[HTTYD] HSRMO: The Perfect Gift (Sweet version)

His Soul Reflects My Own, a DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic series by Raberba girl

The Perfect Gift [Sweet version] (rough draft)

 

For Valentine's Day 2016

 

Summary:  It's Hiccup's first Valentine's Day with an actual girlfriend to celebrate it with, and everything goes wrong.  Somehow, it ends up being perfect anyway.

 

o.o.o

 

At the end of January, Hiccup was watching TV, obligingly petting Toothless, who was sprawled in his lap purring with contentment.  During a commercial break, Hiccup kept one hand on his dragon's hair as he idly tapped out a text message with the other, but then a piece of dialogue from the TV abruptly snatched his attention.

 

"This Valentine's Day, find the perfect gift for the one you love!"

 

Hiccup sat bolt upright, sending both cell phone and dragon tumbling to the floor.

 

"Ow!" Toothless protested.  "Dropped me!"

 

"Valentine's Day," Hiccup gasped.  "Valentine's Day is coming up, holy--  I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND NOW.  VALENTINE'S DAY IS A THING THAT IS HAPPENING THIS YEAR."

 

Toothless, still on the floor, cocked his head curiously.  "Val-tine?"

 

Hiccup dove for his phone.  "Flowers chocolates restaurants?!  What do people with girlfriends do on Valentine's Day?!  What do I look up?!  Aaaaaaahhhhh!"

 

"Bad phone.  Make Hiccup upset."

 

Before Hiccup registered this, Toothless had plucked the phone out of his hand and casually thrown it across the room.

 

"NOOOOOOO TOOTHLESS DO NOT DESTROY MY PHONE."

 

"Bad phone is gone," Toothless chirped.  "Hiccup is happy now?"

 

"NO I AM NOT HAPPY."

 

Hiccup went to the lab to fix his phone, taking the opportunity to spew frantically at his mentor.  "Gobber!  It's Valentine's Day and I have a girlfriend this year and I don't know what to do!!"

 

Gobber laughed.

 

"It's not funny!  If I screw this up, Astrid Hofferson will break up with me.  This will be SO EASY TO SCREW UP."  He held his head.  "And I am the master of screwing up.  I should already consider Valentine's Day to be screwed up.  Valentine's Day is ruined.  I'm a failure."

 

"Hiccup," Gobber said in exasperation.

 

"No, you're right, I have to try.  Toothless, help!"

 

The dragon was immediately at attention.  "HELP MY HICCUP.  Tell me??"

 

"I DON'T KNOW.  JUST HELP ME.  ...BE MY MORAL SUPPORT."

 

"I am be more sport~  Help my Hiccup?"

 

"WE'RE GOING SHOPPING."

 

"Shop buy pay for sweet cold, YES!"

 

They went to the mall.  Hiccup bought Toothless ice cream and then combed through all the flower/jewelry/candy/clothing/etc. stores.  He paused to strategize before combing them again.  "Okay...okay..." he muttered distractedly, hunched over his phone.  Toothless, sitting on the bench beside him, licked the last of the ice cream from his fingers and then started braiding Hiccup's hair.

 

Hiccup ignored it.  "'Valentine's Day Gift Ideas,'" he read aloud.  "Slippers, what?  That doesn't sound romantic....  It's supposed to be romantic, right?!  Adult coloring book, what?  Is this a Valentine's Day list or a--?!  Okay, perfume, that's, yeah, girls like perfume, guys get girls perfume as gifts, right???  OH MY GOSH THAT IS SO EXPENSIVE, WHY IS A BOTTLE THAT TINY SO EXPENSIVE."  He froze as he finally remembered the payment aspect of this whole thing.  "Crap."

 

He immediately checked his account balance.  "CRAP."  He earned a lot of money (for a teenager) from his job at the lab, but he'd used up most of his recreational savings working on dragon stuff, and his father would kill him if he touched his college fund.  Which Hiccup technically didn't have access to without trying to hack the bank, anyway.

