Astrid frowned to herself as she crossed her arms over her chest, leaning against Stormfly's leg. They'd been looking through everyone's house, a thorough search from high and low, and yet nothing had been found that even remotely looked like a fire stone from Hiccup's description. Family heirlooms that resembled jewels had been brought forward, even those that had jewels imbedded in them. The heat just seemed to be getting worse with every hour that passed, which seemed to set off everybody's irritation. Fights had broken out over the smallest things and they all seemed to have just about had enough of each other.

"Think, guys." Ruffnut tilted her head to the side where she sat on Barf's neck, draped over the twin's dragon much like Tuffnut was. "Who's house haven't we investigated?"

"It's too hot to think," Snotlout whined from where he was draped on his back over a rock. A familiar pair of boots came into his vision just then and he nearly yelped, meaning to roll onto his front but missing and rolling off the rock entirely, crashing into Hookfang's side.

"Hello to you too." Hiccup raised an eyebrow at his cousin, who picked himself up and dusted himself off. When he noticed the way the other four vikings were looking at him strangely, he frowned. "What's with the faces?"

Astrid pursed her lips together, wondering how to word things without sounding accusatory. "Hiccup...we were just wondering if..."

"You did something to Fishlegs, didn't you?"

"What?" Hiccup looked alarmed at the accusation thrown at him from Tuffnut, who was pointing at him as he slid off of Belch's neck, tumbling off in about the same way Snotlout had tumbled off his rock. His eyebrows raised before they lowered as he placed his hands on his hips. "Oh I see how it is. Your little friend goes missing and you immediately blame me."

"We're not blaming you-"

"Heck yeah we are." Snotlout straightened his shoulders, apparently feeling a bit more confident now that he had back up and he moved to stand in front of Hiccup, prodding a finger into his chest. "Where were you last night?"

"Asleep in my camp like everyone else!" he snarled, shoving the poking finger away and standing his ground. Hiccup growled low in his throat. "I'll even take you there and you can see for yourself. I didn't do anything to Fishlegs."

"Then how come Meatlug smelled him on you?" Ruffnut hated to admit it, but even she was more worried about their large friend by now than trusting an outsider. She crossed her arms over her chest after getting off her dragon, coming to stand next to her brother. "She came sniffing around the spot where you and Fenrir were after you left earlier and she must have smelled him because she went berserk."

He rolled his eyes with a sigh. "He asked me about the flora on Outcast Island last night after dinner and I was around him for a bit before I went back to my camp. That doesn't mean I did anything!" With the looks he was getting from the twins and his cousin, he turned his head to look at Astrid imploringly. "You believe me, don't you, princess?"

Astrid bit her bottom lip, chewing on it softly. She really wanted to believe him. Really she did. They didn't have much evidence to stack up against him other than the fact that he used to be an Outcast. Lifting a hand, she used it to rub at her temples. "I believe you." Her friends looked at her incredulously before she held up her hand. "Everyone's temper is flaring up because of the heat. If Hiccup says he didn't do it, then I believe him."

"And here I thought he was kidding when he said you guys didn't have much faith in him." Hiccup shook his head with a small sigh, crossing his arms over his chest. "I can see why if you jump to conclusions like this."

Ruffnut frowned, placing her hands on her hips. "Uh, duh, of course we do. He's the smartest guy around." She honestly didn't know what he meant by that. She had faith in Fishlegs - he might not be the best fighter and more of a pacifist but he was their knowledge source on dragons next to the Book of Dragons. He observed, Astrid put it into play. That was how they worked.

With a small sigh he shook his head before Astrid placed a hand on his shoulder. "What did he mean by that? Of course we have faith in and appreciate him, and if he was here I'd tell him that myself."

"Who knows?" Hiccup shrugged a bit, feigning worry. The last thing he needed was for these guys to get a clue that Fishlegs was on Outcast Island or that he was responsible for it. He raised an eyebrow. "Did you find the fire stone?"

"No. We checked everywhere in the village." The dragon conqueror sighed and lifted her hand from his shoulder, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "The chief heard back from the Bog Burglars and the Meatheads and they haven't found anything either."

"What about that old house out behind the hill? The one I've seen from Fenrir's back? Does anybody live there?"

