trans_9 | Are you afraid of the Darksoul? [Part 2]

Ruffnut as it turns out was still nearby...arguing with herself.

"So what if I think of her like that huh? It's not like I'm replacing Tuff." She reasoned as she stopped to examine a peculiar structure she'd never seen before. It was in fact a fire hydrant.

"Weird." She mumbled out loud tapping it with her foot, oblivious to the Karmic backlash that was about to be brought down upon her head.

"There you are!"

There was Hiccup, shirtless and holding a trident, floating a few feet off the ground. There was something wrong, besides the flying, about the way he moved, about how empty his gaze was as he tilted his head and looked at her. There was something wrong with his voice, too.

"Ruffnut Ruffnut Ruffnut, you know, I've been looking everywhere for you."

Ruffnut blinked once...twice. Then rubbed her eyes.

"Um...hi Hiccup?" She spoke slowly, with that particular tone that indicated her less then high speed brain was trying very hard to process something confusing.

So naturally she started with the simplest of things, "You got a tattoo?" She asked confused and pointing at the upside down pentacle on his bare...and admittedly toned chest. Ruffnut had to blush as she realized that he had firmed up since they were younger. He'd never be a big bulky strong manly man but...well he was slightly less scrawny?

"Pretty great, huh? You like it?" he asked, landing lightly, and stepping forward, and the way he moved was almost...seductive. Like he was perfectly sure of himself, perfectly aware of how his body looked.

He had gotten some tone from working so much in the forge and Zuko's training and the just natural growth that came of being a teenage boy and having months passing. Still was a scrawny thing, but he was getting to be a scrawny thing what could possibly pass as a few muscles now. (Just a few, though).

"Wanna touch it?"

"What?" That was a weird thing to ask wasn't it? For Hiccup surely it was a weird thing to ask!

But...well frankly she kind of did. "How'd you do it? Is it like burned on or something?" She asked reaching out a hand gingerly to poke at it before placing her entire hand on it and running her fingertips along the design.

Meanwhile a voice in her head that sounded decidedly like her brother was screaming warnings at her about something involving Astrid...but Ruffnut was far too busy suddenly noticing this fluttering in her belly. Had she eaten something off? Maybe she was sick?

"Something like that."

Hiccup leaned in, and with the hand that wasn't holding the trident, reached up and cupped her face with it.

"So, listen, I was thinking, you like me, right? Saved the entire village, tamed the first dragon, big hero, badass survivor, so on and so forth. I've got all this new power now, you've got a whole lot of new power... It really seems to me that it would make a whole world of sense if I dumped Astrid and went out with you instead. For one, you're hotter, and for two, you'd probably be way more of a she-demon in the sack. Astrid's a prude."

Edited 2011-01-21 07:45 (UTC)

If there was ever a way to completely shut down the portions of Ruffnut's brain that were not vital...that was probably it.

Somehow despite his being roughly the same height as her she found herself tilting her head back to his touch looking up at him. A chill raced through her skin followed by intense heat...but it wasn't painful.

No...this was an entirely new kind of thrill, the rush of adrenaline surging through her blood was unlike anything she'd experienced before. Her face was red as a tomato as she suddenly found her mouth dry, unable to take her eyes off Hiccups.

"Y-you...and...I...huh? R-really?" She managed to mumble a barely coherient string of words.

"Yes, really. But there's a time limit on it. Yes or no. Tick tock."

"I..." The words died in her throat as her legs threatened to buckle on her. When did it get so warm in the city? She was sweating! She could feel the lightning energy she was now one with surging through her limbs desperate for an output. But she knew better then to abandon control of it right now. It would hurt Hiccup!

And if she hurt Hiccup Astrid would...

And suddenly that chill was back turning her heated flesh to ice with fear and confusion, "...but what about Astrid?" She spoke wanting to protest louder but her voice only coming out a whisper in the face of this new assertive Hiccup. "She's my friend..."

"Who cares about Astrid?"

He gestured with both hands, one of them still holding the trident, spreading his arms wide.

"She'll get over it. She's Astrid."

"Who cares about Astrid?"

The words rang in her ears like the screech of a dragon. No...like two dragons. No still! Like both heads of her hideous zippleback screeching on either side of her head.

"I thought you did..." She spoke softly but with a firmer voice. Something was twisting those butterflies in her stomach into a knot of discomfort now. Was it guilt?

"I-I still do..." She added still quiet and found herself shocked that her voice wavered. Was she afraid of losing this chance? She'd been jealous of Astrid for months, lonely aching for something she had never had day after day on this lousy tin and here it was, being offered to her on a bare chested smiling platter. Her every biological urge screamed "YES YES YES!" and she licked her lips nervously as she tried to force her brain to process despite being mush.

