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Chapter 3: Breaking Point

Hiccup could describe Berk in three words: cold, boring, and dumb.

Even with the full integration of dragons into the Berk way of life, the sixteen year old hometown hero found his victory to be more draining than gratifying. He was no longer looked upon as "Hiccup the nuisance", but was regarded as one of the most important people in the village and the leading expert on dragons.

A year had passed since his epic battle with the Red Death, and Hiccup still found himself adjusting to the changes brought upon by the end of the 300 year war between viking and dragons. But his struggle was one that went unnoticed by his fellow Hooligans. He wasn't used to the positive attention that seemed to be spouting all around. People didn't scowl at him as he walked through the village and his once hostile peers had taken to following him around like he was their sworn leader or something. There were times when he regretted asking for their help in the battle against the Red Death; sure the chances of survival would have been much slimmer on his own, but being dead was better than being bored and agitated with popularity.

And Astrid; now there had been a 180 degree turn.

It was funny how the girl's unyielding nosiness had changed his fate on that night. He had been planning to make a run for it right after he had won the right to kill the Monstrous Nightmare that he couldn't care less about. But Astrid had popped and started her interrogation which thus lead to Toothless trying to blast her head off and an unscheduled flight wherein the young shield maiden changed her views not only on dragons, but of Hiccup as well.

Hiccup had never longed to have a girlfriend or get married; as a solitary being the thought of sharing his life with someone (other than a Night Fury) was laughable. But Astrid had somehow managed to worm her way into his life since the day he awoke after the battle with one less foot. And while her presence was at times annoying, Hiccup couldn't doubt that her beauty and occasional snark was enough to keep her around. The physical benefits of having a girlfriend also held their weight; no matter how detached he became as person, his teen hormones never took a break..

He had grown fond of the girl; he had always found her attractive, but now he found himself admiring Astrid for more than just her looks. She was fearless, intelligent, and nearly as stubborn as he with a tongue that became more sarcastic as days went by. But despite their growing similarities, he knew that he could never share everything with her. What he did to Mead Hall workers, how he viewed the world...

Who he really was.

Mentally, he was never fully there- that extended to his physical being as well now, having lost part of his left leg in the battle with the Red Death. Being a teenage amputee didn't bother him as much as it would a normal person. Ever since he watched his mother consumed by flames- feeling complete as person was an unreachable goal. Hiccup felt the missing limb emphasized this fact in an ironic way.

His relationship with Stoick also improved, not that it could get any worse.

But all the seemingly good things he had in his new life didn't make up for the fact that he hadn't killed in over a year, and his restlessness to fulfill the dark urge was beginning to make itself known.


Astrid landed solidly on her feet in a crouched position after launching herself off her dragon and into another perfect front roll, simultaneously chucking her axe at unfortunate tree. She grinned breathlessly as she wrenched her weapon free from the wood and turned to her Nadder.

"I think I've had enough for today, Stormfly." she said, rubbing the dragon under the chin. "Let's get back to the village and get you some chicken."

As she and Stormfly kicked off from the ground, Astrid couldn't help but let her thoughts drift to a certain blacksmith's apprentice as they so often did when no one else was around to call her out on having feelings. It was amazing how her entire life changed in one flight on the back of a Night Fury. She had been so angry (and admittedly jealous) over Hiccup's rise in dragon training and his nonchalance on the matter. That day in the cove, she had been planning to ambush and torture Hiccup into admitting his secrets in the kill ring.

But a wrench had been thrown into her plan; a big, scaly, fire-breathing wrench at that.

Before that night, she had only ever viewed Hiccup as an annoying mistake of a boy that would never last long enough to see the chiefdom handed down to him. While Snotlout and the twins sometimes showed appreciation or awe for his past pranks, Astrid took to ignoring them. The last thing that boy needed was encouragement to be even more of a screw-up than he already was. But after her first flight on Toothless, Astrid's views on the boy began to change. After watching him almost die in the battle against the Red Death, her new outlook on Hiccup was cemented.

Astrid had never been the type of girl to seek out romance or the perfect man. She didn't think about her future as one with popping out babies and maintaining her husband's home; she'd rather devote her life to protecting Berk as one of it's fiercest warriors. But in the aftermath of the event's that took place at the dragon's nest, Astrid's opinion on relationships, marriage and love began to change.

Spending time with Hiccup was never boring to say the least. He was still an intelligent, sarcastic weed of a boy who brooded to much and refused to conform to traditional viking standards. But instead of repelling her, Astrid found these qualities to be very inviting; almost too inviting if one were to ask the Hofferson matriarch.

Despite the frigid Berk air, Astrid felt her face flush at the memory of several nights ago when her mother found the two teens necking behind her family's shed. Luckily she had not shown up two minutes earlier when Hiccup's hand was up her shirt.

