Beating the Heat

A/N: I have no idea where this came from.

As it turned out, the summers were nothing short of brutal upon Dragon's Edge.

The first week of July saw the scrubby, scraggly patches of stubborn, slow-growing grass brown and wither fairly quickly, and the dark dry blades drooped so low it appeared they wished to sink back into the soil from whence they came; the trees, their branches hung limp from exhaustion, prompting many squawking, whimpering Night Terrors to flee from the dense forests, abandoning whatever shelter they had managed to obtain beneath the thick leaves and scurry hastily into the mercifully cool metal dome.

As for the riders, they shed unneeded garments wherever possible; arm wraps and leggings were flung aside, boots yanked off the instant they were indoors, swiping sweat from their foreheads and fanning flushed faces, drinking water by the gallons; and the dragons, they feuded endlessly with each other, for the sweltering sun made them quite irritable and snappish, until, within the third week of these persistently high temperatures, every inhabitant upon the Edge was thoroughly miserable.

And, as Hiccup was nowhere to be found, every complaint fell instead upon Astrid's unwilling ears.

Tuffnut was the first to approach her; bared arms wrapped lovingly around Chicken, and his sunburned face buried in her reddish feathers, he related, between choked sobs, how they must flee the island immediately, for his beloved bird was clearly in a state of terrible suffering.

Astrid patted his arm and told him, as gently and reassuringly as she could, that Chicken appeared fine to her – "That's just what she wants you to think! She's always silent in her suffering! Such a soldier, she is!"

Unfortunately, her words could not serve to pacify all on Dragon's Edge and, finding herself knee-deep in Snotlout's latest host of reasons as to why they ought to take another vacation, she set down her cup of ice water and announced, to anyone who would listen, that she was setting out to seek Hiccup immediately.

"I'll come with you!" Heather tore herself gratefully from Snotlout's side – the dark-haired boy had drawn quite close to her when he'd tossed in words such as romantic getaway. "It's a pretty big island, after all, and nobody's seen him all day." Hauling herself up onto Windshear's glistening silver back, she added thoughtfully, "Maybe he's in his hut? We all know how he gets when he starts working on a new invention."

"Maybe," Astrid conceded, as they rose slowly into the air. "I don't know, though, he normally talks our ear off when he's getting ready to go to work on something. I could've sworn I saw him go into the forest earlier, so maybe he went down to the lake. It's cooler over by the water."

"You're probably right," Heather admitted, nudging her dragon gently in the side with her heel. "We ought to check the woods first."

Upon spotting the roaring waterfall, the two girls sent their sweating dragons into a steep dive; Astrid swooped gratefully close to the cool mist, savoring the sensation as it exploded lightly on her skin.

"Hiccup!" The sight of the windblown auburn locks served as her confirmation, and she did not allow herself a longer look; merely landed upon the bank, racing to the edge of the water. "Hiccup, we wanted to talk…" The next words died unspoken upon her tongue as her friend turned to face her, a smile on his lips, submerged up to his waist in sparkling blue.

"Hey, guys," he said, and he said it casually, as if this sort of thing happened every day, as if it didn't bother him in the slightest, but oh by all the holy gods in Asgard, by Thor and Odin and by the mother of Frey, how had she not thought to look at him before speaking?

A vivid flush stealing over her cheeks, from something perhaps a bit stronger than the sun, Astrid tore her gaze away, staring determinedly down at her boots. The broken twigs and leaves scattered on the ground, she told herself firmly, were a much more interesting sight than the boy in the lake.

"What brings you two here?" Hiccup sounded baffled, yet pleased, and when his voice seemed to draw closer, the blond girl sneaked another glance in his direction; he hefted himself, one-handed, up onto the bank, leaning lazily and comfortably against Toothless' scaly black side. Stray droplets of water clung to him, his upper body – his bare upper body, Astrid thought, face burning ever more fiercely. His bare and tanned and muscular upper body, and damn it, where the hell had he gotten those abs…?

"I thought you were running drills today?" He shook out his hair as he talked, yet the water still clung stubbornly to the copper strands; he patted the grass, indicating for the two girls to take a seat upon the bank.

Heather complied, dropping immediately to her knees. She never even missed a beat. How could she even think when every movement, every twitch of that chiseled, sexy chest sent Astrid's mind spinning in circles? "We wanted to talk to you. Hookfang just tried to eat Chicken, and now Tuffnut thinks the heat's getting to her, too…and Snotlout thinks we need another vacation…"

Hiccup's mouth twisted. "Yeah, I see where you're going. I'll deal with them." He raked his fingers roughly through his hair; the auburn strands were just tousled enough, Astrid thought, to look sexy, yet not tangled enough to appear unkempt. He rose to his feet, brushed off his leggings – thank Thor those were still on, Astrid wasn't sure what she would have done if they weren't – and slung a leg over Toothless' back.

"How do you feel about getting dressed first?" Heather spoke the words so lightly, it was clear the sight hardly bothered her; yet Hiccup shot her an apologetic smile, pulling his shirt from his satchel and slipping it quickly over his head.

"Sorry 'bout that." He turned to face the sky.

"Oh, it doesn't bother me," Heather shrugged. "It was just hard for Astrid to ignore the heat."

Hiccup's easy smile slipped. "Wh-what?"

"I said it's hard to ignore the heat," Heather chirped, smiling innocently at the pair. "Just so hot today, huh?"

It did Astrid's heart some good to see, by the vibrant pink splashed liberally across Hiccup's freckled cheeks as he took off, that she wasn't the only one who fully understood the other girl's implications.