There are no words for much I blame shena for this and, as you all know by know, you should blame them too.

The second part should be up within a few days, very possibly tomorrow. And don't worry, it is definitely lighter, fluffier, and funnier than this part.

Also, because this is fanfic dot net, I feel the need to clearly state the pairings that will appear in this story. Hiccstrid, Hiccup/Toothless bromance, and Astrid/Valka epic friendship will all be featured, so if any of those things rub you wrongly, turn back now.

Hiccup was an honest, hard-working, and above all, good Chief.

The first few weeks were exhausting in their activity. Hiccup organised repairs, negotiated with the new dragons (both via Toothless and on his own), settled village matters, tried to help his mother transition back to life among humans, and continued his work at the forge. He was lucky it was only newly spring; if he'd had to oversee the food preparation and storage for winter, he might not have had time to sleep.

Toothless seemed to be just as busy himself. He spent more time with the other dragons than with Hiccup, these days. Hiccup heard them sometimes, talking in their strange, growling language. Much like he did with Toothless, he could usually glean what the conversation was about by tone and facial expression. Given this, he swore that Toothless spent the majority of his time settling disputes among the overcrowded dragon population on Berk. Which was a comfort to know, Hiccup thought as he watched two Vikings turn to him expectantly.

"Uh…" What had they been arguing about? "Phlegma, I think Hardcap is right." Immediately Phlegma frowned, and he held up a hand to stop her rebuttal. "But, Hardcap, if you didn't agree to a specific amount of time, Phlegma doeshave the right to take her wheelbarrow back at any time. Alright?"

Hardcap threw up his hands and stormed away, grumbling. Phlegma watched him go with a smug expression. "Thanks, Dragon Chief," she said, then hurried after Hardcap with a satisfied swing in her steps.

"Please stop calling me that!" he called after her. "Always with the Dragon Chief," he muttered, turning back to the forge. His latest slew of saddle designs were going over well with the new dragon species who had recently made Berk their home, but he'd barely had the time to make more than one. If Toothless had been there, he could have asked him to drive off anyone looking for him, if only to get a minute or so to himself.

But Toothless wasn't there, and hadn't been for almost two days now. He hadn't even come back to his dad's – his house, it belonged to Hiccup now – to sleep. And that was the worst thing of all.

In the days after the defeat of Drago's Alpha, Hiccup had repeatedly woken up with Toothless balanced on the edge of his bed, carefully curled around Hiccup in his sleep. After the third time, Hiccup had foregone his bed to settle next to Toothless on the dragon's own bed, pressed to his warm, scaly side and under his wing. It was a comfort to both of them, and they'd continued to sleep like that, a routine only broken when Toothless began spending his nights with the other dragons – and Hiccup hatedit.

"Dragon Chief!" a cheerful voice rang from outside. Hiccup paused in his cutting of leather to grit his teeth, then continued working, ignoring the familiar voice.

"Hey, Hiccup!" The newcomer obviously didn't get the message. He could hear footsteps approaching and he paused his work again, this time to clench his hands into fists. "You in there? C'mon, you're acting like Toothless-"

Maybe it was the mention of his absent best friend that did it, but Hiccup had suddenly had enough. "Go away!" he yelled, closing his eyes and shoving his hands in his hair. "Please, please, just- just go away." His anger disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, and he slumped against his workbench. The footsteps came nearer, and there was a clunk as the cutting saw stopped. A calloused hand brushed through his hair and he sighed, lifting his face from his hands to look Astrid in the eyes.

"Sorry," he muttered. Astrid didn't respond; just kept carding through his hair in a relaxing, repetitive motion. Hiccup closed his eyes and let his heart rate slow, feeling Astrid start another braid. He didn't care for the braids much as a style, but he did care for how Astrid only did them when he was stressed, as a kind of quiet support. Of course, he'd been stressed so often these past few weeks, more of his hair was now in braids than not.

"You haven't flown with Toothless for ages," Astrid said reasonably once she tied off the new braid. "Almost five days."

"That's not too long," Hiccup pointed out, and Astrid shrugged.

"It is for you two. Especially for Toothless." Hiccup's mouth twisted in a grimace.

"He's busy with… Alpha stuff," he said bitterly. Astrid punched his arm, but softly. "Ow, what was that for?" he growled.

"For being dumb," she replied, crossing her arms. "Aren't you busy with Chief stuff? He's probably as miserable as you are."

"I'm not miserable," Hiccup argued. Astrid punched him again, slightly harder. "Hey! Stop that!"

