Chapter Text
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It was a quiet day at the forge, the few things that had needed to be taken care of done already. Hiccup was sitting at his desk in the back of the forge. He should probably have been preparing for the next dragon raid, or, if he had wanted any chance at not entirely humiliating himself during dragon training in a few months, work out and train. There probably were a lot of things he should have been doing right now rather than what he actually was going.
Usually, he would use a quiet day in the forge like this to think up some new contraption to capture or kill a dragon, or perfect one of his old ones. After all, he had to make up what he lacked in strength with creativity and witt. And then, one day, he would finally be able to kill a dragon and prove to his father, and the entire village, that he had what it takes to be a Viking. That he was worth being the heir of Berk and who knew, maybe even worth having a normal conversation with.
Today, however, his thoughts had been occupied by something completely different. More accurately, by someone completely different. Because as he had made his way to the forge in the early morning hours, he had been stopped in his tracks by the sight of none other than Astrid Hofferson.
It had been early, the sun barely rising, and he hadn't expected to see a lot of Vikings out of their beds yet. But there she had been: Leaving her house in her usual attire, her axe strapped to her back. But apparently she had been in a hurry to leave the house – probably to train – as her hair had still been half down, her fingers moving expertly through the strands as she was walking, creating the braid her hair was always styled in. Hiccup had felt himself blush, watching as the light of the sunrise had softly illuminated her face, with the fog of the night still visible behind her. It had almost felt unlawful to witness such a peaceful, almost vulnerable, version of Astrid. She was simply breathtaking.
That image hadn't left him all day, the way her un-braided hair had slightly flown in the wind, the sunset just to the right of her while the forest in the back was still consumed by fog and darkness. So, Hiccup figured, the best way to get the picture out of his head was to draw it. And that's what he'd been doing between the odd small task Gobber had asked him to do. He sat at his desk, notebook in front of him, and watched the charcoal on the page slowly starting to take shape of the image in his memory.
He paid less detail to the scenery, left the woods and village houses more as a vague concept, but solely focused on the girl this sketch revolved around. He made sure her features were accurate, paid close attention to her eyes, her posture, her fingers in her hair.
Gods, it was probably embarrassing how huge of a crush he had on a girl he'd hardly ever spoken to. They didn’t really interact all that much. There was no reason to. She was a warrior, training every day to be strong, to kill dragons and be respected by the whole village. Hiccup was – well, a hiccup. He was the screw-up little embarrassment of a chief’s son, could barely lift a sword. In a world where strength and dragon-killing meant everything, he was just a weak blacksmith apprentice. So no, there wasn’t any reason for Hiccup and Astrid to cross paths much. Still, he admired her from afar. Knowing, he would never be able to gain her attention or, gods forbid, her respect.
Lost in his thoughts and the drawing in front of him, he barely registered someone calling his name. Only as the someone stepped into the back room, calling his name again, did he snap out of his thoughts and looked up.
"Hiccup? Are you here?"
It was Astrid, of all people, taking a step into the room before stopping, her eyes finding him at his desk.
Astrid was here. Her hair now in a complete braid, axe in her hand instead of her back. She looked so much like the girl in his drawing, and yet nothing like her at all.
His drawing. Oh, gods, it was still open, right there, for her to see if she just looked over a bit.
"Astrid! Wow, you're here! Hi. Astrid, hey" he stuttered, as he stood up and very not subtly closed the book on his desk.
She narrowed her eyes at him, looking from his face to the hand covering the book.
"What are you working on?" She asked suspiciously, gesturing to the notebook. Hiccup chuckled nervously, once again feeling heat shooting into his cheeks.
"Oh! Uhm just something. For uhm." His left hand shot up to his neck, while his right gestured at the book. "Snoggletog! Yeah!" He explained, taking his left hand from his neck to gesture to nothing in particular in the air. "It's a surprise. For the village! Yeah, uhm. My dad and I are uh. Planning something, yeah."
He nervously smiled at Astrid, in the hopes she would be convinced of his lies. He might have a chance, seeing as he was always stumbling over his words in her presence anyway, so she should be used to it by now.
"Snoggletog isn't for several months."
Or not.
"Yeah well you know, you can never start planning early enough! Anyway, I suppose you're here for a reason?" He tried to change the subject.
For a few more seconds she looked at him, blue eyes narrowed.
Finally, she seemed to be content with his answer, or maybe she simply didn't care.
Hiccup let out a small sigh of relief. The thought crossing his mind that he would actually have to think of and talk to his father about some surprise for the village to Snoggletog. But that was a future problem.
"Gobber is busy. He said I can find you here." She lifted her axe a little. "I need it sharpened."
For a moment Hiccup wondered what Gobber could possibly be busy with on a slow day like this, but then decided he wouldn't pass on an opportunity to spend even a little bit of time with Astrid in the same room.
He nodded and stepped towards her, holding out his hand to take the axe from her.
"I can absolutely do that for you!"
He led her out of the room, away from the sketch of herself, towards the main part of the forge. They didn’t chat, didn’t make eye contact. Hiccup simply sharpened her axe, all too aware of the blue eyes following his every move, as if she was worried he’d break her axe.
Yeah sure, as if he had the strength for that.
Sharpening an axe did not take long, and so a few minutes later, Astrid gave him a coin in exchange for her sharpened axe with a short “thanks.”
“Yeah, uhm, no problem. If you need anything else, you know where to find me.”
Astrid hummed in acknowledgement, turned around and walked towards the exit. As she was halfway through the door, she looked up from her axe and turned around again.
“This is good work” she simply commented and disappeared out the door, leaving behind a very stunned Hiccup. He stared at the door for a few more moments before he remembered that his lungs needed oxygen and that he should breathe.
Astrid Hofferson had told him that his work was good. Astrid Hofferson, who was very particular about where, how and by whom her weapons were handled.
Later that day, Hiccup finished the drawing and put it to the small, but growing, stack of sketches of the girl whose axe he sharpened today and who then complimented his work. The girl that barely ever noticed him, let alone talked to him outside of the forge. The girl he had an embarrassingly huge crush on and the girl that never ever could know of this crush, not to mention his drawings of her, if he wanted to remain alive.