Hello! My first ever fanfiction. I know, wow. Kind of sad. Anyway! Enjoy reading about Hiccup and Astrid and the whole team. This takes place during the events in the first HTTYD movie. All grammatical/spelling mistakes are my own (as I haven't sat down and hardcore edited it yet). Enjoy!

"Where are you going?" A figure jumped down from a tall boulder in front of Hiccup. He fell on his back in alarm and stared up at the newcomer wide-eyed. Hiccup didn't fully realize it was Astrid until the sun caught her blond hair, braided in the back, and he relaxed a little.

"Oh, I was… well… going to… umm…" Hiccup stumbled with words. He didn't have an excuse, or so he could think of one. It was kind of hard to hide the fact that a very dangerous dragon (in the eyes of his town mates) was being kept in the woods a few miles from his village. But he knew that Toothless was harmless, as long as he ― Hiccup― could keep him under control.

Astrid unsheathed her longsword from her belt and pointed it down at Hiccup. "Look, I've noticed you slipping away almost every day after we're done training. I hope I'm the only one who saw, because they'll all be on your case if everyone found out. What are you doing? I want to know."

Hiccup sighed. Should he tell Astrid about this? She could be the only one he could trust… he definitely wasn't going to tell his dad, not even in the slightest chance. He couldn't tell Snotlout, he would want to kill Toothless straight away; nor the idiot twins or Fishlegs. "Follow me and I'll show you."

Astrid gave him a surprised look, and then sheathed her blade. "Lead the way." She gestured to the path in front of them.

Hiccup, unsettled, showed Astrid along the path that he made to reach Toothless every day. Once they reached the bowl-shaped basin, with the small pond in the middle, Hiccup gave a low whistle and then climbed down the creeping branches until his feet hit the grassy floor. Astrid's face had her normal expression that showed she could conquer anything, but she warily followed Hiccup down.

Hiccup peeped into the large crevice in the stone wall. He could see Toothless' scaly body in there, his green eyes watchful. "It's me." Once he spoke, Toothless seemed to recognize his voice and began to crawl out of his den. Hiccup saw Astrid grasping onto the bottom-most branches, gaping in frozen fear as Toothless came out, his black scales sparkling in the sunshine.

Hiccup turned towards Astrid and said, "Don't be scared."

Astrid suddenly turned reproachful towards Hiccup. "You have a dragon with you! And not any dragon… a Night Fury! You idiot!" She grabbed her sword and as it scrapped against her sheathe, Toothless turned his ferocious gaze at Astrid, his teeth bared. She pointed her sword at Toothless, and Hiccup reached to grab her sword.

"Stop, Toothless! No!" He yelled and placed a hand in front of his face, and then growled at Astrid, "Put the weapon down! Can't you see it's making him mad?!"

Astrid looked at Hiccup, like he was stupid or foolish. "You've gone mad! How can you possibly… befriend a… DRAGON!"

Hiccup said quietly, "Trust me."

He noticed that Toothless was pawing the ground, but he raised his hand higher as a sign to stay calm. Astrid looked from Hiccup to Toothless than lowered her longsword. "You're asking a lot from me," She stabbed the tip of the sword into the ground, and held her hands wide open to the black dragon. "No weapon, see?"

Toothless glanced at the sword in the ground, then sniffed and turned around. He moved towards the pond to get a drink of water.

Astrid came over and pushed Hiccup to the ground. Hiccup collapsed, his legs coming out from beneath him, and his shoulder jabbed into a sharp rock as he landed with a thud. Toothless growled but didn't make a move towards them. "What do you think you're doing with a dragon?" She exclaimed, "We're trained to kill them, not raise them as pets!"

Hiccup got up and rubbed his sore shoulder. "I found him on the other side of the basin, injured with part of his tail missing. I wouldn't… couldn't kill him. So I decided to take care of Toothless."

"'Toothless?' Oh, so now you've given it a name!" She waved her hand at the dragon by the pond. "You know you grow attached to something when you name it. Come on, Hiccup, it's a dragon!" She took a few steps backwards and grabbed hold of the creeping branches. "I have to tell the town about this. They need to know that there's a Night Fury loose on our island."

"No, Astrid!" Hiccup jumped forward and grabbed Astrid's arm. "You can't tell anyone about this! They'll kill him, and… I can't see him murdered for just being a dragon. Besides, he's injured and can't fly unless I'm riding him. He's stuck right here. Can't you understand?"

