A/N: I'm sorry for the delay. Things happened. Thank you for understanding.
Galaxy'-'wolf-1: I am FAR from heartless I promise you that. But I can understand the confusion.
Seina Starlyn: it's coming. And you're not ready.
hiccup.sketches: it is coming towards you in full speed. muahaha.
Guest(1): Yes and no...that was a really good assumption though good job my friend.
alivia.poe.7: Thank you so so so so so much! Man if last chapter made you cry you are not ready for what is coming.
CHSHiccstrid: I can't stop laughing. Thank you again for another amazing review. You are not ready I promise you that.
Guest(2): Okay be patient my friend. Everything will become.
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[We can't...but that's exactly why we should.]
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1 week later.
Rain floats in gentle waves, as if gravity is a soft music from the Earth, a sweet beckoning serenade. Each drop bequeathes itself unto the cooling air - wet lifeboats in a dry sea. Together they paint a new picture around a glowing streetlamp. Light streams into the rich blue, as if seeking the sun, as if it is a song to the moon - and in those sacred drops it blooms into a star like those above. Sarah smiles, because in that moment, the water and the light have become a golden flower, an echo of life bursting into the night.
The sky is grey today. Everything is some form of grey, it always has been on days like this. Hiccup sometimes wonders what colour things are when it's raining. Maybe they aren't. Maybe there is only black and white and different shades of in between. That 'in between' the space of wonder, of mystery, is a place of love. It makes you wonder what goes on outside that world of grey on rainy days.
Same place. Same human. Same Mermaid.
But it was so different.
This time she was completely unaware of his intensions.
Their eyes were burning eachother as if they were fighting in silence. His with the green shine of hate and betrayal, hers with blue guilt and regret.
This time...they really looked like two enemies.
Two enemies in love.
"You left!" he screamed at her.
"I..."
"I tried to kiss you and you just left!"
"I had to."
"Why? Why did you have to leave like that? Do you have any idea how I felt?"
"Hiccup..."
"I mean...I know that I might have moved a bit fast and the idea of me kissing you might have scared you but did you really have to swim away like that?"
"Hiccup I-"
"You could just back away! You could just explain to me-"
"What is there to explain Hiccup?"
This was the first time he saw her raising her voice like that.
He remained silent as she broke down.
"What is the point in all of this? Of us? No matter what we do or how we feel..."
He saw she was srtugling. He saw tears hiding behind her lashes.
"...we can't."
His heart broke into pieces at the sound of those words.
Words flew from her mouth that she never thought she'd even think, let alone say out loud. She knew instantly from the look in his eyes that they'd hit their mark.
They can't.
Yeah. Obviously he knew that.
He was a human and she was a Mermaid. They were enemies. Their worlds were completly opposite. Their people hated each other.
"Why not?" his voice was cracking up.
"Oh come on Hiccup...who are we kidding? I'm a Syren. You're a human. This...this will never be more than a silly imagination that will never happen. A dream that will never come true."
In the rain Hiccup's hair becomes one with his face, wetly draped over the bone structure that drives Astrid crazy. His expression is serious. She wonders if he knows how crazy that drives her, how it makes her want to feel every inch of his skin.
Rain falls in crazy chaotic drops, the gusting wind carrying them in wild vortices one moment and in diagonal sheets the next. It runs down my face as a thin layer, not as cold as it will be when November comes, but without the warmth of summer showers. Rain falls like God's own poetry. Each drop is a single letter in a song that takes eons to sing. When the patter of the drops tumbles from grey skies the melody brings serenity no matter the chaos.
Rain.
Blessed rain.
"Because It's nature? Because it's the rules? Fuck the rules! I'm done obaying them. I was told what to do and how to behave my whole life! I grew up being told what I can and cannot eat, who I should or should not talk to..." his voice making an echo as it traveled between the raindrops.
She lowered her head only to find his gentle fingers lifting her chin up.
He looked into her teary eyes with teary eyes.
"But don't tell me who I can and cannot love." he whispered.
Her heart stoped.
"Don't put limits on what is or is not appropriate. You ask me if I know what love is, what it feels like and when I met you I really had no idea. But now I can feel it. You, a creature that didn't know such a feeling even existed, you showed me what it is! Love does not know geographical or religious boundary, it cannot be confined within one race or culture. I can love the whole world, I can love any person of any age, gender and background. Love flies on indestructible wings and I am blessed to feel it running through my veins when I look at you."
The rain that falls this evening is so different from the months they've just had. Before the drops were so ambient, all they brought was wetness. The blessings from the clouds alight on the skin with the coldness of the season ahead.
As she looked upon herself, in his perfect green eyes glistening with love for her, she knew this wasn't real. It must be a dream, she told herself, but one she does not wish to wake from. Astrid wanted to stay with him forever. She couldn't look away, but more than that she didn't want to.
She wanted those eyes to be the last thing she ever saw.
