Always

It's been two weeks since Dagur and Heather found out about their father's death. Saying goodbye to them was harder this time, specially for Astrid. She hated seeing her friend in pain for losing her father and huged her so tight, Heather probably had bruises later. Nothing interesting had happened after that, everything was safe and sound (that is if the twins almost setting their hut on fire could be count as safe and sound). Everything was ok. Except for one thing...

Hiccup couldn't sleep. Not that he didn't want to, he just couldn't. The DragonEye he was working on was almost finished, so he just decided to finish it since he was up all nights anyway. If his memory serves right, the last time he had a proper night of sleep was five days ago. He did have short naps a few times here and there, but that was it.

Last night he really tried to sleep but ended up having a nightmare and just gave up on going back to sleep.

It was currently midnight and he was was sitting on his desk, working on his project. Just a few more hours of work and he would finally get to test it and see if it was worth all the hard work. Speaking of hard work, Hiccup put the objects in his hands on the desk and stood up from the chair while pulling his arms above his head. Oh Thor, his back was killing him. He was so tired. He started to walk around his room and stretch his body. He looked over at Toothless who was sleeping peacefully on his own spot.

After walking and stretching for a few minutes, he was about to start his work again when he heard someone open the door of his hut downstairs and a moment later footsteps. Hiccup knew exactly who it was. Everyone else would knock before entering his hut, even the twins (except when they were trying to do pranks) but he was hearing only one person's footsteps. As it got closer, he looked over his shoulder and just as he was expecting, he saw his beautiful girlfriend climbing up the last stair. As soon as their eyes met, she smiled and walked towards him.

"Hey, why are you still up?" Astrid asked while putting her hands on his shoulders since he didn't stand up.

"I could ask you the same question" he said and looked up to her while leaning his head back.

Astrid shrugged "I couldn't sleep, needed some fresh air. I came out and walked a little. I had a feeling you were up too and came here make sure. I was right" she started to play with the hair at the back of his head and Hiccup visibly relaxed.

He sighed and looked back to the objects on his desk "Yeah. The new DragonEye is almost finished, so I figured I'd finish it tonight and test it tomorrow"

Astrid's hands found their way to his neck and then his cheeks "No need to rush, how about you get some sleep now and finish it tomorrow?"

He shook his head "No it's best to finish it as soon as possible. You said it yourself Astrid, Viggo is alive and he has the old dragon eye, we don't know what he's up to, we need to have advantage and be a step ahead of him. I'm not losing to that guy ever again!" his whole body was tense by the time he finished talking.

Astrid started caressing his face with her fingers "I know Hiccup, I know all of that but you need to rest too!" she walked over him and sat on the edge of his desk. "You look exhausted babe" she reached out and touched his cheek again.

Hiccup leaned on her touch and closed his eyes. He was indeed feeling exhausted! His back and shoulders hurt and he could feel an annoying throbbing on his temples. He really needed some rest! but how? when he did tru to sleep, he had a nightmare. He really didn't want to have one again.

"Tell you what" Hiccup opened his eyes and stared at his girlfriend's ocean blue eyes. "How about I stay here tonight? Is that ok with you?"

He blinked a few times, clearly surprised by her offer "ummm... Astrid I... I don't think that's a good idea..."

She frowned "Why not? we have had sleepovers before" She said nonchalantly and shrugged.

"Well... that's different you know. It wasn't just the two of us those times, the whole gang were with us. and... we weren't sleeping in the same bed and-" She cut him off by kissing him right on the lips and giggled when she leaned back.

"Hiccup, I know! Those sleepovers happened long time ago and we were not betrothed then! No one will say anything if we sleep one night next to each other, it's just one night and we are just sleeping" She said while still holding his face.

Hiccup thought for long moments until he finally gave in. "ok fine, but I'd feel better if no one knew about this. Alright?" He smiled at her.

Astrid nodded, smiled back and jumped off the desk while Hiccup got up from the chair. He blew off the candles on his desk, took Astrid's hand in his and walked over to his bed. Astrid sat at the edge of the bed. He did the same, and started to take off his leg and upper clothes. Then he lied down on the bed and waited for Astrid to do the same and frowned when she didn't. "Astrid?" he couldn't see her face very good in the dark room but she seemed to be thinking.

"Roll over and lie on your stomach" She said out of nowhere and caught him completely off guard.

"Wha- what?... why?" He asked, confused.

