72 followers! Woot wooooot! So excited! Keep 'em comin guys! XD You guys are amazing!

Loads of explanations in this chappie! All will be explained! This is rated T for a reason. No I don't go into specific detail. It's rather self-explanatory. Apologies if some of you don't agree with this direction I've taken, but everything I'm writing has a reason!

This chapter took a bit of work, but I really love how it turned out, especially the ending. Happy reading!

Chapter 6: Confidante

Hiccup threw the door open and slammed it closed with his back, grabbing fistfuls of his hair and breathing fast. Stoick stood from his chair and walked over to him. "Hiccup? What happened?"

"Just the worst frieking night of my entire existence," Hiccup muttered.

Stoick pulled him up. "Well that doesn't help me in trying to help you-"

"There's no point because you can't help! If I couldn't change her mind, what the heck makes you think you can?!" Hiccup jerked out of his hold and stomped away.

Stoick jolted. "Change her mind?" He was almost afraid to ask. "About what?"

Hiccup released his hair with a strangled gasp and faced him. Stoick nearly gaped; his son looked like he was about to cry. He shakily put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small object, resting it in his palm.

Stoick's face went slack. "The ring… She gave it back?"

Hiccup shook his head. "No. She… she called off the wedding, the engagement… everything."

Stoick furrowed his brow and led his son to a chair. "Alright, slow down. Tell me everything."

The young man stared at his hands for a few moments, not wanting to recount the tale of his best friend, the woman of his dreams breaking his heart. But he also knew that if he wanted help, he would have to do it. After a heavy sigh, he spent the next five minutes telling Stoick everything that had happened.

"I just… we were fine until a few hours ago!" Hiccup finished. "Literally, we were fine this morning before the entire ordeal with the teenagers took place. I just… I don't know. I'm so confused and I don't know what I did."

"You didn't do anything, Hiccup. She told you that already." Stoick sighed heavily. "She's worse off than I thought."

"Worse off?" Hiccup asked in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"Son, this… I can't tell you. Like I said earlier, you have to talk to her-"

"I tried that and she broke off our engagement!" Hiccup cried, his eyes full of pain. "I didn't even get a chance to speak! She-"

"I know, you told me," Stoick held up a calm hand.

Hiccup slumped in his chair, resting his cheek in the palm of his hand. "What happened to her in a day that made her want to break off the engagement and call off the wedding? Is she just afraid of getting married?"

"This is more than wedding jitters." Stoick looked away. Hiccup shook his head in annoyance, wishing he would just come out with it. Stoick shook his head back. "No. That is not my place." He leaned closer to him and added, "You love her with your heart and soul. Everyone knows that, except apparently her."

Hiccup frowned, his head shooting up from his palm. "What are you talking about? Of course she knows! Just looking at the day I proposed to her, she knows! Why would you even insinuate that?"

"Then why did she do this?" Stoick asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nice to know you heard my question."

"Hiccup," Stoick sighed. "It's because she is afraid of something. Not you, but she's afraid that your love won't be greater than one of the very few things she is afraid of." He paused, "At least that is what I'm sensing. It could go a lot deeper than that."

Hiccup shook his head, trying to make sense of his father's vague words. "And what exactly is she afraid of?"

"That is what you need to find out." Stoick poked his chest. "Whatever you do, do this: give her love, be gentle and don't let her run away. She needs to accept her past and not run from the future she will have with you; the future that she wants to have with you. You need to prove to her that together your future will be greater than her past."

Hiccup swallowed thickly, nervous about this little speech and concerned about her past. What did that mean? They had shared every secret of their lives with each other eons ago. She had told him everything just as he had told her everything.

Didn't she?

Hiccup looked at his father sadly. "She's been hiding something, hasn't she?"

Stoick pursed his lips sadly. "Sometimes people can't share their darkest of demons with even their closest of friends. It's a door they don't want to open for fear that they will be exposed to the whole world. That's where the love and gentleness comes in. Love her like you always have and more, and let her speak at her own pace. Take hours if you have to." Stoick looked him in the eye, "But don't let her leave until you get that secret out and until that ring is back where it belongs."

