She didn't speak to him that night, which was expected. She also didn't speak to him the next day, which was a bit more difficult. When he didn't hear a single word from her the day before they left he became agitated.
Sure, he'd always expect to come back, but there was always a chance he wouldn't. He'd come to care for her in the short time he knew her and didn't want to leave on such bad terms. The problem was, the only way he could see to mend any bond they had was to cede defeat, which he refused to do.
Not being near her gave him a chance to speak to Eret though. He'd made the adjustments to the stable's blueprint and was hoping it could be raised during the attacks so Angus could travel back with them.
"Hey," Astrid chirped from across the room sharpening her axe.
"Hey, Astrid. What are you doing here?" He'd come into his old home, his parents' home, to make sure his creations were still hidden.
"Checking your handiwork, of course." He groaned as she spun a black helmet in her hands.
"How did you find it, Astrid?"
"You always tinker when you're upset. I knew you had it started before you left, I just had to think of where you'd hide it."
"This wasn't my angry project," he pointed out.
"It wasn't?"
"No. I had these pieces done before I issued the ultimatum. When I was trying to let her fall asleep before heading to bed."
"She'd love them."
"She won't get them."
"She could come with the reinforcements."
"I don't want her out there."
"You care about her."
"Of course I do!"
"You should tell her that."
"What?!"
"She knows you respect her discomfort, but have you tried to make her comfortable?"
"Astrid…"
"Look, I'm not saying you should act like you're married right away, but try to form a relationship with her-a romantic one. She'd be a fool not to fall for you."
"And here I thought you were being foolish when you did fall for me," he smirked.
"Yes, well, good thing I started thinking straight, huh?
"Yup. Real good thing for Eret."
"What?" she snapped at the redirection of the conversation.
"He's head over heels for you and I've seen how you try not to look at him. Just go for it, Astrid."
"Only if you do, too," she answered, biting her lip.
"Alright, deal."
She smiled and left, and he checked that all the pieces were still there. They were. A set of dragon scale armor, a quiver, and a light weight long sword, all stashed away where the girl in mind could never use them.
.
He'd given her her space. She had wanted that. She wasn't any closer to having her list together, but she wanted to make some kind of amends with the blasted dragon rider. She laid in bed awake wondering if he was going to be back that night.
He'd leave in the morning. He'd be gone.
He wasn't avoiding her. But he also wasn't interacting with her.
And he would be gone the next day.
She rolled over.
She'd gotten riding gear, but no armor.
She'd made three quivers, but the wrong shift of a dragon below her would send her arrows flying.
There was no sword in Berk that was a decent weight for her.
She had managed to fly Stormfly alone once, and that didn't go very well.
The only progress she'd actually made was in fletching arrows. She had 30 arrows in each quiver. The broadheads were crude, but the fletching was perfect, so she knew they'd fly straight and strong.
She sighed and rolled over again.
She knew he'd been coming to bed, even if she was asleep before he got here and gone before she awoke. She was determined to see him tonight. She didn't know what she was going to say, but she needed him to at least know she didn't hate him.
It was getting late. Was he usually this late? He definitely wasn't this late after the meeting in the war room.
She sat up and hugged her legs.
Maybe he was with another woman…
The thought was unwelcome because it brought too many other concerns to mind. Should she feel insulted, when she wasn't willing to share her own bed? Was he already in love with another? Was their marriage incapable of learning love? Her mum certainly thought so.
She shook her head to dispel the unwelcome musings.
Standing, she made her way up to the loft. It was Toothless's designated sleeping area, but she rarely saw him there. He'd often go flying at odd hours and when he wasn't in the air he was with Hiccup.
She hadn't gotten much more comfortable with the black dragon, but knew she'd have to make the effort eventually. Stormfly didn't give off the same primal energy he did, and she still wasn't great with the nadder. She had been compared to the sharp creature when some of the village folk saw her practicing with her bow.
She was surprised to find the portal to outside occupied by a dark mass.
"Oh! Uh...I dinnit 'spect ye ta be here."
Toothless warbled as he turned to look at her.
"I figured ye'd be with Hiccup."
He grunted and rolled his eyes.
"Oh…" She took it as a bad sign if the dragon didn't want to be with the man, but her curiosity bested her. "Where-where is he?"
Toothless entered the loft fully and spun so his back was to her, and began flipping his tail around.
"What?"
He thumped his tail on the wall and opened and shut his tail fins a few times.
"Hiccup went for a walk?"
He rolled his eyes and turned again so his nape was to her.
"What?"
He warbled and jerked his head in a 'come on' motion.
"Ye...ye want me ta ride ya?"
He rolled his eyes. She took it to mean 'Obviously.'
"I'm sorry I'm not the most comfortable around ye. Yer just…"
He snorted and shook his head.
"Just...be careful, please."
He sighed and lowered his body so she could get on him easier.
She tentatively climbed onto his back, where his saddle usually was and clung to the scales on either side of his neck, hugging him with her knees. He never took off into the air, instead pouncing from rooftop to rooftop. She fretted where he may take her, but enjoyed the trust building exercise. Finally, they arrived at Gobber's smithy. She saw the forge was lit and heard the pounding of metal inside.
It was unnerving when he descended from the roof, as she was left horizontal facing the ground. When he righted himself on the ground she nearly fell off. Toothless adjusted himself to keep her from tumbling.
Warbling he indicated the door.
"What's he doin' in there?"
He thumped his tail on the ground.
"Fine. I'll ask 'im meself." She marched over to the door and grabbed the handle, only to hesitate. She never had figured out what she wanted to say to him. Sighing, she decided anything would be better than where they'd left off before.
.
