A/N: Hey guys, sorry to keep you waiting. I had a crazy week again.

So prepare for some Hiccstrid moments, and the secret of the letter has been revealed.

The next morning, Hiccup convinced Astrid to go to The Academy for a change. She decided to go, but she was hesitant. When she walked in The Academy, the other teens smiled and walked up to her.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Fishlegs asked, but Ruffnut elbowed him in the gut.

"You're such an idiot! How would you feel in her situation?" Ruffnut shouted at the boy.

"No, it's okay. I'm fine," Astrid said with a fake smile.

"Really? Because you've been in the woods every day since your dad's funeral." Tuffnut commented making Ruffnut punch him in the face. Tuffnut cried out in pain holding his nose. Hiccup rolled his eyes and went ahead to start his lesson. While Hiccup was talking, Ruffnut nudged Astrid lightly on her arm.

"So, how come you've been in the woods?" she asked with a whisper.

"I don't want to talk about it," Astrid muttered trying to listen to Hiccup.

"Is this a married thing or a girl thing?" Ruffnut whispered.

Astrid rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Neither, now can we please stop talking about it!" she hissed.

"Okay new teams today!" Hiccup said getting the girls attention, "Snotlout and the twins versus Fishlegs and Astrid." The five teams got in their groups to start their game. While they were playing their game, Astrid felt her competitiveness starting to rise. Every time she and Fishlegs got a question right, she would high five her teammate.

"Alright next question; which dragon's fire would be better to use for lighting torches?" Hiccup asked.

"Monstrous Nightmare!" Astrid and Snotlout shouted at the same time.

"Correct! I'll give each of you a point." Hiccup was about to mark on the stone with the coal and in his journal, but the two started to fight for the point.

"No way! Our team should be the only one to get that point! I have the Monstrous Nightmare!" Snotlout shouted eyeing the blonde.

Astrid scoffed at him putting her hands on her hips. "Oh please, owning the dragon doesn't mean your team should get the point. We should get the point because I shouted it first," Astrid argued.

"By a second!" Snotlout barked.

"Guys, what's wrong with giving both of your teams a point?" Hiccup asked.

"Only one of us should get the point, that's how the game works," Snotlout stated.

"Actually no, the point of the game is to test your knowledge. The team, who loses, has to brush up on their dragon knowledge more than the winning team," Hiccup explains.

"Then why did you put me on a team with these mutton heads?!" Snotlout shouted pointing at the twins.

"Hey, hate the player not the game," Tuffnut said.

"Um, don't you mean don't hate the player hate the game?" Fishlegs pointed out. Tuffnut thought about it and nodded.

"Okay, enough of that, I think this is a good place to stop." Hiccup announced closing his journal and sent the teens out. After the teens left, Astrid and Hiccup stayed behind to clean up. "Why do you and Snotlout always have to be at each other's throats?"

"We've always been that way. It's kind of like how I always punch you after you do something stupid, it's a reaction." She said with a proud smile.

Hiccup laughed nervously as he pushed a barrel by the wall. "Yeah….since you haven't punched me in a while, I'll take that as a good sign."

Astrid breathed out a laugh and smirked. "Well, knowing you, it won't be long before I punch you in the arm again." Hiccup let out a fake laugh before walking up to her. Suddenly, the two heard people yelling in anger outside of The Academy. The two teens walked outside and saw a few of the fishermen venting at the chief.

"How are we going to get our ship now?" one shouted making his face turn bright red.

"Whose bright idea was it to make Gobber do chiefing duties anyway?" Hiccup's eyes widened and he was about to walk away, but his father saw him.

"Hiccup, get over here now." Stoick said sternly seeing the back of his son. Hiccup cringed and turned around seeing the angry fishermen and his father glaring down at him.

"Hey dad, what's going on?" he asked rubbing his hands nervously.

"Can you gather the other riders, and try to pull these men's ship out of the water?" Stoick asked with some anger in his voice. Hiccup nodded quickly and grabbed Astrid by the arm as they ran back to their dragons.

