Confessions:

When he heard the knock on the door, Hiccup had a moment of sheer panic and he froze, unable to think of what to do.

If it was Astrid, he wasn't sure if he could bear to see her.

If it was a member of their tribe looking for his father, then he really should go answer it. He just didn't want to.

The decision was taken from his hands in the next moment.

"Hiccup?! You in here?" Astrid's voice came from within the house directly after he heard the door creak open.

Oh Gods. She came in. Of course she came in. She's Astrid.

And... I have to say something before this gets awkward. Hiccup was incapable of not answering her, even if there was a little part of him that would rather hide under the bed and pretend that no one was home. He sat up, tossing the pillow back in the general direction of where it belonged.

"Yeah, I'm upstairs. I'll be down in a sec," he called back, proud of how his voice sounded almost normal, only creaking slightly on the 'I'.

"Kay," she called back cheerfully, the door creaking again as she closed it behind her.

How can she sound so normal? Shouldn't she sound guilty?

No. Of course not. She has nothing to be guilty about. She's not actually betraying me or anything. At least, as far as she's concerned.

Thor, kill me. I don't want to go down there. But I have to. Or she'll come up here, and that's even worse because there's my bed. And I've imagined way too many things about her and I together in this bed. Gods, I'm pathetic, and maybe a bit disgusting. Hiccup scrubbed his hands over his face and then through his hair, making it stick up, before he realized what he'd done and made a sad attempt at patting it back down. Giving up after a few seconds, he stood. "You can do this," he muttered to himself under his breath, needing the pep talk. "It's just Astrid."

Just Astrid.

Ha.

More like just the most beautiful, kickass girl ever. Who just happened to be locking lips with a guy worthy of being called a Viking not so many minutes ago.

What is she doing here already, anyhow? Shouldn't she still be snogging the appropriately named Elof the Lucky? Just before Astrid had showed up, Hiccup had come to the conclusion that she had told her mother she was coming to his house as a cover to go hang out with her secret boyfriend. Was I wrong about that?

The young Viking male was certainly confused as he slowly trudged down the stairs.

Annnnnnd, she's gone? he thought with confusion tinged with just a hint of relief as he gazed around the open concept living space. I didn't take that long to come down, did I?

No I didn't. And I didn't hear the door open again. She must be around here somewhere.

Astrid most definitely wasn't in the sitting area or the kitchen. He didn't even bother looking for her in his father's room, knowing she wouldn't dare go in there. Which left only one place. He found her rummaging in the cold storage room under the house, the open door in the floor under his stairs a dead giveaway once he'd walked far enough around the stairs to see it.

Hiccup climbed down the ladder and found himself the recipient of a gorgeous beaming smile, her white, even teeth gleaming in the light of the lantern hanging from a hook on the wall. His poor, bewildered heart skipped a couple of beats and he grinned back out of habit.

"Hiccup," Astrid gushed, happy to see him, looking rumpled and adorable, as usual. Her heart tripped happily in her chest and all she wanted to do was throw her arms around him and demand that he help her forget that the last half hour had ever happened. Instead, she continued to play it cool as if her world was just as relatively normal as it had been yesterday and that she was perfectly fine with being just the best friend of one Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. "I saw that you hadn't started anything for dinner yet, so I thought I would make us some sandwiches."

"That sounds great," Hiccup said automatically, wrapping his arms around the heavy wheel of yak milk cheese she pushed against his chest. Okay. I'm doing this. It's just another day and we're still the friends we've always been. This isn't so bad.

They climbed up the ladder and gathered the sandwich makings onto the table. Between the two of them, a loaf of bread, a wedge of cheese, and strips of cured yak meat quickly turned into a platter of sandwiches. Hiccup served them a mug of mead each from the barrel and they sat down across from each other to eat.

As usual, Hiccup ate like he was starving, and Astrid was only slightly more dignified; a long day of work or training, plus growing teenage bodies would do that to a person. They were too busy inhaling their meal to talk much, but the silence was comfortable after so many years together.

When the last crumb of bread had been picked up from the platter and the last dreg of mead drunk from his mug, Hiccup sat back in his chair with a contented sigh. "That was good."

