Stoic was tempted to laugh at the look on his son's face when he peaked over the edge of his shield. He looked like he was five years old again with that hesitant but still just this side of curious expression. He sighed. He hadn't seen that look in a long time, not since…well, since he'd started messing up on a more regular basis. Then he threw the fish through and tried to move forward, but the shield got stuck. He did laugh at that, heartily, and even more so as his son's frustration escalated with every attempt to pull the shield free from where it was completely jammed.

Then he picked up the fish and began looking around, not seeing the Night Fury anywhere. Then the image showed the dragon hiding behind a rock, ready to pounce. Stoic tensed under the table. What was that dragon plotting? Was it going to use some sort of magic to turn his son against him, against everyone?

But despite his fears, Hiccup caught sight of the beast in time to prevent it from doing anything underhanded. It climbed down from its perch… and stayed where it was.

Hiccup held out the fish…and the dragon changed. Completely.

Its eyes went from predatory to curious and slightly scared. The way it moved was like a cautious animal investigating something new. Then, in a mere moment, the predatory look returned, this time accompanied by a growl. Hiccup lifted his vest and exposed the small dagger he kept on his person at all times and the dragon's growls intensified. Stoic wanted to shout at his son to run, get out of there! But instead, Hiccup took the knife from his belt and dropped it.

Enraged by his son's actions, by his trust in the dragon's nonexistent mercy, Stoic stood up and turned to leave when he was stopped by a slim figure blocking his path. Astrid was standing right in front of him, staring him down chief. The look on her face was clear. She was challenging him to see this all the way through, however much he might not like or understand it. He would be cowardly to do anything less.

So, slowly, the massive redhead turned back around and fixed his eyes back on the scene between his son and the black beast. There was a creak and he looked over to see that Astrid had joined them on the bench, next to her chief. She was making sure he wouldn't run away.

Astrid couldn't help the small bout of girly feelings that washed over her the minute the dragon relaxed. I never thought I'd say this, but that dragon is adorable. With those big green eyes, gigantic twitching ears, and open expression, he was possibly one of the cutest things she'd ever seen in her life. Hiccup held out the fish again and the gigantic black reptile approached like a small kitten. It opened its mouth, revealing a row of gums.

"Huh. Toothless. I could have sworn you had…" The pearly whites shot out, jolting Astrid's eyes open even wider. Stoic thought for a second that, when the thing grabbed the fish, it got Hiccup's hand as well from the speed of the bite. The fish now swallowed, the image focused back on Hiccup who, to Stoic's relief, still had both hands intact. "Teeth."

Stoic relaxed for a moment, before the beast began backing his son up until he was pressed against the rock behind him. Was it planning to attack? Then Hiccup spoke and the chief relaxed. It just wanted more fish. When the beast regurgitated the back half of the fish, Astrid flinched. Why had it done that?

The beast sat back on its haunches, almost like a human. The intense stare it directed at the teen made it obvious it was waiting for Hiccup to do something. But what? Then it looked from Hiccup to the fish in the boy's lap. It didn't…

Apparently it did. Hiccup was forced to take a bite out of the fish and, with much encouragement from the dragon, to swallow the bite. He smiled at the dragon, and Astrid noticed that one side of the grin was higher than the other.

Stoic watched as the beast cocked its head to the side, scrutinizing his still-smiling son. Then the image went back to the dragon as it began contorting its face. A few seconds later, Stoic was staring at one of the strangest things he'd ever seen. A dragon was attempting to smile. Stoic's hands slipped off the table as he stared at the opposite of everything he believed. A dragon that treated his son more like a person that he did.

Astrid watched as Hiccup extended his hand towards the grinning animal. There was something about him in that moment that she'd never seen before. He was smiling, but it wasn't weary or exasperated. In fact, there were no negative emotions at all.

Stoic watched as the dragon flew away from his son, lighting up the ground and lying down, almost catlike in its movements. Then the small bird flew from its next and the dragon watched it with an open, intelligent gaze. Then it saw Hiccup sitting near him and Stoic could almost hear him thinking, Oh great. It's that kid again. And the beast put his tail in front of his face. The motion made the big man laugh in spite of himself. Who knew a dragon could have such a distinct personality?

