AN: Hello pals, and welcome again. I was supposed to update this weekend but I ended up going on an unexpected travel. Which is a shame because I'd sincerily have been happier reading your reviews than I was on the entire trip. Anyway, I still have people offering to help me bridge my excerpts. As of now there is no need for that. However, due to the... peculiar way I am writing this story, I can say that I will need help probably more than once. So if any of you, like V01dsw0rd is willing to help me, feel free to PM me!

Also I am dedicating this chapter to a dear friend of mine, and one of my very first readers: fanfictionmakermachine. It's his birthday (18th of February, as I am aware some of you are already on the 19th), so congrats! I hope you like this chapter.

IMPORTANT: I have a request for all of you: I'd like all of you to tell me, in your reviews, whether my review responses sbould stay before the story or if I should write them after. If possible, tell me why you have your opinion.

Review response:

orca3533: Thanks ^^ and here is the next chapter. enjoy

fanfictionmakermachine: I hope you like your little gift :) and yes she will. How that'll happen... Hmm I guess you'll have to wait :P

LunarCatNinja: Yaaaay, new reader :DDD

gingeryetie: Here is more ^^

thearizona: So did I, which is exactly why I had the idea of this chapter to be honest. I'm glad you liked. The song I imagined her playing was Moonlight Sonata from Beethoven, but I'm aware that he probably had not composed this song by the time this story is happening. I'll try to think of new song to fit in with the timeline.

Dew That Is Blue: Oh yes, this story has more than once duplicated paragraphs. Since people hasn't complained lately, I don't think it is any longer. However I do not remember if I corrected all the chapters. And thank you for pointing this out to me. I sometimes mix some words, as is the case of your example. Other is costumes for costums and maltress for mattress. It's readers like you that help me improve my story :) thank you

Noctus Fury: Ah my dear old friend, here is another chapter which I bet you've been wishing for the past three weeks :P And yes THEY SHALL DIE MUAHAHHAHAHA. I think it might still be dramatic, but it'll be much more meanful than it was in the movie, rather than simply a rite of passage. And I seriously cannot believe you guessed it right again, on your first attempt. That's not fair. You know me too well.

KE12: Not many things, but, as time passes, she'll risk even bigger things. Maybe, though, one of these times she won't be so lucky... Yes I know I'm mean

Without further ado:

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Her day had been nothing special so far. Her mother, at her insistence, kept Anna company, while her father had been too busy managing the kingdom to spend the day with her, although he made, after lunch, a brief visit to Elsa so he could see how she was doing. To be honest she didn't mind passing all the day studying alone. While she liked the company of either her mother or her father Elsa, sometimes, just wanted to be alone as she had been this day.

She had been briefly surprised when she had arrived at the tower and found it devoid of its two habitants. Part of her, naturally, panicked, thinking that they had left. But this part was quickly shut out. She knew that they wouldn't leave her and, despite her natural distant and shyness, she was already fond of the boy and his dragon.

She noticed Toothless' quiet panting when they arrived at the tower. Even though she was annoyed, and her face clearly showed it, she couldn't keep an amused grin away from her lips. Her grin widened slightly when Hiccup noticed her sitting on her usual place and blushed slightly, no doubt realizing that he had both left her waiting for him and did not leave a note as they had agreed.

"So… I guess that going to fly without leaving a note is a behavior I should expect from you?" she asked amusedly, although concealing the little nervousness she had had when her eyes met an empty tower. No matter how much she reassured herself Elsa knew that she would, in the end, always fear being left behind, be it by her family or the strange Viking boy that rides a dragon.

He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment while being sure to not look her in the eyes. "Err… sorry for that, Toothless was really excited to go flying," he mumbled, and a second later was shoved to the ground by a very indignant Night Fury. "OUCH, okay, okay, WE"-he briefly glared at Toothless, and was not amused at his friend's satisfied face-"really wanted to go flying," he corrected.

Elsa had to stiff a giggle when Hiccup was 'gently' shoved to the ground by Toothless. Had it been before she would have been worried if he was hurt, but now she knew that this was just one of the many ways he and his dragon interacted, and that Toothless would never hurt his rider. "No need to apologize, but it would be nice if you kept your end of our deal," she said, using a bit of his sarcasm to hide her worry.