 

"Crap," Toothless repeated.  "Good pretty braids for my Hiccup crap~"

 

"Ohhhhh no...that is outside my pathetic excuse for a budget," Hiccup lamented when he saw the pair of earrings, and moved down to the next item on the list.  "Stockings, what?  Girls really want stockings for Valentine's Day??  Whatever; it's outside my stupid budget anyway, unless I can get Legs to lend me five credits....  ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME, WHO PAYS 275 CREDITS FOR A BATHROBE?!?!?!  Gah, and who pays 60 credits for a bag?!?!?!  Girls are insane!  Next....  Outside my budget, and I could make a notebook like that, geez, not that Astrid would care about getting a stupid notebook for Valentine's Day....  Lotion, outside my budget, why is hand lotion outside my budget, who pays that much for lotion....  OOH, 10 cre--!  A month?  Isn't it Valentine's Day, not Valentine's--?  Whatever.  Eeeerrmmm, what kind of books does Astrid even read, anyway?  Wallet thingies, outside my budget; any kind of real jewelry whatsoever, outside my budget; yeah, she'll light up like the sun if I give her a coffee mug for Valentine's Day....  Uuuugghhhh, the Internet is useless."  He groaned and buried his face in his hands.

 

"Bad phone?"

 

"NO.  GOOD PHONE, VERY GOOD PHONE, I LOVE MY PHONE."

 

"Hiccup loves me MORE than phone!"

 

"Yes, Toothless, I love you more than I love my phone."

 

"Yes~"

 

Hiccup sighed and turned toward his best friend.  "Toothless, what do I do?" he wailed, not actually expecting a helpful answer.  "What do I give Astrid for Valentine's Day??"

 

"Give Astrid for Val-tine Day.  What is Val-tine Day?"

 

"Val-en-tine's Day.  It's when people who love each other give each other presents to show how much they love each other."

 

Toothless immediately perked up.  "Love each other!  Give presents!"

 

"Yes, Toothless.  I can't figure out what to give--"

 

"Give presents to Hiccup!"

 

"Er--  I mean, you don't have to give me anything, bud."

 

Toothless frowned dangerously.

 

"I mean," Hiccup said quickly, "I already know that you love me, and that's great, it really is.  You don't have to give me anything or show me anything, because I already know."

 

Toothless nuzzled him lovingly, and Hiccup smiled.  "I'm just nervous because I have to give Astrid something, and I'm really, really worried I'll mess it up."

 

"Give to Astrid....  Hiccup give to Astrid, show her he loves her."  Toothless frowned.  "Astrid already knows, your Astrid that you love."

 

"Well...yeah, but...it's different."

 

Hiccup went through the stores again, this time paying attention to the prices, and his heart sank as he realized that everything which seemed like an even remotely promising Valentine's gift for his girlfriend was well outside his pathetic budget.  He realized that his first priority was not obtaining a gift, it was obtaining the means to buy one.  "Okay...how to get enough money in two weeks to buy something my girlfriend likes enough that she won't break up with me...."  He had already received and blown his paycheck for January.  "Hmmmm."

 

That night, Hiccup waited until his father was asleep and then crept into Stoick's bedroom.

 

"Queen?"

 

"Sssshhhh!"  Hiccup had forgotten about his father's new dragon partner who, like all dragons, insisted on sleeping close to his human.  Hiccup cringed as his father stirred, but Stoick remained asleep.

 

Hiccup unleashed the breath he'd been holding.  "Ssshhh, Thornado," he said in the softest whisper he could, wishing that the dragon knew more than a few words of Norse.  "No noise."  Thornado seemed confused and displeased, but submitted to his queen's orders.  He stayed silent when Hiccup covered his mouth and curled up in his bed again when Hiccup pushed him down.  The Thunderdrum's eyes still tracked Hiccup's movements as he turned away and caaaarefully picked up Stoick's wallet, eeeaaaased a credit card out of it, and caaaarefully replaced the wallet.

 

Hiccup clutched the card in his hand, holding his breath until he'd sneaked back into the hall and caaaarefully shut the door again and urgently shushed the curious Toothless who'd been waiting for him.

 

Back in his bedroom, Hiccup shoved the credit card into his own wallet, trying not to feel guilty.  He fully intended to pay his father back for every last credit he would spend on Valentine's Day, he simply needed a brief loan.

 

"Don't tell Dad~" Toothless giggled.  "Secrets sneaky, I will not say 'credit card' to Dad!"

 

"That's right.  Please don't," Hiccup said yet again.

 

The next morning, Stoick discovered that his credit card was missing, and correctly assumed it had been stolen without realizing that the thief was his own son.  He called his bank to cancel the card, was pleased to hear that no unauthorized transactions had been made in the meantime, and went to work without giving the incident a second thought or thinking to mention the matter to Hiccup.

