Archive of Our Own ^beta

The Meet was the most spectacular Viking event Hiccup could ever imagine. It was also the worst. Every few years, all the known Viking tribes would meet at whichever homestead hadn’t been ravaged by winter, dragons, war, or some combination thereof. Sometimes, it was just whichever one was ravaged the least. But whichever village hosted it made it as spectacular as the last. Vendors from every corner of the Viking world came forth to sell their wares. Trader Johann – commonly known as ‘Traitor’ Johann to the Hooligans nowadays – would combat with the others for his place in the upper ranks of trading, but it was always his long-winded stories that lost the sales. There were also battles between Vikings for the title of ‘The Best.’ It was a bit more complicated than just hitting each other over the head, but as Hiccup had no real curiosity for it, he didn’t really care to know the rules. For two weeks, the tribes would sell, battle, collaborate, and most importantly, feast.

Berk hadn’t hosted a Meet in over twenty years because of the dragon scourge, but now that the Red Death had been defeated and Berk had stabilized, Stoick opened his home to the other Viking tribes. The replies that came forth were a bit reluctant, to say the least. After Dagur the Deranged and Alvin the Treacherous, it seemed that Berk was nothing but trouble. Stoick couldn’t say he was all that surprised or upset, though. It wasn’t until he had been rejected that he’d thought about the problems they still faced: the dragons.

Berk had tamed the dragons and worked beside them, that was for sure, but tribes like the Berserkers and Outcasts still viewed the beasts as, well, beasts. Trophies. Awards to be mounted above the fireplace in mead halls and warn across their shoulders with pride. So it wasn’t the dragons themselves but the Vikings who were as un-Berkian as possible.

So it was with a surprisingly elated heart when the vote finally came that they were to meet on the Isle of Nigh. It was a week’s sail to the island for the Hairy Hooligans, so Stoick knew they needed to plan for a month’s journey. This time, he put Hiccup in charge. That was where it started.

The entire village was used to the Chief’s booming voice, hearing it at all hours of the day in both anger and joy. The anger was a bit more common. Just a bit. With the twins around, it wasn’t that much of a surprise. With Hiccup, it was less of a surprise. It had been announced a fortnight before the journey was to be made in the Great Hall, and from the look on Hiccup’s face, the tribe members knew instantly he hadn’t been asked. It was appointed then and there.

As the Chief-to-be hurried after his father, his metal leg clanging against the stone steps, his stuttering followed after him until the great doors slammed shut.

“Get ready to starve,” Snotlout laughed into his pint of mead. Even though he had seen Hiccup defeat the Red Death, been there when Alvin invaded Berk and even helped defeat Dagur the Deranged, he still never relented in his abuse towards his cousin. He was pretty sure it wouldn’t stop even if Hiccup made it to Chiefdom.

Fishlegs groaned and rolled his eyes but said nothing. Tuffnut and Ruffnut laughed and knocked their helmets together hard enough to hear the hollow ringing in their heads. Astrid, on the other hand, slammed her tankard down on the table and glowered at Snotlout.

“Let’s see you do it then, Snotlout,” she challenged. “Besides, he’s going to have to do it at some point. He’s going to be Chief one day.”

“Only if he lives that long.”

“You know he’s going to delegate jobs out to all of us,” Fishlegs interjected meekly. “Stoick always did to our parents. Now it’s our turn. So technically, Snotlout – “

“Isn’t doing anything that whiny peg-leg is going to tell me to do,” Snotlout completed. He flexed his arms as tightly as they would go, watching Astrid with a deviousness in his eyes. “I could just pummel my way out.”

“Then have Stoick on your – “

“NO DRAGONS.”

The entire Great Hall turned towards the doors, staring as if the closed wooden structure could let them peek outside. It wasn’t like it really mattered. Stoick’s voice carried enough for them all to hear. Hiccup’s, on the other hand…

“NO. WE’RE SAILING. GET THOSE SHIPS READY BY – “

Astrid stepped away from the table and made her way towards the doors. No other Viking had dared, not when Stoick was this upset, but she didn’t care. She needed to know what Hiccup was saying to, once again, make his father this loud. When she approached the doors, she pressed her ear to the crack and felt the chill sea air against her heated skin.

“Dad, we can’t keep hiding them away,” Hiccup argued. Astrid could envision him waving his arms around, if nothing else to keep his father’s attention on him. He was so small in comparison to the Chief that Astrid felt Hiccup would be overlooked if he didn’t wave his arms so much. “We need to show them – everyone that they’re not dangerous! We can help them, help them tame their dragons, and – “

“We’re sailing, Hiccup,” Stoick repeated, his voice rough and raw from his shouting but also restrained as if he didn’t want to bring the tribe into his argument again. “We’ve always done so, and we always will.”

“Not if I’m Chief.” There was silence. Astrid was afraid to move. If she did and the door creaked, then the Haddocks would know someone was listening. She didn’t want to be on the other end of Stoick’s anger at this point. “If I’m Chief, we’re using dragons. It’s faster, and we don’t need as many supplies. Well, I mean, for us. The-the-the dragons still need so much, but I can deal with that. I can, really, Dad. And you said it yourself. You aren’t going to be Chief forever, and we need to show these tribes what I’ll be like. I mean, I can’t promise them anything. They’re probably expecting for me to have had a growth spurt or something, but I mean, look at me. That’s – that’s not going to happen anytime s- “

“Hiccup.”

“Yes, right, dragons.” There was silence again for just a moment before Hiccup spoke again. “Dad, if ever become Chief, I’m using dragons. If you want to show these tribes what Berk is going to be like, then we need to show them the dragons so it won’t be a surprise. You remember Dagur when he got here. I can’t pretend for the rest of my life that we still kill dragons, and I can’t ask anyone else to either. Please, Dad.”

The chill sea air whipped sharply around the door, whistling in Astrid’s ear and making her miss whatever Stoick had said. She growled to herself a little before pressing harder as if to push the air away so she could listen.

“- but only Toothless,” she heard him say. “You can show them only Toothless. He’s the best trained, but you keep him under your watch at all times, you hear? I don’t want him wandering off and into someone’s trap or I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Ah, thank you, Dad! You-you-you won’t regret it, I promise. We’ll show them the best Berk has got!”

Astrid heard Stoick’s customary chuckle that usually came when Hiccup’s excitement wanted to burst from his lithe body as if it couldn’t hold all the emotions the Chief’s son was feeling at one moment. Backing away from the door, Astrid went to tell the others.

*

The next week found everyone in a tizzy. Stoick’s usual preparations for The Meet were calculated from years of practice; Hiccup’s were a disaster. As much as he tried to be like his father, it was difficult when no one could hear his squeak of a voice over the hard labour they were already doing. Hiccup had to have Toothless blast a few plasma blasts before people heard him, even knocking a fence over to get Silent Sven’s attention. It went a bit easier after that.

For his friends, it was probably the hardest. Hiccup tried to get Fishlegs and Snotlout to prepare the fish for the journey only to have Snotlout complain about his leadership. That only spurred another argument until the twins showed up. Holding Chicken, Tuffnut made himself a part of the argument by shouting nonsensical words until Hiccup gave up and left, hoping someone would make some food at some point. Astrid was put in charge of helping Gobber with the weapons. While it wasn’t customary for wars to break out at the Meet, it was best to be prepared. It was also the job Hiccup always had before now, and he knew he needed to trust only the best with Gobber, mainly to take his weapons away before he found some reason to change them. Hiccup had usually failed in that regard.

When the week ended and the preliminary chores were settled, it was time to take roll on who was going and who wasn’t. Tuffnut and Ruffnut were immediately struck off the list. They had never gone to a Meet before and probably never would. It wasn’t by their choice; Stoick had cast an indefinite band on them before they were five just as a precaution to keep the Meet in one piece. Farmers stayed behind as did many of the older and younger of their tribe. Fishlegs and his family were staying behind to watch the dragons, but Snotlout and his father Spitelout were going as the Haddocks’s backup, Spitelout for Stoick as usual but Snotlout as Hiccup’s. A deep-seated groan escaped the young Haddock’s lips when he figured that out. As next in line after Hiccup, Snotlout needed to know what would happen if the Chief’s son was suddenly struck down. It actually made more sense to bring Gobber along than Snotlout, but no amount of arguing would change tradition.

Astrid, however, was not going. She had gone once when she was a wee one. Her uncle, Fearless Finn, had taken her and showed her everything there was to see. The vendors hadn’t really captivated her as much as the battles had. Even when Finn tried to pry her away, she would escape his grip and run back to the ring to see which Viking was going to lose and how spectacular their loss would be. It was really one of the first times she remembered wanting to be involved in a battle like a real Viking. But since Fearless Finn had become Fearful Finn from the Flightmare, he had lost the respect he had earned, and the Meet no longer met his fancy. Then came his death at a dragon’s claw. After that, Astrid didn’t much want to go to the Meet. Besides, Berk needed her. They were going to miss their three best warriors and Hiccup for a month; she needed to stay behind to keep the village safe.

Hiccup knew this, but it didn’t still the ache he felt when thinking about it. A month. A month away from Astrid, and he wasn’t too sure he could handle it. She was his best friend, after all. Well, after Toothless, that is. She kept him grounded in his flights of fancy and alive when his flights soared a little too night. Who was he going to grumble to when Stoick yelled at him? Toothless was always a good candidate, but the problem was that the dragon couldn’t really speak back. Snotlout was a horrible candidate. And there was the point that Hiccup felt he was going to have an Astrid-sized hole in his heart anyway.

On the other hand, it was a good thing Astrid was staying behind. The worst part of the Meet was actually the auctions. Not the cattle auctions but the marriage auctions. Eligible Viking bachelors could bid to be the suitor to Viking women, and if their bid was high enough and the father agreed, they could marry. (It wasn’t as if the women stood on a platform and waited for suitors, though. Hiccup always made it sound worse in his head than it really was, but that didn’t stop the relief he felt when Astrid said she wasn’t going.) Astrid was nearing her nineteenth birthday now. If she went to the Meet, she would almost automatically be in the marriage auctions. And who would be stupid enough to pass by Astrid and not bid? She was smart, tough, talented, good on a dragon, and beautiful. Her thick blonde hair would be enough to grab any unruly Viking’s attention, but once they saw her sharp blue eyes and how they beamed from her soft, round face, they would be caught for life. Her smile would break a man in two.

