Hey guys! New chapter here! (Yeah I will call it chapters now)
I finally managed to translate this part I wrote before RTTE Season 5 came out. It follows "By your side" but it's a little bit different from my usual writings. Cause there's more reflexion in it but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway!
Hope you guys will like it! Tell me what you thought about it in the comments!
P.S: The next chapters will take the new season into account, don't worry! And I decided to name this OS serie that occurred during RTTE: "Young Love".
A few weeks had passed since Hiccup had got sick. Fortunately for him, thanks to Gothi's prescriptions and Astrid's great support, he quickly got better. So he had the possibility to pursue the activities he had started but stopped under his girlfriend' supervision, who wanted to make sure he wasn't going to mess around any more. By the way, this little incident had brought them close once again.
Indeed, during his convalescence, the young girl came each night to check up on him and talk with him. They passed long nights to talk about everything and nothing. Astrid was telling him the proceedings of her day spent to the academy while he was telling her how he managed to kill time til she got home. That was everything except interesting but it made them laugh. And then, there were these looks, these gestures which meant "Stay" without daring to pronounce it out loud. Oh of course, he had already asked her to stay but never in such circumstances. If he asked her to stay here, with him, for the night, he was initiating something in their relation he was not ready to assume yet. So he didn't ask her.
Nonetheless, Hiccup and Astrid had kept the habit of meeting up each night in the young boy's room to talk about their respective days but also to be together, quite simply. After which the blond-haired girl went back home to sleep, satisfied by their brief meeting.
But one night, after a long day of hard work of rounding up Sven's sheep which had scattered all over the island, the two teenagers arrived completely exhausted at the young man's hut. And even if they had already eaten with the others in the Great Hall, they had still wanted to spend time with just the two of them together before going to bed. So they lied down on Hiccup's bed, eyes focused on the ceiling, yawning. They made jokes about the past day before talking about this and that, eyelids growing more and heavier. They finally indulged themselves to exhaustion which threatened them for a while. They started to talk less and less louder until the sound of their voices faded away completely. And then, they fell asleep in the most peaceful calmth.
The next day, what a surprise for the young Hofferson to discover that she had literally fallen asleep in her boyfriend's arms, in his bed, in his room, in Stoick the Vast's house, his father and the village's chief. She instantly raised her head and scurried to the window to have an idea of what time it was. The sun was already high in the sky, too high. So she went back fast to Hiccup and started to shake him violently in order to wake him. So he opened his eyes, completely lost, wondering what was going on.
"Astrid?"
"Come on Hiccup! Hurry up! We're late! We've got to go, now!"
"Wha–, wait what? And what are you doing here?"
"I fell asleep... well, we fell asleep and I woke up here, in your bed... Anyway, we need to go!"
The young boy didn't dare to fight back. He rapidly followed his girlfriend in her race against time to catch up and got ready quickly without taking his breakfast. They finally arrived just in time for the team training they had planned to give today in the Dragon Academy.
"Ah! Here you are at last!" Snotlout cried out.
Fishlegs gave him the stink-eye.
"Leave them alone Snotlout, I'm pretty sure that Hiccup and Astrid had a very good reason for not coming earlier this morning, right?"
The two concerned gave each other an embarrassing look, praying to Odin that Fishlegs would not go any further.
"You were surely very busy this morning?" their friend insisted.
"That's what I heard too," Tuffnut intervened.
"Anyway, that's what the rumours say as far as we know..." Ruffnut raised.
"What? What rumours?" Hiccup suddenly asked.
So the twin sister came closer to the chief's son.
"Well... Those that say that they saw you came out of the same hut this morning..."
The two lovebirds exchanged a look again, their faces turning red this time, pretty uncomfortable.
"Which means at least that you slept together!" Ruffnut exclaimed.
"And at most that you..." her brother began before being cut off violently by the dragon riders' chief.
"Stop! I think that will be it for today..."