Astrid put her mug down and wiped her mouth with her arm. She leaned against the wooden slats of her chair as well and belched softly before giggling. "Yep. My stomach agrees." She gave Hiccup an inquisitive look. "So... What did you do today?"

Hiccup shrugged, slumping down further. "Nothing much. Same old really. Ate breakfast. Went to work. Banged on some metal. Delivered some metal. Banged on some more metal. Had lunch. Repeat morning. Finished the new dagger I made you from some scraps. Came home. Sketched. Had an uncomfortable talk with my dad." He didn't add the part where he found her making out with Elof, not even wanting to go there. Instead, he raised a brow. "And you?"

Astrid waved a hand. "Same old for me, too, for the most part. Did you say you made me a new dagger?" She leaned forward eagerly, hoping she'd heard him right.

Hiccup grinned. "I did."

Astrid jumped up from her chair and rushed around to his side of the table, hugging him around the shoulders briefly. "Thank you!"

Hiccup nearly died from the bliss of having her arms wrapped around him, her enticing girl scent wafting over him, and her breasts pressed to his arm, even if it was just for two seconds. Thank you, Thor!

As she straightened up, she said, "Where is it?"

Hiccup chuckled at her impatience. "On my desk. I'll get..." it for you, he was going to say, but she was already gone, flying up the stairs two at a time.

Always so impulsive. He shook his head in amusement and rose to his feet. Seeing the wheel of cheese, he grabbed it and took it back down to the cold storage room. From there, he climbed back up the ladder, closed the door in the floor, and then went outside to get some more wood for the fire while there was still a little daylight left to see by.

Astrid skidded to a stop in front of Hiccup's desk, eagerly snatching up the small dagger that sat on the right side of the desk, catching the last rays of the setting sun with a merry glimmer.

She admired the little dagger that was more ornament than anything, turning it this way and that to see it at every possible angle. The double sided blade was no longer than her fingers, but sharpened to a deadly point with edges to match, and had a beautifully sculpted cross guard. It had a yak horn hilt, polished to a high gleam. (She knew from experience that would have taken hours to do.) And the best part, in her opinion, was the carving of a skull he'd put on the top of the hilt, to match her belt and shoulder guard skulls.

This wasn't a simple afternoon side project like he'd made it sound; Hiccup had probably spent days on this.

Gods, I love him. It's not even my birthday or Snoggletog.

And it was the perfect size to hide in her arm wrapping. It's like it was meant to be, she thought as she did exactly that.

Astrid glanced out Hiccup's window, smiling when she saw him carrying a load of wood that literally obscured his ability to see where he was going. She was about to run down the stairs to get the door for him when her gaze caught the corner of a paper sticking out from under a pile of other sketches.

Curious at what looked like a foot, since she didn't know Hiccup drew anything but fanciful inventions, Astrid slid the other papers to the side and gasped in surprise because it was a drawing of her. A very good drawing, in fact, of her and Ruffnut sparring with swords, frowns of concentration on their faces as they stared each other down in mock battle.

Would you look at that. He's surprised me yet again.

Astrid was seriously impressed with Hiccup's skill at capturing the moment. The shading, the impression of movement, the accuracy of their features; it was all worthy of an artisan. He might not ever be the world's best warrior, but he had so many other things going for him that it didn't matter. Besides, she was more than capable of defending herself, so it's not like she needed a giant of a man to protect her.

Is there more? Now really curious, Astrid started flipping through the stack of sketches and found drawing after drawing of her or her with someone else, sparring in some fashion or another. That made her smile, because Hiccup had definitely captured what she was most passionate about.

And then she found a drawing of herself wearing nothing but her hair.

How dare he?! was her first thought as she gasped in outrage. But that faded as she realized that you couldn't actually SEE anything indecent in the sketch. The more she studied it, the more she realized it had been drawn with loving detail; from her dreamy expression where her chin rested on her folded arms, to each strand of hair, to the blades of grass that she was lying on, to the way her toes curled as she waved her feet in the air. This picture wasn't meant to be lewd, it was a work of art.

