He was standing.

Finally, after almost a month of confinement to his bed in the loft, Hiccup was standing. On his own two feet. With no help from his mother or Astrid. Granted, the two of them were standing at his elbows in case his legs gave out, and Astrid had helped him put his prosthetic on when he announced he wanted to try standing that morning, but neither of them were touching him. His legs were burning and shaking with the effort of holding his weight, but the feeling of the blood rushing through the unused appendages was exhilarating, even if it did take away from the blood being supplied to his head. He was grinning like a fool, he couldn't stop, and he didn't give a yak's ass.

Toothless, who was sitting a few feet away from Hiccup, began to warble and bob his head in excitement. Hiccup, Valka, and Astrid laughed, and then he began to tap a paw insistently in front of him, before sitting down and regarding Hiccup expectantly.

When Hiccup raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to ask Toothless what he was on about, Valka translated for him, "He wants you to try walking over to him."

Toothless snorted the affirmative, green eyes wide and shining.

"Alright." Hiccup straightened up, squared his shoulders, and like an infant taking his first steps, tottered over to Toothless.

It was only a few feet, but for a body that had been off its feet and wasn't used to bearing weight, it was almost a thousand miles. When Hiccup finally reached Toothless, he had to lean against him for support. But he managed to turn around and face the two women. There was sweat prickling on his forehead and upper lip and his face had gone white with the effort, but the elated smile on his face didn't falter. He stood tall and stiffened his back, feeling more alive than he had in weeks.

His excitement was visceral; Astrid could practically taste it on her tongue and feel it curling about her heart and causing it to beat in tandem with his. She made her way over to him and kissed his cheek ecstatically.

"I'm so proud of you," she stated, instinctively pressing her side against his to help support him.

"I'm proud of me too," Hiccup replied breathlessly, and laughed without knowing why. He turned to Valka. "Can I sit downstairs today? Pleeeease?"

Valka took in her son's shining eyes, and Astrid and Toothless' twin nods of encouragement, and shrugged.

"As long as you stay by the fire, I don't see why not."

With a happy trill, Toothless scooped Hiccup onto his back and practically paraded him down the stairs while Valka and Astrid followed.

"I wonder how Stoick ever stood up to those eyes of his when that boy begged for something," Valka observed.

Astrid shook her head and said, "They've saved his life more than once. I think the only reason I haven't killed him sometimes is because he's cute."

Valka chuckled her agreement and patted Astrid on the back.

When the two of them reached the foot of the stairs, they witnessed Toothless helping Hiccup slide into a chair, before the dragon trotted off and returned with a large bear-skin in his mouth. He placed it in Hiccup's lap, and the Viking wrapped himself up in it, shivering slightly. The fire in the pit in the center of the room was down to embers, so Toothless stirred it up again by gently blowing a thin stream of flame onto it. The fire roared again to life, bathing everyone with its heat. However, Hiccup continued to shiver, so Astrid took the liberty to scoot into the chair next to him and wrap the bear-skin around the both of them, tossing her legs over his lap and hugging him close to her.

"Thanks," Hiccup sighed, snuggling into the heated cocoon contentedly.

"That's what girlfriends are good for," she replied, "If nothing else, we make it so you don't freeze to death."

Hiccup laughed, and leaned his head against her shoulder. Astrid turned her head and buried her nose into his hair while stroking the side of his face, feeling his shivers die down.

"Still don't get why I'm so cold," Hiccup grumbled, "It's almost spring."

"Because you're still underweight," Valka answered, sitting down on the floor near them. Toothless came up behind her, laid down by the fire, and she leaned back against his scaly hide. "From what Astrid has told me, you've never been a ruddy lad, Hiccup, but now there's even less of you. Your body is missing vital fat it needs to keep warm. I thought anyone who lived among snow and ice for their whole lives knew that."

Hiccup rolled his eyes, but Astrid squashed his annoyance with another kiss on the cheek.

"You'll get there," the blond girl promised, "At least the healer doesn't need to visit as much anymore. Remember what she said before she left? We just have to keep feeding you lots of meat because it'll help build up your blood and muscles and lots of grains because it'll help give you energy. And obviously it's working. Your face is filling out and your shoulder blades and knee caps aren't deadly stabbing weapons anymore."

"You're lucky I'm comfortable and need your body heat or I'd throw you off," Hiccup mumbled, closing his eyes.

"No you wouldn't," Astrid snorted.

