A/N: If you haven't read "Drop-Me-Not," this will probably make zero sense. Sorry. This takes place sometime between chapter 14 and the end. Why this was the first idea that came to mind at this prompt, I have no idea. Also, I started this chapter forever ago, so the tone feels a little different from my more recent stuff. The fact that this is first person probably contributes to that; I feel like I haven't written in first person in forever and it was a little difficult. But anyway, that's enough of me rambling.

Oh, and this is also a crossover with "How to Train Your Dragon." Should probably meniton that. Takes place sometime after the second movie. So basically this is the most bizarre chapter. Sorry. (...Pun not intended.)

The match was almost finished. I was ahead by – well, Ventus was keeping track of the score, yelling it out every time the ping-pong ball flew past Terra's big head. I was tuning my other half out, but I didn't need his girly shouts to know that I was pwning Terra's butt.

"Too slow," I taunted with a smirk, to which he replied with a heavy scowl.

"C'mon, Terra!" Ventus called energetically. "You can still do it! You just need, uh… eleven more points before Vani gets another one." He laced his fingers behind his head, smiling apologetically.

"Well I'm not giving up yet," Terra replied, still determined to try and show me up. Even though we were no longer in a competition over Aqua, it was still fun to get under the bigger guy's skin.

"Good. Giving up is for losers." I twirled my paddle. "Then again, losing is for losers too."

Growling slightly, Terra gave the ping-pong ball a hard whack across the table. My eyes locked on, my reflexes ready to send it shooting back—

"Vanitas. I need to speak with you."

Aqua's voice froze my blood. The ball bounced pitifully, plick, plick, pliiick… before rolling off the table. Terra and Ven hi-fived, but I barely paid attention.

I'd never heard that tone in Aqua's voice before: quiet, low, charged with something that threatened to make an Unversed of Fear pop out of me.

"What?" I spun around to face her, arms crossed. She didn't need to know how worried she'd suddenly made me. "I'm about to kick Terra's butt."

Before Terra could protest that, Aqua said, "I think that you'll agree that this is more important."

More important that beating Terra? There weren't a lot of things that fell into that category. The only one that came to mind was…

"Vanilla!" I shoved past Aqua, running out of the game room.

"Vanitas forfeits! Terra wins the match!" Ventus announced behind me, his voice trailing off into nothing as I sprinted away, heading for the Lamp Garden.

"Vanitas! Wait!"

I made it down two flights of stairs, down the hall, and through the thick wood door to the Lamp Garden. When I arrived, two bright green eyes were there to greet me.

"Vanilla!" I held out my arms as she playfully pounced on me. "Thank the Void you're—hey! How many times to I have to tell you I'm not ice cream? No licking!"

I shoved her face aside, and she rolled off of me. It's a good thing dragons had to be light enough to fly, or she would've crushed me months ago.

The door creaked as Aqua entered the garden. "Vanitas…" Her eyes focused sadly on Vanilla.

"What?" I asked. "She's fine, Aqua. Did you need me to clean up her poop or something?"

She sighed, sitting on a large tuft of grass that brushed up against an ancient-looking oil lamp, like something from Agrabah. "It's not that simple, Van…"

"Then tell me!" I snapped, sick of the suspense. "What's going on?"

Slowly she pulled a folded piece of paper from the folds of her belt and held it out without meeting my eyes. "Just read it."

I snatched the paper and scanned it quickly, eyes darting across the page. The first things I took note of were the two logos in gold and silver at the bottom of the page, like royal seals: Disney and Square Enix. I didn't pay attention to the companies that "owned" us much, and for the most part, except for Nomura's occasional visits and meetings, they left us alone. So what did they suddenly want with me?

As it turned out, it wasn't me they had a problem with. It was Vanilla.

"What the—!" The Disney censors deleted my curse. Oh yeah, that was the only other time they bothered to mess with us. "Vanilla is a copyright issue!?"

My dragon stared over at me for a second, confused at my shout, before returning to clawing up the grass under her feet.

"She's a Night Fury, Van," Aqua explained bluntly. "I don't know how she even got here in the first place, but she belongs to DreamWorks."

I stared with a "so what?" expression.

"Disney's biggest rivals!" She burst out. "Honestly, Vanitas, do you have no idea what this means?"

"Uh… that we did something awesome by stealing DreamWorks' stuff?" What was the big deal? Shouldn't Disney be rewarding me?

