Night

by Threni

It's nearing Snoggletog, and one night Astrid wakes up to find Hiccup is awake too. This is a mood-piece depicting, among other things, my thoughts and impressions of night, while also looking into Hiccup and Astrid's relationship during the Snoggletog prior to the second film. Special thanks to TheFuriousNightFury for providing suggestions for this story.

Night

I Own Nothing

All Rights Reserved

For many people, waking up in the middle of the night amounts to groaning and blinking a few times, rolling over, and trying to go back to sleep as quickly as possible. The beauty of night is ignored, the charm glanced over, and the mysterious silence dismissed, because thoughts are concerned with the upcoming day and how important a few more hours of rest will be, physically and mentally. Consequently most, and I can be included on this list, tend to see waking up in the middle of the night as nothing more than an inconvenience and something to be avoided if possible. Consequently most, and I can be included on this list as well, say they have had 'a good night's sleep' if they did not wake up at any time for any reason in the middle of it.

Astrid Hofferson could usually be included on such a list as well. But when she woke up one night, for no fathomable reason, she felt no compulsion to go back to sleep any time soon. Instead, after lying on her cot and looking at the featureless ceiling for a while, perhaps expecting sleep to return to her naturally, she slid out of bed, picked her way across the cold hard floor to the window, and looked out.

It was a black night. A black night where the few things visible were little more than phantoms. A golden sliver of the moon was in the sky, hardly wider than a fingernail, which illuminated nothing but itself. It was angled in such a way that it seemed to be grinning eerily at the earth below, as if smug about how little effort it was making and knowing the earth was powerless to do anything about it. Hardly any stars were visible, and the few that were seemed faint and distant, as if they had collectively decided to move further away from this particular planet for reasons only they could possibly know.

Perhaps it was because her eyes were still adjusting to the darkness, but the snow covered ground seemed hardly brighter than the sky. Indeed, the snow appeared gray rather than white, and it only made the blackness above and around it even more impenetrable. There were only a few light patches here and there, like little islands in the midst of a great black ocean.

What she had mistaken for a star she realized was actually a light coming from one of the windows of Hiccup's hut. It was too large to be created by just a candle, which could only mean Hiccup was at his forge again.

In point of fact, she and Hiccup were the only humans at the Edge at the moment. It was almost the holiday of Snoggletog and naturally everyone at the Edge wanted to be back at Berk to celebrate. The plan had been to leave that morning—by which I mean the most recent morning the Edge had seen, not the morning that had yet to arrive—but several days prior, Fishlegs had grown homesick and decided to leave early. The Thorsten Twins and Snotlout had decided to go with him, but Hiccup had been heavily involved in creating his father's gift for Snoggletog, which involved utilizing his forge, and could not simply put it aside to work on later. Blacksmith work often does not allow for delay or else the work is ruined. So Hiccup opted to stay behind and leave on the predetermined day, and Astrid had decided to remain on the Edge with him.

Her decision prompted a few sly winks from Snotlout, and would probably provoke gossip and more sly winks when the word got to Berk. And to be sure, she did enjoy the notion of being with Hiccup and having no other humans around, but since Hiccup was so busy concentrating on crafting his gift he proved to be poor company, so she spent most of her time flying on Stormfly and checking over the Edge's defenses, as a person secures their home before they leave for an extended period of time.

And just when they were about to leave, that morning, a blizzard hit. It raged for many hours, with high winds blasting flurries of snow in every direction, to the point where you could not see ten feet in front of you and could not hear your own shouting. They sensibly decided to not risk flying home in such weather. But by the time the storm subsided it was late in the afternoon, by the standards of wintertime, and they decided they might as well delay departure until the following morning. They would be returning to Berk a day later than planned, but Snoggletog was still several days away, so an extra day's absence seemed harmless. It would cause a little uneasiness at home, but that could not be helped now.

And yet, Astrid thought as she stared at Hiccup's hut, he had already finished his father's gift, so what on earth was he doing at the forge at this time of night? She scowled. If it was as late as she thought, then Hiccup was going to be a wreck if he did not get some sleep soon. He especially would need some rest if they were going to spend all of tomorrow flying. So she decided then and there to pay him a little visit and get him to close up shop for the night.

It was a cold night, to put it mildly. Cold and bitter. Astrid did not mind the cold as much as some people: she had spent much of her life exercising in the early morning, so she was more acclimated to such low temperatures than most. Still, she was not about to walk over to Hiccup's hut wearing only the clothes she slept in, so she pulled on her boots and, after blindly feeling around for a few moments, found a long cloak.

Deciding to not bother hunting for a candle, she made her way down the stairs. Her hut was about as dark as the world outside was, so dark she could not see the walls opposite her and the table in the main room's center was practically invisible except for a dim outline that made it mysterious and vaguely unsettling to look at. More visible but still difficult to see was the form of her Deadly Nadder, Stormfly, fast asleep in a corner. Stormfly could not comfortably fit up the staircase, so she lived on the first floor. At the sound of the door opening the Nadder's head jerked up.

"Don't mind me, girl," Astrid said softly, "I'm just stepping out for a few minutes. Go back to sleep."

It came as no surprise to her that Stormfly ignored her words and opted to tag along.

Outside it was even colder than it was in the hut and perfectly still; still as a statue in a cemetery and just as silent. Yet there was an atmosphere of strange tension present. Astrid, looking around at the small quasi-village of the Edge, felt as though there were many great and terrible things happening just out of her line of sight. Perhaps, just on the other side of the hill, a predator was stalking its unsuspecting future meal. Perhaps just across the sea a robbery was being committed. Or perhaps, on a ship out on the ever-changing ocean, dragon hunters were finalizing plans to destroy the Edge and those who lived there.

Or perhaps none of these things were actually happening and were merely products of her imagination, brought on by the atmosphere she thought she perceived. Nevertheless, there was no question that the darkness and the cold made the world more menacing than usual, even for someone who was accustomed to danger and not given to being afraid of mere shadows.

