sirenspull_logs | What's Going On

Entry tags:

What's Going On

Who: HICCUP and ~* Asssstrid *~
When: Sometime after Astrid's arrival
Where: At the Tower Apartments. Outside. Somewhere.
Summary: Late to Astrid's welcoming party, Hiccup tries to make up for it by meeting her at the baseball diamond and its starter apartments. Confusion ensues.
Warnings: THESE ARE VIKINGS. VIKINGS.

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The amount of dishes being brought in from the front always had a tendency to look like they weren't going down. Even if he had gone through ten, twenty of them at a time, there were still more to get to. He knew he had to finish doing them, but this day suddenly became very important to him.

Astrid - the star Viking pupil in his dragon-training class and the girl of his dreams - was here.

In his haste, Hiccup made it a point to fish out the rock from the bottom of the metal sink, yanking off the apron and shrugging into his fur vest as he sped out the back door of Nibbleheim, making up explanations for his departure as the shouts of his supervisor faded behind him, thin legs sprinting toward the baseball diamond and its apartments.

The distance itself was something he forgot to acknowledge ahead of time, causing his epic run to falter, slowing to a stop. But with his type of persistence, he caught his breath and continued running the rest of the way.

Once the diamond was in sight, all Hiccup had to do was look for the blond girl with the axe in her hand. And she did say she was going to climb a tree. So the best way to go about spotting her was to glance at the trees in the area while calling her name. "Astrid?" The boy jogged, taking in a few calming breaths while green eyes darting back and forth. "Astrid! Hello?"

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The simplest of questions made his heart beat faster.

This obviously explained her actions and how they differed between the alpha harshness of her need to win the opportunity to kill a dragon in the ring and her current behavior and physical treatment toward Hiccup here on the cold ground.

He did need to hear everything. Just to make sense of it all. He wanted to. It was too late to pretend that it didn't matter. Morbid curiosity had already settled. And she wanted to know one thing in return.

Cautiously, he turned his head a few degrees to meet her gaze. Another breath was drawn in and exhaled in exhaustion, never taking away the truth in his hesitant tone.

"Yeah. I do."

A trying smile failed and fell lopsided.

"...I always did."

"...Always?"

Well...now that she thought about it, in hindsight, it was pretty obvious. But even back then she'd just thought it was Hiccup being Hiccup. Weird, skinny Hiccup, who always made a mess of things. His answer though gave way to a breath she didn't realize she was holding, but felt all the better releasing. She let a smile fall on her own lips then, although it looked somewhat drained. Relief was evident though - if there was one thing she could be certain of it was this. That Hiccup still liked her. That some things would never change.

"Well, good then." She gave him a half hearted thump with a fist in his shoulder, a lot lighter than the previous two punches had been. As expected she could already hear his whining at the pain she'd inflicted. "That's for freaking me out."

Whatever he was saying in protest, she didn't bother to listen. When Hiccup complained he always sounded the same; there was no point in listening anymore. Impulsive as always however, she leaned down, uncurling her fingers, cupping both cheeks in her hands. Only a moment was spared to study green eyes before she leaned in to give him a kiss, lips on lips. When the contact was broken she sat back up, lips quirked upwards.

"And that's for being here...in one piece."

If he had to repeat himself, he'd feel stupid for admitting it in the first place. But seeing her smile made his fear of another unpredictable emotional explosion subside.

Along with some things never changing, he flinched when she thumped him again.

"Ow. Hey! Twice is enough for one day, don't you think- "

The complaint wasn't fully completed because Hiccup definitely wasn't expecting that to happen.

His whole body felt funny. Warm. A dazed expression took over his features as he shrugged.

"Okay, maybe I can work with this."

"You better get used to it."

It was meant to be a threat, but there was nothing behind it as she finally climbed off him, only realizing now that she'd been sitting on him in a rather precarious fashion, too furious to notice beforehand.

Up she went, grabbing his hands in her own without hesitation or warning, pulling him up off the ground and onto his feet. "Let me grab my axe and we can go." Go where? Well that was the question, wasn't it? Trotting off she picked up her battle axe and made her way back to him.

