Hello lovely people! I have returned! With a chapter no less! And I only have one thing to say before I get to the chapter. As you may have noticed, the cover picture of this story is my not so gorgeous face. That is because this story has no cover image of its own. That being said, if anyone reading this is even mildly artistic and feels inspired to make a cover pic for this story, I would be more than happy to use it. I'm not exactly expecting the responses to come flooding in (heck I'm not expecting any), but if you are interested, PM me or mention it in your review :)

"Come, sit. I was hoping we could talk for a bit." Toothless gestured to the desk and chairs as he made his way to them.

Hiccup tried not to shake as he walked towards the armchairs on the far side of the desk. As he walked two pleas went through his head: "please don't let him kill me" and "please don't let him know who my father is". By the time he had gotten to the beige armchair Toothless was already sitting in the large leather chair, hands folded and resting casually on the desk, and a confident smirk on his face.

"Don't look so nervous, it's not like I'm going hurt you," Toothless chuckled, but it did little to put Hiccup at ease. Hiccup had several questions buzzing through his mind, but he decided it would be best to start at the beginning.

"How did you find out my name and where I live?"

Toothless took a moment to ponder the question, and Hiccup hoped that he hadn't angered the mobster by being too forward. In retrospect he should have let Toothless speak first. Plus that would have given him time to try and read Toothless' mood a little better. Hiccup still hadn't figured out his agenda yet.

"After I left, I circled around the block. I drove at a distance behind you until you entered a building, which I'm assuming is the building you live in. After you went in I asked the doorman and the security guard if they happened to know your name. It's amazing how freely people will give out information sometimes really."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense, but how on earth did you get my picture?"

Toothless chuckled before answering that one. "Actually, that one was a little harder. I had to hack into some of the security cams in the area and find you on the cameras. It took my best hacker 2 hours. But he did a good job of it; the picture of you is very good quality."

Hiccup didn't know what it was, but Toothless seemed a lot less intimidating when he was chuckling, or even just smiling. He seemed like a normal person. His smile just lit up his face.

"But enough of that, you're probably wondering why I had you brought here."

"It may have crossed my mind." Hiccup's breath hitched after he said that. Maybe using his trademark sarcasm with a man as powerful as Toothless wasn't the best idea. He had no idea if the man even had a sense of humour underneath his rock hard façade. Toothless either didn't care or didn't seem to notice.

"The truth is," Toothless said while standing up, and at the movement Hiccup visibly tensed, "I wanted to apologize for last night. I know you were just in the wrong spot at the wrong time. I just acted out of force of habit. Self-protective instincts if you will."

Hiccup wasn't sure how to respond to that. A violent mob member was apologizing? Has that EVER happened before? So Hiccup gave the only response he could think of, even if it did come out sounding like a question.

"It's okay?"

Toothless continued on like Hiccup had never said a word, pacing slowly around the office.

"I mean how old are you? Nineteen? Twenty?"

"I'm, uh, nineteen, but I'll be twenty next month." 'And now I sound like a child….'

"And do you go to school?"

"Uh yeah, I go to NYU."

"Down in lower Manhattan, right?"

"Yeah."

"What are you studying?"

"I'm a first year in the architecture program."

"So you want to be an architect then?"

"Not really. The truth is I was kind of forced into it by my father. He only let me choose from a limited number of programs. I guess I figured that it was the least of all evils." It took a second before Hiccup thought to himself, 'Crap! Why would I mention my father? That just begs him to bring that into the conversation.' Fortunately Toothless didn't take the conversation in that direction.

"Well at least it's an interesting subject. Surely there must be something you like about it?"

'Hiccup Haddock don't you dare let your mind wander to Jason right now.' "Uh, I guess that it lets me be creative."

"Architecture is actually something I would have liked to study in university if I had had the chance to go. Well I guess I still could at one point, I mean I'm only twenty two, I've still got lots of time." It was here that Hiccup suddenly became interested in the conversation and started to feel a little more at ease.

"You're only twenty two?" He was barely older than Hiccup. For some reason that made him seem a little less scary. In another universe they may have actually been friends.

Once again, Toothless chuckled. "Yeah, you thought I was older?"

"Well you are quite," Hiccup started before he stopped himself. He had to be careful how he worded this. Well, there went the sense of ease. "Successful."

"Well I got my start at a young age. I don't really like to talk about it though."

'Oh great,' Hiccup thought to himself, 'I've gone and hit a sensitive topic, probably made him mad. Way to go.'

Just then, Toothless' cell phone started to ring. As he checked the caller ID, he turned to Hiccup and said, "I'm sorry, I have to take this. I really do apologize for having to cut our meeting short. Ruff and Tuff are waiting outside the door still and they will take you home. Barf and Belch still owe me one more favour. It was nice to see you. Oh, and if you could do me a favour, please try to keep this place a secret. I'd rather not have too many people know about it."

"Uh, yeah, sure, no problem," was all Hiccup could say before Toothless picked up the phone, but he did manage to give Hiccup a wink.

Hiccup showed himself out of the office, closing the door with a soft click behind him. He found Ruffnut waiting solo outside of the door.

"So he let you live huh?" Ruffnut asked, and Hiccup wasn't sure if she was joking around or not. "Whatever. Tuffnut got called out, so I'm driving you home myself. Let's hurry up and get this done."