Astrid actually remembered the day he probably drew this, but she'd been fully clothed at the time. It was about a month ago, in the peak of summer, and they'd spent an afternoon picking berries. Before going home with their baskets of delicious loot, they'd spent a few minutes lying in the grass, looking out over the ocean. Astrid remembered wondering out loud what the rest of the world looked like and if she'd ever get to see it, having never left the island except for that one time to visit her grandparents on a neighbouring island a couple hours voyage away.

As she stared at the picture, Astrid had a revelation.

Oh. My. Gods. Hiccup LIKES me! As a GIRL! He wouldn't be drawing so many pictures of me if he didn't. And he most certainly wouldn't be drawing NAKED pictures if he didn't.

Holy Thor.

A flush of pleasure swept over her from head to toe and she nearly squealed with happiness.

Now all I have to do was get him to confess.

Or maybe I should just tackle him to the floor and kiss him.

Choices, choices.

A crash of wood and a colourful curse detailing Odin's ugly little toe coming from downstairs startled her out of her contemplation.

Astrid quickly returned the sketches to a fairly accuratuate approximation of the way she'd found them and then dashed across the loft and down the stairs.

She found Hiccup kicking a chunk of wood into submission, apparently after it had rolled off his neat stack of logs and landed on his toe, if his mutters were anything to go by.

The log was sent sailing into the fireplace in the center of the living space with a triumphant, "You can burn first, you cursed thing."

"You tell that log, Hiccup," Astrid said on a laugh, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm sure it will be properly repentant when it's nothing more than ash."

"Exactly what I thought," Hiccup said with a twitching snarl, amusement starting to replace anger, but not taking his eyes of the offending log until it had caught fire with belated enthusiasm.

Sighing, Hiccup backed up to sit on the stone bench that lined one wall and pulled his boot off to rub at his sore toe through his wool sock.

Quashing the ridiculous urge to offer to kiss it all better, Astrid walked over and sat beside him, just close enough so that their shoulders and thighs brushed. Now, how do I bring up the subject of our feelings? With no real idea yet, she started with something safe. "Thank you for the dagger, Hiccup. It's beautiful, and exactly what I need."

Hiccup looked over at her in surprise, forgetting about his throbbing toe. "It is? It's not very big. I thought it might make a nice eating dagger, at best."

Astrid quickly shook her head. "No, it's perfect." She pulled it partway out of her arm wrapping in demonstration. "Look, hidden dagger for emergencies."

Hiccup shot her a look of happy enlightenment. "It is perfect. I never thought of that."

"Well, I did. I was wishing I had one just an hour ago in fact."

Now Hiccup was feeling a great deal of concern. "Why, what happened? And don't you have another in your boot?"

"I do, but there are occasions where I can't reach my boot," she said as she dug into the pouch on her belt and pulled out the silver skull, dropping it into Hiccup's hand as he looked at it in surprise. "So I lost this today, and I went back up to the clearing to find it. Elof volunteered himself to help me look, and since I couldn't bear to lose it, I agreed." Her voice was serious and quiet as she stared at the fire, not really wanting to look at him as she told her story.

Hiccup was starting to get a sense of dawning horror as he put puzzle pieces together and he didn't like the picture he was coming up with. Astrid's next words confirmed his suspicions, making him feel like an utter idiot. And like murder might be something he was capable of.

"He found the skull, of course, and demanded a reward before he would give it back. I agreed to give him a kiss on the cheek and that was all. He took advantage and squashed me up against a boulder while making a solid attempt at slobbering all over my face." Astrid glanced at Hiccup, biting her lip as she wondered how he was taking this. The look of outrage building in his expression on her behalf was gratifying to see.

Hiccup was wishing he was five times bigger and could call out Elof and beat him to a pulp for daring to touch Astrid without her permission.

"I couldn't budge him off of me, the giant oaf, so I grabbed his dagger from his belt and basically stabbed his manhood right through his tunic and trousers. That got his attention mighty quick."

"Holy shit!" Hiccup yelped, eyes wide as he suppressed the urge to cover his own pride and joy out of sheer male instinct. "I bet it did!"

Astrid grinned. "I also threatened to use his dangly bits as a target if I ever heard of him forcing himself on other girls."

Hiccup burst out laughing. "Oh, Thor, I wish I'd seen that. That would have made my year."

