"In the end, there will be no one left. We are no longer innocent. We are lost from this world. From home. From hope. We no longer believe in such things. We only believe in war"

The war to end all wars.

What a stupid name to call a war, Harry "Hiccup" Horrendous Haddock III thought.

Wars were always bad, and from he learned in school, one war seemed to lead to another, and then on, and on and on again. Without end.

Kind of like the shelling in France.

Hiccup had signed up for the war not to win glory for himself or for his country, but to make his father proud. Growing up in Berk, Scotland, the people there were of a rare breed and not the easiest to make an impression on. His father, Stoic, whose personality matched the name, was not an easy man to impress. By bloodline, they were related to the Scottish Clans of old, the Highland warriors who fought the Crown for their own independence. The family line was full of the warrior type, hulking men who could wrestle a bear. And then there was scrawny, small Hiccup. Not a disappointment, but not what Stoic wanted, either. Now, Hiccup wasn't weak (you couldn't survive more than a few months in the Great War if you were weak), and he wasn't short, but his skinny figure was not something his father wanted, apart from the obvious personality differences of Viking-like Stoic compared to shy schoolboy Hiccup. When Hiccup was first born, the family friend, Gobber (very lovely name, according to everyone else for some reason) remarked on how Hiccup could no stop, well, hiccuping, and the nickname stuck for Stoic, who also saw the absence of the Scottish warrior ness that ran in the family. That may have had something to do with Hiccup's mother though. Hiccup's mother was American, and though he had dual citizenship, Hiccup had never been to America before, though he heard it was rather nice and full of amazing sights. He never met her, though, and Stoic was famously reserved when it came to mentioning Hiccup's mother, leaving him open to jabs from the other kids at school. Teased because he was 'weak, awkward schoolboy'.

"Not a weak, awkward schoolboy anymore, aren't you?" Hiccup asked himself, with a slight chuckle. Two years in the Army had made him fit, more muscular, and shoot straighter than most soldiers, considering he was now designated as a marksman. Maybe this would make his father proud. He even had a bullet wound to show for it, and stories of adventures in Gallipoli, Italy and France to tell his father when he got home.

Except Hiccup didn't want to. He didn't want to think of any of it. He couldn't think of the war, but it seemed like it was all he knew.

In August of 1914, Hiccup got his first taste of combat at Mons, where he found himself in the situation of kill or be killed, and it was here that he killed his first German.

In September of 1914, Hiccup witnessed the large battle on the Marne River, and had never seen so many men dead in such a short time. This was also the last time he ever saw the armies openly moving, because after this, all he can remember is the trenches and the battles then. Following the Marne, he was at Ypres in November, and then Aubers Ridge, where all he can remember is how they stumbled over the barbed wire and barricades, getting mowed down by rifle fire in the thousands. The artillery didn't help at all, and the whole thing was a disaster, in Hiccup's eyes. In the spring, Hiccup never received April showers and May flowers, he got something far worse.

In 1915, at Ypres, Hiccup witnessed poison gas use by the German Army, and he himself was among the Canadian troops as a liaison when the gas hit. Many of the French troops and some of the Canadians were forced out of their trenches and killed by the German firing, and Hiccup was only able to save his lungs by pulling off the bandages from his arm and wrapping them over his mouth and nose. But, the sight of the mass of men coughing their lungs out and spewing blood nearly broke Hiccup. Since he had made somewhat of a name for himself with his marksmanship, the generals decided to give him some rest.

So, he was sent to Paris, for 4 weeks, to rest and relax. And Hiccup being Hiccup, he didn't socialize with many of the Parisians. Or any of the British soldiers in Paris. He only went to the cafe, got his food, took some walks and read. And that was it. He couldn't sleep at night, not in the bed that was too comfy and distant from the wet ground he had spent so many nights on, and the nights in Paris were too quiet for him. Not enough shells being lobbed at one another. The whole trip was going to turn out as a waste of time, in Hiccup's opinion, time that could be spent protecting men in the trenches, teaching the replacements how to survive so they weren't killed right away. It was a total drought.

Until fate decided that he needed to meet with a certain old flame that never crossed his mind until that day.

—

Astrid Hofferson was not the kind of girl to sit at home in Berk in fancy dresses and wait for wars to end. She was a fighter, a warrior, like the warriors of the Highland that fought for their freedom, and the Hoffersons were some of the best, if not the best, fighters around. So, when the war came, the chance to finally prove herself to her family and do right by her bloodline also emerged.

You can imagine her disappointment when she was told that she would not be able to carry a weapon, much less fight in the war. And when she was told about working in factories or finding a husband, she may or may not have had to be forcibly removed from the building.

Astrid Hofferson does not marry. She also does not work in factories. Instead, she finds a way to get to France, as a nurse, thinking at least she'll be able to help out there, maybe sneak out and kill some of the Huns, right?

Her first stop: Paris, where she will await the transfer to the station most needed. So, how does she kill time? Eating at the cafe, reading, and sleeping.

One day, however, she decides to switch up the cafes, eat outside maybe, and opts for one just a few blocks away from her. Near where the soldiers would be staying. Maybe I can get some war stories from them, or they can smuggle me to the lines so I can fight, Astrid thought. Somewhat giddy of the prospect of finally being able to fight, she started to increase her pace to try to get there sooner.

As she turns the corner, she sees a face she did not expect to see, one of long, messy auburn hair, skinny frame, scar on chin and eyes as green as the leaves of English oaks in the summer.

"Hiccup Haddock?", she asks incredulously, hardly believing the man in uniform in front of her is him.