Nor was she afraid. She felt a tense and ambiguous atmosphere, yet it did not scare her. Instead she took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the frigid air, and carefully picked her way down the planks towards Hiccup's hut. Thankfully the distance was not great, because there was a genuine danger of slipping in the snow and falling off. Such a fall would not be necessarily fatal, provided she did not freeze to death because of immobility brought on by injury, but it would certainly be extremely painful. She suddenly imagined having a metal leg like Hiccup did and chuckled. Stormfly chuckled too, in her own fashion, though she was unaware of what was going through her rider's mind. If it made Astrid laugh, that was good enough for Stormfly.

As they drew nearer to Hiccup's hut the silence of the night was gradually broken by the increasing sound of a hammer. They reached their destination and Astrid banged on the door a few times. There was no answer but the hammering stopped. Then it resumed. Astrid pounded on the door again, much louder this time. Again the hammering stopped and then resumed. Astrid lost patience and gestured to Stormfly, who promptly walked up to the door and swung her tail at it three times. It sounded like claps of thunder as it broke the stiff silence of the night. The door was opened within seconds and Hiccup, with one hand pressed against his ear, stood in the doorway.

"Good grief, Astrid, was that necessary?"

"You have only yourself to blame." Astrid retorted with a smirk, "If you had answered my knocks I wouldn't have had to take extreme measures."

"I thought I was hearing things. Most people don't expect visitors at this time of night," he replied as he let them enter and pulled the door down.

"And most people aren't working at forges at this time of night either!"

Hiccup's brow furrowed. "Was I keeping you awake? I didn't think I was hammering that loudly…"

She shook her head. "No, I was sleeping fine, but seriously, Hiccup, what are you doing working right now? You should be in bed!"

Hiccup had moved over to his workbench. "Are you my father or something?"

"No, but I am your betrothal—" she liked reminding everyone about that, even if the only listener was well aware of it, "—and I get concerned when I find my future overworking himself when he needs rest for the trip we're making in a handful of hours." She liked referring gestured to his workbench. "What are you making, anyway?"

Hiccup shrugged. "I was straightening some nails."

Astrid nearly exploded. "You're working at Thor-knows-what time of night on a bunch of…nails!"

"Hey! Nails are important! If we didn't have nails we couldn't keep a single house standing!" He paused, giving them both a chance to simmer down. "The truth is, I was working on another project earlier, and when that was finished I noticed a bucket of bent nails I keep forgetting to fix, so I thought, since the forge was already lit and my tools were out, I might as well get started on it."

"And you lost track of time?"

He shrugged again. "It's easy to do when you don't look out the window."

While they were talking Stormfly had gone to settle near the forge, which was nice and warm. In fact, the room presented a lovely and pleasant contrast to the outside and to Astrid's hut. Near-solid Darkness was replaced by warm ruddy light; cold strong enough to give a person frostbite was replaced by a cozy and toasty warmth, rather like a kitchen in which the cooks had been preparing a hot meal, except there was no pleasing smell of cooked food. Instead there was the smell of burnt logs, which was not a bad alternative, and molten metal. At any rate, that tension Astrid had felt when standing outside was completely nonexistent here.

And something else seemed to be nonexistent here. "Where's Toothless?"

Hiccup gestured in the direction away from the coast, where woods lay. "Out chasing rabbits."

"At this hour?" Astrid exclaimed. "Good grief, when do you two sleep?"

"Well he is called a Night Fury. I don't think he ever regularly slept at night until we became friends. Then, because I'm not nocturnal—"

"I'm questioning that,"

"—because I'm not nocturnal, he had to adjust to my sleeping habits."

"—which must've been hard to do because you don't seem to have any!"

"Anyhow," Hiccup said, trying to regain the initiative, "I think you're right. It's time to call him back." He lifted the door again and, while standing in the doorway, gave his Night Fury call. Then he turned back to the workbench.

"Do you really think he heard you?" Astrid asked skeptically.

Hiccup smiled. "You'll see." He started putting the fires out and dousing the metals. "And please don't touch anything. You might burn yourself."

Astrid snorted. "You know I know better than to do that."

"I'm just being careful. It's a force of habit."

Astrid glanced around room as he worked. In one corner she saw what appeared to be sections of a chair. In another were numerous messy piles of parchment and journals. And strewn about the floor were scraps of leather and parchment and slivers of metal.

"Your hut could do with some cleaning,"

"Maybe. But I don't let the mess enter the forge area," he said defensively.

"Well maybe you could start applying that rule to the rest of the room," she hinted.

"Feel free to get started if you want—"

"Oh no!" she laughed, waving a finger at him, "It's your hut and you have to take care of it!"

"In that case—"

But at that moment Toothless the Night Fury burst in through the opened doorway. His black skin glistened in the firelight, indicating it was wet with snow. He took a look around, saw Astrid and gave one of his namesake's smiles. Then he charged towards her, stopping only when he was mere inches away (Astrid always stood her ground in such situations), and gave her a great big lick that went from her chest up to her forehead. The force of the lick made Astrid recoil backwards and upset a table and everything on it. Hiccup frantically tried to steady her and the table at the same time while Toothless grinned again, this time mischievously.

"You see what you've done, you overgrown salamander?" Hiccup cried.

Toothless's expression turned to one of adorable innocence. Anyone who loved the sight of cute animals would have squealed with delight. Outwardly, Hiccup was not such a person, so once he got everything settled he went over to the dragon and gave him a small cuff on the head.

Astrid's clothes were gleaming with slobber, yet she did not notice. Her interest was focused on something else.

"So what's in that box?" she asked.

"Hmm?"

"That box you're holding. When the table was falling over, you seemed especially interested in saving that one. What's in it?"

"Which box was that? I forget. I've got lots of them."

"The one you're holding."

