A/N: Here we are again! After the almost kiss of last week, here's… Well, I'm not telling you, that's what the chapter itself is for ;)

I have recently started replying to comments more on AO3, and I've always felt quite underwhelmed with the ability to do so on ffnet. But, I want to give you guys the same appreciation, so I'll be leaving some short replies to your reviews on the top of the chapter if I have time for it :)

DeathBerryHime: Dumdumdummmm…

Bloody Rogue dragon deity king: Thank you!

Antox: I generally don't want to say things about the plot moving forward, but in this case I don't mind clarifying it: No, Berk will not capture Toothless and use him to lead them to the Red Death. Because indeed, it's been done before both in the movie itself and in other fics, and I don't just want to rehash the ending of HTTYD1 like that.

CajunBear73: Yes indeed they've got it bad :D

BDC13: Don't we all need the kiss? And thank you for the compliment 3

Vivi-ntg: Oh, interrupt-almost-kisses are indeed very hard to do well. So I'm glad to hear you didn't mind this one!

solielunami: Thank you again! 3

HighKings-Ruin: Aww, thank you! I'm glad to hear you think it was done right!

Dark Lord Daishi: Welcome to the fic!

Guest (26-2): My oh my this is one lengthy review. And an incredible lovely one, so thank you so much for that! It's tough for me to reply to the whole thing, but what I can say is that a lot of the questions you're asking are on my mind too, and will be answered/addressed in future chapters ^^ Regarding the anticonception thing… I'm still thinking about how I will handle that, but I love your creativity! That's certainly not an option I'd considered yet.

Hiccstrid-OnlyI hate modern au: Yes there will be :)

Entr'Acte – Dragon Racing

Astrid's days around Phantom Island went by in a flash. But not as quickly as they did when Hiccup was there. Because no matter how hard she tried to enjoy herself, she couldn't ignore the feeling that something was… missing.

But she wasn't letting herself be slowed down by sentiments and quickly managed to get into her own, Hiccup-less rhythm. She'd wake up as soon as the sun fell through the volcano's mouth, and even if she didn't, Stormfly would wake her. Even though the Nadder could fly on her own just fine, she always insisted Astrid went with her. And she was quite determined, too. Stormfly would pull on her braid or nudge her with her horn until she unwrapped herself from her blankets and got in her saddle. She figured that maybe, the dragon was still dealing with the absence of her hatchlings, and was making up for it by treating her human as one. Not that she minded. She loved the dragon to death.

Her mornings consisted of practicing with Stormfly, perfecting the things they'd done before and trying new moves and spins whenever they could. They'd 'go fishing' somewhere before midday, making sure to rake in enough food – and rocks – for the two of them and the other three lieutenants. She'd found out quite quickly that food was the way to a dragon's heart, and the same was true for those three. It instantly lured them to her and got them in a good mood for afternoon practice.

She had set up her drills very similarly to how she set them up on Berk. Dragons and Vikings weren't that different after all. If anything, dragons were easier to deal with. Snotlout would fire stray blasts from time to time, and Ruff & Tuff left behind more useless explosions than useful ones, but a few well-aimed spines from Stormfly in their direction usually got them back in line. Right now, they were mostly practicing flying in formation, having the other dragons follow her and Stormfly without her having to explicitly tell them to. And Phantom Island's walls were usually littered with dragons who were watching the four of them intently, which made her confident that she could transform that interest into participation. When they were ready.

She'd finish her day by making dinner, watching the sun slowly set on the ocean before heading inside where the dragons provided her with a lot more light than the stars did. She'd take some time to take a bath in the lake – she never felt comfortable doing that for too long with Hiccup around – and had started to sow some clothes to protect her against the cold.

They were good days. They were more eventful than her days on Berk usually were. She really couldn't complain at all. But still, something was missing. And she knew exactly what it was.

