Thank you all for the lovely reviews to the last chapter, for your words of encouragement, and for your support. Thank you.

Now, I usually write in the past tense, so I'm kind of wary about posting a chapter in the present tense... But it was my choice, so! Please let me know how you feel about this one.

This is a sort of companion piece to chapter 14, Axe to Grind, since many people asked for it; so it's M-rated. Proceed at your own risk!

Summary: everyone suffers through calibration issues now and then... Hiccup has to deal with his.

Chapter 31 - Calibration Issues

Tight. Too tight.

His pants feel too tight.

Astrid's sitting there, on his lap, talking casually; looking up at a couple of Terrible Terrors that jumped from one tree branch to the other, simply enjoying the comfort and rest after a long, fun race through the skies.

She has never sat on his lap before, not like this; not with her chest leaning on his, not with her arm casually flung around his shoulders, fingers toying with his hair. And yet she seems so natural, her movements and voice so at ease and lazy and careless.

But Hiccup feels tense.

Why is his breath harder to draw? Why is he focusing on her thighs, on the softness of her behind, instead of on what she's saying? He wishes she'd worn her customary skirt instead of the one she's wearing now; the absence of metallic spikes makes him want to trace the curves of her thighs.

With his tongue.

Hiccup never imagined summer clothes could be such a hassle. There's a bit less left to imagination, and fewer layers of fabric to distract from the contact between two bodies.

He's been feeling this way all morning. It didn't help that he'd had a very, very explicit dream about Astrid that night. It also didn't help that he was unable to relieve himself in the morning, thanks to Toothless' persistent eagerness to go flying.

So now, still frustrated and very much aware of every single one of Astrid's movements, he is anything but calm.

He keeps one hand upon the grass for support and another one on her knee, but he's using all of his self-control not to indulge on the desire to snake up under her skirt and feel the inside of her thighs.

Gods above, he's not going to be able to keep it together for much longer. He feels terrible. He feels guilty, for all the lewd thoughts crossing his mind while she is so innocently basking in the sun with him – unaware of what her presence is making him feel.

Guilt… and tightness… and growth.

"…do you think they're having fun, just pretending not to fly like that? What if one of them falls off the – Hiccup. Hiccup, are you listening?"

Hiccup blinks furiously, diverting his gaze to the small frolicking dragons on the treetops. "Yeah. I mean, yes, yeah. The Terrors. Could fall."

"Hm," Astrid quirks an eyebrow at him, tilting her head sideways. She kisses him casually on the bridge of his nose, and Hiccup is way too aware of the touch of her breast on his collarbone. "You've got that look on your face."

"What look?" he asks, trying not to sound startled. What if she realized he's been thinking about… doing… things, to her? Is that look too easily readable?

Astrid shrugs airily, brushing the hair from Hiccup's forehead. "That look, like when you're lost in thought. What are you thinking about?" She's toying with his hair now; one finger twirling with an auburn lock, softly tugging at his scalp.

He knows all too well what she's doing. "I'm thinking I don't want a braid," which isn't really a lie.

Astrid scoffs; her mouth stretches into a smile, and Hiccup can see her tongue playfully darting between her teeth. "I'll tell you what," she announces, "I'll give you a kiss if you let me do a small braid."

It's Hiccup's turn to look away and snort. "Doesn't seem like a very fair trade, if you ask me."

"How about two kisses?" She insists.

"Eh…"

"Alright, then: three kisses for one braid and it's my final offer."

Hiccup pauses; he contemplates her face, and it's clear that the two of them are trying to keep a serious demeanour. "Fine," he drawls, "three kisses, and each of them has to last at least as long as it takes for you to make that braid. None of those, you know, quick pecks on the lips."

Astrid nods approvingly, very clearly amused. "Sounds fair, I guess… So, not like this," she says, and her lips rapidly smack against his, noisily. "Right?"

Hiccup nods, smirking. "Right."

"So you mean… more like…" Her head tilts down slowly, her eyes gradually closing as she nears her face to his. This kiss is slow and deliberate; her nails rake his scalp as she presses further against him, and when her tongue darts over his lower lip Hiccup feels that maddening tightness throb right between his legs, under her weight, against the warmth of her.

