still wary sometimes; it was him who would get in real trouble, after all.
Not that that stopped him. Astrid already knew when his next planned hunt was, had seen him grow twitchy and dark when the urge came over him. She'd even seen him right after his last, which was a first. It was a long time before he felt comfortable leaving Astrid in his home with Valka, alone, while he was out cleaning up the streets by making a mess. But he finally had (with Valka's consent), and so she saw him come back, saw him peel away his bloody clothes before scrubbing away the evidence. Watched every detailed, painstaking step he took to remove trace from his clothes, his weapons, his ring.
Then dragged him to bed and demanded every detail.
Shaking her head and trying to ignore the thrill that quivered within her at those memories, Astrid downed the rest of her rapidly cooling coffee, then headed in to the office to perform her wage-slave duties. At least her job wasn't awful, even if it was nowhere near as fun as writing about murder. Or listening to Hiccup talk about murder...
Hiccup texted her that afternoon, to keep her updated on how Valka was doing and just to keep in touch a bit while they were apart. Her own mother kept dropping hints about engagements and moving in together, and had even - quite horrifyingly - asked about babies. Astrid's adamant answer to all was to swear at her mother until she backed off. Hiccup didn't want children, and even if Astrid had (which she didn't, so it was fine), she could understand why it wasn't something Hiccup wanted.
As to living together or marriage... those were huge steps, and Hiccup wasn't that sold on marriage as a whole.(again, given the issues with his stepfather, Astrid wasn't surprised). Plus, while he trusted her, and Valka seemed to be coming around on the whole, it was a big leap to have Astrid there all the time. To give her completely free reign. Besides which, Astrid liked her space, and there wasn't much room to set aside for her writing setup, especially when the home design theme was accessibility.
So no, mother, she wasn't going to be living with Hiccup any time soon. Which was completely fine! Gods, her mother wound her up sometimes.
"Astrid, are you ok?"
"Fine! Why?"
Her boss gestured to the mess in front of her, where Astrid had apparently taken to shredding post-it notes with her bare hands, leaving a mounting pile of rainbow destruction on her desk. Wincing, Astrid hoped they hadn't been useful ones.
"Oh. Uh. Just... stressed about something with my mom. Sorry."
Clearing up the pile of paper shreds, Astrid stopped thinking of her mother and got to work. Hiccup texted her that evening to ask if he could call her, and it was a sweet relief just to hear his voice again.
"Hey. How's your mom doing?"
"Better. She's resting. I was gonna call the doctor in the morning but it looks like she'll be ok."
"That's good. Let her know I'm thinking of her?"
She could hear the soft smile in Hiccup's voice.
"I will. I'll let you know tomorrow how she's doing and when it's ok for you to come over next."
"Good, cus I miss you. But I know your mom is important. I can wait."
"I miss you too. And thank you for not giving me a hard time about this."
Astrid doubted he really expected her to have done so, but she still appreciated that he was expressing his appreciation for her understanding. He was sweet like that.
Still, she was more than happy to hear that Valka was back to a point where Hiccup felt comfortable not hawking over her constantly, and Astrid's insistence he come over to her place first made him chuckle with the implications, and he outright laughed when Astrid was more blunt.
"We can go back to yours later. I just don't wanna keep your mother awake."
"I'm sure she'll appreciate that. Want me to pick you up from work?"
"Sure."
And there he was when Astrid left work that day, with a cake box in the back seat and a re-usable travel mug full of coffee waiting in the cupholder.
"I didn't have time to go by your place, otherwise I'd have brought pastry too."
"It's fine, there's cake!"
He smiled, letting Astrid kiss his adorable face before he moved to start the car up. She sat quite happily gazing over at him, very glad to be seeing him again, until Hiccup became to squirm - he was never going to be comfortable being stared at endlessly, she knew. So she averted her eyes and focused on coffee, which was amazing as pretty much anything Hiccup ever made was.
"Have you heard anything off Eret?"
"No, I'd have let you know if I had. I wonder if we broke him. You haven't been out, so he's probably not been very busy."
Hiccup snorted, shaking his head.
"My mom comes before murder."
He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel, and Astrid wouldn't be surprised if it were only a couple more days before the Night Fury had to sate his need to hunt again - Hiccup started getting twitchy in the lead up, she'd noticed. He insisted she not drag him along to her place, so he could carry and not drop the cake box. Astrid reluctantly agreed and skipped ahead to unlock the door, waiting very patiently for Hiccup to put the cake away and take off his shoes before she jumped on him.
