#his clothes look different because he's wearing snotlout's clothes :)

[wickedcriminal]

Interrupted coronation

part 1

[lilmissbacon]

Rewriting&Redesigning Dragons: the Nine Realms — Part 4/4

D’Angelo Baker

There’s not much to say about the choices I made with his redesign other than how I wanted him to look like more than just a basic army brat. I did take reference from Snotlout in terms of his body’s physique.

Plowhorn

I actually really liked the original design of the Gembreakers. I’m just thinking that, realistically, it just doesn’t make much sense for them to have giant crystal looking spikes/horns unless their skeletons looked like that as well. Which it wouldn’t because we see dragon bones all the time and they look like the bones of any other creature on Earth, not like crystals. So I made the horn look like actual bone and made the rest of the design lean more towards a beetle.

I also wanted to make it’s wings more insect-like but I didn’t want to just straight up give her insect wings since all dragon wings look like bat wings in the httyd world, no exceptions. So instead I made it so that Gembreakers have multiple small wings, so they flap very fast and give off the impression of insect wings.

Alex Gonzalez

I just feel like this outfit gives off a more gamer/hacker vibe as well as it being cute. The detailing on her jeans and crop top is her own stitching. I did make her chunky, because realistically, she’s been inside all day everyday for years and with how often her moms seem to make her cookies, I would expect her to have some extra weight.

I should point out that I do understand that curly hair can be hard to model for animation this low budget but I think she just looks really good with curly bangs and I think I know a cheat code. Just copy and paste Gratuity Tucci’s bangs from Home. It’s a Dreamworks movie, so they have access to her model. I even straight up traced her bangs in this drawing just to prove my point.

Feathers / Pluma

I figured her design could be one where she looks scary but is actually very innocent. And keeping the Quetzalcoatl design aspect in mind, my brain immediately thought of the Slitherwing. Like maybe Feathers/Pluma could be a breed of dragon that’s a cousin to the Slitherwing, similer to Night Furies and Woolly Howls. Now I know these species’ haven’t been confirmed to be cousins but still.

Main differences between the Slitherwing and Featherhide here is that Pluma has feathers in place of poison and can mimic/sound-blast in place of venom-spit.

Also having a scarier design would help make Alex’s instant fear more understandable at first glance, since canon Feathers is just cute. And because my redesign now looks so much like a Slitherwing, on first viewing the audience would be worried about the poison Slitherwings have, until it’s revealed to have feathers instead of poison. A little bit of a subversion.

Eugene / August

I really wanted to give him this feel that he was like an Instagram or Tiktok fashion designer. That could even be a part of his character, maybe he and Jun bond over art and he helps her design the dragon armor later on.

Now I know I said that having loose clothing will look really bad in cheap 3D animation but listen; his clothes are not that loose and I made sure to frame his loose sleeves so they’d at least look okay within this show. And you can model wrinkles into the clothes even if they don’t move. Therefore giving the illusion of realistic cloth even though you’re not actually animating it like that. I also made it so that his pants would give some of that big boot silhouette without being bellbottoms and I didn’t make his shoes big as well —like I did with Olivia— as to kind of throw off the audience who'd notice, on whether or not he’d join dragon club.

You may notice that there are some similarities between his and Jun’s designs. They both wear thin sweaters (under August’s silk shirt), have circle necklaces and circle belt buckles. But with the clips of their buckles are on opposite sides from each other, as to kinda showcase the fact that they’re biological siblings but have animosities.

(Also note; I know the way his silk shirt shines is not how it would look in the final animation. That’s just the one creative liberty I took to make sure you would be able to tell it’s shiny in this art.)

Monstrous Nightmare

In regards to August's dragon, I think he'd name it Scorch. Original, I know but you know what? These names for the dragons on on the same level of Toothless being named Toothless simply because his teeth can retract.

I'd also color Scorch to be similar to the titan wing from rtte. Not exactly but very similar.

Other adults

I was originally going to redesign them as well since their designs wouldn’t have that many changes aside from better body proportions and maybe different hair. Along with Johann having modern clothes and Dr. Sledkin having a black or silver Rakke uniform. But it’s taken me two weeks just to make the pics that I finished and I have no more energy to make more. Maybe later on in life I’ll find the energy to do so and I’ll reblog this with those designs but for now I’m done.

Links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

[sivyera]

Httyd characters seeing you in their clothes

ft. hiccup, tuffnut, eret, snotlout, astrid, ruffnut

⤷ Hiccup

Hiccup was in his workroom working on new tail for Toothless when he heard your steps. He didn't turn to look at you but it was past a midnight so who else would be in his house. 'It's late darling, you should go to sleep' he said. You hugged him from behind and that was the moment when he saw sleeve from his green t-shirt. He turns to look at you and saw you in his t-shirt. 'Come to the bed with me, I will help you with this tomorrow.' you said. Hiccup was still admiring you but nod and kiss your forehead. 'You should wear it more often you look cute.' he said before going in a bed with you.

⤷ Tuffnut

You were with Ruffnut babysitting Meatlug's babies because she had toothache so Fishlegs took her to Gobber. And you both were dirty when you come back into her house because babysitting those demons isn't easy. You decided to change but you didn't have a spare clothes. So Ruffnut gave you some shirt. When you changed you heard Ruffnut yelling at someone. You came to her to see what's happening and saw Tuffnut who was searching for his shirt and when he turn to yell back at his sister, he freeze. You have his t-shirt and you looked super cute. A smirk show up on his face when he said: 'Never mind, you look better in it anyways, cutie.'

⤷ Eret

It was cold outside and when it's cold weather at Berk, it's freezing inside the house. Eret was helping some viking with his ship but he should be back in a few minutes. You were freezing, you had socks and t-shirt with long sleeves but it wasn't enough. You saw Eret's bear fur so you decided to put it on because it looked very warm. After a few minutes Eret came home and saw you sleeping on a couch. He also noticed you had his bear fur. But you looked really peaceful so he didn't wake you up. He just kissed your head and whisper little 'sweet dreams'. But he would definitely tease you tomorrow about it, just a little

⤷ Snotlout

Snotlout was in his room searching for new t-shirt because Hookfang 'accidentally' burn the one he was wearing. But he couldn't find any. Suddenly you open the door to his bedroom and peaked out your head to look at him. 'Do you want something to eat?' you asked him. It was around 3 p.m. and Snotlout didn't have a lunch, yet so you thought he maybe is hungry. He turn to look and answer you but instead of answering, he smirk. 'Oh look what we got here, you look hot babe, but yes I'm hungry.' he said when he smacked your ass, making his way into the kitchen.

⤷ Astrid

You were sick and Astrid was on her way to your house with some medicine. When she open the door of your bedroom she saw how messy you were. You had pale skin and you looked very very tired. But that wasn't the only thing she saw. She also saw you in her red t-shirt which she was trying to find for days. 'How are you feeling baby? Also you look amazing in your new clothes' she teased a bit. You smiled at her while you tapped on an empty place right next to you. Astrid understood really quickly and come to you for cuddles. She put her arms around your waist and pulled you closer. She doesn't care if she would get sick, she just wants to cuddle you.

⤷ Ruffnut

Ruffnut and you had sleepover in her house because Tuffnut was with Snoutlout. Ruffnut was in the kitchen making some easy food. So you had a time to change into your pyjama. But you had different idea. Right now you were looking in Ruffnut's closet, for some shirt you could sleep in. And you find a perfect one. It was her dark blued t-shirt. When you changed, Ruffnut opened the door. 'I made some food and drinks for us and- oohhh look like I have here sweet dessert.' she said. She made her way to you, put her hands around your neck and kiss your lips.

[silverlysilence]

Taliesin’s Apothecary and Bookery (Part III)

I Don’t Mean to Lie, But This Will Be Four or Five Parts

Hiccup breathed heavy, spent but sated.  He was content to enjoy the moment.  Allowing the bliss to linger as he hugged the heated body closer.  Delicate fingers idlily tracing random patterns against his bare chest.

“Not that I’m complaining, but what brought this on?” Hiccup asked, green eyes staring up at the ceiling fan doing little to cool down their overheated bodies.

The finger on his chest paused before waves of golden hair pooled on either side of his head as soft lips pressed against his.  The lips lingered, nipping at his upper lip before pulling away, Hiccup tried to chase after them but deceptively strong hands pressed him back on to the bed.

“Can’t a girl just blow off some steam?” Astrid asked, straddling his hips.  Naked flesh rubbing against naked flesh and he couldn’t hold back a groan as his body automatically responded.

“Astrid,” the auburn-haired man groaned as the woman deliberately squirmed on top of him in the way she knew drove him made.  The blonde was a minx and knew how to play him like a fiddle.  Not surprising seeing how they’d growing up together, fought side by side, and died together.  Multiple times in fact.  It meant she knew him too well, but he knew her just as well.  So despite his flesh being willing, he grabbed her hips and held her still.  “Astrid, you know I love you, and I know you know you I can tell when somethings bothering you.  So, why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?  You don’t get like this unless someone has upset you.  Do I have to kick some asshole’s ass?  Not that you couldn’t do it better yourself, but the offers there.”  

“Awe, you say the sweetest of things,” Astrid grinned, leaning over to peak him on the lips once more before rolling off him to lay by his side.  Turning his head to glance into hazed blue orbs, Hiccup waited, knowing the blonde was gathering her thoughts.  Thinking before she spoke.  He needn’t wait look.  “I ran into Eret, he’s the UPS delivery guy at the office.”

Hiccup’s immediate reaction was to be excited for her.  They hadn’t been able to find Eret in any of their last few reincarnation cycles, try as they like.  It wasn’t like he hadn’t been reincarnated, they’d found evidence to the fact, pictures, news articles, obituaries, they just missed him, sometimes by mere hours.  He knew those instances hurt Astrid the most, the budding hope at finally being reunited with her partner only to arrive too late.  Those were the times where the two of them would marry, because society demanded it of them and neither one of them wanted to be alone.  Though, they both knew if Eret turned up, Hiccup would find himself a divorcee.  Which didn’t explain why Astrid was with him instead of Eret.

“He didn’t recognize me.”

Hiccup gave her a weak smile.  “Well, it has been a few cycles since you last meet, I’m sure with a little time he’ll start to come around.  Just talk with him and I’m sure he’ll begin to remember.  It’s not that odd, Fishlegs didn’t start getting his memories back until nearly two months after we first met up this time and we still haven’t met the twins yet.  I’m sure it will work out.”

“Hiccup, I’ve tried.  This isn’t the first time we’ve seen each other,” sharp nails dug into the sheets as Astrid drew the covers tighter around her.  “He’s been the office’s delivery guy for the last six months.  He asked Nyx out for drinks this evening while I was standing right there.  He…he isn’t remembering.”  

The auburn-haired man opened his mouth before closing it, having no words to comfort her.  Eret wouldn’t be the first to not remember. Snotlout had been the first to stopped remembering around five cycles ago.  He hadn’t been reincarnated since.  Heather hadn’t taken it well and the next time, she too hadn’t remembered and when she closed her eyes in that life, it was for the final time. It hurt, losing the two, but this was different.  This was Astrid’s partner.  If Eret died not remembering, Hiccup didn’t know how Astrid would continue without the hope of meeting him again.

Knowing there were no words he could say to sooth her tormented soul, the auburn-hair man chose to pull her into a much-needed hug.  She readily returned the embraced and the two just laid there for some time, letting the silence stretch between them.  Hiccup almost dozed off but Astrid’s softly mumbled question him kept him from reaching the land of dreams.

“Do…do you miss—”

“I’m back!” the sound of the fount door opening had Astrid shooting up.  

“Shit!  My roommates, back.  She’s never back this early on a Thursday night,” hastily, she scrambled out of bed, sifting through their discarded clothes and throwing them at him while she pulled on her jeans.  “You gotta go! Come on, get dress.  Move…move…out you go.”

“Hey Astrid, I got us some sushi from the place you like,” the call echoed through the apartment followed by movement in the kitchen.

“She’s back?  Hasn’t—” Hiccup hissed, too busy tugging on his pants that ended up tripping when Astrid threw the red shirt he’d been wearing at his face.  The resounding thump did not go unheard.

“Astrid, you okay in there?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” the blonde called out, searching for her blouse she’d been wearing and when she couldn’t find that, pulled on an overly large shirt and slipped out the door.  Hiccup could hear the two talking as Astrid bought him time to get his stuff together and hopefully slip out without being noticed.

“You won’t believe who I saw there—you!”

He didn’t make it.

“What are you doing here, Haddock?” Hiccup winced, having rounded the corner just in time to come face to face with Astrid’s roommate.

“Hi —” the man gave the glaring raven-haired woman a little wave that only earned him a scowl.  “Heather?”

She didn’t seem to care for what he had to say and rounded on Astrid who still wasn’t recognizing who was standing before her.  “What is he doing here?  I thought we had a deal; I don’t bring my brother over and you don’t bring him over without talking with each other first.”

“Heather, it was a spur of the moment thing.  You’re never here on Thursday nights, I didn’t think you would mind if he left by the time you got back.”

“Well, that didn’t happen.”

“Come on, Heather, don’t be like that.  Hiccup’s a good guy, if you just took the time to get to know him.”

“I already know all I need to know about him,” Heather’s confession had Astrid opening her mouth only for it to slam shut as her eyes widened in recognition.

Hiccup stalled there.  “Wait, Heather, do you remember?  How are you even here?  We thought you were gone.”

“What’s it to you, Haddock?” the sharpness of her words had Hiccup reeling.

Astrid took a step forward, really looking at her friend—her best friend she hadn’t seen in too many lifetimes—for the first time. “If you remember, why haven’t you said anything?”

“Why should I?  I want nothing to do with him.  Not after what he”—a finger was jabbed in Hiccup’s direction— “did to Jack.”

Astrid bristled.  “Hiccup hasn’t done anything to Jack.  He hasn’t shown his face to any of us in several cycles.”

“And do you know why we haven’t seen him?” Heather shot back. “Go on, Haddock, tell her why Jack hasn’t come looking for us.”

“Heather,”

“Tell her, Haddock or I will.”

“I don’t know what you think you remember, but I’m sure if we sit down and talk it out, we can find where the strings have crossed,” Hiccup tried to coax the two shieldmaidens down.

“Snotlout was there!  He saw everything!”

“I don’t’ know what Snotlout think he saw before died...”

“He didn’t die, he was turned to stone, there’s a difference.  The spell—”

“—That Jack casted!” Hiccup roared, slamming his fist into the wall.  “You want me to tell you what happened that night? Fine!  I’ll tell you!  Jack turned on us, he showed his true colors and fought alongside Grimmel, he fought against us.  He managed to hit Snotlout with his spell, I was lucky to get away. Wasn’t lucky enough to get away from Grimmel’s little Deathgrippers though.  They poisoned me.  That’s how I died.”

“Fuck you Haddock.  Snotlout could see everything, but you wouldn’t know that would you?  He tried to tell you but you wouldn’t listen.  That spell was to save your fucking life.  If you hadn’t of dodged, the Deathgripper’s strike would have struck stone, not skin.”

“How would you know that anyways?  Snotlout hasn’t been reincarnated since then. He’s dead!” Hiccup shot back, his anger clearly rising at the mention of his cousin.  A cousin he hadn’t had since that fateful cycle.

“Oh really?” Heather pulled out her phone and it play on a voicemail.  The speakers blared as a voice that shouldn’t have been there came out of the little piece of technology.

“Hey babe, sorry I can't make it to our Thursday Night Date Night, but something came up.  I’ll make it up to you later.  I swear or my name isn’t Snotlout...well, technically, it isn’t this time around but I’m not going by Samuel.  Who in their right mind would go with the name Samuel when Snotlout is clearly superior in everyway?  Love ya Babe.”

Heather shot a sneer towards Hiccup. “Yeah, dead.  Though I can assure you, my respected for you is definitely deader than Snotlout after what you did to Jack. You told him you wished you never met a demon like him, that he was the reason we were cursed.  News flash, Haddock, he didn’t.  You did! You and your shoddy Bidding Spell.  You bound him to you and those closest to you—to Jack—were drawn into the spell because you didn’t close it.  But by denouncing him, you broke the spell.  Let eons worth of accumulated magic free with no thought of the consequences, the backlash should have eradicated our souls from existence.  Do you understand how much you fucked up?  Jack, after everything you said to him, everything you did, took that burden on himself.  It nearly killed him.”

“Good.”

“You would sentence him to Hell?”

“It’s where a demon like him belongs.  He turned on us.  He fought at Grimmel’s side.”

“God do you even hear yourself?  Yeah, Jack isn’t a demon!  He’s a cambion.”

“The Offspring of the Daughter of Man and the Son of the Fallen, yeah I know.  He told me so himself, right before he brought my father back to life.”

“Really, you know?  So you also know that cambions don’t have the power to bring back the dead?  Those that do, the necromancers, are forever stained by the dark magic and I’ve been around Jack enough to know he doesn’t have such a stain.  He didn’t bring back your father, Haddock.  He made a deal.  In the time it took for him to snap his fingers and return you to Berk, he’d spent a year on the outskirts of Hell trying to get someone to raise the dead for you.  He managed, but he would owe a boon to the demon who agreed.

“He owed a boon to Grimmel, for you.  That night, Grimmel called on the boon and Jack couldn’t refuse.  Yes, he fought by Grimmel’s side, but not against us. He did everything he could to keep us alive and kept your father’s soul safe.”

“Excuse me, what does my father have to do with it?”

“Because it was your father’s soul that Jack bargained for and if he reneged on the deal, then Stoick soul would be forfeit to Grimmel for all eternity.

“If that’s true, why didn’t he say anything?”

“Because, he tried, Snotlout tired.  You just wouldn’t listen.  You called him your curse.”

[tysonrunningfox]

Ripped: Christmas Special

It’s the Ripped Christmas Special! Where Ripped is during Christmas.  It’s...wow they’re them all the time

Ao3

“We could have ordered a tree online, you know,” Snotlout huffs, readjusting his grip around the freshly cut trunk of the seven-foot Fraser fir between them, his breath a puff of steam in the alley air.  Someone opens their back door to throw a bag of trash into a dumpster and he jumps. 

Hiccup rolls his eyes, “then we wouldn’t have gotten to pick it out.” 

“Ok, we could have ordered a plastic tree online, since all of those look the same.”  He starts walking, making Hiccup stumble backwards and catch himself on an alley wall, brick scraping against his glove.  “Let’s get this home before we get murdered.” 

“No murderers here,” Hiccup starts shuffling forward again anyway, “or at least I thought you caught them all, detective.” 

“You think you can just mention my promotion and I’ll forget you’re a magnet for horrible, murderous luck?” 

“It was worth a shot,” he shrugs, sighing when he hears the music accompanying the streetlamp glow introducing itself to the mouth of the alley.  “Great, Christmas Carolers.” 

“Lugging a giant tree across downtown is fine, but some cold people singing ‘Jingle Bells’ is too much holiday cheer for you.  That makes sense.”  Snotlout rolls his eyes, relaxing when he emerges onto the well-lit sidewalk half a block down from their front door.  One of the carolers looks surprised to see them and Hiccup gives a half-hearted wave before tucking his chin to his chest to hopefully avoid interaction. 

“Do you need some help with that?”  A man’s voice infused with the probable self-importance of ‘Chief Caroler’ asks and Hiccup shakes his head. 

“Nope, we’re almost home, thanks though.” 

“Well, any requests for music while you work?” 

“Silent night?”  Hiccup snips but the intended insult goes over the man’s head as he conducts his jolly group in the first few offkey notes of the song. 

Getting the tree up the stairs ends in casualties of a few lower branches and the rest of Snotlout’s patience when Hiccup accidentally props the tree up on his foot, but it’s worth it when he opens the door and sees Astrid’s face light up.   Or maybe her face doesn’t light up, maybe it just reflects some of the hundreds of multicolor lights she’s strung around the apartment since he left for work this morning.  Either way, it’s worth half an hour of dealing with cold, murder-paranoid Snotlout. 

“Can we please get this fire hazard inside already?”  Snotlout barks from behind the tree in the hallway and Hiccup barely catches his end as it tips forwards, shedding a shower of pine needles on the floor. 

“You got a tree,” Astrid practically bounces over to help, taking Snotlout’s end from him and steering Hiccup to a patch of bare floor by the front window where a plastic tree stand is already sitting. 

“I told you I would,” he nudges the tree stand with his toe, “you said you were getting a tree stand, what did you intend to put in it?  A bush?” 

“Just a second,” Astrid sets the trunk down before kneeling to adjust the tree stand in some way, “I figured since you were walking, it’d be smaller.” 

“Snotlout graciously volunteered to help me carry it,” Hiccup gives his cousin the credit he doesn’t deserve as Astrid places the trunk in the stand, absently directing Hiccup to lean the tree this way and that until she deems it perfect and starts screwing it into place. 

“Anything for you mom,” Snotlout grins. 

“Don’t.”  Hiccup narrows his eyes, “not tonight.  Not tomorrow.   Not this whole visit, ok?  Do not.” 

“Don’t what?” 

“You know what.”  He relaxes only slightly when Eretson appears from Snotlout’s room.  Snotlout can’t be too obvious with his boyfriend in the room, right? 

Then again, Eretson isn’t wearing his business-like ‘keep his employee-slash-boyfriend under control’ suit or expression.  Instead, he’s wearing felt reindeer antlers and a sweater that says ‘Tree-Rex’ under a dinosaur wrapped in little flickering lights. 

“There,” Astrid pops up, clapping her hands together and taking a step back to examine the tree. 

The fierce light that bloomed in her eyes when he casually mentioned decorating for Christmas in preparation for his mom’s visit only brightens and it’s almost enough that he doesn’t notice her bulky sweater striped with chunky knitted green trees and white reindeer on a fuzzy, well worn red background. 

“So Eretson borrowed the getup from you, I see,” he puts his hands on her waist and turns her to face him, earning about as much of her attention as someone distracting Michelangelo from the brick of marble that would become a statue of David. 

“Hmm?”  She frowns, glancing at Eretson, “no.  He just has Christmas spirit, unlike some people.”  She looks disparagingly at the plain blue sweater peeking out of his jacket. 

“I thought he was going to yell at the carolers outside.”  Snotlout greets Eretson with a tip-toed kiss on the cheek and it’s still weird how pleased Eretson manages to look about it. 

“Lights, where did I put the lights?” Astrid will not be kept long from her tree and she pats Hiccup’s arm as she steps out of his grip. 

“Over here,” Eretson produces another box from a bag on kitchen counter and tosses them to her, “and Hiccup, really, Eret is fine.” 

“Right,” Hiccup shakes his head, hanging his jacket up and looking down to make sure that there’s nothing actually wrong with his sweater.  Work clothes still feel like a costume more often than not, and while he’s ok with Astrid judging him on lack of Christmas themed patterns, he was hoping to look at least marginally like an adult tonight, “sorry, just habit.  I’m not used to being on a first name basis with my lawyer.”  His laugh is awkward, hollow, and everyone else rolls their eyes. 

