AUTHOR'S NOTE:

• Surprisingly, this was written while I was in a foul mood. I've been hitting a rough spot in my life and I'm currently still working my way through it. I'm not going to give out any details than that. This is a very light-hearted one-shot that I ended up using as a means of concentrating on something else to calm myself down. So, in that sense, I'm more than a little bit grateful to Sora. Gotta love the little guy.

• I am actually in the works on writing a third part to the "Time" drabbles and I've even been considering writing a third one for the whole Maleficent bits. I'm not sure if I'll post them here as the main reason I'm writing them is because my Hiccup-RP-Buddy has mentioned on a few occasions that she would like me to delve further into them. Anyway, the point is that if I were to post either of them here, which one would you want to see more? I would prefer you to send your answer via a message rather than using my review box to answer a question. If you write a review and tack your vote on the end of it, that is also acceptable.

• I do not own How To Train Your Dragon or Kingdom Hearts. HTTYD belongs to Dreamworks and Cressida Cowell. KH is copyrighted to Tetsuya Nomura and Square Enix.

He knew he shouldn't, but he just could not help himself. He was curious. Maybe even a little nosy. And, like most children when they're interested in something, especially when it wasn't theirs, Sora just couldn't stave off the urges to at least take a little peek and find out just what his friend was hiding. Just a small one. He couldn't be punished horribly for that. The twins performed worse offenses in plain sight simply for just loitering. Because everybody knew if either of them was standing still for more than ten seconds, something was seriously amiss.

Sure, he had tried to ignore it. Sora had resorted to leaving the house and facing the icy pathways outside. That had only served to dissuade the brunette from his puzzling desires that seemed to come forth out of thin air for a short time. After being pelted in the face with a large snowball by Tuffnut and coming dangerously close to forcibly shoving Snotlout off of a cliff, Sora had lost interest in the fluffy whiteness outside that covered everything in sight. So, when he returned to find the bizarre object of his meddlesome mind exactly where it had been left by its owner, Sora found himself staring at it for a good twenty minutes before he tore his eyes and away and attempted to busy himself.

Unfortunately, Sora was like every other boy his age and therefore had a very small attention span. Being a Keyblade Wielder did not mean he was all that different from his peers.

His second idea for keeping himself busy was dismissed as soon as the idea entered his thick skull. Sora had been banned from cooking after last week's incident that nearly killed him. The whole mishap involved a Firaga spell and being in a house made almost entirely of wood. Surprisingly (at least to him it was), a lot of people were saying Hiccup must have had a hand in the strange occurrence despite Gobber the Belch and Astrid Hofferson's claims that the scrawny Viking had been in the forge at the time. So making some lunch was out of the question unless Sora intended to eat raw fish.

Sora's third solution to the situation wasn't much better than the last. The house was a bit messy, so maybe he could contribute and tidy the place up a bit. Sadly, carting the Keyblade around for nearly two years did not mean he had very much upper body strength. First, Sora tried to move the furniture around in order to sweep underneath them. This resulted in a lot of sweat, cramped muscles, and a bruise on his stomach from attempting to run-and-shove Stoick the Vast's equally massive chair. What the heck was that thing made of! Nursing a slightly sore ego, Sora then attempted to take a whack at the growing stack of dirty dishes. Three guys and two dragons living under one roof added up to a lot of filth despite the fact that any number of them hardly lingered there while they were conscious for more than a hour or two a day. Sora ended up giving up in less than ten minutes after melting down some snow to use as cleaning water when he discovered there was no soap to be found anywhere in the house.

The fourth attempt at a distraction came when Sora considering heading into the town market to pick up some fish. But Spitfire would not tolerate going out into the cold and Sora knew he was going to run into Tuffnut or Snotlout one way another, thus putting him in a slightly sour mood. One highlight about being allowed to stay in the chief's house was that nobody but their chief himself, his son, or his son's dragon were allowed inside to pester you. Granted, Astrid seemed to not know about this rule as she was known to drop by unannounced to check up on Hiccup. Gobber probably knew the rule existed but he blatantly ignored it in a similar fashion that his apprentice did when it came to anything even remotely dangerous to his physical well being. Sora had originally thought Astrid and Gobber were kidding when they teased Hiccup about his apparent clumsiness. Not even three days into his stay in Berk and Sora learned his lesson when Hiccup tripped off of the side of the stairs and landed on top of the older brunette. Bony body or not, a metal prosthetic to the back of the head was painful.

