This story, and the other in this series, was inspired by the damned AI art spam that erupted last year, mainly on this site. If you don't know what I'm talking about, lucky you.
I also want to note that I have not watched a single episode of RttE or DRoB - I was too old for regular Saturday morning cartoons when they came out. I have watched some compilations on YouTube, just to get a sense of their tone but otherwise I have played a bit fast and loose with the setting.
"Oh, Hiccup, this is wonderful!" Astrid beamed at him. "Thank you!"
Hiccup scratched the back of his head in awkward embarrassment. "You- you're welcome," he stuttered, then stiffened as Astrid excitedly threw her arms around him, before relaxing and returning the embrace.
It was Astrid's birthday, and she was busy unwrapping the dragon rider's gifts to her. Tuffnut and Ruffnut had each gifted her one of a pair of new flying gloves, with the right glove coloured emerald green and the left glove coloured bright red. She had given the mismatched pair a querying look, to which Hiccup had just said: "Just accept them as they are, Astrid."
Snotlout had chipped in, saying: "Yep, if the colour matched, each glove would be the wrong size."
Fishlegs had chimed in also: "Or, you would've got two right gloves."
The twins had taken umbrage by that point, with Tufnutt complaining: "Hey! Do you realise how difficult it was for us to coordinate on the design of these gloves and what materials they were going to be made out of?"
"I think that's the point they're trying to make, dear brother," Ruffnut had murmured to him; Tuffnut had given it a good long think before remarking "Oh" and falling silent again.
Fishlegs had given Astrid a manual for the care and feeding of Deadly Nadders ("Based on my observations of wild ones!") and Snotlout had gifted her a weapons care kit - this had Hiccup panicking inside, especially with Astrid's overjoyed reaction to it and her compliments on how thoughtful it was. But it was too late; Hiccup had heard lots of dropped hints and pointed clues from his girlfriend over the last month, so he had decided to put two and two together and get to work. But damn, it had been nerve-wracking handing his gift to her last!
"What is it?" Tuffnut asked in a half-irritated tone as he picked up the object which Astrid so liked, turning it so it was sideways, then upside-down. "Oh - it's just a picture of you and Toothless," he remarked in a disappointed tone.
"What?" Snotlout gasped, jumping up and looking over Tuffnut's shoulder at the coloured and lacquered picture. "Babe, if you wanted a picture of a hunk, you could've just asked me!" he announced, curling his biceps as he did so.
"I believe I did get a picture of a hunk," Astrid murmured under her breath and Hiccup felt an enormous warm feeling blooming in his chest on hearing that. But then she stepped away and spoke louder to the whole group. "Hiccup got this for me because I asked for it!"
Silence descended like a blanket of snow as everyone stared at Astrid. Then Fishlegs raised a finger. "Buuuut…"
"But all your gifts this year are just fantastic!" Astrid butted in enthusiastically. "You've all got me everything I could've wanted. Thank you all!" She got looks of varying degrees of disbelief in return.
"Are we all going to get pictures of Hiccup to hang in our huts?" Ruffnut asked. This prompted Tuffnut to jump to his feet.
"I can see it now - every morning, we will have to have to proclaim the gloriousness of our dear leader!" he announced, before putting his right hand over his heart and bursting into a proud song in an unfamiliar language. "That sounds like Russian," Fishlegs muttered. "Does anyone else think so?" he asked the rest of the group, to which everyone shrugged in reply.
Hiccup cleared his throat, believing a distraction was required. "Ah - I believe there's cake at the clubhouse?" he announced. That prompted the rest of them to scramble off in that direction, leaving Hiccup and Astrid alone.
She frowned at their retreating backs. "They'd better leave some cake for us two," she growled.
"Relax, milady," Hiccup soothed, "there's a smaller cake I stashed in the back of the kitchen for the two of us." He turned to face her and took her hands in his, worry on his face. "Are- are you really happy with my gift?"
Astrid laughed lightly and gave Hiccup a beaming smile. "Of course, babe," she soothed him, then drew him into a hug. "It's exactly what I wanted from you." A delighted Hiccup returned the hug, before pulling back and risking a quick kiss on her lips.
"Thank you," he sighed in relief, and started to turn away before stopping. "I nearly forgot! Uhhhh…" he trailed off in nervousness.
"Yes, babe?" Astrid asked with patience.
Hiccup took a deep breath. "Um - do you mind - uhhh - doyoumindifIgotapictureofyou?" He asked with a rush. Astrid's first response was a puzzled "Huh?"
