Not everyone had such pleasant thoughts on their minds that evening. The fight between Sky and Toothless had not yet been dismissed by the other dragons of the island- especially Sky himself. Under the cover of darkness, he was practicing flying with his new automatic tailfin. It was a bit slow to react at first, so there were a few unfortunate incidents involving his face and cliffs, but he thought he was doing quite well. Well enough, perhaps, to make that long flight back to the Isle of Night. While it was true that the other Night Furies would likely kill him if he came with nothing, perhaps he could manage to persuade them to let him go if he told them what that boy was planning, and what his dragon had done. He was perched on the edge of a cliff, looking out at the ocean, steeling himself for the stamina to make it back home when he heard a voice call from behind him, "Going somewhere?" He wheeled around to see Stormfly- along with Hookfang, Thornado, Barf, and Belch closing in on him. Panicked, he turned to fly away, but was stopped by Meatlug, who rose up from the grounds below the cliff and spooked him into backing straight into the half-circle of dragons.

"I was just testing my new tail," Sky replied a little too innocently as he held it up for the others to see, "The one Hiccup made me."

"If that were the case, you wouldn't have tried to run." Meatlug pointed out. Usually, she wasn't the one for violence, she preferred to live a more peaceful life than, say, Barf and Belch, but this Night Fury was testing her patience.

Hookfang stepped in, "Did you honestly think you would get away with what you've done to Toothless?"

Sky looked offended, "I've hardly raised a paw at him! He's the one who tore my tailfin off!"

"Rightfully so!" Stormfly interjected, "You deserve it after what you've done! We heard about you, what you did to him!"

The Night Fury was even more confused, "I didn't do anything!"

"That's not what we've heard," Belch purred, his snakelike head coming around to one side of Sky while Barf was on the other.

"That's right. We know the truth about you," The other head cooed.

Sky looked back and forth between the two heads, getting rather flustered, "I don't know what you're talking about! Leave me alone!"

"Oh, stop teasing the poor thing and put him out of his misery." Hookfang suggested, seeming all too eager to do so himself.

"That's enough!" Stormfly barked, and everyone snapped back to attention, allowing her to take slow, deliberate steps towards Sky, "You call Toothless a traitor, but who are you to say that? From what we've heard... The real traitor here, is you, Sky."She leaned in close with her head turned so she could fix an eye on him, "What did you do to the alphas' clutch?"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Sky stammered, pretty obviously looking for a way out now as his head turned wildly in all directions, calculating his wingspan.

Hookfang took note of this and said, "Oh, don't look so anxious. We're only just getting started." With this, he lunged forth and tore the prosthetic tail off of Sky, preventing him from leaving. Or so he thought. When Hookfang ducked his head, Sky took his chance and jumped into the air, batting his wings in a pathetic struggle to stay up. He managed to make it to the other side of Hookfang before he hit the ground running, and it wasn't long before there was an enraged roar from Stormfly, and he heard the pounding of paws behind him.

In that moment, Sky was utterly helpless. He could run wherever he wanted, but the island was only so big, and these dragons knew it much better than he did. There was no talking to them, not in this state, especially not after he'd tried to run. He had only one option, "HELP!" He shrieked, making for the village, hoping that the humans would wake up and take control of their dragons.

Unfortunately for him, the humans were used to living with dragons, so a mild amount of noise was not enough to wake them... However, there were two sleepy Night Furies who managed to hear the ruckus. Toothless' ears perked and his head turned in the direction of the sound. "What was that?" Koda groaned from her place beside Hiccup.

"Wake Hiccup, I'll go check it out." Toothless replied simply, then hopped out the window and down into the streets below, where chaos was ensuing. There was a flurry of wings, claws, gnashing teeth and for a moment, he almost thought there was a rival attack... Until he saw Sky. Annoyed that the other dragons were trying to take his fight, Toohless jumped into the fray, snapping and snarling until the other dragons backed off and Sky was safely tucked behind his wing. "What the Hel are you all thinking?!" He scolded, then heard a door slam and the familiar sound of Hiccup's metal leg running up behind him.

Though Hiccup had missed the fight, he could see that Sky was badly bloodied, his wounds seeping and glistening in the moonlight. "What... What happened?" The mob of dragons averted their eyes guiltily, caught in the act.

"What were you thinking?" Toothless pressed, moving in below Stormfly, "Stormfly? What did you do?"

"He was trying to run away," She said dismissively.

"So you thought it would be a good idea to kill him?" Hiccup challenged, folding his arms over his chest. "Great. Now I have all the dragons and my father to convince. We're not going to kill Sky. End of discussion. Anyone who wants to argue that point, well, you know how to leave."

"But-"

"Ah!" Hiccup pointed an accusatory finger at Hookfang, who had tried to protest, then at the sky, "You want to go back out there, be my guest. Sky is a guest on this island, and I don't want to see any more fights over this."

Meatlug came forward, "It's my fault. I told them what Sky did to the alphas' clutch."

Hiccup smacked a hand to his forehead. "Fishlegs..."

Toothless growled angrily, "This is why I didn't tell anyone before!" He snapped, "It's none of your business, so just stay out of it!"

