Alright, I finally got to a computer to post! It was a tad later than I wanted it to be, but I finally got this thing posted. Now, let me clarify a couple things. First off, I know that some of the concepts that I will introduce are quite modern, but I would like to blend them in with old traditional ways that I have read about in Viking society. Sort of like Hiccup, a little forward thinking with some tradition thrown in and you get one heck of a Viking. For example, dating wasn't really something that happened much back in those days (or so I've read) so although my story has it, it really isn't traditional. However, marriage contracts and the like were used. I've done a little research, but if any of you feel that you know something that might help, please do not hesitate to tell me. I read each and every one of my reviews for this story and I like what they are saying so far! So without further ado, please enjoy the next installment of POL…
Hiccup woke up the next morning in a cold sweat. His eyes searched to and fro until he visibly relaxed. Memories of Astrid's father haunted his dreams. The 6' 7" giant and blonde haired berserker with blood shot blue eyes wielding and overly large battle axe, chasing him around with wild abandon, foaming at the mouth, flooded his early morning thoughts. Hiccup reached up and felt his neck with his hand and gulped.
Toothless shifted a little then decided it was time to get up. He wearily made his way over to his slightly traumatized rider and burped in his face. Either to rouse him from his thoughts or just to be mischievous, no one will ever know. "Loki's Golden Horns! That's nasty!" Hiccup fell off the bed, holding his nose and trying his best not to gag. Toothless laughed at his buddy and left to find his breakfast.
Hiccup picked himself up and got ready. He had to talk to Astrid today. He had made up his mind last night. He had to speak with her and let her know that he would make sure that she wasn't forced into anything. Yeah, if he kept telling himself that, he would eventually have the guts to do it…yeah.
Foregoing breakfast, he stumbled downstairs and left the house without looking back. He'd like to say it was because he was that determined, but in truth, it was because quite a crowd had gathered outside near Astrid's house. It stole all of his attention and he quickly went to investigate. Nearing the commotion, he spotted Fishlegs overlooking whatever was happening. "Hey Fishlegs. What's going on?"
"Oh hey hiccup. I'm not really sure, but there is like +7 violence and +9 yelling coming from Astrid's house." By then, Hiccup could make out the sound of crunching wood and clongs of metal coming from inside.
Then with a loud, "DIDN'T THNK!? When do you EVER think? You never asked me what I wanted!" Astrid's screeching pierced the air followed by a body crashing through the door. Scratch that, her giant father wearing full battle armor and his axe flew out of her house, crashing through a reinforced solid wood door. Astird's dad, Angnir got up, limping slightly, and turned to run. "Well, what DO you want?" He asked, somewhat subdued.
"I want to BURY MY AXE IN YOUR SKULL!" Now, Hiccup was a great many things. A runt, a sceptic, a screw up, a general Hiccup, but a fool he was not. Quickly, he hid behind Fishlegs and peeked around his sturdy friend's girth. Astrid leapt out of her house and landed mere feet from her cringing father. Fury engulfed her as she raised her axe high above her, the picture perfect scene of a wild berserker turning on her allies. Unfortunately, (or fortunately for Angnir) a very distinct sound whistled into the enraptured audience. Somewhere in the crowd, someone yelled, "Night Fury! Get down!" Astrid turned her murderous gaze towards the sound and saw Toothless landing right next to Fishlegs. Leveling her best glare at the boy, Astird started moving towards the dragon. Fishlegs trembled for half a second before he screamed and ran off, leaving a very pale and very frightened Hiccup cringing next to his traitorous dragon. "Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile."
Hiccup gulped in fear and anticipation as the flaxen haired Valkyrie approached. He thought about escaping but quelled that false hope early. She would just catch him and be in an even worse temperament than she was now. He thought that it was ironic that the one girl he liked would be the one killing him. Gathering what wits he could, Hiccup fully stood up and started thinking of ways to placate his approaching death. Deciding on a plan of action he said "A-A-Astrid. Hey Astrid. Uhh… Hi Astrid." Not the most eloquent or placating, but that was all his impaired brain could produce. Apparently, fear not only makes Hiccup tremble, but less articulate as well. Astrid's demeanor didn't look amused in the slightest. But she DID throw her axe into the ground between Hiccup's legs.
"Hello, Hiccup. Is there anything in particular on your mind?" Anger seething out of her words and implied violence a promise if he didn't catch the hint. The once thoroughly engrossed crowd had disappeared at her approach earlier.
However, Toothless looked from his best friend to the girl that he liked. Toothless knew how dangerous she could be with her axe and knew that she was angry. So he backed away a little bit to see if Hiccup could calm her down. He sat on his haunches and watched what was about to unfold. "Wa-wa-well, I was going to come talk to you about something this morning." Hiccup chirped awkwardly.
