It didn't get any better than this.

Hiccup dared to let go of the front of the saddle for just a moment, allowing his arms to feel the wind as they flew high above the sea. The wind was cold, as it always was, but it still gave him a sense of peace as it glided over his face. He then put his arms back down, grabbing the fronts sides of the saddle once more.

"Is this how it's always felt for you, bud?" Hiccup asked, leaning in on his left side closer to Toothless. The night fury turned to its head slightly, letting out a low, rumbly moan. Hiccup chuckled to himself, sitting up straight once more. He glanced at the world around him, taking notice of some islands nearby that looked so small, as if he could reach out with his hand and grab them.

It was still crazy to think that their friendship essentially started because he had shot Toothless down with his latest invention. It had been a crazy ride since then, both in a literal and figurative sense alike. From having to essentially reteach Toothless how to fly as the dragon adjusted to his prosthetic tail, to placing first in dragon training, to almost losing everything by standing up to his father, and actually losing his left foot. Even so, it seemed everything had turned out well in the end. Berk was now accepting of, even embracing of having dragons around, his father accepted him for who he was, Astrid was in his life now, and most of all, he had Toothless.

"Alright bud," he said, tapping the creature gently on the neck with his hand, "I think it's time we started back now."

Toothless let out a moan, like a disappointed child who didn't want to go home. Hiccup loved his Night Fury, but if he was being honest, he wasn't exactly too thrilled to wake up before dawn to a banging on his roof that made it seem like his house was coming down, only to find it was Toothless begging to go flying. Despite everything in him wanting to go to back to bed, he made himself saddle the dragon up and take him for a ride. They had been at it for some time now, and Hiccup had things he needed to attend to. He was still Gobber's apprentice after all, and, even though the war with the dragons was over, that didn't mean his responsibilities were.

"I know bud," Hiccup said, "I wish we could stay up here longer too, but unfortunately I have other things I have to do. I can't just drop everything and take off."

Toothless let out another moan, but this one was a little more upbeat than the first.

"Come on bud," Hiccup said, pulling the reigns to turn the dragon around. "Let's go home. We'll come back out later, I promise."

The beast finally relented, rotating its body in the direction of Berk as it flapped its wings to keep the two of them airborne. Soon, they were off to Berk.

His home island finally came into view, so Hiccup guided Toothless to begin their gradual descent. They were getting close to a good landing spot, but as they were drawing close, something loud caught Hiccup's attention. Toothless seemed to register it as well, as they both faced to their right. Part of him figured it was no big deal, as random crazy stuff happened on Berk all the time. It was home to a tribe of Vikings after all, so who knows who got into what. Still, something told Hiccup he better check it out. He glanced down at Toothless, who arched his neck to look back at him.

"Come on bud, let's go see what's going on," he said. Almost immediately without any physical prompting, Toothless spread his wings wide, rotating his body just enough to smoothly change direction as if that had been his intent the whole time. Hiccup had to admit he was certainly impressed; even though it had taken a while for Toothless to grown accustomed to the prosthetic, and things still weren't perfect, the dragon's instincts were still there when the time came, as if they had never left.

Finally coming on the scene, Hiccup was even more curious when he saw a large gathering of the tribe's people. More disturbingly, it looked like someone's house had been totally destroyed somehow, likely by fire. As he prepared to land, some of the crowd were already starting to turn and shout at him, and he wasn't even sure why, though he didn't get a good feeling about it.

Once Toothless had plopped down on the ground, Hiccup hopped off, and was almost instantly rushed by several members of the tribe, many of whom he'd hardly had interaction with before.

"This is your fault!" a man shouted at him.

"We don't actually know what happened!" someone else shouted in return, though Hiccup couldn't pick up from where.

The noise started to build up, but then there was a voice that Hiccup would know if it came from the other side of the island.

"That's enough!" came the booming voice of his father and chief of the tribe, Stoick The Vast. "Arguing amongst ourselves is getting us nowhere!"

"Dad, what's going on?" Hiccup asked.

"It was a dragon," came the voice of another man, stepping out to the front of the crowd. "It had to be!" Some of the people started cheering in affirmation of this accusation, but others argued against it. That didn't stop the man, who turned to Stoick.

"You're son is the cause of this," he said. "Bringing dragons here, saying we can all get along, and now my home is destroyed because of one of these beasts!"

"You were inside the home when it caught on fire," Stoick responded firmly, "and no one has actually admitted to seeing anything."

"What else could it be?" the man said. "I say, we get rid of all of these creatures and send them back to where they came from!"

"What, no!" Hiccup shouted. "This has to be a mistake, a misunderstanding somehow!"

"It's no mistake!" the man protested, turning to the crowd behind them both. "Any one of you all could be next! Do you want to wait around for your homes to be destroyed, or do you want to do something about this!"

The crowd started to get riled up, even as Stoick tried to calm things down. They started to crowd around Hiccup. His father persisted in trying to settle the people to no avail. As things only continued to escalate, Toothless suddenly let out a roar, moving next to Hiccup and growling further at the crowd, who backed up a few steps.

"See! The beast is threatening us!" the man from before shouted.

"Yeah, because you keep pushing the issue!" came another shout. Hiccup glanced to his right to see none other than Astrid, who had forced her way through the crowd and was now confronting the man directly.

