Unformatted text is Norse, or narration.

Italicized text is Irish.

Underlined text is Dragonese (which no humans will learn to speak, it's just fun to see what the dragons are saying sometimes).

Bold text is used for emphasis (and author's notes).

The next day, Hiccup woke up to the sun streaming through his window and an awful headache. He was vaguely thankful that Toothless hadn't woken him up like he usually did, and his entire body hurt. After squeezing his eyes shut, he rolled over, face in his pillow as he tried (and failed) to go back to sleep. The only thing that got him out of bed was how dry his mouth felt, and he fell on the floor before he could even take three steps. Thankful that nobody was there to witness his clumsiness, he slowly got to his feet, using the wall as support as he squinted at his surroundings. He knew he was in his room, but his vision was blurry, and he felt dizzy. After standing there for a moment, he carefully made his way downstairs, where his father was (surprisingly) waiting for him. Stoick nodded at him, and he refrained from nodding back, providing only a halfhearted blink as he continued to use the wall for support.

"Hiccup." Hiccup grunted. "I see you're alive."

"Am I?" If he were more focused, he would have seen the hint of amusement in his father's eyes, but he wasn't, so he didn't.

"You were out late, last night." Hiccup slumped down in a chair at the dining table, and a cup full of water appeared, though he wasn't really paying attention to where it came from as he gulped it down. "Didn't take you for much of a drinker."

"'M not." Hiccup shrugged. He didn't want to admit that the reason he drank so much was because drinking gave him a self-contradictory anxiety that made him try to drink more to get rid of it. He'd have to watch himself better in the future. "Aran and Astrid probably have it worse."

"Well, I don't think you've ever had this much before, so I just wanted to remind you to drink lots of water and not push yourself." Hiccup glanced over at Stoick, seeing that he looked a bit awkward. He then noticed that bread and an apple were on the table in front of him, so he took a bite of the bread.

"Where's Toothless?" The younger viking asked with a yawn. He felt a little better.

"I had Skullcrusher keep him out so you could rest." Hiccup smiled, despite his throbbing head.

"Thanks, dad. Go ahead with your chiefing duties, I'll be fine." Stoick made to leave, but hesitated.

"You're sure?" Hiccup nodded.

"Go on, thanks for… breakfast." It was just bread and an apple, but he appreciated it all the same. "I'll probably be heading back towards the Edge before you see me again."

There was an awkward pause between them, and Hiccup raised his eyebrows with an expectant smile before his father finally left. As much as he appreciated his father's efforts to mend the tattered remains of their relationship, the two of them weren't ones for casual conversation. After finishing his measly breakfast and getting more water, Hiccup stretched, heading out for some fresh air. He very narrowly avoided getting tackled by Toothless, letting out a tired laugh when the black dragon sailed past him due to a well timed sidestep.

"Sorry, bud. I'm taking it easy today." He said as he knelt down and gave Toothless the belly scratch of a lifetime.

His affectionate motions slowed as he recalled what happened last night. Well, now he couldn't say he was unsure if Aran returned his attraction. Hiccup's cheeks flushed slightly just thinking back on the rather intense kiss the two of them shared, feeling ashamed for being the one who'd instigated it. If he'd just had a little less to drink, he would have been able to push them away and he wouldn't be thinking about it. Toothless seemed to notice that he was deep in thought, and nudged his face against him, bringing him out of his mind and into the real world. Hiccup smiled at the dragon, giving him one last affectionate scratch before standing up and making his way towards Meade Hall.

It seemed most of the group was already there, save for a certain redhead. Hiccup was thankful for this as he sat next to Astrid, who immediately leaned against him, wrapping an arm around his waist. None of them spoke for a while as they ate their late breakfast. They all shared a mutual understanding of each other's suffering, and refrained from making any loud noises. Even after finishing their food, Fishlegs taking it upon himself to clean up, none of them moved from their spots around the table. After a while, Hiccup felt the need to ask something.

"Did all of you just sleep in here?"

"Just the twins and Snotlout." Astrid shrugged. "Fish and I headed home after you and Aran did." Hiccup tensed at the mention of Aran's name, something that did not go unnoticed by his girlfriend. "Did something happen?" She asked, heavily accented Irish spilling from her mouth somewhat uncomfortably. Sure, she could speak the language, but it still felt strange on her tongue even after speaking it for two years.