"You do realize that your plan has backfired?" Astrid stated when they were away so the men couldn't hear her.

"Why do you think I'm running?" he told her just before he let go of her to mount on Toothless.

~oOo~

Later that night, Stoick made it clear that Gobber will no longer help with chiefing duties. Hiccup felt bad for not just Gobber, but for his father. Now his dad had to fix everything Gobber messed up. After his father went to bed, Hiccup was trying to think of something else for Gobber to do.

"So, what are you going to do?" Astrid asked watching Hiccup work at his desk from the bed.

Hiccup let out a sigh and turned to look at her. "Oh, I don't know. It's just that Gobber needs to do something, I know he'll get depressed if he no longer has a job."

"I'm pretty sure anyone will get depressed if their out of a job." Astrid muttered as she watched him draw in his journal. She got up from the bed and walked over to him. She looked over his shoulder and saw the drawing. "Is that a pen?"

Hiccup jumped a bit and turned his head to look up at her. "Oh um, yeah, I just thought that Stormfly might want a pen to sleep in before it starts to snow again."

"Oh, she'll love it. Do you mind if I tweak it a bit?" she asked picking up his coal pin.

"Um, no go ahead," he got up from his chair to let her sit in it. He stood next to her watching her add some skulls and spikes to the pen. He noticed that when she was drawing, she stuck her tongue out to the corner of her mouth. He knew she might punch him if she found out that he thought it was kind of cute.

"Okay, what do you think?" she asked getting him out of his trance.

Hiccup walked to the desk and looked at her finished drawing. "It looks good, when do you want to start building it?"

"Maybe after we get this Gobber thing resolved," she said handing him back his journal. When she got out of the chair, Hiccup got an idea.

"I think I know what to do with Gobber!"

~oOo~

"You're bringing Gobber here?" Fishlegs asked Hiccup as they gathered at The Academy.

"He's gonna be great. Nobody knows dragons like old Gobber. He has spent a lifetime, you know…studying them. If we can tap into that, we'll all be better dragon trainers."

Then the gate opened behind Hiccup and Gobber barged in with a crate of weapons. "I'm back! Did ya miss me?" The dragons tensed up and the teens were taken back seeing the weapons.

"First of all, uh, welcome. Uh, and second, uh, tiny question. Why, uh, did you bring your… you know…" Hiccup asked seeing Gobber rolling the crate making the dragons nervous.

"Killing things?" Gobber asked finishing the teenager's sentence. "I thought maybe we can train them…." Gobber pulled out an axe panicking Hiccup. "…by threatening to kill them. That's how my daddy taught me to swim." Gobber explained terrifying the dragons.

Then Gobber pulled out a mace and smashed in the stony ground. "School's in session!" Suddenly all of the four dragons flew out of The Academy. The teens and Gobber watched them fly off. Gobber shrugged it off by saying "Eh, I didn't like school either."

~oOo~

After everyone else left with their dragons in pain from searching and flying their dragons with no saddles; Hiccup decided to talk to Gobber about making saddles. Before he could, he and Astrid stayed at The Academy with their dragons as he drew some plans for the saddles.

"I am so sore," Astrid complained rubbing her back and shoulder. "I'm just gonna sit here for a while." She let out a groan as she sat on the ground to lean up against the wall. Hiccup walked up to her and leaned up against the wall and slid down next to her.

"I'm really sorry about that. I had no idea that Gobber was going to scare them off."

"I know you wouldn't have known," she grunted rubbing her shoulder. "But it still sucks."

"Well, I'm going to talk to Gobber today about making the saddles."

"I wish you would have thought about making saddles first before helping him teach." She leaned her head back and closed her eyes trying to relax.

"Again, I'm really sorry. Do you want me to take you home?" he asked.

"Sure, but you're giving me a back rub," she told him turning her head to look at him.

