A oneshot I do not intend to do anything else with. Just a little drabble to get the feels out…ALSO, TITLES ARE HARD FOR ME SO THEY TYPICALLY END UP BEING WHATEVER SONG IS STUCK IN MY HEAD AT THE TIME SO….SORRY. COULDA BEEN WORSE CUZ IT'S BEEN "BITCHIN SUMMER" BY AVRIL FOR LIKE A WEEK NOW…..

Toothless watched with wide eyes as his human friend paced back and forth in front of the Great Hall's door. He let out a small sound to try and comfort his emotionally troubled rider. Hiccup dragged a hand roughly through his hair and spun on the heel of his foot, changing direction.

A hand found its way down Toothless head and he turned to see Astrid standing beside him in the grass watching Hiccup mutter to himself, hands flying about, clearly troubled.

"Everyone's waiting inside, you know," she spoke after a minute of watching his frantic pacing. Hiccup froze in his tracks and twisted around towards her, nearly falling over himself. "I think your mom was looking for you, too."

Hiccup gestured towards her and averted his eyes. His jaw worked, trying to find the word, but nothing cohesive escaped. Finally, he settled on an angry release of air. "This is so messed up," he groaned, throwing up his hands.

Astrid bit her lip and walked up to Hiccup, taking his wrists to keep him still. "You're stressing out Toothless," she murmured, throwing a look over her shoulder towards the sad dragon, who was letting out noises in an attempt to comfort Hiccup. "Just calm down a little. What's wrong?"

"There is—there was this…this song my parents were singing," Hiccup began frantically. "They said it was 'their song' or something. And I got to thinking—how did either of them remember is twenty years later?"

"Good memory?" Astrid guessed quietly, not seeing where this was going.

"There were times when I think my dad would mutter it to himself, when I knew he was missing my mom. I could never hear what he was saying, but the tune was familiar."

"So your dad sang their song ever time he missed her—Hiccup, that's not a bad thing," Astrid told him. "And I'm not surprised either—so tell me what's really wrong."

"I'm not the chief," he blurted. "Being the chief—that was…that was Dad's thing. My thing was dragons. But now that's Mom's thing. But being chief—I can't be chief. I was never made to be chief. I'm not ready for this. Astrid—you should be the chief."

Astrid offered up a small but sad smile. "I'm glad you trust me enough to dump that much responsibility on me like that, but I'm not the chief Berk needs right now." Hiccup opened his mouth to disagree, she knew, so she quickly continued. "It's my fault Drago was looking for you. It's my fault he went to Berk. It was my decision to go back to look for you and when he caught us, I was mouthing off and said some things I shouldn't have. Berk needs a chief to lead the peace, not an army."

Hiccup pressed his lips together and looked over her shoulder at the dozens of homes of his village. "I don't know how to be a chief," he admitted. Sure, his father had shown him a thing or two, and he'd watch his dad to the job for twenty years. But to do it himself was a wholly different issue.

But Astrid just let out a laugh and Hiccup frowned.

"Thanks for your support, Astrid."

"Hiccup," she started, dropping his wrists to cup his face, keeping his eyes on her. "You've been leading Berk since you were fifteen and brought dragons to Berk. Do you know how many times you mother, as an adult, tried to change the minds of this village? And you—as a fifteen year old, managed to do what she couldn't.

"And besides that, you have your mother to help you. She was by our dad's side when he was learning how to be chief. I'm sure she knows a thing or two," Astrid assured him. Her heads slid from his face to rest on his shoulders, the fingers on her left hand flicking the braids near his neck. Her voice grew soft and she said, "I'll always be by your side, too, you know. Because I believe in you and I know you can do it."

A small smile made its way onto Hiccup's face and he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer. "Astrid," he began, "you are amazing."

"I know," she replied with a satisfied smirk.

Hiccup simply laughed and pressed his lips to hers, showing her just how much she appreciated her words of encouragement. "Marry me," he breathed between kisses.

Astrid jerked back and looked at him for a second before she felt a not-so-gentle nudge from behind her that nearly knocked them both over. She looked down at Toothless before looking back at Hiccup, grinning. "Yes."