AN: I finally managed to sit down to write and post chapters, and now I see why I had more requests for an update than the usual. I guess my new routine swallowed me up to the point in which I had not realised my last updated had been almost three months ago, among other things. I have mostly adapted to it, so hopefully my writing and posting will be back to normal-ish.

Review response:

: I'm not sure of what you mean by 'agreeable', but thanks for the compliments. I apologise for the wait.

Guest: I appreciate your enthusiasm, I hope this was fast enough for your enthusiasm to not wane. As for Elsa and Anna... Well, I guess you'll have to read and see it for yourself. Also I apologise for the wait.

Saberius Prime: I realise I left this cliff-hanger up for three months, which seems a tad too cruel. I hope this chapter redeems me.

shiningmoonslayer: The inspiration for this story came from Band of Misfits: Taking Flight, by Ipods-and-buds-1239. It is a Rise of the Brave Tangled Frozen Dragons kind of crossover (I hope I wrote it right), but there was a chapter in it that made me think (how would Elsa and Hiccup's relationship be if he had arrived and stayed in Arendelle for 5 years? So with a little nudging from R2-M0, this story came to life. Even though Band of Misfits is not complete, I highly recommend it. It's one of the earliest works of this crossover fandom, and one that still inspires me.

Noctus Fury: Then I might make you cry in this chapter. Or hate me. I'm curious to know which, so do leave a review :P

thearizona: Patience young Padawan. Berk will soon come up.

Daniel: I hope you're still around to read this chapter, and so I apologise for the wait.

V01dsw0rd: Well, for some reason, every other line break I had tried FF erased when i updated the file. 007 didn't. Besides, I'm a big fan of 007. Now it seems that FF is behaving, so I no longer need to use it.

OechsnerC: Thanks.

Arthanos: If I left you dead last time, then this one I threw you into the pits of Tartarus then. I hope this chapter redeems myself at least.

ToxicGentleman: Then don't kill me, cause the Hiccelsa might have to wait.

Guest: To be fair I thought of it because I was inspired by one story I read, and that now I don't remember. I didn't do a research on Norwegian names starting with H that could be applied with Hiccup. Though if we were to be honest, I doubt that Hiccup and Fishlegs, and so on, were Viking names.

Mark Andrew: My knowledge in this royalty thing is limited, so my answer may be wrong. But from what I have gathered Elsa would still outrank him. Since the Vikings have no king, at least in the movie, each Chief would somewhat be of the same rank as a Duke, as they rule over a land, but not a King, as they do not rule over numerous different lands owned by nobility. So even though Hiccup would technically be nobility, he wouldn't be a Prince.

LunarCatNinja: I'm happy you liked it.

Without further ado:

Previously: After their revelations, Elsa asks what happens next. After careful thinking, they settle on gradually adjusting to their new routine, now that they are aware that she has powers and he has another dragon hidden that can read minds. Elsa then renames Hiccup as Hadrian, in case he ends up being presented to her parents. While Elsa buys more time with her mother, delaying yet again Hiccup's reveal, Hiccup starts to realise that his life has gotten way more complex than it was back at Berk. After he confinds his fears to Elsa, to which she tells him that the feeling is mutual, Elsa ends up letting him hold her hand.

Gingerly he extended his hand, and gently, as if she was made of thin ice, he grasped her hand.

She flinched, even though she expected the contact. Her hand was cool, almost as cool as the water he drank back at the mountain. However, it was not cold enough to actually hurt him. Despite flinching, she had yet to move her hand away from his, which made him smile. "See? I knew you wouldn't hurt me."

She let out a shaky breath. "You sure like to put yourself in dangerous situations, don't you, Hadrian? You did with Toothless, with Windwalker, with Nightflight, and now you are doing so with me."

He gently squeezed her hand. It felt so foreign to Elsa that she actually didn't know how to feel about it. "You're right. I guess I do often end up in dangerous situations. You could almost say danger is a friend of mine. But you're also wrong." He gently lifted their hands. "This isn't a dangerous situation. You're not dangerous. You could never harm me."

His confidence was contagious. "You're so optimistic sometimes, you know?" Despite the sadness laced in her words, she was smiling.

He smiled back. "Someone has to be."

007

Hadrian decided that having three dragons inside the tower would end up with it being too crowded. Thankfully Windwalker understood why he wasn't returning to the tower that night, and was not upset.

Elsa, as soon as she spotted her dragon, smiled widely. Gingerly she put the lantern down and then proceeded to hug Nightflight. "Hey girl. I missed you." The dragon crooned, as if telling Elsa that she too missed her.

