"NO," Hiccup thought. She couldn't be dead. She couldn't! His breath caught in his throat and he looked down, bracing himself to see the love of his life's lifeless body lying in his arms, all because he couldn't help her enough.

He looked down hesitantly, and to his indescribable relief, he saw her beautiful, alive, sapphire eyes looking back into his with a what seemed to be a new sense of understanding.

"Did she forget what happened?" Hiccup wondered as he was hit with a sudden realization as well: it was a flashback. He breathed a huge sigh of relief, thanking Odin that it was just a flashback and nothing more. Astrid was safe. She wasn't dying. Everything would be okay.

Now it was Astrid's turn to tear up. She gently laid a hand on the side of Hiccup's face and apologized.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "I- I didn't mean to scare you like that, I- I'm okay."

She placed a soft and gentle kiss on his lips so he understood, and he reciprocated with much gratefulness. When she pulled back from him, she couldn't stop staring into his gorgeous forest green eyes. She could only imagine what it would be like to almost lose Hiccup... she had almost lost him several times before, but neither of their scares had been as close as this one.

"I'm okay. Thank you," she said calmly, bringing Hiccup in for one last embrace before she began to stand up. She reached a hand forward, offering help, and Hiccup took it and stood up next to her. While Hiccup was more than capable of getting up on his own, they both knew it wasn't exactly an easy feat when you only had one real leg.

Astrid brought her hand up to her shoulder to brush any remaining snow off of her, surprised to find that there was none. It all had been melted and dried by the heat of the fire... and Hiccup, of course. She looked over at him to see if he was just as dry and snow-free as her as well, which he was, and realized he didn't have a jacket. She glanced down at herself. She was wearing it. Astrid smiled.

"Of course he gave it to me," she thought, gratefully looking back into his eyes, which were glistening with a mixture of love, joy, and shock.

"Here," she said, taking off the jacket and handing it back over to him. "I don't need it any more. Thank you, though."

Hiccup was very hesitant to take the jacket away from her.

"Oh, come one, just take it, will ya?" she stated, thrusting the jacket into his chest so he had to take it. "It's not like I'm going to freeze to death or anything."

She felt him tense up beside her and tossed a thankful look in his direction.

"At least not anymore," she added, placing an appreciative kiss on his cheek as she walked to the door to check out their surroundings.

Hiccup merely stood there in shock and amazement.

"Did any of that really just happen?" He shook his head, trying to shake the nearly paralyzing stillness from himself, and looked at Astrid, who seemed to be her normal, functioning self again.

"Wow," he thought. She really never did fail to amaze him. I mean, if anyone could have such a quick rebound from something like that, it would be Astrid Hofferson.

Once Astrid finished scanning her surroundings, she stepped back inside and caught Hiccup staring at her in almost pure adoration... again.

"Hey," she began to say, taking his hand in hers and looking deep into his eyes, making sure he had his full, present attention. "Thank you, so much, for everything you did... and I mean it. Everything."

Hiccup started to speak but Astrid interrupted him, placing a finger on his lips to keep him from talking.

"And don't you dare blame any of that on yourself. Got it?"

He hesitated, earning him one of Astrid's deafening glares, even though a gleam of playfulness shone through as well.

"Got it?" she repeated, more slowly this time. She knew he understood, he just didn't want to shut up and stop blaming himself for every damn thing that went wrong within a thousand miles of him.

He nodded. Astrid smiled.

"Good," she stated before looking back at the door she just came from.

"So what's it like outside?" Hiccup asked, "It doesn't sound like we're getting pummeled by a storm of snowballs anymore."

Astrid couldn't help but snicker at his comparison.

"No, the storm calmed down; it looks like it left completely. There's still a huge layer of snow on the ground, but nothing we can't handle. All the ice and wind did crust over the top layer of the snow, though, so it's going to be a slippery walk back."

"Walk?" Hiccup asked, somewhat indignantly. "Wait, but why would we walk, can't we just use our dra- ohh..." The sudden realization that neither of their dragons with them hit him, followed by him laughing at the thought of Toothless frustratingly scrambling around on the ice, trying to walk.

Astrid raised a questioning eyebrow at him and he explained that thought to her, causing both of them to nearly double over in laughter as they discussed scenarios of all their friends and their dragons trying unsuccessfully to walk on ice.

"Oh, gods," Astrid sighed, using her wrist to wipe a tear of laughter off her face. She looked back up at Hiccup, who took a deep breath to collect himself before returning her gaze. They were both fighting off fits of laughter - they could barely look at one another in the eye without breaking down into breathless giggles again.

Knowing this, Hiccup quickly diverted his gaze from hers and redirected it towards the door.

"So," he said, looking back at her, "you ready to go sledding?"

"What?" she asked, her features twisted in confusion. She barely had time to ask him what on Earth he was talking about before he rushed out the cabin, grabbed a slate of bark from a tree, and began sliding down the ice-crusted slope, using the scrap of bark as a sled.

Astrid shook her head and smiled as she bolted out the door after him, grabbing another slab of tree bark nearby as she slid down the hill after him.

"He would do something like that," Astrid remarked in her head. But while he was a tiny bit insane, he was also brilliant and so, so much fun. And she loved him for that. And while he was driven by his crazy ideas, his drive was no match for her unbeatable competitiveness.

