After he got past the first days after his fever, Toothless recovered from his illness very quickly.
"Aye, he's young and strong," Stoick commented when Gobber mentioned how quickly the dragon-human had come back. "And bouncy," he'd added. Indeed, Toothless did bounce quite a bit, whether form excess energy or excitement or just because, no one could quite tell. He continued writing in his journal until he was satisfied that they'd made it up to the present day, and now wrote in it only occasionally. Instead, he chose to run around after Hiccup and Astrid. He'd grown somewhat less angst-filled about his transformation, at least long enough to enjoy his regained health. Still, in the back of his mind there was that nagging wonder of how much longer.
Unfortunately, whilst their dragon friend had been abed for a week, Hiccup and Astrid had been enjoying the time off from constant dragon company and had spent several days going on excursions together, alone. One such day, after Hiccup and Astrid left the house and left Toothless alone with his soup across the table from Stoick, the dragon had asked,
"Is it a part of human courting?" He asked.
"What?" Stoick asked, surprised.
"Going out and walking about together," He gestured vaguely to wherever Hiccup and Astrid might've gone, "Is it to do with courting, like mating?"
"I, uh… well," Stoick's eyebrows went up, and if Toothless wasn't imagining things, he was trying very hard not to snort or smile. "I suppose so, yes."
Toothless sighed in a frustrated way. "Humans are so strange." He stirred at his soup a bit, then, frowned and turned his full attention to Stoick. "But you are older and more experienced than Gicpa, perhaps you will know: why do humans go through such complicated mating rituals?"
Stoick, surprisingly, seemed unfazed. "What, you mean like Hiccup and Astrid?" He asked gruffly.
"Yes," Toothless nodded. Stoick scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"Hel if I know," he said.
Toothless scowled, annoyed that the mystery would remain another day. The pair looked gruffly off in different directions for a moment, until they simultaneously picked up their mugs, took a long drink, set them back down again, and wiped their mouths on the back of their sleeves. Neither of them had planned the unanimity of the movement, and neither would acknowledge it. But a very odd bond was forged that day, between Viking Chief and Night Fury – a pact of mutual gruffness and silent agreement on many things in life – including over-complicated teenaged relationships.
It wasn't that Toothless minded, really. It was how they minded.
Humans did a very odd thing when they planned on mating, where they stuck their mouths right up against their mate's mouth, and stayed that way whilst hugging – kissing, they called it. It looked downright uncomfortable in Toothless opinion, but he was sure dragon customs were just as odd to humans as humans' were to dragons, so he usually let it slide. He'd seen Hiccup and Astrid kiss several times. Each time, he never asked any questions or said anything remotely rude about it, but for some reason, whenever they realized he was even nearby, they threw a fit. He couldn't make left or right of it so instead, he'd ditched his respectful approach and opted for teasing. If humans were going to be dumb and confusing, at least he ought to get some fun out of it.
He might've been a human nowadays, but his teasing habits were still going strong.
He really had been minding his own business, just going for a walk, enjoying the freedom to be outside, when he found them. He should've known this was one of their popular spots, it provided a great view of the island and got nice sunshine in the afternoon. But he hadn't thought of it before, so he just marched past the treeline and there they were. It wasn't as though he could've heard them coming, anyway. They couldn't talk very loudly, wrapped up as they were in kissing each other. Better to just seize the moment's opportunity, Toothless decided. So he snuck up as quietly as he could until he was right beside them – they couldn't see him, they had their eyes closed. He glanced around at the lovely scenery, watched a bird take flight, before he drew a breath and said,
"It's a nice day, isn't it?"
Toothless wasn't entirely sure if the sound that came next was a squawk, a gag, or a screech, but it made him smile out of amusement because it came from both of the kissing pair.
"Gods, Toothless!" Hiccup yelled. Toothless laughed.
"Oh, you two are too sensit- OW!"
Astrid had punched him in the shin.
"Ow, ow, ow!" Toothless hopped around and eventually fell to the ground. "Why would you do that?!" He begged, hugging his aching leg.
"Why would you do that?!" Astrid demanded, embarrassment coming through as anger.
"Ugh!" Toothless rolled his eyes through the pain, "You humans are ridiculous. You and your stupid mating rituals, and I end up being the one blamed for your problems."
