For Milady

SIX: Arrival

A/N: And...lots of feedback. Thanks to everyone who commented constructively. This story is going to involve people making bad decisions (as if that hadn't already happened), adventures, some heartache, angst and Hiccstrid. Just so you're warned.

SIX: Arrival

Morning found Hiccup lying in his old bed, staring at the roof of his room and listening to Toothless breathing quietly as he slept. Even though he loved flying and lived to fly, the dragon was tired from the long trip back from the Edge and Hiccup's impromptu flight away after the confrontation with his father. Hiccup had sneaked in late and headed straight for bed, refusing to speak to his father because he knew all it would result in would be another shouting match.

But he felt utterly hopeless as he lay there, a hollowness in his chest making him feel almost dizzy. The previous day, he had been so happy, his being afire with hope and optimism. He was going to marry Astrid, the girl of his dreams and they were expecting a child together. And though it wasn't how he had planned things to happen, it was everything he had every dreamed of, the future he had prayed to Thor and Odin that he would one day earn...and for a couple of days, he had believed he had finally been blessed. But it was all a cruel trick, because the future he had dreamed and prayed for had always been impossible. His father had destroyed his every chance of happiness years earlier and had never even bothered to tell his son he was condemned to an arranged marriage.

He sat up and pulled his knees to his chest, hugging his arms around them and resting his chin on his knees. Stoick's decision to sign away his son and never tell him hadn't just wrecked Hiccup's dreams but had also broken Astrid's heart and ruined her life. And though technically, Hiccup had been the one who ruined her life, he knew he would never have gotten close to her if they hadn't become boyfriend-girlfriend...and that only happened because they had both believed he was available.

But he never had been and as he closed his eyes, he sighed. He had given up and though Astrid had agreed to stay, he knew she would suffer horribly, both from the sight of her fiancé married to another woman and from the comments about her pregnancy. And he honestly couldn't blame her for wanting to leave, because Thor knows, he would. And he hadn't expected her to give in so easily and...

His eyes snapped open. She had given in. Astrid Hofferson, furious and hurt and betrayed, had given in to the man who had inadvertently ruined her life.

Astrid never surrendered.

He threw his blanket aside and swung his legs over the side of the bed, hands fumbling for his metal leg and fiercely tightening the straps around his stump. Heart pounding in his chest, he reached for his leather flight vest and dragged it over his head, fumbling with the straps and silently cursing how many straps and buckles he had put on the garment-and sure, it looked cool but it didn't come on and off in a hurry. Then he glanced over to Toothless, who had cracked open a weary acid-green eye.

"Bud," he said quietly, "we need to get to the Hofferson House. I don't think Astrid was telling me the truth. I think she's gone." Cooing irritably, the black dragon clambered to his feet, stretched and then peered up at the hatch in the roof as Hiccup reached up and flipped it open. "Yeah-it's probably for the best," he admitted as he swiftly put on the saddle and tail assembly and swung into the saddle. Instantly, Toothless bunched his muscles and flung himself like a missile through the hatch, Hiccup lying flat over the neck as they exited and the tail flipping the hatch closed as they cleared the roof. Toothless's wings unfurled and they flapped as the pair soared through the cold morning air, the breeze riffling through Hiccup's wild hair as they glided down towards the main village and the little house that was Astrid's rebuilt home.