Part One - #20 State of Being

Toothless woke to the sound of crashing waves, beating the formless sands into curvature as they carried the minuscule rocks out into the ocean. He let out a yawn as he slowly moved away from the still-sleeping form beside him and stood up, stretching and cracking his tired bones with a set of satisfying cracks and pops. He sighed softly at the pleasuring cracks before he turned to the rest of his company. Praze was completely out of it, sprawled across the sand in a complete and deep sleep. Toothless couldn't complain; the young fury had gone through a lot. He turned quietly to see Ace sleeping peacefully and he smiled, taking in the sight. He could imagine what Hiccup would say. Toothless, you found quite the catch, eh? Toothless couldn't argue with that. Ace was the most beautiful and exquisite being he had ever laid eyes on.

He blushed when he noticed that he was staring at her, and quickly moved off to the water to swim in the morning water's refreshing crispness. Today's the start of a new day, Toothless thought as he walked across the shallows, his nerves tingling from the chill of the water splashing up on him. He thought of everyone he left behind on Berq, and thought about what they'd say when he returned. He then stopped at the edge of the shallows and blushed heavily, realising the onslaught that would occur when they saw Ace. He would be embarrassed out of his mind, especially by Cloudjumper and Stormfly, and he didn't even want to think about Hiccup's insinuations.

I'm in for a lot… Toothless thought as he sighed and dived deep into the depths of the freezing water, almost shocking himself with its harsh cold. He quickly acclimated to it and noticed movement in the water. Fish, he thought before an idea popped in his head. I should probably catch us all some breakfast. With that, Toothless darted around and began to catch as much fish as he could before returning to shore with his mouth full. When he returned, Ace was already awake and stretching. Praze was still out like a light which made him chuckle, causing Ace to notice him.

"Oh, hey, good morning," she greeted him as he dropped the fish from his mouth.

"Morning," he replied, shaking himself off lightly. "Sleep well?" he asked and she nodded, a smile appearing on her face.

"Yourself?"

"Yeah, especially when I get to sleep next to you. You're very comfortable."

"Why thanks. You're not so bad yourself," she replied, both their smiles lighting up their faces.

"If I have to listen to this every morning…" a sleepy voice began and they both turned to see Praze yawn and stretch. "I would willingly go deaf." Toothless narrowed his eyes at him.

"I take it you didn't want any fish this morning?" Toothless asked flatly and Praze seemed to contemplate it for a moment.

"Fine…" he muttered sleepily. "I won't talk anymore."

Ace chuckled lightly at Praze's fleeting cheekiness, smiling at his and Toothless' banter. "Better be careful, Praze," she began and he sleepily looked at her. "When you're better I can't guarantee you'll be a safe as you are now."

Praze's face immediately dropped and he tentatively looked over to Toothless, and he legitimately felt fear from the pure deviance he felt radiating off the larger dragon. What have I done…

"Ok. So. I'm going to have to lay down some ground rules before we get to Berq," Toothless began and the atmosphere began to change back to a lighter one.

Phew… Praze thought with a sigh of relief. "Such as?" he asked.

"Well, for starters, there are a lot of humans. Humans that will be very intrigued by the appearance of another not one, but two Night Furies. I suggest maintaining a healthy level of stealth because you'll be looked and gawked at a lot. Some may way to even come up and pet you – mainly the little ones," Toothless added, almost darkly, and Ace began to laugh.

"That sounds interesting. I think I like the sound of everyone looking at me," Ace said, but Toothless began shaking his head.

"You begin to feel completely enclosed by them all and you can't escape their grasp…" he muttered before he noticed Praze was unnaturally silent. "I'm sure you'd love that, eh Praze? All the attention will be focused on you," he added with a smirk.

Praze's eyes were wide and he was stone cold. The thought of all those people… everyone near him, touching him, focused on him… He shook his head to clear those truly terrifying thoughts. He looked up to Toothless. "Please… don't tell others about me…" he pleaded. "There's nothing I hate more than having attention focused on me. I prefer to stay away from others."

Toothless grinned evilly.

"Oh, don't worry Praze. When I'm Alpha again, you're such a good speaker that I just won't be able to resist having you be my advocate. You'll speak in front of every dragon on Berq," Toothless jested, emphasising the 'every'.

Praze began to shudder. "T-Toothless, I'll do anything – just don't make others notice me…"

Toothless grinned evilly once more.

Damn it… Praze thought. Oh well. They can't notice what they don't see. He stopped his purposeful shaking and returned to his normal demeanour.

It was true that Praze was legitimately scared of being around to many others… being confined, with freedom restrained… To Praze, there was really nothing worse. It was an extreme case of claustrophobia, one that surpassed physical fear and divulged into mental and metaphorical fear. It wasn't just the fear of physical walls. Mental and metaphorical walls, too. However, just the thought of it wasn't enough to fully paralyse him. He was still calm, he could jump that bridge when he got to it.

"Oh well," Praze replied flatly and Toothless stared at him for a moment.

Praze, you are ridiculous. You're so composed… Toothless thought. You are frightened, I can tell... but you can disassociate so easily…

"Anyway," Toothless began as he cleared his throat and dissipated the awkward mood, "what shall we do today?"

"How about we just stay here a have a relaxing day on the beach?" Praze murmured, obviously still tired. "I think I'm…" he paused his sentence to yawn loudly, "… just gonna sleep." With that, Praze returned back to his position and shut his eyes.

