- See end for Notes -
.
CHAPTER 1
Dawns in Berk were unusually unnoticeable. There were no colors that danced in the sky, or singing birds that brought tears to the eye; it was just the scheduled appearance of the sun. Yes, dawns in Berk were just about as unnoticeable as dawns could get. Usually.
Which was why this dawn, while spectacular in its own right, was particularly spectacular in Berk. Sadly, Toothless was watching it alone. It wasn't the first pretty dawn he'd watched, alone or otherwise, but he thought it was a pity Hiccup was missing it.
Hiccup, oblivious to the spectacle outside, was working in Gobber the Belch's blacksmith shop. He squinted at the brightly heated metal through the darkened glass in front of his eyes. While it had been Gobber's discovery that heating sandstone would make glass, it had been Hiccup's idea to use the glass to make things. Berk now made an assortment of glass items, including darkened glasses to wear over the eyes so that looking at the white-hot metals wouldn't hurt.
Gobber had laughed, and said it was for weaklings. Hiccup didn't mind. The glasses helped him see through the glare, making his hammer blows that much more accurate. These extremely accurate hammer blows were currently being used to make another mechanism for Toothless's tail fin. One Hiccup was kicking himself for not thinking of earlier.
"You should bring that dragon in with you, Hiccup. I think he's scaring away some of the customers," came a voice from behind Hiccup.
Gobber the Belch entered the forge area of his blacksmith shop with all the care of Gronckle, which is not very much care at all. Hiccup would have been startled, if he hadn't been so used to it.
'Must not have heard the bell,' Hiccup thought to himself.
The bell was another one of his ideas. It hung above the door, chiming merrily whenever someone came in. Being Vikings, the people of Burk were generally very loud people, and this gave Hiccup plenty of warning whenever they came into the store. Dragons, however, were Another Matter Entirely. The Terrors, in particular, were prone to silently sneaking into the forge to see Hiccup. While this wasn't a problem in itself, they got tangled up in Hiccup's feet if he didn't know they were there (and Thor knows he didn't need any help tripping over things).
Hiccup paused between hammer blows, shuddering a bit as he remembered one particularly nasty fall that had very nearly crushed the baby Terror at his feet, and sent him tumbling into the forge fire. He would have fallen in, too. Been horribly and painfully injured, if Gobber hadn't been there to grab him by the scruff of his neck in time.
"Hiccup!" Bellowed Gobber as tripped over the tools the boy had left lying all over the workshop floor.
"Sorry, Gobber." Hiccup visibly flinched at the crashing noises behind him. 'Hope nothing's too damaged,' Hiccup thought.
He continued working. "I'll fix it as soon as I'm done with this."
Gobber grumbled as he put away the tools Hiccup had used. The tail fin itself (and all those complicated little bits attached to it), Gobber noted crossly, were meticulously arranged on the large work table beside Hiccup. Gobber took a moment to look at the boy, hand on his hip.
'He hasn't changed a bit,' the old Viking thought.'Still the same skinny little hiccup he's always been,'Gobber smiled fondly, before fetching some tools for himself.
The two of them worked in companionable silence, the bell chiming as people dropped off axes to be sharpened, shields to be repaired, and the odd request or two for a new dragon saddle. They worked hard, getting as much out of the way as they could for the coming Festival, when they wouldn't do any work at all for three days. The sun was at its highest (or just about), when Hiccup finally drew his sleeve across his forehead, letting out a breath as he did so.
"I'm done!" said Hiccup said, exuberantly. Gobber looked up from his work, a little confused. When he'd left the day before, he'd thought that it had looked like Hiccup would take all day today to finish... whatever it was that he was working on. Had Hiccup worked through the night?
Gobber frowned. "Already?" he asked.
But Hiccup was already gone. "Be back after lunch!" The bell chimed merrily as he left.
CHAPTER 2
"Come on, Toothless, please?" Hiccup panted. He bent over to lean on his knees for support.
For the past half hour or so, he had been chasing Toothless around Their Cove, trying to get the Night Fury to stay still, so he could replace the tail fin part of his saddle. To be fair, the expression on the dragon's face told Hiccup that he'd wear it, eventually, he just wanted Hiccup to work for it. And work Hiccup did. He was sweaty, dirty, and tired. It was his dad's fault, actually. He'd told Hiccup that his leg would heal faster the more he used it. Toothless had been in the room, and that had been that. Getting the dragon to do anything was now An Ordeal.
/You're tired?/ Toothless asked. Hiccup looked up and nodded, smiling.
For a while now, Hiccup had been learning Dragonese from Toothless. Dragonese was the language dragons used to speak to each other. It was a very difficult language to learn, involving clicks, whistles, and a whole new system of sequential grammar. Hiccup could barely speak it, but he understood some of it, and Toothless made sure to speak slowly and simply to accommodate him.
/Yes. Hiccup Tired./ Hiccup replied.
He let himself fall on his butt, trying to get his breath back. As Toothless moved to lie down beside him for a chin scratch, Hiccup couldn't help but be excited. This new design was the best yet, and he was proud of it. The mechanism that controlled the tail fin was a marvel of engineering, involving these things called gears.
He'd gotten the idea from the Roman books in the library. Most of the books there were Roman, actually, most probably loot taken from boarding cargo ships leaving the Roman Empire. Few Vikings wanted to read, fewer could read Latin, and the only people who wanted to and could read Latin were Hiccup, Fishlegs, and Hiccup's grandfather, Old Wrinkly.