"Mating rituals?" Astrid asked, confused.
"Gods above Toothless, we've talked about this already," Hiccup finally got up from his seat, cheeks burning. The Viking crossed his arms and came stand over his friend, scowling. Toothless rubbed his shin and continued to scowl right back.
"And you still haven't explained a single bit!"
"Well you must understand a little, you're constantly teasing me for no reason!"
"Just because I tease you doesn't mean I understand why it makes people hit me," He glared at Astrid.
"You are ridiculous!" Hiccup spat, switching to Dragonese.
"Well at least I make sense," Toothless growled.
"You don't, though."
Astrid, of course, was watching the whole exchange with mounting non-comprehension, as the Dragonese flew back and forth at increasing speeds with increasing irritation. But they'd spoken enough Norse beforehand for her to get an idea of what, exactly, they were arguing about. So, Toothless was confused by how humans courted. That was simple enough. She imagined herself in his shoes, imagined how strange kissing must appear, stranger still if Toothless didn't know it ought to have been a private thing. And apparently he'd had only Hiccup as a guide to the complex world of human romance. Well, that was the problem. Charming as he was, Hiccup was hardly an expert.
But how to make Toothless understand?
Astrid sighed, and stepped forward. "Would you two just shut up?" she shouted at them. The two boys did, turning to her with surprised faces. "Right," She said, and brushed back her hair compulsively. "So, Toothless, if I gather, you're confused by why humans get so worked up about all…" she gestured vaguely, "this."
"I hear the others call it kissing," Toothless said helpfully.
"Yes, kissing," Astrid closed her eyes in a longsuffering way. "That."
"Yes. It is weird and makes humans yell at innocent dragons," Toothless glared sidelong up at Hiccup.
"Okay. Stand up, will you?" Astrid asked. Toothless, although confused, did as she asked. "I'll try and help you out," she said, and didn't even glance at Hiccup before she marched up, grabbed Toothless by the neckline of his tunic, and yanked his head down for a kiss.
If the situation could've made Hiccup mad, it'd happened too fast for him to realize it, because he just stood there, perhaps more shocked than Toothless.
Toothless, for one, wasn't entirely sure how to respond. After a second or two, he realized that Astrid was kissing him, and a second or two after that, he realized that he hadn't moved, and then that he couldn't move, or maybe he wouldn't. Whichever it was, he didn't move, and the back of his head began buzzing, and he thought he got the idea of why they enjoyed this. Also, inexplicably, why they didn't want to be stared at.
After Astrid stepped back, she crossed her arms and wiped back her bangs gruffly. "Alright?" She asked. Toothless glanced wide-eyed over at Hiccup, whose expression was one of the most vivid Toothless had ever seen - somewhere between disgust, rage, confusion, and a completely absurd hint of amusement.
"Ierrhmm," Toothless squeaked, because he couldn't make his throat do anything else. He felt his cheeks burning, along with his neck and ears, and looked away.
"Good," Astrid said, and somewhat self-consciously wiped her mouth off. She turned. "Come on, Hiccup."
"W-but what… the hel," he stared, and looked at Toothless. Still beet red, the dragon only looked back helplessly.
"Oh, come on, it was just Toothless, you big baby," Astrid growled because she was flustered, and looped her arm around Hiccup's. Toothless heard them bickering as they walked off, Hiccup occasionally trying to shoot looks back at Toothless and Astrid dragging him back up in step with her whenever he did.
Standing just where they'd left him, Toothless touched his mouth in confusion, because honestly, what. Eventually, he shuffled off in a quiet way and determined never to bother human couples again.
Because honestly, you can never know what they'll do.
It was some days after the kissing incident that Hiccup decided to take Astrid to see Ru. Toothless and Ru both seemed fine with decision, but Hiccup was all wrung up with apprehension, unsure of how Astrid would react to the massive eastern dragon, and nervous about whether or not Ru would like Astrid. For however short a time they'd spent together, Hiccup liked Ru, and very much wanted the wise old dragon's approval in all things.
"How long has he been here, did you say?" Astrid asked.
