Another new Hiccstrid story from yours truly? Yeah, sure, why not? No spoilers this time. The canon of this story will differ and I'm pretty certain that I'm going to disregard HTTYD 2. This time. There will be five chapters total in this story. I hope that you enjoy. … For some reason, I can't even remember where this idea came from. It just…showed up one day and the plot sounded good.

It Was Always You
The First Realization

The cove was beautiful this afternoon. It was on days such as this that Hiccup liked to just fly out of the village for some moments of alone time with Toothless. Sure he was glad that the village now accepted him as a worthy Viking and heir, but it had been almost a year now since the defeat of the gigantic dragon queen. The boy had figured that everyone would finally stop swarming him as he walked through the village. Unfortunately, though, it seemed that he, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, former reject and disgrace of Berk, had risen to the status of "Resident Dragon Expert" seemingly overnight. Must have happened during that strange sleep, the one he had fallen into after falling from Toothless's back and into a fiery pit of rising flames; for when he had awoken, Hiccup's eyes had fallen upon an entirely new world, one where Vikings and dragons lived side-by-side. It had been quite the shock; that was for sure!

It had taken forever to leave the village this morning. Everywhere Hiccup looked, he was surrounded by yet another of his fellow tribe members asking for advice or directing him a question about their dragon's behavior that morning. Hiccup tried to assist everyone. Really, he did, but it wasn't as easy as everyone all thought. Hiccup really did not want to let anyone down, but he still did not have all the answers about dragons. For the most part, a dragon does what it wants to do. There was no real rhyme or reason to their actions. Yet, the boy always felt bad telling them that he could not answer their particular question; it made him feel like that first Snoggletog after the end of the 300-year dragon war all over again. So, Hiccup made up some answers and took to the skies on Toothless as quickly as he possibly could.

That was how he had arrived here in his favorite cove. Hiccup currently sat with his back against a rock as he stared at the relatively-still pond. Toothless, nearby, was occupying himself with chasing a low-flying butterfly and Hiccup had decided to draw out the scene playing in front of him. The picture in his sketchbook was nearly complete when he heard another dragon touch down nearby. He did not have to look up to know that it was Stormfly; she was the only dragon that walked on two feet instead of four. Hiccup was about to shut his sketchbook as Astrid stepped down from her Nadder and walked over to take a seat beside Hiccup, but he thought better of it when he noticed Toothless had lost interest in the butterfly and was now playing with Stormfly. The two dragons had taken a liking to each other as their riders had grown closer. Hiccup passed his sketchbook over to Astrid to show her his nearly-finished drawing.

"Toothless was chasing a butterfly…and I missed it? I missed seeing the feared Night Fury playing around with a flying insect!" she laughed, turning back to where the two dragons were now located.

"Ah, you didn't miss all that much," Hiccup also laughed. "Toothless plays with everything, it seems. Did I ever tell you how he would chase the light reflection from the metal on one of my hammers?" When Astrid shook her head, Hiccup relayed the story to her. "…and that's how I knew that I could return the Terror in the ring to its cage by directing the reflection from my shield."

"I remember that!" Astrid replied. "You nearly blinded me with the light from that shield."

"Sorry," Hiccup apologized quickly. "I was trying to direct the light to the ground and I had a bit of a hard time getting it there." As he finished talking, Hiccup realized that he had been talking rather fast. Even though Astrid was his best friend and they'd hung out alone together often in the months since the end of the dragon war, he still felt a bit nervous around her, as if he would say the wrong thing and the whole illusion would come crashing down. He didn't know why he was always so worried, though; he knew that Astrid would always have his back…and he would always have hers.

All was silent and calm. These were the types of days that Hiccup enjoyed most; he'd never been a fan of the bitter cold that seemed to always attack Berk. The boy stared out at the pond. "I love you."

The words had been spoken not above a whisper, but Astrid was close enough to Hiccup to hear what he had just said. "Hiccup?" she asked, turning to face him. Usually, the boy did not speak how he felt; in the time that she had known him, he had mostly kept his feelings bottled up inside of himself.

When Hiccup heard the girl beside him say his name, he knew immediately what had just happened and he immediately began to make excuse after excuse for what he had just said. "Did I just say that out loud? I mean…I really meant to say "I lov-."

"Did you mean what you just said?" Astrid asked, waiting eagerly to hear his answer…and hoping it was the answer she desperately wanted him to say.

Hiccup hesitated, but he knew there was no getting out of this. Even if he made a break for it and was able to escape to the skies on Toothless (which was unlikely as Astrid still had two good legs and would surely tackle him; he still wasn't fully used to walking—let alone, running—with his prosthetic), Astrid would surely follow him and force the answer from it. "Yes," he answered softly finally, "I meant it…and I can't imagine saying those three words to any other girl on Berk or in any of the surrounding islands."

Astrid remained silent even after Hiccup had finished speaking and he figured that he had messed everything up again. He never seemed to know the right words to speak and when to say those words. He was just about to get up and make some feeble excuse to leave the cove when she finally spoke. "You don't know how long I've waited to hear those words from you, Hiccup."

The boy could not believe what he had just heard. He turned quickly, shifting his gaze from the pond to Astrid. "You mean…?"

"Yes!" she replied, delivering a swift punch to his shoulder, "I love you too!"

"So…does this mean that you're my girlfriend now?" he asked. Yeah…because that didn't sound awkward enough. Typical Hiccup! Can't you ever just speak normally to Astrid?

Luckily, she just gave him a small laugh in reply and told him, "If that's what you'd like, I guess."

Smiling, Hiccup replied, "Yes! Very much so."

"Very well, then," Astrid told him back, "and that makes you my boyfriend. I never thought I'd ever say those words…especially to you."

Together, they laughed, enjoying each other's company. Then, as if by instinct, Hiccup shifted closer to Astrid and wrapped his left arm around her, drawing her closer to him. No words were shared and none were needed; they simply enjoyed the other's company. The longer they sat together, the more Hiccup noticed how he couldn't seem to wipe the smile from his face. This was how he'd always dreamed…well, hoped that it could be—him and Astrid together in this picturesque setting. It felt too surreal, but this was life and he couldn't be happier. "It was always you, Astrid. You know that, right?" he whispered to her.

He could see that she was a bit confused by his words and when she asked what he meant, Hiccup was confident in his answer. "I always knew you would be my girlfriend someday. I don't know how, but I could just feel that it would happen. Then, after that romantic flight—well, that's what I like to call it anyway—with Toothless, the possibility still to grow as we became friends. There's no one else I could ever imagine saying all this to now, Astrid. It was always you."

I'm sorry if some parts toward the ending are rushed or just generally not good. I wrote the ending scenes while waiting for a phone call…and I have telephobia, so that made me all jittery and nervous and…such. I know…TMI…more than you ever wanted to know about your author! Well, by the time I finished, I made it through the phone call…and I'm still alive, so…yay!

Gods, the confession scene was so hard to write. I wrote it three different ways and finally arrived at this. The first time, Astrid was OOC and the second time, Hiccup was OOC. Now, I feel they're IC. I saved the other scenes, though, because I plan to write a HTTYD Outtakes and Extras stories for these moments (I have a few more from my other stories).

Coming Up Next: "The Second Realization"—"It Was Always You…The Leader Of This Relationship."

Posted: July 8, 2014