Sorry, sweetheart, had to go um, train Hiccup. The Brassies thankfully haven't showed today. Which means tomorrow is definitely…
Where was I, Spike? Oh, the Haddock lodge.
I'm a Haddock. Astrid Haddock. Sounds… bizarre.
Oh right, Mum had just closed the door, and we could hear the rest of the village puffing up the hill. There were some catcalls and some whooping, but eventually my mother's stern tones and extra-large battle-axe convinced them to go back to where the ale was rather than barging in to see us safely in the bed. Hiccup was still and pale, and he stared at me in something like fear as we listened to the fading sounds.
"So," I said uncertainly. I hate feeling uncertain.
"Yeah," he said hoarsely. "Oh, I should show you…"
He took my hand (his was shaking) and led me through the lodge. The fire had almost died down, and he threw more logs on with a cursory thump, before stroking Toothless' sleeping head.
"He's okay?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said huskily. "I wish… I wish he could have been there, today."
"I know, love," I tapped my belt. "He was, in a way."
He nodded, and patted his friend's head once more. "Come on," he said shakily, and led me up towards the loft stairs.
"Up here? We're up here?" I asked incredulously. He scratched at the back of his head.
"Well, for now," he said in a hesitant voice. "Until, you know… someday."
Someday. Kids. Kids again.
"Oh," I said, feeling my cheeks burn.
"I mean, it'll take a while to create new rooms for us, and I really didn't want to ask Dad to move out of the one he shared with Mum," Hiccup blurted. "I can do it, promise, but not overnight, and so I sort of thought if I fixed up my loft for now…"
"Hiccup," I interrupted. "It's fine."
"Is it?" he said nervously.
"Yes," I pushed him at the stairs.
"Oh," he said blankly, and started to climb. I shook my head, and followed him.
"I was more thinking about you," I said slowly, "giving up your place…"
"It's ours. What's mine is yours," he turned at the top of the stairs and held his hand out to me, smiling. "Come and see."
Intrigued, I took his hand (still shaking, good to know I wasn't the only nervous one) and let him lead me into the darkened area. He let go, and I could hear him scurrying about in the gloom, the only source of light cut off when he shut the trap over the loft stairs. The wood's soft bump as it met the frame felt like a promise.
"Shut your eyes," Hiccup whispered.
"You're kidding," I scoffed.
"Please, Astrid," he pleaded. I sighed, and complied. I heard the whisk of tinder and the sputter of candles as Hiccup presumably lit them.
"Okay," he sounded terrified, and excited. "Open."
I opened my eyes.
"Hiccup," I breathed.
The room was huge, the wooden floor sanded and polished to perfection. He'd certainly been busy. He'd partitioned areas so that there was space for everything. Where I was, there were fur-covered benches and a large rug for Toothless, and possibly for…
As the fire was downstairs, he'd had to be creative when it came to heating the loft, and I saw that he'd long ago diverted the chimney through one of the walls. The warm air heated the stones and kept the room from freezing.
This also meant there was nowhere for cooking but downstairs – but that didn't bother me, because I can only cook camp-rations anyway. My family had usually eaten in the mead-hall.
A large bench stretched against one wall, which was covered in sketches and tools and general Hiccupness. I walked over and thumbed through the papers. A sketch of me, my battle-axe raised, laughing, in the cove…
I drifted as though in a dream over to the opposite wall where a sturdy metal weapons rack was bolted. It was empty. I threaded a finger through the hooks in the centre. They were for an axe. Pride of place.
Beyond that were thick polished wooden shelves, with three tunics and various leggings, boots, coats – and was that his helmet? - all piled in haphazard fashion on one side. The other side was empty, waiting for my belongings and my bridal gifts. Propped beside it was a roll of green woollen.
Slowly I took off my beautiful gold-beaten belt, and laid it carefully on my side of the shelves. It felt like a claiming, an affirmation. My side of the shelves, always and from now on.
At the back, behind a screen made from dark wood and stretched calf-leather, I could see a wide pallet heaped with soft furs.
And everything gleamed with polish and hard work and I could see Hiccup's hands everywhere I looked.