Hadrian smiled, happy to see them together. Despite the fears of both Elsa and Nightflight, they still ended up together. He acknowledged that it was partially because of him. And that warmed him, as it gave him hope that, when he would return to Berk, he'd succeed in showing them that dragons can be trusted. "Where is Windwalker?"

Her voice brought him out of his thoughts. "We felt that it would be better if he stayed behind. Here is crowded enough with two dragons. A third one would have gotten in even more crowded."

Elsa for a moment doubted that this was his only motivation. However she did not muster enough courage to ask him if the prior day's events also made him leave the other dragon on the forest. They sat down as usual, and not a second after Nightflight placed her head on Elsa's lap.

"I'm sure you missed some scratching, eh girl?" Nightflight warbled, as if agreeing with her bond partner. Elsa smiled and started gently scratching the white one behind her ear plates.

Toothless suddenly nudged his arm. "Are you jealous, eh bud? Come here." He happily leaned down so he could get some scratches from his rider. "As if you weren't spoiled enough," he muttered, though he did not sound annoyed.

His smile fell as he realized something. "Elsa . . . I just realized something. How we'll present myself to your parents? I mean, you are teaching me Norwegian, but I speak as much as an infant."

Elsa tensed up as she realized what he meant. "Well, like me they were taught Old Norse too." Her next words sounded less sure, "But, to be honest, I'm not sure how much they remember. It might be troubling starting a conversation between them and you."

"I could speak with Windwalker, see if somehow he can make me learn faster or something."

Every inch of her told her that this was a bad idea. She flinched subtly as she recalled the pain she felt when the dragon entered her mind. Hiccup- Hadrian, she chided herself, was more tolerant. But how much? And if Windwalker could do so, would his tolerance be enough?

She wanted to blatantly refuse his idea, and a part of her even wanted to slap him. He shouldn't risk himself so much for her. It pained her that he did so. I'm not worth it. I'll probably never be. Why he has to be so sacrificing? It infuriated her, but also warmed her. I wish my feelings weren't so troubled. "Are you sure about that? It could harm you."

He seemed less sure than he had just been. "Not completely sure, if I'm to be honest," he replied a few seconds later. "And that's assuming he can actually pull that stunt." He looked away, as if mulling over something. "I made you wait too much. I don't want to make you wait further. I'm already doing that to someone else . . ."

Elsa was not sure of what he meant by that, and knew that it would do no good in prying about that. "I hope you'll do the wisest thing to do. Or at least the least stupid."

He chuckled. "I hope so too, though my stupidity meter probably needs calibration."

Elsa looked down at the dragon comfortably set on her lap. "I think I agree with you," she whispered. Going after a rogue dragon alone had been, after all, a completely stupid idea, even if the results it yielded were far better than either of them had expected.

They ended up in a comfortable silence, and Elsa was okay with it. Nightflight seemed to enjoy the attention and Hadrian didn't seem to be bothered that she wasn't conversing with him. Actually, Elsa could even say that he was fondly watching her interact with Nightflight.

She never thought she would feel comfortable in being with another person without making small talk. But, with him, the silence that was between them felt comfortable rather awkward. Again she wondered how her life would have been had he appeared earlier in it.

And she could only hope that after he was introduced to her parents that it would remain the same.

007

At first she brushed it off as a leftover of the sudden change their lives were going through. But after the fifth day since he brought Nightflight to visit her Elsa determined that something was actually bothering him.

He was less talkative than the usual, and seemed to glance around more often than before. She had thought it was because of Windwalker, but on the rare day he was there instead of Toothless Elsa noticed it was not because of the white dragon.

So she decided that tonight she would ask him what was bothering him. Does it have to do with what he said before? That he left someone waiting? It was not a far fetched idea. Asking herself this made her realize that he may not be willing to speak about it. A part of her felt sad at that thought.

She wondered why. After all, she did this several times with him. Was he upset every time I avoided a subject? Or when I brushed it off? She hated to think that he was, but couldn't deny that after a certain point he probably ended up upset. He did think you didn't trust him completely, which was true, though for other reasons. She glanced down at her gloved hands.

She decided she would ask, but not pry on if he showed reluctance in talking about what was bothering him. It was only fair, since he never pried on.

As she arrived at the tower Nightflight greeted her. She also noticed that he was leaning against the window, like he had been a week before. She patted the white dragon on the head and quietly approached him. "What is bothering you?"

She could see his furrowed brow, his slightly tensed jaw, and his downcast eyes, depressively illuminated by the ghostly moonlight. It clenched her heart, and made her wish that she had the courage to comfort him. Instead, the only thing she did was take a step closer to him and wait for his answer.