"Oh, gods…" Hiccup rubbed a hand on his face. "Aran… they… we kissed." It practically came out as a mumble, and Astrid asked him to repeat himself, as her Irish wasn't quite good enough to decipher it through the mumbling. "Aran and I… kissed. Well, we kind of made out."

"You did what?" Astrid's voice came out louder than she intended, and Hiccup winced. Her eyebrows practically disappeared into her hairline in a fraction of a second, and he felt his cheeks heat up. "Wait, so… you made out last night." Hiccup nodded in confirmation. "Who started it?" He groaned.

"I did… But that was after they pinned me to a wall and…" Hiccup made a very confused motion with his hands that didn't mean anything to either of them. Astrid blinked at him.

"So, I'm sort of following you. He- they?" It seemed she'd just noticed his pronoun usage, and he paused. Would Aran want him to tell her? He wasn't sure…

"Oh, that, right, umm…" He paused for a moment. "I don't know if they'd want me to tell you about that part." Astrid waved it off, saying it wasn't important.

"So basically what you're saying is he-" She frowned. "Should I be saying 'they' instead?" So maybe it was kind of important. Hiccup only shrugged, causing her to roll her eyes. "You know, Hic, you're really not helpful sometimes. They pinned you to a wall and made themself irresistible, is what you're saying?"

"Yeah. The night they came back, they said they could kiss me because of something I said." His green eyes flicked to Astrid's blue ones to see if she was going to ask him to elaborate, but she only nodded in a silent request for him to continue. "They said they wouldn't, because I told them we," Hiccup gestured to the two of them. "Were dating, and they have a strict 'no cheating' policy." Astrid groaned.

"Of course us dating got in the way." He glared at her half heartedly.

"You know, that and the fact that I'm the chief's son and need to produce an heir. We can't just have a rassragr as the Chief." Astrid punched him in the arm, and despite her weakened state, Hiccup still winced.

"Don't call yourself that." Hiccup sighed before something occurred to him. Could either of them be called that if there was only one dick involved? His cheeks flushed and he hurried to bring the conversation back to its original course.

"Anyways, when they pinned me to the wall they said they weren't lying when they said they could kiss me, and I mean, we were both more than a little drunk, so…" Astrid hummed.

"So what's the problem? You obviously both like each other- unless you're going to try and convince the two of us that it was just the alcohol that made them act like that." Hiccup shook his head.

"Come on, this isn't some badly written romance novel. They made it pretty easy to tell that they like me before they even touched the mead. I was just hoping we could ignore that." He grumbled, glancing at the rest of the group. The twins seemed to be half-heartedly punching each other while Snotlout kept his face in the table. Fishlegs was lazily flipping through his dragon cards, likely not really seeing what was on them.

"Well, I say you should just get together." Astrid shrugged, and Hiccup glared at her. "What?"

"We have gone over this so many times, I can't believe you would say that." The blonde girl rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, son of the chief, need to have a kid, can't be with a guy, especially because you're the son of the chief, blah blah blah. That doesn't mean you can't be together in secret." Hiccup glared at her. "Don't give me that look. This is where I stand on the issue. Honestly, you should be happy to have such a supportive girlfriend." Astrid stuck her tongue out at him, and he rolled his eyes.

"Oh, hardy har har. Why don't you just ask Heather out, in that case?" She nearly fell off the bench his words, eyes going wide before narrowing dangerously.

"Well, maybe I will, and when I do, you'll have no excuse to get me off of your case." Hiccup hoped that didn't happen anytime soon. "How did you even know?"

"Please, it's not that hard to tell if you know what to look for. I know your type. Aren't you happy to have such a supportive boyfriend?" He teased, and Astrid crossed her arms, glaring at him.

"I want a divorce." Hiccup started laughing, and Astrid couldn't help but join in.

"What are we laughing about?" Came the heavily accented voice of Aran, and Hiccup's breath hitched in his throat. Astrid gave him a pointed look, and Hiccup avoided her gaze, cheeks flushing red.

