Hello again my lovelies! I hope you're ready for another chapter! This one is a bit different, where it's just one scene with a flashback. No jumping between characters like in the past chapters but there was a lot I needed to show here and it felt weird trying to condense or break it up. I hope you like it. It's a bit drama, fluff, and sadness all rolled into one.

There is a bit of violent abuse depicted at the beginning so just be aware.

I probably won't be posting for a while since the holidays are coming up and I will be busy with family but I will try and work on it in my free time.

ENJOY! XD


There was a major storm brewing outside and the rain began to pelt hard against the window. The wind caused the tree branches nearby to tap the side of the house making it seem like it was knocking to be allowed inside but it didn't phase Astrid as she looked at her computer screen. She tried to focus on her schoolwork but her mind kept wandering aimlessly.

She shook her head again for the millionth time that night and continued her schoolwork, finally finishing it after an hour or so. She sighed and leaned back in frustration, mentally berating herself about taking so long on something that should have only taken a few minutes but it didn't last long as she looked outside towards the house with the overgrown trees swaying with the wind.

Her mind wandered back to the homecoming dance and she felt her cheeks get hot again at the memory of dancing with Hiccup. She didn't understand it. She'd held his hand before, she danced with him before, so why was this so different? Why did she feel warm but so nervous suddenly when in his presence? It frustrated her to no end not understanding her own feelings.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't hear her father stomping up the stairs and only registered his presence when he flung her door open making a dent in the wall as the handle made contact. "Are you serious?" he seethed.

Astrid stood up and faced him, her heart racing as she could smell the alcohol on his breath even from across the room. "I don't know what you mean?"

"Are you trying to ruin me?!" he spat as he took a step forward, his wet shoes squishing under his weight. He looked like a drenched rat, which was the perfect look for him in her mind, but made ever the more menacing with his eye completely dilated from being inebriated.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Astrid repeated firmly as she stood straighter, trying to not show weakness knowing that if she did he would exploit it.

"I told you to fix the car you useless brat!" he shouted as he shoved her against the wall.

"I did fix it," she replied back as she quickly regained her balance. "You've been driving it for weeks now." She tried her best to not roll her eyes in annoyance, hating that his memory was horrible and he forgot a lot when in this state.

"Yet, it refused to work this evening, of all evenings, when I was leaving a meeting and when it's pouring and you," he was suddenly in front of her, towering over her as he jabbed his finger into her shoulder. "You refused to answer your phone! I had to walk in the pouring rain to get home."

Astrid's eyes went wide with that new information and she faltered in her confidence, that weakness being met immediately with a painful slap to the face. Astrid kept her face turned away for a few seconds as she fought the involuntary reflex of her eyes watering, turning to look at him once she had it under control.

"I worked all night on it," Astrid said. "I checked everything. It should have worked for a long time. How did you break it already?" She mentally cursed at herself again right after the accusation left her lips.

She watched as his eyes widened in shock and rage filled them. She screamed as he forcefully grabbed her wrist and held her in place as he began to hit her repeatedly. "Do you really think I would purposely destroy my only mode of transportation just so you can fix it again? Do you really think you are that invaluable to me?"

Yeah, I can see you destroying it. She thought to herself as she felt each punch and knee to her torso. Astrid refrained from raising her other arm to protect herself, knowing from past experience that doing so would only mean more hits but with an object that was normally metal.

"Answer me you ungrateful girl," he seethed.

"I'm sorry," she replied, trying to hide the desire to cry from her voice and making it sound like she was unphased by his attack. "I'll get it fixed again."

"I'm not letting you near that vehicle again," he spat as he let her go and she allowed herself to crumple to the floor. "I'm having one of my mechanical associates fix it since you're too incompetent to do it yourself."

Astrid held her tongue at the insult, knowing that he was insulting Hiccup's handiwork. She knew he wouldn't mess up on the car and that if it was busted already, it was something her father did to break it again. Or maybe it was something I messed up when I helped him.

"I'm sorry," Astrid repeated as she held her midsection, feeling the bruising starting to form. "I turned my phone off to not get distracted from my homewo-" she was cut off by a powerful kick to her stomach, knocking the breath from her body.

