Woo, another chapter! This was actually a lot longer (hence why it took so long), but I've decided to split it up, which also means you'll get another new chapter pretty heckin soon! ;^)
Chapter 11 - For Better Or For Worse
His voice was quiet, almost unheard when he murmured promises into her skin.
This was not what she wanted, but what she needed, so he did as she asked and held her, let her scream soundlessly into him until she had run out of tears, exhaustion weighing down her body. Slowly, Astrid raised her head, her cramped, trembling hands releasing the fabric. He pulled back, gently brushing her fringes out of her swollen eyes and fought the urge to kiss the tears off her face.
She would set the pace. So he waited, let her make the next step.
Astrid's smile was watery, trembling, but it was a beginning, and her arms slumped into her lap again, the slight pain in her wrist unnoticed.
"Thank you," she whispered into the space between them.
"You're welcome," he whispered back, his hand brushing hers.
Astrid looked up at him and found no less care in his eyes, so she leaned forward again and leaned against his chest, screwing her eyes shut.
When she spoke again, his heart had calmed down again.
"What if I never get it back? What if I'm stuck like this?"
Hiccup hesitated. "I don't know," he finally mumbled, and it wasn't at all what he wanted to feel. "But we'll make it work. I promise."
We'll make it work.
He wasn't entirely sure whether he was trying to reassure her or himself - maybe both.
She nodded against his chest, slowly. Then, "Can you tell me a story?"
A low chuckle escaped him, and without thinking, he locked an arm around her, shortly smoothing down her hair.
"What kind of story?"
He felt her shrug against him. "I don't know. Something that's important to you. Or something funny. Or something mundane, like what kind of toothpaste we buy."
He hummed. "You have a rule that we're not allowed to kiss each other before we brushed our teeth."
Astrid huffed, her breath hot in the wool.
"That's stupid. Tell me more."
Her hands had dug into the fabric again, so he rasped out a laugh and let her rest her injured leg on him instead of the pillows.
"Alright, let's see … I almost drunkenly proposed to you at our own party once."
"I know that one."
He furrowed his brow. "Really? Do you-"
"Dr - Matt told me. He also told me he thought you were lying when you said you had a girlfriend."
Hiccup snorted. "Yeah, sounds like him. Did he, uh, tell you how I actually proposed?"
She shook her head and sat up, leaning back against the sofa, her leg still resting in his lap.
"It's a bit dumb, actually. Still," he mumbled, scratching the back of his neck, smiling lightly at her. "I wouldn't trade it for the world."
The box was sitting heavy in his pocket, a constant reminder. He scoffed inwardly. As if he needed to be reminded.
Checking his appearance in the mirror before he saw her had become a long forgotten habit, but was now something he couldn't resist to do before he walked out of their bathroom, shortly raking a hand through his hair. Funny almost, to think there had been times like this.
Hiccup huffed and wandered into the kitchen, throwing a glance outside into the night. The teabags were quickly disposed, two spoonful of sugar for her equally quickly stirred in. His heart fluttering inside his ribcage, the ring still heavy while he carried the mugs into the hallway, up the stairs, into the bedroom. He tapped his prosthetic against the glass door of the balcony, seeing her shrug off the covers they had taken outside and lean over to open up the door for him.
"Here you go," he murmured as he handed her the mug, pressing a kiss on the crown of her head before he sat down next to her on the sofa.
It was a clear, starry night, just crisp enough to sit with covers and warm enough to be a promise of spring.
Astrid was grinning at him over the rim of her mug, rivalling the stars and he couldn't help but grin back, chuckling lightly.
"What?"
She shrugged, leaning back into him, her other hand wrapping the covers back around them.
"Nothing," she replied, pressing her nose into his shoulder, hiding her toothy grin. "I was just thinking about how lucky I am."
He chuckled, his heart calm again, pulling her in. "And you say I'm corny."
"That's 'cause you are."
"Name one occasion."
Without missing a beat she shot back, "Writing 'I love you' on the bathroom mirror when you shower before I get ready for bed. Greeting me with horrible pick-up lines when we're in public to annoy people. Picking-"
"Okay, okay, I get it! I'm sorry I'm in love!" Hiccup huffed, struggling to keep a straight face as he pretended to push her away, Astrid muffling her laughter in his jumper, clinging on to him.
"Sorry," she giggled, glancing up at him again, snorting when he scrunched his nose at her. "You know I'm a sucker for those things."
"I'm a sucker for you," he shot back, a smug grin adorning his face and Astrid couldn't help but wonder just what she had done to deserve this man, so she leaned back into him and wrapped her arms around his torso.
'I must've done something right,' she mused, looking back up at him, her heart full of love for the man who still looked at her like she was the best thing since sliced bread.
They sat in silence for a while, watching their breath diffuse in the night.
Hiccup's mind wandered back to his plan. Technically, nothing was stopping him from doing it tomorrow. They both had the day off. He could prepare everything (how early would he have to get up? Maybe make use of her morning run).
"You know what's funny?" Astrid's voice was soft, gently disturbing his racing mind.
He hummed, silently asking her to continue.
"I've always imagined what it'd be like, to be in love like that. To … to love someone so much you don't have to apologise for it because they love you in the same way. To know that you're honestly, genuinely loved. Now I finally-" she broke off, laughing lightly, burying her face in his chest again. "I'm being stupid."
His mind had slowly stopped to scramble for a plan full of details and planning and had started to just listen, and maybe he had got caught up in her brilliant eyes or that she said all of this into his body like it was a secret for only him to keep.
