AN: Sorry for the long wait...really sorry

Aftermath

It was late morning by the time Astrid found herself walking down the stone steps leading to the village proper. That morning she had been roughly awakened by her mother, practically thrown from her bed and dragged to the Meade hall; where she had found the village council, a worse for wear looking Snotlout (apparently being set on fire and repeatedly falling into a well hadn't agreed with him) and a rather bored looking pair of Thorston twins waiting for her. As the massive carved oak doors closed behind her with a resounding thud all eyes rose to meet hers. "Ah Astrid, nice of you to join us" Spitelout called in his gruff voice as he beckoned her forward; she obeyed, holding her head high as she walked across the expansive ancient stone floor of the great hall, the perfect image of a proud, untroubled Viking. On the inside though she was terrified; why was the council gathered? Did they know what she had done? Were Hiccup and Toothless safe? All these questions swarmed inside her mind as she stopped beside Ruffnut in front of the raised stone platform where Spitelout and the other family heads sat behind a long, well-worn wooden table that had definitely seen better days; judging by the mead stains, rifts and dents that littered its surface. Seven Vikings sat before her; their faces grim in the shadowed light of the hall, each face fixed with a differing degree of disapproval and judgment, it was an intimidating sight but Astrid refused to show any signs of her growing unease.

The chair Spitelout occupied gave a loud protest as he stood, the horrible noise of wood scraping against stone echoing off the solid stone walls and pillars of the all but empty hall "You know why you were called here lass?"

"No I don't" she replied simply.

A silence stretched between them as Spitelout glared down at her; no one said anything as the tension began to mount but Astrid held her ground returning his glare with one of her own. She was so focused on winning the impromptu staring contest that she almost jumped out of her skin when Gobber spoke up. "Oh for goodness sake, Spitelout the girls not on bloody trial" at the sound of his voice Astrid turned to face Gobber who was sitting at the end of the table "Astrid we only want to ask you what happened last night; Snotlout says it was an accident but there was a wee bit of property damage-"

"A wee bit!" interrupted Phlegma the Fierce "you call the destruction of essential building materials, traumatised livestock, a third of the village set on fire and the rest of the chaos that we had last night just a wee bit of damage! We might have had less damage had it been a dragon raid!" Quite a few of the Vikings nodded their head and murmured in agreement to this statement but Gobber simply sighed and carried on with what he was saying before he was interrupted "as I was saying; we just want to get to the bottom of what happened, so Astrid could you just tell us and we can call an end to this pointless meeting."

Relief swept over Astrid at Gobber's words; sure she might be in trouble for what she did to Snotlout, judging by the glares she was still receiving from his father but for now her secret was safe and luckily Snotlout had given her more than enough reason last night to do what she did to him. "I was walking back to my house after getting in a little extra training, when this idiot" she jabbed her thumb at Snotlout who stood to her right "started 'flirting' with me, he couldn't take a hint that I have no interest in him so I kicked him and that's when he fell in the forge. The moron thought it was a good idea to run half the length of the village to the well with his pants on fire instead of using the water trough next to your shop Gobber."

"Hey! I'd like to see anyone else run that distance while on fire" Snotlout tried to protest. "What? Did you want me to make it rain to put out the fire, cause I could've done that if I wanted-"

"Snotlout would you please just shut it!" Gobber snapped.

Snotlout was about to argue but at the look he received from his father the boy instantly became quiet and silence returned once more to the hall allowing Gobber to speak. "So what you're saying Astrid is that you kicked Snotlout and he stumbled back into my forge and that's what started this whole mess, yes?"

"Yeah" Astrid shrugged trying to look as nonchalant as possible. They were going to blame her, she knew it, in truth they had every right to blame her and so she was resolved to take any punishment they decided to give her without complaint.

Gobber stood and eyed each of the teens in turn, to Astrid's great surprised a smirk spread across the old smiths face "right well that's settled then," he said "it was an accident end of story." Astrid was sure her jaw had just hit the floor…that was it? No punishment, no lecture…nothing.

As Astrid tried to pick her jaw off the floor Gobber made to walk towards the exit but stopped when Spitelout spoke out again "accident or not they're all still responsible." Gobber rolled his eyes clearly not in the mood to spend his time arguing over a situation he clearly saw as a waste of time "fine they can clean up the mess they made; satisfied?" Spitelout scowled but said nothing while the teens around Astrid groaned at the mere thought of being assigned clean up duty.