“He hasn’t been your lawyer in like eight months, dude,” Snotlout idly takes a price sticker off of the bottom of a golden reindeer that has taken up residence on the coffee table. 

“I know,” Hiccup turns back to the tree to hide his blush when he inevitably remembers that Eretson also wasn’t his lawyer last month when he accidentally walked in on him in the shower.  Which is good, because that’s definitely breaching some client-lawyer-confidentiality agreement, or something else legal, or something. 

So, it’s good their legal involvement was over.  For all parties. 

“What time’s your mom getting here?”  Astrid asks, fussing over making the lights even as they spiral around the tree. 

His breath catches briefly as the feeling that this apartment wasn’t ever really home without her hits him again in one of those random, familiar waves that he still can’t make himself get used to.  Sometimes she’ll swear over the fire alarm after burning breakfast or he’ll find one of her pristine paperbacks on the coffee table and he’s smacked with overwhelming nostalgia for something he hopes to never, ever have to miss. 

“Come here,” he grabs her elbow, itchy wool on his palm only magnifying the feeling of home as he kisses her. 

She sighs into it, indulging him with a hand torn briefly away from the tree to rest on his hip as his fingers cup the back of her neck, tangling in soft hair. 

“Well, we don’t need this mistletoe then,” Snotlout scoffs and Hiccup registers just enough to flip him off as he pulls away, dropping one last kiss on Astrid’s nose and smiling to himself when it wrinkles. 

“Maybe we do,” Eretson puts an arm over Snotlout’s shoulders, “to contain them in one area.” 

Astrid glares at the both of them, arms wrapping slowly around Hiccup’s neck as she turns back to him, confusion knitting her brows together, “what were we talking about?” 

“I have no idea,” he sets his hands on her waist, “the fact that Christmas carolers in this area are operating on a fraudulent myth that singing songs on the sidewalk has anything to do with the Grimborn investigation during Christmas eighteen-eighty-three?” 

“No, that definitely wasn’t it.” 

“Because that doesn’t make sense, given that A Christmas Carol was released in eighteen-eighty.” 

“Ok, Scrooge.”  She rolls her eyes but kisses him again, sweater sleeves rubbing against the side of his neck. 

“Was it that itchy wool gives me a rash?”  He teases but it doesn’t crack the shell of her recovered concentration.

“No,” she bites her lip and he barely resists the urge to kiss her again, “oh!  I forgot to set the yaknog out.” 

“Yaknog?”  Hiccup and Snotlout ask at the same time and Eretson nods. 

“She let me try some earlier, it’s good.” 

“It’s to be respected,” she kisses Hiccup on the cheek before letting go and rushing to the fridge to pull out a large glass pitcher filled with cream colored liquid.  “But it is delicious.” 

“It’s eggnog,” Snotlout says after a first weary sip before taking another and Eretson pats him carefully on the shoulder.  “What’s the difference between eggnog and yaknog?” 

“The amount of rum I saw disappear into that pitcher,” Eretson says respectfully and Astrid grins, handing Hiccup a glass. 

“That’s why Ruffnut named it yaknog,” she explains, “if it is not respected, it will make you yak.” 

“It’s good,” Hiccup compliments, even though he can’t say he’s ever been an eggnog fan.  Then again, he could be, especially when it makes Astrid smile again, reaching around him to take a package of shiny ornaments off of the counter and hold them up.

“Tree?” 

“Sure.”  He follows her back across the living room, obediently holding the package open for her to choose the first ornament to anoint the tree. 

“The thing that people get wrong about tree decorating is that you have to have a plan,” she instructs, tucking her hair behind her ear and carefully picking a shiny red bauble up by the gold ring at the top of it, like she’s trying not to smudge it. 

“You do?”  He watches her hang the first ornament as high as she can reach, oversized sweater pulling up barely enough to show the back pockets of her jeans.  “What happens if you just hang everything all willy-nilly?”  He takes a gold ornament out of the box and hangs it on the other side of the tree at about hip height. 

“It ends up unbalanced,” she purses her lips, undoing his decorating attempt and cleaning the smudges off of the ball on her sleeve before putting it back in functionally the same place. 

“Wait,” he hands her the box of ornaments, “I’ll be right back.” 

“I thought you were going to help,” she complains half-heartedly after him as he disappears into their unusually clean bedroom just long enough to grab the top hat from the bedpost. 

“Oh God, the dorky hat,” Snotlout complains, barely distracted from his debate with Eretson on the couch.  Hiccup ignores him. 

“If you’re going to instruct me in the art of proper Christmas tree decoration,” he sets it on her head and it slips slightly crooked, like it always does, “you need this.” 

“Fine,” she hands the box back to him and selects her next ornament, hanging it carefully on the tree. 

“What, exactly, would make a Christmas tree unbalanced?”  He loves when she takes things too seriously, assigning methods to things he’s always been sure were madness. 

“Bare patches,” she shrugs, “uneven distribution of color.” 

“Ok, that seems serious,” he jokes, handing her a blue ornament with a grip careful not to smudge and grinning when her warm fingers brush carefully over his, “and what are the consequences of having an unbalanced Christmas tree?” 

“Consequences?”  She looks up from under the brim of his hat, straightening it when it tips backwards. 

“Yeah, what…great harm will befall those dumb enough not to listen to your ancient knowledge of Christmas tree decoration?”  He realizes, with a jolt that makes time slow down, what exactly it means that he’s off work until the new year and she’s done with her semester.  That’s at least ten days at home with her, ten days around the soon to be perfect tree, ten days with the multicolor lights reflecting in her eyes. 

“Bad luck,” she nods solemnly. 

“Oof,” he holds the box of ornaments to the side to step closer and whisper, “I should be probably paying attention then, I’ve had enough bad luck this year.” 

“Not only bad luck, I hope.”

“Good too,” he assures, kissing her briefly and smiling when she forgets herself enough to press an ornament against his neck as her hand finds his cheek, “lots of good.”  He flips Snotlout off again when he groans, then tries to pry the ornament free of Astrid’s grip before she smashes it against his jaw. 

“Oh no,” she pulls back all of a sudden, staring from the tree to the counter where bags sit entirely depleted of Christmas decorations. 

“What is it?” 

“I forgot a star,” she blushes, messing with her hair and almost knocking the hat off of her head, “for the top of the tree.” 

“Oh,” he looks around, half wondering if Snotlout would consent to his badge being a shiny tree-topper at least for tonight, before the idea hits him.  “If I may…”  He plucks the hat off of her head and goes onto lopsided tip toes to set it carefully on the top of the tree.  It immediately falls slightly crooked, like it’s on a very rustic hat hook, and he expects Astrid’s too serious lecture about tree balance to start up again, but it doesn’t.  “Is that—”

“I love it,” she grins, “you obviously didn’t need tree decorating lessons, you’re a natural.” 

“You taught me everything I know,” he puts his hand on his heart to swear it and she rolls her eyes. 

“Help me get the rest of these on before—”

A knock at the door cuts her off and she freezes, eyes wide as she tugs at her sweater, shifting half a step back from him.  Right.  His mom.  That’s what she was asking about earlier before she distracted him. 

He checks the time right as Snotlout stands up from the couch. 

“I’ll get it.” 

“No, you won’t,” Hiccup rushes to the door but stumbles, wasting precious time juggling an open box half full of ornaments and ultimately losing the race. 

“Good evening, Miss Haddock,” Snotlout greets stepping aside to let Hiccup’s mom through, “may I say that you look particularly lovely this—”

“You may not,” Hiccup cuts him off, setting the box on the arm of the couch and resisting the urge to shove Snotlout out of the way.  “Hi Mom.” 

“Seeing Spitelout Jorgenson’s son grow up into such a polite young man,” his mom looks at him anxiously for a second and then sets a warm hand on his shoulder, “makes me wonder where I messed up.” 

“Hey!”  Hiccup laughs anyway and Snotlout holds out an arm. 

“Can I take your coat?” 

“I’ve got it,” Hiccup steps in, folding his mom’s coat awkwardly over his arm when she hands it to him. 

Is he supposed to introduce Astrid now?  Or get his mom settled first?  Should he have introduced her before he took his mom’s coat?  Should he have asked Eretson to take her coat, given that he trusts Eretson not to hit on his mom? 

“Oh, Miss Haddock,” Snotlout interrupts Hiccup’s racing thoughts and gestures to Eretson, who looks as composed as any grown man could in a novelty sweater and felt antlers, “I don’t believe you’ve met my boyfriend, Eret.” 

“He’s also my lawyer,” Hiccup blurts out, hastily tossing his mom’s coat onto his hat’s old peg on the coat rack.  He’s lucky that it doesn’t fall. 

He’s never introduced a girlfriend to his mom before, but he is relatively sure he was supposed to do that before introducing his lawyer.  Ex-lawyer.  Ex-lawyer, occasional victim of accidental shower peeping. 

At least he didn’t say that out loud. 

“Nice to meet you, Miss Haddock,” Eretson holds his hand out but Hiccup’s mom hugs him instead. 

“Valka is fine.”  She looks at Snotlout, “for all of you, really.” 

“Well, if you insist.”  Snotlout laughs how adults do when there’s no real joke, the laugh that Hiccup hasn’t even attempted to master. 

“Oh, and Mom?”  Hiccup clears his throat, stepping beside Astrid and grabbing her hand in his.  He wonders if she can feel him shaking and internally thanks her for not mentioning it.  “This is Astrid.  My girlfriend.  And Astrid, this is my mom.  Obviously.” 

“Nice to meet you,” Astrid squeezes his hand before letting it go and offering it to Hiccup’s mom.  There’s a tense millisecond before she gets a hug too, a little more enthusiastic than Eretson’s, if Hiccup isn’t mistaken, and he breathes a little easier.  “I’ve heard so much about you.” 

“I wish I could say the same,” Hiccup’s mom laughs, hands on Astrid’s shoulders, “Hiccup has been very tight-lipped about this whole thing—”

“Mom,” he sounds fifteen when he whines, but he can’t seem to hold it back. 

“I half thought he’d made you up.” 

“Mom.” 

“He didn’t even mention how absolutely gorgeous you are.” 

 “Oh.  Thank you,” Astrid blushes, “can I get you anything?  Would you like some yaknog?” 

“Sure,” his mom agrees, asking ‘what the hell is yaknog’ with her eyes as she looks back at him.  “She really is beautiful—”

“I know,” he cuts her off before Astrid can hear again, fumbling for his own glass of yaknog and toasting in his mom’s direction, “and she makes great eggnog.  I mean yaknog.  It’s eggnog with a way higher rum quotient, I’m told.” 

“Merry Christmas,” his mom responds, humming appreciatively when she tries it. 

Snotlout offers suspiciously graciously to get his mom’s bag from the stairwell, and she accepts before sitting down at one end of the couch, by Eretson.  Snotlout’s seat is assumed, and that leaves the chair, which Hiccup sits in without thinking.  Usually, Astrid would just wedge herself in beside him or make herself comfortable on his lap, but of course she can’t do that now, because his mom is here. 

“Oh, sorry, you can have the, um, chair—” He starts to stand up, but she stops him, hand on his shoulder as she perches on the arm, resting her glass of yaknog on her knee. 

“So,” his mom leans forward slightly, looking around the apartment like she’s wondering how many of the little changes since she lived here are Astrid’s influence.  The answer is most of them, and Hiccup suddenly doesn’t know when he got so old that he didn’t have to ask permission for someone to move in with him.  He guesses he asked Snotlout without getting permission, but that’s different.  That’s a roommate.  “Tell me everything.” 

Eretson laughs, shooting Snotlout a knowing look when he comes back inside, arm on the back of the couch like an invitation to snuggle up together and watch the carnage.  Sometimes, he’s enough of an ass to deserve the ‘lawyer’ title. 

“Everything?”  Hiccup clears his throat, “what’s everything?  I mean, work is going great.  I just got a petition with over ten thousand signatures to save the Grand Hotel from being torn down up to the State Legislature.  I might even get to go defend it, which would be good because that’s how I got most of the ten thousand signatures, by promising people that if they signed my form, they’d be forcing me to talk in a very public, uncomfortable court, and I guess I was annoying enough that it’s something literal thousands of people wanted to force me to do.” 

He laughs.  No one else does.  Astrid squeezes his shoulder, half-comfort and half-reminder, and his mom’s eagle eyes snag on the motion. 

“You told me about your job on the phone,” she reminds him, “I was referring more to the fact that you’re living with a girlfriend you couldn’t find a minute to send me a picture of.” 

“Would you have believed him?”  Snotlout snorts, polite mask slipping for a second until Astrid glares at him.  “About the job.  Of course.  I’m shocked you believed that Hiccup got a job.  I hardly believed it, it’s really just Astrid being a good influence.” 

Eretson and Astrid share a look and he puts a hand on Snotlout’s shoulder, urging him quiet. 

“I heard you two met at your old apartment building?”  Hiccup’s mom directs the question at Astrid and she freezes, eyebrows raising, “was that before or after the ‘little run-in with the law’ that he told me about?” 

“Oh,” Astrid nods, “when you say everything, you mean that much everything.”  Her fingernails dig into Hiccup’s shoulder and his grin turns plastic. 

He didn’t know how to tell his mother that he got a little bit framed for serial murder, but it’s fine now, so he kind of just omitted the first half of the sentence. 

“Is that not how you met?”  Having his mom catch him in half a lie in front of his girlfriend is somehow worse than having his mom catch him in an absolute lie in any other circumstance.  Unpredictably, it’s worse that he’s an adult, a real adult with a job, who just started using beard oil because isn’t the mark of true adulthood the accumulation of small bottles in the bathroom?   

“Do you want to tell it, babe?”  Astrid asks, an edge in the pet name, and he sighs. 

“I’ll take your lead on this one.” 

“Well,” she takes a long drink of her yaknog before continuing, “I’m assuming you know that Hiccup used to do Viggo Grimborn tours.” 

His mom nods, “I was hoping to catch one on this trip, actually.” 

“I don’t actually do them anymore,” Hiccup shrugs, “but I suppose exceptions could be made.” 

“Anyway,” Astrid’s heel knocks against his metal shin as she swings her leg, mysteriously nervous rather than actually mad at him for lying by omission, “I happened to move into an apartment that featured on his tour.” 

“So, we did meet at your building, technically.” 

“Yeah, but I was in the building, and you were in the courtyard yelling about murder and shining a laser pointer into my bathroom,” she corrects him, voice softening throughout the sentence. 

“And you don’t react well to being startled,” he fills in, smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, “as evidenced by the fact that you threw your toothbrush at my head.” 

“Dropped it,” she insists, and he grabs her hand. 

“With deadly aim, sure.” 

“And I’m assuming you apologized,” Hiccup’s Mom raises her eyebrow and he nods. 

“Of course, I sent her a pizza.” 

“It didn’t stop you from coming back three times a night,” Astrid teases. 

“That explains the ‘run-in’ with the law,” his mom gives him a stern look, like he’s six and his dad caught him elbow deep in the cookie jar, so he’s actually in trouble, “it does leave me a little foggy as to why a seemingly smart girl like you moved in with someone who stalked her.” 

Astrid laughs, a little awkward, grip tightening on Hiccup’s hand like he’s her lifeline for once. 

“Technically he only stalked my apartment.”  She shrugs, “and he’s pretty persuasive.  Especially about being harmless.” 

“And lucky for him, you’re a huge nerd too,” Snotlout interjects, earning a blushing glare and an admonishing look from Eretson. 

“Yeah, lucky for me,” Hiccup agrees, because it is luck that Astrid wasn’t just an undeniably gorgeous and unmistakably violent woman who threw things at him.  He doesn’t know how much of his luck he spent for her to be so much more than that, but it’s worth it. 

“That’s quite the story,” his mom finishes her yaknog and Astrid gets up to refill it for her, shooting Hiccup a look that he doesn’t quite understand.  Almost checking in, almost worried, but he doesn’t have time to dwell on it because his mom turns to Eretson.  “Hiccup said you’re his lawyer, maybe you’re the one to ask about his ‘run-in’ with the law, as he puts it.” 

“Well,” Eretson looks almost panicked for a second, before adjusting his antlers and gesturing at Hiccup with the arm not over Snotlout’s shoulders, “given that I’m no longer his lawyer, I’m afraid you’ll have to direct all questions surrounding the dismissed case at my former client.” 

Snotlout snickers. 

“Is that what you would have said in court?”  Hiccup wipes his face, arms itching to pull Astrid into his lap when she sits back down on the arm of the chair, like he could hide behind her where he could pretend he’s not going to have to explain this to his mother.  “I’m shocked you didn’t see it on the news, Mom,” he gestures to his face, “it was everywhere, that’s why I ended up growing the beard, I didn’t actually take to fame as well as I thought I would.  I’m sure you remember the magic tricks?  I used to think I’d love to escape handcuffs on stage, but after I kind of did it, if the twenty-four-seven news racket counts as a stage, I discovered I kind of hated it—”

“I can’t take this anymore,” Snotlout stands up, hands held out like he’s projecting a scene onto a screen between them, “ok, so this really creepy dude infiltrated the police force and framed Hiccup for a bunch of murders—”

“Snotlout!”  Astrid tries to stop him, but he waves her off. 

“It’s your big meet-Hiccup’s-mom moment, I get you.  I’ve got you, she comes out of this story looking…like oh my God, I’m not going to spoil it, just—wait, did you hear I got shot?”  He pauses and then reaches for the hem of his shirt. 

“Snotlout!”  Hiccup snaps, almost knocking Astrid off of the arm of the chair as he jumps halfway to his feet. 

“I was just going to show her my scar.” 

“She doesn’t want to see your scar,” Hiccup assures him, sitting back down and tugging Astrid with him, his hips notched slightly behind hers so that they can share the chair.  She crosses her legs and her ankle slides across his knee, anchoring him for whatever spectacle he’s about to endure. 

Eretson has a stupid, bemused expression on his face that Hiccup only recognizes from his own reflection when he happens to be thinking about Astrid, and inviting his mother for Christmas was obviously a mistake. 

“I’ll skip to the good part,” Snotlout promises, “Hiccup is in jail, for multiple murders, and Astrid goes to visit him, but of course the bad guy chooses that time to gloat about it, and Astrid—this Astrid, right here, takes her umbrella,” he mimes a wide swing like he’s hitting a home run, “and shatters the creep’s nose.  One orbital socket too, I heard from the hospital.  I’ve seen the video it’s…” 

“Classified,” Eretson interrupts, “that case is still ongoing.” 

“It’s awesome,” Snotlout insists, “that’s what it is.” 

“It was nothing,” Astrid tries to hold some approximation of a humble expression but then she grins, allowing the compliment, “ok, it was pretty satisfying.” 

“Multiple murders,” Hiccup’s mom says slowly, eyebrows raised, and he gives into the urge to hide behind Astrid, chin on her shoulder, arm possessively around her waist as he shoots a glare at Snotlout for revealing that little tidbit of information, “quite the ‘run-in’.” 

“That I didn’t, you know, commit.”  He mumbles after a too long second, “I was framed.” 

It isn’t received as the comforting statement he was going for and he looks up at the lights strung around the window before whispering in Astrid’s ear. 

“How do I get the conversation off of murder and back to Christmas?” 

“I don’t know,” she flushes, whispering as quietly as possible as the three on the couch engage in halting small talk, “Jonbenet Ramsey?” 

Hiccup snorts even though he shouldn’t, burying his nose in her hair to try and hide it.  His humor has always skewed dark, and that’s probably why he’s not in a padded room right now, but the last thing he wants to do now is explain how Astrid’s knowledge of true crime beyond Grimborn is not only funny, but also endearing and kind of sexy in a way he can’t contemplate with his mom judging him. 

“What was that?”  His mom asks and Astrid’s neck warms as her blush travels down it. 

“Nothing.”  She clears her throat, patting Hiccup’s arm for him to let her up and take all of her warmth and protection with her.  “I was about halfway through decorating the tree when you got here, I think I’ll go finish that.” 

“Can I help?”  His mom offers and while his first instinct is to follow and make sure that everything goes well, Astrid is far more capable of assuring that particular outcome than he is. 

“Yeah, that’d be great.” 

Hiccup tries not to watch them.  He offers to order a pizza, because of course he didn’t plan for dinner in the rush of getting the tree and he doesn’t think anywhere delivers a whole Christmas goose on such short notice.  He tries to focus on his phone or Snotlout and Eretson’s conversation about some law he doesn’t think he’s broken yet, but his entire being still snaps to attention when Astrid makes his mom laugh. 

“…not even listening to me, are you?”  Snotlout’s voice breaks his concentration as he tries to make sense of the joke or embarrassing story about him or whatever they’re bonding over and he glares at him. 

“What?” 

“I said ‘you’re not even listening to me, are you?’,” Snotlout scoffs and stands up, walking over to the chair as Eretson migrates closer to the tree, “and then you said ‘what?’, which proved you weren’t—”

“What did I miss?”  Hiccup rolls his eyes, “because I heard the whole story where you admitted to my mother that I was wrongly incarcerated for murder.  Thanks for that, by the way.” 

“No problem, I figured it’d be easier if she heard it from me.”  His smile is borderline flirtatious, and Hiccup grinds his teeth. 

“Don’t.” 

“Don’t what?  Don’t give you another reason to thank me?” 

“What’s the reason?”  Hiccup stands up, returning to the counter to refresh his yaknog, sure that he’s going to need it to cushion whatever Snotlout is about to say. 

“I’m doing you a favor—”

“Tell me what the favor is, and I’ll decide if I’m going to thank you for it.”  His eyes flick to the tree again when Astrid laughs.  She must have stolen Eretson’s antlers at some point and she slaps his hand away when he tries to recover them. 

“I think your mom should sleep in my bed.” 

“What?”  Hiccup snaps, too loud, and everyone looks at him like they’re nervous to even attempt to understand the size and scale of whatever his problem is. 

“Is everything ok?”  Astrid cocks her head and he nods back at her, tight lipped and sloshing yaknog on the front of his apparently inadequate blue sweater when he tries to wave her off. 

“Fine.  Good.  I just need to talk to Snotlout outside for a second.  Alone.  Where no one can hear him scream—”

“Scream?”  Eretson asks but Snotlout brushes him off, following a little too willingly when Hiccup drags him out into the stairwell. 

“I asked you to stop with the hitting on my mom jokes for one day,” he hisses out on the sidewalk, glaring at the carolers who have managed to move all of a block down the frigid sidewalk, even as the slow falling snow should have convinced them to head home by now, “for Astrid to meet her, because it’s a big deal—”

“It’s not a joke—”

“Sometimes, I wish I’d gotten convicted for shooting you so that double jeopardy could apply,” he runs out of steam all at once, shoulders slumping, “so are you telling Eretson that you think my mom should sleep with you or is it my turn to make a fool out of you by telling a stupid story?” 

“I said your mom should sleep in my bed,” Snotlout claps him on the shoulders, “not with me.  I can crash with Eret while she’s here, then your mom doesn’t have to sleep on the couch.  I already changed the sheets.” 

