He was talking, but she stopped listening after he nodded in confirmation. It was Hiccup. A twenty year old version of a kid she thought died at fifteen. Astrid was stunned! Speechless! Was he really not dead? Was she hallucinating? Was she dead? Astrid didn't realize what she was doing till her fist made contact with Hiccups face. Hard. He hit the ground with a groan.

"What was that for?!" He yelled, rubbing the side of his face.

"Oh Gods! I'm sorry, I panicked…I…" Astrid helped him up. Holding his arm she could feel he was really there, he was alive and real and right in front of her after five years.

"Where the hel have you been!" Astrid started in on him once he was up again.

"Oh uh, here and there. You know.." Hiccup was taken aback by her anger.

"No I don't know! I really don't, Hiccup! We thought you were dead!" Astrid was surprised to see Hiccup look confused by that information.

"What? You though I was dead?" Astrid nodded, watching as Hiccup's face morphed into an insulted look. "What, you guys don't hear from me for a while so I must be dead? Wow, nice to know no one thought I could make it on my own!"

"What are you talking about? We thought you got carried off by a dragon! Like your mom did!"

Hiccups face went through a couple different emotion before landing on confused again.

"What?"

"I followed you out in the woods that day. You disappeared from my sight for a couple minutes, then a dragon popped up from a cove and flew off. In the cove was blood and your dagger! Then we couldn't find you after that." Astrid studied Hiccups face. He still looked confused. "We assumed you tried to sneak up on a dragon and got carried away. If that's not what happened then what did?"

Hiccup took a second to respond, taking his time to process everything she told him.

"I left Berk." He finally admitted, walking away from her to lean against the back wall. "I didn't fit in and I was tried of trying to please a village that didn't care about me."

"So, you just walked into the woods and never came out? How'd you get off the island?" Astrid now had a string of questions running through her head.

"I, uh, I had a boat." Hiccup answered quickly. "A boat I docked on the other side of Berk where no one could stop me. That's were I was going that day." He shrugged, unsure of what else she wanted. Astrid shook her head, trying to wrap her mind around this new reality.

"Why?" Was all she could ask.

"Like I said, I didn't fit in on Berk. I just caused trouble for everyone, especially my dad." At the mention of Stoic Astrid's anger spiked again.

"So you're plan was to just disappear on him? You though he'd be fine with his only child going missing?!" Astrid got right up in his face, anger seething from her at this point.

"What? No I left…. I left a note." Hiccup got angry at his realization, shaking his head in disbelief. "Did no one see my note? Did my dad think I was faking running away for attention or something! Oh, that is just like him!"

"No one found any note! What, did you leave it in some weird secret spot no one would find?" She yelled back. Hiccup didn't move back or look away like she expected, he looked her right in the eyes.

"No! I left it on my nightstand! I figured whenever my dad decided to look for me he would've check my room first!"

"He's been in your room multiple time and he's never seen it! Hel, I've found him sulking in there so many times I probably would have seen it by now too!"

Just like that Hiccups angry expression melted away, leaving behind a sad one. Astrid's anger also lessened. She could tell he just realized his dad thought he was dead this whole time.

"If I had known…" Hiccup trailed off. Sighing to himself, he backed away from Astrid and started pacing along the back wall.

"I though you all knew I ran off. I… I thought he never came looking for me because he thought I was a useless coward or something." He pushed his hands through his hair, rubbing the back. Astrid had to admit her heart broke a bit at seeing him so upset.

"So this was all a misunderstanding?" It wasn't really a question, she just couldn't believe it. They had jumped to conclusions and assumed Hiccup was dead, she never even thought about any other explanation for his absence.

"Oh Gods! My dad thinks I'm dead!" Hiccup was really upset about it, a worried frown plastered on his face.

"He'll be so happy to see you! To know you're alive!" Hiccup didn't look very convinced. Astrid grabbed Hiccup's arm again, stopping him from pacing. "He really missed you." She looked him right in the eyes. He needed to know she was telling the truth. That his father hasn't been the same since he left.

Hiccup gave her a small smile, but she could tell he didn't believe her.

"All of Berk has missed you. Really!" He rolled his eyes at her and she couldn't blame him. "We realized how badly we treated you. How badly I treated you."

Astrid couldn't look at him anymore, her shame and guilt going full force. He tried to say something but she stopped him. She had always wanted to apologize to him and now was her chance.

"I'm sorry." She started. Astrid looked him in the eyes. If she was going to apologize she was going to do it right. "I am so sorry for how I treated you as a kid. I never gave you a chance to prove yourself, or even get to know you. I'm sorry."

It was silent for a moment. Hiccup was thinking up what to say. Right when he was about to say something a noise caught them off guard as the the tunnel began to shake.

"What's happening?" Astrid asked as the shaking stopped.

"They're catapulting rocks at us." Hiccup answered. "Let's leave the conversation there till we get out of this." Astrid nodded in agreement, feeling stupid for forgetting the situation they were in. Astrid led the way out the door and over to the stairs.

"Not over there." Hiccup called after her. She turned around to see him picking up the pins.

"Where else are we gonna go? And what are you doing?" She asked as he started putting the door back together.

"If we leave any clues to how we got out then Alvin will fix them for next time. Leave no trace of our escape and we can use it later."

He finished putting the cell back together as another wave of rocks hit the wall causing another tremor. Hiccup waved her over to the next cell. He grabbed the tool out of her hand when she reached him. Surprising her, as she forgot she had it. He went into the cell and placed it back in it's hiding spot. Astrid picked up the pins and helped Hiccup put the door back together.

