A/N: I am unsure about uploading further slash to this account. There doesn't seem to be all that many slash fans in this fandom - fair enough, some fandoms don't lend themselves particularly well to that, and HTTYD seems to be one of them. I'd wager more than half the comments I've gotten on my slash stories thus far have the commenter explicitly mentioning they're not a slash fan. However, I'm writing more slash now, and if I don't upload it here I won't be uploading very often. So, does anyone out there like to read this stuff? And more specifically, if I were to write a second part to this particular story, would that interest anyone?

Five times Astrid kissed Ruffnut, and one time Ruffnut kissed her.

When they are six, Ruffnut tells Astrid that Tuffnut had heard from some of the older boys that babies came from two people kissing.

"Don't be stupid, that's not how it works," Astrid says.

"How do you know?" Ruffnut counters.

"People kiss a lot! That doesn't make them have babies."

"It might. People who kiss have babies too. I've seen it."

"You're wrong," Astrid insists.

"Am not," Ruffnut says, crossing her arms.

"Are so. Watch." Astrid leans forward and kisses her. When they separate, both girls look at each other for a few seconds, then look down at Ruffnut's belly.

"See!" Astrid cries triumphantly. "You're not going to have baby!"

"That's because you have to be a boy, dummy," Ruffnut says, sticking out her tongue.

"I can do anything a boy can do," Astrid says confidently. "Boys are stupid anyway."

Ruffnut laughs. "Yeah, who needs stupid boys!" Astrid nods and smiles.

When they are twelve, Ruffnut has already kissed more boys than Astrid thinks she ever will. She likes talking about it, both the kissing and boys in general, and returns to the subject often.

"I'm just saying, I have to be like the best kisser ever by now," Ruffnut tells her.

"You're just arrogant," Astrid says, the annoyance in her voice genuine. She's used to Ruff's boasts about anything and everything, but unlike her friend she doesn't like talking about this stuff.

Ruffnut shrugs, unaffected. "There's gotta be a reason the boys come find me."

Some of the cruder girls their age like to talk about the reasons the boys come find Ruff, but Astrid hasn't heard any of that since she busted one girl's lips last week, so she doesn't bring it up. "I bet you're not all that great."

"Jealous much?" Ruffnut asks, and sticks out her tongue. Her tone is purely friendly though, and Astrid doesn't take it to heart. Ruffnut laughs and says, "Seriously, I probably am pretty awesome."

Partly to shut her up, and partly out of curiosity, Astrid leans forward and kisses her. A few seconds later she pulls away, and almost laughs at the look on Ruff's face. "That wasn't good at all. You didn't even do anything."

Ruffnut flushes and makes a face. "You surprised me," she says, but she also scoots just slightly away from Astrid, and Astrid doesn't try it again.

When they are fourteen, Astrid spends the night at Ruffnut's house, and in the middle of the night is awoken by her bladder. She slips carefully out of the bed to avoid waking Ruff, creeps just as carefully across the floor to avoid kicking Tuff, and makes her way outside.

When she comes back she finds herself too rested to fall back asleep, but still much too far from dawn to do anything, so she lies in bed and stares at the ceiling. At some point she realizes she has shifted, and is now staring at Ruff, who is much too deeply asleep to notice Astrid's subtle movements. Astrid takes the opportunity to shift closer and experimentally poke her friend in the cheek. Ruffnut doesn't stir. Bolder now, and trying to bite back a grin, Astrid pokes her cheek again, then moves to tap her nose. After a few taps Ruff suddenly snorts, loudly. Astrid jumps, then giggles when she sees that Ruffnut is as deeply asleep as ever. Tuffnut makes a soft, drowsy noise, and Astrid decides she really should keep quiet.

A few minutes later though, she's still staring at Ruff. She feels almost as if she is remembering something she isn't quite sure she really wants to remember. Slowly, gently, she moves forward and brushes her lips across Ruffnut's.

Ruffnut does not stir. Disappointed for reasons she doesn't understand, Astrid rolls over and eventually falls into a restless sleep.

When they are sixteen, and Hiccup has not yet woken up after the battle with the Green Death, Astrid corners Ruffnut near a barn. No one is around.

