Update 11/22/18: Just finished some tweaking to this chapter to make it a little more clear than it was before, as I think a lot of people were still struggling to understand why characters were behaving the way they were, i.e. like the damaged little assholes they kind of all are right now.
WARNINGS: sexyish content, and not all of it entirely consensual. This is where we get into seeing just how much Hiccup and Astrid have both changed in four years, and the events of this chapter and the workings of both of their minds during it will be something that I will continue to explore, because let's just say everybody's got some issues to work through. So before you start feeling like anybody is too OOC, just know that in time, everything will make a lot more sense. I suppose the most important thing to understand is that Hiccup's people skills are a bit rusty, to say the least; he's got some stuff he's dealing with, and that Astrid keeps shifting between being like "It's Hiccup. What's the worst this little nerd can do to me." and "It's been four years, I have no idea who he is or what he's capable of anymore."
Chapter 3: Tables Turned
Astrid had not meant to sleep long.
She was confused when she opened her eyes to the unfamiliar stone ceiling and warm furs. She sat up groggily and blinked at her surroundings while her mind caught up with her.
She'd woken up yesterday ready to go to her death with her head held high with judgment on those who had condemned her. Today she woke up in the cave home of a boy who had let her think he'd died and his pet dragon. She put aside the annoyance and anger at that entire situation long enough to be thankful that she had woken up at all. The most she had hoped for yesterday was a quick death, or else to keep herself alive long enough to kill the dragon master. She was strong, and the rider had never looked particularly muscular; she had felt optimistic about her chances of overpowering him if she could get him away from his dragon. She'd had no intention of giving up her life or her virginity without a fight. She had been aware that this mission would result in her death one way or another. Either she'd be killed immediately or she'd die fighting, or she'd manage to kill the dragon master and then be killed by his dragon or by starvation. Yesterday her future had seemed a very short, very finite thing.
Today her future seemed to stretch before her in a long span of uncertainty.
She'd been given up to stop the fighting.
There was no reason why she couldn't still do that. She may not look much like one at the moment, but she was a warrior. She could tackle her uncertainty by starting there. Hiccup had seemed peaceful and...not exactly friendly, but there had been a rapport based in their childhood together. She couldn't let nostalgia fool her; Hiccup was still the one who led the dragons into battle. He was still a traitor, and stopping the war still meant stopping him.
First order of business: find a weapon.
The fire had burned out sometime during the night, but there were patches of sunlight shining through in distant parts of the cave ceiling, and it cast a strange soft illumination throughout the cavern. Astrid sat up and shivered. It was freezing, and her dress had not been made to keep her warm. She pulled one of the fur blankets off the bed and wrapped it around her as she stood.
New plan. First order of business, get a fire going before she froze to death. Then find a weapon. She held the fur close to her body while she searched through the desk drawers for flint. She pulled out journals and parchment covered in sketches she couldn't make out in the gloom, and some odd small gizmos she couldn't identify. Finally, in the bottom of one drawer she found candles and a couple of matches. She wondered why there weren't more, until she remembered that Hiccup had a dragon and didn't need them.
With the few sparse matches and the pile of chopped wood in a corner she finally got a fire going large enough to warm her up. Next up, finding a weapon. She searched through the desk drawers and chests again, even searched among the pile of pillows and furs and still found nothing. Her best hope was to whack him over the head with a log, but that wouldn't get her very far. She needed something sharp, like a sword or an axe or a knife.
Hiccup had a knife.
Hiccup had a knife, and his behavior last night indicated that he didn't expect her to attack him. He was taller and stronger than he used to be, but he was still Hiccup. How hard could getting his knife from him be?
She lit one of the candles and started through the dark tunnel back towards the cavern where she hoped Hiccup and his dragon were still sleeping. Apparently daylight filtered in to many of the other caverns; as she passed other tunnels she could see dimly the rooms beyond. In one she could see tables and piles of metal around what looked suspiciously like a furnace.
Finally the tunnel opened into the cavern from the previous night and she set the candle down outside the passageway. Daylight from the cave mouth cast the room in soft light. The dragon was stretched out on the floor with Hiccup reclining against his belly, both still asleep. Astrid could see the knife still sheathed on his belt.
