A/N: I'm just going to say I'm sorry in advance. You guys may not know what I'm talking about yet, but you will when you get to the ending. It may just be my most evil cliffhanger yet. I'm sorry. Please don't be mad.

But besides that, I thought it was about time I thanked everyone for their wonderful, wonderful support. I am so proud to be writing a story that so many people enjoy. It absolutely blows my mind the kind of readership this story is getting, so thank you, just for reading. But the story is not yet done, so I hope I can keep your attention for just a little longer!

Enjoy! (And I'm sorry).


BAM. BAM. BAM.

Astrid and Hiccup fly out of the wardrobe, hitting the floor in messy a pile of arms and legs. They sprawl out over the surface, completely unable to disguise themselves enough to even think about getting away.

Astrid's hair is caught in Hiccup's armour, but she can move her head enough to look around, and when she doesn't hear yelling, she allows herself to exhale a nervous lungful of stale air.

"Where did they go?" She breathes.

"They must have gone outside to check out the noise," Hiccup says, and she's sure he sounds relieved. "Toothless knows to jump on the roof if he thinks I'm trapped inside."

"Smart dragon."

He tries to stand up, and Astrid yelps. "My hair is stuck in your armour!" She says, trying her best to stand with him, but the braid seems to have gotten caught in the shoulder joint. He puts a hand under her arm, allowing them to get up at the same time.

From the way her hair was stuck, they were forced to stay stuck together with Astrid leaning awkwardly over Hiccup's shoulder. She could barely take a step without tripping over his legs. (Why hadn't she just decided to grow out her hair with Ruffnut when she was twelve?).

BAM. BAM. BAM.

They didn't have much time before Stoick discovered Toothless.

"We go up the stairs," Hiccup says, and she nods (Ouch, bad idea), focusing on her feet as the two walked side-by-side, Astrid titled slightly into his shoulder where her braid was stuck.

BAM. BAM… silence.

They would never make it at this speed.

"Screw it." Hiccup whispers. "I know you won't like this," He says, and before she can ask why he bends down, sweeping her behind the knees and picking her up in his arms. Astrid instinctively wraps her arms around his neck, and hates herself for it.

Oh, gods. If Ruffnut could see them now. She would have never heard the end of it.

Hiccup hikes them up the stairs with time to spare, as Astrid hears the front door open again after they are well past the safety of the second floor.

Stoick grumbles something indecipherable from this distance. Gobber says something along the lines of "boys will be boys."

Hiccup carries her over to the window, but stops before they reach the sill.

"What are you doing?" She whispers to him.

"What do you want me to do, throw you out? We're kind of stuck together, here."

"Put me down," She whispers back, unwrapping her arms from his neck, prompting him to release her. "Give me a knife," She says when she's back on the ground.

He hands her a knife from his other arm slot, and Astrid tries to hold it up to the tie keeping the braid together. She realizes she'd probably stab herself in the head before she got the tie with how much she could see of it.

She holds out the knife to him. "Cut the band out." She commands, and he complies, taking the knife from her. She hears the leather snap and feels her hair fall around her shoulders.

Don't be fooled, Astrid still has a lot more hair than it seems, and even as she pulls pieces away it's hard for her to pinpoint exactly what was stuck and what wasn't.

"Can you get it out?" She asks. She can't see, but feels Hiccup using his free hard to brush through her hair, and feels a little bit of a tug when he pulls at it.

"It's tangled up in the joint," He whispers. "I don't think—"

"Just cut it."

"What?"

"Cut it off."

"Astrid, it's a lot—"

"Just do it." She says impatiently. Of course she doesn't want to cut her hair, but they didn't have a choice. Not unless they wanted to wait all night until Stoick left again, and even that way they could never fly home during the day or in this awkward position.

"If you have a big chunk of hair cut off, don't you think people will ask why?"

"I can make something up."

She hears him shuffling, and knows he's not doing what she asked. "What—"

"Give me a sec," He says quickly.

After nearly a minute of listening to him doing something, he pulls her over to the small bed in the room. "Don't move," He says, forcing her to sit with him.

"What—" Something heavy pulls her head back, forcing Astrid to lean back onto her elbows. "Stop moving," he tells her again, holding her shoulder.

What the Hel was he doing?

Something makes a snapping sound (That wasn't her hair). "Alright, you're good."

Astrid lifts her head and feels no resistance. Her hair was free. What did…?

Hiccup stands up, and she sees: He'd managed to get his armour off, and from there her hair free. But looking at him now, it was like seeing him as a different person. He looked so much more… human.

(Not to mention the plane of his chest was well-defined through his simple shirt… but that was beside the point).

He offers her his hand, and feeling like she was staring, Astrid taking it, looking down to avoid his eyes and fight the feeling of her face heating up. (Brain: stop thinking so much).

Hiccup grabs the armour, now in two pieces snapped at the shoulder, and stuff them under the bed.

"What…?" Astrid begins to ask, but he just shrugs. "I can't put it back on, now. The shoulder is broken—I have spares, as long as he doesn't find this, it doesn't matter."

"But—"

"I'll come back tomorrow and get it before he ever comes up here."

They go over to the window, and Hiccup climbs up on the sill, crouching down and lithely jumping to the ground. He looks back up at her, raising his hands. When he does, his shirt lifts a fraction, and Astrid once again can't help but stare at the exposed skin. "Come on, I'll catch you."

"I don't think so." Astrid says, blinking a few times to get that mental image of Hiccup out of her head so she could concentrate. She steps up on the sill and looks down at him. It wasn't that far…

"Don't be such a hardhead, you'll hurt yourself." He teases.

"Step away and let me jump before I jump on you." Astrid warns, waving her arm at him to move.

He steps back, folding his arms behind him.

Astrid jumps, landing perfectly by herself.

She grins at him. He grins back.

.

.

.

"I feel naked."

"You've still got a shirt on."

"It's thin."

Astrid wacks his shoulder from behind before wrapping her arms around his waist again. "Don't pout."

All thanks to Toothless, the duo had managed to make a clean getaway without Stoick or (hopefully) anyone else spotting them. Now Hiccup was supposed to be taking her back home—but the adrenaline rush was too high, apparently for both of them, and Astrid found herself flying with Hiccup and Toothless around the island… and not minding it.

She hadn't had many positive experiences with dragons (Her first ride with Toothless, the time Hiccup abducted her, to name a few), but this ride, for the first time, didn't feel like it was going to give her an aneurism or a heart attack.

The air was nice, not too cold this time of year, and just more… breathable than it was on the ground. Even though she was hesitant to admit it, Astrid felt herself enjoying seeing the view of the village in the darkness. It was a scene she had never thought she would see again.

"Having fun?" Hiccup taunts.

"As long as you don't start doing aerial 360's." Astrid warns. "You're not going to be able to bank on my strong stomach three times in a row."

He laughs. "I could teach you how to fly, if you want. Then you could fly how you want."

Astrid thanks the gods he can't see her expression or the thoughts flashing in her eyes. Her? Flying? On a dragon? That… would probably be the most amazing thing to ever happen to her.

But there was no way she could just do it. She had to choose between him or Berk, and she could not allow him to sway her decision with dragon riding.

(But how cool would it be?)

No.

"Maybe someday," Astrid finally says, but she kind of wishes she could say differently.

.

.

.

Astrid sleeps relatively well that night.

(Yea, she's surprised, too).

Between spending half the night soaring around Berk on a dragon and all the things that had happened last night, she couldn't believe she'd slept at all.

What was with Stoick's mysterious intentions? He and Gobber had been planning something—of which her parents somehow knew about. And if her parents knew anything about it, it couldn't be that bad for her…. Right?

