Hiccup stared at his plate of untouched mutton and potatoes, no longer feeling particularly hungry. There was only one thing left to do. "Sky and Toothless are fighting over me because Sky wants Toothless to have nothing and/or be dead, he might have tried to kill him before he was even born, nothing too important, anyway, gotta run, Sky needs this tailfin!" With this said (at an alarmingly fast pace in hopes that Stoick and Gobber wouldn't catch all of it) Hiccup got to his feet and turned to run, but Gobber grabbed the back of his vest reflexively. He was rather used to Hiccup running off during important things.
"Now wait just a minute, you haven't even touched your dinner," The blacksmith/dragon dentist pointed out.
"I just realized I wasn't hungry!" Hiccup tried.
Though that was the truth, Gobber and the chief knew him well enough to know that there was more to the story than that. Besides which... "How do you know so much about their past?" Stoick pried.
And there it was. No running from that question. Hiccup heaved a sigh, "Promise you won't tie me to a mast and ship me away?" He glanced over at his father nervously. There was a strong possibility that the man would think he was completely insane.
Stoick laughed heartily, "What?! Of course I won't, sit down!"
Not feeling too reassured, Hiccup pried Gobber's chubby fingers off of him as he stalled, "I know... because..." The moment Gobber's last finger was free of his vest, he finished, "Toothless told me himself." That said, he bolted for the door before anyone else could stop him. He ran as fast as he could to the dragon food bowl, where he jumped onto Toothless back without warning.
The Night Fury wheeled around to attack, assuming it was Sky, but when he saw Hiccup's worried expression, he swallowed back the gas he'd been emitting. "Hiccup? What happened?"
"We're running away. Far away, just you, me, and Koda." Hiccup replied vaguely, throwing the sack containing Sky's tailfin to the ground. He then noticed that Sky himself was standing not far off. "Oh, Sky. There's your tailfin. Bring it to Gobber, he should know how to put it on. We looked for you earlier-"
"He was already here," Toothless cut in, "What happened?"
Grabbing Koda and pulling her up onto the saddle with him, Hiccup replied, "No time to explain, my dad is gonna-"
"HICCUP!" A booming voice echoed throughout the island, and Hiccup winced at the sound of it.
"-blow. Come on, bud, we gotta get out of here." Hiccup encouraged. Apparently, Stoick's enraged voice was enough for Toothless to take off without a second thought, leaving Sky and the Isle of Berk behind.
After about an hour or so of aimless flying over the open ocean, Toothless finally asked, "What did you do?"
Hiccup lowered his head shamefully, "I'm sorry, Toothless, he was asking too many questions and-"
"What did you do?" Toothless repeated, more firmly this time, but without any signs of anger. He was surprisingly calm, given the circumstances.
"I... Implied that I had a conversation with you." Hiccup admitted.
Toothless looked over his shoulder incredulously, "You what?! He's going to think you're completely insane!"
"I only implied it!" Hiccup protested, "Heavily... But still implied. He and Gobber wouldn't let me go, they kept asking questions and I had to tell them something!"
"Start over. What exactly happened?" Toothless pressed, losing a bit of his earlier patience. He listened as Hiccup explained everything from the time they parted ways before asking, "So, that's it?"
Hiccup blinked, "What do you mean? Aren't you mad?"
"I'm not mad, you did what you had to... I'm just confused." Toothless explained.
"Your confusion confuses me. What is there to be confused about?" Hiccup wondered aloud, looking down at a sleeping Koda.
"The Hiccup I know wouldn't go through with this." The Night Fury said simply, "The Hiccup I know would have nightmares about his home and friends being attacked by Night Furies. He'd regret this decision the moment we landed."
The teen pursed his lips. Toothless was absolutely right, it was a decision made in the heat of the moment, and he probably would regret it as soon as he got to thinking about what would happen on Berk... But still... "Well what am I supposed to do, then?" He mumbled.
"Stick to your plan. Your father would have found out somewhere along the line following it anyway, so, it was just a little bit earlier than expected. No big deal." Toothless replied calmly, "You'll figure it out, Hiccup. You always do."
"And if I don't?"
"I'll be there," Toothless assured him, "I won't let anything bad happen to you. 'You save me, I save you, that's the way it is,' right?"
Hiccup heaved a sigh, calming his nerves. "You always know just what to say, don't ya bud?"
With an amused tone, the dragon replied, "I could say the same about you." With this, they turned around and began their journey back to the island in relative silence.