As the village of Berk came into view, Astrid strained her eyes on one particular building, hoping to see skinny silhouette in the window of the forge. She grinned against the cold wind whipping her in the face and directed Stormfly towards the familiar destination.

She found Hiccup with his back to the door of the forge, polishing a dagger and looking off into empty space, clearly pondering something. Toothless dozed beside the blazing hearth, leaving her boyfriend unguarded at the moment. Astrid covered her mouth with her hand to stifle her giggles as she crept up behind Hiccup and sharply grabbing him by shoulders and barking a gleeful "Hi Hiccup!" into his ear.

The young blacksmith lurched forward in surprise, jumping from his seat and spinning around with his dagger raised in attack-mode, polishing rag still clutched in his other hand. Astrid couldn't help but notice the guarded look in his eyes before he realized there was no real threat and lowered the dagger.

"Hasn't Gobber ever told you to never sneak up on someone working on a sharp weapon?" he caustically.

"Of course he has, but Gobber could knock my head off with a flick of his bad hand and you're...well you."

Hiccup raised his eyebrow in a way that she found comical and let out another laugh.

"What have you been up to?" Hiccup asked, changing the subject. She shrugged.

"Taking Stormfly for a spin, chucking my axe at some unsuspecting trees. You know, the usual." He nodded, turning his attention back to the dagger clutched in his hand. "Have you been here all day?"

"Yeah, ever since after my morning flight. Gobber went fishing with my dad and asked me to look after the forge, take care of any orders that came in during the day. Which by the way, they're weren't- unless you're hear for an axe sharpening." His voice was laced with an annoyed tone that Astrid mistook as sarcasm.

"No. I'm here for you." Astrid said firmly while shutting and locking the door to to the forge, hoping he'd get the hint and greet her properly. "So, I guess you had a lot of time to work on some crazy new inventions?"

"The time was there, but the motivation to do so wasn't."

"So then what have you been working on all day?"

"New dagger." Astrid rolled her eyes

"Cute." she muttered while hoisting a sword off the wall and giving it a few practice swings.

"Excuse me? How is that cute?"

"It's a dagger, Hiccup, not a longsword or double-sided battle axe," she explained, referring to her weapon of choice. She lifted the sword back to it's spot on the wall. "They're good for whittling and cleaning under your fingernails, but not much else."

Hiccup clenched his jaw as he watched her from behind. Astrid turned around and gave him a leering grin before striding across the room and bringing her face close to his, eying his lips. He quickly side-stepped her and tucked the dagger into the inside pocket of his vest, walking over to kneel beside Toothless to wake the dragon from his slumber. She huffed and rolled her eyes at his avoidance.

"Oh come on, I didn't mean anything by that."

"Huh?" Hiccup asked, looking up at her from his spot on the ground. Toothless cracked open one big eye and lifted his head with a yawn. She raised an eyebrow.

"What's wrong with you anyways, you seem kind of...skittish." She knelt beside him and held a hand to his forehead, checking for a fever.

"I'm fine, it's just," he let out a sigh, "it's just been a long day." he finished. Astrid smiled lightly and ran her hand from his forehead back through his thick auburn hair. She weaved her fingers firmly into the tresses and pulled him close, molding his lips to her own. Hiccup allowed her the sentiment before pulling back to quickly for Astrid's liking.

"Well, okay. That's an alright start." she whispered. Astrid stood up from, bringing Hiccup with her and placed her hands on his broadening shoulders, pushing him against the edge of a work table. She turned her head to the side and brought her lips to his yet again.

Hiccup brought his hands up to rest on her waist and returned the kiss with a minimal effort that he hoped she wouldn't notice. Astrid, fooled by his actions, pressed their bodies closer and shoved her tongue past his lips. It wasn't until she wrapped a strong leg around his remaining full one that he pulled away.

"What's wrong? Did you hear someone coming?" she asked breathlessly, turning her head to the closed door of the forge.

"Huh? No, I just-" he reached to palm his forehead, "I actually do have a headache that's not getting any better. It started off as a small one, but it's just gotten worse as the day went on." His inner voice scoffed at the excuse; he sounded like a wife trying to get of sex with her annoying husband.

"Oh," she tried to mask the disappointment in her voice as concern. "Well I was about to grab some dinner at the Mead Hall. Come with me, maybe some food will help." Hiccups eyes glazed over at the mention of the Mead Hall, his thoughts drifting to the people who worked (and used to work) there.

"No," he shook his head. "I think I just really need to lie down and sleep it off." He motioned for Toothless to get up and opened the heavy door of the forge. Astrid warily followed the boy and his dragon out into the chilly night air.