 

After school, Hiccup hurried to the mall, then realized to his dismay and frustration that he didn't know any of Astrid's preferences for perfume or flowers or jewelry or even what kind of chocolate she liked best, not when there were so many options.  He agonized for literal hours over the decision, dragged Toothless out of numerous boredom-fueled disturbances during that time, finally made a selection, took it up to the counter - and was told that his credit card had been rejected.  "I hate Valentine's Day."

 

"I HATE SHOPPING!" Toothless howled.  "BORED BORED SO BORING, ME AND HICCUP WILL FLY A LOT AND BE HAPPY."

 

"Yes to the flying, because I totally need a pick-me-up right now...no to the happy, because my life sucks as usual...."

 

Hiccup eventually decided to work his butt off and do a bunch of odd jobs for cash, the kind of thing he'd rather smugly looked down his nose at for years because of his cool grown-up job at the lab.  Now, however, he was spending two weeks mowing lawns and babysitting and fixing people's computers, going to bed every night exhausted but rather proud of his efforts.

 

While Hiccup worked, Toothless and all the other dragons were learning more about Valentine's Day.

 

"A heart means 'I love you'!"

 

"Yeah," Hiccup said distractedly, trying to get as much homework done on the bus as he could so he could devote his afternoon and evening to making sure the Larsson toddlers got played with and fed and bathed and put to bed at a reasonable hour and didn't burn their house down in the process.

 

"I don't love this stupid not-fly bus, but I love YOU, Hiccup!"

 

"Love you, too, Toothless."  Hiccup blinked as a pink paper heart was thrust into his face.

 

"I love you," Toothless insisted.

 

Hiccup smiled a little and took the heart.  "Thanks.  Like I said, love you too."

 

Toothless held out his hand expectantly.  Hiccup looked at the outstretched hand, then back at the heart, understood, laughed, and handed the heart back.  "Hiccup loves me~!" Toothless cheered.

 

Three days later, it had become a school-wide thing.

 

Five days later, Hiccup's classmates were fed up, and they knew who to blame for it.

 

"HICCUP!" Snotlout yelled, stomping toward him down the hall, "CALL OFF YOUR STUPID DRAGONS!"  Behind him paced a mischievously grinning Hookfang, who was pelting Snotlout with cardboard hearts.  Toothless had been the one to inform his fellow dragons that a certain particular shape meant 'I love you' in Humanese, but Hookfang had been the one to figure out that overusing the gesture was a great way to tease his partner.

 

"You're not the only one who's had enough of this," Hiccup complained, shaking hearts out of his science textbook.  "I'd have stopped it before now if I could."

 

"Hiccup," Astrid called in exasperation, approaching from the opposite direction, "Stormfly found heart confetti."  Her Nadder was trailing in her wake, holding a braided lock of Astrid's golden hair and lovingly sprinkling Valentine's-themed confetti onto the hair gel it had been coated with.

 

"VERY MUCH MANY HEARTS!" Toothless screamed in delight, snatching the bag of confetti out of Stormfly's hands.  Stormfly pounced on him to get it back, and the two dragons were immediately fighting on the floor, enthusiastically cheered on by the Thorston twins at the end of the hall.  Several lockers had already been crumpled from stray hits.

 

"TOOTHLESS GET OFF OF HER," Hiccup roared, "I cannot afford to get stuck in detention again!!"  'Or to pay to have the lockers replaced....'

 

"Stormfly, cut it out!" Astrid shrieked, "Do not stoop to that Neanderthal's level!!"

 

The dragons ignored their humans, but paused of their own volition.  "I love my friend, too," Stormfly realized.  She dabbed hair gel onto Toothless's face and sprinkled confetti on the spot.  Toothless grabbed at the excess confetti on the floor, exclaiming when his sharp nails had a hard time grasping the tiny hearts off the linoleum.  "And I very much love my good queen," Stormfly purred, going over to administer some confetti love to Hiccup.

 

Snotlout laughed derisively as the confetti-bedecked Hiccup and his even-more-bedecked girlfriend exchanged longsuffering looks.  "Welcome to post-war Berk," Hiccup sighed.

 

Astrid grasped the tip of the worst of her confetti-ed braids and held it up in distaste, but after wrinkling her nose for a minute, she smiled at Hiccup.  "It does beat war-torn Berk by a long shot," she pointed out.  "I guess having a bad hair day is worth that."