"A few weeks, now." Hiccup slid himself down a rocky ledge and dusted his hands. "He says it's been very nice, though. He's never been this far west, so he seems to be enjoying the change in scenery – the sea especially. I think he found a lookout spot up at Raven's Point, he likes watching the waves and the ships coming and going."
"Oh. …We won't have to climb up there, will we?"
"What, to Raven's Point?" Hiccup chuckled, "No, he knows we're coming, and agreed to meet us at the cove. Ru is very kind. Still," He jogged to walk alongside Astrid. "He doesn't understand Norse, so I'm afraid Toothless and I'll have to do the talking." Hiccup glanced up at the dragon-human, who was many yards ahead of them, picking through foliage and rocks easily. "Then again, it'll probably be just me, because Toothless always gets too excited around Ru to speak in Norse."
Astrid smiled. "He likes hearing his own language, I suppose."
"Yeah," Hiccup sighed, "He says I'm nearly fluent, but something about me still puts it off. He always gets excited when he can talk with other dragons."
"You said you'd teach me, you know," Astrid said, stepping over a fallen log.
"I will," Hiccup assured her. "Maybe even a bit today, what with all the dragonese flying around. Plus, for being a foreigner, Ru has incredibly good diction. Maybe we can have a real master give you your first lesson." He smiled. Astrid smiled back.
"That would be something."
They heard Ru before they saw him. Toothless got to the cove a while before the humans did, and the conversation between the two dragons floated up to the vikings as they approached. As they stepped around the bend, Astrid got her first glimpse of Ru through the trees, and stopped, wide-eyed.
"What-"
"It's okay, Astrid," Hiccup put a hand on her arm,
"Is that him?"
"Yup, that's him alright."
"He's huge!"
"Yeah," Hiccup chuckled nervously. "I'm not sure if that's his species, or his age, or maybe-"
"He's beautiful," She breathed, eying his shingled scales and shimmering mane with awe. Hiccup smiled.
"I'm sure he'd be flattered to hear you say so." He tipped his head toward the cove. "Come on, come and say hi." He took her hand and pulled her along. She took the short time before they entered the cove to straighten her clothes and smooth her hair, and Hiccup didn't tease her for it. Both Ru and Toothless looked up when they appeared.
"Oh good, you didn't get lost. Slowpokes," Toothless said, smirking. Ru regarded the two with that regal, eternally gentle look of his.
"Aha, your mate, young Gicpa?" he asked.
"Ah, well, not exactly, she…" Hiccup glanced at Astrid, then sighed. "…oh, sure. We'll go with that."
Toothless' eyes widened and he pointed suddenly at Hiccup. "He admits it!" he exclaimed, clenching a fist in victory.
"Oh, shut up, you useless reptile," Hiccup hissed, and returned his attention to Ru. "Ru, this is Astrid," he turned to Astrid. "Astrid, this is Ru." Human and dragon bowed to one another, respect but apprehension in each of their faces. "Astrid does not speak Dragonese, but she is interested to learn, if possible. I told her that, perhaps, you could teach her some?" Hiccup asked. Ru looked pleased.
"I would be honored, young Gicpa. Although, of course, you would have to relate a great deal of it for me in your human tongue."
"I understand," he said, and turned to Astrid. "What do you say, you want to learn a bit of Dragonese?"
"W-what, now?" Astrid seemed flustered, still taking in the huge, awe-inspiring dragon before her.
"No time like the present," Hiccup said, seating himself on a boulder. "then, we can see how well you speak afterward."
Astrid wasn't quite as gifted in language as Hiccup was. They taught her basic niceties, 'hello', 'goodbye', 'how are you', and some framework for everyday conversation. She was a quick learner, but her need for perfection slowed her progress because she was afraid of messing up. She blushed whenever she made a mistake, but Ru seemed impressed with her progress.
"I had no idea humans could learn our language so easily," He told Hiccup and Toothless, the latter of whom was lying a short distance away, sunbathing. "I wonder now what you could achieve in a generation from now," he paused. "…A generation of humans, speaking in the tongue of dragons… if I had ever hoped to see that..." He glanced at Toothless, thinking of their conversation when he'd first arrived. "But, I think, a few lessons might be in order first," he smiled.
