Just Like Berk (Astrid)

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Hiccup hated P.E.

It was his worst class. Let’s be honest, despite being a Viking, Hiccup had never been of the typical warrior build. He was always scrawny, always weaker than everyone else. But he made up for it in brains. Once, Gobbler had told him that instead of being a “son” of Thor, he was probably a bastard son of Loki. Hiccup had chosen to take that as a compliment, seeing as the god of tricks was pretty damn smart.

But that didn’t help him at all when it came to physical activity. No matter how many things he learned, no matter how many strategies he memorized, Hiccup still wasn’t good at sports. And for some ungodly reason, he had been placed in a more athletically geared class. Maybe the schedule lady was an idiot, or some higher-up enjoyed screwing with his life. Either way, here he was, stuck in a class full of jocks and meatheads.

Just like his dragon-slaying class on Berk.

The only difference was that these people weren’t Vikings. And there weren’t any girls in his class. Lucky him, not being forced to endure the humiliation of being worse than a girl at everything. Even though Hiccup had never bought into the whole Viking-warrior-thing, it had still stung whenever a certain blonde had pounded him into the ground with a really big axe.

“Ow!” Hiccup yelped as someone slammed into his back, snapping him out of his thoughts and knocking him forward onto the ground. Conveniently, his mouth was open as he hit the grass, letting a bunch of dirt and turf fly into the gaping hole. Spluttering wildly and spitting out chunks of turf, he felt his cheeks burn as the other kids around him howled with laughter. Dammit, hadn’t he left home to escape all of this? In a sudden, uncharacteristic bout of anger, he jumped up, wheeling around to face the offending party with his hands balled into fists. The glare on his face was quite impressive, and actually hinted at the fact that he was, in fact, the next-in-line to become village chief of Berk. “Watch where you’re going, you idio–”

And then he realized who had hit him. He stopped talking immediately, his voice trailing off into a high-pitched keen as he gaped open-mouthed at the girl who stood before him. Oh, there was no mistaking it. Here stood his long-time crush, the one person he had admired in that dump of a village back on Berk.

It was Astrid.

“Oh. Shit.”

It wasn’t the most eloquent thing to have ever left his mouth, and it was probably the worst thing he could have said, given the circumstances. Hiccup snapped his mouth shut, wracking his brain for something better to say. He had to be funny, witty, cool, anything but himself. “I mean, um, hi,” he forced out, grinning sheepishly. “Uh, what… what are you doing here? I’m not really… I was just… Uh…. What a coincidence, am I right?” He would have his ass handed to him on a platter if Astrid so much as thought that he had followed her here. Did she even know that he had come here? Did she even care? He hadn’t exactly told anybody. He wouldn’t count it as running away, since nobody really cared where he went, but…

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Astrid loved P.E.

It was probably her best class. Sure, she was getting better at the whole thinking things through, thanks in no small part to a goddess routinely insisting she did just that. Well, that and Loki attempting to outsmart her at nearly every other encounter. Still, at the end of the day, Astrid epitomized a lot of what it meant to be a Viking, and a lot of that meant physical activity.

It only got better since she'd been taking private lessons from Thor and Artemis. Now she was quickly rising toward a level of conditioning that was veering on demigoddess. And don't think for a moment she didn't know it.

"Oh what?" she said as she looked to the scrawny guy she'd just tackled. She raised a brow and folded her arms. "What am I---I've been here for months!" Astrid waved her arms emphatically, which was a bit of a bad idea, considering what they were doing. She hissed, just withdrawing an arm in time to miss a deadly sphere of death. While she did love training under Thor, she sometimes felt his idea of dodgeball was roughly akin to the dragon-slaying training back home. Which suited her, really, but still.

"I'm saving you from---wait," Astrid squinted, looking at the scrawny young man before her. You couldn't really blame her for not immediately noticing him. Sure, Hiccup might have been the son of the Viking Chief and the second most known teenage Viking on Berk (after Astrid, and even that was debatable), but he wasn't exactly in Astrid's usual social circle. That was mostly to do with the big pile of fail that Hiccup was generally considered to be. Add on the new clothing and environment.

"What are you doing--" hissed Astrid, moving to grab Hiccup. She'd been reaching for his collar, when her eyes shifted. Moving quickly, she snatched Hiccup's shirt, pulling him toward her while attempting a step back. A ball (and really, they were more like missiles) whizzed by them both, Astrid watching its arc. She looked to Hiccup again, eyebrow raised challengingly.

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"Wait, what?" Hiccup blinked, not realizing what Astrid was talking about. What did she mean that she had been here for months? "Well, when you stopped showing up for dragon training, we all just assumed that you were off doing training somewhere else..." The ball whizzing by cut off the hanging end of his sentence, and he quickly realized that this kinda was training.

And now he instantly regretted coming here.

"Oh, great. More people 'saving' me," he drawled, making air quotes with his hands and rolling his eyes. Really, it was annoying. Yeah, he was weak and tended to screw up a lot, but maybe he should be learning for himself. "Ever consider that maybe I don't want everyone to baby me? Maybe I want to do things on my own."

