Hey guys! Peppered Potato here!

In the spirit of Halloween, I decided to write this tonight instead of work on my new chapter for the multi-chappie I'm currently working on. Sorry.

Happy Halloween!

The Perfect Pumpkin

With expert precision the knife scraped through the hard orange shell of a skin as if it were no harder than peeling a baked potato, leaving only the thin semi-transparent white beneath. As it slowly went about its expert look the figure of a dragon could soon be make out: sharp head, lean body, graceful wings, and a haunting eye with a grinning set of teeth. The boy who carved this sat on his stool with a look of utmost concentration, his tongue peeking out from between clenched teeth, his hands steady and true.

Next to him was another pumpkin suffering a somewhat comical fate in comparison. Hacked away to reveal two lopsided triangles and a shape that could only described as an oval a drunk would draw, complete with a set of vampiric teeth. That was until one fell off the edge.

"AUGH!" Astrid cried out, throwing her arms in the air in a way that could only be considered comical.

"There are two more in the basement," Hiccup said, before adding on quietly, "if you'd like."

The blonde huffed. "It's no use!"

"Wow, way to be an optimist," he muttered as he peeled away at the tough orange skin carefully.

Ticked by Hiccup's obvious lack of care, Astrid stomped to the door where the staircase was, yanking it open so hard that the door slammed against the wall. Hiccup hardly flinched at the sound, being accustomed to his girlfriend's random bouts of anger, and continued to work. His pet cat, Toothless, was roused from his comfortable nap on Hiccup's lap. Giving Hiccup a glare and indignant mewl, he hopped onto the table and began to play with the bowl of pumpkin seeds.

"Toothless, no! You know you'll get a stomachache if you eat them!"

The cat just glared at him with cold green eyes before batting a pawful into his owner's hair, causing the teen to laugh and bat playfully at his pet with his free right hand. His laughter soon faded into a focused scowl as the sound of Astrid's heavy footsteps indicated her return.

He'd learned many valuable lessons when it came to dealing with an angry Hofferson. Rule number one being to never laugh when they were upset with anything. Ever.

Hiccup had learned that the hard way.

Astrid had brought both of the pumpkins up: two medium-sized pies, nowhere near as impressive as Hiccup's large ones. Still, she was determined to make it perfect-looking…well, as perfect-looking as a beginner carver as herself could muster.

It wasn't good enough for Hiccup's scrutiny.

Well, Astrid had to give herself some credit. The top came off just fine, as well as scooping out the guts. It was the rest that began to go to Hell.

"Here, you're holding the knife too stiff. Move your wrist like this-no, Toothless! Don't eat that!-See, it's not as hard if you do it like this."

Astrid tried; truly, she did. Yet the more she tried, the worse her poor deformed pumpkin looked. She glanced over at Hiccup. His slim fingers were testing the strength of the skin before his shoulders hunched over the prized vegetable (fruit?) and something magical appeared on its surface. This time it was a witch on a broomstick.

It wasn't fair? How did he make it look so easy? Effortless?

Astrid let out yet another frustrated cry of the evening before chucking the sharp knife sideways and hitting the center of the kitchen cork board with pinpoint (and most likely unplanned) accuracy. Hiccup looked up slightly before setting his attention back on the pumpkin in front of him.

"There's one more."

"What's the point? I suck at this anyway!"

"Hey, relax. It's just a pumpkin. Big, round, orange, has an attitude when it encounters the wrong people." When his joke fell flat, Hiccup looked up and cleared his throat. "Listen Astrid. You don't have to be perfect at everything. It's your first time carving pumpkins. I've been doing it with my parents since I could remember! And with my dad still."

She didn't say anything.

"Astrid…"

"I've never been bad at anything before."

"What?"

She stared him straight in the eyes. "I said, 'I've never been bad at anything before.'"

"And this is a problem because…?"

It was then that Hiccup saw Astrid's tears. And he felt like the dumbest boyfriend on the face of the planet.

He dropped the knife with a clatter on the table, the towel soon in his hands to clean off the pumpkin innards. In his attempt to get out of his stool to her, his prosthetic hooked on the footrest/steps on the side and caused him to fall heavily on his knees. They banged against the tile with a crack, followed by a swear from Hiccup and a frightened yowl from Toothless, who flew out of the room faster than you could say 'cat nip.'

"Ow…"

"Are you okay?"

"Are you?"

Hiccup stared for a long moment before wiping the pumpkin guts off onto his apron and taking her hands. "I'm fine, just a bit bruised. It's nothing to concern yourself with."

"Hiccup, you just fell onto your knees onto hard tile!"

"Yeah, don't remind me."

She heard his sarcasm and smacked him in the shoulder. Hard.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"That's for being an idiot and possibly breaking your knees!"