Hiccup's mouth tugged into a small smile. His heart still felt torn to shreds with shock, grief and gut-wrenching sadness, but his father's words of advice had rekindled his optimism. Tomorrow he'd sit Astrid down and make her talk. He still loved her with all his heart and he was determined to prove that to her just as he had on their engagement day.

Xxx

Olaf stood from the breakfast table the next morning to answer the door, fully aware of who was on the other side. He pulled it open and waved Hiccup in. The young man gave him a tight smile and stepped inside, brushing snowflakes out of his hair.

Phlegma sighed heavily when she saw him. "It's about time you came. She wouldn't eat anything last night after she came home and she refuses to eat this morning as well. Perhaps you can convince her?"

Hiccup nodded with a light shrug. "I can try…" He sighed. "We have a lot to talk about."

"What happened last night?" Olaf asked gently, crossing his arms with a concerned expression. All the parents knew was that when Astrid had come home the night before, tears were streaming down her face and she had locked herself in her room again. No amount of coaxing could convince her to open the door, and they respected her obvious desire to be alone. But this morning, they clearly wanted answers.

Hiccup bit the inside of his cheek and glanced at the door. In a hushed voice, he said, "She called off the engagement."

Phlegma gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. Olaf's head jerked forward in disbelief. "What? Why?"

Hiccup opened his mouth, then closed it with a humorless laugh and slight shake of his head. "I have no idea."

Phlegma's heart broke at the pained inflection in his voice. "Ohh come here." She pulled Hiccup into a tight hug, which surprised him. He still wasn't used to any form of motherly affection.

Olaf sighed heavily. "Well let's go find out then."

"Can I talk to her alone for a minute?" Hiccup asked.

Olaf smiled. "Of course. I'll go with you to open the door if she won't open it. She had it barricaded last night."

Hiccup climbed the stairway alongside his hopefully future father-in-law, his nervousness building with each step. He still had no idea what to say or ask; he hoped with how she was acting, she would know exactly what he wanted to know and she'd find the strength to share it.

Olaf stopped at the third step to the top and gestured for him to move ahead to her door. Hiccup sighed in front of the door for a moment before knocking a few times. "Astrid? Can I come in?"

No response.

Hiccup swallowed, resting his head on the doorframe. "Astrid, please? We need to talk."

The room on the other side was silent and his heart sank. She was ignoring him. How hard should he press? He faced Olaf with a look for help and the man gave him a stern look, which read, "Are you seriously going to give up that easily?"

Hiccup knocked on the door again. Olaf stepped up beside him and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Astrid, open the door or I'll open it for you. You have to face him sooner or later, and he deserves a proper explanation. Better to start now." He spoke in a more forceful voice than Hiccup had heard from him, but he assumed after a while Olaf put aside the gentleness. There was a time to be kind as well as a time to be firm.

The men waited in silence for a response, and after another fifteen seconds of silence, Olaf shrugged. "Okay, your choice then." He reached in his back pocket and pulled out a key. Hiccup watched him place the key inside the hole and unlock the door. Astrid had once told him that when she was little and she'd lock herself in her room, her parents would give her three opportunities to open the door. By the third choice, they would unlock the door and come in. She usually gave in by the second chance.

Olaf pocketed the key, pushed the latch and shoved the door open. "Honey, you have to talk to-" The men paused in shock. They were met with a cold gust blowing through their hair and an empty room. Astrid wasn't inside and her window was open.

They stood in shock and silence for a moment before Hiccup sighed sadly. "Great. So now she's running away from me."

"Phlegma just spoke to her five minutes before you got here, Hiccup." Olaf placed a hand on his shoulder, his gaze firm. "She couldn't have left that long ago."

Hiccup's brow furrowed. "Stormfly…" He trotted down the stairs and out the door. His heel and prosthetic skidded in the snow in front of the empty stall. Toothless cooed at him questioningly from a nearby roof.

Beside him, Olaf muttered something under his breath about stubborn women when Ruffnut walked by. "Ruffnut!" Hiccup called. When she twisted in mid-step, he asked, "Have you seen Astrid?"

