Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO Kittykatpaws ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.

The wind howled mercilessly outside, snow enveloping the nighttime forest in a pale haze. The fire in the center of the cave was still going strong, Anna making a point to reach over and rejuvenate it whenever it started to die down. Tonight was one of those nights that was far too frigid to let the only warmth snuff itself out.

She nestled deeper into her mass of blankets, as close to the crackling fire as she could get without being on top of it. The fire inside her did something to keep her from freezing, but even that couldn't do much to combat a night like this.

Hiccup was on the other side of the fire, scrunched up in the fetal position under his own blanket pile. Even beneath all those layers of fabric, Anna could see that he was trembling slightly.

Winter had come like a ravenous polar bear, roaring and snarling as it hit the kingdom with full force and hurled in ice freezes and relentless blizzards that dumped enough snow on the ground to make every previous snowfall look like an anticlimactic October frosting.

On the upside, Victoria and her mooks seemed very unmotivated to come out looking for them again, and any potential fire danger Anna might otherwise have posed was almost completely mitigated by the general dampness of everything the snow touched.

On the downside, cold had become their new normal. They had grown used to the constant shivers and biting air, getting unreasonably excited whenever an opportunity arose for them to actually soak up enough heat to be comfortable. On top of that, both hunting trips and trips to steal into the town and buy food were becoming harder.

Right now, with the eerie high-pitched wail of the storm and the sound of branches snapping in the wind drowning out the safe crackling of the fire, Anna huddled as far into herself as she could.

"Anna…?"

The quiet voice from the other side of the fire caused her to look up in surprise.

"You're still awake?"

Hiccup was usually out in minutes; they had lay down to go to bed at least an hour ago.

"I, ah…I've been having a hard time getting to sleep," he admitted, smiling meekly at her. He partially sat up, putting one hand down on the cave floor to support himself and using the other to uncomfortably rub the back of his head. He didn't meet her eyes when he spoke again.

"So I was wondering…kind of a weird request, but since it's been getting a lot colder out and all and you're pretty warm, uh…hey, I don't mean that in a weird way!" he added defensively, seeing her questioning look. "Just…because of the fire powers and all."

"Anyway, since it's getting super frigid out and it doesn't look like the blankets are doing a whole lot for either of us, and you're pretty warm because you can literally summon fire, well…I was just thinking maybe we could both conserve more body heat if we…well, I think the most practical thing to do would be for us to…sleep together?"

He hunched away from her slightly as he said it, fidgeting as if he had just walked over a theoretical landmine. Anna's cheeks turned bright red.

After the brief moment of mortification had passed, she tried to quickly deflect the statement.

Anna smirked mischievously. "Sleep together! Hiccup, do you…" She slid out from under her blankets in the most suggestive way possible, melting into her best attempt at a sexy pose. "…desire me?"

"Augh! No, no, I didn't mean it like that!" She could've sworn she caught sight of a brief blush before he buried his face in his hands, looking even more mortified. "I'm not some sort of weird pervert, I swear!"

Anna shifted uncomfortably. Leave it to her to try and lighten the atmosphere and end up making everything worse.

"Hey, it's okay, I know what you meant," she said softly. "I was just giving you a hard time."

Without another word, she picked up her pile of blankets and scooted around the firepit. He tensed up slightly as she threw her own blankets over him and pressed herself up against his side, as if he hadn't actually expected her to follow through on his offer. In seconds, however, his arms wrapped around her and pulled her so close to him that it almost hurt.

Anna felt a shiver trickle down her spine—not a scared shiver, or an uneasy shiver. It was more of an anticipated shiver, like something was awakening inside of her for the first time.

His arms felt so warm and comfortable around her, like she was always meant to end up wrapped up in them. When she rested her forehead on his shoulder and nestled in, it felt like she was home.

"Much better," she murmured.

