A Siren's Song - A Hiccup Love Story (HTTYD/RTTE)

21

• • •

Fishlegs hadn't been seen all day. But when the sun was finally set, he stormed into the club house where everyone else was. In his arms, he carried numerous rolled up papers and the dragon eye. "Guys, I found something new on the song wing lense," he blurted excitedly, setting all of his things messily onto the table.

Aldru looked from the pile to Fishlegs and asked, "what is it?"

"Well, what you said yesterday, about wishing you could be just one or the other," Fishlegs began, pausing to catch his breath, "it got me thinking." Now holding everybody's attention, Fishlegs opened up one of the papers. Inside of it were drawn a circle of nine rocks, "these are the Stones of Destiny."

Hiccup squinted, "but, I don't remember seeing any of this in the dragon eye."

"That's because it wasn't there," Fishlegs explained, "I saw this picture carved inside of the cave on the song wing nesting island. I wasn't sure what it was at first, but the Stones of Destiny section of the lense mentions the number nine a few times with no context."

"But what are they?" Astrid wondered aloud.

"Aldru," Fishlegs gave her a look of almost pity, "it turns out, you're not the only song wing who felt torn between her two forms." He then opened another sheet of paper, revealing scribbles of translations, "apparently, this was a big problem for a lot of song wings. When the time came that they needed to choose, they could go to the Stones of Destiny and they're truer form would become their final one."

"What..?" Aldru breathed in disbelief.

Tuffnut then leaned over to her and whispered, "it's okay, I don't know what he's saying either."

"Fishlegs, are you saying what I think you're saying?" Hiccup questioned.

The larger Viking nodded firmly, and the room filled with silence. Astrid broke the quiet with a hopeful smile, "Aldru, you could go and figure out who you're meant to be."

Aldru was still in shock; the Stones of Destiny could finally bring her confusion to rest. But either way, she would have to give something up. "I..don't know if I'm ready for that yet," she finally admitted.

"Oh, of course," Fishlegs reassured her, "you don't need to decide right now; you're supposed to go when you feel that it's your time." He then added matter-of-factly, "the Stones won't work if you're not ready, anyway."

• • •

Hiccup was walking Aldru to the stables that night. But when they reached the destination where she always slept, Aldru hesitated. "I don't think I'm going to sleep with the dragons tonight," she told him.

Hiccup gave her an empathetic look, but nodded. "I'll probably sleep on the extra matt in the club house," Aldru decided with a smile.

But to this, Hiccup objected, "what? No, you can sleep in my hut. It's warmer and safer."

Aldru knew that arguing wasn't an option, and frankly she didn't have the energy to. But the offer made her heart pound none the less. Once they arrived at Hiccup's hut, the two entered. "You take the bed," he told her, "I have a yak fur matt around here somewhere I can sleep on."

She watched him fumble around the hut and couldn't help but smile in amusement. "Let me help look," she offered.

But just as she walked towards him, Hiccup turned around and almost ran right into her. Their bodies almost touched, and their eyes were wide and locked. "Ah, s-sorry," Hiccup stuttered and carefully moved around Aldru with a nervous laugh. His heart pounded as an urge to reveal his feelings suddenly struck him. Just as soon as things seemed stable again, Hiccup tripped backwards over one of Toothless's extra tail pieces and fell back into a pile of stuff.

Aldru could no longer hold back her laughter. "Oh yeah, so funny," Hiccup smirked up from his place amongst the random things, "why don't you try it."

Without warning, Aldru felt Hiccup kick her foot backwards and she fell right onto him. It wasn't exactly what he'd intended, her landing on him like so, but he took it as fate that she fell such a way.

Aldru was shocked by the feeling of his arms wrapping around her waist. Face turning red, Aldru tried to find a distraction. Her eyes immediately landed on a rolled up bundle behind Hiccup's head, and spoke in attempts of lifting her own awkwardness, "hey, found your yak fur matt."

But Hiccup didn't seem to hear this. He was staring up at Aldru with lidded eyes and a warm smile. "Dru," he called for her attention quietly. He'd never used the sweet nickname on her before, but it just seemed to slip past his lips.

Once she met his gaze, Aldru melted. She smiled shyly and laid her head down on his chest to hide her face. His heart beat quickly under his chest, and his body heat warmed her to the core.

Hiccup was shocked by her action, but smiled and closed his eyes. He felt her back rise and fall under his arms as she breathed. It was like nothing he'd ever felt, to hold someone like this. He wanted it to last forever.

He pointed his eyes downward to see if it was truly happening. And sure enough, Hiccup saw the top of her head, long brown hair draped over his neck and shoulder.

"Hiccup," Aldru mumbled, her voice muffled slightly by his shirt.

"Yeah?" Hiccup replied quietly.

He felt Aldru sigh heavily before lifting her head and looking back down at him. There was a sleepy smile on her mouth as he asked, "what are we doing?"

Hiccup laughed as he put a hand on her cheek and breathed, "I don't know." Slowly, the distance between them closed and their lips met slowly, sweetly.

Aldru's heart seemed to explode with feeling as she let herself go in the kiss. It was long and careful, but mostly eye-opening. It was as if so many things just began to make sense.

However, it only made Aldru's identity confusion worse. She pulled away and stood up with haste, turning her back to him. Hiccup stood as well and put a hand on her shoulder. He was about to apologize, but Aldru beat him to it. "I'm sorry, it's just that," she spoke nervously, "I am going to the Stones of Destiny. Not now, but eventually. What if I'm not meant to be human? What if this, can't happen?"