Hiccup woke the next morning, flat on his back with Toothless lying on top of him. "Good morning, Milady." She chirped at him and wiggled further up on his sheet covered torso. Then the covers shifted beneath her as Hiccup brought his knees up to his chest and sat up. Toothless squeaked as she slid down the much steeper incline before she planted her feet and looked up with reproachful eyes.

He sighed. "Well, as much as I would love to stay here with you all day, I am a prince and need to take care of my duties." Her eyes softened and she gently tapped his nose with the tip of her snout. He smiled under the touch, and both just sat there for a moment, eyes closed. Toothless blew in his face.

Hiccup recoiled. "Toothless!" She laughed and bounded off the bed. Hiccup threw his legs over the edge and reached for his prosthetic, slipping it on but not tightening the straps just yet. He limped behind the changing screen and got ready for the morning. Once he was finished, Toothless flew behind the screen with her marriage necklace dangling from her mouth. Hiccup grabbed it and refastened it around her neck.

He'd pretty much done that every morning since the day after the presentations of the rugs. The necklace had come unfastened during the night and fell underneath the bed, they'd spent a good three hours looking for the little piece of jewelry before Toothless finally found it hiding under a corner of the coverlet. She dragged it out and showed it to Hiccup.

He bowed low, making her giggle, and she handed him the chain. Checking it for breaks, he muttered, "Looks okay. The clasp must have somehow come undone last night." He looked over at Toothless, perched on the bed and waiting for his reaction. "Maybe we should take off your necklace before bed, huh? No risk of it breaking or getting lost like this." She bobbed her head in approval and let him fasten it around her neck again, just like he'd done this morning and every morning in between.

After a substantial breakfast, Hiccup stretched in his chair. "Well let's see what we're fixing today." They headed out of the room and towards the forge; Toothless perched on top of Hiccup's head.

Hiccup banked up the fire with the bellows and Toothless sorted through the damaged items for something easy to get started with and came back to Hiccup with a fireplace poker in her claws. The battle between the maid and the burning log had become legend yesterday amongst the servants, but the resulting bent fire poker wound up in Hiccup's shop. As she flew towards him, Toothless noticed something. Hiccup was pumping the bellows with only one hand. Odd. He'd always used both.

Once the fire was at the proper temperature, although the heat from the fire didn't combine well with the summer sunshine from outside, Hiccup thrust the poker's bent end into the coals and waited for it to heat up sufficiently to work with. While the poker heated up, Hiccup joined his wife and sorted through the stack of bent, mangled, and generally misshapen. They sorted through the pieces together based on what temperatures were needed, what size the piece was, and the type of fixing that needed to be done.

Some pieces, like the poker, only needed to be heated up and bent back into shape. A few pieces had broken in half and would have to be soldered back together, a much more delicate operation than hammering away at something. Some needed to be added to, like the mirror waiting for a hook to hang by. After about five minutes, the poker was hot enough to work with. Hiccup removed his cloth tunic and tied the leather apron around his waist. He didn't want to scorch the sleeves or anything, and it was getting considerably hot in that room.

Toothless glanced in his direction and did a double take. What had happened to her Hiccup? Muscle rippled on his back as he lifted the hammer and brought it down on the piece of metal clenched in the tongs. His shoulder rotated as he brought up the hammer for another strike, almost losing the leather strap of the apron as the shoulder muscles bunched up around it. Toothless watched as he hammered the poker back into place and unknowingly put himself on display for the little dragon.

Then he turned around and smiled at her, and she suddenly remembered the sweet soul hiding behind that lean back. He held up the poker for inspection. "What do you think? An improvement?" She warbled her agreement and landed on his shoulder, rubbing her cheek against his sweatier one. "Yeah. I just wish someone could straighten me out."

Anger crossed her face and she nipped his ear harder than usual. "Ow!" His hand flew to the bite mark. "Toothless, what was that for?" She growled at him and grabbed the string tie of the apron, using it to pull him toward the pile of things to be fixed. "Stop! What are you doing?" She let go and hunted down the mirror, gripping it as best she could and trying to get him to look in it. "Toothles, what…" Then he saw what she did.

Hiccup grabbed the top of the mirror and inspected himself for a moment. He pressed a hand against his no longer skinny chest and noticed how the muscles on his arm moved under the skin. He looked at Toothless for encouragement and she bobbed her head. Go on.

He flexed his arm and watched as the bicep grew taut. A finger pressed into the muscle and admired how firm it was. He looked back at his wife. "And all of…this," he gestured at himself, "is like this?" She trilled again and flew around his head, landing on top of it.

A laugh bubbled up and he unleashed it on the world. Of course it would take a dragon to notice. Well, he was turning seventeen next month. About time he got some muscle. Hiccup went back to the forge with a frying pan that had taken one too many hits from some poor assistant's skull and Toothless giggled to herself as he flexed again when he thought she wasn't looking. But at least he now knew he was just as amazing as she was.

Starting with mornings seems to ge a habit for me. But I never let them wake up the same way twice! This morning contains the image from the cover. Who liked Toothless waking Hiccup up from his slight pity party about his looks?

The response yesterday was fantastic! Please continue to be so amazing with your comments.