Life on Berk

Braids

Summary: Astrid finds a way to keep Hiccup from getting too annoyed, considering he gets irritated way too often to be healthy.

Takes place before RTTE. My take on how the braids came about. (:

Hiccup paced around his room, ranting about how the other dragons riders never listened to a thing he said, while Astrid sat on his bed, calmly watching him.

"They never listen to me."

"Uh huh."

"It's like I'm invisible."

"Yup."

"I might as well give up."

"Hiccup-"

"Admit it. They never do anything I ask them to." He pointed a finger at her.

"You do have a point," She mumbled. He opened his mouth to continue but she interrupted him. "But that doesn't mean they don't listen at all. We wouldn't be the same without them, Hiccup."

"Snotlout almost always does the exact opposite of what I tell him to do. The twins, do I even need to say anything about them?" He gestured wildly, showing how irritated he was.

"True." She nodded. He sat down beside her. "You need a break though."

"I wish. There's so much to do. Dragon training, and Dad wants me to start Chief lessons. Gobber's been giving me more work to do too." He sighed.

"Make time. I'll take over dragon training when I can." She eyed his windswept hair, itching to play around with it.

"I appreciate it, Astrid. But remember what happened the last few times you took over?"

She laughed. "But being separated from our dragons was for our own good in the end!"

"Anything else you have in mind? Something not too extreme?" He felt her tug on his hair. "Astrid?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing?" He asked, completely forgetting what he was so annoyed about.

She remained silent as she ran her fingers through his hair, weaving an intricate braid into it. He noticed how her tongue stuck out slightly as she concentrated on not letting the braid come loose. Then she pulled a strip  of leather from her pouch and tied it off.

"Done." She smiled at her work. It looked rather comical. He now had a single braid sticking out at the side of his head. He ran his hand over it, and attempted to untie it, but she swatted his hand away.

"But it looks weird," He argued.

"It looks cute. Besides, if you take it out, I'll just do another one." She grinned. "So you might as well leave it in."

He scowled at her, causing her to giggle. Then she braided another section of his hair so that there were two small braids on the side of his head. He glared at her, but the corners of his mouth were twitching. She laughed again.

"I like it," She announced.

"I don't," He deadpanned.

"Too bad." She pouted mockingly. "Don't you dare take it out."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Milady." She stared him doubtfully, raising an eyebrow. Hiccup rolled his eyes. "If I did, I'd most likely meet my end sooner than I'd like."

"Don't you forget it." She stood up. "Aren't we late for training?"

"Probably." Hiccup shifted so he was more comfortable. "But for once, I don't care."

"Seriously?"

"Yes." She grabbed his legs and yanked him off the bed. "Ow."

"Let's go, Dragon Boy." She walked out of his loft, leaving him on the floor, Toothless sniffing him, but making no move to help him up. He groaned, standing up and leading Toothless out the door to where Astrid was already on Stormfly. He mounted Toothless and the two dragons took off in unison.

They landed at the academy minutes later.

"Hey Hiccup," Tuffnut said.

"Hi?" He replied.

"Why do you have braids in your hair? It looks weird."

Hiccup merely glared at Astrid, who was smiling ear-to-ear. "I'm not going to answer that."

"Hey Hiccup," Snotlout greeted. "Wow. What's up with your hair?"

This was going to be a long day.

A/N: I don't think I've ever updated so fast before. This wasn't exactly my best one in my opinion, but I found it too cute to not post, so here you go. (: