Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

You have two families in your life, the one you're born with and then there’s the one that is forged. The one that you didn’t even know you were looking for until you were. The family that sees you for you.

Prologue

The Hidden World (Present Day)

A flock of dragons swarms around the underground cavern, creating a swirl of tails and wings, chirping and cooing as they go about their duties and lives. As they pass by, they all bow their heads in respect to a lean figure standing outside on the ledge of his nest. His auburn bangs blow in the wind as the wings of his subjects pass by. The chirping and cooing of his six hatchlings behind him reach his ears, and a pleasant smile appears on his freckled face. A mighty roar echoes from the throne in the middle of the underground cavern, and the figure's smile widens as he looks down toward the source of the roar. Seeing his dominant mate demonstrate authority and the black dragon's toxic eyes lock eyes with his forest green sends excitement and pride throughout the human's slim frame. As he watches his beloved lead the meeting from their den, the figure closes his eyes, sits down on the ledge with his hatchlings nearby, and thinks back to where he was before and how he got to where he is now.

30 years ago

The night sky was calm as the stars twinkled and the moon shined brightly. Two silhouette figures, followed by many more dragons, flew toward a smoking volcano covered in a dense mist. The two figures in front of the group were the King and Queen of the Hidden World, a sacred home for dragons. "According to our scouts, The Red Death has abandoned her post as guardian of our home and has taken many of our dragons hostage to use for her own selfish desires." The king growled in frustration as his razor-sharp teeth popped out from his gums, his toxic eyes slit into thin lines brimming with anger that made other dragons back down immediately.

The Queen purred as she looked back at her sleeping hatchling, born only 2 months ago, and her own eyes shined with love until they became slit. "Yes, I feel as though we don't know who is an ally or foe, and also we have to keep our world safe for Haaken." She coos.

At the mention of his name, the little black hatchling, a Night Fury, stirred and yawned as his dam flew over a medium-sized island. The little dragon's eyes widened, feeling like something was pulling him to the unknown location. A few whimpers escaped his lips, and the tiny blue glow on his back disappeared. Hearing her baby's whimpers, Sapphire looks back to comfort her offspring until her green eyes also locate the island. She, too, feels an invisible pull, but she shakes it off and continues her flight. 'It's not possible; I'm just nervous for Hakken, that's all, ' her thoughts say as the dragons near the mist bank.

Drakken turns and addresses his followers once in front of the barrier separating them from their foes. "My warriors, for as long as we can remember, The Hidden World has been at peace where all dragons are safe; despite the ongoing war with humans, we have been grateful for our protectors at our entrances who keep humans away and us safe. But now, one of them has gone astray, and The Red Death has taken a lot of our bravest prisoners. Tonight, I ask you to lend us your strength and come together to save our comrades, defeat this rogue dragon, for our families, our hatchlings, and the future king of our world, Hakken. Let's take back our world!" "He roars, and many other roars accompany him. However, as the army was set to charge, many dragons suddenly flew out of the volcano. A battle ensued in the skies, with the Red Death's army quickly taking control of the fight by either killing the army dragons or taking them hostage.

"MY KING SAVE US!" Some roared as Drakken was chased around the volcano by two death gripper dragons, each with horns glistening with venom ready to plunge into the male Night Fury's skin. Whenever Drakken thought he'd got ahead of the enemy, they would appear out of nowhere and nearly pierce his side or underbelly. Despite firing off plasma blasts multiple times until he reached his limit, Drakken continued to lead the dragons around the volcano until another dragon, a Zippleback, blasted right in front of the male night fury, causing him to falter in his flight. He then felt himself being pounced on and rapidly approaching the ground until the pressure from his back and side stood removed as a bright purple plasma blast connected with the death grippers. Sapphire carried her mate safely to the sandy land of the entrance to their home.

"My love, please wake up." Sapphire pleads as she nuzzles her beloved, noticing a large stab wound in her mate's underside. With a whimpering Hakken nudging at his sire. She quickly goes to lick the wound, knowing that Night Fury's saliva has healing properties.

Drakken weakly awakens, his green eyes showing how much pain he's in, and gently licks his whimpering offspring. "Don't worry, Hakken, it'll take more than this to defeat me." He cooed, frail, as he winced from the pain of his wounds. He turned to his mate and cooed. "My darling, please take Hakken and leave; I'll only be deadweight to you."

Sapphire whimpers and shakes her head, her green eyes becoming large and sad. "No, I refuse to abandon you. Hakken needs you; he needs both of us. I need you. Just because he's loved by all our subjects doesn't mean I want him to grow up without his sire. Please, I can help you. Let us gather the rest of our group and retreat."

Drakken shook his head and smiled, but it was sad and didn't meet his eyes. "Sapphire, if we retreat now, it's only a matter of time before she takes over more territory and challenges the other guardians as well, and all of her servants take over all of our home. I have to defend my home, the home of my son, and my subjects. It's my duty as King of the Hidden World and as a father to ensure that my son has a bright, safe future."

Sapphire tries to protest, but before she can, two nightmares come and scoop up the two adult night furies, and a nadder picks up a squirming Hakken. The three-night furies stand then brought inside the volcano, where once inside, they see a large pit shrouded in smoke and many dragons hovering over the pit, dropping livestock; thousands of rock ledges contain dragons on each one, from one to five at a time and some with clusters of hatchlings. As Drakken and Sapphire look at each of their fellow dragons, they see looks of sadness and defeat, and some look like they're in a trance, as most dragons look nervously at their leaders and the heir. They also notice many dragons with torn ligaments and deep talon marks on their extremities. As the nightmare hovers over the middle of the smoke bank, the nadder takes Hakken to a ledge as it looks at the fury parents, and a silent message passes between them: 'I'll look after him.'

A loud thunderous roar that shakes the entire nest comes from the smoke as a figure begins to emerge from it. The night fury mates see a large head emerge from the smoke first with six eyes on each side of its grayish-red head, each one glistening with smugness and victory. Its head rises until she's right before the mates, and her hot breath washes over their entire body. The smell of death lingers in the air as she burps up bones and spits them directly onto the King and Queen. "Welcome, your majesties. Please forgive me about the bones, but I thought you would want the remains of your subjects." She mocks, but the fury's faces remain neutral.

"Why are you doing this, Red? You used to be our greatest ally and protector; why have you betrayed us like this?" Sapphire growled through gritted teeth.

The Red Death chuckles darkly. "We have been at peace for so long that you seem to have lost the meaning of how to rule. It would help if you ruled with an iron fist; make the dragons work for you instead of working together. And suppose they fall out of line like what you've allowed all these years. In that case, you punish them harshly." She explains that a nadder comes in with a lamb in its talons, but the Red Death, after forcing the nadder to feed her the lamb, the enormous dragon swiftly grabs the nadder and devours it; the night furies horror. "You didn't notice that I've been doing this for years; every time a dragon would come near the volcano, I would lure them in with mind control, and by the time they realized what had occurred, it was too late. I then use my minions to raid the humans for food, and if they disappoint me or step out of line, I feast on them. This all started when the guardian from the west died, and the guardian from the east lost their unborn egg when it stood stolen from its nest." She explains as she notices the little black hatchling and notices that the older dragons, including the other night furies that came with the King and Queen protecting the little heir, "I see the little heir has come as well, and his full power has yet to come to fruition." Drakken and Sapphire struggle to get to their hatchling, but the nightmares tighten their claws into the night furies' skin, piercing the wound on Drakken's side and earning a growl of pain from the male dragon. "And now it's time for a new ruler to come to power!" The Red Death roared as she ordered the death grippers and nightmares to bring the night furies to her.

Both Drakken and Sapphire struggled and fired off multiple blasts, even swinging their tails to try to smack their captors away, but it was no use as claws pierced the skin and more blood oozed out of Drakken's body as he howled in agony. The other dragons try to save their leaders, but the Red Death's subjects intercept and prevent them from interfering. The night furies who fly past them also try, but the Red Death suddenly takes control of them and forces them to land by Hakken. A nadder with a yellow and blue hatchling shields Hakken and her baby from the scene. "Sapphire, my love, I have loved you since we were hatchlings, and I will always love you, my beautiful mate." Drakken declares as the large mouth hovers over the mates—the smell of death covering the night furies.

"Drakken, my dear, you are my forever love, and I thank you for this amazing life we have had and for giving us a beautiful son. May he live and save all dragons someday." Sapphire replied as both dragons, as well as the nightmares and death grippers, were enveloped and devoured by The Red Death. All was silent within the nest as the dragons processed what they just witnessed; their king and Queen were dead; all that remained of them was their hatchling, who was whimpering, feeling like he had just lost something.

"Now then, bring me the heir!" The Red Death declared as she locked eyes with a male nadder who took the hatchling from his mate, who was protecting the heir, and reluctantly hovered over the head of his new Queen. All of the Queen's eyes lock on the black dragon, and a sound that sounds like chirping and whistling stands heard, and the little dragon's ears perk up, and his eyes slit. "Your name is Hakken; you will not remember your life before; you exist to serve me." Her voice commands as she locks away Hakken's memories of who he is, with only his name intact. After a few more moments, the little dragon's ears droop, his eyes return to normal before closing, and he passes out. "Get him out of my sight; if anyone speaks a chirp or coo to him of his origins, your hatchlings will be the ones to pay the price, or maybe I'll kill the heir myself." She threatens as she retreats into the smoke-filled ground. The adult dragons look at the now sleeping Hakken, mourn for their King and Queen, and vow to protect their prince.

Isle Of Berk

A light mist drifts through the air toward an island known as the Isle of Berk. Everything appears peaceful until a gut-wrenching wail of sorrow pierces the silence, reaching even the gods. The villagers leave their homes and hurry to the Chief's house on the hill. An older woman with a staff and a one-armed man rush into the house, shutting the door behind them. Inside, a woman screams in anguish as she cradles her baby son, who has just passed away. Her husband cradles his wife in his arms, his eyes shining with tears threatening to fall. "Oh, Stoick, how could this happen? He was perfect; yes, he was born early, but my baby, how come he didn't survive?" The browned-haired woman wailed, bringing the bundle in her arms close to her face and nuzzling it as she lay into a tall, heavy figure's giant arms.

Stoick gently brushes the strands of auburn hair on his son's head. "I don't know, Val; I believed this was our chance; perhaps he shall name him before we." He trailed off, unable to process the thought of having a funeral for his newborn son, as a few tears made their way down his face.

The older woman comes close to the grieving parents, having gone through the many miscarriages Valka and Stoick had gone through over the years. As she gently takes the deceased infant into her arms, she looks up and notices a slight mist entering the room and hovering over the infant. "You must live; he needs you, young one." The mist whispers as it enters the body of the infant. Suddenly, a whimper escapes his lips, and color returns to his skin. Both Stoick and Valka's heads snap up at the sound of the baby's whimpers, and Gothi gently hands the now-alive infant to his mother as his eyes slowly open to reveal forest green eyes.

"Oh Stoick, he's alive, he's alive!" Valka yells, tears rolling down her face like droplets.

Stoick takes the boy from his wife and rocks him back and forth, his red beard brushing against the baby's face, earning a laugh from the infant. "My boy, the gods have returned you to us, Thor Almighty!" He shouts with a twinkle of pride in his green eyes as Gothi taps him on the shoulder, signaling him to lower the baby to her level.

The Chief of Berk obliges, and the Elder places her hand on the baby's head when a voice speaks to her, "We speak to you, Elder, allow us to use you as a vessel to bestow this child with our power." Eir spoke softly as Gothi slowly nodded, small enough that Stoick couldn't see. She felt a power enter her and then move in the baby's small form.

"So what are you going to name him? He's small, but I suppose being born two months earlier than expected and then dying will do that to you." Gobber shrugged, looking at the tiny bundle in his best friend's arms.

Valka stands beside her husband, looks at her child, and sees that he's indeed small; even his cries are tiny. "Hiccup, " she announces. That's his name." "Hiccup Horrendous Haddock lll."

Stoick beams. "It's perfect." While the new parents celebrate the revival of their child and the extended family comes to share in the celebration, all of Berk commemorate the healing of their heir. Gothi goes to the cliffside and scribbles down what the gods had told her and what the mist had spoken before disappearing into Hiccup.

"A boy shall die only to be revived by the soul of a dragon, and together with the 'True Alpha shall peace come." Gothi finishes the writing, and two balls of light appear before the Elder. One ball forms into a human female: Eir. "I have bestowed the young one with my power to heal and protect. I task you with teaching him the ways of healing. His life will be trying, full of trials and hardships, but the one shall come, and together they will bring peace." She explains as Gothi nods in understanding. Eir then holds the second ball of light in her palm as it changes color until it reaches blue. "When he ages, this spell keeps his powers from overwhelming him until he's old enough to control them." The goddess explains as the power enters Gothi. Once satisfied, the goddess of healing disappears, leaving the Elder alone. As she turns back towards her village, her thoughts wander. 'So it has begun.' She thinks with a small smile as her eyes look up towards the snow-topped mountain of Berk.

Six years later

A massive flock of dragons flies in the sky; some of the group break off and head towards an island known as Outcast. Another breaks off and heads to other islands, such as Bog Burglar, Shivering Shore, and neighboring islands. The group that went to Berserker Island often never successfully raided much due to an invisible force driving them back—a force the Queen plans to deal with in due time. A large group of dragons also heads to the Isle of Berk with a now-six-year-old Hakken on a nightmare's back. The Queen decided that Hakken was old enough to begin raiding; despite the paternal instincts within most of the dragons to protect the prince and keep him in the nest, they couldn't refuse their Queen. Over the last six years, Hakken grew and stood protected by all the dragons, including the fellow night fury that stood captured with him. Those night furies have since been killed by one of the Red Death's special servants.' Hakken, for his part, only knows his name and has to serve his Queen; he defends his fellow hatchlings and is kind and caring despite the Queen's treatment of him. The night fury hatchling wakes up and feels the Queen's ever-present voice in his mind. "Observe and learn, young dragon, should any human come for you, kill on sight." She commands, and Hakken's little eyes become slits, and his little teeth barely unstealthy from his tiny gums as the dragons descend upon Berk and begin the raid.

As Vikings spring out of their homes, battle axes in hand and roars of anger come from their throats as they engage the dragons, who begin snatching up livestock from yaks to sheep, even a horse or two. Hakken observes the adult dragons with his slitted eyes as he sees the blue and yellow Nader's sire pinned down by nets. He tries to go and help, but the nadder shoos him back. "No, Hakken, you mustn't get captured!" He screeches as a large man with a red beard and angry green eyes spots the little hatchling.

