Sorry this took so long, a laundry list of delays kept me from updating. I hope you like it.

Sorry again for the giant block of text. thanks for pointing it out stephen51991

As Gobber drags the dazed Gronckle back into its cage, Hiccup sneaks away again. With the Gronkle out of commission until tomorrow dragon training is over for the day, but I still get the impression that he is sneaking, not just going to get something to eat. It's suspicious and I shouldn't care, but it's suspicious and I need to know what he's up to. That's my reasoning anyway as I follow, employing all my skills to avoid being seen. I shouldn't have bothered. He doesn't seem to notice me and I still manage to lose him. Instead of getting frustrated, I retrace my steps to a spot where I'd seen Hiccup go when he wants to be alone. Not that I'm stalking him. I'm just... concerned. And it's always better... for... the village... to know where he is. I find him, sitting cross-legged on top of a boulder, but am surprised by what he is doing.

"I'm your mortal flaw, and you're my fatal sin," he sings softly and hums a few notes." No that doesn't sound right. You're my mortal flaw, and I'm your fatal sin. Yeah, that's better. " He proceeds to write something, probably lyrics, in his journal.

I am utterly flabbergasted. Since when could Hiccup sing? Vikings don't sing. We bellow, roar, and occasionally chant, but we don't sing. Granted, I'm no expert but I think he sounds... good. I almost just stay there to listen, but he turns around and sees me.

He proceeds to fall off the boulder. Just as quickly, he scrambles to his feet.

"Astrid! Hi, Astrid. Hi, Astrid." He straightens his clothes from the tumble.

I shake my head and walk over to the boy. "Hey, Hiccup, you said a few days ago you wanted to practice together. Well, still feeling up to it?" I half expect him to jump at the chance, but he actually takes a few minutes to answer. I would almost swear that somebody is telling him what to say, the way his eyes go glassy and unfocused for an instant before he replies. But that is ridiculous. There's nobody out here but us.

"You're probably aware I'm not strong in the traditional Viking way." He picks up his notebook and slides it in his vest. (Does he have pockets inside his vest? Shady.) "In order to keep up, I use unconventional methods." He looks at his hands. Why is he giving me this speech? It's a yes or no question, for Tyr's sake! "Before I answer, tell me, do you believe my methods are wrong? Think carefully before you answer."

This is not what I was expecting when I decided to investigate Hiccup. He went from stuttering mess to a thought out speech. Since when did he become so serious? (It's a nice change of pace but that's not important.) But maybe this is better. With this, he can tell me. I just need to word this right. "My problem isn't really your methods. It's the fact you dodge questions left and right." I set my ax down and sit on an adjacent boulder, staring at him. "Everything you're doing you cover up, almost as if you made a deal with Loki." He grimaces at the idea. "If you can't tell me what you're doing, tell me why you cover it up." My irritation softens by the end of my own speech.

Hiccup lies down on his boulder, looking at the clouds. "I guess…" He pauses for a moment, trying to find the words. "My tactics are not considered Viking enough to be accepted by everyone else." He looks at his arms. "I can't swing a broadsword to save my life, despite the fact I've worked in the forge every day since I was eight." He sits back up. "I'm also clumsy, and whenever I try to do things my way by building machines that should do things for me, they either fail to impress or malfunction in such a way as to make me look worse." He inhales and lets it out slowly, almost a sigh. "That's why I'm so circumspect about my tactics. Most Vikings would think I was cheating or something. Despite the fact we are at war with dragons and any advantage we get will save more people and prevent more theft." He cuts his rant off with a grimace. He looks at me then, waiting for my answer.

I pick my ax back up. "So you feel your methods are shameful in some way?" He nods. I stand up. "Here's the deal then." I heft my ax over my shoulder. "In exchange for teaching me this new method of fighting dragons, I'll help you develop a fighting style that plays to your strengths." I offer him a hand. "Deal?" He takes a moment to decide before he smirks and clasps my hand.

"Deal."

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I accepted Astrid's offer. I'm glad Toothless helped me hold it together

"Thanks for the help," I project letting him feel my gratitude.

"Glad to." Toothless's voice is somewhat fuzzy, considering I am about a mile away right now. "Make sure she doesn't see your memory stone."

"I took care of that earlier." Bandages cover the gem on my forehead. I tell people that I injured myself and let them draw their own conclusions. Some assume that I ran into one too many trees. Others think that I'm battling wild dragons bare-handed. Whatever keeps them happy and far from the truth. "So, what can I safely tell Astrid that doesn't reveal my connection to you?"

Toothless takes a moment to think. "Tell her about shock-worm eels and ecstasy grass." I suppress a giggle at the memory of Toothless wriggling in a field of grass I'd dubbed Dragon Nip. Toothless growls in my head. "That stuff does things to dragons. You know this." He must have seen the memory. The scourge of the night sky does not like anyone to witness him being silly.

