Suggestion by: Ferdoos
"No. Way. "
"Oh, yes way."
"Meatlug, what is your problem?! There is NO way in Midgard that I am doing that," Stormfly's voice rose.
"Ladies, ladies, calm down!" Hookfang tried.
"Yeah, it's just a dare! No biggie," Toothless put in.
Meatlug tried to explain for the fifth time.
"All you gotta do is fly in, pick up your Rider, go to Toothless's Rider's house—"
"That, I have a problem with," Toothless said under his breath.
"You're supposed to be HELPING!" Meatlug snapped.
"Sorry."
"Anyway, you just bring your Rider to Toothless's Rider's house, place her next to him, and flutter off! It's not that bad," Meatlug tried to sound as convincing as possible. "Besides, you've got the fastest set of wings on Berk! It'll be in, out, and you're done!"
Belch chimed in. "Plus, Toothless's Rider has a cr—"
"You're not supposed to SAY it!" Barf groaned at his twin head.
"Shouldn't I share this very juicy piece of Dragon Gossip?" Belch protested. (Funny thing was, all this while, no one seemed to notice Toothless and Stormfly go very, very red.)
"NO!
"Okay, fine!"
"Well, GOOD!"
"Will you two just give everyone a break?!" Hookfang was a few steps away from flaming up again. (But he couldn't, for yesterday's episode had left him very, very Fire-Cold. )
Barf and Belch shut up in unison.
"Alright, if Stormfly has no objections, we start after dark, when the Humans are asleep," Meatlug announced.
After a general "Uhh" of approval, the meeting was over, and the dragons scattered.
Daylight had never felt this long to the dragons before, but eventually Nightfall came, and Berk was bathed in the raven-coloured ink of mid-winter.
It was then that it began. Delicate, tiny flakes of white cascading from the darkness above, floating around the island in spirals. They fluttered round the rough-and-tumble Berk cottages, making the battle-hardened village suddenly seem like an ivory wonderland of tumbling white.
Fires flickered on, and doors were shut. Drapes were pulled closed, and Stormfly noted, with a minuscule drop in her heart, that it would be much harder to transport her Rider in these circumstances.
Nevertheless, she puffed her usual vivid orange cloud at Astrid's fireplace, hugged her Rider goodnight, and went to her stable.
Tonight was going to be a long night.
Toothless stared at the window.
It was dark outside, and not to mention, snowing too. He felt bad, because even through his nearly everything-proof dragon hide, he felt little curls of frigidity nip at him. And then he'd look at his weedy fishbone of a Rider, and try—try the best he could—to imagine just what it would feel like to be him, by taking that cold, biting feeling and multiplying it by ten...no, twenty.
All he could think of was COLDCOLDCOLDFREEZINGFREEZINGFREEZING.
What made it worse was that he still insisted on leaving the window open, only putting a thin, movable drape over it. Why he did himself the disservice, Toothless would never understand, but he thought it may have something to do with Toothless's tendency for midnight...toilet visits, and the fact that Toothless was in charge of the routine early-morning wake up call (by jumping on the roof, no less.)
Still, despite the fact that dragons are, and always will be, creatures of strong routine, he wished there was a way to persuade Hiccup to CLOSE THAT THING ALREADY.
Aaand then there would be the issue of how Stormfly was going to get in.
Some things just never end, did they?
Stormfly was cursing internally. She had managed to get into Astrid's room (by blasting the curtains away), but for some reason her supposedly agile Nadder claws were simply not functioning.
Her plan was simple: Astrid slept in between a blanket and a sheet, so she could just pick up the sheet, each of her four claws to each of the four corners, and fly off. Simple, no?
No.
Her claws kept slipping, and she even punched a small hole or two in the corner of the sheet. As if it wasn't bad enough, her Rider seemed to be quite active in her sleep, changing positions every few minutes.
So Stormfly was stuck there, claws slipping embarrassingly on the sheets.
One more time...one more time...Odin help her, she HAD to get it that time! She was a DEADLY NADDER, for Thor's sake! She wasn't a Gronckle, or—
She got it! She gave the sheet a lift, and true enough it seemed stable. Her Rider didn't even stir! Finally!
Stormfly mentally congratulated herself as she flew out into the night.
Getting into Toothless's Rider's room was easier than expected. Hel, practically all she needed to do was FLY in. And fly in she did.
She found the Rider easily. He was relatively compact, curled up conveniently on one side of the bed.
"You were fast," Toothless rumbled softly.
Stormfly jumped slightly, but managed to keep her voice to an inaudible croon. "Oh, you should have been there. "
There was silence as she carefully laid her slumbering Rider next to Toothless's.
Astrid stirred lightly, wrapping her arms around an extra pillow she didn't remember taking (must have been from her mother), and sinking back to sleep while distantly wondering why the pillow seemed so...bony?
Hiccup was also distantly awake. He was murkily aware of the sudden warmth next to him, but something told him it was just Toothless's overprotective mom-mode. So he ignored the feeling of being...hugged (?) and went back to sleep.