Again, Hiccup's mind is flooded with the desire to wrap his arms around her waist and – worst of all – to jolt up against her. He has to clench his hands to keep them from moving; one of them crushes the fresh grass, but the one on Astrid's knee…

She breaks the kiss with a gasp. Hiccup can't quite tell if she's reacting to him, or not. For a tense moment, neither of them speaks.

Then Astrid clears her throat loudly, rolling her shoulders as if she'd just come from an axe throwing practise. "So…more like that," she concludes in a business-like tone, appearing as indifferent as she possibly could while her cheeks were a shade pinker than usual.

"Yeah, that's… I'd say that's good enough, y'know… it-it's okay. It'll do, I guess."

Hiccup can see her swallowing hard. The lithe movement of her tense neck betrayed more than she would care to show. "Alight then. I'm starting now."

"I'll be timing it, just so you know. I'm not being cheated on the kisses."

"I'm a woman of my word, Hiccup," she says, playfully elbowing him on the ribs with more force than necessary.

"Ow! I know that." Hiccup winks, noticing her exaggerated facial expression; furrowed eyebrows and tongue sticking out as if she were focused on an extremely delicate task. "You're also the fastest braider on the island."

"Yeah, just as long as you hold still."

She remains silent as her fingers weave into his hair; Hiccup counts the seconds to himself, doing his best to ignore the way she'd shifted on his lap.

One… two… three… four… five… six… seven… eight… nine… ten… huh… she's usually faster than this… twelve… thirteen… fourteen… her fingers are still moving… sixteen… seventeen… eighteen… nineteen… twenty… twenty one… what the… Gods, don't think about her butt again… just don't… twenty six… twenty six?

Astrid still appears to be focused on her task, but this is taking longer than usual. Hiccup smacks his lips, hesitant to speak. "Er. How many braids are you– "

"Just the one."

"Huh." Hiccup sees a smile creeping up on her face. "You sure about that?"

"Yeah. Positive."

A few more seconds roll by. Hiccup isn't counting anymore. He's just trying to not think about where she is sitting so close to.

Then she pats his shoulder and announces, "Okay, all finished! That's a fine braid, I think."

Hiccup frowns at her coy little smirk. He tentatively reaches one hand up to his head – and it is, in fact, just one braid. Why did it take so long to –

"I think you've earned three kisses, so…"

Oh. Oh. Oh…

"Yes, Milady," Hiccup says, "as a token of your gratitude, since I allowed you to mess up my hair."

"Mm-hmm." Astrid grins widely, ghosting one finger across the length of his jaw. "So, how long did it take?"

"Ah," he says, squinting and pursing his lips as he throws his head back melodramatically. "I lost count! Maybe…thirty seconds? A minute? Or more."

The forced surprise in her tone made him want to laugh. "Oh, that long? I'm so slow today…"

Hiccup whimpered oh so slightly when she slid off his lap; for a moment, his brain struggled with the contradiction between his relief for not having their erogenous zones so close together, and the grief for not having their erogenous zones so close together. There is no in-between.

But she doesn't stay away for long. Hiccup blinks in confusion as she gets on her knees and, a little too slowly, drags her skirt up just so.

"Ahhh – ah, what – what are you doing… Astrid?" His eyes widen as she turns to him and, placing both her hands on his shoulders, swings one leg across; his chin quivers when she settles back down, legs apart and facing him, skirt riding her thighs higher than he'd ever seen.

"Well, I don't want to get a kink in my neck from kissing you sideways," she states matter-of-factly, her voice one octave lower and suggestive enough to make the muscles on his stomach clench.

She inches closer; this time, it's clear to him that she's pressing her breasts against his chest, purposefully or not. Her lips hover just over the edge of his mouth, her eyelashes tickling his skin. Her scent fills his head, and he feels even more enraptured than before.

"I could've turned my head, too…" Hiccup says, and he doesn't know why he said it because, clearly, this is the absolute best position for kissing and – and oh, oh Gods, her fingers have reached under the collar of his tunic and her nails are dragging just below his neck, and he can sense her heart palpitating just as madly as his, and everything in him trembles by the time their lips are finally matched.

