Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon or any of the associated characters or settings.

AN: Thank you to everyone who is reading/reviewing/favouriting/following this story! I appreciate all of you. :)

She was twenty and he was twenty-one. Astrid couldn't believe that this was happening. She'd known that it could happen, but she still couldn't believe that it was actually happening. For all Hiccup's threats (he would call them offers, but Astrid preferred to think of them as threats) to make her a flight suit, she hadn't actually expected him to follow through. But that was her failing indeed, for when had Hiccup neglected to follow through on a promise, even an unwelcome one?

"Just try it on," he insisted, giving the blue jacket a shake.

It was beautifully matched to the colour of Stormfly's scales, she had to concede at least.

"I don't want to," she snapped.

"Come on, Astrid, don't be like that!" he intoned, giving her that look of disbelief. It was that look that got them both into trouble again and again. That half-dare in his green eyes; that smug, knowing grin. She wanted to wipe it off his face, which was a bad sign. It was a sign that he was winning.

"If I'd known you'd be this resistant, I would have made a suit for Fishlegs instead."

Astrid scoffed and rolled her eyes. "That would turn out so well."

Hiccup grinned at her. "He'd have to flap his arms."

Astrid couldn't hold in her snort of laughter at the image. Her smile lingered as she gazed at the proffered jacket. She sighed knowing that this was going to happen eventually or else she'd never hear the end of it. Hiccup would start gliding around where she could see him; he'd blow her off so he could glide; he'd annoy the Hel out of her until she gave in.

"Fine!" she spat, "Just once."

"You say that now," he replied, beaming at her brilliantly.

Astrid grabbed the jacket out of his hands a little too roughly and took satisfaction in watching his face fall.

"Astrid! Be careful! The calibrations are very—"

"Sensitive," she finished, rolling her eyes, "I know, I know. They can't be that sensitive if you're always landing on your face in it."

She swiped up the pants – matching Nadder blue, of course, he really hadn't been kidding when he'd told her that he'd been making outfits all those years ago – and disappeared into his workroom. She mused to herself while she changed into the flight suit that she really should have known better when he'd asked her to meet him at the smithy. Once again, Hiccup had asked something of her and once again she hadn't thought to ask her own questions first. Of course it would be a flight suit. For her.

Hiccup was still babbling, talking incessantly about the calibrations and the springs and the coils and the blah blah blahs. She wondered if he ever noticed that she didn't actually absorb any of that information. She could understand it if she really wanted to, but she didn't. Hiccup understood it and she understood Hiccup – that would always be enough for her.

"Well," she said, cutting off his rambling and stepping out of the room.

Hiccup's back was to her, but he spun rapidly on his metal foot at the sound of her voice. And then he stood there, speechless (for once), staring at her. Astrid frowned, looking down at herself. Had she put it on wrong? The button was in the front, the fin in the back. Everything looked fine to her. She looked up at Hiccup and he was still staring with this sort of glazed look on his face. Astrid frowned.

"What?" she snapped.

Hiccup gave his head a little shake and walked over to her, absently tugging at the belts and buckles. "Uh, nothing. I was just…really accurate with measurements, apparently."

Her grin was slow and languorous. Sometimes Hiccup was so caught up in technical nonsense that he barely noticed she was a woman. It made the times when he remembered that much more gratifying. Like now. The way he was avoiding her eyes and tugging uselessly at buckles that were firmly in place; the lack of concentration on his face.

"Hiccup," she said softly.

His eyes locked on hers and she pulled his head down into a kiss. She hadn't really meant it to go deeper than that, but there they were, moulded to each other, lips locked and tongues wrestling for dominance. Astrid was already thinking about how getting one flight suit off was such a pain; two would be that much worse.

Someone cleared their throat and Hiccup sprang away from Astrid.

"Gobber! Gobber. Hi, Gobber," Hiccup stuttered, grabbing his helmet off the table and strategically placing it in front of hips.

Gobber raised an eyebrow at both of them. "Don't you have a house?"

"We do! We do have a house, yes," Hiccup rambled, biting his bottom lip.

"Hey," Astrid said, ignoring them both, "Do I get a helmet?"

Hiccup's smile was one of equal parts relief and excitement. "Yes! Of course you do! Hang on!" he said, tossing his helmet on the table and disappearing into his workroom.

Astrid shrugged at Gobber who rolled his eyes before turning his back on her and pounding away at a shield. He started singing a song about a Viking woman's love being like a war which Astrid hadn't heard before.

"She'll hold your hand, but she'll steal your land," he sang.

"Here!" Hiccup said excitedly, shoving something into Astrid's hands.

She was watching Gobber curiously. "Is that-?"

Hiccup spared a glance toward Gobber. "Yeah, I wouldn't listen to that one. It doesn't end well. Look!"

Astrid turned her attention to the helmet in her hands. Beautifully dyed blue leather stretched over metal and topped with a series of small yellow horns, it was a work of art. It operated similarly to Hiccup's helmet – functional and utilitarian on the inside, all dramatic flair on the outside.

"Truly, you've missed your calling," she said wryly, "The gods know the people of Berk could use some help with fashion."

Hiccup rolled his eyes and frowned. "Try it on."

