Attraction:

13 Years Old

Astrid threw the double sided axe at the target with every ounce of strength that she had as it rolled by on its cart, courtesy of a massive shove by her father. She only had time to confirm that the blade struck true in the neck of the dragon shaped target made of yak leather and straw before the hairs rose on the back of her neck in warning.

Spinning, she drew the sword off her back just in time to block the sneak attack of Ruffnut. The girls exchanged fleeting grins before donning their mock scowls as their swords clashed with a clang. Astrid parried back and forth with the taller girl for a minute before she got that tingling sense of warning again.

Whirling once more, but keeping Ruffnut in her peripheral vision, she snarled at Tuffnut as he came at her with his sword raised overhead for a downward blow. Blocking it, she kicked him back with a foot to the stomach and then swung back around to parry yet another swing from his twelve year old twin sister.

Nearby, in the relatively flat and grass covered ground centuries of Berkians had designated as a sparring area, the other two boys in their age group also sparred back and forth with dull metal swords. Snotlout was shorter than Fishlegs but a year older and by far the more confident of the two. But what Fishlegs lacked in confidence, he made up for in sheer size and strength, being the epitome of a brawny Viking. In fact, he was the only one of their training group who fit that description. Unfortunately, in Astrid's opinion, he wasn't inclined to take advantage of that strength, being more inclined towards reading than training. Snotlout was stout and muscular, but even shorter than Astrid. The blond haired twins were quite tall and towered over Astrid, but they were very slender still.

Astrid mostly tuned out Snotlout's mocking taunts to poor Fishlegs as she concentrated on the twins with narrowed eyes. As they advanced on her in a synchronized stalk, she made a strategic retreat to where the cart had come to rest up against a boulder.

Reaching behind her with her right hand, she yanked her axe out of the straw dragon and the wood of the cart. Ah ha!

"Uh-oh," the twins said as Astrid smirked and twirled her axe and sword around her fingers with practiced ease.

You know it, suckers. "Are you ready to die?" Astrid taunted the twins as she now advanced on them, axe in one hand and sword in the other.

"Nope," Tuffnut squeaked.

"Perhaps," Ruffnut said with a shrug.

Astrid mentally rolled her eyes at the weird boy who seemed to have his priorities somewhat askew. They should have called him Onenutt.

That was all the time Astrid gave them before she went all badass Valkyrie on them, sword and axe ringing sweet notes of victory in the air as she exchanged blows with the twins. She drove them further and further backward until they stood on the edge of the cliff that bordered their sparring area and then with a deft twist of the axe, disarmed them both.

Pointing her weapons at their necks, Astrid raised the eyebrow that wasn't covered by her bangs. "Do you yield?"

"Yes!"

"No!"

Ruffnut shoved an elbow into her brother's side. He changed his answer to, "No," but sounded anything but happy about it.

Astrid grinned. "Excellent." Time to give the twins a much needed bath. And with a flying kick that made her braid lift off her back and her spiked skirt twirl, she kicked Tuffnut off the cliff. He was still screaming when Ruffnut grinned as she received a boot to the stomach as well. The girl laughed as she fell, turning the drop into a backwards dive into the ocean a few metres below.

Astrid watched them fall with a triumphant smile and returned Ruff's wave when she popped back up to the surface of the ocean. That girl isn't exactly normal either, gotta admit.

And now… to deal with the remaining Viking wannabees. Methinks they are in need of good bath as well.

As Astrid turned her sights on the last two boys, the cart went zooming past again. Changing her grip quickly, she threw her sword at it and the tip imbedded itself in the chest of the fake dragon. Flipping Ruffnut's sword off the ground with a toe, she caught it and continued her stalk towards her last two targets.

"Is that the best you can do, Jellyfishlegs?" Snotlout sneered as he kept up a steady attack on Fishlegs' defences. Fishlegs was essentially just holding his shield in front of him and letting it take the brunt of the blows. "Come on... Attack me back. Be a man for once."

Fishlegs swung his sword half-heartedly at Snotlout, inspiring an eye roll from both Snotlout and Astrid. "Technically, neither of us are men yet," Fishlegs pointed out. "We don't receive that title until we've defeated a dragon after turning fourteen."

"I know that, Stupidlegs," the shorter boy sneered.