"Fair enough," he got up and held his hand out to help her up. Astrid grabbed his hand and pulled herself up with a grunt.

~oOo~

After they got home, Astrid fell face down on the bed and let out another groan. Toothless followed her and sniffed her before resting on his rock bed.

Hiccup walked up the stairs and saw Astrid lying on her stomach, and he sat at the end of the bed taking off of his boot. Astrid turned her head seeing him setting next to her. "I was serious when I told you that I wanted a back rub," She mumbled.

Hiccup's eyes grew wide and he blushed a little bit. "Oh, I honestly thought you were joking a bit."

"No, I was being serious. You brought Gobber in, Gobber scared our dragons, and I had to chase and ride Stormfly for four hours. So it's kind of your fault that my back hurts."

"First off, it's not my fault, and second, I feel kind of weird thinking about touching you."

"Hiccup," she moaned "It's not like you never touched my back before."

"Yeah, but that's because I've hugged you."

"All I'm asking is some help to relax my muscles. I mean, you helped me get that cramp out of my leg the other day. This isn't much different." She tried to explain.

Even though he was hesitant, she did make a point. "Umm….okay," he sat on his knees next to her and pushed into her back with the bottom of his palm. It was awkward for him to be touching her, but she didn't seem to be fazed. After a while he started to get more comfortable and started to rub small circles around her back.

When his thumb went to her lower back, he felt her tense up. "Is that where it hurts the most?" he asked.

"You think?" she winced. Before he could talk back, he had an idea to help.

"I'll be right back; I think I know what will help with that." He got up from the bed and went down stairs. Astrid let out a deep sigh as she felt herself starting to doze off.

Then she heard him come back in the room and she saw him with a bucket of water and a rag. He put the full bucket next to Toothless and told him fire at it. The water boiled after Toothless fired at it, and Hiccup rolled up his sleeves to put the rag in the water.

"You might want to roll up your shirt," he told her as he wrung out the rag.

Now Astrid was starting to feel awkward. "You want me to what?" she asked.

"Well, I assume you don't want a wet shirt." He told her as he walked by the bed. Astrid rolled up her shirt to the bottom of her breast binding, and then lay back down on her stomach. Then she felt heat rest on her back slowly loosening her tight muscles.

"This should work; I do this for my dad when his muscles hurt." He said sitting next to her.

"I don't know if it'll work, but it feels good." She said closing her eyes taking in the heat spreading through her. Hiccup could tell she was almost asleep by the steady movement of her back as she breathed. Then Hiccup heard the door knocking down stairs and he went to answer the door.

When he opened the door, he saw Mrs. Thorston holding a basket of clothes. "Hey Hiccup; I was wondering if Astrid wanted to come with Ruffnut and me to do laundry."

"I'll go ask her if she hasn't fallen asleep yet," he walked back up the stairs and saw Astrid dozing off. He touched her arm making her jump slightly before resting again.

"Hey, Mrs. Thorston is here. She was wondering if you need any clothes to be washed."

"Just have her do my clothes on the top drawer," she grumbled with her eyes closed before she pushed her head in the pillow.

"You put your dirty clothes in the top drawer of your dresser?" he asked with disgust. She just replied with a mumble and went back to sleep. Hiccup blinked a few time and took a breath. "Okay, that's it; we're getting a laundry basket for this room." He said to himself walking to her dresser gathering her clothes.

He walked down the stairs and put Astrid's clothes in Mrs. Thorstons basket. She said her goodbyes and told him she would return tonight. He thanked her and shut the door behind her. Then he heard something crinkle under his foot. He flited up his leg and saw a few pages torn side lying on the floor. He picked up pages and recognized them as the letter to Astrid.

He knew he shouldn't read it, but the fact she had torn it out of the journal made him curious. He glanced at the pages, but one word caught his attention. He started to read the letter and he couldn't believe what he was reading. He ran back up the stairs and hid the letter back in her drawer.