"That is a poor excuse," he sneered. "You shouldn't have to worry about being distracted by anything." He grabbed a chunk of her hair and pulled her head to meet his eyes. "You pull a stunt like that again, I will lock you in the basement for a month. That is a promise I can guarantee I will follow through with, just like my promise about our neighbor." Astrid's eyes went wide with fear and her body began to tremble ever so slightly and he smiled gleefully at her reaction. "Good, you haven't forgotten. Now pull yourself together and get to bed. You have school in the morning."

He roughly threw her head down, allowing it to bang on the floor as he stood up and walked out. She involuntarily flinched as he slammed the door behind her, leaving her curled up alone on the floor. She continued to hold herself for a few minutes, fighting the urge to cry at the pain and forcing back the panic that began to consume her mind.

She forced herself to think of something that would make her happy and she immediately saw an image of Hiccup in her mind's eye. A small smile spread across her lips for a brief moment but quickly fell as her father's threat echoed through her mind. "Screw you, Dad," she whispered to herself, hating how her father had ruined her pleasant image of Hiccup.

Astrid finally managed to open her eyes and looked angrily at the door in front of her. She wanted so badly to tell him off, to tell him to take a long walk off a short pier, but she was too scared. She didn't want to be alone.

But she was alone in that room and it began to close in on her causing her to panic even more. She had a hard time catching her breath as she shook her head to stop the room from shrinking around her as she heard the echoes of her father's words pounding against her mind.

She couldn't handle it anymore. She fumbled to open her window and jumped out onto the roof. Astrid didn't even register the cold and rain or that she wasn't dressed for such weather, she only cared about getting out. Her bruised body made it more painful to climb down and she slipped and fell the rest of the way down, cutting her leg because a shingle had pressed too deeply into a sensitive part of her skin.

Astrid ignored the pain throughout her body as she made her way to her destination, finally being greeted by a soft, warm glow of garage lights. Looking around to make sure she couldn't see her house, she turned the handle and opened it to hear the clanking of metal, tools and the occasional humming.

She closed the door behind her as she looked at Hiccup hunched over his workbench working on something as his head bopped to a beat. Realizing he didn't hear her come in, she reached out to touch his shoulder when he suddenly sprung from his seat and turned around with a hammer raised above his head. She held her hands up in defense as she let out a small yelp.

"Astrid!" Hiccup sighed in relief as he lowered the hammer and removed the earbuds from his ears. "You scared me!"

"Sorry," she apologized quietly. She watched as he looked her up and down, realizing she probably looked terrible.

"Umm...having fun in the rain?" he grinned, obviously confused.

She scoffed at him as she rolled her eyes. "As if. I'm locked out of my house," she lied. "Can I stay here?"

Hiccup looked at her with an even more confused expression. "I thought you were already home."

Astrid shifted uncomfortably as she tried to come up with another lie. "I was and then Ruff invited me over for some girl time and then her parents dropped me off. I tried to find another way in but no luck." She shrugged and smiled nonchalantly.

"Can't your dad let you in?" Hiccup asked. Something about his demeanor was telling her that he didn't believe her story and was just trying to see how far she would go with it.

"I left my phone at Ruff's," she lied again. She hated it, hated lying to him. "I forgot to charge it so I can't call him even if I had it and Dad's not home anyway."

Hiccup nodded and wiped his hands on a rag before escorting her into the house. "Well, let's get you cleaned up. You look like a cat that just fell into a pool and is paralyzed with shock."

"Thanks," Astrid said as she side eyed him, not sure if to be insulted or to laugh.

"That also needs to be looked at," he added as he pointed to the large cut on her leg. The blood was dripping down her leg generously but not enough to worry about. "It looks pretty bad and I don't think you want that to get infected. Especially with the final game coming up."

"Yeah, we definitely don't want that."

He led her into the bathroom where he gave her a towel to start drying herself off before he took out the First Aid kit. Hiccup motioned for her to sit down on the edge of the bathtub so he could start tending to the cut. He took another towel and patted the water away before taking several cotton balls and wiping away the blood before tapping on the cut itself with a peroxide filled cotton ball. "Sorry," he apologized when she hissed in pain. "How did this happen?"