'This is going to be great!' Hiccup thought. His mood must have been contagious, because Toothless was wriggling with excitement, so eager was he to start flying.
"Settle down, buddy!" Hiccup laughed. He couldn't tear the grin off his face as he crawled over to Toothless's tail. Hiccup switched the fins, and then stood up to put the old tail away. He tucked it into a small crack in one of the rock faces that enclosed the cove. Already inside it was one of Hiccup's daggers (old now, and rusty from disuse), and a spare change of clothes (too small after all this time, hopefully) in case he needed it.
As Hiccup walked away, Toothless swished his tail from left to right. 'Heavier than usual,' He thought. This was strange. For the past few months, Hiccup had made the thing lighter and lighter, trying to make it as close to his old tail as possible. Not that Toothless minded the extra weight. The last heavier-than-usual fin he'd worn had been fitted with thin blades on its edge. It was fun to have, but Hiccup had declared it too dangerous to wear on a daily basis. The Night Fury had accidentally sliced through a weight bearing rafter in Hiccup's house, and Stoick had been furious.
Toothless started to bring his tail around, to see why it felt like there were things pinching his remaining fin, but Hiccup chose that moment to swing himself onto his saddle.
They took off!
'Ah, this is the life,' Toothless thought. This was where they felt most at home, most at peace. In the sky.
'Hiccup's pedal work is a little stiff today,' The Night Fury noticed. It was a lot stiff actually, but Toothless found that he didn't mind. Flights like these were getting fewer and farther in between.
You see, not only did Hiccup have Pirate Lessons with the rest of his peers (Which he was horrible at, and absolutely no one was surprised), but he helped some of the other Vikings with their dragons, worked with Gobber as Blacksmith's apprentice, and spent time with Stoick to learn about his future chiefly duties.
Yes, flights like these were to be treasured. Toothless stopped thinking for a while and just let his body soar; sky above, sea below, and everything in front of them. He didn't even notice Hiccup slowly take his foot off the pedal that controlled the artificial fin. (The boy hadn't been doing much controlling anyway.) You couldn't really blame Toothless, though, for not noticing.
Because it had never happened before, not on purpose.
Because even completely without Hiccup's efforts, they kept on flying.
CHAPTER 3
For the first time, Toothless was mad, actually angry, with Hiccup. He'd been angry at Hiccup's general direction plenty of times, of course. Toothless had been angry at the boy who had first come looking for him and (almost) tried to kill him. He'd been angry at his friend for foolishly putting himself in danger inside the Arena by fighting that Monstrous Nightmare alone (What had he been thinking?).
But this. This was different. This time, Hiccup had been Deliberately and Intentionally doing something Wrong.
'And he wasn't even going to tell me about it!' Toothless thought, seething. He'd had to find out for himself.
Hiccup had been working non-stop on the the tail fin, taking it off at the end of every day, in order to work on it at night, and putting it back on the next morning so the two of them could fly. Toothless hadn't even noticed that he hadn't seen the fin too closely with his own eyes for weeks.
Of course, what the dragon had noticed were the dark half-circles under Hiccup's eyes. He'd seen the boy limp when he thought no one was looking, heard the tired sighs and sleepy yawns. He just hadn't put two and two together until it was too late.
They'd been flying along for quite some time, everything was fine, and then Toothless had heard a noise. It had been unlike anything else he'd ever heard, not very loud, but distinct and familiar. He knew he had heard it before, but where?
And he nearly fell right out of the sky when he realized just where he'd heard it before. It was the sound of Hiccup's small (and rather endearing) snores. Hiccup had fallen asleep. Right there in the saddle. If Hiccup was asleep...
..that meant no one was controlling his fin!
Toothless panicked! His flying suddenly become erratic. This was impossible! He held his wings as stiff and as straight as he could, hoping a really good updraft would somehow let them glide back to land.
But nothing happened. He was still flying! In his panic, he'd stirred Hiccup, who made sleep noises and grumbled under his breath. Toothless decided to wake his (utterly irresponsible) rider before anything could go wrong.
Slap!
Hiccup woke up. Kind of. "Toothless," He mumbled, "What's wrong with you?"
/What's wrong with me? What''s wrong with me?/ Toothless screeched, still a bit hysterical from his We're-About-To-Die scare only moments before. /I'll show you what's wrong with me!/
The furious Night Fury dove into the icy sea around Berk, and came up, spinning. Hiccup gasped in shock at the cold water.
"Toothless, what's wrong!? I can't understand a word you're saying!" Hiccup sputtered,
/Understand this!/ the dragon replied, and then Toothless wasn't listening anymore. Again and again, he dove into the water, until Hiccup put his foot down. Literally, Hiccup used his foot to push the pedal into 'soar' position, and Toothless reacted on instinct. In no time at all, their flight had evened out. But the damage had been done. Neither had spoken a word as they flew back to Berk.
The moment they reached Their Cove, Toothless landed, gracelessly. He was too furious to bother bending down to help Hiccup off.
'We could have died.' Toothless thought, and it was true. The freezing sea below them had been dotted with jagged rocks for long periods of time during their flight. 'We would have crashed, if it hadn't been for...'
Toothless paused. Why hadn't they crashed?
