The snow pounded Berk in a fashion that hadn't been seen for years. A thick blanket turned the dwellings into just rooftops sticking out of hills of white as big as dragons themselves, and even tough and ready Vikings knew to stay inside when the snow rained it's fury down so harshly.
Yet still somehow both Astrid and Hiccup were both caught in the storm. But, for completely different reasons. Astrid, for one, just stayed out a little too long making snow angles and throwing snowballs around in the thick of the forest. While Hiccup just got lost looking for trolls just as thickly in the forest as Astrid did.
But, they both had the same eye for the cave within the thickness and the snow, seeking the same refuge at the same precise moment.
"Oh, great." Astrid groaned when she discovered Hiccup within the cave as well. She looked outside to see if there was still time to snag another spot to take cover, but the snow just came down even harder.
"Make yourself...er...comfortable," Hiccup told her tentatively , he had never had an actual conversation with her, so this was fairly new-and very nerve racking-for him.
"Whatever." Astrid snarled at him and made her way to the side of the cave opposite Hiccup. Hiccup sighed and decided to poke at the fire he had made while Astrid still frequently stared at him before she rolled her eyes and sucked her teeth in annoyance.
"Are you cold?" Hiccup asked sometime later when he noticed that the breeze and chill from the pounding snow was making the temperature inside the cave drop rapidly.
"N-no." Astrid shivered and turned her side to him. Hiccup sighed.
"Well, if you are, I have a pretty big blanket." He stated and pulled out a furred blanket from his backpack. Astrid corked a brow and looked over at his backpack.
"What's in that thing, anyway?" She asked.
"Just some supplies." Hiccup answered.
"What, did you know that you were going to get stuck out here or something?" Astrid wondered. She had just been goofing off and stayed out a little later in the snow than she needed to. But she wondered what he was doing there.
"I was looking for trolls, I think I have a good lead on one of them." He explained and Astrid just looked at him in a confused awe.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"Wow, you're even stranger than I thought." Hiccup's face immediately dropped at this comment before he met Astrid's gaze.
"Why do you hate me so much Astrid?' Hiccup asked suddenly. This caught Astrid off guard as she perked up her face and widened her eyes.
"Wh-what?" She mumbled.
"You heard me," Hiccup said with a slightly smug smile.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Astrid said, crossing her arms over her chest and determined to be stubborn about the situation.
"Yes," Hiccup countered firmly. "You do." He gestured towards his blanket. "You won't even come near me even though we both know you're freezing." Astrid looked at the blanket as Hiccup spoke and sighed.
"What's your point?"
"Why do you hate me?" He answered with his previous question.
"I don't hate you Hiccup, I-I just don't hang around you, that's all."
"Why?"
"Why do you keep asking why? Does it mean that much to you that I say something to you?"
"I like to know my enemies motives."
"So I'm an enemy?"
"I don't know," He wiggled an eyebrow to her. "Are you, 'cause I was kind of hoping we could be friends?"
"You're such a freak."Astrid spat at him, turning her body completely away from his line of sight.
"And, you know what?" Hiccup said, leaning back on his hands behind his head against the wall of the cave. "I'm okay with my freakiness. One day I'm going to be the fiercest dragon slayer on Berk and everyone's going to know that I'm the greatest Viking by just being myself." Astrid was still in her movements, still not looking at him.
And then Hiccup smiled devilishly. "You on the other hand," He said a little louder to get Astrid's attention. "You try so hard to be what everyone thinks a Viking should be."
"And that's not what you're doing?" Astrid tried to stump him.
"We both want to be Vikings, but our biggest difference is I'm not going to change who I am to become one, even though I might want to."
That's when Astrid looked over at him. Her eyes were wide and her face was stiff, like she was hiding something.
"I never knew you thought like that." She told him quietly.
"There's a lot about me you don't know about me, just like there's a lot about you that I don't know."
"There's not a lot to me." Astrid answered quietly again, but this time her voice was thick with emotion.
