Gracious Loser

There was a time when Astrid was very lonely, and very much alone.

See, when Astrid was a child, she didn't have any other friends her age. Back then, Snotlout was convinced girls were gross and stupid and used to make fun of her whenever he saw her. Fishlegs was alright, but since he was a boy, Snotlout used to bully him around a lot and tell him that if he talked to Astrid, he'd become girly and wimpier then he already was. Terrified, Fishlegs immediately stopped talking to her, and didn't start again until they were twelve. The twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut both mainly hung out with each other. Sometimes if the boys and girls had to separate, then Astrid would spend time with Ruffnut. The girl was alright in small doses, but she wasn't the brightest torch in the village and she'd always whine about how Astrid was too bossy. Whenever the girls weren't forced to spend time with one another, Ruffnut would go right back to her brother's side and Astrid would be alone again.

Then there was Hiccup.

Technically, Hiccup had always been there. He was just kept under lock and key by his father almost 24/7, and she only ever saw him when there was a big feast, fidgeting at his father's side. Hiccup was tiny for a boy, smaller then her even, and he spent most of his time sitting quietly with his head down instead of loudly wrestling like Snotlout and Tuffnut. Snotlout insisted he was a loser, but Astrid didn't put much faith in what Snotlout said. And at the age of four, Hiccup did something he had never done before, but which would eventually become a habit he'd never break.

Ignoring his father's orders, Hiccup left the house and snuck away.

"What are you doing here?" Astrid asked, frowning at the skinny little brunet when he jumped and whirled around to face her at her question, panic written all over his face. Astrid knew Hiccup wasn't supposed to be allowed outside, because he got sick easy and hurt himself a lot, and it made the chief worry.

"Nothing." Hiccup answered, quickly and completely unconvincingly. Astrid frown at him, but before she could say anything else, Hiccup glance down and saw what she had in her hands. "Are you playing swords?" Astrid bristled a bit at that phrase and glared at the boy who used it, her fist clenching around the handle of the wooden sword she held.

"I'm not playing!" Astrid snapped furiously, ears still ringing with Snotlout's laughing taunts about dumb little girls who play with swords. "I'm practicing!"

"Oh." Was all Hiccup said to that, Astrid frowned as he shuffled awkwardly from one foot to the other. What a weird kid… "Um, can I play, too?"

Astrid was so surprised by that question, she didn't even bother to remind Hiccup that she was practicing, not playing.

"…You wanna practice swords with me?" Whenever the others all practiced sword fighting, Astrid was usually left all alone because the twins would fight each other and Snotlout would beat up on Fishlegs. And whenever Astrid tried to get one of them to play with her instead, Snotlout would tell her that girls couldn't fight as well as boys, Fishlegs would shake his head violently without meeting her eye and the Twins would usually just keep fighting with one another and forget that she even asked. Only once did she get Snotlout to fight her. After she beat him, Snotlout had turned red as everyone else laughed at him. He then insisted he went easy on Astrid because she was a girl, and had never let her fight him again since.

"Well, if you want to." Hiccup assured quickly, looking cautiously hopeful when Astrid didn't reject the idea immediately.

"But you don't have a sword to use." Astrid reminded him. Hiccup frowned at Astrid's observation, glancing around for a second before lighting up when he spotted a long, relatively straight stick. Holding it up for Astrid's assessment, Hiccup gave a wide, slightly crooked grin when the girl nodded in approval, almost tripping over another stick as he hurried forward to stand in front of Astrid, who had already fallen into a fighting stance. Hiccup took a similar stance in front of her, before faltering for a second and grimacing as he passed the stick into his right hand instead. Astrid watched the change curiously, but didn't question Hiccup on it, instead tensing as she prepared to attack. "Ready?" she asked.

"Ready." Hiccup said, not sounding all that confident, but looking determined nonetheless. Giving a cry, Astrid jumped forward to bring her wooden sword down against Hiccup's stick. Her blow landed solidly, and though Hiccup's makeshift weapon did its best to block, it soon fell away from Hiccup's grip, landing on the ground a few feet away as Hiccup fell back. Astrid frowned, a little surprised at how easily she'd won. Skinny or now, Hiccup should've put up a better fight then that. He was the son of the chief, after all.

Astrid was pulled out of her musings on this subject as Hiccup sighed quietly, pushed himself back to his feet and brushed the dirt and dead leaves off of his clothes. Looking up, Hiccup met Astrid's eye, giving her a defeated sort of smile.

"Good job." He said, surprising Astrid yet again. She had been expecting some kind of excuse for his weak effort against her attack, like the sun being in his eyes or him going easy on her or not being ready or something. That's what all the boys did when they lost at swords, both to each other and especially to her. They never told the person who just beat them that they did a good job. Not unless a grown up stepped in and made them, anyways, but there weren't any grown ups here. Which meant that Hiccup just honestly meant it.

"Um… thanks?" Astrid said, a little confused. She wasn't used to someone her age saying stuff like that. But as far as changes went, this was a nice one. "Wanna go again?" Now it was Hiccup's turn to look surprised, before he grinned widely at Astrid's offer. Suddenly, it hit Astrid that maybe Hiccup was even lonelier then her, if he didn't even mind getting beat up by a girl so long as someone wanted him there to play with.

"Sure!" Hiccup exclaimed happily, retrieving his fallen stick. Astrid smiled a little as she fell into another stance. Before Hiccup could do the same, though, a voice boomed out over the trees, sending the birds into flight.

"HICCUP!" Both children froze at the loud, angry sound of the voice of Stoick the Vast. "HICCUP!" Shoulders falling, Hiccup let the stick fall from his fingers, flashing Astrid a weak smile.

"Um, actually, I gotta go. Dad's calling me." He said, as though Astrid hadn't already figured that out for herself. "Thanks for playing with me, though."

"Yeah, no problem." Astrid responded, fidgeting awkwardly. "Um… maybe we can do this again sometime?" Hiccup sucked as a sparring partner, but he was nice, and Astrid kinda liked that. She wouldn't mind spending more time with him. Hiccup's smile turned genuine at Astrid's question, but before he could answer, Stoick's voice boomed out again, closer this time.

"HICCUP!" Hiccup jumped a little, looking panicked at how angry Stoick was starting to sound.

"Gotta go. Thanks again!" The brunet said quickly, darting away without answering Astrid's question. Astrid didn't understand why she felt a little disappointed about that. Sighing, the little blonde turned back to the practice dummy she'd been training against before Hiccup had stumbled into her clearing, trying to put the odd incident behind her. After all, it was probably not very likely Hiccup would ever be allowed to come back.

Still, it was nice while he was here. Maybe they'd get to play together again someday…