"Toothless," he whispered enough for the Night Fury to only hear. "Come on bud, we need to get some answers." He pulled his boot back on and ran back down stairs. Once he and Toothless were outside, he mounted on the Night Fury to search for his father.

When they flew around the island to find the chief, Hiccup told his dragon to land once he got a glance of his father. He ran up to his father talking with a fisherman. "Dad, we need to talk." He slightly panted.

"Not now son, I'm-"

"Dad, this can't wait." He said franticly putting his small hand on his hand wristband.

"Son, I'm-"

"Eleven years ago, Settlers Day." He slightly growled making his father's eyes grow wide.

"Um sir, I'm sorry, but I'll get back to you later." Stoick said to the fisherman, he understood leaving the father and son. He bent down to his son's level and whispered. "How do you know about that?"

"Asmund Hofferson wrote a letter to Astrid. I found the letter, now I need to know what you know."

Stoick sighed and put his hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "Alright, alright, I'll tell you, but not here. I don't want any of your friends listening to us."

~oOo~

Stoick took his son and his dragon to the empty Great Hall and told him everything he knew. "I was here before it happened. There was no warning, and up to this day we don't understand why it happened. Asmund's mother took you and the other kids for a scavenger hunt in the woods…..."

It was a dark night and everyone was at The Great Hall celebrating Settlers Day. Asmund's mother took the kids into the woods for a founder reenactment by looking for clues.

Stoick smiled seeing his people celebrating the day their ancestors founded the island. Then he saw the young married couple and walked over to the table where Asmund and Ingrid were at. "Ah, there you two are, I was wondering where you went." Stoick greeted seeing the young couple just sit down.

"Yeah, it was hard trying to convince Astrid to go with the other kids. She's been at Ingrid's hip all day." Asmund said nudging his arm on hers.

"Yep kids are like that," Stoick sat on the other side of the table and smiled. "So, word around the pasture is that you guys are trying for another kid."

The couple laughed lightly. "Well, we haven't actually tried, but we've been talking. I think we officially decided to try for another child." Ingrid explained with a grin.

"Well congratulations anyway," Stoick said. "So, how was Hiccup for you today?" he asked the young woman.

"Oh he was great, no trouble at all! My daughter on the other hand, what can I say? She likes to rough house with the boy." Ingrid said with a laugh making Stoick chuckle.

"Hey, she's your daughter," Stoick chuckled.

"Oh that reminds me! I left my coat at your house." She told her chief as she got up from her seat. She bent down to kiss her husband on the forehead before she left. "I'll be right back."

"Okay," Asmund watched his wife leave the hall letting the cold wind blow into the hall. Once she left the hall Stoick kept asking Asmund what their plans were. As they talked for a while, there was a blood curling scream outside.

Asmund turned around to the giant double doors and jumped out of his seat recognizing the scream. Others followed grabbing their weapons running out of the hall. Once they were outside, Asmund saw a woman lying on the ground by the Haddock house with an arrow sticking out of the side of her chest.

Asmund ran down the stairs jumping over steps to get to the bottom faster. Once his boots met the ground, he saw that the woman on the ground was indeed his wife. Stoick watched Asmund fall to his knees and with shaky hands reached out for his dying wife. Her body shook violently trying to reach for the arrow. Asmund grabbed her hand to stop her and felt her grip on him grow weak.

He saw blood running out of the corner of her mouth as she tried to breath. He pulled her head to his neck resting his chin on her head. Before she went unconscious, he picked her up and ran to Gothi's hut trying to avoid the arrow.

Stoick watched them when a thought came to him. "Find Mrs. Hofferson and the kids! Split up and search for them and the person who did this before anyone else gets hurt!" Stoick shouted at the people around him, and they scattered into the woods. Stoick ran into the woods as well as searching for the person who shot Ingrid.

As he ran, he heard children laughing in the distance. Stoick ran into the direction and found the elderly woman surrounded by the six children. "Mrs. Hofferson, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to escort you and the kids back to their homes."

