=Astrid's POV=
[Sunday, 9/4/2022-7:00 pm]
[Isle of Berk; Bazirk Residence]
I was glad Hiccup was finally feeling better; I didn't like when he got sick because it typically hit pretty bad. Friday night, since my parents were on a weekend vacation; Hiccup and I took refuge at my house that way he could rest without Dagur and Mala's twins couldn't harass their uncle while he was sick. I have found out that Heather is their Godmother, and Hiccup; the Godfather, defined as Auntie Heather and Uncle Hiccup. It was quieter for Hiccup at my house; he told me he appreciated the suggestion. We left the Bazirk home around 3:30 pm, and reaching my house; Hiccup took a shower and relaxed on my bed. We talked a bit, watched Descendants 2, and I had dinner, but Hiccup didn't want to test his stomach, so he passed on eating. Saturday was more of the same and Hiccup basically slept all day if he wasn't making trips to the bathroom to throw up or relieve himself. Here we are on Sunday, Hiccup said he felt a lot better; had some energy back. However; he still passed on breakfast and ate a little for lunch, something light. Hiccup managed to hold it down and we just had dinner at 5:30 pm; he ate a full meal and seemed to be doing alright.
Of course, my parents came home at 4 pm, so I said I was taking Hiccup back to Dagur and Mala's place; then I'd be later. Reaching the Bazirk Household; Hiccup and I entered the house to see the family sitting around in the living room. "Hey, welcome back," Heather greeted with a smile.
"How are you feeling? Dagur said you were sick," Mala asked.
"Feeling a lot better, Mala," Hiccup smiled.
"Oh, good; you're here," Dagur approached. "The boys say hi and hope to see you Monday,"
"I'll be there," Hiccup nodded. "No problems?"
"You really think they're gonna misbehave in your absence knowing you'll find out? And then come back to ream them?" Dagur chuckled.
"No, but it's my job to ask," Hiccup shrugged. "How was drill?"
"Average. More of the usual," Dagur said. "Oh, here," he handed Hiccup a set of keys. "Bludvist said to give them to you,"
"Thanks," Hiccup replied.
"What are they to?" Dagur wondered.
"My house," Hiccup said calmly.
"Sweet. If you need help; let me know. We can round up the guys to move everything," Dagur reminded.
"I know. Alright; I'm gonna go relax. You coming, babe?" Hiccup inquired as he looked at me.
"Of course," I smiled, holding his hand as we headed to his room.
"Hiccup, one more thing…This Saturday is the memorial at 5:00 pm; being held at Berk Hall. Family and friends invited; it's being held outside. Big after party, food and drink provided. Class D attire for the soldiers," Dagur informed.
"Got it," Hiccup nodded as we moved forward to his room. I didn't even need to ask Hiccup if he was alright; I saw his reactions to hearing the news. I knew Hiccup wasn't looking forward to this; it had to be hard to sit and remember everyone you'd lost while fighting in war. All I knew is that I would be by his side to help him as much as I could.
. . .
[7:30 pm]
Hiccup knew he wouldn't be going anywhere else tonight, so he changed into something comfortable before laying on the bed with a sigh. I joined him, of course and snuggled into his arms. "Are you going to be okay for the memorial?" I decided to ask.
"Hm? Yeah, I'll be fine," Hiccup replied. "It's not the first I've attended…And it won't be the last," he sighed a bit.
"So, what happens overseas when someone passes? You just…Wait for the tour to be over to hold the ceremony for all lost?" I wondered.
"No, we hold something overseas too. Usually the next day; we'll group up and do a little something for those we lost. But after tours is the big one, where we can actually stand together and mourn the losses; then have a couple drinks, those of us of age to do so, and remember the good times," Hiccup explained.
"So, is this for everyone is Alpha Company?" I inquired.
"It was supposed to be, but it was decided to break the memorial up into groups by platoon, so this one will be just for my boys in Dragon. All the platoon leaders, and Bludvist will attend too. Our group lost the most, so it's gonna take longer to get through name wise," Hiccup stated gently.
"What's this…Class D Dagur was talking about?" I asked, looking up at him.
"Those are different uniform types we have. Like…The uniform you saw me in back June, those are the Class A's. They represent the uniform for Active Combat, so deployed or certain types of training. Uh, Class T is our training uniforms; usually used for physical training sessions. We have workout wear, and then average training. We usually get told which to use and when. And then Class B is Battle wear; only for deployments. Then Class D stands for Dress Uniform; it's a formal suit for memorials, promotions, etc.," Hiccup mentioned. "We have a Class C as well, it's a less formal version of Class D,"
"That's kind'a cool. I guess they tell you what ones to wear, or do you mostly know when to wear it?" I questioned.