Hiccup was adorably wrecked by the end of round one, and Astrid happily admired him with fresh bruises on his throat and collarbone, skin flushed and sweaty, hair damp and stuck to his face until he raised a shaky hand to shove it up and away.
"Are you ok?"
"Mhmm. Just trying to catch my breath. I knew you'd be pretty rough with me today."
"I wasn't too rough was I?"
He was better, and definitely enjoyed certain aspects of rough play, but Hiccup still had his limits. But thankfully, he shook his head.
"No. I'd have told you... or you'd have noticed when I froze up or freaked out. I do appreciate you asking though."
Astrid smiled and kissed her adorable boyfriend, who returned her smile and nuzzled her when she shuffled closer to him. They laid quietly for a few minutes, enjoying the last hints of afterglow before Hiccup started squirming, a little nervous.
"What's up?"
"I uh... you can say no, but I..." he wouldn't quite meet her eye "when we were with Eret, you did something he seemed to like. A lot."
Astrid had to think on that for a minute - she did quite a few things to Eret, all of which he seemed to enjoy quite a bit, but she'd done most of the same to Hiccup. Except...
"You mean when I fingered him open for you?"
Cheeks colouring, Hiccup nodded.
"Y-yeah."
Given how embarrassed he seemed to be, Astrid had a feeling she knew what he was getting at. Or trying to get at.
"And you are, what, curious?"
"A little? I... for me, a big part of getting used to the idea of... sex, was that cus of, you know, stuff, I thought penetration always hurt. I know that's not true now, but..."
Astrid's heart ached for how twisted Hiccup's stepfather had made wonderful things like sex seem, and though Astrid would never tell Valka, she knew just from the way Hiccup let things slip and panicked over certain things that he'd obviously seen unspeakable things done to his mother, or at the very least heard her suffering.
"But you want to see for yourself?"
He nodded slowly.
"Yeah. That and... just because. If you're ok with that?"
The mix of unsurety and hope and curiousity in Hiccup's face was quite something, but Astrid hadn't even considered saying no when she was sure Hiccup really meant he wanted to try it.
"Go clean yourself up from earlier, you'll want to be comfortable and I know you hate feeling sticky."
Hiccup often did the shuffle to the bathroom fairly soon post-sex, and at the very least used a couple of wet wipes if he couldn't move much right away. Still a tad unsteady on his feet, Hiccup shuffled himself to the end of the bed, making sure his prosthetic and organic feet were both planted firmly on the ground before he shuffled off, his nudity allowing Astrid a good look at his cute butt before she reached for the wipes herself, cleaning his come off her thighs before it dried.
He came back refreshed but clearly a little hyperaware of the wandering around naked, which he didn't really do. His sense of safety in that vulnerable state seemed to fade when Astrid wasn't right there with him. Plus, he was obviously a little nervous anyway, thinking he had asked her for something outlandish rather than something Astrid was actually quite fond of doing. She'd only never offered it to Hiccup because she didn't want him to feel pressured, or unnerved.
His eyes landed immediately on the lube in Astrid's hand, but she placed it down and beckoned him over. Hiccup moved, letting Astrid pull him to the bed and taking her kisses happily. She was confused when he tried to move again, stilling him with a hand on his hip as he made to turn on to all fours.
"You don't need to do that love, I can manage just fine with you on your back. Plus, it'll be easier on your knee."
Even if Hiccup didn't have a prosthetic, she highly doubted he would manage to be comfortable and relaxed if he couldn't see Astrid. But he'd only seen her do that to Eret when he was on all fours, so he obviously thought that was how it was done. Cheeks flushing again, Hiccup laid on his back.
"I'm gonna go slow, ok? If you wanna stop, or something doesn't feel good, just say and we stop."
Astrid commented as she rubbed his thigh, waiting for him to nod.
"Ok."
"It might feel a little strange at first, but you do get used to it."
"Have you..."
He didn't need to finish for her to know what he was asking.
"I've done it, and had it done to me before, yeah. I like it, and I've never had a complaint. I just want you to know in advance what's coming."
Wanting him aroused, and more importantly relaxing before anything went in anywhere, Astrid started with familiar territory and palmed his soft cock. It didn't take long for him to start to swell under her hand, filling out further when she lifted and stroked him properly. Hiccup huffed and wriggled a bit, enjoying her ministrations.
"Might feel a bit weird, but nothing is going in yet ok?"
