There's a part of me that really, really likes running for my life… but only when Astrid's the one chasing me. And it took a borrowed book and a pointless festival for me to figure that out.

There is exactly one week in the middle of summer when it's actually almost what you could consider warm. And, since no one has to go to as much trouble to warm up the bath water, bathing becomes a lot more common. Over the centuries, this has led to a tradition of a midsummer celebration for hardly any reason at all. After all, in Berk, the only time there's a reason to be clean is if it's a special occasion—and if there isn't one, one has to be made, since no one can just be clean because they feel like personal hygiene is important. (I should know. I've been teased about my weekly baths for years.)

Anyway, it was the night of the first day of the festival. The morning of that day, Astrid had asked me to lend her the Book of Dragons—not an unusual request, since the girl has serious studying issues. She's trying to memorize the whole thing, so it annoys her whenever I need to modify it to fit in some new discovery, which happens a lot. It's not my fault I'm constantly on the hunt for new information! But I'd like to see you tell her that.

After a full day of soaring around Berk on Toothless and practicing various tricks in midair, I suddenly remembered that I'd promised to lend Fishlegs the Book so he could try to learn to draw dragons. It wouldn't be too hard to get it back from Astrid, right? Wrong. If it's the festival of bathing and your crush is nowhere to be found, don't ever, ever assume that she's not… busy.

"Hey, uh, Astrid?" I asked, knocking on her door and opening it. No one in the front room. "I, uh, need my book back," I added, stumbling up the stairs. Her bedroom door was ajar, so I pushed it gently open. Suddenly, I got an eyeful of Astrid—not facing me, thank the gods—sitting in a tub of water, pale hair brushed and hanging straight. My jaw dropped: I had seen what no other boy in Berk had seen. Astrid never let down her hair in front of anyone else. Out of its messy braid, it was much, much longer than I expected, reaching almost to the ground.

Let's not forget the fact that Astrid was probably not wearing much of anything. Well, not anything at all. That definitely occurred to me, too. Okay, maybe it was the first and foremost thought in my head the entire time. Just maybe.

Of course, the door chose that exact moment to emit the loudest creak you've ever heard, and she whipped her head around to face me. I thought I'd see fury on her face, like usual, but instead her eyes widened wider than I've ever seen them (and I saw her when she first rode a dragon, so that's saying something). The situation couldn't have looked too good for me, since I was just standing there and staring slack-jawed at the scene before me. How was she supposed to know I hadn't seen anything?

There was an extremely pregnant pause. Both of us were completely tongue-tied, for very different reasons.

Eventually, Astrid croaked, "Get out."

My legs were trembling. I couldn't move them.

"Leave!" she reiterated in a yell, when I failed to get out. I left. Well, 'left' is a bit of an understatement—I was out of that house faster than you could say Toothless.

"I'm going to die!" I shrieked as I ran through the forest, then repeated the phrase under my ragged breath all the way to the place I met my dragon. Even he couldn't exactly help the situation. Astrid was going to murder me—that was the simple truth of it. All thoughts of the Book of Dragons completely left my mind as I rocked back and forth nervously, just waiting for her to turn up, battle-axe in hand, and pin me to the nearest tree by the throat.

I waited for maybe half an hour of imagining all the possible ways Astrid could kill me (punctuated by moments when I remembered as if realizing for the first time that Astrid wasn't wearing anything, even if I hadn't seen much). When no raging girl emerged from the woods to slaughter me, I breathed a sigh of cautious relief and turned my feet back to Berk. Maybe, just maybe, I could make my apologies to Fishlegs and get a good night's sleep, hopefully uninterrupted by a murderous Astrid.

I let out an extremely undignified scream of terror as an axe swung out of nowhere and nearly cut my head off; I immediately sank to my knees, unable to support my own weight under the circumstances. Astrid stood over me, predictably, holding the weapon to my throat. I prepared to see my life flash before my eyes as her sky-blue eyes hardened and she swung the axe back in preparation to execute me.

Sure, Astrid had kissed me a couple times, but she was the kind of girl you didn't take any chances with. I was going to let her make the first moves until I was absolutely, positively sure she would not end my life. And, by the looks of it, that period would end up lasting forever at this point.

"You better start running." Astrid gave me her best evil grin, hefting her battle-axe to her shoulder; I needed no other incentive. I sprinted away as fast as I could, heart racing both in recognition that my life was in danger and for the love of Astrid. If I was very, very lucky, I'd be able to hide and make it back to Berk before she found me.

I was not very, very lucky.

I couldn't have gone more than twenty admittedly huge steps before Astrid ran out in front of me; I skidded to a halt and tried to run the other direction, but she was one step ahead of me and somehow managed to get me in a headlock.

"You are never," she said quietly through grit teeth, after a scary silence, "going to talk about what happened tonight to anyone."

"Yes," I squeaked, voice cracking with relief that she hadn't killed me yet. "Yes. I—I'll do that. I mean, I won't do that. Well—I—"

Astrid let me go abruptly, so I of course collapsed on the ground. After a few seconds of trying to summon the strength to pick myself up, I managed to sit up, but was immediately knocked down again with a boot to the diaphragm; she rested her foot on my chest with a satisfied smile. Add 'winded' to the list of everything Astrid has done to me.

A part of me kind of liked the concept of Astrid stepping on me. I shooed the thought out of my head as soon as it materialized.

My expression must have been either helpless or adorable (I prefer to think it was the latter), because Astrid's muscles relaxed. I reacted as quickly as I could and seized the haft of her battle-axe, trying to disarm her, but I ended up pulling her down on top of me. And then we both froze.

Now, Astrid had fallen on me once before during dragon training, but this wasn't anything like that. Then, it was more like a wrestling match, since both our lives were in danger. This time, the situation looked more like this: me, lying motionless on my back in a clearing by a lake, weakly grasping Astrid's hand over her battle-axe while she sat square on my hips with a shocked expression.

Maybe five seconds passed before she scrambled off of me, blushing visibly in the fading light just like I probably was, but they were the longest and most memorable five seconds of my life. They might even have been enjoyable, if I hadn't just been scared half to death.

We didn't speak. I didn't even move. I was too busy trying to wrap my head around what had just happened. My thoughts were made even more confused, though more pleasantly so, when Astrid scooted up next to me and kissed me.

It was a more lingering kiss than the last few, but I wasn't exactly experienced. I just hoped my lips weren't trembling too much, since she had just threatened my life several times. After she pulled away, she grinned shyly—I smiled back hesitantly—and suddenly buried her battle-axe in the ground next to my head, causing one last rush of terror as she ran away without a word, though I could hear her laughing.

After a few incredibly tense seconds, while I wondered if she would come back, my muscles relaxed; I still lay on the forest floor, thick and springy with moss. The thoughts were rushing through my head too fast for me to focus on any single one, but most of them involved the night's events, and how exactly I would be able to look her in the eye tomorrow. But one single, detached observation shone apart from the rest:

It occurred to me that the stars were especially beautiful tonight.

((First How to Train Your Dragon fic! This kind of evolved from where I had originally planned, but that's what my fics tend to do.))