Hiccup woke to Toothless' tongue languidly dragging across his entire body, and then when he was thoroughly coated, a nice little gummy grin in his face. And it was hardly sun break.
After Elsa had been on the ground a bit, Hiccup had deduced that it was probably cold and slightly muddy, so he pulled her up to sit on the hammock with him. She didn't say anything really of importance, nothing of the mind-shattering real reasons behind her tears, but instead just talked about her sister.
And her words were achingly beautiful.
Eventually, her words slurred and she fell asleep and Hiccup thought she looked childlike, and he had to remember he was three years her junior. Either way, he was still a gentleman and put her into her bed, where he assumed she had a restful sleep.
He did, because he was less and less worried about marrying this girl. And maybe tonight was the first night he didn't fall asleep thinking of Astrid, or dreaming of her. He didn't dream of anything, really, but it wasn't her and that was a start.
Well, it seemed like he'd been having a rather enjoyable dream when Toothless had decided to wake him.
"You know it-," He grumbled, and then shook his head, having preached this to his dragon a million times over, "Let's go." He grumbled sourly. He was sure Toothless had planned this.
Well, he couldn't walk back through his room to go down to wash off, because he'd wake Elsa and he wasn't going to do that. If she woke up, she may not fall back asleep again, and after the day she had…whew! She deserved it.
He sat up in his Hammock and had Toothless bring him to the window of his mother's room, where she was up with the day. He explained that his walking or awkward hobbling through the house would wake her, and to be quiet. He was pretty sure his mother could understand that something had happened, and she promised that no one would wake her without his command.
Huh; he forgot that as a chief, he could make orders as such.
It was difficult flying Toothless without his leg, as the saddle and his body had been designed to work together, binding him with his dragon even more. Toothless was cautious for once as they went down to the stream. Luckily, Hiccup only had been wearing a light shirt and a pair of leisure pants, although the salvia was horrid to work out of hair as well. He glared at his dragon from the stream, but he noticed Toothless looked…sad.
He made a point to see his dragon everyday, but it wasn't like before. He was a chief, going to be a husband, and maybe even a father by this time next year. He realized only now the carefree days in which he could sneak away and ride off into the sunset with Toothless were far gone, withered away and died right under his nose.
And it hurt.
His father and his former dragon had been close, but not as the Alpha Dragon and Chief now were. They both were responsible, but their positions went farther than that, they were brothers, in a way. The way that Elsa talked about Anna was the way that Hiccup would talk of Toothless. He wasn't just a dragon.
But then it wasn't all on his side either. Toothless had been going out lately without him fully realizing it. Being the Alpha meant keeping the babies in line, sorting out problems between his breeds, among other things. He was just as tied as Hiccup was, and both resented that.
"Toothless." Hiccup said softly, and his dragon came to the edge of the stream. He looked at the fish impatiently, and Hiccup gave a gentle laugh. He easily caught a fish with one of his tools, and threw it down for his dragon to eat.
"You like Elsa, right?" He asked, leaning on the bank. Toothless gave a nonchalant shrug, but underneath it, he could see that he liked her more than some of the other Vikings. That was good. He didn't hate her, which was all he needed.
"We're going to get married." He said softly, sighing. He realized Toothless probably had no idea what he was saying, but he needed to talk to someone that wasn't going to talk back, "She's great. Really. I think I could fall in love with her. But she's really sad, and I don't know how to fix it. I know why, for once." He shook his head, thinking of the many times he and Astrid had been in a row, and he'd been really confused about what she was yelling about or crying over, "And I feel useless. I'm always so inventive. But I can't even fix the one thing that really matters." He threw himself back into the stream to float. The water was so calming.
Toothless was watching him. "I don't want to be like this, but maybe a baby will make her happier. Give her something to live for, you know?" He asked and Toothless scrutinized him. He looked at him pointedly, and then drew a tiny circle in the dirt, cocking his head.
"Yes, a baby." Hiccup rolled his eyes, "What did you think? I was going to live alone with you forever?" The way he turned his back clearly indicated so, but then he turned back and looked at the little circle. A soft look came. Hiccup fished half his body out of the water to pet Toothless.
"Hey," He said, "You'll always be my best friend. No one, not even Camcazi, can come between that. And a baby is like a little me, so you can't hate it." He pointed out. Toothless rolled his eyes, and even though he couldn't talk, Hiccup was very sure what his opinion on baby dragons were. Nuisances.
"So there won't be any little Toothless?" Hiccup mused, "You know, I've always wondered if during the mating season you don't go because a) you don't have another night fury, but you're still dragons, so I think you can mix-mate. B) you resist the urge or c) Because you're alpha your technically father to all dragons so you just don't?" He asked and Toothless narrowed his wide green eyes, "Any of those three?"
