His Soul Reflects My Own

by Raberba girl

High school outcast Hiccup is just as eager to drive away the invading aliens as everyone else in his world is - then everything changes when he manages to capture a Night Fury. Modern sci-fi AU; NOT told in chronological order.

2. Interim: Braids

His Soul Reflects My Own, a DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic series by Raberba girl

Braids (rough draft)

Dedicated to Medli45

Summary: Hiccup soon gets tired of his best friend's new favorite pastime.

A/N: This is a one-shot in this universe that takes place sometime between HTTYD1 and HTTYD2. (Toothless has learned Norse/English/Whatever by now, though he still speaks his own language to other dragons sometimes.)

o.o.o

Toothless's hair was getting long. Hiccup first noticed it one evening when they came in from flying and Toothless spent several minutes complaining to himself as he tried to push the tangled, windswept locks out of his face.

"You all right there, bud?"

"Can't see," Toothless pouted. "Blech."

"Then comb it, man."

Which was all well and good, until the next time they flew and then came back with Toothless's hair a total mess again. "Can't seeeee!" he wailed as they came into the house.

"Here, you want me to cut it for you?" Hiccup went to fetch a pair of scissors out of a drawer.

"NO!"

Hiccup stared at his overreacting friend. "...I'm just going to cut your hair, not you."

"NO BLADE! NO!"

"Fine, fine! Here, look, I'm putting the scissors away!"

Astrid and Stormfly came over later that evening to hang out. The humans put on a movie and then spent more time chatting with each other than watching it, as Stormfly dozed on her partner's shoulder and Toothless drew dragon-pictures in the notebook Hiccup had given him.

"What did you draw, Toothless?" Astrid asked with an affectionate smile when she noticed the Night Fury holding up the notebook in order to admire his work.

"Give Hiccup fish," was the reply.

The humans stared at the page full of random-looking squiggles. "That's...a picture of you giving Hiccup a fish?"

"No. Give; give back to, is your human polite."

After a very confused pause, Hiccup finally smiled and reached out to ruffle his friend's hair. "It's a great picture, bud."

Toothless purred and nuzzled Hiccup's palm. "Is good picture," he agreed in satisfaction. "Is good human. I like my human very."

"Huh. Your hair is getting long, Toothless," Astrid noticed, running her fingers through it. Toothless absently nudged her hand away. "Hiccup says it's getting in your face and annoying you."

"Annoying. That Dog is annoying," Toothless said, referring to the next door neighbor's noisy pet. "Hiccup says don't kill it. Blech."

"Maybe if you tied it back," Astrid said thoughtfully, gathering the dragon's hair into a ponytail. Stormfly, having lost her pillow, shuffled around to fall back asleep on Hiccup. Toothless shrank away and tried to hide behind Hiccup too, but Astrid came after him and finally squeezed him with her knees to hold him still. Toothless made a displeased whimper at Hiccup.

"She's just braiding your hair, Toothless. It's fine," Hiccup assured him.

"Astrid is pulling my hair," Toothless grumbled. "I like it but I don't like it, stop, I want my Hiccup, I don't understand it's strange I don't like it..." When Astrid had finished braiding his hair and released him, Toothless patted at his own head and felt down the length of his hair. "What is it?!"

"She just tied it back for you, Toothless."

"Now it won't get in the way when you fly," Astrid explained.

Toothless's eyes widened. "Fly. Go now."

"What? Wait-" Hiccup had already been seized by his dragon and was now being dragged toward the closest window. "Wait, Toothless, it's the middle of the night, Dad's gonna...!"

"Flying!" Toothless chirped, pressing Hiccup's hand to his computer chip. "Flying~"

"See you in a bit," Astrid called.

"Astrid, come on...!"

Toothless was delighted with the effect of his new flying hairstyle. Now, every time they went flying, he pestered Astrid to plait his hair until she got tired of it, so then Hiccup demonstrated that he himself could also braid hair. That soon became tiresome as well, so Astrid finally sat Toothless down and taught him how to braid hair himself.

"One over, three over, two over," Toothless said happily to himself as he worked on a disgruntled Hiccup while Astrid supervised. "One over, three over, two over." He stared. "No more?!"

"Here, this is how you fasten the end," Astrid said, handing him a hair tie and showing him how to use it.

"Finished!" Toothless said in excitement when the braid was complete. He took hold of Hiccup's face and tipped it back until they were staring eye to eye. "Braid is finished. I did good."

"Yes, you did," Hiccup sighed, bent uncomfortably backwards. "Now please let go of me, and please don't make this a habit..."

Unfortunately, Toothless didn't listen. Not satisfied with confining his new skill to his own hair, the dragon enjoyed practicing on Hiccup every chance he got. Hiccup couldn't work on homework or on his computer or anything, really, without Toothless sneaking up to start trying to twist his hair into plaits.

"I'm serious, Toothless, CUT IT OUT."

"'Cut it out' means stop?"

"No more braids for Hiccup. Braids for Toothless only," Hiccup said sternly.

"I don't like it," Toothless pouted. "Want to braid on Hiccup."

"No braids on Hiccup!"

"I don't like it!"

"Too bad!" He had an idea. "If braids on Hiccup, then no flying!"

Toothless gasped in outrage. "No! Hiccup says BAD words!"

"I did say I was serious," Hiccup said smugly. When Toothless was silent, Hiccup resumed the math homework he'd been working on.

The Night Fury sat on Hiccup's bed and stewed for a while. Then a thought occurred to him, and he narrowed his eyes. A wicked grin came to his lips as he got up and went over to his best friend and put his arms around him and leaned to murmur into his ear. "Toothless no flying," he purred, "Hiccup no flying too."

Hiccup froze. Although he technically could fly with any dragon, the others weren't like Toothless who depended on him for flight. If Toothless told them not to accept Hiccup on their flights, then Hiccup would be just as grounded as the Night Fury. "...I hate you."

Toothless giggled. "I win."

Now it was Hiccup's turn to narrow his eyes. He pushed the dragon's arms off his shoulders, swiveled around in his chair to face him, and said firmly, "If Toothless give braids to Hiccup, then Hiccup very not happy. Sad, angry, upset, mad at Toothless."

Toothless stared at him. Then he wailed, "Nooooo!"

The corner of Hiccup's mouth quirked wryly, since, to tell the truth, it worked both ways - he hated seeing his dragon upset, too. He put a comforting hand on Toothless's arm. "You can still braid your hair. Okay? Just not mine."

"Braid," Toothless said sulkily. He went to curl back up on Hiccup's bed, hugging one of the pillows with his face buried in it. Hiccup sighed and went back to his homework.

Toothless managed to be good for two days. The morning after that, Hiccup awakened to feel something warm and heavy draped over him. "Toothless," he moaned without opening his eyes, "I told you, you sleep in your bed, not mine..."

He felt Toothless sit up. "Hiccup is awake," the dragon said happily. "Good morning, Hiccup." He planted his hand right on Hiccup's face so he could shake the human's head back and forth.

"Toothless!" Hiccup shoved and kicked at him until Toothless finally climbed off the bed. "Go away!"

"Time for food. Now." Toothless roughly ruffled Hiccup's hair and then padded out of the bedroom.

Hiccup sighed and tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. He felt uncomfortable, as if his head was tight. He finally yawned and sat up, reaching up to run a hand through his hair as he did so.

He froze. Then he felt at his hair with both hands in confusion and growing dismay. His entire head felt hard and spiky. "TOOTHLESS!"

The dragon came bounding back into the room. "Hiccup! Time for food!"

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY HAIR?"

"I made good braids to Hiccup." Toothless climbed back onto the bed and adoringly rubbed the side of his body against Hiccup's, as if he was a cat.

"I SAID NO BRAIDS FOR HICCUP. Did you braid my entire head?! What is-?! Toothless! ARGH!"

"Good braids." Toothless approvingly patted both his hands over Hiccup's hair.

Hiccup batted him away. "YOU BRAIDED MY ENTIRE HEAD. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

"Time for food!" Toothless closed his teeth on Hiccup's sleeve and wrapped both arms around his chest and started trying to drag him out of bed.

"I'M ANGRY! I'M UPSET!"

Toothless paused and gave him a worried look. Then he smiled. "Is not true. Hiccup says a human lie. Stop that. Come eat food with me, be strong for today."

Hiccup burst into the hysterical laughter he'd been trying to hold back. "You are crazy, you are a crazy dragon, what is wrong with you, you goofy, crazy idiot..."

Unfortunately, it turned out that he'd slept through his alarm again and therefore hadn't woken up early enough to have time to fix the problem. Hiccup found some plastic to wrap over his hair in hopes of protecting it from getting hopelessly fused into a tangled mass during his shower. In a rush to get ready for school, he had to make do with a hat to hide his dragon's ridiculous masterpiece, though he knew he wouldn't be allowed to keep wearing it on campus. "Crazy, stupid dragon..."

"Hiccup thinks He is mad at me," Toothless remarked, "but Hiccup is not mad. I did good."

"Ugh; shut up and get over here."

"Time to fly~"

Once at school, Hiccup tracked down his girlfriend (who was chatting with a group of friends in the courtyard), took hold of her arm, and started dragging her away without breaking stride.

"Hiccup, what is your problem?" Astrid snapped. "Let go!"

"Hiccup is angry?" Stormfly wondered as she and Toothless trailed after their humans.

"I will show you what I did on Hiccup when He stays still," Toothless said proudly.

"I will see what you did on Hiccup when you show me," Stormfly agreed.

Hiccup dragged Astrid into the performing arts building, shut all four of them into a practice room, then dramatically removed his hat. "THIS is your fault," he announced, pointing to his head.

Astrid stared. Then she burst into laughter.

"Beautiful," Stormfly said admiringly, running delicate fingers over one of Hiccup's braids. "Is very beautiful."

"I made beautiful braids to Hiccup," Toothless said proudly. "Me."

"T...Toothless did that...?" Astrid gasped out, starting to leak actual tears of mirth.

"Last night! Braided my whole head while I was sleeping! THANKS TO YOU!"

"Ohhh, Toothless, you did a very lovely job," Astrid cooed teasingly as she ran her hands over the mess of Hiccup's hair.

"It is good! It is good!" Toothless crowed. "Females like it very much! Hiccup should be happy, ha ha ha."

"This is not funny, Toothless!"

Toothless only purred and snuggled his face into Hiccup's neck.

"Get off me, you crazy dragon. Astrid, fix it!"

She sobered up. "Hiccup, the bell rings in, like, three minutes-"

"THIS IS YOUR FAULT! Fix it!" He was starting to sound panicked. "Please, Astrid! I can't let people see me like this."

Astrid sighed. "Fine... C'mere." She reached for the closest braid.

Both dragons grabbed her arms, looking alarmed. "What does Astrid do?!"

Astrid and Hiccup exchanged a look. "Sorry, guys," she said. "I have to take the braids out, okay?"

"No! No!"

"Is beautiful braids, don't ruin."

Hiccup groaned in frustration. "Okay. If you let Astrid undo all the braids, then I'll buy you guys some ice cream after school."

Both dragons' eyes widened. "Ice cream?! Sweet cold?!"

"Sweet cold for me and sweet cold for Toothless?!"

"Yes. Sweet cold for Stormfly and sweet cold for Toothless - but ONLY if you guys leave me alone and let Astrid ruin all the braids." Hiccup gave them a challenging look.

Stormfly gave a regretful whimper. "I am sad," she said, "but is good to be sad if Hiccup gives sweet cold."

