Fearless: A Hiccstrid Love Story [ON HIATUS]

Chapter 6: The Ice Cave

ASTRID POV

Toothless dove down and landed. Hiccup desperately started removing the debris on top of me.

"Astrid! Astrid!" he called.

"Down here! Hiccup, I'm stuck! My foot's wedged in the rocks!" I grunted. 

Hiccup grabbed my leg and tried to pull it free.

"Can you take your foot out of your boot?" he asked.

"Aghh! I... can't!" I strained.

We tried several more times but with no success. The storm got even stronger and the wind was so loud it was hard to hear each other even when we were so close.

He grabbed my hand and looked at me with steady eyes.

"I'll be right back! I'll get you out of here... I promise!" 

I had complete confidence that Hiccup would get me out of there. He never breaks his promises.

He disappeared from my sight before I heard him faintly yell, "Okay, bud, don't miss! Plasma blast!" 

The blast blew the rocks apart and I pulled myself away. Hiccup ran over and hugged the air out me. 

"Oh, thank Thor. Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine." By this time, the wind got so strong that flying was impossible. "Hiccup, our dragons can't fly in this wind!"

"We have to find shelter and wait out the storm!" he replied.

Shielding the stinging wind from my face, I looked around for a place to stay. 

"Over there! It looks like a cave!" I hollered. 

Apparently, the twins had already grabbed the yak and left us to die. We got on our dragons and they walked toward the cave.

"This looks good. We'll stay here until the wind stops." Hiccup panted as we entered. 

I lay down on the freezing ground. I absolutely hated cold weather. It just makes my body shut down and I can't think. I should really start wearing sleeved tunics. 

The cave was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. 

"S-s-s-so... c-c-cold." I shivered, wrapping my arms around myself. 

"Oh Thor, you're freezing! Here, take my vest." 

I only heard his voice since we couldn't see each other in the darkness, but I felt a fur vest being wrapped around me by trembling arms.

"Th-th-thanks," I said.  "Hiccup, you're sh-sh-shivering." 

"No, I'm f-f-f-fine. I'm t-t-toasty warm," he chattered.

"Hiccup, we s-sound s-s-so ridiculous," I said, chuckling. "Come on, scoot closer so we can share your vest."

We both lay down and I tried to wrap the vest around. "Hiccup, get closer." 

Hiccup moved closer to me. My face felt really warm, and we were so close that we could feel our hot breaths hitting each other's faces. 

I still couldn't wrap the vest around because he kept changing his arms' positions, not knowing where to put them.

"It's okay, Hiccup, just put your arms around me... like this." 

I grabbed his hand and placed it on my back. I moved closer and pulled him into me. My head rested on Hiccup's neck in our side embrace.My brain was too numb to even comprehend what was happening right now. It was getting really warm under that vest, to the point where I was starting to sweat. I've only ever daydreamed of us being this close, sharing each other's body heat. I wish we were able to stay like this forever.

After a few minutes bliss for me, Hiccup noticed something and sat up. 

"I think the wind's stopped. We may be able to fly back home." 

That should be good news, but it only filled me with disappointment. I tried to convince him to stay.

"Hiccup, we're both too tired to fly, and our dragons have been flying all day in that wind. Let's just wait until morning to recover," I suggested.

"Dad and the others must be really worried about us," he said.

"We're not hurt and we'll be back soon enough so they can stop worrying. Now come back down; you're letting all the heat out." 

Hiccup lay back down to our embrace. 

Knowing I've won the discussion, I entangled our legs together. 

My heart was pounding but I didn't feel nervous. My vision became blurry and my body was overheating so much I thought I was melting. I knew we were just friends and I didn't expect anything more to happen. Even though Hiccup didn't know how I felt about him, I was happy just to hold him close to me.

"Um, it's getting, uh, kinda hot under here," he whispered with hot breaths.

I knew Hiccup was about to leave me and crawl away.

"Do you-- do you want to move?" I asked.

"Huh? No, no. Uh, are you still cold?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm freezing." 

I was actually the warmest I've ever been.

Hiccup then started to rub my back and arms swiftly with his hands. I tried to keep it together while my heart wanted to explode into a million pieces. I hid my smile in his shoulder.

"Is this better? I know how you hate the cold," he said.

"Yeah... thanks." I felt bad for my little lie, but not enough to not enjoy this situation.

After a while, he stopped warming me up and we returned to our embrace, lying on our sides. This time, he hugged me from behind. 

I loved the scent of his hair and clothes; it was a mix of an ocean smell from dragon riding and an earthy smell from his blacksmith duties.

"Are you going to sleep? Do you need some space?" Hiccup whispered. 

"No, it's fine. We can just stay... like this... for a while...." I whispered back.

I hugged his arms which were wrapped around my chest. I tried to memorize how his body felt against mine. Who knows if I would ever hold him like this again. I also felt him pull me closer every now and then. He couldn't see it, but I was wearing the biggest smile on my face. We fell asleep snuggled in each other's arms throughout the night.

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The next morning, we were back at the village reporting our night to the gang.

"And then the dragons used their wings to block the snow," Hiccup lied.

"I've never heard of anything like that... not even in the Book of Dragons, " Fishlegs said.

"I know! It was incredible! It's as if their protective instincts just kicked in!" I lied.

"Who'd believe it? The dragons we've fought for years came to our rescue," Hiccup lied again.

"Yeah, if it weren't for them, we would've frozen to death," I lied again.

"You know what, you could've used your own bodies to keep each other warm," Fishlegs added.

Hiccup and I moved away from each other.

"Umm..." I swept my bangs.

"Uhahaha, who would do that?" Hiccup asked.

"That's crazy," I said. 

To this day, no one but Hiccup and I know how we actually kept warm on that stormy night.

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A/N: After watching the Animal House episode, I couldn't resist telling the story in a different way. Thank you so much to everyone who has read and voted so far! Please comment down below, I'd really appreciate seeing your thoughts!

[Next Chapter: Astrid has some trouble sleeping]