You Are My Romeo

Chapter 7: Locked Away

~Astrid~

I blinked at the man that was reaching his hand out to me, waiting for me to shake it. I arched a brow as I crossed my arms over my chest. "Alright Hiccup Haddock, give me one good reason to why you're on my balcony and why I shouldn't kill you right here and now."

A chuckle escaped the man that had been named after an involuntary bodily reaction — much like the many emotions that were busy rushing through my body at that moment — before he scratched the back of his neck. "I-I really should've thought this through before I just went and showed up at your balcony, huh?"

He must've expected a laugh from me, but I was dead serious as I awaited his answer. There was no time for humor in the life of the betrothed of the Berserker Chief. Realizing that he wasn't going to get any reaction from me other than a judgmental stare, Hiccup cleared his throat and begun: "Well, after we made eye contact last night ... wow, this is sounding really weird! Or maybe it's more like when we made eye contact I just ... I'm sorry if this sounds really strange but I just felt something between the two of us, something like a spark and I knew that if I ignored that feeling I would regret it for the rest of my life."

I swallowed the lump that had been growing inside my throat, surprised to hear that I wasn't the only one who had felt ... whatever had happened the night before so intensely. I allowed my gaze to meet his and I was instantly sucked right into those mesmerizing eyes of his as it felt like a colony of butterflies had taken off in my stomach. As soon as I felt my cheeks grow hot, I tore my gaze away from his and attempted to fall back into my previously icy exterior.

With a sigh, I stuck out my hand to him as a small smile pulled at the corner of my lips. "I'm Astrid, Astrid Hofferson."

Hiccup took my hand in his, tightening his firm grip around my fingers as a crooked smile appeared on his face. "I'm assuming this means you won't kill me?"

A laugh escaped me, but as I was about to answer, there was a heavy pounding on my door. My eyes shot open wide as I began pushing Hiccup out of sight. "Hide! If they find you here, you're a dead man!"

"What about you?" He furrowed his brows and for yet another moment, our eyes met, but I refused to drown in those emerald green eyes of his once more.

"I'll be fine, just hide, please!" I urgently whispered as I went inside and closed the balcony doors behind me.

"Miss, are you alright? Hello? Are you there? We're coming in!" I breathed a sigh of relief at the voices that came from the other side of the door, luckily, it didn't seem like Dagur was there.

"I'm fine, just please, give me a minute!" I shouted back as I rushed over to the bed and grabbed a fur to cover myself before the guards threw open the door and streamed into my room. The four, heavily armed guards split up and searched the room as the head guard — whose name I had yet to be told — turned to me with a furrowed brows.

"We heard a loud sound coming from up here before the tower shook, what happened? Were you attacked by another dragon?" The head guard asked, glancing over at the balcony doors every now and again as if he feared said dragon would burst through any second.

I shook my head, fabricating the perfect lie in my head in a matter of seconds. "No, no, nothing like that. I was just having some ... female problems and naturally went a little mad."