The walk back to the car seemed longer than the walk to the office from the car. It was as if time itself had slowed to a snail's pace. Maybe it was because it was the same scenery as the way in. It also didn't help that Ruffnut was walking several paces in front of him most of the way.

The walk down the monotonous (yet still quite lavish) hallway ended with the same stairs and the same car waiting at the bottom to take Hiccup home. Hiccup wondered how Tuffnut had left if the car he had gotten there in was still here, but Hiccup figured it best not to ask too many questions. He may not like the answer. Maybe not for that question per se, but you never know where a conversation may lead.

The garage door was already open, so Ruffnut just drove out and started back towards Manhattan. It was a full 10 minutes before a single word was exchanged to break the deafening silence.

"Sorry about my brother earlier today, I'm not sure why he insists on doing everything in such a ridiculous manner."

Hiccup almost fell out of his seat. The first words said on the trip back, and it was an apology? The second one that day from someone in the mob? And from Ruffnut? She did not strike Hiccup as the type that would give an apology for anything, let alone her brother. They were constantly bickering.

Hiccup's confusion was quickly ended when Ruffnut added, "but don't expect any more apologies from me. I'm not the apologetic type."

The awkward silence returned for a few moments, and while Hiccup said to himself he didn't want to ask any questions, his curiosity was starting to get to him.

"So, who are Barf and Belch?"

"Hm? Oh, Barf and Belch are Tuffnut and my employers."

"Wait, you mean you don't work for Toothless?"

"No, hardly anyone works for Toothless. The only people that do work for him have nothing to do with his mob work directly though. You know, just a couple of people behind the scenes. Like the mechanic. We're doing this for him because Barf and Belch owe him a favour."

"Why did they owe Toothless a favour?"

"Do you really want to know?"

It was then that Hiccup remembered the whole reasoning behind not wanting to ask questions. Some things really are better left unknown, and thankfully Ruffnut reminded him of that before it went too far.

"No, actually. I just don't understand how this all works I guess."

"Well it's quite simple."

Hiccup's statement was rhetorical, but apparently Ruffnut didn't catch on. And Hiccup figured it was probably best not to interrupt someone who could easily beat you to a pulp without breaking a sweat.

"Basically, the Fire Breathers gang is broken into 5 groups. Toothless leads one group, Barf and Belch another, et cetera, et cetera. And all five of those groups are controlled by the leader of the gang, who goes by the name of Red Death, or RD for short. Sometimes the leaders do each other favours, you know, certain tasks or jobs, and eventually those favours get called in. By driving you from and to Manhattan I am paying back a favour Barf and Belch owed Toothless."

Hiccup just nodded and mumbled affirmatively. He did not want to know what Toothless had done to earn the favour. In his best interest, he decided to deal with the silence the rest of the way to Manhattan.

They emerged from the Queens Midtown Tunnel onto Tunnel Exit Street, where they got stuck in the stereotypical bumper to bumper New York traffic. It took a whole 10 minutes to get from the tunnel to East 39th Street. Hiccup realized afterwards he probably could have walked it faster. It only took a few seconds after taking the turn onto 39th before Ruffnut stopped right outside Hiccup's building. He wasn't sure he liked the fact that she knew where he lived, but there wasn't much he could do about that.

Hiccup glanced out the windows, making sure no one who could recognize him would see him getting out of the car, before he gave Ruffnut a quick, "thanks," and jumped out, slamming the door behind him. The car didn't necessarily have any clues that it would be a mob car, but better safe than sorry. Then it hit him that that would be another reason he should have walked from Tunnel Exit Street.

As Hiccup slowly ascended in the elevator, he let his mind wander back to his conversation with Toothless. He didn't realize until now just how much personal information he had given to Toothless. Toothless, either from finding out directly from him or not, knew his address, name, age, where he went to school, what he was studying, why he was studying it, and about his not so great relationship with his father. All the basics, plus a little more. Why did that information all slip out so easily? It almost seemed like Toothless was trying to get to know him, like someone does when making a new friend.

The elevator dinged softly as it reached Hiccup's floor, but while the elevator had stopped, Hiccup's thoughts were still moving rapidly. Why would Toothless want to be his friend? Is that even what was going on? If it was, would Hiccup want someone like Toothless as a friend? What if his dad found out? What would he do to him or Toothless? Toothless winked at the end of their meeting today, and possibly when they first met, maybe Toothless wanted to be more than friends?

Hiccup stopped himself there. While he did find Toothless attractive, there was no way Toothless rolled like that, was there? He decided to stop thinking about it instantly. He was tired, so his brain was probably not functioning properly.

He fumbled with his keys and eventually managed to unlock the door.

"Hello?" he called, not really expecting a response and not being surprised when there wasn't one.

Hiccup glanced at the clock, then was forced to do a double take. 9:30pm. Clearly his father was "working late", but that wasn't what had shocked him. Either traffic was a lot worse on the way back then he thought or the time at the warehouse took longer than he thought. He had missed dinner, but with all of the excitement he wasn't even hungry. It may have still been relatively early, but that didn't stop Hiccup as he stumbled to his room, kicked off his jeans, and he was out before his head even hit the pillow. Hopefully tomorrow would be a little less exhausting.

No cliffhanger this time...oh well

Next chapter: On or before September 21

Poor Hiccup is exhausted :( But you know what gives him energy? Your reviews! So help Hiccup get his energy back, because something tells me he is going to need it...