 

"A really, really, really bad hair day," Snotlout snickered, not realizing that Hookfang had been applying gel to the back of his head so gently that he didn't feel it.  He did, however, feel excess confetti trickling down his neck when the Monstrous Nightmare sprinkled him.  "HOOKFANG!" he shrieked, flailing around and clawing at his neck as if the things falling into his shirt were live insects instead of hearts.

 

"Love my fun silly Snotlout human," the dragon purred.

 

"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT USING THE L-WORD IN PUBLIC."

 

o.o.o.o.o

 

Hiccup managed to earn enough money for a gift, but not for dinner at a suitable restaurant as well, so he finally decided he would invite Astrid to his own home and serve her a meal he'd cooked with his own hands.  "Dad?  Do you think I could have the house to myself for Valentine's Day?"

 

His father eyed him knowingly.  "Home-cooked meal, eh?"

 

Hiccup blushed, grinning.  "You think she'll like it...?"

 

"Women always like the personal touch," Stoick assured him.  "Don't worry, son.  I'll make myself scarce."

 

"Thanks, Dad."

 

Arranging to temporarily get rid of Toothless was a lot harder.

 

"STAY WITH MY HICCUP."

 

"Please.  Please, bud," Hiccup begged.  "It's just for one night--  Not even a night; just for a few hours--  Two hours, okay?  She probably won't mind you coming back for the rest of the night once we've had some time to ourselves; but just two hours, Toothless, please, pleeeeeaaaase, please please please, if you love me, please, just two hours alone with my girlfriend on Valentine's Day...?"  To his surprise, his impulsive idea to pick up a bunch of the hearts that had been steadily accumulating in his room over the past two weeks and offer them to Toothless worked decently well.

 

"My Hiccup loves me," Toothless said tearfully, clutching the hearts in both fists.  "TWO HOURS with his female he will court her mate make babies then I COME BACK Hiccup loves me we are happy together not go away...!"

 

"Er...."  Hiccup decided not to comment on the mating thing.  "Yeah.  Just two hours, buddy.  I'm so sorry.  I promise you can come back after that, okay?"

 

"Hiccuuuuuup...!"  Toothless was clingy and doleful for a while after that, but Hiccup was reasonably sure he would stay away long enough when the time came.

 

On February 12th, Hiccup showed up for his final babysitting job.  As per his usual practice, he set up Toothless with a video game so that the dragon hopefully wouldn't cause trouble.  He dithered with concern, but didn't protest, when eight-year-old Mich lured Toothless into his bedroom to be his gaming partner/rival.

 

At about 6:30, Hiccup put dinner on the table and called the kids in to eat.  Five-year-old Dan and six-year-old Sig came rushing in, both ravenous, pushing and shoving each other.  Dan knocked Sig into a chair before she could sit in it, giving her a bruise and making her cry.  Just as Hiccup was hurrying over to soothe her, she shoved her brother hard into the edge of the table, making him bleed.

 

Then Hiccup was running around like crazy patching up Dan and putting Sig in time-out and yelling for Mich to come to the table already and singing the 'Boo-Boo Song,' at Dan's insistence, to comfort him because "It still hurts and my mommy always sings the Boo Boo Song when I get a Band-Aid!"

 

Hiccup soon discovered that Sig had sneaked out of time-out to watch Frozen on her mom's tablet, so he had to take the tablet away and put her back in the time-out chair.  Then the dryer loudly signaled the end of its cycle, and Hiccup allowed Dan to ride him piggyback for a while as he started unloading the dryer and filling it up again with the load from the washer.  But Dan got too heavy after a while, so Hiccup made him get down, but Dan was cranky from being hungry and started throwing a tantrum.  Hiccup, exasperated, sat the boy down at the table and put a plate of food in front of him, then realized that Mich still hadn't shown up yet and that Sig was back out of time-out and eating doughnuts instead of food.  Hiccup took the doughnuts away, which prompted Sig to scream at him.

 

Frazzled and unable to deal with her at the moment, Hiccup marched to Mich's bedroom and yelled at him to stop the video game and come to dinner.  "When I reach the save point!" Mich yelled back.

 

"HICCUUUUP!" Toothless cried happily, dropping the controller and ignoring Mich's screech of protest as he bounded across the room to latch onto Hiccup.

