Tangled Vows

Chapter 7

The silence between them echoed through the evening as the only thing to soundtrack the remaining journey towards Hiccup's house was their footsteps upon the sand. Every crunch felt like static to the swirling thoughts ravaging Astrid's mind as she tried to follow along behind Hiccup. 

His words continued to follow her with every step, as though repeating with every crinkle of the sand beneath her feet.

"Don't act all high and mighty like you deserve some kind of forgiveness, Astrid. Because you don't."

His voice pierced through her mind like a dagger from the dark, stabbing her where it hurt the most. Those words tortured her as they moved along the shoreline in silence, unable to speak another word to one another.

Enough had been said, and any more would add salt to the open wounds they had inflicted upon one another. So, they remained quiet and let the constant hum of the ocean waves, as well as the salty sea breeze, fill the tense air hanging over them.

Soon, their walk came to an end. When they finally came to a halt in front of a small two-storey property at the end of the beach and further inland, Astrid felt relieved that the nightmare of their journey could end.

However, she failed to realise that this nightmare was far from over.

Stepping inside, Hiccup flung the door open for Astrid and wandered his way in without much of a glance backwards. He strode in with confidence and collapsed down onto one of the chairs sitting in the kitchen that was adjacent to the front door.

It was a cosy house, and though it had little floor space to deal with, it was still comfortable to live in. Astrid had been in it before when she had lived in Berk three years ago. Hiccup had been living in this house since he was born, and it was the place his father had left for him when he passed. To Astrid, this was the one place that Hiccup wasn't ready to let go of and probably never would.

There wasn't much to the house. Adjacent to the front door, there was the kitchen with very few counter spaces and a small round table and chairs combination sat in the centre of that space. Opposite the kitchen, and toward the back of the house, was the living room. It was a cosy enough space, with a large sofa and TV against the wall that Astrid remembered spending many nights watching various movies with Hiccup late into the night. There were times when the whole gang would be invited for a full-length movie marathon of whatever franchise they were into that week.

She remembered this place well, and a small smile stretched onto her face at the memories.

"Please stop smiling, I would like to sleep tonight without a nightmare."

And then she remembered that Hiccup was still there, watching her.

Rolling her eyes, Astrid adjusted the bag on her back and strode over into the kitchen with her arms folded. The smile had fallen from her face, realising that this was no heart-warming reunion with the ghosts of her past but rather an unsightly form of punishment.

"Funny. Did you hurt yourself when you thought that one up?" Astrid retorted with a sarcastic laugh, unable to smile again after Hiccup had so brutally taken away her nostalgia.

Hiccup smirked, "Be careful, Astrid. You start talking stupid too much and you'll deprive some village of their idiot."

Pulling himself off of his chair with a groan, Hiccup buried his hands in his pockets and looked around at the house.

"Be careful what you say, or you'll have a broken nose to deal with as well as a broken ego," Astrid muttered to herself, adjusting her backpack once again.

But Hiccup seemed to ignore her words, or if he did hear them, he was choosing to ignore them. "Okay, you know the drill. You've been here before. Kitchen, living room, and bathroom are around there." - He pointed out as he listed them - "So, I'll show you to your room."

Before Astrid could retort, Hiccup strode past her and began to walk upstairs, which was opposite the front door. Astrid quickly hurried along behind Hiccup, desperate to catch up and not provide him with more ammo to call her out on. Hiccup had enough scathing insults as it was, she didn't need to give him any more.

Standing at the top of the stairs, outside the first room on the first floor, Hiccup turned to Astrid with a serious look and pointed at the door. "This is my room. You are not allowed inside under any circumstances. Any."

Astrid nodded in understanding, waiting to be shown to her room. 

"This is your room." Hiccup announced as he opened the door to show Astrid inside.

"Wasn't this your old room?" Astrid challenged, standing just at the threshold of the room but not quite stepping inside.

"Yeah, why? Does that bother you?" Hiccup mocked, rolling his eyes in annoyance at her strange questions.

"No, you just said that I wasn't allowed in your room under any circumstances. Since this is your room, I'm not allowed inside, right?" Astrid argued, turning to Hiccup with a smug expression and vague smirk colouring her lips.

A small hint of amusement passed over Hiccup's features before he quickly wiped it from his face and rolled his eyes. "It's not my room anymore. It hasn't been for quite some time. So go wild." Hiccup replied, pushing Astrid inside and over the threshold. "Come downstairs when you're ready."

Without another word, Hiccup disappeared from view and hurried back downstairs. Astrid could hear the television turn on and its usual hum of entertainment gracing the screen, so she closed the door and began to unpack her things.

It wasn't long before she made her way back downstairs and joined Hiccup in the living room, taking a seat on the sofa beside Hiccup - with an obvious gap left between them. The two sat in silence for a while, not saying a word to one another, before the tension between them got too much for Hiccup and his curiosity boiled over.

"Do you know how to cook?" Hiccup asked suddenly, yet not taking his eyes off of the television and deciding to flick through the channels instead.

Astrid looked between him and the television, not quite sure she had heard him right. "You want me to cook for you?"

Hiccup hummed in approval. "So, can you?"

Astrid scoffed, almost laughing at the indifference that Hiccup was displaying before her as he focused on the television. He refused to look at her, despite her replies of uncertainty at such a request.

"Not really..." Astrid finally answered, a wash of embarrassment flushing her cheeks as she picked at her nails nervously.

She didn't know what she was so afraid of. Perhaps she thought that Hiccup would explode in anger, maybe even cast her out of the house and onto the street for the night. Maybe he would decide that the two of them would go without dinner for the night, and Astrid would be left to stew with the guilt over his starvation and the torture of her own.

But Hiccup did none of that. Instead, he nodded thoughtfully and smiled.

"That's alright, we'll just get takeout for tonight." He assured her, with no hint of malice or anger behind his words. Just a simple solution to an inconvenient problem.

Astrid was surprised, yet couldn't help but be relieved. Maybe living with Hiccup wouldn't be such a dreadful thing after all.