Immortal, but Not Invincible

"Hiccup thought his immortality was a gift. Keyword: thought."

Rated T

2,482 Words

Hiccstrid

Hiccup, Astrid, Valka, Stoick, Tuffnut, Ruffnut, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Heather, Toothless

Immortal + Modern AU, Major Character Death, Implied Suicide

July 29th, 2020

And he had felt so great when he figured out he was immortal…

He was only a boy—a child too ignorant to understand death and too innocent to cherish life. All he knew was that he hated his life. He hated everyone who made his life insufferable; he hated the family who always looked so irritated and disappointed in him, the friends who relentlessly teased him, the bullies who beat him up when no one was looking, and everyone else in the town who looked at him like he was some pitiful accident. The only ones he had were his cat, Toothless, and his best friend, Astrid.

He was only a boy when he figured out he was immortal and when he thought he had figured out his whole life. His house caught on fire. His father wasn't home. He wouldn't make it in time. His mother was home. She heard the alarm and smelt the smoke and ran with her boy out of there, as fast as she could. But Toothless wasn't with them. Little Hiccup only had two things that made his life bearable: Toothless and Astrid. He couldn't leave one of them to die.

He ran back in before Valka, his mother, could stop him. He ran through the burning house as the walls looked like they were melting and the supports gave out. He ran up and into his room. Toothless was asleep on his bed. That's where they found him too, or so Hiccup was told. His mom wasn't so lucky. The stairs, burning apart, cracked under her weight. She fell and hit her head. They weren't quite sure if she suffocated to death by inhaling the smoke or burned alive first. Either way, it wasn't painless and it wasn't pretty.

Hiccup came out of the incident unscathed. His father made sure that no one else knew all the details of what happened. It was a miracle his boy survived, but it wasn't a miracle he wanted his boy to be exploited for. Toothless lived too, curled up next to Hiccup on his bed.

After losing his mom, Hiccup spent a lot of time at Astrid's. His dad was either too busy working or drinking his sorrows away. Astrid was always sympathetic. The two played together all the time. In fact, they were playing when the second incident of Hiccup's immortality occurred.

They were playing too close to the road. Astrid's mother had always nagged her about that. It's how her uncle Finn ended up in a wheelchair—getting hit by a car when he was too close to the road. Astrid and Hiccup were the smallest kids in their class, with Astrid barely being any taller than Hiccup. A car would've crushed them instantly. They were playing with a soccer ball when it rolled into the road. Normally, Astrid would have checked the road both ways before stepping out, but not that day. She was just having so much fun that she stepped in the road without a thought. She barely had time to register the car horn before she felt a powerful shove at her side.

They said that the boy was lucky. He was small and must've just fit between the wheels. He came out with some scrapes and bruises, but he was alive. It was another miracle. The driver could've sworn that they felt their car drive over something, not that they'd ever admitted it. It must've just been the soccer ball. Astrid could've sworn that she saw blood…

As the two grew up, Astrid's mom began foreboding the two hanging out. Astrid was a young woman and Hiccup was a young man. They ought to hang out with their own. The genius boy Hiccup didn't. He stayed at home working on his wild inventions or reading books. When he got older, he'd spend all his free time working at his father's friend's, Gobber's, car mechanics shop. Astrid was an athlete at heart and was often training. She got a motorcycle when she was 16 and, however reluctantly, her mother let her spend the rest of her time riding it. The two still hung out occasionally, especially with mutual friends. They did movie nights and played board games and went to parties. They were never as close as before that day, but they would be again.

It was a game of truth or dare and not spin the bottle as Snotlout had insisted. By then, many people were interested in both Astrid and Hiccup. Astrid had aged nicely, athletics toning her body well. She was fiery and a challenge that many boys wanted to take. She was also a fiercely loyal friend—a point that could be confirmed by the likes of Heather, Ruffnut, and many others. Hiccup was a charmer and puberty hit him like a pile of bricks. He was adorably sweet, but he had a bit of a reputation for being a rebel. Everyone wanted to know just who he was; everyone except Astrid, of course. She already knew.

Astrid got the dare by none other than Heather, with the support of Ruffnut. Both girls knew that Astrid was never one to back down from a dare, so they gave her the hardest one they could think of: kiss Hiccup Haddock. Hiccup asked if he had a say in the matter, but it was too late; Astrid's lips were already on his. They didn't talk about the incident for a week, much like they didn't talk about the car crash. When they did, they both decided to give it more time. She didn't even show up to the Haddock-Hofferson family dinner that their parents hosted every month since his mom died. Something about her motorcycle…

Her mom died. She had been at the gas station on the bad side of town where she worked as a charitable woman helping people in need. A man had been shot and she had tried tending to his wounds, stopping the bleeding. The robbers told her to back up but she stood her ground. They shot her on the spot without giving her the time to defend herself. Astrid spent the last year of her childhood living with her Uncle. Hiccup didn't talk to her that year.

They went to the same college as everyone else from high school. Astrid claimed that she had spent her year to herself and she was ready to be back with her friends. The school, a local community scholarship, eagerly accepted her with her great reputation from the high school. It was almost like she had never left. Hiccup and Astrid picked up their relationship where they left off.

Stoick wanted to take his son hiking for Thanksgiving break. The particular trail they were taking was far from civilization and it was beautiful. Hiccup enjoyed it. He really did.

The weather got bad unexpectedly, and they were in a really bad place. The trail was steep and narrow and they were about halfway up the cliff. The only option was to keep going up, so they did. The rain made the trail really slippery and Hiccup wasn't always the most coordinated with his body. He took one wrong step and felt the ground slip from under him. He didn't scream. His father reached out to grab him, but he only fell down too.