“If that’s what you meant, why did you phrase it like that?” 

“To make you freak out,” he shrugs. 

“Right.  Thanks for that.” 

“No problem,” Snotlout pulls a wad of green out of his pocket and it takes a second for Hiccup to recognize plastic mistletoe, “we’ll probably head out soon, actually, I grabbed this from Astrid’s decoration stash, I was thinking about hanging it from my belt buckle.” 

“Gross.” 

“Eret seems pretty into Christmas, I thought it was festive—”

“I’m going to go back inside, before you say anything else, or before—” Before something goes less than perfectly between Astrid and his mom.  “Nope, that one reason is enough.” 

“Dude,” Snotlout sighs, “calm the fuck down, Astrid’s great, and way too hot for you.  There’s no way your mom isn’t going to like her.” 

“Great pep talk.” 

“I’m here to help,” Snotlout claps him on the shoulder before leading the way back inside. 

He explains his purposed sleeping arrangements to Hiccup’s mom, and she makes another comment about how surprised she is at his politeness.  If it wouldn’t make him stick around and cause more havoc, Hiccup might take the opportunity to clarify that it’s all an act, and a thin one at that, but as little as he wants to think about what Snotlout just overshared, he really wants him to leave.  Not only to get his wildcard mouth out of the situation, but because there’s something nuclear about the idea of being alone with Astrid and his mom.  Something a little more traditionally family shaped. 

His dad’s absence is a little heavier as they sit around the remarkably well-balanced tree, eating pizza and hashing out vague plans for the next few days.  Astrid teasingly promises to help with a Grimborn tour, if he’s too rusty, and he wonders what must show on his face for his mom to yawn so quickly and excuse herself to bed, blaming flights and travel and anything other than Hiccup’s blush. 

She points silently at Astrid’s back on the way to Snotlout’s room before giving Hiccup a not so subtle thumbs up that he appreciates as much as it embarrasses him. 

After the door is shut, Astrid stands with a yawn, stretching her arms over her head and shuffling towards the kitchen, promising to put the remnants of the yaknog away and meet him in the bedroom.  And listening to the quiet clang of the pitcher in the fridge while he takes off his work clothes and flops onto the bed in his underwear only enforces the feeling of home and family and stifling rightness that has perfumed every awkward minute of tonight. 

Astrid pauses when the door clicks shut behind her, cocking her head as he props himself up on an elbow, a bemused little smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. 

“What?”  He looks down at his chest, “did Yaknog soak through my shirt?” 

“I can’t tell from here,” she unbuttons her pants and shoves them down to join his in a disorganized pile on the floor before doing that female trick where her arms disappear into sleeves for a moment and her bra appears, also immediately abandoned. Her sweater hangs halfway down her thighs and her knee-high socks are covered in candy canes and Christmas trees.  “I was wondering why you aren’t under the covers.” 

“Ran out of energy,” he shrugs, “right here.  Can’t move another inch.” 

“Right,” she nods, unimpressed as she climbs onto the bed beside him and tugs absently at her side of the covers, biting her lip and sitting cross-legged, tucking her hair behind her ear.  “How do you think that went?” 

“Oh, I was a spaz, so everything’s right on schedule.”  He lays back, hand landing on her knee and sliding down to trace the edge of her sock against her calf. 

“No, I mean,” her voice dips, “how do you think I did with meeting your mom?” 

“Great,” he rolls on his side to face her, leaning halfway up on an elbow, “of course.  Were you worried?” 

“Of course, I was worried,” she crosses her arms, but even she struggles to look scary in an oversized sweater and holiday socks. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“Because I thought it was obvious.”  She scoffs, “I want your mom to like me, of course I was nervous.” 

“She likes you,” he skips to the fact instead of meandering through the long explanation that of course his mom would like her, because there’s nothing unlikeable about her, “she gave me a thumbs up on her way to bed.  That’s high approval.” 

“Oh,” she brightens, hands tucked back into too long sleeves. 

“I have a secret too,” he flops onto his back, “I don’t know if you want to hear it though…”

“Don’t tease me,” she follows, straddling his hips with her hands on his chest, like she’s planning on holding him down until he talks.  Not that he minds, if anything he folds his arms behind his head with plans to draw it out.  “That’s just mean.” 

“Snotlout stole your mistletoe,” he says seriously. 

“Bastard,” she whispers, fingers curling absently against his chest. 

“I know.  I would have fought for it for you—”

“Of course.” 

“But he told me he was planning to hang it from his belt buckle, so then it felt tainted.”  He laughs when her nose wrinkles in sympathetic disgust.  “I know.” 

“Well what are we going to do now?”  She presses her thumb to his lower lip, fingernails scratching gently through his beard and he shivers.  Her smile is just on the right side of teasing,“if you’re cold, you should get under the covers.” 

“Told you, I’m too tired,” he pushes back on her hips with hands that suddenly can’t move fast enough and she scoots back enough to let him sit up.  “I also told you that wool gives me a rash,” he tries to kiss her as he pulls her sweater up, but she pushes him back with a hand over his mouth. 

“Without mistletoe?”  She snickers through her false incredulity and he pauses his quest against her sweater to tuck her hair behind her ear, “that’s not very festive.” 

“We don’t need it.”  He attempts to roll her onto the pillow but only half succeeds, hovering over her as she scoots back, knees hugging his hips when she’s comfortable.  “It’s a pagan thing anyway.”  Her sweater makes his chest itch when he kisses her neck, but her hand trailing down his side makes it hard to care. 

“Oh, so like ‘keep Christ in Christmas’?”  She asks, arching into him when he grinds down against her, hand sliding down the back of her thigh. 

“No,” he sits back on his heel, carefully unfolding her leg and setting her novelty sock clad heel over his shoulder, “it’s all about commercialism.” 

“Right.  Of course,” she laughs, eyes bright with something better than Christmas spirit and stronger than yaknog. 

“A reason to sell socks,” he kisses the edge of the sock on her calf, “and deforest small, ornamental trees.”  He kisses the inside of her knee.  “Run up the electric bill with hundreds of twinkling lights.” 

He kisses the inside of her thigh, knees scooting backwards on the bed as her heel drags up his spine. 

“They’re LED.”  She’s not laughing anymore, voice low like she’s reminding herself to be quiet, and she lifts her hips when he hooks his thumbs in the sides of her underwear. 

“A reason to buy twinkling lights, then.”  He pushes her sweater up enough to kiss her hipbone and she nearly growls under her breath, hand firm on the back of his head as she redirects his focus. 

“Ok, Scrooge.” 

He’d make some quip about the ghost of Christmas future not being particularly scary, but he doesn’t think she’s listening. 

[howtodrawyourdragon]

A Warm Snoggletog Heart

Summary: Set during RttE. The Riders decided that one of the best things about having Dragon's Edge was the excuse to celebrate everything twice.

A birthday? They would have a party on both Berk and the Edge. A holiday? A celebration on Berk and the Edge. Snoggletog? That absolutely needed to be celebrated twice!

And this year, they have something particularly special in mind for Hiccup.  

Rating: General

Words: 1 481

Author’s Notes: Wrote this in a day because someone from a whump Discord server I'm a part of gave me the motivation for it. Usually, I wait with posting fics until the weekends, so there's a little bit of time between finishing and revising it one last time before I post it. But I wanted it out before tomorrow and since I'll probably be gone tomorrow, I decided to do it all today.

Constructive criticism is appreciated!

Enjoy!

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The Riders decided that one of the best things about having Dragon's Edge was the excuse to celebrate everything twice.

A birthday? They would have a party on both Berk and the Edge. A holiday? Again, a celebration on Berk and the Edge. Snoggletog? That absolutely needed to be celebrated twice!

So when Snoggletog came around, Hiccup and the Dragon Riders returned home to share this time with their families only to then go back to their base away from home to share it with just each other.

It wasn't as crazy as their parents probably thought it was going to be.

Astrid used her iron fist to make sure the decorations put up were perfect and up to her standards as she and Tuffnut worked together on that. Snotlout and Ruffnut were put in charge of gathering the favorite meals of the dragons so they would have something of a feast as well. And Fishlegs was made to help Hiccup get dinner ready.

All in all, it wasn't supposed to be a big celebration. It was rather small and intimate, held in the clubhouse.

That was where they were. They'd just eaten dinner, it was time for presents.

Snotlout may have actually squealed in excitement. Astrid already promised him she would never let him live that down.

"An axe! Yes!" Astrid shouted excitedly, holding the double-headed weapon. It was much like Heather's, except more her style. Less rough and more elegant. With complimentary skulls. Her cheeks and eyes lit up.

"Oh yay! Another one!" Snotlout rolled his eyes next to her.

"Thank you, Hiccup!" She told him, though her smile was more than enough of a gift for him.

"Uh, how do you know it didn't come from us?" Ruffnut asked.

"Because it's an axe, Ruff. Do you know how to make one?" She asked, though she wasn't particularly annoyed. Her day was made.

"Heather and I actually collaborated on that one. She mentioned to me how you really wanted one like hers, so we worked on it together. We each did one half and we exchanged some secrets. Blacksmith to blacksmith. It's like a Snoggletog gift and a "thank you for letting me stay in your hut" gift combined." Hiccup explained. As Astrid took a closer look, she did see some marks she didn't recognize as made by Hiccup's hand.

So this was Heather's signature. She would remember them too.

"So... What did I get?" Fishlegs could hardly wait. He was having a hard time sitting still on his chair.

It was Snotlout who gave him his present.

"From me to you." He told him and gave it to him in the most dramatic Snotlout-esque way possible.

"Awww, thank you, Snotlout!" Fishlegs responded as he accepted the gift. It appeared to be a book. Opening it up, he found detailed sketches of plants inside and he gasped.

"Is this what I think it is?!"

"The Beauty of Botany Volume Three? That's exactly what you're looking at!" Snotlout exclaimed. It was hidden behind a smirk, but he was just as excited as Fishlegs was. Snoggletog was one of the few times a year he let his generosity shine. This side to him was exclusively for Snoggletog and birthdays only.

Fishlegs grinned from ear to ear as he skimmed through its pages. He was as happy as a Nadder at a Chicken buffet.

"So everyone's got their presents, only one victim remains." Ruffnut was particularly menacing as she spoke up, leaning on her knees with her elbows.

Snotlout's gift had been a bludgeon similar to his very first, which he had lost again. The twins had absolutely nothing to do with its disappearance, they had assured Snotlout of this.

What Tuffnut was given was something made for Chicken. It was a little custom-made bed for her because Tuff had complained about it being unfair that he got a bed, but not Chicken.

As for Ruff's gift, it was a handmade lotion of fish oil for her hair created out of rare and exotic ingredients that were quite expensive on the market. She had immediately slathered her hair with it.

Hiccup was the person she was talking about, but for once, he wasn't particularly worried. The Riders watched as Tuffnut got up to grab it.

He quickly returned with something obscured by cloth and he handed it over to Hiccup, who took it.

He stared at the gift his friends decided to give him. He was certainly curious, that was for sure. It was the only one wrapped up.

He didn't quite notice it, all of his attention was on the object held in his hands, but anticipation amongst the Riders grew. They were all sitting on the edge of their seats as they watched Hiccup unwrap it.

It turned out to be a plush toy. Of Toothless! Well, he was pretty sure it was a stuffed animal version of his Night Fury, it looked quite odd.

"It's Toothless!" He was puzzled, but he was smiling nonetheless. The Night Fury himself came over from his corner to sit closer to look at the toy when he heard his name leave Hiccup's lips. He was intrigued.

But Hiccup's smile slowly faltered as he took a closer look at Toy Toothless' oddities.

He had tiny, tiny skulls for eyes. The kind he knew only one person to wear, except they were even smaller. He recognized Snotlout's stitching. The "hide" was knitted patches of black wool. Toothless' "nubs" were braided in a very specific way. And if he had to guess, the stuffing must be chicken feathers.

That's when it hit him.

His friends had made this for him. All of them had left their marks on it. This was something they worked on together. For him!

He was speechless.

"Take another look at the skulls." Hiccup didn't know when his friends decided to move in behind him, but he noticed when Astrid spoke up and pointed towards the plush's eyes. He did as he was told and saw that they were painted a dark green. Forest green.

"Do you think he realizes we made it for him?" Tuffnut asked his sister in whispers loud enough for all of them to hear.

"Oh yeah, I think he does." Ruffnut replied, proud of herself. Her arms were crossed in fulfillment.

As Hiccup looked at its eyes, there was one more detail on the doll left for him to find out.

Turning it slightly, he noticed that his emblem had been stitched onto it.

They had all put little bits and pieces of themselves in the toy and they made sure a little bit of Hiccup was in there as well.

"We saw that you brought the toy your mom made you to the Edge and thought "Hey! You like that one! Why not make another one?" So we did!" Snotlout explained. It looked like he'd been waiting to do so.

The Riders had expected many different reactions from Hiccup. Long ago, when the idea had first struck them, they even decided to take a bet and see who could nail their leader's reaction.

They hadn't expected him to cry.

Tears spilled from his eyes and he sniffed. His smile was the biggest they'd ever seen on his face.

"Hiccup?" Astrid asked, hands on his shoulders. Hiccup let his head hang as a single sob escaped.

"Oh no, we broke him!" Tuffnut loudly exclaimed with his hands on his helmet. Ruffnut smacked him hard.

"Look what you've done to him!" She accused him of an utmost heinous crime. Snotlout came and banged their helmets together.

"Ugh, muttonheads!"

Maybe it was all the stress getting to him or maybe he truly was that touched by their gesture, but Hiccup couldn't help himself.

"Hiccup?"

"I'm-I'm fine, guys. I'm fine." The level of control in his voice backed it up.

"I'm just... I'm just really touched, I..." He tried wiping his cheeks dry with his sleeves, but it was useless.

Smiling sympathetically, Astrid bend down to wrap her arms around his shoulders to pull him into a hug. The waterworks were going with her too, albeit slightly less than they were with Hiccup.

"So sensitive!" Snotlout complained with a shake of his head, even though he jumped on the chance to share a group hug with the rest of the Riders. He grabbed both Astrid and Hiccup into a hold that was more of a headlock than an actual hug. They laughed.

"Ah-ha! A way to fix this!" Tuffnut joked and embraced the three of them. Huffing, Ruffnut joined in.

"Oh, you guys!" Fishlegs spoke and completed the hug by wrapping his arms around the entire group.

All of them smiled, nobody let go. The toy dragon his mother made for him so long ago now had a friend. And Hiccup, he found this to be the warmest Snoggletog yet.

[shipmistress9]

One Last Hope

Fandom: HTTYD // ML

Pairing: Hiccup/Astrid

Rating: T

Genre: Romance/Angst

Summary: When Astrid gets injured in a fight, Hiccup is willing to do everything to save her. Everything!

. o O o .

AN: Okay, this weird plot bunny has been nagging at me for quite some time now... Now, it can go nag at you 😇

. o O o .

Hiccup couldn't even remember how it happened.

In one moment, they'd all been fighting dragon hunters just as usual, with Astrid as his general calling out orders to the others. Then the fight had become more heated, the noises around then drowning out her voice. And now, he would give everything to hear it just one more time. 

Unmoving, he sat at the side of her bed, in the exact same spot he’d sat in ever since people had brought her here a few days ago. Her wounds, as far as she’d had some from that last fight, had all healed by now, but they’d been barely more than scratches anyway. Nothing that would explain why she wouldn’t wake up. 

Fishlegs claimed he’d seen how she’d gotten hit on the head and had fallen to the ground like a stone. And that was a possible explanation, Hiccup knew that. Sometimes, people got hit in the head and died without any other visible injuries.

But Astrid wasn’t dead. She was still breathing, and even though he had to manually feed her water and broth to keep her alive, her body was clearly reacting to it, feeding on it. It was similar to when she’d had a bad fever two years ago when she’d been barely conscious for days on end. Back then, he’d kept her alive by spoon-feeding her too until she’d woken up again. Which was the difference now… This time, she just wouldn’t wake up… 

A whole week passed without her condition changing. Then a second one. Then a month. At Hiccup’s request, Snotlout had taken over leading the village for now, with Gobber, Gothi, and some of the other elders as his advisors. They were doing okay, or he hoped so at least. Right now, Astrid needed him more. 

Every day, he talked to her.  He told her about the weather, what the people walking past the window were doing. He told her of ideas he had, of new inventions he wanted to make or how to improve them. And he told her about what he would like to do if she would only wake up. Like taking a flight, simply for fun. Just going anywhere where he didn’t need to be the Chief, where they could just be Hiccup and Astrid. He wouldn’t waste another minute with boring council meetings ever again… 

“Talk to me, please,” he murmured into her hair one day. He held her hand in his, hoping for a light squeezing or a twitch of her fingers. Just anything! 

But time passed without her waking up, and with every day, Hiccup became more frantic. 

“Please,” he prayed to the Gods, desperate for just any sign, a hint, just something. “Please tell me what I have to do to get her back! I… I need her!” 

But, of course, he didn’t get an answer. The Gods had always hated him, so why would they help now? 

With a forlorn cry, he sank to his knees, just next to her bed. Her limp hand lay right in front of him, and without him thinking about it, he nuzzled into it, his tears coating her soft skin. 

“Please,” he muttered weakling to no-one in particular. “Please, I’d do everything to get her back.”

He didn’t know for how long he knelt there beside her, but from one moment to the other, the room was filled with movement. There was Toothless, nuzzling his head into Hiccup’s side until he reached out to scratch his head. Hiccup felt sorry for neglecting his friend so much lately, but he couldn’t help it. He just couldn’t leave Astrid’s side. 

But then, his friend wasn’t alone anymore anyway. Behind him, the Light Fury slid into the room, her big eyes filled with sorrow at the sight in front of her, and before Hiccup could react, Stormfly came in too, making the usually spacious room feel incredibly small. 

But Hiccup wasn’t worried that one of the dragons would hurt Astrid, not even accidentally. With tired eyes, he watched as the Nadder leaned over the bed, a sad trill rumbling through her body as she rubbed her chin against Astrid’s unmoving form. 

It looked as if the dragon was saying her last goodbye, but Hiccup wasn’t in a position to accept that idea. Astrid wasn’t dead, wasn’t lost. Not yet. 

Hiccup flinched when something heavy dropped to the ground next to him. When he looked down, he found a bag Toothless seemed to have dropped there. 

“What’s this, bud?” he asked in a weak voice. Was this supposed to be a gift to cheer him up? It was certainly well intended, but not what Hiccup needed right now.

[Help.]

With a start, Hiccup looked up and into his friend’s large eyes. He had no doubt that what he’d just heard had been Toothless voice. But how? He blinked in confusion, but in the end couldn’t bring himself to care enough even about such a riddle. 

“Help?” he asked, a sliver of hope rising inside him? “Is this some medicine? Something to heal her?”

Toothless gave a grunt and shook his scaly head. [No medicine. Help.]

Puzzled, Hiccup opened the bag; it was filled with dragon scales of all sizes and colours. In the next moment, an image rose to Hiccup’s mind’s eye, an image he’d never seen before and was sure wasn’t of his own imagination. It showed the scales in his hands, laid out in a circle and a strangle light glowing on the inside. 

[Build around you and her. Name your wish. Call on old dragons of time and wisdom. Won’t judge. Might help.]

Hiccup could do nothing but stare at his friend. Was he hallucinating now? Quite possible... He’d not eaten much and was dehydrated. Probably this was nothing but a trick his mind was playing on him. Toothless speaking? And some form of ritual to contact some dragon Gods? It sounded insane, even in his own mind. 

But no matter how weird the situation was, he wouldn’t waste it. Not if there was any chance… 

“Thank you!” he gasped, tears forming in his eyes as he threw his arms around Toothless’ neck. 

The dragon hummed, the vibrations rumbling through both their bodies. [Will miss you.]

The next Hiccup knew was that the dragons were gone. He blinked a few times, but from one heartbeat to the other, they’d disappeared without a trace. He was even about to admit that it had been nothing but a dream after all – if it hadn’t been for the bag full of dragon scales in his hands. 

His eyes wandered to Astrid’s face, pale and unmoving. “I’d do everything for you,” he murmured and leaned in to breathe a light kiss onto her lips. “Everything!”

Then he proceeded to put what he’d seen into reality. Meticulously, he ordered the scales into an orderly circle around Astrid’s bed so that every single one touched those next to it. After he’d put the last one in its place, the strange light he’d seen in his vision appeared right above her unmoving body, faint but undeniably there. 

After taking a deep breath, Hiccup stepped into the circle as well, kneeling over her. It should have felt stupid, but somehow it didn’t. It felt just right. “I don’t know if you can hear me,” he said in a low but clear voice. “But please, I need your help. If there is any way for me to help her, to heal her and to get her back, then please tell me what it is. I’m ready to do everything, no matter what.”

At first, he thought he wouldn’t get an answer. And why would he? This was just as hopeless as calling on his own Gods for help. If they didn’t care, why should foreign ones do? But then, the faint light around them grew stronger and stronger until it was so bright that he couldn’t even see the room around them anymore. There was nothing but this light and Astrid beneath him. And distant, murmuring voices. 

They were all talking at once, and even though Hiccup tried to understand them, there were just too many. He got enough to understand one thing, however. They were debating different approaches, possibilities, options. 

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed – A minute? An hour? A year? – but eventually, the voices died down until only one was still speaking. It wasn’t a language he consciously understood though, but more something that spoke directly to his mind. It told him about the passing of time, about travelling in space, of things that happened around him, and taught him languages he’d never heard of before. By the time the voice stopped, his head was dizzy with the overload of information, even though his mind somehow seemed capable of digesting it all. 

When he found his way back into reality, it felt like waking up – probably because he was literally waking up, lying in a foreign bed in a foreign room wearing foreign clothes. Immediately, his eyes darted around, searching and finding the only thing that mattered. Astrid was lying in a bed next to his, tubes and equipment attached to her that he now knew to be a life support system. There were moving pictures – monitors, as his mind reminded him – that showed various numbers and moving lines. So far, she was fine and stable. 

A little less anxious now that he knew she was cared for, Hiccup’s eyes wandered through the rest of the room. The walls were decorated in what seemed to be his old drawings, and in general, this room reminded him of the one he’d had at home – even though in a much more modern way. 

The only thing that stood out was a small box on a table nearby. It was black and when he stepped closer, he noticed an intricate pattern of thin red lines all over its surface. Inside, he found some sort of stone, carved into a perfect oval jewel. It was purple, but the moment he touched it, the colour shifted to a dark almost black green. 

[This is the miraculous of the butterfly,] a strange voice spoke in his mind. [Its former owner used it to gain access to the miraculous of the ladybug and the cat. He failed, but if you are successful, then they will grant you a wish. With them, you can get your beloved back.]

The voice fell silent, the faint light – the afterglow of the incantation – fading, and Hiccup knew that he would never hear or see it again. He gazed at the jewel in his hand, feeling a sense of sorrow and betrayal, but wasn’t sure what to make of it. Without wasting another thought on this though, Hiccup pinned the jewel to his collar. His outfit changed, transforming him without him really noticing, as he stepped close to Astrid on her bed again. 

