Disclaimer: I don't own HTTYD

A/N: So I was reading a couple of Raberba girl's stories, and two in particular, chapter one of 'The Dragon Queen of Berk' and chapter four of 'Two Worlds, One Family', gave me the idea to switch up Hiccup and Astrid's roles. It will all be explained in the chapter, but consider this a secondary disclaimer ;)

The song for this chapter is 'Right Place, Right Time' by the one and only Olly Murs ;)

Chapter Fourteen – Looking Forward

Looking down at all the dragons settling in, bickering a bit over where to sleep, diving for fish in the water…Hiccup felt the way his dad always said he felt, when he could see the whole of Berk and all its people safe and well. Toothless felt him relax and heard him sigh, and warbled happily. "Hmm? What's got you in such a good mood?" Hiccup asked him, stroking the top of his head. *You're happy, so I'm happy. You are happy, aren't you?*

"Yeah, I am…oh, hey, Sky Fire!" Hiccup perked up, calling to the Nadder he could see flying in the distance. Toothless hurried to catch up and Sky Fire back-winged, slowing until the two dragons were gliding side by side. *Greetings, Alphas* the nadder acknowledged them respectfully. It was still a little strange to have left his nest with the Sea-giant King and come to this new, much smaller Nest with a Swift-wing and human king both, but he had always prided himself on being able to get used to change quickly.

*Hello, Sky Fire* Toothless replied, *Are you okay?*

*Yes, thank you, Alpha-Toothless. I've even marked a place to roost for the night*.

"Hey, Sky Fire, you don't have to be so formal, y'know" Hiccup smiled, "We're friends now. Huh…speaking of which, where's Eret?"

The Nadder jerked his muzzle down towards the beach. *My new human is down there. He didn't want to fly, he was nervous. I think he's hiding, but I don't know why*.

"Heh, probably trying to avoid Ruffnut" Hiccup smirked, torn between amusement and pity. Sky Fire whistled curiously, tilting his head in confusion – which in mid-air, unbalanced him a little, so he flapped his wings hard to regain it. *Trying to avoid who?*

"Oh, she's just…"

*One of Hiccup's strange human pack-mates – the female of the twins that smell of fish and burnt prey-fur and twin-head gas* Toothless explained helpfully, but Sky Fire only seemed even more bewildered. "Can you show us where he is?" asked Hiccup. The Nadder obliged, banking to the left and gliding down towards the beach. Eret was sitting – well, crouching – in the midst of some large boulders, newly broken from one of the twins 'excavation projects'.

He looked up at the sound of dragon wings in alarm, before swiftly schooling his features and standing up to lean casually against the nearest rock. "Hello!" he called, a bit too cheerily for it to be believable; Toothless and Sky Fire could both tell from his signals that he was nervous, but pretending to not be. Dragons didn't hide how they felt unless they had to…they couldn't understand why humans did it so often, and Hiccup hadn't really been able to explain.

"Hey, Eret" Hiccup said as he dismounted, "Is…everything okay?"

"Oh, of course" Eret grinned, climbing up to stand on one of the flatter boulders. Sky Fire saw his bared teeth and his nervous signals…*Be careful, Alpha-Hiccup* he warned, spreading his wings and eyeing Eret warily. The man noticed the stare and his mask of confidence visibly cracked a little. "Hey…Sky Fire…it's me…" Eret said, trying to keep his nerves from shaking his voice. Normally he had no problem not showing fear to dragons…but then normally, he only talked to them…well, at them…after they'd been captured.

*Careful of what?* asked Toothless.

*My human, Eret…he is nervous and he bared his teeth, he might attack* Sky Fire explained. He was very confused, as was Eret, when both Hiccup and Toothless chuckled. *He's not threatening!* Toothless explained when he'd stopped chortling, *When humans show their teeth like that it means they're happy. It's a weird human thing*. Sky Fire blinked, chewing on the thought in his mind, and chirped in understanding.

"It's alright, Eret. He just saw you grinning and thought you were baring your teeth at me – you know, in the angry way" Hiccup explained to Eret. The other man nodded slowly…he understood now, but inside he was thinking Great, now I can't even smile around them?

