Two weeks went by really fast, and everybody at Berk Gymnasium was already used to the fact that Hiccup and Astrid were engaged. Them kissing, holding hands and sending each other loving looks every other minute was now part of the everyday life at their school, and nobody paid much attention to them anymore.

Hiccup hadn't expected for it all to be this easy. In fact, he had thought that their prank would blow up in their faces because nobody would believe them. Like, who the fuck gets engaged out of nowhere, and to top it off, do it at the age of 18?

It didn't seem to have happened 'out of nowhere' for most people, was the thing. The first few days Hiccup and Astrid had people coming up to them and telling how they 'should've seen it coming' or 'knew there was something there'. At least Astrid seemed as surprised by the response as Hiccup was, so for these two weeks he had been thanking whatever almighty power was up there for not being plain obvious about his crush in front of her.

They didn't know how to end the prank.

True, they had agreed to doing it for only a couple of weeks, but since it was all going so smoothly and easily, neither of them even brought the subject up. Hell, if it was up for Hiccup to decide, their prank would still be ongoing when they were old enough to lose their teeth just by sneezing a tad bit too hard.

And it wasn't like they had agreed on a specific date, so why not enjoy the moment a week or two longer? How long even was 'a couple of weeks', exactly?

"You know, we should make a next move in this relationship," Astrid stated when they were at her place on a Wednesday evening after school.

They were laying on her bed, Hiccup reading a graphic novel and Astrid doing something on her phone. She was resting her head on Hiccup's back.

"And that is…?" Hiccup asked, looking at his friend over his shoulder, both expectantly and nervously; that look of excitement on Astrid's face could mean anything, and in this case 'anything' really did mean anything.

"We need to start doing things that couples do, outside of school," Astrid said and sat up to position herself next to Hiccup. She leant onto her elbows and shoved her phone in front of Hiccup's face. She put the screen so close to him that he became momentarily blind. "I looked it up and this site has some great stuff on it."

"I can't believe you looked it up," Hiccup said amusedly as he took the phone from Astrid's hand. He scanned through the webpage that had listed down seven things for couples to do. He read the headlines of the list, not bothering to read the detailed descriptions, and after that he looked back at Astrid who was intently staring at him. "So you think we should book a trip to Paris?"

"What? No, I meant the other ones."

Hiccup looked back at the screen and picked the next headline. "Romantic dinner at a restaurant?"

Astrid nodded.

His heart was trying to murder him, but he tried his best to act cool, so he faked his laugh as he spoke: "But we can't afford that."

Astrid thought about that before answering: "We can improvise and do it at home."

"But we can't cook, either."

"No, but where there's a will, there's a way," she said cheerfully, swinging her legs in the air.

Hiccup shook his head in amusement, this time not faking the laughter that erupted from him. "Alright, let's do it. Some weekend it is then, huh?"

Astrid's hummed in agreement and her mouth spread into the most adorable smile Hiccup had ever had the fortune to witness, and just seeing her face lit up like that was enough for him to feel butterflies in his stomach.

They went through the list and Astrid explained how important it is for them to have these couple-y moments on their spare time so that they could retell the experience to their friends and make their prank even more believable. Not that Hiccup disagreed or anything. These things were important.

Really important.

They hadn't really thought about how they should react to their parents figuring out that something was up. After all, Berk wasn't a large city so news travelled fast, so them finding out was bound to happen. That didn't mean they had prepared themselves for it.

The encounter was unexpected. Hiccup's parents were more often than not away due to the long working hours they did at their work, and whenever they were home, Hiccup was usually hanging out with Astrid.

So when the totally-not-engaged-for-real couple entered Hiccup's home that Friday, they were more than surprised to see Stoick in the hallway. He was getting ready to leave, but something about seeing his son and his best friend made him stop everything he was doing and fix his piercing eyes on them.

This had gone completely unnoticed by Hiccup, though, so when they walked past the large man with a bushy beard, he greeted him with a simple 'hi, Dad' and that would have been it had they had it Hiccup's way.

Stoick had other plans. "Hiccup. Astrid. We need to talk."

They both stopped dead in their tracks and glanced at each other before turning around to look at Hiccup's father. His eyes were narrowed and he was running his hand along his beard.