"But, Toothless-" Stormfly tried.

"This is between me and Sky! I've said it before and I'll say it again! It's my fight!" Toothless spat, glaring at her.

"We just wanted to help-"

"If you want to help, you can start by going home and never speaking of this again." Hiccup told the dragoness grimly. It took a while for everyone to calm down, but eventually, the dragons dispersed, leaving only Hiccup, Toothless, Sky, and Koda, who was perched on Hiccup's shoulder.

The youngling looked down at Sky, pain in her eyes, "Is it true, Sky?" She asked cautiously, "Did you really... Did you really sabotage them?"

Sky lowered his head in silence, which was enough of an answer for all involved, really. "Never mind about that now. That's in the past, right? You have a chance to make up for it now, Sky. Don't screw it up." Hiccup pointed out, "What do you think would've happened just now if Toothless hadn't come in to save you?" More silence. "We'd be cleaning up a big mess of Night Fury in the morning, that's what." Hiccup said, answering his own question, "So what are you going to do? Are you going to pretend this never happened, wait for it to happen again? Or are you going to be honest about what's really going on with you and Toothless and try to make it up to him?" The dragon turned his gaze to Hiccup, who saw the same fear and regret that he'd once had.

Kneeling down beside Sky he said softly, "Look Sky, we all make mistakes. Take me, for example, I shot Toothless out of the sky, maimed him so he would never have flown again... But I realized the error in my ways, and I made it up to him. I made him a new tailfin, and protected him when the other Vikings wanted to kill him, and, see? He's forgiven me." He lightly placed a hand on Toothless' head to prove his point, "The other Vikings, they used to enjoy killing dragons, but now look at them. They can't do anything without them! Berk is all about second chances, Sky, but we can't give you one if you aren't willing to put some effort in yourself."

Sky lowered his gaze again and curled into himself, "Toothless wouldn't forgive me." He grumbled.

"I wouldn't forget." Toothless growled, "But I could learn to forgive, if I thought you would actually change."

After several minutes of silence, Hiccup straightened up and said, "That's enough for tonight. Let's all get back to sleep..." He glanced at Sky's tail and noticed that the fin was missing once again, "Looks like I've got a lot of work ahead of me tomorrow."

Hiccup turned to leave with Toothless at his side when Sky called out meekly, "I'm sorry... for causing so much trouble..."

The boy paused, but didn't spare a glance back at the Night Fury, "Thanks, but... I think it's going to take a lot more than that to get back into our good graces." With this, he patted Toothless' side and led him back home. Once settled in to sleep once more, Hiccup said, "You know, I'm proud of you, Toothless. You handled yourself really well out there." Toothless merely snorted in response. "I know I probably shouldn't have said we would forgive him, in retrospect, I can't really expect you to, but..."

"It's fine." Toothless mumbled, "I'll never completely forgive him because I'll never be able to forget all he's done, but... I think I can go from wanting him dead to wanting him gone. He should be able to accept that much."

Hiccup smiled a bit, "I suppose that's fair enough. An improvement, at least."

Silence fell between them for a moment before Toothless asked finally, "Are you going to make him confess to my parents?"

Koda flinched, not particularly comfortable with the way this conversation was going. Actually, the whole night had been the worst of her life, and she wanted nothing more than to put it all behind her, but apparently Hiccup and Toothless were going to talk about it all night. Grown-ups could be so weird. "We'll take it one step at a time," Hiccup murmured thoughtfully, "Let's see if he's really going to cooperate with us now before we make any decisions. Stormfly said he was trying to run off when they caught him, so we'll have to watch him more closely."

"After tonight, I'm not sure he'll be so eager to run. I think we actually got through to him, this time," Toothless said hopefully, "Like you said, he'd just be one big mess to clean up in the morning if we hadn't gone down there when we had. I think he's finally starting to understand that we are a pack, in our own rights... And packs stick together. He knows that."

"I hope you're right, bud." The teen mumbled, "Wouldn't be the first time he's fooled me."

"But the look in his eye," Toothless protested, "That's not a typical look for him. He was completely submissive. He knew that we were in control, and that he wouldn't be alive if not for us. That expression makes me think that maybe there's some hope for him."

Again, an eerie calm, until Hiccup made the bad joke, "Hey, at least you don't have to worry about Sky being better than you anymore, now that both of you have only half a tail."

"And that's exactly why I'm willing to consider forgiving him... a little." Toothless purred smugly. "But never mind that. Get some sleep, Hiccup. We've got a long day and a lot of explaining ahead of us."

"Mmm," Hiccup grumbled affirmatively, "After that, I don't think I'm going to be sleeping easy for at least a week."

"Me neither," Koda admitted, but even as she said this she was giving in to the siren song of sleep, and it wasn't long before all of them managed to fall asleep- though some slept more fitfully than others.

Come morning, the three awoke to an irate and concerned Astrid slamming the front door to the house shut. Normally, Hiccup and Toothless would have been out flying by this time, but Toothless was far too exhausted to be interested in an early morning flight, and Hiccup felt quite the same way, so they'd slept straight through sunrise, until the girl stomped up into their room and shouted, "HICCUP! WHAT happened to Stormfly?!"

