Day 5: holding hands

You're a lady Ruffnut, you're supposed to carry on my seamstress business. Those should be the hands of a gentle crafter, not a crazed lunatic who flies around exploding stuff all day. You must clean them well and fix your nails. Heck, even Astrid knows how to uphold her appearance. The words echoed through Ruffnut's thoughts. Stupid mom, always giving her something to feel insecure about. She looked down at her hands as a scowl spread over her face, sure they weren't perfect and she could probably trim her nails a bit, but they told the stories of her adventures. She was pulled out of her thoughts when Barf nudged her shoulder as if asking what was wrong. Ruff ran a finger along the side of her dragon's face before bopping him on the nose to let him know she was okay. All the while Belch was trying to grab hold of one of her braids, which she had purposely been moving out of his reach. Looking over towards the forest she could see that Tuffnut was still up in a tree trying to find the terrible terror that had been following him all day and was most likely going to get stuck coming down. Sighing, Ruff signaled for the zippleback to go knock him out of the tree while she gathered up their discarded helmets and weapons.

Ruffnut had stayed pretty quiet the flight back to the village, only really talking when she had to remind Tuffnut to focus. After landing and feeding Barf and Belch, Ruffnut turned to leave only to stop when she heard her brother, "You know she didn't mean it, she's just stressed about low sales." Ruffnut looked back to see Tuffnut giving her a solemn look, something she very rarely saw. She knew he was right and honestly, she wasn't even mad at their mother anymore but the insecurities still lingered.

"Right well I'll see you later, I promised to hang out with Snotty for a little bit," Ruff said, walking out of the stables laughing to herself as she listened to her brother curse out his best friend for 'stealing her away from him!'

As Ruffnut walked through the village she couldn't stop thinking about what her mother said and soon found herself messing with her hands, trying to rub off any dirt and grime that she saw. With all the rubbing she had scratched herself a few times and her hands were pretty red and sore, but she had heard beauty is pain so she didn't care. "Hey Ruff," the blonde looked up to see her boyfriend sitting atop Hookfang, smiling down at her.

"Hello Hooky, it's good to see you," Ruffnut said scratching the monstrous nightmare's chin causing him to purr and lean into her touch. "Oh, you too Snothat," Ruffnut smirked at Snotlout knowing the nickname irritated him.

Hooping off his dragon, Snotlout pulled Ruffnut towards him and placed a small kiss on her lips. "You're a brat, You know that right?" Ruffnut just snorted in amusement before returning the kiss and dragging him off to the Great Hall. In all the teasing she had forgotten the state of her hands and only remembered when Snotlout stopped and ran his thumb across her knuckles. "What happened," Snotlout asked his eyes pooling with concern and anger. Ruffnut pulled her hand away kicking herself for letting him see her injuries. Of course that couldn't stop the flutter in her heart from knowing that he cared enough to fight anyone to keep her safe.

"Don't worry about it, I accidentally scratched myself while cleaning my hands," Ruffnut explained hoping he would accept her answer and drop the subject. She had no such luck as he questioned her on why she was cleaning her hands.

"All right, fine! My mom told me that she wasn't impressed and that I didn't look lady-like. I know I shouldn't care but you understand what it feels like to have your parent be disappointed in you." Snotlout stared at her for a moment, his expression not giving away how he was feeling, and then he took her hands in his and kissed them.

"Ruffnut, who cares what your hands look like, to me they are the most beautiful, calloused hands of an extremely skilled warrior," Snotlout said, intertwining their fingers together and bringing her hands back up to his lips one last time.