A/N: Alright, this is the last of the pre-existing chapters. It's mostly the last half of the chapter that underwent the biggest changes.
And let's just say a certain multi-fandom crossover got its claws into me a while ago.
Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon. I do own an assortment of OCs, a few of whom are trying to make me regret creating them.
How to Train Your Marching Band
Chapter Eleven: Small Victories
It was Thursday evening and it was time to concentrate.
Their drill and music instructors were going to evaluate their performances and gauge what improvements needed to be made. There were parents on the sidelines, here to get a sneak peek at what their children were doing, even though the official sneak peek wasn't until tomorrow.
But they were watching, nonetheless. This wasn't just a practice. This was a performance. And she was going to perform. She always performed. She could do no less. And she was in the zone tonight. She was movement. She was agility and dexterity. She was the flag, the whirling colors of silk in the dark. She-- Oh look, it was Mr. Haddock--
Astrid wasn't watching when the flag twirled down. Instead landing in her hands like it should have, it bounced off her skull.
Just like that, stars were shooting through her vision and several baritones were tripping over her when she didn't move when she was supposed to, going down abruptly with surprised yells. She only vaguely heard the marching techs and just about every adult on the sideline shouting for a halt to the proceedings, too busy clutching her throbbing head and trying to keep her brain from oozing out of her skull.
That wasn't how she intended to "be the flag".
Groaning miserably, Astrid rolled into a crouched position, pulling a hand away from her head to see if she was bleeding. There were enough people hovering over her that she was cast into shadow, but there were no suspicious stains on her fingers.
"Astrid!" Bri the colorguard instructor was practically on top of her before she knew it; dragging her to her feet and prodding the top of her head for any damage.
"I'm fine, Bri. My head just hurts." Astrid reassured her through a small grimace. The poking fingers made it hurt more.
"Sit down, we'll get you some ice." Bri hustled her off to the sidelines while Gobber shouted about a ten-minute break. The botched set broke apart and streamed to the edge of the field.
Astrid allowed the colorguard instructor to lead her over to the tower and sit her down on the wooden steps behind the drum major's stand. Once her charge was seated, Bri went off to relieve someone of a handful or two of ice. Astrid put her head between her knees and allowed herself another groan.
"You okay, Astrid?" Steiny inquired with a half-smile from the stand, leaning over the safety rail.
"Yeah." Astrid gently rubbed her head and smiled back reassuringly. "My head's harder than it looks."
"That's 'cause you're a thick-skulled wench." came a certain voice that Astrid was starting to dislike. "Move your hand."
Astrid did and a wonderfully numbing plastic baggie full of ice came to rest gently on the crown of her skull. Marie and her miraculous bag of holding had come to the rescue again.
"That ice didn't come from your cooler, did it?" Astrid wondered.
"Don't wuss about it." Marie delicately arranged the cloth-wrapped plastic bag on Astrid's head so it was covering more of the impact site. "It didn't break skin."
Astrid shrugged in acquiescence. No one had ever said just how dangerous the flag poles could be. It was imperative for any colorguard member to keep their heads up and their eyes on whatever they were tossing into the air.
She would have liked to say that she had gotten through her entire band career without getting whacked on the head due to her own negligence. But that was like saying Hiccup would get through a full season without once tripping over his feet. It just didn't happen.
And speaking of Hiccup...
Her gaze was inexplicably drawn down the sidelines where the focus of her thoughts was having a-- lively conversation with his father. There appeared to be some hand-waving involved and it looked like Stoic was trying to dodge questions.
Astrid snickered at the sight. Hiccup wasn't very big; he was one of the shortest, scrawniest boys she had ever known. She tended to forget about that fact until someone put him up against his father. Stoic was over seven feet tall and built like a mountain, and he was as immovable as one too. He could (and sometimes did) easily scoop his son up with just one arm and carry him like a sack of potatoes.
"Hey Astrid!" Ruffnut was lurking just around the corner of the tower with a big smile on her face. "You should totally go over there." she said, pointing to where Hiccup was.
"No!" Astrid hissed back.
"But I want you to."
"I'm not going over there just because you want me to!"
"Okay. Then you should totally go over there because you want to!"
"I don't want to!"
Ruffnut shrugged. "Okay." And walked away.