"You men come and get this Nadder!" Stoick orders his men as he begins to chase the little black dragon. Hakken flies away and quickly hides in the shadow of a tree as Stoick looks to and fro for the little dragon.

The Night Fury suddenly feels a pull that breaks through the control of the Queen. Hakken feels the pull and senses the Red Death's mind control gradually slipping away. His little wings carry him through the night sky until he reaches a house on a hill. The pull becomes more assertive, and Hakken enters the home through a grating in the door. It leads him to a giant wooden chair with a little boy hiding behind it. The boy sees the little black dragon and trembles in fear, even though it's just a baby dragon. "Hi, please don't kill me." He stutters as he clings to the chair for dear life, his voice trembling with fright at the idea that a dragon is in his home.

The night fury hatchling looks at the human, whose eyes are bright green like the forest and whose hair is as Auburn as a leaf in autumn but is as lean as a twig on a branch and trembling like a lamb in the cold. The pull tugs the baby towards the human, and Hakken lowers to the ground as a sign of 'no threat,' figuring that this little hatchling couldn't be much older than himself as his tiny black nose crinkles up, practically smelling the fear and confusion of this human hatchling.

The auburn boy slowly clenches his hands from the chair and comes into view. He sees the dragon isn't that big, about his age, perhaps. "My name is Hiccup." He introduces himself as he kneels before the lowered dragon. "You're a dragon, but yet you're a baby." He adds, as he, too, feels a tug towards Hakken. He slowly lifts his tiny hand and lowers it to the dragon's snout.

Hakken sees the human's hand and growls with teeth bared in warning. He immediately feels a little guilty, seeing forest green eyes turn from curious to panic in an instant. He does a quick sweep over the human's small form for any weapons and coos when he doesn't see anything harmful. Hakken decides to press his snout into the human's tiny paw slowly, and a shock quickly rushes through his entire being, and he jumps back. Hiccup also feels the shock and quickly retreats to the chair, away from the hatchling.

Both stare at each other, wondering what these feelings are surfacing. Both unknowingly, it's not friendship that sparked between them but something more. "So, um, do you want to play with some toys since I hope you're not going back out there to raid?" He asked while biting his lip, terrified of the hatchling raiding and getting hurt by his fellow Viking, but he tried to hide it.

The midnight hatchling shook his head yes and bolted over to the toy box Hiccup gestured to, and the two began to play with Hiccup, pretending to tackle the dragon with a little shield and sword and missing. At one point, he got hurt by a loose nail on the floorboard, and he began to bleed. Hakken worried, but Hiccup calmed him. "It's ok, I can heal." He said as his hand glowed blue. He spoke a spell, and the cut healed up. Hakken was amazed. The two resumed playing, the feeling buzzing with life between them. After about a couple hours of playing, the two look at each other directly while lying on the fur-covered floor, with Hiccup panting slightly from all the playing as he lifts his hand to pet the onyx-colored baby dragon, and Hakken leans into the touch. It's just the two of them until a loud thud stands heard, and Stoick quickly grabs Hiccup and begins to shout at the black hatchling. "Dad, no stop; he won't hurt me; please stop!" Hiccup yelled as he struggled to get back to the black dragon.

Hakken tried to get back to Hiccup. But his father pays him no mind as he grabs the little dragon and throws him out of the house. Hakken scratches at the door and whimpers, worried for the little human as he hears the older human yelling loudly through the door.

"Hakken, let's go." Sparkle, a female Nightmare, urges as she leans down and grabs the hatchling in her maw, ignoring his protest.

"I have to save him." The hatchling screeches as he begins to feel the pull disappearing and cries as substituted with the Queen's voice. 'Please, Hiccup, please be ok.' He thinks despairingly as the flock regroups and enters Helium's Gate.

Berk

Stoick drags his son through the village as Hiccup frantically shoves at his father's giant hands. Looking up at the sky through tear-filled eyes, he wonders what became of his new friend. "Daddy, please stop, " he begs as they near Gothi's hut. Upon entering the hut, Stoick roughly sits Hiccup on a bed and holds him there until the Elder comes up, and her old eyes widen at the sight of her soon-to-be apprentice.

"A Night Fury came into my house and attacked my son. I want you to seal his memories of this ordeal." Stoick orders as Hiccup gasps and tears collect in his eyes.

"No, Daddy, please. He wasn't attacking me; we were playing. They're not wrong. Please don't do this," the weeping child begged.

Gothi looked between father and son, and she wrote in the dirt as Stoick looked on. "You know this will have severe repercussions in the future; I don't have to remind you of what I saw that day." The writing read as Stoick growled.

"It's better this way. I don't want him to become like Val, and don't you ever bring up that incident or anything about that ever again." He snarled.

Gothi glared hard at her Chief for a long while before sighing, nodding, and noticing that Hiccup had curled into himself and cried himself to sleep; the whimpers escaping his quivering lips showed he didn't want this. Gothi then moved towards the whimpering child, gently uncurled his body, and laid him flat on his back. She then placed her hand on his forehead and another on his heart. 'Eir, please forgive me for this.' She thinks as her hands glow green. Hiccup's forehead also glows green as his whimpers become softer until they stop, and he rests peacefully. After a few minutes, Gothi's hand stops shining, and she turns to Stoick and nods, indicating it stands finished.

Stoick nods as well and gently picks up his offspring. "Hiccup will be better off this way, and I'll make sure that Night Fury never sets foot in Berk again. Hiccup's destiny is Berk, not dragons or anything related to 'that world.' Stoick declares as he starts walking down the steps of the hut but stands stopped by Gothi. She quickly writes on the ground, "Beware, chief, this will not end well for Hiccup, and you cannot stop his destiny; perhaps delay it but not stop it."

The Chief nods in acknowledgment and walks back to his home, past his brother Spitlout. "Stoick, we captured only seven dragons, and almost half of our livestock was taken. I've already got the ship up and packed for fishing, and a trader from the north named Johann is coming within the week; surely he'll have livestock." He says as he walks with his older brother. "Yes, we can only hope he does."

Stoick replies as he meets up with Gobber, his right-hand man. "Hiccup is to begin being your apprentice in blacksmithing beginning tomorrow."

Gobber's eyes widened at the statement. "Ye sure Stoick?" He questions.

"Yes, I am; it'll keep him out of trouble, and it's the last place a dragon would find him." Stoick counters as he walks up the hill, moves into his house, and closes the door. He lays his unconscious son on the fur-covered bed that Stoick and Valka slept on and covers him up. "I won't lose any more of my family to dragons, especially a night fury." Stoick declares, looking out towards the night sky, unaware that his offspring clenched a small black scale in his hand, and a few tears trickled down his face.

Chapter Text

Berk 8 years later

A lone dragon flew in front of a bright moon, followed by a flock of many dragons as they headed toward their destination. A black dragon led the charge coos, and one group soared toward the islands in the north. He turns his head and coos for another group to head east. He leads the remaining flock towards Berk. "Only gather the livestock and make sure to steer clear of any humans; we lost quite a few dragons during the last raid." A now fourteen-year-old Hakken commands the flock as coos and growls respond to him. 

 "If only we could rescue the dragons that were captured, I yearn to be reunited with my beloved once more." A blue and purple nadder squawked, his golden orbs showing sadness at the thought of what the Vikings could be doing to his mate.

 "I understand, Eragon, but our duty is to serve our Queen. I would love to save your mate and all the trapped dragons, but it's impossible." Hakken countered, hating that he had to leave dragons behind to be at the mercy of Vikings. He tried to save as many captured dragons as possible but had to leave behind the unsavable ones many times. 

As they hover over Berk, Hakken begins to feel a tug on his heart, like something is calling for him in the quiet village, but he shakes his head and gives the command to begin. The flock begins their raid as Eragon spine shoots around a herd of sleeping sheep and calls for his fellow dragons to pick a sheep. No sooner had the dragons started raiding than the Berkians counterattacked, with Stoick leading the charge. The Vikings quickly tried to get their animals into stables, but the dragons were quicker, promptly picking off any animal they saw. Blood splattered rapidly as Vikings killed a Gronkle trying to eat the rocks used for the catapults. Hakken saw this and decided to intervene. He began taking out the weapons that would be targeting his fellow dragon. As he flies around the island, he feels a tug on his heart again, but he shakes it off and destroys a watchtower.

During all the battling, a door opens only to quickly slam shut again as an auburn teen with freckles on his face mutters, "Dragons." Hiccup goes outside instead of staying in his uncle's house like he was supposed to. He is amazed by all the commotion outside, his forest green eyes dancing with awe and wonder despite older Berkians bumping into the fourteen-year-old and angrily yelling at him, "Get back inside the house, and what are you doing, runt?" He hurried past the rising torches until he felt the back of his fur vest standing yanked, and his father lifted him. "Hiccup, what is he? What are you doing out again?" Stoick scolded, clearly frustrated that his only child was out in all the chaos as his green eyes glared harshly at his offspring. "Get back inside." He adds as he drags Hiccup to the door of the blacksmith shop. "Get in there and stay," his father ordered as he headed towards the catapults with several Viking men. 

Shoving down the sadness and depressed feeling from being belittled by his father yet again, Hiccup quickly runs into the shop where Gobber, who also happens to be the young Haddock's godfather, is quickly handing out any weapon he has. "What is the name of Thor, Hiccup? You're supposed to be at Spitlout's house; what is ye doing out here?" Gobber exclaimed, alarmed, his eyes dilated in shock at the sight of his apprentice. 

Hiccup quickly puts on his brown apron and begins sharpening the sword that he grabbed on his way in. "Well, I couldn't stay in a house that was partly on fire; it's not my fault a monstrous nightmare set it ablaze; besides, Spitlout needed an upgrade on his hut. He quipped. "Besides, you need help with all these weapons." He added as he quickly handed the newly sharpened sword to a waiting Viking and resumed work.

"But Hiccup, ye know I love you like a son, but you can't throw an ax, pick up any sword bigger than yourself, and even throw a bola correctly." Gobber addressed as he held the bola in his hand, only for another Viking to quickly snatch them up, throw them into the air, and capture a Gronkle.

Hiccup wipes his hands on his apron and goes to a blanket in the corner. "Ok, fair point, but this will throw it for me." He mentions that he uncovers a launcher with a built-in bola launch. As he pats his invention, the launcher accidentally spits a bola, slamming into a Viking at the shop window. "Oh, ow, so maybe some minor technical issues." He mutters nervously when suddenly a large explosion rings out through the village as the food storage house is set ablaze by a Zippleback as a young Viking shield maiden by the name of Astrid Hofferson leads a group of adolescents to the ocean with buckets in hand as they rush to put out the fire. 

Hiccup goes to the shop's opening and watches the other teens throw water onto the burning buildings and extinguish the fires. He also leans out of the shop's window and sees dragons landing on rooftops and destroying the huts, his eyes marveling with wonder at the wondrous beasts.  

His sightseeing stands quickly laid to rest when Gobber grabs him with his hook. "Nice try, Hiccup, but you must sharpen those swords." He warns and points to a pile of worn-out blades, but Hiccup groans.

"Aww, come on, just let me go out there and make my mark; my life will get infinitely better." He complained.

"Oh, you've made plenty of marks all in the wrong places, I might add." Gobber counters. 

Hiccup doesn't back down, though." Oh, you sure are playing a dangerous game; keeping this much raw Viking power contained, there will be consequences!" He yells as Gobber looks at him unamused. 

"I'll take my chances, sword, sharpen, now." He demands as he puts his apprentice down and shoves a sword into his palm.

With his son in the safety of his job, Stoick, who has just climbed atop a catapult, looks at the Viking, turning the catapult towards the ocean. "What have we got?" He asks Breathsbrimmer, who is managing the catapult. 

"Gronkles, nadders, Zipplebacks, and Horak said he saw a monstrous nightmare," Breathsbrimmer answered in one rough breath. 

Stoick looked up at the night sky; his eyes darted to and fro, his ears listening for a particular sound. "Any night furies?" He asked but received a no for an answer. "Good." He replied as an explosion came from the stables, followed by a yell of "They found the sheep!" as another Zippleback flew from the scene. Stoick was just about to help when suddenly, the bottom of the catapult was set ablaze by a monstrous red nightmare, who was climbing up the catapult and glared at the Chief of Berk with the intent to kill. "Reload; I'll take care of this one," Stoick orders Breath Brimmer as he stares down the flaming beast before he begins to smack the dragon multiple times with his ax, causing a few deep lacerations on the dragon's face and grunting in triumph as it flies off into the air. 

 "That hurt." The nightmare known as Hookfang grumbled as he joined Hakken in the air over the battle. 

"Are you alright?" Hakken asked as he watched for any of his dragons to fall to Vikings, his slitted toxic eyes taking in every little detail. 

 "I will be, but we won't be able to get much with those torches and catapults." The nightmare responded roughly. 

With that, Hakken flew towards the catapult, ignoring the tug on his heart once again as his wings made a whistling sound that didn't go unnoticed by every Viking, including Hiccup. A 'Night Fury' cry rings out as Stoick orders all his men to jump. Hakken builds a plasma blast and hits point-blank right at the center of the catapult. "That should help," Hakken remarked as he noticed other dragons could get more livestock.

Hiccup sees the catapult burst from the impact of the blast and once again tries to go out of the shop, only to once again be stopped by Gobber. "Hiccup, you know I can't allow you to go out." 

"But Gobber, just let me try using the mangler. I know I can't throw very well, but this will throw for me." Hiccup begged as he leaned on his latest invention, only for said invention to shoot out another bola and pummel a passing terrible terror in the face. "Ok, minor calibrations, and then I can." He tries to explain, but Gobber stops him.

"Stop. Hiccup, you need to just stop being all this." Gobber gestures to his apprentice's form.

"You just gestured to all of me." Hiccup stated in a matter-of-fact tone with an eye roll. 

"Exactly, stop being all of you. Look, it's for your good that you stay here and let those with more experience handle the raids. And besides, I don't want to see you get hurt." Gobber reasoned as he heard his name shouted to help with the battle. He unhooks his hook and replaces it with a blunger. Before heading out to battle, he turns back to his godson, "Please understand, Hiccup, your father just wants to keep you safe, and so do I; just stay put, please." The elder blacksmith pleads as he enters the battlefield of Berk.

