Chapter 25

"Hiccup! What are we doing!" Astrid insisted as Hiccup took her by the hand and led her to the passenger side of his car.

"I told you I have an idea to make you feel better, but I don't want to spoil the fun just yet." When the couple arrived back at the Haddock house, Hiccup opened the door for Astrid, grabbed her hand once more, and led her up to his bedroom.

Astrid looked awkwardly around the room and then fixated her gaze at her boyfriend. "Hiccup! Don't you even think about it," she growled. It took Hiccup several moments to understand what she was insinuating, but when he realized, his face went bright red.

"Oh! N-no, no, Astrid! I r-really didn't mean what you are t-thinking! I'm s-sorry…I ugh…I…" he stuttered.

Astrid laughed nervously, "okay, good. I didn't think so but you just still haven't told me what your big idea was…"

"Oh yeah, I kinda forgot to mention that when we got up here. So my big idea...drumroll please…is to make forts!"

"Forts?" Astrid seemed confused. "You mean like blanket forts?"

"Or course! I may be good a building stuff, but I don't think I have enough time or supplies to make a full army-grade fort now!"

"I love it! I haven't been in a blanket fort in forever! That's actually a really good idea, Hiccup!" Hiccup was a little surprised that she was so receptive of his idea from the start. He had expected that she would need a little persuading at first!

"Thanks! I haven't been in one in a long time either. My dad used to make them all the time for me when I was younger. It was the one father son activity I really remember doing with him that I actually enjoyed and wasn't forced into. Whenever I was feeling sad or alone or missing my mother, my dad would come up to my room and we would build a fort together. He used to tell me that blanket forts were impenetrable to any sadness or anguish and that inside it, I became the strongest warrior of them all!" Astrid didn't know what to say. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Hiccup's lanky body.

"That's amazing," she whispered softly in his ear.

"What's really amazing is that my father would actually get in the fort himself. It's pretty comical to see a 400 pound man trying to squeeze into a space meant for children!" They both laughed at the image of Stoick trying to squeeze himself into a blanket fort.

"So, we should get to building then," Astrid declared. Hiccup went to retrieve as many blankets and sheets as he could find around the house. Together, they spent the evening erecting the fort and trying to make it as awesome as possible. After they had finished preventing the sheets and blankets from collapsing in on themselves, Hiccup and Astrid took a step back to admire their work. Hiccup was more than pleased with the aesthetics of the structure. It was much better and more elaborate than anything he had remembered from childhood. He supposed that it's greatness wasn't much of a surprise due to the fact that he and Astrid always made a great team. And that fact that they were both pretty creative didn't hurt much as well.

"After you, milady," Hiccup gestured as he lifted the opening of the fort for Astrid.

She took one step in and her face lit up, "you're right, Hiccup. This is pretty cool. It is amazing. This definitely makes me feel better. Thank you." Hiccup beamed from ear to ear and placed a gentle kiss on Astrid's lips. When Hiccup's face parted from hers, Astrid took the chance to shine her phone flashlight up onto her face. She made the scariest face she could manage and then started making ghost noises. "OooooOOOoo! There once was a scary ghost named Astrid!" It wasn't long before she could no longer hold a straight face and busted out laughing. Hiccup joined in and soon both of them were rolling on the blanket covered floor of Hiccup's room.

"W-what are you doing?"

"I'm being scary, duh!"

"You're reminding me of what Tuff used to do when we were in boyscouts!"

"You were in boyscouts?"

Hiccup blushed, "ugh yeah…just another of the many things by dad tried to put me in when I was younger to make me more ugh…more of ugh tougher boy. And just like most things, that one didn't really work out. But, Gobber was out troop leader."

"Gobber! Oh man! I can definitely see him sitting around a fire telling ghost stories!" Astrid chuckled.

"Oh yes. That was his absolute favorite thing to do! He tended to get really into whatever scary story he was telling. Some of them gave me nightmares for weeks!"

