I'm baaack! As you can guess by the chapter title, this is gonna be the big one! I hope you enjoy! Next chapter out ASAP.

Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD. I only own the plot.

Chapter 9-Who Are You?

Astrid stroked Stormfly's nose, trying to advert her mind from her inured boyfriend. After Dark's heartbeat had slowly started to stop, she went berserk.

Yelling at everyone, attacking anyone who touched her, and hissing at the bystanders until they got help for Dark. Even after he was placed under the island's best healers care, she said nothing, growling at almost everyone who talked to her.

Once they assured her that Dark would live she finally calmed down, and her face's vicious expressions was wiped away, and a worried frown was etched on her lips. She asked for an update every hour and got the same answer: He's recovering.

She begged for more detail, but they refused to give her any. Astrid jumped as a wooden door was opened. Gobber came out of Dark's room with a small smile.

"Can I see him?" She asked, her eyes wide and pleading. Gobber nodded, and she let out a breath of relief.

Telling Stormfly to stay, she bolted into the room. Gobber had been the only one in the room besides Toothless, as there had to be a human guard with Dark in case he woke up.

He had been unconscious ever since the hammer hit him. It was basically like throwing a ten-pound stone at someone's head, which could kill a full grown man. It was a miracle that he was just unconscious.

Astrid approached his bed, Toothless giving a sad grunt at the sight of her. When she saw him, her heart plummeted.

His face was ashen and his skin tinted a sickly blue. His lips were an obvious light blue and parted slightly as if to say something.

Bandages were wrapped around his head so much that you could barely see his black hair, but it looked to be tinted brown considering all the blood that poured out of his wound.

His hands were resting on his skinny chest, knuckles white and raising with his chest as Dark breathed shallowly. Blankets bundled him up to his armpits and his head was laid on a thick pillow.

Astrid sat down on the rickety chair next to his bed, silently taking his hand. It felt like lead in her hand, cold and heavy.

She squeezed it, hoping to see some sort of alertness in the brave Dragon Rider, but seeing nothing other than closed eyelids and light breathing.

Grasping his hand in both of hers, she brought them to her forehead, tears trickling down her cheeks slowly. She lowered his hands and looked at him again.

"Hey," She said, her voice thick and cracking. "It's me, Astrid. I thought you would like to know that you saved Stormfly. They left her alone once you got hit. Thank you for that,"

Taking a deep breath, she continued with a pained voice.

"But why did you do it? You could've died, Dark. I know that you love dragons, but is this war worth losing your own life?"

The tears fell out of her eyes faster, dripping onto her cheeks in streams.

"I know that I haven't known you for long, but I feel like I've known you almost my entire life. There's this..this...familiarity with you. Like...I know who you are, but I don't know who you are. But I sure wish I could learn. So...please wake up. For me?"

Astrid couldn't take it anymore, she broke down sobbing. Before she completely lost it, she had to get the last thing she wanted to say out of her mouth.

"I love you." She whispered, the tears blurring her vision and masking her voice. Very dimly, she noticed her hand being squeezed.

Flipping her head up, her red rimmed blue eyes met weary emerald green ones. Astrid almost went crazy with relief, breathing rapidly and not being able to form coherent words.

His pale lips turned up in a tired smile as he gazed at her.

"I love you too." He breathed to her.

Astrid hyperventilated excitedly, and smiled widely at him. When his smile grew, her world was finally right again.

"Please?" Dark asked again. Astrid sighed at her boyfriend's antics. It had been about a week since he woke up, and he was getting more restless by the day.

"I already told you ten times. No."

"Why not?" He whined.

"Because you have to stay in bed until that gash heals up decently." Astrid replied, going back to her carving. She had found an unusual solace in carving since Hiccup left.

Sure, she still was violent and aggressive, but in her private time, she grabbed a piece of wood and etched shapes, words, pictures into the grains.

Her first piece had been a picture of the young viking-missing at that time-which she threw into the ocean once he was pronounced dead. To say the least, it made her feel guilty whenever she looked at it.

