That's why I need a girl that be true to me
Know bout the game, and know how to do to me
Without a girl on my side, shit, I ruin me
Forget the word, it's just you and me
Now let's ride...
I need a girl to ride, ride, ride
I need a girl to make my wife
I need a girl who's mine oh mine
I need a girl in my life
I need a girl to ride, ride, ride
I need a girl to be my wife
Nobody else cuz she's all mine
I need a girl in my life
- P. Diddy and Usher
A couple of minutes after Hiccup left the family property he noticed that, much to his astonishment, the snow had stopped entirely.
'Wait what?! What the Hell?! Where'd the snow go?!'
Pulling over immediately, he promptly jumped out of his car to look up to the sky to find any trace and found it was now a perfect clear blue without a trace of a single cloud.
'Weird... no, I could've sworn... it was definitely snowing, right?' he thought, pondering if perhaps it had been all apart of his imagination—maybe the emotional impact of Stoick's death was affecting him more than he realised and was now making him have vivid hallucinations? Perhaps he should seek some professional help, however, he decided maybe it was probably better just to dismiss it entirely.
'I guess it doesn't really matter anyway. It's not like I can't go back now; I've already told Elsa I won't be back until Thursday—so I don't think she'd be entirely impressed if I were to return suddenly...'
No, with how Elsa behaved around him, it was blatantly obvious that she wasn't too fond of him and Hiccup certainly wasn't the type to stick around somewhere he wasn't wanted, nor masochistic enough to endure such unpleasantries. Still, it bothered him; despite being occasionally awkward and his frequent use of heavy sarcasm, he had always been somewhat good at getting along with other people.
Granted, he hadn't been like that when he was younger (he always had a knack for irritating the other kids, particularly Snotlout) and it certainly hadn't helped being the second smartest in the class (Fishlegs being number one), but after the summer of his fifteenth birthday and his near death experience, he had learnt to get along with his fellow classmates and finally managed to make friends.
Shortly after that, he started dating Astrid and Eret transferred to Berk and everything fell into place for those next three years.
'I just hope we can get along,' he mused as he got back into the car and continued his journey back into town. 'It'd make everything a lot easier...'
"Hello Hiccup," his mother greeted him the instant she opened the door; wrapping the contractor in a startlingly strong embrace that left him staggering to keep his balance.
"Hey mum," he mumbled back sheepishly before returning the gesture and allowing himself to enjoy the warm hug. He caught a quick sniff of her scent and a wave of nostalgia overwhelmed him along with the sudden urge of never wanting to let her go. "I missed you..."
Call it sappy and overly cliché, but losing Stoick reminded the young man of just how brief and fleeting life could be, as well as the painful realisation that his mother was getting on with age and far away as it may seem, one day she wouldn't be around to offer him love & affection, or to hold him like this—and so Hiccup wanted to enjoy the time he still had.
"I missed you too, son," she said as she pulled away, looking at him with teary eyes and a wide grin. "Oh look how much you've grown! You've become a fine young man!"
"Muuuuuuum!" he droned, embarrassed by the flattery.
"I'm serious, Hiccup. When you were twenty I was still taller than you! Not by that much, but it was noticeable enough. Now though, you're as tall as your father!" Valka continued, her smile gradually slipping away and replaced with a look of melancholy. "You've grown up so much over these years and I was hardly every there to see it... I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry, mum," he interjected softly, hoping to ease some of her guilt. "You had important work."
Yeah, it had been lonely growing up without a mother who was out of the picture a lot, and yeah, it made things difficult between him & Stoick, however, Hiccup had always known that his mother was doing what she loved and she was making a huge impact in the field of conservation (and being a huge animal lover himself) he was insanely proud of her.
"That might be so, but it doesn't justify ignoring my family," she replied firmly before softly grabbing Hiccup's hands and squeezing them, as if to reassure him or maybe herself that she wasn't going anywhere.
"Stoick's gone now and I can't change that..." she continued remorsefully, though it quickly slipped away and was replaced with a more composed tone, surprising Hiccup. "But I would like to make sure I don't repeat the same mistakes on my son. So I've decided to take annual leave and I was hoping since you would be here over the summer, we could catch up in that time."
