OMFG HTTYD 3 IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND SAD AND AMAZING AND JUST ASDFGHJKL!

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The feeling of a gentle nudge on my back causes me to wake from my deep slumber. My eyes flutter open, hurting a little at the bright sunlight that surrounded me, and I mumble a soft groan. I'm so tired. When did I go to sleep last night? What time is it? What day is it? Before I could even rub the sleep away from my eyes, a black figure is suddenly in my face and furiously licking me. I gasp at the suddenness of it and for a split second I panic, unsure of what the hell it was that was licking me, but then I hear Hiccup's voice telling Toothless to get off and just like that everything suddenly came back.

My one year anniversary away from Berk. Coming to the island. The Light Fury. Hiccup and Toothless. My axe. Hiccup. He's really here. It wasn't a dream. I start to giggle then, no longer feeling panicked and being able to feel the tickling of Toothless's tongue instead. I also laughed just because I was happy and still in disbelief.

"Toothless!" Hiccup says again, closer this time. For a brief moment, I opened my eyes and saw that he was trying to push Toothless away and failing miserably. "I said get off of her bud."

"Hiccup," I say as I continued to move my head back and forth to dodge Toothless's attacks, along with trying to hold in my laughter so I could breathe. "You...are doing...a horrible...job!"

"Sorry," Hiccup said, still struggling. "He's been wanting to wake you up for awhile now, but I told him to let you sleep."

Toothless suddenly licks my ear, which causes me to release the girliest squeal I have ever heard. "Ew, Toothless! Get off! That is disgusting."

This time, he does as he's told. I quickly sit up before he could change his mind and attack me again, and while I wipe his slobber away, glaring at him all the while, Toothless merely shook his body in excitement and smiled a toothless smile. "You need to learn some boundaries." I say, dead serious, but secretly playful.

"If you haven't already noticed," Hiccup says ashe stands next to his dragon and scratches him on top his head. "He's terribly grateful for your help in finding the Light Fury."

I know I said this already, but...he's really here. It wasn't a dream. It all really happened. One would think that Toothless would have been enough proof of that, but no. It's Hiccup. "Yeah well," I wiped the rest of the slobber off of my ear, grimacing in disgust when it clung to my hand. I wiped it on the furs I was sitting on as I continued. "Don't thank me yet." I noticed Valka and Cloudjumper were gone and asked, "Where's your mother?"

"She's doing one last check on the volcano," Hiccup replies. He takes a step toward me and reaches his hand out. "Need a hand?"

"I don't actually," I reply, but take it anyway. "But thank you." He pulls me up and once I was on my feet, I noticed something over his shoulder on the sand. I let go of his hand and walk around him towards the object that I realized was paper. "What's this?" I peered closer at the drawing and writing. "A map?"

Hiccup came to my side, peering down at his own handiwork too, and said, "It is actually. It's a combination of places I've been and places I have yet to go. I got the map from Heather and have added on to it."

There's that name again. Heather. The girl that helped Hiccup after he lost his foot to the flames when he saved her village from their Queen dragon. So she gave him a map too, huh? What else?

My throat suddenly felt tight and my stomach felt odd, probably due to hunger….maybe, and after clearing my throat, I point at one of the islands. "Do my eyes deceive me or does that really say Itchy Armpit?" I glance at him and see his face turn red.

"Yeah um..." Hiccup avoids eye contact as he nervously chuckles and rubs the back of his neck. "I didn't exactly name it."

"Let me guess," I gesture to his dragon who was, coincidentally, scratching his armpit. "Toothless named it for you?"

Another nervous chuckle followed by a nod. "He was the inspiration. So...yeah."

I smile, but it vanished in an instant when my stomach rumbled loudly. Very very loudly. So loud that it even took Toothless off guard. I feel my body stiffen and my face heat up. It became even redder when Hiccup laughed. "Someone's hungry."

"Shut up, you good for nothing fishbone!" I snapped, deeply embarrassed. My reaction only made him laugh some more.

"I love a mean nickname in the middle of the afternoon," he says. He then unlatches a hidden pocket in his dragon suit, which I'm just now realizing he hasn't once taken off yet, (surely it must be uncomfortable), and takes out a tiny bag. He extends it out for me to take and says, "I figured you'd rather have berries instead of fish, so I got these for you."

