He hated it so much, absolutely hated have to act like he was enjoying himself with Heather. Within the first week alone, he was ready to say screw it and take Astrid to a remote island where it could be just the two of them while the hype of Dusk having a child soon wore off-it was gonna be that or him threatening to remove himself from the band if they bothered Astrid. He hated having to go over to Heather's place after a long night of practice, he hated spending the night there three to four times a week, he hated being out in public with her attached to his arm as he wore his wig and sunglasses since he couldn't wear the face paint but it increased the chance of someone recognizing him as Hiccup or at least it had until Astrid started using her makeup to cover the scar on his chin, the sunglasses his the green eyes and the wig hid his auburn hair. Heather at first threatened to tell the press because 'Dusk' wasn't supposed to be in disguise but Hiccup shut her down by saying that if he didn't use the glasses or cover-up on his chin then people would know who he was and that would break the contract.
Heather seemed to back off after that but whenever Hiccup slept over, she tried her hardest to seduce him but he ended up just sitting on the couch and staying up all night until he returned home where he would sleep until after lunchtime. Astrid hated seeing her boyfriend have to suffer all to protect her but she'd be lying if she said she could handle the press in her condition. It had been a month already, Thanksgiving was past and thankfully-Hiccup got to enjoy that with Gobber, Toothless, Astrid, and the others since Heather was going out of town to see family and Hiccup refused to be out of town while Astrid was pregnant in case she needed him. It was part of the agreement, Heather couldn't interfere with anything pregnancy or band related. If Astrid called needing his help or there was a band thing-Heather couldn't stop him from leaving, and she couldn't follow him because of the restraining and no contract order for her to stay away from Gobber's house and Astrid.
There had only been a few events that the band had to attend, slight previews of their new music, couple talk shows, and Heather got to be there for them all-attached to his side which he hated with a fiery passion. Now it was a week until Christmas and Heather said she had family coming in to see her and meet her boyfriend-which meant that Hiccup had to attend Christmas with her. He was working on trying to find a way to spend Christmas with Astrid too-he wasn't going to just blow off one of the biggest holidays known around the world because of Heather getting in his way.
"Hiccup, don't stress about it. We'll just do Christmas early here, you we don't mind..." Toothless offered.
"That's not the point." Hiccup groaned out as Astrid rubbed his back a bit knowing he was frustrated and hating this, they'd all been trying to find a loophole in the contract, talking to the lawyer who handled it, any of that to get him out of this arrangement but so far-everything was legal as long as she wasn't telling anyone that she knew Dusk's true identity as Hiccup Haddock, they weren't giving up though. Stormfly, Meatlug, Hookfang, Zap, Hiss, and Sparky all felt bad for him-they knew he hated his too, it showed during practice on some nights when he just couldn't focus. They were all over Gobber's trying to figure out Christmas, how to spend it together. In the brief pause of the discussion came the ringing on his cell phone. Hiccup pulled it out of his pocket and slid the green icon to the right as it connected.
"Hi baby!" came Heather's cheerful voice.
"Don't 'Hi baby' me, Heather. What do you want?" Hiccup remarked coldly.
"So grumpy all the time, if you'd let me touch you then I could relax you little. All the pent up sexual frustra-"
"Enough. We aren't having sex and I ain't touching you. Period. What do you want?" Hiccup asked again.
"Oh fine. I'm calling to let you know my parents are flying in on the twenty-third, and staying until the twenty-seventh, you are staying that long too. I don't need them questioning why my boyfriend and I aren't living together after dating for almost three years," she stated calmly but in a demanding type of tone.
"Well, we haven't been dating for almost three years, because in case you forgot, I broke up with you back in August! And no way, I am not staying with you that long!" Hiccup yelled quickly as the others looked at him confused.
"Too bad, Hiccup. My family wants to meet you so you're gonna come and put on the act or I'm gonna rat you out at the airport when we pick them up because Thor knows the news crews and reporters will be there..." Heather informed.
"And why would they know to be at the airport just because your parents are flying in unless you opened your big mouth?" Hiccup grumbled.
"I didn't know I was being watched when I was on the phone with them yesterday..." Heather mumbled now.
"Typical. Regardless, I'm not spending an entire week with you. For Thor's sake, that's all of Christmas and I want some time with my family. Not to mention Astrid has an appointment on the twenty-third at 3:45pm." Hiccup stated as Astrid had shown him the calendar reminder on her phone since today was the twenty-first.
"My parents fly in at 3pm! You can't just be going off to an appointment with her," Heather exclaimed.
"And you're not allowed to interfere with appointments or band practices, that was the agreement. Astrid gets seen every two weeks until the eighth months and then it's once a week until the baby is born. Get over it, that's how it is. I'm not missing her appointment for your sake, just tell your parents I have practice or something-I'll come over after the appointment ends," Hiccup sighed heavily.
