Hey there! So here's the beginning of my Hiccstrid one shot's collection! I tell already: they will follow RTTE Season 4 and follow each other!
I hope you'll like this one though.
Enjoy some Hiccstrid fight! Thanks my friend Wolfie for make some reajustements!
Happy reading!
Weeks after the Grimborn brothers' death, the dragon riders were living peaceful days on Berk. They didn't leave the Dragon's Edge with pleasure, far from it, but the erupting volcano had not left them the choice. So it was more with regret that the gang was forced to leave their outpost where they have been through so much.
"Okay gang, take all you can save before the lava comes to your huts!" Hiccup ordered.
It was too late, the Edge was condemned. The Baby Eruptodon couldn't have held back what was coming anyway. The situation was under control.
The dragon riders had rushed inside their respective huts to get their personal effects. Snotlout was trying to pick up his 'S', the twins were wallowing on the boar pit while Fishlegs handled the collection of most books and maps containing Dragon Eye's information. As to Astrid, she moved to take the weapons she left in her hut.
And then there was Hiccup. The young boy had made his way to the Clubhouse to meditate, closely followed by Toothless. He examined the place, and then sighed. The night fury approached his friend and rubbed him in an affectionate embrace. He uttered a plaintive cooing. The auburn-haired boy stooped to his level by stroking his head.
"I'll miss this place too, Bud."
He bounced back and then he moved to the table where the dragon riders and him used to meet up. Hiccup recalled with nostalgia the crazy talks the gang shared, Heather's great food and Tuffnut's compliments on it. But he also reminded himself of the gravest moments when the teenagers' mutual aid reached its peak like after the 'Viggo fiasco' for example. This place was full of memories. It was really a part of their life that came down on this island.
An important part.
The young man was now in front of the stables. A smile came to his face at the sight of it. That was where he and Astrid kissed for the first time as a couple. It was in this place that they finally confessed their true feelings for each other. It took time but Astrid's blindness pushed Hiccup to step outside his comfort zone. Thankfully, her state was temporary.
"Are you okay?" asked a voice behind him while placing a hand on his shoulder.
He turned back, it was Astrid, of course. He gave her a smile he wanted reassuring.
"Just trying to remember the great moments we've spent here all together…" he admitted in a sigh.
The night fury rubbed him affectionately. His friend petted his head while smiling.
"It's true that we had a lot of memories here," Astrid agreed, taking Hiccup's hand.
So the teenager moved in front of her and took her hands in turn. Their faces approached until their lips found themselves at only few centimetres from each other as their foreheads touched. They closed their eyes and both smiled before exchanging a tender kiss.
After that, they definitively left the Edge.
Since that, the teenagers got back to a routine life on Berk. They returned to the activities they left before adventuring to the Great Beyond, months ago. Snotlout started testing the village's weapons again. Meanwhile the twins returned to their crazy activities that consisted of trapping villagers in the name of Loki. Concerning the others, Fishlegs was teaching Berk's history again to the youngest inhabitants of the island.
Hiccup got back to the same point he was before going to the Great beyond. He didn't really know what he wanted to do with his life. He would become chief eventually, for sure, but he didn't want his life to come down to this function. He wanted something else. He needed something else. Hiccup needed freedom and continuing the exploration of the world around him seemed to be a great option.
Regarding Astrid, she had gone back to her engagement in Berk's guard for the Academy where she was in charge now. She took care of the newest dragon riders' formation. The gang came time to time to help her with teamwork demonstrations or specific tactics' teaching.
"Stormfly, spine shot!" Astrid shouted.
The Deadly Nadder instantly obeyed her master who jumped off her back to perform a somersault before the young recruits' amazed eyes. She landed in front of them, standing upright, imperturbable.
"There you go. That's how you surprise your enemy."
She paused.
"A volunteer?"
No response was expected from her question, she did that only for the purpose of impressing them. They didn't have time to answer anyway because a voice rose above their heads.
"Sorry I'm late!" The dragon riders' leader apologized, landing in the arena with Toothless.
The blond smiled, looking at him.
"You're just in time, actually," she said, putting a hand on her waist.