"I know, but you were amusing nonetheless."

"Hiccup! Hurry up!" Astrid calls. During my mental conversation I'd managed to lag behind.

"I may not see you tonight. But just in case, let's keep quiet for now. I don't want Astrid wondering why I'm more distracted than usual."

"I don't like it, but okay."

"Coming!" I catch up to Astrid. She seems parched. "Want some?" I offer her my waterskin. She looks at it, shrugs, and takes a swig.

"Thanks." She returns the skin. "So what weapons can you use?" She idly twirls her ax with one hand.

I take a moment to think."Most Viking weapons are too heavy for me to use reliably. The only weapon I can count on has been my dagger." I offer the weapon and Astrid takes it. After inspecting the blade, she throws it into a tree.

"Until you have a proper weapon, we will practice knife throwing." She tugs the dagger from the tree and carves a target on the wood. She returns the knife to me. "Let's see what you've got "

Holding the dagger in my right hand, I throw it at the target. It hits the outer rim, but doesn't stick and falls to the ground.

"Don't let the blade spin. Throw it straight." She demonstrates with her own dagger. She throws it and her aim is true, hitting dead center. She smirks. "Still got it."

I walk over to the tree and grab both my dagger and Astrid's. (Though it takes a few tugs to remove hers from the wood.) I walk back to the starting spot and am about to throw it at the tree when I remember something. Perhaps my new skills may be useful here.

I watch Hiccup as he prepares to throw his dagger again. He looks like he's about to throw it in a twirling motion before he pauses and takes time to think about his throw. He alters his grip and throws his dagger. A sudden wind knocks us both over as the dagger flies through the air at an alarming speed. I shakily get back up, somewhat dazed by the sudden gust of wind. I look over at Hiccup. He tries to get up but is sweating profusely, more exhausted than he should be.

"What the heck wa-" I don't get to finish my sentence as the sound of strained wood can be heard behind us. I turn around to see the tree we are using as target practice slowly tipping towards us. "Hiccup, run!" I shout as I run away. Hiccup seems to be having trouble getting up, almost as if he's just run a marathon. Seeing that the tree is seconds from falling on him, I reach out with my right hand, grab Hiccup, and pull him away before he can be crushed.

I'm momentarily distracted as a green glow shows from beneath his bandages.

I'm still a little dazed after using my magic like that. I need to learn how to hold back. If I overdo it too much I could die!

I stand up and look at the tree. Upon closer inspection, I see that it's quite old, with noticeable areas of decay. But what strikes me as odd is that the tree looks smaller than it should. Looking at the trunk, I see a knife sticking out the side. But when I walk over I realize this is my dagger. But why is it so small now?

Turning my head down to look at the knife has the effect of having my hair fall in my face. This wouldn't have surprised me if my hair wasn't suddenly a bright red. I jump up and proceed to fall backward. Were my legs always this long? Wait! I grab the knife-sized dagger and try to look at my reflection in the blade, but it's too rough to provide any kind of mirror. So I pick up my noticeably smaller ax with arms that are too long to be comfortable. When I look at the side of my well tended weapon, my reflection is clear as day, except it's not my reflection. The face I look at is alien to me? But when I see the red gem on my forehead I-

We dispersed when I realize we'd fused. I fall to the ground and stare at Astrid, who stares at me, or rather, at the green memory gem on my forehead.

"Hiccup, why is that there?" She lifts her shaking hand, pointing at my forehead. I've seen Astrid angry plenty of times but now she looks worried and… concerned? "Hiccup," she sounds angrier now, "what is that?"

"Astrid you have to give me a chance to explain!" I crawl backward, until my back hits a log. This feels familiar.

She stands there, picking up her ax and leaning on it. "I'm waiting." She has calmed somewhat.

I take in a breath, hoping she buys this half-truth. "Okay, so remember a few weeks ago when I shot down a Night Fury?" I pause and wait for it to sink in.

Astrid's eyes widen, "You were serious?"

"I was." I sit straighter, getting more comfortable. "I went searching for the dragon, but when I got to the crash site, he had escaped."

Astrid tilts her head. "He?"

Crap, I did not mean to reveal that. I think it best to continue. "What I didn't know was that he escaped recent enough that he saw me inspecting the mangled bola." Astrid's eyes widened slightly. "As he was obviously quite nettled about me shooting him down, I was attacked by a weakened and injured, but still strong Night Fury."

"If that's the case, how did you not die?"

"Because during our fight, we accidentally fused." I interlace my fingers to get the point across. "We were both so startled by it that he fled and I fainted." I drop my arms. "A few weeks later, this," I gesture to the gem on my forehead, "grows out of my skull."