The day before they were to sail from Berk, Hiccup and Toothless flew over the lush island with a sense of dread. They both knew that Toothless would have to be restrained to the boat for long periods of time as Stoick didn’t want for his son to show up to the Meet early or for anyone to shoot them out of the sky. So for now, they resigned to an extra-long flight to try to keep Toothless from being too restless at the beginning of their journey.

They had been flying – soaring, more accurately – in peace and solitude until a bright blue and orange blur sped underneath them and a laugh with the warmth of honey mead floated in the air. Toothless warbled as his head ducked under himself, looking behind them to see a Deadly Nadder and her rider turn to chase them. The Night Fury stuck his tongue out in a smile as he crooned and bucked Hiccup out of his focused state. The young rider shook his head and looked around to see the Nadder catching up and Astride sitting tall and proud on Stormfly’s saddle.

“Trying to escape?” Astrid called out.

“Only escaping my dad,” Hiccup called back. He smiled over at her before laying low on Toothless’ back and urging the dragon on. The Night Furry sped up, his wings flat against his body, and twirled spectacularly until his wings came out to keep him from falling. Astrid gave a mocking gasp before urging Stormfly on after them.

As the sun began to set in the sky, the two riders rode and rolled and swooped in the air until it felt like ice was stuck to their cheeks. It may have been from how high Toothless got at times, passing through the clouds until it felt like there was nothing left. When Hiccup turned to ask Astrid about landing, he felt that nonexistent ice melt from his cheeks in an instant. The dimming sunlight glowed around her head and gave her blonde hair the look of a halo. Her eyes were closed as she let Stormfly fly and guide on her own, her arms raise high to touch the clouds and feel their cool mist between her fingers. It was like the first ride all over again except Hiccup couldn’t feel her body behind his. It took everything he had to gain control over himself to use his mouth properly.

“We should probably land,” he called out in a stutter, hoping that the redness in his cheeks could be attributed to the chill in the air.

“Aw, giving up so soon?” Astrid teased as she opened her eyes to look over at Hiccup. There was a twinkling playfulness in her eyes that made Hiccup’s heart skip a beat for some reason.

“Toothless and I have been up here longer than you, may I remind you,” he jested. Then he turned back to his dragon but felt the heat radiating so much that his shoulders heated up. Looking below them, he saw an island not far from Berk where they could rest for a bit. He signaled to Astrid but gave her no time to reply before he and Toothless were diving down through the air and trees to the ground. When Toothless opened his wings to slow down, he jostled Hiccup enough to unhook the harness, and the dragon rider found himself clutching as best as he could until the force was too great. A tree branch found his stomach, jerking him off of his Night Fury and unlocking his leg from the tail mechanism. They both howled in shock as Toothless tumbled to the ground, Hiccup tangled in the tree branch.

“We came down a bit too fast, didn’t we, bud?” Hiccup muttered as he tried to move. It was a bit hopeless. The force of the branch against his unprotected midsection sent a numbing pain through him to where he couldn’t feel his muscles enough to move them. He sighed and hung his head.

Stormfly and Astrid landed nearby, the Nadder’s claws gently digging into the ground and letting her rider off without a hitch in her step. The young Valkyrie slid off of her beast with a pat to the neck and laughed up at the Chief-in-training.

“That’s quite a landing,” she said as she came close, a cockiness in her step and the sway of her armoured skirt. “I think you missed the ground by a few feet.”

“Thank you,” Hiccup said dryly. “I don’t think I noticed that.” He tried moving again only to entangle his metal foot on a different branch that threatened to pull it off of him. He wiggled a bit to loosen it, but he still had no plan on how to get down. “Help?”

Astrid laughed as she unstrapped the ax from her back and, without warning, hurled it at the tree. It hit its mark, breaking the branch Hiccup was stuck on, then fell with a thud into the lush grass. Hiccup, on the other hand, fell with a shout and a loud thunk! and a groan. For a moment, he didn’t move. Then he turned onto his back and let out an even louder moan as he settled in the grass.

“Not how I would have done it.”

“Then it’s a good thing I’m not you,” Astrid chuckled as she went to retrieve her axe. She didn’t strap it, though. Instead, she put it closer to Hiccup then slid down onto the grass next to him on her stomach, looking over at her friend with a devious glow in her eyes.

“Eh, I think the village would be better off if you were me,” Hiccup replayed playfully as he tried to look over at her. The pain radiating through his body didn’t give him much range, though. “At the very least, you could put Snotlout in his place.”

“I like doing that as me. Then no one would fear that I would be a violent and horrible Chief. I would have to show restraint if I were you just to keep the people from fearing me.”

Hiccup gave a small chuckle then turned what little he had moved so he could look up at the sky. Then his smile fell, replaced by a more melancholy, thoughtful look. Astrid knew that look well.

“Alright, what are you thinking?” she asked as she twiddled grass between her fingers.

“What? What makes you think I’m thinking anything?” Astrid lifted an eyebrow at him which made him sigh a little. “Alright, so I am thinking. That’s not a bad thing. It’s better than whatever Snotlout or the twins do. I’m pretty sure there’s no brain between the three of them.”

“Well, we all knew that, but you’re avoiding my question.”

For a moment, Hiccup remained silent as his eyes stayed up on the sky. He heard Toothless and Stormfly warbling and chirping behind them in play, either playing their favourite game of tag or possibly just talking to one another. Then he turned back to Astrid but looked at her shoulder rather than her face.

“When my dad appointed me to organize this, I kinda – I kinda pulled a low card to get him to let me take Toothless with me. I reminded him I was going to be Chief, so we had to start showing people what kind of Chief I would be.”

“I heard.”

Hiccup stared at Astrid now, his bright green eyes wide as he tried to think of where she’d been when he had been talking to his father. Astrid’s eyes went wide as well, but she turned away from him. “Well, I mean, we all heard what happened later. You know gossip in the village.”

“But no one was there.”

“Then I guess someone made it up. But that’s not the point. Is that what’s bothering you, reminding your dad you’ll be Chief?”

“Y-yeah, I mean, I’m not ready for that, but it was the only way to get him to agree.” He had let her eavesdropping go as he had bigger problems on his mind. Still staring at her shoulder, he continued, “But doing this, it’s just reminded me of how I won’t be a good Chief like him. He-he-he certainly wouldn’t have had such trouble with getting it all together and figuring out who was going and who wasn’t and trying to convince others to go. I couldn’t even get your father to go, and he goes every year. It’s like they know I’m going to mess it up, but they don’t want to watch. I can see it now, getting to the Meet. ‘Here comes the Pride of Berk, the Dragon Conquerer, Master, whatever. And he’s set fire to everything before he’s set foot on the island. Swell.’” He sighed and turned his face back to the sky.

Astrid looked over at Hiccup with a soft gaze before raring her arm back and punching him in the chest. He groaned and held himself with his left hand as she laughed. “You’ll be fine, Hiccup,” she assured him. “I mean, you’re not going alone either. You’ve got Toothless.”

“Yeah, and Snotlout.”

She grimaced at that. If there was truly one thing she would save him from, it would be the month away from Berk stuck with Snotlout and Spitelout. Mainly Snotlout. Her thoughts were broken as Hiccup let out a sigh then groaned, the palms of his hands finding their ways to his eyes.

“Hey,” she whispered, nudging his shoulder a bit with her elbow, “it’s going to be fine. Just go, make a good impression, and come back to Berk in one piece, okay? And no stupid ideas.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t it be horrible if I came back without a foot?” he replied dryly. “Oh, wait, I’ve already done that. Let’s make it a hand this time.”

Astride gave only the smallest of chuckles before she tugged a hand away from his face. “I like your hands. Keep them.”

If it hadn’t been for the fact that they were still cold, Astrid would have sworn that Hiccup had flushed a little at her comment. Of course he didn’t, though. He was just cold. Then he gave her a smile and brought his other hand down to place on top of hers surrounding his first hand.

“Thanks, Astrid. I’ll do my best.”

*

The trip towards the Isle of Nigh was a long one. It was already a week, but add on confined spaces with a restless dragon and Snotlout, and the week got even longer. Hiccup could only find real peace at night when he and Toothless snuck off for a flight, sometimes an hour, sometimes until the sun was coming up. They always came back before Stoick woke, so no harm came from it other than Hiccup’s increasing exhaustion. It was worth it.

The Isle of Nigh was nothing to sneeze at in comparison to Berk. Where Berk was cold and rocky but with plenty of room, the Isle of Nigh was a nice, comfortable warm and flat with more grass and trees than Hiccup would ever see again. It simply was green. It looked like even the bark on the trees were green until they got close enough to see it was just the glow and shine off of the grass. The people didn’t look much different from the Hooligans except for the fact that none of them seemed to have a Hiccup. No one was even close. All of the Nighians were tall, beefy, sturdy people with an inability to smile. It was more of a grimace mixed with a hearty laugh. Hiccup almost felt overwhelmed at the thought of being the smallest of everyone, possibly even of the kids too, until Toothless came and bumped his head against his rider’s back and warbled.

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll be okay,” Hiccup murmured as he scratched his dragon’s chin. “Nothing stupid, remember? We promised.”

Toothless chuffed as if to say that only Hiccup had promised. The Night Fury had said nothing of the sort.

The ship docked along the northern shore, and the crew was met by a few burly Vikings. Hiccup couldn’t tell if they were male or female and was too afraid to ask. If even one of them overheard him, he was pretty sure the result would constitute as ‘stupid’ by Astrid. So he kept his mouth shut as he followed his father, cousin, and uncle off the ship, Toothless following suit. The welcoming Vikings were instantly tense and much less welcoming the moment they saw the Night Fury. One even grabbed his axe and readied it for an attack.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Hiccup yelled as he got stood in front of Toothless, holding his hands out as he heard his dragon begin to growl. “He’s not dangerous. He’s –he’s with me!”