 

Hiccup, now with a Night Fury happily clinging to his shirt, stomped back into the kitchen to find Sig emptying the entire drawer of dishtowels and knotting them together because she claimed she was going to run away and that's how princesses climbed out of their towers when they didn't have magical hair.  Hiccup didn't have time to respond because, at that moment, he noticed Dan watching the dryer window and giggling, and also that there was a strange burned-pasta-and-cotton smell in the air.  "DAN, WHY WOULD YOU DUMP A BOWL OF SPAGHETTI INTO THE DRYER, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU."

 

Hiccup put Dan in time-out and ignored the resulting tantrum so he could focus on piling the ruined laundry into a basket.  Then he stomped back to Mich's bedroom to announce that "I GUESS YOU'RE HAVING CEREAL FOR DINNER TONIGHT BUT YOU NEED TO COME TO THE KITCHEN AND EAT IT."  His next twenty minutes were spent trying to clean the dryer as Toothless drew hearts on his back (both the clothing and bare skin).

 

When Hiccup suddenly realized it was way past the younger kids' bedtime, he hurried to start the bath going and yell into Mich's room, "WHY ARE YOU STILL IN YOUR FREAKING ROOM, YOU NEED TO EAT YOUR FREAKING DINNER."

 

He dragged Dan away from the Dinobot toys he'd been playing with both during and after his fail of a time-out, and wrestled the little boy into the tub.  Hiccup was in the middle of shampooing the child's hair when he heard a crash from the living room.  He rushed there to find Sig turning innocent puppy eyes on him as she stood over one of the expensive-looking and now shattered porcelain figurines from the mantel.

 

Hiccup marched into the kitchen to fetch the broom, thrust it at Sig with orders to clean up her mess, then hurried back to the bathroom to find that Toothless was now crammed in the tub right alongside Dan, having an enthusiastic toy-boat-vs.-rubber-duck battle with boy.

 

Hiccup gave up on that and barged into Mich's room.  He ripped the game system's plug out of the wall, ignoring the boy's outraged screams, and ordered him to go EAT SOMETHING and then get ready for bed.

 

Then it was back into the living to find the broom lying beside the untouched porcelain shards as Sig, now watching TV, sang along to the opening of Sailor Moon.  Hiccup unplugged the TV and, hand-over-hand, forced the now shrieking Sig to clean up her mess.

 

As soon as that was done, he went back to the bathroom, hauled Dan out of the tub, practically attacked him with a towel, stuffed him into a pair of pajamas, and shoved him into bed without bothering to get his teeth brushed or even try to read him a bedtime story.

 

He found Sig back in the kitchen, eating yet more junk food.  He snatched the half-eaten cookies out of her hand and threw them in the trash, then hauled her over his shoulder and carried her kicking and screaming to her bedroom, putting her in her bed with no attempt to get her properly fed or bathed or changed into pajamas.

 

He marched back to Mich's room, only to find the light out and Mich curled up in bed.  He threw up his hands and went back to Dan, who was having a pillow fight with the dripping wet Toothless.  He broke that up, forced Dan back into bed, then stomped back to Sig's room because she, too, was back out of bed and currently playing with dolls.

 

In all the chaos, Hiccup never noticed that the vengeful Mich had gone to his jacket lying on the sofa, pulled Hiccup's wallet out of the pocket, removed all the cash Hiccup had spent the past two weeks earning, and replaced the wallet before sneaking back to his room and going to bed.

 

The night of February 13th, Hiccup didn't sleep very well.  It was partly because all his money had VANISHED INTO THIN AIR and he couldn't find a trace of it even though he had torn apart the house, so he now had absolutely nothing to give his girlfriend for Valentine's Day.  The other reason he didn't sleep well was because Toothless was rustling around the room, and Hiccup was too upset and tired to care about whatever mischief his dragon was up to in the dead of night this time.

 

Hiccup woke up the morning of Valentine's Day to an odd crackling noise.  Toothless was also snuggled into him rather than in his own bed, an occurrence which happened so often that Hiccup had started failing to protest.

 

Hiccup frowned as he reached for the closest crackling thing and lifted it off his cheek.  It was a paper heart.  "Toothless," he sighed.

 

Toothless stirred and smiled sleepily.  "I love you, Hiccup."

 

Hiccup propped himself up on his elbows, surveying the huge pile of hearts covering his bedding and cascading to the floor with every movement.  Toothless must have spent at least half the night cutting up every piece of hopefully-not-important paper he could find in the house.  "Yes.  I can see that."