"Now what?" She asked as Hiccup stood up. Another tremor shaking the tunnel.

"The stairs lead right into a main hallway. They'll catch you quickly if you go that way. The opposite hallway is just a maze that leads to a dead end." He walked into the last cell as he talked, Astrid right behind him.

"This," Hiccup started pushing on the back wall. "is how I've been getting out."

The back wall started opening brick by brick. They were falling through leaving a hole they could crawl into.

"Grab a torch would ya. It's pitch black in there and you don't know your way around."

Astrid grabbed the torch on the other side of the hall and followed Hiccup into the hole. It was as dark as Hiccup said it was, but with the torch she could see they were in a small tunnel running along the back of the cells. She turned back around to see Hiccup stacking the bricks up again. It looked like he was struggling with the last couple bricks. She saw him wince whenever he twisted his body, and he looked a bit paler than he did before.

"Are you okay?" She asked, coming over to help him stand up. He sprung up quickly, ignoring her hand.

"Yep! I'm completely fine. Never been better." He said as he pushed past her. It didn't fool her, but she figured if it was serious she would be able to tell. Plus, he was upright and coherent so how bad could it be.

They traveled along the tunnel in silence. There were some holes along the way, even a section that was mainly an open pit. There were a few more tremors, but they got weaker the farther away they got.

"Why are they throwing rocks at their own jail?" Astrid eventually asked.

Hiccup shrugged. "They do it to scare us. To celebrate capturing me. Alvin must be away, he usually doesn't let them do that."

They came to a stop in front of a wall. Astrid couldn't see where else they could go but Hiccup was already climbing up the wall.

"There's a crawl space up there. Leads to a tunnel by their arena." Hiccup got to the top where he crawled over. "Leave the torch! You wont need it much longer!" He called after.

Astrid dropped the torch and climbed up after him. He surprised her by waiting to help her up. Once she was ready he crawled ahead of her. The torch she left behind shown just enough from where she left it that she could see when they started crawling away, and she got a good look at Hiccup's butt before it became too dark to see. Sometimes her and Ruffnut would rate the villagers, especially the guys, when they were bored and without thinking about it she scored Hiccup's butt a 9/10. Her eye's widen when she realized and her face grew hot.

'What am I doing? This is Hiccup!' She thought.

Still, she couldn't deny puberty had been very good to Hiccup. He got a lot taller, his jawline sharper, his voice got a bit deeper, and his hair! It looked so fluffy and soft! Sure, he was still a skinny, fish bone of a guy but it suited him now. He really grew up, and not just in looks. He was way more confident and could clearly take care of himself, since he had no problem arguing with Astrid now; not something he would have done as a kid. She started wondering what kind of adventures he'd been on, all the place's he'd seen. If she hadn't been made Heir she would have gone out on a few quests herself.

'Oh Gods I'm betrothed to Hiccup!'

That though made her stop dead in her tracks. For a moment she pictured her and Hiccup actually getting married! She never thought about it before! She didn't think it was an option before!

"You okay back there?" Hiccup asked, pulling her out of her…daydream? Nightmare? She was so confused.

"Yeah fine!" Astrid cringed at her horrible attempt to sound normal. "How much longer?"

"Were just about there." He replied, completely unaware of the swarm of emotions and thoughts running rampant in her head.

Astrid picked up the pace again, trying to focus on the mission at hand instead of the man in front of her. She went a little too fast and her arm hit his metal leg.

"Oh, sorry."

"Ah don't worry, that leg's gone through much worse."

Now Astrid's mind was swarming with the realization that Hiccup lost a leg! Dear Odin how old was he when he lost it? How did he lose it? Did Alvin cut it off? She wouldn't put it past the Outcast Chief. She was once again pulled from her thoughts by Hiccup calling out to her.

"We're here!" He called. She had been so distracted she didn't notice there was light coming in from in front of him. Hiccup pulled himself out and dropped to the floor. Astrid crawled to the edge and dropped down next to him, she looked back to see the hole they crawled out of was practically invisible from where they were standing.

"So, where to next?" Astrid asked in a whisper. She was on high alert, looking all around her.

They had landed in an intersection of three hallways. One on either side of the hole they came from and one right in front of them.

"Follow this hall all the way down, it will take you to the outskirts of the island." Hiccup pointed down the hall to the left of the crawl hole. "There should be a few smaller boats. The Outcast keep them there for emergencies. You go secure one and wait for me, I'll meet you there."

He started walking away from her to the middle hallway. Baffled by his plan Astrid grabbed his arm.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna let the dragons out." He looked back at her as if it was obvious.

"Why would you let the dragons out?"

Hiccups eye's widened in realization of some sort. He started doing that thing where he stutters and stumbles over his words. If she had any doubt about him being the real Hiccup they were gone. She has never heard anyone else talk so much while not saying anything like Hiccup does. That, and his arms were going everywhere when he talked, just like when they were kids. She couldn't understand anything he was trying to say till he ended his rant with 'I always do it, so..'

"If you always do it then wouldn't that just be telling the Outcasts you escaped, making it harder for us to get away?"

"Look it's just something I gotta do, okay?"

"Why?"

"Ahh… Chaos? Confusion? It'll be funny?" Hiccup shrugged, turned back to the hall and running away. Leaving her to go it alone.