Let's Give it a Year

Chapter 22

"Then draw me."

Hiccup froze, the pad shaking in his hand as he held it in place after retrieving it from Astrid. His eyes went wide as he stared at Astrid, no emotion crossing his face as he looked over her face for amusement or a joking manner. Yet he saw none.

"Are you joking with me right now? If you are, it's not funny." Hiccup responded after a few moments of silence between them.

"Why would I be joking with you?"

Hiccup shrugged and placed the pad on the table carefully, searching for a pencil, or at least for where his pencils were. Letting out a quiet sigh, Astrid slumped her shoulders down and grabbed a stray pencil from the table and held it before Hiccup temptingly.

"I'm serious. I want you to draw me. Please?" Astrid pleaded, holding the pencil out before him like a forbidden treat. "You said I was your new inspiration, don't go back on your word..." She warned as the pencil dangled in front of him.

"You just don't want me to have only ever drawn Heather's portrait, don't you?" Hiccup teased, earning an eye roll and groan from Astrid.

"Whether it is or not shouldn't matter. I want you to draw me, isn't that enough?"

Every fibre of Hiccup's being wanted to grab the pencil from her hand and throw it far away, unable to bring himself to draw such divine beauty and ruin its perfection upon the page that he'd create. He couldn't do it.

But something in his eyes made him hesitate. Something in the way she pleaded to him made him stop and want to say yes. He was stuck. Feeling so conflicted as he looked at the pleading look in his wife's eyes, he couldn't say no, but he also couldn't say yes.

What was happening to him?

"Okay..." Hiccup replied reluctantly, retrieving the pencil from Astrid's hand and fixing it between his fingers ready to use.

Smiling triumphantly, Astrid adjusted her hair and readjusted her seat upon the floor, moving about clumsily as she tried to make herself comfortable. Hiccup smiled to himself seeing her so eager to have her picture drawn by him that it filled him with a small sense of pride and confidence as he readjusted the pencil in his hand.

"Are you sure about this?" Hiccup asked warily, a small smile dusted across his lips as he looked up towards Astrid with a tentative look. But Astrid was just smiling back.

"100%."

"Okay then, I apologise in advance."

Then the pencil touched the paper and Hiccup began to draw Astrid's portrait.

As the pencil cascaded across the paper, and Hiccup's eyes momentarily moved from the paper and up to her face, capturing the image in his mind. Astrid couldn't help but admire the way that his fingers moved as they gripped the pencil, their tough, iron grip upon the wood creating the lightest and gentlest lines upon the paper. Hiccup's face was hardened in focus, his jaw clenched and his lips parting ever so slightly as he focused closely upon drawing her portrait.

Minutes passed, but neither one noticed, both were absorbed in their company. Astrid had lost herself in admiring Hiccup's features whilst he drew her portrait and Hiccup was focused on successfully portraying Astrid's beauty through his art.

However, as he drew the last line of shading upon the paper and looked upon his work with a critical glance, he knew that he had not succeeded in that attempt. But, with a reluctant sigh, he raised his head and looked over to Astrid with a nervous smile.

"I told you that I would apologise in advance," Hiccup mentioned as he slowly handed the pad over to Astrid with a slow, shaking hand.

Astrid snatched the pad from his grip and stared at the image upon its paper. To her, it felt as though he was staring back into a mirror, her reflection looking back at her as she stared at the careful pencil lines of his drawing. It was beautiful. Astrid felt her throat choke up and her eyes water at the sight, she had never seen anything more beautiful and artistic in her life.