"Oh," I said in a small voice. I couldn't help it. I pressed my hands over my mouth. Our home.
"So?" Hiccup's face was the picture of apprehension. "What do you want to change?"
I pulled my hands away from my mouth. Of course he would think like that. "I'll let you know," I murmured. "But mostly…"
"Yes?" he bit his lip.
"I want the furs on that bed thrown all over the place."
Hiccup's mouth fell open.
I grinned. Still my favourite expression on him. I took advantage of his astonishment and grabbed my gobsmacked husband, kissing him hard.
"You…" I kissed him, "are wonderful, and this," I kissed his jaw, "is wonderful," kiss, "and I love you…" kiss, "so damn much…"
"A-astrid," he gasped.
"Come on then, my husband," I slid my hand into his, "If what's yours is mine, let's have a look."
"Astrid!" he sounded scandalised as I hauled him through our room (our room!) and towards the pallet.
"Hiccup!" I mimicked him.
"I… er, I," he blabbered as I pushed him onto the soft furs. "Astrid, I've ne…"
"If you're about to tell me that you haven't the faintest idea of what you're doing," I breathed as I pressed his shoulders back, clambering over him, "well, don't feel alone."
"Mmmph!" he said as I claimed his mouth again. I sat up.
"Stop it, Hiccup," I said sternly, "or I do."
He clamped his mouth shut, a half-begging, half-terrified look in his big green eyes.
"Better," I told him, and leaned forward over his skinny chest again to kiss him once more. This time he responded eagerly and his tongue snaked forward to do messy battle with mine again.
That tightness in my core had returned, a tenseness between my legs. I let out a small breathy moan as Hiccup's tentative, questing hands caressed my hips and ran slowly up my back.
"You are so beautiful," he whispered against my throat, before pulling aside my hair and planting his mouth over my pulse. I groaned and my body pressed forward by itself.
That tenseness had turned into a low dull throb that seemed to echo the beat of my blood as Hiccup mouthed and nipped at my neck. One of his hands ran through my hair and brushed the shell of my ear, and this time my moan was loud and needy.
My breath had sped up and I felt almost drunk.
Running my hands up his sides, I pulled him into a half-sitting position before tugging at his tunic. "We need this off," I said thickly, my head swimming.
"Hang on," he scooted back on the pallet, bringing me with him still seated on his legs, and pulled it over his head.
Gods, I must be the luckiest girl in the world. "Hiccup, you are gorgeous," I said fervently.
For once he didn't blush. "So are you," he said softly, and pushed a hand through my hair again.
I let out a needy little noise and leaned over him again, all that beautiful tempting freckled flesh there just for me- and I encountered something against my inner thigh.
I looked down. Hiccup's leggings were a lot… tighter.
"Um," he said.
I stared a little longer. The shape in the leggings was… would that even fit in me…?
"Astrid?" he ventured warily. "We don't have to…"
"Oh, we are going to," I said, still staring, "just…"
I sat back up on his legs and pulled my wedding dress off unceremoniously. Hiccup made an 'ack!' noise, and the… shape in the leggings actually lengthened. Bizarre. Men were obviously bizarre.
Underneath my wedding dress were my leggings and breast band. My bridal crown had been torn off with my dress, and the half-braid it had been pinned to was coming out. Hiccup was supposed to take my crown off formally. I was glad I had ripped it off myself. More fun that way.
Hiccup didn't seem to know what to do with me. His hands hovered with awe over the bare skin of my stomach, and his eyes were worshipful. "Oh, Astrid, you… I love…" he choked.
I didn't want to be worshipped right then. I wanted to be… "Hiccup, move," I told him, and squirmed until I was seated over the… shape. His eyes bulged and he almost stopped breathing.
"Jffgl," he said.
"Really," I mocked gently. The shape of him under my core relieved some of the throbbing. I leaned forward again to kiss him.
Oh.
I rocked back over him, and he hissed air between his teeth. A warm pressure was building where the throbbing had been. It felt… he felt…
"Oh!" I said, and rocked forward along him again. He yelped.
