A/N - This fic is a tag to the Riders of Berk episode "Portrait of Hiccup as a Buff Man". Astrid makes it very plain that she really likes the first portrait, and I wondered how Hiccup ultimately felt about that. This story is also a prequel, of sorts, for a much longer fic, "Chasing Astrid" which isn't finished yet, but will be published by the end of summer if I can get my keister in gear.

One note: in my world of Berk, I have borrowed an idea that I first saw in Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonriders of Pern" series — a must read for dragon lovers everywhere. In my version of this world, it is possible to get mastery in your chosen profession, outside of just the area that you live - universities, for lack of a better term - for all Vikings in the greater archipelago, that are independent of the Chiefs.

This is my first fic in this genre, and probably the youngest audience that I will be writing for. It is also a labour of love, and a subject that both my son and myself share an enthusiasm for. Sorry, a very long winded intro. I'll do better next time. As always, reviews are always appreciated:-) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon, just my imagination and the voices in my head.

Astrid was a Viking on a mission.

She hadn't been on one initially. Although she prided herself on being very observant, she firmly believed in the 'mind your own business, live and let live' philosophy – especially when it concerned her teammates.

Oh, she liked her friends well enough, and even had a more than passing concern for their well being. It was just that, when it came to the other dragon riders, their side hobbies ranged from being rather boring to simply bizarre, and quite often really annoying. Given that she admittedly had some anger and violence issues, although she would never admit that out loud to anyone, it had always seemed best for all concerned if she left the others to their bliss and continued to do what she did best – namely combat training and flying.

She would be doing that right now, if a certain someone wasn't on her mind, causing her to break her own self-imposed rule and go and see what he was up to. Actually, Hiccup was the reason she broke a lot of her self-imposed rules, but that was something she tried very hard not to look too closely at.

As it was, she was worried about the Chief's son, not to mention a little annoyed, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it, so she could get back to minding her own business again.

For the past few days, Hiccup had been walking around in a funk. She couldn't really call it a bad mood, or even a depression. He just seemed a bit off – being quiet, making one word answers, and not being as enthusiastic about training as he usually was. The last part had gotten her attention in a big way. He had also been a bit short with his temper, but it had been subtle so far. Certainly no one had mentioned it, but maybe she had tuned into it just because she knew him so well. Yet another thing she didn't really want to examine too much.

The really weird thing was that he should have been really happy – smug even. He had almost single handedly found the treasure of Hamish the First, one of Berk's richest leaders. The clues left by his son, Hamish the Second, had baffled people for generations, but Hiccup had figured them all out – in one day no less.

Astrid was convinced that even Hiccup's own father, whom she greatly admired, wouldn't have been able to do what Hiccup had done, even if he had been given all the locations for the clues. It was a great achievement, even though the tomb had been sealed off and the treasure lost to them again. Hiccup should have been basking in the glory of the victory.

Instead – funk.

She even thought that he would lighten up, once the new portrait was done, showing him in a much more realistic look. He had seemed happy for a while, but it hadn't been long before he had gone back into his funky mood again.

This time, Astrid had had enough. After Hiccup hadn't come to dragon training this morning, Astrid had taken over and put everyone through their paces, just letting them all think that it had been planned that way. As soon as the practice was done, however, she mounted her dragon Stormfly and went on a systematic search to find their derelict leader, with the sole intention of either cheering him up or punching him out, depending on what mood she was in when she found him. At the moment, she was leaning toward the latter.

After spending the better part of an hour in the air, Astrid finally spotted Toothless lying near the edge of a small cliff top, soaking up the sun's warmth into his ebony hide. Since the dragon was always near his rider, she assumed that Hiccup was probably somewhere nearby. Deciding that she could use a little exercise, and some time to cool down, Astrid had Stormfly land about three hundred metres away from Toothless, in a little clearing further inland.