Astrid's smile turned sly as she finally figured out what to do about Hiccup. "I know something that will make your year even better."

Now he gave her a puzzled look, raising one eyebrow. "What's that? Cause I honestly don't know if you can top the mental image I have of Elof getting put down like that." (Elof had a habit of shoving Hiccup anytime he happened to pass him and calling him Rabbit Fart or something equally as dreadful.)

"I was thinking I'd like to kiss someone of my own volition for once," Astrid said softly, leaning closer to Hiccup and giving him her best doe eyes and pretending she wasn't totally quaking on the inside from fear of rejection.

Hiccup gulped, breaking out in a sweat as all of his fantasies seemed to be coming to life. Best to make sure, though. "Are you... saying... you'd like to... kiss... me?" he finally managed to get out past the lump in his throat.

Yes, you idiot. Get with the program! Astrid bit her lip again for an entirely different reason as she nodded and leaned even closer to him.

"Oh, Thor," her prey squeaked out just before Astrid pressed her mouth to his in a two second peck before pulling back.

The blonde warrior girl studied Hiccup's expression, hoping she hadn't mistaken what the drawings meant. He looked awestruck and maybe like he'd just been given a glimpse of Valhalla. That will do. Thank you, Thor.

She breathed a relieved sigh as his beautiful emerald green eyes opened and met hers, a beaming smile within their seemingly glowing depths. Like magnets, they were drawn back together and their mouths met once again in a soft, exploratory kiss that lasted for at least a minute before getting a little more intense. Astrid found her hands creeping up and around his shoulders, fingers tangling in his silky auburn hair. She gave a little hum of approval when his arms wrapped around her waist in a gentle grasp, and she shifted even closer to him.

This is a million times better than that awful kiss Elof forced on me.

Feeling braver than he ever had in his life, Hiccup daringly opened his mouth a little wider and licked at the seam of her petal soft lips. She gasped lightly in surprise and then returned the caress. Now practically humming with satisfaction, Hiccup did it again, but so did she. Their tongues met. Retreated. Met again. Licked lightly. Tentatively. Pleasure and electricity raced through them. He groaned his approval. She moaned in her throat. And then his tongue was IN her mouth and he was exploring her sweet taste like he'd never expected to be able to do. I could die right now and be the happiest of boys. He determinedly ignored the arousal she inspired and concentrated only on learning every tiny detail of her mouth and what actions made her squirm with pleasure in his arms.

After a few more perfect moments of oral sparring, Astrid reluctantly pulled back a fraction when she started to feel lightheaded, realizing it wasn't from how amazing this kiss was, but from the lack of air. She rested her forehead on his, their eyes looking at each other with adoring awe, as she let go of his hair and hugged his neck. "I like kissing you," she whispered.

"I like kissing you, too," Hiccup managed to croak out, his heart pounding at a thousand beats per minute. He was pretty sure he was dreaming. His arms were wrapped around Astrid and his mouth had been attached to hers; this couldn't possibly be reality.

The small pain in his palm where a piece of broken metal was poking it said otherwise.

Hiccup dropped the little skull with a quick flick of his wrist, ignoring the sound of metal on stone as it bounced away. He couldn't tear his eyes from her beautiful blue ones that reminded him of a rare flower that only bloomed for three days per year. She was looking at him with something he was afraid to name, but the word 'love' definitely came to mind anyway.

His father did have a point; someone else was bound to win her over eventually if he didn't at least try. Hiccup decided that it was now or never.

So he sucked in a big breath for courage and blurted out in something that essentially ran together as one word, "I love you, Astrid. Will you marry me when we're old enough?"

Astrid leaned back in surprise in his arms, staring at him with wide, blinking eyes as her jaw dropped. Holy Hel, I was never expecting THAT to come out of him! I would have been happy with a confession of, 'I like you, Astrid, a lot.'

This, though. This is much better. So, so much better. I knew there was a reason I loved this boy.

"Yes!" Astrid all but leapt on him, knocking him down onto his back on the wide bench, and planted enthusiastic kisses on his cheeks and nose and jaw between even more breathy yeses.

