Hello! Just to quickly clarify, while this is a Hiccup x Toothless fic, there will be no sexual content between a dragon and a human. Cuddling, yes. Plenty of fluff, definitely. Eventually, there might be some hinting, but nothing more (for my own sanity). There are, however, ways I'm planning to dodge the red card of beastiality, so you can stick around for that.

I obviously don't own HTTYD or any of the characters.

Hiccup wiped sweat off his forehead, wincing at the sharp metallic smell his hand gave off. Working in the forge all morning was exhausting - especially if you were an undersized thirteen year old boy. Even after years of helping Gobber out, his tiny, weak build persisted, much to the dismay of his father and himself.

"Need yer help over here!" Gobber called him. Hiccup grabbed the heated axe blade that had been sitting in the forge for a while and with some struggle, carried it onto the workbench right next to him. Gobber handed him another piece immediately, and began working the warmed, bent blade back into shape. Gobber finished repairing it and let it sizzle down in the water bucket, not sparing it another glance as there was a pile still waiting to be fixed.

The massive damage to Berk's weapon arsenal had been caused, unsurprisingly, by a dragon raid that had happened last night. Normally they wouldn't be at such a rush to get everything done, but winter was right at their doorsteps. They needed wood, and possibly get their hands on some bear pelts. Not to mention all the tools they needed to make to repair the houses brought down by the flying beasts. The Night Fury, especially, could be accounted for at least four families sleeping in the Great Hall for the next few days.

Hiccup shivered at the memory of the beast. He hadn't clearly seen it - he doubted anyone ever has - but right before a lightning fast ball of concentrated dragon fire blasted away the building right next to him, he had a feeling he saw two light green dots watching him from the dark sky. It had likely been just a play on his eyes, too tired from staring into the flames, but the possibility of it being something else couldn't leave him, giving him goosebumps even now.

The shouts outside broke him from that image and Hiccup turned to the window. He could see his peers swinging around tree branches and wooden shields, all too excited to reenact yesterday's battle.

"Go take a break," Gobber said while hammering down another damaged axe with his prosthetic.

"Huh? Oh no, I'm fine." Hiccup replied quickly. Gobber must have noticed how he was looking at the other kids. Possibly took it the wrong way and thought he wanted to join them.

"Just go," the large man waved his free hand at him, shooing him away. "I'm almost done anyway."

Hiccup sighed. Gobber wouldn't say it outright, but he was probably slowing him down rather than helping. All the smaller, more intricate tasks Hiccup usually did around the smithy were either finished or a waste of time at this point, and Gobber was still uneager to let Hiccup do any of the harder, proper work. It was frustrating, really.

If it were a less busy day, Hiccup would have asked about taking over for Gobber and hope that this time around the man wouldn't reject him. Today he just sighed and took off the large protective gloves, wished Gobber good luck and creaked the exit open. He wasn't sure if the man even heard him leave.

Once outside, he wondered what he should do. A look at the men repairing a nearby hut made it obvious that there wasn't much he could help them with. If he went to aid with the cooking, he'd be laughed at again and his dad would probably give him that typical look that meant he was embarrassed with him but he'd already grown tired of saying it. That left only the watchtower. Torsten was on duty today, and the old man was fond of him enough to not snitch on him to his dad…

Deciding that was the best course of action, he began walking towards the hill, only to be halted by a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, Hiccup! Where you goin'?"

"Snotlout!" Hiccup said with sarcastic glee, turning to his cousin with a forced smile. "I'm so happy to see you! How're you doing, buddy?" He wiggled his shoulder, but couldn't get it out of the bigger boy's steel grip.

"Where you goin'?" the other persisted.

"Uh, just running an errand for dad, you know…" Hiccup tried with a stiff grin.

"Uh huh." Snotlout replied dismissively. "We found sometin' cool in the forest yesterday, and we thought you'd wanna see it. So, wanna come with?"

The devious spark in his cousin's eyes told Hiccup all he needed to know. His fingers dug deeper into Hiccup's shoulder, making him bite his lip. He wouldn't give his bigger cousin the joy of seeing him cringe in pain.

"Sure. Why not. I mean, that errand can probably wait…" he rambled out weakly. Refusing would mean a dislocated shoulder, and he'd rather avoid that.

"Awesome." Snotlout grinned, finally letting him go and turning back to the other four kids while making sure he'd follow. Hiccup let out a sigh of relief and dejection as he began to trod towards their little group. Fishlegs looked concerned as he opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, the twins came at Hiccup from both sides, throwing their arms over his shoulders.