"Oh this? Oh, it's nothing. It just contains some fragile stuff I didn't want broken." He tried to sound innocent. Astrid was not fooled, especially since she could see him trying to hide the box in question behind his back.

"You're hiding something, aren't you?"

"No?"

She grinned maliciously. "Perhaps a Snoggletog gift for someone?"

He grinned feebly. "Maybe?"

She drew close to him and he drew away. "Perhaps a Snoggletog gift for me?"

"Perhaps?"

"You know if you keep backing up you'll hit the wall, right?"

Hiccup swallowed. "You know you look both impossibly beautiful and extremely dangerous when you acting like this, right?" For a moment he looked ready to hand her the box. "But I can't let appearances get the better of me!" He backed into the wall, his arm behind his back so the box could not be taken from him without a struggle.

Astrid laughed and dropped the threatening posture. "I can't decide if you look cuter when you're nervous or when you're resistant."

"Sounds like you need to work on preventing appearances from getting the better of you too!" Hiccup teased.

"It only happens when you're concerned. So is that gift for me?"

He sighed in defeat. "Yes, it's for you. Do you really want it now?" He held it out to her.

Astrid laughed again and gently pushed it away. "I can wait until Snoggletog. But if you try to withhold it from me then—" she added threateningly.

Such words were mere jest, of course. While Astrid was certainly dangerous when crossed, as Snotlout consistently failed to remember, it had been years since she had intentionally or maliciously harmed Hiccup. Even punches to his shoulder, one of her most common ways of showing affection, had become a less frequent occurrence.

Nevertheless, Hiccup had no desire to reawaken the angry dragoness within her. So he held his hands up disarmingly and said, "I'm not stupid enough—or recklessly brave enough—to do that! I know you'd probably take my other leg or something!"

"No, I just won't give you your gift!"

He grinned. "Oh, you actually got me something this time?"

She pointed a finger at him. "Yes I did! I learned from my dilemma with our betrothal gifts. You said me being with you was the only gift you needed! So I got you something you don't really need. But once you have it you'll never want to part with it."

"And if I do you'll pull my guts out." Hiccup said casually.

"Neither of those will happen because you'll like it a lot!" She spoke confidently but her eyes hinted at insecurity. Hiccup knew the feeling. He had felt it so many times in the past when making inventions to impress his father, only to have his father greet them with disapproval.

He spoke gently, "Astrid, whatever you've given me, I know I'll love it. And, in the incredibly unlikely chance that I didn't, do you think I'd let a gift wreck our relationship? We're stronger than that." He put a hand on her shoulder, only to pull away with a groan of disgust. They had forgotten that she was still covered in Night Fury slobber.

"Dear Thor, I am so sorry!" Hiccup exclaimed, grabbing the nearest towel and trying to wipe her face off.

"My Snoggletog gift had better include new clothes!" Astrid growled, wiping her cheeks with her hands and flinging the saliva away.

"It will, it will!" Hiccup said hastily. Night Fury saliva did not wash out, a fact that was all too well known in the Haddock household. While there were some kinds of material that the saliva's presence had only minimal impact on, such as with Hiccup's flight suit, with the clothes Astrid was wearing the only solution now was for her to put on something else.

So off into the snow again Astrid went, and this time Hiccup went with her.

"You really don't need to come with me. I'm quite capable of getting home by myself." Astrid argued.

"I don't mind coming," he replied patiently. Stormfly followed behind them. Toothless had been ordered to stay put. Naturally he decided to ignore the command and follow at a discrete distance, hoping they would not notice until it was too late.

"And to think, all this has happened because I came here to make you go to sleep!" Astrid exclaimed as they walked, "Now we're all wide awake and it's unlikely we'll get any sleep at all before daybreak!"

"We'll survive," Hiccup said with a dismissive laugh.

"Knowing you, it wouldn't surprise me if you've learned to fly Toothless while asleep."

"Now that's not a bad idea…" Hiccup looked thoughtful.

Astrid suddenly realized what she had said and grabbed his arm. "Oh no you don't! You've already given me enough jolts with that Dragonfly suit! You're not risking your life with another crazy idea! You'll get yourself killed and I'll die from a heart attack!"

Hiccup snorted. "You, have a heart attack? You're the healthiest person I know!"

Even though they were both animated by the unexpected events, it seemed to be getting colder, however improbable that may have appeared. Any saliva on Astrid's bare skin, and there were some residual traces, stung like crazy when it met the frigid air. Nor did it help that her ruined clothes made walking awkward for her.

When they reached Astrid's door, she turned and said "is this 'goodnight' then?"

"Mind if I come in for a little bit and warm up?" Hiccup asked. Unlike Astrid, he had not spent a lifetime acclimating to cold weather, and his hands were shaking a bit. Once they entered the hut, which was still nearly as dark as the bowels of a cave, his face and fingers imperceptibly began turning red.

"You stay here. I'll be down in a minute." Astrid told him. "Stormfly, make sure the boys don't come upstairs while I'm changing!"

"What?" Hiccup exclaimed, "I wouldn't—'boys'?" It was only then that he realized Toothless had entered the hut. "You four-legged garter snake! I told you to stay put!"

Toothless yawned and sat down on the floor.

"And you never listen!" Hiccup said with a shake of his head. He flopped down besides his dragon. "Thousands of dragons in the world and I pick the disobedient one with hearing and drooling problems!" Toothless nuzzled him. "Yeah, I love you too, Bud. Oh, and Stormfly, don't bother lighting a fire. As nice as the warmth would be, I doubt we'll be here long enough to make it worth the effort."

Stormfly shrugged and retired to her corner.

