Returning Home (Hiccstrid vs Merricup) ****COMPLETE****

Explanations

A couple hours later

Eret's POV

I am pacing in front to healers' room where Astrid is currently being treated. I sit down and rub my face. I have standing outside for hour now and haven't heard a single piece of news. 

I hear a pair of steps come out from the room. I look up and see Heather come out. I quickly stand up. "So? Is she ok?" 

"She's going to be fine Eret." I breathe a sigh of relief. "The nurses were able to stop the spread and it is almost all gone. So that's the good news. The bad news is that she's still unconscious. They don't know how long it's going to be until she wakes up." I slump down back onto the seat. Heather continues "Her unconscious state was caused mainly from shock more so than the ice itself. You can go in just make sure you talk to her. That might help."

I walk in the room and see Astrid laying on the floor under a pile of blankets. Her two dragons are laying nearby. I walk over and sit next to her. I take her hand and start talking. I have no idea how long it's been until Heather walks in and tells me I should get some sleep. 

"You can make it Astrid. You are the strongest person I know. I....I love you. Please don't leave me." As I get up I feel Astrid's hand tighten around mine. I look down and notice her eyelids start to flutter open. I elbow Heather gently in the arm and gesture at the blonde.

Astrid's POV

"I love you. Please don't leave me." I hear Eret say. It feels like I've been trapped in pitch black for a lifetime. I open my eyes and see a pair of green eyes and hazel eyes looking back at me.

"Astrid!" My two friends cry. I try to sit up but immediately feel a sharp pain in my side. Eret gently pushes me back. 

"You need to stay down. You are in no condition to get up."

Stormfly and Valkyrie make their way over to me and shove the two teens out of the way. I chuckle and reach up to pet them. "How are you girls?"

"We were really worried."  Stormfly responds. 

I look back at the pair of siblings. "What happened? I don't remember anything."

"We don't know exactly what happened. But me and Eret saw your distress signal when we were at the base. We found you on the floor shivering and had ice slowly spreading across your body." They tell me about the encounter with the other dragon riders (I really need to come up a group name for Hiccup and his gang that Astrid and the others can call them. Please let me know if you have any.)

"Astrid?" I turn my head to the entrance and see a woman standing there. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine Valka" I reply. I look at the woman and remembered how happy I was to see her again.

Flashback

"This is Astrid Hofferson. I meet her on my way home. Windshear got hurt and Astrid healed her."

"Thank you helping my daughter. I'm Inar."

"It's a pleasure to meet you" I shake his hand

I hear a gasp from the back of the room and see a woman with two long braids staring at me. I immediately recognize her.

"Astrid?"

"Valka?" I am stunned. I am looking at Hiccup's mother who I thought was dead. "How...? I thought you were dead"

"I wasn't even injured during the dragon raid. Cloudjumper took me here." She gestures around. We are now standing about a foot away from each other.

I feel tears in my eyes and hug her tightly. Valka was like a second mother to me. She hugs me back. I close my eyes bury my head into her shoulder. We stay like that for a couple minutes. 

We pull away and she holds my face and then backs up and look at me. "You definitely grow up to be a beautiful girl." I smile shyly. I wasn't the most comfortable when it came to complements about my looks.

"What are you doing here? Where's Hiccup?" I tell her the whole story from Toothless to meeting Heather.

I see tears in her eyes when I tell her that my parents died and about the whole Hiccup thing. She covers it up though. "Well Stoick is right. You would definitely make a fantastic chief."

I think about everything in the past week. I found a new dragon, meet Heather and now I am found Valka, the woman who looked after me when my parents were away. She had become a second mother to me and I loved her like one. 

End of Flashback

"Inar would like to talk to the three of you. If you are up for that Astrid."

I nod. Inar comes in and sits next to Heather. "How are you feeling, Lass?"

"I'm fine. Just cold."

"I sent a letter to Stoick telling about what happened. He is probably going to want to see you. I just want to talk about what happened between you and Elsa."

"I don't remember much. I approached Elsa in her line of view and she freaked out."

"Do you know if she saw something weird or strange near you?"

"I'm not sure. She shot her ice right at me. I don't think she was trying to aim at something else."

"That's strange." He stands up "You should get some rest" He looks at his kids. "All of you. Heather you've been running around all day. Eret you've been pacing in front of the room worrying for hours on end so you must be mentally exhausted." I laugh at this. Eret gives his dad a look.

"You definitely have a lot of fight in you Astrid." Inar says before leaving. 

Eret and Heather look at me concerned. "Both of you need rest. I'm fine."

Heather gets up and says goodbye so me and her brother are alone. I grab his hand. "I have a quick question" 

"Sure. What's up?" 

"Did you mean what you said before." He looks at me confused. "That you uh...love me?" I blush as a say this.

He blushes a little "Of course I meant it. I love you Astrid Hofferson"

I turn my head away. "What's wrong Ash?"

"It's just... No one has ever said that to me but Hiccup. He dropped off the edge of the earth. He never wrote back to be and never returned to Berk" Eret knows what I am thinking without me having to say more. 

He lays down next to me and kisses the top of my head."If he found someone else and that's the reason he never returned to see you then he's a muttenhead. I don't think there is other girl in the whole world who can replace you." I smile and rest my head on his chest. I fall sleep listening to the beating of his heart and gentle breathing. 

There is no place I rather be right now.