No. What was really the issue was Hiccup. It wouldn't matter what Stoick had in store for her if she finally gave Hiccup an answer to his question. He'd been good, he hadn't pressed her even though it had been much longer than their agreed time limit. And Astrid had to decided, and she hadn't even started thinking about it.

Berk was her home. Astrid considered herself a loyal warrior. Her parents and friends would miss her.

But Hiccup was right—she couldn't continue on with them, like this. She couldn't teach children to kill dragons, and she couldn't sit around and watch anyone else do it, either.

Why couldn't there be a happy medium?

And Astrid couldn't help thinking about last night, when Hiccup had taken his armour off for her. And when he'd lifted his arms, and… she couldn't stop thinking about it. Or his irritating smile, or his laugh. Or how all of their adventures hadn't seemed so bad, just because he was there with her.

And her mind wanders back to the time, five years ago, when she'd kissed his cheek after he'd showed her Toothless.

This… that… it was a similar feeling. So—

Someone knocks on the door. Astrid looks up, realizing she'd been mindlessly staring at the table for the past few minutes while her porridge got cold. She puts her spoon down and stands, heading over to answer the knock.

Tuffnut is on the other side, smirking in his usual dumbstruck way.

"Good morning?" Astrid says, slightly confused. It wasn't normal for Tuff to seek her out by himself. Not that she didn't consider him a friend, but they rarely ever interacted outside of the group. If she had to guess, Astrid would have thought she was Tuff's last choice to do… anything, really.

"That's what you say." Tuff groans. "My chicken got out last night. Poor little guy, all alone, he's probably going to be lunch for some dragon if I don't go looking for him."

"So why aren't you out there?"

"Because I need your help." He grumbles. "I don't know the woods as well as you do. You know, considering you're out there all the time."

"Oh, right." Astrid seems to get her wits back, and nods. "I guess I don't have anything to do right now… did you want to go now? Just the two of us?"

"Of course I want to go now! Chicken is out there! There's no time to waste!"

"Okay, okay! Geez, let me grab my axe."

And so, in an unusual twist to the morning, the elusive Tuffnut-Astrid duo went into the woods.

.

.

.

"Chicken!" Tuff calls, hands cupped around his mouth. "Chicken, where are you?!"

They walk another few paces before he calls out again, rotating his head back and forth to look in all directions. Astrid stays silent, keeping her eyes on the forest for any signs of movement.

She couldn't believe she was doing this right now. Helping Tuff, yea, that was fine. But it felt so trivial and normal. It felt like they were kids again.

"CHICKEEEEEEN!" Tuff yells in her ear. Astrid winces. His yelling is getting annoying, and probably not at all attracting the chicken.

"So, Ruffnut was busy?" Astrid makes a feeble attempt at conversation to prevent Tuff from screaming again.

He goes instantly silent, a little more of an effect that she'd really wanted. "…Yes." He says after long period.

What? A one-word answer? Tuffnut only did that… never. He usually had at least a dozen words for every simple question. And most of the times he still didn't answer the question.

"Really?" Suddenly she can feel herself going from conversational to probing. Something was wrong, obviously.

He looks away. "Like I said."

"Last time I checked, you guys did everything together. And you're really telling me she wouldn't help you look for your pet?"

"We never really liked each other that much." He sniffs.

"Tuffnut…" Astrid says, awkwardly nudging his shoulder with her elbow. She hadn't really spent enough time with Tuff to know how to deal with him emotionally, but she supposed what worked for his twin worked for him. They were basically the same person. "Are you really telling me I'm your first choice for a woodland adventure? I'm pretty boring."

"She is busy."

"Doing what?"

"Being my sister." He grumbles.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that she's a girl, and ever since everyone else found out nothing's been the same."

Astrid looks at the side of Tuff's head quizzically. "I think she was always a girl."

"You know what I mean."