"What's going on chief?" she asked. Stoick put his mouth close to her ear and whispered about what happened to Ingrid. The woman's eyes grew wide and she told the kids that she was taking them home. Stoick followed the woman and the kids to the village as he watched for the murderer. When they were in the village, their mothers saw their children and gathered them to run into their homes.

"Chief, why is everyone acting weird?" Astrid asked looking up at the large man.

"I'll let your father tell you," he answered just as he saw the blond man running to them. Asmund picked up his daughter and held her to his chest. The little girl pulled her head away and noticed her father's eyes were red.

"Daddy, what happened?" she asked before he knelt to the ground to let her go.

"Your mother isn't feeling good; I need you to say with your grandparents tonight." He told her holding her arms.

"What's wrong with mommy?" she asked.

"She's ill," he answered quickly. "I don't want you to catch it. You're going to spend the night at grandma and grandpa's tonight. I'll see you tomorrow." he gave her a quick peck on the cheek before running to Gothi's hut.

"We searched high and low for the man who killed Ingrid, but we could never figure out who did it," Stoick explained.

"Do you think it's someone on the island?"

"I hope not, but if they are, they never killed since," Stoick answered.

"So how come I never knew about this?"

"The next day we had a meeting about searching for the man. It was Asmund's wish for the children to never know what happened, especially Astrid. We all agreed because we didn't want you kids to get scared if this man was a Berkian. Asmund wanted to tell Astrid when she was old enough to understand."

"Is there any chance this man was from another island?"

"We looked; there were no ships or boats on the ocean. The sentries didn't work on Settlers Day back then. Of course they do now for that reason in case they ever came back."

"But this doesn't make any sense. Why Ingrid Hofferson?" Hiccup asked trying to make sense of this.

"Your guess is as good as mine, her murder made no since. It couldn't be a revenge act because Asmund and Ingrid never did anything to upset anyone, and they weren't wealthy so it wasn't for money. Mostly likely, it was random."

Hiccup pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh. "No wonder Astrid has been throwing her axe in the woods. I can only imag….." Hiccup felt his heart go to stomach finally making the connection. "…oh no."

Stoick noticed his son's face go pale. "Hiccup, what's wrong?"

"Astrid….she isn't throwing her axe as a grieving process. She's training before she looks for the guy who killed her mother! She's going to go after this guy!"

"Hiccup, you don't know that for sure." Stoick said putting his hand on Hiccup's shoulder. The teen pushed his father's hand away and ran out of the hall with Toothless following.

~oOo~

Astrid woke up with the now lukewarm rag on her bare back. She rubbed her eyes and pulled the damp cloth off of her. The end of her shirt felt damp from touching the wet rag. She got up from the bed and walked over to the dresser to get a clean shirt. When she got to the dresser, she saw that the top drawer was cracked open.

Feeling the panic rise in her, she opened the drawer and found her letter, but no clothes. She also saw that the letter had been bent in the middle. She wasn't sure what happened to her old clothes, but she knew Hiccup must have read her letter.

Her panic turned into anger and she slammed the drawer shut. She was going to kill him for getting into her personal business. Then she heard the front door open and shut and she ran down the stairs almost crashing into Hiccup.

"I can't believe you!" she shouted.

"What?"

"You got in my drawer and read my letter!" she yelled seeing him opening his mouth to speak. "Don't you dare deny it! The papers are bent, I know you read them!"

Hiccup raised his hands in defeat. "Okay, listen to me. I wasn't searching for your letter. You must have been sleep talking when Mrs. Thorston showed up-"

"Oh, so you're going to blame this on Mrs. Thorston?" she snapped.

"Listen to me woman! Mrs. Thorston showed up asking if you wanted her to do your laundry. You told me to get your clothes in the top dresser, which by the way is gross. So I picked up your clothes, and I must have picked up the letter too. It fell on the floor so I picked it up and I read it."

