Astrid hadn't been feeling well. The other day hadn't been too bad, but now, as she lay in bed with a splitting headache and the scratchiest throat she had ever had in her life, she believed that she had never felt worse. The warmth of her bed did not feel warm enough and she had the growing desire to gather more blankets and completely submerge herself in their warmth.

However, from out of the spiral of hell that Astrid was drowning within, she heard the faint sound of something buzzing. It was a low, soft sound, and Astrid wasn't sure that she heard it. Nevertheless, she reached up to her bedside table and grabbed the object.

Her phone lit up with several notifications, her mind vaguely aware of the time stamped on the lock screen of her phone. But Astrid was more concerned with the name who had been texting her incessantly all morning. Messages that she had apparently slept through.

It was now late morning, and Hiccup had been messaging her since around 9 a.m. when they both would normally wake up. However, Astrid had slept through his notifications and only managed to look at them nearly 2 hours later.

So, it wasn't all that surprising when she saw his name pop up on her phone telling her that he was trying to call her. With a heavy sigh and an immense amount of effort, Astrid sat up in bed and accepted the call.

"Astrid? Oh, thank god! I was so worried. Are you okay?" Hiccup's worried voice called out from the other end. Astrid smiled at his concern, her heart momentarily warmed by his worried voice.

"I'm..." Astrid struggled to get the words out, her throat closing around itself and silencing her. She cleared her throat violently, the action causing shoots of pain to tickle her throat. "I'm not doing great." Astrid finally admitted, knowing that lying to Hiccup was useless.

"Do you need me to get you anything?" Hiccup asked softly, concern seeping into his voice. The fact that he was offering to get Astrid what she needed made Astrid feel warmer than she had earlier.

She appreciated his efforts and found herself falling for him a little more.

"You don't have to get me anything, Hiccup. Just go to class, I'll be alright." Astrid assured him, not wanting him to make any sacrifices in his life just for her.

"Astrid," Hiccup said sternly, his words cutting off any further arguments from Astrid. "You are my girlfriend, I want to take care of you. If I didn't then what kind of a boyfriend would that make me? I want to do something for you, to make you feel better in whatever way I can. Please, let me take care of you, m'lday." Hiccup was almost pleading with her, waiting for her to accept his help and let him in.

Astrid knew that if she told Hiccup no for a final time, he would give up. Not easily, but he would. He respected her, and if she didn't want him there, then he would have to live with it. But as she looked around herself, calculating her own pain levels and the distance to the kitchen and bathroom in her house, Astrid knew that she couldn't do it alone.

"Can you get me some cold medicine, like the sore throat kind? And maybe some painkillers too." Astrid asked, accepting Hiccup's offer without beating around the bush. Astrid could almost feel the smile that was most likely spreading on Hiccup's face from her surrender.

"Of course. Want me to get you anything to eat? Some soup perhaps?" Astrid's stomach grumbled at the prospect of food, and her throat seemed pleased at the idea of something warm soothing its itchy inflammation.

"Please," Astrid replied weakly, her energy slowly depleting as they spoke. Her head felt dizzy, and she struggled to stay up in bed.

"Okay, you rest. I'll be there soon. Love you." With that, the call ended and Astrid let her phone fall from her hands. Just as quickly as she had awoken that morning, she fell right back to sleep and let the darkness of sleep consume her.

***

"How's the soup?" Hiccup asked as he tried to offer Astrid another spoonful. 

Hiccup had arrived less than half an hour ago, and he hadn't stopped fawning over Astrid since he arrived. He was stuck to her side like glue, there for her every beck and call. Although Astrid appreciated and loved the attention, it did feel a bit much.

So, finally having enough of his suffocating affection, Astrid took the spoon from his hand and started to feed herself. "I just have a cold, I'm not paralysed." She remarked as she started feeding herself the bowl of soup, which was delicious.

Hiccup chuckled to himself as he watched Astrid eat the soup. Smiling to himself, he started to clean up after her, collecting discarded tissues and throwing them away before rearranging the blankets of her bed and the pillows behind her head.

"I just like taking care of you. Is that a crime?"

"No," Astrid replied softly through a mouthful of hot soup. "But it is a little much. Your affections are almost as suffocating as my sore throat." Astrid joked, chuckling to herself before bursting into a small coughing fit.

Hiccup was quick to offer her a tissue and subtly shook his head.

"I know you're quick to insult me, but there's no need to get yourself into a coughing fit to get back at me." Hiccup commented, holding out the tissues towards her and waiting for Astrid's coughs to subside before putting it back in its place.

Astrid finished her soup in relative silence, not willing to comment on Hiccup's behaviour after that painful coughing fit earlier and remained quiet. Hiccup found it mildly amusing at her efforts to stay quiet, knowing how much Astrid loved to talk and tease him.

But not wanting her to feel too down about herself, Hiccup decided to cheer her up. "How about we watch a movie? I have my laptop with me." Hiccup raced around the bed to where he had left his backpack to quickly retrieve his laptop.

"Sure, that would be nice," Astrid replied, her voice slightly weak from the earlier coughing fit. She attempted to keep her voice low, so as to not encourage another coughing fit and watched Hiccup bend over his backpack to silently appreciate the view.

Hiccup looked over his shoulder to see Astrid's eyes focused somewhere nowhere near his head and smiled to himself.

"Good to see that you are still your normal self despite the cold, Astrid." Hiccup chuckled, finally standing up and walking over to the bed with his laptop and charger in hand.

"What?" Astrid shrugged, "I am still a woman. I can appreciate a good view when I see one." They both let out a series of light giggles at her words.

