Update 11/24/2018: Typos fixed and clunky wording fixed in a couple places. Other than that nothing changed. It's still 99% smut.

Warnings: MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A SMUTTY NEW YEAR (no seriously. This thing is like 90 percent smut.) NSFW. Really living up to the rating here.


Chapter 17: Allegiance Won, Innocence Lost pt 2

Hiccup and Toothless dove into the side of the mountain, taking the shortest route straight to their bedroom. It was a more difficult flight for Stormfly but she could do it, and Astrid followed them. When she landed Hiccup was already on the ground and dismounting. She slid off Stormfly and pulled her axe off her back and leant it up against the wall.

"Hiccup, I know you're mad, but can you please just talk to me?"

Hiccup ignored her. He was ripping off his armor and throwing it to the floor, leather armguards and shoulder pads bouncing off the stone. He pulled off his helmet and threw it aside, and Astrid swallowed at the hard look on his face. His eyes were narrowed and his jaw was set, almost but not quite a glare that he focused on the ground instead of on her.

"Hiccup?"

Toothless nosed at him but Hiccup gently pushed the Night Fury away and whistled. The whistle drew Stormfly's attention, and she stomped over to accept the chin scratches before Hiccup made a clicking noise and both dragons took off into the deeper reaches of the cave, leaving the two of them alone. Astrid watched them go with apprehension. "Hiccup?"

He still ignored her. He tore at the buckles of his chest piece and pulled it off, and then he was stalking towards her before the leather had hit the floor. His eyes were blazing, and she backed away on instinct.

"Hiccup? Hiccup?" He advanced on her, footsteps swift and she panicked, stumbling backwards until her back hit stone. "Hicc—" His mouth covered hers as he lifted her off the floor and pinned her against the wall. He kissed her harder than she'd ever been kissed, teeth and tongue clashing while his hips ground in between hers. She gasped into his mouth before her eyes fluttered closed and she melted into the kiss, her arms rising to grip his shoulders and help support her weight.

He broke away, panting heavily, his eyes dark and reflecting red and orange glimmers from the fire. "You're amazing," he breathed. "Absolutely amazing." He kissed her again, but Astrid managed to push him away.

She blinked at him, equally breathless. "You're not mad?"

Hiccup frowned at her. "Are you kidding, I'm furious!" He kissed her. "You went against everything I told you, you revealed yourself to the entire village, you ruined any chance of ever being seen as less than my accomplice, and you did it all behind my back." Another kiss, and he broke away laughing and shaking his head. "And you were incredible." It wasn't quite a smile that he looked at her with, but it was something infinitely more tender. He looked at her with something like awe. "I love you," he said, his eyes searching her face. "You're ridiculous and independent and amazing and when you know what you want you don't let anyone stand in your way. And I love you, Astrid. I love you."

She didn't doubt it.

She kissed him this time, her hand curling around his head and pulling him to her. This kiss was less rough, more passionate. Her legs wrapped around his waist and he shifted her weight in his arms so he could stroke up the sides of her torso and down along her thighs. She moaned into his mouth as she felt him grind his growing arousal against her. He broke away to kiss along her cheek to her jaw, and then began to suckle and nip at the skin of her neck. Astrid sighed and let her head fall back. She loved it when he kissed her neck; it always made her shiver down to her toes when he dragged his tongue from her ear to her collar bone, leaving a wet stripe that would prickle in the cold air.

"I want to ravish you," Hiccup mumbled against her ear as his hand ran down her leg to shuck her boots from her feet. He traced the shell of her ear with his tongue before tugging the lobe with his teeth. "I want-I want to spread your legs wide and lick you until you're dripping." He punctuated his words with a sharp buck into her core, and Astrid bit her lip to keep from moaning.

"You know," she said, while he kissed the sensitive skin behind her ear. "I'm kind of torn between wanting to know how-oh-how you got so good at talking dirty, and being kind of afraid to find out."

"Am I good at it?" Hiccup asked her throat while he kicked off his own boots. "I just kind of say stuff and hope it doesn't sound stupid."

"No, no you don't usually sound stupid," she said, while Hiccup pulled at the laces of her shirt with his teeth. Gods, he had such a talented mouth. Talented hands and talented mouth and she wanted them all over her body.

Hiccup pulled away from her neck to rest his forehead against hers while he caught his breath. "Is that a yes on the ravishing, then?"

