Sososo sorry for the delay! My motivation died a painful death. I've actually had this sitting in my hard drive for a week or two now - I wanted to have this be a two-shot, but since I don't seem to be able to write anything beyond the end of this chapter for now, I'll save it for chapter three. Whenever that happens. But don't give up hope! It may happen! Just... probably not any time soon. Sorry about that. READ ONWARDS!

It seemed as if the entire human population of Berk (and a fair amount of the dragon population) was present in the Great Hall at noon, crowded around the fire-pit and craning their necks to see the person speaking – the person who had called the meeting.

"As you all know, Astrid has been taking the role of Chief in my… while I've been away," Hiccup said awkwardly, voice echoing through the hall. "Many of you have told me that she is an excellent replacement for me. So I hope that you'll all be happy to know that…" He looked down at his hands. Next to him, Astrid bumped their shoulders together, a gentle reminder of her support. He took a deep breath and continued, "To know that, with Gothi's permission, I have decided to give up the title of Chief, on the condition that it will be passed to Astrid."

There was silence, and a few Vikings fidgeted. Hiccup sighed. "You can cheer," he said. They did so, and Hiccup smiled despite himself, while Astrid just rolled her eyes.

"That's not all he has to say!" she called, and the crowd quietened. She nudged Hiccup again. "Go on, then," she encouraged. He looked around at the faces of the people he'd known since childhood and briefly regretted not allowing Toothless to join them in the Hall; he'd need all the strength he possessed to say these next words.

"I've made this decision because I'm-" He swallowed convulsively. "I'm leaving."

He waited for the inevitable confused yells and shouted questions, but they never came. Instead, the occupants of the Hall simply nodded, murmuring to each other in a decidedly not-confused manner.

"We all knew it would happen sooner or later," Gobber said wisely. Spitelout nodded, adding,

"I'm surprised you haven't taken off sooner!"

The crowd voiced their agreement, and Hiccup's head spun with confusion. "You… you all knew?" he said. Gobber, seeing his distress, took pity and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Well, you have been flying off to make that map of yours for months now," he pointed out. "Spitelout's right – it's a miracle you've stuck around this long."

Hiccup shook his head, his heart warring between relief and betrayal. "So, so you're all just, okay with this?" he demanded. Gobber squeezed his shoulder.

"You've done well by your tribe, Hiccup," he said, not unkindly. "You've been a good Chief, and you've given us an excellent successor. And it's not like you're leaving forever," he added. "Right?"

"No, right, of course I'm not," Hiccup said hurriedly. "Just six months. Seven, maybe. A year at the most."

"That's comforting," Phlegma muttered.

"He'll be back before next summer season," Astrid interjected. She stepped closer and added, slightly threateningly, "Won't you?"

"Yes, yes, definitely," Hiccup replied, eyes widening. Astrid gave him a smug grin.

"We'll have to throw a party to send you off, Dragon Chief!" Spitelout said, giving him a hearty pat on the back. Despite having hit a much needed growth spurt in the last few years, the "hearty pat" still send Hiccup stumbling forward, much to everyone's amusement. The crowd began to file out of the hall, chattering about party preparations and gossiping, leaving Hiccup and Astrid to watch them go. At least, he thought so, until someone stepped up to his other side and punched him on the shoulder.

"Ow! What is with you people and the punching?" he demanded. Snotlout shrugged.

"You couldn't have told us you were leaving before you held a meeting about it?" he said, sounding almost hurt. Behind him, the twins and Fishlegs nodded their agreement. Hiccup waved his hands inarticulately.

"I only made up my mind about it last night!" he said indignantly. "Only Astrid and my mom knew, before now!"

"Oh, please," Ruffnut broke in. "Everyone's known for years that you're gonna leave."

"Yeah, we're just mad you didn't tell us before you told everyone," Tuffnut continued. "Whatever happened to special privileges? I thought we were dragon bros, man."

"Years? But I- oh, never mind," Hiccup said. "Look, does it matter?"

"Uh, does it matter that you totally betrayed our friendship? Duh," Snotlout said. "Whatever. Like I care," he added, in a voice that said he very much cared, before skulking away, Ruffnut and Tuffnut bickering in his wake. Fishlegs went to follow but hesitated.