Now Astrid felt something distinctly ominous settle over her. Ruffnut never gave up that easily. She was persistent and impatient and if she really wanted you do to something, she wanted you to do it right that second and not a minute later. She didn't just shrug and walk away. But then...
Marie.
Astrid's blue eyes zeroed in on the Dark OverLord who must have been discussing evil plans with her circle of minions. A circle that had now grown to include Ruffnut on a more permanent basis.
C'mon Ruff, she's evil! You know it! Astrid wished she was telepathic. I know you're a complete loon, but just because Marie's the queen of loons doesn't mean you have to be under her thrall! Why are you against me?!
The Queen of Loons must have possessed a fairly strong thrall if Astrid's attempts at telepathy were failing.
It was a miserable attempt anyways. The knock to her head wasn't helping either. The colorguard captain heaved a sigh and took the ice pack off her head, gently prodding the lump to see how bad it was. The flags were fairly lightweight, so she didn't anticipate any lasting damage. But it was going to smart for a couple of days.
A nearby commotion made her raise her head. Ruffnut was coming back and she was dragging a protesting Hiccup with her. With fussing, the twin shoved Hiccup down onto the wooden step so he was sitting next to Astrid.
"Sit tight!" Ruffnut warbled and it just sounded wrong because Ruffnut didn't do anything that remotely resembled warbling. "There's plenty of break time left!"
Hiccup and Astrid exchanged a slightly frightened look each as the blonde twin sashayed off with the smuggest damn smirk in the history of smirks all over her face. They didn't have much choice but to comply with her wishes and sit here until break was over, because if either of them tried to walk away, they would just get shoved right back towards each other.
An awkward minute of silence passed during which Astrid was more than content to watch three Terrible Terrors flutter down onto the field. The three cat-sized dragons sniffed around briefly before dropping onto their bellies and scooting across the still-hot pavement.
"The yellow-green and the green-red are from the last hatching cycle. The mostly green is their mother." Hiccup observed, inadvertently startling Astrid. He suddenly grinned at her. "Want to see something cool?"
He licked his lips and whistled a short tune that ricocheted sharply up and down the octaves. It had the three Terrors raising their heads curiously, eyes alight and focused on Hiccup. Then they dashed over and threw themselves down at his feet. It would have been a show of supplication if he hadn't reached down and started scratching chins and necks, eliciting happy purrs from the little dragons.
Astrid blinked in surprise and then grinned.
"Hiccup Haddock. Dragon Whisperer." she commented wryly.
"Nah, just know my way around dragons." Hiccup corrected.
"Well, you certainly know your way around dragons better than anyone else." Astrid reminded him. "You're clearly crazy enough to give belly rubs to Terrible Terrors." she added pointedly.
"They let me." Hiccup said with only a vaguely defensive note. The Terror he was currently spoiling with a belly rub let out a whining growl when his hand stopped and he quickly resumed. "They're the only dragons that don't immediately spook around people." he added pointedly.
That was true. Humanity was pretty much the dragons only natural enemy and vice versa. The two species had clashed more than a couple of times and it always ended bloody. Humans had nearly hunted the Great White Twittersling dragon into extinction. Nesting Opaleye dragons had almost wiped out the Central Pacific's work on the Transcontinental Railroad. Many were loath to admit that the relationship between humans and dragons was an avalanche-y one. The world just didn't seem big enough for the two.
But the small victories didn't hurt, Astrid supposed. Small victories like Hiccup giving belly rubs to Terrible Terrors. The resident Night Fury that she swore posed for photos when the mood struck it. Astrid herself had once gotten within six feet of a Deadly Nadder before it had finally spooked and flown away, but neither she nor the dragon had walked away with injuries.
Small victories weren't too much to ask for.
"Hey, what's up with Ruffnut?" Hiccup wondered, his gaze wandering off towards the general direction of the horizon. "She's acting-- weirder."
"She's been conspiring with Marie. Or Marie's been conspiring with her." Astrid thought about it for a moment and then waved a dismissive hand. "They're conspiring. Let's just leave it at that."
"Gods, they're the last people we need conspiring. Or-- y'know, just being around each other." Hiccup muttered. When Ruffnut and Marie conspired, the outcomes were never pretty and sometimes they were psychologically scarring. Usually they were things you wanted badly to forget. For example, Snotlout never talked about the origin of his three-year old phobia of tuna fish sandwiches.