She crept forward quietly, carefully stepping over the dragon's tail until she stood next to Hiccup. She lowered herself into a crouch, and was just beginning to reach for the knife when she heard a low huff of air. Her head snapped to the dragon's face and saw he was awake and watching her with pupils narrowed to slits. She pulled her hand back and quickly moved away from them. Of course. She would never be able to get the knife, let alone use it, as long as the dragon was around. She needed another plan. She backed away until she hit the cave wall opposite them, where she slid down to sit on the floor. The dragon did not go back to sleep.
She was going to have to find some way of getting the dragon away, of getting Hiccup alone. He had voluntarily made Toothless stay away from her last night in order to make her more comfortable, but she felt she was going to need a better excuse today. Somehow, "I know I came looking for you but now please make your dragon go away" didn't seem to cut it. And even if she got him to send the dragon away, it would likely be on guard, listening to make sure Hiccup was safe. She needed something that would make him send the dragon away where it wouldn't feel like it needed to come back and check on him.
She remembered suddenly something he'd said last night, and an absurd yet brilliant plan started forming in her mind. Her lip curled just to consider it, but there was a high likelihood that it would work, and she was reaching desperation. She stood and ran a hand through her bangs and over her braid, trying to smooth it down as best she could. She tugged at the top laces at the back of her dress, just enough to loosen them, and pulled the neckline a little wider on her shoulders and lower on her chest. The dress was low-cut as it was; they had wanted to make sure she looked as appealing as possible.
Strange as it was to think, Hiccup was a man, and in theory as susceptible to temptation and distraction as any other.
Astrid cleared her throat. "Hiccup," she said loudly, and he stirred, but did not wake. "Hiccup," she called again, louder, and she watched his eyelids flutter and open. He blinked sleepily at her and then suddenly jumped, blinked some more, and then groaned and pressed his hands into his eyes.
"Shit," he moaned. "Gods, I still have this to deal with, don't I." He groaned again and dropped his hands. "Before you ask, no, I'm not taking you back."
"I wasn't going to ask that, actually," Astrid said, forcing back the irritation at his reaction and focusing on keeping her voice sounding as smooth and sweet as she could. She took a couple of steps forwards, swinging her hips purposefully. "I still want you to take me back at some point, but there's something I was hoping you could help me with first." She noted the way his eyebrows rose and his eyes flickered down over her body as she walked. For some reason it was a bit thrilling. Terrifying, but flattering. Four years had passed; Hiccup didn't know what she was and wasn't like as woman, did he?
"And, ah, what would that be?"
Astrid glanced at Toothless as she got closer. The dragon was still giving her a wary look, and he curled his tail closer to Hiccup as she approached. She let her nerves show briefly, and it was enough to make Hiccup pat the dragon's belly and say, "Hey, calm down, bud, it's okay. She's a friend, remember?" The tail moved out of her way but those large green eyes still watched her with suspicion. Hiccup's eyes didn't leave her as she lowered herself to her knees beside him. "Astrid?" he asked, and she took a deep breath.
She steeled herself and pressed her lips against his.
Hiccup gasped against her mouth and she used the opportunity to slip her tongue briefly past his lips, a quick taste before a retreat. His moan was one part surprise and one part pleasure as she swung her leg over his and straddled his hips. She was surprised at the expertise with which he returned her kiss, his tongue forcing past her lips and sliding and tangling with hers. She couldn't imagine he'd have had much human interaction in the last four years, but there was significantly less fumbling and clumsiness to his kissing than there was to hers. His enthusiasm was helpful but almost frightening. What exactly had she pulled herself into? One of his hands slid up to the back of her neck and the other grasped her shoulder. He pulled her away.
He stared at her with wide eyes. "Okay," he said, panting, "Not that I'm complaining, because seriously, I'm not, but what the hel are you doing?"
Astrid slid her arms around his neck and tried what she hoped was a seductive smile. "You were right about what you said last night; at my age unmarried doesn't necessarily mean virgin." She watched his eyebrows shoot up. "But in my case, it still does." His eyebrows lowered a fraction, going from surprise to confusion. She gave him a wicked smile and leaned in, looking at him through half-lidded eyes as she buried her fingers in his hair and purred, "I want to change that." His eyes grew as wide as she'd ever seen them and she claimed his open mouth before he could say anything else. It took him a moment to respond but soon enough he was kissing her back in earnest and his hands were sliding around her waist to pull her closer. She could sense his restraint, though. His legs shifted under her and his hands were light on her back compared to the ardor with which he kissed her.
"Astrid? Hey. Astrid," he mumbled in between kisses, before he finally pushed her away again. "Why?" he asked, his gaze fixed on her lips.