"Right you lot hop to it" with that dismissal the Vikings dispersed, the matter clearly resolved.

For a moment Astrid stood there frozen by her disbelief…she had gotten away with it.

When she finally managed to gather her wits and started to walk to the exit Astrid couldn't help but notice that someone had been missing from the meeting. Quickly catching up to Gobber she tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention "where's the Chief?" as soon as the question escaped her she regretted it; Gobber's eyes darkened and his shoulders slumped as he turned back to look at the Chief's house. Located at the highest point of the main village in a spot which afforded the best view of Berk, the all too recognizable house sat. It was usually an inspiring sight; with its slightly larger size and the carved dragon heads that decorated the walls symbolizing the many victories Stoick had won in the past. It was a place for the villagers to look towards for leadership and encouragement during times of strife but now…now there seemed to be a darkness looming over the house.

Astrid was brought back from her musings when Gobber started to walk again "Give him some time lass, we can handle things for now, he just needs time."

She watched the old blacksmith shuffle away until he rounded a corner taking him out of her sight. Heaving a great sigh she shook her head and went to join the other teens so she could get started on the repairs, it was easy enough to track the group down; the twin's complaints could be heard clear across the village, punctuated of course with the occasional clang of their helmets being bashed together, she could already tell this was going to be a long day.

The teens were standing by the well that Snotlout had fallen in the previous night, Ruffnut and Tuffnut had seemingly cornered Snotlout and were now bombarding him with questions.

"Like I said you were already on fire why didn't you launch yourself from a catapult? It would have been so awesome" Tuffnut was asking as she neared them.

"Yeah just think of the destruction your landing would have caused, not to mention the pain" Ruffnut's eyes seemed to glaze over with her own special brand of malignant joy as she imagined the scene of chaos.

"Are you insane?!" Snotlout shouted over the twin's evil giggles "that would kill me!"

"So?" they both said it at the same time.

After that the shouting match devolved into a brawl and Astrid chose to do the smart thing and just sat back and enjoyed the show. It was while she was watching the twin's wrestle Snotlout into submission and then try to shove him down the well (again) that Astrid couldn't help but overhear the daily chatter of several small groups of Vikings that were going about their business in the village proper, there was only one subject they seemed interested in: Hiccup… and Astrid didn't like what she was hearing.

The discussions varied from group to group but they were all whispered in the same hushed tones:

"I heard someone say they saw the Night Fury being controlled by the boy with some weird hand signals, he must have used the same tricks on the other dragons; that must be how he won first place in Dragon training."

"Hoark was saying he saw the boys eyes glaze over as though he was possessed, maybe the dragon was controlling him?"

She wasn't listening to them.

"Did you see the saddle?"

"During the last raid hadn't the boy been saying something about shooting down the beast with one of those thrice cursed inventions of his?"

She couldn't hear them.

"That boy was always a strange one."

"More like a son of Loki than a son of Stoick's."

They had no idea what they were talking about.

"The Night Fury is the unholy offspring of lightning and death; it makes sense that it could be controlled by a child of Loki."

"His mother was always a strange one too."

"SHUT UP!"

…

…

Astrid didn't realize she had shouted until the echo of her outcry reverberated back to her off the cold stone walls of the buildings that surrounded the village square. The anger that had gripped her suddenly fled. What had she done? They were looking at her; all of them were looking at her. They would know. She had to think fast, think of a way out of this mess that her lack of control had gotten her into.

At that moment her gaze was still fixed upon the twins and Snotlout but she didn't see how that could-wait… if she acted quickly, all she had to do was act quickly.

Fixing the three teens before her with a merciless glare she kept her voice low but spoke clearly so that everyone who had heard her initial outburst could hear "We're supposed to be cleaning the mess we made last night not making another one, I've had enough! What if there had been a raid last night?!"

"Astrid chill it's just a joke" Ruffnut stepped away from the boys holding her hands out in a placating manner as if she thought Astrid was about to attack her.

"Yeah, since when have you ever complained when we're trying to dismember this idiot" Tuffnut gestured to Snotlout who was edging away from the well while he had the chance.

"Hey who are you calling an idiot?" Snotlout shouted.

Both the twins' turned to face him, after looking him up and down with a skeptical glance together chorused "you."

