SPOILER ALERT: This series of one shots may contain spoilers for How to Train Your Dragon 2. Read at your own risk.

Age 20

"Good afternoon, milady."

Astrid looked up from where she was giving Stormfly a good scratch to see Hiccup watching her from the entrance to the academy. The dragon wiggled her head, her scales scraping against Astrid's nails as she tried to regain her rider's attention.

"Good afternoon to you, chief," Astrid said, sitting back on her heels. The Nadder grumbled and stretched out on the ground. "And how is your day going?"

Hiccup shrugged. "Oh, full of chiefly duties." He knelt down next to Stormfly and gave her a scratch under the chin. Astrid could see he was tired: bags under his eyes, stiffness in his peg leg, the slight sigh before he spoke. "How's that new saddle working out?"

"I love it," she said. "The new footholds are great." She'd spent most of the morning practicing her usual flying tricks, hands-free.

"Hmm, I thought you'd like those." Hiccup patted her knee. "Would you object if I took her out for a spin? You know, just to try out my handiwork."

Astrid arched her eyebrows. Was there a slight hesitation when he asked the question? Of course, hesitating was a trademark of Hiccup's, just not when he spoke with her.

Placing a hand on his arm, she asked, "You want to tell me what's bothering you?"

With a laugh, Hiccup gave her a peck on the cheek. "You are too smart for me sometimes."

Astrid smiled and crossed her arms.

"Okay. Okay. I was hoping to get away, but everyone's so used to seeing me on Toothless, it'll take me forever to get out of the village." It was true, since he'd become chief, Hiccup had developed an inability to ignore even the most trivial requests. If anyone even thought about needing help, Hiccup felt obligated to stop and see what he could do. Astrid hoped he would outgrow that habit soon. There was already enough pressure on him without his inventing more. "So…I was hoping I could borrow your dragon."

"Well, why didn't you start with that, silly?" Astrid asked, lightly punching the spring coil that released his back fin. It still amused her to no end—Hiccup wasn't amused at the moment though. Today must have been tough. Sighing, he rewound the mechanism. Astrid placed her hand over his. "Go, I'll keep an eye on your dragon and make sure he doesn't get too jealous."

"Thanks, Astrid."

Hiccup hopped up, giving Stormfly another scratch right behind the spines before he mounted and flew away. Astrid stood and brushed the dust off of her pants. Toothless was probably already looking for Hiccup—they hadn't gone very far from each other since the encounter with Drago—she should probably go find the dragon so he wouldn't worry. Toothless was smart to enough to realize why his rider hadn't taken him, wasn't he?

Then again, maybe Astrid should try using the saddle excuse instead.

Half of her afternoon passed in searching for Toothless. He wasn't in his usual perch on Hiccup's roof—if she wasn't careful, she still thought of it as Stoick's house. Just looking at the chief's house made her miss the big, red-bearded Viking. No wonder Hiccup had needed to get away. Astrid had no idea how he kept it together. Her mother had died when she was little, but if something had happened to her father, Astrid was sure all she'd want would be to hop on Storm Fly's back and fly until she ran out of world.

But Hiccup didn't have that option. He was chief. People were counting on him to keep the village safe.

There was a plaintive cry over by the cliffs. Toothless.

"Hey there, buddy," Astrid said. It was always a good idea to let a dragon know where you were approaching from. Toothless turned to her, eyes heavy, shoulders slumped. Her hand stroked his scales. "What's the matter?"

Toothless turned his gaze back to the sky and let out a deep cry that made his skin vibrate under her hand.

"He's just trying out Stormfly's new saddle," she said, trying to find his favorite spot.

Toothless snorted.

"Yeah, I didn't believe that one either."

The dragon pulled away from Astrid's hands and started to pace.

Hiccup had been gone a really long time. "You think something might be up, boy?"

The look Toothless gave her had her swinging into his saddle. Toothless wriggled and then sprang into the air.

