AstridxRuffnut pt III

Secrets: Pt II


When two people find themselves avoiding each other, usually they find someone else to be around. On the odd occasion that Astrid had seen Ruffnut the past two weeks, she had observed the white-blonde haired girl sticking to her brother a lot more and the other kids in the training ring. More than this, however, Ruffnut had been, Astrid knew, intentionally avoiding her gaze and company, and over time Astrid had found herself unable to stand the cold silences and pointed conversations that did not involve her during practices.
Abandoning the training area, Astrid had taken to returning to the small clearing in the wood and sitting alone, staring vaguely into the distance as she mulled over unpleasant thoughts. Oddly enough, Hiccup had found her after the first two days of her doing this, and had taken to keeping her silent company. She didn't mind him being there so much; she was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to tell him to go away. In a way he had been helpful in fact, as she knew that after two weeks away from the training area, Gobber would be asking where she was, and Hiccup was able to make her excuses for her.
As a direct result of her lack of training however, and the fact that she felt so lethargic the majority of the time now that she had been carrying around nothing heavier than a dagger, her physical strength had begun to noticeably deteriorate. Hiccup had also begun to bring food, telling her she was starting to look pinched and thin, though she never ate it. It occurred vaguely to her that she had not had much appetite lately,, and had not eaten very much. After yet two more weeks of relatively the same routine, she found to her mild surprise that was no longer able to even pick up her patently too-large axe. She tossed it to one side, that is to say, she shoved the handle, causing the axe to topple over to the floor, and made her way out of her house, fully intent on going on a vague and destination-less walk through the forest. To her mild irritation but certainly not to her surprise, she found Hiccup waiting for her outside her house, looking resigned.

"You know, the only reason the adults don't notice what you're doing is because they're too fixated on finding the dragon nest" he said. Astrid ignored him, and made her way passed him as though he were a broken flag-pole. He was not daunted by this attitude, but merely walked slightly behind and to the side of her.
"You know, Ruffnut misses you" Astrid ignored him again. He had said this a number of times. "And you miss her" he carried on. She did not respond, though the truth of these words was palpable within her. She felt a twinge of annoyance, and thought dimly that before all of this, she might have turned around and punched him in the face. Now she felt neither the inclination, nor the ability to do so, and so contented herself with quickening her pace.
"Come on, Astrid. One of you has to be the one to break the awkwardness, and you know it won't be her"

"Shut up" she said, monotonously. This point too, had been raised a number of times, the conversation had practically become a daily ritual. This too however, was true, and Astrid knew it. Ruffnut, for all of her endearing qualities, even her mischievous habits that gave Astrid a warm feeling of amusement and familiarity, was frightfully stubborn, even more so than the average Viking. She would never be the one to approach Astrid first. But Astrid felt nothing but a horrible sense of hollowness at the idea of apologising to Ruffnut. Fear lapped at her insides like a yellow sea at the thought of the whole thing going wrong, and Ruffnut hating her even more than now. She would gladly have taken a sound beating to be on good terms with Ruffnut again, but she knew, as most girls do, that situations like this and all accompanying feelings required a price far exceeding that of physical injury. This was a matter of souls, not mortal coils, and she did not think that her soul would stand another rending like what it had endured four weeks ago.

"Come one, Astrid" Hiccup said, coaxingly. "Just talk to her, I'm sure if you just apologised to her, all relationships need a little…" he bit his lip and leaned an elbow on one hand, evidently trying to think of an appropriate word.
"Work" he eventually settled on. "They all need some concessions from both sides"

"I'm not talking to her" Astrid replied, dully. Hiccup made an impatient noise.

"What's it going to take for you two to get back together?" he said, with a bite of annoyance. Astrid consented to pause in her walk, and slightly turned her head without looking at him.

"A miracle" she whispered, unsure and uncaring whether he heard her or not. She began to run, heading for the forest, wanting to hide her face from him. She ran amongst the tall trees without knowing  or caring where she was going, wanting nothing more than to be alone. To her irritation, she heard the tell tale signs of being followed, and the sounds of Hiccup calling after her. She quickened her pace as best she could, and only stopped when she came to a steep incline much like a miniature cliff overlooking the valley.

