Hello everyone! Welcome to Blind Spots, my collection of one-shots set in my Black as Night universe. I'd advise for you to read Black as Night before reading this, as these stories will contain unmarked spoilers and references to that story. I suppose you can read these stories as simple fluff without having read Black as Night but simply put: when you read this, I'm assuming you read Black as Night, and there might be (small) plot elements or references you might not get if you haven't read it.

In case you haven't read or heard of Black as Night, it is a retelling of the original movie, where Hiccup is permanently blinded early on in dragon training. So in these stories, Hiccup will be completely and totally blind. There will not be a cure. These snippets are about Hiccup and Astrid (and others) living a life where Hiccup is blind, and how they deal with that.

If you have ideas for one-shots, please suggest them by sending a PM or leaving a review. I'm open to all kinds of suggestions, though I will not write anything containing explicit adult content (so keep it T rated), and I probably won't use any supernatural phenomena.

The cover art was made by Twigman242. You can find more of his artwork on his DeviantART with the same username.

So, enough administrative stuff, and let's continue with the actual first one-shot!

Memories

Hiccup was asking himself a lot of questions. How did he end up here? Why did everyone have to be there? Why couldn't he just leave? Why was he, the blind boy, the only one that could see how embarrassing this was?

Of course, he also knew the answers to those questions. It was his sixteenth birthday, and he was now officially an adult. And since it was such a big occasion, Stoick had decided to invite the entire village to the Great Hall to celebrate. Not that he had asked Hiccup, oh no. He'd just said "The coming of age of my son deserves a great feast," even though Hiccup didn't want a great feast. While his father listened more to him these days, this time he had just laughed away Hiccup's concerns and told him "It will be great, you'll see."

Hiccup had to bite his lip to prevent himself from making the obvious sarcastic retort.

So here he was, balancing precariously on a table in the Great Hall, surrounded by the entire village, trying to keep smiling through his father's speech.

"Well, it's great to see so many of you people here! There weren't this many of you last year, haha!" Stoick started, and Hiccup already hated this speech. Why did his dad have to remind him and everyone else of how things used to be? He tried to forget those days. Those days when no one would come to his birthday party. Hel, his father wouldn't even throw a party. Hiccup had been lucky if he got a "Happy birthday" from someone other than Gobber.

"I'm surprised myself. If someone had told me a few months ago that Hiccup would go from being… well, Hiccup," Stoick continued, and Hiccup was having more and more trouble to keep smiling.

"…to defeating the biggest dragon any of us have ever seen, I would have shipped him off for fear he'd gone mad! And you know it!" Hiccup definitely knew it. He knew his father didn't mean to hurt him, but Hiccup couldn't deny that he didn't like listening to this at all. He wasn't sure what was worse: His father's words, or the cheers of the Vikings.

"I mean, all those years of being the worst Viking Berk had ever seen..." Thanks dad, Hiccup thought while doing his best not to stop smiling.

"Odin, it was rough, I almost gave up on you, especially after well, you know… the incident in dragon training," Stoick said, and Hiccup couldn't stop his smile from disappearing. That hurt. That hurt a lot.

"...but all the while you were holding out on me!" Oh, so being blinded was all he needed to stop 'holding out'? Hiccup tried his best not to show the hurt, but it was getting harder and harder.

"But here we are. My boy has singlehandedly defeated the Red Death, and brought peace between dragons and Vikings to the island of Berk. And no one is more surprised, or more proud, than I am," Stoick said, and Hiccup wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a compliment.

"And today, my boy becomes a man! Today, my boy becomes a Viking! Today, he becomes one of us!" Stoick finished to great applause, and Hiccup frowned. It was odd how for years he had only wanted to become a Viking, but now that he was one, he wasn't sure if he liked it. He'd much rather be flying on Toothless or go to the cove with Astrid.

But that was not an option right now, so he just hoped the speech would be over soon.

"Now, son. Let me be the first to present a gift to you. Since you… uhm… can't see bad things coming, I thought this might help you. To protect you, I mean," Stoick said, and Hiccup reached out his hands until he found a metal object. It took a few seconds of examining before he realized it was a helmet. That was a pretty cool gift. At least his dad tried to be thoughtful, Hiccup supposed.

"Your mother would have wanted you to have it. It's half of her breastplate," Stoick said, and Hiccup nearly dropped the helmet when he realized what he was running his fingers over.

