2. Afternoon Lunch Surprise

The day started out fine.

It was a few months after Hiccup finally woke up after about two weeks of being unconscious, and things have never been better in Berk. Astrid realized she would have to begin to help Hiccup teach others about dragons. Sure her knowledge was very limited but she made it a habit in going to Hiccup when he was at the shop with Gobber, or when he was out with Toothless, or on his free time, and sometimes she would even visit him at his home to ask him questions on certain doubts she had on some dragon species.

She'll never admit it but she enjoyed these special times with him, even if they were limited.

Hiccup and her were able to become something like best friends (after Toothless of course) and sometimes when he was free he'll help her on her dragon flying with Stormfly (and after the near death experience a few months ago Toothless never missed a session Apparently he still didn't want her flying without his supervision...over protected dragon) and she was proud to say she was getting better. She did enjoy how Hiccup taught her though.

Her relationship with Toothless has become rather platonic both still watched out for the other but not how Toothless watched out for Hiccup, who was still trying to get used to walking on one foot and on a prophetic leg.

She just finished teaching some people on now to carefully tame a Terrible Terror without having them latch onto any body parts Snotlout however, wasn't all the very lucky though.

So here she was in the hall with Fishlegs, Snoutlot, who finally got the Terror off of his hand, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut, who also got attacked by the same Terrible Terror they used when they first were training in how to kill a dragon because apparently the Terror still found Tuffnut tasty in the face.

Hiccup was off with Toothless both flying through the skies coming up with new tricks. It was something she takes pride in, knowing she was only second to him.

She knew that both loved coming up with new ideas and that they liked being alone to just be best friends.

And because Hiccup was gone Snotlout found it appropriate to try and flirt with her. It seemed when Hiccup was around he didn't try as hard probably because he saw the kiss she gave Hiccup right after he woke up, which turned out to be both of their first kiss. But when Hiccup wasn't around which was sometimes rare even though both never said they were in a relationship, Snoutlot still flirted to see if he can get her away from Hiccup, which was stupid in fact.

He was failing like always and it was staring to get on her nerves. She would've punched him of course, if it wasn't for the door opening.

She looked up to find both Hiccup and Toothless make their way towards them.

She wasn't able to even get out a greeting before Toothless snapped his head directly at her.

Without warning he let out a loud screech and ran as fast as he could towards her (which was pretty darn fast). They don't call the Night Fury the fastest dragon for nothing.

"Toothless no!" she heard Hiccup yell but it was too late.

Unlike the rest of the gang that quickly ran off when they heard the angry Night Fury, Astrid was too frozen to bother getting away.

And here she thought they were starting to become friends. Apparently she was wrong like many other things she wasn't going to admit.

The next thing she know she's slammed to the ground.

Her back hurts, her head is spinning but like many other times she's too stubborn to admit defeat so easily.

She opens her eyes and expects to see an angry Night Fury in her face about to eat her but it's completely opposite in what she was expecting.

Instead she sees Toothless' back to her as he stood in front of her almost in a protective crouch ready to rip any one to shreds if they got closer.

"Toothless?" She heard Hiccup ask but Toothless was blocking most of her vision that she couldn't see anyone except Toothless ready to pounce on anyone that got near.

She heard Toothless rumble deep in his throat, almost like a warning to stay back.

"Hiccup like what's wrong with your dragon?" She heard Snotlout say and from the side of Toothless she saw him take a step towards her.

This caused Toothless to crouch down lower and growl at him in a warning, making him step back while he held his hands up in surrender.

Astrid couldn't figure out why Toothless was acting like he was acting. She's never seen him this way. Not even with Hiccup and that alone was surprising.

"Toothless is everything okay bud?" She heard Hiccup ask but she still wasn't able to see him. She supposed he was in front of Toothless trying to calm him down.

He didn't calm down however.

If anything he just crouched down lower almost lying on the floor while he continued making low snarling, growling, and sometime snapping noises to the startled teens in front of him while Astrid lay with her elbows propped up so she could try and see what was happening but Toothless had stretched his wings in a way that reminded her that he was now not afraid to attack if need be. That was a surprise.

Astrid was panting by now. She was scared when Toothless just up and ran to her and then slammed her to the ground, not to mention he was now protecting her from Odin knows what.

"Is this it, bud? Is this what your protecting Astrid from?" Hiccup asked from Odin knows where.

It must be exactly from what he was protecting her from since Toothless backed up more making Astrid slightly crawl back before Toothless let out a screech and flap his wings in a desperate manner to get that thing away.

She heard Hiccup begin to frantically say something but because of the desperate noises Toothless made she wasn't able to hear well.

