The Siege

Hiccup was a full-fledged adult.

That was, at least, what he told himself as he added in a third tower to his sand castle - no, sand palace. With two floors, three towers and a grand ditch to prevent enemies from engaging, it was a fortress rulers from centuries ago wished they had.

His eyes slid to his wristwatch, flipping off some of the wet sand. Snotlout had been gone for a while now and Hiccup was getting a bit worried. It wasn't a crazy thought to assume his cousin got caught up in a talk with a girl, or two, or three on his way for ice cream or back.

It was probably all melted by now, even in the wet and cold Berk summer.

Hiccup barely managed to turn his head around when all the sand from his architectural debut was splashed right into his face. For once, he was thankful to wear glasses.

He immediately reached to wipe his face off, gagging at the sand in his mouth. In one quick moment his idea to sit down, and so close to all the people playing beach sports, did not seem so smart.

"Oh my gods," a female voice said to his left. "I am so sorry."

Could it be-? He dearly hoped it was not who he thought it was. Being covered in sand from head to toe was not the look he was aiming for, especially not in front of his crush. He took the glasses off slowly, only to see the blurry face of Astrid Hofferson leaning over to him.

"Are you hurt?" he squinted to see her face scrunched up in worry before a look of realization took over. "Hiccup?"

"Um," he could feel his face turning redder by the second.

"Gods, Hiccup, let me," she reached out to him but he didn't dare to take her hand.

"I, uh, um," his eyes trailed over his shirt for a piece of material not covered in sand to clean his glasses with, only to find none. "I can, um, I will-"

"The ball didn't hit you in the head, did it?"

"The..ball?" he frowned, only now taking notice of the volleyball that landed straight in his sand castle. Oh. Oh. Well, that would explain some things. It was then that he realized Astrid was probably waiting for a more concrete answer to her question.

"No, I - don't worry, it didn't hit me."

"Phew!" she exclaimed, relieved, her hand on her heart. "I was worried you got a concussion or something."

Gods, he honestly would not mind if it turned out the beach was actually quicksand and he could go and die from embarrassment in peace.

"Sorry, just a brain fart," he cringed at his poor choice of words immediately. To his surprise, however, Astrid let out a soft laugh in response.

His eyes refocused enough to note Astrid turned her attention to the place of disaster. Shoot.

"Sorry for, um," she was trying her best not to laugh, he could tell from her tone. She gestured what was left of his fortress vaguely. "for destroying your sandcastle."

"It wasn't-" his ears reddened. "I was just fooling around. Snotlout was supposed to get ice cream and he hasn't come back yet so I got bored and," he moved his arms up. "this happened."

Was it too late to at least pretend to be a respected, grown up member of society?

"Wait - Snotlout?" Astrid raised her eyebrows, or at least he thought he saw her do that. "He's been standing on the side of the net for a while now." she paused and lowered her voice. "He's staring. It's creepy."

"Yeah, i know," Hiccup muttered before realizing what Astrid had said. "Wait, he's been there all that time? Oh for the love of-"

"You know, you could come and get him," Astrid shrugged, leaning down to get the lost item back. She flicked the remains of the two towers off the ball's smooth surface "And then maybe stay for the second half of the match?"

He could only nod dumbly in response, finally standing up and trying (and failing) to dust himself off.

"Here," Astrid handed him a tissue. "You might want to see where you're going."

"Oh, wow," he took it gingerly, his teeth showing in a smile. "Thanks!"

"No biggie," she grinned, nudging him on the side. "It's only fair after I destroyed your castle."

"You're not going to let me live that down, are you?" Hiccup winced, cleaning his glasses from the wet sand as they walked.

"Nope," and she was damn proud of it, too, he could tell. But it was nice, in a way. He would never think he would have inside jokes with the Astrid Hofferson.

"You know," her voice, quieter, almost...shyer, caught his attention. Through his clean glasses he could see her fiddling with her fingers a little. "There's a really great place with ice cream very close by."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she slid a loose piece of her behind her ear and smiled. "Would a visit there be able to compensate for the pain and destruction my volleyball has caused?"

He laughed out loud, bottled up nervousness finally released.

"I see how it is," he said, shaking his head. He never thought a simple conversation could feel so nice. "but yeah. Yeah, i think it could. Possibly."

He hadn't even realized they neared the playing field. His eyes briefly caught the site of his cousin, not so surprisingly chatting up a girl from the opposite team to Astrid's.

"Great!" Astrid grinned before catching him completely off guard as she climbed on her toes and left a quick kiss on his cheek. "See you later then."

He didn't have time to answer her, only touching the side of his face as she ran towards her team. He smiled to himself.

Sandcastles weren't so bad after all.

Thank for reading and let me know if you enjoyed that silly little bit!