"Come on Stormfly please?!"

Stormfly simply huffed and turned her head stubbornly, causing a frustrated sigh to escape Astrid's lips.

"Look, I already told you, the kitchen was out of chicken! They're getting more stock next week! You can have your chicken but until then you've gotta have fish" She tried to reason with her dragon to no avail.

Stormfly still remained unwilling to have the fish. She turned away from the servant girl. That dragon was spoiled way too much.

"For Thor's sake Stormfly it's just fish! There are foods other than chicken! I'm not letting you starve to death because you're too stubborn to eat the gods damned food!" She finally snapped but, upon seeing how her dragon quivered and laid down sadly, calmed down instantly.

"Okay fine Stormfly, I know I haven't spent much time with you this week and I'm sorry about that but I promise we're gonna go flying tonight and tomorrow I'll take you on a nice early morning flight. How does that sound?"

At this, her dragon perked up a little.

"There we go girl" she smiled encouragingly "Now just eat the fish"

And Stormfly was laying on the floor again. Finally at her wits end, Astrid threw her hands in the air with a cry of exasperation. The blonde haired helper sunk to the ground and leant against Stormfly.

"That's it! I give up!"

Normally Astrid had more patience for Stormfly. The two had an extremely solid bond. However, today was different. This entire week was different. It had been an emotionally exhausting rollercoaster. Her mind had been all over the place so her temperament had been slightly unsettled. Not much, but it was noticeable if properly looked out for.

Plus, something the Princess had said earlier did not sit well with her...

xxxx

flashback

"Are you ever going to tell him?"

Astrid looked away, feigning innocence "What are you talking about Princess?"

Heather's eyes bore into her sharply and she had no choice but to look at her "You what I'm talking about"

Still, Astrid kept her ignorant facade "I'm afraid I really don't-"

"The Prince!"

Astrid shut her eyes tightly, suppressing anger. She didn't like being snapped at, and Heather was usually so nice it wasn't an issue. However, that did not mean it never happened. Of course servants would snap from time to time, and when this happened Astrid would be the first to give them a piece of her mind. But she couldn't with the Princess, she did not have the right.

"Ruffnut told you" It was more of a statement than a question, she knew the truth.

"Don't be angry with her, you know how bad she is with secrets. She couldn't help it"

"I'm not angry with her" she sighed "Frustrated, maybe, but not with her. So you know?"

Heather nodded "I do. And to be fair to Ruff, she wasn't the only one I found out from"

At that, confusion rose within her "How is that possible? No one elsw knew"

"There was talk from other servants about Prince Hiccup being spotted late at night with a mystery girl. I had already suspected it was you, I approached Ruffnut and she told me about your situation. It was not new information, it only confirmed my suspicions"

It made sense, looking back. Astrid wasn't oblivious to the whispers and sneers around her, she just assumed it was because of her family name like usual.

"I suppose you have questions" Astrid walked around, cleaning Heather's room briskly in an attempt to avoid eye contact.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Astrid hesitated before speaking "I wanted to. Believe me, I considered telling you a number of times but I was afraid"

"Afraid of what?"

"Your reaction

"What?" the young princess asked, clearly confused.

"I know you want me to tell Prince Hiccup about the royal ball, I understand why, and I knew you would disapprove of me spending all this time with him without telling the truth"

"That's not the reason I disapprove"

"It's not?" Astrid raised an eyebrow.

"Well, okay yes, it is partially. But that's not the only reason"

"What is your other reason?" Astrid asked, finding it was now her turn to be confused.

"By doing this Astrid, you're going against one of your very own statements, one of your beliefs"

Of all the answers Astrid could have expected, that was not one of them.

"I'm afraid I don't follow Princess" The young girl frowned as she tried to understand the statement.

"You always say that you don't want to set yourself up for heartbreak, question why you'd even put yourself in that sort of position. Not only are you doing it to yourself, but you're doing it to him too"

"What? How?" she asked incredulously.

"You two seem to have a connection, which is great, but Astrid did you think about what happens after the end of the visit?"

Heather was making a fair point, Astrid hadn't thought about what happens after he leaves, it hadn't even crossed her mind.

"I guess I just assumed he'd leave and forget about me" she automatically averted her gaze and began cleaning again.

"You should know at this point that he's not that kind of person" Heather sighed "I think he's falling for you, again"

"Don't be absurd"

"Whenever anyone discusses plans for the evening or for the night, you should see the way his eyes light up"

"That may not be me, he might just be excited about flying" she argued.

"No, I've seen how excited he gets about flying, this was different. It was the same look he got when talking about the Princess" At this she threw a pointed look in Astrid's direction. One that Astrid ignored.

"It's probably nothing"

"Feelings are never nothing"

That's a flat out lie, and Astrid knows it. Feelings are easy to fake. Heather, however, may not know this. Human nature is one of the things you learn growing up in the real world, as opposed to the guarded and protective world royals tend to reside in.