Astrid met his half-lidded eyes with her own and chuckled throatily. "That's a hel yes you'd better." He claimed her mouth and soon the rock behind her was replaced with air as he carried her to their bed. He laid her down gently, though as soon as she was safely on the cushions his hands went to work. He yanked the hem of her shirt from her skirt and broke their kiss long enough to pull it over her head. His hands were warm on her back but they didn't stay there long, instead diving under her skirt and pulling down her leggings and underwear all in one go. Astrid's heart picked up. Hiccup left her lips and began kissing down her neck, her chest, over her bound breasts and down her stomach.

He grabbed her legs and pushed them to her chest, shoving her skirt up around her hips. In half a second his mouth was on her, tongue thrusting into her without ceremony or preparation. Astrid cried out at the sudden invasion, she grabbed fistfuls of the furs beneath her while Hiccup set about laving and licking at her inner walls. Her sharp gasps echoed off the stone walls as his strong arms pinned down her writhing hips. She knew then from his ruthlessness what he was going to ask her, and what her response was going to be.

As she tipped over the edge into white hot swirling pleasure she knew this was the night she was going to let him take her.

He loves me, she thought, as the aftershocks subsided and the haze began to clear. He loves me. Oh gods, he loves me.

Her eyes blinked open and she looked down at him, kissing his way from her inner thigh up to her knee. "Do you wanna keep going?" he asked, as he often did, though there was something different in the way he asked it this time. Something in the flat tone or the darkness of his eyes that suggested he already knew her answer, but asked out of formality, or perhaps respect.

It made her heart swell to think how she had never worried about his response to her answer. She never feared telling him no, never feared he would disregard her decision. He never made her feel inadequate or guilty for declining to take this further.

She pulled her legs from his grasp and sat up, her eyes locked on the bright green of his. "Yes." Her hands locked onto his shoulders and drug him to her lips.

Hiccup shifted to pull her onto his lap while Astrid worked loose the ties of his shirt and pulled it out of his pants and over his head. She'd never get tired of being skin to skin with him, she thought, running her hands over his chest and down his stomach. She'd never tire of his big warm hands trailing down her spine. His fingers found the knot of her breast bindings and began trying to loosen it but Astrid stopped him, breaking the kiss and giving him a shy look. "Wait," she said, meeting his confused frown. "Wait just a second. Turn around and close your eyes."

Hiccup quirked an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

She swatted at his shoulder as she climbed off his lap. "I have a surprise for you. Turn around and close your eyes and don't look until I say so." Hiccup didn't stop frowning but he did as she asked. "No peeking, I mean it," she warned, getting to her feet.

"Yeah, yeah."

She went swiftly and quietly to her trunk and pulled out the garment she'd been working on for weeks in preparation for this moment. She looked it over one last time and threw a paranoid glance over her shoulder at Hiccup, who was still sitting with his back to her, arms resting on his knees. She undressed quickly and pulled the dress over her head before unbraiding her hair and running her fingers through it to loosen the curls. Finally she dug through her trunk to find the little bottles of perfume he'd brought her months ago. She didn't dip into them very often, but there were some she liked and tonight was special, so she found her favorite and dabbed it around her neck, between her breasts, and perhaps a bit self-consciously, between her legs. She placed the perfume bottles back in her trunk and closed the lid. For a moment she stared at her hands on the wood, listening to the cracking of the fire behind her and her own quick breathing.

She was going to do this. This was going to happen. She was going to do this.

A strange little smile pulled at the corners of her mouth and she suppressed a grin as she got to her feet and faced the bed.

"Okay," she said. "You can look."

Hiccup's head turned left and right in a confused little bob before he looked over his shoulder and his mouth fell open and his eyes widened. Astrid dropped her gaze for a moment and brushed her bangs out of her eyes, and when she looked up at Hiccup he was getting slowly to his feet. There was a look of awe on his face as he took in the sight of her, standing there in nothing but a thin shift made of a few flowing layers of the sheer silk fabric he'd brought her as a peace offering when they were just beginning to get along. She had wondered for the longest time what she would do with that fabric, as it wasn't much good for anything practical and it seemed too fine for the dress she'd made for Brenna's doll. And it was too sheer to be used as any sort of garment on its own…until things with Hiccup had become more intimate, and she decided that sheer might be exactly what she needed.

