Author's note: Any Australians should get the reference to the restaurant. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi! Italics are for Hiccup's thoughts

Hiccup's perspective

The 'date' was going well. I'd picked up Astrid from her house and was now driving to the most popular restaurant in town, the burger bar called Grill'd. I knew she wouldn't like to go to a really fancy place 'cause Astrid's not that kind of person. And, well, burgers, is there any other explanation needed?

We pulled into the car park and got out. Just as we got to the door, something flashed and caught my attention from behind us. I turned 'round and was met by a woman standing next to a shiny motorcycle. She looked to be in her upper forties, rather tall and clad in black leather all except for her helmet which was open at the front. And she was staring right at me, her glare piercing me, trying to discover all my secrets.

Astrid noticed my distraction and turned to where I was facing.

"Who is that?" she asked

"No idea. Never seen her before. Maybe she's new to town?"

In truth, I was just trying to move away and go inside. The woman was unsettling me, yet I felt like I knew her from somewhere but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Eventually we turned and went inside. The place was really trendy having been renovated since I was last here. The counter was on the right with the bar next to it and the tables were on the left, extending back into the building for quite some way. It had a rustic atmosphere that wasn't out of place being in the outback. Tonight was the least busy night, so Astrid told me, so she'd said to come today. Guess she was right as only about twenty people were in here, most of them bikies. Berk was the only habitable station with plenty of drinking water for kilometers so it made sense for them to be here. What didn't make sense was the large man with an ear piece and dark glasses whispering to someone who looked like the manager. My thoughts were interrupted by Astrid pulling me over to one of the tables.

"So, what are you gonna have?" I asked picking up a menu

Astrid stared at the menu for a moment before saying "Ooooooh, I think I'll have the Saint Crispy burger. What about you?"

"I'm gonna have 'The Mighty'" I emphasised the word mighty by inhaling sharply and sticking out my chest in an attempt to make myself look bigger. Astrid chuckled and playfully slapped my arm. I laughed too, then stood up and headed to the counter to order. After a minute waiting, I was going to order when the manager looking guy came to the employee working at the front desk and whispered, "That lady is outside again." The employee nodded tensely before turning back to me while smiling as if nothing had ever happened. I shrugged it off thinking it was nothing again.

"I'll have a Saint Crispy and a The Mighty, with chips and two fantas," I told the man. He nodded and gave me the receipt, saying it would be about twenty minutes. I went back to my table where Astrid was playing a game on her phone.

"Whatcha playing?" I poked my head over the top of her screen.

"It's something my grandma showed me when I visited them last year, remember," she said looking up. I did remember the trip she was talking about. Her mum asked my dad if we'd like to go on holiday with them, my dad said yes and we were packing for lovely sunny London. We arrived a day later and went to the hotel rooms we'd booked in a place, I think it was called Croydon. We did touristy things in London like go to the Natural History Museum, went on the Emirates Air Line cable car and I'd insisted we go to the science museum. It was awesome.

"Oh yeah. Remember when we saw that KTM Crossbow and that three-wheeled Morgan. Those guys looked so ridiculous. Then we saw them again at a petrol station. The guy with the curly hair was in the fat one's car and the fat one was holding up some money." I said

"Oh god, I remember that. You're right, it was hilarious."

The next 10 minutes were spent reminiscing on our time away, until, finally, our food came.

"Mmmm, let's dig in!" I said poising a steak knife to cut my burger in half.

"Mmmpppphhhhrrr," was all Astrid could muffle, having already stuffed her mouth with burger and chips.

"Haha," I said after having tangled with my incompetent knife and finally managed to cut the meat, "You're mine now burger. Waaaahhhh!"

Tasked with eating my dinner, I'd failed to notice that my chair was wobbly and I toppled onto the floor, half a burger hitting me in the chest. Astrid just stared at me for a moment, a surprised look on her face. I guess she wasn't expecting to be distracted by her date falling on the floor, covered in meat, salad and sauce. This surprise wore off quickly and she started to giggle a little, then a lot.

I picked the onion that had managed to get on my nose off and threw it on my plate, saying, "It's not that funny."

Astrid finally managed to stop laughing enough to say something comprehensible. "Ha, you should have seen your face! Hahahahaha!" wiping tears of mirth from her face, she continued "You were like 'mmmmmmmmmm' then 'aaaaaaahhhhhh'" she mimed my face as I fell. God, I felt stupid. The laughing female customer was attracting strange looks from other customers, but finally, Astrid managed to calm down. A staff member came by to help me pick up my food stuffs from the floor, saying he had to clean the floor anyway once they closed for the night.

I sat down again to finish what was left, when I felt something squishy under my shorts. Standing up I found the rest of my newly squished dinner on the chair. Astrid looked at me, then started laughing hysterically again. I really need to make sure the chairs I sit on aren't wobbly, especially when I'm around Astrid. An annoyed looking customer came over to her and asked her to quiet down, which she tried to do, and it only partially worked.