"Well, are you going to take us to where we're going to live or not? I talked to that lady you live with, or well...she started talking to me. Anyway, she said I can stay with you both but we have to share a room....but I don't think you'll have a problem with that."

Even if the tone was softened, he still felt the original intent of the statement. "Yeeeah, I figured as much."

Being peeled off of the floor, he regained stability, smoothing out his clothing as she went to get her axe. He found it strange that she had it with her, but it was one of those questions related to the Core and its workings.

Of course he was clueless until she mentioned his own living arrangements. "Oh! Yeah. Snow. Yeah, I'm staying with her," he confirmed, nodding dutifully. He then made a face when she assumed the rooming situation, but a moment later he wordlessly relented.

Sharing a room shouldn't be too bad.

There was an eyebrow raised at the face he made when she mentioned the sharing of his (and now their) room, but she shrugged it off as just Hiccup being Hiccup. It wouldn't be too bad. After all, she'd end up with the bed. It wasn't as if she would be losing anything out of it.

"Well, c'mon. Take me there. I want to check it out. I told her I wasn't going to live anywhere without you, so you're both stuck with me."

It was because he knew he'd end up on the floor. Not that it was a problem or anything, though - it would be like his bed at home.

Sadly, he was starting to get use to the idea of a mattress.

With a shrug, Hiccup nodded, holding up his hands. "All right, all right. That's fine with me. Not like I can change your mind or anything." He was sincere about it, even if there was a hint of dryness added into his tone. He then smiled, tilting his head in the direction of the apartment. "It's gonna be this way."

It was true, though. Trying to change Astrid's mind on anything was a dangerous task, one that involved a lot of yelling and potential physical violence. Luckily for Hiccup though, he knew that, and Astrid was pleased enough with his answer to follow him as he lead the way to their little hut inside a hut.

Walking there might've seemed like a decent distance for normal people, but they were Vikings, and until dragons came into play, they walked or sailed everywhere. Walking was nothing for someone who walked everywhere their entire life.

Axe held to her chest, she walked alongside Hiccup the entire way, mostly quiet aside from the odd comment here or there. Mostly she was in awe of everything she saw. The landscape was completely unimaginable for her, and with every step things became even more strange, wonderful (and somewhat frightening).

When they reached the apartment, she was still rather quiet, following silently until they came to the wooden door that marked their new home. This was it. Well, no time to lose, right? She pushed forward against the door, but it didn't budge. Weird. Maybe she had to...do something with the metal handle sticking out of the wood. There was a bit of a struggle, confusion taking over her features before she began to yank forcefully at the handle, ready to fully throw herself at the door.

"Hiccup, it's stuck-"

He watched as she took in everything, walking alongside her during most of it. Although he had to pull her back from being run over at one crosswalk, the trip in general was pleasant enough.

Up until now, that was.

Here, Hiccup blinked as he patted himself down for something. Astrid's struggle with the door held his attention, however, a mental alarm going off right when she was about to charge.

"Hold on! Astrid, lemme get- ah! Where is it??"

His hands finally yank a metal ring and a key from his garb as he stumbled between the girl and the piece of wood. "There we go..."

Click.

With the metal key in the lock, the sound of the click (and Hiccup dangerously putting himself between her and the door, how daring of him) she froze mid charge, going limp as she simply stared, dumbfounded. Just what had he stuck in the door to open it? What had made that clicking sound?

How frustrating.

"It's open now...?"

Well then.

Pushing past Hiccup without an ounce of hesitation, she managed to push the now unlocked door ajar, stepping into the apartment. Lights were off and the rooms were dim thanks to the only light source coming from the windows in the humble home, but she could see well enough to find herself wowing quietly to herself. Nothing could have prepared her for the inside of the apartment. There were so many objects, more unknown than familiar.

She could barely contain her curiosity and sheer excitement.

"We're going to live here in this weird hut?"