This was the fourth spare fin he'd have made. He already had one spare, he always did, but then he'd made a new one each night since his argument with Merida. She hadn't spoken to him, so he didn't push her. He really wanted to, but it was a lot easier to pound his frustration into the metal than to try to figure how to hold a conversation with someone who despised him.
He felt a draft and wondered where it was coming from. That would need fixed when they returned. The forge needed to be properly ventilated, but a drafty hole could feed the fires at unideal times and cause burns.
He took his latest rod over to the water barrel to cool it. He needed one more rod, he'd already made the necessary gears. He wasn't sure what to make the fin out of for this one. He'd collected a lot of Toothless's scales, but after repairing his set of armor and three new tails he didn't think he had enough for another fin.
Sighing, he made his way to his workbench and looked through some of his on hand materials. He had other scales, mainly from nadders, razorwhips, and terrible terrors, so he could make a flashy tail with a design on it. He'd used a lot of designs while they'd still been flying with a manually shifted leather tail.
His eyes caught on Stormfly's blue scales and his mind shifted to Merida. Her eyes were the color of the clear morning sky. The dress she'd worn when they first met was obviously meant to match them. He was glad she'd become accustomed to wearing the village clothes, she seemed more comfortable in pants and a skirt than she did in her old dresses.
He looked down at what he'd drawn, unaware he'd even had charcoal in his hand. It was a bear and dragon, the same as the brooches he'd made for her. Pulling down the scales he adjusted them on his table to put together the possible design. Silver razorwhip scales would make the majority, while Stormfly's scales would create a blue bear and green terrible terror scales would make the dragon. (When he and Astrid had been together she'd commented his green eyes were annoyingly handsome. He smiled at the memory.)
He would need Toothless to weld the scales into place, but it looked like he had enough and then some. The question was if Toothless would be willing to help him. He'd been annoyed with Hiccup for not sleeping his normal hours the past few nights. It didn't disturb Toothless's routines, but they both knew the sleeplessness would catch up to him.
Sighing again, he sank to his stool. It was late, even by his recent standards. Touching up Merida's armor had taken longer than he'd meant and the fires had cooled considerably by the time he'd made it here, so he had to reheat the coals.
He really didn't want to go home. She'd be there, definitely asleep by now, and he'd want to tell her how much he admires her fire but he just wasn't willing to risk her life. That would start an argument though. He ran his hand through the scales, scattering the design. He'd never be in sync with her like it had depicted.
"Why'd ye do that?"
He jumped at the voice, grabbing the closest axe as he spun around. He'd recognized the voice mid swing, and dropped the weapon to his side as he faced her.
"What are you doing here?" he gasped as his body recovered from the bout of adrenaline.
"Sorry. I-I…" She looked down and twisted her hands together.
"You just snuck up on me. What brings you here?" He tried to sound conversational instead of his initial accusatory.
"Toothless…" she mumbled and then shrugged.
"Did you…need something?"
"I just…" She squared her shoulders and looked him in the eye. "I wanted to see ye. Ye'll be leaving tomorrow and I 'ave no intention on lettin' things 'tween us as they are." He smiled at her, enjoying the strength she showed. She was every bit the bear her parents were.
"I'd like that. I just didn't want to…" To what? Impose? Make things worse? Have her twist his words to allow her to come.
"I'm still angry with ye. I think I should be goin' and I'd be useful. But I understand why ye don' want me there."
"That's all I ask. We don't have to agree, just understand."
She gave a sharp nod and looked around the room, pointedly not meeting his eye.
"Ye understand me?" she finally asked in a hushed tone.
"Yes. More than you'd think."
She visibly processed this before gesturing to his table and the scattered scales.
"It was a lovely design. Matched me brooch, right? What were you makin'?"
"Another tail for Toothless. He doesn't really need one though. I already have three spares made."
"A tail?"
"Oh! I guess I explained how we became friends, but I never explained how we became so close. Um, well...you see we didn't just find one another." He heard Toothless's staccato laughter from outside. "I shot him down. He lost a tail fin when he fell and requires a prosthetic to fly now."
"Ye made something that can fly?"
"Well he flies. The fin just keeps him flying."
"How does it work?"
"Originally I had it connected to the saddle so I could shift it for him, but he couldn't fly on his own like that, so eventually I made one he could shift by himself."
Her eyes were wide as he explained his first attempt at such a design, and Toothless's disdain for it. After a while he took her out and showed her the mechanisms in the tail.
"I don' understand half of it, but I know it's amazing!" He laughed as she looked at him with wonder.
"You think I understand the magic of your homeland? Of your past? We'll make a good team, delegating what we comprehend." She smiled again, and he was surprised to find just how much he wanted to kiss her right then.
"I'd like us bein' a team."
He shared her smile and reached forward, tracing her jaw and tucking her hair away from her face. She looked like a deer in dragon sights.
Dropping his hand he stepped back, afraid to push her too far.
"'I will be a shield for your back,'" he told her, reciting the vow he had every intention of keeping.
"But ye have ta let me be one for ye, too," she pointed out with a soft expression.
Not being able to contain his impulse any longer he leaned forward and placed a tender kiss to her forehead. It wasn't quite what he wanted to do, but it was a good redirect.
She seemed stunned by the action.
"Come on. It's far too late and tomorrow will be a long day." He lead her back to their home and tucked her in. She kept her back turned as he changed, but she didn't leave the room this time. He laid down and draped his arm over her. She didn't flinch, instead relaxing into his embrace.
He fell asleep with a smile on his face.
(A/N So, if you couldn't figure it out Toothless was trying to (repeatedly) say "the idiot is making me another tail." Dragon dialog is a pain, but I think it was okay in this chapter.)