Hiccup found her sitting on the edge of the balcony, legs dangling over the wood, arms propping herself up so that she could stare out to the shore, watching the sun set below the horizon. Even from where he stood back at the hut, he could see where a few strands of hair had come loose from her braid, fluttering down her face in the evening air. He longed to tuck it back behind her ear, and realised, not for the first time that week, that he could. There had been so many times over the years when he'd wanted to reach for her, to curl their fingers together, to hold her close, bring her face to his and let their lips touch, and now he could.

Hiccup stepped out of the shadows, sliding down beside her, reaching out to slide the very strand of hair that had been bothering him and tucking it back behind her ear. At his touch, her eyes flickered up towards him, a smile spreading across his face.

"Hey," she said, as he made himself comfortable on the planks next to her, "how are you holding up?"

"Not too bad," Hiccup said, wrapping an arm around her waist while she rested her head on his shoulder. "You?"

"Fine," she said, but there was a certain edge to her voice, her words a little clipped.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, like he knew she would, and he frowned.

"You promised you'd tell me what you're thinking, remember?"

Astrid's fingers laced together on her lap. "It's my fault we lost the Dragon Eye. All that information on all those dragons, the way we'd keep them from going extinct, you said, and it's my fault we lost it."

"Astrid," Hiccup said softly, his mouth dry, "no." He pulled her closer so that she was safely tucked into his arms. "None of this was your fault."

"If I had just listened to you, if I hadn't followed you and Viggo, he wouldn't have caught me like he did-"

"Astrid, stop," Hiccup said, his voice taking a firmer tone. "It was Viggo's fault, not yours. Never yours. Don't blame yourself for Viggo's actions."

"You should have kept the Dragon Eye."

"And let Viggo kill you? Not in a million years."

"It was so important to you, though."

"Not as important as you are."

Something in Hiccup's voice made her eyes flicker upwards, and she saw him staring down at her with a strange kind of intensity in his eyes, an expression she'd never seen on him before.

"It's true that there was a lot of information in the Dragon Eye," Hiccup said. "A lot that could have helped us do a lot of good for the dragons in this archipelago. But there are other ways of cataloguing that information and there are other ways of keeping the dragons safe."

His free hand reached for Astrid's, threading their fingers together. "There's only one of you, and I'm not losing you. Not for anything." He moved his hand from her waist and cupped her cheek. "Astrid," he said. "There are some girls who are worth risking everything for. You're worth risking everything for."

He slid his hand under braid, guiding her face to his and his eyes fluttered shut as the two of them shared a long kiss. As their lips parted, their foreheads touched, their eyes still closed as Hiccup mumbled, "it was no choice at all. I'd rather have a future with you than anything else."

Astrid stared at him for a moment, before she pulled him back into a kiss.

When she pulled away again, she broke out into a smile. "It's the same for me too, I hope you know that."

He smiled too, his fingers curling through Astrid's hair. "I do."