Hiccup showed a puzzled smile.
"How can I help you, milady?" he finally asked.
She nodded on the side, pointing to the wild dragons captured earlier by the gang for the future dragon riders. He smiled to Astrid, understanding what she expected from him. So the young man approached the reptiles.
"When you want to tame a dragon, the first thing to do is to establish a bond with him. He has to trust you," Hiccup explained to the group.
He walked towards a Monstrous Nightmare and raised his hand slowly to his muzzle. The dragon grunted a little so the dragon riders' chief looked away while continuing what he was doing. Finally, he managed to put his hand on the reptile's head.
"If you succeed in creating this bond of trust with him, even the testiest dragons can be trained," he assured, stroking him.
"It's this bond I want you to work on today," Astrid smiled, kindly. "It's up to you now."
Hiccup was the one who had advised her on how to deal with the newest recruits. He was convinced that Astrid could teach them a lot but for that, she shouldn't scare them from the beginning. It was the reason why he had asked her to not be too hard with them from the outset. She could be more exigent then.
"What were you busy doin'?" the blond asked to her boyfriend.
He rolled his eyes while scratching the back of his head.
"Oh, you know. Making some adjustments on my work."
He paused before redirecting his attention to the young lady. He caught her by the hips and pulled up his hands along them to caress her waist.
"Why? Did you miss me?" he whispered in her ear.
"Actually… yes," she replied by turning to him.
They exchanged a smile before kissing without paying attention to the teenagers who were meeting the dragons. Nevertheless, their general fake cough finally got the new couple back to reality. They split, trying to recover the left of seriousness they had. Astrid cleared her throat before announcing:
"Fine, now that you got close to them, you must choose your dragon and he must choose you."
"How will we know if he chooses us?" asked one of the recruits.
The young Viking turned to her one-legged boyfriend, giving him a complicit gaze.
"He will try to kill you," she answered calmly.
"Eh… That's reassuring…" another intervened.
"Come on, let's go!" the Hofferson girl ordered.
She left a gentle kiss on the corner of the young boy's lips before going back to join the group. So Hiccup watched her walk away, smiling like a dork. Realizing he wasn't joining her, she came back to take his hand.
"Are you coming?" she asked.
The chief's son came to his senses gradually. Sometimes, it was kind of hard for him to read her correctly.
"Sure."
They set off with the young riders to accompany them to places more conductive to the apprenticeships they were proposing. Snotlout suddenly arrived on the back of Hookfang, taking care of greeting the two lovebirds:
"Wow, seems that Hiccstrid is out!"
"Stop calling us that, Snotlout…"
"What? You're always together you two, aren't you? There's no Hiccup without Astrid since that… well, you know."
"So?" the blond inquired.
"Well, we ended up confusing you. So it's easier to call you Hiccstrid."
Astrid swore furiously. Hiccup put a hand on her shoulder and then, he addressed Snotlout.
"Okay, I think we get the point."
"Take it easy Hiccstrid… It's just–"
"Snotlout, that's enough," Hiccup cut him off.
But the blond had already gone back to the group of newcomers.
"Good luck with that," the disturbing Viking laughed.
Hiccup sighed and he scurried to catch up with his girlfriend who was walking with purpose. When he came over to where she was standing, he put a hand on her shoulder again as an act of comfort.
"Hey, sure you'll be okay?" he asked, worried.
The young lady faked a smile before stopping.
"Yeah… Don't worry. And leave me with them, I can handle this alone."
"You're sure?"
So she nodded in agreement.
"Okay… So can we hang later?"
"Yeah. See you later, Hiccup."
