“Please, babe?” Astrid begged, hugging Garfilljorg’s neck. “I’ll do all the singing. I promise.”

“That’s the problem,” Hiccup muttered under his breath. As much as he loved Astrid, he knew that there were two things that weren’t exactly her talent—cooking and singing.

The blonde raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Never mind.” He shook his head. “I just don’t think that the Edge is the right place for a Death Song.”

Astrid sighed. “Come on, babe. It’s not like you’ve never brought home a wild dragon before.”

“She’s right,” Snotlout cut in. “You can have whatever dragon you want, but as soon as one of us tries to adopt a new dragon, it’s a problem.”

Hiccup groaned. “No one asked for your opinion, Snotlout.”

“I’ll help Astrid take care of Garfilljorg,” Fishlegs offered.

“And exactly how long are you expecting him to stay?” Hiccup asked.

Astrid shrugged. “I don’t know. Until we find his mother.”

“I’m all for reuniting families,” Hiccup began. “And I hate to be the voice of bad thoughts, but how do we know his mother is still alive?”

“We don’t,” she answered. “But until we get some more solid answers, Garf is staying with me.”

“Fine,” agreed Hiccup, letting out a small sigh. “But if he gets too restless, promise me you’ll think about finding a better home for him.”

The blonde nodded as she led Garffilljorg back to her hut. “Alright, Garf, let’s get you some dinner. You too, Stormfly.” She signaled to the sleeping Nadder. “Wake up, girl.”

Stormfly opened her eyes, squawking at the sight of the Death Song.

“Now Stormfly,” Astrid began. “Play nice. Garf is staying with us until we find his mother.” She dumped a basket of fish in front of the dragons. “There you go. Eat up.”

As the animals ate, Astrid prepared her own dinner, humming as she did so. To her surprise, Garffilljorg began singing the tune along with her while Stormfly used her wings to cover her ears.

“Sorry, girl,” Astrid shouted over Garffilljorg’s sounds.

The Nadder shot a spine in her rider’s direction, taking care to aim for the wall instead of her body.

“Stormfly!” the blonde scolded. “Why would you do that?”

Stormfly squawked.

“You know what, if you can’t be kind to our guest, then you’ll—” She was about to say that Stormfly would need to stay the night with Hiccup and Toothless, but then remembered Hiccup’s skepticism about letting Garf stay on the Edge. If she admitted that the arrangement was already failing, she’d never hear the end of it.

Stormfly shuffled to the corner and curled into a ball.

Astrid shrugged. “Well, then, I guess it’s back to bed for you. I’ll just borrow Toothless for patrol tonight.”

The Nadder perked up. “That’s what I thought. Come on, girl.”

…

“How’s it going with Garf?” Hiccup asked. A week had passed since the Death Song first came to the Edge, and after a few sleepless nights and a lot of singing, he was finally starting to adjust.

Astrid shrugged as she climbed into bed with her boyfriend. “I think he’ll be okay,” she said, tugging the covers to her chin. “He was playing with Stormfly earlier. She wasn’t too happy about sharing her space at first, but now, I think she’s coming around to him.”

“The real question is, will we be able to have a good night’s sleep?” Hiccup chuckled, wrapping an arm around the blonde’s waist and pressing a sloppy kiss against her cheek.

“I hope so. I’ve missed this.” Sighing, Astrid snuggled closer to him.

“Well, after the wedding, we won’t have to worry about sneaking into each other’s huts at night.” He tugged on the string at the end of her braid until it came loose, her thick locks falling around her face.

“But what’s the fun in that?” she teased, brushing a strand of hair away from her eyes.

Hiccup nuzzled his nose into her neck. “Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of other places where we can sneak off.” A suggestive smirk played on his lips. “The dragon stables, for one.”

“Hiccup!” Gasping, Astrid delivered a light punch onto his bicep.

Laughing, the two leaned in for a kiss, but before their lips could touch, they were interrupted by the sound of Garffilljorg’s high-pitched notes.

“For the love of Thor!” Astrid exclaimed. As she climbed out of bed and headed downstairs, she caught sight of Garf restlessly circling his sleeping corner. “You alright?”

Garffilljorg let out another cry.

“It’s okay,” the blonde soothed, reaching out to stroke the dragon’s nose. As she did so, she began to softly hum.

The Death Song quieted his sounds.

“You want more?” Astrid asked. This time, she sang a lullaby her parents used to soothe her with when she was a little girl.

Although her voice was off-key and she stumbled over some of the lyrics, Garffilljorg happily echoed the song, his tone becoming softer and drowsily as he went. Finally, he curled into a ball, relaxed.

Letting out a happy sigh, Astrid turned towards the stairs.

Garf whimpered.

“You want me to stay?” she murmured, grabbing a blanket and curling against the dragon’s side, starting the lullaby over again.

The Death Song closed his eyes and wrapped his wings protectively around her.

Viggo had his lover snuggled up against him in bed. There was a fire going nearby, the sound of the crackling and the feel of the heat soothing. It had been a long day.

“Sing to me,” Hiccup mumbled against Viggo’s neck.

“Hm?” Viggo hadn’t gotten that request before.

Hiccup lifted himself up to look at him. The two were bare against each other, trying to fight off the winter chill with each other’s body heat. His eyes were tired, but there was still that glitter of him in there, of passion, of Hiccup.

“Sing to me.”

Viggo hadn’t really sung before. He hummed to himself sometimes, maybe did sing a little, but he’d never sung a full song for anyone else. Though, he didn’t want to let Hiccup think that his confidence was slipping. He cleared his throat.

“The sky is dark and the hills are white

As the storm-king speeds from the north to-night,

And this is the song the storm-king sings,

As over the world his cloak he flings:”

His voice came out clear, wonderful. He hadn’t expected that. Hiccup lowered his head against his chest, and Viggo wrapped his arm around him, continued his song.

"’Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;’

He rustles his wings and gruffly sings:

‘Sleep, little one, sleep.’”

It had been a long time since Viggo had heard this song. A very long time. However, the words were still clear in his head. Clear as day, a memory washing into the present. His aunt had sung it to him as a child, holding him against her after nightmares and stroking his hair. He wished he could have heard his mother’s voice sing this song. But she’d died birthing him.

“On yonder mountain-side a vine

Clings at the foot of a mother pine;

The tree bends over the trembling thing,

And only the vine can hear her sing:”

A second voice joined in with his, nasally, but with good technique. Hiccup was singing too. It was very quiet, almost a hum, the words barely there, but it was there.

“Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;

What shall you fear when I am here?

Sleep, little one, sleep.”

Hiccup sang that bit, but then hummed the rest as Viggo sang. Their voices mixed in an odd sound, almost clashing, but it was them, it was song, and it was soulful. And it was true. What should the other fear when they were here? They were a formidable team that could keep each other safe.

“The king may sing in his bitter flight,

The tree may croon to the vine to-night,

But the little snowflake at my breast

Liketh the song I sing the best,—”

That made Viggo smile. The little snowflake at his breast. Yes, that was Hiccup, here against his chest, his ear over his pounding, yearning heart.

“Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;

Weary thou art, anext my heart

Sleep, little one, sleep.”

Viggo finished singing, and Hiccup humming. As he’d sung the fire had died down. It still crackled and popped, but was not as large as it had been before. He figured he should probably get up and stoke it, but he didn’t want to, not with Hiccup falling asleep against him like this, not when he was so nice and warm and cozy in this bed.

Usually, Viggo had a very hard time falling asleep. He had insomnia, which explained the dark circles constantly under his eyes. His mind just couldn’t stop.

But tonight, it was different.