And to be quite fair, no one really wanted to know. He still twitched strangely if someone mentioned mayonnaise.
"Do you know what they're trying to do?"
"Trying to shove us together I think. If I interpreted the hippo poop comments correctly." Astrid said dryly, putting her chin in one hand. "You know what the worst part is? They're not even trying to be subtle about it."
Hiccup shrugged. "Probably because of the bet."
He was too focused on the purring dragon sprawled at his feet to pay much attention to the words that had just left his mouth. He also didn't notice the way Astrid's lips collapsed into a frown that was both murderous and thoughtful.
"Hiccup..." Her voice was littered with bright red, 'turn back now!' signs. "What bet?"
Hiccup performed his best impression of a marble statue and Astrid's suspicion ratcheted up several notches. Undoubtedly sensing her change of mood, the three Terrors skittered away, taking to the air in a matter of seconds. Hiccup wished he could do the same. He was screwed now.
"What bet, Hiccup?" Astrid asked again, more sternly. She crossed her arms for added effect.
"D-Did I say 'bet'? I didn't say that!" Hiccup cursed the slight stutter. "I meant- er... 'net'! Like-- internet! You were hearing things! Because 'bet' and 'net' rhyme and I wasn't enunciating and Ms. Fokker probably woulda killed me; you know how she was about that whole enunciating thing--"
His muddled attempt at a half-assed explanation petered out. Astrid had crossed straight into glowering. She knew he was talking crap. He always started to babble if someone caught him in a lie. And her hearing was excellent. She had distinctly heard the word "bet".
"Hey look! Marie has crackers!"
Marie did indeed have crackers but that wasn't incentive enough to go running to her. Nonetheless, Hiccup was off like a shot towards his section-mate, obviously hoping for a display of woodwind solidarity to protect him. And his dad was over there, talking to a tuba who had expressed an interest in becoming a dragon hunter. Wasn't it a parent's prerogative to protect their sons from incensed, would-be girlfriends?
"Oh no you don't! You're not sneaking out this!" Astrid roared, taking off after him.
It was a less of an attempt to catch up with him and more of a race to get to Marie first. Hiccup might get woodwind solidarity on his side, but if Astrid got there first, she would have the advantage of the solidarity that ladies enjoyed when it came to dealing with men.
Hopefully. Marie didn't always side with her gender in regards to men. At times, she seemed to view her fellow females on the whole as nothing more than a bunch of yammering ninnies and she didn't go out of her way to make a secret of it.
"Marie!"
The blonde clarinetist looked up from her crackers and a ratty notebook filled with her chicken-scratch handwriting.
"What's this I heard about a bet?" Astrid demanded, striding up the last few paces like a thundercloud.
"What bet?" Marie inquired innocently, though her eyes flickered to Hiccup who had taken something of a roundabout path to get to his section-mate and consequently arrived a second too late.
"You know what I'm talking about." Astrid said impatiently. "Some bet that you and Ruffnut are in on. The one that's got something to do with the hippo poop comments Ruffnut made the other day."
"Oh, you mean the one that's never going to happen now because Jacob can't keep his mouth shut?" Marie shot him a sharp glare. "Nice going, dickweed. Be sure to thank your left knee for getting some."
"It slipped out!" Hiccup said defensively. "And why are you still bringing that up?!"
"Because it's like sitting on a lump! Only I can't smooth it out because it's on my ass!" Marie said, making a vague gesture to the bruise's location.
"Get one of those hemorrhoid pillows if it's bothering you so much! Just tell me about the bet!" Astrid demanded, losing her patience. She did not want Hiccup and Marie to start taking digs at each other. If allowed, they could go on worse than the twins. Astrid couldn't help but wonder if Marie had some kind of chip on her shoulder where the Haddock bloodline was concerned.
Marie waved a hand dismissively. "Trust me when I say you don't know want to know." she said. "It'll only send your blood pressure skyrocketing and then you'll get all angry and annoyed and I value the continued use of my fingers too much to risk telling you."
"My blood pressure is fine!" Astrid snapped, her patience straining. Suddenly, breaking Marie's fingers seemed like a very attractive idea. She pushed back the impulse. No need to get violent. Not yet. "And I want to know. Because it's my life that you're exploiting for entertainment!"