"Fine, but you're staying the rest of the time. It's not negotiable," Heather remarked now.
"You're being unreasonable!" Hiccup yelled.
"Toothless and Gobber are welcome to join Christmas here, not the others." Heather said firmly.
"I swear to the Gods, I hate you. I actually think I hate you more than I hate my own parents," Hiccup said coldly.
"Oh come on, don't be that way just because you're mad you have to actually spend time with me..." Heather said trying to act innocent.
"No. Seriously, Heather. I fucking hate you. I would rather be dead than continue to take part in this stupid game of yours, and the only reason I haven't killed myself yet is because there are ten people in the same room as me right now who actually give a damn about me and what I want. You don't even love me, you just want the damn spotlight." Hiccup growled at her, "I'll be there at 5:30pm on the twenty-third. Fucking leave me alone until then..." after saying that he hung up and threw his phone down-not really caring if it broke or not-then stood up and went downstairs.
"This is getting out of hand, we have to do something." Zap said.
"I agree, I don't like what he just said about preferring to be dead over having to continue playing as her celebrity boyfriend..." Gobber nodded.
"There's gotta be something we can do to get him out of being there for the week..." Toothless sighed.
"Well, she's not allowed to interfere on band or my pregnancy, right?" Astrid asked as the others nodded, "What if I just...called him away from there because I'm in pain or something? Gives him an excuse to get out of there and be here for a little while to do Christmas with us?" she suggested.
"It could work," Stormfly said with a smile.
"Should we tell him?" Toothless asked.
"No, I think he wants to be alone right now...we'll just surprise him with it. Besides, the shock and fear will show more if he doesn't know what's going on. We'll do it Christmas Eve around 6pm or so, have him stay til eight or nine then he can go back to her so she won't call or harass him..." Astrid informed.
"And we have to work on getting him out of this, I really don't know how much longer he can take it. I've known him awhile and never heard him say something like that," Gobber sighed.
"What can we do. We've been over that contract a thousand times in the last month and there's nothing that says what she's doing is wrong," Toothless mumbled.
"There's gotta be another way around it, blackmail itself it illegal and that's what she's doing to him. Blackmailing him into being with her by holding my safety over Hiccup's head..." Astrid stated.
"We'll take it up with the lawyer after the holidays are over, I know she's out of the office until after New Years..." Gobber remarked.
"Should we go check on him?" Hookfang offered.
"Yeah," they nodded agreeing and got up to move to the basement, once down the stairs they saw Hiccup just sitting in the recording portion of it with one knee up and a notebook resting on it while writing intently it seemed.
"What's he doing?" Astrid asked softly.
"Trying to take his mind of things, music usually works." Toothless replied to her.
"You mean like turning what he feels into lyrics?" Astrid inquired now.
"Something like that. We actually got a lot of our hit songs from him when we started out, he had notebooks filled with song ideas-we assume from the life he had before I found him," Toothless shrugged some as they saw Hiccup move to the wall and get an acoustic off it-then put the strap over his shoulder after putting the notebook on the stand in front of him. Hiss and Sparky moved to the soundboard and flipped on the speaker so they'd all be able to hear him in there. Hiccup started with a simple tune from the guitar.
"I look around, and see my wonderful life, almost perfect from the outside. In picture frames, I see my beautiful wife. Always smiling-but on the inside...Oh, I can hear her sayin'..." he took a breath now, "Lead me with strong hands. Stand up when I can't. Don't leave me, hungry for love-chasing dreams, but what about us? Show me, you're willing to fight-that I'm still, the love of your life. I know we, call this our home-but I still feel...alone."
The others just listened, not really sure what he was getting at, unless he was referring to Astrid being his wife and that he felt her feeling like because of all this going on that he wasn't giving her his full love and that she felt alone every time he had to go to Heather's to appease her demands. That was the only thing that would make sense in a song like this.
"I see their faces, look in their innocent eyes. They're just children, from the outside. I'm working hard, I tell myself they'll be fine. Their independent-but on the inside...Oh, I can hear them sayin'..." another pause as he kept his eyes closed, "Lead me with strong hands. Stand up when I can't. Don't leave me, hungry for love-chasing dreams, but what about us? Show me, you're willing to fight-that I'm still, the love of your life. I know we, call this our home-but I still feel...alone!" the music picked up a bit-of course it was just his acoustic.
In these lines, the group assumed that he was referring to his daughter-that after she was born, would he have time for her between his career and dealing with Heather's bullshit-coming at her ever beckoning call in order to protect his family. They felt bad, he was actually suffering and right now-there wasn't a thing that could stop it without risking everything he was putting up with to protect. It was now they saw him open his eyes and lift his head a bit towards the ceiling.
