A/N: Thanks for your patience. Finally uploaded a version that works!
The two played and cuddled like time had stopped. For a while, perhaps it had. Tonight, they were young and they always would be.
Eventually, Astrid brushed Hiccup's auburn mop out of his face, and locked his gaze.. "I missed you," she said, with a small voice.
"You said." He smiled, "I missed you too."
"I, I knew I would, but I didn't think it would be like this," Astrid admitted.
Hiccup's smile changed, and he looked at her gently, silently encouraging her to go on.
"I mean, I know I miss Berk and my family when we're out here, but it's sort of easy to forget. We're so busy. It comes when something happens, you know? Like when we couldn't get back for the Harvest Feast. But this…" she trailed off. Hiccup reached for her hand and squeezed it, and she continued.
"This…this hurt. I've never felt like this. It hurt when you were gone. I'm a warrior. I'm supposed to be patient and focused. Not running around burning stews."
She blushed, and watched Hiccup for a reaction. He concentrated on her hand, like it held the answers. When he finally spoke, he kept a hold of it, but moved his gaze to her.
"Astrid, I missed you like that too. I thought about cutting the trip short. I knew what we had to do, but it was just…awful, to not see you, and talk to you, and have you to listen to me blabbering about my day." He kissed her, and ran a hand over her shoulder.
"I don't want you to hurt," he continued. "I don't want being apart to feel so…bad. But I think…I think maybe that's how it is. Maybe that's what love is. Astrid, I love you." The words were slow and then fast. He'd imagined them a hundred times, but now they were free, and Gods knew how they would land. His face flushed, and he forced himself to look at Astrid. She opened her mouth to speak, but he put a finger up to it before she could respond.
"Please, don't say anything because you feel like you have to."
Astrid removed his hand indignantly. "If you think I'm ever going to say something I don't mean because I feel like I have to for a boy…" She looked him straight in the eye. "Hiccup, I love you."
He beamed, and for a moment they lay staring into each other's eyes like hypnotized Nadders. Hiccup reached for Astrid's face and pulled her in for a kiss. "You are a warrior," he whispered. "You are the bravest, fiercest, most beautiful warrior I've ever met."
Astrid laughed, "So a burnt stew is love, now?"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. If that were the case, you'd be in love with everyone you ever cooked for. I don't know if I can take that kind of competition."
That earned Hiccup a punch to the shoulder. He was so drunk on the girl in his arms, though, that he barely noticed.