Chapter 9: Toothless Wakes Up
Toothless woke up about three weeks later. Fishlegs and Hiccup were at Hiccup's house, Hiccup was sitting on the floor beside of her bed cross-legged; Fishlegs sitting on her bed directly behind her. Everybody else was out, so Hiccup decided to take the opportunity to check on Toothless's basket. She pulled it out from under the bed. A thin plume of dark blue smoke was drifting out from under the lid.
Fishlegs whistled. "He's awake all right," said Fishlegs.
"Here we go." Hiccup said as she opened the basket.
The smoke billowed out and made Hiccup and Fishlegs cough. Hiccup fanned it away. Once her eyes had stopped watering she could make out a shimmering, relatively big, black dragon looking up at her with enormous, piercing, jade-green eyes.
"Hello, Toothless," said Hiccup, in what she hoped was a good accent in Dragonese.
"What are you doing?" asked Fishlegs curiously.
Dragonese is punctuated by shrill shrieks and popping noises and sounds MOST extraordinary when spoken by a human.
"Just talking to him," mumbled Hiccup, very embarrassed.
"Just talking to it?" gasped Fishlegs, in astonishment. "What do you mean, you're talking to it? You can't talk to it, it's an ANIMAL, for Thor's sake!
"Oh shut up, Fishlegs," said Hiccup, impatiently, "you're making him angry, I think."
Toothless huffed and puffed and blew out some smoke rings. He inflated his neck to make himself look bigger, which is something dragons do when they are angry or scared. Toothless slowly climbed out of the basket, then unfurled his wings to reveal a wing span of around eight feet. The motion was so fast, Hiccup and Fishlegs both jumped back in shock. Toothless turned to Hiccup and gracefully glided onto her lap. Toothless pressed his forehead onto Hiccup's forehead and gazed deeply and solemnly into Hiccup's eyes. They stayed there, snout to nose, without moving, for about sixty seconds. Hiccup had to blink a lot because the gaze of a dragon is hypnotic and gives the unnerving feeling that it is sucking your soul away.
Hiccup was just thinking, "Wow, this is amazing – I'm really making contact here!"
Just when that single sentence in Hiccup's head was finished, a sudden loud slam shook her from her thoughts and apparent staring contest with Toothless. Hiccup looked up from her recently awakened dragon. She regretted it the moment her eyes laid on who had just burst through her door uninvited and unannounced, yet again! Snotface Snotlout stood in her doorway smirking down evilly at the teenage girl on the floor who was now glaring at him.
"What do you want Snotlout?" Hiccup demanded. The blond young man said nothing and his smirk grew.
"She asked you something Snotface!" Fishlegs growled at him, glaring at the guy also.
Snotlout looked up to Fishlegs, his smirk dropped, and was replaced with a look that plainly said, "If you don't leave now, I will make your life a living nightmare." But Fishlegs glare didn't waver. He was to use to that look, to all of his threatening looks honestly. Snotlout had all but attached himself to Hiccup's hip; he was constantly trying for her attention. And, even though Hiccup and Fishlegs had found cleaver ways to ditch him over the years, he could usually be seen with them at most times, with the occasional company of Dogsbreath the Duhbrain.
"I will ask nicely one more time, Snotlout. What do..."
But before Hiccup could finish her sentence a bright blue ball of fire struck Snotlout square in the chest, and knocked him into the wall. Hiccup looked down at the Night Fury sitting on her lap; Toothless was now facing away from her and toward the door, pretending to look innocent, and harmless. Fishlegs busted out laughing and Hiccup chuckled at the fact that the guy that had insulted the not so little dragon around a month before, had just been knocked down by him. Then toothless spoke.
"It's a bad thing when I don't know who you are, and I already don't like you."he said in a very annoyed tone, towards the teen boy trying to get to his feet again.
"I think you and I will get along just fine." Hiccup said, patting Toothless's head.
Then she froze in realization, Snotface Snotlout just heard her speak Dragonese. This wouldn't be a big deal to Hiccup normally, she was already labeled strange by most of the people in the Hairy Hooligan Tribe so this shouldn't matter much. But this was different. Why? Because speaking Dragonese on Berk was forbidden by her father. Hiccup looked up slowly to the blond that had just stood up again. He was staring at her with wide eyes; then Snotlout's lips contorted into a wicked grin. One thought passed through Hiccup's mind.
"Oh shit, this is not going to be good."
Hiccup and Snotlout stared at each other for a few moments. Fishlegs got up slowly from where he sat and leaned down to Hiccup. He muttered in the female vikings ear with a somewhat shaky voice.
"Hiccup, you're my best friend, your secret is safe with me, but you and Snotlout should probably work this out alone. If he tries anything funny, Toothless is here and doesn't seem to like him."
Fishlegs looked between the two of them, then quietly left the room. The two vikings and Toothless -who was sitting on top of Hiccup's wardrobe, watching with interest at the scene unfolding- remained in the same position. None of them moving a muscle until the loud slam of the front door echoed through the halls of Hiccup's home. Snotlout took a few steps into Hiccup's bedroom, the door made a loud creaking sound as he slowly shut it. His grin still lingering.
