Summary: Ruffnut asks Hiccup to teach her how to fly after being wrapped into taking care of Wingnut

Timeline: RTTE (season 6, episode 7)

Rating: K+

Viva La on with the Story!

Wingnut was...cute. Ruffnut would admit to that.

She wasn't normally one to particularly like children — anything considered 'feminine', really, was off-putting to her. But as much as she hated to admit, the little guy was growing on her.

Even though he turned a deaf ear to her most of the time, the hard work, dare she say, gave her a sense of accomplishment. Even if Tuffnut was doing most of the mothering, Atali's talk about patience and bonding helped Ruffnut find the...apprenticeship? Was that the word she was looking for? Whatever. Anyways, the talk last night had given her a glimpse into the reward of it. The feeling wasn't something she was used to experiencing and she...enjoyed it.

Just don't tell Hiccup that.

He was currently sitting on the saddle in front of her — a bit less tense, admittedly, but he had wings that he knew would work for him if he lost his balance.

The hybrid had them spread in a way that he had only been able to in the past months — what with Johann's betrayal practically blowing his secret out of the water, he found that keeping his hybrid status on the D.L. was unproductive at best.

The chief's son had his head tilted back, ears perked as he let the sun hit his face. The wind billowed beneath his wings as Toothless glided; he did it often when the gang were travelling on the jet streams, too high in the air for anyone below to make out anything other than amorphous blobs against the endless blue.

Ruffnut could feel Wingnut testing the air as well — there was a slight pull on her body as the air snatched his wings, causing her to lean backwards slightly in retaliation.

The hatchling wasn't even able to shift yet; and one of very few words. Probably because he was, you know, a hatchling, but Ruffnut was still fairly uncertain with Dragonese herself, and her ears may just not have registered some things he said.

Either way, the fact that the Wing Maidens had even decided to try and use the baby dragons as their own personal sets of wings was nothing short of mad. And Ruffnut loved mad; worshipped it, even, but having a responsibility behind it was something she was apprehensive of.

"Are you ready to try this, Ruffnut?" Hiccup said in his 'teacher tone' that she really hadn't heard him use since they were new to riding on dragon back.

The blonde choked down her doubt, and it manifested as an eye roll and a hand shifting to her hip. "Uh, I don't know, Hiccup. Like I said. I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid."

The hybrid's shoulders bounced in a silent laugh, and he shook his head slightly before Toothless let out a vulgar question in dragonese.

There was a commotion up near the night fury's head, and Ruffnut had the displeasure of not being able to see over the (admittedly) taller hybrid as he straightened up in surprise.

Though, her confusion didn't last long when the slightly annoyed question of "Tuffnut?" escaped Hiccup's mouth because of course he would follow them. The auburn stared at the male twin as he claimed up over Toothless' front shoulder, and Ruffnut rolled her eyes as her brother came into view.

The night fury, for whatever reason, seemed to think that he could pretend that he didn't know Tuffnut had hitched a ride. The female twin had to assume her brother had clung to the dragon's legs like some kind of bat, so there was no way that Toothless hadn't known. That much was obvious even to her. Hiccup shared a glance with her that read annoyance as Toothless continued to mumble some things that Ruffnut couldn't quite catch due to the wind, but the parts she could hear sounded like feigned surprise at best.

"What are you doing here, Tuff?" Hiccup sighed, leaning to his left as the male twin hauled himself further up onto Toothless. The hybrid snapped his right wing closed as Tuffnut maneuvered around the saddle, aware of their annoyance but pretending not to notice.

"I'm here for moral support, of course!" He chimed, plopping down behind Ruffnut.

The girl found herself rolling her eyes. "I don't need moral support?" She stated, and Tuffnut immediately scoffed.

"Not you," he continued, shaking his head as though his intentions were as clear as air, leaning down to her back, "for Wingnut. Isn't that right, little man?" He cooed, and Ruffnut could feel the dragon on her back brushing against her brother's hand like a cat.

Hiccup seemed more resigned than surprised. "I — okay, whatever. Just don't mess anything up, Tuffnut. And Toothless, you have severely damaged my trust." He added in a weird mixture of sarcasm and disappointment, leaning forward in the saddle to be closer to his dragon's face.

"Whaaat….oh no….this is tragic…." The dragon responded in a voice that Ruff could actually hear. She couldn't help but snort.

Hiccup lightly cuffed one of Toothless' ear plates, before turning back to Ruff.