"Tripped in the dark and fell on a stick I think." She hissed again at the peroxide doing its job but her sudden inhale made the bruises twinge reminding her of their presence. She wrapped an arm around her torso as she watched Hiccup work on her cut.

"Did you hit your head too?" he asked. "You have a bump on your head and a large red mark on your cheek."

She moved her hand up to her head and felt the lump on the side of her head. "Yeah, I think my head bounced on the ground a little. It didn't hurt." Astrid appreciated that he just nodded and accepted the excuse and continued to focus on her injury.

Goosebumps began to litter her body as his hands gently moved across her thigh as he tended to the cut. Those hands were getting close to her crotch but it wasn't his fault that the cut was high on her thigh but he remained professional. She couldn't help but get butterflies in her stomach at the idea of his hands roaming across the rest of her body.

"Are my hands cold? You're shivering."

Astrid hadn't realized her excited nerves had manifested physically. "No, just cold in general. Your hands are warm."

He nodded and went back to the wound. It wasn't a complete lie as his hands were warm against her skin and she longed for his touch every time he removed his hand to do something else. Her heart pounded as he gently lifted her leg high enough for him to wrap gauze around her leg a few times and she still didn't understand why. I don't react like this when the school nurse is tending me.

"There!" he smiled. "All taken care of."

"Thank you," she smiled back.

He left her for a moment before coming back with another towel and some dry clothes. "If you keep staying over like this, I'm going to need you to keep some clothes here. I don't think you want to keep wearing mine."

"Yours are fine," she assured. "I don't mind."

"Okay, if you say so. You can put your wet clothes in the dryer so that they are ready for when you leave. Can't have your dad find my clothes in your home."

Astrid went rigid for a moment, fear creeping across her face as she remembered her father's words again. She had been so distracted by Hiccup's care that she had forgotten for a moment why she had run away. "Yeah, no that wouldn't be good," she nodded quietly.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked as he bent down to look at her downcast eyes.

She smiled slightly seeing him twist his body and head upside down to look at her. "Yeah. Thanks for the clothes."

"No problem." He handed her the clothes and began to exit the bathroom when he stopped and turned around. "I'm thinking tonight is more of a hot chocolate night." When she smiled at him, he gave one firm nod and closed the bathroom door behind him.

Astrid slowly began to undress, doing everything she could to not agitate the bruises on her skin but she could help crying out audibly a few times. She looked in the mirror to see several dark spots forming across her ribs and stomach, a few outlined in a nauseous yellow, sighing in frustration. She wanted to scream and shout at the whole situation but she didn't want Hiccup to question why she was so upset. She finished changing and went to the laundry room to toss her clothes in the dryer.

When she walked into the kitchen, the smell of chocolate filled her nose. She took in a deep breath, well as deep of a breath as she could take without pain, and let it out in pleasure. "That smells so good. How come when I make it, it never smells that good?"

"My little secret," he grinned. "Feel better?"

"Definitely warmer," she nodded. She sat down at the bar and noticed a bunch of papers spread out. "What's this? Planning a trip?"

He turned around to see what she was looking at. "Oh, yeah. Sorry, I meant to clean that up. You can look at it if you want."

She began to shift through the different pictures and itineraries, ogling them in hunger as she recognized almost every place. They were places she has been wanting to visit all her life; exotic, romantic, fascinating, beautiful places from all over the world. "This seems like a big trip."

"Yep." He grabbed two mugs from the cupboard and began to pour the hot chocolate into each and then topping them off with an excessive amount of whipped cream, making Astrid smile bigger at his foolishness. "One hot chocolate for you m'lady."

"Thank you kind sir." She took a sip of the drink, letting the creamy chocolate warm up her insides. She purposefully pushed her nose too far into the tower of whipped cream before she pulled away revealing the whipped cream all over her nose and upper lip. "Delicious as always."

He chuckled at her as she began to wipe it away. He nodded to the papers on the counter. "What do you think so far?"

She looked back at the papers longingly but put on an impressed smile. "It's ambitious but it seems like a lot of fun. When are you planning on doing it?"

"After graduation."

"But this would take at least six months to complete," she stated. "You'll miss the first semester of college."

Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck as he chuckled nervously. A shiver ran up her spine as she watched his nervous tick. Why? Why did I just react like that? He's done it before and I've never felt so...anxious? I don't think that's the word.