Astrid shrugged. "I don't want to get married. But that doesn't mean I want to live the rest of my life a virgin, either." She grit her teeth and ground her hips down against his and was rewarded by a sharp exhale from Hiccup. His pupils were dilated and he was watching her with obvious desire, not to mention the hot bulge she could feel growing against her thigh. It made her even more nervous than she already was, and she had to resist the urge to leap away from him, but if he was at this state already, it wouldn't take her much longer to get what she wanted.
Hiccup swallowed. "Why me, though?"
She shrugged again. "Because you're here." He lifted an eyebrow. "And because no one will ever know. My reputation doesn't suffer, and if I ever dodecide to get married, I still get to claim my virtue is intact." Hiccup frowned and started to lean away, and she realized she was turning him off at the idea of being used. "And," she added, leaning forwards and skimming a finger along the hard line of his jaw, "Because the last four years have been good to you." She ground down against him again and he grunted. "Very good to you."
The frown melted off his face and she watched him take a deep breath and swallow hard. His tongue darted out to wet his lips and damn, she really shouldn't be noticing something like that. "Hey Toothless," he said, his eyes never leaving her face, "Can you give us some privacy, bud?"
Astrid grinned.
Hiccup's hands tightened almost imperceptibly on her waist, and her heart really, really, should not have been pounding as much as it was at the way he was looking at her. The dragon gave an annoyed grumble but rose to his feet anyway. "Yeah, yeah, we'll go flying later, bud, I promise," Hiccup mumbled as Toothless slunk from the room. Astrid's eyes shifted to watch him leave, the corners of her lips lifting upwards as his tail finally disappeared around the corner of one of the tunnels. She looked back at Hiccup, and caught only a glimpse of the hunger in his expression before he yanked her against him and his mouth was crashing into hers.
He definitely knew what he was doing. Astrid had only kissed one person before, one of the sailors who had taken refuge from a storm on Berk for a few days last summer. He'd been handsome and young and admitted to being inexperienced with women, and his kiss had been nice but sloppy. His tongue had flopped around inside her mouth like a fish on dry land and he'd had no idea what to do with his hands. She hadn't been sure until this moment if that was just him or if all kisses were like that, but now, with Hiccup's lips warm and soft against hers and his tongue teasing and tasting at her own, she realized just how underwhelming that sailor's kiss had been. The stubble on Hiccup's jaw scratched at her chin in a way that wasn't entirely unpleasant and when his teeth scraped against her bottom lip it drew a tiny whimper from the back of her throat. She was enjoying this far more than she should be.
And then Hiccup pulled away from her lips and started pressing kisses down her neck. This was starting to get out of hand. It all felt far too nice. Seduction for the purpose of stealing a knife should be all business, it wasn't supposed to feel this pleasant. And she was supposed to be seducing him, not the other way around.
"For a virgin you really seem to know what you're doing," Astrid said, a little more breathlessly than she'd like to admit. She glanced down at the knife hooked to his belt.
She felt Hiccup smirk against her throat. "What makes you think I'm still a virgin?"
Astrid frowned. "You've spent four years holed up in a cave with a dragon—oh gods!"
Hiccup bit down on her collarbone and she gasped. This was really, really getting out of hand. "I get out more often than you'd think," he muttered. Astrid's rising panic distracted her from wondering about the implications of that admission. The situation was quickly spiraling out of her control. His hands gripped her hips and pulled her tighter against his lap, where she could feel something very hot and very hard pressing back against her. His lips moved dangerously low on her chest and she grabbed his face and pulled it back up to hers. She had him where she wanted him; she just needed to distract him long enough to—
Astrid gasped as Hiccup's arms wrapped around her waist and he pulled her to the floor beneath him. He nudged her legs apart with his knee and settled between her hips. Astrid's eyes snapped open and after a moment of paralyzing panic she gripped his shoulders and rolled him over so that she was sitting on top of him. She broke their kiss in the process and he blinked in confusion at her sudden roughness. She recovered quickly and gave him a smile. "I'm through with letting men control me," she said and leaned down to kiss him again. His hands rose to her back and started pulling at the laces of her dress. He was straining at his trousers and little moans were coming from the back of his throat. Astrid ran one hand down his chest while the other quietly slid his knife from its sheath.
With one deft flick of her wrist she had it pressed to his throat.
He stilled.
