(( Welcome! Not much to say, so have a good read! ))

Chapter 14

Feeling stupid?

The mood was dense, you could almost cut it with a knife, Snotlout was really pissed, his face was red of anger and his fists were closed. Astrid stared at him, she was ready to defend herself or Hiccup for that matter.

-I won't hit girls… but petty little "know-it-all:s"… that I will do.

Snotlout raised up, he pointed at Hiccup.

-Do this like a viking! Even if I can't get her… I will enjoy every second of beating you up.

Astrid closed her fists, she tried to rise up, but a wave of pain washed over her as she turned her back in a false way. Hiccup laid a hand on her shoulder and pushed himself up.

-Okay Snotlout, this is embarrassing, but I'm tired of you always looking down on me. For ones, can't you just let me win?

He closed his fists as well and cracked his knuckles.

-Bring it on!

Snotlout charged at him with his right fist, Hiccup easily dodged and twirled around so he stood behind Snotlout, he didn't do anything else. Snotlout charged again, he swung his fists in wide sweeps, Hiccup ones again dodged and now he made a move, he gathered some force in his right arm and swung it right into Snotlout's chest, he then quickly moved away.

Snotlout got back on his feet, he rushed towards Hiccup and wrapped one arm around his neck, he then pulled him down on the stone floor, he sat over him and fed him with fists. Hiccup held his arms in front of his face and blocked as many punches as possible, but some of them hit him right in the face. After the first hit he got a bit woozy, the next one came in easily, and next, and next. Suddenly a feminine hand grabbed Snotlout's shoulder, he expected to see Astrid, but instead Ruff's face showed up, she pushed Snotlout of off Hiccup and gave him a hard punch in the face, as did she with Hiccup. Her voice was clear and guiding.

-You two are pathetic! Beating each other up won't change anything…!

Snotlout looked up, and for the first time ever, he saw Ruffnut as the beautiful woman she was, the light from the fire behind her made her hair shimmer and her voice was like honey. All the rage slid of him, he looked astonished at her with glittering eyes.

Hiccup held his nose in his palm, he looked up at his savior, for the first time ever he saw Ruff as a woman, she had grown, the words that came from her mouth was wise, she was not as reckless as he had tought.

Fishlegs looked up from his hunched position, he saw Ruffnut and his mind showed the moment in slow-motion, How could he never have seen her before? She was so beautiful, she was a diplomat, she was crazy, she was… perfect! Of all the women in the world… she had been here all along.

Snotlout crawled up from the floor. He dried his nose and looked down on the ground.

-I'm sorry Hiccup, I really am. This was very childish, can you forgive me?

-I'm the one that should be sorry, I wasn't the bigger one today, I understand your frustration. It just broke for me…

Hiccup stroke his fist under his lip to wipe of some of the blood.

Astrid had just been on her way to get up again, but Ruff had pushed her down and made her job for her.

Hiccup walked back to her, he sat down and leaned his head on her shoulder.

-I didn't mean "won" in a bad way, I had nothing good to say… it was more like the other way around…' he whispered in her hear.

She stroke his cheek softly and kissed his forehead.

-It's okay.

Ruffnut went back to her sleeping-bag, she sat down in it and covered her feet inside it.

Fishlegs moved a little closer to her and smiled at her. As did Snotlout.

-Can we have that cozy feeling back now?' said Hiccup while wiping his lip again.

-Ye, that would be nice, anyone got a new game or something?' said Fishlegs.

-It's not a game, but it will be fun anyways' said Astrid and smiled.

-What about telling a story? When you guys were patrolling the island for example?

-Oh! That's a great idea! We haven't told you what happened? Snotlout, do you want to tell the first part?' said Fishlegs.

-Okay, we were circling the island, at the third lap, as Hiccup had foretold, we saw about… erhm… five ships with the berserker crest on the sails. They were sailing away from Berk strangely enough. Tuff, your turn.

-Ye, so… wait, those were berserkers? Aren't they the bad guys? Why did we let them go?

Everyone except Astrid and Hiccup looked at him angrily.

-Your spoiling the story…' said Ruff.

-Sorry, but ye, we swooshed down to take a closer look, we thought maybe it was them who had Astrid, so we didn't blast them. When they saw us, they did not shoot, they yelled at us that they yielded, so we flew closer to them. Sis, your turn.

-Ye, so we flew beside them, and noticed that they were unarmed, few soldiers, and the soldiers that occupied the ships was mostly outcast, but the majority of the people on the ships was normal people, citizen of outcast island. They had fled when you attacked. Fishlegs' she said and pointed at him.

-So, we let them go, they were sailing to the south, to seek their new lives.

A heavy thud was heard from the door, everyone looked up as the door was swung open and Astrid's father appeared in the dim light.

-Good day kids, horrible storm last night now was it not? Took us four hours to dig us out from the great hall.

Astrid, with the help of Hiccup rose up and ran to her father, she hugged him hard.

They put on their outdoor clothes and stepped outside to everyone else.

The younglings parted ways, all except "Hiccstrid" they held each other in a tight embrace. Astrid kissed Hiccup on the nose and they promised to meet later that evening, at Astrid's house for supper. Hiccup turned around and hugged Toothless head.

-Hello bud, you want to go for a flight?

(( Thanks for reading, not my best chapter, but this was wrote late at night and my mind had a minor " writers block", I will try to get one up tomorrow too. Stay tuned!))