Not So Fireproof on the Inside

Chapter 3 In the Mood

A/N: This is just a bit more shameless fluff, hence why the chapter is so short.

Hiccup stared out over the sea as the sun crept up over the horizon, casting its magnificent visage over the sparkling, blue waters. He'd been up most of the night; unable to tear his eyes away from the constellation of stars (which he was pretty sure had a completely different name, Onion or something) until it faded out with the coming light. Still, he could only stare at the dotted figure, thinking about the story Astrid had told him. Made up or not, it did echo with certain truths, and for that he commended her. He couldn't stop exploring all the possibilities of its meanings, intentional or otherwise.

Something on his chest stirred and he glanced down at it.

His eyes came across a blonde head and a soft face turned up at him. His sleeping betrothed had a small, innocent, childlike smile on her lips. She'd wormed her hand under his leather breastplate sometime during the night and he could feel his heart beating against it. Her leg had come over his hip too, her body curling into his possessively. He marveled at the idea that his strong, fearless warrior of a fiancé had been reduced to such a cuddly, cute state by him. For some reason, the concept was hilarious.

Despite his best efforts against it for the sake of her sleep, he found himself fighting back chuckles, some still managing to break free and convulse in his chest. At the undulations, the girl began to rouse, her azure eyes blinking open tiredly, as round as beautiful as he had always found them to be. They screwed themselves shut again and her hand slithered out from his armor as she gave a great, adorable yawn. Hiccup's chest juddered once more with barely hindered giggles, an almost choking sound passing through his throat. The fair-haired lass opened her eyes again, giving him a skeptical, squinting look.

"Are you laughing at me?" she questioned, a slightly annoyed tilt to her voice.

"Would you believe me if I answered 'no'?"

She punched him in the gut for it, though no matter how hard she pursed her lips, she couldn't hide her smile. Sarcastic, little prick or not, she still loved him and would give the world to wake up to his dumb smirk.

He had the audacity to laugh openly again at her violence and she took great offense at this. She furrowed her brow and glared at him.

"Oh, I'm really funny, am I?" she asked rhetorically.

"Only a lot" he teased. Her jaw set, she scowled at him, inching toward him with an outstretched hand and point fingers. His expression shifted from mocking to fearful as her digits approached. "No! Astrid, wait! I'm sor…" he pleaded, but his cries turned to squeals as her hand reached his abdomen, tickling him even through his so-called 'armor'. He realized that he hadn't considered this as a method of attack and torture, as he giggled and screamed, his legs kicking furiously in the sand.

"Astrid! Astrid stop!" he yelped as she dug her fingers into him harder, making his armpits her new target. His words didn't even register with her as she continued. She giggled with him, merciless in her barrage. His chest heaved and his face was a beet red as she was now on top of him, pinning him to the beach with no escape from her onslaught. His screams reached a new octave when her second hand joined the fray. He begged and implored for a truce, but she never let up.

That is, she didn't let up until a black tail smacked her reproachfully in the thigh. Astrid looked up at the massive reptile just above them, lying in the sand with his Nadder pal resting her head on his neck. He gave the human girl the dirtiest look a dragon could have possibly mustered.

"Oh, am I interrupting your beauty sleep, princess?" the girl asked mischievously. The dark beast huffed at her irritably, bored of the humans and their silly, pre-mating rituals. The blonde turned back to the grumpy animal's master. "Hiccup, tell your dragon to stop to stop frowning at me" she playfully commanded of her newly proclaimed beloved.

"No way! Not when he's defending me" the boy answered, reaching up to scratch Toothless' chin. He realized his mistake in leaving himself exposed and quickly snapped his elbow back against his side, screaming fearfully as Astrid had almost been able to exploit the opening, "Ah! Toothless, help!".

The beast in question grew further annoyed at their insistence on fooling around when he clearly had some very important napping to do. He grumbled to himself as he rose from his spot in the sand, shaking Stormfly off of him. Grumpily, he just stalked off a few yards away, where he plopped down again.

