As promised, one quarantine-themed Hiccstrid! Thanks to everyone who sent in prompts.
-HTTYD-
Astrid threw her front door closed behind her with a great sigh of relief, peeling the mask off her face and hoping she didn't have to go outside again before it was all over. Unlikely, but a girl could dream.
Still, she'd managed to get a big pack of toilet roll - one of the last on the shelf, people were clearing them out so fast - and a couple of decently sized bags of flour. While cooking wasn't her forte, Astrid could bake bread pretty well. Mostly because she enjoyed beating the shit out of it during kneading, but also because it meant she could flavour it how she liked. So the flour was a lucky and soon-to-be-loved find.
Once the delivery she'd luckily nabbed a slot for turned up in a couple of days (there was only so much she could carry back alone, after all), Astrid was all set for the lockdown. Well, at least for long enough that things could hopefully calm down... She was going to miss the gym, which she knew would soon shut, but she had some free weights and they were still allowed to go outside to go running. So she'd manage. Plus, she already had Animal Crossing, and had recently treated herself to a fantastic new vibrator. She expected both her new toys would get quite a workout, as would her entire body with so much free time for exercising. Thankfully, she'd already recently bought a big tub of protein powder, so she was well supplied there too.
Shopping put away and her clothes and mask in the washing machine, Astrid threw on her lounging clothes - oversized vest and comfy shorts, perfect for laying in an undignified position on her sofa, or hunching up on the recliner chair when she was gaming. It was good to be comfortable when she was calling someone a muttonhead for being a useless teammate.
With some bread left to rise on the side, Astrid poured a lot of coffee in to her gaming mug - it had a lid on to keep it warm for longer, for times when she couldn't put down the controller for several minutes. And it had a dragon on it, of course. It was a gift sent to her a couple of years ago from her friend Hiccup. They hadn't seen each other in years after his parents split and he went to live ages away with his mother, but they kept in touch through texts and sent each other birthday gifts through the post. Plus they gamed together, and Astrid smiled whenever his gamer name - HorrendousHaddock - popped up with a message on her screen.
He wasn't online when she logged in, but Astrid had vague memories of him mentioning he had plans that week. Hopefully they weren't all scuppered by the sudden lockdown due to the pandemic. Chugging some delicious caffeine down, Astrid was about to settle in for a long gaming session when her phone started vibrating. Frowning, she peered over at the screen and saw Hiccup's name flash up across it. Which was weird in itself - he never called, he preferred to text. Reaching over and picking up the buzzing brick, she hit answer.
"Hello?"
"Astrid, hi! Hi, Astrid."
His voice was different to how she remembered, but then they hadn't really seen each other for a decade. He was an adult now.
"Well, you nailed the greeting. What's up?"
"Uh. You can say no, of course, but I'm kinda stuck right now."
He quickly elaborated - his changeover flight was at the airport on the edge of her city, and for pandemic reasons, his flight had been quite suddenly cancelled. And because dozens of other people were in a similar quandry, the few hotels that were still allowed to even be open were all packed full.
"Oh my gods, stop babbling. Sure, you can come crash on my sofa. Bring snacks, do not bring diseases."
She felt for her oldest friend, obviously, and knew he wouldn't have asked if he had any other choice, because Hiccup so hated to impose on anybody. Plus, she couldn't leave him stranded. And if she shut him up from saying for the fifth time that he was sorry to have to ask, that was a bonus. She gave him her address, and assured him she wasn't going anywhere but was going to be gaming, and so she might take a minute or two to answer the door.
"See you in a bit!"
They hung up, and Astrid was actually quite happy. It had been years, and she was excited to see her old friend. He'd always been able to have her in fits of laughter, and they'd always gotten on well. So long as he hadn't turned into an enormous asshole in the intervening years, then she was pretty sure a little time while he waited to find out what those stuck away from home were meant to do without travel was really something of a bonus.
If he did turn out to be an ass, then she'd find somewhere else to put him.
She dug out an extra pillow and a couple of heavy blankets from storage and chucked them in the washing machine, so they'd be fresh and clean for Hiccup to crash on the sofa with later, played games for half an hour and then went to check on her bread. Smiling happily at the rising dough, Astrid jumped in surprise when the door knocked before remembering she was, in fact, expecting company.
