...okay, you guys are allowed to kill me for not updating for what… nearly a month? Anyways, just know that I worked REALLY hard on this piece because I had no idea what to do at first, and I hope that this is okay…

It Starts With Friendship: Every day, Astrid goes to train with her axe in the woods—but when Hiccup starts coming too, she's annoyed. However, with their new time together, she slowly finds out that Hiccup may not be as useless and odd as the village says. Requested by Rosalie24.

It Starts With Friendship

With almost a spring in her step and an axe in her hand, fourteen-year-old Astrid Hofferson made her way into Berk's woods to get her daily training practice in. She was glad to get away from that idiot Snotlout Jorgenson who wouldn't stop hitting on her and enjoyed spending time alone when she trained. Especially at her secluded, special place in the woods where she could yell as loud as she wanted and unleash built-up frustration about whatever was going on.

But her happiness soon faded when she saw that she was not alone at her favorite spot. She saw that nearby, a scrawny boy was trying to train by sword fighting with a tree. Pathetically, the tree seemed to be winning. Astrid recognized the boy at once—it was Hiccup Haddock, the son of the chief. He wasn't yet fourteen, as he was a few months younger than Astrid, but he looked a lot younger than thirteen. Annoyed at his appearance, she made sure that her stomps were loud enough for him to hear as she went to find another tree to jab at. Lately, Hiccup had been coming here. A lot. She couldn't fathom why, as from what she saw, the boy had no muscles whatsoever. Though her arms and legs were thin, she could feel her body working easily each time she used them. She couldn't say the same for Hiccup.

"AAARRRRGGGHHHHH!"

Astrid threw her axe hard at a tree, releasing a battle cry in a moment of exhilaration. It hit dead center with a resounding THUNK! as it sunk into the wood. She, however, had no pleasure at her win. She had done this probably a thousand times before. After a moment, she walked up and pulled her axe from the bark, glowering. She hoped Hiccup Haddock had heard that! Maybe he'd know better than to invade her private time…

"RAAAUUUUUGGHHHH!"

Another perfect strike. She repeated her previous actions and went back to slamming her axes into the tree until the poor thing looked like a whole army of blades had sliced it down. With each throw, she grew angrier and angrier. Why couldn't she have just a little bit of alone time?! Was that so much to ask from the great, fearless Astrid Hofferson? Finally, she became so enraged that she missed her target and her axe flew a little ways away from the tree. She stood there, fuming for a moment until a nasally voice spoke up behind her.

"I guess that was just an axe-cident," Hiccup joked lightly. Astrid turned around to face him, her face not quite glaring, but not amused either. When he didn't get a response, he shifted, playing with his hands and looking nervous. "Sorry… I… you… the axe…"

He looked so pitiful at that moment that Astrid decided not to yell at him for disrupting her practice.

"It's fine," she said in a curt voice. Her mouth twitched into a smirk. "I did miss the target… axe-cidentally."

Hiccup looked stunned at her reply. He clearly hadn't expected that reaction. But after a long moment, he smiled. "Re-laxe. It's nothin' to be ashamed of…" He ducked his head, knowing he had pushed his luck on that one.

"How do you know all of those axe puns?" Astrid wasn't quite sure whether to joke around with the boy or put him in his proper place. No one had ever told her an axe joke before, and they were… entertaining. She did love her axe.

Hiccup shrugged. "I d-dunno… I work in the forge, so I hear a lot about axes… and the word 'axe' sometimes sounds like other words… so… I just thought..." He clamped his mouth shut, and Astrid knew he had thought he had said enough to get him killed.

"Oh. Okay."

She turned away from him, still a little interested in the conversation, but went to fetch her axe. Her thoughts churned together. She had never really made a fair judgment on what Hiccup was like, as she'd never really known him. At times, she had been annoyed by him or even hated him for messing something up. But the one emotion she always felt when they ran into each other was… intrigue. This little chat made her even more curious about what Hiccup was really like, but she shrugged it off. She had a job to do—defend Berk. And the only way she was going to do that was by training. Not by trading axe puns with someone who wasn't even allowed outside during a dragon raid.

