Hiccup groggily awoke to the sound of pounding rain on the roof of his tent. Creaking an eye open, he stole a glance from under his blanket and saw dark grey outside, the sun hidden behind thick clouds. Sitting up with a sigh, he reluctantly rubbed his eyes and reached for his shaggy coat. Today is gonna suuuuuck he thought as his shoes slipped on his feet and he ducked out of his tent flap into the pounding rain.
Gobber was already up, as were Astrid and Fishlegs, and Gobber was doing a decent job of making the others ready for the day. "Git up ya lazy dogs!" shouted Gobber across the clearing, as he knocked down the Twins tent. A few sharp yelps as they sprang up, knocking into each other which earned Tuff a punch in the nose. "Whoops, strong wind I'm guessin," mused Gobber as he glanced across the campsite, "Ah, Hiccup, yer up. Good, now get to runnin'!"
Hiccup moved quickly, lest Gobber come knock over HIS tent, and reached the incredibly muddy beach where Astrid and Fishlegs were already hard at work with morning exercise. Snotlouts voice, assuring Gobber he was awake and just needed to put on pants, could be heard cutting through the wind and rain. Hiccup made it a good twenty feet along the beach before his foot fell into the mud at an awkward angle and as he pulled his leg out, his shoe was sucked off, leaving him off balance for a moment and toppled over.
Tinkling chimes of laughter met his ears as a hand grabbed his left shoulder and roughly pulled him to his feet, mud caking his face and shirt. Astrid stood there, braid whipping violently in the storm, clothes soaked and clinging to her chest and hips in a way that made Hiccup blush, continuing her mirthful laughter that burrowed into Hiccups chest and found a nice, cozy home right in his heart. He silently vowed to make her laugh like that as often as Viking-ly possible.
"You really are totally pathetic, aren't you?" she said giggling, "You know, for someone so smart, you are really stupid sometimes." She added, bending down to snag his shoe, wiping the mud from it further on his clothes. Pointing at he own bare feet, she made a 'Duh' motion with her hand and set off again down the beach. Of course, bare feet make way more sense in weather like this, I'm an idiot Hiccup thought with a hand over his eyes in embarrassment. Quickly doffing his other shoe, he threw them back towards the camp site and set himself into a light jog, not allowing the mud squishing between his toes to bother him.
Something was different with Astrid today, but Hiccup could not figure out why. On at least five separate occasions during the running and swimming portion of the morning, she had loudly picked on him. Starting with the shoe-wearing, and ending with her telling him he looked like a drowned dog with his untamed hair all matted and wet on his face. Swam like a drowned dog too, she had added. Every time she would tease him, she would either slow down for a moment to run alongside him, or turn and run backward for a moment. Even once sticking her tongue out.
The running was difficult and embarrassing, but the swimming was terrifying and deadly. The storm had whipped the ocean into a frenzy that threatened to drown him or suck him out to sea with each thunderous crash of waves rolling across him towards the beach. More than one time, a wave had picked him up and simply slammed him into the compacted dirt, dizzying and disorienting him.
The day got weirder as the teens dragged themselves off the beach to where the campfire had been the night previous and began the next part of the work out. Snotlout pushed himself in between Fishlegs and Hiccup, dropping to his hands and started pushups. "No, dude" he said quietly, so only Hiccup heard him, "You start your hands too wide, that makes these way harder. I even hate doing them wide. Put your hands as even with your shoulders as you can and keep your elbows in, like this." He demonstrated after the explanation.
Hiccup gave a very odd look to Snotlout who glanced over and grinned, "What can I say? I was dry as fuck last night. Thanks again for the tent, figured I'd try and repay the favor." He kept giving bits and pieces of helpful advice, pushing through your legs during sit ups, breathing out as you were pulling your body up, and Hiccup had to admit they did make the exercises easier. He still struggled mightily, but easier. Hiccup vaguely wondered if Snotlout now considered them friends in between gulping down air into his heaving chest after another set of exercises.