He closes his eyes and forgets how to breathe, for a while.

Hiccup opens his mouth just enough to gather his breath; her tongue darts playfully across his upper teeth in a way that makes all of him lean forward, seeking to further the pressure. In the midst of it, her hands guide his to her waist.

She's wearing a belt, and all Hiccup wants to do is pull that damn thing off her so he can feel the curve of her hips fill his palms. Reflexively, he grabs the strip of leather with both hands and roughly tugs at it.

Unexpectedly, she squirms – her hips roll forward as a response to his pull, and for the first time in his life Hiccup gets to feel her forbidden warmth right over his. If it weren't for the two thin layers of clothes between their bodies, he likely would have slipped right inside her...

The thought and the pressure made his length pulse with arousal, a storm unfurling under his skin and raging against her guarded folds. Never in his life has Hiccup felt so hot, so hard, and so dizzy as what little blood was left in his head rushed to his nethers.

Astrid breaks the kiss with a lascivious gasp; when he seeks her out again, the loud whimper she sighs into his mouth feels just as tantalizing as the ardent shudder of her womanhood.

He feels light-headed, far too lost in it to be able to focus on anything but that sweltering surge of pleasure that jolts through every vein of the lower half of his body. He pants as a moan rises from his chest, as his fingers claw into her backside. Without even noticing, he's rhythmically pushing and pulling her on him, grinding, sliding her back and forth across his lap, wanting to burrow into her sensitive mound on flesh.

He can't even kiss her anymore. He needs to breathe, lest he'll faint, so he desperately draws whatever air he can with his mouth openly pressed upon her neck. He opens his eyes, and all he can see is the golden colour of her hair gleaming in the sun; the same colour he imagines the curls of her sex to be. And just knowing that he's touching her there with his –

"Hiccup," she begs with a whimper, lips ghosting the shell of his ear. "Wait… Hiccup, wait."

It's as if lightning had struck him.

Hiccup stops everything altogether. His hands fly away from her body immediately and he lifts his legs and bends his knees, attempting to back away, but Astrid is still straddling him; her cheeks are flushed deep red, her blue eyes wide in astonishment.

He sits there beneath her, absolutely mortified.

"I'm sorry," is all he can think to say, and he half expects her to punch him. She doesn't. "I'm sorry!" He repeats, but she simply shakes her head – and lowers her gaze. He follows the line of her sight and swallows loudly, feeling his ears burn as if there were torches poking out from them.

He'd actually prefer it if she did punch him. To help make matters worse, the bulge stubbornly poking out from under his trousers twitched visibly.

"Well… that's one kiss." Astrid chuckles nervously, eyes darting away from his lively crotch as she tucked her bangs behind her ear and away from her eyes. "We might have gone a little… over the time limit with that one... I guess."

Hiccup clears his throat and wiggles his legs. At this point, the throbbing pressure is more painful than pleasant. "Right… uh, look… I really, really need to get up."

"You already are – oh," Astrid gasps, her hands quickly shooting up to cover her mouth as she stopped herself halfway through the inappropriate remark. And then she punches him on the side of his arm, while dismounting him clumsily.

Hiccup grimaces at the little stab of pain, but the moment her weight is relieved from him he pushes himself straight off the ground. He stands awkwardly, slightly bent forward, even though at this point there's no way to cover it up – Astrid already had an eyeful, anyway.

"I – I need to… er, I have to go –" he says, stumbling away from her on shaky legs, too overly conscious of the flag still raised in his pants and of the way she kept staring at him.

"I just need to…" He pauses and automatically gestures toward his groin. It takes him a moment to realize that he's telling her what he's thinking of doing.

He winces.

Then he whirls around and stomps away with what little dignity he still has left. Which isn't all that much, at this point.

"Hiccup, wait!"

He doesn't look back – unwilling to turn around and face her – but he can hear her footsteps falling closer.

"Seriously, Astrid," he walks faster, past the trees, raising his voice to a sharp hiss. "I just need a minute."

Her footfalls stop. He can barely hear her mutter an apology as he wanders further into the woods.