"No!" She stood up, looming over me. "It means by keeping her here, you could start an intercompany war! If DreamWorks finds out you've got one of their Night Furies here – and sooner or later, it will get leaked – they'll send their strongest characters, their most ruthless lawyers. They could shut us down, Van!" I flinched back from her furious outburst.

"Yeah, right." I rolled my eyes, trying to stay cool. "I bet they don't even know she's missing. And even if they did, we could take them. We're keyblade masters, Aqua, what could they possibly do to us?"

Her blue eyes were like flecks of ice. I hadn't seen her look like that since we'd tried to kill each other back in Birth by Sleep.

"They could shut down Kingdom Hearts III."

The blood drained from my face. A couple of Floods seeped out, which Vanilla happily pounced on, sending their negativity back to me.

While I was silent, Aqua took the liberty of explaining it all to me: how DreamWorks could sue for copyright infringement, how even though practically no one could win a suit against Disney, it could go on for years. And as long as it lasted, there was no chance of Kingdom Hearts III being finished, much less released. And if KHIII took any longer, the hordes of angry fans would either attack – something we weren't strong enough to handle, keyblades or not – or even worse: leave the fandom. It's a little-known secret that most of our power comes from our fandom. As characters, we never really die… until our fans stop caring if we live.

Okay, Aqua was right. This was something to worry about.

"The Disney inspectors just came by yesterday night. That means they've had at least twelve hours to formulate their report. You have to take Vanilla back before that report has a chance to get out."

"Take… take her back?" I said, more to myself that her, then shook my head. "No. She's my dragon, I don't care what she is. I can't make her leave."

Aqua's glare could have sliced through solid steel. "If you don't, then I will."

It was stupid—I hated myself—but water clung the edges of my eyes. You idiot, don't let a stupid girl make you cry! What are you, four years old?

Instead of making fun of me, though, she softened, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Vanitas, but it's the only way."

"Don't tell me you're sorry!" I snapped back, flinging my ping-pong paddle at her. She dodged narrowly, shooting me another glare.

"What would you have me do, then? Let the Castle fall to war and lawsuits?" She relaxed again, looking at Vanilla. "You know if that happens, we won't be the only ones who suffer."

…I knew she was right. I may be selfish, but I couldn't risk ending Kingdom Hearts III. Forget all the other reasons it would be a terrible idea; every character in both castles would slap a bounty on my head. I'd be lucky to survive the day.

And Vanilla... if I didn't take her back, they'd just kill her too. I wouldn't let that happen.

I wanted to scream in rage, but there was nothing I could do. Still, I let out an incoherent yell anyway. Vanilla jumped, loping towards me. I couldn't look at her.

"…Tell me where to take her," I muttered with my head drooping low.

Aqua nodded sympathetically, not that it mattered. I knew it wasn't her fault, but I couldn't help hating her right then.

"It's a world called Berk. But remember, Van—it's property of DreamWorks, not Disney. Be careful."

Being careful was the last thing I was worried about. Nothing they could do to me could be worse than this.

I pulled a bucket of vanilla ice cream out of a dark corridor, making my dragon perk up. She flicked her ears happily, snapping towards the bucket.

"Not yet, Nilla." I held it behind me, opening a different dark corridor with my other hand. Then I quickly scaled her scaly side, throwing my legs over her back. No way was I going to miss what might be my last chance to ride her. "Good girl." I tossed the ice cream in front of the corridor, and she rushed forward after it, accidentally kicking it through.

"Good luck," Aqua said as we disappeared through the darkness.

XXX

Thank the Void I'd jumped on Vanilla, because that corridor dropped us right at the edge of a cliff.

"Whoa!" I shouted, watching the bucket of ice cream drop off in front of us. After Vanilla shook off the disorientation of the corridor, she was diving down after it. "Hey, Nilla, it's just ice cream! I can get—"

The wind whipped the words from my mouth; we were in a nosedive straight towards the ocean.

Heights didn't scare me. Falling didn't either—I was a Kingdom Hearts character; gravity was more of a suggestion than a requirement.

But water?

…I wasn't scared of that either. Not at all. It was just like cold, dense, wet darkness… darkness I couldn't control… darkness that could suffocate and drown you—

I had a split second to wonder, then we crashed into the ocean. The salty water flushed my eyes; why hadn't I summoned my helmet? Such an idiot… Gah, it was cold—and I couldn't yell at Vanilla to swim up, stinging water was flooding my mouth—

It felt like hours, but a few seconds later, Vanilla broke the surface with me barely clinging to her back. She swam for shore, gently rolled me off of her, and dropped the bucket of ice cream by my head.

