A/N: I posted this on tumblr a few days ago and I was just going to add it to Aevi but it's really long so I figured I'd make it its own work. This is pretty much 2500 words of smut. It's set during Race to the Edge, but there's nothing really spoilery about it. So if you haven't watched the show yet you're not really going to be spoiled by anything or not understand anything. Semi-inspired by listening to the song 'New Constellations' by Ryn Weaver and thinking about how well it fits restless late-teens Hiccup. (Also it's a pretty great song.)

(Side note: I'm working on the next chapter of Persephone and I'm going to try to get it up this week. I've been on vacation and sick, so things are weird right now. But I'm working on it.)

oneshot

New Constellations

The air around them is hot and thick and sweet with sweat and the scent of their lovemaking. Astrid's lips fall open with another soft gasp as his fingers tease at her, keeping her wound up, keeping her hands pulling at sheets and her head rolling on the pillow.

His name falls easily from her lips and he smiles against her breast at the little moan. He kisses her nipple and her whole body shivers. Every whimper she makes is a hot bullet of desire straight to his groin tonight, where every star shines brighter and everything tastes sweeter. The air is warmer here, and he can taste honey and mead and possibility on the breeze. His tongue dips into the hollow of Astrid's collarbone and she moans his name.

"I've missed this," she sighs, her hands making slow passes over his back.

Hiccup frowns. "It hasn't been that long," he points out.

Astrid hums. "It has since you've touched me like this." This gives Hiccup pause, and he lifts his head to watch her face carefully, noting her reactions to his fingers' every move.

"What do you mean by that?"

She squirms, her lips parted but her eyes squeezed closed. "Just that, mm, you've been, oh, kinda…kinda preoccupied lately," she says, sounding more than a little distracted herself. "Mm. What with the…map and the…finding new dragons and mmmm…" She trails off as his fingers trail higher up her thigh, just brushing her sex but not fully touching her. "You've been…busy…" He slides his fingers inside her again and she bites her lip and moans.

Hiccup is still frowning, one hand moves to hold her hips still as his other strokes her. "I've still made time for you," he says quietly, almost indignantly. Because he has, hasn't he? The last couple of weeks while they've been constructing the outpost has been difficult, no real privacy, and before that on Berk he'd spent most days off-island running from his dad or chasing hopes of finding new dragons on islands he'd visited a hundred times. But he'd found time for her, hadn't he? A few days ago he'd pulled her into a dark corner in the half-constructed stables and last week he'd bent her over his own kitchen table while his father was out.

"Not like this," Astrid gasps, and he can't tell if she's shaking her head or if she's just writhing. "Quickies don't count," she breathes, and that's the last he gets before he loses her to incoherency and pleasure, her hips grinding against his fingers as much as his hand on her stomach will allow. Her head is thrown back and he kisses down her throat just because.

Her words perplex him, and his mind turns over her meaning in his head even as his fingers crook and stroke just the right spot inside her to tear a sob from Astrid's throat. His own need still simmers somewhere below the surface but his momentary confusion works well as a distraction, even from how glorious his lover looks with one arm thrown over her eyes and the other gripping his shoulder so tightly she'll leave marks.

She mewls his name and her hand grabs his hair and pulls, and even though it hurts he rewards her with his tongue lapping at the sweat between her breasts.

"This," Astrid gasps, voice strained between heaving breaths, "I've missed...this. Talk-talk to me."

She's so close now, he knows. She doesn't always ask him to talk her through her climax, and maybe it's his ego but he swears she comes harder when he does. He seems to recall her once saying she liked knowing he enjoyed this too. He doesn't think he's particularly good at talking dirty, and he can hardly do it at all without blushing, but his theory is that it's the sound of his voice she wants more than anything, so he usually just babbles about her beauty until she comes.

"You look so amazing," he tells her, and watches the skin of her chest turn to goosebumps under his breath. "Radiant. Like...like a goddess, shining in the candlelight." She whimpers and tries to buck faster against his fingers, but she said she missed this, and he can only guess it's the foreplay and the worship she meant she was missing so he's going to drag it out. "And you feel so tight. I can't wait to feel you around me..."