"Mmmph," Hiccup retorted. He was too warm and too happy and his head was filled with too little blood and too much of her scent to come up with anything more coherent.

"Young love," Valka elbowed the dragon, "How do you put up with it day after day, Toothess?"

Toothless groaned in a long-suffering manner and rolled his large, green eyes as if to say, You have no idea.

They sat in companionable silence for several minutes, each enjoying the heat, touch, and sense of safety that had settled in the room. Hiccup enjoyed the feeling of Astrid's breaths fanning across his forehead and Valka found her pulse beating to the cadence of Toothless' rumbling purrs. For a moment, the two women could have sworn that sitting up had been too much excitement for Hiccup and his steady breathing indicated that sleep had made him its willing prisoner once again. But his eyelids opened a moment later, his eyes glittering in the light of the fire. His breaths remained steady and sleepy, indicating a deep sense of relaxation.

"You know," he said quietly, "there's more."

"Of what?" Astrid asked.

"What happened to me. I was gone for four months. The thing with the pirates only lasted a month…I think. You don't know what happened when we reached the port."

Valka and Astrid shared a concerned look, and Valka leaned forward and touched Hiccup's knee.

"You don't need to tell us anything you don't feel ready to share," his mother assured him.

Hiccup shook his head. "I want to. Even though I got sick the last time, it did make me feel better. Now, you're all here with me. I see all of you at once, and I feel you all, and I feel safe. What happened to me feels a lot farther away than it used to."

Astrid sighed, cuddled him closer, and held one of his warm hands with both of hers. "We're listening."

He squeezed her hand back, touched by her show of support, and stirred up the dark waters of his memory once more.

000

Hiccup woke the next morning feeling as if he had been chewed up by an angry Monstrous Nightmare, spit back out, and then been invited to an all-night party where he had imbibed waaaay more mead than his slight body could handle.

It took only a split second and a white-hot pain slicing through his backside to remind him that that wasn't the case.

Hiccup opened his eyes, which were crusty from tears and was momentarily blinded by the morning light. A deep, agonized groan vibrated through his whole body from the top of his head to his toes. His whole body began to scream in unison, a high pitched wail like that of a suffering child. Everything demanded his attention at once and everything throbbed in unison so powerfully that all he could do was whimper weakly, crushed under the weight of his pain and his inability to make anything better.

Aelfgifu's fingers were suddenly skirting through his hair, across his face, trying feverishly to smooth out the lines of pain there.

"Hurts," he said, but his vocal chords were so raw that he barely made it above a whisper, "Hurts…hurts…"

"Shhh," Aelfgifu murmured, "Shhh now, I know, I'm sorry. What can I do, Hiccup? How can I help make it stop hurting?"

The concern in her voice in contrast to the cruelty of the voices from the night before undid Hiccup, and tears started slipping from his eyes without his consent. But his body was too exhausted to stop them, or produce too many of them. A gasping sob shuddered through his chest, and he wrapped an arm around his middle and placed another hand over his mouth in an attempt to make himself stop. The sobs hurt. Breathing hurt.

"I want to go home," he whined helplessly, slipping into Norse. His brain was too much of a scrambled mess to think in any other language. "I want to go home, I want to go home, it hurts and it won't stop, it hurts it hurts, dad make it stop"-

Regretfully, Aelfgifu placed a hand over his mouth because he was beginning to hyperventilate, and even though she couldn't understand all of what he just said, she understood enough and the pleading tone tore empathetic claws through her heart.

"Shhh, Hiccup, calm down," she crooned. She bent over him, covering his head and shoulders with her body, hoping her scent and her soft words would be enough to soothe him. As much as she wished she could, she couldn't give him his home, or his father; this was all she had to offer. "Easy now, sweetheart, I'm here, I have you and you're safe, okay? Shh, shh…"

Little by little, Aelfgifu pulled Hiccup out of his sea of pain and eased him back into the light out of the dark with her feminine voice. He still panted, but it was just from the pain and not from panic this time. He groped for her hand, and she offered it to him. He grabbed it and pulled it to his chest, grateful beyond words for her comfort. If she hadn't been here, if she had gotten away with her family and Hiccup had been alone to deal with what the pirates had done to him…well, she'd be a lot better off, but Hiccup didn't want to think about what kind of state he'd be in. Embarrassed, he buried his face into the side of her thigh, feeling her compassion rush through him warmly when she resumed stroking his scalp.