"You can still smile" Hiccup added, as if he'd read Eret's mind, "It's just best not to smile too much at a dragon who doesn't know you well. Oh, and if a dragon stares at you like that, don't stare back. Although you probably already knew that….so, any reason you're down here and not up at the Great Hall with everyone else? Toothless and I were on patrol, by the way" he added, in answer to the next question Eret was probably going to ask.

The former trapper shrugged and replied, "Oh, y'know, nothing much, just enjoying the view. Astrid told me you guys have some great sunsets here".

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "We do…but you know, the sun usually sets on the other side of the island" he pointed out. With a bit of a boost from Toothless – the boulder Eret was standing on was large – he came to stand next to the man. "Sky Fire said you seemed nervous, that you're hiding. Is it Ruffnut?" he asked sympathetically.

"No, it's not…well, okay, maybe a little" Eret admitted. He rubbed the back of his neck and confessed, "If you must know, I'm hiding from…them". When Hiccup's only response was to raise his eyebrow again and gesture for the man to continue, Eret said "The dragons, I mean. The new ones, that worked for…oh, who am I kidding, that were slaves for Drago. I probably sold a lot of them to him myself".

"And you recognise them?"

Eret scoffed a bit. "Of course not – if I did, that would mean I'd gotten attached to them". In his old line of work, the number one rule was not to get attached to the cargo – you didn't pet them, you didn't talk to them, and you certainly didn't name them. It made life a lot simpler when you didn't have to worry about some bleeding heart getting soft and deciding to set the poor dragons free….

"But what if some of them recognise me? You and Astrid keep telling me how they're smarter than they look, how they understand us when we talk…if one of Drago's dragons sees me and figures out I'm the one who caught them in the first place, I'm a dead man".

"They're not going to kill you, Eret" Hiccup said calmly, "I'd never let them, and besides, dragons don't think like we do. They don't dwell on the past…I mean, look at Toothless" he said, gesturing to the black dragon looking up at them curiously, "He and I met because I shot him down, he still has scars from that, he's missing a tail-fin…but once I earned his trust, he forgave me, for all of it. The new dragons just need time to get used to everything…and besides, if you're gonna be staying here until your crew sails to Berk, you can't avoid the dragons forever".

As if on cue, two of the newer dragons – a Snafflefang and a Thornridge – flew down to land on the beach beside them. The two dragons shook and stretched out their wings, and lowered their heads in submissive bows to Toothless and Hiccup. *Greetings, Alphas* they chanted, just like Sky Fire.

"Are you guys all going to bow to me and Toothless every time you see us?" Hiccup asked them, much to Eret's bewilderment.

*Yes, Alpha-Hiccup* replied the Snafflefang, without looking up.

*You and your human friends freed us from the human ships and the bad Sea-giant. You deserve our respect!* the Thornridge added, also without looking up.

"Err, you guys can…" Hiccup cleared his throat and tried not to feel awkward as he said, *You may rise*.

The dragons lifted their heads. "So, uh, can we help you with something?"

*We were just looking for somewhere to nest* the Thornridge explained.

"Tell you what, why don't you sleep on this side of the rock pile" Hiccup suggested to the Snafflefang, "and you can sleep on the other side" he added to the Thornridge. Both of them found this acceptable, and Eret very quickly jumped off the boulder when the two dragons came up to nuzzle Hiccup gratefully.

Hiccup, Eret, Toothless and Sky Fire went for a walk along the beach. "Were you scared of those dragons?" the young Viking asked, "You never struck me as the type to be scared of anything. Whatever happened to the boasts about being, what was it, the greatest dragon trapper alive?"

Eret glowered at him. "Very funny. Listen, chief, or alpha, or whatever you call yourself"-

"Hiccup, usually, seeing as it's my name" the young rider quipped.

The older man just gave him a long suffering look…Hiccup sighed and said apologetically, "Sorry, force of habit".