Astrid was only half paying attention to them now, her eyes kept subtly shifting to the crowd of Vikings that were still watching her but to her great relief they were quickly returning to their previous conversations; thinking that her outburst had been directed at the three teens that still sat arguing before her and not at them.

Relieved Astrid quickly walked away to get started on her chores; she didn't know whether Snotlout and the twin's followed her, she didn't care.

From that point on her morning became a series of tasks one after another; she would go from fixing roofs to sanding down scorch marks from the sides of buildings to combing burnt wool out of sheep; who for supposedly being traumatized didn't look all that fazed.

Even as she focused on the mundane work her mind wondered back to what the villagers had been saying that morning and how she had reacted; why had she gotten so angry? Why was she still angry? She should be annoyed, yes; they had no right to talk about something they didn't know the first thing about but the fact that she had felt such rage towards the villagers for simple gossip was so confusing to her.

What she really needed to do was walk away, to disappear into the forest and go and throw her axe around at innocent trees until she calmed down; or better yet go to the cove and make sure that Hiccup and Toothless were alright… but she couldn't.

The best she could do at that moment was take her frustration out on the poor innocent nails she was hammering into the wood without mercy before her as she repaired someone's roof.

It was midday when a commotion distracted Astrid from her work, she had been sanding down a door ready to repaint it when Fishlegs had gone barreling past her; the stocky teen hadn't given her a second glance but the flash of shock she had seen frozen on his face had made her curious. Dropping the wire haired brush she had held she followed Fishlegs as he desperately ran through the village; when he came in sight of the forge he started to yell breathlessly "Gobber!...Gobber! The dra- the drag- Gobber!"

Gobber came hobbling out of his shop "What in Thor's undies is going on here? Fishlegs?!"

In his haste to reach the forge Fishlegs had failed to realise he had to stop once he reached it; when Gobber came out he was all but tackled by the younger Viking.

Gobber managed to keep his feet but Fishlegs wasn't so lucky, he fell back, landing hard in the dirt and was just sitting on the ground gazing up at the old smith with the a look of horror as Astrid caught up with him

"Fishlegs, what's happened?" Gobber asked as he offered the boy a hand up but Fishlegs didn't take it.

"The drag- the dr-dragons" Fishlegs continued to stutter breathlessly from his seat on the ground.

"What about the dragons?" Gobber pressed but Fishlegs was only growing more breathless, his stuttering becoming more prominent and less recognisable as coherent words. Losing what little patience he possessed Gobber dragged his hand down his face and barked "spit it out lad!"

"thedragonsaregone." The words came out so fast and so low that Astrid had trouble making them out, apparently Gobber did too as he knelt and placed his lone hand on the boys shoulder "calm down Fishlegs" the boy took a few deep breaths. "Now again what happened?" when the boy opened his mouth to speak Gobber raised his hand "slower this time."

Fishlegs paused as he processed what Gobber had said and took a few more deep breaths to try and steady his obviously shaken nerves; when his wide eyes no longer looked as though they were going to pop out of his skull he tried again "the dr-dragons…in the arena" He gulped "they're gone."

"Gone? You can't be serious lad" Gobber stared at Fishlegs as though the boy had suddenly grown an extra head.

"It's true" the boy wailed fearing that no one would believe him "I was walking along the cliff heading towards the docks when I happened to look down at the kill ring and saw that the gate was open. At first I thought it was a trick of the light but then I saw that the doors to the dragon holds were wide open as well."

"Did you go down to take a closer look?" Gobber asked.

"No!" Fishlegs cried as he vigorously shook his head from side to side "I thought-"

He was cut off when Gobber started to walk away, heading in the direction of the dragon arena; Fishlegs looked at Astrid quizzically as if asking her what he should do but she could only shrug before silently following the old smith. By the time they caught up with Gobber he was making his way across the bridge that separated the kill ring from the village (he was surprisingly fast for only having one leg) already she could tell that Gobber knew that Fishlegs was telling the truth. From this distance they should have been able to hear the lamentable growls of the captured dragons but the only sounds to fill the air was the rhythmic crash of waves against the sea cliffs below them and the occasional cry of a gull flying overhead.

