A/n: This stems from a suggestion from a guest called Angela. I say stemmed because it was a small suggestion which kinda just carried on and became more than I'd expected. Sorry it took so long to get round to, though.

Valka was truly full of interesting ideas. The latest of such was a dragon swap, where riders would exchange dragons for a day.

The dragons were to choose who their rider would be, though Hiccup was allowed to choose a dragon to avoid any fighting. He chose Cloudjumper, partly because the dragon showed no interest in anyone else, and partly because those four wings were simply fascinating.

And so, Hiccup started out the day in a much different manner than the one he was used to. While he usually received a wake up call from Toothless, which generally involved the destruction of at least part of the roof, his morning started with Cloudjumper gently nudging him awake with the hooked end of one of his wings.

'Good morning,' Hiccup greeted tiredly, squinting as sunlight trickled into the room.

'Are we going flying?' Cloudjumper asked formally. He shifted slightly while he waited for the response.

'Yeah, course we are!' Hiccup grinned. Cloudjumper attempted to copy the gesture before moving back to allow Hiccup room to stand up.

'Okay then, let's go flying.'

Flying was a much different experience on Cloudjumper's back. The most noticeable change was the lack of speed, bringing slight disappointment during the gut-lurching drops as the previously wild morning flight became rather tame by comparison.

Then there was the wings, which made up for the excitement factor with the sheer amount of interest Hiccup had for the mechanics of them. They moved in an off beat rhythm, and seemed to hold no real purpose other than looking amazing; Cloudjumper had demonstrated his ability to push the two wing sets together several times, leaving him with - effectively - just two wings.

"What do you use them for?" Hiccup asked, breaking the silence that had spanned several minutes as the two flew level with the sea.

'Use what for?'

"The extra wings." Hiccup explained. "They don't seem to make you any faster..."

'Agility.' Cloudjumper explained. 'Like what Toothless has for tight turns, only more obvious.'

Hiccup snorted at the thought of Toothless's joy in discovering the small flaps along his back. "Well, it's good to know... they do look cool, don't they?"

Cloudjumper nodded. 'I guess so.'

After their flight, made much longer due to their constant stops to discuss various aspects of Cloudjumper's flight patterns, the temporary duo landed to cook the fish they'd just caught.

'Why don't you eat fish raw?' Cloudjumper asked.

'It's gross.' Hiccup explained shortly. 'Doesn't Valka cook her food? I bet my reasons would be much the same as hers.'

'Actually... no.' Cloudjumper said slowly, 'I don't think she does...'

'Well, dad did say her cooking sucked...' Hiccup reasoned. 'But she eats normally in the hall...'

Cloudjumper laughed. 'I thought she just wanted to be closer to dragons - she can't cook?'

'I wouldn't know; I've never tried her cooking.' Hiccup admitted. 'Don't want to though, Gobber says she has a reputation.'

The two lapsed into silence for a while, each taking time to eat their meal. Cloudjumper ate in the typical dragon style of all at once, but managed to make it look much more dignified than Toothless's, well, toothless slurping. Hiccup found it odd, especially since the night fury was supposed to be the proud, dignified leader of Berk's dragons. Mind you, Hiccup was supposed to be the proud, dignified leader of Berk's Vikings.

It was funny how they always managed to mirror each other.

'How do you think Toothless is doing?' Hiccup asked suddenly. The dragon had been very reluctant to leave Hiccup in Cloudjumper's capable claws, no matter how much either of them assured him that it'd be fine. Hiccup half expected the night fury to trail them from a slight distance - he really did want to stop any potential attacks to Hiccup's person, all of which he was sure would come from dragons that wanted him as a temporary rider rather than the one they'd actually got.

That wasn't really a concern though; Toothless had threatened the other dragons so effectively, it would take a true idiot to try and take Hiccup.

'I'm sure he's fine.' Cloudjumper assured. 'Paranoid and on edge, sure, but fine.'

'Who did he pick?' Hiccup asked. It had been between Astrid and Valka, but Hiccup hadn't had the chance to ask yet.

'If he got there first, Valka. Otherwise, it's probably Astrid.'

Oh, how wrong they were.

'How did I get stuck with you?' Toothless groaned.

"This is stupid! How're we supposed to fly one dragon?" Ruffnut complained, squinting and tilting her head towards Toothless as though she expected him to grow an extra head, or split into two dragons. She probably did.

"You can just go behind me!" Tuffnut decided. He grabbed Toothless's saddle, only to be brought back down by his sister.

"No! I'm getting on first!" she insisted, jumping onto Toothless.

'How about neither of you get on, and I go back to Hiccup?' Toothless suggested sarcastically.

"See, he agrees!" Ruffnut completely misunderstood the night fury.

"You don't even understand Dragonish." Tuffnut countered.

Toothless's complaint of 'It's Dragonese, you idiot.!' went unheard.

Being lumped with the twins did come with certain benefits, though. Chiefly, Toothless was too busy being annoyed to start worrying about Hiccup. There was also the fact that he had pretty much been given permission to beat them up if they got too annoying, permission given by Barf and Belch before they went off to find their two - completely different - chosen riders.

Oh well, Toothless thought hopefully, it's only a few more hours...

At the end of a truly relaxing day, Hiccup was excited to catch up with Toothless. He had so much to tell him, and he was sure the night fury would have just as many things to tell about his own experience.

He didn't know who Toothless had partnered with, though, so he was surprised, to say the least, when his friend stumbled over, bedraggled and exhausted.

'What happened?' Hiccup asked incredulously.

'The twins.' Toothless answered. And he refused to give any more information.

'Oh.' Hiccup wasn't sure how to react. 'I thought you were with Astrid?'

'Meatlug got there first...' Toothless explained. 'Now let's go home, and never speak of this again...'

Hiccup frowned; he had been looking forwards to that conversation. Maybe we should let the Vikings choose the dragons next time...