"My, my, this is quit the predicament you're in, isn't it pet?" Snotlout said, leering at the the girl on the floor.
Hiccup's eyes widened slightly when she realized the situation fully. She was caught red handed by Snotlout breaking one of her fathers laws, one word of this to her father and she would be exiled. Hiccup knew she couldn't talk her way out of this one, because she couldn't lie to her dad and he wouldn't believe her anyway. But on top of it all, she was trapped in her bedroom with Snotlout, pretty much alone, because Toothless seemed to be entertained by all this and so wasn't going to help her.
Nether of the Vikings-in-training broke eye contact during all of this. As impossible as it seemed, Snotlout's expression became more wicked, apparently guessing what was going through Hiccup's mind. For as long as Hiccup has know Snotlout, the emotions she has felt toward him has been: annoyance, aggravation, and exasperation. But at that moment Hiccup felt another emotion that she never thought she would feel about the person in front of her, fear.
"No! No way am I going to lose my nerve! Not because of him!" Hiccup screamed in her head.
The red headed girl stood from her spot on the floor, crossed her arms under her chest, and gave him the most heated glare she could muster at that moment. Even Hiccup realized that this glare was pretty pathetic compared to her normal ones. Because, even though Hiccup would rather die then admit it, she was still very much afraid. Hiccup was particularly strong, but she was built more for endurance and speed, than brute force like Snotlout was; being no fool, Hiccup knew that in a physical fight, even though she could out last Snotlout any day, she couldn't easily take him out.
"Alright, what do you want Snotlout?" Hiccup asked.
Snotlout's expression changed drastically from a evil, "I've got you now" one, to a blank, serious one. He just stood there looking at her for a moment. Their eyes still locked together.
"Why is he staring at me like that? What is he thinking?" Hiccup thought looking at him suspiciously.
A half second later Hiccup was in his arms in a smiler pose she was that once on Dragon Catching Day; her wrists together and held to his chest, one of his arms wrapped around her hips, and their faces only a few inches apart. Hiccup's face turned from one of anger to one of surprise. Snotlout gazed into Hiccup's emerald eyes as he held her close. They seemed to freeze up for a few minutes.
"W...what are you doing!" stammered Hiccup, struggling. "Let go of me!"
"Shhh... calm down pet," Snotlout said in a, surprisingly, calm and gentle voice; it was shocking enough to bring Hiccup's frantic struggling to sudden halt.
Hiccup finally broke their eye contact when she looked at her hands as the male Viking let her wrists go, leaving her hands resting on his chest. The unoccupied arm then reached around her shoulders. Snotlout released Hiccup's waist and brought his hand up to her face, cupping her cheek in his palm. He stroked her face with his thumb, and smiled softly at the light blush that formed on the tops of Hiccup's cheeks and bridge of her nose.
"What? Why am I blushing? It's Snotlout for crying out loud! Why is he looking at me like that!" Hiccup yelled mentally, feeling her face heat up.
Snotlout tilted Hiccup's head up some, forcing her to look into his sky blue eyes. Hiccup parted her lips a little, about to say something, or yell at him, or something. The words caught in her throat when her eyes met his. Snotlout moved the hand that was cradling Hiccup's face to the back of her head and tangled his fingers in her bright red locks, a movement unnoticed by Hiccup. He leaned in closer to her, to where their noses brushed against the others.
"Snotlout, what are you..." Hiccup squeaked out quietly.
"Hiccup," Snotlout whispered, interrupting her. "you talk too much."
With that said Snotlout closed the distance between their lips. The kiss was surprisingly shy and soft, considering who it was shared by. Snotlout pulled away slowly after about a minute, and released Hiccup from his hold. His face turning a bright red, he two steps away from Hiccup. Snotlout then turned around to face the doorway. He looked over his shoulder to the stunned Viking girl.
"Don't worry, I won't say anything about you talking to dragons." he said.
Snotlout then swiftly left the room. Hiccup just stood there staring at the open door for around ten minutes. She blinked twice, calmly walked to the door frame, and shut it. She turned to her bed and thew herself on top of it. She laid on her back and looked at the ceiling. Hiccup took her pillow and laid it on her face. Toothless glided down off of her wardrobe and sat at the girls feet with a smug grin on his face.
"What in Woden's name was that?" Hiccup yelled into the pillow. "That couldn't really have been Snotlout! Could it...? No, Snotlout is a loud mouthed, self absorbed, stuck up jerk! Then why was my heart beating so fast... Wait what am I thinking! He's just trying to mess with my head!"
"Well that was interesting. Didn't think he had it in him." Toothless said, snapping the girl out of her thoughts.
"Oh, shut up. Don't you ever say a word of this to anyone." Hiccup snapped
"Chill, I won't talk about your love life."Toothless chuckled as he dodged the pillow Hiccup threw at him.