"Look Astrid" Heather began gently "You know I want you to be happy. Both you and Hiccup are my friends, nothing would make me happier than for you two to have your happily ever after. But that can only happen if you tell him the truth. If you won't, then he's going to leave heart broken by the fact that he's managed to fall in love this week, both times with women he seemingly can't be with. And you'll be heart broken because you're in love with him and can't do anything about it'

"I-I am not in l-love with Prince H-hiccup!" She sputtered out, a habit she's sure she picked up from the latter.

"Are you sure about that?"

"He may have confessed to being in love, but I did no such thing" the blonde countered fiercely.

"You don't need to confess anything. It's so obvious"

"How so?"

"For one thing you blush whenever he comes up" Heather pointed out as Astrid realized the feeling of the heat flooding her cheeks "Plus you get the exact same sparkle as he does"

"None of this matters Princess" Astrid dismissed quietly "It's not as if the world will magically change it's views on status and accept Hiccup being in love with someone who's not royalty"

"So you admit he's in love with you" she grinned

"I didn't mean it like that" Astrid denied "The pretense was hypothetical. IF he was in love with me, nobody would like it. That's all I was saying"

"Astrid" The raven haired girl said solemnly

"It doesn't matter. He will always be a Prince and I will always be a servant. Nothing can change that. This whole situation is pointless"

"I don't think he understands that" Heather offered meekly.

"No, he doesn't" it was now Astrid's turn to sigh "He's naive like that. It's wonderful in some ways, and awful in others"

Astrid liked that Hiccup, much like other royals, had this black and white view. It was refreshing to be around so much optimism. Yet, it simultaneously made things much more difficult. The way he was able to say that he believes all humans are equal with such sincerity is infuriating. Because she knows. She knows it's not true. They'll never be equal.

Astrid hadn't realised she was hurting him. She hadn't even thought about it, which was strange considering how cautious she usually was. And now she was in too deep. No matter what she did now he was going to get hurt. If she told him the truth, they still wouldn't be able to be together and if she hid it from him, he would leave without ever knowing his 'mystery princess'.

It truly was a set up for heartbreak.

xxxx

Eventually, she gave up. She couldn't force feed Stormfly and wouldn't want to either. Dejectedly, she went to leave the stable until she noticed a black ball in the corner.

Cautiously, she approached his pen. His head perks up and he stared at her. That's all it is for a few moments. Silence and stares. He's not even glaring. It's completely blank. She offers a small smile.

"Hi, Toothless right?" she takes the twitch of curiosity at the mention of his name as a good sign "Hi"

He's not angry, a little suspicious maybe. Regardless, she holds out her hands to calm him "It's okay. I know your rider, Hiccup"

Again, he becomes more energetic and Astrid smiles to herself. Progress "My name is Astrid"

And now he's really interested, he's definitely heard her name before. The thought gave her a warm fuzzy feeling. The feeling radiated to her chest and Astrid pushed it away as quickly as she possibly could.

"My girl over here" she gestured to Stormfly "Doesn't seem to be hungry at the moment so I figured I might as well not waste all this fish"

He watched as she placed the barrel on the ground.

"It's okay" she reassured, taking one fish and throwing it to the ground in front of him "Completely safe"

He sniffed the fish before scoffing it down. Before she knew it he devouring the entire barrel. She couldn't help but laugh. The offspring of lightening and death was as playful as a child. The sight was endearing.

At some point he'd ended up sitting on his hind legs and leaving a slimy, slobbery fish in her lap. She met his expectant gaze and began to fumble.

"Thanks Toothless but I uh... I don't eat fish" was the excuse she settled on, tossing him back the fish.

He swallowed it and gave her, what she could only assume was, a smile. Suddenly, he pounced on her and began licking her face wildly. Astrid could only laugh.

"Gods, this isn't gonna wash out is it?" she muttered to herself once the laughter died downdown.

She got up, petting Toothless "Alright I should go now but I'll be back tonight. See ya then Toothless"

She went to leave and then abruptly turned to Stormfly.

"Oh by the way girl, I'm calling you Stormshine tonight"

She heard Stormfly's confused sqauwk behind her as she left.

Astrid tried to ignore her elevated heartbeat. She tried to ignore the rising anxiety seizing her chest. She tried to ignore the knot in her stomach.

All she knew was that one heart was going to break tonight, and she was terrified to find out who's.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

So this book has roughly 3-5 chapters left and I was thinking about doing a sequel but I'll only do it if you guys are up for it!

I have lots of ideas for other httyd stories. Would you guys like me to write more stories?

Also, I was thinking about giving you guys some fun facts about this book since it's coming to an end soon.

Fun fact #1: Originally there was gonna be a storyline where Stormfly was actually a gift to Astrid from Hiccup. The gist of it was that Astrid couldn't find her own dragon because she couldn't bond with any of them. During a visit to Berk Astrid bonded with Stormfly, which Hiccup noticed. They were gonna have a conversation ending with Hiccup telling Astrid that she could take Stormfly back to Berserker Island. It was really sweet, but ultimately I had to scrap it because it was too easy for Hiccup to connect back to the mystery princess. Gotta challenge him :)

More fun facts?

As always please feel free to review! All feedback is appreciated (just make sure any criticism is written constructively)

Shohini :)