Hey everyone, here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy!

Astrid decided that waking up to a bunch of rowdy men in a smelly, confined space was not pleasant. She never thought that it would be, but now she could say for definite. Her back was sore too. She missed her nice queen sized bed at home with her endless supply of pillows and blankets. Once they were home, she would never sleep in a hammock again if she could help it.

Once it was apparent that they were, in fact, awake, the crew of the boat shoved hard pieces of bread into each of the gang's hands and sent them up onto the main deck to eat before getting back to work.

Looking around, Astrid noticed Henry was already up there, sitting on a barrel eating his piece of stale bread and staring out across the horizon. She decided to join him, setting herself down on the barrel beside him before she got to work on her own bread. It was chewy and it didn't taste particularly pleasant, but she was grateful for the food, at least.

"Why is it they call you 'Hiccup'?" she asked the question that had been bothering her since she had first heard the name.

"I'm the youngest and newest member of the crew," Henry replied without turning around, continuing to stare at the clouds.

"But why don't they just call you 'Henry'?" she asked.

"Because," Henry replied, now giving her his attention as he turned around. "Every member of the crew has a nickname." She raised an eyebrow and he rolled his eyes before pointing towards the man at the helm. "You see him?" She nodded. "His nickname is Crank."

"Why would you call him that?" she asked confused.

"Because he gets cranky when he doesn't have enough sleep. Which is most of the time." She nodded that she understood and he pointed out the old man that she remembered from the night before. "We call him Codger. The man with Frank is the cook, so we call him Cook. And do you see the man standing next to Scott?"

"The really big guy?" she asked.

"Yeah, him. We call him Grinner."

"Why?"

"Because he never smiles," Henry laughed. She liked the sound.

"What about the guy with the peg leg?" she asked with a slight laugh of her own.

"Peg Leg," Henry replied. She laughed again. She was actually enjoying his company. She never thought that that would happen. "And do you see the man with the Captain?" She nodded. "We call him Sly. There's a reason he's the first mate."

"Ok," she nodded. She needed to remember to be cautious around him then.

"See those three over there?" he asked again. She hummed. "That's Sneaks, Chopper and Crooked. Sneaks is the sneakiest guy I know, Chopper sometimes gets a little carried away with his axe and Crooked has the creepiest crooked smile you will ever see."

"And that's the whole crew?" she asked.

"That's the crew," he repeated. "Now come on. We've already spent too long sitting here." He got up and headed to the grate, pulling it open and hopping down.

She sighed and followed only to find him at the bottom looking up at her again. She huffed to herself as she realised that he would have to catch her again. She sat her self on the edge before gently pushing off and falling into his waiting arms.

Once again she was captivated by his eyes. And his musky smell. And something about the way he held her in his strong arms, so close. When he let her go, she almost sighed as she felt his warmth leave her. What was happening to her? This was Henry.

He moved over to his work and quickly assigned her a job. Silence fell upon the room again as the two worked. She tried to focus her attention on the work but her eyes kept finding their way back to him. Eventually she decided to try a conversation.

"So how did you end up on the ship?" she asked quietly, almost afraid to break the silence.

"Pure coincidence," he replied, not taking his eyes off his work. He didn't continue for a while, and she started to believe he never would, until eventually he spoke again. "I had only been in the market at Wall for a day. I used some of my savings to resent a room at the inn and went around all the blacksmiths looking for work. The all turned me down but one man in particular was really rude about it. Just as I was leaving, the Captain showed up with this." He gestured to the machine before him before continuing.

"There was a problem and he had no one to fix it so he went to the blacksmith. The man looked at it and told him that the problem was big and would take a lot of work and that meant it wouldn't be cheap. But I knew different. The man was just lying to them to get more money. I stepped forwards and told the Captain that I could fix it, which I quickly did, much to the annoyance of the blacksmith.

"At the time, I had a black eye, curtesy of Scott. The Captain asked where I got it and I explained my story and why I had run away. He then offered me a job on the ship as the maintainer of this beautiful piece of machinery. I've been here ever since."

"Three whole years?" she asked slowly.

"Yes," he replied with a smile. "The crew is like a family to me. We all look out for one another. It's something I never had back home."

He didn't say anything more after that and Astrid didn't push him. They worked for a few hours before he wordlessly got up and heaved himself out of the room and back up onto the deck, leaving her alone. She sat confused for a while but eventually he came back and handed her another piece of bread. She looked up at him with surprise and saw the kind smile playing on his lips.

"I thought you might be hungry," he said softly. Astrid felt a slight fluttering in her chest when he looked at her like that and was sure that there must be a blush on her cheeks. She smiled back and took the food, watching as he returned to his work with his own piece of bread. It wasn't until she bit into it that she noticed that there was some mean and cheese in between the stale loaf. She smiled to herself at the effort he put into the thought.

The rest of the day was spent in comfortable silence until it was once again time for dinner. The went back onto the main deck and Astrid once again went to her friends while Henry went to his. They had stew again but this time, rather than go down below deck to sleep afterwards, rain jackets were passed around as the steady sound of thunder slowly became apparent and drew closer and closer. The machine from Henry's workshop was brought up just before they were completely drenched in rain.

The crew all got to work. Each man knowing his role. Soon enough the thunder was right above them and Astrid almost screamed when a bold of lightning struck the ship. But no one seemed bothered. It kept happening until she noticed the large lightning rods that almost looked like wings that stuck out on either side of the ship. She then watched as the men worked the machine and stared in awe as they packaged up the lightning in containers.

The event was over almost as soon as it had started. They were still being completely drenched but the machine was put away and the crew all retreated down into the depths of the vessel to dry off and get some much needed sleep.

"Are you coming?" Astrid looked up to see Henry standing in front of her. The rest of her friends were heading off towards the crew.

"Uh, yeah," she nodded, brushing off the fact that the whole experience had left her feet stuck in place.

Henry rolled his eyes. An action he had repeated many times around her and it was beginning to really annoy her. She wanted to say something but then he grabbed her hand.

He only meant to pull her to the door put as soon as she felt his rough, calloused fingers, a spark ran up her arm. It was as if the electricity they had just caught had escaped and was now coursing through her blood. She felt like she should pull away or be difficult, because this was Henry, holding her hand. But somehow she couldn't even bring herself to speak. She just let him drag her towards the door. And when he let go, her fingers ached to reach out and grab a hold of his hand again.

She quietly followed him down and back to the hammock she had slept in the night before. She lay staring at the ceiling again. Green eyes stared at her every time she closed her eyes and her arm still hummed in a way she had never felt before. How was it that Henry Haddock, Henry the Useless, was able to do this to her? It shouldn't be possible.

So, I hope you all enjoyed that.

CajunBear73: Glad you like it!

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