This little drabble did pretty well on my Tumblr, so I decided to post it here too. :)


"Hiccup, you can't just show up at my window at one o'clock in the morning."

She hadn't heard the tapping at first. She'd had headphones secured solidly over her head, blasting Netflix at full volume while she scrolled through social media, completely oblivious to the outside world.

That was until she'd felt a creeping sensation crawling up her neck, her shoulders tensing as the feeling that she was being watched washed over her. She let her headphones slip down onto her shoulders, her body freezing as she listened for sounds in the darkness.

And then she heard someone hissing her name - quiet at first, and then getting louder and louder: "Astrid. Astriiiid."

Hiccup was waiting for her outside the window, his feet balancing precariously on a branch, one hand holding the branch above him, the other resting on the window sill. His knuckles were turning white from gripping so hard, his knees knocking and his eyes wandering anywhere but down below.

Astrid leaned through the window and plucked a leaf from Hiccup's hair. "Did you climb the fucking tree?"

"I thought it'd be romantic," he said, his face bright red, and his voice breathless.

"How's that working out for you?"

"Hard to say."

"You know," Astrid said, tilting her head and tossing her braid to the side, "you could have just come through the front door."

"Your parents would have heard!"

"They're not here," Astrid said, an amused smile tugging at her lips. "They decided to take an early holiday before the summer started."

Hiccup scowled. "Then what the hell am I doing in this tree?"

"You tell me."

He heaved himself up onto a higher branch, moving to poke his leg into Astrid's room, before she took a step forward and blocked his pathway into her room.

"What d'you think you're doing?" she said, her arms crossed.

"…Coming inside?" Hiccup said.

"Use the front door."

"You're not serious?"

She grinned, and he could see her eyes twinkling, even under the dim lamp light. "Civilised humans use the front door."

"Astrid, please, I've got scratches all over," he whined, wiggling his bare arm at her.

She shrugged, examining her fingernails as if she found the whole situation rather boring. "Should have thought about that before climbing the tree."

"You're really making me climb all the way back down?"

"Oh, yes."

"You're the worst," Hiccup grumbled. "I regret coming here. I see how it is. You try a do a big romantic gesture and it just gets thrown back into your face."

Astrid snorted. "That's not gonna make me let you in."

"Astrid, light of my life, treasure of my heart, the reason I get out of bed in the morning-"

"Yeah, that's not working either."

Hiccup scowled again and muttered something under his breath.

"Honestly, Hiccup, you could have called ahead," Astrid said, rolling her eyes. "What if I'd been asleep? Would you just have just hung out there all night?"

"You weren't asleep. You were binge-watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix."

Astrid opened her mouth to snap back at him, but found that she didn't have anything to say. She had been watching Gilmore Girls, after all. Hiccup caught the look on her face, and his mouth twisted into a smug smirk.

"And for that, I'm not even going to open the door for you."

She propped her hand on the window, ready to pull it shut.

"Astrid, wait!" Hiccup said, putting one foot on the window sill to keep her from shutting him out completely.

"What?" she said, shifting her weight onto one foot and putting a hand on her hip, daring Hiccup to say something that would let him into the room.

"I love you."

Her hand moved away from the window handle, hovering in the air for a few moments before she inched closer to Hiccup, resting her arms against the side of the window, so that they were mere millimetres apart.

"That's cheating," she whispered, her breath cold against Hiccup's skin.

Hiccup's eyes flickered down to her lips. "It worked."

Astrid was the one to close the distance between them, leaning forward and pressing her lips against his. Hiccup's eyes fluttered shut as he curled his fingers around the branches, holding on hard so he could deepen the kiss. Astrid reached forwards and raked her fingers through Hiccup's hair, pulling back for just a moment to press their foreheads together.

"Happy Anniversary, Hiccup," she said, her voice barely a breath.

Before Hiccup even knew what she was doing, she pulled herself back into her room and slammed the window shut, grinning down at Hiccup's dopey surprised face.

"Use the front door!" she said, before turning away and doubling over with laughter.