Here's chapter 29! In which Astrid and Hiccup are being sappy idiots as usual and just have a generally good time! Enjoy :D
Chapter 29 - The Mainland (Part II)
The question hung in the air between them, the breeze carrying it away. Finally, its meaning truly registered to Astrid, and she thought her heart might jump out of her ribs from excitement. She broke out into a wide grin and just nodded, squeezing his hands back now.
"Yes," she said, and felt no longer silly. "Oh my god, yes, let's do that right now immediately! I mean, we basically live together anyways, right?"
Hiccup chuckled and mused, "I guess now it makes sense why Fishlegs's been making me look at so many throws and pillowcases online recently, come to think of it. Unless he's really into embroidery now. I guess that was him trying to tell me in his very Fishlegs way to think about that, just in a very roundabout, nonsensical way. He's always like, 'Oh, do you think Astrid would like this?' and then I go, 'Yeah, maybe, why don't you ask her?' and then he'll be like, 'Just wanted to get your opinion on it'. Well, I'll let him know. I'm actually surprised Snotlout hasn't said anything yet, but he's got other stuff to worry about."
He was rambling again, he knew it, and was reassured by the weight of her hands in his as she squeezed his hand again.
"That," Astrid said as she grinned at him brightly, "Is the best idea you've ever had. I love it."
They just sat there for a while, unabashedly getting lost in each other's eyes, and in these moments nobody in the world existed but them. Eventually, they decided to finish their food and head down towards the coast for a stroll and to get the ice cream.
There was a kind of giddiness between them, as they strolled down to the ice cream shop, hand in hand, their arms swinging between them, with Hiccup making jokes out of anything and everything. It was getting easier, he found, being here. The discomfort of being off of Berk had been slowly subsiding and, in its absence, he'd found an almost freeing indifference. He was enjoying seeing another place, but for the first time in his life, life on Berk seemed to ground him. For the first time as far as he could remember, he was actually looking forward to going home. As he looked at Astrid, it occurred to him that maybe it was her, his anchor, the person tying him to the island now in the best of ways. She'd given him a newfound appreciation for the rough, steep cliffs and the storms and, if he was being honest, his own life. The way she treated his family and friends always brought a smile to his face. Maybe she was so precious about them because she herself had basically no family left. Hiccup looked at Astrid and the realisation hit him into the chest, gripping his heart and threatening to rip it out of his ribcage.
He had been just as lonely as him. Even though his loneliness had been somewhat self-imposed and had been a more emotional kind of loneliness, at the end of the day, it seemed to be all the same. His grip around her hand tightened and he ran his thumb across her skin. She looked up at him quizzically and he just smiled, pressing a kiss on her cheek wordlessly.
They got their ice cream after Astrid had been painstakingly trying to decide between pistachio and chocolate, and in the end - following Hiccup's suggestion - just gave up and got both. Hiccup got a scoop of strawberry for himself, paid, and together they made their way down to the beach, keeping an eye out for any hungry seagulls that might swoop down any second to steal their cones. Even with the ponytail, Astrid's hair kept blowing into her face, and he laughed at her when it got into the ice cream. As a response, she gently pushed his cone towards is face and got ice cream on his nose. They laughed at each other, trying to avoid the waves on the beach. She kissed the ice cream off him. Hiccup looked at her and thought if he dropped dead right now on this cold beach, he'd die a happy man.
They found a dry rock formation close to the water and decided to sit over there. The sun was shining brightly now, but still wasn't enough to truly warm up the air, especially with the almost-constant wind that was cooling down the temperatures significantly.
"Do you want to look for a new place or should we take one of our places?" Astrid asked, her legs dangling off the rock she was sitting on, eyes squinting as she held her face towards the sun.
Hiccup thought about her question for a moment. "Good question. I think it'd be nice for us to get a new place together. Both our places are kind of small.
"That's true. You've got a living room, though," Astrid pointed out. "Plus, your place allows pets. Mine doesn't technically."
"I'm sure there'll be other places that allow pets," Hiccup said, impressed by her nonchalance at the pet-rule-breaking-thing. "Why don't we have a look and if we haven't found anything in a couple months, we'll just take mine?"
Astrid nodded happily, taking the last few bites from her cone and then leaned back on her hands, sighing contentedly.
"This has been a great day so far."
Hiccup chuckled. "You can say that again. A ferry ride, amazing sex, good food and ice cream. What more could you want?"
Astrid's eyes glimmered mischievously. "More food and sex."
Hiccup laughed and got up to join her on her rock. "That's fair. Well, you're in luck, my love. We can definitely do both. We've definitely got enough time for round two when we get back and then to get ready for food this evening. I have to look up where I made the reservation for tonight, I keep forgetting."
"You know, it's really nice you planned all this," Astrid said. "Nobody's ever done that for me before, so thank you."
She thought back to her half-hearted attempts at dating before Hiccup. All the disappointing half-dates, the uninteresting, uninterested people she'd seen, half of whom weren't able to keep their hands to themselves which had resulted in more than one classic 'Kick to the balls and run'. And then, the way Hiccup had all but crashed into her life and had grabbed her attention with an almost magnetic force.