 

Discouraged and ashamed, Hiccup asked his dad for grocery money and spent the day shopping for food, cleaning, cooking, and setting up the dining room as romantically as he could.  He also used the dregs of his bank account to buy a box of cheap Valentine's stationery and a single small rose.  He spent nearly two hours writing and rewriting, crumpling up sheets of ruined paper and tossing them over his shoulder, and not protesting as Toothless cut them into hearts and offered them to him.  Hiccup finally looked at the clock and realized that he was losing valuable cleaning / cooking / setting up time, so he finished his letter as quickly as he could, sealed it into an envelope, and got back to work in the kitchen.

 

Hiccup was a decent cook when it came to everyday stuff, but he discovered that cooking was not as easy when you had no experience with fancier fare.  "Delicious~" Toothless purred when Hiccup hurriedly turned off the stove and lifted the lid away from the foul-smelling sauce he'd just finished cooking and might have burned a little.  He'd heard the timer go off, but he had erroneously thought that finishing the frosting on the cake would only take a few seconds, he'd lost track of time....

 

Hiccup had to resist the urge to wail with dismay.  A dragon's culinary approval was usually a horrible sign, since dragon taste buds were apparently drastically different than human ones.

 

"Good food for your Astrid."

 

"That's not how my luck usually runs, but we'll see...."  Hiccup apprehensively tasted the sauce and gagged.  "UGH.  Here, Toothless, you can share this with Stormfly tonight."

 

"DELICIOUS!"

 

Needless to say, he ruined dinner.  Even the cake, though it probably tasted all right, now had a horrific misspelling in the frosting inscription that he didn't know how to fix without making it worse, and the frosting decorations looked more like maroon pieces of poop than roses.  Astrid was supposed to show up in twenty minutes.

 

"This was a horrible, horrible idea," Hiccup said bleakly, kind of wanting to cry.  "Whoever came up with the idea of Valentine's Day...I hate them."  Toothless hugged him.  Hiccup clutched him, suddenly having a much harder time fighting back the tears in response to his best friend's silent support.

 

"It's okay, Hiccup," Toothless said soothingly.  "Your Astrid loves you, she is strong and healthy, you will make good babies with her."

 

Hiccup's tears finally burst out along with his laughter.  'We aren't getting anywhere near baby-making tonight, I can guarantee that....'

 

The doorbell rang, and Hiccup slumped in Toothless's arms for a moment.  Then he pulled away, wiped his face as best he could, wondered ruefully if this was his last hour of being a boyfriend, and trudged to the door with dread sitting heavily in his stomach.

 

Astrid was so beautiful.  She was always beautiful, but she was in a gorgeous new dress and had on makeup for the occasion, the sight of her literally took his breath away.  Her smile was even more beautiful.  The way her eyes lit up when she saw him broke his heart.  "Hi babe!"

 

"Hi," Hiccup said weakly.

 

"Friiiiiiieeeeeend!" Toothless and Stormfly wailed in unison, falling into each other's arms.  "Our humans don't want us!" Stormfly lamented.

 

"They say 'Go away'!"

 

"Two hours, we will be alone without our companion and our other half for two hours, I'm so sad!"

 

"I'm sad tooooo!"

 

Hiccup and Astrid exchanged commiserative looks.  "Stormfly," he said, "I have a treat for you."

 

"STAY WITH MY ASTRID THAT I LOVE?" she demanded instantly.

 

He stared at her, taken aback.  "Uh...no, I meant--"

 

"Treat, sweet cold, this sweet cold that I love--"

 

"Sweet cold!" Toothless crowed.

 

"No," Hiccup said in exasperation, wishing he'd thought to get some ice cream to help cheer up the dragons during the separation.  "I just....  Just come here for a minute."  He went to the kitchen, packed the entire mess he'd attempted to cook into a cooler, and handed it to the dragons.

 

"What's that smell?" Astrid said, wrinkling her nose.

 

"You guys can eat that while you're out," Hiccup told Stormfly.

 

"Delicious food for YOU AND YOUR ASTRID," Toothless corrected.

 

"Trust me, neither of us wants it."

 

Astrid was starting to get a strange look on her face as she tried to puzzle out what was going on.

 

"Food for you--!"

 

"I have other food, Toothless," Hiccup snapped.  "In the refrigerator.  That's you and Stormfly's food, and our human food is in the fridge."

 

Toothless narrowed his eyes, then picked up the closest heart and pressed it into Hiccup's hands.