"Hiccup is mean!" Toothless growled. "I want sweet cold." He sat down and crossed his arms, fixing his eyes on Hiccup to make it very clear that he was pouting the entire time Astrid struggled to undo all his hard work.

Hiccup smiled in a conciliatory way. "I love you, Toothless," he said. He usually tried not to encourage such potentially embarrassing expressions of affection, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and their current audience was an understanding one.

"Hiccup tries to make me feel better," Toothless grumbled. "I want to be mad, but I love Hiccup. He is mean to me. He will give sweet cold to me if I let Him be mean."

"After school, buddy, okay?"

"I don't like it, I don't like it, Hiccup wins, blech..."

Of course they were very late to their first classes, and Hiccup's hair looked like a wild, curly mane, but it was still an improvement over the spiky mass of braids. Toothless seemed to be pleased with the new look, and was reprimanded multiple times in every single class for playing with Hiccup's hair instead of paying attention to the lessons.

That night, Hiccup took the precaution of setting three alarms for half an hour earlier than usual, just in case his dragon tried to pull the same stunt again. Sure enough, he woke up in the middle of the night to find Toothless sitting next to him, industriously twisting locks of his hair into new plaits.

"Agh, stop it-! NO. BAD TOOTHLESS."

"GOOD BEAUTIFUL BRAIDS TO HICCUP."

"BAD BRAIDS. GO SLEEP IN YOUR BED AND LEAVE ME ALONE."

"HICCUP IS MEAN."

"THAT'S RIGHT. I'LL BE MEAN SO THAT YOU'LL STOP."

Then he grunted as Toothless flopped his face into Hiccup's chest and clutched him in an unhappy hug. "Whyyyy?" the dragon wailed.

Hiccup couldn't deal with this at two in the morning on a school night. "Just please be good and go to sleep!" he wailed back.

He was tired when his alarm clocks dragged him awake a few hours later. The very first thing Hiccup did was run his hands through his hair, and he was relieved to find that it was still properly loose. He got out of bed and found Toothless curled up in the top bunk, looking unexpectedly not-sulky.

The dragon's eyes opened, and he sat up. "Hiccup is awake. Good morning, Hiccup. Time for food?"

"Thanks for leaving my hair alone this time, bud."

"Hair." Toothless giggled. "I made very, very good braids."

Hiccup frowned and ran his hands through his hair again, but nothing seemed amiss. "What are you talking about?"

"Time for food~" Toothless climbed out of bed and hugged Hiccup before heading for the kitchen.

"Hmmm..." Hiccup shook his head and finally decided to chalk up the odd remark to a translation issue.

Later, as Hiccup stood at the stove with Toothless resting his head on one shoulder so as to intently watch him frying eggs, Stoick's bellow sounded from upstairs. "HICCUP!"

Hiccup instinctively cringed.

Toothless looked at him in surprise. "Dad is angry?"

"Yeah, sounds like it..." Hiccup sighed and handed the spatula over to his friend. "You think you can finish these up?"

"Eggs are too hot. Burn tongue, ouch."

"That's right. Don't eat them 'til they've cooled off a bit, okay?"

"HICCUP," Stoick roared again, even louder this time.

"I'm COMING, Dad!" Hiccup made his way upstairs, found his father scowling into the mirror of the master bathroom, and froze. "Oh- Oh, no..."

Stoick pointed ferociously at his beard, the entirety of which had been plaited into tight, uneven braids. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"

Hiccup clapped both hands over his own mouth in a desperate attempt to not burst into laughter.

"DID YOUR DRAGON DO THIS?"

'Shut up, Hiccup, get it together, get it together,' Hiccup frantically told himself. He peeled his hands away from his mouth. "D-Dad...oh, gosh, it...oh, Toothless..." He could feel his lips starting to stretch with hysterical mirth, and he bent down to rest his hands on his knees in order to hide it.

"HICCUP," Stoick bellowed.

"I-I'll fix it," Hiccup gasped out, "I promise I'll f-fix it, oh gosh, oh, Toothless, oh man..."