Slowly, over the course of many hours, the sky relinquished its onslaught and the wind died down. The reprieve was welcome as Hiccup could hear not only his own stomach, but the other teens as well, complaining loudly and in need of food. Ruff and Tuff had gotten into an argument about Gods-know-what and with the groups mood the way it was with the wearther, it had quickly devolved into an all-out brawl that both Gobber and Snotlout had to help break up. No major injuries had been suffered but Tuff was sporting a bloody nose and Ruff's eye was blood-shot, presumably poked hard during the melee.
The rain subsided close to mid day and the cloud cover became less ominous which cheered everyone up, even leading to small whoops and cheers when Gobber produced some dry logs from under his tent. The blazing fire ebbed the chill out of Hiccups bones and helped warm and dry his clothes as he sat huddled on his stone, holding a fish skewered by a stick over the flame. Astrid was sitting to his left, seemingly deep in her own mind as she focused on the fire and her on fish, unblinking.
She suddenly started and shook her head a little, pulling her fish out with an audible 'tsk' as she clicked her tongue, scratching a peeling a scale off with her fingernail. She glanced sideways at him, and Hiccup immediately whipped his head back to the fire, like he had just happened to look over at her for a second. He could feel her eyes on him for a few second before she yawned loudly and lazily placed her skewered fish back near the fire. "So," she said wistfully to no one in particular.
"Sooo…." Hiccup said after a few moments of silence, not sure if she was actually talking to him or just passing time.
A few more moments elapsed and she took the fish back out to inspect it. Enough so that Hiccup decided she was just talking to herself out of boredom and reached for his own stick to start eating.
"A Valkyrie, huh?"
No! Hiccups fish tumbled into the fire as he dropped the stick, color erupting on his face and neck, bright red. No no no no fuck no no no no fuck no no no no no FUCK no no no no no He was dead, he died and this was Heimr. That was the only explanation. All Hiccup wanted to do was dig a hole in the sand right there, cover himself and never ever come out. His wide eyes didn't dare to even glance in the direction of Astrid or he knew his face would go from red to crimson.
She took a loud bite of her fish, grunting as she leaned back, chuckling softly. "Wings would be cool," she continued absent-mindedly, "flying around like a dragon. What an adventure. It's too bad you lost your fish, it's actually really good."
Hiccup wasn't sure if his heart was beating a million times per minute, or none at all. Either way he felt like someone had carved his stomach out of his body, smashed it to a pulp with a hammer, and just threw it back in there. He couldn't eat right now if his life depended on it. He wanted to vomit. Astrid had seen the drawing. I had to have been last night, he realized, when he had snuck out to feed Toothless. I guess thank the Gods she didn't follow me he thought bitterly, half-thinking it would have been better to have his head separated from his shoulders by her axe for harboring a dragon than endure this. She didn't seem mad or upset, emotions he would have expected, she just tortured him about it. For whatever reason that was so much worse than her screaming or hitting him about it.
"Nothing smart or sarcastic to say? No witty retort or clever insult?" she asked, still fussing with her fish and taking another small bite, gaze locked on the fire, "Interesting…."
Hiccup finally risked a glance at Astrid. She tossed her head to one side, bangs dancing across her forehead as she eyed him with a sidelong look, corners of her mouth quirking up slightly, like she was fighting back a smile. She was enjoying this, oh definitely enjoying this while he just wished he could run away from Berk forever and never return. Just to escape those big, soft, blue eyes that found extreme humor in his embarrassment and discomfort.
A loud, booming yell from Gobber for all the teens to muster on the beach for continuing dragon fighting training didn't even knock Hiccup out of his stupor. He continued sitting in front of the fire in a daze until a hand reached down grabbing his hair and pulled him to his feet.
"Ow!" he cried out, wincing in pain as he was pulled to his feet. The hand hadn't let go and he turned to let Gobber or Snotlout or whoever it was, know that that had really hurt, when he was face to face with Astrid. Her eyes boring holes into his, like she was looking through him into his soul. The words 'get your hand out of my hair' died on his lips as he suddenly realized, maybe this wasn't so bad.
"It was actually a really beautiful picture and really sweet," she said softly, almost a whisper, "you're amazing at drawing." And she darted forward, quick as a snake strike, and brushed her lips gently across his cheek. Just as quickly, she released his hair and hustled down towards the water line, leaving Hiccup rooted to the ground, unable to move his feet.
