Hello dearest Readers,
Oh, I really wanted to continue my stories I just didn't have the time. I have an insane February ahead of me :-z But finally I managed to write this lengthy chapter, hope you enjoy it. (Next time when I have a little free time, which now seems a bit impossible, I'll update my other stories – just in case you read those too.)
When Ruffnut basically refuses to get off from the Monstrous Nightmare and let go off of Snotlout's mouth, even though her brother is basically hanging on her braids, trying to tear her off, Hiccup thinks that it's probably high time for an intervention. If they cannot control their feelings and their dragons, there's really no point in training...
He doesn't really feel like talking about these delicate things with Snotlout - or anyone else for that matter - but he knows he has to act like the responsible one. He always has to. Okay, there's one person who he can rely on, so he asks Astrid to do the talking with Ruffnut and when he casually mentions it, it's really hard not to kiss her, but the rest of the gang is standing just a couple of feet away, so for the time being he settles for some indiscreetly lengthy lip staring. When Astrid notices what he is doing her cheeks turn rosy and she punches his left arm just a little bit harder than it's necessary, but she's actually happy that she has such an effect on him.
Hiccup approaches Snotlout and asks him to come to one of the old pens that he currently uses as an office. When the door closes behind them, Hiccup doesn't really know how to start it. Snotlout looks more confident than ever before plus he has a huge grin on his face, not to mention his chin, that is still covered with some disturbing saliva, remains of the previous make-out session.
"Erm...we need to talk about certain aspects of your... new behavior... with Ruffnut.", he starts and he doesn't dare to look into his cousin's eyes, so he chooses to check out his prosthetic instead. It still looks the same.
"I know, aren't we the most awesome couple that Berk has ever seen?", answers the boy happily.
"Erm... you are... and don't take it the wrong way I'm really happy for you and... I'm glad that you're going to get married soon, it just... we're trying to work here and... if you are always... concentrating on each other... you know, it can be ineffective and... even dangerous on the long run."
There. He said it. His cousin makes a really dumb face which means that he is totally clueless now. They're awesome yet they have to stop what they are doing? It doesn't even make sense...
Hiccup swallows hard, he knows this expression far too well. It means that he has to go into details and he really doesn't feel like it. Why can't his show-off cousin be discrete about one little thing in his life, for Thor's sake? Snot is elated and he gets it, because actually he himself is pretty cheerful these days, but he feels that the joy of two people should be kept private.
Snotlout still looks as if he is thinking really hard but finally he snaps his fingers and points at Hiccup.
"I know what your real problem is, cuz."
"You do?', asks back Hiccup and has a strong feeling that he doesn't want to know about his real problems.
"Yeah, sure. You're jealous.", says Snot with a confident smile.
"Why would I be jealous?"
"Because you're not getting any."
It's not Hiccup's fault that when his dopey relative hints at his lack of experience, he blushes a little. Okay, he's not getting any. At least not yet. But as things are going now... he just might get lucky, someday. Like in five years' time. He might speed up the process, though. He just has to impress her with something... It's so embarrassing that even though he is somewhat stronger now, he is still not good with axes and hatchets and swords. Life is hard when you fall for the warrior.
But first, he has to get out of this awkward situation and even that seems a bit of a burden now, even though there are no weapons involved – at least for the time being.
"I can assure you that it has nothing to do with my..."
"Oh, cut the crap, everybody knows that you're a miserable dude because you fall for the Ice Princess."
"I fall for the who?", at this point Hiccup feels that he's more confused than ever before. Another conversation that he shouldn't have started. Yeah, he should have asked Astrid to do the talking with him too, if she felt cornered she'd smack Snot's big ole face and bang, the problem is solved.
"We call Astrid the Ice Princess, because, you know, she's cold as ice. And you are so into her, don't even try to deny it."
"Erm... I'm not denying anything, I just don't think this name fits her...", says Hiccup and he's getting redder and redder, because now he actually thinks about how passionate Astrid is when it comes to kissing. Well, kissing him.
"Oh, please, you don't even know what I'm talking about. You don't know what it means when a real woman loves you. When she opens her heart to you. And opens some other parts of her... Dude, you're missing out on a lot of things. Like on the real good stuff. You know, when they touch your..."
At this point, Hiccup feels that he just has to interrupt Snotlout, because he is a visual guy and he really doesn't want to know what Ruffnut touches on his cousin.
"Thank you for... explaining all of that to me. Good... talking. So, anyways, I've just wanted to ask you to keep all these good things and the deep real woman love away from training. Do you think you could do that?"