After another hour of throwing axes, stretching, and trying out some hand-to-hand combat with the air, she was coated in sweat and ready to call it a day. She turned around to find that Hiccup's spot near his tree was empty. Huh. She wondered when he'd left.

It doesn't matter, she hissed back to herself. Who cares?

Still… she was almost hoping to see Hiccup again tomorrow. Well, anyway, it was nice to talk to someone who wasn't constantly trying to flirt with her, explode things, or spew out dragon facts. That wasn't so strange, was it?

When Astrid came again the next day, she saw that Hiccup wasn't there and was almost… disappointed? No, no—that certainly wasn't it… she was… a little unsettled at the change, as Hiccup had been coming here for a few weeks now. Yes, that was it.

She went on to her training, a lot less harshly than yesterday, but still averagely aggressive. She soon fell into a steady pace of throwing, breathing, retrieving, and throwing again. Her muscles burned with the exertion, but it felt good.

"H-hi."

Right before she was about to toss another axe, Astrid turned around to see Hiccup awkwardly standing a few yards away. He must've just arrived. She gave a slight nod in response and was amused to see his eyes glow at her attention. When she pivoted back to her scratched-up tree, she smirked. Boys.

Again, she continued her routine, doing this for several minutes with no break. But soon, she cast a glance over to Hiccup's spot to see how he was doing. His battle with the tree wasn't going well at all. He used his sword too jerkily and tightly clung to it with both hands like he'd gotten them stuck in sap. When he struck the tree, the weapon would either get fixed in the bark or fall to the ground. Astrid watched him do this for a minute, frowning with a crinkled brow. Eventually, she couldn't stand watching someone use a sword that badly.

"You're holding it wrong," she called to him over his hacking. He held that sword like it was an axe or something, honestly…

Hiccup froze in surprise, then glanced at her nervously. "I-I am?"

"Yeah. You need to stop… stop clutching it like that. It's a sword, not an axe. And even with an axe, you need to hold it somewhat loosely—though not overly so. Same thing with a sword. Don't lose your grip on it, but don't shove it out like you're doing. It's painful to watch."

Hiccup blinked. "Oh. Uh… thanks."

"Sword," replied Astrid.

Hiccup gave her a funny look.

"You know…" Astrid gave a small shrug. "Sure, sword… sound the same."

Understanding filled Hiccup's eyes. "That's amazing." He grinned, revealing a gap-toothed smile.

He's cute, Astrid thought without really digesting what that meant. Disgust with herself immediately followed. Cute? Gods, she was starting to sound like Ruffnut or something… No, not even Ruffnut would say something that ridiculous.

Angry with herself, Astrid put on a cold glare and pivoted away, leaving poor Hiccup confused and wondering what he'd done wrong.

When Astrid was done with training, Hiccup was gone again.

The next day, Hiccup was already at their spot and practicing with his sword. Astrid was pleased to see him following her advice from yesterday and doing much better. She was smug at the thought of her being right. Well, she always was, wasn't she?

"Why do you even practice here?" Astrid asked after a few swings of her axe. "I've never seen you train before." She had been curious about that since he had started coming, but was often too angry at him to ask.

In an off-hand tone, Hiccup managed, "Oh, you know—building up my muscles. These bad boys just can't stay down for long." He raised a noodle of an arm. He looked so serious about it that Astrid didn't have the heart to laugh.

"The real reason, Hiccup."

"I… well, I… I already told—"

"—me a lie?" Astrid glowered at him. "I just asked you a question."

Irked, she started to turn away, but when Hiccup cried out, "Wait!" she faced him again with a bored expression.

"What?"