"What's up?" Hiccup asked innocently, though his mind was already telling him exactly what was going to be up. He gave a quick glance in Astrid's direction and saw her blinking her eyes like a confused doe. The frequency of it made it obvious she was faking it, though.

"What in the devil's name is going on? Everyone's talking about you."

"We…uhm–"

"Are you two engaged?" he wasted no time in getting to the point. He dropped his gaze on their hands which they both had hidden behind their backs.

Hiccup and Astrid looked at each other. What the fuck were they going to do? Was everyone really talking about them?

Astrid broke the eye contact and nodded at Stoick. Hiccup mimicked her as if to confirm it from his side, too.

"I didn't know you were even in a relationship," Hiccup's father said incredulously and seemed to think hard about something. "But maybe this was to be expected," he then said as if that was the conclusion for his thoughts.

"To be expected?" Hiccup repeated, his voice two octaves higher than usual out of mere surprise. Was his father about to tell them that he, too, had an inkling about their relationship before it even existed?

Well, it still didn't exist for real, but still. It existed more than it did a month ago at least.

"There's always been something strange about your friendship, so I suppose I should've seen something like this coming out of it. And Hiccup, let's be real here, if you were stupid enough to get engaged to someone at the age of 18, it would be Astrid."

Hiccup glared at his father and Astrid burst out laughing.

"Thanks for the support, Dad," Hiccup deadpanned, which made Astrid laugh even more. She patted him on his shoulder. "But you're not cross with us?"

Hearing that made Astrid serious again and she quit laughing. They both looked at Stoick intently and studied his face. A part of Hiccup wondered why it mattered so much to him whether or not his father was fine with it since nothing about this situation was real. But then, on the other hand, if his father approved of it, it would mean they could go on with it for a while longer.

"I don't think it's the right choice, but you're 18 and free to do whatever you please. If this makes you two happy then…just be safe and…yeah, you get the point," he mumbled uncomfortably, not knowing how to form his thoughts into words. He had never been good with sweet words and, honestly, Hiccup was so thankful for that right now.

"Thanks, Stoick," Astrid said and smiled. "We appreciate that."

They didn't notice they had moved their hands to the front so their rings were now perfectly displayed to Stoick. He saw them immediately and he took a good look at them before frowning and looking like something wasn't quite right there. His eyes were fixed especially on Hiccup's heart-shaped ring.

"You can take some money from my piggybank; those rings look ridiculous."

"What–"

"No!"

"We don't need–"

"We like these!" Astrid exclaimed.

"Yeah, they're unique! Just like us," Hiccup shouted as loudly.

Astrid looked at him with a 'did you really have to say that' face. Stoick raised his eyebrows, clearly confused by their reaction.

"Alright, alright, don't bite my head off, it was just a suggestion," Stoick said and waved his hand dismissively.

After a pressing silence where no one knew what to say, Stoick exited the house and slammed the front door shut with a loud bang. The two friends looked at each other and couldn't hold in the laughter.

"That was so awkward. I thought he was going to yell at us," she said in between the giggles.

"Tell me about it. I think I'm going to avoid talking to my dad for two months after this."

Next week's Sunday was they decided that they would end their prank the next day. Hiccup hated how agreeing on that made him feel. He had hoped for their fake engagement to go on for much longer. True, it had been ongoing for three weeks, which was more than enough for a prank, but the thing was that it didn't feel like one. And that had made Hiccup think.

Was it normal to be suddenly so close to one another all the time? It was like the toy rings were magnetic and they were pulling them closer and closer andr they were being oblivious to it. Or they were acting to be so.

What if…just what if…?

Perhaps it was just his wishful thinking.

Anyway, before they would end it all tomorrow, they still had that romantic dinner to get to. It wasn't exactly necessary anymore since the truth would be out within 24 hours and nobody would be asking what they did during the weekend, but they had agreed to do it and neither of them was against the idea.

The planning of the dinner had led them to the real question. How god damn many ingredients could a simple spaghetti bolognese have?

They had looked up a recipe online and then gone through the cupboards to see what they needed to buy from the market. It had turned out that Hiccup's parents didn't have ground meat or spaghetti in the house, and there were zero candles laying around. They were also extremely short on spices, so they needed to add them to the list as well.

