It turns out it didn't take Rapunzel much longer to fulfil her prophecy. It took until the end of that year - when it was announced there was going to be a school dance on the very final evening.

The whole school was buzzing with the news, girls talking about dress ideas and and giggling as they saw the boys debating in groups who they were going to ask. It was hard to get away from it all too; there were posters tacked up all over the school and notices were constantly appearing in the student bulletin.

"Who're you going to go with?" Jack asked Hiccup as they wandered into school, just a week before the end of term. They had a few days before the tickets were taken off sale and neither of them had managed to secure the girls they'd planned on. Well, one of them hadn't anyway.

"I really don't know," Hiccup sighed. "Realistically, she'll say no and I'll turn up like a loner. I should just stay at home really."

"You're kidding right?" Jack nearly laughed, then spoke in a slightly hushed voice. "Merida's liked you since, well, ages. Of course she's going to say yes."

"No she, I, who said anything about Merida?"

"Oh come on," Jack rolled his eyes. "You two are always together. Always; everyone already thinks you're going out."

"What?"

"Well, some people."

"Jack..."

"But seriously, you need to ask her soon. I heard MacIntosh is planning to ask her tomorrow."

Though visibly shaken by this news, Hiccup snapped out of it and turned to Jack.

"What about Rapunzel?" At these words a great grin spread over Jack's lips along with an automatic swagger that seemed to enter into his step.

"Asked her yesterday evening," he smirked with a wiggle of his eyebrows. "She said yes and now we're going out!"

"Why didn't I hear about this?!"

"I was too busy texting her - sorry."

"Great," Hiccup grumbled. "Just great." He scuffed his shoes along the floor, gathering dust. Jack sighed.

"Look, I'll make you a deal. You ask out Merida by the end of the day and I'll pay for the taxis to the end of year dance. How about that?"

Hiccup sighed for a moment then, feeling suddenly very decisive, he nodded. "Deal."

It took him until afternoon French class to ask her.

They were running through all the verbs in their vocabulary booklet, testing each other. Light chatter would cover anything that they were saying; Hiccup was working with Merida, as per usual. He read out the sentence, she translated into English.

"J'aime courir?"

"Um, I like to run?"

"Correct, je n'aime pas de tennis?"

"Ooh, I know this one - I do not like tennis."

"Correct," Hiccup paused momentarily. "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?"

Merida stopped in her tracks.

"That's - that's not in the test," she mumbled to herself, blushing beet red.

No it wasn't, Hiccup thought irritably. Can't she just give me an answer? It'd only been a few seconds; to Hiccup it was a good few decades.

"Oui ou non?"

Merida's head snapped up, a bright blush still radiant on her cheeks. Very defiantly, she raised her head into an almost regal poise as she said:

"Oui."

His breath stopped short in his throat and his face went blank before breaking into a giant grin, cheeks flushing as Merida smiled to herself, looking down at her fingers which were fiddling with her pen lid.

"Mr Haddock, Miss Dunbroch?"

They snapped to attention at the sound of the teacher calling their names.

"Yes sir?" they asked in unison.

"I hope we're not getting off topic," she said with a smirk and the rest of the class turned to look at them. Merida bit the inside of her cheek in order to stifle her laughs and Hiccup blushed a deep maroon.

"No, no," he mumbled. The teacher smiled all-knowingly and turned back to the board. Then the bell rang; the class simultaneously started packing away and began to leave. Hiccup was still blushing violently and Merida grinned. She packed away the rest of the dictionaries scattered over the table; by this point the rest of the class had left. Hiccup was watching her from the desk they both shared.

"You do know I was asking you to the dance right?" he mumbled, scratching the nape of his neck incredibly awkwardly. Merida laughed and walked over to the desk, hitching her bag onto her shoulder.

"No, I thought you were asking me whether I liked tennis. Of course I knew you were asking me to the dance you numpty!"

"Well that's good," Hiccup rambled, "cause, you know, that'd be awkward, me thinking you wanted to dance and you thinking that yes, you liked playing tennis -"

"You'd better get your suit out," Merida said with a wink and a smirk, making him blush hard. She was about to turn and leave when she heard her name being called.

His eyes were there, shining and brilliant green, boring into hers.

"I just, I wondered whether, maybe, you'd like to, to go out sometime?"

"Hiccup," she laughed gently to herself, taking a step towards him. His breath hitched in his throat. "I'd love to."

A content but slightly awkward silence fell between them until Merida chuckled under her breath. Taking his hand, she smiled and tugged at it, leading him towards the door.

"Come on. Rapunzel and Jack'll be waiting for us."

Hiccup could only grin like an idiot before following her gladly, out of the door.

A/N I haven't updated in ages, I know, and this chapter was really, really bad but given the current circumstances it's the best I can do. Hope you liked it all the same. I'm planning to get some new books up over the summer so you can look forward to them :)