To The End - A Tuffnut Love Story (HTTYD)

9. Day at the Beach

Tuff felt his face grow hot and he responded, "uh, yeah, good idea, sister--I mean, um...yeah, let's go, Iris."

Iris, who hadn't picked up on whatever just happened, smiled excitedly, "oh, I can't wait to see everything."

The two began to walk back to the arena to get the two headed dragon. Once there, Tuffnut had to explain to her how to ride Barf. He demonstrated on Belch. "First, you want to, uh," he paused and muttered to himself, "how does Hiccup always do it?"

Iris giggled and the man thought. "Oh right! First, you need to show Barf that he can trust you," he explained. For the next half hour, Tuffnut taught Iris everything he could remember on how to ride a new dragon. Although he skipped some steps, and had to go back to restart a few times, he eventually made it through.

When they were finally ready to fly, Tuff and Iris mounted the dragon and were off, Arrow flying beside them as well. They spent the whole morning visiting different places on and around the island. Their last stop was the beach on the opposite side of Berk. Upon landing, Arrow was immediately playing in the soft sand.

Iris climbed off of Barf with a speechless grin. "I thought you might like this place," Tuffnut stated proudly, "so I saved the best for last."

"It's just like the beaches back home," Iris breathed at the bittersweet thought.

Tuff then began to explain awkwardly, "I figured you'd want a place to go, if you ever get homesick, or just wanted to sleep in the sand again."

Iris turned to look at him and smiled, "that's thoughful of you." With a big yawn, she sat down and leaned back against a hill of sand in the shade, "in fact, I might take you up on that sleeping in the sand offer."

With a grin of approval, Tuff took a seat next to her. After a few minutes of quiet, he spoke honestly, "you know, I never really just sit and relax like this, it's usually so boring." He stole a glance at Iris and found her looking up at him, "but, I guess it's kinda nice, when you're with someone else."

Iris was surprised at how calm the viking seemed to be in the moment. It was as if he'd shown her a side that no one even knew he had, and it made her heart flutter. She turned her head back toward the shallow waves on the ocean. Carefully, she moved her hand closer to his. But before she made it all the way there, Tuffnut's hand rested onto hers.

Again, she glanced up at him. His cheeks were red and his eyes nervous. "Ah, sorry, my hand just moves sometimes, it's weird," he said nervously, trying to cover himself up. He then proceeded to lift his hand and wack it while scolding, "bad hand."

Iris smiled in amusement and took his hand back, gently lacing her fingers with his. "Sorry, my hand just kinda moves sometimes," she told him, not breaking eye contact.

Tuffnut scratched the back of his neck with his other hand and chuckled in embarrassment. Nothing else was said. Feeling Iris's hand in his was one of the best things he'd ever felt. Of all the rushes he'd had from doing dangerous things and going into battles, this rush trumped them all. And soon, they had both fallen asleep in the sand, the exhaustion from flying the whole night before finally catching up.

***

Tuffnut woke up as the sun was just beginning to set. He looked to his side to find Iris still sleeping soundly, her hand still loosely clutching his. Not wanting to disturb her, Tuff carefully tried to remove his hand. To his surprise, the minute he moved, Iris woke. "Woah," he stated, "light sleeper."

Iris stretched her arms up and arched her back with a tired sigh. She then picked up a seashell from beside her and threw it at a mound of sand a bit further away.

When the shell came in contact with the sand mound, a dragon's head popped up out from it. "Ah!" Tuff shouted in surprise, "I was not expecting that."

Arrow waddled sleepily over the the pair and yawned. Just then, Iris's stomach growled loudly. Tuffnut gave her a sideways look and grinned, "guess we should go get some food."

Iris smiled and responded, "yes please." They flew Barf and Belch back to the arena, then made their way to the Great Hall. Inside, Iris was amazed by the amount of people; having come from only a small tribe of thirty people, it was something she'd never experienced before. Tuffnut spotted the other riders and the two made their way over to sit with them.

Astrid smirked a little when Tuff and Iris sat down beside each other. "You two are getting pretty close," she spoke suggestively.

"I know, right?" Tuff exclaimed with an oblivious grin, "it's crazy to think when we first met, you were gonna kill me." He laughed as if it were a joke, but his friends weren't through with him yet.