There was suddenly a strange urgency in the way he held her. He was trying a smidgen too hard to keep her close to him, almost as if he expected her to dissolve underneath him. Or perhaps change her mind and try to weasel out and run away.

He often didn't say it, but Anna could always tell when something was troubling him. He was stiff, not relaxed and slumped lazily against her like he should have been. And she didn't think it was because of the cold.

Something occurred to her.

"Hiccup." She pulled away and gave him a serious look. "Have you still been having nightmares?"

He paused slightly before answering.

"No, no, I'm fine," he said in a very unconvincing tone of voice.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm great!" He forced a smile.

He was such a bad liar.

Anna frowned. "Yeah, not buying it. Come on, tell me the truth."

Another pause, and he let out a long sigh.

"Okay, a few. Here and there."

"Hiccup, we talked about this," she scolded him gently. "You have one of those dreams, you wake me up. You shouldn't have to go through that alone."

He laughed dryly. "I don't think your sleep schedule would appreciate that a whole lot."

Anna's eyes widened. "That much?"

"You get used to it," he said nonchalantly. "It's only the really bad ones that send you into a hopeless spiral of suffocating despair."

She gave him another concerned look. "Hiccup, I'm serious. Next time you have a nightmare, wake me up. I won't be mad. I just want…"

Her voice cracked slightly, and without fully processing what she was doing, she reached out and placed a hand on his cheek. "I just want you to be okay."

He seemed to shake slightly under her touch, but finally gave her a resigned smile. "All right, all right, I'll come get you up. But if you're a grumpy, sleep-deprived mess all the time because of it, don't say I didn't warn you."

Anna laughed. "All right, I'll keep that in mind."

"Ah, don't worry yourself too much over me," Hiccup said, waving a hand dismissively. "I'll be fine. At least I have you now!"

Anna's cheeks grew bright red, and she awkwardly lifted her hand off of his cheek and put it behind her back. For the first time, it dawned on her just how…touchy-feely she was getting with him, apparently without even thinking about it.

Was that okay?

"I, ah…well, I aim to please!"

He laughed and she awkwardly joined in, not being entirely sure when her heart had started to race. Something about being this close to him made her prickle and shake and sweat all over, but it was hardly a bad feeling.

On the contrary, it was probably one of the most exhilarating things she had ever felt.

She rolled over and nestled into him, bending her back into his and letting out a long, contented breath as she soaked in the warmth of the blankets and the fire and his body around hers like a cocoon.

And yet he didn't melt effortlessly into her, instead seeming just as antsy and jumpy as she was.

"Why are you so tense?" she murmured. She rested a hand on one of his arms, wrapped snugly around her chest.

"I dunno," he mumbled. "I guess I'm just kind of…weirdly nervous."

"Why?"

Hiccup tensed up further, like he wasn't prepared to answer that.

"About sleeping so close to a fire hazard," he said lightly, seeming to relax a bit. Although Anna was turned away from him, she could imagine him smirking.

She let out a snorting laugh at the unexpected jab. "Hey!" she teased, elbowing him in the stomach. "That's real funny, coming from the overgrown lizard!"

"Oh, you did not!" He vigorously ruffled up her hair, and she sniggered as she tried to pull away.

"Try me." She smirked, flicking her tongue out of her mouth a couple times in a very lizard-like fashion.

"You're so mean." He shook his head, but he was grinning. He reached out to try and grab her, but she rolled away at the last possible second and snickered as he snatched at empty air with a grunt of effort.

He sighed. "Truly you are a wicked sorceress, princess. But I'd better not make you too mad or literal steam might start coming out of your ears."

"Oh, shut up!" she reached out and shoved him, and he laughed.

"Oh, no!" he gasped in mock terror. "The battlements are down! The great lizard palace is under fire from the vengeful flame armies of Arendelle!"

Heh. Under fire. Hiccup had a way of being effortlessly clever like that.

"Oh, it's ugly!" she crowed, rolling over and pinning him down. "They brought so much fire they dried up the moat! If you don't stop them now, they're gonna throw so many fireballs that the whole castle explodes!"