"That's the thing...I don't plan to go to college right out of high school," he confessed. "Don't tell my dad."

Astrid blinked a few times trying to wrap her mind around the admission. "Why?" It shouldn't have been that surprising that someone else wouldn't be applying right out of college. She wasn't either but she didn't want to be any further in debt to him and college was just way too much money.

"Well, I figured I'd see the world first, get my bearings and see where life takes me," he shrugged. "I love Berk, don't get me wrong, but there's so much else to see out there. I've been here my entire life and I think I need to get out."

Astrid envied his gumption to just pick up and go do something like that. It was a scary thought, leaving the comforts of home and venturing out into the world with nothing and no one to fall back on but that's what made it so tantalizing. "Don't forget to send me pictures."

"I won't have to send them if you're in them with me."

"True, I'd see them ri- wait, what?" Astrid questioned. "In them with you?"

Hiccup nodded and only smiled as he watched her put the pieces together in her mind. "All of these places are places you've mentioned over the years you've wanted to visit. I couldn't get them all in one go but I got most of the major ones."

"I don't understand," Astrid said dumbfounded.

He sighed as he placed his mug down and placed a hand on hers as he looked at her with a stern expression. "Astrid, I have stood back and not said a word all these years but I can't just pretend anymore. I know."

Astrid's heart began to beat rapidly in panic of what he knew. "Know what?" she asked in fake innocence.

"I know that your dad hits you," he confessed bluntly. "That red mark on your face isn't from hitting the ground. Did you really think I'd fall for that lie?" Her hand immediately went to her face to cover the still tingling skin as she looked away. "I heard you in the bathroom trying to quiet your cries of pain but I heard you. He hit you again tonight didn't he?"

"Hiccup…" she began.

"He's been doing it for years, hasn't he?"

Astrid didn't know how to respond. She had never planned on telling anyone let alone having anyone find out. She just kept her head down and her eyes away from Hiccup. She even tried to pull away from him but he kept a firm, but gentle, grip on her hand. "I...it's not...it's my fault."

Hiccup's grip tightened at the admission like he was hoping he was wrong and getting confirmation just made him even more upset. "I don't believe that."

"How long have-?" Astrid couldn't finish the question, she was too embarrassed.

"For a long time," he admitted. "Maybe from when it first began, I don't know, but every time I hear him screaming, I call the police."

She snapped her head up to look at him with surprise in her eyes. "You're the one who's been calling the police?" Her mind went back to several instances where the beatings only stopped because the police arrived with a call for domestic disturbance and wanted to know what was happening. She couldn't believe it. Astrid told herself that if she ever found out who kept calling the police, she would kiss them for saving her multiple times over and here he was, standing in front of her holding her hand.

"Yes. But nothing ever came of it," Hiccup huffed. "It seemed like he was able to convince the police it was fine or something."

She nodded, knowing that her dad had a way of putting on a show for people and convincing them of one thing when something else entirely different was happening. "But what does that have to do with the trip?"

Hiccup sighed as he looked her straight in the eyes. "I'm planning the trip for you." Astrid sat there in shock, her mind and body numb at the idea of traveling the world and with him. "You keep saying that after graduation, we don't have to hide our friendship anymore because you don't have to listen to your father's stupid rules and this is the prefect way to tell him to shove it. Besides, with him abusing you, it's best to get you as far away from him as possible so that you can heal."

"Hiccup, I...this…," she stammered. She pulled her hand away from his and tried to curl in on herself while sitting in the chair. "I don't deserve this. I'm not worth it."

She heard Hiccup walk around the bar and sit in the chair next to her and grab both of her hands. "Yes. You. Are." He emphasized each word with such conviction and passion it surprised her. "You don't deserve the abuse, you deserve to be loved and cared for. You are my first friend, Astrid, and it pains me to see you like this. He has beaten you down over the years to make you think you are a shell of your former self but I can still see that feisty girl I met all those years ago peaking out every once in a while, begging to break free, and I want to give you the opportunity to do just that."

She hung onto his every word, understanding them but not really believing them. He's wrong. I don't deserve any of that. Astrid still avoided eye contact with him yet she was secretly pleading that he'd never let go of her hands and craving his words. He lifted her head to force her to look at him and she saw he meant every word of it. "Come with me," he asked gently.