Astrid's brow furrowed as she pursed her lips together. She looked at the others. "Did anybody check Mildew's house?" When they slowly shook their heads, she frowned deeper before she pointed to Snotlout and the twins. "You guys go pay the old man a visit. Don't antagonize him, just focus on finding the fire stone." With simultaneous nods from the trio, she watched them take off before she turned her attention back to Hiccup, a small apologetic smile on her face. "Sorry about that. I told them not to right out accuse you or anything but they..."

"It's fine." He shook his head and held up his hands. "Nice to know I'm still an outsider as far as they're concerned. And here we were getting along so well this morning."

"I guess the heat must be getting to them." She bit her bottom lip, gnawing on it before she continued, crossing her arms as she glanced back at him. "What...what else did he say to you when you were talking to him?"

"Oh all sorts of things." Hiccup shrugged. He'd have to pick his words carefully, considering she'd known the other boy all her life and would probably be able to pick up on anything he told her if she figured out he was lying. "Like how he felt underappreciated for all the work that he did, how you got all the credit for finding out new things about dragons."

"But he knows we split the credit equally." Astrid's frown deepened as she studied the Outcast

"Other people might not see it that way," he said, using his hands to elaborate as he started circling around her, watching her twist to follow his movements. "To outside islands, you're known as the dragon conqueror, the one who killed the queen and ended the three hundred year war. Stories about you say that you're ten feet tall with the strength of a dozen men. No mention of a diminutive boy like Fishlegs helping you out, not even as a page or anything." Hiccup tucked his arms behind his back, raising an eyebrow as he stopped in front of her and leaned in, smirking lightly. "I admit I was a little surprised myself when you stepped onto my stage and stole the spotlight. You certainly aren't ten feet tall, and I certainly wasn't expecting you to be so cute."

Astrid felt her face heat up at the boy's last few words, her face scrunching up a bit as she found herself unable to move back much without bumping into the side of a rock. She reached up to tuck her side braid behind her ear, keeping eye contact. "...You really think I'm cute?"

"Possibly one of the cutest girls I've ever seen," he purred, reaching up to take hold of her chin, his thumb brushing along the very edge of her lower lip. "And I've never really seen a lot of girls during raids." Hiccup raised dark green eyes to meet hers, brow quirking. "Strong and beautiful...you really do live up to your name, Astrid."

When his mouth closed around hers, she felt herself grow still, feeilng as though her heart was about to thump out of her chest with the way it was beating faster by the second. It was soft, chaste, both teens fumbling a bit with inexperience before he pulled away after a minute, tongue sliding out to lick his lips like a dragon that landed in dragon-nip. Astrid stared at him for a moment before she pulled her fist back and punched him in the arm, still flushing brightly.

He pulled back in an instant, hand going to the arm that she'd punched. "Ow! Jeez, what was that for? I was just giving you a compliment!"

"That's for kissing me without my permission," she snapped, pulling her hand back to run her fingers through her bangs, smoothing them to the side. Her stomach churned with unknown feelings, feelings that she'd been trying to decipher since their first flight together. Watching him shake his head with a roll of his eyes, she reached to take hold of his shoulder, leaning in to press her own chaste kiss to his mouth. He stared at her while she did it, because after a second or two she let go. "That's for...for everything else."

"Seriously, is it always going to be like this?"

She opened her mouth to respond before she was interrupted by a shout, looking up to see Snotlout and the twins coming back. Hiccup pulled away from her to go and stand some distance away as they landed their dragons in the clearing, but none of them slid from their dragon's necks and as Berk's heir pulled a gemstone from a small sack tied to his belt, they could soon see why.

The red on Astrid's face left as she ran over to her friends, holding her hand out for the fire stone. "You found it!"

"Mildew didn't want to hand it over," Tuffnut said as Snotlout tossed it to her, watching her catch it from where he was leaning over between Belch's horns. The male twin cracked his knuckles, grinning. "We made him see reason."

"I told you guys not to antagonize him. Now he's going to complain to Stoick." She sighed a little as she studied the gem in her hands, brushing her thumb over it as Hiccup came up behind her, leaning over her shoulder to look. Astrid glanced at him out the corner of her eye, holding it up for him to see. "Is this it?"

"That's a fire stone all right." He picked it out of her hands, looking it over as Snotlout, Ruff and Tuff high fived each other, earlier animosity forgotten. Hiccup handed it back to Astrid, nodding. "Return that to the center of the volcano and the threatening eruption should cease and the weather will go back to normal."

