I sincerely apologise for the relay again. Man i really need to stop starting every Chapter with this speech. As you probalby guessed, I hope it won't happen again, Next planned upload will be in two weeks, might be in one if I get it ready by then as a make up gift for this time and enjoy.

Chapter 16

Hiccup awoke, slowly realizing everything around him.

First he noticed that he wasn't alone in his bed, indignant from the unusual figure he was holding on to.

He took a deep breath, trying to stretch out this moment to eternity, intaking the peacefulness of birds and Dragons singing outside his window and the warm, but not hot air around him, giving the gentlest breeze it can inside his room.

Coming more to his senses, he took in more minute details and the memories of last Night, though his mind deemed the things right before falling asleep more important and pushed the rest to the back of his mind.

Focusing on the now, he felt Astrid's chest rise and fall with each breath and the feeling of her hair, which his hand miraculously found itself in after waking up, now fully let down. He had his head tucked under hers, and felt her hands around his back, which he was sure shielded him from every possible Nightmare.

As perfect as this moment felt, Hiccup knew it would end sometime, so he slowly backed away from Astrid, making sure not to startle her in the process and opened his eyes.

Regardless how often he saw it, Astrid's sleeping face was to this day the most beautiful thing he had yet to see, so he stayed for a few seconds, appreciating the beaty before him.

Her natural stern glance shied away when she slept, replaced by a carefree look. Unlike her normal passive appearance, that the world could throw anything at her and she would face it head on, it made her look more like even Loki wouldn't dare to play a simple prank on her, as to not interrupt anything she was doing.

He wiggled out of her hold and sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes adjusting to the dim light from his locked window and slowly starting to see the outlines of his furniture. Huddled in the corner lay Toothless, curled up in a ball and half fading into the shadows.

Hiccup took one foot on the ground and immediately felt his shoulder piece, retracting his foot before anything could break. He took a look at the floor and saw nearly his entire armor strewn across the floor and sighed to himself.

"This is going to take a while." He mumbled to himself and began putting all of the pieces together on his desk.

Only ten minutes later, he finally had all the pieces on the table and disentangled from themselves.

Before being able to ponder over the meeting he would have to hold this morning, his stomach gave an obvious sign of not having had enough to eat last night.

As he entered the kitchen, Stormfly awoke, having slept in her place as promised the Night before.

"Good morning Hiccup." She greeted while standing up and stretching her wings as best as she could.

Hiccup got a few fish lying around and gave the Dragoness her breakfast before getting a bread for himself.

"Morning." He answered between bites.

As always, the fish were devoured in a manner of seconds. "Did the sleep help?" She asked, looking up at Hiccup deep in thought.

Stormfly's question brought him back. "Yeah." At the Dragons nod to keep going and share his thoughts he decided having someone to talk to could help and Astrid and Toothless were still asleep. "I was thinking about the others." He took a moment before further explaining. "We know the Dragons were forced to raid by the queen, but practically nobody else does. For them, they spent the last two years rethinking everything about Dragons and know we get raided, which is the main reason Vikings began the war with Dragons."

There were a few seconds of silence before Stormfly knew he was finished relaying his train of thought. "That is quite the problem. Let's start small. Do you intend to tell them about the queen?" She asked, hoping that giving him decisive questions made it easier to think of solutions.

"Yes." He simply answered. "I think it's better, so that they understand Dragons are not the monsters they thought and even those raiding are forces to."

"What do you think they want to do then?"

"If they've come as far as I think, they'd want to help the Dragons and since they are still Vikings, probably by defeating the queen."

"Do you think this is a good Idea?"

"Of course not. Unlike them, I've seen the queen. No armada of Vikings could do anything against her."

"Does that mean you don't want to do anything against her?"

This time, Hiccup took a second to consider. Eventually he answered in a smaller voice. "We have to do something. We being raided can only mean two things. First, the other Villages are getting better at defending and the queen needs it's food from elsewhere, or second, the other Villages don't have enough food anymore to satisfy her. The first is way better for everyone, but from my trips to the markets it seems more like the second."

Stormfly smiled to herself seeing Hiccup once again got in his thinking spiral, tuning out nearly the entire outside world in favor of recounting as much as possible for every solution and weighing them up against each other.

