Trembling hands & open hearts

by Water-star

After the death of his father, Hiccup Haddock returned to his hometown of Berk to not only mourn & re-gather himself, but also to renovate his family's decrepit cabin, which is located in the middle of nowhere. However, his plans are drastically altered when he finds out that its been leased to a mysterious woman by the name of Elsa with a heart as cold as winter... Modern AU!

2. Took my heart & held it in your mouth

You took my heart and you held it in your mouth
And with a word all my love came rushing out
And every whisper, it's the worst,
Emptied out by a single word
There is a hollow in me now
So I put my faith in something unknown
I'm living on such sweet nothing
But I'm tired of hope with nothing to hold
I'm living on such sweet nothing
And it's hard to learn
And it's hard to love
When you're giving me such sweet nothing
Sweet nothing, sweet nothing
You're giving me such sweet nothing

- Calvin Harris featuring Florence + The Machine

---

The drive was much better than Hiccup had anticipated; arriving by the gate of the property in less than 35 minutes—a new personal best. Then again, he shouldn't have been all that surprised since he hadn't passed a single car on the road. Not to mention, he drove at a high speed; a common occurrence for the area, yet a horribly reckless decision to make should something go wrong.

He jumped out out the car and walked over to the weathered letterbox and opened it. Although he knew it was incredibly rude (and also a federal offence) to be snooping through another person's mail, with how little information he'd gathered about this new tenant, Hiccup couldn't help but be curious. Hell, even a name would suffice at that present moment!

Unfortunately, the mailbox was empty and he let out a disappointed sigh.

"Of course," he muttered. If this woman had refused to give his father any details about her what were the odds that she'd have mail be sent to this location? It had been foolish of him to think otherwise and only increased his curiosity furthermore.

'Maybe she's a fugitive?' His mind offered, but he quickly disregarded the thought. No, most fugitives wouldn't offer large sums of money to lease out a property—too much risk involved (not to mention unbelievably stupid)—they would instead live in an abandoned property without ever informing the land owner.

This woman was too clever for that.

'Maybe Gobber's right, maybe she's just a private person and prefers solitude...'

Well, whatever the reason was, Hiccup was going to find out. One way or another.

Jumping back into the still running vehicle, the young man got it out of neutral and drove down the rocky path, through the thick maze of pine trees. On foot it would have taken a good ten minutes to get to the main property, but for the contractor, he was there in less than five.

'There it is...' he thought as his green eyes landed on the old cabin, a wave of nostalgia washing over him. So many fond memories had been made there; from when his parents would bring him here over the summer to let him brush up on his archery skills, getting to hang out with his friends, bringing Astrid over when he was still a love-struck teenager, and even to when he first lost his vir-

'Nonononono! Not going there!' He scolded himself, feeling his cheeks burn and his heart aching ever so gently. 'That's in the past now.'

The subject of Astrid Hofferson was always a tricky one and Hiccup never knew how to react to it. In all honesty, he wasn't bitter that his high-school sweetheart/ex-fiancée fell out of love with him and instead fell for his best friend, Eret. He really wasn't. The young man had known that they were going down two separate paths since the end of high-school and he really couldn't fault her when she decided to stay in Berk instead of travelling around the world with him.

Astrid had always known what she had wanted out of life, unlike him, so when she told him that she was going to university to get a degree in political science—so she could one day become Mayor of their hometown—Hiccup supported her wholeheartedly.

After she had helped him so much over the years and shaped him into the man he was today; how could he possibly resent her for wanting to better herself?

He loved her. Not the way he used to when he was eighteen, but now at twenty-five as a platonic friend.

'I better give her a call once this is over, so she knows that I'm back in town. Knowing her, she'll probably punch me for not contacting any sooner.' He cringed, remembering the lovely dark bruise she had given him a couple of days after Stoick's funeral for taking two years to finally visit Berk. If there was one thing he did not miss about Astrid it were her punches. Seriously, that girl had a mean right hook!

If she didn't do well in politics, then she'd certainly get along fine working at Eret's tavern... or the MMA. Either way, she'd still do well.

'Alright, let's do this.' He thought, taking in a deep inhale and bracing himself. Turning the ignition off, Hiccup got out of the car, locked it (although, seriously, what was the point?) and walked over to the cabin. He noted that his assumptions of its state were proven correct as his eyes caught sight of the sinking roof; it amazed him that it hadn't collapsed in on itself yet.

