A/N: Sorry about the long wait. I had to write an essay and study for finals last week. I'm out of school now so I'll be writing more.


Astrid walked out of her bedroom hoping that her father wouldn't bring up last night. They planned to go home after the rain passed, but didn't realize how late it was. She didn't even remember falling asleep in the hall until Hiccup woke her up. When she came home last night, her father was asleep. She prayed that he didn't try to wait up for her. She already felt horrible for staying later than she planned, she would hate herself if she made her sick father stay up. She opened her father's bedroom door and found him sleeping. She quietly shut the door and walked out of the house.

She felt the cool air hitting her skin when she walked to Stormfly's pen. She gave Stormfly and her babies fish to eat. While her dragons were having their meal, she broke and brushed away the ice from the stairs to the house. While she was cleaning the stairs, she saw Hiccup walking by. She noticed him holding his neck and walking to The Forge. Astrid raised a brow seeing him rubbing the side of his neck, but she shrugged it off and went back to breaking the ice on the wooden stairs.

Hiccup kept his hand over the bruise trying to make it look like he had a crick in his neck. When he got in The Forge, Gobber noticed Hiccup's mannerism. "You okay there boy?"

"Oh, I slept on my neck wrong last night. It's a little sore." He lied hoping Gobber fell for it.

The blacksmith looked down at the boy and sighed. "Well, do you think you can work today? I don't want you making that neck of yours worse."

"No, I can still work. I'll just ice it for a bit before I do anything." Gobber nodded and left to get a bag of ice. When Gobber came back, he handed Hiccup the bag. Once Gobber turned around, Hiccup quickly moved his hand away and placed the bag of ice on his neck. Hiccup walked into the back in his work space. He kept looking at his neck through the reflection of the blade of an axe hanging on the wall. He was hoping the ice would shrink the bruise, but it didn't seem to work. Hiccup put the bag of ice on his work bench and buried his face in his hands letting out a groan.

"Oh, Hiccup, before I forget…" Hiccup raised his head up and reached for the bag of ice. He quickly rested it on his neck before Gobber walked into the back. "...Your father wanted me to remind you that Mr. Hofferson wanted to talk you to later."

Hiccup nodded and placed the ice closer to his skin. "Yeah okay," he said feeling his skin developing goose bumps from the cold. Gobber noticed the teen biting his lip and avoiding eye contact.

"Are you okay Hiccup? You seem a little nervous."

Hiccup nodded before Gobber walked away. Hiccup let out a sigh of relief and placed the leaky bag back on the bench to wipe the cold water away from his neck. "Hiccup?" he heard a female voice call out.

"I'm back here Astrid!" he called out putting the bag of ice back on his neck. He heard footsteps coming towards the back.

Astrid walked in the room with a small smile, but it faded when she saw him icing his neck. "What's wrong with you?"

"Remember last night when you fell on me?"

"How can I not forget? You almost cried like a baby." She said with a smirk, only to receive a glare from her friend.

"First off, the neck is very sensitive. Second off you gave me a bruise." He lifted the ice pack up away from his neck, and revealed his purple mark. Astrid's eye grew wide and she put her hand over her mouth.

"Oh my gods! That looks like a-"

"I know!" Hiccup shouted only to make Gobber run in the back.

"What are you yelling about?" he asked as he entered the room. Gobber saw Hiccup's bruise before he could cover it. "I leave you two alone for one minute, and this what you do? Maybe it's a good thing you two are getting married next month." He stated looking down at the teens as he put his hand and hook on his hip.

"Gobber it's not what you think-" Hiccup tried to explain to only be interrupted.

"Oh really? Then where did you get it from?" Gobber asked with a smirk looking at Astrid.

"My elbow," Astrid answered with a groan.

Gobber raised a brow at her. "Your elbow? Is this a new thing you kids are doing now?"

Hiccup slapped his hand over his eyes and hung his head down. He let out a sigh as he heard Astrid explaining what happened. "I was showing him a few attack moves last night. Long story short, I fell on top of him and my elbow hit his neck."

"Ah, well….just be careful you two. Talk in this village spreads like wild fire. The last thing we need is gossip about you two." The teens watched the blacksmith walk out of Hiccup's room. The teens let out a sigh and looked at each other.

"So what are you going to do with that?" she asked pointing to his neck.

"I'm just going to try to hide it. Make people think I got a sore muscle."

