Thanks a million for the amazing response to the first chapter! I've gotta say, I still can't believe it, 50 follows for just one chapter. I'm so glad people liked the premise! Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited and reviewed! :D
On with the story!
Chapter 2: Time spent together.
"Ughhh, this is hopeless" muttered Hiccup, sinking to the ground in a panting heap.
Toothless cocked his head, making a curious sound. He was probably wondering what all the fuss was about.
Hiccup was pretty much winded after half an hour of training with his makeshift punching bag, a sack half filled with grain hanging from a branch. He had been trying to pretend this sack was Astrid, trying to dodge her pretend punches and trying to land one of his own.
His stamina was usually pretty good in the forge, but here, he was having to stop to catch his breath every few minutes. The problem was, Astrid won't just let him take a break in the middle of the duel. He'd be fighting tooth and nail from the start, and even a momentary lapse will be game over.
"Thor's beard!" He exclaimed, finally glancing at his bruised knuckles. Perhaps it was time to stop practice for today.
Gathering some spare saddle parts in his sack on top of the grain, he heaved it over his shoulder and started making his way back through the dense forest.
Shortly after he left the cove, he heard a sound, making him freeze instantly. Toothless being discovered was one of his recurring nightmares lately.
He listened carefully, it almost sounded like someone's frustrated groans, alternating between thunks. Hiccup didn't know which way to escape towards as they grew closer and closer, and he started towards his left just as an axe whizzed by in front of him, making him yelp loudly as it slammed into a tree.
Astrid emerged a moment later, instantly coming to a halt, her angry glare morphing into a surprised one.
"Hiccup? What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Oh Astrid!" Hiccup's heart was racing now, and it wasn't cause of the near miss with the axe. What was she doing here?
"I-I was just umm...t-training"
"training?" she raised an eyebrow. "Since when do you care about anything other than your useless contraptions?"
Hiccup gulped, trying to place himself squarely in her path. He had to stop Astrid from going towards Toothless's cove. But what to reply? The best lie is one that has some truth in it right?
"Since your announcement"
Hiccup kicked himself the moment the words left his mouth. They were kind of true, but that doesn't mean Astrid wouldn't lop his head off with her axe now right?
She didn't reply, her only reaction was her eyes widening a fraction before she was again sporting an impassive look, but the next words out of her mouth made Hiccup question his hearing ability.
"Want me to help?"
Astrid Hofferson was angry. After yet another shouting match with her parents, she had left the house in a rut, making sure to slam the door on the way out.
She let out a roar of frustration and chucked her axe, imbedding it in the nearest tree. Went over to retrieve it.
Whip! Thunk. Repeat.
Each throw did seem to let out a trickle of pent up rage from inside her. She headed into the forest aimlessly, guided only be the direction of the nearest tree.
Her parents had been on her case for months now. They'd been badgering her to pick a boy out after she turns sixteen. No amount of insistence from her had dissuaded them. She'd might have had more luck trying to convince a brick wall.
Then, in a moment of brilliance, she'd had the idea to set a betrothal trial so difficult, so impossible, that Thor himself would have had a hard time with it. Thus, she could say that she tried, but simply no boy was able to prove himself worthy of her.
Her parents hadn't been amused when she'd announced the ridiculous terms. Astrid was quick to point out it had all been within the technicalities of the law, and there was nothing they could do about it. She had smiled smugly when her parents didn't have an apt retort to that. It had turned into them playing the 'We're your parents and you'll do as we say' card but she knew she'd already won at that point.
"Maybe you'd have better luck trying to marry me off next year" she said, smiling sweetly before dashing out the door.
She was sensing victory was close, she just needed to beat up every suitor stupid enough to fight her, to a pulp, and then-
"Gah!"
She froze, having almost taken the head off of-Hiccup? What was he doing here?
It was strange to run into anyone this deep into the forest, let alone the village weakling.
She was especially surprised at his reply when she asked him why on earth he of all people was training.
Apparently, fishbone here wanted to try his luck at winning her hand. She might have laughed, if her mood wasn't so agitated already.
It was clear he wasn't thinking this through, but some other not-Astrid girl might have even found his naive ambition almost adorable.
Astrid didn't though. Definitely not.
She glanced at his sack. Obviously way too small for any real punches, plus Hiccup needed to work on his strength first and-
An idea. A plan to take her mind off things and maybe have some comedic relief at the same time.
"Want me to help?"
Hiccup stated at her as if she were from another planet, almost cowering in his place.
"Come on" she gestured, reaching over to grab her axe and started walking towards a nearby clearing. She heard his steps follow after a few seconds of hesitation.
