The Art of Marking Territory

At first, it had been a little surprising.

Then it got annoying.

But now it was just really, really pissing Astrid off.

"So? Did you see him?"

"Yeah, just a few minutes ago. He really is as cute as you said…"

"See? I told you!"

Astrid's teeth ground together as the two giggling airheads darted past her, no doubt back to the boats where the rest of their nomad tribe were staying. Neither girls noticed Astrid at all, nor the murderous looks she had given them as they walked by. The other Hairy Hooligans saw though, and nervously gave the small, lethal blonde a wider berth to avoid getting caught in a bloodbath.

Astrid wasn't known for having patience or empathy with anyone who managed to get on her bad side, after all, and most people had the good sense not to be around her when her mood got sour.

Unfortunately for Astrid, Ruffnut was decidedly NOT most people.

"Two more?" The female half of the Thorston twins snickered as she flung an arm around Astrid's shoulder, leaning down over the shorter blonde with a smirk. "What does that bring the total up to? Twelve?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Astrid snapped as she shrugged Ruffnut's arm off. She certainly wasn't going to tell her it was actually eighteen now. Not including the girls from their own village and several more from that boat load of refugees that her boyfriend had saved last month.

And she certainly wasn't worried or anything. Just mad.

Scowling at Ruffnut's bemused expression, Astrid stormed off in another direction, annoyance bubbling in her chest when the other blonde followed. Didn't Ruffnut have anything better to do then bother her all day?

Probably not. Astrid thought, reminding herself that this was Ruffnut she was talking about.

"I'm surprised you haven't snapped and killed any of them yet." Ruffnut commented, oblivious to how tempting the thought was to Astrid. "I mean, he is your boyfriend, after all."

And therein laid the problem.

Astrid loved Hiccup. Sure, he was far from the ideal Viking, but he had other characteristics about him that more than made up for that. He was brilliant and funny, so talking to him rarely got boring. He was modest and thoughtful, and respected her strength and her own intelligence. He was blindly- almost frustratingly- kind, befriending dragons and showing kindness to enemies who would kill him if their positions were reversed.

And he was growing up.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Astrid knew this. She had done quite a bit of growing herself, after all. But even though Astrid knew this, she had always figured Hiccup would stay the same, even as an adult. Still the same awkward, quirky brilliant un-Viking she had fallen for. And he was in a lot of ways. He still had his head in the clouds more often than not- both figuratively and literally- and he was still brilliant, quirky and while his hero status had given him some much-needed confidence, still awkward in a lot of ways. He was still an un-Viking.

Only now, he was an un-Viking who made heads turn and butterflies dance in the stomachs of the girls who saw him.

Astrid couldn't exactly pinpoint when it had happened. It was a little disorienting, to go from getting into a fistfight with Ragtounge the Wretched when the girl had sneered at her and said that Astrid was dating the least manly and most pitiful 'hero' in the history of Berk, to having girls sigh and gush about how lucky she was to have snagged a catch like Hiccup.

It was even more disorienting the day she really looked at Hiccup and realized how much he had changed. How he was taller than her now. How his shoulders had broadened and his jawline had become sharp and strong. How his eyes seemed to fit his face better, and it had become dangerously easy to get lost in them. How his beard was coming in, and his whiskers scratched pleasantly and tickled her face when she kissed his cheek. How the odd, tilted grin he would flash her when he was happy or excited had gone from being silly and sweet to something much more powerful, which threatened to bring her to her knees.

Astrid still wasn't sure if she liked all that. She wasn't at all sure what to do with this tall, handsome man who still talked and walked and laughed like the boy she had fallen in love with, but only bore a passing resemblance to the child who had once been an outcast and a pariah.

And she really didn't know what to do with the fact that other girls were looking at him now, too. Giggling over him, watching him, wanting him. As strange as this new Hiccup was to her now, Astrid didn't want to give him up. Especially to some two-bit hussies who couldn't see how amazing he was five years earlier and a foot and a half shorter.

Clenching her fists, Astrid glared at the trio of girls who were openly ogling her boyfriend, who was about ten feet away arguing with Tuffnut over something. She felt her anger peak into the murderous range when one of them eyed Hiccup's backside, obviously appreciative of how it looked in the odd leather armor Hiccup had designed for himself.

Twenty one.

Tightening her grip on her axe, Astrid was about two seconds from marching over and murdering the girls in cold blood when suddenly an idea struck her.

A few feet behind Astrid, Ruffnut waited with bated breath for the show to start. She had a bet going on with her brother over how long the resident blonde time bomb would be able to keep her cool with all the girls on Berk hitting on Hiccup. If Astrid snapped today, then she'd be getting herself a brand new mace courtesy of her twin. And as an expert in pissing people off, Ruffnut knew Astrid was at her limit. Any second now, little miss perfect would go ballistic and-

-sheathe her axe?

Ruffnut stumbled and stopped walking for a moment to look at Astrid in confusion. Where were the merciless screams of rage as she tore her enemies limb from limb? Where was the hitting and the fighting and the glorious chaos of panic and disorder? Hell, where was Astrid? Because obviously, the blonde sashaying her hips as she approached Hiccup and Tuffnut was some kind of body snatcher or a shape shifter or something. Astrid was not the kind of girl who shared her toys with others. Ruffnut would know.

Curious, Ruffnut jogged to catch up to Astrid as she got closer to the boys, her confusion growing when Astrid made no attempt to get Hiccup to notice her.

"Oh come on, dude, can't you at least talk to your dad about it? It's a good idea!" Tuffnut cried out, drawing Ruffnut's attention away from Astrid and towards her brother.

"No. No it's not." Hiccup responded flatly. "In fact, it's a really, really bad ide-EEEEEEEE~!"

Ruffnut's jaw dropped. So did the jaws of the three girls who had been drooling over Hiccup. Tuffnut looked somewhere between surprised and amused as Hiccup stood there, turning a brilliant shade of red and looking a little like someone had just smacked him in the face with a fish.

"…Did you just squeak?" Tuffnut snickered. He hadn't seen what had happened to make Hiccup produce the noise, but he was clearly entertained as Hiccup's face burned brilliantly and he stuttered out denials. Ruffnut didn't pay either of them any mind, darting past to overtake Astrid and then turning to face the girl, shock and admiration warring on her face.

"Did you just do what I think you did? In public?" Ruffnut couldn't help but ask, though she had seen the entire thing for herself and already knew what the answer was. Astrid didn't respond, but she did look oddly smug as she swept past Ruffnut without a word. The female Thorston felt her respect for Astrid climb to new highs as she watched the other blonde walk away like nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Sure it wasn't the bloodbath she wanted, but the look on Hiccup's face at getting publicly pinched in the butt by Astrid was totally worth losing her bet with Tuffnut.