"I… er…" Hiccup sighed in defeat, rubbing an invisible spot on the ground with one of his boots. "Okay, I'll tell you. So, basically, I, um… I overheard a conversation with my dad and Gobber a few weeks ago… They were talking about me. Well, at least Dad was. He was saying that I… that I wasn't…" He seemed to be struggling to say this out loud. "...like the other boys in the village. I wasn't tough enough to be… well… chief. I know that… I'm not… strong. So I thought I could change that… by practicing with a weapon and hopefully getting stronger." He shrugged vaguely like he didn't care about his father's words, though it was clear he did. Astrid felt something stir inside of her that she hadn't quite experienced before: sympathy. Her heart went out to this boy who'd never been good enough for anyone, as hard as he'd tried.

Astrid chewed on her lip. "Makes sense. Well, did you know that this was my favorite spot to practice in?"

Hiccup blanched. "Oh, gods… no, I didn't..."

"Don't look so worried. I'm not going to kill you."

Hiccup pretended to wipe off sweat from his forehead. "Thank Thor…"

This, at last, earned a smile from Astrid. For once, she wasn't feeling angry, murderous, or like she was in the middle of a war between dragons and Vikings. She just felt like a girl joking around with a—

"There you are, Astrid!" a snobby, yet familiar voice called from behind her. Snotlout. Groaning, Astrid turned away from Hiccup and went back to throwing her axe. No way would she give that mutton-head of a Jorgenson the time of day. Best just pretend he wasn't there, as hard as it was to execute. She heard several pairs of footsteps crunch their way through the dirt and leaves. The whole gang was here now.

"Hey, babe!"

Astrid sliced her axe at the tree, clenching her jaw to restrain herself from throwing it at Snotlout. "Well, if you want to get decapitated, you've come to the right place."

"Haha! Funny, Astrid. I like that in a girl, that's cool."

She removed her axe from her tree in a violent way and swiveled to face the other teens with a black look. "You must have a real death wish, then. Get out of here, Snotlout. I'm busy. You see this tree?" She nodded to its torn and battered bark from her abuse. "You could easily be turned into this." Though she would never even consider doing that to someone, using threats often fended the Jorgenson off.

For a few moments, Snotlout looked nervous, however, he was able to push his wariness aside and resume his usual, irritating swagger. "Relax, Astrid… no one's starting anything here except you."

Fury burned red hot in Astrid's icy eyes, but before she had a chance to wipe that smug little smirk off that idiot's face, a small voice broke in.

"I'm pretty sure Astrid told you to go away," Hiccup said, dropping his sword at the foot of his tree and walking up a little to the exchange. He looked unsure of his place but determined to defend his new acquaintance.

Snotlout looked surprised. He must've not seen his cousin there, which wasn't too shocking. Hiccup was easy to miss. "What did you say to me?"

"I said," Hiccup continued in a stronger tone, "Astrid told you to go away. You should listen to her. She's not some—some property to be won. She's a person. So… go bug some other person. She clearly doesn't want to be with you." He swallowed after his demand but didn't back down.

Astrid was more stunned than she had ever been before. Previous to this time, no one had ever… defended her. Though it wasn't like people ever back-talked about her (who would with the fear of Astrid finding out?), no one had ever really noted Snotlout's constant flirting or tried to help stop it. Only Astrid had told him off—but Snotlout was a teenage boy with an ego the size of a Monstrous Nightmare, and therefore obnoxious.

The young Jorgenson became enraged and stomped up to Hiccup. He shoved him—hard—and the other boy stumbled. "You think you can tell me what to do, Useless? Huh? You think you're somebody important?" He pushed his cousin again until he was backed up against a tree. Astrid had long since stopped throwing her axe, and watched with narrowed eyes and a slightly parted mouth as if she wanted to say something.

"I just don't want you to insult Astrid," Hiccup mumbled.

That was when Snotlout punched him. Right in the stomach.

Gasping for air, Hiccup staggered and clutched his abdomen. He didn't quite fall, but he had to lean on a tree to be able to stand.

"Snotlout," Fishlegs said nervously. "Snotlout, that's too far..."

Astrid watched the scene unfold, feeling almost torn in two. If she helped Hiccup, the others would tell Berk all about it and label her as weak or soft for befriending the village runt. But if she didn't, her reputation would stay clear and strong...