"I think there is, you've just got to let it out."
"But then I won't be..."
"Won't be what?" Hiccup baited. "Accepted?"
He hit the nail right on the head there and although Astrid didn't answer him on that matter any further he knew that he was right on the money.
Without preamble, Astrid stood, shivering violently as she walked over to the other side of the cave and stood near Hiccup (who was comfortably wrapped in his blanket of furs).
"Can I sit here?" She asked him tentatively. Hiccup just nodded and opened up the blanket so she could come inside. She was just as stiff as she sat next to him and refused to lean further in so Hiccup could completely close the front of the blanket.
"Um," Hiccup tried to close the front, anyway, and finding trouble in doing so he attempted to call Astrid's attention on it, but she was determined to be stubborn again.
"I don't hate you, you know." She said instead of moving in closer and that statement took Hiccup's mind off the blanket issue completely. The cold air just suddenly seemed irrelevant.
"What?" He asked in disbelief.
"You heard me," she looked up at him with a smirk, copying his on previous words. "It's just that no one else hangs around you, so..."
"Neither do you?" He finished for her.
"Yeah," she gazed up at him in shame. "Pretty shallow, huh?"
"Of course," He answered without thinking. But when he saw her head fall lower he sighed. "But, I understand."
"You do?"
"You are who you are, Astrid, I can't tell you to hang around me just so you can be made fun of by everyone else."
"How can you say that?"
"Because, I'm used to it, believe me."
There was a pregnant moment of silence between them as they seemed to fall into their own thoughts. The snow pattered against the roof of the cave like heavy rain drops and the whistle and howl of the winds added a noisy and chilling calm to the fire-lit cave.
"So, what do trolls look like?" Astrid asked sometime later. Hiccup just smiled without meeting her gaze.
"I'm not sure since I've never seen one, but I know they have feet as long as our legs and big, grimy hands with long ugly finger nails."
"Eww, gross." Astrid wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"I know, isn't it?"
After their unified laughter faded there was another silence before Astrid suddenly moved a little in some sort of discomfort. And the next thing Hiccup knew, he had Astrid Hofferson leaning against his shoulder. He fully closed the blanket before nervously leaning his own head over hers.
"You alright?" He asked her.
"If you're referring to me being warm enough, then yes, I am." Hiccup smiled against the top of her head and Astrid felt it.
"Good, so am I."
"Hiccup?" Astrid said suddenly and Hiccup sprang up when he heard his name come from her voice. He had never heard her say his name.
"Yeah?"
"I, um, well, I just wanted to say that....um..."
"Is Astrid Hofferson stuttering?" Hiccup asked in a jest.
"No!" She immediately defended. "It's just hard for me to say, that's all."
"You really need to loosen up, Astrid." Hiccup told her, making sure his own tone was just as relaxed as the advice he was giving.
"Vikings don't loosen up, you should know that better than anyone."
"Perhaps, but all people need to loosen up, and I think we can both agree that you're human." Astrid just rolled her eyes and turned her head towards the entrance of the cave, watching the snow come down even thicker and listening to the wind howl in more clarity.
"Astrid," Hiccup sighed and grabbed her arm from underneath the blanket to shift her closer to him. The sudden jolt of movement forced her to look at him, and as soon as their eyes met Hiccup had her locked in an intense gaze that almost magnified Astrid to keep looking.
She had never seen his eyes with such depth before-mainly because she had never been this close to him, or anyone for that matter-and she was amazed at how much activity seemed to go in within his emerald orbs.
They seemed saddened and hardened all at the same time.
Astrid didn't know why exactly Hiccup had turned her his way all of sudden, but whatever plan he had up his sleeve was working. Because she couldn't look away. And the odd thing was that she didn't want to.
