A/N: I must admit that I'm very surprised to receive so many positive replies from this story (it's been done many times before). I'm utterly grateful!

Disclaimer: I don't own How to train your dragon.

Chapter 2

Contrary to their prediction, the journey home wasn't eventful. It was somewhat pretty smooth comparing to what happened on Dragon Island. The Vikings quietly talked to each other, discussed the damage and how to tell the villagers back on Berk about the battle against the giant beast. Stoick tried to make himself useful but just like after the battle, he was powerless. Gobber busied himself with calculating the amount of time Hiccup had before infection got to him.

"I would say we have only three days max."

Stoick found himself speechless. With all the damage, it was difficult to get back on Berk in three days. Astrid suggested:

"How about we take Hiccup back to Berk on dragons?"

"Wind is the last thing he needs right now, lad." Gobber shook his head in depression. "Besides, I don't trust anybody's riding skill right now, and the best rider we know is unconscious at the moment."

Toothless perked up at the word rider. He eyed the blacksmith warily, inquiring about what he was talking about.

"Ah ya black devil, we need to get back to Berk quickly or things will get ugly."

The Night Fury tilted his head at the statement, thinking hard. He turned to the other dragons, the Deadly Nadder, the Monstrous Nightmare and the Zippleback, roared at them. It was a strange scene but apparently they were communicating. The other dragons seemed to pay serious attention to Toothless.

"It looks like he has an idea." Fishlegs commented.

"Huh, he really is Hiccup's dragon." Astrid replied proudly.

The Night Fury held the rope which was keeping the saddle and flying gears on his back in his claws, gesturing toward it.

"You want to take it off?" Gobber asked.

Hearing that, the dragon reacted rather violently. His pupils turned into slits again and he growled.

"Okay okay, but once we get on board, that saddle is off if you want your injuries gone!"

Toothless pointed at the rope again and sat on his hind legs, making people amazed and shocked. It was weird seeing a dragon sit like a normal human. The dragon raised his front legs and created distance between them, extending it until he couldn't. Then he looked at the humans expectedly. The teens scratched their heads.

"It wants… a hug?" Fishlegs guessed.

"Idiot, why would it need a hug?" Snotlout asked. "I think it wants to eat."

"How about killing us? Makes more sense to me!" Ruffnut said, earning a whack on the head.

"Okay, enough children!" Gobber cut them off impatiently. "I think he's asking for a long rope."

Toothless raised six claws.

"Okay, six long ropes." Gobber couldn't help but feel triumph as the Night Fury nodded his head.

It took them a while to get six long ropes. To their curiosity, Toothless gave each dragon two ropes and tied the other heads of the ropes to the boats or at least tried to. Some bold Vikings decided to help after saw the ridiculous failed attempts of the clumsy dragon.

"He's smart." Stoick concluded.

"Ya think?" Gobber asked. "Hiccup tamed him well!"

A growl was heard coming from the black dragon at the word tame, but no more objections were made.

"Wow, they are willing to pull us back? This is amazing!" Astrid exclaimed, completely lost her mind to what was happening, something that they thought to be impossible was taking place in front of their eyes.

"Only because Hiccup is in trouble." Fishlegs said as each dragon did something like a bow toward the Night Fury and his rider before taking off to do their job.

"The lad has indeed achieved greatness." Gobber looked at his apprentice fondly. "Come on, it's about time we moved!"

On the boat, Toothless never left Hiccup's side. He was like the little Viking's shadow.

When they were back at the village, it was pure chaos. Stoick and everyone who witnessed what happened took a long time to explain the crazy event before they could move Hiccup to his house for proper treatment. The villagers were unnerved at the sight of the unholy offspring of lightning and death following Hiccup, but they made no comments. Luckily, the healers knew exactly what they were doing and didn't give Toothless, Gobber and Stoick any hard time. They said that Hiccup's fever would be the only threat then. The depressing thing was they couldn't tell when he would wake up. For all they knew, he might never open his eyes again.

Settling down was another big deal. At first, Stoick didn't let Toothless come in and that really pissed the Night Fury off. Looking after his rider all the way back only to be forced to leave him alone was unacceptable. The arrangement ended with three plasma blasts, a heated argument between Stoick and Gobber and the broken door from Stoick's house. The chief had a great urge to attack the dragon right when the creature fired at him but was stopped by Astrid and Gobber. Then when the argument took place, Toothless took it upon himself to smash the door and bolted right upstairs to be with Hiccup and hadn't moved a muscle since.

