I apologise profusely for my absence as of late. As it turns out, juggling a job, degree and anxiety disorder makes it very hard to write fanfiction. I've even been so ashamed of not having updated I wouldn't use my laptop, check my account or even check my emails, making my boyfriend do it for me.

However, I'm starting to get back some of my mojo and I hope to be updating more regularly than every six months or so :( Though I must warn you, over the next few months I face a very busy period at work as well as a few major assignments. So if things slow up between now and June, please be patient.

Sorry again and thank you for staying with the story. I hope I can stop disappointing people now.

There was Hiccup, hands on his hips in the doorway laughing at him. Toothless grunted at the intrusion. "So… looks like we both got some action last night bud." He crouched down and scratched Toothless in that sweet spot behind his ears. Toothless couldn't help a happy smug smile. "Score bud! Nice one, bump the fist." He chuckled when Toothless bumped his nose against Hiccup's fist.
"Right bud, time to get moving. Astrid's headed into the town centre and I promised to keep you busy so you and Stormfly will behave!" Toothless looked hesitant. "Come on big baby boo. Let's go for a flight just for a couple hours ok?" He gave another grumble before he moved. Hiccup suddenly stood up and put his hands on his hips, frowning.
"Toothless… What have you done to your tail fin?!" Toothless shuffled guiltily around on the spot. "Awww bud seriously? Alright… I'll dig out the spare and repair this one later. Just remind me to remove it before you and Stormfly get active again!" With a sigh, he removed the damaged fin and dug out the spare. "Let's go bud."

"I have a problem. I have a huge problem. Shit shit shit shit shit!"
"What's with the cursing?" Ruff asked a number of days later, flipping through the glossy pages of a magazine.
"I have a huge problem Ruff! Can you please find that sympathetic part of your brain?!"
"Eurgh fine!" She swung lanky legs around and sat upright, leaning an elbow on the sofa arm and resting her head on her hand. "What's the problem girl?"
"My prescription ran out the other week…"
"Prescription for…?"
"The pill Ruff?"
"Ok. Ok so you had no pill. So the problem?"
"I went to the pharmacy the other day and couldn't get my prescription."
"Ok so just make Hiccup pull out or else make him wear a rubber."
"Yeah, I thought that too…"
"So then…"
"Ruff I bought a test anyway."
"Oh."
"Yeah. I mean, it's still early so it might not stick but…"
"Does he…?" She asked, suddenly completely serious.
"No. He doesn't. I haven't told him yet. When I first told him I wasn't on the pill he got so freaked out… I'm too afraid to tell him."
"Astrid Hofferson afraid?" Ruff asked in disbelief.
"Oh shut up! This was not a part of the plan! We got back together only a short while back. I'm not ready for this! He's not ready for this!"
"Ok ok!" Ruff climbed off the sofa and put an arm around Astrid. "Ok girl, breathe! Can't do anything until you breathe. Now just listen… This is going to be ok. If worst comes to worst, I'll take you to the clinic myself. But you need to tell him. He has a right to know." She hugged her again and then held her at arm's length. "Ok? But you have to tell him."
"Do I really?"
"Yes. Now come on. Calm down. It's gonna be ok."
"You promise?"
"Course I do, now come on. We've still got to get revenge on that slut Heather."

