The next morning Tuff woke first. He found himself laying down on the ground, with his arm around Astrid, who was curled into him, like she was trying to absorb his warmth. He saw her and smiled, then wondered why he smiled. You see, Tuff has never been in love before, he had rarely even had crush's, so this whole concept confused him.

Tuff twisted onto his side, his arm still around Astrid, and she mumbled something in her sleep and turned over onto her other side. Tuff froze, thinking that he had made her wake up, but she didn't move after that so Tuff decided it was ok to move slightly.

Soon he had his hand on her arm and his face was very close to her neck. She had her back to him so he couldn't see her face, although he imagined that it was peaceful, the way her face almost never was. He breathed in and discovered that she smelled faintly of pine, campfire and lilac. He didn't think that they would go together but they did surprisingly well. Soon Tuff fell back asleep.

When they were both sound asleep once again, Tuff moved and put his other arm around her more tightly, pulling her closer. And unknowingly, Astrid hugged his arm and arched into his touch. If you were to happen upon them on accident, it would look very cute.

And naturally, that's exactly what happened. You see, the night before, two couples were getting quite worried. Mr and Mrs Thorston and Mr and Mrs Hofferson were getting worried when Astrid and Tuff didn't come home. In the morning when they still weren't back, they started looking around the village a bit. They bumped into each other and they started looking together. The Hoffersons were worried that Astrid did something to Tuff involving an axe and a sword, and the Thorstons were worried because they knew that Tuff wasn't the sharpest arrow in the quiver. Soon they split into teams, one Thorston with one Hofferson, because they didn't fully trust each other yet.

They went into the woods and one of the teams found Astrid and Tuff lying on the ground. They were speechless. One of them went to get the other team and when they came back all four of them were torn between being happy that they seemed to be getting along and that they don't hate each other, or being mad that they didn't come home and spent the night in the woods. Alone. With just each other. While they were debating about what to do Tuff cracked open an eye, saw their parents and jumped up with a shout.

Of course that woke Astrid up, who opened her eyes, saw Tuff standing against the tree like a cornered animal, and then saw their parents, who by the way, had unanimously decided to go with the being mad plan, giving them both the stink eye. Astrid jumped up as well and joined Tuff by the tree, pressing herself into the rough bark.

"What were you doing out here? All night?! By yourselves!" Astrids mom half said half yelled.

Astrid mumbled an apology and so did Tuff.

Astrids father grabbed her arm and pulled her in the direction of their house. She glanced back at Tuff one more time before going with her parents.

Tuffs mother and father were far from pleased but they were happy that they were finally getting along. Tuff went back home with his parents, and when they sent Ruff out of their room he mentally winced, sure that he was gonna get punished. Then the weirdest thing happened. His parents started smiling. "Well done son! I don't know what you did but she's sweet on ya!" Tuff was confused at the best of times but now he felt like his head was going to explode.

"She... likes me? How do you know?" Tuff didn't understand why they thought that Astrid liked him.

"Didn't you see how red her face was when we caught ya?" His mother asked.

Tuff thought back to earlier and he did notice that Astrid was super blushy when she jumped up.

"So?" He said. "She blushed. Big deal. It's not like we did anything. We were talking, lost track of time and fell asleep. Big whoop. Why are you guys making such a big deal out of it?"

His parents just looked at him and then exchanged glances with each other, like they were having a telepathic conversation. A conversation that went something like this: Can you believe him? Ohh to be young, in love and naive.

When they noticed Tuff staring at them with an incredulous look on his face, they just smiled at him and left his room.

Annoyed, Tuff swung up onto his bed and hung upside down off it. All the blood rushing to his brain helped him think, apparent. After 20 minutes Ruff came back in, looking like she just stepped out of a chicken coop full of demon chickens.

Tuff fell off the bed and got to his feet, his head spinning slightly.

"What happened to you?" He asked Ruff.

"Mom and Dad made me clean out the chicken pen while they talked to you, and the chickens like you better."

Tuff laughed and then fell over, onto his back.

Ruff came over and kicked him.

"What's wrong with you?" She asked, sitting down next to him.

"It's, well, it's hard to explain." He said. Then he sighed and told his sister what happened after they left the arena. Well, most of it. Some of it was to personal to share, even with his other half.

When he was done he sighed. Then he exploded. "This is what they wanted in the first place! They wanted us to get together and now, when we were finally getting along and when Astrid was starting to actually like me, they come and ruin everything!!!"

Ruff nodded and tried to talk to him but Tuff wasn't listening, he was preoccupied in his head, so Ruffnut left to go find Fishlegs.

A little while later Tuff left to go for a walk and caught sight of Astrid, and she saw him. They both looked at each other for about 3.5 seconds before their faces reddened and they turned and ran the other way.

That went well, Tuff thought when he slowed to a stop.

They spent the next few days avoiding each other as much as possible.

Almost a week had passed before their parents had had enough of their children's 'dumb little games' and forced them to go to the little arts and crafts thing that Magnus the pottery person was putting on.

When they got there, about 2 dozen other Vikings were there, some just children and others older than Tuff and Astrid.

Their parents made sure that they went in together and then left.

Astrid was avoiding looking Tuff in the eyes, and he had to admit, that kinda hurt.

They got in and sat down at one of the tables while Magnus started blabbering on about the fine art of pottery and how it was a gift that not many Vikings received.

"I myself have this rare gift, as you all know, because I make all of your pottery, and if it wasn't good you'd all be breaking down my door!" That earned a few laughs from the older Vikings and Magnus continued, saying that since very few had the gift of pottery there were a bunch of other things that they could try. He had things for making jewelry, pottery, painting, poetry, drawing, you name it.