"Stop caring," Hiccup said, leaning in.

Ruffnut felt the action long before her poor spun about mind had a chance to think about it. She pushed forward and pressed her lips to his firm, hard. She had never kissed a boy before and in no way would this be considered a particularly great kiss. Too much force from her end.

But the world fell away around her. The guilt in her stomach was like a mist and her every inch felt electrified...moreso then usual.

This was much...much more of a rush then she'd ever have thought mushy stuff like kissing could be.

He kissed her like he'd never even kissed Astrid before. Like he was taking something that couldn't be gotten back.

(Also, he put a lot of French on it).

When he finally pulled back, grinning almost deviously, at her, he said, "It's nice getting what you want, isn't it? Someone liking you back when you've wanted them to for a long time? Means they finally accept you, you know? Exactly as who you are."

He nodded once, and his voice took on a very sinister tone.

"I can see why you guys used to do stuff like that so much. Pretend to be my friends, until I'd realize you were faking to get a good laugh out of how I tripped all over myself trying to get you to like me. There's that whole great lead up, and then?"

Hiccup reached up and grabbed her by the hair, hard enough to nearly rip it out.

"The payoff."

Ruffnut's brain was swimming her lips still parted from the kiss. What had he done with his tongue? She'd never even seen that let alone considered...and how it had felt...oh wait he's talking.

And then that knot came back, more tangled and twisted then ever as he laid her crimes out before her. Just one of many that she and the other Vikings had performed against him as children. Before she could protest, apologize, or even ask what was going on he yanked on her hair and her head snapped in that direction, tears forming instantly as she let out a cry that was unlike any cry of pain she'd heard from her own mouth. It sounded...weak. Girlish.

"H-hiccup?" She asked startled as her heart began to race and try to prepare her body for what was coming next.

"You actually thought I could ever like you?"

He threw her, by her hair, in front of him, then raised the trident and blasted soulfire in her direction.

She hit the ground hard and sat up shaking her head to try and clear the fog. "Yes?" She answered honestly with a sheepish blush before she saw the fire blast coming her way.

Too confused for even her instincts to override her body it struck her clean in the chest knocking her flat again, the air crushed from her lungs leaving her wheezing. It felt like she'd just fallen ontop of a fire pit!

She looked up through watering blurry vision for Hiccup a questioning puzzled look hidden in a face twisted in pain.

Edited 2011-01-21 09:20 (UTC)

"I'm not sure which of you is dumber--you or Tuffnut--but considering the smartest of the two of you probably has about the intelligence of a lump of year-old goat cheese (and you both smell like one, too, just a note), well... that'd make dating you nearly like bestiality. You're both just big dumb animals."

Hiccup casually blasted her again before she could get up.

"No, I don't like you at all. In fact, you actually disgust me quite a bit. I just did all that for the look on your face just now--"

He chuckled a chuckle that sounded almost amicable. "I really wish you could've seen it, it was great. And betraying Astrid like that? I really am impressed. Especially since it means your tiny lil' brain made that decision that quickly--new record for you forming an actual coherent thought. Then again, none of you was really ever any good at that whole 'friend' thing in the first place, were you. That's the really hilarious thing with this--even after years of bullying, loneliness, isolation, and public embarrassment, it took all this--" he gestured to himself with his hand, at his chest and the mark on it "--to turn me into a jerk, when you guys were that way all along."

He leveled the trident at her again.

"What was your excuse?"

Edited 2011-01-21 09:47 (UTC)

Ruffnut's mind was spinning as the world spun up around her. Everything hurt, physically...emotionally...

"I..." she shook her head to clear it, "...I messed up." A confession that wasn't necessary. "I'm sorry." She added unable to look him in the eye.

"Sorry? You're sorry? Like that even means anything?"

Hiccup stepped towards her, pointing the trident at her, and it started to glow, looking red-hot as soulfire gathered around it, building into what was likely going to be a monumental blast.

"You don't get forgiveness here. No more Mr. Nice Viking..."

It was unclear why she suddenly dropped everything and hurried off. Why she stopped to pick up her axe. Why she had to find Hiccup.

Along the way, she asked Stacy for the boy's location and with that help it lead her into the city. It all started when they received the message. Mei-Xing's public message rattled Astrid with a strong feeling of apprehension.

And now she understood why.

Astrid didn't get a chance to finish rounding that last corner when she saw them. Her body locked up and for what may have been a few seconds or a minute felt like an eternity as she didn't move, the corner of the building half-obscuring her.