Hiccup debated within himself; he hated that he couldn't be a part of the action and couldn't do anything to prove his worth. He knew he could heal himself if hurt, but Gobber's words gave him pause. He looks at the mangler and then towards the battle as a Gronkle flies by, spewing lava on another stable as a pack of nadders begins circling the unlucky sheep. With a determination he rarely demonstrates, Hiccup uses the mangler to push open the door and hurries out towards Valka's Cliff, ignoring the protests from waiting Vikings at the shop window. He quickly sets up the invention and begins looking through the scope for the night fury. "Come on, give me something to shoot at. Give me something to shoot at." He chants to himself as the silhouette figure comes into view. Its signature sound comes again, blasting yet another catapult, bringing the black dragon into view. Hiccup quickly takes the shot. He flunks back and hears a wail of agony, and then he sees the dragon quickly go down towards Raven Point. 

 "PRINCE HAKKEN!" Hookfang roars, hearing the black dragon's wails, as all the dragons realize something has happened to their leader and pause in their raid until the voice of the Queen takes complete control and forces them to continue. Hookfang quietly sneaks up the cliff as he hears the human that shot the night fury out of the sky cheering, "I did it; did anyone see that?" As he towers over the little human, the cheers turn to fear, "Except for you." He hears the human groan as he quickly runs with Hookfang right on his heels.

After throwing a net over the group of nadders and hammering it down to secure it, Stoick hears a familiar yell of distress. Looking up, he sees his son sprinting toward the village with a monstrous nightmare chasing him. Sighing, he runs up to intercept the dragon when he turns around and addresses his brother-in-law and younger brother, "Do not let them escape." He yells as he makes his way to the center of the village and kicks the dragon in the head. 

The monstrous nightmare tries to fire, only for a small puff of smoke to come out of its maw. "You're all out." Stoick remarks as he punches the dragon repeatedly until Spitlout, Harok, and Silent Sven tie down the monstrous nightmare. Stoick glares at the downed stoker class dragon, "Put it in the arena; it'll be used for dragon training." He commands his brother and fellow Vikings as he turns and sees Hiccup come into view as the pole the teen was hiding behind falls and causes a chain reaction of tumbling torches and the nadders being set free. 

Hiccup winces as most dragons flee with claws full of livestock, "Sorry, Dad." He apologizes. "But I hit a Night Fury." He tries to say, but Stoick quickly grabs Hiccup and drags him by the collar of his vest. "I swear it's not like the last few times, Dad; it went down just by Raven's Point; let's get a search party together." Hiccup tries to explain, but Stoick stops him.

"Stop! Just stop and look; look at all the destruction you caused by not staying where you were supposed to be. Look at all the injuries you caused, and now we have to restock out supplies. Winter is also here, and I have an entire village to feed, but we can't because your actions allowed the dragons to take a good portion of our livestock." Stoick raged, eyes burning with anger as everyone looked at the father and son pair.

His eyes begin to well up with tears, but he scrunches up his face and tries to keep the tears in as he's belittled yet again by his father. Hiccup looks around at the other Vikings and says, "Well, between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don't you think? You were just saying this morning that perhaps you could stand to lose a few pounds." Hiccup tries to joke, but it's met with groans of irritation from everyone.

"This isn't a joke, and leave my weight out of this. Why can't you follow the simplest instructions?" Stoick sighed, pitching the bridge of his nose.

"I just can't help. I see a dragon, and I just have to kill it; it's who I am, Dad." Hiccup admits, gesturing as he imagines ripping a dragon into pieces.

Realizing that Hiccup doesn't apologize for his actions, Stoick sighs even more. "Oi, you're many things, Hiccup, but a dragon killer isn't one of them. You are to go to Gohti's hut and help tend to the wounded; at least there, I know you can't destroy anything." He admits as he asks Gobber to ensure Hiccup gets to the healer's hut. "I have his mess to clean up. Again." Stoick groans as Gobber takes Hiccup away.

Passing by all the other teens, Hiccup's life was met with insults and glares of disgust. "I've never seen anyone mess up that badly," Tuffnut sneered.

"That helped you know." Snotlout laughed, gesturing to where the pole used to be.

"Hey Useless, you know you're supposed to help humans, not dragons. Or are you so screwed up that you can't tell the difference anymore?" A bulky young adult with blonde hair and blue tips on the end shouted as Gobber smacked him upside the head.

"Yes, thank you. Glad you enjoyed the show. Maybe next time, I'll let the dragon eat me. Would that satisfy you?" He asks bitterly as he makes it to Gohi's hut and realizes not many Vikings need treatment. "Thanks Gobber." Hiccup acknowledged as he began to walk into the healer's hut. 

"You didn't do anything wrong, Hiccup; Stoick knows that; he's just upset that we have to restock before winter comes.", the Blacksmith admits, trying to cheer up his godson, but Hiccup nods and goes inside the hut. 

Gohti sees the young Haddock and writes in the sand, and Hiccup reads it to himself, "I heard you stood belittled again." She admits, and Hiccup nodded. Gothi sighed, hating Stoick's treatment of his son, but knowing that Stoick was the chief, she didn't like him to be angry. Gothi nods and has Hiccup heal a bruised arm and a broken foot. He first attends to the fractured foot with both hands on the wrapping. Hiccup uses a simple spell, 'bein, heill. He speaks as his hands glow blue, and the injured Viking screams in agony as his bones are repaired and placed correctly; afterward, he wraps the foot.

Hiccup moves on to the open wound on Mulch's chest. Repeating the same process that he did with the broken foot, his hands glow blue again, and he speaks the spell. kjot, hold, heill, commands the flesh as it moves under his touch and knits back together. Afterward, Hiccup stitches up around the wound, wraps it, and sends Mulch away.  

After all the patients had been treated, Gohti finished the last few injuries and motioned for Hiccup to head home. 

After making his way through the war-torn village of Berk, Hiccup makes it to his house and isn't surprised that his father is not there. Going up to his room, Hiccup goes to his bed and pulls out a box with a shiny little dagger with dry blood coating the blade. Lifting the sleeves of his green tunic to reveal scars up and down his arms, some faded, some scarred over, and some looking fresh still. Hiccup places the blade on one of the fresher scars, his eyes sad and flooded with tears coming down fast like pounding rain. "It's all my fault, all my fault. Hiccup whispers as the blade cuts into the skin. "I can't help anyone." Another slash into another scar. "My name is Hiccup the Useless." Another slash as each one begins oozing with blood that is sweeping onto the floor. "Not a Viking; I can't do anything right." Slash after slash comes as Hiccup repeats the same monologue he's heard all his life.

After he feels like he'd punished himself enough, he lets his arms droop down as blood runs down both his arms and onto the box where the blade was. "I feel so lonely, like something is missing from me; I feel empty." He cries, covering his eyes with his hands, as the always present feeling of loneliness and sadness plagues his heart; he goes over to his work desk, pulls out a jar of ointment, and applies it to his arms that are caked in dry blood, not bothering to heal himself. "I'm never going to be anything to anyone; I'm simply too useless." He weeps as a knock on the door snaps him out of his depressed state. 

Wiping his eyes to look presentable, Hiccup makes his way down the steps and opens the door to reveal his aunt Ama, who has a basket of bread and jams.

"I figured you would be hungry after healing the wounded, so I brought this for you, " she inquired sweetly, smiling pleasantly with a heart-shaped face. 

Hiccup nods, takes the basket, and sets it on the table. He notices that she has yet to leave. "If you're waiting for my dad, he will probably be late. I'm sure he's planning another search for The Nest." He grumbles, knowing his father stands dedicated to finding and destroying the dragon's nest.

"Oh, I know he is sweetie; having been around your father for almost twenty years, I know what he does after a raid, and besides, every Viking is at the Great Hall." Ama mentions.

Without saying another word, Hiccup begins to go to his room before he stops and looks at his aunt. "Why does everyone hate me? I've never done anything to anyone except try to be myself, but everyone avoids me like plague or bullies me. I used to want to be one of you guys, a Viking with glory and honor, but now I don't. I want to be me, but I don't even know who that is. It's certainly not what my father wanted." Excuse me, barman. I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered a large boy with beefy arms, extra guts, and glory on the side. This here is a talking fishbone and a useless one at that." He explained, mimicking Stoick's voice and gesturing to himself.

Ama stood there, completely shocked by her nephew's words. While she never looked down on Hiccup, she didn't help him in situations either. She loved her sister Valka, and she thought Hiccup was a combination of both of his parents. She thought that by loving Valka, she would love Hiccup just as much. "Oh, Hiccup, that's not true. "Stoick does love you; it's hard for him to show it sometimes. He was the same way when your mom and he got married. He does know how to show love; it's just that so much has happened to him, and he's still grieving for your mother." 

Nodding, Hiccup continues to climb the stairs and reaches his room as Ama sits down and awaits her brother-in-law. 'If only he knew why Stoick was protecting him so much.' She thinks while looking out at the night sky. A few hours later, as Ama sleeps, she fails to hear the small thud outside as Hiccup jumps from his window and heads towards Raven's Point to search for the night fury.

Great Hall

Many Vikings can be heard inside the Great Hall shouting over one another as Stoick slams his ax on the map and shouts, "ENOUGH!" All this bickering doesn't solve anything; we finish them, or they finish us. There is no middle ground here. We must find the nest and destroy it and all the dragons within it; it's the only way to rid ourselves of them. And then, hopefully, they'll go to another home." Stoick explains as another place comes to mind, but he dismisses it quickly. "One more search before the ice sets in." He decides before loud groans come from the large crowd around the map on the long table.

"Those ships never come back, Stoick, and what if we run into Outcasts on the way? We'll be fighting two battles at once. And I think I can speak for everyone here when we say that we'll never partner with those betrayers." Finnr Hofferson declared, many nodding their heads in agreement.

Stoick considered that before speaking. "We're Vikings; it's an occupational hazard to face danger head-on, whether it be dragon or Viking. If we run into the outcast, we will deal with it if the situation happens. For now, go home and get your strongest weapons. Those with newborns at home or other kids must stay home. We've already lost too many parents in this war, and the next generation needs the current generation to teach them." Most Vikings still mumble about the trip, so Stoick reveals his secret weapon. "Alright, those who stay can look after Hiccup." As soon as the words left his mouth, every hand quickly rose with a loud cheer. 'Yeah, that's more like it.' He thought. "Dismissed." He announced as every Viking left to prepare for the long boat ride.

After watching all the Vikings leave the Great Hall, only Stoick and Gobber remain. "Well, guess I'll go pack my undies." He joked, downing the last of his mead. 

"No, I need you to stay and train the next generation in dragon training; sooner or later, they'll have to go out on the front lines because this war is quickly becoming their war as well." Stoick mused, wondering what his offspring was up to, knowing Hiccup was usually asleep at this time.

"Ah, great, while I do that, Hiccup can manage the shop. Lots of sharp objects, lots of time to himself, what could go wrong?" Gobber questioned, not knowing how true the statement was. 

Stoick sighed and sat down beside his best friend. "What am I going to do with him, Gobber? No matter what I do, he never does what he's supposed to do." 

Gobber's eyes gleam as an idea comes to mind. "Put him in dragon training with the others." He offers.

The chief looked at the one-arm man like he grew a second head and said, "I'm being serious, Gobber."

However, Gobber didn't back down, "So am I. Stoick, I'll be there the whole time, and I've been training recruits for years." 

Stoick glares at his second in command and shakes his head. "He'd be killed before you even let the first dragon out of its cage. He can't bear children, despite being half female; he has the attention span of a sparrow, and all of his inventions do more harm than good. I even take him out hunting, and he helps a helpless little bird and heals it when he couldn't even control his powers then." Stoick recalls the time very clearly.

Gobber chuckles at the memory. "Yeah, I remember, but we had plenty of wood from the tree damage; it kept us warm for months." He doesn't see Stoick's face pale as he recalls when Hiccup was asked to control the winter storm, and the poor boy's hands froze. "Look, Stoick, you can't protect him from everything, just like Valka and your father. 

There will come a time when he will face something you can't protect him from. Gohti saw the vision, and you and I know it's usually right when that old bag of bones sees it." He said, ignoring the glare he gets from his chief.

After a few tense moments, Stoick calms down and sighs in exhaustion. "When he brought back to life that night, I envisioned a boy who would stand by my side and see dragons like I did and take charge, be a Viking, and I love Hiccup; Odin knows I do, but the only thing I see in his future is being a stay at home Viking while his husband or wife goes out and does the hard work." Stoick sighs. "That night fury hatchling, I know it was here tonight, and Hiccup claims that he shot a night fury." He pauses, recalling what his son had said: "I did what I thought was best for Hiccup years ago, and I stand by that decision. Regardless of what Gohti said, Hiccup will never learn about that 'other world.' 

Gobber also sighed, knowing that his friend desires a 'Viking son,' but he also knew Hiccup would never be one, and he also knew that whenever Gohti had a vision, nothing could stop it. "You can't stop him. Stoick, all you can do is prepare him and maybe try showing him that you care. He pauses for a moment. I know you think what you did was right, but I'm just hoping for your sake and your relationship with your only child that this doesn't destroy the bond between you." "I'll look after him while you're gone, and so will Ama, Mandus, and Arne." Stoick nods as the Great Hall doors open, and Ama pants as she approaches her brother-in-law.

"Stoick, Hiccup is gone!" She screeched.

The Chief of Berk sighed heavily and stood up, walking past his sister-in-law. "He's probably in the woods; he goes there sometimes when he can't sleep. The rustling of the trees and the wind calms him down." Thank you for keeping an eye on him, Ama." Stoick says as he walks down the steps towards his home, the sun peaking out in the distance, signaling a new day is dawning. 

Chapter Text

Helium's Gate

The flock that came from Berk flew with the other dragons back towards The Nest, most of them wondering what became of the prince. "You think Prince Hakken is ok?" Missy, a pink and purple Nadder, asked, carrying the now dead yak in her sharp talons.

"He's a Night Fury; it'll take more than being shot out of the sky to take him out." Fireclaw, a pink and blue female Monstrous Nightmare, assured the spiky-tailed dragon. Her thoughts are on her beloved Hookfang, who Vikings captured, as she carries a young yak to the nest. 

All the dragons flew down into the volcano's entrance and dropped their kills, although a few stored some food away because winter was coming, and the mating season wasn't far off. 

A blue and purple dragon flew around the nest, snarling at all the lowly dragons as its narrow blue eyes scanned the entire area. As it rounded towards the highest nest, the guard noticed it was empty. "Where is Hakken?" The Skrill shrieked, spatting the black dragon's name with venom in his voice.

