Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; if you're on this site, you know the drill. Also, thanks are owed to athingofvikings, who gave me a much-appreciated sounding-board for a few aspects of my planned world-building for this particular crossover; hope you like it.

Feedback: Appreciated as always.

The Dragon of Wanheda

Watching Hiccup work away at the metal they'd retrieved from Arrow Station in his forge, Clarke wished that she'd taken the time to learn more about the grounders dealt with that kind of work before she'd left Camp Jaha.

Frankly, when she looked back, she was ashamed to realise that she'd spent so much of her time associating with the grounders thinking of them only as warriors or hunters. She was aware when she stopped to think about it that there obviously had to be more to their culture than that, consider that weapons and medicines didn't exactly make themselves, but it had just been simpler for her and the rest of the Hundred to 'pigeon-hole' everyone on the other side at first, and when an alliance had seemed like a good idea she'd only been focusing on the Grounders' warriors and Lexa.

Maybe she was being petty about it, but the more she learned about these people, the more Clarke appreciated her decision to stay with them for more than the fact that she wasn't expected to 'take charge' any more. Her own people had been too judgemental and focused on themselves, the Grounders were too mistrusting, but Hiccup and the Riders were so open… so willing to explore new ideas…

There were still questions about where they fit in to the wider history of this world, of course, but what Gobber had told her about the history of the other islands in the Archipelago had helped Clarke work out a few more points about what had happened after the missiles went off. Obviously Gobber didn't know everything, considering that he was looking at this from the perspective of someone who'd basically been raised in a variation of Viking culture, but Clarke was increasingly certain that these people were descendants of the Dragon Sanctuary's final guests. When the nuclear holocaust went off, Clarke guessed that those survivors had somehow fallen back on the Viking lifestyle that was part of the role-playing-game theme certain guests had enjoyed taking part in while they were at the park. Gobber had even mentioned a few old tales about past attempts to train dragons, such as how the Berserker Tribe had managed to 'harness' electricity-generating dragons known as the Skrill and use them as weapons, so it looked like some knowledge had been retained for a time after the bombs went off even if it was somehow lost later.

Then again, from what Dad told me, only a few people at the sanctuary were meant to have any actual training in how to handle the dragons; maybe the official trainers had to leave for some reason and the dragons ran riot when they didn't come back…

There were obviously still details Clarke needed to work out before she had a complete timeline of events, but the fact that Gobber knew anything about the real past had at least given her something to work with. His references to their village having a history going back seven generations felt a bit off, but Clarke was willing to guess that was because the original survivors just fell back on the idea that the settlement was their true history to stop people mourning what they'd lost.

Maybe not the best approach, but when everything falls apart people probably take what they can get…

"What's up?"

"Nothing," Clarke said, looking back to see that Astrid was the one who'd spoken, the other blonde standing alongside her. "Just… I was thinking about things."

"About Hiccup?"

"Hicc- oh," Clarke said, recognising the implications of the other girl's tone with an apologetic smile, relieved that she was for once in this position and able to confirm that she hadn't done anything. "No, not like that; he's a good guy, but it's just…"

She shook her head with a tentative smile. "I don't know; I think he's just… it might sound weird, but Hiccup's almost too good."

"Too good?" Astrid looked sceptically at Clarke.

"It's like…" Clarke waved a hand uncertainly, briefly trying to think of a good analogy before she decided not to get into the cultural context debate on top of everything else. "Well, Hiccup and I both want to make the world a better place, but if we're going to do that, we need someone to remind us that it's not always going to be that simple or we'll just get lost in our own idealism."

It was a frustrating thing to acknowledge about herself, but Clarke had to face facts. Whatever else she felt about Lexa, the Commander had been right that there would have been no way to save that village from the missile attack without compromising Bellamy's role in the mountain, and she would have wasted time trying to find another way if Lexa hadn't been there to make her face the facts.

"Really?" Astrid looked at Clarke in a probing manner. "So you… I mean…?"