Interposing himself like that only brought about the thought that it wouldn't stop her either way. The subconscious bracing for impact as he stuck and turned the key dwindled away as he removed it from the keyhole, holding up the piece of teethy metal for Astrid to see.

That didn't last long, though. The little spiel he was going to provide was shoved away with him unintentionally, leaving him to spin clumsily in place.

He still tried.

"Well, uh, I thought it was weird too, at first. Using small things to secure a door this size. B-but I was thinking, y'know, there's a reason behind this and the size of the population around here and all of its individual and charming characteristics..."

Yeah, that was all a lost cause.

Hiccup gave in, frowning a little. He plodded in after Astrid with a Hiccup-like sigh, waving a hand over all that she saw. "Yeah! This is the place. Apartment. Thing." A half-shrug was added after a pause. "Welcome. I guess. Not really my place to say so, but..."

Without thinking, he flicked on the light switch, moving forward to further explain the rest of the layout.

The explanation never reached her ears.

She would've listened, really. It wasn't as if she was actively ignoring Hiccup. It was just that everything before her was just so strange and new she didn't know what to focus on or look at first.

The 'welcome' was the last thing she heard before she heard herself shriek, eyes widening instantly as the light was flicked on, stumbling back in surprise and shock. What what just happened? Where was the light coming from? Who had started a fire so quickly?!

"H-Hiccup?!" She stuttered without meaning to. What magic was this? "What did you do?!"

Now that was a sound he didn't hear everyday. Hiccup jumped, whipping around in surprise. "What! Do what- what did- ?!"

He saw nothing wrong with this picture. He stared at the girl as he tried to calm down, not moving from where he stood.

"Wh-what's wrong??? I don't..."

"The...the light! It just...came on! Where is it coming from?!" She sputtered, turning on her heel to face him, blue eyes wrenched wide.

"What did you do?!"

A few seconds passed.

"Oh! The- the light." His heart was still racing as he tried to be calm, green eyes darting to glance at the lighting fixtures before blinking back at her. "Yeah, the light. Um. Well."

The boy made small circles in the air with his hands as he spoke. "From what I've been told and seen, it's nothing like...magic or anything. It's just a series of things called wires- these thing metal strings coiled together. They all touch and send something called electricity through them." He was going to have to look that up later to know what it was, anyway.

Thin hands weaved through the air sloppily to sum everything up quickly. "Annnd then all of that goes through a room or a building, you hit that switch or something like it and bing!" He claps his hands together, posing as he pointed at the lamps. "Light."

"...Huh."

As Hiccup began babbling his explanation at her, she visibly began to calm down, although her eyes were as wide as ever. So, it was just...technology, that had lit up the room. Her attention peaked at the mention of electricity. She'd heard that before somewhere, hadn't she?

"Electricity...hey, someone told me about that! They said lightning was a form of electricity. Isn't that ridiculous to imagine? There's lightning lighting up this room, Hiccup!"

And a bit dangerous, if she took a moment to think about it. But, she didn't. Obviously she was proud of herself for knowing (somewhat) something about what Hiccup was talking about. In a world that made no sense, at least looking smart made you feel at least a little bit better about yourself.

"So...you hit a switch?" The question was, what did a switch look like? Thus began her search along the walls of the apartment, fingers stopping at a lightswitch protruding from the wall. Cautiously, brows furrowed in concentration, she flicked it downward, gasping when the light turned off and things were dim once again. "By Odin's beard..." Again, she flicked it, this time back up, and it went on once again. Then down, then up. Then down and up. Then down. Then up again. On and off she began to flick the switch, a ridiculous grin taking over her face as she found herself laughing in wonderment.

"Hiccup this is amazing...!"

For once he wasn't given a blank stare over this bit of information. He had to smile at that. "Yeah, that's exactly what's so weird about it!" he laughed. "All that power...confined into stuff like this. Crazy."

And as she scrutinized everything even further, Hiccup just nodded, letting his arms drop down to his sides. The lights went off, leaving them in the dark for a while. He glanced around the room. "Yup. It's off now."

Click. "And on. That's the basic idea- "

Clickclick. Clickclickclick.

