A/n: I'M SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG GAHHH!

My life kind of got Hijack'd (dohahaha ok I'm sorry). Yea, FYI, every time I discover a new ship, this story gets delayed a bit so I can just have a few dozen feels attacks (the last time this happened was due to Mcfassy, now Hijack/Frostcup, who knows what's next... D:).

Review responses are at the end, unless you guys would prefer them up here, whatever looks better/is more convenient for you people because I LOVE YOU SO PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME I'LL DO ANYTHING- whew, okay, no I'm good, just a creepy loveattack...

I'm going to start posting updates and previews on Tumblr too, so anybody interested in that, I'm spaceycrazylady, but the story should be tagged so you should be able to just search the title if ya want...

And um, okay, I have to warn you, the beginning of this chapter... I'm going to have to just ask that you wonderful folks just bear with me on this. When I first came up with how they would fly, I thought it would work, but once I started actually writing it... I realized how ridiculously stupid it was. -_- It doesn't really make sense, it looks stupid, I can't even defend it at all, but without it the story would deviate from the original too much for comfort...

So I only hope the incoming fluff will kind of cancel out some of the sheer nonsense, and I'll do my best to make what sense of it I can... what was I thinking...

ENJOY DEAREST READERS

"Hold—still!" Hiccup huffed, clenching the ends of the metal clasp between his fists until his knuckles whitened.

But the bemused Night Fury refused to oblige, fidgeting all the more against the foreign material wound and fastened over his shoulders. Hiccup joined the shoulder straps with a third strip of leather, stretched nearly taut across the demon's chest, the boy's resolute fingers working the hook into the eye of the final fasten.

The scales of his underbelly against Hiccup's slipping fingertips felt a little different from those upon the Night Fury's hands. They were finer, like a carefully sanded sheep's hide, wrapped thickly over the fickle heat of reptilian blood.

"There!" Hiccup exclaimed as the metal finally clipped into place, despite the creature's inability to stay still. He tugged at the straps along each shoulder and the middle belt, ensuring that the clasps held, and grinned exuberantly when they did. His eager eyes turned up to meet the Night Fury's dubious but indulgent gaze, the human's hands still clutching the leather at the demon's chest.

"Okay," he breathed, giving his work one last pat before moving around to the Night Fury's back. A massive wing suddenly opened right in his way, but the boy was too focused to react with more than a roll of the eyes and a brief, unintelligible grumble as he pushed past it.

Along the creature's back sat a light slab of pelt, sloped slightly in the middle like a saddle, but not quite wide enough to cushion a rider's thighs. Stirrups dangled from the sides, swinging and twisting with the Night Fury's subtle movements. Hiccup bade his time, brushing his hand soothingly against the creature's shoulder, before he took hold of the pelt and slipped a thick wool boot into one of the wide stirrups. The boy hauled himself upwards, securing his footing in the second stirrup, then his unsure eyes darted around for a moment from a head or two above the Night Fury.

"Right, okay," Hiccup's nervous voice mumbled, gripping the rope attached to the creature's tail tighter in his palm. "We can do this, right?"

The Night Fury could certainly take his weight, but how much might it hinder his speed, or his balance? Hiccup didn't even know for sure if the winged man would accept the boy as his passenger! As for himself, could Hiccup really manipulate the tail fin any better than the Night Fury?

"Well, we'll find out..."

The boy leaned forward, near a perking black ear, and pressed his balled fist gently against the creature's shoulder. "Ready?" he asked, trusting that the Night Fury had grasped by now what was happening. His head tilted back towards the boy, and he sent him a small smirk and a brusque growl. The edges of Hiccup's own lips turned upwards a little.

"Let's go!"

At the human's signal, the half-beast took to the air, sending the human forward against his leather-clad back. They hovered above the small lake in the wind – for all of about a minute, before the creature veered sharply under the direction of Hiccup's rope, and the boy was flung right from his back. The lake's surface erupted with limbs and wings and limp hair.

Seconds after Hiccup plodded back to land, his notebook was in his hands, and he was scribbling in it furiously. Much, much more work lay ahead.

...

