rating was changed for language, violent fight scenes, and (not too graphic but still present) sexual content

For those who are concerned that they won't be able to enjoy the story because of rating change, don't worry. except for the occasional strong language, the other parts could be skipped but still allow you to enjoy the story. I'll also give warning before a chapter has inappropriate content.

enjoy my lovely readers!

"Okay, I got cheese, pepperoni-."

"Dibs on the peppers!"

"Hiccup, mine is cold!"

"Well, next time you can drive thirty miles just for pizza."

Hiccup snatched a greasy slice from the last cardboard box before sliding it onto the table. Astrid quickly grabbed a piece as well and smiled at him through her bite of gooey cheese.

"You know, when I said I was craving pizza earlier, that I wasn't a hint for you to go get some," she said, swallowing thickly.

"I just can't believe you haven't had pizza since you've been here," he replied, perching himself on the table next to where Astrid was sitting. "I used to live on pizza."

"No way, man," Jack argued, leaning back in his chair. "Chinese takeout is where it's at."

"Nope." Snotlout shoved half a piece in his mouth, smirking at Ruff's laughter. "Cheap burgers and fries are number one."

"Ugh," Ruff groaned. "Boys eat like garbage cans."

"We do not," Hiccup scoffed. "This food is fit for kings."

"Whatever dragon boy."

"Isn't this supposed to be a meeting?" Tuff questioned, looking down the table at Wiz. "You guys only have my attention until the pizza runs out."

Wiz put his food down and cleared his throat. The only sound in the room now were their chomping mouths. Hiccup glanced down at Astrid while she watched Wiz, making sure she didn't look like she was in any pain. Astrid had insisted on leaving the infirmary this morning, but Hiccup could still see the outline of her bandages underneath her shirt.

"I didn't find much," Wiz admitted, sliding a stack of papers across the table. Snotlout grabbed them before they hit the greasy boxes and passed them around. "LeBeau bought up a lot of land recently, but according to his bank account, that's nothing new. He was always investing."

"But-wait." Punzie paused, glancing at one of the papers. "This one says he bought land here a couple weeks ago."

"I was getting to that. This is the first time he's ever bought any sort of land in the United States. It was through a private buyer, so he was able to keep it quiet."

"Where?" Astrid asked firmly.

"Colorado. It's deep in the Rockies."

"Alright." Punzie passed the papers to Hiccup, who only took a quick glance before sliding them to Astrid. "It's not much, but it's something. We'll interrogate Jinx tomorrow then make plans for some of us to go to Colorado to check out the site."

"Sounds boring."

"Then you can stay here Snot," Jack smirked from across the table.

"No, I wanna go!"

"Then zip it," Astrid replied, taking a bite of gooey cheese.

There was a slight knock on the door, but Hiccup didn't have to look up from his project to know who it was.

"Can I come in?"

"No."

Astrid stuck out her tongue, as Hiccup chuckled, and perched herself on the tabletop across from him. It had been a couple hours since their "pizza meeting" had dispersed and Hiccup had quickly shut himself up in one of the labs. Various pieces of machines and hunks of scrap metal littered nearly every surface. It was safe to say Hiccup had slightly taken over this area as his own.

"So, I went in to see Wiz a little while ago," she started, watching his hands take apart a small box. "The satellite sensors were going off."

Hiccup paused on his work and looked up at her. Astrid was biting her lip nervously, but still looking down at his hands. "Does that mean-?"

"Yep. We're either going to have a new Guardian or a new villain within a couple of days."

"Oh." Hiccup looked back down at the metal and continued working.

"Um, hello?" Astrid bent her head over to look at him under his bangs. "You realize what this means, don't you? This changes everything. Depending on their power, the other side might have the upper hand now."

"You don't know that," Hiccup replied easily. "Until we actually meet them, there's no reason to freak out."

"I'm not freaking out," Astrid huffed, leaning back away from him. "But this does change things. Even if we do get a new member, they still need to be trained and we're in the middle of something big, Hiccup. No offense, but even you're still a little rusty."

"I have stopped those crash landings though."

"Not my point." Astrid's mouthed twitched. "I just want to make sure you, and whoever we get, is prepared for what could happen in the next few days."

"I don't think it's me you should be worried about," Hiccup joked, concentrating on the small bolt he was trying to undo. "You're the one with healing stab wound. Think you manage sneaking around Colorado?"

There was no reply. Hiccup looked up, prepared to ask Astrid what was keeping her quiet, when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. She was gone. There was no evidence she'd ever been sitting on the metal surface and Hiccup hurriedly spun around, looking wildly around the room.

"Okay, not funny Astrid."

Still no answer. The ceiling-tall shelves in the back, piled high with parts and tools, suddenly seemed risky and dangerous. Hiccup was suddenly very aware of how many places a small teenage girl could hide in there.

"You proved your point," he called out. Hiccup slowly started walking towards the line of shelves, trying to focus his hearing. There was still nothing; not a single sound. "C'mon Astrid. I was just joking."

His gut twisted nervously as he peered along the first row of shelves. Empty. Quickly looking over his shoulder, he only saw an empty room. Gulping far too loudly for his liking, he kept going.

"I'm serious. This isn't funny anymore."

The only sounds Hiccup could hear were his sneakers squeaking slowly on the floor and his own rapid breathing. He wasn't sure if it was his knowledge of what Astrid could do to him or an aspect of her power that had sweat beads forming on his forehead and his instincts telling him to high tail it out the room.

"Astrid." He rounded another row of shelves. There was no blonde assassin in between them. "You're starting to worry-AARGH!"