"Sure.", says Snotlout and steps close enough to pat Hiccups shoulder, "And don't worry cuz. Once you get over the Ice Princess, you can reach out to other girls. Hey, I've heard that Berserker girls do literally anything for a sack of apples and a sheep. So you have a chance with them to you know... get lucky."
"Thank you, I think I feel lucky enough.". And he blushes again. It's a good thing Snotlout cannot read the signs of any emotions, so his little bit immature but still very serious feelings are safe. "Okay, good talking, as I've said before. You can go back to your dragon... yeah, I'm happy about you."
Snotlout leaves and Hiccups sighs. He is not really good at communicating about sensible topics. So know he hopes that Astrid has a better luck with Ruffnut.
Astrid decides to go out from the training arena with Ruffnut and persuades her to sit under a huge, blossoming apple tree. It's strange how she never ever cared about flowers or smells or seasons and now she's actually happy that they have a sweet-scented spring going on. She's changing at an alarmingly fast speed...
"So what is it, sis?", asks Ruffnut when they sit down under the tree on the soft grass. Astrid doesn't answer the question immediately but examines her face carefully and she is surprised just how happy her girlfriend seems to be. She finds it utterly strange that someone can actually like Snotlout.
"Hiccup asked me to talk to you about how you and Snot behave during training.", she says finally and factually.
"And just what do you mean by that?"
"Well, you spend more time on his dragon nowadays than on your own. And you know, Tuff cannot control the Zippleback all by himself."
Ruffnut takes a deep breath and it seems even though she's such a nincompoop most of the time, she gets what Astrid wants to communicate to her.
"Yeah, I know. It's just... I'm so excited."
"I know, you're wedding is coming up in a couple of weeks."
"Ah, it's not the wedding. Well, it's not just the wedding. It's a secret, but we're thinking about doing it. Like tomorrow. When his parents are not at home."
Astrid has a puzzled look on her face. It's not the answer she expected. "You mean, you want to do that thing?", she says finally not being a 100 percent sure that she understood it right.
"Sure thing. And I'm actually really looking forward to it."
"But... why exactly?"
"Hah, sister, I love that you are so naive and innocent. But it's okay, you have no idea about this whole boy thing."
Astrid doesn't reply anything to it just bites her lip. Sure. She has no idea about boys. Well, except from the fact that some of them are really good kissers. And she successfully suppresses a smile when it comes to her mind just how good kisser he is...
"Look, I tell you how things work. You fall far a boy, you start to kiss and then you do some other things, and... then you start to be interested in the more serious stuff and then there's nothing left, but the final thing. The big one. The one they always murmur about."
"And does that mean you're at the finish line?", Astrid is really dumbfounded. How come that they have already done all those things that preceded the most important one? When did they find the time? And the place? She doesn't see herself doing it in the near future. Or should she? Oh, no. It's one thing to let him learn a bit about female anatomy and another thing to do something that cannot be reversed. No. Not in the near future. They've already lived 17 years without it, so they might as well wait another 17.
"Yep. And trust me, sis, these things are stupendous! Some of them are even breath-taking. Others require a lot of creativity and flexibility. So I really feel sorry for you..."
"Sorry? For me? Why on Earth?"
"You know, because you're into that lame one, Hiccup. I mean it's not about his leg, that's actually quite awesome... he's just... he will never do anything to win you over. You started liking each other like three years ago and you're still not his girlfriend or anything."
Or anything?Astrid shivers a bit. She remembers how they met early this morning to have a little time for each other. She was lying on the ground, the dew from the grass made the back of her clothes wet but she didn't care because he was on top of her, his strong hands cupping her face, thumbs stroking her cheeks and their tongues were in each other's mouths for a ridiculously long time and...
She coughs a little before she can collect her thoughts. "Ruff, I don't really care about him right now.", and her face becomes crimson red, because it's probably the biggest lie she has ever said.
"Yeah... right.", says Ruffnut curiously scouring her face.
"And aren't you afraid?", says Astrid, trying to avoid the Hiccup-question.
"Of what? He's not going to bite me... Well, sometimes he does bite me, but I happen to love it.", says Ruff and starts to giggle.
"What if it turns out? What if you end up... pregnant?"
"Haha, I should call you my baby sister, you're that naive!"
At this point Astrid seriously starts to feel ashamed. How come that there's a topic that she is so dumb about and Ruffnut seemingly knows so much?
"Still, it doesn't sound like a solid plan..."
"Look... first of all there are like a ton of tricks and contraceptives. I'm pretty sure that my mom and dad are still banging all the time and voila, they only have me. And my stupid brother, but he doesn't count. We're the results of the same... Oh, I do not even want to think about it."
"Yeah, me neither. So what are those contraceptives...?", asks Astrid desperately trying to sound neutral.
