Next chapter starts the Iron Man story line!

As always, thank you EchoMoonstone for betaing!

Tony threw his full focus on school and dragons. He didn't let himself cry anymore, didn't waste time wishing for things that were no longer possible. He was taking over SI when he turned twenty one, and he was currently eighteen. That gave him three years to learn as much as possible and get himself together enough to handle something that huge.

It was strange. He was less concerned about his responsibility as the head of the enormous company that was Stark Industries than he had been about leading the Dragon Academy. But honestly, part of him would be relieved if SI went under. If the media turned away from him, and he could just train dragons and not have to put up the front the Vikings had taught him he didn't need.

But that wasn't going to happen. So he worked his ass off, taking a ridiculous number of classes at once and studying like mad. It had been a long time since he'd considered his genius to be his most important quality, and he still didn't consider it most important, but he was being reminded how useful it was. Because while he had to study and do homework, he didn't have to waste as much time on his homework as a lot of his classmates did. So he still had time for the dragons, and on weekends, he partied.

Partying was complicated. Toothless liked to fly at dawn and at dusk, and Tony would be damned if he did anything to lower the quality of Toothless's life more than he already had. So he went to parties immediately after their evening flight, got wasted, and in the morning Toothless would poke Tony awake with his nose and Tony would stagger out of bed, sometimes still a little drunk, and go flying.

He felt guilty for how he'd treated that girl he'd slept with, whose name he still didn't know. The next person he brought to bed was a senior, a guy with dark hair and eyes, tall with a broad frame. He looked as far from Astrid as Tony could manage.

The media freaked out, and Tony tried his best not to freak out with them. Because they didn't matter. Howard wasn't going to read about Tony's roll in the hay with a man and come for his throat. And it wasn't like Vikings cared who someone slept with. Hell, Mildew fucked his sheep and everyone just turned a blind eye. The first time Tony had walked in on Gobber playing tonsil - hockey with whatever man had caught his eye that week had had Tony flushing bright red and bolting from the shop. Which had led to the most awkward conversation with Stoick he'd ever had.

Sleeping with the senior caused a stir big enough to warrant a personal visit from Obie, the first since Tony moved into his house. Tony didn't really care what scolding Obie was going to give him. Toothless clearly agreed, since he was already snarling and they weren't even in the house yet. Tony didn't really listen while Obie talked, working on a compressed, spring-loaded canister for Zippleback gas he could put in the other side of his sword hilt. Obie's words, words like, the media, and have to be more careful Tony, and your father wouldn't want, and I'm not judging but, washed over his head. He didn't care what the media said about who he slept with. They were just Southerners. Besides, the more they focused on him, the less they focused on Toothless or the Vikings.

He never slept with the same person twice, male or female. It was always in the dark, fast enough that they didn't question why Tony didn't take off his shirt. It wasn't just for distraction; he was just so used to being touched. Vikings touch each other constantly, just a casual pat on the back or a clap on the shoulder. Suddenly, all the physical touch was gone. Southerners, especially Americans, don't touch strangers, or even friends. Only romantic partners or close family usually touch a lot, and Tony didn't have that. Even if he did, he had his scars that the world couldn't know about. His back was a mess of raised, ropey lines that disgusted him to look at, and the white, too-smooth skin of the Mark on his shoulder shamed him even knowing Southerners didn't understand what it meant.

Typically, he wasn't really bothered by his scars. He had a bunch of little ones, from working in the forge, nicking himself on blades he was working on, the one on his palm from when he killed the Outcast, and other miscellaneous accidents. His leg was a mess of scarring, but he didn't care. After all, Vikings either didn't care about scars or they liked the proof of their battles. But there was no cool, badass story about the Mark and the whip scars. They were physical proof that not even Vikings that he still considered family could care about him forever.

The only ones who touched him were Toothless and Jarvis. And Jarvis still lived in New York, although Tony visited when he could. And Obie tried, but Toothless still hated him and refused to let him touch Tony, or even get close enough to try. So Tony had sex. A lot of it. The media ate it up, and couldn't seem to decide if they loved him or hated him. Tony didn't really care, as long as their support for Toothless didn't waver.