Eret brushed it off. "Ah, forget it. Look, the only thing I've ever been afraid of – as in really, properly terrified – was Drago Bludvist. If I'm honest, I never really believed in his mad campaign- everything I did, it was just to keep myself and my men alive. Capture dragons. Fill the quota. Keep on the move, even though nobody ever ran away from Drago and lived…and now I know why! Dear gods, that monster…I never even believed in Bewilderbeasts, I thought they had to be a myth, and now I've seen two of them…and that second one, the one that followed Drago…you just talked to it and…"

He stared at Hiccup with a strange sort of admiration on his face. "How do you do it? From what I've heard, even before you got…before you could understand them or read their minds or whatever, you could wrap dragons around your pinkie finger; persuade them not to attack you. Don't take this the wrong way, but…when I saw you stand up to that massive dragon, you reminded me so much of Drago. You're nothing alike, don't get me wrong…but it's as if you've both got this way of doing the impossible and getting away with it".

Hiccup wasn't exactly thrilled at being compared to Drago, of all people…but he understood where Eret was coming from. "I'll try to take that as a compliment, too" he remarked dryly.

"I'm just not sure what to do now" Eret confessed, stopping to stare out to sea, "Dragon trapping…I'm not saying I'm proud of it, but it's all I know".

Hiccup frowned thoughtfully. After a while, he suggested, "Maybe…your job doesn't have to change that much. I'm not saying you should go back to trapping dragons" he said hastily, when Eret looked at him oddly, "But if I show you guys a better way to deal with them, maybe you and your men could go out there and show others how to befriend dragons – or at least, how to deter them harmlessly. You could help spread our message of peace further than I can, at least for now".

"Are you offering me a job?" Eret asked him, lips quirking in amusement.

"I guess so" Hiccup shrugged, "Are you accepting?"

"Depends – how much are you gonna pay me?"

"Actually, you're going to pay me" Hiccup stated. At Eret's confused look, he explained "If you get hired by people to fix their dragon problems, and you get them to pay up front, then instead of giving me the dragons, you release them into the wild and give me a share of the profits. Maybe a…forty-sixty split?" Hiccup suggested, gesturing from himself to Eret, "Then I can save the money and use it pay you and anyone else I convince to do this".

"…Make it a thirty-seventy split and you've got yourself a deal".

"You know what; we'll work out the details later. So, what do you say, Eret son of Eret?" Hiccup asked with a smile, holding his hand out to shake, "Do you want to work for me?"

Eret looked from him, to the Nadder who was apparently his dragon now, and back to Hiccup again, smiling. "I'd be honoured, boss" he nodded, giving Hiccup a firm hand-shake.

"Great!" Hiccup grinned. He was just about to suggest that they went back to the village and up to the Great Hall for the feast, when the sound of wingbeats and a cheerful squawk heralded the arrival of his fiancé. She dismounted and patted Stormfly's cheek; the Nadder chirruped happily at her and bowed to Toothless-Hiccup. The black dragon pounced at her playfully, kicking up sand. *Stormfly, we're friends! Come play!*

Astrid laughed at the sight of her dragon and Hiccup's making pretend lunges at each other; Sky Fire just shifted his talons in the sand uncertainly, not sure why one of his Alphas was acting like a hatchling and the other was performing some sort of strange mating ritual with the female that smelled of metal and fur and spike-tail-scent. The only thing that made him feel better was that Eret seemed to be made uncomfortable by it too.

When Astrid pulled back from the very nice kiss, she said "The feast's all prepared. Would've been done sooner, but your mum had to break up a few fights between the dragons". At once she regretted her words when Hiccup stared at her, dismay and guilt written plain as day on his face.

"Oh no…I am so sorry, Astrid, I should've been there to help, it's just that I got talking to Eret and"- Astrid thumped him lightly on the arm.

"That's for being a self-blaming idiot" she said, before snogging him again. He looked even more dazed the second time she pulled away, and she smirked. "Everything's taken care of. Now come on back, everyone's waiting for you".

"Err, actually, I've been meaning to talk to you – in private, I mean" Hiccup told her, "Eret, why don't you go on ahead? Tell them we'll be a few minutes".

"Uh, sure…hey, Sky Fire? Think you can give me a lift?" Eret asked the Nadder. His change of heart had been genuine, and he was trying really hard to believe that dragons could understand what he was saying, no matter how unlikely it seemed…To his surprise, Sky Fire actually crouched down, an obvious invitation for Eret to climb up onto his back. I really underestimated these guys he thought as he heaved himself on.