"You know that's not going to work. It might take a week for that bruise to completely heal. I mean, what are you going to do when you fly on Toothless? You can't be holding your neck while keeping your balance in the air."

Hiccup groaned in his hands and paced around the room. "What am I going to do? Not everyone is going to believe what really happened."

Astrid shrugged and replied "I guess we can just go along with it."

"What? I thought you of all people would want to protect your imagine."

"Oh trust me; I want my image to be perfect, and I have ways to make sure it stays that way." She said with a smile picking up an axe that was hanging on the wall. Hiccup's eye grew wide as he took a step back away from her.

~oOo~

"I can't believe you guys bent my sword!" Snotlout shouted at the twins as they walked to The Forge.

"Hey, you bet us that we couldn't!" Tuffnut defended looking down at the fuming teen.

"No I didn't! You asked if I bet you, I said no, and you didn't anyway!" Snotlout barked at Tuffnut.

"Oh calm down, Hiccup can fix that sword like new." Ruffnut said pointing at The Forge.

"I'm not letting Useless touch my weapon!"

"Fine, then we'll go and ask if he can fix it. Tuff and I need new axes anyway." Ruffnut snatched the bent sword from Snotlout hand.

"Hey, I want that sword back like I had it before you guys broke it!" Snotlout shouted before walking away to go home. The twins looked at each other before walking to The Forge. They noticed Gobber wasn't around, but they heard voices behind the back door. Ruffnut and Tuffnut slowly walked to the door trying to make out the voices.

"What if I gave you black eye? Maybe people will just think you got in a fight?"

"No! There is no way I'm letting you punch me in the face!"

The twins recognized the voices to belong to Hiccup and Astrid. "What are they talking about?" Tuffnut asked his sister in a hush tone. Ruffnut shrugged and kept listening to their conversation.

"Do you have anything to cover your neck then?"

"No, because I didn't know something like this would happen."

"You mean you don't have any scarves, or long neck shirts?"

"No, and who would wear that?"

The twins looked at each other in question. Why would Hiccup need to cover his neck? The twins were about to leave until they heard Astrid say "well, we need to find a way to cover that bruise." Ruffnut's let out a light gasped and covered her mouth. Tuffnut raised a brow at his sister and mouth "what?" at her. Ruffnut bit her lip trying not to smile. She grabbed her brother's arm and they ran out of The Forge. Once they were close to their house, Tuffnut pulled his arm away from his sister's grip.

"What is going on?" Tuffnut asked watching his sister trying to contain a giggle.

"Don't you get it? Hiccup's got a bruise on his neck, and Astrid's trying to give him suggestions on how to cover it?" Tuffnut shrugged making Ruffnut roll her eyes. "Astrid totally sucked on his neck. Hiccup got a hickie!" Ruffnut tried to hold her laugh.

Tuffnut's eyes went wide once he got the connection. "I guess you can say 'Hiccy got a hickie'." Tuffnut said proudly with a smile.

"Dibs to tell Snotlout!" Ruffnut shouted before running off to find the teen.

"No, I want to tell him!" Tuffnut shouted back as he followed his sister.

~oOo~

After Astrid left The Forge, Hiccup kept icing his neck. Once he realized that the bruise wasn't going to shrink, he emptied the bag of ice and tossed it across the room. Hiccup let out a groan and heard Toothless purring at him. Hiccup walked over to the black beast and scratched his head. "What do you say Toothless? After this you want to go on a flight?" Toothless purred, and then his ears perked up when he heard someone shouting his rider's name.

"Hiccup!" the teen heard his name being called out. He recognized the voice to belong to Snotlout. Hiccup put his hand over his neck and acted like he was rubbing a sore muscle. When Hiccup walked out of the back room, he found a red faced Snotlout waiting for him outside.

"Hey Snotlout, what's going on?" Hiccup asked.

"Oh I think you know." Snotlout said crossing his arms over his chest.

Hiccup raised a brow at him. "Um no…I really don't know."

"What's wrong with your neck?" Snotlout asked gesturing to Hiccup's hand.

"Oh I slept on it wrong last night. You know just….trying to… loosen the muscle," Hiccup stammered.

Snotlout narrowed his eyes at him. "Oh really? Because the twins said Astrid made her mark on you."

Hiccup shrugged and muttered. "Yeah I guess you can say that."

