I never really bought into the canon romance in the movies.
"Sooo... I'm just going to saayit. When is the wedding?"
The village sweethearts were pulled to either side of the drunken man, immediate glances shared between them while others around the hall posed similar playful questions.
"Ahaha.. Very funny, Gobber," Hiccup was the first to shrug out of the stocky Viking's grasp, "D-don't you think there's a few more important things to worry about right now?"
The young man of nineteen's reason was met with 'ooo's and all eyes turned to Astrid.
To their surprise though, the woman well-known for possessing a bit of a temper merely nodded in response. Almost urgent to change the topic of discussion.
"No, he's right. There's the uh. We've got to fix up the dragon racecourse for one," she looked to her friend for confirmation.
Hiccup was nodding too, "Yeah. That's right. Dragon racecourse."
By this point the other Vikings weren't far off booing, clearly unsatisfied with the lack of romance happening.
"And I mean we've got to keep making that map bigger-"
"Right! Right. Can't forget about that."
Most unimpressed of all amongst the small crowd, was the smithy himself.
Gobber glanced the two up and down, sporting a disbelieving look, "Allright. Alriight. But you can't weasle yer' way out foreverr."
At least for now he'd given up on getting an answer from the young couple, and returned his attention to the mug attached to his arm. And following closely after, the rest of the crowd settled and returned to the festivities. Hiccup and Astrid however, were left to remember. Uncomfortably.
Even when tired Vikings and dragons alike finally began to retire for what remained of the night, the feeling stayed with the pair.
Hiccup promised his father he'd be joining him at home shortly, before Astrid took his hand and lead him off in another direction. Stormfly and Toothless weren't far behind, though their attention was mostly on eachother.
"I think..." Astrid spoke again when they were on the outskirts of the village, and sat herself comfortably on one of the smoother rock slabs around, "We need to talk."
"Y-yeah," the brunet sounded unsurprised as he took a place beside her, "I was uh, thinking the same thing."
There was a small silence where the young woman's gaze was in her lap, trying to decide the best way to open the discussion. While Hiccup on the other hand -being one who preferred to avoid pressing silences – quickly broke her train of thought.
"Soooo. Marriage."
With four years to adapt to this sort of thing, Astrid offered little more than an annoyed sigh.
"Yes. Good to hear we're on the same page." Or at least I think we are.
"Y-yes. We...are?" Once again, the freckled youth's concerns were a lot more blatant.
Another, more deliberately audible sigh, "You're hopeless."
She ignored the various protests in response and instead tried to re-collect her thoughts.
"It's a pretty huge thing, you know."
"W-well yeah. I mea-"
"Do you want to marry me, Hiccup?"
Jarring silence.
Hiccup didn't know whether he felt worse for hesitating to answer, or for the immediate one his brain came up with. Because yeah well okay, it was pretty obvious that is exactly what was going to be discussed here but. The young Viking never realized outright that that was how he felt.
It was crazy in a way. Even though the two had barely ventured beyond kisses, and most of the time it felt like he was talking to just another friend (a great friend), what was to become of their relationship seemed pretty inevitable to everyone. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, they get married. All is well.
By his reaction that evening, it was pretty clear the 'marriage' aspect was something Hiccup had not put a whole lot of thought into. The idea had always been followed, or close by to a 'someday'. Something that didn't need to be faced right now; that could be put off for another lap around the island, or some tinkering in the workshop, or anything really.
Except now, here it was. Staring the rider in the face and offering no way around.
He turned his eyes back to Astrid. The last thing he wanted to do was ruin their friendship. Not that she was a shallow person by any stretch... Nor one to let much bog her down. But. There was still that concern. H-how hard was being married to someone anyway? He could make it work righ-
"Because I don't."
O-oh. Oh well..Well okay then.
Without time to stop it, a sigh of relief expelled itself from the brunet's lungs and he looked down at his hands a moment. That was all the other beside him needed.
"Geez, don't look so disappointed there," Classic Astrid. Taking it like a champ, smile on her face and all.
His eyes met hers again. In the dark it was a bit hard to tell who moved first, but there was a hug. And it felt good. Really good.
The movement seemed to catch Toothless's attention, and his wrestle with the Deadly Nadder was all but forgotten in favour of bounding towards the pair.
"A-acksdsf-! T-toothless!"
The Nightfury's boisterousness being nothing new, made for a quick recovery. Hiccup and Astrid laughed together. That is, until Stormfly also came to join in.