Astrid cleared her throat loudly to get their attention, since they had completely ignored her march up to their pathetic excuse of a fight. When that still didn't do the trick, she gave up and threw her axe directly between them, the metal reflecting glints of sunlight as it spun.

"What the..." Snotlout exclaimed as the axe skimmed uncomfortably close to his nose on the way by. He stared at Astrid with wide eyes. "What in Thor's name was that for?"

Astrid gave him an exasperated look as she walked around him and retrieved her axe from where it had buried itself in the ground. "That was for calling Fishlegs names. Could you, for once in your life, just be nice?"

Snotlout snorted like a yak. "Be nice? I don't know this word. Jorgensons don't do 'nice'."

"I've noticed," Astrid said dryly. She nodded at him with her chin. "How about we see if you can actually beat me for once?"

"Oh, you're on, sweetcheeks."

Astrid was already swinging at his head with her axe as she growled out, "Don't call me that, Jorgenson, or you'll be talking in a squeaky voice for a week."

The brown haired boy just managed to block her axe with his shield before he lost his curly horned helmet. He shot her a hurt look. "You wouldn't do that to me, would you, babe?"

Behind them, Fishlegs was backing up and holding his shield in front of his crotch, just in case.

Astrid continued to rain blows on Snotlout's shield and sword as she backed him towards the cliff. "In a heartbeat, and you know it. Or is your memory really that short?"

Snotlout flushed as he remembered the consequences of a wandering hand when he'd parked himself beside her at a communal dinner last week, right in the spot he knew she'd been saving for Hiccup. Astrid had not appreciated having his hand on her thigh at all or having him take Hiccup's spot. And even more so because he'd managed to work it under her skirt, which he'd thought had been rather clever of him. She'd stood up abruptly, picked up her axe, and then very deliberately dropped it in his lap, head down. He was lucky she hadn't cut anything off, and he knew it. As is, his trousers had needing some repairs and his manhood had been sore for days. "No. I remember," he mumbled.

Astrid smirked at him as she saw the acknowledgment of her dead seriousness in his eyes. She'd eat her boot, though, if he actually left her alone; the boy was as dense and conceited as they come.

She stopped attacking as he was now exactly where she wanted him. "Just keep your hands to yourself and the comments respectable and we'll get along just fine." And with that, she kicked him right off the cliff and listened with great satisfaction as he screamed like a little girl on the way down.

Looking down, she watched him hit the water with an undignified splat and then sink like a floundering rock. The twins were laughing their heads off as they swam for the nearby dock, pausing every couple of seconds to try and drown each other.

Snotlout popped back up to the surface and rescued his helmet before it sank and then swam over to where his wooden shield bobbed on the water. He then glared up at Astrid as he floundered in the water. "You made me drop my sword! How am I supposed to get it now?! Dad'll kill me if I lose it!"

"Not my problem!" Astrid called back.

She smiled to herself as she turned away from the cliff while Snotlout's sputters of outrage rang through the air. She raised a brow at Fishlegs, who'd followed them over and was watching Snotlout with a frown on his face.

Noticing her attention was now on him, Fishlegs sighed in defeat and placed his weapons on the ground in front of her. "I'll save you the trouble," he said resignedly. "And I might as well get Snotlout's sword before he drowns himself trying." And then he jumped off the cliff.

"That's the only smart boy in the lot," Astrid commented to her father as he walked up and put an arm around her shoulders.

Hector laughed as he squeezed her to his side in a half hug for a moment before letting her go. "Excellent training session today. You're mother would be proud of how well you've taken to her old axe. Too bad she's away right now."

Astrid twirled said axe around her hand a few times. "I'll show her when she gets back. Any word on how Grandma's doing?"

Hector shook his head as they gathered up weapons and tossed everything in the cart. "Not yet." He pulled her sword out of the dragon target and frowned at the tip, or at least, where the tip used to be. "Geez, Astrid, you broke it. I'm impressed."

Astrid put her axe in its sheath across her back and took the sword from her father as he handed it to her. "Wow. There's like, a whole finger's width missing. Do you think Gobber can fix it?" she asked hopefully.

Hector shrugged. "Don't know, but you might as well go give it to him and see what he says. I'll round up your swimming victims, run them through a few more drills, and then have them help me finish cleaning up here. As the winner of the day... again," he winked, "you can have the rest of the afternoon off."

Astrid beamed at her dad. "Thanks, Daddy. I'll see you at home for supper later?"