Toothless came up behind him and dragged him back upright so he could hug his shoulders. "Why is Dad angry?" he wondered. "Toothless made very good and beautiful braids. Dad should be happy."

Hiccup couldn't hold it in anymore. He squirmed around in Toothless's arms so he could bury his face in the dragon's shoulder and scream with laughter.

"I made Hiccup happy," Toothless remarked, looking pleased. He patted Hiccup's head. "I did a good job."

"GET OUT, DRAGON," Stoick bellowed, gesturing violently.

"Dad is still angry, why is he angry...?"

Breakfast was super-awkward, since Hiccup was forced to spend it unplaiting his father's beard as Stoick scowled at various reports and ate snatches of food whenever he got a chance. Even if Stoick had had the patience to undo the damage himself and had been willing to be late for work (which he didn't and wasn't), there was still the fact that his much larger fingers would have found it virtually impossible to complete the task. Simply shaving off the beard was unthinkable, of course.

On top of that, Hiccup couldn't eat his own breakfast since his hands were otherwise occupied, which Toothless grew increasingly worried and agitated about. Therefore, the dragon, utterly refusing repeated orders to "Sit down and eat your own food!" instead hovered beside Hiccup, happily poking bits of bacon and eggs into Hiccup's mouth. Hiccup couldn't resist as long as he was working on the braids, unless he wanted all the food to end up on the floor, which he himself would then have to sweep up. 'So, so freaking awkward; ARGH, Toothless...'

After school that day, Hiccup took a detour on their way to the lab. When they walked into the toy store, Toothless looked around with great interest. "Many colors."

"Don't touch anything." Hiccup marched straight to the doll aisle, found a Magic Sparkle Tower Princess! Barbie, then took it to the counter. "It's a birthday present for my little cousin," he said firmly to the giggling salesgirl.

"Birthday present," Toothless repeated. "Birthday is big gathering, very much food, many humans and dragons. Present is shiny thing Hiccup gives to Astrid so she will kiss on Him. They will mate soon, but not yet; I don't know why."

"TOOTHLESS...!" Why, why, why did he have to say these kinds of things in public...?! "Don't talk about that stuff in front of other people!"

"Hiccup is courting to Astrid." Toothless sighed. "Is taking a looooong time. When will my Hiccup and His Astrid make their human babies? Not soon."

Hiccup didn't wait for either his receipt or his change; he snatched the shopping bag off the counter, seized Toothless by the shoulders, and propelled him out of the store. "Do not talk about that stuff in front of other people, you're going to kill me one of these days-"

"No kill! Hiccup never be kill, EVER, ever...!"

And then Hiccup had to calm down his freaked-out dragon and was therefore late for work.

Even though he was late for work, he couldn't get started right away. Glancing apologetically at Gobber, Hiccup sat Toothless down, got the Barbie doll out of its packaging, and showed it to the dragon. "Look, Toothless. See how long her hair is?"

"Is not 'her.' Is a thing, no breathing no heart is beating."

"...Okay, whatever; you see how long the hair is?"

Toothless leaned down and sniffed the doll. "Is not hair. Is a human lie thing."

"'Synthetic,'" Hiccup reminded him.

"Syn-the-tic. Not-hair. Synthetic hair?"

"Yes, but whatever. You can braid the doll's hair, okay? As much as you want."

"Is not hair."

"Ugh; you can braid the synthetic hair as much as you want, okay?" He set the doll down in front of Toothless. "Go on, braid it."

Toothless wrinkled his nose. "Is a syn-the-tic thing. I don't like it."

"Braid it, or I'll say that you're going to kill me one of these days."

"No! No kill! No...!" Toothless grudgingly picked up the doll and started braiding its hair. Hiccup sighed and finally went over to log into a computer so he could start work.

"Dragon trouble again?" Gobber chuckled.

"I really, really hope this is just a phase, because he's driving me crazy..."

