Chapter 1

...

So...I got inspiration for this when I saw a post on tumblr saying, "I wonder if Hiccup and Astrid have ever accidentally seen each other naked." Well, here's my take on that. I separated this from my collection of oneshots because it leans towards more mature themes (at least this part...other parts...less so). I will be adding at least one more part to this, maybe two, so it'll end up as a two or three part fic. Anyway, the rating is high T. Enjoy:)

...

Astrid hummed softly to herself as she shed her clothes and stepped into her favorite hot spring on the Edge. At the feeling of the warm water on her achy muscles, she let out a contented sigh. Bathing in hot springs had always been one of her favorite things. Not only did she get to scrub off all the dirt and sweat that had collected on her body throughout the day, she also got to relax in steamy, bubbly water that never failed to soothe her.

Undoing her braid, the Viking girl dove beneath the surface to soak her golden blonde hair. Once she emerged, she waded over to the shoreline and, grabbing her bar of soap, lathered her hands. Her humming turned to singing as she distributed the lather throughout her hair. She then lifted herself up onto one of the large rocks on the grass and, letting her feet dangle in the bubbly spring, rubbed more soap between her palms and began to scrub the rest of her body.

"Thor's hammer."

Astrid froze at the sound of another Viking. This was her hot spring. No one else knew about it. It was too hidden for anyone else to know about it. That is, anyone except Hiccup. And that's who was standing in the water, only a few feet away from her. She could clearly see his naked upper body - his wet, naked upper body, and she guessed that she'd see other things as well if he came all the way to shore. Although he still had the same slender figure that he'd had at fifteen, his slightly scarred muscles were lightly defined, and she could make out a faint six-pack forming on his glistening abs.

He had chest hair now, too. And Odin help her, it was perfect. There wasn't too much, but there also wasn't too little. Starting at his belly button, there was a thick trail of hair that disappeared into the water, indicating that what she couldn't see was even thicker. She let out a sigh of relief. Thank Thor that he had more hair "down there" than she did. It would've been awfully embarrassing if it'd been the other way around. Wait, who was she kidding? The situation was awfully embarrassing as it was.

With red cheeks, Astrid quickly grabbed her nearby towel and hugged it to her body. She wished that she could melt into the ground. Or the hot spring. Either would work. Hiccup had just seen her completely naked, and a million thoughts were rushing through her head. Had he noticed that her breasts weren't perfectly round? Had he seen the birthmark on her stomach? Had he noticed that she was blonde "down there?" Of course he had, and that thought made her blush deeper. And what about the stretch marks on her thighs? No, he couldn't have seen those from a distance...she hoped.

She tried to shake off her concerns. Why was she so worried about his opinion, anyway? She was a shieldmaiden. She should be more worried about the fact that her purity was somewhat stained because of her mutton-headed idea to bathe outdoors. Sure, she was in a hidden spot, but that didn't necessarily guarantee that nobody would show up. It had been stupid of her to put herself in such a situation, and she should be cursing herself for it. But yet, she couldn't help being more concerned about what he thought of her body than worrying over the fact that something like this had happened.

"Erm...hey, Astrid," Hiccup's voice broke into her thoughts. "I'm uh...it's um...nice to see you."

"It's um...erm...it's nice to see you, too, Haddock," the blonde responded. Literally, she mentally added, still struggling to peel her eyes from his body.

"So erm...a sunset flight and dinner still sound good tonight?" He rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke.

Astrid froze. She'd completely forgotten that Hiccup had suggested hanging out one-on-one earlier. Normally, she loved their little "dates" (if that's what one could call them), but after this? She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"Um...Astrid?" the auburn-haired Viking prompted.

Astrid shook her head, as if she were trying to snap herself out of a trance. "Yeah, uh...yeah, it um...it still sounds good," she managed.

"Okay. Well, I uh...I...I'll go to the other side of the springs and erm...let you have some...um...some privacy, and I'll...I'll see you later."

The blonde managed a small nod. After watching Hiccup, who was by this point equally red-faced, disappear behind bushes at the far end of the water, she tossed her towel aside and quickly dove into the water. But her focus now wasn't on getting clean. It wasn't even necessarily on the embarrassing situation that had just occurred. It was on the tingly, desperate ache between her thighs. She wondered if he was experiencing the same sensation. He had to be. That is, if he was attracted to her. And if he was, he was probably visualizing her nakedness in his head as he touched himself to try to find relief. She smirked at that thought. For a minute, she considered trying to touch herself, too, but then remembered that the shieldmaiden code didn't allow for that sort of behavior, and quickly turned her mind back to bathing.

Once she finished getting clean, Astrid didn't spread out her towel and lie down to dry in the sun like she usually did. Chances are, if she did that, Hiccup would probably see her again. And if that happened, she'd not only have to deal with the earlier embarrassment a second time, she'd also have to explain her naked sunbathing to him (which really had no valid explanation). So instead, she simply climbed onto shore, toweled off, and dressed before hurrying to her hut to wait for the now-dreaded evening.

...

Hiccup couldn't get the image of Astrid's naked body out of his head. He'd thought about it before, just how all guys imagine what the girls they're interested in look like beneath their clothes. He'd even sketched out his ideas in his notebook (which Astrid would kill him for if she ever found out). But this time, things were different. The picture had been real. It had been right in front of him.

He'd imagined her to be beautiful. He'd imagined her to be flawless. Now, she wasn't flawless (the first example of this being her singing voice, which he nevertheless found cute in a way). She had lots of scars, her breasts weren't as full as he'd thought, and she had a noticeable birthmark by her belly button. But not flawless didn't mean less beautiful. In fact, her imperfections made her even more appealing to him. He knew that he was by no means perfect, and was relieved to find out that she wasn't, either. And those imperfections made her unique. If he ever got the chance, he would kiss all her scars, her birthmark, her small, rosy nipples, the blonde curls between her legs. Those curls. Oh, Thor's hammer! In a million years, he wouldn't have guessed that she was just as blonde "down there" as she was on her head. She was truly amazing, and the only regret he had from that encounter was that he hadn't gotten a good look at her butt.

Smirking to himself, Hiccup reached beneath the water and started to relieve his desperate erection. He needed to get it under control - and have it stay that way - before he saw Astrid that evening. He knew that she'd feel awkward, and he would, too. But there was no way that he was going to let this little incident stand in the way of what they'd been building up for the past three years, since the night he'd taken her out on Toothless for the first time.

After finally feeling satisfied with his work, the young Viking started to wash. As he did so, he shifted his feelings from his reaction to Astrid's body to her reaction to his. She'd stared. There was no question about it. Astrid Hofferson had stared at his abs. And if his imagination wasn't deceiving him, she'd smirked a little, too. She'd liked what she saw; there was no doubt about that.

She'd liked what she saw.

Hiccup swallowed hard as he imagined what would've happened if they'd been a little more comfortable in the situation. She'd have come towards him, and placed her hands on his bare torso. She would've leaned in to kiss him, and he would've pulled her close and grabbed her butt. Her nipples would've rubbed against his chest, and she would've hooked a leg around one of his, allowing her most private area to rub against his thigh. And then...oh, gods, he would've taken her to the shore and they would've had sex. No, maybe not sex, as he'd never put her at risk for getting pregnant outside of marriage, but they would've messed around. He would've gotten to touch her, and feel her touch on him. They could've explored together. Learned together. He could've finally lived out his fantasies. The thought alone made him moan, and he reached beneath the water again.

He no longer saw any way that he was going to survive the upcoming evening.