He was told that his dad's body broke his fall. He swore that he felt his body collide with the jagged rocks below them. It was a painful death, having your body stabbed by rocks and bleeding to death. The funeral wasn't much later, but Hiccup was an adult. He could take care of himself. All his friends, the bullies of his childhood, were there for him: Tuffnut got Hiccup out of the house to have fun, Ruffnut always lightened his dark mood, and Snotlout took care of his house when he couldn't. Fishlegs would cook him food and Heather gave him all the notes he missed from class. And Astrid, oh Astrid… she crept into his room at night and cradled him as he cried himself to sleep.

After that, Hiccup was sure that he wasn't that lucky. He was immortal. He thought he had his life all figured out. He was immortal and all his suffering and losses were compensation for it, but it felt great. As a child, he had felt totally and utterly useless. He was smaller than the other kids and slower and weaker. He struggled at school, something that was later discovered to be from a mix of social anxiety, issues verbalizing his thoughts, and a genius kid whose brain was racing fast, and no one taught him how to keep up. He felt like he would never amount to anything, that he wasn't anything, for so long. Now, he has something better than what everyone else has.

The losses took their toll, though. Snotlout was having some problems with his family that everyone missed. He drank and he drank and he drank until his body couldn't handle it anymore. Tuffnut and Ruffnut were drug addicts. It was just an adrenaline rush to them until they pushed their limits. They were having a competition over who could take more and both ended up overdosing. Fishlegs was mugged. Unlike Astrid's mother, he did everything the muggers said. Like Astrid's mother, he was killed anyway. Heather got really sick. She didn't have any family to pay her medical bills. Her older brother, Dagur, turned to some shady business to get the money. He disappeared one day without a trace. She could no longer afford her treatment and died soon after. All that was left of the gang was Astrid and Hiccup.

Hiccup had his fair share of close encounters too. On the one-year anniversary of his dad's death, he went back to the trail and got struck by lightning. He lived. One of his roommates had killed his other roommates and just happened to skip him. He lived. Someone crashed into his car and sent it rolling down the road. His car was totaled—crushed. He lived. Astrid joked about it. She always remembered what happened to them as kids. There's no way he just survived all of that.

Hiccup's supposed immortality had started to weigh him down, but two things kept his spirit up: Toothless, his cat, and Astrid, his girlfriend. Toothless was still alive and kicking after these many years. After some time of being back home, Astrid and Hiccup decided to make things official. They were dating and hoping to be married soon after college. Gobber approved.

Hiccup thought he had his life all figured out. He was immortal—invincible. He was going to graduate college with his degree in engineering, mechanical, then get a job. He'd marry his best friend Astrid. They'd move into a nice little house in the suburbs, quiet enough to raise their kids but close enough to the city so that they could have fun. He'd make the money and provide for them. Astrid would probably become a soccer mom. They'd save up to send their kids to college. Their kids would move out of the house and they'd have grandkids. He and Astrid would retire and move to the little village in Norway where his dad's side of the family came from. They'd spend the rest of their days together until age finally took them… The last part was up for debate. Hiccup was still aging, so he wasn't sure whether or not he'd die from old age. It didn't really matter to him now, though. He had the rest of his life and he'd face that question when he got there.

Hiccup forgot that Astrid wasn't immortal and that, no matter how invincible he thought he was, everyone has their weak spots. Astrid and Hiccup were taking the bus home. Cars were expensive and obsolete this far in the city. Also, Astrid had given up her motorbike after her mom died, kinda respecting her wishes more now that she was dead. Something broke. The bus wasn't turning or breaking. It plowed right through the barrier and into the water. Luckily, the windows were all closed, but that was only delaying the inevitable.

Hiccup wasn't quite sure what happened next. He hit his head when the bus crashed into the water. The next thing he knew, he was on the shore and being questioned by paramedics. He kept asking and asking where Astrid was, but the shore was chaos. A lot of other people were on the shore: passengers at various stages of consciousness, friends, and family that had rushed over after hearing about the accident—the first responders trying to clear up the scene. He couldn't see Astrid and assumed that she was just out of his view or the ambulance took her already. Deep down, he knew that he was wrong.

It was night when it happened, lit by a full moon and without a cloud in the sky. They told him that she died saving him. She had helped several people get to shore. Witnesses recalled her pushing his limp body back onto land. They were sure that it was a wasted effort and he was already dead. He didn't look like he was breathing. Someone even shouted at her to drop him, that Hiccup was holding her back and she'd drown with him if she didn't. Astrid didn't give up. She pushed Hiccup's dead body onto shore. She didn't make it herself. She drowned that night.

Hiccup thought he had his life all figured out; he thought that immortality was great and he was invincible and all the pain he went through were sacrifices that were worth it. He didn't think that anymore. He dreamt between the time he was knocked out on the bus and when he was woken up by the paramedics:

Astrid was standing over him, clad in a flowy blue dress with her blonde hair down. The light of the moon illuminated her and Hiccup swore she was glowing. Hiccup wasn't awake. His eyes were closed, yet, he could see her. She leaned down so that her face was much closer to him.

"I knew you'd live."

There was no parting kiss as she stepped back into the water and let it engulf her. He could still feel her breath on his lips. He wished she had saved herself. She knew he was immortal but still decided on wasting her last few breaths to save him. He was upset, angry, and furious. Hiccup longed not to be immortal. He longed to have died in the fire long ago with his mom, to be spared all this pain that was worth nothing. What worth was everlasting life if you couldn't use it on the life you wanted? He was physically alive but mentally dead.

He was immortal, but not invincible.