"Hiccup and I are getting a divorce." Astrid stated, sipping water from her cup. Aran raised a brow.

"Wow, I didn't know you two were engaged." Hiccup noticed that the red hair was tied up with a leather strap, and the kilt had been replaced with pants. "So, when are we leaving for Dragon's Edge?" Brown eyes met green, and Hiccup wondered if they were trying to tell him something. "Méaróg is itching to stretch his wings." Ah, so Aran had switched pronouns. He also didn't seem to be awkward in any way despite what had happened last night, and Hiccup wondered if he even remembered what had happened.

"Well, I guess that all depends on when everyone feels up to flying again. I'm ready, but I don't know about you guys." He glanced at the group. Fishlegs gave a smile and a thumbs up, Astrid nodding as well. The twins grinned as their punches grew less feeble, but Snotlout didn't move his face from the table. "Snotlout?"

"Come on, Snotboy, we'll leave you behind." Snotlout peeled his face from the wood, glaring at Aran.

"That's Snotman to you, thanks." He stood, and Aran laughed.

"Oh please, all of you are babies to me." Hiccup frowned. "Well… I guess Hiccup isn't a baby because he's like half a foot taller than me, and Astrid's got pretty nice tits." Aran had taken a gamble, which had thankfully paid off as it seemed the blonde girl didn't know the word for tits. Hiccup gawked at him.

"Wh- Aran that's my-" He didn't finished that sentence, and Aran snickered.

"But you agree, don't you?" Hiccup just huffed, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I've got what?" Aran smiled innocently.

"Pretty nice wits." He lied and Astrid fixed him with a look of skepticism.

"Uh-huh." She said flatly.

"Well, I think it's a pretty good time to saddle up and head to the Edge. It's going to take us at least thirty-four hours, so the sooner we get going the better. If we take too long, Viggo or Ryker might pull something."

That seemed to be enough to rouse the group from their lounging, thankfully, and they all went to find their dragons. Toothless had followed him to the great hall, so Hiccup wasn't surprised to see the scaly beast lounging about in the grass outside. It was with great amusement that he noticed Toothless had the remnants of a fish tail plastered above his right eye. While Toothless wasn't the messiest eater, he certainly wasn't the neatest either. Hiccup crouched down beside his big black head and peeled the fish tail off, causing bright green eyes to snap open. He laughed as Toothless opened his mouth, and he dropped the fish tail to its doom. Toothless licked his lips happily before getting up, wiggling his own tail about.

"Come on bud, let's go wait for the others." The two of them went to the designated meeting place, and it didn't take too long for everyone else to join them, along with a purple nadder and a blue and yellow nightmare. Aran informed him that these were Corcra and Mathilda. "You all ready?"

He received confirmations of various energy from the others, and soon they were in the sky. It was quiet for the first few hours, and he noted that Fishlegs seemed to have brought some light reading along. Hiccup sighed, sort of wishing he'd done the same, but he supposed it was fine. He had his sketchbook with him, and it seemed Aran had his as well. Snotlout looked to be on the verge of falling asleep, while the twins began to bicker as usual. Astrid was the only one completely focused as she flew ahead. Sighing, Hiccup decided to lose himself in his art. Over the three years Aran had been gone, he'd made an attempt to go a more artistic route with his, well, art, and it seemed to pay off, if the many sketches he now had of Toothless meant anything. Toothless wasn't the only thing he'd drawn of course (he'd drawn other dragons, but not much of anything else, he had to admit), but he was the most frequent subject of his art.

"Hey, Hiccup!" Aran called to him, and as he looked up from his sketch of Stormfly (Astrid had been flying directly in front of him), he noticed that Aran and Méaróg were flying beside him. "Why does Astrid keep giving me weird looks?"

"I don't know, maybe it's because you said she had nice tits." Hiccup answered flatly. Aran looked embarrassed.

"Are you angry about that?" He rolled his eyes.

"Only because you got away with it. I don't really care what you think of her." That was a half truth. She was one of his closest friends, so he would like the two of them to get along, but beyond that he wasn't too concerned. They seemed to enjoy each other's company anyways, and he doubted Aran's attraction would progress past the passing comment that she was cute. And Hiccup had to agree that yes, Astrid was quite attractive even if he wasn't attracted to her.