They reached a small clearing in the woods and she grabbed the sack off his hands and held it up in front of him.
"Hit it"
"Why..?"
"You don't wanna train? I thought you'd like to have an edge over the others" she said with a hint of mirth in her voice.
Hiccup eyed her disbelievingly from a safe distance, clearly not trusting her words.
Astrid was wondering if she should feel bad for toying with him, but she was too amused to care right now. And who knows, maybe he'd even learn a thing or two.
"Hit it" she tried again, more firmly.
He threw a single punch with his left hand, extending fully before making weak contact.
Astrid huffed. "Step closer, you're way too far from it"
Hiccup hesitated, and Astrid rolled her eyes. "I won't bite, ya know"
He stepped closer and punched again, still a weak hit but at least it made a satisfying thud.
"Again" she commanded. And so he did.
They circled each other slowly, Hiccup throwing punches and Astrid taking them all in the sack she held out in front of her.
He had started out weakly but each successive punch was landing a bit harder, more confident, and eventually she had to tighten her grip on the sack, but each punch was coming quicker and quicker, knocking it a bit loose each time before-
Wham!
The sack flew out of her grasp, landing on the ground and spilling some of its grains and some metallic parts that didn't seem familiar to her.
Hiccup was breathing heavily as he quickly stuffed the spill back in the sack, looking as surprised as she was. A hint of a smile came to her face but she forced it away before he could notice.
"You need to work on your stamina" she commented dryly.
"Yep, I know"
It occurred to her that she had probably exchanged more words with him today than she had in the entirety of this year.
"Come on" she said, slinging the sack over her shoulder. "We'll run till..." she glanced forward- "raven's point and back to the village. It's a good distance"
His eyes widened instantly. "N-no not Raven's point. Cliffside will be better." She raised a questioning eyebrow. "Less trees in the way and the path is smoother" he finished.
"Okay.. whatever" she muttered, and jogged off. She heard his panting breaths as he struggled to keep up with her brisk pace.
She barely broke a sweat when she made it to the western cliff, and leaned against a large rock, waiting for Hiccup. He emerged a few moments later, sweating and panting as he collapsed onto the grass in a heap.
He caught his breath and looked up to see Astrid looking down at him with an amused smile.
"Not funny" he mumbled, causing her smile to widen even more.
It occurred to her that this might be the first time in days that she had actually smiled. It was a pleasant feeling.
Training with Hiccup wasn't so bad, and she didn't have to worry about him getting better than her even if they trained for a hundred years, plus, at least he had the decency to not try to constantly hit on her like Snotlout.
Hiccup had finally managed to sit upright and gave her a tired smile. "How on earth are you still breathing normally after that run?"
"I'm just used to it. Your stamina will eventually build up too"
"I hope so" he replied distractedly, and she followed his gaze out over the sea, towards the setting sun which made the whole sky glimmer orange and golden.
"Wow" she breathed quietly, transfixed by the sight till the last of the sun had disappeared into the sea. It occurred to her that she didn't even remember the last time she'd seen a sunset.
Hiccup shifted his leg on the grass and the metallic sound jarred Astrid back to reality.
"Come on, enough rest"
"Wait! It's hardly been-" he protested but she was already up and off with a laugh, running down the slope and towards the village.
Wait. She thought to herself. Did I just laugh? I must really be losing it.
She emerged from the other side of the forest near the village, and this time it was a good few minutes before Hiccup showed up, unceremoniously collapsing to the ground again.
"I'm dying" he wheezed between panting breaths. "Can't breathe"
She couldn't help but roll her eyes at his dramatics.
"Oh don't be such a baby Hiccup"
He just answered with a muffled groan.
"I'll be here same time tomorrow if you want to train again" she said, catching him lifting in head in surprise before she was already on her way towards her house, strangely feeling much better than a couple of hours ago.
Hiccup stared dumbly at her retreating form, still sitting on the ground. That was really strange, he thought. Had he actually spent some meaningful time with Astrid? And had she offered to train with him again tomorrow?
She probably was doing it out of either pity or amusement, but that didn't stop a big goofy smile from coming onto his face.
This could work.
Maybe the gods had shown him a path forward after all. He now had the perfect opportunity to observe her fighting style from up close, and maybe figure out weaknesses, if any.
He opened his notebook and tried to think what he'd learnt today that could help him in the duel.
Her stamina was remarkable. This meant trying to outlast her in the fight will be a worthless endeavour. His only hope was to strike early and strike hard.
