Hiccup and Astrid

one night upon a time part 2

"I can't believe you accept the sleepover plan, Astrid"
"Why not, Ruff, you are my friend after all"
The two girls sat in Astrid's hut with Ruffnut playing with Astrid's hair.
Ruffnut loved hair.  She loved to play with hair, braid hair, wash hair even cut hair.  And it wasn't a secret, girly habit either; everyone knew of Ruffnut's love for hair.
Of course, if anyone made fun of her for it, they'd likely be missing their hair the next morning.
"Remember when you made up the 'missingtoes' tradition, it was a disaster"
"Yeah, until Hiccup came and fix it"
"What?"
"Yes, he fix it"
"Tell me about it"
"Okay,...
The air itself had frosted since the passing of Solstice Eve. The trees turned white in their time casings and greeting words pillowed in visibility between passing Vikings. The thickest of mitts and boots and cloaks were donned in light of the changing weather. Still, the sting inside his throat and the numbness of his nose could never keep Hiccup from the skies for long.
It only shortened his flight time.
Breathless and sated from their morning flight, dragon and rider scanned the village for a subtle landing area.  They clung to Berk's outskirts, keeping low, skirting the forests and ducking around tall structures all in the name of evading detection.  The steady beat of hammers billowed from the village like smoke as repairs for the Hidden Egg Debacle continued. Hiccup knew he was expected to be helping down there and wanted to avoid word reaching his father that he chose to fly instead.
His eyes sought out a livestock barn atop one of the northern hills where Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs hammered diligently at their assignment.
"There," Hiccup murmured into the collar of his vest.  Every time he opened his mouth the air bit at his tongue.
He nudged the tailfin and Toothless took the cue to bank left. Their bodies moved in sync for a clean landing; they swooped low behind homes and stables to escape detection, swift and fleeting as any imagination's figment, and came to a rest in the shadow of the barn.  Toothless fanned his wings before his paws touched ground and a light dusting of snow was thrown over the three laboring boys.  The chill and flakes slowed their hammers until their work ceased completely.
"Thanks!" Snotlout called in false cheer. He whacked his powered work area with the side of his hammer to shock some of the snow from it. "I thought this could be more challenging."
Hiccup slid from the saddle.
"Sorry," he apologized with more formality than any meaning. Wind nip had chafed his cheeks and stunned his limbs; the only thing on his mind was getting his fingers warm again.
"Hey Hiccup," Fishlegs greeted. He was the only boy of the three who didn't look annoyed with him.
"Hey," Hiccup breathed. He set to fiddling with the belts of Toothless' harness. If he took the flying gear off here, left it in the barn, and later carried it through the back of his house he may get away with no one noticing his forbidden flight...present company aside.
"Whoa man!" Tuffnut's voice shouted down from the top of the barn's roof.  Hiccup's head snapped up with a start; he had forgotten spying Tuffnut up there earlier. "What happened to you?"
There was no mistaking whom he addressed. Tuffnut jeered down at Hiccup with his legs astride the peaked wooden slope.
"Huh?" Hiccup looked upon his appearance, where leaves and flecks of bark clung to his clothes and harness. "Oh..." he deadpanned. "We cut it a little too close to some trees."
With the cold air came a waning desire for altitude. Hiccup had used the new flying limitation to practice maneuvering through land-based objects—namely treetops. Reaction time with his prosthetic had improved over the months but there were some instances where Toothless miscalculated having a human on his back. Lucky for Hiccup, his face was numb enough to survive a few branches cracking against his cheeks.
"Why were you out flying while the rest of us had to work?" Snotlout asked. Aggression tinted his voice, likely brought on from cold, labor, and the unfairness of having to work while Hiccup flew.
"Uh..." Hiccup paused in his unfitting to pat Toothless' neck. "Because Toothless needed to fly. These Night Furies...they're high maintenance, you know?"
Toothless growled in agreement. Hiccup knew the dragon would demand extra treats later just to prove this 'high maintenance'.
His cousin snorted.  Air condensed from his nostrils like a rattled bull.