"Oh really? You didn't think to come and tell me BEFORE I was bought like a slave!?" Astrid was steadily huffing in rage.
"I-I-I uhh… didn't know anything about it until last night. Dad sorta jumped me with it when we were having supper." Hiccup cringed and expected the usual response from her. When the pain didn't appear, he opened his eyes to see Astrid staring at him in mute confusion.
"Wait, so you didn't even know about it?"
"I was as shocked as you were, Astrid. Minus the violence, but still shocked. I didn't think dad would do that. I was hoping he was going to let me ask you on my own time."
Astrid suddenly stiffened as if struck by Thor himself. "Ask me on your own time? You were going to ask to marry me?" She took a step back, a small one, granted, but a step nonetheless.
Hiccup noticed and hurriedly added. "Well, yeah. Eventually. It wasn't going to be anytime soon. I mean, I had a ton of other things to ask first.. Could we start going out? Could we go out on dates together? Could you lay off the punches a little? Could you-."
"Hiccup, I get the picture." Astrid interrupted his rambling. She honestly didn't know how she felt with him talking like that. She had been furious with him earlier, which was fine. It was tried and true Viking feelings territory. She wanted to murder this little squirt and her father too for going behind her back like that. But to find out that he had nothing to do with it took all the anger out from underneath her. Then add the fact of how he was acting right now and she honestly had no idea what she was feeling. Her heart felt like her belly when it was full, and that was definitely not Viking feeling territory.
Toothless had finally seen the anger in the blonde vanish and saw that his best friend was a little worried about her. He saw the look of utter bewilderment and desperation flood across Hiccup's face. Now, there were very few times he saw Hiccup look this way and he didn't like it. In fact, both Vikings reeked with fear. Not that one of them would ever admit it, but Toothless could smell it. So Toothless did what any good friend would do. He wanted to get rid of the fear and comfort both the boy and the girl. He walked over to the middle ground between the two then coughed to get their attention. They both looked at him and only had time to gasp as he stood up, opened both his wings and engulfed the two in them, snapping the two Vikings into an impromptu hug that shut out the world around them.
It's amazing what you discover when you can't use one of the most important senses you have. For example, Hiccup found out that no matter how tough and sometimes painful Astrid's fists were, the rest of her was unbelievably soft. He felt sorry that she basically got thrown into a walking mass of elbows and knees that he knew he had to be. At the same time, Hiccup realized the position he was in and felt intense heat rise up his face. "Uhh… bud? You can let us out now." Hiccup's voice cracked with how nervous he suddenly felt. He heard a distinctive whine and huff that obviously meant they were staying like this for a while. "Oh, that's just great!"
"What?" This had to be one of the most embarrassing things that Astrid had ever done before. Her cheeks lit up almost to luminosity and she felt like punching something. Of course, closeness of the only boy in Berk that she even had a mild interest in wasn't helping her fury. But she shook her head of those thoughts and focused on whatever Hiccup was saying.
"He's not going to let us out for a while."
"What? Why not?"
"He's going to sleep." Hiccup sighed again.
"You're kidding."
"Nope, I'm afraid we're stuck."
"Let's just wake him up." Astrid went to tense up and elbow the reptile until Hiccup stopped her.
"Good luck waking him up. I've done everything short of beating him with a hammer. I couldn't get him to open his eyes."
"Well, we could pry ourselves out of here." Astrid was getting irritated with Toothless more and more now that she realized the situation that he put them in.
"Uhh… Astrid, I wouldn't move aroun-." Astrid's struggling and maneuvering caused Toothless to shift to a more comfortable position, which involved crushing Astrid against Hiccup and rolling over, causing Astrid to lie on top of Hiccup. Hiccup held his breath as even more of his crush came into contact with him. He was so dead, he knew it. There was no walking away from this. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, death by incredibly soft yet extremely violent Astrid Hofferson.
Astrid was thinking along the same lines as Hiccup, but the inability to move her arms, which were forced to either side of his ribs, caused her frustrations to gather in a deep sigh. "Tell anyone about this and you're dead." Hiccup nodded uncomfortably. "So if we are stuck here, in the middle of town I might add, how long until he lets us out?"
"I have no idea. Every time he does this with me, I'm stuck until morning."
"Great. My day couldn't possibly get any better." Astrid stopped and a chill ran down her spine as she realized how much like Hiccup she was sounding.
Meanwhile, Hiccup was gathering his courage to confront Astrid about the real reason he showed up. Finally, after concluding that he couldn't be more dead than he was right now, he cleared his throat. "Astrid, since we're kind of stuck, I wanted to talk to you about this uhh… thing."
"It's marriage, Hiccup."
"Yeah, that. Uhh, as I was saying, uhh.."