Increasing his pace Gobber all but ran to the open gate of the ring; "beard of Thor" he grumbled as his eyes traced the arena, just as Fishlegs had said all the cage doors lay open with the only signs of their former occupants being the scratches, scorch marks and various 'leavings 'inside the now empty cages. With a look of stone set on his face Gobber walked slowly around the ring; he stopped occasionally to check the hinges or the insides of the doors but he was silent as he did so; either ignoring or not even noticing the two teens that had followed him into the pit. When he had finished inspecting the final cell he backed away as if he had stumbled, leaning his shoulder heavily against the rough carved stone walls for support as he dragged his hand down his face looking suddenly tired.

"Astrid, Fishlegs" Gobber's voice had an edge to it that she had never heard come from him before but she knew what it was; defeat and despair mingled together to cause a clear chocking edge that tinged every word spoken. "Close all the cages…once you're done head back to the village but tell no one what you've seen…I need to talk to Stoick."

After returning to the village Astrid dove straight back into the repairs she had been assigned, to her great relief it seemed that Spitelout had taken it upon himself to keep an eye on his son and the twins'; apparently knocking each other over the heads with shields and planks of wood they were supposed to be using to patch the holes in damaged buildings was not his idea of repairs. As a result Astrid was able to storm through the rest of her work without Snotlout constantly hitting on her or the twins' breaking more things than they were fixing; even so it was still mid-afternoon by the time she was finished. She walked home with heavy feet and sore arms, the only thing on her mind at that moment was going up to her room and grabbing a few hours' sleep in her comfortable bed before she snuck out of the village to meet Hiccup. What she had not expected when she opened her front door was to find her mother waiting for her with a pile of dirty laundry and a lecture; for what felt like hours Mrs Hofferson droned on and on about the family standing within the village, how the family name had suffered over the years and how it was Astrid's responsibility to restore it not drag it deeper into the mud. She took her mothers' words in silence; her only sign of rebellion being her refusal to look away in shame, when her mother had finally finished she made a half-hearted apology and started lugging the basket full of laundry down to the river.

Astrid attacked the laundry with a vengeance; not a single garment was able to escape her wrath as she took out her frustrations. "I already cleaned up the mess those idiots made last night" she mumbled as she submerged a shirt into the frigid waters of the river "I apologized, I didn't argue and yet here I am stuck doing laundry!" her voice was getting louder with each word and the women who were sharing the river bank with her started to take notice. "For the love of Freya I'm a shield maiden…Shield Maiden's don't do laundry! Especially not their fathers' underwear!"

Rip!

Astrid blinked as she looked down at the now ruined garment that lay between her clenched fists, balling the scraps of fabric into a useless wet wad Astrid hurled the cloth down river out of sight, taking little satisfaction in the splash that broke the silence that now dominated the river bank. Ignoring the stares and the slight whispers she went back to her work, slowly making her way through the mountain of washing with the occasional rebellious mumble.

Night fell before Astrid managed to escape the village; when she finally reached home she had unceremoniously dumped her load upon the kitchen table and all but crawled to her room to immediately collapse atop her bed, she had only closed her eyes for a second but the next thing she knew moonlight was drifting in through the open window of her bedroom.

Astrid shot up from her bed only to nearly trip over her own feet as the stiffness that came with falling asleep in a weird position caught up with her; regaining her balance she immediately headed for the open window. Without hesitation or pause she skilfully, and more importantly quietly, scaled the side of the house, within seconds she was on the roof and then cautiously making her way down towards the back of the house using the decorative spines that lined the roof support as handholds. The curved roof led all the way down to the ground allowing Astrid to roll seamlessly into the shadows of an overhanging roof where she crouched, there she waited silently not even daring to breathe as she saw the light from the torch the night watchman carried grow closer. She already had her route planned out, now it was just the small matter of waiting for the watchman to pass so she could stealthily slip into the dense cover of the trees; the heavy rhythmic sound of leather clad footsteps slowly grew closer, the pool of light cast by the torch gradually encroached upon her chosen hiding spot eating away at the shadows that conceal her…but the watchman didn't stop. The light retreats but not soon enough for Astrid, at any moment he could turn around and see her.

Taking a chance she dives for the cover of the trees.

The sudden rustling of leaves sound all too loud in Astrid's ears and she is all but sure that someone would have to be deaf not to hear it.