Hiccup heard a ticking sound, like somebody hit metal, and his father said "Matching set. Keeps her close, you know?"

Hiccup wasn't sure what the other part of the set was, and he wasn't sure if he even wanted to know. So he just smiled and thanked him, trying to ignore the jokes shouted by the Vikings.

He put the helmet on and climbed off the table very carefully, not wanting to slip and embarrass himself even further. But now that he was standing on the solid floor he wasn't sure what to do now. There were delicious smells of food, but Hiccup wasn't eager to eat in front of everyone. At home he knew what kind of food there was, and where it was exactly, so he wouldn't spill it, but here there probably was a large table filled with all kinds of food, just waiting for Hiccup to make a fool of himself by putting his hand in the soup bowl or pour sauce all over the mead or something.

So food was out. He knew there were barrels of mead around here, and he could certainly grab a mug and drink, but he didn't think that was a good idea. Climbing the stairs to the Great Hall was hard enough, especially in this icy weather, he would definitely fall if he tried to climb down drunk.

So drinking was also out. Socializing had never been his strong suite before the blindness, and now he just felt extremely awkward to walk to random people he couldn't even see and start a conversation.

So socializing was also out. He wished Astrid was with him, but she was somewhere else, probably talking to other people, and he had no way to know where. Even Toothless was Odin-knows-where, dragged away by the twins earlier with an ominous announcement that they wanted to see how much alcohol a dragon could handle. When Hiccup tried to protest and say they could try it on their own dragon, they had simply said that since the Zippleback had two heads and one stomach it wasn't a very good test subject. And then Toothless was gone, and Hiccup hadn't seen him since.

So he just sighed and walked to the far wall, leaning against it, hoping the party would be over soon so he could get some rest.

The gods were never that kind to him.

"Hey, cousin! Happy birthday! Sixteen, you're a man now! But are you really a man yet?" Snotlout slurred as he grabbed Hiccup's arm, and Hiccup smelled mead in the air. Great, Snotlout was already drunk. At least Snotlout was a happy drunk, instead of an angry drunk.

"What do you mean, Snotlout?" he asked, supposing even Snotlout was better company than nothing.

"I mean, *hic!*, that you're not really a man 'till you… 'till you did… you know… 'till you make a Zippleback!" Snotlout shouted, and Hiccup tried to draw his head back from the overwhelming stench of mead.

"Uh, what?" he asked, utterly lost as to what Snotlout was referring to. Did he mean train a Zippleback? He'd already done that for the twins.

"You know! When a guy and a girl do it, they make a beast with two heads, but attached at the you-know! *hic!* Like a Zippleback! With Astrid, you know!" Snotlout shouted, and Hiccup blushed bright red when he realized what his cousin was talking about.

"No! We haven't done anything like that. We… We should probably wait for marriage until we do that," he managed to say, wondering if Astrid would even want to… make a two-headed dragon with him.

"What?! But… she's like… so hot! Are you blind or something, man? Don't you see that? Look at that, man! *Hic!* Look at that. Her new hairstyle is so awesome, and that a-" Snotlout said before Hiccup decided to interrupt him. He wasn't sure whether to feel annoyed that Snotlout was calling his girlfriend hot, exasperated that Snotlout was apparently so drunk he didn't realize he was literally blind, or just nauseous from the stench.

But above all, he felt surprised at one part of Snotlout's drunken praise. Astrid had a new hairstyle? He hadn't known that.

"Thank you Snotlout, that's enough. I'll think about what you said, now go and get another drink or something," he said, feeling confused. Why hadn't Astrid told him if she changed her hair?

"Good idea, cuz! I could use another drink! And go get her! Ride that dragon!" Snotlout shouted, and finally the stench moved away. Hiccup hoped that he would finally get a little rest now.

"Snotlout's drunk again?" a voice he recognized as Fishlegs said, and he jumped when he realized Fishlegs was standing right next to him.

"Fish! How long were you standing there?" he asked, trying to calm down.

"Just 7 seconds. I didn't hear your conversation, though I doubt you had a meaningful one with the -6 modifier to Intelligence he has from drinking all that mead," Fishlegs said, and Hiccup snorted. It hadn't been a very meaningful conversation indeed. But his smile died when he remembered the thing Snotlout had mentioned.