Jim Rhodes didn't party too often. But he'd finished an exam he'd been stressing about for a few weeks, and thought he deserved the break. The party was appropriately loud, and everyone had the famed red solo cups full of "soup" - which was a giant bowl filled with whatever alcohol the guests brought and dumped in. It wasn't very safe, since you couldn't know what the alcohol content was, so Jim only had one cup. It was enough to give him a pleasant buzz, but not make him drunk.

He had fun, danced with a pretty girl, although he struck out when she ended up leaving early with friends. He chatted with his friends, and had a good time.

The party was winding down when he found the Stark kid - everyone knew of him, and his dragon - on the floor, drooling against the side of the couch he was leaning on.

Usually, Jim wouldn't get involved. The kid just reeked of trouble - and booze - and Jim didn't need it. But no one else seemed interested in helping him, and from what Jim could tell, the kid didn't come with anyone. So Jim hauled the kid up, who was conscious but barely, and half - carried him to his car.

Tony Stark wasn't really a kid, and he didn't know why he thought of him as one. He was close to the same age as the other kids in his class, thanks to his time with the Vikings that kind of forced him to take a few gap years. But he was so young when he'd finished high school, and was several years younger than Jim. Especially since Jim had taken two years off himself to spend time with his mother as she went through the final stages of cancer.

Everyone knew where Tony Stark lived, and Jim had no trouble finding the house. As he pulled up, he was pleased to see the light was on at the front porch. That would make it a little easier to get the kid inside. Jim dragged the kid out of the car, careful not to hit Stark's head against the roof. Stark was mumbling against his shoulder and making some pathetic attempts to move his feet along. Jim was pretty sure he wasn't really awake anymore.

The front door was unlocked, making Jim tisk in disapproval. For someone like Stark, who'd spent so much of his life in the public eye, Jim would have expected him to be smart enough to keep his house locked up tight.

Then he felt like an idiot when he rounded the corner and came face-to-face with a very irritated Night Fury. Which explained why Stark didn't bother locking his door.

He froze, and the dragon's lips curled back in a toothy grimace, a harsh, bubbling hiss leaking between the Night Fury's teeth.

Stark was out for the count. He wasn't going to be helpful.

The dragon - Toothless, Jim was pretty sure that was his name - unfurled his wings wider and opened his mouth, a snarl ripping out of his chest. His gleaming green eyes were locked on Jim, with the intensity of a hunter on the prowl. Suddenly, Jim realized how this must look to a dragon that was infamously protective of his rider.

So he took a chance.

"Hey," he said, keeping his tone as casual as he could manage. "Toothless, right?" The dragon didn't respond. Jim wasn't sure why he expected him too. That gaze was just so damn intelligent. "He had a bit too much to drink, so I figured I'd give him a lift back here. Is there somewhere I can put him?" For a few long seconds, the only sounds in the house was the building creaking around them and the trees rustling outside. Then Toothless made a low, huffing sound and suddenly whipped around, trotting down the hall. After a few steps, he stopped and looked back at Jim as if asking well? You coming or not? Jim let out a soft laugh and followed along, dragging Stark with him. He was glad the dragon was apparently helping him now, because although Stark wasn't a big guy, he was sure getting heavy.

The dragon led the way to a bedroom, which had dirty dishes, old clothes, pieces of metal and what looked like some kind of circuitry scattered around. There was a large slab of rock in the corner that had black soot all over it. There was a fin like the one the dragon was currently wearing on the floor by the bed. Jim hauled the kid to the unmade bed, dumped him on it. Under Toothless's watchful eye, Jim dragged the kid's belt off, followed by his one shoe. He hesitated over Stark's prosthetic, then decided it wasn't his place to mess with that and left it where it was. He grabbed the kid's shirt, pulled it up with the intention of pulling it over Stark's head and tucking him into the bed.

The sight of the white scar on Stark's shoulder had him freezing.

It was clearly purposeful. Some kind of symbol, although Jim had no idea what. There were white, rough lines on Stark's shoulders, leading over his back. Jim pulled him up a little, and the sight of Stark's back knocked the breath out of him.

