The Rift (part 1):

Earlier…

Elof took a step towards the target containing his dagger and then immediately stopped with a whimper. Pushing his tunic to the side, he extricated his sorely put upon manhood from his leggings and cursed foully.

That bitch actually made me bleed!

Gods, how long is that going to take to heal?

Grimacing, he gingerly tucked himself back in and stomp-flinched over to the target; rage drowning out (most) of the pain.

As Elof made his way back down to the village, only one thought was prevalent in his mind:

Astrid Hofferson is going to pay for this.

Stoick was working on his third beer when Elof stormed into the tavern like a furious thundercloud. Curious, he tracked the young man on his journey through the tables and benches until Elof joined a group of his friends. (The sixteen to twenty year old group that weren't really mature enough yet to hang out with the 'old people', but were old enough to consider hanging out at the tavern an acceptable pastime.) The boy immediately started muttering to his friends, clearly complaining about something if his flailing arms and red face was anything to go by.

Stoick raised a brow at Elof's father, who was a few bodies over and across the table from him. "Oi! Olaf! Any idea what's up with your boy?"

The large Viking snorted into his mug of beer, glancing over at the other table. "Astrid probably rejected him again. Boy's been after her for months."

Hector, who was across from Stoick, grinned behind his raised mug, sending a teasing smirk at Olaf. "That's because my girl's too smart for the likes of your son."

"Hey!" Olaf said with token offense. But everyone knew he didn't mean it. "Just cause Elof isn't the smartest kid on the island doesn't mean he's not a catch."

Stoick nodded over to the other side of the room where one of the younger barmaids was currently leaning over Elof and blatantly displaying her abundant cleavage for him to see as she placed a mug of beer in front of the teenager. "There's a whole flock of young women who agree with you, Olaf. Your son just needs to pick one of them." Stoick paused to sip at his beer. "Besides, my boy is the one who's going to marry Astrid," he said proudly, a smirk twitching his thick mustache up on one side.

Hector spewed out the gulp of beer he'd just taken, splattering Stoick with spit and foam, as Gobber, Bucket, Spitelout, and everyone else at their table burst into guffaws of laughter. "Hiccup? Marry Astrid? Over my rotting corpse!" Astrid's father glared virtual daggers at his friend as he thunked his mug down onto the table, making it slosh over.

Stoick slammed his mug down too, then deliberately wiped his face as he turned red with the rage building in him. He placed his hands on the table and loomed over it, crowding into Hector's personal space. "What. Did. You. Mean. By. That?" he asked slowly and very dangerously.

Not one to back down, Hector copied Stoick's stance, pushing his Chief back a bit so they were centered over the table. The whole tavern hushed as people realized that something exciting was happening and all eyes trained on the long-time friends.

"I mean," Hector said through clenched teeth, "that your son is not good enough to marry my daughter!"

Stoick sucked in an outraged breath as the tavern gave an, "Ooooooo," as a whole. Pretty much every person there silently agreed with Hector, but no one had ever been brave enough (or stupid enough) to say anything against Hiccup to Stoick's face before.

"What's wrong with my son?" Stoick growled in a deep rumble that every person felt in their bones, causing goosebumps to rise. His eyes narrowed as he gave Hector a look that said he better choose his next words very carefully or he would be paying tribute to Hel with a broken and bloody offering.

Hector was just drunk enough to decide that he could face the wrath of Hel and win. "Your son, Stoick the Vast, vaunted Chief of our Tribe, is a tiny excuse for a human being who you've raised to never be seen as a respected Viking of this or any tribe, never letting him leave home or training him with weapons like you should. I will NEVER give my daughter permission to marry someone who couldn't possibly be strong enough to protect her or her children!"

That's not true! Hiccup's more than worthy!

Isn't he?

Shoving aside the doubting niggle of a thought, Stoick huffed as his mind (fortified by idiocy inducing alcohol), came up with an equally hurtful retort. "Well, maybe I don't want Hiccup associating with your daughter anyway. Don't think I haven't noticed the way the boys in this village hang all over her. Odin knows, she's probably slept with the whole lot of them!"

"OOOOOOOO!" came from their audience once again, all eyes going wide at the slur to Astrid's honour.

Hector turned just as red as Stoick, steam practically coming out of both of their ears now. "HOW DARE YOU!?" He was just about to throw a punch at Stoick when another voice paused his fist in midair.

Elof saw his chance to make Astrid pay, so he took it. He jumped to his feet and called across the room, "It's true! Astrid's VERY free with her... affections."

"Shut up, Elof," Olaf said warningly, narrowing his eyes at his son.

Elof ignored his father and forged on. He glanced at his buddies, silently telling them to back him up. (And after what he'd told them about his injured manhood, they were willing enough.) "We've all had her, haven't we, boys?"