He swished his tail to his front to get a closer look. Small clips attached his remaining tail fin to impossibly thin metal rods. The other end of the rods went into a box-like contraption strapped to his tail. The artificial fin had a similar set-up that led to the same box. Toothless watched, fascinated, as the artificial fin was pulled to mimic the movements of his real fin. Of course, when flying, the two fins weren't always in the same position, but with this thing, he could…
Toothless's thoughts raced, and his blood suddenly ran cold in realization. Hiccup leaned down from the saddle to take a look at his creation as well.
"It's pretty good, right, Toothless?" He said, a note of apology in his voice.
Suddenly, Toothless sat up. Hiccup, who'd already taken off the safety harness that attached him to Toothless (He was about to get off, theoretically), fell to the ground.
"Ow! What was that for?!" Hiccup rubbed at his now bruised bottom. "That could have really hurt, you—"
/Take. off./ Toothless said, furious. It was a demand, not a request. He spoke to Hiccup like a hatchling, to make sure he understood. Hiccup would have been offended, if Toothless hadn't looked and sounded so incredibly serious.
"Wha—" Hiccup started, but Toothless wasn't having any of it.
/Off. Now. Toothless not like the most the most./
"Why?" Hiccup asked, genuinely baffled. "Don't you like it? I know it's not very good yet, it's just a prototype, but this thing can let you fly on your own without m—"
/Off now, or break by Toothless./ Apparently, Hiccup was Not Allowed to finish his sentences.
"I don't understand," Hiccup said as he undid the straps that held the box-thing in place, and then unclipped it from both tail fins. Toothless watched Hiccup remove the additions to his tail fin closely. Without it, just the regular mechanism was back. Toothless wouldn't be able to fly again, not without Hiccup, at least. This was not going the way Hiccup thought it would.
"I don't understand" Hiccup said again. But Toothless didn't reply. The moment Hiccup finished, Toothless leaped up onto an overhanging rock ledge, and it was clear that the black dragon wasn't listening any more.
For a moment, Hiccup just stared up at the Night Fury, confusion (and maybe a little sadness) written across his face. Eventually, Hiccup went back to Berk, leaving Toothless all alone there, sulking. For the rest of the day, the day after that, and the day after that, Toothless didn't leave Their Cove. He was too busy being Angry with Hiccup. But when it was clear that Hiccup wasn't coming back to apologize, Toothless decided that he would go to his human instead, to make him apologize. And maybe make him understand as well.
CHAPTER 4
When Hiccup got home (it was a long walk back), it was definitely evening, and the house was quiet. It took him a moment to remember that his father, Stoick the Vast, was out preparing for his upcoming trip to Bog Burglar Island. The house was dark, and cold, and felt empty without Stoick or Toothless in it. He shivered, feeling lonelier than he had been just a second ago. Then Hiccup saw that the hearth fire had been left banked, and he felt a little better. His dad must have left it lit, so Hiccup wouldn't be completely freezing when he got back.
It didn't take Hiccup very long to get the fire roaring again. As used as he was to Toothless lighting fires for him, Hiccup would always have a knack for burning things (intentionally or otherwise). After stoking the fire, he went to the kitchen, thinking of ordinary things, to keep his mind off the thing that he'd be thinking of if he wasn't already thinking of something else that was ordinary, unlike the thing he wasn't thinking of.
'Confusing yourself works too,' Hiccup thought.
He fixed himself a small meal from the house's private larder, grateful for the small luxuries that being the son of the chief provided. Most meals were eaten in the Great Hall, but he didn't want to the house right now. He returned to sit in front of the fire, wondering how Camicaze the Bog Burglar was doing. Camicaze was one of his best friends, despite (or maybe because of) the fact that she was a Bog Burglar, not a Hairy Hooligan.
Hiccup and Camicaze didn't see each other often, but more frequently recently, due to Hiccup's discovery of Dragon Training. (Flying on dragons had made the distance between them much easier to cross.)
She was the only Bog Burglar Hiccup had taught to train dragons, and Hiccup had sworn her to secrecy. It wasn't hard for her too keep the secret. Even though she was a chatty little Viking, she was a trustworthy friend. She was also a splendid swordfighter, and the only person Hiccup knew who could make Astrid mad faster than Snotlout did.
Hiccup squirmed a bit, trying to get more comfortable on the thing that Hiccup called a chair, and Stoick called an insult to tough Vikings everywhere. It was actually just a large animal-hide bag filled with bird feathers, but Hiccup quite liked it.
The Bog Burglars was the tribe closest to the Hairy Hooligans, along with the Meatheads. Hiccup wondered how Thuggory the Meathead was doing as well. He was the Meathead Heir (the same way Hiccup was the Hooligan Heir), and he was a lot more heir-like than Hiccup himself. Not that Hiccup minded (much). He actually reminded Hiccup of Snotlout, just a lot nicer.
Thuggory was another person Hiccup had taught to train dragons and sworn to secrecy. It was in everyone's best interest, really. At the very least, it meant there were two more tribes who didn't kill dragons any more.
Hiccup hadn't heard from Thuggory nor Camicaze in a while, actually. Neither of them liked writing or reading (Hiccup sometimes wondered if Thuggory could at all), so Hiccup had never sent them anything by messenger bird (Could he train messenger dragons?).
Maybe he should send one to Camicaze, to ask if she was coming to the Festival this year. And one to Thuggery, just to see if he could reply.