"You're miserable, so Toothless is probably feeling exactly the same way," she said. "Go. Fly around, have fun, have some… bonding time. It'll do you both good," she concluded. Hiccup frowned and looked down at the leather on the bench.

"But the village-"

"I'll handle it," Astrid said confidently. He stared. "What? You think I can't do a Chief's job for one day?" she demanded, eyebrows narrowed dangerously.

"No, no- I mean, of course I do," Hiccup said hastily. "You could probably do Chief duties for… a lot longer actually…" Astrid tilted her head, but he shook his head and continued, "Do you think I could? Just fly away for a bit? Wouldn't people be mad?"

"Hiccup, everyone thinks you've been doing an amazing job," she said softly, again putting her hand on Hiccup's arm, but this time in a reassuring grip. "No one would blame you if you disappeared for a bit. It's a big job, taking over from… from your dad," she finished awkwardly. Hiccup nodded distractedly.

"Okay," he said slowly. "Okay." Suddenly he grinned, and leant forward to kiss Astrid swiftly on the cheek before rushing out of the forge, apron still on. "Thank you! I'll see you soon!" he called back, laughter in the back of his throat. He ran past squabbling Vikings and curious dragons alike, not even pausing in his stride, and didn't stop until he saw a familiar black-scaled form surrounded by Zipplebacks, and what looked like a sub-species of Changewing. He ignored the itch to get out his sketchbook (he still wasn't anywhere close to recording every type of dragon, a task that had been put away in light of his new duties) and instead waited a few metres away for Toothless to notice him.

Whatever the Zipplebacks were saying, it must have been enthralling, because it took almost ten seconds for Toothless to look away and spot his human standing at the edge of the dirt patch overlooking a cliff. He made a joyful noise and bounded over.

"H-Hey, bud!" Hiccup laughed as he hugged Toothless' massive head, skinny arms tight around a thick neck. "I haven't seen you in a while, you alright?"

Toothless made a low crooning noise and looked up at him with large eyes. "Yeah, I know you're sorry," Hiccup sighed. He rubbed slow circles behind Toothless' ear. "I'm sorry too. We haven't made much time for each other, have we?"

Toothless chirped, and Hiccup grinned. "Well, don't worry about it. What do you say, bud? Wanna go flying?"

Toothless bounced up and down once, twice, three times, giving his signature toothless smile the whole time. Hiccup laughed and tugged gently on one of the frills surrounding his face. "Well, come on!" he said, turning and jogging towards the other end of the village. "Our riding gear is still at the house, remember?"

He heard a brief pounding of dragon footsteps before he was unceremoniously scooped up over Toothless' head to rest on his neck, and then they were running through the village. It must have been quite a sight: the Chief of Berk, laughing crazily as he clung to his sprinting Night Fury, the both of them almost flying through the paths of Berk towards the Chief's home.

Hiccup sprung off Toothless' back when they skidded to a stop in front of his home, and he rushed inside, followed closely by his dragon. Valka was at home, for once; for all that she was acclimatising to living among humans again after twenty years, she still preferred to spend most of her time outside, usually with dragons. When Hiccup burst through the front door, she jumped to her feet and smiled reflexively at the sight of Hiccup's crazed grin. "What's happening?" she asked.

"Nothing, everything's fine!" Hiccup shouted over his shoulder as he scaled the stairs and started digging through his room. "Me and Toothless are just taking the afternoon off!" He spied the bright red fabric of Toothless' prosthetic fin and hauled it out from under the pile of furs that had somehow been thrown over top of it. He gathered up the fin and all the gear attached to it, including the saddle, then looked around his room properly. "Actually, we'll probably be gone until tomorrow!" he called out. He heard loud footsteps on the stairs, and then two heads peered through the doorway.

"Where are you going?" Valka asked with a slight frown. Hiccup whirled around and grinned, arms full of equipment.

"I don't know!" he said gleefully. He pushed past the woman and the dragon crowding the doorway and headed for the front door, still hanging open from their abrupt entrance. "Astrid's going to be Chief while I'm gone," he told Valka as he made his way down the stairs, still uncertain in his gait on the steep steps even after five years. "She probably won't need it, but I thought you could help her? Since you probably know a lot about Chief stuff, having been…"

Having been a Chief's wife. Valka smiled sadly. "She probably won't need the help," she agreed. "She's got a good head on her shoulders. She'd be a natural. But I'll give her some pointers anyway."

Hiccup nodded, and just like when he'd talked to Astrid, another spark was kindled in the base of a new idea forming in the back of his head. "Thanks, Mom. I'll see you soon," he said, and accepted the awkward hug that his mother gave him. She was still more used to affectionate gestures meant for dragons, but then again, so was Hiccup, more or less.