The other young men at the table nodded enthusiastically, putting on matching leers.

Now Hector looked like he was ready to go over to Elof and kill him instead (or as well).

Olaf grabbed Hector by the tunic before he could do more than swing one leg over the bench. "GO HOME, ELOF!" Olaf yelled. "You're going to regret saying mistruths about Astrid." Olaf glared at all the young men. "All of you. Get out."

They scrambled off their benches and made themselves scarce.

But the damage was already done.

And Stoick had started it.

This is all his fault! Hector turned back to the man he used to call his friend and lunged across the table at him, three hundred pounds of furious male crashing into four hundred pounds of equally furious male.

The wooden floor nearly broke when they crashed into it, fists swinging wildly.

The remaining adults backed away from the fight in a quick scramble, not wanting to be struck by a wayward fist or boot.

Stoick smashed a massive fist into Hector's jaw, knocking the other man off of him and jumped up to his feet. Hector was back on his feet a second later, too, ignoring the ringing in his ears. He swung at Stoick again, landing a gut punch that did almost nothing to the bigger man. "Do you know what you've done?!" he cried as he continued to rain punches on Stoick's torso, ignoring the returning ones that pushed him back with each one.

"Maybe I just brought the truth to the light," Stoick snarled, already regretting his rash words about Astrid but unable to take them back. He'd never meant to actually dishonour Astrid; he'd just wanted to make Hector hurt the way he did. But he hadn't been thinking clearly, and now everything was a mess. Fuck. All he could do was punch it out with Hector until the other man gave up.

So that's what he did.

Hector fought until he couldn't stand anymore, falling to his knees as the room spun around him dizzyingly, lip bleeding, both eyes nearly swollen shut, and nose very much broken and also gushing blood.

Stoick only had a sore jaw from a lucky punch that he hadn't dodged fast enough.

He stood over his ex friend whose head was hanging on sagging shoulders, panting heavily, the room dead silent. "I'm sorry about what I said about Astrid. It was uncalled for and undeserved. I know she's not a whore, no matter what Elof said."

"I'll deal with him," Olaf added.

Stoick nodded his thanks to the other man before focusing on his adversary once more.

Hector mustered the strength to look up at his chief, wiping at the blood dripping off his chin. "You think that's going to matter? You've all but ruined my daughter. Those boys are never going to leave her alone now."

"I'll beat anyone who dares molest her to a boneless pulp and then toss them off the island," Stoick vowed, glaring at everyone assembled so they knew to spread the word to their sons.

"Whatever," Hector muttered, spitting out blood, staring at Stoick's boots once again. "I'm still not going to give Astrid permission to marry Hiccup. I stand by what I said."

"I'm sorry you feel that way." Stoick looked down at Hector with sorrow in his eyes, wondering if ALL of this was his fault. Between Hiccup's belief that he was the laughingstock of the island, and now Hector's statement of rejection, Stoick was finally realizing that maybe he wasn't as good a father as he'd thought he'd been. Is it too late to start teaching Hiccup how to fight?

Is there anyway I can fix this for him?

Maybe... the truth?

"Hiccup loves her, you know," the giant man said softly.

Hector's gaze shot up again as he snorted in disbelief, spraying blood across Stoick's boots, then winced as his nose protested mightily. "Tough. Tell your son to stay away from my daughter or I'm moving my family off this island."

Stoick almost said, 'You do that, then,' but then he thought of how much Hiccup adored Alga and Astrid and just couldn't do that to his son. He could only hope that with time, maybe he could fix this. So all he growled out past the lump in his throat was, "Fine. And you better tell Astrid to stay away from Hiccup. No point getting his hopes up if you aren't going to approve the match."

Hector glared through the slits of his rapidly swelling eyelids. "As I said, I'll die first."

"Don't tempt me," Stoick snarled before spinning on his heel and stomping out of the tavern before he lost his temper again and flattened Hector into the floor.

As he marched up the path to his house, the feelings in Stoick swirled around like a tornado. He was furious with Hector. Furious with himself.

And so very ashamed.

Why have I never seen that by trying to protect Hiccup, all I've managed to do is hurt him? By preventing him from training with all the other kids, I've singled Hiccup out as different. Weak. Fucking Hel, I'm an idiot.

But what can I do? I don't want him to fight the dragons. I don't him to get hurt. Or killed.

I can't… I can't lose him too. I just can't.

Is it really possible that my tribe won't accept Hiccup as their next Chief if he doesn't do the dragon training? Stoick was starting to think it was. And he was beating himself up for it.

What kind of future have I been setting my precious son up for?

To live a life without a wife or the respect of his tribe all because I'm worried about losing him?

Stopping only feet from his house, Stoick looked up at the partially covered black sky, a star twinkling merrily through the clouds here and there, mocking him. "Thor, strike me down now if this is all my fault!"