"We typically know what we're to wear," Hiccup confirmed. "If we know what the function is; we can assume. But I suppose sometimes; they feel it's necessary to tell us,"
"Right, understandable," I nodded. I had to admit; it was still surreal to me that Hiccup was in the military.
I still can't believe that he was going to give it up for a life with me, and then when I messed up; he went through with it. And now; it part of him. And it will be part of us as we move into our lives. I say ours because of something very specific Hiccup told me before he went back to war in June on the 17th. Hiccup told me that he proposed to me, so I could be the one he spent the rest of his life with, and admitted that his desires on that have not changed. I knew that after all the waiting and heartache; Hiccup and I would be together forever now. I wasn't sure when we'd get married, but I knew it would happen one day. Hiccup and I felt the same in that regard, now that we finally had one another back; we weren't going to lose it again. It still scared me that Hiccup was in the military; I knew how dangerous it was, but who was I to tell him what kind of career to have?
If Hiccup was happy, so was I. I knew we'd be perfectly fine as long as we had each other. That's the way it had always been for us, and I fully believed in it after all the time apart. The night Hiccup proposed to me; he said something very specific that I've held onto all these years. Hiccup and I have been through everything together, and we could handle anything that came our way. Hiccup told me that I have him, no matter what. Whatever it meant, whatever I wanted it to mean; he was with me. There would always be a Hiccup and Astrid. And that has remained true for us. Despite the breakup, despite the time away from one another; we immediately reconnected as if nothing happened. Our friendship, and our feelings never died. And it's clear that even apart; we were never far from each other's thoughts because we never moved on or got over one another.
What Hiccup and I have is true love. And I'll fight anyone who says otherwise; I'm sure Hiccup will too. We waited and worked too hard to get where we are now. And when Hiccup popped the questioned again; I would have absolutely no hesitation when I said yes with the biggest, most excited smile on my face.
"So…" Hiccup broke me out of my thoughts. "I was thinking that…After the memorial, and all the moving into my new house…Maybe we can take that vacation to Dragon's Edge?" he mentioned.
I perked up instantly. "I was beginning to think you'd forgotten,"
"No, no. Things have just been a bit crazy with getting out of war and what not. Also…Do you think you'd be able to get more than just three days off?" Hiccup wondered.
I arched a brow at him. "What do you mean? You want to go for longer than a weekend?" I asked.
"Yeah. I was thinking a week. A full seven days, just us. Well, Toothless too, but you get the idea," Hiccup stated. "I just…Really wanna be able to spend time with you, babe. It's been nuts since getting back, and what Dagur told me last Friday got me thinking. I never take time off unless I'm sick, or the deployment leaves. I have so much time I can use, and I want to spend a lot of it with you away from all this madness. I plan on taking the week after this one up to like…October 3rd," he informed calmly.
"Why so much?" I blinked.
"Well, I want time to move in without work getting in the way. All I really have is bedroom stuff; I gotta shop for everything else; that's gonna take some time that I don't wanna be doing after 5 pm at night. And once that's all set; there's gonna be a house-warming party so I can show it off," Hiccup laughed a little. "And then I want to take some extended time with you, babe. Just you, me, and Toothless out at Dragon's Edge. I want more than three days after being away from you for eight years, then getting called back to war early…I just want some…Uninterrupted, no responsibilities time with you, Ast," Hiccup explained softly, holding her hand.
"You wanna take from...The 12th to…October 2nd off? Three weeks of work to move in, have a house-warming party, and then…Spend time with me?" I inquired, making sure I understood right.
"Yep. I was thinking the house-warming on Friday the 23rd; you sleepover…And then from the 24th to the 2nd. It's you, me, and Toothless at Dragon's Edge," Hiccup suggested. "I mean we'd probably come back sometime around midday on Sunday the 2nd, and then I'd go back to work Monday the 3rd. What do you think? Up for spending…A week with me?" he asked.
How could I say no? A week with Hiccup, just us? Well, Toothless too, but I knew those to were a package deal. Besides…I loved Toothless; he was adorable and so well behaved. "Alright, I'll put in for those days at work then. Well the 23rd, and then the 26th to the 30th. But…I want to bring Stormfly if you're bringing Toothless," I mentioned. Stormfly was my dog; I just got her when I started working at the Berk Hearts Animal Hospital. It's also an adoption center; Stormfly was an abandoned, abused, and sick puppy who has bonded to me as her caretaker, so I adopted her just after Hiccup went back to Iraq in June. Stormfly is about two years old. I know Toothless is five or maybe it was six.
