Disclaimer : Dreamworks owns everything

AN: I'm calling the beach in chapter 7 'Thor's Beach.'

Chapter Thirteen : Trust

"WHAT!?"

The adults began to laugh. Gobber wiped the tears from his eyes, still chuckling. "Lad, I don't think putting Astrid in this situation will make her trust you."

"Isn't that what trust falls are for?" He gestured vaguely to the side door.

Karl turned his head from the cockpit windows. "Not at fifteen thousand feet!"

Eliza patted her daughter on the arm. "I'm sure you'll be fine, Hiccup's done this before." Astrid was still in shock, they got her up here in a plane, just so she could jump out?! That's outrageous! She didn't notice that Eliza had put a parachute vest on her.

"What do you mean he's done it before?"

"This may come as a surprise, but I'm sort of a thrillseeker." Hiccup said. He looked down into a storage bin. "And of course I forgot the wingsuit. I guess I can make a few more adjustments until next time." He murmured to himself.

Gobber scoffed, rising out of his seat to take the copilot position. "Pfft, thrillseeker, more like maniac. This boy here banzai jumped last year."

"What's a banzai jump?" Astrid asked warily.

Hiccup smiled at her. "Skydiving without a parachute! It's a sport where they throw the parachute outside of the plane, then dive after it to get it."

"That's insane!" She yelled. "Who would do that!?"

Hiccup blankly stared at her, and gestured vaguely to himself.

She groaned.

Karl called back to them. "Alright, we're three minutes from the dropzone, finish gearing up."

Hiccup helped Astrid with the rest of her gear. "Do you want to drop with me, or go by yourself." He opened the side door, and Karl compensated by tilting slightly to the right.

Astrid was suddenly scared, and she made the mistake of looking down. "I-I-I'll go with you." She looked up at her mother. "Were you in on this too?"

"No, but I'm sure it'll be fun for you two." She said.

"Two minutes until drop." Karl stated.

"Did I ever agree to this?" Astrid asked again, frightened by the height.

Hiccup finished clipping their vests together. "Whoa… is that a scared Astrid I hear?"

"N-no!" She said, crossing her arms in front of her. "I'm not afraid!"

"Oh, good then! Don't worry, you'll be safe with me." Hiccup said, and Astrid's worries dispersed, and she felt calmed by his words. "Okay, last part. I have to clip you to my front, do you want to face me or the world."

"You."

"One minute out, I'll count down." Karl said.

The two teens locked eyes, waiting for the countdown. They moved closer to the door, and Hiccup grabbed onto a railing. Astrid shut her eyes and wrapped her arms and legs around him as she felt her back against the outside of the plane. Her father's voice came over the headset again.

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

Hiccup yelled. "Dropping!" He let go of the railing, falling backwards and away from the plane. Astrid's scream turned changed from fright to thrill as they fell together. Hiccup positioned them upside down, with their heads towards the ground.

"Alright, Astrid, how are you holding up?"

"I-I think I'm doing okay!" She smiled.

Hiccup sighed. "Astrid, the real reason we're like...this." He gestured around them. "Was to get us away from the twins." He said. "I know you got them to follow me, and the whole CSI pinboard thing is impressive."

Astrid was shocked. "How did you find out?" She asked slowly.

"Well, it wasn't that hard, considering that they've been following me for three days straight." His casual voice turned to a stern voice. "But I have one question. Why do you want to know who Night Fury is?"

Astrid was at a loss of words. They spent several tense seconds in silence. Her voice was small against the wind. "Ever since I was a little kid, I always thought the best pilot was the White King. He was the best of the best… and one day, he just stopped flying, no press conference, nothing at all. Then Night Fury came along, and I realized that he was really really good, like only the White King could've taught him those maneuvers. I wanted to find out who Night Fury was, so I could learn why the White King stopped racing."

"You were right all along, Astrid, that I was connected to Night Fury, and by getting to me, you would get to him."

Astrid furrowed her brows, processing his words. He continued. "But you looked too closely, you were so focused on finding who Night Fury was that you haven't realized he's in your arms right now. Your parents and I never wanted to keep secrets from you, but I convinced them to do so, and I'm sorry. Do whatever you want, I'm through with the lies, expose me to the media, tell all your friends…" Hiccup looked towards the ground. "This might hurt." He turned righted their position, adopting the average freefall form, and reached up and pulled the cord for the parachute release.

They were both jerked upwards, and Astrid's knee went into his crotch. "Not what I actually wanted to do… but that's for lying to me!" She exclaimed. Hiccup let out a groan.

His voice was hoarse. "I'm wearing a cup and that still hurt… Astrid. Couldn't you have just punched me in the shou-" He was cut off as her lips met his.

"...and that's for telling me the truth." She whispered, she wrapped her arms around his neck. "So, I don't expect there to be a secret underground flight club, but do you know who the White King is?"

"Don't break my family jewels. He was flying the plane we just jumped out of."

"My Dad?" She questioned. "You mean… you mean… my father was the White King?!"

Hiccup nodded. "He taught me how to fly, and I became his successor in the races, a pupil and a teacher… or an apprentice to a master."

"Why did you guys hide it from me all these years?" Astrid asked. "And who all knew?"

Hiccup looked down, before returning his gaze to her. "Me, Gobber, your Dad, your Mom, and Camicazi. It doesn't seem like it, but the air races can be dangerous, they attract gamblers and other shady people. Some of these shady people like to fix races, sometimes by threatening the racers or their families."

