Hiccup stirred in his sleep. Eyes squeezed shut in pain. But that wasn't what bothered him. He was lying against something soft and warm. It was comfortable. He felt someone stroking his hair, something that gave him comfort, and himself going slowly up and down.
Hiccup moved his fingers but found something intertwined with them. Panic consumed his body and in an instant, shoving away the headache, he sat up and moved away from whatever was with him.
"Easy there," A calm voice, angelic in Hiccup's ears, said. Hiccup looked behind him in a blurred vision, finding Astrid sitting there with worried blue orbs. He took a deep shaky breath, sitting back down, as he was up in the air before she spoke up, and rubbed his eyes to wake them up from his slumber. "You okay?" Hiccup nodded, a little too fast. Astrid looked at him.
"Just a Deja vu," He said, lying down with his legs holding its contact with the floor. "What happened?" He asked to change topic. Astrid shook her head, getting out of her curiosity trance of why Hiccup squirmed away from her hand.
"Don't you remember anything?" Astrid asked, tilting her head to the side with curious eyes. Hiccup rubbed his eyes, trying to think back.
"The last thing I remember was Gobber offering me some-" Hiccup cut himself off. Eyes wide as melons. He looked to his side, meeting Astrid's curious gaze with his own shocked one. "Did I get…" Hiccup trailed off.
"Oh yes you did mister," Hiccup groaned, closing his eyes with both hands covering his face. "You should've seen yourself," Astrid laughed, falling back against the headboard of his bed.
"Do I even want to know what I did?" Hiccup asked tiredly.
"You may want to know because there were a few witnesses you know," Astrid smiled, staring down at him.
"Alright, alright," Hiccup said, waving the air to show her she could continue.
"Let's see," Astrid said playfully. "When I came back from Heather's island I found you in the Great Hall surrounded by goblets of mead," She said. Hiccup turned to her with a confused face.
"Was that all? Huh, not as bad as I expec-
"You also thought I was Toothless, cupped his cheeks and told him, I love you Astrid," Said dragon grumbled with closed eyes. Hiccup blushed as Astrid laughed, remembering the scene. Hiccup looked at her with crimson red cheeks. Slowly, he sat up, ignoring his aching body, and sat with crossed legs towards her.
"Uhm…I guess I didn't exactly…lie either," He muttered, looking down at his feet. Astrid stopped laughing and sat up, mirroring his position. She looked at him.
"So you meant what you said?" She asked. Hiccup looked up at her with shyness. He feared she wouldn't feel the same thing for him. And if she didn't, he had humiliated himself and most likely ruined their comfortable connection. From then on it could change. It could become awkward, knowing one of them loved the other but the other didn't feel the same way.
Hiccup nodded shyly.
Astrid looked at him. Her eyes lit up as the corners of her mouth tuned, the dimples in her cheeks appeared as her whole face showed the amusement of the moment.
Hiccup looked at her confused, a feeling of confidence removing his frightened mind. He felt Astrid's hands take a hold of his neck quickly, bringing them towards each other. Hiccup expected one of her surprising kisses, but their faces stopped with barely inches separating them from each other. Emerald eyes locked with blue orbs.
"Then…," Hiccup felt her sweet scent in his nostrils, escaping her parted lips. "I love you too," She said, closing the gap between their lips. Her soft lips felt smooth against Hiccup's, and though they were cold, Hiccup warmed them up with passion.
Their kiss was short, but for them it felt like hours passed by as their lips moved against each other. As Hiccup snaked his hand around her waist and another caressing her right cheek.
They pulled away slowly, letting their quick breaths flow into the other's nostrils. Though Hiccup's breath smelled, and tasted, like mead, it was still a hint of his own scent in between it all. And Astrid loved it.
Their nose touched, both lips parted, but neither said something. They enjoyed the silence between them.
"Did I make a big fool out of myself?" Hiccup whispered, his awkward smile showing on his lips.
Astrid nodded.
"How bad was it?" He asked, not really knowing if he wanted to know or not.
"So bad you treated a sheep like a chief," Astrid laughed. "You even named the sheep!"
"Oh gods," Hiccup said, falling against her chest to hide his red cheeks. Her chest moved up and down to the rhythm of her laughs, but faded into allowing him the sound of her heartbeats. He enjoyed the only sound he could hear, coming from her heart. Closing his eyes, he rested against her chest, taking in her scent as his pain slowly came back to him.
Hiccup's head pounded like a war drum. His stomach twisted as the alcohol stored in his stomach moved up in his throat. Quickly, Hiccup pushed himself up, covered his mouth and ran to his desk, bending over the bucket of sloppy sketches. He gripped the bucket hard, opening his mouth just in time to vomit. The thick, clumpy liquid clawed at his throat and nostrils.
Astrid jumped out of his bed and rushed over to his side, holding his head up a little to prevent the barf from emptying through his nose. She ran her fingers from his hairline and caught the locks of auburn hair between her fingers while moving her hand deeper into his hair to keep the locks out of the way, her other hand rubbing circles on his back.
Hiccup's knuckles turned white from his grip, and the lack of energy he just had emptied itself through the barfing. His stomach twists and clenches, emptying itself of every goblet of mead he drank the evening before. For a second it stopped, enough for Astrid to speak up.
"You okay?" Hiccup nodded shakenly, leaning his head against Astrid hand, but his stomach kept emptying itself. Once it stopped, Astrid went down stairs to get a towel and some water. Toothless walked over to his rider worriedly.
"I'm fine bud," Hiccup said, his throat sore and smelly. Toothless cooed, nudging his side. Hiccup waved it off, thinking it was the same as every other time, but that was until Toothless pushed him up on his back and walked over to his bed before lying him down.
Astrid came back upstairs with a towel and some water. She looked at Hiccup confused as to why he was in his bed and not by the bucket.
"Ask mister over protective reptile here," Hiccup said, frowning at Toothless who gave him an annoyed look and sat down beside his bed. Astrid gave him the towel to dry his mouth with. "Thank you," She smiled, sitting down next to him.
"So…," Astrid started, trying to start a conversation. "What are your plans for today?" She asked, moving one leg on the bed and the other on the floor.
"Well, my father gave me a day off from chiefing, though I have to sign the peace treaty with the outcasts later before they leave," Hiccup said, holding one finger up. "I also have to help Gobber in the forge, make your saddles and I'm going to make the 'armor', as you could call it, when I'm done," Astrid sighed, standing up.
"Then you better get started," She said, walking towards the door.
"No goodbye kiss?" Hiccup pouted.
"Later," Astrid said, walking down the stairs and leaving the house.
Hiccup sighed, lying down on his bed to face Toothless. "Well bud, you heard her," Toothless cocked his head to the side. "Let's get to work."
Toothless watched his rider curiously as Hiccup sat with his sketches, drawing line after line. Hiccup had just finished up his work with Gobber, having taken a few breaks due to the nausea, and was starting to get his friends saddles done. But, he wanted a break and decided therefor to work on his own stuff. And there he sat by his sketches, drawing each piece, for his inventions, on papers.
"What do you think bud?" Hiccup asked, putting all the pieces over each other. Toothless cooed with a smile.
Hiccup chuckled, standing up. He took his sketches with him and walked out of the hut and into the main room, of the forge, where he laid his sketches down on a table and got out some leather he recently got from Trader Johann. It wasn't the normal type of leather one would want. Instead of plain simple with no patterns he decided to get something more his style and went for the one with several diamond shapes as a pattern over the whole leather.
He laid the leather down on a table, carefully taking a thin layer of leather over one of the sides, to keep him warm, and cutting it out before sewing the two different types of leather together. Toothless looked over his shoulder as Hiccup brushed off imaginary dust from the leather, stretching it out flat.
Hiccup took it around his waist with it fitting perfectly. He smiled, laying the piece back before measuring with a band, from beneath his shoulder and to the top. He took a charcoal and marked the length on the top of the leather, adding a few inches because it would bend over his shoulder.
Hiccup walked over to a wall, where all the tools were, and grabbed a knife and a scissor. He walked back over to his leather suit and folded the leather out with the thin leather facing down on the table. With his charcoal, he started making lines to where his arms and head would be. When finished, he took the knife and carved the leather before cutting the holes with the scissors to make the edges smooth.
Hiccup picked up the pieces, trying it on before nodding satisfied. He picked up a needle and a thread and started sewing it together, with barely visible x's as a pattern for the thread, in a form of a vest. He moved over to the next paper, placing the leather vest securely by his sketches and continued on with next step.
The drawing he was looking at was the shape, measure and color, yes color, of his shoulder pads. He would need two beneath the original one in case of crash landings on his shoulder.
In which he unfortunately has a habit of doing.
With Hiccup being Hiccup, he had already gotten ahead of his work. He had searched, and asked, many Vikings who are known for their leather, also the shop just down the street where they kept some spare leather, if they had any good leather for his suit. Of course, some of them gave him the best they had, but Berkian leather was by the farthest worst Hiccup had ever seen. This was another reason to why he was making three layers for his shoulder pads, the outermost layer being of leather from another tribe for more secure protection.
Same for the rest of his armor in which he decided a special color for.
Black.
And some parts red.
He brought the shoulder pads on the table, two of them in the same shapes with nothing else but shining, hard and simple leather, and the other two, the bottom, with thin edges of smooth leather surrounding four thick lines in the center.
Pushing them away a little, he brought out the next sketch. The paper containing three of his belts, but knowing he would only get one, two if he was lucky, done until the time he would be needed in the Great Hall for the peace treaty.
Hiccup took out two steel nails from a shield and placed them carefully, since they were small and slender, on the table before going over to one of Gobber's old belts. "He really needs to use these belts more often," Hiccup muttered, thinking back on an accident he unfortunately witnessed. "Eww," Hiccup said disgusted, shaking the memory off his mind.
For now.
He removed most of the parts except the buckle and one of the loops. He laid the last parts of the belt down on the table, taking out the symbol of his family, which they recently made due to the dragons living with them but they also kept the traditional chief symbol, and placing it on the belt between the loop and the buckle. "Perfect," Hiccup smiled, sewing the symbol to the belt.
