Huh. Dunno what to say. Happy New Year? Even though it's a bit late for that.

xXXx

"We'll tell the others", Hiccup decided the next morning as they met up with Astrid for dragon training.

The blonde gave them a searching look and nodded, "Gobber too?"

Kernel smiled and thought they'd picked their friend well. No denial. No asking why are you doing this. Just acceptance and understanding. It was relieving after having to be ridiculed and ignored by their peers.

She was still sure that if they'd go to try something completely out of bounds they'd hear of it.

Hiccup was on the same wavelength, as usual. He gave Astrid a determined nod and started explaining the plan they'd come up with last night. Kernel was having a hard time breaking that habit she may or may not have unintentionally started. Moody childhood years were annoying afterwords. Though it had been very sweet of her brother to stay up with her and watch the moon and stars. He was always tinkering with something while staying close, knowing she needed the comfort. Now it paid as sleepless invention nights.

Astrid was looking more and more hopeful of this whole scam working. Hiccup smirked at the girls.

"Got it?", both gave a confident smirk back and he grinned, "Let's get this show going"

xXXx

The twins weren't sure if they could put it in action today but it seemed like they could. Only Gothi, the village's eldest, was watching and Gobber took out the Hideous Zippleback. This time, when the fog rolled out, Hiccup and Kernel snuck into the beast's cage while the others evaded the Zippleback. They had dragon nip with them, just in case. Astrid had insisted.

Training lasted half an hour before the dragon was ushered back in by Gobber, the twins staying in shadows. The door closed. Kernel lit their little invention from a while back. One based on lighters. It paid to be prepared and now they had a torch. A light source. It reminded them of the time when they found Hideout. The Zippleback turned towards the light and stared at them curiously. Neither twin had weapons and the torch was just propped against the wall. Hiccup slowly sat down. Kernel followed suit.

The dragon approached them curiously, feeling strangely unthreatened. A meter away they just stopped and sniffed. Both heads chose one twin and the two viking children reached slowly, heads bowed and eyes closed. Just ten centimeters away the hands stopped for the dragon to sniff at them.

Hiccup and Kernel weren't sure what they smelled (probably Tooth's and Spring's scent) but they let out a low content sound and their eyes weren't slits anymore. They reached forward and heads and hands touched. The twins glanced at each other with a smile before breathing deeply. It was now or never. They made the dragon comfortable with their presence as much as possible. Kernel offered the heads dragon nip. Hiccup kept petting them. Outside came noise as the others panicked over the missing twins. They hushed the dragon. Two ropes were out and gently wrapped around their necks as the two asked silently for permission to mount. It didn't take too long.

Surprising. Or maybe not. These dragons were pretty trusting once you gave them trust.

Hiccup called out when someone suggested looking in the cage.

"Uh, Gobber?", he shouted through the door, "Please don't point weapons at us! We got this!"

Astrid was very convincing in her conviction of them being safe. Gobber agreed after she told them her piece, though his voice was somewhat alarmed and frantic. The gate opened slowly. No gas or fog came out. Instead the whole class sans Astrid was left gaping at the two riding the Zippleback who cautiously came out. Kernel and Hiccup awkwardly looked from one shocked face to another, wondering how they'd react.

"Err… Turns out it… doesn't want to kill us?", the boy twin said awkwardly. It was more like a question than a statement.

No one snapped out of it. Astrid walked towards them cautiously, axe left behind, and reached up towards Hiccup's seat. The dragon obliged and leaned down to get scratched by the viking girl. She smiled fondly.

"Huh. What do you know, it's a big softie!"

Kernel petted the spark head she was sitting on.

"M-hm!", she agreed before slipping down from it and giving it a small fish she had been carrying in her backpack.

The dragon took it eagerly and munched. It seems the other head was jealous because it came poking at her shoulder for another one. Kernel laughed lightly and complied. All the while the class stared, not believing their eyes. Fishlegs was open mouthed, trying to comprehend that the information in the dragon manual was ridiculously out of date. Snotlout was staring at his cousins with renewed eyes. They were crazy. That had to be it. Because there was no way those two were riding a dragon.