He feels ashamed of himself, in a way; it's not that he regrets having kissed her the way he did. She could have said no at any given point, instead of grinding further against him. When she asked him to stop, he did. None of them pushes past any point they don't feel the other is comfortable with – the actual problem is getting the other to know they want more, actually.

He just feels that his outburst was far too obvious, his words far too clear as to what his intentions are. But he needs to relieve himself now. It doesn't matter how he's going to face her afterwards – it's not like it'll be easier to just sit by her side and painfully wait for it to go down, in any case.

And Astrid understands… he hopes. She knows him. She's always been so considerate with his choices and his needs. And they're both almost eighteen, so… it's not like she doesn't know.

Hiccup, on the other hand, can't help but wonder – girls do it too, right?

I mean, why wouldn't they? Why wouldn't Astrid? Of course she does.

She probably does.

Gods, she probably does.

Hiccup stops walking now, and takes in a long, hard breath. He looks around the forest, empty save for the birds trilling their endless songs, and leans his back against a tree for support, crassly working his pants undone. His cock bounced waywardly as it came free from its smothering entrapment; his arousal ached so badly at this point that he just craves relief.

As he strokes himself, eyes closed, breathing in the scent of the pine, he thinks of how Astrid does this to herself. He wonders where she does it: whether she prefers to do it in the morning before she leaves her house; or in the evening after a flight or to unwind from her axe practise; or perhaps late at night, before she goes to sleep, in the comforting warmth of her bed.

He thinks of her, and wonders if she thinks of him when she is all alone. He wants to be her fantasy, just as she is his. He wants to be the reason she drips with arousal, just as she is the cause of his fervent urges.

Gods, the way she'd moaned back then; when they were lost in the moment, feeling each other, shuddering together.

He imagines her calling his name, lost in the heat, as she touches herself. He mentally undresses her – and he stares at her bare breasts, at the rippling muscles of her belly, at the hand that jerks and twitches over a patch of sunny gold hairs between her clenching thighs.

He beats himself off to her, to this raw Astrid, sighing and shuddering as they both draw closer and closer to the point of ecstasy.

He screws his eyes tighter when she moans loudly, when she squirms and writhes in her orgasm and she calls for him to come undone with her.

And he does.

His left fist pumps harder and faster, clenching impossibly tight, choking his shaft with a blissful grip – until he spills over, finally, gasping and moaning and calling out her name with a trembling growl. "Ah… ah… ah… haahh… Astrid…!"

And in the searing, blinding heat of release, he imagines squirting all over her – her breasts, her chest, her neck, her mouth – coating his beautiful, wild, heated girlfriend with his seed.

The vision takes a while to dissipate; to melt back into his mind and blend into the surrounding scenery, to retreat to the depths of his fantasy until his eyes are once again focused on the trees.

He was loud. Gods, but he doesn't care; nobody else was around for miles, and he'd put enough distance between them that she wouldn't have heard him.

Luckily, he's only spilled a little on his hand; most of the evidence of his release had simply fallen on the forest ground.

He has a cloth in his pocket. He simply has to take it out, clean himself up, and –

There was rustling.

Hiccup's head snaps to his right side, having heard something move –

Astrid looks back at him through half-lidded eyes, and despite the distance and the width of the tree she's taken cover behind, Hiccup can see the skin of her thigh, her skirt rumpled around her waist, leggings far too low to provide enough modesty.

She doesn't say anything; he doesn't, either.

They stare at each other until he begins to harden again…

END

Kind of leaving it open to a continuation... maybe. ;)

Oh, and MuseGoddess, thanks for reviewing! I'm on tumblr too, in case you wanna say hi.

And thank you to all the guest reviews that I can't reply specifically to; especially the kind soul who practically read everything in one day and was concerned about me going to "Haiti"! (I take it that was an autocorrect mistake? hehe)

To the guest who was concerned about my chapter 17 being reposted in another site - I have most of my chapters in Tumblr in my account, Nefertsukia. I hope that's where you read it. If not, I'll feel concerned that someone might be reposting my things. :(

There is also a spanish translation of my chapters by Aleja-Acerca. Si eres español(a) y lees su trabajo de traducción, saludame aquí con una review en español!