Hiccup didn't open his eyes as he pulled his lips from hers and his groan was markedly different from the ones seconds before. "Oh, you sly bitch," he whispered, and opened his eyes. His hands lifted away from her back and he held his palms open at his sides. Astrid sat up and smiled at him, the knife still pressed against his neck.
"Men are so easily manipulated," she said brightly.
Hiccup huffed a sigh. "What do you want?"
"First off," Astrid said, very much not noticing the bob of his adam's apple as he swallowed. "You're going to stop the dragon raids."
Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you listening last night? I can't stop the raids. I don't control the dragons. They listen to me to an extent, but I can't make them stop raiding villages."
Astrid's eyes narrowed. "Well, try harder then. If they listen to you then why wouldn't they listen to you if you told them to leave during the raids?"
Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Because they don't listen to me that much. I know how to communicate with them, and sometimes that's enough to calm them down, but that doesn't mean I can control them. There's something else they listen to more. Most dragon nests have a queen, and I think their queen is making them raid the villages. I can't break that control over them. Nothing can. You can hold that knife to my throat until Ragnarok, it isn't gonna change anything."
Astrid pursed her lips. There was no reason for Hiccup to be lying about this; ostensibly he stood to gain nothing from the dragons' continued attacks. She didn't let up pressure on the blade. "Then you're going to take me home."
He smirked at her. Smirked. Here she was with a knife to his throat and he actually had the audacity to smirk at her. "No," he said.
Astrid glared. "Maybe you didn't hear me, you're going to take me home."
"Maybe you didn't hear me," Hiccup said, "Because no, actually I'm not."
She pressed the flat side of the knife harder against his neck. "Take. Me. Home."
"Maybe you've forgotten, but they tried to sacrifice you. Like, they tied you up and offered you up to be raped and murdered. Are you really sure you want to go back there? They were about to kill you themselves when I stepped in. You're not safe there, and I'm not taking you back until I'm sure you will be."
Astrid grit her teeth. "Actually, you'll be taking me back now, thank you, or else-"
"Or else what?" Hiccup leaned his neck up slightly, the blade pressing into his throat, and she angled it so as not to draw blood. "You're going to kill me?"
His smirk grew and he jerked his hips upwards, and Astrid gasped as she was suddenly reminded of just where on his body she was seated. She scooted backwards, lifting her hips away from his groin.
Her hand shook against the handle of the knife and her heart pounded. "Don't think I won't."
"Oh, I know you won't," he said as soon as the words were out of her mouth, and angled his hips, that hot bulge grazing the side of her inner thigh. She gasped and lifted herself off his lap.
"Yes I w—"
"Then do it." He sat up further, regardless of the knife she still had against his throat. "Kill me, because I'm not taking you anywhere." Astrid didn't move. Hiccup pushed forward, glaring, and she let up pressure on the knife. "See, you're not going to, because you're not an idiot. Kill me, and you're stuck. Toothless can't fly on his own, and it took me weeks to figure out how to fly him, even with a rig I built. You'd never work it out on your own. You need me to get you out of here, and that's never gonna happen if I'm dead." He laughed, a harsh, bitter noise that sounded so wrong coming from him. "Oh, yeah, and let's not forget the simple fact that if you lay a hand on me you'll be nothing more than a scorch mark on the floor by the time Toothless is done with you. So no, Astrid, I'm not taking you anywhere. And you're not going to hurt me. So do us both a favor and put the knife down."
He was right.
He was right and she knew it. She could overpower him, but she didn't stand a chance against his dragon, who they would need to get off this rock, and she couldn't very well hold the knife to his throat the whole flight back to Berk. This never would have worked. She was stuck. Slowly she pulled her hand back.
She immediately regretted it. Suddenly he had his hands wrapped around her wrists and was pushing her over onto her back and climbing on top of her. His knees pinned her legs to the stone floor and Astrid shrieked as he twisted her wrist until the knife fell from her grasp. She struggled against him but he was stronger than she had given him credit for. He pulled her hands under her back and held them there with one hand. She jerked, trying to pull free, but he pressed his body down on hers, trapping her hands beneath their combined weight. His free hand grabbed the knife and she froze when she felt the cold steel against her neck.
"Now," he breathed, looking down at her through green eyes she didn't remember ever being so cold, "Let's get a few things straight here." Astrid struggled feebly against him. She was one of the strongest fighters on her island and she had been trained to be able to fight off men's unwelcome advances. That he held her so easily frightened and frustrated her. "You're here at my mercy, which means your little head games and brilliantly concocted escape plans end here, understand?"