Hiccup squirmed again, still feeling strangely uncomfortable. He thought about it a bit, and realized why. He was used to leaning on Toothless for warmth and support on nights like this. They would sit in front of the fire together. Sometimes Hiccup would be reading, perhaps waiting for his dad to come home, so they could catch up on each other's day.
Hiccup stood up and placed his still food-laden plate on the table, for his father to eat when he got home. Suddenly, Hiccup wasn't very hungry. He started walking slowly up the stairs.
Up in his room, Hiccup climbed into his bed. He tossed and he turned, but like the cold draft that always found its way in, the empty feeling wouldn't go away. He sat up, and held his head in his hands. He couldn't sleep without Toothless in the room. He knew he relied on Toothless for a lot of things, but this was ridiculous! Couldn't he do anything without the Night Fury any more?
'You can walk,' His mind whispered. And that made Hiccup feel ten times worse. He laid himself back down on his bed, still wide awake, and waited for Toothless to come home on his own. When he'd left Their Cove, he could tell that Toothless had needed some time for himself, though Hiccup didn't know why.
'When he's ready, he'll come home,' Hiccup thought. 'I'll apologize, and things will go back to normal.'
But, somehow, that didn't make him better at all. In fact, it made him feel worse. Why on earth did it make him feel worse?
For a long while, he just sat there, thinking. He looked restlessly from side to side, and noticed that he couldn't even look at his wall any more without being reminded of Toothless. The Night Fury had always slept between Hiccup and the door. That wall was usually the last thing Hiccup saw before he fell asleep. There were scuff marks on it from when Toothless would twitch as he dreamed. Hiccup recalled, with mixed feelings, how the dragon had wrapped himself around Hiccup in his sleep, as if trying to protect the boy even while resting.
He laid back down, still staring at the wall. As he did, Hiccup heard his father come through the front door, immediately up the stairs, and peek into his room. Hiccup didn't move, content to let his dad think he was sleeping. After a moment, Stoick closed the door and went downstairs, probably to eat dinner and go to bed himself.
Hiccup thought some more. And the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he didn't want things to go back to the way they were. He thought, and he thought, and finally couldn't take it any more. He got out of bed and decided he'd thought about it enough. Now was the time for action. He slept not a wink that night, and by the crack of dawn, he was ready.
CHAPTER 5
The people of Berk were brave. Not just 'brave-for-the-sake-of-the-greater-good' brave, but 'let's-surf-volcano-lava-on-dragon-backs-because-it-looks-fun' brave. That said, none of them wanted to get in the way of a near-hysterical Night Fury.
Toothless, fed up with waiting for Hiccup to apologize, had decided to go to his rider and make him apologize. He'd marched up to their house and thrown open the door, full of righteous fury. (He fervently hoped that Stoick wasn't inside, otherwise he was dead for being so careless with the furniture).
The door swung open and Toothless suddenly wished Stoick had been there, because the home that greeted him was cold and empty. The hearth contained only white ashes. Hiccup's scent was muted and stale, and so was Stoick's, as if neither had been there in a while.
Toothless stood at the threshold as his mind ran wild with possibilities. He had passed by Gobber's shop on the way here, but it had been quiet, with no smoke billowing from the forge.
'Maybe he's been sleeping at that house…' the dragon tried to calm himself. 'With that boy…what's-his-face?... Fishlegs. Right.'
Toothless ran helter-skelter through the village. It was extraordinary thing to see, a Night Fury running at full speed, but besides being too busy ducking and being used as stepping stones, all people saw was a black blur in the morning sun.
Fishlegs opened the door to see what the commotion was all about, and nearly had a heart attack when Toothless dropped out from nowhere to push his way into the house.
"T-Toothless?" Fishlegs asked, hand on his chest to keep it from bursting. "What's happening? Are you okay?"
Toothless paid him no mind, sniffing the air in the house, but Hiccup's scent here was staler than it had been at home. He left as quickly as he came, leaving Fishlegs scratching his head. One by one, he went to the houses of the other humans that spent time with Hiccup or Stoick, but some of their houses were empty, and none of them contained Hiccup or Stoick.
'I knew this was coming,' Toothless told himself, even though he hadn't. Why did Hiccup leave? Without even saying goodbye? Toothless knew he'd left willingly; there wasn't a single sign of struggle in that house that used to be his- their home. And there wasn't a single Viking looking for him. Hiccup had left, and he hadn't even said goodbye.
Toothless whined and shook his head. Was it his fault? He would have worn the box-thing, if only Hiccup had asked. He'd only reacted like that because…
Because it reminded him of the fact that he was defective, a dragon that couldn't fly on his own. He couldn't protect Hiccup the way the boy deserved to be. It reminded him that, while Hiccup had helped him fly again, he hadn't helped Hiccup walk again, merely caught his rider when he fell.
'I would have worn it.' Toothless thought, even though he knew what it meant. Hiccup wanted to replace himself with the little metal box. He'd made his intentions clear. Hiccup had spent less and less time with him, working on the box so he could leave Toothless without any guilt and get on with his life. Find another dragon to ride.
Toothless didn't want that. A tail fin had been a fair exchange for meeting Hiccup (Toothless felt he'd gotten the better end of that deal, actually), and he wasn't letting his human go without a fight.
Except. Except, in the end, it was Hiccup's decision, wasn't it? Not his. While Toothless would trade the skies for a chance to stay by Hiccup's side, he'd trade either -both- for his human, to make Hiccup happy.