"I'm fine just being friends," Clarke smiled at Astrid, guessing what the other girl wasn't saying. "Don't get me wrong, I like Hiccup, and he's the first guy I've met for a while I feel like I could genuinely like and respect as a leader, but I just… this might sound like a weird thing to not like about someone, but he reminds me too much of my best friend growing up."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Wells was basically my brother as far as I'm concerned; he might have wanted more, but… well, like I said, he was the closest thing I had to a brother, so I just never saw him that way," Clarke concluded, smiling wistfully at the memory. She might regret that she couldn't have returned Wells' feelings, but she could look back at her time with him and appreciate that he'd tried to be a good man in difficult circumstances. "So don't worry; you're safe."

"Safe?" Astrid looked at Clarke in surprise.

"Come on, Astrid," Clarke smiled reassuringly at her, "I'm not an expert at relationships, but it doesn't take an expert to know that you and Hiccup have something going on; you're always sitting together when we have our meetings, you visit him during the days when there's nothing else on-"

"You saw that?"

"I am staying in the watchtower these days; I may not have seen any ships yet, but I've seen some things," Clarke pointed out. "Look, if you don't want to tell me anything-"

"It's not that; it's…" Astrid began, looking around for a moment before she grabbed Clarke's arm and led her briskly to the stables, where Stormfly and Griffin were currently having a nap while Toothless was with Hiccup and the other riders were out on patrol. Demonstrating a strength that surprised Clarke given Astrid's slight build, the other girl pulled the door shut behind them before she turned to look uncertainly at Clarke.

"Look," the other blonde said awkwardly, "I wouldn't normally do this, but there's not really anyone else I can talk to about it, so… can you keep this between us?"

"You can't talk about this to anyone else?" Clarke asked in surprise.

"I mean, I obviously can't talk to any of the guys about this, I'm not sure how seriously Ruffnut would take it if I tried to talk to her, I have… I don't really know anyone my age back home who'd get why this is an issue, and it would just be awkward if I asked any of our parents…"

"I get it," Clarke smiled in understanding at her fellow blonde before looking more seriously at Astrid. "So what's the problem?"

"Well… you remember how Hiccup commented on that 'gesture to all of me' thing you did when he learned he's the son of our chief?"

"Yeah…" Clarke said, recalling something else Hiccup had said around that time. "And didn't he mention something about his father used to act like he wanted Hiccup to be… I think the term was 'a smart Snotlout'?"

"That's… pretty accurate, really," Astrid said, the blonde looking almost shamefaced. "You see, before we started dragon training, Hiccup was… well, there's a reason for his name."

"There is?"

"Back on Berk, a 'hiccup' was basically… well, the runt."

"Ah," Clarke said, suddenly recalling Hiccup mentioning that detail to her back when they first met. She didn't think that kind of naming tradition had ever been part of Viking culture in real life, but comparing Hiccup to some of the Vikings she'd read about, she could see how the term applied. "So calling him that when he was born is basically the equivalent of saying he's not going to be… well, the average Viking?"

"Yeah," Astrid nodded. "He was assigned to be Gobber's apprentice in the forge because it was basically somewhere he could stay out of trouble, and back when we were at war with the dragons, he spent most of his time trying to make new weapons or gadgets, or just trying to find some way that he could help beyond sharpening the swords…"

"I take it that didn't go well?"

"It basically became village policy to try and keep Hiccup locked up whenever there was a dragon raid taking place, and the twins and Snotlout teased him about it for ages… and I just…" Astrid trailed off and sighed sadly. "I know that Hiccup liked me before everything changed after he trained Toothless, but when I look back… how much of that was just because I was the only person who didn't really do anything to him when we were kids?" The usually strong young woman suddenly struck Clarke as being almost fragile as Astrid continued speaking, looking at the floor as though she didn't want Clarke to see her full expression. "I mean, before Dragon Training, Snotlout and the twins picked on him mercilessly and Fishlegs just stayed away from him because he was worried spending time with Hiccup would get him in trouble; I never picked on him, and I didn't blatantly avoid him, but I never really acknowledged him either!"