Astrid's hut was about as bare of luxurious commodities as a hut could be. When it came to weapons and defenses Astrid could be extravagant, but she seldom bothered to care about personal comforts. So there was only one chair in the room (Hiccup knew she had a second one, but suspected it was in her bedroom) and the floor was probably just as comfortable. It was certainly cleaner than his own floor was, he had to admit. So there Hiccup remained, sitting in the dark, listening. The only sounds were Toothless's heavy breathing, Stormfly's lighter panting, his own sniffing, and a muffled din coming from upstairs. Then the noise upstairs changed and moved to the stairs themselves, and Astrid came over to them, likewise changed.

"Comfy?"

"Well enough thank you. The chair's yours, if you want,"

Astrid ignored the offer and sat down next to him, throwing a blanket over the two of them. "So why are we sitting in the dark?"

She felt him shrug. "I just felt like it."

"And would you mind telling me what exactly we're doing right now?" Astrid asked, "As I recall, I came to your hut to send you to bed, and now we're here at my hut sitting on the floor. What's your game, Haddock?"

Hiccup laughed and put his arm around her, pulling her closer to him. "Maybe I just want to spend more time with you. We haven't seen each other much this week. I'm sorry about that, by the way."

"What did you make for your dad anyway?" she sensed Hiccup was about to enthusiastically describe his new project. "And spare me the technical details." She sensed his enthusiasm deflate a little. She was sorry about that, but when Hiccup talked technical nobody could understand a word he said.

"Two things. First was a new war hammer—he dented his old one about a few weeks ago—"

"How did that happen?" Astrid interrupted. She could not recall anything from a month ago that would have prompted Stoick to swing his hammer hard enough to dent it.

"The Twins were at it again." Hiccup returned. "Remember when they made one of the grain barns collapse? Like you, my dad sometimes takes his frustration out on trees. One of them turned out to be stronger than expected."

"Ah."

"Yeah. After he damaged the hammer he went to Gobber for repairs. I then told Gobber I'd do it myself for Snoggletog, but Dad doesn't know about that, so he's probably been demanding his fixed hammer from Gobber for weeks and Gobber's probably going crazy coming up with excuses for why it isn't ready! And the other gift is a chair. But not just any chair! No, no, I've outdone myself this time: I've made a chair that can turn in place!" he said excitedly.

Astrid frowned, not really understanding his excitement or the significance of his achievement. "Turn in place?"

"Yes! It swivels! You can sit on it while, say, at a table, and then, with a simple push of your foot, you can spin around 330 degrees without getting up!"

Astrid understood what he was saying, to an extent, and imagined she would understand it all when she saw this chair. It was probably the chair she had seen earlier in his hut. "Why 330?"

"The hinges aren't able to spin a full 360. With Snoggletog so close, I didn't have time to experiment more. But I'll fix it with my next version! Anyway, that's what took up so much time. When some things, I can get away with making them a little too wide or narrow, but with the swiveling mechanisms, if I was even a few millimeters off on one piece it wouldn't work, so I had to be very careful and exacting. I sure hope he likes it," He added to himself.

Astrid felt around for his shoulder. "He'll love both gifts, Hiccup. We're going to have a blast this year! Oh, and speaking of blasts, you'll want to be careful when the Twins give you your present. I overheard them planning to give you a disguised Gronkle egg. I don't know if they're still planning this, but I wouldn't put it past them."

Hiccup winced. Gronkle eggs exploded when hatching, as Berk had learned in spectacular fashion. "Anything else I should be aware of?"

"Nothing comes to mind. You know, it's been maddening, being here and unable to take part in any Snoggletog preparations. I just hope they haven't started decorating already. That's always been my favorite part; I'd hate to think they've done it without me. And once we get back I'll be able to start making Yaknog—is there something in your throat?—and I'll be able to help my mom with preparing for the feast—that's about the only time I enjoy being in the kitchen—and just think of the epic snowball fights we'll have this year—I hope you're on my team again, though it would be interesting to fight against you too—oh, and just wait until I get the 'Missing-Toe' games going! I've got some great ideas for ways to make it more interesting!"

"Count me out of that. I'm already missing five." Hiccup said, and he was not entirely joking.

Astrid only half listened. "Good grief, just think of all the things we've got to get done before Snoggletog! We should leave right now! Time's wasting!"

She started to get up but Hiccup tugged on her arm. She lost her balance and fell right on top of him.

"Maybe that wasn't the brightest thing to do," Hiccup half groaned, half laughed as he tried to get his wind back.

"It's your own fault, as usual!" Astrid laughed as she brushed her hair out of her eyes and massaged one arm, which had collided with Hiccup's torso. "What on earth have you got in those pockets? I think I bruised my arm on it."

Hiccup produced the box they had nearly tussled over earlier; the box containing Astrid's Snoggletog gift. "You nearly broke this, you know."

"Why'd you bring that with you?"

She felt him shrug. "I just put it in my pocket. I do that with a lot of things." He chuckled, "You should've seen my pockets when I was a kid! Dad really hated washing my pants. But you know, if you wanted to open your gift now…"

"Hiccup, I said I could wait and I can. Patience is a warrior's virtue."

The conversation died out for a while. The two humans repositioned themselves so they were sitting side by side under the blanket again. As for the dragons, Stormfly looked like she was sleeping, but it was only a pretense; a ruse so the humans did not find her presence intrusive, but so that she was also wide awake in case anything got out of hand. Exactly what qualified as 'getting out of hand' was undefined, but Stormfly had not survived this long by being unprepared for the unexpected.

As for Toothless, he was still behind the humans, almost invisible except for his large green eyes. He was keeping quiet, as he often did when his human and Astrid were together, but he was not pretending to be asleep. In fact, he was softly breathing on them, in an effort to make them warmer.

At length the silence was broken by Astrid, who started chuckling. Hiccup asked her what was so funny.

"I was just thinking about the time you sent Dagur the barrel of cod heads for Snoggletog."

Hiccup laughed too. "Fishlegs thought it was poetic justice." He suddenly lost his humor. "Of course, we never imagined Dagur was crazy enough to actually eat them…"

Astrid's eyes widened. "He did that?"