Astrid loved her dragon. She wouldn't have given up Stormfly for an army of Night Furies, but there was something about riding this dragon that was special. They had their own bond. Not like the one Toothless had with Hiccup or she one she had with Storm Fly. They weren't one, but they understood each other. This person they both loved with all their heart connected them. They would, both of them, die to save him. Even scarier, she knew that Hiccup would just as gladly give up his life for them.

Which was why she was so worried by the Night Fury's behavior. Keeping a level head in situations like this wasn't normally a problem, but with Stoick's death—and Hiccup's close call—still so fresh in her memory, it was hard to keep her mind on task as she worked her way outwards, searching the places Hiccup might have gone.

"There," Astrid said, pointing out the mountainside clearing were Storm Fly lay curled up on a large, sunny rock.

At first, Astrid saw no sign of Hiccup. Then she found him. He had his back to a tree, his head on his indrawn knees. Something inside her tightened. Astrid couldn't breathe. She leapt from Toothless' back as his feet touched the ground.

"Hiccup!" she cried as she skidded to a stop next to him. The knees of her pants tore as they met the rough ground.

He lifted his head. "Astrid?"

"Are you hurt?" Astrid patted him down, checking for injuries. She grabbed his jaw, the rough stubble on his jaw scraping against her fingers as she twisted his face. "What happened? Toothless has been acting so weird this afternoon." The black dragon had not joined then, which was surprising. Toothless was huddled at the edge of the outcrop, watching Hiccup with those same sad eyes he'd used on her. Finally, Astrid saw. "Hiccup, are you crying?"

"No," he said, scrubbing the evidence off his face.

Astrid grabbed his hand. "No. Hey, it's okay, I just—what's wrong?"

Hiccup sighed.

"Was today that bad?"

"Yes. No. It was the same as any other day." Hiccup bowed his head, clutching at his hair.

"Overwhelming. I must have turned to my dad for advice two dozen times before I remembered that he's gone."

"Oh, Hiccup."

"He wanted to make me chief, Astrid. He was going to train me. I could have been learning from him and I just ran off. If I had known—"

"But you didn't know," Astrid said. Scooting closer, she put her arms around her shoulders. He melted into her. "He'd just sprung the idea on you that morning. There wasn't time anyways."

"I know." Hiccup fiddled with a blade of grass, tearing it into tiny strips. He took a shuddering breath and turned his head so his cheek was pressed against her shoulder. She ran her fingers through his hair, snagging them every time she came to her two braids. He continued, his voice soft, "But that doesn't stop the guilt."

Astrid nodded. How long had he been holding this in? All these weeks that he'd been organizing village repairs and dragon races, looking after everyone else. Since the day Stoick was killed, Astrid hadn't seen him cry once, but that didn't seem odd to her. She'd just assumed that like her, he put on a brave face for the rest of the world and nursed his grief in private.

"So, what was with the dragon swap?" she asked, looking over to where Toothless was still lying on his belly, drawn tightly together. He didn't even lift his head to growl at Stormfly as she tried to coax him into their usual games. Instead, he shifted listlessly with every nudge of her head. Stormfly looked to her rider, exasperation clear on her face. Astrid waved her away from the Night Fury. With a small growl, she waddled back to her rock.

"Toothless already feels bad enough," Hiccup whispered. "I didn't want him to see me like this."

The black dragon's ears flicked forward at the sound of his name. Could dragons cry? Looking at Toothless, Astrid decided the answer was no. If that dragon could cry, he would be. Eyes fixed on the ground, Toothless crawled forward a few inches.

"Hiccup," she said, pulling away from him. Toothless froze, but Hiccup's attention was on her. "You're not—you're not still mad at him, are you?" To her, it was a silly question. It should be a silly question. Toothless and Hiccup had been nearly inseparable for weeks. If anything, their bond seemed stronger since the encounter with Drago's alpha.

"What? No! It—" Hiccup broke off, lowering his voice. "I know it wasn't his fault. I don't blame him, I blame Drago."

"Have you told him that?" she said.

For the first time, Hiccup looked at where Toothless was groveling.