She missed that speck of black in the Archipelago's sky, that dark reflection in the ocean, always circling around her. Hiccup's full, lopsided smile when they'd had a good flight. The way he told her stories during dinner, shaking his shoulders and moving his hands wildly when he got really passionate about something. How they could just silently sit on a sea stack or a stone cliff, watching the ocean in front of them. How he could make her laugh. And how incredibly comfortable she felt around him.

After spending nearly every day with him for the past weeks, her days just felt so much emptier now. She missed him. Probably more than she was willing to admit. And increasingly, her mind went back to that moment down at the lake. At which he'd almost kissed her. And a voice in the back of her head had started to wonder whether she shouldn't have taken that chance right there.

So when after one week, the air was once again pierced by a nasal voice, she felt her heart jump. "I'm here; just Hiccup."

She chuckled at the twist on his old catchphrase, nearly spraining her neck to watch him and Toothless land next to her on the ledge she was sitting on. Hiccup swung his long legs over the dragon's back, giving her a good look at his well-formed ass. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Toothless bounced over to her, eagerly nuzzling her face and licking her.

"Aww, Toothless, I missed you too!" she giggled, scratching the Night Fury behind his ears. "Or are you just here because I got food, huh?"

"Something does smell good indeed," Hiccup agreed as he took off his helmet, revealing his blinding smile. Watching him expose the gap between his teeth, how the way his lips curled up looked slightly crooked, she felt her heart contract. Internally, she scolded herself. Sure, she'd always found him attractive. But she couldn't allow things to get this bad after not seeing him for just seven days.

"Snotlout brought in a sheep," she beamed, showing the peace of meat she was holding. "Didn't even tell him to do so, he did it all on his own."

The Nightmare had caught her saying his name, and she soon found his sticky, gelly nose pressed against her cheek. Not that she wasn't spending most of her days covered in some sort of dragon liquid. She was getting used to it.

She rubbed the spot between the Nightmare's horns and Snotlout purred and curled his tail around her in response. Meanwhile, her eyes went back to Hiccup, who was looking down at her, his smile fond.

"What are you looking at?" she teased.

"It just looks so sweet," he told her before sitting down next to her and playfully poking the Nightmare's tail. "Seems like you guys started to get along better while I was gone."

"And now you're planning to ruin that again?" she joked, handing him a spare piece of sheep. She wasn't willing to admit she'd missed him.

"Glad to see you didn't lose your sass either," Hiccup threw back. He smiled widely before the next words left his mouth. "Sasstrid."

She looked at him, exasperated. "Really? That was the best thing you could come up with?"

Hiccup gave her a guilty smile. "Hey, you are talking to a guy named Hiccup, who couldn't come up with better dragon names than Toothless and people he knew in real life. Expecting anything from me in the name-giving department would be a grave mistake."

The corners of her mouth curled up. "At least you're self-aware about it."

They chuckled for a bit before finishing their meal, eventually making it impossible for her to continue postponing the question she had to ask. "So, how was it?"

"Nothing too special, really," Hiccup answered. "Berk was the first target of the year and it seemed to be in the same shape as usual. The raid went by without much problems. No casualties on either side. No non-tactical buildings burnt down either." He turned to look at her. "So to answer the question you were really trying to ask; Berk is fine."

She smiled softly as she met his gaze. The tender look in his eyes reassured her that he wasn't lying. "I'm glad." She paused for a moment, thinking of how to express her relief. "Thanks for telling me. Considering you hate that island," she softly added.

"That doesn't mean I'm going to hate you for asking about it," he shrugged. "You lived there for twenty years, it'd be hard for you to suddenly stop caring."

"That's surprisingly thoughtful," she commented.

Hiccup flashed her a wry smile. "Well, I told you how long it took me to get over Berk. What it cost me." He softly patted his scars with one of his gloves. "And they have been much better to you than they ever were to me."

"Thanks for understanding, Hiccup," she smiled.