The fifth and final attempt at distracting himself was about as pointless as Sora's five second idea to make some lunch. It must have been a Viking thing or something, but Sora hadn't seen a single bathtub or bar of soup since he'd entered Berk. And, despite being a growing male of the human race, Sora liked to clean up every once in a blue moon. Some back home might say that this was because Sora was as at home in the water as a fish and being away from it for too long would kill him. Two years of traveling made Sora appreciate a good bath when and where he could get it. He could remember there was one time he got a shower in Radiant Garden. He felt like he'd lost five pounds in dirt and grime by the time he got out. But any water Sora could find was frozen and he doubted he had enough left in his current magic reserves to melt enough snow and ice to bathe in the large wash bucket for dishes. It would just freeze again while he was waiting for his magic to recharge and Sora seriously didn't want somebody to barge in while he was taking a bath on the kitchen floor since it was way too cold outside. That and, once again, Sora couldn't find any soap in the house. Seriously, was soap an unheard of substance to Vikings? After going so long traveling the worlds and fighting monsters, a bath was a small luxury that was hard to pass up. Sora was left wondering how the Vikings of Berk bathed in the winter and had no means of receiving an answer any time soon. He made a mental note to ask Hiccup about it later.

All of these failed endeavors lead Sora to his current position. The brunette was sitting at the kitchen table, staring down at the object of his mental tribulations. It was rectangular in shape, flat, and no thicker than his wrist. Its dark brown leather covering was scuffed up in places from use. It's binding looked like it could benefit from an upgrade. Inside of the leather covering was innumerable pieces of tan parchment that Sora had learned some time back thanks to Fishlegs was Berk's equivalent of paper.

Sora knew very well what he was staring at. That was the main reason why he was having such a hard time avoiding peeking into the book's contents. Once again, Sora wasn't much different from his male peers. But, in this sense, it was for entirely different reasons. Tuffnut and Snotlout didn't like to read. Fair enough. Sora wasn't a big fan of the activity either. However, Sora was also incredibly curious and therefor wanted to know what was inside of the leather bound notebook.

So what was the problem with sneaking a glimpse inside?

Well, the book belonged to Hiccup.

Sora knew this was so since he'd seen the shorter boy pull the thing out of his vest on a number of occasions.

The first time Sora had ever laid eyes on the leather bound notebook had been when he had allowed Hiccup to getter a closer look at the Kingdom Key - even going so far as to let the other boy hold it. If Sora had known any better, he would have concluded that Hiccup was potentially formulating some ideas involving the mythical sword. All Sora did know was that Hiccup had quickly sketched the Keyblade out.

The book had remained present as Sora informed both Hiccup and Astrid about the Heartless, Nobodies, Organization XIII, and described Radiant Garden. The pair had already seen his Gummi Ship after the rough crash landing and neither of them was foolish enough to think he was from this world judging by his clothing. Sora still couldn't read Berk's language, but he had seen Hiccup scribbling away notes on what Sora was saying, poking in a question every so often, and adding in subscripts to his previous notes here and there. Astrid hadn't seemed anywhere near as interested in Sora's tales as Hiccup did, but the blond did throw in a statement or two every once in a while. Most of which involved jabs as Sora or Hiccup's sanity, but Sora took it in stride and had to stifle his laughter at Hiccup's adamant injections that he was, in fact, in the sane state of mind.

Every once in a while, Sora would catch Hiccup pulling his notebook out and doodling away at something that had caught his fancy. When Sora asked him about it, Hiccup either became too flustered to answer or had somehow gotten Sora to pay attention to something else before the older brunette even realized what he was doing. Just yesterday Sora had spotted the shorter boy drawing again while glancing over every once in a while at Astrid, who was sitting next to him and sharpening her axe. Sora really wouldn't have noticed Hiccup was even doing anything had he not been sitting on the other side of the brunette. He was about to ask about it when he saw the other boy quickly sneak a peek at the girl next to him again before going back to his sketch. Now Sora was known for being slow, but even he could tell what was going on. He chanced a peek over Hiccup's shoulder to see what he was up to and, sure enough, Hiccup was currently doodling Astrid. It wasn't half-bad either. Far better than anything Sora could hope to do. Sora let the incident go unmentioned until later that night when he brought the subject up again by nonchalantly asking Hiccup if he had any issues with trying to teach Sora how to be a better artist. It wasn't until right before Sora was about to pass out that night from sleep that he realized Hiccup had successfully distracted Sora with the prospect of a hot dinner. And by that point the other boy was already snoozing the night away. And Sora hadn't seen Hiccup this morning so he couldn't ask him about it again.

