This is edited version for better language. Updated 22.10.2017. Unfortunately my original comments on reviews did not copy here.

Original version was beta-/proofread by toothlessgolfer.

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Toothless could feel his hatchling approaching even before Hiccup's scent reached his nose. He could tell even from that distance that something had happened. Hiccup was alarmed and moving faster than usual. Toothless couldn't sense any pain, but he was still up in an instant and moved to wait next to the rocks between which Hiccup entered the cove. It only took a moment for the sound of light footsteps to reach his sensitive ears. Soon Hiccup stumbled into the cove, but he was caught by Toothless' head.

'Thank you bud,' Hiccup said while lifting himself up. He kept one soft hand on Toothless' head

'Did you think I would let you fall? What happened?'

'What do you…' Hiccup stopped mid-thought as he remembered that he couldn't hide things from Toothless, not with the bond between them. 'I tried to tell the truth about dragons to some people but only managed to get them to hate me more.' Hiccup showed his memories to Toothless. 'Astrid chased me to the forest. It took some time to shake her off.'

'She didn't manage to hurt you?' Toothless asked and let out a low growl after hearing about Astrid. sniffing around Hiccup to make sure there were no injuries. Hiccup had told him about Astrid few times. If that female ever came within range of his claws…

'No. I may not be strong or a good fighter but at least I can run and no one knows this forest as well as I do. Don't worry. We have more important things to think about, remember?'

Yes, Toothless did remember. His tail started wiggling from the mere thought that he would fly again. He also wouldn't be doing it alone anymore. The thought consumed Toothless until Hiccup's small hand returned on his head.

'Calm down bud. We can't fly till I put on your gear, and I can't do anything if you don't stay still.'

Toothless practically froze still for a moment after Hiccup's request, and then he brought his tail forward so the boy could attach the artificial tailfin. Toothless was still amazed that the small viking, his small viking, could just create something like that. After he had lost his original tailfin, Toothless had resigned himself to being grounded for the rest of his life, which he hadn't expected to last long anyway. Then Hiccup had thought of the impossible and made it reality. The dragon couldn't understand how other Vikings couldn't see how amazing he was.

Toothless crooned when Hiccup finished tightening the saddle, and brushed his head affectionately against the hatchling. In return he got a few scratches before Hiccup climbed on the saddle. Toothless kneeled a bit, only waiting for Hiccup to strap himself in and open the tailfin. His entire body shivered in anticipation. Hiccup didn't need to ask if he was ready. The moment his foot switched the position of the pedal, Toothless leaped into air. He could tell Hiccup was struggling to stay on with the sudden movement but managed until they levelled to more gradual ascent above the trees.

'Wow bud. You can really fly.'

'What did you expect? I'm a Night Fury, not a Gronckle.'

'Yes, I know. You are the fastest of all dragons and the most feared. Our Dragon manual's instructions for Vikings meeting you is to hide and pray that you don't find them.' Hiccup's mood was lot lighter than just moments ago. He clearly enjoyed the flight.

'I think I like that description. At least it is better than being just hated.'

'Let's not worry about that now and concentrate on flying.'

'Sure. Let me get some altitude. It is safer, if we have time to stop falls.'

'I'll trust you on this.'

Toothless flapped his wings till they were safely at the level of lower clouds and he could easily glide for a moment. His wing muscles were hurting from exertion after so long a period of not using them very much.

'Okay there bud. We are gonna take this nice and slow.' Toothless could feel Hiccup's hand patting his neck. If any other Viking suddenly did something like that he might have bitten their arm off, but not so with Hiccup. The dragon only hoped the moment had lasted longer.

"Here we go, here we go. Position three, no four." Hiccup mumbled something in Viking tongue but Toothless could tell it was about the cheat sheet Hiccup had made.

A second later Toothless felt his tailfin change position, and quick look behind confirmed that his hatchling's creation was working. He pulled a sharp turn, feeling Hiccup shift on his back surprisingly naturally. After straightening up, they were still wiggling a bit in the winds, but nothing both of them couldn't handle.

"Oh right, it's go time, it's go time," Hiccup said to himself again in his Viking language before leaning forward on the saddle.

Toothless didn't need any other sign of hatchling's intentions as he turned down to dive. They ended up a bit too close to the sea surface for comfort, but with sea stacks ahead of them it was better to stay low and fly past them.

'Come on buddy, come on buddy.'

Toothless concentrated on his flight more than in a long time but couldn't ignore his excited rider. He could feel Hiccup's amazement as they flew through an arch-like sea stack and felt his happiness with everything working as it should.

"Yes, it works."

Unfortunately, they were distracted by this success and Hiccup couldn't quite keep up with controlling the tailfin. By the time Toothless noticed the problem, it was already too late to turn and they hit one of the sea stacks. All he could do was to turn so he would hit it feet and belly first keeping Hiccup unharmed.

'Sorry.'

They could barely get away from that sea stack when the sloppy flying led them to hit another-

'That's my fault.'

