Vikings. An arranged marriage. Hiccup always wanted to win the girl of his dreams, but not like this. Now he and Astrid must learn to live together and maybe one day, learn to love...
The Home We Built Together is a How to Train Your Dragon fanfic written by coneygoil
/ Coneflower Adams can be read on Archive of Our Own here and Fanfiction Dot Net here.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In-canon, Astrid was mostly portrayed as aloof and professional, quick to anger when something gets in her way and antagonizes Hiccup when he starts beating her in dragon-training. Here, she learns to like Hiccup long before she discovers Toothless, is dedicated to being his wife (even if they just start out learning to like each other platonically), her anger is based more out of worry and she is more willing to give Toothless a chance when she finds out about him.
- The Aloner: With the exception of Astrid, Hiccup avoids socializing with anyone if he can help it.
- Altar Diplomacy: The premise of the fic is about Hiccup and Astrid being married to each other under a contract between their families.
- Blatant Lies: Snotlout tells Hiccup that Astrid is only playing nice and complains about him when he isn't around. While Hiccup knows that Snotlout's words have little credence on their own, Hiccup's insecurities make it get to him.
- Cartwright Curse: Before Stoick married Valka, he was married to a girl named Inger. His father had them arranged so that there was someone to reign him in and she died of illness before they could ever have children. Now Valka is gone and he is arranging Hiccup with Astrid to ensure that it would change the both of them for the better.
- Con Man: Astrid catches bread-vendor Halvard charging Hiccup a gold coin for bread and threatens him for overcharging her husband.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- Hiccup and Astrid don't get married in canon until the end of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World and they Marry for Love. Here it was arranged for them by their parents under Altar Diplomacy before they even start dragon-training.
- Unlike canon, Hiccup goes out of his way not to socialize with the rest of the class, having to be literally dragged to the lookout pillar by Astrid.
- Everytime Hiccup learns a trick from Toothless, Astrid interrogates Hiccup and he tells him how he actually did it, claiming he learned them from "research."
- Astrid finds out about Toothless earlier than in canon.
- Astrid discovering Toothless and the three of them discovering the nest and the Red Death happen on different Nights.
- Astrid joins Hiccup and Toothless at their campfire with the Terrible Terrors.
- Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins find out that Hiccup had tamed a Night Fury long before any of them had been chosen to slay the Monstrous Nightmare and are trained to do the same in the grotto.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Snotlout has always been Astrid's Abhorrent Admirer. Now that she's by-law off-limits by being Hiccup's wife, Snotlout has rigged his bullying tactics to driving them apart, planting in Hiccup's mind that she secretly hates his guts. When Astrid finds out, she threatens Snotlout if he ever goes near Hiccup again.
- Hidden Depths:
- Astrid learns that while Hiccup can be clumsy and distracted, he is very good with his hands and can get restless when not busy fiddling with something, hence his smithing skills, competent cooking and the hours he spends drawing before sleeping.
- Ruffnut knows a lot more about the ins-and-outs of sex because her mother was a lot more thorough in explaining it to her than Astrid's and her brother is "grossly open about what his body can do," making her the person Astrid goes to to talk about it.
- Hot Springs Episode: In Chapter 21, Astrid takes Hiccup to Berk's hot springs on Ruffnut's recommendation.
- Inspite Of A Nail:
- Hiccup still builds the Mangler, shoots down Toothless and wreck half of the village. The only difference is that Astrid tries to help and gets clipped by the Nightmare in the process.
- Astrid's first ride on Toothless goes pretty much the same as it did in the movie, only this time Toothless scares her for calling him a "thing".
- Large Ham: When Hiccup and Astrid trained the arena dragons to pretend to fight them, the Hideous Zippleback takes the Ham Award for Overacting.The two-headed dragon was sparring with the twins – it'd seemed to have taken an interest in the Thorstons and always gravitated to "fighting" them. The two heads playfully dodged the swinging weapons, occasionally firing off a small blast for theatrics. The left head didn't dodge fast enough, or maybe it'd let itself be smacked on purpose. As Tuffnut's mace smashed into it, the head flopped to the ground, its tongue sticking out as if it had croaked over dead from that one blow. The right head looked down at its twin then without hesitation flopped onto the floor without so much as a threat, its forked tongue dangling out of its gassy mouth.
- Master of the Mixed Message: Astrid is usually aloof and self-reliant, so when she tries being a little more assertive in their growing fondness for each other, it confuses Hiccup at first.When Hiccup envisioned dating Astrid Hofferson, he never imagined having a relationship with her would be this confusing. One day she's keeping her allotted distance; another day she’s so close she's pushing him off the bed. There are times she's allowing physical affection, but Hiccup isn't sure if he has permission to be close to her when she hasn't initiated it.Receiving mixed signals was an understate!
- Minor Living Alone: One of the wedding presents Hiccup and Astrid receive is their own home. While they are technically considered adults considering they are married, they are still just teenagers.
- Morton's Fork: Invoked when Stoick finds Toothless and learns that Hiccup has been training the Night Fury; he orders that Hiccup must kill the Night Fury in the arena the next day, or Hiccup will be exiled and Toothless killed anyway.
- Mythology Gag: In Chapter 6, Hiccup casually draws up an idea for a Flaming Sword.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: While their marriage was political when it happened, Astrid has no ill-will towards him while Hiccup respects her as a person and already had a crush on her. As time goes by, they develop a fondness for each other before it escalates to actual romance.
- Real Men Cook: Since Astrid is hopeless at it, it is left to Hiccup to cook and he is fairly good at it.
- Shout-Out: When the real possibility of consummating their marriage becomes a thing, Astrid starts regularly taking Moon Tea as a precaution.
- Sorry I Fell on Your Fist: A variation. One recurring "joke" Snotlout likes to play on Hiccup is punching him in the stomach and saying "oops, my fist slipped."
- Wham Episode:
- Chapter 18 is when Astrid finds out about Hiccup and Toothless.
- Chapter 28 is when Toothless brings Hiccup and Astrid to the Nest.
- Chapter 29 is where Hiccup and Astrid have Their First Time.
- Chapter 33 is when the rest of the trainees discover Hiccup and Astrid have a Night Fury and want to be trained too.
- What If?: What if Hiccup and Astrid were arranged to be married before they met Toothless?
- Wonder Child: Ingrid Hofferson has been pregnant four times and the only time she didn't miscarry was with Astrid.
