Stepping out of the darkened hall, Hiccup had to shield his eyes from the bright sunlight. That barely gave him time to adjust before his friends came running up to him. "Hiccup!" Astrid shouted as she came to a stop in front of him.

"How did things go?" Fishlegs nervously asked because a few minutes ago Dagur had come out screaming his head off to his berserkers to get them all to leave.

"Well Dagur's deranged, probably killed his dad to be chief, at least that's what Alvin thinks," Hiccup shrugged.

"Yeah why exactly was Alvin the Butt here anyway?" Ruffnut questioned just how Alvin was allowed to be at the summit.

Hiccup sighed. "Because while they aren't an official tribe, the outcasts are considered a tribe due to their size and as much as I don't like it, even I have to admit riding dragons is such a big deal that it's only fair that the outcasts have a place to be represented."

"So what's the plan, do we take over the world?" Snotlout grinned while punching his hand.

"No! We just got through the meeting where we don't go to war. Probably, Dagur didn't want to stick around but, at least Cami here was on my side," pointing to Camicazi who was coming out with Thuggory.

Hiccup missed the glare from Astrid when the blonde wild child heiress stepped up next to Hiccup. "Of course I believed Hiccup, he doesn't have a mean bone in his body, he'd never try for war."

"Maybe not a mean bone, but what if this metal had a nasty temper," Hiccup laughed as he held up his leg to show Cami the prosthetic.

Camicazi snorted in laughter. "Oh Hiccup, that's so corny. You sure you didn't lose some of that brain of yours too?"

"Pfft, if there's anything that's viking like, it's my hard head, have to be with Stoick for a dad," Hiccup jested, inhaling deeply, Hiccup impersonated his dad while stomping around. "I used to break rocks with my face. I could eat a boulder with one bite, I was-"

The laughter from the teens drew attention from the adults still in the hall. "HICCUP ARE YOU STILL OUT THERE!"

That caused the teens to flinch. "No Dad, we're already leaving," Hiccup hurriedly said while ushering everyone away from the hall.

As they rushed down the steps away from the building, they started laughing up a storm, all the while Camicazi was shoving Hiccup. "Oh it's so good to see you. Best friends, reunited once again. And now we'll be spending all the time together training."

Astrid frowned hearing that Camicazi thought she was Hiccup's best friend, clearly she was mistaken. But before she could voice a comment about that, she was cut off.

"Training?" Snotlout asked.

"Yeah, one of the reasons the other tribes were concerned about us riding dragons was that we were the only ones," Hiccup explained as the group slowed to a safer walk since it was doubtful that Stoick could hear them now. "And it's not too crazy for them to feel that way. So if every tribe can ride dragons then nobody has to feel like they have to look to the sky every five minutes waiting for an attack that won't come."

"But the Outcasts?" Fishlegs questioned whether that was a good idea.

Sighing Hiccup pulled the lever to the academy gate once they all arrived at the edge of the town. "Yes, even the Outcasts. As much as I don't want it to be, there's a chance that someone on Berk is banished, it could happen and that person could be someone who can already ride a dragon."

"So you mean eventually someone from some tribe that can ride dragons would end up in their camp?" Tuffnut asked. "Man, I hope it's me."

That comment earned him a slap from his sister. "If you get yourself banished, mom will kill you."

"Thank you Ruffnut. Anyway, but yes, so I'd rather that we train an outcast to respect the dragons and hopefully that will work to keep them from wanting to use them for war," Hiccup said while Toothless came up beside him.

"You really think that'll work?" Astrid wondered just how much Hiccup believed that.

Patting his dragon on the head. "I know that I wouldn't want to send my bud here into battle, would you want Stormfly in a warzone?"

Astrid looked at her dragon while she was eating fish out of a bucket. "No, I don't want that to happen."

"So maybe it'll be the same for whoever Alvin sends. But anyway, we have to introduce the dragons to our new recruits," Hiccup clapped his hands and moved over to the dragons his friends rode.

"On Berk we have four common types of dragons," Hiccup said while introducing the gronkle, hideous zippleback, deadly nadder and monstrous nightmare. "Now it's a bit soon to have you get your own dragon, mostly because we don't really have a dragon ready for more riders right now. But we can take you on a tour, really show off some of what they can do."

"So… who's up for a ride?" Hiccup grinned at the nervousness being emanated by the two other heirs.

That lasted all of about ten seconds before Camicazi was hooting and hollering in his ear for Hiccup to make Toothless go faster. It wouldn't have been so bad but Cami was pressing herself hard into his body and at that moment he realized that she really was Big Boobie Bertha's daughter. "How uh-, how you doing over their Snotlout?" He called out to his cousin who had taken Thuggory, because Barf and Belch couldn't support three riders comfortably, Meatlug was already weighed down with Fishlegs and Astrid did not want Thuggory clinging onto her.

