"None of us would be. The Queen would still lead and there'd still be a war between us and humans. Our numbers would likely be beyond thin, and we'd still be thrown at you. At humans, I mean. Sorry."
"Don't worry." Hiccup smiled, and patted the dragon's snout. "I know what you mean." He assured.
"No, I know better. You haven't been 'human.'" Toothless emphasized. "For a long time now. It's not fair that I still say that, when talking about you."
"Toothless, look, I understand. It's commendable that you feel bad about it but I've, come to the realization that when people look at me it's going to be whatever comes to their mind first. And I don't blame them for thinking human. Just look at me and say I'm not still basically human. If you didn't see my tail, you'd never know until you got close enough to see that I have my little baby scales. And your eyes weren't great you'd have to touch my skin to tell anyway. Plus it's not like I grew things like your ears or, nadder spikes, or horns or something. Except the tail and scales, all my changes were on the inside of me, my stomach and things.
So while it's nice to be included as one of my people, I can't get mad when they mess it up. Or at least I'm not going to put in the effort anymore to try to remind them that I'm not technically human, and blah, blah, blah. Gods, soulmates, magic." Hiccup smiled.
"Our story does seem rather unbelievable doesn't it? But surely some of them would believe what we say. Humans don't just grow tails and learn how to understand dragonese. Surely bringing gods into the mix wouldn't surprise them."
"Yes well. It's probably better if we keep them out of our story as much as we can. Don't know what kind of wrath they'll bring to us, or our people if we expose them as truly real."
"Agreed." Toothless nodded. "Though you basically did that with your father. You might as well have told him straight up."
"I did what I could do skirt around telling him they're real. But it also seemed appropriate to give him all I did. If gods potentially intervening is what tipped the scales so that they wouldn't help so be it."
"You'd ruin your newly formed friendship with that?"
"It's not that I thought it would but that information could have changed my father's agreement to help. The people of Berk aren't particularly religious, though they do pray to the gods as most, if not all villages do. Maybe it would have been considered bad luck to ally with someone who's been in direct contact with them. Or maybe seeing me like this would make them fear that something similar would happen to them. We more or less know it won't but if that's what made them stay away then so be it. I'd rather they know more than less about us. Especially if they're going to be our ally. The more they trust us, the less likely we get stabbed in the back when we're weak."
"I see what you're saying. But we need to be careful nonetheless. We don't know just how much we're being watched. We should avoid upsetting them as much as possible, since we're back on our feet." Toothless laid down on the rock. "We've come a long way from that little cabin." Hiccup huffed through his nose.
"Yeah I'd say so. We aren't barely surviving anymore. Not snapping at each other cause we're starving. Not being forced to make decisions that could have ended poorly for one, or both of us."
"Tell me about it. I very much didn't want to take your leg like that. Felt real gross about it. Even if it is what put the fire back in my belly, and made me go out and hunt."
"We should have just broken down that damn door. Or put a hole in the wall or something. We were stuck but we should have done something."
"It was a hard choice. It was either starve or freeze. Plus we can assume that since the door was stuck closed that the rest of the cabin was buried too. But I don't really remember so I can't confirm that's the truth." Toothless thought back.
"Not that it matters anymore." Toothless sighed.
"Luckily not." Hiccup smiled. "But I don't think we can look back at that time in our lives poorly. It's our beginning, and a good one at that. Nobody's going to have a better 'how did you start dating' story than us." Hiccup chuckled.
"I don't know, I'm sure some of the others here would say otherwise. While I don't know personally, apparently some females can be rather picky about potential mates. It is a huge decision to be fair. But I hear that some make ridiculous requests that are basically impossible. Others let males fight over them. And those fights normally don't end well for the loser."
"That sounds brutal."
"Cause it is. Though it's just the way it is. But it's not like that all the time, I'd say not even most of the time. Mmm, maybe about half the time actually. You either find someone, or you fight for someone. I'm sure humans are similar, just not as brutal maybe." Toothless smiled.
"I wouldn't know. I wasn't really in any position to date when I still lived on Berk. Never asked my dad about any other stuff either." Hiccup shrugged. "Can I ask you something?"
"Do you really have to ask me that?"
"Well maybe you don't want to answer a question."
"Hiccup… Just ask the question."
"Okay. Who would you be with if I wasn't here."
"No one."
"No one? How is that even possible? Just look at you, there's no way you're not attractive to other dragons."
"I assure you I am. You would not believe the amount of times others tried to court me last mating season." Toothless said proudly.
"oh." Hiccup took a second to recompose himself. "W-well then there's no reason for you to say no one, is there?"
"It isn't about that Hiccup. If you weren't around nothing changes. I didn't get to live a semi-free but not really life like most of the others. I was solely a weapon. Weapons don't get to find a mate."
"Toothless." Hiccup pressed his hand against his dragon's snout. After a pregnant pause, Hiccup spoke up again. "Then let's say that things are as they are now, just without me. You can come up with whatever reason you need to get here but that's the situation."
"Hmm." Toothless thought for a while. "I honestly don't know. I'm trying to think. Given my popularity last mating season I'd say I'm the catch in this scenario."
"Which you are." Hiccup interrupted. Toothless rolled his eyes.
"You act as though you're not an equally good catch."
"Just answer the question."
"Okay, I'll try but I don't think you're going to like what I answer."
"Try me."
"Well given the short amount of time to think. I don't know if I would try to find a mate. I don't have any sort of preference on species. So that isn't influencing anything. And since there are no other Night Fury, or compatible species I know of, I couldn't rear hatchlings of my own. Which does tend to an overall end goal of most matings. So I'd also have to find someone who'd be okay with stopping their lineage. And something tells me that I wouldn't get as lucky as Dusty and Color.
But obviously I could, in this scenario have found someone. I just have no idea who, or what they'd be."
"What about you? What if things worked out on Berk and I wasn't there."
"I probably would have been married off. Or married to whoever was considered the most beautiful, or strongest woman on Berk. So probably Astrid. It's expected for the chief to have children so they can take their spot when the time comes."
"So then we're in agreeance we've gotten what's best for us then." Toothless asked.
"Gods I'd be miserable without you. I'm miserable with you, just less so." Hiccup smiled and laughed.
"Oh, haha." Toothless smiled back.
"Love you.
"Love you too."