Tuff decided to go and try pottery while Astrid headed over to where the beads and things were to try and make a necklace or something. A half hour and 3 pounds of clay later Tuff found out that pottery was not his thing. He wandered over to where Astrid was and when she looked up she stifled a giggle.

"So, how did pottery go?" She said in an amused tone.

Tuff looked down and saw that he was covered in splats of clay. He smiled and said "Not very good. How are you making out?"

She picked up a small cord and gestured to some beads scattered around the table. "I've been trying to figure out what to make but I have zero inspiration."

Tuff looked down and picked up some bits of coloured rope. He started weaving them together and soon he was adding in some charms and shiny things. When he was half way done he looked over at Astrid and saw that she was weaving her own bits of rope.

A while later they were both done. Tuff looked over to what Astrid made and it was surprisingly good. She made a bracelet with different shades of green string with dragon teeth charms.

Tuff made a similar bracelet although his was woven differently and had different colours. His was blue, yellow and brown with multicoloured Changewing scales woven throughout it.

Astrid took his arm and fastened her bracelet onto it. Tuff smiled and thanked Thor as he tied his around her arm. She admired her new bracelet and the Changewing scales changed every colour of the rainbow.

"Wow Tuff, I love it! How are you this good at weaving?"

"Me and Ruff used to braid each others hair when we were kids. We also had to braid our Uncle Uggard's back hair, but we mostly did each others hair." He explained.

Astrid looked at him for a second before laughing. By then they had been there for over an hour so Astrid grabbed Tuff's hand and they left.

Little did they know that Magnus the pottery person had thrown his little arts and crafts thing just for Tuff and Astrid because he owed the Hofferson's a favour. He had kept an eye on them the whole time they were there. And when they left the pottery place their parents were watching them. They were hidden of course, so Astrid and Tuff had no idea. The Thorston's were up a tree, holding their hands to their eyes like binoculars, and the Hofferson's were in a bush. They saw Astrid and Tuff leave the pottery place holding hands and chattering on about whatever, so they considered their "mission" a success.

Astrid and Tuff walked around for a bit, holding hands and talking when Tuff had an awesome idea.

"Hey Astrid, you wanna go somewhere cool?"

She glanced at him. "Always, where is it?"

"You have to wait," Tuff told her. She smiled and told him to lead the way.

Tuff lead her through the village and down to the beach. Then along the cliff line until they came to a cave.

"The old Whisperingdeath caves? What are we doing here?" She asked him.

"Ruff and I used to come here all the time back before we left for the edge. There are some really cool things down here." Tuff stepped into the cave and then turned to Astrid.

"You coming?"

She hesitated, but came into the cave with Tuff. She grabbed his arm, more tense than usual, and Tuff led her through the tunnels.

Soon they reached a cavern with a hammock, a chair and a few glow worms in it.

He looked over to Astrid and he noticed how her breathing was faster and shallower. She looked pale and she was clammy. She stumbled a bit and then fell onto her knees, her breathing faster than ever.

Tuff recognized the symptoms. Astrid was having a panic attack. Tuff used to get them when he was little so he knew a bit about how to deal with them.

Tuff put his arms around her and pulled her into a hug. He rubbed her back and then Astrid started crying into his shirt. She cried and cried until she finally calmed down. Astrid brought her knees to her chest and hugged them, while Tuff hugged her.

When her breathing was steady Tuff asked her what happened.

"I know it's none of my business, but what happened?"

Astrid took a deep breath and decided to tell him the truth. "You remember back on the edge during that huge storm? When I was blind for a few days?" Tuff nodded. "Ever since then I- I've been- scared of the dark. I hated being blind more than I've ever hated anything ever. Since then I can't stand to be in the dark."

Tuff had no idea that she felt like that. He knew that going blind must have been traumatic but he didn't know it was that traumatic. He gently let go of her, stood up and walked over to the wall and plucked a glow worm off of it and brought it back. He sat down beside her again and hesitantly put his arm back around her. He put the glow worm on her arm and all thoughts of the dark vanished as she watched the little worm crawl around.

When Tuff was little and having a panic attack his mom would try to get his mind off it and distract him with something else.

Soon he started talking about different things like when he and Ruff first started exploring the tunnels and about the time they had ended up in Gobbers outhouse. That got her laughing, and soon she was ready to come look at the rest of the tunnels with him.

The tunnels had glowing mushrooms and moss in them and they led all over the island. After a few hours of exploring they made their way back to the cavern with the hammock. Tuff plopped down on the chair and Astrid sat on the hammock. She looked at the glow worm that was currently trying to crawl up her arm and tried to put it back on the wall but it wanted to stay with her.

"You know, if you're gonna keep him, he needs a name," Tuff commented.

"True," she said trying to think of one. After a few minutes of thinking she only had "Glowey" and that wasn't good enough.

Astrid asked Tuff for his help, because he had really good naming abilities. He had named almost all of the wild dragons on the edge.

He thought for a moment before coming up with the perfect name.

"Garf the second." He said. Astrid looked at him funny and he shrugged.

"Well you were really close with Garf the first and since he can't be here on Berk, you might as well have Garf the second."

Astrid smiled. "I like it. Garf the second it is."

They spent most of the rest of the day in the caves, finding moss, mushrooms and the odd stick and rock to make a house for Garf the second. When they were done it looked pretty good. There were moss cushions, rock walls, mushrooms for decoration and sticks for him to hang on. Garf the second seemed to like it, he lay on the moss, then crawled up to the sticks and started hanging upside down. It was pretty cool to watch him.

"Now Garf the second, we're gonna leave soon but you can have some of your friends over, but no wild parties, alright? We'll be back soon," Tuff told him as they were getting ready to go.

When they left the caves, there was about an hour of daylight left so they said goodbye and Astrid went to go see Hiccup and Tuff went home.