"Ok, well feel better." Astrid said, "You'll be at the academy tomorrow, right?" she asked, stepping beside him as he mounted Toothless. He turned and gave her a tired smile.

"Of course." without waiting for any response, the two kicked off the ground, leaving behind a scorned but thoughtful Astrid.


Hiccup paced the floor of his second story bedroom while fiddling with his newly made dagger in his restless hands. With the war against dragons over, the time he spent in the forge was mostly limited to constructing saddles and modifying his and Toothless's prosthetics. It had been months since Gobber asked him to come in just to help out with weapon orders. The older blacksmith mostly dealt with dragon dental work now.

He had been meaning to make himself a new dagger for a while; ever since he chucked his old one in the cove to win Toothless's trust. But his new life kept getting in the way, not only keeping him away from his blacksmith duties, but from his clandestine activities as well. Before, he had no trouble sneaking off. People either didn't notice his disappearances or they did but didn't care enough to question it. It had been over a year since he killed; and it was becoming harder and harder not to snap in public.

Had it not been for the dragons, he would've broke down a lot sooner. The need to train and incorporate dragons into life on Berk had been a great distraction from his blood lust for the first few months after his coma. Hiccup liked being in control; what was more in control than training dragons?

But, the dragons were adapting faster than he could've guessed and his duties at the academy became nothing more than babysitting the other teens. It made him nauseous to think that a year ago his only worries were which prank to pull next; now he was expected to not only behave himself but keep Snotlout and the Thorston twins in line.

Most everyone looked at him differently now; the only people who didn't were Gobber (who always had a soft spot for him) and Gothi. the elder hadn't uttered a single word to him since that fateful night three years ago. Whenever he did see her, the old woman would always give him that same knowing smile as if to say - "I see what the others don't." He didn't have to wonder if she still saw that same darkness in him; he felt it every waking moment.

Like most everyone else, Astrid was also blind to what he was. He had feared she would uncover the truth about him the more time she spent at his side. He thought back to their confrontation a year ago when she almost caught a glimpse of his true nature. But Astrid couldn't see it; all the fanfare and happy chaos of life with dragons distracted her from ever truly seeing what he was.

He eyed the dagger, it held a better quality than his old one which was turning to rust at the bottom of the cove. The blade was longer, and single-edged with a slight upward curve at the end of the blade that would make slicing through flesh smoother. Running his thumb along the edge, he smiled through the hiss of pain as the metal parted the top layer of skin.

Looking out his window, he groaned at the thought of another busy day that left no escape for him to be on his own.


"Alright guys, the dragon stalls are a disaster zone, so we need to spend the morning-" Bang! Hiccup jumped in surprise as a loud crash cut off his train of thought.

"Ow! That hurt! That hurt very much!" Tuffnut wailed.

"Did you get them?" Ruffnut asked her brother as he lifted himself off the ground.

"Does it look like I did, idiot?"

"Don't call me an idiot, shit brain!"

"Don't call me shit brain-"

"Would you two shut up?!" Astrid snapped, "Hiccup is trying to-"

"What were you guys doing anyway?" Fishlegs interjected.

"Snotlout stole our boots and hung them up there." Tuffnut explained, pointing to the 2 pairs of boots suspended from the metal cage that enclosed the training ring.

"So I'm making Barf fling Tuffnut up there to try and grab them like this-" Ruffnut turned to her Zippleback and pointed to her brother.

"What? No, Ruff I'm not ready to go agai- AHHHH!" the male twin's complaints were drowned out by his screams and the laughter of his sister as the Zippleback grabbed the back of his vest with his teeth and sharply jutted his head upwards, releasing Tuffnut to go crashing against the metal bars and back down to the hard floor.

"You didn't even try to grab them that time!" Ruffnut growled at her brother.

"Hehehe...idiots." Snotlout sniggered from his place a top Hookfang. Hiccup groaned in annoyance and pinched the space between eyes. He had woken up that morning to find a lengthy to-do list for the academy from his father and he had little faith in his peers to be of much use.

"Hiccup, everything alright?" Fishlegs asked, the only person to notice Hiccup's aggravation.

"Could you please just end this stupidity?" Hiccup asked.

"No problem." Fishlegs hoisted himself onto his Gronkle and hovered up to the entangled boots, unlacing them from the bar and dropping them onto the heads of the still-fighting twins.

"Thanks Fishlegs, now as I was saying-"

"Huh, why didn't we think of that?" Tuffnut thought aloud as he shoved his feet into his boots.

"Do we really need to answer that question?" Snotlout cackled. Ruff and Tuff exchanged identical looks of ire before charging at Snotlout, tackling him to the ground. The trio began trading blows and insults on the floor of the training ring. Fishlegs chuckled in amusement while Astrid crossed her arms and smirked at the sight of Snotlout's face being rubbed into the dirt by Ruffnut. Hiccup's clenched his teeth.