Actually, now that he thought about it, Sora had seen Hiccup this morning. It had been when he was barely awake and the other boy seemed to be in a hurry. It wasn't until several hours later when Sora had gotten more sleep that he was able to piece together just what in tarnation had taken place this morning. From what little Sora had picked up on (and the fact that he'd been woken up a bit later than usual from Hiccup's occasionally violent stumble), Hiccup had slept in for some reason or another and was late to his job at the forge. And, in his haste to get to work, he'd left his sketchbook on the kitchen table. As far as Sora knew, the guy went everywhere with it. The idea of returning it to Hiccup at the forge had crossed his mind, but Sora feared Hiccup would think he'd gone through it after asking for drawing lessons last night.

Yes, Sora wanted to go through the book.

Yes, he was finding it difficult to stave off the urge.

No, Sora honestly didn't think he'd survive much longer.

Several minutes passed.

Slowly, Sora looked around the house, knowing full well he was the only one home. Well, aside from Spitfire who had recently decided that Hiccup's bed was far more comfortable than the horizontal roof support beam that Sora had taken to sleeping on due to the fact that heat rises was not comfortable enough to sleep on when Sora wasn't snoozing away. The little dragon was currently wadded up in a ball amongst Hiccup's blankets on his bed upstairs.

Satisfied that nobody else was around, Sora lurched forward, latched onto the sketchbook, and jerked back into his original position in five seconds flat. A wide, childish grin that spoke of the mischief to come was plastered across his boyish face. There was a twinkle in his azure eyes that was known for spelling doom when in the presence of the Thorston twins. A pencil fell from the book's bindings. Sora stared down at it for a moment before snatching it up and putting it behind his ear. Giddy with pent up excitement, Sora shoved the book underneath his arm as he scrambled into the living room and away from any windows. He plopped down in Stoick the Vast's humongous chair with a lazy plop, pulling his legs up to sit Indian style, and again took the opportunity to peek around the room to make sure there were no other prying eyes to rat him out. Seeing none, Sora snickered under his breath despite himself and flipped open to the first page.

Sora didn't know what the picture was of, but he thought it looked really cool. Since he couldn't read the notes and didn't have a large grasp over mechanics, there was no way for Sora to understand the complicated piece of machinery. There were scribbles here and there. Some parts were marked out with thick lines. In two places there were blown-up, detailed drawings of joints of the device with little notes written hastily next to them. Whatever it was, the idea looked fairly crude and old in retrospect to what Sora had previously glanced at.

Still, curiosity got the better of him and Sora flipped the page. The older drawing was replaced with more intricately composed 2D model of a similar machine. There were some obvious differences when compared to the previous design. This one looked more complicated and more refined while the other looked rough and quickly drawn as if the artist had wanted to get it down before he forgot about it. Made sense. Hiccup sure seemed pretty busy between the forge and people pestering him about his knowledge on dragons.

The first few pages continued on in a similar manner. Ideas for contraption of varying degrees of complexity filled the pages. There were weapons of different shapes and sizes mixed in too. There was a sword that reminded him of Cloud's massive Bustersword. To the right was some doohickey that looked like a slingshot for boulders. On the next page there was a bola with mace balls on the ends instead of heavy spheres. So on and so forth. Sora could only guess as to each ones purpose and marveled at how well each was drawn. Even the more hastily scribbled sketches were more distinguishable than anything Sora could have ever hoped to draw with either of his hands. One thing Sora had noticed some time ago was that Hiccup was left handed. Sora idly wondered if that was why Hiccup was a better artist; Sora wrote with his right hand. He'd have to look into that later and see what happened.

It wasn't until halfway through the notebook that the drawings took another turn all their own. Sora paused on the page before him, staring down at the crudely drawn outline of what Sora had come to know as a Night Fury. Its wings were spread open while its tail was splayed out behind it in a straight line. There was a smudge where the left rear tail fin was, like somebody had attempted to erase it and then redrew it on top of the smear as an afterthought. The image had no shading and did not show the dragon's four legs, suggesting it was an overview shot of the ebony beast. It wasn't the best drawing Sora had seen thus far and the page on the right looked like it had been put through a lot judging by the discoloration near the edge compared to the previous pages. It didn't take a rocket science for Sora to know that the drawing was of Toothless. When that realization dawned on him, a small, knowing smile played across Sora's lips as he gently turned the page as if he was handling a newborn baby.

