Author's Note: I'm sorry about the long wait, guys. I haven't forgotten about the story, I promise. Enjoy the chapter!

The winter went on: sunlight was rare, snow kept coming down, and there were days that the Berk islanders were trapped in their own houses (these were also the days that they realized that "quality family time" was best spent away from each other). Slowly, bit by bit, spring crept up on the village. The weather went from dangerous blizzards, to raging snow storms, to powder, to sleet.

It was one chilly day where the sun was out, the villagers were out enjoying the snow-less ground, and crops and gardens were finally being planted again, that the dragons that left the island to hibernate, finally came back.

A Monstrous Nightmare landed by the dragons at an empty feeding dish, looking excited. The teenage boy a short distance from the dragon lit up with a big grin.

"Fireworm!" Snotlout shouted, running toward the dragon, arms in the air. Fireworm purred as her rider threw his arms around her neck. "Hey, girl! Did you miss me?" Snotlout asked, scratching that special spot on her head between her horns. "Did you miss me? I bet you did! You did, didn't you? I missed you, too, girl! Did you have a nice hibernation? Did you? I'm so glad you're back, I-" Snotlout stopped when he heard Tuffnut laughing hysterically behind him. He whipped around to glare at him.

"What are you laughing at troll brain?" Snotlout demanded.

"Ah, man!" Tuffnut laughed. "I can't believe you're getting excited over your dragon coming back! I mean, I knew you would be since you've been moping about her being gone, but I didn't thing you'd be like this! I-" A Zippleback landed nearby, giving a little shrieking growl in greeting. "ZIPPY!" Tuffnut shrieked. He ran toward the two-headed dragon, nearly tripping over himself. Astrid and Hiccup laughed as he ran by. She sat comfortably on the windowsill of the blacksmith shop, enjoying simultaneous people watching and talking with her working boyfriend. Hiccup was taking a short break and was glad he had chosen that moment to do so.

"Is Captain Pickles excited to be back?" Hiccup asked.

Astrid nodded. "Oh, yes, she is. I did fly over here, but she got distracted by a puddle. I'll drag her away from it later." Hiccup quickly pecked her on the cheek before going back to sharpening a sword.

"So what are your plans for today?" he asked.

"I was going to hang out with Ruff, some. She said she'd meet me here. What about you?"

Hiccup looked closely at the sword in hand. No, not sharp enough yet. "Well, the guys might stop by later and I don't have much more work to do today, so I'll probably just hang out with them."

"Speaking of the half-brains…" Astrid joked, sliding off the window sill and into the shop. Snotlout and Tuffnut walked over to the window with their dragons trailing behind them.

"Hey, Hiccup! Let's go flying!" Snotlout demanded.

Hiccup made no move to hurry out to flying, choosing to straighten up the weapons instead. "Shouldn't we wait for Fishlegs?"

Tuffnut snorted. "He'll be here. He's walking Ruff over."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow at this development. "Huh. That's nice of him."

"Nice isn't the word I'd be using."

That's when they all heard Ruffnut's voice ring out. "Move it, Fishbrains!" she barked.

"I am! I can't go any faster than this, Ruff!" Fishlegs complained.

"What? You had better not be suggesting something about my weight."

"No, I'm saying I'm too weak!"

"Oh, pipe down, you baby. You've got muscle. This shouldn't be hard at all. Besides, you brought this on yourself."

"I said I was sorry!"

"Sorry doesn't cut it!" The two finally came into view. Poor Fishlegs was carrying Ruffnut on his back. The girl didn't seem to care that Fishlegs was red-faced, short of breath, and about to keel over.

"Um…why?" Hiccup asked. Fishlegs sat Ruffnut on the window sill and promptly fell over on the ground.

Ruffnut snorted. "Fishlegs here caused an accident that hurt my ankle. I can't walk too much on it, so now he has to pay for it."

"I said…" Fishlegs panted, "sorry!" That was all he had in him, it seemed.

Tuffnut offered a hand. "Come on, Fish. You can take a break from my sister and go flying."

"Hey! I want to go flying!" Ruffnut protested. Tuffnut sneered at her.

"You can't, Ruff. Your ankle is still injured. Don't worry, though, I'll take good care of the Zippleback."