"Ha! That's what you think, but little do the flame armies know that the lizards spread lizard venom all over the castle floors!" In one fluid movement, he grabbed her and flipped her over so he was on top.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "…lizard venom? That's a thing?"

"Oh, I'm sure some lizards are venomous. Somewhere," he said, waving a hand dismissively.

Anna snorted. "Well, luckily for the flame armies, they remembered to wear their lizard-venom-proof boots this morning!" she said, sticking her tongue out and shoving him off of her. "You have to prepare for these things, ya know."

He tried to reach out and grab her arm, but she squirmed out of the way before he could get to her. She snickered as he only succeeded in snatching a handful of blankets.

"If lizard venom is all you have to fight the flame armies with, the palace is taken!" Anna cried triumphantly. "Ya know what, their whole armor is lizard venom-proof! What say you to your defeat? Do you surrender?"

"Ha! Never!" He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to him, and she giggled. "You can't defeat us. We have emergency escape hot air balloons on our highest towers. The fire's only going to make them go faster!"

"We still get the castle though," Anna pointed out smugly, shoving him away and rapidly weaseling up onto his belly and pinning him again before he could stop her.

After some resistance, he managed to flip her over. "No matter. The lizards will build a bigger, nicer castle in someplace with a lot higher property values! So who's the real winner?"

"We'll take that one too, then!"

"We built it with fireproof stone, though."

"Oh, shut your mouth!"

They kept playfully grabbing and pushing and shoving until they were hopelessly tangled up in the heap of blankets and interlocked into each other at a very close proximity, sides hurting from laughing and wailing winds outside having faded completely from their notice.

As the laugher died down, Anna's breath seemed to catch slightly in her throat and she suddenly felt oddly shaky again. Nothing about being this nestled and comfortable with a close friend should leave her this breathless, and yet here she was feeling like her legs were made of gelatin and her body may as well have been buried neck-high in slush for how wet with sweat it was becoming. And that wasn't just from the exercise of the miniature wrestling match, she suspected.

His eyes were close enough that she could start to pick out every shade of green in them. The darker, shady outer rims, the light, summery rim around the pupil, and the tiny bright flecks dotting the divide between both rims that were like speckles on a leaf.

"What are you thinking about?"

The question made Anna start slightly, caught off-guard. "Huh?"

"You, ah…you had this really concentrated look on your face just now," Hiccup explained, smiling sheepishly.

"Oh." Anna blinked a few times, trying to articulate her thoughts. "Uh…there were these, uh…potted tree-type things along this one covered walkway in the castle courtyard, right between these big stone pillars with all these big clumps of purple flowers hanging down from them and from the wood pergola thing going over the path. And these trees—well, they were kinda short, more like bushes or shrubs, I guess—well, they grew all these big white flowers in the summer, like I dunno, giant daisies or something, and sometimes in the morning—well, usually I wasn't up in the morning but sometimes I had to be for royal lessons." She clarified it rapidly, horrified at the possibility that anyone would mistakenly classify her as a "morning person" for even the briefest amount of time.

"Well, anyway, in the morning when it was summertime the light kinda filtered through the leaves in this certain way, when the sun was still pretty low in the sky, where it shown really brightly on some of them so they were almost kind of shiny and glowing but then because of the flowers there were also all of these darker green shadowy bits and shady patches and it was kinda this mosaic of all these different shades of green and I dunno, I guess that's what your eyes reminded me of just now."

Hiccup looked taken aback by her extravagant description, giving her a puzzled look. Anna slapped her hand to her mouth, abruptly overcome with embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered. "Was that weird of me to say? That was probably really weird of me to say. I'll stop."

"No, no, that wasn't weird!" Hiccup smiled weakly. "It's just…I've never heard my eyes described so…er…elaborately before."