"You sure?" Hiccup nodded. "Okay. Well, I don't think that's it, because I know she didn't understand me." Of course Hiccup knew the reason behind her weird looks was because Aran and Hiccup had kind of sort of sucked face the previous night, but Hiccup still wasn't sure if Aran even remembered it happening.

"What do you remember of last night?"

"Not much, everything is kind of hazy. I feel like I did something really significant, and I'm expecting someone to tell me if I did, but nobody's said anything, so for now I can only assume everything is fine." Aran shrugged, and Hiccup felt some tension leave him. "Why?"

"No reason. Just curious." If Aran didn't remember anything, Hiccup could just go on pretending nothing happened. Everything would be fine.

"No, I'm gonna get there first!" Hiccup's ears zoned in on what seemed to be the middle of an argument with the twins.

"Nuh-uh. Belch is way faster, you're gonna eat our dust." Tuffnut tried to urge Belch to go faster than Barf, but Barf only matched speed with him, as they were, in fact, the same fucking dragon.

"Guys, please, Barf and Belch are the same dragon." Hiccup really didn't want to have to deal with this at the moment. Aran snickering wasn't helping.

"I can still beat him!" Ruffnut insisted, hoisting her leg up high enough to kick her brother in the face. It was impressive. The twins kept shoving each other, and Hiccup just sighed, looking at everyone else.

"Hah! You two think you'll be the first one to the island? As if you Thorstons could beat Hookfang and I there!" Snotlout seemed to have broken out of his half asleep stupor.

"Oh, it is on." Tuffnut narrowed his eyes. "Sister! We must defend our family honour!" Ruff nodded in determination.

"Time to kick some Jorgenson butt!"

"Haha, good fucking luck!" Snotlout called back, and Aran looked offended.

"Why does he keep saying that?" He looked to Hiccup, who could only shrugged. "Snotlout, you dragged me into this fucking race, so you better not whine when you lose!"

"Why are you all like this?" Hiccup asked nobody in particular. Fishlegs sighed nearby.

"Meatlug isn't built for races." He patted the gronckle. "There, there, it's okay girl. You don't need to win a stupid race to be a winner in my heart." Hiccup laughed quietly as the large boy bent over to hug his dragon.

"Snotlout!" Astrid seemed offended, and Hiccup could only wonder what in Hel's name Snotlout had said to get Astrid to join the race.

"Oh, brother…"

Well, if anything Hiccup supposed they would probably reach Dragon's Edge sooner than anticipated. That wouldn't stop him from thinking it was ridiculous to start a race when they were only four hours into a journey that was thirty four, but now he supposed it would probably take more like twenty six or something. He leaned back, laying on Toothless as they glided easily. Him and Fishlegs said nothing as they continued their leisurely pace, and Hiccup must have fallen asleep at some point, because before he knew it, his vision was full of stars. Sitting up and looking around revealed nothing out of the ordinary, and he thought he recognized a stone pillar, so he figured Toothless had kept them on course. He patted his friend on the neck with a smile before glancing to the side to see Fishlegs.

"Hey, Fish, I'm gonna fly ahead." A smirk made its way onto his face. "It'll be fun to see if I can still win this race." Fishlegs rolled his eyes.

"You have fun with that. Meatlug and I are going to continue this pleasant, leisurely flight."

Hiccup nodded at him with a smile, shaking his somewhat achy limbs out as he leaned forward on Toothless, urging him to go faster. It took several hours to catch up with the others, and by that time the sun had long since risen. Twenty four hours hadn't quite passed since leaving Berk, and Hiccup made sure him and Toothless stayed in the clouds above the group so they couldn't see him. They hadn't quite reached the Edge yet, and if Hiccup was going to win the race he wasn't quite sure was still happening, he wanted to do it with a bit of a dramatic flair. Astrid was easily in first place, Snotlout trailing close behind. The twins lagged behind significantly, which Hiccup suspected was due to their bickering, and Aran was ahead of the two of them by a decent amount, but wasn't quite on Hookfang's tail. It seemed the group had stopped trying to argue that they would win for the time being, that is…

"Look, there's the Edge!" Snotlout shouted, pointing to the familiar island.