"Really?" he asked aghast, not expecting to hear that all, before exclaiming excitedly; "That'd be great! Yeah, totally!"
Consider it weird and rather lame, but Hiccup had always enjoyed hanging out with his mother. He rarely ever got to do so growing up and to be given the opportunity to spend more time with her, he considered it to be a blessing.
Valka gave him a warm smile in response, before she blanched, as if remembering something.
"Oh what am I doing making you stand here when there's cookies still in the oven?! Come sit," she said, dragging him over to the couch and pushing him to sit without any sort of difficulty.
While she might be a terrible cook, Valka was surprisingly fairly decent at baking—granted, it usually came in a packet and didn't require too much effort, but it ended up edible and Hiccup didn't have to worry about cracking a tooth, or getting indigestion.
"Here, have a seat and I'll grab you a few," she offered before rushing into the kitchen, and calling over her shoulder; "Did you want some milk with them, or coffee?"
"Milk, thank you!" he replied, remembering he already had a coffee whilst at Gobber's and would prefer not to risk having a caffeine overdose.
'Speaking of which; I better let him know how it all went,' he thought. 'Although, what the Hell am I going to tell him...?'
Telling the truth might have seemed like the most plausible solution, although Hiccup didn't know how well it would go if he informed his godfather that his current tenant was a stunningly attractive, hostile, and single (because with that frosty attitude of hers there was no way she could be dating anyone—at least, anyone sane that is...) young woman, who he would now be visiting on a regular basis. Even though he knew Gobber would refrain from making any lewd or inappropriate comments, the contractor preferred to keep his personal life, well, personal.
'I'll just tell him that she agreed,' he decided. 'Nothing more. Besides, it's not like he's going to meet her any time soon; not with him constantly working around the clock. He's not going to take time out of his busy schedule to go over to the property just to feed his curiosity.'
"Here you are!" Valka announced a moment later, bringing out a side plate of cookies along with a glass of milk and putting them in front of him on the coffee table before grabbing a cookie herself and sitting down adjacent of him. "So, how was Corona? You were involved in the new Women & Children's hospital project, correct?"
"Yeah, it was really great. I actually got invited to watch the unveiling," he recollected as he took his first bite of the chocolate chip biscuit. "It really was something—I can't believe how many famous people were there—I even got to speak to the Prime Minister's daughter briefly."
"Oh wow, quite the honour!" his mother replied, keenly interested. "What was she like?"
"Lovely girl, around my age," Hiccup answered, remembering the young brunette. "Pretty, very friendly, and she was very good with all of the patients—especially the younger children; they all absolutely adored her when she went over to play with them. Her name's Rapunzel."
The older woman blinked. "Rapunzel? Well that's certainly a peculiar name."
"Coming from the woman who allowed her son to be named Hiccup?" he quipped jokingly with a raised eyebrow.
"I'll have you know that I was originally planning on naming you, Henry Jay Haddock. However, your father was quite against it and insisted we name you after your great-great grandfather." A thoughtful look then crossed her features and she asked, "Wait, isn't she the one who was kidnapped at a very young age and reappeared only a few years ago?"
"The same one," he affirmed. "Despite her captor's incessant cruelty and conceitedness, amazingly enough the experience didn't seem to affect her life, nor her opinion on humanity whatsoever. Instead, she focused on studying medicine and is now one of the leading doctors there—truly dedicated to her profession and to making a difference. It's actually quite inspiring."
"Hmmm... she sounds like quite the catch!" Valka remarked in good humour. "Given with how highly you're speaking about her, I'm surprised you haven't asked her out on a date."
"Ah yes, but alas, she's already engaged," he said playfully, shrugging his shoulders melodramatically.
"Well there's still plenty of fish out in the sea," Valka spoke reassuringly, and then her expression turned a bit more melancholy. "Although, if I'm to be honest... I wish things worked out between you and Astrid."