A buzzer sounded, indicating that someone had just entered the restaurant, and look who it was, the Leather Lady from outside. She strutted in like she owned the place and went straight to the counter. The manager saw this (along with the rest of the staff who just stopped and glared) and stalked over to where the woman was waiting.

"I'VE TOLD YOU, YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE!" he shouted at the lady, she just stood there and looked expectant. The manager continued, "You think you can come back after I told you to go, 3 TIMES!"

The manager pulled out his phone, "I'm calling the police."

The woman just stood there, like nothing was happening. I went over one of the many glaring patrons to see what the reason was for all the pissed off looks.

"What's happening?" I asked the large man

"This lady comes every month, always on this day, holds up an order for all the meat they have. Then she buys a whole crate of beer, gets drunk, picks a fight with one of us, she always wins, then she gets thrown out by the manager. She never speaks or shows emotion, other than being drunk. We've all tried to take her at once," he said gesturing to the other angry faces surrounding him "but she takes us out one by one!"

By this point Astrid came over having seen the commotion as well.

"This man was explaining how this woman has a history of drunken violence around here," I retold the story, by the end of it Astrid looked as concerned as I felt. The fact that police sirens could be heard in the distance didn't help.

"We should probably go now," she said to me, "don't want to get caught up in all the police drama."

I nodded and we made our way to the door. Just as we were about to leave, the woman's head flicked in our direction and she pointed at me. The other patrons and staff looked at me before we scarpered.

Running down the street to the forest, just to get away from the commotion that was now emanating from the restaurant. We reached the forest a few minutes later, completely out of breath. Astrid slumped against the base of a tree, panting.

Well, tonight was fun. Other than running, the police being called and oh, I don't know, the whole thing involving that woman. Still, I did enjoy spending that time with Astrid. Should I tell her, ahh, I don't know. Tonight was fun and all, but am I ready to give up my greatest secret. I looked down at Astrid, who was still breathing heavily on the ground. I probably should tell her, she needs to be able to trust me. Ok, I'll tell her.

"Hey Astrid, I've got something I need to show you."

I walked behind a tree and transformed into my dragon form. I considered what I was doing again before deciding to bite the bullet. I walked out from behind the tree. Astrid gasped and started to shuffle backwards, before she was stopped by the tree behind her.

"Ah, Hiccup, there's a dragon here! HICCUP! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Astrid screamed

I hadn't expected her to do this, but now that I think about it, this is probably what everyone would do. I decided to stop her from running away by transforming back into my human. She stared at me, shock written all over her face. I sat down in front of her and asked "Well, say something."

"Holly crap Hiccup, what was that. Start explaining!"

"Alright, alright. Two years ago, I was lying in my back garden, just admiring the stars, when a Night Fury flew over me and hit me with its fire blast. I blacked out for who knows how long before waking up as a Night Fury. I quickly discovered I could turn back into my normal self just by thinking about it. I've been hiding it this whole time. I thought tonight would have been the best time to tell you. Are you mad?"

"What do you expect me to say Hiccup. You're a dragon! How did you think I was going to react to that?"

She got to her feet and started to cautiously back away. Once she put some distance between us she started to run. Oh god, what have I done. I decided to go after her. I transformed into my dragon form and flew in the direction she went. I found her not far away, and I picked her up in my claws.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH. PUT ME DOWN. HICCUP!" she screamed as I placed her on a branch near the top of a tree.

I turned back to a human in order to speak to the still screaming girl. "Astrid give me a chance. Please."

"I'm not listening to anything you have to say!"

"Then I won't speak, just let me show you."

She appeared to warm up to the idea of not being suspended at the top of a tree. "Ok, just get me down."

I turned back and let Astrid climb onto my back. I took off and stumbled (or whatever the aerial equivalent was) a bit, not used to having the extra weight, before I level out. We flew over the town, just as the sun was setting on the horizon, casting an orange glow over the already orange country. This is why I loved flying so much. The wind on my scales, the sunburnt country below me. It was magical. Astrid seemed to be enjoying this as much as I was. She gasped when I ascended higher, seeing the curved horizon, emptiness surrounding us for hundreds of kilometers. After a good hour of this, the sun had set and I set us down in the forest again. I turned back to a human and watched Astrid try to process all she had seen.

"Well, what did you think?" I asked sheepishly

Astrid strolled up to me and punched me in the shoulder. "That was for lying and kidnapping me." She leaned in and kissed me on the cheek, "And that's for, everything else."

With that, she turned away and ran back to her house. I myself was just trying to process what had just happened. Astrid Hofferson had just kissed me. I felt my knees go weak. She likes me. At this point, my knees gave up and I fell flat on my face.

Author's note: Things are really heating up here. Who is that woman? Actually, you can probably guess, I don't think I made it that hard.