"Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take."

This is the moment that Hiccup's been dreading. It's the moment that he's kept in the back of his mind, the moment he pushed away and refused to think about. It's the moment, he supposes, that this whole production has been leading up to.

It's the moment where, with the cameras on and everyone watching, he leans forward, cups Astrid's face, and kisses her.

Nothing.

He feels nothing but a pair of lips being pushed next to his, and when he pulls away, all he can see is Astrid's cold, dead eyes.

"Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged," he says.

It's clear to him now, having seen her reaction and the way she glared at him afterwards with those blank, uncaring eyes, that Astrid feels nothing for him.


When a group of people are marched into a conference room, they assume it must be for something serious. The director, Finn Hofferson himself, who usually only makes appearances when a scene is being shot, is there. If he's there, it must be something of great importance. More and more people file in, muttering to each other in hushed whispers. Why are there here? Has something gone wrong with the shoot?

The more that each person looks around, the more they realise what an odd group of people has been collected here. There's a handful of actors: the man playing Tybalt, alongside Mercutio, the nurse and Lady Capulet. There's that camera woman, the one with dark hair and even darker eyeliner. The scriptwriter is here too.

The collection of people doesn't seem to make sense at all. Where are the leads, Hiccup and Astrid? Nowhere to be found, that's for sure.

A hush falls over the room as the door is slammed shut and someone coughs to announce that the meeting has started. Everyone looks to the director to find out what's going on, but it's not Finn who speaks, rather his daughter, the small blonde with crazy hair.

Cami stands up on a chair so that everyone can see her. "Alright," she says. "Let's get down to it. I presume we're all aware of Hiccup and Astrid, who so happen to be playing Romeo and Juliet?"

Everyone nods, still unsure of where this is going.

"Then, you'll all be aware of this little rivalry they've got going on."

People mutter at that, rolling their eyes and nodding again.

"Basically, we've brought you here today, because as we're all close friends with either Hiccup or Astrid, it's high time we did something about it."

"What are you proposing?" Fishlegs says, calling over from the opposite corner of the room.

Heather, who sits next to Cami, is the one to speak up. "We all know how… passionate they are about each other," she says, her lips twisted into a smirk.

"Yeah, they won't shut up about each other," Cami says.

That gets a laugh out of everyone.

"I was with Hiccup for four hours yesterday," Snotlout calls from the back of the room. "All he could do was talk about something Astrid said. It was really annoying."

Cami snorts. "Same with Astrid. It's always Hiccup did this, Hiccup did that."

"They're a little bit obsessed with each other," Heather says, hiding the grin on her face with her hand.

The group laughs and the hushed whispers rise again, before Cami claps her hands to bring the room to quiet once more.

"So, here's what I brought you all here for," Cami says. "We think that the two of them are perfect for each other."

"I don't think they'd ever admit it, Cami," Fishlegs pipes up. "The two of them are far too proud."

"My thoughts, exactly," Cami says.

"That's why we think that the two of them need a little… help," Heather says, still grinning.

Fishlegs nods at that, and strokes his chin, thinking. "It would be good if the two of them got together. It would make filming a whole lot easier."

"Not to mention, it'd be great to see the two of them a little happier," Cami says.

Everyone agrees with that.

"That's all well and good," Finn's voice booms out across the room, and silence falls while he speaks. "But how are we going to get this to work?"

"That's what I needed help with," Cami says. "Any ideas?"

"Why don't we just tell them that the other likes them?" Tuffnut suggests.

"It's not going to work," Fishlegs says. "I've tried hinting it before, and Hiccup's just completely shut me out."

"Same here with Astrid," Cami says.

"We need to plant the thought into their heads somehow, without them hearing it directly from us," Heather says, chewing on her lip in a way that she always does when she's thinking about something.

"Force 'em into a locked room together. Make 'em work out their issues," Ruffnut says, speaking for the first time since the meeting started.

"That only works in high school movies, Ruff," Cami says, snorting.

Ruffnut shrugs. "If you say so."

"We need something more subtle," Heather says.

Quiet falls over the room once more, while people turn to each other and whisper again.

Fishlegs is the one to give the winning suggestion. "What if both of them were to overhear a group of us talking about how the other is in love with them?"

Cami clicks, pointing over at Fishlegs. "That could work."

"They'll both feel really clever that they heard it as well," Heather says, smiling. "It's perfect for these two."

"Alright, how are we going to engineer this?"

The conversation continues, until everyone in the room is clear on the plan.


Astrid stares at her hotel room ceiling, her eyes glazing over. She had done nothing all day, and the boredom had crept up in her bones and radiated through her whole body. Her limbs were restless, and her fingers drum up and down on her blanket.

It felt like she was alone in the hotel. She had gone and looked for Cami or Heather, or anyone really, but no one was to be found anywhere. Astrid had hastily checked her schedule, suddenly worried that there had been a shoot or a rehearsal or something that she'd forgotten about, but there was nothing.

So where was everybody? Surely she couldn't be the only person with a day off?

More time passes, and Astrid considers going out into town to get something to eat when she hears a knock on her door. Cami walks in shortly afterwards, dropping herself onto the bed next to Astrid.

"Wanna go out tonight?" Cami asks in lieu of a greeting, as if she hasn't been missing for most of the day. "It's your night off, right?"

"Yeah, but where have you been all day?" Astrid says.

Cami shrugs. "Oh, nowhere in particular."