A/N Welcome to chapter 6! I am now panicking because I'm running out of the buffer I wrote for myself for this fic, I've just been really busy these past few weeks. I'm in a musical and tonight is opening night and I have an essay due tomorrow. I just wanted to make sure this got out today. Thank you everyone for your kudos and comments, it helps me keep on writing. Enjoy!

"Thank you," Hiccup said, taking a few steps toward Hange stretching out his hand. Hange grabbed his hand in an excitable handshake.

"It's wonderful to meet you! As you already know I'm Hange, and this is my second in command, Captain Levi!"

Hiccup's face flashed with confusion and concern, what happened to the level headed Hange he was just dealing with?

"Oi, you don't have to shake his arm off," Levi said, smacking the back of Hanges head.

Hange, unfazed, continued; "And these are the rest of the Scouts! Come on guys, don't be shy."

The two groups had closed the physical gap between them, however, there was still uneasiness hanging in the air. This uneasiness was masked by Hange's excitable personality and outward appearance of trust, but it could only do so much.

"My name is Armin," the blond boy with big blue eyes said, doing his best to keep his voice steady, "It's nice to meet you."

In reality, Armin was scared, the few outsiders that they had met had betrayed them and turned their world upside down. The only reason that he introduced himself first was that he was standing directly behind the commander.

"I'm Eren and this is Mikasa," A brown haired boy said pointing to the black haired girl next to him.

"I'm Jean," the boy with small brown eyes said.

"I'm Connie," the boy with a clean shaven head said.

"I'm Sasha!" The girl with a brown ponytail next to Connie shouted enthusiastically.

They remind me of the twins, Hiccup thought, They don't look like they're related though.

"I'm Astrid," The blond girl said, putting her axe back onto her dragon, the rest of the dragon riders followed suit. The Scouts were put further at ease, but Levi was still very much on guard. He was suppressing an eye roll at the rest of the scouts, the dragon riders could be friendly but what about their mounts? The black one still looked ready to pounce at a moment's notice and Astrid sounded friendly but she was still very much on guard.

"I'm Snotlout!" He shouted pointing a thumb at himself, sounding really smug, "And you're looking lovely today," He said, winking at Mikasa.

Eren instinctively put an arm in front of Mikasa and Jean narrowed his eyes at Snotlout. But before either of them could act Astrid smacked the back of Snotlout's head knocking his helmet over his eyes.

"Hey!"

"Do you remember the last time you tried to flirt with someone on a new island?" Astrid asked angrily. Snotlout's face changed from being smug to being filled with fear rather quickly. "That's what I thought."

So this isn't their first island. I wonder what happened. Hange thought

"Don't mind Snotlout, he's always like this," Hiccup said to the Scouts, shaking his head in his hand.

He's a bit like Jean, Eren thought, But worse.

"I'm Fishlegs," The round boy said from the back of the group in a high pitched voice. He was not shaking as much anymore but he still looked very nervous.

"I am Tuffnut!" Tuffnut practically shouted in an extravagant voice, "And this is my sister, Ruffnut," He followed less enthusiastically. Ruffnut elbowed him, hard.

Levi looked very unimpressed, the last thing he needed was more trouble causing brats around and at least three of these newcomers looked like they were going to cause trouble. They also had no sense of respect.

Hange was intrigued by the newcomers, or rather their dragons. They were using all of their self control to not burst out asking a million questions. They weren't sure how long they were going to be able to stop themselves. But they had to confirm that these dragon riders weren't a threat first.

"Why don't you guys come back to our campsite?" Hange asked, though it wasn't really a question Hiccup could say no to.

"Sure, we do need to get out of the forest to find a better lookout for the Rockfin."

"Don't worry! Our campsite is right near the ocean."

"That's perfect!" Hiccup said, "Can you give us a few minutes to pack up?"

"Sure, take your time," Hange said.

Hiccup nodded and turned his back to the scouts, he knew that was a sign of trust he just hoped it wouldn't backfire on him. As he set to work on rolling up his bedroll he snuck glances at the riders and the scouts. He noticed that Astrid was very tense and Stormfly was trying to relax her but she didn't want to drop her guard. He saw that Fishlegs was packing up his stuff in a meticulous way, calming himself down. He also noticed Hange and Levi talking in hushed voices.

"What do you think they're saying, bud?" Hiccup asked Toothless.

Toothless just hummed in response.

"Yeah, I'd like to know too."

"Do you think we can trust them, Hiccup," Astrid whispered, coming up beside him.

"I think so, they haven't given us any reason not to."

"Other than they snuck up on us from the trees with swords drawn," Astrid responded, getting a little louder.

