About five days had past since Hiccup began staying with the Hoffersons. He went for flights every night in his Fury costume to let off steam and wound up helping the police as usual in the process. Toothless was growing quite attached to Stormfly and the dragon boy's wing was finally healed for the most part. There was a thin part in the skin where a hardly noticeable scar lay. The rest of his wing though was strong.

Ingrid was at work and Astrid was at school this rainy Monday. Toothless was hunting for fish in the creak with Stormfly and Hiccup sat at the kitchen table with Agnar. The boy needed an education and do to his fears of other humans the two Hofferson adults agreed to take turns homeschooling him.

Hiccup already knew how to spell, was quite extraordinary with science for obvious reasons, knew basic algebra as a result of his experience in the lab, had studied a bit of social studies from different books he found though hardly knew a thing about history, and was around the level of a fourth grader when it came to reading. He only knew Nordic unless you counted the dragon's tongue as a second language.

"So...you're telling me that by summer you want me to be able to read this." Hiccup pointed to the front cover of a seventh grade junior fiction. Agnar nodded and lay a hand on the boy's shoulder. He flinched back but managed to relax under the gentle touch.

"I'm not trying to pressure you into anything Hiccup, but you're seventeen years old and reading is the only subject you're too far below average on. You'll be eighteen in a year. It's not your fault you've only been able to learn as much as you have. Unfortunately those who raised you didn't give you the necessary resources. Ingrid and I are pressuring you to learn because we want you to succeed. I understand we've only known you for a week or so, but in that short period of time we've come to realize that we're raising you now. You deserve to be taught by those you trust."

Hiccup frowned and looked down at his hands. This warmth being shared with him by other humans was so foreign. The only nice people he'd ever known were his brother and Night Fury. He'd spent days at a time talking to himself in the dragon's tongue. He'd spend hours roaring to a wall until he'd managed to teach himself how to speak beyond basic words in Nordic. He'd watched the scientists write on their charts and taught himself how to spell medical terms by carving them into the tile floors in the bottom of his cage with his claws.

Now...Hiccup wasn't roaring to inanimate objects or secretly reading the papers adults were writing on. He wasn't too focused on not getting stabbed by scalpels to learn how to read the word 'blue'. He wasn't spending weeks at a time learning how to navigate his surroundings blindly because he'd recently gone through eye surgery.

No...Now Hiccup was being taught. He didn't have to struggle to find a books, but was rather being handed them by the nurse he had feared at one point. He wasn't being licked clean by a dragon as a baby, but rather being bathed and learning how to turn on a shower. This was all new and a struggle but...it was a good kind of new. A foreign kindness he'd never known before.

"O-Okay..." Hiccup whispered as one corner of his mouth curved upwards into the tiniest of smiles. Agnar removed his hand from the boy's shoulder and opened up a paper book with lessons on reading. In order to get to his goal by the summer...Hiccup had a lot of lessons to get through. They had to start as early as they could.

"So E-Emily found her wagon in Jackson's y-yard. It turned out the boy was the...the..." "You can't sound these kinds of words out Hiccup. You've got to remember what you learned in the charts. This is all about memory and piecing sounds together. Think of it like remembering the routs to fly home every night after you finish helping the police."

Hiccup sighed and placed his hand on the book again. He growled-actually growled like his dragon side tended to do-and tried again. Eventually he found out the word was 'thief' though there were a number of times he confused it with the word 'the' and even 'at'. The boy had amazing sight as far as spotting objects went do to the procedures that had been done on his eyes, but Agnar couldn't help but wonder if the experiments that had been done on the boy affected his near sight and ability to read. The Hofferson father had noticed a number of times that Hiccup's eyes tended to blend words together. He couldn't read the words 'the' and 'at' if they were above each other in a paragraph. If the word 'the' was by itself though Hiccup had no problem spotting it.

"Alright...that's enough reading for today. Why don't you try lesson one of the math book review and once you're done I'll check it out and see if you're a few grades higher or if Ingrid needs to help you start from scratch while I'm working tomorrow."

Hiccup smiled and nodded in agreement. He grabbed his pencil and went to work on the review while Agnar picked up around the house and started a crock-pot dinner for his daughter and wife when they got home. By the time he was done Hiccup had finished the review with a passing grade. The duo went through a few questions the dragon boy had missed and agreed that they'd continue on the next chapter in the morning.

Astrid and Ingrid entered the home at the same time just as Hiccup was putting away his books. While Astrid asked her friend if they could go outside and see if the dragons would let them go flying, Agnar pulled his wife into their room to have a talk with her.

"Ingrid I agree that this boy needs a home. I have no problem in housing him but you know that if he's staying with us then we have to give him the education and supplies he needs so protective services don't get caught up in his situation. It's obvious that Hiccup or 'Fury' doesn't like attention, and if other found out about him they'd all be at him with cameras. The less authorities involved in his life the better."

Ingrid nodded and her husband took her hands in his. "Now that that's out of the way..." He started. "There's something else I need to talk to you about. Hiccup has exceptional sight when it comes to distance and far away objects, but I'm afraid the treatment he received may have affected his ability to read."

Ingrid listened as her husband explained his worries to her. She nodded and smiled once he'd finished and the married couple went over different ideas to help Hiccup. Unfortunately most of them including public schooling, the authorities, and eye doctors. They knew the boy would have to show his true side at some point, though they vowed not to do anything behind his back.

(A/N) So yeah I'm kind of sorry that these past four chapters have been abnormally short. I really hope you're enjoying this story and I will be back with more updates tomorrow just as long as I don't have a job interview. If I do and I actually get the job then I'm afraid the updating schedule will go from every evening to every 1-3 days. Basically you'll have 2-3 updates a week instead of 7. Let's just see what the future holds fellow dragon riders and maximum ride fans.

Common Fears will be back for another adventure later! (I'm trying to find a new catch phrase).