Right now, she was working on a carving of Toothless. He had fallen asleep on the floor, and Astrid was trying to preserve how cute and harmless he looked.

As she was digging her dagger into the wood to outline his head, Dark interrupted her.

"What happened to the blacksmith's apprentice?" Dark asked out of the blue.

"What?" Astrid said.

"When you gave me a tour of Berk, you told me that the blacksmith's apprentice had died. How?"

"Well," Astrid said, putting her wood and knife down. "His name was Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. He was the village embarrassment, but you'll never guess his father."

"Gobber?"

"No; Stoick. His father was the chief of the village. When Hiccup was born, he was so small and they thought he wouldn't live, but he did. Sometimes I wondered if his father wished he didn't."

"Why?"

"Because he was one of the worst vikings ever seen. He messed up dragon attacks, and practically everything else. When he was five, Stoick put him as Gobber's apprentice in hopes that he would become stronger and more interested in killing dragons, but his hopes were destroyed. He was scrawny, weak, scared, but smart. He possibly was one of the smartest vikings.

One raid, he claimed to shoot down a Night Fury, but no one believed him. A few days after, Hiccup was put in dragon training with me, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the twins. No one thought he would make it though, but surprisingly, he was one of the best after a few days.

He drove a Zippleback away by just telling it too, took down a Gronckle with a stiff arm, a Nadder with no weapon, and drove a Terror back into its cage with a shield. He became the best in the ring.

I'll admit it; I was jealous of him. Before Hiccup started to show skill, I was the best. He weaseled his way into my spot and was chosen to kill the Monstrous Nightmare, an honor which I thought I should've had.

I got it in the end, because later that day, Hiccup disappeared. He left nothing but a note for us to try and track him. We couldn't find him at all, and he was proclaimed dead. Stoick never healed from the heartbreak that Hiccup left him."

"What about Hiccup's mother?"

"Dead. She was taken away by a dragon, when Hiccup was a baby, and killed. Stoick was all he had, and Hiccup was all Stoick had. He's still a good chief, but he's more of a shell than a viking.

Even worse, he refuses to pick a successor for Berk. If a successor is not chosen before Stoick dies, war breaks out. Gobber also refuses to take on a new apprentice. He comments all the time how hard the work is without Hiccup, but he never mentions getting an apprentice.

Gobber was possibly his only friend, and he was basically a father to Hiccup. Stoick was never fatherly towards Hiccup until he started to show skill in dragon training. And that is who Gobber's apprentice was." Astrid finished her story.

She had been watching Dark's face throughout the story. It was mostly stuck in a mad frown, but when Gobber was mentioned, he smiled a little.

When Stoick was mentioned, his face seemed to darken, which is quite unlike when she described how Hiccup took down the dragons, which made his face light up like the sun.

"Wow. That must've been hard for him." Dark mused.

"I don't know." Astrid admitted. She picked her carving back up, but Dark beat her too it.

"Let's go outside now."

"No."

"But you said that it would be only three days until I could get up," He countered. "It's been a week." Astrid sighed, but put her wood to the side again.

"Let me change your bandage, then we can go outside. Get dressed while I get the stuff." She said as a compromise. She laid a pair of clothes on Dark's bed and left the room to let him dress in peace.

Wetting the rag she had, she found the roll of bandages that Gothi had left. She wrung the rag out and walked back to Dark's room. She knocked on the door.

"Can I come in?" She asked.

"Yeah." Came the muffled reply. Opening the door, she saw Dark dressed in an light green tunic and brown pants. Seeing him that way reminded her of Hiccup.

In fact, the two looked like they could be brothers. Astrid saw the same nose, the same face shape, the same floppy hair, and the same lean build. She frowned at the thought, but quickly put on a smile and walked over to him.

He looked very uncomfortable in the clothing, but they looked like they fit him perfectly, so Astrid wondered what made him so on edge.