Outside, he could barely get the gear on Toothless, the dragon was so excited. "Stop wiggling, will you?" Hiccup laughed as he missed the buckle on the saddle for the third time. Finally the equipment was hooked up, and Hiccup flipped the switch on his prosthetic to convert to the Riding Mode, as he'd deemed it. He swung up into the saddle and instantly felt the stress melt off him – and they weren't even in the air yet!

"You ready, bud?" he said. Toothless let out a happy growl and they both crouched low before shooting upwards, Toothless pumping his wings hard, Hiccup holding on tight.

For hours they just flew, doing all the aerial tricks and stunts they had perfected, including Hiccup actually being able to catch Hiccup when he used his flying apparatus, now. It wasn't until the sun started to touch the horizon that Hiccup realised how far they'd flown – there was no sight of land beneath them, only a dark smudge that mayhave been an island on the horizon.

"Let's head over there, Toothless!" he called, leaning low on his friend's neck and pointing to the smudge. Toothless immediately straightened his course. "Too bad I don't know where we are… this is probably a new island. Wonder if the dragons are friendly there?"

Toothless made a deep rumbling noise, and Hiccup could hear his words as clearly as if the dragon had been speaking Norse: If they aren't, I will take care of them.

"Toothless!" Hiccup scolded, flicking his ear lightly. Toothless shook his head and glared over his shoulder.

The smudge grew larger as the sun dipped lower, and by the time the moon was lighting the waters, they could see that is was indeed a fair-sized island, around the size of the supposed "Island of Night Furies" they had been captured on years ago. They landed on a long stretch of beach, Hiccup having spied a shallow cave that they could sleep in, far enough back from the shoreline that it wouldn't flood when the tide rose. Immediately he unhooked Toothless' saddle, piling the gear in the cave as Toothless rolled in the sand, scratching his itchy scales. "I'm gonna go get some firewood, okay bud?" he called out. Toothless crooned out an acknowledgement, eyes closed blissfully, and Hiccup wandered into the woods.

When he returned with an armful of sticks in various sizes, Toothless was sitting in the mouth of the cave, scales gleaming wet and a heap of fish piled proudly at his feet. "Aww, you caught me dinner?" Hiccup said with a grin. "Thanks, bud!" Toothless got an extra-long scratch behind his frills for that one after Hiccup dumped the kindling in his arms. He directed Toothless to shoot a very small burst of flame at the base of the kindling-pyre he'd constructed, and together they settled around the fire, Toothless dozing, Hiccup leaning against him, roasting a fish slowly over the flames. The only sounds him were Toothless' breathing, the gentle crashing of the small waves on the shore, the crackle of the fire and the quiet noises of insects in the woods behind him. No squabbling Vikings, no angry dragon chatter, no demands to act like the leader he was born to be – the leader he now was. Nothing here except him and Toothless, the way he knew it was meant to be.

The way it was always meant to be.

Valka was right; Astrid was a natural at being Chief.

In the way she handled the people of Berk, Valka could see strains of Stoick's even-handedness and rationality, blended with an optimism and cleverness she knew to be learnt from Hiccup. And all this, of course, was joined by the diplomacy and knowledge of exactly what to say that Astrid naturally possessed. Combined, they gave Astrid a remarkable talent for solving interpersonal difficulties quickly and with minimal bloodshed. This was helped by the fact that Astrid commanded no little amount of respect within the village; she had been Berk's most formidable warrior trainee for years, and once the war with dragons had ended, she had become one of the most talented riders on the island. Valka had assured the young Viking that any administrative business could wait until Hiccup returned, and that she herself would handle any issues that the dragons may have in their Alpha's absence (with Cloudjumper's aid), so her day as Chief went completely free of struggles.

All of this made for the calmest day that the island of Berk had seen since Drago's Alpha had risen up out of the ocean to blast ice upon the village. So it wasn't entirely surprising when Hiccup was greeted the way he was when he and Toothless returned late the day after they'd left.

"Congratulations on finding your own replacement, Hiccup!" Alrek cheered from the small crowd gathered around the pair.

"You've chosen well!" Phlegma added. Several around her nodded. Hiccup exchanged a confused look with Toothless.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. "I don't have a…" He paused. "Wait, you mean Astrid?"

"She's a right natural, she is!" Halla said. "I always told my Harald that our dear departed Stoick would be a fool not to take Astrid on as his heir if you ever got yourself killed."

"Thanks?" Hiccup said. "So you guys really think she'd make a good Chief?"