'I guess his idea of happiness doesn't involve me.' Toothless thought miserably.
He walked to Their Cove, dejected. He jumped in without hesitation, knowing he wouldn't be able to get out by himself. He was mildly surprised (and curious) to see Astrid waiting there, sitting on the rock where Hiccup and he had learned that they could teach each other. Maybe she didn't know that Hiccup was gone? He ignored her and kept on walking until he reached Hiccup's Safe Keeping Spot. He peeked inside. Hiccup's dagger and clothes were untouched. He couldn't have cared less about his old fin.
'His things are still here.' Toothless thought.
Feeling both a little bit better and a lot worse, he laid down. For a long while, neither he nor Astrid moved. But when the sun began to set, she walked over to him. He was too depressed to care as she fiddled with his artificial fin. She could take it, if she wanted to.
"Hiccup wanted you to have this." She said. Toothless felt the weight of the metal box thing on his tail.
/Nope,/ He said, although he knew she couldn't understand. The only one who understood him was Hiccup. His human.
/Still don't want it./
The girl sighed, and shivered as a cold gust of wind blew around them. She left, muttering to herself.
"…told him this would happen…"
For seven days, Toothless stayed there, not moving an inch. The only signs that he was alive and awake were his sad eyes that looked at nothing, and his slow breathing. Hiccup's friends brought him fish every day, but he wasn't hungry. The other dragons stayed away out of respect (and because they knew Toothless had a temper and wouldn't really appreciate the sympathy).
For seven days, he stayed there, but on the eighth, something happened. He smelled Hiccup's scent! It was faint, but there it was. Toothless would know that scent anywhere! He got up, trying to figure out where it was coming from. He was just about to give up and declare himself insane when Stormfly landed, smelling like Hiccup. Stormfly was Camicaze's dragon (a Changewing), which was the only reason he wasn't (too) jealous.
/Toothless!/ Stormfly said. /I heard what happened!/
'Great,' Toothless thought. Already, news of Hiccup being on the market, looking for a new dragon to ride, was spreading. Dragons would come from all over, vying for the position of Hiccup's New Dragon. (Hiccup had become quite well-known in the dragon community, widely known as 'The Killer of the Red Death'.) Toothless idly wondered how many new species Hiccup would discover. Would the new dragon enjoy teaching Hiccup Dragonese as much as Toothless did?
/Wonderful./ Was Toothless's eventual sarcastic reply.
Stormfly was clearly very, very tired, so she didn't catch the sarcasm. She drank some water and settled down before she continued.
/No, not wonderful! You should go over there! Hiccup's staying with Camicaze./ She said. Stormfly had overheard that the Night Fury and his human were having a fight. But she was sure that if Toothless ('Ridiculous name,' Stormfly thought) could see how sad his human was without him, they would make up.
Stormfly was a very kind dragon, really. Certainly much nicer than her human, who hadn't done anything to help Hiccup and Toothless out, merely muttered under her breath about needlessly complicated boys.
By this time, Toothless was more than a little bewildered. It didn't sound like Hiccup was in trouble or hurt, otherwise Stormfly would have opened with that. Did…did Hiccup want him back? His heart leaped.
/Now,/ Stormfly was saying. /Let's get going. I'll push Astrid onto your saddle. She can control your fin, right?/
But Toothless wasn't listening. As Stormfly went on, he spread his wings and leaped into the sky.
/Thank you!/ He called out behind him, before flying full speed to the island of the Bog Burglars.
/HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT?/ Stormfly called out. But Toothless was already gone. She decided to rest a bit, and maybe eat a few of those tasty looking fish before following the Night Fury. At a much slower pace.
CHAPTER 6
It took a few hours of flying non-stop, but Toothless finally reached Camicaze's home just as the sun was drawing closer to the horizon. Camicaze herself was sitting on a small log, in the small clearing behind her home. She was cleaning fish. On her, Toothless could faintly but clearly smell the fresh scent of his human, his Hiccup.
He dropped out from the sky, deftly landing beside her. If she was surprised, she didn't show it. She just kept on cleaning her fish. Toothless was mildly surprised at her silence. She was usually a much noisier person. He moved to enter her house, was about to open the door, when she asked,
"What took you so long? He's been sadder than a dead dog without you."
Toothless turned to her, his posture saying 'sorry', while his face said 'confused'. Camicaze must have understood, because she laughed.
"Aren't we all?"
Normally, with his goal so close, Toothless wouldn't be stopping for anyone (with only one obvious exception), but this small girl, smaller than his own human even, had saved them both more than once. He owed her that much; he owed her enough to at least listen every time she spoke.
The familiar sound of her voice calmed him, actually. She had always been one of the first to accept him, when the dragons were still too new for the Vikings to have any affection for them. She had always been one of the first to offer a petting hand or a delicious fish. Suddenly, that made Toothless sad. Because she wasn't the first. Only one person would ever be the first.
Toothless must have been very preoccupied with his thoughts, because he didn't expect it when the door behind him opened.
"Hey, Camicaze, I saw Stormfly's saddle, and I thought—"
Hiccup looked at Toothless. Toothless looked at Hiccup. Camicaze looked at neither of them, going back to cleaning her fish, still unusually silent.