Hiccup arrived in school again, feeling pretty great. Life was good. Toothless and Stormfly were happy and playful as ever, and he was actually very hopeful for hybrid babies that year. He and Astrid were doing great, they were happy, spent time together, had amazing sex and he loved her. His courses were going great… What more could he ask for?
"Hiccup Haddock!" Shit. Heather. "HICCUP HADDOCK YOU BETTER HAVE…"
"Babe!" Astrid, thank the gods! "Babe! I've been looking for you everywhere!" She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him hard. He responded with a natural enthusiasm, lifting her off the ground as he kissed her back. Heather looked rather disgusted but he didn't pay attention as Astrid wrapped her legs around his waist. Suddenly all the blood from his head was rushing down to a very different organ. Astrid didn't seem to care that they were outside the academy in public view in front of Heather and a dozen other people. Hiccup no longer cared either. She was straddling his waist and rolling her hips in that all too delicious way. He moved to pin her against the wall of the academy, there were far too many layers of clothing between them, and he needed her. He craved her.
"HICCUP WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Heather screeched. Hiccup finally pulled away from Astrid to respond, but she did it for him.
"He's making out with his girlfriend."
"No he's not." Heather snapped back.
"He is."
"No because I'm here!"
"And you're not his girlfriend. I am."
"You broke up."
"And got back together. Now bye bye."
"Get off him!"
"Nope!" Several years ago, Hiccup might have thought having two girls, especially two hot girls (because it was pointless to deny Heather was attractive too), fight over him was the coolest thing in the world. He'd have been an idiot. This was awful. He knew both girls were dangerous in their own right. Pitting them head to head was surely asking for a blood bath. Hiccup tried to speak but was quickly silenced. Astrid slipped down from around his waist and let him go, taking a menacing step towards Heather.
"Oh good. You've learned which of us is really alpha female and let him go." Heather said with a smug smile. Astrid's hands clenched and unclenched.
"I let him go only so I could take you down and put you in your place."
"I am in my rightful place. You need to give it up and accept you're outcasted." Heather said, stepping forward herself, making her challenge clear. Astrid met her challenge without hesitation.
"Back down. You really don't want to do this."
"Oh I really think I do. We both know I'm better. Every guy you like likes me best. Right Hiccup?" Heather said. Hiccup shook his head and spoke his protest. But Heather ignored him.
"Step down Heather." Astrid warned again, teeth gritted and her hands balled into fists.
"You step down Astrid. I'm alpha female now."
It was like something off the nature channel. Like two wolves circling each other, vying for dominance, neither willing to lose the fight. They were going to kill each other. Hiccup had to do something. He had to intervene. But Ruff seemed to read his mind and put a hand out to stop him.
"Uh uh. Never get involved in a girl fight. You'll come out worse." She warned.
"I have to do something!"
"Nothing you can do. This has been brewing since before you and Astrid got together. Astrid needs to put Heather in her place, once and for all."
"This is madness! We're not our dragons! We shouldn't be fighting like this! It has to stop!" Again he tried to intervene but again he was stopped. He wasn't about to let Astrid get hurt. Why wouldn't they let him help her?
The fight looked set to end in violence. Hiccup didn't think he could stand to watch this, the twins held him back, refusing to let him interfere. This was bad, very bad. Then Astrid did something he didn't expect. She pulled something out of her pocket and held it up. She said two words and then Hiccup fainted.

"Babe? Babe are you ok?" A voice was calling to him and Hiccup groaned as he woke up.
"Hiccup? Hiccup can you see anything? Do you know your name and date of birth?" Another voice asked worriedly.
"Fishlegs I'm fine." He grumbled sitting up and holding his head. The twins were sat behind him, each supporting a shoulder. Astrid was in front of him, looking worried as she brushed his hair out of his face. Her eyes were heavy with guilt and worry. Hiccup forgot about everyone else around him and stared at his girlfriend.
"You're pregnant? Were you ever going to tell me?" He asked, voice bitter. Astrid looked down shamefully.
"Hiccup I…"
"Don't you think it's something I might have needed to know before say, oh I don't know, Heather and a dozen others!" He snapped angrily. He couldn't believe she hadn't told him. She'd told him she was getting the pill. That they would be fine. Why hadn't she told him before? Why instead, had she used it as ammunition against Heather? He was furious at her for this. "How long have you known?"
"Well I…"
"How long Astrid!" He snapped again. She flinched slightly.
"Just over a week." She said hurriedly. Hiccup glared. "Twelve days!"
"So in all those twelve days why did you not say anything?"
"Because I was scared Hiccup!" She blurted. He didn't have any sympathy right now.
"But not so scared that you wouldn't shout it out to Heather and other people randomly."
"Hiccup…"
"No Astrid! No ifs or buts! You should have told me! None of them needed to know! But instead you used it as part of some vindictive little game to get back at Heather!"
"That was actually Ruff's idea…" Astrid mumbled.
"Oh wonderful! So she knew before me too!"
"I panicked Hiccup! She's my best friend so I blurted it to her!"
"But not to me. Your boyfriend and father of your baby." He spat.
"I was going to! And she told me I had to! I didn't mean to tell Heather then… That wasn't meant to happen like that. I was going to tell you first… but she was just…"
"So you thought you'd break the news to everyone like that. Wonderful. Fucking wonderful." Hiccup tried to get up but the twins held onto him, thinking it wasn't wise for him to be standing yet. "Get off me!" Hiccup growled, shaking them off and standing up straight. Reluctantly they fell back away from him.

Astrid too stood up, blue eyes brimming with tears, not something you often saw in Astrid's eyes.
"Hiccup please, can we talk…"
"No. No we can't. You had twelve days to talk to me about it and you fucking left it!" Her lower lip trembled but Hiccup felt too angry to care. He turned and started to storm away.
"Where are you going?" Astrid cried out after him.
"Anywhere you aren't!" He spat and he hurried away from her, leaving her standing and crying.

