I've enjoyed this sooo much. I can totally imagine Ruff being kinky, she is very forward even in canon and Eret may have bitten more than he can chew hahah. While I love Snotlout/Ruffnut as a (possible) couple, Eret and Ruff has a weird dynamic which is very fun to read and I really loved your interpretation. More please!

I'd like to echo Athenaeum in talking about the importance of /just/ the right combination of words. Some flow easily into memory ("To Strive, To Seek, To Find, but not to Yield"), some are so improbably strung together as to be memorable (e.g. "Nagging Nabobs of Negativity"), while others illuminate a scene in a way which would be diminished if written differently.
I use the word 'illuminate' deliberately, recalling the description of "shifting shadows, thrown by the long tongues of flame..." as Astrid walks into the clearing with the dragons, drawing in my imagination precisely what that might look like. That writing always stood out to me, as does "raucous jubilation," or even "ragged whisper." It simply works, but I'd wager that "simple" had nothing to do with it. A good part of my job involves finding those "right" words and I know just how long that can take.

I'd also like to thank you for giving a wonderful solution to the "need" of looking after SkullCrusher. Better than any I came up with after the movie.
Very nice story and fantastic how it fits within your larger universe.
Cheers, T.
-who has been on travel, as well as been away, far too long.

This is absolutely perfect.

The potency here is marvelous, excellently timed for the 'holiday' and in serious danger of making me break my 'reviews shorter than the submission' rule.

I think I've been inured to the possibility, let alone the likelihood, of a Ruffnut/Eret pairing from reading so many submissions where she's matched to Fishlegs. The second movie puts this idea forward more as comic relief than honest interest on her part, to my mind. That's why I had to palm my face extra hard for not considering such a pairing in the first place. I mean, she spends *so much* time fawning over him!

So once I got over the obvious, I could see the logic(!) of their marriage. I think it was my third time through I began to wonder which one of them would have proposed.

For such a short piece you have a good number of ready elements working very hard for you. The tattooing that compliments/distracts from his scar, the 'only Ruffnut would consider tattooing during lovemaking a sane choice' angle, Eret's realization that Hiccup had done some matchmaking of his own with him and Skullcrusher... while the whole work does not feel crowded there is still a lot in it.

I grinned madly at your callback to 'Dragon's gift'. I also felt that tiny sting of jealousy at the thought of being so closely connected to a dragon. Your wording brought McCaffrey's series to mind, as has happened before with your work. And the notion that their reptilian companions were connected to them while they were themselves... *connected*... gave me a slightly shivery feeling.

I will say you scored quite highly with this submission, but I will say you rang the bell with the two final words. Something about 'raucous jubilation' at exactly that moment spiked me right between the eyes. No two words, in my mind, could have capped this story better. Bravo.

Glad to see you back with us, good sir!