Here's chapter 31, in which we have some wholesome Ruffnut and Astrid interactions and some soup! I really, really enjoyed writing! The last scene of this is one of my favourite scenes I've written recently :D
Chapter 31 - Sacred Moments
"Hey, Ostrich," a very familiar voice floated through Astrid's foggy consciousness. Slowly, blinking in the bright sunlight, she opened her eyes to squint at the source of the voice.
Ruffnut's grinning face came into focus. Astrid's lips broke out into a lopsided smile at the sight of her.
"Hey," she rasped and slowly tried to scoot up in her hospital bed. Ruffnut reached behind her and adjusted the pillows for her, so she'd be more comfortable.
"Not gonna lie to you, dude," Ruffnut announced. "But you look awful. Absolutely fucking terrible."
Astrid laughed, still trying to prop herself up. "Fuck you," she chuckled through her feeble attempts at getting up. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ruffnut and Hiccup exchange a wordless look and within a heartbeat, she had both of them on each side of her, pulling her up into a sitting position.
"Thanks," Astrid croaked and gladly accepted the glass of water Hiccup handed her. As she took the glass, she saw the plant on her bedside table and shot Ruffnut a questioning look.
"Oh, that's Frank the Snake Plant, you're welcome," Ruffnut explained nonchalantly and then, after Hiccup shot her a puzzled look, clarified, "I don't get Astrid plants that die. And snake plants purify the air and they're meant to attract health, thought you could use some of that."
Astrid chuckled. "I really could. Thanks, Ruff. I love him."
"Plus, you don't need to water him often. Actually, it's better if you forget about him, knowing you."
She lightly elbowed Astrid's shoulder. Astrid's laugh transformed into a violent coughing fit. Hiccup's hand was immediately on her back, drawing comforting circles.
"I'm sorry, my love, that's the phlegm, it has to come out." He held a paper tray under her chin. "Come on, spit. You got it."
Hiccup caught Ruffnut's gaze. She stood off to the side, arms crossed, with a look on her face he couldn't quite decipher. Her eyes were soft and full of adoration as she looked at Astrid, and there seemed to be a portion of relief marking her face as she watched them, her eyes trained on Hiccup as Astrid coughed.
Hiccup pulled out a tissue from the holder on the nightstand and gently wiped Astrid's mouth, offering her some more water to get the taste out of her mouth.
"There you go. Good job, my love."
Astrid grimaced and wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her hospital gown. "I'm being really brave about this," she mumbled, face still crumpled up. Ruffnut nodded enthusiastically.
"You can say that again. You know what, that reminds me-" she got up to grab her purse, rummaging around for a second before she pulled out a folded-over piece of paper. "I meant to tell you they wrote about you! In the paper!"
They both ogled at her, both speechless for a second.
"You're kidding," Astrid croaked then, grabbing the paper from Ruffnut.
"No, I'm serious, have a look!"
All three of them leaned over the newspaper article Ruffnut had cut out in an apparent rush, jagged edges of rushed scissors gracing it.
Local teacher rescues two school children from fire at Berk Secondary School
Local teacher Astrid Hofferson (24) gave fire services a scare when she pulled out two school children from the fire at Berk's secondary school this past Thursday.
'It was terrifying,' said Headmistress Camilla Bog in a comment. 'Fire services were on their way and we knew we still had students and two teachers in there, who thankfully all made it out with the fire response team's help. Once they arrived, we saw Astrid just come out of the building with two of our students we'd been missing. It was just incredible! I'm so glad everyone made it out safely and that there was relatively little damage done to the school. '
"No way," Astrid muttered, setting down the paper, and foregoing the rest of the article. "I'm in the paper. Surely not. You guys are seeing this, right?"
"Yup," Ruffnut confirmed cheerfully and plopped down next to her, making the hospital bed squeak. "You better believe it. I'm gonna frame this and hang it up everywhere so I can brag about you. "
In the end, they had discharged Astrid after four days instead of the initially suggested three, just to be safe. Her lung infection had cleared up quite well so far, and the fever had gone down just after three days.
Hiccup had taken her home and was currently in her kitchen, fulfilling his doting boyfriend duties quite well. Every now and then, he came back into the bedroom, where Astrid was propped up on the bed, already a tea in hand, and asked things like, "Are you sure you don't want a snack before dinner?", "Are you comfortable?" and "Do you want another tea? I can put one on for you now."
Every time, Astrid lovingly declined, sometimes questioning how he was able to come up with so many different questions and scenarios at once, but then added every single question he asked her to her ever-growing list of reasons she loved him.
He was making her soup for dinner, despite the more favourable temperatures outside. She didn't mind. Her throat still felt quite raw and sore, so she appreciated any warm liquids, even if that meant not eating any solid food for the next few days.