"Astrid, wait!" Hiccup called, catching up to her. Absentmindedly, she threw out an arm to stop him running pell-mell off of the dip.
"Astrid" he began, but got no further, for at that moment, they both heard familiar voices. Down below, running through the trees, was Ruffnut and her brother, Tuffnut. Hiccup glanced at Astrid sideways, watching her expression. Astrid turned her head so he couldn't see, but never took her eyes off of Ruffnut. The two siblings were laughing, quite obviously having a lot of fun, though the sounds echoed through the valley before abruptly stopping. To her mild consternation, Astrid saw Ruffnut's white-blonde head turn and look straight up at her. She couldn't tell exactly what her expression was, but after a few moments, Ruffnut turned her head sharply away, and beckoned to her brother as she marched away into the trees. Tuffnut, who had just waved energetically, apparently to Hiccup as he was waving back and smiling rather more broadly than was usual for him, came towards the incline.

"He's been trying to talk her round" Hiccup said. It dawned on Astrid that this meant Tuffnut knew about their former relationship too, but she found that she didn't care very much about it.
"Look, this whole thing…" Hiccup stopped himself, and tried again "I've been trying to tell you for weeks now, ever since, well… then. Tuffnut, he- "at that moment however, Tuffnut had managed to climb the incline, Ruffnut having disappeared into the thicker canopy of trees, and had slapped Hiccup playfully on the back, grinning in that mischievous way his sister usually did.

"Maybe we should switch" he said to Hiccup, sounding a little tired. "It's been weeks now, and I'm getting sick of this"

Hiccup sighed.

"You know if I try talking to her, she'll rip off my skin, pull out my skull, and feed my entrails to the nearest dragon she can find" Hiccup said in a mock-offhand voice.

"Yeah, but I'm having no luck with her" Tuffnut exclaimed. "She just won't listen. What about you?" this second part addressed to Astrid. She turned to look at him.
"Are you going to go after her?" he asked, sounding a little eager. Astrid paused, then turned her head away again. She heard him give a heartfelt sigh of exasperation.

-

Days later, Astrid again found herself again in Hiccup's company. Feeling more lethargic and distanced from the world since her last encounter with Ruffnut, she had allowed him to take her to the great hall, where he was pointing out something in the Dragon manual. She was barely attending to him as he pointed out his drawing of the Night Fury, which he mentioned once or twice he had seen. If she had been attending to him, she would have noticed the numerous covet looks he kept shooting over at the large double doors, but as she stared blankly at the picture of the Night Fury without really seeing it, this passed her by.
Only when she heard the sounds of two voices getting closer, and the sound of the double doors open, did she remove her eyes from the page. With a stab of dread like a frozen knife from the bowels of the Ice Giant's deepest cave. Astrid half rose from the table, as Ruffnut was pushed roughly into the room by her brother. Tuffnut quickly slammed the door and slid the huge bolt across. Astrid's mind felt like ice slush, but then an inkling of truth leaked out. She turned to Hiccup, who was propping his fingers together, and smiling in a "Heh… yeeeeah" sort of way. Astrid managed to give him a one half furious, half terrified look, before she heard Ruffnut exclaim

"What's the big idea?" Astrid turned to see her seizing her brother by the scruff of his tunic.

"Ah, lay off" Tuffnut retorted, smacking her hands away. "We're sorting this mess out tonight" he said, threateningly.

"There's nothing to sort out!" Ruffnut screamed at him, before giving Astrid a sidelong, icy glance.
"She made it quite clear that she doesn't want to be with me, and I ain't pushing my company on anyone"

"That's not…" Astrid said without her own volition, and stopped herself, feeling her face go red. "Ruffnut…" she found that she had no words to express herself, and Ruffnut was not paying any attention to her. She had punched Tuffnut in the arm, and the two of them were soon wrestling on the floor like a pair of angry wolverines. Astrid heard Hiccup give a pronounced sigh of exasperation, and the sound of flesh hitting flesh. She supposed he had slapped his own forehead.

"Get off  me!" Ruffnut shouted, and gave Tuffnut a push to the chest with her boot, then jumped to her feet, Tuffnut landing on his own feet.
"I'm not being in the same room as her! I'm not going to embarrass her!" she said with a vindictive and venomous tone.

"I'm not embarrassed of you!" Astrid shouted. It was the first time in weeks that her voice had risen above monotonous talk, and it was slightly cracked from under use. The effect of it however, was to stop Ruffnut and Tuffnut mid-tackle. Ruffnut stared at Astrid, the coolness in her expression not gone, but taken over significantly by a look of frank surprise.
"I'm not embarrassed of you" she said in a calmer, clearer tone. "I shouldn't have denied it, I should have admitted it when he found us" she pointed at Hiccup, who was leaning over the table to see around her, looking at Ruffnut and Tuffnut.
"Tuffnut" she said, looking at him "I love your sister, I don't care if you think that's odd, I don't care if you tell your parents, I don't care if you tell the village. I love her, and I will gladly tell anyone about it" she looked back at Ruffnut, tentatively. "If she… that's if she wouldn't mind me doing that" she finished, lamely.