"Sit down please," She said. He obliged and she sat next to him. "Can you turn your head toward me?" She asked, which he obeyed.

She gently unwrapped the bloody bandage, taking care to look at his face, watching for glimpses of pain. His face was stoned while she took the soiled white strips off his head.

The previously bloodied gash was now skinned over with a smooth white scab, not yet hardened enough to become black. The outline of the soon-to-be scar was deep red, showing that it was still sensitive.

Otherwise, it looked good. The healers told her to look out for yellow and green coloring, big lumps in the scab, and non-stop bleeding. (A/N I have no idea if this is back, but it sounds bad to me. I haven't had enough injuries to tell you, so do not look to this for advice)

"It looks good," She commented, grabbing the wet rag. "Let me just wash the dried blood off your hair, rewrap your head and then we'll be off."

She carefully dabbed the scar, taking off some dried blood, and then started to gently scrub his hair. When she took off the rag to rub at some other spots, she realized that her rag was not only colored a dark red, but also a midnight black.

The same color as Dark's hair.

Her heart started to race nervously, and she lifted her eyes to his head.

The place where she had cleaned off the dried blood was no longer a pure black, but a playful auburn.

She stood up abruptly and exited the room, saying that she needed to wet the rag again. She stopped in the hallway, sliding her back down the wall. She felt tears start to slip out of her eyes.

Dark's hair was not black, but auburn.

He had been disguising his true hair color, but why? She already knew the answer, but didn't want to admit it to herself.

Despite what she wanted, she had to come to terms with the answer: He was trying to hide who he really was. The thought burned her heart; she had fallen in love with a fake.

She raked her mind for people who wouldn't want to be found. The only option that came up ... was Hiccup.

They never saw him leave on a boat, which could only mean that he never left Berk. He claimed to have shot down a Night Fury, which could very well be Toothless. That might be the reason Toothless had a prosthetic tail!

The similarities she spotted between Hiccup and Dark were now very apparently real. That's why he looked so uncomfortable in the clothing. It was almost identical to what Hiccup wore before he disappeared.

Dark being Hiccup would also explain his interest in the blacksmith's apprentice that Astrid mentioned. Most people would shrug it off, but it stuck in his head.

If what Astrid thought was true, then that means that Dark lied when he answered the questions. Astrid touched her cheeks to find them wet with tears. She quickly wiped them away and stood up.

If she was to prove this, she had to know for sure. Walking briskly to the bathroom, a plan brewed. She wet the rag, soaking it with cold water, but making sure that she didn't ring it out.

She walked back to Dark's room to see her boyfriend sitting on the bed, staring out the window. Her chest tightened when she realized that if Dark was Hiccup, that means she fell in love with a traitor, an outcast.

She forced a smile on her face and sat down beside Dark.

"Okay. Let me just get this one spot, and we'll go." Astrid said, pressuring her voice to stay calm. Dark nodded mutely, seeming to be in deep thought.

She took a deep breath and held the rag above his head. Stretching it out and folding it, she positioned it above the crown of his head.

With one fluid movement, she wrung it out, cold water pouring down onto Dark's head. He jumped up and whipped around to face Astrid, weak fury in his eyes.

"What in the name of Thor was that for?" He yelled, shaking his head furiously. Astrid watched in pure horror as the black in his hair slid out, revealing a lovely auburn.

When Dark brought his eyes to hers, she could see that he was frightened. Astrid pointed a shaking finger at him, scared to use her voice, but forcing sound to come out of her dry throat.

"It is you." She whispered. Dark adverted his eyes, sighing. When he lifted his eyes again, she saw pain and regret in them.

"I was beginning to wonder when you would figure it out," He mumbled painfully,

"You guessed it," He straightened, showing off his tall build,

"I'm not Dark Ness." He took a breath,

"I am Hiccup."

"But...but you...you're dead." Astrid countered, her voice shaking. Hiccup sighed and walked over to the closet. He grabbed a towel and started to dry his hair, taking off even more of the black coloring.