"Yep."

"By choice?"

"Yep."

She shook her head. "I still can't believe he's related to Heather,"

"I sometimes wonder if one of them was actually adopted." Hiccup agreed. "I wonder if we'll see them for Snoggletog this year. I know Fishlegs has written to her about it…"

"Yeah, and he nearly lost his head trying to figure out what to give her," Astrid said sourly, "You were lucky you had your forging to do. He nearly melted like a snowman because he couldn't think of anything."

"Didn't he ask you for advice?"

"He rejected everything I suggested, saying it wasn't 'special' enough."

Hiccup snorted.

Astrid swatted him lightly. "Yeah, I imagine it kept him awake for many nights. Maybe he wanted to go home early so he could ask his mom for assistance." She leaned back a little and stretched her arms. "And just think: a few years ago who would have ever imagined we'd be here in my hut in the middle of the night, talking about Snoggletog and keeping each other awake? Strange things happen at night, don't they?"

"I used to be afraid of the night," Hiccup said quietly. He had been looking grim and thoughtful ever since Astrid had said 'kept him awake'. Evidently it had stirred something in his memory.

She nodded. "I know what you mean. It was always nerve wracking trying to sleep while worrying when the next dragon raid was coming. There were scores of times when I'd hear the slightest sound, like the settling of the house, and think it signaled the start of a new attack."

"I know what you mean, but that wasn't what I was talking about,"

"Oh? What then?"

Hiccup swallowed, wondering if he should keep talking.

"What is it?" Astrid asked, genuinely concerned.

There is something strange about night. It is a time of intimacy. In the darkness, when faces and expressions are not always easily visible, when the rest of the distracting world is hidden from sight, and when the noises of the day have declined with the sun, suddenly it becomes easier to tell secrets and confidences. It becomes easier to remove any personal armor and reveal a part of the soul in ways nobody would ever think of doing in daylight.

So Hiccup gave in. "You've have bruises and sore limbs before, you know how painful those can be and how difficult handling that pain can be when you're trying to fall asleep. Now imagine trying to sleep with nothing to distract you from the pain in your leg, and being unable to do anything about it because you don't have all of that leg anymore. Imagine trying to sleep, afraid to stay in one position because it might stiffen the muscles and afraid to change positions because moving might hurt them. Imagine going to bed not knowing how painful or painless lying down will be for you. Imagine lying alone, with no one to talk to and nothing to prevent you from wondering if you'll ever heal, if you'll ever be what you were before, if this is how it's always going to be for the rest of your life, thinking of all the things you won't be able to do anymore and terrified that there might be other things you'll have to give up. During the day, sure, it hurts, but at least there are some ways to get your mind off it. During the night…" He broke off. He felt upset just thinking about those nights and ashamed that he was indulging in self-pity while Astrid was present.

"How long has this been going on for?" she asked sharply. "Is it still going on?"

"Not much anymore," he admitted, "but it was almost nightly when I first lost my leg. And that hasn't been the only thing keeping me up at night." He could have slapped himself. He had just been feeling disgusted for indulging in self-pity, and yet he had just extended the subject instead of changing it!

Astrid almost asked for clarification, but then she understood what he meant. "You had a lot of bad nights before you met Toothless, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did. It almost went to the point where I was almost afraid to go to bed. And I couldn't tell my dad about any of it because…well, you know how he would've reacted."

"Couldn't you have told Gobber?"

"No, I—well," Hiccup's voice was cracking as he remembered those years. "I was often afraid that Gobber would do what my Dad did if I…well, if I'd kept coming to him with sob stories about people picking on me or telling him I was afraid to sleep, I feared he'd grow tired of it and tell me to just 'toughen up' or something. I could confide in Gobber more than anyone else, but I still didn't want to push it too far." He felt Toothless' head pressing against his back. "Thanks, Bud. And then I met Toothless and found someone who never got tired of hearing me talk and couldn't tell me to 'toughen up'!" he added, trying to add an upbeat conclusion to his words.

There was a short pause. "You weren't the only one with troubles in those days, you know," Astrid said at length.

"I know I wasn't," Hiccup said quickly, "I know I'm not the center of existence and other people have far worse problems, but when you're upset it's sometimes hard to focus on what upsets—" he stopped. "What was troubling you in those days?"

"I was lonely." Astrid said quietly. "I was out to gain success, and I was finding it, but nobody really liked me. Except Snotlout and Gustav, but let's be real, they only were interested in me because of my looks. If I'd had a mole on my face or something, they'd have found me repulsive—"

"I wouldn't have," Hiccup said quickly.

"I sometimes wonder if people actually mean that." Astrid mumbled. She suddenly thought of putting some marks on her face and seeing how people reacted. If she gave herself a black eye or stopped washing her face and broke out with acne, would people like to be around her because she no longer had a pretty face? Would Hiccup like to be around her because she no longer had a pretty face? "Anyway, you had Gobber at least sometimes, the Twins had each other, Snotlout had himself and that was good enough for him, and Fishlegs hung out with them, but who did I have?"

"Your parents?" Hiccup carefully suggested.

"It's not the same!" Astrid cried, "You of all people know parents don't always have the time for their children, and even if they did, you think I like spending time only with people more than twice my age?" She softened her tone. "I'm not saying I went to bed feeling like this every night, but every now and then…I'd think about you in the forge and the Twins wrestling around and Fishlegs at his books and Snotlout trying to beat Gustav at dice, and I'd wonder if anyone was ever going to invite me to take part in something fun. Who could I call my friend? And if I did have friends, why was I always spending all my time alone?" Now it was her turn to break off as she recalled those days, and it was Hiccup's turn to put an arm around her shoulder.

"That sounds a bit like how it was for me," he said,

"Yeah," Astrid said heavily, "It was similar, in hindsight, except I was tough enough to dissuade people from making fun of me. To my face, at any rate."