“Don’t worry,” he murmured, leaning down to let his lips glide over her forehead, her nose, her lips. “I will heal you. I promise!”

. o O o .

AN: Okay, I know this sounds like the beginning of a long and complicated story... and maybe it is. But I won’t be the one telling it. I don’t have a real idea for this and I also don’t have the time or inclination to dive deeper into this. I just wanted to get rid of this plot bunny.

If anyone feels inspired though, go ahead. 😅

[kingofthewilderwest]

Could you give us your thoughts on each dragon riders new looks from HTTY3, who got the best update to their look? What would you have done differently? Who wins best hair? Who still needs some fashion advice?

I’m going to talk armor clothing in particular - not, for instance, how they animated Hiccup’s facial features, etc., and stuff. 

So this might be a different opinion than some fans take. For me personally, most of the designs aren’t “my” sort of thing. It’s not that I hate them or think lesser of The Hidden World or anything like that. I wouldn’t salt about any of these costumes! They’re just not my aesthetic! XD

As far as clothing’s concerned, I prefer the first movie’s wardrobes the best. This is because they feel more “grounded” to me in practicality and reality. Now, I understand lots of people groups have very elaborate and creative clothing, of course, and I know the HTTYD movies (following after the intentionally historically inaccurate books) go along with the incorrect notion Vikings wore horned helmets. But the clothing that you see in the first movie, regardless, feels less over-the-top artist-wanted-to-have-fun-designing things, and more like what a people group would wear in their day-to-day. What everyone wears in the first HTTYD feels grounded and in line with their environment and culture.

Hiccup’s clothing in HTTYD 2, by contrast, sticks out against his setting. It’s an anomaly of his world. It doesn’t seem to fit with the aesthetic that’s the rest of Berk. It’s unnecessarily over the top, doesn’t look like part of the world he’s in, and is impractical to wear (I’ve made a cosplay of this… it is not practical to wear). Again, it’s not that I hate it. I’ll tease our ridiculous protagonist for making outfits. But his clothes start to feel more like “artist wanted to have fun designing him and made him overly eye-catching for the appeal of… kid audience members?” and less like “this is a natural product syncing with his world.”

The HTTYD 3 designs feel like one step beyond that. They’re so flamboyant I wonder if their intricate over-the-topness will be distracting to me on screen.

It’s sometimes hard for my mind to visually reconcile that this culture…

is supposed to be the same as this…

Fishlegs and Snotlout’s wardrobes have the least appeal to me, personally. All characters are a bit “out there,” but these are the ones that feel “odd” to me. The big bulging balls on Fishlegs’ uniform to mimic Gronckle bumps I guess? Snotlout wearing a collar of Monstrous Nightmare spikes? Giving Tuffnut a… braided hair… not-beard? These things feel too eccentric or out-there to me. Not my thing, honestly.

But! Let’s not make it sound like I want to hate on these designs! Even though they’re not my favorite aesthetic, here are the things I love most:

The concept of using dragon materials for armor. It makes complete sense. In a society that lives by dragons and breathes by dragons, they’re going to incorporate that into their wares and practicality, too.

Hiccup in particular wearing black dragon scale armor feels like a call-out to the books! 

The chest plate on Hiccup’s has a cool, aesthetic shape.

Spikes on shoes is fun.

I like how sleek and badass Ruffnut looks. Let’s be real, the ladies got the best designs.

Even though I think Ruff’s braids both being on one side is… odd… I still like how she looks with her hair.

Astrid’s design is by far my favorite. I do overall like this one!!! Especially taking off the helmet, she looks glorious and badass. Hers feels like the most natural incorporation of armor + dragon scales, and it fits on her well. Very well. Yesssss.

[aevyk-ing]

Hi, I’m back and ready to ramble a little about my impressions on HTTYD3: The Hidden World. Spoilers ahead.

First of all, I have to talk about a couple of things: all of you know how much HTTYD means for me, I’m writing this three days after watching the movie and relying on my notes and my memory (which is not bad but isn’t perfect either) and I watched the movie in 4DX 3D, so it was much more inmersive. Ok, here we go:

I really liked the DreamWorks logo, it seemed fitting with the style of the movie, or maybe just an hommage for Cressida Cowell. Either way, it looked great. But, no “This is Berk” intro? I have  the feeling that there was something off in this movie. I’ll get to that towards the end. Anyway, although weird, that intro worked fine and I just love see them fighting. My only problem is that we’ve seen them working as a team lots of times. But maybe the armors make that a little more difficult. I don’t know. And I don’t know why they have to take ALL of the rescued dragons to Berk. Yes, it’s the new dragon sanctuary, but Berk is not suited for ALL those dragons. There were merely five or six native species, so is not a perfect habitat for the rest of them. I mean, Toothless, as the Alpha, could have set the sanctuary in a group of islands, so there’ll be no space problem. Also, most of Berk are new houses. Who is these people? You don’t duplicate your population in just a year. Or the houses are for the dragons? Moving on, I don’t really get why Hiccup and Astrid don’t want to get married. I thought that was something that was going to be worked out (if I recall correctly, Astrid was the one who had the problem) but that just dissappeared (just like the “working as a team” problem and the “you’re nothing without Toothless”). As you can see, my main problem is that the story throws you a lot of different elements but then most of them are forgotten, and some are very important regarding the end.

Grimmel was really well animated and I liked his backstory, it was so clever to have a villain like that. But I think I’ve grown accostumed to the DreamWorks series, where a villain is introduced, hated and conquered in a group of episodes and the finales run about 40 minutes at least. But movies can do that too, they can tell a great story in less than two hours, and I feel like we should have seen more of Grimmel, and Drago and the hunters in general. I would have prefer to skip Drago and have Grimmel in the two movies.

I’m going to pause here and talk about the characters. Hiccup was ok. He’s the same dork with insecurities and he seems to have learnt a lot after the Drago fiasco. It looks like he’s being a good chief (except for the dragon overpopulation) and I loved to see him at the forge again. His armor is a little odd, I prefer the HTTYD2 one, but his other clothes were so cool. Infant Hiccup is so cute and I loved seeing him in two and not just one flashback. The Nadder plushie was a good touch, but I was sure it was lost at the sea long ago. Astrid... oh, how to put it? I feel like, in these last two movies, she’s been more like a hand to hold or something like that. Yes, she has some great action scenes, but I’d like to see more of her, her family and her relationship with Stormfly and her new General Hoff status. Just more. Her clothes are a little off too, and I’m talking about the hair. She’s a warrior, and long flowing hair doesn’t look fitting. Also, wasn’t she wearing a ponytail in the first poster? Her hairstyles are a current problem. Her wedding dress is ok, more traditional viking, but I’m ok with that and I’m looking forward to the furried cape and all the metal stuff. But then, at  the end, after at least five years after all, she has only changed her vest (which is blue and beatiful) and has no bangs! Astrid without bangs. Seriously? Of course she’s still going to look amazing after having two kids, but I expected her clothes to be quite different. I’m not sure if I want to cosplay that version. Well, just a rant more about clothes and I’m done. Even though I think Grimmel was so interesting, I just don’t get his clothes, with little belts just like Hiccup (ok, ok,  it’s because they share a simmilar story) and that long cloack, which works fine for the character, but if they had given him longer hair, he would look like he’s from a videogame. The gang suffers a lot from the lack of time, but I’m going to start with the twins. They have a lot of screen time and although I don’t care much about Tuffnut talking with Hiccup (if Fishlegs is really his best friend, it should have been him the one that talks about the wedding), Ruffnut was great. They really gave Kristen an opportunity to shine. My only problem is that she seems to have forgot about Eret. She says that all the guys are in love with her, but we don’t see any of that, nothing that reminds us that at least two guys are fighting over her, because Snotlout is now in love with Valka (ugh) and Fishlegs just exists for comic relief. But she choses Fishlegs because he’s sensitive, when we all know that Snotlout is quite sensitive too. I would have left her with Snotlout and Fishlegs with Heather, but that’s my opinion. Eret is just there to share information about Grimmel (just like Stoick did with Drago) and he looks like he don’t belong there when everyone is in armor and wings in the last battle. Valka was good. She did her part and had some good animation.. And Stoick was good too. I still think that we saw a kinder side of him, but it works with the story. And I have to mention Spitelout, as I was quite happy to see him around and I almost lost it when he talked. Ye olde Tennant. Yes, I’ve been watching Doctor Who lately.

Now, the elephant in the room. I’m not a fan of the Light Fury. I don’t like characters that are just there looking pretty. And I really thought that she was working for Grimmel. That’d have been a more interesting story. But no, her only purpose in the story is to take away Toothless, so... and she looks so smooth and shiny with a cute little nose so I can even take her seriously when she’s angry. She’s just boring and forgettable.

As I’m following my own notes, I have to talk about the dragon mating rituals, which I didn’t see or cared about before this movie, and I have to ask, what’s with the chicken dance, Hiccup? But, hey, this part was funny, I guess.

When Grimmel attacks Berk, I was quite sure it was a dream, but then, everything is on fire. What they don’t explain is if the whole island is burned to the ground or just the village. If the island is still all right, they could have moved on again after they bid goodbye to the dragons. Talking about the scene, I understand that it’s more emotional for Hiccup and Toothless, but we’ve seen this lots of times in the series and it was far more heartbreaking. Maybe it’s because we’ve already seen that or because they should have sent Toothless away and only say goodbye to their dragons AFTER finishing battling with the Hunters. They don’t explain how they get rid of them. I guess having ALL the dragons, means sending ALL the dragons to the Hidden World, so the Hunters won’t have anything to hunt. Talking about the Hidden World, it was pretty, with some Avatar/Trollhunters vibes at the begginning but I liked it more and more as they were moving on inside the cave.

Now with the ending. My problem with this story is that is too much sugar-coated. This is HTTYD. Here, you loose limbs and parents. And Hiccup doesn’t loose his best friend. In the books, all the dragons go to the sea to sleep until it’s safe for them to go above and, if I recall correctly, Toothless visits Hiccup year after year. I was expecting Hiccup to bring his first-born to meet Toothless, as he’s been visiting him, but it’s clear that it has been at least five or six years until they met again, but they met again at everything is fine. Everything felt so rushed and weird. It’s like the story needed over 10 minutes more. I’m up for an extended version, just like Lord of the Rings, so we have more than two hours of movie and everything gets and end. I feel like there was something else, something we didn’t get to see, and that might be on the new short, but it makes the story suffer. And it’s my opinion too, but this movie felt more market oriented that willing to do something brave or different.

I have mixed feelings with this movie. The main part was good, but I expected more from the last movie of the franchise, the last time we’re going to see this characters. Time will tell. I’m going to watch it again at the end of the month, when it’ll finally be screened in Spain (this time with subtitles, I understood everything except part of Ruff’s ramblings) and maybe this time I’ll like it more and I’ ll be able to appreciate other aspects of it. It’s a good movie, but it’s far from perfect. And it’s not the perfect way to end this. 

[wolfie-dragon-rider]

Bursts of Light, Day 9: Hanging out with Friends

The waters around Berk were usually somewhere between 'literally freezing' and 'unbearably cold', so for it to be warm enough to actually swim was rare. But today was one of those days: A terribly hot summer's day with no rain or clouds or wind, just the sun beating down mercilessly on the island. Human and dragon alike sheltered in the shadows or dove into the (still fairly cool) ocean.

"Come on, Hiccup! The water's great! Join in!" Tuffnut called out, his voice followed by the sound of splashing water as Snotlout jumped in from the small cliff. Hiccup shook his head.

"Maybe later," he said, trying to avoid swimming if he could. It was hard to swim with the heavy leg weighing him down, and saltwater did painful things to his scars. Plus he didn't mind the heat that much. Maybe it was because he was normally always a bit cold compared to the other riders, wearing long sleeves and thick vests when they bared their arms to snow and ice.

He was having enough fun on the beach anyway. The six riders and their dragons were alone on the east beach, far away from the village. They had agreed to spend this hot day together as friends, instead of just fellow members of the Dragon Academy.

Tuffnut and Snotlout were playing some kind of ball game in the water, splashing water over Barf and Belch who were dozing in the shallow parts of the sea. Hookfang stuck to the shadows of the nearby treeline. Fishlegs was lying on his back on the beach, reading a book while Meatlug dug in the sand for wet rocks.

Astrid and Ruffnut were swimming as well, though they seemed to keep their distance from the wild boys, sticking together and racing each other around the little bay. Hiccup could sometimes hear them laugh and talk when they passed close to his spot on the beach. Stormfly followed them at a slower pace, seemingly content to just cool off.

Toothless nudged Hiccup, and he chuckled.

"Do you wanna swim too? You can, you know. We don't have to stick together all the time. Don't let me hold you back," he whispered, and the dragon warbled once before running off. A second later a loud splash echoed through the bay, followed by a wave of water soaking Hiccup's clothes and nearly washing away the sandcastle he was working on.

"Easy, bud!" he called out before assessing the damage to the fortress. The one tower he had built so far had crumbled a bit, and he scooped up more sand to repair it, before moving to build a second tower.

"Do you ever stop tinkering?" Astrid said from right beside him, and Hiccup jumped, nearly knocking down the wall.

"Yeah, Hiccup, even now you're being a nerd. Enjoy the warmth and the sea already," Ruffnut added, and Hiccup chuckled.

"I am enjoying it. Just in my own way. Maybe you should try building a sandcastle. It might be more fun than you think," he told Ruffnut, and she scoffed.

"Nah, blowing them up is more fun," she said before running back into the water. Astrid, however, sat down next to him.

"Don't listen to her. I think it's nice that you're always building and creating. Just… don't forget about us, okay? We're here together as friends, and we don't do that often enough. You shouldn't isolate yourself," she said softly so they wouldn't be overheard. He sighed, stopping his work on the outer wall, trying to collect his thoughts.

"Look, I get that it's hard for you to join them in what they're doing. You… have trouble swimming, and you can't really play ball games. But maybe if you open up a bit we can find ways to do things together. It's funny in a way, you're so open and adventurous with dragons and inventing, but with our friends you're always so hesitant," Astrid said when he didn't reply.

"You're right. I just don't want to make things awkward," he said, and Astrid giggled.

"Hiccup, I hate to tell you this, but you are awkward. It's who you are, and I adore you for it. But they're awkward too. I can tell Fishlegs is nervous about swimming just like you, and Ruff thinks the water is still too cold and wants to go to a hot spring."

He chuckled, lips curling into a smile. "Just give me a minute, I'll just finish this part and then I'll come swim with you, okay?" he said softly. She didn't reply with words. Instead she grabbed his head and pressed her lips to his.

"Get a room, silly lovebirds!" Tuffnut called, breaking them apart.

"Oh, got a problem?" Astrid said in a mock-angry tone as she stood up, and even from this far away Hiccup could hear the twin gulp.

"Mercy! Have mercy!" Tuffnut shouted when Astrid ran into the water to chase him down. Hiccup laughed along with the others, and suddenly the castle didn't seem so important anymore. He quickly finished up the last tower before standing up.

"Come on, Fishlegs. Let's make sure Astrid doesn't kill Tuff," he told the other boy as he stumbled to the water. It was hard to walk on sand, but with everyone's eyes on Astrid it wasn't as bad as before.

"I don't think anyone could stop her if she wanted to do that, but okay," Fishlegs said. A moment later his heavy footsteps were beside Hiccup's uneven ones.

Hiccup stopped at the waterline for a second, hesitating, but then Tuffnut's scream reached his ears, suddenly replaced with garbling as Astrid obviously pushed him underwater.

"Woo, go Astrid! Loki approves!" Ruffnut shouted, and Hiccup laughed. What was he scared of again? They were all weird and messed up, and he was just messed up in a different way. So he took a deep breath and jumped forward, hitting the water with a big splash.

The next hours were a blur, as they wrestled and splashed water at each other. Hiccup was rarely aware who was where, it was just a tangle of limbs and laughter. Only when the sun was lowering and the water cooled too far did they step on dry land again. Astrid started a fire with Stormfly's help, and Toothless caught a big pile of fish for them to roast.

"That was fun," he whispered to Astrid while they ate their fish. They were sitting right next to each other, him leaning his head on her shoulder. The smell of the fire mixed with the salty air made him sleepy.

"Told you. And who knows, maybe next time we can build sandcastles together," she whispered back. He nodded before moving his attention back to Snotlout who was talking about some new trick he trained Hookfang.

Yes, this was definitely worth repeating the next hot day. Or maybe a cold day too.

[coolranch1112]

The choice

as I walked down the hallway dragging my feet and hating my life wondering 'how the hell did I get in this position'. only one word came to mind, brother. more specific my twin tuffnut thorstone. I can handle shoveling dragon shit, cleaning all the weapons in the ford, putting out the fires we made, and apologizing to the people that we stole from, teams we destroyed, or other(the list goes on and on) but this, THIS, I mean this was the worst punishment he could think of. 'when I get my hands on that tiny, one legged, piece of tiny yack dung we call a chief I will rain the full force of lokie on him' was all that came to mind 'I mean for someone who isn't very into complicated and overly time consuming pranks I will make sure this will go on for several lifetimes'. soon my train of thought was interrupted by a simple question from one of my least favorite people at the moment. "so what color would you prefer, blue, yellow, maybe a light purple?" fishlegs asked pointing out the colorful fabrics he thought was nice in the shopbut was quickly inturupted by the other shorter boy in the room with us. "I know my princess would want a more dangers color like a deep red or a stunning night black," he stated pointing out the ones he had in mind for me, "oh you mean the colors that match your suit instead of something that matched her skin tone and personality." fishlegs stated flatly, "how about if the color faded on the dress. I'm sure your mom and brother could help us with that." 'Right now all I wanted was to get home and hide' but sure enough the kept at what they thought was a better color for me.

we had already been looking around the marked place for an hour for stuff I needed at home (which they happily helped carry) but then we passed a fair sized shop with all sorts of feminen things in it like jewelry, fancy hair ties/clips, and of course a tailor and a wall of fabric. unfortunately snotlout finally remembered something for once in his life and it was the opposite of what I wanted to hear, and at best my least favorite subject around this time of year. the summer cellabration, the time of year where we thank the gods for the warmest weather of the year and for asking for good weather in the future, they celebrate for three weeks one week before the extreme heat, during the extreme heat, and a week after to more of relax and enjoy the booze. The celebrating and parting is all up my ally but the one thing I disagree with is the night before the first day of the second week everyone gets dressed up in the nicest clothes they can get their hands on and the ladies get one day a year to where they can where a dress and not get blood on it. now I have never been big on having nice cloths in general. I mean I cant just blow something up in a brand new skirt even tuffnut would get onto me about it.

so now I was stuck having to pick out fabric for my dress with two Vikings arguing over who knows me best for some dumb male competition tom see who could get the only single chick on berk to marry them. honestly I was going to do this eventually because I was oldenough to understand the importance of this tradition but now it just felt like she was going to have to pick sides again. the worst part is they weren't the only people in on this the hole island has bets placed on who I'm going to pick! I mean I could just go back to throck but that would mean leaving tuff and I could never do that to him, and their is eret son of eret but he doesn't even like me, I actually think he has a thing for tuff but I think dagur dose too. uggg why dose my brother always affect my life, I mean come on. the two Vikings that I thought was done bickering had finally shut up but were now looking at me for a final decision.

"well beautiful what will it be my hot and sexy colors or fishguts messy sunset?", snotlout asked as if I was listening to the whole conversation, "I think what snot-breath meant to say was would you like something bright and pretty or dark and un-complimenting," fishlegs shot back as he glared at the shorter boy but then quickly turned his attention back to me with questioning eyes. I sighed an looked at both boys with an annoyed look befor walking past them to the wall of color behind them. now I did favor the red snotlout picked out mostly because I had a nice pair of legging and matching raps in the same color or vary close but the blues were all so enchanting and megestic like looking out over the ocean or walking through a thick forest in the morning. I went through and felt the fabrics that the boys were pinting out that they thought that looked nice because if I couldn't stand the feel of the material no way was I going to wear it. finnaly I hsaw a finger point out a color that looked absolutely amazing.

It was a soft burgundy that actually took my breath away. first of all the feel of the material was enough to persuade me into buying all they had in stalk along with any of the same material, I mean it felt like a one-day old baby's first blanket. the next thing that caught my attention was the actual color, it looked slightly different then all the other burgundy's out their but I just couldn't tell what made it look so dangerous like the red yet subtle and majestic like the blues. finally I noticed when I picked it up how light it was, it weighed nothing in my arms and was flexible not stiff like other gowns for special occasions. I smiled an joyfully asked the store owner, "how much is this fabric?", he took a minute to think then sweetly replied,"usually for every yard of that fabric its about eight silver coins but since I,ve been having a good sales week and that's the last of it and that's about four and a half yards I will give it to you for... hmmm," he paused for a moment to think of a price while pulling a fancy brush through his long beard then finally decided and finished with, "how about five silver coins?"

"DEAL!", I basically screamed as I quickly got out the amount to pay and handed it to them so they could pack it up for me in a neat little container like they did with several others purchased items as well. As we walked out of the store to loud our items up on the dragons I suddenly realized a chang in mood of the others. Snotlout seemed so confident and happy but fishlegs seemed so upset, wait what did I miss? then I noticed snotlout sly grin aimed in my direction and gave it a quick and very un-amused response, "wipe that dumb look in your face, oh wait that's your actual face," I ended with a small laugh that was quickly cut off by a very unwanted anser to the change in behavior," say what ever you want babe but I know that you like me more, why else would you pick t the fabric I pointed out and buy it so quickly?"

I wanted to die. how could have I been so clueless. with fishlegs he would be all senamental about it but with snotlout he was going to talk about it for MONTHS neigh YEARS. I have signed my will and now must lay in my burning boat. just as snotface was about to breath another word my brother and astid appeared with their stuff they came after, my brother looking just as miserable as me. "okay remind me never to pull a prank when a hofferson is near especially the one engaged to the chief," he leaned in and whispered to me before packing away the stuff mom wanted him to get. we all finally got on our dragons and headed back. The whole flight back snotlout kept his stupid smile and fish legs kept his fair distance from the group mumbling about a dance or sewing. tuff was ancous too I could tell but didn't udder a word till the door of our house was saftly shut and all the supplies and my fabric was stored where it was suppose to go. "so what was up with those two did fish see a goust and snot see a hot one?" he said with a slight hint of curiosity in his tone.

"believe me when I say you don't want to know and besides snotlout will talk about this for weeks to come anyway so you'll just find out tomorrow through the terror chain or something," I inquired receiving a small frown when he didn't learn immediately but didn't try knowing that I was definitely not in the mood tom be taunted before the story spread.as I walked up to my room, blew out the candle finally happy this day was over, and got under my two warm layered yak fur blankets I saw the fabric and it made me realize something. Weren't both of them pointing things out? I mean I didn't let it distract me from picking out what I liked and I had became good at ignoring their silly antics but how in the arkapeligo did snotlout break her focus? how did she notice what he was pointing at that split second and not fishlegs? how did he know she was going to love that one of a kind, fit for royalty mixed material? maybe all this was just some huge coincidence and that it was nothing and that I was just over thinking it. I finally found some restless after several restless hours of questions I wore myself out and fell asleep still dreading the day and several weeks to follow.