"I am a good Chief," a new voice interrupted. The crowd parted as Astrid swaggered forward, axe swinging with her stride. "How was your trip?"

"Relaxing," Hiccup replied honestly. "Thanks for suggesting it. We really needed that, didn't we bud?" he added, twisting to rub the scales below Toothless' chin. Astrid grabbed his chin gently in one hand and turned his head so she could kiss him on the lips, softly. Toothless gave a disappointed chirp at Astrid having distracted Hiccup, and Astrid laughed before giving the dragon a quick scratch.

"So, you enjoyed being Chief?" Hiccup asked. The crowd had drifted away by now, and Toothless broke away with an apologetic look to Hiccup as various dragons came looking to see their Alpha again.

"Honestly? Yeah, I really did," Astrid replied. She looked over the village with a smile. "Doing these duties just reminded me of how much I lovethese people, you know? Being a dragon rider is important, but I like helping people in a more… I don't know…"

"Personal sort of way?" Hiccup suggested. Astrid nodded. "My dad used to say that," Hiccup continued softly. "I guess you really are meant to be Chief."

Astrid looked at him with concern and put a hand on the back of his neck. "You're our Chief, Hiccup," she said seriously. "These people love you. The dragons love you. Everyone on this island thinks that you're meant to be Chief."

"I don't," Hiccup corrected her. He grabbed the hand on his neck and held it tightly in both of his own, looking at her with pleading eyes. "Astrid, I'm good at being Chief, but… I don't think that it's what I'm meant to be, to do." He looked away, and she knew without turning that he was looking at Toothless. "I… I…"

He seemed lost for words, and to Astrid's horror, tiny tears began to build in his eyes. She lifted her free hand and rested it on his cheek, forcing him to look at her.

"Hiccup, it's okay," she said gently. "I know your…" She took a deep breath and continued, "Your dad wanted you to be Chief. But Hiccup, he wouldn't be disappointed. No one on Berk would be, and no one would think that you were a coward, or weak, or anything else that you're calling yourself right now. It's okay, Hiccup," she repeated. "Your dad would be proud of you, no matter what."

There was a soft crooning noise behind her, and then Toothless was padding up to Hiccup, nosing at the side of his face. Hiccup sighed, then dropped Astrid's hand, only to cover her other hand with one of his, while his other hand reached up to rest on Toothless' nose. "You're both amazing, you know that?" he said softly.

"Yes," she informed him, as Toothless nodded. Hiccup laughed, a brief, soft sound, but it was still a laugh. He swiped at his nose and shook himself in a gesture that made him look strangely like his dragon, then smiled at them both.

"Okay," he said, and his voice was steady once more. "Tell me what I missed, Chief."

Hiccup remained Chief. Mostly.

He continued on in his Chiefly duties, although he now referred the thornier interpersonal issues to Astrid. Now that he knew he could leave the island in Astrid's hands completely without her getting overwhelmed, he and Toothless started disappearing for longer and longer; at first, only for a day or two, but within a month, they were flying off for almost a week at a time. Hiccup always arrived back filled with remorse when he realised how long they'd been gone, but both Astrid and Valka (along with the rest of the village) waved off his apologies.

"I told you that you have the soul of a dragon, Hiccup," Valka told him over dinner the night he returned from a six-day-long trip. "Everyone can sense it in you. They know that you can't remain ground-bound for long."

"I should be here for my people," Hiccup argued, poking sullenly at his mutton. Valka sighed, and leant forward.

"I was like you, Hiccup," she said wistfully. "I assume your father told you that I was once a traveller." Hiccup nodded. Stoick hadn't been very talkative about the subject of his wife, but he had mentioned a few things, including his mother's worldly adventures. "In the tribe I grew up in, they called it the Wanderlust. It was like a spark in your belly, the urge to just- get out, to see everything there was for yourself. The spark faded from me some ten years ago, Hiccup, but you are young. The Wanderlust is not a bad thing," she concluded gently. "You cannot force it down; you can only feed it."

Hiccup could picture it; soaring above completely foreign lands on Toothless' back, hearing languages they could never imagine, finding dragons that they could never dream of. And it terrified him, that he could so easily imagine leaving his home, his friends, his mother, Astrid, for so long.

But the spark in his belly that she had spoken of with such familiarity had roared to life at his imaginings, and it almost hurt to think of staying on Berk, being Chief, only being able to escape for a few days at a time. All of a sudden it felt like a life in chains; a ground-bound existence.

"I couldn't leave you guys behind," he said finally, but it sounded insincere even to his own ears. Valka just smiled sadly and covered one of his hands with her own.

"Hiccup," she said, "I think you already have."