After twenty minutes of hearing Hiccup clanging around in the kitchen, Astrid sighed and decided that this was stupid. She threw the book she'd been trying to focus on back onto her cluttered nightstand, flung back her covers and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, slipping her feet into her slippers. For good measure, she decided to grab her dressing gown and tightly wrapped herself up - partly to avoid Hiccup's concern over her potentially getting cold. She smiled to herself as she made her way through the hallway. From the kitchen, she could hear Hiccup singing to himself. She couldn't quite make out the words but recognised the melody from somewhere. She quietly opened the door and sneakily watched him through the opening. Hiccup was alternating between chopping up potatoes and dancing around her tiny kitchen, his figure drenched in the sunlight that poured in from the kitchen window that encompassed the eating nook.
"So this is me swallowing my pride, standing in front of you, saying I'm sorry for that ni-ight," Hiccup sang loudly to himself, knife in hand, spinning around and Astrid couldn't help but laugh when he wiggled his butt. Hiccup stopped mid-motion and spun around.
His face lit up when he saw her standing at the door.
"Hey, As– sorry – Ostrich," he said with a smirk, and Astrid laughed.
"I see you're having a bit of a nostalgic dance party."
"Oh yes," Hiccup said, his face overly earnest, "Nothing takes me back to my late teens as much as songs from 2011."
Astrid laughed and sat down on the banquette bench by the window. "Specifically 2011?" He shrugged and went back to chopping his onion.
"Thereabouts. Probably just because those were my angstiest and most emo days."
"For me that was, like, fifteen to seventeen. And I'm not sure I'd call Taylor Swift's Speak Now album emo."
"I mean, kind of, at least lyrically. Okay, fine - to be fair, fifteen to seventeen were bad, not gonna lie to you. Pretty much everything between fifteen and, like, twenty- when did I meet you? Twenty-three, yeah."
Astrid chuckled and wrapped her arms around him from behind and crooned in a sing-song voice, "N'aww, you love me."
"Of course I do!" Hiccup spun around and cupped her face in his hands, his toothy, crooked grin adorning his freckled face. "You made my life a million times better."
Into their kiss, Astrid mumbled, "You did, too.".
They only parted because something seemed to be burning. Hiccup jumped and jumped back in front of the hob, exclaiming something to the effect of, "Fuck, my onions!". Astrid grinned, remarking that this was the first time he'd actually burned something while cooking as she sat down on the banquette, which was warm from the sun and watched him frantically stir and add water to the pot after turning the heat off. Steam was fogging up the kitchen, and he ran a hand through his ruffled hair.
"What are you making?" Astrid asked him, perhaps just to hear him talk. He answered, and she was distracted by his voice. The way his shoulders moved when he talked, the expressions he made, the gap between his two front teeth, his hands, always moving. Visions of those slender, calloused fingers in other places distracted her further, memories of the way he touched her tenderly, then with fervour.
The soft touch of the same hand on hers shook her out of her reverie, his touch still almost electric every time. She blinked up at him.
"I said, do you want some bread with the soup?" Hiccup asked, and his face was so earnest and full of love it almost threatened to overwhelm her like a wave crashing against her unprepared shore.
"I love you so much," she blurted out and his face softened. Her eyes fluttered shut when his lips pressed the whisper of a kiss on her forehead.
"I'll take that as a yes," he murmured and tucked her hair behind her ear, making her shiver despite the summer sun shining down on her spot on the banquette. She watched in an almost-daze as he continued working away at their soup, and she thought back to her lonely nights in the kitchen, coming home from her old job at the bar at 2, sometimes 3 am and only having the energy to boil the kettle for whatever instant crap she had in her cupboard. The evenings she'd been forced by circumstances to cook for her and her uncle. How lonely both of these times in her life had been. The only rays of light had been her uncle's girlfriend, Lana, who had taken the knife out of Astrid's clumsy grip with gentle hands and kind eyes, the only affection close enough to parental love she'd ever known. How sad her eyes had been. She remembered the evening Ruffnut had come over to hers for the first time after she'd moved to Berk for her, and how peaceful Astrid had finally felt, sitting in her kitchen together, eating the meal they'd made, despite having burnt most ingredients.
And here was Hiccup, cooking for her without request for almost a year now. He'd never asked her to, and she knew he could tell there was more to her aversion to cooking than just inability or a general dislike, more to her frequency in purchasing ready-made meals and instant noodles than she'd care to admit.
He never pressed and never complained he was doing all the cooking. Of course, she knew he just honestly liked it. But there was something about this quiet commitment that closed up her throat. There was a steady and honest kind of love in his actions that she'd experienced very few times. Perhaps, the only real exception had been Ruffnut.
Hiccup's gentle touch found her face, green eyes searching for hers.