Astrid looks incredulous. "Is this how you got better in dragon training?"

I smile, press my lips together, and project my next comment, seeing if she can hear it. "That's part of it." I wasn't sure if she could hear me at first, but she obviously did and saw that my lips and jaw never moved.

Her skepticism melts into shock. "What did you just do?"

"This is how dragons communicate with each other, though they talk with images and emotions rather than words." I stand up, dust off my kilt, and switch back to verbal communication. "It's how I learned my 'shady' tactics. They expressed their emotions and I took advantage." Remembering what Toothless said earlier, I decide to tell Astrid about some of the tactics. "I learned dragons, particularly fusions, are afraid of eels, which they associate with lightning. Lightning may be able to forcefully disband fusions, I'm not really sure. I've learned this and more from just listening to the dragons." I pause and look down. "Unfortunately this gem came with something unexpected. "

The concern is back. "And that is?"

I sit down on the log and release a heavy breath. "I don't think I can kill dragons now. Not when I've heard them. They're not just animals anymore, Astrid. They're sentient, a few are even sapient!" I look Astrid straight in the eye. "All those gems we keep as trophies, the dragons are still alive, Astrid. Or, at least, somewhat." I slouch, elbows on my knees. "Even if that can be called living." I rub the bridge of my nose, worried I'd revealed too much.

Much to my shock, Astrid takes a seat next to me and attempts to console. "I'm not sure how I can help you, but I do know I'm now in the same boat as you." I look at her. "This is going to take some getting used to." She scratches her right palm. "Anything else I should know?"

I think about it before I make up my mind. "Thanks to this gem in my forehead I can now use magic." I gesture to the tree we're sitting on. "It's how I knocked this tree down."

It takes Astrid a moment to digest what I just said. "Wha-, wh-, how?" She's even more shocked than before.

"One of the gems in my house was willing to teach me, I believe it thinks I'm a dragon, for how else could we talk to each other?" My voice gets some bardic embellishment at the end.

Astrid just stares ahead, mind blown. "Welp, I guess I learned your shady secret." She sets her ax down. "How are you going to tell the village? You obviously can't hide that forever." She gestures to my forehead.

"Your's will certainly be easier to hide." I glance at her right palm, which has some red lines where she scratched it. Her gaze follows mine.

"You mean I'm going to have a gem?!" She sounds angry and scared, but mostly angry.

I stand up and back away. "I-I'll help you wherever I can! I'm still new to this, too, you know!"

Thankfully Astrid calms down. "So what now?"

I sit back down. "Now… we find a way to tell the village that doesn't get us disowned or killed." I look at Astrid, who appears more vulnerable than I've ever seen before. "Any ideas?"

Unfortunately, Hiccup and I don't have any bright ideas of how to explain this. I look up and see it's already sunset.

"We should head back." Hiccup gets off the log and walks towards the village.

"Hey, Hiccup, do dragons have names for their fusions?" He looks back at me.

"I don't know. Dragons use images and emotions to talk." He pauses. "Though the Zipplebacks in the ring think of themselves as 'partners of life.' At least that's the best translation."

"Maybe we should have a name for our fusion. Any ideas?"

Hiccup smirks and I know he's gonna be coy with me. "We could take the standard Viking approach to things and bash our own names together."

I try not to laugh." You think we should be called Hiccstrid or something?"

He chuckles. "I was thinking Astcup." Hiccup takes a moment to think. "Hiccstrid is not half bad actually. I'm okay using that name if you are."

I shrug. "Hiccstrid it is."

I had so many shipping jokes when I wrote this chapter, but I would like to hear yours.

So Astrid knows Hiccup's secret. (well, part of it.) lets see how that plays out.

Does anybody know what song Hiccup was singing? its going to come into play later.

Guest: glad you think so.

Deadly Bagel: Glad you noticed the part on the Queen not being universally hated. Its something I hope will be well received in the Queens' grand entrance.

The Shade fury's signature shade is something I believe, when properly utilized, would be excellent for close combat. the reason nobody would really care if terrors know how to regrow limbs is part of a hierarchy thing. who would you ask for advice in the military? a private or a general? that's the case here.

Glad somebody appreciates the learning curve. (even if it felt too quick to be realistic.) The vent my spleen thing was unintentional, but the imagery provided by your comment had me doing a nervous laugh. Glad you picked up on the hints I dropped. I'm sure you could easily figure out how those with gems are able to fuse with those lacking. You will probably figure out the Queens' secret before shes even introduced.

Greenyy: I'm happy this view of the Queen is refreshing. I wanted to try something different.

Umbra Lycan: I'm not exactly sure how to classify this AU. Any ideas?

Hopefully the next chapter comes out sooner. In the mean time, lets hear some Hiccstrid jokes.