1. RTTE AU - Blessings in Disguise

Exhausted, weak, worn out.

That's how Hiccup lay in his cell in the depths of the night. Viggo and Ryker's had been... Brutal, to say the least. Persistent with their questions and barely giving Hiccup a chance to breath, let alone answer. Still, Hiccup remained silent. Toothless was Thor knows where. This had meant to be a standard procedure stealth mission, but of course something had gone wrong. He'd been saving Camicazi from a hunter and inadvertently gotten himself captured in the process.

It had been hours since he'd seen Toothless and the knot in his stomach was completely unbearable. His arms were chained to the wall above his head, and they were aching like crazy. He wanted nothing more than to just escape but at that point in time he was completely and utterly helpless. There was nothing that could aid him for miles.

Hiccup was logical, he realized the guards would get him for questioning at some point and the cycle would begin again. He could figure out what to do once he was unchained. Plus, fatigue was beginning to get the better of him. Anything he planned would more than likely backfire. His plans had a habit of doing that even when he wasn't tired.

The riders would come back for him. Or he'd find his way out. Either way, something good would happen. He'd been in enough insane incidents to know that, somehow, things always worked out in the end. But that could only happen if he kept a straight head. And he couldn't do that if with every passing second his eyelids got heavier.

Finally, giving in to his tiredness, his eyelids began to shut slowly. However this proved to be pointless as he was abruptly awoken by a distinct thudding noise.

Suddenly he felt something large nudge him. A sound of rustling could be heard from above him as begrudgingly opened his eyes. Much to his surprise, when he opened his eyes he was met with a similar emerald pair of staring right back at him.

Toothless?... Toothless?!

"H-hey bud!" he greeted, still unsure if he was hallucinating or not "W-what's going-"

"Shhhh!"

If he wasn't already awake before, he certainly was now. His head turned sharply to see a shadowy figure beside him. A torch in the corner of the cell dimly lit the cage, but not well enough for him to see who this person was.

"Who are-?"

"I said shhhh! Keep your voice down!" The person hissed.

They were definitely female. He knew that much.

"What are you doing?" he whispered

She glared in response "Do you not know how to be quiet?"

"Hey I whispered!" he insisted, still talking quietly "And you didn't answer my question"

"I'm" she paused to tug at his chains "Letting you go. But seriously, you gotta keep your voice down, a guard might hear you"

"I was-"

"Not quiet enough" she cut him off knowingly, her words barely audible. She finished loosening his chains "Now lets get you out of here"

His eyes narrowed "And how do I know this isn't a trap? How can I trust you?"

"Viggo quits when he's ahead. If he had a night fury in his grips, why would he jeopardise that?"

Hiccup processed the woman's words. What she said made sense. A big part of this battle was due to Viggo's obsession with Toothless and hunting him down. It was a fair point. Still, many questions stormed wildly around his brain.

"You work for Viggo?"

She nodded very reluctantly, something he couldn't help but mentally note.

"Why are you helping me?"

"You ask way too many questions" muttered somewhat angrily "Look, I don't like what Viggo does, okay? I hate it. So I try to help when I can"

It still didn't make sense to him "How can you work for Viggo and also-?"

"Long story. Don't have time to explain. Now come on!" she whisper-shouted, pulling him up roughly.

The woman dragged up to the deck hurriedly, desperate to get them off the ship. Hiccup looked back and noticed a guard laying on the ground, seemingly out cold. Confusion festered in him faster by the second.

Who was this person? And what was she capable of?

Eventually they got to the deck and Hiccup mounted Toothless. He still couldn't see his supposed saviour, the darkness entrapped her figure, leaving her as a mere mystery in his mind.

"Who are you? You still haven't said"

"It's better you don't know" she responded vaguely "And you can't tell anyone about my existence either. Promise me"

"I don't-"

"Promise!"

He noticed her desperation and gave in "Fine"

Now it was her turn for her eyes to narrow "Say it"

"Say what?"

"Say that you promise"

"I thought you didn't want me to talk any-"

"Just say it"

"I promise I won't tell anyone about your existence"

"Good"

"One more thing" he said quickly.

"I swear to Thor if you ask me one more question..." she mumbled with a threatening tone.

"It's not a question" he reassured "I just wanted to say thank you"

Her eyes widened, almost as if it was her first time hearing the phrase. She clearly wasn't used to it "O-oh. You're welcome"

She walked over to a small door before stopping. She looked over her shoulder at Hiccup. Despite the darkness, her eyes stuck out quite clearly. They had almost no emotions, yet they were screaming a million things. Her sapphire eyes pierced into him, it was an image he knew would stick with him.

And then she was gone. She had fled the scene as quick as she had arrived. Hiccup left the ship as quietly as he could.