It was how their relationship went, a constant back and forth of teasing one another. Astrid liked it like that. It brought an element of relaxation and familiarity to everything, as though they were two friends who really enjoyed each other's company. Two friends who really like kissing each other, amongst other things.

Hiccup set up the laptop and snuggled up beside Astrid, taking up some of the blankets as he did so. Astrid wanted to complain, but couldn't find the energy within herself to do so.

"You pick the movie." Hiccup offered, opening up Netflix and allowing Astrid to choose the movie.

With a beaming smile, Astrid leaned forward and scrolled through the endless lists of titles. At one point, she was scrolling so fast through them that Hiccup was sure that she wasn't actually reading their titles.

Soon, she came to a stop at one title in particular that Hiccup recognised as a horror film. "Let's watch this one," Astrid announced with a mild hint of excitement before letting the movie play.

Hiccup, on the other hand, felt an uncomfortable feeling of dread settling in his stomach and he shuffled about beside Astrid. He didn't run away, he wouldn't. But he was very tempted to as the movie began to play. He didn't like horror films, and he would never understand why Astrid did.

Whenever she offered to take them out to movies to watch a horror title, Hiccup would either duck out at the last minute or fake an emergency so that he wouldn't have to stay and watch. He hated abandoning her, but he had an equal hate of horror movies.

So, now, he was sitting on Astrid's bed watching a horror movie, and he could not think of a single way to escape. He was trapped, and his secret would soon be revealed. Hiccup dreaded to know what Astrid would think of him when she found out.

It didn't take long, however, as the first jumpscare of the movie appeared on screen and caused Hiccup to audibly yelp and flinch in response. Astrid froze for a moment, not believing that such a sound had just erupted from Hiccup's throat. His hand was quick to slap over his mouth to silence any more sounds. But from his reaction, Astrid was sure that she had heard right.

Turning to him slowly, Astrid furrowed her brow and tried desperately to subdue her smile. Looking over to him, Astrid saw Hiccup with his eyes tightly shut, and his hand slapped over his mouth in terror.

Astrid couldn't help but let out a sputter of laughter, which soon fell into a mild series of coughs. Hiccup peeked one eye open to see Astrid's reaction, and was slightly confused.

"What?" Astrid was quick to silence herself, yet her smile refused to fade away.

"Nothing," Astrid replied, shaking her head softly and trying to ignore how cute she thought Hiccup was at that moment.

Hiccup noticed her failed attempts to recover herself, "What is it? You're laughing."

"Nothing. Honest." Astrid replied, letting a small chuckle fall from her lips.

Hiccup cursed himself, knowing that Astrid had seen his reaction and knew that the facade of himself that had been created was falling apart. He hated horror movies even more than before.

Suddenly, a loud sound erupted from the laptop, along with the sudden appearance of the monster, and Hiccup dove behind Astrid's back in a panic. His scared reaction caused Astrid to burst out in laughter, followed by a series of coughs, which didn't falter her amusement.

"Is it gone?" Hiccup asked, still hiding behind Astrid's back. 

Astrid quickly composed herself and turned to look at him over her shoulder with a smile still plastered on her face. "It's gone."

"Really? Are you sure?" Hiccup asked, still refusing to come out from behind Astrid's back.

With an exasperated, but amused sigh, Astrid turned to grab and drag him out of his hiding place and back to his place beside her. "It's really gone." She assured him as she put him back in his place.

Her smile never faltered.

"I'm sorry," Hiccup apologised, lowering his head in shame and causing Astrid to immediately pause the move. She looked at him with furrowed brows, concerned and confused by his sudden apology.

"What are you apologising for? It's just a movie, I'd think if you didn't get scared then the directors haven't done their job." 

"No, it's not that, well, it kind of is. But not exactly." Hiccup stuttered, unable to get to the point.

Astrid sighed, "Hiccup. You're rambling again."

He often did that. Words just seemed to flow out of him with barely any control. He needed to stop doing that, but Astrid was always quick to catch him when he did.

"Right, sorry."

"Stop apologising, and get to the point, or I will cough on you." Astrid warned as her laughter from earlier was completely forgotten about.

"It's just... I'm not the cool, brave guy that you thought I was. I can't handle scary movies. I probably seem like a complete loser to you right now." Hiccup was very good at doing himself down, he would never give himself the credit he deserved.

So, Astrid knew she needed to tell him the truth quickly before he spiralled any further.

"Hiccup. I've never thought of you like that."

"Really? You don't think I'm a loser?" Hiccup asked hopefully. Astrid gave him a knowing smile, one that she often used when teasing him.

"No, I meant, I've never seen you as cool or brave." Hiccup's face fell and Astrid let out a soft chuckle in response. So, she continued. "Hiccup, you don't need to pretend to be the man that you think I want. You've never needed to be anyone but yourself. I don't mind if you don't like horror films, we can watch something else. It's fine." Astrid smiled, lifting up a tentative hand and stroking his hair. The feel of the auburn locks tangling with her fingers gave her a sense of soothing warmth that she always felt when she was around Hiccup.

She had just always hoped he'd felt the same around her.

"Thank you, Astrid." Hiccup smiled, taking her hand away from his hair and linking them together. "You always know exactly what to say."

Astrid's smile soon fell into laughter again and she couldn't help herself. Hiccup was confused by her sudden change and asked her what was wrong. Astrid struggled to speak through her laughter.

"You're really funny, Hiccup." Astrid fell onto Hiccup's body, hugging him lightly. "And you're really cute when you're scared." She muttered into his shirt as she hugged him.

Hiccup smiled back and wrapped his arms around her, trapping Astrid in his embrace.

The night continued to pass, with a new movie selected, and soon Astrid was falling asleep once more. Hiccup put her to bed for the night and left her in peace for tomorrow.