Hiccup began to panic. "I mean, if you don't mind, I - I - if you're too creeped out by it- mmmpfh!" His voice was muffled by Astrid's hand over her mouth.
"Of course you can have a picture of me, silly!" she answered and gave him another kiss on the mouth. Hiccup smiled goofily in return.
"Th- Thanks, milady," he said, before pointing towards the clubhouse. "We- ah, um- let's, uh-"
"Sure," Astrid answered sweetly, then indicated all the gifts strewn around her hut's main room. "Just let me tidy this all up and then I'll be following right behind."
"Do you need a hand?" Hiccup asked sincerely and Astrid's heart melted at how ready to help her boyfriend was.
"Thank you for asking, Hiccup, but I'll be alright." She made shooing motions to him. "Don't worry, I'll be there shortly."
"Whatever milady wishes," Hiccup said with a smile over his shoulder and then he left the hut, allowing Astrid to sigh with worry once she was alone. Hiccup was the artist of their group - how was she going to make a picture of herself for him?
A light breeze was all that was required to ruffle the surface of the water and Astrid sighed in frustration. She had been here for about a stund, she reckoned - and she had nothing to show for it except for an oval on the paper, with lots of smudge marks in the middle where she had tried to draw her features and then rubbed out the charcoal lines again. Hiccup had shown her the very basics of drawing a face a while ago - the eyes in the middle of the whole head and then the division lines for the nose and mouth - but she hadn't realised how tricky it was to draw in the details.
The surface of the small pond smoothed out enough that her reflection was undistorted and she leaned over the edge again, concentrating hard on memorising how her eyes and nose and mouth looked. Belatedly she realised that her scowl was distorting her whole face and she forced a smile, which then turned into a grimace as she attempted to hold that smile whilst figuring out how that made her face change. She moved closer to the water, focusing on the wrinkles she had just noticed at the corner of her eyes - there was a subtle shift of weight on her shoulder which she realised too late was her -
Her reflection shattered into ripples as the tip of her braid struck the water and she angrily pulled it out and flung it on to her back. This caused water drops to sprinkle over the paper and she gasped when she realised this and quickly stood up, yanking the paper away from the rocks she had rested it on. She held the paper open, watching the drops of water gradually make their way down the sheet, smearing the charcoal as they went. A small part of her mind thought that they looked like tears.
Astrid took a deep breath and pushed away any urge to cry - that was not her nature. She looked at the black-smudged paper and decided to cut her losses - If I continue, this will look like a Moorish version of me, she thought with wry humour. With a decisive huff of breath, she rolled up the sheet of paper and started trudging back to their lodges. Time to take a different tack, she thought; maybe by the time she got back to her hut, she would have thought of a different way to make this drawing of her that Hiccup wanted.
Unfortunately, her mood had soured further by the time the huts were visible. She had hardly any ideas about how to complete the picture; instead, her thoughts had mostly been about soothing her frustrations with a good axe-throwing session. But whilst she knew that would make her feel better, she also knew that it wouldn't make any progress towards finishing the picture that Hiccup wanted.
"Hiccup's the creative one," she muttered as she walked, not really seeing where she was going. "All I'm good at is fighting and destroying things."
"That's not true," a voice said off to her side and Astrid gave a startled yelp as she jumped back into a defensive pose. This prompted Ruffnut to also back away as she raised her hands in a unthreatening gesture. After a moment, Astrid relaxed again. "Sorry, Ruff," she apologised, then made a noise of disgust as she realised that she had crumpled the paper in her hand.
"All good, Astrid," Ruffnut replied and then threw an arm around the other girl's shoulders. "Anyways, I thought that only Hiccup spouted all that self-defeatist nonsense; if you're saying it too, you've been spending too long with him and he's rubbing off on you."
Astrid gave an amused snort and a lopsided smile as she rolled her eyes at the other girl. Oh, Ruffnut, if only you knew!
Ruffnut smiled back at Astrid. "Attagirl," she said and then shook Astrid's shoulders a bit. "Now, what's got you grumbling in your greaves?"
Astrid didn't answer straight away, instead biting her lip as she thought about how best to answer Ruffnut's question. She and Hiccup had not yet let anyone else know that they were together; they were still so new to it, still exploring the various facets of it and they didn't want any outside intrusions just yet. But given how closely the six of them worked and lived, it was only a matter of time before the secret came out - but she still didn't want anyone to know.