"Hookfang wants to fly too. You don't see me skipping out on chores."
That Snotlout spent most of his childhood skipping chores to practice weaponry kept Hiccup from feeling too guilty. That he often practiced with me only served to make Hiccup equally annoyed.
"Hookfang does not," Hiccup said flatly. "He has babies."
A day or so of intense observation led Hiccup to the realization that mother dragons were loath to let their brood out of sight. Even when hunting they often left their hatchlings under the care of another dragon until they returned.
"Where's the ladder?" Tuffnut called from above.  Again, his aloft voice shocked Hiccup.
"It's on the other side of the barn," Fishlegs supplied. The hefty lad had set aside his hammer to rub his hands together.
"Oh yeah..." Tuffnut mumbled before his head disappeared over the barn's summit.
Hiccup almost wanted to watch Tuffnut crawl around on the icy roof in search of the ladder just to see if he'd fall but his fingers throbbed for warmth.
"I haven't gotten to ride Meatlug in a week," Fishlegs lamented.  It was the first time he expressed sadness over being grounded; usually he was content to play with the baby Gronkles.
"I can take her out for you," Hiccup offered without thinking.
He had hardly finished the suggestion before Toothless whacked him with his tail and Snotlout raged, "You need to work like us!"
Snotlout swung his hammer against the barn. Snow clinging to the roof's fringe dropped around him with heavy plops that sunk into the ground like footsteps.
"Wuh—arrgh!"
Tuffnut's scream carried from the other side of the barn before silencing in a sudden, mighty thud. Snotlout, Fishlegs and Hiccup all stared at each other.
A very still moment passed. Then Tuffnut's muffled voice floated to them over the same path as his scream.
"I'm okay..."
Snotlout started laughing.
"You know, people have died from falling off of roofs," Fishlegs reproached.
Hiccup rolled his eyes and set to removing his harness, brushing clumps of pine and leaves from it as he went. He paused when movement downhill caught his attention and groaned when he looked.
Thyra Dalgaard had caught another Terror and was forcing her affections on it.
"Thyra," Hiccup said with the patience of a man twice his age. "I don't need to tell you how much he doesn't like that."
The eight year old froze in her trek past him. She looked down at the defeated Terror hanging in her arms. She was nearly tall enough to carry the dragon without his tail dragging on the ground. Nearly.
"Thyra..." Hiccup said again, this time with more warning.
Thyra released the dragon and watched as the Terror took off into the snow.
Toothless snorted, his vapory breath rose from his nostrils in twin strings. The Night Fury's feelings about Terrors were no secret to Hiccup.
"No one deserves that," Hiccup told him. Fishlegs shuffled up to Hiccup's side.  He cast a shadow over the brunet with his towering height.
"She'll have another one in no time," Fishlegs said of the young girl who now stared forlornly in the direction of the escaped Terror. He worried his lip. "Oh, I hope she hasn't found Meatlug's nest..."
"I'll have a talk with her," Hiccup promised. He had had talks with her,with several of the kids about their handling of smaller dragons. A dragon's tolerance only went so far. One would snap back some day, a child would get hurt, a parent would get a hold of the offending dragon and...
"Always have to be the hero, don't you?" Tuffnut had just rounded the corner of the barn, a limp in his movement and the usual mocking swagger in his voice. Hiccup took the tone in stride.
"Only where dragons are concerned—hey!"  Hiccup yelped when Snotlout's mallet swung into the snow-cleared, moist earth by his feet.  His cousin hopped from the stepladder he had been using to reach the higher boards, likely realizing no work would be done so long as Hiccup was there to distract them.
Snotlout made a wise decision in moving away from Toothless to stand at Tuffnut's other side.  Toothless did not like people throwing weapons at Hiccup, even when just for a scare.
"Well, don't you look pretty today," Snotlout chortled with his hands on his hips.  His eyes were fixated on Hiccup's head.
Tuffnut had a hard grin on his face as he snickered.
"Yeah, now I can appreciate it up close.  I think looks lovely with his tunic."
Snotlout nodded. "It really brings out his eyes."