Toothless turned around and choose not to answer, specifically. He chuckled, dried off, and dropped the subject.
Back at the house, Elsa was still sound asleep, along with his mother, and he decided to try to make some breakfast. Toothless attempted to help, but unfortunately set a minor part of the house on fire. That woke everyone up, for sure.
Their wedding was set in two months, giving Hiccup lots of time to really try to fall in love with her, and Elsa a lot of time to run away, he thought with a wry smile. Marriage…what an idea.
About a week passed before Hiccup had a chance to sit down and talk with her again; after it was announced that she would be their future chief's wife, people pulled her out everyday to teach her the ins and outs of being a Viking. Hiccup thought for sure she'd pale when they took her hunting, but instead she came back with a deer to cook.
"You hunt?" He asked, amazed.
"It used to be a sport when my father was still alive. He took me a couple times." She replied primly, and begun prepare it for either storage or dinner tonight.
"That's…" He begun, and was going to say attractive (and quite honestly so, in his opinion) but the glare that she sent his way paused him, "Really useful…" He finished lamely.
"I'm not so sure. With dragons, how useful is hunting, really?" She asked.
"Really, there's a reason they took you out. Dragons are really poor hunters for humans. If they try to bring stuff back, it's scorched or burnt to a crisp. Usually half-eaten too. But we can't just let them go out on their own to hunt, or we'd have no food. That was a pretty common problem pre-integration." He sighed, "So it's part of my job to calculate how much the dragons need, how much we need to stay healthy and live through the rough winters- which Odin are terrible! I also have to calculate how many of a species needs to be left alone so that we still have some come next year. That's a new part; leaving species to thrive. Before that, we nearly killed off the sheep!"
"I like harsh winters." Elsa said and Hiccup laughed.
"That's all you have to comment on?" He chuckled.
"I'm just saying, winter is my favorite season." Elsa said and went through the cabinets, "What kinds of spice do you people have in this time?" She asked.
"You're in luck, not with the spices I mean, but it snows nine months and hails the other three." He said and scowled, "And spices…I'm not sure what we do and don't have?" He gave a shrug, "Leaves and stuff are usually used for making people smell good or medical traditions."
"They also make food taste delicious. Do you know what a smoke house is?" She questioned.
"Not to my knowledge, no." He shook his head.
"Well, it's a little house that you put meat in to smoke over a long period of time to get a really delicious flavor." She said, and quickly drew on a sheet of paper the general build of it.
"If you keep on like this, people are really going to wonder what land you hail from." He said teasingly, and she responded by throwing a little bottle from the cupboard at his face. He caught it, and looked on the label. Ah, a spice, he assumed.
"So…" He begun, "You've been here more than two weeks, and you still have yet to acquire something that every Viking in this village has…" He said when she returned to the table, arms filled with bottles and labels he'd never seen in his life.
"What's that?" She questioned, half-listening.
"A dragon." He said, and she lifted her eyes, "You're going to need one, trust me."
"A dragon…" Elsa echoed, and a little bit of uncertainty flashed across her face, "I'm not sure-,"
"Ophelia already has one. Don't you see how much she loves it? Didn't you ever have a pet before? One you just loved?" He prompted.
"No." She said, "My father was horribly allergic to fur." She said.
"Well great news! Dragons are non-allergenic!" He said, and she cracked a smile, "C'mon. Everyone keeps asking me when you're going to get one. You're not a real Hairy Hooligan until you have one!"
She thought about it, and finally gave in. "Let me just wrap this up, then I'll go and find a dragon…" She sighed, rubbing her face.
"Great!" He gave a little who-hoo, "You'll love your dragon, Elsa. I know you will."
Hiccup pulled her excitedly down to the outskirts of town, where a new occupation had arisen. Dragon breeder and keeper. He had a tiny house with a wide pasture and little metal stables for the dragons (Because wood would just burn-metal melted, but this tinker managed to cover it with something that made it unfavorable for the dragons to burn. Something about the smell it emitted displeased dragons).
"So what age do you want? Babies? Teens? Older?" He asked as he unlatched the door to the stables.
"You have older dragons?" She asked.
"Well, yeah. It's not that no one wanted them. Being a Viking is a dangerous occupation, so when a Viking dies, their dragons are left without an owner."
"They seem rather fond of their current ones. Are they able to love again?" Elsa questioned.
"Just ask Eret, he has my father's old dragon," Hiccup gave a smile, "Like humans, it hurts to loose their second part, but there's always hope that they'll find someone else again." He said, and Elsa glanced at him. She wondered briefly if he was reflecting on his own situation.
"So…" Elsa's blue eyes snapped around the area, "I don't think I want a baby. They're cute but…" She frowned, "I think I shall rescue a full grown one. Perhaps I need a second chance too." She said, and behind her Hiccup grinned. Amazing how everything was so metaphorical, he thought. Dragons just simply fixed everything.