Thorston twins had only one thing in mind as they walked forward.

I want to try.

The Haddock twins looked at the two (their determined expressions of awe, their smiles) and grinned lightly. The Zippleback seemed intrigued by them. Seemed like the dragon found his, er, their riders.

"That's awesome! Let me try!", Tuffnut said eagerly as he bounded closer.

Ruffnut immediately butted in too while punching her twin's hand away, "No, me!"

Hiccup glanced at their shell shocked audience, shrugged, and got down, "Okay… Ruffnut, you get this head. Tuffnut, the other"

It didn't take long for the other twins to climb on their spots, vibrating with excitement.

"We can cause so many explosions with this!", the boy twin stated.

"Ooh, yeah!", Ruffnut agreed. Her dragon seemed happy and shot out a bit of gas. The rider giggled menacingly and decided on a name then and there, "Your name is Barf"

At the same time Tuffnut had come to a name conclusion, "Your name is Belch"

The twins glared at each other. Gobber came out of his shock and looked to Hiccup and Kernel, scratching his head.

"Eh. Am I right in assuming you two are the source of Hooligan village's dragon related rumors? And the arguing?", he gestured to the two who sheepishly looked back.

This still seemed to go better than they thought it would. The Haddock twins nodded slightly, Hiccup taking the lead.

"Yeah. We've been learning new things about them since the last raid… As you can see, dragons are no bloodthirsty creatures. They're a bit like us, really", he said, gesturing to the twins who were arguing with each other on dragon heads as the dragon heads seemed to bicker too, "Which is why we've been trying to convince everyone that there's more to dragons than meets the eye"

Fishlegs seemed to come out of his shock the same time Snotlout did. Hiccup didn't get the chance to continue as the two gathered around them and started asking questions, Snotlout demanding them to get him a Monstrous Nightmare to ride and Fishlegs asking all kinds of things of what they'd learned. Neither really gave the twins room to respond. They shared a glance and then gave a loud whistle to silence everyone. Astrid came to stand by them.

Hiccup took a deep breath and straightened, "Okay. As you can see, there's more to dragons than we know. And we'd like to teach you about it all", his eyes found the lone spectator to this day's dragon training. A rare occurrence nowadays, but welcomed. Gothi had come to the arena and gestured for him to continue, indicating for everyone to listen.

He swallowed slightly and gestured to the three of them, himself, Kernel and Astrid, "Our goal has been for the last two weeks to tell the whole village of this. And we'd like you to help. Are you in?"

Everyone kind of glanced at each other collectively, then at the twins who were wearing looks of incomprehension and sitting on the dragon like they were born to do it, and then to the three best recruits.

Fishlegs seemed uncomfortable, "Uhh, this goes against everything the vikings have believed for three hundred years… The uproar this will cause is massive!"

"Eh, I don't really get it. But it sounds destructive. I'm in", Tuffnut stated.

"You three are totally crazy!", Ruffnut told them, "...I like it. I'm in"

Snotlout's bravado shone, "Who cares about all that? I get a Monstrous Nightmare out of this! I'm in"

Fishlegs looked from Astrid, to the pair of twins, to Snotlout and then to the dragon. It would seem everyone was in favor and he wanted to learn more so, "...I'm in", he squeaked. The whole thing would be scary and world changing but it'd be worth it, he thought.

All eyes turned to Gobber who had watched the whole thing and chuckled. He was proud of Hiccup for this, the stubborn little toothpick. He caused trouble everywhere he went but this was him getting out of his shell. Gobber would be a fool not to support him.

"Well, 'iccup. Seems like you'll be the teacher for today"

The trio grinned from ear to ear and started educating everyone of the true nature of dragons. They wouldn't mention the Alpha until a bit later, but this was the most progress in two weeks. The whole of dragon training class got their own dragons! Astrid was ecstatic about that as she met the Deadly Nadder again but in peaceful terms. At this rate, they'd have the whole village convinced in less than a week!

That would only leave…

…Dad.

xXXx

Progress! Yay! I should probably watch the movie again to get inspiration for the final battle thingy. And the future conversation with the duo's father. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed.