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

"Oh Gods...you're right."

Astrid arrived to the tavern at sunset.

The sky had tinted blue-grey to mark the beginning of the winter months in Berk. Cold wisps flew overhead and through Astrid's bones. She could see her anxious breaths mushroom from her mouth in white clouds. Snow began to sprinkle onto every rooftop and grassy walkpath like powdered mint on a pastry.

The village tavern was at the ship port near the loud and lapping waves of the ocean. It was there for the convenience of visitors to Berk who wished to announce their presence to the Hooligans over a hot meal and a hearty beer brewed from the Hooligan's best harvest of wheat. Just above the tavern was the citadel where Stoick had made many orations in his lifetime about the state of the tribe. Now, Chief Hiccup had replaced him and repeated his father's speeches that had made everyone wish they were still home in bed. Astrid was thankful there wouldn't be a gathering that night, and she wouldn't have to pretend that she enjoyed sitting at Hiccup's side as his expected chieftess-to-be. Hiccup had rejected her in private, but he had been too chicken to tell the truth to the village, who expected them to wed.

Astrid finally came to the tavern's towering wooden doors that had been opened a short time ago by the village's bakers. Before the opening, Astrid heard musicians beginning to play and incite the Hooligans to find a partner or a friend to jig.

A group of villagewomen passed Astrid in surprise, for they didn't recognize her immediately. Astrid had spent the late afternoon combing her hair and threading it into a fishtail braid. She had fitted a brown, ankle-length fleece skirt around her waist and wore a square-necked tunic with a bordered bust, long-sleeves, and a frilly hem. Astrid hoped Ruffnut wouldn't see her outfit and remind her of how girly she looked.

The women complimented Astrid and were happy she had arrived just in time to dance the millclog. Astrid was rare to ever come early to the tavern, for she and Chief Hiccup were usually last to be seen at meals if the chief had time for leisure. The couple had always chosen to be elsewhere: in the skies, exploring a dark cave, swimming with their Nadder and Night Fury in a lake, or counting all of the stars before evening fell.

Astrid declined politely to the women, who left from her in curiosity but encouraged her to sit with them whenever she decided she was cold enough to enter. More villagers hurried past her to escape from the chilly weather into the warm tavern.

Astrid left the door and wandered around the docks for a familiar face with weathered, blonde dreads. It was getting harder to see as the sun disappeared and made bigger shadows over the village, and she had to squint at the new faces that approached her and acknowledged her. Where are you Tuff?!, She thought. It was only a matter of time before Ruffnut showed up to laugh, or, worse, if Hiccup arrived and spoiled her mood. She doubted her decision to ever trust one of the Thorston twins. Suddenly, Astrid felt a tap on her winter shawl and spun to her right.

"Where were you, Astrid?!" Tuffnut shouted lowly between them, puffing air between their noses. "I was looking for you everywhere!"

"That's really hard to believe!" Astrid retorted, just above a whisper. "Was there even a point in coming here early?!"

Tuffnut looked incredulous. "Who would miss out on the first round of the millclog?!"

Astrid rolled her eyes.

Tuffnut looked warm in a fuzzy, linen kyrtill with a front full of thread laces and in a heavy cloak of deep-brown sheepskin. He wore a tooth pendant around his neck and his head was covered in his helmet and exposed his ropes of locked hair that tussled in a squall. The cold had burned his ears and nose cherry-red. Tuffnut had silver, ring-shaped piercings high on his ear that Astrid had never noticed, but she didn't make it known that she thought they were more than a little attractive on him. Tuffnut was known by all to be innocently criminal, and the piercings only amplified his reputation.