Astrid nodded, pocketing the gemstone in a pouch attached to her own belt before she looked up at her friends. "Get ready to go into the center of the volcano, you guys. We'll need flasks of water because you can bet that it'll be hard to breathe in there." She turned her head to look at him again. "Are you gonna come with us?"

He shook his head, pulling away. "I'll stay behind. If anything happens to you guys and the fire stone doesn't get delivered..."

She pursed her lips together. It wasn't a pretty image to think about but he was right. Someone would need to stay behind and help get everyone onto as many dragons as possible. "Right." She hesitated a little before she leaned over to kiss him, earning raised eyebrows from her friends and an 'ooooooooh' from Ruffnut. When she pulled away, there was an equally shocked look on Hiccup's face before she ducked her head. "Stay safe."

"You too, princess." He reached up to brush some hair from her face before he pulled his hand away and began heading to the great hall as she headed over to Stormfly, getting up on her dragon and walking her over to the other three teenagers.

"Well I guess now we know what happens when you guys disappear to 'train his dragon'." Snotlout waggled his eyebrows before he was hit hard in the shoulder. The subject was dropped and she kicked Stormfly off and up into the air, followed closely by her friends. They had a mission to do and they weren't going to fail.

Hiccup paced around the grass area just outside of the hall, arms tucked behind his back as he wore a ditch into the ground. Fenrir sat nearby, preening herself before she looked up worriedly at her master every now and then. He was certainly acting strange. Letting a frustrated noise leave him, Hiccup ran his hands through his hair, head tilting back to look at the sky.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," he snapped to himself under his breath, hearing a whine coming from his dragon before she trilled in concern. "This wasn't part of my plan. I wasn't supposed to...whatever this feeling is! I wasn't supposed to feel anything for the dragon conqueror. I was the one luring her in, not her to me! What type of spell has that blasted woman placed on me?"

"What woman?" Hiccup nearly jumped out of his skin before he turned around, sighing a little when he saw Stoick there. The look on the older man's face said that he'd only heard the last part and a small relief flooded the boy's body as the chief tilted his head in interest. "Who are you talking about, son?"

He didn't bother correcting him, instead he let his hand drop to the back of his neck, sighing a little. "It's not your concern but...Astrid. She kissed me and I'm...she did something to me!" He threw his hands up in frustration. "I don't know what this feeling in my chest is and it's absolutely frustrating!" Hiccup watched Stoick's face scrunch up before he burst into laughter, sneer curling on his upper lip. "What's so funny?"

Stoick waited until he calmed himself down, closing the distance between them and placing a hand on his shoulder, expecting the boy to pull away but when he didn't, he squeezed it. "You're feeling love, Hiccup," he said with a bit of a chuckle, although it worried him that his son didn't know what love was.

"Love?" His brow furrowed in confusion. "What is that, some kind of Berk disease?" The question just made Stoick laugh harder and Hiccup crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for his biological father to calm down.

"I suppose you could say it's a bit like a disease," the elder Haddock said once he'd cleared his throat, pulling his hand away from Hiccup's shoulder as his eyebrows came together in a frown. "Didn't Alvin teach you anything on that sort of subject?"

Hiccup shook his head. "He focused on making me a viking, a...a dragon killer. He said things like love was for the weak and told me never to fall in love."

Stoick's shoulders sagged with a small sigh, placing two fingers to his temple and rubbing it. No doubt Alvin had never shown Hiccup anything like love either. The next time he saw the Outcast chief, he'd be answering a few things for his fists in regards to how he'd raised his boy. He leaned down so he was eye level with Hiccup, giving him a small smile. "Hiccup, love is like a disease soometimes but it doesn't make you iweak/i for loving someone. It can make you stronger, give you purpose and fuel you in a way you've never known. I loved your mother dearly. I would have done anything for her. Climbed to the highest peak, fought Gods, heck I would have even gone into the pit of a volcano and taken a fire stone if she had wanted it so." He chuckled. "Gobber and I became friends because he hit on her and I beat him up for it."

The Outcast wrinkled his nose, lip curling in disgust. "It makes you sound like a fool."

"Perhaps." Stoick inclined his head before he stood to his regular height. "But there are some that say you have to be a fool to fall in love in the first place."

"So love is a disease two people share..." Hiccup pursed his lips together, frowning. It didn't even make sense.

"It can also be something felt between friends and family." Stoick placed a hand on his hip and gestured to his son. "I noticed you've been making friends with your cousin and the twins and the Ingerman boy. That kind of love isn't as strong as what you feel towards someone else like Astrid, but it's there."

