Tangled Vows

Chapter 5

A couple of hours went by, and Astrid worked diligently to complete the task as assigned. Although some of those boxes were heavy, and required Astrid to put in all her effort to lift, Astrid had done her best and gotten most of the boxes back onto the shelves they had been seemingly placed on before.

However, having to organise some of them after the contents had spilt out onto the floor into an incomprehensible mess like a tangle of aircraft wreckage, Astrid had a harder time packing the boxes rather than lifting them. After all, Astrid wasn't always the cleanest person and wasn't the most organised either, something that Hiccup should have known.

Perhaps he had selected this job for her because he knew how much she disliked having to organise things. Yet, as she did so, she began to understand why people did so and couldn't find it within her to complain about it.

"So, how are we doing?" Hiccup's voice floated into the room as he sauntered his way over to the shelves where Astrid was squeezed in between. He leaned against one of the shelves as he watched Astrid place the last of the contents inside.

"Fine, no thanks to you," She replied bitterly, throwing the last thing into the box before carefully and frustratingly closing up the plastic box and listening to the lid snap close.

"You've done quite well, considering..." Hiccup trailed off, looking around at the newly organised shelves and cleaned-up floor.

Astrid groaned with effort as she lifted the box off the floor.

"Thought you said you were only giving me one compliment a day. Seems to me like you're already over your limit." Astrid remarked as she lifted the box up towards one of the higher shelves, considering she had already placed boxes on every available space elsewhere on reachable shelves.

"I'm not complimenting you, I'm stating the obvious. Completely different things." Hiccup corrected, with as much smugness and narcissism as that could possibly contain.

"Sure..." Astrid agreed with a groan as she finally pushed the box onto the shelf with difficulty, before letting go a little too early.

"Watch out!" Hiccup called out to Astrid, but it was too late.

As she turned to look at the box beginning to fall towards her, Astrid had no time to hold out her hands and grab it before it began to tumble towards her. However, it never impacted her as a strong hand reached out from behind her, halting the box's movements in its tracks, and left it teetering over the edge of the shelf. Turning to look at her saviour, Astrid saw Hiccup's face looming over her, looking up at the box that threatened to flatten her.

Never before had Astrid gotten a look at Hiccup from this angle. From where she stood, mere inches away from him and trapped between him and the shelf, Astrid could see the sharp lines of his jaw and the cool muscular tones of his neck. He had grown some light stubble, something she had noticed before, but from this new angle, she could see just how much he had grown. 

Yet, the new and strong appearance of Hiccup from this new angle wasn't what struck Astrid the most. It was his scent. There was just something so intoxicating about it. It made her feel warm, and safe, like she was wandering through the country fields in the height of summer with the sun on her face. It was calming.

He smelt like pine wood and leather. A musk that could only be attributed to him. A smell that was uniquely his and his alone.

A moment passed between them before Hiccup looked down to check on Astrid. When he did, he found their eyes locked with one another in an addictive gaze that he could not escape even if he wanted to. Which, for that briefest moment, he didn't want to.

Their eyes were captured in a deadly stare-off, their hearts beating in unison as this short moment stretched out between them a mile long. Never before had Astrid felt this way with a man, not even with Eret. There had been moments with her fiance where she had felt swooned, but never like this. Never had her heart stuttered in her chest because of the mere presence of another man, let alone that man being Hiccup.