SUMMARY: Hiccup and the gang discover Astrid and Tuffnut have grown close, and are surprised in many ways about it. They are also unsure what it means for their relationship with each other.
CHAPTER 3
Hiccup was the first to wake up in the crew. He stretched his arms, smacked his lips, and opened the doors of his bunk that was stationed at the west wing of the boardwalk from the clubhouse on Dragon's Edge.
The morning was bright and the forest of the island was vivid in color. Hiccup smiled at the warmth on his face. He sniffed in a hot breath of light, fragrant morning air.
"That's it! Take in that good prahna, baby!"
Hiccup spotted Ruffnut at his door, stretching her nostrils wide in a big sniff.
"Ruff?" Hiccup said. He didn't normally greet her before noon. He thought of something logical to say. "You're up really early. Is... everything okay?"
"It was easier to sleep alone." More specifically, Tuffnut hadn't been around to clip his toenails during the night in their room. "So what's the plan today?"
Hiccup made a thoughtful hum.
"I shouldn'tve asked." Hiccup chuckled a little with amusement, and Ruffnut had an itch to smile back at him.
"I was just going to say, nothing. Everyone is...free to do what they want."
Ruffnut veered. "Y'mean...emyou're/em giving us a vacation?"
"Yes, I am." Hiccup realized. "Actually, I guess everyday here from now on will be a vacation. Like you said, there's really nothing else to do now that everything's back to normal." Hiccup lamented. There were no known enemies to capture dragonkind, and they had solved a lot of mysteries about the creatures as a group on their countless expeditions.
Ruffnut's head trailed behind Hiccup as he strolled past her.
"It's strange, I always thought I'd look forward to peace like this. But...I feel like I wish there was something emmore/em we could do. There could be even more secrets out there just waiting for us to find out." Hiccup didn't expect Ruffnut to listen, bur it felt good to release his thoughts anyway.
"We can't know emeverything." /emRuffnut drawled.
Hiccup nodded swiftly. It was something Astrid would say, but Ruffnut made the notion so obvious that he had to accept it.
Ruffnut continued,em "/emI say we did a pretty stinking good job! And everyone is emsomehow/em still alive!"
"Did you want someone to die, Ruff?" Hiccup questioned with a wry eyebrow.
"It woulda made things more interesting."
Hiccup laughed again. Ruffnut joined I needed that/em, Hiccup thought. Where would his funny bone still be without the Twins? "How do you feel about it all?" Hiccup asked.
Ruffnut followed Hiccup across the boardwalk to meet with the rest of the crew and awake their dragons. "I dunno." Ruffnut thought her leader deserved a good answer. "Glad it's over."
"Yeah? Me too."
Ruffnut felt Hiccup's palm pat her shoulder. She eyeballed his hand when it remained there as they walked. Hiccup's chin looked proud and relaxed as it focused ahead. Ruffnut felt oddly appreciated by Hiccup. She asked, "are you okay?"
"Huh?" Hiccup looked genuinely surprised. "I... don't know what you mean."
"Hmm..." Ruffnut hummed. Her slender, teal eyes surveyed Hiccup to see if an alien had replaced him.
"Hiccup!" Snotlout shouted from the east boardwalk. He approached Ruffnut and Hiccup, who seperated to meet Snotlout.
"What's up?" Hiccup asked.
"I think you should see this. Especially you, Ruffnut."
"Okay, on a scale of one to eleven, how bad is it?" Ruffnut said.
"Ten point five."
Ruffnut winced.
Hiccup told Ruffnut, "c'mon!"
Snoutlout led Ruffnut and Hiccup behind a large shrub by a pile of burned embers and a litter of broken biscuits near the docks of Dragon's Edge.
"Look," Snoutlout smirked.
There, on the sand, Astrid was sleeping soundly on her hands with a content smile atop Tuffnut, who's arm draped lazily over her clothed body.
"For the love of Thor..." Hiccup stammered. emHow long have they been asleep?,/em he wondered. He trusted Astrid to stay awake for the entire shift. And why were they both smiling?
Tuffnut snored as a butterfly flapped onto his nose.
"Gah!" Ruffnut yelped.
What?!" Hiccup whispered.
Ruffnut groaned, "just pinched myself. Didn't work."
"The question is...who's gonna wake 'em up?" Snoutlout snickered evilly. He and Ruffnut and Hiccup lowered behind the shrub when Tuffnut sneezed and the butterfly twinkled away it's yellow wings into the sky.
Tuffnut's eyes opened to sailing white clouds in a blue sky. The black ocean had tinted turquoise. He felt a warm mass in the center of his chest and looked to see it was Astrid's cheek snuggling on his chest. Tuffnut 's pulse jolted to a mile-a-minute.
Astrid hummed incoherently and peacefully, and then her eyes blearily opened. She gasped in Tuffnut's face.
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