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Hiccup had just finished his last class of the day, black skull-candy earbud earbuds in his ears, leather jacket zipped up against the winter wind over his outfit of choice for the day; a black and gray vans hoodie, black skinny jeans, and motorcycle boots and was on his way to the cafeteria for some lunch when something, or as he’d find out in a minute, someone plowed into him.
His earbuds popped out of his ears, his phone flying out of his pocket and skidding across the ice. He was now lying flat on his back, an extremely flustered blonde girl on his chest, her nose millimeters from his. Bright blue eyes met his green ones and quick scan of her face allowed Hiccup to recognize her. It was Astrid. The girl he had a crush on, and she was lying on his chest.
Shit.
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Astrid Hofferson, the pretty blonde girl that sat three rows ahead of him in his English Literature class and lived on the same floor of Hiccup’s dorm as he did. Hiccup had had a crush on her since the first day he saw her. As the semester went on and she showed how smart and witty and sassy she was, Hiccup’s crush had only grown and he really wanted to make a move or ask her out on a date, but he’d never actually done it, because there was no way that a girl of her caliber would ever want to go out with a guy like him.
They were polar opposites. Hiccup had unruly brown hair that he could never tame or get it to lay flat and bright green eyes, that when he was working (he was a mechanical engineering major after all, so yes he was constantly inventing) could get a little bit of a manic glint in them when he was working on his latest invention. He was a little bit of a loner as he was prone to sensory overload and worked best and thought best when he was alone. Most of his upper body was covered in tattoos, he had a silver ring through his lip, his eyebrow pierced, and three silver rings in each ear. He wore mostly black or gray and was never without his leather jacket and alternated between motorcycle boots, and all black high top converse.
Astrid on the other hand, wore bright colors, had blonde hair that was always perfectly made up, was studying law, cared more about school than her personal life, and was insanely modest and there was no way she’d ever go for a guy like Hiccup.
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“Oh my gosh, Hiccup, I’m sorry! Are you alright?” Astrid’s bright blue eyes were locked on Hiccup’s green ones and Hiccup was uncomfortably comfortable with how Astrid felt on his chest.
“You know my name?” Hiccup internally slapped himself for how dumb that sounded coming out of his mouth. Great Hiccup, way to sound smart in front of the girl you want to date. The corner of Astrid’s mouth quirked upwards in the start of a smile as she clambered off his chest.
“Yeah, you’re Hiccup Haddock, you’re in my English literature class. You sit three rows behind me, and you live a few doors down from me.” Astrid explained as Hiccup climbed to his feet retrieved his phone from where it had slid across the ice when Astrid plowed into him.
“Oh um, hi. Are you okay?” Hiccup repeated Astrid’s question back to her.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good, just running late. So if you’re okay…” Astrid trailed off, not really knowing what else to say to the boy that she had a major crush on, standing there in front of her. So she filled the silence by swinging her backpack back over her shoulders with a little more force than was necessary to emphasize her point that she was late. “I’ll see you in English.” Astrid quickly scurried off, leaving Hiccup standing there, watching her go.
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“So, do you think we got the ball rolling?” Tuffnut asked, an evil grin on his face as he stared at his twin sister, who was the cause of Astrid’s fall and slide across the ice. Ruffnut gave her twin brother an identical grin as she watched Hiccup and Astrid’s interaction.
“I do believe we did dear brother. I do believe we did. Our two young lovers will have to get a move on now.” Ruffnut watched Astrid scurry away and the longing look that Hiccup had on his face as he watched her go.
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As Astrid hurried off to her intro to criminal law lecture, she cursed herself for ever telling Ruffnut about her crush on one Hiccup H. Haddock III. Now Ruff, and her twin brother Tuff, had gone out of their way to try and get her to dress so Hiccup would notice her, or as of more recently, like today, tripping her and making her fall into Hiccup. Boy wasn’t that a great way to make a good impression?
As she settled into her seat, Astrid couldn’t help but think about what it felt like to be that close to Hiccup. God he smelled good, and holy shit, his eyes were amazing. He smelled like leather, wood shavings, and something spicy that she couldn’t name. Was it Cologne? Maybe his deodorant? And his eyes, Jeeze his eyes! She’d never seen someone with eyes that green before. They were literally the same color as the apple part of those caramel apple suckers that Astrid loved so much. He also had that damn silver ring in his lip.
Some days in English, when she could sneak a peek back to the back of the classroom to get a look at him, he’d absentmindedly be playing with that stupid ring in his lip, using his tongue to push it around and flick it back and forth. It drove her crazy! And it may have given her plenty of other ideas about what he could do with that tongue of his.
