I woke just as the first slices of dawn light broke through the iron bars of our cell. Hiccup had fallen asleep on my shoulder and I found I had been holding onto him the whole night. I moved away from him carefully, being careful not to wake him, instead sitting in the other corner of the cell, running my fingers through my now shoulder length hair.

Soon enough, Hiccup woke too, stretching and yawning with a sigh. He smiled at me, which I did not return. How could I possibly feel happy when I knew that as soon as the guards woke I'd be dragged from the cell and killed in front of a baying crowd?

"Merida -" he started, recognising my emotions through my lack of contact. We'd known each other nearly a year now and he knew me better than my own mother. Well, most people knew me better than my mother to be fair.

"Don't," I cut him off. "It'll only make it worse." I felt tears pricking my eyelids, threatening to spill over if I wasn't careful. Control Merida. Control.

I turned away so he didn't see me, my weaknesses kicking in. Be brave Merida, I told myself constantly. Don't let them inside. Don't let them tell you how to feel.

"Merida, please," he whispered. "This could be the only chance I get to talk with you, see you, be with you, ever again."

"I know," I replied quietly. "I know."

"Then -"

"Then don't say anything!" I snapped. "I'm going to die today! These are my last hours, if that! There's just, there's so much I wanted to do, so many places I never went..."

"I don't want you to die shrouded in misery," Hiccup said, taking one of my hands in his own. Calloused skin from all the work in the smith's ran over my own long fingers, heat radiating from my cheeks like all the fires we sat round in the evenings before we were caught. "I want you to live your last moments. Unless..."

He drew away, his hands leaving mine, colder than before. An idea seemed to strike him, hard. He leaned close, eyes bright.

"Merida, I, I have an idea. An theory where we both could live. But," he paused reluctantly, "it'd mean we'd never see each other again."

An uncomfortable silence hung like a poisonous gas, thick, putrid and reluctant to shift, that is, until I asked,

"What is it?"

"Well," he took a breath, deep and steadying. "I have power, whether they like it or not. I could demand that instead of death, you should be sent back to Scotland. To, to marry one of the suitors and, never make contact with us, with us again. It'd steady the, the mind of the people."

He couldn't continue. I looked up and saw him wiping a tear away stubbornly. I then realised there was something wet on my cheeks. The tears had won me over then.

Oh - damn it all.

I grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him to me, into an embrace. We buried our faces into the other's shoulder and clutched each other tightly, like we couldn't bear to let each other go. The smells of leather, the forest and wood smoke filled me and I realised in that moment, I'd been lying to myself the entire time. As much as I hated to admit it, Hiccup was the reason I didn't want to go back, the sole reason that I wanted to stay tied forever to this tiny island.

He drew away slowly and looked up into my eyes slowly, like he was afraid of doing so. A tidal wave of his green eyes flecked with gold and hazel hit me hard and at the same time I realised how close we were.

"I don't want to leave you," I whispered as he looked down at our hands, still threaded together.

"It's, it's the only way, without you dying," he replied, leaning ever so slightly closer. "And I - I don't think I could, I couldn't let that happen, and, and still live, knowing that - that I could have saved you."

I nodded, looking down again. I couldn't look into those eyes. I just couldn't. It was bad enough that I was never going to see him again.

A fingertip lifted my chin up and I realised Hiccup was even closer than he was before. Two of his fingers were moving my head up so I could meet his gaze. His breathing was long and steady; mine twinned it. The gap between us was so minuscule it could be closed if we moved just a little bit ...

More.

Soft lips moulded against mine and a hand rested against my cheek. This must be love, I realised, high calamity, a fixed point on the horizon, a clash of two lightning strikes. It seemed to run in slow motion. It might have been seconds, hours, days, years before we broke apart and when we did I felt like a new person.

"Merida..." he whispered, my name hanging in the air between us.

"Hiccup -" I clutched at his hand like a lifeline. "I don't want you to try to save me."

"But -"

"No. They'll let you live. Get married. Have children. Live your life. Let me go."

"I can't -"

"You have to. They'll never let me live. Just don't -" my voice cracked like a mirror. "Don't forget me."

Hiccup's eyes scrunched up as his arms held me against his warm body.

"I'll never marry," he whispered, "if it means I can't be with you."

We stayed there, entwined, for what seemed an eternity. All I knew was I was there and so was he and I'd never let go.

The guards came and Hiccup's eyes snapped open. We looked up at them; I saw the hate they reserved for me through their burning gaze.

"What?" Hiccup asked viciously. "What verdict?"

"You live," a stubby finger pointed at their chief, "she is to be executed."