"Hiccup isn't an idiot; I don't think he'd be interested in you just because you were the only person not to treat him like he was useless-"

"But how do I know that?" Astrid said, looking at Clarke with a sudden sense of vulnerability. "How can I be sure that he won't just… wake up and realise that I'm just the one person he knew who didn't pick on him that much? I mean, I like Heather now, but when she showed up it didn't take that long for all the guys to be basically falling over themselves to tell her what she wanted to know because she was just being kind and keen to talk to everyone about dragons; what if that's what he wants?"

"The girl who just listens to everything he has to say?" Clarke asked with a brief smile. "I don't think so."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because leaders never just want people who'll listen to them," Clarke smiled, glad that her leader experience was proving useful beyond forcing her to give people orders. "I spent time trying to be a leader back home, and… well, I'm not saying that it was always easy, and there were times when I wished they wouldn't just keep defying me- sometimes I think they rejected my ideas just because they didn't like me without thinking about the points I was trying to bring up- but I was always willing to listen to what they had to say. From what I've seen of you and Hiccup, you're good together that way; you each offer a different perspective on a situation, but at the same time you encourage each other to be better than you were without immediately trying to shoot down the other person's idea just because it's not the way you do things."

"You think?" Astrid asked, looking at Clarke with an expression that mixed the gleam of tears with a strange hint of hope.

"Like I said, I'm not exactly a relationship expert, but I can tell you that we can never exactly choose who we… develop feelings for," Clarke pointed out. "Wells had feelings for me for years, but I honestly never saw him as anything more than a friend even if he was my best friend, and then he died after we were sent on ahead to scout out the area because a traumatised girl couldn't cope with what his father had done…"

"Oh," Astrid looked at Clarke with a more shameful expression. "I… I'm sorry I-"

"Let me finish," Clarke cut her off, giving Astrid a reassuring smile. "My first serious potential relationship since I… left my people… went wrong when I learned that he had a girlfriend, and the fact that he thought he wouldn't see her again didn't make me feel any better about it. I spent the next few weeks feeling like we were stuck in some freaky limbo thing, where I was trying to deal with my feelings and make friends with his other partner, and then he ended up dead too after he killed a bunch of people looking for me. After all that, I ended up falling for the local leader of the natives in our new territory when we entered into an alliance to deal with our latest threat, but we agreed to put our feelings to the side until the current threat was over, and then they just betrayed my people to save theirs…"

"Gods," Astrid looked more sympathetically at Clarke. "I… look, you didn't have to-"

"I'm telling you this because I want to tell you," Clarke cut Astrid off once again. "My point is that I made all kinds of bad relationship choices before I came here, and I don't think I'll ever stop regretting every one of them, but Hiccup… if he's been your friend for years and he still looks at you that way, if you feel anything for him, you owe it to yourself to give it a shot."

"Even if he's just settling-"

"If he's still showing interest in you after this long when other people actually like him these days, I think you don't need to worry about that," Clarke smiled reassuringly at Astrid. "I get why you're scared, but the only reason I regret my past relationships is that the other party let me down; from what I've seen of Hiccup, I think the last thing he'd ever even think of doing is let you down."

Astrid's expression was still tentative, but as she looked at Clarke with a hopeful smile, Clarke allowed herself a moment to hope in return. She didn't think that Astrid was going to dive into anything right away- the other girl clearly had some deep-rooted relationship issues that weren't going to be resolved just from this one talk- but from the wistful smile on Astrid's face as she walked out of the stables and looked up at the image of a Night Fury painted above the doors, Clarke had a feeling Astrid would have that talk with Hiccup soon enough.

Maybe, for once, someone can have a better relationship because I got involved…

It was a small step by most standards, but Clarke would take any kind of win in this twisted situation.