When she gave him a concerned look he quickly started to reassure her, waving his hands around. "No, hey, it's not a bad thing! People have just never really noticed the little stuff about me. Even back in Berk, before…well…you know…"

He looked away, not meeting her eyes, and Anna found herself reaching out and putting a hand on his cheek again, turning him toward her.

"Why wouldn't they? That's some of the best stuff."

"Well, I dunno. Perchance because no one had time for a sentient stick?"

And it was then that Anna did one of those impulsive things that she had somehow restrained herself from doing around Hiccup for so long. The fact that she had managed to last as long as she had out of sheer nervousness and paranoia was somewhat incredible to her.

She supposed he just had that much of an impact on her. She just cared that much about what he thought of her.

His nervous laugh, likely trying to lighten the atmosphere, was cut off by her putting her other hand on his other cheek and half-leaning, half-pulling him towards her and pressing her mouth fiercely to his.

She felt his lips press back against hers, but something about the movement seemed automatic—almost instinctive. His body stiffened up against hers, like a terrified rabbit spotted by a hungry lynx.

She quickly pulled away, frowning in worry. He was staring at her wide-eyed, and her stomach instantly began to gnaw with guilt.

Oh, fuck. Oh, shit. Oh, god, Anna, what the hell did you just do? You idiot!

"I—I'm s-sorry, I wasn't thinking, I thought maybe—well, I know that's a lot and I didn't mean to freak you out and if you want me to never do that again I won't and it was probably super weird of me to try in the first place and I'd never want to make you grossed out and—"

He interrupted her with a laugh, and she gave him a puzzled look.

"You think I'm grossed out?"

He shook his head, smiling, and tentatively reached out a half-scaled hand and brushed the back of her neck.

"No, no, you didn't do anything wrong. I don't mind. I guess I just thought…uh…I thought being what I am, I'd just go through life and no one would ever want to kiss me. You know, typical people not wanting to even touch a scary dragon-hybrid-thing, let alone do anything else."

He looked away, and Anna's frown deepened at the pain in his voice.

"Hiccup…"

"So I guess I thought…" He laughed nervously, looking back up at her. "I thought if anything, if I ever kissed you then you would be the one who was grossed out. Which is the only reason why I never did, honestly. Because the truth is…" His voice broke slightly. "I really, really need you here with me. You're the only thing keeping me together. And the thought of ever doing anything that would drive you away, or make you feel unsafe or uncomfortable or anything, after everything you've done for me, I just…I'd be disgusted with myself."

Anna smiled. "You couldn't drive me away if you tried."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again, this time letting it blossom and linger as she leaned into him. He still seemed hesitant at first, as if not quite sure he was allowed to be doing this, but after a few moments he looped his arms around her waist and pulled her in as tightly as he could, kissing her back even harder. Blankets shuffled around them as they pressed closer and closer together, growing more and more desperate to close any gaps between them.

This, Anna thought, was way too long coming. But she never pictured it feeling this good if/when the moment finally came.

Not that she had daydreamed about this moment. Much.

She was the first one to pull away, after what felt like a very long while. She burrowed her face into Hiccup's shoulder, letting out a tiny sigh.

A combination of soft, warm skin and smooth, cool scales brushed up against her scalp as Hiccup began to play with her hair. She let out a delighted giggle at the unexpected gesture.

"I hope you don't mind me saying this, but everything about you is just so goddamn beautiful," he said casually.

She blushed furiously, starting to grin like an idiot into his shoulder. Forget fairy tale princes and their over-the-top chivalry, this was how she wanted to be romanced.

"Right back at you," she murmured.

"Aw, come on! I think you're being too generous."

She giggled again, feeling his breath in her ear as he leaned in again.

"Stay with me. Please."

His voice was a mere puff of breath in her ear, barely above a whisper, but it was laced with a quiet desperation that made her heart ache.

She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss. "I will, I promise."

She relaxed into him again, soothed by the feeling of his hands against her scalp.

