Hiccup didn't fight the smile that made its way on her face. They had been in the air for about an hour now and during that time Hiccup could feel as Arne relaxed.
It happened gradually.
At first, his hands settled on her waist and were gripping tight enough to hurt. She hadn't said anything because she knew he needed some sort of reassurance he wouldn't fall off. He had glued himself to her back, the heat radiating from his body had made Hiccup blush. Never before had she been this close to the boy.
Then, Toothless decided to take them on a dip in the ocean, scaring Arne enough for the boy to hug her close to himself. He only let go after they got higher, the urge to touch the clouds was enough for him to release Hiccup. She understood the wonder that came with being this high up.
After they leveled out, after Hiccup had showed the boy Berk from the sky, Arne's hands had come back to rest on her waist. This time, the hold was slack and the heat from his body didn't reach her. It brought her joy knowing that he had relaxed enough to trust both her and Toothless to not let him fall off.
The night was clear and so was her head. She didn't want to think when she was in the sky, the freedom she felt was immeasurable. That feeling was what helped her decide that no matter what, she would fight for the ability to be able to fly. Hiccup didn't need to think to come to that decision, she had decided the first time she had rose from the ground on Toothless' tail.
"Alright, this is pretty cool. It's... amazing," Hiccup's smile widened at Arne's admission, the boy reached around her to pet the Night Fury's head, Toothless let out an appreciative growl, "He's amazing."
Hiccup could have left it at that. The fact that she had been right about dragons was enough for her, but Arne couldn't let things rest.
"So what now? Hiccup, your final exam is soon," his voice had lost the happy tone, the boy was completely serious now, and that made the girl's smile fall, "You know you're going to have to kill a..." his voice dropped to a whisper, "Kill a dragon."
"Don't remind me," she almost pleaded.
She didn't want to think about that. Hiccup knew that she could still leave and never look back, but that would mean… that would mean that Arne, as the runner up in training, would have to kill the Nightmare. She didn't want him to do so, not after he saw how dragons really were.
This flight had also showed her something else that gave her hope. Arne was Berks golden boy, the one that everyone praised, his dedication was legendary, his hatred of dragons even more so. If she could change his opinion she hoped she could change everyone else's.
She was about to voice her thoughts when Toothless suddenly jerked to the right. Hiccup looked at the Night Fury with confusion and tried to get him to turn around. She had noticed she didn't really recognize where they were, they were in some sort of fog, and getting back to Berk before light was necessary.
"Toothless, what's happening?" she asked the dragon when he pulled to the right again.
Suddenly, a shadow passed by next to them, the fog not letting her see what was happening. They continued flying forward, further into the fog. Hiccup's eyes widened as dragons came out of the fog, she heard Arne gasp behind her, but thankfully they managed to stay silent and not bring attention to themselves.
"What is it?" Hiccup asked herself as an island came into view.
Arne didn't say anything because he clearly didn't know. Hiccup felt the boy press himself to her again and she couldn't blame him. This situation they found themselves in was confusing and scary. Hiccup leaned forward in hopes that her voice just had been inaudible to the Night Fury but the dragon's narrowed pupils made her pause. She had only seen them like that when Toothless was angry.
The Night Fury followed the other dragons inside the island. It was hot and humid, filled with dragons and smelled like death. Toothless seemed to come back to himself and had landed out of view of the other dragons.
"Get down!" Hiccup hissed at Arne as the dragons started flying over the hole in the middle of the giant cave.
"What's going on?" the boy whispered back, Hiccup shook her head.
"I don't know," she admitted then leaned forward so the Night fury could hear her, "Toothless. You've got to get us out of here, bud."
Toothless ignored them both as he peaked out behind the rock. His eyes jumped form one dragon to the other, he seemed to shrink back in fear.
"It looks like they're hauling in their kill," Hiccup pointed out.
"Uh, what does that make us?" she heard Arne ask fearfully.
"What my dad wouldn't give to find this," Hiccup whispered to herself as she ignored the boy's question.
Even more dragons flew over the hole, dropping down their findings and kills.
"It's satisfying to know that all of our food has been dumped down a hole," Hiccup said with sarcasm dripping from her voice.
"They're not eating any of it," Arne commented with confusion, Hiccup hummed in agreement.
They watched as a lone Gronckle flew over the hole, it hovered as it regurgitated a small fish and let it drop below. The Gronckle started flying away as the island shook, the panic in the dragon's eyes was clear as day.
