Definitely one of the shorter chapters.

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Hands on Sunshine

Chapter Eighteen

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It really started to sink in.

The whole marriage thing.

Astrid sat in front of her vanity, looking rather dressed up for only a wedding occasion, but only because she needed something to keep her mind off things. She had already worked at Hallbera's for most of the day, thrown her axe, cleaned her room top to bottom, so as she was waiting for Hiccup to come by and take her to the field for Oddr and Birna's wedding ceremony, she took extra time to look nice. She wore a deep red, loose and flowing dress with white swirls and vines with small birds integrated into the design along the front, her nice leather belt with a gold foil buckle and attached an accent charm on her right side. She borrowed Auda's hair clip with red stones on them that looked like rubies and used that to pull up her hair along her temple on the left side of her head, pinning it back. She pinched her cheeks ten times and used more than what was necessary of her rosewater, which was on its last few drops.

She was freaking out. Big time.

"Damn it," Astrid looked at her sweaty palms, noticing the small pink dots just beneath each finger and each one seemed to be on fire. She wiped her hands on her skirt and looked in the looking glass again, sighing, hoping she could relax. "No. No, no, no. Oh, gods," Astrid groaned and pressed her hands to her eyes so she saw colorful blotches.

She was going to get married. Married. To Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. In the future. Sometime soon. And she would be bound to him forever until they grew old and died. How long would that be? Thor, she couldn't be married forever! She hated him only three years ago! Now, she was going to marry him at seventeen. But, she was old for getting engaged, so it's about time isn't it?

"No!" She answered herself, shaking her legs.

Agnes is two years younger than her and she's already getting married—next week, actually, though she and Bjørnstaud were only engaged a week ago. But, apparently, they were betrothed when she was born and he was five. Astrid herself was never betrothed to anyone in particular, and even if she was she probably scared the boys' parents off from a deal because she beat their son too much. Oh, Hel. She knows a fourteen-year-old who just got married yesterday. And another one who was sixteen. I should have been married years ago! I would rather be betrothed than have to go through this!

…

Scratch that. I'd rather marry Hiccup any day than Snotlout or Tuffnut. Ew.

Okay, so she wasn't off so bad. At least she had a choice in the matter. At least she has feelings for him, though she still couldn't quite figure them out, but she knew him and liked him and he was her best friend and she would rather marry him and have his kids, and—kids.

"Ohh, gooooods," Astrid groaned and threw her head back. That was a whooole other story.

She heard a knock downstairs and she knew it was Hiccup. Astrid swallowed and removed her hands, looking in the glass one last time to fix her hair. "Astrid, Hiccup's here!" her mother shouted from downstairs. To avoid having him come inside and having to talk to her father, which she was almost positive would make him pee his pants, Astrid jumped up from her stool, making it knock over backwards, blew out her candles and raced down the stairs.

When she got down to the living area, she saw her dads eyes widen from his spot on the bench, his spectacles on the end of his long and straight nose as he read something. "Wha's the occasion?" he asked, meaning her elaborate dress.

"There's a wedding," she curtly replied, knowing full well it didn't matter how nicely she looked for a commoner's wedding. Auda also said something but she chose to disregard it, racing out to the porch where her mother smartly kept Hiccup.

If it was any other night but this night she would have been extremely flattered that Hiccup looked her up and down when she came outside, but tonight she was not. "You look nice," he said in a small, polite voice because her mom was there.

"Thank you. Bye, mom," Astrid took his hand and nearly leaped off the porch.

"Bye, dear! We'll be at the reception later, okay?" Ingrid shouted as Astrid pulled Hiccup down the street.

Hiccup knew something was up. She was walking in that certain way that wasn't normal and she had her mission expression on her face. "Are you okay?" Hiccup asked, pulling on her hand to get her to stop.

Instead, she pulled her hand out and fisted it. "No, I am not okay, Hiccup," she said in a low voice, turning to him but avoided his eyes, looking at his clean tunic that was miraculously one of his nicer ones.

"Then what's wrong? You look… you look…," he had no idea what she looked like, but he'll take stab anyway. "anxious."

Astrid clenched her jaw, shifting from foot to foot, thinking. "Yes! I am anxious! Alright? I am anxious," she did this weird twitching thing with her nose Hiccup hadn't yet seen before but he duly noted it. She raised her hand to bite her nails briefly. "Can we go? The ceremony's probably starting," she turned to leave but Hiccup grabbed her shoulder to stop her.

"Astrid—," he started to say, but when she wheeled around, he was not expecting her hand to slap him across the face. The noise was so loud it echoed in the empty streets, and the force was so strong Hiccup's head snapped to the right.

