A/N: Yes, I'm still in the HTTYD hype. So I'll keep writing my fangirl feels or so help me god. This time I chose to write about Dean Deblois' canon Hiccup not liking the braids but keeping them because Astrid makes them. I though that was really sweet. So yeah. I tried to play with the idea a little. This takes place BEFORE HTTYD 2, and I also sort of hint at how some of the things we saw in the movie could've have happened. There's many other scenarios where I can see Hiccup being annoyed by the braid weaving, so who knows, if it keeps nagging me I might add one or two one-shots.

Disclaimer: I wish I owned HTTYD, unfortunately I don't.

Enjoy and review!

The Thing About The Braids

It was no secret that Astrid Hofferson, while being one of the toughest, roughest Vikings in Berk, she was also keen on certain feminine things. Things like braiding her hair and changing her clothes. And though she never cared much for appearance, as she got older, people would start noticing more and more how beautiful she was. But to Astrid, being the center of attention was nothing new.

"This is perfect," she thought to herself. "I don't even have to try."

So yes, it must be said that Astrid Hofferson was the proud kind. She did not boast, but she relished in her accomplishment and she expected this to be the norm. So you would imagine how frustrating it was when she got attention from everyone, except the person she wanted attention from.

As usual, she found him on the smith's shop with his nose stuck in a book, scribbling, and of course with his dragon making company. Astrid sighed and chuckled.

"Glad to see you haven't died."

He jumped in surprise. "Oh, hi Astrid." Then he left the book and went to tend the iron he was melting. "You'll never guess what I found out yesterday."

Amused, she sat on the stool next to his and inspected his notes. It was a whole new section about a dragon she had never seen before.

"You found a new dragon?" she asked with delight.

Hiccup nodded. "Uh-huh. And he almost bit my head off, if it hadn't been for Toothless! Right bud?"

Toothless made a face of annoyance. He disapproved of Hiccup always poking his head into trouble.

"Where did you find him?"

Hiccup grinned. "I actually made a map." Then he hurried to show her his field journal, which over the past couple years had become a mix between a sketchbook, a diary, a logbook, and now a map. He somehow managed to glue a whole map of Berk plus one meager page at the bottom right corner, where there was a rendition of a tiny island, onto his journal.

"New lands?" Astrid concluded impressed.

"Yeah! Toothless and I are planning on going there again tomorrow. You want to come?"

"So, you won't be competing again?"

"Dragon races can wait. There's a new dragon to study."

But Astrid didn't see it that way. Yes, it was true that dragon races were no fun for anyone when Hiccup competed. Mainly because the only one who ever stood a chance of beating him was herself, and when the "pride of Berk" won the chief would get a little more than annoying. And that was almost all the time. But Astrid wanted him around, nonetheless. She didn't want to say it, but she was jealous of all those undiscovered dragons.

"Always with your head on the clouds," she said, to which Hiccup smiled dorkily. "You go ahead, I'll make sure the title stays where it belongs. In the Hofferson house."

There was always a small part of her that hoped to find him sitting on the benches, but as he promised, Hiccup was nowhere to be found the day of the race. Nor after the race, when everybody headed over to the great hall for the feast. Or even after that, when the other trainers and her flew to rescue two baby Gronckles from a mean Monstrous Nightmare. To pass the time that afternoon, Astrid and Stormfly went to the cove to play and groom themselves.

After playing Stormfly's favorite game, "Duck the axe," Astrid noticed her hair was now too long to have it on a bare braid. It moved around a lot and whipped her face, and that made it harder to aim.

"What do you think girl? Does it look pretty?" Astrid asked, displaying the side braid she had came up with. Stormfly chirped and wiggled her spines in validation. Astrid smiled and peeked into the lake to see her reflection from different angles. "It looks kind of boring though. Oh, I know!"

She undid the braid and added a smaller one as decoration to reign in all those hairs that had grown far too long to call them bangs. Then she redid her invention and looked at herself again. "That's better. Look Stormfly! I have eyes again." She laughed.