"Hiccuuup!" Tuffnut growled, voice rich with laughter.

"How nice of you to join us," Ruffnut added slyly.

"Yeah. Hi guys," he forced out a weak greeting. His eyes met Astrid's for a second, but she looked away in apparent disinterest. Hiccup looked down at the ground, hoping the small rush of warmth into his cheeks wasn't too visible.

"What's wrong, Toothpick? You're looking wimpier than usual," teased Tuffnut. Hiccup ignored it, knowing very well that answering would be only a waste of energy. He was actually glad for the diversion, if nothing.

They soon reached the woods, led by an overly cheery Snotlout, Hiccup being practically pulled along by the Thorston duo.

"You should cheer up, Hiccup," Tuffnut said as they walked. "Wouldn't wanna be all gloomy when she sees you!"

"What? Who are you talking about?" Hiccup looked at him with a confused frown. The twins snickered at that, along with Snotlout. Astrid was glaring at them the whole time, but rather than saying anything, a deep sigh escaped her lips. She probably thought this was a giant waste of her time.

"Ooh right, we didn't tell him yet!" Ruffnut said in a loud, hearty voice. "Listen up, Toothpick, and cry out in happiness! 'Cause we found your..." she leaned closer to his ear and Hiccup grimaced lightly due to her terrible breath. In an attempted whisper, which sounded more like a growl, she finished, "soulmate."

"...Huh?"

For a moment, Hiccup's mind wondered if he ever breached the topic of soulmates with any of them, but then he mentally slapped himself. He didn't even have that dream yet, so how would that be possible? No, this was obviously an attempt at a joke. A really, really dumb one, knowing the twins and his cousin.

The twins laughed instead of responding, and sped up their steps, forcing Hiccup to run along. The boy's patience was slowly thinning, but before he could do something as stupid as burst on them, they abruptly stopped, almost making him fall over.

"There she is!" Snotlout announced loudly and stretched his hand forward.

Hiccup gathered himself and looked the way Snotlout was pointing, but failed to see anything akin to a 'soulmate'.

"What's wrong Hiccup? Can't even recognize your sweetheart when you see her?"

"I can't see anything." he said, sighing.

"Of course you can! There she is, Bjarnilla!" Tuffnut pointed at the same spot as Snotlout.

Hiccup frowned. All he could see were trees. "There's nothing, no Bjar...oh."

Among the trees was a young bjarkan - a birch that was barely half a metre tall and thin as a single branch. A few tiny sprouts grew out of it, the leaves having fallen off it already. Compared to the other trees, it was incredibly tiny.

"Very funny." he muttered.

"A real beauty, ain't she?" Ruffnut barked in laughter. "A toothpick for a toothpick, it's a match made by Freyja herself!"

He offered them all a discreet glare, but a glare nonetheless. It was, however, ignored, as Snotlout slapped him on the back, pushing him forward.

"C'mon, don't be shy and go talk to her! She's been waiting here for you for so long she's rooted in the ground!" Snotlout said, making the twins explode in laughter.

Hiccup sighed. Having been pushed forward, the three troublemakers were now standing behind him, and were more than likely ready to prevent him from leaving until he did what they wanted him to do. He had no chance of winning if he were to confront them, and he just didn't have enough stamina to run away. Not after running around almost all night during the dragon raid and working his butt off in the smithy since before sunrise. The least painful option was entertaining them and hoping they'd soon grow bored of his dull reactions.

And so Hiccup reluctantly made his way towards his supposed soulmate, Bjarnilla the birch tree. He was about one metre away and in the middle of considering whether he should be sarcastic about the whole thing or not when the ground below his feet crumbled. Before he even realized it, he hit the cold, solid ground. He slowly sat up, sore all over, and tried to wrap his head around what had just happened.

He had clearly fallen into a hole. A deep one - even when he stood up, he was still an arm's reach away from the top. Judging from how patches of grass fell onto sides of the hole, it had to be man-made.

A pitfall. Now it made much more sense. He looked up, meeting the faces of his five peers. The twins and his cousin, the likely creators of this trap, were grinning from ear to ear at his demise. He would give them credit for making such a large hole in frozen soil if he weren't on the receiving end of their prank. Astrid seemed even more displeased than before, which made him feel relieved. At least she didn't laugh at his expense... although he was positive he heard her mutter 'what an idiot' or something of that sort. Fishlegs was the only one that looked concerned about his well-being.

