InsaneJournal

IWHO: Astrid Hofferson and Hiccup Haddock
WHAT: Astrid’s arrival
WHEN: Tonight
WHERE: On the Street
WARNINGS: Nah
STATUS: Closed/Started in Gdocs, will complete in tags


Astrid missed the Edge. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Berk - she did, very much. But she missed the freedom they’d had there. She’d loved that feeling of control over her life, of being the ones in charge. It had been their home, and things had gone by their rules. Sure, they’d been in danger more times than she liked to count, and it hadn’t all been fun. There’d been tears along with the laughter as they’d struggled through the things that Johann, Viggo and Krogan had thrown at them. But they’d gotten through those tears on their own, and they’d grown into young adults from the children they’d been when they’d left.

And being back in Berk...well, it wasn’t like all of that was reversed, but she found that she had to fight for some of the respect that had just been a given at the Edge. And that was annoying, to say the least. But, it was what it was, and nothing came from regret. You had to look forward, towards the future, or you’d be stuck forever in the past.

It was a warmer day than usual today, so she’d gone down to the lake to wash Stormfly. She treasured the times she took alone with her dragon. They were times she could just think of the future. And really, the future looked pretty bright for her. She was pretty sure that she’d be able to secure a permanent position training dragonriders. After all, who was better? Hiccup might be, but he was going to be far too busy with his duties as chief when that time came. So that made her the number one choice, at least in her own mind. And then, of course, there was Hiccup. She’d always thought that part of her future would be fraught and difficult and one of the major and defining moments of her life. And in a way, it was. But instead of it being some big romantic gesture, it had just kind of fallen into their laps. They weren’t Dagur and Mala (thank Thor). They were best friends whose friendship had grown into something far deeper and far more important. She loved Hiccup with all of her heart and all of her soul, but it was more of a quiet, always burning ember than it was a flame that lashed out at everyone around them. And it was perfect.

Stormfly splashed her with her tail and she yelped, wiping the water out of her eyes. When she opened them again, though, she gasped. She’d been at the pool, but now she was…

She had no idea where. She’d never seen a place like this. It was loud, and...carts with people inside were racing down the street far faster than any cart in Berk. At dragon speeds! And there were lights, and people speaking in a language she didn’t understand and…

She was nearly hyperventilating as she clutched the sponge that she’d been using to clean Stormfly and took a defensive position on the sidewalk.

“Stormfly!” She shouted. Didn’t she have to be close? When the dragon didn’t answer or appear she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. “Stormfly?” The fear that had been building turned to anger and she screamed.

“Whoever has my dragon, you’re going to be sorry!”

Sure, she was screaming in Old Norse, but she didn’t realize that the people around her didn’t understand.

***

Hiccup was pretty happy in Madison Valley. It wasn't perfect, not by any means, but he had some friends and his English was improving tremendously. He was, as always, very frugal about how he spent his money so that was why he spent most of his afternoons looking for all the various newspapers so that he could clip coupons. They really were very interesting a concept, and one that he'd embraced wholeheartedly.

Today was just like any other day, except as he was walking down the sidewalk, he heard a very familiar voice calling for Stormfly. Hiccup turned toward the sound and saw Astrid. She was very angry, yelling at the townspeople who couldn't understand her. But it was her! It was Astrid!

Hiccup dropped the newspapers and frantically watched the flow of traffic so that he could cross the street. "Astrid!" Gods above, was he glad to see her. "Hey, Hi. It's okay. Hey, it's alright. You're in Madison Valley. Remember? It's that place I told you about the other month." Although maybe she didn't remember that. People came from different points in time. "Stormfly's still at home, she's still in Berk. She's alright."

***

Astrid wasn’t sure why she’d forgotten that. Now that Hiccup was in front of her, reminding her, she remembered him being in Berk and telling them that he’d been in this other, different dimension. But five minutes ago she didn’t remember it. What kind of a place was this??

“Right....” she said, not looking very convinced. But the very fact that Hiccup was here and telling her that Stormfly was okay was calming her down a little. Hiccup would never lie to her about the safety of a dragon. If Hiccup said that Stormfly was alright, then Stormfly was alright. It was enough, at least for now.

She looked down at the little bag of things she’d been given. She didn’t know what any of them were, and she couldn’t understand a word that those people had been speaking to her.

“What are these things? What are those things?” she said, pointing at the cars. “How do we get back to Stormfly and Toothless?”

***

Hiccup was honestly just so glad to see her. He'd been missing her fiercely ever since having those brief few days with her while arranging the dragon racing. She was sort of in battle mode right now though, so he didn't try to hug her or anything. That was a surefire way of getting hit. He did, however, put his hands on her shoulders to get her to focus on him instead of all the craziness happening around them. It was very overwhelming the first time and it was still a little overwhelming even now for him.

"We can't get back," Hiccup told her sadly. "I'm sorry. I know this is a lot. We're stuck here, but at least we're here together." He was happy to at least be able to spend time with her. Gods above, did it feel good to see her again. "I'll explain all of that stuff, I promise. Those are cars. They're motorized carts!" It was astonishing now that he knew what they were.

"The people here, they don't speak our language. There are some people who do, but not many." There was so much he had to tell her. "Will you come with me? To where I live here?" She probably lived near where he did since he still lived in the apartment he'd been assigned when he'd arrived.

***

Hiccup’s hands on her shoulders focused her like she always did, and her blue eyes turned a little less wild. This was one of the weirdest things that had ever happened to her, and it was going to be a very long time before she wasn’t on edge, but at least they could get through it together.

But when he said they couldn’t get back, she tensed again, and her eyes hardened.