She whimpered. His voice was a low steely growl she had never heard him use before. She wouldn't have thought he was capable of it.
"Hi-Hiccup, what are you doing?"
He bore down on her. "I asked you if you understand. I saved your life, and I won't pretend I expected you to throw yourself at me in gratitude, but I would have expected base levels of human decency while we figured out our next steps." He snarled. "Instead you pull shit like this? When I've done nothing to show I'm the monster you thought you were getting? Because if that's what you want, that can be arranged. But I'd rather we do this the easy way, wouldn't you? So no more escape attempts, no more threatening me, got it?" Her hands and her back were starting to ache and she nodded. "Good." He released one of her hands and she pulled it free, clenching and unclenching her fist in order to regain feeling, though she didn't dare move with the knife still at her neck.
"I thought you said you weren't gonna hurt me," Astrid said, trying to keep her voice from shaking.
"That was before you threatened me," Hiccup told her, "Now things have changed. I've tried being nice, but clearly you don't respond to that. So apparently I need to change tactics." He lowered his face to her neck, and she drew a shuddering breath when she felt him nudge a kiss against her skin.
"Hiccup?" her voice sounded small and scared and foreign to her ears.
His mouth moved up, and the kisses he placed behind her ear were soft and tender and a sharp contrast to the rough way he held her against the ground. "Now," he breathed against her ear, his tongue darting out to lick at her earlobe, "Lift up your skirt." Astrid's breath froze in her chest.
"W-what?"
"You heard me," he growled, the blade against her throat pressing down harder and his teeth nipping at her ear. "Lift up your skirt." As if to emphasize his point he nudged her thighs further apart and pressed his hips between them, drawing a terrified gasp from her lips. She made no move to oblige him.
"Hiccup, please-"
"I've got nothing to lose by hurting you, Astrid, you might as well make things easier on us both and get on with it. It's been a lonely four years, and I had such a huge crush on you back then."
Her lip quivered. But he'd said-he'd said—what did it matter what he'd said? He was a traitor and a liar, and she should have known better than to trust a word out of his mouth. She'd made the mistake of thinking she knew who she was dealing with. It was just Hiccup, after all, how dangerous could he be? But she didn't know Hiccup anymore. She never really had. It was foolish for her to think he couldn't me every bit as dangerous as the monster she thought she'd been given to.
She'd gotten him riled up and clearly he intended to go through with it. She was weakened by several days of barely eating and he held her so expertly she wasn't sure she could escape even without the knife at her throat. She blinked back the tears threatening to spill from the corners of her eyes as her free hand reached slowly for the skirt of her dress. She pulled it up her leg and when it hit her thigh he released her other hand and grabbed the hem to yank it roughly up to her hip.
She shrieked and squirmed underneath him. "Hiccup no, no, you wouldn't, you wouldn't."
His hand stalled on her thigh and she felt his breath against her ear as he replied. "Of course I wouldn't." He released her thigh and sat up, still pinning her legs down with his own and keeping the knife to the underside of her jaw. "But I could." He was glaring at her in utter contempt and she shrank into herself. "That's not a threat, just a reminder," he said calmly. "Because I don't think you appreciate just how easy it would be for me to do whatever I want to you." She stifled a sob. "Luckily for you, I'm not interested, which puts you in a much better position than you thought you were going to be in twelve hours ago. You're not stuck here with a monster. You're stuck here with me. So if you could kindly stop acting like a hostage, I'll stop treating you like one, deal?"
Astrid sniffled. "You're not exactly giving me much choice."
He gave her a humorless smile. "I'm not exactly thrilled with the circumstances either, milady, but here we are."
She glared at him. "If you don't want me here then why don't you take me back?"
"Because I can't trust that you won't spill my secret and they won't spill your blood the second you get back. So until I'm sure that we're both safe, you're staying here." His eyes narrowed. "But the games end, got it? You wanna try to seduce me again then I'm going to assume you actually want me to fuck you."
Astrid scoffed. "Like I would ever." The corner of his lips quirked.
"You were into it." Astrid's eyes widened and she felt heat rush to her cheeks. She opened her mouth to tell him that, no, she definitely had not been, but he beat her to it. "You might not want to admit it, but you were." He pulled the knife away and sheathed it. Astrid sat up slowly, pushing herself up on shaking elbows. He climbed off her knees and stood before offering a hand to help her up. She ignored it and scooted backwards before struggling to stand on quaking legs.