Eventually his fingers slipped away, and the soft, familiar grunts of his snores sounded from behind her. Anna smiled to herself. Even when it was 0 degrees outside, Hiccup was able to get to sleep in no time when he found enough warmth.

She snuggled in close to him and swathed the blankets tightly around them, hoping the feeling of him wrapped around her would chase any insomnia away.

For once Anna found herself waking up before Hiccup.

At first she was confused, briefly falling into a panic as she realized something big, scaly, and very much alive was pressing into her from the back and something sharp was digging into her chest.

She whipped around to see a placid freckled face resting against her shoulder, lips fluttering open every so often with tiny snores. Anna felt relief wash over her, and her stomach warmed as she remembered the previous night.

So I guess it wasn't just a really nice dream after all.

Or maybe it was…? She couldn't remember when in their encounter she had dozed off, if she was entirely realistic. But it was clear they had at least sleep-cuddled, so that was something.

She felt inclined to cheer and pump her fist in the air, but she refrained out of courtesy to her still-sleeping boyfriend.

Um…is he my boyfriend now? Are we dating? I guess I haven't really thought about the technicality of it…

She shrugged. She would fuss over that later.

The howling winds of the previous night were gone, replaced with a lightly-clouded blue sky and a thick blanket of snow that glimmered like millions of fallen, crystallized stars in the morning sunshine. It seemed like every surface was coated and glittering, from the puffed-out topmost branches of the fir trees to the rippling waves and hills of white on the ground.

Hiccup's hands had shifted into scaled claws in the night, hard and bony and sharp but still gently holding her to him as close as he could. Smiling fondly, she started to trace the outline of each of his claws and rub her thumb over the smooth plates of the scales.

"Anna…?"

A bleary voice by her ear informed her he had woken up.

"What are you doing?"

Hiccup's voice was tinged with amusement, and she imagined him smirking.

"Playing with your claws," she answered absentmindedly.

"Aren't you worried you're accidentally going to poke yourself?"

"Not really."

"You know, I would take this opportunity to ruffle up your hair and give you shit, but I think your scalp would prefer to not be all scratched up."

Anna laughed. "I'll give you a pass, just this once."

She traced over another claw, biting her lip anxiously.

"So…" She trailed off.

"So…?" He mimicked her uncertain tone, raising his voice questioningly at the end.

She took a shaky breath. "Did last night actually happen?"

"You mean, did we wrestle around in my blankets and then you awkwardly made that comment about my eye color and then we started passionately making out because I found it charming?"

She turned to see him grinning triumphantly, and her cheeks turned bright red.

"…yeah, that."

"Yep, it happened. Or else I'm having some really nice hallucinations."

Anna couldn't meet his eyes, feeling suddenly embarrassed.

"So you don't think it was, uh…weird of me to kiss you, or like…creepy or anything?" she asked, her voice quick and anxious. "Because you seemed kind of taken aback and stuff and I wanted to make sure I didn't gross you out and you just panicked and kissed me back because you didn't know what else to do and maybe you were just being polite and whatnot when you said you thought I was pretty—"

"Anna." Hiccup cut her off, putting a hand on her shoulder. "For the love of Odin, stop freaking out. I like you too."

The way he was holding her, the way he was smiling at her—she finally let herself believe it.

Instantly her stomach began to feel like it was filling with warm syrup, and without entirely meaning to she let out a delighted squeal followed by a long string of giggles.

Helikesmehelikesmehelikesmehelikesme!

With a long, contented sigh, she leaned into him. She still found her body fluttering uncontrollably at every point of contact.

For a precious few moments, she forgot about the fire and the dragon transformations and the freezing winter day outside and all she could feel was him.

Maybe if he felt the same way too, everything would turn out all right.