"I guess I'll see you at the party, then," he said, fidgeting, before hurrying after the others.

The party was, in true Berkian Viking style, both incredibly lavish and incredibly loud. They'd broken out all the food they could spare, with winter only a few months away, and cracked open a few barrels of mead to celebrate. Although the party was ostensibly to send Hiccup off, it was also to celebrate Astrid's official crowning as Chief of Berk. Hiccup grinned as he bowed slightly to Astrid, the rest of the village copying him, making Astrid's cheeks turn red. In revenge, she'd waited until the majority of the villagers had wished Hiccup safe travels, and then dragged him to the table housing the mead barrels, sweetly talking him into matching her as she drained a full mug. Within half an hour he was giddy with the drink, laughing under the lanterns strung up on the ceiling of the Great Hall.

"I should've known you wouldn't be able to hold your drink," Valka sighed as he spun his way through the crowd to where she was standing at the edge of the hall. He shook his head and peered around, squinting.

"Where's Cloudjumper? He not like parties?" he asked.

"He's a bit big for these things, I'm afraid. Toothless is around, is he not?" she asked idly. Hiccup laughed suddenly, falling backwards to lean against the wall.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Astrid says I'm not allowed to, to hang around with him, since he's gonna have me all to himself tomorrow," he explained. He glanced around again, then added in a conspiring whisper, "I think she's jealous."

"Is that so?" Valka replied, amusement seeping into her voice. Hiccup nodded, putting on a stern expression.

"Don't tell her I said so," he continued, still whispering. Valka winked.

"It'll be our secret," she said. "But just in case, I think you'd better go dance with her." She pushed him off the wall and aimed him back into the heart of the crowd, where she could see Astrid spinning around with Fishlegs in a dance. Hiccup beamed at her.

"You're so smart!" he crowed happily, before folding her into a tight hug. She chuckled and patted his back.

It took a few minutes for him to make his unsteady way through the crush of Vikings, but eventually he tumbled into the slightly open area designated for dancing. Astrid spotted him immediately, but waited for the song to end before she wandered over to him.

"You going to ask me something?" she said, crossing her arms.

"Yes! Yes, Astrid, yes, you're so smart too!" Hiccup sighed. Astrid smothered a laugh at the sight of him so loose – she didn't think she'd seen him drink this much before, ever. He probably hadn't had more than a few sips of alcohol in his life, before tonight. "I was going to ask you to dance! C'mon, let's dance!"

"Okay, okay!" she laughed, letting Hiccup catch her up in his arms and spin them among the other dancing pairs. Muddled by the drink as he was, she almost felt as if she were dancing with the Hiccup of five years ago – she could clearly remember him being terribly clumsy and uncoordinated, tripping over thin air and injuring himself on a regular basis. Here and now, Hiccup tried to do a more complicated step-change and ended up tripping Astrid, letting out a shocked noise as she fell on top of him with a shout.

Around them, the other dancers laughed, and after a moment of staring at each other, she and Hiccup began to laugh too, until soon enough they were both in hysterics. Maybe Astrid wasn't quite as capable of holding her drink as she'd led Hiccup to believe.

After another minute of laughter, she finally wiped the tears from her eyes and stood, offering a hand to Hiccup. They stood grinning at each other for a few seconds before Hiccup's eyes dropped to her lips, and she leaned in, closing her eyes-

And was unceremoniously bumped out of the way by a large, scaly form. She put her hands on her hips and watched Toothless plant himself in front of Hiccup, head cocked to one side as Hiccup pointed a finger in his face.

"Toothless! I told you not to come up to me! You know Astrid is-" He glanced over at her, then said in what he clearly thought was a whisper, "jealous."

Astrid's eyes narrowed. "Oh, hey Toothless," she said casually. "Well, if you're gonna hang out with Hiccup now, I might go dance with…" She scanned the people around her, and grinned when she spotted her prey. "Snotlout!"

