Sorry for the wait, but updates are going to be sporadic, unfortunately I have exams coming up. Thanks for the reviews people, try to keep them coming in. It really does help to motivate me to write more as well.

Anyway, here's Chapter Three:

After a tiring sessions rock climbing and the quartet spilt off into to go and have a nice warm shower and get changed into some more formal clothes to wear on the dinner out.

Hiccup and Fishlegs were finished first and found themselves waiting for the ladies by the car outside.

"So, you and Astrid. There seems to be a spark there." Claimed Fishlegs as he sat himself down into the passenger seat of Hiccup's car.

"No, there isn't, she's just being polite y'know. She wouldn't be interested in a guy like me anyway. She'd prefer someone with bulging muscles and basically everything that I'm not." Replied Hiccup

"No, she wouldn't. It's not her type, if she did don't you think Snoutlout would be here instead? And anyway, she did look genuinely worried when you lost your leg though Hiccup. And why wouldn't she be interested in you? You've got many likeable and desirable traits." To this Hiccup raised his eyebrows and questioned back,

"What traits exactly, because I don't see ques of women waiting to date the infamous one-legged man?"

"Err. Well now you've put me on the spot..." said Fishlegs

"Thanks, Fishy a real help there aren't you" replied a sarcastic Hiccup.

"Ok, I'll admit that you've got the cutest cat known to man-kind." Claimed Fishlegs.

"Great, so I can 'win' her over by introducing her to my three-legged pet?" replied Hiccup and by this time the girls were just leaving the centre and making their way towards the car.

Hiccup and Fishlegs due-fully got out of the car and opened the door for their partners. Another, "Milady" and a mock bow' from Hiccup earned him a punch to the gut from Astrid, "Why would you ever do that?" asked Hiccup, but he got no reply, only a smirk from Astrid.

After a short drive to the restaurant they all got out and began to wait to be seated. In the light you could now clearly see what everyone was wearing. Hiccup found himself in some black jeans and a tight fitting red top, Fishlegs in some brown chinos, Heather in a dark grey dress and Astrid was in a skirt with a turquoise t-shirt.

After a couple of short minutes, a young waiter with a face tattoo came and showed them a seat near the back.

"I'm Eret, son of Eret and welcome to Dragon's Edge restaurant. I'll be your waiter for tonight. We serve anything you can think of here, including a chef special, which tonight is a salted smoked eel and I must warn you, there's enough salt on it to open your own salt company." Spoke the man in a deep voice. "So, ladies and gentlemen, what would you like to drink?"

The two girls both went for white wine, Fishlegs some mead and Hiccup being the designated driver a lemonade. Eret then left and returned a bit later with there drinks.

After some awkward silence, Heather broke it by asking Hiccup, "So, how's the mayor doing?"

Heather was referring to Hiccup's father, 'Stoic the Vast' as he is known in nearby towns and by other mayors. It was a fulfilling job, but meant he had little time to spend with Hiccup when he was a kid and that Hiccup was mostly brought up by Gobber, or his godfather after the sudden passing of his mother.

"He's doing well, or as far as I know he is. He still wants me to follow in his footsteps and become mayor but it's not what I want to do." Replied Hiccup

"And what to do you want to do, Hiccup?" asked Astrid

"At the moment I'm working in Gobber's workshop as an engineer/blacksmith, but in the future, I plan on setting up my own company that specialises in building prosthetics. I mean I built my own leg, so I know I can do it." Said Hiccup as he made awkward eye contact with Astrid, who immediately realised what was happening and looked away and began twirling her long blonde hair instead in her fingers. "What are you doing now Astrid?"

"Well now that I've finished my degree, I've started to work for Berks only sports rehabilitation centres." Replied Astrid

"That sounds like cool." Said Hiccup as he continued to read the menu before making his choice for dinner. "After I lost my leg, Dr Gothi gave me lots of exercises to do and she wasn't the most motivating physiotherapist out there. It included a lot of hitting with her stick to get me to do what she wanted."

"Have you finished your physio now? Or will I be seeing you soon?" asked Astrid

"I've finished my physio now, I lost my leg a while ago."

By now Eret had came and collected are orders and told us that there would be a short wait, whilst the chefs prepare our meals.

When Eret arrived with the meals a short while later, we tucked into them. Hiccup had gone for a Spaghetti Meatballs, Astrid a juicy steak, Heather a salad and Fishlegs some yak pie.