The problem was, Ruffnut might be crazy, but she was still smart and she was still the person that Astrid had confided in the most up to now. And she had zeroed in on the piece of paper that Astrid was still gripping tightly in her right hand.
"Ast, does this have something to do with it?" Ruffnut asked, gently touching the paper. That made Astrid look at it for a few good moments before deciding to hand it over to the other girl. Ruffnut uncrumpled it and gave it a long hard look, flipping it on its side a couple of times.
"To be fair, this looks like one of Hiccup's drawings at the very beginning," she said after a few moments, before looking over the top of it at Astrid. "Are you trying to draw someone?"
There was a pregnant pause before Astrid nodded and pointed at herself. Ruffnut narrowed her eyes at the other girl in confusion.
"But if I wanted a picture of anyone, I'd just go to Hiccup - Oh!" she exclaimed. "This is a picture of you, for Hiccup!" Astrid nodded again silently, a resigned expression growing on her face. "Just like you asked for a picture of him! This is…interesting," Ruffnut continued, drawing out the last word. "You two have been close friends forever, but this is more than -"
She cut herself off with a gasp and whirled to face and point at Astrid. "You two are together, right? Like, boyfriend and girlfriend?" Astrid put her forehead in her hand before nodding in confirmation.
"YESSS! That's awesome!" Ruffnut crowed, before grabbing Astrid and giving her a hug and a kiss. "You have no idea how happy this makes me!"
Astrid blinked and shook her head at Ruffnut's proclamation. "You - you're happy for me? For us?" she asked.
"Well, that too," Ruffnut equivocated, "I mean, it's been obvious to everyone how long the two of you have been dancing around each other, waiting for the other person to throw up a big green flag, but I mean that you, dearie," she continued with a finger tapped into Astrid's breastbone, "have won me a lot of moolah." She turned towards the hut she shared with her brother and dragged Astrid with her. "HEY BROTHER! Guess what, I win!" Ruffnut cried.
"Won what?" Came the indignant shout from Tuffnut's room as the two girls entered the common area of the hut. "I don't remember you beating me in anything!"
"I beat you in lots of things, but this is about a recent wager we had," Ruffnut called back with a smirk. Astrid disengaged herself from Ruffnut and stepped towards the walls of the room, seriously doubting her sanity in getting the twins involved in her relationship issues.
"What wager?" Came the call back. "I haven't bet on anything since - wait -" There was a thump and a crash, and then Tuffnut's head popped out of the door to his room. "Are you talking about the one over Hiccup and Astrid?"
Ruffnut gave Tuffnut an evil smile and a nod, pointing towards a cringing Astrid as she did so.
"Oh, that one!" Tuffnut crowed, and his head disappeared for a moment before all of him flew out the door. "Cool! So what did I win?"
Ruffnut facepalmed, whilst Astrid's forehead dropped into her hand again. "You didn't win anything, I won, doofus!" Ruffnut announced.
"No you didn't!" Tuffnut shot back, striding over and jabbing his sister in the chest.
"Yes I did! I bet that Hiccup and Astrid would be a couple before the end of next winter!" Ruffnut retorted, smacking her brother's hand away. "And I have it on good authority -" the other hand waved in the general direction of Astrid, who was trying to ignore the argument "- that the two of them are in looooove," she crooned with clasped hands. Both palms now covered Astrid's face, and she shook her head in resignation.
"Well, good for them," Tuffnut remarked offhandedly. "But that was my wager," he barked at his sister.
Ruffnut gasped. "It sooo wasn't!" she shrieked.
"It so was," Tuffnut confidently answered. "We need an independent witness - Chicken! Where's Chicken?"
"Arrgh! This was the stupidest idea ever," Astrid yelled, and then stomped over to the closest door, but she was intercepted by Ruffnut before she got there.
"Hey, Astrid, sorry about that," Ruffnut consoled as she guided Astrid to turn around. "We tend to get carried away in the heat of the moment but we'll revisit that later." The last few words were said with a dark look in Tuffnut's direction. "For the moment, I'm here to help."
"We're here to help," Tuffnut interjected and Astrid scowled. "No, seriously - you want to know how boys work, and I'll let you in on the low-down of everything," he said.
"Astrid doesn't need that - at least, I don't think you need that?" Ruffnut queried and Astrid's cheeks coloured before she shook her head.
