Rhythm of my Heart: A Mericcup Anthology

The World From Up Here

Her heart pounded in her chest as she held tight to Hiccup's torso, soaring through the open source code like they'd been born to do it. As a stray pop-up materialized out of thin air in front of them, they swirled to avoid it, passing so closely that her breath could have fogged up the pixels.

As they levelled out once more, she leaned back to enjoy the view. She loved it when Hiccup took her flying. There was just something spectacular about the view of the online world from all the way up here, and soaring high above the websites and the virtual hustle and bustle of the general population always took her breath away.

She loved Angus, but flying – flying with Hiccup and Toothless was something else entirely. It was on a whole other level.

They weren't supposed to be together. But despite what the other girls had cautioned about the other studios, she'd been curious. And against all odds, a girl from Disney Pixar and a boy from Dreamworks had become friends. Best friends.

Sometimes it even felt like they were two halves of a whole.

Glancing down at the world below them, she grinned. From all the way up here, the glow of the late-night traffic was barely a blip – from this distance, it hardly looked much bigger than a pixel.

Sighing contentedly, she felt Hiccup shift in the saddle in front of her, and it drew her attention back to their present altitude. He'd partially turned in his saddle, and was looking over his shoulder with that same look in his eyes he'd had the last time they'd flown. The strange expression that she still couldn't quite place, because nobody had ever looked at her like that before.

"What?" She asked as she met his gaze, feeling oddly self-conscious and not at all like herself for a moment.

Suddenly breaking free of his trance, he abruptly stuck his arm out, pointing. "Look – uh – at that!"

As Toothless warbled what sounded suspiciously like a laugh, she turned her attention to where Hiccup was pointing, and found the first rays of light were beginning to crest the horizon, shifting the sky's gradient from navy to gold, somehow managing to contain what seemed like every colour and shade in between. She sighed contentedly. "It's beautiful."

And then it hit her, and she felt her stomach plummet back towards the world below. "The sunrise! Oh no! I'm goin' ta be late!"

She'd never hear the end of it from the other girls if she were late for another 'which princess are you' quiz. The last time she'd been late, they'd been on their third quiz with the same person, and she'd only just made it back in time to save them from a fourth.

"Hold on!" Hiccup called back to her, and she wrapped her arms around his torso once more as he leaned forward over Toothless' shoulders, and the dragon went into a vertical dive. The wind roaring as it rushed past her ears, her lips parted in a toothy grin. She really loved flying.

Her heart thrumming in her chest, they sped downwards back towards the Disney Compound, where the other princesses would be anxiously awaiting her return. The glow of civilization nothing more than a blur in her peripheral, she could barely contain her whoop of delight, thrilled as the Night Fury pushed the limits of how fast he could fly.

And well before she was ready for their ride to be over, she was dismounting on the rooftop of the Disney Compound, shaking out her arms and shoulders as though to settle the adrenaline still coursing through her.

With her feet firmly planted on the ground once more, it suddenly occurred to her just how much the muscles in her face ached. She wasn't used to smiling this much.

Absentmindedly raising her hands to her cheeks to massage out the soreness, she turned back to face Hiccup, and found his smile was just as broad as her own.

"Same time tomorrow? Maybe I can show you the Cloud."

She nodded eagerly, her curls bobbing with the motion. "I'll be here."

And as he and Toothless turned to take off once more, he glanced back at her one last time, and as blue met green, just for a moment she felt like she was still airborne.