Takes place shortly after Hiccup's becoming chief at the end of How to Train Your Dragon 2. One small reference to the Netflix series Race to the Edge, but it is easy to understand even without having seen the series.
Hiccup cursed under his breath. He wasn't normally one to make use of expletives, but the metal contraption that his skillful fingers worked to fix was being all too frustrating to deal with. It was Toothless' tail, damaged well beyond the threshold of being usable. It wasn't the dragon's fault, although you wouldn't know it from looking at his apologetic eyes as he watched his friend's brow grow tight-knit as he focused angrily upon the torn cloth and bent metal. Hiccup's eyes flickered away from the tail every now and then as he glanced out the open window to see how far the sun had set. Toothless acted similarly, glancing up to Hiccup every few seconds to gauge his progress.
Finally, Hiccup stood, shoving the tail away from him and across the wooden desk with both arms.
"Look bud, I'll have to work on this later. Our first flight in days and we end up with a broken tail; just our luck, huh?" Toothless merely continued eyeing him. "Don't look at me like that," Hiccup moved his hand to scratch under the dragon's chin, "You know I'm busy. I promise bud, I'll fix the dumb thing tonight and we can go flying early tomorrow morning." Toothless looked away, rolling his eyes. He had learned over the past few weeks since Hiccup's taking over the role of chief that such promises were often left unfulfilled. Hiccup started to reassure his friend, but glanced again out of the window and decided against it. Then he grabbed his notebook from the left side of the desk, charcoal pencil inside, and placed it into the pocket of his outerwear. Just as he turned to begin his decent down the stairs of his home, he heard the wooden door downstairs open.
"Mom?" he called, thinking perhaps Valka had returned early from training the younger kids. She had settled into a teaching role, imparting her knowledge on dragons and the like onto the young minds of Berk. Hiccup didn't wait for a response before continuing his way out of the house. He stepped out onto the first stair and locked eyes with the intruder. The soft-flowing blonde hair told him it was a familiar one.
"Leaving?" Astrid asked, noting the air of hurriedness in his mannerisms. Hiccup nodded, descending three steps. "Well," Astrid said, stepping up two stairs towards him, "I'm sure you can spare a minute, right?" Hiccup opened his mouth slightly, averting his gaze and taking on an almost pained expression that told more truth than any words he could have spoken. Astrid barely seemed to respond other than by taking another step up and waiting for him to speak. Hiccup started to move his metal leg, preparing to take another step down to be on the same level as Astrid, but found that the awkward tension formed a barrier that prevented him from moving further. He prepared his words for a silent moment.
"Council meeting, you know I have to-"
"It starts at sundown. You don't need to hurry, Hiccup."
"Well, uh, you know me. I always- uh, always like to be there early . . . yeah, early to make sure- make sure that-" he found himself stammering, hoping that maybe Astrid could finish the thought for him.
"Basically, you don't have time to talk to me because you need to make more time to sit in the empty great hall and stare at the walls." The mocking tone in her voice was quite literally palpable to Hiccup, who found that they nearly caused physical pain in his chest.
"Didn't realize I was that boring to you." She added, this time succeeding in causing him a painful feeling.
"Astrid, you kno- you know that's not what I meant."
"I'm listening," she said in a mixture of encouragement and damnation. "Go on, tell me why you don't have time to talk to me this time."
Hiccup found his fists clenching slightly – something about the tone of those last two words infuriated him in a way he didn't yet understand.
"You know what?" he almost yelled, causing Astrid's eyes to widen slightly. "I don- I don't need this!" Astrid was taken aback; she stood stunned for a moment against the wall to the left of the staircase. Hiccup pushed by her, unable to look at her as he did so; he rushed out the door and scampered off, leaving Astrid in her shocked state.
The council meeting was dull (as expected) but for all Hiccup was paying attention the village's prominent members could have been conversing with Odin himself and he would have been none the wiser. His mind raced, leaving his eyes entirely unfocused on his surroundings. There were a few moments where someone would call out the newly appointed chief's name and, after quickly bringing Hiccup up to speed on the discussion he was mentally, if not physically absent from, the boy would simply nod, agree, and return to his thoughts. After a few times of this happening, the frustration resulting convinced the residents of Berk to stop involving him at all.
Hiccup couldn't believe himself; he was rarely the type to be angry, let alone to be angry at Astrid. He still wasn't quite sure what had set him off, only that he needed to find her as soon as he could and try his best to make some sort of an apology. She would be mad, to be sure, but maybe he could smooth things over and end up with nothing worse than a punch in the shoulder. So he hoped.
Once the discussions of the meeting ran to a close, the various human inhabitants of Berk made their way home, leaving Hiccup alone inside the hall. He was still deep in worried thought, so much that he didn't notice Astrid until she was right next to him. As Hiccup's eyes caught her, he blinked several times, pulling his head up from where it rested upon his hand. His mouth opened quickly, wanting to say something, anything. Astrid cut him off by grabbing his arm roughly and pulling him out of his seat at the head of the long stone table.
"A- Astrid, listen, please. I'm sorry, I just- I'm not sure what I was-" she tugged on his arm, pulling him with her as she walked towards the large wooden doors of the hall. Hiccup, despite having grown fuller than he once was, still didn't quite have the heft to resist (especially since he only had one good leg with which to try). Astrid's tight grip held fast, taking him past the table, across the hall, and outside the double doors. Stormfly was there, saddled under the dark night sky, and Astrid leapt onto her back and tugged, insisting that Hiccup join her. Hiccup gave up on stammering out an apology, deciding to just go along and hope for the best. They flew up above the buildings and trees, feeling the cool air as it brushed against the both of them. Hiccup kept as much distance as he could from Astrid, unsure of whether she would permit him to touch her. Even as worried as he was about what in the world Astrid was doing, he couldn't help but feel the uplifting freedom of being so far above the earthly troubles below them. The flight was short; before long Astrid ordered Stormfly down into a small clearing the forest only a few hundred yards from the village outskirts. She jumped off, turning to Hiccup and offering him her hand as he dismounted as well. She turned to face him, giving him the chance to speak.