"Oh," Tuffnut remarked, sounding disappointed. "So, what do you need help with?"
"Remember that picture that Hiccup gave to Astrid at her birthday?" Ruffnut prompted.
"Oh! The picture of our Dear Leader that we'll all be getting?" Tuffnut replied, before once again standing straight with his right hand over his heart and bursting into the same foreign song he'd sung at Astrid's birthday. He only got out a few notes before he was cut off by his sister's hand over his mouth.
"We won't all be getting a picture of Hiccup," Ruffnut growled at her brother, who looked visibly disappointed once more. "That picture was a gift from Hiccup to Astrid - that you specifically asked for, I gather?" The last bit was directed at Astrid, who nodded despite the stony expression on her face. "And she wants to return the favour."
Tuffnut's face lit up at this, but whatever he wanted to say was at first muffled by Ruffnut's hand over his mouth. He wrenched it away with a gasp and then blurted out: "I can draw it for you!"
Astrid looked at him in disbelief. "You can draw?"
"Sure I can!" Tuffnut proclaimed and Ruffnut shrugged.
"Both of us can draw," she remarked. "I'll admit we're not on Hiccup's level, but neither of us are slouches at it."
"Whaddya mean, not on Hiccup's level!" Tuffnut retorted. "Who do you think contributes the most to the dragon cards Fishlegs puts together?"
"Hiccup?" Astrid answered; she knew that Hiccup put a lot of work into those cards.
"Well, he does the bulk of that work," Ruffnut answered, "but he isn't always available."
"Especially when he has Dear Leader duties to attend to," Tuffnut confirmed.
"So we step in," Ruffnut finished. Astrid looked from one twin to the other, attempting to discern how much of what they said was true and how much of it was hot air.
"We," Tuffnut began in a boastful tone, indicating him and his sister, "are experienced commission artists, well-versed at enhancing stories with vibrant artwork."
"Stories?" Astrid queried, still not sold. "All I want is a picture of my face."
"And your life story is written into your face, dear," Ruffnut smoothed. "Don't worry, we know how to bring artwork to life."
"It will be so vivid, Hiccup will think he's looking at the real you!" Tuffnut boasted. Ruffnut gave Astrid a look that indicated that was a claim too far, but then said: "We'll put our best efforts into it."
"'Best efforts'?" Tuffnut scoffed. "I'll have you know, we have secret techniques that not even Hiccup is aware of, that will capture your very essence and preserve it for posterity." Ruffnut sighed, then stepped over to Astrid and took the other girl's hands in her own.
"Listen," Ruffnut started in a sincere tone, "I'm not going to make the same claims that muttonhead is giving, but we're not bad and we'll give it a red hot go, okay? I mean, you can ask Fishlegs for confirmation before we begin." Astrid blinked; of course, she hadn't realised that she could get independent verification of their talent beforehand, if the twins had been contributing to the dragon cards.
Astrid thought over it for a moment more and then smiled at the other girl. "Okay."
Ruffnut grinned back at her. "Cool!" She replied and then pulled Astrid into a hug.
"Okay? So we're doing this then?" Tuffnut asked from the other side of the room, and Ruffnut let Astrid go and turned towards him. "Yes, brother dear, she agreed," she said.
"Uh-huh," Tuffnut said and then frowned. "Did we agree on a commission?"
"Commission?" Astrid echoed in surprise. "I have to pay for this?"
"Of course," Tuffnut replied in a no-nonsense tone. "Our time and effort is limited and -" He was cut off again by Ruffnut's hand hurriedly slapped against his mouth. "Astrid, for you, it'll be free," she said. Tuffnut's expression turned to one of indignation and he yanked his sister's hand away. "But -" he began to protest but was silenced again by a harder slap across his face. "We're not going to be making money off a poor woman's problems of the heart, okay?" Ruffnut growled at him and Tuffnut, holding his face in his hands, made a sound of resigned agreement. "Great!" chirped Ruffnut and she bounced over to Astrid. "Give us a couple of days to make preparations and then we'll call you for your sitting, okay?" she asked, and Astrid nodded. She still had her doubts, but she couldn't think of any other immediate options.
Astrid shifted her position ever so slightly in the chair; her butt had gone numb ages ago and this small motion did nothing to relieve it. She attempted a larger shift but Tuffnut once again glared over his easel at her. "Astrid - how many times do I have to tell you not to move?!"