For a moment she just sat in the saddle, uncertain of how she wanted to proceed. Despite her ire, it wasn't really in her to violate his privacy needlessly. It was only because she truly felt she had just cause, that she set her shoulders, placed her axe in it's sheathe on her back, and dismounted from Stormfly's saddle. Once on the ground, Astrid took her satchel off Stormfly's seat and added some things into it, before placing the strap across her body to secure it.

Astrid scratched Stormfly's chin. She could tell that her dragon was tired from the morning's exertions.

"Hey, girl. Why don't you stay here and relax while I go and see the boys. I'll whistle if I need you." Stormfly clicked and trilled her acceptance of the idea, and proceeded to settle herself as Astrid regarded the trees, getting her bearings before she headed off into the woods, towards the cliff's edge.

The hike was tough going, with lots of roots and ground cover obscuring the way and slowing down her progress. Her mood was swiftly going dark again, until she spotted the object of her quest.

Hiccup was seated against a large tree, right on the edge, where the trees met the clearing of the cliff top. Although he was in Toothless's eyesight, the tree cast a shadow over the area, which probably explained why she hadn't seen him in the beginning. The area was amazingly warm, protected from the winds by the trees and the rocky outcroppings surrounding the clearing.

Astrid gazed out at the water of the North Sea. The view wasn't particularly inspiring, but she had to admit, it was really peaceful. She glanced to her right and noticed that Hiccup's eyes were closed, apparently unaware of her presence. Even Toothless didn't seem to notice, or at least wasn't concerned enough to make his rider aware of her, so she took a moment to catch her breath, and let the peace of the place wash over her for a few moments more.

When she felt like she was calm enough to not punch Berk's heir in the gut, Astrid hiked the last two metres into the clearing, careful to make enough noise to alert the boys of her presence. Toothless's head popped up just as she leaned against a tree and gazed down at the top of Hiccup's head.

"Well, look what I found, finally." She smirked, crossing her arms and ankles as she looked down at him, watching with amusement as he jumped in surprise and banged his head against the tree behind him.

"Ow! Oh, hi… hi Astrid… Ow, hi there." He rubbed the back of his head, wincing when his fingers touched the spot that he had banged. "Yeah, I guess you found me." For a second, his eyes lit up at the sight of her, like they often did when he saw her and she came to say hello. Her heart leapt in her chest at that look, only to be crushed a little when the light went out of them, and he looked back out onto the sea.

"Well, you missed a little bit of drama at dragon practice today." She pushed on, deciding to ignore the hurt she felt at his apparent brush off. She waited a second, to see if he would want her to elaborate. The silence seemed to last for eternity, until he seemed to break down a bit and glance her way.

"Oh?" He asked politely. She decided to take his brevity as consent to continue, and took a deep breath as she smiled at him, determined to get him to react.

"Hmm, yes it was quite dramatic. The gossip is that Ruff and Tuff's mother has kicked the twins out of the house – for good this time, apparently. Rumour has it that Tuff wanted to test out his latest invention, a fireproof mixture for fabrics, so he sprayed Ruff's hair with it and tried to set her head on fire." Astrid had pushed off the tree and started to leisurely pace back and forth, gesturing to the story in front of the prone Hiccup, who was watching her movement, apparently in spite of himself.

"Apparently this spray doesn't mix well with the fish oil that Ruff wears in her hair." She continued. " Ruff lost a whole braid of her hair before she could put the flames out. Unfortunately, she was too late to keep her hair from igniting the drapes and blanket in the living room. The whole place would have gone up like kindling, if their father Buffnut, hadn't just brought home a cask full of cod and seawater."

Hiccup snorted and he looked like he was supressing a grin. Astrid grinned right back at him and continued the story. "As you can imagine, their house smells like cod right now, and Grete was apocalyptic in her rage. Apparently, she chased them both with a rolling pin for over an hour. Thank Thor they take after their father and can outrun their mother, because Ruff was certain that she really was going to kill them this time." She giggled a little at the memory, and was relieved to see Hiccup smiling at her narration.