She also knew for a fact that his upper body was covered in tattoos. Perks of living on the same floor as the guys (well, some of them) in her building. Hiccup Haddock was the type to walk to the shower wearing just jeans or pajama pants and usually slippers. So, Astrid had been treated to shirtless Hiccup more than once. The first time she’d seen him, she was surprised at how muscular he actually was. He wasn’t in-your-face, body builder muscular, but he was still really well defined.
Hiccup had a pair of surprisingly anatomically correct, what looked like bat wings tattooed across his back and onto the backs of his biceps. But they were more elegant than bat wings, and with a little bit of research, Astrid had realized that they were dragon wings. The ink of the wings started on each of his shoulder blades, the wings extending up and out across his back and across the back of his biceps, just the way that wings would extend from his back, if humans did have wings.
But not only did Hiccup have dragon wings tattooed on his back, he also had a tattoo on each shoulder that were specifically and amazingly designed to look like there were two big black dragons crawling over his shoulder and down on to his chest. They were amazing and Astrid could only guess at how long they’d taken to be done and how much they’d cost.
Another thing that drew Astrid to Hiccup was his height. The first time she’d actually stood next to him (courtesy of a team building activity in English lit), she was surprised at how tall he was. Standing at five foot nine herself, Astrid was anything but short, but Hiccup, well, standing next to him, she felt small. He had to have been at least six feet tall, maybe more. She’d been surprised at first at how tall he was, but when his parents, Stoick and Valka came to visit for parents’ weekend, Astrid’s jaw had dropped when she saw how tall that Hiccup’s father was. Stoick was the biggest, tallest man she’d ever seen, and she thought that he was just possibly the biggest man that she'd probably ever see in her life.
Taking advantage of Hiccup's cousin Snotlout having a crush on her, during one of his many (attempts) at flirting, Astrid had used his crush on her to gain a little bit of information and asked Snotlout, just how tall Stoick actually was.
“He’s almost seven feet tall. Why?” Snotlout had questioned. Astrid told him, no reason, and did her best to hide her shock.
The sound of her professor starting to speak caught Astrid’s attention, and she banished all thoughts of Hiccup from her mind. Education first. Boys later.
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Hiccup watched Astrid run off towards the criminal justice building and mourned his conversation with her.
“Great job Hiccup. Real smooth. She’s totally going to want to go out with you now. Ugh!” Hiccup let out an audible growl of frustration, barely resisting the urge to throw his hands up in the air.
He was about to tuck his earbuds back into his ears when he heard sniggering from behind him. Turning around, he spotted the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, standing a ways back from where Astrid had crashed into him.
“Real smooth Hiccup!” Ruffnut crowed.
“She’s totally going to want to go out with you now!” Tuffnut was almost in tears from laughter.
“Oh shut up.” Hiccup’s expression darkened as they started walking towards him.
“We dumped her in your lap and all you can say is, You know my name?” Ruff mimicked Hiccup's brainless question before she started laughing just as hard as her brother.
“Wait, you guys were responsible for Astrid crashing into me?” Hiccup questioned but wasn't actually all that surprised by it.
“Yes! We know about your crush! And we want to get you together!” Tuff exclaimed, his face gleeful. Hiccup’s expression continued to darken and the twins slowly stopped laughing as they watched it happen.
“You guys know that Astrid could have been hurt! I could have been hurt! This ice is slick!” Hiccup stomped his good foot against the icy sidewalk, just to emphasize his point.
“We were only trying to help.” Tuff didn’t even look ashamed.
“Yeah, well, Astrid doesn’t like me like that, she’ll never like me like that, so no more of your attempts to try and get us together. You guys don’t exactly think straight, and someone could get hurt. Don’t do that again.” With this firm statement, Hiccup tucked his earbuds back in his ears and continued on his way to the cafeteria.
Halfway to the cafeteria, Hiccup’s ADHD brain decided that his body was too wired to eat, and that instant noodles in his dorm while he continued to tinker around with the project he was working on currently, a gift for his mother and father’s 25th wedding anniversary, sounded much better than a loud, crowded cafeteria where he would have to sit down and eat. Eating instant noodles in his room, he could carry his noodles around with him as he worked on his stuff.
So, that’s what he did. He went back to his room, hung up his leather jacket, made instant noodles, and carried them around his single dorm, which he was lucky to have gotten, he hated sharing a room, and he tinkered around, sketched stuff and worked on his parents anniversary gift, trying not to think about how good it felt to have Astrid on his chest.
