Hiccstrid Shorts

Getting the story straight

Set a couple days after the final battle, but before the epilogue. Hiccup and Astrid talk about the details Astrid left out of her 'what if' scenario. (RTTE S6)

"You were wrong earlier, you know," Hiccup said.

Astrid turned to look at him, startled. She was sitting alone at the edge of the docks with her legs hanging over the water, and the wooden planks creaked as Hiccup bent down to join her.

"Hello to you, too," she said, her voice hoarse and bleary. "Wrong about what?"

It was two days after the battle on Berserker Island, and the gang was back at Berk-a much shorter trip than heading all the way back to the Edge-recovering. Nobody had been seriously wounded, thank Thor, but once the adrenaline wore off, it became painfully clear how hard the Riders had been pushing themselves. Week after week of skirmishes with Krogan's fliers had slowly worn the gang down, but the final battle left them totally exhausted.

The crash hit them hard, and after arriving early in the morning and swapping information with the council, everyone slept until well into the evening. There had been a feast in the Great Hall that night to celebrate the victory, but with the chief still bedridden and the Dragon Riders practically falling asleep into their mugs, it was one of the tamest parties Berk had ever seen. The guests of honour left early-all of them, even the twins-and slept until late the next day.

It was just getting dark now. The few hours Hiccup had been awake so far he'd spent sitting at his father's bedside, talking quietly to his dad. Stoick had been drifting in and out of consciousness, and was lucid enough to smile in the right places when Hiccup told him how their victory had gone down. He wasn't out of the woods yet-Gothi and Gobber confirmed that-but things were already looking a lot more encouraging. He was sleeping again now, and Hiccup had left Toothless and Skullcrusher both by his side to go for a walk.

Hiccup smiled and took Astrid's hand as they sat together by the water.

"That story you told me," he said. "About what life would've been like if I hadn't shot Toothless down."

Astrid raised her eyebrows. "Really? You came looking for me here, now, just to tell me you didn't like my imaginary alternate life for you?"

"How could I pass up a chance to finally win an argument against you?" Hiccup said, squeezing her hand gently.

"You're unbelievable," she replied, rolling her eyes, but she smiled. "So maybe I took a few creative liberties here and there. I'll admit that. But my point still stands."

"You took more than a few," Hiccup scoffed. "For one thing, I refuse to believe that you'd have actually ended up betrothed to Snotlout."

Astrid burst out laughing. "Is that what's bugging you? You're jealous of imaginary Snotlout marrying me in a made-up thought experiment?"

"There's absolutely no alternate universe where you'd be able to put up with him unfiltered for that long, let's be real here."

"But I left him for you at the end! I put that in!"

"I wasn't really sold on your whole sudden-change-of-heart thing, I'll be honest."

"Cut me some slack here! I didn't have time to work in a whole slow, romantic courtship or something. We had a war to fight!"

"Well, sure, but-"

"And that wasn't even the biggest leap I made," Astrid continued. "I didn't even get to how we'd actually end the war with the dragons. I totally skipped over the Red Death, which was kind of a big deal, if memory serves."

"Yeah, that's another thing! You remembered that one angry Whispering Death from four years ago, but the mountain-sized evil behemoth dragon literally exploding doesn't make the cut?"