'Yes it was. Focus Hiccup.' Toothless reinforced his thoughts by slapping Hiccup on the cheek with one of his ears, 'Get us back up before we hit anything else and you get hurt.'

'Yea yea, I'm on it.'… "Position four, no three."

Toothless could feel his tail shift again and turned to ascend nearly vertically. He planned to continue that only until they got safely above any dangerous rocks, but sheer excitement radiating from his rider and the fact he seemed to stay on the saddle were enough to make the dragon push his wings harder. Wind and Hiccups excited shouts were only things he could hear, and he enjoyed every sound.

"YEAAH! Go baby! Ooh this is amazing, wind in my… CHEAT Sheet STOP!" 'stop!'

Something was wrong. Toothless stopped flapping his wings understanding that one word. It proved to be a serious mistake, as Hiccup didn't stop with him. A small click reached Toothless' ears as Hiccup was detached from the saddle and appeared above him. Toothless tried to reach his rider, but with no one controlling the tailfin he couldn't control his own flight. Toothless screamed trying to straighten himself, but all he managed was to slow himself a little bit, leading to Hiccup falling past him. He wouldn't leave the hatchling, never, so he dove faster towards Hiccup. His tail fought back again and his whole body started spinning dangerously. The hatchling was trying to tell him something in Viking tongue, but Toothless still couldn't understand it properly. Toothless' heart skipped a beat when his tail hit Hiccup throwing him further away.

Even then he could tell where Hiccup was and after managing to somewhat control his spinning, Toothless could tell how Hiccup was approaching him again. He sensed his rider reaching for the saddle and did everything in his power to keep going straight for that brief instance. Then Hiccup was attached in the saddle again and Toothless tail was open. He struggled to straighten up as the ground was approaching quickly and opened his wings to their widest at the last possible second. The strain to his wings was painful but he didn't care as they were still falling quickly only meters above treetops growing from the side of a mountain. He could already see the dense collection of sea stacks approaching quickly and felt the uncertainty of the small Viking on his back trying to figure out what he should do. Toothless could feel Hiccup's mind pressing against his as they both struggled to do their part in surviving.

Then something happened between them. The uncertainty that Hiccup had felt disappeared. Toothless could tell the exact position of the hatchling's feet on the pedal and how to use it like only its creator could know. Hiccup knew perfectly how the tailfin worked like only dragon could. They turned, dove, and spun around like most dragons couldn't at their peak. Both tailfins worked perfectly in sync with each other and rest of the two bodies like they were part of one and the same entity with one mind, and that wasn't so far from the truth. Tentacles of Hiccup's mind had reached so wide and so deep into Toothless' mind that there wasn't a spot where they wouldn't have been connected in some way.

Then they were out over the open sea. Hiccup let his feelings out in one victorious shout with a wave of emotion that shook the dragon under him. It made Toothless celebrate with a plasma blast that detonated right in front of them into a fireball. That was enough to return Hiccup to earth, figuratively speaking.

"Come on."

It was too late for Toothless to avoid flying into the fireball.

'Hiccup! Are you okay?'

'Yeah, maybe a bit crispy.'

'I'm sorry. I was so stupid. You aren't that fireproof and I...'

'Stop it. I'm fine and… I don't think you did it alone. When we were flying past those rocks…'

'Yes, I noticed. I think your mind is getting stronger, and the bond between us.'

'Well, that is good. Maybe we should land for a while to figure that out. You should also rest your wings. They are hurting, right?'

'I could keep going, but you are hungry so we should eat.'

'…'

'Oh man, I forgot to bring the fish. Dam it Astrid.'

'Don't worry about it. Now that you fixed my tail you don't need to worry about carrying food for me anymore.'

Toothless flapped his wings to get a little more altitude and turned a bit to reach better looking area. Hiccup's foot still flipped the pedal perfectly in sync with the dragon's movements. Toothless scanned the sea in front of him, his sharp eyesight able to see much deeper than Hiccup's. After finding what he was searching for, Toothless gathered another blast, much bigger than the previous one, and shot it straight into the water. The explosion threw a pillar of water high enough in the air for Toothless to fly straight through it.

'Well, at least that was more refreshing than the last one.' Hiccup commented.

'If you liked it, watch below.'

Toothless could practically feel a smile appear on Hiccup's face when the hatchling saw dozens of dead fish floating on the surface. One low pass over the water was enough for Toothless to fill his mouth and all four feet with most of the fish he had killed. Hiccup chuckled.

'So that's how you satisfy that bottomless pit you call a stomach.'

'Hey, flying takes lot of energy.'

'I know.' Hiccup scratched Toothless' head. 'Let's find a place to land. I think there is a beach behind those cliffs.'

Just as Hiccup said, there was a small rocky beach. Toothless dropped the fish into one pile and then turned around to land.

'Bud, we need to get some firewood so I can cook the fish.'

'I still don't understand why would you want to burn your food.'

'I guess we have different tastes. There are trees soon after the cliffs. I don't think anyone will steal your catch, if we go get some firewood.'

'Okay, we'll go get you something to burn.'