She sighs, looking down. Of course she got what Tuff meant. His sister had the same complaints—the group was feeling less and less like the group these days. And this wasn't just because of Fishlegs' and Snoutlout's persistence; it was what was coming with adulthood. They had to do their jobs, they didn't get to eat together every day like they used to, they had to… get serious about relationships. And it didn't seem to be anything childhood bonding could hold together.

"Hey. I get it. But you and Ruffnut and everyone else are still best friends. You can't hold real life against them."

He kicks the dirt as they walk. "I guess… I just miss our adventures. I miss when we got to just have fun. Who knew being adults could be such a bore? I always thought I'd get to blow more stuff up."

"But you and Ruff still have fun, you always find a way to. I've never heard of an uneventful day from the fishing crew."

He looks over at her, and their eyes meet, and Astrid can suddenly see just how sad her friend really is. "But who knows how much longer she'll be around for us to do that?"

Astrid nearly falters a step, but catches herself just in time. She couldn't let Tuff see how much that had (literally and figuratively) tripped her up. Astrid's idea of the future had always been murky—that's how it is for a fifteen-year-old ascending into the unknown. But now she was twenty, an adult, and the future was becoming more and more clear.

And she didn't like what she was seeing. Not a day-in-day-out kind of life. That was so totally not her, just like it wasn't Tuffnut.

In the back of her mind, there was a little part of her brain slowly getting louder and louder: choose, choose, choose, choose.

She did not want to stay for something like this kind of life. But she didn't want to leave her home even more defenseless. It could be a way out. Hiccup… but then her friends… If she went, he might stop. If she didn't… he might not.

You have to make a choice. He won't wait forever.

Shut up.

"She'll be around, Tuff. She always will be. She's your family, and family sticks together."

That's true, it does. But will you?

SHUT. UP.

He shrugs. "I've shared a room with her my entire life. I don't know anything else."

Astrid goes silent again. Who knew Tuffnut was so thoughtful? "You're thinking about it too hard," She says, another thing she thought she'd never say to Tuffnut. "I mean, with the living conditions we face—dragon attacks, dysentery, hypothermia, outcast attacks, the plague, famine—"

"Okay, I get the idea. And it's not helping."

"My point is, alienating her will not help your situation." When he doesn't say anything, she adds: "Nothing should be able to break how close you two are."

She can see Tuff's lips press together in thought as he looks off into the distance. He finally nods. "I think you might actually be right."

"Of course I'm right. And no matter what, you'll still have—chicken!" Astrid gasps.

"Huh?"

She raises a hand, pointing to spot in the distance. "Tuff, your chicken!" He eyes move to follow the direction of her finger, and a devilish grin spreads across his face.

"CHICKEN!" He practically yells in her ear. "I KNEW I WOULD FIND YOU!" He begins sprinting after it, arms flailing as he chases his chicken through the woods. Astrid jogs behind him, but is nowhere near meeting his frantic pace.

"COME HERE!" Ruff yells, holding out his hands to try and grab his pet. Astrid can only see a wiggling tail feather just metres out of his grasp. Tuffnut leaps forward, arms outstretched, and… disappears from sight.

"Tuffnut!" She yells, quickening her pace to catch up to where she last saw him. One second he had been flying through the air, but she never saw (or heard) him land. Astrid continues to run until she slows to a stop in front of a large, suspicious-looking hole. It was roughly round and at least ten feet across, but when she peered over the edge she's relieved to see her missing friend inside.

Tuff is lying on his back at the bottom, his chicken firmly clutched in his arms, laughing.

"Erm… are you okay?" she asks him.

"I got him!" He says happily.

"Yea… and you're in a hole."

"Oh, yea, I didn't see it."

"Right… can you climb out?"

Tuff nods, standing up. "Hold my chicken!" He tosses the bird in the air, and Astrid nearly falls into the hole herself trying to catch it. She struggles to hold the bird for a moment while it squawks and settles into her arms. By the time she's gotten the chicken to calm down, Tuff's already grabbed the ledge and pulled himself out of the hole.