[hello-em75]

Tagged by the wonderful @angies-team , @travelerchrisedward , @wilderwestqueen , @nightfurylover1112 , and @crazy4dragons ! Thanks so much guys! These were so fun to do!

Rules:

1. Always post the rules.

2. Answer the questions given by the person who tagged you.

3. Write 11 questions of your own.

4. Tag 11 people.

My Questions:

1. Best memory from the HTTYD fandom?

2. What are you hoping to see in RTTE S5 & 6 / HTTYD 3?

3. Who in the HTTYD fandom is the reason your heart beats (to quote the famous words of sleep-deprived Snotlout Jorgenson) ?

4. Have you been mistaken for someone else?

5. Any guilty pleasures?

6. Live action or animation?

7. Who do you think you would connect with the least if you were a Dragon Rider?

8. How many times have you binge-watched a TV show?

9. If you were able to choose to return to any point you wanted in your life, where would you go?

10. Have you ever met anyone in real life who’s reminded you of one of the Dragon Riders (I know this girl who has the last name Jorgenson and it’s pretty crazy) ?

11. Favorite snack food?

I tag @chiefhiccstrid , @drchee5e , @dragonlovertr , @fanaticfangirl2602 , @astridthevalkyrie, @fangirling1998 , @fanwriter02 , @lutavero , @spacekeet , @astrxd , and @dragontails89 !

Angie’s Questions:

1. What is your absolute favorite song?

I always jam out to Let Her Go by Passenger but I really love a whole bunch of songs and just happen to be very indecisive in choosing a favorite :)

2. Favorite form of physical activity?

What physical activity  When I’m not being pressured to do it, I enjoy running. Just don’t get any bright ideas and sign me up for any marathons or anything.

3. Favorite 5 fanfics?

Okay, the fact that this was hard for me means I’ve definitely read too many:

1) Chasing Thunderstorms series by @tysonrunningfox . This was the first full-length fanfiction that I read when I joined the fandom a couple years ago and it totally blew me away how real and well-written the characters seemed when she wrote them. I haven’t reread the whole series in full IN AGES but sometimes I reread some of my favorite chapters  and fall in love with it all over again!

2) Young God by @oh--you--pretty--things. If there was a fanfic that forged its own trail, this one would do just that. It’s so incredibly different from any other Hiccstrid or HTTYD fanfics out there in its plot and universe, but still manages to remain true to the characters and their personalities --even if its hidden somewhat under Punkcup’s incredibly hot exterior.

3) The Quest by @funkytoes. I love how unique the story is how characters like Astrid, Hiccup, and Eret are portrayed in such an exciting and new way! Plus, anything where my queen is rocking it as a resident badass always gets good marks in my book. 

4) You’re Everything I Want (and Nothing I Can Keep) by @wilderwestqueen. The story is so fun and engaging to read and I’m SUCH a sucker for friends to couple AUs. Hiccup and Astrid are also both complete cuties in this fanfic so that’s always enjoyable to read.

5) I Knew You Were Trouble by @astridthevalkyrie. I really enjoy how this story humanizes Astrid: she’s not just a fierce and tough as nails badass, but she has a soft spot for kids and cares deeply about her friends. Not to mention that Jerkcup is actually an undercover cutie that I love to pieces.

4. Ice cream or warm, home baked, fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies? >:)

GIVE ME THOSE COOKIES RIGHT NOW.

5. What inspires you to be creative?

My friends and family. If I know my friends and family are behind me, then I’ll have the will and the mindset to unlock my more creative side and actively express myself rather than just give a passive effort.

6. Does music influence how you act while it’s playing?

Definitely. Once Romantic Flight comes on, I’m a hot fangirl mess of emotions.

7. How do you express yourself creatively?

I really like wearing different kinds of clothes to express myself. Something about mixing and matching accessories and clothes to make an outfit I’m proud of gives me a sense of satisfaction.

8. Do you think Jar Jar Binks is a waste of a character? 

I’m not a hard core Star Wars fan so I don’t really have an opinion.

9. What would cheer you up if you’re having a bad day?

Anyone just taking the initiative to even ask and sit down to listen always makes me feel better whenever I’m down. But sometimes I appreciate little gifts too, like when my mom brings me a drink from Starbucks on her way home from work if she knows I’ve been stressed.

10. Where have you traveled that you would love to travel to again? (or) Where would you like to travel to?]

I’d love to travel to Europe and explore all of those cliché tourist spots like Paris and London and Rome and all that, especially since I’ve never been out of the USA before.

11. Who is your Tumblr crush?

There’s actually way too many to count for me to just say them here but I’ll let you know that you’re on the list @angies-team ;)))

Chris’s Questions:

1. Favorite villain in TV series / movie?

Viggo Grimborn (whether dead or alive) will always be remembered as one of my favorites (but also one my most hated) villains because of how different he is from the typical villain mold in the Dragons series. He runs on his intellect rather than his physical strength; a quality to be appreciated whether you’re the protagonist or the antagonist.

2. Have you been abroad before?

I’ve never been outside of the USA, so unfortunately no :(

3. Favorite class at school?

I love studying history! Learning about the past of the world strangely always makes me feel more in touch and connected with what’s happening in the present.

4. What’s your preferred lifestyle?

I don’t like moving around too much, so I’d prefer to live a more sedentary and constant lifestyle rather than always be jumping around from place to place.

5. Are you afraid of anything?

If we’re talking material things, than not really. But if we’re discussing more abstractly, then definitely things like failure and being isolated and not wanted.

6. Describe your Tumblr dashboard in three words?

Informative, fun, and crowded :)

7. What’s your eye color?

Hazel

8. Favorite musician / band?

I’m pretty mercurial as far as music preferences go, but right now I’m hardcore rocking out to Ed Sheeran.

9. When did you get into your biggest fandom?

I think I joined the HTTYD fandom almost three years ago? I look back on some of my posts I made when I first came onto Tumblr and can’t help but cringe.

10. If you could be a new, original character in your favorite TV series / movie, what would you be like, and what would you do?

I’d like to think that I’d be the sarcastic and friendly Dragon Rider that people enjoy spending time with but who knows?

11. Favorite dragon?

The Night Fury is absolutely amazing! But if I wasn’t able to choose the obvious, probably the Triple Stryke or the Deathsong.

Wilderwestqueen’s Questions:

1. What one thing never fails to make you smile?

Listening to music always has a way of making my mood improve, no matter how horrible life can feel sometimes.

2. If you had to make your own Awesome Mix (Guardians of the Galaxy style), what tracks would be on it? 

The entire soundtrack of HTTYD and HTTYD 2, plus probably a bunch of random pop songs that I like (hopefully there’s no song limit).

3. Biggest celebrity crush?

I actually have the biggest girl-crush on America Ferrera. But why wouldn’t I? She’s an activist, a talented actress, and immensely successful. Sounds pretty much like a person that I’d want to get to know.

4. What’s your favorite book and why does it mean a lot to you?

It’s been forever since I’ve actually sat down and read a book just for the sake of enjoyment, but I really enjoy The Book Thief because of how meaningful the story is. It has so much depth to it that not many other books can claim to have.

5. What song makes you want to get up and dance?

Right now, I’m the One by DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper, and Lil Wayne is my favorite dance jam!

6. If you had to make a superhero team out of any fictional characters, who would you choose?

Astrid Hofferson, because she’s an amazing and intelligent warrior; Black Widow, since she has so much spy training and I can imagine would get along great with Astrid; and Allura, because she’s also an accomplished fighter as well as another strong leader.

7. What fictional world would you choose to live in?

B E R K BECAUSE I APPARENTLY THINK I CAN MAKE IT IN THE CLASSICAL ERA ARCTIC CIRCLE AS A VIKING.

8. Dream job?

Teaching has always been something that I’ve had at the forefront of my mind as far as careers are concerned, but if I was more musically inclined or dramatic I would probably want to be a musician or an actress.

9. If it was your last day on Earth, and you had to pick one last meal, what would you have?

I’d devour all of the Indian food I can. Bring on the samosas.

10. Least favorite movie? Why?

I don’t know what possessed me to see the Peanuts movie, but let’s just say I almost fell asleep three times.

11. What kind of fictional character is your type?

Pretty much anyone that’s anything like Hiccup would be my type. Humble, smart, funny, caring, and fiercely loyal.

Nightfurylover1112′s Questions:

1. What is your hair color?

I have dark brown hair, but it looks pretty black if you’re looking at it from a distance.

2. Who is your favorite animated character?

G E N E R A L  H O F F  ALL THE WAY.

3. iPhone or Android?

iPhone! But my iPhone is staring to show signs of age after about a year and half of having it unfortunately.

4. Have you ever been on a plane?

I have! Can’t say I enjoy the experience though.

5. Where do you want to be right now?

Exactly where I am is pretty nice -- sitting in my living room in a HTTYD blanket typing answers to asks is fun!

6. You have one wish. What would you do?

World peace is where it’s at y’all.

7. Do you have your ears pierced?

Yep! I kind of want to get another piercing in my ears (I only have one right now) but my parents would definitely go against that.

8. Are you tall or short?

I’m short and proud of it, thank you very much.

9. Why do you like your followers?

Because you’re all so friendly and supportive of each other! I’ve found so many great friends in you guys!

10. What do you mostly like to do at home?

Besides sleeping, being able to binge watch Netflix and go on my phone and scroll through Tumblr is pretty fun for me.

11. Do you like dragons?

Nope, I hate those useless reptiles more than words can describe. Such a nuisance LOL.

Crazy4Dragons’s Questions:

1. Favorite movie?

I count the series as one thing for the sake of this question so HTTYD/HTTYD 2!

2. Are you a fan of any sports?

Not too hardcore. I’ll root for home teams (anyone from California) for any sport but I won’t be too broken up if something doesn't go my way and they don't win.

3. Would you rather be stuck in a library or stuck in a movie theater?

I’d probably be okay with either, but more so in a movie theater.

4. If you could marry any fictional character, who would it be?

Hiccup is the only man for me everyone so HANDS OFF (jk).

5. Coffee or tea?

I like both, but I actually need coffee to function normally so COFFEE

6. What’s the furthest you’ve been from home?

Without my parents, the furthest I’ve been from home was when I was in Pennsylvania for my 8th grade trip. Probably would have been more exciting if I had actual friends to talk to that whole week.

7. Do you/did you like school?

Right now, school and I aren’t on speaking terms.

8. Favorite dessert?

I love pies. But not like creamy ones, the ones full of fruit filling that are warm from the oven and have vanilla bean ice cream just oozing down the sides (crap now I’m hungry).

9. Do you have any pets?

Nope, but I have two younger siblings if that counts.

10. Have you ever seen the ocean?

I live in California, so I’ve had my fair share of ocean-viewing lol.

11. What’s your least favorite food?

I’m not that picky when it comes to food, but I can’t bring myself to eat hardboiled eggs; the smell is WAY too strong for me.

[astridthevalkyrie]

Troublemakers

Two gangs roam around Berk, both trying to upstage the other in every way they can. The Berserkers, led by Dagur, who has the most pretty girl in town, Astrid, as his girlfriend. And then there's the Hooligans. Hiccup, their leader, wants nothing more to impress Dagur’s girlfriend. Astrid, however, is in Dagur’s gang - what about the other side would ever tempt her to leave?

@transbeequeen I’ve done it! Not too much of how they “work” in this chapter, but it’ll come (if I even have time to continue this)

Okay, just a quick memo. This is rated T, but there is one small scene in this first chapter that should be Rated M. If there is anything like this after this chapter, it’ll be fade to black. Just a warning in case anyone doesn’t want to read it.

A challenge.

One challenge, between Hiccup and Dagur, and then he could get...say, a month’s worth of bragging rights. And the reward, obviously. These things did not come easy. It was hard to get an hour’s worth of bragging rights in this place, let alone a month. If he could beat Dagur, then not only would he be looked at differently, then Astrid might finally notice him.

Well, notice him and not scowl at any rate.

The only catch was that Dagur was to choose what the challenge was. It could be jumping from a cliff or a simple game of chess. It wouldn’t be chess, the cliff situation was more likely. Dagur was crazy.

Fishlegs had warned him against it, Tuff and Ruff had urged him on, and Snotlout had merely stared Dagur down threateningly (as though Dagur was someone who could be stared down). Hiccup had accepted, but he wasn’t looking at Dagur when he did, he was looking directly at Astrid.

She had been standing behind Dagur, with her signature blue leather jacket and her helmet in her hands. She had raised an eye when he accepted, and then her cheeks had reddened in anger when Hiccup blew a kiss to her.

He would see her again today.

That was the only thing on his mind today. Not that he could possible die if Dagur chose a challenge that was out of this world. There would be no backing out. But he knew Dagur well, he knew that there would be no death. Dagur would want him alive so he could gloat. Seriously injured, now that was something he should have been worrying about, but how could he when he imagined what it sounded like when Astrid laughed?

She had never laughed in front of him. Sarcastically? Yes, definitely. Genuinely? No.

He had a ball in his hand as he lay down, throwing it from one hand to the other. It had been Stoick’s, but now that he was gone, he inherited everything. Everything that he didn’t want. He didn’t want memories. All memories did was make you hurt.

But the ball was cool. It had been dusty when he found it, so his suspicion that his father had never shared these things with him were proven right.

Astrid Hofferson was what it all came down to tonight. She might not have known it, but everyone considered her Dagur’s...property. Dagur himself was the number one supporter of that.

But he knew that she would hate anyone comparing her to a thing. She wasn’t something to be owned. So when he won whatever challenge this was, that would be the reward.

He was going to ask for Astrid Hofferson. To hang out with her for a day. And when she was with him, he would spill everything. Astrid would hate Dagur. They would be done. Astrid would be free. And he was no longer the shy boy who doodled her in middle school, never having the courage to actually talk to her.

He would make a move.

Astrid gasped, her nails scratching Dagur’s back as he thrusted in and out of her. Her nails didn’t seem to pain him in anyway, but he still growled, so she stopped, clenching her fists instead.

This was not the right place to be doing this.

They were in front of the college. The only thing that kept people from seeing them was a giant tree. Not to mention if anyone interrupted them, Dagur wouldn’t hesitate to pull out his switchblade and stab them. And he wouldn’t miss. No one from his own gang would interrupt him when he grabbed her hand and brought her to the spare bedroom in their hideout. Dagur was not someone to be messed with.

And she didn’t even have to do anything. All it would take was wearing a bit of a short skirt, or maybe a swear coming out of her mouth, and Dagur would be jumping her as though there was no tomorrow.

Not that Astrid didn’t like the sex. It pleased her, and it took the tension off. But maybe reading all those books made her feel bad that there weren’t any feelings behind it. Or rather, not the feelings that she wanted. Her parents would be rolling in their graves if they saw her now.

Dagur didn’t keep her with him against her will. But staying with him stopped everyone from thinking they had a free pass at her. And they came to know that she wasn’t some weak girl to be messed with. Dagur’s skills with a knife were rivalled by her own.

Astrid heard Dagur’s moan of pleasure in her ear, and a second later he came, wearing a condom, of course.

“They’re waiting for us,” he said as they both put on their clothes.

“I know.”

Why, honestly, did he have to challenge Hiccup Haddock? Whatever he was planning, Astrid knew that it would be physical, because the boy was the skinniest dweeb she had seen.

He only looked like it, Astrid mused, because she knew he was actually strong enough to do heavy lifting in the car repair shop he worked at.  That along with his clever moves would be enough to best him.

But even if Dagur did go down, it wasn’t as though anyone would think Dagur was weak, only that he was weaker than Hiccup. So why did it bother her so much?

She supposed it was because Hiccup was everything that infuriated her.

Dagur was cocky, yes, but he didn’t run his hand through his hair like it was the smoothest thing in the world. Dagur was a braggart, but he didn’t invent his own motorcycle and go riding in the middle of the night to show off. Dagur acted like he owned her, but Hiccup acted like he didn’t need to own anyone to make them listen to him.

It was infuriating.

Her and Dagur both got on their respective motorcycles, and took off, with Astrid still having one burning question left. Why had Hiccup accepted the challenge? Why had he smirked at her as he did so?

What, in short, did he want?

“This,” Fishlegs said crossly, leaning on the wall with a grumpy expression, “is a really bad idea.”

“You think?” Snotlout sneered, giving a pointed look at Hiccup.

Hiccup ignored him. A lot of motors suddenly resounded, and he casually rested his arms on the front of his bike. Astrid Hofferson zoomed in, landing right in front of him. Hiccup smirked at her, giving her a small salute.

Dagur hopped off. Him and Hiccup shook hands, and then Hiccup grinned. “So, what’s the game?”

“Hardly a game,” Dagur drawled, as though he was bored. “You’re way too good at games for my taste. Hiccup.”

That irked him, but only a little So it was going to be a physical fight. That was fine. He would play. Next to Dagur, Astrid wrapped her jacket around herself tighter.

Dagur smirked. “What we’re going to do is a bit more...challenging.”

“Define a ‘bit more’,” Hiccup said dryly, not liking his triumphant expression. They hadn’t even started yet, for Thor’s sake.

Everyone in his gang started following Dagur. Sharing a bewildered look with Ruffnut, he went after them until they reached a cliff. Hiccup looked up at it. The entire area was jagged, filled with rocks that could cut you so swiftly you wouldn’t know until you were bleeding to death.

“This is the challenge,” Dagur said with a maniacal gleam in his eye. He pointed to the top. “That is the challenge, and we...are the challengers.”

He walked forward and grabbed Hiccup’s arm, shoving him so only he could hear.

“Hope you’re ready to climb, brother.”

[howtowhumpyourhiccup]

We Care, But At What Price?

Summary: Sequel to "We Care Not". As Hiccup lies sick in bed, the other Riders reflect a little on the past they share with him and how overly protective they are of him now.

Rating: Teen and up

Words: 2 482

Author’s Notes: Sequel that was written quite a while ago, but never posted. Might take this idea to dabble with it in a different fic someday.

Constructive criticism is appreciated.

Enjoy!

We Care Not (The first fic)

Ao3

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"This is stupid. This is so, so stupid."

Astrid finds herself shushing Hiccup's shaky mumblings as she dabs his forehead with a soaked cloth. It is sweaty and she can feel the heat radiating through the layer separating her hand and his skin.

Hiccup is lying in bed before her on a stack of furs and blankets, all gathered from the other Riders. He wears only a single layer of clothing in spite of the cold Winter plaguing the Edge. His armor hangs forgotten on the back of a chair on the ground floor.

"I should be out there doing patrols or think of something to stop Viggo, not be stuck here in bed." There is a certain resentment in his tone that Astrid doesn't quite appreciate, she resists the urge to demand that he apologize to himself.

That kind of anger, she knows it is directed at only one man in this room and, besides her, the single other presence here is Toothless and Astrid is certain Hiccup can never be mad at him.

Her free hand is held in both of his own on his stomach.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. It's just a fever." She tries to tell him and Toothless rumbles in agreement. The Night Fury is taking up all the space on one side of the bed. Ever since his Rider has fallen ill, he hasn't left much. He worries.

"I shouldn't be having a fever. I'm not a kid anymore, I shouldn't be getting sick every Winter." Still Hiccup argues, his voice cracks. Even with the fire warming his hut, his woolen tunic, the dragon, and the covers, he shivers terribly.

He doesn't get sick as often as he used to when he was a growing boy, but when he does this always happens. The times Hiccup does fall ill, he falls hard.

Astrid sighs when she hears his comment. Indeed, the Winters here in the Archipelago are never kind to Hiccup. If he isn't sick, then the cold is taking its toll on his leg or some other old injury of his. And then there is also Devastating Winter.

"It's okay to get sick, Hiccup. You wouldn't be giving us such a bad time if we were stuck in bed." That shuts him up, at least. He can't argue with her about that, he knows she is right.

Instead, Hiccup lets his eyes fall closed. He sniffs, his nose is clogged. His cheeks feel so unbearably hot.

Astrid will never admit it to him out loud, but she does find herself worrying during the coldest seasons on Berk. Devastating Winter especially. It wasn't given this name for no reason.

If there is a season cold enough to keep even the Hooligans of Berk indoors for days or weeks at a time, cold enough to keep even the dragons inside, it is certainly that. Before the Edge, whenever she was stuck inside, Astrid would often find herself guilty of sitting around and worrying about Hiccup.

She often wondered as she sat there sharpening her dagger at the fire, was he lying sick in bed? As she ate dinner with her family, was Stoick trying to get some food into his ill son in the meantime? As she checked up on Stormfly, was Toothless watching over his Rider day and night?

Every time Devastating Winter allowed Berk to set foot outside again, it was a relief to her to see him alive and well.

Oddly enough, it wasn't a concern she ever had for the other Riders. And not because she didn't care for them, because she did and a lot more than she let on.

Grabbing the pitcher standing on a stool next to her, Astrid notices that it is empty. Time to grab some more water.

"I'm going to get some more water. I'll be right back." She tells Hiccup, even though he probably isn't conscious anymore, judging by his calm breathing. He may have dozed off.

Which is a good thing, he needs his rest and his body demands it. She lets him sleep.

Astrid briefly scratches Toothless behind an ear fin and walks down from their loft with the pitcher in hand. Downstairs, she meets with the other Riders, who are all gathered in Hiccup's hut.

There is a snowfall going on outside and so it is warmer to stay inside. She knows even the Dragons are huddled together over at their stables. She also knows that there is only one reason why the others are here and it isn't quite because of the weather.

Fishlegs is reading at the table and so is Tuffnut, though the latter isn't as into it as the former is. His face is lying on it. Ruffnut and Snotlout are playing Maces and Talons in one corner, though neither of them are all that interested in their game either.

As Astrid comes down, Fishlegs looks up.

"Is he sleeping?" He asks, putting his book down.

"Yeah, he is." She answers and makes her way over to a barrel with water. Opening the top, she lowers the pitcher into it to bring back up with her.

Ever since Hiccup fell sick two days earlier, he's been drifting in and out of sleep. He is feverish, he is coughing almost continuously, but he is, at the very least, not delirious. So far, his mind remains untouched by the fever. A good sign, they all figure.

Silence returns, but as she ascends back up the stairs, Astrid can't help but notice that the pieces on the board game Ruff and Lout are playing with are no longer being moved.

Returning up to the loft, Toothless greets her with a purr and Astrid gives him a small smile. She replaces the pitcher on its original spot next to the empty mug and then grabs the cloth she'd left on Hiccup's forehead.

Dipping it into the bowl of water standing on that same stool, Astrid stops mid-action when she hears movement. Out of the corner of her eyes, she notices him rolling onto his side away from her. He lets out a deep sigh followed by more coughing. Hiccup nuzzles into his pillow and settles again for the time being.