A low, rumbling growl had his eyes snapping up, and he saw Toothless standing a couple feet away, glowering at him. Seems like their little moment in the hallway was over.

Jim quickly got Stark's shirt tugged back down, guilt stirring. He had no idea how Stark would get marks like that. He was so damn protective of the Vikings, and he'd never mentioned anything that would lead to scars like that during his interviews.

He tucked the kid under the blankets, put a sealed water bottle and a bottle of painkillers on the nightstand, after pushing some papers aside to make space. He walked, Toothless on his heels, to the front door. He let himself out, and didn't even have time to close it before it crashed shut behind him. Through the window he saw Toothless trotting back towards Stark's room. Jim shook his head with a smile and climbed into his car to head back to his apartment.

Tony groaned, head splitting.

Toothless's nose poked Tony's rib again, huffing impatiently. Tony groaned again. His mouth tasted like a mouse had crawled in there and died. But the lure of flying, combined with his refusal to let Toothless down, had him blindly swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Only to stop, wincing in pain and grabbing at his bad leg.

His prosthetic was still on. He stared at it blankly, and realized he was still in his party clothes. Suddenly, he remembered passing out at the party. The punch bowl must have had a higher alcohol content than he had thought.

He stood up, grimacing at the burn from wearing the metal foot for too long, and limped heavily over to the door. Toothless stepped up to Tony's side, and Tony wrapped an arm around him gratefully, letting him take some of his weight. He peeked out the front door. His truck wasn't there, so it must still be at the party. Meaning he either walked back, Toothless came and got him, or someone brought him.

Tony hobbled back to his room, investigating. There was water and Aspirin on his nightstand. His belt and shoe was on the floor by his bed. Looks like someone had brought him back. That was a nerve-racking thought, but Toothless didn't seem worried, and Tony couldn't see anything misplaced or missing. Tony sighed, shaking his head. Didn't matter. Toothless was fine and his locked box of Berk things was still under the bed. Everything else was replaceable. The water bottle was still sealed, so he took two painkillers and drank the whole bottle. Then he put on his leather flight armor, resecured his metal foot onto his aching stump, and walked out.

The impact to the ground was jarring. Even wrapped in the safety of Toothless's wings, stars flashed in the darkness of Tony's eyes, squeezed shut in preparation for the impact. He could feel blood running down the side of his head from where he'd hit it on Toothless's metal shoulder stirrup. Toothless cried out as they skidded across the ground, slid to a stop. His wings loosened their tight grip, and Tony clumsily crawled out of Toothless's embrace, over to his head to check on him. Toothless was already groaning, shaking his head and rolling over to stand up. Tony sighed in relief, then laughed a little.

"Looks like we need some more practice, huh bud? Back to the water?"

Toothless grunted, shaking out his wings and stretching. Tony was relieved to see that Toothless didn't look too painful or stiff from their hard landing in a parking lot. People were pointing, but Tony and Toothless were both content to ignore them. Tony sighed a little at the smashed pavement that was the result of a thousand pounds of dragon plummeting from the sky.

Tony made arrangements to have the entire parking lot repaved, then flew Toothless - at a slower pace - to MIT. Toothless napped on the roof while Tony was in class. When he got out of his lecture, Tony called Toothless down and they started off towards the open parking lot, where Tony would mount up and take off for their house. Then he'd do his homework, take Toothless out for his evening flight and watch the sun go down. After that he'd work on his projects until he fell asleep on the couch he put down there after his tantrum. That was their usual routine.

This time, Toothless suddenly let out a loud, happy bark and tore away from Tony's side. Tony stared after him, mouth hanging open, as Toothless bounded after a student. The guy Toothless was currently bouncing around, grinning gummily, was a tall black kid with a leanly muscular build that was laughing and patting Toothless as if they were lifelong friends. Tony hadn't seen Toothless react that openly towards anyone since they'd arrived in the South. Even Jarvis, although he and Toothless got along great now, used to be growled and snapped at. Tony slowly walked over to them, unable to help but feel suspicious as Toothless accepted chin scratches.

The kid looked up with a grin, without stopping petting Toothless. "Hey! Tony, right?"

