Story Time

                                    

                                          
"Wha-? How?" was all Hiccup could stammer as he stared at the piece of metal that had replaced his left foot. How could I have not noticed this before?" he thought to himself. Surely, he must have heard the sound the piece made before. Than again, there had been a lot of commotion going on lately which had probably blocked out the noise. 
                          
But still, how could I not feel that something was different? Hiccup then wiggled his toes in his flesh and blood foot, which he obviously couldn't do with his prosthetic one. "I must have been so anxious and scared of the dragons that I didn't even notice that my left foot wasn't there" he said, while running his fingers along the wood and metal of his mechanical foot, still dubious of the fact that he hadn't noticed it until now.
                          
Hiccup, still transfixed on his metal foot, didn't realize someone had been knocking at the front door until a girl's voice called out in a worried tone, "Hiccup?"
                          
Hiccup, brought back into the real world, then walked hurriedly over to the door along with the thudding of his foot and opened it cautiously to reveal Astrid waiting on the other side.
                          
"Astrid? How'd you know I was here?" Hiccup asked her, hoping that she hadn't come to take him back to the academy. He'd had enough of dragons.
                          
"Well, the villagers said they saw you running around like crazy and then they said they saw you come in here, so that's why I'm here," she told him, then noticing his worried face told him reassuringly, "Don't worry I'm not here to drag you back to the academy, but I'd think it'd be better if we went inside and talked. If the others see you they might not be too sympathetic with your case."
                          
"Oh, well, I guess you can come in," Hiccup said, politely holding the door open for Astrid. After all, this was the girl he had a crush on since he had first started working at the forge as Gobber's apprentice.
                          
"Great!" Astrid said as she walked into the Haddock household, hearing the door close lightly behind her.
                          
"So, uh," Hiccup then said clearing his throat as he hurried to Astrid's side trying to start a conversation, but awkwardly doing so. "Are you hungry? Can I get you something to eat? Fish maybe, well that's all we have, but we have cod, haddock, and... Or maybe you're thirsty?" Hiccup rambled on, but then wanted to slap himself when he was done. 
                          
Keep it simple Hiccup, why are you asking so many questions? he scolded himself in his mind as he looked down at his boots, ashamed. What kind of girl would want to hear someone ramble on? Certainly not Astrid. When he looked up to see Astrid smiling though, a small weight was released from his chest. Maybe, he hadn't slipped up after all.
                          
"No, but thanks for offering," she told him, still smiling. Even if Hiccup had lost all memory of her, she still loved his awkward adorableness.
                          
"Oh yeah sure, any eyes. I mean time!" Hiccup corrected himself as he nervously chuckled, now blushing fiercely. The reason he had said "eyes" instead of "time", was because of Astrid's. So big, blue, and beautiful, Hiccup had easily gotten lost in them.
                          
Astrid then did a little giggle, which made Hiccup blush so much that he looked down again, hoping she wouldn't notice his bright, red cheeks.
                          
Finally, Hiccup became so overwhelmed with embarrassment and nervousness that he blurted out uncontrollably, "I've had a crush on you since I first started working at the forge!" "Urgh! I'm sorry, you probably already know that since you're supposedly my girlfriend! Ahh!" Hiccup then blurted out, trying to make it a sincere apology, but messing up due to his nervousness again. He could even feel a small drop of sweat rolling down his forehead.
                          
"Hiccup!" Astrid suddenly exclaimed, which made Hiccup look up nervously. "Look at your face, it's all red! Maybe you should sit down" Astrid told him, looking at poor Hiccup's face, which now looked like a tomato, while guiding him to Stoick's chair to sit down.
                          
The chair dwarfed Hiccup in size but he couldn't have cared less, another minute and he would have collapsed to the ground, which would have been really embarrassing. 
                          
"Uh, thank you," he said as he sank into the chair, but then he noticed his prosthetic foot and decided to ask Astrid, "Um, I don't suppose you know how I lost my foot do you?"
                          
"Oh, well, you probably don't remember, otherwise you wouldn't be asking," Astrid then began, taking a seat on the armrest of the chair, "But, oh, how do I explain this?" She thought to herself for a moment before deciding she might as well be honest with him, even though her answer might freak him out. "You lost it while battling the Red Death."
                          
"The Red Death? What in Thor's name is the Red Death?" Hiccup asked her quizzically. Boy, did he have to catch up on a lot of things.
                          
"Oh, well, it was like this huge, fearsome dragon that broke out of the mountain on Dragon Island and then you and Toothless destroyed it and saved us all," Astrid explained, well aware of Hiccup's confused face.
                          
"Wait so, basically I was like the hero and saved everyone, and I did it with the help of a dragon?!" Hiccup said on the edge of his seat, nearly falling off in shock.
                          
"Yep" was all Astrid said to the still startled Hiccup, which didn't give him that much reassurance.
                          
"But-But how? How could I defeat a dragon if I'm terrified of them and defeat it with the help of one?" Hiccup asked her. His mind was now spinning with so many questions and it felt like it was going to bust.
                          
"Look, I know this a lot for you to take in, but I am speaking the truth, you are best friends with the Night Fury you are currently afraid of, you did battle and defeat the Red Death, resulting in that," she said as she pointed to Hiccup's mechanical foot, "And you are the greatest dragon trainer in the village. In fact, you want to know everything about dragons. You LOVE dragons! You just need to remember," Astrid told him, purposely leaving out the bit of him being friends with the teens and even the part about him and her being boyfriend and girlfriend. Right now, he just needed to not be afraid of the dragons.
                          
"But I don't remember. I want to remember, I want to think that I'm not afraid of dragons, but I can't" he told her looking down in shame. He felt like a coward, for no one else was afraid of the dragons. So why was he?
                          
Astrid, noticing Hiccup's sorrowful face, tried to cheer him up by smiling and telling him reassuringly, "Don't worry Hiccup you'll remember soon, because I have a plan."