Estrid shut her door briskly behind her, turning the lock until she heard a short 'click.' She'd set Hiksti up relatively quickly on the couch, going to grab a few spare blankets from the hall and pulling out any shards that she could find still embedded in the cushions. She'd pushed him down by the shoulders and ignored his indignant look as he picked up her slippers that still lay on the floor.
She left him with a motion that she hoped he realized meant 'stay,' really, they needed to figure out a better way to communicate, and hoped he didn't run away in the middle of the night. If he did, then, well, he wouldn't be her problem anymore. But as it stood, she had to get a few things in order.
Estrid sat down at her desk over some of her laundry and pushed aside the clutter, some of it falling onto the floor in her hurry, and pulled out a laptop, which she flipped open and turned on with one tap to the power button. Her phone, she pulled from its charger and hard pressed the power button on the side, letting the glow from both screens illuminate the darkness of her bedroom
Her computer screen loaded first, and she opened Google, searching 'What to do if someone comes out of your TV?.'
No.
Her phone finished powering on, and she unlocked it with one hand, quickly typing on her passcode and pulling up her contacts list.
'Someone out of TV.'
No.
'Fictional character in real life' and 'fictional character into real world' Just pulled up a series of celebrity lists. And comics. Damnit.
None of the search results were relevant. Which was a given, but it was worth a try. Stuff like this always worked out in horror movies, with some kind of obscure demon-worshiping old school forum coming to the rescue.
Estrid glanced at her phone and went to her contacts' favorites, pressing on her mom's icon and on call repeatedly. If anyone, her mom was always the quickest to pick up. The phone rang for what felt like hours in the silence. She got up and started pacing her room. Come on, come on…!
Fuck, It went to voicemail. Estrid dialed her again for the same result.
She stopped by the computer again as her phone rang for the third time and dropped into her chair again. No dice; she tried calling her father to the same result. Perfect. She was mid-crisis and they were completely unavailable. It was fine. She'd figure everything out on her own.
She googled 'Hiksti' instead. That taught her that it was the Icelandic spelling of 'Hiccup.'
The actual Old Norse spelling of the word in English letters was 'Hixti.' 'Hixtr' was another variation of the word, as was 'Hikste,' which was Norwegian, supposedly. 'Hixti' was the spelling Hiccup would have probably meant if he could understand any English. Quietly, Estrid decided she preferred 'Hiksti.'
Well, shit.
Was it really Hiccup? She had a certifiable fictional character sitting in her living room. The implications of that made her a bit uncomfortable.
It didn't look like there was any real way to communicate with him either, a lot of the English to Old Norse translation engines she found still coughed out English, but with a weird runic font. She was pretty sure that adding more angles to the letter E wouldn't help her ask Hiccup what the hell was going on.
Upon closer inspection a lot of the more reliable sites she found translated an early form of Icelandic. Apparently Icelandic was the closest related language to Old Norse, but she wasn't sure if that meant that the two languages would be similar enough to communicate with.
She did find a few dictionaries that seemed promising, as well as a few posts online talking about the Old Norse language, which she might have to try using later. If her accent didn't screw with the words too bad. Or maybe she should just try and teach Hiccup English?
Estrid buried her head in her arms. It was 2 AM now, she'd spent about four hours online. She hoped she would be able to keep it all in her brain at least until morning. She should have taken notes.
Any adrenaline she had that had kept her running earlier had since gone and she felt utterly exhausted, like she could collapse at a moment's notice, the stress and the late hour weighing her down. She hardly noticed when her eyes slid shut and her head fell gently onto the table.
-Estrid stumbled down a worn path, a woven basket in hand which seemed much too large for her small arms. She was headed towards a clearing where she knew a small patch of bushes were rooted. They grew a bunch of wild berries, which her mother had asked from her for the morning's porridge, and so she chose the biggest basket she could manage and began her hiking.
She was quite cheery because there had been a small bushel that Estrid knew that held a nice cluster of bilberries which she intended to take for herself.
