Yay this weekend's upload! I've been so busy, but I'm so happy to have gotten this up for you guys. Enjoy the HiccupxAstrid fluff! :D

Summersault

"C'mon Hiccup, please?" Astrid glared at the young blacksmith apprentice. Hiccup cracked an uneasy smile. He had to admit, Astrid was certainly one of a kind. While most girls would bat their eyelashes and give charming smiles, Astrid found getting her way much more effective with intimidation, and right now the "do it or I'll hurt you" expression she was sending Hiccup's way was doing a fine job for her. Not that she really needed it though; no, Hiccup was more than happy to oblige with whatever the skirt studded Viking girl wanted. However…

"I've got a lot of work to do Astrid, can't this wait till later?" Hiccup implored. Hefting one of the exceptionally big hammers that he could only assume his father or some other equally strong and large Viking used, he mounted it on the wall and picked up a rather dull blade that was overdue for a sharpening. Astrid watched him with silent consternation.

"It'd just be a quick lesson, nothing more," she persisted. Hiccup gave her an apologetic smile and a wince when the sword threatened to lose itself from his hands.

"I really wish I could but I've got weapons to sharpen, flying gear to make and a whole other bag of chores to do," Hiccup explained. The blade erupted into a mini explosion, the sparks dancing away from the quickly heating metal. Hiccup's eyebrows clenched in concentration, his focus easily shifting from the young woman at the entrance of the small hut that served as the blacksmith work area to the heavy and threatening sword slowly becoming more dangerous in his hands.

"I'll give you a reward afterward." The slightest touch of breath on Hiccup's ear was enough to steal his so carefully focused attention, and the sharpening wheel grinded to a halt. The new heat flooding Hiccup's cheeks and the increase of said heat caused by the realization of the close proximity of Astrid made the sword tilt as Hiccup did a tiny jump in the opposite direction.

"Well-uh, that is," Hiccup stuttered, barely catching the handle of the sword that seemed forever compelled to be attracted to the floor and to make Hiccup's life miserable. Wiping his bangs from his forehead, his eyes fell to the floor in both thought and the desperate attempt to hide his reddening face.

"I mean, I guess, it could be my break, or something," Hiccup reasoned to both Astrid and himself. If he was lucky, Gobbler was off somewhere doing…well, he didn't really know, but hoped that if they were to go through with this, that Gobbler and his dad would not find out.

"Thanks," Astrid said with the hint of an appreciative smile as she turned to leave the hovel. Hiccup blinked hard after realizing he had been staring at Astrid's departing figure and speedily gathered up his flying stuff. I hope Toothless is up to this.

It was common knowledge that at this particular time of day, Toothless usually spent his time lolling about in a sunny patch of grass, dozing quite contently away from the hustle and bustle of Berk life, and, more notably, waiting for Hiccup to finish work. It was because of this fact that Hiccup had to mount Astrid's Deadly Nadder in search of his sleepy Night Fury in the numerous typical locations.

They circled about the small canyon, Hiccup eyeing the stream and rocks that he was so familiar with as scenes from his and Toothless' first meetings replayed within his mind. Of course, while that occurred he was desperately yelling himself hoarse, trying to get said dragon's attention, wherever he was.

"Toothless!" Hiccup called. If he wasn't careful, however, he was sure to attract more than just the dragon he sought. "Where could he be?" there was no sign of him and he could tell from Astrid's sigh that she was equally put out from searching and getting a little more than impatient. Hiccup, secretly, thought this was nice though, his arms securely around Astrid's waist as they calmly flew through the sparse upper forest branches to emerge into gaping blue skies that held endless opportunity to one's flight; differing greatly from the roller coaster ride that Toothless more often than not indulged in with or without Hiccup's consent of course.

To just relax with the girl that Hiccup had admired and secretly crushed on for as long as he could remem—

"Toothless!" Astrid cried, this time with glee as they spotted him upon a rather large flat rock by the edge of a cliff, the sun's rays alighting upon his streamline black body.

The Night Fury perked up instantly and, catching sight of Hiccup, let the sudden expression of worry disappear to be replaced with one of joy as the Deadly Nadder touched down next to him. Toothless bounded for Hiccup, and was instantly rewarded by a friendly pat on the nose and a "Hey buddy, how ya doing?" from his most beloved rider.

"Wow, you trekked far today," Hiccup commented as he began to mount Toothless. With his lack of steering, Toothless usually stuck fairly close to Berk as flight was somewhat impossible for the dragon to manage on his own. At the same time though, his legs had gotten considerably more muscular and powerful, and he was able to leap and bound longer distances and, if all else, liked the peace and solitude and heated rocks in the area.

Seated and secured, the pair took to the skies once more and it occurred to Hiccup as his hair whipped away from his eyes, he had no real idea of why Astrid wanted him to go flying with her.

"Uh, hey, Astrid? What are we doing out here again?" Hiccup called over the rush of wind. Fully rested, Toothless made the flight his typical expression of joy, including summersaults, loops, spins, and dives of every variety and in almost every direction. When he finally got the overly excited dragon to calm down and fly smoothly for once in his life, he found Astrid smiling over at him.

"I want that," she told him. Hiccup tilted his head slightly and gave her a grunt of confusion. "I want to do that, what you and Toothless do every time you two fly. The tricks and spins," she explained, "Teach us how to summersault." That was even more puzzling than Astrid's original cryptic response. To Hiccup's knowledge, Astrid was terrified of Toothless' version of "flying" and tended to fly her dragon with the same logic as she had in battle—precise and to the point. There was nothing flashy about Astrid and she found her strength and pride in getting the job done without unnecessary embellishment. So why did she want that now?