After Eret and Sky Fire had flown away, Astrid turned to Hiccup with an inquisitive expression. He took a deep breath. "Okay, so…I'm supposed to be training to become chief, right, but now Toothless and I are the alphas of our dragons. Which means we're supposed to patrol the territory, and defend it, and settle disagreements, and help the dragons just like dad's always helping the villagers, and "-

"And you're worried that if you have to be Hiccup the Chief, you'll be too busy to be Hiccup the Alpha" Astrid finished for him, cutting into his ramble. He was adorable when he did that.

Hiccup sighed. "Something like that".

"I'm sure Toothless could take care of the dragon stuff, if you're too busy…"

"Yeah, but Astrid, that's just it" Hiccup said agitatedly, "He's already having to share me with you, and any children we end up having…but having to put up with barely seeing me, because I'm too busy with my duties as chief and he's doing all my work as an alpha? No, I can't ask that of him" he said firmly, looking over at his dragon-brother with concern and love shining in his eyes. Yet Astrid felt not a twinge of jealousy; only admiration. Hiccup's devotion to those he loved was one of the many reasons she'd fallen in love with him in the first place.

The two of them discussed, and planned, and by the time they returned to the Great Hall, the feast was already well underway. Hiccup and Astrid tried to be discreet when they slipped in, but it was hard to go unnoticed when you were accompanied by a Nadder and a Night Fury. It was even harder when the building they were entering was full of dragons, all of whom looked over and bowed in acknowledgement of their leaders, except for Selena who bounded over from their mother's side to nuzzle them.

*Where have you been? There's food here, and it's delicious – except for that white and brown stuff, I'm not sure I like that – but everyone's so friendly! Shadow and the others didn't want to come, but I wanted to see you two* she explained, giving them a gummy smile before getting distracted by some children offering her fish, taking it from them gently and letting them pet her and purring over how small and soft they were.

Hiccup's people, already red-faced from the ale and the hearty singing of drinking songs, crowded around Hiccup as he tried to make his way through the hall, thumping him in a congratulatory fashion on the shoulder and praising his victory over Drago and 'that ruddy huge super-dragon'. It seemed that everyone in the village wanted to shake his hand or clap him on the shoulder; sensing that his other half was feeling overwhelmed, Toothless spread his wings out as far as they could go in the crowded space, pushing the Vikings away.

The dragons in the crowd soon got the hint; they didn't understand why these humans were being so disrespectful to one of their Alphas, not letting him go where he wanted to. Many a Viking yelped in shock as a Monstrous Nightmare or Zippleback carefully snatched them up by the scruff of the neck and pulled them away from Hiccup. Gronckles plodded through the crowd, nudging a path clear for Toothless-Hiccup to walk through. Terrible Terrors flitted around the Alphas, landing on the more tolerant Hiccup, and nicked food to offer him.

Stoick and Valka beamed, amused and proud, at the bizarre but really quite heart-warming sight of their sons being treated like kings by their pack. They chuckled as Hiccup grinned sheepishly at the disgruntled Vikings who'd had food snatched right out of their hands, and told the dragons to give it back, he could get some for himself, it was fine…When they finally made it to the top of the hall, Hiccup had a plate of food that wasn't half eaten, and Toothless was perfectly content to accept the offerings of regurgitated fish that quite a few of the dragons made for him.

"Tonight is a grand night!" the chief announced in a booming voice, and everyone cheered, often through full mouths. "Tonight we celebrate many things; freedom, peace, the return of my wife" – Valka blushed and waved – "and the victory of my son" – the cheers grew louder– "Against an enemy who would have destroyed all that we hold dear. This is a great day for Berk! This is a great day for the entire world!"

Hiccup was starving, so he had no intention of making any announcements until he'd eaten his fill. The gang gathered round, chatting and arguing about how exciting (Snotlout) and terrifying (Fishlegs) the battle had been. Astrid suggested that they could benefit from training drills in how to fight alongside and against other dragons. The twins offered their services in excavating caves for the new dragons, and had to be reminded that any more caves would probably lead to some cliffs collapsing. Not that they really saw a problem with this, of course.