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Over the next couple weeks, Hiccup ran into Astrid more often than he had before (he wasn't sure why it was but he was happy it was happening). One day he’d asked her to get lunch with him and so they’d started a ritual. They started getting lunch every day and despite their crushes on each other, they got to be pretty good friends by the time that winter break rolled around. Hiccup liked his friendship with Astrid, because she could ground him when he got hyper, and helped him deal with his sensory overload issues, and if he needed space, she willingly gave it to him. Astrid liked her friendship with Hiccup because he made her life interesting and helped her indulge her reckless streak, and she knew she had a pretty violent temper at times. Hiccup helped her manage that and she really thanked him for it.
So, because of this friendship, when Ruff and Tuff invited Hiccup and Astrid to a Christmas party at their house, they’d both accepted. And now, here they were, at the Thorston house for a Christmas party. Ruff and Tuff’s parents were gone for the holidays and had left the twins in charge of the house, which was a terrible idea, but it had led to the party that was now going on.
“Hiccup! I have something to show you!” Tuff dragged Hiccup out of the corner he’d been hiding in and towards the stairs to the second floor.
“What is it!?” Hiccup yelled over the pounding music.
“You’ll see upstairs!” Tuffnut lead Hiccup upstairs.
“Astrid! I have something to show you!” Ruff dragged Astrid out of the corner she’d been occupying since the party started, not having been able to find Hiccup since she got there.
“What is it!?” Astrid yelled.
“It’s upstairs! Come on!” Ruff grabbed Astrid’s hand and dragged her up to the second floor.
Ruff and Tuff lead Hiccup and Astrid upstairs and to a single door in the middle of their bedroom hallway, both twins, each with a person in tow, reached the door at the same time.
“Alright guys, what did you want to show us?” Hiccup asked, crossing his arms over the soft gray sweater he was wearing. Tuff yanked open the door to what looked like a linen closet and flicked the light on.
“It’s a prank gift for Snotlout. It’s in the back, there.” Tuff pointed to what looked like a pile of blankets. Hiccup and Astrid shared a confused look, but Hiccup’s curiosity was getting the better of him and he walked into the closet. He peered behind the blankets.
“Hey, I don’t see anything….” Hiccup trailed off as he noticed the manic look on the twins’ faces and Ruff gave Astrid a hard shove into the closet, causing her to stumble into Hiccup’s chest, Hiccup catching and steadying her as the twins swung the closet door shut and Hiccup and Astrid heard the unmistakable sound of a key turning in a lock.
Astrid’s blue eyes got wide and she rushed to the door and twisted the knob. Nothing. The door wouldn’t open.
“Ruff! Tuff! This isn’t funny! Let us out of here!” Astrid yelled, banging her palm against the door.
“Nope!” Tuff yelled back.
“Yeah! You guys so obviously have feelings for each other! You’re all each other talk about when the other isn’t around! But you won’t do anything about it! So, we are!” Ruff explained through the door.
“We’ll let you out of the closet when you admit you like each other and just start dating already!” Tuff’s voice was gleeful.
“Yeah! Or kiss!” Ruff added, sounding just as pleased with this situation as her twin brother.
“We’ll be back to check on you in 15 minutes! Have fun!” Hiccup rushed to the door and banged on it, his banging adding to Astrid’s as they heard the twins walk away.
When it became obvious that the Twins were serious and they weren’t coming back, Hiccup gave up banging on the door and looked at the watch on his wrist.
“Well… its 9:15, they’ll be back at 9:30, if they don’t forget. You know how scatterbrained the twins are.” Hiccup told Astrid, his eyes moving from his watch to Astrid’s face.
“I can’t believe they did this!” Astrid exclaimed, her anger evident in her face. She tried the door again, and again the knob didn’t turn. She let her anger get the best of her and slammed her right hand against the door, harder than she’d done before, and it left her hissing with pain, while she cradled her right hand in her left.
“Hey, hey, it’s locked. Don’t to that, you’ll hurt yourself.” Hiccup gently grabbed Astrid’s sore hand in both of his and massaged it gently, the pain slowly fading.
“Thanks Hiccup.” Astrid looked sheepish as she watched Hiccup’s fingers work their magic on her hand. Once the pain was gone, she took her hand back and tucked both her hands into her jeans pockets. She lifted her head and looked at Hiccup’s face. He was doing that thing again, where he played with his lip ring with his tongue. She took a deep breath and tried not to focus on that one specific detail.