A few moments later she saw something get tossed to the side that appeared to be a snake. It was yellow and black, and rather long.

As quick as it started, it ended because Toothless brought down his wings and got back on all four paws.

She saw how he moved to the side as Hiccup ran to where she was sprawled out on the ground still panting and wondering what just happened.

"It's okay as it turns out Toothless was just protecting you from an eel," Hiccup told her kneeling down besides her, as he signaled to the snake like thing on the ground.

So Toothless was protecting her from an eel? An eel? What was wrong with an eel? Astrid wasn't complaining since she didn't like eel all too much and it took her only a moment to discover that it was the same eel that was on her plate. She wasn't going to eat it. She was actually planning to throw it away. Eel just didn't taste good to her. It was too slimy for her tastes.

"Why?" was all Astrid could say at this point, she was still panting from the fright Toothless just gave her.

Hiccup stood up and out stretched his hand to her, offering it, and she took it as he helped her up.

"Dragons aren't very fond of eels, in fact it was the reason I was able to tame the Zippleback back when we were training," Hiccup explained to her helping her get her balance and once she did he let her hand go and moved to stand to the side watching her.

So that's why the Zippleback backed fearfully into its cage with Hiccup, sneaky cheater.

"Well that's the last time I ever almost eat eel," Astrid promised crossing her arms feeling annoyed but deep inside she was glad that Toothless protected her from what he thought was a danger to her, even if Vikings eat eels all the time. She wasn't going to tell him, she was just happy Toothless cared about her enough to do that. Protect her from the terrible sea snake they call an eel.

She felt something nudge her side and she looked down to see Toothless there with his special gummy smile he only ever lets both Hiccup and occasionally Astrid see.

"Thank you Toothless for saving me against that awful eel. Your my hero you big guy," Astrid told him as she began stroking his head in a thankful manner that made Toothless begin to coo in delight.

"Yeah looks like he was just watching out for you Astrid," Hiccup told her smiling as he watched the exchange Toothless and Astrid shared.

Astrid smiled before she reached into a bowl that was on the ground and held up a salmon she knew Toothless would love.

He did.

"So have fun flying?" Astrid asked Hiccup as Toothless began eating all the fish that was on the ground. He stayed clear of the eel that didn't bother him much since he saw that Hiccup and Astrid were safe but that didn't stop him from watching the dead sea snake almost expecting it to get up and attack. It didn't of course.

"Yeah, still coming up with new tricks and improving tricks but we're getting much better," Hiccup told her as he too watched Toothless happily eat the fish.

"That's great, well I'm gonna go feed Stormfly. Odin knows she would only eat salmon since she thinks the other fish would 'enlarge' her figure," Astrid said of pronouncing the word enlarge with a look on her face that said that, that both amused her and annoy her. Vain dragon Stormfly could be sometimes.

"I came to feed Toothless but by the looks of it he's already fed," Hiccup laughed at the dragon that now pounced over to them before he promptly pinned Hiccup to the ground making the boy groan in annoyance and the dragon to laugh in glee as he began licking his riders face, and further making his rider desperate to get the offending dragon off of him.

"Bye Hiccup," Astrid laughed knowing the boy was in for it before she began walking to the door to go and feed Stormfly, who by now would kill her for being late.

Toothless must've thought she was in danger again since he hopped off Hiccup and made his way to Astrid who was now standing by the open door, looking her over to see if she had anything on her before he made his way to her and sat next to her.

Astrid turned to him with a smile on her face realizing what he wanted.

"And goodbye to you too, Toothless," Astrid continued smiling as she scratched behind his ear where she knows he enjoyed it.

"Now go on and give Hiccup a lesson, I hear he's going to bring back those horrible eels,'' Astrid whisper into Toothless ear in a playful way to make him go and play with his rider who was now getting off the ground and wiping Toothless' saliva off of him.

"Astrid, don't tell him that! Now he's never going to stop watching my every move to see if its true," Hiccup complained looking at them.

"Go on Toothless before he puts another one in my lunch,'' Astrid encouraged the dragon who immediately bound over to his rider and pinned him to the ground as both began to wrestle, or in Hiccup's case, to get away from Toothless who did think his rider was going to do that to Astrid.

With one more look and laugh at the scene Astrid turned to go and find Stormfly so she can feed her.

Now Astrid was sure that Toothless and she were going to be great friends. It was comforting to know that not only will she have Hiccup and Stormfly there if she ever needed help but now she's able to say that Toothless will be there too.

After all if Toothless protected her again but this time from an eel, surely he'll protect her from anything dangerous.

At least she hoped so.

•••-•••-•••-