"Pretty boy lost his fiancée, huh?" She smirked.

Hiccup deadpanned and she waved her hands. "Oh relax, I'm just teasing. She flew away on Stormfly just a few minutes ago. She seemed kind of in a hurry."

"Which direction did she go?"

"That way," Ruffnut pointed towards the woods, which sadly came before the mountains. "Good luck trying to find her in there. Better just to wait until she comes back."

Hiccup put on his best fake smile and nodded. "Thanks Ruff, I think I'll do just that." Olaf gave him a confused glance.

"See ya later."

As soon as Ruffnut was out of earshot, Olaf turned to him. "You're going to wait around until she comes back?"

"Of course not. But we don't want this… any of this spreading." Hiccup faced him. "I'll find her, I'll get her to talk to me. But I promised her I'd marry her. I intend to keep that end of the deal."

Olaf smiled proudly and thumped his shoulder. "I know you will. But really, how are you going to find her? She's awfully good at hiding."

"That she is," Hiccup mused, walking to Toothless and climbing into his saddle. "But once I find her she won't be able to run. Stormfly still can't outrun Toothless, no matter how much chicken Astrid feeds her."

Olaf nodded, raising his hand in parting when the Night Fury took off and arched towards the forest and mountains. He sent up a quick prayer, wishing Hiccup speed and wisdom and his daughter grace.

Xxx

From her vantage point on Stormfly, Astrid watched her fiancé—no, her friend… gods, could she even call him that anymore?—fly towards the forest near the Cove. She had purposefully taken off and directed Stormfly in that direction, hoping someone would direct Hiccup there. She didn't want to talk to him… she couldn't talk to him. It was too painful. But he was smart and clever; she'd need to be on her toes to keep away from him.

Maybe… her heart ached impossibly deeper at the thought, but what if she left? She had Stormfly to ride and the world at her fingertips as a result. She could leave, just as Hiccup had considered all those years ago. She could leave him behind and all those promises, those adventures, those fun times and passionate moments…

No, stop thinking about him. It's over.

She couldn't hide from him forever. She would run into him again whether she wanted to or not. If she knew anything about Hiccup, it was that he was persistent, stubborn and all too optimistic for his own good. She would have to keep breaking his heart again and again until he would finally go away. He had endured a lot of heartbreak as a kid… certainly not one of this magnitude, but… he'd be fine right? But how many heartbreaks could she endure?

Astrid sighed heavily, her chest aching and shoulders tight. She was angry with herself for her selfishness and pride, but mostly for the fact that she had fallen for someone so amazing, so wonderful… and deep down she had always known that she didn't deserve him.

But more importantly, he didn't deserve her and she was sickened by the thought that she ever thought different.

Xxx

Hiccup growled to himself, angry that it was nearly four in the afternoon and he still had yet to even see Astrid anywhere. He had started searching the forest, starting with the cove around eight that morning. When she wasn't there, he continued on through as much of the forest as Toothless could cover and the mountains.

But apparently when he came back to the village around noon, he caught through the grapevine that she had been to multiple places in the village, including the bakery, her house (unfortunately when her parents weren't home), and the Great Hall. He didn't fail to notice that anywhere he usually resided was left out of her trail of places to be.

Of course one would assume that he'd stumble into her somewhere in the village right? No, of course not. He searched the village high and low for another three and a half hours, trying to be completely casual about his mad search all the while, and he still couldn't find her! She had to have made a mad dash for the forest when she (assumedly) saw him flying in.

She was being so stubborn and insufferable! But he knew he needed to cool it. Getting upset with her would only shove her away. This was exactly the reaction she was expecting—anger, bitterness. If he wanted to get her to confide in him, he would need to be as calm and as gentle as humanely possible.

But in order for him to do that, he had to catch her first. It was a good thing he was in charge of dragons and not people. He wasn't so good at finding those. He rolled his eyes at his inner tangent. "Give it a few years and you'll be in charge of both!" One side of his brain snickered.

The other half whined, "Shutup, I just want to find my fiancée!"