"Hah, why do you even care?", laughs Ruff, but then she decides that it's none of her business and starts to lists all the herbs, potions, drinks, ointments and lotions she knows about. Astrid is looking at her fingers as if she didn't really care, but she is making a long mental note. Just in case... she needs it 17 years from now.
"So, that's about it.", finishes Ruffnut and she claps her hands feeling content about her extensive knowledge. "But you know, that's not the main thing. Not the contraceptives."
"Then what?", asks Astris curiously.
"It's that I'm a million percent sure that he loves me. And no matter what, he'll always be there for me. And he's marrying me because he wants to prove it. Astrid, I wish you felt the same way about someone someday. I really wish."
Astrid smiles a little and blushes a lot. "Yeah, right, thank you... I think we probably should go back now."
"Of course. And Astrid. Point taken. We'll behave."
"Thank you."
When they go back to the arena, Astrid makes eye contact with Hiccup, then she accurately examines her from head to toe ."What's with the look?", he whispers confusedly, but she just quickly shakes her head before jumping on the Nadder.
Later that night they sit at the shore in a sun tent, that Hiccup made in the forge, not exactly to protect them against the beams of the sun, because it's really never that warm in Berk, but to be safe from prying eyes. They just sit next to each other, enjoying the closeness and the waves of the vast ocean in front of them.
"So, how was the talk?", asks Hiccup breaking their silence.
"Good. Yeah... They seem to be a really responsible couple.", answers the girl, still looking at the water, trying to be as vague about the subject as possible. She really doesn't want to share her new knowledge with the boy she... likes sitting with at the shore (or truth be told, anywhere).
"Snotlout? And Ruffnut?", says Hiccup amusedly then reaches for her hand and starts to draw little circles on her palm with his index finger.
"Whatever.", she answers then remains silent, trying to avoid the awkward topic. She'd rather just enjoy quietly what he does to her, because his finger now leaves her palm and it goes up and down on her bare arm, leaving trails of goosebumps behind. It's a good thing that she chose to wear a sleeveless shirt instead of her normal combat wear, but she is not planning on going to battle tonight after all.
Hiccup looks at her arm, quite liking the nakedness of it. Ice Princess. What a stupid nickname. The more he thinks about it, the more he wants to kiss the presumed coldness out of her. She turns her head towards him looking at his slowly caressing finger. Hiccup puts his hand on her waist and brings her closer to him. Soon their lips are burning under each other. It's not a lustful kiss at first, but a slow, caring one. It's such a miracle that you can tell one another a lot of things without saying a word or at least Hiccup hopes that Astrid is now feeling very loved and beautiful, because he tries to pour all his emotions into the kiss. He is yet afraid to talk about them but he's fearless when it comes to showing them.
A couple minutes later something changes. Deliberately or not, Astrid bites him a little and it somehow turns a switch and the kiss starts to get a lot more greedy. And it's not just the kiss, it's their hands too. Astrid starts to stroke his hair with her long fingers, and as for Hiccup... his fingers are starting to crawl up under her shirt. It's quite an exciting journey and he travels up really slowly, not wanting the girl to think that he rushes things, because he doesn't. They have all the time. As he gets into the upper regions, he feels that the tip of his fingers are at least 10 degrees warmer than the rest of his body and it might just be true because Astrid feels that her skin is burning under his touch. Oh, for Odin's beard, why is he doing it so painfully slowly?
Something seems to be odd, though, and Hiccup's fingers stop for a minute when they doesn't find the hem of her breast bindings... He crawls up a bit, hesitantly and no... it's not there. It's just her skin. Hiccup can feel his heartbeat in his throat... is it some kind of a weird casual Freya's day today? Or... did she deliberately forget about an otherwise important piece of clothing because she knew that they would be together and he couldn't resist her temptation? The thought of it almost makes him faint but he gathers his courage and now two of her supposedly most beautiful and sensitive body parts are now under his palms. His kisses become slower now, because most of his brain activity is concentrating on something else. Something new. He starts to experiment with his finger, slowly, carefully and when after some delicate rubbing she moans into his mouth and pulls his hair, he has to smile into their kiss. A couple of seconds later she lets go of his hair and their lips part. His hands and fingers stop and when she quietly looks deep into his emerald eyes he manages to free his hands under her shirt. It's not that he is happy about it, but it'd be weird sitting there like that.
She takes a deep breath and lies down on her back. He lies next to her and reaches for her hand.
"It was very very... oomph.", she says a couple of minutes.
"Oomph?", he asks curiously.
"Meaning... very very amazing.", she adds quietly.
Hiccup swallows hard. Sometimes it's really hard not to tell Astrid that he loves her more than anything in this world.