The Viking tensed his hands even more, cracking the wood in his grasp, until Stoick stood between them too. Even though the Chief didn’t say a thing, the Viking lowered his axe but didn’t release his grip. He watched through beady eyes as Toothless and Hiccup made their way up towards the Meet.

“How much worse do you think it would have been had you brought more?” Stoick murmured to his son as he waved to whomever called out his name.

“Yeah, maybe you were right this time,” Hiccup muttered as he looked over at Toothless. The dragon looked shocked at seeing so many people as the square was filled, shoulder to shoulder, with different tribes of people. Many of them turned to look at the Night Fury, some raising their weapons. Hiccup paused long enough to jump onto Toothless’ back, figuring that if they were going to attack his dragon, they would have to attack him too. That was when the worst of it began.

Murmurs started through the crowds as they saw this scrawny Hooligan riding a Night Fury as if it weren’t the most dangerous dragon in recorded Viking history, as if it and its kind hadn’t killed hundreds of them, as if it were a horse. Toothless warbled and growled as they walked, but Hiccup shushed him gently a number of times. When they finally made it to the Hooligan camp, Toothless curled himself up in the furthest corner to keep the curious from peeking at him. The tent flaps closed behind them, and he growled to himself to get his frustrations out. Hiccup sat down next to him and sighed.

“This is stupid,” Snotlout said indignantly. “They should see Hookfang! He’s much more terrifying than you’re stupid lizard.”

Toothless growled at him in warning, and Snotlout fell silent.

Stoick and Spitelout, as well as many of the other men, went to find mead and other necessities they couldn’t bring from Berk. Before he left the tent, Stoick turned back to Hiccup.

“We’re meeting the other Chiefs soon,” he warned. “Get yourself put together. And you may want to leave the dragon behind.” He held up his hand at Hiccup’s developing argument. “Just for today. Get them used to the idea then bring him out tomorrow.” Then he was gone.

Snotlout didn’t last in the tent long with his cousin.

“This is boring,” he shouted and stood up. “I’m going to go out there and impress the ladies.” He flexed a bit. Hiccup rolled his eyes. “Maybe I can find a girl here who’ll make Astrid jealous. Can you imagine? Two girls fighting over me? Ah, glorious!”

“No, I really can’t,” Hiccup muttered to himself as Snotlout left the tent. He sighed and hung his head onto Toothless’ back, staring up at the roof and listening to his dragon’s steady breathing. It was boring. There wasn’t anyone there to talk to, no one to agree that it was boring, no one to really do anything with. If he couldn’t bring Toothless out with him, then what was the point of coming? And what was the point of bringing him there if the dragon was just going to be cooped up in a tent? Hiccup really needed Astrid there with him.

He didn’t realize how much time had passed before his father and the others returned. A few barrels of mead, some spice, and a few swords Hiccup knew they didn’t need were added to the pile of necessities in the supply tent. While it was being arranged, Hiccup got up and made himself as neat as possible, which really wasn’t possible. His short dark auburn hair simply swept through his fingers and ignored his command to sit still. It wasn’t long enough to braid, but that was because he kept cutting it to keep himself from getting it caught on things when he fell. Now that he wasn’t going to fly, having long hair sounded like a good idea. At least then he could braid it somehow and look like a proper Viking.

By the time Stoick returned for him, Hiccup was as ready as he was going to be.

“The Chieftans like to meet at the mead hall first,” Stoick told him. They started towards the square filled with vendors. “It’s roomier. It’s also close to where they store their weapons, which they show off often. Not that any of them will hold a candle to our Gronkle Iron, eh, son?” He elbowed Hiccup in the chest and chortled to himself as his son rubbed the soreness. He still wasn’t well from his meeting with the tree branch.

“Yeah, right.”

The Nighians’ mead hall wasn’t all too different from the Hooligans’. The walls were tall and sturdy, built of rock and wood, and painted intricately with various scenes from their past. Quite a few of them were skewering dragons rather fiercely. Hiccup tried not to pay attention to those. He turned away instead to look at the Chief portraits to find that there weren’t any. Or rather, there were but they weren’t as good as the ones on Berk. They were more like splatters of colour to represent their hair, sometimes mixed with a dark red that Hiccup assumed to mean blood. He was pretty sure it was dragon blood.

“I’m in Valhalla,” Hiccup murmured dryly. More like Hel.

“STOICK THE VAST!” A sturdy, beefy man spanning wider than Stoick himself came barreling through the crowd, his arms held out to grasp the Berk Chief’s shoulders. Stoick met the man with a jovial laugh then headbutted him rather hard. Hiccup winced as the sounds of their helmets meeting rang out in the hall.

“Komical,” Stoick greeted. He turned to reach for Hiccup’s shoulders and brought his son forward. “Komical, this is my son, Hiccup, the Pride of Berk. Hiccup, this is Komical the Hardy, Chief of the Isle of Nigh.”

“Pride of Berk, eh?” Komical chortled as he looked down at the young man. “Not the Dragon Conquerer, are ye? I’ve heard about ye. Hel, we all have! You drove off the Berserkers and Alvin the Treacherous all on your own, did ye?”

“I had help,” Hiccup protested, but it fell on deaf ears. Komical seemed to just have eyes and ears for Stoick even as he looked down at Hiccup.

“Aye, he did,” Stoick bragged. “It’s because of him we have peace on Berk.”

“Oh, except for those dragons, eh? Heard ye still have some knocking about. Ye know we have excellent resources for that. Gronkle meat for dinner, if ye like.”

Hiccup nearly retched at the thought of it, especially as Meatlug’s grin showed up in his mind. It felt wrong to eat a dragon, least of all a dragon he knew.

“Aye, no, we don’t do that sort o’ thing anymore,” Stoick said, his tone a bit calmer but also a little firmer. “No attacks since Hiccup here got rid o’ the nest, nothing o’ the sort.”

“Yeah, we train them.” Hiccup’s voice was defiant and almost challenging as he glared up at this Chief. Komical stared down at him in surprise then burst out laughing.

“Ah, Stoick, ye may have raised a hiccup, but you raise him with a sense of humour, didn’t ye?” He laughed hard enough to throw his head back and stumble a little before getting a hold of himself. As he wiped the edge of his eyes on the back of his meaty hand, he tugged on Stoick’s shoulder to lead him into the hall a bit more. “Aye, we’ve got a ripping good turn out this year. More traders than I’ve seen in years, and just as many young women too. This is going to be prosperous for us all. Say, have any women to throw into the fray? My son, Killum, is almost of age. A tie between us would be a mighty one.”

Stoick let out a small laugh, but Hiccup could hear that it was an unsettled one. He wasn’t particularly sure as to why. Was it because they didn’t have any women to offer or because a tie between the Isle of Nigh and Berk would actually be a pretty disastrous one?

“No, not this year, Komical,” Stoick replied. “No eligible women on Berk. Been a bit scarce, if I say so myself, but we’ve got plenty o’ men. Maybe we can secure a tie some other way. A treaty between us wouldn’t go astray.”

“Ah, treaties are for hiccups,” Komical snorted then looked down at Hiccup who was positively glowering. “Eh, no offense, son. You’re just, well…” He waved his hands a bit then gave up and turned his attention back to Stoick who was doing his best to hide his glower in his massive beard and eyebrows.

Easing out of his father’s sight was a bit easier than Hiccup had thought. He simply stopped and feigned a problem with his metal leg, and Stoick let him be without a fuss. Hiccup gave a small sigh before standing up and wandering off towards the outside of the group. He had never really been a ‘group person.’ Even parties and feasts on Berk usually landed him in trouble in some way, or the centre of attention, or bullied until he returned home. Then there was the fact that everyone was bigger than him and could easily knock him out of the way. Sometimes, if someone had a bit too much mead, they would trample him until he was blue from head to toe. But even if he was trampled or pushed aside or pulled to the front of the tribe, he still had Astrid. Now he didn’t.

Making his way as far away from Komical as he could, Hiccup got only a spare look at the room before he heard his name being called.

“Hiccup!”

His head jerked up like a Nadder’s looking for the voice. It wasn’t angry; it was excited. It also wasn’t male. Then he was very suddenly mashed into the thick black braid of…

“Heather!”

Heather’s arms wrapped around Hiccup tight enough to combat with a hug from Stoick, just with a bit more room for him to breathe rather than being shoved into a giant red beard. He gasped a bit before she let him go, beaming up at him.

Immediately, Hiccup could tell something had changed since the last time they had seen each other. She was still shorter than him, but her leather and dragon-scale armour were gone. In their place was a simple brown tunic and leggings that Hiccup didn’t believe she made on her own. She couldn’t have. Even though Hiccup was smarter than doubt someone’s sewing skills aloud, her tunic was expertly made with a dyed thread he hadn’t seen before. She also looked a bit…happier.

“Where’s Astrid?” she asked, ignoring his inquisitive look.

“Uh, back on Berk.”

“Fislegs?”

“Berk.”

“Then who came with you.”

“Oh, you know, only my best friend Snotlout.”

Heather’s eyebrows knotted together and a small pout fought her lips. Before Hiccup could really note it, she was smiling again and gave his arm a soft punch.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you,” she said, and they both momentarily were distracted from who they were missing.

“Yeah, well, we kinda left the Edge after that last attack. The damage was just a bit too much for us to rebuild.”

“Sorry about that.” Heather’s smile fell a little more and stayed there was she averted her gaze from Hiccup’s. It wasn’t something they spoke about much, not even those back on Berk.

“But hey! Now with those Grimborn brothers are done with, we don’t have to worry about them anymore, right?”

“Ha! You still left me with Dagur!” Thankfully, Heather was jesting, but it didn’t quell Hiccup’s feeling of guilt. He rubbed at the back of his neck as his face flushed a little. “It’s okay. He’s all taken care of now.”

“Really?” Hiccup dropped his gaze back down in wonderment. “What happened?”