"You mean your fiancée who is in fact not your fiancée? That is harsh. That is really, really harsh-"

"Dude! Shut! Up!"

"But it's the truth."

"Why don't you keep rubbing it in?"

"Okay, well let's inspect the wound here. Oh a once happy heart that is torn to shreds just with a few sentences. Gosh, that is really bloody-"

"I'm going to kill you."

"You can't kill half your consciousness, dear. Here, let's throw some salt on it for good measure."

"Oh gods-"

"Are you feeling it yet?"

"GAHHHHHH!" Hiccup yelled, turning and smacking his forehead into a pole repeatedly for a few seconds. Most of the people nearby stopped and stared along with Toothless, who slunk away from his rider, officially wishing they weren't acquainted in the least bit.

"Hiccup?"

The young man whirled around, almost hoping it was Astrid… but the distinctly male voice, vast stature and weight and red braided beard told him otherwise. He nearly slapped himself when he realized he almost said, "I thought you were Astrid." As if his previous head pounding in front of a quarter of the village had nothing to do with embarrassments.

"Are you alright?"

"No!" Hiccup yelled, then slapped a hand over his mouth. In a hushed voice he said, "No. She's been running from me all day."

Stoick noticed that a few people were watching curiously. Wrapping arm around his son's shoulders, he leaned closer and quietly said, "She's been on the eastside catapult for the better part of an hour. If you hurry you might catch her before she leaves."

Hiccup nodded. "Perfect! I'll go…" He paused. "Maybe I should walk up. Take Toothless with me in case she flies away, but if I'm flying toward her she'll surely try to run."

Stoick clapped him twice. "That's probably wisest. But you know she has a keen eye. Something tells me you'll be chasing her down no matter what."

Hiccup nodded slowly, not wanting to admit that his father was probably right. "Come on Toothless."

Hiccup and Toothless walked side by side, the young man trying to not look nervous or frustrated in the eyes of his people, but he had to wonder how well his acting was actually paying off. So far only their parents and friends knew about Astrid's strange behavior, and only their parents knew about last night's breakup. As the catapult came into view, he hoped again for the thousandth time that day that no one else knew.

Hiccup shielded his eyes from the midday sun as he looked up. He nearly cheered when he saw Stormfly curled up near the banister and Astrid sitting on the edge, her feet dangling over the pier. "Okay, slow and careful, bud." The duo started up the steep stairs toward the girls, hoping they wouldn't be seen until they got close. Their wish was granted for they were only ten feet below Astrid when she finally noticed them. Before Hiccup could utter a word, Astrid jumped up and woke Stormfly.

"Wait! Astrid!" Hiccup shouted, only halfway up the last ladder when they took off. He growled in his throat. "Come on, Toothless. She's not getting away this time."

Toothless chirped his ascent, standing under the ladder. Hiccup leaped into the saddle and they took off after Astrid and Stormfly. Astrid weaved her dragon around and behind houses at high speeds, but Hiccup and Toothless kept up. The dragons' wings nearly clipped houses or people walking by a few times, but both riders were intent on either running from or catching the other. Fortunately he didn't have to worry about what the people thought about him chasing her—they did that frequently anyway. To the average Hooligan, this was just another race. Although he thought he spied a few of his friends watching from a roof nearby. They would know better.

When Astrid reached the edge of the village, she dashed into the forest. Hiccup was relieved and annoyed at the same time. He didn't want Toothless to ground Stormfly in the village where people would witness a big blowup, but Astrid could hide better in the wilderness.

"Come on, Toothless. We can't lose her." Hiccup snapped his dragon's tail wider to make them fly faster. Toothless roared in excitement when he zoomed forward, nearly catching up to the Nadder. Astrid sensed how close they were getting and suddenly yanked Stormfly back to slow her down. Stormfly crowed in surprise but allowed her rider to slow them down. The boys had to barrel roll to avoid a collision.

Hiccup saw Astrid getting away, so directed Toothless into a tight twist and flip. Pulling out of the move, they zoomed after the girls. Hiccup saw a field of green grass ahead of Stormfly and knew he had to act quickly. "Toothless, rise above her a little!"