It hung straight from her shoulders to her hips, and then fluttered in uneven layers down to the middle of her calves. She'd attempted a bit of embroidery at the neckline to make it more special, though Hiccup's gaze didn't linger long at her collarbone. The dress left nothing to the imagination.

Hiccup's eyes met hers and he stepped closer until there were only a few inches between them. His hand reached out and hovered over a tendril of hair before he pulled it back. Astrid watched the bob of his throat as he swallowed and the way his tongue darted out to wet his lips before he spoke. "You're beautiful," he said, so softly it was almost a whisper. "Have I ever mentioned that before? You're so beautiful."

Astrid swallowed. Maybe it was nerves, or excitement, but there was something about the way he looked at her tonight that felt so different from how he'd ever looked at her before. "You must have. Surely you have." She sounded so breathless and she wasn't sure why.

"Then I guess I haven't said it enough," he whispered, eyes drifting down over her body and back up to her face. "Because you're the most beautiful girl I've ever known."

Her heart fluttered and she looked down, biting her lip. "You've been all over the world," she said, speaking louder and trying to laugh, "Chances are somewhere you've seen someone prettier than me." She didn't know why she said it. She felt oddly vulnerable in a way she only did around Hiccup. Especially now, with nothing hidden from him. She felt some need for self-aware self-depreciation, some defense against whatever flaws he might find. She was never an impractical girl; she knew that the prettiest girl on Berk didn't equate to the prettiest girl everywhere.

Hiccup pinched her chin between his thumb and forefinger and lifted her face back to meet his eyes, burning green and black with an intensity that set her heart to pounding.

"They're not you," he said, leaning forward, "They don't compare."

How did he do that? How did he say things like that and make it so easy for her to believe him? What was it about his gaze, his smile, the press of his hands, that made her feel beautiful in a way that had never mattered to her before? How did he bring out all these sides of her that she'd never given much thought to? He brought out a sensuality and sexuality in her that she had once been content to ignore until she died. She'd never foreseen herself as a wife or a lover until him, and yet here she was, blood thrumming in her veins at the thought of what she was about to do. She trusted him in a way she'd forgotten possible, and loved him in a way she'd never imagined herself capable.

When he kissed her this time it was slower, lighter, almost chaste. His hands came to rest on her waist and pull her closer. Her fingertips skated over the light stubble on his jaw and neck and she sighed happily into his mouth.

"Have I ever mentioned how beautiful you ended up?" she asked when they broke apart. Hiccup's eyebrow rose. "You have such gorgeous eyes. Kind eyes, intelligent eyes, I always thought so." She combed through his bangs and traced down the side of his face until her fingers landed on his lips. "And your smile." Something almost like a giggle bubbled out of her. "You know sometimes you smile at me and I think I could believe any impossible thing you told me." He exhaled shakily, looking at her with something almost like disbelief.

"How did I ever end up here?" he asked, his arms winding around her and pulling her tight against his chest. "What did I ever do to deserve this, deserve you? You hated me. You hated me when I was bad at fighting dragons and you hated me when I was good at fighting dragons, so how the hel did I get you anyway?"

Astrid really did giggle this time. She pecked his chin and beamed up at him. "Maybe I just didn't think you were supposed to be fighting dragons."

"Well, damn, Astrid, you should have told me that then, I could have saved a lot of time trying to impress you."

She laughed; head-thrown back, eyes closed, smile wide laughed, and only stopped when he kissed her and wouldn't stop. Her hands found his belt and rid him of it, and then helped him shimmy out of his pants and underwear. He hissed in relief and Astrid almost laughed; he was hard and throbbing and that tight leather couldn't have been very comfortable. He slipped the straps of her dress off her shoulders and the fabric fluttered around her as it fell to the floor. He stopped kissing her long enough to look down at her body, finally completely revealed to him, and then his hands were roaming over every inch of her form. They were warm and wide and left lightning in their wake as they slid over her back and along her sides and up to palm her breasts. His mouth left hers and attached to her neck, leaving hot distracted kisses down her throat and chest until he latched onto her nipple. She gasped and clung to him, her own hands exploring the familiar firm muscles of his back and strong shoulders. She just wanted to touch him, anywhere, everywhere. She loved his body; loved his lithe arms and thin, muscled torso, and his narrow hips that were madeto fit between hers…

His tongue teased her nipple and she nearly tore his arm from its socket. "Hiccup," she gasped, somewhere between an oath and a plea, and as his mouth returned to hers his hands slid under her bottom and scooped her up into his arms.