“Well, it wasn’t too hard, really. When he got back to Berserker Island, Windshear and I were already there. We’d rallied the Berserkers against him while he was with the Grimborns, so when he got back, we kind of overthrew him and put him back in prison. Of course, that meant a few weeks of everyone trying to battle to be Chief.”

“But, you’re Oswald the Agreeable’s daughter.”

“Yeah, I do have to say that Berserkers aren’t very smart.” They shared a laughed before a thought hit Hiccup.

“Wait, that means you’re – “

“Heather the Haughty, Chief of the Berserkers.”

“’Haughty?’ Really? I-I-I would have picked something else like ‘hazardous.’”

Heather punched Hiccup’s shoulder a little harder that time but still laughed.

“I didn’t pick it,” she admitted. “Though, Savage is still trying to get me to like ‘Heather the Unhinged’ like Dagur wanted.”

“Savage is still out?”

Heather shrugged nonchalantly as she tugged on Hiccup’s sleeve towards the mead. “He’s not so bad, I guess. I can’t trust him, but he’s the smartest one out of the lot.”

“That…is really sad.”

“Yeah, you’re telling me.” She plucked a tankard of mead off of the table, not caring if it belonged to someone else, and drank. “I’m waiting for one of them to grow a few brain cells before I put him in prison. You did say he betrayed Alvin without a second thought, right?”

“According to Alvin, so I’m not sure how accurate that is,” Hiccup admitted with a shrug. “So what brings you to the Meet?”

“Well, I am a Chief now,” she reminded him with a shove to his chest with her tankard. “I’m doing Chiefly things like learning about this Meet. Dagur never saw any reason to come, not that anyone really invited him. I’m here to change a few minds, maybe sign a few peace treaties. It would be nice for the Berserkers to have more than just rotting fish on that island.” She scowled in disgust at the thought of it.

“H-hey, you know that Berk and the Berserkers had a treaty before Dagur was chief,” Hiccup reminded her. “Now that you’re Chief, we could have ties again.”

Heather smiled up at him. “Chief Heather and Chief Hiccup, making peace treaties.”

“Oh, no, I’m not Chief. Still Dad.”

“I thought you said just Snotlout was with you.”

“Oh, oh no, no, my dad was kinda implied, you know, and the other men, and I thought you just meant, you know, from us all not-not all from Berk – “

“You’re a mess, Hiccup,” Heather chuckled. “Fine. I’ll have to go find your dad before this Meet is over. I don’t think I want to sail out to Berk from here. Can you believe we can’t have our dragons here?”

Again, Hiccup’s face flushed and he rubbed the back of his neck. Heather’s eyes widened. “No.”

“Yeah.”

“Hiccup!”

“Well, it was necessary!” he defended. “I’m not going to pretend that Berk doesn’t have dragons, and if I’m ever Chief, you know, we’ll have dragons! Like you, I’m here to change a few minds too.”

“And here I thought you were here for the marriage auctions.”

Hiccup spluttered a bit with no coherent words spilling from his lips, so he just gave up and waved his arms a bit. Then he stopped that too. There was silence between them for a second until Heather burst into laughter.

“Gods, I wish you could see your face right now,” she laughed. “Imagine the look on Astrid’s face if you brought home a wife.”

“Eh, you know, she’d be upset that she would have to run the academy alone, but I don’t think she’d care,” Hiccup admitted with a twinge of upset in his voice. Heather stopped her laughter to stare at him, almost incredulously, before she put her tankard down and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Okay, what did you do?”

“What? What makes you think I did something? Or that I did something? It’s just, you know, Astrid.”

Heather studied Hiccup’s face for a moment before she clucked her tongue against her cheek.

“Then the better question is what didn’t you do?”

“I still don’t think I know what you’re talking about.”

“Hiccup, when I left you guys, Astrid never left your side.”

“Well, she’s my Savage, I guess.” He paused a moment. “Gods, don’t tell her I said that. I mean, she’s my second, I guess, because she’s definitely smarter and better than Savage – “

“And when I asked her about you two, she wouldn’t answer the question.”

That shut Hiccup up for a moment. Astrid wasn’t usually one for silence if she was defending herself, and some rumour about them would definitely need her defense. She wasn’t about to tie herself down to some peg-legged walking disaster. Was she?

“Ah, so it is something you didn’t do. Should have known.” Heather winked at Hiccup before picking up her tankard and making her way past him. “I’m going to let you think on that. I think I see just the Chief I want to talk to.” Then, before Hiccup could reply, Heather had disappeared into the crowd, worming through the Vikings twice her size.

*

The rest of the day passed in relative chaos. Well, it was chaos for Hiccup. For the other Vikings, it was just another day. Mead was had in abundance, fights broke out, and Hiccup was pretty sure that Heather had thrown at least one unappealing ‘suitor’ off his guard long enough to disarm him of his axe and hold it against his throat. He wasn’t that surprised. She was a Berserker, after all, and a lot like Astrid. Except, he thought to himself, she wasn’t like Astrid at all. She was different. She was harsh and rough and cynical. Astrid could be, but she could also be soft, warm, and comforting.

Hiccup shook his head multiple times that day to keep himself from thinking about her. He was there to do Chiefly things, not think about the girl back on Berk. Besides, she wasn’t going anywhere. She would be there on Berk when he got back, and with a month away from her, he supposed he had a lot of thinking to do. Or not thinking. Definitely not thinking.

When Stoick finally let Hiccup escape the mead hall, the young man all but sprinted back to their camp. It was unfamiliar terrain to try running on his metal leg, but that didn’t keep him from running as quickly as he could. He burst into the tent with a sigh of relief, his heart pounding against his chest, and his eyes falling shut as he fell to the floor. It was one of the most uncomfortable landings he’d ever had. Yet when Toothless warbled his concern, Hiccup could forget about his pain. He was gone. He was alone. Gods, silence never felt better.

“I’m not cut out for this, Toothless,” Hiccup complained as he pushed himself up on his elbows. “I can’t come to these Meets like Dad can. He’s just… Stoick, and everyone loves him for it. Me? No, I’m a hiccup, and I just can’t be around all these people.”

Toothless mewled a little before placing his head down on his front paws, keeping his eyes opened and trained on his rider. That was when Hiccup noticed it. Red and blue spines poking up from behind the Night Fury that definitely didn’t belong to him and a vibration that almost sounded like purring. Tentatively, Hiccup sat up fully and reached over his dragon’s back. He snatched up the spines and pulled up a Terrible Terror. It hissed at him, clearly upset at being awoken from its nap, but Hiccup wasn’t worried about that. There was a piece of parchment tied to its leg. Taking the parchment, Hiccup let the little dragon go so he could sleep or fly or whatever he wanted to do. He was just surprised that it got all the way through the crowds and wasn’t injured or worse.

The parchment held a simple note in a scrawl he recognized instantly: You have a surprise coming.

Astrid.

*

Hiccup didn’t sleep at all that night. Part of it was because Toothless was restless when the sun set and he hadn’t been able to stretch his wings. He took his restlessness out on Hiccup and anyone unfortunate enough to be within tail- or wing-length. The other part of his troubles was due to the note. What did Astrid mean? Did she mean when he got back to Berk? She had to. She wasn’t at the Meet, obviously, and she couldn’t fly there due to Stoick’s ban. She also would have had to bring her father who outright refused to attend this year.

When the sun began to rise and Hiccup began to convince himself he was overthinking everything, he made his way out of the tent. No one was around. The square was empty, even of vendors, and the low hum of snoring floated in the still morning air. Perfect. He ducked his head back into the tent and whistled for Toothless’s attention. The Night Fury’s ears perked up instantly, but it took him a laboriously long time to sneak out of the tent over the snoring Viking’s and Snotlout who lay there with his mouth open and probably a few bugs crawling down his tongue. Hiccup tried not to laugh.

With the dragon free and the square still empty, Hiccup mounted Toothless and felt the restlessness vibrate into excitement through the saddle. Then the powerful muscles tightened and pounced until they were up in the air, feeling the cool morning air chill them even more and feeling the dewy morning air thin. Hiccup closed his eyes and felt the air for more than just air; it was freedom. This was who he was. Not the speeches or the mead hall meets or the peace treaties with Berserkers. He was a dragon rider. Keeping his joy from bubbling over into a shout, Hiccup laid low on his dragon’s back and urged the Night Fury to speed up, taking them over the ocean. His fingers skimmed the still water as Toothless turned and barreled in his excitement. Fish and dragons swam from his touch. Then the ocean was gone, and they were soaring.

When the chill permeated down to his bones and turned them into icicles barely holding him together, Hiccup began the descent towards the island again. He would have to hide Toothless in the tent before his father woke up, and he planned to. That was until he saw something on the horizon that definitely shouldn’t be there. Laying low on Toothless’ back, the pair rose higher into the clouds to escape being seen but not so high that they couldn’t see. Then Hiccup’s stomach dropped.

It was a Hooligan tribe ship.

Coming up behind the ship, Hiccup and Toothless swept down to the ocean surface again until they were right behind and able to drop onto the ship’s bridge.

“Hiccup!” For the second time in as many days, Hiccup was very suddenly thrust into a hug and someone’s braided hair, this time a very blonde, very thick braid with a smell of tree bark and roast chicken.

“Astrid – Astrid, what are you doing here?” Hiccup spluttered as he tried to free himself from Toothless and Astrid at the same time. It took a bit of a struggle as she didn’t want to let go and Toothless didn’t want to sit still. It actually ended with Hiccup hitting the bridge on his behind rather harshly as both Valkyrie and dragon let him go at the same time. He glowered up at them, but they both chuckled. Or rather, one chuckled and the other warbled.

“We got bored,” came another voice. Hiccup looked around Astrid to see that she wasn’t alone. Of course she wasn’t. She couldn’t sail a ship. Astrid was many things but a sailor she was not.

Tuffnut, Ruffnut, and Fishlegs all stood behind them, a myriad of expressions spread across them. Tuffnut looked bored as he examined the end of a dreadlock; Ruffnut looked disgusted at Astrid’s outburst; and Fishlegs looked somewhere between guilty and excited.

“I thought you guys weren’t coming,” Hiccup said as he finally pushed himself up onto his feet.