Toothless and Stormfly watched the two teenagers tenderly. They seemed so peaceful, so contented, so...happy. Like what was happening wasn't a stupid dare, but something natural, almost...almost destined to be.
And as they did, they didn't know it, but slowly the gap between Toothless and Stormfly began to shrink too...
"Humans..." they both said at exactly the same time, then looked at each other in shock.
"I...uh...should go," Stormfly stuttered.
"Heh, yeah, me too..." Toothless yawned dramatically. "It's getting late!"
"So...see you tomorrow?" Stormfly said, uncharacteristically shyly.
"Yeah, of course!" Toothless replied, before Stormfly disappeared into the night.
"I can't believe they didn't kiss!"
"Barf!"
"I mean, I really really thought they would!" Belch whispered sharply.
"Well show's over, gotta wait till tomorrow, guys," Hookfang said dejectedly.
"Aw..." Belch whined.
"Shut up, we'll get plenty more opportunities to spy on Stormfly and Toothless. But it's getting late, and we should go," Meatlug reasoned, semi-irritatedly.
The other three agreed reluctantly. Man, they really thought that after an entire year, that had finally crafted the perfect circumstances! But evidently, they'd have to wait.
Meatlug, Hookfang and Barf and Belch flew off too.
The sun streamed through the open window of the bedroom, curtains fluttering softly in the morning breeze.
Astrid's eyelids fluttered open. She let out an involuntary sigh of content, because in all her years on Berk she never remembered sleeping so well. In fact, everything seemed a lot warmer, even though she remembered going to bed freezing.
She mentally begged herself to stay asleep for just five more minutes, nuzzling closer to her extra pillow.
Her strangely thin extra pillow.
Her strangely thin, oddly bony extra pillow.
Her strangely thin, oddly bony, vaguely human shaped...green tunic-clad...auburn mop-headed...extra—
Wait a minute.
Astrid was suddenly acutely awake. That was when she noticed that that wasn't her bed, wasn't her ceiling, wasn't her dragon sleeping in the corner of the room, heck, wasn't even her room in the first place...
And that DEFINITELY wasn't an extra pillow slipped to her by her mom.
Oh gods above. Oh gods oh gods oh gods.
Hiccup was violently shaken awake, and he was sure this time, it wasn't Toothless.
He blearily turned to the shaker's direction...coming face to face with a very, very livid Astrid.
"Why. Am. I. In. Your. Bed?!" She grated out.
"Ah...ha...yeah that's...a really good question—"
"Of all people, why YOU?! After all these years, surprise! He's a SICKO too, on top of being a complete hermit! Would'ja look at that!" Astrid's voice rose.
"Astrid, please! I can explain! I-it wasn't me, I was sleeping the whole night, just ask Toothless!" Hiccup flung his arms at his dragon, who shot him a "Don't pin this on me!" look.
"Toothless! You're supposed to—"
SLAM!
"What's going on up—HOLY THOR IN ASGARD!" Just when things couldn't get any better, the door flew open to reveal none but Stoick the Vast.
"Oh gods," Hiccup breathed.
"Uh, morning, sir...? I...uh, best be leaving...g'bye!" Astrid bolted down the stairs awkwardly, in her deep red nightgown.
"Oh, gods—" Hiccup raked his hands through his hair.
"Hiccup. Horrendous—"
"Oh, gods he's angry."
"—Haddock. The third," Stoick finished, dangerously slowly.
"Look, dad, I can explain! I didn't...DO anything with Astrid! I just WOKE UP and she was kinda just...THERE! You can ask Toothless, he would probably-most-likely-but-on-second-thoughts-maybe- not have seen or heard if anything happened last night! You gotta trust me on this one dad!" Hiccup found himself rambling at a deeply scowling Stoick.
"Like that time Urp the Unstoppable just WALKED AROUND and the arrow was 'kinda' just in his rear?"
"No, dad, DIFFERENT!"
"Look, Hiccup, we need to talk," Stoick felt a strange sense of déjà vu as he found himself going in circles with Hiccup the Handful.
"...yeeeeeah okay are you mad or not?"
"Sit. Down."
Hiccup sat down.
"I...uh...was planning on talking about this for a long time, so, well, no time like the present! Now, when...uh...two people really like each other, they will...feel. Things. Strange things going on. You understand, right?" Stoick looked pointedly at his son.
"Oh boy...you know, on second thoughts, just...be angry..." Hiccup started.
"And when these people feel these strange...uh...things, they will want to do...uh...other things..."
Hiccup buried his head in his hands. Looks like he had a long morning.
Okay, that's it for chapter 9!
On a side note, I'm really sorry this is a late update! I usually try for Wednesdays or Thursdays, but somehow I lost track of time, and been pretty busy...
Ah well, I'm sorry guys! But do keep the suggestions coming! I've been having a lot of fun writing your awesome dares!