Astrid glared back at him but settled back into her previous pose, legs crossed at the ankles, feet tucked under the chair, knees together and hands clasped and resting on top of her legs. The sun was shining nicely; it had started off pleasantly enough, but as the day continued, it had started to get uncomfortably warm.
As if Njord had heard her in that moment, a sudden cool breeze sprang up off the sea. The first whisper of it was an agonisingly brief tease, but then it began to blow stronger and more steadily. Soon it began to feel chilly as it blew against Astrid's sweaty skin and both Ruffnut and Tuffnut began to curse as the wind picked at the paper on their easels.
One particularly strong gust tipped over the cup that held Ruffnut's charcoal sticks and she scrambled to both pick all that up and stop the paper from blowing away. Finally straightening back up in her seat, she looked over at her brother who was picking up some of Ruffnut's drawing things that had rolled in his direction. "How about we take a break?" she asked.
"I agree," Tuffnut replied and the twins gathered their easels and paper and carted them back towards the clubhouse. Astrid took that as her cue to be able to stand and she did so, allowing herself a big stretch before she followed the twins.
Astrid ambled into the clubhouse to find the twins bickering about who owned what drawing tools. "Hey Ruff, Tuff, could I have a look at what you've done so far?" she called out to them.
The twins took a brief look at each other before Ruffnut shrugged and said "Sure", before picking up her paper and bringing it over to where Astrid was standing. Tuffnut gave his piece of paper a critical look before slowly shaking his head. "Let me work on it a bit more," he called out.
Astrid huffed and rolled her eyes. "Do I have to sit down again?" She was a woman of action; sitting still for a long time tested her patience to the limits.
"No, no," Tuffnut replied with a dismissive wave of his hand, "I have the key bits, I just need to work on some enhancements." Astrid shrugged before taking the paper that Ruffnut was proffering. In the gloom of the clubhouse, she could make out that it was a reasonable likeness of her…but some things in the drawing didn't make sense. "Let's go into the sun," Astrid remarked and walked outside, with Ruffnut following.
In the bright light, the drawing became clear. It was her face, but the expression on it…she struggled to place it. Happy, yes, but was there such a thing as too happy? Astrid suddenly remembered the pining and fawning expressions of other women who declared that they were head over heels in love, and realised that it was the same expression on this drawing of her. Was she like this every time she was around Hiccup?
Her eyes travelled next to the other details of the drawing - they weren't complete, but she could make out the intention. The drawing was from her shoulders up, but the shoulder on the right side of the drawing - her left shoulder, as she made the conversion in her head - was blocked by the roughed-out impression of her hands holding something. The odd curly shapes eluded her understanding until she turned the paper slightly and the image of a bunch of flowers held in her hands suddenly came together. She looked at the other shoulder next; whatever was on it did not look like the pauldron she normally wore - it looked too puffy. There was a curved line from the shoulder downwards that hinted at a scooped neckline, instead of the high-neck tops she normally wore.
"So, whaddya think?" Ruffnut asked over her left shoulder. Astrid could only respond with a sound of "Er…" initially; what should she say? It wasn't what she was expecting, but did Ruffnut have a better idea of what Hiccup wanted to see than Astrid herself did?
"That doesn't look like Astrid," a male voice suddenly interrupted and both girls looked to their right, where Hiccup was scrutinising the picture in Astrid's hands. Astrid yelped and hurriedly handed the picture back to Ruffnut. "Hi Hiccup!" she said, overly cheerful and Ruffnut echoed her.
"You're practicing your own drawing?" Hiccup directed at Ruffnut and she nodded. Hiccup echoed the nod as he stroked his chin, a slight smile on his face. "Do you mind if I give some advice?" He asked.
The two girls exchanged a look before Ruffnut nodded. "Sure," she replied, "I could always use some advice from the master."
Hiccup winced at the word 'master' but then ignored it. "So, technically, it looks a lot like Astrid. You've got the face and body proportions correct, but you've also got to keep in mind what type of drawing you're trying to make."
"What do you mean?" Ruffnut asked, confused.
"What I mean is - are you trying to make a true-to-life drawing of Astrid, or is this some sort of fantasy thing that she's asked you to draw?" Hiccup asked. "I don't think I've seen Astrid without armour or with a low-neck top unless it was a blót or similar," he remarked, indicating both with a hand. "And I think the only time I have seen Astrid with a bouquet of flowers is when Heather gave her one as thanks for borrowing her axe. And that's the oddest expression you've given her…I don't think I've ever seen Astrid with that expression on her face at all," he concluded with a frown.