Astrid stood up on her knees and waved her arms wildly in an impersonation of Gobber, "an' then the beast took my hand an' swallowed it whole! An' I killed that thing! But did 'e leave? Noo! He turned into a ghost for revenge and I practically soiled my skivvies!" They both laughed hysterically at Astrid's impression, Scottish accent and all.

"That actually sounds exactly like something Gobber would say! I think I'm going to soil my own skivvies if I don't stop laughing so hard!" Hiccup decided to take his hand at impersonations. "When I wuz a young lad myself in boyscouts, I deci'ed to wander into the woods by myself af'er dark. And there I found a massive fire-breathing dragon as tall as the talles' building an' as wide as yer talles' mountain! And I took 'im on all by myself with only a rotisserie chicken to defend myself!"

By now, Hiccup and Astrid were laughing so hard that they had to use each other for support. Astrid's arms were firmly around Hiccup's chest and she was gasping for air. Hiccup really wasn't much of a brace as he too was shaking so much he was virtually hiccupping!

"Well, actually, I do remember a particular campfire story, but unfortunately it's not me doing the telling…it's me doing the ugh doing!"

"Oh boy! I can't wait for this one!" Astrid panted.

"Oh yes. Again, me and boyscouts never really got along. So there we were, hiking through the woods. I must have been about ten or eleven at the time. So as you know, Gobber, who was leading us through the woods, definitely didn't go easy on us at all. We had to carry our own packs equipped with all our camping supplies! And I know it's really hard to believe, but I was a very skinny and scrawny kid that could barely even lift a fork! So that backpack was not much fun at all. I ended up tripping and falling flat on my face at least a dozen times! I think Gobber finally took pity on me as he transferred some of my gear into his already overstuffed pack!"

"Let me guess, his pack was stuffed with all the extra undies that he brought!" Astrid chuckled.

"You laugh, but it's actually true! He was always prepared in the undergarment department! So anyways, no other than Scott also happened to be in my troop. As you can probably imagine, Scott was pretty much everything that a boyscout embodies. He was strong and loved being rough and tough. Even at ten years old, he could easily carry his backpack and probably mine as well. Just like the parking lot mishap on the first day of school this year, whenever I fell, Scott would come over to me and laugh as obnoxiously as he could and place his foot on me to prevent me from getting back up. As embarrassing as the tripping and falling was, it definitely was not the worst part of this particular boyscout trip. That evening, we all gathered around the giant campfire that Gobber made. He always liked to say that there was no such thing as too big a fire! But I now definitely beg to differ! While Gobber rambled on about one of his many stories, we were all roasting marshmallows on sticks. I was extremely tired from carrying that stupid pack all day; therefore, I wasn't really paying much attention to what I was doing. The next thing I know, my marshmallow catches on fire. Thinking quickly, I brought the flaming stick up towards my face so I could blow out the fire. Unfortunately for me, when I blew, it wasn't the fire that left the marshmallow, but instead, it was the flaming marshmallow that decided to leave the stick! And it just so happened that that flaming ball of synthetic food fell right onto a tarp that had been laying around the campsite. Apparently flaming marshmallows and tarps don't exactly mix so the entire campsite when up in flames. We had to use all of our drinking and cooking water in order to put the fire out. Meanwhile, Scott was rolling on the ground laughing at me and how 'he had never seen someone mess up that badly!' Because of my errors, we had to return from the camping trip early and never did earn the badge that we were working for."

When Hiccup had finished sharing this particular embarrassing moment of his life, he looked up to see that Astrid was trying with all her might not to laugh at the story. Her face was a ghastly shade of magenta and she looked like she might explode at any moment. "It's okay, Astrid, you can laugh at me…" As soon as the words came out of her boyfriend's mouth, she burst into hysterics again, not even bothering to contain the cute like snorts that escaped.

When she had caught her breath enough to speak, Astrid lay her hand gently on Hiccup's leg, "sorry, Hiccup. We all have embarrassing things happen to us though."

"Oh sure. I'm sure Ms. Perfect right here has never done anything to embarrass herself that badly."