Toothless looked some more. Hiccup looked some more. They stared at each other for a moment. Then, Hiccup ran! Back into the house and out the other end. Toothless was too startled to do anything but watch, at first. Hiccup had never run away from him. Yet, there it was, and Toothless had no choice. He followed.
Keep in mind that, at this point, Hiccup still wasn't completely used to having only a leg and a half, and that he'd never been the fastest runner in Berk with two. So, despite his head start, he didn't manage to get beyond the fence that went around Camicaze's house before Toothless (carefully) tackled him to the ground.
"Toothless, get off!" Hiccup let out a muffled yell.
/Sorry!/ Toothless replied. He got off hurriedly, worried that he'd hurt Hiccup somehow, and was relieved to find that the boy was just a little scuffed up. As soon as he was free, Hiccup leaped away, shakily holding a sword between them. Toothless shook his head in surprise. He hadn't even noticed it at Hiccup's waist. To be honest, Toothless hadn't really expected him to have one. (Hiccup's lack of battle prowess was legendary back in Berk.)
But. There it was. Between them and very much pointed in Toothless' direction.
"Go home, Toothless. Don't make me have to hurt you." Hiccup's voice trembled.
Toothless snorted disbelievingly, and moved forward. To do what, he didn't know, but it definitely involved being close to his human. This was the longest they'd been apart since the longest they'd been apart (Toothless still had nightmares about it sometimes, burning ships all around them as Hiccup drowned trying to save him) and Toothless didn't know how much longer he could stand not being by Hiccup's side.
/That hurts!/ Toothless screeched as Hiccup lashed out. The boy was clumsy, and could barely swing the sword, but it left a visible mark. It was a small scratch, not even drawing blood (Toothless bit his tongue worse than that), but to the Night Fury, it felt like Hiccup had stabbed right through his heart.
Some of that must have shown on his face, because Hiccup dropped the sword and fled into the house, slamming the door shut behind him. Toothless could hear the lock sliding home, and he stood stunned for a moment before he regained his balance. The Night Fury approached the door cautiously, hearing Hiccup still on the other side.
/What did I do?/ Toothless leaned against the door, resting his head on his paws. /Is it too much to ask…what I did?/ Because he had done his best, and he'd thought things were fine, right up until they weren't.
"Go away Toothless. Go home." Hiccup's voice came from the other side of the door. Toothless tried to be patient, but he was frustrated and tired. So tired. Toothless kept his voice even.
/Home? What home?/ 'It's not home without you, Hiccup.'
"Just go back to Berk. Please."
/and then what?/ 'What kind of life do you think I'll have there, without you?'
"You can fly on your own now, you don't need me." Hiccup sniffed. "Go home, Toothless."
/NO./ Toothless paused. /Is it because I can't fly without this box?/ '...a useless reptile.'
"What? No! Just, please, Toothless, please just go home…"
/I'm sorry I couldn't save your leg./ 'I tried, I really did.'
"It's not that, it's not—"
/Please come back to Berk, Hiccup. I promise I won't I won't be jealous if you want to ride another dragon…/ 'Just let me stay. Don't make me leave.'
"What's wrong with you?" Hiccup was fed up. He banged on the door with a fist. "Just go home, you stupid reptile!"
Toothless got angry as well. /Not until you tell me why, you selfish little—/
"This isn't for me! You're the selfish one here, not me!"
Toothless could tell he was crying. 'Seventeen years old, and he still can't help crying he gets too upset.'
"You stupid reptile, this isn't for me. It's for you." Hiccup sobbed. "It's for your own good."
Toothless was shocked.
/For me?/ Toothless repeated a little hysterically. /I mustbe stupid, Hiccup, because I can't see how this is for me. / Toothless shot up, glaring at the door. /How dare you leave, without so much as a hint goodbye, and tell me it's for my own good!/
Toothless had had enough. He gave the door a good solid thump with his tail, telling Hiccup to get out of the way, before he tore it off its hinges.
/You wretch!/ Toothless pounced on the boy, knocking him down. Tear streaks marked freckled cheeks, and Toothless swore the bags under his eyes were worse.
/What the hell were you thinking? In which of the nine worlds is my life better without you?/ Toothless was furious. /Tell me! You owe me that much./ He'd tried to understand, he really did, but this— this—
"I'm a burden." Hiccup sobbed quietly. He couldn't look Toothless in the eyes.
"I'm weak, and helpless, and you deserve better. You deserve to be free. You jerk." Hiccup hit Toothless on the chest with his fist, but there was no force behind it.
"Do you honestly think I left because I thought I could find a better dragon?" Hiccup was really crying now, choking on his words.
"I shot you out of the sky that night, did you know that? It was me."
Hiccup stopped. Toothless held himself perfectly still. He hadn't known that. He'd wondered, idly, and guessed, but he hadn't known for sure. The confirmation was nice, but what did that have to do with anything?
Hiccup went on.
"I've been trying to give you back what I took from you. At least give back what you gave me." Hiccup took a shuddering breath, "But I just can't, Toothless. I'll never be able to bring back your tail, just make silly unreliable trinkets." Hiccup rubbed angrily at his eyes.
"I tried, and I tried, and you know I'd trade my other leg for it, to make you happy, but I'm useless, just like they said I was."
Hiccup gave a final sniff and wiped his sleeve across his eyes before scrambling up to stand in front of the stunned dragon.