"Looks like you and Bjarnilla aren't meant to be," chortled Tuffnut.

"Oh no. How saad." chimed in Ruffnut.

"Whoa guys, that was real hilarious." Hiccup offered with a monotone. "How about you help me up now?"

He had hoped they would see some sort of reason, but it was stupid of him. They just gave him another amused look as they got up and slowly disappeared from his limited sight. The only person remaining was Fishlegs. He bent over, ready to offer Hiccup his hand.

"Fish! You comin'?"

The blond twitched, his eyes darting over to the side. He then went to look back at Hiccup, and then moved his arm again. Only this time, he was stopped by Hiccup shaking his head.

"But…" Fishlegs began.

"Go." Hiccup said resolutely, scrunching his lips.

"Fishlegs!"

"...I'm coming!"

Reluctantly, with a guilty expression, the last boy left Hiccup's vision.

Once he couldn't hear their footsteps anymore, Hiccup let out a shaky sigh, trying to stay calm. He was more than used to this, but that small moment of hesitation on Fishlegs' part left his stomach in knots. The bitterness he felt from that actually made it easier to tell him off.

He was reluctant to repeat past events. Fishlegs used to be picked on along with Hiccup when he was younger, but lately the others seemed to accept him into their group, likely because he was growing up to look like a proper viking, gaining the strength and build Hiccup still lacked. And Hiccup didn't want to take that place from Fishlegs, to have the boy suffer just because of a friend that was the opposite of everyone's expectations. Besides, Fish was clearly happier hanging out with the others than him. Even if they didn't join in his nerd talk and make up witty inside jokes...

"Dammit." he choked out, trying to shift his thoughts. He forced himself to stand up, hugging his arms to protect his body from the cold the soil was emanating. "I gotta get out of here."

It took him a few painstaking tries to get out of the trap. The top of the pitfall had been away from his grasp by just a fingertip, which meant he needed to jump and then lift himself up with his arms. It proved to be difficult as he was still sore from the long fall, and scraped in more than a few places. When he finally got out, he was covered in dirt and majorly irritated. Not to mention he was cold, hungry, and likely had missed dinner, which added up to that anger. In the end, he made it back to his house with a large scowl on his face.

The sun had already set by then. His dad was already inside, sitting by the fire. He curiously looked up from the warm flames, studying his son's sad state.

"What happened to you?"

Hiccup paused at the question. Stoick would likely laugh if he told him the twins played a prank on him. He used to laugh it away too, when the pranks weren't coming at him almost every day, didn't jab at his self-confidence and weren't downright designed to injure him. And if he complained about Snotlout being a jerk, Stoick would shrug it away as friendly rivalry. He could see it in his head. He'd say something like 'He was probably just trying to rile you up a lil'! That small body o' yours just can't handle viking teases!'.

"Nothing much. Went looking for my soulmate," Hiccup said instead, waving his hand in dismissal, hoping his dad would read the poisonous amount of sarcasm in his voice and leave him be.

"A soulmate?"

Contrary to his expectation, his dad sounded hopeful. His eyes seemed to get lost in the fire again as he smiled lightly.

"So ye already had yer soulmate dream… That reminds me when I had mine. I was about yer age, too. It was nothin' more than a shadow of a woman, fightin' off vikings with 'er bare fists, with 'er hair flailing behind her back. I didn't even know it was that sort o' dream, since everyone says they could see their mate clearly. But then, when I saw Val fight off those Berserkers, I got these weird chills, an' I knew."

Hiccup was left speechless at that story. His father didn't talk about his mother very much, so he probably got really excited about Hiccup's lie.

"Actually, I…"

The way Stoick looked him, eyes twinkling in expectation, made him waver.

"...'m really tired, so I think I'll go sleep now."

He quickly turned away and went up the steps to his room. He couldn't handle that look, wasn't eager to let his father down. He already did that all the time.

He grabbed himself some dry clothes and plopped onto his bed, using a fur as cover.

"A soulmate, huh…" he muttered. Clearly, his dad's story struck a note.

Although he had already suspected it, this was the first time he heard a proper affirmation about his parents being soulmates. It was nothing rare - everyone would eventually get to know theirs, and more often than not they would end up together. It was a joyous occasion celebrated by everyone. In fact, Hiccup was probably one of the few people that didn't anticipate the shared soulmate dream where he would find out his own - after all, whoever it was would be disappointed to have a fated partner as lanky and useless as him. Or maybe they wouldn't even be a viking, which would in turn disappoint his father.