“How can we not get back? Who’s holding us here?” She was ready to fight whoever she needed to fight to get back home. She’d been held prisoner too many times not to be infuriated by that. “You came home. Through that portal. Where is it?” It was weird, her thoughts concerning those few days were so hazy and she couldn’t remember the details well. It seemed to be getting slightly clearer the longer she stayed here, but it still didn’t completely make sense. Why was that? She filed it away to figure out later.

She managed a weak smile over his excitement at the cars. It wasn’t a shock he’d geek out over the new inventions. It was charming and adorable and one of the things she loved most about him. Even if she wasn’t in the mood for it right now and everything about this place was overwhelming.

“Yeah,” she said. “Of course.”

She’d been given a key, and they’d told her something when they’d given it to her, but she hadn’t understood a word. And she couldn’t read the paper, either.

***

He really should have saved the bit about being trapped until they got back to his apartment. “It’s some kind of forcefield,” he explained. “Kind of like the Dome we built for practice.” Only it was closed all the time and the portals to other places only lasted a little while. “That portal was just for those four days. It closed and Nina and I got brought back here.” He’d been showing her his maps and all the research he and Fishlegs had on the various kinds of dragons when they’d ended up back in the park, without the stuff in their hands.

When she agreed to come with him, he gave her a smile and let go of her shoulders. He didn’t reach for her hand, but he made sure to be close enough next to her that the back of his hand brushed the back of her’s. “It’s not far from here,” Hiccup promised. He pointed to the direction they were heading in and was careful to keep to the sidewalks.

“The things they gave you, one of them is a key to an apartment like mine. You’re probably in the same building as me.” Maybe they could find somewhere they could live on their own, but that would require a job and he was still working up the courage to ask Nina’s Dad if he could work at the forge.

“This place is very strange. So few people speak our language, but those that do are nice,” Hiccup assured her. He spoke to a few more than others, mostly because he didn’t feel entirely comfortable around Thor, but he didn’t want to overwhelm her more than she already was. “It’s really good to see you,” he added. And this time he made sure his hand bumped lightly into hers.

***

Astrid didn’t hesitate to take his hand, and squeeze it. They were past the point that she was embarrassed about holding hands in public and she was pretty stressed right now. Having Hiccup’s support in a more concrete sense was something she definitely wanted. Plus, holding hands with him was nice. She liked doing it even when she wasn’t entirely freaking out.

“My own apartment?” The word he used was strange. She understood it, but it wasn’t the type of word they used for housing back home. She had a feeling that the living situation was going to be new to her as well. She wasn’t sure she liked the sound of it.
“I didn’t recognize the language they were speaking. I’d never heard anything like it. They were just blabbering away and I must have been staring at them like an idiot. Then they just gave me this stuff and left.” She paused. “I might have threatened them a little.”

But really, what could they expect?

***

Hiccup was glad when she took his hand. It was just nice to have her back. He had a feeling he was going to be thinking that repeatedly for a while. The apartments were kind of weird, but he equated it to a more time period appropriate dwelling from what they had on the Edge. And much closer together.

“They were speaking English. It’s very weird and it honestly doesn’t even make that much sense. One of the things they gave you, it can help translate from one language to the next, but it isn’t very good. I’ll teach you though, and there are a couple of people who speak our language. Magnus is one, he’s one of my friends here. And then there’s Queen Elsa. She runs a business here that sells iced cream. It’s so good.” He had definitely made himself sick the first time around.

Hiccup kept telling her about the people he’d made friends with, included Colonel Sheppard and Nina. He spent the bulk of the time talking about Nina and how nice it was to be around someone who didn’t dislike him for not speaking her language. Plus, he was super jealous of her ability to talk to animals.

By the time he was done telling Astrid about Nina’s toy dragon, they were at the apartment complex. “Okay, this is where we live here,” Hiccup explained. “It’s not so bad. It’s just different. Everyone is really close together.” He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before he led her into the building and up the stairs. He’d show her the elevator another day. Plus, he was only three floors up. It didn’t take very long at all until he unlocked his door and let her inside.

“This is my apartment.” It was sparse for the most part, except there was a pile of books on the table that he’d been using to teach himself English.

***

Astrid was really trying to take this all in. Everything around her looked different. The trees, the ground, the buildings, even the sky. The smells were foreign and the sounds were new and even the clothes that the people they passed wore were like nothing she’d ever seen before. Nothing was the way it should have been and honestly, it was terrifying. She was sure that Hiccup could feel her trembling and she was grateful that he didn’t say anything.

She tried to make things better by concentrating on his words instead of on her surroundings. It was hard, but the familiar tone of Hiccup’s voice was soothing, as was the warmth and pressure of his hand holding hers. She trusted him with her life - and had put that into practice many times. Having him there was the only thing that was keeping her from completely freaking out.

She listened to the names of his friends, and couldn’t help but smile when he talked about the little girl, Nina. She vaguely remembered that he’d brought her with him to Berk, and that Toothless had been particularly fond of her. She looked forward to seeing Nina again, and looked forward to meeting Hiccup’s other friends.

When they stepped into his apartment, she looked around. It was a strange dwelling, with strange appliances. The kitchen - was it a kitchen? - didn’t have a fire, but it was full of strange machines, and even stranger than that, had a pipe that brought him running water. Right into the house! There was a large box that was cold inside, and lots of others things that she didn’t understand.

The books on the table were one of the only things that were familiar. Finally, she sat heavily on the couch, staring forward into space for a moment, trying to put some order, some sense into everything she’d seen. Gods, she was glad that Hiccup was here.

“Okay,” she managed finally. “Okay. This is...this is really weird.”