Throughout the flight home, Hiccup tried to process. He'd raided Viggo's ships hundreds of times, and not once had he seen that girl. She helped the dragons, and clearly she knew what she was doing. After all, she had managed to gain Toothless's trust.

But still, how could you work for dragon hunters and then free them at every chance? It didn't make sense.

When Hiccup arrived at the Edge, unsurprisingly, everyone else was asleep. In fairness, it was the middle of the night, he couldn't say he expected anything else. In a way, it made his life easier. At least this way he had a chance to rest before being bombarded with a ridiculous amount of questions in the morning.

Making his way to his hut, Hiccup finally allowed his exhaustion to take over. He crashed onto his bed, falling asleep instantaneously.

However, throughout the night...

Those blue eyes remained in his mind.

*Quick issue with this story. I would love to involve both Astrid and Camicazi in this story. It's actually kind of key that they're both in it. However I know they both ride Stormfly. Who would you like to keep Stormfly? And what kind of the dragon would the other girl ride? What would you want the name to be?

xxxx

2. Modern AU - Accepting the Past

Astrid smiled to herself as she noticed the name illuminating her phone screen.

'Hiccup'

"Excuse me, miss?"

She looked up to see a rather angry middle aged man glaring at her.

"If it's not too much trouble, it would be nice for you to tear your eyes away from that damn phone and take my order"

Her grip tightened on her phone. She wasn't allowed to be rude to customers anymore (There was an incident - How else is she meant to respond when someone calls her 'lazy and inefficient'?).

"Sorry sir, I'm actually on my break. I'll see if I can find someone to help you" she said with a fake apologetic look on her face.

The blonde barista went to one of the fellow waitresses "Atali can you serve this man please? He clearly needs his coffee and I don't want to cut my break short for a jerk like that"

Atali nodded and automatically went to serve the grumpy man. Astrid shot a grateful smile in their direction before scurrying off. She wanted a place of peace and quiet, one where she could actually hear what the person was saying on the other side of the phone. However, her break had unfortunately coincided with the coffe shop's rush hour. Eventually, after a lot of searching, Astrid settled on sneaking behind the building and taking the phone call there.

However, by the time she'd found the serenity she'd been previously craving, her phone had stopped ringing. She frowned to herself.

'Damn it.'

Deciding to be bold, Astrid picked the 'call back' option. This was not her. Astrid never got nervous even thinking about boys, letting alone talking to them. Gods, what was Hiccup doing to her?

With every ring her anxiety rose. Luckily, that was short lived as he picked up almost instantly.

"Astrid, hey" he greeted cheerfully "I'm surprised you called back so quickly"

"Yeah sorry about that" she told him, genuinely apologetic this time "I wanted to answer but I had to deal with a grouchy customer"

"Oh yikes. Straight out rude or passive agressive?"

"Completely passive aggressive."

"Ouch, those are the worst"

"You're telling me. You should've heard him, should've seen him actually. I swear Hiccup, if looks could kill I'd be six feet under"

"But you'd use your axe to hack your way back to earth and yell at the guy for looking at you in that way and sending you six feet under in the first place"

She pondered over the statement for a few seconds before bursting into a fit of laughter "I actually would"

"Thought so. What he was so annoyed about anyway?"

That was when the realization hit Astrid. She gasped dramatically "You!"

"Me?"

"This was your fault!" She yelled, more amusement than anger in her voice.

"Excuse me?"

"That customer was mad because I was on my phone. And who happened to be calling me at that very moment?"

"...Tuffnut?" came his rather reluctant response.

"Well I can see the similarities between the two, but nope not Tuffnut"

"Ruff?"

"Try again"

He sighed "Me?"

"Ding ding ding! We have a winner!"

"Very funny" he said dryly.

"Well if you hadn't been calling me, I wouldn't have checked my phone and the customer wouldn't have gotten mad. Therefore, it is your fault" she stated in a mock matter-of-fact manner.

"Yes, because by some amazing superpower I saw you with a grumpy customer and decided to make your life worse. Just for the fun of it"

"I certainly wouldn't put it past you" She said playfully.

"I'm wounded that you think so little of me milady" he joked "W-wait! Did you say that I share similarities with Tuffnut?!"

"Oh you know what, I think I did. I can see them" she said smugly.

"Wha- How?!"

Truthfully, she couldn't think of any. But she liked getting Hiccup all worked up and frantic.

"I guess you'll just have to figure them out for yourself!"

"Take it back"

"Yeah, no, I'm good"

"Take it back!"

"So you don't want to have any similarities with Tuffnut? I wonder how he'll feel about that when I see him and tell you want to be nothing like him" she smirked.

"That is so not what I meant!"

"I think it is though"

"You're evil"

"You knew that going in! This is your own fault for being friends with me!" she exclaimed laughing again.