"You know you're free to go back there any time you want, right? You're not my captive," Hiccup told her. It could have been a sneer, but the look in his eyes told her differently. "Just fly that way and you'll end up in Berk eventually." He pointed one of his slender arms to the southwest of them. "Even if it's just to check on some people, or…" His eyes went down towards his feet. "To check whether I'm keeping my word."

His earnestness surprised her. She shook her head. "If I go back to Berk, it won't be to check on you." Hiccup looked up again, and she smiled softly as their eyes met. "You trusted me with your dragons, so I need to learn to trust you with Berk." She shrugged, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible. "Besides, keeping tabs on you all the time will take too much time and energy. Which we don't have."

The corners of Hiccup's mouth curled up in response, revealing a smile that thoroughly warmed her heart. "Thanks, Astrid."

Hiccup had gone to bed after that, having flown straight back from Berk as he didn't want to be around there any longer than he had to. But somewhere, Astrid found herself hoping that maybe, he'd flown back that fast because he had missed her too.

It wasn't until the beginning of the next afternoon that she saw him again. She was flying low on Stormfly, just relaxing and enjoying the nice weather of the day. Hiccup and Toothless levelled out next to her, and Hiccup pulled up his visor.

"Good to see you're finally out of bed too!" she teased. Luckily, there wasn't a lot of wind today so they could actually hear each other.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Get used to it. My sleeping schedule is basically non-existent this time of year."

"Just don't blame me if you miss all the fun stuff," she pointed out, and he stuck his tongue out at her in response. They proceeded to pull faces at each other until they were both chuckling so hard that their dragons started to give each other concerned looks.

"Anyways, I've been meaning to give you something," he continued after he'd finished giggling.

"And what might that be?"

"Given I won't be around to answer your questions all the time, I figured you might want to have this." He pulled out another book from between his upper chest piece. Exactly how many of those did he carry around in there?

"What's that?" she frowned. It wasn't anything Hiccup had shown her before.

"Well, given that almost everything that's written in Berk's Book of Dragons is outright wrong, I made my own version." He gave her a lopsided smile. "I mean, even I can't remember every little detail. I spent some time editing it while I was away; you know, making it readable for people who aren't me."

"You're such a dork." She shook her head and laughed. Of course Hiccup had created his own dragon manual. It would have been unlike him not to document pretty much everything. But the accompanying fact that he had been thinking of her while he had been gone, even if it was just in the form of editing a book, made her blush. She shook it off, reaching her hand out towards him. "Alright, hand it over."

A playful smile appeared on Hiccup's face. "Come and get it."

"Hiccup –" Before she could object, Hiccup tucked the book away and prodded Toothless to beat his wings even faster, the two of them shooting off into the distance. She couldn't help but smile as well as she nudged Stormfly to speed up, giving chase.

Hiccup and Toothless were soaring close to the water surface, the tips of Toothless' wings dragging through the ocean. It was slowing them down, but she had no doubt Hiccup knew that as well; he was giving her time to catch up. Toothless was fast, but Stormfly was a formidable opponent in that sense.

Just as they closed in on them, they shot into the sea stack maze. She wasn't a stranger to it anymore, but neither was Hiccup. She let Stormfly path them through it, occasionally spotting a black blob moving between the rocks, further and further away. They shot out of the maze, Toothless and Hiccup about a few hundred feet to their right.

The black pair shot up vertically and she had Stormfly do the same, not relenting. Eventually, after putting a few thousand feet between them and the ocean surface, Hiccup and Toothless looped and turned back, coming straight at her and Stormfly. She sent the Nadder into a spin, hearing Hiccup laugh loudly as Toothless missed them by an inch. She shook her head and smiled, levelling out and deciding to lie in wait instead.

Soon enough, Toothless reappeared a few hundred feet above them, him and Hiccup having looped around once again. She nudged Stormfly to go up; Toothless seemed to be slowing down, so this was their chance to catch them. But as they got closer to the Night Fury, she saw that something wasn't right. Toothless was flying upside down. And Hiccup was nowhere to be found.