“So, what are we going to do for 15 minutes until they come back?” Astrid asked, her tone light, trying not to think about how close Hiccup was to her body. The closet they were locked in wasn’t very big and with the shelves on the wall, the standing space between said shelves was very little, leaving Astrid and Hiccup standing chest to chest, their chests almost touching.
Hiccup ran a hand through his hair, messing it up, but making it even sexier. How was that possible!?
“Well, um… they did lock us in here for a specific reason…” Hiccup reminded her. Astrid couldn’t help how wide her blue eyes became.
“Oh, yeah, they did. Uh…” Astrid trailed off, the awkwardness she was feeling, obvious in the air. Hiccup took a deep breath and Astrid got a sinking feeling in her stomach. He was going to speak, he was going to tell her that he didn’t like her, at least not like that, and she was going to be crushed.
“Astrid, look, there’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while now.” Hiccup started speaking, but paused, and Astrid’s stomach sank more. Hiccup flicked his lip ring with his tongue, a nervous habit, and started to speak again. “Look, since the first day I walked into English lit, well, I’ve thought you were cute, and as the semester went on and I realized how smart and funny you are and as we got to be friends, it only made me like you more. I’ve had a huge crush on you all semester, and it’s been driving me crazy, and well…” Hiccup trailed off again, taking a deep breath.
Astrid’s heart soared. He liked her! Hiccup Haddock liked her!
“I know that I’m probably not the kind of guy you’re into, what with the tattoos and the lip piercing and the silver rings in my ears and the bar through my eyebrow...mph!” Hiccup’s sentence was cut off because Astrid’s lips were on his.
After the shock of it wore off, Hiccup relaxed, and he returned the kiss. He wound his arms around Astrid’s body, pulling her close to him and drawing a soft moan from her. Feeling slightly triumphant, Hiccup pressed her closer to him and nipped at her bottom lip and it earned him a soft gasp and the feeling of her fingers threading through his hair. Taking advantage of her gasp, Hiccup boosted Astrid up off the ground, her legs wrapping around his hips, while he turned and pressed her back against the door, using it as leverage to hold her up and deepen the kiss.
Astrid couldn’t believe it. She was kissing him. Hiccup Haddock! The one she’d had a crush on since she’d first seen him. And he was kissing her back! He liked it! He liked her! Astrid felt like she was going to scream with happiness, so she did the opposite thing, she just lifted up on her tip toes, shut him up with her lips on his and hoped for the best. But now, here she was, back pressed against the door, her legs wrapped around his hips. Hiccup’s fingers in her hair, his skilled fingers deftly undoing her French braid and allowing her long golden locks to come loose.
“Always loved your hair. So pretty.” Hiccup spoke softly as he pulled back, allowing them both to breath. Hiccup’s forehead was pressed against hers, her eyes locked on his. Astrid dropped her legs from around his hips, allowing them to hold her own weight, her back still flush against the door, Hiccup’s body keeping her trapped there. His bright green eyes were locked on her blue ones and he looked the happiest that Astrid thought she’d ever seen him. Hiccup continued to gently run his fingers through her hair, a smile on his face.
“You think so?” Astrid asked, her voice soft and breathless.
“Yeah, I do. I can understand if you don’t want it getting in your face, but you should wear it down more often. You always have it up.” Hiccup drew his hands out of her hair and framed her face with them, the pure adoration he felt for her obvious in his face.
“I’ll do that. Wear it down more often. As long as you promise to wear this more often.” Astrid gently tugged at the front of Hiccup’s gray sweater.
“It’s a deal milady.” Hiccup was smiling as he looked at her and by the way he was looking at her, Astrid felt her heart swell and it almost felt like it was too big for her chest. Hiccup pressed a kiss to Astrid’s forehead and then took a step back, allowing both of them a little space to catch their breath.
“So,” Hiccup started, a twinkle in his green eyes. “I’m guessing that you like me too?” He asked, a cheeky grin on his face, his hands tucked back into his black skinny jeans pockets. Astrid burst out laughing and slugged him on the shoulder.
“Of course I like you too, you idiot. I have since the day I saw you.” She gripped the front of his sweater and yanked him forward, and pressed another kiss to his lips. The kiss deepened, like the one before it, but Hiccup pulled back, wanting to ask his question while he still had the courage.
“So, since you like me, and I like you and we already know we enjoy spending time together, Astrid Hofferson, would you do me the honor being my official girlfriend?” Hiccup questioned, a grin still on his face as he looked down at her.
“I would be honored Hiccup Haddock.” Astrid pulled him back into her, and with a kiss, they sealed the deal.