It was late at night when Astrid decided to go visit Hiccup. She didn't really think he would be asleep as she entered the doors, but Odin she was wrong. There lay the boy she's been thinking about every day and every night, from dusk to dawn, peacefully sleeping in the bed a few feet from her. She pulled out a chair, not once taking her eyes off the sleeping boy. She sat down and just stared. Stared at the boy she had ignored for so many years. Stared at the broken boy who she'd never seen happy since they were small.
They used to be childhood friends at the age of five to nine, but as her uncle Finn wanted to learn how to protect herself, she became less active around him, and after a while of her normal schedule she just decided to ignore him like everyone else. They used to be best friends who shared secrets, feelings, happiness and laughter's, but as the years passed they grew to become tougher, quieter, less emotional, angrier and meaner. Some day she just magically changed like in the blink of an eye. Her hair used to be loose, but after a few days of training she never let it down unless she washed it. Her axe never left her side unless she went to get more food from the stores in town.
One thing she hadn't really thought of was Hiccup. Not until now. She always looked at him like a broken boy, a disappointment, a runt. But after getting to know him a bit better, she understood there was nothing positive in judging anyone by their looks. Sure they knew each other a few years back, but years passed and things changed. It was first now she really thought about those times he saw him at the forge with a bruised face or cut on his lip, and what made her think was that whenever she saw him like that, she wondered who did it.
Snotlout was always around her and her friends, and only as they passed by Hiccup, he would beat him up, but for a period they let him be so he would recover. That's when she noticed how more wounded he had gotten over that period, and one simple eavesdropping made her mind explode with sadness and anger.
Astrid walked around town, not having anything to do at the moment as she was allowed to take a break from training. Every day she passes by the forge to see Hiccup working with her co-combat trainer Gobber the Belch. One day caught her attention at the two of them.
She passed by on a rainy day, needing her axe sharpened. She always had her axe in a perfect shape in case something would happen. Sometimes she was even allowed to anticipate in defending the village from dragons. It was dark and most of the Vikings had fallen asleep by now, but there was one house that was lightened up with the help of ovens and candles. She could hear voices from inside the forge as she walked towards the house, but stopped in her tracks to hear something she didn't know would surprise her.
"Why can't I just help someone? I know that everyone hates me, especially my father considering what had happened in the morning," She could hear Hiccup say. She walked closer, hiding behind a wall to hear their conversations.
"They don't hate you. They just don't want the heir of chief's throne to get injured in a raid. You can help as many you want by helping me here at the forge. We still need weapons sharpened and some made," Gobber said, pounding the form of a sword. Hiccup let out a sigh, getting back to work. Astrid could barely hear what he said after it, but she wished she hadn't.
"Why does my dad have to abuse me? Why can't he just treat me like a son?" Then the sounds of sharpening weapons came and she stopped dead in her tracks. She never thought her warm hearted chief would abuse his one and only son just because he's different from any other Viking.
Astrid took a deep breath, opening her eyes as she felt her hands shaking, tears threatening to fall. She tried to calm herself down, but couldn't as she looked over at the broken boy in front of her. How could such an innocent person be treated like that? There was nothing he had done wrong, and if he had it was all just for a good reason. And that reason was to help.
She felt herself breaking down any minute now and didn't want to wake Hiccup. At least not wake him up to see her like this. Standing up, she leaned over the bed, placing a soft kiss on his forehead before she left him alone.