It helped that Hookfang was a large dragon and could easily support the extra weight.

"Doing fine Hiccup," Snotlout shouted back while he was selling the idea of riding a Monstrous Nightmare to Thuggory. Stoick had passed on the deluxe dragon before, but surely Thuggory would see all that a dragon like Hookfang had to offer. "And with a proper saddle, the warmth is beyond comfort on those high altitude rides."

"Do a flip Hiccup," Camicazi requested as she hugged herself to Hiccup tightly.

With Toothless and Hookfang taking the lead on the flight around the island, Hiccup missed how frustrated Astrid was getting.

Coming up alongside Astrid, Ruffnut told her brother to cover his ears while she talked to Astrid about girl stuff. "So, you getting mad that she's getting all cozy with Hiccup."

This sudden conversation was enough to startle Astrid. "Oh what, no, that would be. I'm not mad, just clearly this is a risk you know."

Ruffnut chuckled. "Yeah, such a possible danger, she might just suffocate him with her body."

This caused Astrid to blush madly at the idea now implanted in her head. "No way, Camicazi is just crazy. Plus it's not like they're dating. And I'm not either."

"Yeah… you aren't," Ruffnut realized as she looked frontwards at Hiccup's back and she thought about him differently. "I mean he's a really nice guy."

"Yeah," Astrid agreed.

"He's smart."

"The smartest."

"The next in line to be chief"

"Of course."

"He's really cute when he's sketching in his notebook."

"Oooh, when his nose crinkles up as he thinks," Astrid giggled softly at the many times she's watched him get frustrated and lost in thought.

"He wouldn't just make me a housewife to cook, clean and bear him children."

Astrid blush deepened as she pictured the ideal life of being a shield-maiden after marriage rather than just being a wife. She'd be like her own mom and dad, partners in the home and on the battlefield.

"He can see me as a separate person from Tuff."

"Yeah he doesn't get me mixed- what?" Astrid suddenly shook herself out of her own daydreaming. She looked to the side to see that Ruffnut was lost in her own thoughts while watching Hiccup. "Ru-Ruffnut!"

"Huh what?" Stammering as she nearly lost her grip on Barf.

"You like Hiccup too?" She repeated in disbelief that her only gal pal on the island was crushing on the guy she was liking too.

Ruffnut looked aghast that she was saying her inner thoughts around Astrid. But she wasn't a coward. "So what if I do?"

"Why not someone else, you know I like Hiccup and he likes me."

"Someone else, that's rich coming from Miss Perfect, why do you have to have Hiccup, nobody else good enough for you?"

"Good enough, what's that supposed to mean?"

"What it means is that before all this dragon stuff you were Miss Viking Princess, you could have suitors from anywhere, but me… I… I can't do this right now," Ruffnut's courage faded because this was causing her to dig up a lot of repressed feelings. "Tuff, we're going home."

Tuffnut was smacked out of his thoughts. "Hey, don't we need to-"

"NOW Tuffnut," Ruff ordered as she pulled on Barf's reins to turn his head back towards town.

Seeing that something was upsetting his sister and he'd be better off just going with it, Tuff shrugged and nudged Belch to follow along.

Astrid wanted to scream because Ruffnut wasn't staying to explain herself, but another shriek of laughter from Camicazi as Hiccup had Toothless doing some aerial tricks was enough to frustrate her into heading home because she couldn't stand the sight in front of her. And since they weren't officially students at the academy she had no business getting in between them to break it up. So she had Stormfly drop out of the sky and turn around.

"Hey, where's everyone going?" Snotlout questioned why half the flight team was leaving when Fishlegs, who had been trailing behind the whole time, and thus in the perfect place to hear everything discussed, came up beside Snotlout.

"Don't get involved," Fishlegs advised. "If there was ever a time to trust me, it's now Snotlout. You do not want to get between the girls right now, it is not safe."

"Is it a girl thing?" Thuggory questioned from behind Hiccup's cousin, Sneezelump or something.

"I think it's a crazy thing, but I also think that if we ask questions we're liable to get hurt," Fishlegs restated his position on this thing that was happening, he didn't really understand it and what he didn't understand he was afraid of. Mostly because it could hurt him and a pissed off Astrid or Ruffnut would really hurt.

After the lap around the island, Hiccup landed to see that at some point three of his friends weren't even there anymore. "Hey where did everyone go?"

