Hello again, all. The response to this story has so far been overwhelmingly positive, so here I am with the second chapter. Long A/N ahead:

This chapter is much shorter than the first, mainly because it doesn't fit thematically with what I've written for Chapter 3. There will be a handful of those throughout the story. In this chapter we jump ahead nine months and see the state of Hiccup and Astrid's relationship, for two reasons: 1) I could never put together anything that I thought was worth writing in the time gap, and 2) We've gotta get to where the movie's events would happen, since this story is at its core a rewrite of HTTYD1 with some major changes.

So, we find ourselves in summer of the following year after Hiccup and Astrid are betrothed to each other. Both are now 15 and we have just few months until we reach the time that the movie would occur. This chapter is also based on the deleted scene, "An Axe to Grind", as you can probably guess by the title.

In addition, I'm aware that the next few chapters of this story may resemble The Blacksmith's Apprentice by harrypanther. Shout-out to harrypanther, by the way, I really enjoyed that story. It's been awhile since I read it, and I swear that I'm not trying to copy or plagiarize his work. Anyway, what I want to highlight is Hiccup's growing confidence, primarily thanks to his friendship with Astrid. There will be similarities as far as how things play out, but they should end within a few chapters.

It should also be noted, for reasons that will become clear as we go on, that in this story dragons are not going to raid in the wintertime. In the movie, which surely takes place over several weeks, the dragons never raid again after the beginning of the movie (Stoick states that "winter is almost here"), so I don't think it's that big of a leap to assume they traditionally don't (although Gobber does say "no attacks tonight" when he hears the storm during the Dragon Manual scene). Therefore, dragon training takes place close to/during winter, when the dragons are significantly less active and it is safe for the majority of the tribe to go on an expedition to find the nest and not be leaving the village shorthanded.

I think that's everything I have to say. So, now that that wall of text is over with, please enjoy this other 2,600-word wall of text. I hope it isn't a disappointment.

Don't forget to review!

2. An Axe to Grind

NINE MONTHS LATER

"Afternoon, milady. Is this seat taken?" Hiccup asked, standing across the table from Astrid. The warrior woman quickly looked up, allowing herself a snicker before smiling genuinely.

"No, Hiccup. It's all yours." Astrid answered, snickering again as the skinny boy quickly plopped down on the bench with his plate of food. The Great Hall was busy, Vikings of all ages picking this particular time in the day to eat. Hiccup's plate was decidedly meager, holding only a single fish and some chunks of cabbage. The boy never ate all that much. It was just part of his nature, no matter how much Astrid tried to encourage him to eat more.

He'd had grown a few inches in the last nine months, now a boy (man?) of fifteen years. His auburn hair fell around his youthful face, stopping abruptly at the base of his forehead up front and falling around his ears and about halfway down his neck. He had yet to fill out, though, stubbornly clinging to his skinny build.

Astrid was taller, too, though not by much, and she was deceptively stronger as well. Her bangs were longer now, some of the strands escaping the confines of her kransen and falling as far as her chest, and her training had very much paid off. She was fast and capable, earning the watchful eyes of many of the older warriors. Every now and then, she'd overhear words of praise about her potential, and each time made her prouder than the time before.

They were friends now, too. That first real interaction in the smithy had been built on and grown into a true friendship. Astrid came by the forge often, even learning her way around the art of blacksmithing and offering another pair of hands when things grew busy. Hiccup had begun dreaming up plans for a new axe once Astrid's current one reached the end of its lifespan. He'd been present for many of her furious spells in the last nine months, and with the amount of times she'd smashed the axe against trees or the ground or walls, he suspected that it wouldn't be terribly long before that time came.

Unfortunately, he'd barely even been able to begin plotting out the measurements. Work in the smithy had grown busier lately. The war on dragons had grown in intensity and it had led to more and more metalwork. Berk needed coin and supplies now more than ever, and many of the new metal goods were shipped off to be traded with the neighboring tribes and surrounding markets to provide those things.

No matter how much they had come to enjoy each other's company, though, they never broached the topic of that arrangement that existed between them. By now, the entire village had been aware of the engagement for months, and it hadn't been very well received in most corners of town. All too often, Hiccup overheard muttered curses and lamentations that Astrid had been tied to him, spoken by bitter mouths at low volumes they'd thought he couldn't hear. He pushed on regardless, though. He'd had better people say worse things to his face. In any case, the time to discuss their engagement would come, but as for now, neither wanted to discuss it and risk damaging whatever it was that they had now.

"You really don't need to keep calling me that." Astrid said, brushing a hand through her bangs. He'd thrown out the nickname a few months ago as a tease, and somehow, she'd been okay with it. She'd hit him on the arm for it, but that actually translated as okay in Astrid's book. One way or another, the nickname had stuck, and it became Hiccup's term of endearment for her.

"I like it when it makes you blush." Hiccup answered.

Astrid scoffed, "It does not make me blush." Sometimes, she really wanted to hit him. Most times, she actually did hit him, though always with a harmless slug on the arm. Well, maybe harmless for her. He often said ow when she did it, but she never could figure out if she was actually hitting his bony arm too hard or if he did it to satisfy her. He never complained beyond the usual groan about Astrid and violence, so she assumed it was fine.