"Sure. Say hi to Hiccup for me," he called after her back as she'd already turned and started jogging away.

Astrid raised the sword in acknowledgement and ran faster, eager to spend a couple hours with Hiccup.

It only took her five minutes to make the trip to what could be called 'downtown' Berk, if you were generous. Aside from Gobber's Smithy, there was also Big Bertie's Pub and Thrifty Thundra's Trading Post on the same 'street'.

Astrid went in the front door of the smithy and found Gobber already talking to a customer; haggling over the price of the broadsword lying on the counter from the sounds of it.

When Gobber noticed that she didn't immediately head to the back to talk to Hiccup like she normally would have, he raised a brow at her over the shoulder of the customer. Astrid raised the damaged training sword in explanation.

Gobber whistled in appreciation, pausing his conversation. Both men took a step nearer to examine the sword better. "What did you do to it?" Gobber asked as he poked at the jagged end with a finger.

Astrid shrugged casually. "I threw it like a spear at the dragon cart."

"Did it work?"

"Oh yeah."

Gobber ruffled her hair and grinned at her approvingly. "Good for you. But as for the sword, it'll never be quite the same. Shorter for sure. But I think I can fix it. But first, give it to Hiccup and see what he can do with it; boy likes a challenge."

"Sure," Astrid said eagerly. She smoothed her bangs back into their customary place over the left side of her face as she walked into the back room and was immediately struck by a wave of heat.

The forge was roaring hot as Hiccup worked over it, banging a red hot strip of metal into the vague shape of a sword with a big hammer. She knew that Hiccup would work over that metal for hours, heating, folding, and flattening it again and again until it became indestructible steel.

Well... (as she looked at her broken sword) It's supposed to be indestructible, anyway.

"Hey, Hic..." she started to say, but her words faded away as she took in his appearance. Being the one whole month of summer, he was only wearing a thin, short sleeved green tunic on his upper half and it was plastered to his chest from the same sweat that glistened on his forehead. He was still short and scrawny for a Viking, but from his work in the smithy and their clandestine training, his arms were corded with lean muscles. And his chest and abs were shaping up nicely too, she couldn't help but notice.

Oh, yummy. Gulping, and flushing from more than the heat in the room, she resisted the urge to fan herself like a simpering female. Get a grip, girl. He's not ready for you to pounce on him like a cat in heat. Maybe he never will be.

Thor, what a depressing thought.

Hiccup was her best friend, and, as far as she could tell, he was content to stay that way. There was no point making things awkward between them yet by letting on that she found him cute as hell with those dreamy gem green eyes and his shaggy auburn hair that had a complete mind of its own. His sweet smile didn't hurt anything either.

Her mother said not to worry about his apparent contentedness with their current relationship because boys were much slower to mature and could be ridiculously obtuse when it came to seeing what was right in front of them. Astrid was counting on that to be true and figured she could wait another year or two for Hiccup to figure things out on his own. If he hadn't by then... Well, she might just have to tackle him to the ground and kiss him until he figured out that she was a GIRL.

Clearing her throat loudly to be heard over the ringing of the hammer, she tried again. "Hey, Hiccup!"

Hiccup looked up and around, beaming that glorious smile at Astrid that made her heart stutter in her chest. He put the strip of metal back in the fire to heat again as he said, "Hey, Astrid! How was training today?" he asked as they walked towards each other.

"It was good," Astrid said, not one to boast. "Same old." She held out the sword for him to see. "Except for this. I... kind of broke it." Her stomach developed a case of butterflies as he stopped in front of her, close enough to smell. Inexplicably, his fresh sweat scent just added to the weird things her insides did whenever she was in close proximity to him.

Hiccup chuckled as he took the sword and stared at the end assessingly for a few seconds. "I see that. I'm guessing, from what I know about you and how this broke, that you hucked it at something like it was a spear and that snapped the end off."

Astrid was once again impressed by his powers of deduction. "Wow, you're good. The end is embedded in the dragon cart."

Hiccup shrugged, blushing slightly at the praise. "It was just a matter of simple logic."

Astrid was still impressed. "Anyway, Gobber says you get to try and fix it first."

Hiccup's emerald eyes lit up as he gazed at the broken sword with increased interest. "Sweet."

I want his eyes to light up like that for me, she thought whimsically.