"But what can we do? Maybe we can get the queen to abandon her hold on them. But I don't want to cripple any other Dragon like a did to Toothless" He grimaced a bit, still not having forgiven himself for that and Stormfly watched in sadness, knowing the Night Fury had already forgiven when Hiccup made it his mission to bring him back up in the air. "and we don't know how long we would have to capture Dragons for them to be freed. We could try to satisfy the queen without her needing to raid villages, but if she is as diabolical as we think then she would just raid and get our food." He went over the options and the Nadder could tell that he was getting desperate.

Even with his extremely pacific nature, for Hiccup to think about trusting the queen to hold her end in a mutually beneficial deal showed how limited the options were.

Hiccup gave a silent sigh. "The only option really is defeating the queen, but therein lies the problem. How do you defeat something like her. Nothing I know can do anything against her, except maybe anger her or make a few second long distractions until she destroys it. It's simply impossible for Vikings to kill something like her." He said decisively.

Stormfly saw the signs of his idea craze ending and decided to partake in the conversation again. "But What if it weren't just Vikings?"

Hiccup looked at the Dragon confused for a few short moments before the realization dawned on him and since this conversation began, he actually felt a little bit of hope.

"That might actually work. Toothless already resisted her control once, so we know you can do that under the right circumstances. If we have enough Dragons the firepower might be enough to actually harm her."

Hiccup swiftly stood up to hug Stormfly thanking her for the support and giving her a few scratches while he's at it.

He sat back down and ate a bit more of his bread, having forgotten to eat while brainstorming.

"Seems like you already found a solution for the big problem.". The sudden voice surprised him, though he immediately relaxed at recognizing Astrid's voice. Hiccup looked over his shoulder from where he heard her and saw her leaning against the side of the entrance to his room.

"You have Stormfly to thank for that." He gave a short indication to the currently preening Dragon and Astrid looked proud of her companion. "But since you said 'the big problem', what other Problems are bothering you Milady." He teased a bit, but instead of her usual small blush, she turned into a tomato and looked everywhere but him.

Weird.

"Mainly guilt." She answered shortly, having had a mental debate with herself for the past few minutes before going in the living room. "I can't stop thinking about what you said yesterday.". He gave her a quizzical glance, since they had a whole half-hour of conversation at least and a lot of things were said. "I knew about the queen. I should have done something. If I had thought of something before, the Karlsons house would still stand." She recounted the name of the poor couple whose house was the only one with real damage.

Hiccup sighed, knowing exactly what she was feeling, since he thought of that too. Astrid's speech in the Night was the only thing keeping him from beating himself up about it every second. How could they have disregarded the dire situation that led to the war and rejection of Dragons in the first place.

"The second thing is more related with the solution about the queen. How many and who do we take with us? We both have seen the queen, Hel we nearly died the only time we saw her. I don't want to risk any of the tribesmen near her, even with Dragons at our side." Hiccup smiled a bit to himself, not because of the hard question, but that he got to see the softer side of Astrid that deeply cares about her tribe and even more about the people near her. "And what if nobody wants to join or worse, they do but then get scared by the queen and aren't able to save themselves if they get attacked?"

Hiccup saw her going into a deepening spiral of what if's, going worse and worse with each variation and pulled her into an embrace to keep her mind from completely sidetracking.

The next time she spoke it was silent and fragile, almost afraid of what she said. "If somebody dies, then it's on us for leading them there."

Hiccup pulled her closer, trying to block all the bad things out for the time being. "They won't." He reassured her though even he knew there were to many uncertainties in the way. "I know you. You won't let anyone die.". This try was more successful earning a light chuckle from Astrid.

They stood there for another minute, Astrid trying to focus on Hiccups warmth and not on the possible doom while Hiccup tried to soothe her by rubbing soft circles on her back, knowing fully well the responsibilities and pressure that came with a leading position.

"Are you done with all the pep talk, since as far as I hear, half the village is already up and wondering about when the meeting is." Toothless interjected, having awoken shortly after Astrid and annoyed by the sounds from the village since then.