"If you say so, milady." Hiccup drawled, infuriating her again.

"You're insufferable." Astrid lamented.

"That's my job." Hiccup replied. Astrid let a chuckle slip from her mouth and started to pick at her meal. She stole a glance at the boy as he did the same.

She often wondered if she could love him. Sure, she liked Hiccup, but as a friend. A friend that she happened to be engaged to. Love seemed like an impossible emotion to Astrid. She loved her parents, but that was it, and that type of love was completely different from the romantic kind.

Haughty footsteps suddenly made their way toward their table, and a plate clattered onto the table beside Astrid's. Snotlout smacked down onto the bench, scooting too close to Astrid with a disgusting smile on his face.

"Hey, babe. Did I tell you that you look amazing today? Because you do." Snotlout flirted. Hiccup frowned and Astrid whirled on Snotlout, staring him down with a smoldering glare.

"Snotlout, I've told you a hundred times not to call me that." Astrid bristled. Hiccup gulped. Few people could bring such fury out of Astrid like Snotlout could.

Snotlout had the audacity to snort. "C'mon. You know you love it."

"No. I don't." Astrid seethed, gritting her teeth and turning her full attention on Snotlout. Hiccup's skin crawled. He could see where this was going, and he had to admit that he kind of liked the direction. Snotlout had a sometimes-beneficial tendency to not know when to shut up.

"You're intense. I like that. So, how much did Stoick offer your dad? Because again, my dad would be happy to rescue you from your unfortunate—"

Astrid closed her hand around Snotlout's wrist and twisted, producing a sickening crack. The boisterous Viking teen made a pitiful croaking sound and fell off the edge of the bench. Snotlout hit the floor as soon as Astrid let go of his wrist, groaning in pain as the sudden injury flared.

"Pig." Astrid spat, immediately standing up and climbing over the bench to head towards the door.

"The offer will stand as long as you want!" Snotlout groaned. Astrid chose not to dignify him with a response, instead continuing to stomp off. Hiccup gulped, quickly scarfed down the food left on his plate, and surged after Astrid, ignoring Snotlout's pained moans.

"Stupid Snotlout. His head is thicker than Gronckle hide!" Astrid seethed, her hands clenched tight around the handle of her battle axe. The roof of the forge covered her with shade, casting her in a grim light. She took a deep breath, grip loosening on the axe as she leaned back against the forge's wall.

"You can't let him get to your head, Astrid. That makes him think that it's working." Hiccup counseled. He'd found her in the forge, scowling at the wall.

"I know, I know." Astrid said. In the past nine months, Hiccup had tried to teach her to control her temper, and in some cases, it had worked. It was a tall task, though, and Hiccup knew it. "It just felt really, really good to do that."

"Oh, it felt good just to watch you do that." Hiccup admitted. They both chuckled darkly, remembering Snotlout's pained grimace as she'd twisted his wrist out of place. No doubt, the insufferable Jorgenson would be back for more within a day or two, but for now that was at the back of both their minds. "So, should we work on the axe?"

She'd told him this morning that she wanted to sharpen her axe after lunch. The blade needed it, she'd gone extra hard this morning killing trees.

"Sure." Astrid affirmed, unstrapping the axe from her back and handing it to Hiccup. He graciously took the weapon and went to work on it with the grindstone. Sparks flew as the wheel met the metal, steadily shaving down the divots and dull edges.

"So, only a few more months until dragon training starts." Hiccup remarked as he worked.

"Yeah. It's kind of weird to be excited for winter." Astrid replied. Hiccup snorted in answer. "But I can't wait to show them what we've got. I've been working on my techniques and I'm really happy with where I'm at as far as that goes."

"Well, good. If you're happy, I'm happy." Hiccup said, squinting at the blade as he tried to focus.

Astrid saw through him, familiar with that tone of voice. "What's wrong, Hiccup?"

Hiccup sighed. "I just don't know if I'm going to even get to be a part of dragon training."

"What?" Astrid asked, taken aback. "You can't be serious."

"I wish I wasn't. My dad and I never talk about it." Hiccup grumbled, "I mean, if we didn't live in the same house, I wouldn't even know that he's my father. You know that we hardly ever talk about anything. A-And when we do, he's always looking at me with this disappointed scowl, like he's been cheated, or someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich."

In their time together, Hiccup had talked a lot about his strained relationship with his father. Often times, Astrid struggled to believe it. "I'm sure it's not actually that bad." Astrid offered.

"And I'm sure that you're wrong about that." Hiccup retorted. Astrid flinched, and Hiccup softened, "I… I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine." Astrid assured him, "Have you ever talked to him about any of that?"

"Of course not. He wouldn't understand." Hiccup groaned.

Astrid let her eyes wander the forge, letting them rest on a curtain cordoning off a small corner of the smithy. She knew that it was Hiccup's room, but he'd been fairly resolute in his refusals to allow her back there since they'd become friends. She'd always wondered what he could be hiding there. Now, all of a sudden, she really, really wanted to know.