What lay spread across the two pages before him now was something Sora was used to seeing and therefore recognized it without even realizing it. The difference was that the scribbles for an artificial tail fin were far from refined when compared to the current vibrant red one Toothless sported. And, much like the very first drawing, it just became more detailed as Sora turned the pages. Here he's spy an beautifully detailed picture of Toothless's jade eyes. Right next it he'd see one of the dragon's clawed front feet with special care taken into showing where the scales ceased and the monochromatic stripes toward the back of the limb began. There was a scar running down the side of the foreleg too. Sora had spotted a scar or two on the dragon, but never memorized where they were located. Giving a light chuckle, Sora's eyes roved over the next drawing. The highly detailed image of Toothless's wedge-shaped head took up the entire right page. There was another thin, gray line indicating a scar going down the left side of the dragon's thick neck. It had clearly taken a lot of time to draw and Sora was curious as to how Hiccup managed to get Toothless to sit still long enough for him to draw the picture. The idea of Hiccup asking Toothless to stop fidgeting for several hours made Sora give a hearty laugh.

With every page he turned, Sora found more and more detailed drawings of the impressive Night Fury. Here he seen Toothless curled up in a ball napping like a large cat. Just below that Sora would spot doodles of the back of dragon's head with the saddle directly behind it, suggesting it was what Toothless looked like when sitting on the leather seat. The next page or two would be taken over with elaborate depictions of colossal midnight wings and smaller tail fins that were no less important than the larger appendages. At one point Sora saw two images back to back of Toothless yawning with his teeth and one right next to it of him without his teeth. Another page was full of drawings of Toothless's eyes with his pupils in different shapes in sizes. There were notes below each, leading Sora to think they were character studies of what mood the pupil size helped convey. On another page there would be a drawing of a Night Fury in flight all by itself. Sora didn't understand the meaning behind the picture until he took a closer look at it. There wasn't anywhere near as much detail to it as there was to the dragon, but Sora could vaguely make out the outline of a person sitting on the dragon's back just above the shoulder blades. Even the clouds behind the pair had more details to them than the person's lone silhouette. The sight garnered a soft smile from Sora as he took the time to stare down at it for a bit longer than the other drawings.

A noise drew Sora's attention away from the picture painted in charcoal. Blinking azure eyes looked upward and crashed into vibrant greens tinged with yellow surrounding a pair of wide-set, seemingly endless black circles. Sora stiffened up as his own irises expanded to nearly twice their previous size. A gentle croon of deep bass notes helped the brunette relax as his racing heart finally caught up with his stiff nerves and frozen brain. It was all Sora could do to let out a quiet chuckle to help lighten the mood of his tense muscles.

For someone so big, Toothless sure knew how to get around without so much as making a peep. Or maybe Sora had been too engrossed in the drawings to notice the ebony dragon slither past him to sit on his haunches behind the humongous chair. Upon closer examination, Sora could see the dragon had his front feet hanging onto the top of the back of the oaken seat while his long neck craned down over the back to peer down at the book much like Sora was curled up on the chair's cushion with his back hunched forward to get a closer look at the pictures. The idea that Toothless was as curious as Sora was adorable in a weird way. In fact, now that Sora thought about it, this was closest he'd ever gotten to the Night Fury without Hiccup being present. Keeping this thought in mind and with a renewed smile, Sora got himself comfortable again and turned to the next page, being careful to keep the book's contents open and visible to the rooftop audience. As to why Toothless was at the house when Hiccup was still due to be at work for several more hours Sora hadn't a clue. And he didn't have the heart to question it either.

There were countless images of Toothless dotting the pages. At the sight of himself, Toothless would give the occasional attentive chirp in praise or a soft purr in content. He trilled happily and wiggled around for a bit when he spotted an odd mess of scribbles. There was no way for Sora to know that the jumbled mess of curvy lines that didn't match anything else in the book was Hiccup's attempt at copying down the drawing Toothless had made shortly before he first allowed the boy to touch him on the nose. Sora lingered on the page for a bit until Toothless seemed satisfied with his gazing to let the brunette turn the page without uttered a quiet growl of annoyance.