Missy flew forward and addressed the guard with her head bowed, "He was shot down by a human catapult and landed somewhere on land."

The lighting dragon cackled, "So the high and mighty Night Fury finally got what was coming to him; shame I would have loved the chance to strike him down like I did to those other Night Furies that day. Or even better, have The Queen devour him like his worthless dam and sire." 

All the dragons growled slowly at the mention of their late king and Queen and the insult to the brave night furies who sacrificed themselves to save the other dragons from being killed by the Red Death's guard dragons.

"Well, no matter, he's as good as dead anyway; now nothing is stopping the Queen from destroying humans and dragons and becoming the ruler of The Hidden World. Speaking of, I have orders from the Queen to head towards the central part of The Hidden World and keep those dragons in line along with the other guards." The Skrill announces but turns back to the flock before he leaves. "Oh, and by the way, the Queen is here, and she heard everything, and I smell some of the livestock within your nests, so which one will be an appetizer this morning?" He smirked as his eyes glinted with evil intentions as he flew down into the smoke. Could in-depth growls be heard? The entire flock stood paralyzed with intense fear, each wondering which would stand eaten first.

Berk

Hiccup leaped over the slight creak separating Raven Point's landscape as he scribbled out yet another spot on his map in his notebook furiously. "Ugh, the gods hate me; they bless me with their power, but yet they still hate me. Some people lose their knife or their mug. No, not me; I managed to lose an entire dragon." He grumbles with an eye roll as he smacks a low-hanging branch out of his way, only for the branch to come back and slap him in the face. He touches the spot where the branch hit and feels a trickle of blood coming from his forehead. After a quick healing spell, Hiccup looks up and sees broken trees and a trail of destruction leading to a large boulder. After peeking over the boulder, he quickly hides behind it again after seeing the Night Fury lying on the other side of the boulder.

Hakken had his eyes closed, but he was anything but asleep. He had heard human breathing and footsteps but knew they weren't significant. 'Probably a child or young adult, ' he thought as he heard a small gasp from the human and footsteps coming closer. 

The young Haddock got closer to the black dragon, and his green eyes marveled at the sight of the dragon that haunted Vikings in their sleep. He observed the bolas wrapped tightly around the dragon's limbs. "Oh wow, I did it; this fixes everything." He exclaimed excitedly, gesturing to the downed dragon as he struck a pose by placing his foot on the dragon's side, "I have brought down this mighty beast." He adds, only for the said dragon to move and shove Hiccup's foot off him. He approached the dragon's face and observed two toxic green orbs staring at him. The black in them slit into fine lines as the dragon's breathing could stand heard from his snout. Hiccup's eyebrows rose as he suddenly felt drawn toward this majestic beast, but he quickly shook his head, grabbed his small knife, and held it out before him. He pulled his brows together in determination. "I'm going to kill you, dragon; I'm going to cut out your heart and take it to my father. I'm a Viking. I'm a Viking!" He shouted the last part, almost as if trying to convince himself more than the dragon.

The midnight dragon observed the scrawny human and saw the most interesting forest-green eyes he'd ever seen. ' Somehow I don't believe that he's a Viking; otherwise, he would've just run that knife through my side already.' he thought as he observed the slim human lift the dagger over his head. Hakken decided that if he was going to die, then he didn't want to see it coming as he laid his head on the ground and closed his eyes, a low moan coming from his lips.

Hiccup saw this, and he hesitated. ' Do it, and you'll finally get everyone's acknowledgment from your dad.' A little voice told him, but another was louder: 'He needs you, and you need him.' The louder voice spoke. He shook his head, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, but then he opened his eyes as a slight tug made itself known and gave him pause. Looking down, he realized the dragon was trembling a little, almost as if he were afraid. 'He's just like me, all alone and frightened in this world .' As Hiccup looked at the trembling being, he realized he had seen himself. "I did this." His voice dripped with guilt as he dropped the dagger and staggered back.

Hakken could practically smell the guilt from the slender human as he suddenly felt the ropes around his limbs becoming significantly looser. He pounced on the fearful human boy when his forearms and hindlegs were free. He stared down at the human as ferocious toxic green eyes met forest green terrified eyes, and at that moment, Hakken felt a tug on his heart like before, and a little memory tried to come to mind. ' Those eyes look familiar, but where have I seen them?' He thought as he lifted his head and let out an ear-piercing roar in the human's face. As soon as he ceased his roar, Hakken took off into the forest but kept crashing into trees, his wails and roars echoing deep into the forest. 

The terrified human lay on the ground floor, panting heavily, trying desperately to process what had just occurred. 'What was that? It felt like a tug or something.' He thinks to himself as he shakily rises to his feet, only to collapse as the adrenaline runs out of him and he passes out. After a few hours, Hiccup woke up to see that night had fallen. "Oh no, Dad's going to kill me." He panicked as he quickly found healing herbs and Horehound and dashed back to his house. Once he entered the village, he snuck past the night guard up to his home and quietly sneaked past his father, who was poking at the fire, staring into the burning embers. He halfway made the stairs before hearing his father address him and froze. "Dad, I'm sorry I'm so late." 

"Where were you, Hiccup?" Stoick gruffed, still not looking at his offspring.

"Oh, I was out getting herbs for Gohti and some Horehound, since winter is coming soon and a lot of Vikings get sick because of the cold, myself included." Hiccup lied as he showed the plants to his sire as he went to put them in his knapsack with the Berk crest on it. 

The Chief nodded in acknowledgment before sighing heavily, "Hiccup, I need to speak with you about something." He says his eyes were soft, and a little glint of hope shone within them.

Hiccup was shocked. "Actually, there's something I want to talk to you about too." He admitted it nervously, looking down at the floor.

At the same time, both of them confessed, "I think it's time you learn to fight dragons." "I don't want to fight dragons." "What?" They both yelled at the same time again.

Stoick decided to start, "Alright, you get your wish; dragon training you start tomorrow first thing in the morning." 

The green-eyed boy paled as his orbs widened in shock. "Oh, I knew I should've gone first. I mean, when you think about it, dad, we have more than enough dragon-killing Vikings, and you always did say that I was meant to be a stay-at-home Viking and let my spouse handle the harsh jobs." Hiccup gestured with his hands in front of him. 

Stoick nodded in agreement. "Aye, that is true, but I've thought about it and I realized that if your spouse is killed in battle, you'll need a way to defend yourself, and besides, Gobber will be in charge of training. So deal?" 

Hiccup tried to protest, but his father handed him a battle ax that was too big for the small boy to hold, and he almost collapsed under its weight. "It's time you stop being all 'this, ' " he said, pointing to his son's petite form.

"You just gestured to all of me." Hiccup deadpanned with an eye roll, feeling like a broken record.

"Deal?" The red-bearded Viking asked with a little more force this time.

Realizing this was a one-sided conservation, Hiccup nodded, closed his eyes, and nodded, "Deal."

Stoick nods in approval, throws a large basket filled with food over his shoulder, and grabs his helmet and favorite ax. "I'm going out in search of the nest once more before the ice sets in. Ama, Arne, Gobber, and your other aunts will come by often to check on you. Train hard, and I'll be back, probably." With that, Stoick opens the door and heads out.

As the door closes, Hiccup sighs and drops the ax. "And I'll be here, maybe." He mutters as he goes to do the dishes, his thoughts racing about the night fury. 'It could've ended me right then and there, yet it didn't.' He thought as he remembered the features of the black dragon—the beautiful markings over black scales, those powerful muscles that moved when it breathed, its toxic green eyes that pierced his soul. Hiccup had to admit the dragon looked handsome. He dropped a bowl at that thought, which shattered at his feet, but he paid it no mind. "What am I even thinking? How could I even think that about a dragon? There's no way a dragon and a human can be together." He chuckles, but it's hollow as another thought comes to mind, and his eyes become misty with tears. "Even if it were possible, there's no way a powerful dragon such as a night fury would want a useless nobody like me." He cried as a few loose tears made their way down his face. He went over and grabbed the broom to sweep up the bowl. Afterward, he puts out the rest of the fire and heads to bed. He trades his day clothes for his night clothes, long PJs with light brown buttons in the front to the chest, and PJ pants that go down to his feet. Before falling asleep, he looks out towards the sky. A lone tear falls from his eye. "I just want to be important to someone," he whispers sadly as he speaks a protection spell over his house: "hlíf." However, the combination of being up all the previous night and all day, as well as the spell itself, zaps a lot of the young boy's energy, and he's out before his head hits the pillow.

The next Morning

The next morning was a cloudy day. Hiccup slowly woke up and remembered what had started Today: "Dragon training." He groans as he changes out of his long-sleeved pajamas and changes into his green tunic with his brown-furred vest and a pair of brown pants with brown boots. He drags his feet down the steps as he goes over, grabs an apple, and heads outside and down towards the docks where his father has been all night, ensuring everything is ready for the trip. 

"Listen, Snotlout, I need you to begin repairing the damage to our house since your older brother is going on the search." Spitelout tells his second oldest son.

A scruffy teenager with black hair, a black vest over a stitching tunic, and a helmet with silver sheep horns groans at the thought of working. "It's not my fault if anything." He pauses when he notices his cousin walking towards the docks. "If anything, it's a useless fault; he didn't stay where he was supposed to." He sneers at the young Haddock.

"Yes, Snotlout, I was supposed to stay in the burning house and watch it burn around me." HIccup countered sarcastically, only for Snotlout to approach him and knock Hiccup off balance.

"It's your fault, and don't get into an attitude with me just because you're going to be in dragon training and you supposedly shot down a Night Fury. Admit it, you made up the story for attention." Snotlout accused fiercely as he walked past his cousin and headed towards the arena. 

Hiccup flinched and trembled, expecting to stand beaten again as he remained on the ground, knowing he'd end up back down as the ship's captain called for the Chief. He looked up and noticed that his father didn't even notice he was there as he boarded the boat, as did other Viking men and a few women. There were cheers and waves of goodbye as Hiccup sighed sadly, returned to his house, grabbed the ax, or hauled it to the arena, where he heard the capture dragons' growls. The arena smelled of death as there was old, splattered blood on the ground and walls. There were also multiple scorch marks all over the walls and even a few helmets from Vikings who didn't survive the training. He also heard the other teens about getting a scar." Yeah, no kidding, pain, love it." Hiccup responded sarcastically as he hobbled into the arena and saw a girl with a petite form, blonde hair parted partly over her eye, and blue eyes as blue as the sky itself. A husky boy with a smaller Viking helmet with small horns, blonde hair, and a brown tunic. Two teens who, at first glance, looked identical except for their voice, as one was a boy and the other was a girl with long pigtails and Snotlout, all sides glancing at him with scornful eyes.

"Oh great, who let the screw up in here?" Tuffnut asked in disgust as Gobber hobbled in behind Hiccup.

"Ah great, you're all here." Gobber beamed until he noticed Dogsbreath, another young adult male with fiery red hair and brown eyes named Sid, and another male with brown hair and brown eyes named Finner all standing beside the wall. "What are you three doing here? You're supposed to be helping the village repair the houses from the raid." He pointed out.

Dogsbreath smirked, his brown eyes zoned in on Hiccup. "But we wanted to be a part of dragon training as well; we're older than them, so shouldn't we be able to partake in training as well?"

"Hey, can I transfer to the cool class?" Tuffnut asked, pointing towards the older teens with excitement bouncing in his eyes. 

"You already went through dragon training, and last I checked, you failed the first time." Gobber reminded the trio, "You must go outside the arena and only watch." He instructed as the trio grumbled but complied with the order.

"Wait, Hiccup 'supposedly' killed a Night Fury, so technically, he shouldn't be allowed to participate.” Snotlout points out as Gobber leads Hiccup towards the other teens, who all step away from the young heir. 

"Don't worry, they'll go after the stronger Vikings. They'll see you as sick or deranged and go after the more experienced teens." He tries to reassure his godson as Gobber heads towards the front. 

These next few weeks, we'll learn about the few species behind these cages, The Deadly Nadder." Gobber began to name off.

"Speed eight. Armor eighteen." Fishlegs mutters to himself, becoming increasingly excited as his eyes grow wide with awe. 

"The Hideous Zippleback." Gobber continued.

"Plus eleven stealth, times two." 

"The monstrous nightmare." 

"Firepower fifteen." 

"The Terrible Terror."

"Attack eight, Venom twelve."

Gobber decided he had enough of Fishlegs ranting and yelled, "CAN YOU STOP THAT?"

After calming down, Gobber moves the last dragon, "And finally, the Gronkle."

Fishlegs bites his lip nervously before he whispers to himself. "Jaw strength, eight." Hiccup rolls his eyes at the husky Vikings' lack of ability to stay quiet.

Gobber opens the cage containing the Gronkle as Snotlout pales a little; his eyes widen with realization, "Wait, aren't you going to teach us first?"

Hiccup giggles a little at the question and crosses his arms over his chest. "Oh, Gobber has a very effective way of teaching," he and Gobber say simultaneously. I believe in learning on the job." As Gobber pulls the lever down, a brownish-red adult Gronkles with medium-sized wings and a body about as long as a small wooden ship stands revealed.

Each teen quickly moves in every direction. "Today's lesson is about survival. You never know when one of these beasts will sneak attack; what's the first thing you need?" Gobber questions.

"A doctor." Hiccup answered loudly, his voice trembling like a leaf about to fall in autumn weather.

"Ew, no way I'm letting a useless thing like you heal me." Astrid was insulted, disgusted by the thought of the weakling healing her. "A shield," she answered, and Gobber nodded.

Astrid dove and somersaulted; as she grabbed the shield off the ground, the Gronkle fired at her but missed.

Hiccup goes to grab a shield but struggles to lift it. "Hey, come one runt, get in there and give us some action." Sid chackled.

Gobber helps Hiccup with his shield and then sends him into the battle. "Your shield is your most important piece of equipment, " he says as he notices the twins fighting over a shield. "Get in there, you two, or I'll have you scrub the barns for a week, " he yells.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut continue about the shield until Gronkle shoots a lava blast at them, knocking them out of the first test.

"My first victim of the day." Meatlug growls, her narrow eyes scanning the battlefield as she continues to fly around, waiting for the next teen to be distracted. 

"I knew one if not both of those idiot twins would be out first." Dogsbreath commented, and the other two agreed.

"Those shields are good for another thing: noise, and lots of it causes the dragons to become confused, and their aim becomes off.” Gobber explains as the remaining teens begin banging on their shields, causing the Gronkle to falter mid-flight and shake its head furiously.

