Out of all people, it had to be the Thorston twins who also discovered about Hiccup and Toothless' friendship.
Snotlout may have played a role in their discovery too.
The group of teens knew that Hiccup had a tendency to leave any attempt of socializing, but for Snotlout to do so as well; that was another thing.
So, it was unfortunately the twins who put two and two together and decided something was up.
"Dear brother, we need a plan to find out the dark secret that Hiccup and Snotlout are sharing." Ruffnut stated one day.
"Indeed we do, dear sister. But how shall we get such a plan to make them spill it?" Tuffnut questioned.
The twins fell silent, appearing deep in thought. Then, they got it.
Ruff and Tuff perked up at the same time, and looked at each other. "We attack them until they surrender!"
"Splendid idea!" Tuffnut cheered.
Ruffnut nodded eagerly, and ran to the forge. "Cmon bro, we got some stuff to 'borrow'!"
Once the twins got their hands on multiple weapons-they couldn't carry a whole bunch, so they had to pick their favorites-, they just had to wait a little longer.
It was around this time of day that Hiccup and now Snotlout would go off in a direction to do something random.
"Uh-Gobber needs me at the forge.." "I got some practices to work on-to get stronger!" "I have things to do-talk to you later-?" "I don't have time for chit-chat! I gotta train to beat Hiccup!" And more varieties of different excuses. Not this time. This time no excuse would stop them from following their trails.
As both boys split up and dashed away, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were surprisingly able to follow them without making loud noises.
Suddenly, they entered the forest, which the location was completely unrelated to their excuses. Snotlout didn't have any weapons with him to train with, and Hiccup was carrying a basket for some strange reason. Something was popping out of it as well...
Even more stranger, the two cousins ran into each other, and did not appear surprised nor did they react in any such way.
Like they had planned this.
The Thorstens looked at each other, having a silent conversation.
When they turned back to the two they were chasing, Hiccup and Snotlout were nearly out of sight, but walked the same trail.
It appeared Snotlout was taking the thing that was poking out of the basket a few moments ago.
Just what exactly was going on?
After once again chasing in hot pursuit, they came across..the cove?
It was a nice area. Brightened by sunlight, soft ground, and a beautiful small lake in the middle of it.
The question was; why were they there? There must be a purpose for all the lies and urgent getaways.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut's questions would be answered very soon. They just had to wait a little longer...
Except they were losing patience. And the weapons were wearing heavy.
So, they improvised, and leaped out swinging the weapons like lunatics.
"HAHHH!" They both yelled.
"Ah!" Cried the two cousins, jumping and sharply turning towards their two pursuers.
"Ruffnut?" Hiccup called in surprise.
"Tuffnut? What are you guys doing here?" Snotlout pressed the saddle behind his back.
"You two have been acting quite weird..but we couldn't pin point what and why." Ruffnut began to explain, then turned to Tuffnut.
"Exactly," Tuffnut agreed, continuing what his sister was saying, "Therefore, we decided we'd follow you two to find out what was going on. What's up anyway?"
The Twins narrowed their eyes at Hiccup and Snotlout, and the heir was just about ready to break for it. Snotlout couldn't quickly make up a fake explanation under the pressure either.
However, just when things seemed hopeless, growls were heard.
The twins didn't know what they were expecting, but they did not expect this.
A pitch black night fury and a red and black Monstrous Nightmare leaped in front of the cousins protectively.
If that wasn't shocking enough, Hiccup and Snotlout seemed to know these dragons and tamed them one way or another, judging by what happened next.
"Toothless!" "Hookfang!"
"Woah woah woah, you named those dragons?" Ruffnut asked incredulously.
"Uh...it's a long story." That was a slight lie, only because Hiccup didn't want to explain anything.
Said teen and his cousin got in front and held back the dragons.
While Toothless reluctantly backed up, Hookfang was more stubborn and ended up setting himself ablaze in anger.
"Oh Thor-!" Snotlout thankfully did not get burnt on any part of his body, and he backed away.
"Wow!" The twins were amazed. Not by the dragon himself, but by the idea of how much chaos he could cause.
"Uh.." Hiccup dropped the basket carefully, searched around his outfit, and pulled out..grass?
The plant seemed to calm down the Monstrous Nightmare though, and once Hookfang stopped being a sun-like dragon, he purred.
Snotlout sighed in relief, then remembering the twins, he straightened and said, "I could've calmed him down with dragon nip myself, y'know."
Hiccup rolled his eyes, however, he didn't appear offended.
Dragon-nip? The dragons got names..they're not attacking the cousins, and..wait, is that a saddle Snotlout's holding? So that's what he was hiding-Hiccup must've made it for him.
"Do you two ride the dragons?" Ruffnut asked, finally figuring it out.
Hiccup and Snotlout stiffened. Bingo.
"Well..uh.." Hiccup stammered, trying to find something to say.
"That is..so awesome, my guys." Tuffnut slowly stated.
Hiccup and Snotlout blinked, they were not expecting this reaction. "What?"
"Awesome, but absolutely crazy!" Suddenly Ruffnut leans in closer to them, "But I like that."
"Um.." Hiccup is clearly at discomfort, while Snotlout takes pride.
"Yup, simply amazing. I know." He smugly smiled.
"Yo, can we like, get dragons of our own?" Tuffnut asked out of the blue.
Snotlout faltered, then looked at Hiccup.
Hiccup paused, seeming to think about it, "Sure...if you promise not to cause havoc upon the village or anywhere near it."
The bulky cousin stared at him in shock, was he seriously trusting the Thorston twins to keep that promise?
"Aww, but what's the fun in that?" Ruffnut whined.
"We're trying to not expose ourselves here..you know how dragons are supposed to be our enemies." Hiccup firmly responded.
The twins paused to think about it. His words were undeniably true...
And there was a loophole.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut looked at each other, nodded, then turned back to the skinny boy.
"Alright, deal."
After they fed the dragons-the basket was full of fish, it turned out-, Hiccup and the twins left to the arena while leaving Snotlout to watch Hookfang and Toothless. He'd most likely be struggling to put the saddle on the Monstrous Nightmare though.
As Hiccup pulled the lever, he couldn't help but wonder how Berk will react to the dragons going missing. While they'll capture new ones for sure, they'd surely search around and also assume someone released them...
He mentally shook his head. He could worry about that later. Right now, he had to introduce the twins to their new dragon partner..partners?
This dragon had two heads with two minds, but one body..okay now he's overthinking. Focus!
"Oooh." Ruffnut and Tuffnut both looked at the Zippleback in awe. Even though it's two heads shared one body, they saw it as two souls and therefore two dragons.
They each ran to one head.
"I'm naming this one Barf!" "This one's name is Belch!"
"Shh..!" Hiccup put a finger to his lips. He figured he could never be too careful.
Lowering his voice to a whisper that was loud enough for the twins to hear, he told them, "Meet me at the cove tomorrow. I'll have prepared saddles for you two."
They nodded, "Ai ai captain!", and snuck Barf and Belch outside the arena to the cove.
Author's note
Don't you hate it when your body refuses to listen to you and write? Or..type.
That aside, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you have any tips on writing the characters more canon-like or such, do tell me!