He waited, hardly daring to breathe.

Nothing.

And then, off in the distance, a rumble of thunder filled the air over the sea, sounding like derisive laughter to his ears.

Suddenly terrified that Thor was about to judge him for real, Stoick crashed into his home and found Hiccup gazing at Astrid like she'd hung the stars in the sky and he felt a hundred times worse because he'd ruined Hiccup's chance at marrying the best girl on the island.

Unfortunately, he took his temper and fears out on the girl in question, because he didn't know what else to do.

"Get out of my house, Astrid, and never come back," he growled out, hardly able to look at her as he waited impatiently for her to get up from her chair at the table and skedaddle.

He couldn't look at Hiccup either, not wanting to see the betrayal he knew would be written all over his face.

"What?! That's not fair!" Hiccup exclaimed, shooting up to his feet as Astrid stood and startled sidling towards the door. He followed her, of course, because that's what Hiccup has always done. "What has she done to warrant that?!"

Absolutely nothing, Stoick thought. But how can I possibly tell the kids what a fool I've been? And... why the fuck is Hiccup only wearing one boot?

"I don't have to explain myself," Stoick snarled out, bypassing the boot thing as unimportant, thankful for the adult card that let him get away with such nonsense, even if it was just for the next few minutes.

He flinched inwardly at the looks of sheer hurt that the kids gave him, but kept up the glare nevertheless. Astrid finally made it to the other side of the doorframe and turned back to look at Hiccup with wide, pain filled eyes.

Stoick couldn't bear to see her looking like that, so he slammed the door in her face and quickly made for his room to escape the inevitable fight he was bound to have with Hiccup over this.

"What in Hel's name was that?! I thought you wanted me to court her!" Hiccup cried, making Stoick pause midstep and shrink inside his tunic.

Gods! Why did I have to bring that up earlier? "Not anymore!" Stoick yelled back, never so grateful to see his room in his life. He quickly slammed the door behind him and sagged against it, eventually sliding down the wooden planks to sit with his back against the door.

"What have I done, Valka?" he whispered, a tear escaping despite having the heels of his hands scrunching his eyes closed.

Astrid stared at the door in stupefaction. What did I do? Why does Stoick suddenly hate me?

"What in Hel's name was that?! I thought you wanted me to court her!"

Astrid jolted at the words Hiccup yelled loud enough that she could clearly hear them through the thick door. She gasped, hand flying up to cover her mouth. Does that mean that he was pushed into asking me? Gods!

Tears suddenly stinging her eyes, she whirled and raced down the path, her fiancé's words haunting Astrid all the way home.

Did Hiccup only ask me to marry him because that's what his father wanted? Well, had wanted, anyway.

I'm so confused now.

She'd thought Hiccup had genuinely loved her; his words and eyes certainly seemed to say so. She'd loved kissing him, snuggling with him. It had been everything she'd ever dreamed it could be. His kisses had been sweet and gentle, and later, just the right amount of forceful to take control without being overbearing.

Astrid loved that he'd taken the lead on something, since he usually let her dictate whatever they were doing without a complaint. It had been a nice change and it had made her feel like a girl for once and not just a warrior.

It was funny how any sort of attention like that from another boy had never made her feel feminine, but only as an object to be fought over like the best piece of steak on the platter.

She'd even let him stick his tongue in her mouth when he'd whispered it over her lips. Playing tongue tag hadn't been anywhere near as revolting as she'd thought it would be. In fact, it had been really hot and she'd started to feel a new kind of heat building in her core that she was only vaguely familiar with.

But she knew what it meant.

It meant she truly desired Hiccup.

Her mother had explained the whole sex thing when she was twelve, the conversation of which Astrid had found incredibly uncomfortable to live through, but now Astrid could see how she might actually like the idea of being so intimate with another person. (The likes of Elof and Snotlout most certainly hadn't done it for her.)

She'd also more or less accidentally noticed that Hiccup had become every bit as excited as Elof had, but unlike the older boy, Hiccup hadn't pushed himself against her at all, which she was grateful for. She liked kissing him very much, but that didn't mean she wanted to get married and have kids anytime soon.

Because that's how it worked for the honourable people on Berk; you pick your mate, get engaged, make out a lot until you're ready to be an adult, get married, make love like bunnies, and then produce a child or two. Theoretically, you could get away with the making love part before the marriage part, but smart girls didn't chance the shame of getting pregnant before they were married.

Astrid was a very smart girl.

Which brought her back around to her original conundrum; Do I still want to marry Hiccup knowing that his father may have pushed Hiccup into asking me?

Honestly…

Yes.

But we're going to have a very serious talk about this. I need to know that marrying me is what he actually wants. Because… Thor knows, it's what I want.

