One of my favorite tropes, and one I most enjoy associating with Hiccup x Elsa, is the idea that she is a force of nature far more powerful than she could ever imagine, while he is just an incredibly stubborn man.
I find it interesting to see Elsa as the one who falls in love first, captivated by the "ordinary" things Hiccup doesācooking, sewing, drawing, even simply breathing, or sometimes bleeding. The idea that someone with so much power could be drawn to the heroic qualities of a man who does good not because there is something to gain from it, but because he genuinely and consciously wants to help others.
She would find his way of loving fascinating. He doesn't touch her with fear or caution; instead, he treats her as if he were the one meant to protect her. There is something deeply compelling in that.
Hiccup, in turn, would see Elsa as a leader who thinks with a cool head, who restrains herself to avoid hurting others, and who helps keep him strongānot only when it comes to fighting, but also when it comes to protecting the people who depend on him.
The celebration began even before the dust had settled.
The inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest surrounded Elsa almost immediately. Grateful voices were raised everywhere. Some congratulated her, others excitedly recounted what they had seen during the mission, and more than one insisted that the forest once again owed them its tranquility.
Elsa tried to respond with a smile. However, Elsa realized that the man in dragon scale armor had disappeared, she saw him cross through some bushes with urgency, as if something was insisting that she come closer. Although Elsa wanted to ignore it, something called her too, worried? It was something I hadn't felt in a long time. Following the trail she had seen Hiccup on, she clearly remembered Hiccup's arm around her as they turned down the hill. It was unnecessary, she has fallen from higher places and without a single scratch, but Hiccup couldn't stop being a hero for just a minute.
She noticed that Hiccup's helmet was on the ground, not left delicately as he always used to do and criticize when they didn't; Now it was lying on the ground in despair.
Then she saw him, kneeling before the riverās edge, cutting a scrap of cloth with his daggerāthe blade flashing silver in the afternoon light. Hiccup first wiped the blood from his face and using the reflection of the lake he tried to clean the wound, but it was very complicated to do. The river was cold, but not nearly cold enough for a proper compressāshe knew that instinctively, the way one knows the taste of winter air before the first snow falls.
Hiccup heard Elsa's footsteps approaching him and turned his head. They both saw each other for a moment, but Elsa did not flinch, she continued walking towards him and calmly and politely sat down next to him, she raised her hand delicately, palm up. "May I?" she asked, her voice quiet but carrying the weight of commandānot the sharp-edged kind, but the kind that glaciers wield when they carve mountains.
Hiccup hesitated, fingers tightening around the damp cloth he'd torn from his tunic. Blood dripped from his temple onto his wrist, stark against the pale skin. He could feel the water from the lake seeping into the fabric, lukewarm and useless. "It's notā" he started, but Elsaās gaze cut through his protest like winter wind.
Hiccup sighs and gives her the cloth, his fingers brushing hersābriefly, accidentallyābut the contact sends a jolt up his arm anyway. Elsa takes it without comment, turning the fabric over in her hands. She exhales, and frost spirals from her fingertips, crawling across the cloth in delicate, branching patterns. The water stiffens into tiny crystals, the linen stiffening with cold. Hiccup watches, transfixed, as her magic worksānot the wild, explosive bursts heās seen in battle, but something precise, controlled. The way a blacksmith might temper steel.
She presses the compress to his temple, and the cold bitesāsharp, immediateābut then the pain dulls, replaced by a numbness that spreads like ink in water. Elsaās fingers are careful, methodical, dabbing at the cut with a gentleness that belies the ice in her veins.
Hiccup tries not to flinch, but his breath hitches anyway, trying to focus on anything but the cold press of the cloth against his wound. It's futile. His gaze driftsāfirst to Elsa's fingers, long and pale, moving with the precision of a surgeon. Then higher, tracing the delicate bones of her wrist, the faint blue veins beneath skin like porcelain. He notices everything: the way the sunlight catches in the loose strands of her platinum hair, silver-white against the muted green of the forest. There are freckles dusted across her nose, so faint he might've missed them if he werenāt staringātiny constellations, like snowflakes frozen in time.