When they returned to the village, she was hoping to see Hiccup there. But as it is customary of the younger Haddock, he had not arrived yet. In fact, Astrid was willing to bet that he wouldn't come back in one or two more days. So, when chief Stoick grumbled about his whereabouts, Astrid gracefully bought him some more time.

"He asked me to tell you he wouldn't be back probably until Thor's day," Astrid said to the chief. "He found another dragon in an archipelago nearby and he wants to make sure it's safe."

"You should've gone with him, lass," said Stoick. "That boy needs someone to pull him to the ground."

Astrid was glad summer was already shredding its last strengths, because despite the biting cold, she loved winter. It meant tasty beverages, greasier foods, new clothes, more interesting flights, but most of all, it meant Hiccup couldn't fly that far away.

With his absence, the long list of preparations for winter were a real blessing. Winning dragon races entertained her only so much, and while she shared Hiccup's knack for exploring to an extent, she was more aware of her responsibilities. Her mother tasked her with tanning their new hides and sewing their furs.

"I started tanning them yesterday," said Astrid's mother. "You just have to smoke them and start cutting them. You might as well start sewing yourself some new clothes with the ones we already got. You're taller now."

With the help of Stormfly, Astrid spent the day confectioning herself a winter skin and after a tiresome session of trial and error, she ended up with a result she was proud of.

"What do you think, Stormfly?"

The dragon chirped and nuzzled the girl. "Aw, thank you. Sorry for keeping you here all day. What do you say, you wanna go up for a flight?"

Stormfly purred in the light. "That's a girl."

There was always one upside to Hiccup's absence. Astrid could work on her own tricks with Stormfly. Hiccup always blabbered about this new turn or that new dive Toothless and him had accomplished, and while she was always happy to hear him, she liked to have him discover her own tricks by performing them. Today, they were practicing what she called "surfing," which consisted of riding Stormfly standing up. Hiccup wasn't able to do it because of Toothless' tail, but her and Stormfly had gotten it pinned down to a science. It was fun and risky, and there was a high probability of ending up with a scar. A perfect combination for Astrid.

When they got down from the clouds and stumbled across her friends, they looked at her as if she had been blasted by Thor.

"What?" she snapped.

"You... you look different," said Snotlout.

She grimaced. "So what?"

"You look pretty," said Fishlegs.

She smirked, pleased with herself. "Thank you, Fishlegs."

"Oh, by the way, Hiccup's here," he said.

That managed to dilute her frown into a smile. Without even saying goodbye, she fled to the shop, still able to hear Snotlout saying how Hiccup ought to be around the village more often or he'd steal Astrid. That made her laugh.

"Yeah, right," she thought.

Hiccup was scribbling. Again. Toothless was taking a nap by the burner. Poor dragon, he must be exhausted.

"Glad to see you're alive," she said.

Hiccup smirked without taking his eyes off the book. He must be drawing it, Astrid knows.

"'Afternoon, milady."

"So, does the new dragon have a name?"

"Yeah. Toothless and I called him Boulder Roller. Obviously Boulder Class."

"Hmm. Sounds great. Considering you made Toothless fall unconscious."

Hiccup laughed. "He'll be okay. Anything new in the village?"

"Eh, not much. I won the race again, but that's old news. We're starting winter preparations, too," She said, giggling, and taking her usual place on the stool. "Wow, that thing is massive."

Hiccup laughed. "Yeah. I'm almost done. Just the details on the wings and... there. That's it. You should've seen it from up close," he said, glancing at her through the corner of the eye. It took him a fraction of a second to look at her again. He sunk in his chair and blushed.

"What?"

"You-eh... Er... What did you- your hair's different. And your clothes," he finally concluded.

"Oh, yeah. The old ones were too small and my hair, well, it gets in the way of my axe throwing."

"Oh." Hiccup kept quiet and doodled on his notebook.

"So when's the next excursion?"

"Huh?"

"Didn't you find any new lands to explore?"