For a moment she waits, her back firmly pressed against a broad fir tree as she watches the light of the torch. To her shock the light begins to fade from the surrounding woods as the watchman slowly walks away. She forces herself to wait a few more seconds after the last vestiges of torch light have completely faded from her sight, even with the limited light provided by the moon it would be all too easy for someone to spot her. Sure now that it is safe she abandons all stealth; she barrels through the trees and undergrowth, not even slowing when her foot catches on a stray branch nearly sending her tumbling forward, not stopping when stray branches catch her across the face and bare arms leaving sharp scratches along her skin.

Astrid only slowed and allowed herself to catch her breath when the damp mud beneath her feet gives way to solid stone. The cove lay just before her and already she could see signs that Hiccup was still there, the most telling of which being the light swirl of smoke and the dancing shadow of the firelight playing across the coves walls. Walking to the edge of the cliff she looked down to see both Hiccup and Toothless curled next to a small fire. Hiccup lay with his feet outstretched towards the fire, his back resting against Toothless, the Night Fury himself, which would have been indistinguishable from the darkness had the light from the fire not been playing off his obsidian scales, lay wrapped around his young rider, his head resting in Hiccup's lap and a wing spread out across the boys legs. For all intents and purposes both the coves occupants seemed to be completely at ease and for some reason Astrid could not keep the sharp pang of annoyance that suddenly flared through her at bay.

All day she had been worried for them; what if they had been discovered, what if they had been captured, what if…the worst possibilities had piled one after the other in her mind until they had been all she could think about and yet here she found them; calm, relaxed and by the looks of it well rested, everything she wasn't at this moment.

Clenching her fists Astrid made her way to the entrance of the cove, neither bothering to hide her presence or to check her growing annoyance which seemed to grow with each misstep or slip she made in the dark.

When she reached the bottom her annoyance finally ignited into anger when she saw the two figures resting by the fire hadn't even noticed her yet (either that or they were ignoring her and Thor help them if they were); she was suddenly regretting leaving her axe back home. As her mind continued filling with ways with which she could take out her day's frustrations on the pair she failed to notice the shadow she had picked up on her way down.

The soft snap of a branch behind her instinctively forced her to turn.

For a moment she stood there searching the darkness behind her, but she saw nothing; not the telling gleam of armor caught in the firelight, not the smell of iron and sweat and not the stilted sound of someone trying to keep their breath silent.

Only the sound of running water and dancing flames echoed quietly off the steep stone walls that surrounded her, but still; she knew what she had heard. Grudgingly turning back to the fire she nearly jumped when she saw a lone green eye gazing at her lazily; Hiccup still appeared to be asleep but Toothless had now opened his eyes, he did not move his head from his riders lap as he studied her but all of his attention was on her. That was until she saw the great dark slitted pupil move its focus to her left.

"What are yo-WAHH" before she could even begin to turn her head she was slammed to the soft ground when something large and scaly pounced on her, an ocean of deep blue scales swam before her eyes as an obviously excited Nadder nudged and licked her face.

Between gasps for air, laughter and pleas for it to stop Astrid tried to get the dragon that was behaving like an overgrown puppy to let her up but the Nadder persisted in what could only be an attempt to either lick her face off or drown her in dragon drool. The great beast only stopped when a very familiar nervous laugh rang out across the cove.

The sea of blue scales retreated from her sight to reveal Hiccup standing over her, by the looks of it he was trying to stop himself from laughing; and failing miserably.

"Hey Astrid. Glad you could make it."

For a moment all Astrid could do was lay on the ground and stare at the boy in complete shock but when he finally managed to get his laughter somewhat under control and offer her a hand up her senses seemed to return; she found herself wishing they hadn't when she felt the dragon drool slowly sliding down her face. Brushing Hiccup's help aside she quickly sat up on her own and started trying to scrub the foul smelling slobber off, but each swipe of her hand only seemed to spread it further, leaving dangling threads of drool hanging from her hands and face. Growling in frustration Astrid made straight for the water hoping to wash off the rapidly drying drool, she had just made it to the water's edge and was kneeling down when Hiccup realized what she was about to do. "That's actually not a good idea!" Hiccup tried to warn her but by this time she had already submerged both her hands.

"Why not?" she snapped as she brought a handful of water to her face.

"Because Dragon drool doesn't wash off." His voice trembled with suppressed mirth.

Instantly Astrid dropped the water that she had been pressing to her face, but it was already too late.