The pulled away from each other, Astrid blushing furiously, intertwining their hands to still have some contact. "You're right." Hiccup started, trying to hear the same things his Dragon companion did, but coming up empty with his puny normal hearing. "Let's get to the hall."

…

Only a little later, they stood in front of the booming doors, Dragons right behind them as the rest of the village was already assembled in it waiting for the Chief and Chieftess by everything but law.

Once arriving at the main table, they quickly gathered all the attention of the Village with one of Toothless signature roars.

"So. Many of you will probably question why we were raided yesterday when you have seen the good in Dragons first-handed for the past two years."

That earned a lot of agreement and surprisingly, less anger at the Dragons than expected.

"We." He gestured toward him and Astrid "know this may seem like a bit of a stretch, but you have to trust us. The Dragons are controlled to raid by a giant Dragon we call the Red Death."

This made the tribe even more confused as to what was happening, since nobody had ever heard of a Red Death and none had ever thought about the Dragons also being Victims when raiding.

"The day before we started out journey, we found the Nest in which she houses and forces the other Dragons near it to raid villages for food and give it to her. Barely any of the raiding loot actually goes towards the Dragons and if they don't bring enough, she'll eat the Dragon to satisfy her hunger. That we have also come to her attention means her needs are not fulfilled, which could mean the other villages are better at defending, but most probably means their resources are simply not as high as before."

Now if they weren't angered before, that certainly riled them up. There were going around angered murmurs insulting the queen in ways that'd surprise even the hardest Vikings, except nobody cared about that since they were too busy throwing the insults themselves.

Truly speaking, Hiccup was proud of the village. Most of the anger was sourced from the queen abusing the Dragons like that, a feat that he certainly did not expect from Vikings that fought Dragons for 300 years and just got raided yesterday.

"I know this seems bad and I wish I had done something before now, but I will not let the queen continue to demolish Villages and portraying a false image of Dragons." He announced, holding up his fist for added bonus.

The entire village screamed up for him, some saying they forgive him, others screaming their want to do something against her too.

"Me and Astrid have seen her and it was the most Nightmare inducing thing we have ever experienced," He explained, severely downsizing it, since nothing they had ever experienced could even come close to her in case of Nightmares. "so we completely understand if you don't want to face her. We will only take with us those who volunteer and only if they are safe enough on a Dragon since normal weapons can barely do anything against her. The only exception to those conditions are the healers, since they don't need to fly Dragons and fight."

He sent a short smile towards Heather's parents, since he knew they would come along to save anyone who'd need medical help but weren't too keen on flying.

"Now who is with us?" He asked and to his luck, nearly everyone either shouted their want to 'smack the big Dragon one on the head', raised their hands or both.

"Okay. Everyone who wants to fight can come to the main training arena this evening. For now, you can go over it and take the day off."

"Well, that went surprisingly good." Astrid said from behind him. She mainly watched from the sidelines as he gave speeches and as rarely as it came, she could see how perfect it is for him. Even if he doesn't think so, he was made for this and the tribe wouldn't work with any other Chief.

Hiccup looked back with a smile, also thankful for the tribe's acceptance and encouragement. "With that all over, we have about half a day until the first people should arrive in the arena. Any ideas?" He asked, anxious to do something other than queen related things since the raid.

"Don't you have any projects?" Astrid joked.

Hiccup smile grew a bit sadder. Truly speaking, yes he had. He still didn't fully finish Inferno like he would want to and even then, he wanted at least a small mid-distance weapon, since fighting with a sword from in the air can get tricky.

On the other side, in the past years smithing had become so easily that he barely needed to focus on it, leaving him alone with his thought and that was exactly what he wanted to avoid right now.

"I always have projects." He answered truthfully. "But we skipped on training yesterday if I remember right."

Now if anything gets Astrid to accept anything, the best way would always be mentioning training and this obviously stays this way, since her eyes grew a mischievous smirk and she already started mounting Stormfly.

"Does that mean you want to get beaten again?" And with that she took off before Hiccup could retort with one of his snarky remarks.

…

During the admittedly short flight towards their cove Astrid was practically alone for the first time. During the morning she woke up to guilt ridden thoughts about the raiding problem, the same she helped Hiccup push away. After that her entire day had been spent beside Hiccup and she couldn't let her thoughts stray from the topic even though she had to refrain herself from staring multiple times.

