Heir and Pride

Chapter Twenty Six

When he got back from his ride, Hiccup was exhausted, aching and light-headed. And Gothi was waiting for him, watching his antics with a disappointed scowl. He jumped off Toothless and his left leg buckled immediately, only just catching himself. His head bowed and his hand was clamped onto Toothless's saddle for support. Gothi scratched a series of symbols in the dirt and the boy stared dully. His head was spinning and he was starting to feel sick. Astrid saw him turn white and grabbed his arm before he could fold and she hastily bundled him onto Toothless.

"Get him into the house!" she snapped and the Night Fury obeyed, taking the boy to the bed and carefully shrugging the exhausted boy onto the bed. He gave a weak smile as he landed and lay on his side, breathing hard.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I may've overdone it..."

"Which is exactly what Gothi just said!" Astrid told him, following with the Elder. "Hiccup-you were unconscious for THREE WEEKS! And you just woke up-and guess what? You went flying straight away. You even wanted to go out without eating!" Hiccup glanced up and read genuine concern about him and gave a watery smile.

"Gee, Astrid-I never knew you cared..." he murmured. She punched his shoulder and he yelped.

"Ow!" he said. "What the...?" You promised you wouldn't hurt me!

"That's for scaring me!" she told him, her tone concerned. You will never know how scared I was that you would die and I would never be able to tell you how sorry I was-and how much I want to make it up to you!

"Is-is it always going to be this way?" he asked her in a hurt voice. He was still aching from his crash and that had really hurt! He grabbed the bruised area tenderly.

"What do you think all this is about?" she snapped. "What did I promise when you took me on that first flight? I said I was your friend. I hope...hope you realise that I am your friend and I am so, so sorry about how I treated you before..." He rolled slightly to face her and he inspected her closely. There were about a hundred ways he could respond: anger, disappointment, bitterness, sorrow...or he could be Hiccup. He blinked and then focussed his shining green eyes on her.

"I can't pretend that the way you ignored and treated me for years didn't hurt, Astrid, because it did," he said to her softly. She stiffened, fear flashing in her cerulean gaze: he hasn't forgiven me... "And when Dragon Training happened, you were absolutely horrible and cruel to me. I honestly don't know what I did wrong. All I did was what were supposed to-for once. And you found out about Toothless and threatened to tell my Dad." 

He found he was breathing hard and his voice was growing louder. She had beaten him up then as well. Oh gods, he shouldn't have thought of that. That horrific night when she had half-killed him. He swallowed and forced himself to be calm. He could see Astrid was trembling.

Astrid-trembling? Wow-this was far more important than he had guessed-to both of them. And it made his honesty all the more important.

"But I fell in love with you when I was ten, Astrid," he said quietly, his tone wistful. "At that time, you still looked at me like I wasn't a piece of yak dung and when I made your axe, I did it for my friend. I made the best damned weapon I have ever made, before or since. When you never said anything, I wondered if you were ashamed that I had made it and I said nothing. But it became clear you just despised me. Though I never stopped loving you and wanting you, one day, to treat me like...a friend. And when you found Toothless, you were vulnerable and Toothless really wanted to drop you. But I would never harm you. I wanted you to be my friend, even then."