Hiccup waited, but nothing came after that. "Great. You abuse me and I don't even get a hug from it."

She kissed him somewhat reluctantly on the cheek. "There. All better."

"I was hoping it would be on the injured knees…"

Astrid knew he'd be okay if his sarcasm was already raging this much. So she turned away, only to be faced with the monstrosity known as her first (well, technically second) jack-o'-lantern and burst into a fresh stream of tears.

"It's terrible!"

"It's not that bad. We can still save it!"

"N-n-no we can't! It's im-mpossible!"

"There's one left," he suggested in desperation.

Astrid sniffed. "It sucks. I suck."

"It doesn't mean it's the end of the world!" Hiccup ran a hand through his hair. "C'mon Astrid, think about it. Everyone sucks at something. Heck, look at me. I suck at, like, just about everything!"

He launched a bit at that as he gestured to his entirety. Until his pet cat Toothless obviously laughed at his owner (if possible). He'd reentered the room at some point. Hiccup frowned. "Right, thanks for the support, bud. Worthless feline."

The black cat smacked his owner's bare ankle with a hiss before dashing out of the room, causing Hiccup to mutter some dark curse under his breath and Astrid to laugh a bit past her frustrated tears. Hiccup wiped them away with the edge of his undamaged sleeve, which had come slipping down his arm during the whole ordeal from where it was rolled up.

"You okay?" he asked when her crying had finally died down.

"I don't like being bad at something," she admitted at long last.

Hiccup grinned. "Me neither. But everything's worked out for the two of us in life, hasn't it. I mean, look at me. I can't do anything physical, yet when it comes down to inventing things, I'm in the Engineering Program at school."

"Means your good with your hands. I'm not."

"No," he said, "maybe not. But I know you can pack a mean punch. Your, like, black belt level 1000 in Tae Kwan Do or something."

"Level 7," she scoffed, before they said in unison:

"BUT I DIGRESS!"

A hearty laugh was shared before Hiccup finally stood, hopping as he readjusted his leg before propping the stool up. He hugged her gently. "You okay?"

She nodded.

Hiccup looked at the orange fruit (vegetable?) sitting plainly on the table. "One last pumpkin."

"Oh, you do it. Make something amazing!"

Hiccup smiled softly. "No, I won't. We'll carve this one together. Nothing intricate, just a simple two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Okay?"

Astrid hesitated, before smirking. "Fine. But if it turns out looking deranged, I blame you."

"I blame us."

The two shared a familiar smile before hacking away at their new creation. This time, though, it didn't really matter what it turned out to look like.

"No, stop! You're cutting it way too deep!"

"Really? I'm just getting the knife through."

"Finess, Astrid, finess."

"As if you're one to talk."

"Hey! I heard that-Toothless, no! Bad cat! Bad cat!"

*clang*

"Toothless! Great, now who gets to clean up that mess?" Silence. "Right, me. Cats."

. . . . .

Hiccup finished frying the last of the pumpkin seeds before giving their fresh pumpkins a once-over.

"See, they didn't turn out that bad!"

"His left eye is crooked."

"Okay, to clarify, that was the eye I was responsible for, and I can assure you it's perfectly aligned. Yours is the one that's off."

Astrid cocked her head to one side. "Really, because I swear mine's fine."

"I measured mentally," murmured Hiccup. "Not that you care."

"I may trust your insane calculations Hiccup, but that's really unnecessary."

"Of course it is. What would I be without all…this!"

She looked over at the boy, with his lop of auburn hair and goofy grin, trying to gesture at all of himself with one arm, the other holding the bowl full of roasted pumpkin seeds. She pretended to think earnestly about his question before replying, "You know, I don't think you'd be much of anything without all…that."

Astrid gestured at him with the knife in her hand to clarify.

That hardly dampened Hiccup's sprit. He laughed heartily. "Yes, I'm nothin' but a talkin' fishbone!"

She rolled her eyes at her ridiculous boyfriend. "Why I got stuck dating you of all people is still beyond me."

Hiccup just laughed and hugged her around the waist. "Love you."

"Love you too," she said before giving him a soft kiss on the lips.

Hiccup set the bowl down, leaning in while wrapping his arms around her waist and half-lifting Astrid from the stool. Their lips melded together in a strange yet harmonious way.

When they broke apart, Hiccup gave her a crooked grin. "Looks like I finally got that kiss."

"Shut up. Your knees should be better by now!"

But Astrid couldn't help but smile back. Hiccup was right; she didn't need to be perfect.

Because they were. Perfect, that was.

Those silly lopsided pumpkins could tell you that.

Just a bit of fluff. First time writing something like this, so…yeah!

Hope everyone enjoyed, and I may see you again sometime in the future.

-PP