It was well after dark when they finally made it back to the skies surrounding Berk, only to find it teeming with a search party of dragons. Toothless adjusted himself so that he was flying beside Stormfly, who didn't seem to acknowledge his presence. "Who are we looking for?" The dragon asked casually.
"Hiccup. He and Toothless disappeared after something happened with his father. I don't know what happened, but I'm worried about them." Stormfly replied, too caught up in the search to realize what was going on.
"You should be more concerned that we came back." Hiccup pointed out. His voice snapped both Stormfly and Astrid to attention as they both turned to look at him a little too quickly. Astrid made the mistake of loosening her grip on Stormfly out of shock and lost her balance when the dragon turned. Toothless swooped below Stormfly and caught Astrid on his back with ease.
"Hiccup!" Astrid threw her arms around him, "What happened?! I was so worried!"
Hiccup fidgeted uncomfortably, "Yeah, about that... I implied-"
"Heavily implied," Toothless corrected.
"Right, heavily implied that I'd had a conversation with Toothless. I ran off before he could react, because... Well, you know how he gets." Hiccup muttered.
Astrid sighed, "Well that explains a lot. Stoick is going berserk. If Gobber weren't around to talk him down, he probably would've capsized the whole island looking for you and 'that damn dragon.'"
"It's not Toothless' fault!" Hiccup snapped defensively.
"You should really be telling him that." Astrid said pointedly, gesturing down to a rampaging Stoick who was in the process of destroying every barrel he could find.
Hiccup winced, "I'm glad I'm not hiding in one of those."
"I think he knows you aren't. Toothless wouldn't fit in there, and wherever you are, you're with Toothless. That's always a given," Astrid reminded, getting to her feet before leaping off of Toothless and onto Stormfly, who was flying slightly below them by now, waiting to catch Astrid.
"Well, I guess it's time to face the music," Hiccup patted Toothless' side, "Bring us down, bud." Toothless nodded and slowly made his way to the ground, landing almost directly behind Stoick. Gulping back his anxieties, Hiccup called out, "You, uh... looking for something, dad?"
Stoick whirled around to face Hiccup and Toothless, "Hiccup!" He boomed, "What were you thinking?! Running off like that after what you said!"
"I know, I'm sorry," Hiccup mumbled, not daring to remove himself from Toothless' saddle in case they needed to make a quick escape.
Stoick seemed to calm down a tad, lowering his voice as he demanded, "What were you trying to say back there, son?"
Hiccup's eyes were locked on the back of Toothless' head as he considered running again, but the dragon turned to meet his gaze and gave a slight nod of encouragement. Finally looking to his father, the boy said, trying to sound as firm and confident as he possibly could, "Just what it sounds like. Dad, I can talk to dragons, and they can talk to me. Look, can we talk about this somewhere less... public?" Stoick seemed to agree to this, not wanting the fact that his son was a loon to be widely known throughout the village, and they went home, where Hiccup finally got off of Toothless' back.
"What do you mean you can talk to them?" Stoick asked, sounding rather detached.
"I... I can have conversations with them. I understand them just as clearly as I understand you." When Stoick appeared to get more agitated, Hiccup offered, "Alright, why don't I tell you what happened from the beginning? Everything I know, I'll tell you, okay? Just... Don't misunderstand. This isn't me guessing what Toothless is saying, it's me hearing real conversations with real words, whether I'm trying to hear them or not." Hiccup then proceeded to explain everything, from the moment Toothless went off-course to where they sat now.
"I don't believe this." Stoick said after several long moments of silence. He covered his face with a meaty paw and rubbed, "My son can talk to dragons."
Chuckling nervously, Hiccup squeaked, "Yeah, pretty crazy, huh?" There was more silence until finally Hiccup realized he had to say something, "Dad, I know it's a lot to take in, and that's why I didn't want to tell you, you've got enough problems to deal with, but if this plan is going to work, you'll have to be in on it anyway, and-"
"What does Toothless think of this plan?" He asked, sliding his hand down his face to his beard as he observed the following conversation between Hiccup and Toothless.
"Well, he said... I don't know. Toothless, what do you think of my plan?" Hiccup wondered, now just as curious as his father as he looked at his dragon.
"I think we should kill Sky. Beyond that, the plan is fine. I just don't want him on Berk." Toothless replied honestly, "This is my home. I already had to leave one home because of him, I'm not going to do it again. Especially not now, with all that's happened... I belong here, with you." He nuzzled the boy affectionately to make his point.