Tony tipped his head, eyeing him. "Know anyone else with a Night Fury?"

The kid snorted, oddly cheerful. Of course, Toothless tended to have the effect on people - when he was in a good mood. "Smart ass. I'm Jim. James Rhodes if you want to be official. I drove you home last night."

It made Tony nervous to know he had been so out of it that a total stranger could drive him home and tuck him into bed and have no memory of it.

"Guess you and Toothless buddied up while I was out huh? What, did you watch the game together or something?" There was no reason for Tony to be so bitter. But it was weird. He hadn't seen Toothless like this towards anyone in the South.

Rhodes snorted. "Yeah, right. I thought he was going to kill me for a minute there. And he chased me out the second I set you down."

That sounded more like the Toothless he was used to here in the South. But it was interesting. Maybe it was because Rhodes helped him when Toothless couldn't. Or maybe Toothless just liked him.

He and Rhodes ended up talking for a long time. He was nice. Tony could see what Toothless saw in him. Rhodes asked Tony if he wanted to study that night. Although Tony wanted to work on his sword some more, he agreed to go to Rhodes's after his evening flight.

He tried to sleep with Rhodes, but it became apparent pretty fast that Rhodes was straight as an arrow. Which was disappointing, as well as puzzling. Rhodes also bought them a pizza, and wouldn't hear of letting Tony pay. So he didn't want sex, or money - unless he was playing the long game. Toothless adored him in a way Tony hadn't seen him behave with any Southerners. While they went over their notes and munched on pizza, Toothless alternated between trying to swipe Tony's slice of pizza and playing with Rhodes.

Over the next months, Rhodes became Tony's first Southern friend. Tony became Tones and Rhodes became Rhodey. They spent long nights studying and drinking, hung out at Tony's house on the weekends. Rhodes enjoyed watching Tony work with dragons and was interested in the things Tony created. Although Tony still slept around and partied, Rhodey was a non-sexual outlet for Tony's touch starvation. He never minded Tony leaning against him while they watched movies, or putting his feet in Rhodey's lap while they studied, or throwing his arm around his shoulders while they walked to class.

It was … nice. Having a human friend again.

Tony created his first robot after finals, while he was exhausted and drunk. He decided to blame that instead of his rusty programming skills for why the bot was a bit … special.

When the bot - program named DUM-E - whirled to life with a quizzical hum, Tony didn't even have time to whoop in excitement before Toothless lunged to his feet with a snarl, fire boiling in his maw.

Tony had forgotten that this was all new to Toothless. It took him getting between the bot and the Night Fury and coaxing Toothless closer, one hand on the cowering bot's arm and the other extended to his dragon before Toothless let the fire die in his mouth. Tony was grateful when Toothless gave the bot a suspicious sniff and edged a little closer. Tony spent a few hours teaching the bot - and it could learn, his strange, broken piece of code could learn - and encouraging Toothless to help him show DUM-E items around the shop. Toothless was still a little leery of the machine that did things without humans making it do them, but within a few hours Toothless had warmed to the little robot and was happily bringing DUM-E things like a wrench, one of Tony's sketched-out diagrams, a hammer, and when he regurgitated a fish for the bot Tony knew that DUM-E was officially in the family. Although Toothless was pretty insulted when DUM-E didn't eat it, no matter how much Tony told him that the bot couldn't eat.

It hurt knowing that the Vikings he loved would hate his little curious bot, simply because it - he - was Southern technology.

He tried not to think about it.

Tony turned nineteen.

He wanted a way to glide along next to Toothless while they flew. Not fly, because he and Toothless only flew together, but both of them gliding. He experimented with different ways to do it, but ultimately simple was better. He used simple leather wings that he could roll and tie to his pant legs, making it easy to pull them in flight. He created a dorsal fin that popped up when he pressed a button on his chest, and it stabilized him. Neither it, nor his wings could withstand the wind at Toothless's full speed, but even Tony didn't feel comfortable trying to glide at that speed. At least, not without some way to have a little bit of control.