Peering through the peephole, she couldn't see much because of them wearing a face mask, but when she glanced at her phone Hiccup had sent a text to say he was almost there. So Astrid opened the door, and green eyes visible above a black face covering widened.
"Astrid?"
His voice was muffled by the mask a bit, and she nodded, noticing how his hair wasn't lank and thin like it was when they were younger. Now it was all thick and kind of messy, like someone had just run their fingers through it. Maybe Hiccup had done that himself.
"Get in so you can take that thing off!"
Even masked, she could recognise the way his eyes creased as he grinned. Definitely Hiccup. He had a bag and a case, which he pulled in with him. She realised he was actually taller than her now, which made a change from when he barely came up to her chin the last time they saw each other. He slipped off his shoes by the front door without being asked, which Astrid appreciated.
"Can I use your bathroom? I need to wash my hands when I take this off."
He gestured to his mask, and Astrid nodded, pointing him in the direction of the bathroom. Hiccup headed off, and Astrid was pleased to see he was obviously observant of the safety protocols. She moved his bag and case further into the room so it wasn't blocking the front door so much, waiting for him to come back through. The boiler stopped groaning about the hot tap running, and then there were footsteps.
And holy shit.
"Hiccup?"
He looked at her like she'd gone slightly mad.
"Yes? Were you not sure but invited me in anyway?"
Blinking, Astrid tried to deal with just how much Hiccup had... grown up.
"Sorry. You just... don't look like the same person!"
He was hot! Like, when did Hiccup get hot? Why wasn't Astrid warned? That baby face had vanished, leaving behind a sharp, stubbled jaw and high cheekbones, and as he took off his jacket Astrid could see that while he was still built quite lean, he'd filled out in the arms and shoulders a bit.
"Yeah. You uh... you look different too."
Finally getting a little used to the fact Hiccup was hot now, Astrid grinned.
"I'd say puberty was kind to both of us."
His cheeks flushed pink, and Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously.
"I'm just glad I got taller. It was ridiculous being so small with both my parents over six foot tall."
He let out a short chuckle, and despite having shot up about a foot and gotten suddenly hot, Astrid would have recognised his slightly crooked smile anywhere.
"Oh yeah, your dad almost didn't fit through the door for parents evening! And your mom is taller than my dad."
They shared a laugh, and it already felt more comfortable.
"I'm gonna go change into some clean clothes, I have crowded airport on me."
Astrid nodded.
"Is your mask re-useable?" Hiccup nodded "well there's something in the machine now, but you can wash your stuff when that's done."
"Thanks."
He hunted through his bag, pulling out a different outfit and disappearing back to the bathroom to change. Astrid almost told him to change in front of her, but managed to resist the urge to embarass them both.
She did, however, need to tell somebody, and so she picked up her phone and began texting her friend Ruff.
"Hiccup Haddock is hot now!"
Ruff wasn't going to be surprised by such a message - they never bothered with formalities like greetings, just got right to the point. She was probably going to be surprised by the content though. Hiccup was just returning when Ruff answered her text.
"I'm going to need to see proof, and an explanation of how you know this cus it's been forever since we saw him."
Snickering, Astrid switched her phone to camera mode.
"Hey Hiccup? Smile!"
He gave her a bemused look, frowning as Astrid took a photo of him.
"What are you doing?"
"Oh, I mentioned to Ruff that you were here, cus it's good to let someone know when you invite someone you don't know well into your house" a bit of a lie, but also a side effect of her telling Ruff regardless "and she wanted to see how you turned out."
"Ruff... she's the one with the twin brother who kept getting in trouble for... everything, right?"
Sending the photo, Astrid nodded to Hiccup.
"Yep, that's her."
"WOW! Tell me you're hitting that. If you don't, I will."
Shaking her head at Ruff's bluntness, Astrid sent back a firm no.
"He needs somewhere to crash cus of the pandemic cancelling his travel. I'm not going to molest him!"
"I doubt he'd mind, you're hot!"
Putting her phone aside, Astrid told Hiccup to dump his clothes in front of the machine to wait, then figured she ought to offer him a drink and food.
"You want a drink? Or a snack? Oh wait, did you bring snacks like I told you to?"
Hiccup chortled, nodding.
"I did! I bought a random selection cus I don't know what you eat now, and since you're putting me up I'm happy to spring for take-out... well, delivery, for dinner tonight?"
