Always

Dawn

"Hiccup," a voice called gently.

Half asleep, the lanky man yawned in his wooden bed, arms stretching out beside him. Rubbing his green eyes, he lazily winked them open. Tuffnut, Snotlout, and Fishlegs' wide, unblinking eyed stared down at him like he was a meal for a pack of wolves.

"Aaaaaggghhh!!!" screamed the Chief, who instinctively shot up in his bed, smacking heads with one of the other men in his room. Hiccup cried out in pain from the head injury, and in the excitement he lost his balance, sending the man slamming into the floor, bed sheets and all.

The three standing men strode to surround the brunet where he lay on the floor. "Uh," Tuffnut asked, "Hiccup?"

He struggled to to speak between breaths as he squirmed out of the sheets. "What are—you all—doing here?" Hiccup finally got to his feet, tossing the sheets onto the bed. "And why in Thor's name were you watching me in my bed?!"

Snotlout rolled his eyes. "Duh! We're supposed to help you get ready for your wedding." The black-haired man covered a side of his mouth with his hand, whispering to Fishlegs and Tuff, "I thought Hiccup was smart."

"He's just nervous," added Tuffnut loudly.

"I'm not nervous," Hiccup slipped off his pants to replace them with a new pair, with the addition of a green tunic. He snatched is metal prosthetic from his side table, beginning to fit it on. "Why would you think that? I love Astrid."

"Oh, sure, now you do," Tuff started. "Just wait until you're a middle-aged man who can't stand to be in the same bed as the woman you thought you wanted to spend the rest of your life with because she doesn't want you out late when you just want to go out for a ride on your dragon, but she just doesn't want to lose you because  you've been doing chief duties very late and she thinks you're pushing her away so you get mad at her and she gets mad at you and you both end up regretting the lifelong promise you made to each other and a few moons later you find yourself living in Not-So-Silent Sven's spare room with Phil the sheep!" The wild gleam in his eyes and sudden outburst forced the other three men to become silent and wide-eyed.

Calming his heavy breaths, Tuffnut recomposed himself and rubbed the back of his neck, flashing a sheepish grin. "You and Astrid won't end up like that, though, H."

Fishlegs piped up. "What are you talking about? There's always been a Hiccup and Astrid. You guys are forever!"

Hiccup, at last dressed fully in his black and brown leather armour and sporting his metal leg. "Guys, I'm not going to end up a middle-aged man who can't stand to—whatever it is you just said—because I'm marrying Astrid," he strode to the door of his room. Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Tuffnut followed.

At the bottom of the stairs was the main floor. The area was simple: a wooden table to eat at during meal time, a larger than life chair meant for the late Chief, and a fireplace freshly cleaned from soot. A few axes and shields decorated the walls, however several pieces of meat were hung up as well; a fair amount of floor space was taken up by unnamed barrels and bags filled with produce.

A stew still hung over the embers of a once blazing fire, but now the ashes only kept the meal warm. Valka, his long-lost mother, must have made it for him, knowing how busy he could be today. Hiccup swiped a remaining loaf of bread from the table. "Right. Let's get ready then."

~ ~ ~

"What's taking so long?" Snotlout groaned as the men, now with the addition of Eret, in his usual sleeveless, tan fur vest. They were all huddled just outside the bath house, waiting for Hiccup to unclothe in the other room and enter the steamy tub they had prepared for him inside. The steam bath was a symbolic ceremony to wash away Hiccup's bachelorhood, necessary before any wedding.  "That's it, I'm going in there!"