Today was a special day for Berk. Their hero's own Birthday. Together the village had set together a celebration just for him, and he didn't even know. He was lying in bed, in Gothi's hut, waiting for permission to leave. Hiccup and Toothless looked closely at the door, expecting someone to show up any minute now. As if on cue, Gothi came through the room, giving him a nod as a signal to leave. Without thinking straight, Hiccup stood up, but fell as he tried to walk with the imaginary limb he thought he had. Gothi came over to him with a pair of crutches and gave them along with his prosthetic leg. Hiccup passed the leg over to Toothless since he had no permission to use it before his leg fully healed. "Thank you Gothi, for everything," He said, both giving each other a warm smile. She opened the door for them and closed as they stepped outside.
Hiccup stood outside, taking in the view of Berk. Letting his nostrils take in the fresh air. Toothless nudged him, snapping him out of his gaze and gestured for him to get up. He did as told and as soon as he had settled himself they went off. Since Toothless doesn't have a saddle or a tail at the moment, they took it slow, climbing down the mountain side, passing by Mildew's house, the town's most grumpy man, and soon settled in the streets of Berk, but what caught their attention was the empty streets of Berk.
"Where is everyone?" He muttered to himself. Hiccup dismounted Toothless with a little help from the crutches. Toothless knew why there was no one here, but acted as if something was going on. Hiccup walked around, confused by the sight of the empty village. He had expected something like Vikings wrestling or buying food from other Vikings, but there was nothing. Not even a single dragon. After waking up three days ago, he had sort of figured out that the war between Dragons and Vikings was over, but didn't bother to ask how. Right now, all he cared about was to find out what happened around the village. Examining house to house, he found nothing. Everything looked perfectly normal except for the disappearing Vikings of course.
Without Hiccup noticing, a small sound came from the Great Hall, giving Toothless the signal. He nudged Hiccup and put him on his back, walking slowly up the stairs to the Great Hall. Hiccup had a questioning look on his face as he dismounted Toothless again. He stood there as Toothless opened the heavy doors of the Great Hall. The room was dark, not a single light inside. On the ground was a lonely shadow of his own figure along with Toothless's. Behind him, the doors closed and out of nowhere candles lightened up.
"SURPRISE!" Vikings yelled out and dragons roared in happiness, shocking Hiccup as he almost got a heart attack. Before he fell over, Toothless caught him and helped him back on his feet. His expression turned from surprised to a happy smile as he looked at a long fabric saying, Happy Birthday Hiccup. He looked down at Toothless who smiled at him. Without even noticing, Gobber approached along with the teens and his father.
"Am I dreaming?" He asked in disbelief. The whole hall went silent, listening to the words escaping his lips.
"No, you're wide awake. Welcome back Hiccup," Gobber said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Toothless gave Stoick the prosthetic leg so he could take care of it for them. They made their way over to the closest table so he could sit down and rest his body from the sudden event. He had totally forgotten his own birthday and was surprised to the fact that they remembered it and not him or mostly that they even remembered it. Out of nowhere, someone punched his shoulder making him yelp in pain.
"What the-?" He said, looking up to see Astrid standing in front of him as he rubbed his shoulder.
"That's for making me cry," She said. He was shocked to the fact that she had cried, but what exactly did she mean? How had he made her cry? Suddenly, she grabbed his tunic. He expected another punch, but surprisingly, she…kissed him! His eyes widened in surprise and total shock. She pulled away a couple of seconds after and they stared at each other. Hiccup was still shocked that the most beautiful girl on Berk had just kissed him, but it also got him wonder why? "And that's for coming back to us," She said with a smile. There was an awkward silence as they just stared at each other.
"Let's get this party started!" Stoick shouted, breaking the awkward silence between the two teens along with their 'staring contest'. Dragons and Vikings cheered at the thought of food and began eating. The teens sat down on the same table as Hiccup and began chatting, and to Hiccup's surprise, they were talking about him.