"Think of it this way, if an unknown group of dragon riders showed up on Berk we would do the same thing, Astrid."

"I know, I just think you're a little too quick to trust them, Hiccup."

Hiccup got up from the ground, attaching the bedroll to Toothless and grabbing his empty canteen; "Maybe I am, but if we don't show them that we trust them then we would still be in a standoff, or worse."

Hiccup walked to the pond leaving Astrid behind with her thoughts. She wasn't ready to trust them, not yet, something was off and she could feel it. But Hiccup wasn't wrong either, the last thing they needed was to be in a standoff with people who could soar through trees.

Hange leaned over to Levi when Hiccup turned around, "What do you make of them?" They whispered.

Levi paused for a second, "They're an annoying bunch of brats."

"You know that's not what I meant."

"They're an annoying bunch of brats that we don't know the full capabilities of."

"I agree. They haven't tried to kill us nor are they associated with Marley, at least at first glance. We still need more information about them before we can trust them."

"You're too quick to trust them, Hange."

"Who says I trust them? Right now we need more information to decide if we can trust them."

"The brats could probably get some more information out of them."

"True, but what about their mounts, we have no idea what the dragons can do."

"They breathe fire, don't they? And they seem to be well trained, as long as we don't anger their riders we should be okay."

"Commander, Captain, sorry to interrupt but should we take some water with us?" Armin asked as the rest of the Scouts approached Hange and Levi.

Hange facepalmed, "That's what we came out here for originally, how could I forget. Go fill up whatever containers you have."

They were about to turn away when Hange gave him one more order; "And try to learn whatever you can about the dragon riders, we can't trust them even if they trust us."

The Scouts nodded and hesitantly made their way over to the pond, none of them wanting to admit that they were scared of the dragons. They fought man eating titans, some tame dragons should be a walk in the park.

"I don't want to go through the dragons," Connie whispered as they approached.

"I-it should be okay," Armin said, "The Captain and the Commander are watching our backs."

"Yeah, let's just hope we don't get eaten," Jean said, confidence seeping into his voice. However, no one moved.

"They're taking too long," Levi whispered to Hange.

"They'll be fine, Levi. Just because you're short doesn't mean you have to be short tempered. OW!" Hange said as Levi whacked them in the back of the head, "You never change, Levi."

"Tch," Levi said, rolling his eyes.

As much as his nerves tried to stop him, Armin had chosen to walk straight through the dragons and everyone followed suit.

"Toothless, could you stomp out the fire?" Hiccup called getting up from the pond.

The Scouts watched as the black dragon begrudgingly walked over to the embers of a former fire and pounced on it.

"Thanks, bud," Hiccup said, scratching Toothless's head. Toothless groaned and nodded towards the frightened scouts.

"Don't worry," Hiccup called to the scouts, "He's not going to hurt you." Hiccup wasn't 100% sure with his statement, Toothless's eyes were still narrowed and his teeth were still out, but that probably was his dragon trying to be on guard in new territory, right?

Armin took a deep breath and looked over Toothless, the dragon was in a low crouch with its wings slightly extended. The dragon looked to be studying him as well with its narrow green eyes. Armin couldn't explain it but something was drawing him closer to this dragon he took a few tentative steps towards Toothless and outstretched his hand to touch him.

"Now wait for him to come to you," Hiccup said.

Armin watched closely as Toothless sniffed his hand and slowly got a little closer. Armin never noticed how silent the clearing had gotten and how many sets of eyes he had on him.

Toothless let out a quiet gurgling sound and leaned into Armin's hand. Armin's eyes lit up, Toothless was covered in smooth scales and he felt colder than Armin thought he would be. Toothless pulled back and stared at Armin with wide friendly eyes. He sniffed at him again, made another gurgling noise, and tilted his head almost like he was giving Armin a quizzical look. Armin held eye contact with Toothless, he is definitely smarter than my horse, he thought, and more majestic.

"Yeah, yeah," Snotlout called out, "We've seen this a million times, Hiccup."

"I know but it's so cool to watch," Fishlegs practically squealed.

Levi rolled his eyes, "Get moving you brats."

"Come on Levi, that was cool!" Hange whined.

"Tch," Levi said, rolling his eyes. In reality, he was just calming down, Armin's approach to the black dragon had him on edge. Levi was white knuckle gripping the hilts of his ODM gear and in a fighting stance. He would never admit it though.

Hange had so many questions about the dragons, they wanted to know everything. They had this gleam in their eyes that they only had when learning about titans. Levi noticed this too, "Not now four eyes. Wait until we get moving. How long does it take a bunch of brats to get water?"