Ruffnut looked at the drawing in her hands, then shared a look with Astrid, looked at the picture again and then both girls looked at Hiccup. "Errr…" Ruffnut said, but was cut off by a shout from inside the clubhouse - it was Snotlout yelling "Phwoar!". All three of them shared a puzzled look before they strode inside.
They found Tuffnut showing off his picture to Snotlout, who was very appreciative of it. "I love how you've drawn those tits!" he exclaimed and Tuffnut nodded, both of them with huge grins on their faces. "And that other view of her bending over…that's just awesome!" Snotlout then gave Tuffnut a nudge with his elbow. "Say, could you make her skirt a bit shorter, maybe?"
"Make my what a bit shorter?" Astrid snarled and the two of them yelped, the drawing quickly disappearing behind Tuffnut's back as blushes crept up both boys' cheeks. Something metallic tapped her left arm and she looked down to find a stony-faced Hiccup offering her a dagger, which she quickly accepted. She stalked over to a very frightened Tuffnut and waved the point of the dagger under his nose.
"Just what have you drawn?" she ground out. Tuffnut didn't answer at first, his eyes closely following where the dagger was going.
"Tuffnut," Hiccup sternly called out and the male Thorston's eyes snapped up to him, then refocused to the blonde doing the Valkyrie impression in front of him. "Answer my question!" Astrid demanded.
"I - I - Ah - I, er - heh - I, I was merely, ah, I wanted to draw something that, ah, that Hiccup would appreciate - yeah, appreciate as a man who appreciates women - yeah, something like that," Tuffnut stuttered out.
"Appreciate?!" Astrid all but yelled, the dagger coming back up and whilst Tuffnut was distracted, Hiccup reached around and plucked the paper out of the other boy's hands.
"Hey!" Tuffnut cried, but the dagger at his throat prevented him from moving very far. Snotlout also made an attempt for the drawing, but all Hiccup had to do was raise his right fist and the stocky boy aborted his move. Satisfied that no-one was going to interrupt, Hiccup took a good look at the paper and the drawings on it and gave a horrified grimace.
Astrid watched Hiccup's expression whilst maintaining the dagger at Tuffnut's throat. "How bad is it?" She asked him - she had a good idea already what it could be.
Hiccup gave her an unhappy look as he wordlessly handed the paper to Ruffnut. Her face fell as she looked at what was on it and she handed it without a word to Fishlegs, who had just walked in. The rotund boy made a confused sound as he took the paper and after quickly righting it, he screwed up his face as he took a look at the pictures.
"This is supposed to be Astrid," he said in a confused tone as he pointed at the paper. "But what on Midgard…"
Astrid had had enough and she strode over to Fishlegs, Hiccup deftly relieving her of the dagger as she did so. She snatched the piece of paper out of his hands and, after briefly sending a prayer to the Allfather for strength, cast her eyes on it.
It was two drawings of her, but they were not her at the same time. In one, her chest had been massively expanded and in the other, she had been put into a suggestively-bending-over pose. Not only that, but her clothes had been made shorter and tighter, with the neckline of the top in one drawing plunging almost down to her navel.
As her eyes flicked back and forth between the two drawings, her anger grew and pulsed until both drawings disappeared in a red haze. Screaming wordlessly, she launched herself at Tuffnut but couldn't reach him as someone grabbed her around the waist. She twisted her body, trying vainly to break free and reach her target but whoever had a hold of her was too strong. Eventually she stopped straining and as she caught her breath, she realised that the person who was holding on to her was Hiccup.
"Astrid," he murmured into her ear, "let me deal with this."
"Bloody rotten Thorston!" She growled. "Should never have trusted…gaaaah!" She twisted and pushed forward again but now somebody else was holding her shoulder - Ruffnut, she realised.
"Astrid," Hiccup asked again and she turned to look at him, realising after a moment that he was very serious about this. She paused for a moment longer, then finally stopped pushing forward and let herself be led out of the clubhouse by Ruffnut. As they rounded the outside of the clubhouse towards one of the staircases, they heard Hiccup's raised voice inside.
Neither girl said a word until they were outside Astrid's hut and Ruffnut stopped to look at her drawing. Astrid turned around once she realised Ruffnut had stopped, then made her way to look over the other girl's shoulder.
"It's actually pretty good, Ruff," Astrid said but Ruffnut only shrugged in response.