Then he did the same for his next belt, having a buckle with the shape of a circle, his safety harnesses on both sides and without placing the symbol on it.
When finished, he took his leather vest and placed it on the table where he put the pieces in its rightful places and started sewing them on. Everything except the second layer of his right shoulder pad and the belt, with the symbol on, going over his left shoulder and across his chest. He pushed the vest to the side, taking some paint down from a shelf and got his paint brush. Then he turned to Toothless.
"What do you say bud?" Toothless's head went up from his paws and he stared questioningly at his rider. "Do you allow me to have your 'crest' on my shoulder pad?" Hiccup said playfully, bowing as if he was a servant and speaking to someone royal. Toothless sat proud with his head high, spine straight and closed eyes. He growled and nodded, earning a roll of eyes from Hiccup. "You're so dramatic," Hiccup chuckled.
Toothless raised a scaly eyebrow at him.
Hiccup smiled, sitting on the table and grabbing the paint brush as he started painting the familiar crest, symbol as many would call it, onto his right middle shoulder pad, knowing it would keep Toothless in mind every time he took it off if his dragon wasn't there. Like in the times of Snoggletog.
With deep concentration, Hiccup finally finished his shoulder pad and painting some leather, which was beneath his belt, black. It would connect the left shoulder pads to his belt. He smiled, satisfied with his work and jumped off the table, placing the pieces on. He sewed the pieces together in its rightful places before looking at his work.
"Now… Let's try this on," Hiccup said, carefully sliding his hand through the side holes and his head in the big one at the top. He adjusted the shoulder pads, buckling up the belt before putting the small, thin nails on both ends to keep it from sliding off.
Hiccup walked over to another basket, getting leather bindings. He pulled out his leather gloves, which he made recently, and took them on with only a string keeping them on to his middle finger. Then he took two long bindings, wrapped them around his wrists to secure the gloves of leather tighter.
Toothless opened his eyes, noticing his rider move from his position. Looking up he saw Hiccup walk over to a basket and grab more leather. Hiccup brushed off the dust of the leather, making it come over to Toothless. The dust went in his nostrils, making his nose cringe.
BOOM!
Hiccup yelped, hearing the familiar sound of a plasma bolt. He turned around towards Toothless who sat in a trance like state.
"Toothless?" Hiccup asked a little unsure. He looked into Toothless's pupils, noticing a glint of orange light in them. In panic he turned around, finding the stove burning up. "Gahh!" Hiccup yelped, looking around for the bucket they always kept for such situations. He spotted it beside the burning stove. "Oh great," Hiccup muttered. "Toothless! Do something!" Hiccup yelled in panic, grabbing the closest carpet and started blowing out the fire with it. The fire died down and Hiccup turned to Toothless, finding him playing with a spark. "Huh," Hiccup shrugged.
Then he remembered one of his sketches. With a wide smile he ran to his desk, grabbed his notebook and flipped through pages as he walked back out to Toothless. "Where is it," Hiccup repeated over and over again, flipping through pages, sometimes going backwards because he flipped the page to fast, in search for one of his earlier, not started, inventions.
"AHA!" Toothless jumped up in fright, growling at Hiccup who ignored the surprised dragon. Hiccup pulled a chair beneath him and sat down, erasing a few lines here and there on the sketch. Originally, the sketch was made the day he started dragon training and waited for the first class to start, but the sword was made for a weapon unlike this one. He erased everything but the carved handle, added some buttons and openings here and there before changing the shape of the sword.
Instead of having it sharp, and useful for harm, he wanted it for something else. He wanted it for dragons. Not killing them of course, but taming them.
In his sketch, he changed the bottom of the sword into a Zipplebacks head because of its gas, in which he would insert as an extra invention to his sword with the horn as a button to release it with.
He designed the handle, keeping its old carving, to open it up, exposing two canisters. The one close to the blade filled with monstrous nightmare fluid and the other filled with Zippleback gas. He designed the opposite end of the Zippleback head to have two buttons. One to extend the retractable blade with and on the left side, if you held it up in front of you, was a lighter.
The lighter is designed to set fire to the blade as it gets coated in flames by the canister of monstrous nightmare fluid when it's retracted. Which is another reason to why that canister was by the blade instead of by the bottom.
All he now needed to do was to make it.
Hiccup sat in his chair, holding the sword, made of some left over Gronkle iron, in his hand lightly while he carved, with a sharp knife, into the handle to make a braided pattern. He was deep in concentration, feeling the weight of the sword after he had inserted the canisters he got from a villager's monstrous nightmare.
He would have to ask the twins if he could borrow barf and belch later in the academy.
BOOM!
Hiccup jumped up from his chair in surprise, almost carving wrong on his blade.
"Urgh, what now?" Hiccup complained, hoping Toothless didn't cause another explosion. He searched around in the forge, expecting smoke nearby but he couldn't find anything. "That was weird," Hiccup shrugged, sitting back down to continue on with his own business. Suddenly there were screams and roars from outside, followed by several other explosions. Hiccup ran out, followed by Toothless, and was met by a sight he had never expected.
There were new species of…dragons.