AN- Sorry I haven't posted for a while, my life has been pretty crazy. Thanks to all of you who are actually reading this and are liking and leaving comments. This chapter is sorta short but it gets rlly good in the end and it's leading up to something really awesome :)

When Astrid woke up the next morning she felt weird. She had an odd feeling in her gut. She decided she didn't like it.

Her thoughts wandered to the dream she had last night. She was betrothed to Tuffnut, and they had spent the day looking at presents for Chickens birthday.

She almost laughed out loud. But as she swung out of bed and saw the flower crown and bag of books she knew it wasn't a dream.

She fell back into her bed, stifling a groan. Then she remembered that she actually had fun yesterday, with him. She contemplated her problem. On one talon, she actually enjoyed Tuffs company, and really didn't mind shopping with him yesterday. She also didn't mind that he had put his arm around her, not that she would ever admit that. And the flower crown, it was so sweet of him. She glanced over at it.

On the other talon, it was Tuffnut for Thors sake! He was an idiot, and a muttonhead! She didn't like him like that, did she?

She pushed all thoughts of Tuff from her mind as she got dressed and put on her boots. She was about to put on her usual leather headband thing, she couldn't remember the name at the time, but decided against it. Instead, she put on the flower crown. And instead of braiding her hair in its usual style, she pulled it back in a low ponytail.

She went out to the barn and saddled up Stormfly. After a few laps around the island to blow off some steam, they flew to Hiccups house.

She knocked on the door and Stoick lead her up to Hiccups room.

She sat on the bed and didn't talk for a minute, then burst.

She told him all about what they did yesterday, the shopping, meeting Mildew, the flower crown, all of it.

"And the worst part is," she was saying, "Tuff isn't that bad! And I think," she dropped her voice to a whisper. "I think I might actually like him a bit. I don't know what to do!"

She was silent for a moment before shaking her head and saying, "You probably don't wanna hear about this," and changing the subject.

She told him about the book she was reading, asked him some questions, and asked him what he thought about her hair. She was going to ask if he thought Tuff would like it but she stopped herself. What was going on with her?!? She never got like this around a boy, not even Hiccup when they were dating!

After a few more hours talking with Hiccup about anything and everything, she left his house to go find some food.

Once she had eaten she hopped on Stormfly and headed down to the arena to practice knife throwing. When she got down there she expected the arena to be empty but the twins, Fishlegs and Snotlout were there, blowing things up and destroying everything else.

"What are you guys doing?!?"

Everyone turned to look at her and Ruff stepped over to Fishlegs and grabbed his arm.

"We are trying to help my betrothed here, to find his destructive core. You know, so that we can destroy things together."

Fishlegs nodded. "And after this, we're going to look at scrolls and books and charts, and I'm going to help Ruffnut find her... less destructive core." He smiled at her and she smiled at him.

"Ew," Snotlout gagged. "Can we just get back to blowing things up, please?"

Astrid strode up to Tuff and they watched, the former with shock and the latter with delight, as Ruff and Fishlegs destroyed and blew things up.

"Wow, I guess people can change. I mean, when they were married before Fishlegs hated it. Now they both seem really happy."

Tuff looked over at her. "Ya, when they heard about the betrothal they got together and promised to try to make it work this time. And it kinda is working."

They watched a bit more before Astrid found her old throwing knives and started throwing them at the only targets the others hadn't blown to splinters.

After a bit Tuff came over to watch her. They had a bit of a competition and naturally Tuff lost. So, he had to help put away the knives and clean up the targets.

When they were done and all the others left, they went for a walk around the island. Ruff was teaching Fishlegs how to ride Barf and Stormfly was keeping Toothless company. So they walked.

After some awkward silence and a few half hearted attempts at conversation, they fell silent. Astrid was having a war with herself, half of her actually liked Tuff and enjoyed his company, and told her to give him a chance, because it might actually grow into a romance. The other half wanted to go grab Stormfly, some supplies and leave Berk, this horrid arranged marriage, and start a new life. But her third half knew that she couldn't do that to Tuff, Hiccup or her parents.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that when she actually focused on her surroundings they were in the forest.

They kept walking, a little slower than before, and Astrid found herself enjoying the afternoon.

Soon she got tired and Tuff suggested that they sit down for a bit. She was great full and they sat under a great oak, that had been on Berk for decades. Maybe even centuries.

Astrid was lost in her thoughts again but this time she was jerked back to the present when she felt something on her hand. She glanced down and saw that Tuff was slowly edging his fingers toward hers, until they were almost holding hands. She looked up at him and realized that he was looking at her, as if to ask permission to actually hold hands. Astrid blushed and looked away, but moved her hand so that they were actually holding hands.

Astrid smiled and was so happy she thought she might burst. She couldn't remember a time when she felt this good, not even with Hiccup.

They stayed like that, holding hands and blushing furiously, until Tuff made a comment on how red her face was.

Astrid smiled at him, grateful that he broke the silence, and with her free hand, punched him in the shoulder.

He grinned, "Dang Hofferson, you have one hell of a punch," and from then on they fell into a comfortable conversation, talking about everything there was to talk about. Soon the sun was slipping into the horizon and then it disappeared all together. It was almost the full moon so they still had plenty of light, even in the forest. Soon it got so late that Astrid started nodding off. They last thing she remembered was her leaning on Tuff and him smiling down at her, with some sort of emotion on his face, she was to tired to tell. Soon she was asleep and she had never felt safer.