When you are waiting very impatiently to see The Hidden World, what do you do? Write fanfiction! I'm obsessing on an unhealthy level over the doomed fate of the characters I love. This is my way of expressing my pain.

Disclaimer: I do not own RTTE or HTTYD. Most of the dialogue is straight from the scene in the show. I added my own bit at the very end.

Hiccup stood with the others in front of Snotlout's hut. He couldn't quite believe what they had just witnessed. Hookfang had acted like a wild dragon, protecting that female Monstrous Nightmare at all cost. Hiccup hadn't seen the dragon behave like that since the first time he had faced him in the killing arena so many years ago. Snotlout was really torn up about it, understandably so. Hiccup knew that Snotlout cared about his dragon, far more than he ever let on.

"Snotlout, it's – it's not that bad. It could have been a lot worse," Astrid tried to comfort the distraught dragon rider.

"I fear not, fair maiden," Tuff disagreed in a theatric tone. "Hookfang clearly made a decisive choice in that moment, and thus, acted upon it."

"Hm. Showing, not telling!" Ruff responded in the same theatric tone. "Number one rule in theater. And what better way to achieve that than by setting one aflame!"

"Kid all you want!" Snotlout said angrily. "But I know that dragon. I know what's in his heart, and I know what's in his head. He will come back to me, he always does."

Fishlegs whined in uncertainty.

"Oh what? What, you're gonna tell me he's never coming back?"

Hiccup felt his chest tighten.

Fishlegs continued to whine, hesitant to answer the question.

"Fishlegs?" Hiccup asked urgently, suddenly needing to know the answer as much as Snotlout. He wasn't really saying –

"Hookfang wouldn't follow his training, he wouldn't eat, he ran away twice… he picked another dragon over you."

"Don't forget the fire thing," Tuff added.

"Right," Fishlegs agreed. "He pushed you away. All the symptoms are there."

"Symptoms of what?!" Snotlout shouted desperately.

Fishlegs hesitated. "I think Hookfang is going feral," he told him.

Hiccup gasped along with everyone else. His heart was suddenly beating faster than normal. His mind flashed an image of Toothless with wild, unrecognizing eyes. He imagined the dragon turning away from him, flying away with a female Night Fury, choosing her over him, never to return –

No. No no he would never do that to him. This was Toothless' home – his family. He would never just leave. He couldn't just leave. It would never happen. Just the idea of that ever happening was absurd. Besides, for all he knew, Toothless was the last of his kind.

Right?

It was different. Completely different.

"No! Not going feral!" Tuff exclaimed dramatically.

"The cruelest turn of events!" Ruff added theatrically. "Wait, what's 'going feral' mean?"

"I have no idea," Tuff replied.

"It means that meeting this female Monstrous Nightmare has reawakened his primal instincts, and he's returning to the wild," Fishlegs explained.

They all turned to look at Snotlout. Hiccup felt a surge of deep sympathy for his cousin. To have to somehow accept the notion that his dragon didn't want him anymore… Hiccup honestly wasn't sure he could ever face that. It hurt just to try to imagine himself in Snotlout's place. It was a terrifying thought that sent frightened chills down the back of his neck.

"Ah shut up, Fishface," Snotlout said defensively. "What do you know? Hookfang needs me."

Hiccup could hear the pain in his friend's voice. He was in denial. But Hookfang and Snotlout didn't really need each other. Not in the same way that Hiccup and Toothless needed each other, anyway.

It was different. Completely different.

"It's nature, Snotlout," Fishlegs argued. "You can't fight it."

Snotlout turned around and walked determinedly back to his hut.

"Watch me," he insisted, balling his fists.

The group dispersed, and Hiccup went back to his hut. He didn't know what Snotlout was going to do if he couldn't get Hookfang back. It's nature, Fishlegs had said. You can't fight it. Hiccup felt his stomach churn nervously. Was that really true? Just one day, any of their dragons could meet a wild dragon and nature would just… take over? Not Toothless, Hiccup insisted. Toothless is different. He's mine.

The black dragon met him at the door of his hut. He looked at Hiccup in concern, sensing that something was bothering him.

"We'll be together forever, right bud?" He ran a gentle hand under the dragon's chin. Toothless gargled his whole-hearted agreement, and Hiccup smiled at the loving green eyes staring up into his own. "Good," he murmured. "Because I'm never letting you go."

Was it painful? It should be! The kid needs help. He needs help. Someone needs to save his poor heart, because he is too dangerously in love with that dragon.

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