Toothless pulled up, rising ten feet above Astrid and Stormfly. Just as they flew above the field, Hiccup unsnapped his prosthetic, balanced on Toothless' back for a minute and leaped off. Stormfly cried out when another body slammed on top of hers and Astrid jerked.

"Hiccup!"

"Land!"

"No!" Astrid yelled, trying to shove him away.

"Land now, or I'll land her for you!" They fought in the saddle, Stormfly growling in irritation as one pair of hands directed her to fly faster and the other to land.

"You're not landing my dragon, Hiccup!" Astrid shouted.

Hiccup paused in his struggling, noticing the edge of the field and massive trees beyond. "Okay, then we can land without a dragon."

"What- AHH!" Hiccup wrapped his arms around her waist and yanked her off Stormfly. The dragon yelped in shock at the sudden loss of her passengers. It was only a ten foot drop into the tall thick grass, which gave them a mostly cushioned landing. They flipped, rolled and finally skidded to a stop about five feet apart.

"Ughh…" Hiccup groaned as he sat up. He didn't fail to notice Astrid scramble to her feet and dart toward the woods. "Hey!"

Astrid sprinted away from him, charging into the forest as fast as her feet could take her. She couldn't talk to him. She couldn't! It was over! There was nothing she could do to prevent this! He deserved better! She didn't stop running, even as he chased after her and cried out that she couldn't run from him forever. The desperation in his voice cut through her chest, but she didn't stop. She couldn't stop.

Oh, but she wanted to stop. She wanted to hug him and tell him how sorry she was for doing this to him. It wasn't right, it wasn't fair, both to him and to her parents and to Stoick. And to the village. They had been together for years, therefore she owed him an explanation.

But she wouldn't stop. Even if she had to leave Berk forever, she would never stop. Because only there would Hiccup stop. He had obligations to Berk, he had to become chief. He could never throw that to the side, chasing after some girl who, to the rest of the world's eyes, very clearly didn't want him. But she did.

A branch slapped her face, making her eyes prick. Or were they welling up for a completely other reason? She was tired of running, tired of hiding, tired of this sickening feeling of confusion and indecisiveness and fear tormenting inside of her. She couldn't make up her mind. She understood both sides completely, understood where she was being unfair… ridiculous even…

But she couldn't tell him why. He would never understand. He couldn't know.

A body slammed into her right side suddenly, making her shriek. Hiccup tumbled with her on the ground until he had her pinned down, a knee on her stomach and his arms holding hers down. She struggled, willing her crumbling, tiring inner strength to push him off, to hit him, punch him, anything. But she was exhausted after two days of nearly no sleep and constant emotion. All she could do was pant, avoid his eyes and try not to cry.

Hiccup was panting just as heavily, clearly winded from having to run so hard and fast to catch up with her. He hated pinning her down like this, but what could he do? She couldn't keep running! The look of fear, confusion and remorse in her eyes told him enough that she was feeling awful about this and he didn't need to reprimand her harshly for it (not that he had planned to previously). She looked like she was going to cry. Just like yesterday morning, it was a shock—Astrid never cried.

"You can't keep running." He softly said, trying to meet her eyes. She swallowed thickly and closed them, unwilling to look at him. His resolve finally broke. "Astrid please… don't do this to me."

Astrid swallowed and wet her lips. "This isn't your fault."

"I have everything to do with it though, don't I?"

"No… it's…" She shakily inhaled. "It's not you-"

"It's all me, isn't it?" Hiccup asked, his green eyes and voice laced with hurt. Astrid finally opened her eyes to see the most depressed expression she had ever seen on him. "Did you ever love me?"

"Yes!" Astrid exclaimed, shocked. He doubted that? Well why wouldn't he… He had no idea what was going on. He had every right to assume that. "It has nothing to do with you…"

Hiccup pursed his lips, his eyebrows going down. "Is it another guy?"

"No! No no no." Her eyes widened and she shook her head wildly. He could never think that. She would never do that to him.

"Then what…" Hiccup lowered his head, his hair brushing her chest. She hated this. She hated all of it. "Then what is it?"

