Who: Hiccup & Astrid What: Hiccup dreams of his dad's fate. Spoilers for HTYD2 if you haven't seen it yet! When: Weeee can say last night? Where: Hiccup's dorm on UCLA campus. Rating/Warnings: Low. Status: Complete!
Berk was slowly becoming one of Hiccup’s favorite fictional places to visit. Granted, it was only ever in his dreams, but he truly loved that little land. It was certainly a home in his mind and while most people hated their dreams Hiccup hadn’t come to that just yet. However, when he slipped into sleep with Astrid beside him, he wasn’t expecting his dreams so start up so instantly. They picked up from where they left up with the battle against Drago and his Bewilderbeast, which had surprised Hiccup a lot. How in the world were there two of those massive dragons?
It was a hard fight and as Hiccup dreamt through the eyes of his other self he knew something was going to happen. There was a feeling in the pit of his stomach and then he watched in horror as the tides turned and the Bewilderbeast began to emit a strange noise that quickly turned all the dragons into mindless beasts. Including Toothless who began to stalk towards him with an evil look in his eyes. There wasn’t much Hiccup could do except back up and try to get Toothless to snap out of it. Unfortunately as Toothless prepared his attack his father ran in at the last minute and was hit by the blast and sparing his life.
He knew his body was thrashing slightly in the bed as he and his mother ran over to his father only to discover that he had died. A thousand thoughts and emotions rushed through his mind and he knew he was crying both there and in real life as the death of his father became concrete in his mind. How could this have happened? Berk was a safe place. It wasn’t a place for battle and losing loved ones. Astrid rushed over to help comfort him and while a rational part of him knew that it wasn’t Toothless’ fault he still lashed out at the dragon and drove him away in his grief. And then had to watch in horror as Drago controlled Toothless once more and rode off with him.
He woke up with a sob on his lips and immediately pushed himself into a sitting position as he began to cry.
There was something about sleeping with Hiccup (this time in a non-sexual way) that pulled Astrid into the deepest sleeps, always driven to sleepy cuddling and clings throughout the night. He was comfy and she’d proven to be something of a snuggler and he’d never let her live it down. So when there was obvious movement - and not just in the form of rolling over or draping legs over each other - there was a stir and a murr.
Then crying. A sob filled her ears, the sound of sadness making her eyes blearily blink and her consciousness to come back to the land of the awake. First she thought she’d been hearing something else, but, no, that was --
“Hiccup?” Astrid’s voice was thick with sleep. “What are--” Okay, she had to push herself up, squint in the darkness, and her hands hovered over him for a second before her arms coiled around him, bringing him into a tight embrace. “Hey, hey. C’mere.”
Why was he…? Did you--?
No. She wouldn’t ask anything right now. Let him talk, first.
When she reached out for him he allowed himself to be pulled into her embrace, but he couldn’t stop sobbing. His body was shuddering with the force of his sobs and he was doing his best to try and control it. He couldn’t speak and he knew he needed to give her an explanation to what in the world was going on. The pain of loss was so prevalent that he couldn’t really think about anything else and his whole body was hurting.
“I-- I--” his voice was cracking as he sobbed and he took a few deep breaths as he tried to fix himself. It took him a moment, but he finally managed to get himself under control as he reached a hand up to wipe the tears away, “He died. My dad died.”
There. Plain and simple. That’s really all he needed to say because that was probably what she had been talking about when she said something was going to happen in his dreams. This was the only time that he absolutely hated his dreams, but the saving grace was having her beside him and she understood what was going on.
“I know,” Astrid choked, arms squeezing him as tightly as possible. It’s what she expected, it’s exactly what she dreaded - and it was something she didn’t have the heart to tell him. He needed to see it on his own. Understand it. Come to terms with it. Because there were no amount of words that could really help Astrid explain the mess that he had just dreamed about.
Fingers went to thread through his hair, soothing. “But...he’s alive here, Hiccup. It was--it’s a dream. Of somewhere else. But your dad’s still here.” And he wasn’t dead.
It still wasn’t easy. She knew that.
“I know….I know,” he was managing to calm down a little as he spoke but he stayed close to her and let his head rest on her shoulder. His entire body was beginning to ache and he couldn’t believe that this had been something that he experienced. It was so surreal and it felt absolutely real as he was standing there in horror.
“I just...god it hurts so bad just to even dream that. I can’t believe that happened. He’s supposed to be invincible,” He commented with a frown as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him, “Those dreams don’t seem like the place where bad things happen. Things are supposed to be happy there. Dragons, Vikings, fun, no drama.”
