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The apartment was quiet.
This was a bad sign.
Astrid lifted her eyes from her laptop and slowly scanned her living room surroundings.
“Stormy?”
The bird’s clicks and whistles had stopped some minutes ago and that only meant one thing. She was up to something.
Astrid moved slowly as she placed her computer to the side and rose from the couch. Homework decidedly forgotten. Her eyes peered for any rustling of feathers and her ears were attuned to catch any small noises or chirps.
Stormy enjoyed wandering out of her cage while Astrid worked on assignments and Astrid typically enjoyed the company. But sometimes the Cockatiel wandered out of her sights- that is where she always did the most damage. Astrid has chewed-on backpack straps and a side table with a scratched-up corner left in the wake of Stormy’ s destructive nature. Of course, the bird has plenty of her own toys to chew on, but Stormy seems to take more pleasure in destroying Astrid and her roommate’s property.
Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it) this happened often enough that Astrid knew all the regular spots for the bird to make mischief. Astrid made quick work of each room as she searched for the feisty fowl. She made her way through the common room and the kitchen. Not behind the tv. Not on the coat rack. Not under the lampshade. Not in the cabinets. Not in the pantry. Not in the-
Astrid froze at the happy chirps of Stormy. Coming from her bedroom. Wonderful.
She bolted from the kitchen, across the common room and to the nook entry of her bedroom. It only took her a second-perks of a small apartment. Her hand met the door frame as she straddled to block the space, as if that could stop a five-inch-tall bird from leaving. Once glance and boom! The search was over. Stormy was happily hopping on the quilt of Astrid’s bed.
Astrid breathed a sigh of relief which was immediately cut short as she noticed the little bird pecking at a slim black chord that was most certainly NOT a bird toy.
“Stormy no! what is that?” She lunged at her bed; knees hit the wood floorboards as she snatched the string from the bird. Stormy flapped and squawked.
As she kneeled at the side of her bed, elbows resting on her mattress, she softly glared at her bird. Stormy seemed decidedly unfazed. She opened her hands to see her black chord necklace with its metal ring charm. Her face fell as she tossed the items through her fingers, carefully examining for damage.
The chord necklace was a bit old, Astrid had it since high school. She wasn’t big on jewelry, but she enjoyed its simplicity and fidgeted with the string whenever she wore it. The silver ring charm was a recent addition. It was a washer, just about the size of a dime, that Astrid had taken from Hiccup’s desk a few weeks ago. She saw him fiddling with it when she was over one, of many, times. So naturally she swiped it, knowing she could slip knot the washer to the necklace to make the perfect fidget charm that, as a huge bonus, was a reminder of her sweet boyfriend.
Thankfully Stormy left the necklace un-chomped, and once Astrid was satisfied with its safety, she threw the ends around her neck and secured the necklace. She brushed her braid out of the way and tugged at the washer, centering the necklace between her collarbones. She took a deep breath and turned her attention to the mischievous bird.
“You are a bad girl.” Though she said it with a smile, as she stood and reached her hand out to Stormy. The bird hopped right over into her hand and chirped with delight, obviously unbothered by her owner’s prior distress. Her feathered friend whistled all the way back into her cage. Astrid bid the bird farewell with a kiss. Triple checked the cage door was locked and made her way out of her room back to the couch.
“Were you looking for the oreos again? I told you we ran out two days ago.” Heather popped her head out of the kitchen as Astrid plopped down on the couch. In her search for stormy she had left almost every cabinet wide open.
“Stormy was out, sorry.” She offered an apologetic grimace.
Heather laughed and disappeared back into the kitchen. Astrid heard her mumble something about ‘bird on the loose.’
“But we are getting more oreos soon, right?” Astrid asked, only partially kidding.
Just as Heather leaned her head out of the doorway, braid swinging over her shoulder, there was a pounding at the front door.
The girls were silent as their faces fell in unison.
Astrid rose tentatively and shared a brief look with her roommate. She took long strides to the door and glanced back, Heather had closed some distance between them and offered a confused look and a shrug. Astrid peaked through the peephole to see who was there.
She was hit with a wave of realization at the sight of Hiccups silhouette. It was movie night, her heart swelled as she ran her fingers against the cool metal ring at the base of her neck. She smiled, clicked the lock, and opened the door.
“It’s Hic-”
Hiccup’s foot was in the door before it was even half open and he ran past her with a muffled string of unintelligible words and vanished around the corner.
Heather and Astrid stared at each other.
“...up” Astrid finished, baffled.
“Well, it’s nice to see you too Hiccup.” Heather waved sarcastically to the empty space and smiled cutely at Astrid before heading back to the kitchen.
“Hiccup? Are you okay?” Astrid laughed, unable to keep the slight nervousness out of her voice as she went around the corner toward her bedroom.
The light was on in the bathroom and the door was open as she heard him turn on the sink. She grabbed the door frame to hold her weight as she leaned to the side. Effectively cornering him if he was thinking about running past her again.
“You wanna tell me what ‘s going on?” She asked the man hunched over the bathroom sink.
“Sorry” but he sounded like he had a mouthful, so it was more like ‘thory.’ As he turned to face her, he pulled his hand from his face and-
Blood.