I take the small bag from him and looked inside. I was expecting a mixture of all kinds of berries, but he only had one kind. My favorite kind. How did he know? Did Valka tell him? Or did he know from past observations? Or what I like to call, stalking. I smile though, genuinely, and say, "Thank you." But not wanting to be too sensitive, I punched his shoulder and say, "Fishbone."

He rubs his shoulder, chuckling to hide his pain, which was evident in his eyes. "You're welcome...milady."

I didn't know what else to say, so I awkwardly smiled as a silence passed between us. It only lasted two seconds (not that I was counting) before Hiccup breaks it by suddenly bending down to fold his map up. "So uh," his voice cracked and he cleared it, "did you sleep well?"

He deliberately made his voice deeper to make up for when it cracked and I nearly snorted at its hilarity. I take a berry out from the bag and start pacing, "Yeah, surprisingly. I slept like a rock. You?" I popped the berry into my mouth, relishing at the taste, but also bugged out because of what was currently happening.

Small talk. The awkward atmosphere isn't helping either.

I honestly don't know what I was expecting. Of course there would be small talk amongst us, especially when everything important had already been said last night. What left is there to say? I know we'll eventually move past the awkward stage and I'll become content with having nothing to say to him, but until that happens I'm going to dread every second. We just need time to grow completely comfortable with each other. Like how it was with his mother.

"Honestly, no," he chuckles and stands up after folding his map. "My mind wouldn't stop…" he glances up at me then and cuts himself off. "...racing." He gulps then quickly looks away to put his map into a different hidden pocket.

"Well, for starters," I popped another berry into my mouth and started to circle him, eyeing him up and down to study the details of his suit further. "Maybe you're mind wouldn't race as much when you try to sleep if you slept in comfortable clothing. I mean seriously, Hiccup, this," I gestured to all of him, clad in his Night Fury suit. "This doesn't look comfortable at all. Badass for sure, but not comfortable."

Hiccup eyed me the entire time I eyed him as I circled around him, looking more curious than nervous, and when I stopped in front of him I see his lips curl into a smile. "Says the girl who wears a spiked skirt."

I scoff and grip the hem of my skirt with my free hand. "I'll have you know that this beauty is my most favorite piece of clothing, and is more comfortable than any piece of silk you can find."

Hiccup shrugs, not convinced. "Eh I could totally make you something to wear that would make your skirt look like a dirty old torn up rag."

I grip my bag of berries tight as I crossed my arms over my chest. "Is that so? And what exactly do you have in mind? A dragon suit like yours?"

Hiccup's eyes seemed to sparkle at that and says, "If that is what the lady wishes, then that is what she shall get."

I was joking around, but he looked and sounded serious. "Wait," I drop my arms to the side, "are you serious?"

A part of me was excited, but another part of me didn't want him to waste his time making me a suit. I don't want him to get so worked up over it, especially since it doesn't look like it'd be easy to make. I'll feel indebted. I already feel like that with Valka. I owe her so much for everything she has done. I mean, not only did she rescue me and has taught me everything I know, but she also unintentionally reunited me with her son. If it wasn't for her suggesting we come to this island to celebrate my one year away from Berk, we would never have run into Hiccup.

"Of course," Hiccup's smile is wide and his green eyes were consumed with pure excitement, "If you want me to."

"But do you want to?" I asked, making sure it was something he really wanted to do and paying close attention to his expression to see if there is a hint of hesitation or uncertainty. I'm not going to have him make it if he doesn't want to.

"Astrid," he replies, amused and serious. "I'd love to. It's not every day I get to create something for someone else. Even back on Berk, all my creations were for me. This will be fun."

"Fun?" I repeat, eyeing him weirdly. "You're idea of fun sounds boring and hard."

"That's only because you're idea of fun includes violence," Hiccup retorts, which led to him hissing in pain when I punched him in the arm again. "Ow! Ugh why would you do that?"

I shrugged nonchalantly as I smirked. "Just wanted to see if you were right. And you are." My smirk turned into a grin. "Violence is fun."

Hiccup playfully rolls his eyes. "Even more so when you get a scar out of it, huh?" The words sounded familiar, and it took me a few seconds to remember where I heard them from.

They were my words. In the arena on our first day of dragon training just a few years ago. Seems like a lifetime really.

"Pain," I say, remembering his words from the past, "love it." He was sarcastic when he said it, and when I repeated the words I mocked his voice, sounding even more sarcastic than what he was.

Hiccup laughs and shakes his head. "I did not sound like that."

"Like what? Yourself?" I teased.

"No," he lightly argues, "Like a poppy seed addict."

"A Popper I like to call them. And yes, you totally did sound like that."

"Did not."

"Did to."

"Did not."

"Did to."

"Are we seriously going to do this?"

"Only if you keep disagreeing with me."

Hiccup releases another genuine laugh and my cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling so much."Still stubborn as always."

I cocked my head to the side, trying to ease my smile so it wouldn't hurt as much."What made you think that changed?"

Hiccup opens his mouth, but he was cut off by a dragon's roar and the sound of thundering wings from above. I turn just in time to see Cloudjumper land. Valka removed her mask, but remained standing on the back of her dragon. "Good afternoon, Astrid. I was wondering when you were going to wake up." She then briefly pauses to take in what she was seeing. Her lips curl into the smuggest smirk I have ever seen."Am I interrupting something?"

I had no idea what she was referring to until I looked back at Hiccup in confusion. That's when I realized how close the two of us were standing next to each other. How did that happen? "Nope," I say as I quickly step away from her son and move towards her as though that was my true intention. "We just got done actually, so you've came right on time."

Valka raises a suspicious eyebrow and slightly tilts her head. "Oh?" she says. "Got done doing what exactly?"

My eyes widen at her accusing words and my face heats up badly. I glare at her, knowing exactly what she was insinuating, but it was Hiccup who responded. Thank the Gods. I don't think my flustered self would have been able to form a sentence. I can't believe she would tease me like that in front of her son. Or perhaps it was Hiccup she was trying to rile up? Is she trying to kill two birds with one stone?

I glance over at Hiccup again as he speaks and see that his face is just as red as mine feels. It was kinda...cute. "Arguing over whether I should make her a dragon suit or not. I'll make you one too, mom. As soon as we find and tame the Light Fury I'll start on both. I'm going to need to Light Fury's scales so I can make yours, Astrid."

"Actually," I start, trying not to sound too picky or greedy, "I'd rather not have my suit be white. White gets dirty too easily and it'll just be a pain to constantly clean. Plus, I look awful in white."

Hiccup laughs and not being convinced he says, "You look amazing in all colors. Plus what are you going to wear on your wedding day then if not white? It's traditional."

"What?!" I blurt out, surprised at how stupid he sounds, and immediately start laughing. "Oh my Gods, Hiccup, are you serious? Who and when, in Freya's name, do you think I'm going to marry? I'm not exactly courting anyone at the moment. I can't. I'm far too busy living with dragons and saving them, far away from civilization. Which, need I remind you, is not traditional at all amongst us Vikings." I gesture to him and smirk, "I have you to thank for that. You broke me from my traditional views."

"Plus, you never were one for traditions anyway, Hiccup," Valka agrees, chuckling. "I'm sure Astrid will look wonderful in whatever color she chooses for your wedding."

"Our wedding?!" Hiccup and I exclaimed in unison as we looked at his mother in utter shock. We hurriedly glanced at each other, wondering if the other heard the same thing, and looked back at the older woman again.

Valka leans forward against her dragon's head and releases a full-hearted laugh. "Oh relax, you two. I'm just teasing. Although," her smile widened, "it would only make sense for you to marry. After all, you're the same age, you're both dragon lovers with similar soul dragons, your personalities match up much like mine and Stoick's, you both obviously like each other a lot, the chemistry is definitely there, and the flirting and sexual tension is very-"

"MOM!" Hiccup exclaimed at the same time I exclaimed: "VALKA!" Can my face get any redder?

And oh my gods, are we really having this conversation right now? Her son literally just got back last night and I don't even like him that way. I barely know him on a deep, personal level, which is something all couples should know about their partner before they marry, which is something that I...that I want. Not necessarily with Hiccup, but I mean in general. Honestly, the thought of marriage never crossed my mind, not even after with what happened with Sylvester, who wanted to marry me. I grew up training to be a warrior, not a wife. I knew that I had many suitors, Snotlout being the most persistent, but none of them mattered because I knew it wasn't the life that was meant for me. It still isn't.