This was all too regular occurrence at the Berk Dragon Training Academy, and he had-

"Enough already!" Hiccup barked, "Get off the fucking ground right now!" he grabbed a fish from a nearby barrel and chucked it at the trio in frustration.

Snotlout and the twins froze in their places and looked at Hiccup in surprise.

"What are you idiots fucking deaf?! I said get your asses up!" he yelled with an authority no one had ever seen in him. The three teens scrambled to their feet.

"Hiccup are you-"

"No I am not okay, Astrid. I'm pissed off!" The other teens eyed him with confusion and awe.

"Whoa...you yelled." Tuffnut pointed out.

"You never yell." Ruffnut added.

"Pff, what's got you so cranky?" Snoutlout huffed. Hiccup let out a sarcastic laugh.

"Well I think it's safe to say everyone had a part in that this morning," he took a step closer to his cousin, "but it looks like you're taking home the grand prize today."

"You're point?" Snotlout asked, boredom dripping from his voice.

"Look, we have a lot to do today and I need everyone putting in their full effort if we wanna get everything done by sundown; starting with cleaning out the dragon stalls." he shoved a pitchfork into Snotlout's hands to make his point. The bigger boy gave him a cocky smirk before unceremoniously dropping the pitchfork to the floor.

"Why should I take orders from your scrawny ass?" Fishlegs let out a gasp as Ruff and Tuff chuckled at the situation.

Hiccup clenched his teeth and eyed him coldly.

"Because 'Lout, I've managed to end a war, integrate dragons into everyday life and learn to live with only one foot all in the past year. What have you accomplished in that time frame? Finally manage to yank it twelve times in one day?" he asked while making an obscene gesture with his hands. Astrid let out a shocked laugh as the twins crumpled to the ground in cackles.

"Why you-" Snotlout brought made a fist and began to raise it, but Hiccup saw his intentions and acted first, stepping right up to his face, jerking his head back and slamming his forehead right into his cousin's nose. He stumbled backwards, clenching his bloody nose in obvious pain.

"Hiccup!" Fishlegs yelped.

"Whoa." Ruffnut and Tuffnut said at the same time. Snotlout kept one hand cradling his broken nose while the other took a clumsy swing at Hiccup's head, not noticing that he was standing too far away to land any blows. The dragons warbled their own shock and confusion off to the side.

"Get over here so I can kick your ass!" Snotlout croaked through the pain in his voice. He clenched both fists, letting the blood drip from his nose onto his shirt and charged. With a black face, Hiccup stood firmly where he was, only to side step the charging teen at the last moment and stick out his right foot. Snotlout tripped and went sprawling to the ground.

He could've stopped right then and there and ordered the other teens to get to work; he had gotten his point across while at the same time taking Snotlout down a few pegs. But Hiccup didn't feel like playing nice that morning. He looked at his cousin, lying on his back on the ground and delivered a sharp kick to the boy's side, being sure to use his prosthetic foot.

The other teens stood in shocked silence as Snotlout groaned in pain as the metal appendage jabbed him in the kidney with a strength he didn't know Hiccup could muster. He breathed heavily, willing himself to not cry and rolled on his side feebly. They had seen Hiccup get publicly yelled at by his father multiple times in the past and the boy had never found the need to yell back. They also never saw Hiccup physically attack another person before.

Hiccup became aware of the odd looks being sent his way and turned on his heel, storming towards the exit. Toothless followed his footsteps and lightly nudged his rider's side with his head as a comforting gesture only to be pushed back with an impatient roughness from the boy.

"No Toothless, stay." the Night Fury grumbled sadly and sat back on his haunches as Hiccup continued on his way.

"Hiccup where are you going?" Astrid shouted. The boy in question did not look back, but merely raised a hand in a flicking motion as if to say- don't follow me. "Hiccup!" she growled and began stomping after him.

Fishlegs grabbed the girl's shoulder and stopped her.

"I really don't think it's wise to follow him right now." he pleaded.

"What the hell was that?" she asked sharply, motioning to Hiccup as his figure became smaller and smaller in the distance.

"I have no idea. Let's just let him cool off and get started on cleaning out the stalls." he suggested.

"He yelled, Hiccup never yells. What's up with that?" Tuffnut pointed out.

"Ans he kicked Snotlout's ass!" Ruffnut cackling as Snotlout rolled onto his hands and knees and started vomiting , "He should do that more often!"

Toothless crooned sadly and looked to the woods where Hiccup had stormed off towards.

A/N: It's been a little while since the last update, and I have no idea when the next (and most likely final) chapter will be published. I'm about half way done with it at this point; I'd like to get it up before xmas, but don't hold your breaths.

Thanks to my reviewers