They landed about a dozen meters from the treeline and Hiccup jumped off the saddle. They walked side by side to the closest trees, Hiccup's delicate paws brushing against Toothless' scaled shoulder. Besides that feeling, his attention was attracted to the scent of a rabbit. He already had nice pile of fish but bit of meat wouldn't hurt. Toothless stepped a bit aside tracking the scent.

'Let me gather some branches and we can return to eat on the beach.'

'Okay. I think I just found us more food.'

'Really? That pile of fish wasn't…' Hiccup suddenly stopped and Toothless could feel surprise radiate from him. The dragon turned his head.

To see his hatchling several meters away.

His mouth literally fell open, rabbit forgotten. They stayed there staring at each other probably for several minutes.

'Toothless, can you… hear my thoughts.'

'Yes.'

After few more seconds of silence, the small Viking practically jumped at the dragon and hugged his scaled neck. Toothless brought his head down to respond by brushing his chin against Hiccup's back, while purring.

'Finally.' Hiccup's one thought included more feelings than the equivalent word could ever have conveyed.

After a moment, he pulled away from the hug, looking Toothless in the eyes and brought his hands visibly away from the dragon.

'We can actually talk without touching.'

'It's great, not that I had problem with how things were before.' Toothless nudged Hiccup's chest affectionately with his snout. Physical contact was important for dragons.

'At least it makes things easier. We should see how far it works.'

'I wish we could talk during the times you are in the village, but can we eat first. I know you are at least as hungry as I am.'

'Okay, I'll gather the firewood.'

It only took a moment for Hiccup to gather some branches and then they flew back to the beach. Toothless was lightly relieved seeing all his fish were still there. As soon as they landed and Hiccup had climbed off his back, Toothless pushed his face into the pile of fish. He didn't eat any of them yet but sniffed out the best two fishes that he had, which he then tossed next to Hiccup who just finished placing the branches for the campfire.

'Thanks bud. You mind?'

Hiccup didn't need to explain what he meant. Small stream of plasma was more than enough to light up the dry branches. The scratches Toothless got in reward were more than worth it. He watched as Hiccup used one remaining branch to impale one of the fish Toothless had given him. A clever trick to avoid burning his paws with the fish.

'Do you need more?'

'No thanks. I'm good.'

'Okay.' Toothless shifted his body bit closer to Hiccup so the hatchling could lean on him and then started finally eating for himself.

He only had time to eat two fish and Hiccup hadn't even started his, when familiar squeaks reached Toothless' ears. He would have recognized the sound of Terrible Terror anywhere. Seeing the four small dragons however made him upset, not so much because he knew they were after the fish, but they reminded the dragon of his lost family. Hiccup could sense that. Toothless felt hatchling's soft calming touch on his scaled neck. The terrors on the other hand didn't know what calm meant.

'Food.'

'Fish.'

'Gimme.'

Even when covering his food with his front paws, Toothless was actually wondering if he should just let the little dragons have one to get them to leave them be. He knew it wasn't easy being a Terror. The thought disappeared when they took one of HICCUP's fishes straight from next to the hatchling.

'DON'T take HIS food!'

The roar he let out was enough to make all four little dragons jump from being scared. Hiccup was startled too, but mostly from the suddenness of the roar. Most of the little dragons got the message and backed off but the one who had actually taken the fish didn't. Toothless had to grab the fish, and pull it from the smaller dragon's jaws and drop it back next to Hiccup.

'No, my fish. Gimme back my fish.' The little dragon was brave if nothing. Toothless' own family members hadn't been that foolish even when the Night Fury was on their side.

It didn't change the situation though. The Terror stole from Hiccup and was now threatening to breathe fire at Toothless' face. The small Terror's flame couldn't even warm up his scales, but there was also the risk he might hit Hiccup whose skin was easily burnable. When the Terror had gathered some gas into his throat, Toothless let out a tiny blast that lit the gas before his opponent could breathe it out.

The burst of flames made the little dragon inflate for an instance, but Toothless knew there wasn't any real damage since there was so little of the gas. The Terror staggered side to side for a moment.

"Huh, not so fireproof from the inside are you. Here you go."

And then Hiccup took the fish Toothless had just saved from being stolen and threw it to the small dragon. Toothless might have pouted because of it if it wasn't for the fact he understood what Hiccup had said. Well, he still didn't technically understand the words, but when Hiccup spoke he knew exactly what the hatchling was talking about, almost like he had said it all in Toothless' mind as he usually did.

After recovering from that surprise, Toothless pulled out another fish to give to Hiccup. It was obvious that he ate too little anyway. Toothless wouldn't let Hiccup eat any less for giving out his food, even if the dragon had to give up some of his.

'Thanks bud' Hiccup noted the dragon's action, but then he sighed looking at the Terror now curled next to him. 'I just wish others could see this side of dragons. Everything we have known about you guys is wrong.'

'They don't even know you. If they did, they would appreciate how amazing you are.'

Toothless left his last few fish alone to coo softly at the hatchling who had finally started eating his. It also helped to beg back some of the attention Hiccup had been giving to the Terror that was now dozing off next to them.