He stared up at the girl mostly sprawled across his upper body, the soft mounds of her chest pressing against him in a way that threatened to permanently fry his brain, and her hands on his shoulders. He wasn't sure what he was more shocked at; their position or her answer. He quickly settled on the later, since she'd hugged him before, just never in a reclining position. Holy yak! She actually said yes! She's clearly a few sheep shy of a herd if she thinks I'm appropriate marriage material, but I'm never in a million years going to tell her that!

Once he recovered from his shock that Astrid had actually said yes, Hiccup kissed her back, moving one hand up to bury in the depths of her braid at her nape and hold her still so he could capture her wandering lips properly again. (Not that he really knew what properly was, but they seemed to be doing all right, judging by how it felt, her happy purrs, and the pleasure zinging through him.)

Some unknown time later, Astrid pulled away again, feeling a little overwhelmed, and moved to rest her head on his chest. As she listened to his heart pound under her ear at essentially the same rate hers was, she thought it only fair that she confessed her feelings as well. "I love you too, Hiccup. I always have."

Hiccup looked at the top of her head in renewed shock. He could kind of understand the always part, since he'd always loved her too, in one fashion or another. But what he couldn't quite understand was how she could love him NOW; not when there were other guys available to pick from. Bigger guys. Stronger guys. Guys that were either already full fledged Vikings or would be after the next dragon training.

He would never be true a Viking in the eyes of their tribe, or many other tribes for that matter. Not unless he managed to talk his father into letting him take the dragon training course next year. Yeah, right. Like that's ever going to happen.

But maybe... Maybe there's another way to prove myself. A vague idea took root in that moment that Hiccup would have to think about further some other time. But right now, his curiosity was killing him. "Why me?" he said suddenly.

"Hiccup," Astrid chided as she sat up, folding her legs under her, and he followed, sitting cross-legged on the bench. She tilted her head to the side. "Why not you?"

Hiccup spread his arms wide, glancing down at himself. "You seriously don't see anything wrong with this?"

Astrid studied him up and down, trying to find the flaw he seemed to think was there and found nothing. His face was as cute as ever, topped by that hair that made her smile more often than not with its riotous autumn colours and nature. His physique was still lean, but the layer of hard muscle over his bones gave testament to his years of work. She did admit that he might be shorter than her now, but she had faith that he would grow like a weed again soon enough; his father qualified as a small mountain, Hiccup had to at least come close to resembling Stoick in height, if not breadth, sooner or later.

She grinned at him. "Nope. I see nothing wrong with you. You're the epitome of cute. And I'm betting that you'll grow up to be the epitome of handsome and take my breath away on a daily basis even more than you already do."

She clearly has a better opinion of my looks than I do, but I guess that's a good thing. Thor, she thinks I'm cute! Hiccup felt his face heat at the praise, but he couldn't help picking at his own insecurities. "But I'm short, and scrawny, and I'll probably never be a dragon warrior."

I wish I could kill Stoick for making Hiccup think he's not good enough. There is nothing wrong with this boy that a little confidence from his father wouldn't fix. But since Stoick isn't likely to ever get a clue, I'll have to do what I can myself. Astrid huffed a sigh and stood, dragging him up to his feet by his hand. As she marched towards the table with him stumbling along behind her, she said, "I can almost guarantee the height thing is temporary, so get over that. And I don't care if you're a dragon warrior or not; you have so much else going for you, it's not even funny." She pulled out a chair on one side of the table and pushed him into it.

Hiccup gawked up at her, not having a clue where she was going with this.

Astrid sat in a chair opposite of him and held her hand up, elbow on the table. "And as far as scrawny goes, I don't think you understand just how strong you are, so let me demonstrate."

Hiccup eyed her hand suspiciously. Why does it look like she wants to arm wrestle with me? It's been years since we tried that. Because she did, he realized, as she huffed in exasperation and reached over and grabbed his hand, forcefully putting his elbow on the table too. "How does this prove anything?" he asked, even as he noticed how cute her hand looked held in his bigger one, feeling their calluses rub against each other's skin. (And that was something he hadn't noticed before; that his hands were bigger than hers. Maybe I really am going to grow some more. Yay!)