"And mine." Hiccup added very quietly. Because he figured it might be better if he stayed out of the way. The whole fact there was a bet at all didn't really bother him, but Astrid was taking it as a personal offense. If a cat-fight broke out, the fur was really going to fly.
Marie frowned, looking very much like the miserable lunch ladies that worked in the school's cafeteria and tried to make you feel guilty for not making your lunch nutritionally balanced. Astrid suddenly felt strangely pinned under the stare, but she squared her shoulders and mustered up her strongest glare in return. Marie was not going to make her feel guilty for interrogating her about the nature of this bet.
The blonde clarinetist responded in kind, leveling a look at Astrid that bespoke of yammering ninnies and how she would not suffer them happily. For a minute, all the girls did was try to one-up each other in the glaring contest while Hiccup looked on, knowing better than to get involved.
"Fine." Marie flipped the ratty notebook shut in a carelessly angry gesture. "It's about when you and Hiccup finally shut up and kiss each other."
Of all the subjects for a bet, that was the last one Astrid had anticipated.
Okay, she knew that the topic of her and Hiccup was high on the gossip chain; her being one of the most desireable girls in the school (reportedly) and Hiccup being quite the nerdy little geek. She heard their names mentioned by the school grapevine a couple times a day, at least. She knew that if they finally got together officially, the topic would be seriously hot stuff.
She just hadn't thought people were going to start taking bets on it.
Perhaps she had considerably underestimated her fellow students.
This was a load of high school teenagers. It was about this time that the allowance money started to dry up and they were expected to get jobs, only that didn't help much because their paychecks were usually spent on car insurance and gas money, the latter of which had reached prices so high people were going bald from pulling on their hair so much.
Maybe she was grossly underestimating her (desperate) classmates.
"Oh, and Hiccup? Thanks." Marie somehow frowned daggers. "I'm gonna lose now and the saxes are going to be unbearable."
"Some suffering will do you good." Astrid put in, a bit harshly. Always good to see the Queen of Loons knocked down a peg or two. "Now, how long as this been going on?"
"Sncgthgrd." Marie mumbled around a mouthful of magically appearing cracker.
"How 'bout you say that again, with some vowels this time." Astrid suggested. She pointedly curled her hands into fists.
"Since eighth grade." Marie repeated in a more audible voice. "Well, technically seventh grade. When we were at the May practices and you two made the big moony eyes at each other from across the parade block for the first time." she added, avoiding eye contact with the pair of them. "Half the band saw it. It was like watching the sun rise on fast-forward."
"Since eighth grade." Astrid repeated disbelievingly, canting an eyebrow. "Are you telling me that half the band is betting on whether or not Hiccup and I will kiss before- when?"
"Graduation." Marie obligingly filled in the blank. "And it's not half the band."
"Then how many people is it?"
"Well, in the band--"
"In the band?!"
Marie scowled at her for interrupting when she was trying to explain. "It's more like three-fourths of half the band." she replied.
"There's almost ninety people in this band. You're telling me that--" Astrid did some quick math. "That almost twenty of them are in on this?"
Sure, twenty people didn't sound like a lot, but frankly, two people was too many.
"Twenty?... Maybe closer to thirty. It's mostly the juniors and seniors these days. Mostly the woodwinds and the colorguard. Some brass and percussion, I think. The full list is at home. They've all got their own deadlines, but I bet against them anyways."
"And what about outside the band?" Astrid inquired, looming dangerously.
Marie thought for a moment. "I don't remember the exact number off the top of my head; that list is at home too. And they've all got their own deadlines; prom and such, one of you dumping the other. Seriously, Jack's the only person with me on the end-of-season deadline--"
"You dragged Jack into this?!" Hiccup interrupted, half-scandalized, half-horrified at what she'd done. "What have you done you horrible woman? How many of my friends have you dragged down into your pit of insanity?!"
Marie rolled her eyes. "My gods, when it comes to your friends, you sure get defensive."
"What do you expect, Marie? I don't have a rotating roster of individuals to hang out with. I have approximately three friends outside of marching band." Hiccup waved the corresponding number of fingers at her. "And all three of them are wonderfully sane. They aren't corrupted and weird like the rest of the people I hang out with!"