"So just go already." He pointed out the broken door, fully expecting the Night Fury to leave. "Go. Be free. Find some other Night Furies and be happy." Toothless looked at him, and couldn't help it.
He started laughing.
It started as hysterical laughter, but it grew from relief, and eventually morphed into laughter of pure mirth. Toothless was incredibly and inexplicably happy.
On the other hand, Hiccup was stunned. And livid.
"You— You—!"
He stomped off. Figures. He poured his heart and soul out to a stupid dragon and this was the thanks he—
/Wait!/ Toothless tackled him from behind. Again. Only this time, he didn't let go. Hiccup was enveloped in a cocoon made of Night Fury, warm and suddenly at peace, despite the fact that he could still hear the dying rumbles of Toothless's laughter somewhere above him.
/The two of us make quite a pair, don't we?/ Toothless crooned quietly. /I was so convinced that you'd left me for another dragon. To look for one./ He chuffed. /One who wasn't broken./
"The only thing broken around here is your fat head. And the door." Hiccup murmured sleepily. "Silly dragon."
Hiccup hadn't really slept since he'd left Berk. "This was your fault, you know." he continued. "If you'd just worn the stupid flying aid, none of this would have happened."
/All my fault./ Toothless agreed, indulgent. Hiccup narrowed his eyes, too tired to tell if Toothless was making fun of him or not.
/It's a useful invention./ Toothless yawned after a little while. /But it could never replace you./
"Too right it can't." Now it was Hiccup's turn to yawn as he shifted to get more comfortable. Toothless did the same.
"You couldn't pack as much raw Viking-ness as I have into it."
/And it wouldn't give me nearly as much trouble./ Toothless snorted.
The two of them stayed like that for a while, listening to the sound of each other's heartbeat, until they fell asleep. And that was how Camicaze found them hours later. She had gone for a walk with Stormfly when the Changewing had come back. Camicaze had thought that Hiccup and Toothless would be long gone by the time she and Stormfly returned to her house. She was wrong.
"Nuts. Both of them are nuts." She said, looking at the two sleeping on her floor, in the dark, surrounded by the remains of her door. Stormfly agreed.
But neither wanted to disturb them. Camicaze decided she'd make Hiccup fix her door tomorrow.
EPILOGUE
Hiccup wiped his hands on his black cloak. The garment had been Toothless' idea. He claimed wearing a black cloak would heighten the 'dramatic effect', though not in as many words. The exact words he'd used were /Here. Wear./ when he'd draped the cloth over Hiccup's head. The dragon rider could take a hint. Hiccup's palms were sweating like crazy. He looked at the crowd around him, pressing in from all sides. The idea of having to perform in front of all these people made him want to throw up. Just a little bit.
He took a shaky breath.
/Are you okay?/ Asked Toothless. The Night Fury landed beside him, creating some breathing room in the otherwise teeming crowd. Slowly, the light headed feeling left Hiccup. He patted the dragon's flank.
/Hiccup fine./ He replied. Replying in Dragonese earned Hiccup a few curious glances (It was a curious sounding language, and the very devil to learn.), but Hiccup didn't mind.
It was the Festival of the Red Death, a morbid sounding affair, but it was actually to celebrate the day the dragons and the people of Berk found peace. It had only been a couple of years, but it felt like a lifetime ago. Hiccup looked around.
'I didn't think there would be this many people here.' He thought. People from all tribes had come, some of them with their own dragons. He had eventually written to Camicazi and Thuggory, and they'd both replied. As it turns out, having at least one trained dragon in the area made the others much more receptive to the friendly advances of other Vikings, and quite a few bonds had formed.
"Hiccup!" came a cry from somewhere in the crowd. Hiccup saw the crowd parting before he actually saw Camicaze's wild blond hair.
"Camicaze!" He greeted her right back, though he was still a little embarrassed from the whole fight with Toothless he'd had in her house. He had, of course, replaced her door (making a few tweaks), and the girl had invited him to break more of her furniture, because they always came back literally better than new.
"I hear you're going to enter the flying competition today! That's a first! But I hope you know you don't stand a chance. Me and Stormfly have been practicing for ages and you don't look like you've practiced at all. I mean, look at you, you look ridiculous! What's with all the black? Did someone die? Can you—"
"Camicaze, Hi!" Fishlegs approached the two them, Meatlug the Gronckle ambling lazily beside him. Toothless had told Hiccup that her actual name was Horrorcow, but she quite liked the name Meatlug now, and wouldn't answer to anything else.
Hiccup hadn't really thought about it, and had wanted to know what Toothless's dragon name was. The Night Fury was remaining annoyingly close lipped about it.
"Hey, Fisheggs!" Camicaze greeted.
"I told you, it's Fishlegs."
Camicaze looked down. "Doesn't look like it to me."
"Hey!" Astrid waved from across the crowd. She swung herself onto her own dragon, Hunter. The Deadly Nadder hopped over the crowd, stepping on some Vikings who appeared not to mind too much.
As Astrid approached, Snotlout and the Thorston Twins muscled their way through the crowd (Which was starting to get much thinner around them, what with all the dragons so close together) and Hiccup could just see Thuggory coming out from behind a food stall, his silver Monstrous Nightmare named Killer not far behind.
Hiccup just sort of basked in the conversation, as his friends chatted among themselves. His friends. It still struck him as strange sometimes. He could still remember a time when he'd had a friend. Singular.