Make it stop; the ringing is deafening; when did these tiny humans multiply?" The female Gronkle whined as the banging penetrated her brain, and her vision blurred.

"Wait, all dragons have a shot limit, and the Gronkle has six," Fishlegs exclaimed loudly, unaware that he had made himself a target for the approaching dragon.

"Correct, that's one for each of you," Gobber smirked as Meatlug launched a fire blast at Fishlegs, knocking him out of the contest. "Fishlegs out!" He yelled as Fishlegs whined before quickly running for cover as the dragon circled. Gobber notices his godson cowering behind some barrels. Hiccup, get in there!" He ordered the young Haddock.

Astrid raised her shield, hiding her ax behind it, as she heard movement to her right. She quickly turned her gaze to see Snotlout sneaking up beside her. "My dad put me in charge of repairing my house. You should come by sometime and help. You'd work up a sweat and see all my muscles when I work," he said, attempting to flirt, utterly unaware of the glowing blast above him. It was too late when his shield stood blown to pieces.

"Snorlout's out." Gobber announced as Dogsbreath whistles.

"I could give you some pointers because that out there was the worst attempt at a flirt I've ever seen, Snotty." He chuckled as Snotlout winced at being called out.

Only Hiccup and Astrid remain as they slowly back into one another, and Astrid, believing it's the dragon, yells and brings her ax out, only to realize it's only Hiccup. "Do you mind I'm trying to win here? Some of us take this seriously, so go stand somewhere else." She orders, and her blue orbs burn with anger as she kicks his shield away, causing it to start rolling.

Hiccup suddenly feels exposed and quickly goes after his shield, as Gronkle sees movement and begins to follow. As Hiccup grabs his shield, he stands pinned between the wall and the heavy body of the dragon. He begins to hyperventilate, his watery eyes looking to and fro for an exit as he remembers being pinned by the night fury. The dragon's hot breath falls over Hiccup's trembling form, entirely petrified by the situation.  

Meatlug sniffs the air and smells the human scent but also the faint scent of another, a dragon. "This smells like a Night Fury, but that's impossible. Hookfang said he was shot down." She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice Gobber coming and yanking her away from his apprentice. She tries to shoot off her last blast, but it goes above Hiccup's head as Gobber leads her back to her cell. 

"Sloppy all of you, meet me at the Great Hall this evening, and we'll go over what went wrong in this training; until then, go help out in the village and remember the first thing: A dragon will always." Gobber pauses, sternly looking down at Hiccup. Always go for the kill.” The teens and those who observed went to help with repairs as Hiccup looked towards the cage containing the Gronkle and other dragons. Then he remembered the Night Fury as the sun began to peek through the sky, and Hiccup quickly got to his feet and ran to the forest.

Meatlug sighed as she made herself comfortable, well, as relaxed as one could be inside a cell that smelled of dead dragons and dragon shit. "Hookfang, I thought you said the Night Fury was killed."She asked the Nightmare, who was right beside her cell.

Hookfang snorted, "I said the prince was shot down by that scrawny human you were about to blast to smitterns."

"Well, I smelled the scent of a Night Fury on that particular human, but there was no blood smell, so perhaps the prince is still alive on this island." Meatlug warbled.

"Maybe the prince will come and set us free, though I'd much rather find somewhere else to live than go back to the Queen's nest and be a slave and wait for the day she decides to eat me." Stormfly, a blue and yellow Nadder, squealed from within her cell. 

All the dragons wince as they recall their previous lives under the rule of the Red Death and the many dragons they remembered being killed by her for not bringing enough food for her. They all begin to think about the missing prince and this interesting little human, Hiccup.

Forest mid-day

 As Hiccup returns to where he found the downed dragon, he recalls Gobber's words: A dragon will always go for the kill. "So why didn't you?" As he picks up the bola, he questions why the most lethal dragons didn't kill him. He continues walking forward and notices more tree damage, leading to The Cove. Hiccup finds a small hidden entrance to a high ledge above the quiet little land. "Well, this was stupid; that dragon is probably long gone now." He grumbles as he notices a small black scale lying on the ground of the little cave. As Hiccup goes to pick it up, a powerful gust of wind knocks him over, and a black blur scales the walls just above him in an attempt to get out of the cove. 

Hakken scratches and desperately clings to the rock but slips again and lands on the cool grass. He tries yet again to fly, but it's completely off balance, and he falls to the ground again, firing off a few frustrated blasts. "One more time, maybe with a running start." He says as he takes a few steps back, runs full speed, and leaps into the air, only to tumble right back to the ground and skid to a halt right in front of the little lake within the cove. "I haven't eaten in days; maybe that's why I can't fly." He tries to grab a fish that floats right in front of him, but it quickly swims away, and he moans a little, his stomach growling a little. 

The lean human watches the scene unfold, quickly brings out his notebook, and quickly draws the night fury, but as he observes, he wonders, "Why don't you just fly away?" He asks as he notices one of the back tail fins on the dragon is missing. 'Oh Gods, I took away his flight when I shot him down.' Hiccup realized as he felt instantly guilty. He was so caught up in his guilt that he didn't even know he had set his charcoal pen down until he saw it roll down the ledge and onto the grassy bottom of the cove, something that didn't go unnoticed by the black dragon.

Hakken looks up and sees the young human kneeling on the rocky ledge with mesmerizing green eyes. Again, he smells immense guilt from the human, stirring the dragon's protective instincts. 'What about this human draws me to him so much, and why do I feel like I know him?' These thoughts swirl within the dragon's mind as he senses something else about the boy: 'Could this boy be connected to a legend I've always heard about within the nest? He's not like other Vikings, so it's possible. He's also beautiful. The young night fury thinks as he sees the human tilt his head to the side, and Hakken mimics the motion. 

Hiccup feels drawn to the dragon again and is surprised that the dragon copies his head movement again. Hiccup observes how handsome the black dragon looks when suddenly the sun disappears behind storm clouds, and rain begins to sprinkle but quickly turns to a pour. Hiccup looks back and sees the dragon has disappeared. Hiccup returns through the cave entrance and heads back to the village, unaware that toxic green eyes are watching him leave and tug on his heart, urging him to turn back around. 

Chapter Text

As Hiccup rushed into the village, the night sky lit up with thunder as rain poured down, soaking the young heir from head to toe as he ran up the Great Hall steps. As he enters the slightly open door, he notices that all the teens from training are sitting at a long rectangular table with cups in front of each of them and empty plates. 

The young haddock goes over to the chef, who happens to be his aunt Arne tonight, and quietly asks for a chicken leg and a cup of water. Arne looks down and sees her nephew. Her brown eyes widen in shock at the sight before her. "Goodness, Hiccup, you’re soaked to the bone. You need to go home and get a change of clothes; do you need to stay at our house tonight?” She asked, but Hiccup shook his head and simply took the plate that stood offered and his cup and tried to sit at the table with the rest of the teens, but Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Ruffnut blocked all possible seats. He then tried to sit by Fishlegs, but the husky teen scooted as far away from the lean teen as possible, so he sat at the vacant table by himself, used to the loneliness and rejection.

“Now then, as I said earlier, sloppy work today, and I expect better, so now I want to know where did Ruffnut and Tuffnut go wrong?” Gobber questioned.

"Um, to be fair, we were the first ones to get blasted, and look," Tuffnut announced as he showed off the burnt mark on his lower back from the lava blast. ”

Snotlout snorted with an eye roll, “You probably just got that from tipping over yaks again.” 

Ruffnut smirked and decided to pinch the mark to cause pain to her twin, causing Tuffnut to yell. Before a fight could break out between the twins, Gobber separated them.

“You can kill each other on your own time; I expect you to try next time at least, or else you’ll be bathing every elderly Viking on every bath day for a month.” He threatened as the Throston twins paled, and their eyes went round with horror at the thought. “Now then, where did Astrid go wrong?” He continued as he eyed the blond shield maiden.”

“I mistimed my somersault dive; it was sloppy, and it threw off my reverse tumble,” Astrid admitted hard as she slammed her cup down hard onto the table.

Snotlout quickly flew over to Astrid’s side and grabbed one of her hands in his. "No, you were fine, beautiful as always; it was so Astrid, if anything; it was Hiccup’s fault because he was distracting you by being there.” He said as he glared hard at his cousin, and the shield maiden shoved him off her. 

“No, she’s right, you need to be tough on yourself. It's the only way to sharpen your skills because the dragons are tough, but you must be tougher. Now then, speaking of Hiccup, where did he go wrong?” Gobber asked, side-glancing at his Godson.

Hiccup tensed up, expecting the worst. "Um, he showed up and got chased by a gronkle.” Ruffnut chuckled, thinking the idea was funny.

“He didn’t get eaten, and he didn’t get a scar from the ordeal.” Tuffnut chimed in as Hiccup rubbed his arm a little, thinking about the scars that lingered up and down his arms and those on other parts of his body.

“He’s never where he’s supposed to be, always in the way, and never trying to better himself.” Astrid commented as Hiccup shrank into himself.

Thunder was heard outside the Great Hall as Gobber threw down a large, old book that contained ancient Norse on the cover that said ‘The Book of Dragons.’ “Bork made this book from his travels 300 years ago; he studied dragons, lived with them, and breathed them. Every dragon known to man is right here, and Borg even wrote descriptions of each one.” He explained as he hurried the book onto the middle of the table, and all the occupants stared at it. “Study up and then go home because tomorrow is the weekly bath day, and we need your youngins to help with the water.” He says as he walks out of the Great Hall.

Hiccup looks at the book as all the other teens quickly move away from him and leave the Great Hall. Snotlout runs into the rain, shouting, “NO BATHE DAY!” Hiccup slowly opens the book and begins to look over each class of dragons, from Stroker class to Boulder class, even the mysterious class.

“Burns its victims, buries its victims, chokes its victims. Extremely dangerous, extremely dangerous. Kill on site, kill on site.” Each page had a different dragon’s picture, and the way the dragon on the page would kill its victims ranged from a whispering death to a Thyphoonerang, even a skull. Forest green eyes scanned over each piece of information until Hiccup came upon a blank page with the name ‘Night Fury’ written at the top. “Speed’ unknown. Size: unknown. The unholy offspring of Lightning and Death itself. Never engage this dragon; you only hope it doesn’t find you.” Hiccup read as a loud crackling of lighting echoed throughout the empty hall as the young teen jumped in fright, thinking it was the night fury. “I’m sure if he wanted to kill me, he would’ve already done it by now.” He mused as he pulled out his wet notebook; thankfully, only the first two pages were moist and unimportant. He turned to the picture of the black dragon and placed it on top of the blank place in the dragon book. “What is it about this dragon that makes him so interesting, and what’s more, why am I so drawn to him? I should stay as far away from him as possible, but I keep feeling this pull towards him.” Hiccup questions as he looks at his drawing and remembers that the night fury only has one tailfin because of him. 

He shakes his head and realizes that he needs sleep for tomorrow, knowing that Gobber won’t be easy to convince to bathe, as he packs up his notebook and blows out the candles as he runs outside only to see his second oldest cousin running through the prominent village street butt naked with a bar of soap in his hand. Hiccup quickly covers his eyes, not wanting to see Snotlout’s birthday suit, and runs to his house. After casting a protection spell over his home, he takes off his clothes only to see a little bit of blood on his leg. “Ah, great, my moon cycle is here.” Hiccup groaned, rolling his eyes as he cleaned the blood, put on his dark black pajamas, and laid down. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out like a candle.

Helium’s Gate entrance A few days later

Stoick walked out to the ship's helm as it floated in front of the entrance to Hellium’s Gate, his green gaze surveying the fog with a vengeance. “They're close; I can smell them,” Stoick whispered as his men prepared their weapons. A few fleet ships stayed behind while Stoick led the first attack. 

“Foourbrooir, the other ships are awaiting your orders.” A young man in his early twenties with black hair, brown eyes, and black facial hair. He wore a brown tunic with black pants and a black vest from black bear furs addressed to Stoick.

The chief of Berk nodded. “Thank you, Odis. You are always right to the point; it's just what I would expect from my first nephew.” He praised as the oldest Jorgenson nodded and waved a flag to give the go-ahead to move into the fog.

As a few long boats enter the fog bank, all is quiet until a barrage of fire blasts launches at them, causing massive holes in the floor banks, some even sinking the ships immediately.

“Fire back, release the catapults!” The fog cover conceals Stoick's orders as his launchers unleash boulders, not dragons. “Come out and fight you damn ‘DRAGONi’! He roared angrily, waving a fist in front of him as a blast landed right in the middle of his vessel, causing many of his crew to stand burned, and a few died from the impact. 

“Chief, we must retreat. They've destroyed a good portion of our boats, and we have more lifeless than alive over here.” One of the Vikings yelled out desperately as another boat stood destroyed and could hear cries of suffering.

Gritting his teeth and his large form trembling with anger, only the gods know, he growled, “Retreat, everyone, clear the bank now!” Stoick orders as he jumps down and swiftly turns the steering wheel back the way they came as fire regions down upon the retreating Vikings. Once the boats clear the fog bank, all is calm again, but the evidence suggests otherwise. Five ships went into the fog bank, but only one came back. Eighty Vikings went on the search, but only forty came out. Stoick surveys all the damage and the now deceased bodies that his fellow Vikings are fishing out of the sea, but Stoick knows that many of the bodies exist lost to the sea, and most likely the dragons. “Let us have a moment to honor the fallen, then we’ll regroup with the rest of the fleet,” Stoick says as he takes his helmet off and closes his eyes; the others follow his lead and have a moment of silence before altering course to meet up with the rest of the fleet.

Berk mid-morning

Hiccup slept longer than he intended to, as he noticed it was already midmorning when he awoke. "No, no, I overslept.” He panicked as he threw off his pajamas and quickly put on his green tunic, his hands running over his chest, and he internally sighed at his nonexistent breasts; despite being part female, he didn’t have any breasts to show for it. After putting on his brown pants, fur vest, and boots, he ran out of his house and to the arena mentally, thanking the gods that his moon cycle wasn’t causing problems and that today was the last day of it. The last few days had been busy; between bath day, working in the blacksmith shop, and dealing with one raid, Hiccup had every reason to be tired. He rushed into the arena and saw several tall dividers set up as a maze. "Um, Gobber, what is going on?” He questioned, his gaze swept over the dividers, looking at them warily as Gobber exited the maze.

“You’ll see when the rest of the class gets here; by the way, are you ok after what happened with the gronkle?” Gobber asked, leading Hiccup toward the front of the maze.

