Astrid had needed to borrow a sweatshirt from Hiccup to dampen the paranoia of not wearing bindings. He was taller than her and broad-shouldered so the hoodie reached down to her hips, covering a bit of her spiky skirt as well.

Hiccup was currently in the middle of preparing them breakfast. Astrid stood by his side, watching him stir up something in a bowl, some kind of doug except it looked much more thin and runny than what she was used to.

"Are you making bread?" she asked curiously.

"No," Hiccup chuckled. "I'm making pancakes."

Astrid made a face and repeated the word to herself, trying to get a vague idea of what a 'pancake' could be. Hiccup nudged her side playfully so he could stand before the stove. He began pouring the pancake-batter onto the hot iron pan.

"You can actually be very creative with this," he commented. "I saw someone do it in a vid-.. erm, one of those moving pictures I mean, and he created a portrait of his girlfriend. It was pretty cool."

Astrid looked at him in awe. "Can we try that?"

Hiccup shifted self-consciously. "I have never done it before. I, um.. Hold on." He rushed out to the living room to grab his phone and then reappeared again just as the pancakes were starting to take form. He removed them from the pan with a spatula before searching up 'pancake art' videos on the web.

Astrid squinted uncomfortably at the bright blue light of the screen, peeking from behind him.

Hiccup set the phone down on the counter and folded the case outwards to make it stand up. "I don't have any squeeze bottle so we are just going to have to use the ladle. It's going to be a little messy," he warned.

"The what now?" Astrid said as Hiccup started to draw what appeared to be Toothless on the pan. He waited until the outline darkened slightly before filling in the gaps and then flipping the pancake around.

Astrid gasped, smiling in elation and making Hiccup grin proudly. "Can I try?" she asked eagerly.

Hiccup handed her the ladle and stepped aside. Astrid ended up scooping up an excessive amount of batter so whatever she had intended to draw came out incomprehensible.

"Mine doesn't look half as nice as yours," she complained with a pout when Hiccup turned her pancake over.

"I would say it's a pretty decent first attempt."

Astrid sighed, still disappointed by the outcome. "I wasn't really that great of a cook back on Berk, or so I have been told," she grumbled. "I tried making bread once and it came out all black."

Hiccup laughed in spite of himself, only stopping as her facial expression visibly hardened. "Hey, I'm not actually much of a cook either," he admitted. "My dad and I used to make breakfast together. That is why I'm not completely hopeless at some of this stuff."

Astrid studied his face carefully, noticing his solemn, sad tone but not probing the matter further.

"What about your mom?"

His eyes widened in horror. "Oh God, no. My mom is a disaster in the kitchen."

Astrid snickered along with him, and then surprised him by dipping her hand inside the almost empty bowl and smearing the batter onto his cheek.

"What are you-" Hiccup gaped at her in shock. Astrid merely stuck her tongue out at him childishly. "Oh, you are so going down!"

Needless to say, they both ended up quite a messy sight afterwards and the kitchen even more so.

After finally finishing up their pancakes, with Astrid calling dibs on Hiccup's much nicer looking ones, they spent the rest of the day on clean-up duty.

-,-

It was Monday evening when Frankie brought Heather with him to Hiccup's house. The raven haired girl already looked sceptical of what secret awaited her before they even stepped in the door.

Frankie led her straight into the garage, starting off by showing her what was left of the generator he and Hiccup had built together.

"As you can see, it doesn't look like much anymore," he said with a sigh.

Heather frowned. "Why exactly are you showing me this again?"

Frankie let out a nervous laugh, glancing over at Hiccup who stood in the doorway with his arms folded over his chest.

"Something mind-boggling has happened. You will not even believe it."

-,-

"Heather meet Darkshot."

Heather could feel her heartbeat pick up as she gawked at the surreal sight of a dragon sitting on top of Frankie's lap.

"Is that.. thing real?" she asked in a stunned voice, casting a questioning glance at Hiccup who nodded meekly back.

She felt slightly faint now. "So let me get this straight," she began, squeezing her eyes shut and rubbing her temple. "You guys created some sort of interdimensional 'time-portal' and now there are dragons everywhere?"

"Sort of, kinda.. yeah."

"We don't really know the mechanics behind what really happened, only that it did," Hiccup interjected.

Heather nodded to herself, lowering down on the nearest chair to let it all sink in. "You know I thought I saw something strange outside my house last night," she mused out loud. "Derek swore it was just the cat but maybe it wasn't."

"So you believe us?" Hiccup asked surprised by how well she was taking it.

"There is clearly a dragon sitting on my boyfriend's lap, if I'm not hallucinating this whole thing that is."

Frankie shot Hiccup a smug 'I told you so' smile.

Hiccup rolled his eyes, sighing in obvious defeat. "There is another thing you m-" Before he could even think to finish his sentence, Astrid somersaulted down the stairs with her axe in hand, landing beautifully on her feet in front of Heather with a smirk.

The raven haired girl blinked back at the blonde, perplexed and mildly curious. "Am I being pranked right now?"

Frankie set Darkshot down and strode over to his girlfriend, grabbing her hands in his. "Well you see Heather, the dragons weren't the only ones that crossed over to our timeline. Astrid is, um.. how do I put this? ...Not from here?"

Heather furrowed her eyebrows. "I thought she was your cousin from Europe."

Frankie shook his head. "That was just a cover up story we invented. I couldn't exactly tell you she is a dragon-wrangling, axe-wielding Viking girl who somehow ended up in my best friend's bedroom in the dead of the night, now could I?"

Heather barked out laughter but then stopped short when no one else was joining in.

"Wait, are you serious?" she asked incredulously. "Wow."

Hiccup stepped behind Astrid, placing a calming hand on her shoulder to make her unclench her fists. "We have promised to find a way to get Astrid home but in the meanwhile we could use your help Heather."

Heather pursed her lips thoughtfully, regarding Astrid with great intrigue and interest.

AN: I just finished writing chapter 9 and it will be up soon-ish. I have been having a rough week, the pain has lessened but I'm mentally drained. Once again, thank you for the all support!