She steadfastly ignored the lingering dampness she felt between her thighs as she did so.
"Yeah, see, surprisingly the threat of rape isn't exactly a turn on for me."
"I wasn't going to rape you, Astrid. Great ass notwithstanding, 'dragon killer' isn't exactly my type. I meant before things got rapey."
"I don't know why I'm even dignifying this by arguing about it," she snipped. He'd been a good kisser and she had a role to play. That was it. And how dare he imply she'd been enjoying anything moments after making her think...as if she hadn't spend the last few days thinking...Astrid squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. She couldn't afford to get comfortable. Her instinct was to fall back to bickering with Hiccup as if they were kids again, but trusting Hiccup to be the boy she remembered could be deadly.
This whole day had already gotten way out of hand and she'd only been up ten minutes.
And she was hungry.
Part of her wanted to run as far from Hiccup as her trembling legs would take her, but she knew he was right. Her survival here depended on him, whether he meant to hurt her or not.
"S-so," she began, rubbing her goosepimpled arms, "Are you in the habit of feeding your hostages or are you just going to wait until I starve to death?"
Hiccup rolled his eyes. It was really starting to irritate her; this was vying for most traumatic event of her life, and he was acting as if the whole thing was a rather aggravating inconvenience. "Only gonna treat you like a hostage if you act like one. I'm not going to let you starve. Come with me." He started off down one of the tunnels, the same one Toothless had exited through and after a hesitant moment she followed him. When the light behind them faded he reached down and pulled the strange flaming sword from its holster on his calf and ignited it, lighting their way. Subconsciously she sped up to be closer to the flames and the heat they radiated.
"There's a network of tunnels running through the whole mountain," Hiccup said. "I get the feeling it used to be home to a nest of Whispering Deaths, but they moved out long before Toothless and I moved in. It's a bit sprawling, but it doesn't take long to get used to where everything is. The walk feels longer in the dark, but everything is closer than it feels."
Astrid crossed her arms and cast her eyes around the near-perfectly round shape of the tunnel. "Why not just have everything in one place?"
"Different areas are good for different things. Some places are warmer and some are colder, and sometimes that makes a difference. I rarely even use that big cave we were in. Sometimes the space is helpful, but mostly Toothless and I just fly straight to my room when we get back. I'll teach you how to get from there to the other caves later. It's a shorter walk from there." As he spoke they turned into another chamber where sunlight was streaming in through a large opening in the ceiling. Like the other rooms she'd seen there was a hearth in the center of the room, though this one had a large spit standing beside it. In the corner Toothless had his head half buried in a large stone well filled with fish. Hiccup had built what looked like a stone oven, and there were several more large chests and boxes shoved up against the walls of the small cave. It was more completely enclosed than the others she'd seen. Its walls were continuous save for the skylight above them and the far side of the room where two openings near the ground allowed a small stream to pass through the room. There was an alcove to her right where she could see salted meats hanging from the ceiling from metal hooks driven into the rock.
Hiccup whistled at Toothless who shot a blast of fire at the hearth before turning back to his fish. Hiccup opened one of the chests and withdrew a loaf of bread which he tossed at her. She caught it and looked it over carefully, inspecting for mold or mites before tearing off a small chunk and tasting. She'd never known Hiccup to have noteworthy cooking skills but the bread was soft and moist and slightly sweet and she tore into it eagerly.
"I've got fruit if you want some, some dried jerky somewhere. It's all in the chests, so just…I dunno. Come in here and dig in if you ever get hungry. Everything you'd need to cook is in a box somewhere, so just dig around and you'll find whatever you need eventually. It's not really that organized," Hiccup rambled as he pulled a couple of plates from one chest and sat them on the small wooden table on the opposite wall from Toothless's fish well. She watched him carefully. He was being so casual now; as if he hadn't just tried to trick her into thinking he would assault her.
Astrid closed her eyes. She didn't want to think about his threats, even if he hadn't any intention on following through. For a moment she had been terrified, and she would not forgive him for that so easily. She would not forgive him for a lot of things easily, if ever. From another chest he pulled fruits, some she was familiar with, some she had never seen, and began cutting them with a knife pulled from the same chest as the plates. Astrid coughed around a mouthful of bread and Hiccup glanced at her. He put down his knife and reached into the open chest to pull out a clay jug.