"Woah!" He cried out as his foot fell straight through one of the stairs leading up to the entrance. Hoisting himself up with the railing, Hiccup launched himself over the rest of them and landed on the patio.

'They'll definitely need replacing.' His mind quipped as he quickly assessed his leg for any scratches, but luckily the fabric of his denim jeans had been enough to protect him. Once giving himself the all-clear, he then directed his attention to the front door, took another deep breath, and steadied himself. He raised his curled hand, poised and ready to knock.

That is, until he heard a deep growl.

Snapping his head to the left, Hiccup was alarmed to see the source of it was from a pure white Siberian husky, who had hackles raised and exposing some very sharp looking teeth.

'Oh boy,' he gulped. 'Definitely, did not think this one through...'

Fortunately, he was quite used to these situations, since his mother was a zoologist and taught Hiccup from a young age how to handle such predicaments. He quickly diverted his eyes to the ground, as dogs viewed direct eye-contact as aggressive, and began speaking softly.

"Hey Bud, how you going? Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."

He listened as the animal approached, but didn't dare to move—any sort of movement would mostly likely be seen as aggressive and only lead him to attack. He felt the dog begin to nuzzle its nose against his hand, sniffing to assess if he could be trusted or not. The young man allowed the action, and for several long minutes just stood there, waiting patiently, until ever-so-carefully, Hiccup raised his hand to gently scratch the back of the dog's ears. It seemed to work, because in that next moment, all animosity from the creature was now gone and it let out a soft coo.

"See? I'm not such a bad person." Hiccup said, turning around to face the husky and kneeling down to properly assess the creature. It was a big dog, whoever owned him clearly wanted people to be intimidated, and had lovely sky blue eyes, but what really caught his attention was the light blue collar wrapped around his neck and the silver tag attached to it with some lovely cursive writing.

"Marshmallow? Well, I certainly didn't expecting that! You look tough on the outside, but really you're just a big softie, huh?"

Clearly the owner had a good sense of humour – Hiccup could appreciate that.

"So your owner lives here?"

Marshmallow barked twice in what he assumed was an affirmative.

"I have to talk to your owner, it's really important. Is she home?"

Marshmallow barked twice again.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Getting up, the contractor walked up the front again and knocked three times loud & clearly. He stood there for a good minute waiting for a response and briefly pondered about knocking again or if this was even a good idea ('Please don't be a red-neck with a shotgun, please don't be a red-neck with a shotgun!' He chanted in his head), until (FINALLY!) the door opened and Hiccup lost all breath.

Of all the people he had been expecting (fugitive, serial killer, drug dealer, painter, writer, crazy dog lady) he had certainly not expected a beautiful young woman in a blue v-neck shirt with a white cardigan & faded jeans to be the one opening the door. Seriously, she looked like she had just come of the catwalk! She had long platinum blonde hair which was currently woven into a French braid, fair white skin which would given Snow White a run for her money, and blue eyes so cold & freakin' dazzling; she could have frozen him in an instant.

"Wow..." he breathed out, absolutely stunned. She was absolutely breathtaking!

Then Marshmallow barked, promptly snapping him back into reality.

"H-hi!" He awkwardly stuttered out. "Nice dog, he's yours? Of course he is! What am I saying?"

The woman raised one dark eyebrow, (which was odd, shouldn't they be pale to match her hair? Or maybe blonde wasn't her natural colour, but it looked so real...) and simply stared at him & the husky. Marshmallow whimpered; obviously knowing he had failed as a guard dog and slunk inside, out of Hiccup's vision, leaving him to fend for himself.

"You don't know me, obviously, but my name's Hiccup Haddock and this is my family's property!" he started, hoping to break the ice. "I heard someone was living here and I was surprised to hear that, so thought I'd come over to visit and say; "Hi!" which I've already said, obviously. So hi!"

'Smooth Hiccup, real smooth...'

She didn't immediately respond, remaining stoic as ever and for one brief moment he pondered if she could even speak Norwegian and hoped if she didn't, that she could at least understand English. However, the irrational worry was instantly dismissed when she finally opened her mouth and spoke (her voice cool & clear, and yet soft & melodic.)