"Uh, okay," Hiccup replied nervously. How could he teach another dragon to summersault? He taught Astrid and the others of the village to ride but had no real time to teach their dragons anything in particular. "Well, I guess, just encourage him to do what we do," Hiccup suggested. He urged Toothless into a summersault and the dragon agreed, altogether too gladly. He did a series of them, slightly dizzying his rider. Finally pulling Toothless up from his insane obsession with nose dives, he watched as Astrid tried to tackle the feat with her Deadly Nadder.

The approach started well enough, the pair rose and gained considerable speed but as they changed their direction to dive, well—that's all Astrid's mount wanted to do. Quickly pulling him up before completely slamming into the blue ocean at full speed, Astrid let out a shaky breath. Toothless easily caught up with the pair once they had risen back into the clouds and Hiccup was forced to reassess the situation.

"Maybe we should start with something simpler," Hiccup suggested. Hiccup pulled on his reigns, pulling to the right and down. Toothless took the hint, starting to spin around in a corkscrew through the air. Astrid watched in fascination and, hesitating a little, began to imitate the same instructions to her mount. The Deadly Nadder started to pull to the right and Astrid quickly gave a rough tug to the reigns, pulling them into her lap. The mount responded the same way Toothless had and turned upside down. Astrid yelped and held on as the sea and sky switched places before her very eyes. She screwed her eyes shut only for them to snap open a second later to Hiccup's laugher. Staring about herself, she saw that her mount had indeed turned upside down, all set to do a corkscrew, only to stay upside down instead of creating a complete circle. Astrid growled and straightened the Deadly Nadder.

"That was close," Hiccup said through spouts of laughter. Astrid gave him a dangerous look. His mouth promptly snapped close and he smiled hesitantly. He went about some more instructions he thought would help, telling her all the little hints and tricks he had come to learn on how to keep the dragons happy and trained. Astrid, with a little difficulty, tried her best to replicate everything Hiccup told her to do.

"Gah! I'm never going to be able to do it!" Astrid yelled, strands of blonde hair that had loosed themselves from her braid whipped her face. Hiccup frowned in thought then his eyes widened.

"Hey, Astrid," the Viking girl looked over at Hiccup, "Just relax," he told her. She cocked her head then, with a sigh, shrugged her shoulders and did what she was told. She took a deep breath, expelling it, going through her routine before battle. She shifted her limbs about a bit, trying to loosen them up and have the muscles relax. She closed her eyes for a brief second and let her grip on the reigns slacken just a bit. "Now try," Hiccup instructed. With eyes barely open, Astrid went through the motions of signaling with the reigns. Suddenly her belly seemed to rise into her throat and she instantly opened her eyes. She once again found the strange sight of sea above and sky below, her heart pounding as the scenery righted itself, by itself. With amazement she watched as she came out of a summersault, her Deadly Nadder crowing happily. Astrid's face immediately lit up and Hiccup gave an excited hoot. She beamed at him and goaded her mount into another one. They executed it without a hitch. Unexpectedly, the two dragon mounts locked gazes, and surprising both their riders, issued a battle of acrobatics. Astrid and Hiccup held on for the ride, their laughter and screams being scattered across the ocean.

They touched down on the bank of Berk as the sun was casting tall shadows upon the buildings of the town.

"That was amazing!" Astrid proclaimed excitedly. She had yet to catch her breath and her face was painted in a lovely hue of pink, eyes sparkling from the adrenaline. Hiccup looked equally exhilarated, his normally flat brown hair having been pushed off his face and flung back.

Windswept, the both of them.

"Hiccup thank you so mu—,"

"HICCUP!" came a booming voice. A booming voice all too familiar to the young blacksmith. He shuddered and glanced over his shoulder to spy both his dad and Gobbler at the top of the dock, making their way down to them.

He slowly turned his head back to find that Astrid had significantly closed the gap between the too. Hiccup's face colored immediately as he felt Astrid's breath ghost against his lips.

"This is a thank you, for today," she whispered before closing the gap between their lips. Hiccup's mind melted instantaneously, to the point where he almost forgot to kiss her back. Astrid flung her arms on Hiccup's shoulders, cupping his head in her hands. His hands simultaneously found her hips and rested there. The two were in lip lock as the two Viking men drew up. They stopped short, noticing for the first time what the two teenagers were doing, and something else.

Astrid was one of a kind. She could have any boy in the village. She could defeat any monster or enemy Viking to come against her. She could also give the most dangerous glare known to man. Stoick and Gobbler were frozen in absolute terror of the young Viking girl on top of the astonishment at seeing Hiccup, of all the village boys, kissing Astrid.

When the couple pulled away, Astrid gave the adults a final warning gaze and a sweet goodbye and peck on the cheek to Hiccup before remounting her dragon and taking off. She did another summersault to show off, giving a loud cheer into the coming night. Hiccup smiled and touched his cheek. Consumed with warmth and a still burning flame of excitement, he had completely forgotten about the predicament that awaited him.

"Um, ahem, Hiccup. We, uh, need ya at the forge," came Gobbler's uncertain voice. Hiccup turned around to find his father looking out at the sea to his left and Gobbler staring down at his peg leg.

"Ok," Hiccup said happily and waltzed through the two. They gave each other an incredulous look before slowly following after him. Arriving back at the forge, Hiccup went about his blacksmith work like normal. But one thing had changed.

He would definitely take more breaks from now on.

Especially if they involved Astrid and "rewards."

Love it? Hate it? Wanna tell me about it?

Any suggestions, ideas, whatever are appreciated! I'm thinking of doing some more HTTYD one-shots so if there's anything else you would like to see, please tell me!

have a fantastic weekend and stay safe,

~Rea