She paused before a large section of underbrush which she knew lay before her destination and set her basket down. She peered around it to the left, making sure the way was dragon-free and safe for her to travel. Since she had been there last, a few weeds had sprouted in the grasses, standing proudly, and much of the berries that had grown had already been taken.
Little Estrid heard a bit of rustling from the right side, and ducked back into the safety of the shrubs, crouching near her basket. When she heard no stomping or scratching, she deemed it safe to peer around the side again, spotting a small head of blonde hair. A moment longer and the figure shifted to reveal Astrid, a little girl in a viking helmet with two large braids marching through the clearing with a small basket of her own and a wooden sword strapped to her waist.
Instead of revealing herself, Estrid shrunk in on herself further and scooted backwards. She decided to wait until Astrid had taken her share and left.
While Estrid was sure Astrid had no idea who she was, Estrid knew her very well. Of course she would- Astrid was the only person her special new best friend ever seemed to talk about.
She wasn't sure how to feel about the other girl. Astrid was a driven thing, when she asked about her, Estrid's father said that she took a lot after her Uncle Finn, and was quite the promising little warrior.
The two had very similar names, which Estrid didn't like that much- the only difference, really, was in their chosen pronunciations.
While Estrid had a head of black hair, slightly tan skin and was very. very shy. Astrid was very blonde and pale with a strong personality, the picture-perfect little Viking girl. And she could speak. Though she was sure that no child could write as well as Estrid. She'd had to learn quite fast, and her father had given her many praises for it. More than anyone else got, as she boasted to her mother frequently.
She wondered if her new friend would rather be friends with Astrid than her. It was only natural, Estrid thought detachedly.
Estrid jumped to her feet as the bushes in front of her rustled wildly and Astrid climbed through the fronds with her basket and her short wooden sword in one hand, pointed forwards. They stared at each other for a moment. Estrid puffed out her chest slightly in a show of faux confidence and hoped the other girl couldn't tell how uneasy she was. She wondered if Astrid noticed her friend just as much as he noticed her.
The other girl spared barely a moment more in her presence once she deemed Estrid harmless. Her face fell into a bored expression, a little annoyed, and her sword arm dropped. Astrid then turned and carried on back towards the village. Once she disappeared from view, Estrid picked up her basket. The tension bled from her form now that she was alone again, and she walked into the clearing with a small bounce to her step.
She trekked past most of the bushes, searching for the right one, her bush. Her head was barely tall enough to peer over the top of her basket. She smiled wide when she found it, and set her basket aside so she could sit on her knees. Estrid made short work of the branches in front of her, eagerly pushing them aside. Oh. Estrid's face fell. Her berries were gone.
-Small shafts of light filtered themselves gently from her window, falling over Estrid's form gently. She stirred slightly, still drowsy from the night before. …From the night before? She groaned. What a dream, there must have been something in her mac and cheese, because … There was a thump from the direction of the living room, and muffled yelp.
Estrid groaned and lifted her head, wincing as her neck protested against the movement. She really shouldn't have fallen asleep at her desk. She pushed against it, causing the wheels on her chair to roll her towards the door. She leaned her head on it for a moment before standing up and kicking her chair back into place.
The hall was chilly, which was odd for the summertime. Estrid had left the air conditioning on overnight by accident. She walked down the halls of the apartment, floorboards creaking.
The living room was the same as it was last night, the walls were strategically disguised by picture frames, pile of DVDs by the TV, one cabinet door hanging on by a single faulty hinge. Estrid looked down to see Hiccup sprawled face-first on the floor in almost the same way he was last night post-TV ejection. A blanket fell down with him, now tangled in his legs. His prosthetic was leaning against one leg of the coffee table. How was this guy not freezing?
Her feet made dull noises against the wood of the floor, some of the floorboards creaking under her weight. As she approached, Hiccup mumbled something incoherently before rolling over.
"Good morning to you, too," Estrid said sluggishly, sticking out her tongue, "Am I going to have to hit you with my slipper again?" At the sound of her voice, he looked up at her, squinting. He still had some heavy eyebags, and it didn't look like he processed anything before he set his head down again. It only took a moment for his breathing to slow and he lay completely still, asleep again. Guess he didn't get that much rest, either.
