Hiccup got back to his house and carefully unwrapped the bundle, letting out a breath when he saw that it was still intact. He had been working on it for two months now, and it was almost finished, but it would have been awful if Astrid had seen it before she was meant to.
He placed the object on the table. It was a pretty, intricate dragon's egg made of gleaming metals, soft silver metals that were easy to mould, with small gems decorating the surface. When Hiccup pressed a small button at the top, it split open like a lotus flower, revealing a small candle, which, when lit, broke through the gaps of the egg with its light, casting dragon-shaped shadows on the walls.
He almost blushed at how… delicate it was. Not at all something a typical Viking would be proud of making. Still, he hoped she would like it.
There was a snuffling from outside the window, and he reached behind him to flip the catch, allowing Toothless to push it open with his nose.
"Hey, Bud," Hiccup smiled.
Toothless grunted and tilted his head at the object on the table. He tried to lean in closer to sniff at it, but Hiccup blocked him. "Nope, sorry Bud. You'll break it if you touch it."
The dragon gave an impatient huff and resorted to staring intently at the object rather than touching it.
"Now that you've given it a good long look, would you mind?" Hiccup gently pushed Toothless's face back outside. "I've gotta get changed."
The dragon gave a huff and obeyed.
The next morning, Hiccup was awake nice and early due to the cold puddle forming in his bed from the leaky roof above him. After many bad words and a long, uncomfortable hour fixing the roof, he was finally ready to go.
He tucked Astrid's present under his shirt once more and, once Toothless was finished with his disgusting-looking breakfast of raw fish, jumped on his back and flew him to his and Astrid's usual meeting spot, the cliff above the harbour.
Astrid was already waiting – sharpening her axe in boredom, which Hiccup always found both terrifying and awesome at the same time. Leaning more towards terrifying, but it was still cool. She looked up and smiled when he landed, and he raised an eyebrow.
"You did your hair different," he noted. Her usual thick braid was now two not-so-thick braids, which looked equally as beautiful to him as the original one did. Then again, even if Astrid grew feet out of her ears, he would still find her beautiful.
"Oh, yeah," Astrid's cheeks coloured as she glanced down at the braids, "I figured… I mean, is it alright?"
"Alright? It's great!" Hiccup grinned. "I mean – well, yeah, uhhh… Anyway, this is for you."
Astrid tilted her head and stepped forward to receive the wrapped bundle Hiccup was holding out to her. "Wait, is this the thing you said wasn't for me?"
"About that," Hiccup laughed uncomfortably, "it was always for you, but I didn't want you to see it when it wasn't finished. Uh, happy birthday."
Astrid's face broke into a grin which made him catch his breath. She rarely smiled that grin, but when she did… Man.
"You remembered," she said, still smiling at the unopened gift.
"Well… Open it," he prompted. Now he was the one getting impatient over that thing.
She sensed this, and took her time unwrapping it, just to annoy him all the more. But when it was unwrapped, she stared at it in awed silence.
Hiccup began to ramble. "It's… I think it's a candle holder. There are dra – those are, on the sides, those are dragons. 'Cause, I mean, you like them. I mean, I think you like them. You seem to, s – anyway, that's beside the – it's really delicate so try not to – oh and that button thing, it –"
Astrid grabbed him by the shirt, pulled him towards her and cut him off with a kiss. When she finally pulled away, Hiccup noticed tears in her eyes.
"It's beautiful," she whispered. "I love it. Thank you."