"Lessons," Astrid said suddenly. Hiccup and Ru turned to her. She blushed, but looked pleased with herself. "He said something about lessons just now, didn't he?" She asked. Hiccup grinned.
"Good job. And yeah, he was just saying you're doing really well, you just need a bit more practice, a few more lessons."
"Is that… is it okay if I come back for more lessons?" She directed the last question at Ru. Hiccup translated, and Ru snorted happily, before lowering his head in a deep nod. Astrid smiled. "Thank you," she said in Dragonese, surprising her host and her boyfriend. Dragon scales aside, Ru's face was so openly shocked that Astrid laughed.
And so, for the next several weeks, amidst tutoring from Toothless and Hiccup, Astrid began learning Dragonese with Ru's help. She progressed far more slowly than Hiccup had, but, apparently, where speed was lacking, precision was Astrid's strong suit.
"It is quite remarkable, really," Toothless told her one evening during tutoring as Hiccup picked at the fire, "You haven't even a hint of that human accent that Hiccup has."
"Wait, what?" Hiccup turned like he'd been slapped. "Human accent? What is that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. You speak wonderful Dragonese, but even a hatchling could tell it wasn't your first language."
"And Astrid… doesn't have that."
"Nope," Toothless glanced at the girl, squinting. "I'm not entirely sure how. Perhaps you're just too much of a perfectionist," he smiled at her. Astrid raised her chin and smiled back. Hiccup sputtered as he came up to the table where they both sat and took a seat.
"Well… tell me what I'm doing wrong, so I can fix it," He begged, frowning.
"You're not doing anything wrong," Toothless told him, "You just have an accent."
"Yeah, I know, so what am I doing to have an accent? I don't want to sound-"
"Nope," Toothless put a finger to Hiccup's lips, which surprised the boy enough that he actually did shut up. "I don't care. You even try to iron out that accent and I will punch you until you stop." He stood, went up beside Hiccup, and awkwardly hugged the boy's head to his chest. Still, it was an ironic sort of awkward, because Toothless had been human long enough now to understand how awkward it was. "I hear that accent, I know it's you. Now stop whining and finish making dinner."
"I wasn't making dinner in the first place," Hiccup grumbled oddly against Toothless' shirt.
"Oh," Toothless dropped Hiccup's head and the boy recovered, hair staticy. "Well, what on earth were you doing? Come on, I'm hungry." He yanked on Hiccup's hair in a not-exactly-gentle way and Hiccup fell out of his chair and into step with the dragon.
"You're always hungry," he griped.
"Am not."
"Are so. Put that down. You are not cooking anything."
"Oh, come on!"
"I don't fancy eating charcoal, now go get me some fish."
"Yes, mum."
Hiccup smacked Toothless' head with the back of a wooden spoon as he left. The dragon yelped, and Hiccup harrumphed in satisfaction.
"You two enjoy acting like infants, don't you?" Astrid came up by Hiccup.
"I'm not an infant – he may act like one, but after all, he is the one who-" Hiccup froze suddenly as Astrid's arms wrapped around his waist from behind.
"And whatever it is he does, you were probably the one who taught him how to do it." She pressed her face halfway up against Hiccup's neck, chin on his shoulder, and smiled. "You're just as bad as he is."
Hiccup would've normally come back with a pithy comment on that, but between her arms at his sides and her face against the back of his neck, all words (and thoughts) had more or less abandoned him. Astrid snorted against his shoulder when he didn't respond.
"You can't multitask, can you?"
Hiccup was about to say 'no', but then Astrid pecked a quick kiss on the spot behind his ear, his brain short-circuited, and his words came out as 'nuuhhhllmmmm," instead. She laughed at him, he blushed, and she tightened her arms a bit.
From the pantry, where he shouldn't have been able to hear them let alone see them, Toothless shouted, "STOP FLIRTING!" in Dragonese. For once, both of them understood. Still, fluency aside, neither of them particularly cared to listen.
Astrid stayed late after dinner than night, mostly to talk with Toothless and perfect her next lesson of Dragonese. Hiccup had sat with them for a while, sketching and interjecting a comment here and there, but after a while, after seeing his father go to bed and hearing the crickets begin their nightly chorus, Hiccup bid his friends goodnight and shuffled upstairs to his own bed. He only asked Astrid to snuff the candles before she left.
