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

"You ran like a thousand boars we're about to eat you alive."

(A/N: I decided to continue the story for a few more chapters; the previous ending has changed a little to where Astrid runs from Tuffnut at the end of the duel. Thanks.)

Enormous clouds curtained the Sun and cloaked the island of Berk with a somber coloration in spectrums of dark blue, violet, pink, and faded ivory. The crowd of villagers emptied out from the arena in droves and chattered about what they had witnessed. Their excitement faded quickly as they departed the stadium and then the Hooligans continued their late afternoon by heading back to the central town to carry on with their normal tasks for the day. The sky became overcast and the icy sea surrounding the arena began to toss and turn, and then the air thickened with moisture from the frothy, upwelling ocean mists. The clouds edged grey-blue and the village prepared for an expected rain. If a downpour began, the rain would fall as sleet or snow from the temperature of the season, and no one knew which form would sprinkle upon them first. All the while, Ruffnut searched and called for Astrid in the mass of people and could not find her.

The bakers and butchers from the event passed Ruffnut as they hefted away their carts, and this gave off a true impression to Ruffnut that the arena was slowly morphing back into the empty location it had been for most of the year, and all who had been there were returning to their own places and were to never be seen in gathering for the next long while of the winter, as Ruffnut feared Astrid would be when Astrid had suddenly disappeared without notice. Ruffnut still could not see Astrid but she assumed Astrid had run home. A villager bumped into Ruffnut on pure accident, and Ruffnut apologized first, for she had been the one with her boots glued in the middle of the boardwalk from the arena like a lost puppy.

Ruffnut tantrummed for a brief moment with a finite stomp of her boot. Once again, Astrid had left her hanging. Ruffnut knew Astrid was acting highly unusual lately since her separation from Hiccup, but even this surprised her. Ruffnut missed the Astrid that could tell her anything she was thinking instead of running off and hiding all of her feelings. How was she supposed to explain her friend's wild mood swings to her little brother, who had looked so cute when he had been excited to have seemingly won Astrid's adoration even over Hiccup? She couldn't excuse Astrid's action away, not without Astrid's help, or it wouldn't seem genuine, and it didn't help that Tuffnut could read her like a book.

On the boardwalk from the arena that bridged the ocean that surrounded the perimeter of the stone island of Berk, straight-beam torches that were mounted against the boardwalk's rocky armrails continued to flame orange, creating a mood against the dim blue of the afternoon that, with the emptied volume of people, gave the picturesque appearance of a lonely seaside vigil. Ruffnut stood alone there and had little idea of what to do.

Tuffnut ran up to Ruffnut who looked pensive. The puppet of Belch on his helmet stilled its flapping as he galloped his armored feet softly before his sister he had just spotted after some careful scanning of the area.

"What happened? Where is she?" Tuffnut asked Ruffnut at close range, only a bit winded and with his words hopeful for an immediate explanation. He removed his helmet and tucked it into his elbow. His features had dimmed under the rainclouds that had threatened to leak overhead. His eyes had nearly become cobalt in the new lighting, and Ruffnut thought it made her brother look more dejected than he probably was, much in the same way that the change in weather had increased the angst of the surprising disappearance of Astrid; it seemed to create a void in the joyous afternoon that had funneled in the rainclouds to appear. Yet, there was nothing that Ruffnut thought they should be too sad about. Tuffnut had won the duel and Ruffnut thought he had done an excellent job. For the moment, she didn't want to overwhelm Tuffnut with grave possibilities that he had done his best all for nothing.