"It's a lot of money," she whispered. "I can't pay you back. I can't even help pay-"

"Money isn't a problem. I have saved up all these years working," he explained. "I have been planning this for years. I have had every intention of taking you away from here and watch you live your best life."

Astrid couldn't believe what she was hearing. She never hoped that she would be able to leave Berk and see all those places, but she dreamed, and she never thought in a million years that Hiccup, her friend, would be planning it for her because he thought she was worth it. Astrid's heart swelled with happiness and she could hardly contain herself.

"Please, Astrid," he begged again.

"Yes," she agreed softly, then getting louder and louder as she sprung forward and hugged him. "Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes! A million times, yes!"

Her laughter turned to sobs as she cried tears of joy into Hiccup's shoulder. He didn't question, he didn't move away, in fact he held her closer to him and she swore she could feel him smiling. Being there in his embrace felt right, so right, that she didn't want to let go and leave the warmth that he gave her.

"We should probably get to bed," he said, finally breaking the silence. "I'll take the couch and you can have my bed tonight."

"No." She shook her head into his shoulder as she spoke. "I'm not taking away your bed. You've done enough for me."

"But it-"

She cut him off, pulling back and waving a finger. "No ifs, ands, or buts about it. I'm taking the couch. You gave me your bed last time."

He smiled and conceded to her wishes, standing up and grabbing a few extra blankets and a pillow. "If you need anything, don't hesitate to wake me."

She smiled again at him as she watched him go upstairs to his room, leaving her alone in the living room. But this alone didn't feel so bad. She knew she could go upstairs at any time and ask for his help whereas at home, she dreaded having to ask her father to sign any sort of form. Why is this so different? Why is Hiccup so different?

Astrid settled onto the couch and listened to the rain hit the window, slowly falling asleep as she hoped and prayed that she and Hiccup would never grow apart. He was just too special to her. He brought her the most happiness and she felt that if he was no longer in her life, she would lose her mind.

Astrid walked down the street aimlessly, trying to hold back her anger and tears, surprised she had anything left to shed. She had just left the graveyard for the third time that week, crying on her mother's tombstone wishing that she was still there but no matter how much she wished, her mother stayed dead.

It was a difficult night for her, when her mother died. Being woken up by the sounds of sirens and the bright red and blue lights of the authorities is disorienting enough but to be told bluntly by her father that her mom was gone, was something she couldn't handle. It had been several weeks since the incident and she still wasn't over it.

Hiccup and Stoick had helped her through it as much as possible, just as she had tried to help them. They checked in on her, sat with her, hugged her, cried with her, tried to distract her but they all knew it would take time for her to move on. Hiccup was most understanding and adapted to her mood swings with ease. He never feared her or ran away when she screamed or lashed out but instead sat there saying nothing as she vented.

During one of her venting sessions, she had punched him in the arm leaving a visible red mark in her wake. When the realization hit of what she had done, she became a panicked mess, begging him to forgive her. He just placed a hand on her shoulder and brought her in for a hug saying she didn't need to apologize for anything, he understood. She had kissed him on the cheek to thank him for everything once she had calmed down enough.

That thought alone made her a little happy but it couldn't overtake the feeling of loneliness she now felt. Her father had become more and more distant, becoming more and more aggressive with her and now her home didn't feel like home anymore.

She turned down Main Street, deciding to take the long way home, and saw a small crowd gathering around a few cars. Behind her, she heard sirens approaching and saw a cop car approach the scene. Astrid didn't want anything to do with the cops after her mother's death but something pulled her to the scene anyway.

Astrid impartially pushed her way through the crowd until she made it to the front. Before her it seemed like a car accident but there was hardly any damage done to the car yet the atmosphere was tense. She looked around trying to see if there was another car nearby that may have been involved but she didn't see any. Around her she heard whispers of what happened.

"It was so sudden," one said.

"He pushed her out of the way."

"The driver hydroplaned."

"I hope the boy is okay."

"I'm glad the girl is safe."

Astrid was now curious as to what was going on and tried to look around the few people kneeling in front of the car stopped in the middle of the road. She was finally able to look between two of the men and what she saw made her heart stop, her breath caught in her throat, and fear flooded her body.