The man in question looked up from where he'd been arguing with Tuffnut at the edge of the dance area as she stalked towards him. He'd never quite recovered from the time she'd actually agreed to go out with him when they were younger; a reflexive flash of fear appeared on his face for a moment when she grabbed his hand. "What are you doing?" he demanded as she dragged him away from Tuffnut. She looked over her shoulder and fluttered her eyelashes at him. He gulped.

"I'm dancing with you, numbskull!" she said with a laugh.

A few metres away, Hiccup was scowling at his dragon, who was still looking down at him innocently. "Well, what do you want, bud?" he asked, not being able to resist giving his friend a quick scratch under the chin. "You're not gonna ask me to dance, are you?"

Toothless chirped, then did a quick jumping-step around Hiccup, lifting a wing to the man's chest as he did so in a pantomime of the couples surrounding them, who were spinning on each other's arms. Pushing down his surprise at a dragon copying a Viking dance, Hiccup grinned, then schooled his features into a stern expression.

"Not bad, not bad," he said, tapping a finger to his chin, "but I reckon I could teach you some things." Toothless dropped his head to nose at Hiccup's jaw, and Hiccup pushed him away, laughing. "C'mon, bud, lemme show you something. You were doing a couple's dance, I'll show you a friendship dance, okay?"

It was something his dad had only taught him in the past few years; before then, Hiccup had never had cause nor ability to learn the different dances of their tribe. He swallowed back a wash of sadness at the memory of his dad carefully demonstrating the steps of this dance, and squared his shoulders.

"Well, first we bow to each other," he said, lowering his body in an exaggerated bow. Toothless snorted, then dipped low as well, spreading his wings behind him and making others duck out of the way. A few were watching them now, no doubt intrigued by the spectacle of a Viking teaching a dragon how to dance. "Good! Now, we – uh, clasp hands. Okay, so this probably isn't going to work."

Undaunted, Toothless lifted a paw, holding it as if he was about to shake Hiccup's hand, but instead used it to bump Hiccup square in the chest pushing him back a few paces. He could hear Astrid laughing behind him, and straightened up with determination.

"Alright, Toothless, you want to dance?" he said loudly. Toothless bounced a few times, tongue lolling out of his mouth in excitement. "Then show me how a dragon dances!"

He awoke the next morning to the feeling of Loki himself driving spears of fire through his head. He groaned, flailing a hand out and frowning when it didn't come into contact with a blanket. He shivered. "Toothless," he tried to say, only for it to emerge as a dry croak. When the pain in his skull dulled slightly, he pulled himself slowly upright, frowning as he realised that his prosthetic leg was still attached, and he was still wearing his flight gear. Also, that he appeared to be on the floor of the Great Hall.

Looking around, he saw other Berkians lying on the stone floor, some still snoring, others moaning quietly, looking much like he suspected he himself did. And then it all rushed back to him in painfully clear detail, only slightly fuzzy from how muddled he'd been from the alcohol. He groaned, a loud and pitiful noise. Gods, it was a good thing he'd already made Astrid chief – no one would take him seriously after what he'd done last night.

Gingerly, he rolled to his good knee, stretching an arm out to steady himself on the floor-

"Ah!" There was a massive bruise on his shoulder, and the pain in the muscle suddenly outweighed the pain in his head, bringing the injury forcefully to his attention. He limped towards the doors of the hall, heaving them open and squinting in the dull brightness of an overcast morning.

"Ah, there's our Dancing Dragon Chief!"

Hiccup groaned again, burying his face in his hands. "I really did that, didn't I?" he mumbled. Gobber chuckled and flung an arm around his shoulder.

"If by that you mean 'made up a dance with your dragon and then declared that every dragon rider should learn it', then yes," he replied cheerfully.

"We were all very impressed," a distressingly familiar voice called out. Astrid was walking up the hill, Toothless trailing behind her like a faithful hunting dog. "Especially when you tried to do a flip over his back and landed on your shoulder."

The bruise on his arm throbbed. "Good to know that's how I'll be remembered around here," he muttered. Toothless nosed the side of his head and he nudged the dragon away gently. "Do you know where my mom is? We'll be heading off soon, and I have to say goodbye." The word soured in his mouth. Gobber wordlessly gestured in the direction Astrid had come from. He began to head off, but paused and turned back to the two Vikings.

