A/n: This one is a mix of requests from both Emerald and trystrike. I thought they could work pretty well together; I guess you guys are the judge of whether they could or not.

Toothless crouched in the undergrowth, inwardly praying that he wouldn't be found. For a few tense moments he held his breath, before the footsteps around him paused and faded away.

The night fury let out a sigh of relief, crawling out of the bush he was hiding in and shaking a few leaves off him.

'What was that for?'

Toothless startled, springing up and around to come face to face with Hiccup. 'Gods, you scared me...' he complained breathlessly.

'I can see that. So, what were you doing?' Hiccup prompted.

'Escaping.' Toothless said shortly. Hiccup raised an eyebrow. 'Everyone keeps asking me to do things for them. I figured I could do with a day off!'

'So you just ran off?' Hiccup asked, genuinely confused. Irritated as the night fury seemed, that behaviour just didn't fit Toothless.

'I left Cloudjumper in charge. He was the one that suggested it anyway.'

Hiccup let out a quiet 'oh' of understanding; Cloudjumper wasn't protective of just Hiccup, he liked to help Toothless out as much as possible, too.

'Why didn't you go to the cove?' Hiccup wondered. 'Well, we can go now.' he decided, hopping onto his dragon's back.

Hiccup and Toothless arrived at the cove not long after, taking their usual spot by the water. Just as the two were starting to relax, Toothless's ears pricked.

'What is it, bud?' Hiccup asked quietly, slowly standing to get a better look around him.

'They're back.' the dragon whispered cryptically. 'We've got to go.'

'Who's -' Hiccup started to ask. Toothless pushed him over with his tail before he could say anything else, making shushing motions as he stared intently at the cove entrance.

Deciding against an indignant response that would end in the same treatment, Hiccup remained silent as he picked himself up. He stared at the spot his friend was so fixated on.

Nobody moved.

'Toothless!' The cry came as suddenly as the brightly coloured flashes of scales, giving Hiccup no time to work out what was going on before he was assaulted by multiple dragons. They weren't attacking him directly - they were far too concentrated on Toothless for that - but he still ended up receiving the brunt of the dragons' enthusiasm.

"W... what... who," Hiccup chocked out, being strangled unintentionally by one of the dragons - a nadder, he thought - that was surrounding Toothless. "Are these..."

'The ones I was running from?' Toothless guessed. 'Yes, and they're resilient. Would you just... go... away!' he yelled, pushing the dragons back with a powerful strike of his back legs. 'Come on, Hiccup!'

This time, Hiccup didn't hesitate to jump onto the night fury's back, allowing the two to jet off at speeds that proved the claims made about the superiority of the species when it came to flying. In just a few powerful beats of his wings, Toothless had the cluster of dragons behind them hopelessly outmatched, and Hiccup had a new hiding place in mind.

"Do you really have to stay here?" Astrid asked, curious more than sceptical. "Don't you have the -"

"The cove? No. Apparently, Toothless's little band of fangirls have infiltrated it already." Hiccup said sharply.

Astrid sighed. "Of course they have. How does he even have that many?"

'I'm popular, and single!' Toothless joked, imitating Snotlout's voice as best he could while speaking a completely different language.

Hiccup laughed. "Suppose the single thing could be it." he said, only half serious, "Maybe we should get you a girlfriend."

Toothless looked horrified at the mere thought. 'No!' he said forcefully, shaking his head, 'That's a terrible idea!'

"I was just kidding," Hiccup defended lightly, chuckling at his friend's expense. "Now let's get in, before those fangirls find us again..."