"You're back." Astrid whispers it almost reverently. Her hands find his cheeks and start smearing the soot and ash around. "I thought for sure you were really dead this time."

"Turns out I'm pretty hard to kill," Hiccup jokes, smiling conspiratorially as she tries in vain to clean his face. Toothless huffs and rolls off him, but he stays on the ground. Toothless shakes off what he can and sits back on his haunches to begin the process of cleaning himself off with discontented grumbles.

"It's been over a year," she says with a scowl. "No letter, no visit, not even a sighting anywhere near Berk." His smile falters under her gaze.

"I'm sorry," he says quietly. "I should have sent word. I've been busy."

"Are you going to stand up?" she asks. She doesn't quite feel like dignifying his excuse with a response.

"I would, but I think my leg is broken." He says it so casually that she almost misses it.

"Excuse me," she demands, her voice reverberating through the trees. All three of them wince. Her voice lowers. "Which one?"

"Umm," Hiccup wavers, "both?"

Astrid pulls the rags tight around the makeshift splint before she ties a strong knot. She ignores Hiccup's wince, feeling the tiniest bit vindicated for her year-long wait. She's gotten a bit too good at patching him up for her liking. It happened more than a handful of times throughout those five years everyone else thought him dead. Toothless has made himself comfortable, burning himself a bed in the grass of the grotto.

"Are you still angry?" Hiccup asks her, his hands gripping the boulder underneath him hard enough to turn his knuckles white.

"About what?" Astrid asks, bitter venom dripping from her voice. "You leaving me alone for more than a year? You getting shot down by who-knows-what? Or maybe breaking your real leg, forcing me to steal more supplies from Gothi and patch you up again while simultaneously leaving you and Toothless stuck here for months while you recover, which, as you know, leaves you both vulnerable?" Hiccup flinches again.

"Yes?" He offers her a sheepish smile. "I can still leave, you know. I just have to fix Toothless's tail fin." He withers under the glare she shoots him. "Or I can stay here to recover," he corrects himself.

Astrid's ice melts as she finishes the splint, leaving her exhausted. She sits back on her heels and twists to lean against the rock he's sitting on. She can feel the tension between them hanging over her head. Hiccup lowers himself gingerly to the ground beside her, careful not to jostle his broken leg. The metal of his prosthetic is still bent, but it will take a lot more work than either of them can do tonight to fix it.

"Astrid," he sighs. He pushes his shoulder against hers. "I really am sorry."

"Save it," she says. If he weren't hurt, she would have pushed him in the pond by now. "I thought you were dead."

"Would it help if I had a really good excuse?" he asks. He adjusts himself until he's leaning on her. She gets the urge to shove him, but she stifles it for the good of his broken bones.

"No."

"Would it help if I brought you something?" He looks at Toothless, snoring a few feet away. "It's in the saddle bag."

Astrid huffs melodramatically, but she goes to retrieve the gift. Among the tools and parts for Toothless's tail fin and Hiccup's prosthetic lies a small bag made of hide and cinched closed with a leather cord. Rather than open it there, she returns to lean against Hiccup. She can feel him smile as she sits.

"Before you open it," he says, "I know it's been a long time. I know that the way I left and how long I've been gone made it seem like I was running, but I promise I have a good explanation for everything."
She pulls the bag open and pulls out a brass pendant. It's intricately decorated in the Viking fashion, with Runic knots along the top of each side and on the bottom middle, a Viking and a dragon mirror each other in the center.

"What is it?" she asks. She turns it in her hand.

"A promise," he says slowly. "My father gave it to my mother." He hesitates, carefully choosing his next words. "As a betrothal gift." Astrid freezes. Panic crawls up her throat.

"Is that what it means to you?" Her voice is quiet. If he weren't sitting right next to her, he would never have heard.

"Only if that's what you want," he answers, just as quietly. He doesn't look at her, just stares at his hands in his lap.

She stays silent, staring at the charm in her hand.

"I know it's kinda dumb," he says by way of explanation, "really dumb, maybe, to propose marriage to you after what happened last we saw each other. But a lot has happened since then, and I realized that I—" He swallows thickly, and she can feel his shoulders move wildly the way they do every time he speaks. "I love you, Astrid. I want to be with you forever. Whatever that takes." He still doesn't look at her.

"You mean that?" she asks.

"Of course." He finally meets her eyes. She reaches up to cup his cheek, feels the stubble there underneath the dirt from impact. She loves the way his eyebrows fly up when she kisses him.

"I love you, too, Hiccup," she says. "I'll marry you."

Guilt settles in her stomach, but she smiles and kisses him again.

"So Hiccup," she starts.

"Mmm?" he hums.

"New helmet?"