Hiccup smiled, more to ease Elsa than because he had heard some sarcasm. Somehow he could see the worry Elsa was trying to hide, and this only fueled more his curiosity about this mysterious princess that often came to visit him. "I'll do my best," he said in a mock gentleman's voice while bowing.

This time Elsa couldn't hide her giggle. It was funny to her how he could easily make her laugh, while with her family she rarely laughed with. Her laughter stopped as she frowned slightly, recalling with a sad heart how she and Anna used to laugh so freely when playing with her powers. Or even how Anna had laughed so much that fateful night…

"How do you feel when you're flying with Toothless?" Elsa asked suddenly, surprising both her and Hiccup. She honestly didn't know what had even made her ask this, and Hiccup was surprised that Elsa asked anything about flying. He had never considered that someone would have interest in flying a dragon other than himself.

"Well… that's a trick question…" he commented while tapping his chin. 'What do I feel when flying?' he asked himself mentally. The question wasn't surprising, it was answering it that was tricky: there were so many things that he felt while flying Toothless that he had never stopped to think about it.

"It's… liberating… first and foremost," he said, struggling a bit to find the right word. "I don't really know how to explain… but to be free of everything, even the force that binds us to the ground…"-he left out the part that this required freefalling, otherwise he was pretty sure that he either would scare her or hear an earful about being reckless-"it is a feeling unlike any other. I've heard people saying how sailing is liberating, but I think that the only true freedom from everything is when you're flying a dragon…"

Elsa closed her eyes and imagined herself up there in the skies; to be there breathing cold air and feeling this freedom. Her heart thumped in despair and longing while her head imagined herself on top of Toothless, and imagined how that freedom must feel and taste. Her head didn't even register how terrorizing it must be to be hundreds of feet apart from the ground as she was too engulfed in how free she would feel.

Free from judgments.

Free from conduit codes.

Free from fear…

She laughed a quiet, humorless laugh. Here she was the epitome of imprisonment and there was Hiccup, sharing with her how it feels to be truly free. The irony didn't escape her; as a matter of fact she laughed because of it.

Hiccup was too wrapped in his thoughts, meanwhile, so he missed Elsa's quiet and humorless laugh. He, however, didn't miss the sad expression her face had, and decided to keep explaining, or at least trying to, how flying felt like. "I don't think, though, that this would be a feeling many will experience…" he commented, a bit dejected.

"I guess I could take you to fly one day…"-Elsa looked at him with a horrified face. Not as much from the idea of being hundreds of feet away from the ground as Hiccup thought, but more because this would require her to be extremely close to him, and she was deeply afraid of both hurting Hiccup and him finding out about her powers.

"But I don't know if that's a good idea… I'll admit that the first time I flew Toothless it was a terrifying experience… you would have to be entirely sure that you want to fly…" he explained softly, and was pleased when Elsa's face and demeanor softened. "In the end, all of it is about trust. I trust now Toothless that he won't let me fall, and Toothless trusts me to ride him," he finished while patting Toothless, who, in return, crooned in agreement.

"So…"He said after a pause, looking a bit shyly while shifting his feet. Elsa smiled, already knowing what the shy boy was going to ask. "Would you mind reading the History book for me?" he asked with his cheeks with a faint tint of pink. Elsa didn't mind that his request sounded completely childish. Instead, she cheered on it, since it was something she longed to do with Anna, but knew that it was no longer possible.

Knowing that Elsa wasn't much about proximity Hiccup let her take the History book while Toothless lay on the ground and he sat, using his dragon's belly as a support for his back. His journal was open, and he had one of the pencils Elsa brought him instead of his usual charcoal stick. He still had some issues with using the pencils, mainly because he wasn't used with their thickness, and so had to sharpen then constantly, but he had turned into his personal quest to use it as perfectly as he used the sticks.

"Okay… so, I think that we had stopped at the French Revolution," Elsa commented, although a hint of doubt lingered on her words. Hiccup quickly flipped through the pages of his journal and nodded, indicating to her that the last time they had stopped where Elsa guessed.

At first, her words were somewhat shy and quiet, mainly because she was very self-conscious that she was not only reading the book out loud but also to Hiccup. But, as she kept reading it, her mind slowly forgot that she was reading the book for someone else and not just to herself. She did have the habit of sometimes reading out loud, so her voice could make her company, thus lowering that feeling of loneliness she often felt.