Estrid stood there for a moment wondering what she should do. It was time for breakfast. What did Vikings eat? If she heated up a few bowls of instant ramen, would it kill him?
"You ever use a stove before?" She huffed at Hiccup. He grumbled and glanced at her again, before startling. Maybe, probably not. At least not a modern one.
Hiccup slowly pulled himself into a sitting position, leaning on the couch with one arm. It left a brown smear on the cushions. Estrid tried to keep a straight face, but her nose wrinkled slightly; Hiccup stank pretty bad. Like sulfur and chickenshit. She really hoped what was on the couch wasn't what she thought it was.
Hiccup followed her line of sight before pulling his arm back to himself and looking up at her sheepishly. Ouch, she didn't mean for him to notice. But they would definitely have to deal with that later.
Speaking of laters and nows, breakfast. Breakfast or bath time? Hiccup ran a hand through his hair, and little flakes of crust fell out. Estrid clenched her jaw to keep herself from gagging. Never mind the later- Bath time. It was bath time. She probably needed to show him how to use the toilet anyway. The shower first, though, because she actually didn't want to do the toilet thing.
Estrid motioned for him to get up, and walked back towards the hall, expecting him to follow. When he didn't hear him following behind her, she turned back around to see Hiccup drowsily reaching for his prosthetic, accidentally pushing it and causing it to roll in between the two of them. Oh, oops. My bad.
Estrid bent down to grab for it and walked up to Hiccup. The textured, worn wood grain was clenched tightly in her hands, fingers lightly protested against the weight. It was a little heavier than she'd expected.
She should really have been holding it with both hands, or at least not by the base, because her fingers were starting to lose their grip. She was too stubborn to use both at this point, though.
She handed it to Hiccup just in time, feeling it slip right from her fingers as he reached his hand out. He started searching around for something behind him with one hand as she did that, only half-paying attention to what she'd been doing.
Estrid wondered what happened to his fur vest and his waist wrap. She stood awkwardly in place, waiting for him to get sorted.
Hiccup then pulled up the blanket and grabbed his boot, which Estrid missed earlier. He looked inside and pulled out a short and worn length of rope, pulling the prosthetic into the pants of his leg and wrapping together his leg and the base of his prosthetic, pulling on it tightly. All the time he was sneaking glances at Estrid, trying to be casual by looking away but failing.
Estrid stopped watching him, pretending to examine the TV and rubbed her neck, hoping to disperse some of the permeating uncomfortableness. She should have just leaned against the armrest of the couch. Or she could back up a bit, maybe that would help?
As she started scooting back, her attention was drawn back towards Hiccup by a snap and a curse. His rope broke. Ouch.
Hiccup tried in vain to attach his prosthetic to his leg again, trying to tie it with less loops, trying to tie the knot smaller with the larger of the pieces he had left and attempting to use both, but it wasn't working out for him. His prosthetic dropped every time he tried to lift up his leg. Estrid, at one point, held her hand out in an offer to help with tying knots, but Hiccup shook his head 'no,' so she figured he would rather she not. Poor guy.
After deciding she'd seen enough, Estrid stood up and offered him her hand again to help him up. Hiccup let go of the rope and his metal leg, sighing and clasped her own firmly. His hands were warm and calloused. His skin felt slightly dry. She'd have to introduce him to a bottle of lotion soon.
Hiccup used her hand and the table to help pull himself completely upright, meaning Estrid still had to strain backwards to help lift her share of him. She needed to hit the gym or something soon, really, he wasn't that heavyset of a guy.
Hiccup shook his leg, completely dislodging his prosthetic from his pants leg and hopped forward a few feet. Estrid moved so she was under his left arm. Hiccup seemed a little bit surprised. They were both stiff and the awkwardness from earlier hadn't dissipated, but they made it work. Was I not supposed to do that?
Hiccup let off a lot of body heat, Estrid noticed, which was probably natural for someone who lived in a colder climate year-round. It was nice though, having someone leaning against her side. Estrid didn't get a lot of physical contact, so she took a moment to savor it despite the grime.