Astrid smiled sappily at his back as he hurried back to the forge and put half the sword in the fire. Picking up the other length of metal with his thick leather gloved hand, he said, "You have an hour?"

For you, I have eternity. But those words were kept tight to her chest and she only let out a simple, "Yep." Astrid pulled her axe off her back and leaned it against her customary crate that now had a cushion of folded grain sacks on top, courtesy of Hiccup. Sitting, she added, "In fact, I have the rest of the day off from training, so you get me until supper time."

"Also sweet," Hiccup said with a grin over the fire at her. "Maybe you and your dad can come to my house for supper tonight. I've got a fish soup slow cooking over the hearth and someone brought some blueberries over as a gift for Dad, so there's some blueberry pie leftover from yesterday."

"That sounds wonderful. We'll definitely be there. Dad and I are seriously missing Mom's cooking right now," she said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. "We try, honest we do, but somehow, everything always ends up burnt or just flat out tastes awful. We've been living off of yak jerky sandwiches for the last couple of days."

Hiccup chuckled, smirking at her. "It's a good thing that I actually learned the lessons your mother taught us about cooking, then, isn't it?"

"That's because you're a know-it-all who soaks up any and all knowledge like a sponge," she retaliated in the same teasing tone he used.

Hiccup sent her a cheeky wink and then returned to his task. She watched him bang on the metal for a couple of minutes before he stuck it back in the fire. He pulled the broken sword out, frowned at it for not being hot enough yet, and then put it back in. Gods, even his frown is cute.

"Sooooo," Hiccup said, leaning casually against the huge anvil only a couple steps away from the forge. "Tell me what really happened with training today. You wouldn't have the afternoon off unless something exciting happened."

Astrid crossed her arms over her chest and raised a brow. "Why would you think that?"

Hiccup smirked as he crossed his arms right back. "Because I know you. And because the other kids haven't made an appearance yet to taunt me with how they're becoming great warriors and I'm a pathetic wimp who's never going to be a proper 'man'." Hiccup rolled his eyes at this, more or less having accepted his lot in life by this point. "That means they're still training, which means that you should be too. Unless you did something spectacular to earn a couple hours off. So spill."

Astrid sighed in defeat. He knows me too well, by far. Or... Maybe that's a good thing? "I hit every target today with my axe. I'm really getting the hang of it. Man, I wish Mom would come home so I could show her," she added wistfully.

"That can't be all," Hiccup said. "You've always had excellent aim, no matter what weapon you're using."

Astrid flushed slightly at the praise and stroked her braid self-consciously. "Thanks," she mumbled. "I may have defeated all of the kids multiple times over the course of the day, and I may have kicked them all off the cliff and into the ocean. Except for Fishlegs; he voluntarily jumped."

Hiccup gawked at her for a few seconds before he burst into laughter. "Oh, Thor, I wish I'd seen that. It would have made my day to see Snotlout floundering around in the water. In fact, just imagining it is enough to make my day. Maybe even my week." He shook his head as he went back to the forge and fished out the broken sword, then smiled at the while hot end. "Perfect."

"Just to make your day a little bit better, Snotlout screamed like a little girl as he fell," Astrid volunteered.

Hiccup looked up at her and grinned widely. "Excellent. I'm adding that to my mental image right now."

Astrid giggled as he returned his focus to the sword, banging away at the end in an effort to reshape the metal that was left. Thor, that is so hot. I could watch him swing that hammer all day.

For the next little while, she simply enjoyed watching him work over the two swords in turns, having nothing else pressing to talk about at the moment. It was hard to hear over the banging of the hammer anyway, and working on the hot metal was time sensitive.

At some point, she ran her hand over her braid and finally noticed a good third of her hair wasn't actually in the braid anymore. Since that just wouldn't do, and feeling embarrassed about being so dishevelled looking in front of Hiccup, she pulled the leather tie off the bottom to fix it. She knew it was silly, considering he'd probably seen her in every possible state of cleanliness and/or dishabille over the years, but she was now hormone bound to follow the urge that said she needed to be as pretty as possible in front of Hiccup.

Hiccup glanced up at Astrid between swings and time slowed down to individual milliseconds as his life was forever changed by a sudden realization that Astrid was drop dead beautiful.

Oh. My. Thor. How have I missed that?

