#abilities au

Hiccup realized long ago that his ability to generate lightning is so intimately interwoven with his emotions. It’s not unheard of, it’s actually rather natural. It’s how most figure out they have powers at all, while others need to focus and make them happen.

He, in particular, has a great many feelings and he feels them with all of him. Always has. So control is the key and it took him years just to get some semblance of it.

“OW- fucking… Thor!”

But sometimes that control slips and Astrid jumps away from him with a couple of swear words as if she has just been… Well, shocked.

Her body is tingling all over in a rather unpleasant way, her heart is racing and she stares at her hand to make sure it didn’t leave a mark. It still hurts.

“I am so sorry!” Hiccup steps away from her, immediately apologetic. They were just taking a walk in the local park at sunset when Astrid took his hand to hold and it clearly sparked something, he ended up literally shocking her. He felt the charge not even a split second before she cried out.

It’s rather devastating that something so everyday as the joy of holding hands can lead to pain, he doesn’t see Astrid accidentally setting him on fire, does he?

“Hiccup, it’s okay,” she sighs, though her fingers still tingle annoyingly, the sensation radiates all the way up to her wrist. She doesn’t blame him. As anyone with abilities can attest, anyone with dangerous abilities like theirs especially; it’s easy to use your powers, control is the hard part.

She has perfected it, as would be expected from a Hofferson. But she also understands that this aspect of having powers tends to slip Hiccup’s mind. He always has a lot going on up there, so many emotions and she knows how deeply he feels each one. It’s one of the many reasons why she loves him.

As a pyrokinetic, there is no way she can ever let her feelings get the better of her and she pushed every hint of anything other than complete neutrality down until she had almost lost the ability to feel altogether.

But Hiccup… he could try for years and still fail.

“No… No, it’s really not,” he shakes his head. Astrid watches Hiccup pull something from his back pocket and within moments both his hands are clad in dark leather gloves. Contrary to Snotlout’s opinion- who claims her boyfriend has them to be extra- it turns out leather is a poor conductor for electricity. It’s either that or full on rubber gloves and who wants to be wearing those in daily life?

Astrid can’t help the heartache. They are in the minority, there are so many people who wish they had powers like them, but none of them quite realize the troubles they can bring. The two of them can’t even go for a walk together without having some kind of a hurdle to face.

They stand in silence for a moment, a couple of passersby staring at the two of them as they walk past.

Astrid wouldn’t have even noticed them if not for the fact that she doesn’t appreciate that they’re staring at her boyfriend. She couldn’t care less about what people think of her, but when they appear to be staring at him when he’s clearly feeling bad about something and fidgeting with his gloves that are sensory unpleasant…

“Come on,” she takes a resolute step closer to Hiccup and doesn’t allow him the chance to back away before she stretches her hand out to him. They will walk, they will hold hands and they will enjoy each other’s company.