Once the moment passed, she acted as a crutch and a guide down the hall of the apartment. They stopped just before the door to the bathroom and she grabbed the handle to lightly push it open. The door swung towards the wall and connected with the metal stopper softly.
Now that they were here, Estrid was at a bit of a crossroads. What to explain first? How much did she really have to explain? She could go straight for the shower, or something else, but in the end she decided to start small with the sink. More for her sake than his.
She guided them so they were by the counter, and she slowly eased herself out from under his arm, still sticking close by him in case he lost his balance. She looked up at Hiccup. He had leaned forward on the counter and was staring at his reflection in the mirror.
Estrid made sure his eyes were on her hands by patting on the metal handles of the sink. He tilted his head down to watch her closely as she turned on the cold water, letting it run down the drain. Hiccup raised an eyebrow and ran the fingertips of his left hand under the stream, before flipping the water faucet on and off.
"Yeah, pretty cool, right?" Estrid as she reached past Hiccup, "Pretty sure only the Romans had this. Welcome to the future." She grabbed the soap bottle and brought it back over to her.
She held her palm out with one hand, waving it slightly so that he knew to give her one of his and left a healthy glob of soap in his palm. Thankfully, he was able to take it from there. She winced as the grime washed off his hands, turning the water a light brown for a moment. Gross.
After he was done, Estrid moved under Hiccup's arm again and he moved to accommodate her. Hiccup's free hand hesitated before he pushed the handle back into place, turning off the water.
She went towards the toilet, and sat him on top of the closed lid before pushing the shower curtains to one side, giving Hiccup an open view of the nozzle and the shower handle. Explaining that went about just the same as explaining the faucet, except she made sure to show Hiccup how to switch between the hot and cold water settings.
Estrid picked up the body soap bottle and handed it to him, and pointed from him to the shower, which had Hiccup looking pretty embarrassed again, then got up to leave.
However, the noise of nail on porcelain was distinct, and had Estrid peering back to see Hiccup tapping on the back of the toilet with one hand. He said something in that language of his and Estrid hummed her acknowledgement.
She put a hand to her chin, scrunching up her nose unattractively. She wasn't quite sure how to explain the toilet to him. She sure as hell wasn't going to act it out. She could try drawing it, but she wasn't sure she could do it quick or concisely enough for him to get it right away. Estrid wanted to giggle hysterically just thinking about it. No speaking or writing. But what about Youtube?
Estrid held her palms out in front of her in that universal pause gesture and went for her room, stopping her jog just before her desk. Her laptop was still out from the night before. She unplugged it from where it was connected to the wall and tapped the power button before running it back to the bathroom.
Hiccup watched her inquisitively, staring at the back of her laptop. She stood at the door with it in one arm and typed with the opposite hand. Estrid pulled up Youtube, searching for a decent toddler potty instruction video. This would be extremely embarrassing for the both of them. She hoped it wouldn't be all for nothing.
She scanned through a bunch of clips under the search results and clicked a few, skipping through a list. She decided on a cornily animated video for kids, walking towards Hiccup and settling the computer down in front of him.
The brightness on the screen was almost all the way up and the screen's contents reflected clearly back at her from Hiccup's eye and they grew bigger. Estrid let him examine the computer for a little while longer. His hands hovered over the keyboard for a second, and he pressed a key, typing the letter 'Y' into the search bar.
Estrid let him have the laptop for a moment. She knew she'd be confused if she was in his place instead, she was sure, and then reached over to press on her mousepad.
-Well, that… that was weird. Informational, but very, very weird.
Hiccup heard a click as the door closed behind Estrid, and listened for her footsteps as she moved farther away from him. He let out a long breath of air and looked up towards the ceiling as he pulled his tunic up over his shoulders. He had the means, he might as well clean himself off.
His tunic's green was covered in brown stains, especially around the back, and he knew the ankles of his breeches were just as filthy if not worse, if not evidenced by the stains on Estrid's plush seating, then by the stains around his ankles. Usually he'd do his best to keep the mess contained to his clothing, but he'd been very out of it. He still felt out of it.