Metal shuddered against wood as the gate lurched open, screeching along the edges of the arched entrance like a mad woman's cackles. The small figure moved from the shadows into the gentle starlight, which glowed thinly through the gaps between the interwoven chains and iron beams cresting the battle dome.

No sentinels kept watch over the captive beasts when night fell. Vast, thickly barred doors secured their prison, and even should the doors somehow break free of their hinges, no dragon could penetrate the patterns of metal across the ceiling. Moreover, no Viking was so foolhardy as to toy with a dragon, even caged, alone and in the dark.

Hiccup gulped in the cool air and shakily puffed it out again, as though that heavy breath carried all he once feared, and if he could only release it into night, he would breathe in a new perspective.

The first cell Hiccup approached belonged to the warty Gronkle. Its thick feet padded restlessly against the stone floors as the boy glanced in at its huge, gleaming eyes. He could barely see the dragon but for the brief sparks of flame that came with every testy snort. The boy drew out a limp trout from his woven basket, and slowly held it up to the barred cell door.

Heavy footsteps halted, and he could hear the beast sniff deeply at the air. It appeared suddenly right before the door, nostril's huge and eyes squinting at the boy and his offering. Hiccup dropped the fish into the cage, and the dragon snatched it up from the ground and swallowed it in a single instant. He produced another fish, and this time slipped his forearm through the bars and kept hold of the meat, as the Gronkle stared. But it didn't hesitate long before snapping the fish by its tail between its gigantic jaws, and pulling it out of the boy's grasp without even grazing his fingers.

Hiccup fed the dragon until its eyes were no longer so narrowed, and its tense stance began to relax. He finally just held out his empty hand to the monster, holding it still and upturned as the dragon smelled his small palm curiously. The broad snout briefly bumped his fingertips. Hiccup held his breath, resisting the impulse to jerk back.

Then the Gronkle simply snorted and turned away, collapsing in a corner with a sleepy growl. The little Viking was not a threat, though not a friend, either. Not yet.

The boy stared a moment at the tubby dragon as it curled up like a small animal, and slowly withdrew his hand from behind the bars, shouldering his empty basket as a little smile grew upon his lips. It would take time, and more fish than he had ever cared to ferry around the island. But he was so sure now, if he could only show the dragons something other than fear and loathing, their legendary brutality would dissolve in the wake of something remarkably gentle.

...

When Hiccup wasn't training with Gobber and the other young Vikings, he was either in the workshop – bringing life to the drawings on his table with leather, metal and rope – or in the valley with the evermore-captivating Night Fury. Then, as darkness fell, he would sneak into the battle dome to coax the winged prisoners from the shadows to his outstretched hands.

As the Night Fury teased him, the grumbled retorts ceased to vary, and somehow "toothless," the usual preface to his insults, latched onto the creature like a thick paste, and became a name.

They had finally begun to pave their way to flight, each change to the apparatus bringing longer and steadier attempts to pervade the air. The last traces of mistrust fell away from the two of them, the way an autumn wind whisks away dead leaves from a blushing tree, and Hiccup soon found that his new friend followed a rather different code of affection from his own people's. He almost jerked back the first time the half-beast touched their foreheads together, moving against the boy's brow with gentle, rolling nudges. Hiccup could do nothing but breathe, if even that was possible with another face leaned in so close to his own. It didn't last long, and when the Night Fury pulled back his smile was casual, as though he thought it no more unusual than a clasp of hands or shoulders.

Once, they crashed into a meadow of long grass, billowing like waves in the wind. The two fell apart, and when Hiccup picked himself up and looked back at the draconic being, he just stopped and stared for a stunned moment. Toothless, the fearsome monstrosity of a man, was rolling and tumbling around in the grass with all the abandon of a kitten.

The boy's gaping mouth stretched to an inescapable grin as he approached the playful creature, shaking his head and looking down into his friend's blissful face. Toothless blinked contentedly back up at him, before a clawed hand suddenly shot out and snatched the boy's arm. Hiccup had about a second to protest before he was yanked down into the grass and sprawled under the Night Fury's powerful limbs.