"Astrid, uuurr… ah, ah… wait," he babbled.
"Mmm," I groaned, rocking faster along his length. Too many clothes. How would this feel without clothes? My mind almost shorted out contemplating it.
"Wait, I need… a moment… Astrid, please…" he was pleading, his breaths coming faster and faster. His face was turning a bright red.
The warmth in my core was spreading, growing. I could only keep moving along him. My body felt like it would explode if I stopped.
Hiccup tried to grab my shoulders, just as I rocked forward again, and his eyes suddenly unfocused. His mouth opened in a strangled cry, and his fingers clamped down on my shoulders reflexively.
Abruptly I had nothing to rock against, though I could feel a certain… pulsing coming from him, and a small hot wetness spreading against me.
"Oh," I said stupidly, sitting back up. "That's what you were trying to…"
Hiccup just said, "arrgh," and covered his face with his hands, trying to control his breathing.
"Um, sorry," I said, and then felt like an absolute idiot.
"I tried to warn you," he said in a muffled voice full of humiliation.
"Hey," I said consolingly, and crawled up to lie beside him, "it's okay."
He only groaned.
"Really. We'll just have another go," I stroked his hair gently. So soft and thick.
"We'll have to wait," he mumbled.
"What?" That hadn't ever occurred to me.
"Well, I need to…" he swallowed, "ah, recover."
"Oh," I patted his hair some more. The warm feeling was entirely gone now, and there was a slight ache between my legs. I sighed. "Okay."
There was a pause.
Then he took his hands from his face and looked at me consideringly. "But, y'know, not that long," he said slowly. "I am seventeen, after all."
I felt a little smile creep over my face. "And you just got married," I said.
He smiled back. "And I just got married. To you."
Melt time again.
Then he shifted his hips uncomfortably and grimaced. "Er, yuck. I need to get out of these."
"Great idea," I murmured, and he gave me a startled look. "I'll help."
"Um, it's… messy," he said, and blushed some more. Such a baby.
"I'm a big girl," I said, and kissed his red face. "Do we need to get your leg off first?"
"Yeah," he replied, sitting up and grimacing again. "If you could…"
Ecstatic that he'd asked, that he was okay with it, I shunted back down the bed and pulled at the buckles. The leg came off with a clatter, and I noticed he'd even polished it up for the day. The Night Furies flew in bright swirls on the shining metal. "This is beautiful, Hiccup," I said in a hushed voice, turning it over in my hands while he pulled off his boot and dropped it on the floor.
"I had help with it," he said, pulling off the leather sock on his bad leg and rubbing at his scars. "Ow."
"Do you hurt?" I sat bolt upright.
"Not really," he gave me a wry look, "just the cold weather. After a winter day like this, leaning on it can ache a bit."
"Oh," I gave his false leg another admiring glance. So clever and lovely, so Hiccup all over. "Where should I put this?"
"I don't care," he shrugged. "Near the bed is fine. I've got to get out of these," he then looked at his leggings with distaste.
Mmmmmmmm! "Yes please," I said throatily, and reached for the tie at his waist, but he held my wrists.
"If I have to, you do too," he said seriously, but there was a touch of something in his eyes that made my breath catch again. Something hot and wanting.
"Right," I somehow agreed. The throbbing was back.
"And I seem to have a head start," he said in a soft voice that made me quiver, and his fingers travelled up my side to brush my breast-band.
I swallowed. "Right," I repeated, but my voice was raspy this time.
I could feel his eyes on me as I tugged shakily at the ties between my breasts. His gaze was like the heat of a forge against my skin. Once I had it loose enough, I gave up on untying the thing and simply pulled it over my head, throwing it onto the floor next to his leg.
"Oh, Astrid," I heard him say in a trembling voice. "Oh my gods. You're so…"
His left hand hovered uncertainly over me. I rolled my eyes. Afraid to touch his wife. Still, his wife was me, so it was very sensible, I guess. I grabbed the hand and pressed it to my breast, and heard his shocked breath. His face was worshipful again.
"Your turn," I breathed.
