Winter Wonderland

Words: 790

Hours taken to complete: 3-ish

Hiccup pulled his down-filled jacket closer around him and buried his nose deeper into his scarf. If it wasn't for that damned dog he would never had been outside on what they were calling the coldest day of the year. Hiccup was cold to the bone but his large, fluffy idiot of a dog was running around as if it was a perfect summer day. Toothless, the idiot in question, was rolling around on his back in the fresh snow that was falling as Hiccup shivered.

Hiccup didn't want to go out in this cold but when he came home to see Toothless waiting for him with his leash in between his teeth with those big, green, pleading eyes, Hiccup couldn't say no. You see, every Sunday morning Hiccup went to his father's house for brunch, and when he came back, he took Toothless to the dog park. This routine had gone on long enough that Toothless knew what to expect when his owner came back smelling like bacon and eggs. So, there they were, at the dog park all alone, in the freezing cold.

That was, until they weren't alone. When Hiccup brought his focus back to Toothless, he noticed the large, black beast was chasing around a smaller dog. Ahh, so maybe he wasn't the only one stupid enough to brave the cold. He saw a figure not to far off in the distance. And then he saw Toothless make a beeline for it. He sighed and started to make his way over to the person, hoping that they were sturdy enough not to fall over if Toothless should jump up on them. He really did not have the energy to run over there and prevent it.

"Down, Toothless!" he called when the large dog jumped up. As Hiccup wandered over he could tell that it was a girl, about his age if he had to guess. Thankfully, she didn't seem to mind his dog's antics and was smiling down at him. When he got a little closer, He called out again;

"Toothless! Get down!" Both the girl and Toothless looked over at Hiccup. Toothless ran over to him, tongue hanging out of his mouth and the rest of him covered in snow.

"I hope he didn't bother you, he just gets excited when he meets new people." Hiccup said apologetically.

"No, no, it's fine" said the girl, "My dog can be pretty excitable to."

She whistled and a dog, Hiccup guessed it to be a Whippet, came running. The little grey dog was wearing a blue sweater, probably because of it's small stature and thin coat of fur.

"This is Stormfly." She said, introducing the little ball of energy. For such a small dog it sure moved fast. Stormfly bounded over to Hiccup and he bent down to pet her. Toothless walked over too, jealous of the attention his owner was giving to the other dog.

"Why are you out here on the coldest day of the year? He asked petting Stormflys head. "Well, he usually go earlier in the morning but it was snowing way to hard. I wasn't planning on going out but she was driving me insane, she really hates being cooped up in my apartment." The girl replied.

"And what about you?" She asked

"Well, every Sunday afternoon I take Toothless here and now he waits for me to take him. It's actually kind of funny that we've never run into each other before." Hiccup relied as he stood up.

"Do you go to school around here?" He questioned.

"Yep. I'm at Berk U."

"That's crazy! I go there too, how haven't we met before?!"

Hiccup talked to the girl for most of the afternoon, he couldn't feel any of his fingers or toes but the way she smiled warmed him right up.

"Hey, I'm getting pretty cold, want to come back to my place to get some coffee? Stormfly is welcome too."

"That would be lovely, the only thing is I don't think you ever told me your name." She giggled a little, and Hiccup blushed. He had introduced his dog, but never himself. Come to think of it, she had done the same.

"I'm Hiccup, Hiccup Haddock." He said, extending his frozen hand for her to shake.

"Astrid Hofferson." She shook his hand with confidence and they made their way back to Hiccups apartment.

The snow was blowing hard and it was cold enough for hell to freeze over. But this time, instead of being out in the cold, Hiccup was curled up with his girlfriend of four years and there were two dogs snoring at the foot of the bed.

fin.