Jumping to her feet she whirled on Hiccup, even with Astrid leveling a glare that would have sent Snotlout, Tuffnut and maybe even Gobber running for the hills Hiccup couldn't bring his laughter back under control. All the anger and frustration that she had previously forgotten came rushing back, clenching her fists Astrid lunged at Hiccup letting a feral war cry tear from her lips as she swiped his legs out from underneath him sending him sprawling to the ground.

"Ah- okay, okay-ow ow I'm sorr-" anything else he was going to say was cut off as Astrid stepped on his chest stopping him from getting up.

"How do I get this off?" her voice was a low growl and each word she spoke was punctuated with a not so subtle increase of pressure on Hiccup's chest.

"It would…be a lot ea-easier to tell you if I wasn't ha-having…trouble breathing" Hiccup barely managed to gasp out as he tried to squirm his way free.

Realizing she wasn't going to get any answers if she inadvertently cracked his ribs Astrid backed off but not before she was able to deliver a light (by her standards) kick to his side "that's for being a troll, now how do I get this stuff off!"

Coughing and gripping his sides as he slowly managed to sit up Hiccup shakily indicated a stretch of rock a little to the left of where they were standing. Squinting at the darkness Astrid tried to make out what Hiccup was pointing at however all she could see was the stark white walls of the cove. Finally being able to breathe normally again and seeing Astrid's confusion Hiccup explained "the moss that grows on the walls acts as a natural sponge, I think there's also something about the moss itself that counteracts whatever make the drool…you know sticky."

…

Within minute Astrid had most of it off but there was still a bit stubbornly stuck in her fringe. While she raked her fingers through her hair trying to untangle it she tries to distract herself by looking around the cove; Hiccup had retaken his seat by the fire and was busying himself with gutting and cleaning two fish he had taken from a basket that was resting against a rock behind him. Toothless and the Nadder were keeping themselves occupied by chasing each other and playfully wrestling when one of them was caught; by the looks of it Toothless was winning. Watching the dragons play an obvious fact started to niggle at the edge of Astrid's consciousness, she continued to watch the pair for a few minutes; hoping that she would be able to figure out the answer for herself, however when none came she gave up and simply asked.

"Why is she still here?"

"Eh?" Hiccup didn't take his eyes off the now cooking fish he had sizzling over the flames but the tilt of his head showed his confusion so Astrid clarified.

"The Nadder, why is she still here?"

Hiccups eyes flicked quickly to the dragons before returning to the fire. "I thought that would have been pretty obvious by the way she greeted you."

"That was not a greeting" Astrid half-heartedly snarled between clenched teeth.

Hiccup unsuccessfully tried to stifle another laugh but in the end only managed to poorly conceal it as a cough. "It is for a dragon, you should have seen Toothless the first time I brought him a fish" an involuntary shudder rolled the full length of Hiccups body "ugh, I can still taste that cod."

Astrid looked at him in bewilderment as she finally managed to get rid of the last bit of slobber clinging to her hair "That means absolutely nothing to me."

"Please believe me when I say you don't want to know" he gave another involuntary shake of his head in revulsion.

Coming to sit by the fire Astrid drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms loosely around her legs and resting her chin against them she gave Hiccup a sidelong glance "you still haven't answered my question."

Sighing in exasperation Hiccup finally looked at her "I'm not one hundred percent certain…but I think, from the way she greeted you just now and the way the two of you interacted last night…" he paused, holding his breath and looking at her with wide green eyes that seemed to be searching her face for an answer "I think she may have bonded with you."

"Bonded?" the skepticism in Astrid's voice was only emphasized by the eyebrow that suddenly hiked up towards her hairline.

"Oh Gods, how to explain this" he nervously ran a hand through his hair as he wondered how to phrase this. From the corner of his eye he saw Toothless and the Nadder still playing in a darkened corner of the cove, Toothless slinking from one shadow to the next while the Nadder used her light footed bird like movements to hop from one rock to the next. "Hmm ok, you know how when birds hatch they imprint on the first thing they see and start following it around like it's their mother?"

"Do I look like a dragon's mother to you!?" Astrid snapped indignantly.

"N-no…no, no that's not what I'm trying to say, what I mean is, well dragons are really loyal creatures and once you earn their trust…" he held out his hand gesturing towards Toothless at which point the Night Fury decided to bound to his riders side nudging Hiccups splayed palm with his snout as he closed his eyes. "…Heh, there's nothing they won't do for you."