"Hey, you okay?" he asked her softly and Astrid nodded, pulling him down for a kiss. He slightly lost his footing but grabbed onto the banquette, stumbling closer to her, his hand braced on top of the bench, their foreheads touching, one of his knees next to her legs on the seat, Astrid's hand on his heartbeat. His breath was hot on her skin, their lips almost touching. They looked at each other, almost surprised by their sudden closeness. Then, within a heartbeat, Hiccup closed the short distance between them and kissed her with the fervour of someone who had been starving for days.
When he broke away from her, it was only to whisper, "I wasted so much time not kissing you when we met,", his voice low and rough, and it sounded almost like a confession, like he thought she hadn't known, and then his hands cupped her face, and she pulled him closer, her hand fisting into the shirt he was wearing. Hiccup gently brushed his fingers over her freckled cheeks, then her chin, jaw, her neck, down to her shoulders, tracing the lines of her collarbones, gently pushing her dressing gown aside.
Astrid's sudden and violent coughing fit drove them apart. Immediately, Hiccup brought a glass of water over, kneeling next to her, openly alarmed concern written all across his face. Astrid held on to him, her fingers painfully digging into his arm, but Hiccup couldn't have cared less.
She took a shaking sip of water and slowly but surely, the coughs subsided. "You okay?" he whispered, his free hand stroking her hair. Astrid only nodded and forced more water down her throat. Her chest felt like it was on fire, the flames licking up into her throat, making everything burn. The water somewhat soothed it, but only slightly so.
"I think it's time we do some more inhalations," she heard Hiccup say softly and tried to take a deep breath, which only triggered another coughing fit. He stayed there for her to cling on to, and when she had stopped, he led her back into her bedroom to repeat her hourly ritual. The doctor had recommended for her to do the inhalations every few hours, which, of course, Hiccup had taken to mean every hour. Astrid had never complained, though. She could very much feel the positive effects the increased frequency had on her lungs. Relief flooded through her as she started, and by the time she was done, the tickling ache in her chest had subsided again. She shot Hiccup a grateful smile and earned a cheerful forehead kiss in return.
"I'm just going to finish up your soup, baby," he whispered and kissed her once more. "You rest up a bit more. Diner's going to be ready in 15 minutes, okay? I'll call you into the kitchen when I've served up."
With that, he left Astrid back in the care of her soft, fluffy blanket and her book. She watched him leave and once again, was hit by the feeling of home. The weight of it brought tears to her eyes, which she quickly wiped away with her sleeve, somehow embarrassed, even though she was alone. She wondered if she'd ever find the words to thank him for becoming her true home. Perhaps, one day, she would.
It had to have been hours after midnight when Hiccup startled up from sleep, the nightmare still dangling off the edges of his subconscious. Cold, stinging panic was clawing its way out through his throat, his t-shirt soaked with sweat as he sat up, his hand shooting out to the spot on the bed next to him. Empty. A thin, desperate pant escaped him, and for a terrifying moment, he could do nothing but sit in bed, his mind replaying the moment over and over again, agonisingly realistic.
The school, was engulfed in flames, burning down, the fire consuming it fully, and he knew Astrid was still inside, she hadn't made it out and he'd been too late, the entrance collapsing before he could have hoped to make his way inside-
"I'm sorry, did I wake you?"
Her still-raspy voice immediately shook him out of his horrified stupor. And there she was, standing in the doorway of the bedroom wrapped tightly into her fluffy dressing gown, a steaming mug of tea in her hand, an apologetic smile adorning her soft face as she stepped closer. Her figure was only illuminated by the faint streetlights that were trickling through the blinds, throwing stripes of yellow light onto her skin, and making her hair glow. All Hiccup could do was stare at her, his mouth dry, the panic not yet subsided. He swallowed and closed his eyes, trying desperately to calm himself.
'It's a bit dumb,' a part of his brain commented. 'to be this worried still. You're overreacting.'
Still, his heart was still beating up to his throat.
Almost like a follow-up to both her question and his brain, he jumped up, stalked across the room, gently took the mug from her hand, put it onto his bedside table, and locked her into his arms.
A small sound of surprise escaped the back of Astrid's throat at his sudden movements, but her arms went around his middle as she relaxed into the embrace.
The young woman chuckled lightly. "Did something happen while I was in the kitchen?"
"Sorry," he breathed into her skin, his eyes closed as he inhaled deeply. She only smelled of sleep and warmth now, all traces of smoke gone, no longer could he smell the ash on her as he did when she'd collapsed into his arms during the fire. "Had a nightmare. I'm sorry."