"I kissed Hiccup," she tells her.

"Really?" Ruffnut asks, a gleam in her eyes. "And how was that?"

Astrid shrugs. "I don't know. I mean, it was only on the cheek."

"Oh." Ruffnut looks disappointed. "That hardly even counts."

"I know," Astrid says.

"Well, big hero or no, I still think you could do better," Ruffnut says, and her voice is joking.

Astrid doesn't respond to the joke. "Do you?" she asks, and when Ruff merely looks at her in confusion, Astrid closes the distance between them and kisses her friend, a proper kiss this time, the best she knows how to give. And for the first time, Ruffnut's lips move beneath her own, and Astrid feels as though a forge has been lit inside of her, melting and forming her into a new shape. Kissing Hiccup, she knows, could never feel like this. Then the kiss is over, and Ruffnut steps back. Steps away. She won't look at Astrid.

Astrid is right about kissing Hiccup, but she tries anyway.

When Astrid is nineteen, the last night she will be so, her friends take her out to get her drunk. It would have made more sense to do it the next day, but there's a fishing trip leaving in the morning, and Snotlout and Tuffnut and Fishlegs will all be leaving with it. They celebrate the night before instead, and if they don't succeed in getting Astrid as drunk as they would have liked, everyone has fun trying.

At the end of the night it is Ruffnut who walks Astrid home, since Astrid has no one else to do it anymore. Ruffnut is excited, and probably more drunk than Astrid, and spends most of the time rambling almost incoherently about how exciting it is, about how they're not children anymore, and somehow Astrid leaving her teenage years behind symbolizes that. Astrid doesn't speak. She certainly doesn't feel like an adult, although she knows she has technically been one for a while now. She still feels too young, too unfinished, as though something that developed in everyone else normally stalled in her before it had reached its destination.

Ruffnut almost walks right past Astrid's door, but she stops when Astrid stops, looking only mildly confused. The moonlight is gleaming off her white-gold hair, her eyes are half-lidded and happy, and she is much too drunk to resist. And because Astrid is drunk too and decides on her birthday she can be selfish sometimes, she pulls Ruffnut to her and takes the kiss she knows Ruffnut doesn't want to give. This time she does not hold back. She has learned at lot in three years, and she uses her knowledge to its utmost, teasing Ruff with her lips and teeth and tongue until the other girl is making small noises that Astrid doesn't want to interpret. She feels that same burn that she felt years ago, that she now knows she had always felt, and pulls back. Ruffnut seems to be stuck in the midst of mead fueled confusion. Astrid is partly there herself. She hopes she is not too drunk to forget this in the morning; hopes Ruffnut isn't either, despite the reaction she knows she should expect.

It will be some time before Ruffnut can work through the haze in her mind to propel her feet forward again, and Astrid doesn't wait for her. She slips inside the house and gently closes the door.

On the first morning Astrid is twenty, she is hungover and in a less than pleasant mood. She does not want to answer the hammering on the door, but whoever it is has been ignoring her hoarse threats, so she drags herself reluctantly through the foyer, trying to decide which of those threats she feels like enacting.

Ruffnut is on the other side of the door. When she sees Astrid she throws her arms around her neck, presses their bodies together, and kisses her.

Astrid, who has a pounding headache and sour breath, does not know what to make of this. Then Ruffnut pulls back just enough to whisper one phrase against Astrid's lips - "I'm sorry" - and suddenly something Astrid only half knew was ajar falls perfectly into place. Suddenly she is kissing Ruffnut. Suddenly her fingers are entangled in Ruff's hair, and Ruff's hands are around her waist, and Astrid no longer feels unfinished. If she was burning before, she is aflame now.

"Oh gods," she moans, and because she can't help it, "You are so slow!"

"Shut up," Ruffnut growls, then laughs, and Astrid laughs too. Then her face becomes almost somber, and she says again, "I'm sorry."

Astrid smiles, because it doesn't matter anymore, and strokes Ruff's face until she's smiling too.

"Kiss me," Astrid whispers, and Ruffnut does.