It was exciting to glide alongside Toothless. His new backfins made it easy for him to catch up to Tony and catch him, but if they were gliding in the city or somewhere crowded they still crashed sometimes. Rhodey was both excited and alarmed by it, but that was how he felt about most of the things Tony did.

Tony was in class when Jarvis died.

It was a stroke. He was already gone by the time Tony and Toothless bolted into the hospital.

After the funeral, Tony went straight to the nest and stayed there for a week, not caring about his classes. First the Vikings, now Jarvis. It seemed Tony was just not allowed to have anyone care about him for long.

As much as he wanted to, Tony couldn't stay at the nest and hide with his grief forever. When he got back and turned on his phone, he had a couple missed calls from Obie and too many to easily count from Rhodey.

Getting back to his lonely routine was slow and painful, like trying to move when your body was stiff with cold. Rhodey helped, although Tony was afraid to depend on him too much because he was sure he would leave too. But Toothless would never leave.

That, he was sure of.

He needed a way to catch himself when he was gliding. If they were gliding in town, sometimes he tried to catch himself on a roof or something, but his fingers could never find purchase and he'd end up tumbling down. Toothless could hit the wall the same way Tony would, dig his claws in and pull himself up whereas Tony would fall.

Tony studied his claws closely, and collected some Gronckle Iron from the Nest.

His claws were like Toothless's, but a little shorter and slightly more narrow, so that they were proportional to Tony. He made them about an inch and a half long, curved and razor sharp. They were perfect for what he wanted. But they were long enough to get in the way, so he made them retractable and added a button to the side of his hand he could hit with with his thumb that allowed him to unsheathe them. The curve of the retracted claws fit nicely against the tips of his fingers.

When Tony was twenty, he started a project, file name JARVIS.

It took months. It had to be perfect. He had to be perfect.

Like with DUM-E, it took time for Toothless to adjust to the voice in the ceiling. But Tony knew his dragon trusted him, and that trust meant he would give the AI a chance.

JARVIS was like a child as he learned the world. His voice was achly familiar. He wasn't Jarvis, and the more the AI developed the more clear that became. Rhodey was worried that Tony was trying to replace human interaction with bots, and considering that Rhodey was the only human Tony saw on a regular basis that concern might be well-founded. But Tony didn't care. He had Toothless, he got to work with wild dragons often, he had Rhodey, and he had his little bot children.

It wasn't the same. Tony had experienced the real thing, real family, real friends. But they were gone. All he had left of that was Toothless, and now Rhodey. So he turned his efforts to helping JARVIS and DUM-E learn and blossom. And he loved them. Not as much as Toothless, no one as much as Toothless, but it was nice to have something other than dragons that he knew would love him without question, that he knew would never leave him. Because he still wasn't sure Rhodey wouldn't end up ditching him.

Tony graduated summa cum laude when he was twenty one, with two Master degrees in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. He immediately took over SI. Rhodey, who had graduated a year earlier had joined the Air Force, and it only took a little finagling to make him the liaison between Stark Industries and the military. At least that made it less likely that he would just forget about Tony.

Tony still missed the sound of the water. So he searched until he found a piece of land on a sheer cliff, where the sound of waves was deafening. It was perfect.

He bought it, and planned out the house himself. It would be big, even bigger than the old Stark Mansion, and lots of windows. It would have pine wood floors, like his and Stoick's house had, although these were polished. It had a fireplace in his room. It had a forge in the basement. It was a cross between the expensive mansion everyone expected of him and the past he still hung on to with his fingernails.

Tony wasn't sure how to run SI. He tried to find a balance between Howard and Stoick. Howard's business sense, Stoick's morals. He tried desperately to be the genius everyone expected him to be, and the Chief he expected of himself.

When he finally caved to Obie's urging to hire a personal assistant, the line of applicants went out the door. Tony didn't like hiring people. He hired people to hire people. But Obie was adamant that Tony did it personally. He had started out with Toothless next to him, to see their reactions to him, but three interviews in and the dragon was napping in the corner and nothing could convince to him to pay attention. Within an hour, Tony was so desperately bored he was almost ready to train a dragon to just be his assistant.