"So where are the twins going to stay until their mother cools down?" He queried lightly, his voice unconcerned and dry with wit. The twins getting kicked out of their house was not a unique occurrence, but fortunately their mother had a short memory and was long in forgiveness, so it wasn't likely the eviction was permanent.

"Oh, I'm thinking the usual. Ruff will probably stay with me for a few days. I'd let Tuff stay on the couch, but my father nixed that idea a while ago, even with Ruff there as well. He'll probably just bunk with Stormfly in the barn."

"And Stormfly's okay with that?"

She smirked. "Ironically, yes. The two of them get along surprisingly well, after a fashion. They have a deal of sorts worked out when he sleeps there. As long as he doesn't snore too loud, she's just fine. If he does, he gets a wing to the back of the head."

Hiccup snorted, and smiled up at his teammate. For a long moment, their eyes locked on each other and Astrid was shocked to see a look of sadness and hurt reflected back at her before Hiccup's eyes darted to his dragon, and then down to the ground.

"Hiccup, what's wrong, really," she finally asked, her voice soft and tinged with worry. "And don't tell me it's nothing, cause we both know that's bull. You've been walking around in a daze for a while, and you even missed dragon training. I thought that it was the beginning of Ragnarök when you didn't show up."

Hiccup snorted a laugh at that, and sighed as he glanced her way before going back to stare at the ocean. "It's really nothing, Astrid. I'm sorry that I've worried you. Why don't you go back to the others and have fun. I'm sure Snotlout would be much better company than me right now."

Astrid stared at him in stunned silence. Just stared. Her hearing must be faulty – that was the only conclusion. Either that, or the man was insane – truly insane. She leaned against a nearby tree and folded her arms over her chest to glare down at him.

"Okay, first off, I need a straight answer. When the ground was collapsing in Hamish the First's tomb, were you hit on the head with a large heavy boulder? Have you fallen down the steps to the wharf? Fell several kilometres off of Toothless's back? 'Cause I think we need to get you to Gothi immediately. You obviously have an undiagnosed head injury that needs to be seen to immediately. 'Snotlout would be much better company?' By the gods, Hiccup, you were better company than him, even after the battle with the Red Death – and you were unconscious then!"

"Good to know that I can entertain, even while passed out." He said dryly.

Astrid's eyes narrowed at his sarcasm, but she didn't respond. That month after the battle had been terrifying to her, for a lot of different reasons. Despite that, they had never spoken about it and for the most part, they both acted like it never happened. It was definitely easier on her that way.

Hiccup probably would have thought that she had forgot about it entirely, except that she carried extra cream and pads for his prosthetic and stump in her saddle bags, in case that he needed them when they went out on missions or training exercises.

He had never asked her to, but one night when they had camped out, she had pulled out the supplies and proceeded to tend to his leg. They had been in the water for several hours, and his stump and his prosthetic had gotten soaked, to the point that his leg had started to ache in the cup that attached to his leg. Of course, she had noticed that. The others hadn't noticed his limp, but really the others were idiots, so it really wasn't all that surprising.

Everyone had changed their clothes and let them dry near the fire, but Hiccup – being a stubborn idiot – hadn't taken his prosthetic off. So, as soon as everyone went to bed, Astrid had come out of her tent, supplies in hand, and ambushed him, forcing him to take it off so she could treat the skin underneath. She knew that he almost died from embarrassment when she took off the peg leg, but she had been very detached and efficient about the whole thing – cleaning the stub of muck from the river, rubbing in a numbing, healing ointment and then wrapping it lightly for bed.

She remembered that he had looked up at her with those amazing green eyes that had been filled with such gratitude when she had finished with her ministrations.

She remembered she had squeezed his shoulder and looked seriously at him when he had asked why she did it. "This is your leg, Hiccup," she said gently. "You have to look after it like you do the rest of your body. I keep medical supplies for everyone, in case of burns, falls or breaks. You're part of the team. I keep stuff for you as well." She had quickly got up after that and went into her tent, before she said something stupid that she couldn't take back.