Stoick couldn't stop himself from glaring at the Night Fury whenever he got the chance. Spending his whole life slaying these beasts, it was hard to see one in his house. Gobber kept him company at nightfall when the blacksmith had finished the tasks he was given. Hiccup's fever was at bay so the men allowed themselves to relax a bit. Things went downhill when the rider started mumbling in his coma. It began with thrashing. Toothless whined lightly and pressed his head on Hiccup to refrain him from injuring himself further. After that, Hiccup started freaking out feeling himself being restrained and Stoick was somewhat happy to have a reason to get the dragon away from his son. But that idea immediately led to disaster as Hiccup heard Stoick's voice shouting at Toothless.

"Toothless… Toothless… You have to leave me and go…" The boy kept mumbling, his face twisted into a painful frown.

Toothless wasted no time getting back to his rider's side, crooning softly in hope of comforting the little hatching.

"Your dragon's fine, snap out of it kid." Gobber said gently.

"Oh Toothless, I'm so sorry I let you down…" Hiccup went on with his self-chastising.

It was a while until Hiccup was lost to the world again. Stoick and Gobber went downstairs to clear their minds.

"They're close, really close." Gobber said.

"Too close, Gobber." Stoick said, his voice shivering. "It shouldn't be like that."

"Yet it is, Stoick." Gobber replied. "You have to make peace with that if you want your son to live here when he wakes up."

This got the chief's attention. Hiccup would actually move out to be with his dragon if Stoick banned the creature from the house. It was clear after what had been happening.

"It's my fault. I have no-one else to blame." The words were sour, extremely sour.

"You have the rest of your life to make up for it, Stoick." Gobber took sips of mead from his glass. "It's our fault, to be exact."

"I don't know what I can do to fix this." Stoick rubbed his face in depression.

"What is there to fix, Stoick? The kid's got himself a loyal friend until the end of time, eliminated the biggest threat which had made our lives hell for 300 years in about an hour and opened our blind eyes!" Gobber said, waved his hand.

"Not making it any better, Gobber." Stoick said in annoyance. His friend was wise, but he wasn't good with words. "You forgot to mention getting disowned by his foolish father and losing his leg before he even reached maturity!"

"Well, Hiccup's a forgiving person, that I can tell you since I'm his mentor. About the second issue, he'll get over that. He's going to be just fine." Gobber said.

"How can you say that, Gobber?" Stoick was taken back at the confidence in Gobber's tone. It was like the blacksmith know Hiccup had prepared for something like this.

"That kid's strong enough to survive all those years on his own, not to mention that Night Fury's going to be there every step from now on." Gobber pointed out the facts. "Besides, he might even think that he deserves this, since he was the one who took that dragon's tailfin away."

He was swarmed by guilt again. It hurt more than getting hit by a weapon he must admit. Stoick was blind to his own son's strength. He was too blind because of his expectations. Now hearing his friend analyzed his son's bond with that dragon, he was scared that he couldn't really find any reasons for Hiccup to stay here with his tribe once he woke up.

"What if he leaves the moment he wakes up, Gobber?" Stoick asked in fear.

"If that's what he really desires, you're going to refuse again, aren't you?" Gobber asked. "Don't worry, like I said, he's a forgiving person. He's not going to hold grudge."

"I want to give him at least a very good reason to stay here." Stoick said.

"Well, if you insist, you have to let the dragons stay while I make him a prosthetic leg and repair that dragon's flying gears." Gobber rubbed his hands together. He was really excited to get on with the job. "I must say Stoick, the saddle and that prosthetic tailfin are really something… I could never teach him to make something like that, so sophisticated, so detailed!"
Stoick found himself shamefully surprised at his friend's words again. He knew absolutely nothing about his son apart from Hiccup was small, he rode a Night Fury, slayed the Red Death, lost his leg in the process and was mistreated by his tribe since his mom's death. He was going to change that.

And Stoick the Vast was going to need serious help.

A/N: I love reviews just as much as I love Toothless and honestly, I'm crazy because of Toothless! Oh my other How to train your dragon stories, "Who and where I'm supposed to be" and "Sun of the night" aren't so bad if you have the time. Thanks for reading!