HAPPY WINTER HOLIDAYS EVERYONE! Your gift? A shameless fluff chapter, our two favorite oblivious idiots FINALLY KISSING ALREADY! Man, only took 13 chapters XD

Man these two needed a break too, I've put them through so much shit lately D:

I've always loved Anna seducing Hiccup purely as a joke and his awkward ass having no idea how to respond and Anna's like "oH NO OH NO OH NO I MADE EVERYTHING EVEN MORE UNCOMFORTABLE I'M A FAILURE" because honestly? What a Mood. It's me, trying to flirt with anyone at any time ever XD Luckily Hiccup is into it, at least!

Their spontaneous little roleplay play-fight thing was honestly SO fun to write, and absolutely the kind of thing I can see Hiccup and Anna doing on a whim. Like they would most CERTAINLY just dramatically roleplay random dumbshit For The Memes and you CAN'T change my mind XD I mean at the end of the day they both strike me as pretty theatrical-minded people, so I can totally see them jokingly acting something out and getting FAR too into it XD

My headcanon is that despite indeed being a hopeless romantic, Anna is not the poetic type AT ALL and her attempts to wax lyrical to basically anyone just sound so painfully cringey and awkward that anyone unfortunate enough to be listening in nearby gets a rush of secondhand embarrassment so profound that they nearly pass out

Trivia bit time! So I was reading this tumblr post by a fic writer about how a lot of fics have That One Scene that gets conceptualized before pretty much anything else, and then you end up writing a whole-ass fic to go with it because you fall in love with it so much and NEED to have something to include it in. Details with the Devil has a few of those, but one of the big ones is the bit at the end of this chapter where Hiccup and Anna wake up together after kissing for the first time and Anna starts super casually playing with his claws. Like one of the very first scenes I thought up around this story's concept was this idea of Anna, incredibly casual and relaxed, massaging and playing around with Hiccup's big spooky dragon claws, and I just fell in love with it so much. Like…she just has COMPLETE confidence that he would never snap or lose control and hurt her with those claws to the point where it doesn't even cross her damn MIND and she's so completely at ease and comfortable with him to the point where she starts PLAYING with the aspect of him most people are terrified of and I just

And she LOVES that part of him just as much as she loves his brain and his sense of humor and his cute freckles and she just loves ALL of Hiccup so very goddamn much just a;obe4u[9cqagpsyeaGp8Y36VFAOYEGF3COAYVCP2

Wait whoops, spoilers XD

Also why am I fangirling over my own fanfiction, that's weird af

Look in my defense I just have a lot of feels about Hiccanna and many of those feels can only be fully realized through the fanfic I myself write, considering I'm one of like…3 Hiccanna authors on this site XD

ALSOOOO a very special announcement before I let you guys go until next month! I'm formally inviting y'all to come join the Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons discord I'm in! I recently posted an invite link on my tumblr Hiccanna-Tidbits. It's mainly centered around The Big Four, but all CGI crossovers and crossover pairings are welcome! It's been a great place to just chill with the rest of the fandom and talk about Disney/Dreamworks crossovers in general and, of course, are favorite ships. And share fanfic, fanart, and videos as well! Also help a sister out, cuz I'm currently one of the only ones stanning Hiccanna on there and I don't wanna be the only one D: Please, dear readers, we must grow love of our favorite awkward, dorky ship!

Aight, one last thing before I peace out. My life's been kinda hectic lately and I'm currently trying to change jobs, so next month's submission might be a bit late :( I'll really try to get it in by the end of January, but I want to make a lot of edits to the next chapter and I've been pretty busy with a fic I'm writing for the RotBTD gift exchange I joined on tumblr, so the next chapter of DwtD might be in closer to the very end of January rather than January 20th (I usually submit chapters around the 20th). Apologies in advance! I just wanna make the story the best it can be, which DOES involve changing some things that seemed like a good idea at the time but I'm not sure I like anymore. Still, I'll try my hardest to at least get the chapter submitted by the end of January! I really wanna stick to that schedule for you guys because consistency is important to me.

Ciao, see everyone in (regrettably perhaps a little over) a month!