Title: Reindeer Ears and Yaknog

Summary: The gang gets together to reminisce about Snoggletogs of the past and Astrid challenges Heather to a yaknog drinking contest.

Notes: Requested by Jokermask18. Contains Christmas spoilers! Be warned! And I haven't seen the HTTYD tv shows, so I apologize if I get Heather's character wrong.

Astrid was regretting the reindeer ears. They looked stupid on her, but they had been only a dollar and added to the festivity of her Snoggletog tree in her living room, the over-sized and over-decorated evergreen wreath on her front door, and the sparkling lights around her windows. So the ears stayed on as she opened the door to greet the first guest to her Snoggletog party.

"Hello. Heather." Astrid smiled through thin lips. Heather Oswald was not her favorite person, but she was friends with Fishlegs and Fishlegs would be hurt if she wasn't invited.

"Cute reindeer ears," Heather complimented smugly, in Astrid's opinion. "They match your eyes."

"Thank you." To save Astrid from saying, "That red sweater makes you look like a fire hydrant! Did you do your Snoggletog shopping at the fire station?" the Thorsen twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, blew through like a blizzard. Right behind them a bored Snotlout Jorgenson trudged in the door, and Fishlegs Ingerman, bubbling over with enthusiasm, arrived. Each of them brought a bag of food goods and a white elephant gift. Hiccup Haddock, Astrid's favorite guest and best friend, arrived last, shoving a messily wrapped gift into her hands and turning as red as Heather's sweater.

"Oh," she said, surprised. "The white elephant thing is at the end. We're putting them in the middle of the table."

"For you, not the elephant. Merry Snoggletog," he muttered, not meeting her eyes. "Cute reindeer ears." From Hiccup, that was a good thing.

"Thanks. Can I open it now?" she asked, lightly shaking the package.

Hiccup, shy and not inclined to talking anything but short sarcasm, shrugged and stared at the thermostat on her wall. Just then, a crash came from the kitchen, not giving Astrid a chance to see what was inside the package. She rushed into the kitchen to see half of the contents of her fridge spread all over the floor.

"Oopsie," Ruffnut gulped.

"Snotlout will pay for that," Tuffnut told Astrid, nudging a carrot with his toe. She and Fishlegs groaned at the same time.

"I will not!" Snotlout protested. He had already taken a seat at her dining room table and opened a bag of potato chips.

"Clean it up," Astrid ordered the twins. It was their turn to groan. Wordlessly, Hiccup stooped to do the job, which spurred on the twins.

"Oh, you don't have to do that!"

"Cease and desist!"

Goop mopped up and salvageable food replaced in the fridge, the twins fell prey on the table. Poor Snotlout's chip bag was ripped out of his hands and devoured in three seconds flat. They had the appetites of tigers during the holidays.

Fishlegs made sure that they all got plates instead of eating straight out of the bags and Snotlout reluctantly showed them how to make a walking taco. Then, Astrid herded them into the living room. Everyone called dibs on the best couch, and Astrid shoved her dog, Stormfly, off of her favorite seat.

"These are the best chips ever!" Tuffnut praised. "You're a good cook, Astrid!"

"Those are store-bought," Fishlegs pointed out.

"So?" Tuffnut poked a fork into his walking taco. Hiccup had opted to forgo the taco, and picked at yellow nacho sauce.

"I don't think Astrid can cook," Heather remarked.

"I can to!" Astrid glared at Heather. Did Heather always have to make comments about her lack of ability to do something?

"We should tell stories about Santa Claus!" Snotlout said through a mouth full of food.

Astrid wrinkled her nose. "Please tell me you don't still believe in him, Snotlout."

"Even if he took one second per country," Fishlegs informed them. "it would take at least two hundred and-"

"BLAH, BLAH, BLAH."

"How about the moments when we caught on that he wasn't real," Tuffnut suggested, a glint in his eye that said he and his sister had had a terrifying experience to relate.

"And I suppose you want to go first?" Heather asked.

"Of course!" Ruffnut rubbed her hands together gleefully. "T'was the night before Snoggletog and all in the house-"

"-nothing peeped, not even a mouse!" Tuffnut finished.

"That's not how it goes," Fishlegs pointed out.

"Get on with it. Cut out the dramatics," Snotlout grumbled. "By the time you two finish, I'll have written a biography on Santy What's-His-Nose."

"In a nutshell" - Ruffnut giggled at her own Snoggletog pun - "we put a little something involving stomach parasites in the cookies we made for Santa, set up a camera so we could televise our triumph to the world, and waited. Our parents threw up for the rest of the day."

"That's horrible!" Astrid exclaimed, shocked.

"I can't even believe they're biologically related to their parents," Heather muttered.

"Our parents think the same thing," Ruffnut confided. "Your turn, Snotlout!"

"Nothing much," Snotlout grumbled. "I just accidentally found a basketball in my parent's closet. By the way, I'm selling it autographed for fifty bucks – a steal, considering that it was the start of my career! Anybody?"

Silence reigned.

"Get it while it's cheap! A once in a lifetime deal!"