And yet, now that it's brought up, I honestly don't think I would mind it so much now. I mean, I don't live amongst a Viking society anymore, therefore I don't have to follow the expectations of a proper wife or wedding. So yeah...I want marriage for love. It's so weird saying that, even without the last two words.

"What?" Valka says, in false innocence. "I'm only stating the facts-"

"Which are clearly wrong," I interrupt, desperate to have the conversation end. "Can we please move on from this and start looking for my dragon?"

Valka sighs. "Oh I suppose, but on one condition."

I cross my arms, already not liking it. "And what's that?"

Very nonchalantly, she says: "You ride my son."

Is that my face going red again? Yep. Valka sure has never acted like this before, it's very out of character of her, but then again...this is her son who she hasn't seen in a long time and who I've never seen her act around. He is also someone we both know has had a crush on me. Had. Surely he doesn't anymore...right? Our time away from each other has surely caused his crush to fade. Anyway, I'd be acting the same way as Valka if I were in her shoes. Embarrassing your children is part of the job of being a parent.

Hiccup spoke up in a stutter, but at least he was able to form words. I was too stunned to even think, because I knew exactly what she meant. "You forgot the word 'with'." His face is just as read as mine, maybe even redder, indicating that he knew exactly what his mother meant too.

Valka smirks. "No, I didn't. Now," she clasped her hands together, "you two gather everything up, while I get a headstart on our search. Let's go, Cloudjumper." He obeyed and the two were in the sky before another word could be spoken.

Hiccup and I watched her every movements as she left, not saying a word until she was completely out of sight, and even then it took us a few seconds to come up with something to say...which was the same thing again.

"Thank Thor that's over."

We look at each other in surprise before we instantly burst into laughter. "You've got to stop reading my mind." He says, looking a little sheepish.

"Why? It's so fun in there," I tease, feeling like I was in control again now that I wasn't the one being teased at. "Are you afraid I'll see something naughty?"

Hiccup rolls his eyes, as if unbothered, but the new redness that formed in his cheeks told me otherwise. "That depends on your definition of naughty. Cause mine is when I play tricks on Toothless and vice versa. He does not play fair. What's your definition?"

I grin mischievously. "I'll show you later."

"When you ride me?" His expression mirrored mine.

My grin only seemed to widen. Teasing each other on our own is way more comfortable than when his mom did it. That was way awkward. I'm a little surprised at how easily we just went with it after Valka left. "Perhaps, but first," I move past him towards the supplies, "we have a mission to accomplish."

I began gathering everything, Hiccup doing the same not even a moment later, and after a few minutes of comfortable silence, he speaks. "So about your suit, what type of dragon would you like it to be? I really am serious about making it."

I kept my eyes on my furs that I was folding, but smiled wide. "A Deadly Nadder. They're my favorite."

"Any color preferences? Nadders are the most colorful of dragons, after all."

A certain blue Nadder I had befriended comes to mind and I smile fondly at the memory of her. "Blue," I say, then go on to explain why. "Like the Nadder in the arena all those years ago. Stormfly I like to call her. I hadn't seen her for years until last year when your mom brought me to the Sanctuary where Stormfly had been living at. I knew it was her immediately. She was the quickest dragon that I formed a bond with. Not a soul bond, but still a bond nonetheless."

I pause as worry set in. "Unfortunately," I continue, not even hiding the worry in my voice,"we haven't seen her in two months. I'm sure that she's fine and living a new life away from the Sanctuary, but," I stop to chuckle, "I like to call myself the Mother of Dragons, even though the title belongs more to your mom. I consider them my children too though and I can't help but worry."

I look up at him them, not at all surprised to see that he was staring at me (I felt him do it once I started talking) and added: "Just like how I did with you everyday since you left."

Hiccup's eyes slightly widen. "You worried about me?"

"That's literally what I said. Also, did I not mention that last night?" I question, genuinely unsure.

Hiccup smiles softly and shrugs. "Honestly, last night felt like a dream."

"Same here." I agreed as I finished folding my furs. "It's probably going to take us forever until we realize that we're for real back in each other's lives. I guess we should enjoy this dream-like state while it lasts. Cause once we're used to each other's presence, I can already see us butting heads at each other."