"Don't touch me!" She shouted angrily, but she quickly realized what she had done. Astrid's eyes widened as soon as her hand left his cheek. She could not comprehend what happened—did it? Did she really just slap him? She wasn't even thinking. She was so mad that he grabbed her shoulder for just a split second, and then she found herself hitting him. Time had completely stopped.

Hiccup blinked and slowly raised his fingers to his lips, looking down at them. There was a little bit of blood from the inside of his cheek and he was furious. He couldn't believe she had actually slapped him. And he didn't even do anything. When he raised his eyes to hers from looking at his fingertips just his gaze made Astrid's blood freeze and her heart stop. She had never seen him look so... angry. Betrayed.

"Oh, gods," she raised her hands to her mouth, horror written all over her face. She took a step back. "Hiccup, I'm so—," She wasn't able to finish her sentence because he swiftly walked past her and stormed down the street. "Hiccup! I'm so sorry!" She stood shocked for a second, surprised at his receding back. Astrid ran after him, shouting, "Hiccup! I'm so, so, soo sorry! I didn't mean to! I—," he never turned around once, just kept going down the road to the center field with his hands clenched tight. She stopped running and instead hung her arms.

"Fuck!" Astrid shouted, raising her hands to her head and clenching her teeth. "Goddamn it, you stupid half-troll, munge bucket, idiot, Astrid!" She kicked some stray toys left on the street by some children and knocked over a few of her neighbor's empty barrels, kicking them down the road. She yelled all the way to the field and mumbled self-insults, giving people unnecessary glares with death threats hidden in them.

The day was only getting worse by the second: the only seat that was open was next to Hiccup, the last place she wanted be. She wasn't going to sit there at first and instead she was just going to opt to stand at the back, but she noticed that he had sat one spot in on the bench so there was deliberately a seat open on the outside. So he intended to leave her a spot even though she flippin' slapped him.

She sighed, letting all her anger go. She shouldn't be mad, he should be, and she knew he was. Hiccup had all the right to be angry, furious. He should be raging at her right now, ignoring her; shit, he should just forget her. She stooped so low to hurt him like that. But yet, he saved her a goddamn seat. Great gods almighty, this kid was something else. He had sense, he had a heart—a big one—and he wasn't a fool. Sometimes Astrid wished he was the opposite of those things so she could get her proper treatment, but he wasn't. He was honorable. He was Hiccup.

Quietly, she walked up the aisle with her head bowed and her hair surely screwed up, and she silently sat down next to him though she was nearly off the bench. He didn't say anything, didn't glance in her direction, but she was fine with that. She looked at his knee and wondered how he could be this way throughout the entire ceremony. She dreaded the end of it because she would have to talk to him, which made her anxiety and her Terrible Day feel even worse.

Elder Gothi spoke the vows and Oddr and Birna repeated them, exchanging rings over the family swords and they said a couple more things. Gothi raised her knobby-knuckled hands and said the blessings. Everyone clapped and cheered and both Oddr and Birna grinned as barley oats were flung into the air as they walked down the aisle. People started racing to the Hall for the reception, the sun nearly down now, and Astrid stood up and followed them, keeping her head low. She couldn't bear to look at Hiccup as he walked beside her silently, save for his little hobble and the squeak of his prosthetic, but she couldn't even hear that anymore.

Her throat hurt as she was close to speaking multiple times but found she was too humiliated to talk. She bit her lip and forced it out just before they were about to climb the stairs. "I'm sorry, Hiccup. I don't know what happened, i-it just did! I didn't try to, I didn't want to, my hand just moved on its own a-and—,"

"What's bothering you?" Hiccup interrupted coolly, his expression relaxed but Astrid could tell he was still annoyed.

She stopped talking altogether and stared at him, her mouth open. She let out a great sigh and collapsed down to sit on the stairs, holding her face in her hands. "I can't get married. I'm so scared, Hiccup, I don't know what its like! I've never been married! I don't know what I'm supposed to do, what I'm supposed to say. Shit, I'm scared to have kids, even! After, Aislin, I-I-I… I don't know what to do," she spoke hurriedly, now letting herself look scared instead of anxious. They were alone now as everyone had gone to the Hall to eat and feast and listen to the Chief's toast.

Hiccup stared down at her for a second, trying to comprehend what she said because she spoke so fast, but when it registered in his head, he let out a huff of laughter. He sat down next to her a good couple of inches away. "Is that it? Is that what's been bothering you?" he asked slowly. He spoke kindly but Astrid could see a little bit of hurt in him. Hiccup didn't want her to second-guess the proposal, it seemed.