Her skin is flawless, unmarred by scars or sun, and it strikes him as impossible. He's spent years among warriors and dragons; everyone bears marks. But Elsaāshe's carved from something else, something untouched. He wonders, absurdly, if sheād feel as cold as she looks.
Then Hiccup looks at her eyesāice blue, impossibly clear, like glacial water frozen mid-cascade. The rest of her had seemed untouchable, but thisāthis was worse. Her gaze held the weight of centuries, depths he couldnāt fathom. Heād seen dragons with eyes like that, ancient and knowing, but never human. Never someone who looked at him like he was worth seeing.
Elsa, for her part, didnāt notice at first, was tryingāand failingāto focus solely on the task. His skin was warmer than sheād expected. Alive in a way that defied the winter in her veins. She traced the cut with careful precision. The blood was darker than she rememberedāhuman blood, not the shimmering essence of spirits. Sheād almost forgotten how fragile skin could be, how easily it split. Her own hadnāt bled in years. But Hiccupās did. His pulse thrummed beneath her fingertips, warm and insistent, a rhythm at odds with the stillness she carried.
Then she felt itāthe weight of his stare. Not the awed glances of villagers or the wary eyes of those who feared her magic. This was different. Unflinching. Curious. She lowered her gaze and met hisāgreen, not the vibrant hue of summer leaves but the muted shade of moss clinging to winter stone. Alive. Tired. So painfully human. And his eyesāgods, his eyes.
They stayed like that for a moment longer than either intendedālocked in a silence that felt heavier than the forest around them. Elsa then got lost in Hiccup's eyes, they were not perfect, they had imperfections, imperfections that made them unique, imperfectly perfect, something she had never seen before, she found itā¦ beautiful.
The pain flared then, sharp enough to make his vision white out for a second. He gritted his teeth, fingers digging into his knee, but he didnāt pull away. He couldnāt. He didn't want to look away and lose a moment of Elsa's gazeāthose impossible eyes, the way they flickered like sunlight through ice. And it seemed they were getting closerāor maybe he was leaning in. He wasn't sure anymore.
Until finally the pain won and Hiccup flinchedāa sharp gasp escaping him before he could bite it back. His hand jerked instinctively toward his temple, fingers brushing Elsa's wrist as he recoiled. The contact was brief, accidental, but it shattered the fragile stillness between them like thin ice underfoot. Elsa's fingers stilled mid-motion, the cold cloth pressed against his wound suddenly forgotten. For a heartbeat, neither breathed.
"Iā" Hiccup began, but the words died in his throat when Elsa withdrew her hand. She looked away first, breaking the spell with deliberate grace.
"We should go back," she murmured, her voice softer than snowfall. "The others will be waiting." She folded the bloodstained cloth neatlyātoo neatlyāas if it were a shield between them. "The wound isn't deep. It'll heal."
Hiccup reached for her wrist before he could stop himself. His fingers closed around her sleeve, careful not to touch skin. "Wait." The word sounded almost like a plea, rough-edged and unplanned. He swallowed, throat dry. "Pleaseā¦ stay." The request lingered between them, fragile as snowfall on bare branches.
Elsa hesitated. She should leaveāshould pull her hand from his grasp, stand, and walk back to her people, but she didnĀ“t, instead she sighed and sat back down, closer this time. Close enough that Hiccup could see the faint rise and fall of her chest beneath the intricate embroidery of her gown.
Elsa placed the palm of her hand on Hiccup's cheek that was freeāhalf to hold him and half to feel the warmth of his skināand pressed the cloth back against his temple. Their knees brushed, barely, but neither moved away. The fabric hissed faintly as frost crystallized along its edges, but the cold didn't matter now. What mattered was the way Hiccup's breath hitchedānot from pain, not this timeāwhen her thumb traced the arch of his cheekbone, smearing away a streak of dirt. She told herself it was practical. Necessary. A lie so thin the wind could've torn it apart.
Hiccup, for his part, had stopped pretending to look at the wound altogether. Her gaze traced the curve of Elsa's lower lip, the way it trembled when she exhaled, like snow shaken from a branch. They both exchanged glances appreciating each other's minute details, until they both felt they were getting too close, but there were no complaints.