"-Annnd someone's enjoying this a little too much..."

The scrawny Viking trotted over to where his girlfriend (girlfriend - this term had some getting use to) was, leaning against the wall as if nothing was wrong. "Uh, hey, yeah, I know it's great," he started, laughing a little, "but I think that's enough for now. I've been told people here are concerned about wasting these kinds of energy sources."

Well, he couldn't say he didn't do the same when he got into all of the modern stuff.

Click.

Up the switch went to the on position, flooding the apartment with light once more as she pulled her fingers away sheepishly, giving Hiccup a somewhat embarrassed smile in return. "Sorry...I got carried away a bit." More than a bit, however. If she'd have had her way? She probably would've wasted away an hour playing with the switch. But, if the power could be wasted, the last thing she wanted to was break it or use it all up by being an idiot.

Straightening up, pulling away from the wall, she chewed on her bottom lip as she spun around to survey the room before her. What else was there in this strange new home?

The floor was clean (so clean, really), some parts shiny and other parts...somewhat furry, although she knew it wasn't fur at all. She had enough of a mind to slip her boots off, stockinged feet coming to stand on the floor as she wiggled her toes and began her exploration. Into the kitchen she went first, eyes trailing over everything. Somethings she could identify, others she'd no clue. A hand moved to pull open the door of the refrigerator and another gasp slipped her without her meaning it to as the cool air hit her in the face and the light popped on. Inside there was food, some she'd never seen the likes of, and it was all cold?!

All she could do was stare, letting all the cold air escape while doing so.

"Hiccup look!"

Never mind the fact he'd already seen his fridge and the contents of it, he still had to marvel at how wonderful and strange this invention was with her.

"It's cold!"

As much as he tried to play it cool, Hiccup found himself grinning inwardly at Astrid's reactions. It was a rare glimpse at the girl's curious side and he couldn't get past the thought that she was easily letting her tough exterior slip. Then again, they were alone in the apartment; it was safer, in a way, to let things like this slip in private.

He stayed where he was as she poked around the rooms like a cat, crossing his arms loosely over one another. From what he could tell, she was starting to settle in just fine. It was rough, but it was expected.

And then he sort of lost track of her for one moment. She was just standing there on the carpeting a while ago. Eyelids fluttered rapidly as he straightened up again away from the wall. "Astrid?"

When she called, he perked, shuffling around in the direction of her voice. A hand reached out, palm placed flatly onto the wall as he halfheartedly swung himself around the corner to see the girl sticking her face into the ice box.

"A refrigerator. Always stays cold in there," he replied plainly, leaning his head against painted plaster. He couldn't help but look smitten. "It helps preserve the food."

Even if the two weren't alone in the apartment together, there was no way she could even begin to imagine holding face in front of all these strange, but amazing devices and objects.

"A refrigerator..." She echoed, shoving her head in even further before closing the door gently. Always able to keep food cold...brilliant. After all, preserving meats and dairy was always hard in Berk - they only lasted so long unless milk was turned into cheese and meat smoked or dried. This however...this was the most amazing thing she'd seen yet, aside from, well, the lights.

Door closed she turned completely to face Hiccup, biting her lip mid smile before trotting over to him, taking his hands in hers. Although she wanted to look at everything (which she would) she wanted to tell him everything he didn't know before she got too carried away.

"C'mon, let's find somewhere to sit. I said I'd tell you about everything, right? Then after you can show me more of these weird things...and our room too."

His response was delayed, almost as if there was an audible pop somewhere in his mind. The recovery was terrible. "Oh. Oh, yeah. Almost slipped my mind, actually..."

Hiccup trailed off as his hands were taken, his body almost floating as he stepped away from the wall. An awkward smile twisted his face at this, nodding as he tilted his head at the furniture in the living area. "There- there's a couch. Sofa. Over there. Here." And with that, he clumsily led Astrid to sit.

This time, the couch was much softer than the last time he sat on it.

Green eyes looked downward at the floor as he sunk an inch or two on its padded cushions, mouth forming a thin line for what felt like several minutes before turning upward on on side.