In what seemed like far too short a time, Hiccup had finished his meal. Astrid nudged him and asked, "Hey. You want to break the news to everyone?"

He looked around at the crowded hall and sighed. "Yeah…seems as good a time as any". He got to his feet, with Astrid on his right and Toothless on his left, and they walked up to stand on the dais where the throne was. Hiccup decided then and there, that if he could command the attention of fire-breathing reptiles then he also deserved the attention of the villagers, even if a lot of them were semi (or completely) drunk. He had a feeling he'd be reiterating a lot of this for days on end, for the benefit of the people who just hadn't listened.

Drawing in the deepest breath he could, Hiccup looked out over the crowd (many eyes were already turning towards him) and shouted over the hubbub of talking and music. "Everyone listen! Please!"

At first it didn't seem like he'd been heard, with all the noise, so Toothless helpfully roared at them all. The Hall fell silent. Hiccup swallowed hard, drawing strength from the hand on Toothless' neck and his other held supportively by Astrid. "Thanks…uh, Astrid and I, we have an announcement to make – without any interruptions" he said pointedly. You can do it he told himself, just say what you planned to this whole time.

"As you know, for the past few months I have been training to…well, to succeed my dad and, uh, become the chief of Berk. I decided that I needed to take responsibility for my future…but, well, sometimes things happen that are outside of our control. I've…I've become the first ever human Alpha of a dragon pack. Now, I know most of you won't understand what that means. I'm still figuring it out myself – but the one thing I do know is that I now have a responsibility to all of you, dragons and Vikings.

"But the thing is, I'm just one person; and no chief, however good at it they were, could properly lead two villages at once. I can't be the chief you deserve if I'm trying to lead and protect the pack. I can't be the alpha the dragons deserve if I'm trying to lead and protect the village. Now, I know that Toothless is the Alpha as well, and he could probably lead the pack by himself…but we're heart bound, that's why we're both the Alphas, so we're in this together" Hiccup explained firmly.

"Basically, what I'm saying is…if there can be two alphas, which has never happened before, then why can't there be two chiefs?" he asked rhetorically, "Which I know is probably really confusing, but just hear us out".

"Hiccup and I talked, and we decided it was for the best if I became the 'official' chief, and dealt with all the human affairs" Astrid explained, "Whilst he is made Berk's first and only – well, actually, the world's first and only Dragon Ambassador. That title was his idea, by the way, not mine".

There were some scattered chuckles. "Yeah, yeah" Hiccup grinned good-naturedly, "I'll work on it; but what that means is, I'll be in charge of anything dragon related, and act as a mediator, translator…basically everything I've been doing for the past year. Astrid is a great warrior and leader, and she's better at getting humans to listen to her than I am, but if you want help with dragons, well… I'm your man".

"We'd split the responsibilities as evenly as possible" Astrid continued, "I'll do some of the dragon stuff, and Hiccup is going to take care of some of the human stuff, or else" – more chuckling greeted this statement– "But he and I agree, this way would be best for everyone".

"Now wait just a minute" Stoick interrupted, "When were you two planning to discuss any of this with me?" he questioned. When Astrid and Hiccup simply glanced at one another, he frowned impatiently and demanded, "Well?"

"Chief, we weren't trying to go behind your back or anything" – Astrid began to protest, but then Hiccup put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. He drew himself up, looked his father straight in the eye and said, "Dad, the truth is, we didn't discuss this with you beforehand because you're stubborn – uh, no offence – and I knew you'd disagree. I've made my decision, and Astrid is on board, and… I'm not some kid who needs to run everything by you for your approval. Astrid would make a better leader for our people than I could ever be…and I have my own people to lead, now".

There was a long pause. His mother was the first to start applauding, closely followed by Gobber…Hiccup had no idea who followed, because suddenly everyone was clapping and cheering at once, including his father. Stoick walked over and hugged both him and Astrid, briefly and unintentionally suffocating them before setting them down again. "I didn't say I disagreed" he pointed out, "But if you don't mind, Hiccup, next time at least try to mention it to me when you make a decision that completely uproots centuries of Berk tradition".

