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A/N: I've seen some folks match a chapter with a song. I'm going to try to do that here. Not every chapter will have a song, but this one does the classic "These are the Days" by Van Morrison.

000

Summer's End (Hiccup and Astrid age 15)

The mountains in the distance looked like sleeping dragons and the clouds hovering over their peaks hung like their smoky breath.

At the apex of the hill Astrid looked up to see the silky black stallion standing knee deep in rich, green turkey-foot grass. The low sun cast a bright glair behind the trim rider smirking down at her.

"Toothless and I have been at this much longer and he's almost a hand taller," Hiccup informed her as the blue roan trotted up to meet them.

"This girl might be smaller, but she's spunky." Astrid moved in closer, then suddenly punched his arm. "Besides, I'm sure you cheated."

Hiccup rubbed the spot, but his goofy dazed smile made Astrid suspect he expected the hit - maybe even liked it.

"Wanna watch the sunset over Nadder's Ridge while we let the horses graze?" He asked, as he dismounted.

His smile made Astrid's heart feel light as a balloon, but she felt like she needed more air as her head started to swim.

She found herself standing next to Stormfly with Hiccup's shaky hand grabbing for her arm and she forgot how she dismounted to get there. He pulled her to a patch of nimblewill on the Arcadian hillside, all the while rambling about frivolous things, but she missed it all. Thoughts of his smooth pink lips and warm hand filled her mind, pushing out everything else.

"…and next summer I'll be back here, but mom wants me to go to a few competitions - to ensure I have the points to qualify for the US nationals. Which will be hard, because Toothless and I are both still young, but he's amazing, so we could at least try it, even if we can't place. How about you?"

Astrid realized he stopped because he wanted an answer. "I'm sorry – What?"

"Next summer? I'll be back for most of it. If you come back. The twins, Snotlout, and Fish already agreed. I just want to make sure you're here," he animatedly moved his arms and shoulders as rambling on about the future seemed to energize him.

"I love being here. It's my favorite place in the whole world." She felt her lips bloomed into a smile, as she wondered if he would finally make a move. "Where else would I go?"

Jokingly he mentioned, "You know, there's apparently a whole world out there. Maybe find adventure, mystery, danger…romance."

She kept glancing over at Hiccup, the poor boy must have licked his lips and run his fingers through his sun-lightened hair a hundred times since they sat.

Each time he flicked back his hair, she noticed the fading bruise on his left eye, which now looked more like a smudge of dirt. He received it from Dagur. Fortunately, Astrid had been there when the camp bully punched him for no reason, and she made sure to give Dagur a retaliatory mark. The fight ended quickly as the burly older teen took off in shock - surprised at being slugged so hard by a girl half his size. Never had Astrid been so thankful her dad passed along all he knew about self-defense.

The August evening had cooled, but the electricity between them made her tingle with an inner heat. She wondered at her own hesitation, maybe fifteen was too young to recklessly sneak out to kiss on some bucolic hilltop during a capricious evening ride.

Hiccup's green eyes darted around and he fumbled to say something a few times, but kept stopping.

Astrid looked up to watch the horses frolic in the field of wild red poppies which danced with the brushings of the evening breeze. As she inhaled the cooling air, the natural perfume of sugary honey suckles and sharp prim roses mingled with the crisp scent of the tall grass. On the edges of the darkening woods, fireflies began to sparkle like flecks of glitter and the melodies of birds transitioned into orchestras of crickets and nocturnal insects. The slight rustle of branches in the forest hinted at something mysterious hiding in the crevices, maybe a red squire or early owl, but for the wilder imagination, maybe a lost gnome or night spirit.

"Did you just bring me here to ask about next summer?"

He startled when she broke their shared silence, giving the impression, his mind had wandered to its own mysterious thoughts

"Uh…no…This is really one of the prettiest spots here at Camp Berk and no one knows we're here. And I just thought maybe you and I could be here with no one else." She noticed him cringe at his own awkward phrasing.

"Fine…" she muttered before grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him in for a kiss. The moment passed quickly, so much so her mind failed to record anything more than a few flickering details. His body tightening at the sudden move then go limp to surrender. His half-lidded eyes fluttering. The catch in his breath.

When she released him, she saw him sharing her daze – like the whimsical moment hypnotized them. He leaned back to her now, like she entranced him with her intoxicating presence.