"All he knows is that you're upset and you rode off on another dragon," she said. "You're not the only one who's hurting." That was true, Hiccup knew it was true. The whole village was in mourning, but Toothless was as good at hiding it as Hiccup. Apparently, even from the person who loved him best in the world. She had seen it though. While Hiccup and Valka were huddled over Stoick's body, she'd seen how the dragon had tried to join their grief. Because he had loved Stoick too.

Toothless was approaching them again, head hanging. He was trying to be as possible, his expressive tail followed limply behind him, the rods of his fake tail clattering slightly.

"Hey, bud, it's okay," Hiccup said. He rolled to his knees, reaching for the dragon's wide head. Toothless closed his eyes, letting out a low whimper. "I know, bud, I know. I—" His voice broke. "I miss him too." Hiccup was not a sobber. His shoulders didn't shake; he didn't gasp fro breath. But Astrid knew he was crying just the same. She could hear it in every word as he pressed his face to his dragon's scales and told Toothless that it wasn't his fault over and over again. Toothless was still, his head against his riders' chest.

Astrid didn't move either. She wanted to reach out and comfort them both, but she was wise enough to see that this was their moment. If she'd been a normal girl, she might have been jealous. Astrid wasn't a normal girl though. She was a dragon rider and she understood the bond between dragon and rider.

Storm Fly trotted over and nudged Astrid's arm. Absent-mindedly, Astrid rubbed the Nadder's nose. She felt a little like an intruder. Leaving didn't feel like an option either though. So Astrid sat there and watched the sun as it got closer and closer to the horizon. When it was just half a disc, Hiccup sat back and wiped a hand across his face again.

"Better now, bud?" he asked. "Yeah. Me too."

Toothless whuffed and bumped his head against Hiccup. Hiccup scratched the dragon behind the ears and then turned to Astrid.

That was her cue. Scooting forward, she took one of his hands. He leaned into her, resting his head on her shoulder again. "Next time, tell me what's going on. Worried dragon and worried girlfriend are not a fun combination."

"You were worried?" He scoffed. "About me? I was with Stormfly. What could have gone wrong?"

"Plenty," Astrid said. There was nothing light about the punch that she delivered to the spring coil

"Oof. Thor's beard, Astrid, are you trying to break this thing?"

Astrid giggled.

"Yes. Ha-ha. That's still very funny." He was laughing too as he rewound the gears.

"It's hilarious and you know it."

"C'mere you," he growled, grabbing her waist. He pulled her to him and tried to kiss her, but the angle was off and his peg leg was in a bad position, so they ended up sprawled on the ground with Toothless looking down at the silly humans with his usual look of bemused distaste. Hiccup reached up and brushed her bangs back into place. She smiled. "Thank you. For everything," he said, placing a hand on each side of her face.

"Anytime." Then she leaned down to kiss him. Over their heads, she could hear Toothless grumble. Hiccup let go with one hand and pushed the dragon away.

Storm Fly was not quite so easy to get rid of. Not much time had passed before her teeth were gently clamped on Astrid's boot. They separated, laughing as she shook Astrid's leg.

"I think she'm tryins bored." Astrid stood brushing the dirt off of her pants.

Hiccup took her offered hand. "We'd better get back before I'm adding worried mother and worried village to that list."

Storm Fly butted her head against Astrid's back. "Okay. In a sec girl."

Hiccup was already on top of Toothless. He sat back, hand on his hip. "Whenever you're ready, ladies."

Astrid leaned close to her dragon's ear. "Why don't you fly home without me, girl. There'll be an extra bucket of chicken in it for you." The dragon turned one big eye on Astrid. She had spent most of the day with her dragon, her boyfriend—not so much "Please?" Stormfly rubbed her nose against Astrid's chest—a promise to stay close—and took off.

"Riding with me, milady?" Hiccup asked, holding his hand out.

Astrid took it, swinging her leg over Toothless' back and wrapping her arms around Hiccup's waist.

"Let's go home, bud," Hiccup said, patting the dragon's side. Glancing back at Astrid, he winked. "But how about we take the long way?"

This is the first in a series of short one shot stories that have been banging around in my head since I saw HTTYD 2. They take place at various times between and after the movies, mostly from Astrid's POV, I think. They are in no particular order.

Enjoy.