"In a minute," he said, expression turning from awed to fascinated. He tested the weight of my breast, and taking the other one, pressed them together as though trying their elasticity. He rolled a thumb over a nipple, and it peaked immediately.
And that tightness, that shot of pleasure in my core, was suddenly stronger than ever before. His eyes snapped to mine.
"Good?" he asked, rolling the peak between his fingers.
I whimpered. Actually whimpered.
He cocked his head at me, and then scooted towards me on his bum. "Hiccup," I panted, "what are youuuurk!"
He'd taken the little bud into his mouth and was rolling it with his tongue. I made a noise that can probably be described as 'uungh!' The warmth between my legs was spreading again. Oh gods, it all felt so good. But…
"Hiccup!" I panted again, "it's… your turn!"
He mouthed at my breast for another moment, whilst his nimble fingers undid his leggings in short order. He released me just long enough to lie back and lift his hips enough to slide them out from under his bum, pulling them down his legs. He used them to wipe a small amount of thick, white stuff from low on his stomach, and then threw them down to the floor. Then he was back before I could stop reeling, half-kneeling on his good leg as he nibbled and sucked at my other nipple. I could feel a wet sort of clenching going on deep inside me.
"Unghargh," I said. How articulate.
He was utterly naked, but for the ring I'd given him on his right hand. My hands reached for all that smooth, pale skin, dusted in little freckles on his shoulders. Oooh, shoulders. And now I was allowed to have as many shoulder-related flutters as I liked. I was allowed to touch it all.
I looked between his legs. The… shape was revealed as something… alien-looking to me, thick and pink and lifting slowly, like a head raising in search of someone. It wasn't even close to the length I had felt in the leggings, so perhaps he wasn't ready yet?
Then again, neither was I.
"My turn again," I whispered against his hair, and pushed him off me with reluctance. He fell back onto his elbows and watched with a sort of dizzy enraptured look on his face. I stood up beside the pallet and shucked my boots, then bent and pulled down my leggings brusquely.
Hiccup said "fffnngh!"
I looked back enquiringly. "Are you okay?"
He nodded furiously. "You just… ah, you just did that… and whoa…" his hands moved vaguely in the air, "and you bent over, and…" then he sketched a sort of hourglass shape, and I raised an eyebrow.
"Oh," I said.
"Really," he said fervidly, "wow."
"Yours," I gestured to my naked body. "So, going to do anything with it?"
He practically growled at me and I was treated to another demonstration of his new arm-reach. He snagged my waist and tugged me down to him, and I had been right, so right.
It was a million times better without clothes.
Smooth, sweet-smelling skin everywhere I touched, moving silkily against mine. He rolled us so he covered me with his long frame, and his roughened hands roamed over me as though oiled. Sweat was pricking down my neck as he bit me gently on the ear and I gasped and jerked violently against him. I could feel his… himself pressed hotly against my hip, and I rubbed shamelessly against his bad leg as that warmth, that sweet tight pressure built once more somewhere between my thighs.
I claimed his mouth again, and ravaged it as best as I could while panting as though I'd just run a marathon. I licked the white scar on his chin, mouthed at his ear, bit down on his collarbone. He matched me in kind, callused fingers dancing over my breasts and belly, his hips moving unconsciously against mine, pressing the… shape against my stomach. It was radiating heat against me now, harder and somehow heavy.
Then his fingers danced low on my stomach and brushed my curls. My racing breath caught in my throat.
Hiccup pulled away from my mouth, and gave me another calculating stare. "Hmm," he said thoughtfully. His lips were bruised red from kisses.
The noise I made then doesn't bear repeating.
"No, hear me out," Hiccup said, fighting his own breath. "Maybe we should… do I have to… do anything for you? Get you… ready?"
I gritted my teeth. "I don't know! I did say… that you weren't… alone in knowing nothing about… this!"
"Maybe I should, then," he said, looking down at his hardening manhood and then at my face. I clamped my arm over my mouth to stop the frustrated scream.
"Don't care," I mumbled angrily around my arm. "Just… do something!"
Hiccup's lovely face brightened. "Okay."