His shirt was discarded in the far corner, and Hiccup started on the twine that held up his pants, his fingers fumbling lightly with the knot at the top. One thumbs hooked onto the wait of his pants, and the other held on to the counter as he dropped them down past his knees. He was left in just a pair of short blue linens now, which he also edged out of.
He hopped his way to the tub and sat by its edge, fiddling with the control handle so that the water began to run. Hiccup slipped himself into the spray, feeling an awful lot like he'd just stepped into cold rain. Hiccup yelped and quickly reached back for the handle, moving it back and forth against the wall. It took a few more tries and a couple more yelps for him to bring the water to a nicer temperature.
Hiccup leaned himself against the wall with one hand, careful not to slip on the slick surface, as hot water fell against his head. Little streams pooled down from his hair and onto his back, letting it wash away the tension in his back. He could feel the steam in the air, making it thicker and hazier.
The water was nice. During Berk's usual weekly Bath Day, the lucky Vikings had dragons who were willing to heat up a tub for them. For most of the people who didn't, if they didn't make it to the few hot springs in time, they would get stuffed, and the wait lines were long. Whoever was left, usually the ones who favored their privacy or the slow few, ended up taking a dip in a river or hauling a few buckets of water back home to fill their own tubs.
Hiccup's free hand brushed his bangs to the sides of his face. Hiccup's own dragon, Toothless, wasn't capable of the same kind of steady stream of fire as most other dragons. His shots were quick, precise and explosive. Not very conducive to bath heating, he tried. Sharpshot didn't have the attention span for it. And Hiccup, though he'd gotten a lot taller and stronger than he was at his fifteen, he was, well, he was still a runt. That is to say, he usually ended up with the cold river water.
To have warm water so readily available was a pleasant change. Something about it puzzled him. It just added to the strangeness of everything. The corner of the ring, the sucking him in and being thrown here, seeing Estrid again.
Hiccup sat down on the floor of the tub, and placed his head in one hand. Estrid.
She'd looked to be a few winters older than he remembered her being, but then again, so was he. Her features had sharpened a bit, but her eyes were just as round as he remembered. To see her face again was surprising. To hear her speaking was even more so. There were so many things he wanted to say, needed to hear from her.
Hiccup scanned over the series of multicolored bottles lined along a ledge in the wall, and looked for one that might give him soap. He picked one that looked close to the one Estrid had used earlier by the sink and squeezed some out onto his hand.
But she didn't seem to recognize him at all, or understand a word he said. The sounds that came from her mouth were just as foreign to him as the rest of this place.
He had the inexplicable feeling that he was not in the Barbaric Archipelago anymore. He questioned whether or not he was dead, and to which afterlife he'd been shot. But no, he couldn't be dead. This was no Valhalla, that was for sure. Or Folkvangr, and definitely not Hel.
The soap looked just the same as the one on the counter and it seemed to lather up the same. Hiccup decided to just fuck it and squeezed a glob into his hair, and cringed deeply as some of it washed down into his eyes. They burned worse than any other soapy eye he'd ever gotten, and Hiccup dropped the soap bottle. He stood face to face with the spray for a good few minutes trying to clear his eyes up.
Once again, Hiccup stood. He remembered the bottle Estrid had given him just before she left. He'd left it on the counter by accident, more focused on getting under the spray. That one… that one was probably the one he was supposed to use. He hoped that one wouldn't burn as bad if he got it in his eyes. He felt ridiculous.
Hiccup bent his left leg and braced it against the rim of the tub, pushing aside the curtains separating him from the rest of the bathroom. He squinted at the bottle with blurry eyes and deemed it within reaching distance. Hiccup leaned forward, reaching for the bottle. His right hand pulled on the curtains in order to keep him balanced, the rod that held them up creaking warningly. Just a little more…
Water dripped down Hiccup's pelvis and onto the surface by his knee, making the surface very slippery. He stretched his arm further, he was now almost completely diagonal over the lid of the toilet.
Hiccup lost his balance for a second, his leg shifting to the side slightly, causing him to put his whole weight on the curtains. His free arm waved wildly in the air as he struggled to right himself. Just then, the rod cracked loudly before splitting clean in half.