Hiccup chuckles. "Nah. I see us getting along rather well. "

I raise an eyebrow. "Is that so? What makes you say that?" I put my furs in their basket and look up at Hiccup as he replied.

"Well," he says as he tighten a strap on Toothless's saddle, "Of all the things that both my mother and father have said to me, it's that a woman is always right. You won't have to worry about butting heads with me. I'll agree with whatever you say."

"That's such a lie," I argued, being serious because I knew there would some things he wouldn't agree with me on, such as things that could be a risk to my life. It'd be the same vice versa. I was also trying to trick him to see if he would agree with me like he said he would.

"No it isn't," He said, falling for my sorta-trick.

"What happened to agreeing with whatever I say?" I question, making him pause and causing Toothless to make a noise that sounded like dragon laughter. I couldn't stop myself from laughing with the Night Fury.

"Oh ha ha," Hiccup says, sarcastically, flicking his dragon's ear, which causes Toothless's laughing to abruptly stop and for him to glare at his rider. I was smiling fondly at them, but quickly ended it before Hiccup could catch me and went back to packing the rest of the supplies.

A few minutes later, we're ready to go.

"Okay," says Hiccup as he settles into his saddle, his whole demeanor changing to nervous and tense, but he still manages to look at me. "So...um...you ready for this?"

"Of course," I say, confused as to why he's acting so weird all of a sudden. I go to get behind him on the saddle, and as I lift up my leg I say: "This brings back memories." I continued once I was settled in behind him: "It feels like it was only yesterday when you kidnapped me and took me on my first flight."

Hiccup scoffs. "I did not kidnap you."

"There you go again," I tease, "not agreeing with me."

Hiccup chuckles and slightly turns his head to look back at me. "Okay, you know what? I take back everything I said earlier. I think we're going to butt heads after all."

"Well, if you keep disagreeing with me then we definitely will," I say as I placed my hands on his shoulders to give me something to hold on to. Wrapping my arms around his waist or putting my hands on his hips is too...intimate. I mean, it's only intimate if I make it feel that way; it could totally be platonic if I just set my mind to think that way, but...I can't. It's not an easy thing to do.

Hiccup seemed to tense more too when he felt my hands. I wonder if this closeness is why he suddenly went tense and nervous just a moment before. Damn you Valka. I'm so going to give her a piece of my mind when I get her alone. I have no doubt that Hiccup will do the same. "Okay," I say, since Hiccup didn't say anything, "let's do this."

Hiccup clears his throat and says to his dragon, "Alright, Toothless. Let's go find your crush."

And just like that, everything happened so fast that it was a blur.

Toothless had become overly excited, and much like my first time riding him, he's in the air before I could blink, taking off so fast that I scream in surprise as my heart stops. My eyes instantly close and I move just as fast, no longer holding on to Hiccup's shoulders, but was instead hanging on to him by his waist, my arms wrapped tightly around him, and my face buried into his back.

"Hiccup!" I growled once I had found my breath. "If Toothless keeps taking off without a warning and it ends up killing me, I'm going to end up killing you."

"What? Why? It's not like I told him to do that!" Hiccup defends, amusement coating his tone. "Sorry, by the way. He's just as excited as you are about finding the Light Fury. You okay?"

"I've handled worse," I say as I remove my head from his back and look down at the world below us. It's such a beautiful sight. "And I don't blame Toothless for being excited," I continue as I looked on at the world. "This is pretty exciting. Right, boy?" I pat Toothless's side while he gives a growl in reply, agreeing with me.

And as our flight continued, I deliberately kept my arms around Hiccup's waist. Not because I wanted to, but because I knew I needed to. Leaning against him is not only good for my back posture but it's also good for keeping me warm too. I'm only doing it for my health. That's all.

And there's nothing weird or wrong about it.

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Sorry if this chapter sucks. I've been super busy with college essays to put a lot of thought into it. It's mostly just filler fluff which honestly, I don't see anything wrong with. I hope you enjoyed! Tell me your favorite parts about The Hidden World and also what should we call the Light Fury in this story? I've heard that Luna is her name, but I kinda want to do something different. Like Moondancer or something. What do you guys think?