And those long, clever fingers found their way to my core and swiped along the slit.
I squealed.
Hiccup looked dumbfounded. "Wow. Right."
And he did it again. My hips bucked upwards, and I moaned loudly this time. Encouraged, Hiccup cautiously dipped a long, thin finger into me, and I ground down, needing more.
"Are you… are you supposed to be all… wet…?" he asked me breathlessly.
"Keep… more," I practically wailed.
"On it," he gasped, and another finger pressed into me, feeling around the walls of my sex.
The noises I was making now were a bit embarrassing.
"N…" I tried, and Hiccup seemed to understand, withdrawing his fingers slowly, and massaging tentatively over the mound as he did. But as he drew them out, I stiffened.
There it was.
"There," I said frantically. "Theretherethere!"
"What? Where?" Hiccup sat back to look at the path his fingers had taken. He was certainly at full mast now, I vaguely noticed.
"Mmmngh!" I couldn't say anything. I couldn't think at all.
"This?" Hiccup brushed it again. "There's this… it's a little bump…"
"Nnnngg!" I nodded furiously. That was the source of the throbbing and the tightness? A bump?
Then he rubbed it gently with his thumb and my eyes rolled into my head. Bless the bump.
"I need…" I blurted, and clamped my teeth down on my arm again. He'd started to roll it. The bump was obviously Frigga's gift to women.
"What…?" he panted. He was rubbing himself too, I noticed, long smooth slow strokes. The shape seemed to have a hood, a cloak that it could shrug off and on, off and on.
"That," I panted, "You."
"Now…?" he said in a strangled tone, and I nodded so hard it felt like my head might come off.
"Hiccup…" I choked as he rubbed at the bump some more.
"How… do you…" he managed, and another finger dipped into my core again, fumbling along the walls. I shook and twitched madly.
"Don't care," I said wildly, "don't care, don't care…. Just…"
"Here," Hiccup's fingers withdrew from their obviously gods-given task of making me lose my mind. He pulled my shoulders and lay back so that I was seated on his legs again. I rubbed against his bad leg, moaning.
"A-astrid…" he buried his face in my breasts and mouthed quickly at a nipple, "like this?"
"You… want this?" I leaned over him, and he fell back against the furs. I kissed him, just because. My core was throbbing like a heart.
"I want… you," he breathed. I looked down at the shape, red and long with a bead of the white stuff forming at the protruding head. Of course it would fit. It would, wouldn't it? Every woman since the melting of Ginnungagap seemed to manage. Then I looked back at him, at his flushed face and the adoration and need in his eyes.
"Okay," I said breathlessly, then set my teeth, grabbed him and sat.
Oh gods, Spike, it hurt. It hurt so much.
"Astrid!" he yelped. "Gods, sorry, I'm sorry… Are you… are you okay?"
"Ah!" I cried out, "Oh gods, just…. Hiccup, lie still… please…"
"You… slowly, we should have gone…" he babbled, and the flush was gone from his cheeks. He was pale with fright.
It was like being stabbed with a sword left in the forge-fires. My body was screaming. "Shut up," I grunted.
He shut up immediately.
"I've got to..." I had to get off him. This… this was agony. People made songs about this?
Morons.
The very idea of moving off him hurt. But I had to. Pinned by this sword, stabbed through and burning like a sheep on a spit… I had to get him out of me. I started to move upwards.
Hiccup's breath stopped.
And oddly, so did most of the pain. I stilled, and Hiccup's hips jerked involuntarily. Into me.
And…
It felt sort of good.
"Unngh," I said through my gritted teeth, and Hiccup's mouth opened, no doubt to spill more apologies. I slapped my palm over his mouth and experimentally sank back down.
At the point where my thighs touched his hips, the pain returned, and I hissed a little. But the pain was growing less and less, and the warmth was back when I thought it had been scared away for good.
I slid back up his length. Hiccup's hands clutched at my back, and he moaned softly. I sat back down.
And there was no pain. Only warmth and tightness and…
So that's what all the songs were about.
"Oh," I gasped, "oh!"