He nodded tightlly as Astrid opened the lube bottle and squeezed a glob onto her hand, returning her now free other hand to his cock to stroke him again. The lubed hand trailed down, massaging the tight little muscle there. Hiccup squirmed, face confused as he tried to figure out the new sensations. Astrid could feel when he relaxed a little, tension easing enough that she looked up to ask if he wanted to carry on.
"You can... I'm ok."
"You sure?"
Hiccup gave her another nod, clenching instinctively when he felt her finger breach him. It shouldn't have hurt him, but she knew first times could take some getting used to. Leaning down, Astrid licked and teased the sensitive tip of his cock, an effective distraction that allowed her to press her finger all the way in. Astrid waited, letting him adjust to it before she moved her finger, seeking and searching...
"Ah!"
There it was. Hiccup jerked, visibly surprised by the sudden sensation.
"You ok?"
"What was that?"
Kissing his cock with a small giggle, Astrid wiggled her finger a little again, watching as Hiccup shuddered and gasped.
"That is what Eret liked so much. Your prostate, it's a sensitive gland that is best accessed through the butt. You have one, I do not. Want me to keep going?"
Hiccup's head bobbed forward eagerly.
"Uh-huh."
"Ok. Think you can take two? Easier for me that way."
His muscles tightened around her finger, as though testing before Hiccup relaxed again, a softly whispered "yes" his consent to continue. Astrid added more lube - there was no such thing as too much lube, in her books - before pressing her fingers back in, and he was relaxed enough to take two pretty easily. As soon as Astrid found his little hidden hot spot, Hiccup probably didn't care how many fingers were in him so long as they were touching him like that.
Astrid was very glad he'd plucked up the courage to ask her for this, because he was incredibly sexy writhing on her fingers, hips bucking, cock leaking as he whimpered and whined. Green eyes kept falling closed as Astrid's fingers rubbed back and forth, as though Hiccup wanted to watch but it felt too good for him to pay that much attention to anything other than getting off.
It was an intimate thing - she was, for all intents and purposes, inside Hiccup. And as she was every one of his firsts, that definitely made it all the more potent an experience every time they tried something new, because Hiccup had to trust her so much to let her do it.
When she gripped his cock and tugged him just the way he liked, Hiccup lost the fight to hold out, to stretch the moment longer before he spasmed all over, tight around her fingers as his back arched high, come splattering her hand and his belly, a few more spurts landing on her still-bare skin as he twitched and shuddered so violently before finally dropping heavily to the bed, panting hard.
"Oh my gods..."
He looked utterly debauched, but she could see Hiccup felt a little overwhelmed and didn't want him to come crashing down from that high. Wiping her hands clean hastily, Astrid crawled up the bed and laid an arm over his chest, Hiccup's arm coming to wrap around her instinctively.
"You good love?"
"Mhmm. How... how does it feel good for you if only I have that prostate thing?"
Hiccup finally managed to ask, voice still showing he was a bit dazed.
"There are nerves there that can feel good, depends on the person though. I like it. And it feels... different, more intense. Sometimes too much so, but when you're in the mood for it and the guys good, it's incredible."
Astrid continued on explaining anal sex, thinking Hiccup's quiet was his curiousity before a weak little whimper left him, Astrid's words apparently serving to arouse him further.
"Sounds like you like the sound of it."
"I uh... I do. Just not sure if I'd want to be giving or taking it to be honest."
Even Hiccup was surprised he'd said that aloud, but he didn't take it back and Astrid grinned, leaning over to kiss him.
"Who says we can't try both?"
None of them were asleep, and they all knew it.
Eret still couldn't believe he'd gone back there. There was clearly something wrong with him that he could return to their bed, especially after coming so close to being a Night Fury victim he could still feel Hiccup's arm on his throat if he thought about it for more than a second.
Neither had brought it up, which was both unsettling and a relief. Were they just going to pretend like Eret didn't know?
Well, he hadn't turned them in, and it hadn't stopped him going back. So maybe they were just that confident. They also hadn't mentioned the photo, but Eret hadn't been questioned by his bosses or sacked yet.
Astrid's eyes were closed, her head resting on Hiccup's chest. His arm was loosely draped around her shoulders. His eyes were open. Even in the dark, those eyes weren't anywhere near as empty as they had been before. And despite his twisted libido taking him back there, Eret had just enough preservation instinct left to know he wasn't going to fall asleep in the same bed as a serial killer.
Gods, what a ridiculous thing to think. I need help.