She closed her eyes and felt his lips press against hers. His arms found their way to wrap around her as he deepened the kisses. In his closeness, she could breathe him in, he smelled of leather and alfalfa. Against her mouth he tasted clean like mint. On her body he felt stronger than he appeared, his muscles coiled tight to his small frame.

He slipped back, his hand slinking around to caress her face with the tips of calloused fingers.

"I'm so crazy about you," he whispered.

"I like you too," she touched her forehead to his. Their mouths lingered inches apart and Astrid felt them share the same heated breath. She stretched her fingers along his scalp into his soft hair, like they wanted to get lost between those silky strands.

Hiccup told her, "My mom wanted me to leave camp a few days early. There's an event she wanted Toothless and I to compete in. She says it would be good for my riding career, but it would mean giving up the last few days I have here with you till next summer."

"I can't hold you back," her hands left his hair to slip down the curves of his back. She felt him arch into her touch.

"There'll be other equestrian events."

"We'll have next summer," she tilted her head onto his shoulder.

"Nine months is too long." He shook his head lightly, while pressing his cheek against her forehead, soft skin against soft skin. His hand grew bold enough to slip down to her clavicle, perhaps wanting to slide lower, but they respected their boundaries.

"I'm staying here for our last week," his voice sounded certain, "And we'll keep taking the horses to slink away. Even if it's just to sit here and be together."

"I'd like that."

They shared more light kisses as the sun dipped below the horizon, and the world around them faded into dark shades of purple and blue, allowing the night to begin hiding all things that longed-for anonymity.

Hiccup called back the horses then returned to the quaint safety of the stables before anyone noticed their absence. After unsaddling their mounts and turning them out for the night, Hiccup's hand found hers again- grasping it with a familiar firmness and giving it one last squeeze.

"I'll see you tomorrow, M'lady," he whispered as gentle as eyelashes on cheeks.

She yanked him into an empty stall, and pulled him back to her. When she released him, she could still feel the phantom of his touch and his lips remained lightly parted, longing for the soft taste again.

"Did you seriously think I'd leave here with just a handshake?"

Astrid left him to daydream, while she returned to her cabin, her heart fluttering like wings of ferries from the high of her first her kiss. Kisses. And her first encounter with love. And it was love. She knew it. She knew he felt it too, but his cautious, analytical mind reigned in the whims of his heart. Maybe he would say it before they left at the end of the summer. Maybe he would wait until next summer when they reunited. Maybe she should say it too. Saying it would make it more real, transforming it from a mystical thought to a solid memory that could be touched by the mind as it was revisited and enhanced.

As she meandered from the stables to her cabin, her imagination stretched into the future, to the next summer, then the next, and maybe the next. They would return here at age 16 and continue. No way her family could afford to buy her a car, but Hiccup's mom would get him one. Maybe after that summer he could get away from boarding school on free weekends and visit her, maybe take her out on real dates. Maybe take her to shows with him and she could help with the horses. They would be back here for the summer at age 17, where they could work as Jr. Counselors. By then, they might start thinking about college. Maybe they could go to the same place, he went to one of the best schools in the world, but she had great grades and was class president and all her teachers loved her. She felt confident she could get into the same universities. Astrid and her dad would start investigating scholarships and she could qualify for financial aid.

OK, yes - they were only 15, but other than her dad, Hiccup was the most dependable, kindest guy in her life. And she really knew him, he might have been smallish for his age, maybe even an inch shorter than her, but he has this brilliant inner strength and stability. He worked with and trained horses over ten times his size. And he was clever and smart in every way, he was calm, reliable. Meeting him and spending the past four summers together, where he taught her how to ride horses and introduced her to his friends, it all seemed like some magical fairy tale, and with all his little charms and wealthy European family, he practically felt like a perfect prince, the guy all girls dream about.

Her fuzzy thoughts almost caused her to miss Gobber, Camp Berk's director, and he appeared every bit the man in charge as he chased her down with his uneven gate.

"Astrid!" His wheezy voice broke her from glassy daydreams.

"Wh-what's up. I was helping Hiccup turn in for the night – by which I mean the horses. Turning them out actually…into the field."

Gobber seemed to care little about her whereabouts, "I got a call from your mom, lass." He leaned against a fence post and caught his breath. "I need ta take ya back to Edgetown tonight. Get packing and we'll leave Berk straight away."

Gobber relayed the details of her mother's call, shattering all of Astrid's reveries and hopes like a dropped snow-globe.