"Is very long!" Toothless shouted. "Long but too little! I like it but I don't like it! Hiccup must make His long hair so I will like all!"

"Just shut up and let me concentrate, Toothless!"

By the time they got home, Toothless had decided that he didn't hate the doll, but it was still lacking compared to real human hair. Since Stoick was still scowling at them both, Hiccup let Toothless work on his own hair again just to keep the peace. When the girls came over later, Toothless immediately went for Astrid's hair until she said quickly, "Wait, wait! What about Stormfly? Hey, girl, you don't mind if Toothless braids your hair, right?"

"Toothless give beautiful braids on me," Stormfly purred.

"Beautiful braids," Toothless agreed, and set to work.

"Thank you," Hiccup mouthed soundlessly at Astrid, who grinned.

It was also Astrid who thought of putting the younger children to good use. She showed up on their doorstop one morning with a little girl in tow. "Morning, Hiccup! This is Rapunzel. You wanna say hi to Hiccup, Zel?"

"Hi," the child said shyly. She had very long golden hair, and peeped up at Hiccup with an eager expression.

"Uh - hi."

"Does the...does the Night Fury really live here?"

"Yeah." Hiccup called over his shoulder. "Toothless!"

The dragon immediately scampered into the living room. "Hiccup calls to me. Hiccup wants me. I will help my Hiccup."

"Bud, this little girl's name is Rapunzel."

"Is a little girl, female young human." Toothless peered at her curiously.

Rapunzel stared back in awe. "Oooohhh...!"

"Little girl likes me," Toothless purred. He got down on his hands and knees so as to match her height, and nuzzled her. "I am very cool dragon, yes?"

"You are very cool," Rapunzel agreed, touching one of his pointed ears.

"Tickles."

Astrid said, with a wink at Hiccup, "Rapunzel wanted to know if you would braid her hair this morning, Toothless." Hiccup's eyes lit up.

"Braid hair. Very very very much hair," Toothless said appreciatively, stroking his palm across Rapunzel's golden locks.

"You'll really fix my hair, Mr. Night Fury?" Rapunzel said eagerly.

"Braid little girl's hair. She is happy, not like mean Hiccup," Toothless said, throwing a glare over his shoulder at his human, which made Hiccup laugh.

Hiccup decided that Astrid was a genius. Dragon-braids became a fad at the elementary school - every morning, little girls and even a few boys showed up at the dragon-fliers' houses, clamoring for the dragons to do their hair. Hookfang had no patience or knack for it, but the others, particularly Meatlug, were happy to oblige, and the fad grew in popularity until it had spread to the junior high school.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?), Toothless had his fill by then. He soon tired of the household's morning routine getting constantly interrupted by human children, and took to hiding whenever he heard the doorbell ring. It was also kind of funny, but also a bit exasperating, to see how often he got chased by children on the streets these days.

Finally, the day came when Toothless refused to braid his hair even to go flying, and then they were right back at square one. "Can't see can't see can't seeeee!" he wailed. "Bad braids, bad children, Hiccup I am upset, Hiccup comfort me, Hiccup make it better make it better make it better...!"

Hiccup gave his girlfriend an exasperated look as he tried to soothe his dragon and simultaneously pull Toothless's hair back into a simple ponytail. "This," he said to Astrid, "is all your fault," though he couldn't help smiling a little when all she did was laugh.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: I've been trying to work on Slyfoot's He's Not Dangerous story, but I'm still frustrated by it and by my other projects, and it's been too long since I posted something again, so I once more wanted to draft something with better flow and inspiration. Layman had asked for "The Downed Dragon," but I'd started writing that in my notebook, and I needed to write something on the computer. So then I was thinking of "Flying With Mother" ideas and was about to write that, but then one of the ideas melded with inspiration from Medli45's adorable sketches of human-HTTYD2-Toothless on deviantART, and I ended up with this random story about braids instead. XD

Writing human-Toothless is so fun. I've actually got other human-Toothless stories in the works, but this is the first one that got finished and posted.