That does it. Her back arches and a sharp cry escapes her lips as her whole body clenches and shakes. Hiccup watches her while she shivers and settles, a final happy sigh exhaled into the night while a satisfied smile stretches across her face.

She loosens her death grip on his hair but gently tugs until he lays his head on her chest. He wraps his arms under the small of her back and buries his face in her cleavage.

"It's been too long since we've been together like this," Astrid whispers, stroking his hair. "You've been all fast and rough in dark corners lately." Her hands pause. "Which I like too, don't get me wrong..." She trails off, the unspoken 'but' hanging in the air.

Hiccup watches the rise and fall of her chest and thinks of how much distance he's felt between them lately; how it hadn't really bothered him until just now. She nearly joined the Berk Guard. She wanted to stop exploring with him. His most ardent supporter and she was ready to leave him. Well, perhaps not leave him leave him, though he couldn't help but worry their relationship was next on the chopping block.

"But it's nice to have some uninterrupted time together," Hiccup supplies. "And we'll be getting a lot more of that, now that we're out here. No adults to sneak around."

Astrid smiles. "Just our friends. And they might actually be worse."

Hiccup shrugs and kisses her sternum. "We've kept it a secret this long."

"We haven't been in such close proximity to them this long though."

"There's a reason our huts are this close together, Astrid."

"Yeah," she replies, sounding distant, and Hiccup frowns. Her eyes are cast to the ceiling of her hut. The one he very deliberately built right next to his. If he could have managed it without suspicion he would have just built one for the both of them. Their friends would have teased but ultimately not cared. His father on the other hand? He would care.

"It's gonna be amazing out here," Hiccup says, carefully watching her expression. "Not just because I don't have to sneak out your window in the morning." He manages half a chuckle but Astrid doesn't reciprocate. "Lots of new places to explore, new dragons, new adventures to be had, new trouble to get the twins out of…" he trails off when none of this succeeds in easing the lines of worry in Astrid's forehead. If anything, they seem to deepen, and there's something possessive in the way her arms tighten around his shoulders.

Hiccup sighs and crawls up her body. She won't look at him, even with his face so close. He brushes her hair out of her face and chases her eye until she's forced to match his gaze. There's something vulnerable in her eyes and it frightens him. "What's wrong, Astrid?" he whispers. She sighs and fixes him with that straightforward sadness that's so Astrid. The look that tells him she's going to be honest even if it hurts them both.

"I know you're excited about the Dragon Eye, and about finding all these new places to explore," she pauses, pride bringing a momentary smile to her lips and she tucks a lock of hair behind his ear, and then that sad frown is back, worry sparkling in her blue eyes and she holds him a little tighter. "Just don't let home lose its allure, okay? Berk still needs you."

Hiccup nods, frowning. "Of course. Berk's still home."

She doesn't look reassured and that scares him more than he would have thought. "You know I'll follow you anywhere, Hiccup," she says, her voice so soft he wouldn't be able to hear it if they weren't skin to skin. "I'd follow you to the ends of the world and beyond." His heart lifts with the corners of her mouth and he's breathless for a moment until her ghost of a smile fades and there's fear again in her eyes. "But not if you don't look back to see me every once in a while."

He feels breathless again but this time because her admission has slammed into his stomach and knocked all the air from his lungs. He likes to think himself clever but so often he's one step behind the obvious solution. He'd thought they had run out of space. She wasn't going to follow him in circles around the same islands looking for something new where only the familiar was to be found. He thought he was losing her to boredom.

Now he sees he was simply outrunning her. As clever as he thinks he is it's Astrid who pushes him to the point where he runs out of words, where he actually has to consider his answer instead of reaching for quick witty quips that don't really mean anything, and he shakes his head silently while he grasps for the reassurances.

Astrid gives him that understanding smile he loves and hates in equal measures depending on when he's getting it and strokes up and down his arms. "You're a restless soul, Hiccup. I understand that."