"I know you didn't have a clue. You must be so excited about it. Well, let me tell you, I don't care how much you were looking forward to how many children I'd give you. I'll kill you before that happens. I'm too young to be married. There is too much that I want to do before I get married. I'm not ready to become someone's housewife and mother. I want to have adventures and take Stormfly to different islands and explore the seas. And getting married would take all that away. I..I.." Astrid was ranting as her fears came forth in a flurry of words.
Hiccup heard how afraid she was. Not that he would ever tell her that, but it gave him the resolve he needed to interrupt her. In possibly the boldest move that would ever mark his life, he hugged Astrid's form to himself and started talking. "Alright. Then we won't get married. You're important to me, Astrid. I don't want to force you into anything. I want you to be happy and if marrying me would make you unhappy, then you won't. I'll talk to dad or something and I'll make sure it doesn't happen. I want to discover new dragons, tame them, fly Toothless with you and everyone else. I came to tell you that today. I just couldn't figure out how to say it. So don't worry Astrid. I'll take care of yo-…it. I'll take care of it."
Astrid was caught completely off guard. She didn't know how to react. When he started talking, she felt like skinning him alive for grabbing her. Then, he had to keep talking and now her heart hurt. Her eyes burned like she had cut an onion or something. The things this boy did to her made her so angry and confused, yet oddly comforting. She still wanted to beat him, but maybe he deserved something else afterwards.
Never being a woman of great patience, Astrid decided to act immediately before Hiccup decided to screw up more. So she drew back her head and brought it down on his quickly in a short, but painful head butt. "OW! Ok, I deserved that bu-." Hiccup was yet again interrupted by Astrid as she lowered her head again, but this time to stifle his moving lips with her own. Well, that was the plan anyway, but it turns out, complete darkness can mess with your aim and she kissed Hiccup on nose instead.
"Thanks for understanding, Hiccup." Hiccup's face fell slack with shock and his eyes drooped in a daze at the area in front of him. Confusion slightly contorted his features, but it was given the least amount of attention. Unfortunately, his reverie was broken as a random idea seemed to hit him from nowhere. Hiccup shook his head looked upward, even though he couldn't see anything. He sighed and realized how stupid he had been in times past when Toothless did this to him alone.
"I'm an idiot. I think I know how to get out of here."
Astrid was slightly confused and embarrassed. She had tried kissing him for a third time and missed, and then after what she thought was an awkward pause, Hiccup randomly jumped to a solution on how to get out of here. Boys were weird. "Ok… no argument on the idiot thing, but how do we get out?"
"Remember how all dragons, well most dragons, have a sweet spot around their jaws? I think if we can scratch Toothless there we can get out."
"Then what are we waiting for?"
"There is a slight problem…"
"What?"
"His head is a bit further up than I can reach. He has my feet, err… foot caught in between his hind legs. You will have to do it."
"My arms are stuck behind you."
"I can move my arms so you can reach up, but that's not the problem."
"Well, what is the problem?"
"Well, you're um… on top of me and uhh… you need to go further up.. and err.. you're a girl, so…"
Astrid saw where he was going. Her face lit up a very peculiar shade of red again before she grit her teeth. "We have to get out of here. Turn your head and close your eyes or I will feed you to Stormfly."
Hiccup gulped and nodded his head before lifting his arms and turning his head while closing his eyes. Astrid started to scoot against Hiccup and tried to get within arm's reach of wherever Toothless' jaw was. Unfortunately for poor Hiccup, he felt every single move she made and it wasn't helping keep his mind exactly pure. So he started reciting numbers and equations that he had come up with while building things at the forge. When her well bound chest finally brushed up against his head, he let out a small gasp. Thankfully, her spiked skirt was doing wonders with distracting him from impure thoughts.
Astrid finally found Toothless' sweet spot and scratched. That was all it took for the giant reptile to lose all motor function and went limp, releasing his Viking body pillow. Astrid and Hiccup tumbled out of his wings and rolled to a stop with Astrid on top. Unfortunately, their immediate feeling of victory and elation was thoroughly squashed as a wooden peg leg stopped in their line of sight. "Well, it's good to see you two getting along so well."
There you go guys. I am sorry it took me so long to post, but you can thank my younger brother for keeping me in line and writing for you guys. I am extremely thankful for the reviews that I have gotten so far and I truly appreciate your constructive criticism. On that note, let me just add that this story takes place after the movie and doesn't necessarily include the tv series. I haven't seen all of them and I don't want to miss something important concerning it in my story if I included it. Still, I appreciate all of your support and will continue to write this until someone sentences my execution for marring the writing world with my ideas. I don't know when the next update will be, but reviews help me along a lot. I find inspiration in them, knowing that someone took the time to read my story and leave me a word of advice or encouragement. I can't thank you guys enough. You're awesome. So please continue to do so and I'll see you next time!