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Hiccup and Toothless approached the Edge with palpable relief. It had been a long flight from Berk and both were ready to relax.
Relax as much as one could when the sun made it feel like the middle of the day.
“Let’s go see how the others are faring,” he slipped off Toothless’ back with a weary wobble. “If there isn’t too much chaos, maybe we can catch a nap.”
That was the trick to the Midnight Sun, Hiccup discovered a long time ago. While most Vikings were active as long as the sun was up, Hiccup had the tendency to stay up working during the night. He’d learned to take naps during calm periods to make up for his late night habits. Now, during the Midnight Sun, he kept his sanity as everyone around him fell into madness.
Well, he just barely kept his sanity. Naps helped, but it was still impossible to get a full eight hours of sleep when everyone else was doing stuff. Especially as the leader on the Edge.
He approached the training arena, which was a lot quieter than expected. All of the dragons were there, sitting and relaxing, but no cleaning was going on.
“Hello? Guys?” Hiccup called.
“There you are!” Snotlout shouted, stomping out from behind a stack of crates. “You left us all alone! For two days! We’re going crazy here!”
Hiccup held up his hands. “I knew it was going to be weird, that’s why I just asked you guys to wash your dragons.”
Like a switch had been flipped, Snotlout’s face crumbled, and he started sobbing . “You’re right! That’s all you asked of us! You were so considerate and here I am, yelling at you!” He hit himself in the forehead. “Stupid! Stupid!”
“Hey hey!” Hiccup grabbed his wrist. “That’s not necessary. What’s all this about?”
“The twins said he’s got severe mood swings,” Heather called over.
He hadn’t seen her initially. She was sitting against one of the support beams, on the floor. She looked like she was soaking wet.
“Heather? What’s going on?”
“Sleep deprivation, if the twins can be believed,” she shrugged. “This is the worst year I’ve had. I didn’t know it had a name.” She slowly stood, holding onto the beam. “When I was on my own, I slept in a cave when I got tired. But when I was with my adoptive parents, I was active along with the rest of the village.”
“Yeah, that’s how it goes,” Hiccup sighed. “‘The sky’s awake, so we’re awake.’” He turned to Snotlout. “You’re fine, Snotlout. I’m not upset.”
“Upset? I don’t care if you’re upset!” He snapped, only to start crying a second later. “Who am I kidding? I hate getting on your bad side!” He flung his arms around Hiccup and cried into his shoulder.
“Uh…” Hiccup froze in shock, then he patted Snotlout on the back. “There there?” He started walking towards Heather, Snotlout still clinging to him. “You look like you haven’t lost your sanity though. Unless you’re also about to burst into tears?”
“My sanity? No. But I did lose something else.” She took a step toward him, and lost her balance.
Hiccup shot out his free arm and caught her by the elbow. “Whoa!”
“Yeah.” She used his arm to slowly lower herself back down to the ground. “Everytime I take a step, the world itself just…” she gestured with her arms, a violent titling action. “You know?”
“Ah, yeah. I’ve had that happen after a nasty bump on the head. You just…you just sit there. I don’t want you to fall.” He worked on prying the still crying Snotlout off of him. “Where’s everyone else?”
“Fishy’s back there,” Snotlout sniffed, pointing at a stack of barrels and crates. Now that he was looking, it appeared very fort-like. “He’s not being very friendly.”
“Fool! You’ve revealed my position!” Fishlegs hissed, poking up from behind a barrel. “No matter, the Gronkle and I are well fortified! The one-legged one will have no chance of stealing our secrets!”
“Uh…” Hiccup began, genuinely flummoxed.
“Paranoid,” Heather supplied.
“Ah. Gotcha.” He could work with that. Paranoia could be funneled in a productive way, if he just played his cards right.
Right now, on his lack of sleep, he was playing with a very small hand of cards. Mostly just the card ‘because I said so’.
Then he heard Ruffnut and Tuffnut talking. They were coming around the corner from the clubhouse.
“Exquisite hypothesis, my dear sister. I do wonder what implications this will yield.”
“Quite certainly, they will reveal a grandeur chicken hut, with sloping connections to collect eggs in a more timely and orderly fashion. I predict this will revolutionize the chicken and egg industry as a whole!”
They appeared at the edge of the arena, Tuffnut with a chicken under each arm, and Ruffnut with Hiccup’s astrolabe in hand.
“Hey!” Hiccup went for the stolen tool. “Careful with that! It’s expensive!”
“Oh ho, dear Hiccup! I thought ‘twas you we heard beckoning! How goes your trip to the motherland?”