“Well, technically, we’re not allowed to be here,” Ruffnut pointed out. “So no one asked us.”

“B-but Fishlegs, the dragons.”

“Oh Gustav has it under control,” he said meekly and looked elsewhere.

“Gustav? Gustav Larson? You left all the dragons on Berk with Gustav?”

“He’s grown up a bit more, Hiccup,” Astrid argued. “Besides, he has the Book of Dragons with him if anything goes wrong, and Gobber’s with him. We didn’t leave him completely alone. Just mostly.”

Hiccup was left with left with nothing to say, staring between his friends and still trying to grasp at how stupid they were. “Why?” was all that came out.

“I wanted to see explosions!” Tuffnut burst out. “With this many people in one place? Aw, this is going to be awesome!”

“Yeah, maybe I can finally get a scar or something cool!” Ruffnut added, excitement building up as she watched her brother begin to bounce.

“Aw, c’mon guys, that’s why you were banned before you were five,” Fishlegs reminded. “That’s exactly what Stoick didn’t want to put up with.”

“Fishlegs, why are you here?”

Fishlegs’ neck jerked down as if to try to hide his face in his vest, but without the room or speed, he was still left showing when Hiccup raised an eyebrow at him.

“They tricked me,” he muttered.

“That’s not completely true,” Astrid interjected. “We did go fishing. We just didn’t return to Berk immediately afterwards.” She turned her attention back to Hiccup and smiled up at him. “Aren’t you excited to see us?”

“Yes? No? I don’t really know.” Astrid’s smile turned into a scowl, and her fist went to her hip, just asking for Hiccup to invite it to his face. “I am, I am! I’m just – “

Toothless warbled behind him, his ears twitching in the direction of the island. The sun had risen farther than Hiccup would have liked. Now it was really important for him to return to camp before his dad woke up. Without another word, Hiccup ran over to his dragon and buckled into the saddle.

“See you when you get to shore,” he called out as he and Toothless sped up into the air and raced back towards the campsite. “Gods, this is a horrible idea.” The wind caught his words before anyone really heard, and if they did, well, they had a couple hours of sailing before they could reach him.

When Toothless touched down just outside of the Hooligan tribe tent, Hiccup hurriedly ushered the Night Fury inside and tried to sneak in as well. It wasn’t working so well. Apart from the fact that Toothless was too large for Hiccup to sneak in behind, there was also the fact that Stoick’s bedroll was empty.

“Oh Gods.”

Someone behind him cleared their throat. Hiccup grimaced and turned to see his father, an eyebrow raised and his arms crossed over his chest.

“Heeeey, Dad,” Hiccup said in false glee. “H-hey, when did you start waking up so early? Don’t you, you know, hate sunrises – “

“Where have you been, Hiccup?” Stoick’s tone told the young man he wasn’t about to get away with anything easily. Hiccup tried not to grimace or groan before replying.

“Riding Toothless,” he murmured. “But you know what he’s like when he doesn’t fly, Dad. It would have been worse for everyone, and – “

“I thought I told you not to show him until the chiefs were okay.”

“Technically, what you said was that I had to hide Toothless only until today.”

“Hiccup.”

“Astrid’s coming with the twins and Fishlegs!” It came out more like a shout than an attempt to distract his father. Either way, it worked. Stoick’s eyebrows loosened a bit and his hands fell to his sides as he looked up at the horizon. It was a bit difficult to see, but there was something there. A speck. Pressing his hand to his forehead, Stoick sighed before moving towards the tent.

“We’re not finished,” he warned. Then he shook Spitelout and Snotlout, both shouting at their rough awakening and waking up the other Hooligans. “We’ve got additions coming. Someone will have to go find an extra tent for the girls.”

“Girls?” Snotlout asked groggily as he rubbed his hand against his face. “We don’t have any girls.”

“Um, Astrid and Ruffnut would argue otherwise, Snotlout,” Hiccup replied.

“Ooh, Astrid, did you say?” That instantly woke him up. “I’ll go get the tent. And place it right next to mine.” He chortled and ran off towards the vendors before Hiccup could remind him that the Haddocks and the Jorgensons were sharing a tent, which meant there was no ‘mine’ tent. The young man groaned before turning back to his father. Stoick was handing out other assignments like food and preparations, just to make sure they had enough for an additional four people, two of which ate like they were starving at all times or destroyed it if they weren’t. Being ignored as per usual, Hiccup turned back to the horizon and watched as the speck slowly began to grow in side. Toothless’s nose poked out of the tent flap and nudged his rider’s shoulder, but he didn’t get a response. Not even a warble or snort of heated air could rouse Hiccup from his thoughts.

While he felt a bit elated that he wasn’t going to have to miss Astrid for an entire month, he couldn’t help but asking: why was she here?

*

Two hours seemed to drag on far longer than reality. By the time many of the other tribes were done with their breakfasts and leftover tankards of mead, to small Hooligan tribe ship pulled up to the northern shores and wedged itself in with the other ship between the monstrous Berserker ship and a ship Hiccup had never seen before. That wasn’t a surprise. Hiccup rarely remembered other tribes’ insignia unless it was really important. Tuffnut and Ruffnut catapulted out of the ship and ran up the shore to the square where the days’ vendors were beginning to set up. Not a single Berkian could grab them. One of the many Svens from Berk ran after them before Stoick had to ask. Not like he had to. Every Berkian knew what would happen if the twins were left to their own devices for too long, especially in new territory.

Astrid and Fishlegs climbed off a bit more patient, though there was an excitement in Astrid’s features that Hiccup hadn’t seen in a long time. If she had been this excitd a couple of hours ago, he certainly didn’t remember. Maybe it was his shock at her being there or maybe how the sun shown off her blonde hair like a halo that distracted him from this expression. Whatever it was, he certainly wasn’t distracted now. He began towards her until Fishlegs placed himself in between them, not realizing how Hiccup’s face contorted into disappointment for only a moment.

“Hiccup, isn’t this great?” he asked in glee as he looked around. “My first Meet. Oh, I’ve never been to one before. Well, that’s what I just said. Ooh, I wish Meatlug was here. Have you seen any other dragons? What about dragon nip? I wonder if it’s different on every island. That would be worth checking out, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, Fishlegs, sounds great,” Hiccup replied as he tried to move around his mountain of a friend. Fishlegs wasn’t so easily distracted nor so clearly observant. It wasn’t until Hiccup very clearly side-stepped him to get around that the young man stopped talking and wondered off towards the square itself.

“You never did tell me why you’re here,” Hiccup said as he approached Astrid, watching her blue eyes brighten.

“Well, you know my uncle brought me here when I was a girl,” she said as she looked over at the vendors. “I wanted to see it again. I decided that that’s what Finn would have wanted, you know? He wouldn’t want for me to back down from anything.” She gave Hiccup that soft, crooked smile that made his heart skip a beat.

“Y-yeah, sounds like Fearless Finn to me.” Hiccup chuckled and turned to lead Astrid towards the fuss when he was stopped.

“Astrid, glad you could make it,” Stoick said as he gave her a genuine smile. Then it cracked a little. “I suppose we should talk about you abandoning your duties a little later, eh?”

Astrid gave a sheepish smile but didn’t look too guilty about shirking off her responsibilities to someone else.

“Did Fuller come with you, lass?”

“No, Dad didn’t know I was coming. He probably does now.” Hiccup gave her a surprised look that she ignored.

“Well, then I hope no one bids for your hand,” Stoick replied casually as he turned away. “I only have so much say as your Chief.”

“My hand?” Astrid looked at Hiccup with a frightened look.

“Yeah. The marriage auctions. Wait, don’t tell me you didn’t know about them.” Astrid didn’t immediately answer. “Astrid! You and Ruffnut are automatically in the auctions just for being here! You didn’t think about that?”

“I didn’t know about them!” she defended. “It wasn’t something Finn showed me or told me about! And at least Ruff has Tuff with her. He has some say, right? But me, I’ve got no one.”

“My dad – “

“Just said he only has so much power!” Astrid grabbed fistfuls of her hair as she looked everywhere but at Hiccup. “Hiccup, I’m not going to be bid on! I just came because – because I missed you! I’m not getting married while I’m here!”

Hiccup couldn’t reply. The heat from his reddening cheeks seemed to melt his lips together and caused his airway to constrict a little. Astrid missed him just as he missed her. Well, not ‘just as.’ There was no way she could miss him as much as he missed her. But the feeling was, well, it was overwhelmingly warm.

He was freed from answering her when a very familiar warble came their way. Toothless, likely fed up with his confines, had left the camp and was bounding towards them, his tongue hanging out as happiness exuded the dragon’s eyes. He stopped just short of Astrid before running his flat, wide tongue up her side in greeting.

“Toothless!” Hiccup shouted as he tried to shove his dragon away. “That does not wash out! You know that! Astrid, I’m sorry. You know how he is.”

Astrid was shaken from her moment of panic as the drool dripped down her side, soaking her blue tunic to her skin. It was disgusting, even if it was also sweet. She gave the big playful lizard a smile and scratched under his chin.

“He’s just happy to see me,” she murmured, almost wistfully. Then she gave a forced smile – the lines around her eyes were too tight, and her eyes didn’t really shin anymore – before adding, “Let’s go find a new shirt, shall we? I don’t want to try to figure out how they do washing here.”

For a moment, Hiccup tried to make Toothless go back to the tent, but he failed. Toothless was too happy to see someone else he liked, and after the flight they’d had that morning, he wasn’t about to put himself in confinement again. So he trailed after the humans towards the vendors, careless about where his tail was going and if it was hitting anyone. Now that meant that Hiccup had to watch Toothless, the crowd, and where they were going. He didn’t really know what the vendors’ wares were here. He hadn’t had the chance to look, and now that he did, he wasn’t even looking at them. Even though he had to balance his attention in three different ways, he still found himself glancing at Astrid and having his mind wiped at the reality that she was there with him. A week apart had been too much. Gods, he was in trouble.