An uneasy feeling took a hold of her right then and she jerked down almost immediately, looking for a small speck of black against the background of blue. They were really high up and eventually, hundreds of feet below them, she spotted it. Hiccup was falling. He did that all the time, but Toothless always dove straight after him so they could regroup after Hiccup had had his daily dose of adrenaline. But this was a nearly uncrossable distance, even for the Night Fury.

Nevertheless, she dove, shouting at Toothless to do the same. She had to try. She had never dove as fast, Stormfly's wings drawn in and aiming the two of them down like an arrow. It made her eyes tear up and her muscles go weak, but they had to keep going. She couldn't let Hiccup die. Not because she needed him to kill the Red Death. But because she needed him for everything else. She couldn't allow their moment from over a week ago be the last chance she'd had at kissing him.

They closed in on him, with still a long way to go between Hiccup and the ocean surface. She shouted to Stormfly to catch him with her beak if she had to, but right then, he disappeared. He shot up in the air, back up past her, as if he had instantly stopped falling. She had Stormfly spread her wings, putting all of her strength into slowing the two of them down from the incredible speed they'd been diving at.

They levelled out as well as they could and as she looked above her, she saw Hiccup. His arms were spread out to his sides, and there was black fabric connecting them to the lower parts of his legs. He had wings, and he was currently soaring through the sky above them.

She gaped as Toothless finally levelled out just behind Hiccup. They were flying. Both of them, individually. She wouldn't have ever thought it possible.

As she guided Stormfly closer to them, she noticed that it wasn't really flying. More like soaring. Both of them were slowly losing altitude, seemingly locked in that position. She flew after them, some of Hiccup's muffled screams reaching her ears. Screams of excitement. They continued like that for a while, until Hiccup eventually signalled something to Toothless. The dragon responded by levelling out beneath Hiccup and the two of them reconnected before landing on a stray sea stack.

She landed next to them, Hiccup pulling up his visor and flashing her a triumphant smile. That's when her sense of wonder faded away and she realized what he'd just put her through.

"Are you out of your mind!?" she blazed.

The victorious look on Hiccup's face instantly evaporated and he reflexively backed away.

"At any point in the past six weeks, did it occur to you that it might be a good idea to tell me you can do that!?" she fumed, approaching him. "I thought you were going to die!"

"Calm down, Astrid, I'm fine," Hiccup tried to appease her, holding his hands up in the air to claim innocence. Then his lips curled up into a cocky smile. "Can't a guy have some secrets around here?"

"SECRETS!?" she yelled, landing her fist in his stomach. "You have had nothing but secrets!"

Hiccup visibly arched back due to the impact, but then started laughing as soon as he regained his breath. She proceeded to punch his shoulders, because this really wasn't funny. "You son of a half-troll, rat-eating, munge-bucket –" She interrupted her tirade as she realized what they had started chasing each other for in the first place. "Give me the book!"

"No," Hiccup laughed, swatting her away with the black leather still hanging from his arms, clearly finding the situation very amusing.

He took a few steps back but she chased after him, willing to tear it off him if she had to. "Give it up."

"Nope," Hiccup refused.

"Alright, fine," she conceded, deciding that two could play that game. Pretending she was going for his chest once again, she used the opening to pry Hiccup's helmet off his head. Before he could react, she ran back to Stormfly, mounting her and putting the helmet on her own head. It still smelled like him. It smelled nice. "Feel free to tell me when you're willing to trade!"

"Astrid, that's not fair!" Hiccup yelled as she got into the air, but she could see a smile linger on his lips. He danced around awkwardly in his leather wings, seemingly trying to wrap them back into whatever part of his armour they'd come out of. Now that she thought back to it, she had seen leather straps on it before. Gods, he was such a trickster.

"Time to see how fast you really are!" she teased, moving Hiccup's visor down and nudging Stormfly to increase their speed. They shot away from the sea stack, flying straight ahead to gain as much distance as possible.

