Wedding Stress

“Astrid no—wait!”

Something pinched the waist of her fitted, wool tunic.  Then Astrid was yanked off the foot-path, an involuntary yelp escaping her lips as she collided with a body.

The force of the unexpected grab was more than either party could have predicted, and together they tumbled to the ground.

Astrid pushed herself up, spit a strand of hair from her mouth and gave the man beneath her a hard glare.

“Hiccup, what do you think you are doing?”

Hiccup made a dull, noncommittal noise as he blinked away his disorientation.

His eyes grew wide when his brain caught up to speed.

“Sorry! I’m sorry!” he yammered.  He scrambled to his feet, pulling Astrid up along with him absent thought. “Are you okay?  I didn’t mean— I just wanted to stop you.”

"Stop me from what?" Astrid asked. She picked a couple leaves from the front of her shirt. "I was coming up to find you, you know.”

"Sorry," Hiccup mumbled again. "You can’t see it yet—the house. I don’t want you to see it until it’s finished."

Astrid almost laughed until the intensity of his stare registered. He was serious.

“Our house?” she repeated, incredulous.  “It’s a house, Hiccup, and our wedding is in two weeks. Something tells me I’m going to see it before then.”

He shifted his weight. “Yeah… okay, maybe. Flying overhead or something…” His cheeks puffed a bit in a pout; he looked five years younger. “But…just don’t go inside, no matter what. That’s for after the wedding.”

This time, Astrid did laugh. “Alright, you big baby. I won’t go inside. If there even is an inside. Fish was saying the other day that you guys just got the frame finished last week.”

She watched his face hardened and his chin lift stubbornly; the childish illusion shattered.

"Oh, I’ll have it done by then," he told her. "I’m on top of everything."

"Everything?" Astrid’s mouth twisted in skepticism and immediately Hiccup’s head ducked.  She had him.

"Most things," he amended.

"Got that sword yet?” 

“Working on it,” he quipped. “Got yours?”

"The sword? Yes." It would be a pretty lack-luster wedding if the Exchanging of the Swords didn’t take place.  "The bridal crown is another matter," she admitted.

Hiccup looked rightfully wary. “Why…?”

Astrid clamped down on the anger she had just worked through in the Kill Ring.  ”My mother can’t find it! She claims she’s looked everywhere. I think my aunt may have stolen it.”

"You’ll find it," Hiccup said. He took a step closer to her and pulled another leaf from her hair. "Or another one can be made. We have two weeks, remember?"

"But there’s the hunt too," she reminded him.  "I’m scheduled for two of them. We have a lot of meat we still need to aquire on top of the harvest.”

Hiccup sighed. “And mead. We’re still in negotiations with the Bogs to secure more of their honey.  I have to fly out there sometime but I don’t want to leave those guys alone with the house…”

A weight of worry started to bead in Astrid’s stomach. “And my dress still isn’t finished… Oh Frigga, I’m not going to have a dress or a crown!”

"At least we’ll have all that meat."

"Hiccup—" she began, but Hiccup silenced her by reaching out to brush the curve of her cheek with his fingertips, and giving her a tight, comforting smile that showed her he felt just as tired as she did.

"You will have a dress and a crown,” he promised. “And I will have an ancestor’s sword and that house finished, and it will all be done before the wedding.

Astrid smiled at his effort, but her voice was rueful. ”I don’t think I can do it. My mother and Phlegma had me stuck with pins for the entire morning making my dress.  They can’t agree on anything. I’m going to bleed out before next Friday.”

"Uncle Spitelout has already started giving me advice,” Hiccup countered, his mouth pulled in revulsion. “I’m over there trying to measure floor-space and he starts regaling me with ‘tales of his youth’.”

Astrid snorted, half of amusement, half of exhaustion.  The exhaustion won out.  Her head dropped against his shoulder and she pulled a childish, sulking, grimace into his leather vest.

“Gods, why are we doing this again?” she moaned.

Hiccup rubbed her back with a sympathetic hand, but his chest vibrated in a teasing chuckle.  “To bring peace to our warring families?”

“Mmm, I don’t think that was it…”

Despite the burden of their preparations, and the exhaustion of expectation, and the strain to maintain a calm front for the village, Astrid smiled.  Polish and ash invaded her senses.  The point of Hiccup’s chin pressed into her crown, his fingers hooked at the small of her back, and the fine hairs trailing the back of his neck curled under her palms.  Astrid may not have been prepared for a wedding, but she was prepared for a lifetime of this.




Art on Tumblr
Drabble on Tumblr
Hiccup and Astrid © Dreamworks
Artwork © me