They remained like that for pretty much the rest of the trip, never far from each other's side always in contact with one another. Aelfgifu indulged him because, although he didn't know it, she had gotten a look at his pants at one point when she had excused herself to make water, and had noticed the awful bloodstain on the seat. Twelve she may be, but naïve she was not. Only then she understood Hiccup's craving for contact; it made him feel safe, and she came to learn that he was the kind of person who thrived on touch. However, this realization made her even sadder, because she had come to learn that touch could either heal or harm, and someone like Hiccup, who was so receptive to such a thing, and to be hurt to the degree that he had been…

The least she could do was sit beside him and let him use her lap as a pillow.

The two of them pulled into the harbor of their destination early in the morning, but they weren't taken out of their cells right away. However, Aelfgifu noticed as she roused herself from sleep, the crew certainly sounded busy. Their feet were pounding back and forth in every direction above their heads, yelling orders in strange tongues and clearly loading things from above deck first.

Knowing they had stopped and not knowing where they were set Aelfgifu's heart to pounding, and laying as she was behind Hiccup, she curled around him a little tighter, more protectively. Hiccup himself was still out cold, quiet snores disturbing only the pieces of straw that were too close to his nose, blissfully unaware of their current situation. Aelfgifu, remembering the utter horror in his face and rasp of his voice the last time he had come in contact with the pirates, thought it cruel to wake him yet.

So, she let him remain in the warm, sweet dream he had worked himself deep into, a dream filled with playing with his best friend and the laughter of the most beautiful girl in the world.

Then, the trapdoor opened with a piercing shriek, making Aelfgifu gasp in alarm and startling Hiccup out of his sleep. When he looked up and saw the pirate captain's face leering through the opening of the door above him, he yelped like a beaten puppy and scrambled backwards without conscious thought. He only stopped when he had backed himself into a corner of the cell, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane and the whites of his eyes terribly visible with his fear. Aelfgifu sprang to her feet and stood over him, alternating between crooning soft nothings of comfort to the paralyzed Viking and baring her teeth at the pirates that had begun to drop down through the trapdoor.

"Rise and shine!" the captain greeted, "All merchandise must go off the ship and into the streets of Rome to be sold. So what are we waiting for? Up we get!"

"We go not!" Aelfgifu snarled in Norse, only made angrier when Hiccup groped for her hand clutched it desperately. He was so scared…

"Unfortunately for you," the captain shrugged, "there are four of us, and two of you. So the odds are against you, lass."

The three burly pirates began to move forward, and Aelfgifu sat down beside Hiccup, pulling the shaking boy as close to her as possible. He buried his face into her neck, as if he could make the pirates disappear if only he couldn't see them. It was when he started murmuring, "I want to go home, Aelfgifu, I want to go home," that she felt tears sting her eyes.

But the two of them were wrestled apart despite their desperate attempts to cling to each other, and their hands were bound with rope so that such hopes of a comforting touch were dashed viciously. They were hauled above deck into the hands of more waiting pirates, and when the captain returned on deck, he whispered in Hiccup's ear, "You can walk right next to me," before he gave the lobe a subtle lick. Hiccup didn't quite manage to choke down a sob that leapt up from his throat.

Aelfgifu was right behind him (he could tell from her familiar screeches and death threats toward the pirates) and the entourage of pirates and their prisoners was marched off the ship into the streets of Rome.

They were led through a maze of streets so intricate that it made both of them dizzy, but the pirates certainly seemed to know where they were leading them. They marched with purpose, never faltering, not even when Hiccup stumbled or even when he fell at one point because he couldn't keep up with their brisk pace. He was simply hauled to his feet and pushed on, and Aelfgifu barely bit her tongue to keep her angry words in check. She might have appreciated all the strange people they passed if her situation was different, but as it stood, she would kill them all if she had to in order to escape.

They only stopped when they reached a large building where the smell of incense came wafting out the windows in almost visible clouds. The captain knocked on the wooden door with a flourish and a few moments later a huge man in a strange Roman tunic appeared in the doorway. He regarded the captain from under bushy eyebrows.

"I distinctly remember you telling me you'd bring me a dozen women," the Roman man growled, "There's only one here."

The captain snorted. "I had a dozen women, but I wasn't aware that I had also brought a mastermind on my ship." He shot a glare at Hiccup, who closed his eyes against it. "He helped them escape, and this was all I could salvage. I figured it was better than showing up empty handed, and that I could promise you two dozen women for your house on my next trip. And the girl is rather pretty, don't you think?"