She had just turned thirteen a few weeks ago, and her mother had told her that she would start to have odd feelings and longings running through her as she grew into her womanhood more and more. Astrid, though, really paid this no heed. She was too busy training and practicing to worry about the stupid block head boys that roamed around Berk. So it was so odd that suddenly she was so mesmerized by the lanky chief's son whom everyone bullied on a regular basis.
Hiccup shakily leaned forward towards her then and as much as the back of her mind screamed to push him away and go back to being mean to him she just sat perfectly still. Just waiting to see if he was going to have the guts to do what she thought he was going to do.
She couldn't bring herself to say that she was simply pitying him and letting him get a few minutes with her just to brighten his day, because it wasn't true. Though she did feel for him, being pushed and shoved and made fun of just because he was different was heart breaking, but it wasn't her motivation. Her motivation was odd and new to her, something she didn't know of and was a little scared to investigate into.
And still, she let the wild feelings run through her, and a nervous Hiccup try and kiss her. For whatever reason, she let it continue.
For a few split seconds she was completely calm and completely confused, all at the same time.
So then why, when she felt the first light flutter of his lips over hers did she still push him away? So roughly that he fell back against the cave floor, and the blanket that was wrapped around them splayed on the floor.
His breathing was heavy and his eyes were just as confused as hers were scared.
"Astrid?" He finally managed to say, his voice cracking from having the wind knocked out of him.
"Please, Hiccup, just don't."
"Don't what?" He sat up.
"Don't.....do what you were going to do?"
"You mean kiss you?"
"Ah ha, so you admit it?"
"It's not a secret, Astrid. You didn't pull away so I thought that meant it was okay."
"What kind of logic is that?"
"The same kind of logic that let you allow me to get that close." Astrid couldn't dignify that with a response, because she didn't have one. She wasn't about to reveal all of the running emotions that were going through her mind in those split seconds to him. So she was just silent and was thoroughly thinking of what to say so that she wouldn't put herself in hotter water than she was already in.
"This can't happen, Hiccup." She finally resorted on saying, minutes later. Hiccup's head perked up, his face painted in surprise just like Astrid had anticipated. But she didn't expect it to make her feel so horrible.
"What can't happen?" He asked quietly.
"This," She gestured towards both of them. "Us."
"But," He started, sounding more and more pitiful every time he spoke.
"I'm sorry, but we can't do this."
"Why, because-"
"Because you're who you are and I'm who I am, and we just can't."
"So that's it huh?"
"Yeah, that's it." She gathered her jacket and started to head out the opening of the cave, but she turned towards Hiccup one last time before leaving.
"I have a reputation, and I'm not going to give it up for you."
"But Astrid you'll-" He walked towards her as she attempted to leave, grabbing her arm in desperation before she yanked it away.
There were no more words exchanged before she left him, but there was one last gaze that they shared. Hiccup was sure that he saw some hint of sadness and guilt looming around in her blue eyes before she went out to brave Berk's harsh winter on her own.
Hiccup decided to stay, knowing Stoick would find him if he got too worried about his missing son, and just sat there in the cave contemplated on the previous events.
He had known what Astrid was like, he had known that she was shallow and molded and that their views on life clashed more than Vikings and dragons. And still he liked her. He liked her beauty and her strength and the way how she was everything he wanted to be and more.
Despite how much she ragged on him and glared and walked away if he was even so much as twenty feet near her, he still liked her. And his feelings seem to only grow in the year proceeding that moment between them in cave.
Hiccup decided that he wouldn't give up. Not on Astrid or on being a real Viking. He knew that was the only way she would actually be with him if he was. And he wanted to be on her level and be her equal.
So "this" could finally happen.
~FIN~
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Hope you all In joyed this short story. And sorry if I got the age wrong, I have every episode of HTTYD riders of Berk and the Gift of the Night Fury and also the movie.
And I want to give thanks to my friends Merry,Jerlmie, Alex,Dean, Karla, and my little niece Alice. My first book at age 11, hope you all like.
Vote. Comment, and go a head and ask me to make anything I shall do.
~ZeRo-King