He looks up at her, and for a moment she can see his eyes working to remember her name, but only a split second later recognition is seen in his eyes.

"Astrid? Wuh, hey! How're you doing? I- I- I was just, ummmm…"

"Why didn't you tell me you were in Paris? We could have caught up!" Astrid fully knew the reason why, she wasn't exactly the nicest to him as a child.

"It just never crossed my mind, and I'm sorry about that. Why are you in Paris? Shopping for fancy clothes never seemed like your kind of thing…"

"Ugh, no I'm here as a nurse and I'm just waiting to be assigned to an aid station for the next few weeks. Mind if I sit down?" Astrid wasn't trying to be rude, and it felt shallow for her, but she noticed some things that were different about Hiccup. One, his jawline was sharper, his eyes looked greener, his hair didn't have that greasy look anymore and she thought it was rather cute the two small ponytails he had to hold the hair back…

Oh lord, she was beginning to LIKE him.

"Umm, yeah, sure! I mean, no… well, yes! No, I mean I don't mind, yes, yes you can sit down!" Hiccup was honestly chastising himself right now, he could kill Germans, pull a gun trigger between heartbeats, but he couldn't talk to his old crush?

The boys in the trenches would be giving him shit right now.

"Ummmm… Thanks!" She took a seat, pondering what to ask him fir-

"So, I'm guessing you want to ask why I signed up?" Hiccup had read her mind with that one.

"Yeah, I mean, you never really told anyone that you wanted to join, you only left you dad a letter and, I mean, everyone was kind of worried about you."

"They couldn't have been that worried, Astrid, I mean, it runs in the Berkian bloodline! I mean, yeah I could have told people, but I figured everyone else was joining so it wouldn't be a big deal if I did, too!" He lied, hoping she wouldn't catch on to how his mannerisms became more exaggerated when he lied.

"Hiccup, cut the shit. There were only like 5 people old enough to enlist and they at least told their families. You left your dad a note that was hidden in your drawer, like you knew he was going to look there if you went missing."

"No, oh come on, that's prep-…"

"Hiccup…" there was a slight growl her at his name, visibly startling Hiccup, and leaving him dejected to tell the truth.

"Alright, fine. I didn't tell Dad because I didn't want him to stop me. If I told him I was signing up to fight in the war, you know he would've stopped me, right? This was the only way to prove myself to him, and I had to do it."

"But why? You know he only wants you to be safe, and not hurt yourself", or others, she didn't add.

"Oh, you didn't know him like I did. He never listens. And when he does, it's with this disappointed scowl like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich. Like, he ordered an 'axtra large boy wit BEEFY arms, axtra guts and GLORY on the side' but got a talking fishbone instead."

"Well, maybe he doesn't have a problem with how you look, maybe just how you act" Hiccup shot her a glare, the first one she'd ever seen from him, and it honestly made her nervous. This was not the old Hiccup glare, this was different, somehow. "Oh come on, Hiccup! You burnt down the Snoggletog tree once, severely damaged the town hall, and you blew up the barn, among other things!"

"Ok, in my defense for the barn, the twins were trying to make a bomb and I tried to stop them!"

"Hiccup, you burnt the wool off of all of Silent Sven's sheep!"

"That wasn't planned! I was trying to mitigate damage from the twins' bomb!"

"By throwing it in the barn full of sheep?!" Hiccup slams his hands on the table, exasperated.

"I thought it was empty, ok?! I'm sorry! What else do you want me to say?" This kind of caught Astrid by surprise. What did she want him to say? Bringing up the past was not exactly going to help things now, she might as well just try to change the topic. She sighs before saying, "Nothing, I'm sorry for bringing it up. Just curious about why you never told anyone. So, what to you do now?"

"Well, I used to be in the 1st Army Division, but now they just kind of move me around wherever I am needed. I was supposed to be in Belgium by now, or even Anatolia (Turkey) or somewhere else in the Ottoman Empire, but I guess they decided to give me some rest before I go back out."

"They? Who's they?"

"Oh, like the, uhhh, generals. My commanders, or, I guess more like my boss's boss's boss, if that makes sense?"

"It makes enough sense. So what is it like?" This was the question Astrid had been waiting to ask him, she had shunned newspaper accounts because she wanted to see for herself, but now, she couldn't help but learn what combat was like and couldn't contain herself. She waited for him to use words like, amazing, spectacular, we routed the enemy, it was glorious, etc.

All the more reason she was surprised when she saw Hiccup's eyes just instantly become vacant, as if his soul left his body. He just sort of stared at the table ahead of him, not moving, not saying anything, just… staring. "Hiccup? Hiccup?"

"HICCUP!" She finally yelled, hoping to catch his attention and bring him out of his fantasy world, but did more than that.

Hiccup's first reaction was to jerk up, looking at her straight in the eyes, allowing her to glimpse the horrors that lay underneath, to witness the tip of the iceberg that was the cruelty of humanity, as Hiccup had witnessed in war, if only for a split second.

She was so startled and caught off guard by his reaction, she didn't even notice that he had grabbed her hand and was squeezing it. She definitely wasn't blushing…

"Ummm sorry, about that, hey listen I have to go report to barracks to give them some updates about Paris. I'll be back soonish." Very abruptly, Hiccup got up and left the cafe, walking to his hotel across the street, leaving Astrid alone with several questions, as well as a slight blush she DEFINITELY did not have because some strong, jaw-lined, muscular guy that was sweet and cute Hiccup Had…

"STOP IT!" She whispered to herself, telling herself not to get feeling for the man. She just upset him, obviously, and she would need to fix that later.

But right now, she thought the best option would be to give him some space.