Astrid growled and pulled at her loose hair walking pass him. "I don't believe this! You read my letter!"

"Now wait just a minute!" Hiccup raised his voice seeing her turn around to look at him. "You kept this secret from me and I had a right to know! The other day you kept talking about if it was a good idea to keep secrets."

"You said that it depended on how serious the secret was!"

"You were asking me about keeping secrets from kids that don't even exist yet! You said nothing about keeping secrets from each other!"

"That doesn't matter anymore! What matters now is that you were in my personal business! You were the last person I thought who would do that!" she shouted pointing a finger at him.

"Okay fine, I got into your business, but boy am I glad I did!"

Astrid was taken back feeling her anger rise. "Excuse me?"

"I know you Astrid. Something like that is going to set your warrior side off. I know you're training to kill this guy, and I don't want you to do this."

"You see! This is why I kept it a secret from you! I knew you wouldn't understand why I need to find this guy!" She shouted pushing him to the side to walk to the door.

"I didn't say I didn't understand," he said more calmly.

Astrid turned around with a raised brow. "What?"

"I get it, but you are going to get yourself killed doing it." He walked up to her seeing her face soften a little.

"I know I might, but I need to avenge my mother."

"Astrid, you read the letter. Your father didn't even see the guy, and he tried to look to him too. You looking for your mother's murderer is like looking for a needle in a haystack. We have no witnesses; it's going to be impossible to find him."

Astrid let out a sigh and crossed her arms. "I know it's going to be impossible to find him, but my mother needs justice."

Hiccup put both of his hands on her shoulders. "Hey I get it, but how are you going to find this guy?"

She stomped her foot and walked away from him tying to think of something to say. "Alright, I know I have no leads, or witnesses, but I need to find this guy. I just don't know how." She leaned up against the wall and slid down to the floor. Hiccup walked up to her and sat next to her.

"Look, I think if we're going to find this guy, you're going to need someone to help you."

Astrid's anger ceased and she looked at him in shock. "Wait, are you serious? You're going to help me catch this guy?"

Hiccup shrugged, "Yeah I mean, why shouldn't I? You're my friend, my second hand, and even though it's weird to say it out loud, you are my wife. We're a team, and we'll find this guy. We might get killed doing it, but I'm with you." He gave her a small smile and playfully nudges her with his arm.

Astrid smiled softly and leaned her head on his shoulder. Hiccup froze by her action at first, but he relaxed and put an arm around her and leaned his head on hers. They stayed like that for a while until Astrid broke the silence. "Hey, did you say I put my dirty laundry in the top drawer?"

"Um, yeah and no matter how many times it's said, it's still disgusting."

Astrid let out a light laugh making him confused by the humor. "That wasn't dirty laundry; the top drawer was filled with old clothes I was going to give away. I wanted them clean before I sent them off."

Hiccup sighed and breathed out a laugh. "Oh thank the gods. I thought you really didn't know what to do with dirty clothes."

Astrid slapped him in the chest hard enough to make him grunt in pain. "Hey, if there was one thing I did right at home it was laundry."

"Okay, I should have known it wasn't dirty laundry." He said as he rubbed the sting out of his chest.

"You do know that you'll never hear the end of this right?"

"Yeah I figured," he grumbled.

Then Astrid lifted her head slightly from his shoulder to look at him. "Oh hey did you ever ask Gobber about the saddles."

Hiccup's eyes grew wide and then he cringed. "Oh man!" he whined before getting up from the ground. "I'll be right back." He walked out of the house leaving Astrid by herself. As much as she appreciated that he was going to help her find her mother's murderer, she couldn't help but think how badly it could end if they did.

A/N: So what do you guys think?

Oh and also, before I forget to mention, I decided to make this story a trilogy. That way this AU wont have 100+ chapters all together. I think it will be better if I separate it.

Also, to clear some confusion, I'm NOT done with this one yet. I mean, I haven't even gotten to the climax yet!

So until then, I'll see you guys next time. BYE!