"Yeah, because that's totally worth the salt-bath," I muttered sarcastically, shoving the bucket away. Vanilla moaned, sniffing me like I must be sick. "Ugh, I'm fine. Sheesh, maybe Aqua was right to make me get rid of you."

I regretted it immediately. Vanilla didn't understand my exact words, and she licked me roughly to warm me up. She was a good minion, the best minion. A minion capable of being a friend.

"Sorry, Nilly," I called her the affectionate nickname I didn't dare say around anyone else in Castle Lampshade. "I'm just grumpy 'cause I don't like baths."

In response, she licked me across the face, spiking one side of my hair up again.

"Eww, ugh, now I'm going to need a real bath…" In the running water back at the castle, not that stupid salty ocean. But there was no way I was going back now – not yet.

"Hiccup!" A girl's voice yelled from across the beach; footsteps jogged my way. "I know you've got places you'd rather be, but there's an urgent meeting at the Great Ha…."

She trailed off when I got to my feet, brushing dust off of my suit.

"…You're not Hiccup." She took a step back, more surprised than scared.

I rolled my eyes. "Gee, how'd you guess?"

The girl gave me a funny look, then glanced to Vanilla. "…Toothless?"

Growling softly towards her, Vanilla's teeth exposed themselves.

"Hey, don't make fun of my dragon." I frowned. "Her name's Vanilla. Who are you?"

"…Astrid Hofferson," she replied hesitantly at first, but then straightened up, swinging her braid behind her shoulder. "And who in Odin's name are you?"

"Vanitas. Not Van, not Vani, Vanitas," I made myself clear.

"Okay, 'Vanitas'—wait, her?" Astrid's eyes widened at Vanilla, who put a wing around me to draw me closer.

"Yeah, her." I crossed my arms. "What, do you think just 'cause she's a dragon she has to be an 'it'?" This girl was already getting on my nerves. Not that that was surprising; everyone got on my nerves.

She shook her head, brushing my question off. "Come with me."

"Uh, I'm the awesome one with the awesome dragon, what makes you think you can—!"

Man, that annoying girl could punch. I doubled over, clutching my stomach, and she had the nerve to smirk. Vanilla snarled, flaring her wings wide. Bet Astrid didn't think about that.

I laughed as she ran down the beach, back to shack-covered area she'd come from. "Not so tough now, are—hey! Vanilla, wait up!"

Vanilla took off running down the beach, right on Astrid's tail. If she'd had a tail, anyway.

"Idiot…" I chased after them, wondering what DreamWorks would do to me if I shot Dark Firaga at her from behind. Uggghhh, stupid inter-company politics. I wondered if Vanilla somehow knew about them, because she hadn't shot any awesome blue fire yet. But she was from this world, so that wouldn't matter, right?

Her wings and tail lashed, throwing wood beams out of the huts we raced between. Man, how was Astrid still ahead of us? And where was everyone? Except for the three of us, the island seemed deserted.

"This is getting boring," I muttered under my breath, trying not to pant. These could be my last moments with Vanilla; why were we using them chasing some stupid girl?

Suddenly Vanilla stopped. My legs didn't. I crashed forward into her tail, which threw me backwards and to the ground.

"Vanilla! What the—" Oh. Astrid had finally done something smart – she'd run into a huge building. Big as it was, the door wasn't big enough to fit Vanilla's outspread wings. She struggled and squirmed, roaring loud enough to shake the building's walls. "Hey! Hey, Nilly, shut up!" Leaping over her tail, I climbed onto her back and tried to shove her wings down. "Just get—your—wings—"

Even faster than she'd stopped the first time, she collapsed. I lost my balance, rolling off onto the ground. "Nilla! Curaga!" I cast the spell, but the bright green light didn't do anything. What in the Void was going on!?

"Good Night Fury, good girl~" A man's soft voice cooed from in front of Vanilla, on the other side of the door.

"Who do you think you are, talking to my dragon like that!?" I climbed on Vanilla's back again, sliding down her neck and leaning back to avoid whacking my head on the doorframe. I landed on my feet inside the giant room, right in front of the loser trying to manipulate my dragon.

He stepped back, but he didn't look scared. Not scared enough, anyway. He didn't look too tough, but he was taller than me – and growling behind him was a different dragon that could've been Vanilla's replica. Did Even get to this world before me?

"You – another human with a – Toothless isn't the only—?" The man stuttered. Hah, maybe he was scared.