Oh gods. So much blood.
Her hand fell from the doorframe. Where did all the blood come from? She froze, eyes searching the reflection for answers. But all she saw was bleeding. Her Hiccup bleeding. All over his face. Was he okay? How much pain was he in? Why- why wont it stop?
The water ran pink as Hiccup rinsed red off his hands. Astrid looked in horror at the reflection of this beautiful man. His face and mouth were covered in blood. It pooled down from his nose and yellowed his teeth. Her brain ran a million miles a second wondering, what? How? WHO?
It was not helpful that she couldn’t tell what exactly on his face was bleeding. His lip? His nose? Was he cut? Hiccup tried to wash and wipe his face with the water, it smeared red wet streaks over his freckled cheeks. His glasses were nowhere to be seen. Was he wearing them when he came in? Did they get broken? Stolen!?
His head shook and moved in awkward motions trying to keep the too-much amount of blood in the sink. He was so zeroed in on dealing with… whatever this was, it was hard to tell how badly he was hurt.
What if he was hit in the head? They have to get to a hospital, right?
Astrid’s mind worked overtime deciding how to help, how to fix, what to do. What do I do!?
He made a particularly horrifying throat clearing noise and joked, joked, with a clogged voice. “I’m sure this is really attractive, right?”
To put a blood red cherry on top, his laugh turned into a choaking bloody cough.
“Hiccup what happened!?” She laid hands on his hunched shoulders and turned him to face her. His perfect face was dripping with water and blood. His red shirt had dark spots on his chest and sleeves, it was hard to tell what water was and what was blood. It better not all be blood.
He held a hand up to his face holding his red stained wad of tissues up to his nose. Did someone BREAK his NOSE? THEY’RE FUCKING DEAD!
He was struggling to breath from all the damn blood, “Outside-sorry.” He shook his head and grabbed some more tissues to help wipe up the blood and went back to the sink. “Ugh,-‘ he made a gross pained noise, “I’ll clean this all up later I promise.”
“Outside? Outside where? Near here?” Her eyes searched the rest of him for any further damage.
“Right before I got here at-” He swallowed hard and had to mouth breathe, “at the corner. It’s really bad I’m so sorry.”
Oh. Hell. No.
Astrid ran out of the tiny bathroom and called for Heather.
Heather stepped into the doorway of the kitchen and met Astrid with that look she gave when she thought Astrid was acting crazy. But Astrid would not be deterred and went to grab her coat.
“Heather call the police-“
“WHAT!?” A cacophony came from both Heather and Hiccup as Astrid headed for the front door.
“Someone’s about to get it,” She seethed to herself. Her hand reached for the doorknob. Thundering footsteps and laser focus zoned everything else out. Just as she was about to charge out the door someone grabbed her shoulder.
“Astrid!”
She could tell by the clogged sound it was Hiccup. Her precious Hiccup.
“Hold on where are you going?” His sweet muffled voice cut with concern and confusion.
Trying to contain her rage, save it for the bastards who did this, she spoke slowly. “They can’t have gotten far, I’m going to go stop them.”
Hiccup squinted at her with an unreadable expression, still holding bloody tissues up to his face. “…who is ‘them’?”
Now Astrid was confused.
Heather chimed in, “I would also like to be clued in on these ‘thems.’ And what’s going on with you, Hiccup? And what’s going on… in general?” she gestured with the wooden spoon in her hand, “you know, before I call the authorities.” Her tone was way too casual for the serious problem at hand.
“You don’t need to call the police Heather.” Hiccup was so calm. Too calm, what the hell?
Astrid clenched her fists. All this time they were wasting, the person, or people, who did this were getting away! “Hiccup if you were assaulted, we have to report that!”
Hiccup whipped his head around so fast with an incredulous look in his eyes, “Astrid. I was not assaulted. Why would that be your first thought? I just got a bloody nose!” The bloody wad of tissues removed from his face showed that the bleeding had stopped. “The air is really dry that’s all.”
All of his fast spoken words took their time setting in. Astrid’s gaze fell as she allowed her heart rate to return to a normal pace and released her vice grip on the doorknob.
“Ok well. I’m gonna go back to making dinner now.” And Heather took her nonchalance with her, leaving her with Hiccup.
With his free hand Hiccup was gently rubbing Astrid’s arm up and down, rhythmically.
“I’m ok Astrid,” Deep breath, “I get nose bleeds when the air is too dry. That’s what happened. That’s it. No one punched me in the face.” He spoke reverently, but he stifled a laugh on the last bit.
Astrid felt her heartbeat in her ears and blood rush to her cheeks. “Oh.”
Hiccup sniffed and wiped the tissue from his face. As she examined him she saw there was no external damage, no broken nose- just a little red and raw. aa mess of watered down blood stain streaks on his perfect face, but nothing that wouldn’t buff out.
Wait but- “Where are your glasses?”
Hiccup tilted his head in that adorable puppy way he does and smiled a crooked smile, “I just left them on the sink Astrid. Everything is okay.”