The Roman man growled unhappily, eyeing Aelfgifu. He decided that she was rather easy on the eyes, and quite young to boot. That was always a bonus.

"And the boy here," the pirate captain nodded to Hiccup, "would be a good-looking servant if nothing else. And"-

He suddenly raised his hand as if to strike Hiccup, and Hiccup flinched violently in turn. Aelfgifu leapt forward, intent on tearing that hand off and stuffing it down his throat, but was held back by the pirate behind her. The captain cackled at his own genius.

"He's a Viking, this one, so I thought it'd be best if I broke him in a little for you. Just to make sure he behaves. Shouldn't be any trouble now. So what do you say? Deal?"

The Roman grunted, and the two of them shook hands, and as the pirates led Aelfgifu inside, the captain stayed outside with Hiccup a moment longer.

"I'll miss you," he sighed.

Hiccup tried to control his rapid breaths. He let out a yip felt his face flush with mortification when the captain cupped his rear and gave it a squeeze. Without another thought, Hiccup dove into the house after Aelfgifu.

Hiccup found her standing slightly off to the right, a little ways away from the door. He immediately made a beeline for her and pressed himself against her side. Aelfgifu placed her bound hands atop his as best she could, and the two of them looked each other in the eye, relieved to be with each other in this new, strange place.

Strange though it was, a quick look around was enough to tell Hiccup exactly where they had been sold to. Sold yes, because he saw the pirates go out the door at that moment with several little bags of gold. Hiccup tried not to pay too much attention to that. Instead, he took in the several women adorned with beautiful jewelry, dresses and makeup, the lush couches and chairs, and the overall heady atmosphere of the place. Some women were sitting on the laps of their male guests, laughing and eating with them. Some were serving food, and some were coming in and out of the rooms further back in the building. And Hiccup knew without a doubt that they had been sold to a pleasure house.

The big man with the bushy eyebrows Hiccup assumed was their new owner appeared and cut their bonds. Instantly, Hiccup pulled Aelfgifu against him, scared just thinking about the plans the man probably had for her. If Hiccup was right, he planned on training Aelfgifu to be just like these other women, and if he could help it, he wouldn't let that happen.

But it appeared that wouldn't be the case as of yet, because he turned and called out the names of two of the women, who appeared by his side in an instant. Hiccup felt himself blushing from how low cut one of the women's dresses was.

"They get baths and they get fed," the big man ordered, "and the boy gets a shave."

Aelfgifu looked at Hiccup helplessly, wondering what they were saying. Luckily for her, Hiccup understood Latin far better than he understood Anglo-Saxon. But before he could translate for her, the women nodded and gently lead Aelfgifu and Hiccup towards the back rooms. As they passed, Hiccup felt the majority of the women's eyes land on him. They were eyeing him like he was a delicacy, and when they began to murmur amongst themselves, he caught a few whispers like, "How lovely" and "I wonder if he's free later?" and even "You think he'd mind if I pinch his ass, just a little?"

Hiccup bowed his head, blushing hard. Aelfgifu, although she didn't understand what they were saying, caught his blush and rubbed his arm soothingly. She even shot a glare at the women for good measure, but all they did was laugh at her.

When they reached the bathing room, the two women turned the knobs of two respective bathtubs, and to Hiccup and Aelfgifu's utter astonishment, water began flowing from pipes in the walls into the tubs. They took pots of heated water boiling over the fireplace in the corner of the room, and added them to the baths until steam rose in tendrils. Hiccup and Aelfgifu only watched and stood in the middle of the room awkwardly, too afraid to move.

The two women finally turned off the knobs and crossed the room to the two arrivals. Without warning, one of the women began to untie Hiccup's shirt and peel it off him. Next to him, Aelfgifu skittered away from the other woman that was trying to undress her.

"I-I can undress myself, thank you," Hiccup stuttered in Latin.

The woman trying to undress him raised an eyebrow. "You speak Latin?"

"Yes. But Aelfgifu doesn't." He nodded towards the Anglo-Saxon girl. "I can translate for her though."

The woman shrugged. "Do what you must."

However, when she didn't move, Hiccup looked at her confusedly. "Uh…aren't you going to turn around?"

