Pumpkins and Punches

Part 3

There hadn't been a next time. Hiccup had been a lot more skittish in the forge and frequently wasn't here when she came to have her axe serviced but Astrid had determinedly sought him out and made sure he knew she was his friend. She brought him coffees in the forge and sought out the loser in the canteen, spending time with him even when his only proper friend was Fishlegs. But something had changed and there was an invisible distance between them, an unspoken legacy of his hurt and disappointment at his own stupidity in losing the chance to go with her, even though he seemed delighted by her friendship. 

But Astrid had made up her mind to ask him to the Senior Prom...until fate stepped in. The day before she had planned to ask him, he had been involved in an accident on the way home-a bad one. He had saved a small child on a crossing from a speeding car that ignored the traffic signal-but he had ended up hit and badly mangled. While Astrid was waiting for him in the canteen to ask him to the Prom, he had been fighting for his life in surgery, losing the bottom part of his left leg and ending up in a coma.

Astrid had been at his side almost every day until he woke...but it had been a long recuperation. She had ended going to the Prom with Snotlout again...but she had almost broken his nose when she punched him after he tried to kiss her. After she left the Prom in a fury, she had finished up by Hiccup's bed in the hospital in her Prom gown, bringing a bottle of fizzy lemonade and a small lemon cake with her that she had picked up in the garage on the way. He had smiled as he had seen her and caught her hand, squeezing it tight as she leaned close and kissed him on the forehead.

"Hey, Dragon Boy," she said and he gave a small, pained smile. He was scraped and bruised and in a lot of pain from his amputation. 

"Hey...Milady..." he rasped, his voice very hoarse from the tube he had needed down his throat to support him through surgery and during the coma. "I thought...you'd be being Prom Queen..." She shrugged and tossed her corsage across the room.

"Ugh! Snotlout will probably have enough ego to be Prom King and Queen all by himself!" she bemoaned. 

"Why did you go with him?" he sighed. She huffed and looked for some paper cups.

"Well, the man I wanted to ask got himself run over and in a coma!" she explained. "He asked and I knew you wouldn't be able to make it...so I said yes..." He sighed. 

"Can't blame you," he admitted, "Though if you had asked me, I would have had them bring me in a freakin' ambulance to be there with you!" She balled her fist but couldn't bring herself to punch his shoulder-because she knew how badly bruised he was.

"Actually, that would've been totally preferable," she confessed. "Ugh. I had to punch him when he tried putting his hands on my..." Hiccup's eyes widened and his brows shot up.

"On what?" he croaked. 

"Lower those brows, mister, or lose them!" she snapped. "My...aunt's sash..." He closed his eyes and started chuckling, raising a hand to support his bruised ribs. 

"You are wicked..." he groaned. "Teasing a wounded man like that..." She did lightly tap his shoulder and he grimaced but managed a small grin, his green eyes grateful she was here with him.

"You know, you are my best friend," she told him. "I can tell you everything, you never judge me and you're always there..."

"I nearly wasn't," he murmured, staring at the ceiling. 

"Idiot!" she told him firmly. "I-I couldn't have coped losing you..." His warm green gaze turned to inspect her and saw the tender concern, so different to her usual independent attitude. His warm hand stretched out to her and caught hers, his fingers gently lacing between hers.

"I'm not planning on going anywhere," he assured her hoarsely. "Astrid, I'll always be here for you." He paused. "Admittedly, I may never look this good again..." He gestured to his battered face and his scrawny shape, lying int he hospital bed. She smiled and leaned closer.

"Next time, try to look where you're going!" she advised him.

"I was looking," he huffed, "but I couldn't watch a little kid run down when I knew I could get to him in time..."

"Well...don't do it again..." she ordered him sternly, her hand rising to brush his tousled dark auburn hair off his bruised face. He shrugged.

"Not happening any time soon," he admitted. "Unlikely to be sprinting to save any kids..." His eyes drifted to the frame holding the blankets up and protecting his bandaged stump. Her hands drifted up and smoothed out a hank of hair from behind his right ear. Absently, she braided it. 

"You'll be on your feet any time soon," she assured him, tying off the little braid.

"Hey-what're you doing?" he protested. She tugged on his hair. 

"Hold still!" she said, poking her tongue out and concentrating as she formed a second braid. 

"Ow!" he whined.

"Big baby boo!" she teased him.

"Am not! I was run over and now...ow!...you're pulling my hair!"

"I'm braiding it," she told him, tying the second braid off. "There!" He raised a hand and gently fingered the braids, then met her satisfied smile. 

"Do I look like a Viking now?" he asked her and she grinned.

"A very skinny, battered, one-legged..."

"Low blow!"

"...handsome Viking!" she told him, handing him a paper cup. He managed a small smile. "Here's to you, should-have-been Prom date..." He took a tiny sip and beckoned her closer. pressing a tiny chaste kiss on her cheek. 

"And here's to you, girl of my dreams," he murmured. She gave him a gentle smile. "Just promise me, you'll wait for me to ask you to the next Halloween party at College, Milady!"

"That's a date, Dragon Boy!" she promised and sat by him in the chair, their hands entwined. "Hmm...it really sucked earlier but now, here with you...best prom ever!"