Despite waking up with a dragon underneath his roof, Hiccup felt as though his morning was turning out rather well, if uneventful. Astrid was finishing up her breakfast opposite of him at the table, much to his delight. While he had to wake up relatively early to be able to sneak a few fish, it was worth it to see the dragon girl happy. It wasn't long before she finished up her meal, leaving only assorted fish bones on her plate. Before he could start cleaning up the table, Astrid pulled on his shirt.

"You said… you'd show me what's on your… desk."

"What are you… OH, right, yeah. Let's do that."

As the two made their way upstairs, Hiccup's face went more and more pale as he thought about what exactly he was about to show her.

I'm about to show her all my weapon designs. This is not going to end well for me.

Astrid was a bit excited to see exactly what Hiccup was up to. While part of the reason was to get to know Vikings better, that wasn't the primary urge driving her on this. Hiccup had been kind to her, and she wanted to get know him better. She wanted to be his friend.

The two neared Hiccup's desk, but she couldn't help but notice how nervous he was getting.

"Hiccup… is something… wrong?"

"Astrid… I'm… Are you sure you want to look at the boring old stuff on my desk? I mean, there's so much we can look at… like the downstairs!"

"But… we've already been there…"

"Um…"

Hiccup furrowed his brows as it looked like he was trying to think of something, before giving up.

"I'm sorry, Astrid. It's just that, well, I used that table to draw up designs to help, well… kill dragons."

Her eyes widened a bit at the revelation as she watched him. He looked so apologetic, so guilty, like he actually killed something.

"But… did you?"

"Did I what?"

"Kill a dragon?"

Hiccup's eyes went wide.

"What, no! None of my inventions have… really worked right. The only thing that did was… the net launcher that I shot you down with." His voice was now low and quiet, and he would barely look at her. She simply stared at him as she processed what he said before her gaze softened and the dragongirl put her hand on his shoulder. He looked back at her, somewhat curious and partially hopeful.

"Then… then it's fine…"

"But…"

"You didn't do wrong...You were just protecting your home."

"I… Thank you, Astrid."

She simply smiled, happy that he got this off his chest. She simply stood there for a moment, taking in the comfortable silence between them.

That, however, came to a grinding halt when the two of them heard a knock at the door.

"Hiccup?"

Hiccup's eyes went wide as he realized quickly just who was at the door.

"That's Frieda! We can't let her see you!"

"Well… wha-"

"Shh! We need to be quiet."

"What… should we do?"

For a moment, Hiccup racked his head for an answer before he was able to formulate a plan.

"I'll go talk to her, and you head back to the forest. It should be early enough that you can get away without anyone seeing you, but be careful!"

She gave a nod, and the two went down the stairs, Hiccup coming down a bit slower while she dashed for the back. In a matter of moments, the two of them were at the doors on the opposite side of the house before he went through the front to see that Frieda was right in front of him. She didn't look happy.

"Oh, he-hey Frieda. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Nice to see you, Hiccup."

"Soooo… what are you doing here."

"I was checking in on you…" Her voice slowed as the two of them heard the back door open and closed in a swift manner.

"What was…?"

"Oh that? Backdraft. Door's been a bit loose…" At this point, he hoped she bought it. At the same time, knowing her, she probably didn't.

"Are you sure? It was fine last time I visited."

Darn it!

"Well, the door was broken in the last raid, and we needed a new door! As you can hear, it still needs adjustments."

"Well… fine."

Yes!

"Anyhow, you coming to Dragon Training? It's just about to start."

"Yeah yeah, just let me get my stuff, I'll see you there!"

Frieda looked hesitant to leave, but after a moment, she gave him a small nod and smile before heading down the hill. Once she was out of view, he let out a breath.

That was close. It'd probably be best to not do this again, at least for a while.

With that, he went back in and got his helmet and axe.

Frieda brushed the sweat off her forehead, sword barely in hand. It was a bit difficult, but she had managed to knock the Gronkle unconscious with her shield. The other teens were cheering her name now that the dragon was put back in its pen, though she noted that one voice was missing. After looking around, she realized that Hiccup had already left.

She furrowed her brows, a bit frustrated with him. After his skittish behavior this morning, something felt off. However she didn't look too deeply into it since she was a friend who respected his privacy. Still, during the match, all he did was stay in the far corner, hoping not to be noticed. Nobody really noticed, they had their eyes on her the whole time.

Something felt off with him, like he was keeping a secret from her. Frieda felt hurt by this. He was her closest friend, and now he'd barely speak with her. Part of her wanted to pummel him, another simply wanted to know so he could stop tip-toeing around her. To that end, she decided she'd either confront the boy, or find out what he was doing.

Hiccup quickly made his way out of the arena and the village, sweating a bit as the sun beat down on him. While glad that Frieda caught everyone's attention, he felt guilty not telling her anything. Still, it was for the best, not only for him, but for Astrid.

Although it took a while to reach the spot Astrid usually hung around at, he eventually was able to reach it soon enough. As he looked about for her, he noticed that she was nowhere to be seen. He checked her past hiding spots, but found nothing. He was about to call out to her when he spotted a black finned tail coming from around a nearby boulder.

"Oh hey Ast-"

As he walked around the boulder, he saw Astrid, but she wasn't alone. She also wasn't the owner of the tail that he found. Rather, a black dragon with large wings and fierce green eyes was the one he had spotted. Its teeth were bared at the heir as it looked ready to lunge.

Author's note: SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY I'M SO SORRY!

Ahem, yes, sorry this one took so long. Part of the problem was going about it, honestly. Previously, I would write chapters with an unbroken sequence of events (read: no time skips,) but... that got tedious fast, especially for this chapter which really served to set up some cool stuff later down the line. That's also why this chapter is so, well, short.

That said, I have two announcements to make! First off, I'm going through old chapters to fix errors that evaded me the first time as well as improve some... lackluster dialogue. Secondly, I'm announcing I'll be writing a Christmas (or rather, Snoggletog) special of sorts for Hybrid. I got a few ideas to shift through, but once I pick one, I'll have it written up just in time for the Holidays!