Work Text:
“Hiccup!” Astrid called from the second floor of their house, her voice raised to reach the kitchen where Hiccup was piecing back together the remote that had made its way into Toothless's mouth, said dog watching his master put back together the remote that he destroyed.
“Yeah?” Hiccup shouted back to his wife, his response slightly muffled around his tongue.
“Have you seen my sneakers? I can’t find them.” she says, and Hiccup pauses with the screwdriver and thinks for a moment, glancing over at Toothless who pants happily, his tail wagging.
“Oh, yeah. Remember you put them in one of my drawers to keep Toothless from chewing on them.” he says, belatedly realizing he forgot to raise his voice.
“What did you say, honey?” comes Astrid’s clearer reply and Hiccup can tell she came to stand at the top of the stairs.
“They're in one of my dresser drawers.” he says, his brow furrowing when he notices his hand is wet. “What the…” he mumbles, retracting his hand and looking at the clear saliva, realizing after a moment that it was dripping out of the remote.
“Gosh,” he groans, looking incredulously at his canine. “Do you have any spit left in you?” In response, the dog springs up from his recharging position and, planting his front paws on Hiccup's thigh, reached up to lick the plane of his face.
Hiccup sputters at the dog's affections, “Yeah,” he says, when he finally manages to get him off, using the hand not holding the remote to wipe off his wet face. “I think it’s safe to say that–”
Hiccup is cut right off by the sound of a scream. He flinches and Toothless’ ears twitch and his stance widens. It takes Hiccup a second to realize it was Astrid's scream and he drops the remote onto the table and in his haste to a stand, trips over Toothless on his way to the stairs.
“Astrid!? Oof-”
“Hiccup!” Astrid collides into his chest on the middle step and clutches at the railing to keep herself steady, Hiccup wrapping his arm around her waist as she twists onto the step below him due to her momentum.
“Wha- What’s wrong?” Hiccup asks, scanning over her in search of injuries and when he doesn’t find any, he looks back up her face. Her eyes wide with panic and disgust and exasperation.
“Spider, Hiccup! There’s a spider in my shoe!” She shouts the last part with a visible shiver and it takes three seconds for Hiccup to realize what she said and he blinks rapidly.
“Wait, wait, wait,” he says, closing his eyes for a moment and holding his hands up.
“You screamed like that over a spider?”
Astrid’s eye twitches as she jitters her hands, practically vibrating with what Hiccup can't tell is fear or disgust.
“Yes! Hiccup, in my shoe a hairy, eight legged, million eyed bastard in my shoe!” Astrid says, almost out of breath.
“THIS BIG!” She throws her hands in Hiccup's face to show him the supposed size of the spider she’d made acquaintance with and in the process almost knocking him over. Her hands forming a whole circle he isn’t sure could get bigger, and Hiccup bites back a smile.
“Hiccup, please, please kill it, I want it gone.” she says her voice quivering slightly as her eyes bounce rapidly around the house.
“Okay,” Hiccup says, grabbing hold of her shoulders to draw her gaze black to him. “Hey, it's okay, I’ll go kill it okay?” She nods and makes her departure down the stairs, Hiccup catches his dog's eye and nods after her, Toothless, understanding his master's silent gesture, follows Astrid.
There are two things Hiccup realizes as he makes in way back down the steps 5 minutes later; 1st- that the size of the bug Astrid had tried to immitate with her hands, was way off, and 2nd- that Astrid Hofferson-Haddock was afraid of bugs. His Astrid! Afraid of bugs!
A little star struck, Hiccup finds his wife in the living area, curled up on the couch with Toothless in her arms, or as much in her arms as he can get considering his size.
She rocks slightly, back and forth her head down, scrolling on something on her phone. As Hiccup approaches behind her he glances at her phone screen and chuckles when he see's her looking at houses.
"What do you think about this one?" Astrid asks, and sniffles, holding her hand up to show him a picture of a house with blue window shutters and a grey exterior.
"I think," Hiccup starts, plucking her phone out of her hand and rounding the couch the sit down next to her. "That we are not moving," he says, watching her stroke Toothless' fur with a shaking hand, her bangs covering her eyes and she sniffles.
The amusement in Hiccups eyes is instantly replaced with concern as he pushed her bangs out of her face. "Are you crying?" he asks, taking her trembling hand in his.
Astrid scoffs, "No." she says, leaning back into his chest and snuggling her face into the crook of his neck, he wraps his arms around her shoulders and holds her tight, resting his chin on the crown of her head.
"Did you kill it?" she mumbles.
"Yes," Hiccup replys. "Are you scared of spiders?" he counters.
"Maybe," Astrid whispers in a way that makes Hiccup cling tighter to her, her voice was delicate...fragile sounding that he wanted to protect her almost violently. He kisses the top of her golden hair.
"And that's okay," he smiles. Astrid tilts her head up at him and he catches her glassy gaze. "Why is that?" she asks.
"Because," Hiccup's smile breaks into a grin. "As long as I get to be your knight and shining armor, I will rideth every spider of this earth if that keeps Milady happy."
Astrid smiles and cranes her neck up, puckering her lips in request of a kiss.
"I love you, Hiccup." she says once she pulls back.
"I love you more, Milady."