Chapter Text
Hiccup fiddled with the hem of his shirt as he followed the others down into Snotlout’s basement. Why was he doing this again? His eyes caught sight of Astrid’s golden braid bouncing as she gracefully descended the stairs with a spring in her step. Getting to spend time around her might be a big part of it.
“Come on, cuz!” Snotlout hollered up at him from the end of the couch where he had seated himself. He turned to Astrid and patted the seat next to him. “Here, babe, I saved you a spot.”
Astrid glared at him as she turned and dropped into the glider. Snotlout shrugged, unperturbed by her glare.
“Aw, blissful comfort,” Tuffnut declared, dropping into the spot next to Snotlout. Ruffnut settled on his other side. Hiccup perched himself on an old bean bag chair and looked around nervously.
He really was not sure how he had ended up here, but Snotlout had insisted that he come, so here he was.
“Well,” Tuffnut said, leaning back and placing his hands behind his head, “what are we going to play tonight?”
“Oh,” Ruffnut said, sitting up, “how about truth or dare?”
“I’m game,” Snotlout said, leaning against the arm of the couch. “I have some great dares in mind.”
“I think we need to include a rule that you cannot be involved in your dare,” Astrid said. Her lips were pursed, and her eyes narrowed slightly.
“But, if you can’t be involved in your dare, how can you do it? Don’t you have to be involved to do it?” Tuffnut said, his face contorted into a confused thinking expression.
“I think what Astrid meant,” Fishlegs hesitantly spoke up, “is that if you are the one giving the dare, you can’t involve yourself. So, Snotlout can’t dare Astrid to spend seven minutes in heaven with him.”
“Ah…” Tuffnut said, “Why didn’t she say so?”
“That would be in really bad form,” Ruffnut agreed with a nod. “I’m down for that rule.”
“Fine,” Snotlout sighed. “Can we play, or are we going to add more rules?”
“Sure,” Tuffnut’s eyes lit up as he turned, “Fishlegs, truth or dare?”
“Hm, truth?” Fishlegs squeaked.
Tuffnut steepled his fingers and tapped them together. “What to ask, what to ask….If you became a ghost tonight, who would you come back and haunt?”
“What type of question is that?” Snotlout exclaimed.
“A Tuffnut question,” Astrid retorted.
“I…I don’t actually believe in ghosts,” Fishlegs said.
“Doesn’t matter,” Tuffnut declared, with a wave of his hand. “We are not debating the existence or non-existence of ghosts. Merely, if you became one, in which case I would hope you would believe in them, because otherwise you would disbelieve your own existance which has some questionable philosphical ramification and potential catastrophic conundrums for that–”
“Whatever,” Snotlout cut him off, “I don’t care what you have to say or what about philosophy or whatever. Fishlegs, can you answer the question and let us get on to something more fun?”
Fishlegs sat up straighter and, with a look of contempt at Snotlout, said, “I would come back and haunt you for being so rude.”
“Oooh, burn,” Ruffnut muttered, leaning back.
Hiccup stared at Fishlegs. He did not often see that side of him. Fishlegs looked around the room, and Hiccup drew a little more into himself. He caught Astrid looking at him from the side of her eye and felt a slight blush forming on his face. He looked down and attempted to stamp it out. When he looked up again, her eyes had moved elsewhere but a frown was on her face. He sighed. Of course, she would be put out by him. Although it felt a bit unfair, he had not even done anything to earn a frown. His existence seemed to be a problem.
His focus came back to the game, as Ruffnut stood up and gave a rousing speech about why the group should vote for her as the next president. It elicited roars of laughter from the group. She sat down and looked over at Astrid. “Truth or dare?” she said in a sing-song voice.
“Ug. Truth.”
“What’s your ideal type of man?”
“That assumes I like men,” Astrid retorted.
Ruffnut grinned. “You do.”
Astrid groaned. Hiccup tapped his foot on the floor and looked down. He was grateful the attention was firmly on Astrid and not him, as he did not want his crush on her to become a point of joking or teasing.
“Are you going to answer, or do we need to think of a punishment?”
Astrid leveled a glare at her.
“So….”
“I don’t have an ideal type.”
“Come on, guys,” Snotlout injected, flexing his muscles. “We all know her ideal time is brawny Viking. She is just trying to suppress her obvious attraction to me.”
Astrid rolled her eyes.
“Surely, you find some guys more attractive than others,” Ruffnut pressed.
“You aren’t letting up on this, are you?” Astrid asked, glaring at her.
Ruffnut grinned. “Nope,” she said, popping her ‘p’. “I want an answer.”
“Maybe, Astrid doesn’t find some guys more attractive than others,” Fishlegs timidly put in. Astrid flashed him a grateful smile as Tuffnut said, “Of course she does. Everyone finds some guys more attractive than others, even me.”
“I don’t,” Snotlout declared.
“Yeah, you do,” Hiccup spoke up, “you find yourself more attractive than other guys.” The others roared with laughter as Snotlout looked put out.
“But I am!” He protested to more laughter.
“So…Astrid,” Ruffnut said, “what type of guy do you like more?”
A sly smile came over Astrid’s face. “I like bald and chubby, with blue eyes.”
A moment of quiet followed that pronouncement as Astrid leaned back with a satisfied smile. “So, wait,” Snotlout said, the wheels in his brain going around, “if I shaved my head, would you like me?”
“You still wouldn’t be chubby,” Tuffnut pointed out. “You’d have to quit working out.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. Girls dig guys with muscles.”
“I think…” Fishlegs said, “Astrid described babies.”
“That’s not fair,” Ruffnut pouted, “that wasn’t the question.”
“It answered the question,” Astrid said, crossing her arms.
“It did,” Fishlegs agreed.
“Can we move on?” Snotlout whined.
Astrid turned her gaze squarely onto Hiccup, causing him to gulp. “Hiccup, truth or dare?”
“M…me?” Hiccup felt like his brain had quit working for a moment. Why? Why did Astrid have to single him out? He glanced at her. She had a wicked smirk on his face that he did not like. Would she be expecting him to say truth and ask him an embarrassing question? Probably.
“This is boring,” Snotlout muttered to Tuffnut.
“Yeah,” Tuffnut said, “we have too many weak cowards here to go for the easy option.”
Hiccup looked up and met Astrid’s gaze. “Dare.” His voice cracked slightly, and he cringed. He had tried to say it with bravado.
“I dare you…to go home.”
“What!” Snotlout exclaimed as Hiccup’s jaw hit the floor. She disliked his presence so much that she wanted him to leave?! Astrid leaned back in her chair with a challenging glint in her eye. Fine. Hiccup would show her and all of them. He stood up and headed up the stairs without a backwards glance, ignoring Snotlout’s calls of “Cuz, wait!” And Fishleg’s indignant, “What was that, Astrid?”