What could she possibly say? She couldn't say a word. Her mouth was paralyzed, her lips weren't moving, her brain was spinning around in circles.
He run his wet fingers through his hair as he continued.
"People often describe love as an emotion that we can't control, one that overwhelms logic and common sense. That's what it was like for me. I didn't plan on falling in love with you, and I doubt if you planned on falling in love with me. But once we met, it was clear that neither of us could control what was happening to us. We fell in love, despite our differences, and once we did, something rare and beautiful was created. For me, love like that has happened only once, and that's why every minute we spent together I never want to forget."
Is this a dream? Is it really happening?
He is in love with her.
All this time he was feeling the same way.
Funny games the fate can play. And cupid's arrows have a funny sense of humour.
Why? Why them?
Why her?
She was just staring at him frozen.
Then she laughed.
"In your eyes is your humanity." She said.
"What?"
"The person you really are. There are times it gets lost, when you become the man the world demands of you. But I saw it in your eyes that day we met. I saw the love that burns there too, the sort that goes for an eternity. There is something in your spirit that dances like a fire giving just the right amount of warmth. I have seen it die too, the flames almost extinguished, when you are under the gun of duty, guilt, shame and fear. I know the rough emotionless Captain Haddock isn't you, not the real version, the person I love with everything that is myself. Prince Henry isn't either. That's why I had to see your eyes, to see the real you before I left that last time. You had to see me too, the girl who saved you even though you thouht she was a monster. So when I look at you, Love is all I can feel. I need that - to be known - for who I really am too."
His heart was about to explode.
He didn't care about anything. Not the rest of the world, no rules, no nothing.
All he wanted to do was love her.
"Which is exactly why I left that day Hiccup. Why I didn't allow myself to kiss you. Because of the voice. Because I don't know what will happen to you or to me if I break the rules. I can't control it. It controls me and everyone else around me. It's a Syren's punishment to be unable of love. And I'm afraid that if I kiss you...I won't be able to stop myself."
Tears left her eyes and fell down her cheeks.
He knew it was wrong, but he couldn't resist. He leaned in a little closer, their foreheads touching. Dear god, he couldn't fight against the thoughts that were going through him. Her very smell was flooding his senses now...
She hesitantly looked up at him. The swirls of emotion she saw there made her gasp.
Lust and desire.
They stared at each other in an odd way, as if it were a silent argument. Their glances battled each other, until tears arose, and they found themselves crying.
Don't do this.
Hiccup cupped her cheek that was slowly turning red.
"Don't you dare..." she said.
She knew she wouldn't be able to resist.
"Don't tempt me Hiccup."
But they were so close. Too close to resist.
"And what if I do?"
"Hiccup If you stay with me I'll kill you bit by bit. That's what I do to those who love me. Why, I'm not altogether sure. Maybe it's because I'm a Syren. And I am cursed to obey to the voice. But when you soar high I'll drag you down. This is about as fair as I can be, it's your warning. So if you're still here you've chosen that life and if you know me at all you'll realize this isn't a joke. And trust me you don't want that."
Hiccup only smiled.
"Don't tell me what I want."
Don't do this.
He smiled at her before slowly leaning into her. His other hand was shaking slightly, his mind was repeating the same sentence over and over...
Don't do this.
The rain fell down constantly like an endless bucket of water being poured down from the heavens. Astrid looked up at him, with a soaked face. Hiccup shivered as another wave of ice hit him. Neither of them would mind the rain of course. The water was what gave them both life. One phisically, another emotionally.
"No matter the risks, the danger, the violations, I want you." he whispered.
With the sound of his heart beating so loudly he couldn't concentrate. It felt like it was going to explode.
This is wrong.
His lips were barely brushing hers. So innocently, like a tease but hot, fiery, passionate and demanding at te same time. They weren't even touching even though they were so close.
This is wrong.
He wants to pull away before he loses himself but he can't seem to…In this minty moment, his senses have been seduced and he can no longer think straight.
This is wrong.
"Hiccup..."
This is wrong. This is so wrong.
"Sh." he hushed her.
This was a bad idea. A very very bad idea.
Unexpectedly, his hand drifted to her hip. It settled there and pulled her closer. She inhaled sharply. She was against his warm chest, chiseled to perfection. Must he be so perfect? She splayed her hand against it, intending to push him away, but instead she left it there. His breathing quickened as did hers.
This was against the rules. This was wrong.
She urged herself to push away, but couldn't. Her limp body began to tremble uncontrollably. His head was angled slightly to the side as his lips came closer and closer to hers. She was surprised to find her own lips parted. Their breaths mingled. Her heart fluttered inside her chest.
This is wrong. We're gonna get in trouble.
But none of that mattered and every single thought faded away when their lips found each other.
And the whole world fell away.
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[You asked me what love is and I told you. Now let me show you.]
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Warning: grab tissues for the next one.