"Your name is Hiccup...?" She announced his name carefully with a look of heavy scepticism. Obviously, she didn't believe him—not that he could blame her.

"Oh good, so you understand what I'm saying! For a minute I thought you couldn't!" He exclaimed stupidly, before realising how that might be taken. "U-uh not to say that you're stupid or anything, just because you're blonde! Not that blondes are stupid or anything! I actually have a blonde friend who graduated from university-"

'That's right, Hiccup,' his mind chastised him. 'Just keep digging your grave. It's not like you can sink any lower.'

"You know what, I think I'm just gonna shut up now..." he finished, thoroughly mortified by his excessive rambling. Seriously, it knew no boundaries.

"So your name is Hiccup?" The woman repeated, breaking the uncomfortable silence and he almost let out a sigh of relief. "Quite a name; I've never actually come across anyone with that before."

"Yeah, I know. Lame, right?" He chuckled out. "Parents around here like to traumatise their kids by giving them the worse names imaginable. I'm just grateful it wasn't Snotlout; that one already belongs to my cousin."

"You honestly expect me to believe that?" she asked, clearly unimpressed.

"No, I wouldn't believe me either, but sadly, it's true." He replied honestly with a shrug of the shoulders. He then realised that he hadn't even offered the woman the chance to introduce herself. "But enough about me—what about you? What's your name?"

A scowl appeared on her pretty features and Hiccup couldn't stop from thinking it was such a shame (she'd be so much prettier if she smiled) before she said curtly; "Forgive me for my rudeness, Mister Haddock, but I hardly see how is that any of your concern. Or why you're even here for that matter."

'Woah...! Cold much...?!' Was what first popped into his mind; clearly shocked by this woman's open hostility. Then again, it wasn't like he had provided her any reason not to be—after all, he pretty much rocked up here with no notice, unwillingly insulted her, and provided the worst conversation imaginable.

Hell, even Snotlout would be doing a better job than him right now!

Still, he had a valid reason for coming here and he certainly wasn't about to let himself get deterred because of a frigid (and yet so very, very attractive) woman.

"Would we be able to go inside and chat? This might take a while." He suggested, hoping to ease the tension.

"No, I don't think so, Mister Haddock." The blonde replied, as she crossed her slender arms over her supple chest (don't stare, Hiccup!) and continued, "Whatever you need to say can be said right here; and I would really appreciate if you made it quick because I have better things to attend to today than being bothered by idle conversation."

'Jeez, talk about rude!' He thought, appalled; here he was trying to be civil and yet this woman showed no intention of giving him the same courtesy! However, as much as he would like to dish it right back at her, that would lead him nowhere at this point.

"Well, technically your welfare is my business." He stated, knowing this what about to get real unpleasant, real fast. Bracing himself, he sent a silent prayer to any gods that might be listening and spoke again; "Because I'm the new land owner."

Her blue eyes widened a fraction, much to his amusement & satisfaction, before they narrowed again. "Excuse me? Wait, I'm confused—when I spoke to the previous land owner, he said that he had no intention of selling the land."

"He didn't. It's been in our possession for three-hundred years and will be in our possession for another three-hundred before we'd ever consider selling this land." He spoke impassioned, a common feat of his whenever he felt strongly about something. When he noticed the puzzled expression on her face, Hiccup decided to bite the bullet. "This property belongs to my dad; or used to, anyway... He died a month ago from a sudden heart attack."

All of a sudden, the cold aura surrounding the woman seemed to melt away, revealing a more compassionate side. She looked at him in what he could only describe as empathy and she spoke more softly, more kindly; "My deepest sympathies... it's never easy to lose a parent."

"Thank you," he said, appreciating her condolences. Everyone else so far had been trying to comfort him with gentle touches and insensitive cliché phrases ("He was a good man" and "I know what you're going through", or the most infuriating one: "He's in a better place now") and yet, this woman didn't bother with any of that, because there was nothing you could say or do to soothe an aching heart; it was as if she spoke from experience, and his respect (and intrigue) for her went up a notch.

But as quickly as her warmer side appeared, the sooner it disappeared again and he wondered if it had ever really been there in the first place.

