Alright, get ready for some Hiccstrid...yay, or I guess in this it would be Hiccric? Eh, whatever you guys can decide the ship name. Also this chapter has more original dialogue from me, so I hope I wrote the characters okay. I hate it when characters are so OOC. Let me know what you think so far; don't forget to review.

Now...on with the show!

A Romantic Evening

The following afternoon, Hiccup and Aric were up against the Gronckle again. There were small wooden barriers placed in the ring and Hiccup was hiding behind one of them trying her very best not to win. Instead of wearing her hood, she wore her helmet to cover her ears; it was just big enough with her tiny head.

Aric came by to where she sat. He didn't notice her at first, but when he did, he donned that angry look of his again.

"Stay out of my way. I'm winning this thing", he told her in a very threatening tone. He then rushed off to the next barrier.

"Good, please by all means", she called out.

Hiccup stood up, shield and ax in hand, and turned to the crowd where her dad stood looking as proud as could be. She did her best to smile as she fixed her slipping helmet, but it quickly turned into a look of uninterest.

Meanwhile Aric was sneaking his way up to the Gronckle, preparing to strike. He stopped for a moment to reassure himself. "This time. This time, for sure."

He released a battle cry and jumped over wall after wall, but abruptly stopped when he saw the Gronckle already downed by Hiccup. Her weapons were dropped, but the Gronckle was on the floor rolled over.

"NO! Ugh, SON OF A HALF-TROLL RAT EATING...MUNGE BUCKET!"

"So…later", Hiccup said trying to sneak away, but Gobber yanked her back with his hook.

"Oh, not so fast."

"Uh, but I'm kinda late for…"

Aric caught her neck with his ax. "What! Late? For what? Exactly?" He almost looked crazy.

She luckily didn't have to answer and was saved from nearly being decapitated when her father spoke.

"Okay, quiet down. The elder has decided."

Gobber stood behind the two teens and pointed to Aric. Gothi shook her head. The boy looked like he was about to have another melt down. Gobber then pointed to Hiccup and Gothi nodded a yes. If looks could kill she would have been dead where she stood when she saw the look Aric gave her. Gobber was jumping up and down like a child on Snoggletog morning and hugging her by his hooked hand.

"Ah you've done it Hiccup! You get to kill the dragon!" he shouted out.

But, while she was fearing for not only her life, but also the fact that she was chosen, everyone else was thrilled; her father especially.

"Ha, ha! That's my girl!"

The teens began to surround her and Fishlegs picked her up having her sit on his shoulders. Hiccup quickly placed her tail in her lap so he wouldn't feel it down his back. In an attempt to mask her panic, she tried to fake celebratory cries. It came out very unenthusiastic and quite sarcastic, but no one seemed to notice. "Heh, heh. Oh Yeah! Yes! I can't wait, I'm so…"

"…leaving. We're leaving bud. Let's pack up; looks like you and me are taking a little vacation…forever." When she finally was able to escape everyone, she packed all her things and came to the cove thinking it'd be her last time. She didn't see Toothless, so she put her load down, her cloak off, and prepared to leave knowing he'd show up eventually. He was most likely just sleeping somewhere she couldn't see him from where she was.

"Ohhh man", she breathed, and as she stood up fiddling with her harness she noticed Aric on the rock she put her load against. "Aggh…what the—", she said startled and tripping over some stones.

Despite the fact that her dragon parts were exposed, and Toothless could arrive any moment, she tried to play off as everything was fine.

"Uh, what…are you doing here?"

"I want to know what's going on", he said thankfully not looking up from sharpening his ax. "No one just gets as good as you do, especially you! So start talking; are you training with someone?"

"Uh, uh…training?" She was scrambling to find the words of what to say, and then even more frantically when he looked up and saw her. He hopped off his perch down towards her, coming dangerously close.

"Oh, it better not involve…this?! What is this anyway? Some sort of stupid dragon costume?!" He pulled at one of her wings, and his eyes widened in realization.

"Uh, now I-I know-this-looks really bad, but—"

"What are you? What in Thor's name is going on here?!" he didn't look at her disgusted, like she always thought, just confused and pissed off. Then he gasped at something behind her and moved passed her to check it out. Hiccup knew exactly what he saw and taking his question as an opportunity to get him to leave she told a white lie.

