A/n: This is clafaire's idea. Well, it's a bit different from the actual request, but I kinda misread it and didn't realise it until I'd already written over 1000 words of it, so... whoops.

Slightly-more-important-than-my-ramblings Note: I think this is gonna end on chapter 75 because round numbers, so that means 24 chapters after this. I'll warn you about it later, when it gets to the point that I have enough requests to make it up to the end.

Also, to the guest: I'm not continuing it into this chapter; I'm making it into a full story at some point (possibly this month).

When Hiccup woke up that morning, he had a pounding headache. After discovering his cough and subsequent sore throat, Hiccup decided that any effort he put into the day wasn't going to be worth it, and promptly went back to sleep.

Toothless, after waking up and deciding he wanted to go on a morning flight, had other ideas about how Hiccup should be spending his time.

'Flying.' Toothless said, loud enough to wake Hiccup, as he jumped around the room. 'Let's go!'

'No...' Hiccup mumbled, 'Go 'way.'

'But flying!' Toothless insisted.

'But headache,' countered Hiccup.

As soon as the complaint left his lips, Toothless was by his side and staring at him in concern.

'Are you okay?' he asked, nosing his friend slightly.

Hiccup waved off his concerns. "'M fine, just wanna sleep."

'Now you're not even speaking Dragonese...' Toothless noted. 'Stay here; I'll go get Astrid!'

And before Hiccup could complain, Toothless sped off.

Hiccup stayed in bed while Toothless went to get Astrid. Not that he would've been able to go anywhere; he had the feeling that trying to get up wouldn't end well. Instead, he occupied his time with trying to alleviate his headache, something which was easier said than done. Since simply massaging circles into his forehead was yielding no results, Hiccup gave up and allowed himself to drift back off to sleep.

Astrid's wake up call was the usual one: a dragon landing heavily on her roof. She smiled as she tossed the covers back and quickly got ready, knowing that it was Toothless who'd rattled her house.

"Coming!" she called, yanking the door open and rushing out. "Hey Hiccup, Toothless." she greeted. When she saw who was actually on her roof, she frowned. "Toothless? Where's Hiccup?"

'Got a headache.' Toothless explained shortly. 'Thought you could help.'

Astrid frowned. She could try, but she was no Gothi. "Shouldn't you get an actual healer?"

'It's not that bad...' Toothless assured, though he didn't look certain of that.

Astrid shook her head. "Fine; I'll come."

"Hiccup?"

"Mmm..." Hiccup hummed slowly, opening his eyes with the same speed to see a blurry pink and yellow blob in front of him. The blob said a few more words, but he wasn't listening to them.

"It's Astrid." the blob said. Hiccup frowned; he didn't remember Astrid being all smudged and blobby. He told her as such, and she laughed.

"Go back to sleep," she told him, "Toothless is running the village."

Hiccup laughed at that, imagining people trying to understand Toothless's roars, before the Astrid-blob started stroking his hair and was lulled back to sleep.

"I don't get it," Snotlout admitted as he frowned at the dragons, "Why don't we just take over for him?"

"Because..." Tuffnut started smugly, "Because... uh, why aren't we doing that?"

Fishlegs sighed, deeply regretting letting the twins attend the meeting. He reminded himself that they'd complain for weeks otherwise as he explained: "Because Toothless is the alpha, so he's used to leading. It's just that quite a few Vikings haven't bothered leaning Dragonese past the first few basic sentences."

"You can learn Dragonese?" Tuffnut realised, awed, "Whoa, that's awesome!"

"And some of us haven't learnt it at all, apparently," Fishlegs continued, frowning at the twins. "Anyway, that's why we're acting as translators."

"Why you're acting as translators," Snotlout corrected, making a swooping gesture towards Fishlegs, Eret and Valka. "I only know how to say 'fear me, the amazing Snotlout!'"

Fishlegs sniggered at Snotlout's grand announcement. He knew for a fact that Hookfang had given him a dodgy translation; when Snotlout thought he was saying 'fear me, the amazing Snotlout', he was actually saying 'I'm an idiot; kick me'. He still hadn't worked out the reason why dragons kept kicking him.

Snotlout didn't notice the humour though, so Hookfang's joke was secure. He and the twins left then, realising that there was nothing they could actually do to help.

'So, Toothless.' Fishlegs started, hoping his pronunciation had been right, 'What first?'

Astrid was officially bored. Though she'd been worried at first, seeing Hiccup with a cough and a headache and a high temperature, she'd soon got over the worry after calling for Gothi.

Gothi had turned up, took one look at the bedridden chief, and left. About ten minutes later - ten minutes which Astrid spent being very confused and not quite sure whether to panic or not - the elder returned, with a bunch of medicines and a few instructions. When she left that time, she didn't come back.

Astrid wasn't sure what to make of it.

But, once she'd decided that Gothi's indifference meant that it was probably just a cold, she quickly ran out of patience. She'd followed the instructions, forced Hiccup to take the medicine, so why wasn't he better yet?

Of course, the rational part of her mind reminded her that illnesses took a while to recover from, even if it was just a cold, but the bored part of her mind wasn't listening.

"I swear," she said to herself, "If Toothless is having a better time than me..."

Toothless was having a better time than Astrid. Of course, he didn't know that, but he was.

Apparently, Vikings were more inclined to listen to orders that came from the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself.

Who knew?

Toothless grinned as he took a dive, coming out of the water with a bunch of fish in his jaws. He was still worried about Hiccup, but he trusted Astrid to care for him. Better than he could, anyway, as a dragon with as much grace as a clumsy kitten when on land.

Thank the gods he was more elegant in the air, then.

Toothless ate the fish whole and dived for another bunch before heading back to Berk. He decided to pop in and visit Hiccup when he got back, so long as nobody had managed to burn the village down during his absence.

He frowned; with the twins, that was actually quite likely. He sped up a bit, just in case.

Hiccup woke the next day feeling much better than he had the last time he'd been shaken awake by Astrid. And he'd managed to wake up of his own accord, which he considered quite the achievement. Perhaps Astrid wouldn't force some terrible medicine down his throat this time...

He took a quick look around the room to make sure that his girlfriend wasn't hiding in some corner of the room with the bottle and spoon ready and relaxed once he realised that no, he wasn't going to be force-fed anything.

Toothless wasn't in the room either though, which confused Hiccup a bit. He was almost certain it was the morning now, so the night fury should be occupying his usual space. Odd.

The reason behind the two absences was soon explained as Astrid's head popped round the door.

"Hi Hiccup," she said quietly, "You feeling better?"

"Yeah," he said. "Thanks."

Astrid smiled. "Wasn't going to leave you to Toothless's 'treatments', was I?"

Hiccup laughed, "No, guess not. Speaking of, where is Toothless?"

In answer, Toothless shoved Astrid fully into the room so that he could stand in the door frame.

'Hey bud!' Hiccup greeted, 'Burn the village down while I was asleep?'

'Well...' Toothless joked. 'Nope everything's fine. Did you know that the twins didn't even know that Dragonese could be taught?'

'They... but...' Hiccup frowned; he'd explained the language to them himself. 'No, you know what, I'm not even surprised.'