 

"Love you, too, bud," Hiccup said softly.  Even if the worst happened and he lost Astrid tonight, it was a comfort to know that he would never, ever lose Toothless.

 

"Good babies," Toothless told Astrid, sounding like he was giving instructions.

 

"My Astrid with her Hiccup that she loves," Stormfly sighed, and then the two dragons left.

 

There was a long pause.  Astrid finally gave an awkward chuckle.  "Wow...I kind of forgot what it's like to be this quiet."

 

"Yeah...."  Hiccup knew what she meant.  Most of the time, he didn't mind being with his dragon companion almost 24/7, and the complete absence of Toothless's presence, everything from the dragon's voice to the rustling of his wings, felt very strange now.

 

Astrid glanced over at the table and smiled.  "Nice setup."

 

At least he hadn't screwed that up too much.  The tablecloth was the nicest one his father owned, which was virtually never used; same with the good china and silverware, and Hiccup was dressed in his best suit (it was the first time he'd ever worn it for something other than a funeral).  He'd intended to have the candles lit and the dining room lights off when Astrid came in, but everything else was so messed up that it didn't matter.

 

"Astrid...I have to tell you something."  He couldn't bear to look at her.  "I really, really messed up.  I don't have a gift for you and I don't really have dinner for you, and...if you want to leave, that's fine.  I understand."

 

"Uh...what?"

 

Hiccup reached into the refrigerator for the leftover pizza that was pretty much the only thing in the house at the moment to make a meal out of.  He heated up a couple slices in the microwave and put them on the good china.  Then he looked at Astrid.  "That's all there is to eat."

 

"...Oh."  She looked taken aback and confused and disappointed, but she sat down at the table and looked at Hiccup warily.

 

He picked up his last-minute purchases and handed the flower to Astrid, which she sniffed at politely, and then the letter.  Then he slowly sat down across the table from her as she opened it.

 

Dear Astrid,

 

Just in case I haven't apologized to you already, let me apologize to you now.  I don't have a Valentine's Day gift for you, and I don't have any excuses, and I am more sorry than I know how to say.  You deserve so much better.

 

I don't want to spend this letter whining about how much I suck, because I think it's more important for me to write about you, not me.  Astrid, I've loved you for as long as I can remember, and the more time I spend with you, the more reasons I find to love you.

 

I've always admired you.  For as long as I've known you, you've been so strong and so determined to protect our people, and I've always felt so inspired by that.  As a kid, I wanted to help and be useful just like you always were, but of course your contributions to the war effort were always the best.  The first thing I have to thank you for is how hard you worked and how much better and safer Berk is because of you.

 

"I didn't mean to make you cry!" Hiccup gasped in alarm.  "I, I'm sorry, give it to me, I'll just burn it--"  His eyes widened when Astrid got up and climbed into his lap and read the rest of the letter while leaning against him with her arm wrapped around his shoulders.  He hugged her around the waist and hid his face against her hair so he wouldn't have to look at what he'd written.

 

I know how difficult it's always been here for people on the small side, and that makes you just that much more amazing that you overcame your own body AND all the prejudice.  That despite everyone telling you that you were too skinny and short to be a warrior, you proved everyone wrong and completely kicked their butts, AND you managed to keep your grades high, too.  You're always at the top of the class, the leader of the pack, the one everyone admires and wants to be like, and for such good reason.  You've earned your place, and no one could possibly be better at what you do than you are.

 

I know that everyone always gives me credit for ending the war and making peace with dragons and blah blah blah, but the truth is that Berk would still be at war if not for you, Astrid.  One of the reasons I wanted to shoot down a Night Fury in the first place was to impress you.  The day you caught us in the storefield, I was planning to run away with Toothless, and the two of us would be who-knows-where by now, far away from Berk, if you hadn't given us a chance.  I can't even imagine what it must have been like to set aside a lifetime's worth of pain and prejudice and anger (when you'd just been kidnapped, no less) and decide to trust a guy you never liked and one of your worst enemies.

 

You were the one who first realized the truth about the attacks.  You trusted me to try to handle that turning point without telling our own chief, so that I wouldn't have to put my best friend in danger.  You saved my life in the ring when Hookfang nearly killed me, you rescued me from exile, and you brought reinforcements so that I wouldn't have to ride into battle against the Red Death alone.  I wish that more people would realize how crucial you were in winning the war, because without you, all of us would probably be dead.