With only one third of the book left, Sora was more than happy to continue seeing pictures of Toothless. The dragon lingering above his head seemed more than pleased with how much of himself he was seeing dotting his best friend's little treasure. Sora turned the page and spotted something odd. Amongst the seemingly disorderly sketches of a certain Night Fury Sora spotted another familiar face. He had to stare down at it for a few moments before he realized what he was looking at. It was as crudely drawn as the first picture of Toothless. Sora glanced up at Toothless and noticed the dragon was also very interested in the new model. Quirking an eyebrow, Sora was ashamed to admit he couldn't make out much more than something thick hanging behind the person's head and something laying over the their left eye.

Curious, Sora flipped the page, ignoring Toothless's quiet disapproving snarl, and instantly realized just who the person was. Taking up an entire page was a drawing of Astrid from her waist up. She had a stern look about her and narrowed eyes. Her narrowed arms were crossed over her chest. A scowl was present on her face as her shoulders hunched up in what was likely pent up anger. Her brow was knit together in tight concentration. The drawing had plenty of smudges on it as if the artist had spent many hours trying to make it was absolutely perfect. As to why Hiccup would pay so much attention to an angry Astrid was beyond Sora, but he figured it must have been because the blond almost always looked like something was getting on her last nerve.

At the sight of the enraged Viking, Toothless quieted down, tilted his head, and quirked one dragonic eyebrow in a curious manner. Seconds later, the Night Fury uttered a deep laugh that shook the entire chair. Sora felt the bass notes vibrate through his very bones. In turn, Sora laughed along with Toothless, albeit his tenor frequency was drowned out by the dragon's deeper melody and sounded far more nervous than the dragon's obviously amused tune. Once Toothless had it under control again, Sora examined the open page next to the wrathful looking Astrid to find it full of notes. Most were either scratched out in deep, black lines or smudged beyond recognition. Not that Sora could read them in the first place. There was a series of six characters that were constantly repeated and every time they were duplicated they were left alone. In fact, they were the only symbols left untouched on the entire page. Sora could only assume the word held some deeper meaning. There wasn't a way for him to know the six letter word was a name.

The next page was chock-full of sketches and full on drawings of Astrid from varying angles. Most of her expressions were that of anger or of no particular aspect that Sora knew of. Here she wore a prominent frown for the entire world to see. There she was pinching the bridge of her nose in agitation. Over here Astrid was mid eye-roll. Further down the page the blond was pushing her bangs out of her face with beads of sweat peppering her forehead. Taking up a whole page was Astrid mid-swing with her trademark battle axe, standing with her feet spread apart and a determined scowl on her face. There were even lines trailing behind the axe's double-bladed head to show what path the axe had previously been on. Toothless gave a faint growl at the sight, but he quieted down not even three seconds after the sound started.

Taking that as a sign to press onward, Sora flipped to the next page. He stopped despite himself when he saw what lay before him. The sight wasn't unfamiliar to him, but that didn't make it any less unpleasant to see. Even Toothless seemed to be in agreement as he played a soft hymn that sounded far more forlorn than uplifting. Sora could understand why too. He wasn't present at the time of the event, but he knew enough to know why the sight would bother even the hardiest of men. There were only a few, but they existed in the book none the less. The lines making up the sketches were thin and fading, as if the artist was wary of drawing them and wanted nothing more than for the things actual existence to be nothing more than a bad dream. But the object was very real and there was no escaping it.

The carefully drawn pictures of the metal and wood prosthetic started out small, but eventually they grew and morphed into different shapes and sizes. Each one was different than the last and each was likely an idea for an improvement on the false limb. This one looked like it was designed with one of Toothless's massive ebony wings in mind. That one looked like it had a tennis racket attached to the underside of it. The one at the top of the page was a bit too clunky. The one right next to it looked like a chicken's leg. The one below it looked like a pirate's peg leg. The idea of Hiccup with an eye patch and Jack Sparrow's accent caused Sora to chuckle despite himself.

The prosthetic held mixed feelings for Sora. Despite having never even heard of Berk before the incident involving the Red Death, Sora still felt like there should have been something he could have done. Hiccup was his only friend missing a limb. He was less melodramatic that Jack Skellington and was in no way as vengeful as Captain Jack Sparrow. Hiccup lacked some confidence much like Simba and the Beast once had, but with a little practice and a few pushes in the right direction should sort that out in no time. Still, despite his eccentric ways that threw most people off, Hiccup was a good kid. His blunt honesty was usually hidden within his sarcastic comebacks, but it was still there. From what Sora had witnessed, Hiccup was as loyal as they come to those who would just acknowledged and accept his existence. So the idea that something as traumatic as losing a limb could happen to him perturbed Sora on some level. He wasn't naive enough to think that he could bring back the limb via a magic spell, but sometimes Sora wished there was such a thing if only to help his friend out.