"And then you met Stormfly," Hiccup smiled.

"And found some wonderful friends who I wouldn't trade for the world." She said fervently. "But sometimes I can't help but wonder: if I had gone blind or contracted the Scourge of Odin back in those days would anyone besides my family actually have cared?" Her voice trembled.

"I would have. Even then, I would have."

Astrid mumbled something like "Yeah."

"I would've!" he insisted. Astrid believed him. Perhaps it was only because she wanted to believe him.

"But I know what you mean." he continued, "I sometimes wondered who would've mourned if I'd been eaten by a dragon."

"You were more likely to kill yourself with one of your contraptions backfiring." Astrid said, trying to lighten the mood of the conversation. She suddenly did not want to talk about her insecurities anymore, even to Hiccup.

"Hey! My contraptions work just fine! Sure, they require a lot of testing and perfecting, but so does everything manmade! Whoever built a ship or a house perfectly on the first try? Nobody I can think of."

Astrid sniggered at his indignation and decided she wanted to see his expression. He always looked so funny when the quality of his work was questioned. So she asked if he would let go of her so she could light a fire.

"Can't Stormfly do that?"

"Yes, but I can't remember if there's any wood in the fireplace, and I can't see it from here."

"Would a candle work instead for you?" He produced one from a pocket, and then pulled out a small holder for it.

"What else do you carry around in that outfit?" Astrid had to ask. She held the candle up and tapped her hand on her leg. Stormfly recognized the signal and blew a light stream of flames at the candle. Then Hiccup pulled what looked like a small cube of blue glass out of yet another pocket and stuck it on the candle so that it surrounded the lit wick. Its light went from tallow yellow to a soft light blue.

"Fancy," Astrid said approvingly, "But what did you do that for?"

He shrugged. "I like it. I'm thinking of making more of these with different colors and then I'll attach them to a chandelier. Think of it! Your house could be lit by blue lights, red lights, green, purple, yellow, even gold, white, or black!"

"Why would I want to light a room with black light?" Would that not be counterproductive?

"I don't know. But you could do it if you wanted to!"

She set the candle down on the floor far enough away so nobody would accidently kick it over. She had to admit having things lit with blue light produced an oddly soothing atmosphere. There was a lovely aura about the candle now. She liked it.

Hiccup smiled, happy to see one of his little creations pleased her. The truth was, he had always tried to impress Astrid, and these days his efforts were actually noticed and appreciated. It was nice to know she admired his talents as much as he admired hers.

"Hiccup?"

"Hmm?"

"I've changed my mind. If you want to exchange gifts now, I'll go and get yours."

He thought a moment. Why not? There was no law that said gifts had to be exchanged and opened on Snoggletog itself. And he preferred to do this sort of thing in a private and intimate environment, rather than for the whole of Berk to see.

So he consented and Astrid stole upstairs, returning soon with a crudely wrapped package about the size of a large book. He sat up as she knelt down in front of him, the blanket ending up in a disheveled heap around their legs. Toothless and Stormfly watched them with great curiously and interest.

"Sorry about the wrapping," Astrid mumbled. She was not the most practiced at gift wrapping. Until recently she had had small need to be.

"It's fine," Hiccup replied with a smile, as he took the package from her hands, "I'd rather have a messy job done by you than a perfect job done by someone else. Besides, do you think mine's any better?" That was true. He had not even wrapped his gift at all, aside from a little gold string strung around the box to hold it shut. "Well, who'll go first? Or would you rather we do them together?"

"You can go first,"

"Oh you can go first. I don't mind."

"No, it's alright, you can—"

Toothless snorted impatiently.

"All right, Bud, I'll go first." He carefully pulled off the covering and found several objects in a box. The first was a bundle of unused charcoal pencils, bound together with some string. The second was a beautiful quill made from a soft and snowy white feather. The third object was an empty inkwell of polished brass, and the fourth was a journal of bound leather. Engraved into the journal's front cover was the image of a solemn looking owl, and on the inside, in rough letters which Hiccup recognized as Astrid's, were inscribed the words "This is the Property of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III".

Astrid watched him nervously and was visibly relieved to see he was delighted by his gift.

"This is wonderful! Thank you, Astrid!"

"I bought the supplies from—"

"Trader Johann?"

"No. I tried, but he didn't have anything I wanted. I had to make a special trip to Bergen."

"When on earth did you do that?" Hiccup exclaimed.

"About a month ago. You were at Berk at the time."

"Ah."

"Yeah, but the journal I had to put together myself. It's hard to find blank books in these parts, you know."

Hiccup did know. Virtually all of his journals had been made on Berk, rather than acquired from elsewhere. He gestured to the cover. "Did you make this too?"

She looked somewhat embarrassed. "Yeah. Yeah, I borrowed one of your awls to etch the picture—"

"I was wondering where that had disappeared to!" Hiccup cried.

"Yeah, I've still got it. And I know you've got more journals than anyone can keep track of, but I thought you might—"

Hiccup hugged her. "I love it, Astrid. I've got plenty of journals, yes, but this one I'm keeping for something special. And this is quite a quill too. Is this a swan feather? Wow, you don't see many swan quills. And the inkwell looks very classy. Very dignified. Are you expecting me to do a lot of fancy writing in days to come?"

"You might." she replied. She was thinking of when he became Chief.

"Well thank you very much, Astrid. Thank you." He traced a finger down the journal cover. "This is some fancy work. I never would've expected this from you."

"Because I'm not an artist like you?" she asked, "It was tough going, I'll admit. There were moments where I thought I'd just leave the cover blank. It took me something like ten tries to get it the way I wanted it. The first try was so awful it was humiliating. I put my axe through it."

Hiccup winced. "But when'd you even find time to make this?" It would have taken some time to get this skillful, even for her, and he could not think of any moments in the past month where Astrid was acting oddly or disappearing for hours to work on a mysterious project. She might have made a special journey when he was not around, but they had not been separated that frequently.

