Tangled Vows

Chapter 39

"No way! Are you serious?" Astrid practically squealed in amusement, holding a hand over her mouth to stop herself from spilling the mouthful of wine she had just consumed.

"I am serious." Hiccup laughed along with her, taking a sip from his own glass of wine with his crooked smile and low chuckles.

"Seriously? Snotlout went out on a date with a transvestite?" Astrid burst into another round of laughter, joined by Hiccup whose laughter was much more muted than Astrid's.

After all, he's had a long time to laugh over this story. It was mostly Astrid's own amusement that was fuelling his as they sat in the living room that evening with a buffet of takeout food littering the coffee table. The noise on the television was long forgotten as they lost themselves in reminiscent conversation and amusing stories they had missed from each other's lives.

However, it seemed like Hiccup's life had been more eventful than Astrid's.

"Yeah, and I think what made it funnier was the fact that he kept announcing that she was the most perfect woman." Astrid completely lost it, having to put her glass on the table to stop herself from spilling it on the floor.

She practically collapsed onto Hiccup as the laughter took over her body, and she clutched his arm, trying to ground herself from the overflowing amusement that was almost rendering her immobile. Hiccup laughed along with her, warmth flowing through him at Astrid's touch and the mere sound of Astrid's happiness and laughter.

He couldn't imagine a more beautiful sound.

"Oh, my gods." Astrid wiped a tear from her eye, "How did he react when he found out?" Astrid asked, curious to know how such a macho man like Snotlout would react to finding out that the woman he had been dating was actually a man.

"Oh, Thor." Hiccup started chuckling again, shaking his head in amusement as the memory of Snotlout's realisation came to mind. It was a wonderful sight to behold, and Hiccup was glad he had been there to witness it first-hand. "It was hilarious. I mean, at first, he didn't believe it and thought she was messing with him. But then, he slowly realised that she was telling the truth, and his jaw dropped and he couldn't move for, I estimate, 20 minutes."

"Did she leave?" Astrid asked, still laughing and clutching onto Hiccup's arm as she waited for his reply.

"After 5 minutes, yeah." Hiccup laughed as Astrid slapped him, overcome by her own amusement that she needed to vent out some of her excitable energy elsewhere.

It was just unfortunate that Hiccup was there, receiving the unintentional attack.

Pushing herself away from Hiccup, so as to not hurt him again, Astrid threw herself backwards on the sofa, and clapped her hands together in amusement, almost doubling over. She couldn't help herself, trying to picture what it looked like to see Snotlout frozen in place, and dumped for being such a douchebag.

"Did she hit him or something? Like, slap him?" Astrid asked, wanting to hear more about this incident that she never got to see.

"Oh, yeah." Hiccup nodded, smiling brightly at the thought. "He had a huge hand mark on his face. it was there for days." They both laughed at this, almost doubling themselves over from their own laughter.

Conversations like this continued into the night, with glass after glass being consumed and warming the evening. Laughter and jokes were thrown around the room, with the wine helping to ease the atmosphere and brighten the conversation.

To the point that they barely struggled to find things to talk about.

Until Astrid suggested they play 20 questions.