It didn't take long before she heard the beating of a Night Fury's wings, along with the high-pitched sound of one flying at top speed. She looked behind her, but didn't spot them. That means they were –

"Afternoon, milady," a nasal voice teased.

She looked up, finding Hiccup and Toothless flying upside down above her and Stormfly. Hiccup shot her an arrogant smile before he pulled his helmet straight off her head. "Game over, Astrid."

The pair of Night Fury and rider spun back around, getting higher into the sky. She sent Stormfly after them, not willing to surrender just yet. Toothless seemed to be flying more relaxed, Hiccup seemingly convinced they'd won, so they levelled out just above and in front of them. She softly patted Stormfly's neck as she pulled up her own feet. Every time she'd seen Hiccup jump, there had been something she wanted to try herself. And this was her chance.

After making sure Stormfly was stable and relaxed, she sat up on her knees. Then she got up to her feet, spreading her arms to maintain her balance. Hiccup and Toothless were below them, just slightly behind, and seemingly hadn't been bothered by their presence yet. Only now did Hiccup look up at them and she could see his eyes grow larger as he realized what she was about to do. So without any hesitation, she jumped.

After a brief journey through the air, she landed right where she'd planned to, on Toothless' back. Her landing was a bit uneasy and she struggled to maintain her balance for a second, her arms flailing around, but then she had it. Hiccup's head was almost completely turned around and she could only imagine him gaping from behind his visor.

She smiled at him, triumphantly sitting down on Toothless' back with her legs crossed. She leant forward, pulling the helmet off Hiccup's head once more. "How are you going to get away now, huh?"

Hiccup locked the Night Fury's tail and turned around to face her, swinging his long legs over Toothless' body. "I think surrender might be my best option," he smiled. "Before you get overconfident and jump to your death."

She had become confident, yes. Flying was great and as with everything she loved, she was training hard to become great at it. But that wasn't why she hadn't been scared to pull off a move like that. "Stormfly would've caught me if it went wrong," she countered. "Or you. It's all about trust, after all."

Hiccup's lips curled up as the sun hit his face just perfectly, lighting up his presence. "I'm really glad you're here, Astrid."

She couldn't help but fully smile back at him as he looked at her like that. His green eyes were soft, his face overjoyed. He wasn't the Phantom. He was truly, completely Hiccup. "I don't really mind being here either," she told him honestly.

She looked at the helmet in her hands and at the face in front of her. So much had changed since she'd first pulled it off his face. They had been good, then they'd gone to really bad, and now they were even better than they had been before. She wasn't in love with him, but she couldn't keep herself from thinking back to what had gone through her head when she'd seen him fall just now. That if she'd lost him right then, she would have regretted not kissing him forever.

As she looked at Hiccup, at his scars, how just half of his face was still covered in freckles, his one bushy eyebrow, his beautifully messed up hair and his blinding smile, she could no longer think of a reason to hesitate. What was she waiting for? They'd done it before. When they had barely known each other. And that had felt so good.

Ever since that one night nearly two and a half months ago, on which he'd made her fear for her life, he hadn't really done anything to her. He had been difficult, he had been a pain, but he had also shown her who he really was. Had told her his stories and through it, shown his soul. He'd shown her Hiccup. And she enjoyed every second she spent with him. She missed him when he wasn't around. And gods, she was incredibly attracted to him.

Her eyes went to his helmet one more time, and then to the Nadder who had levelled out next to them. "Stormfly, fetch!"

She sat up on her knees and flung it towards her dragon, who caught it with ease. Hiccup's eyes followed it and she could see he was about to protest. But she wasn't going to give him the chance to open his smart mouth. Instead, she threw her arms around his neck, and the expression in his eyes changed as he looked up at her in surprise. Then, she kissed him.