Their visit to the local market had an uncomfortable ending as the cashier that had sold them the Kinder eggs was at the counter, and from the looks of it, it was plain clear that she had heard about their engagement, too. She stared at them, or more like their hands, for a long time without saying anything as she scanned the products (yes, they did have candles in stock) and placed them on the other side of the counter.

Just how long would it take until the news about the engagement not being real would spread all over the city? Would they still receive these questioning looks that seemed almost…judging?

When they were back at Hiccup's place, they instantly began with the preparations. Neither of them had much experience when it came to cooking, so they were both anticipating and dreading the result.

"Did you already put the spices on the meat?" Hiccup asked as he glanced at the frying pan on which the ground meat was being prepared.

"Uh…I did put something in it. Taste it," Astrid said absent-mindedly as she was setting the candles on the table and lighting them up.

"No, you do it," Hiccup said, stepping away from the frying pan. "I don't trust that 'something' you put in it."

"I'm setting up the atmosphere here," Astrid said and lifted up the unlit candle she had in her hand.

Hiccup groaned and grabbed a fork to take a small piece of the meat.

"Well?" she asked and raised her head to look at her best friend.

"Not bad," he admitted. Hearing that made Astrid smile so big her teeth were visible and the butterflies in Hiccup's stomach woke up from hibernation once again.

They had no clue what went wrong in the cooking process in the end. When the dinner was ready and they sat around the table, Astrid was the first one to put a forkful of spaghetti and bolognese sauce into her mouth and instead of munching on it, she started coughing.

Hiccup stared at her, his fork frozen in mid-air. Astrid stood up from her chair to spit the contents of her mouth into the trash bin that was behind her.

"It tastes like feet," she said in a drained voice.

"What?" Hiccup asked confusedly and tasted it himself. He spat it on his plate almost as soon as it had entered his mouth. "Oh my god, it's disgusting."

"What can go so wrong in such a simple recipe?" Astrid asked as she sat back on the chair. She poured herself a glass of orange juice and drank half of it in one go.

"Many things, it seems," Hiccup replied.

"We cooked enough spaghetti to feed an army," she said and glanced into the pot in the middle of the table.

"Let's just eat it plain," he suggested. Astrid looked up at him as if he had grown horns. "Or maybe not."

"Yeah, no," Astrid said with a chuckle.

They sat by the table for a long while, just talking to each other and completely forgetting the disaster that was right under their noses. Hiccup had grabbed his fork and was now playing around with the spaghetti on his plate, trying to lift them up one by one and place them on top of the bolognese sauce.

When he looked back up at Astrid, there was a look on her face that could only mean that she had something in mind. Hiccup stopped whatever he was doing and looked at the girl questioningly.

"What?" he asked.

"Another couple thing that we should do since this one failed," Astrid began slowly. Hiccup swallowed loudly and with so much air that for a moment it felt uncomfortable on the walls of his throat. "Is the spaghetti scene from Lady and the Tramp."

Hiccup blinked. His heart didn't want to stay in his chest and he suddenly felt a bit dizzy. "Is that something that couples do?" he asked with a croaked voice.

Astrid shrugged. "They were a couple, so it should be fine," she replied as she played with a lock of her hair with her ring finger.

Their eyes met. Was that nervousness he saw in Astrid's features? God damn, how was she able to look so beautiful even when her face was clouded by uncertainty? If there was one thing Hiccup was certain of, it was that the girl opposite to him was sculpted in another dimension and then sent to this world. She made Hiccup think of sappy things and clichés that had been already said and thought by millions of others.

Why did Astrid have to do so many things to him just by being Astrid?

She took Hiccup's silence the wrong way. "Just forget it."

"What?" Hiccup blurted out in confusion after being snapped out of his daydreaming.

"It was a stupid idea," she said, embarrassment clear in her voice.

"Nononononono," Hiccup said shaking his head. "No," he added for good measure. "We should definitely do it."

"You think?"

Hiccup just nodded. All that nervousness was now gone from Astrid's face and it had been replaced by excitement. They tried to get a whole spaghetti from the pot – all of it had pretty much stuck together after being out of the boiling water for so long.

They finally found the perfect piece of spaghetti, and Hiccup's heart was seriously trying to kill him now. He had no idea why he felt so nervous, but there was something about this moment that made him feel uneasy.