A groggy Hiccup sat up, rubbing his eyes, "Is this going to be a regular thing? I think I prefer Toothless' wake up calls, at least I get to do something fun when he wakes me- woah!" He was suddenly grabbed by the collar and lifted into Astrid's face.

"Tell me what happened last night or so help me-" She threatened.

"Alright, alright, take it easy!" Hiccup cut in, pushing her away, "So bossy," He yawned and waved Toothless over to his bedside. The dragon obeyed, though he didn't really understand what he was wanted for. "Fishlegs went and told Meatlug about Toothless' past, and Meatlug told all the other dragons," He explained sleepily, "That's probably how my dad found out, too, but I can talk to him later... Last night when we were all asleep, Sky decided he was going to run off and try to get back in with the Night Furies, probably sell us out in the process."

"WHAT?! Sky ran away?!" Astrid panicked, but Hiccup seemed unconcerned.

"He was going to, but the other dragons stopped him and started picking a fight. I don't know exactly what happened, by the time I got down there it looked like Toothless was about to tear someone's throat out, so I sent them all home. Toothless woke up when he heard the noise from the other dragons and had Koda wake me. When I got down there, Sky was all bloodied up and his tailfin was gone. I probably should have bandaged him up, come to think of it..." Hiccup thought aloud, recalling the wounds. He hadn't even thought about that in the heat of the moment, "Anyway, he was hiding behind Toothless, who had apparently broken up the dragonfight. They were all there. Meatlug, Barf and Belch, Hookfang, Stormfly, even Thornado. Sky apologized for causing trouble, but he never admitted to anything more than trying to run... But Toothless seems to think Sky learned his lesson last night."

"If he didn't, he's even more of an idiot than I thought." Toothless provided.

Hiccup yawned again, "I didn't see the other dragons. What's wrong with Stormfly?"

"Nothing, she just had blood all over her face and talons..." Astrid said honestly, "But Toothless, you really think we can trust him now?"

The dragon snorted, repulsed at the thought, "Trust? No. Never trust. But I think we can give him a chance to prove he's changed. That much... we can allow." Naturally, Hiccup translated all of this for Astrid, who nodded thoughtfully.

"Anyway, Astrid, I'm sorry, but I think I'm going to be a bit late to the Academy today... for... obvious reasons. I haven't even eaten yet. Do you think you and Fishlegs can handle getting them started with the basics of the Gronckle until I get there?" He asked, finally forcing himself to get out of bed.

"Sure, just don't take too long." The girl replied, and, seemingly satisfied, dismissed herself.

The moment she left the room, Hiccup fell against Toothless' side dramatically, "What did I get myself into?" He moaned.

"Too much, if you ask me. You're in way over your head in all aspects of your life." Toothless replied honestly, leaning against Hiccup to force him to stand on his own two feet again, "But it's nothing we can't handle."

"Yeah, I hope so." Hiccup agreed, "Alright, go get breakfast, I'll meet you at the arena... And try to keep everyone from fighting in the meantime." He lifted Koda off his bed and set her on Toothless' back, adding, "Things are bad enough already without another dragonfight."

Toothless nodded curtly and carried Koda off to the food bowl, where she hopped off to eat. The other dragons were already there... There was just one missing. "Where's Sky?" Toothless demanded, sincerely hoping that the others hadn't gone against him to kill Sky.

"Haven't seen him." Stormfly replied honestly.

Suddenly, from nowhere, a flash of blue rushed to the bowl. It was Sky, and he was starving. He shoved his nose into the fish like he hadn't eaten in days. "Sky? Where have you been?" Toothless questioned, looking over the other Night Fury's wounds. There were a few particularly nasty ones, including one over his eye that scratched clear through to his skull, but nothing fatal.

"I was waiting for you," Sky mumbled under his breath, then, even more quietly (if that were even possible,) he added, "Alpha always eats first."

Toothless' ears perked, and he snatched up a fish to hide his smug expression. "So are we not going to talk about-" Stormfly began, but was cut off by a seething glare from Toothless.

"No. We're not going to talk about it, we're not going to act upon it, we're not going to think about it until we've spoken with my father. Are we clear?" The other dragons lowered their heads submissively, "And no more late-night dragon fights, regardless of reason. If you have a problem, work it out during the day when we're awake to tell you to stop. You could have killed him, you know."

"You want him to die." Hookfang pointed out.

"Hiccup doesn't," Toothless stated, "And I'm willing to give him a second chance if he cooperates and figures out how things work around here."

Sky's ears were slicked back against his skull as he said, "I want to be better..."

Satisfied, Toothless puffed out his chest self-importantly, "So we're leaving it at that for now." With this, he resumed eating, and the others followed his example, enjoying their meal in an awkward silence. This would certainly take some getting used to.

More dragonfights! Well, this one is a little longer, so... I'm happy about that. Anyway, I hope you all are, too. I've been kinda sad lately because not as many people are reviewing as before D: Please love me! Or hate me. Just... Show me the feels?