Astrid shooed out the mass of people who were gathered in the giant room. This must be the "Great Hall" she'd mentioned. After assuring them all that I wasn't there to kill them, she hung in the back by the Vanilla-replica, leaning against the dragon with her arms crossed smugly. "You spent the last six months of your free time looking for Night Furies, but I never thought one would actually come looking for you."

"We didn't," I snapped back, "you just had the nerve to punch me, and—" That was why. To make us follow her here. Where this weird new guy had another Vanilla waiting for us, to challenge us—

"She punched you?" He looked surprised for a moment, staring towards the still-grinning Astrid, but then he just sighed. "Sorry about that."

"I'm not," Astrid chimed in. The guy didn't bother arguing; he quickly went back to scratching Vanilla under her chin. So that's why she fell over, but that's not fair, I scratch her there.

"Forget it," I grumbled. I wanted to argue, but Vanilla looked so happy... for the first time I wondered if maybe she really did belong here. I crouched down and rubbed the scales of her back. She really was my best friend… after all the effort Aqua put in to make me make friends, and she was really going to make me get rid of Vanilla? Ugh, I guess it wasn't really her fault, but I was still mad. Mad enough that a Bruiser should have tried to escape, but it didn't. Probably the stupid DreamWorks world screwing up my magic.

"This is crazy!" The man said, running both hands through his hair. "Where did you find her? Are there more Night Furies there? Wait – who even are you?"

"Vanitas," I mumbled. I didn't have the energy left to make sure he got it right. Vanilla had turned away from him and was nuzzling me, her eyes wide. Sometimes she was like my Unversed; she could tell when something was wrong.

"Well, it's good to meet you, Vanitas. My name's Hiccup." The strange man held out a hand, which I stared at blankly. He didn't honestly expect me to shake it, did he? Eventually he got the hint and coughed into it instead. "Well, uh… what are you doing here?"

"It's kind of a long story," I muttered, hands clenching into fists. "They say I have to leave my dragon here."

"Wait – someone's trying to make you get rid of your dragon?" Surprisingly, the weird Hiccup guy looked about as offended as I felt. "No one should have to be separated from their dragon. Right, Toothless?"

The Vanilla-clone bounded over to lick Hiccup across the face, just like Vanilla always tried to lick me. I couldn't help laughing just a little. Dragon-licks were way funnier when they happened to someone else.

"That's what I'm saying, but they made it sound like I don't have a choice," I grumbled.

"Let's sit down and talk," he suggested after wiping himself off as best he could. "I know a thing or two about persuading people. I'm sure we can get whoever it is to let you keep… Vanilla, was it?"

I nodded, clinging to her side. If this guy could help me keep her… well, then maybe he wasn't as much of an idiot as he looked. I wasn't sure what some spindly-looking man could do against the forces of DreamWorks and Disney, but this was a DreamWorks world. Having an ally on this side could be useful.

I followed him to a giant table that looked like it could've seated the whole Castle Lampshade crew. Hiccup mumbled something to his dragon, who leapt over to play with Vanilla the second we had our backs turned.

"So, what's the problem? Dragon trappers? Stubborn chieftain? Girlfriend worried you spend more time with your dragon than you do with her?"

"I heard that," Astrid called from across the room, where she had followed the two dragons. Hiccup just chuckled.

"Worse," I replied glumly. I could've beaten up trappers, chieftains, or girlfriends. "Disney inspectors."

Hiccup sputtered. If he'd been drinking anything, he would've spat it at me. "D-Disney? You're from Disney?"

"Sure doesn't look like it," Astrid said, eyeing me up and down as she walked back toward us. "He's certainly not princess material."

I glared at her, before realizing I should probably take that as a compliment. "I'm half Square Enix, too."

She shrugged, blonde braid swinging. "Haven't heard of them. Only ever heard of Disney because Merida and Rapunzel are always showing up in our fandom."

"Huh? Why?"

Hiccup waved a hand dismissively. "The Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons meta-fandom. It gets pretty complicated. Regardless, I have dealt with Disney. As the new chief, I've had the responsibility of communicating with the DreamWorks patrols. They've mentioned that they think Disney might be trying to stick its nose in and wanted me to keep an eye out."

I cursed, and for once it actually came out. No Disney censors here. Hiccup and Astrid did give me a weird look, though. Maybe they had different curse words on this world? Whatever, that wasn't important. "You're going to turn me in, aren't you?"

"What? No," Hiccup assured me. "Your dragon clearly loves you. Winning a dragon's heart is hardly a crime."