Hand to hand fights are won by either knockout, or by pinning your opponent down for ten seconds. The latter definitely seemed the easier option.
He also needed to figure out the modification for his shield. He needed to know the size of her Axe's blade to get started. He made a note to get it tomorrow.
While he was thinking all this, he realised he'd absently drawn a quick sketch of her in his notebook. He quickly shut if before anyone happened to pass, and slipped it into his vest pocket as he started on the path back to home.
He reached the edge of the forest next day and was surprised to see Astrid leaning against a tree, twirling her axe.
"I was thinking you weren't gonna show up" she said with a smirk.
"Oh, well- I came" he said, cringing at the lame reply.
Luckily, Astrid didn't notice his discomfort or nervousness, "Come on" she called.
He followed her into the woods till they reached the same clearing from yesterday.
"Let's see how your strength is. Do a push up"
"P-push up?" He said, eyes widening.
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, when you use your arms to push yourself up-"
"I know what a push up is" he grumbled.
She turned a bossy glare on him. "Then do it"
He wasn't even sure if his noodly arms will be able to support him, but he still grudgingly got down on the ground, and putting his palms down on the dirt, pushed himself up with a strained groan, managing to hold it for a second before collapsing, his arms complaining instantly. He half thought he should feel embarrassed, but didn't really care. Astrid probably already knew how pathetic he was.
He sat up and turned to her, expecting her to be laughing at him, but was surprised to see her looking at him thoughtfully.
"What?" he asked, unnerved.
"I wasn't really expecting you to be able to do that"
"Umm- thanks?" He said, unsure if that was a compliment or an insult.
"Your arm muscles are strong. You just need some work on your core strength"
She got down on the ground beside him and rattled off a set of twenty-five push ups, not even breaking a sweat.
She blew a stray bang out of her eyes, and turned to Hiccup to find him staring in awe. A slight blush came to her face despite her best efforts. "What? it's no big deal"
"Yeah- of course" he mumbled, averting his gaze.
"Use a tree" she instructed. "Put your palms on it and do sort of standing push ups, it will put less strain on you and will help your muscles all the same"
He did as she had told and found that yes, it was indeed much easier. He continued doing those while Astrid did regular push ups on the ground. After a good while, both of them were breathing heavily, and Astrid called a break.
They sat on the ground, and she turned and pulled out a canteen from a bag he hadn't noticed her carrying.
She took a long swig from it before handing it to him, which he took and drank gratefully.
Hiccup felt strange in that moment, sitting with his lifelong crush, all alone in the middle of the forest. He knew that she had absolutely no feelings for him, and probably was only training him out of pity, but a strange rush of happiness and optimism glided up his spine anyway.
Maybe it was the adrenaline still running through his veins after the exertion, but he decided then and there that he absolutely loved spending time with her. Even if it was hard work and a completely platonic activity. Just looking at her, hearing her voice, being with her, made it all worth it.
"Hit me"
"You're joking?" Hiccup said incredulously.
"Come on Hiccup. Try to strike me" she said, irritation in her voice.
He hesitated, and she hardened her glare, making him throw a laughably weak punch that she stopped with a light hand.
"Do you really think you'll be able to hurt me?" She said, almost as a challenge.
Fine. She had asked for it.
He threw his left fist at her at speed, and was worried about hitting her for a split second before she smoothly sidestepped around it, grabbing his arm and pushing him against a tree with her side.
"Pathetic." She deadpanned. "Again"
"Fine" Hiccup said, gritting his teeth and throwing another punch, pulling all his weight into it.
She caught it at the last millisecond with both hands, with a loud smack.
"Slightly better" she conceded. Hiccup grinned widely. Then she realised she was still holding his hand, and released it quickly. Almost too quickly.
"You've got to use your whole body" she instructed, pointing to his feet. "Plant your feet firmly, and let the power travel up your body, through the shoulder and finally into the hand" she showed him the motion, and let Hiccup try it for himself.
"Of course, a powerful punch is useless if the opponent sees it coming. Keep your arms at your sides, and don't aim punches until you're ready to strike"
After a few more practice fights, Hiccup was completely spent by the time Astrid finally called it a day.
When they reached the village, Astrid brushed aside her bangs, allowing Hiccup to see both her eyes before bidding him farewell with a wave and a small smile.
It wasn't easy by any means, but Hiccup did manage to keep the goofy smile from coming to his face until she was out of view. And he was still smiling, later that night, as he drifted off to sleep.
Hope you liked the chapter!
Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed a certain Hiccup detail I've changed from the canon timeline. More context will come later ;)
Keep the reviews coming :)