Toothless, on the other hand, was having a grand time, showing off his new tail fin made out of shed dragon skin from Stormfly, and the new flying aid attached to it. Hiccup had made more and more tweaks to the design as soon as Toothless became more comfortable with the idea. It still wasn't perfect (It would never be perfect to Hiccup, it seemed), and it still didn't compare to having Hiccup work the pedals, but it was definitely better than before. Today, Hiccup had polished it to a bright gleam for the competition.
"Will all the contestants for The Dragon Flying Competition go to the beach now please?" yelled Gobber the Belch at the top of his lungs. Immediately, everyone started walking in the beach's general direction. Everyone wanted to watch.
"That's our cue, Toothless." Hiccup said as he mounted his dragon. His friends did the same with theirs and they proceeded down to the beach. Truth be told, Hiccup was incredibly nervous. Some of the others had competed before, but this was his first competition. The competition was half the dragon's skill and half the rider's, which was why Toothless and Hiccup had never entered. Before the flying aid, Hiccup couldn't do a simple Standing On The Saddle trick. But now he could.
/We shall emerge victorious!/ Toothless crowed, confident. /They won't know what hit them!/
'Nice to know I'm not the only one nervous.' Hiccup thought wryly.
The competition this year was fierce. Astrid, in an incredible display of agility and split-second timing, did backflips on Hunter's back as the dragon corkscrewed through the air. Snotlout rode Hookfang, his Monstrous Nightmare, bareback, while the dragon was on fire, and he refused to tell anyone how he'd done it. As each contestant performed, Hiccup became more and more nervous.
'What was I thinking?' He sweated. He couldn't even speak to large groups of people effectively, why did he think he could do this? The noise of the cheering was fraying his already raw nerves. He looked out to the water, flat as glass.
"Come on Toothless, let's get out of here, I don't think I can do this." Hiccup pulled at a strap around his dragon's neck, trying to lead him away. But Toothless wasn't listening.
/We're next!/ Toothless cried as the Thorston routine drew to a close. Zipplebacks were allowed to have two riders, and no one had yet attempted to compete with a Snaptrapper. Hiccup swallowed as he mounted Toothless.
The Night Fury took off! with a screech that made everyone within earshot shiver. They did a few loop-de-loops to get started, and then corkscrewed in and out of the water, barely disturbing the surface, so smoothly did they cut up and down. They gained height, and flew over the crowd, showering people with seawater as Toothless shot blue plasma into the air. Then they flew back out to sea, and descended to the edge of the beach, creating patterns in the still water first with the tip of Toothless's wing, then the tip of Hiccup's finger as he hung precariously from the saddle's straps. The crowd was going wild.
/Let's finish this!/ Hiccup yelled to Toothless, adrenaline giving him confidence and making him reckless.
Suddenly they were climbing high into the air, flying through rings of plasma made by Toothless. Up they went, higher and higher, almost reaching the clouds. The people on the beach craned their necks to get a better look. The pair gradually slowed, and people saw Hiccup climbing onto his feet.
He stood in the saddle, arms outstretched. And slowly, ever so slowly, he leaned back. The crowd gasped as Hiccup fell away from Toothless. He plummeted towards the water, turning in somersaults, spinning, doing every possible thing you could think of while falling. Let it not be said that anyone fell better than Hiccup.
Toothless, as soon as Hiccup left his saddle, dove. Down to the sea he raced, overtaking Hiccup quickly, entering the water. The crowd held its breath as Hiccup drew near to the water's calm surface. At that height, the fall could be fatal.
But just as he was about to hit the water, Toothless shot out of the sea, catching Hiccup in his claws. He threw Hiccup into the air, and looped around so that Hiccup landed on his saddle, not very steady on his feet, but standing nonetheless. Hiccup sat down as they flew back to the beach, routine finished, proud of himself and Toothless as they glided back to shore.
In the end, it was Camicazi who won, despite giving the shortest performance of all. Hiccup came to a close second. He guessed he just couldn't beat someone who could juggle swords set on fire while standing on one foot as her dragon changed colors to match the sunset.
"I told you no one else had a chance!" Camicaze yelled over the crowd around them as she gave Hiccup a hard congratulatory slap on the back.
"Didn't doubt it for a second." Hiccup gasped in pain. After accepting the many backslaps, manly handshakes, and a hug from his father, he slipped away, hurrying to Their Cove, where Toothless was already waiting.
As soon as Hiccup caught sight of Toothless in the dark, he ran to his dragon's side.
"We did it!" Hiccup was still ecstatic.
/Did you ever doubt it?/ Toothless asked, smug.
The two them sat there for a while. Toothless let out a contented purr as Hiccup leaned against him for warmth. The summer wind was still cold enough to chill Hiccup, who was still wearing his wet clothes. They spoke not a word, content to sit in companionable silence, the wind carrying the sounds of the continuing festival to them as the stars started coming out.
END
- Notes -
Okay, this has way more angst than I remember. I edited it as well as I could, without completely changing it. I hope this edit shows a little improvement where I changed a word or a phrase here and there. I wrote and posted this one back in 2010, and I'm happy to see that it hasn't aged as badly as I thought.
Also, if anyone is interested, Hiccup couldn't actually understand most of what Toothless said at Camicaze's house. I tried to write it so that it would still work as a scene even if all Hiccup could understand were a few words from Toothless, and his facial expressions.
P.S. I'm also on AO3, under the same name.