"Good." I sighed. If only Aqua and the Disney Inspectors saw it that way… Well, at least Hiccup wasn't going to turn me in. The last thing I needed was to get kidnapped off to some other company's headquarters. Then I'd have no chance of being in KHIII. "So, can you help me or not?"

He winced, sharing a look with Astrid, who just shrugged as if to say, you're the chieftain, not me. I wasn't sure what a chieftain was exactly, but it sounded important.

"...I don't know," he admitted. "I'll have to do some research. If you were from any other company, you would be small enough for DreamWorks to overlook. But Disney… they've been after a way to hit them for years."

So everyone was just out to get me. Great. Then I thought of what he'd said earlier. "Wait, what about that Brave Tangled Dragons crap? You said Disney characters were here for that. Why can they party in your world and I can't have Vanilla in mine?"

"Kid's got a point." Astrid nodded, leaning against the table.

Hiccup rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You might be onto something there. That was a case where both fandoms came to an agreement without getting the companies too involved. Just had to fill out a lot of paperwork, but it all worked out. I think that was only because both fandoms contributed equally, though. No matter how much paperwork I fill out, DreamWorks won't buy it if they think Disney's trying to steal from them."

I tried to puzzle out what he meant. "Both fandoms give something. So, what, if I give DreamWorks something of ours, I can keep Vanilla?"

"I'm not sure it's that easy-" He protested, but I was already searching my heart, trying to pull out an emotion that would make a decent Unversed. This stupid stupid DreamWorks world was making that harder than it should be. There was Anger, but no Bruisers; Annoyance, but no Floods. What was wrong with this place?

"Uh, are you sick?" Astrid asked. I probably looked like an idiot, with my fists and eyes clenched shut, but I wasn't going to give up yet. Unversed were the only things I had to give. If I could trade looking stupid for Vanilla, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Finally, I was able to grab hold of some Determination, an unusual feeling for an Unversed. Maybe that's why it worked here, I don't know. It felt weird pulling it to the surface. Somehow the darkness was rougher coming out of my skin, like it was trying to cling to me while I pushed it out.

Hiccup made a noise like choking and screaming at the same time. Astrid just gasped. Right, they'd never seen me do this before. It was nice to get a reaction; everyone back at Castle Lampshade was desensitized by now.

Then again, the Lampshaders had never seen me make a dragon Unversed . I'd never seen me make a dragon Unversed . After I got over the surprise, I grinned. The new Unversed stretched its wings as it wisped out of my outstretched palms. Bright emerald green and taller than a Bruiser, with four thick legs and broad wings, it was basically the most awesome thing ever. Besides my real dragon, of course.

"What has Disney been feeding you people?" Hiccup's eyes were wide, but I couldn't tell if he was scared or impressed. Hopefully both.

"Ice cream, mostly." I shrugged and patted the new Unversed, whose neck twitched back and forth as it scanned the room. It needed a cool name. Maybe "Flame Fanger," after the sharp tusks pointing down from its top jaw. "Here. You can keep this guy, and I'll keep Vanilla, and we can all go home and never have to see each other again."

"Vanitas, I- ack!" The Unversed sniffed at Hiccup, then blew a tiny burst of Fire, which he barely ducked. It ended up hitting his dragon - Toothless - on the side of the head. The black dragon crouched and snarled loud enough to make Vanilla jump back. "Whoa, Toothless, it's okay! Calm down, buddy!"

While he ran to calm his dragon, Astrid decked me across the face.

"Ow - what the heck!?" How many times was this crazy lady going to punch me today!?

"That's for nearly toasting my boyfriend." I had a feeling she was going to say something else after that, but she never did. Instead she warily backed away from my Unversed, but stayed in range so she could still attack me if I made a break for it.

I rubbed my jaw and practiced a few more curses while I could still say them. Might as well make something good out of visiting this Void-forsaken world.

Hiccup returned, both Night Furies trailing his heels like curious puppies. "Okay, Vanitas, I think you've got a little more explaining to do."

I shrugged. "I make Unversed. They're like monsters made out of my emotions. You keep this one, I keep Vanilla. The end." It really wasn't complicated.

"I don't know that anyone wants this, uh, Unversed." Hiccup eyed it suspiciously, but it doing a perfectly good job of behaving itself. Vanilla, used to my minions, had already started play-wrestling with it.

"Why not?" I asked with a glare.

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Oh, I don't know, because it's a monster you just poofed out of nowhere? Besides, what would we even do with it?"