Even with trying to stop thinking of it, the past Night came back every time she watched Hiccup doing anything.

She simply saw him struggling and tried to soothe him and then right before dozing of he says possibly the most embarrassing thing.

'I love you'

Seriously, how could a boy distort her this much with three simple words.

Okay, maybe the words were not that simple, but still, this is Astrid Hofferson. She doesn't care if boys like her, so what was different about this. Every normal thing instantly became more intimate for her.

Lying next to him with Hiccup snuggling into her, waking up in his bed, the comfort hug and then holding hands, her staring at him while he gave his speech. In her mind, even the training that was about to come seemed more like him wanting to spend time with her than normal and messing her up and worse of all, she doesn't even know if he remembers saying that or how it impacts her.

"What's on your mind?" Stormfly sighed, feeling how tense her rider is and startling her.

Astrid looked down in the distance and with a bit of anger said the truth. "It's Hiccup." Shortly after, she realized how weird that could sound and tried to explain herself more. "When we were falling asleep, he said he loved me and instantly fell asleep." She threw her hands in the air. "How can he just do that. He can't say that and then act like nothing happened and now all of a sudden everything seems so much different, but not at the same time."

Stormfly grew a sly grin. "Maybe him saying that made you realize some emotions you have about him?"

Astrid wanted to start shaking her head at the idea of loving someone, but something inside herself stopped her. Would it really be that bad?

They had already said they loved each other, but never acted upon it. Even with the constant teasing from Cami, they had never had anything more than a close friendship. Sometimes Astrid even forgot she said that to him, since he seems so much different now. His feelings for her obviously didn't change, but what about her feelings.

At first, she really thought she loved him, since he made her feel things nobody else did and since she never loved someone in a romantic way, she associated the feeling with that, but over the time that lessened. She eventually learned it was more curiosity about him and his believes, since nobody ever thought the way he did and she herself questioned Viking standards and traditions sometime. Especially when it came to the male dominated fighting and incredibly bad cleaning system for Vikings.

But as she got to know him, the friendship grew stronger than she had ever experienced before and the quick hugs and cheek kisses became important to her to an extent she cherished every one of them.

Since she barely had friends on Berk, she thought that was a normal development for a friendship, but what if she was wrong again? What if that was more than good friends do?

Why do emotions and feeling have to be so complicated?

"So, any new revelations?" Stormfly asked, fully knowing Astrid had just rethought her entire history with Hiccup, relationships and feelings.

Said rider looked at Stormfly as if she induced herself and Hiccup becoming this close just for the sake of confusing her. At the look her Dragon gave her the anger was immediately lost on her. Why do Dragons have to be this sincere and nice?

"Maybe. But I have more important things to do." She said at landing on the ground.

Only a few seconds later, a familiar Night Fury zoomed overhead, doing multiple stunts, barrel rolls, twists and turns before completely folding in his wings and diving towards the ground. Shortly before hitting it and becoming a Night pancake, Toothless opened his wings to stop the fall with Hiccup jumping off him a second before the Dragon fully landed.

"Showoff." She scoffed, folding her arms before her chest with an exasperated face.

Hiccup knew she meant it lightly and joked back. "Hey, you have your proficiencies," He gestured towards her axe securely strapped on her back "and I have mine." He gestured towards Toothless.

"As far as I know, I did the flying there." The midnight-dragon countered.

Hiccup looked back, taken aback as if the Dragon said the most incredulous thing ever. "We did the flying." He corrected.

Astrid stepped in before a back and forth could start. "Now, did you come here for training or for banter."

At that, Hiccup turned around with a guilty expression and held up his hands. "For the record, you started it."

Oh now he was really getting it this session.

Astrid loved fighting and what she loved even more was letting out her anger on things through fighting, so it was expected that Hiccup would come out of this with a bit more bruises than usual for a thing he was completely unaware of.

Sorry for the whole lot of Serious Plot at the beggining, but hey we can't just have the good fluff moments. Also please tell me if the Astrid part seemed good enough. I tried to include the first two confessions in a way that made sense, but wouldn't make this one unimportant.