Astrid’s lips curled into a morose smile. “Too bad our dreams can’t be like Disney movies, huh?” Bad things still happened, but everything usually came out okay in the end. They didn’t run the risks they ran there and that was hopefully a factor in comforting him - no psycho dragon conqueror with a bewilderbeast doing his bidding.
Didn’t mean it hurt, though, and she remembered the heartache she felt when she woke up from dreaming his death. Stoick’s funeral. It was all too real, too raw, for it to be brushed off as just another one of those dreams. “But you see--see why I couldn’t tell you?”
It was one thing to tell him that his father died.
It was another to tell him that Toothless was responsible.
“Some more warning would have been good. I mean, I get it, I do, but I was so unprepared for that. For how much it would hurt. I’m afraid to even close my eyes again and watch it happen all over. I just….don’t know what to think anymore,” this was the only time that he was truly upset with the fact that he was dreaming. It hurt him and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to experience anything else in that world anymore.
He knew it was going to happen to him no matter what, but he was really starting to understand the people that didn’t want to dream anymore. He was just so glad that he had Astrid beside him that he could confess all of this to. With the death of his father that meant he was going to have to become Chief of Berk and he wasn’t sure if he could handle all that.
This was just too much at one time and he wasn’t even sure how he was supposed to handle dream grief. It just seemed so silly to be upset about things in his dreams, but they were part of his life. What if suddenly things came true and his father was randomly killed in the near future? It freaked him out.
Maybe. Maybe she should have at least told him that his father died. And he could have found out about the how on his own, but damn, how do you deal with situations like this? Was there a 101 dummy book at Barnes and Nobles she needed to get? Now the guilt flooded, burned her veins and made her grip on him tighten in a wordless apology.
“It gets better,” she forced out, trying to be reassure despite the wavering voice. “It does. And...you’ll be really proud of Toothlesss, too.”
Astrid dropped a kiss atop of his head and squeezed yet again, almost bone-crushing with those viking arms of hers.
“I don’t know if it’s possible to be proud of Toothless right now. I’m going to have to avoid him until I get past this point in my dreams. I don’t think I could see him right now. I’d probably end up getting angry for no good reason. I’m just afraid it could happen here,” he admitted with a frown. It was possible. It could totally happen -- stranger things have happened in this place.
But he was distracted by his thoughts momentarily when Astrid hugged him tight. He let out a gasp, “Jesus, you’re going to destroy me with your arms.” He wiggled slightly to get her to loosen up just slightly and then moved so he could kiss her cheek. He was just glad that she was here and would help him feel better when he needed it. At least she was a little more rational than the Astrid in his dreams sometimes.
Astrid had a bit to simmer and analyze the situation - and she’d dream of all the things that had happened after it. Eventually they all made peace about what happened. Eventually. But she was ahead, Hiccup was behind, and knowing this was tough on him…
Less clunking heads and swinging an axe around to solve problems, more of being the provider of comfort and solace.
“It’s because I love you so much my arms are killing you?” Her mouth pointed into a playful smirk, and she trapped his face between her hands for a kiss on the lips - no silly cheeky kindergarten shit. Astrid kissed him like she took his virginity. A second time. “I’ve got Toothless. Don’t worry about it, okay?”
“That’s the worst way of telling me that you love me, ever,” Hiccup quipped quickly before his face was trapped and she was kissing him like that. Oh goodness. That sent some chills down his spine and he was about to return the kiss when she mentioned that she had Toothless. It would be nice to be able to get away from his dream for a bit and figure out this situation.
“Good, now go back to kissing me like that and I may be able to forget about my dreams for a long time,” he commented with a wry grin before he playfully wrapped his arms around her waist and rolled them over so he was laying on top of her. He could certainly get lost in her for the evening and drive away any thoughts about his bad dreams. It was probably better to do that for now and then try to reassess in the morning. Thank God he had Astrid or else he would probably be going crazy by this point.
Astrid almost purred at being pushed onto her back, eyes narrowed in some feline-gaze, provocative and impish. Good thing they were at Hiccup’s and not hers, otherwise the couchdweller’s presence under her roof would have made this much more awkward and less sexy. “I can definitely do that,” she agreed, no problems there.
Long legs trapped him where he was, coiling around his waist to the point of her knees hugging him tight. Fingers locked into that puffy chestnut hair, she tugged him down to steal another kiss, breathless and full of college-aged hormones. “But just so you know...it is going to be okay. And there’s an ending. A good one.”
He may have lost his father, but he gained his mother. It was still something.