"I know," Hiccup simply replied. Even though he had come to terms with it many years ago, he couldn't deny that he somewhat missed being with her. She was the only one (apart from Toothless) who could fully understand him and all his little quirks. "But her & Eret are happy, and they're good together. A part of me had always known that our time together was limited; I'm just grateful I got to be with her, even if it was just for a while."
"Even so, I still think she was a fool to let you go," his mother said but her words lack any sort of bite; after all, her and Astrid had been quite close when they had still been dating.
"So how was your time in South Africa?" Hiccup asked, deciding it was better to change to the subject—lest he wanted to ended up at the bar later on that night, drunk as a sailor and bemoaning to his best friends why he was still single. No, best to avoid that. Especially since Snoutlout or Tuffnut would probably get involved and take advantage of his vulnerability and drag him into some sort of embarrassing situation in their attempt to cheer him up (or humiliate him—either one, though most likely both), which he would only have to deal with the next day.
"Oh it was fascinating, Hiccup! You should have seen it..." Valka exclaimed as she recounted her recent adventures and the young man listened eagerly, always enjoying his mother's conversational stories.
"I'm home!" Hiccup called the instant he managed to step into his apartment, his hands both full with several heavy shopping bags. Kicking the door shut, he walked over to the kitchen counter and started unloading them only to hear the excited cries of Toothless.
"MEOW! MEOW! MEOOOOWWW!" the cat exclaimed before leaping up onto the counter and proceeded to smooch up to the contractor, obviously eager to be fed.
"Alright, alright—I'm getting there! Just wait!" he replied as he placed the bags on the counter and rummaged through the groceries, looking for Toothless' food. Finding the first can of cat food he could find, Hiccup walked over to one of the cupboards to pull out a clean saucer and then walked back over to the cutlery draw and grabbed a spoon which he opened the can with before finally served its contents.
"Sit," he ordered the black cat as he held the cat food-filled saucer up above the feline's head.
Toothless instantly obliged and the young man placed it down, watching as the cat all but gulfed it down.
"Greedy little runt," Hiccup muttered as he watched his friend chow down on his dinner before reflecting on what he would eat. Even though he had purchased enough food to make up a decent meal, he wasn't in the mood to cook.
'I suppose I could get Chinese since I didn't end up getting any last night...' he mused as he started putting the groceries away. 'It's been a while since I had noodles... I could go to Kung fu Panda and visit Mister Ping. Who knows, Po might even be there... although, I'm pretty sure he'd be getting ready for the WMA Championship—isn't that happening soon?'
With his mind made up, Hiccup decided he would go out, grab some noodles, come home, sit on the couch, maybe watch some Netflix-
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Or maybe not... damn.
'What the hell? Who could that be? Leave me alone!' his mind droned, dread flooding him as he walked over to the door. He hadn't told anyone that he was back in Berk with the exception of his mother and Godfather. Elsa flashed briefly in his mind, however he quickly shook the thought away; he highly doubted she would come to visit him since she was so eager to get rid of him earlier.
'Shame...' his inner voice sighed. 'You could have asked her out to dinner. I'm sure even she isn't above the opportunity for a free meal.'
In that small instant, the contractor came to the heartbreaking realisation that his current mindset was composed of a potent mixture of both stupid & delusional—a fine combination indeed—but was not to be trusted.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Alright, I'm coming! Jeez!" he called out before pulling the door open. What he had not expected was to be met with several heavy blows to his left shoulder and an aching desire for an icepack.
"Owowowowow!" he recoiled, holding his injured shoulder as he glared at the perpetrator. "What the hell, Astrid?!"
Standing before him in all her golden glory, was the one and only Astrid Hofferson, looking as radiant and fearsome as ever—and completely unphased by his glowering. So friggin' typical of her.
"I don't see what you're complaining about; I went easy on you this time," she replied casually with a faint smirk, stepping through the door and brushing past him. "It's not my fault you've gotten soft."
"Well forgive me, but I'm not used to being beaten to a pulp on a regular basis," he retorted flatly as he closed the door behind them, before adding; "I don't know what still compels Eret to keep enduring such abuse."
"The sex," she answered over her shoulder and he nearly choked on his own breath. "Definitely the sex."
