Toothless circles around Hiccup's unconscious body, nuzzling his hand to try and wake him up.
"Hey don't touch Hiccup, just because you saved him doesn't mean I'll treat you better than everyone else" Stoick said to Toothless who just huffed in response. Gothi walked over to the unconscious boy and started to tend to the scratches on his arms and stomach but stopped when she heard a knock at the door. Stoick walked over and opened the door, surprised to see Astrid and the teens waiting in anticipation to come in.
"Hey chief we were just wondering if we could stay with Hiccup for awhile?" Astrid asked,
"Yeah we wanna see how H is doing" Tuffnut said
"S-sure come in" Stoick said, still surprised that his son's former bullies suddenly want to see his son. He looked at Gothi who just shrugged and continued to tend to Hiccup.
Toothless growled as the teens began to walk near Hiccup.
Fishlegs whimpered as Toothless growled louder and Fishlegs looked at the others,
"Um why is he growling at us? Did we do something wrong?" Fishlegs asked.
"No no lad you didn't do anything, he growls at everyone who tries to get near him apart from the healers." Stoick answered. In truth he was very annoyed at the night fury because he couldn't stand five feet from his son's bed.
"Oh that's weird" Fishlegs commented. "He must be protective of Hiccup then, only the ones that are helping him seem to be the only ones allowed near him," He said.
"Guess so," The chief replied.
"Ugh does that mean we walked up all those stairs for nothing?" Snotlout complained.
"Not really I mean what we can do is just push Snotlout on Hiccup and watch him get barbecued" Tuffnut suggested.
"Good idea my brother" Ruffnut said, rubbing her hands together, getting ready to push Snotlout to his death.
"Hey!" Snotlout said "You are not roasting me alive," Snotlout said, crossing his arms together, glaring at the twins.
"Ugh can you guys quite it? We came here to be with Hiccup and see how he's doing. We're not here to kill Snotlout." Astrid said, butting in before things got heated.
"Astrid's right, if you're going to argue, leave my house" Stoick said to the teens who nodded in response.
"Fine" Tuffnut said, lowering his voice so his sister could hear "We're definitely going to get Snotlout outside right?" Ruffnut nodded "Oh yeah".
Astrid started to approach Hiccup's bed, before anyone could stop her. "Hey Toothless, do you mind if we stay here for awhile? We're all worried and we wanna see how he's doing." She asked the dragon.
Toothless looked at her and nodded for her to go past but when the rest tried to get close he stopped them with his tail and pushed them back.
"Hey what gives? You can go but we can't?" Snotlout asked.
Astrid said nothing. She knelt by Hiccup's side, pushing hair out of his face and grabbing his hand to hold.
"Uh hello? Astrid" Snotlout said, trying to get her attention.
"What?" She snapped back, not removing her gaze from the boy in front of her.
"Why can you go past but we can't?" Fishlegs asked.
"Because he trusts me" She replied back, not wanting to admit everything that has happened in the last 42 hours.
"How didn't he just meet you today?" Tuffnut asked, scratching his head in confusion.
"I-um" Astrid stuttered
"How does he trust you lass?" Stoick said, wanting to know why that reptile trusts her instead of his rider's father.
"Well," Astrid started. "I actually met Toothless the day before Hiccup fought with the Monstrous Nightmare" She said
"What!?" Everyone screeched.
"You knew about Toothless before anyone else and you didn't tell anyone?!" Ruffnut said, amazed that her friend could keep such a secret.
"Yes because Hiccup trusted me enough to know about him" She said, her gaze wandering back to the boy.
"So what did he just straight up tell you about all of this?" Snotlout said, wondering how his fishboney cousin managed to convince Astrid to switch sides.
"Not exactly" Astrid said, shrugging.
"Astrid lass, tell us the story instead of leaving us in the dark" The chief demanded, wanting to know what happened between his son and the Hofferson girl.
"If you insist," Astrid said. "I followed him into the woods when he was announced to kill the dragon. I was mad that he was chosen instead of me and I wanted to figure out how he managed to get so good at dragon training when we've only been at the academy for a couple months." She took the boy's hand in hers again before she continued.
"Anyway when I got there I started asking questions and he was just making up the stupidest lies ever, but when he was talking I heard something behind me and I saw Toothless" She smiled at the memory of the first encounter with the dragon.
"So when I saw him my first instinct was to attack him, but Hiccup pushed me out of the way before we could have fought and when I realized what was happening I ran straight to the village." She said, looking up at the group.
"Why didn't you come tell me?" Stoick asked.
"Well because Toothless picked me up and put me dangling on a very high tree." She said, laughing at their shocked expressions.
"Hiccup told me that he just wanted to explain but I didn't want to listen,"
"So then what?" Fishlegs asked, obviously captivated by this story.
"He showed me instead." She said looking out into the distance, remembering what it felt like to be flying in the air.
"He took me on this amazing flight where at first, Toothless was in control and he clearly wanted me to apologize to Hiccup so to make me do that he nearly killed us. But when I said sorry the atmosphere of everything just changed." She said, remembering the feeling.
"What do you mean?" Stoick asked, who was also captivated by this story.
"Well, we were flying through clouds, watching the sunset and seeing the northern lights." She said, while looking down at the boy yet again. "He showed me what it meant to be a true Viking. He showed me what side of this war was the hero's side. And more importantly, he showed me the real Hiccup." Astrid said, finishing up the story.
"Wow" Fishlegs said in amazement. Wailing could be heard from the twins.
"I have not heard such loving poetry in years. Oh this story hit me right in the heart, what say you my sister?" Tuffnut said, wiping the tears from his eyes.
"I could not have put that better myself my dear brother, such beauty in words from our fearless Astrid Hofferson." She said, blowing her nose in her brother's hair.
"Damn, did not know my cousin had moves" Snotlout said, secretly impressed that his cousin was able to do THAT with Astrid.
Stoick was smiling at his son, he could not believe how blind he was of his brilliance. If only he had listened to his son before, maybe this whole mess could have been avoided.
"I'm happy my son trusted this with you Astrid, you might have been the only one who would have listened." Stoick said to the teen, who shook her head.
"He didn't explain it to me chief, he showed me. He trusted me"