"Actually I have. You wanna hear my embarrassing story? And no, it doesn't take place around a campfire though!"

"Do I ever!" Hiccup shouted shrewdly.

"Okay, so this story takes place during the holidays of our freshmen year of high school. It's not as long as yours, but it definitely gave me a reputation in the neighborhood! So, my embarrassing story begins with my parents throwing a holiday party. As you have met my parents before, you can see they are great people, just not so great planners. I mean my dad took care of the important things such as buying booze, the music, what people to invite, and the attire of ugly sweaters and my mom decorated the place. Apparently they kinda forgot that people like to eat during parties…especially during the holidays. So I ended up being in charge of food and drinks. I decided to make eggnog, cookies, and little sandwiches for little snacks. Before this, I had only assisted my mother in the kitchen, I was never completely on my own. But as my parents were busy with other party stuff, that was just what happened. I started off making the eggnog. I just had to mix a few ingredients together. What could possibly go so wrong? It looked right- slightly yellow with cinnamon on top; however, it did smell a little funky. I didn't really know how eggnog was supposed to smell, so I kinda let it slide. After the eggnog was prepared, I make some cookie dough and shaped them with holiday themed cookie cutters. They did look really cute if I do say so myself. While the cookies were in the oven, I made the sandwiches. It's impossible to mess up a sandwich, right? Wrong! So anyways, the party started and I set out all the food that I had made. Slowly but surely, all the neighbors and family friends arrived at our house. I was pretty excited for all them to try the goodies and see what they thought. The first customer grabbed a cup of eggnog and took a giant gulp. I immediately saw his face go green and he quickly spat the drink back into his cup. I thought it was a little strange, but just figured that he probably didn't like eggnog. Another woman came up to the food table to sample a sandwich. When she took a bite, her face too went green and she had to discard the partially chewed bite of sandwich into a napkin. So at this point I thought that there were just really picky eaters at the party…that was until my Uncle Finn came up to the table. He has a reputation of being fearless and never letting anything get him down. When he eyed one of the cookies that had been baked, I figured nothing could go wrong. But when he went to take a bite, he was unable to sink his teeth into the sugary dessert. Instead he cursed that it was like eating a hockey puck! As the evening crept on, more and more people tried my food and more and more people got sick off of my food. Nobody knew it was me who had prepared everything, not until my father who had a few beers in him at this point, casually shouted "thank you, Astrid for preparing the food today" to the entire party! I was mortified. Several people had already thrown up and many more were sprawled out on the couch, clutching their stomachs. I got death glares and people whispering about whenever I passed. I had never felt that much shame before. And to this day, I still don't know why my food was that bad! I think it some of the ingredients that I used were probably spoiled, but the world may never know. What the neighborhood does know is that party was crap…literally!"

"So you somehow managed to give the entire neighborhood food poisoning!"

"Oh yes. And my Uncle Finn who's never been sick a day in his life!"

"Sorry that happened to you, Astrid, but now I know to avoid your cooking in the future!" Hiccup snickered. "If it makes you feel any better, my dad always said that my mother used to be a terrible cook. She managed to make Gobber puke, and you see what he eats on a daily basis!"

"Thanks…that definitely makes me feel a lot better!" Astrid quipped sarcastically and Hiccup gave her a loving pat on the head.

Once the atmosphere inside the blanket fort had calmed down enough from all their laughter, Hiccup scooted over towards Astrid and gently lay down next to her. She shifted her body so that her head was resting on Hiccup's bony chest and she could feel every beat of his heart.

Running his rough fingers through her silky blonde hair, Hiccup whispered softly, "you know, Astrid, I'm really glad we are comfortable enough together to share our embarrassing moments."

"Me too, Hiccup," she replied tenderly. The period of silence that followed wasn't awkward at all. There was something comforting about it. Soon, the couple drifted off to sleep beneath the canopy of sheets, embracing each other. For the first time in a while, nothing in the future seemed to matter to them. The prospect of college seemed like a speck far in the future. The only thing that mattered was being with each other.