That was all fine and danty, but the balls whizzing by at incredible speeds made him really regret his words.

"What do you mean, what am I do-" Hiccup was cut off as Astrid tugged him forward, pulling him out of the way of a ball that quite possibly could have taken his head off. "How the hell is this even fair?" he yelped, glancing back at the person - no, thing - that had hurled the ball. But this wasn't the time to be complaining. Glancing back at Astrid, he saw a ball being launched out of his peripheral. Instead of trying to dodge, he turned around just in time for the ball to slam into his gut, knocking him back on his rear. Somehow, though, he held onto the ball, and a few seconds later, he heard the coach shout to a member of the opposing team, "Out!"

Coughing, Hiccup sat up, still clutching the ball tightly. He narrowed his eyes as he tried to make out who was on the opposing team. Really, there were only two guys on the other team that were a real threat. If they could take them out... Glancing up at Astrid, he cleared his throat, grinning sheepishly as he said, "I suppose you wouldn't exactly believe me if I told you that I know the best way to end this quickly, right?"

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"I told everyone I was coming here. Not like we didn't know about it," hissed Astrid. This really wasn't the time or place to be having a conversation like this. Then again, from what Astrid knew of Hiccup (and that was admittedly very little) he did have a knack for not understanding when he needed to go off onto a diatribe. Another ball whizzed by, and Astrid ducked. Great, so they remembered the last round of dodgeball that Astrid had been a part of. Wasn't her fault that Thor thought it was good training.

A grab, a yank, and Astrid grunted as she released Hiccup, not even entirely sure why she kept pulling him out of danger, especially if he was going to be... himself. "It's not supposed to be fair," she said. She narrowed her eyes at Hiccup for a moment, then raked him with those very orbs. Oh, yeah, he definitely looked like a Viking of Berk. Now everyone was going to think that the reason Astrid was the most badass Viking from her home island was because they were filled with... that.

That happened to just take a ball to the stomach in a very familiar manner. Astrid winced sympathetically, remembering the gut-liquifying blow she'd received from Thor in that very manner. True, that had been Thor as opposed to a random hulking student, but she figured it was roughly the same. So she snorted and offered Hiccup half a smile, one that quickly faded to an eye roll.

"Does it involve you getting in the way some more? Because you're good at that," she said. She then turned, just as another ball was whizzing her way. This time, instead of dodging, Astrid moved, her hand blurring. She snatched the ball out of the air, then tossed it, all in the same motion. Two of the opposing team members out. Astrid grunted and stepped sideways.

Yeah, this training with gods thing was definitely working out for her. Shame that she had deadweight. She looked back at Hiccup, again wondering why he'd come here. Maybe his dad had unloaded him; everyone knew what that relationship was like...

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"Well, apparently you didn't tell everyone, because none of us in dragon training knew," Hiccup snapped back at her, throwing his hands into the air. "Seriously, Snotlout was in tears when you stopped showing up for practice. Then he decided that it was somehow my fault. And I didn't even do anything."

Brushing his hands over his jacket, Hiccup smoothed the creases out of his jacket, unconsciously acting on his nervous habit. "Yeah, well it should be fair..." he grumbled, knowing full well that he sounded like a whiny little brat. And honestly, he didn't care. The coach had stacked the odds against their team, and it looked like he'd done it on purpose. He noticed Astrid watching him, and he squirmed uncomfortably under her gaze. Geez, it wasn't bad enough that he had run into the one girl he'd been trying to avoid, but now she was checking him out as well? Well, it wasn't really checking him out, per se, but he would have liked to delude himself into thinking that.

After getting hit rather hard in the gut, Hiccup was fine with staying on the ground, though. He still hurt. A lot. And he really didn't want to be staggering around when Astrid was there to mock him. "Ha ha, very funny," he drawled, rolling his eyes in return. "No, it involves you actually listening to the words coming out of my mouth." Narrowing his eyes, Hiccup returned his gaze to the opposite side of the field, watching the other players intently. Yep, it was just like he thought. The two big guys were carrying their team. If they were gone...

Hiccup turned to Astrid to tell her his plan, just in time to see her snatching a ball out of the air and throwing it all at the same time. His jaw dropped and he gaped stupidly, wondering how the hell she'd managed to do that. "H-how the hell... Nevermind, doesn't matter," he stammered, shaking his head in an attempt to formulate his thoughts. "Look, see those two big guys over there?" He pointed at the two athletic kids on the other team. "If you can get them out, this game will be over." Sucking in a breath, Hiccup rattled off what he'd seen them do. "The taller one throws hard, but his throws take longer to wind up, and he always throws with his right hand. Hit him in the right side when he's got his arm up. He won't be able to block then, and it'll be in his blind spot. As for the other guy, his throws aren't as strong, but they're fast. He switches hands too, but he's predominantly left-handed. He's got crazy good reflexes too, and he's been catching balls right and left for the past five minutes. If you attack when he's catching another ball or just finished a throw, though, he'll be completely unable to react."