"Fishlegs? Has Astrid changed her hair?" he asked, and the large boy was silent for a moment.

"She changed her hairstyle significantly 2 weeks and 5 days ago. Since you can't see it, I'll also mention that Astrid is wearing a new shirt. Its red color is so similar to the color of your blindfold I estimate that there is about a 94 percent chance she chose it to match. That suggests she's significantly interested in you," Fishlegs said, but Hiccup wasn't really listening to the last part.

Astrid's had looked different for weeks and he hadn't known. She had new clothes, and he hadn't even known. He should have complimented her when they walked here together earlier. But he just hadn't known.

He was a terrible boyfriend.

Fishlegs might have sensed his shock, because the boy moved away with a quick "Congratulations on your birthday!" leaving Hiccup to ponder. He hadn't even considered that Astrid might look different from how he remembered her. Maybe he should ask her how what she looked like now. But he wasn't sure how. It felt like such a stupid thing to ask. Hey Astrid, what does your hair look like? It sounded ridiculous.

Before he could ponder it further he was torn from his thoughts by the very person he was thinking about.

"Hey Hiccup? You alright?" Astrid asked, but before he could answer she leaned in until he could smell her. She smelled much better than Snotlout.

"Between you and me, Stoick's speech was terrible. Those were pretty mean things to say," she whispered in his ear, and he smiled. At least Astrid was looking out for him.

If only he could do the same for her.

"Thanks, Astrid. At least he tried to help, and I did get a new helmet," he said as he tapped the new accessory he was wearing, unsure of how to bring up the subject of her hair.

"I suppose. What did you and Snotlout talk about?" Astrid asked, and his head whipped up as he blushed.

"Uhm… Zipplebacks," he said, desperately hoping Astrid wouldn't know about the beast with two heads either.

"Okay… You wanna get out of here?" she asked, and he wondered if he heard her correctly.

"Get out? But it's my birthday party! I can't leave!" he said, shaking his head. The last thing he needed was a lecture from his father about 'dodging responsibility'.

"Oh, come on, Hiccup. I can see you're not having fun. And you're supposed to have fun on your birthday, right? Besides, I doubt anyone would notice. Everyone's either drunk, or watching the twins' dragon drinking tournament," Astrid said as she grabbed his arm. It was tempting, but could he?

"But what about Toothless? Will he be okay?" he asked, unsure of this 'dragon drinking tournament'.

"He'll be fine. He's very eager to beat Hookfang, but at least the dragons can't seem to fire when drunk. Now let's go!" Astrid said as she started dragging him away, and he let himself be lead. He had done everything his father asked in the last few weeks, helping with the village and the new dragon academy. He deserved some time for himself on his own birthday, right?

Seconds later cold air greeted them and Hiccup knew they were outside. He felt dread as he thought about the stairs in front of him. He hated those stairs. In the three months since he lost his leg he had learned to walk across straight surfaces pretty well, but stairs were still hard. Especially stairs as steep, slippery and uneven as these.

He braced himself for a very slow descent, but before he could take the first step, Astrid's voice rang out again.

"We have to be quick if we don't want to be spotted. I could help you," Astrid said, and he considered it. Astrid could hold his arms and make sure he didn't fall.

"Okay, let's do that," he said, but Astrid didn't grab his arms. Instead she moved in front of him. There were a few seconds of awkward silence.

"Come on, Hiccup, get on. We don't have all day!" Astrid said, and he suddenly understood what she meant with 'help'.

"Seriously? You mean a piggyback ride?" he said, trying to keep whatever shred of manliness he had left.

"Yes, a piggyback ride. It's the quickest way to get down the stairs. Now get on!" she said, and he just shook his head, hoping no one would see this.

"Okay, fine," he said as he hesitantly felt in front of him to find Astrid's back. After some very awkward maneuvering, in which Hiccup desperately tried not to think about Zipplebacks as he touched her, he had his arms and legs around her, and she started walking down the steps.

"See! This ain't so bad," Astrid said in a cheerful tone, while Hiccup had to admit it was pretty nice to be this close to her.

"Alright, you win. This is nice. I'm not hurting you, am I?" he asked, worried about his metal leg poking her side.

"You can't hurt me, Hiccup," she said, and suddenly her steps changed. Apparently they had reached the bottom. But Astrid showed no signs of stopping or letting him get off.