"Come on, Barf!" Ruff urged, Tuffnut doing the same for Belch.

"We can win this, Stormfly." Astrid said, determined smirk on her face.

Aran silently urged Méaróg to go faster, and the two of them gained on Hookfang rather easily. Hiccup suspected they'd been waiting and conserving their energy for a sort of sprint at the end. The twins, despite their best efforts, didn't manage to get close enough to leave last place. Astrid was still clearly in first place, but Aran managed to pull ahead of Snotlout. It seemed clear that the battle for first place was between Astrid and Aran, with Snotlout and the twins solidly in third and fourth. They were nearing the landing destination, and that was when Hiccup and Toothless decided to swoop in, shooting a plasma blast and landing on it just before the others could reach.

"Hiccup!" Astrid shouted as she dismounted, not satisfied with second place.

"What? All's fair in love and war, isn't it?" He joked as he dismounted Toothless and approached her, putting his hands on her hips. She gave him a somewhat surprised look, but his eyes flicked over to Aran, who had landed right after her, and she proceeded to look unamused. Aran glanced at the two of them with a frown on his face.

"Mmm, well, if that's the case, you wouldn't mind me doing this!" Astrid punched him in the chest, and he let go of her hips, wheezing as he doubled over in pain.

"Why would you do that!?" He made a valiant effort to regain his breath.

"What happened to him?" Aran questioned Astrid.

"Oh, well you see I don't appreciate him taking the win from me, so I punched him right in the solar plexus." She said casually as Hiccup leaned on Toothless for support.

"Yeah, with your full strength?" He wheezed. "Gods."

"Oh, trust me, if it was full strength you'd be dead." The smile on Astrid's face was a little frightening.

"You should try it on Snotlout." Aran suggested.

"Try what on Snotlout?" The short boy asked as he landed. Astrid delivered a swift punch, and he was soon on the ground. "Why would you do that!?" Aran and Astrid exchanged a look before bursting into laughter.

"Oh, great, now Snotlout is starting to sound like me." Hiccup grumbled, rubbing his sore chest as he regained his breath.

"Ooooh, are we beating Snotlout up?" Ruffnut asked as she hopped off of Barf's neck, kicking Snotlout in the stomach.

"That sounds great!" Tuff joined in on the fun, and Snotlout groaned on the ground.

"Come on guys, let's not kill Snotlout." Hiccup walked over to them, hands up in a sort of peacemaking gesture. "As fun as it is, I'm sure you wouldn't want to be the ones cleaning up his body."

"Hmm…" The twins seemed to be considering it.

"You can't torment him if he's dead." Hiccup pointed out, and the twins nodded.

"That is very true." Tuffnut looked at his sister and they nodded, kicking the downed Jorgenson one last time each before walking Barf and Belch to the stables.

"Hiccup, you are the worst cousin." Snotlout spat as he stood up. "And Astrid! What in Hel's name!?" She shrugged.

"Aran told me to."

"Aran!?" Aran shrugged.

"She did it to Hiccup first.

"Hiccup!?" Hiccup shrugged.

"I beat her in the race."

"Oh hey, where's Fishlegs?" Aran asked, patting Snotlout on the back.

"He should be here in a few hours. Him and Meatlug are taking it slow." Astrid hooked her arm into Hiccup's as he spoke.

"Hey, Hic, can I talk to you?" She glanced at Aran and Snotlout. "Alone?"

"Umm, sure. Snotlout, you can show Aran around." Hiccup waved them off before letting Astrid lead him in the opposite direction of Snotlout and Aran. The two of them walked for a moment before she started talking.

"What was with that love and war stuff?" She had unhooked her arm from his. They didn't need unnecessary affection, after all. The two of them had come to the conclusion that they were never going to be attracted to each other, so there was no point trying or pretending when they were away from others.

"What do you mean?" Astrid narrowed her eyes.

"I mean, what's with the unnecessary flirting?" Hiccup fidgeted. "You know Aran likes you. Why did you do that? I understand it when someone is trying to flirt with one of us and we don't want their attention, but this is Aran we're talking about. I didn't even have to turn around to feel them frowning at us." He avoided her gaze.

