Prince Hiccup Haddock III had not been able to touch the grass in exactly two years. The closest he had come to greenery was the fresh vegetables his father brought him weekly, and the ivy that climbed the tower he was so close to escaping.

Warrior Astrid Hofferson held out her hand as he balanced himself carefully on the knives that jutted out of the bottom of his tower. But it wasn't his anymore. He looked back up at the window, then gave his savior's hand a hard stare.

She was nearly fed up with his nervousness and her patience ran out quickly. Grabbing his arm roughly, she yanked the boy off the knives that stood three feet off the ground.

He hit the ground with a yelp, rubbing his tailbone and glaring at her. His rude comment tapered off when he looked up at her. The bright blue sky behind her caught his attention. It's not like he wasn't able to see the sky when he was trapped, but he wasn't concentrating on the sky hanging in space, but rather the way that, from his perspective on the ground, Astrid was outlined against the sky.

Her bright blue eyes seemed to pop out at him. He felt stupid. He wasn't in love with her. That was the kind of thing he made fun of when reading. No, he had just met her. Falling in love would be ridiculous, right? No, his mind repeated, you're just exceedingly grateful. Don't mistake it for love.

Grinning at her, he blocked the sun out with a hand and tried to stand up carefully. His foot creaked, causing her to give him a confused look before trailing her gaze to his legs. She gasps nervously at a metal prosthetic.

"What happened?" she nearly whispered, extending a hand to pull him up, but keeping her gaze fixed on his replacement foot.

"I lost it," the prince found his irritation growing as he shifted uncomfortably under her stare.

"How?"

"I probably misplaced it when I was a kid."

Astrid tore her gaze from the ground, intending to give him a glare he now assumed her famous for, but instead she nearly jumped back and yelped upon discovering he was a whole head taller than her.

Hiccup snickered, tilting his head devilishly. He leaned forward to give off a more 'looming' look and grinned. "You okay?"

The warrior muttered wordlessly, embarrassed at her own surprise, and flustered at his attempt to do just that. She narrowed her eyes quickly and turned on her heels, tossing him a, "Lets go, Princey," over her shoulder.

Her quick getaway only widened his grin as he rushed to catch up with her.

XxX

"Are we there yet?" For a prince, Hiccup sure had some annoying habits. One of them being that he had asked that question exactly fifteen times in the past hour. Obviously he forgot her threat on his life.

She raised her axe to her throat, sticking his head between the blades where the handle jutted out and came to a point. Astrid rolled her eyes when he held up his hands in surrender.

"It's a three-day journey," she snapped, unmoving. "It will take three days. Get it?" She then released him and began walking again. He jogged after her, practically pouting.

"Not on d..."

"What?" the warrior didn't hear him clearly when he mumbled the rest of his sentence.

"Not on horseback." the prince said louder and, curiously, nervously.

"Is that how you got here?" Astrid mused after a short lull in conversation. "Horseback?"

Blowing stray hairs absent-mindedly out of his eyes, Hiccup shoved his hands in the holes he called 'pockets' in his pants. "Yeah, I rode here."

"Why were you stuck in the tower?" She leaned forward as she walked, studying his face.

Hiccup was silent. So she repeated her question. He glanced at her and licked his lips. "I... made a friend that I shouldn't have."

"Was it the wizard? Is the story of you being in love with them true?"

"Yeah, I guess so." he chuckled, " Not in love... We're friends. Anyways, I befriended the Wizard, who I call Too-" the boy paused. "Two. My dad really didn't like that me 'nd him were buddies. He was very loud, very yelly."

Astrid let out a laugh, finding it very hard to believe that this boy was a prince with his lack of grammar skills. He talked with his hands a lot, too, so she had a hard time concentrating on the words coming from his lips.

The boy raised an eyebrow at the sound she made, obviously pleased to have had made her laugh. "Two and I decided to run away," he continued with a satisfied grin. "We rode all the way out to the tower, which was kinda our secret place. It only took about an hour with how we went," he added when she gave him a bewildered look. She still raised an eyebrow at him, unbelieving. Hiccup licked his lips again, anxiously, "I was inside while he was wandering around outside and the door... It got stuck.

"When he realised I was trapped, he ran off. I don't know where to, but he would come back every once in a while and just stand there nervously." Astrid tilted her head sympathetically while he shrugged.

The warrior found that they had come across a trampled spot in the bushes and, recognizing it as the place she had set up camp the night before, motioned the prince that they would stop, that he should sit. Hiccup complied gratefully, immediately yanking off his boots as he sat comfortable in the grass. Astrid copied him in removing her shoes, then her armory, and shaking out her wrinkled dress. She searched briefly for the firewood she had gathered the previous day and, upon finding it, laid some down in a charred circle of stones.