Astrid looked at him and shook his grasp off her arm. "I've never been able to understand you, Hiccup. You're not like us, and everyone has noticed that. And then to prove that you're not like us, you go and find a dragon and… train it... when we're supposed to kill them!"

"Can I at least show you something?" Hiccup said hurriedly. Maybe, if Toothless was in a good mood, he could take Astrid for a ride.

She glared at him. "What?"

"I want you to fly on Toothless."

"You're barking."

"No, I'm not. I've made a saddle and everything."

"You said he was injured."

"Yes, but I helped him heal. I created another part for his tail and… he can fly now."

"Wait," Astrid put her hands in the air. "You created another part for his… tail?"

"Yes."

Astrid just gave Hiccup a look. "You're crazier than I thought."

Hiccup raised his voice; his patience was starting to run low. "Why can't anyone believe me just once?" He glanced over at Toothless, who was watching him in return with a curious gaze. "Fine, go back and tell the towns people. But when they come to find us, we'll both be gone."

He turned away and crossed his arms. He listened for the sound of rustling as Astrid climbed back up… but none came to his ear. He twisted his head around and saw her playing with her sleeve. "I guess you could show me…" she finally said.

§ § §

"Okay, Toothless, we're staring in position one." Hiccup clicked the foot-pedal, and Toothless' man-made tail opened wide. Toothless bounded forward, and Hiccup and Astrid bounced in the saddle. He jumped up and took off into the air, his wings spread open.

"What is this?" Astrid grabbed hold of the saddle.

"Flying!" Hiccup simply answered. "Alright, Toothless, take it high." He clicked the foot-pedal to position five and his dragon flew straight up. The wind didn't whistle in Hiccup's ears, it blasted his ears, making it hard to hear anything. As they reached higher altitude, he seemed to get colder and colder. Then Toothless let out his wings and they floated aimlessly above the clouds, his tail seemed to be hitting the puffy cloud tendrils that reached out like fingers. Astrid was quiet, but Hiccup saw her looking around in every direction possible. She was holding her arms and he couldn't blame her, it was really cold up here.

Finally she mumbled, "Wow, this is… amazing." Hiccup then felt her arms reach across his middle, and she seemed to be holding on to keep warm. Hiccup didn't say anything, but he smiled.

"Toothless, let's head down and warm up."

The dragon closed his wings against his body and Hiccup switched to position three. With Astrid's arms still around his waist, Hiccup patted Toothless on the side and he swooped down, speeding towards the ocean.

Astrid yelped, "We're going to die!" and then buried her head in Hiccup's shoulder, a small scream tearing from her throat. But Hiccup knew that Toothless would come to a stop.

And he did.

He spread out his scaly wings and soared over the ocean, going towards the rocky cliffs. "Take it nice and easy, Toothless." Hiccup encouraged. "Go back towards the basin and gently land."

Toothless comprehended, and once Hiccup clicked to position two, he flapped his wings and zoomed over the land to the familiar little basin where they started. Trees blurred together as he began to land and once Hiccup finally went back to position one, Toothless spread his wings out wide and landed smoothly on the dusty ground by the little pond. Astrid was off first, and she immediately fell to her knees once she hit the ground. Hiccup praised Toothless then hopped down, completely used to the transition between flying and landing.

He sat down next to Astrid and asked, "What did you think?"

Astrid took in a ragged breath and croaked, "First, I don't think I'll be doing that for a while. And second, you're right. We need to keep this a secret."

Toothless snorted and headed into his den, leaving Astrid and Hiccup alone by the water's shore.

Astrid fingered the dirt and then said, sincerely, "Thanks for the ride, it was fun."

"It's still something Toothless and I need to practice."

"No, now you don't understand!" Astrid retorted. "We've been living on this island for over three hundred years, fighting dragons and fending for ourselves; and you're the first one of our kind to actually train a dragon and ride it! Do you know how much that says?"

Hiccup felt hollow from her words. "That I'm not like everyone else."

"No, when I rode on Toothless… I seemed to look at the world a little differently. And now Hiccup, I don't think you're the same wimpy boy incapable of anything… who I knew before. I respect you more…"

Hiccup tore up a blade of grass. "Thanks, but I need everyone at home to think that."

Astrid looked at him with a sad shadow across her face. "I'm sorry I thought about all that before. Friends?" She outstretched her hand towards Hiccup.

He looked at it and shook it, "Friends."

WOW! I can't believe my first chapter is done! WOW! Thank you so much for reading! And stay tuned for the next. :)

Yours,

Gwynn