Captive Confessions

Astrid walked slowly into the cells, unsure what she would find. She was hyperaware of the small hand clamped in hers, the irregular pull on her arm as Arild in turns pulled ahead then became overcome with anxiety and hung back, trying to hide behind her. She flicked her azure gaze down, seeing the small shape fidgeting and trembling while the guards had pointed her to the central cell of three. Taking a breath to calm herself, she slowly walked towards it, the bars facing her revealing a dim space with a hunched shadow at the back. She felt the boy suddenly pull away.

"Captain Fury?" she asked slowly.

"D-dad?" the boy called.

The shadowed head snapped round, the lithe body rising as it turned and the shape walked swiftly forward, emerging from the shadows into the warm hesitant light of the torches, walking to the bars as the boy ran towards him.

"Arild?" He dropped to his knees and the boy flung himself against the bars, his thin arms winding awkwardly through as the prisoner managed to wrap his lanky arms around the boy and enfold him in a fierce hug.

"Dad," the boy whispered as Fury gently stroked his head and held him tight. Astrid stared at him: his armour and weapons were gone and so was the scarf. He was leaner and lankier than she had guessed, clad only in his deep red tunic, leggings and boots and he was younger than she had guessed. His tousled auburn hair was messy and reached below his collar, two little braids sticking out behind his right ear. His glorious green eyes were focussed on the boy, his face much younger and paler than she had imagined with a few tiny scattered freckles, his jaw angled and firm. There was horrible bruising across the left side of his face from several punches. The pirate flicked his eyes up.

"Thank you," he murmured, then turned back to the boy. "Are you alright?" The boy nodded. Fury inspected him, in smart new shirt, tunic and breeches, neat shoes on his feet. "You look like a young gentleman," he said with a smile. The boy gave a small pout.

"I don't wanna be a gentleman!" he protested. "I want to be a pirate!" Fury caught his shoulders then gently stroked his face.

"Gods, no," he said gently. "Being a pirate will get you here." He shrugged and gestured to the cell. The boy pulled a stubborn face. "Arild, I am a pirate and I have caught. Tomorrow I am going to have my trial and after that, they will kill me." The boy stared into his bruised face and his green eyes swum with tears. Then he flung himself against the bars again and Fury hugged the sobbing boy fiercely.

"Actually," Astrid murmured slowly, "I think Magne Jorgensen is petitioning for you to face slavery on the galleys, not hanging." His gaze flicked up and he shook his head.

"So they won't kill me by breaking my neck with a rope but by whipping and starving and working me to death," he said sarcastically. "Both are death sentences, milady. The second is just far, far crueller." She swallowed at his bleak tone and she frowned: she had never really thought of it like that. But there was something else: there was an aching familiarity now she could finally see his face. He inspected her carefully. "Promise me you will take care of Arild," he asked her softly, the plea in his tone. "That you will protect him." She nodded. He stared at her, the intensity almost blinding. "I know Eret will be cruel to him...and I fear what Magne Jorgensen will do if he realises he means everything to me." He sighed. "If...if he is in danger, get him to my crew. They have sworn to protect him."

"How would I even find them?" she asked. He stared at the boy, whose sobs had slowed to a few sniffs and the odd hiccup. He rubbed his back and tousled his black hair gently.

"Ask Trader Johann," he sighed. "I suspect he could get him to Fishlegs or the twins. I know they will do right by him."

"But why do you care?" she asked him suddenly. "He isn't even yours! You told me he was just a kid you found on the streets..." He looked up suddenly.

"Because I promised," he told her sharply. "I promised to protect him. I promised I would not let him be hurt. And when I make a promise, I keep it." She started: the words were familiar as well, the nagging of an almost-remembered memory infuriating. "He was alone and friendless and starving. He was in exactly the same situation I was condemned to. But I had no one who would take me in." He sighed heavily. "And given that I am going to be condemned to be executed-by whatever means-in the morning. can I ask you the one question you have refused to answer?"

She stared at him. "I don't..." she began and then he looked her straight in the eye, the intensity in his gaze almost painful.

"Why did you betray the boy, Hiccup?" he asked her directly.

"I don't see how that's any of your business?" she snapped. He gave a low chuckle and shook his head.

"But it is, Astrid," he said in a low, mocking voice. "It was always my business." He paused. "Have I changed that much?" he added in a soft voice. She stared into his face, his eyes-those mesmerising, glorious forest green eyes, so much more intense than before...the tiny, old scar just on the right of his much more chiselled jaw, below the lip-and then she jerked back, her hands flying up to her mouth in shock.

"H-Hiccup?" she gasped. "Oh Thor...it is you!" She shook her head, trembling. "But you said... I thought you..." And her voice tailed away.

"Yeah, well-hardly likely to walk up to the woman who tore my heart out and say 'Hi Astrid-it's me. Wanna break my heart or ruin my life again?'" Arild stared up at him in shock at his sarcastic tone-but she realised that he was comfortable with and must have seen the pirate's...Hiccup's...face before: he had only concealed it from her. She gaped. How had she not seen it? How had no one? "So I think you owe me that answer now, Astrid. WHY?"

She turned away and wrapped her arms around herself. He thought she wouldn't reply...but she slowly turned back to him and there was a silver chain in her hand...with a tiny silver ring looped around it. There were tears in her eyes.

"After you were betrayed, your father sent a message to mine, telling him of the report," she revealed. "I didn't realise that he was beating you to force you to confess. When my father asked me the question, I told him directly. I would never lie to him." Hiccup groaned: he had suffered so much pain to protect her...and she had owned up immediately. "So he told me directly that I had shamed the line of Hoffersons and that had you touched me...I would be slain. I had to swear that you had not." She swallowed. He was breathing hard now, staring at the floor beside her. He couldn't meet her eyes, though she read from his expression that he was furious.