"Should we just put the ends into our mouths and then start eating?" Astrid asked. Her voice was almost a whisper now.

"Yeah, let's do it like that," Hiccup said, his voice as low if not lower.

Astrid got up and walked on the other side of the table where her best friend was sitting. She sat down on the chair next to him and pulled it closer so that their bodies pressed against each other.

She gave him the other end of the spaghetti, which he took in his own hand, trying not to break it. When they had put the ends into their mouths, they looked at each other and Astrid smiled at him and let out a silent chuckle.

Holy mother of Jesus Christ. That girl was beautiful, even with a spaghetti sticking out of her mouth.

If somebody had walked in right now, they'd have probably died of laughter because the entire scenery just looked so ridiculous. As for Hiccup, he couldn't find anything amusing about the situation. He was only focusing on Astrid and how beautiful she looked up close. They had kissed at school, plenty of times in fact, but they were always quick pecks and he didn't have time to admire the beauty right before his eyes. Sitting there, in his parents' kitchen, with nobody else around, he finally had time to just take in everything about her face. Her lips, nose, eyebrows, eyelashes…

Astrid looked at the spaghetti and tried to wordlessly ask Hiccup whether he was ready. Hiccup nodded. They both started biting on their end of the spaghetti and progressing towards the middle. It took them but a few seconds to be so close to one another that their noses were touching.

They both stopped moving. Without realising, Hiccup let go of his end of the spaghetti, and Astrid followed suit. Their eyes were fixed on each other and their breaths were tickling their skin.

"Can I ask something?" Hiccup said in a whisper. He could feel the electricity between them, and he didn't dare to ruin it by speaking too loudly.

"Yes," Astrid said just as quietly.

They were only inches apart from each other. Hiccup noticed how Astrid's eyes were shining in the dim candle light.

"Why do you think everyone believed us so easily?" he asked and his heart began to race even faster. "You know, us being together and all that."

"I don't know," Astrid said so silently that it was barely audible.

"You don't?"

"Do you?"

Hiccup just stared at her for a while, studying her face and the look on it. She was staring right back at him and…wait, was that anticipation gleaming in her eyes? Those perfect blue eyes bore into his soul. He dropped his gaze down to Astrid's slightly parted lips. Her breath danced on Hiccup's skin in an even cycle. Not fully realising what he was doing, he drew a bit closer to her.

He didn't know what gave him the courage to do it. He placed his other hand against Astrid's jawline and closed the distance between their mouths. He closed his eyes, not daring to see the reaction on his best friend's face. Astrid inhaled sharply at the sudden movement. For two seconds Astrid's brain seemed to forget how to function, for she just sat there like stone as Hiccup kissed her gently, but then she threw her hands around his neck and kissed him back hungrily.

Hiccup couldn't believe it. He was filled with such happiness he had never felt before. Everything else around him faded away, and all he could focus on was the feel of Astrid's lips against his and how they were moving in perfect sync. He felt millions of fireworks burst inside him. He couldn't describe everything he was feeling with words; they simply didn't go far enough to capture the moment.

Moments passed. Hiccup didn't know whether they were seconds or minutes, but at some point they had to stop to catch their breaths. They pressed their foreheads against each other, giving themselves a moment to take in everything that just happened.

"Wow," Astrid finally said.

"Yeah," was all that came out of Hiccup's mouth.

"How long?" she asked.

"For a year," he replied.

"One and a half."

Hiccup didn't dare to believe his ears. "Really?"

Astrid just nodded against his forehead. They stayed like that, looking into each other's eyes for a while before they sat up.

"I guess we have been really blind," Astrid stated.

"Yeah, even our friends saw what we didn't," he agreed.

She laughed heartily. "I can't believe we both used the prank as an excuse to be closer to each other when there really was no need for that at all."

"I know right. We will have a bit of explaining to do tomorrow at school."

Their eyes locked and neither of them could stop grinning from ear to ear. It felt absolutely wonderful to have your feelings returned.

Next day at school, the rumours about the engagement being a prank spread really fast, but even with the rings gone, people had hard time believing the rumours true because Hiccup and Astrid were even more attached to each other's sides as before. And, well, could they really blame them?

the end

I hope you enjoyed this little fic! I had so much fun writing it at least :)

Please let me know your thoughts, your reviews always make my day!