"The ice caps on top of this mountain melt down into streams that run all through the caves down to the ocean," he explained as he crossed to the little stream and began filling the earthen jug with water. "Coolest, cleanest water you've ever tasted. We're close to the top here; it's the best place to get drinking water. A little further down and the water runs deeper and the current's stronger so it's the best place for washing clothes. It's not a bad place for bathing, but it's a little too cold. There's hot springs at the very very base of the mountain, but it's kind of a long trek. And then a little higher up there's a strong stream that runs by my bedroom. Works nicely as a self-cleaning privy, before you ask." Astrid blushed. Gods, she was seriously going to have to cohabitate with him, wasn't she? His simple statement had given rise to a whole host of concerns in her mind related to privacy and daily needs and…she had no clothes. No clean underwear or breast bindings. And Odin's missing eye, what the hel was she going to do when her moon's blood came?
She had to get him to take her home. Soon.
He poured her a mug of water and thrust it into her hand without looking at her. Astrid took a long drawl of the cool water before squaring her shoulders and fixing him with her next question.
"As cozy as this all sounds, what's it going to take to get you to take me home?" Hiccup perched himself on the table and regarded her with a bored expression.
"I'll take you back when I'm sure I can trust you not to spill my secrets. I thought we covered this."
Astrid rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's not likely to happen. What else will it take to get you to take me home?"
Hiccup raised an eyebrow at her, then after a moment he smirked something wicked. "Well, if you're still interested in that deflowering-"
Astrid scowled. "Never in a million years," she hissed, and her face grew hotter at Hiccup's smug expression. Her anger seemed to positively delight him. "And if you ever lay a hand on me again, you'll wake up the next morning with your cock missing."
He sobered slightly. "I'm not dumb enough to think that's an empty threat, Astrid," he said, turning his attention to peeling an apple. "I have no such intentions."
She glared. "I don't care whether you intend to go all the way or not," she said, her voice a low growl, "You ever touch me like you did earlier-"
"In fairness," Hiccup interrupted, "You started it."
She ripped off a chunk of the bread and threw it at his head. It bounced off his shoulder and he raised an amused eyebrow at her. "So that's how it is, huh? A girl gets you a little excited and suddenly it's all her fault because you just couldn't control yourself?"
"That's not what I'm saying."
"Besides that, you knew why I was pretending to come on to you, that hardly counts as me starting it."
"Oh my gods, Astrid, I wasn't gonna rape you," Hiccup groaned around a mouthful of the bread she'd chucked at him. He swallowed. "I'm sorry, okay, I was just trying to make a point. I shouldn't have done it." He closed his eyes and sighed, and when he spoke next it was gentler and more sincere than the exasperation of his previous sentence. "I really am sorry. I didn't think it was going to make you feel so violated. I didn't think—well, I just didn't think. I'm sorry. But I'm serious; I'm not going to touch you again."
She could see the honesty in his expression, and while it partially soothed her anger, she was still far from letting him off the hook. She was being held against her will; she felt she had the right to nag him for all she was worth.
"And even when I held you down and you were—what, teasing? I don't even know what to call it, but, seriously, is it so hard to keep your hips to yourself?"
"Well, seeing as you'd shown so much comfort with touching me up until then-"
"Stop blaming this on me!"
"I'm not blaming this on you!"
"No, you're just saying that you shouldn't regret your actions because I might have enjoyed it. Which I didn't, by the way."
"Fu- Freya Frigga Loki Lofn," Hiccup swore, his head falling back. "Gods, woman, we need to get you laid." His head tilted back down and he gave her a deadpan frown. "Or drunk. Or something."
Toothless had stopped eating to watch them, his large green eyes following the back-and-forth exchange. He grumbled at Hiccup, who frowned at him.
"Oh, hey now, you stay out of this. You're the one who left me alone with her."
Toothless's eyes narrowed and he gave Hiccup an indignant bark before curling up with his back to them.
Astrid's lip curled. She hoped her face wasn't as red as it was hot. "I don't need to get laid," she hissed.
Hiccup chuckled and returned to his breakfast. "Some might dispute that, given that your virginity is what got you into this mess."
Astrid huffed. "Just because you're so eager to lose your virginity that you're practically salivating over me doesn't mean that-"
Hiccup's sharp bark of laughter stopped her. He pulled one of his legs up onto the table and rested his arms on it. He gave her a wide amused smile and gestured at her with his knife. "Again, you're assuming I'm still a virgin."