Kissing. Her best friend. Her boyfriend.

Smile. He's smiling--

She's probably never made this face before. It was impossible to describe what she was feeling now. Was it healthy to feel this many all at once? She should be angry -- no, she should be utterly furious. Vehement, stomping out of the shadows and giving them a piece of her mind, laying the smack down on both their asses. That's the Astrid she knew.

...Not this Astrid. This girl so shaken up inside she could barely budge from hiding. She couldn't even help her best friend in trouble as Ruffnut was thrown around and heartlessly taunted. This shouldn't be affecting her this much; her quick, sound judgment knew all along that it was the darksoul's fault. That it wasn't Hiccup actually enjoying...

Then, her lungs were working again. He was about to do something horrible to Ruffnut and there was no time to think or feel. So, she did the last thing she only knew how in such critical circumstances.

Astrid forced herself into action and hurled her axe. There was another problem present: how to get that darksoul out of him without damaging Hiccup. Well, without hurting him too severely.

But right now, she'll just aim her axe at that unsightly thing he was holding.

The trident was knocked out of his hand and it went flying off, the axe deflecting off with it.

Hiccup turned to look at Astrid and looked thrilled, ignoring Ruffnut for the time being, to focus his attention on the other Viking female.

"Oho! The ice queen cometh! You saw the kissing part, right? Where I was kissing Ruffnut? Instead of you? With tongue?"

Darting out his tongue, he made a little undulating motion with it.

Edited 2011-01-21 12:09 (UTC)

Her chest tightened and she could feel her nails dig into the palms of her clenched fist at her side.

...No, she shouldn't let on she knows of the darksoul corrupting his mind. It was her boyfriend slandering her right now.

She straightened her back and stared him down, analyzing. And by the sound of it, it doesn't know how long she's been standing over there. Though, how long can she hold this up until she can think of something? It will take a lot of restraint to keep a cool facade, but she had to remind herself she's a pro at that kind of thing.

Astrid's face softened, her lips a brief disheartened smile. "That awful look doesn't suit you, Hiccup."

Then she nonchalantly threw her hands out at her sides and shook her head, the smile replaced with a smirk. "Though I gotta' say that tongue thing is adorable. Really." She tried her best to sound indifferent. The Ice Queen, right?

Talk to the invisible hand, dark!Hiccup, while she speaks to Ruffnut for a minute. "...Ruff, it's okay. Hiccup's having another crisis again. We just have to smack some sense into him."

Now get up, because she might need your help here in a second - it probably wasn't the best plan to instigate him like that.

Hiccup held out his arms and started to walk towards her, slowly, dangerously, like he was a predator circling prey. Never before had Hiccup been a violent person. He was the meekest of the meek, that was just his nature. The ship had forced him to kill things just to survive, and it was becoming easier, but those were still things, bugs and monsters rather than people (or dragons). It wasn't something that came naturally to him, and Astrid was the one that knew he spent some nights just staring up at the ceiling, mulling over his decisions and thinking about his choices.

Rage was pulsing through his veins right now, and barely restrained violence was tightly coiled in his scrawny muscles, quivering under his skin.

It was clear he wanted to hurt them, but he also wanted to hurt them. Whether that was the Darksoul or something buried far, far down inside Hiccup that'd only been unleashed by it wasn't clear. Maybe it came from they dark, deep place where the two crossed over into each other.

"This look isn't so bad, Astrid. That's a bit of an exaggeration. You exaggerate a lot in general--you do realize that, don't you? For instance, how me being a little awkward and weak was something you exaggerated into my being a hopeless failure that you couldn't be seen around, back when we were kids. Remember that? That was fun, those years of having you turn up your nose at me in the street, knowing everybody else in the village half-hoped I'd just get carried off by a dragon during a raid sometime so I'd be out of their hair."

Edited 2011-01-21 12:49 (UTC)

Man, that Darksoul is some piece of work. Now it's bringing their past into this, a lot of unresolved feelings there. Astrid couldn't lie that it didn't burn a little.

She has to steer off that topic. Astrid placed her hands on her hips and tilted her head, scornfully. "Hiccup, you're acting really hostile and stupid right now. You understand the consequences if you get too close to me while you're like that..."

Although she stood seemingly unfazed, she was tense and ready to defend herself if necessary.

And she's thinking necessary. Definitely can't be wise to underestimate just what power the Darksoul was truly capable of.

Edited 2011-01-21 13:26 (UTC)

Are you afraid of the Darksoul? [Part 2]

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Warning: For really crass stuff and talk of bad touch

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