Hiccup sat on his favorite sea stack on the outskirts of Dragon's Edge with Toothless curled up behind him. In his hand, he held a single flower, with at least a dozen tiny petals on it. He twisted it around between his fingers.
"Toothless, Am I overreacting?" He asked his dragon, who practically shrugged in response.
"I mean, I poured my heart out, in front of everyone. I told Astrid Hofferson that I loved her and she said 'I know' I mean, I know she's Astrid and has that whole, too macho for feelings thing going but, what if the reason she didn't say it is because she doesn't feel the same way?" He ranted to the Night Fury, who was too busy focusing on his nap to care about a word his rider was saying.
"You know what?" He straightened himself up. "I'm gonna leave it in the hands of fate."
He pulled a single petal off the flower.
"She loves me."
And another.
"She loves me not."
Suddenly a familiar hand gently took the flower from over his shoulder.
"She does love you."
'Hi, Astrid." Hiccup stared out ahead of him, his hands locked in place and embarrassment turned his cheeks a bright shade of pink. Astrid stationed herself on the ground beside him, facing the opposite direction to him.
"You know I'm bad with feelings. When you said you loved me, I felt... safe. It felt good. Like we were the only people on earth. I'm not used to feeling like that. So, I panicked." She admitted. "But, I do love you, Hiccup. With all my heart. And I should have said it before. But, just to make sure..."
She secretly tore of a petal from the flower before handing it back to him. Of course, Astrid being who she was didn't believe in this kind of stuff, but she loved that he did.
"I thought you said this stuff was stupid." Hiccup reminded.
"I did. And it is." She confirmed. "But, you believe in it, so that's all that matters."
"She loves me"
He continued removing each petal one by one.
***
"She loves me not."
Until only one remained.
Astrid tore it off and held it up for him to see.
"She loves you." She repeated, tapping the petal on his nose. "And you could check on every daisy on this sea stack, but they are all gonna tell you the same thing."
"You sure about that?" Hiccup smirked curiously as he picked another flower. Astrid took a second to study the flower. She quickly tore off a petal and dropped it onto the grass beside her.
"Positive." She fought back a smile. Hiccup gasped dramatically.
"Play dirty, huh?"
"I said they would all give you the same answer." Astrid reminded. "I never said I wouldn't give them the answer."
"I'm so gonna get you." Hiccup warned.
Astrid's eyes opened wide in realization. She let out a small yelp as Hiccup tickled her mercilessly. Stormfly and Toothless share a look before the Night Fury nudged his rider causing him to topple over the blonde. Both teens giggled as Astrid gently stroked his nose with the very same petal she still held in her hand, gazing into the vast forest of beauty that were his eyes.
Astrid leaned up to place a gentle kiss on Hiccup's nose.
"Thanks, Bud." Hiccup sighed happily.
Astrid rolled her eyes and chuckled before grasping Hiccup by the tunic and pulling him flush against her, crashing their lips together.
Who's the useless reptile now?
***