I hung my head. I knew this would happen.

"Can we say one last goodbye?" Hiccup choked, his hands gripping mine tighter.

"Two minutes," the guard snapped and walked away.

As soon as he was gone, Hiccup's hands were on my cheeks and our lips were smashed together again as the time ran out all too quickly. Eyes met. Tears ran. Kisses stolen. Everything was happening too fast.

"I'm so glad I met you," Hiccup whispered between the frantic kisses. "I'm so glad I found you in the woods and that you ran away and I'm so sorry this happened -"

"Don't tell me twice," I replied as I met his lips once again.

And that was it. That was our two minutes, gone. The guards opened the cell and extracted me from Hiccup's body. We didn't go without a fight. I kicked, screamed and thrashed against them, but they held firm. Hiccup clawed at their arms, trying to set me free but they threw him aside, back into the cell. He clutched at the iron bars, reaching out to me. I held onto his hand until the last moment, until it was impossible to hold on any longer.

"Merida - Merida WAIT!" Hiccup screamed. The gap between us was increasing, fast.

"I love you."

I couldn't reply. I'd been dragged round the corner, away to the stand where a crowd was waiting, waiting to see me die.

Everything went so slowly. My head was oddly clear. All that happened next seemed methodical, simple. The crowds mocked, yelled and laughed as I was brought before them. The girl called Astrid read the charges I'd been 'found guilty' of aloud and at the mention of 'sentenced to death' everyone cheered and shouted. She looked at me with a look that might have resembled sadness.

"Do you have any last words?" Astrid asked me. I nodded and stepped forward, my heart beating like thunder.

"I know you all see me as an enemy," I addressed the crowd. "But what you don't understand is that I could have brought you peace. The chief and I were discussing how we might bring peace between our lands, and I don't think I need to tell you how close we were. By killing me, you have lost your chance. War will rage on, and there will be no hope for Scotland, nor Berk. You have brought this upon yourselves." I turned to face the cells and I could just make out a pair of shining green eyes looking through the bars, directly at me.

Astrid looked like she might say something, but didn't. She gave the executioner a curt nod. My head was thrust down onto the wooden block and my hair was moved from my neck. I could still see his eyes, brimming over with tears.

"I love you too," I whispered and I hoped he could lip read. The axe swung and whistled as it soared through the air. After that, I was gone.

I awoke in a place that didn't seem familiar. My eyelids flickered as I arose. My hair was back to it's full length again and my dress was the one I always wore when I went shooting before I left home. Everything seemed fuzzy, not quite right.

"Where am I?" I wondered aloud.

"Where indeed," a large man chuckled. He got close enough to me and I realised he must be as large as my father. He had a huge ginger beard, plaited several times and he wore a huge suit of Viking chainmail. "Vikings call it Valhalla, others call it Paradise. But usually it's called Heaven."

"Are you God?" I asked, and the man roared with laughter.

"Odin's beard no! I am Stoick, once chief of the Hairy Hooligans, and father to the Pride of Berk."

"You're, you're," I stammered, "you're Hiccup's father! But you're dead! So, so that must mean -"

"I am afraid so," he said gravely. "I watched you this past year, with my son. I never liked the Scots, but I have to say, you are certainly an exception. If only Astrid had known what she was doing - peace may have been an option for us."

"So," I whispered, "there's a chance I'll see Hiccup again?" He nodded slowly. I sensed a 'but'.

"You will see him, but only when he dies too. You will be reunited again, but only when his time comes." I nodded. "But you can still see him. You can walk with him, speak to him, watch him grow old, but you will never age. He will never see you, and that can hurt more than ever. I suggest waiting until he comes, to ease your own suffering."

I did as his father said. Another fifty years I waited and, true to his word, Hiccup never married. Girls were always interested in him, but never the reverse. He never spoke to Astrid again either. When he did finally die, it was thirty years after Toothless had passed too. He died in his bed, peacefully, smiling, in the middle of a dream. I rushed to the great gates where I had appeared when I too had become immortal.

A hazy figure approached and my heart began to race. The silhouette became clearer and there he was, those bright green eyes that had never changed, flecked with gold and hazel. They found my gaze and he broke into a run, his metal leg creaking. I ran too, my lungs almost at breaking point as we finally met in the middle, reunited after half a century.

"You're here," he murmured through my hair. "You're here..."

We broke apart, arms still wrapped tightly around each other. Without anymore hesitation, we smashed our lips together first quickly, then softly, kissing each other over and over until they were numb.

"I found you," I whispered as I ran my fingers through his hair and down his back. "I found you."