Astrid glared at him through her bangs like he'd forgotten he was an intelligent being. "Do you consider me to be strong?"

"Yes, of course," he rushed to say, not wanting to offend her any further than he already had in whatever way he'd done so. He wasn't lying, though; Astrid was a lean but curvy package of supple strength from years of warrior training. He'd seen her throw Snotlout around like the stout boy was made of dry grass, and win sparring matches against her father, who was only a bit smaller than his own.

"Good. Now arm wrestle me like you mean it. Pretend I'm Snotlout or something." Astrid looked at him steadily until he nodded once and readjusted his grip on her fingers.

She smiled as she felt the bones in her hand being lightly crushed together. He didn't know his own strength, just as she thought. "One."

"Two," Hiccup said next, staring at her eyes and watching them narrow in concentration.

"Three," they said together, and the battle was on.

Hiccup braced himself, hoping to at least not be walloped in the first couple of seconds like always used to happen, and was surprised when the pressure she put on his hand didn't immediately slam it against the table. He could see that she was definitely trying, the strain on her expression and in her arm muscles was clearly apparent.

And then he did what she suggested and pretended that she was Snotlout. Or better yet; Elof. Gods, I hate him. Haaaaaaate.

He started to win.

And two seconds later, her hand slammed against the table.

Hiccup looked at his arm like he'd never seen it before. "Loki's bony knees, I didn't know I could do that!"

Astrid burst into laughter. "Gods, Hiccup, you think all those years of swinging a hammer haven't built up some muscle? Or the training we do when we can? You may not be built like a boulder like the average Viking male, but you're no scrawny wimp."

"I guess not," Hiccup admitted, somewhat hesitantly.

"You're not," Astrid said firmly. "And anyone who says otherwise is going to regret it."

Hiccup didn't know how he felt about having a girl defend him, but it was Astrid, so there was no way he was ever going to talk her out of her ideas.

This was confirmed as she continued on with, "In fact, some of them already do." The contented smirk she wore just affirmed that she had enjoyed beating up whoever had offended her on his behalf. I'd bet almost anything one of them was Snotlout.

"You're like a beautiful Valkyrie come to Earth, you know that?" he blurted out, unable to help himself as he gazed at her adoringly with his chin resting on a loose fist.

Astrid giggled, a becoming blush settling on her sculpted cheekbones. She rose from her chair and leaned across the table, kissing his mouth in a lingering fashion, making his cheeks flush too. "And you're the smartest person on the whole island, probably the whole planet. And did I mention cute? Cause I'm sure I did."

Hiccup was trying to come up with an appropriate response to that when the door banged open and his father stomped in like a pissed off polar bear. He marched halfway to them and glared at them from under his heavy brows.

What in Thor's name... Hiccup thought in alarm, a bad feeling settling in his gut.

"Get out of my house, Astrid, and never come back," the Chief of Berk growled out after a few long seconds of tension filled silence.

"What?! That's not fair!" Hiccup exclaimed, shooting up to his feet as Astrid stood and startled sidling towards the door by going around the fireplace. He followed her. "What has she done to warrant that?!"

"I don't have to explain myself," Stoick snarled as he stomped back to the door and waited for Astrid to leave, his white knuckled hand holding it open for her.

She stepped out, afraid to say a word, unable to recall a time when Stoick had looked so angry or dangerous.

Astrid shot Hiccup a helpless look that just about killed him. All he could do was shrug and mouth, 'later', so she knew he'd talk to her as soon as he could manage it. And then his father slammed the door in her face.

Hiccup stared at the closed door for a moment before changing his focus, rage filling him at how his father had treated Astrid. "What in Hel's name was that?! I thought you wanted me to court her!" Hiccup yelled at his father's back as Stoick stomped towards the closed door to the left of the stairs.

"Not anymore!" Stoick yelled back, just before he slammed the door to his room, leaving one very confused and hurting Hiccup standing alone in the middle of the living room.

What could possibly have happened to Dad in the last two hours to cause such a change in his attitude?

A/N: Hel is the Norse goddess of the Underworld and is Loki's daughter. Aside from the different parentage, she is essentially the same person as Hela, Thor's sister in the Marvel Universe.