Won't Give Up [Book 4]

~5~

Hiccup rushes to the door when he hears someone knocking. He opens the door and sees Astrid standing there with a duffle bag. She has a wide smile. Hiccup eyes her wryly.

"Please tell me there isn't a dead body in there." Hiccup says as he moves aside to let Astrid in.

She smirks. "Of course not." Hiccup nods. "And if there was, I would have a shovel with me." Hiccup gaps at her as she walks to the living room.

He hurries after as she sets the bag on the ground. He sits on the couch and looks at her. "Okay. So if you aren't here to recruit me to help you bury a body, then what are you here for? Not to be rude or anything though."

Astrid shoots him a look. "I thought the gang could all spend a night watching movies and playing games together."

"What kind of movies and games?"

"Well, I brought over all the movies that I own. And I thought we could play, like, truth or dare or something."

"And you thought that playing truth or dare with the twins and Snotlout was a good idea?"

She looks as if she is thinking about it and before she can answer, someone knocks on the door. Toothless must have heard it that time because he comes darting down the stairs and almost trips Hiccup when he goes to answer the door.

"And how come I never knew about this?" He yells to Astrid as he opens the door and sees Snotlout and Fishlegs. He gestures for them to come inside as he holds back Toothless. When he shuts the door, Toothless thought it was perfect to give them both a very slobbery greeting.

"Aw that's gross." Snotlout complains.

"Hi to you too. Cmon. Astrid is already here." He leads them into the living room and Astrid has already set up everything.

"I didn't tell you because I knew that you wouldn't care." Astrid says and looks at him from her spot on the floor.

Snotlout right away went to the TV and popped in a game he brought and he forced Fishlegs to join him.

Hiccup sits down next to Astrid. "What if I wasn't home and you just walked right on in and got this all set up?"

"Then you would walk into a surprise." She retorts. Hiccup rolls his eyes and watches Snotlout crush Fishlegs in the game; though Fishlegs doesn't look to be trying too hard.

"Cmon Fishlegs! Actually try to win! You are not a good competitor!" Snotlout yells at Fishlegs.

"So. When are the twins coming?" Hiccup asks. Astrid looks at him like he is crazy.

"Did you seriously just ask me that? This is the twins we are taking about. They could show up in the middle of the night for all we know. Or they might not show up at all."

"Noted." Astrid rolls her eyes and punches his shoulder. "Okay. You are seriously going to do some serious damage to my shoulder one of these days." Hiccup complains as he cradles his shoulder

"Oh boo hoo. You poor child." Astrid teases.

"You should kiss it better." Hiccup says. Astrid can tell that he is trying to say it with confidence but she can still hear the shyness in his voice.

She smiles and kisses him. When she pulls away, Hiccup looks shocked. "Th- that wasn't my shoulder."

"I know." Astrid says cheekily.

*0*0*

When the twins finally show up, they watch the Star Wars saga. Somewhere during the third movie did they stop paying attention and gather in a circle in their pile of blankets and pillows. They started playing truth or dare. Around one a.m. did they one by one fall asleep. Astrid was the last.

Though she wasn't exactly tired, she still tried to get some shut eye. She also happened to be laying next to Hiccup. She saw how he was struggling to fall asleep. With his dad dying a few weeks ago, she understands how he is having trouble.

So for about an hour, she kept running her fingers through his auburn hair. Even when he was already asleep, she kept doing it. When she stopped, she finally decided to try and fall asleep.

Then he started muttering. At first, Astrid thought he was having nightmare. But it didn't get any worse so she went back to carding her fingers through his hair. She never realized how soft his hair really is. It always looked soft but she never spent that much time playing with his hair to appreciate the softness of it.

When she stopped again, he was silent for about 15 minutes. Then he said something that shocked her. Yes, it sounded slurred and tired but she could still make out what he said.

She didn't know how to process to what he said. It kept running through her head.

She layed there, seeing if he was going to say anything else. When he didn't, she tried to fall asleep.

But she knew she wouldn't get much sleep that night.

She kept thinking whether or not to tell him that he said that in the morning. She didn't want to cause any problems. And besides, that was something private. She knew that he would never voluntarily tell anybody that. Not even her.

So why, if she did tell him he said that, why would he want to talk about it?

With these thoughts in her head, Astrid tries to fall asleep.