So the blond left to meet the teens' group she was in charge of, leaving an astounded Hiccup. The young boy was having trouble figuring her out. He didn't understand why she seemed to attach so much importance to the Jorgenson's remark. But truth is, he never had paid the same attention as her to what others could think about them. As the heir to the throne of Berk, Hiccup Haddock the third had always been the focus of village's attention. After all this years of mockery –even if it was no longer relevant–, he had finally become indifferent to the light of others. This was the case for Astrid. Unlike Hiccup, she had always been placed on some kind of pedestal which gave her attributes of the ideal Viking; athletic and brave. It was because she was considered that, on her side, the girl worried about what others might think about her. Indeed, it bothered Astrid that being a couple with Hiccup defined her in the eyes of others. She didn't want them to be confused. Because yes, she was above all Fearless Astrid Hofferson, a warrior and a dragon rider. One thing's for sure, the teenagers didn't have the same perspective on things. Everything now turned on how they will solve this slight problem.
Hiccup watched Astrid walked away before telling Toothless to follow him. So he wandered into the village with his friend at his side until his feet led him to the forge.
"Hey Gobber!" the young boy exclaimed.
"Hiccup? Don't you have a class to teach or something?"
"Oh yeah but hum… I'm done so… I came to help out!" the brown-haired boy assured him.
His old employer squinted, not very convinced by the young man's words but he finally assigned him a task.
"Well, you can take care of the saddles in that area… Yeah, here. Some are already drawn while others just waiting to be cut! You think you can handle this?"
"No problem, Gobber, I'm on it," the chief's son smiled, arms full.
So he get to work quickly as if he wanted to forget his recent problems. The two men didn't say a word to one other for almost an hour before Gobber finally decided to break the silence.
"So… How was training?"
"I came in late…"
"Ouch… Astrid wasn't too angry?"
Hiccup giggled.
"Not even."
"It does work between you two uh?"
"Yeah, hum… I guess so…" the young boy mumbled.
But the blacksmith didn't pay attention to this last remark.
"Did you tell your father?"
My gods no! was Hiccup's first thought. Talking with his father had never been one of his favourite activities and particularly when it came to address issues of this kind. He stood dumbfounded before Gobber.
"Hum… Well, actually…"
"Hiccup…"
"What?"
"Hum, you know exactly what I'm talking about," answered the chief's right hand, squinting again.
"Yeah, yeah…" the young man sighed.
Gobber gave an insistent look to the teenager who replied by rolling his eyes. The blacksmith laughed heartily. This did not stop Hiccup from staying with his old instructor the rest of the day. Despite everything, these two liked to spend time together.
By evening, Hiccup went home. Astrid didn't come see him in the forge so he figured that she didn't want to see him for now. Once he crossed the threshold, he intended to go up right away to his room without eating, but it was without counting his best friend's dragonesque nature whose discretion was not the strongest point.
"Eh! Hiccup, you're back!" Stoick exclaimed.
"Hehe yeah, it seems like it…" he answered lamely, addressing a reproachful look in the direction of the night fury.
"Astrid came by the house earlier, she was looking for you," her father suddenly revealed.
The young man raised his head, surprised.
"And what did you…?"
"I said that I didn't know where you were cause… I didn't know where you were!"
"Eh…"
"She seemed upset. Did something happened between you two?"
"No… I mean, not really…"
"Are you hiding something from me, Hiccup?"
"What? No! Not at all…" he said by swallowing his spit with difficulty, embarrassed.
"Hum?" asked Stoick again with an insistent gaze.
The chief was becoming impatient so Hiccup lowered his head, defeated, resigning himself to tell him the truth.
"Okay…" the brown puffed.
He raised his head in the direction of his dad.
"Well, the point is that…"
"Yeah?" Stoick encouraged him.
The young boy took a deep breath.
"Okay, Astrid and I, we–"
Suddenly, the door opened to Gobber who rushed towards the chief of Berk.
"Stoick! There's one of Sven's uncles who's fighting with the Geirson son in the Great Hall and it's not a pretty sight! The village already took sides… You should better take a look, if you ask me."
"Thanks for telling me Gobber. You see what kind of conflict you'll soon be in charge of, Son?" Stoick rejoiced by addressing the one he already saw as his presumed successor. "We'll talk later, I'm going."
So he left in the direction of the Great Hall, leaving Gobber alone with Hiccup.
"So did you tell him?"
He abruptly turned his head towards the forger.
"Well, actually Gobber, I was about to. At least, before you came…"
"That's no big deal, you'll talk to him later! All right, I'll see you later, I better give him a hand!"