“I’m fine, no real harm, but um, I wanted to ask you about something.” Hiccup begins, only to be silenced when he hears the rest of the teens enter the arena.

“Ah good, you’re all here and ready for the next test. Now everyone, get your weapons and shields and head into the maze.” Gobber instructed.

“Wait, what’s in the maze?” Snotlout questioned as he went to get the requested tools.

Gobber didn’t answer; instead, he pulled a lever and quickly left the arena after the door shut close, as a blue and yellow Deadly Nadder roared and jumped onto the top of the dividers as the teens quickly rushed to different parts of the maze and tried to hide in corners behind their shields.

Hiccup went to the wall facing Gobber, who was leaning over the side of the bars surrounding the arena. “You know, I noticed the book of Dragons had nothing on Night Fury; is there a sequel or maybe a little Night Fury pamphlet or something?” Hiccup wondered until the nadder shot a fire blast right where Hiccup was standing, and he dove to the ground.

“Focus, Hiccup, you’re not even trying!” The older blacksmith scolds his godson, but his thoughts race: ‘He’s beginning to question night furies; is Gohti’s spell beginning to break? If so, Stoick is going to be furious.’ “ Today’s lesson is about attack. Deadly Nadders are light on their feet; your job is to be quicker and lighter.” He informed the trainees as the Nadder hopped from one wall to another, trying to pinpoint the humans’s locations. 

“Meatlug was right; these humans never stand still for more than five minutes.” Stormflysquealedd as she came down into the maze, bringing her wings close to her body, and began walking through the labyrinth; the black in her gold orbs stood slit like a twig.

Fishlegs whimpers as he looks up at Gobber. “I’m beginning to question your teaching methods.” He shouts as he looks to it and fro nervously. 

Hiccup rolls his eyes. ‘You think this is bad? Try training for Thawfest with Gobber; this is a breeze compared to that.’ He thinks as he remembers the many training sessions. 

“Look for the blind spot; every dragon has one,” Gobber informs the humans as Stormfly leans down and sniffs the air. She doesn’t see the twins right in front of her, but thanks to her big snout, she can’t see them.

“I smell them, but I don’t see them anywhere.” Stormfly whines a little.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut stand directly in front of the blue dragon, with Ruffnut in front of her brother. She gags silently at the odor coming from her twin, "Ugh, do you ever bathe?” She murmurs as she and her twin move with the dragon’s head, trying to stay in the blind spot.

“Me, you must be smelling yourself, and for the record, I bathed twice this week.” Tuffnut countered,

Ruffnut whipped around and grabbed at her twin, and a fight broke out between them, moving them out of the blind spot and in sight of Stormfly. ‘I swear these two never stop fighting; they're worse than newborn hatchlings.’ She thought as she blasted their shields, knocking them out of training.

“Blind spot yes, deaf spot eh, not so much.” Gobber mumbles dismissively. 

Hiccup runs through the maze until he runs into Astrid and Snotlout, hiding behind their shields, “Hiccup.” Astrid whispers as she and Snotlout gesture with their shields for Hiccup to lower to the ground, which the young heir does. The shieldmaiden and younger Jorgenson then do somersaults, keeping their shields in front of them, as Hiccup tries to do the same but instead falls flat on his back, his shield making a loud clanking noise, alerting the nadder of his presence.

Stormfly goes to blast the young heir but hesitates when a familiar scent hits her nostrils. ‘I know that scent; it’s faint, but there’s no mistake; it’s Prince Hakken’s scent.’ She thinks the moment allows Snotlout to throw his ax at the distracted dragon, but it misses when it lands on the ground. The object causes Stormfly to focus again and give chase to the humans once again, destroying the maze in the process.

Hiccup runs to avoid being trampled by the falling dividers until he sees Astrid flying towards him with her ax raised and a panicked expression on her features. He tries to run, but it’s too late, and her ax gets caught in his shield. 

"You, unless muttonhead, look what happened; hold still.” She grumbles as she tries to dislodge her weapon from the shield, causing pain to Hiccup in the process. As she presses on his shoulder blade, her furious blue eyes glare down at his pain-filled forest green ones.

“Wait, Astrid, just let me help.” Hiccup pleads as he raises his hand, and a low blue light shines as he moves towards the ax to break it, but Astrid growls.

“Don’t you dare break my ax!” She shrieks, glaring daggers at the young blacksmith, but Hiccup doesn’t listen and mutters the spell, ' Brjota, ’ and the ax breaks at the handle. Hiccup’s hand ceases to glow as he points behind Astrid to tell her the nadder is coming. Still, Astrid glares at the heir, take his shield, and throws it directly at the nadder, knocking the dragon upside the head, making Stormfly whimper in pain as she hobbles back to her pin, and Gobber lowers the door on the injured dragon.

“Well done, Astrid.” Gobber praises Astrid as he rounds about and grabs Hiccup by the collar of his tunic.

“Is this some kind of joke to you or something? We’re not little kids anymore, and our parents' war is quickly becoming our war. What do you enjoy screwing up? Do you enjoy all the destruction?” She yells at Hiccup, her blue eyes blazing with fury, that it causes the other trainees to back up to the farthest wall.

Hiccup leans at her and shoves her hand off; his hands clench at the sides, and anger wells up in his chest. "Yes, Astrid, I love healing open chest wounds and breaking and healing bones from Vikings who fought in battle. I love the smell of roasted flesh as I try to salvage as much living tissue as possible. I love torturing Vikings while I heal their injuries and going home with blood caked onto my clothes and skin, and I love pushing myself to the brink of exhaustion with protection spells and healing all of you when you get injured in this war.” He remarks, his voice full of sarcasm, as he shoves her aside and walks out of the arena, ignoring the looks of shock from the twins and his cousin and Fishlegs, the angry stare from Astrid, and the sigh from Gobber. 

The younger Haddock goes to his house towards the ice box and grabs a fish from it, knowing he’ll have to replace it later. He holds an old shield from Gobber’s shop and heads towards the forest. Once he reaches the entrance to the cove, he notices the dragon is nowhere to be seen. "Huh, where did he go? I know he can't fly away.” He says as the guilt twists inside his heart, knowing he's why the night fury couldn't escape. As he walks down the smooth path leading to a pile of rocks, Hiccup tries to go through an opening, but his shield gets caught between the stones. Sighing, he goes under the shield and tries to dislodge it, but it's stuck good, so he leaves it, walks to the center of the cove with his now warm fish, and looks all around for any sign of the dragon. 

Unbeknownst to Hiccup, Hakken had been sleeping behind a large, tall boulder that cast a shadow where the night fury could easily blend into until he smelled a human scent and instantly became alert as the scent came closer. He slowly crawled up the boulder and lowered so that his underside grazed the smoothness of the boulder as he watched Hiccup make his way into the cove. ‘This little human looks and smells familiar, but I can't understand why.’ Hakken thought as Hiccup turned his back to the black dragon, and Hakken decided to move in. He quietly sneaked down the boulder and crotched down, growling to get the human's attention.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as Hiccup slowly turned around, and he gasped, seeing the night fury right in front of him. He holds the fish out in front of him with a trembling hand; his entire body is also trembling a little as the dragon takes a few towards the handout only to see a sparkle from Hiccup’s side and back away, growling. Realizing that the dragon saw his dagger, Hiccup removes the weapon and drops it on the ground. However, the dragon stands down and motions with his head for the young heir to toss said weapon into the lagoon. Once the danger was gone, the dragon relaxed, and his eyes went from slit to round orbs. He approached Hiccup cautiously and opened his mouth while looking at the fish. “Huh, Toothless, I could’ve sworn you had.” Hiccup observed before white, sharp teeth popped out of the dragon’s gums, and he swiftly grabbed the fish and gulped it down in one bite. “Teeth.” Hiccup finished quietly.

Haaken leaned closer to the tiny human as it backed up to a small rock, and he sat on the ground floor. “I don’t have anymore.” He heard the human stutter as Hakken saw his small frame trembling harder, and he also noticed the green in the human boy’s eye, which showed he was afraid the dragon would hurt him. Deciding the human must be hungry considering his frail form, and as a sign of ‘no harm,’ Hakken regurgitated half of the eaten fish, barfed it onto the human’s lap, and then moved away from the scared human. 

Hiccup looked at the half-eaten fish body that the dragon had just barfed up with a creased brow, and disgust and confusion danced in his eyes, and he had to admit it was slimy and gross and reeked of dragon breath. He looked at the night fury and noticed the dragon motioning its head so Hiccup could eat the fish. ‘He can’t mean he wants me to eat this; that’s disgusting.’ He thinks as he takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, brings the smelly fish to his mouth, and takes a small bite. 'Oh, it’s so slimy, and I taste dragon saliva on it.’ All Hiccup’s thoughts scream as he shows the dragon he ate the fish but groans when the dragon makes a swallowing noise, showing he wants Hiccup to swallow the bite. Breathing through his nose, Hiccup slowly swallows the bite and feels the slimy piece of salvia-covered fish down his throat as he covers his mouth, feeling vomit coming up his throat, but he swallows both fish and as he shakes his head a little in disgust but smiles a little at the midnight dragon.

The black dragon looks at the human’s facial expression as he notices the human showing all his teeth; usually, when a dragon bares their teeth, it’s a sign of aggression or threat, but Hakken observes that he doesn’t smell any danger with this tiny human. However, he notices the human lift his hand as if to touch Hakken, which he sees as a threat as the dragon bares his teeth, flees to the other side of the cove, burns the ground underneath him in a circle, and then proceeds to lay down. 

Hiccup sighs sadly, thinking he made the dragon mad, as he goes over to the lagoon, reaches into the water, and grabs at the dagger. “Just another mistake by Hiccup the Useless; not even a night fury wants you around.” He says as he slashes at his arms a couple of times. After punishing himself, he goes over and sits on a rock, picks up a stick, and begins to draw in the dirt. He starts with a circle and then adds ears and a snout.

Hakken's nose detected the smell of blood, and his ears perked up as he followed the scent to a human in the cove holding a dagger. Quietly approaching the seated human, Hakken noticed a drawing resembling him and thought, "He's talented ." He observed that the human's green skin was coated in blood and wondered if the human had cut himself. The human froze up upon realizing that Hakken was behind him.

The fragile human stiffened when the musky scent of the night fury came right next to him, and he had to admit it was an intoxicating smell. Still, it was short-lived as the dragon went and got a branch from a nearby tree and began drawing in the dirt, occasionally almost hitting Hiccup in the head, until after a few minutes, he stood finished. Hiccup saw that it looked like many scribbles in the dirt as he accidentally stepped on one of the lines, causing the dragon to snarl at him. Hiccup decided to test a theory and moved his foot, earning a coo from the calm dragon. He decided to repeat the process and was met with a snarl until he took his foot off the drawing. After finding a rhythm around the drawing, Hiccup walks almost like he is dancing, making sure he doesn’t touch the lines; occasionally, he looks up at the black dragon and smiles until the little route takes directly before a black snout.

On the outside, Hakken’s eyes show interest, but his thoughts are racing: ‘He just did a mating dance, and not just a mating dance but a night fury.’ He recalls the night furies from the nest doing the same ritual long ago. ‘Unfortunately, we’re not mates until I mark him, and I believe neither he nor I am ready for that yet; I would like to know more about this boy, especially since he feels the need to cause himself pain.’ Hakken decides as he notices the little human extending his hand towards Hakken’s snout, and a memory comes to mind of another human, a more miniature human placing his tiny paw on Hakken’s snout, ‘No way this can’t be the same little human from that time.’ His mind plays out the memory as the little teen turns away from the dragon with his hand still extended. Hakken debates whether or not to believe the thoughts in his head and whether the little human can still hurt him. Hakken eventually pushes his snout into the palm of the tiny human, and he instantly feels a spark the moment they touch.

When he felt the dry snout pressed into his hand, Hiccup was shocked and recoiled, staring at the black dragon. "Um, whoa.” He mutters as he feels something in his mind break away and a few memories return. “Wait, you’re the baby dragon that came to my home eight years ago.” Hiccup pointed out as Hakken nodded. “I remember we were playing, and then something happened, but I can’t remember what, do you?” Hiccup asks, but Hakken shakes his head no. Hiccup sighs, a little frustrated that he can’t remember, but decides to set it aside for now. So, um, can I give you a name since you already know mine or not? It doesn’t matter.” He mutters, looking at the ground in defeat, but to his surprise, the Night Fury lifts his head with its tail and nods at the name suggestion.

‘Since we can’t communicate properly, I can’t tell him my real name, so if it makes him feel better, he can name me for now.’ Hakken thinks as he practically smells the negative emotions rolling off Hiccup, which awakens his protective instincts. He heard the name Toothless, and he had to admit it was kind of strange, but after thinking about it, he nodded in approval, and a little flutter in his heart appeared as he witnessed Hiccup jumping up and down like a tiny hatchling who just got the biggest fish from the pile. ‘ Glad I could make him smile and happy,’ Hakken thought. 

Hiccup looked at the tailfin and reached out to touch it, only for Hakken to pull it back, showing with his eyes that it still hurt from the fall. “I can heal it; I can’t heal the actual tailfin, but the scar, although I don’t want to cause you any more pain than I already have.” He whimpers, looking at the ground again, but his head is lifted again by said tailfin, and a coo stands, heard by the dragon. Nodding in acceptance, Hiccup’s hand glows blue, and he places it on the scars. He runs his fingers over the warm skin and speaks, ‘Hell, Fla.' The wounds slowly healed with only a few grunts of pain from Hakken. “There, all done.” Hiccup beamed before his eyes widened in realization of what he had just done. “I just healed a dragon; what’s my dad going to think or Gobber? This isn’t supposed to happen; we’re supposed to be enemies, but I." Hiccup fretted as Hakken brushed his newly healed tail under the distressed boy’s chin in a soothing motion and cooed softly. The distressed boy slowly calmed down, almost leaning into the touch, enjoying comfort he'd never lived exposed to in his young life. 

‘He always smells of guilt and shame; while he did shoot, he acted as mediator. I can no longer hear the Queen’s voice inside my mind. I can finally have my thoughts for once, and my thoughts are telling me I need to comfort him because something has happened to Hiccup since we last met, but I’ll wait until he’s ready to talk about it, and I’m sure he’ll come back here.’ Hakken thought as he felt the boy relax under his touch. Hakken also noticed that the sun was going down, and Hiccup probably had a sire and dam to return to. Though a small part of Hakken wanted the boy to stay, he reluctantly ushered Hiccup towards the smooth slope he used to enter the cove. He heard Hiccup promise that he would come back tomorrow before some kind of bath day and that he would have a surprise for the dragon later on, and Hakken nodded as he watched the lean human walk up the slope and over the ledge and disappear. 