It was Toothless who began dozing off first. But Toothless didn't doze off like most people – he started zoning out first, daydreaming or thinking about unrelated things before he actually started nodding off.
"Toothless?" Astrid asked, and when he shook himself, he suddenly saw her staring at him, face cocked sideways, expression curious. "You okay there?"
"Yeah," he said distractedly, blinking himself back into the present, "yeah, fine."
She nodded, and leaned back, still looking at him. "Penny for your thoughts?"
"What?" He asked, confused by the phrase.
"What are you thinking about?" She clarified.
"Oh," He shook his head. "Nothing, really."
She continued to stare. He saw it and sighed. He didn't often have one-on-one conversations with Astrid, but he knew she wasn't one to beat around the bush with. Drawing a breath, he crossed his arms and confessed, "I've been a human for a long time, now." He told her. "longer than I think Hiccup wants to think about. It's been months – when… when I became like this, it was still summer." He glanced out the window, frowning. "I can already feel winter in the air. The autumn leaves are nearly all gone." He looked down at the floor to his human feet, and shuffled his human toes, considering how alien they should feel and how familiar they actually were and how much the fact bothered him. "I wonder more and more often when I will change back."
Astrid didn't say anything for a while. She wasn't one to dole out niceties and empty comforts. Toothless liked that about her.
"Have you asked Ru about it?"
Toothless nodded. "He knows nothing more than I do. But… he seems to think that I need to have… accomplished something as a human before I am to change back. But I cannot comprehend what that might be." He shrugged. "I have told Hiccup everything I was never able to tell him – I have learned more about humans than I'd ever known, taught more about dragons than I thought I knew. I've recorded my story in your tongue and memorized it in my own. I've taught Hiccup Dragonese – I've taught you Dragonese, at least as much as you need to begin learning. I've learned what I want and how I can get it – where I want to go, who I want in my life, and why. All of … this," he gestured to his human body, "seems to have brought me closer to Hiccup, to you… to all of Berk, closer than I thought possible." He paused, and let out a helpless shrug. "I just cannot think of anything else left that I need to do, anything that I can't do just as well in my old form." And it was truly old now. He didn't mention how he could hardly remember what wings felt like, how panicked he'd felt when he'd realized the fact that morning.
Astrid only nodded, digesting his words. "And how do you expect you'll turn back?" She asked him. He blinked at her.
"I… I don't know." Truthfully, he hadn't even tried imagining the mechanics of it.
She eyed him keenly, her own mind working over possibilities. "I couldn't say either… still. Best keep your eyes open," she said. "Something tells me, you'll know it when it comes."
"I didn't know anything of the sort when I laid down for that nap," he grumbled.
"Yeah, but you just said you'd learned a lot," he looked up at her when she said it. She shrugged. "Maybe you've learned more than you know."
Squinting off into space and beginning to zone out again, Toothless didn't notice that Astrid had stood until she was right beside him. "Goodnight, Toðléas," she said in that oh-so-perfect Dragonese, and he smiled. She kissed his cheek (totally different from on the lips, and far more acceptable in his book) and told him to go to sleep. She snuffed the candles as she'd promised, all but one which she left for him.
You'll know it when it comes. Toothless wrestled with the idea as he climbed upstairs to bed, trying to find any feeling in his mind that told him there was something to know. Nothing came to mind. He tried to trick his mind into feeling something that he wasn't sure what felt like all the way to his cot. After he snuffed his candle, however, his head hit his pillow and there was nothing to know for the rest of the night.
A/N: We're coming up to the end of the story. Unfortunately, because the idea of Toothless being human comes up with so many scenarios with so many different people and settings, I've had a hard time deciding how many filler chapters I should go one with before I ignite the chain of events that will lead up to the end, which, if I haven't mentioned it before, will get pretty intense. That being said, I'm about to hit the button that will trigger the beginning of the end. I just wanted you guys to know that I know there is so much that I haven't touched on and will not touch on before this story is complete, and that pains me, but then again, I don't want this thing to go on indefinitely. I've had the climax chapter sitting completed on my computer for months, and I'd like to get everything else out on paper before I lose motivation entirely. So, buckle in, the next chapter is the beginning of the big finale.