In what felt like perpetual slow motion, he watched in stunned awe as a she shook a veritable cascade of white blonde and gold hair around her shoulders. The multihued strands were soft looking and glittered in the reflected firelight, and they curled slightly nearly all the way down to her waist. Then she ran her fingers through it in what might have been a quick motion, but to him it felt like three hours, at the very least, before pulling the entire mass over her shoulder again and dividing it into three sections for rebraiding.

Her sky blue eyes glanced up caught him looking at her, prompting a shy smile from her. Hiccup stared at those eyes like he'd never seen them before, just now realizing how incredible the colour was.

Meanwhile, his arm had been swinging in an automatic motion, but without looking at what he was doing, and his suddenly nerveless left hand forgetting how to hold on to the end of the metal strip, he hit the metal wrong and it fell off the anvil and directly onto his boot.

Hiccup didn't notice.

Not right away.

Not until he swung the hammer again and the clang sounded wrong as the hammer struck the much denser metal of the anvil.

And then he smelt the burning leather of his boot, which was nowhere near as thick as the glove he wore on his hand. And... the hottest part of the metal had landed on his boot, of course, because Loki liked to mess with him like that.

His eyes widened and a very ungentlemanly, "Fuuuuuuaaaaahhhhhh!" escaped his mouth. He kicked the metal off of his boot, then hopped around on the other as the burning hot sensation registered in his foot. "Thor's right butt cheek!" he cursed as he hastily pulled off his boot and wool sock, which both had holes in them, and examined the top of his foot with relief. It was red, but not blistered, thank Thor.

Meanwhile, Astrid had jumped off her crate, partial braid coming undone again as she did so, and had hurried over to see if Hiccup was alright. "Did you burn it?" she asked as she peered at his foot as well. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw his bare foot was relatively all right. She also couldn't help but notice how much bigger his foot was since the last time she'd seen his feet bare; it was surely inches longer than hers now. Someone's growing. Now his body just needs to catch up to his feet.

Hiccup was still shaking his head as Gobber ran into the back, exclaiming, "What happened?!"

"No, it's okay," Hiccup finally answered Astrid's question. "A little of Gothi's healing cream and it'll be fine. But my boot!" he held it up and everyone gawked at the ruined boot that had a huge hole in the top of the foot. "I don't think I can save this one."

Gobber looked from the ruined boot to the half formed sword on the stone floor and figured out the answer to his question on his own. He shook his head at Hiccup. "I understand the dropping of the sword on your foot part - done that mor'n once myself - but what inspired you to let it sit there long enough to do that to your boot?"

Oh, Gods. Hiccup flushed beet red and looked anywhere but at Astrid as he frantically thought up a believable answer. "I, um, was thinking about my new design for a dragon catching bola launcher."

Gobber rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Not that again. I told you your dad's never going to let you get close enough to a dragon to try it out on. Give up already, kid. You'll rest easier for it."

Hiccup's shoulders slumped as he waved his holey sock a few times to cool it off before putting it back on, since a holey sock was better than the cold stones of the smithy floor. "I know, Gobber. Trust me, I know. I just wish he could see that I could be helpful despite being small."

Gobber clapped a big hand on his shoulder and squeezed affectionately. "So do I, Hiccup." With a shake of his head he went back to the front of the shop to deal with another customer who was commissioning a new set of armour.

Hiccup sighed as he tossed the boot into the corner full of leather scraps used for various handle wrappings and armour fixings. I still can't believe I did that. Then he retrieved the sword from the floor and stuck it back in the fire and pulled out the other one before it melted completely. He glanced at the girl still hovering at his side from under his lashes and was presented with an eyeful of the small mounds on her chest that her formfitting blue shirt did absolutely nothing to hide. He almost swallowed his tongue. And HOW in Thor's name did I not notice till now just how astonishingly beautiful Astrid is? But she's my best friend. Am I even allowed to think of her as a girl?

Astrid touched his back in sympathy for a moment and Hiccup nearly flinched from the touch, he was so confused by his own emotions. "I'll go get some cream for your foot and bring you back the spare set of boots from your room, okay?"

His smile was a little wobbly as he nodded once. "Sure, Astrid. That would be great."

He pretended to concentrate on the sword until he was sure she was no longer looking at him and then he gave up all pretence and just watched her figure walk out the back door of the smithy with wide eyes as he took in the even more startling fact that Astrid was starting to get curvy in the hip department as well, making her narrow waist look even smaller. And her gorgeous, multihued hair tumbled down nearly all the way to that trim waist and swayed with her graceful steps.