Once she was at ease she kept reading with the same enthrallment she had when she had read for the first time about the bloody French Revolution, and Reign of Terror from Robespierre and the ascension of Napoleon Bonaparte. Hiccup meanwhile, tried his hardest to keep up with Elsa's pace, not because she was going too fast, but because, more than once, he would lose himself at the angelic sound of her voice, and would be snapped to reality by a very amused Toothless.

He still loved Astrid, but wouldn't think twice to say how beautiful his new friend's voice was if someone questioned him.

Elsa was so enthralled with her reading that she only noticed that Hiccup fell asleep when she paused to take a deep breath. His journal was idly standing on his belly, and so was his pencil on his left hand. Toothless had unconsciously wrapped his tail around his rider in a protective and brotherly way. His belly was being used as Hiccup's pillow, but neither dragon nor human seemed to care about it.

She smiled and quietly closed the book before placing it on the pile he had created with her books. She hesitated for a moment, but walked toward him. Careful so she did not startle him awake Elsa removed the pencil and the journal from him, aware that she was closer to him right this instant than she had been the entire year to about anyone… anyone being her father and her mother basically.

She sighed after putting away his personal belongings. Even though they knew each other for a few weeks until that moment, she still perceived Hiccup as a mystery. 'Probably just like how he sees me too,' she mused a bit sadly. "Why do you keep up with me Hiccup?" she asked through a whisper, although not waiting for an answer.

"How can you be so kindhearted when you suffered so much…?" she asked again, although sounding more desolate than before. "Can't you just see that I'm…" she bit her lip, suddenly afraid that he might be listening to her-"that I'm a monster…?" she finished after a moment of silence.

She hesitantly placed her gloved hand on his shoulder, the silk of her glove added with the rough leather of his jacket being enough for her between her hand and his skin. "How do you make me feel so at ease? Sometimes I wished I could just have you around… things would be so easier if I could see Toothless shoving you to the ground whenever I begin to lose control…" she commented with a quiet chuckle.

"You have the greatest freedom of the world… you can fly the entire world on the back of your dragon, yet you choose to stay here, hiding inside a tower and making company to a reclusive princess that was cursed with ice power…" she mumbled in disbelief, thinking once again that this might just be a dream. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, stilling herself as if to be ready to find herself alone in the tower as she used to be.

But, when she opened her eyes, the sight of a young boy with auburn hair and closed green eyes met her sight. Her eyes watered slightly as her mind realized once again that she wasn't indeed alone, that Hiccup crashed into her life and since them she could feel free within her prison. "I wish you knew about my powers… You're amazingly smart, you'd know how to help me control them…" she mumbled while absentmindedly caressing her thumb over his leather jacket.

She shook her head while using her other hand to wipe the astray tear from her eye. "Who am I fooling…? You would probably run away from me if you knew about them… or not… But you can't know… I don't think I'd ever be able to live if my powers hurt you… I barely live already because I keep remembering what I did to Anna…" she confessed, feeling conflicted inside about whether or not Hiccup should not about her powers.

It was not as much a question of whether he deserved or not to know it, but more of what he would do. He had both the childish wonder of Anna, but also the wisdom of her father. Elsa couldn't imagine how he would react, because he was so different from everyone she had met so far. His eyes looked like as if they have seen a lifetime, filled with good and bad things, but his heart was kind and pure just like Anna's was 7 years ago.

"Goodnight Hiccup… I… I wish you knew how important you are becoming to me…" she whispered before drawing in a deep breath and slowly standing. She quietly walked to the stairs of the tower and, before she exited it, she looked back, her eyes stealing one last glance at the boy that completely changed her life.

Elsa barely registered reaching her room, or even changing into her nightgown. She also barely registered tucking herself in her bed, or when her eyelids slowly started to drop. She didn't have any nightmares this night, at least not like the nightmares she usually had. Instead, her dreams were mostly the scenarios her mind built of how Hiccup reacted to her powers, or how her life would be if he was constantly on her life.

One particular dream shook her to the very core. As 15 years old it was expected of her to, at some point, have an infatuation over a boy; be it a servant, the stable's boy or a prince from another kingdom. But her reclusive life kept her apart from such natural feeling so far, while Anna had, more than once, been struck with the puppy love with the stables boy, the prince from a visiting party and the cook's son.