Astrid relaxes, she isn't even aware she tensed up. Wetting the cloth again, she wrings it out a bit and places it on his temple instead.

"Toothless, I'm going downstairs. You'll watch over him, won't you?" Though she knows she doesn't even need to ask, Toothless still gives her a croon before placing his head down on the bed to fix his gaze on his Rider as Astrid joins the others again.

Ruffnut watches her descend, a frown present on her face. Snotlout doesn't seem to mind that he needs to wait on her next move.

The quiet continues until Astrid takes a seat at the table where Fishlegs and Tuffnut are already sitting at.

She waits. She knows there is something Ruffnut wants to talk about the moment she stops playing her game with Snotlout.

Astrid even sits down on the chair with her front facing the other and looks at her. It is her way of asking "what's up?"

"It's weird, right?" Ruffnut starts now that Astrid has taken a seat. Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Tuff all look at her.

"We know Hiccup's gonna be just fine. He's pretty much indestructible at this point anyway. And yet..." Her voice trails off.

"We're still worried to death?" Snotlout finishes for her.

"Yeah, Fishlegs even says he's doing better than yesterday," Tuffnut speaks up as well and Fishlegs nods to confirm it. Hiccup is already on the mend.

"He should be back up on his feet soon."

"And yet..." Snotlout mutters. His eyes briefly travel up to the loft, though he can't see Hiccup.

Standing back up again, Astrid makes her way to the back of the hut, where most of Hiccup's stuff is kept. She can feel the eyes of the other Riders on her.

Toothless' several different prosthetic tailfins are hanging on that wall, but for as much of an eyecatcher as they are, Astrid's attention is only on one chest.

"What're you doing?" Snotlout asks, his chin resting on the table in front of him.

"Searching for something Hiccup can do? Something to lighten the mood." Astrid replies, crouching down in front of the chest and opening it up. She briefly rolls her eyes at how disorganized it is and begins to search through it. Within seconds she still finds what she is looking for, despite the mess inside.

It is a little book he uses for his sketches. Or rather, one of the many he uses that way. Hiccup went through a lot of them in just one year.

Flipping it open, she wants to see if this one hasn't been filled in yet. Something instantly strikes her as odd, however.

The drawings inside of this one were made by a kid.

They are still good. Very good. And the only conclusion Astrid can come to is that these are Hiccup's from when he was still very little and he kept them. So Hiccup is someone who can get a little nostalgic, who knew?

Struck by nostalgia herself, she keeps looking through them, sitting down on the wooden floor. She is engrossed. Many of them look vaguely familiar to her.

She halts when she comes upon one particular drawing in the book.

Astrid remembers having a dear friend once. She is reminded of her now, of little Unn that never got to grow up, as she stares at what appears to be a hand-drawn portrait of a little girl with baby blue eyes and shoulder-length black hair.

Though this had clearly been drawn by a very young individual, she can recognize these strokes from anywhere. This one had been drawn by Hiccup, too. A long, long time ago. Gods, she never knew he still had any of these. Let alone this one.

He drew this when they were... What? Four? Five years old? They are both eighteen now. How has he managed to keep these for so long?

Astrid stares quietly at the picture. A dull aching makes its way into her chest and there is a hitch in her breath, her eyes are wet. She hasn't thought of her childhood friend in a long while.

"Hey, I know her." Astrid didn't expect anyone to be standing behind her, but she doesn't jump when Snotlout speaks up out of the blue.

He kneels next to where she is sitting and Astrid allows him to take a look.

"She's-um... Ugh, what's her name."

"Unn. She was..." Astrid helps him remember, but she doesn't get much farther beyond that. It is strange, she didn't have any problem saying it before. Why is it suddenly so hard?

"One of the ones that didn't make it." Snotlout returns the favor and finishes that thought for her.

"Yeah." She takes the book back when he hands it to her. She can hear footsteps approaching.

"Oh man, talk about a blast to the past," Ruffnut mutters, her hands on her hips.

Taking a glance over her shoulder, Astrid sees that Tuffnut and Fishlegs are there as well.

"Are there any others?" Fishlegs asks hopefully. It is the timidest he has sounded in a long while.

Astrid briefly skims through the rest of this particular sketchbook and she shakes her head. There are no more.

"Should we check if any of Hiccup's other old notebooks are in there?" Snotlout asks and for once he isn't suggesting looking through someone else's stuff just for the fun of it.

"Guys, I was only looking in here to give Hiccup something to do next time he wakes up. You know how antsy he can get when he's stuck in bed for too long. I'm not randomly looking through his stuff." Is Astrid's reply when a simple "no" would've sufficed.

"Yeah, I know. I was just curious, you know." Snotlout shrugs in response. He is uncharacteristically muted today, as they all are.

It is quiet for another moment before Ruffnut speaks up again. Astrid almost feels compelled to look at the picture of her friend again.

"It brings you back, doesn't it?" She asks her friends, her tone solemn.

"So many of us didn't make it." Fishlegs happens to mention and saying it out loud somehow makes their mood even more dreary than it already is. If that is at all possible.

"I've never really thought about it before, but there are a lot of kids on Berk now. Compared to... You know." Tuffnut reminisces quietly.

"Before the war ended," Ruffnut adds and her brother nods.

It was such a change, one that happened so slow and yet so fast. With how lively Berk is now, it is sometimes hard to remember what it was like before the dragons had come to live with them, before the one responsible for so much heartbreak had been dethroned. And this change, they all know who was responsible for it.

The Riders are all quiet for another moment of reflection. They are all thinking of the same person.

It is odd. Sometimes they still have moments in which they just look at each other and ask "why did we ever dislike this guy?" as soon as Hiccup leaves the room.

"Why weren't we friends before?"

"Why did it take us so long?"

The past three years of friendship did muddle their memories just a tad bit, but this brings it all right back.

They used to dislike Hiccup because he was the weird one. They disliked him because the adults did. They disliked him because he was sure to be the next one to leave them.

And now look at them.

Hiccup is upstairs in bed suffering from an illness he has had before and would recover from again. He is doing fine. He is angry at himself, but otherwise, he is doing just fine.

And yet, they worry. They worry so much they spent most of the last two days here in his hut. The evening of the third day is drawing near.

Upstairs, Hiccup starts coughing and it doesn't let up for a good couple of seconds.

"I'm fine, Bud." The coughing fit wakes him up and the Riders hear Hiccup reassure his dragon, but still, Fishlegs is already running up the stairs just to make sure if there isn't any help that he may need.

"Fish-Fishlegs? Fishlegs, I'm fine! It was just a cough, I'm fine." The rest of them, still on the ground floor, relax again.

Look at how much has changed.

When they were kids, they were afraid to care and their effort not to had lead to them barely caring for him at all. Now that they finally do, they are too afraid to lose him.

[howtowhumpyourhiccup]

The Stories Scars Can Tell

Summary: A 'Hiccup left Berk' whump fic. When Hiccup left Berk for Toothless' safety five years ago, he hadn't thought about how hard life as a solo Dragon Rider would be. He hadn't realized it either, until a year after his reunion with Berk and the new Dragon Riders want to learn more about his scars.

Rating: Teen and up

Words: 6 452

Author’s Notes: This was supposed to be a 'Hiccup left Berk' whump fic one-shot, but it got way out of hand. This part alone is already 6k words long and I have other parts in the works, all of which are about Hiccup's misfortunes.

Constructive criticism is appreciated.

Enjoy!

Ao3

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"Is-is that from an arrow?"

Hiccup's honest question caused Astrid to take a pause. She'd been undressing herself, but she didn't get past her pauldrons before Hiccup asked her. They were left on the ground next to the hot spring they were planning on diving in.

Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut were all here as well and in several different stages of undress. Three of them pretty much threw their clothes off before jumping straight in. There were some surprised yelps of the water being too hot followed by Fishlegs chastising them for not taking their time to get used to the spring beforehand.

Usually, they'd be wearing nothing at all. Viking bathhouses were communal and these five young adults were familiar with each other as well. But having previously been somewhat hesitant to join them, this was the first time Hiccup was here with them, at one of the many bodies of water this island provided.

In the months since they came to live here with Hiccup, Toothless, and all the other dragons that called this place home, they had been trying to gain his trust. Hiccup's presence at the hot spring with them and without his very protective Night Fury was a sign that they were successful. As to not immediately scare him away again, the Thorston twins may or may not have compared Hiccup to a very skittish dragon more than once, they had decided to keep at least one layer of clothing on them.

It took Ruffnut a lot of convincing to go through with their plan.

It seemed to be working. At the very least, Hiccup wasn't wearing his armor, made out of Gronckle iron and dragon scales. His tunic and leather pants he did still wear. Much like his usual outer layer, they were dark in color. He had once explained it was because Toothless, a Night Fury, was a stealthy dragon. Hiccup just didn't wish to stand out on his back by wearing green or bright red.

That this was the first time was also the reason why he hadn't seen Astrid's scar before. It was located on her left shoulder, a very light pinkish line on her front. A similar one seemed to be present on the back parallel to the first one.

When Hiccup asked her about it, she glanced down at it.

"Oh yeah! In through the front and out through the back! Got it from some Dragon Hunter Viggo sent before the mysterious Dragon Master showed up to save Berk from his clutches." Astrid wasn't at all bothered as she talked about what was probably originally a very painful wound, sending Hiccup a smile when she mentioned this mystery figure. She even flexed her left arm and showed her scar with pride.

Hiccup smiled back at her, lightly shaking his head. Of course, Astrid would see her scars as achievements. That would be so like her.

The Dragon Master's war with the Dragon Hunters and Viggo uncovering his identity is what had lead him to Berk. The Grimborn brothers launching raids on the Viking village, capturing fishing boats, and cutting off their trading routes is what had then resulted in Hiccup returning to Hairy Hooligans for the first time since he had left it and his true self to be revealed.

Some hearts were broken, some were mended, there were some loud shouting matches, it had been a difficult few weeks for everybody, but in the end, Berk had been saved and Hiccup gained five new friends. Human friends.

The real reason behind the dragon raids and why they had suddenly stopped was known by now too and, needless to say, the Hooligans loved watching him come for a visit a lot more than they liked watching him leave.

"Must've been painful, though." Hiccup made a statement and cringed at the thought.

"Oh, it was! And... to be fair, I can't quite lift my left arm past my shoulder, but the kids on Berk haven't noticed. That is what matters." Nobody would ever think Astrid Hofferson, of all people, to be good with children, but the tiny Hairy Hooligans seemed to love her. A flash of regret did pass by on her face, but it was gone before Hiccup could speak of it and so he chose not too.

So that was somewhat of a sore spot to her, that she lost some of the range she used to have. She hoped her little fans would never find out their favorite warrior couldn't lift one of her arms all the way.

Astrid continued to work on the rest of her clothes. An extra pair of eyes did not make her waiver at all. She wasn't ashamed in friendly company she was close with.

An old crush and a want to still respect her decency got Hiccup to look away, even though she wasn't entirely in the nude.

This made Hiccup the only one still fully dressed. Something he was quite okay with, although he had agreed to join them at the springs this time.

Snotlout, soaked from head to toe, came stomping out of the water. Attempting to pretend like he wasn't freezing as he left the heat of both the hot spring and the steam, he took on a confident pose. Hiccup and Astrid's brief exchange had sparked inside of him the want to gloat.

"Pff! That puny thing? Let me show you a real scar!" He invited himself into the conversation. Propping a foot up on a nearby rock, he smugly pointed towards a jagged line on his inner thigh.

"Do you see that here? Got this one when I took a harpoon to the leg." Snotlout's ego simply oozed out of every spoken word. He was gloating and it looked like he had been waiting to do so for much too long.

"You did not!" Always ready to knock the Jorgenson right off the pedestal he liked to put himself on, the Thorston twins exited the spring as well. It was Ruffnut who spoke.

"Yeah, you got that scar when you accidentally destroyed that armory and that harpoon, that was just lying there, fell on you." Tuffnut followed swiftly.

"I did not! I-... Shut up, Tuffnut!" His pride hurt, Snotlout crossed his arms and looked away.

The twins grinned mischievously.

"Now check this out!" Both Ruff and Tuff pointed towards a particularly ugly-looking scar on the brother's side that didn't appear to be all that old. They were particularly happy with this one.

Walking closer, Hiccup couldn't help but notice something.

"Is that from... a Fireworm?" He asked, slightly worried.

"Uh-huh. Found some, tried to roll with them. You know how it is, being the feral dragon person that you are. Turns out they-"

"Have skin hot enough that it can melt flesh, yes, I'm aware." Tuffnut's exciting recount of the event did not help settle Hiccup's concern at all. If anything, he made a mental note to tell them which dragons to touch and which ones they should stay away from as far as humanly possible.

Or he should make that list in reverse. Knowing those two, Ruffnut and Tuffnut would absolutely seek out the ones they shouldn't ever come in contact with.

"And oh, Hiccup!" Ruffnut pulled on his sleeve excitedly before pointing towards her leg.

"And then there's this one I got on my leg from a fishing hook, that weird looking thing right here that I got when Tuff and I went Gronckle tipping-"

"That was you?!" Fishlegs' outrage was heard in an instance as Ruffnut decided to list each one of her own scars. Her body was quite littered with them.

"Yes, it was, Fishlegs! Pay attention!"

Hiccup didn't get to hear the end of their conversation as Astrid grabbed his shoulder to turn his attention towards her. She had taken note of Hiccup's stress levels rising significantly with each little anecdote Ruffnut shared and decided to save him before he bolted back towards his den where he could think of a way to "twin-proof" the island. She could see the want to do so on his face.

"You know, I had my suspicions, but they really haven't changed at all, have they?" Hiccup asked her, thankful for the save, and Astrid nodded.

"Unfortunately, they haven't. But don't worry about them, Fishlegs and I are keeping an eye out for them. And now you are too. They couldn't possibly be in any safer hands." Even after all of these months getting to know them after their reunion last year, Hiccup still wondered where this supportive side of Astrid had come from and why. He also wondered if she knew how much he appreciated it.

It made him remember that sometimes having other humans around could feel good.

There were the Defenders and the Wingmaidens, but Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut came from a tribe that weren't originally on good terms with dragons. Dragon people were far and wide in between, at least in the far North, and sometimes a little reminder that the majority of humans weren't bad was a welcome perspective.

"I'll, uh, do my best to help." Hiccup gave her an awkward smile.

They had come here to live with him, after all. After some talking with their parents and Berk's Chief, they were here to help Hiccup and Toothless protect the dragons under their care and save the ones held captive by those that would do them wrong. They were living his life with the sole purpose of understanding it.

Although, Hiccup was well aware that there were some other, more hidden, intentions behind their actions. Hiccup knew for a fact, for example, that Stoick hoped his estranged son would reach out to him again. He wanted to reconnect, but so far he was respecting Hiccup’s need for space and time, which Hiccup was quite certain Gobber had something to do with.

"No! That one is so embarrassing!" Fishlegs yelped as he physically removed himself from Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston.

After the twin had run out of nicks and blemishes on their person, they decided to point out the Ingerman's. Ruffnut had taken this opportunity to say how "disappointingly untouched" he was.

It sent shivers down the spines of everyone present and Fishlegs already decided that he would spending that night with Meatlug in her nest.

"What about you?"

"Huh?"

Snotlout's question surprised Hiccup and he drew his gaze away from the three Riders.

"Do you have any scars?" Snotlout clarified his inquiry, he wasn't too happy that he needed to do so.

Hiccup was once again the center of attention, like he had been many times since the new Dragon Riders had come to live with him on what they called the "Better-than-Berk Berk".

Awkwardly, he gestured towards his prosthetic leg.

"Ugh, besides that! We know the story behind that one!" Jorgensons were often known for their temper and Snotlout was already annoyed.

Hiccup tugged on his tunic in discomfort, straightened it out as if possible crinkles mattered to him. They were all waiting on him and gazing at him expectantly. It had been a long while since he'd last felt this uncomfortable with his own body and yet the wave of embarrassment was a familiar one.

Dragons didn't care about his body. At least, the ones here didn't. He knew Toothless didn't. The Night Fury was never bothered by how weak and scrawny his partner looked, not even back when they first met. As a result, Hiccup never needed to care either.

But humans... Humans cared. A lot, from what he could remember.

"I don't..." Not even his hands quite knew what they were trying to say.

"You don't have to show us anything." Astrid decided to speak up as she took a step forward. Her hand was on his shoulder again.

"Oh, come on!"

"Is this about being scrawny? You're not that scrawny anymore! Honest!"

"And you're tall, H! Tall, handsome, and... Broad's not the word I'm looking for." The protest was instant. The only one who wasn't opposed to Hiccup listening to his boundaries was Fishlegs.

"Hiccup doesn't have to show us if he doesn't want to." Astrid hissed, unconsciously grasping for an axe that wasn't there with the way her fist clenched. She scolded the three of them. The other Riders muttered and two of them crossed their arms in disappointment. One even pouted.

Next to Astrid, however, Hiccup sighed and silently nodded to himself. He came to a decision and grabbed the back of his tunic to remove it.

"Hiccup?"

"You've shown me yours, I show you mine, right? It's only fair. And I'm doing this of my own free will. So don't worry about it." Though Hiccup tried to reassure her, Astrid's slight unease did not immediately fade away.

She felt compelled to look away at the slightest show of skin. It was unlike her, but as the tunic came off and all that remained was the leather pants, she didn't think there was any other choice.

"Damn, Haddock! Dragon riding did you good!" Ruffnut instantly piped up and Fishlegs even nodded in agreement. Snotlout was speechless, which was a feat in and of itself, and Tuffnut said something along the lines of having found someone even hotter than the skin-melting hides of Fireworms.

"Ah, thank you?" Hiccup hadn't expected any positive reactions, he'd expected neutral ones at best, but he would take it. It did his self-esteem some good. At least, for the time being.

Daring herself to look, Astrid finally willed her gaze to fall back on Hiccup and she saw what they all saw.

There were the tons and tons of freckles they already knew he had, but what was new was his figure as it was no longer scrawny as it was more toned instead. His muscles definitely weren't defined, but they were still unmistakenly there. Deceptively powerful in a lean and sleek design, that is what Astrid's keen eyes saw.

And something else that they knew weren't there before were the many, many scars on his body. For the amount alone, he had them all beat. Even Ruffnut!

As that sunk in, Astrid grew quiet while the others were delighted. Ruff, Tuff, and Snotlout in particular. As a warrior, she had numerous imperfections of her own, but she could at least say that none of them originated from a brutal whipping.

The marks on his upper back, she'd seen them before on other people and she'd heard their stories.

How vicious had it been that it created wounds that scarred? Like that especially? And more importantly, how old was he when he got them? The mostly straight lines were white, meaning they have probably been there a while already.

"So, huh, which- which one should I talk about first?" The overwhelming attention made Hiccup flush, hands not knowing what they wanted to do. And it was, for once, not in an entirely bad way. If anything, it encouraged him to open up to them even more.

Astrid pushed her new realizations to the back of her mind for the time being. She would approach the Dragon Master about them later. In privacy. The others didn't need to know that particular story in case Hiccup didn't want them to know. And if he didn't want her to know either, then so be it. She was willing to accept that.

Another reason was that Astrid didn't want this fragile trust he had in them now to break simply because they were asking questions for answers Hiccup may not want to give.

So she came to stand in front of Hiccup and scanned his body from head to toe, searching for a tale he may want to share.

Meanwhile, Hiccup needed to tell himself to breathe as she looked him over. Once upon a time, he had made himself believe he'd gotten over his crush on Astrid after leaving Berk, but her stay here certainly disproved that.

"Let's start with... These! On your hands!" Astrid suggested and took Hiccup's hands into her own. He splayed them open, palm up. They were certainly calloused from years of blacksmithing, a skill he had continued to sharpen as he did have his very own forge here on the island. But besides the callouses, the surface showed small burn scars as well.

"Oh, these!" Seeing them, Hiccup's awkwardness melted away and the biggest grin appeared on his face. It was the brightest expression they'd seen him wear thus far. Astrid and Fishlegs smiled in response.

"I've told you guys about the hatchlings Toothless and I sometimes take in, right?" They all nodded simultaneously. If there was something Hiccup liked to boast about it were his hatchlings. Some of which were still here on the island with them and others which occasionally dropped by for a visit.

"There was this one abandoned little Nightmare that we hatched and raised. She was late, so I think her parents had given up on her. This one day she discovered she could light herself up on command and... Well, I was holding her at the time." Hiccup chuckled at the memory. That same Nightmare was one of those that had taken up residence on this island.

"It scared her so bad because she thought I was fireproof this whole time and Toothless scolded her for so long! Ah, the burns were terrible, but I couldn't stay mad at her, you know? I named her Fiery because of what happened." He was going to end it there. If he didn't, he would still be talking about her hours later. He loved her so much, just like every single other dragon juvenile he'd ever taken care of and raised by hand.

But just because he wouldn't talk about Fiery, didn't mean he wouldn't talk about a different dragon of his.

"And this one," He pointed towards a bite mark on his right arm. It wasn't particularly big, but it looked like it must've once hurt, but the smile on his face didn't vanish. This one was another good memory.

"I got this one from Trouble, a Zippleback. They loved playing growing up, but then one of the heads got a little too playful during a play-fight and bit me instead of just nipping me. It was an accident, but they kept bringing me fish for an entire week as an apology." A joyous laugh escaped him.

"You could say he got a little... bitey." Snotlout was very proud of himself, but his pun was not a welcome one. Nobody laughed, they just stared.

"Shut up, Fishlegs."

"I didn't even say anything!"

"Still, shut up!"

Astrid rolled her eyes and Hiccup shook his head, but more so out of amusement. Meanwhile, the twins needed to be stopped before they started a contest of puns just to show the dishonorable Jorgenson who the real pun masters were. There was no room on this island for more than two masters in the art of wordplay.

"Ooh, what is this one?" Fishlegs was the next one to speak up. He only had eyes for the strange scarring on Hiccup's right. They looked like veins, or like red lightning etched into his skin. Like a tattoo. It started on his shoulder and went down his chest.

"Oh, that one! Yeah, I, uh, I got hit by lightning this one time when Toothless and I got caught in a thunderstorm in the middle of the ocean. Yeah, so... that- that happened." He was slightly more awkward about that one and Snotlout was wholly disappointed a mark as cool as that didn't come with an equally awesome story.

He muttered a silent "geez". That was how much he felt let down. A corrective punch by Astrid followed swiftly.

The twins were slightly more excited to have heard about that one incident that had turned their fellow Rider into a human lightning rod.

"Oh yeah, I imagine the two of you need to be careful. You both carry a lot of metal with you as you fly." Fishlegs added helpfully. Hiccup had told them of how metal was naturally attracting to lightning. It was something he had found out the hard way and more than once, apparently.

"So what about the scar here?" Tuffnut asked, pointing to the rather ugly one on the other's chin. Hiccup didn't know when the Thorston had pulled his pant leg up.