One blue eye cracked open when Eret rose from the bed, both watching him dress in silence before he left. At least it wasn't the mad, rushed I'm-going-to-die of before. Eret didn't quite breathe properly until he was outside again, where reality and clarity and maybe just the final remnants of his common sense smacking him in the face alongside the cold night air.
"What am I doing?"
There was no way it was going to end well. The sensible thing to do... well, the sensible thing to do would have been never to be seduced in the first place. The second most sensible - if undesirable - thing to do would be to turn himself in for what he'd done, and get the Night Fury off the streets. But despite everything, Eret still had no proof it was Hiccup. He may as well have confessed to Eret by saying "I am the Night Fury, serial killer extraordinaire" and Eret couldn't prove a damn thing.
Third most sensible would have been not to go back, followed closely by never going back again.
Climbing into the shower when he got home, Eret scrubbed himself clean, taking stock of the bruises Astrid left on his skin. Less of the visible throat-marks that time, but there were several littering his chest and collarbone, And lines down his back where Astrid's nails had dragged, little spots of broken skin where she'd been especially rough. The blonde woman was feral.
There was no more stark a reminder of just what Eret had gotten himself entangled in than what happened the following morning. Having given up somewhat on his obsessive reading/working at home - what was the point? He knew who it was now for sure - Eret had actually gotten a half-decent nights sleep before his phone ringing at just gone five in the morning roused him.
Eret stood over the body, and he saw the brutality of it all. There was a bruise on the corpses throat that looked like they'd been choked, their neck crushed between the same hands that Eret had shuddered with pleasure under not long ago. The current best guess for weapon was a brick, based on the brick found nearby with what looked like a little brain matter and a lot of blood.
His stomach should have been turned. Guilt and shame should have been crawling on his skin. But when Eret closed his eyes, he saw the scars on HIccup's arms and the tender way he looked at Astrid.
Which, in hindsight, Eret thought was probably all entirely intentional. They'd shown him a vulnerable, traumatised man who was a curious lover to clash with the dark, sadistic bastard he became when prowling the streets like a lethal hunter. And it had done just enough to throw Eret for a loop.
He wrestled with himself for over a week, trying to work the Night Fury case without losing his mind. And still, when Astrid texted him? He went. Eret knew he was already in too deep.
The following morning - having left Astrid's flat close to 2am - Eret had barely gotten home, showered and crawled in to bed when his phone rang again. Having been slipping to 'sleep' state, Eret frowned at the message.
"Fresh Fury kill. It's only been a week. Weird one though."
Something was off for Eret right away. For starters, he was with Hiccup only two hours before, and the body had been there longer than that apparently. And that was before they considered the two things that really, really stood out. Such as the fact the victim was the husband of a police officer - despite everything, the Night Fury didn't seem to go after them in particular. And the other glaring shift was the fact this particular victim was found indoors. They didn't have a single Fury kill that wasn't outside.
He dumped people he hated like trash when they were battered and broken to his satisfaction. He didn't leave them resting on a (now ruined) plush carpet, with protection from the elements. The MO was all kinds of off. But the branding was the most distinctive part, the Night Fury's signature. And there it was, staring up from the front of the left hip. That was the other sorta weird thing - the guy was naked, and they couldn't cover him for fear of contaminating evidence.
"You know we gotta ask. Where were you last night?"
Scowling, the officer who's husband was beaten to death feigned insult in a do you really have to ask kind of way. Still, he humoured the with an answer.
"Out. My husband and I were having marital issues, I've been going for long walks at night to prevent arguments escalating."
Scratching his head, Eret was absolutely bewildered. He'd definitely been with Hiccup last night. Which meant it was nigh on impossible he'd have had the chance. And, with the body indoors, he'd have had to know the husband was out at the time. Seemed like a big coincidence. But still, the brand was there. A brutal beating and that brand screamed Night Fury, but a lot of other things just diid not add up.
Eret called Astrid that morning, asking the needed question.
"Did Hiccup go anywhere after I left?"
"Nope. Sleeping like a baby, which I know cus I couldn't sleep last night. Why?"
"Check the news."
And with that, Eret hung up. There was no answering call or text from the couple, but there was an answering message from the Night Fury.
Not even twenty four hours after Eret's encounter with the confusing body, the first victims husband was dead. And, as though to drive it all home that the night before had been someone else - the choice of victim suggesred suspicion on the husband - there was a message on the wall, painted in smudgy strokes of the dead guys blood.
"I don't like copycats."
-HTTYD-
Yes, Eret went back. I tried to be as non descriptive as possible and there's nothing really explicit there. Besides, y'all know Eret's only got a few more chapters.