He sighed, and though he started talking he did not look at her, "I miss home. And . . . I'm not sure why. Windwalker thinks I'm being unfair, since no one ever treated me well there. I mean, there was Gobber, but . . . if that was the case I'd be missing him, not Berk."

"You miss other things. Someone else perhaps. Or something from your home," she whispered, realizing what he meant.

He bobbled his head in affirmation. "I miss its forest. How beautiful it was. Don't get me wrong, Arendelle's forest is just as beautiful, but . . ."

"It isn't home," she supplied.

He sighed, and for a moment he closed his eyes. "Yes," he said after opening them up. "I miss the forge, the rhythm of hammering down heated metal. I miss the contraptions I sketched, and that I later built. I miss the jokes I'd share with Gobber. I miss the stew the cook made almost every day, but that I somehow never seemed to grow tired of."

It's the little things he misses. He misses the comfort of a home. In a way he probably wants as badly as you to get over as quickly as possible with his reveal. Deciding to not focus on these sinking thoughts, Elsa asked the question she was slightly afraid of voicing out, "You said you left someone waiting. . ."

He tensed, making Elsa think that he would either avoid her question, or change the subject. She was, needless to say, surprised when he spoke, "I did. Her name is Astrid. Just before I left with Toothless I showed her the nature about dragons, and we set apart our differences. In a way she became my friend, only for me to lose her friendship right away."

Despite knowing next to nothing about socializing, and about social cues, Elsa felt that there was something he was omitting, something that, maybe, he was afraid of telling her. "Is there something else?" she tentatively asked.

He finally looked at her, and she noticed a pain veiled behind his eyes. It was not simply a pain of someone homesick. "I . . . I don't know. It's probably nothing."

"Hiccup," she said, not even acknowledging her slip of tongue. "Even if it's nothing, or if you consider it insignificant, you can tell me. I'll understand if you don't want to, but don't brush it aside. It may seem small now, but it may end up chewing you on the inside." She looked away. "I know that very well."

He looked down at her gloved hands. She seemed genuinely concerned, and was probably even afraid that he would withhold enough to end up in pain, just like she did regarding her powers. He sighed, suddenly feeling worried. Elsa was just his friend right? There would be no reason that his feelings for Astrid would upset her.

In any case he still hoped that they wouldn't. "I guess there is something else," he said, regained her focus. "I . . . I always had a small crush for her. She was brave, she was beautiful, she was smart, dare I say almost as smart as me, and when we were friends, a long time ago, she was very kind. And before I left I felt that I saw that kindness again, that she so hardly buried underneath her tough demeanor. And it makes me think if we would have been friends had I remained on Berk. Or even… something else."

It was then that she finally understood. He was not just homesick. He was longing for this Astrid too, even if they had not been lovers. Unfortunately Elsa didn't know how to comfort someone, although that did nor keep her from trying. "Maybe one day you can go back and figure it out," she offered with a hopeful smile.

He looked at her, far longer than the normal. It was as if he was recalling something. "Maybe," he said with a sad smile. When he spoke, his hopeful tone did not match his eyes.

What could keep him from returning to Berk one day? If only she had been aware of the turmoil he faced during the Nightflight crisis.

007

Unfortunately she did not get to ask him the next night what could keep him from returning to Berk, as she was thrown into a very delicate situation.

Her day had started like any other, and proceeded as usual, up until she reached the tower. In there she found him lying by Toothless, who was protectively curled around him. The onyx one was also glaring at Windwalker, who seemed to be curled on the other side of the tower, and seemed ashamed.

She had thought that the sinking feeling she had felt so realistically when she hit her sister would never be felt again. Seeing this scene, however, showed her just how wrong she was. For a moment she felt asphyxiated, as if the gloom atmosphere stole all the air she needed to breath. Her desperation went far enough that she actually gripped her throat and sharply inhaled through her mouth so her mind would register that she was not, in fact, asphyxiating.

However instead of being flooded by relief as her mind recognized that she was breathing, she was flooded by that gnawing worry that clawed at her for so many years, only this time it was almost as strong as it had been on the night of the incident.

And then she felt a foreign feeling arise, one that she couldn't honestly remember if she have ever felt before: anger. She glared at the white dragon, hating him. Blaming him for how her friend currently was. With Toothless' attitude there was no room for doubt that the white dragon cowering before her was responsible for this. "What have you done?" she asked in a low whisper.

Windwalker averted his eyes from her. Her lamp fell on the ground, making it clatter and the flame flicker. It waned but did not extinguish. Ice started crawling from under her feet, spreading across the tower. "Tell me what did you do to him!" Her voice was harsh, and for the first time in his life Windwalker felt scared. Obviously the ice surrounding them, glowing between amber and purple only scared him more.

Published on: May 1st, 2018