Quicker than a bolt of lightning, a pair long, firm legs wrapped around his torso from the back. Thin arms wrapped around his head, squeezing and twisting, stopping right before they snapped Hiccup's neck. Blonde hair tickled his face as Astrid's giggle rang above him. Bending her head to peer at him upside down, she gave him a wide smile.

"And you're dead," she said smugly, before unwrapping her legs and dropping behind him.

"Remind me to never question you," he mumbled, turning to face her. Astrid was still smiling innocently and rocking back and forth on her heels. "Stitches?"

Astrid pulled up the hem of her shirt, revealing the white bandages, but no red stains. "Still holding me together. I think I'll cut them out later today."

"That's gross."

"Wuss."

Hiccup gave her a pointed look, but went back over to the countertop. Astrid followed and peered around his torso, really looking at his project for the first time.

"Um, what's that?"

"It's supposed to be something for Ruff, to control her energy flow. Make it more accurate. I thought of it a couple days ago, but this is just a prototype."

Astrid looked at the pile of twisted metal with a new light, before gazing at Hiccup open mouthed. "Can-can you do that."

"Eh." He shrugged as he unraveled a coil of wire. "Shouldn't be too hard. It's just a matter of finding something that won't explode from too much power. Her electricity levels are through the roof."

"How do you know that kind of stuff?" she asked incredulously. "I mean, that's really cool."

"I graduated high school a little early." He glanced down at her and smiled lightly. "I was kind of a nerd."

"Shocker," Astrid snorted. She leaned against the table and waited for him to continue, but there was no explanation. "I thought you just worked at a garage."

"That's right."

"But if you can build stuff like this," she motioned to the table behind her. "And you graduated early, why didn't you get some crazy scholarships or something?"

"I did." Hiccup was going to leave it there, but he caught Astrid's wide eyes and she folded her arms. He sighed before continuing. "I was going to the Naval Academy in Maryland. I was going to be one of the top engineers and design new equipment for Navy Seals, pilots, all sorts of people. I already knew it all. Going to the school was just a formality."

"Did you get kicked out?" Astrid pulled herself back onto the table and sat next to where he was working. "I won't tell anyone if you did."

Hiccup laughed, but it was humorless. It made Astrid's stomach knot unpleasantly. "Uh, no. I left. I hated it there and my dad just made it worse. He's an Admiral and he always wanted the same thing for me."

"Oh," she said softly. "Well, that doesn't sound so bad."

"Believe me," he muttered. "It was bad."

There was a heavy silence and Astrid felt the urge to reach out and comfort him, even though she wasn't sure how.

"Have you talked to anyone about it?"

"No."

Slowly, she reached out and grasped his forearm. Hiccup froze and she saw his jaw tighten. "I'm here. If you want to."

Just when she thought he would shake her off, maybe politely ask her to leave, Hiccup took a steady breath. "My dad has always hated me. From the second I was born, he hated me."

"I'm sure that's not true."

"No." His voice was firm, so unlike what Astrid was used to. She didn't like this Hiccup. She wanted his dumb smile back. "He was always focused on his career, didn't want to be bothered by kids. He wanted my mom to give him a son to be perfect little soldier, but he didn't want to be a dad."

"You don't know that."

"I do actually. He felt the need to remind me frequently. My mom, the only person I think he ever actually cared for, died giving birth to me. Something happened and she just bled too much; a freak accident in the delivery ward."

"Oh, Hiccup…"

"I was always blamed for it, for taking her away from him," Hiccup croaked. Astrid throat was feeling painfully tight as she watched him speak. "After she was gone, he was forced to take care of a kid he never truly wanted. It didn't help I wasn't like him. I think that's what finally did it; made him hate me so much. Growing up, I never had any interest in serving my country like he did. I wanted to help, to do something important, but not in the way he did it."

"Hiccup," Astrid started. "You don't know that he hated you."

"Yes, I do." He finally looked at her, jaw clenched and eyes narrowed. "I tried to do the whole Navy thing just for him, but I couldn't handle it. It wasn't me, so I took my savings and ran. Ended up in some small town and got a job fixing cars. Then, he called me."

"The night you changed," Astrid mumbled.

"He called me and said 'Hiccup, I always knew you were different, but I had high hopes for you.' He paused and I swore I thought he was going to say something to make everything okay, something to make me want to come home."

"You don't have to-."

"Then he said 'I wish you died in that delivery room instead of your mother. At least she was worth something to me.'"

She couldn't hold it in. A single tear escaped the corner of her eye. Hiccup suddenly turned, violently throwing the hunk of metal in his hands across the room. Astrid watched as it crashed through the wall, leaving a gaping hole. Her attention was brought back to Hiccup when he turned, slamming his fists on the table next to her.

"Who says that to their son?" he demanded. "What kind of sick bastard-?"

He stopped as Astrid slid over, moving his arm to her other side as she planted herself in front of him on the table. Tears were heavy on her cheeks and Hiccup felt a couple stray tears slide down his jaw as well. Gripping his torso, Astrid buried her face in his shirt. Hiccup clutched her to him, setting his chin on top of her head.

"I'm so sorry," she mumbled into his shirt.

"I can't do anything about it," he replied. "I guess we all have family issues we have to fight through."

"I know." Astrid pulled back and looked at him with puffy eyes and wet cheeks. "Mine think I'm dead."

you have all been amazing with reviews! i love hearing all your favorite parts, your predictions, fears, hopes, and everything else that has to do with the story! I also love to get advice, because there is a ton of room for improvement here lol