The woman behind him barked a laugh and said, "We've seen plenty of naked men, honey. Neither of you don't have anything we haven't seen a million times before."

Hiccup slowly lowered his eyes to the ground, the blush returning, before he mumbled shyly, "I um, I have a girl, at home, and I…"

He broke off, too embarrassed to say anymore.

The women shared a look, and the one who was standing in front of Hiccup sighed before she turned her back towards the tub.

"Hurry up," she ordered, "We can't leave the room until you're clean, though. Egan doesn't want you escaping."

"Uh, Egan?" Hiccup asked, peeling off his shirt with record speed. He heard the rustle of clothing next to him as well, indicating that Aelfgifu was undressing too.

"The one who owns you now. The manager of this place."

"Ah, bushy-eyebrows guy. Looked at me like I spit in his sandwich and kicked his child when I walked in."

She smirked, although Hiccup didn't see it. Taking a breath, he peeled off his pants and underthings in one go, before hobbling to the tub and unbuckling his prosthetic only when he had a firm grip on the rim. Laying it on the floor within easy reach, he slipped into the tub.

As soon as the hot water touched his skin, Hiccup groaned loudly with relief, hearing Aelfgifu echo a similar sentiment when she got into her tub across the room. It was the most heavenly thing he had ever felt, and against his will, all of his tense muscles began to loosen under the hypnotic spell of the heat. He slid down, and the back of his head hit the rim with an audible "thunk," but the pleasure outweighed the pain by far. However, the spell was broken when one of the women told him to start washing before the water got cold. He sighed sadly, and relayed the orders to Aelfgifu in Anglo-Saxon. But the act of washing himself was familiar and comforting in its own right, and Hiccup felt himself relaxing even further as he began to spread soap through his stiff and salty hair.

"So," he asked the women, "tell me more about Egan."

He turned to looked at them, and saw that they had moved from the center of the room to stand by door, arms crossed like a couple of scantily clad sentries.

"There are two important things you need to know about him," one of the women answered, "One, he is Roman-born, but his parents were not. This has inspired him in his selection of women for his pleasure house; most of them are foreigners. Egan finds that the men of Rome appreciate the beauty of foreign women as much as he does. Where are you and your friend from?"

Hiccup dunked his head under the water and came up again, rinsing out his hair. "I'm from the North, and Aelfgifu is from Briton."

"Ah, we have a couple women here from Briton. And that would make you a Northman? A Viking?"

"Yes. Is that bad?"

The woman uncrossed her arms and tapped a finger on her chin. "Never seen a Viking up close before and certainly never had one here. It'll make you unique in this house, that's for sure. From what I've heard, Vikings would usually rather die than become prisoners. You're a proud bunch to be sure, at least, I thought you were." She eyed Hiccup significantly.

Hiccup tried not to make a face at her patronizing tone and instead began to wash his hair again. "And what's the other thing about Egan?"

This time, the other woman answered him, and her voice came out quiet. "You must do what he says, no matter what it is. Disobedience is not tolerated. If you do not obey him…well, the consequences are not pleasant."

"Would he kill me?"

"Maybe. But he prefers to make people suffer without killing."

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Aelfgifu demanded across the room.

"Sorry," Hiccup apologized, almost forgetting she was there. He relayed what he had told the women so far about where they were from and what they had said about Egan. When he mentioned the part about punishment, Aelfgifu snorted.

"I'd just kick him in the balls," she said bluntly, "Men are no problem after a good kick in the balls. You may get all the physical strength, but that's your one weakness."

"That and women," Hiccup winked at her, "remember for someday when you are finding man. We become stupid as sheep when meeting pretty girl."

She giggled, and continued washing.

When Hiccup finally deemed himself clean enough, the water in the tub was a dirty brown color so dark he wasn't visible in the water from the waist down. The woman who had tried to undress him before walked over to him, picking up a razor blade as she went. She made him face her, and after telling him to sit absolutely still, began to shave off the scrubby beard that had appeared on his face over this past month. Aelfgifu was helped out of the tub, dried, and dressed in a Roman tunic similar to the ones the women in the pleasure house wore. She was then ushered out of the room.

"Come," the woman ordered her, "We'll brush your hair and find you something to eat. And then you can settle for the night."

"Wait, no!" Aelfgifu protested, "I'm not leaving without Hiccup!"

Hiccup wanted to answer her, but was too afraid of moving his jaw with that razor blade so close to his throat.