"Wow, this is delicious, who's the chef?" asked Fishlegs to Eret, who also topped up the drinks whilst he was being questioned.

"He or it could be a she, I can't tell, is new here actually, just arrived the other day claiming to be a good Chef. Though they have this weird thing were the chef refuses to cook Chicken for some reason." Replied Eret

Instantly all four of them looked at each other and said, "Tuffnut Thorsten?"

"There's no way its him, though is there?" questioned Fishlegs, "I mean I don't know what else he'd be doing though, and he was always a good cook, but this good? No never."

"He'd probably end up worshipping Loki or something like that." Joked Hiccup. "But, I thought you'd spoken to him recently Fishlegs?"

"I didn't ask what he was doing for work, just if he could give me a hand with something." Said Fishlegs

Eret volunteered to reintroduce the old friends together and soon came back with Tuff in toe.

"Hey guys!" said an enthusiastic Tuff, whose cooking aprons were messy and could defiantly do with a clean, although it was expected that he'd be a messy chef.

"Hi Tuff, didn't know you worked here." Replied Fishlegs and the rest of the group also said hello.

"Yeah, well I just strolled in the other day and gave them some of my home baked cookies and said I wanted a job, and well here I am." Explained Tuff, who by now had pulled up a chair and joined the foursome. "What's the occasion then? Did I miss someone's birthday?" After no reply he joked, "Wait are you on a date?"

"I'm just helping Fishlegs and Heather" cleared Astrid, who looked over towards Hiccup and she could see the disappointment in his forest green eyes.

"Yeah me too" said Hiccup, with little enthusiasm in his voice.

"Ah well that's a shame you two aren't on a date" claimed Tuff, whilst gesturing to the 'wingmen', "Cos you would have super cute babies together. You can picture it can't you Fishlegs?"

"Err…um…yeah I guess they would. I mean theoretically speaking yes, they would. There gene pool is quite diverse and…" rambled Fishlegs before he was stopped by a face palm from Hiccup and a death stare from Astrid, despite a tinge of red on both of there faces. "I'm gonna stop talking now, before something worse than an Astrid death stare happens."

"Could I get a first date picture for your future wedding then? It will look good during the best man's speech?" Another deathly silence and equally deathly stare from Astrid stopped Tuff almost in his tracks, "Ah well, I'm sure you two will work it out and if not, I'll still be a massive fan of Hiccstrid."

"Hiccstrid?" asked Astrid raising her eyebrows hat Tuff

"Yeah, it's your now official ship name, just like 'Feather or Heathlegs' is the ship name for Heather and Fishlegs."

"But we're not together and won't be" said Astrid, her anger raising each time Tuff said something else about her and Hiccup.

"Yeah Tuff, its not going to happen, so drop it please, before Astrid beheads you or something" advised Hiccup, who was reeling in hurt after basically being publicly rejected in front of his friends.

"Ah well, congratulations on 'Heathlegs' and the making of 'Hiccstrid'" and with a wink Tuff went back to the kitchen and work.

Sensibly once Astrid had calmed down from the aggravation caused by Tuff, Eret arrived with the bill, which the boys duty-fully paid, despite a disagreement from Heather and Astrid.

After a short drive to Heather's, Fishlegs was also spending the night, Hiccup drove peacefully to Astrid's house. Before yet again mock-bowing and opening the car door for her and yet again earning him another punch, this time to the arm. "Do you always do that?" asked Hiccup as he began to walk her towards her doorstep.

"You know, you didn't have to walk me to the door y'know. I do know where it is, it hasn't moved in the last couple of hours." Said Astrid as she began to get her keys out of her bag.

"You're right, I didn't, but I wanted to." Causing a blush on both of their faces only hidden by the fact it was night. "Well apart from falling off a climbing wall and being questioned by Tuff, I had a good time. I hope you did too."

"I did." Replied Astrid

"Well then, maybe we could do this again sometime? Just you and me?" asked Hiccup after a brief pause, mainly to build up his courage and prepare to be rejected.

"Maybe, I'll let you know. Anyway, goodnight Hiccup" said Astrid as she punched him on the arm, before quickly brushing her hair out of her face and planted a kiss on his cheek.

By the time Hiccup realised what had just happened, Astrid had already slipped inside her house, leaving Hiccup there brushing his cheek, where Astrid's soft lips had been just moments before.