"Are you ready?" He asked, unhooking his prosthetic with a nearly instinctual pull of his leg and switching Toothless' tail to the automatic setting. The night fury did a few test swerves to make sure it worked, and although they weren't nearly hard enough banks to throw any of them off, Ruffnut found herself clutching onto the saddle until her knuckles turned white.

"I mean, not really, but it's whatever, right?" She tried to push aside her anxiety as Hiccup promptly stood up on Toothless' back like it was nothing. His tail stiffened to keep his balance, but other than that his body showed no visual sign of tension. The heir was at home in the air, and he moved like he was on solid ground. And sure, Ruffnut trusted Barf with her life, and barely feared heights to begin with, but the air was never something she felt totally at home in.

When the hybrid turned and held a hand out to Ruff, she didn't hesitate to take it. She trusted Hiccup, there was no question there. That's why she'd asked him to teach her to fly.

He hauled her to her feet, and he found her balance as easily as if she was on the ground. Wingnut reacted to the movement, and Ruffnut could feel the pull of his wings once again and his tail tighten around her waist.

A hand flew to her back, and she found the underbelly of the hatchling near the small of it. Her fingertips brushed over the softer scales, and she scratched them in a soothing manner. Wingnut let out a reptilian pur, and his head nestled in the crook of her neck as a thanks.

Hiccup directed her to Toothless' right shoulder. He stopped her right behind the dragon's wing joint. The night fury's body was wider there, and they were able to talk easier if they were side-by-side. Tuff scooted closer onto the saddle, considering half his butt was hanging off beforehand.

"Okay, so usually the first thing you'll want to know is wing movement, but considering Wingnut will be doing most of the work, you just have to worry about balance." The hybrid explained, looking down to his feet and shifting his weight experimentally. Ruff found her eyes and body doing the same thing.

"It's all in the hips, okay?" Hiccup stated, head turning to look at Ruff, who was quick to make eye contact.

"Yeah, sure." She said maybe a bit too aggressively, though Hiccup didn't seem to mind.

The hybrid then proceeded to bend his knees and lean forward slightly, presenting his forearm for Ruff to grasp, which she did after a split second's hesitation.

Sometimes it was like jumping into cold water. You needed a friend to drag you in with them.

"Just keep your hips level, Ruff. You'll be fine. I'm sure of it." He reassured, his grip giving her a squeeze that, frankly, did make her feel slightly better. "You ready?" Hiccup asked as his wings spread out, nearly hitting her. Ruffnut ducked down slightly, though he had adjusted the limbs in the last second so it was unnecessary either way.

"Yup." Nope.

And they jumped, though Ruffnut could have sworn she felt a feather's touch of Tuff's hand attempting to push them.

Hiccup was the one to catch the wind first, and Ruffnut felt an almost-painful jerk in her shoulder as he drifted up.

She thought for a split second that maybe Wingnut wouldn't catch on. That perhaps, in the thousands of years of dragon ancestry that ran through him, he happened to be missing the instinct that allowed him to fly immediately after birth. Because that would absolutely be her luck.

But miraculously, Wingnut's wings snapped open a fraction of a second later - she more heard them, really, those little scales were new but they still sliced through air like any good knife - and Ruffnut found herself uplifting until her body was somewhat parallel to Hiccup's.

She really only had one task, to keep her hips level, and she knew that, but it was one thing to have a dragon below you. Because then at least you still have a little bit of solid-something. It was a completely different thing to be under the dragon.

Ruffnut tilted dangerously quite a few times - Hiccup's grip was probably the only thing keeping her from jackknifing and getting a faceful of ocean. The procedure repeated for a few seconds. She'd start to fall, then she'd over correct as a reaction and start falling the other way, causing Wingnut to lose his rhythm in turn.

Ruffnut gasped, and a curse nearly left her lips, but some...dared she say...motherly...part of her didn't want Wingnut to hear any adult language quite yet, so she bit her tongue. The actions seemed very over-exaggerated in her mind, though they probably looked like faint movements from Hiccup's point of view.

"You good?" The hybrid asked, voice raised so that it wouldn't be swept away by the wind. Ruffnut nodded vigorously, and it wasn't a lie - she was having fun, or at the very least she knew she wasn't in any life-threatening danger. Those tended to be mutually exclusive for her, but at the moment learning was taking up the majority of her thought, and she was never one to take to new information easily.