Hiccup scooted closer to the dragon, a child's expression of friendly curiosity on his face. So unguarded, so open, so…happy. And Astrid had never seen it before. It hurt inside to know that Hiccup couldn't be his real self around them for fear of being ridiculed and getting hurt. And then, when the dragon noticed his approaching hand and hoisted it away, the look of rejection was familiar, and at the same time not. She found herself smiling at the almost childish behavior of both boy and dragon.

Stoic almost laughed at the way the dragon was curled up over a branch like a bat. Then its tail went away from its face and, again, Stoic saw that intelligence and a bit of curiosity. What was the beast looking at? Hiccup, as it turned out. And that hunched over posture was a bit too familiar. He'd seen that posture on his periphery quite a lot in recent years, after he'd brushed Hiccup aside. The boy was drawing something in the dirt and as the big Viking watched, it started to look more and more like the dragon. It was a pretty good likeness.

Then the very edge of the picture filled in with the black dragon and Astrid tensed at the trill. It was only inquisitive, but she kind of had to admire that Hiccup kept his cool and just kept drawing as if he hadn't noticed the big creature standing right behind him. That's one way to get close, she thought, and smiled as the dragon's eyes followed the motions of Hiccup's stick as he finished the drawing. Then, when the big beast walked away, she wondered why. Had he finally grown bored with the fishbone and decided to…no, she'd seen them together later, so it couldn't be that. Besides, his eyes hadn't had that angry look when he'd walked away. They'd been…more curious than anything. Wait, since when did dragons have facial expressions?

There was a cracking sound and Stoic almost wanted to laugh when he saw what the dragon was doing. But as it whirled the stick around carving out something on the ground, he watched his son's face. He'd never seen that sort of curiosity mixed with bewilderment. Well, that he could understand. No one had ever seen a Night Fury before, not to mention one emulating a…human's… actions. It reminded Stoic of a brief phase when Hiccup was very young and had tried to copy everything he did to try to please his father. And the dragon was doing the same thing now, but slightly different. It was more balanced. Both boy and dragon were giving to this. Even when the dragon hit his son with the branch, Hiccup didn't say a word.

When Astrid got to look at the whole thing she was surprised to see that some of it actually looked like Hiccup. There was a big wobbly circle that could be his head with two loops for the eyes and a bigger loop that could almost be a nose. The extra loops made her wonder if it was just coincidence, though. The cooing sounds coming from the dragon were rather adorable. No, stop it! You're a tough warrior, stop thinking that this is cute! But her resolve crumbled in a second when she saw the look on Hiccup's face and the way his hand hovered around his chin. The shocking thing was, there was no fear in his face. He didn't even look nervous. This boy couldn't even walk down the street without flinching away from the twins or hurrying to give a witty retort. Here, with a dragon, he almost looked relaxed. Casually, he inspected the drawing but when he stepped on one of the lines and a growl erupted from the dragon, she almost jumped in her seat. Was it about to pounce?

His son flinched up, but then stretched out again. The chief's chest eased when Hiccup lifted his foot and the dragon went back to being, well, human was probably a good word for it. But then it hit him that even the growling was a more human emotion. Hiccup was stepping on something the dragon had made for him. Of course it would be a bit angry. And then when Hiccup figured it out and put his foot over the line, it blinked again and straightened up a bit. Was it proud that Hiccup had figured it out? And then the wide smile broke across his face and he wished for the millionth time since this movie started that his son had had more reasons to smile like that.

Astrid soaked up the music and watched as Hiccup danced around the lines. He was so at ease, as if completely unaware that a huge scaly beast was there with him. And then it came up right behind him and instead of running for cover, or even really flinching, he just turned around and stared into those, and Astrid admitted it, big, cute, green eyes. Her hands fisted in her leather skirt as he reached out and she gasped when he turned away.

There was utter silence in the hall as one of their own dropped all resistance and simply trusted.

Then, with the slightest hesitation, that trust was answered and reciprocated and every Viking watching looked in awe at something that they finally understood.

Well, I reworked this and finally added the ending part. I don't know how well it fits with the end of the story, but I honestly had a really hard time writing this. It's such a beautiful moment, how was I supposed to filter that through stubborn vikings? Well, I hope I did a good job.