"And Hiccup was like, YEAH BABY!" Tuffnut squealed in excitement, thinking back to the moment they fought the Red Death. Hiccup just rolled his eyes at the boy's over reacting moment. Toothless laid his head in his riders lap as he fell asleep. He didn't really want anything else but to fly, eat and sleep like a normal dragon would want to do. Hiccup sat there, listening to their conversation as Fishlegs sometimes came with facts about dragons. He didn't really find it very funny, but it was better than them talking bad about him.
Astrid noticed Hiccup's sudden behavior and wondered what he was thinking about. She stood up and walked over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I want to show you something," Hiccup looked at her confused, but shrugged it off. He pushed Toothless's head lightly, waking the dragon up. After that he took his crutches and stood up, walking beside Astrid and Toothless. Toothless placed him on his back as they made their way down the stairs of the Great Hall.
"So… where are you taking me?" Hiccup asked, breaking the awkward silence between them. She didn't answer and kept walking. Once they reached the bottom of the stairs she turned to walk towards Hiccup's house. Hiccup was confused on why they would be going there, but decided not to ask, thinking it may be another surprise. She opened the door for the both of them and walked up the stairs to his bedroom. They both stood there, watching her every move as she looked around for something.
"Aha! Found it!" She said excitedly, picking up a notebook in her hands. She walked over to Hiccup and gave him the book. He took it, looking down at it confused. "We noticed a while after we found you that you still had your notebook, but it needed to be freshened up a bit. So we bought you a new one and copied everything from the old one to the new one, well we tried at least," She explained with a smile on her face. Hiccup opened the book to see every design's he had was in there. "Thank you," Hiccup looked up at her with a smile.
"You're welcome! Stoick and Gobber also tried to figure out the sketches for Toothless's tail, but it was too advanced for them to make it. We thought you might want to fly when you got back up on your feet," That made Hiccup laugh. He couldn't believe he was smarter than old Gobber.
"Then I'll start on that tomorrow," He said, wiping the tears out of his eyes. He looked over at Astrid with a smile, scanning her face from the top to the bottom. "Hey Astrid? That… uhm… kiss… what did you mean by it?" He asked, blushing madly at the feeling.
"Uhm…," Astrid said, looking away from his eyes, trying to cover up her red cheeks. She really wanted to tell him how she really felt, but what was the point? They barely know each other at the moment, and she wanted to know more of him. She took a deep breath and looked in to his eyes, standing back up straightly. "I'm a Hofferson, and I do whatever I want," She said proudly. Hiccup couldn't help but chuckle at her statement. "Now come on, we have one more thing we need to do," She said, walking out of the house followed by the reptile and his rider.
Astrid led them up to the Great Hall where they could hear laughter and cheering. A smile grew on her face as she thought about what his reaction would be. Once they reached the doors they went in and Hiccup was told to sit down while she talked to his father.
"Okay, quiet down everyone!" Stoick said, holding his hands up as a sign of some kind of announcement. Hiccup shifted position, as he sat with his back to his father. Every Viking and dragon looked at Stoick to hear what he had to say. "Hiccup," He started, thinking twice of calling him son as he looked at him. "You've made all of Berk proud of you. You've earned the dragons loyalty and after 300 years of war between dragons and Vikings, you were the first to stop it once and for all. So we have decided to give you the responsibility of taming the dragons, learn more about them, and train them. That's why we have decided to give you this," He walked over to Hiccup along with Gobber, handing him the book of dragons and a chest with Berks crest on it. Hiccup looked at it in awe, not taking his eyes off it once as they placed it on the table in front of him. Stoick opened the chest to reveal several paper rolls and notebooks. "These are Bork's personal notes. Everything he knew about dragons is in here, and we give you the responsibility for them," Stoick finished, taking a step away from the table to let Hiccup have a look.
"I-I don't have words. Thank you," He said, giving his father a warm smile. Maybe he has changed after all, but that doesn't change the past, Hiccup thought. He still wasn't ready to forgive his father after everything, but he would give it a try.
"Now let's have this celebration continued!" Stoick cheered, raising up his mug with mead and screamed, "To the pride of Berk!" And the Vikings repeated,
"To the pride of Berk!"