"He's so melodramatic" Astrid whispered. Toothless growled indignantly from his impromptu bed to show that he was not nearly as deaf as she seemed to think.

"I know" Hiccup snickered back, much quieter to not further upset his scaly friend. He was sure the dragon heard, but probably decided on just going back to sleep, rather than coming back to defend his honor. The boy looked up at his fiancé, watching her smile and giggle with him as if their entire world was found in the space between them. They gave no acknowledgement to anything besides the other, staring wistfully into each other's eyes.

He could have stayed there forever, just holding her, particularly if she was straddling his lap as she was now (the realization of which causing him to blush). His reddened face drew her attention, but with a devious smirk, she simply remained in place, even going so far as to rest more of her wait on his hips. He enjoyed her enthusiasm, especially because it was toward having sex with him. How crazy is that? It blew his mind still.

Alas, he knew he couldn't just lie there with her on top of him, as pleasing as it may have been. He was a chief, a new one at that, with a reputation to uphold and a name to make for himself. People were relying on him and he didn't have the option of letting them down, even if it was just to spend a little more time with his wife-to-be. He frowned to himself as he realized that the same would be true, even during their honeymoon. They were a village with rebuilding to do and problems to be had.

"Astrid…" he sighed, his somber face alerting her to the fact that something was wrong.

"Aww, come on! I'm barely even sitting on it for Thor's sake" she whined grumpily, growing tired of his rejecting her, a fact she actively not to think about too hard or for too long. His face reddened again at her assumption and his groin gave a rebellious throb at her mention. She tried not to think about that either, as she was already weighing the option of holding his arms above his head and just having him as they were now, whether he wanted to or not. She decided against it, but if her linens got any damper, she'd change her answer in a heartbeat.

"Umm…that's not…I-I was going to say that…uh" his voice failed him treacherously. It seemed as though all of his body was betraying him in order to stay with Astrid. He couldn't blame it, but fought against it nonetheless. He forced his body up by his arms, urging Astrid down his legs so that she was more sitting on his knees.

"What, Hiccup?" she asked, some clear exasperation in her tone. She could sense that he was trying to say something important, something she probably wasn't going to like, and as much as she adored his cute nervous stutter, she wished he'd just spit it out. He sighed.

"Astrid, we should get going. I'm sure that there's a never ending list of stuff for me to do and that's assuming everyone hasn't burnt the village to the ground in the time we've been gone" he admitted regretfully, though it didn't stop his sarcastic mouth. It sure as Hel wasn't like he actually wanted to go, just knew all too well that he had to.

"No" she defiantly replied.

"What?"

"I said 'no' " she repeated, as though he were a particularly daft child. She explained further, "This is the longest continuous time I've gotten to spend with you in a month. You owe me at least until sundown".

"You know I can't…"

She finished his sentence for him, "…do anything except stay here with your future spouse. Yes, I agree". He raised an eyebrow challengingly at her, but she only returned a confident, unmoving expression. She wasn't negotiating this, she was telling him. She'd also already proved that she could keep him there indefinitely with just a few tickles. It couldn't be that much harder when she actually applied herself.

"And if I don't?"

Reaching to her double-bitted axe(1), half buried in the sand by their tussle, and spinning it in her hand, she answered, "I think you'll find that's not one of your options". He may be the chief and she may soon be his wife, but as sure as Freya has nice tits, she was going to be wearing the pants in the marriage.

A/N: Please review. Fyi, when I mentioned a poll last chapter, I felt like I should have explained more. Toothless will either be as he is now, sentient and pretty surely understanding Norse, or becoming able to actually communicate with Hiccup through telepathy or dragonese. I want to know which of the three options you guys would prefer, as I have no partiality towards any of them.

(1). "Double-bitted" refers to the two blades on either side of the head of her axe. In true terminology, these are called bits, not blades and definitely not heads as an axe can only have one of those. I know a decent bit about historical weapons, armor, and the creation of such, so I'm hoping to be able to interject some of that into this.

-Nick (ncham9)