Now, it wasn't that Vikings were standoffish sorts – quite the opposite! The Vikings of Berk grasped at the bases of one another's faces with giant smiles, and held each other close as they shook with bellowing laughter. But that was between kinsmen, brothers at arms, for children and wives and the people you've loved and honored as far back as you can recall.

It wasn't for the boy who lingered in the corners of rooms and the backs of crowds, who never spilt blood with fellow soldiers in battle, whose own father barely even looked at him.

So as the playful Night Fury's arms encircled the slender boy in the grass, Hiccup only gawped up at the yellow-eyed being in amazement. Toothless cocked his head at the still and silent human beneath him, and his lips widened past their usual mischievous smirk to as warm a smile as Hiccup had ever seen – more than any meant for him. He dipped in closer to the boy and briefly tapped his shallow nose against Hiccup's rounder one. The boy just blinked, cheeks tingling with red warmth a few short inches under the draconic man's dark face.

Then the reptilian eyes flared with that familiar, devilish spark. Hiccup let out a yelp and instinctively grabbed the Night Fury's shoulders as his friend started rolling their entwined bodies along the meadow, leaving a trail of flattened green blades behind them. The surprised sounds escaping the boy's lips slowly broke into breathless laughter, at moments bursting frantically from him as they tumbled about. Toothless' lower, inhuman tones rumbled with his own delight, mingling into Hiccup's. Their duet of hysterics rose above the heaving breaths of wind in their ears, and the rustle of grass below their scuffling forms. Somewhere in the ecstatic chaos, Hiccup's eyes found the Night Fury's, and the rolls slowed to a stop.

The boy's chest swelled and collapsed with each gasp of air, fast and thick from exertion. Though the edges of his lips trembled from how hard they pulled apart, he could not stop smiling, not for anything – no man, no beast, not even a god could quell his smile in that moment.

Hiccup had never been so lost in simple glee. He'd never known the touch of a playmate growing up, nothing but the shoving hands and jabbing elbows of his big cousin. It bewildered him to suppose that anyone would want to take hold of him just to bring him closer – to brush so lightly against his skin, as though it mattered if it marred or broke – to lock bodies with him in a rolling embrace, when no one wrapped their arms around the empty space they saw in the place of a lonely boy.

Toothless gently bumped foreheads with the boy again, and this time Hiccup didn't stiffen under the animal-like nuzzle. He felt lighter, somehow – like an unseen hand had once pressed down on him, fooling him into believing that weight was just a part of him, only to suddenly let him go. His friend – his first friend – wanted to play and touch and laugh with him, here where no eyes could find them, and Hiccup was finally allowed to just be a child.

...

With the Night Fury's help, Hiccup learned more about dragons than the Vikings had ever known. He tested every new discovery with the caged dragons, and then used that knowledge in the ring to end the practice fights as quickly and painlessly as possible. The grass from the meadow, it turned out, drew out contented lethargy from the other dragons as well as Toothless. They also loved ear scratches – or some preferred them in the dips where their chins met their necks. This he found out because Toothless was as shameless as a pup when he wanted to be scratched, the first time just leaning into an accidental touch with a big, sleepy smile and practically purring in Hiccup's general direction.

He did find it a bit odd at first, rubbing his fingers against the leather-like scales, or through the thick black locks behind a floppy ear, when the Night Fury looked so like a man. But the silly grin it brought to his ebon face won the boy over every time, so he scratched away at the fun-loving beast with a fond enthusiasm.

When Hiccup tried to show Toothless how to undo the fastens of the harness he wore, the Night Fury pulled at the metal ends until they snapped apart – in several pieces. The boy jumped and exclaimed awkwardly as the small steel scraps flung out in every which direction. Toothless glanced at him, eyes very wide. The boy blinked back, brow slowly quirking and lips tightening with reproach. The Night Fury paused, and meekly handed the broken material back to its maker. Hiccup just buried his head in his hands.

