Hiccup's POV

It had been a month since Sigurd and Dagur's invasion and both the village and its people were still in the process of recovering from it, though we all knew, it was finally over. All those years filled with battles, death, sickness and other horrible things were now over. We had gotten our biggest threat out of the way and as long as I strayed from making bad decisions, we would be at peace for a very, very long time.

I was sitting in my chair at the middle of the council table, allowing me a perfect view of the Great Hall, which was bustling with activity from all of the dragons and Vikings gathered there for another celebratory feast. Our first had been the day after we had defeated Sigurd and Dagur, which had been followed by another, then another and so on.

With the help of our dragons, Astrid and I had quickly disposed of our enemies by picking them up and dropping them onto the one ship that had been spared from the wrath of all our dragons. It had been a somber duty, but after the last Berserker that hadn't surrendered —or thrown himself into the ocean— fell, we began cleaning up the battle field, dumping our enemies on their last ship whilst we prepared funeral pyres for our own fallen.

After the twins and Gobber had left with the ship of our dead enemies, many different tasks were spread across the villagers. Astrid, who still wore the mask of General Hofferson, took up the duty of leading our prisoners to their temporary cells before we sent them to Outcast Island. My mother along with Spitelout and some of the other older Vikings, already set their focus on cleaning up and even starting on fixing and rebuilding the buildings that had been damaged. Fishlegs, some of the younger Vikings on the island and yours truly, helped Gothi out with the wounded.

It wasn't my first time helping stitch up wounded Vikings after battle, so the deep cuts and missing limbs didn't bother me half as much as they used to, especially seeing as I had suffered some of the same wounds as well. When the more complicated surgical procedures were needed, there wasn't much else I could do but remain with the downed Viking and hold their hand as I assured them everything would be fine.

We lost many good men and women that day, and we all took a moment to remember them all as our faces were bathed in the orange glow from their funeral pyres. The one thing I remembered particularly well that day was when Astrid slipped her hand into mine and gave it a tight squeeze. Every other battle we had fought, one of us had ended up severely wounded and even dead. This time it was different. This time we were both alive and healthy, the only real damage that had been done to us being the one in our minds and perhaps even that wound in my side.

We, as well as many other villagers from what we had heard, suffered from nightmares nearly every night. Each time one woke up panting heavily or screaming, the other would comfort them until we both fell asleep in each other's embrace. Gods, what would I have done if I never got her back?

A warm hand was suddenly placed atop mine. I followed the hand further up the arm and to that familiar face that made my heart beat faster every time I rested my eyes upon it.

A small smile pulled at the corners of Astrid's lips as she gave my hand a light squeeze. "Hiccup, are you doing alright?"

I blinked for a moment, trying my best to pull myself completely back to reality before nodding. "Yeah, I was just ... just thinking."

"About the battle?" Astrid asked, her voice dropping to a hushed tone as she attempted to keep our conversation away from the prying ears of the many people gathered around the table and the room.

I nodded as I let out a sigh. "Yeah. It's probably going to take some time for me to get this over with, huh?"

Astrid let out a chuckle as she rested her head on my shoulder. "It's going to take a lot of time, Hiccup, that I can tell you. But do you know what makes this time different from all the others?"

I knitted my brows together as I looked down at her. "No, what makes this time so different from the others?"

Astrid lifted her head from my shoulder as those ocean blue eyes —which had gotten their usual spark back— met mine and a smile lit up her face. "This time we're both alright. This time we're both healthy and doing fine. And this time, well, we've got time."

I raised a brow at her. "Do you really think so?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I do."

I couldn't help but smile right back at my beautiful wife. Gods, what would I ever do without her?

The feast eventually ended and we bid everyone farewell as we decided to retire for the evening. After dropping Stormfly off at the stables and ensuring that she had all the food she needed, we walked back home, Toothless running around us, chasing fireflies like he was some dog and not the King of all dragons.

We eventually made it all the way to our bedroom and after all the activities we had that day, Astrid and I were pretty exhausted. So was Toothless, who slugged up the stairs after us before crumbling down on his heated slab of rock.

I had finished undressing and getting ready for bed before my wife, which left me with nothing to do other than gaze at her wonderful being as she revealed that silky, milk white skin she kept under all those clothes. Over the past months, her figure had slowly gone back to how it had been before she was taken away by Sigurd. She had put on some desperately needed weight and nearly glowed with health compared to the shell of herself she had been three months prior.

"What?" Astrid asked as she looked at me over her shoulder, allowing me full view of her scarred, but still beautiful, back. I studied the scars and nearly reached out to touch them before I remembered how little she enjoyed being reminded of the scars on her back.

"Nothing, I just think you're beautiful." I smiled at her, my eyes still glued to the scars that were left from when Scauld's men had whipped her with their chains during her captivity on their ship.

"There's no need to lie, I know my scars are hideous." She grumbled as she turned around and crawled into bed beside me wearing nothing but a necklace.

"They're not hideous, they're just as beautiful as you are. They show how much pain you've endured and survived, that's pretty cool to me." I smiled as she dug her nose into the crook of my neck, wrapping her arms around my waist as she pulled me closer to her.

"I guess if you see it in that way, they're not that bad after all." She murmured as she began tracing mindless circles on my chest.

I glanced down at the necklace and found myself staring rather intensely at it. I picked up the locket and studied it. "You still have this?"

Astrid turned her gaze down to the silver locket, which had been engraved with a crossed axe and a sword on the outside and our silhouettes on the inside. A gift I had gotten made for her what felt like a lifetime ago. She smiled down at the locket as she opened it with a silent 'click!', revealing our silhouettes, which were facing one another. "Of course I do. I've had it on me ever since you gifted it to me, it's my most prized possession ."

I arched a brow at her as I exchanged looks between her and the locket. "It is?"

She nodded as she traced our silhouettes, a smile dancing across her lips. "Of course it is. It's a reminder of you, of us and our happiness. I held on to it after we lost Ingrid and when I got sick it helped me feel a little better. When Sigurd kidnapped me, he took away everything but this. In the moments I wanted to give up the most, I just opened this and remembered that you were out there somewhere and that you had given me this locket because you loved me more than anything and that helped me push through all that pain I had to endure, more than you could ever know."

I furrowed my brows as I brushed away a loose strand of hair from her face. "So why didn't you want to come back to Berk with me?"

Astrid took a deep breath before she met my eyes, a somber look on her face. "I thought it was safer for me to stay on the run, so that Sigurd would never find me and hurt me ever again."

"Oh." I breathed, my shoulders sinking as I realized what she was telling me.

Suddenly, two fingers were lifting my chin up, forcing me to meet those mesmerizing ocean blue eyes once again, "Then you brought me back and it instantly made me feel much safer than I would've felt out there all on my own. And now that I know that he can never hurt me again? It's gotten slightly easier to feel safe and at ease than before."

"You have no clue how happy I am to hear you say that you want to be here." A wide smile lit up my face as I stroked her cheek. She leaned into my touch and sighed.

"As long as you don't say or do anything stupid, I'll stay as long as you want." Astrid smiled as she pressed a soft kiss to my lips.

"It's settled then, we're staying together forever?" I asked her, brow raised.

Another smile played across her lips. "As long as you promise we'll stay happy, then we're staying together, forever."

I peppered her face with kisses as she let out an uncharacteristic squeal and pushed me away, a wide grin on her face. I grinned right back at her. "We're staying together forever then?"

Astrid let out a laugh, a real genuine laugh which I hadn't heard from her since before Ingrid's birth. "Yes, Haddock, we're staying together forever."