Her heart beat harder and harder against her ribs as he carried her to their bed and laid her down on the furs. He pulled away from her lips and rested his forehead against hers as they both took a moment to catch their breath.

"I love you," Hiccup said, looking at her out of half-lidded eyes while he hovered over her.

She gave him a soft smile and nodded. "I love you, too." He mirrored her smile briefly before his hand trailed up the inside of her thigh and he slid two long fingers into her. Astrid bit her lip and moaned, her eyes falling closed. She was aching for him now; she thought she might crawl out of her own skin, and the slow circling of his fingers was doing more to magnify her need than satisfy it.

"Hiccup," she whined, trying to arch into his touch and shimmy away from it all in one movement. "Stop teasing me."

"I just want to make sure you're ready," came his husky reply.

Astrid wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or scream from frustration. "Hiccup, I am so-oh-so far past the point of changing my mind!" Her sentence ended in a gasp as he crooked his fingers inside her.

"I meant physically," he replied, not letting up. "I don't want to hurt you."

Gods damn him and bless him for his consideration.

"I think, gods, I think I'm good." She grabbed his hand and yanked it away, strangely thankful for the momentary lapse of sensation. She blinked her eyes open. "I just want you now."

Hiccup nodded, and something in his unsteady breath made her wonder if he wasn't more nervous that she was. He wrapped her legs around his waist as he settled between her thighs, before resting his weight on his arms at her sides. He reached between them, a finger swiping through the wetness at her core before something larger and hotter took its place, resting just at her entrance.

He combed his fingers through her hair and kissed the corner of her mouth, and whispered, "I love you," before he pushed forward.

He slid into her slowly, hot smooth inch by hot smooth inch, his breath quickening with hers after only the first few. It didn't hurt, exactly. It was…she wasn't used to the feeling. Her eyes squeezed shut and her head fell back against the pillows. Surely she couldn't take any more of him, she thought, he seemed so deep already, but he kept pushing deeper and somehow her body accepted him without pain. She drew a shuddering gasp as he sheathed himself to the hilt; her fingers dug into his shoulders and her legs tightened around his waist, almost subconsciously.

He was asking if she was okay, she knew, though the words themselves got lost somewhere in the sound of her own ragged breathing. She nodded, her hips twitching beneath him.

"Astrid, look at me." His voice sounded strained, and she obeyed him, pulling up heavy lids to see the reverent expression with which he watched her. "Are you okay?" he asked, his hands tangling through her hair. "Are you good?" She couldn't find the words to tell him that she was fine, that she wanted this, that she wanted, wanted, wanted. "More," she whispered finally.

Hiccup nodded and leaned in to kiss the corner of her eye, and then he drew back and pressed into her again. He thrust slowly; a steady rhythm of long, tremulous strokes that made her thighs seize and her toes curl and her body shudder, followed by a brief moment of retreat that left her desperate and wanting. Her hips rocked into his on instinct; she was hardly aware of the motion, she only knew to seek more.

It was the sweetest form of torture she had ever known. She hadn't anticipated the intensity of the feeling; the way her whole body would shake with each surge of pleasure, or the sheer heat of him. It was like fire between them; a debilitating flare and fade as he fucked her. She wasn't sure if she loved it or hated it but she knew she never wanted it to stop.

He was whispering her name, over and over and over in time with his movements and her own soft mewls. She would have been saying his if she'd had the presence of mind to speak. She couldn't even manage to open her eyes. She desperately gulped down air, her mind clear of anything that wasn't him, and the heat between their bodies and his weight on top of her and that something he kept hitting deep inside her that made her whimper and clench around him. His rhythm was slowly increasing, building into hard, deep strokes. Her grip on him tightened, desperate to keep him close, keep him moving, keep him spearing into her, again and again and again. She clung to him; her head thrown back and her neck exposed to his searching kisses and hot breath. He had one hand tangled almost painfully in her hair while the other kept a bruising grip on her thigh.