"Forgive me for asking, but how is that you even knew this place had been leased?" She asked, whilst not as stony as before, she was still quite reserved. "Your father agreed to never mention to anyone about our contract. Did he write it down somewhere? Because I never signed any paperwork."

"No, nothing like that," he explained. "You just had happened to call my dad while he was in the presence of his best friend."

"I see..." She spoke thoughtfully and he could tell she was bothered by this fact.

"Don't worry, Gobber's a very trustworthy person; if that's what you're thinking." He said, hoping to reassure her. "He hasn't told another soul about your contract, apart from me, of course—and that's only because I had asked for the keys so I could come visit. He urged me not to come here because it would be going against dad's wishes, and your contract."

"And yet you still came," she said suspiciously. "Why?"

"A couple of reasons, but the two main ones are," he started before holding up his index finger. "One: I wanted to find out more about you, because not too many people would live here with the state this place is in and two," flicking up his middle finger to make V symbol, he continued; "I wanted to assess the condition of the cabin because I'm going to be renovating it, though seeing how it looks from the outside; I can already tell this isn't fit for human living, so I'm going to have to start this week pronto."

"… what?" She breathed out, looking shocked. "Are you serious?"

"Definitely; the roof looks like it's about to cave in at any moment! I'm amazed it hasn't collapsed on your head yet!"

"But I'm only here for another three months!" She responded, looking somewhat flustered. "Please! Can't you wait until then?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't leave this place in the state that it's in. Especially if you're living here."

"And you think I can live here while you're renovating?!" she replied with wide eyes. "That's not possible!"

"I'm sorry, I really am! Look, I'm happy to reimburse you with the three months rent, plus the extra twenty-two hundred you gave my dad."

"I don't care about the money!" She protested, her composure quickly cracking away, surprising him. For the first time since meeting her, the woman looked nervous and Hiccup felt a sudden chill—although he couldn't for the life of him explain why.

He watched her clench her fists tightly and close her eyes to take slow, deep breathes, and strangely, the air felt warmer again—but that was simply sheer coincidence.

Regaining herself after a moment, she revealed those bright blue eyes again (which seemed so dull compared to only a minute ago) and spoke in a more composed manner; "I have a reason I need to be here. A very important one. I can't leave now, not yet."

"So does this mean you're gonna stay?" Hiccup asked, gently prodding her. Even though she hadn't been the most welcoming person he had ever met, he hated the thought of putting her into disarray simply because of his whimsy desires.

"I don't have any choice. I'll just have to find something to do while you work." She replied simply, although it was clear she was annoyed by the prospect.

"Thank you. I know this is an inconvenience for you, but I really appreciate it." He said sincerely, hoping to let her know that he was genuinely grateful for her co-operation. Giving her a warm smile, he added shyly; "You know... you still haven't told me your name."

The fair woman bit her lip, looking rather dismayed and he waited patiently.

"Elsa." She finally answered and he felt his heart skip in excitement. "My name is Elsa."

"Just Elsa?" He asked playfully, glad to finally place a name on the beautiful girl.

"Just Elsa," she replied firmly and Hiccup dropped the subject. He knew when to pick his battles. "I suppose you would like to come in..."

"Yes, if you don't mind."

Elsa moved out from the door frame and gestured for him to enter, not bothering to say anything in response, and allowed him to lead. He thanked her and stepped into the cabin for the first time in many years.

Despite its outside appearance, the interior of it was actually quite cleanly, much to his surprise and delight, as he walked through the hall leading into the living room, which is where he found Marshmallow lounging on one of the couches.

In all honesty, he hadn't expected her to keep the place in such a pristine condition since she most likely never had any guests (an assumption of course, but with her frosty attitude he highly doubted it), and he was grateful she had proven him otherwise. Although he briefly wondered if she often got tired from doing so, because it was quite a large cabin—with four rooms, including a master bedroom, a reasonably up to date (and he used that term very loosely) bathroom & kitchen, and a living room which also served as a dining room which connected to the surrounding patio—it was quite a bit of work to do on your own.

'Then again, she probably has all the time in the world to do so.' His mind suggested.

"To be honest, I actually expected a lot more debris." He told her as he noticed a huge portion of the ceiling was missing.