"Ride it, let the dragons play with it, make it do the chores you don't want to do yourself, I don't really care. Can I go now?"

"Well…" Hiccup sighed. "Alright. We'll keep your Unversed, just so you can keep Vanilla. If I write up a contract of exchange, DreamWorks shouldn't be able to take her away without coming to me first. And trust me, they don't like doing that." He smiled, and I wondered what kind of tricks he had up his sleeve. Maybe the characters had more say in the company in DreamWorks than they did in Disney. "Just keep her out of canon and I think everything will be fine."

"Wha- really?" I beamed. "You mean my plan could actually work? I can keep Vanilla?"

Hiccup laughed. "Never let it be said that Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third tried to separate a man from his dragon."

"Yes!" I fist-pumped quickly before running over to glomp Vanilla. Yes, I said glomp. I was so happy I didn't even care. She rolled away from the dragon Unversed to flop on top of me and lick the side of my head so my hair stood up in one giant spike. Even that couldn't get rid of my good mood. If I could've made Unversed out of happiness, I would have.

"You here that, Nilly? We get to go home! You get to tear up alllll the lamps you want!" Her ear flaps perked up when she recognized the word "lamp."

"You'll still have to tell me how you found her. I've been looking for more Night Furies; I think Toothless could use the company." Hiccup smiled, and his dragon nuzzled the side of his head. It looked more like a headbutt, really.

"I don't know, he looks fine with just you." Just like Vanilla only needed me. That didn't stop the two dragons from locking eyes and chortling to each other happily. Fine, they could be friends. Long as Hiccup didn't get any ideas about keeping her.

"I don't think anyone could separate those two," Astrid said with a slight smile, then ducked when the Unversed flew over to sniff her. "Okay, if you're going to leave this thing here though, you better tell us how to take care of it."

I could do better than that. I scrambled out from under Vanilla, then took Hiccup's hand in mine. At first he tried to shake me off, but then he felt it - the magic passing from hand to hand.

"Uh, what did you just do?"

"I passed the Unversed's bond to you. It'll do what you tell it to now." Sure enough, it trotted over to him, its red eyes set in a happy expression. "Just be sure to give it a good name for me, okay?"

"...Alright." He rubbed his hand as if I'd poisoned it, but it didn't last long. He was too curious about the Unversed to be scared. He looked like he was about ready to start spewing questions, so I figured it was time to leave.

Only… how often would I get to visit a DreamWorks world? How often would Vanilla get to play with other dragons? Maybe it wouldn't hurt to stick around for a little while.

"So what do I need to feed it? Is it a girl or a boy? What do you think about the name 'Green Death'?" What does it like to…"

Okay, maybe the flood of questions would hurt a little. But I grinned and answered them anyway. After all, I'd do a lot worse to keep Vanilla with me.

XXX

"Vanitas!" Aqua yelled at me when she found me in the Lamp Garden, tossing a large crystal of munny for Vanilla to chase. "What do you think you're doing? I told you Vanilla can't stay here!"

"Yeah she can." I tried to smirk, but I was still so happy that it came out as a grin. "I talked to this guy named Hiccup. We made a deal."

Her hands were on her hips; she was still in full-fledged Mom Mode. "And what exactly was this 'deal'?"

I pulled a crumpled paper out of my belt. "Here. Read it." I didn't actually know what it said; I'd just signed it, but Hiccup had made it sound simple enough.

Her expression faded from frustration to confusion. "You convinced the leader of Berk to let you keep their copyrighted property?"

"Hey, Vanilla's not property."

"That's not what I… oh, nevermind." She finally smiled. "I don't know how you did it, but I have to say, I'm glad. Vanilla's been good for you."

"[BLEEP] yeah she has." The Disney censor chopped the first word out of my sentence. Ugh. Maybe I should've just stayed in Berk a little longer.

Aqua raised an eyebrow, but eventually chose to chuckle and leave me alone with my dragon. I waved bye and went back to throwing shiny objects for Vanilla to chase.

Yeah, the censors might be stupid, and Disney might make things hard on me, but this was still home. I had Aqua, Vanilla, and all the lamps I could ever need.

What more could I want?

A/N: I didn't realize that I'd put in that random detail about Vanitas being scared of water. I thought the first time I'd used that was in CaS, but I actually had this drafted long before that. I guess it was just part of my subconscious headcanon.

I don't think this was my greatest chapter by any means, but it was fun to play with the randomness of DMN again.