Heather snorted. "A deal. I found out the same way: presents under the bed."

"Fishlegs?" Astrid prodded. "How about you?"

Fishlegs took a bite out of a chip. "According to my calculations, it was impossible for Santa to be real when it came down to it. Figured it out when I was five." He shook his head. "I was so naive."

Snotlout coughed and the twins openly rolled their eyes. "I suppose you graduated from college at ten?" Tuffnut droned.

"Eleven."

"Eleven he says!" Tuffnut threw his hands in the air. "If I'd had known you were Mr. Smartypants, I would have come to you for test answers ages ago!"

"Like you haven't cheated on every test anyway," Ruffnut remarked snidely.

"I don't cheat!" Tuffnut adamantly denied.

Heather slyly grinned. "Would that hold up in court?"

"WELL HOW COME-"

"My parents," Astrid interrupted the escalating dialogue, "told me the truth when I was ten."

"BORING," Tuffnut booed, his spat with his sister forgotten as Astrid had planned. Snotlout heaved himself off the couch with great difficulty and went to get his third walking taco of the evening.

"I bet they had to bribe you with cookies," Ruffnut snickered. "No traps, rat poison or anything?"

"Astrid's not that creative," Heather said.

"Unlike some people, I don't want to kill my parents on Snoggletog!" Astrid huffed. Only the twins would slip their parents a Mickey Finn. "Hiccup? What was your method of extraction?"

Hiccup, who hadn't let a peep come out of his mouth, blinked like a deer caught in the headlights. He coughed as if to say, "Who, me?"

Even the twins didn't make a sound, afraid that if they made a wrong move, Hiccup wouldn't say anything for the rest of the evening.

"I never believed in Santa Claus," he whispered, staring into the depths of the remainder of his nachos.

"You poor soul," Snotlout commented, dropping back onto the couch and making it slide several feet back.

"Not really." Hiccup fiddled with the drawstring of his hoodie. "I'm not saying that Santa is evil, but when it comes down to it, Snoggletog is a time to celebrate the gift of family. We would go caroling, play games, and make cookies with way too much sugar in them..." He trailed off and melted into the couch. It was quite possibly the longest speech he'd said in his life.

Hiccup breathed a visible sigh of relief the he was done having to speak. His little speech made Astrid think for a second about what she was doing to remember her hoard of annoying relations.

"I'll drink to that," Tuffnut muttered, ruining the moment.

Heather, scrunched between Tuffnut and Fishlegs, elbowed Tuffnut, about the only good thing she did that evening according to Astrid. "You couldn't hold anything down even if you did." Even throwing an insult, she managed to possess the air of an aristocrat.

Tuffnut took personal offense. "You couldn't hold down baby food!"

"Heather can't even hold down her snide comments," Astrid mumbled.

Heather sat straight up and tossed her raven braid over her shoulder. "Would you like to repeat that to my face?"

"You two are killing my vibes," Snotlout complained. "Could you please settle your problem somewhere else?" He was on his sixth taco, with the promise of heartburn later.

"Vibes from indigestion?" Hiccup muttered.

Astrid glanced at him, surprised, then glared at Heather. "Would you like to have a little contest?"

"With pleasure!" Heather agreed.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut rubbed their hands in glee and leaned forward, not wanting to miss a single word.

Astrid stood. "I originally planned this for later, but I made a batch of YAKNOG!"

Collective groaning circled the room. Stormfly, asleep until that moment, whimpered, and Hiccup patted her reassuringly on the head. "Don't worry. They're all crazy," he whispered.

"I suddenly need to go to the bathroom," Ruffnut announced. "For the next two hours." Yaknog, composed of yak's milk, cabbage, and a secret non-alcoholic ingredient, was the all-time flop of Astrid's cooking career. No one would touch its container when it was in stock, as it was said it could cause paralysis in sheep.

Astrid grabbed her sleeve. "Relax, Ruff. Heather, I challenge you to a yaknog drinking contest."

Heather wrinkled her perfect little nose. "No, thank you!"

"Why?" Astrid arched an eyebrow. "Not Viking enough?" It was a low blow.

"Coming from the person wearing reindeer ears," Heather sneered. "You're on!"

Within a minute, the twins poured two mugs of yaknog and ferried it to the living room, each glass as far away from their bodies as humanly possible.

Astrid and Heather gingerly took their separate cups. "Three, two, one," Astrid counted. "GO!" The mugs were tipped back; however, not much yaknog was imbibed.

Heather choked. "ARGH!" Nevertheless, she continued to drink, matching Astrid chug for chug. She also matched Astrid stride for stride on the way to the kitchen sink.

…

Minus the Yaknog, Astrid enjoyed the rest of the Snoggletog party. Despite the horrible taste in her mouth and the turnings of her stomach, it was all worth it when Hiccup asked her if she was okay instead of Heather and the twins proclaimed her the winner, saying that she had gotten way more Yaknog down than Heather.

It was a Merry Snoggletog, full of friends, enemies, and stories. Astrid would remember the day forever – after her stomach was pumped.