There were times where Hiccup desperately wished that he could understand Toothless, to be able to actually talk to him and have him talk back.
The lasting friendship the boy and dragon shared was a powerful bond that was unbreakable, chained together with the purest, raw form of unconditional, platonic love that existed and allowed them to "talk" to each other in unique ways. They were separated only by communication. They were unable to speak to each other. And what could be shown through their expressive facial expressions and gesticulations was often lost in translation, leaving a confused Hiccup often dragging Toothless towards the forest when the reptile tried to make it very clear he wanted to go to fishing at sea.
Several days after he had awoken after being in a coma, Hiccup woke up one morning feeling very peculiar in a sense that something was a bit off. His eyes were still closed, but he could tell that Toothless was the one nudging and prodding at him, whimpering and whining for him to wake up so they could go for their morning flight. Hiccup sat up in his warm, comfortable bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"You're awake!" a voice cried in joy. "Thank goodness you're awake, Hiccup, or I would have roasted you on the spot. I was afraid that I was going to be stuck inside this dreadful house all day. Do you know what it's like being stuck on the ground all day? Well, I mean, of course you do. Who am I kidding? You've been living on this pitiful earth for the first fifteen years of your miserable life, but that's not the point. I want you to be out of bed this instant!"
Who was talking at this early in the morning at this hour? Hiccup fell back into his mattress again and covered his head with his pillow, keeping his eyes shut and continued to stare into the blackness.
"C'mon, you can do it, I know you can. In fact, I don't just know that you can do it, I know you're going to do it, because if you don't I will bite your head and swallow you whole and spit you back out because you probably don't taste that good," the voice said, and began to go on a tangent. "Maybe if I sprinkled a little salt and pepper on you and cooked you for a bit, seasoned you with those absolutely wonderful herbs and spices from the farmer down the road, then you would be acceptable to eat. Acceptable. You could be an appetizer. A snack! You're much too small for the main course. Or dessert."
Hiccup was not quite entirely sure if he was still dreaming or not. Who was the owner of this disembodied voice, and where was he? And why did it threaten to consume him?
"Speaking of food, I think some fish would do very nicely, yes indeed. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, if it's not too much trouble. Of course it's not, right?"
Fish? Who ate the most fish around here? Hiccup wanted to strangle the annoying voice in his head.
"By the way, I don't think you feed me enough. I'm sure one basket would do for those other dragons, but we're talking about the one here who just saved your entire species from extinction."
The one who saved them? Could it be? He ignored all the signs. He had gone crazy, yes. Perhaps it was due to how many times Astrid hit him.
"Can we go get some from that fisherman with the big beard? Then again, everyone around here has one of those. Except you, of course. And the girls. Except that one time…," Toothless whimpered. "Anyways, he always lets them rot a bit. That's when they're simply divine, my dear boy. You should eat more. Put on some weight. Sometimes I'm afraid you're going to fall off when you ride me."
Ride? No. That's impossible! Oh gods, make it stop.
He hadn't been entirely paying attention to the words he could hear, but he finally jerked upwards and snapped open his eyes. Toothless was at his side, sitting down on his haunches, staring at him expectantly with his innocent, wide, puppy dog eyes.
"Toothless?" Hiccup asked.
"Yes?"
The color drained from Hiccup's face and he went pale. "Toothless?" He barely managed to choke out the name.
Toothless chirped. "That's my name; don't wear it out!"
Hiccup would have rolled his eyes in any other situation. Did Toothless' mouth just move at the same time he heard those words being said?
"Get up!" the voice roared impatiently.
"Can you understand me, Toothless?"
"That's a stupid question. I can and have always understood you. The problem is that you haven't been able to understand me up until this point."
"Wow!" Hiccup gushed. "This is amazing!"
"Do you know how long it took for me to learn your language? All the vowels and accents! A, E, I, O, U, but why Y? Not to mention all the tongue twisting!" Toothless growled.
"So that's what it was!" Hiccup said, rubbing his nonexistent beard. "I thought you had a sore throat!"
"I was trying to talk to you! I've been trying to send you a message for weeks! See how I'm staring at you menacingly right now?" Toothless glared at him, pressing his forehead against Hiccup's in an effort to intimidate him. "It means I want you to put on those ridiculous clothes you wear and open this door at once before I sit on you. And I promise you, mark my words, it won't be pretty!"
"How is this possible?" Hiccup asked in awe, still trying to figure out how Toothless could speak.
"Easy. I'm smart!" the Night Fury huffed. "It's not every day you meet a bilingual dragon. Actually, come to think of it, I might just be the first!"
"Can all dragons speak Norse? What language you do you speak? Do you guys have your own culture and society?"
"I didn't know we were playing Twenty Questions!" Toothless shoved Hiccup with his tail. "Get dressed!"
"But there's so much I want to know!" Hiccup protested.
"You sure are full of questions!" the dragon remarked. "No, I don't know if any other species of dragon can speak, we obviously speak Dragonese, and yes, we do! Now hurry up before I starve!"
Hiccup chuckled as he tossed on his clothes and ran off, ready to seize the day, practically bouncing with excitement.