Or where his boot had gone for that matter.

Either way, Tuffnut figured Ugly marks were bound to have a nice and gruesome backstory.

Hiccup’s smile, that first appeared as genuine and then became more awkward, made way for a cringe. Just the thought of what had caused this particular blemish on his person made him wince. His slightly hunched posture told of his nervousness.

It was still very pink in coloration, indicating that it couldn't have been that old yet.

"Um, we, uh... We crashed. Some strong winds caught Toothless' wings. I broke my leg. The bone was out. Needed to set it myself, but couldn't. So Hookfang did it for me. It was very painful." There were no details, his sentences were short and to the point, and still, the faces of everyone present pulled into a grimace.

"That... could not have been a fun time," Ruffnut stated and the others agreed. Even she got goosebumps just imagining what that must've been like.

"Couldn't walk for so long. I actually just got back up on my feet when you guys sent me that T-mail asking me if you could come live here with us." Just thinking back to the time spent in bed simply because the dragons forbid him from getting up made Hiccup feel restless. Like he needed to strap the saddle to Toothless and go for a flight with him right this instance.

This, however, explained some things to the Riders. When they had first moved to the "Better Than Berk" Berk, Hiccup did seem to fatigue easily at the beginning of their stay and there had been no news of any recent rescue missions that had taken place before their arrival.

Usually, they heard about all sorts of rumors from seafaring merchants and such. That Hiccup needed some time to recover would be one reason why it had been strangely quiet on the grapevine concerning the Dragon Master.

"Is it...?" Astrid pointed to his leg.

"Oh, don't worry about it! It's good now! I'm good now! It just hurts when I run for too long."

"Define how much "for too long" is."

"Anyway, anything else you guys want to know?" Instead of answering Fishlegs' query, Hiccup gazed at three of the other Riders, who had been surprisingly silent.

Hiccup took a seat on a nearby rock. It most definitely didn't have anything to do with what they had just discussed.

Attempting to shrug away the tension that hung in the atmosphere, Snotlout and the twins circled him and looked him over. It was slightly uncomfortable for Hiccup, but if there was something they wanted to know, he was willing to share.

Fishlegs and Astrid had heard enough for the time being, though they did not leave.

"These!" Snotlout picked next.

Hiccup looked over his left shoulder to look at the scars Snotlout was referring too. He could barely see them, but he knew which ones the other was talking about.

"Got those from a dragon. Which I'm sure is quite obvious. This one time Trouble had wandered into a different dragon's territory and they weren't too happy about it. It was a Monstrous Nightmare and a very territorial one at that. She was about to nest and she didn't want any competition." Hiccup rubbed his shoulder. That Nightmare had found a good den and thought Trouble and Hiccup had come to steal it.

Many dragons Hiccup had met in life were good and kind beings, but there were some rotten apples he was unfortunate enough to come across. Most dragons did not hurt young juveniles.

So Hiccup remembered that incident with some unease, but Snotlout, meanwhile, looked back at those scars and was stunned.

They were claw marks that ran from his upper back all the way down to his hips. Had the claws responsible been just a tad bit more to the right, they would've taken Hiccup's spine.

Just like Astrid and Fishlegs, he was starting to have enough.

Hiccup seemed to notice. Snotlout didn't have any comments, he was now uncharacteristically quiet. But Hiccup had promised he would tell, so...

"What's this one?!" Ruffnut asked. Not having lost her curiosity just yet, she wanted to continue this interrogation as she poked at what once must've been a large gash on his right side, where his ribs were.

"That one I got from an axe, believe it or not! Got in over my head with some Dragon Hunters back when this one guy called Krogan was still alive. He was... a very cruel man. Said that, if I wanted to live like a dragon, I needed to be put down like a dragon. But I survived! So that's good!" Hiccup was slightly hesitant as he answered. His apprehension grew when he watched true horror appear on the faces of even the twins.

Suddenly, listening to Hiccup talk about several different incidents that each lead to horrific injury after horrific injury wasn't as appealing anymore.

Hiccup thought to himself that it was a good thing he wasn't naked, or they would've seen some other disfigurements he was still hiding.

Tuffnut raised his finger, as if he wanted to speak, but then lowered it again. It seemed like even he had enough by now. Hiccup wasn't kidding when he promised he was ready to tell them everything they wanted to know. And there were still quite a few scars they hadn't asked about.

Such as that thin vertical line on the right side of his abdomen. It wasn't all that short either. There were those odd spots on his lower back that looked like burns, but who knew what could cause a pattern such as that.

The Riders looked at one another, a look of new understanding on each of their faces.

Thinking of this lost Berkian as some crazy feral vigilante dragon-man had always been fun. After the years away, having fully devoted himself to dragons, he had adopted many draconic mannerisms. It was kooky, but amusing. As for the power he showed in battle, he and Toothless were like their own two-man army, you'd be an absolute fool to stand in their way. When he had first returned to Berk, they had been blown away by how much he had grown.

But now the Riders understood the kind of toll achieving such a strength and loyalty had on Hiccup, the pain he must've endured in his solo career as the Dragon Rider.

He had his dragons and they used their claws and fiery breath to keep him safe, but he didn't have any humans around. Each new injury Hiccup had to tend to himself, no matter how life-threatening.

He had human allies, such as the Defenders and the Wingmaidens, but they were never around. They didn't travel as much or as far as Hiccup did. In this manner, Hiccup was almost like their scout, their eyes in places they could not see. In return, they were a safe haven Hiccup was always welcome in, but couldn't always reach.

So Astrid figured the question she was about to ask was a fair one. Considering all their friend had gone through already in his short life, she didn't feel like she could rest easy without knowing that he was okay.

She came to stand before him while everyone else had moved away, her hand ghosting over a considerably large gash on his front that could only be caused by another dragon. It was another horrible tale, another stain on what they thought for so long had been a happy-go-lucky life without any care, stress, or worry. It would remain untold until the day the Riders got the heart to learn more.

Hiccup pushed himself back up on his feet, brows furrowed in concern.

"Hiccup... Are you sure you won't come back to Berk with us? Come back home? For good?" It was quiet at the hot spring. By now, they had all forgotten why they had come here in the first place. Something about going swimming and reconnecting with someone from their childhood.

Hiccup didn't know what to say as this question was asked. His gaze traveled to look at the others and he could see that they shared this sentiment with her. They wanted him to move back to Berk with them, permanently, and leave the home he had built here.

Some of these injuries were received after Hiccup had first returned to Berk. He could've been out there fighting with them, injured, and they would have no idea. He could've been suffering from fevers and infections while they had been in their cozy homes, enjoying the company of friends and family, of people with opposable thumbs who could help should trouble ever arise.

Tonight had been a revealing one for them.

But Hiccup already knew his answer.

"I... can't."

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Later that evening, with the moon high in the sky, Hiccup sat on the ledge of the entrance to the den he shared with Toothless, a knee pulled up to his chest.

It was a considerably sized cave in the side of a mountain that they found when they had first come to this island. There were very clear signs of both a dragon and a human living here. While it stayed mostly untouched, there was a large stone slab covered with piles of fur, there was a wall covered in paper with sketches and blueprints, there was a desk filled with parts and tools, and so much more.

It was quite high up from the base and the way there was steep too. Without a flying reptile for a best bud, it was hard to reach. That is what made it so perfect.

Fully clothed again, Hiccup had retreated here after a very tense dip in one of the hot springs with his human friends. Not feeling like sleeping yet, at night he was usually awake after having grown accustomed to Toothless' way of life, he was instead staring up to the sky and the stars.

He contemplated the events of the day, the things he'd said, and the Riders' reaction to them.

He thought he was doing the right thing by telling them all they wanted to know. He kept his life the past five years mostly hidden even when the others had come, he thought finally coming clean would strengthen their bond as the Dragon Riders. Instead, he got them to worry for him.

Honestly, he had never realized just how hard life had been on him. Even with all physical reminders blemishing his skin.

Toothless dropping his head heavily on Hiccup's lap pulled him out of his thoughts. It had been done on purpose. He crooned in question and looked up to his Rider.

When he only smiled and then proceeded to stroke the top of the dragon’s head, Toothless figured a more direct approach was needed to get Hiccup to talk.

So he picked his Rider up and all but threw him off the ledge and into their shared den. Hiccup landed with a grunt. Dragons weren't known for their gentle nature. Especially when they happened to have a close of a bond as Hiccup and Toothless had and regularly played rough with each other.

“Toothless!” Hiccup rubbed his backside.

The Night Fury gazed at him and roared in protest. It was his way of asking him what was up.

Hiccup let out a sigh as he crossed his legs. Toothless moved closer to sit down in front of him. He was quite a bit bigger than the human. Hiccup looked like he was contemplating something and Toothless wasn't pushing him. He knew his Rider would tell him when he was ready. There was hardly anything the two kept from each other, even during times when what they wanted to say to the other could not be said.

Hiccup looked up to his best friend.

"I think I did something bad, Bud. It's- it's nothing serious. I was... I was just thinking."

Toothless gave him a look and seemed to be saying "when you think it's always serious." It was an expression Hiccup often saw.

"Okay, fair point. I guess." Hiccup shrugged.

“I-I... You knew they wanted me to join them at the hot springs, right? They asked me about my scars and- and it made them really worried for my safety and..." He grew silent again and swallowed a lump in his throat.

"Do you, um... Do you think we should go back to Berk, Bud?” Hiccup finally spoke what was on his mind. Toothless cocked his head to one side.

“I-I mean, we only went back because of Viggo. And then we kept coming back whenever they needed us and-and then whenever there was a celebration or a holiday and they asked us to come... And then the Riders decided to come live here and see things from my perspective… And...” He let out a deep sigh and looked back up to his dragon, who gazed back at him with a look of understanding. He was allowing him to let it all out first.

"We have it good here, Bud. We worked so hard on this place. We can't just leave it behind."

Toothless gave him a look and a purr. With his nose, he dove underneath Hiccup's tunic to nudge the long scar on his abdomen and Hiccup's sighed deeply. Another one he hadn't told the Riders about and it didn't have such a lovely tale either. It was the one Astrid had not dared to touch.

It was caused by a Skrill they once had a scuffle with. She had been exceptionally cruel, like a dragon version of Krogan, and had come to their island in search of trouble. She had come specifically to challenge Hiccup and Toothless, this pack's alphas.

The Night Fury and the Rider won, but it had been a terrifying battle. She had been big, strong, and relentless. The fight had not ended well for her, much to Hiccup's regret. Though, he knew she left them no choice.

Hiccup was beginning to realize nearly every scar's story was a scary one. Toothless was right, the Dragon Riders did have a reason to worry for him. Hiccup knew he would've if any of them got hurt as often as he did.

He pulled a knee up to his chest and wrapped an arm around it. He looked off to the side.

He shook his head.

"No, we can't leave. This is my home, Toothless. It's our home. I-I can't leave." Toothless was comfortable with that answer and he wasn't about to argue with Hiccup. Whether on Berk or here, he wanted to be wherever Hiccup wanted to be.

That was wherever he was the most comfortable and it was clear he wasn't ready yet to return to the human settlement he was born and raised in.

Hiccup's history with fellow humans was not a good one. Toothless knew this.

He brushed with his cheek against Hiccup's as an approving gesture. Hiccup smiled. He could count on Toothless for anything.

"I'm gonna go to bed, Bud. I'm beat." As if on cue, Hiccup let out a loud yawn. After getting used to Toothless' sleeping schedule, trying to stay up during most of the day for his Riders and then the night for his dragon was proving to be a difficult feat. He was tired, exhausted. For once, he longed for his bed.

Toothless seemed to agree. As Hiccup got up to his feet, the dragon pushed him forward with the flat of his head. The former chuckled as he made his way over to the furs and promptly dropped down on top of them on his back.

Lifting his leg, Hiccup undid his prosthetic before moving further up on the pile to curl up and Toothless, who had been staying up together with him, wrapped himself around the other. He was tired as well.

Hiccup smiled up to the Night Fury and received a lick on the entire right side of his face. He groaned, but it didn't wipe his grin away as he wiped the slobber off. Grabbing Toothless' chin, Hiccup briefly touched Toothless' forehead with his own and the latter closed his eyes and purred. It was their good night and their good morning.

Rolling back onto his other side, Hiccup rested his head on his arm.

He tried to close his eyes so he could sleep, but found that something was keeping him awake. Smile replaced by a frown, he couldn't stop thinking about his evening with the Riders.

He wanted to stay, he really did. This island was his home, a place for both him and his dragons where they would all be safe. It was high up, a place only those with wings could reach.

And yet, something was nagging at him. Something was bothering him and he wasn't quite sure what.

It wasn't necessarily moving back to Berk that troubled him. He wasn't so keen on doing so, but it wasn't his main concern.

Was it the realization that his life, so far, had been difficult?

He feared water because of the sheer amount of times he had nearly drowned so far. He still avoided many human settlements and even contact for all his bad experiences with them. Berk, at some point, included. His friends even compared him to a "very skittish dragon" when they thought he wasn't around to hear it. It was true that, for as much as Hiccup trusted the Riders, he was still often cautious around them.

Rolling onto his other side to face Toothless, Hiccup scooted up to him. Without a single word spoken, the Night Fury wrapped himself tighter around him. He was already half asleep, but Hiccup coming closer wasn't lost on him.

Once comfortable, Hiccup figured he should follow his lead, and yet he still found sleep to be much too far away, in spite of his exhaustion.

He didn't want to go back to Berk, he really didn't. But this wasn't his first sleepless night, even with Toothless there to keep him safe.

He had to admit, far too many stories had been engraved into both his body and mind.

[tysonrunningfox]

Ripped: Part 23

Like...here, I can’t do this anymore, I’ve been sitting on the first part of this for forever.  Please, join me in...whatever this is.  

Ao3

00000

Four thirty-seven in the morning is not time to wake up, but Astrid doesn’t have much of a choice after Hiccup’s side of his bed goes cold and the wheels in her mind start spinning, skating across the last twelve and twenty-four and thirty-six hours. Hiccup exhausted beyond sanity at the hospital, Hiccup sleeping with his head on her lap. Hiccup with damp hair and wide eyes, laying her back on his desk. Hiccup laughing at a joke that could only be funny in the first hours of the morning, sleepy hands holding her close.

“I don’t want it to be tomorrow,” he’d whispered in her ear, voice hoarse and comfortable as he pressed a tired kiss to her jaw, pulling her leg over his hip like if he just arranged their limbs carefully enough, they could feasibly meld into a single person. “Tomorrow’s just going to be more hospitals and decisions and not enough…” He trailed off, palm dragging up the curve of her waist.

“It already is tomorrow, technically,” she’d looked at the clock until he dragged her face back to his, soft thumb on her chin.

“Well sure, if you’re still a stickler for a linear definition of time,” he smiled, bringing her back to her apartment hallway where she couldn’t help but notice he was charming and handsome under the stupid hat. “But cyclically, it’s not really morning until we sleep, is it?”

“We already slept,” she reminded him, difficult just so that he’d narrow his eyes in a cute, shrewd way and kiss her. He went further than that, rolling her onto her back and holding the sheets dramatically above his head before disappearing under them, breath ticklish on her navel as his hands made room for himself between her knees.

“No more of that then,” he’d laughed, kissing her hip, “no sleeping, no tomorrow. It’s a deal.”

The only thing more shocking than how quickly Astrid trusted Hiccup is how quickly she got used to him.  As electric as his presence has become, it’s comfortable too, a secondary North her internal compass passively tracks when he’s in range to keep herself in alignment.

She bites her lip and sighs, staring at the ceiling for a ten count before giving up and rolling out of bed.

His closet isn’t a walk-in, but it’s larger than hers, and she finds a soft sweatshirt that smells like him hanging at the back of it. She pulls it on and pauses to touch the cold side of the bed, taking in the silence, as temporary as it is. He was right, there’s a whole day of hospitals and adult arrangements ahead of her, but after how easy and good last night was, nothing seems insurmountable.

She brushes her teeth with her finger again, looking around the bathroom at the old bathmat and Hiccup’s shirt from yesterday balled up in a corner. There’s a trimmer on the counter and auburn stubble in the sink and she finally starts to come around to the idea that sometimes when things seem too good to be true, it might just be because they are that good.

Hiccup wasn’t exaggerating how empty the kitchen is, but she manages to find a glass in one of the old walnut cupboards and get some water. She didn’t have much of a chance to look around yesterday, given she had better things to acquaint herself with, but since Hiccup isn’t back yet she starts scoping out the living room.

It’s a bachelor pad, obviously, old comfortable furniture without a decorative pillow in sight, video game controllers on the end tables and an empty beer bottle next to the remote. The rug is soft though and there are thankfully no Patriots posters on the wall, only two framed diplomas by the front door, both from the Berk Police Department. One is three years old and says ‘Snotlout G. Jorgenson’ in crisp black ink on thick white paper and the other was folded at some point and is starting to yellow around the edges, the name ‘Stoick Haddock’ handwritten in careful cursive script.

The frame of the older diploma is dusty and Astrid tucks her hand back into Hiccup’s sweatshirt sleeve to clean it off, and as soon as she does, it reflects the heavy deadbolt on the old door behind her turning. If months of living at a bona fide murder site honed her reflexes, last night’s uneven sleep dulled them because she freezes, holding her breath and watching the reflection of the door slowly swing open.

A single footfall heavier than any Hiccup would be capable of producing crosses the threshold and her heart sinks as she turns to face whatever she’s being dragged into next.

“Can you take any longer to open a door?” Snotlout’s improbable voice cuts through the sudden silence and he stumbles into the living room.

“The plan was for me to sweep the place,” Eretson follows him, teeth clipping the consonants as frustration pours around the dulled corners.

“Sweep the place? It’s my apartment, what are you expecting to find?” Snotlout throws his arm up and looks around for evidence that Eretson’s concern is unnecessary, but his eyes land solidly on Astrid.  

He raises an eyebrow and she jumps, coming back to life all at once and dropping her glass of water on the way to yank down the hem of Hiccup’s sweatshirt.

Eretson doesn’t flinch at the sound so much as he condenses, pulling his gun from the holster on his hip and cocking it with a cold steely click. Then he sees what, or who, he’s aiming at and his grip goes slack, barrel of the gun pointing towards the slowly spreading puddle on the floor as his jaw works soundlessly, eyes wide.

“Good morning,” Snotlout says, slow blooming grin spreading across his pasty, stubbled face as he takes in her bedhead. She almost wishes his eyes would dip lower because if he were being pointedly creepy, she’d have a reason to yell and maybe regain her grip on the situation, but instead she’s wedged under the weight of his obviously amused observation.

“Why aren’t you in the hospital?” The question comes out shrill and she jumps back from the water starting to pool between her toes. The sweatshirt is far too small for current company and she yanks it down again, fisting the fabric beside her thigh and holding it there. Eretson is still frozen, wrist slack and eyes wide and she snaps. “Never mind, I don’t care, can you put the gun away?”

“Apologies.” Eretson directs his startled gaze to the floor and stands up straight, thankfully re-holstering his weapon.

Well, thankfully until the lack of weaponry renders the situation impossibly more awkward.

And cold. Drafty even.

“And shut the door!” Astrid orders, even though she has no authority, and Eretson looks at Snotlout for corroboration.

“Just got shot,” Snotlout looks pointedly at his arm and Eretson sighs, bright red as he resigns himself to shutting and locking the door, clearly weighing the consequences of being on the other side and wishing his lot in life were different.

Something truly awful must lurk outside the door for Eretson to choose to be in this living room right now and Astrid wishes she knew what it was so that she could make her own educated decision.

“Good morning,” Snotlout repeats and Astrid glares, holding the fabric tight around her thighs.

“We already did that.” She steps sideways out of the puddle, daring either of the men in front of her to say something about her state of dress. For once in her life, it’s a fight she wishes she hadn’t picked because everything in Snotlout’s slight grin says ‘good game, Champ’.

“Where’s Hiccup?” Snotlout asks, looking around for another target to embarrass.

“He went to get breakfast.” Astrid does her best to frame the sentence as an insult but Snotlout is unfazed. No, unfazed would be better, he’s a delighted audience.

“That’s my boy.”   He’s more than delighted, he’s disconcertingly, disruptively proud and Astrid wishes she could hitch a ride on Eretson’s shoulders as he attempts to sink into the floor.  

Her clothes are in Hiccup’s office, where they were enthusiastically abandoned the night before, which she can’t think about with Hiccup’s nearly mortally wounded cousin grinning at her like a proud coach.

They aren’t even her clothes, they’re Tuffnut’s clothes.

She wishes she could ask Hiccup where he is, but of course, no phone. Eretson is so absolutely mortally embarrassed that she half thinks she could ask to borrow his phone to call Hiccup, but she doesn’t have his number memorized. Snotlout probably does, but asking him probably involves details requested in the name of ‘bro’.

“I’m going to go get dressed,” she announces, trying for something official and feeling like an inadequate cat herder.  

It’s impossible to set her shoulders and stalk to Hiccup’s office while keeping her ass covered, but she tries anyway, eyes locked dead ahead to give her periphery a chance to reorient. Snotlout follows, lurking in the doorway as she confronts the mess on the office floor.

Or no, not mess. Her clothes and Hiccup’s towel.

Snotlout whistles under his breath.

“Damn, on the desk by all his special books?” He laughs, “that’s like nerdy hot, I’d give you a wedgie if I thought you were wearing underwear.”

“Oh my god!” Astrid snaps, “if I didn’t think you’d bleed out, I’d—“

“Those are your clothes, from the hospital, does that mean Hiccup was in the towel?”

“Snotlout,” she hisses his name, “why the hell aren’t you in the hospital?”

“I’m proud of you two, really.” He nods, more encouraging coach than the creepy opportunist she knows how to deal with. She half expects him to clap her on the ass and tell her ‘good game’. “At the rate you were going, I thought you had another year of hand holding before anything happened. But then you fu—“

“Can you give me a minute?” She grits her teeth and he nods, hand held up in half surrender as he backs into the living room and shuts the door.

She takes a minute to breathe, leaning back against the desk and pressing her knuckles to her eyelids until she sees static.

“Where’s your mop?” Eretson asks, voice muffled through the door.

“What? My floor isn’t clean enough for you? Sorry, I was pretty busy being shot and almost dying, I should have mopped first though, I guess.”

“Just trying to make myself useful.”

She gets dressed with both eyes locked on the door, even though it seems like Snotlout is more likely to interrupt to congratulate her than to catch a glimpse of something he shouldn’t. She briefly thinks that she might not be cut out to be his ‘bro’ if this is the kind of involvement she can expect, but that’s not a train of thought she has time to catch right now, so she pushes it aside.

Last night felt like she and Hiccup were potentially the only two people in the world, or at least the only two that mattered.  The only two she had to think about.  But now it feels like the rest of humanity is butting its way back into her mind by way of one recently shot idiot and chasing any dregs of that peaceful feeling away.

