AN: Oh my, I haven't posted fanfic in ages. Saw HTTYD 2 the other day and I am OBSESSED with Hiccup and Astrid. Couldn't help myself.

Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon and any associated characters and settings. I'm just borrowing them for a bit.

She was five and he was six. Her parents had been talking about it for days – the Chief was coming by to sup with them. It was a great honour, they told her.

"Astrid, be on your best behaviour," her mother said.

"Astrid, you are a reflection on your family's name," her father said.

Then they talked in hushed tones about someone else. They said that this person, this Hiccup was so small, so weak, so frail. They said that it was a shame. They said that maybe it would have been better for Stoick if Hiccup had been taken by the dragons. They said that death might have been a blessing in his case.

This kind of talk didn't really bother Astrid. She'd heard them say it before. It was usually when someone was attacked by a dragon and was badly hurt. Maybe this Hiccup was deformed in some way – injured beyond repair. Maybe she should feel sorry for him.

When the Chief came for dinner that night, Astrid was ready for his deformed little boy. But the boy that Stoick brought was neither deformed nor injured. He was just a boy. He was smaller than some of the other boys, definitely smaller than Snotlout, but Astrid couldn't see what was so bad about that. She was small, too. Smaller than this Hiccup.

Astrid was on her best behaviour through dinner. She watched Hiccup, expecting him to give away whatever it was that made him so regrettable. He ate in silence and watched everything. Astrid stared at him, but when his eyes met hers he looked away quickly. Was this his problem? That he was shy? Was being shy something to be ashamed of?

After dinner, her parents told her to show Hiccup her weapons collection. It wasn't very big, but neither was she. She was proud of the three daggers that she had. She could throw them and hit a target easily.

"Hello, Hiccup," she said.

"Hi, Astrid."

"Do you want to throw a dagger?"

Hiccup frowned and shrugged. He tried three times and only once did the dagger almost stick in the target. Was this why he should have died? Astrid still didn't understand. All she could see wrong with him was that he was small and maybe weak. It was the first time Astrid had wondered if being small was something to be ashamed of. It was the first time that she wondered if being weak was shameful, too. She decided that if she was small, she would have to be ten times as strong as everyone else. She'd have to make up for Hiccup.