15.

Sneaking around the village at night was nothing new to Hiccup. She had done so time and time again before the whole deal with Toothless. Sometimes, night had been the only time she could test her inventions without the scrutiny of others and she used that time wisely. Sneaking around with three other people was surprisingly more difficult than sneaking around while attached to a dragon.

The group made their way to the academy, the paths lit by torches were avoided along with the few guards patrolling the streets. Everything was quiet for the time being, but with four people that could change in an instant. Luckily, it didn't. The twins were well versed in keeping out of trouble, and Arne had the needed training to keep silent and being quick on his feet.

Their destination was the academy. The only place at the island which had dragon which wouldn't fly away at the sight of people. When not raiding, dragons normally only passed by Berk on their way somewhere else, and finding a dragon on the island was rare at any normal day.

The academy was unguarded, the tribe knew that the cadges were good enough to hold the dragons and there wasn't any need for people to guard the enclosure. That made the teens' work all the easier, the academy was far enough away from the village itself that the group wouldn't be noticed and if they were they would have time to flee.

"Okay," Hiccup took a deep breath and shook of any nervousness she felt, "Who wants to start?"

-o-

They didn't get sleep that night, but the rising sun saw the twins and Arne with the trust of two more dragons. It was an interesting night to say the least. The twins almost woke the whole village and if not for Arne, they would have. Thankfully, the boy managed to cover the twins' mouths before they let out screams of excitement for all to hear.

Hiccup found it extremely hard to get the Zippleback and Nadder back into the cadges, no because the dragons didn't want to go. She found it hard because she couldn't imagine willfully restraining Toothless' freedom like the others had to do for everyone's own safety.

They were exhausted, but at the same time happy. Very happy. Hiccup couldn't remember the last time she saw the twins smile that much without having pulled off a prank beforehand and she couldn't even say she had seen Arne smile at all, unless the times when they were small children counted, which she didn't think did.

They all were back at the cove to get away from any prying eyes and questions they would surely receive. Hiccup's and Arne's absence wouldn't really be missed, the excuse of them training would be enough and the twins did have a habit of disappearing at different parts of the day.

-o-

Being found out had not crossed Hiccup's mind for a long time. A very long time. Fortunately, having friends behind her helped, a lot.

Because of everything that was been happening Snotlout and Fishlegs had been feeling left out. Of course Snotlout has been way more vocal about it, the problem was that no one actually heard him, because the source of his frustrations was never around. Fishlegs listened, the bigger boy had no other choice, but he tried to distance himself from Snotlout the best he could while still remaining friends. Or just not changing their relationship from how it was.

Fishlegs didn't like being alone, he despised it even. He liked being, at least pretending, he was friends with the other teens. Long ago he had given up the close friendship he had with Hiccup to be friends with the others and now everything was different again. The others, save for Snotlout, were seemingly friends with Hiccup. Ruffnut was Hiccup's friend for the longest, so Tuffnut following in his sister's lead was nothing surprising. What was surprising was Arne. He had been hanging out with Hiccup for a while now, this shocked Fishlegs to no end.

The larger boy had seen the jealousy that had been brewing inside Arne. Every victory Hiccup experienced in the ring was like another punch at Arne's pride, at least that was what Fishlegs thought. Now they were friends and Fishlegs was stuck with Snotlout. Snotlout who couldn't stop complaining about being left out.

"Where are they?" Snotlout whined as he stomped in place.

Fishlegs sighed and didn't answer the question. They were sitting near the steps of the Meade hall, a place where they used to meet up with the others most of the time, but now they were alone. It had been days since the others joined the two boys, even Arne, who only joined once in a while, hasn't show up for longer than expected.

"That's it!" Snotlout exclaimed after a few more minutes.

Fishlegs lifted his eyes up from the ground where he had been doodling bad images of various dragons. Snotlout seem determined and Fishlegs became a bit scared. Snotlout's plans rarely played out how he saw them, and the others were often dragged along and later made to take the blame when the plans failed.

"What are you thinking?" Fishlegs cautiously asked.

"We're going to follow…" Snotlout paused for a moment as he looked around the village, "…HIM!"

Fishlegs followed Snotlout's finger where it was pointed. At the other end he found Tuffnut, he had a big sack of something on his back and was, very badly, trying to sneak out of the eyes of the village. No one else paid him any mind, they were used to the twins' antics and dealing with the aftermath was just a usual day. To the two boys it was clear that something was up, and it was not a prank. The twins liked to boast about the pranks they were about to commit and they hadn't heard anything of a new prank in a while.