When she opens the door, Snotlout is sitting on the couch, pouring over his phone. Eretson is lurking by the front door with one shoe on, obviously debating over taking the other off. Astrid’s shoes are next to the couch, vaguely under Snotlout’s legs, approximately where she abandoned them the day before as Hiccup left to shower.

She clears her throat and he doesn’t look up. Eretson doesn’t look away from his mismatched feet.  

Snotlout doesn’t look good, that’s the obvious place to start.  His face is nearly gray under patchy hospital stay stubble and the circles under his eyes look like bruises.  She doesn’t know much about almost bleeding to death, but she’d assume a person should sleep more and move less afterwards and it looks like he’s been doing the exact opposite.  He’s wearing sweatpants and a suit jacket that’s so oversized that its sleeve is cuffed above his wrist and his other arm is hidden inside of it, presumably in a sling or something to restrict him from ripping his stitches.

“What are you wearing?”  She frowns, trying to place the jacket.  It’s familiar somehow but she’s not used to it looking so absurd.

“When is it my turn to ask the questions?” He grumbles and she sighs.

“I don’t think I’m going to answer any of your questions,” she raises her eyebrows at his suit jacket, “and I didn’t realize harassing me required business casual.”

“Shit,” he looks down like he’s only now realizing his outfit might be out of the norm, “I fucking told you I was going to forget to give your fucking jacket back, this is not my fault.” He points a shaky, accusatory finger at Eretson who flushes over an absolutely stoic expression, rolling his sleeves up his forearms.

“You can keep it,” Eretson says, looking somehow larger and also more uncouth without his suit jacket as he decides to put his discarded shoe back on, apparently not planning on staying.

“Who said I want it? It’s itchy as hell,” Snotlout huffs, settling further into the couch and making no move to take the jacket off. “Oh, maybe I’ll need it when I have to sit on someone’s shoulders to pretend to be as freakishly tall as you are.”

“Or for when stripping doesn’t work out and you decide to become a flasher,” Astrid offers, folding Hiccup’s sweatshirt over her arm and pacing slowly, glancing at the door and wondering where Hiccup is. The handle of Eretson’s gun glints darkly and she pauses, turning her glare on him, “and why’d you point a gun at me? What could you possibly have been sweeping the place for, actually?”

“Grisly,” he says dumbly, a kid caught dually red handed next to a broken cookie jar.

“Why would Grisly be here?” She knows the broadest form of the answer even if the specifics are hazy.

Grisly would be here to do awful, nefarious things, and she swallows hard, waiting to be proven right.

“Because he shot Jorgenson.” Eretson squares his shoulders, bracing for an argument even as Astrid’s knees threaten to bobble.

She wishes she were shocked, then she could claim credibility instead of facing the fact that she half believed what Grisly was capable of just because Hiccup said it.

“He remembered?” She nods quietly to herself and Eretson relaxes, glad to not have to convince her.

“He is right here,” Snotlout grumbles, “and he didn’t have to because the idiot informed me that he came to the hospital to ‘finish me off’.” He rolls his eyes like he didn’t just tell her that someone connected with the police tried to kill him twice, “like he learned English from shitty mob movies or something. If Ruffnut hadn’t shown up when she did—”

“Oh my God,” Astrid cradles her head in her hands, staring at the floor and thinking of the day before, staring silent at a closed bathroom door and coaching Ruffnut through trying to do the right thing.  If she’d stayed on the phone a second longer or if Ruffnut had turned around in the lobby like she’d threatened, Snotlout would be dead. Hiccup would hate her for making him leave the hospital.  

Hiccup would be planning a funeral in his office instead of trying to get breakfast.

Hiccup.

“Where’s Grisly now?” She asks, dread creeping up her spine.

“Have you heard anything strange?” Eretson asks, back in detective mode, and Astrid shakes her head.

“No, but I can’t say I was listening for Grisly.”

“Yeah, you were too busy banging Hiccup on his desk.” Snotlout snorts, still not creepy. Still alive even though someone wanted the opposite. Thrilled to embarrass her, definitely, and so disconcertingly unconcerned with his own mortality that she feels coerced to protect him.

But Hiccup is out there alone, and if there’s even a chance he was right about Grisly, she doesn’t know how she’ll ever forgive herself for not going with him.

“Hiccup—he didn’t have any proof,” Astrid’s brain fills in ‘at the time’ as her eyes flick to the clock yet again. “But umm, he has a hunch that Grisly was connected to…what we talked about the other night. All of it, I mean.”

Eretson’s phone rings and Astrid jumps at the sound, wishing she’d been clearer or that she hadn’t talked at all. She won’t know which until he picks up and the way he’s looking at the caller ID makes her wary.

“This better be important.” He says, curt and responsible, and Astrid wants to snatch the phone away from him and put it on speaker. “A development? Explain to me how there can be a development on my case when I’m not working it.”

Astrid used to be the queen of ‘this better be important.’

For a while, in her teens, it seemed like a magic phrase. A filter that made people rethink before they added their petty issues to her already overfull plate. It felt like one of the only things she could say to make people hear her, to think twice about how many actually important things she must be dealing with to deny their request. And maybe it made her feel important too, to place herself in a position to rate other people’s problems on a scale she got to set.

Then she learned what it’s like when people rightfully push past it.

Important never means good. Important is never better.

“Who is it?” Snotlout asks, tensing on the couch until Astrid offers him a silent hand to help him up. He’s heavy in an amorphous, exhausted way that scares her, like all his weight has shifted to the wrong ends of his bones.

Eretson’s face falls under the weight of the importance he’s about to communicate, his eyes flicking between Astrid’s expression in limbo and Snotlout’s growing frustration, “when? No, take him to my office—it’s still my bloody case—that’s your job then, Johnson—Well, I’m on my way in now, I’ll be there in five minutes.”

He hangs up, exhaling one sharp breath and not so much puffing out his chest as making the most of the space he knows he takes up. It’s comforting, like a doctor trained to deliver bad news, and Astrid glares at him, willing him to spit out whatever it is so that she can shoulder her part of it.

People who hoard information inevitably drown in it and thinking of Hiccup’s books in the next room makes it hard to breathe.

“Is everything ok?” Astrid asks the general question, hoping against hope that it’ll keep the specific at bay. “Is Hiccup ok?” She tries the words on for size along with the lump of heavy concern in her chest that she can’t quite remember deciding to take on.

She did, of course, a long time ago.

It was there in the hospital when Hiccup looked at her for stability while his world spun out of control. It was there when he was too frazzled to function, when he needed to see the city for what it is and not what he wants it to be. It grew from a little seed of trust planted when she followed him into an alley, unsure of what she’d find but willing to take the risk.

Then, it didn’t feel like a risk at all.

“Grisly brought Hiccup down to the station on murder charges,” he says simply, and again, Astrid wishes she were surprised.

For months, she’s been reminding herself that if anything had gone differently, she could have ended up like that poor woman who trusted the wrong man in a dark alley, but because of Hiccup, that reality wasn’t ever really on the table for her. This one was.

“Murder charges.” It’s not a question, it’s another unfortunate sentence to try on, feeling out the edges of yet another situation happening to her without her input. “Who died?” Astrid asks because she doesn’t know what else to do. At this point, she doesn’t expect an answer, but the question was doing nothing useful overflowing inside her head.

It’s not doing anything useful in the open either. It flops on the floor like it’s dead itself and she starts planning for the worst, just in case.

“And all those morons just believe him?” Snotlout huffs, trying to inflate himself but leaking out of a painful, obvious hole.

“Says he caught him in the act.” Eretson looks like he’s lost many races training to win this one and the enemy is pulling ahead in the final sprint. “I’m heading in, it sounds like Grisly has my boss half-convinced to hand the case over to the NWF.”

“Those idiots couldn’t find the big bad wolf if he blew their house down or, I don’t know, shot another cop!” Snotlout gestures at his shoulder, “and yeah, I just called them pigs, indirectly, but I meant it.”

“Which is why I’m going to go deal with this,” Eretson crosses the room and almost gingerly helps Snotlout out of the suit jacket, sliding it back on like it’s bulletproof and he thinks he’s going to need it. Underneath, Snotlout is wearing a scrub shirt with a thankfully dry blotch of red-brown blood on the shoulder above a square of thick gauze taped to the wound.  “Get that shoulder re-bandaged at least.”

“No! I’m just going to bleed out on the floor to spite you, specifically.” Snotlout does his best to take the sweatshirt Astrid’s holding but his face goes even paler when he yanks. “I’m coming with you.”

“Jorgenson,” Eretson’s tone would be patient if it were wrapping around any other word, but now it’s ill fitting, chafing at the seams.

“Hiccup didn’t kill anyone, you know he didn’t, I know he didn’t, and I don’t give a shit what that creepy fucker says—”

“He already tried to kill you once, don’t be stupid enough to give him another chance.”

“He already proved his aim sucks once, you mean,” Snotlout is giving up the fight though, clammy sweat blooming across his forehead as he leans back against the arm of the chair, catching his breath. “Oh fuck off, you don’t have to be so smug about it.”

“You shouldn’t stay here,” Eretson checks his jacket pockets and pulls out a Ziploc bag with a handful of white pills in it and hands it to Snotlout who takes it, reluctantly grateful. “Either of you.”

“Oh we can’t stay here? You can’t kick me out of my own place, it doesn’t work like that,” Snotlout swallows one of the pills dry and winces as it sticks in his throat. It must be dry, like Astrid’s, like her automatic functions are on pause, waiting for permission to start working again. “And last time I checked, you still aren’t my commanding officer, so I’ll do whatever the fuck I want,” he says so that no one can say he didn’t.

“He can’t be anywhere on file,” Eretson tells Astrid, obviously done with the pointless argument, and she stands up straighter, glad for even the suggestion of something useful she can do. “Grisly might check there, especially now that he confessed his intentions, Snotlout is a liability.”

“I’ve always been a liability, thanks.” Snotlout rolls his eyes and Eretson’s jaw flexes at the comment. “Maybe we should go stay with Ruffnut, Grisly was scared of her for some reason.”

“No, the twins were suspects too, they gave information at the station,” Astrid thinks, tapping her finger on her chin and trying not to think about Hiccup’s developing penchant for touching her there. “Wait! I’ve got somewhere. Fishlegs didn’t give you his home address, did he?”

“No, would he have a record of any kind?”

“Absolutely not.” The first relief Astrid’s felt all day sweeps away just enough frantic anxiety to make room for dread, and Astrid doesn’t know any antidote for that but action. “Should I come to the station with you?”

“And leave me out?” Snotlout starts trying to stand up again but Eretson responds before he can put too much effort into it.

“You should stay out of it for now.”

“Isn’t it a little late for that?” The idea of backing off, of having less power in this already powerless situation, makes her want to scream. “He was with me last night, there’s no reason I couldn’t go down to the station and say so. I’ve been his alibi before, I am his alibi now. Someone has to listen that Grisly is behind this.”

“Last time you were his alibi, you ended up looking guilty by association,” Eretson reminds her.

“But—”

“And I got suspended and then shot,” Snotlout adds, forever helpful.

“Ok, but—”

“You need an alibi,” Eretson rubs his chin, “there’s no way Grisly won’t ask about you, you’ve been involved from the beginning.”

“She was with me,” Snotlout shrugs one shoulder, deflating a little against the chair, “no alibi like a cop alibi, right?”

“But I wasn’t.” Astrid is surprised to sound panicked, like even saying last night didn’t happen could take it from her somehow. Like lying could take the feeling that Hiccup’s apartment inexplicably feels like home away. That hasn’t faded, if anything it’s stronger, like being surrounded by his space is keeping her sane through the latest insane moment.

“That’s not bad,” Eretson halfway compliments, checking for his gun one more time, “that gives you a reason to leave the hospital too.”

“But I wasn’t with you last night,” Astrid shakes her head, “especially as a ‘reason for you to leave the hospital’ four days after you were shot—"

“Yeah, you were,” Snotlout starts texting someone, “it was super hot, I’ll tell people it was hot.”

“No, you won’t.” She tries to take his phone and he winces when he tries to hold it out of her reach.

“Too late,” he grins, “already told Ruffnut.”

“She won’t believe you!”

“She doesn’t have to, she just has to lie, and she’ll know that since she helped me sign out of the hospital.” He looks seriously at her, “the last thing Hiccup needs is you looking like an accomplice again and linking whatever Grisly says he caught him doing back to three other murders.”

“Never thought I’d say this,” Eretson clears his throat and looks purposefully at Snotlout, “but you’re right. Get somewhere safe, I’ll call when I can.”

“Ok, but before you go can you tell me I’m right again?” Snotlout asks as Eretson opens the door, “and maybe add in that I’m tall and muscular, because flattery is the best medicine.”

“You mean laughter,” Eretson deadpans, expression chiseled in stone as he shuts the door and leaves them in silence.

Astrid steps forward and locks it, trying to weigh whether she feels overwhelmed or entirely disconnected from everything that just happened. Maybe it’s both and that’s worse, and she lets out a breath that feels shaky but sounds slow.

“I’ll be right back,” Snotlout announces before disappearing to the bathroom, the sink turning on as soon as he shuts the door.

She lets herself think, for a second, what the morning would have been like if Hiccup hadn’t left. No less awkward with Eretson showing up here, of course. Then again, Eretson didn’t see Hiccup at the hospital, chances are seeing Snotlout out of it would have reactivated his Mother Hen Protocol and he would have been out of bed fussing, nudity be damned.

Snotlout would probably be furious at Hiccup acting like the wrong ratio of “sexy” and “nurse” while he wanted to be invasively congratulatory. Eretson might have actually combusted from awkwardness.

Grisly wouldn’t have been able to frame him. Or Grisly would have come here next, after wherever he found Hiccup. There’s too many variables missing, the tight setup she familiarized herself with in Eretson’s office sprouting roots and propagating itself into any number of possible outcomes.

The sink is still running in the bathroom and she can hear Snotlout splashing occasionally so she decides that the chances of him bleeding out in there are low, at least until she hears him hit the floor. The utter helplessness of being without her phone or the ability to search for anything on the internet gets the best of her and she grabs the remote off of the coffee table, turning on the TV and fiddling with inputs until she finds cable. Patriots re-runs, of course, and she mutes it before Snotlout can come out and decide it’s time for another of their great bonding marathons.

Like last night, apparently, which she can’t think about without thinking about Hiccup. Hiccup warm and safe, no part of him too far away for her to touch, their bedhead tangled together.

No, that won’t help anything. Getting somewhere safe might help Snotlout, but she doesn’t have Fishlegs’s number memorized or any way to call him. He must be working this morning though, since she isn’t.

If a few missed shifts get between her and safe harbor, she doesn’t know what she’ll do.  

She’s looking for the news when she comes across a local channel, pausing when she recognizes Heather in an interview close up on a repeat of some Sunday night in-depth expose on the Grimborn murders.

“…course there’s something really compelling about looking at history through a modern lens, and I’m glad to see this unfortunate string of events connect people to the city’s past,” she says pleasantly while the camera pans up to show the Ripped Tavern’s pre-renovation grimy walls and a rack of Grimborn tee-shirts.

“I understand that the Berk PD has hired you as a Grimborn Expert to consult on the ongoing case?” A reporter that Astrid vaguely recognizes asks and Heather can’t seem to help but look a little smug.

Astrid’s thumb hovers over the channel button, her jaw twitching when she thinks about how happy Hiccup is to teach and learn and how imperious he isn’t, and she’s glad enough to have a distraction deflecting worry for frustration that she doesn’t change it.

“…really discuss that, given that the case is ongoing,” Heather continues with an almost flirtatious grin, like she’s getting a real kick out of keeping secrets only because she knows she’ll get to reveal them later, “but I think at this point in the investigation, the connection is inevitable. Obviously, whoever is committing these murders has not only a big Grimborn knowledge base but also a personal connection that they find motivating, for some reason.”

She thinks of Hiccup, motivated by seeing the city as something capable of surviving trauma and her stomach turns with the contrast to where he is right now.

“Given advances in modern forensics and the assumption that this ongoing string of murders will be solved, what do you think the chances are that it will provide insight into the original Grimborn murders?”

“The chances?” Heather snorts, “I can’t say anything about the chances, but whoever’s doing this really knows their stuff. I’m half tempted to visit their eventual cell and run a few of my pet theories by them.”

The bathroom door opens and Snotlout steps out, a fresh square of white gauze taped to his shoulder as he dries his face with the scrub shirt, pausing on the way to his closed bedroom door to frown at the TV, “Heather?”

“She’s talking about being hired to help with the case.”

“You can’t watch something normal for five minutes while I get change?” He mumbles on the way into his room, struggling with the knob for a second before getting it open and disappearing inside. “Nerd.”

“…paper recently mentioned the Admiral Haddock theory, do you think there’s any present connection to the Haddocks?”

Astrid didn’t know there was more than one. She didn’t know it was a family with a legacy aside from Hiccup and the freshly dusted diploma on the wall. It’s another link of the chain that Hiccup is somehow in the middle of as the noose tightens and she swallows hard, trying to focus on Heather’s words.

If a news channel is showing this as a rerun, that means there can’t be any news.

Except there’s so much that can’t be reported yet, and it’s not the first time recently she’s wished she knew less about the system that has her lying about whereabouts she’d never take back. She wishes she weren’t confronted with this reality, where Hiccup is in trouble and she has to contemplate what her life would look like without him in it.

“That theory is a joke,” Heather’s laugh is a little sharper, willing to lash out at the idea of feeling unheard, “it was the…the flat earth conspiracy of the day.”

“Can you explain what you mean by that?”

“It was…sensationalist and sensationalist on purpose, there’s no way that the Admiral could have had anything to gain from the murders.”

“So, you think whoever is committing the murders now has something to gain from it?” The reporter asks with a little too much interest and Heather is obviously reminded of something by an ear piece she’s not good at hiding.

“I really can’t discuss the current case.”

“Well, the bleeding stopped at some point,” Snotlout comes back out of his bedroom in a baggy black tee shirt that’s stretched at the neck like he struggled getting into it. The color makes him look paler and she almost advises him to change, but if Fishlegs is mad at her for missing work, a little pity might be on their side.

She thinks about asking Snotlout to use his phone to call a cab, like it’s nineteen ninety eight and people get their information from the news, but there are enough holes in this plan already that it shouldn’t matter if they get an Uber to the archives. The driver looks at Snotlout like Astrid is trying to use the first dregs of a zombie apocalypse to her advantage and she attempts to distract them with small talk, wondering how Ruffnut gets drivers to wait outside with a shovel.

It has been the longest few months of her life, and every city block dilates further. It feels like it takes hours to locate the service elevator down to the archives, but all of the lost time recondenses when she’s standing in front of Fishlegs’s desk, a half-dead Snotlout leaning on her shoulder and no miraculous news from Eretson propping her up.

She clears her throat, trying to remember if she’s ever missed a shift of another job and of course, coming up dry, “Hey, Fish.”

“Astrid?” He looks up, taking his one headphone out and jumping to his feet, “where have you been? I must have sent a hundred texts—”

“Sorry, I don’t have my phone, I know I missed…I don’t know how many shifts I missed but that’s not like me, I promise it’s not.”

“Seems like you’ve been doing a lot that’s ‘not like you’ since you started here.” Fishlegs crosses his arms just long enough for Astrid to freeze up. He looks mad, sure, but worried too and she holds out a placating hand.

“I can explain.”

“No, sorry,” he deflates, patting her shoulder apologetically and seemingly noticing Snotlout for the first time, eyes widening. “I was just so worried, with hearing how it went with the detective and knowing that I told him about Hiccup and the copier and—”

“It’s ok,” she cuts him off, shifting from foot to foot and debating whether she should offer Snotlout a chair or not. If she does, she’s half worried he won’t get back to his feet again, and he’s heavier than he looks, even after the blood loss. “I should explain, before I ask this favor, actually.”

“No, you don’t need to explain,” Snotlout insists, holding out his hand. His left hand, because his right is hanging lame at his side, “Snotlout.”

“Fishlegs.” He frowns at Astrid, “is it drugs?”

“See? He won’t help you if you explain. Do you want some?” Snotlout takes the bag out of his sweatpants pocket and holds it up. “Because if that’s what it takes—”

“Put those away,” Astrid hisses, helping Snotlout sit down in her office chair, “it’s not drugs, it’s—well, he has drugs because he just got shot, but—well, I need your help.”

“Back up, he just got shot?” Fishlegs sits on the edge of his desk, “who is he, again?”

“I just told you, I’m Snotlout.”

“That means nothing to me.”

“He’s a cop,” Astrid tries and Snotlout shushes her.

“Don’t lead with that, a lot of people don’t like cops—”

“We think Hiccup’s getting framed for murder, and we need to lay low, is your spare room still available?” She asks simply and Fishlegs narrows his eyes in his standard ‘more information required’ thinking face.

She tells him everything. Snotlout interjects with details she didn’t know, some of them he must have learned last night when he was evidently helping Eretson with the case. Fishlegs doesn’t ask much, and by the time she gets to this morning, her voice catching over describing how they learned that Grisly has Hiccup at the station for questioning, his frown is set in to the point that she worries she misjudged.

She was forced to trust Snotlout and Eretson and even Hiccup, in a way, if she didn’t want to go through all the hassle of making a formal harassment complaint. From the beginning, she chose to trust Fishlegs and if he throws that back on her now, she’s worried it would snap something tenuous deep inside her. An instinct that could be strong if it just has time to grow.

“Let me summarize. Instead of just taking me up on my offer to stay in my spare room before your apartment became the newest target of a Grimborn copycat serial killer,” Fishlegs pauses to swallow, “who you think is in league with the police, you got even more entrenched in the mystery, and now you’re asking me to essentially harbor two possible fugitives, one of whom was shot four days ago and might still have the well-connected murderer after him.”

Astrid squares her shoulders, “Yes. Please.” One please is just polite, but two is begging and she pauses, hoping she won’t have to and hating that she would.

“I’ll do it,” he nods, “I was just making sure I’m not biting off more than I can chew.”

“You must have a gigantic mouth, dude—”

“Thank you,” Astrid throws her arms around Fishlegs shoulders, effectively cutting Snotlout’s surely very complimentary statement off. “Seriously, thank you.”

“Hey, you’re welcome, no one would come up with a lie that elaborate for missing two shifts,” he pats her shoulder and she sighs, finally able to take an actual deep breath now that someone is sharing at least some of the weight on her shoulders.

“You haven’t met Hiccup,” Snotlout snickers and Fishlegs looks like he’s going to join in on the joke until he catches Astrid’s fallen expression and stops himself.

“I think I need a drink if I’m going to do this,” Fishlegs looks around at the stacks, the dust layers on the books separating stories that ended when they ended and those still growing with everyone who still picks them up. “I’ve never harbored fugitives before, but I think I can justify closing the archives for a day to learn the ropes.”

“That…sounds like the best plan I haven’t pulled out of my ass today,” Astrid laughs but gestures to the clock on the wall, “it is seven in the morning though.”

“Oh!” Snotlout perks up slightly, “I bet I know a place within our budget that’s probably open.”