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Hiccup looked at himself in the mirror, nodded and closed his eyes.
“I’m going to do this. I can do this. I’m going to ask the most beautiful woman of Berk to marry me.”
Hiccup opened his eyes again and looked in the mirror. He saw a tall guy with an untamed mop of auburn locks. The green eyes looked frightened and the smile under his freckled nose was little but convincing. The suit that he wore was slightly too big. His mother, Valka had pulled one of his father’s old suits from the attic and brought it to the tailor to fit it to Hiccup's size. Even though Hiccup was only a head's length shorter than Stoick, his late father, Stoick was bulky and muscular and Hiccup was… not. More accurately: quite the opposite of Stoick.
When Hiccup looked at his left foot, he started to fiddle with the pants, maybe they could cover up the loss of a limb there.
“Hey, stop the fiddling and let me get a good look at you.” Valka just walked into the room and Hiccup turned around. Valka straightened his jacket, his pants and his shirt. She took a step backwards and smiled at him.
“You got the ring?”
Hiccup crossed his hand over his heart, right where the pocket of his jacket was with the little box.
“Yes,” he said breathlessly.
Valka’s eyes started to water.
“Oh, how I wish your father could’ve seen this. My little boy is going to ask someone to marry him!”
Valka pulled Hiccup in for a hug and he patted his mother on her back and rolled his eyes.
“You’re already assuming she says yes.”
Valka pulled back.
“Why wouldn’t she? You're a match made in Valhalla!”
“Yeah, but what if she says n-”
Valka put her hand before his mouth.
“Don’t,” she said and smiled.
“Just enjoy the evening with Astrid and seize your moment when you propose, okay?”
Hiccup rolled his eyes.
“Promise me?”
Valka tilted his chin, forcing him to look at her as the light of the candle danced in her sparkling eyes.
“Alright,” he said. Valka smiled.
“That’s my boy. Now, where is that coachman? I thought I ordered him to be here at six thirty and it’s six forty five already.”
Valka left the room and Hiccup was left alone to his thoughts again. He pulled out the box and opened it.
He had thought about it a lot, but he knew Astrid wouldn’t care much for a big sparkly ring loaded with diamonds. Just to make sure he cared enough for her, he got one beautiful shining diamond on it. It was small, but it was beautiful.
Just as Hiccup was ready to leave the room, something big, black and fluffy stormed in and jumped on Hiccup.
“Hey,” he smiled as a big black dog tried to lick Hiccup’s face. “Toothless, be careful! Yes buddy, I love you too, but we wouldn’t-oh no!”
When Toothless adjusted his foot to support himself better on Hiccup, Hiccup had gotten hold of the ring and it fell out of his hands. Hiccup saw it roll on the floor and it disappeared under the drawer. Hiccup dropped to his knees and looked under the drawer for the ring. Just as he located it, he immediately tried to grab it with his hand, but missed. The ring rolled further and it stopped right beside the drawer, right where Toothless was.
The dog was interested by the sparkling diamond and sniffed the ring.
“Nononono, Toothless, that’s not edible.” Hiccup pushed Toothless aside and grabbed the ring from the floor. With his jacket he polished the diamond and quickly put it back in the box.
“What am I going to do Toothless? How will I be able to propose if I can’t keep the ring safe?”
Toothless turned his head as if to say ‘I don’t know, it was your idea’.
Hiccup smiled and shook his head.
“Yeah, it was.”
“Good evening, Mr Haddock.”
Hiccup looked up from his menu and saw Astrid Hofferson standing beside the table.
“Astrid!” Hiccup nearly fell off his chair when he jumped up to get her chair.
“Oh, please, Hiccup, don’t be such a gentleman.”
Hiccup smiled.
“But I want tonight to be perfect, please?”
Astrid smiled and let him. She looked absolutely stunning tonight, as always. However, distracted by Astrid’s beauty, Hiccup took twice to actually grab the chair and pull it back for her. He smiled awkwardly and sat down quickly. He put up his menu quickly and tried to pull himself together. He closed his eyes.
I’m gonna get this right , he repeated to himself in his head.
“Hiccup?”
Astrid pulled him out of his thoughts and looked at him. He gave her a questionable look.
“What in Thor’s name are you doing?”
Hiccup realised he was hiding in his menu, eyes closed and mouthing some words. It must have looked utterly ridiculous. He shook his weirdness off him and smiled at Astrid.
“Sorry, don’t mind that.”
Astrid raised her eyebrow, but decided not to question it any further.
The whole evening was a mess, according to Hiccup. His wine tasting went horrible, his cutlery slipped out his hands multiple times and they hadn’t started dancing yet.
“Oh, please, Hiccup, I’d love it if we would dance! Come on!” And Astrid pulled him from his chair and dragged him onto the dancefloor before he could protest.
“Astrid,” Hiccup whispered, as he felt utterly uncomfortable.
“My leg-”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take it easy. They won’t notice a thing.”
Hiccup bit his lip, but gave in. They danced for a few songs and he actually felt a bit more relaxed. But then, a swing song started and Astrid still wanted to continue. Hiccup tried to get along with Astrid, but he kept stepping on her toes. After a few painful looks, they decided to stop dancing.