Toothless only mastered the remade fastens after Hiccup actually laid his fingers right over the Night Fury's, very slowly guiding them through every step until he grasped the method. But after the first mishap, the boy was rather keen to keep his materials away from the curious creature's wandering grasp. His hammer at one point fell into great peril when Hiccup used it to reflect light, and create a moving dot on the ground for Toothless to chase as eagerly as a cat might pursue its own tail. The Night Fury was more perceptive than a cat, however, and when the connection struck that the little instrument in Hiccup's hands was the source of this play, the game devolved into a frantic scramble between the two of them to snatch the hammer out of the other's grasp. Hiccup gave the beast more competition than expected by innocently scratching the Night Fury's favorite spots, until his grip released and the boy had his hammer back. The ridiculous conflict ended with a decisive tackle bringing them both to the ground, just shaking with tired mirth, and the now slightly dented hammer falling away, forgotten.

It astounded Hiccup a little just how powerful the Night Fury really was, even compared to the other breeds. He wasn't quite sure how it was actually possible, given his comparatively smallish shape. In another incident (of all too many), a sharp collision between the Night Fury and a tree, at least twice as thick as he and tall as any village house, actually uprooted some of the massive evergreen. And Toothless just walked away from the wobbling trunk with only a slightly stumbling gait, and rather comically squinting eyes. It only then occurred to Hiccup just how careful his friend was with the human underneath him in the grass...

As the days passed, the makeshift tail began to evolve from a leather flap attached to a rope to a complex, pedal-operated mechanism. The kinks started to smooth away with Hiccup's efforts, but now he spent less time in the workshop than he would have liked, for the strangest of reasons. Ever since his apparent conquests in the battle ring, his peers began pulling him aside, following him around, saving spots for him when they congregated at meals or in lessons, and spoke to him with actual esteem in their voices and reverence in their eyes. With absolutely no experience to fall back on, Hiccup could think of nothing to do but slip awkwardly away from their attentions, or just bear it with as much appreciation and interest as he could muster.

In a way, it really was gratifying to be not only acknowledged, but also valued by the other Vikings. But that didn't make him any less the unusual boy whose tastes and observations clashed with Viking ideals as much as any two warring weapons of steel. He still held little interest in his peers' rambunctious ways, and though they listened to him now if he spoke, very little comprehension entered their blinking eyes.

Only Astrid's deep blue eyes ever seemed to flicker with any kind of cunning. But of all the youths, she was still uninterested in befriending the boy – in fact, if anything she seemed more aggressive towards him lately. Only with disbelief did she watch him disarm dragon after dragon, faster than she could ever have hoped to. She, who trained harder and longer than any her age, she the girl who vowed to be the first true Viking queen and lead every tribe one day, as no man or woman had before. Astrid hated losing, but especially when it was to someone so gentle and slight as Hiccup – how could she ever lead if even that boy could best her?

But Hiccup remained oblivious to the spite in her stares. Somehow, she had grown less enchanting to his eyes, less of a vision upon which one might scramble for every possible glimpse. She was not just another of the Vikings, but she was also no longer the most striking individual he knew, and itched to be near everyday...

...

The little creature let out another of those strange, bright chuckles as he ran soft fingers against the half-breed's sensitive skin. That fledgling seemed to take such delight in coaxing lazy hums from the semi-divine being with those small, white hands. There was nothing so smooth and warm as the oddly scale-less flesh pressing on his draconic hide – it was a bewitching touch that diminished him to a puddle of simple, puerile pleasure.

The small human said something in his foreign tongue. Seldom did the youth cease to chatter incomprehensibly away at him, but by this time the demigod found the bizarre intonations so familiar, it was almost soothing. He recognized a few recurring sounds – "no" was becoming a popular one – and had some guess of their meanings, but the sound that the pale, lightly speckled creature uttered most, he still couldn't quite decipher.

"Toothless."

He articulated that word more carefully than any other, usually when the half-dragon teased or on occasion managed to demolish another of the funny youth's gadgets (mostly by accident). But this word, and the few others he remembered, he started to break apart with his slightly forked tongue, testing the long tones and the exotic pops between his unsheathed teeth. After a night of exploring the alien sounds, he could nearly replicate them without much stumbling. So when the little one said "toothless" with that oddly endearing smile, the demigod promptly said it back.