"Woah, woah, woah! Way too much information!"
Even though they were really good friends and had been intimate in the past, there were some things better left unknown and Hiccup wasn't all that eager to learn about his best friends' personal affairs.
Astrid laughed at his flustered response. "Sorry Hiccup, but your reaction was too good to pass up," she said with a guilty grin. "You're just so modest."
"I'm just simply not the type to kiss-and-tell, that's all," he replied with a grin of his own, enjoying their banter, it was just like old times. "Speaking of which: how did you know I was even here? I wasn't going to call you until tonight."
"Hiccup," she chastised kindly, crossing her arms. "In case you didn't realise, this is Berk; word travels very fast around here, especially when it involves the arrival of the previous Mayor's son. Besides, Gobber told Valka who told Snotlout, who told Tuffnut, who told Fishlegs, who told Ruffnut, who told Eret, who told me."
"Figures," he sighed. "Can't trust anyone to keep anything quiet around here."
"I'm afraid you're fresh out of luck." Astrid shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, yet that playful attitude faded a moment later, and replaced with a more sincere expression. "But if I can be honest—I'm really glad you're back. I missed you. We all have."
"I missed you too," he admitted. Growing up, Astrid had been a big part of his adolescence, serving as his moral compass and always was willing to lend an ear when he had something weighing him down—she had always been there to listen and point him in the right direction. Even though they weren't together romantically anymore, she was still a big part of his life and he couldn't imagine that changing any time soon.
The moment slowly slipped away and the blonde female started walking around the apartment, thoroughly inspecting his living quarters.
"It's a nice set-up you've got here," she commented as her eyes caught sight of the view outside his window.
"Meow..."
"Oh hello Toothless!" she exclaimed happily when the cat leapt onto the window ledge before her. She crouched before him and started to scratch underneath his chin. "How've you been? Not getting into too much mischief lately, I hope."
"You know it," the contractor answered for her. "Just recently he decided to invite himself when I was going to the unveiling of the new Women's & Children hospital, sneaked into my car and started helping himself to the catering."
"No!" Astrid gasped, looking aghast.
"Oh but he did!" he confirmed, remembering just how mortified he was. "Trust me, it wasn't pretty! It was just fortunate that he had been more focused on the giant ice sculpture on display; even if he did get his tongue stuck on it..."
His friend laughed out loud, not that he could blame her—the entire scenario sounded absolutely ridiculous, even to him. She then turned her attention back to the black cat and said, "You're going to get your owner fired one day, you know that."
"I was just lucky that Doctor Rapunzel had noticed him before anyone else and was willing to keep everyone distracted while I got him out."
"Doctor Rapunzel?" she raised an eyebrow in interest. "Who's that?"
"A young doctor around our age—a paediatrician actually. I've got her as a friend of Facebook," Hiccup explained nonchalantly, not thinking to much into it. "Nice girl, I think you would like her."
"Her?" Astrid asked with a sly grin, looking rather interested in the direction of this conversation and Hiccup was already kicking himself when he realised his mistake.
"Now before you get any ideas: she's already engaged," he informed her bluntly, not wanting to give her the wrong impression. "I've already explained this to mum and I'd rather not have this same discussion again."
"Well what do you expect, Hiccup?" she asked kind heartedly. "It's been years since you've been in a long-term relationship."
"It can't be helped, I work away a lot and I don't have the time or the strength to commit to a long distance relationship," he answered truthfully. "I already realised that after Moana."
"She was from the Polynesia Islands, wasn't she?"
"Motunui," he corrected. "Yeah, she was a great girl—so fun and exciting, but she's too reckless, just like me. Unfortunately, we just kept butting heads and we soon realised it just wasn't gonna work."
"That's a shame, although I guess it would be better for the sake of your future descendent for them not to inherit their parents' bullheadedness. You need someone who can be logical and have enough willpower not to rush head first into stupid situations—like Heather."
"Do you know how ironic that sounds coming from you?" he dead panned, not forgetting just how riled up his ex-girlfriend would get whenever the dark-haired girl was present.