So Astrid walked away in the direction of the exit, visibly overwrought. The gang observed her move away, a little bit confused because they had not meant it seriously. But Astrid Hofferson was a sensitive warrior and she did not appreciate this supposedly joke. Hiccup didn't try to catch her, finding it was not useful in the moment.
By nightfall, however, he started to be more concerned about it. He hadn't seen the pretty blond-haired girl all day. She didn't attend dragon training and they had not even eaten together at midday. And now, he was waiting her in his house for their evening meeting but she was not coming.
"Oh... No Hofferson tonight?" Stoick asked as he was passing by.
"She's just a bit late..." the brown-haired boy retorted as to convince himself.
"Ah," the chief said, looked unconvinced.
"What?"
"Oh nothing, it's getting late. Good night, Son."
The young boy smiled.
"Good night, Dad."
Realizing that the young girl would probably not come, Hiccup finally brought himself to go up to his room to sleep. He lied down heavily on his bed and put his head on his pillow, whispering. Toothless had already fallen asleep quite a while ago. What have I missed? The young boy asked to himself. He thought about the previous day. He didn't understand Astrid's departure this morning. Of course, the others had kidded them about their lateness but nothing more than normal, no? The blond-haired girl seemed to take everything badly when it came to the relation she had with the chief' son. And Hiccup had a really hard time understanding why. He finally decided that he would take her aside the next day to talk about it.
At dawn, the young dragon rider woke up to eat his breakfast quickly. His yak milk barely finished, he dragged Toothless outside his hut to head for Astrid's. He wanted to take advantage of the island's tranquillity in this time of the morning to come talk to her. He knew she would be awake. She always woke up early in the morning to go train her axe throwing in the forest; he would catch her just before she left. And he was right, at the very moment when he arrived behind her hut, the blond-haired girl went out.
"Hey," he smiled.
"Hiccup? But what are you doing here?" she asked, surprised.
"You didn't come last night so I thought I was coming to see you this morning."
"Sorry about last night, I was very busy..." the young girl answered, pretty embarrassed.
"Very busy huh?"
The young Viking said nothing, she knew Hiccup did not believe her.
"Do you want to talk about it?" the young man finally asked.
"About what?" Astrid retorted, crossing her arms.
"Well, maybe about the fact you avoided me all day long yesterday?"
The blond-haired girl didn't answer in spite of Hiccup's pleading look that only asked to understand her. After a while, she finally broke the ice.
"Well, now I would really like to go training if you don't mind..."
But Hiccup was determined to get her talk, he held her by the arm.
"No Astrid, we need to talk."
"Let me go Hiccup."
"Not until you tell me why you left the Dragon Training yesterday. Astrid, I'm just trying to help..."
At that moment, the door opened and Astrid's parents appeared in its frame. They were wondering what was going on between the two teenagers.
"Is everything alright, honey?" her father suddenly asked.
Hiccup instantaneously released his hold on the young girl who managed to step back.
"It's alright, Dad. Hiccup just came to say hello to me."
Astrid's father acquiesced before getting inside his hut with his wife again. So their daughter turned towards the young brown-haired boy.
"If you really want to help, start by stopping making a spectacle of ourselves," she said before leaving for good this time.
The dragon rider stood in awe. All well intended, he had nevertheless been put in his place by his girlfriend and also by her father even if it was only verbally. His look meant everything. She didn't want to talk but she would have to eventually. He would try again later.
However, his attempts to talk to Astrid were everything but fruitful. They failed one after the other... The young Hofferson was rather stubborn when she wanted. The chief's son had no choice, he would have to do this the hard way. Even if the idea didn't really thrill him, he knew it was the right thing to do because a trusting relationship was not a relationship where we kept things from each other. Indeed, talking was the key to a healthy relationship. That's why he decided to go look for Astrid where she would not expect him to come: the Academy.
