The gang's trip was wildly uneventful, rather relaxing and yet somehow not boring.

Hiccup was leaning against the front pole of his tent, feet out in front of him towards the fire and his sketch book in his lap. It was almost full, he was on the home stretch of pages, and he'd like to be finished by the time he was back in Rome. Whilst talking to local blacksmiths he'd been through the many marketplaces and there was a stall with some very nice leather sketchbooks he was itching to get his hands on.

Jael and Charlotte were off in the small forest nearby having some fun shooting tress, Atticus and Verlin- back from his trip with Johan, which he'd been so excited for, Hiccup still didn't understand why- were chatting round the fire, Toothless and Spike  were chasing each other down the shoreline and the rest of the dragons were curled up around the fire.

The sun was just hovering over the water, the orange reflections stark against the grey water. They'd crossed into the north, Viking territory. They were on course to visit his mother in a few days and he was genuinely excited. He hadn't gotten to stick around much thanks to the recent celebrations so this was a chance to really get to know each other. he was also interested in seeing how things worked at the dragon nest with the king.

And then, as he looked back down at his sketchbook, he heard the squawk of a terrible terror.

It dropped down by hiccup's prosthetic, plopped a metal canister on the sand and then cuddled up to his side with a purr.

He unscrewed the cap of the canister expecting a reply from Johan, which he got, as well as a surprise and a half.

He'd asked if he'd had any issues after crossing back into Viking territory, according to Johan he'd not only been just fine but also had had some interesting conversations with the inhabitants of Berk. And, just as Johan explained in his letter, one of those inhabitants had written something for him as well.

Hiccup was beyond nervous reading Astrid's letter. He kept expecting to read the next line and find 'HOW DARE YOU RUN AWAY YOU DUMBASS, YOU'RE NO VIKING AND I'M TELLING THE WHOLE VILLAGE YOUR SECRET' or something along those lines but it never came.

Instead what he read was a letter explaining Astrid's guilt about how she and the other teens had treated him and how they were stupid to ever let it get as far as it did. The letter explained that Astrid now understood the way they had treated him was immature, stupid, unfair and uncalled for and that she'd redo and change it all if she had the chance. It also said she wouldn't utter a word about her revelation to anyone as it was his secret to tell, but she hoped he'd one day come back to Berk as his 'death' had greatly affected his father and Gobber. She ended it with saying she hoped he was enjoying his new life and the people in it treated him better than those on Berk had.

Hiccup was genuinely shocked. He'd never expected contact with anyone from his past to happen again, let alone Astrid. And if it did happen he'd expected metaphorical pitchforks and torches. He'd never admit it kept him up at night, but there were times he wondered at the possibility of seeing someone from his past again and how badly it could go.

He was surprised to find Astrid's apology gave him some sense of... ease? Like one of the weights on his shoulders had been removed, and he hadn't noticed it was there till it was gone. It was like he'd exhaled slightly at the realisation that people changed over time and therefore may have understood their mistakes.

It was only Astrid, not his father, but the fact that someone from his old life no longer thought of him as a monumental screw up brought him a step closer to making amends with his past and acknowledging it existed. he still had quite a ways to go, though.

But what also surprised him was the urge to immediately write back. His hand itched for his pencil and he wanted to as quickly as possible explain himself, even though he didn't need to. It was like he needed to stamp a huge 'DISCLAIMER' over the first fifteen years of his life.

And somewhere deep down, Hiccup kind of wanted to talk to Astrid more. His friends in Rome were amazing and he loved them, but something in him still desperately wanted the approval of the Vikings.

He squashed that down as best he could, he did not need approval gods dammit he was eighteen and controlling his own life he didn't need the affirmation that he was doing that well.

And yet, never the less, he picked his pencil back up and started writing a reply. he told himself it was because he still had that teenage immaturity to him that looked up to Astrid as the badass she truly was and because of that he was taking the chance to befriend someone he'd stupidly idolised before he could even understand what the word meant, but a small part of him whispered he was just looking for another weight to be lifted.

Astrid didn't know how Johan would get the letter to Hiccup. Rome was extremely far away and Johan wouldn't go straight back there as he had more places to visit and trade with. But, to her surprise, she found out six nights later that the Roman empire used a fancy form of communication that involved a relay of trained Terrible Terrors and metal canisters.

She was sitting at the desk in her room, looking out the window it was up against, with her head resting on her arms. She had felt oddly unmotivated and hadn't wanted to participate in any training all day nor had she wanted much to eat. It was a strange funk that she couldn't quite shake and was honestly starting to annoy her. She had no idea where it came from and even less of a clue as to how to stop it.

She was beginning to consider consulting Gothi on it when a green terrible terror dropped a metal canister in front of her and then sat in front of her face.

She jumped back with a gasp and reached for her axe but stopped herself before she could attack.

It was just sitting there.

Staring at her.

Why wasn't it attacking?

She dropped her axe and cocked her head at the strange little beast, "what?"

Oh great, she was talking to dragons now. Wonderous.

It nudged the canister towards her then looked up at her with big dark eyes. It reminded her of a child begging for sweets.

Astrid hesitantly reached for the canister, slowly getting closer to the tiny demon sitting on her desk. She picked up the cylinder and moved away carefully, not wanting to startle the thing.

The lid looked like it screwed off and when she opened it she found a rolled-up piece of paper inside. Pulling it out she noticed the somewhat messy handwriting on the paper. It was in Norse, but it looked like it was written by someone who'd stopped using the language and then suddenly had to remember how to spell every word ever uttered. It was legible and understandable, but every now and then she noticed a character that had clearly been erased once or twice before it was completely correct.