"There was quite a bit of it when I came here." Elsa replied from behind, without any sort of bite—it was nice. "It took me a few days to move it all out to the work-shed."

"I'll have to get a skip then," he said as his eyes caught sight of the peeling wall paper (oh well, he never cared much for it anyway)—it looked like he was going to have to strip all the walls and paint them.

"A skip?" She parroted.

"You know, a rubbish container." He explained offhandedly as they walked into the kitchen. He noticed several of the cabinet doors were now missing (most likely with the rest of the debris) and he asked out loud; "How's the gas?"

"No problems that I've noticed."

"Water?"

"Water works fine, however, the pipes make the most terrible screeching sound."

"I'll need to replace the facets then." He made a mental note to organise a trip down to the hardware store. "Any electrical faults?"

"No," she shook her head.

They then moved into bathroom where Hiccup noticed a whole bunch of missing tiles and that the mirror above the hand-basin had cracked. Turning on the facet, he was greeted by the awful screeching Elsa had described, before promptly turning it off. Walking over to the shower, he noticed some built up calcium around the shower-head.

'Better get some CLR for that.' He thought idly.

"Drains?"

"They had an awful smell when I moved in," the blonde replied. "However, once I used some drain cleaner the smell completely vanished."

They continued their journey through the cabin with Hiccup noticing that some of the doors were squeaky ('WD40 for that...'), the floors could do with a varnish ('They'll have to be sanded first...'), there was no washing machine in the laundry ('How does she wash her clothes?'), there was a draft flowing through the house ('Has to be awful during winter—she must have certainly gotten cold...') and more missing portions of the ceiling ('How this place hasn't had a cave in yet remains a complete mystery to me...')

After the assessment of the insides, they went outside onto the patio, where Hiccup remembered his foot had fallen through some of the wooden planks (snow damage, he had concluded earlier), and he had only just placed his hands on the railing to check the strength of its structure when he noticed something out of the ordinary falling onto his right hand.

'Is that...?' He pondered, astounded, before flicking his head up to the sky and gasped. 'It is!'

"Snow...!" He exclaimed in disbelief. "But it's summer!"

He noticed Elsa seemed awfully quiet at that moment; not that he could blame her, he was pretty shocked himself—how was it even possible?

'What the hell...?' As he continued to stare at the greying sky and falling snow with wonder; until his ute flashed into his mind and he realised he didn't have any snow chains connected to his tires. Even though he doubted the roads would be icy at that point, he was still in the middle of nowhere and he'd be an idiot to take a careless risk by staying any longer. Not to mention, he had yet to go grocery shopping and visit Valka.

'Although I'll probably have to give that a skip now...'

Just then sudden gust of wind blew and the contractor shivered, wishing he was wearing more than a flimsy maroon v-neck shirt and jeans.

"Looks like this is my cue to leave." He said, turning to Elsa, who looked nowhere near disappointed at his declaration.

"So you've finished your assessment?"

"Yes, although I'll need to do some measurements, but I'll have to do it another day," he replied before looking up at the sky again. "From the looks of things, I'll have to give it at least three days before doing any sort of labour. Hopefully the weather will have calmed and the snow will be more manageable to work around. If you like I can give you my mobile number so you can call me if you have any problems."

"Thank you, Mister Haddock, but that would be pointless. I don't have a phone." She said, surprising him once again, and Hiccup didn't know whether to be sad or envious of her.

It seemed sad that she didn't have anyone to contact—didn't she have family? Then again, with how many times he had wanted to hurl his Iphone out of the window whenever he would get called by work on his day off about an incident which had occurred, or a complication with their suppliers, he would definitely pick the latter.

Pulling out a small notepad & pen out of his jeans pocket, he scribbled down his address and ripped it out of the book.

"Here's where I'm living at the moment," he offered as he held the piece of paper out."If you have any problems; please don't hesitate to come over and let me know. I really mean it."

"Very well." She responded, carefully taking the note out of his grasp.

"I'll be back by Thursday morning, eight o'clock. Is that good for you?"

"Fine by me."

"Great! I guess I'll see you Thursday then!" He exclaimed cheerfully. Taking a few steps back, he said; "Uh, I better get going then... See ya!"

