Hair Dying (Hiccup/Astrid)

"Just for the record, I have no idea what I'm doing." Hiccup told Astrid as she sat down In his room. They had spent the majority of the afternoon making a replica of Heather's outfit and now it was time for the finale piece of the puzzle.

Astrid's hair.

Certainly no outcast would believe that Heather would go to Berk for a week and come back with blond hair. Luckily, Gobber had a huge stash of powered, gelled, and crystallized minerals that could double for hair dye in the European areas. Hiccup dipped a finger in one of jars of black powder. The substance felt cool, damp, and grainy. He looked up at Astrid with uncertainty.

"Um, are you sure this is going to work?" He rubbed his fingers together.

"Will you just put this stuff on my hair and get it over with. We only have a few hours until I have to get going." Astrid rolled her eyes and untangled the last knot of her braid. She hadn't unbraided her hair in days, and her hair was starting to clump together. But she was sure Hiccup's room didn't have a comb and they would waste time waiting for her to get one.

As her hair fell over her shoulders Hiccup's mouth ran dry, but he didn't provide a response just yet and he placed all four of his finger in the jar and ran them onto Astrid's hair. It left a black scar-like mark on her sun-colored hair and he winced.

"Um…" he stammered again.

"Just do it, Hiccup." Astrid tapped her finger on her knee, growing impatient and nervous. "Before I change my mind."

He quickly dipped again and continued a little quicker. He winced every time he applied more to her hair but otherwise continued to work.

Silence lingered between them. Only the hitching of Hiccup's breath and Astrid's nervous finger drumming and swallows.

"So…tell me the plan again." Hiccup finally broke the silence when he was halfway done.

Astrid rolled her eyes again. She must've went over the plan with him ten times while they were making her outfit. "I go to Outcast Island dressed as Heather, you and the others fly there and wait for me to come back with the book…we go home." She gave him the short version, feeling going into detail for the tenth time was unnecessary. Hiccup stopped and walked a bit to her side to look at her.

"Hiccup." Astrid sighed.

"I just don't feel like this is a good idea to send you in there alone. Alvin already tried to capture you once, and who knows what he'll do on his own turf."

"That's a risk we're going to have to take if we want to get the book back." Astrid said robotically.

"A risk you're going to have to take, Astrid." Hiccup sighed and put down the jar for a second before walking in front of her; his eyes serious. "This isn't even your fight. It's…." he swallowed. "It's my fault the book was taken because I wouldn't listen to you."

Astrid swallowed as well. In the past week it had almost seemed like her and Hiccup were forcing themselves to be normal, forcing their friendship not to falter because of a misunderstanding. Their bond—whatever it was—was much stronger than that.

But hearing him bring it up sent and unsettling chill down her spine. Whatever had lied dormant within her was bubbling up into Astrid's throat, and it left a bad taste in her mouth.

Hiccup watched the emotions dance across Astrid's face and his eyes twitched in apprehension. He knew he should've apologized days ago, but something within him told him that it was better to forget and ignore than to bring it up.

They locked eyes, and the unsettled feeling continued for both of them.

"I'm sorry, Astrid." Hiccup said suddenly and he looked away immediately after uttering it.

Astrid's breath hitched and she continued to stare at Hiccup while he darted his eyes every which way but at her. She almost glared at him, but stopped herself.

"Don't be…." She finally rested on, even surprising herself. "Just…let's get my hair finished. It's still getting late."

"Yeah…." Hiccup still didn't meet her gaze as he grabbed the jar and went back to applying it to her hair, a little more carefully than before but he still managed to finish after another half hour of diligent work and awkward silence.

Without a word, Hiccup walked over to the chest near his bed and pulled out a small shark bone comb and brought it over to her hair. Astrid's eyes widened as she realized he actually did have a comb in his room. She almost smiled to herself…no wonder his hair was always less messy than Snotlout's or Tuffnut's.

It felt kind of nice having his hands and the comb running through her hair and Astrid immediately closed her eyes, humming in contentment beyond her own will apparently, but Hiccup was still silent. With clumsy fingers he pulled a large portion of her hair to the left of her and began to braid it. Hiccup wasn't the best at braiding, but he could figure it out. Besides, his fingers were already messed with the black powder, while Astrid's weren't.

"Alright," Astrid stood as soon as Hiccup bound off her braid and whipped her bangs out of her eyes only to have them fall back as always. "I'm ready."

"No…you're not." Hiccup shook his head and with breathed laughed. "Your bangs, Astrid." He pointed to them, while now black, they were still her signature. He raised the comb up and moved towards her. "Hold still."

He combed back her bangs, tucking them into her hair and applied just a tad more dampened powder to make the short crops of hair stick together. "That should hold for good while." He smiled to himself, proud of his work and placed the jar and comb down.

He looked over at the bed where the replica of Heather's garments laid and back at Astrid. "Well…I should go round up the others on the beach and tell them the new plan…it's almost sundown."

"Y-yeah…." Astrid's eyes darted this time, smoothing some of the loose hair on her right side behind her ear. At that waviness of her hair on the side of her face would take some getting used to, but the way Hiccup kept glancing over at her helped her feel confident that her hair was convincing enough.

She couldn't tell if Hiccup was still enamored with Heather or not…but whatever it was about her all the guys found her attractive, and Hiccup was no exception.

Hiccup passed her but stopped on the first step, turning back to look at her.

"You…" he started, catching her attention before continuing. "You look nice Astrid." He told her.

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Psh…why? Because I look like Heather?" Her tone was bitter as she crossed her arms and she wished she hadn't reacted in such a way, but it was already so heavily engrained in her.

But Hiccup only smiled and shook his head. "No." He turned away, heading down the stairs as he uttered his next sentence. "Because you finally have the hair out of your eyes…"

Even though his back was turned to her, Astrid knew that Hiccup could tell she was grinning like an idiot at that point. She tried hard to regress it, but after she heard the door close and she was alone in Hiccup's room with nothing but her new hair and a set of replica clothes, she didn't even bother to hide her blushing grin.