"Hiccup, Jack is an art-student who spends more time lurking around the band suite than the art room and he tends to get sucked in anyways because the black hole of this band is just that strong." Marie informed him. "One of your other best friends is a hot-tempered Scot with more hair on the top of her head than Shrek the sheep had on his entire body and an accent I can barely understand when she gets going, and the last one is the three-time winner of the Grand Nationals Little Miss Glitz Pageant, only heir of the Glockenblume International empire who decided to rename herself after a character in a fairy tale and got it approved by the courts. What I'm trying to ask you is, what's your point?"
"My point is I like having the mostly sane friends outside of band. Band is weird and I just don't want them turning weird too." Hiccup said, shrugging. "Weirder."
"Hiccup," Astrid let out a slightly exasperated sigh. "Jack was weird long before you started band. You two have been glued at the hip ever since he moved here. The two of you have been corrupting each other for years."
"Besides, it's just Jack and I didn't drag him into this. He asked, I answered, then he put ten bucks on the end-of-season deadline and I offered to split the total winnings with him." Marie explained, sensing that the worst of the danger had passed and it was okay to make eye contact again. "And Hiccup, you should be flattered and relieved that your art-bro has that much confidence in you and Astrid."
"And why are you making a big deal out of this now? You didn't start protesting until I found out about it." Astrid said to Hiccup.
"I did protest it when Marie told me because I didn't want you finding out. I knew you'd react like this." the clarinet section leader replied. "I just didn't think it was that big of a surprise." he added sotto voce.
Astrid considered this for a second. Given Marie's personality and tendencies, her putting a bet on something as nebulous and indefinable as a relationship wasn't terribly out of character.
"Points for trying, but I don't think you could have kept this under-wraps for too long." Astrid said and Hiccup conceded with a shrug. "Now I just want to know why."
"Entertainment, I guess. We get bored." Marie shrugged. "Anyways, the biggest bet's between me and the saxes. On one level, I'd rather you two just kiss and get it over with 'cause the moony eyes and the innuendo and the bad flirting are killing me."
"What's the bidding at?" Astrid asked out of morbid curiosity. What was her relationship with Hiccup worth to these leeches?
"Outside of the band... I don't think you wanna know how much Jack and I stand to get out of this if we win. In the band, we are up twenty-three bucks. And a Hershey's bar." Marie replied. "You want in too? I'm trying to convince the saxes to bump it up. They're wusses. Must think they're gonna lose." She flipped open the ratty notebook and poised a pen over the paper with a cheerful smile. "What can I put you down for?"
"Thirty bucks on the end-of-season-deadline, provided 'end of season' means the Variety Show." Stoic rumbled, seeming to appear from nowhere.
"Dad!" Hiccup burst out, positively mortified and betrayed that his own father was betting on his (admittedly lacking) love life.
"Season ain't post-mortem until after the Variety Show." Marie quickly shook hands with him and then jotted down the number. "We'll have to split the winnings three ways."
"Fifty-fifty all around?" Stoic inquired, ignoring his son's horrified expression. Hey, a little parental humiliation was good for a teenager. Parenting wouldn't be any fun if he wasn't allowed to have some at his son's expense.
"Sixty-forty." the blonde clarinetist said firmly. "You get fat government checks every month. Jack doesn't work at all and my bank account is getting smaller every day."
Well... At least they're confident?... Astrid supposed she oughta feel comforted by that. At least someone was confident that there was potential for something long-term.
Astrid never really knew where they both stood. She didn't push Hiccup. She knew better. The harder she pushed, the more likely Hiccup would retreat just out of simple spite. It was hard to gauge the likelihood of a long-term relationship if he kept pulling back last-minute. Nearly seventeen years old and he still seemed a little creeped out by girls.
Not surprising when one thought about it. The two most influencing adult female figures in his life growing up were both of questionable sanity -- one of them being certifiably insane with all the paperwork to prove it. And growing up around dragon hunters hadn't helped his relative perception of sanity. Neither Marie nor Ruffnut were paragons of femininity (what with the burping contests, the mud wars, the infrequent declarations of revenge on the Y chromosome and their own uteruses, etc). Hiccup was just too close to the other two to consider them role models. As far as Astrid could tell, she was the only well-adjusted female role model in Hiccup's life.
So as far as Hiccup knew, girls were either young and psycho, or old and senile. Which meant it was up to Astrid to prove that this wasn't always the case.
Meanwhile, Hiccup just looked desperately for a hole to crawl into.
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