"But Hiccup was right - it doesn't look like you." She looked at it for a long moment, then sighed and wordlessly offered it to Astrid. Astrid looked at the offered drawing for another long moment.
"Please don't take this the wrong way, Ruffnut," Astrid began, "but do you want to keep it for practice? I'll even be happy to sit for you again if you want."
Ruffnut turned the picture around again so that she could look at it, then a smile slowly crept up her lips. "You know what? I think I will, Astrid. Thank you," and with that, she reached out and pulled Astrid into a hug.
Astrid squeezed the other girl before letting go. "Thank you for having a go anyways," she told Ruffnut.
"Thanks for letting me have a go, Astrid," Ruffnut replied. "You know? You're a really sweet person at heart; don't let anyone convince you that all you are is angry," she continued, then clapped Astrid on the upper arm before heading back to her hut. Astrid waited outside a moment longer, savouring the afternoon breeze, before heading into her own hut.
A little while later, there was a knock at the main door to her hut. "Astrid? It's Hiccup here," she heard the call.
Astrid lingered a moment longer, where she had been sitting on her bed, looking at the picture Hiccup had given her, before standing up and making her way to the door of her hut. She found Hiccup leaning against the outer wall of her hut, a slight smile on his face.
"Hey," he said to her. "Hey," she replied, one hand holding the other elbow, not looking at him.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, smile fading away. She shrugged. "Just…" She sighed. "You know."
Hiccup made a small sound of agreement, then pushed himself upright and indicated his hut with a hand. "Can I show you something?" He asked. Astrid smiled and nodded, then turned to walk beside Hiccup as they made their way to his hut.
Inside, Hiccup went straight to his desk. "I've been working on something and I want to know your thoughts," he said.
"Okay," Astrid remarked. "Is it another invention?"
"Nope," Hiccup replied, sorting through a pile of paper until he found what he wanted, then pulled the sheet out and laid it on the drawing table. "Have a look," he said, stepping back.
Astrid stepped closer to examine the drawing on the paper, then gasped as she realised what it was: Stormfly, diving towards the viewer head-on, with her on her dragon's back - but she was unfinished, with the face and the upper-right side of her body left blank.
"It's fantastic, Hiccup," she said. "But where's my right arm?"
"That's what I wanted to ask you about - that and the face too," Hiccup explained, then pulled out another sheet of paper and unfolded it. On the left side were studies of her face with various expressions: happy, elated, shouting a war cry and others. On the right side was her right arm in several poses: holding on to Stormfly's reins, swinging her axe.
"When I asked you if I could get a drawing of you, this is what I meant," Hiccup explained. "I know I'm the best artist, so I might as well draw what I want to look at. But I wanted to know if you were OK with me having a picture of you framed and mounted, in my hut."
"But you have heaps of drawings of me!" Astrid exclaimed. "I've seen your sketchbooks."
"I know, but those are just sketches," Hiccup explained. "Quick studies. This," he indicated the main drawing, "this is something that I want to be happy to display."
Astrid put a hand to her chest, speechless with emotion. She never realised that all those drawings of her, and the other dragon riders, were just practice - and if he wanted to display his artwork, he wanted it to be spot-on.
"That said, I'm touched by your efforts to get a drawing of yourself done so that you could give it to me," Hiccup continued with a look at Astrid. "I might even see Ruffnut after this and get that drawing off of her."
Astrid remained silent, still overwhelmed with emotion, until she couldn't take it any more and flung her arms around her boyfriend. Hiccup hugged her back before kissing her gently.
"Hiccup, you're wonderful," Astrid murmured to him before kissing him again.
"I could say exactly the same thing about you, Astrid," Hiccup replied, his forehead pressed to hers. Then he kissed her again before pulling back.
"Now - please choose how you want your face and arm," he said, indicating the study sheet. Astrid looked over all of them carefully before gently reaching out and touching the arm swinging her axe, and the elated expression.
Hiccup chuckled. "If you couldn't make a choice, I would've gone for those by default." He pulled up a chair for himself and then got another chair for Astrid. "Would you mind modelling for me please? I can almost draw you in my sleep but I can do better if I've got you to study in front of me."
"I'd be delighted to, Hiccup," Astrid answered with a smile, then sat down and made herself comfortable as Hiccup sharpened one of his charcoal pieces in preparation for drawing.
Spot the aviation joke I threw in at the beginning!
Edit: satire is dead, look at the reviews to see why.