"What do you think, Toothless?"

Hiccup lifted his notebook to show the little dragon, who was dozing on the end of Hiccup's bed. Toothless lifted his head and squinted at it.

"I think you're going to get yourself killed," he said dryly.

Hiccup sighed with exasperation. "That's what Nadder said too." He put the book down on his desk again. "This will work, I just have to keep tweaking it." He flipped his pencil around and erased the edge of the drawing – a diagram of his flight suit. He adjusted the edges on both sides, making sure to keep them symmetrical, and then held it out in front of him and inspected it. "I think this'll work better," he said aloud. "Now I just have to actually adjust it." He looked back over to Toothless pleadingly.

Toothless sighed. "Fine," he relented, and Hiccup grinned.

"Toothless," he said, taking a deep breath, "transform-"

He was interrupted by a loud knock on his bedroom door. "Hickory?" came the gruff voice of his father. "Are you in there?"

Hiccup's face paled. "Hide!" he hissed to Toothless, scrambling to shut his notebook and then throwing it under a pile of schoolbooks. Toothless dove under the bed, vanishing from sight just as the door opened.

"Hey, Dad," Hiccup greeted awkwardly. "You're home early."

Samuel Haddock was the mayor of Berk - a large man, nearly seven feet tall with a fiery red beard and an attitude that had earned him the nickname Stoic. He was also one of the only ones who called Hiccup by his real name. "Hickory," he began; his voice was even more serious than it usually was. "You've been keeping things from me."

Hiccup's face paled. "Ha-have I?" he said, trying to hide his nervousness. Oh no, he was thinking frantically, he found out? How could he have possibly have found out?

"When were you going to tell me?" asked his father, crossing the room and sitting down on the edge of Hiccup's bed, which bowed substantially beneath him. Hiccup could just barely make out the startled eyes of a panicked Toothless, still sheltering underneath it, but Hiccup didn't acknowledge him.

"Uh – tell you about what?" Hiccup asked, stalling for time. His heart was racing, and he hid his hands inconspicuously behind his back so that his dad couldn't see them trembling. If his dad had found out about him being Night Fury, how long until the word spread? How long until everyone knew? How long until Drago knew?

Stoic seemed to sense Hiccup's discomfort. "I'm not mad," he said with a sigh, "I just wish you had told me. I'm your father, I can help with things like this."

Hiccup ran his hands through his hair. "I – sorry, I didn't think this was really something I wanted to... to tell anyone, you know? It's just..." He trailed off uncertainly, and Stoic sighed again.

"Hickory, it's okay," he said, shifting on the bed to get more comfortable. "Lots of people get bad grades sometimes."

Hiccup blinked. "I... what?"

His father unfolded a piece of paper that Hiccup hadn't realized he was carrying, and when it was held up, he realized that it was his latest report card. "You're failing algebra," his father noted, "and nearly history as well. You've missed several assignments, too. Hickory, what's going on?"

Hiccup could have laughed, he was so relieved. School. This was about school. Not Night Fury or Toothless or Drago – just grades. He fought to keep his expression serious. "I've just been... so busy with everything, you know?" he managed.

Stoic considered this. "Still, you've always been clever – these are uncharacteristically low for you."

Probably because I'm busy all the time saving all of Berk, Hiccup thought dryly, but of course he said nothing out loud. It doesn't leave much time for homework.

"Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to put you in public school," his father went on.

Hiccup looked startled. "No, no, the school is great," he said, hurriedly. It wasn't that he hadn't liked homeschooling, but he didn't want to go back to it – he would miss Finn, and Heather, and the twins, and Astrid... He forced his mind off of them. "I'll work harder, I promise," he told his father, trying to sound earnest.

Stoic beamed at him. "If you ever need help, I can go over it with you," he offered. "I know I haven't been home much recently – there's been so much work to do. We're using all of our resources to track down this Drago guy so we can get him away from Berk. In the meantime, I'm glad we have Deadly Nadder and Night Fury to take care of anything he sends."

You're welcome, thought Hiccup.

"All this... magic and dragons," his father went on, "it's a bit above my head if I'm being honest. I definitely wasn't prepared for this when I ran for office. None of which you have to worry about, of course." He stood up and ruffled Hiccup's hair fondly.

"Of course," Hiccup echoed. "I'll just... focus on school and homework and important stuff like that."

Stoic smiled, the skin around his eyes wrinkling up. "That's my boy," he said proudly. "I'm glad we had this talk." He walked back out of the room and into the hallway.

Hiccup waited until he had gone back downstairs before shutting the door behind him and then collapsing backwards on the bed with a sigh. "That was close," he muttered, as Toothless came zooming up from underneath the dark and dusty bed. "Sometimes I wish I could tell him – it'd make everything so much easier."

"Maybe you could tell him?" Toothless offered, coming to rest on the bed beside him.

"Toothless, you know I can't," Hiccup responded, sitting up and resting his elbows on his knees. "I mean, I trust him to keep a secret, but if one person finds out then it would be all too easy for it to spread. Then everyone would know, and then Drago would know."

Both of them were silent for a few minutes more. Finally, Toothless spoke.

"I wish I could say this will be over soon," he said, his big green eyes gazing at Hiccup, "but to be honest, I don't know how long Drago will keep attacking. He's been around before, but the heroes of the city have always been able to defend against him. This time..." He trailed off. "He seems much stronger than before. I don't think he's going to stop unless he gets your miraculouses, or unless he's defeated for good."

Hiccup rubbed his watch out of habit. "What does he want with them anyway?"

"Power," Toothless responded, simply. "The more miraculous one has, the more powerful each one becomes, which is why no person should ever hold more than once. People just... aren't meant to have that much control. That much power."

There was another long pause, and finally Hiccup sighed and stood up. "I should probably actually do my homework now," he relented. "Too many more missed assignments and my dad might get even more suspicious."

Toothless laughed, although it was subdued. "Have fun with that," he said, wandering under the blankets on the bed and curling up beneath them. Hiccup smiled faintly at him and then turned back to his desk.

He sighed, wondering why the secret-superhero thing had to be so hard.