He was looking at her now, his expression a mix of sadness and pure affection. He gently put his hand on top of hers and scooted closer to her on the warm rock.
"Well, those people are absolute idiots then," he said quietly. "You deserve every bit of it and more. I know you don't like surprises, so I haven't really been doing as much of this kind of stuff as I'd like, to be honest."
Astrid met his gaze and, like time and time again before, found herself almost hypnotised by his earnest expression and the love for her that seemed to pour out of it anytime he looked at her like this. She smiled.
"I wouldn't mind more surprises like this," she said then, leaned her head against his shoulder and thought that if she were to drop dead on these rocks this minute, she'd die happy.
"God, you look stunning." His hands wrapped around her middle from behind, caressing her hips through the satin fabric of her dress. "That colour looks amazing on you. You should wear dark blue more often. Brings out your eyes," he murmured into her ear, brushing his lips along her ear, giving her gooseflesh.
"I'm curling my hair," she said unconvincingly, half-heartedly pushing him away to distract from her flushed cheeks. He grinned at her in the mirror and kissed her neck, resulting in more gooseflesh.
"Stop it," she giggled and put the curling iron down onto the counter. He continued kissing her neck, her collarbones, his hands still caressing her. "Don't we have a reservation at 7?" she asked, and Hiccup mumbled something into her skin, smiling as he planted one final kiss on her chest, then he straightened up and cleared his throat, his expression dramatically serious.
"Yes, we do, in fact. But you can't expect me to see you in that dress and then not want to take it off, that'd just unfair."
She knew she was flushing bright red, still, even one year in and she hoped he'd never stop making her giggle and blush like this. It would almost be embarrassing, if she wasn't with him. "After," she promised and pressed a quick kiss on his cheek. "For now, let's get ready."
Hiccup grumbled but grabbed his moisturiser off the counter. "Fine. Whatever you say, milady."
She snorted. "Milady?"
He shrugged, dotting the cream all over his face. "Why not? Just trying some stuff out, you know? Do you like it?"
"Perhaps," she said, trying and failing to hide her joy at the petname. "It's funny. Keep experimenting, I like it."
Hiccup broke out into a wide smile and abandoned his task at hand once again as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in.
"For you, my love, anything."
The small, dimly lit Italian restaurant they'd chosen was buzzing with conversation. The scrapes of cutlery against plates and the clinking of glasses were accompanied by the soft jazz playing in the background, mingling with the hum of conversation around them. They beamed at each other as they came up to the reception, hand in hand. The warm air in here was a welcome contrast to the breeze whistling outside, which, despite summer waiting around the corner, was still quite chilly.
"Hi," Hiccup greeted the hostess with a smile and took off his coat. "We've got a table booked for 7, for Haddock." She nodded and checked her list, then smiled and motioned for them to go ahead.
"If you'd follow me, you're just around the corner."
They followed her around a rattan division to a row of tables that was enclosed by some potted plants, settled against a brick wall with strung up fairy lights.
"Here you go," the hostess said and put some menus down on the table. "Enjoy."
They thanked her as they sat down, Astrid scooting into the cosy nook against the brick wall. "This is really nice!" she said excitedly as she looked around. "Good pick, baby. Really good pick. This is exactly what I meant."
"Thanks again for letting me surprise you. I know you're not the biggest fan."
"Well, what can I say, I like to humour you sometimes," she winked, sticking out her tongue at him. "No, really though, this was a good surprise. Thank you."
She leaned across the table for a quick peck and reached for a menu. "What are you feeling? I think I'm gonna go with some kind of a pasta dish. But then again." she not-so-subtly craned her neck to spy on their neighbours' pizzas, "the pizzas do look tempting."
"I'll do pizza, you do pasta and we split?" Hiccup suggested.
Astrid lowered her menu and sighed contentedly. "This is why I love you. Amongst other reasons, of course. What pizza were you thinking?"
They probably spent a good twenty minutes umming and aahing over exactly what variations of dough to get until they finally settled on a mushroom and olive pizza with a side of the house salad, and the homemade Bolognese with fresh tagliatelle. They ordered a bottle of wine to share, which Hiccup was more than happy to let Astrid take the lead on, and a big bottle of water.
Their food arrived, resulting in a little happy dance from Astrid and some loving glances thrown her way from Hiccup. He poured her a glass of wine, careful not to overfill his as he still preferred to drink only when he felt it was truly warranted by a nice occasion. Like this one, he thought as he looked at her, sparkling in the warm, glowing light in the restaurant, her earrings twinkling in the wine glass she'd raised. Something about the way she was looking at him made his heart skip a beat, as if he was seeing her for the first time. He took a few heartbeats to take the moment in and hoped she'd never stop looking at him like that.
"Happy anniversary, my love," Hiccup said softly as they clinked their glasses together. Astrid was grinning from ear to ear as she added, "To one of many. I love you."
They leaned towards each other across the table and his response was a barely audible whisper against her lips. As their lips met, Astrid mused how whenever he told her he loved her, it always sounded like a promise. His hand cupped her face. In the end, she knew, that no matter what, it would always be them.
I'd love to hear what you think of this one! I feel like this chapter had just the right amount of good ole fluff and cheesiness :D