Not realizing he'd wondered off into his own thoughts, Sora was brought back to reality when he felt Toothless butt his chin against the top of Sora's head impatiently. Offering an apology, Sora went back to the book. Random doodles came forth and continued onward. Mixed into the cluttered mess were sketches of Toothless, different gadgets, the occasional prosthetic tail fin design for Toothless, and other miscellaneous objects varying from the stars in the sky to the interior of the Meade Hall. At one point Sora could have sworn he saw a drawing of a crude Kingdom Key next to the rapidly scribbled effigies. The Keyblade had a page to itself and was covered in different doodles of varying angles of the supposedly fictitious sword. The page across from it was filled from top to bottom in written annotations of what Sora guessed where some of the things he talked to the younger boy about.

Giving an amused chortle, Sora flipped over to the next page. For some reason, what lay before him now caused the brunette to stare. He'd only seen it a few times, but the sight had never been directed toward him before. Come to think of it, the only times Sora had ever witnessed its existence were when Hiccup said or did something to earn the sight. Sora turned the book sideways since the image before him took up both pages. Had anybody else found the book and leafed through it, they may have seriously questioned the artist's sanity. But Sora could understand the desire to have such a picture of the person depicted on the parchment; it happened so rarely that sometimes even Sora forgot Astrid knew how to smile.

It was a near full body image. It started just below her knees and ended a little bit above her studded headband. Her hands were behind her back and not an inch of her looked on edge. The blond's head was tilted slightly to the left side, causing her bangs to slant away from her face to reveal more of her eye. The right corner of Astrid's mouth was quirked upward in a gentle smile that starkly contrasted with her characteristically fierce scowl. Her braid was visible over her right shoulder and was a little faded to help show that it was behind her. Even Astrid's sharp cyan gaze, which normally looked as cold as a glacier, looked significantly softer. If Sora didn't find such an idea odd, he might have thought Astrid looked beautiful or maybe even approachable. But he knew better. He knew that Astrid was an anti-social as a feral cat at a dog show and reserved her softer side for Hiccup and Hiccup alone. Sora had witnessed it a few times, but he stopped himself from saying anything for fear in intruding. Even Birdbrain seemed adamant on leaving the illusion of tranquility alone. And for some reason the picture made the brunette miss his shining ray of light back home. Sora hoped Kairi knew he was safe.

But despite all of this, Astrid looked a little rough around the edges. It was as if she had just gotten out of a scuffle of some sort. Sora wasn't sure if it was Astrid herself or the way she was drawn that gave her that appearance. Some of the lines were thin and obviously had been drawn with utmost care. These lines tended to be around the blond's face and the smaller details, such as the crease the corner of her upward turned lips formed with her cheek. Parts of her were etched out in normal strokes. These consisted of most of her outline and clothing. Still other parts of her were depicted with thicker black lines. Such marks weren't as common as the other two, but they were present here and there, most noticeably on her metal platted shoulder guards. It was incomprehensible to Sora just why some places required a softer touch and others were regarded with a normal swipe of the hand. But he had a sneaking suspicion it had to do with Hiccup's more than blatantly obvious feelings toward the blond Viking.

"Can't even be trusted to pick up one measly little thing, ya useless bag of scales!"

The threat caused Sora to freeze on the spot. He would know that angry voice even if it was screaming in a crowd at a rock concert. Toothless warbled above his head, clearly not intending to look away from his rider's little creation. Before Sora could even attempt to hide his blunder, the book was yanked from his grasp. Flabbergasted, Sora jerked his attention upward and did his very best not to reach forward and snatch the sketchbook right back.

But it was too late to even try. The picture had been spotted.

Sora had seen many pictures of himself before. But never once had the brunette been given the honor of being the subject of a hand-drawn image that had clearly taken a lot of time to complete. Or at least, almost complete judging by the fact that not everything was shaded in yet.

So, to say the least, Astrid's reaction was almost completely unexpected.