"Ha!" Snotlout shouted pointing a finger at him. "So you admit that you got a hickie!" Hiccup's eyes went wide and noticed people around them staring at him. He pursed his lips together then pushed Snotlout in The Forge. Snotlout's eyes went wide when he saw the purple bruise. "Holy Freya! So it is true! I can't believe Astrid would do something like this!"

"Okay, let's get a few things straight here Snotlout. One, Astrid is not interested in you. Two, I got this bruise when we fell and her elbow landed on me, and three, I am really getting tired of telling that story."

"Wait a minute. So you got that from her elbow?"

"Yes, and I think this is the last time I'm going to explain it. I'm getting tired of repeating myself." Hiccup grumbled walking away from Snotlout.

"Well…we got a problem then." Snotlout claimed with a cringe.

"What?" Hiccup whined at him.

"Ruff and Tuff have been telling the entire village that Astrid bit you."

"What?!"

~oOo~

Astrid walked out of her house after checking on her father. She gathered the three baby Nadders to give them to their new owners. While she was walking to each home, she noticed people staring at her. She shrugged it off and continued to hand the babies to their new homes. After she was done, she noticed the people staring at her were now whispering. She was starting to get worried and she walked to The Forge. She saw Snotlout and Hiccup talking when she walked in. "Hiccup, why is everyone looking at me?"

Before Hiccup could answer, he saw his father walking towards them holding the twins by their ears. "Explain now!" Stoick barked at the twins as he put them in front of Astrid.

"We told everyone that you gave Hiccup a hickie." Tuffnut said, and then Stoick pulled on his ear again making him gasp in pain. "And somehow they took that as you guys did more."

"What?!"

"Yeah, and the worst part is, we have no idea what it is. I mean, what could you guys do while you're sucking on each other's neck?" Ruffnut added feeling her ear being pulled.

Astrid put her hands on her head and walked away from the twins. "Oh no," she moaned feeling her stomach turn.

"You guys need to fix this!" Hiccup shouted.

"How?" Ruffnut asked. "It's pretty obvious that she did bite you." She added pointing at Hiccup's neck.

"You idiots that's not a hickie! I fell on him last night and my elbow landed on his neck! We didn't want people to think that it was a hickie for this exact reason!" Astrid shouted feeling her face burning.

"Oooohhhh!" the twins cringed once they realized what they did.

Stoick rolled his eyes and let go of their ears. "I'll try to do my best to make sure that this rumor that they started stops, but first, you two" Stoick pointed at the twins. "Need to find every person you told that what you said was a lie." The twins groaned in protest at their chief. "Now!" he shouted making them run in fear. Stoick rested his hands on his waist and looked down at his son and Astrid. "I advise you to tell Mr. Hofferson the truth before someone tells him false information." The two nodded in agreement, and they walked away to get to Astrid's house.

~oOo~

Astrid and Hiccup walked into the house to find Asmund drinking water out of a mug. "Oh, hey kids." He said with a smile until he saw the bruise on the side of Hiccup's neck. "Oh my gods you two! You couldn't wait a month!" he whined.

"Dad, it's not what you think." Astrid started off with. "Last night, I was showing Hiccup some attack moves. I was about to show him how to hit someone with the elbow. Well, it was dark and we didn't look at our surroundings. Somehow I fell on him. He tried to move out the way, but my elbow hit the side of his neck." She explained watching her father's face go soft.

"Oh, well at least it wasn't inappropriate. I just feel sorry for the boy, that must have been painful." He said with a smirk.

Hiccup let out a nervous laugh rubbing the side of his neck. "Yeah, too bad not everyone believes what really happened."

"What do you mean?" Asmund asked.

"The twins told everyone that it was a hickie. Now people think we did…things." Astrid felt her face burning trying to avoid the word.

"You two didn't, right?" Asmund asked.

"No, no, no!" they shouted seeing the relief in Asmund's face.

"Well, then the date of the marriage remains the same. If people want to talk, then that just means they have nothing better to do." He said with a small smile.

"Thanks for understanding, Mr. Hofferson." Hiccup smiled at the man.

Asmund gave him a nod and lead him out of the house. "Now have good day, oh and don't forget to come by tonight. I got something for you."

"Okay I will, see you later then." Hiccup said walking out of the house.

Asmund shut the door and turned to his daughter. "I'll take the Thorston boy and you take the girl." he said picking up a small bludgeon making his daughter let out a light laugh.


A/N: I was going to make this longer, but I didn't have the time. I'll try to upload next Friday, but no promises. Until then, I'll see you next time. Bye!