"Yeah, he was frowning." He mumbled slightly. "I just- we can't be together, so I don't want to get his hopes up." Hiccup ran a hand through his hair, as if trying to brush away the stress.

"You can be together, you're just afraid of rejection." Both of them knew she wasn't talking about Aran's rejection.

"Yeah, well so what if I am? There's so much at stake here. It's not just my pride, it's the entire Haddock name. And-and Aran? I would feel like the worst person in the world if people started calling him a-a rassragr!" He was gesturing wildly as he worked himself up, only stilling his hands when Astrid held onto them.

"Hiccup, we don't use that word." She scolded.

"I know that! I would never use that word, but I sure know that other people would!" Hiccup wrenched his hands out of her grip and opted to run them through his hair. "I just- I don't know, Astrid. I care about him. A lot. I-I don't think I could handle people looking down on him because of a relationship with me, and I don't want my dad to look at me with that-that disappointed look he used to have all the time, I don't want people to think I'm not fit to be chief because of it, because I already know I'm not fit to be chief. I don't want other tribes looking down on us because someone like me is the chief, or the chief's son, I-I just-"

"Hiccup." Astrid grabbed his wrists, to stop him from flailing his arms around. Sure, he always gestured a lot with his hands, but when he was stressed he did it tenfold. "I have full confidence that everything will work itself out."

"You're just saying that to calm me down." Astrid shook her head.

"No, I really fully believe that you can work everything out. That, and I don't really wanna have your babies, no offense." Hiccup looked at her in mock offense.

"Well, in that case, I want a divorce." He stuck his tongue out at her, and she laughed, hugging him in one of those rare Astrid-hugs that you usually only get if you're Hiccup or Heather. She must have a thing for 'H' names. "What, is this your way of trying to repair our marriage? I gotta say, Astrid, that's a weak move." He joked, hugging her back nonetheless.

"Oh please, we both know neither of us would be happy if I tried to kiss you." Well, she had a point there. "Seriously though, Hic. You have to do something about this."

"Astrid-"

"No. I will seriously divorce us." There was no hint of humor in her voice, and Hiccup felt a twinge of fear.

"Astrid, I really, really, really would not appreciate that." His green eyes were pleading, but they met steely resistance. "We-we're each other's security blankets!"

"Yeah, well if I was you, I'd be breaking up right away if I knew the person I actually like liked me back." Hiccup groaned.

"Astrid…" His arms slipped from hugging her.

"Nope!" She released the hug. "I've had to deal with your moaning and groaning for three years. If I see a way to fix it, I will do it." Before Hiccup could respond, she started a light jog. "Race you to the clubhouse!"

"You, my dear lady, have given yourself an unfair advantage! I'm already handicapped, do you really need the head start?" He shouted after her, knowing that she'd only started to the race to change the subject.

He had to admit, he didn't mind too much. A distraction was nice every now and then, and with Aran moving into his room he suspected he would have a lot more tension in his life than he was used to anymore. Of course, he could have him sleep in the same room as one of the others, but he didn't want to seem suspicious. Hiccup really wished Aran wouldn't return his affections. That would make pushing everything down much, much easier.

Word Count: 4,791

This chapter had a lot of platonic Hiccstrid huh? I love platonic Hiccstrid. Best bros. A+++

Next chapter will probably be dragon shenanigans because hey, I'm in the mood

I'd also like to take the time to say I got literally the most AMAZING guest review, and I actually cackled when I saw it in my gmail notifications because all of the curse words were censored! I just want to share it with you because. It was hilarious.

From: Guest
-

What the f*** is this s*** o my god i cant even f*** f*** not again s*** f*** just why would you f*** s*** oh s*** just f*** delete this s*** f*** s*** f***

(Uncensored version: What the fuck is this shit o my god i cant even fuck fuck not again shit fuck just why would you fuck shit oh shit just fucking delete this shit fuck shit fuck)

I had a good laugh, and I literally don't even know how to respond to this so? I'm just. I'm laughing sorry lmaooo I don't even know what I'm supposed to get from this like, it's cryptic, why did they say 'not again' I want to Know, please talk to me I'm ahfalhflaf hahaahhahaha

ANYWAYS I hope you enjoyed haha see you next time