“I’m so sorry, Astrid. I didn-”
“I don’t want to hear your excuses, Hiccup, it’s my fault we continued.” She stopped at their table and turned to him.
“I had a great time.” She tiptoed and gave Hiccup a short kiss on his cheek. He smiled.
“Come on, let’s have dessert!”
Hiccup paid for dinner, which Astrid insisted on sharing, but he wouldn’t have it. Living with her uncle wasn’t the best, especially since he didn’t earn enough money for them both. Astrid worked as a secretary at the town hall to get some extra money for the household, but it wasn’t much. So Hiccup insisted he would pay for this dinner. Especially because of the occasion, but she didn’t know that.
After dinner, only disaster followed. As he held the door for Astrid, he was shaking. Just as she was about to walk through the door, Hiccup accidentally let go. Astrid’s reflexes were amazing so she stopped the door, but Hiccup only felt more embarrassment.
After he apologized a million times, he walked right into a lamp post.
“Hiccup?” Astrid asked after he shook the embarrassment off him.
“Yes?”
“Are you alright?”
“Yes, ofcourse!”
“You’ve been acting funny all night. Are you sure you wouldn’t go home and get some rest? That was one nasty smack on your head.”
“Don’t worry, I’m fine. It’s just - nevermind. I wanted to take you somewhere.”
Astrid smiled.
“Of course you did.”
Hiccup raised his eyebrow, but didn’t question Astrid’s weird remark. He held out his arm and Astrid slid her hand through it.
In her sparkling eyes he saw the dancing light of the street lantern and his heart filled with warmth. Yes, even though the evening was a disaster, this was going to be perfect.
In the distance he saw the gazebo.
“Hiccup?” Astrid looked confused.
“Where are you taking us?”
“This- ahum- This is a place I haven’t been to since my father died.”
Astrid said nothing and looked around. Hiccup remembered the garden just as beautiful as this.
“Every Saturday, we went to these gardens. My father would come straight from his Saturday morning meeting and my mother would bring the picnic basket. When I was younger, my mother asked the maid to make some snacks and sandwiches. As I grew older, I prepared the food for the picnic, so everyone did their part for the family time.”
“What did your father do, then?”
“If the meeting would run late, he would stop it when it was time for him to go. Only once a week this would happen, and never during any other meeting he would stop the meeting, but this one he would. Or, in better words, they would continue without him.”
Astrid smiled.
“And you haven’t been here in seven years.”
Hiccup nodded.
“After he died, my mother and I never felt like going because…”
“It would only bring up memories.” Astrid finished his sentence.
Hiccup nodded quietly.
Astrid looked around and took up all the beauty in the gardens. Hiccup admired her with a smile and took her hand.
“Come, I have to show you this gazebo.”
“A- what?”
“A gazebo.”
Astrid’s eyes lit up when she saw it.
“Oh, Hiccup, this is beautiful!” Astrid let go of his hand and ran up to the gazebo. Hiccup, again amazed by Astrid’s beauty, thought he had to step on the chairs already but missed the step and almost fell forward. He quickly recovered and this times really walked up the stairs.
“I love it.”
Astrid took his hands, tiptoed again and gave him a kiss on his lips. Hiccup smiled.
“I love you,” he said.
“I love you too.”
They both smiled at each other.
“This is actually the place were my father asked my mother to marry him.”
Astrid’s smile grew.
“He did?”
“Yes. Mom told me he gave this big speech about love and she didn’t understand a thing what he said. Turns out he was really nervous and didn’t really know how to do it. She wanted to get a better look at the view of the garden and then turned around. There he was, on his knees, with a ring and questionable look.”
As Astrid chuckled and looked at the view, Hiccup smoothly tried to get the box with the ring from his pocket, only to find it wasn’t there. Did he put it in the pockets of his pants? Another pocket of his jacket? He slowly started to panic when he couldn’t find it. Astrid felt his distress and carefully squeezed his hand.
“Hiccup, are you sure you are okay?”
He ruined it. He lost the box with the ring and now he couldn’t properly propose to Astrid. He completely ruined it and now she would be completely disappointed. She probably already had a hunch and then nothing would happen, because he lost the ring . He could slap himself in the face right now, but all he did was freeze in panic, standing completely still.
Coming back to his senses, he looked apologetic at Astrid.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, turned around and started to run away.
“Hiccup, wait!”
On the last step of the gazebo he stopped and turned around. Astrid was on her knee and helt out a box with a ring, his ring .
“Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, will you marry me?”
Hiccup was completely gobsmacked. The first question that went through his head was where did she get the box? The second was did she knew all the time that I was going to propose? And the third was is Astrid Hofferson asking me to marry her?
But then, after he processed that all, he couldn’t care less. He wanted to ask her to marry him, but he completely ruined it. She saved him. As always. He smiled, walked up the gazebo again. Hiccup dropped to his knees, took her hands in his.
“Yes. Yes, my dearest Astrid Hofferson. I will definitely marry you.”