A/N: Another quick little one-shot for episode 14! :-) It's done off that line Hiccup says at the end 'I save you, you save me.' I just fell in love with that line. It's so brilliant, and yet so simple at the same time! Summing up their friendship so simply, and so perfectly, in ten seconds and six words!


Hiccup's prosthetic found the edge of the pillar. He made a decision within seconds.

Hiccup stepped off that cliff, Astrid's frantic yell lost in the roar of the wind.

"HICCUP!" She yelled, but he heard through a veil of wind.

And then he was falling, just like normal. It was just another ride with Toothless, and he'd jumped out of the saddle to do some other crazy trick.

That exhilarating fall, and knowing someone is there to catch you…that's what he liked.

After five seconds of nothing but falling, he closed his eyes so he could no longer see Astrid's terrified face or Toothless' wide, confused green eyes, clouded with hate and terror.

Hate for the Whispering Death, terror for Hiccup.

Hiccup fell, so patiently waiting for Toothless to save him, not even expecting to feel the cold splash of water, so great was his faith in Toothless.

But he surprised himself by being surprised, when he suddenly felt that thick leather saddle underneath his legs, and he opened his eyes, righted himself in the saddle, his prosthetic leg clunking into place.

Finally, finally, Toothless was listening to him once again! Granted, it had taken stepping off a cliff to get him to listen, but Hiccup had not been afraid in the slightest.

Most would be terrified if stepping off a cliff, or be shaking very slightly after being caught, mostly from the adrenaline rush.

But Hiccup had not been scared, and he had not gotten an adrenaline rush; he had always expected Toothless to be there, to catch Hiccup when he was falling and now that he literally was, Toothless literally caught him.

All in a day's work for a dragon trainer.

Then he saw them heading for the ground.

He fanned out the prosthetic tail fin and they pulled out of the near-vertical dive neatly.

They roughly scraped the rocky terrain and dust flew everywhere, clouding them for a few moments.

But then the five teens saw boy and dragon flying bravely out into the sunlight, wings dark against the golden halo of the sky.

Then Hiccup said to Toothless, "You save me, I save you. That's the way it is!"

And that was. It was as simple as that.

Toothless saved Hiccup when he started that tentative friendship with him; otherwise, Hiccup would have been sure to do something risky and stupid trying to get himself accepted again.

Hiccup saved Toothless by giving him the prosthetic tail fin; no doubt Toothless would have gone crazy being forced to stay on the ground for life.

Toothless saved Hiccup in the battle against the Green Death and when Hiccup got struck by lightning and fell into the water.

Now he was saving him once again.

And though it may look like all that weak little Viking did was get saved by his dragon, he had saved his dragon, too many times for Toothless to count.

And now it was time for their ritual of saving to begin again.

I save you, you save me. That's the way it is.

I save you.

You save me.