Time seemed to slow down. She closed her eyes, and she felt everything. The wind on her skin and in her bangs, probably making her look more flushed than she had intended to be. But above all, she felt him. The shape of his soft and thin lips, the heat of his skin beneath her hands. And then, after a few long, heart-wrenching seconds, she felt him angle his head, locking his lips with hers. Hiccup's arms wrapped around her waist and he slightly pushed back towards her, leaning into her touch. Thank Thor, he was kissing her back. It was soft, intense and sweet all at the same time. It was liberating.

They separated after what felt like forever, but forever still didn't seem like long enough. She looked at him and the way in which he gazed back at her made her struggle to control her already rapidly beating heart. The look in his eyes said nothing else but utter devotion and admiration. She didn't know what he saw when he looked into hers, so she searched for another way to return it. She had never been good with words, and she believed actions could say much more.

She lifted her right hand, but changed her mind and switched to her left instead. Slowly but surely, she laid it on his cheek. His skin felt rough but also pleasantly warm beneath her cold fingers. She traced the lines of his scars with one of them, just taking in how handsome he looked right then. His hair being ruffled by the wind, his eyes slowly closing as he leant into her touch. No longer able to endure how gorgeous he looked, she kissed him once again.

Hiccup responded instantly this time, moaning slightly as he returned the kiss. His hands wandered from her waist to her lower back and he softly tugged, pulling her closer. It forced her on her behind, letting her legs hang on either side of Toothless. She buried her hands in Hiccup's hair, eagerly holding on to gorgeous auburn as she softly bit into his lower lip, letting him know just how much she was enjoying this.

Hiccup groaned, the sound alone enough to set her on edge as his hands wandered to her thighs. He lifted her legs, yanking her even closer. She yelped, wrapping her legs around Hiccup's hips and her arms around his back. His slender arms were instantly around her, securing her, and they just leant their foreheads against each other, laughing. They were likely the first people ever to kiss on the back of a flying Night Fury. No one could blame them for being slightly clumsy.

After they'd finished chuckling, she just looked at him, finding the same joy reflected in his emerald eyes. Before she could make another move, Hiccup pulled her against him, holding her firmly as his lips came down on hers again. It was a harder, rougher kiss and she cherished every second of it. One of her hands went to the nape of his neck, back into his hair and she pulled on it, which got her a deliciously deep and hungry grunt from Hiccup in response.

He kissed her even harder, making her lick his lips in search of his tongue. He quickly obliged, returning that amazing feeling she'd had to miss since that night in the arena. Only now did she truly realise how much she'd longed for it, their bodies against each other, the two of them gasping for air in between kisses. It felt right. Gods, it felt so extremely right.

She was practically clawing at his neck, finding too little skin to touch. From multiple perspectives, their current situation – flying, on the back of a dragon, fully dressed, the wind colouring both of their cheeks even redder – was extremely impractical. Now that she had him, she couldn't get enough of him. She could hardly even remember why she'd hesitated in the first place as she kept stealing kisses for him without any intention of slowing down.

Hiccup seemed to share her lust, his hands settling on her waist just roughly enough. He drew his lips away from hers, pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth instead. Before she could catch him again, he started trailing kisses down her neck as he slowly pushed her down onto her back, leaning over her and using his weight to keep them stable. As they shifted, she could feel Hiccup's groin against hers and was both surprised and enticed by how obviously excited he was, to the point that she could clearly feel his arousal through his flight suit.

That was also however the moment at which her back pressed down onto Toothless' back fins. And coincidentally, that's when the dragon decided he'd had enough of being Hiccup's literal wingman. He flapped his wings and moved around a few times, which was enough to throw Hiccup and her off-balance. Hiccup pulled her back up, chuckling loudly as she quickly stabilised herself. He kissed her once more, and then let her go with a slightly sulking look on his face before he turned around and unlocked the Night Fury's tail.

