Tuff was waiting just outside Hiccups house while his father and Astrids father went in to go get her.

When they came out again Astrid was with them and she didn't look happy.

Now if there was one thing that Tuff had learned in his years of being a dragon rider, it's that you never, ever, want to make Astrid mad. And if you do, you get as far away as possible before she hurts you. Tuff had seen Snotlout walk into the clubhouse with a black eye or bloody nose with the sound of Astrid yelling at him enough times that he knew the process.

Tuff meekly waved at Astrid but she just scowled at him.

Their fathers were telling them something but Tuff wasn't listening, he was too busy wondering if Astrid would go to the market with him to shop for chickens birthday. She is very hard to shop for.

"Tuffnut! Do you understand?" His father said in a loud voice, making him jump.

"Uh what? I mean yes, ya, I totally got it."

"Good. Then get going," he gestured to Astrid, who was already starting to walk away.

Tuff jogged up to her and matched their paces.

"Ok, I don't got it, what were they saying?"

Astrid rolled her eyes and filled him in on what they were supposed to do today and what the plan was for the next few years.

"For today we can do what ever we want, we just have to do it together. And the plan for the next few years..." she trailed off and sighed. "Three days a week we have to spend the day with each other. We can choose the day, we just have to do it."

Tuff considered this for a moment before asking, "Why can't we just not spend the day together and tell our parents we did?"

She smirked and said, "They have Vikings in on it. I don't know who but all over town people will be making sure we are together."

"Oh. Well that sucks."

They walked in silence before Tuff asked Astrid a question.

"Why were you in Hiccups house? Were you guys talking or something?"

She looked at him for a moment before replying.

"I guess you could call it a conversation, I mean it's not like he could talk back."

Tuffs eyes widened. "You tied Hiccup to a chair and gagged him and demanded to know all of his dragon secrets?!? Didn't think you had it in you, A."

She chuckled and then stopped short.

"Oh my Thor, I forgot to tell you last night!"

Tuff stopped too and looked at her curiously.

"Tell me what?"

"When we got back from the edge Hiccup offered to walk me home. Right when we were almost at the front door, a Speedstinger chief came out of nowhere. It was going to sting me but Hiccup pushed me out of the way and it stung him instead. I think it was the Stinger chief from the edge looking for revenge because it stung him over and over and over until I fought it off. Fishlegs and Gothi came and said that he won't be able to move for a week of more. Everyday I'm going over there for a few hours to keep him company while Stoicks away."

"Huh. Well that's nice of you, you know, considering that you broke up and stuff."

Astrid scowled at the ground and maybe blushes a bit. It was hard to tell. It must have been an uncomfortable subject because she quickly steered the conversation in a different direction.

"Any plans on what to do today?"

Tuff grinned evilly and filled her in about Chickens birthday.

"Oh, I remember what you got her last year. Wasn't it that gold necklace that you found at the northern markets?"

"Uhh, ya, it was," he said, kinda shocked. Tuff didn't think that Astrid payed any kind of attention to him or Chicken last year. He was kind of impressed.

Astrid smiled a bit and asked him if he had any idea what she wanted.

"Well, you know how hard she is to shop for. She don't want a quilt, she doesn't want a hay blanket, and I can't get her jewelry again this year. I mean, come on!"

Tuff rambled on and on about what Chicken likes, dislikes, might want and how hard she is to shop for. "I got her a mini mace for Snoggletog and guess what she did?!? She took one look at it and walked away! Can you believe that!?!"

Astrid shook her head, and tried to repress the laughter that was going to burst out of her.

Tuff took that as a good sign and soon he started to get more comfortable around her, talking more openly and even changing the subject and having a conversation, sort of.

Soon they came up on the docks and started browsing through all of the ships and seeing what all was there.

There were about a dozen ships but they had all day, so there was no rush. Tuff had about a dozen coins in his pocket, 6 copper, 5 silver and 1 gold. He looked over at Astrid and saw her counting the coins she kept in the small pouch attached to her belt. She had around the same as him, maybe a bit less.

They wove their way through the crowd of Vikings on the docks and made their way to the first ship.

The ship had food and house hold items mostly. Plates, cutlery, pitchers, that kind of thing. There were a few trinkets, daggers with designs carved into them, the odd ring and even a bracelet, but nothing Chicken would want.

They wandered over to the next ship and found it much more interesting. It wasn't as crowded as the first ship but there was a fair amount of people on it.

The merchant came up to them right away and asked them if they were looking for anything specific.

"No thank you sir. We're just browsing for right now," Astrid told him. The merchant shrugged and walked off to help some other Vikings.

They walked over to a table and began looking through it. This table had weapons on it. Swords, axes, bludgeons, daggers, maces, even a small catapult was beside the table.

Tuff looked at the weapons in awe. It was like a table full of deadliness. He must have said it out loud because he heard Astrid chuckle.

"What?" He asked her.

"Nothing," she said. He looked over at her and saw her holding and inspecting a set of iron throwing knives.

"You gonna get those?" He asked her, gesturing at the knives.

"I don't know," she said. She looked up at him and Tuff felt like his gut was filled with Fireworms amped up on dragon nip. He quickly tamped down the feeling and realized that Astrid had asked him a question.

"Sorry, what?"

She grinned and said, "Anything here that Chicken would like?"

He smiled and looked down at the table of weapons.

"Not unless she's planning a murder," he said. Astrid smiled at his joke and suggested they look somewhere else.

They looked at all the different tables on the ship, not finding much of interest. Astrid did find a book and bought it for a few coppers though.

When Tuff gave her a questioning look she blushed and said "What?! Since we aren't getting attacked every other week now, I decided to try reading as a new kind of hobby thing. I borrowed a book from Fishlegs back at the edge and I liked it so I'm getting another,"

"Nice," Tuff said and they went to the next boat.