 

You gave me my first kiss.  And all the kisses I've had since then, of course.  I don't think you know how much that means to me.  I should probably shut up now before I say something stupid, but just know that it really means a lot to me.

 

I'm sure you already know that you're beautiful.  I'm sorry that you being so beautiful means you've always had jerks like Snotlout and idiots like me pining after you and annoying you, but I wanted to tell you that even though it might not be worth it to you, it's really, really worth it to the guy you're dating.

 

The thing is, you have always, always been beautiful, but I didn't realize until I started dating you how beautiful your heart is too.  It's like what's inside of you is reflected on the outside.  You're beautiful on the inside and out whether you're dressed up for an award ceremony or sweating in gym clothes, whether you've got makeup on or whether you just got out of bed.  Every single time I see you, I think how much I love you and how lucky I've been all these months.

 

The longer we dated, the more I realized that I never really knew the real you, but as time goes on, I've been finding out how much I was missing.  I've been realizing that you're not perfect, but that you're even more perfect because of that.  I've been realizing that as strong as you are, it takes even more strength to trust me with your weaknesses.  I've been realizing that you expect the best of the people you respect, and that now that I have your respect, I can BE what you expect me to be, I can be better than I think I am.  You probably don't realize how much THAT means to me, too.  You probably have no idea how terrifying and it exciting it is to hear someone talk about me like that, to know that someone has that sort of faith in me.

 

I want so much for you to be happy, Astrid.  I would die happy knowing that you could be happy with me.  I see you smile just because I walked in the door, and I can hardly believe it.  I hear you talking about your future with me still in it, and I almost don't dare to even think about it so I won't jinx it.  I would do anything to make you happy, and I'm always kind of afraid that I won't be enough for you after all, that maybe someday you'll find someone who can make you happier.  Then you look at me like I'm the only thing you care about in the whole world at that moment, and it's always such a relief to forget the fear for a little while.

 

I love you so much, Astrid.  I love you when you kiss me and when you yell at me, I love you when you dress up for me and when you're too comfortable to care what you look like in front of me, I love you when you hug me and tell me everything's going to be all right, and I love you when you tell me to stop complaining and get off my butt and do something about it.  I love you so much it hurts, and I'll love you no matter what happens, good or bad.  You have been my dream come true.

 

Hiccup

 

After a very, very long time, Hiccup finally whispered, "You deserve so much better.  I messed up on the gift, I messed up on the food, I messed up on--"

 

"Shut up," she mumbled into his shoulder.  He shut up.

 

After a while, she straightened up and kissed him.  There was a pause, then he murmured, "So it was a good letter?"

 

"Did you write whatever you thought I wanted to hear?"

 

"No!  I meant every word of it."

 

"Did you download it off the Internet or something?"

 

"No," he pouted.  He had worked far too hard on that letter to be accused of something so cheap.

 

She kissed him again.  "I love you so much I can't stand it."

 

"Even though I ruined Valentine's Day?"

 

She lifted the letter in one hand.  "You call this ruining Valentine's Day?"

 

"I'm...glad you like it, but I can't buy your present until I get my next paycheck in two weeks and I don't even know what to get you anyway, and there's nothing to eat except pizza and I'll have to nuke it again because it's probably gone cold now--"

 

"Hiccup.  Don't worry about it."  She smiled and held up the letter again.  "This is the best present you could have ever given me."

 

He smiled tentatively, finally relaxing.  "Happy Valentine's Day...darling," he said with an awkward smile, before grimacing at how weird the endearment probably sounded.

 

"Yes, that did sound weird, but yes, I liked it anyway," she laughed.

 

o.o.o

 

Author's Notes:  I've had the "T version" idea for a long time, but the rest of the story just occurred to me today and practically wrote itself.  I got it done in one sitting, just in time for Valentine's Day~  (Btw, since I'm posting this story this weekend and just posted something else a day or two ago, the next chapter of Carried Off will be delayed 'til Wednesday, sorry...!)

 

The thing about Astrid being Hiccup's motivation for the chain of events that eventually ended the war is from a HiccStrid fic I once read, though I have no idea what the title or author was.  It's something that I hadn't realized until I read that fic.  I can't remember if it was the same fic or a different one that pointed out it was actually Astrid, not Hiccup, who realized the "hive queen" nature of the Red Death.

 

The Valentine's Day Gift Ideas thing was an actual list I found online. XD  Not all of Hiccup's opinions were mine, btw.  (Some, but not all.)