More important, though, was the fact that it was from Hiccup.

Astrid was amazed at his descriptions of Rome and the dragons. She got the full story as to why he left and the events that lead up to it as well. She was happy to hear he was enjoying living in Rome, had new friends and was perfectly fine there. She was surprised when she found out he was a legionnaire and had apparently learned how to use a sword and more shocked to find out he had killed a giant dragon known as the Red Death which was the cause for the dragon raids stopping. She chuckled at the sketch of a zippleback that was on the other side of the page as well as hiccup's explanation that it had taken him a couple tries to figure out how to best word everything he had to say which lead to writing on a couple pages of his sketchbook. And she was awed by Hiccup's explanation that Rome used Terrors as a main communications system to quickly send letters to each other across the empire and even across the seas.

She only wished he'd given more description about Rome. it honestly sounded amazing. Hiccup's brief explanation of their architecture, armies and food was bedazzling. She almost wanted to visit, although she knew it was nearly impossible without other people finding out about Hiccup.

Before she could mull over the contents of the letter much the terror made a strange kind of chirping sound and Astrid decided she may as well feed the poor thing seeing as it had flown so far.

Good thing her parents were away or swiping some jerky from the cabinet would have been a lot harder.

As the green terror munched on the dried meat Astrid sat on her bed thinking about the letter, she absentmindedly fiddled with the leather wrapped around her axe's handle.

Talking to Hiccup brought some interesting questions to mind, specifically about her views on dragons. Hiccup didn't seem to be trying to persuade her to his side of the argument but the way he spoke about dragons confused her. He talked about the Night Fury Toothless like it was a harmless friend. To her it was a beast.

But the stories Johan told and the way Hiccup spoke about dragons suggested the entirety of Rome was of a similar opinion on dragons. If an entire Empire that seemed so huge could agree on dragons being less demonic than the inhabitants of Berk lead her to believe then there had to be some truth to it.

She knew there was a definitive way she could make her mind up on dragons but as soon as the thought crossed her mind she pushed it away. It scared her just a little if she was being honest.

She picked up her axe and left the room, giving the terror a stern look that she hoped conveyed the meaning of 'behave'. If she was going to be stuck in her thoughts she may as well train whilst doing so.

Hiccup and Toothless jack knifed into the air, accelerating every second they flew.

His hair stuck to his head as they flew through another cloud, he felt a bead of water trickle down the back of his neck. Toothless' scales glimmered as the moonlight hit them.

The air became noticeably thinner and Toothless let his ascent slow suddenly and they fell backwards as gravity took over once again before Hiccup twitched his foot and they soared, speeding through the air and avoiding the clouds, wind whistled by and chilled Hiccup to the bones. The warmth from Toothless and the leather flight suit was probably all that kept him from hypothermia on these flights.

They twisted and turned, dropped and soared, moving in sync through the air, every part of them ingrained with what it was to fly. Instinct took on as they lost themselves in the starry night sky.

Toothless warbled and let his wings stretch out, ending their adrenaline packed flight and just relaxing, rocketing through the clouds.

Hiccup sat up, taking in the sky above and the sea below.

His friends weren't too far, on an island they'd stopped at on their way back home. They were in Viking territory still, somewhere near Oswald the Agreeable's tribe, but the island that they called home had a large area of ocean they liked to lay claim to so they needn't worry about being seen. Besides, Toothless was built for night flights. Hiccup was quite sure that if it weren't for his duties as a legionnaire and his human need to interact with fellow Romans he'd have switched completely into a nocturnal sleep schedule by now. Heck, he wasn't far off considering how late he tended to stay up and the military necessity that he still be awake in the early morning.

Hiccup pulled himself from his thoughts. He'd received a letter form Astrid once again, this time filled with basic small talk and updates on Berk. He liked talking to Astrid, she was an interesting person to hold a conversation with. Her worldview was so starkly different to anyone else he talked to at all frequently. He realised, semi-belatedly, that he didn't just want to keep in contact with her for the relief that maybe his past wasn't so shameful but also because he genuinely wanted to be friends with her. Yet he'd gotten past the teenage crush he had on her ages ago, what made him want to talk to her?

He must have been a much more social creature than he'd first realised.

The inevitable question was, however, how did a dragon rider befriend a dragon killer?

Drago walked along the deck of his ship, watching his men fumble and stand at attention as he passed.

He came to the front of the ship, eyes narrowing in on the scouts and some of his higher up men. They held telescopes to their eyes, looking out to the sea that roiled beneath the boat.

"sir! We've spotted another one!"

Drago took the telescope from the man, holding it up and zeroing in on the disappearing figure of a dragon. Small, sleek, likely stealth class. It was a scouting Roman.

He had intended to reach Rome without coming in contact with any Romans, he'd taken a long-time interrogating merchants and sea-based nomads to discover the least travelled route around Rome. he had it all planned to a T. he could snoop in and gather more information on Rome, find out exactly how big it was- because no map he had covered it all- how many soldiers and dragons they had.

It would seem he would not have time. All because of one wayward dragon rider.

He grit his teeth, hand clenched around the telescope. He felt a growl rise up in his throat.

"call the ships in, we make land where originally planned,"

"sir, they'll see us coming if we mass together, we'll lose the element of surprise."

"it's already lost." He growled out past his teeth, "we make land and rush them, we'll take several towns before they can call in a decent force. Besides," he picked up his spear and banged it against the metal rail behind him, "we still have the upper hand."