The blond was, at least at first, glaring at Sora for his peeking. But her icy orbs left his darker ones alone to examine the picture the book was opened up to. From there, her scowl only deepened. Sora didn't understand why. Then, as if an electric light bulb had gone off in Astrid's head, her frown left in gradual intervals until her face was nothing more than a blank canvas; empty of emotion and void of any thoughts. If Sora didn't know any better, he would have guessed that Astrid's mind was, for lack of better terms, drawing a blank.

A minute passed.

Two minutes.

Five minutes.

Sora lost count of time.

And he wasn't sure if he was seeing things, but Sora thought he saw Astrid's face change colors. Her usual pale complexion looked a little on the pink side. At least her cheeks did anyway. Now Sora was by no means a master in the ways of the heart, but he liked to think he knew more than enough to notice even the smallest of things. And right now Astrid looked more than a little the flustered side.

Slowly, almost carefully, Astrid reached up and gently dusted her right cheek with her the tips of her thin fingers. She ceased not five seconds after she felt the touch and blinked several times as if coming out of a deep trance. Astrid couldn't remove her eyes from the picture she held in her hand. A smile, small but genuine, pulled on the right corner of her lips. Her skull tilted to the left side not a split second later. It was almost as if she was attempting to mimic the girl on at the tan parchment. The blond delicately brought the book to a close and crossed her arms, holding the leather bound sketchbook close to her heart.

And Astrid remained standing there, softly smiling off into space and likely seeing things neither Sora nor Toothless could witness.

Then, with deliberate movements, Astrid brought her cyan gaze back to reality to face the darker azure eyes and almost alien jade ones intently studying her. Her grin left her face in an instant, but her eyes remained tender despite her stiffening shoulders. Toothless chuckled above Sora's head. It sounded almost like thunder to Sora for some reason. The brunette gave a toothy smile of his own as he slowly pulled himself out of the chair to stand up. Toothless could be heard behind him pushing away from the back of the chair to stand on his hind legs as he waddled over to get closer to the pair. The ebony dragon sat on his haunches again next to Sora and watched the present Viking with wide pupils and a tilted cranium.

It looked like it took some effort, but Astrid looked to Toothless with a disapproving frown. But, once again, the courteous look in her eyes betrayed her inner feelings. "Hiccup sent you off to pick up his sketchbook and this is how you spend your time?" The blond could only shake her head before she looked to Sora as if only just now noticing the brunette's presence. "And you're no better, you little toad." Sora could only sheepishly scratch the back of his head. Before he knew it, he felt a fist to his right shoulder that nearly toppled him over onto Toothless. The Night Fury grumbled softly in retort, but soon resorted to snickering. However, his fun was short lived as Astrid stood on the balls of her feet and gently swatted the dragon's left ear. Toothless stared at her strangely before he lifted his head up and out of her reach. From there, he continued to chuckle.

With an eye roll, Astrid turned and started to head for the door. She paused before she reached out to open the heavy oak structure to turn around and look back at the pair residing in the living room. "You are so busted," Astrid remarked flatly before wrenched the door open and took off into the cold outdoors.

Sora blinked stupidly for several seconds before tilting his head back to look up at Toothless. The Night Fury barely granted the boy a glance before he took off after Astrid, either purposely ignoring or somehow unperturbed by the freezing temperatures. Sora jerked to attention when he felt the dragon's tail slap against his hip, completely knocking him over. Scrambling to his feet the second he felt the hard wood floor beneath his palms, Sora bolted out of the door, slamming it behind him, and followed after the Viking and ebony beast as the trio cut through the fallen snow to take detours to reach the forge first.

Astrid didn't strike Sora as a tattle-tail, but this was Hiccup they were referring to here. Anything was possible where he and the blond were concerned. At least, from what Sora had observed anyway. They both acted just a little bit different when in each others company.

He didn't know why, but Sora wasn't the least bit worried about getting in trouble.

In fact, he felt a twinge of excitement that only seemed to grow as they neared their destination.

There was no telling just how Hiccup was going to react when he found out that Sora had peeked into his sketchbook. It would be even more difficult to predict how the blacksmith apprentice would handle knowing his best friend had leafed through the book along with the brunette. How the scrawny, russet-haired boy would take to discovering that his crush had seen the picture he had drawn of her was anyone's guess. And it was safe to assume that Hiccup would have a very hard time accepting their compliments on his artwork.

Oh well.

If you asked Sora, it was all worth it in the end.

Foot Notes:

• My second attempt at Toothless. Please forgive and disregard any weird mistakes or descriptions on his part.