He then jumped over the broken stairs, landed on the ground with perfect ease, and hurried over to his car. He turned to wave good-bye, only to find Elsa was no longer standing there. He bit back the urge to sigh as he felt disappointment flood through him—a small part of him wondering why he was bothering to make a good impression.

'What's the point? She already thinks you're an idiot.'

He wasn't expecting her to like him or anything, but he would at least not to feel like she saw him as an eyesore, or worse, waste of space. He had endured enough of that as a kid and he really didn't want to go down that path again.

Otherwise, it was going to be a long three months.

'Maybe I just caught her on a bad day and she'll be in a better mood by Thursday.' He hoped as he got into the vehicle and started the ignition, however, he knew that he was being delusional.

---

He was gone now and Elsa could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

She hadn't meant to be so rude to the young man; despite his excessive ramblings & awkward introduction, he actually seemed like a really nice guy (and it didn't hurt that he was incredibly good looking with those gorgeous green eyes and that wild mahogany coloured hair...) Granted, she had been affronted by his unexpected arrival and irritated that he would now be making constant visits, but it was only because she was already having a bad day and she wasn't prepared for any sort of human interaction.

'Guess I'm going to have to get used to it now...' She thought, biting her lip as her eyes caught glance of the rapid snowfall outside, worry gnawing away in her gut.

"Get it together..." she muttered as she leaned her head against the glass panel of the window. Trying to calm herself, she closed her eyes, shutting out the world around her and took long & deep breathes; focusing solely on her breathing. "Control it!"

When she heard the whistle of wind, the woman snapped her eyes open and noticed, much to her dismay, that frost had started to form over all of the windows.

'Damn it, it's not working!' She realised, while running a trembling hand over her hair.

Stress and anxiousness flooded through her as she watched the frost continue to spread over the glass like wildfire and it was when she heard it cracking, that she rushed to the bathroom, slamming open the medicine cabinet and pull out an a small orange vial with trembling hands.

Come on! Come on! She thought frantically , cursing the damn child safely lock. Open, already!

She managed to rip the lid off and tipped two small pills into her palm when she heard a faint whimper.

Flicking her head to the direction, sadness & shame overwhelmed her as she saw Marshmallow sit there watching her like he always did when she was like this (hurt and aching and barely holding herself from falling apart...)

"Please don't judge me!" She begged—and oh God, how she wanted to sound cold and reserved and totally emotionless like she had always let other people believe—but she could never bring herself to behave that way towards the Siberian husky. He had endured so much and given her so much these past few years, he deserved her honesty, at least.

The dog said nothing in response and simply laid down, looking up at her with those big blue eyes, and Elsa knew she had disappointed her friend once again, however, she also knew that she had no other choice.

"Papa, do I really have to keep taking this medicine? It makes me tired."

She threw the pills into her mouth and gulped them down in an instant without any need for water (she had been taking them long enough to ignore the bitter taste) and prayed for the tablets to take effect soon.

"I'm sorry, Elsa, but it's for the best."

"Okay..."

"Conceal." The blonde mumbled tiredly as she stumbled out of the bathroom and went into her bedroom; collapsing onto the bed and vacantly gazed out the open window (although, she should really close it. Then again, it wasn't like the cold ever bothered her before.)

"Don't feel." She continued as she felt the prescription drugs take effect. She felt the mattress shift beneath her as Marshmallow leapt onto the bed and snuggled up to her, offering the comfort she so desperately eyelids grew heavy and exhaustion kicked in as she noticed the snow was only falling lightly now, much to her relief, and before whispering pitifully, "Don't let it show."

And then just like that, sleep consumed her and she was plagued by senseless darkness.

---

Author's Notes: And Chapter Two has FINALLY been uploaded! You wouldn't believe how long I've been waiting to post this up! I completed it months ago, but I promised myself I wouldn't do so until I updated "Thaw Slowly" simply because I knew you guys would never let me live it down. So yes, Hiccup has finally met our beloved Elsa, who unfortunately, wants nothing to do with him. Poor guy! Hang in there, Bud!

I want to thank Maxaro for once again editing my stuff and making it look all professional & glamorous - always appreciated. As well as TheWritingFactory for giving me some suggestions and always supporting me in my Hiccelsa endeavours.

Also, I want to thank everyone for taking the time to review - I really appreciate guys, it makes writing all the worthwhile.

Until next time.