For a moment Astrid simply watched the pair, seeing how Toothless curled himself protectively around Hiccup, how the legendary dragon that had inspired so much fear acted like an overgrown kitten as he lay on his back nudging at his riders hand asking to be scratched. She then looked over to the Nadder; the dragon was staring at her, its head tilted to the side with one great yellow eye fixed on her but it did not move to approach, or pounce on her as it had before, this time it merely gazed at her with a look that almost seemed rejected. The lance of regret that flared through Astrid's chest when she saw that look surprised her, yes she had helped to free the poor creature and she would even go as far as to say that after last night she had become slightly (very slightly) enamored with it, but the fact remained that this was the same dragon not even three days ago she had been trying to kill.

Hesitantly, almost guiltily Astrid slowly raised her hand towards the Nadder similar to the way she had just seen Hiccup do to Toothless, the result was immediate. Slowly but without hesitance or fear the Nadder walked to her crouched form and ever so gently placed her snout against Astrid's outstretched palm. Astrid felt an overwhelming sense of awe wash over her, the fact that the Nadder could so easily trust her after all she had done to her was incomprehensible to Astrid, how could the Nadder forgive her so readily?

A disgruntled trill and a heavy nudge at her still outstretched hand brought a smirk to Astrid's lips as she happily obliged the dragon with a scratch beneath its chin.

From the corner of her eye she could see that an overly self-satisfied grin had made its way onto Hiccup's face and right now she really wasn't in the mood for that…

"Hiccup" she said his name in the coyest voice she could manage.

"Yeah Astrid?" he sounded unsure, she had never spoken to him like this, Hel she had never spoken to any boy like this.

"The fish is burning."

"…"

"What?" for a moment he looked completely confused but then "Oh jeez!" he grabbed for the fish trying to save them before they truly turned to charcoal.

She couldn't help it; at the sight of Hiccup desperately trying to salvage the fish from the fire, grabbing the first only to drop it as he singed his fingers and then pointlessly blowing on the second to try and curb the flames that had begun to eat away at it, Astrid burst out laughing. Not the quiet chuckle that she normally allows to escape past her ever fierce persona but a genuine deep belly laugh that she just can't seem to suppress.

"Yeah, ha hah, laugh it up…I hope you realize that one of these is yours" he says as he places both moderately burnt fish to the side to cool.

"I think I'll pass" just as the words left her mouth her stomach rumbled, loudly.

"…"

Before he could say anything, which of course he would, Astrid snatched the slightly less burnt fish that had been laid out sending him a withering glare "shut up."

A few minutes passed in silence, she could barely taste the fish as she wolfed it down, all the while she used her free hand to scratch the Nadder that now has its head resting in her lap; running her fingers over the smooth interlocked scales, only feeling the roughness a dragons skin is famed for when she runs her hand counter to the direction the scales grow. Her eyes were drawn in by the beautiful deep blue colour that predominates the Nadder's skin, a blue so like the colour of the darkening sky she had seen that day she had practically been kidnapped by Hiccup and Toothless. She could clearly remember the feeling of exhilaration and freedom that had come with flying (after Toothless had stopped trying to dislodge her) how the world had seemed to open up beneath her as they had descended through the clouds. Everything had looked so small from the back of a dragon and it had brought a sense of peace that Astrid had never felt before.

She wanted to experience that again.

Her eyes strayed up focusing on the saddle that lay resting against a wall next to Hiccup's pack.

"Can you teach me?"

Her sudden and seemingly random question broke the quiet that had settled over the cove while they ate.

Hiccup looked up at her with questioning eyes clearly not knowing what she was asking him for.

"How to fly." She clarified.

She expected him to look shocked or hesitant, she wouldn't blame him for either reaction; she had only just recently recognised dragons for the amazing creatures they were and both times she had flown weren't exactly by choice. She was prepared for him to say no, to make an excuse and say she wasn't ready yet; she was not prepared for him to stand up and walk away from her.

"Hiccup I-" her eyes were glued to his back as he grew further away from her but she couldn't read his posture. He stopped by his bags quickly rummaging through them until he found what he was looking for, she couldn't see what he held due to the shadows but he was making his way back to her, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Hiccup?"

"If we're going to do this…" a genuine smile swept across his features washing away every single one of her frivolous insecurities "…then you're going to need something to hold onto."

AN: Reviews are always appreciated, anyway the next chapter is more than half done and should actually be up soon...very surprising given my usual update speed XP.