Astrid nodded, catching on to where this was going. "...and to protect us, you and my Dad wore masks, to hide your identities while racing."

Hiccup nodded again. "The Archipelago championship is at the end of this school year, and since this is the fiftieth year anniversary, they upped the winnings five times as normal."

"Wait a minute, they set the prize money as five hundred thousand dollars this year?"

"Yup." He popped the 'p.' "And a lot of those shady people I was talking about have their eyes set on that prize money."

"Have sabotages ever happened before?" She asked.

"A few times before, and it's what happened to your father. An old racer named Alvin sabotaged his plane, and caused him to bail out during the final race. No one could find him afterwards though, he took the prize money and ran."

He looked down at the ground again. "Alright, Astrid, I need you to pick your feet up, and brace for touchdown."

She did as she was told, and a few seconds later they landed safely at Thor's Beach. Hiccup unclipped the vests, and they separated, allowing him to pull in the parachute.

After they landed and Hiccup pulled the chute in, Astrid hugged him tightly. "I swear if you do that to me again… You will not have children. Understood?"

Hiccup let out a nervous laugh. "Understood, Milady."

On the other side of the island, particularly the airport, two figures were picking a lock for Night Fury's hangar, unaware that two more figures, were watching them from afar.

"Whoa, Sis, you see that?" Tuffnut asked, eyeing the two suspicious figures through binoculars.

Ruffnut adjusted herself on the fuel silo's roof, and peered through her camera, taking a few photos. "Uhhh yeah, I see that, what do you they're doing?"

"Should we call the police?" Tuff asked.

An loud alarm was set off, startling the two. "Looks like Night Fury has an alarm in the hangar, the cops should be two minutes out." Ruffnut murmured. "Text Astrid, tell her that we have something interesting." She snapped a few more photos when they ran out, hopping into a van. Ruffnut made sure to get the van's license plate in the shot while it was driving off.

A flurry of sirens sounded out, and flashes of red and blue came around the corner of the hanger."Cops are here, we gotta move." Tuffnut whispered, climbing down the silo ladder.

At the bottom of the ladder, Tuffnut sent a quick text

T: Yo, Astrid, two guys just broke into Night Fury's hangar, Ruff will send pictures.

A: K, can't text rn, I'm with Hiccup.

T: Ooooohhh! :P Wait till Ruff hears this, 'Strid out late at night, with Hiccup of all people. Ha!

R: Astrid!? You're out with Hiccup!?

S: Why are you out with that fishbone, you should be out with me!

A: Who invited 'Lout? Anyways, I'll explain later

Astrid slipped her phone back into her pocket while Hiccup was on the phone with the police, who were alerting him of the break in. He had a determined glint in his eyes, and when he got off the phone with the police, he dialed another number. "Cami, you there?" He put the phone on speaker.

"Yeah, what's up?" Cami asked. Astrid felt a twinge of jealousy. Whoa, what?! Jealousy? Where did that come from?!

"Are you busy?"

"Uh…" She eyed the half empty wine bottle on the kitchen bar. "No, whatcha need, Night?" Camicazi asked.

"We need a ride, my hangar was just broken into and we're on the far side of the island, at Thor's Beach." Hiccup explained, turning around to see Astrid with a slightly annoyed look.

"Who's we?" Cami asked with a teasing tone.

Hiccup mumbled. "Astrid and I…"

The heard her call out to the background. "Heather! You owe me twenty bucks!" Astrid glared at Hiccup, who shrugged and put his hands up in surrender. "So you two rascals alone on the beach? That's romantic." They blushed and shared a look.

Astrid spoke simultaneously as Hiccup. "No! It's not like that."

"Suuuuuuureee." Cami laughed. "I'll be there in fifteen. Later dickus!" (AN: Ha! Callback)

Camicazi ended the call, leaving Hiccup and Astrid alone.

"So, uh." Hiccup stammered.

"Yeah?" Astrid asked.

"I-uh-I hope she doesn't tease us too much." Hiccup said, lowering himself to sit on the sand with a portion of unfolded parachute underneath him. Astrid sat down as well, subconsciously scooting closer to him.

The minutes passed in silence, neither of them breaking it, just occasionally glancing at each other and then back to the sunset that casted an orange glow across the beach. Their eyes locked, and they both inched closer… and closer… until car horn caused them to jerk away from each other.

Camicazi had arrived a few minutes ago and was watching the whole thing and decided to intervene at the most annoying moment. She stuck her head out of the window. "Hey Night! Who's the pretty lady?!"

They blushed, and Hiccup stood up then lent a hand to pull Astrid up. "This is Astrid, Cami, and you can call me by my name."

"Astrid huh? Looks like you scored, Hiccup." Cami snickered. The duo blushed again.

"Astrid, this is Camicazi, my friend who pickpockets me for fun." He said dryly.

"Ze Great Camicazi to you, Haddock."

Astrid waved in greeting. "Astrid Hofferson." Hiccup opened the car door for her, and took a seat after she scooted over.

"So, where we going? Make-out point?" Cami teased, certainly having too much fun.

"Just back to town, please." Hiccup groaned.

AN: I know, I know, I cut off at possibly the worst possible times, schools hectic and all, I've got an AP us history test Friday and an AP calculus test next Wednesday. So, I try to update and write as often as I can.