Hakken decided to sleep as he went over to a tree and gently climbed up the side, wrapped his tail around the most vital branch he could find, and then proceeded to hang upside down with his broad wings encasing his body, Hiccup’s scent coming off his tail, and Hakken found some comfort in it as he mused that Hiccup’s scent, despite living human, had a pleasant aroma if only it weren’t so tangled with guilt and worthlessness. “I think I’m falling in love with this little human, but only time will tell how he feels about me.” Hakken coos as he closes his eyes, and sleep comes upon him. 

Chapter Text

Chief's House Nightfall

As darkness fell upon the Isle of Berk, Hiccup was sitting in his father's oversized wooden chair with his legs crossed over one another, with the slow dying fire being his only light source, his forest green eyes narrowed, and his tongue poked out of his mouth as he drew stretches of a tailfin in his notebook. Still, his mind was elsewhere, mainly on Toothless and the growing feelings that the young boy was slowly developing for the rare dragon, as well as the questions beginning to arise as to why he couldn't remember what happened after the dragon left that night eight years prior. He was so lost in his thoughts that Hiccup didn't even hear the door to his house opening or Gobber hobbling in.

Gobber notices the hard, glassy look in his apprentice's eyes and knows Hiccup is too absorbed in his thinking, most likely about something complicated or troubling, to see almost anything. He knocks his hook on the wall loudly. "Hello, anyone there?" He announces loudly as the skinny Viking jumps in fright, and Gobber chuckles. "I know that look, Hiccup. What are ye thinking so hard about in there?" He asked his godson as he strolled up and poked at Hiccup's forehead.

The younger Viking sighs lightly and looks at the ground nervously while closing his notebook and hiding it from view. "Why can't I remember anything, Gobber?  It feels like there are these giant holes in my memories from my childhood, and all I see are bits and pieces of a raid from eight years ago. Has there ever been a night fury on Berk before?" He inquired, not wanting to reveal that he was slowly becoming friends and developing feelings with said dragon.

The one-handed man also sighs, but it is loaded and uncertain, turning his gaze towards the dying fire pit. "Yes, there was, but it was a hatchling. I don't know what happened to it, but it snuck in here and attacked you when you were little. Ever since then, there has not been a shred of any night furies on Berk." He explains, turning back to see forest green eyes looking downcast. "Now, I came here because your class is meeting on top of the catapult, and I wanted you to come and join us." He stated that he wanted to change the subject.

Hiccup continues looking downward at the floor, "I don't know, Gobber; none of the other trainees want me there, and it's not like we have anything to discuss. I already know how it'll go. Snotlout will flirt with Astrid and then get plumbed. Ruffnut and Tuffnut will argue and then try to kill each other. And Fishlegs will spew information on dragons that we all know about." He counters. 

Gobber nods, knowing what will most likely happen, but he continues. "Well, yes, that is true, but I'll be there, and besides, you should celebrate; you've survived two sessions of dragon training, and you told Astrid off, something you've never done before. Come on, lad, you need to get out of the house anyway," the older man countered back, not taking no for an answer.

Deciding it would be nice to eat dinner with other people, although ignoring him, Hiccup nods as his godfather smiles and ushers the younger Haddock out the door and towards the steps of the catapult. "You didn't answer my question, Gobber; why can't I remember anything from that night when the little fury hatchling hurt me?" Hiccup questioned while climbing the spiral steps to the top of the catapult.

"I don't know the specifics, lad; I just know there was a large raid and a night-fury hatchling, but then it was gone after it attacked you." Gobber lied, the fears bubbling up inside of him because of the questions his godson was asking. "From what your father described, it sounds like the dragon knocked you out and that's why you can't remember anything."

Narrowing his eyes as his brows creased because he didn't fully believe his godfather due to Toothless not once hurting him in a couple of times he's been in the dragon's presence, Hiccup nods as the older Viking starts a fire in the pit of the catapult as the young heir of Berk pulls out the fish he got from the food storage and spears in on the sticks to cook it over the fire as the other teens begin showing up and do the same except they have chicken to eat. Hiccup notices Astrid's ocean-blue eyes glare daggers at him as she stabs her stick into her chicken murderously and shoves it over the fire. ' Maybe she's visualizing that the chicken is me. ' He thinks as he sits close to where his mentor is. 

"Alright, who's ready for a story about how I lost my hand to an enormous dragon who later came back and stole my leg as well?" Gobber asked the teens, holding up his hook for a hand and his peg leg, excitement in his voice. Everyone was amazed at the story except Hiccup, who continued to cook his fish; he'd heard this story hundreds of times, only half believing it.

Hiccup, for the most part, stared at the wooden floor as his mind continued to think about the nightfury, wondering why wasn't Toothless furious at him for crippling him for life? Why didn't he end the weak human when he had the chance? According to Gobber and the Book of Dragons, night furies kill on sight. His father's oldest friend also said that the night fury hurt him in the past, but so far, Toothless hasn't even laid a single claw on him, not even when he pinned him down the day they met; he only roared at Hiccup, but there were no bruises on him from being pinned. 

"And at that moment I realized I was dinner because no sooner had he got me in his sight and 'chomp' my hand was gone. And in that moment I saw that I was delicious, and I knew that beast had spread the word because the next time he came, he and his flock mates took my leg." Gobber gestures to his peg leg as the boys, minus Hiccup, gasp in shock and amazement.

"Wouldn't it be weird if your hand was still inside the dragon and you could control it from within its own body?" Fishlegs questioned as Hiccup fought the urge to roll his eyes; he had no ill will towards the husky Viking, but sometimes Fishlegs spouted nonsense.

Snotlout growled, "Man, I'm so angry, I'll avenge your hand and leg, Gobber. I'll rip off every single dragon head I see." He vows as he roughly tears into his food, unaware of his cousin's eyes widening at his declaration.

"Nah, I took my revenge on those beasts years ago, but to your statement, it's the wings and tails you want to rip off. No wings, tails, or escape; a downed dragon is a dead dragon." The pegged man explained, ripping off a piece of chicken with his teeth. 

Suddenly, Hiccup stiffened and felt like someone had drowned him in cold water on bath day after hearing Gobber's words. Seeing that no one, not even his mentor, would see him leave, the lanky human races down the steps, wiping the tears that begin to race down his face as he runs to his house, grabs his notebook, and then makes a straight line towards the blacksmith shop. He looks around and finds all the tools and materials he needs, then uses the old blanket in his little room in the shop and begins working. He worked all night on his project until the sky went from black to pink and orange, signaling the start of a new day.

  The Next Morning 

Dogsbreath and Sid were up early before everyone else as they walked around the village until they saw the blacksmith shop's door open. The older teens went to investigate and saw Hiccup bent over the ledge of the shop, sound asleep. Deciding to have fun with the younger Haddock, the two boys sneak in, and Dogsbreath places his hands on Hiccup's hips. "Damn, this guy is skimpy; I could break him easily; no wonder he can't land a guy or girl; he probably couldn't even get aroused." He whispered as he rubbed his hands up and down Hiccup's skinny sides, sneaking under the green tunic, feeling the chief's son up. 

Unbeknownst to them, Hiccup had woken up and felt someone touching him without consent. Petrified by the intrusion, he quickly spun around and slammed the hammer in his hand into Dogsbreath's face. 

Dogsbreath yells in pain as Sid grabs Hiccup and holds his arms behind his back while disarming the young teen, knowing his friend will want to deal with the boy. "You useless nothing, look at my face!" Dogsbreath growled, enraged, as blood dripped from his broken nose and a black eye. 

"You were the one trying to rape me!" Hiccup argued, only to be silenced by a fist colliding with his stomach, knocking the wind out. He collapsed to his knees and held his stomach. A sizable bloody hand then grabbed ahold of the collar of his tunic and lifted him to stare directly into Dogsbreath's bloody face.

"I'd rather fall over the edge of the Archipelago a thousand times before dirtying my hands with the likes of you, Haddock. You're a useless nobody, and anyone you would happen to get with wouldn't want to touch you either because you're an ' Argr, 'Boluader:' and you would surely disappoint to seal the deal. Just a useless runt who can't even do the most natural thing for a woman." Dogsbreath sneers as he enjoys seeing Hiccup on the edge of tears. He drags the boy out of the blacksmith shop, throws the younger teen to the ground outside the shop, and leaves with Sid.

Hiccup lays in the dirt, trembling in fear of what just transpired as his tears fall and mix in with the ground, and his stomach screams in pain. Using his healing power, he feels the pain in his stomach cease, but the mental and emotional wounds remain as he heaves himself up and goes to grab the new invention from the shop, heads towards the docks, holds a basket and begins to fill it with various fish and also smoked eel. He then heads to the forest towards the cove; the tears continue to fall as Dogsbreath's words plague his mind, and Hiccup feels dirty from Dogsbreath's hands on his skin.

The scent of sadness stands firm in the air as Hakken's ears perk up; grunting stands heard, followed by, "Hey, Toothless." He crawled out from his makeshift nest and saw Hiccup with a basket that looked almost too heavy for the auburn boy to carry, but what caught the dragon's attention was the tear streaks that were on the boy's face, and his natural scent was off, mixed with two different scents and toxic green orbs narrowed as the dragon's nose wrinkled when the smell of sadness was drowning Hiccup's natural scent.

As Hiccup knocked over the basket, he began naming the various fish that were within, but when he called the eel, he noticed the peaceful dragon growling as the lanky Viking held up the eel, and a loud shriek came from Hakken, "Oh Gods, oh Gods, I'm sorry, so sorry." The auburn-haired boy apologized profusely as he quickly threw the eel away. "So dragons are terrified of eels, huh?" He mutters as he sees the Night Fury indulge in his breakfast. While this happens, Hiccup grabs the other item he brought as he places the new tailfin next to the original and uses the belt and ropes to connect it to the tail, though Hakken decides to tease his friend and move his tail around a bit. 

Unbeknownst to Hiccup, Hakken had felt something familiar on his tail, and he quietly spread his wings and shot up into the air with the human hanging on for dear life onto the tail. He begins to fly out of the cove until he hears Hiccup's high-pitched hooping and hollering behind him, and he turns to see the human holding onto his tail. Realizing the danger in the air, the onyx-colored dragon flings his tail and lands Hiccup in the water. However, as soon as the boy stands dislodged from his tail, Hakken falters in his flight, and he, too, ends up in the water, causing a big splash. 

After coming up to the surface, he hears Hiccup cheering as he bobs up and down in the water. 'At least he doesn't reek of sadness anymore ,' Hakken thinks as the little flutter in his heart grows. Hearing and seeing his new friend happy, he swims over to the cheering boy and offers him a ride to shore, which Hiccup nervously accepts. 

Hakken stays in the water longer, though, wanting to make his little friend happy more, and he's rewarded with giggles from Hiccup as the young teen explains what he did with the tailfin and ways he can make it better, as it sounds like the tailfin needs Hiccup to control it. 'Ah, that's what he did; he made a new tailfin for me. While it doesn't work like my other one, I suppose it's not too bad, and this way, I can spend more time with Hiccup.' Hakken smirks, looking back and seeing forest green eyes sparkle as he spoke about the specifics of the tailfin; the way Hiccup's face lit up as he talked about the different positions he can't wait to try when we begin practicing with the new tailfin; the way he gestured with his hands; and the pride and sense of accomplishment make Hakken's heart flutter.

Hiccup felt Hakken's sides moving underneath him as he breathed and swam in the water, and the chief's son blushed a little, thinking about the mighty muscles and the way the night fury moved not just in the water but on land. 'What are these feelings that are coming from me? I can't fall for Toothless, can I ?'

He shakes his head as Hakken crawls out of the lake, and Hiccup slides off, but not before he loses his footing, and he falls to the ground as his hand lands on a sharp rock that grazes the skin. "Damnit, haven't I been hurt enough today?" He mutters to himself as he feels the blood oozing from the injury. He goes to heal himself only to pause when a long, pink tongue covers the injury in saliva, and Hiccup's eyebrows rise as he notices the cut healing almost instantly. "Night Fury saliva has healing properties," he questions as Hakken nods in agreement. "Woah," Hiccup exclaims in amazement, observing his hand now fully healed. "Thank you, Toothless. This is the first time I've been healed by someone other than Gothi or myself." He adds as Hakken rubs against him, scent-marking him while keeping his toxic green eyes fixed on the human.

He looks up at the toxic green eyes and feels drowning in them. He imagines kissing those scaly lips as Toothless hovers over him. He shakes his head, feeling something wet in his center. "I have to go to training; I'll see you tomorrow, ok, Toothless." Hiccup stutters with a deep blush as he rushes out of the cove, trying to control the slight flutter in his heart as Hakken smirks, his snout picking up the scent from Hiccup's core.

Berk Mid-afternoon 

"Today's lesson is about teamwork as you face the Hideous Zippleback. One head controls the gas, and another controls the sparks." Gobber explains as a green gas envelops the arena with Astrid and Ruffnut, Snotlout and Tuffnut, and Hiccup and Fishlegs all paired up into three teams of two, each one holding a bucket of water to throw on the head that sparks. "Your job is to find the head that sparks fire, as a wet dragon head can't fire." 

Fishlegs eyes darted nervously at the green fog while holding his water bucket close. "Razor, sharp, serrated teeth that inject venom for slow digestion prefer ambush attack, crushing its victims in its." He mutters dragon knowledge to himself, only for Hiccup to silence him.

  "Finally, we get a chance at these humans, brother." Barf growled softly.

  "It's about time; I'm interested to see this human that has the prince's scent on him." Belch adds as both heads slither within the gas.

Snotlout and Tuffnut circle each other with their backs to one another, looking around warily. "If either of these heads so themselves, I'm gonna." He begins until Tuffnut points to two figures coming into view in the gas, and both throw their buckets of water onto the figures.

"Ugh, it's us, you muttonheads!" Astrid shrieks as she and Ruffnut emerge from the gas, completely soaked from the water, with a look that frightens terrible terrors.

"Wow, your head must be bigger, or maybe it's your body; we thought you were a dragon." Tuffnut jokes, ignoring his sister's death glare.