"Yes, but a lot has happened since then and now she's one of my closest friends," Astrid reasoned sensibly and he couldn't argue with that. "Besides, I was jealous and insecure. She was the new girl; pretty and smart and able to get along with everyone so easily compared to me. I mean, you guys became instant friends while I was trying to get alone time with you."
"Well it's not like you made things easy. You didn't start really talking to me until the summer I found Toothless."
"Fair point. I was a bit of a snob back then," she admitted with a shrug of her shoulders, not above admitting her faults. "Teenage angst and all that fun stuff—but I think we're getting off track here, Hiccup; although I'll give you points for trying."
"What can I say? It's a gift," he quipped before getting a bit more serious. "I like Heather, I always have, but I've never been interested in her that way. To me, she's always been a good friend and nothing more, and even if you & I had never dated, I still wouldn't have gone out with her. It'd be like you and Fishlegs dating."
"Ugh, God no!" Astrid bleched, horrified by the suggestion. "Not that there's anything wrong with Fishlegs! It's just I only see him like a younger brother or something—but I do see your point. What about Merida?"
"You mean Merida who shot down Snotlout after asking her out? Like, literally shot him down! Even though I'm grateful to her for teaching me archery and putting my cousin in his place, I'll have to say no thank you. Besides, isn't she a little busy right now, training for the Olympics?"
"Yes, she has a bit of a temper, but you can't deny she has a wicked sense of humour."
"Maybe, but if I wanted wild and spontaneous, I'd be dating Ruffnut. Although I'm not sure if Fishlegs would like that too much."
"Spouses tend to not like people dating their significant other."
"See? That leaves us back to the drawing board!" Hiccup sighed out loud, shaking his head melodramatically before getting a bit more serious again. "Don't get me wrong, Astrid. I would like to find someone and settle down and eventually have a family, but I haven't felt like that towards anyone else apart from you, and even back then we just weren't ready for that."
"You can't really use that as a valid excuse, Hiccup. We were only eighteen and we wanted different things," Astrid explained simply, not bothering to beat around the bush about the topic.
"Maybe so, however, I just haven't felt that desire or a connection," he replied honestly with a shrug.
"Well I hope you find someone soon," the blonde female admitted, placing a tender hand onto his shoulder. "You're a good man, Hiccup, and you deserve to find someone who'll make you happy."
"Thank you, Astrid, I know you only want what's best for me," he said sincerely, grateful for her concern, however, he decided to change the topic. "And even though I appreciate it, you'll have to excuse me now, because I'm absolutely starving and I'm on my way to get dinner—unless you're interested in joining."
"Yeah that sounds good. What were you thinking of grabbing?" she asked as they strolled out of the apartment.
"I was thinking of going to Kung fu Panda and hopefully see Po," Hiccup answered whilst he locked the front door.
"I haven't been there in ages! Did you hear Po & Tigress are engaged now?" Astrid exclaimed as they started walking through the hallway and he nearly tripped over his feet, not expecting to hear that all.
"What?! Since when were they even dating?!"
Author's notes: I can't believe I used a freakin' rap lyrics for this intro! Oh God, if it wasn't for the fact the tune gives me so much nostaglia, I'd swear that I'm losing my touch...
Anyway, so it's been 18 months since I've last updated this and I'm sorry it's not quite worth the wait but I just couldn't really work with this all too much, however, it was nice to write Valka & Astrid (and them pushing Hiccup to find a nice girl to settle down with; even though he won't be mentioning Elsa anytime soon ;-D) although I hope they weren't too out of character (*cough* Astrid's crass comment *cough*)
Of course, this story won't nearly be updated as much as Thaw Slowly unless I get struck with any sort of inspiration but I'd like to work on this a bit more as an outlet for TS so I can see if I'm capable of writing more than one decent story, haha.
As always thank you, Maxaro for editing and putting up with my writing - and yes, now that you mentioned that omake regarding Hiccup & Moana, I've got something in mind... ;-)
I'd like to thank everyone whose reviewed so far and I'd appreciate any feedback for this chapter to see where it should take off—I've got a general idea, but I'd be open for any suggestions.
Until next time guys.