Astrid only has a moment to observe the clay and mud all over his clothes and hope he doesn't touch her before the other Vikings wraps her in a hug, chicken and all.

Ew…

"Tuffnut?"

"Thank you, Astrid."

"Uh, you're welcome."

He finally lets her go. "Not just for helping me find my chicken."

She knows exactly what he means, and smiles. Maybe they had a better understanding than she thought. "Of course. It's what friends are for."

After a second, she holds out his chicken. "I think it might need a bath." She looks down at her clay-covered clothes as he takes his pet. "I think we all need one."

Tuffnut groans. "And I was just starting to love my natural fish musk."

"Gross, Tuffnut, gross."

.

.

.

After everything that had happened in the woods that morning, Astrid decides it was time to do something. She couldn't keep putting off her choice. But she had to do something.

Astrid held the rope in her hands, apprehensively standing on the edge of the cove. Stormfly would think nothing of it if Astrid brought a rope along with the usual basket of fish. The dragon liked her—they were friends, she was pretty sure.

(She should have just let Hiccup show her.)

(No, no. She could do this by herself. If Hiccup could do it, so could she.)

So Astrid goes, and she calmly lets Stormfly eat, and she watches and waits for the opportunity to tie the rope around the dragon without it trying to eat her.

"Hey, Stormfly." Astrid says rather sheepishly, holding out a hand and hoping the dragon will understand and come. It tilts its head to the side for a second, watching her, then proceeds forward.

(What, exactly, was the natural progression for this?)

"Okay, Stormfly." Astrid says stiffly. "We're going to do something now that you may not understand… or like." The dragon just looks at her. "But it'll be for both our goods, okay? And even if it's not, it'll be good for Berk. If we do this right, maybe I won't have to choose."

Stormfly squawks happily, clearly unaware of the stakes.

"If Hiccup learned to ride a dragon, and he can teach me to ride a dragon, therefore I can learn to ride a dragon." Astrid says, something she'd been repeating to herself the entire walk to the cove. Even now, she still wasn't sure if that logic made sense. "Hiccup from five years ago wasn't nearly as adept as I am today… if he can do it, so can I."

So Astrid takes one end of her rope and gently tosses it over Stormfly's neck, being careful not to spook her. She grabs the other end and ties it to the first, making a perfect(ly dangerous) handhold on the dragon. So far, so good.

"Okay, not bad…" Astrid tugs once on the rope, checking its security. "Now all you have to do is bend down a little so I can…" She looks up at Stormfly, motioning for the dragon to follow her instructions.

Stormfly doesn't. She must think it's some kind of game, because she starts wagging her tail and backing away, as if Astrid were about a throw a treat for her to catch.

"No," Astrid takes a few steps forward. Stormfly takes a few steps back. "Stormfly, down." She points to the ground.

The dragon wags her tail happily.

Come on, Astrid. It's a dragon, not a yak. You have to treat it…differently. However one does that.

"Come on…" Astrid tries to level her gaze with the dragon's. To a degree, she's sure she has her attention. "Stormfly, this is really important. We're going to go flying; don't you want to do that with me?"

The dragon goes on to squeal and jump around, not allowing Astrid to come close. She thought it was all a game.

Maybe baby dragons understand differently…?

Astrid hears the sound of flapping wings against the wind (which is most definitely not coming from her dragon) and spins around to see the nightfury dip down from the clouds, gliding towards the ground and landing softly in front of her. Toothless grins at her, but Astrid barely looks down at him before glowering up at Hiccup as he pulled his helmet off.

"Are you always lurking around these days?" She was a little disappointed to see him wearing armour again.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" His eyes flicker over her shoulder towards the jumping baby nadder. "I see you found my dragon, by the way." But he doesn't look angry, rather, mischievous.

"You knew, didn't you?"