"Um…yes! Yes, you got me! I'm secretly half dragon and I've been coming here to…finally learn how to fly! My dad and I were gonna tell everyone tomorrow, but you caught me…hehe, its time everyone knew…" she went in front of him spreading out her wings to block his sight of the possible Night Fury behind her, and grabbed his hand placing it on her chest swaying each way his head did to look passed her.

"…drag me back, here we go…OW!"

Aric bent her hand backwards, and she went down. "Why would you do that?!" She made an attempt to stand up, but he kicked her back down.

"That's for the lies. "And that's…" he took the handle of his ax and dropped it on her stomach, "…for everything else."

Toothless had then chosen to appear with a loud growl as warning. "Oh man", Hiccup muttered.

Aric gasped at the sight of Toothless and just as Hiccup got back up, was knocked down again. "Get Down!" he ordered, tackling her.

Toothless began to run and lunge at Aric fearing the boy was hurting her. He rolled off of Hiccup. "Run! Run!" he screamed at her positioning his ax to strike.

"NO!" she yelled tackling Aric down in time before either of the males could hurt each other. She slid Aric's ax away from the boy, and went to position herself in between the two holding her hands out to both of them in the motion of 'stop'.

"No, no! It's okay, it's okay…" She turned herself completely to Toothless and with both hands out in a gesture of 'calm down' she said, "He's a friend."

Toothless stopped and calmed down, although, still not happy with Aric's presence, she still had to hold him back a bit.

"You scared him", she said to Aric next.

"I scared him?! Who? Is him?"

Letting go of Toothless, Hiccup did her best at a proper introduction. "Aric, Toothless; Toothless, Aric." Toothless' 'hello', however, was more of a snarl saying 'go away'.

Looking appalled, Aric stepped back and ran off.

"Duh duh duh, we're dead", Hiccup sung.

Toothless turned around clearly glad the boy was gone.

"Woah woah woah, where do you think you're going?!" she exclaimed at her stupid 'brother'.

Hiccup wasn't about to let Aric go and tell everyone she'd been hiding a Night Fury and was part Night Fury herself. It wouldn't exactly look very good.

Aric was running as fast as he could. Hiccup being half dragon, okay; it was weird and he didn't understand it, but if Stoick hadn't sent her off the island, or had her killed, he clearly didn't seem to really care. But, hiding a Night Fury, keeping it as a pet… He had to tell Stoick.

He heard wing beats above him and ran faster. He jumped over a large log, and was suddenly grabbed in giant claws being carried further away from the ground. "Oh, great Odin's ghost, this is it! Ahhhh…" he screamed terrified.

He was dropped onto a tall tree and he hung on a branch, seeing Hiccup riding the Night Fury. "Hiccup! Get me down from here!"

"You have to give me a chance to explain."

"I'm not listening to ANYTHING you have to say!"

"Then I won't speak. Just, let me show you." She offered her hand to him, but he refused to take it. "Please Aric", she begged.

Knowing he didn't have any other way down, he pulled himself up ignoring her hand and climbed on the beast. "Alright, now get me down."

"Toothless, down; gently" Hiccup told her dragon.

The dragon spread its wings preparing to take off from the tree, and Hiccup turned to Aric. "See, nothing to be afraid of—Woah!

The dragon suddenly launched into the air nearly causing him to fall off if Hiccup hadn't caught him at the waist with her tail. He screamed in surprise and fear with the speed and recklessness of the dragon's flying. Hiccup was trying to reprimand her dragon in the meantime.

"Toothless! What is wrong with you! Bad dragon!" She turned to him and laughed nervously, "He's not usually like this." It sounded like it was a lie. The dragon then leaned to one side.

"Oh no", she said with no surprise or fear as if knowing what the beast was about to do next. Aric screamed in terror when the dragon dropped out of the sky into the ocean, out, then in again, and out again.

"Toothless, what are you doing? We need him to like us?!" He began to spin next, and Hiccup sounded to be less then amused.

"And now…the…spinning. Thank you for nothing you useless reptile." It almost sounded like she was used to the beast's antics. He dove and span again, and Aric was holding on to Hiccup for dear life.

"Okay! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Just get me off of this thing!"