When he arrived, she was in the middle of class with the young Berkian recruits about the art of the element of surprise. The irony of fate Hiccup thought, as his favourite tactic was precisely this one. He entered the arena and pulled Astrid back by the arm behind the all of her students. She barely had time to pronounce his name before he was already talking to the young dragon riders for her.
"The class is over; you can go back to your own business!" Hiccup announced.
The teenagers didn't have to be asked twice. They were pretty much used to the recurring fight of Hiccup and Astrid now. And they knew that in that case, leaving in a hurry was their best option. The academy was emptied in no time.
The blond-haired girl removed Hiccup's hand from her arm.
"Sometimes, I wonder if you're listening to me when I speak..." Astrid declared coldly.
The young man held a sigh.
"I understood that you didn't want to talk Astrid but we'll have to do so, even if you don't want to."
He had talked with a calm tone, confident. The young girl had no choice but to surrender.
"All right, then, what do you want to know?"
The chief' son scratched the back of his head but he didn't have the time to say his question, Astrid had already started to speak again.
"You want to know why I left the training? Why I avoided you all day long? Why I didn't come to our meeting last night?"
She paused to observe his reaction.
"Yeah," he agreed.
He stopped and then, took her face in his hands.
"Yes, I want to know."
But the young woman didn't expect him to say that at all. She looked at him, astonished and it was only at this moment that she realized that he really wanted to understand the reason of her malaise. She lowered her eyes and snuffled before starting to cry. So Hiccup hugged her closer because he had no idea what else he could do.
Astrid never cried.
And she blamed herself to put this on Hiccup because he never saw her cry before. He was going to ask her tons of questions, she knew it. But she was not certain that she could answer them. To be honest, she was worried that he may not understand.
"Astrid, you know you can tell me anything..." her boyfriend murmured once she had calmed down.
"Hiccup I... I'm sorry... I don't know what that was... You seemed so well on your side and me..."
"And you're not okay..." he said, concerned.
He passed his hand through her blond hair.
"I get it," he insisted. "So tell me what's wrong now."
The young girl approved, nodding.
"You know, this has nothing to do with you, it's just... Since we've been together, I feel like people are looking at us differently and I... it bothered me. Don't you think I left due to some gang' scoffing, no. If I left it's because I'm tired of all those innuendos about us. I mean, they don't know about us, about our relation. That's why I told you I want to share it with you... I... Everything's so different since then. Sometimes, I feel like it was better before, when we were only just friends."
"What is that suppose to mean?" Hiccup interrupted her, suddenly becoming worried.
But she reassured him immediately by taking his hand firmly.
"Hiccup, don't get any wrong ideas, I'm very happy that we're more than that today," she smiled. "All I'm saying is that it was easier. We were free. We were friends and no one looked any further than that. But when it comes to love, people suddenly become interested, they want to know everything. We're not able to relax anymore. And you're the chief's son so I know full well it's not gonna stop any time soon... And I wonder if... If I'll be able to deal with all this...
She lowered her head. He raised it delicately, smiling.
"Astrid, we don't care about what others might think about us. It doesn't matter. What matters is what we lived together. As you said, they don't know about us. They don't know what we shared and you're right, they don't need to know it. The only thing you need to understand is that the kind of things that occurred yesterday will happen again but it's okay, we don't care. You have to let it go, Astrid. Don't let people keep you from being with me, well, if you still want to..."
The pretty blond-haired girl laughed, addressing him a light slap on the top of his head.
"Of course I want to!"
They laughed together.
"And don't worry, the others are a bit silly right now but that's because it's the beginning. They'll get tired of it very soon, you'll see," the brown-haired boy reassured her. "Look, at worst, some bad jokes from times to times will not kill us. And you know them, that's never too mean."
"Yeah you're right; I think I got carried away by the events... My reaction was over the top. I'm sorry Hiccup," she concluded, taking him in her arms.