The first few vendors they tried weren’t exactly used to a woman of Astrid’s size. Every single garment they had were just too big. Hiccup bet to himself that some of them were big enough to fit his father, Vast and all, but he didn’t say so aloud. He wasn’t going to get into trouble any more than he already had. However, Astrid didn’t seem to mind their failure to find anything. She was actually enjoying herself. As they passed vendor after vendor and shook off a few horribly matched garments, her smile just widened until she was glowing with happiness.

“I remember when Uncle Finn brought me the last time,” she murmured to Hiccup. “He wanted to show me the vendors and their wares, promising to buy a gift for me if I wanted, but I wouldn’t listen. I wanted to watch the fights so I knew how hard I would have to fight one day. Uncle Finn was the one who bought my first axe for me.” There was a twitch in her smile, one Hiccup knew all too well that came with her remembering her favourite uncle. Then after a flash, it was gone. “Now I’m finally looking at the vendors. I think he’d laugh knowing I was looking for clothes, of all things.”

“Where did Astrid go, and when can you bring her back?” Hiccup teased.

“Astrid, huh?”

Hiccup and Astrid turned to see a young man who didn’t look much older than Hiccup but was just as wide as Fishlegs and almost as tall as Gobber. But instead of layers of fat, he was gifted with muscles and a proud air about him. Immediately, Hiccup didn’t like him. His fingers itched to grab Astrid’s waist and pull him away, but they balled up in his leggings instead. He glowered at this man for however effective that was. By the way he was looking down at Astrid, it would be more effective for Hiccup to glower at a brick wall.

“Um, yes,” Astrid replied, confused by this man’s intrusion.

The young man stepped forward and took one of her hands in his, lifting it up to his lips in an almost un-Vikinglike kindness. If it weren’t for the fact that he looked like he could wrestle a Monstrous Nightmare, Hiccup would argue against this man’s actual Viking status.

“Killum,” he said, “son of Komical, Chief of the Isle of Nigh, conquerer of dragons.” He very pointedly looked at Toothless, but his gaze glanced over – or through – Hiccup as if he wasn’t there. Then in a snap, his dark greys were glued to Astrid.

“Killum,” Astrid repeated slowly, and Hiccup could practically see the cogs in her head stop as she tried not to laugh. And people complained about Berkian names.

“Quite right.” He winked with a smirk. “And what is the fair maiden looking for this fine morning? Surely you aren’t lacking in anything – “

“She’s not a maiden,” Hiccup interrupted. “She’s a Valkyrie and one of the best from Berk.”

“Hiccup!” Astrid hissed. “You know I can be a maiden and a Valkyrie, right? It’s not one or the other. And I’m not a Valkyrie yet.”

“W-well, yes, but I mean too – also that you’re, you know, a really good fighter – wa-warrior, the best, and you will be, and – “ Hiccup felt his tongue tying itself in spectacular knots in his mouth, but the words kept streaming to battle each other for which one was possibly the worst thing to say.

Killum huffed in ill-contempt for the stumbling Chiefson but paid him little mind as he turned towards Astrid. “Allow me to show you the vendors.”

“Oh, I think we can get around just fine, thanks.” A sickly sweet smile plastered itself on Astrid’s lips, but her eyes squinted in a challenge for him to persist. Killum seemed to get the idea of it and took a step backwards.

“Of course. If you need anything – “ he glanced at Hiccup briefly, “do not be afraid to call upon me.” With that, Killum turned from the pair and made his way through the crowds towards the mead hall, no doubt to tell his father that Stoick had lied about the available Berkian women.

Toothless growled behind Hiccup, his spine arching upwards into a crouch. Hiccup sighed as he reached around to lay his palm on his dragon’s flat head. He didn’t even get a moment to think before Astrid turned on him again.

“What was that?” she growled.

“He was trying to – And you without your dad here – it was just, you know, me – I-I-I – “

“He’s like Snotlout but bigger and smarmy,” Astrid finished for him, “and we all know how much I just love Snotlout.”

“I heard that!” They turned to see Snotlout in a gaggle of maidens who looked almost reluctant to be there.

Hiccup rolled his eyes before touching the inner bend of Astrid’s elbow and leading her away. “It’s just, you know, what my dad said,” he murmured. “He’s got almost no power if you end up in a marriage auction.”

“So you’re going to, what, run off all possible suitors?” Astrid huffed.

“I thought you didn’t want to get married!”

“Not to any of these numbskulls, but I can take care of myself, Hiccup. I don’t need you there embarrassing us both until they walk away. Besides, the moment he tries to touch me again, and he’s going down. I don’t care how big he is.” With that, Astrid turned forcefully enough for her braid to smack Hiccup across the cheek hard.

Toothless’ warbling laugh was not helping.

Eventually, the easy feeling began to return as they waded through the crowd and vendors, still looking for a new tunic. Astrid stayed a step ahead of him, though, and their hands no longer brushed against each other. Hiccup didn’t realize they were even doing it until the feeling was gone and his hand felt as if it were freezing in the spring breeze.

Only one vendor carried women’s clothes in Astrid’s size. They rifled through their options until she pulled out a red square garment that looked similar to the blue tunic she was already wearing. Afraid to point it out, Hiccup turned away as she slipped behind the vendor’s stand to change. Not many people changed at the vendor’s booth, which made the man visibly confused, but Astrid was likely uncomfortable with dragon drool drying to her skin and causing her tunic to crackle when she moved.

“Well, I like it.”

Hiccup turned around to face her and found himself, for however many times it was already that day, speechless. The tunic fit Astrid perfectly, wrapping around her chest and stomach in the right ways. It showed off just how much she’d grown from the rectangular, gangly girl fighting in the dragon killing arena to the developing women she was becoming. Her hips flared out from the tunic under her armored skirt, and her shoulders – Hiccup was not focusing on the bits in the middle, of course not – looked softer and lighter than they ever did in her blue tunic, even with her armor on. The entire effect was somehow softer yet violent and harsh. The colour of blood and the colour of her cheeks when she flushed high in the sky.

“Hiccup?”

Hiccup cleared his throat and looked up at her with an awkward smile. “Yeah, it’s good.” Then his lips gaveway and a true, crooked smile gleamed. She rolled her eyes but turned her gaze from him, instead folding up her shirt and trying to find where to put it, hold it, something. Hiccup made his way to Toothless’ saddle bags to rifle through one until he pulled out an older version of his metal foot. He traded it with the vendor for Astrid’s shirt without a word. Vikings lost feet left and right, and an innovation like an actual moving foot would help quite a few of them. Astrid, on the other hand, was not going down without a fight.

“Hiccup, I can pay for it,” she said as she poked in the small pouch on her skirt. Hiccup’s hand shot out to cover hers, stilling her.

“Let me,” he murmured. “You know, as an apology for a moment ago.” And for a couple of other reasons, but mainly because he really was sorry about embarrassing her.

Astrid looked up at her friend and smiled before turning her hand over to take his gently.

“Thank you, Hiccup.”

This time, his lips didn’t just shut down; his brain did too. Nothing came out or went in other than the warmth of her hand in his. Then it was gone. Astried turned to place her shirt in Hiccup’s saddlebag and gave Toothless a scratch under his chin as thanks.

“Who’s starving?”

*

As much as Hiccup was a failure at things, he also excelled at some things. He excelled at forgetting. So when Heather came barreling at him again, this time pulling Astrid into the hug as well, he tried not to burst into surprise again that she was here.

“Hiccup, you said that Astrid was on Berk!” Heather exclaimed as she brought her friend in for a special hug just for her. “Don’t tell me the others are here too.”

“Fishlegs included.”

“Well, this Meet just got a bit more interesting.” She beamed up at him then pulled Astrid away to grab a tankard of mead. Hiccup followed simply because he didn’t know where else to be. It took him a little longer to get to the mead table – no one looked down at him because he was beautiful or because he was the Chief of the Berserkers – and when his metal leg caught on a stone in the floor, he almost face-planted into the ground.

By the time he caught up, both women had tankards and were happily gossiping away – chatting away with each other. Astrid hated it when Hiccup said she ‘gossiped.’ “Old women gossip, Hiccup,” she had told him. “I talk.”

“ – so we don’t have to worry about him anymore?” Astrid asked as Hiccup came forward.

“Nope. Unhappily sitting in prison on Outcast island probably. We made sure to separate him from the Grimborn brothers, though I’m pretty sure Viggo deserves something a bit worse than prison.” Heather’s face contorted into the worst vision of anger Hiccup had ever seen, and that was impressive by his standards. He’d seen his father at his angriest more times than he’d seen him happy.

“Hey, but now we’ve got Alvin the Treacherous as a semi-ally, and the Chief of the Berserkers,” Astrid said in a calming tone. “There’s nothing we can’t handle.”

Heather gave Astride a timid smile as she soaked in the younger woman’s words. She seemed to allow them to be true as she took a swig of her mead then turned to happier topics. Well, different topics at least.

“So I thought you were staying on Berk.”

Astrid’s face flushed a bit, so she hurriedly brought her tankard up to cover as much a she could. After a few generous gulps, she replied, “Well, you know, with everyone gone, it was a bit boring.”

“’Everyone’?” Hiccup asked as he leaned against the wall away from them but close enough to listen in. “It was me and Snotlout and our dads with a few others. How is that ‘everyone’?”

Heather giggled a little and gave Astrid a glance that Hiccup didn’t understand. “Yep, sounds like everyone to me,” she said. She emptied her tankard then placed it rather roughly on the table. “Well, don’t get caught up in the auctions while you’re here. I mean, you’re automatically entered once you stepped foot on land, but who knows? You may get off easy and not have a bid this year. I’ve seen quite a few women who look like they could bring about some strong warriors.”

“Hey!” Astrid exclaimed indignantly. “Are you saying any kid of mine would be weak?”

Hiccup almost felt like he’d been slapped at her indignation.

“No, just that some Vikings here may underestimate you and pass you over.”

“What about you, Heather?” Hiccup interjected, wanting to keep Astrid from inferring anything wrong with ‘weakness.’ “Aren’t you in too?”

