Toothless and Hiccup ducked into the workshop, with Hiccup immediately setting to work deconstructing one of his sword prototypes.
"You know, I'm surprised people don't think we know just about everything that goes on here." Toothless said, sitting across from Hiccup watching him fiddle with the sword's mechanisms. "We run this place of course, we noticed."
"You can't blame them." Hiccup didn't bother to look up. "There's a lot of people here and a lot of them are looking for something. Mates, power. Whatever else. Maybe they think that since we can't talk to every single one of them that we don't know stuff about them." Hiccup walked away for a second to grab a few things and returned with a handful of tools and containers.
"Not that we can help it. So much is going on right now. Maybe when things go back to normal we'll get back around to getting to know everyone individually." Toothless laid his head down on the table. "So you think this thing's gonna help your dad?"
"I." Hiccup yanked at a stuck piece. "Ah! There we go. I uh, I hope so. It'll at least help just know if he's safe or not. Personally I don't think that he'll have much issue. But I don't know. He's been gone a long time now and it's clear with the number of ships sailing towards us that they want a fight. Which means they probably think he's dead. There are plenty of human remains scattered all throughout the rocks here. Doesn't matter if you're Stoick the Vast or not."
"Well I'm sure they'll have a nice surprise when he shows up on one of those ships tomorrow. Not many people get to talk to ghosts." Toothless chuckled.
"And we've apparently decided to skip that part and go straight to gods." Hiccup smiled to himself.
"Given we weren't ever supposed to be here again… At least we have a reason they talk to us. Or scold us for things we didn't know about." Toothless rolled his eyes.
"At least we weren't killed instantly I suppose. Would have been pretty easy twentyish years ago."
"And not so easy now." Toothless boasted. Hiccup laughed.
"You think you're up to par with them?"
"I think you're up to par with them, so yes I am."
"I don't know what kind of dragon nip you've gotten into but you're gonna have to share." Hiccup laughed to himself.
"You don't think we could? I did the other day. We have its antler at a trophy."
"That wasn't a fair fight, love."
"So? If gods are so mighty they shouldn't need a fair fight, right? And it's not like they fight fair either. We don't have magic weapons, or just straight up magic for that matter. Why would I have to fight fair if they don't?" Toothless lifted his head and puffed his chest out.
"You have to fight fair because you're you and they don't because they're them." Hiccup stopped and looked up for the first time. He looked his dragon in the eye. "You don't have any sort of magic anything. To them you're just like any other beast that gets in their way. You don't get to cheat because you don't have any way to. So you have to fight them with what was given to you. So if you are going to pick fights with them. Which for the record I'd like you not to. You have to win fair and square because that's all you have." He gave Toothless a stern stare before dropping his eyes back to his work. Toothless circled around the table and engulfed Hiccup in his presence. He brought his head down over Hiccup's shoulder and whispered in his ear.
"I promise not to pick fights with them. But if one ever picks a fight with me, I will win."
"There was never a doubt in my mind you'd lose." Hiccup stated calmly. He slipped out from Toothless' shadow and went looking around the workshop again. Toothless watched him wander around and dig through things, mumbling to himself. Eventually Hiccup found what he wanted and returned to Toothless. "Spit in this please." Toothless stuck his tongue out and Hiccup wiped his hand down it and gathered the amount he needed. "Alright now roll this around in your mouth." Hiccup gave Toothless a wood ball which quickly became coated in the Night Fury's viscous saliva. Hiccup picked the ball from Toothless mouth and put it in the old, dismantled, sword hilt. "Okay let's see if this'll work." Hiccup fashioned a lit for it, dipped a piece of thin rope into it, lit it, and pointed the whole thing across the room. They waited for a bit with nothing happening. "Your saliva goes off with heat right?"
"I thought so?" Toothless wondered.
"I didn't see any oth-" Hiccup was interrupted by a loud explosion and just as suddenly the wall across from them was on fire. "I guess it just took longer than I expected." The pair watched the fire stick and burn against the wall. "You know I've never really noticed that your plasma blasts stick to things."
"I didn't either. Most things die right away from getting hit." The flames began to sputter out.
"I'll tell you what. If I ever get hit by one of those, I hope I'd die instantly too. Being burned after getting hit sounds like just about the worst thing I could think of." Hiccup nodded to himself. Then he furrowed his brow and looked at Toothless. "Is it okay that you lick me all the time? Should I be concerned about it?
"Uhh. I don't know. Nothing bad has happened yet."
"Yet."
"Well I wouldn't have to if you groomed yourself."
"Toothless I'll be completely honest with you. I don't understand why dragons groom themselves at all. You don't have fur."
"I don't but you do. Besides, it keeps us clean. Help shed scales and skin and stuff. You use a knife to scrape your shed away, why can't I use my tongue?"
"That's fair I suppose." The flames on the wall completely went out and Hiccup turned back to the table he'd been working at. "Alright, let's see if this housing is still good or not." Hiccup began his inspection while Toothless took his place on the other side of the table.
"Well?" Toothless asked.
"I mean it does look fine." Hiccup was feeling around for broken or cracked pieces. "And I'm not feeling anything messed up in it." Hiccup brought the whole thing up to his eye. "Can't really see in it right now with this lighting. But again I'm feeling any cracks in the shell or anything. To be fair I did make this with fire resistance in mind." Hiccup put the empty sword handle down. "Welp, I think it'll be fine. Let me find another of those balls and Oh!" He snapped his fingers. "Let me quickly make one of those lids again too. I don't think I have another." Hiccup left the table to collect and make what he needed. Toothless rested his head on the table again waiting for Hiccup to be finished when he felt Hiccup tapping him on the head. "Alright big guy I'm done here, let's head back up." Toothless shook himself awake and yawned.
"How long was I out?" He asked, while dropping his shoulder for Hiccup.
"Not super long. It's still dark out at least." Hiccup joked as he climbed on Toothless' back. Toothless crawled out of the workshop and flew them up to their nest where both of them fell into their natural positions and well asleep.