Astrid opened her mouth and slowly closed it again. She had promised herself never to tell him. Then again she had also promised herself to him for life. She broke that promise… It was taking a lot of courage to break the first. "Please get off me…" Hiccup's eyes crinkled in sadness and she shook her head, her voice slightly shaking. "I'm not… n-not going to run. I just… have to tell you s-something."

Hiccup searched her eyes for a lie. If she ran away again, he didn't know what he'd do… Probably lose his mind. Quitting was very much against his personality, his motives, his life standards. But if she ran away again… he'd never be the same.

He slowly backed up off her, his hands the last to release her arms. She sat up, brushing dead leaves and twigs off of her shirt, even fiddling with her braid a little. She wanted to look everywhere other than his eyes. She could feel his piercing green gaze on her face, but she refused to look up. The fear of what she was about to do surged inside her and she felt panicky for a moment.

Hiccup sensed her fear, as if her breathing hitching every few seconds and constant fidgeting weren't telltale signs enough. "Astrid…" He scooched closer and clasped her hands in his. She didn't jerk away like she had been. Her eyes widened and she looked up at him. His expression was calm, gentle… even loving. Why would he still love her after the past day and a half of treating him like dirt?

"Sweetheart, you can tell me anything." Hiccup murmured, his thumb stroking her hand. She looked down at it, his thumb stretching across her hand in size. He was small in stature, but he had big blacksmith's hands, rough and worn from use in the forge, working leather. Chief's hands.

"You know that, don't you?" He asked, leaning forward to catch her gaze. Blue eyes met green and she was frozen. She couldn't look away from those big green eyes. Those eyes that were the only thing that caught her eye when they were little; the scrawny kid that always screwed up everything, but had the most expressive, most engaging, most colorful eyes she had ever seen; those eyes that found detail in objects big and small, that understood personalities of both men and dragons; those eyes that gave compassion for those who needed it.

And in those green eyes she found her courage to be honest, to be truthful, to stop running and stop hiding… to accept the compassion and love that he so clearly wanted to give her.

She criss-crossed her legs in front of her and turned so he was sitting the same in front of her. She pulled her hands away from his. "You're not going to want to touch me again, Hiccup. It's better that you don't know why."

"Let me be the judge of that." Hiccup whispered.

Astrid took a few shaky breaths, staring at her hands, which were now tightly clasped in front of her. Hiccup watched as her knuckles slowly turned white and began to get a very uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach. She had never been this rigid around him, not even when they were kids.

"I've never told anyone about this before." she said after several minutes. "Are you sure you want me to tell you? I mean you're really better off not-"

"Tell me, Astrid. We can't have secrets." He said patiently, resisting the urge to kiss her on the cheek or tuck a few loose strands of hair out of her eyes or, really, touch her at all.

"You can't tell anyone." she said to her hands, not meeting his gaze.

"You know I won't." he replied, his hands twitching with the effort to keep them away from her.

She gulped loudly and he could almost hear her heart pounding. He was beginning to feel a bit nervous. What was he about to hear?

"When I was little, there was a man. I never knew his name." Astrid said in a surprisingly steady voice. "It started with little comments. He would try to get me to be alone with him but I never would. And then he… he'd follow me. And when he caught me, he'd…" her hands were shaking very hard now. "Well you can imagine. It started with just… little things but then he'd grab me and put his hand on my mouth so I couldn't scream."

Hiccup's insides felt cold. He couldn't imagine the bright, vibrant little girl he had known when he was small being forced to… well he wasn't going to think about it. And the way Astrid's face had no expression at all when she spoke, the way her voice was steady and monotone… how long had she lived with this secret? He felt like his heart was being squeezed right into his eyelids. He blinked a few times, forcing the burning sensation in his eyes back down.

"I'm not going to tell you what he did." She shook her head. "Eventually my parents found out about what was going on and told your dad… He was hanged in the forest for everything he did to me, but it was two years after it all started. Only your dad, my parents, Gobber and the rest of the council knew about it."

Two years?

