When they finally separated again they were both a little out of breath. Astrid had hooked both her arms around the back of Hiccup's neck, and he had one hand in her hair and one around her waist. It had gotten a little colder in the time they'd been talking—and, well, not talking—and a lot darker. The points of contact between them radiated heat, and Astrid shivered for real as she pulled herself closer, leaning against him. Hiccup sighed contentedly, and she felt his warm breath on her neck.

"Are you cold?" he murmured, his lips inches from her ear.

"A little," she replied, "but don't worry about it."

"Are you sure? I can walk you home—"

Astrid smiled into Hiccup's shoulder. He was always so concerned. "No, I want to stay out a little longer," she said.

"Alright," he said, his voice low. "The offer stands, just let me know." He punctuated his sentence with a light kiss on Astrid's neck, just below her ear, and it was her turn to sigh.

With her face turned away, Hiccup smiled to himself, pleased at her reaction—but then she lifted her head and met his gaze again.

"What are you looking so smug about?" she said, smirking.

"Me? Smug? Never," he said, feigning offense. "What, I can't just smile if I want to?"

Astrid giggled and rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she said. "You know what I want to do?"

"What?"

"I want to go for a walk. Down to the cove."

"The cove? Toothless is sleeping, but I guess we can take Stormfly, if you—"

"No, a walk," she corrected him. "Stormfly's asleep too. It's a nice night—why don't we go on foot? You know," she grinned, "for old times' sake?"

Hiccup looked down at her, curious. She was up to something, he could tell, but there was only one way to find out. "Alright, sure," he said, and they stood up to go.

Astrid kept shivering as they walked through town—following the docks would've meant running into Gustav on his patrol shift, and neither of them were in the mood for that—and Hiccup insisted on stopping at home to grab a fur for her. She refused to wear it for a full ten minutes of walking, not wanting to admit the stop had been a good idea, but she finally relented when they reached the cool edge of the forest.

"You sure you want to go through the woods?" Hiccup asked, wrapping the fur around her shoulders. "It's pretty dark in there."

"Stop worrying! I can handle a stroll through some trees, Hiccup."

"I know you can handle it," he replied, "It'd just be pretty embarrassing if two days after defeating Johann and the Hunters you managed to break your ankle on a tree root or something."

Astrid rolled her eyes and strode past the treeline, disregarding him. "Look, not everybody's accident-prone, Hiccup," she called over her shoulder.

"Rude!" he replied, clanking his metal leg noisily for effect as he rushed to catch up. "I should've known this was your plan all along."

"What was?" Astrid said, grinning and raising her eyebrows as he drew level with her.

"You lured me out into the woods in the dead of night," he said, "so you could finally make jokes about my leg."

Astrid tried and failed to suppress a laugh. "For Thor's sake, Hiccup, that's not even what I meant."

"Oh, it's not?" he said, leaning over her in mock-interrogation. "That was just an accidental turn of phrase?"

"Of course," she said, mock-indignant. "Don't go making baseless accusations at me, Hiccup, especially when you have—" she paused—"no leg to stand on."

"I knew it," Hiccup said, pointing at her in triumph. "This was all a long con, Astrid. You've just been building up to a leg joke this entire time."

"You caught me," she said, giggling. "That's what this has all been about. Our entire relationship is a sham."

"It's too much," Hiccup said, clutching dramatically at his heart. "I can't handle any more betrayal."

"What can I say, Hiccup?" Astrid said, taking a step closer to him and putting her hands on his shoulders. "You were just taken in by my grand illusion—" she kicked his right foot out from under him. "—and swept off your feet."

Caught off-guard, Hiccup lost his balance, and she caught him with one arm as he fell backwards.

"Okay, that line was weak," he said, looking up at her. "Come on, you can do better than that."

"Probably," Astrid said, tossing both her arms aside and letting Hiccup flop to the ground. He landed with a crunch on the dense layer of leaves covering the forest floor.

"Two can play at that game," he said, and with a quick sweep of his leg he knocked Astrid's knees out from under her, sending her sprawling onto the ground with a shriek of laughter.

"I never should've taught you to do that," she said, and they were both laughing in earnest now. She grabbed a handful of leaves and threw them at him. He retaliated with one of his own, and before long they were acting like kids, totally ridiculous, pelting each other with leaves on the ground in the woods.

Hiccup tried to lean forward and launch an armful of leaves, but his metal leg skidded behind him and lost purchase, sending him falling over Astrid with a yelp.

"Ow." He was propped up by his elbows, hovering just above Astrid, and she couldn't help but be reminded of the last time he'd accidentally wound up in this position. It was better now, though, given that she could see the look on his face. It was a little more pained than she'd expected.

"Did you…fall wrong?" she asked, as he hoisted himself a little higher over her.

"Yeah, you could say that," he said, his face contorting in discomfort. "On an unrelated note, you ever think of mixing things up wardrobe-wise?"

"What?"

"Like, maybe…not wearing a skirt with huge metal spikes?"

"Oh no, I'm sorry!" Her eyes widened in realization, and she rolled out from underneath him. "I didn't even think about it."

"It's okay," he said weakly. "I guess that's pretty much what it's meant to do."

"Well, yeah, but not to you."

"No, eh? Do I get some kind of special treatment?" They were lying facing each other now.

"If that's what you want to call it," Astrid said, with a suggestive smile.

Hiccup raised his eyebrows. "Really."

"Yep," Astrid said, and in one fluid motion of her forearm she swept a pile of dry leaves over Hiccup's face.

He groaned in defeat from under the pile, and she took off running before he could get up, laughing gleefully.