"Astrid," he said, taking her hand somewhat hesitantly. "I'm sorry. I really am. I know you're mad, and, and you should be, but just . . . forgive me?" Astrid smiled a bit, seeming to nearly laugh.
"Hiccup, I'm not mad. Worried, yeah. But not mad at you." Hiccup felt the tension dissolve a bit, and he grasped her hand a bit tighter. She stepped towards him in response, closing the distance between them to only a few inches. She stood slightly uphill from him, enough to make her seem a few inches taller. Hiccup brought his good leg up a short distance and stood eye to eye with Astrid, reducing those few inches to near nothing.
"Alright, so tell me. What's been up with you lately?" Astrid looked into his eyes sincerely, and Hiccup couldn't stop himself from glancing down in some sense of shame. Astrid moved her hand that wasn't in his grasp up under his chin and lifted his head back up, all but forcing him to look at her.
"I don't know." As silly as it sounded, Hiccup wasn't lying, and his eyes made Astrid keenly aware of the truth behind what he said. She waited for a bit, seeing if he would speak further. When he didn't, she took the opportunity.
"Do you think, just maybe, that you're letting this whole chief thing get to you?" Hiccup shrugged, not finding any words to respond. Astrid moved her hand from under his chin to his cheek, running her fingers lightly through his hair. "When was the last time you went flying – before I dragged you out here, I mean?"
"I took Toothless out this morning. We uh – well, it was really my fault I guess – I wasn't paying attention and we took a tumble downhill and broke his tail on the way down. I can't even figure out how to fix it, I'll probably have to make another from scratch." Astrid cocked her head slightly and prodded a bit further for answers.
"So that explains why you were in a bad mood today, I guess. But you haven't seemed right almost this whole week." She left it at that, staring at him and waiting for him to explain.
"I don't know. I just- it feels like I just don't have any time, I guess. I mean I spend every waking moment doing something and I just . . . it's not like it used to be. I miss the old days on the Edge, I guess, just getting to spend time with you and the gang. Now . . . now I barely get to see you." Astrid smiled again, moving in to kiss him lightly on the opposite cheek to her hand.
"You know it's your fault right?" Hiccup was stunned by her remark, his eyes widening in surprise.
"Wh- what are you talking about?"
"Hiccup, you let people get everything out of you. You don't save anything for yourself. You don't have any time because . . ."
"Go on, what? What are you trying to tell me, Astrid?" She looked deeply at him, wrestling with whether or not she should dare to say it.
"Because . . . you still feel like you have to prove yourself. And you don't, Hiccup. The only person you haven't proven yourself to is . . . you. That's why." Hiccup seemed to freeze as though his heart had stopped altogether.
"I- I don't-" he stuttered, entirely taken aback by what Astrid had said.
"Hiccup, you don't have to make everything hard on yourself. Just relax for a bit." As she said this, she moved both of her hands to his shoulders, feeling the tension in them. She massaged them lightly, lovingly.
"You don't get it, Astrid. I, I thought I was ready for this . . . but I'm not. I just want to go back-"
"Back to when things were simpler?" Astrid finished his statement for him. He nodded slightly. Astrid glanced down for a moment, thinking. "Who says you can't?" Hiccup cocked his head at this.
"Well, the whole of Berk, for one, and probably my dad too, looking down from wherever he is." She could sense the slight sadness in his tone as he referenced his father. She took his hand, pulling him to sit down with her on the soft grass of the cove.
"Your dad would be proud, Hiccup. He is proud. And no one on this island wants you to be miserable." Hiccup found himself staring into the water of the lake that shimmered under the gentle moonlight. "You don't have to give up anything Hiccup, there's no shame in taking time for yourself."
"You know what my dad always said. 'The good of the many outweigh-"
"That doesn't mean you shouldn't take time to sleep," Astrid interrupted, gently rubbing the dark circles under his eyes. "Or eat, or even fly with Toothless. Those things are good for you Hiccup, all of them. And you sure won't be any good for Berk if you put yourself in an early grave."
"You're right, you're always right." Hiccup continued staring into the water. "But-"
"But nothing." Astrid said, placing a finger to his lips to silence him. "Tomorrow you are taking the day off. Go fly with Toothless, draw, scheme, sit here and look into the water all day if you want to," she said, "but just stay away from all the chiefly stuff. You need it."
"Astrid," Hiccup started, "are you busy tomorrow?" She thought for a moment, his eyes now looking away from the lake water to stare at her.
"Not really, why?"
"I was thinking, uh, how about we spend a day together? And I uh, I promise I will listen to whatever you want to talk about." He smiled at her in an apologetic sort of way.
"You know I can't say no to that," she smiled back. "I was hoping you'd ask."
The two of them sat in silence after that, close together with arms around each other. Stormfly came near the two of them, lying down. The couple leaned against her scaly hide, kept warm by both the residual heat of the summer day and the warmth of the dragon's body. It didn't take long for the peaceful setting and Astrid's loving touch to lull Hiccup to sleep. She elected to let him, deciding that he needed it. The three of them remained there under the blanket of the star-filled sky above, where the pressures of life held no power over them.
Lots and lots and lots of sappy dialogue. Thanks for reading. Feedback is greatly appreciated, I'm always looking to improve my writing. I may do a follow-up chapter detailing the next day, but I'm not sure yet if it's needed.