"We need to talk," He said, shaking his head slightly. "Please sit down." Hiccup sat down on the side of the bed, and Astrid sat down next to him.

"Why did you lie to me?" She asked, tears starting to fall again on her cheeks.

"Because I couldn't trust you," Hiccup replied. "I was gone for five years, and I had no idea if you had changed. I didn't think it at first, cause you were the one to shoot me and Toothless down.

However, all my thoughts on you changed when you volunteered to be my chaperone. I thought that you wouldn't give me the time of day, but then you decided you wanted to be around me all day. It was shocking to say the least."

Astrid looked away, her face wet and gleaming.

"Who are you?" She said, straining the small, but powerful words.

"I don't even know," Hiccup sighed. "Sometimes I think that I'm a traitor to Berk, and other times, I think I'm the only future of it."

"Start at the beginning," Astrid decided. "Start from when you left Berk."

Hiccup took a deep breath, and started his story.

"I had to get away. I couldn't take it anymore; Toothless being my best friend and me going to be forced to kill a dragon. I just could not do it, so I left with Toothless. When me and Toothless left, we flew south of Berk, hoping to find some sort of shelter or village where we would be nameless strangers. What we found was ten times better than that."

"Let me guess: the dragon nest?"

"Close. My mother."

Astrid looked at Hiccup as if he'd grown a third head.

"But ... your mother died when you were a baby. Everyone knows that story. It was the first thing that broke the chief. He was okay because he had you, but when you left? He kept on being a chief to Berk, yet ... he never was the same. He isolated himself from us, almost as if his heartbreak was contagious." Astrid said; her voice catching in her throat.

Hiccup almost couldn't continue with his monologue, but he knew that he had to; for Astrid.

Forcing sounds to try and come out of his choked up throat made his words sound raw and slurred. Nevertheless, it wasn't the sound effects that Astrid wanted, but the truth, and Hiccup had to give it to her.

"Contrary to popular belief, my mom isn't dead. She was carried off by a giant four-winged dragon that night, never killed. Because of vikings' hatred of dragons, it was immediately assumed that my mother was killed, yet she never was.

My mom never wanted to kill the dragons due to the fact that she thought dragons weren't bad creatures. She was right, which was only proved by the fact that the dragon didn't kill her.

She named him, befriended him, and he became part of her family. Me and Toothless were flying, when some dragon kidnapped me. They flew me to a giant gray mountain almost completely covered in ginormous blue-green ice spikes. They entered into a dark cavern, and I asked where my dragon was.

Some dragons had taken Toothless to the cavern, and they dropped him at my feet. I tried to tame one of the feisty dragons when she approached me and Toothless. She made Toothless roll over and almost touched my face, but she stopped short and gasped.

Retreating, she said my name. I asked how she knew my name, and if I should know her. She said that I shouldn't, but a mother never forgets."

"Wow." Astrid breathed; her lips parted slightly in shock.

"Yeah. Anyway she started to run away, with me following her. While I was firing multiple questions at her, she just climbed and ran to the inner nest. When I saw it, it blew me away. She gave me a tour, and asked if I wanted to stay." "

Kinda forward wasn't it?"

"I hadn't seen my mom since I was three years old. It doesn't seem forward to me."

"Right. Carry on."

"I stayed at the nest, getting to know my mom, and learn all she knew about dragons. Eventually, I was getting real worried for the dragons, as more and more were being taken by the old queen. I decided to take matters into my own hands; I attacked with Toothless.

That's how I lost my leg. I won, but I paid the price. Luckily, there had been a sick Gronckle earlier, because she'd ate too much food. When she vomited, it was an odd lava. However when you pound it and cool it, it becomes the strongest, lightest, best metal anyone ever found.

We call it Gronckle Iron, and I had stored up on it. We had some left over thankfully, and used that to make my leg. That was three years ago.

I had modified Toothless's saddle so we could still fly, and my life was perfect. Until me and Toothless were flying around, to see a village being attacked.