"Remember, keep your hips leveled, Wingnut will do the rest!" Hiccup said reassuringly, glancing behind them briefly to Toothless and Tuffnut, who were a few meters behind them. The male twin gave them both an overenthusiastic thumbs up, and the night fury's gaze remained trained on the two in front of him, muscles bunched and ready to dive at any moment.

"That's a lot easier said than done, Hiccup!" Ruffnut couldn't help but snap, though once again Hiccup seemed to be understanding of her tension and opted to brush it off.

"You tighten your core when you ride Barf, right?" He ventured, head swiveling over the horizon as he spoke. His wings stroked a bit faster, and they rose a few feet.

"If you mean I have abs of gronkle iron so I don't slip off, then yes." she replied.

"Okay, this is really similar to that." Hiccup replied, jumping onto the opportunity like any good teacher would. Ruffnut found her gaze looking down at the ocean, a few hundred feet below them, as she thought about what he said. Her body swayed again, and she gasped, but didn't jerk as hard as the previous times. Associating flying to riding Barf was something she'd considered, but she didn't have the capacity to determine why it was so similar.

But now that Hiccup had said that…

She found it. It wasn't an immediate click, like the switch of a blade, but it was a gradual thing that happened in a manner of seconds. Her gut tightened, and the air evened out around her body, and the wind went from whipping against her to gliding around her in that familiar sensation she liked.

Wingnut noticed the change, too. Or at least, he must have, because his wing beats became like a rhythm. They were more frequent than Hiccup's, though Ruffnut guessed it was because the Razorwhip's were much smaller than his - like how Meatlug's wings beat like a honey bee's.

"I got it!" bubbled out of Ruffnut's mouth before she even knew what she'd said, and a smile crept onto her face almost at the same time.

A proud laugh escaped Hiccup's lips, and the blonde turned to make eye contact with the hybrid. He was beaming at her, ear plates perked and eyes shining. Were the tears from the wind? They had to be, right?

Maybe the idea of one of his human friends experiencing flight on their own was overwhelming. She certainly knew she was in that moment.

Ruffnut felt her arm being bent backwards as Hiccup gained altitude. He moved slowly, careful not to whisk the wind too hard with his wings as he flew over her and Wingnut. He eventually had to let go of her left hand before coming down on their right side, and she immediately grasped for a stronghold once he was in reach again.

"Is this really what it's like for you?" She asked, watching as Hiccup's chin tilted up so the sun could hit his cheeks. He took a deep breath.

"More or less." He started, and Ruffnut mimicked his action, "It's...tiring. But I'm sure you already know that." He joked as the shield maiden nodded her head.

Yeah. no hollow bones and all - that was a thing that dragons needed. The gang had guessed that Hiccup's probably weren't, because he didn't try to fly for longer than fifteen minutes at a time. Not that they wanted to test that theory anyways.

"I'm so jealous." Ruffnut snorted, opting to push the somewhat angsty musings of broken bones out of her mind. She made a quick adjustment, feeling her hips fall out of alignment during the time she hadn't been focusing.

"I'm just glad you're able to experience it." Hiccup admitted, and his gaze darted to the ground far below, "It's freeing, isn't it?"

She nodded, and went to squeeze her friend's hand, only to realize that there was nothing there to grab.

He'd let go. She and Wingnut were flying on their own.

Ruffnut snapped her head over to Hiccup in surprise mixed with excitement, her gut twisting as both emotions tangoed. The hybrid was still smiling with pride, and he banked to the right so that his chest was facing her.

"Are you up for a race?"

"You mean you want me, an ameture wing maiden with a two-day-old hatchling on my back, to race you, a hybrid of one of the fastest dragons on earth who's been flying for three years?"

"Scared?" He taunted, fins flicking harmlessly. He wavered because of the action, but he recovered expertly.

"Oh, I'm so gonna kick your butt." Ruffnut bantered, and her hands fell to her sides as she found she had the confidence to do so.

Hiccup rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Oh, I'm sure of it." He quipped in his telltale sarcasm, though there was a tenderness in it that the girl didn't recognize.

"Wingnut!" she called, pointing haphazardly towards the horizon, "Full speed ahead! Don't you bring dishonor on us, little dude."

Even if he wasn't fast enough, Ruffnut had a feeling that Hiccup would let them win anyways.

Hope this brings you all some joy during this pandemic, my lovelies :)

And I hope you'll excuse my inactivity….this is all taking a toll on me.

"Yeah so the wrath of fucking god is coming down, but the plus is I've got a fruit by the foot!" - george_bush/tiktok

Until next time,

~Local Dragon Haunt