"Where are we going?" he asked, unsure whether to be amused or embarrassed.

"It's a surprise. You'll see," she said in a playful tone, and he knew she was joking. So he just relaxed and enjoyed the ride.

Astrid's hair was right in front of him, and Hiccup suddenly felt the urge to run his fingers through it and find out what was different about it. But he didn't dare. He didn't want to make this any weirder than it needed to be.

Finally Astrid stopped, and Hiccup climbed off her back, his foot slipping when he landed. He heard Astrid laugh as she took his hand and pulled him back up, and he smiled when he felt the now familiar scars on her hands. He still felt bad that she had scars because of him, but it was nice to be able to recognize Astrid just by her hands.

His smile fell when he realized he knew her hands better than her face or hair. He didn't really know anything about what she looked like anymore. He barely remembered what she used to look like.

"What's wrong? Is your leg hurting again?" Astrid asked him as she lead him by the hand. Hiccup didn't know how to answer. "I don't know what you look like anymore," just sounded… wrong. Like he betrayed her.

"No, no, the leg is fine," he said, and Astrid was silent as she lead him to a nearby log and sat him down.

"It's… I feel like I'm a lousy boyfriend. I feel like I'm not seeing anything you do," he eventually said after a heavy silence. Astrid sighed before sitting down as well.

"Of course you don't! You're blind! But that doesn't mean you're a lousy boyfriend! If there's something I want you to know about, I'll tell you, okay? And everything else you can't see doesn't matter," she said heatedly, and he frowned. He didn't like being so… dependent on what she told him. He should be able to look out for her.

"I suppose it doesn't matter. But I… I want it to matter, Astrid! I want to… I want to be able to compliment you on your clothes, or make a bouquet of flowers for you without having to ask someone if the colors are right. I just want to… do those silly boyfriend things with you," he said as he scratched his hair. She sighed before lightly punching his arm.

"Well, I don't care about clothes or flowers! I'd much rather get a nice weapon or a new piece of armor than flowers or shirts. And you happen to be the best at making weapons and armor, even without your eyes! So don't you think you're not good enough or something. Because you're the best!" she said heatedly, and it made Hiccup feel a little better. But the fact that he hadn't known about her new hair still bothered him.

"Oh, I made you a gift! Well, Gobber helped me with it. Do you want it?" she suddenly asked in an eager tone, and he couldn't help but smile again.

"Of course," he said, and Astrid placed an odd object in his hands.

"Happy birthday!" she said, and he frowned as he ran his fingers over the present, trying to figure out what it was. His first thought was that it was a solid block of metal, but he found a series of rings piercing the block. When he examined the sides he found that the block was actually a stack of metal sheets, held together with the rings. Slowly, he moved the first sheet around the rings like one would open a book, and he realized what it was.

"It's a… sketchbook?" he asked as his jaw dropped.

"Yes! I noticed you used to carry a sketchbook with you. A paper one, of course. But… you can't use that anymore, you write and draw on copper now, so I figured you might like this. There's a little holster here where you can place your writing knife as well," Astrid said as she took his hand and moved it to the inside of the rings, where there was enough space to put his knife.

"Astrid… I don't know what to say! Thank you!" he managed to say, as he examined the metal book.

"Now you can draw whatever you want, wherever you want," she said, and he wanted to agree with her. But then a thought crossed his mind, and he said it out loud before he realized it.

"I wish I could draw you."

There was a short silence, and he wished more than ever he could see Astrid.

"Well… you can, right? You remember what I look like, don't you?" she hesitantly asked, and he shook his head.

"I do, sort of, but… but that isn't what you look like anymore. Snotlout said that you changed your hair, and Fishlegs said you're wearing new clothes, and I-I don't know what you look like now!" he said, hoping she would understand what he meant.

"Oh. But… why do you want to draw me? I mean, you can't see the drawing anyway, and… does it really matter?" she asked, and he shook his head again as he laid the metal book next to him.

"It's… I suppose it's not about drawing, really. It's… I have this image of you in my head. But it's from months ago, when I- When I could still see. From before. And now that image… isn't accurate anymore. And I… I wish I could update it," he slowly said, bowing his head.

"Oh, I see. But… does it really matter what color clothes I wear or what my hair looks like? I'm still me, right?" she asked as she put her arm around his shoulders.