There was a long silence, unbroken for a good few moments, that to Astrid felt like several passages of eternity. Hiccup made a small motion, as though to break the silence, but then seemed unable to follow through with it. Ruffnut simply stared, blankly and with unbridled shock on her face, directly at Astrid. Tuffnut, his lips pursed together, looked between Astrid and Ruffnut, to Hiccup, back to Astrid, then to Ruffnut again. After several more moments of tense silence, it was broken by Tuffnut saying, loudly and clearly.

"I was frozen today!"

Everyone in the room turned to him, giving him looks of purest bewilderment and confusion, as though he had suddenly sprouted a ballerina dress and was dancing to the Moonlight Sonata. Hiccup gave a snort, then began to laugh, which made everyone in the room untense a little.

"Well come on" Tuffnut said in exasperation. "You heard what she said, now go make-up" he gave Ruffnut a sharp shove between the shoulder blades, and Hiccup, recovering from his small laughing fit, gave Astrid a gentler push, urging her forward.
The two stood not two feet apart, Astrid finding it difficult to look at the other girl, but Ruffnut stared almost unblinkingly into Astrid's face.

"Would you… would you really?" she asked quietly, still sounding shocked.

"Yes" Astrid said, firmly and immediately, still unable to look at her. "To anyone. I'm sorry I… I shouldn't have…" her insides squirmed unpleasantly, feeling as though they were full of scrabbling Terrible Terrors.
"I shouldn't have said that- "but she got no further, as Ruffnut had raised her chin gently with her hand, and looking directly into Astrid's over-bright eyes, smiled, and kissed her full on the mouth. The horrible writhing feeling melted away, replaced with the long missed warmth only Ruffnut could stoke inside of her. When they broke apart, Astrid felt she must have still looked worried, for Ruffnut's smile became a little coaxing.

"I'm sorry too" she said. "I… well you know me" she said, waving one of her hands, vaguely. "Over react to everything, don't I?" this was so endearingly familiar to Astrid, that she felt herself smile. Her muscles felt strained, as though unused to the act of smiling, but she hugged the other girl, and felt Ruffnut's arms close around her too.

"Dawwwww" came the uncouth sound of Tuffnut's voice. The two girls looked around to see him sitting next to Hiccup at the table, leaning on his hand and giving a very pronounced look of soppy admiration, which did not altogether hide his mischievous grin. Hiccup too was smiling with satisfaction. Then a thought occurred to Astrid and she frowned at them.

"So wait" she said, half detaching herself from Ruffnut, and pointing at them in bemusement. "You two don't think it's weird for us two… two girls to…?" she let her question trail away. Hiccup gave a little snort, but Tuffnut burst into a laughing fit.

"Course we don't!" Tuffnut roared.

"I've been trying to tell you for weeks now" Hiccup said to Astrid. "Since that night, since I found out that you two were seeing each other, I've been trying to tell you that we've been doing the same" Tuffnut threw an arm over Hiccup's shoulder, grinning stupidly. Hiccup smiled in an embarrassed sort of way, his face going a little red. Astrid felt her mouth fall open, and Ruffnut herself gave a look of utter incomprehension.

"So that's… that's where you've been sneaking off to?" Astrid asked, quietly, looking at Hiccup. Hiccup's smile became slightly confused, but then he jumped a little and said

"O-Oh! Yes, yes! That. Yes, that's exactly it, that's-" he was cut off, however.

"Oh, you are kiding me!' Ruffnut exclaimed, pulling herself from Astrid's half hug. "You are absolutely, utterly, totally kidding me!" she stomped over to the table, where the two boys were suddenly looking rather wary, and backing up from their bench.
"You are joking!" she shouted, stepping onto the bench on the other side of the table, and then onto the table itself.

"Ruffnut!" Astrid said, bemused, taking a few steps toward her.

"What? what did we do?" Hiccup asked, still backing away, clutching onto Tuffnut like a life-raft.

"You mean to tell me this whole thing could have been avoided!" Ruffnut hissed, perching on the edge of the table like a bird of prey.
"You mean to tell me if he had just gotten out with it, this would never have happened!?" she pointed at Hiccup, fiercely.

"W-Well… Well you know…" Hiccup stammered. With a loud battle cry, Ruffnut dived onto the pair of them, and Astrid found herself unable to do anything but laugh, clutching the side of the table, and feeling better than she had done in many weeks.


- The End