Hiccup rubbed the bridge of his nose as he translated what they were saying. “Uh, Berk? Yeah, it was good. Everything is as crazy as usual.” He finally got the astrolabe away from Ruff. “What were you doing with this?”
“Purely a scientific musing. An experiment if you will.”
“An experiment,” he said flatly.
“That is correct, my tall, auburn-haired friend!” said Tuff. “An experiment to measure the safe falling distance of a freshly laid egg. We’re out to maximize production!”
Hiccup just gave a weak laugh. “Okay, sure.” This seemed like the least chaotic of the Twins asinine ideas. “You have my full support. But this is for measuring the sun, moon, and stars. It’s not going to help with your egg experiment.”
“We must have grabbed the wrong instrument!” Ruffnut fretted, hand to forehead.
“ We, sister? I believe ‘twas you who snatched the device! I was under the belief it was the alembic we needed!”
“That’s not going to help you either,” Hiccup sighed. “An alembic is used for making medicine. Just–just give me a second to think and I’ll get you something that you can use.”
“Think? Ha! It appears the thinker has thought his last thought while those of us who do not think are thinking more thoughts!”
“ What? ”
Hiccup was distracted from that incomprehensible sentence by Fishlegs snatching the Astrolabe from his hand and darting back to his fort. “It’s mine! Now he can’t use the moon to get my secrets!”
Hiccup rubbed his temples this time, a headache coming on. He groaned. “This is not the kind of chaos I was expecting. If I had more brain power, I could handle it.”
“At least nothing’s on fire,” Heather said, in an effort to comfort. “This is harmless chaos.”
“I guess you’re right,” he sighed.
He looked over the group. Heather still sat on the ground, slowly petting Windshear. Snotlout was sitting close by, crying about how unfair it was that she couldn’t walk. The Twins were a few feet further, weighing the chickens in their hands and using words like ‘circumference’ and ‘defenestrate’. And then Fishlegs was just barely visible in his fort, but that was enough for Hiccup.
All accounted for but–
“Hey, where’s Astrid?”
The assembled all just shrugged.
Well that wasn’t good. Stormfly was sitting by Hookfang and Barf and Belch, looking rather bored. So maybe Astrid was fine. Maybe she was still sane and taking a nap, or getting real work done.
“Astrid?” He called. “Astrid!”
“ Is that my Hiccup!? ” A girlish voice squealed from up above. It almost sounded like Astrid, but he’d never heard her hit that pitch before.
“Astrid?”
From the cliffs, Astrid leapt from where she had been climbing, and landed on the roof of the arena with a bang. Then she called down, “catch me!”
“What?!”
And she jumped again, arms and legs out like a starfish.
Hiccup didn’t so much catch her as he did break her fall. “Oof!” He wheezed as she landed on him, hard. “Augghhh…”
“There’s my Hiccy Picky Dicky Poo!” Astrid cooed.
“Are you crazy?!” He barked, sitting up slightly. Astrid sat on his stomach, grinning like an idiot.
“Crazy in love!” She sang. Then she dove at him, grabbing his face and placing the hottest, wettest, fiercest kiss on his lips he’d ever had. She hummed in euphoria, even parting his lips with her tongue.
Hiccup whimpered.
“Oh dear,” Heather chuckled.
“Why doesn’t she kiss anyone else like that?!” Snotlout sobbed.
“It must be a secret code!” Fishlegs hissed. “A code shared through tongue! They’re talking about me!”
“How much saliva do you think is being exchanged at this moment?” Asked Ruff. “How would we measure such a thing?”
“First, I believe we time how long it lasts. We are currently at twenty-three seconds…twenty-four…twenty-five…”
Astrid pulled away with a smack, but stayed laying on top of Hiccup, her hands resting on his chest. “I missed you, Hiccy Poo!”
“Uh~...” Hiccup moaned, overwhelmed by the whirlwind of sensations he felt. Shock, awe, pleasure, and annoyance, all mixing together to create a headache-soup. “Uh…remind me to make more trips to Berk if that’s how you’re going to welcome me back.” Slowly, he pushed up, dislodging Astrid from her perch. She quickly got to her feet and pulled him up too, hugging him tightly.
“Oh you’re such a Silly Billy, Hiccup! I. Love. You. So. Much!” Each word was emphasized with her swinging him around in her arms.
“Great! Could you love me with less muscle?”
She let go with a giggle, twirling her hair.
Finally, he straightened up. He stretched his back, already feeling the ache from being used as a fall cushion. Everyone was accounted for, all the dragons were peacefully sitting around.
