Turnabout is fairplay

Everyone in the isle of Berk knew that the Thorston twins did not look alike.

That being said, it was absolutely impossible to mistake one twin for the other.  

However, that wasn't the case at all when they were younger.

Waaaaay back when, to a time that Hiccup's generation can barely remember, with no rippling muscles and boyish features to distinguish the male twin from the female one, her hair not yet long enough for the waist length braids to become Ruff's trademark, little Tuffnut refusing to cut his shoulder length blond locks, stubbornly claiming that by having longer hair, Ruffnut was better than him and little Ruffnut refusing to wear skirts and dresses, it was almost impossible not to mistake one twin for the other.  

It took a solid 5 years for the people to finally manage to recognize which twin was which. But before that 5 year mark, everyone had suffered through embarrassing experiences regarding the twins and mix ups. Some people suffered more extreme humiliation than others.

Hiccup had been one of those people.

He, Snotlout, Astrid, Fish legs and the twins had all been 6 at that time and in those days, if you can believe it, Hiccup had not been one of those boys who followed Astrid around all sighing and goo goo eyed, carrying ugly little uprooted flowers to get the golden-haired girl to notice them.

No, back then…well, he had an interest in pretty, long haired, blue eyed blondes too, it's just that…he was interested in the other blue eyed blonde girl in the island who was his age.

Yes, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, son of chief Stoick the vast, had a crush on non other than the female Thorston twin, Ruffnut Thorston.

Even to this day he couldn't figure out how in Odin's name that happened, but anyway,

Snotlout always made fun of him for liking a girl who could and would gladly dismantle him with her bare hands, should he ever give her flowers or tell her she's pretty and made endless comments about how much stronger she was than him, how much taller, braver, ruthless, and the list went on and on. Even at 6, Hiccup was smarter than the average Viking and he got the point. Okay so he was scrawny, whimpy and small and Ruffnut probably has more 'manliness' than he could ever achieve and he does not stand a chance in hell. He knew that and he made sure to tell Snotlout that, but Snotlout, being the stereotypical mean cousin just went ahead and reminded him every single day of his miserable little life anyway.

Had he been older and more mature he would've just ignored his meathead of a cousin and he did for a bit but he was just 6 at that time, what he would consider ridiculously immature now and therefore not worth his time, had been deathly mortifying back then and needless to say when Snotlout's taunting had finally gotten to him, he jumped at the very first chance to make it stop.   

And boy what a baaaaaad idea that had been.

From the moment Snotlout had stepped foot inside his room with the widest crud eating grin ever, he should've ran, ran and gotten as far away from him as possible.

However as soon as the offer to stop poking fun at him for having a crush on Ruffnut in exchange for one little thing left Snotlout's mouth, All Hiccup could think about was "Ok, name it and I'd do it!" and those were the exact words that he blurted out before even finding out what his cousin had in store for him.

If it had been possible for a grin to split a person's face, Snotlout would have been walking around holding his face together with his hands for the rest of his life.

For years after that, Hiccup wondered where he found the courage or the sheer stupidity to do what Snotlout asked him to do. The memory is slightly fuzzy now and he couldn't remember where all his common sense had gone. Perhaps, he had been that desperate?  But anyway,

All the kids on the island made it a point to play on the beach, close to the docks every few days and what Snotlout asked him to do was simple. The next time they were all there, Snotlout would get everyone's attention and Hiccup has to go up to Ruffnut, tell her she's pretty and kiss her on the cheek, in front of everybody.

Sounds simple enough right? Sure he may have to endure a broken nose or a black eye from the girl of his dreams afterward but hey, at least Snotlout would finally leave him alone. And so what if Ruff might or rather would never speak to him again after that? It wasn't like that wasn't already how things were and it wasn't like he ever ever had a chance of impressing her anyway.

And so he went, the next time all the kids were there he came, body prepared for the worst beating of his 6 year life and a small dagger tucked in his belt that he made himself in Gobber's forge. Although the blade was a little bit deformed, it was impressively well crafted for something that someone his age made. He made it as a sort of peace offering to give to Ruffnut right before he did what he was supposed to do. He made it in the hopes that it might cause her not to hit him that hard. One might say that flowers would have been a better idea but come on, this was Ruffnut he was dealing with here. If he had given her flowers instead, she would have hit him twice as hard.

He remembered how it felt like, walking to the beach, feeling faintly sick and nervous as hell. If anyone noticed the way he walked, like a prisoner walking to his execution, no one commented on it. Or if they did, they didn't care.

Snotlout gave him the evilest little grin as soon as he saw him and he approached Hiccup faster than the green eyed boy had ever seen him run home when his mother shouted that supper was ready.

"C'mmere squirt, she's over there." He had said, grabbing Hiccup's arm and towing him away excitedly.