"What else would you have me do, girl?" the man answered her. "Your boyfriend here that we could change things, and it cost me my home!"

The man then started advancing towards Hiccup, who backed up. His prosthetic foot slipped out from under him all of a sudden and he fell back. Toothless, who at Hiccup's insistence had backed up from his previously defensive position, came to his side. Hiccup looked to the dragon, then back at the man, who was still coming toward him, despite Astrid trying to get in between them. Stoick then came up to the man directly, grabbed him by his right arm and tossed him back as if he were a ragdoll.

"Hold on everyone, I think I found the problem!" came a voice. The crowd shifted as if to let someone through and, sure enough, Gobber came out in front of them, holding a cooking pot.

"You see everyone, no dragon was to blame for this," he continued, holding up a really, really dark object that looked like it might've been some form of clothing at one point, "but simply a case of leaving one's shirt over the fire a bit too long. Now, nothing more to see here everyone; move along!"

The crowd started to disperse as Hiccup stared in shock. He realized his breathing had gotten heavy, so he tried to focus on slowing it down. Astrid came over to him, helping Hiccups up off the ground and made sure he steadied himself. As the crowd finished dispersing, the man who had instigated this whole mess looked at Gobber in frustration, but then Stoick came up to him. His voice was low, but Hiccup could still here what his father said.

"If you threaten my son again, I'll tie you to a mast myself and ship you off until you fall off the edge of the world."

The man turned and walked away after that, and Stoick and Gobber came over to Hiccup.

"You alright son?" Stoick asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Hiccup replied. That was true, at least on the outside. Inside, however, was something else.

"Sorry that all this got so crazy," Gobber said. "I know what it's like to be embarrassed about something like this."

Hiccup smirked, but his heart was still heavy. He turned, mounting back up on Toothless.

"Where are you going?" Astrid asked, but it was too late, as Toothless had already launched himself and Hiccup up into the sky.

For a long time, Hiccup just sat on the edge of the hill he and Toothless had ended up at, staring out into the sea. His mind was running in circles, still trying to process what he had just witnessed. He then caught the sound of what seemed like wings flapping. He turned slightly to find Astrid descending towards a section of the hill on her Deadly Nadder, Stormfly. She dismounted and started walking towards him. Hiccup then heard Toothless make his usual rumble noise, which usually indicated he wanted something. Hiccup glanced at the dragon to find that he was motioning towards Stormfly. In their short time on the island, the two dragons had formed something of a playful friendship, so Hiccup knew exactly what the Night Fury wanted.

"Go ahead," he said, motioning with his head towards the blue dragon. Toothless wasted no time, immediately taking off and running toward his fellow dragon just as Astrid came and sat down next to Hiccup.

"You okay?" she asked.

Hiccup took in a breath, letting it out slowly.

"No, not really," he answered, still looking out into the ocean.

"Hiccup, that man back there was out of line," Astrid said. "You can't let him get in your head."

"It wasn't just him though, Astrid," Hiccup answered, making eye contact with her. "It was most of the crowd at one point. They were already to turn on me, on Toothless... all the dragons." He then turned and looked down, picking up some grass and fiddling with it in his fingers.

"You know it's only been a few weeks, right?" Astrid said. She didn't need to say what happened in that time; the memory of his and Toothless's fight with the dragon his fellow Berkians had come to name "The Red Death" that had cost him his foot was still fresh in his mind.

"I know," he said. "It's just that everyone seemed so accepting of the dragons all of a sudden that I guess I just thought everything would be different."

"Hiccup," Astrid said, putting her hand on his shoulder, "generations of anger and hate don't just disappear overnight. We both knew it was going to take time for everyone to really adjust."

"I think I knew that in my head," Hiccup conceded, "but actually seeing something like this happen..."

"I know," Astrid replied, "it's hard, and like I said, that guy was out of line, but it will get better. After a while, people like him will become less and less, and soon we won't even have to worry about it."

Hiccup turned back to her.

"Thanks," he said, smiling lightly. "And also thanks for sticking up for me back there. It meant a lot."

"You would've done the same for me," she said, smiling back at him. "Now, how about I race you back to the village?"

"You sure you want to lose again?" Hiccup teased.

"You only one because you cheated last time," Astrid fired back.

"Yeah, as if you didn't try to block my way too," Hiccup retorted.

"Whatever; either way, you're going down," Astrid answered.

The two of them then stood up.

"Thanks for coming to find me," Hiccup said. "You always seem to know what to say."

"It's what I'm here for," she answered, and she threw her arms around him, pulling him into a hug, which he returned.

"Now, last one back is a rotten dragon egg!" she shouted, releasing herself from him and breaking into a sprint towards Stormfly.

"Okay, now that's cheating!" Hiccup shouted, motioning to Toothless to come up to him. "Racing on foot against a guy with a prosthetic? That's low, Astrid Hofferson!"

"Well, do something about it," she challenged, and soon her she was on Stormfly and the two were off.

Hiccup quickly mounted Toothless in turn, launching off the hill and after their competitors.

This whole dragons living amongst us thing might not be as easy he thought, but it was stuff like this that made it all worth it.

This was a one shot I wrote once when I spontaneously decided to drift away from Spider-Man one day and try something different. Hope you like it!

Praying for you all! Stay safe and healthy!

"So do not fear, for I am with you..." Isaiah 41:10