Ruffnut growled and grumbled under her breath about the eternal hatred she harbored toward her twin.

"Come on, Hiccup! Let's go!" Snotlout demanded. "You're burning daylight."

Hiccup sighed, closing the shop windows. "Alright, alright, I heard you," he drawled. Astrid pulled him in for a kiss goodbye right there in the doorway.

"Ew!"

"Sick!"

"You're gonna make me barf!" Hiccup rolled his eyes and broke the kiss.

"I'll see you later, Astrid!" he called. The four boys walked away to Fishelgs' house, three dragons trailing behind them; it would be a four man job convincing Horrorcow to come away from the fire. She had been spoiled in the winter. As soon as they were out of sight and earshot, Astrid turned to Ruffnut.

"So how long are you going to pretend your ankle still hurts?" she asked.

Ruffnut hopped down on the ground and did a cartwheel for good measure. "Ah, may another week or so. Maybe more. What can I say? The boy's easy and fun to mess with!"

"Hiccup! You've been dating Astrid for months now! Are you seriously telling me that you still can't seal the deal?"

Oh, Hiccup wished this conversation hadn't come up. But it had.

Hiccup, have you and Astrid done it yet?

Uh…huh…well, you see, um…no.

Just like that, the guys-Snotlout and Tuffnut mostly-started in on him.

"No, Tuffnut, we haven't sealed the deal and it's not your business if we do or not." He threw another rock across the water. They had all decided to take a break in the cove after flying around for a few hours. Unfortunately, taking a break meant talking about things Hiccup didn't wish to talk about.

Snotlout put his hands on his cousins' shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. "Listen to me: things with Astrid are good, right?" Hiccup nodded. "They're back on track. You have got to recover from your little accident-" Hiccup angrily shoved Snotlout away, his cheeks glowing red. He would never live that one down. "Hiccup, you have to get back in that ring!"

Hiccup wisely decided against telling them that he had, in the months since, seen Astrid shirtless. Her under wrappings stayed on, but she had been shirtless.

"I'd rather wait until I knew there was a definite contract in place," Hiccup insisted, throwing another rock. He sighed. "And, quite frankly, the idea is terrifying: me…naked. In front of her…also naked."

Snotlout smirked. "That's not terrifying. At least, not for me. I was kidding!" he quickly added when Hiccup gave him a murderous glare.

"There's nothing to be terrified of, Hiccup," Tuffnut assured him, sitting down atop a boulder. "Because you've done your prep work, am I right?

Hiccup was confused. "Yeah…I think? She likes me."

Tuffnut shook his head. "Cute, but I wasn't talking about that." Tuffnut leapt off the boulder. "I was talking about this." He lifted up the left side of his shirt, revealing a sprawling tattoo on the left side of this torso. "Chicks, dig the tattoo, man!"

Snotlout snorted. "Yeah, especially ones of a tree."

"It's not a tree!" Tuffnut snapped. "It's Yggdrasil!"

"The world tree. Way to go."

"Oh, shut up. Hiccup, if you get a tattoo, when you and Astrid finally do it, she won't be able to keep her hands off of you for the rest of your life! The plan is perfect!"

"Really? Then where's your girlfriend, Tuffnut?" Snotlout and Fishlegs laughed uproariously at that. Tuffnut scowled. "I don't need to get a tattoo for Astrid. She already likes me and that's enough for me." Hiccup, feeling his point was made went to Toothless and began to swing a leg over to make a quick escape.

"I bet Thuggory has a tattoo," Tuffnut called.

Hiccup froze. It shouldn't matter. They never dated. Astrid said they never dated. So why should it matter to him that Thuggory probably had a tattoo?

"Alright now, who's gettin' the tattoo today?" Gobber asked. Three hands pointed to Hiccup, who was smirking triumphantly. Ha! Gobber would never give Hiccup a tattoo! He knew Stoick wouldn't like it. Hiccup could chicken out with grace! He was in the clear! He was free!

"Ah, Hiccup! I was waitin' for this day t'come! Yer first tattoo! I'm so proud!"

He was dead.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Hiccup said as Gobber sniffled. "You-you're actually gonna do it? What would my Dad think?"

Gobber rolled his eyes. "Yer father has tattoos, too, boy. He won' mind. I remember my first tattoo. It was at yer father's bachelor party. You lads want to see it?" Hiccup's eyes widened. He knew this story!