Eventually.

Astrid sighed to herself, kicking a pebble off the path.

How can life be so complicated sometimes?

A cry of, "Hector!" from her mother's voice had Astrid paying attention to her surroundings again, finding that she'd walked nearly all the way home without noticing.

Seeing a small crowd in her doorway, Astrid jogged past the last couple of houses between her and her house. She found Gobber and Bucket helping her dad into a chair in their living room, her mother hovering at his side and looking about ready to go murder someone.

"What…? Dad!" she gasped as she got a good look at her father's face. "What in Thor's name happened to you?"

"Had a fight with Stoick," he mumbled.

"Oh, Dad."

"Hector… Really? You know Stoick is virtually unbeatable in a fight," Alga said in exasperation as she dabbed at the dried blood on his lip and under his nose. "What were you thinking?"

Gobber and Bucket backed out of the house, looking at each other in alarm. "We'll just be going now," Gobber mumbled and then closed the door on what was probably going to be a rather loud 'discussion' about what had happened in the tavern.

The Hoffersons barely even noticed their leave-taking, too busy staring at each other as they waited for Hector to answer the question.

Hector sighed and winced as his ribs protested. (Stoick had fists like Mjolnir.) "I don't think I was, to be honest. I was slightly drunk at the time."

"Dad. What did you do?" Astrid asked worriedly, starting to get an idea that Stoick's proclamation had something to do with this.

Hector glanced at his daughter apologetically, since he knew how much she cared for Hiccup as a friend. (They had been basically inseparable since they were babies, after all.) "I may have insulted Hiccup to Stoick's face."

"Dad!"

"Hector!"

Hector winced again at the identical sounding screeches. He rushed to defend himself before he was attacked for slurring their beloved Hiccup's name. (Honestly, he had no problem with the boy as a person, he was well mannered and had spent roughly half his life in their home, making him feel almost like their own child, but that didn't mean he was good enough to marry Astrid.) "Stoick started it by saying Hiccup was going to marry Astrid."

Astrid gaped at her father. How was that worthy of insulting my Hiccup?

"What's wrong with that?" Alga demanded, more or less echoing her daughter's thought. "Hiccup's a nice boy. Much nicer than most of the boys on this island, that's for sure."

"Do I really have to explain it, Alga?"

"Yes!" both females said together, making Hector wince again. (He was feeling rather ganged up on right now.)

"I essentially told Stoick that I would never let Astrid marry Hiccup because the boy will never be a proper Viking with the way Stoick is overprotecting him, but… not quite as nice as that."

"Oh, Hector," Alga said, shaking her head as she saw Astrid's expression turn furious. "That was a mistake. Astrid loves Hiccup."

Hector gawked at his daughter, who now had her fists clenched and looked like she wanted to lop off his head with her axe. "Is that true? You love that wimp of a boy?"

Hector ooooffed as Alga landed a hard punch on his shoulder. He shot her a 'what was that for' look and ended up reeling back at the disappointment on her face.

I just can't say anything right today, can I? Why do I have the feeling I'm going to be sleeping on the bench in the living room for the next few days?

Astrid just barely fought back tears of hopeless fury. "How can you be so stupid, Dad? Of course I love Hiccup. You're the reason Stoick banished me from his house, aren't you?"

Stoick really did that? "Yes," he admitted. "But Stoick was right to do so. You're just going to have to get over your crush on Hiccup because I don't want you to have anything further to do with him, do you hear me?"

"It's not a crush!" she all but yelled. "And you can't stop me from seeing Hiccup if I want to!"

Hector narrowed his already slitted eyes at his daughter. "Oh, yes I can. If I catch you hanging out with Hiccup again, I'm moving this family off the island."

Alga gaped at her husband.

Astrid was speechless for ten whole seconds as she stared at him like he'd just slaughtered every human on the island, and then all the animals too, just for the fun of it. "I hate you," she hissed, before spinning and running upstairs to her room, gulping back sobs of despair.

He almost felt like crying himself, feeling like the world's worst father.

"Hector…" Alga said, shaking her head at him.

He held up a hand. "Don't start, wife. I'm not changing my mind. I might have to move us anyway because of what Stoick said about Astrid tonight."

Looking at her beaten and slumped husband, Alga felt a glimmer of sympathy for him resurface and a small kernel of dread took life in her gut. "What did Stoick say about our daughter, Hector?"

He looked at his wife and shook his head mournfully. "It's not good, Alga. Not good at all…"

One minute later, Hector had to stop Alga from going on a rampage to behead both Elof and Stoick.

But he almost let her go, because he thought they deserved it.

A/N: Just in case you've been living under a rock and don't know your Norse mythology OR watch Marvel movies, Mjolnir is Thor's very large hammer. :P