Tuff Love (A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction | Astrid x Tuffnut)

"I'm gonna be honest."

Tuffnut?!, Astrid reeled to herself.

Tuffnut Thorston, who was snoring on a tree trunk in the forest with his new pet rooster, alerted and bumped his head. Apples rained down from the tree and gonged on his body in syncopation to his startled yelps. The rooster in his lap crowed like there had been a sunrise he had missed. 

Tuffnut's vision sharpened to see Ruffnut and Astrid standing at his boots in the daytime. He groaned to the girls, "what time is it?"

Astrid recognized Tuffnut, but not fully. He was without his daily armor for dragonriding. He wore a long sleeved tunic that was lazily buttoned and a wooly vest over his shoulders. His long, blonde hair was parted sloppily at his crown and his swinging dreads with embossed, silver, tube-adornments and darkened ends were not raveled in a self-made beard beneath his chin as they would have been around the villagers. 

Astrid focused a little too long at how Tuffnut's dark-blue pupils revealed themselves from behind his eyelids in the sunlight.

"How long have you been here?" Ruffnut asked, booting a fat, red apple that rolled her way.

Tuffnut wondered. "Hmm. I dunno."

"This is who is supposed to help me?!"

"Yeah, who else? Tuffnut practically knows every guy around here. He has plenty of experience with hooking people up. Don't you...dear brother?"

"'Dear brother?'" Tuffnut repeated in disgust. "Oh, no. What do you want me to do now?"

"Astrid and Hiccup called it quits. Unless you become her wingman, Astrid is gonna be an old maid."

"Not helping," Astrid whispered.

Tuffnut appeared a little more awake. "Buzz off, Ruffnut!" He warned his sister. "This is a job for the professionals!"

"Tell me how it went," Ruffnut bid. 

As the other twin found her way back to the Hooligan Tribe from the forest, Tuffnut helped himself to an apple and offered Astrid one in her palm. 

For the first time, Astrid realized she had never been completely alone with Tuffnut. She was curious about what he was going to say next. Tuffnut sunk his teeth into his apple with a loud snap and spoke to her between chews.

"I'm gonna be honest. Most guys here, Astrid, aren't your type."

"What's that supposed to mean?!!" She turned to Tuffnut when she heard him laugh.

"You'd be really lucky to find someone that doesn't think about blood, guts, beer, roasted larder, or boobs every fifteen seconds."

 Astrid rolled her apple in her hands. Were all men besides Hiccup really that gross?

"What kind of guy are you looking for, anyway?" Tuffnut took another bite and waited for Astrid to answer. Drat, he thought. The rooster escaped Tuffnut's company and clucked back to the heart of the village where Tuffnut had found it. With nothing else to watch, Tuffnut turned his head to Astrid and gave her a friendly push with his elbow to not be so shy.

It was easier for Astrid to talk about her feelings with other girls from the village, even Ruffnut, but if Tuffnut was trusted by her best friend to give her the help she needed, she had to be vulnerable with him. Her heart picked up speed when she answered, "someone with a good sense of humor, tall--but not that tall. Just tall enough so that I'm not the one leaning down to kiss him. A guy that's smart, but not completely a nerd, just kind of nerdy. When he talks, I don't want to be bored to death. And he has to like dragons, a lot, because we're going to fly all of the time, sometimes at dawn and sometimes at sunset. And he has to be left-handed. If his hair is dark-brown, that's a plus. Is there anyone you have in mind?"

Tuffnut scoffed. "Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third?"

Astrid greyed. She let her apple tumble to the grass as she sulked against the tree beside her comrade. 

This is not gonna be easy, Tuffnut thought. He placed his hand on Astrid's hand.

Astrid felt flutters in her stomach. It was surprising that Tuffnut had inspired them in her. She lifted her head to face him. 

Tuffnut wasn't smiling at her, but he wasn't frowning either. He looked to her as the role model he had looked up to in dragon academy and as an always-present face from childhood. His cheeks became slightly rosy with cheer and his eyes turned kind. "Meet me at the tavern early tomorrow, Astrid, and I'll see what I can do."