He pulled a couple of carrier bags from his duffel, and there was a variety of different sweets and snacks, including nuts and dried fruit that Astrid immediately had her eye on. There was also cans of pop and some juice, plus instant noodles.
"Wow, you really stocked up huh?"
"Well, I didn't expect you to feed me too, so I grabbed some stuff to eat."
Astrid wasn't going to starve him, but she appreciated that he wasn't expecting her to provide for him when she was already giving him somewhere to stay. It seemed he was still very much Hiccup, even after all this time.
She dumped her now-cold coffee, holding the cup up to show a smiling Hiccup before she went to refill it with fresh, hot coffee. He cracked open a can of pop, and sat on the sofa while Astrid stretched out in her recliner, turned to face him so they could chat.
"So where were you coming from? Or going to?"
"On my way home after a couple of weeks at my moms, picking up a few things from storage so she can convert the garage into... something. I forget. Something to do with lizards."
"Isn't it always lizards with your mom?"
Hiccup laughed, nodding.
"Pretty much."
"How come you live in different cities now? You moved away with her, right?"
"Oh, I moved for university. Still got a year to go... well, maybe longer, pandemic depending."
He called his mom to let her know what was going on, and reassured her he was fine, then assured her that yes, he had definitely told Astrid he appreciated what she was doing for him.
"Look, I'll do it again so you can be sure. Thank you, Astrid."
"You're welcome!"
Astrid yelled back to make sure Valka would hear it, and she heard the faint sounds of laughter from the other end of the phone, which made Hiccup smile. It was still a little disarming just how attractive he'd grown up to be, especially when lit up with such genuine happiness.
"Yeah, I'll let you know when I know more. Bye mom. Love you too."
Awwww. That was kind of adorable. Hiccup looked a little bashful about her hearing him say it, so Astrid opted not to bring it up.
"I'm gonna empty the machine so you can wash your stuff, and then wanna play Xbox? I have an extra controller."
"Sounds good."
Once they were settled in and Hiccup had a profile set up, the true competition began. They'd played together and against each other countless times, so it was a nice, even match with lots of challenge. And Hiccup was long used to hearing her colourful use of expletives over their headsets.
"Damnit!"
Hiccup just managed to snipe a victory, and Astrid groaned in displeasure.
"Victory is mine! But to make it up to you, you can pick what we order for dinner."
He offered, and Astrid immediately perked up at the thought of food. Her bread was ready for baking by then, but it was still going to be fine to eat the next day after it was cooked and cooled. They chatted while the bread baked and they waited for food delivery - it was bound to take longer, since everyone else would also likely be ordering delivery food and there was probably less staff at work. Astrid was in the kitchen, tending to her delicious-scented baby when the door knocked. Hiccup appeared at the door with a couple of bags, which they unpacked and plated up.
"That bread smells really good."
"I might even let you have a taste tomorrow."
Astrid winked, and HIccup blinked a few times before clearing his throat.
"Uh. Thanks! Here, you want some prawn crackers?"
He commented, and Astrid wondered if he was always going to be so adorably easy to fluster. Still, with her in her oversized lounging gear stuffing her face full of noodles and sweet and sour chicken, it wasn't like Astrid was acting seductive in any way. Unless Hiccup was turned on by her burping and spilling curry sauce down her vest. He didn't seem to be.
And thankfully, the heavy meal stopped her feeling all that sexy, so Astrid resisted the urge to make a joking comment to Hiccup that if the sofa wasn't comfortable, he could always join her. Well... it would have only been half a joke. She wouldn't have minded him joining her for real, if she hadn't just eaten Chinese takeout. Still, Astrid mentally scolded herself - like she'd told Ruff, Hiccup was just looking for somewhere to crash until he could get back home. He didn't need Astrid hitting on him.
When she came out of the kitchen after dumping her plates and cup in the sink, Astrid caught sight of Hiccup bending over to dig through his bag for pyjamas. And damn, he had a nice ass to go with everything else.
Oh boy, Astrid thought to herself. I'm in trouble.
-HTTYD-
This was meant to be a one shot, but when I was making an outline for it, it felt clumsy and rushed to shove into one installment. So I've spread it to a threeshot, which I'm sure some people will be happy about... I hope.