"Oh, that. Yes... No, um. I think it's getting too cold. Maybe it's better if I stay in for a couple days. Toothless needs to rest. When's the next race?"

Astrid smirked. "In two days."

Hiccup nodded, but grew quiet again after all that blabbering. He seemed pensive.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just... I can't believe I missed that."

"I just changed my clothes, Hiccup. It's not a big deal. It's for winter."

"I know but what if it had been something else?"

Astrid giggled and scooted closer to Hiccup in order to comb his hair. "There's nothing interesting that could happen in this old island. At least not when you're not around."

He glared at her. "No. What if you had, I don't know, broken a bone while racing? Or if Fishlegs won out of sheer luck? Or what if Stormfly, dunno, grew another pair of claws and no one knew why and I wasn't there to see it?"

"You just need to find a balance," she said.

Hiccup felt she was doing something to his hair, but he kept still. He liked how it felt.

"Take Stormfly and me for example. We love flying, too. But sometimes it's time for flying, and sometimes it's time for chores, or for racing... or for Hiccup." She placed a kiss on his cheek and then chuckled.

He glanced at her with unmistakable guilt, then hugged her. "I'm sorry."

She hugged him tightly. "I missed you."

He nodded and buried his nose onto her newly styled braid. Then, out of sheer coincidence, he glanced at his reflection on a piece of brass. "What?" He chuckled and pulled away in order to touch the tiny braid Astrid wove on his hair. "What is this?"

"It looks nice."

"It looks weird!"

"Well, I like it," she said shrugging. "Come on, let me braid another one."

"What?" He laughed. "No!"

But it was too late. The girl had him locked in her arms, tickling him, making him roar in laughter. "A-Astrid, no! Not fair, no tickling!"

Astrid laughed in delight, then squealed because the slender toothpick had managed to fight back. "Let me go, dragonhead!"

They stopped until Hiccup almost fell off his stool. "All right, all right. Truce. I give up."

She caught her breath and cocked her head to the side, squinting at him. "Is that...?" She brushed her fingers on his chin and caused for Hiccup to blush. "Stubble? You're growing a beard."

"No, I'm not," he said embarrassed. "I can't even grow a beard yet."

"Yes, you are! Aw, come on, let me look at it."

Hiccup pouted but he let Astrid see. "I just need a shave," he said stubbornly.

"Well, that's what you get for disappearing for days," she said laughing. Then she kissed him. "I'm just teasin'."

The day of the race Astrid woke up early to put on her paint and get a good breakfast. She was excited because she knew Hiccup would be there, otherwise why would have he asked about it? But as she headed to his house to look for him, she discovered he wasn't there. Nor in the shop, or the great hall.

The horn sounded. It was time to get to the start line. She did a quick once-over flight over the arena. Nope. Not a sign of him.

"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock, the third. When I get my hands on you, I swear, I'll-"

A dragon whooshed past her and then looped around to get to the start line."

"You'll do what, milady?"

Astrid smiled. There he was. Suit, paint, and all. "Is the Pride of Berk ready to win another race?"

Hiccup laughed. "Of course. Don't think I'll go easy on you."

She smirked with smugness and flicked the bangs off her face. "Well, I'm sorry to inform you I'm not giving my title up."

"Just like I thought."

"Racers at the ready!" Gobber shouted.

"Come on bud, we can do this."

"Go!"

Astrid couldn't wait for the opportunity to show off all her new tricks. They certainly prevented Hiccup and Toothless from catching a sheep or two. But it was her newest trick, the surfing, that she used to capture the black sheep, leaving Hiccup without speech and without title.

"Where'd you learn that?" he asked, awed. "That was really cool!"

She smirked again. "You're not the only one with tricks under the sleeve." She kissed him, winked, and went to greet her admirers.

Hiccup bit his lip and blushed, only interrupted by Toothless, who purred aiming to make fun of him, as if saying, "See what happens when you disappear?"

"Oh, shut it, you overgrown lizard."

Thanks for reading!