Author's note and disclaimer: As ever, we don't own HTTYD (although we would love to have dragons), those rights belong to Dreamworks and Cressida Cowell. Sorry we haven't updated for a while! School work is keeping us busy at the moment, but we'll try and update more frequently! Thank you to Flo for reviewing, we really appreciate it. Hope you enjoy this chapter (the plot is beginning to reveal itself) and please review.
Astrid's POV (The Snots and therapy)
It's Hiccup. The same Hiccup as who made this tree house. I'm quick to make my apologies.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't realise it was your's, I was just curious to have a look and now I'm going, I didn't touch anything, I promise, it's all as you le-"
He cuts me off short. "Calm down, it's fine."
A weird lizardy thing with fluff makes a sound which I could swear is a snort. Hiccup taps it on the nose sharply. "Be polite!" he mutters.
"Are you sure it's ok?" I ask, anxious.
"Sure. And what happened to your face?"
I'm not sure what to say for a minute before recovering and saying, "I - er, I caught my face on my bathroom door." He can probably see the marks of each individual finger so I turn his question around. "What happened to your face?"
He too looks awkward before saying "Erm, same as you. What a - er - coincidence." Hiccup gives a nervous laugh before turning to his animals - presumably to hide the fact he's blushing furiously. That guy really can't lie. I'm not one to preach though - neither can I.
"So, um, I was going to the park. Want to come?" I say, trying to break the awkward silence.
"Sure!" he says, relieved to change the subject. "By the way, this is Wodensfang, the one from yesterday and the lizardy thing is Toothless." Toothless snaps his teeth at me. Yeah. Toothless. He nips my hand and promptly scurries off.
As we head off to the park, I notice that he walks with a limp and I enquire. He goes the same tomato shade as last time and mutters something about hitting it on a rock. Uh huh. Finally we come round a bush and I stop short. For in the middle of the park, sitting next to the pond where we sat the day before is the Snots.
Nothing goes well for us two!
"What do we do?" I whisper to Hiccup.
"Just head across and hope they don't see us!" he replies.
I stroll out, followed by Hiccup and his menagerie. We get about 4 steps out when they see us.
"Wossat?" the bigger, uglier one says in a voice which wouldn't be understandable to a chimp.
"It would appear that our dear friends are out for a stroll together. What happened Astrid? Did Hiccup dump you? I'm still free." says the other who appears to be able to converse in English at least.
I'm jolted out of my reverie of nausea at the size of the big one's nostrils by the last comment.
"Um, two things. One, I'm not going out with either of the Hiccups. Two, I will never, EVER, go out with a gorilla. So no, Snotlout. I'm not going to accept your sickening offer." I say.
Hiccup joins in with "Could you speak English or at least some Latin derived language, please Snotface? Without a translator it will be hard to have a successful conversation between species."
The bigger one gets up, makes a pig grunt sound, and charges Hiccup who apparently has dealt with this kind of offensive before and steps neatly aside. The brute lumbers past, slows, turns, and charges again. He misses again and charges right into the pond. Oh.
"This would be a good time to make our escape!" I whisper to Hiccup and we walk briskly towards the gate. Snotlout stops trying to pull his counterpart out of the pond and cuts me off.
"Back off, creep!" I snark but not before he's had time to say "I'm going to McDonald's tonight, 6 o'clock. "
"Ew. I am not going on a date with you. And I'm vegetarian. McDonald's is a nightmare. And how many times must I inform you that I refuse to eat out with gorillas? Sheesh." I step neatly around him and catch up with Hiccup who is watching Snotface flounder in the pond. Hiccup has a gaping mouth and an expression as if someone just told him it was Christmas and his birthday every day. "Coming?" I ask
He nods and walks as if in a dream.
Book Hiccup's POV (Running away...maybe)
Despite its start, this has turned into a surprisingly good day! Watching Snotface Snotlout collide headfirst into pond water is an exceptionally pleasing experience. Leaving Snotlout pulling his friend out of the pond's murky waters, we make a dash out of the park gates, sprinting back to my tree house and scurrying up the ladder. I flop down on a beanbag and subconsciously rub my legs, they're still hurting from last night and that little spurt of running re-kindled the pain. Astrid perches on the sofa, looking awkward, like she feels she's not supposed to be here. She shifts about and looks uncomfortable. "I don't mind you being here" I reassure her "And are you really a vegetarian?". She nods her head and seems to relax a little more. "You're a friend now, you can come here if you need to" I add.
"Really?" questions Astrid "Are you sure? This seems to be your special place, not mine"
"I'm sure" I say; yes, this tree house is and has been my special place since I built it, but Astrid looks like she needs a place like that too. She feels trustworthy, somehow. Obviously I'm not going to tell her all my secrets, that would be pretty stupid, but something tells me that Astrid needs to use my tree house as much as I do.
"So.." she says, not really knowing what to say "You built this place?"
"Yes I did !" I reply, happy to know that she likes it.
"It's...amazing!" she tells me.
"Thanks" I say, blushing a bit at being praised.
"Have you ever contemplated running away?" Astrid blurts out suddenly.
I'm taken aback by the question, although the answer is yes, I can't help but wonder why she would be asking it. I get the feeling that it's really obvious, but I can't quite tell what it is. Her hand flies to her mouth, evidence that she didn't want to say that.
"Sorry" she says apologetically "Ignore what I said, I didn't mean to say it!"
"No, it's ok" I tell her "the answer is yes, actually" Drat. why did I say that? I don't want to tell Astrid all my secrets!
End note: thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it! We will try and put the next chapter up soon. As always, please review!
-2writerslivehere