Hiccup couldn't help but smile a bit at the sweet words as he rubbed the scales of the Night Fury's back, "He said he has no problem with the plan, but he wants us to kill Sky. He said he's already had to leave one home because of him, he's not going to lose anything more. And I agree, Toothless shouldn't have to suffer any more, but that doesn't mean killing Sky is okay. If we kill "one more" dragon then it's going to be okay to kill more. Just one more, just one more, just this pest, until we're right back where we started."
Stoick stared in awe. It really was as if Hiccup ant Toothless were talking to one another. Collecting himself, the man cleared his throat and asked, "What do you propose we do, then? This incident with Sky might not be isolated. There could be other problem dragons in the future that we won't be able to tame. What would you do with them?"
The teen hadn't really thought about that. "Drive them away from the island. Night Furies aside, most dragons aren't as stubborn as you Vikings are. If they think that the island they want to inhabit is unsafe for them, that they can't win, they'll go somewhere else. We'll make it clear that if they can't see eye-to-eye with us, they're unwelcome." Toothless suggested, "But we can start that after Sky is killed. Night Furies are stubborn and proud, they won't back down as easily as the others, that's why they so rarely leave their island. If a Night Fury comes here, it'll be for one of two things- to join us or to annihilate us."
Rolling his eyes, Hiccup mumbled, "Toothless, we're not going to kill Sky."
It was then that Stoick spoke up, "I agree with Toothless." Hiccup blinked and turned to his father, "If what you've told me is all true, the Devil's got it coming!" Toothless rubbed against Stoick's knee appreciatively.
"No. Dad, Toothless, no. We're not killing Sky." He then added, "Toothless suggested we could drive off other dragons, that they're not as stubborn as Vikings and won't continue to try to inhabit a place they're unwelcome, but... Not night Furies. Any Night Fury that comes to Berk is coming for one of two things- to join us or to kill us all. We don't really know Sky's intentions at this point, and it's not fair to-"
"It's not fair to who?!" Toothless snapped suddenly, "It's not fair that the truth about what he's done comes out? That I have a little taste of revenge? What's not fair, Hiccup, is that I have to put up with him day in and day out, even though he's just a visitor, and now I'm being told it might be permanent!"
Hiccup winced, "No, you're right, it isn't fair to you either, Toothless, but..." He sighed thoughtfully, "Okay, how about this, we don't make any decisions on that subject until after we've carried out my plan. We won't be able to do it without him, and maybe he'll change when he sees Flamewing's reaction to him. Can we agree on that? Just table this whole thing for now?"
Toothless snorted, but lowered his head in submission. "Fair enough," Stoick confirmed, "It's too late to do anything now. Get some rest and go talk to that Monstrous Nightmare tomorrow."
"Thank you," Hiccup murmured gratefully. He was shocked, to say the least. His father seemed to be accepting his new ability so far, even though it made him seem like a lunatic.
The teen had just started for his room when Stoick's voice stopped him. "And, son? Don't tell anyone else about... this." He gestured non-specifically to Hiccup and Toothless.
"I hope I won't have to," Hiccup agreed, and, with this, finished climbing the stairs. Curling up in bed with Koda, he murmured, "Well that wasn't so bad. Could've gone worse. I was expecting it to be worse."
"So was I," Toothless affirmed.
Koda, snuggling close against Hiccup's chest, said, "I hope everything works out alright."
"Mmm," Hiccup ran a hand over the tiny dragon's scales, then looked to Toothless, who he noticed was staring at them. "Something wrong, buddy?"
The room was silent for a time before Toothless asked finally, "Why does Koda get to sleep with you?"
"She's a baby, that's why. And she gets cold if she doesn't have body heat." Hiccup replied, rolling his eyes a bit, "Are you seriously going to start getting jealous about Koda, too? Give it up, Toothless, you're going to start turning green." (A/N: Green with envy)
"Hmph," Toothless snorted indignantly.
"Tell you what- you stop doing that burning the floor before curling up thing and I'll make a bigger bed so you can sleep by me too." Hiccup offered.
The Night Fury flinched, "It's too cold if I don't!" He protested.
"But a bed would set on fire if you did." Hiccup pointed out. Toothless grunted, disgruntled, and tried to think of another solution. Smiling at the "back to normal" conversation Hiccup said, "Goodnight Toothless, Koda." And eventually drifted off to sleep.
Another shorter chapter. Sorry guys... I dunno what's going on with me. I'm having sleeping problems that are bothering me. Hopefully it'll go away soon and I can get back to normal-length chapters. For now, I'm just happy I'm able to make semi-regular updates.