They held each other tightly. Hiccup murmured something to Astrid's ear, she smiled.
"Deal."
…
At nightfall, the young woman was not headed for her beloved's hut, no. That night, Astrid walked down to the forest located on the north of the isle to get where Hiccup told her to come: the Raven point. The night had not fallen yet. It didn't take long for Astrid to find her way to the place where it all began. That was where she kissed him for the first time. On the cheek, yes, but it still counted in her eyes.
"Astrid?"
He was here. Sitting on the blanket he had brought for the occasion, near the little lake defining the site. The boy she kissed that night was all grown up, she thought for herself. And all her doubts disappeared at the very moment she saw the smile of the man she loved illuminate his face at seeing her. She took her place next to him and she clasped him into her arms.
"Did you make all this?"
"For your great pleasure milady," he assured her by addressing her his best smile.
She laughed. He laughed too.
They tasted what the young boy had cooked and in the view of the calmth that prevailed, it was delicious. When they were done, they lied down on the grass to enjoy the view of the starry sky.
"You were right Hiccup, no one will bother us here," Astrid declared, taking his hand.
She observed him, smiling. He looked at her amorously and approached her softly. He looked into her before kissing her feverishly. She intensified the kiss by taking his head into her hands. He passed his hand trough her hair, tousling her a little, before letting his two hands roam along her back. He finally put them on her waist to bring their bodies bursting closer. They kept on kissing until Astrid decided to put an end on it. She bounced back abruptly and removed her furry boots. She was on her back.
"It's hot in here, don't you think?" she asked him.
She took a look behind her. He didn't understand what she was trying to say.
So she detached her shoulder armor before taking off her leggings and her barbed skirt. This way, the beautiful Hofferson found herself wearing a top and knickers before Hiccup's disconcerted eyes.
"Astrid what are you...?" he managed to formulate.
"Come on Hiccup, don't you want a late-night swim with me?" she asked, without hiding her amusement.
She knew full well that he was uncomfortable and she was playing a lot of it because nevertheless, he wanted it and that consequently, he would follow her. So she continued and got rid of the two last clothes that still covered her. Her white skin was glowing in the only light of the moon. In the darkness, Hiccup managed to distinguish the silhouette of the young woman whose curves were near perfection. He stayed petrified to the view of her naked butt.
She fully revealed herself to him and he was not sure he could do the same. But that's also why he loved her. Astrid inspired him. It was the person that knew him better than anyone else, his best friend. She made him take risks. She pushed him to act, to move outside his comfort zone just like he did. That's why they made quite the team. They helped each other to surpass themselves. So he got up, looking at her flaming body dive gradually into the cold water of the lack. Once inside, she turned her head towards him.
"So, you're coming?"
He couldn't believe the way the pretty blond-haired girl was acting with him. She was afraid of others' looks but she was fearless with him. Meanwhile he was terrified. It was the biggest difference between them. Astrid was comfortable with Hiccup, she trusted him so laying herself bare –literally– before him was something natural to her. It was the way things were. But as for Hiccup, it was still something that intimidated him, but he knew that Astrid would be there to help him boosting his confidence. At the same time, he was flattered she revealed herself to him. It showed him how much she cared about him and how much she felt good with him.
She was going to reiterate her question when she heard the sound of his clothes fall heavy on the ground. He finally had decided himself to come join her. She stayed on her back, her arms around her shoulders to keep warm. Hesitant steps moving towards her direction were being felt. She waited for him patiently, she didn't want to rush him, she let him come to her. And he finally entered the cold water on her side, wrapping her with his arms so that she would never be cold again.
That's when he understood what she meant when she said that she wanted to share it with him.
There are things that you share only with the person you love.
Astrid caressed her head against Hiccup's before turning herself towards him to kiss his thin lips delicately. This embrace had taken them to an unprecedented proximity. The young girl smiled before whispering:
"I'm not afraid anymore, Hiccup."