"Um. Okay. So." Hands clasped together in front of him as he glanced back up at Astrid. "...About all of this...everything."

"Well..." She started off, leaning back against the sofa, blue eyes fixed on his green ones. "We were in dragon training together, as you know. I was the best, of course, for awhile, but then you started getting rather good. Too good. I knew something was up. So, I began trying to follow you when you'd slip off after training to find where you'd gone off to, but for awhile you'd always manage to get away. To be quite honest, it was making me rather upset. Suddenly you became the popular one - Ruffnut and Tuffnut always fighting over who got to sit beside you or Snotlout trying to impress you. Even Fishlegs stuck to you more than he already used to."

It was a bit funny really, to recall just how well Hiccup had managed to slip away. Then again, he'd probably perfected the art of passing under everyone's radar considering the social standing he'd held for much of his life.

"Being the sudden master of dragons that you were, you won the honor of being allowed to kill a dragon. I really wanted to smash you to pieces, but I didn't. This time when I went into the woods to follow you, I found you with Toothless. By then I guess the two of you had become rather good friends, because he listened to you and everything. He...scared me, and I ran off to go tell everyone what you had done, but Toothless scooped me up in his claws and dropped me at the top of a tree. I wasn't allowed down either until you forced me to see your point. So, on I went, dragged onto Toothless' back, sitting behind you. And then?"

Her voice became conspiring before she shot her arms out into the air to emphasize her point.

"Then he started flying like crazy! Spinning, diving, dunking us into the freezing ocean - it was only when I relented and apologized that...well..."

Well that's when everything had changed. She'd been able to touch clouds and see just how beautiful their little village looked like from above. Her whole perception of the world and her place in it had morphed into something so much more than just her tiny piece of the world. Things had become far bigger than she ever would have imagined they would have on the back of that dragon, with Hiccup.

"Well, you both gave me the most amazing experience I've ever had in my entire life."

Embarrassing to admit? Definitely. But it felt as if Hiccup had to hear it, to know it, just to fully understand how much she'd been affected by their flight.

"While we were flying though, Toothless suddenly flew into a swarm of other dragons, following them back to, you guessed it, the nest. It was like a beehive Hiccup and inside was the most giant dragon you could possibly even imagine. He was the size of a mountain, probably! We managed to fly back, and I wanted to tell everyone about it, but you made me promise I wouldn't...so I didn't. To protect Toothless. Unfortunately for you, you still had to kill a dragon the next day."

Fingers moved then to brush her bangs out of her eyes as she shifted against the cushions.

"When tomorrow did come, you tried your best to show everyone the dragon wasn't dangerous...but your father freaked out and forced the match to stop and because he was yelling he frightened the dragon and you were, well, in danger. Toothless must have heard you, because he came out of nowhere and jumped into the ring and began to fight with the other dragon. Unfortunately for him...well he was captured. Your father figured out the only way to find the dragon's nest was to use a dragon to find it, so they tied up Toothless in one of the ships and all of the adults sailed away leaving us behind."

It had been brutal really, to see things through a different lens then. Toothless wasn't just another stupid dragon or even just a Night Fury - he was Hiccup's friend and seeing him being exploited like that, well it had made her chest burn.

"But, luckily for you I was there to knock you out of your depression and push you to do something crazy. Which you did, of course. You-" And she pointed a finger at him then, sitting straight up, "taught all of us to ride a dragon - the twins, Fishlegs, Snotlout and even me. We all flew off after our parents and when we arrived, they were already attacking the massive dragon. We flew off and began attacking then, all of us, while you hopped off and went to go help Toothless. Everything was burning. There was fire and smoke everywhere. We attacked and attacked and then you and Toothless flew up into the air, forcing the dragon to follow you, which it did. It was as if Thor himself was behind the clouds - the sound of the fighting was like thunder and the shots of fire were like lightning. Then you and Toothless came flying down, and it almost devoured the two of you whole, but you managed to fly away at the last second sending the giant dragon crashing into the ground!"