Astrid let her head fall onto Hiccups shoulder and deflated with a heavy sigh. Hiccup’s arms encircled her as he rubbed soothing circles on her back. It was warm and safe as she reciprocated the hug, full force. Until she felt Hiccup’s body shake with soft laughs.
“Don’t laugh at me.” She whined. Her voice was muffled against Hiccups body. This of course only resulted in Hiccup laughing more.
“I didn’t mean to scare you, Astrid.” He leaned back ever so slightly to meet her gaze. “But hey! If you want to protect me from the dry air, you’re more than welcome to try.” Him and his stupid sarcasm.
She shoved him away, and purposely stepped away from him.
“I will actually. We’ll need a humidifier.” They couldn’t be too expensive and if it’ll keep Hiccup’s nose from bleeding often, it’s a worthwhile investment. First step: find phone.
“Woah woah woah what?” He breathed in hard with his nose and cleared his throat. Obviously past the worst of the bloody nose effects- but still recovering.
“Hush my love,” she said causally, waving him off without even glancing his way. “Go finish getting cleaned up, then we can order some dinner and do a movie. Don’t worry about me- AH-HA!” Phone acquired.
She heard him sigh and mumble in an adorable way. With a shake of his head, he departed down the hallway out of sight. She plopped down on the couch as her fingers worked at her phone, looking online for highly rated (and reasonable priced) humidifiers.
It wasn’t too long until pizza was ordered and delivered. Hiccup, all cleaned up and kissed better, was sitting beside Astrid arm over her shoulders as it should be.
Astrid tried to not be embarrassed about her reaction earlier. She knew her tendencies to fixate on problems and her go-go-go mentality when it came to fixing said problems. Growing up she had always been protective of ‘her people’, and quick to throw punches and ask questions later. But she surprised herself with what she was so ready to do to protect her man. When she saw the blood. She saw red. The last bit of adrenalin was only just wearing off as she sunk into Hiccup’s side. He was safe, she was safe, everything was fine. Everything was wonderful.
“Earth to Astrid.” Hiccup shook her left shoulder with his arm around her. “are you with us?”
His smile was soft and warm as she looked up at him.
“Yeah, yeah sorry. Just coming down after all… that.” She smiled a little embarrassed and reached up for her necklace and started tugging.
Hiccup gave her a sweet knowing look and kissed her temple. “It’s alright Astrid. If anything, I’m super flattered you went all guard-dog for me.”
He then smirked but he was obviously trying to hold back snickers.
Astrid felt heat rise in her face and hid her face with her hands. She sank down hoping the couch might have mercy and swallow her whole.
“Hiccuuuuuup.” She groaned in exasperation. She felt his body shudder with silent laughing and peaked through her fingers to look at her stupid boyfriend. He tilted his head as his pupils practically turned into little hearts.
She smiled and let her hands slide down her face and once again hold the metal charm around her neck.
That drew his attention.
“What is that? New necklace?”
The abrupt change of topic almost caught her off guard, “No. Well kinda. Old chord, new charm.”
She grabbed the string between her fingers and held it up as far as it went, shaking the charm to emphasize the point.
“It’s one of my favorites actually. It makes me think of you.”
Hiccup now looked caught off guard. “Really? Why does that necklace make you think of me?”
“Well because this is a washer I saw you messing with a few weeks ago. I may have borrowed it from your desk” She offered him a toothy smile.
“You stole a piece of scrap metal because it makes you think of me?”
“Well yeah, besides I think it looks cool, it doesn't look like a piece of scrap metal.” She rolled her eyes at him affectionately.
“No, you need a better necklace from me than that, I’m gonna get you a better one.” His tone was insistent and defensive. She couldn’t believe this.
Taking his hand she said, “No, Hiccup you don’t have to do that. I love this necklace. I think it’s fun.”
Hiccup met her eyes, but he was quiet. The lamp light danced in the glass reflection making it harder to read his expression. He squeezed her hand. He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, struggling to find words.
When he did speak, he spoke slowly, “I do like your necklace but, would it be alright if I got you something in addition?”
He offered his most puppy-dog eyes. Astrid’s heart near exploded.
“Hiccup of course! You can get me anything you want, or nothing at all. You don’t need permission to give me a gift.”
“Okay.” He leaned in a kissed the corner of her smile.
She stopped him from pulling away by throwing her arm around his neck and met his lips with a deep kiss.
Whatever was playing on the tv was easily forgotten. Her hands danced in his hair as she felt the sparks of his fingertips along her spine. He was gentle but firm. She never needed to be on guard when his mouth was intertwined with hers.
Their smiles broke the kiss and their noses bumped gently as they separated.
Astrid could gaze into the sea of green forever, but a glass clink ripped her attention to the lounge chair.
“Heather! How long have You been there?” Astrid’s cheeks flushed. Hiccup burst out laughing. Heather took a bite of her spaghetti.
“Don’t mind me. I’m not here.” She smiled innocently with a mouthful of noodles and tucked her legs in closer making her appear as small as possible.
Astrid’s indignant expression cracked at Hiccup’s infectious laughter and all three friends melted into giggles.
Hiccup sighed as laugher subsided and placed a hand on Astrid’s knee, “Ok, let’s watch a movie.”