The girl plopped down on a soft tuft of grass across from the prince. She glanced up at him and saw him staring. Suddenly, Astrid felt self-conscious and shrank back. "What?" she demanded irritably. He looked taken aback by her sharp outburst and shrugged.

"You look so at home... Natural." he stopped himself from saying 'pretty', feeling flustered that he thought it.

She tossed him a half-hearted grin, lazily leaning against a tree stump. "Thanks?"

There was a few minute's comfortable silence in which Hiccup laid down in the warm grass and stared up at what he could see of the sky. Astrid watched him do so, poking the still unlit firewood with a stick. She broke the silence when her curiosity about his past entrapment got the best of her. "Is it true that a dragon guarded your tower?"

Hiccup turned towards her for a second, his breath catching in his throat. But no, she didn't know. He returned his gaze to the sky.

"I guess you could say that. There was a dragon in the woods." he heard Astrid coo with interest and the smug look he acquired when he made her laugh came back at the noise. "I think he was always there in the woods, especially when people approached. I would..." he glances at her, grinning sheepishly. "I made fun of knights who would come to rescue me when they thought I was a 'fair maiden'. Most of them would leave when they found out I was, uh,"

"This?" Astrid offered, swooping her hand, indicating his body.

"You just gestured to all of me," he complained, feigning distress. "Yeah, this. But some would stay while I teased them about how gullible they were. Some of them would get really angry and shout slurs, and others would throw weapons. The dragon would attack those who threatened me with bodily harm, and if Knights stayed longer than he deemed necessary, or got too loud for him, he'd creep out of the bushes and growl at them.

"I would throw knives at a boy if he was sitting in a tower taunting me, too." With that, Hiccup fell silent again, shutting his eyes and enjoying the light breeze and the rustling noise it made when it danced through the trees.

"What did you eat?"

Not opening his eyes, the prince shrugged. "My dad brought me food. He never tried to save me. Guess it's better to keep a weak, useless prince locked up, right?"

Astrid was torn between rolling her eyes at the melodrama that laced his tone thickly, or feel bad for the poor boy. She stared at him while she contemplated her next move. Then the warrior inched towards his head, taking clumps of his hair, upon reaching it, at a time and weaving stubby braids.

Hiccup opened his eyes and gave her a hard stare before deciding he found her work relaxing and letting his lids flutter closed.

XxX

The prince awoke to the smell of frying fish. He groaned and rolled to his side, towards the noise. Prying his eyes open, the boy sniffled and stared at Astrid, who looked up at him and blinked. Hiccup bolted upright and swung his head around, unable to recall his memories from the previous night. His amnesia, however, was short-lived and he relaxed, though embarrassed.

When he looked up at her again, the warrior was giving him a funny look, her cheeks red. It wasn't until a hand flew to her mouth that he realised she was holding back laughter. He scowled at her, though that only seemed to spur her on.

The girl handed him a stick which held a cooked fish once she calmed down. They ate their breakfast together quickly, though neither was particularly excited to begin walking again.

Despite their unwillingness, it wasn't long before they were both tramping through the woods again. When she gave her armor an uncomfortable stare before she began to put it on, he offered to carry it for her, which she quickly agreed to, after a moment's thought.

Hiccup, Astrid noticed, would shake his prosthetic every so often when he grew tired, and when he did so she would casually suggest they rest.

While they walked, she sheepishly asked him how he came about being as built at he was.

He had raised an eyebrow at that, grinning mischievously. "Honestly? When I first got trapped in the tower, I had a plan to get really strong and break out. Literally. So I did the training my dad always wanted me to do. Eventually I realised it was a really dumb idea, but it became a habit, and it was really boring up there."

She laughed at his grinning addition and stretched her arms towards the sky. Then she suddenly froze. A snapping noise, that went on unheard by her companion, repeated itself. Hiccup noticed that she wasn't walking by his side anymore quickly. He looked back at her, the question of what she was doing died on his lips.

He jogged up back beside her and nervously tried to chide her into keeping going.

The warrior waved off his advances, still warily watching the thick woods behind them. "Come on, it was just a deer, let's go!"

"Shut up Hiccup!" she shouted pushing him away. Surprised by her action (and frankly, the extent of her strength. She was very powerful for such a tiny girl.) Hiccup fell , making a squeaking noise of protest.

There was a sudden roar and Astrid saw a black blur darting out of the bushes. She points her axe at it when it comes to a stop, growling. Hiccup jumps up from where he was shoved, rushing to throw himself between the two before they could jump the other. "It's okay! It's okay..." he hushed the warrior and dragon, pushing the growling animal back. "You just scared him. I told you that he gets defensive when I'm in danger."

"I scared him?!" Astrid demanded, still pointing her axe defensively. "Who in the hell is him?"

"Astrid, this Two...thless..."

Yeahhh who saw that coming im like a ninja

I didn't want to make it obvious at first, but then I decided that yeah, actually I do. So now it's obvious.

Heheh rate and review, please uvu