However, the woman, even though she didn't understand her Anglo-Saxon, saw her emphatic look towards the Viking and heard her utter what she assumed was his name, and understood.

"He'll be getting something to eat too, and then he'll get his own room for the night," she assured the girl.

Hiccup carefully pushed the razor blade away. "Go, okay? They say I am being behind you."

He smiled reassuringly, and she nodded, allowing herself to be shepherded out the door.

The woman left behind finished shaving him without another word, only saying after she rinsed the stray hairs off his face, "You look much less like a Viking now, but no less lovely. You will be a treat for all eyes here."

Hiccup didn't quite know what to say to that, so he didn't say anything, trying to ignore the writhing sensation in his gut.

Speaking of his gut, the thing chose that moment to growl loudly, announcing its appalling emptiness to the room. Hiccup cringed with embarrassment.

The woman nodded sympathetically and said, "Get dried off and dressed and you will be fed. Egan does not starve us here."

000

Hours later, Hiccup lay in a bed one of the pleasure house women had assigned him. The bed itself was warm and incredibly soft, and he could feel every one of his tender muscles breathe a huge sigh of relief. A hot meal, though strange in taste but no less welcome to the hungry young man, lay comfortably in his stomach, which felt completely full for the first time since he had be taken from his home. Warm, clean, and sated, he could feel sleep dragging him down into its seductive depths.

Yet, a nagging twinge in his breast wouldn't let him succumb to its call. It took him a moment to figure out what that twinge meant; it was prickly and an uncomfortable, almost painful contrast to his boneless relaxation. His body whined plaintively that it just wanted to sleep, but his anxious heart was strongly against it.

This was the first time he had had a moment to just think since he had been captured. There were no prisoners to worry about across the cell, and Aelfgifu was who knows where in the house. It was too quiet, quiet enough that he could feel his blood thrumming through his veins and hear his heartbeat in the pillow. He found quickly that his thoughts began to spiral towards Astrid, and the anxiety in his heart rapidly turned to agony. Hiccup suddenly felt the overwhelming need to hold something, but nothing was at hand, so all he could do was wrap his arms around himself. The rich meal that had soothed his belly before began to bubble uncomfortably in his distress. Tears pricked at his eyes, and he buried his face in the pillow, hating that the slightest things could set him off lately. So he did the only thing that seemed to bring his mind any peace these days.

He started to sing.

His voice was terrible and tight, but the sound of it in the empty room emanating words that brought happy memories of home was a balm to his strained mind. It was a song about dragons that, oddly enough, he had composed himself. It wasn't anything special, but he had sung it for Astrid (after she had threatened him with her axe if he didn't), and she had ended up loving it, despite his shaky voice. Therefore, when he sang it, he saw her face in his mind and felt her presence in his heart.

Hiccup was suddenly pulled out of his cloudy reverie by a timid squeak made by the opening door. He sat up in bed, and was beyond relieved to see Aelfgifu standing in the doorway clad in a nightdress.

"I'm glad to see you're still awake," she said softly, "I'd hate to be disturbing you."

Hiccup smiled kindly. "Glad you disturb me. Too lonely here."

Aelfgifu returned his smile, and asked haltingly, "Would you mind if I…stayed here? Just for tonight?"

"Not at all." Hiccup patted the spot on the bed next to him, understanding suddenly that she must have felt as lonely as he did. He lay down and she dove beneath the blankets before she curled up against his back. He then felt her bury her face between his shoulder blades and take a deep, relaxing breath. At her touch, Hiccup instantly felt the pain in his heart over Astrid's absence fade and the hot, prickly bubbling in his stomach eased. Knowing he wasn't alone, he felt himself begin to drift once more.

"I miss my dad and my sister, Hiccup," Aelfgifu said, her voice muffled by Hiccup's back.

Hiccup took a deep breath, forcing oxygen into his lungs to wake himself up a little. "I know."

"And you must miss Astrid and your dad."

"…Yes."

One small arm wrapped around his waist. "I promise you right now, Hiccup. We're going to get out of here and we're going to get home. I'm not staying here."

Hiccup felt his chest hitch, but he replied, "Is promise. We help each other home. We see our families once more."

He felt her squeeze his waist, before she drew her hand back, and fell asleep a few minutes later.

"We'll see our families again," Hiccup whispered in Norse to the night, "I'm coming, Astrid. I…I love you."

And with that, he followed Aelfgifu into the realm of sleep.