He remembered his throat going dry and his muscles tightening in anticipation of pain when he saw her. She and her brother were sitting on the sand, next to a boulder, poking at some hermit crabs with twigs.(thinking about it now, he thinks they might have been forcing the crabs to fight each other to death, but anyway)  

It was probably the panic that caused his brain to shut down because it didn't even register in his head that out of all the days, the twins chose that particular day to wear nearly identical looking blue tunics and that there was virtually no difference between Ruffnut and Tuffnut.

Without even thinking about it, he stepped to the twin closest to him, automatically assuming it was Ruffnut and handed her the dagger.

"I-I…I umm, I made this for you."

He was vaguely aware of the other kids surrounding them, curiously watching what was going on, hearded there by Sotlout he was sure. But all of his focus was on the dainty looking blonde looking up at him with a raised eyebrow and a suspicious frown. Ruffnut looked like she thought he was up to no good but she took the dagger from him anyway. She showed it to her twin, who immediately snatched the dagger from her hand to examine it closely.

At that point his heart had been beating so fast, he could hear buzzing in his head. The next thing he knew, Ruffnut was trying to get the dagger back from Tuffnut and her head was turned towards her twin, perfectly exposing her pale cheek to him. Hiccup eyed the smooth pale skin on her face nervously, sneaking a glance at her eyes to see if she was distracted enough.

She was. She and Tuff were practically yelling at the other to let go of the dagger and Hiccup saw it as the perfect opportuniy to do what he came there to do and probably manage to run as fast as he can before Ruffnut can pummel him.

He kept his gaze on the two of them to ensure they wouldn't randomly stop fighting and notice him, his heart hammering against his ribcage. He was so nervous that when his eyes noticed that "Tuffnut" 's eyes were bright blue, his brain didn't manage to remember that there was a difference between the Thorston twins and that was that Ruffnut  had light sky blue eyes and Tuffnut had darker, gray blue ones.

He didn't know why he didn't just back out and ran before he could humiliate himself and if there had been a moment in his life where he loathed his stubbornness to see something through to the end, what happened next was probably it.

He braced himself as he took the plunge. Taking a deep breath and squeezing his eyes shut, he blurted out.

"I think you're pretty!"

And he leaned down to kiss her cheek, not knowing because of his closed eyes that as soon as he said 'I think you're pretty', the blonde sitting in front of him turned her head towards him in surprise.

It took him 2 seconds to realize that her cheek felt weird against his lips and he opened his eyes curiously.

Wide Blue-gray eyes blinked, less than an inch away from his and Hiccup blinked back before realizing what had happened and jumped back, spewing apologies and blushing like there was no tomorrow.

"Gah! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Don't kill me please!"

Oh gods, if he thought she was gonna pummel him for kissing her on the cheek, she was surely gonna tear him slowly limb from limb for kissing her right on the mouth.

He chanced a look at her face, mentally preparing himself to bolt in case she tried to lunge at him.

Ruffnut just sat there, blue gray eyes as wide as saucers, mouth hanging open and cheeks slowly turning a bright tomato red.

For a second or two there was nothing but the sound of waves and sea gulls flying over head.

And then,

The blond he had assumed to be Tuffnut burst out laughing in a voice that his fear struck brain slowly managed to recognize as Ruffnut's.

Now that it was all said and done, sense started coming back to him and with it came a heavy sense of dread. The laughing blonde was on the sand now, pummeling the sand while she laughed while the other blonde just continued staring at him as if he'd been hit in the back of the head with an iron club, Gray-blue eyes still looking like they were about to pop out of his head.

The one rolling around howling with laughter was Ruffnut….

Which means that the one he kissed was…..

Odin's flippin beard.

He couldn't remember if he fainted or if he ran like he had never ran before after that but he did know that for weeks after that, he avoided Tuffnut like the plague and for years after that, the blond boy had been viciously mean to him.

Gradually the vicious meanness faded to just plain meanness as they grew older and people started forgetting the incident. He never did and he thought and hoped Tuffnut did, seeing as he wasn't as uncouth towards him as he used to be. Or that could simply be because he grew up to be mature enough to ignore everyone who made fun of him but still.

By the time they reached 14, he firmly believed that the male Thorston twin had forgotten.

Well, that is until, a few months after the whole epic incident with Toothless happened and he had become a hero of sorts. He remembered that day quite well. It had been a week and a half after he and Astrid decided that it wouldn't work between them. Tuffnut, who had been strangely nice to him ever since he started doing well in dragon training, approached him, practically dragged him to the beach and next to the boulder where it all happened years ago, he kissed him.

He kissed him, on the lips, just like that. And when he broke away, asking what in Odin's name he was doing, Tuffnut merely said.

"Turn about is fair play."

As it turned out, Tuffnut hasn't forgotten their concurrent first kiss after all and shortly after that day where they revisited the beach, many more kisses followed.

He thinks Tuffnut would rather let himself be used as a Terrible terror chew toy than admit it but, Hiccup knows that to this very day, Tuffnut still has the dagger he made  all those years ago