The dragon riders' chief watched Gobber walked away and he sighed. Toothless made a mocking coo to his friend who gave him the stink-eye.
"Fine, laugh at me! Let's go to bed, bud. Tomorrow is another day."
The next day, he had to repeat the training with Astrid. He hoped that, this time, the experiment would be different and that others would not annoy them again. Especially today because it wasn't just them, it was the entire gang who participated. Hiccup managed to be on time for once. Fishlegs and Snotlout were already there but not all the kids had arrived yet. He came towards Astrid who smiled at his approach. He furtively kissed her lips to say 'hello' but she intensified the kiss as if she needed to be forgiven for her latest conduct. The young boy let himself succumb to this passionate gesture before being overtaken by reality… Fishlegs started to cough insistently. The young couple split, embarrassed.
"Hiccstrid…" Snotlout coughed to his friend's intention.
Hiccup glared at him while Fishlegs wondered what was going on. The twins arrived shortly after this incident and the recruits were soon all here.
"Okay, today: teamwork," the blond announced. "I want you to apply the bond you established with your dragon yesterday. But before that, we'll show you the kind of things you could do with your dragon when you have become very close."
She looked at Hiccup who immediately climbed into the heights of the skies to demonstrate. The teens raised their heads, admiring the dragon rider and his night fury soaring through the sky, even if they barely saw them.
"Pull to the side of the arena!" Astrid ordered.
The future chief of Berk soon reappeared but he was no longer on the dragon's back. He was swooping down to the Academy's hard ground while the night fury was on his tail to be able to catch him. His girlfriend was watching their flight carefully, afraid that something happened to Hiccup. The two friends were approaching the ground faster and faster so the night fury bounced back to catch his best friend but in the run-up to the ground, he turned his attention to Stormfly who was also concerned about this dangerous figure. Indeed, Astrid's dragon was looking at their fall with anxiety, distracting the night fury for a brief moment. Unfortunately, it was long enough to make Hiccup shudder when his impact was imminent.
"Toothless!" the boy screamed.
Panicked, Astrid sprang in the middle of the Academy to catch the young man.
"Hiccup, careful!" she shouted.
"Astrid!"
So he crashed into her girlfriend's arms. He made her fall back, landing on top of her. The night fury managed to level off soon enough to not fall brutally on the ground, but it was already too late. The apprentices put a hand to their mouth to avoid a scream. The gang ran towards Hiccup and Astrid.
"Astrid, I'm sorry! Are you okay?" the chief' son asked, helping her to get up.
The Academy trainer was holding her head painfully.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine…" she said without conviction.
Then, she raised her head to Hiccup:
"What's going on with them?" she asked.
"I think Toothless was distracted by Stormfly," Fishlegs explained.
"Now the dragons started too, we'll never see the end of it," Snotlout guffawed.
Astrid scowled before walking up to her dragon who was licking Toothless' wing. Hiccup followed her.
"Did we miss something?" Ruffnut asked.
"If only you knew…" the Jorgenson said.
Hiccup caressed Toothless before checking nothing was broken.
"Easy there. What got into you, bud?" the young Viking wondered.
"Hiccup, Snotlout is right. Our dragons get close lately and that's not good for the training."
"Come on Astrid, don't you think you're overreacting? Look, it's all new to them too!"
"Hiccup, I think you're missing the point… It could've turned out worse just now! If I hadn't been there…"
"But I'm fine," he said by putting his hands on Astrid' shoulders.
However, she removed them before adding:
"Anyway, for you, it's over."
"But Astrid–"
"Come on! And take Toothless with you."
The young man found himself forced to leave the training without being able to put up any resistance. He left, looking sad, summoning Toothless to follow him.
"Fine. Let's go, Toothless."
Astrid bit her lip before looking away. The gang watched the duo part, a little confused. Tuffnut turned his head towards Astrid before redirecting his attention to Hiccup and Toothless' departure.
"Is it just me or is something up with those two?" he asked.
Her twin sister sighed meanwhile Snotlout started to laugh. Fishlegs immediately requested him to shut up his big mouth.