"But I… I'm not pure, Hiccup. Or whole or… or clean… Certainly not worthy of marrying the future- Why are you crying?"

He couldn't stop the tears from falling now. And once one had slipped through his eye, a barrage of them began pouring down his face. He lifted his sleeves to wipe them away but he couldn't stem the flow. Astrid stared at him for a few seconds, her mouth slowly falling open. She had never seen him cry like that. For a while, the only sounds that came from him were loud sniffles and muffled sobs.

"Hiccup, why are you-"

"Because you're not!" Hiccup's face drenched in his own tears and slightly red, shot up to face hers. "And someone should."

"Hiccup…"

He wiped his face with his sleeve again and took a few shaking breaths. "Wh-what you've been g-going through all th-these years and I had n-no idea…"

She gently placed her hands on his, absorbing some of their moisture. Slowly, she tightened her hold on them.

"It's okay…"

"It's not okay!" he shouted, making her jump. "H-he should never have t-touched you and you sh-shouldn't have had to k-keep that from anyone this long!"

"Hiccup-"

"You r-really think that I c-couldn't love you after that?" he asked raspily, tears splashing down his front and soaking his shirt all the way to his skin.

"But I'm not-"

"Yes you are!" he exclaimed indignantly, sounding a little bit angry now. "You didn't ask that man to do what he did and it's not your fault. And I'm going to spend the rest of my life making sure that never happens to you again, do you hear me?"

Astrid swallowed thickly, her heart nearly breaking at his expression. She lifted a hand and tried to wipe the tears from his eyes with her thumb. "Please don't cry…"

He reached up and held her hand in his; this time she didn't pull away. "I love you, Astrid. I don't care about your past or what you've done or what anyone has done to you. What happened back then doesn't define you and you are absolutely worthy of marrying the future chief of Berk. I love you. Your pain is my pain. You don't have to go through any of this alone again. And you won't."

Astrid could feel tears of her own brimming to the surface now. Very slowly, she reached up and kissed him, tasting the salt from his tears. She felt like a weight had been lifted, a weight she had been carrying her entire life. When they broke apart, Hiccup kissed her on the forehead, holding the side of her face with his right hand. With his left, he reached into his pocket and took out the ring.

"Astrid Hofferson, will you marry me?" he whispered, staring into her blue eyes, bright from her tears.

"Yes." She said immediately, holding up her left hand. "Yes I will."

He slipped the ring onto her finger and then leaned down to kiss it. His tears ceased and, as he looked into her eyes, he felt like he was falling in love all over again. Astrid sniffed and pulled him into a tight hug.

"Thank you…"

"For what?"

"For being here for me. For not letting me go."

Hiccup smiled and kissed her cheek. "When I proposed to you, I made myself a promise. There's only one person worthy enough to marry this crazy Viking." Astrid laughed and sat back from the embrace, but their knees still touched. "You."

Astrid placed her hands on his face and kissed him again. He rested his hands on her neck, remembering the softness of her lips against his, the way her nose rubbed against his. She had her flaws, Thor knew he had more than his fair share of flaws… but he loved her. He loved her more than anything. And after these past few days of stress, high emotion, struggle, late night fears and tears, he could safely say that his love for Astrid Hofferson was only strengthened.

Reunited! Wahoo! Now there's two months until the wedding, but only a few weeks to a month until the Peace Treaty at Brawn! Wahoo! I cannot wait to get to all of that ;) It's going to be such fun!

If you guys have any good Viking name suggestions for both people and villages, please tell me in a review or PM me! I need a few more suggestions. Thanks!

So what'd you think? Feel free to tell me in a review or PM, okay? I won't be changing any more chapters like I previously did bc that was necessary. But I've got a good handle on things from here on out. I'm excited with what I've got planned.

Also, my friend KateMarie999 has recently finished her second story for her Growing Up Haddock series, called Little Miracles. I seriously almost cried at the ending… Gah it's amazing! Read Unexpected first if you want to check those out. We collaborate on stories together and proofread; if you love my stuff, I guarantee you'll love hers too! Check 'em out! ;)

Thanks guys! Love ya'll!

~EmK