The excitement began to slip away from her voice then, as she settled back down, head against the back of the sofa.

"When the smoke and ash cleared, all of us came running to try and find you both. The whole village Hiccup, I'm serious. Toothless' body was laying there and your father ran over. We thought you were gone and dead. I thought you were dead...but when Toothless opened his wings and showed us all that he'd saved you in his arms...you can't imagine the cheering that was had. You were alive, Hiccup. Your...leg was a bit worse for wear and you were unconscious...but you were alive. You stayed asleep in your bed for a bit. Days, really. I wasn't sure you'd ever wake up...but you did."

She reached out a hand then, index finger poking him in the chest gently over his heart.

"You, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, taught an entire, stubborn village something. You changed everyone's opinion...you changed my opinion, and you already know how difficult that is."

Pulling her finger back she laughed lightly, letting her hand fall into her lap.

"I bet you've questions, huh."

It was unbelievable. And yet Hiccup sat there, subconsciously leaning forward like a child attentive in the storyteller's dramatic retelling of events that may have been exaggerated for entertainment value. Astrid did very well in recounting this particular span of history she had lived through, the same one he was suppose to have lived through, eyes wide as he listened to every single detail.

He seriously thought it sounded more like an epic centuries old than anything he would do in his lifetime.

The range of emotions immediately washed over him again at each interval, picking up, dropping, and somehow ending with relief. Was there any sadness? He wasn't sure. The feeling of uncertainty was strong and it held itself over everything that had been said, everything he went through.

Everything he was going to go through.

When she touched his chest with a finger, it was like he was reminded to exhale. He didn't even realize he had been holding his breath the entire time. His brow furrowed. Him? Change the opinion of a whole village? That was impossible. There weren't many who could do that. "That would take a miracle," he thought aloud, dropping his gaze as he crossed his arms over his stomach. And yet Astrid said he did. She wouldn't be lying - it would be terrible if she was, but she wasn't.

He knew she wasn't. Because she was right.

After a long pause, a sad chuckle escaped him. Green eyes flicked back over to the other Viking.

"...I don't know where to start."

Really, Astrid didn't blame him. If it was her in his position? She wouldn't know where to start either. It was an overload of information certainly, but she hoped it'd possibly be a bit of a motivator for the scrawny viking. Sure, Hiccup hadn't tamed seas like his dad, but he'd tamed dragons and that was something no one else in the village could say they'd done without his help.

Her brows furrowed for a moment as she thought of what she would ask. How big was the dragon they'd destroyed, for starters. How gnarly did her leg look after it was amputated - but she knew these were details Hiccup probably wouldn't focus on, at least not at first. He always had a radically different approach to everything, questions included.

"Well..." She started again, fixating on a patch of freckles that dusted atop one of Hiccup's cheeks. "Think about it. You don't have to ask right now, if you can't think of anything. I know it's a lot to take in, trust me."

Maybe, perhaps, she could make things a bit simpler. "How about this instead...is there anything you want to ask me, about, you know...me?"

Well that certainly came out far more awkward than it had sounded in her head. Maybe if Hiccup had a different topic to focus on first, then his questions would come easier, and if he'd adored her forever like he said he had, then surely he'd have questions about her, right? And she was the most familiar topic at hand between the two of them.

Sort of.

They'd bonded throughout the fight they had lived through, but here Hiccup was lacking that. No wonder he was acting like such an awkward duckling. In that case, she thought, they could remedy this now.

Maybe.

Astrid. The girl who was a champion among their peers, the one who was slated to win dragon training by a landslide. The one who was serious in her role as a Viking, and still is. His crush, and now his girlfriend by some greater force in the universe- a trick of the gods, perhaps, but it was truly genuine.

Asking anything about her was going to be just as difficult as asking about everything related to what she had just told him.

Hesitation weighed down heavily as he quietly panicked, pursing his lips as he tried to come up with something reasonable enough to go over. Slender fingers interlaced, untangled, and re-weaved themselves out of unspoken apprehension. He then sighed, smiling lopsidedly.

"...Uh..."

Nope. He had nothing.

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