"What is that?" Arne asked as something rose out of the hole.
That something was a dragon. A huge dragon that swallowed the Gronckle whole.
"Alright, buddy, we gotta get out of here. Now!" Hiccup yelled as the thing looked in their direction
The terrifying dragon tried to swallow the trio whole but Toothless was faster and managed to dodge the huge dragon. The sent the other dragons into a frenzy.
The dragon all took off at once as they tried to get away from the huge dragon who was snapping its jaws in random directions, trying to get anything into its mouth. The trio flew as fast as they could and they evaded the jaws of the huge dragon, a Zippleback wasn't as lucky and had fallen victim to the monster that rested in the middle of the island.
Toothless didn't slow don't until Berk came into view. Even then, the dragon flew in speeds Hiccup didn't know the Night Fury was capable of. Arne had clung to Hiccup all the way back, releasing her only when Toothless landed.
Both humans dismounted Toothless on shaky legs. The Night Fury wasn't as bothered and just sat down next to the pair.
"It makes sense," Arne mumbled after a moment and Hiccup raised her eyes from the ground to look at him, "It's like a giant beehive. They're the workers, and that's their queen. It controls them," the boy looked at her with a wild look in his eyes, "Let's find your Dad."
"No! No," she shook her head and stopped the boy from taking another step, her hands gripped his bicep and rooted him in place, "Not yet. They'll... kill Toothless. Arne, we have to think this through carefully."
"Hiccup, we just discovered the Dragons' Nest," the boy exclaimed as he threw his arms up in frustration,
"The thing we've been after since Vikings first sailed here. And you want to keep it a secret?! To protect your pet dragon?! Are you serious?!"
"Yes," she stated, no hesitation in her voice, "You go there now –" she pointed in the direction of the village, "- and you kill Toothless. You kill me."
Her words hit Arne like a brick to the face. He knew that Hiccup could get in trouble, but getting killed… no, he could see it. Hiccup had betrayed the 'viking way' of life and she uncovered truths that had been right under their noses for centuries. Arne watched as Toothless came up to Hiccup and slightly nuzzled her before retreating to take a drink out of the pond. Maybe she wouldn't be killed by the tribe, but loosing Toothless would kill her all the same.
"Okay," he gave her a small nod and saw her visibly relax, "Then what do we do?"
"Give me some time, I'll figure it out," she promised him.
The boy smiled at her and closed the distance between them, bringing the girl into a hug. He held onto her tight and turned to whisper into her ear.
"Thank you. Thank you for showing me the truth."
Hiccup didn't answer him, she just held onto him with all her strength. She couldn't remember the last time someone held her like that. When Arne pulled back the blush on his face was mirrored by her own. They stared at each other for what seemed like hours and Hiccup could've sworn the boy had started leaning…
"There you are!"
The pair jumped back when Ruffnut's voice rang out. Hiccup clasped her hands behind her back like that would hide the fact that she had been hugging Arne like her life depended on it only a moment before.
"Where the hell were you?" Tuffnut asked from behind his sister, the female twin had gotten her helmet stuck at the entrance of the cove and neither had noticed that Hiccup wasn't alone.
"We thought you ran away!" Ruffnut exclaimed as her helmet finally got free, the girl looked up and froze as she noticed that Arne was with Hiccup and Toothless wasn't hiding.
"She planned to do that," Arne said with a smirk, the twins' surprised faces making an amusing sight.
"He's here," Ruffnut said as she pointed at Arne then at Toothless, "He's also here."
"You're calm," Tuffnut pointed at Hiccup, like her calm demeanor was something more shocking than Arne being in the same space as a dragon and not doing anything about it.
"Yes," Hiccup nodded, a smirk sliding onto her lips, she nodded to the Night Fury and Arne, "They're friends now."
"What happened?" the twins demanded at the same time.
The amusement left Hiccup's body in an instant. The twins had turned out to be good friends to her and she knew telling them about the nest was the least she could do.
"Let's sit down," Arne spoke up before her, "We need to tell you something."
The fact that the twins knew about Toothless wasn't a surprise to the boy. The village knew that Ruff and Hiccup were best friends, and even if half of them didn't believe it, they both were responsible for a lot of the crazy pranks that were pulled on the villagers. Hiccup had told the twins about the Night Fury before Arne found out and he had no problem with it. After all, he hadn't really tried to get close to Hiccup so he had no reason to be jealous. He was a bit jealous of course, but he wasn't going to tell anyone.