Fishlegs actually had to objections. He was curious on how the others became friends with Hiccup, he also wanted to be friends with her again. He had been friends with her a long while ago and he wanted to have that again. If the others were doing it then why couldn't he?

-o-

It was easy to follow Tuffnut. The male twin has never been good at sneaking around, that part fell on the female part of the pair. Ruffnut was the one who managed to get her brother to take things seriously and not mess up on the simple things.

It took about ten minutes of walking through the woods, getting stuck on tree roots and getting scraped by low branches for Tuffnut to finally stop. Well not stop, just slow down and change his course. The two boys watched as the male twin threw the sack down into the cove that no one had known existed and then he disappeared into a lower entrance to the space.

"I got the stuff!" Fishlegs heard him shout.

"They have to be down there." Snotlout whispered to the larger boy, Fishlegs hummed in agreement. "Come on."

"Wait, wait," Fishlegs stopped him and pulled his hand out of the tight grip the other boy had on him. "Do you think that's a good idea?"

"Of course it is!" Snotlout whisper-shouted. "I'm done being left out!"

With those words he marched towards the opening they had seen Tuff disappear to, Fishlegs didn't have a choice but to follow. What greeted them upon entering was shocking, to say the least.

The other teens were there, standing in a circle. They were laughing. It was strange to see Ruff and Tuff laugh at something when violence wasn't involved and it was even stranger to see Arne laughing at all. Nothing, absolutely nothing could outweigh the strangeness that came with seeing Hiccup, small and unassuming Hiccup, scratching a dragon's chin with a huge smile on her face.

"What…?" Fishlegs heard himself gasp, a bad idea on his part.

The dragon, who had been previously enjoying the scratches, was now glaring at the two of them. The hate and anger in its eyes was clear as day and Fishlegs almost didn't hear Hiccup speak with the blood that was rushing past his ears.

"Toothless," Hiccup said, a warning in her tone.

The dragon snarled and didn't stop glaring, still on high alert. The other teens weren't any better, suspicion and anger coloring their gaze.

"What the fuck?" Snotlout finally shouted as he shook of the surprise of the image in front of them.

"What do you want?" Ruffnut was the first to address them, their eyes turned to her.

"We wanted to see where you went!" Snotlout continued shouting. "You have been ditching us for weeks!"

"We haven't been ditching you," Ruffnut chuckled, "We just started hanging out with someone way more interesting."

"And that someone doesn't blame us when everything goes wrong." Tuffnut added.

Fishlegs didn't listen to anything anymore, he eyed the dragon one more time. The dragon was still ready to pounce, but it was looking more at Snotlout than at him. He almost missed the fact that Hiccup was looking directly at him with a raised eyebrow, he almost re-thought his plan.

Fishlegs took a cautious step backwards and when the dragon didn't notice, he turned around and tried to run away. He really should have spared a glance at the others as he would have seen that Arne was no longer near Hiccup and the dragon, and that Hiccup wasn't really looking at him, she was looking behind him and her raised eyebrow was directed at Arne. Fishlegs hadn't given a glance at the others and that meant that he ran straight into Arne.

Fishlegs fell back on the ground with a groan. He looked up at Arne and found the blond looking at him with no discernable emotion. The larger male gulped and started to crawl back, he didn't think anyone apart from Hiccup noticed the situation as the voices he didn't pay attention to were still talking.

"Enough!" Hiccup finally yelled and Fishlegs froze.

-o-

Hiccup didn't know why she bothered. Sure, having friends was nice in theory, but all this drama that came with didn't seem worth it. Everyone was looking at her now, it made her feel anxious, but it was better than having Fishlegs or Snotlout try to run again before they heard her out.

"What are you doing here?" She asked them.

They didn't answer. Wide eyes continued staring at her as she sighed. Toothless gently nudged her hand with his snout and she started petting the dragon without second thought.

"We-we followed Tuffnut," Fishlegs whimpered from the ground.

Hiccup pinched the bridge of her nose and turned to glare at the male twin. Ruffnut smacked her brother on the back of his head with a few choice words aimed his way. Tuffnut's bad sneaking skills aside, the two boys could be a problem.

"Okay," Hiccup sighed with a shake of her head, "Fishlegs, Snotlout meet Toothless."

"Oh you're in so much trouble," Snotlout sneered and turned around, ready to run. Except Arne hadn't moved. He was still standing there with his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. "Move!"

"No." Arne simply said.

"Stoick needs to know about this!"

"He doesn't." Arne and Hiccup said at the same time.

"Wha-how?" Snotlout mumbled in confusion.

"You –" Arne pointed at Snotlout, "- Join him –" he pointed at Fishlegs, "- And sit down."