He shakes his head and kisses her for lack of anything more effective. He pulls her closer and wraps her legs around his waist while he nestles his hips between hers.

"I may be a restless soul," he whispers between kisses. "But my heart is firmly anchored on Berk."

He revels in her gasp as he slips inside her, and all the desire he's been suppressing to focus on her pleasure comes slamming back into him as his shaft is gripped by her warm wet flesh. He hooks his arms under her legs and presses her knees to her chest so he can bury himself completely in her warmth. Astrid moans, and Hiccup's transfixed on her open pink lips as he holds himself steady until he's sure he can move without losing every shred of control.

Astrid tries to move her hips but Hiccup holds her still and holds himself close so he can gently grind against her rather than thrust as he normally does. It's a new sensation and from the way Astrid's hands grab fistfuls of the sheets he takes that to mean she likes it. It's torturous, moving slowly like this; a subtle climb instead of a fast sprint, but no less sweet. He experiments with his movements, seeing how Astrid responds to circles and short, shallow thrusts and cataloging the success of each.

There's exploration to be done yet here as well, he must remind himself. He finds constellations in the freckles on Astrid's shoulders and rivers in the fall of each golden curl. He doesn't yet know every inch of her skin and really, he'd rather map her than all of creation.

"Hiccup…"

She's like slow burning fire, scalding his skin everywhere they touch, while at the same time her hands are cool on his shoulders and he's cleansed by her caress. The rest of the world doesn't matter when he closes his eyes and buries his face in her neck. The night is quiet and still and her gasps and whimpers are loud in his ear. The candle is flickering out but that's alright because the heat between them is growing and he'd rather see by touch. He stokes the flame of her passion and she squeezes him tighter in response. Her legs end up over his shoulders and he thrusts harder. He keeps his pace slow; a deep, hard stroke followed by a long retreat. His cock aches and protests each time as he pulls himself out until only his tip remains buried in her, but when he spears into her, the relief sends shocks down to his toes.

It's strange to remember now that three years ago she was taller than him; times like these she feels so small in his arms. Thin, elegant, delicate lithe limbs and sumptuous curves under his hands that belie such strength…he wonders if she feels strength in his own wiry frame.

Her skin is so soft and he feels it everywhere…the backs of her thighs against his chest and ribs, her hands pulling at his back, the hot flesh of her sex yielding to him, engulfing him, sweet friction driving him out of his mind.

"I love you." It's a whisper so faint he barely catches it, but it almost breaks his heart. How long has it been since she's last said it?

…how long has it been since he's last said it?

He kisses her ear, her cheekbone, her closed eyes. How long has it been now that he's been taking her for granted? That he's been banking on her loyalty while forgetting that it's sustained by his love?

"I love you, Astrid," he tells her, and tries to pour all his love, all his devotion into his voice and his movements, because so few words sound so insufficient, and he resolves never to give her reason to doubt it again. "So much."

He pulls out and slides her legs off his shoulders. Astrid whines in protest but he kisses her cheek and rolls her onto her side before pulling her back flush against him, his fingers rubbing circles against her clit in supplication while he lifts her leg and positions himself between her legs again. They both shudder and Hiccup buries his face in her neck and begins nibbling at her pulse point as he starts rocking.

Astrid whimpers and her hand closes over his to encourage his movements. His name spills from her lips, something between a plea and a praise and his free hand moves to her breast just before her strained breath hitches and her whole body lurches in silent response to her sudden release. The clench and flutter of her muscles around his shaft is almost more than he can take and Hiccup bears down on her, pushing her onto her stomach and chases the screaming of his own blood, thrusting towards the light until it overtakes his vision and everything melts in a blinding burst of ecstasy.

And when it all fades, Astrid's right there. A rock amidst the uncertainty of his future, the north pole his compass keeps pointing back to. His heart is firmly anchored in her.

It takes him a few minutes more to find enough coherency to explain to her what he's talking about, but for the moment he's happy with her laughter when his wobbly voice tells her to kick his ass if he ever again forgets it.