"Astrid?" Hiccup's fingers were twitching at my hips now. I grabbed one of his hands and kissed the callused fingertips.
"Okay," I said, and I could feel a smile spreading across my face, "okay then."
His returning smile was a gap-toothed sun coming up, and he flexed his own hips up into me. He was so hard and hot inside me, hard where I was soft, and it felt so full as I pushed up and down. Inside me. I had my love inside me. Where he should be, where he fitted after all.
He lifted his head up to me, leaning on an elbow as he grabbed my head and pulled me down for a kiss. In order to keep going, I had to rock my hips forward. And then…
"Gods!" I breathed into his mouth, and he nipped at my chin, before bending his head to nibble on my breast again. He seemed quite taken with them.
Rocking was… incredible. I could feel the throbbing of him as hips met hips and his pubic bone pushed against Frigga's bumpy little gift, making me writhe. Each time I pushed forward, it made him feel longer and thicker inside me, pressing against the front of my body. Hiccup's mouth at my breast made me tighten even further, and I felt him huff and groan in response.
The heat was rising in me, and I picked up the pace, rocking against Hiccup, my breasts brushing against his lips, my fingers tweaking his nipple. He raised his head and kissed me amongst wet and frantic breaths.
"Close… close," he said in a strangled voice.
"Gods," I replied brokenly, and he grabbed my hips and practically pulled himself up into me. I yowled like a cat.
"Astri-i-id," he managed, his breath catching as he drove into me firmly, inexorably, "what do you… UNGH, ohhh… are you…"
"I don't know… I… oh, please…I…" I sobbed. I had no idea what I needed. Only that I needed it NOW.
"Got an… idea," he panted, and clumsily snaked a hand between our sweat-slicked and pumping bodies, and pressed his thumb down on that little bump.
"Hiccuhhh!" I howled, as the warmth and throbbing built in seconds to a blinding sea of tight, clamping pleasure. He rubbed and rubbed even as his hips pushed up into me, and I was incoherent and writhing on him. I have the feeling I mangled his name a few times and called out to every god in Asgard and Vanaheim.
His thrusts grew harder and deeper and he seemed to lengthen inside me then, his hair stuck to his forehead. With a strangled cry, he pushed up even harder, holding himself as deep as possible. I could feel him pulsing, pulsing and throbbing within me as he held still and clutched at me, his body rigid and arching off the pallet. Then he let out an explosive breath and fell back onto the furs, pulling my torso on top of him in an inelegant sprawl.
"Wow," he said blankly.
"Wow," I replied, just as blankly.
"That was…" he struggled to find words. I actually giggled, a bit shakily.
"Uh-huh," I agreed. "Hiccup?"
"Mmm?"
"I really do love you."
His arms tightened around me. "I love you too." His still-shuddering breath hitched. "So much."
I kissed the bite on his collarbone, before tucking my head under his chin. "And…"
"Yeah?"
"If I ever tease you about your ideas, you have permission to remind me of that one."
He chuckled, the sound reverberating through his chest. "Deal."
Carefully, I sat up and let him slip from me. An echo of the pain sounded through my core, and I winced, sucking a breath through my teeth.
"Okay?" he asked worriedly, also sitting up. "Sore?"
"A bit," I admitted. "It's okay. It'll go."
"You worried me there, going fast like that. You screamed, and I thought…"
"Sorry," I kissed him apologetically. "I did say I had no idea what I was doing. And I've always been a 'get it over with' sort of girl."
He stroked my hair. "I have never noticed that about you at all," was the dry, affectionate reply.
I poked his ribs.
"Um," he looked over at the main room beyond the screen. "Do you think you could get those?"
"What? Oh," I realised he meant the candles still burning in their dishes in our home. Our home. "Sure."
I wrapped one of the furs around me and moved through the room, blowing them out except the last, which I brought over to the bed. Hiccup had buried himself under the rest of the furs, and he lifted them up as I set the candle down on the little table beside his head. I snuggled under and blew it out.
He folded me up in long arms and we drifted off to sleep.
We didn't stay asleep though… but I've got to go, Spike. I'll tell you the rest some other time.