A/N I don't really know where this idea for this story came from… I guess I just felt like writing. My beta Hermione'sDaughter was away for a while so this was posted a bit later than planned. Hope you enjoy xD
This is set after the first movie but before the second. The teens are all about 16 in this fic.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original characters or plot lines of the HTTYD movies or books.
"Hiccup!" Snotlout hissed at his childhood enemy, "You gotta help me. I think Ruffnut's after me." He had been busy dodging the obsessed girl since lunch. At first, the flirting had been quite nice. Someone had, for once, been paying him the respect he deserved. Then Ruffnut began to get on his nerves. While he usually wouldn't mind someone complimenting him on his every move once in a while, this was really beginning to annoy him. Who comments on his walking style? She asked him to go for a walk in the forest with him after that comment, and he could've sworn she was starting to drool as she said this. And there was no escape from her. Seriously, this girl knew exactly where he was at all times. There was just no escape.
That's when he decided to go to Hiccup, of all people, for help. Why Hiccup? Because he went fifteen years without any girl being interested in him. He knew his stuff.
"Please, Hiccup. Ruffnut's been flirting with me all day. I mean, usually there's nothing wrong with that, but -" he cut his sentence short as he heard a noise he had been dreading to hear. He ducked behind the bench at the forge where Hiccup was working. "Don't tell her I'm here!" he begged, his usually loud and obnoxious voice now a hardly audible whisper.
"A-ah. Um. OK." Hiccup managed to get out, now completely confused by the situation.
"Oh Snotty-poo! Where are you? We were gonna go for a walk in the forest, remember? Alone." Ruffnut was attracting all sorts of odd looks from the baffled Vikings, though she seemed oblivious to the fact. "Hey! Hiccup! Have you seen my Snotty-poo?"
"Um…" Hiccup was torn between letting his childhood enemy suffer and helping him out. The former would be more amusing, he knew, but his conscience got the better of him. "Actually, yes Ruffnut. I think he went to the Great Hall a while ago. You might catch him there if you hurry." With a quick nod of her head, the crazed girl sprinted off in search of her prey, and Hiccup turned to Snotlout who was still cowering under the workbench. "OK, now what was that about?"
"I told you Hiccup, she's after me. Like every girl, she must have fallen for my epic strength and amazing looks."
Hiccup resisted rolling his eyes at that comment. 'I'm not quite sure that's it.' He thought. 'But then again, this is Ruffnut we're talking about here. Who knows what goes on in her head?' "So?" he asked. "Why did you come to me for help?"
"Well, you're um, you. No girl in her right mind would come near you for fifteen years. How'd you manage that?"
"Thank you for summing that up," he deadpanned, this time unable to resist rolling his eyes at Snotlout's utter lack of tact. "I dunno. I just screwed up again and again, I guess."
Snotlout was out of there before he could finish his sentence. Hiccup grinned. If Snotlout was about to do what he thought he was – and by that he meant screw up big time, then this was going to be so good.
"Do I still have to do this? He's really getting on my nerves." Instead of finding Snotlout in the Great Hall as Hiccup had said she might, Ruffnut found someone who shared practically her whole name: Tuffnut.
"If I recall correctly, you tipped fewer yaks. You lost the bet, so yes, you do," Tuffnut said smugly, "for the rest of the day."
Ruffnut groaned but was not ready to give up yet. "Fine, but I'm out of material. I already suggested a walk in the forest while doing that creepy face you told me to use, and I talked to him all morning using that nickname, which I admit was actually kinda fun. I need ideas."
"You, sister, are trying to get out of the dare. Aren't you?"
Ruffnut should have known it wouldn't work. "Ergh. Fine. I'll keep flirting. But this ends the second the sun goes down."
Hiccup didn't feel the slightest bit guilty as he saw Snotlout face-plant onto the stairs in front of a majority of the village who were gathered down at the docks to welcome Trader Johann. He had to resist laughing out loud as Ruffnut, who had been clinging to Snotlout's arm like a limpet let go of him the second he started falling.
"Oh Snotty-poo! Are you all right?" she cried. Instead of the desired effect of Ruffnut believing Snotlout too uncoordinated to be attracted to, it did the opposite. Now she seemed to believe that Snotlout needed help doing everything.
Hiccup could no longer hold back his laughter as he saw Ruffnut grasp Snotlout firmly by his arm and guide him onto the trader's boat, the way one might lead a blind or particularly stupid person. He ran back to the village as fast as a one-legged Viking could. He really needed to get his laughter under control.
Finally Hiccup reached the village where he was confident he could laugh his head off without attracting odd looks from surrounding people, as there were none.
Or are there? He thought as he heard a voice cackling uncontrollably behind the forge. Instantly he attempted to sober and went to investigate, wondering why anyone was still in the village. Even Gothi had left to see what Trader Johann had brought as she was out of some herbs that only grew on the farthest island of the archipelago from Berk, where none of the Riders had been for several months.
"Tuffnut? What are you doing here?" His laughter now completely under control, he was now worried; if Tuffnut was laughing, it usually meant something bad for the rest of the village.
"Oh Hiccup. Have you seen them? It's wonderful!" he said as he pretended to wipe a tear away from his eye. "They're the perfect couple, don't you think? Snotlout and Ruffnut. Who'd a thought?"
Hiccup grinned as he realised what Tuffnut was saying. "You dared Ruffnut to do this, didn't you?" Why else would Tuffnut be so happy his sister found someone she liked?
"Well, my friend. It depends on what you classify as a dare. I would say that this is more of a she-lost-a-bet-and-therefore-must-flirt-with-Snotlout-all-day situation. But yes, you may call it a dare."
"Well that clarifies things," Hiccup said, "Well, as long as no one dies as a consequence of this, go ahead, I'm not going to stop you. It's about time Snotlout was put in his place." With that Hiccup decided to leave the twins and Snotlout to their own business while he went to see if Johann had brought him the promised ink from a giant squid. 'After all,' he reasoned, 'What's the worst that can happen?'
A/N Thanks for reading everyone! Feel free to review to tell me where you think I should go with this (it will be continued) and to tell me if you enjoyed/hated it :P