"Are they really calling me-"

"The Dancing Dragon Chief of Berk!" they both chorused at him, before breaking into extremely un-Viking giggles. Hiccup threw his hands up and stalked away.

"I'm not even Chief anymore, you know!" he yelled back at them. Toothless crooned a concerned noise and nosed at him again, making him stumble on the dewy grass.

There was a flock of Nadders on the edge of the village, two of them standing taller and bulkier than the others, and Hiccup could see his mother standing in the centre. She caught his eye when he and Toothless were a few metres away and carefully picked her way past the finicky dragons. "So, I suppose this is it, then," she said, slightly awkwardly. It was nice to finally know where he'd gotten his social skills from, at least.

"Only for a while," he said, rubbing a hand through his hair. "Astrid'll kill me if I'm not back before summer. And, I mean, I wouldn't stay away that long," he added hastily. "Obviously."

"Obviously," Valka echoed. They stood in silence for a few seconds before Toothless nudged him for a third time.

"I think he's impatient to leave," Hiccup said sheepishly. Valka gave him a thin smile.

"Well, we don't want to make him wait, do we?"

They'd be taking off from the cliff where Toothless had driven off Drago's alpha, and where Hiccup had been crowned as Chief; the tall shards of ice had been left standing as a memorial of sorts. The majority of Berkians were already back to their duties, so there were only a few who were gathered to say goodbye. The others had all wished him luck at the party. There were also a few dragons, although Hiccup assumed Toothless had spent the morning talking to the dragon population as a whole.

Gobber was the first to approach him, and Hiccup endured one last painful shoulder pat. "Good luck out there, lad," he said, unusually sober. "You'll make your father proud, I know it."

"Thanks, Gobber," Hiccup replied, and a second later he was being lifted into a back-breaking hug. "Ack-! Gobber!"

The blacksmith put him down, loudly sniffing. "Sorry. Good luck," he repeated, and then stepped back to allow Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins forward.

"You've got your journal, right?" Fishlegs said anxiously. "You'll probably find a tonne of new dragons, so make sure to record everything so we can put them in our books-"

"Screw the journal, just bring me back some cool dragons," Tuffnut interjected. "Maybe ones with like, three heads."

"Bring me back some too, so I don't have to share with him," Ruffnut added, shoving her brother away. This devolved into a brief fist fight, during which Snotlout shuffled closer and grabbed Hiccup into the quickest, most uncomfortable hug of his life.

"So. Yeah. You should probably come back some time," his cousin said, pointedly avoiding eye contact. Hiccup nodded in bemusement.

Finally, Astrid came forward, swaggering into his personal space. "Just remember to be careful," she warned, humour dancing in her eyes. "Toothless!" she called out. The dragon jumped off the ice spike where he'd been perching and ran to her, closing his eyes blissfully as she scratched behind his frills. "Take care of, alright?" she told the dragon, who made an agreeable sort of noise. "And try to remember to come back," she continued, now turning back to Hiccup.

"I will, I promise," he said, holding up his hands in surrender. She eyed him, then said,

"Well, just to make sure you don't forget…" And she pulled him down by the front of his flight gear and kissed him, hard. She pulled away after what seemed like hours and grinned at him. "So now you won't forget, right?"

"Right," he agreed, dazed. Toothless huffed, breaking him out of his trance. "Uh, right, yeah, so, this is it. I'm leaving. Now. Okay."

"Go, Hiccup," Valka chided. She gave Toothless one last rub across his nose and ran her other hand through Hiccup's hair, then pushed them both towards the ice spire.

And just like that, the spark of Wanderlust ignited in Hiccup's chest. He vaulted himself onto Toothless' back, clicking his leg into place even as his dragon raced for the highest point of the ice, spreading his wings and crouching low.

"You ready for this, bud?" Hiccup called, grinning wildly. Toothless roared, shooting a blast of plasma into the sky before they flew upwards, climbing for the clouds, and Hiccup couldn't stop laughing if he tried. This was what he lived for, this was what he was meant to do, to be. He loved Berk, but being in the sky with Toothless; that was where he was home.