"So father give me the strength, to be everything I'm called to be. Oh, father, show me the way...to lead them. Won't you lead me?..." it softened a little as he sighed, "To lead them with strong hands. To stand up when they can't. Don't want to leave them, hungry for love-chasing things," the music picked up again, "that I could give up! I'll show them, I'm willing to fight and give them, the best of my life. So we can, call this our home! Lead me, because I can't do this alone...Father, lead me, 'cuz I can't do this alone!" the music went another few moments before it just stopped and he lowered his head.
"As soon as the new year is over, we have to get him out of this..." Astrid said sadly.
"We will," Gobber put a hand on her shoulder. Hiccup put his things away, closed the notebook. After it was cleaned up he shut the light off and exited the room to see them all there looking at him sadly.
"You been holding out on us man, when did ya write that?" Zap asked hoping to lighten to mood a little.
"About ten minutes ago..." Hiccup stated with a sigh, Astrid hugged him tightly and buried her face in his chest. Hiccup wrapped his arms around her.
"We are all here with you, we do it together. She's making all our lives miserable," Astrid said as she put her hand on his cheek now, "We'll get through this, and we'll have our family without her in our lives. Remember who you're doing it for...me and our daughter-who you will be able to hold in just fourteen more weeks. We'll get rid of Heather before then, I promise...everything will be okay. Just hold on a little bit longer,"
"She's right, you're not alone in this." Toothless told him with a hand on his back.
"I know, I just...ugh...she had to take my entire Christmas?! You know she did it on purpose too," Hiccup sighed.
"We know, she's a vengeful little bitch-but don't worry...we'll make sure she gets all she has coming to her," Stormfly smiled wide.
"You guys are the best," Hiccup said holding Astrid still. "Thank you," he said softly.
"Hey, I thought...of another name we could use for our daughter," Astrid said looking up at him now with a smile, he returned it looking down.
"Alright, shoot?" he asked.
"Iris," Astrid said gently.
"Huh, I like it. I really like that. Let's use it," Hiccup told her.
"Iris Haddock it is then," Astrid said formally.
"You're...gonna give her my last name?" Hiccup asked a little surprised, usually if an unmarried woman had a child-the child would take the mother's name until the mother was married, then the child's last name would turn to change to the new last name.
"Of course, you are her father and...I'm hoping that one day...the only name I'll ever have to change will be my own, to yours," Astrid blushed a bit but Hiccup knew why, Astrid was implying she wanted to get married to him and change her last name to Haddock too instead of both hers and their daughter's names.
"I promise you on my life that once all this shit with Heather is over with, you will get to change your name too." Hiccup said as he eyes widened a bit.
"Y-you mean..." Astrid trailed off.
"Yes. As soon as Heather is out of our lives, and we have little Iris in our arms...I'm gonna tell the world who Dusk's girlfriend is-who will very soon become his fiance and then wife. I'd do it now, but I don't want you pregnant for obvious reasons. I promise, Astrid...you hope will be fulfilled after Iris is born. We'll get married and you will become Astrid Haddock," Hiccup told her as tears brimmed her eyes and he kissed her deeply, after a moment he pulled back staring into her eyes, "I love you, Astrid and I'm never going to love anyone else. You're who I want for the rest of my life,"
"I love you too, Hiccup. You're the only man I'll ever love," Astrid replied trying not to cry now.
"Awe! We call playing at the wedding!" Meatlug announced.
"Wouldn't have it any other way," Hiccup nodded as they clapped and cheered. Hiccup chuckled as he led Astrid back upstairs-the others followed but only up until they saw Hiccup take Astrid to his room, shut, then lock the door.
"And this is where we leave the lad and lass be," Gobber smiled as he pushed them away from the hallway with a smile. It was obvious to figure out what they were going to be doing. Making love-carefully because Hiccup was a worrywart when it came to having sex with Astrid while she was six months pregnant. The doctor gave them the okay too as long as they stopped if Astrid said it was starting to hurt. How couldn't the two be happy right now, Hiccup basically just promised to marry her as soon as the baby was born and Heather was out of their lives. Once the baby was born, Hiccup planned to announce that Dusk had a new girlfriend, and a daughter-that Heather was just an act to protect Astrid and the baby. He wasn't sure if he was gonna reveal himself as Hiccup yet but as it stood, he wasn't gonna keep Astrid and little Iris a secret in three months' time. Hiccup couldn't wait for the act to be over, then everyone would happy-except Heather but Hiccup didn't care if she was happy or not. She didn't deserve it after the crap she was pulling with forcing Hiccup to be with her. It would be over soon.