While this can be read on its own, I'd recommend checking out my multichap story "The long and winding road to love" before this, or at least the first 12 chapters. This is set after the events of chapter 12: A new normal, and just before chapter 13.

Super short recap incase you're going in blind: Hiccup and Astrid are in a (sort of) arranged marriage since the last month, and they just had their first kiss earlier today while training together in the forest. Astrid was adamantly against the marriage at first but has lately warmed up to him significantly, despite trying to still keep her distance due to her stubborn pride.

Hiccup was almost sure she would have noticed how red his face was throughout dinner this evening. She didn't bring it up though, and he was too much in his head to notice the same red tinge on her cheeks as well.

Since their wedding less than a month ago, they'd had dinner together each and every night at this table, but Hiccup didn't recall ever being this nervous, not even those first few days when he'd been tip-toeing around her potent wrath.

She was so nice to him these days, training with him, learning how to cook from him, talking to him whenever they had a spare moment. He'd never had a friend before, not really. Not like this.

He was pretty lucky alright, that his first real friend also happened to be the same girl he was in love with, and she also happened to be his wife, granting him an abundant amount of time with her each day.

Even though he had been nervous about the two of them re-joining dragon training from tomorrow, not knowing how he'd keep Toothless a secret from her and all, that was the last thing on his mind tonight.

Astrid had given him a real kiss hardly an hour or so ago, and he was pretty much still up in the clouds.

His skin tingled and he could hardly make eye contact with her without remembering that wonderful moment and getting all flustered again.

Granted, he had won her kiss in a bet about who could beat the other in a sparring contest, but, as he recalled, the terms had been something along the lines of the loser giving the winner a kiss.

If Astrid had been willing to kiss me after losing... would she have let me kiss her if she'd won?

Oh no. That was the wrong trail of thought and now his face was burning up again.

Luckily, his wife was currently getting ready for bed and couldn't witness the squirming she'd unwittingly bestowed upon him.

Later, they laid down to sleep together- on their own sides of the bed of course, even separated by that boundary that Astrid had impulsively drawn on their second night in charcoal.

Astrid had been acting normal all evening, from what he could tell. He wasn't sure what she was thinking and he didn't quite have the courage to ask.

Part of him had thought that maybe their relationship would be the slightest bit different now...

He hoped that she liked him too, at least in the smallest possible way. After all, a girl won't kiss a boy that she actively dislikes, right?

He almost wished for some advice from Tuffnut right now. He would even have settled for Fishlegs.

Anyways, now that she'd blown out the candle and it was dark, he was feeling a strange surge of bravery, knowing that his beet red face wouldn't be visible to her. That, and he could probably escape under the cover of darkness if it came down to it. His wife was scary sometimes. But most times, she was the epitome of loveliness in his eyes.

He knew he should quit while he's ahead and go to sleep, but his curiosity just wouldn't let it go. He wanted to know what she was thinking. If it had been the same for her.

"Astrid?"

"Mmm?" she replied, before moving her hand and searching for his under the covers, lacing her fingers with his upon finding it.

Hiccup was surprised, before realising that on most nights he says "Astrid?" in his shy tone, it's to ask to hold her hand before going to sleep.

He remembered that first night they'd held hands at his nervous request, and afterwards it had more or less become a habit.

Not that holding her hand in his would ever be unwelcome, but right now what he wanted the most was to talk to her.

"Y-Yeah this… is nice of course. But I wanted to tell you something."

She turned on her side to face him, still holding his hand. "Yes Hiccup?"

"I… I really liked it when you kissed me today."

Astrid nearly squeezed his hand off in surprise. "H-H-Hiccup! that's… I mean…"

He could hear the fluster in her voice. So it had affected her as well.

Silence fell between them for a minute.

"I'm… glad you liked it." She said quietly after composing herself. "But I'm not sure if I was any good at it… not that you would know, since it was the first one for us both…"

"That wasn't my first kiss though…"

"W-What?" Astrid replied nervously, feeling her heartbeat pick up.

"We did it at the ceremony, didn't we?"

"Oh- oh yeah- right." She quickly breathed a sigh of relief, feeling annoyed at herself for feeling that sudden burst of jealousy.

"Although that was a while ago, so you may have forgotten the details. But I wanted to know... which one did you like more?"

Astrid stammered, "W-Which one?"

Hiccup squeezed her hand. "That kiss at our wedding and the one from this evening- which one did you like more?"

He could hardly believe the words coming out of his own mouth, for usually he was very timid about anything related to romance.

Perhaps seeing her flustered was giving him newfound confidence, and still holding her hand gave a sense of closeness to her. He wanted to ask her- as his best friend- what she thought.

"You really want to know?" she mumbled, scarcely believing herself that she was about to heed his request.

"Yes", he said, and she could hear him smiling through the word.

"I liked the one from today a bit more… for a few reasons. Firstly… because we had some privacy. The ceremony was done with a hundred Vikings staring us down… but today, we were all alone in the forest. Just you and me."

Hiccup nodded gleefully. "And?"

"Secondly, it was because… it was an actual long kiss, not just a peck that I hardly felt under all that pressure."

"Mmm?"

Astrid sighed, more in embarrassment than anything. "And lastly… it was because I chose to do it… and no one asked me to… I mean, I wasn't forced at the ceremony or anything but we had to do it to get married and I didn't have a choice really…"

Hiccup replied with a wry grin. "So you didn't do it just cause of the bet?"

Astrid realised that she'd unknowingly admitted to something that was supposed to be a complete secret! "N-No!" she tried. "It was just because of that stupid bet!"

"I'm sure it was" Hiccup laughed, clearly enjoying himself now.

"I'm going to sleep!" she announced, releasing his hand and facing the other way.

Now he'll definitely think I'm mad and have to apologise.

"You know, if I didn't like you so much, I might even be offended to hear that my wife didn't want to kiss me." he said in a cheery tone.

"You like me?" she asked from the other side.

"Of course I do." Hiccup confirmed. "I believe I admitted to it quite a few nights ago, remember?"

She did remember, but still couldn't believe he was able to say it again so easily.

"I know… and I didn't say I didn't want to kiss you Hiccup…" she explained, turning back. "I only said that I did it because of the bet."

"But you also wanted to?" he asked.

Astrid hid her face under the covers. There was no way she could say this otherwise. "Maybe…"

Admitting this to Ruffnut earlier today had been hard enough, and now she had somehow managed to say it to the actual boy in question.

"But why?" Hiccup asked.

Hearing the slightest bit of confusion in his voice made her irrationally mad. Why did he doubt himself so much? Why did he think he wasn't worthy of another's affection? despite being the sweetest and kindest soul there was?

"It's… it's pretty obvious Hiccup… I mean, you can't blame a girl for wanting to kiss the most decent guy on Berk…"

"R-Really?" Hiccup asked.

Astrid nodded. And then to reassure him further, she scooted over to his side of the bed for a moment, long enough to press a gentle kiss to his cheek before she returned to her side.

"Yes Hiccup…. really."

"Thank you Astrid… that means a lot"

Astrid smiled, returning her hand to hold his. "Good night, Hiccup."

"Good night, Astrid" he said in reply, feeling much better now as they soon drifted off to sleep, husband and wife.

Hope you enjoyed this little scene that randomly popped into my head the other day, after re-reading my old fic.

Lot of time skips in the main story meant that imagination is needed to fill a lot of gaps, but I did want to put this to words, about my thoughts on how they'd be around each other that evening after their first kiss in chapter 12.

Hope you enjoyed and let me know if you liked this idea, if so then I might do more of these in the future.