I naturally worried for the dragons, but weirdly, I felt a connection to the rocky island so I tried to drive them away, but you shot me down, and here we are."

"Here we are," Astrid said, looking away. "But where is that?"

"I have no idea," Hiccup admitted, feeling tears coming on. "Everything I did was for myself. The whole reason I wanted to go to my nest was to tell my mom where I was."

"But she wasn't there."

"She is on a month-long trip; now with about one week left. I needed to leave a note for her so she wouldn't go all war on my captors."

"So the bed I slept on wasn't for strangers?"

"Nope. It's my mom's bed. I left her a note before we left. I'm a selfish, idiotic, horrible coward."

"No you're not!" Astrid said, jumping up. Hiccup forced himself to meet her eyes, and what he saw scared him. Her crystal eyes blazed with fury, and her muscles were set tensely.

"You are an amazing person."

"How can I be? I lied to everyone, including my father and you. I don't understand how you can even stand me." Hiccup said, looking away again.

He focused on the bright blue sky and the fiery sun, knowing that it might very well be the last time he sees them. He could be killed for his lies, or at the least, thrown in jail. He heard Astrid sigh and sit down next to him.

"Can you look at me?" She asked softly. Tearing himself away from the sky, he met Astrid's eyes with a scared mind. Her eyes had softened and they held compassion and ... love?

Why would she love him? He's an abomination. He's back to being Hiccup the Useless. Sad as it was, he knew that that weak coward had never left.

"You are compassionate, trustworthy, intelligent, courageous, amazing hero."

"How?"

"When you shot down Toothless, you shot off his tail I presume?" Hiccup nodded, wincing as Toothless grumbled unhappily from his perch in the corner of the room. He hated that subject being brought up.

"You didn't kill him like anyone else would. You set him free and gained his trust. You built a brand new tail for him so he could fly, and in return, he let you be the one to help him fly. You became best friends with what everyone else sees as an untamable beast. You are amazingly compassionate.

As for trustworthy, the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself let you become his best friend.

Not just anybody could build a tail-fin for a dragon, a prosthetic leg for themselves, or everything else you built."

"What about being courageous?"

"You defeated the queen with nobody but Toothless by your side! I'd call that being pretty courageous and heroic." Astrid exclaimed, smiling warmly at Hiccup.

"Do you really see me that way?" Hiccup asked; his voice small and weak.

"Yes. That's why I fell in love with you," Astrid whispered; love oozing out of her soft voice. Hiccup brought his eyes to hers. Amazed green met loving blue.

"I love you ... Hiccup." Astrid said.

Hiccup found himself smiling at her words. He folded his arms around her and she wrapped her own arms around his waist.

They pulled each other close so that there was no space between them. Astrid buried her face in Hiccup's chest, and Hiccup rested his head on her soft hair.

"I love you too ... Astrid." He whispered, kissing her hair.

"Ya know," Astrid started, her voice slightly muffled by Hiccup's tunic. "You still have to talk to Stoick."

"For what?"

"To get him to agree to let you help the village train dragons." Hiccup froze, but relaxed soon.

"Alright. We'll talk to him tomorrow. Meanwhile, you promised me a trip outside."

Astrid laughed and pulled back from the hug. She gazed lovingly at him, and touched his drying hair.

"Okay, but we need to cover your hair back up."

Hiccup looked at her, dumbfounded.

"You're not gonna tell?"

Astrid smirked at him, holding out her pinky.

"I won't if you won't." Hiccup bit back a laugh and wrapped his own pinky around Astrid's.

"Deal."

Cats out of the bag now! This was by far the longest chapter I've written.

Most others had been about 2,000 words, and if they were short, 1,000. This one was ... drumroll please ... (Please do a drumroll for about five seconds) 4,000!

Twice as much as I usually write! You're welcome! The next chapter might come out a little slow, but I promise it won't be that long.

Review please. They make my day! I love reading them.

BookLover86, Out! ;)