Title: Dragon Babysitter

Requested by: movielover48

Rating: K

Ages of Children: Aria – 5 yrs.

...

A lumpy piece of charcoal pushed its way across a scrap of parchment. It wobbled around in a misshapen circle, then pulled away for a second. It was soon back on the parchment, this time squiggling inside the circle to fill it in. The charcoal was guided by no other than little Aria Haddock, who at this moment was quite bored. She had been left at home with Toothless while her mother had rushed out on some dragon emergency. Her father, being the chief, was off and away doing business on some part of the island, and her brothers were getting private dragon training lessons from their grandma. That left Aria and Toothless, alone in the house.

Toothless paced by the fireplace, head held high and chest swelled up. He was honored to have his rider's offspring under his care, and he took the job very seriously. After all, this wasn't the first time he had to watch Aria on his own and Toothless was ready for the challenge. He swung his head in the child's direction to check on her. Good, she hadn't moved from her perch on her father's chieftain throne. The large chair had always dwarfed Hiccup, but it almost swallowed the little child as she sat there, happily sketching on a discarded piece of parchment. Toothless turned back for his next round of pacing when a small, but forceful voice called out.

"Stop moving, Toothless! I drawing you!"

He snapped his head back in her direction. Now this was new. Were those scribbles she was making going to look like him? Suddenly, Toothless was taken back to that first day with Hiccup. He remembered the likeness of himself that the boy had drawn in the sand, the picture that had opened the door for a beautiful friendship. He lumbered over to the Aria's side and peered over her shoulder. Wow! She wasn't half bad, and she was only five years old! There on the paper was the shape of a black dragon-like animal. Sure it wasn't very detailed, but it defiantly had the shape of Toothless. He gave her a gentle nudge and a rumble of approval. Aria laughed and threw her arms about the dragon's neck, snuggling her head against his.

"You like it, Toothless!" she giggled. "I like drawing you!"

She pulled back and looked at the paper for a second. Aria cocked her head to the side, then looked back at Toothless.

"I bored. What we gonna do?" she inquired of the large, black dragon who stood next to her. In answer, Toothless gave a rumble, and nudged her again. She gave him a confused look, so he began to walk away while nodding for her to follow. Aria slid off the huge chair and dropped her drawing onto the table next to her wooden cup of water. She followed the sleek dragon to the middle of the room, still confused. But as she stepped up beside the dragon, Toothless snatched a nearby quilt in his mouth and tossed it over Aria's head. She let out a shriek of laughter and began to claw at the quilt that nearly swallowed her up. Throwing off fold after fold of blanket, Aria finally emerged from the den that the blanket had created. But to her surprise, Toothless was nowhere to be seen.

"Toothless?" she called out.

At first, there was not response. Then, from some unidentifiable location of the house, came a low rumble, almost akin to a deep chuckle. Aria grinned. Toothless was playing hide-and-seek, and she was going to find him! She jumped to her feet and began the hunt. First, she crawled upstairs to the room she shared with her two brothers. Pushing the door open, Aria pattered into the room and checked every crevice she could think of.

Under the beds? Nope. Behind the door? Not there. On the beds? Not even close.

Satisfied that Toothless wasn't hiding out in the bedroom, she next checked her parent's room, but with the same result. No Toothless. As she exited her parent's room, Aria stamped her foot in frustration.

"Where are you?" she called.

Again, a low rumble sounded out, but this time it come from below her. Aria's face lit up with pleasure as it dawned on her where the dragon would be. He had been downstairs all along! She raced downstairs and scanned her surroundings. Right behind the throne there was a very suspicious looking black object protruding from behind it. Aria stumbled over in haste and jumped onto the back of a very amused Toothless. He warbled in greeting, shook the little girl off his back, then turned to face her.

"I found you!" Aria exclaimed, very pleased with herself. She walked back over to Toothless, but then she suddenly had an idea. She reached out, tapped Toothless on the nose, then began trotting off in the opposite direction. "Tag! You it!" she called over her shoulder. "Come catch me, Toothless!"

The sleek, black dragon jumped to his feet, then took off after the little girl. Aria ran through the center of the living area, leaped over the blanket that Toothless had tossed over her earlier, and took a turn around the table. Toothless was hot on her tail, lumbering around with his classic gummy grin plastered on his face. He, the mighty Alpha, wouldn't let himself be outrun by this little human girl! As he rounded the turn by the table, his tail accidentally caught the end of the table leg and gave it a hefty shake. At the sound of Toothless' tail hitting the table leg, Aria had turned around just in time to see her drawing soaked by her water cup that spilled all over the piece of parchment. With a cry of alarm, she raced over to the table, crawled up on a chair, and surveyed the damage to her artwork. The water from the cup had soaked into the parchment, smearing the charcoal drawing and ruining the paper. At the sight of her ruined artwork, Aria began to cry.