Astrid raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, because again, you live in a cave with a dragon."
Hiccup sighed and tossed his apple core into a basket beside the table and started peeling another one.
"I told you, I do get out. As much as this mountain has to offer there are some things I need that I have to get the old fashioned way. I steal some things during raids, but others I just have to find a way to buy. So I sneak into towns sometimes. Big towns, usually, sea ports. Places where a strange face doesn't attract attention. And there are two things you can always find in sea port towns." Astrid finished her bread and scooted closer to the fire for warmth. "The first, prostitutes." Astrid's nose turned up in disgust and Hiccup's mouth quirked into a smile as he pointed at her with his knife. "Exactly. But the second, more attractive, cheaper, less disease-riddled option…" He grinned. "Desperate fisherman's daughters. The landlocked ones are usually easy anyway. They like the convenience of being able to sleep with sailors and not have to see them again or worry that they'll let slip what happened between them. But the ones who sail with their fathers? Who spend weeks or months out on a boat with no one but crew men who know their captain would throw them overboard if they so much as look at his daughter the wrong way?" Hiccup's grin was wide and wicked and smug. "Their feet hit land and all they want is one night to feel like a free woman instead of a spare pair of work hands who'll end up in an unhappy marriage to a fisherman who leaves them alone on land for weeks at a time just like their mothers." He shrugged and tossed her the peeled apple. "Not to say that I take advantage. They go looking for companionship and they usually find me. All I do is find a tavern to hang out in and wait."
Astrid tried to picture Hiccup seducing some wide-eyed girl off a fishing boat. It seemed all wrong; even with his new sharp jaw and high, defined cheekbones and bright green eyes and—
Okay, she could sort of see what these supposed girls might see in him.
"Well I suppose after weeks of no contact with anyone your own age even you would look appealing," Astrid quipped, mostly in order to distract her mutinous brain from trying to imagine what Hiccup might look like during one of his supposed dalliances.
"You know it's hard to take that as an insult given how into that kiss you were this morning."
Astrid threw her apple at his head. He dodged it and grinned at her. "I had to make you think I was into it," she snapped.
Hiccup snorted. "Whatever you say, milady."
Astrid got to her feet and stomped over to him, glowering. "Okay, listen up, Haddock," she hissed, right in his face, so close she could count every freckle dusted across his cheeks. "First you steal my chance of glory in Dragon Training, then you make me think you died a terrible, gruesome death, because I failed to save you. So then I get to spend the next four years feeling guilty and traumatized and having nightmares about you getting eaten by a dragon while your dad treats me like your death is my fault. And let's not forget that all that culminates in my being offered up as virgin sacrifice, only to end up being stuck on this Thor-forsaken island with a skinny idiot who can't get over his childhood crush long enough to treat me like a real person!"
No sooner had she finished her tirade was Hiccup on his feet and stalking towards her, sending her tripping over her own feet as she backed away. That cold look was back in his eyes as he glared at her, and Astrid felt a flash of fear when her back hit the cave wall.
Toothless had looked up and was watching them tensely; his eyes wide and fixed on his master's stiff frame.
Hiccup looked at her for a moment with that harsh, almost disgusted expression before he closed his eyes and exhaled through is nose. His face fell into impassivity and his eyes opened.
"If you're done eating I'll finish showing you around," he said finally, and Astrid released a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. "And then we'll see if we can't find you some real clothes." His gaze flickered downwards and lingered just a second too long on her chest before returning to her face. "You look cold."
He turned and stalked towards the door without another word, Toothless at his heels. The dragon paused and cast an almost worried glance at her over his shoulder before he exited the room behind Hiccup.
Astrid raised her arms and crossed them over her chest, realizing suddenly that her hard nipples were almost certainly pointing through the thin fabric of her dress. She missed her real clothes. She missed her warm knitted shirts and spiked skirts and the thick pelts she wrapped around her arms. She missed her fur lined boots and armor on her shoulders and the comforting weight of an axe strapped to her back.
She missed home. She missed her warm bed and her mother's cooking and being woken by her father's singing in the mornings. She missed Brenna crawling into her bed after she'd had a nightmare and cuddling the little girl close until she felt safe. She wondered if she'd ever get to soothe her baby sister back to sleep ever again.
She closed her eyes and took a shaky breath before following Hiccup into the tunnel.