"Of course I knew; I wasn't going to let a baby wander off to Berk and not find her. I was just curious to know if you'd tell me or not."

"So why didn't you take her back?"

"Because she's not something just to be taken wherever I want. And…" He smiles at her. "She likes you. There's nothing I can sympathize with more than the bond you have with your dragon."

Astrid crosses her arms. "She's not my dragon. She just won't go home."

Hiccup hops off of Toothless, unhooking himself in one quick motion. "Sure, whatever you say. Because why else won't she leave you?"

Astrid sighs, lowering her shoulders and letting her arms fall apart. She couldn't keep being hostile when Hiccup was being anything but. He wasn't mad about her hiding things from him, so she couldn't be mad about his unexpected arrival.

"Speaking of," He begins to walk around to where Stormfly was patiently waiting to play. He looks over his shoulder, quirking an eyebrow at her. "You're not possibly doing what I think you're doing."

"So what if I am?"

"Because it's not as easy as jumping on a dragon and riding off into the sunset. I nearly died learning to ride Toothless… multiple times." He bends over, grabbing a stone from the floor and tossing it across the cove. Stormfly chases after it, followed closely by Toothless as he joins in on the game.

"But you from five years ago isn't nearly as… able as I am today. I won't let myself get thrown off." Astrid repeats to him her mantra.

Hiccup nods, although his expression says he's thinking something totally else entirely. "Okay then. I'll help you get on, and you can show me how it's done."

She didn't like the sound of his tone. She knew what he was trying to do, and she wasn't going to let him. She was going to show him that she could ride a dragon.

Hiccup calls over Toothless, who in turn brings Stormfly. Astrid had seen Hiccup interact with dragon multiple times, but every time she did she was reminded of the same person she'd known and still knew: gentle and considerate and not a fighter.

He holds out a hand, and Stormfly slowly lowers her head to his side. He pets the underside of her chin, whispering something to the dragon that Astrid can't distinctly make out. Suddenly, Stormfly sits down on her haunches on the ground.

Astrid blinks. "How did you do that?"

He grins. "Practise." He tugs the rope handhold once before waving a hand in Stormfly's direction. "Now, if milady wouldn't mind getting on with it."

Astrid already knows this is a bad idea. She was either, in a highly unlikely scenario, going to be a natural (and seeing how Hiccup really was a natural, she doubted she had his ability) or was going to greatly embarrass herself.

Her pride said the former.

(Her conscious said the latter).

"Hm!" Astrid goes over to him, hands fisted, and swats his hand off the rope before putting her own there. She inspects the side of the dragon apprehensively while her back is towards Hiccup. She supposeds it would be just like riding a yak… but totally not.

Pulling the rope with a strong heave, Astrid propels her body over the side of the dragon, and then finds herself sitting on top of Stormfly. She puts her hands on either side of her to steady herself.

"Okay…" She breathes, really not sure what to do from there. She looks over at Hiccup, who is watching intently. He just shrugs.

"Stormfly…" Astrid says slowly. "Let's, um—"

Stormfly seems to finally realize there was someone sitting on her back, and simply loses it. She stands up quickly, wings spreading in panic, and starts bucking wildly.

"Whoa, Stormfly!" Astrid yells, grabbing onto the rope for dear life. But Stormfly's not having it, and not listening to her, and the dragon continues to thrash its wings and hop up and down and in all directions. "Stormfly…!" Astrid only has a chance to squeak one more time before she goes flying. She closes her eyes, not totally sure she wants to see exactly how hand she hits the ground.

Someone catches her. Gods, does she wish it was Toothless.

"Well, this is a familiar scene, isn't it?"

Astrid opens her eyes, and all conscious thought stops. As soon as she sees him, it's as if a connecting train of thought brings them both to silence. There's Hiccup, right there, holding her far too close to him and his face and his body and her face and… she can longer put together any kind of logic in her mind.

"Astrid..."