Summary: ambition and stubbornness - two of Astrid's defining traits, ever since childhood.

Lady Chief

"The chief is the most importantest person in Berk", said Astrid.

"Most important", came a voice from among her small crowd. She saw Hiccup shrink in on himself, and there was no doubt about who had interrupted her speech. She clicked her tongue irritably, but let it slide. For now.

"And the Chief's wife is very important too," she continued, shoving Tuffnut with her foot since he seemed to be distracted with picking his nose. She wanted all atention on her at that moment. "So I am going to marry Stoick."

Protest and noise followed her announcement. Tuffnut perked up, forgetting all about the contents of his nose, which he was just about to glue to his sister's hair. "You can't marry him, he's really old!"

Ruffnut seemed just as disgusted as her brother. "He's like 100 years old."

"Yeah, or more," Snotlout conceded.

Hiccup looked at his friends and giggled. "He's not that old."

"I don't care," Astrid shrugged, blonde braids swinging over her petite shoulders, "I'm gonna be Lady Chief."

Fishlegs looked entirely uncomfortable and particularly pale. "You gonna have to kiss him. All that beard..." He grimaced, as if the thought alone made him itch. There was a collective, loud ewwwww from all the other children. Hiccup's face contorted into an uncomfortable scowl.

"No. No kissing." Astrid said adamantly, shaking her head with assertiveness. "Nobody is kissing me."

"Not even the Chief?" Ruffnut asked, surprised at her friend's boldness.

"But you have to – " Fishlegs began, his voice getting smaller with each second's worth of Astrid's glare. All the other kids' eyes were on him, so he felt the need to justify himself. "My mom says so... all married people kiss."

There was a pause. Snotlout snickered loudly, finding the idea equal parts gross and amusing. Hiccup just looked like he thought the whole ordeal ludicrous, while the twins stared expectantly at a progressively less-resolute Astrid.

"Why?" She asked, her small hands on her hips, but her intent was on slamming a fist on Snotlout's face to see if he would stop laughing. Too bad her mother had grounded her for a whole week, forbidding her to use the axe, just because Astrid had tried to cut Ruffnut's hair with it. It was so unfair. If she had her axe, Snotlout wouldn't be laughing.

Fishlegs simply replied, "Because you need babies." Another round of disgusted faces and long groans followed his suggestion.

"Babies are stupid," Astrid scoffed, stomping her foot on the ground with a loud thud. "I don't want them so I don't need to kiss the Chief."

"My dad wouldn't want to kiss you, anyway." Hiccup spat, his face twisted into a scowl. He got up just in time to dodge Astrid's attempted punch. She didn't bother chasing after him as he left, however.

"Nobody wants to kiss you!" She yelled at him as he skipped away, kicking the pebbles and sticks on the ground instead. "Nobody will EVER kiss you!"

"Fine," he called back, not bothering to look back at the group behind him, "kisses are stupid anyway! Girls are stupid! You're stupid!"

It was Fishlegs' whimper that caught his attention; Hiccup looked over his shoulder and saw Astrid sprinting up toward him, a stick in her hand, ready to defend her honour by whatever means.

"Uh oh," Hiccup huffed out before breaking into a run. He ran as fast as his little legs would allow him, his heart pounding in his throat, until he managed to slip inside his house.

Stoick was very startled to see a panting, panicky, sweaty Hiccup haphazardly attempting to shut the wooden door, his tiny body struggling against the heavy frame. He was even more startled when a red-faced Astrid came hurtling through that same door before Hiccup had time to close it.

"Wha's goin' on?" The Chief's booming voice had Astrid on alert immediately; she let go of her firm grasp on Hiccup's tunic, and watched him skip over to his father's side, red-faced and glaring daggers straight at her.

"Well then?" Stoick asked, alternating his amused glare between the two children.

Astrid swallowed a lump in her throat. All that beard… But everyone listened to the Chief. Everyone would listen to his wife.

"I want to marry you," Astrid said firmly, her eyebrows set together in determination, hands balled at her sides in a confident position, despite her ponytails being half-undone from exertion.

Stoick looked dumbfounded, albeit thoroughly amused. "Yeh mean Hiccup, don't ya?"

"No. I want to be the Lady Chief. Hiccup's not the Chief, you are." Astrid raised her chin up and pointed a bold finger at that mountain of a man, decided to make her intentions perfectly clear.

Hiccup grimaced, again, and put his tongue out. "My dad doesn't want to – "

"Just shut up! I'm not talking to you!" She raised her voice at him, taking a step forward with her right fist shaking menacingly. Hiccup didn't flinch, but his hand reached for his father's long cloak.

"Now calm down, children," Stoick said in a soothing tone, hands outstretched in a placating way. "There's no need for fights. Now, Astrid, why do you want to be the Chief's wife?

The five-year-old looked down at her feet, throwing her hands behind her back. "I want people to listen to me."

Stoick got on one knee; even so, his head towered far above Astrid's. "And why do you want people to listen to you? Is there anything you want to say?"

Silence. Astrid shrugged, kicking at a ball of lint on the floor. Then she said, "My family is brave. My Uncle Finn was fearless." She looked up and looked her Chief straight in the eyes. "I want people to stop saying the Hoffersons freeze!"

Stoick nodded; he gave her a sympathetic smile and a reassuring pat on her small head. "Aye, lass. I know you're all a brave lot. It took yeh guts to ask me what yeh just did! But, we're Vikings. People don't just listen to what yeh say. Yeh have to prove yourself."

"Even the Chief?" She asked, surprised.

"Especially the Chief! The leader always has to show tha' he's on top shape, an' his wife too. Can yeh do that?"

"Yes! I can, I will do that!" Astrid replied enthusiastically, confident in herself. Hiccup scoffed, almost unperceptively.

"Good! But, it takes time… and, yeh know, I'm too old for yeh."

"I don't care," Astrid shrugged again, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Stoick's booming laughter resounded in all corners of the house. This girl sure had spirit in her, that's for sure. "Yeh know, Hiccup here is your age," he said, pushing his son closer to the girl, with a hand larger than the boy's back. "An' he'll be Chief someday. When you're both older."

Hiccup, who had been relatively silent for the most part, immediately began to argue. "But I don't like her!" He didn't want Astrid to be his mom, but he didn't want her as his wife, either. She was so… bossy and loud.

"And I don't like you!" Astrid threw back, unaffected by Hiccup's spurning. "You're not even Chief!"

"But he will be, one day. He's my son, after all!" Stoick said with a wink, amicably – and gently – elbowing the small girl on her arm.

"NO!" Hiccup yelled, storming off to the outside of the house with a very dramatic flail of his arms. "When I'm Chief, I'll marry her off to a goat!"

"What did you say?" Astrid growled before pouncing after Hiccup, who squeaked in horror before sprinting away. The boy was small and skinny, but you couldn't call him slow.

Stoick found himself kneeling in the middle of his house, watching as his only son ran away from a temperamental little girl. He sighed heavily, thinking about how vivacious and determined his own wife had been… Then, he smiled at the familiarity of the moment.

He recalled a tall young woman with long red hair as soft as the summer air, emerald green eyes with a glow that would put any precious jewel to shame, delicate long hands that he wished he had never let go of.

The first two times he had asked for her hand in marriage, she too had told him she would rather marry a goat… but in the end, she became his wife; she was his Lady Chief.

END

I remember saying "lady queen" when I was a little kid and didn't know how to use titles properly, haha. :) I also had this phase when apparently I wanted to marry one of my sister's friends who was like 18 when I was five. XD