They didn't find anything much of interest in the next few boats they ventured on to, but Tuff did buy them lunch, so that was good. Astrid tried to protest, saying that they should split the cost, but Tuff wouldn't take her money, insisting that it was his treat. She gave in and soon they were sitting down at the end of the dock, feet hanging over the edge and eating yak chops.

When they were finished they got up and looked around some more.

They came to a ship that they didn't recognize. Without a second thought Tuff strode aboard and Astrid followed, her axe in her hands.

There weren't many people on the ship, and as they looked around they didn't understand why.

"How can I help you?"

They both jumped back. Right behind them was the weirdest old man Tuff had ever seen. He was hunched over, had a walking stick, and was that a sheep at his feet? He actually looked kinda familiar-

"Mildew!?! What are you doing here?" Tuff asked. Astrid looked at him like he was crazy, turned back to look at the old man and then seemed to recognize him, because she started advancing on him, axe at the ready.

He backed up and almost fell off the boat as Astrid swung the axe.

Under normal circumstances Tuff loved unnecessary violence. But he didn't want Astrid to take Mildews head off before they bought some of his cool stuff. And he had some really cool stuff.

Tuff grabbed Astrid around her waist and held her back as she struggled. Once she had calmed down, kind of, they questioned Mildew, why he was here, where he went and why he looked so bad. Tuff decided to risk decapitation and kept one arm around Astrids shoulders, just in case she decided to attack before they were done shopping. Surprisingly, she let him keep his arm around her. And it might have been him imagination, but he could have sworn that she leaned into him slightly.

Probably nothing, he told himself. Then he came back to the conversation, because Astrid was waving her axe in the air, very close to his face.

"Why are you here?" She was saying. "And why, do you have a trading ship?"

Mildew sneered at her, then looked at Tuffs arm around her and smirked.

"Well, well. Somethings have changed around 'ere since we were last around, haven't they Fungus?"

Astrid glared at him and shoved her axe blade under his throat.

"Now, now, no need to get hasty." Seeing that she wasn't going to leave without an explanation he sighed.

"After Alvin allied with Berk he kicked me and Fungus off outcast island. We shipwrecked and after months of boringness I got me self a ship and decided to start trading. It's been spotty but we've made a decent living, haven't we Fungus."

Tuff muttered in Astrids ear something about how she wouldn't get to keep her axe if she got thrown in prison on account of murder, and she sighed and brought her axe down. They wandered around Mildews ship, always keeping one eye on him, and actually found some pretty nice stuff. And it was rare too.

Speedstinger venom, moulted Changewing skin and Fireworm scales, among other, more ordinary things like axes, swords and shields were on his boat. After making sure they were genuine, Tuff bought the venom and Astrid bought the moulted skin and a new dagger.

It was getting late so they went to the next boat to see if there was anything for Chicken there. And as luck would have it, there was.

The lady on the boat was nice enough, telling them facts about all of the different things on her boat. She looked at them and said something about how cute they were together. Tuff hadn't been paying much attention to what she was saying before, but that got his attention.

He looked over and saw that his arm was still over her shoulders. He had forgotten about that, actually. Apparently, so had Astrid, because she looked over at Tuff, noticed that his arm was still over her shoulders and shoved him away from her. She stuttered something about how they weren't like that. The lady just gave them a knowing smile and lead them to a part of the ship that was covered in plants.

Vines, ferns, flowers and small shrub things. You name it, she probably has it. On a tiny table were flower crowns in all different sizes. It was pushed back behind a big fern but Tuff saw it.

"What are those?" He asked the lady, pointing to the table with the flower crowns on it.

"Oh those? Sometimes I get bored and weave little crowns out of some of my flowers. Nothing to special."

He picked one up to examine it and then he saw it. It was a tiny flower crown, made of small blue, yellow and white flowers.

"It's perfect," he breathed. "How much?" He asked.

The lady looked surprised and said he could have that one and one more for a copper. He selected one more, it was regular size and had a bunch of different kinds of flowers in it. They were white, pink and yellow, with some light purple. He payed and thanked the woman and he and Astrid left the ship.

"A flower crown? For Chicken? Really?" Astrid asked.

"Yep," Tuff answered. Then he pointed out to the ocean.

"Oh my Thor, what is that!?!"

Astrid whirled to look where he was pointing but there was nothing there.

"Wha-" she began but she stopped when she felt a weight on her head. She whirled around and saw that Tuff had put the other crown on her head. She looked at him for a long moment, as if deciding how to react. Then she took off the crown and for a horrible moment Tuff thought she was gonna throw it in his face, or into the sea.

Then she took off her leather headband thing, Tuff didn't really know what it was called, wrapped it around her wrist, and put the crown back on. She offered him a smile before grabbing his wrist and leading him onto the next boat.

Tuff was numbly following her, in a daze. Somehow she didn't push him off the docks when he put the crown on her head. He thought he was going to go into shock.

The rest of the day passed by pretty quickly. They visited the rest of the boats, Astrid bought another few books and a bag to put them in, and Tuff got a fish bone necklace for Ruff and a new mace. "He can be friends with Macey!" He told Astrid when he bought it.

"I'm going to call him... George!"

When the sun set, they came off the docks and Tuff walked Astrid home. She went inside and then he made his own way home.

When he got there, he have Ruff her necklace and went to bed, the feeling in his gut preventing him from eating any supper. As he lay in bed, half asleep, a thought crossed his mind, one that had him bolting upright.

I really like Astrid, he thought. Then he muttered, "This is gonna end well," lay back down and fell asleep.