He bucked into her, a particularly hard thrust that forced a strangled whine from her throat. "Yes," she gasped, hoping Hiccup understood what she meant, because she wasn't sure that she did. "Gods," she breathed when he did it again, and he seemed to get the message. It was like something shifted and with her next shudder she could feel that white hot churning begin to build. Her whimpers and gasps turned to high-pitched little yips torn from the back of her throat and her body ached with the tremors as he pushed her closer and closer to the edge. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. Everything was Hiccup and his touch and his heat and the almost painful jolt of pleasure that shot through her with every stroke. Her body strained, her nails drug lines down Hiccup's back, her legs shaking, everything growing tighter, tighter, tighter…

She shattered. Her soft scream surprised her, as did the force of her release, stronger than it had ever been before. She came hard, her body convulsing as she rode out the waves, the world beyond the twine of their bodies nonexistent.

Hiccup was on his elbows, increasing his leverage and rocking harder and harder into her, seeking his own end and drawing out hers to the point where she wondered if she was going to come again. She heard his strained groan in her ear and felt him try to pull away, but she locked her ankles behind his back and held him in place. She didn't care what might happen; she didn't care what might come of it; she didn't care about anything but this feeling. His movements faltered and she heard his shout of her name as he spilled inside her.

He collapsed on top of her, both of them panting hard. Astrid was dimly aware of him rolling them over and pulling her close, his arms wrapping around her back. She felt his soft kisses on her face, his hands wiping her sweat-drenched hair from her face. He held her while she floated back down to earth, her face pressed into his chest, her lips resting against his skin as she struggled to regain her breath. Her whole body felt weak, the tension had given way to a pleasant soreness in her limbs and between her legs. She tilted her head up and buried her face in his neck. She felt warm and safe in his arms. Warm, and safe, and loved.

x

"Are you okay?" Hiccup asked, what felt like lifetimes later. His thumb was lightly stroking her back while she lay in the comforting circle of his arms, her face still hidden in the crook of his neck.

She tilted her face up to look at him. He looked so peaceful, so relaxed…so happy, she couldn't help but smile. "Yeah," she breathed. "Better than okay."

He grinned at her and kissed her soundly before heaving a deep sigh and closing his eyes.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Hiccup mumbled.

She pecked the tip of his nose. "You look tired."

"Mm. I'm exhausted. It's been kind of an eventful day. Night. Whatever." Astrid smiled at the goofy, sleepy smile stretching over his lips.

Her own smile faded and she snuggled closer to his chest, prompting him to reach down and pull one of the heavy furs over them. Astrid stared at his collarbone, trying to find the words to ask what kept tapping at her mind.

She finally settled on, "Was I good?"

Hiccup hummed, a smug, happy sound punctuated by a low blast of warm air from his nostrils against her hairline. "You were amazing."

She watched the gentle rise and fall of his chest. "Was I as good as the first seven?"

Hiccup's deep breathing stalled. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does," she said, because it did, in that moment. She liked being the best at things, and for some strange, self-conscious reason it mattered that she wasn't a disappointment compared to his previous conquests.

"No, it doesn't," Hiccup said, more firmly, and tilted her face up to look at him. His green eyes seemed to radiate tenderness, and he spoke with such conviction that she couldn't help but believe him. "They're not you. They don't even compare."

And then he kissed her: a light, gentle brush of the lips that felt every bit as intimate as the act they'd just shared.

Xx

The silence in the Great Hall seemed to physically press down on the few occupants of the room.

No one spoke; not one of the nine people seated at the table seemed capable of saying anything that wasn't already running through the minds of everyone else. Even the infant sleeping in Ruffnut's arms made no noise.

Outside the rest of the village had gone back home to go to sleep, or perhaps more accurately, had gone back home to stay awake until the wee hours of the morning gossiping and whispering about what they had all witnessed that night.

No one in Berk would be getting much sleep tonight.

Finally Stoick heaved a sigh and got to his feet. "Well," he said, looking around at the solemn faces staring at the table top. "I think we're all in agreement that there's nothing really to discuss." He rubbed a large hand across his eyes before placing both his hands flat on the table. He stood up straight and cleared his throat. "As difficult as this is for me to do, it must be done. There is no denying what we all saw out there tonight." He watched Arvid take his wife's hand and squeeze it tightly. "As of tonight, we must officially declare Astrid Hofferson a traitor to Berk and our allies."

Ruffnut and Tuffnut exchanged a pained look. Ingrid buried her face in her husband's shoulder. Fishlegs and Snotlout stared at the table, while Gobber frowned pensively into the darkness.

"The punishment for her treason, should she be captured and convicted, is, regrettably, death."