“What now?”
“Oh oh oh!” Astrid danced. “We should make out!”
Hiccup jolted, a bright blush coloring his face. “Oh uh…um…wh-what would that do? Exactly?”
She wrapped her arms around his arm. “It would be fun! And it would feel good! We should feel good! And relax! We haven’t relaxed in a looooooong time!”
“I mean you’re not wrong…about the relaxing thing! Things have been pretty tense…” But maybe Astrid was on to something. Nothing good would come of keeping the riders awake. They needed sleep. Now. “We just need a dark place.”
Barf and Belch, normally the least intelligent of the dragons, wandered over towards them and opened the storage hatch in the floor. It led to the caverns beneath the arena which were cool and dark.
“Oh! Great idea, guys!”
Now just to convince everyone else to get inside…
“Astrid, honey?” He cooed, playing her game.
She beamed at him with eager, bright eyes. “Uh huh?”
“Could you do me a little favor and gather all the blankets and pillows you can find?”
She gasped in glee. “Are we making a nest!? Are we going to snuggle?! I love snuggling! It’s so warm and soft and feels so good! ”
“Yep, we’re going to build a nest and we’re all going to sleep.”
“Like a sleepover?! I love sleepovers!”
“Y-yeah! A sleepover!”
“That sounds so fun! Can I touch your butt?”
“U-uh…what?” He blinked. “I guess?”
Gleefully, she reached around and slapped his butt, before skipping off to do her task.
Hiccup rubbed the spot, unsurprised that she was still strong in her sleep deprived state. He just wished she had a little more control.
Now, there were the others.
“Fishlegs–”
“No, I’m not sharing!”
“I was just going to mention…you have a lot of secrets in your hut, right? Maybe we should make sure everyone here stays in the arena.”
Fishlegs gasped in horror. “You’re right! No! I mean—where is Astrid going then?!”
Hiccup raised his hands to sooth him. “She’s just getting some pillows and blankets. She’s not interested in your secrets.”
He narrowed his eyes. “That’s what you say …” He started walking towards the exit.
“But! U-uh! What about your secrets here? You can’t leave them unguarded, can you? And there’s more of us in here!”
With horror, Fishlegs dove back into his fort. “My secrets!”
Heather chuckled from the ground. “You’re doing great, Hiccup. Really.”
“Thanks,” he rolled his eyes. He knelt at the edge of the storage space. There was a ledge that led to a drop off. That could be dangerous. But hopefully the darkness would make them sleepy quickly enough that it wouldn’t be a problem.
Astrid returned, arms laden with pillows and blankets, and furs draped over her shoulders. “Looky looky what I found!”
“Hey, that’s great!”
She giggled at his praise. “Where do you want them?”
“Can you drop them in here?” He gestured to the hatch.
She dumped her load inside and then popped up on her toes. “I’m going to find more! Make the nest super duper snuggly!” She skipped up to him and rubbed her nose against his. “Don’t stop being a cutie-patootie while I’m gone!”
“Uh…I won’t?” He gave a hapless laugh.
She waved with her fingers before zipping off again.
“I’ll start laying them out if you help me down,” Heather offered. “As long as I stay on my knees, I think I’ll be okay.”
Hiccup held her arms and walked her over to the hatch, then he lowered her down, Toothless hanging onto his armor as he leaned over the side.
“Why do you get all the lady attention? First getting snogged by Astrid, and now you’re holding hands with Heather!?” Snotlout griped, before turning to pathetic whining. “It’s so not fair!”
“Do you want to go down and help Heather lay out the furs? I know she’d appreciate it.”
Snotlout shuffled his feet. “But what if she doesn’t like the way I do it? What if she gets annoyed with me? Are you annoyed with me? Do you hate me?”
I’m starting to get annoyed, Hiccup thought. “No Snotlout, I don’t hate you.”
“But–”
Hookfang took initiative and butted Snotlout in the back, knocking him over and into the hole.
Hiccup winced, hearing Snotlout land with an ‘oof’ but Heather didn’t make a sound.
He peered over the edge, just to check. Heather had laid out half of the furs before passing out completely. Snotlout was slowly finishing the rest, but it looked like he was just barely hanging onto wakefulness.
Good .
Astrid and the twins would be relatively easy to coax into the cavern, but Fishlegs was a wild card. He had to be very manipulative. “Fishlegs, I think Heather may be sharing some of your secrets with Snotlout.”
“Nice try, oh ‘great leader’ but I won’t be tricked so easily into abandoning my post!”
Hiccup sighed. “Yeah, I got nothing. Meatlug?”
