Title: Technique

Requested by: whosthatgal

Summary: Astrid shows up at Hiccup's hut and catches him drawing pictures of her and Stormfly. When he invites her to sit down and draw with him, she takes the opportunity. Cute couple fluff.

Genre: Romance, Friendship

Rating: K+

Time-line: RTTE Season 5 [no major spoilers]

"What are you doing?" Astrid asked as she walked into the room, tossing her axe easily onto the table as she made her way over to Hiccup's desk.

He coughed and shuffled his different papers and parchments together, trying to hide his work. "Nothin' much… uh, designing Inferno and-"

Astrid rolled her eyes and snatched the papers from his hands, ignoring his yelps and protests. She quickly shuffled through them, pausing when she came across some finely detailed sketches of Toothless and Stormfly.

"Oh, these are beautiful, Hiccup…" She murmured, reaching a hand out to push him back into his seat when he tried to make a move to steal the papers back. She flipped another paper, gasping at the sight of Stormfly in flight, wings spread and mouth slightly parted. There was even some color to this one, watered down blue splatted along with some yellows. It was absolutely gorgeous.

"You did these?" She said in awe, looking up at the boy's face. Hiccup bit his lip and nodded hesitantly, reaching out again for the papers. "They're wonderful, babe."

"Heh, thanks." He replied quietly, tilting his head to one side. "Th-they're nothing… truly. Just… stuff I do when I'm- uh, thinking."

"Thinking?"

He laughed awkwardly before getting to his feet, hand rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment, "Er, yeah. You're… sorta on my mind a lot and I figured drawing- Stormfly- was… a good way to…" He gestured wildly, mouth opening yet no words came out as he tried to find the words.

She flipped another page, doing a double take at the sight of her own self, standing with her axe resting on her shoulder, a confident smile on her lips and eyebrows quirked. Astrid frowned playfully and looked up at the now-blushing Hiccup, the poor guy flustered beyond words.

"What's this?"

"Er… what's what?"

She dangled the picture in his face, smiling behind it in her attempts to not laugh, "This, you dork. You draw me too?"

He laughed again, blush spreading to the tips of his ears as he grabbed the paper, gathering the rest from her arms and scuttling over to a chest in which he deposited them. "A-ah… not… erm… normally no- not that- gods I'm making this way harder…" He facepalmed and fell silent, before peeping out between his fingers. "Yes, Astrid, I draw you." he shifted awkwardly, "a lot…" He added in a mumble

She laughed and stepped forward, giving him a side hug and ruffling his already messy hair. "I think it's sweet." She reassured him, hoping to ease his embarrassment. He smiled and tilted his head- almost dragon-like- before pecking his lips against hers.

"You… um, you want to draw with me?" He invited, gesturing towards his desk of scattered papers.

She laughed and shook her head, crossing her arms firmly. "You know very well I can't draw."

Hiccup snorted and grabbed her hand, pulling her to his desk before giving her a little push onto the stool. She grunted, but couldn't help the grin that spread across her lips.

"Here." he tossed her a pencil, turning to pull up another chair from the table. He sat down across beside her, shifting the papers about until he found some blanks.

"I can't even do a circle." She laughed quietly, demonstrating what she meant. Hiccup chuckled lowly, his arms circling her from behind as he rested his hand over hers, directing the pencil slowly over the parchment.

"Here- to do a circle, hold the pencil straight down… yeah, like that. Now touching you hand to the paper and use that as the center of your circle. Now turn the paper… like so…" He slowly spun the paper around, until a complete and perfect circle remained. She blinked in awe, having never known there to be such a trick for drawing.

"Wow…" She murmured, trying the same technique on a slightly smaller oval. "That's so cool…" She repeated the movement, until her entire page was covered in millions of multi-sized circles.

Hiccup laughed and picked up his own pencil again, sliding back into his chair. He quickly drew a circle, then began filling it in around the edges on one side, his pressure getting lighter until you could hardly see the pencil marks at all. "That's line shading, no blending or anything, just letting your pencil lift higher and higher off the page so it blends out on it's own, leaving a sketchy look."

Astrid watched him closely, nodding once she thought she had a good hang of the concept. She turned and did the same thing to one of her own circles, and while it wasn't nearly as good or clean slated as Hiccup's, it was definitely an improvement from her own shading skills.

"Where did you learn all of this?" She asked in bewilderment and awe. She'd never seen such ways of art… although she wasn't exactly one that got into that type of stuff. She'd always supposed you needed raw raw talent in order to complete anything. That didn't seem to be the case- or with a circle at least.

"I picked it up- mostly on my own. You try new things the more you do it." Hiccup twerked an eyebrow, giving her a half smile. "You want to learn how to draw Stormfly?"

She nodded eagerly, allowing him to take up his position again from behind, his warm arms trapping her in a hug as his chin rested on top of her head. She laughed quietly, jabbing his rib with her elbow in teasing.