"Tooofahlesh."

...Though perhaps imperfectly shaped, the utterance caught the human's immediate attention.

He actually jumped back, leaf-green eyes blown as wide as they could go, and stared open-mouthed at the half-dragon. After a few blinks, he slowly spoke again, brows creasing and head tilted a little with scrutiny. Although the jumble of words meant nothing to the draconic being, they had a questioning lilt, so he said the one word he knew again.

The human gasped another unintelligible phrase, slowly raising his hands to his head as though it might roll right off if he didn't hold it in place. He laughed a little, eyes still huge and dazed, before he let his hands drop and sucked in his slim lips with a deliberating frown. Then his hands were in motion again as he mumbled away, unconscious, somewhat haphazard gestures following every inflection. He finally puffed out a determined breath, and said something very slowly, briefly pressing a hand to his chest.

At the demigod's blank frown, the fledgling repeated himself, then he just shook his head and shortened his phrase to a single, very curious word.

"Hiccup."

After the little one said it a few more times, the half-dragon took a stab at the peculiar sound, but the attempt fell a bit short.

"Heegah."

"Hiccup," the human repeated. "Hi-ck-uh-puh."

He enunciated the ludicrous word with drawn-out, crackling noises until he actually stopped and made a face at his own efforts. The half-breed chuckled, more at the way the youth's face screwed up than the odd noises. He tried the word again, and the little one's complexion brightened as he nodded eagerly.

"Hic-up," the half-dragon said again, a bit brokenly. The youth started to say something rapid and involved, but stopped himself, and just gestured to his chest, repeating the word with only a few other sounds wrapped around it. The dark being only blinked, and the youth rolled his eyes stubbornly. He took one of his hands between his smaller ones, and pressed it firmly against his bony shoulder.

"Hiccup," he said insistently, slightly shaking the black hand pressed between green fabric and his own palm.

The half-blooded dragon looked down where his hand enclosed over his small friend's shoulder, and then at the youth's earnest face. He started to grin. Grasping the fledgling's other shoulder with his free hand, the demigod repeated him once more, this time with understanding.

And the little one – Hiccup – laughed and nodded, his hands snatching at the dark forearms excitedly.

Every barrier between them was crumbling away, piece-by-piece.

A/n: HOKAY FINALLY THINGS ARE PROGRESSING GEEZ.

So. Toothless can talk! He just doesn't know the language! I don't think I've actually seen an anthro story where the issue concerns the language more than the ability to speak itself...

Oh and yes. Demigod. That... will be addressed later. :} Mwahahaha...

Man I had such a hard time writing Hiccup getting the leather over Toothless and then trying to mount him without sounding like an S&M porno... I'm not even kidding that was a far bigger factor in writer's block than it should have been hahaha. I know I didn't go into detail about how exactly the flying works but that's because I like to skim over things that are STUPID AND MAKE NO SENSE. D: D: Just... I don't know, it's a little saddle on a dude's back, and a smaller dude is using it – and it's not as weird as that sounds because there are wings involved... I hope? :S

REVIEW REPLIES

Loti-miko: Oh yes. There will definitely be hints. Of a lemon. Nothing graphic, but... heavy, heavy implications. o_o

CrazyAboutYugi: Omg you're too much~ Yea I'm pretty much allergic to dialogue, apparently, but hey, there's gonna be rather an increase now that Toothless is learning Hiccup's language! Also, I'm 22, I have a bachelor's degree, I work full-time, and yes, yes I do watch Riders of Berk. :B My feelings about it are very mixed, but it's fun... would be really amusing if Toothless were anthro in it haha. And yea, the pace is that of a freakin' SNAIL but hopefully it'll work out like really long foreplay, and conclude with an all the more very gratifying climax. ;) And Astrid... well, she'll be a little different, so we'll see what ya think...

Final Syai: Lol, yea, as this chapter established, Toothless is a really tough cookie so Hiccup's weight isn't that big a deal for him. :B

FadedImitation: There isn't a question here, but I just felt like you need to know how much I appreciated your review... Thank you sooo much!~