He had to think up an excuse for his dad tomorrow. Stoick didn't look like he would drop the subject so easily…

With yet another sigh, he closed his eyes and let his tiredness take over.

For some reason, Hiccup found himself sitting in the middle of a grassy field. He wasn't sure how he got here, or where he even was in the first place. He could see nothing but green plains with mildly orange skies above. That colour was what puzzled him the most, because he remembered falling asleep with the moon out…

In that case, he was probably dreaming. It was a bit odd, though - this was nothing like the usual meshes of past events and things that troubled his mind, or the dreams of making amazing inventions and becoming famous in southern lands. This one was much more tranquil and felt incredibly… real. The way the grass tickled his legs and cold wind brushed over his cheeks was the same as when he was awake. He could think clearly, too. And there was also something else.

A feeling of being watched.

It became apparent that it wasn't just a feeling when he saw something move in the corner of his eye. He hurriedly stood up and turned over to it, only to meet the gaze of something large and black. Before he could properly identify the black blur, he made a few steps back.

Once he recovered a bit from his shock, the figure before him became a bit clearer. It was taller than him, with a massive head rounding into a large mouth at its bottom. Its body stood on four clawed legs and sported a pair of wings that were as dark as the rest of it.

Hiccup froze in astonishment. It was a dragon, no doubt about it. But he'd never seen one that looked like this during the countless raids on Berk, or in the dragon encyclopaedias Fishlegs carried everywhere. The shape aside, none of the species he was aware of were pitch black. But the eyes regarding him felt chillingly familiar. Two light green orbs, with slit pupils...

"Night Fury," Hiccup breathed out. The light greens were the same as the ones during the raid yesterday. Apparently, his subconscious stubbornly persisted that they were indeed dragon eyes.

The beast lowered its head towards Hiccup, studying him with great caution. The boy stepped back again, only to trip over his jelly legs and land on his behind with a very manly shriek.

"Uh… he-hey there…" he choked out, trying to shuffle away from the creature. It clearly wasn't eager to let him have his personal space, because kept shortening the distance between them. The tiny thirteen year old was close to a heart attack as the dragon nudged his foot with its snout.

"I'd be really thankful if you didn't eat me," Hiccup added, trying to get his feet as far away as possible. After a moment of silence, the dragon raised its head again and locked his eyes with the petrified Hiccup.

Despite the fact that this was a dragon, complete with vicious claws, massive body and large wings, Hiccup found himself less intimidated by each second that passed. The green eyes looking at him felt as inhuman as they could be, yet he couldn't feel any imminent danger from them. Rather than that… they seemed curious.

Without much thinking, Hiccup stretched his hand towards it, cautiously leaning closer to the dragon. He let his hand hover in the air about a foot away from its head, studying the dragon's reaction. And then, ever so slowly, the dragon's muzzle pressed into his open palm.

Warmth enveloped Hiccup as soon as he came into contact with the sleek, soft black scales. He could feel the dragon's warm breath, just a few temperatures shy of burning his skin, yet somehow comfortable enough for his hand to stay in place. They watched each other with surprise while they upheld the touch, neither of them wanting to move - perhaps in fear of the other's reaction, or maybe something entirely different. Then, Hiccup blinked-

And woke up.

He inhaled in a deep breath, having a bit of a hard time processing his abrupt awakening. After a few moments, he moved his head around, taking in the usual sight of his little room. His fur blanket was lying on the floor next to his bed - weird, he never really tossed in his sleep. It was probably caused by the unusual dream he had. If he caught a cold because of this, he'd have to blame that imaginary dragon...

Although he didn't feel cold, not even chilly, despite the fact that it had to be freezing outside. Rather than that, his body felt warm.

He lifted his hand up, studying his palm. The sensation of the dragon's scales and the heat from its breath still lingered on it, feeling all too real. Perhaps the warmth enveloping his body had something to do with it?

As he stared at his hand in daze, though, the warmth seemed to slowly give into the nordic cold, snapping him out of his pondering. He shook his head then and went to get himself a few more layers of clothing, mind shifting focus to the day before him.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. If you see anything iffy or any sort of typos, please do leave a review or drop me a PM! I'll be grateful for any constructive criticism.