“Not as much as Astrid,” Heather replied. “From what I understand, I have more power because I’m Chief, so I can reject a suit if I want. Astrid, though, has to have her father’s permission or rejection. It’s a weird powerplay. I would think we were around the time where we could pick our own suitors.” She shrugged and swung a leg over the bench to stand up and stretch. “This mead is a lot stronger than that garbage they have on Berserker Island. I may have to auction some from Komical and keep them from Savage. He’s a pretty pathetic person in general, but give him something stronger than water and he’s lost.“ She rolled her eyes before she stepped away to get another tankard.

Once she was out of earshot, Hiccup sat down next to Astrid but kept his gaze down. His knees were suddenly very interesting.

“Are you nervous about the auctions?” he finally asked, his voice barely above a whisper but still loud enough to be heard in their silence.

“A little?” More of a question than a statement. Wonderful.

“Maybe my dad can get you out of it,” Hiccup offered. “He can talk to Komical and see if they can keep you from being entered formally – “

“Hiccup, you heard your dad and Heather. I doomed myself to this by coming without my dad. And…well, we both kind of knew this was coming anyway.” Hiccup waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t immediately. “I mean, I’m old enough now to bear children, so I’m obviously old enough to marry.”

“But you can’t.” Hiccup’s voice came out more like a beg than a statement, yet he found no reason to correct himself.

“And why not?” Astrid looked up at Hiccup, her eyes gleaming and full of what looked like hope. Maybe it was Hiccup’s hope he was seeing or wanting to see. Maybe she was just staring at him blankly, and he was filling in those blanks.

“Well, we need you. Berk needs you. You’re the best warrior we have. And the academy needs you. No one knows Nadders like you do, not even me and Fishlegs. And what if you marry someone who, you know, doesn’t like dragons? What about Stormfly? You can’t just leave her behind. She’d probably leave Berk just to find you if you stayed away too long.”

“That’s it?” Astrid was whispering now, but it sounded sharp and loud in Hiccup’s ear.

“Your parents. If you got married now, you would never see them again. I don’t think – I don’t think even my dad could go up against Fuller if he found you left and got married. He’d probably tear Berk apart. I don’t even want to think about your mom.”

“And?”

Hiccup’s mouth floundered for a moment as he tried to find the words to say. Me. I’d miss you. I’d miss you terribly because I - “Toothless would miss you. He wouldn’t, you know, have anyone to gang up on me with. And,” he paused for a moment as his lips were suddenly dry. He licked them until they didn’t feel like bleeding. “And yeah, I’d miss you too. You’re – You’re my best friend, Astrid.”

Astrid stared up at Hiccup. Her face was truly blank this time, no glimmer of hope in her blue eyes as they roved over Hiccup’s freckled face. He could feel his heart hammering against his chest and almost feared that she could hear it too. Even worse, if she could feel it.

Heather chose that exact moment to return, her tankard filled to the brim and her lips curved up in a sloppy smile.

“Gotta give that Killum props,” she said as she sloshed a little bit of mead on her tunic. “He has a way with words. You should spend some time with him, Hiccup. Maybe he can help you with that hopeless stutter of yours.”

Astrid averted her gaze from Hiccup down to the floor, grasping at the tankard in her hands with a grip tight enough to break an axe handle. Hiccup was afraid to speak up about it. Instead, he looked up at Heather and gave a false smile.

“Yeah, I probably should.”

*

The next few days were hardly any better. During the night, Snotlout had become so bothersome towards Astrid and Ruffnut that, after a thorough kick from both of them, he was moved to the farthest point of the tent and made to sleep next to Stoick while his father guarded the girls from any further attempts.It happened for three nights before Spitelout finally figured that his son was just as stupid as everyone told him and knew that the boy wouldn’t learn his lesson. He began sleeping at the other side of the tent before Snotlout could argue, but that also meant that Snotlout’s wretched feet were in Hiccup and Toothless’ personal space. They didn’t mind personal space invasions from one another, just from everyone else.

The first day of the formal bids hadn’t been that bad. Many of the women in attendance seemed to have at least one low bid on them, and fathers began to converse with other fathers about how realistic the payment was. A yak from a Nadly tribe didn’t seem very likely. As it turned out, the man didn’t have any yaks to trade, so his bid fell through. That didn’t stop him from trying, but it did stop any of his bids being taken seriously. After the fourth day, he was forbidden to bid again.

Even though there were other activities at the Meet and Hiccup’s desire to show off Toothless for the other tribes, his fear about losing Astrid started consuming his thoughts. He was afraid to leave her alone for a moment in case Killum showed up. His fear was founded but only because Killum showed up whether Hiccup was there or not. Each time, the Nighian tried to woo Astrid, and each time, Hiccup kept his promise by not embarrassing her again. He simply stood there and clenched his fists until his palms bled because Astrid never shot Killum down. She listened, she watched, and she gave small smiles, but she never said ‘no.’

It wasn’t until the second week when the auction started getting bad. Bad for Hiccup, anyway. His discomfort with the entire tradition made him feel sick as he watched parchment being posted in the square with the current bids. Astrid’s name was posted above Ruffnut’s for Berkian maids. The first day, there were no bids on either of them, but when Hiccup checked on the second day, Astrid had a parchment list on all her own. Ruffnut had the original paper with no bids listen. Hiccup had the feeling that Tuffnut had a hand in the lack of bids. Either that or no one had seen Ruffnut in days. He hadn’t been paying attention.

The stress from the bids kept even Stoick at bay from his son. Even if his son couldn’t put words to what he was feeling, the Chief could. He knew that look or at least had that look described to him many years previous. Gobber never once let him live it down, but at least his had a happy ending. He also didn’t wait nearly as long. It was in this moment that Stoick the Vast, Chief of the Hooligan tribe, wanted nothing more than his wife and best friend at his side so he could work out what to say to his son, the boy who could train wild dragons and defeat the worst of enemies yet couldn’t talk to a girl. Not even his best friend. That was why he didn’t push for the dragon demonstration. He also stopped complaining about Toothless being out and about.

The days were coming to an end quickly. Too quickly. Some bids had reached their maximum, and suits were made between tribes and families. Some bids cost extra parchment; some bids were forgotten completely. On the second to last day, no one saw Hiccup until nightfall. At times, Toothless followed Astrid with whimpering warbles. Sometimes, he wasn’t seen either. No one could quite figure out how Hiccup, the stumbling wandering disaster, could sneak onto a Night Fury without anyone seeing him, but he certainly had mastered stealth when he wanted to.

His return brought about sighs of relief from everyone except Snotlout who growled and muttered about how unfortunate it was that the boy showed up again. No one paid him any mind. Still, even as they saw Hiccup land and unharness himself from Toothless, they also watched as he marched away from the Hooligan camp and into the dwindling crowd. Toothless didn’t notice he was gone until he’d shaken himself a few times and waited for a piece of fish after so much flying. He turned to search for his rider only to find him gone. A sad warble escaped him as he slunk into the tent and curled up in his corner. It still smelled faintly of Hiccup.

Hiccup didn’t really know where he was going. He knew it wasn’t towards Astrid or his father or anyone else who knew absolutely no idea how to make him feel better. How could they? There was nothing wrong with him. He was just tired of the Meet. If they could just finish, he would fly back to Berk and be happy there instead of miserably unhappy here.

Suddenly, there was a large meat block in his way, causing him to stumble backwards. He looked up to see he had run right into Killum. Great. Another person he was trying to avoid. If he kept this luck up, he should see Astrid in no time.

“I see the lady has a fair bid to her name,” Killum said as he stared up at the bid sheets. Astrid’s sheet alone spanned 3 pages, but most of them were scribbles or large handwriting. Hiccup couldn’t actually read how much they were asking at that point, and he kept trying to tell himself he didn’t care. “I find it humorous that they try so hard when they know they cannot win, don’t you? It’s obvious who her suitor is going to be. Why would she want anyone else?”

“Maybe because she would like to be treated like a person?” Hiccup shot. “You know she could tear you in half if she wanted to, right? Bare-handed? I don’t know how much of a chance you’d have making it to Chief if you won the bid.”

“When I win the bid, we’ll see how many of your lies we can uncover,” Killum replied smoothly. “You’ve dressed her prowess to an amazing level, but even I can’t believe she could, what did you say, ‘tear me in half’? Well, she’ll make an interesting playmate in any case.” He turned his back on Hiccup to look over the sheet again.

His blood boiled far beyond his cheeks, beyond his nose, up until he could see it clouding his vision. It drained from his hands, leaving his nails able to dig until they cut through his skin without pain, and for once, his leg didn’t ache. It couldn’t. He was too angry to notice he didn’t even have a foot anymore.

“She is no more a playmate than she is a dragon,” Hiccup spat out. “You touch her and I’ll – “

“What, hiccup at me?” Killum laughed uproariously sounding so much like his father that it would have been alarming if Hiccup had been paying attention. “Sic your Night Fury on me? Oh, he is a magnificent beast. I’ll be sure to use his hide as a horse’s saddle for her. From one chief’s son to another: don’t make idle threats, Hiccup. They do not work.”

Killum grabbed Hiccup’s tunic front and picked the scrawny man up off of the ground, making his foot and peg leg dangle hopelessly in the air. He laughed as he made his way towards a cliffside, feeling more than seeing as Hiccup struggled against him.

“You know what would make this better?” he asked as he held Hiccup out over the edge. “If she were here to watch.” Then he let go.

*

Astrid knew that she couldn’t avoid the bids forever. She just wished that she could have one last conversation with Hiccup before going out to see who her suitor and eventual husband would be. She hadn’t regretted coming until this point. Until now, she had actually enjoyed herself. She watched so many battles that she found herself dreaming of new moves to try. Vendors from all over the world dangled their wares in her face, allowing her to see what was outside of Berk. Even the foods, so different from what she was accustomed to, were wonderful. The only thing not wonderful, though, was Hiccup. She knew she would be lying if she said that she was okay with not seeing his casual scrawl on her bid sheet. Even just once.