Like the rest of the suit, it fit her perfectly. It was a little disconcerting at first, to have her vision limited and her breathing stifled, but it would be welcome when flying. Thor knew she was tired of swallowing bugs in the air. Through the eyeholes of the mask, she could see Hiccup's excited grin and she let herself smile when he bit his bottom lip. He grabbed her hand and tugged her.

"Come on, let's try it out!"

"Hiccup! No, I said I'd try it on," Astrid protested as he continued to pull her out of the smithy.

It was one of those times when she truly missed when they were matched for height and their strength quotient was reversed. She liked a stronger Hiccup in some respects (she blushed when she thought about those respects), but she didn't like how he was actually capable of manhandling her now. Sometimes she pointed it out. Sometimes it was done by yelling and telling him that he was no better than Snotlout. She always liked the repentant look he'd give her when she did that. She had a mind to do it now.

"Hiccup, you're being—"

He dropped her hand. "Like Snotlout?"

"Yes! You can't just drag me along and make me do something I don't want to do."

"But you do want to do it."

Astrid flipped the mask up, ready to tell him off for presuming to know what she did and didn't want to do, but the words died in her mouth when she found that they were standing in front of Stormfly's pen.

"Stormfly?"

Her dragon pawed at the ground excitedly and Astrid felt her heart pounding a little harder. She was angry suddenly – the sort of irrational rage that overtook her sometimes – because Hiccup was right and she hated it when he was right about her. He leaned against the entrance to Stormfly's pen, grinning smugly. Astrid grunted. Hiccup's grin grew and he stretched his arms up and over his head in mock casualness.

"Well, Toothless and I are going to go for a glide and I'll just leave you here with your dragon," he said, slowly sauntering away.

Astrid practically growled at him and he smiled beatifically.

"You're so becoming when you snarl, milady."

And so, Astrid couldn't believe that this was actually happening. She didn't have the best track record with falling off dragons. Usually it wasn't of her own choice and usually she required some form of assistance. She trusted Stormfly; she did. She just wasn't so sure that she trusted herself. As much as she'd been listening to Hiccup's instructions, she had also been going over the various ways in which this could go horribly wrong. She wasn't afraid of death – it was an occupational hazard of being a Viking, after all – but she was a little afraid of openly committing suicide by jumping off of a dragon. On purpose.

"—trid? Astrid?"

"What?"

"Did you get any of that?"

"Jump off, open my arms, stay still – doesn't sound that hard," she said, annoyed that her voice shook a little.

"And open the fin. I know you know how to do that," he said sardonically.

Astrid shot him a haughty grin.

"Do you want me to go first?" he asked.

"No. I've seen you do it. I can do this."

"I know you can."

"Well, then," she said, glaring at him as she slapped her helmet down, "Okay, girl, here we go!"

Astrid swung herself off her dragon's back in much the same way she'd seen Hiccup do it a thousand times before. She fully expected to be as graceful if not more so than Hiccup; she was Astrid Haddock, for Thor's sake. She had forgotten that she had a long history of falling and flailing from the backs of dragons. Instinct is a difficult thing to mask and there she was, flailing through the sky.

"Hiccuuuuuuuup!"

"Stop flailing! Open your arms, steady yourself!"

She listened to his instructions and reminded herself that Hiccup had made this suit for her. He'd put time and effort into it. He'd sat there and stitched it and fiddled with springs to make it work for her. Hiccup had made this for her. Hiccup. She stretched her arms out and felt the air catch the wings of the suit. Astrid struggled to keep her arms still enough to maintain flight, wobbly as it was with the way she had fallen. She reached to her chest and released the fin on her back.

"You got it," Hiccup said, laughing.

Astrid started to laugh, too. Because this was it, this was that feeling. Weightlessness and magic. Flying. Amazing. She could hear the blood pounding through her veins; feel her muscles straining with the effort. Nothing had felt this good since the first time Hiccup had taken her up on Toothless.

Let me show you, he'd said. And he had, again. He'd shown her something utterly breathtaking. She hadn't even noticed that he'd directed Toothless upward until he came barrelling down past her only to pop up next to her, gliding smoothly. She could see the smile in his eyes through his mask when he looked at her. His fingertips grazed hers and she laughed.

"This is amazing!" she yelled.

Hiccup laughed and hollered, which made Toothless release a plasma blast and Stormfly roar behind them.

"So," Astrid said after a while, her arms growing tired with the effort, "How do we land?"

"Yeah, I haven't really worked that out."

"Hiccup."

"I'm sure we'll find a sea stack soon!"

"Hiccup!"

"I'm working on it!"

"Stormfly!" Astrid called.

Stormfly steadied herself beneath her and Astrid let her arms fall to her sides. She landed astride Stormfly's back with ease. She looked back to see Hiccup tilt his head and similarly follow suit with Toothless. Astrid pushed her helmet up when Toothless and Hiccup reached them; Hiccup did the same.

"Why didn't I think of that?" he asked her.

"Because you're crazy."

Hiccup shrugged in agreement.

"But I love you because you're crazy," she said, directing Stormfly closer to Toothless so she could lean over and plant a small kiss on Hiccup's lips.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Thank you," he replied.