He raised an eyebrow. There was no sense in telling him that there was no love felt or lost between him and the other four teenagers, all this considered. "And familial love? What does that entail?"

The chief paused, looking at the boy with a look of mild concern before he tilted his head. "Did Alvin ever tell you he was proud of you?"

Hiccup opened his mouth to respond before he closed it, eyes looking as though he was searching his memory before he glanced off to the side, looking as confused as ever. Had Alvin ever told him he was proud of him? He couldn't recall. "Never."

Stoick felt his hands clench into fists, but he was mostly angry with himself instead of Alvin. His boy had gone through fifteen years of his life not knowing what love was or being told that his caretaker (Stoick refused to acknowledge that man at his adoptive father) was proud of him, and all because he had followed tradition. Noticing the boy refused to look at him, he placed his hand on his shoulder, making green eyes look back at him, confusion evident on his face. "Hiccup," he started, lowering himself once again and taking hold of both of his son's shoulders, engulfing them in large hands. "I have no place to say this, but I'm proud of you. You survived, you adapted, you...you grew in ways that I could never have imagined a hiccup growing. I'm proud of you, and I know your mother would be too if she were here."

For a moment, Hiccup looked as though he didn't want to believe Stoick when he said those words. His eyes searched the man's face for evidence - of what, Stoick didn't know, maybe he thought he was lying - but when he reached Stoick's gaze again and saw nothing he closed his eyes, shoulders tightening under the older man's grip. When he reared his arm back, Stoick knew what was coming but made no move to stop him. The fist that connected to his cheek was full of pent up anger and hate - things that Alvin must have spent years cultivating in his boy - and the force nearly made Stoick move back.

Hiccup was shaking for some reason, he realized as he pulled his hand back to his side, clenching his hands into fists. He heard someone shout in alarm and lifted his head to see Gobber running over to them in a lop-sided sprint. His eyes still wide and wild from the confession, he backed away straight into Fenrir, who tilted her head down to coo softly and rub her cheek against his. Without much of a word and looking like a frightened rabbit, he turned to climb onto her back as Gobber moved to help Stoick stand up, blood and anger rushing through his veins too much to hear the blonde man yell at him to wait before she bolted up into the sky, far away from Berk.

"What was that all about?" Gobber asked his best friend as he watched the boy take off on the back of his dragon. He watched Stoick sigh, shoulders sagging as the years seemed to return to the other man's face as he rubbed the cheek that had been hit, feeling the inside of his mouth and pulling his hand away, looking at the blood on his fingers from where he'd bitten the inside.

"Every time I try to bridge the gap, he reacts like a...a caged animal." Stoick wiped his hand off on his pants and shook his head before he looked at Gobber with a deep frown. "Alvin never told him he was proud of him. I...I guess I was just trying to let him know that even though I hadn't raised him like I should have, I still was, and that Val would be too."

Gobber drew his hand down his face, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You're being too forward with the boy," he said finally, bushy blonde eyebrow lifting as he clapped his hand on Stoick's shoulder, gesturing to him with his hook hand. "You need to wait for him to come to you, and he will when he's good and ready."

"I certainly hope he will, Gobber." The chief lifted his head to look up at the sky, unable to see his son except for a speck on the horizon. "I just hope Alvin's influence doesn't run too deep."

Fenrir landed in a clearing just off from the camp, her rider sliding from her back as she tucked her wings in, watching him with a little concern. Hiccup pulled his axe from his back, taking a couple of skipping steps forward before he threw it at a nearby tree out of frustration. Whether it was at himself or at Stoick he didn't know. All he cared about was the fact that it was making a dent in the trunk and curing his growing anger and rage.

"You-" -thunk!- "-stupid-" -thunk!- "imbicile!"

Hiccup's shoulders were heaving by the time he was done with the tree, axe still lodged in trunk before he yanked it back out, breathing heavily and swallowing warm air as he rolled his shoulders. He threw his axe down into the earth blade-first, running sweaty fingers through his hair, body shaking.

"You can't afford to fall in love, you fool."

He needed to speed up his plans. And fast.

Author's notes: dun dun duuuuuuun. Don't worry, kids, this isn't the end of our lovely antagonist :D he's just dealing with an existential crisis and nearly BSODing. He'll be back to his usual evil self in a few chapters