"Yes, you're still you. But… I'm forgetting, Astrid. I'm starting to forget what people look like! Dad, Gobber, Toothless, I don't remember them anymore! They're just… they're just a voice to me now, some… stupid voice and a smell coming from the darkness, without shape or looks! And… I'm afraid that's going to happen to you too! I just… I realized I know your hand better than I can remember your face!" he said, and Astrid pulled him a little closer.

"Shh, it's okay. And you know what? I'm forgetting too. I can't remember what eye color you had. I can't remember what your face looked like… without the scars, and without the blindfold. As far as I'm concerned, your eyes are red, because your blindfold is red. And I can't feel you with my hands as well as I used to. But does that matter to you?" Astrid asked as he laid his head on her shoulder.

"Not really. But at least you have an image. When Snotlout told me you changed your hair, I realized… I realized that I don't even remember what your old hair looked like. I remember it was blond, and there was a braid, but… but I don't remember what it looked like exactly. The memories are fading, and I'm afraid that soon I won't remember the braid or the color, and then you'll be… gone. You'll be just a… ghost in my mind. I'm afraid you'll be invisible to me. I'm terrified of that," he finally admitted as he put his arm around her shoulders as well.

"Oh, Hiccup. Am I really invisible? I mean, there's still a voice, right? And… a touch, maybe?" she slowly asked in a soft voice, and he felt bad for making her feel bad.

"I'll always remember your voice. And I suppose your hands are very unique. I feel like I know your hands. They're not… invisible. But… isn't it bad that I know your hands better than your face?" he asked, untangling their arms and grabbing her hands, rubbing his fingers over the rough scars.

Astrid was silent for a while, before suddenly pulling her hands out of his grip, grabbing his hands instead.

"If you can get to know my hands through touch, why can't you know the rest of me? Your old memories are gone, but maybe you can get some new ones," she said as she raised his hands, and suddenly he felt soft skin under his fingers. It took a moment for him to realize she wanted him to feel her face, and then he did. Slowly he ran his fingers over her cheeks, then her jaw and smiling lips, trying to visualize the shape in his mind. Then he moved up, careful not to poke her eyes, and mapped her nose and forehead.

"You're beautiful," Hiccup said as he moved his hands to her hair, trying to figure out what Snotlout had meant. Finally the picture started forming, and he started smiling as he felt her soft hair. She had a small braid over her head between her ears that he didn't think she had before, and the rest of her hair was brushed to the side or tied in a large complicated braid behind her head.

"Snotlout was right. It's really nice," he said, more to himself than to her, and she shuddered beneath his hands.

"He said I looked nice?" Astrid asked angrily.

"Uhm, those weren't his exact words," he said, hoping she wouldn't ask about Zipplebacks.

"Ugh, I can imagine what he did say. At least he'll never know me like you do. He just looks at me. You can do everything else," she said, and he blushed, trying not to think about how close they were, his hands still in her hair.

"But I think you need more new memories, Hiccup," Astrid said as she leaned in.

"Just remember my voice," she whispered in his ear, and he tried to imprint this moment into his memory, unable to formulate a response.

"Remember my smell," she said as she pushed his nose into her neck, and he took deep breaths, forcing himself to inhale her smell. Then she pulled her head back a bit, before taking a deep breath herself as Hiccup tried to get his brain working again.

"And… remember my taste," she said with a light voice before lowering her lips to his, and Hiccup finally felt like he was starting to get a complete picture again. It was like a dark but solid shape in his black room, without colors, but with a beautiful voice, soft hair, a familiar smell, and an odd, yet nice taste. And as she pulled back again he smiled as he 'looked' at the woman in front of him, running his fingers over her cheeks again.

"So, do you still think I'm invisible? Do those new memories help?" she asked, and her voice sounded remarkably… unsure. But he just smiled. How did this girl always know how to help him?

"It's better than anything I had before. I could get used to it. But I think I need some new memories every now and then," he said as he ran his fingers through her hair.

"I don't want to forget this either. Happy birthday, Hiccup," Astrid said, before kissing him again.

That was the first blind spot! Please share your thoughts or suggestions by leaving a review or a PM. In case you were wondering, I was using Astrid's hairstyle from Race to the Edge for this fic.

Thank you for reading, and I'll be back with more soon!