Fate (Merricup)

Nine- waterfall and the sunset

Hiccup landed Toothless in the woods. "We're stopping?" Merida asked.

"It's getting dark." Jack said simply. "We're far enough from the Dark woods, it should be fine." But even he didn't look very sure about that.

"Come on, lets go get water." Hiccup said, helping Merida down. As they trudged through the woods in silence, they kept a wary eye out for fearlings. "Hey, Hic." Merida started. "I think I hear water."

"Yeah, should be-" he yelped, foot sinking into the wet soil. "Ugh. Gross." He muttered, pulling his foot out. "Yup, should be nearby, with all this mud around..." He sighed. "I liked that boot." He looked back. "You sure you're going to be okay?"

"Okay with what?" Merida asked.

"Walking through this," he gestured at the wet soil. "In that." He gestured at her floor length gown. "Not to mention the shoes you're probably wearing under that."

"What, this?" She scoffed. "Hiccup, I've gone through worse situations, wearing dresses like these. As for shoes..." Picking up the hem of the long skirt, a pair of leather boots was on her feet. "I think they'll be fine." She smirked, walking past him. "Come on, it should be this way." He looked at his shoe and sighed, following Merida.

After trudging through the mud, they came to a small waterfall. "Great." Hic said, about to refill the bottles.

"Hey, lets climb it." Merida said suddenly. Hiccup looked at her. "Oh, come on, it'll be easy." She said.

"For you, maybe..." Hiccup muttered. Dress or not, he had a feeling that she could quite easily climb up the hill. "I'll pass."

"What, scared of a little challenge?" Merida sneered.

Hiccup blinked indignantly. "Of course not!" He said.

"Then come on!" She said, starting to climb the hill. "See you at the top!"

Hiccup watched as she climbed up. "Great. Just perfect." He groaned, starting to climb. "Me and my big mouth." He grunted.

After a while, they both managed to climb up to the top. "See, not that hard, is it?" Merida grinned. Hiccup glared at her. "Hey, look." She said, pointing at the sky.

The sun was setting. The now orange sky was streaked with pink and purple, and the moon was just coming into view. "It's beautiful." Merida said softly, watching as the sun set. "It's even more beautiful out here than in the castle." She smiled.

Hiccup glanced at her. The rays from the setting sun made her hair look even more orange, and the soft breeze blew through her curls gently. The climb had made her cheeks slightly flushed. Her eyes were filled with longing as she watched the sunset. "Beautiful." He murmured.

She laughed. "You're not even looking at it." She said, looking at him.

"I was talking about you." Hiccup murmured. Realising what he had said, he turned away quickly. "Sorry, I guess..." He said awkwardly. "We should go." When there was no answer, he turned around. The red haired princess was standing before him. "M-Merida?" He stammered.

"Repeat what you said." She said.

"What?" Hiccup asked.

"What you said, just now. Say it again." She said.

"I..don't know what you're talking about. I didn't say anything." Hiccup said.

"I heard you." Merida said. "You said I was...beautiful. So, are you going to tell me what you mean by that?"

He looked at her. Every instinct in his body was telling him to lie, to pretend it wasn't true. But looking into those blue eyes, he found that he couldn't. "How am I supposed to... I can't. I shouldn't. And I'll probably regret this, but I'm going to regret not doing this even more."

"What are you going to do?" She asked.

"Something crazy." He said, coming closer.

"Like what?"

"This." He bent down, placing his lips on hers.

------------

Hehehehe to all you Mericcup shippers, hope you enjoyed that xD

I'M BACK!!! Exams are finally over (thank goodness) so now I'm FREE!!! I'll try to update more often, which should be at least once a week, as long as nothing pops out of the blue... Like my mom keeping me offline if my exam results are crap...