"Miss," one of the men said when he noticed her so close. "You shouldn't be here."

"Hi...Hi...Hic," she stammered.

"Someone get her out of here."

"Hiccup!" she screamed when she felt a hand touch her to move her away. She smacked it away and ran forward, ignoring the looks of the adults as she crouched down next to him.

He was unconscious under the car, his body twisted in a weird position while covered in bruises and cuts. His left leg was at an unnatural angle under the tire and she could see the blood pooling and slowly spreading across the pavement.

"Hiccup," she called softly at first and slowly getting louder and more desperate as she began to shake him. "Hiccup. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up!"

Someone grabbed her arms and stopped her from shaking him. "You could be hurting him more by doing that. We don't know the extent of his injuries."

Astrid's mind was in panic mode and she wasn't thinking clearly. "He needs to wake up, he'll be fine. Why won't you wake him up?" she hollered.

"We're waiting for the ambulance to arrive," he explained.

"Get the car off of him!" She stood up and tried to push the car away but it didn't budge. The man grabbed her arms again and stopped her.

"The car is the only thing keeping him from completely bleeding to death. If we move it, it could kill him without doctors to help him."

Astrid sank down to the floor again next to her friend, completely exhausted from the day. First her mother and now this. She couldn't handle it. "There's nothing I can do?" she asked weakly.

"Stay by his side," he suggested. "Having a friend nearby will help keep him grounded."

"What happened?"

"It happened so fast," another man spoke. She looked up to see he was visibly shaking as he stood there. "I looked out my window to make sure the lane was clear to merge and when I looked forward again, a little girl was in the middle of the crosswalk picking up something. I slammed on my breaks but hit a standing puddle of water and skidded towards her. He came out of nowhere and pushed her to the side and I hit him instead."

She looked back down at her hurt friend and smiled softly. "So selfless and kind, you idiot."

The commotion around her began to fade into a distant blur as she sat by his side and tried to make him comfortable. She brushed his hair aside and tried to clean his face with the edge of her shirt while talking to him constantly. She didn't even remember getting into the ambulance with him but she remembered the torn and tattered leg that limply hung in a direction it wasn't supposed to go. She only registered that she was at the hospital when she was pushed aside while several doctors worked on him. She heard something about his heart stopping and that he wasn't breathing. It was all too much.

When he was rushed into surgery, she ran to a nearby bathroom and locked herself in. She sat against the door and cried the second time that day, but this time out of fear. She was afraid that she was going to lose her friend and she would genuinely be alone. She prayed and prayed that he would make it, even promising that she would give up every moment of free time to help him recover and that she would never leave his side if she would be granted this one wish.

After hours of crying, fading in and out of semi-sleep, and ignoring several attempts to get her out of the bathroom, she finally exited and asked which room Hiccup was in. When she entered, she saw that he was hooked up to an oxygen machine, an IV drip was connected to his arm, and he was littered with bandages.

She approached the bed and held his hand. "Hiccup? Can you hear me?"

"Probably not." She jumped at the voice and saw that a doctor had walked in. "He's in a comatose state. Probably will be like that for several days."

"But isn't a coma bad," she inquired, fearfully looking at Hiccup.

"Not entirely. It's a way for the body to heal serious injuries."

As Astrid looked at him, she noticed something wrong with his legs. "Why do his legs look weird?"

"Ah," the doctor nodded. "You are quite observant. He had several cracked ribs, a concussion, and multiple tears of his muscles but the worst injury was his leg. In order to save him from getting fatal blood clots and infection, we had to amputate it. It was dead already and there was no way to save it."

It took her a moment to understand what he had said. "Amputate it?" she repeated. "Like cut it off?"

"Yes."

She stared at the uneven legs but the information just wasn't registering properly. The doctor left and a nurse even came in but she hardly acknowledged her presence. She just stood there, staring at her friend until she broke down once more and cried into his hand.

"Please," she whispered between sobs. "Please don't leave me too. I don't think I could handle another person leaving me."

"As...tr...id."

Her head popped up hoping to see his eyes opened but they were still closed. She thought she had imagined her name being called until she saw his lips move ever so slightly and the raspy voice repeated her name.