"And...I'm still waiting for the bit where you destroy me..." he said sarcastically. Her eyes flared.

"You have no idea what it was like!" she flared at him. "I was the absolute last of my line! I was told that my betrayal would end the Hoffersons, a family that had been in power since the founding of Berk! I was given a stark choice: I could admit that I had a relationship, that I cared for you...and be thrown from the family...or I could deny and spurn you and I would remain in the family, honouring my ancestors as I had been taught from birth. That I would marry the man my father chose to maintain our line and protect the Hofferson legacy." Hiccup was staring at her almost with contempt.

"I was wrong," he said quietly. "You do have a heart-and it only loves Astrid Hofferson."

"You don't know what it was like!" she retaliated.

"Like Hel!" he spat back. "I am the last Haddock-the last of the line of Chiefs of Berk! My father screamed all the same things at me but accompanied them with blows from his fists or his belt or his boots. And I held out for four hours, Astrid. Four hours where I thought I might die because I feared if I admitted what I felt, he would harm you. But in the end, I couldn't listen to the filth and insults any more. I couldn't let him keep calling you a whore and a temptress and a slut...so I defended you. And with that, he cut me off, disowning his only son without a second thought. And he promised that I would be thrown onto the streets but that every single inhabitant of Berk would be forbidden to offer me any help, any food or warmth or even act of kindness. He literally condemned me to die on the streets before the eyes of my neighbours, my kin, my Tribe. My only hope was the docks and some ship that didn't care what Governor Stoick the Vast said! And the only one that would take me...was a pirate ship."

She stared.

"When your father summoned us to the mansion, my father threatened me that if I gave one hint I had any feelings for you, he would send me to the whorehouse for shaming the family!" she said haltingly. "And he threatened he would have you killed! Don't you see? I couldn't face that! I had to say what I did!" He stared at her and his mouth fell open in horror.

"Astrid, I would have found you," he whispered. "No matter what happened, no matter how long it took, I would have found you if you had given me one scrap of hope that you cared! I would have travelled from the ends of Midgard for you. Remember-I promised." She shook her head and her hand closed around the ring he had made her.

"I was afraid," she admitted softly. "I couldn't face shaming my ancestors. I couldn't face being sent to a whorehouse. I couldn't let him kill you!"

"But you did anyway," he said sharply. "You ripped my heart out, Astrid. You destroyed the boy who loved you. I can't tell you the nights, beaten and abused on that ship where I stared at the sea and tried to find some reason not to jump, not to end the Hel my life was. And the only thing, the only thing I had to cling to wasn't hope or love but revenge. The prospect of one day, making you all pay for destroying a boy whose only crime was to love a girl from the wrong family who was too cowardly to admit she loved him."

She gave a mirthless laugh. "And that's the truth," she said bitterly. "Fearless Astrid Hofferson, last daughter of the Hoffersons, was too afraid to stand by the boy who loved her. And the runt son of her family's greatest rival shamed her by being true to her, despite her betrayal." He closed his eyes.

"Maybe I shouldn't have asked," he sighed, feeling the boy try to hug him, feeling his distress. Then he glanced up and saw what she was holding. "Astrid...?" he asked. She blinked.

"I can't wear it," she told him slowly, "but it never leaves me." He groaned then, his head hanging forward in utter defeat.

"Gods, no," he breathed. "Please, anything but that..."

"I still love you," she whispered. "I refused all those other suitors, drove them away despite what I had promised because they weren't Hiccup. I couldn't love anyone else because they weren't Hiccup."

"How stupid are you?" he breathed. "How blind? If you had loved me, you would have recognised me. If you had loved me, if your damned pride and anger hadn't gotten in the way, you would have told me when I asked the first time...or even the second. because if you had said you still loved me, if you had confessed why you betrayed me...that you were threatened as well...I could still have taken you away, still offered you something...but now, I am going to die, Astrid. And it is too late. And every part of that is your fault."

"And not yours for being a pirate?" she snapped. He stared up into her face.

"I even told you my tale...and you throw it back in my face, milady," he told her sarcastically. "What choice had I? Death or piracy! Both have led to the same end." He swallowed. "Just...if you had any feeling once for me, take care of the boy. Can you do that?" She nodded as the boy turned to him, his eyes wide in fear.

"Dad...?" he whispered. "Let me stay with you..." Hiccup gave a sad smile.

"Arild...you have to go with Astrid," he said. "I will always be with you...here..." He touched the boy's chest, over his heart. "But I have to know you are safe. If they do send me to the galleys, it is the only thing that could give me hope to survive. Can you do that, bud? Can you wait for me?" The boy gave a muffled sob and nodded. "I couldn't have loved you more if you been my own," Hiccup told him gently. "Hang in there, little bud. Be brave. And remember I love you."

"I love you too, Dad," the boy whispered. Hiccup stared up into Astrid's eyes.

"I trusted you with my heart once-and you betrayed and destroyed me," he told her with absolute conviction, his eyes cold. "But all I can do is trust you with my heart-and my son-once more. Do not let anything happen to him-because I swear to Odin that if you do, not matter what happens to me, I will come for you. I will even return from Hel if you let him be hurt. Do you understand?" She nodded and took his hand.

"I will protect him...Hiccup," she whispered, pulling the boy away. Arild gave him a final teary wave and he smiled until the door closed. Then he slumped against the bars, his eyes closing in despair. A tear slid down his bruised cheek as he clasped his hands over his heart.

"Please Astrid...just this once...please be true," he prayed softly. "Please keep him safe. Because, Odin knows, I will die tomorrow."