"Sorry, bud, I got carried away," she could hear him say. His voice was hoarse and filled her stomach with butterflies. She wrapped her arms around him, not willing to let go of the warmth of his body against hers quite yet. As Hiccup sent them into descent, she pressed her lips against his ear, burying her nose in his hair and just enjoying his scent. It was intoxicating. He was intoxicating.

They made their way down onto a larger sea stack, although she hadn't seen this particular one before. She honestly had no idea where they were, having drifted pretty far away from Phantom Island. But given that they'd pretty much flown in a straight line, finding their way back probably wouldn't be that difficult.

She got off Toothless before Hiccup did and as she looked at him she really hoped her cheeks weren't as red as his. He turned to Toothless, playfully poking the Night Fury. "You okay, bud? Great job gliding on your own."

Toothless looked away from him, grumbling in a displeased manner.

"Oh, come on Toothless, I already said I'm sorry," Hiccup pouted as he toyed around with the Night Fury's ears. But Toothless seemed unimpressed and didn't move at all in response. "Or are you jealous that I was kissing such a pretty girl?"

If her cheeks hadn't been red before, they were now. "You think I'm pretty?" she asked, her voice just not willing to come out right.

Hiccup looked up at her. "My staring wasn't obvious enough?"

Nope, she had been too busy staring at him herself to even notice. She bit her lip, briefly averting her gaze. "You're cute too."

There was a hint of insecurity on Hiccup's face. "Even despite…?" He raised one of his hands to his scars.

She gave him a reassuring smile. "Yes."

Hiccup's smile widened as he turned back to Toothless, who was still looking unsatisfied. "Well, Toothless doesn't seem to think those are valid excuses."

She chuckled, walking up to the dragon and looking into its green eyes. "I'm sorry, Toothless," she told him, scratching just behind his ears which she knew he liked. "I can be your girl too?" She knelt down, pressing her lips against the Night Fury's skull. Toothless looked at her, his eyes slightly softening.

She pouted. "Do you forgive us?"

Toothless gave a warble which she couldn't really call approval, but he also didn't seem set on reprimanding the two of them any further. Instead, he turned to Stormfly, who had landed shortly after them, having loyally followed them all the way here. She had carried Hiccup's helmet along as well, and was now playing with it. Toothless joined her, the two of them chasing each other around the sea stack with it.

"We probably need to get that back from them," she giggled, sitting down and watching the dragons.

"It can wait," Hiccup reassured her, settling down next to her. He turned his head towards her, smiling. "I don't need it around you."

She felt her insides melt right then. He surely had a way with words.

"So are you…?" he followed up. She frowned, to which Hiccup added: "My girl?"

She blushed and looked away. He always turned her words around to haunt her. "Let's not make things more complicated than they already are by talking about it," she shrugged. "We've got enough going on."

"Can't say I disagree with that," Hiccup mumbled.

She looked back at him, her eyes wandering down from his gorgeous eyes to his slightly swollen lips, a result of their aerial make-out session. Something primal growled in her stomach as she watched Hiccup do the same.

He cleared his throat, grinning awkwardly. "But would it be alright if I kissed you again?"

She gave him a confident smile back. "You better."

Hiccup's eyes instantly shone brighter and he started to pull his gloves from his hands, tossing them aside. "Then I guess I don't need these either."

She couldn't help but happily gaze back at him as he put his scarred hand on her cheek. He swept her bangs out of her face with the other, pulling her closer and kissing her forehead, sending a pleasant shiver down her spine. She wrapped her hands around his neck and he kissed her, the two of them joined together once more.

A/N: THEY. KISSED. *screams like a teenager at a Justin Bieber concert*

Finally. Their first make-out session was in chapter 10. This is chapter 21. I did not intend for things to get this lengthy when I started writing this story, and I moved this moment forward in time many times already, but gods, am I happy to be here.

Special shout-out to Toothless, the best wingman Hiccup could possibly hope for! He really is the most tragic character in this story, having had to put up with all of Hiccup's and Astrid's shit so far, and now with their horniness.