She blushed. "Well, it wasn't that hard, actually. I'd work in the early mornings, when you and the others thought I was out exercising. I'm in good enough shape that I can afford to skip a few days now and then."

Hiccup laughed. "You're as cunning as Loki when you set your mind to it."

"I know I am. Now, I think it's my turn."

With little difficulty she undid the knot and removed the top of the box. Inside, wrapped amidst a thin piece of forest green cloth, was a necklace. Attached to the lower third of the glossy black chain were five pieces of silver, each one molded into the shape of a rose. In the center of each rose a brilliant fire opal was inlaid.

Hiccup felt a thrill watching Astrid gasp as she looked upon this for the first time.

"Hiccup, it's—it's beautiful!"

He tried to sound nonchalant. "I've noticed you don't have much jewelry, so I thought I'd make you some." There had been more to it than that. He knew, in the back of his head, that he would one day be Chief of Berk. A Chief's family would have numerous ceremonial occasions to attend, and a Chief's wife would be expected to be adorned with elegant jewelry. And Hiccup wanted nobody but Astrid for his wife.

Movement caused him to break from of his thoughts. Astrid was pulling on her hair to expose the back of her neck.

"Help me put it on?"

He carefully picked up the necklace and shuffled forward, for he was still on his knees. He got so close to her he could feel her breath on his face. For a moment they just looked into each other's eyes. Then Hiccup slowly, gently, carefully, brought the chain around her neck. Astrid gasped when the cold metal first touched her skin.

Normally Hiccup would have pulled back to admire how well the necklace looked on her, but he did not want to move even an inch away from her. Nor did she want him to. It was as if an enchantment had been placed upon them, preventing them from backing up and pulling them irresistibly forward.

Hiccup was almost trembling but hardly noticed it. His attention was on Astrid. To see her, half in shadow, half bathed in soft blue light, a happy smile spread across her face, was enough to make his heart speed increase. Gods, she was so beautiful. He gently put a hand on her neck and began to stroke it. She stiffened a little. Her eyes widened and her breathing hitched. He went a little bit lower and traced a finger around where her new necklace now rested. Almost at once she grabbed him and kissed him on the lips. Hardly surprised, but completely delighted, he kissed her right back.

Toothless and Stormfly exchanged glances, as if to say, "Well it's about time!" The dragons did not actually understand the physical and cultural meanings of kissing. All they could see were two humans putting their lips together for a period of time, which did not fit in a dragon's concepts of mating or showing affection. But they had learned long ago that their humans always seemed to enjoy the act, which implied there must be something good and pleasing about it.

For the humans, there was definitely something good and pleasing about kissing. It was so intoxicatingly pleasing that neither wanted to stop or even pause to draw breath. As their lips locked they became tangled up in each other's arms, pulling on each other until it was physically impossible to become any closer together, ignoring the necklace on her neck and the contents of his pockets which were digging into their bodies.

Astrid had such an amazingly strong grip Hiccup doubted he could have broken free of it even if he had wanted to. So caught up was he in the heat of the moment he was hardly aware of what his own arms were doing; one instant they were around her neck, the next they were wrapping around her lower back and waist, nor did he notice Astrid tightly clenching his hair with one hand and pressing against the side of his ribs with the other.

Then, as if by mutual consent, they pulled apart, gasping for breath. His eyes never left her. Gods, she was so beautiful. For a moment Hiccup wanted nothing more than to carry Astrid upstairs and make love to her. He wanted to continue what they had been doing and go even further. And he could see in that same moment that Astrid was feeling the exact same impulse.

And why not? They were already engaged, they both loved each other deeply, and it was not as though anybody else would ever know. And it was not as though he just wanted her body and would then abandon her, like those Greek Gods he had heard stories about. He loved her more than any person he knew, and he could not imagine his feelings ever changing. So how could it be wrong to become as intimate as possible with the woman he loved? Everything pointed towards that end anyway, so why wait any longer?

And yet….was it what they truly wanted to do? Did he only see the same longing in Astrid's face because he wanted to see it? Or was he misreading what she was actually expressing? Were his desires going too far? Whether they were or not, was it right or wrong that he felt such desires? This uncertainty was infuriating. His face stayed unchanged but internally he was seething in frustration as he tried to sort these questions out, all within the span of mere seconds.

The impulse faded, replaced with a sense of caution. Not tonight, he thought. Such a decision deeply disappointed yet relieved him. Not tonight.

Whatever questions were racing through Astrid's mind, he had no idea. Instead of voicing any of them, she put a hand over her heart as her breathing normalized. "Wow."

"Yeah…"

"We've never kissed like that before."

"No."

Astrid unexpectedly slapped the floor. "Why did it take us so long to admit our feelings? We could've started a relationship at any moment after our first kiss, yet we kept waiting for years until I went blind! Why, Hiccup? How much happiness have we denied ourselves because we were too stupid to realize what everyone else thought was obvious?" Her voice wavered. "We could've been married by now!"

"Or we could've ended up hating each other," Hiccup pointed out. He only said this clumsy and unlikely reason because it was the only excuse he could come up with. In fact, when he thought about it, he was just as annoyed as Astrid was that it had taken them so long to become a couple. "We were too young and inexperienced for a serious relationship in those days. Things could've turned out disastrously for both of us."

"I don't believe that. A lot of people marry young and their marriages turn out just fine. My parents were married when they were fifteen, and yours weren't much older!"

Hiccup sighed. It was true that most Vikings—actually, most people in general—married in their mid-teens, and that he and Astrid were several years older than average newlyweds. On the other hand, average newlyweds had not had to reshape a tribe almost from scratch to integrate dragons into it, while dealing with the many highs and lows that came with such changes. It could truly be said that Hiccup and Astrid were not your average kind of people, and as such, the standards for average people did not really apply to them.