Just after breakfast, Astrid sat outside the Hooligan camp with her knees pulled up to her chest, watching the skies for the black blur and the inevitable whoop from his rider. With Toothless gone, the night had been quieter and less friendly. It also made her wonder how much longer Hiccup could ride his dragon without injuring either of them. She giggled to herself at the image of Hiccup’s discomfort as he waddled to the healer for ‘saddle rash’ or whatever injury one could get while dragon riding. Knowing Hiccup, it could be a number of things.

A warm hand laid gently on her shoulder. She whipped her head around for Hiccup only to come face-to-face with Stoick’s arm. He gave her a warm smile, but his eyes were just as gloomy as hers.

“C’mon, lass,” he murmured. “We need to know what I’m to tell your father.”

Astrid stood up, still having Stoick’s hand on her shoulder, then walked with her chief towards the village square.

There were only three bids left when they arrived. Astrid’s was the second most popular, but due to her age, she would be the last one to be bid on that day. Stoick had said he had arranged for it. He didn’t say why, but Astrid had a niggling feeling she knew anyway.

The first woman looked almost exactly like Big-Boobied Bertha but without the ‘big-boobied’ part. She was wide and strong like many of the women on Berk, and her scowling attempt at a smile made Astrid wonder what the reasoning was behind her popularity. Maybe Astrid really didn’t understand these bids after all. In the end, the woman’s maximum bid had been nearly an entire cattle farm plus a few weapons. She didn’t look too unhappy about her suitor, but she didn’t look exactly happy either.

Astrid looked to the skies, and saw nothing but the white clouds and shining sun.

The second woman was much smaller than the first but still larger than Astrid. She looked as if she could fit Heather and Astrid in her at once and still have room. Her bid began in a flurry as men tried to outbid each other without resorting to violence. Two failed. Tuffnut went to their aide only to start rooting them on until other Vikings came forward to separate them all. Stoick gave Tuffnut a hearty shove towards Spitelout. He was deal with the Thorston boy later.

It was useless to look at the sky at this point. Astrid knew that there would be nothing up there, no whizzing divebomb or plasma blast or even a shout to stop the proceedings. Hiccup wasn’t coming.

Tears stung at the corners of her eyes as she was led up to the front of the crowd. Even though Heather and Hiccup had said it wasn’t like a cattle auction, it certain felt like it as she looked up at her dozen or so potential suitors. The Hooligans stood far from the crowd, but all of them looked worried if not sick for her prospects. Her name was announced, her family and tribe and estimated bride-price with a note that without her father present, she was bound to her chief’s word. That raised her prospects of no real negotiations, and she could see it in the men’s faces.

“Highest current bid: Vanim the Valiant with seven oxen and three horses.”

“Ten oxen; five horses; six axes.”

Astrid looked to see who her new bidder was finding that it belonged to Killum. His father had a beefy hand squeezing his shoulder, a proud smile matching his son’s stretched across his comically red face.

“Highest bid to Killum of the Isle of Nigh.”

“Fifteen oxen, four axes, and ten yaks!”

Astrid didn’t care to look. By the smile on Killum’s face, she was sure that she knew who would win this bid. The thought of touching Killum, consummating anything, made her sick to her stomach.

“Fifteen oxen, five axes, and ten gold!”

Maybe if she started crying they would think she was too young to be wed and leave her alone.

“Twenty oxen, ten axes, and ten gold!”

She could pass out. It was much warmer on this island than it was on Berk. No one wanted to take care of a sick wife.

“Thirty gold and a slave!”

If she had only gotten her axe out of the tent. If she had brought it with her, then she could show them how much of a Valkyrie she was by cutting them all down. She could escape.

“Her weight in gold!”

The crowd stopped. Astrid’s eyes met with Killum’s as his smug smile stretched to its limit, crooked and smug and not at all warm like Hiccup’s. There was no sparkle in his eye, no passion. There was nothing there but pride in himself.

Astrid waited for someone to bid higher, but her ears only met silence. A couple of men left the crowd in a huff. She knew that it was difficult to have as much gold as her weight, even if she was slim. That much gold to her parents would mean they would have more power than Stoick. They could feed the entire island with exotic foods for months, if not years.

“Highest current bid: Killum of the Isle of Nigh. If no one else has anything to bid – “

A loud whizzing broke through the air as a shadow soared over the crowd. Then an enormous plasma blast hit the ground just inches from Killum’s left foot.

“How dare you!” Killum shouted as he stared down at the burn in the grass. “Attack a chiefson – “ He looked up to see Hiccup astride Toothless firmly planting into the grass. The Night Fury growled menacingly at the burly young man, gas building in his mouth. Hiccup slid off of Toothless with some trouble, and Astrid could see why. Not only was he soaking wet, his metal foot was in a tangle and digging into the ground. With his spare having been traded, she knew he couldn’t have fixed it, leaving him in pain. His left hip was jutted upwards, and his entire body was unlevel. The soft leather armor covering his chest was gone and left his red tunic torn to shreds and exposing numerous scratches. He looked as if he was going to fall over at any moment. But there was a ferocity in his eyes Astrid had never seen before. It was burning like an inferno, darkening his eyes to black, and in that moment, he was Stoick the Vast’s son, heir to the throne of Berk, the Dragon Conqueror. Hiccup was gone.

“What was that about attacking a chiefson, Killum?” Hiccup snarled. “Do you really want to finish that sentence?”

Killum stared at Hiccup in surprise before feigning laughter. When no one joined, he cleared his throat and replied, “Hiccup, you are just in time to see the end of the bid – “

“Back away from her!”

Astrid had never heard Hiccup roar in anger before, but whatever had just left him was the closest. It was animalistic in its rawness, in its power, and it echoed across the square. Her heart jolted, but she wasn’t sure why.

“You tossed me from a cliff, throwing me to my death, and somehow you think you can touch her?”

“I’ve won the bid, Hiccup. You have no more say over her than your father does.”

“Double her weight in gold.”

Killum blinked rapidly. Astrid gasped. Stoick didn’t have that gold, and if he did, he certainly wouldn’t allow for Hiccup to use it to bid on her. Stoick clearly thought the same as he stepped forward, a hand outstretched towards his son.

“Hiccup – “

“No, Dad! This is mine!”

Uncharacteristically, Stoick stopped and retracted his hand. He watched, stunned and helpless, as his son hobbled closer to his prey. There was no other way to describe Killum in that moment. Hiccup was hunting him, and he was going to win.

“Triple.”

“Triple and the Nadders of Berk.”

“Quadruple and the yak of the Isle of Nigh.”

The bid announcer wasn’t sure who would shout next and looked flustered at the turn of events. He didn’t even write down who had bid what.

“Can’t really top that, can you, Hiccup? We all know Berk has nothing in comparison to my father’s – “

“Half of Berk!”

The silence resounded across the square again. Astrid could almost see Killum’s and Komical’s brans working fast and hard to figure how much they could outsource to outbid Hiccup.

“How can you give her half of Berk? It’s not your property to give,” Killum sneered as he found thinking far too difficult. Instead of outbidding, he was simply going to undermine.

“When I am Chief, Astrid will be Chief with me,” Hiccup explained. “She will also own the throne of Berk. The dragons. The people. The resources. All hers.”

Komical gaped at this hiccup, his kingdom having nothing. He would not allow for his son to give up their power for a girl who looked like she would break in her first pregnancy. When he had recovered himself, he pulled at his son until Killum began to inch away from the snarling Night Fury and his fierce rider. Silence and tension as thick as yak butter spread across the Hooligans and Astrid. The bid announcer was still flustered and floundered for something to say before he gave up, looking hopelessly at the Berkians.

Hiccup finally released his hands, the blood rushing back to his fingers as his nails stopped digging into his skin. He turned to look at Astrid. There he was. There was Hiccup. The hopeful, happy gleam in his eyes mixed with guilt and sorrow and apology. The stern lines of his face had melted away to the boyish wonder he was gifted with at all times. He only made it a couple of steps before the pain in his leg became more apparent.

Astrid hurried over to him and held him up as he collapsed. His metal foot stuck into the ground a bit further, almost burying itself completely. He couldn’t move, so he resigned himself to this spot. Looking up at her, he chuckled, “Dramatic flare, right?”

“Hiccup!” If it hadn’t been for the fact that she was holding him up, Astrid would have beat Hiccup until he was black. No blue, just black. Maybe had of breathing too. Instead, she buried her face in his neck and held him close. Then came the choked sounds of his breathing, and she found that punishment enough. Easing up on her clutch, she brought herself back until she could see him better. He was looking up at her as he slid closer to the ground. She tried to grasp at him and hold him up, but he placed a hand on her arm and silently asked her to stop.

Then he knelt on one knee. It was very difficult for him, not only because of his leg but because of the pain he was in and the sleeplessness he felt from being tossed against the shore all night. But he still looked Astrid in the eye and held her hand to his chest.

“Astrid Hofferson,” he murmured, his voice coming out thick and gravelly, deep like his father’s. He cleared his throat. “Astrid, I’ve loved you nearly all of my life. It’s taken a man whose name literally is ‘kill them’ and being thrown off of a cliff for me to realize that – “

“What?”

“I’ll explain later.” He gave her his knee-weakening smile. “Astrid, you are my best friend. Save Toothless.” He heard a small huff and warble behind him. “You have been there for me through so much, and you try to keep me alive. That alone is the hardest job I’ve ever heard of. Ever. For half of Berk, for the throne of Berk, would you do the honour of taking my hand – no, me taking your hand in marriage until death – most likely mine – do us part?”

Astrid, through tears fighting at the corners of her eyes, nodded and fell to her knees. She hugged Hiccup until he couldn’t breathe, listening to his choking and wheezing, then pulled back to kiss him. Her lips were awkward against his at first. Mashed together and dry and salty and painful. Then she eased her grip on him, her arms loose around his shoulders, and it was a warmth like she had ever felt before. Her entire body buzzed with warmth as her lips moved and glossed across his. Her toes began to tingle. Her lungs began to gasp for air. Pulling back, she rested her forehead against his and chuckled wetly, not realizing her tears had escaped down her cheeks.

“I would’ve accepted if you’d proposed with a ride home. What took you so long?”