"That's absolutely fine! Toothless loves her anyway. I was actually going to suggest you bring her along," Hiccup chuckled a bit.
"Think maybe we can have a night where our friends join us while we're camping? A cookout or something? I remember when our families used to do joint trips over the summer; I miss it," I inquired.
"Sure, I'm cool with that. We can invite mine and your parents too. I think we were supposed to do a trip, just us teens over the summer after graduation," Hiccup said.
"Yeah, but then everything happened," I nodded.
"Hey, don't think about it. I know it happened, but we're past all that now. We have each other and our future to keep moving towards," Hiccup pulled me over and kissed my forehead. I smiled and blushed. I couldn't wait for this trip! I'd been trying to bring it up, but I knew Hiccup was under a lot of pressure and stress with work. I knew his job as Second Lieutenant and being Platoon leader for Dragon kept him busy. Plus he had the house thing going too. I was so glad he brought it up, and I found it incredibly romantic that he expressed wanting to just spend time with me. Yeah, we'd have our friends and parents up for one night; they'd probably just stay for dinner and leave later on. But the rest of the time was all Hiccup and me. I couldn't wait; this was going to be so much fun. I absolutely needed to remember to put the days off I needed into the vacation time book at work tomorrow.
"You feel okay to go to work tomorrow?" I asked him.
"Yeah, I should be alright," Hiccup replied. "I feel a lot better than yesterday. I suppose I have my personal nurse to thank for that," I blushed instantly.
"I-I didn't do anything special, just made you rest," I reminded.
"And I guess that's all I needed," Hiccup looked deeply into my eyes. "You're all I needed. This is why I said the vacation would be good," he added. "I feel like I'm not spending enough time with you. When we were teens; we spent every chance we got together, as friends and lovers,"
"Babe, it's fine. We spend plenty of time together," I assured. "We're just busy being adults,"
"Yeah, well when we go on vacation; I'd like to not be an adult for a while," Hiccup laughed a bit. I smiled and leaned into kiss him gently.
"I'm with you on that one," I agreed afterward the kiss ended. This felt good; it felt amazing to be like this again. I knew Hiccup agreed with me even if we didn't say anything out loud. "I'm really looking forward to the vacation,"
"Me too. I could use a break from everything," Hiccup admitted.
"You okay? Seemed kind'a down in that statement," I wondered.
"No, I'm good. Like Dagur mentioned; I never take vacations, babe. I have so much vacation time saved up because whatever I don't use for the year gets rolled over into the next one. The only leave I took was while deployed on the three tours. I'd either take two weeks in the middle of the tour once. Or one week each at two different times during the tour," Hiccup explained.
"On your leave, did you come here to Berk?" I inquired softly.
"I did. Mostly stayed at mom and dad's place. Snot and Adel with their parents would come see me, and you know Gobber lives there already. Didn't do much; I didn't even see the others. They learned I joined the military the same time you did," Hiccup stated lightly. "I didn't think the twins could keep a secret, and at the time; I didn't want you to find out and end up over worrying for my safety and putting your life on hold for my sake,"
"Well, seems like we both ended up kind of doing that. Not moving on with our lives, always on each other's minds," I laughed a bit.
"I know, but we tried to move on regardless of where we've ended up now," Hiccup informed.
"I understand what you mean," I nodded gently.
"A lot of my leave time was just trying to get some rest," Hiccup chuckled some. "It's rare overseas,"
"Is it?" I looked at him.
"Well, we get sleep when we're not working. But it's not like…A good sleep. No deep sleeps, that's a better way to put it. Always on guard, light resting; the smallest sounds wake you up or you're just unable to fall asleep because you're anticipating that the minute you close your eyes, something will happen," Hiccup explained lightly.
"Oh, that sucks. I see now why you sleep so deeply while home," I smiled now. "Well, shall we watch a movie or something? I plan to go home around 10 or 10:30 because I have work tomorrow. It's only about 8 pm now,"
"Sure. You want to pick it, or should I?" Hiccup inquired.
"I picked the last few. Your turn," I invited. "Plus it's your room; I don't get a say,"
"You're my girlfriend, of course you do. We do everything together, as partners," Hiccup said as I blushed again. Hiccup got the remote and flipped on Hulu; he browsed a moment or two and located a show called Vikings. "You see this before?"
"No, but looks interesting," I stated.
"Well, we can watch a few episodes then," Hiccup put it on as we got comfortable to watch. I was happy; I really was. Everything in my life finally felt right again. And everything was going to stay perfect for us; I fully believed in that.