"Watch out!" she yelled after him, watching his shocked face with glee as she zoomed past him down the hill.

"Hey!" Hiccup yelled. He shook his head and smiled at her before leaning forward chasing after her as fast as he could on his sled - if you would even call it that. But hey, what worked worked, right?

They continued this race for a while until Hiccup saw Astrid coming up to the edge of a ravine, and panic began to rise up within him again.

"Astrid!" he yelled. No response from her - she seemed way too calm...

"Astrid!" he yelled again, louder this time. She was still in the lead, so she was pretty far in front of him, but they were both getting way too close to this cliff for comfort.

"How and why on Earth is she so calm?" Hiccup thought to himself. How, he knew: she was the most fearless woman on Berk, and no one he knew of matched her courageous audacity to never back down from a challenge. Why she was so calm, he had no idea, especially considering how not calm he was in this moment.

He saw her nearing the end of the cliff, too close to stop, and his heart dropped as he froze and expected the worse... only to see her flying up in the air across the ravine, safely landing on the other side.

Hiccup rolled his eyes and smiled again, relief flooding his system.

"Of course," he thought, "who else would've found a snowbank to use as some sort of the ramp at the last seco-AAAHH!" His thoughts were interrupted by a very involuntary scream as he realized he needed to find a snowbank to use as well. He frantically scanned the cliff, searching for where Astrid had hurtled over the ravine, and heard her yelling "LEFT!"

Hiccup sharply veered left on his scrap of wood and found himself flying over the deep abyss. It felt kind of like riding a dragon, actually, until...

"Hiccup!"

And, the landing... Hiccup kind of forgot about it again. He was so enveloped in the moment, just like when he was flying solo with Toothless, that he had entirely forgotten about his surroundings, and crash landed... again... on top of Astrid.

Once Hiccup landed - if you would even call it that - he looked at Astrid to make sure she wasn't hurt and found her lying on the ground, unconscious. He panicked, shaking her shoulder and trying to get her to wake up.

"Astrid!" he shouted, shaking her even more vigorously. He couldn't stand to lose her this time, he couldn't, he just - Astrid shot up from the ground, causing snow from her body to fly all over him, and turned around to face him. Gods, he looked ridiculous... his hair was disheveled, he was wearing way too little clothing to be out in this weather, and he was also covered in snow and scraps of dead tree bark. He also looked absolutely terrified, and despite all this, Astrid couldn't help but think about how adorable he looked even at times like these - even more so during those times, actually.

Hiccup was still frozen in shock and Astrid doubled over in laughter before reaching her hand out and placing it on his.

"I'm okay," she assured him, and he seemed to relax a little bit as he looked at the ground for a few seconds, thinking, and started running his hands through his hair, staring at her in shock and amazement.

"Astrid!" he nearly shouted.

"Yes?" she replied in a very teasing tone.

"How on- you- you nearly scared me to death!" Hiccup exclaimed.

Astrid raised an eyebrow, asking "And is there a problem with tha- Ah! Hiccup!"

She had been interrupted by Hiccup practically tackling her into the snow-covered ground, and they playfully wrestled with each other for a few minutes before Astrid finally pinned him down. Both her hands were on his shoulders, one knee on his chest, and her other foot jabbing into the snow by his side for traction... just in case. She stared into his dazzling emerald eyes, which now shone with excitement and joyous love instead of fear and worry, wondering what in Odin's name she did to deserve him - she had never loved anyone in her life as much as she did Hiccup.

She leaned down and kissed him, coming back up to stare into his beautiful green eyes again, and felt a sudden rush. Hiccup had flipped her over onto her back and was now on top of her, holding her with one arm underneath her shoulders and the other on the side on her face. He stared into her beautiful aquamarine eyes for a minute, all the while thanking the gods that the glimmer of determination and excitement had now been restored to her eyes, before leaning down to kiss her again.

When they came back up for air, their faces were hardly separated from each other. Astrid had wrapped her arms around his neck with the fingers of one hand carded into his thick, silky hair, and was now playing with one of the braids she had made in his hair with her thumb, flicking it back and forth. Hiccup pulled her in for a hug before they sat up next to each other, facing their little village on Dragon's Edge.

They both sat there for a while, leaning on each other and staring at the edge, recalling everything that had happened there thus far and everything that had brought them closer together. Their relationship officially began there, and so many milestones along the way have happened there as well, and neither of them could have been more thankful for everything that had happened. The good, the bad; the celebrations, the mourning; the progress, the setbacks. While life there had been far beyond challenging at times, it was undoubtedly worth it. Nothing could change that fact.

Hiccup sat there with his arm around Astrid and his head leaning on hers until he noticed that they were both shivering. Astrid must've noticed as well, because she stood up and offered her hand to him, helping him stand up.

She didn't let go of his hand when she asked, "Ready?" at which Hiccup smiled and nodded, linking his arm through hers as they peacefully made their way back to the edge.

...

So this may or may not be the last chapter, I still have to decide, but I have started a couple (yes, Hiccstrid) one-shots and I have an idea for another story as well. Thank you all so much for all your support and for reading this, and I really hope you enjoyed reading ti! Love you all! :)