Hiccup laughed. "I will, dad, I promise" he smiled.

Stoick beamed proudly at him, and turned to his people, raising his mug high in the air. "HERE'S TO HICCUP!" he bellowed – cheers and roars erupted all around, and Hiccup suddenly found himself inspired for a speech; which was odd, because he usually felt he was terrible at making speeches. Maybe his victory and Toothless' presence beside him – and the mug of ale he'd drunk – had given him confidence and loosened his tongue.

"Here's to all of us!" he declared as soon as there was a lull in the noise. "Our island might be small, and bleak and kind of crowded now, but it's home. It's our home" he declared, and everyone cheered. "We might be small in number, but we stand for something bigger than anything the world can pit against us. Those who attack us are relentless and crazy – but those of us who stopped them? Even more so!

"Because we have something they don't – they have armies, and they have armadas but we, we have OUR DRAGONS!" he shouted, snatching his dragon blade from his thigh and holding it aloft, igniting it in one fluid motion. "To our peace with dragons!"

"To peace with dragons!" the cry returned, the ensuing cheers all but drowned out as Toothless flared his wings and roared in triumph.

/

The feast lasted all night…early the next morning before the sun had even risen, Hiccup and Toothless, camped out in the Great Hall, found themselves being nudged awake by Selena. *We have to go* she explained with an apologetic whine, *I should really go home before mother sends the whole pack out after me. You'll come and say goodbye, won't you?* she asked hopefully.

*Of course we will* Hiccup smiled at her, and Toothless purred. He thought his mother and Astrid might like to say goodbye as well, so he carefully woke them. The five of them – three humans and two dragons – picked their way past snoring Vikings and dragons and out of the hall.

The Night Furies were waiting for Selena on the highest cliff of Berk; Astrid rode with Hiccup, but Selena allowed Valka to ride her. Hiccup, Valka and Astrid bid goodbye to Selena especially, and to the others…Toothless padded over to Shadow, who looked him over and said, *Hello, brother. Or should I say Alpha…I can't believe you're an alpha now*.

*Neither can I* Toothless admitted, before adding, *But I do wish we'd gotten a chance to spend time together*.

Shadow scraped his claws in the grass and avoided his brother's gaze. *Well…I suppose, if I ever fly this way anytime soon…I might stay a bit longer* he admitted. Toothless purred happily and nuzzled him; Shadow started, unsure how to respond at first, but soon nuzzled him back.

Then Toothless returned to his other half's side. *Goodbye, Selena. It was…really good to see you again* he told the young Queen-to-be, who warbled joyfully and nuzzled him, and licked Hiccup's cheek.

*It was so good to see you too! I promise I'll visit again as soon as I can* she told them both, purring her very loudest purr.

"Selena, all of you, thank you" Hiccup said gratefully, "If you hadn't all come when you did…well, things could have been very different. We owe you all one…in fact, since you guys welcomed me into your pack…what d'you say, bud, shall we welcome them into ours?" he asked Toothless, who nodded. "That's settled then. You guys are always welcome to come here, live here even, anytime you want".

After a few more goodbyes, the Night Furies took to the air. Astrid and Valka waved heartily as the beautiful creatures soared upwards, and Toothless-Hiccup accompanied them a little way out. As they disappeared into the east, Toothless sent a plasma blast out into the sky…in the distance, they saw another flash brightly in the dawn light, a final farewell.

Valka and Astrid returned to the warmth of the hall and their dragons, but Toothless set himself on a cruise around the island, so he and Hiccup could check up on their territory and their subjects. There would be much to do when everyone else awoke, plans and preparations to make. Soaring high above Berk with his other half, feeling the freshness of the early morning air on his face, Hiccup was looking forward to it. He smiled…and let the tail fin out so they could go faster.

The time for doubt had passed. The future would be waiting for them. Here and now, all that mattered was being alive and free, and flying beneath the stars.

/

A/N: Thank you for reading, and thank you if you favourited or reviewed, or both : ). The ongoing sequel, 'This Is Berk', is now available to read. It picks up where this one leaves off, but there will be a few time jumps as I explore Toothless-Hiccup's lives as the Alphas of Berk.