He grunted, but she could feel his jaw move in a smile on atop her head. His hands moved hers, and before long he was showing her the general shapes of her lovely blue dragon. A large circle for the head, another two circles for the body and legs. Join the head to the body, create the talents using sharp strokes…

She payed as deep attention as possible, yet it was difficult with Hiccup's chest pressed against her back. She was constantly flipping her eyes back away from his hand to the drawing before her, concentration wavering.

The drawing was sketchy, but somehow perfect. She had no doubt her's would look nowhere near as… accurate, but she was determined to give it a try. So once Hiccup stepped away for the second time, she plucked up a new piece of paper and got to work.

"Too big-" Hiccup interupted when she began to lightly sketch Stormfly's head. "Just a bit… smaller… there, that should work."

She nodded and bit her lip, continuing the sketches outline while taking a few glances towards Hiccup's for reference.

She let her hand slip down the legs, trying to get the muscle tones right but failing utterly. After five minutes of continued frustration, she tossed her pencil at the wall and glared at the paper, picking it up and crumpling it into her fist.

"Astrid-!" Hiccup exclaimed, eyes following the paper ball as it flew across the room. "What was that? It was looking great-!"

"Don't lie." She herumphed. "The legs were too thin and weren't placed right." She leaned back in her chair, arms crossed as she tried to figure out a solution for this dilemma. "Drawing's hard." She muttered darrkly.

"It takes practice…" Hiccup reminded her gently, twisting in his chair to face her. His green eyes were bright with amusement, and his lips twitched, hinting a hidden smile. She sighed and looked down, her own smile creeping back.

"How about we do something else?"

She looked back at him, "No, Hiccup, I think I've had enough with that pencil for today."

"Nah… come on." he poked a finger at her side, teasingly. "We'll find something easier to you. How about an axe?"

She huffed, "Very funny."

"Blood?"

"Not helping, Hiccup." She snorted on her laughter, not being able to contain her mirth. "How about you draw the dragon, and I'll try and color it."

He nodded with a bright smile, hurriedly finishing his sketch of Stormfly. He handed it to her and jumped to his feet, rushing over to a cabinet where he grabbed the necessary paints and brushes.

"There aren't very many colors." He apologized, setting the supplies in front of her. "And I don't have much, so I usually water them down."

Astrid nodded, only half listening. She already had a brush in her hand, and some paint smearing the bristles. She dunked it in some water wiping it across an empty page before returning to her own.

The colors were vibrant, filling Astrid with wonderment and desire to add more pigments to the page. So she did, using more blues and oranges until she deemed the picture Stormfly, although she wasn't quite finished. The colors mesmerized her, and before long, nearly the whole page was covered in different tones and shades in no particular order.

"How's that working for you?" Hiccup asked, leaning his chair back against the pillar.

"Now this… this is fun."

Silence fell as she sat back, waiting for her messy and colorful creation to dry. It wasn't an awkward silence by any means, it was even comfortable, just… not Astrid's first choice of how to spend the little free time they had together. So when Hiccup made no move or sound, she twisted around and plopped onto his lap, leaning her back against his chest.

The surprised teen yelped and gave a small jump, nearly tipping the chair over. But once Astrid was settled against his chest, Hiccup slowly wrapped his arms around her, letting his chin rest on her shoulder.

"Should we make this a daily thing?" His breath tickled her ear, sending chills running up and down her spine.

"Maybe…" She teased, turning to place a kiss on his jaw. "If the gang will let us. After the… "incident" A few weeks back, I doubt they'll let us leave them for long."

Hiccup groaned in annoyance, nuzzling his nose against her hair. "Sometimes they act just like children…" He huffed, but his voice held humor, telling her he didn't really mean it. "I can't even eat without one of the twins nearly killing themselves."

Astrid snorted. "I figure this is good practice… you know, for-" she paused and swallowed hard in embarrassment, not realizing her thoughts had wandered… a bit further then they should. She mumbled an apology, hoping Hiccup hadn't heard or caught on to what she meant.

He must've, for his grip tightened around her and he let out a small sigh. "When, Astrid?"

She blinked in puzzlement, not quite certain what he meant. "…when…? When what?"

"When can… can… it all be real. When I don't have to hold back."

She realized what he meant, and a small blush spread across her cheeks. She lifted a hand to his face, pulling it against the side of hers. "Soon. We'll talk to your Dad… and maybe… in a year or so we can be wed."

"Too long…" He groaned, burying his face into her hair. "But I guess it'll be worth the wait."

"You guess?" She asked indignantly.

"I know." He corrected with a smile. "But still, such a long time till I can call you mine."

She shook her head, turning so she could give him another small kiss, whispering into it, "I am yours…"

Just some pointless fluff, and in case any of you are wondering… I was NOT suggesting anything… inappropriate. It might've come off that way, but I was meaning more like "I am yours" in the sense that… like, her heart belonged to him. Not the "do"… because they aren't married and I believe that stuff shouldn't happen till after the marriage. ;) (But I respect all your opinions, this is just my sight on it)

This was probably OCC… but BLEGH I JUST WANTED SOME CORNY HICCSTRID FLUFF. xD