Yeeesh. Hiccup gulped, his hands suddenly trembling and his body going on high alert.

He very carefully avoided the hot sword as he all but collapsed down to the floor on knees that felt like noodles and leaned his head back against the base of the anvil, staring up at the ceiling blankly as the image of Astrid walking away from him played over and over in his mind. I'm in trouble. Big, big trouble. How am I supposed to hide the fact from her that I've suddenly discovered that she's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen?

He didn't know, but he was going to have to. He knew how much she hated Snotlout's attentions, and the other boy was considered a much better looking Viking than Hiccup; being all brawny and ruggedly handsome. If she didn't want Snotlout, there was no way she'd ever even consider an even smaller and way skinnier non Viking as a mate. She's so stunning she could be a Goddess… She IS a Goddess. A Warrior Goddess. She'll never want to settle for pathetic little me.

Hiccup shook his head at his hopeless situation, wishing he could take back the last five minutes and go back to the way things were before. It was safe and easy when they were just friends. But he knew he couldn't, not now that he'd seen her as a possible mate instead of just a friend.

And I'll just have to live with it, cause Thor knows there's no way I'm ever talking my libido into taking back its epiphany. Hiccup looked down at the strained laces on his trousers with a frown. Seriously, though, we can't walk around like this every time the Goddess is around. You're going to have to take an ice bath or something.

He shivered at the thought of shoving ice down his pants and it was enough to cool off his libido. For now.

He'd always loved Astrid in a platonic kind of way, but he knew it would now forever be in the in the unrequited way. And that hurt way more than he cared to think about.

The most beautiful girl on the island is my best friend. Why does that suddenly sound like a curse?

Meanwhile, on an island somewhere far, far to the northwest of Berk, a large flock of Night Furies ranging in age from hatchlings to great-grandparents sunbathed and played in the warm summer sun.

A thirteen year old dragon (which would make him about as mature as the average teenage human, since this species of dragon matures very slowly, unlike some others that can reach full adult size in only a year) was flying over the ocean, playing tag with his two younger siblings.

The pitch black dragon's ears suddenly felt the barest hint of a vibration, signalling some kind of unfamiliar sound. Pausing in his graceful play, the Night Fury turned his head in the direction the sound was coming from. What was that?

Noticing their older brother was distracted, the seven year old twins swooped in and nipped his wings with tiny bursts of purple plasma. "Got you, Toothless," Spin and Finn crowed together.

Toothless gave his siblings an annoyed look when they came around for another shot, stopping them in midflight. "Enough. You win." With a pointed nod of his head, he said, "Go back to the island. Tell Mom and Dad I'll be back in a bit. I'm just going to go check something out."

"Do we have to?" they whined in unison.

Toothless opened his mouth and built up some low level purple plasma in warning, not needing to add actual words to the unspoken, 'go or die'.

"Okay, okay, we're going," Finn said quickly. Toothless smirked at them as they hung their heads dejectedly and reluctantly turned around, radiating disappointment that their fun was over.

Satisfied that his little brothers were flying back to the safety of the island, the teenage dragon turned his sleek head back to the direction that had caught his attention. The very faint, unknown sound came again. Curious, he flapped his wings and shot through the nearly cloudless sky at a speed so fast, he was nearly invisible. After a minute, he stopped and hovered in the air, head turning from side to side as he waited to see if the sound would appear again.

It did.

Now really curious, Toothless flew towards the sound again, his echolocation ears vibrating slightly.

Five minutes later, he stopped again, already at least a hundred kilometres from his home island. He listened again. The sound, which was actually the call of a massive alpha dragon, vibrated through his ears again. The Night Fury's eyes glazed over as he listened and he found himself flying once again in the direction of the call, but now doing it without conscious thought.

He was still flying hours later when the call suddenly stopped.

Blinking, Toothless came back to himself and looked around in confusion. He was over the ocean and there was no land in sight. And... he couldn't sense 'home' anymore. Where am I? A sense of fear overtook him and he cried aloud and mentally for his parents, despite knowing they most likely couldn't hear him. "Mom?! Dad?!"