'No, you're not,' he wanted to say, but instead her name was tumbling over his lips like the answer to a question she had not asked, but maybe the answer to a question he had been asking himself.
"Astrid."
She pulled back, her brows furrowed at the tone of his voice, and suddenly his heart was fluttering again. Suddenly every little detail he had worried over had become incredibly insignificant, wonderfully meaningless. She looked up at him, stars being born in her eyes and he found himself gravitating towards her.
Hiccup looked at her, a slow smile blossoming on his lips, and suddenly the words were easy. Suddenly, there was no need for plans and flowers and rehearsed words, and this was all he ever wanted her to ask, all he would ever want.
"Marry me."
Her eyes grew wide.
"What?"
He wasn't quite sure how, but suddenly he had slid off couch, and suddenly he was on one knee, and finally the weight in his pocket was gone. Suddenly it was all he wanted to know, all else be damned.
"Astrid Hofferson. Will you - will you marry me?"
For a moment, Astrid was sure she felt every emotion rush through her at once. Then the tears came, or maybe she was laughing, she wasn't sure, but suddenly she was on the floor with him, the world around them moving again as she buried herself in his chest, making him almost fall back.
His hands came around her waist, the ring falling to the ground as he caught her.
"So is that - is that a yes?"
Astrid stopped, pulled back and looked at him as if she wasn't quite sure she'd heard him correctly. His hands were cupping her face, gently brushing the tears away, and she let out a teary laugh, nodding.
"Yes!"
She fell back against him, whispering the word into his chest again and again, their laughter slowly mixing in the air.
Astrid had listened to him with an expression he couldn't really put his finger on, but he almost stopped talking when he realised she had tears in her eyes again. She shook her head at him, willing him to continue, furiously wiping at her eyes.
When he had ended, she sniffed, breathing out a small chuckle. "Sorry. I was just mad I don't remember that. That was definitely one of a kind."
He didn't know how to respond to that. It was her who had always found the best words for everything.
"It's not your fault," he whispered then, watching her stop in her tracks and fold her hands in her lap again.
"No. I guess not."
Her voice was hollow.
Those had not been the right words.
"I'm sorry."
She looked back up at him again, a small smile playing on her lips. "We'll just keep apologising to each other, huh?"
He cracked a lopsided smile at that. "Yeah, play it back and forth. I'm very good at apologising."
She started fiddling with the wedding rings again, avoiding his gaze when she quietly replied, "You don't have anything to apologise for."
His thin fingers stilled the nervous movement of her hands, making her look back up at him again.
To her surprise, he was offering her a lopsided grin. "I don't know. My dad would beg to differ. You should've seen me, back in the days of the village-Hiccup."
Astrid furrowed her brows at him, utterly confused, and he chuckled lightly, his hand still on hers. "I didn't get that nickname for being a fun kid. My dad started it because I kept mucking things up."
"Wait, really?"
He laughed. "Yeah, why'd you think I was called Hiccup?"
Astrid shrugged, a bit helplessly, but couldn't help the smile sneaking its way onto her lips. "I don't know, I always thought it was a joke."
"It probably was, I think I just wasn't in on it. You know, give a kid a weird nickname and use it whenever he's doing something wrong, and you'll have the perfect recipe for festering some crippling self-esteem."
His voice was light, like he was joking, and maybe this really did seem a bit funny to him, but Astrid couldn't help but wonder how he could sound so lighthearted about something so CRUEL.
"I used to pretend I didn't know who they were talking about until they called me Henry. That, uh, that changed when we met," he continued, his voice growing softer, his hand flying up to rub his neck again.
"You were the first person who didn't make it seem like there was anything wrong with it - with … me. So, when you called me Hiccup, I, uh, actually kind of liked it. It felt right. And one day I caught myself pretending I didn't know who you were talking about until you called me Hiccup. After that I slowly began to realise that maybe the others' intentions weren't as bad as I'd thought."
He hummed and leaned back, crossing his arms behind his neck.
"Can I ask you something?"
A nod, accompanied with a smile.
"Did I change a lot since … you know. We met."
Nine years ago sounded too harsh, too jarring, too obvious.
He hesitated for a second, but then grinned. "I mean, you still call my yoga exercises 'creative standing', so I don't know."
It was stupid, he knew that, and not at all what she wanted to hear, and maybe a little insensitive.
But Astrid laughed. She looked at him and laughed, her nose scrunching up, her leg pressing down on him as she clutched her stomach, doubling over.
"It is," she wheezed through the tears that were forming in her eyes. "It really is!"
"There's a lot of body work going into it, okay, you have to-" he trailed off, too distracted, too caught-up in the sound of her laugh, and it was the first time she'd laughed like that since she'd woken up in the hospital, and he hadn't realised how much he'd missed it.
He couldn't even stop staring when she met his gaze again, laughter still playing on her lips.
"What?"
He grinned, shrugging, trying to come off nonchalant about it all, as if he wasn't lovestruck still for the woman he had vowed to spend his life with. "Nothing. It's good to hear you laugh," he said, knowing he was repeating himself, but it didn't matter.
"You're funny," she shrugged.
Astrid was still smiling at him, his heart soaring high again at the sight of it.
He remembered his father telling him there were no promises for only good days. But now, looking at her, he knew that they were worth the bad ones.
Thanks my old history teacher for that wise sentence I gave to Stoick, nobody can say I learned nothing from history gramps!
(Also, yes, I am aware that this is a different origin story of Hiccup's nickname, but please bare with me until I've changed it to this version in the older chapter, because I feel like this just makes so much more sense?)