"It messed up!" she sobbed. "My drawing no good now!"

Toothless lumbered up beside her and lifted his head to see what was wrong. Upon seeing the ruined picture, his spirits dimmed. He knew she was very proud of her drawings, and she would have wanted to show this to Hiccup. The great dragon lowered his head and moaned in shame. He had destroyed his little charge's prized drawing, and he couldn't fix that soggy, smeared scrap of parchment.

All of a sudden, a brilliant idea popped into Toothless' head. He couldn't fix it, but he could find the materials so Aria could draw him again! This time, though, he would hold perfectly still. Toothless bounded upstairs and into Hiccup's room. He went straight to his rider's desk and began to open random drawers. When he found the one with blank parchment, Toothless carefully removed a sheet, then closed the drawer. On top of the desk, he located a new charcoal pencil. Scooping the paper and pencil up in his mouth, he rushed back downstairs. He lumbered up to Aria and nudged her gently, but eagerly. When she didn't turn around, he persisted by nudging her a little harder and letting out an excited warble. With tears still staining her cheeks, Aria turned around to face the dragon. She was greeted with the sight of Toothless with a gummy smile containing charcoal and a piece of parchment. Her face lit up as she slowly realized what the dragon wanted her to do.

"I draw you again!" she cried, snatching the drawing supplies from Toothless' mouth. "Stand there!" She pointed to a spot right in front of the throne. Toothless walked happily over in front of the throne while Aria clambered up to her original position. She picked up the charcoal and began to draw. This time, Toothless struck a pose and didn't move until he was sure Aria was done with her picture.

"I all done, Toothless!" announced Aria, after what seemed like an eternity, and Toothless bounded over to see what she had created.

When he laid eyes on the drawing, Toothless did a double take. This time, the drawing was even more detailed, and look exactly like him. He gently touched the drawing with his nose, then warbled his approval. Aria grinned; her tears were gone and had been replaced with the contagious, wide-eyed joy of a child who has discovered something new.

At that moment, the door creaked open, and a very tired Hiccup entered the house. At the sight of his rider, Toothless bounded up to Hiccup and nudged him, while warbling excitedly. Hiccup knelt down beside his dragon and threw his arms around Toothless' neck. In response, the dragon gave him a lick on the face, then grinned. Hiccup laughed, then pulled away while wiping the dragon saliva off his face.

"Daddy?"

Hiccup looked up to see his daughter sitting on his chieftain throne, clutching a piece of parchment. He grinned as she jumped off the chair and ran towards him.

"Hi, daddy!" she cried, throwing herself into his arms.

"Whoooa!" he exclaimed as she knocked into him at full speed. "Hey there, kiddo," he finished as he wrapped his arms around her. Pulling away, he set her back down on the ground. "What do we have here?" he asked, gesturing to the parchment she still held in her hands.

Aria beamed with pride as she showed her artwork to her father. "See daddy? I draw Toothless, just like you!"

Hiccup took the parchment and studied it. Now this was something; his little girl could draw! And she was quite good, too. There on the paper was the chunky likeness of Toothless, who was sporting his signature gummy smile. He handed her back the paper and smiled.

"This is very good, Aria," he said, ruffling her hair affectionately. "Would you like to draw some more with me?"

Aria jumped up and down while waving her paper. "Can we, daddy?" she begged.

"Come on, baby girl, let's get some more paper!" Hiccup scooped her up in his arms and carried her upstairs.

…..

Author's Notes:

So yeah... Long time no see, huh? :( I've been extremely busy the last month and a half with the holidays, visiting family, competing at the first speech and debate competition of the season, coming back from winter break, etc. (I think you get the picture) But I finally got around to typing up this request, and I really have missed doing this. I love to write Fanfiction, I just don't have a lot of extra time, so thank YOU awesome people, for sticking with me! I hope you all enjoyed!

I can't really promise regular updates at this point, though. But don't worry, I will be updating at random! (aka, whenever I have time!)

I'll see all you wonderful people later! :D:D:D

- Tooth (Which is my semi-newly acquired nickname :D)