Hiccup took her down the rows, explaining dragons to her. Elsa paused when she reached a large dragon curled up in the back with sad amber eyes. It was the color of the sky, and Hiccup saw her approach the cage.
"That's a Deadly Nadder. This particular one is named Stormfly." He tried to choke it out without missing a beat, and Elsa seemed not to notice anything in his voice astray.
"Oh, a name. You must have known the rider." She turned to him, searching for sympathy in his eyes. Hiccup gave a shuddering breath.
"Aye…that was Astrid's dragon."
"Oh." Elsa took an automatic step away from the cage, looking back with an indescribable expression in her eyes. The ice seemed to have broke beneath them, at her name again, sending both into frigid water. It reminded Elsa fiercely that as nice as he was, and as much as they were to be married he would always wish that it was Astrid instead of herself.
"Yeah." He grunted, and went up to the cage, sticking his hand through. Stormfly took the opportunity to come and rub her head on his outstretched hand, a little purr rising in her throat. Elsa backed away at the familiar gestures exchanged.
"I would have expected a woman like Astrid…her dragon would have been wanted." She stuttered.
"It was." He turned, "But not just anyone can take Stormfly." He said, and raised an eyebrow. As much as she wanted to ask if she had passed that test, it felt too weird to take that dragon.
"As pretty as it is…I can't…" She said, "It was Astrid's."
Hiccup merely nodded, and it was clear he understood. Yet he looked a little crestfallen, as if he had secretly hoped she would fall in love with Stormfly. Then it would just be like before she was here, wouldn't it? Ah, well, couldn't have that.
Instead she wandered down the rows, asking the occasional question. It turned out that actually Hiccup knew every previous owners of the dragons, but he was a little more forthcoming with telling her this time.
Near the end, she leaned in. "That's a Timberjack." He said almost lazily.
"Owner?" She prompted. Hiccup scowled and rubbed his head.
"Well, actually none." He admitted, "We kept her here because she's about the age of most, but no one wants her." He came up to the cage, and the dragon pushed herself back against the wall, "Poor thing. I think what happened was when she was younger some humans must have nearly killed her. She is terrified of men in particular, and can't breath fire. No Viking wanted a dragon without fire." He sighed.
Elsa's heart leaped. A dragon without fire? That was the best news she'd heard all day.
"I want her then." She said automatically. Hiccup looked shocked.
"Really, I mean, don't choose something to be a charity case-," He warned, but she shook her head.
"This is my dragon, Hiccup." She said, using her queen voice and he found himself stepping aside.
"Be careful!" He warned as she unlocked the cage door, but she just threw a look over her shoulder. This dragon wouldn't hurt her. She needed another girl, not big scary men.
The timberjack glared at her from the corner, but did nothing to protect itself. Elsa approached not brazenly, but just confidently. At the head, she leaned down and looked into the eyes. Beautiful and green, so vibrant and smart.
"Hi," Elsa whispered, "I've never talked to a dragon before. But I'm Elsa…and I think we've been looking for each other." She admitted. The dragon reached her head forward, almost so that it touched Elsa's hand.
"Do you want to see a secret? Hiccup doesn't even know. But it's why we'll work together…" She murmured, and cupping her hands in front of her so Hiccup's view was obscured, she made a tiny pile of snow.
And she was pretty sure the dragon smiled. A slimy tongue snaked out and licked the snow from her hands, and the grin of pointy teeth was a welcoming one. Elsa took the opportunity to run her hands along the rough skin of the dragon's head.
"You'll keep my secret, won't you girl. I think it would scare Hiccup if I told him now." She whispered and there was a low rumbling from her throat that was some sort of an agreement.
"You're the first person that's ever touched her!" Hiccup was standing outside, wide-eyed.
"Has a girl ever tried?" She asked with almost a haughty grin.
"Well…no…most thought the dragon would react violently…" Hiccup admitted.
"There's your problem. She needs a gal friend, not thirty stupid men." Elsa said as if it was obvious. When she walked out of the den, the Timberjack followed. It glared at Hiccup, as if to agree with Elsa, and gave a little huff of hot air.
Back home, the Timberjack looked at where Hiccup slept and promptly made a circle and lay down.
"Uh…maybe she shouldn't-," Hiccup began to say, but Toothless had already noticed. He stalked up to Elsa's dragon and poked it in the side. The dragon opened its eye, and gave Toothless an intimidating glare. Toothless attempted to hold his angry face, but ended up backing away shamefully.
"I can't believe it." Hiccup was near speechless, and Toothless came up, bucking his head sourly against Hiccup's side. Hiccup looked at his dragon and they shared similar glances, "Women, right?"