Snotlout wouldn't listen to Fishlegs' pleas and didn't notice that even Ruffnut and Tuffnut were shaking their heads in disagreement with what he was doing. "You don't have a right to speak to me like that, Hiccup," he sneered. "Not to anybody. Astrid's my girl." He punched Hiccup again, and the victim fell to his knees, groaning. His face had been hit this time, and his lip was split.

"Stop," Astrid said in a low, cool voice that shook with anger. No matter what the village thought of her judgment, this wasn't right. Hiccup couldn't defend himself, he was just a kid. And the reason he was getting beaten up was that he had defended her. It wasn't his own doing.

So when Snotlout raised a fist to strike Hiccup again, she unleashed her rage that had been building up, and roared, "I said stop!"

What happened next was a flash. Astrid ran at Snotlout and tore him off of Hiccup, throwing him towards Fishlegs and the twins. After that was done, she screamed at the gang to get out or face her wrath, and they did, a dazed Snotlout included.

A minute after they had gone, Astrid looked back at Hiccup, who had pulled himself back up against the tree, still wincing. Her face betrayed no emotion, but she was the tiniest bit concerned about Hiccup. He was so small, so vulnerable… those punches must've hurt something awful. She should know—from her hot temper, she had been in too many fights to count.

"W-why did you d-do that?" Hiccup asked her in a shaky voice, his eyes wide with fear, pain, and shock.

After a moment, Astrid simply answered, "You're the only person who's ever defended me." She cocked her head slightly. "I repaid my… my debt to you. Everything's fair now. Are you… alright?"

"For a guy just beat up, yeah." Hiccup smiled weakly, and Astrid nodded.

"Good. I'm glad." She paused, then shot him a warning glare. "But don't get the idea that we're friends or anything. I owed you for standing up for me, and I paid you back by getting Snotlout away from you. That's all it was." In emphasis, she added, "We are not friends."

Hiccup quickly shook his head. "Of course not. Don't worry. I would never think that." His voice was very soft. "Never…"

Astrid regarded him stoically but couldn't deny how much her heart was tripping over itself. "Alright. You'd better go get that lip of yours cleaned up. You look like a mess."

"My lip? Huh?" Hiccup gingerly touched his mouth, as if just realizing the cut was there. It had already bled quite a bit, and blood still trickled lightly down his chin. "Oh yeah. Okay. Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Astrid took in a small breath through her nose. "I have to go. It's my mom's birthday, and she wanted me home in time for supper. Some grand meal to devour." She began to walk away, then cast one final look back at Hiccup. "Bye, Hiccup."

Though it was just two words from her, Hiccup's eyes shone like he had just been given the world.

"O-oh. Bye, Astrid."

As Astrid trudged away, she decided that Hiccup wasn't as bad as the village had made him out to be. Though she knew that they would never be friends with the war going on—and never could be—she also knew that she'd never tease him again. Ignore him, yes, for her image (she couldn't be seen going soft!), but there was something about that boy that she just couldn't bring to harm.

Oh, what was she thinking? He was one boy. One scrawny boy who could barely wield a sword. One boy who couldn't fight to save his life. One boy who had defended her. Gods, she was at it again…

Well, one thing was for sure: Hiccup Haddock III was one of the most interesting people she knew.

Special thanks to…

FanWriter02, Lynkia, thepurplewriter333, TheMightyMuffin, Guest (#1), katurdi, Smoe05, devufairy, annddddddddddd Plasma Snow. You guys are too kind, and I sincerely appreciate your continued support. *group hug*

I plan to post next Saturday, mostly because my birthday is next Sunday… *wiggles eyebrows*

I'm running very low on requests, so if you guys could share some more of your wonderful ideas, that'd be awesome. :-) Don't be shy about being specific! It's nice to know exactly what you want. For example, a request that said, "Hiccup's flight suit malfunctions, and he's laid up in bed. Astrid takes care of him, and that leads to them talking about their relationship," would be much better than, "Hiccup's hurt and Astrid and him kiss." :-) Alright, I'll wrap this up now... goodbye, my friends!