Hiccup spent hours away. The sun rose to its highest point and then began to sink below the horizon. And still no one had seen Hiccup. He raged to Toothless about it during a flight, he'd pounded the air with his fists as he screamed in frustration. What had she been thinking?! He was so angry he hadn't noticed the sky grow dark and cloud over. He was so overwhelmed by everything, he hadn't even considered how she was feeling, especially given his reaction. The sky was almost pitch black before Hiccup even started to calm down.

Sensing a slight calming in his rider, Toothless let out a low rumble to him.
"I know bud. I really ought to talk to her about this." Hiccup said, he was laid back on Toothless and patted his side. "I just don't know what we're going to do."

Toothless gave another rumble, trying to comfort his human. He didn't like knowing his human had been fighting with his mate. He didn't understand the reason either. Apparently she was to have a hatchling. Toothless thought this was the point of all the mating. So why was Hiccup so cross? And why did it seem to make them so sad and scared?
"We're just not ready for a baby yet." Hiccup said. Toothless had learned that was what humans called their hatchlings. "But I don't know how Astrid would feel about giving up the baby. Females have a very different connection with a baby. She might not want to."

All females loved and protected their young as best they could. It was a natural instinct. Humans cared for their young for a great many years. It didn't seem surprising to Toothless that a female would have a very strong bond with their hatchling. But then again, Toothless had never heard much mention of Hiccup's mother. Did females in humans only care for female hatchlings for a long time? Was that why Hiccup only had his dad? Toothless wasn't sure. But he supposed he might be learning soon.
"I just, I don't know what is going to happen. We've not long been back together and now this happens? It would never have been easy but if she'd just talked to me first…"
Toothless' ears twitched. Something was lurking around them. He could sense them. He growled softly and flew a little faster, watching everywhere for the intruder.
"… and then we could have discusses what we'd do, how we felt. I still would have been shocked but I wouldn't have been so angry…"
Whatever or whoever it was, they were getting closer. Toothless listened hard. There was more than one.
"…I mean, I didn't even give her a chance to explain… But she still should have told me first. Right Toothless? Toothless? TOOTHLESS!"
Toothless dived suddenly, zigzagging through the clouds, attempting to hide them from view. But the others kept following. He shot up high into the dark sky, but the bright light of the moon kept him visible. Toothless snorted his annoyance and dove back to the clouds. But still they followed.

"Toothless! What are you doing bud?!" Hiccup yelled, hanging onto Toothless' saddle for dear life. Toothless wished Hiccup would be quiet. Then a screech broke the otherwise still night.
"Toothless…" Hiccup said slowly, now glancing around. Toothless could see them too.

Dragons. And lots of them. They were surrounding the pair.
"This is not normal…" Hiccup said, hugging tighter to the saddle. Dragons in Berk and around its borders never behaved this way. Especially not to Hiccup and Toothless. Toothless looked for a gap, a place where he could blast the dragons and escape. If he could get clear of them, he could outfly them all. He was ready to fly and blast when a larger shape blocked the light of the moon and stopped in front of them, pounding four powerful wings that wisped up the clouds.

The dragon screeched at Toothless. But Toothless did not flinch. He growled and snorted at the dragon, flapping hard himself.

"Oh my…"

Toothless hadn't expected that. A masked rider was standing on top of the dragon. He didn't think there were any riders of dragons outside of Berk. So who was this?

He and Hiccup hovered in the air.
"Hold on bud, just hold on." Hiccup was saying, staring at the figure uncertainly. That was when it happened.

Another shriek and one of the other dragons snatched Hiccup from Toothless' back and flew off with him. Toothless was sent tumbling down towards the ground, screeching for his rider.

Hiccup landed on the floor of a cave with a thump. He rose quickly to his feet and scanned around for the unknown rider. "Where's Toothless?! He can't fly alone! You have to rescue him!" No response, but eyes watched him from everywhere. But Hiccup was not afraid of these dragons. "WHERE IS MY DRAGON!" He yelled, and finally the figure appeared again. He shouted again for Toothless as with smack of a staff of rock, another dragon dropped Toothless beside Hiccup.

Instantly the pair greeted each other, both checking the other for injury. Then Hiccup turned on the rider again, Toothless arched his back and hissed, coiling around Hiccup defensively.
"Who are you? And what do you want with us?!" He demanded, trying to sound as brave as he could. The figure removed their helmet and moved towards him. It was a woman.

Toothless hissed again. Hiccup lowered his voice slightly.
"Who are you?" He asked again, as the woman inspected him. Slowly she stood up, she was tall, but not as tall as him. He drew himself up to full height. "I said, who are you." She stared at him with wild grey eyes, like stormy seas, flecked with green.
"I'm your mother."