Hastened by panic, Astrid ran into her cabin. The girls who shared the living quarters with her must still have been out finishing evening activities. Astrid decided she would scribble a quick note for Hiccup on the way home and have Gobber pass it along.

000

The next day Hiccup awoke to the yellow-white sun as it stretched up over the eastern mountains, warming his eyelids. He and his best friend, Fishlegs, always got ready early to avoid the bullies like Dagur "the Deranged" and his minion, Savage. Ever since Dagur realized Hiccup and his family were good friends with Dagur's Step-dad, estranged mother, and half-sister, his torment of Hiccup and his friend boiled to a new level. Thankfully, it had toned down after Astrid fought back, but the red-haired bully still taunted them in her absence.

Hiccup and Fishlegs met up with the rest of their group, twins and Snotlout, at early breakfast. He noticed Astrid's empty spot, but figured she just slept in - until she failed to meet him at the stables for their morning riding class. The day wore on and he got a sick feeling in his stomach as worry turned to panic. He went to her cabin, but the Junior Counselor in charge of Astrid's living quarters said a family friend took her home the night before because of a private matter.

Hiccup asked a hundred questions, but the counselor, a mousy, brunette with horn rimmed glasses and narrow eyes, had spent the summer shuffling girls around living quarters and changing bunk assignments because of petty gossip. She was the only one there who knew what happened to Astrid and she would say nothing beyond what she said. No matter what and no matter who asked. "Even if the Haddock family owned the camp and most of Berk." And that, was that.

Hiccup tried to catch up with Gobber, the only other person who might know her whereabouts. Astrid had mentioned her father was a childhood friend of Gobber's and that is what brought her to Camp Berk. However, it seemed he had taken a few days off himself for a personal matter. Hiccup briefly wondered at a connection, but had no way of contacting Gobber either, as there was a rule against campers making phone calls to non-family members.

He calmed himself, deciding if Astrid had left for the last week of summer, he might as well follow his mother's wishes for him to compete in that horse show in Kentucky. Besides, after the night before Hiccup felt confident Astrid would contact him. He had online profiles which linked back to the same email account which was just his name (because how many Hiccup Haddocks were there) and it had been the same for his whole online life. And if she wanted to be old fashioned and send him a letter, all his living locations were well known and easy to find – his mother's stable, his mother's house in the US, his father's house in Norway, and his boarding school. And if she got desperate, his family's company, Haddock Energy, had offices all over the world, a letter addressed with his name sent to any of those would eventually make it to his attention.

So, he talked to Valka, said his goodbyes to his friends, then packed up Toothless and left before summer's end.

000

Astrid did write Hiccup a letter, one that confessed her current fears and pains, and discussed her dire situation. She pondered how to end the note for a few moments before finalizing it with "Love, Astrid".

She sent it back with Gobber before he left her. He brought it back to Camp Berk, arriving an hour after Hiccup left with Valka in her silver truck and white horse trailer to head off to the Bluegrass State.

The day Gobber returned, five days before the end of summer. Dagur had been reprimanded by a senior counselor for setting the archery arrows on fire during practice. As punishment, the old man gave him a long list of chores, including mail delivery. That mail included Astrid's letter. However, since Dagur disliked the younger Haddock boy, and said boy had left camp early, Dagur never delivered it. He did read it. It spoke of fears and pains he too felt, but also revealed feelings he feared no one would ever hold for him. Especially not a girl like Astrid Hofferson. Sure, the pretty girl despised him, but she had a spark that both scared and captivated him. And like him, she hid insecurities and fear beneath tough skin.

So, he kept the letter.

And thus, it happened that after their last day together at Camp Berk, the sad events the Gods condemned upon poor Astrid kept her from further contacting the boy she fell in love with during her young enchanted summers. How much time would pass as the strings of fate frayed, before the magic of love and the charms of the warmest season pulled together to remedy what went wrong?

000

A/N: If you notice fairy tale elements in this story as it goes along, that is no mistake, I am a huge fan of fairy tales and fantasy, but there will be no magic (unless you consider love and nature magical). However, there will be many references, symbols, and images related to fairy tales which will hopefully make each place in the story have a distinct feel.

For those of you reading my other stories, one will be finished soon and the other I will be working on still. Neither will get neglected. I don't have updating schedule, but I should get a new chapter up at least twice a month if all goes well. This story is outlined, but not completely written, so unless something goes really wrong it will be completed someday. Unfinished stories make me sad.

As always, thanks to anyone who might decide to fav, follow, or review:)