She smiled happily, knowing that he could sense her being there and vowed to stay by his side and never leave for a second until he woke up. Realistically, that never happened because she was forced to go home or she had to go to the bathroom but she committed to staying there with him as much as possible.

She even stayed when Stoick finally arrived after rushing home from a meeting out of town, seeing him cry and stroke Hiccup's head like he was trying to nudge him awake. As the days passed and he hadn't made any progress, good or bad, dread began to creep into her mind, body, and soul. She was afraid that he would never wake up and one day, things would take a turn for the worse and in a blink of an eye, he would be gone.

"Hiccup!" Astrid called as she sat up suddenly, crying from the memory she had just dreamt. She took in several breaths to try and calm her nerves but the emotion she felt, the fear, worry, and panic, was so strong that she jumped off the couch, ran upstairs and stood in Hiccup's doorway. She looked into the darkness, her eyes trying to adjust as fast as possible, and saw that he was sleeping peacefully.

She took another calming breath seeing that he was alright but her mind tricked her into thinking she was looking at Hiccup in the hospital again, connected to tubes and wires and near death. She shook her head trying to rid her mind's eye of the image and unwillingly let out a small sob.

Astrid didn't even realize it was loud enough to wake Hiccup. "Is everything alright, Astrid?"

She looked up to see that he was sitting up, struggling to remove the sleep from his eyes and tried to stifle a yawn. "Yeah. Just a bad dream."

"Must have been some dream. Do you want to talk about it?"

Astrid shook her head but she did want to talk about it. She wanted to tell him everything but knew that she couldn't. "No. It was just so real and intense that I had to make sure that you were alright."

Hiccup tilted his head in confusion. "That I was alright? Did I die or something in your dream?"

"Almost," she nodded. "But it was still unpleasant."

"I can imagine," he agreed. "I'd be freaked out if I dreamed you died. Are you sure you don't need anything? I can make you tea or something."

"No," she shook her head again. "I'm fine. Sorry to wake you." She turned around to leave but she stopped suddenly, her legs refusing to move. She really didn't want to go back downstairs alone after that trip down memory lane. She knew her mind would always revert back into panicking that he was gone and didn't make it through that hospital visit.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Hiccup asked again, noticing that she wasn't leaving.

Instead of answering, she turned around and walked right up to his bed. "Move over," she requested softly but firmly.

"Okay…" He moved over a little and was obviously very confused. "Why do you want me-"

She cut him off by climbing under the covers and lying next to him, the action completely throwing him off guard as he sat there in stunned silence. "What are you doing?" she questioned as he began to exit the bed.

"I'm going to take the couch," he informed her. "I knew that the bed would suit you better."

Astrid grabbed his shirt and pulled him back down onto the bed. "Don't. I want you here."

"Are you sure?" he asked nervously. "What with the bruises and all, I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

"You could never do that." She gently tugged on his shirt to urge him to lay back down. "Please."

It took him a minute to decide but he compiled to her wishes and laid back down next to her. He kept his arms crossed over his chest and his body rigid as to not touch her, an act she thought was honorable but not what she wanted. She wanted to feel that he was there, hear him breathing, so that if she did wake up again, she'd know instantly that he was safe.

"Hold me," she whispered.

Hiccup looked at her, shocked at the request but didn't object. He hesitantly shifted his body and moved his arms to engulf her like he was hugging her. She could hear his heart racing as she laid her head on his chest, smiling at the sound and sighed contently.

"That must have really been some nightmare."

"Thank you," she whispered again, ignoring his comment.

"Are you sure it's okay to put my hands here?" he asked.

"Yes," she nodded on his chest. Astrid felt him gingerly place a hand around her waist and another around her shoulder, feeling the warmth and safety emanating from his simple touch, even through her clothes, and her worries began to melt away again. She tilted her head up slightly and kissed him on the cheek, taking him by surprise.

"What was that for?"

"Everything." She smiled at him before putting her head down once again on his chest and closed her eyes, falling into a peaceful sleep to the sound of his breathing and his heartbeat.


Things should begin to escalate from here. Keep an eye out. :)

**I don't claim to know anything about abuse, let alone physical. This is fiction and it's not meant to be an accurate representation. I do apologize if it's a bit much.**