Hiccup looked up once he realized that Astrid was walking away from him. He deduced where she was headed and scrambled away from the grindstone, dragging the axe with him and letting the machine slow.

"Oh, ah, Astrid, y-you're not exactly supposed to, ah, go back there, that's my—oh, crap."

Astrid pulled the curtain back, her eyes greeted with a mountain of papers and parchments littering the walls and floor.

She stifled a chuckle, confused and oddly amused. "What is all this?"

Hiccup immediately started rambling, head and shoulders and arms bobbling as he went, and Astrid knew she'd found something that—for all intents and purposes—she had never been meant to see. He supposed it had always been a matter of time before she discovered the place. He'd probably done as well as he could've, hiding the room's existence from her for a whole nine months.

"Oh, well, you see, it's really just a, uh, collection of projects and things like that. Nothing too serious, really, just ideas and things to do in my spare time."

Astrid crossed the threshold of the room. Hiccup's slanted desk was pressed up against the wall to the left of her in the entranceway, likewise decorated with papers and scribbles. She reached out and grabbed one, curiously reading the runes scrawled across it. Charcoal marks formed an intricate design the likes of which she'd never seen.

"The Mutilator." Astrid read, "Huh."

"Oh, uh, you found that. Yeah. That's a, uh, machine that uses two levers to throw crisscrossing blades in four directions. Uh, yeah. Like I said, just an idea." Hiccup explained nervously.

Astrid flinched again, trying to imagine how that would work. "Then, how do you hold it?"

"Y-you don't. You shoot it."

"Oh." Astrid said, setting the paper down as she lost interest. The concept of aiming and shooting something wasn't a dearly held ideal by Viking kind. "Well, you know me. I'm more of a take-it-down-and-lop-its-head-off-with-an-axe kind of girl. You know, the Viking way."

"Yeah." Hiccup muttered.

"Look, Hiccup. You think your dad is disappointed in you, maybe it has something to do with all of… this." Astrid motioned to the rest of the room. For the first time, she spotted a machine in the corner of the room, a cylindrical body mounted on large wooden wheels with what appeared to be levers behind it, probably for holding and moving the thing. It was fairly large and cluttered up the room even more than the loose papers littering the floor.

"You just gestured to the whole room." Hiccup groaned.

"Well…" Astrid said, trailing off for a moment, "Yeah. Look, there's your dad's way—the Viking way—and then there's your way. And your way riles him up, because it's different. Because you're different."

"Thank you for summing that up."

Astrid rolled her eyes, "My point is, if you want to impress your dad, maybe you should try the Viking Way for a change; stop all of…this."

"You gestured to the whole room again." Hiccup grumbled, "And you know that I don't know how to do any of that 'Viking way' stuff. I'm scrawny, and I don't know the first thing about fighting. My dad won't even train me."

Astrid lit up when Hiccup said that, a metaphorical torch going off in her head as she came to an idea, "You know what? I know how we can fix that. You can train with me."

"…Seriously?"

"Yes!" Astrid beamed, suddenly happy. She beamed, "I'll teach you to swing an axe, or lift a hammer, or wield a sword, and we'll get you all set up to join dragon training. If your dad won't train you, then I will. What do you say?"

Hiccup's stomach churned and he looked between Astrid and his room full of contraptions.

Screw it, what did he have to lose? "Well… yes. Okay, I'll do it."

Astrid surged forward and hugged him, holding for a few seconds before realizing what she was doing and pulling away. She coughed, avoiding eye contact, "Okay, great, so—"

"Yeah, thanks." Hiccup agreed, awkwardly, "Um…"

"Let's get my axe finished." Astrid suggested.

"Yes. Perfect. Let's do that." Hiccup stumbled back to the grindstone and started it back up, quickly completing the sharpening in silence. Astrid wrung her hands repeatedly until Hiccup finished his work, still thinking about the hug. That had been stupid of her.

"Okay, one razor-sharp axe." Hiccup said, carefully handing the weapon over. Astrid twirled the shaft in her fingers, scrutinizing every detail she could find.

"It feels different."

"Oh, yeah, well I took the liberty of rebalancing it in addition to sharpening it. We're a…full-service establishment and all…" Hiccup said, "I-I don't always do that, though, I know how much you like that axe. I-If you want to hit me, just go ahead and get it over with."

Astrid stared at him, cracking a smile after a few seconds of making him uncomfortable. "Idiot. You improved it. Thank you."

"Always happy to help." Hiccup smiled.

"So, when do you want to start training?" Astrid asked.

"How about tomorrow morning?" Hiccup suggested with a shrug, "I have some more orders to finish, and Gobber will get mad if I don't get to work on those."

"Tomorrow." Astrid repeated, nodding in agreement. She walked to the window of the forge, turning back to look at him before vaulting over the wall, "See you later, Hiccup."

Hiccup watched her go, daydreaming until he lost sight of her in the village. Groaning, he tugged the curtain to his little room shut and hefted a sword with a horribly mangled blade, scowling as he tried to imagine just how the weapon's owner had managed to damage it so viciously.