The Sacrifice

By TheFlyingPiggy

A/N: I do not know if the Norse people had community baths. I'm saying they did. Also, thanks for the fantastic reviews! And to the people who don't want this to be slash, I'm considering writing a non-slash version, but the slash version is going to be written first :) I've already got quite a bit of it written.

Chapter Four: Wiggle Your Toes

After the two of them split apart, Hiccup realized quite a bit of time had passed. He was pretty sure it was still light out when he hugged Toothless, but now it was clearly late into the evening. He was still wide awake and realized that he didn't know what time of day it was when he actually woke up.

Toothless was lying his head on Hiccups shoulder now, looking down at his right hand, now opening and closing it into a fist.

"You tired, Toothless?" He whispered, as though his father could hear them, though the man had gone to sleep. Hiccup had shut the door when he entered his room and his father had knocked and asked what was going on. Hiccup told him he would tell him in the morning. He heard his father go quiet and felt the tension, wondering if his father was going to try and demand an answer or not, but he just heard his father walk away.

Toothless shook his head against his shoulder. He was now slowly rising his left hand, and started do the moving finger by finger thing again. Hiccup watched his progress already feeling pride for what Toothless had done in such a small amount of time. Toothless was watching his fist still. At some point the Terrible Terror had settled into Hiccup's lap and he idly pet it while he kept watching Toothless try to figure how his new body worked.

"Do you think you can wiggle your toes?" Hiccup asked. Toothless shrugged, and tried it. He bit his lip, but instead of toes moving, his right knee jerked up. He grunted in frustration but Hiccup patted his shoulder.

"Don't get angry at yourself, bud. Remember when I lost my leg?" He asked, motioning toward it. Toothless winced at the memory but Hiccup rolled his eyes. He had gotten over it ages ago – yeah, it still sucked, but life has moved on and he hasn't had to much of a problem. His dad and Toothless still felt the guilt though. "It took me forever to figure it out. How I got outside that first day after it happened, who knows?" He grinned at Toothless, his eyes showing mirth. "But maybe that's because I had a friend to lean on." Toothless was obviously cheering up, and Hiccup got out of the bed. "But still. Other than that one time, it took me weeks to understand how to even balance on the thing. It was hard, but you've already started to figure out so many new things. I had to get used to a missing leg – you have to get used to a whole new body." He felt Toothless nuzzle his shoulder, appreciative of what the boy was telling him. Hiccup thought that it was odd, having another human male do this to him, but it was the only form of communication Toothless had right now, the only one he knows.

Hiccup sighed. There were so many things for Toothless to learn. At least he was starting to figure out what his body parts were. He might have had them as a dragon but Hiccup knew that it was slightly different now.

He wondered what to do next, should he try to help Toothless walk? Stand? He bit his lip, unable to figure out what he should do. He wasn't aware of Toothless studying his face. Toothless was never quite this close to Hiccup's face, his nose keeping him a little short of a foot away. His head had returned to Hiccup's should and as he looked up he could see the freckles on the boy's face, and a birthmark hiding behind Hiccup's ear that he had never seen before. It kind of looked like a puffy goat he thought – but maybe that just meant it looked like a regular sheep, who knows?

"I suppose, since you seem to have figured out most of your upper body we should start on the lower..." Hiccup said slowly, "You know how to use your knees, kind of. Do you think you can move your right knee again?" Hiccup asked. Toothless sat up straight and looked at his knee, concentrating, when it jumped up. He smiled and made a chirp again, not even bothering to do anything about it. He looked at Hiccup to see what he thought, and his friend was smiling at him. Hiccup nodded, "Okay, now the left." He said. It took a few minutes, but Toothless' left knee finally jerked up, similar to the way the right did. Hiccup patted him on the back. "You're doing great Toothless, beyond great really. Now...let's work on those toes..."

And it continued, all through the night. Hiccup would tell Toothless to move a body part and Toothless would do it, sometimes moving the right leg instead of the left, or moving an elbow instead of a finger, but as the night progressed, and Hiccup kept asking him to move something, his mistakes became fewer and fewer until there were none at all. By the time the sun came up, Toothless had basic control of all his limbs and they were both beyond tired and both falling on the bed around the same time, sleeping side by side, looking very similar to what they did earlier. Instead though, Hiccup was on top of the covers, still aware that Toothless was naked.

Unfortunately, neither of them really thought of the third person in their house, and they woke up to a roar that could have rivaled a bear's.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY SON?" Stoic yelled, he reached over Hiccup's body, easily lifting the other man out of the bed. He ignored the nakedness of the man before him and slammed him into a wall. Toothless let out a groan when his head hit the wall behind him. Why was this body so sensitive and feeble? His dragon form was never like this. His head was throbbing and his shoulders were aching from where Stoic was digging his fingers in.
"ANSWER ME!" He yelled into smaller man's face. Hiccup winced and ran over to his dad, grabbing his arms, as though he could actually move the larger man away from his friend.

"Dad! Dad! DAD! You don't understand!" Hiccup yelled out, holding as tightly as he could onto Stoic's arm. Stoic barely noticed though. He moved one hand from one of Toothless' shoulders and put the hand into a fist, intending to hit the man when Hiccup took that moment to slide into the space that the arm vacated and stood in front of his dad.

"Dad, you don't understand!" Stoic kept his arm where it was, his eyes never leaving Toothless.

"What is there for me to understand, Hiccup." Hiccup could tell he was on a thin rope, his father's anger nearly winning over the restraint he was currently holding for his son.

"Dad, this," he waved at Toothless warily, "is Toothless." Stoic laughed at this harshly, not changing his form at all.

"You honestly expect me to believe that this...human...is your dragon?" He asked, laughing mockingly. Hiccup knew it was the situation, but it still hurt for his father to say that, but at the same time he understood why he would.

"Yes, dad, do you honestly expect Toothless to just let another person, let alone a man, into my bed? Look around dad. Where's Toothless? Has he ever left my side for no reason? You told me that I was sick. I've been sick a few times dad. Has Toothless ever left my side at any of those times?" Hiccup was pleased, while his father was still ready to punch Toothless, he could see the words sinking into his father's head, and the man was relaxing his grip on Toothless shoulder. He slowly lowered his right arm, but kept his hand on Toothless' shoulder just in case.

"How do you know that this it Toothless?" His father finally asked, his voice wary as though he were tired. His eyes studying the man before him suddenly realizing he was naked. Stoic just sighed and handed the sheet to Toothless, while waiting for Hiccup to answer his question.
"He doesn't know what you want him to do with the sheet, dad." Hiccup was looking anywhere but Toothless now. The community bath might have made other males accepting of others bodies and they could care less in the baths if they were around other naked males having 'seen it all before', but Hiccup was still modest. His body had always been so different from everyone else.

"What do you mean he doesn't know what to do with the sheet?" Stoic asked, bemused. Wasn't it obvious.

"He's never not been naked dad." Stoic thought about it for a moment and it was like it clicked in his head that the other man in the room truly was Toothless, he turned to the dark haired man with his mouth opened in shock. "He's Toothless, dad." Hiccup said, essentially repeating the words that were traveling through Stoic's mind.

"We...we should really get him some clothes." Stoic mumbled. He threw the sheet at Hiccup, who was watching his father, training his eyes that was anything but Toothless. "Show him what to do with this." After that Stoic left the room, muttering to himself about dragons and humans, and what had his crazy son done now?