"No! No! No! No! No! No! No!" he said quickly waving his hands. "We, uh, don't need to see it, Gobber, but thanks for the offer." Gobber shrugged and turned to hobble upstairs to his bedroom.

Snotlout shoved him. "Dude! What if we wanted to see the tattoo?" he complained.

Hiccup crossed his arms and huffed. "You don't trust me. My dad told me the story before. Gobber's got a mermaid tattoo."

Tuffnut shrugged. "So?"

Hiccup looked at each of them, wondering how well they would take the information. "It's on his butt."

There was a collective "Eugh!" and the subject was dropped. Gobber returned down the stairs with a box in hand. Hiccup saw sharp things in there. He blanched at the thought of some of those making contact with his skin.

"Alright, so where's the tattoo goin'?" Gobber asked, eyeing Hiccup up and down.

"How about his butt?" Snotlout suggested. Hiccup elbowed him in the stomach. Fishlegs muttered that this all was a horrible idea.

"Uh, no. I'm not doin' tha'," Gobber decided. "How about just on yer back? An' you haven' told me what you want yet."

"A dragon!" Snotlout proposed enthusiastically.

Tuffnut snorted. "No, he should get a skull."

"How about he just tattoos Astrid's name?" Fishlegs spoke up. "I mean, if you're really going to go through with this, then a name is going to take a lot less time than a dragon or a skull."

Hiccup took a deep breath, then exhaled. He could do this. He could do this. Besides, most Vikings couldn't read anyway so if he ended up being married to someone who wasn't Astrid (his heart sank at the thought) then she wouldn't know. He nodded.

"Okay, let's do this," Hiccup consented. He stripped off his shirt and laid face down on Gobber's table.

"This'll hurt boy," Gobber warned. Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"I work in a blacksmith shop, I've fallen into a great fiery explosion, and lost my leg. I think I can handle oh! Ow! Ow! Ow! Couldn't you have given me a warning?"

"I did!"

"No, I meant a warning that you were about to start. You just gave me a warning that I was gonna be in pain. Ow!"

"You okay, Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked. Hiccup shook his head.

"I don't like this!" he said through gritted teeth. He had a death grip on the table.

Fishlegs looked nervously from the progressing tattoo to Hiccup. "Listen, if you want to abort the mission, that's completely understandable."

"Gah! I can't abort the mission now!" Hiccup strained.

"Yeah, he's already got part of Astrid's name permanently tattooed on his skin," Snotlout pointed out. "He'd look pretty fucking stupid if we stopped now."

"Shut up! Shut up!" Hiccup growled.

"You shut up!" was Tuffnut's clever comeback.

Fishlegs looked at Hiccup, who was extremely pale. "Hiccup, are you sure you're okay? You don't look so good."

"Oh, holy shit! Gah! Of…course I don't look good, Fishlegs! I'm getting a fucking tattoo! It's not exactly sunshine and daisies!"

"Yer bein' annoyin' is wha' yer doin'!" Gobber complained. "Yeh think I complained this much when I got my tattoo?"

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Of course not, you were drunk. Ow!" This time, it was Gobber's hand to the back of Hiccup's skull that caused the outcry of pain. "Just please tell me you're almost done."

"Almost…" Gobber promised. "There! I finished!" Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief. "With the first rune!" This was going to take forever.

Another Author's Note: Besides college sucking up all my time, a relative of mine passed away in February and it took a while for me to start getting into a creative mood again.

Though, as a warning, my finals will be coming up kind of soon and I'm going to have to focus on my assignments until this semester ends. So it may be a few weeks before I post another chapter. However, there will be another (sadly short) chapter of A Case of the Hiccups up and I wrote a Ruffnut/Fishlegs oneshot on request that's a parody of Hey Arnold!

In She's Out of My League, Kirk does not get a tattoo. Instead, he is told he needs to shave his, ahem, jewels for Molly. Considering that Viking shaving methods were probably a lot more primeval compared to today, I was not going to put Hiccup through that. The poor boy would have probably accidentally castrated himself. So I changed the story ever so slightly to save poor Hiccup from this fate.

Next chapter: Dancing and a drunk Gobber.