"Yes, it's been on my mind a lot. I've never been so scared about something that isn't supposed to be bad. And I don't think it will be, just… it just terrifies me, I guess. But… at the same time... I do want to get married, Hiccup. I do. To you. I… would like to… marry you. I would. And I'm going to," Astrid replied sincerely, placing a hand on his knee. "It's just sinking in that it's actually going to happen and it freaks me out. I think I'm okay now, though. I just kind of slapped you," they chuckled together as Astrid hugged her dress around her knees. Good. "I'll be okay."

"I understand. I'm a little worried myself because I haven't been married either," he winked at her. "But there's nothing to worry about. I'll… I'll be good to you, Astrid. I'm not your father," Hiccup said gently and looked at her tenderly, pursing his lips.

Astrid smiled and fought back her watery eyes, squeezing his knee. "I know you will be. You're good to me now. You're wonderful."

Hiccup smiled lightly and put his hand on top of her own, quiet for a minute. "I just really hope you won't slap me again in the future. That hurt," he raised a hand to his cheek, chuckling.

"Oh, gods, I'm so, so sorry," Astrid said before leaning in and moving his hand to kiss his cheek multiple times in different places, and eventually kissed his mouth in apology. Hiccup kissed her back without hesitation, making Astrid incredibly more relieved. Astrid broke off and hugged him, burying her nose into his neck. "I'm sorry, Hiccup."

"It's alright. I guess," Hiccup said into her hair, running his hand down her mane over her back. When she pulled away, he winked again.

The toast had just been finished when they arrived in the Hall and everyone was chowing down on food and drink and telling wild stores, shaking tankards around or throwing chicken legs. Together, they walked quietly to their table, somewhere in the Hall because it always changed. Some villagers said hello to Hiccup and short one-liners that Hiccup laughed about or retorted back with his own witty comment. Astrid simply smiled next to him or laughed along, but said hello to those who gave her a nod after saying something to Hiccup as if they all recognized her as his fiancé or something. It was pretty cool.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut were absent from the table because they were required to sit at the family table where Oddr and Birna sat, at least for the supper part of the reception. When Hiccup and Astrid sat down, Snotlout and Fishlegs were having a wild conversation about flying techniques with a couple of other teenagers like themselves, so Hiccup molded into the talk with ease. Astrid quietly served herself a plate of food, giving Hiccup a little more than what he served himself. Astrid drank a goblet and a half of wine before the dancing and intermingling began.

Hiccup was pulled away by someone to go talk to someone else after a little while and Snotlout disappeared so Astrid sat and talked to Fishlegs about the fishing harvest because that was what he was busy with as of late. To her surprise, he pulled out a scroll from his pocket or something similar in his vest and pushed away all the dishes and goblets (Astrid narrowly picked hers up before it was spilled over in his excitement) and unrolled the vellum to reveal an array of graphs and tables and small pictures with weird figures and words of some she hadn't seen before. Astrid furrowed her brows and looked at him with a confused expression.

"Okay, so my dad gave me a ship and I've been going out almost every day because I'm trying to map the fish migrations," Fishlegs pulled out another map and unrolled it, revealing the whole northern sea with lines of solid and scrubbed out charcoal routes all over it. This dazzled Astrid mostly because she had never seen a map of such scale before; only one of their island and the surrounding sea. Her mouth dropped in surprise, however, Fishlegs mistook it for her being shocked by his line patterns. "I know! It's crazy, isn't it? But it's weird because they're so varied but constant at the same time—like here—cod increased by fifteen percent in size this year when five years ago it had actually decreased with the influx of other oceanic predators and fishermen and stuff—but that's only the group in the west, the group in the east has been steadily increasing by twelve percent while herring by three.

"They migrate this way so I've been trying to see how much I can catch but I've been getting eels and crab—but that's the weird part! My dad told me that's the best place for herring!" Fishlegs explained, showing Astrid his models and maps as he went and she was able to somewhat keep up with him because she had experience listening to Hiccup rant about projections and estimates and rates and such. But she was still pretty much lost.

"So… what about haddock? They're from the south, right?" Astrid asked, vaguely remembering her father talking about it with Mr. Ingerman years ago. She didn't really care all that much, but it was nice to get her mind off the whole 'incident' earlier. Really relieving.

"South east, but pretty close. They're steadily fluctuating but they're mingled in with herring a lot. The easiest ones to find and catch, so far, are cod…," Fishlegs continued to throw out various numbers and his theories for why the fish were doing this, why they mated there and what it did to affect the patterns of fish migration around Berk and the like. Astrid listened attentively for awhile until Fishlegs began talking about logistics and complicated things and then she began to tune him out, choosing to instead pick things out from the thin cracks in the table with her nail.