"Makes those freckles pop."
"Adds ten pounds."
Hiccup had finally shrugged out of his harness and squinted in suspicion to their quips. "What?"
"Um, I think he means the stuff in your hair," Fishlegs pointed out. The blond was of little other help, having to bite his lip to keep from joining the other two in their sniggers.
"My..." Hiccup thread both his hands through his hair and came out with a thicket of leaves caught in his fingers odd, yellow-green leaves tied by a couple of waxy-white berries. "What the—?"
"Mistletoe!"
The girl's voice startled all three of the boys. Hiccup wasn't the only one who thought Thyra had already left.
Then his face paled. "Missing toe?"
The bruise had faded but my deluded attempt at instilling holiday traditions had not yet faded from memory. The boys jerked and glanced around them for any sign of hanging toes or a lurking me.
"Mistletoe," Thyra repeated more strongly. She pointed to the berried leaves held by Hiccup. "Gothi's teaching me."
"What is it?" Fishlegs asked, insistent on knowing.
"It fixes infurr-ility," Thyra answered, stumbling over the word. "...Whatever that is."
Tuffnut looked at Snotlout. "In fur-ility?"
"I think she means infertility," Snotlout murmured back.
Thyra nodded. "Yeah. That."
Fishlegs' face pinkened. "Oh...that's when...I mean..."
"It's when you can't have babies," Hiccup interjected, still observing the leaf in his hands. He had seen this sort of plant before, usually in clusters over the higher branches of trees. What a peculiar name...
"Wait, I know mistletoe," Fishlegs muttered to himself. His eyes bulged when the answer came to him and he uttered a small cry. "Isn't that poisonous?! That's how the god Baldr dies if I recall!"
"Ugh," Tuffnut recoiled from Hiccup with the same amount of uncalled repulsion. "Wouldn't that make it bad luck? Get that away from me!"
"You don't need anymore bad luck, Hiccup," Snotlout told him. His face and tone hardly conveyed the concern to match his words.  The thought of Hiccup receiving more bad luck appeared to amuse him.
"It actually protects against witchcraft," Thyra informed them. She had an air of smugness indicating that she enjoyed telling older children what was what. "Gothi says so."
"I think I hear Gothi calling for you," said Snotlout. He pointed to the forest. "In there."
Thyra saw through the lie and glowered.
Hiccup continued to hold the mistletoe, twisting the stem so that the berries alternated in catching the sun.
"Funny how it sounds like Missing Toe," he hummed. A thought began to form in his mind; an idea he couldn't quite see to completion at the moment.  But it was there, niggling.
Tuffnut snorted. "I know, right? Except this won't get us a punch in the face. Man, if Ruffnut's fat head wasn't in the way I would have knocked Astrid right back."
He made a menacing fist to emphasize his point.
"No you wouldn't have," Fishlegs droned.
A small smile came to Hiccup's face, though not for anything his surrounding companions said.
"Is it weird this is giving me ideas?" he asked to no one in particular.  A queer and potentially harebrained idea to be sure.
"Yes," intoned Snotlout. Vikings found Hiccup's ideas to be disturbing at best. I never came up with new ideas before I had Hiccup as a friend; I was content to practice and master the ideas of warrior Vikings before me. If my behavior over Snoggletog was anything to go by, Hiccup had somehow convinced me it was okay to create ideas.
It was not okay.
Snotlout was very against ideas.
To his cousin's chagrin, Hiccup nodded once, his mind made up.
"I'm going to find Astrid," he announced. "Come on Toothless."
He collected his flying gear in a bundle, dashed into the barn, and deposited the roll of leather and metal into a corner. Then he set off in ankle-deep snow to find me.
Fishlegs turned to the other boys as Hiccup parted with a half-wave farewell over his shoulder
"We were talking about bad luck...then he gets an idea and goes to see Astrid?"
Tuffnut shrugged. "Makes sense to me."
Snotlout picked his hammer up out of the snow.
"If this involves another "tradition" I'll volunteer myself an Outcast."

============================
To be continued...