"Well then…" Toothless trailed off, slowly beginning to realise just how tired he felt as well. "I think that's a good idea." Unfortunately his proposal had no recipient, as Ace had already followed suite.

And so, he shrugged his shoulders before conceding and laying back onto the inviting sand.

Most of the days followed the same agenda. They woke, ate, Praze slept the whole day, Toothless and Ace would often take a walk, but all up the days rolled by swiftly and calmly. They spent most of the time sleeping, but they still had some times when it was fun and exciting, like when Toothless and Ace had another water fight. Praze had to watch from the sidelines, despite wanting to join in so badly, but he knew he couldn't.

Eventually, the week had passed, and Toothless and Ace stared at Praze expectantly while he laid on the ground in confusion, having just been woken up.

"What?" Praze asked, completely discombobulated. They stared at him intently until his mind figured it out. Which wasn't long at all. "Okay, I haven't actually flown yet. It was only a rough estimate so let me try." With that, Toothless and Ace continued to watch him as he slowly got up, stretched, and unfurled his wings. He stretched them out, testing them, before killing the suspense by jumping into the air and speeding off up to the clouds… and he just breathed the delicious air, laughing as he did so, before he eventually landed back down on the ground.

"Woah…" Ace murmured, amazed.

"Stop going to so fast, you're going to hurt yourself again!" Toothless scolded him, but Praze just laughed.

"Nah, I wasn't going fast at all," Praze replied, and he truly meant it. "At least, it didn't seem all that fast to me. Shall we go?"

"Oh – Yes!" Ace exclaimed, incredibly eager to finally be on their way.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Toothless grinned as he unfurled his own wings and took off.

"Yes!" Ace yelled as she followed him, leaving Praze to watch them soar off. He slowly turned around, and took in the whole of Amicus.

"I'll be back," he said as he gave a sort of bow, before standing up again and smiling. "Thanks for everything."

With that, Praze turned and speedily took off, and suddenly found himself next to Ace and Toothless.

"Woah!" the two older dragons yelled, completely surprised. Praze was just on the island, already five hundred metres behind them, and in under a second he'd appeared right next to them. "What the hell Praze!?" Toothless yelled. "What was that? How did you do that!?"

Praze didn't understand what happened either. He just thought he was there, and was instantly there. He turned to Toothless quickly, and the larger dragon could just see the trace of a fluorescent ice-blue emanate from Praze's eyes before quickly disappearing. "I don't know," Praze replied before laughing. "Oh well, let's go to Berq!" he yelled as he raced ahead. Ace and Toothless turned to each other and just shrugged.

Interesting… Toothless thought.

An entire day's flying was certainly quite the task for the young Night Fury. It was already dark but they'd found an island to rest on and Praze was out cold before they'd even settled. Which left the elder Night Furies some space to talk as they sat up against each other by the fire.

"So..." Ace began, not finding the words she was looking for. Toothless looked at her as he smiled. She smiled back, remembering what she was going to say. "Any other pointers I need to know before we get to Berq?"

Toothless thought for a moment before smiling again. "Well, you're going to cop a lot, but other than that it's pretty much just as straightforward as it sounds."

Ace seemed puzzled. "And just what am I going to cop?" she questioned.

"Do you really want to know?" She nodded. "Alright then, basically it's just everyone is going to have a jest at 'us'." Toothless made a show of pointing between her and himself.

"And just what are they jesting at, Toothless..." she trailed off and the male dragon began to feel increasingly uncomfortable. On the inside, Ace grinned humorously.

"About us being mates and things like that," Toothless replied shortly, slightly looking away. There was a moment of silence as the fire cracked away, its embers burning into the night sky, before Ace spoke up again.

"What's so bad about that?" she asked coyly, leaning into him further.

"Well, u-um, we aren't mates though... at l-least... not y-yet..." he murmured with a large blush occupying his face, his voice almost a whisper. He realised what he just said and quickly tried to cover it, "I-I mean only if y-you want us to be mates..." At this point Toothless' heart began to race.

"Toothless..." Ace began, and Toothless turned to look at her, a weak smile on his lips. "I do want us to be mates..." she trailed off as she closed her eyes and laid her head down on her paws, leaning her head up against his shoulder. Toothless didn't think he was even capable of speaking anymore after she said that.

"I..." he spoke up before he cleared his throat and Ace opened her eyes again. "I... want to be your mate. I w-want us to be mates as well..." he trailed off as he looked to her again and his heart almost burst from what he saw. The deep undying love that was in her eyes stunned him into silence.

"So..." She slowly left his side and stood up, gently unfurling her wings and stretching as she looked up to the sky. Toothless watched her intently, silently taking in what she was quite possibly about to do. A moment passed before she looked at him out of the corner of her eyes and spoke again. "... do you think you can catch me?"

A/N

On camp at the moment so I wrote this in the free time I had :) I hope you enjoyed it and if so, please leave a review! I noticed a few of you have stopped reviewing but I'm sure if you're just being lazy, don't like the story anymore, or a just annoyed with me for not updating in a while. So yeah. Do let me know and remember that I provide free entertainment so you shouldn't really be annoyed with having to wait when my life gets busy. I did just give you three chapters relatively quite close together, didn't I? I'm sure that makes up for anything else :)

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So, that was 10 reviews. Let's try to get 11 this time? I know it's certainly possible; there's flippin' 71 people or so following the story. Also, we have 12,000 views now ;) thanks a lot everyone! Please continue to give your support!