He gently put an arm around her shoulder. It felt rather tame compared to what they had been doing a few minutes before, but it felt appropriate for the conversation. "We'll talk it over with our parents when we get back to Berk."

"Promise?"

"Promise. If the decision were mine alone, this would be my last Snoggletog as a bachelor." Of course, if the decision had been his alone, they would have been married several years ago.

"I love the necklace," Astrid said, running a finger along the polished silver. "I'll be sure to wear it on Snoggletog. We'll make the whole island jealous of us."

Hiccup nodded but then suddenly yawned.

Toothless saw him and yawned. Then Stormfly yawned. Astrid resisted for a moment but then she yawned too, the sight of which made Hiccup yawn again.

"See what you've started!"

"I guess it is getting a little late," Hiccup said with his hand over his mouth.

"Hah! I tried to tell you that several hours ago!" Astrid said triumphantly. "And yes, we've definitely been up for too long tonight—not that I object to anything that happened," she added, reddening.

But she had made up her mind that it was now truly time to go to bed. She swiftly got to her feet and pulled Hiccup, who was struggling, on to his. Evidently he had been on his knees for so long his legs had cramped up.

"One nice thing about having a metal leg," he commented as he rubbed life back into his lower limbs, "you never have to worry about it falling asleep on you."

"And speaking of falling asleep—"

He sighed melodramatically. "I know, I know. You want me to, because we've got a long day tomorrow. Assuming it isn't tomorrow already. But of course, if it was tomorrow that would mean tomorrow is now today, because it's always today, only—"

Astrid playfully pushed him towards the door. "We'll discuss it while we're traveling."

"So this is what I get?" he turned to Toothless, "See what she does, Bud? We exchange gifts and talk about marriage and then a minute later she's tossing me out into the cold night!"

She smiled flirtatiously. "Oh, did you want a 'goodnight kiss' before you left?"

"Did you seriously think I'd leave without one?"

This kiss was nowhere near as intense as the previous one, but that hardly mattered to them. Being in each other's embrace again was all that mattered, and both were rather reluctant to get out of it. The dragons, however, must have grown impatient, because Toothless began to tap his tail on the floor, and it was not long before Stormfly did too. Evidently there was only so much romance they could tolerate watching. Or perhaps they knew that everyone did need some rest before tomorrow's journey.

Whatever their reasoning was, they had decided it was time to end this little tryst. Hiccup groaned at them in frustration, kissed Astrid one last time, and walked out the door into the night with his gift tucked under his arm.

He felt the fresh air sting his face a little. It was a curious thing, but he rather relished the sensation. He felt alive; alive and rejuvenated, like a tired old man suddenly restored to his former spritely youth and energy. Perhaps it was because he was still a little ecstatic from the events in Astrid's hut, or perhaps it was the wintery air itself, or perhaps it was both put together, or perhaps it was something he had no notion of, but whatever the cause, he liked the way he felt right then.

Hiccup did not know how long he had been at Astrid's hut, but the passage of time had had no apparent impact on the night. It was as dark and cold as it had been when they had last been outside. His gaze drifted over to a flatter region of the edge, which was surrounded on three sides by the dim outline of tall pines and oaks. The snow on the ground looked heavy and crusted. Near the center of this area was a large and long indent, rather like a crude snow slide, which led to the walkways of the Edge. He eyed Toothless.

"You dragons enjoy playing in the snow as much as we humans do, don't you?"

Toothless looked at him as if to say, "Well obviously!"

They did not bother lighting any candles or fires when they got home. Hiccup simply went straight upstairs, debating in his head what special project he would use his new journal for. But before he could turn in, Toothless demanded a neck scratch.

"I'm already ready for parenthood," Hiccup pretended to grumble. "I've got a big baby here and three human ones at Berk. Raising kids with Astrid will be a breeze compared to this—because at least when they drool it WASHES OUT!" For Toothless had begun, possibly unintentionally, to drool on Hiccup's leg. Hiccup quickly shoved the dragon's head away and felt around for a towel. He knew he had one over by the wash basin.

Toothless warbled a little, and Hiccup glanced at his dragon thoughtfully. Something that he had only half-registered earlier now commanded his concentration. It concerned Toothless ruining Astrid's clothes. Toothless was fully aware of what effect his saliva had on clothing and usually refrained from slobbering on others.

"So what prompted your behavior tonight?" he asked thoughtfully. "Were you trying to get Astrid to leave or were you trying to bring us a little closer together?"

The Night Fury did not seem to understand what Hiccup was saying. For all their successes with dragons, the fact remained that Hiccup never knew exactly what went on in the mind of his best friend, or how well Toothless actually understood him. That Toothless comprehended his words and actions to a certain extent was evident, but Hiccup could not help but sometimes wonder how far this extent extended. And it upset him a little to know that, no matter how much he learned, the fact remained that Hiccup could tell Toothless anything, yet this could not work both ways.

"So what were you up to?" he asked rhetorically, "what's going on in that funny head of yours?"

Toothless licked him on the face.

Hiccup sighed with resignation. "Well, at least you were considerate enough to not ruin any clothes this time."

Toothless nodded happily.

"Go get some sleep, Bud. You heard Astrid. Milady commands and we obey. And she's right, we're gonna need our strength: we've got a long flight tomorrow. Oh I know, you don't mind that at all, but for us humans, flying for an entire day can be exhausting." He patted the dragon on the head. "Well, it'll all be worth it. We're going home to have Snoggletog with our family. This will be our, what, fifth Snoggletog?" He grinned. "Five years! And in that time I've gone from nothing to finding a best friend, a betrothal, a genuinely loving relationship with Dad, ending several wars, and having all kinds of adventures with a real family! I guess you could say I've finally found something worth celebrating on Snoggletog."

He dropped onto his bed. "Life isn't too bad, is it?" he said to the featureless ceiling.

Is it?

The End

Thank You for Reading!