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

Epilogue

The clouds were bright in the morning of the new day of spring on Berk. Tuffnut raced forward on Belch over lapping waves of a colossal navy carpet of ocean.

Astrid held tight to Barf, who had his neck forward to zap him across the sea. The two Vikings were on their way to nowhere, off exploring a distant island at Astrid's suggestion.

Tuffnut felt wind zip through the seams of his vest. The wind soothed his skin and he closed his eyes once to feel it. Belch's expansive, green wing past Tuffnut's boot skimmed the ocean's frothy surface that looked like feathery diamonds that became vapor in the warm air.

Astrid barreled water in front of her fingertips and made the surface flying near Belch's wing buzz. She adored the scent of the water's brine that had marinated for decades in the sediments of the mountain-forms that jutted from the water. The smell of salt was light in the warm atmosphere of the morning. It was almost a too-perfect day for flying solo with Tuffnut for the first time.

Astrid squealed when water slapped her nose. She turned to Tuffnut and saw his blue eyes fold in giddy crinkles. His locks ribboned behind his head in chaotic streams from the wind, and his smile looked as if it were just for Astrid's eyes and no one else's. Tuffnut snickered loudly when Astrid pummeled water in his face in return. Astrid shrieked when water deluged her hair and plugged her nostrils.

Just before Astrid had her revenge, Tuffnut led Belch to a higher altitude. Astrid released pressure from Barf's neck as Ruffnut had showed her to allow Barf to ascend freely and quickly into the clouds alongside Belch and higher into the heat of the Sun.

Barf and Belch circled above a lone atoll on an island that Tuffnut and Astrid chose to land on.

Tuffnut didn't take much concern about how wet his hair and tunic had gotten. He had been worser for wear in his just-for-fun flights with his sister.

"Oh, will y'give it a rest?" Tuffnut chuckled to Astrid as he made way onto the island. "Gods, you wouldn't last a day with me and Ruffnut." He cleaned water from his face with his hands. He gave his hair a brief shake and nothing more. Astrid, however, was intent on wringing her locks dry. The sun made her blonde hair glint in his eyes.

Astrid picked up the large cloth she had set at her feet. She lashed out with a grin to the culprit of her soaked clothes, "what're you looking at?!"

"You." Tuffnut said with a small shrug, with an obvious eye to her as they strolled along.

Astrid blinked blankly.

Tuffnut smiled weakly, in some small satisfaction that she was responsive to his lame attempts to be forward. Tuffnut was still learning the careful dance of words around the girl who once was his comrade in routine dragon-raids and who had now become his maiden to court all on his own. He was sure she was learning, too.

"Oh." Astrid peeped in realization that Tuffnut was flexing his flirtatious side again. The playful mood between them from the flight had taken a shift, and her heart pulsed in her chest, and her fingers tingled as she roped her stringy, loose locks into a plait while he openly admired her. She smiled discreetly and hoped the day would end as nice as it was starting. She lagged behind him to finish knotting her hairbow.

"Hey-is this spot okay?!" Tuffnut called from a distance ahead. "It's the only place where we can sit in a bunch of ants."

"Anywhere but there," Astrid said.

"You're no fun!"

Astrid rolled her eyes from habit. She observed the clearing and led Tuffnut to a better spot. There was space for her spread and for the dishes she had made for their picnic. There was one thing missing. "You didn't lose the basket, did you?!"

On command, a loaded picnic basket plopped from the sky from its balance atop Belch.

Thank you, Loki, Tuffnut prayed. "Guess not. C'mere," Tuffnut said. He reached his arms upward to help Astrid sit beside him.

They started on the lunch they had prepared together. Tuffnut thought Astrid's meal of meatcake and rye was horrible, but luckily young goats were attracted to their picnic and were greedy to accept Tuffnut's secret offerings.

The plain breadcookies Tuffnut had made soothed his and Astrid's tastebuds with softly churned butter, sifted flour, and fresh eggs from the Thorstons' geese. They shared a flask of goatmilk and often got liquid caught in their nose when laughing at the same memories from last winter, most notably when they rowed around in circles on a riverboat because they both hadn't paddled a basic canoe in years, thanks to their dragons.

Birds chirped and tweeted from their nests of the deserted place's brush, reminding Astrid of how secluded they were from the village after they had packed away their picnic scraps. Tuffnut appeared to share her thoughts by the calm and experimental way his fingers brushed her hand beside him.

Astrid reciprocated his advances, and she felt like a foreign creature in his hands from how unsure his touches were. He was clueless, but it was commendable to Astrid that he was trying to comfort her. She guided his hand to her folded knees and his fingers brushed the face of her covered thighs. Astrid saw Tuffnut's clan-rings gleam under her fingers in a strip of sunlight that fell over her lap.

"You like them?" Tuffnut whispered to Astrid with a smirk. She looked as if she wished to ask about his rings or wondered why he had began to wear them since the winter. He had finished his coming-of-age trials, and had authority to display he was a bachelor. He had thought of officially announcing Astrid someday to his clan as the woman he would choose to spend his life with, if she would have him.

"Yeah," Astrid replied. Tuffnut's question to her had an innocent yet imperceptible tone that made Astrid think he would ponder her answer in his sleep. With a tenderness she didn't expect, Astrid spoke, "I love everything about you."

Tuffnut blinked slowly, slightly blindsided from such a comment that no girl had ever dared to breathe to him. He barely made time for eye contact when their lips shaped gently together. His weight shited steadily above Astrid and lowered her to the warm grass of the atoll.

Tuffnut's fingers synched together and pressed her waist near his tunic. Astrid felt a spark of pleasure from the contact and her voice made a small note below him that made her blush. Consciously or unconsciously, she chewed her lip. She was becoming vulnerable with Tuffnut the more time she spent with him, and she felt freer that way.

She felt a vibration from Tuffnut's middle that sounded happy. Then, she felt a light breath from his nose that endured between them like a sigh of wonder. She rested her palms above his shoulders and followed the gentle movements of his lips. She heard Tuffnut's breath accelerate when she relaxed and smiled into their kiss.

The wind sailing around them amplified in sound. Astrid heard the roar of the ocean from far below as the water crashed against the rocks of the land's base. After a while, they both tapered apart. Their hands folded at their sides.

"I'm never gonna get used to that," he whispered with his eyes closed soundly near Astrid's head.

"Me neither," Astrid stuttered in a breath. She saw Tuffnut's eyes face her softly, and she raised to meet him once more.