Astrid looked up as Fishlegs pointed at some part of a map, continuing whatever it was he was talking about, but she wasn't paying any sliver of attention, and actually found Søren in the crowd. He was a couple of tables away, standing up and chatting to some women who were obviously fawning and giggling at what he was saying. Astrid rolled her eyes. He was just swimming in all the attention.

"Hey, Fish?" Astrid said, interrupting her blond, burly friend in the middle of his sentence.

"—Yeah? Am I too confusing?" Fishlegs said, realizing he was on a ridiculous tangent now that Astrid actually said something. He sighed and pushed the maps away, taking a swig of a nearby tankard.

"Yes, but it's not that. Have you met that Søren guy yet?" Astrid asked, pointing to him discreetly. He was blushing a little, now looking a little shy. One of the women was getting a little too close for comfort.

"No, why? Isn't he Danish?" Fishlegs asked after shrugging, drinking more from the tankard.

"Yeah, but I was just wondering," Astrid sighed. It was quiet between them for a brief moment. Astrid pulled at her hair and combed her fingers through it as Fishlegs rolled up some of his scrolls quietly as the music and talk of the Hall went on around them. Hiccup appeared across the table from them, his cheeks looking a little pink from a drink he was probably offered, so Astrid flashed him a knowing smile and he looked a little bashful.

"What are these?" Hiccup asked, looking at one of the scrolls Fishlegs had not rolled up yet.

"Uh, just fish migration stuff. Nothing important," Fishlegs said quietly, tucking some of his scrolls away.

Hiccup inspected it for a few seconds longer and raised his brows in approval. "Looks important. I remember my dad talking about the risk of possibly overfishing a meeting ago. Do you have anything on that? We're trying to avoid that as much as possible," Hiccup asked, rolling up the parchment and handing it back.

"Yeah, actually, I do," Fishlegs said with new enthusiasm and pulled out a journal and flipped it to a page, showing it to Hiccup. The two began talking about overfishing and the like, making Astrid entirely uninterested. She really did not want to sit and listen to them talk about things she didn't really understand, but she didn't want to get up and risk running into people she would have to talk to. She just kind of wanted to go home and sleep.

After a couple of minutes of nearly dozing off on her elbow, Astrid looked up and saw Ruffnut waltzing around in a rather pretty dress of dark green material and a silver foil chain around her waist, her hair unbraided and flowing down her back. She looked lovely; radiant, even. She walked right up to Søren and immediately his attention turned to her, doing his fancy bowing and hand-kissing thing again that made Ruffnut pink in the face. Astrid jumped, realizing Fishlegs was next to her and he could probably see just as well as her if not better. She looked to him and he didn't seem to notice anything, pointing to some tables in his journal, his and Hiccup's heads bent over it.

A new song picked up and looking past a couple of people, Astrid saw Søren nearly fling Ruffnut over his shoulder as she burst out laughing while holding onto his shirt as he spun her around. Through the corner of her eye, Astrid saw Fishlegs raise his head.

Oh, damn it, Astrid thought. "Hey, Fish, I thought I heard your mom calling you just now," she said, coming up with it right on the spot though it was the lamest thing to say, ever.

It was clear now that Fishlegs saw Ruffnut and Søren dancing around the Hall, laughing obliviously and delightfully. Hiccup looked at Astrid with a funny expression and turned around when he saw her line of sight, seeing what Fishlegs was looking at with furrowed brows. Hiccup turned back around and realized what Astrid was trying to do. "Fish, can you explain this table again? I didn't quite get it," Hiccup scrambled to say but it was useless.

Fishlegs only looked down to the journal without a word, his mouth in a tight line. There was a sudden change in the air about Fishlegs that Astrid remembered before. And it wasn't good.

Before either Astrid or Hiccup knew it, Fishlegs' mouth curled into a nasty snarl with his brows knitted tight, making him almost entirely unrecognizable from the happily aloof Fishlegs they knew. He swiped the table clean of everything that was on it; goblets, plates, knives, scrolls and tankards falling to the stone floor with a loud barrage of clattering and a growl from Fishlegs. Astrid let out a yelp and Hiccup jumped back when he hurdled over the table towards Søren and Ruffnut. Hiccup jumped off the bench and ran after him, Astrid quickly following after her shock wore off.

"Fishlegs, no!" Hiccup yelled, shoving past unsuspecting people who instantly became interested and flocked after them. Astrid was in quick pursuit, scrambling after Hiccup before Fishlegs would do something regrettable.