Virginia Potts was nothing special on paper. Her credentials were perfect, but all of them were. Otherwise they wouldn't have even gotten in front of him for an interview. She was tall but skinny, which was a trait he still didn't like about Southerners. And she jumped a little when she saw Toothless in the corner, which didn't help her.

Tony flicked his fingers at her, already knowing she wasn't the one. "Get me a coffee," he said, voice short. "Cream, no sugar."

Potts froze, and if Tony was looking he might have seen the flash of fire in her eyes. And Tony Stark always respected fire.

She dropped her resume on the desk and whirled without a word, stalking back out. Tony groaned and stretched, his back popping. The sound had Toothless blinking sleepy, crooning a content little sound. Tony walked a couple of laps around the spacious office, and when he heard heels clicking towards him he dropped back into his seat with a sigh. To his surprise, Potts came back, coffee in hand. She set it down in front of him.

Tony never liked people without a spine, and her silent acceptance of his rudeness reassured him that she definitely wasn't the right fit for the job. He hesitated a little when Toothless's head popped up, nostrils flaring and eyes on the cup. But if it was poisoned he would have already been over the desk, knocked the cup out of Tony's hand and killed Potts. So Tony shrugged and took a gulp.

It took a second for it to hit, but when it did Tony lurched forward and started coughing desperately, eyes watering and mouth burning. Because the little viper had put pepper flakes into his damn coffee. And although Tony was mostly over his sensitivity to heavily - flavored foods, he still didn't care for extremely strong flavors. Especially not in his coffee. He glared at Toothless, annoyed the dragon didn't give him a better warning. Toothless grinned at him, pleased as punch.

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" Potts asked, her voice cool as a summer breeze.

Tony hired her on the spot.

Hiring Happy Hogan was even more spontaneous than Potts, now affectionately nicknamed Pepper. Tony had been at the beach with Toothless investigation reports of Sharkworms. The tidal class dragons did prefer warmer waters, but it was seeming more and more likely that someone might have seen the shadow of hammerhead shark and panicked. The sound of Toothless's fire had his head whipping up, hand instantly going to his sword on his leg and his body tensing for a fight. But there wasn't a fight. Instead, there was a man tossing sticks into the air, laughing as Toothless blasted them into an impressive burst of ash.

Between his skills and Toothless's power, he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself.

He hired the man as his personal bodyguard anyway.

Years passed. Tony got older. SI grew wildly under his command. Rhodey didn't abandon him like he thought he would after college. Happy and Pepper became more than just employees, but friends. He and Toothless remained glued at the hip. He continued to visit the nest, work with wild dragons. He managed to find a small, unhealthy patch of Dragon Nip in northern Canada and immediately sent a team to collect it and get a greenhouse going in a cold enough temperature to have it grow properly. And having one of his basic dragon training tools back felt good, reassuring.

When the planes hit the Twin Towers, Tony was there within two hours, perched on Toothless's shoulders. He knew Obie would be mad he had run out when the company was being bombarded with demands for weapons, but he knew where he could save lives.

Not including the deaths he'd seen on Berk, it was the worse thing he'd ever witnessed. He and Toothless couldn't catch everyone jumping. And even though he could hear people screaming inside, knew Toothless could as well, he wouldn't bring Toothless in there. Because even if he was safe from the heat, his scales wouldn't save him from a collapsed building, or suffocation from the dust. He knew the screams of the trapped people would give him nightmares, but he couldn't put Toothless in harm's way. He couldn't.

When it was over, when Toothless had sniffed out every trapped person he could and Tony had forked over enough money to have his phone blowing up from calls from Pepper and Obie, he finally returned to his company.

Stark Industries grew like never before. War was always good for the weapons industry.

Tony got older, and his grief from Berk never faded. It wasn't fair. He'd spent three years there, but thoughts of the tribe that rejected him, of the father figure that turned on him, never faded, never became less painful. No one knew. Not even Pepper. Rhodey knew there was more to the story than Tony told him, but he stopped pushing after a nasty fight that came close to ending their friendship. And that was another thing. Tony was still angry. Desperately, wildly furious. But he couldn't help but defend them.

And he hated that he couldn't turn on them like they turned on him.

The rage was a part of him. As familiar as his grief.