Eagerly, Meatlug scooped Fishlegs up off his feet and hovered over to drop him in. “No! No no! Gronkle! You traitor! You fiend!”
Hiccup observed from above as Fishlegs landed on the furs and turned to curse the sky. “You’ve betrayed me for the last time, Hiccup Haddock! When I get out of here, I’ll-I’ll…I’ll…zzzzz…” And he was out like a light.
Three to go.
“Ruff? Tuff? I just remembered, I was storing my discombobulator down here. I bet you could use that in your experiment.”
“Verily?”
“ In veritas? ”
“Yep! It’s down there somewhere…but you should leave the chickens up here.”
Tuff let them go to fall, instead of gently setting them down. “Consider it done, my chief to be.” He saluted. “For now, we descend into the darkness!”
“Thusly, we make haste into which no light travels!” Ruffnut echoed.
The twins lowered themselves down with a bit more care and started shuffling around in the dark. It wasn’t long before movement slowed and they both drifted off, Ruffnut using Fishlegs’ stomach as a pillow and Tuffnut spooning Snotlout’s legs.
Hiccup sighed in relief. That just left Astrid.
And there she was, hurrying back with another armload of blankets and pillows. “I think I found all of them on the Edge!” She dropped all but one in the hole. “This one’s yours !” She purred, nuzzling her face into the fabric.
He blushed, embarrassed but flattered. “Thanks Astrid. You did good. Now let’s get down there.” He held her hand and helped her lower down into the hole, and then followed a moment later. The light from above let him see where everyone was, and he began covering everyone with blankets and placing their heads on pillows and making sure everyone was as comfortable as possible. The space was a little cramped, so everyone was touching and a little overlapped, but that was okay.
He settled down by Astrid, Heather’s legs on one side of him, with Tuffnut’s back next to Astrid. Astrid clambered onto Hiccup, clinging like a Changewing, before she started kissing him again.
As painful as it was, Hiccup gently pushed her away. “Now now, this is sleeping and snuggling time. We can do that later, if you want.”
She pouted for a second, then shuffled down to lay against his chest and wrap her arms and legs around him. “Oh I love how warm and snuggly you are!”
He chuckled. “G-good! Good…just uh…just remember that in the morning, when you’re not sleep deprived anymore.” He threw the blanket over them and yawned.
From above, Toothless let out a little croon as he looked down the hatch.
“Sorry bud,” Hiccup yawned again. “Not enough room for you.”
This didn’t seem to bother Toothless as he chattered at the group, then closed the door with his nose, casting them into pitch blackness.
Astrid’s grasp relaxed as her breathing slowed. She was off to sleep.
Before Hiccup could think about it too much, he snuggled right back into Astrid’s hold and kissed her hair.
—
He awoke to Snotlout letting out a long, loud groan. “Ooowww my back! It feels like I slept on a rock!”
“Because you did,” Hiccup grunted, not opening his eyes.
Astrid tensed at his side, but didn’t move.
“Where are we?” Fishlegs asked, groggily.
“In the storage area under the arena.”
“Oh yeah,” said Ruff. “I remember. I thought that was a dream.”
“Nope,” Hiccup yawned. “You all went crazy and I had to wrangle you down here to sleep. Feel free to leave, but I’m exhausted. I’m staying.”
“Eh, me too,” said Snotlout, turning over. “Who’s on my legs?”
Tuff didn’t wake, just squeezed tighter and muttered, “no my teddy.”
Things fell quiet again, as no one got up to leave. It was the perfect temperature, finally dark, and while the rock underneath wasn’t the most comfortable, the furs made it tolerable.
Hiccup moved his arm off of Astrid. He asked softly, “do you want to…?”
She was still for a moment, thinking it over. “Did I kiss you?” She whispered.
“Yeah.”
“Like…a lot?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Did it bother you?”
“N-no, not really. Um…it was nice.”
“Mmm,” she hummed, her fingers picking at his tunic. “You don’t…mind if I–if we …stay like this? For a little while.”
He rested his arm back over her, running his hand up and down her arm. “I don’t mind at all.”
“Hey,” Snotlout whisper-shouted. “If you’re gonna talk, go somewhere else!”
“Shut up, Snotlout, let them flirt,” Heather growled.
Hiccup chuckled quietly, just a little shaking of the shoulders. He gathered Astrid closer in his arms and rested his head on top of hers. “For the record, I love you too.”
Astrid groaned. “Ugh, I really did say that, didn’t I?”
“Yep!” said the tired chorus of dragon riders.