A call of, "Hello?!" did ring back across the sky, but it most definitely wasn't his parents. Nevertheless, Toothless perked his ears in that direction and flew as fast as he could (which was about 1500kms an hour) towards the other cry, desperate to not feel lost and alone anymore.

"Hello?!" he cried again as he flew, and the other cry echoed him back.

In only a minute, Toothless flapped to a halt in the sky as a nearly identically shaped dragon did the same right in front of him, coming from the opposite direction. "Ummmmm, hello? What are you?"

The lost male black dragon looked at the equally lost female white dragon in surprise, having never seen a white version of a Night Fury before. He also couldn't help but notice that she was strikingly beautiful. Toothless purred in pleased surprise.

The pearlescent white dragon tilted her head slightly and ogled him in return, a faint purr eventually rumbling from her chest as they flapped their wings slowly to stay above the clouds. "Hello," the female said tentatively in his mind.

They flew around each other, scrutinizing and studying every tiny detail of the similarities and differences of the other and liking what they saw very much. "Hi. I'm Toothless and I'm a Night Fury," he said matter of factly after a minute. "What are you?"

"My name's Luna, and I'm a Light Fury," the girl dragon replied.

"Wow. We're like... Opposites," Toothless gushed.

Luna giggled. "Clearly." Her eyes closed slightly as she studied him some more, liking his clear green eyes. "What kind of name is Toothless, anyway?"

Toothless opened his mouth and showed his grin, minus the retracted teeth, then popped them out before sheathing them in his gums again.

Luna rolled her eyes. "Yes, that's a cool trick, but all Furies can do that. That still doesn't explain why your parents gave you such a wimpy sounding name."

"Hey! I like my name," Toothless protested. "It's different. And Mom says she named me Toothless because I didn't pop them out of my gums for weeks longer than most baby dragons."

"I guess that makes sense," Luna admitted. But it's still a weird name. She kept that last thought to herself, though, not wanting to hurt his feelings.

"It makes perfect sense," Toothless said proudly.

Silence fell between them for a minute, as the awkwardness of two dragons meeting under such strange circumstances suddenly struck them.

He eventually worked up the courage to break it. "Soooo, what's a pretty girl like you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

Luna repressed the urge to roll her eyes at the much overused pickup line because there actually was a valid question in there. "I'm... lost," she admitted.

"Hey! So am I!" Toothless exclaimed. "You didn't happen to hear a strange call and the next thing you knew you were nowhere near home?"

"That's exactly what happened!" Luna said with wide eyes.

"Weird."

"So weird."

Awkward silence fell again as they continued to hover in the sky. "So now what?" Luna eventually said.

"We could fly back to an island I saw a few minutes ago?" Toothless offered. "The sun is setting and it's probably not smart to try to find our way back to our homes in the dark."

"That sounds like a good idea to me," Luna admitted.

Puffing himself up as big as he could, Toothless preened for the pretty, young dragoness.

Luna ducked her blue eyes and chuffed out a laugh. He is awfully cute, even if he is somewhat smaller than me, indicating a slightly younger age. "Come on, smart one, let's go see this island of yours."

A couple minutes later, they landed on the beach gracefully, if a little tiredly. Toothless filled his chest with fire and lit the sand in a large circle in front of him. "Your bed, pretty dragon of light."

Luna flushed in pleasure at his poetic words. "Thank you, helpful dragon of night." Should I…? Oh, what the hell. She walked forward tentatively until, finally, Luna stretched her nose out and touched it to his in a 'kiss' of gratitude. Gem green eyes closed as a purr rumbled from him again, making her smile. Luna purred as well and nuzzled her face against his and then turned to curl up on the nice warm sand he'd provided.

Toothless huffed out a pleased sigh that she'd accepted his small gift and then turned away to warm up another circle of sand for himself.

But she stopped him with a call. "There's plenty of warm sand here. You can join me if you want." Whoa, did I just say that? Dad would have fit if he found out I invited a strange dragon to sleep with me.

"Really?" Toothless said in amazement as he turned back around.

Well, I can't take it back now. "Really." I just won't tell Dad.

Not wanting to give her time to change her mind about sharing space, which was tantamount to declaring friendship at the very least, Toothless curled up behind her and rumbled happily.

The two exhausted, confused, and lost teenage dragons took comfort in the presence of the other and fell into a deep sleep.

And that was how Light met Night.

But just like Astrid and Hiccup, they had a far from smooth road ahead of them.