Fishlegs nervously laughed. "Sorry I think I hear my mom calling, you know, parents. Gotta go, bye."

Hiccup looked at Fishlegs' retreating form in confusion, he didn't hear anything. Looking at Snotlout who just shrugged. Sighing Hiccup just looked at how Thuggory was inspecting Hookfang while Cami was practically vibrating from her high energy and wanting to fly again. "It might be a good idea to go back anyway, surely our parents are done talking by now."

Arriving home Ruffnut hurried up to her room where she flopped onto her bed and began screaming into her pillow, Tuffnut slowly pushed his way into the room and sat on the mattress. "So Ruff you wanna tell me why you're upset…" he rubbed the back of his neck, despite it all this was still his sister and she was going through some problem.

Ruffnut's screaming tapered off into a whimper, despite being vikings, with her twin she could be honest with stuff that she doesn't want shared outside the home. "I'll sound crazy."

"Sis, this is clearly a problem, just spill it fast that way your brain doesn't have time to trick you into stopping," Tuffnut suggested. "That's how I always talk."

"Okay, yeah." Sitting up while hugging the pillow Ruffnut took a deep breath in. "I think I might really like Hiccup and I'm mad at Astrid because she likes Hiccup now and if she tells Hiccup then he'll obviously pick her because she's better than me in every way and then I'll die old and alone because no one will ever love me."

She sucked in a huge gulp of air and waited for Tuffnut to respond.

"Wow, um, so that wasn't at all what I was expecting," Tuffnut slowly said. "So you like Hiccup?"

All the sister could do was shrug noncommittally. "Maybe, I mean he's a nice guy, even after all the crap we gave him growing up he's still our friend. If it wasn't for him we'd still be fighting dragons and then I'd never have Belch in my life. He's smart and cute and just might be the only guy I had a chance with."

She pulled her legs up to her chest while burying her face in the pillow. "It's just hard because for so long nobody liked Hiccup, Astrid was the pretty girl who could get a suitor easily, what are my options? I'm bony and dumb, and just so ugly."

"Woah hey, you're not ugly," Tuffnut quickly interjected. This was his sister, he might be fine with telling her she looked like a yak's butt, but it was a different thing if she was saying she was ugly. "And you have options?"

"Oh yeah like who? Snotlout, you really want me to try to be with him, you have listened to the guy. Who's to say that I marry him and he doesn't just keep me away from everyone just to put me in the kitchen. Fishlegs is too smart to want to put up with me and too scared to ever do anything, we'd never work out. But for the last year I've realized that we're getting older and if I didn't want to be a spinster, then I'd have to make a choice."

"But Hiccup?" questioning why of all the vikings she could choose it was him.

"Well yeah, especially now, he's so confident with dealing with dragon stuff and he doesn't you know tell me I'm dumb," Ruffnut muttered.

"Who's telling you you're dumb?" Tuffnut demanded to know just who to beat up for making his sister sad.

"Nobody and everybody Tuff," Ruffnut shouted before getting quiet again. "Come on, you know everyone, even the chief calls us troublemakers, they aren't saying it to our faces but we can still hear them."

"But Hiccup doesn't," Tuffnut sat and tried to think of the last time Hiccup said anything disparaging about either of them. About the only thing he could remember is whenever Hiccup is tired of everyone and just wants to be alone. "Yeah, I guess he doesn't."

"He's a great guy, he's going to be one of the best chief's Berk has ever had just for bringing peace with dragons. But now he's doing something that might unite the tribes and maybe I just realized that the one guy I thought would always be there for me when I wanted to is already so far away."

Tuffnut watched his sister sniffle sadly while she wallowed in her imaginary future life either alone or just as a baby making housewife. "So we just get Hiccup to see you instead of Astrid or Camicazi then, can't be too hard right?"

Looking up from her pillow like her brother had just confessed that he was secretly a dragon this entire time. "Just how am I going to do that, they're both so much prettier than me and smarter, they fight better than I do, just what can I do against all that?"

"I dunno, but what I do know is you have something they don't," Tuffnut smiled proudly.

"Yeah and what's that?"

"A brother who is going to help you," Tuffnut triumphantly stated. "Now it's the two of us versus the two of them."

Ruffnut wiped some tears from her eyes as she realized just how lucky she was to have a brother who always had her back. "Thanks Tuff, I really needed it."

"Anytime, plus who knows, maybe you repay the favor one day."

"Like anyone is going to look at that troll's knee for a face you have and want to smooch it," Ruffnut chuckled while tossing her pillow at her brother.

"Better than that pile of dung you call a hairstyle." Tackling her sister off the bed they rolled around on the floor beating each other up until they were giggling.