And as suddenly as the dragon went crazy, he stopped. He stopped his crazy dive and they went into a gentle glide. No longer feeling like he was going to be thrown out of the sky, Aric opened his eyes and looked up from Hiccup's shoulder. It was beautiful; there were pink clouds surrounding them, and he felt compelled to touch them. He reached up and his hand went right through it; it was wet, but like air. He felt like a child leaning back slightly and running his hands though the clouds laughing.

They flew until it was dark and the Northern Lights shun in the night sky. There was a break in the now blue clouds and Aric could see Berk. His eyes widened in amazement at the view. After a few more moments of flying around he finally spoke.

"Alright, I admit it. This is pretty cool. It's…amazing; he's amazing", he said placing a hand on Toothless' side.

Hiccup was glad she was able to convince Aric to see dragons the way she did. It made her think that maybe it was possible to convince others, but she knew while she might be able to get the other teens on board, the adults would be a different story. Her father especially with how he lost his wife, and her mother.

"So…" Aric began. "How did this whole part dragon thing happen?"

"I don't know. I was born with it. I don't even know if my dad knows how; whenever I'd ask he'd never tell me. He wouldn't even tell me what species I am."

"Oh", he said a little disappointed and sorry for her. A moment of awkward silence passed. "So what now?"

She just sighed. She was going to run away, but with the possibility of convincing her people dragons were'nt what they thought they were, she wasn't sure anymore. But she couldn't kill that dragon.

"Hiccup, your final exam is tomorrow. You know you're going to have to kill—" He paused and pulled her closer in a whisper as if Toothless wouldn't be able to hear. "–kill a dragon."

"Don't remind me."

Hiccup then heard a strange noise, and she could feel a faint pull like it was a call to somewhere. The next thing she knew, Toothless sharply dived and turned towards where the pull, or call, was coming from. The two teens yelled in surprise.

"Toothless what's happening? What's going on? What's that sound?" she asked quite frantic.

"Quiet", he ordered her.

They were suddenly surrounded by dragons, Toothless jolting away from the ones that came too close.

"Get down", she told Aric in a whisper.

The further they seemed to go the stronger the pull felt; unbeknownst to her, Hiccup's pupils became slits just as Toothless', but unlike Toothless, she could fight the pull and turn away. Unfortunately, she wasn't the one flying.

"What's going on?" Aric asked.

"I'm not sure. Toothless, you gotta get us out of here bud." She placed her hand on his head, but he pushed it away.

"…quiet!"

It was no use. Toothless was gonna follow the call to where ever it was coming from, and if she didn't know any better, she'd think the nest. She could see through the thick fog the dragons all had an animal in their claws, all flying in the same direction.

"It looks like their hauling in their kill."

"What does that make us?"

The path became more unpredictable; the dragons went down in a steep dive, leveled out, and then veered left and right to avoid sea stacks that appeared in the fog, all the while still following that same call.

They came upon a volcano and Toothless went through a hole in the rock to a place filled with rock ledges where dragons sat on, surrounding a giant hole that they threw their kill into.

"What my dad wouldn't give to find this", Hiccup said in amazement.

Once they arrived, the pull seemed to cease; Toothless and Hiccup's eyes returned to normal and Toothless landed behind a large rock formation where they could hide.

"Well, it's satisfying to know that all our food has been dumped down a hole", Hiccup stated sarcastically.

"They're not eating any of it", Aric also noted.

A Gronckle came into the nest and hovered over the pit. He opened his mouth and out came a tiny fish. They heard a large growl emanate from the pit and the Gronckle looked scared. He started to fly away, but in the next second he was eaten by a giant dragon head that popped out of the hole. Hiccup gasped.

"What…is that?" Aric asked, as all the dragons began to cower in fear.

They stared at it for another moment until Hiccup thought she could see it realize intruders had entered her nest.

"…"

"Alright bud, we gotta get out of here…now", she said quickly before the gigantic dragon moved to eat them. All the dragons flew in a panic up and out of the nest through the hole at the top. Hiccup, Aric, and Toothless narrowly escaped death when they evaded the dragon's second attempt, and she unfortunately grabbed an innocent Zippleback instead. Hiccup's eyes were wide with fear and confusion.

