Hiccup turned around and rejoined the group proper.
"You two seemed to get into something pretty heated." Stoick commented.
"Uhm, no, not as heated as you think." Hiccup pinched the bridge of his nose. "Or well, what we were talking about wasn't important to everything happening right now. It was just another part of our on going conversation about how we live. And how it differs from a regular relationship. Dragon, or Human."
"Communication is important." Stoick said.
"Thank you for your wisdom, O' great speaker." Hiccup held his hands up in praise. Toothless chuckled behind him. The others also having a laugh at Stoick's expense.
"I was just trying to help." Stoick crossed his arms.
"I know." Hiccup smiled. "It's just that much like a regular dragon couple. Toothless and I are mated for life. So for us, much like all mated couples, communication isn't a choice, you don't get a second chance at who you're with so you have to figure it out. There are some safety measures for that but that's the basics of it at least."
"I see. What is it that you were talking about, if you don't mind telling us?" Stoick asked. Hiccup pressed his fingers into his temple.
"Where do I even start?" Hiccup sighed.
"You know exactly where to start." Hiccup could hear Toothless' giant grin in his voice.
"Okay fine. Toothless thinks it's weird that I like to sleep right next to him no matter how hot it is."
"That's what you were fighting about?" Stoick asked confusedly.
"Okay well that and that if I was a worm that he'd eat me."
"Hiccup, is this some kind of joke I'm not understanding?" Stoick looked around at everyone else present to see if it was just him. He got a lot of confused shrugs and head shakes.
"Okay, no, it's not like, you don't understand, cause it's like if I died, and then being a worm, or a dog or something. And then the sleeping thing, and our scouts that are missing." Hiccup balled his fists into his hair. But quickly felt a warm breath on the back of his neck.
"Take a deep breath, and collect your thoughts. You're panicking over mostly nothing. And don't worry about the scouts. Color and her team are on their way to look for them. It's going to be okay." Toothless licked at his shoulder and neck while Hiccup centered himself.
"Thanks love." Hiccup whispered. "Uh, sorry about that. I'll just start from the beginning." Hiccup explained to the group how he and Toothless sleep normally. He also explained that now that he was in between human and dragon a lot of things changed in him, not just his appearance. He noted that one thing he didn't get when he was changed was a dragon's naturally very hot body temperature. Which was why he thinks that he likes to always sleep tucked into Toothless' body. It thought it was something like using Toothless' heat to supplement his inability to have a dragon's natural body temperature.
He went on to explain why Toothless thought that it was odd. Since even after he was changed he would sleep with a blanket on occasion and would complain that he was too hot, and would often see Hiccup have basically none of himself covered when it was hot out because he was too hot. So it was weird to him that Hiccup couldn't sleep under a blanket, but on a hot summer day he would be perfectly fine with Toothless curled around him adding to the heat.
The group ended up discussing the topic for much too long. The sun dropped well below the horizon before the group ended up split nearly evenly.
"Happy with the answer?" Hiccup asked Toothless. Toothless pressed his snout into the side of Hiccup's face, knocking him over a bit.
"The answer didn't matter." He laughed. "It's an opinion, it doesn't matter what everyone thinks. That they spent so long talking about it surprises me. It's not a big deal. I'm sure the sun will come up if you ask them their thoughts on me eating you." Toothless said. Hiccup covered his mouth and snickered.
"Honestly that may be true. Maybe we should retire and bring it up again tomorrow." Hiccup suggested.
"I don't have any plans. So whatever you want to do." Toothless yawned. Hiccup stood up and stretched.
"Okay everyone, we're going to head to sleep. Feel free to do as you please. We continue to wait for word on what to do. Maybe we'll come up with something more interesting than sitting around the fire, sharing old stories. Good night everyone." Toothless stood up behind him, snapped his wings open and refolded them against his back. He shook himself awake enough to walk inside. His jaw popping as he yawned again.
"Whenever you're ready." Toothless whispered. Hiccup nodded to the group and began to find his way inside. Before following his mate, Toothless looked at the group of dragons behind the humans. "Keep them company. The better they like us the easier it'll be for us to integrate with them in the future. While I'm sure there were many more of us that wished to be in your place, I must thank you for stepping up and wanting to help, or learn, or whatever reason you had to be here behind them." Toothless bowed his head and turned to catch up to Hiccup.
The pair climbed down to their shelf and settled onto their bed of skins. Hiccup resting his head on Toothless leg, listening to the dragon's heartbeat.
"Thanks for everything today, Toothless." Hiccup said.
"Oh yeah? I'm pretty sure all I did today was to tell you to be careful in the fog." Toothless nuzzled into Hiccup's hair.
"It's more than that and you know it. Your support is very appreciated."
"As though going against you would do anything.I would have stopped a long time ago if you didn't think that this would work out. But you're very driven and it just seems that things tend to work out around you. You may need a little help here and there but you make things work, so you're worth supporting. Plus being your mate helps. Gives me incentive to be on your good side." He laughed.
"Well still. That you've let me run wild this long is way more than I could ask for. To even try to show humans what we're like is something I'm sure some dragons have had but I don't know any who've tried. Maybe one day we'll get to meet someone else who's tried what we're doing. It would be interesting to see how far they got before they stopped trying." Hiccup shut his eyes.
"That would be interesting. Maybe one day. Good night Hiccup."
"Good night, love." Hiccup whispered.