Hiccup was the first to see Fishlegs walk right up to Søren and shove him backwards. "Fish!" Ruffnut shouted at him because he had pulled her away and nearly threw her into a wall of people. Søren fell to the ground, at first shocked but then offended, standing up and glaring Fishlegs in the eye with an intensity Hiccup had never expected nor wanted to see.

"What did I do to you?" Søren asked in a hard voice, his accent showing through his words and making him slightly more threatening though he was much smaller compared to his much bigger opponent, but he had a sword and Fishlegs did not. However, Søren never made a move to grasp his sword, though Hiccup could see his hand twitching for it just in case he needed to draw it, which would be the worst case scenario he could think of.

Fishlegs flexed his bear paws for hands, his eyes fixed on the foreign duke-general. Hiccup knew that one well-placed punch could possibly kill Søren because Fishlegs was almost twice his size, and killing Søren was not the greatest idea. Hiccup ran up to Fishlegs and stood in front of him just as he was about to step forward. "Fishlegs, don't do it, you'll regret it. Stop it, Fish!" Hiccup shouted and started pushing back when he attempted to get around him. All Fishlegs seemed to be able to mutter were angry, gargled words and 'Ruffnut'. Astrid came to assist in pulling Fishlegs back, taking one of his tree trunk arms to keep him from swinging and hurting anyone else. A few other burly Vikings seemed to realize the direness of the situation and started helping pull and push him back as he resisted with all he could. Ruffnut was able to keep Søren at bay though he wasn't nearly as fired up, and instead he looked on Fishlegs in pity.

"Fish! Fishlegs! Stop it! You'll hurt yourself!" Hiccup shouted against his friend's chest as he struggled, grunting, his foot and peg sliding on the ground to push him back. It felt like pushing on a moving wall of rock. Another Viking got a hold of Fishlegs' arms and pinned them behind his back, throwing him to the ground. Hiccup and the others had let go just in time before they were thrown down with him. This seemed to knock all the effort and energy out of him, the meanness and intent withering off his face with his cheek smashed in the stone. Whispers flew all around the Hall, the music awkwardly starting back up again from whenever it had stopped sometime in the middle of the struggle.

Hiccup breathed heavily and wiped his damp forehead as Fishlegs was picked up roughly and pulled out of the Hall, the whole village seeming to watch him go. Astrid looked around for Ruffnut or Søren but they were nowhere to be found. She stood next to Hiccup and looked at him with the same exasperated expression he had. They sighed and people began to start filling the space once more. Hiccup lifted his left arm to put his hand on his hip, but he winced and sucked in a sharp breath when his side seemed to scream at him, burning deeper into his skin.

"Is it your side?" Astrid asked quietly, looking worried for him now. She attempted to pat his ribcage where he was cut but he jerked at her touch in pain. Hiccup nodded. "Here, let's go back to your house so I can change your bandages. I think we've had enough of today," Astrid said reassuringly though she looked tired and didn't smile, wrapping her arm around his waist to lead him home.

"Me too. Today sucked," Hiccup said, putting his arm around her shoulders, walking with her to the doors. "What happened, Astrid? That. That whole thing just now," Hiccup asked, looking down at her but she kept looking forward.

"While you were gone, it was found out that Fishlegs has Berserker tendencies whenever he gets too mad, but not all the time. He beat the shit out of Munge after he was taunting Fish in the Ring during a match. You can still see his broken nose and apparently he can't see right out of his left eye where there's a scar. It was really…," Astrid paused, stepping over the threshold with Hiccup into the cool night air. They stood at the top of the staircase as children ran by laughing but Astrid didn't appear to even know they were there, thinking deeply for a way to describe it. "It was scary. I had never seen anybody go so crazy like that. Munge was a bloody pulp when they managed to pull Fish off of him after he nearly beat him unconscious. Fish says he can't remember anything when he goes Berserk. He won't talk about it anymore, either," Astrid said solemnly, exhaling through her nose. "It's sad."

Hiccup nodded and then slowly started rubbing her back. "It is. I never knew that about him and it's really unfortunate," he said quietly, leading her down the steps. "All we can do as friends is help him, support him. I mean, I don't know what else to do," Astrid shrugged.

They got halfway down the long staircase before either said anything else, looking at the star constellations above them. "Let's focus on getting your bandages clean. It'll be my forever-repentance for being the biggest jerk, ever," Astrid said seriously but Hiccup chuckled. "What?"

"Nothing," he shook his head. "Your hair looks pretty."

"Don't change the subject," Astrid said and rolled her eyes, but it was clear she didn't want to talk about it. So instead, Hiccup held her hand as they walked quietly back to his house. It was alright.

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