They flew back to Berk and into the cove, and all the while Hiccup was trying to figure out what was going on in that nest. "I don't understand. What was that thing? Why are the dragons feeding it?!"

As they entered the cove Aric answered her. "No, no, it totally makes sense. It's like a giant bee hive. They're the workers and she's their queen. It controls them." He hopped off of Toothless. "Let's find your dad."

"What? No, no." She ran to stop him. "No not yet, they'll…kill Toothless. No…" a small whimper escaped her. "Aric, we have to think his through, carefully." She started to walk back towards Toothless, but Aric wouldn't drop the subject.

"Hiccup, we just discovered the dragon's nest. The thing we've been after since Vikings first sailed here, and you want to keep it a secret?! To protect your pet dragon, are you serious?!"

Hiccup turned and with the most serious face and tone of voice Aric had ever heard from her she said a simple, "Yes." It made him pause. "Okay. Then what do we do?"

"Just give me until tomorrow; I'll figure something out."

"Achem", the two teens both heard a female voice say. They turned and saw Astrid standing in the cove staring right at them, her arms crossed.

"I hope you two have a really good explanation of what's going on here?"

Aric was quick to answer. "Astrid, I'll tell you everything when we get back home."

"Just promise me you won't tell anyone about what you've seen", Hiccup finished almost begging.

Astrid looked at them for a moment with a deep stare, then she said, shrugging, something they didn't expect. "Okay."

" "Wait what?" "

"Yeah, I pretty much heard your entire conversation when you two landed so..."

Hiccup was extremely relieved, and then Astrid continued. "But, Hiccup, you can't keep this secret…" she said referring to her parts and her dragon, "…forever. And I can place a guess you don't want to fight that Nightmare tomorrow either?"

"Yeah", Hiccup replied not knowing where this was going.

"So…what are you going to do?" she said with her arms crossed once again.

Hiccup thought for a moment, when an idea hit her. She wasn't going to fight that dragon in the ring tomorrow. "I'm going to train that dragon", she said confidently.

Aric looked surprised and little frightened. "Wait, you're going to train it? In front of the entire village?" he said with disbelief in his voice.

"Yep."

"You do realize that's insane right?"

"Uh huh."

"Well then...alright", he said with a small smile.

"Just be careful. I don't think Stoick would be too happy to see his only daughter eaten or burned alive by a dragon."

"Don't worry, Astrid. If I could train and befriend the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, I'm pretty sure I can train a measly Nightmare."

"Hiccup, your forgetting you're half the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself; you don't think that had anything to do with you being able to befriend him?" Aric asked.

"No. Maybe it helped, but I'm pretty sure anyone could train a dragon…with the right patience."

"Hey how did you know where we went anyway?" Aric suddenly asked Astrid.

Astrid answered as if it were obvious. "I saw you go after Hiccup when she ran off, and I wanted to make sure the heir wasn't going to be found dead in the woods. By the time I got here, you guys were gone and all I could hear was you screaming like a little girl."

"I wasn't gonna kill her!" Aric protested ignoring the little girl comment.

"Uh huh, sure you weren't."

There was a moment of silence and Astrid could see the look on her brother's face as he looked at Hiccup, but also trying to avoid her gaze. She decided to excuse herself.

"Well I better be heading back. I'll see you in the arena Hiccup. Good luck."

Surprised by how kind Astrid was being to her, she answered back. "Thank you."

"Wow…your sister is more easy going then I thought."

"Yeah, sometimes; sometimes I don't get it."

"You both are quite the mystery", she admitted.

There was an awkward silence between them for a few moments once again. Hiccup was fiddling with her harness when Aric, all of a sudden, punched her arm. "That's for kidnapping me."

All Hiccup could do was look at him in confusion, holding her arm. She turned to Toothless who was taking a drink from the lake with a motion of 'what was that?' and he just gave her a motion of 'don't look at me, he's your problem'. She turned back to Aric and he did the last thing she would have ever expected him to do. He pulled her close and kissed her cheek.

"That's for…everything else", he said softly and almost embarrassed. Aric turned and ran off, and Hiccup just stood there staring, a smile creeping across her face. Toothless appeared next to her and began to look at her with big eyes.

"Eh-uh, what are you looking at?" she said a little startled.

As he turned his gaze away from her, her 'brother' replied. "Nothing."