I like these five. Very much, actually. So, thanks to all you guys who left a review last chapter; I see a few names I recognize from the days before I dropped off the face of FanFictionPlanet for eight months, so if you guys are still following these drabbles from the old days, you rock. Seriously. And to all the new faces, welcome! Just so you guys know I probably won't be using any of your suggestions for a little while, but you're certainly welcome to give me ideas if you have any you'd like to see written; I'll put them away for later and use them when I don't have any ideas of my own. Anywhoos, you know the drill. Read. Review. Eat your vegetables. Enjoy.

~.~

122. Prepared

It wasn't easy to upset Ruffnut. In fact, to see the tough Viking girl distressed at all was as rare as a blue moon — and Toothless had learned that it was always an excellent idea to prepare yourself way beforehand when you went to help her work out her problems.

Toothless had also learned that boys were beyond useless in such a situation. Astrid was the best one to call.

"Hey, what's wrong with y—"

Whap!

Astrid leaned on the handle of her shovel, brushing hair from her eyes and grinning expectantly at the tearful Ruffnut as Snotlout staggered away, clutching his head.

"So, who's the loser we need to bury?"

123. Adventure

"Hey guys, whatcha doing?"

The dragon and the one-legged boy turned to look at Astrid as she bounded up behind them. "Oh . . ." Hiccup shrugged. "Going for a walk."

"Where are you going?"

"Into the woods."

"You following a map?"

Toothless shook his head.

"The twins found a cave system on the other side of the river the other week. They say something lives in there that's got footprints the size of Gobber's head," the blond informed them.

"Maybe we'll head that way, then."

"The terrain's pretty bad over there, though."

"I've got back-up." Hiccup gestured to his dragon. "Rocks aren't a problem."

"Whatever's in those caves probably is, though."

Toothless and Hiccup exchanged a look. "Let's go find out. Wanna come?"

Astrid's toothy smile split her face. "You bet I do!"

124. Loyalty

"Idiot."

"Jerk."

"Moron."

"Freak."

Ruffnut reached out and socked her brother none-too-gently on the shoulder, and he shoved her in return. Sprawling out at Toothless' feet, she spat dust from her mouth venomously and launched herself at Tuffnut, tackling him around the knees and bringing him down hard.

"For the love of Thor, quit it, you two." Hiccup and Toothless sidestepped the twins as they rolled by, Ruffnut's knee in her brother's gut and and Tuffnut's hands wrapped around his sister's neck.

They ignored him, typically, and hopped up, grappling with one another. Ruffnut slammed Tuffnut into a tree with enough force to bring leaves drifting down onto their heads, and he grabbed her by the arm and twisted it back to an unnatural angle, bringing her to her knees.

"You two are going to kill each other one of these days, you know that?" Rolling his eyes slightly, Snotlout casually stuck out a foot and tripped Tuffnut as the boy staggered by.

But he never hit the ground. Ruffnut caught her twin around the waist, and they jumped Snotlout together.

125. Mutual

Toothless hears the commotion first, but it's Fishlegs who identifies it. The dragon briefly considers finding Hiccup, but squashes the idea immediately—the one-legged boy has been having problems with his own father recently; He doesn't need to be drug into this as well. Not yet.

Later, they find her sitting on the ledge on a high cliff outside of Berk, staring out at the ocean. Astrid glances up when they come sit on either side of her and looks down again just as quickly, but not before Toothless sees the ugly yellow bruise that stains her jaw. Her eyes are red.

"They don't hate you." Fishlegs' voice is quiet, and although this whole situation is new for Toothless, there's something about the way the boy says it that makes the dragon think that he's been here before.

Astrid gently touches her bruise with her fingertips. "They don't love me, either."

Toothless knows that Vikings have never been particularly enthusiastic when it comes to affection, but there's no excuse for this. He touches the tip of his tail to the small of Astrid's back comfortingly, and her fingers lower from her face to twist in the grass beside her.

"If they don't, then they're making a mistake," Fishlegs tells her, and she tries to smile, without much success.

"It's okay," she says. Her voice is bitter. "I don't love them, either."

126. Elixir

Toothless knew he shouldn't be messing with Hiccup's experiments. He'd seen the boy make things explode, disintegrate, smoke, shrink, shrivel, and liquify.

But oh, this one smelled so good.

The liquid in the vial was a lovely amber color, not an ominous shade of toxic green or electric blue, nor did it have the unappetizing texture of mud, as so many of Hiccup's concoctions did. It looked as wonderful as it smelled, but the question was, did it taste that good as well?

Toothless 'accidentally' bumped the table leg with his shoulder, and the vial teetered for a moment before tipping gracefully and spilling it's contents over the edge of the tabletop.

Yep. It tasted pretty darn wonderful, too.

A few minutes later, as Toothless was making his escape, Stoick the Vast happened to walk by. His mouth fell open. "Hiccup—Hiccup, your dragon is yellow!"