Astrid crouched beside Meatlug around the back of the Dragon Master's, or rather- Hiccup's house. The pool of lava Meatlug had created had since cooled and she had gotten herself slightly stuck to what was now only warm rock. And so Astrid and Fishlegs had spent the last half hour slowly breaking away the rock that had formed, fortunately it was rather porous and crumbled easily which sped up their work considerably.

Working in the dying light of the day made it difficult to discern what was rock and what was dragon from time to time, so both Vikings would frequently get hit in the head with Meatlug's fast-beating wings if their hammer swings caught her side too fully.

"Meatlug" Fishlegs pants, "You are Not doing this again."

"Agreed" Astrid sighs, putting her hands on her hips and sitting up more.

She hears footsteps coming round the side of the house, and stands up to see Hiccup looking around before taking his helmet off, shaking his hair loose.

The soft light coming from inside his house bathed his side in a warm glow and the shadows accentuated his lean muscles as he walked over.

Astrid felt slightly jealous that his hair always looked great when he took his helmet off, that clean but scruffy look keeping her eyes on him for longer than she intended.

She turned her back on him again and cleared her throat loudly.

"Oh uh.. Hi Astrid" Hiccup says nervously as he rounds the corner, still shirtless.

He walks over to Fishlegs and hands off the 3 metal pieces he made and quickly dons his woollen top.

Definitely not at all miffed that Hiccup had put his shirt back on, Astrid crouches and continues breaking away Meatlug's lava cast.

"So uh, when did you drop by?" Hiccup asks, coming to stand a bit closer to Astrid and looking around. "And where's Stormfly?"

"I told her she couldn't go inside and she flew off squawking at us" Astrid says with a shrug. "She'll be back for the morning I'm sure."

"She might have to wait a few more days for me to get them a better place to sleep." Hiccup admits sheepishly, "Stoick is a bit preoccupied at the moment"

"That's fine" Astrid comments and stands up again, making Hiccup even more confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, I called in a few favours from some guys I beat at the last axe throwing competition. They're gonna help renovate a few of the enclosures in the old dragon fighting arena into more inviting and lovable spaces for the dragons.

Hiccup just stand there with his mouth open, shocked.

"What, you think I've been doing nothing while you've been off chasing some giant snake-dragon?" She accuses, hands on her hips.

"Well I didn't quite expect that!" Hiccup laughs, "That's great news!"

"It is!" Fishlegs walks over beaming, "Meatlug will have somewhere warmer to stay overnight than her nest in the forest! It is a shame all her babies were fully fledging by the time we found her though." He adds wistfully.

A few quiet moments pass, before Fishlegs announces he needs to be back in time for his curfew.

"Sure Fishlegs, I'll get Meatlug free in just a minute here" Astrid assures him.

"I'm gonna finish off something inside" Hiccup nervously states.

"Sure, I'll pop in once I'm done" Astrid replies, enjoying the mild fright in his eyes.

As both boys wander off, Astrid is left with the hulking form of the Gronckle, still partially attached to her (long since cooled) lava pool.

The crunchy removal of the crumbly pumice, and the hurried sounds of Hiccup rushing to tidy his makeshift workshop are the only noises she can hear and she smirks to herself.

After a minute of Hiccup's frenzied tidying, he seems to relax slightly and a soothing methodical hammering picks up. Once or twice there is silence as he fiddles with pieces or does some other task, but the hammering always picks up again.

When Astrid has barely any more rock to remove, Meatlug strains her legs upwards and manages to break free from the small amount left.

Overjoyed, Meatlug licks along Astrid's left pauldron and the side of her face, sending her reeling.

"I'm glad you are free now too" she chuckles, walking over to Hiccup's door.

The buzzing of Meatlug's wings slowly fades away as she flies off to her nest in the forest once more.

Opening the backdoor greets Astrid with a surprisingly tidy couple of beaches and tables, with organised tools and material taking up most of the available space in that corner of the bottom floor.

Hiccup stood against one bench facing away from her with a few last rivets in hand, lining them up and hammering them into place.

Astrid chose not to disturb him, and instead pushed the door ajar and quietly perched on some leather on a desk behind him, watching him work over his shoulder.

As the last pieces came together Hiccup stood back, admiring his work, wiping his forehead, turning around and starting to call for Astrid.

But to his great surprise he turned around to find himself almost standing in her lap, her eyebrows raised.

"Uhhh-uh-uhm" He mutters incoherently, blushing and taking a step forward again to his work.

"Soo, what have you made?" Astrid asks, curious as to the large U shaped leather piece he had beside him already finished.

"Oh, right" he grins, walking over to it and turning it upside down.

"Oh, you made saddles?!" Astrid says excitedly as the odd shape was starting to make perfect sense for a Nadder saddle.

"Exactly" he smiles, "Hopefully this will make riding more comfortable - for all four of you" he says, stepping aside to show the wider Gronckle saddle he'd just finished.

"Thanks Hiccup!" Astrid says excitedly to the project of much decreased saddle-soreness with every ride. She drops off the counter and gives him a quick embrace, before turning to her and Stormfly's saddle.

She bids the embarrassed Viking good night before taking the saddle back to her house next door. As she walked in the dark for the few meters over to hers, she traced some of the stitching with her fingers. She could discern both Hiccup's makers mark along with two names either side of the seat.

"Astrid" on one side, and "Stormfly" on the other.

A/N:

Going to be taking a break from writing for a month (for Christmas), so Happy Holidays everyone! I will be back to uploading February!