"Though I suppose…" Hiccup trailed off.

"Thinking of giving their weapons back?" Toothless asked.

"I'm. yes. I think they've shown their trustworthy enough. I was going to ask for your input on it anyway."

"I say give them back." Toothless said nonchalantly.

"That's actually sorta surprising hearing that from you."

"We'd have to give them back eventually anyways. They aren't going to be able to fight a Bewilderbeast with their hands now are they? Hmm, that would be pretty funny though. Maybe don't give them back. The image in my head of your dad punching a Bewilderbeast is pretty good." Toothless chuckled to himself.

"Is he winning?" Hiccup played along.

"No. But he isn't dead so he's not losing either. So that's good."

"I'd rather have him winning." Hiccup pushed himself off Toothless and stood up. "Hey dad, want to help me with something?"

"What's that?" Stoick asked as he got to his feet.

"I just need a bit of help lifting something. It's a bit too large to lift on my own, and it's heavy." Hiccup quickly disappeared into a hole leading inside. Stoick not as gracefully made it through the hole as well, and met up with Hiccup standing near the edge of the shelf looking down. Stoick took a tentative step forward next to Hiccup to also look down.

"They're like bees in a hive, milling around like that." He was surprised at how well they moved around each other.

"Yeah. They're bottled up like bees too, right now. So many here, I'm not used to it."

"Surely there aren't that many who don't live here regularly though. This can't be that much more than normal."

"Hmm, yes and no. We let people live away from here and there's quite a number that take advantage of that freedom. Then there's all the groups that go out and watch the villages. Some of those groups are pretty large." Hiccup thought about how many of his dragons normally didn't live there.

"Must be scary leading all these guys, huh?"

"What? Oh, yeah. I actually don't like being one of the alphas. I don't think I fit the position but everyone else does. It's been a slow process trying to justify to myself that I'm the right person to lead them. Dragons they, they basically swear loyalty to their alpha, or alphas in our case. It's like they make these unbreakable pacts and then act like it isn't a big deal.

When I was able to first start talking with Toothless he would tell me all these things and I couldn't believe that was the way they did things. Like finding a partner is beyond dangerous. Not physically dangerous I guess, or maybe it is? For some of them probably. But that they pretty much only get one shot at choosing sounds like a complete nightmare but they treat it as though it's an everyday thing. I guess they're extremely selective but that doesn't change the fact that if you mess up that's it. Some of those down there are a hundred, two hundred summers old and still haven't found a mate. Some of them have had and lost. And that's the worst part too. When your mate dies, you, this is going to sound horrible, but you get a limited amount of days left yourself. If your mate dies you immediately start to suffer from a broken heart. And it's apparently super painful, and they'll just live with it until their body gives out from under them." Hiccup squatted down, then sat with his feet hanging over the edge. Stoick followed his son's lead and sat down as well.

"Must be hard then, on Toothless right? Since you'll die way before him. Seems like a bit of an oversight for him."

"Ha, yeah, you'd be right. Luckily for me he was able to convince the people who did this to me that he'd give half his time left to me. With the caveat that when one of us goes the other will too."

"Wow. That is lucky."

"Yeah." Hiccup whispered.

"How long did he give you then?" Stoick asked. Curious of just how much was given away.

"We don't know exactly. If we were to die of old age, he gave me somewhere around four, or five hundred summers."

"That long?" Stoick's mouth hung open. He couldn't believe how long the dragon was willing to give away.

"But uhm." He cleared his throat. "That didn't matter to him. It didn't matter what the outcome of that was. I'd be right here with him at my back." Hiccup smiled to himself. "He didn't care if I had an hour, a day or a thousand summers. He just wanted to be with me for as long as he could." Hiccup paused, and looked at his hands. "I'm beyond lucky to have him."

"Well it may not have been my first choice for you, but I guess I can't be mad at the results." Stoick chuckled. "But I'm glad I came, Hiccup. As much as I did think it was a trap."

"That's a fair thought to have."

"But for the most part I didn't think that at all. Given how much you risked just so that you could come ask me a couple of questions, I figured that your invitation must have been at least a little real. You've always liked sharing things that you like with others. Even if others didn't care for it. To be fair to those people though you've always gone against the grain with what you like. It was no surprise that you ended up in the forge with Gobber. Probably the only person on the whole of Berk who understood you. He'd be pretty happy to see you again I'm sure. He's always goin' on about how you'd appreciate some of the things he's made over the years. Even if half of them break after the first use, and the other half don't even get that far.

Either way it was pretty natural of you to invite me here."

"At least I left an impression on someone." Hiccup chuckled. Stoick tentatively put his arm around Hiccup's shoulder. It took a moment for Hiccup to react but he eventually leaned against his father.

"So, does this make me your son again?" Hiccup asked.

"If that's what you want. Sure. But if you plan on coming around for Snoggletog, might I suggest you wear clothes." Hiccup quickly pulled himself away and was suddenly very aware of his nudity. "What's up with that by the way?" Stoick wondered.

"Well, uhm, th-there's a few reasons. I don't k-know how to make clothes so when what I had were too far gone I just stopped wearing them. And now that I'm like this, well I'm, they, we all consider me a dragon and dragon's don't wear clothes. Plus now with my scales wearing them is a chore, they catch on the fabric all the time and make holes and it's super itchy. And I've been without them for so long it's just natural now that I don't even think about it. On top of it just giving Toothless easy access to me. Letting him groom and clean me. They're kinda like cats that way. Always preening themselves. So it's just easier to let him do that since he's so much bigger than me, he's able to clean me quite quickly. Plus we both enjoy it, a nice intimate moment between us." Hiccup smiled to himself.

"I see. Well either way I don't think those on Berk would like to see you naked, so as your father I'm telling you to put clothes on, when you come to Berk.