"Just do it, trust me" even in the dark, she was sure he could see her smile "come on!"

Hiccup looked at her with narrow eyes, but did what she said anyway. It's not like she's going to hurt him... right?

His eyes went wide when he felt Astrid climbing on his back, putting each of her legs next to his hips. "A A Astrid... what are you doing?" not that he was complaining, he was actually rather enjoying having her weight on top of his body like that.

"I'm gonna give you a massage Mr Haddock" he could feel the smile in her voice.

"oh..." He relaxed as soon as the words left her mouth. "I thought..." he shook his head "never mind"

Astrid just laughed, she knew exactly what he thought. 'silly Hiccup' she said in her mind.

The moment her palms touched his back, Hiccup moaned. She started working on all the knots he had all over his back and every time she managed one, Hiccup would either groan or moan (sometime even both).

After ten minutes of nonstop massaging, Hiccup was snoring softly like a baby. Astrid smiled, slowly climbed off of his back and lied down next to him. She kissed his cheek softly and hugged him as carefully as she could. She too started to drift into sleep.

Her plan had worked.

When she opened her eyes in the morning, she was met with a pair of forest green eyes which were gazing into hers. Hiccup was supporting his head with one hand, his other hand was playing with her golden hair. He was smiling widely at her, which made her smile. "Good morning" she said, her voice sounded hoarse from sleep.

"Good morning Mi'lady" Hiccup said, his smile turning into a playful grin. "you know... I could get used to this, waking up next to you I mean" his eyes held so much honesty, she melted.

She started giggling "oh really? you didn't seem so happy with the idea last night tho!" she tried to hide her smile.

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" he pretended to be clueless which made Astrid fall to a series of giggles, he followed right after her.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrr..." Toothless let out a noise to make them aware of the fact that they had woken him up with their stupid giggling. He started getting up and walking downstairs, deciding that they needed privacy.

"Sorry budd!" Hiccup shouted after him, he looked back at Astrid and said "He'll most likely pout for the rest of the day today" They giggled for a few more moments, when they calmed down Hiccup started talking "Thank you Astrid."

"what for?" she knew why he was thanking her, but she still wanted play clueless a bit more.

"For last night, I... I hadn't slept in five days, I was truly exhausted! but with your magical hands and you being by my side all night, I slept like Grump!"

Astrid snorted "Yeah no kidding. I almost went to Berk to get Gothi. You had me so worried. You were more than exhausted!"

Hiccup frowned with her words "what?"

"Hiccup from the moment you walked into the clubhouse four days ago, I knew there was something wrong with you! You were so tired! you had bags under your eyes and you were so tense, I almost thought you were sick for a moment. I told myself that 'he probably stayed up all night working on his project, he'll get better with a good night's sleep' but you looked even worse the next day and the day after that. Yesterday I came to your hut in the afternoon and saw you napping on the chair in front of your desk, and I just knew I had to do something. I hated to see you like that! I remembered my mom once told that 'When someone gets restless for whatever reason, If you want to help them just be there for them, make sure they know someone cares and that they're not alone. Sometimes a little company can do miracles' so I waited till everyone was sleep then sneaked out and came here. My plan was to just make you sleep next to me so you could have some peace. but then I grabbed your shoulders and felt how tense you were, so I decided to also give you a massage. It would've guaranteed that you will sleep without a problem through the night and would also make you loose. so, two targets one axe" she smiled at the end of her speech.

Meanwhile, Hiccup was speechless. He thought no one noticed how worked up he was, but of course he was wrong. His beautiful and amazing girlfriend not only noticed he was a mess, she also made a plan to fix him...

Oh Thor he loved her so much, his heart was exploding!

Without wasting another moment he leaned in and captured her lips in a strong kiss. She was surprised for a second, but soon kissed him back and put her arms around his shoulders. This was by far their longest kiss yet, and they both enjoyed it very much.

When they pulled back Hiccup put his forehead on Astrid's, and told her in a whisper "Thank you... and I love you."

Astrid was never the emotional type, but hearing those three words from the boy she was in love with, meant so much to her that she just couldn't help but to tear up "you're welcome... and I love you too... Always."

"Always." he replied with a smile.

AN: Alright I hope you enjoyed this piece of garbage that I call my first fanfic ever. I'm sorry for all the mistakes, English is not my first language. Feel free to point out my mistakes if you like. and reviews are very much appreciated! It would make me really happy, even if it's criticize. Thank you so much for reading :)