He was laughing too, it was music to her ears "You're also very good at twisting words"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever" she dismissed, laughter dying down slightly "So what's up?"

"Hm?"

"I mean, you called for a reason right?"

"Oh! Oh right! Yeah!" He said clearly remembering something.

"The reason was...?"

"The reason! Right! The reason I called was to see if you wanted to come out with the gang and me. We were gonna go get some pizza from the new Italian place in town. I'm so swamped with lectures and assignments today I didn't think I'd get a chance to see you in person and ask"

"Wish I could" she said somewhat sadly "But it's Friday, remember?"

"Oh yeah, remind which job is the Friday job again?"

"Animal shelter"

"Right. Can you also remind me why you're eighteen and working like six jobs?"

"Five" she corrected.

"Because that's so much better" he deadpanned.

"It's less than six jobs" she defended "And I already told you why I work so many jobs. I've gotta pay for my flat somehow. The coffee shop barely pays half my rent. And on top of rent I have to pay my phone bill and buy enough food to survive the week along with other stuff"

"Damn"

"Yup. We don't all have dorms on campus that our parents pay for" she said as a half joke, but some small part of the sentence felt pointed

"Your parents would probably help you if you just asked"

Something in the air shifted as the conversation became more serious "You know I don't talk to my parents Hiccup"

Mainly because she doesn't have any. Well, she does, obviously. But with a crack head mother and a father who is Thor knows where in the world, they weren't exactly easy to access. Plus, she'd never secured a real family after that. Temporary families? More than she could count. Permanent? Not so much.

She knows she should have told Hiccup the truth. They've been friends for nearly six months now. But she just couldn't. It wasn't like she was ashamed of being part of the foster care system. She just didn't necessarily advertise the information. People had these really awful assumptions about foster kids, and she couldn't be bothered to deal with them. Not only that, but after the news is revealed everything becomes a big pity party. Everyone would see her for her traumatic past, rather than the person they've gotten to know now.

Hiccup would probably be amazing about it. He may turn things into a pity party at first. But he'd also be supportive and not push her to talk about anything she didn't want to talk about. And there was a lot she didn't want to talk about.

The key word in that was 'probably'. She didn't know for sure. If there was one thing she'd learnt growing up in, and aging out of, the system is that people were never what they seemed. And if Hiccup ended up not being what he seemed... That would just break her heart.

She wanted to tell him... She just couldn't.

"I know you don't talk to your parents but it's never too late to restart"

"I know but even if I wanted to talk to my parents, I don't think they'd particularly want to talk to me''

"Oh come on. You're their daughter. They still love you"

'Oh yeah my mom definitely loved me. So much so that she didn't even care when her abusive asshole boyfriends would... No Astrid, don't go there' She thought to herself, pushing back harmful memories.

"I know it sounds cliche, but if my dad and I can fix our relationship then-"

"Anyone can" she finished for him, rolling her eyes.

"Well, yeah"

"Not every family is like yours Hic" she smiled sadly.

Another sigh "I suppose that's true"

"Hey it doesn't matter, I'm perfectly fine without them" she smiled proudly. Astrid did like the life she'd built for herself.

"Perfectly fine?"

"Alright fine, not perfectly fine" she confessed "But well enough. Besides having five jobs is kind of cool, makes me very active in the community"

"Yeah, I bet it does" he snorted "Hey I have an idea"

"Oh yeah? What is that?"

"What if I visited you in the animal shelter?"

She froze momentarily, and she didn't know why "You'd do that?"

"Of course! I love helping animals!"

"What about pizza with the gang?"

"Eh we can go next week or something. I have a feeling you're in desperate need for company in the animal shelter"

"How did you know?" she gasped dramatically with fake shock.

"My instincts are just that sharp"

"Very impressive"

"I certainly think so" he paused "So what do you think?"

She thought over the idea for a brief moment "I don't see any reason why not"

"Great! I'll meet you outside the coffee shop at half past five?"

"Works for me" she nodded

"Cool! This should definitely be fun"

"Definitely" she agreed. She saw Atali gesturing for her to come back in. She sighed and held up a finger in response, signalling that she'd be a minute "Hey Hiccup, I've gotta go. My break's nearly up"

"Yeah my lecture's about to start anyway. See you later?"

"Yup. See ya" she confirmed hanging up

Hiccup was kind, caring, intelligent, loyal (And not to mention really cute)... And he also liked helping animals?

Gods above help her.

So that obviously wasn't the first chapter, like the first preview. Hopefully that helped you figure out which story you want. And if it's story 1, please comment suggestions for the Stormfly issue!Comment 1 for RTTE and 2 Modern! I personally love both stories and will definitely be writing both at some point! Now it's just figuring out which comes first!As always please feel free to review! All feedback is appreciated (just make sure any criticism is written constructively)

Shohini :)