She pulled back and felt a small sting in her chest at his expression. He smiled apologetically and tried to pull away, so her hands rested firmly on his chest, stilling him. She knew what he was referring to, and it broke her heart. She herself had yet to dream of the events of the day of the fire, but a small part of her knew she would wait for the dreams to come for a long time. The fact that he was dreaming about the day taking a different turn for the worse made her stomach turn. Despite her sudden onset of nausea, she raised her hand to his jaw and stroked his stubbly chin.
"I'm not going anywhere," she said, her voice but a rasp whisper. "I'm alright. I'm okay. Nobody got hurt. Everyone got out on time."
He nodded slowly, his eyes flitting to hers shortly. Astrid pulled him back into an embrace, her hands smoothing comforting circles over his back.
"It's alright, Hiccup," she murmured, her voice muffled by his shoulder, and she realised she didn't mind comforting him. It seemed strange - she should probably be more shaken by it than she was. Perhaps it would sneak up on her at some point, as time went on. Right now, with him so distraught in her arms, she knew he needed comfort far more than she did. He nodded again, and she felt him shaking still, but he slowly exhaled as his arms clung to her back in return, his heartbeat against her slowly calming down again. The soft fabric of her dressing gown felt warm and comforting against his skin. Hiccup sighed. He felt pathetic for having to seek her comfort for something that had been more traumatic for her than it should have been for him, especially considering his profession. He hadn't expected this to have shaken him up the way it did. Burning shame travelled up to his face as he hid his expression from her.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice muffled against her shoulder. "You shouldn't have to comfort me about this. I feel fucking stupid. I should be comforting you."
Her whisper was almost stern when she answered. "Don't you dare. You've been taking care of me for days. And you don't have to apologise for worrying. Okay? You don't need to apologise to me when you're worried about something. Especially when it's about me. Ever."
All he could do was nod now, to stop the tears that had started pooling in his eyes from spilling over. His grip around her tightened.
"I was so terrified, Astrid," he whispered. "I was so scared of losing you. I know that doesn't compare to-"
"Stop it," she breathed, one of her hands stroking his hair now. He knew she was aware he was crying.
"You don't have to compare this. I can't imagine what that was like for you. And just because I was also scared shitless doesn't mean you're not allowed to be scared, too."
Hiccup released a shaking breath and slowly loosened his grip around her. "I love you," was all he said then, and desperately tried to avoid her gaze when she pulled back to look at him. Warm, delicate fingers came up to gently wipe the tears from his cheek, her expression so full of love it almost made him cry more.
"I love you, too," she rasped and caught another tear as it fell. "And, for the record, I'm really glad I got out of there. I'd have hated to miss out on life with you."
Tears were glistening in her own eyes now, and as her throat was closing up, she thought, And here it goes. The realisation she'd been waiting for, hitting her full force.
It was his turn now; he softly kissed the tears from her face, her hands now fisting into his sweat-soaked t-shirt as she whispered, "I'm so glad you were there. I was so scared."
His arms engulfed her again, and Astrid rested her head on his shoulder and, for the first time completely by choice, allowed herself to cry freely. Her sobs were swallowed by the darkness around them and his shoulder, steady and warm, his grip tightening on her as he held her, swaying her gently. After a while, she'd calmed down, and he was still cradling her, almost like a child, and she realised she'd never felt this safe ever before in her life.
The words hung on her tongue in that moment.
He pulled back, looking at her like she was the best thing he'd ever laid his eyes on and at the same time wondering how he'd found her. Astrid smiled at him, dried and fresh tears still glistening on her face.
She blinked. The words had got lost somewhere.
Others had found their way over her lips. "I love you."
This was the second time she'd said the words with that expression on her face, and while Hiccup couldn't really have known what it meant to her, Astrid hoped that it would be enough for now.
"Shall we go back to sleep?" he asked her after a while, pressing a soft kiss on the crown of her head. Astrid hummed, reluctantly almost. She didn't want him to stop holding her like this.
"Can you hold me until I fall asleep?" she asked into the darkness and felt his smile in her hair. He nodded against her and gently took off her dressing gown. It slid to the floor, barely making a sound as it hit the hardwood floor.
Hiccup took her hand and led her back to the bed, flung her covers aside, and crawled in after her. Their gazes met in the dim light as he opened his arms for her to crawl into. They shared a smile, a kiss then, and another whisper.
"I love you."
The last thing Astrid felt was Hiccup's arms around her and his lips pressing a soft kiss on her temple before she drifted off to sleep, warm in arms that held her like they were never going to let go again.
[screeching] let me know what you think! I hope you enjoyed this one :D also i hope you've had a cool week and have a lovely weekend ahead of you! Are you feeling Christmassy yet? I'm not, because this will be the first Christmas without my best friend, Eve, so it'll be a hard one. Anyway, sending u a hug if you've not had one today! if this time of year is difficult for you, sending you another hug! Stay safe and warm, everyone 3