The rest of the session went pretty well aside from the Jorgenson's understatements that Astrid rushed to hush. Once everybody had left, Hiccup came to meet his friend at the end of the class.
"Astrid, can we just talk?"
"I still have a lot to do Hiccup, so… just leave me alone, please."
The young man was most definitely increasingly surprised by the behaviour of his partner. He obeyed nonetheless and moved outside the arena, his eyes downcast. He came out and went to the Great Hall, where he sat down on the steps leading to it. Hiccup put his head in his hands and thought. He thought about Astrid, about what would become of their relationship when the recent turn appeared so obvious, though. She no longer seemed to be on the same page as him. He didn't know what he was supposed to do.
Suddenly, he felt a hand alighted on his shoulder. He turned away; it was his father.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on, Son?" he said, sitting down next to him.
The boy sighed, looking at his feet, well his foot.
"It's Astrid."
"Oh, there we are."
"We fought."
"Hum, I see… But you know Son, nobody said love affairs were an easy thing."
Hiccup brusquely raised his head towards his dad.
"Wh– What? You mean you knew?"
Stoick nodded, looking like it was nothing while his son stayed stupefied.
"It's something you feel, Son. I was just waiting for you to talk to me about it yourself."
The auburn-haired boy passed his hand through his hair, pretending to laugh, looking embarrassed.
"Well, let's go back to your problem. Did you try talking to her?"
"Of course! But she avoids discussion!"
"Aha your mother was the same…"
"She was?"
"But you know what works in situations like these?"
"No?"
"The pushy method! You need to ground her back into her problems. If you don't, you won't get anything out of her. That's how I used to do it with your mom."
"Aha you're surely right… Thanks Dad," the boy replied by briefly taking his father into his arms.
He smiled and left on the back of Toothless, determined to do something. He wasn't going to let this thing run its course, he was going to take action.
He found Astrid at the Academy gate and asked Toothless to catch her by surprise. She uttered a cry of distress before realizing it was Hiccup and Toothless.
"Hiccup! Get me down from here!" she screamed.
"No, there's no way."
They flew to a place far away from the village center in order to have a real talk. Toothless finally landed while making sure to leave Astrid on the ground smoothly. She gave Hiccup a strong punch in his shoulder.
"That's for kidnapping me!"
"Okay, maybe I deserved that one… But we still need to talk Astrid."
"What do you want to talk about?" she said by turning her back to him.
"Oh come on Astrid, you know perfectly well! I know you were looking for me last night."
She turned her head towards her boyfriend.
"I was at the forge. I wasn't trying to avoid you, unlike you…" the young man pursued.
"What?"
"I don't know but… Since this whole mess with Snotlout, you seem to avoid me!"
"No, not at all…"
"No? And what about this morning uh?"
The girl bit her lip. Hiccup approached her to take her hands.
"Astrid… You know you can tell me anything," he declared by staring right into her eyes.
"Yeah, you're right. Hiccup, I'm sorry. It's just that they all make me sick, talking about us only as a couple and no more as distinct persons! I need to be recognised for who I am. I don't want our relation to define us in the eyes of others, you know?
That's it, he thought. He smiled by pressing her hand.
"Sure, I understand."
He paused.
"Do you remember when we were looking for our dragons back in the forest on the Edge, both of us, after the storm?"
"Yeah?"
"Remember what I told you then?"
"Of course, you told me that there will always be a Hiccup and Astrid."
He put his hand on her shoulders.
"That's it, there will always be a Hiccup and Astrid," he insisted by caressing her right cheek. "We're a team. There's no way, we'll be confused again cause there's definitely two people who make this team! You're above all Astrid Hofferson and I Hiccup Haddock.
She smiled before hugging him.
"And," Hiccup breathed, "we could maybe spend more time together, just you and me, rather than exposing us before everyone. What do you think?"
"I think that's a good idea Hiccup, thank you," the blond replied, holding him tighter against her.
As they split, Astrid grasped Hiccup by his collar.
"Oh and one more thing…"
She pulled him before planted a kiss on his thin lips.
"That's for everything else."