Snotlout's eyes go big, and he pales in fear as he grabs the boy twin in a headlock to shut him up. "Not that there's anything wrong with a dragoness figure; Astrid, you would look very." He's interrupted by a tail smack as Snotlout and Tuffnut stand sent flying into the wall with a loud crash. A few minutes later, Astrid and Ruffnut meet the same fate.

" Hehe bullseye brother." Belch growls as the two heads look for the last two humans.

Fishlegs whimper loudly, "Chances of survival are rapidly dropping into the single digits." As he moves away from Hiccup, the Zippleback's head appears out of the gas, with even more gas flowing out of its maw. Fishlegs, in an act of terror, throws the water onto the head only to realize it's the wrong one. He then tripped with the dragon's tail.

Hiccup trembles like a plant in a massive storm as the gas subdues and the large, green Zippleback stands before him, with Belch beginning to spark. Hiccup tries to throw the water but instead lands before the dragon. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me." He groans as Barf and Belch sniff the air, and a strong scent hits their noses.

" The prince!" They both growl in fear and shock as they halt their advance on the young heir, not wanting to harm someone with the prince's scent for fear of his wrath. 

Hiccup looks at the dragon in confusion as he places his hands out in front of him and yells, "Um, back, back, I said, pushing back against the dragon, trying to sound authoritative. 

As the door to their cage closes, both Barf and Belch comply with the order, still not wanting to harm someone important to the prince.

After he closes the door, Hiccup glances behind and sees Gobber and his fellow teens, as well as Dogsbreath, who just happen to be walking by along with his band of goons, all staring at him in disbelief and shock. "Um, ok, so if you don't need me, I'm just gonna." He doesn't finish as he races out of the arena, shocking everyone at what happened.

Later that night, after eating dinner and cleansing himself of the smell of lake water and Zippleback gas, he scrubbed his sides a little too hard to cleanse himself of Dogsbreath's assault. Hiccup puts on a light brown tunic and black pants and heads to the blacksmith shop to construct a saddle and different connecting rods for his plan.

The Arena

"What was that out there? You were both so excited to go after the humans, but then you had the weakling, you just stopped. " Hookfang grumbled towards the Zippleback.

  "We were going to blast him, but then the scent of Prince Hakken was on him, and we stopped. We don't want to hurt someone who has been scent-marked by him." Barf cooed. 

" And besides, none of you have gone after him, and for the same reason, too," Belch added as Stormfly and Meatlug looked down, knowing it was true.

" You don't think the prince is thinking about mating with that human, do you? Meatlug asked.

None of the other dragons answered, all thinking: Why does Hiccup always have Hakken's scent on him?

Chapter Text

Blacksmith Shop late evening

 “There, that should do it.” Hiccup sighed as he observed the newly made saddle with a look of satisfaction. He had stitched it together perfectly, thanking his aunt Helen for teaching him how to sew and all the years he’d had to stitch his clothing. After finishing the saddle, Hiccup sleeps in the back room of Gobber’s shop, making sure the door stands shut to prevent another disaster like that morning. Sleep quickly takes over the teenager.

A few weeks later, The Cove's Early morning

Reflecting on the past few weeks, Hiccup sighs as he opens his eyes and takes in the serene view of the quiet cove. The morning breeze gently rustles the grass, and he feels Toothless's steady breathing against his strong side, where he is lying. "Today's the day, but we're ready." Hiccup whispers to his best friend and secret crush as his lips curve into a small smile at the thought of flying outside the cove. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind as every day Hiccup would place the saddle and tailfin on the night fury, although the very first day, Toothless decided to tease the young Viking and run away, making Hiccup chase him around. Every day, the two would try to fly with Hiccup controlling the tailfin but were often unsuccessful. There was even a time that they crashed, and Hakken ended up in tall, green grass and melting into a puddle of coos and cuddles, confusing his potential mate.

There was even an incident where the two friends tried to glide so Hiccup could write down positions he had memorized during the training sessions. Hakken tried to stay level so his potential mate could do his work, but a large gust of wind ruined that and blew the auburn human and black dragon back into the forest, causing Hiccup’s tether to become tangled with the saddle. That was the first night Hiccup spent the night in the cove with the dragon, which the training dragon rider found quite lovely—to be surrounded by comfort, feel safe, to be wanted—all the while, the feelings between the two grew more, and more, morphing from friendship to something more. 

While Hiccup trained with Hakken, he realized he was learning new techniques to help with dragon training, such as the grass he dubbed dragon nip and the soft spot that causes dragons to melt into heaps of purrs and coos. He also learned that dragons have a likeness for chasing spots of light. A trick he learned when he was using his pick ax to work, and the sun reflected off the metal, causing Hakken to try and grab the tiny spot of light. Hiccup then moved it from place to place within the cove and giggled when the night fury would act like a hatchling trying to catch the little beam of light. These tricks earn the small human attention, both wanted and unwanted, as his fellow Vikings begin to see him in a different light and want to be around the Auburn teen, including his fellow teens who constantly questioned Hiccup about where he learned how he did what he did that day. The only ones who weren’t fans of Hiccup’s newfound fame were Astrid and Dogsbreath, Berk’s infamous troublemaker. Dogsbreath tried to assault Hiccup again physically, but Helen Jorgenson and Gobber stopped him. They forced the older boy to chop down trees in the forest for firewood when winter arrived and even ordered Sid and Finner to assist him.

Meanwhile, the dragons remained wary of Hiccup. Hakken’s scent lingered on and around Hiccup, leaving them uncertain about how the prince would react if they harmed the human.

Back to the present, Hiccup tells Hakken he’ll be right back and must inform his guardian where he is. All he receives is a grumble, but he notices that the dragon cracks open a toxic green eye to watch him leave the peaceful cove. Once he clears the forest, Hiccup heads to the Blacksmith shop and sees Gobber starting the fire in the forge, “Morning Gobber.” He greeted him cheerfully as the pegged Viking whips around and saw his godson in the doorway.

“Odin’s scives, Hiccup, where were you last night?" He exclaimed with relief and worry shining brightly in his eyes as he rushed over to check over the young heir, not noticing the nervous look Hiccup was giving him as the chief’s son almost preferred the night fury’s comfort over his guardian’s nowadays; not that he still didn’t love Gobber, but the comfort he felt from the dragon felt full of love and honesty. 

Another thing that has changed over the last few weeks is that Hiccup no longer felt the need to self-harm as much as he used to. Whenever the scrawny human would belittle himself or become upset that the mechanics for the tail weren’t working, Hakken would gently but firmly calm him with coos or tap his tailfin under the boy’s chin. He found that cuddling made Hiccup feel safe and happy. “I was just in the forest in the cove; the moon was full, and I wanted to draw it.” He lied. I lost track of time and found a safe hollow tree to sleep by.” He added quietly.

Gobber breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank Odin; I would never forgive myself if something happened to you. You’re like the son I never had; you know that, right?” 

Hiccup nodded with a wide smile. "I know Gobber." He shuffled his foot awkwardly in the dirt. "Well, I'm going to eat some breakfast before the crowd comes; you know all the attention I'm getting these days." He chuckled lightly as he backed out of the blacksmith shop, only for Gobber to join him quickly.

"Listen, Hiccup, I know you don’t know what to think about all this attention you’re getting. Going from negative attention to positive attention is a big change, and if there’s anything you need or want to talk about, I’m always here for ye.” Gobber spoke softly with a gentle hand on his godson’s shoulder.

Biting his lip, Hiccup glanced at the ground, wrestling with whether to tell his godfather. Despite Gobber being a great confidant throughout his life, Hiccup knew that the chubby blacksmith was a Viking and wouldn't hesitate to harm Toothless. 

"I, um, Gobber, I'm gay. I mean, I know I'm considered Ergi, but I'm just not interested in girls at all," Hiccup sputtered, closing his eyes in anticipation of being yelled at.

Gobber halts in his walk, pulling Hiccup back with him as his hand is still on the boy’s back. A few tense minutes pass as Hiccup trembles in terror until a loud chuckle comes from Gobber’s lips: “Oi Hiccup, I already knew that.” He admitted to a shocked Hiccup. “Remember when The Shivering Shores came for a visit, and their chief brought his unruly niece Olivia with him?” Gobber asked as the younger blacksmith shuddered at the memory of the loud, insane girl. Well, when she would try to hold your hand, you would panic or try to run away, and when she wanted to kiss you, I thought Loki had possessed you when you screamed bloody murder and you accidentally destroyed the bench she was sitting on by speaking that spell.” Gobber chuckled as his eyes shined with merit, recalling the memory.

 Hiccup laughed but sounded forced as they were near the Great Hall doors. “She was insane, and even before that, I knew I didn’t like her that way, and there’s no girls here or any guys. You don’t think I’m weird the way I am, Gobber?” He asked as his smile faded from his lips. 

 Stoick’s right hook man kneeled and placed both hook and hand on Hiccup’s shoulders as his eyes bore directly forest green eyes. “Hiccup, I knew from the moment you were born that you would be different, and I wouldn’t change that about you; your father feels the same way; he’s just stubborn and has a difficult time expressing his feelings, and sometimes his ideals mix with what he’s trying to say. Just be yourself. Now let’s go eat.” He announced as Hiccup hugged his godfather tight and followed him into the hall.

 Later that day, Hiccup finishes making healing potions for Gothi with the healing herbs they collected after breakfast. "Ok, Gothi, this is the last vial.” He said as he sat the crate on the shelf where the elder kept all her potions. When he heard a tapping, he began heading towards the stairs and saw the elder motioning with her finger for her young apprentice to return. Obeying his teacher, Hiccup returns and sees Gothi motion for him to kneel, which the heir does. Once his knee touches the floor, Hiccup feels Gothi’s fingers run through his auburn hair softly, and it reminds the young boy of when Toothless made the same gesture with his claws. He then sees Gothi writing in the dirt and reads her words, “You’ll remember in due time.” She writes confusingly to the young Haddock before she ceases her motions and ushers the teen away with a kind smile. Hiccup giggles a little and gently hugs the woman he considers a grandmother. He hurries down the stairs to the ground, only to bump into Astrid, Snotlout, and the twins.

 "So you think you're a real 'Viking' now because you've bested a few dragons?" Astrid spat angrily, disgusted by the fact that the humiliation of Berk is excelling in training, as she poked her finger into Hiccup's chest as he cringed at being touched. Her icy blue eyes seemed like they could freeze him over a thousand times. 

 "What, no, I don't think that." The auburn Viking begins only to be cut off as Snotlout knocks his feet out from under him, and Hiccup lands hard on the ground on his back as Snotlout plants his boot directly on his cousin's chest.

 "Don't you dare talk back to her, you useless brat!" Snotlout snarled through clenched teeth, leaning to get right in his cousin's face. Hiccup could smell the foul odor from Snotlout's body and scrunched his nose in disgust. Meanwhile, Snotlout tried to flirt with the shield maiden but stood quickly met with a twisted arm from Astrid.

"Yeah, all you can do is run away like a scared little chicken! Oh no, a dragon is chasing me! I'm so useless I can't run because I'm too scared!" Tuffnut taunted as he and his sister began making fun of Hiccup. They tripped over their feet and fell into the dirt, ignoring the slow-falling tears on Hiccup's cheeks.

Astrid leans down and lifts Hiccup by the collar of his brown-furred vest; her blue sky eyes hold jealousy and anger, making the auburn heir shake like a flower in the wind. “Listen up, Haddock, I’m the greatest fighter on Berk, and I’m not going to let some scrawny, useless, nothing take away the honor of killing that dragon, and if you stand in my way, your lack of ability to bear children will be nothing compared to what I would do.” She threatens fury as she shoves Hiccup backward, causing the boy to fall into a nearby stack of barrels. “Take care of him; I need to go train.” She orders Snotlout, knowing that Jorgenson will listen to her word as Astrid heads to the forest to practice throwing her ax.

 Hiccup suddenly feels a sharp pain as Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut begin to kick and punch him. He curls into a ball to protect his face, but his sides are injured and battered from their relentless assault. Snotlout then uncurls him and delivers a powerful kick to Hiccup's chest. Hiccup's eyes widened in shock as the wind was knocked out of him, leaving him lying in the middle of the village square, engulfed in pain.

 "That'll teach you to talk back to my princess." Snotlout talks down to his cousin as he and the twins leave Hiccup in his pain and sadness. 

Unbeknownst to the occupants, Fishlegs had observed the incident while gathering water from the well. As he entered his home and handed the bucket to his mother, he wondered, "Hey, mom, why does everyone treat Hiccup like a nuisance?" he asked curiously.

A tall, husky middle-aged woman looks at her second oldest son in confusion before sighing heavily, “It's because he doesn't act like what these people think a proper Viking should act. Hiccup has never done wrong to anyone here, and yet he's scorned for being different, just like his mother was.” Olga Ingerman inquired.

 “So he's not cursed or something like that?” Fishlegs asked, surprised by the information. A hearty laugh came from the kitchen.

 “If he is, it's from trying to be something he isn't. He's always been a good boy as far as I'm concerned.” An older boy with blonde hair and brown eyes, with a small gut added. “What do you think, little brother?” Iggy Ingerman asked, looking at his younger sibling.

 Fishlegs eyes drooped toward the ground nervously. “I've always believed what everyone said—that Hiccup stood cursed because of what happened the day he was born, but no one has ever said what happened that day.” He admitted feeling ashamed.

 Olga glared harshly at her youngest son before sighing, “He died that day, Fishlegs. Hiccup was born too early, but then he passed, but somehow the gods brought him back. Just because he's different doesn't mean he's cursed, and it disappoints me that you would be so quick to judge without knowing the full story. At least tell me you never took part in his suffering." She scolded. 

 Fishlegs quickly shook his head, unable to speak after his mother's scolding. He looked out his window and saw that Hiccup was gone.

The Cove late Afternoon

Hiccup grimaced as he healed another injury to his body but decided to wait on the injuries to his chest, knowing they needed delicate care due to being close to his heart and because he was becoming exhausted. After entering the cove, he sees his secret lover come up to him, and as he expected, Toothless sniffs over Hiccup and growls, seeing the tear streaks on the boy's face and smelling the likely mixed scents of other humans. “I know I smell of other humans, but there was an accident before I came, and I got hurt.” Hiccup explained as he saw the dragon’s body tremble with angry growls coming from Hakken’s maw. The Auburn teen began leading the angry dragon out of the cove. 

 Hakken was beyond angry, not at his potential mate but at the other humans for putting his loved one in danger. The two walk to their training spot on Valka’s Cliff as Hiccup jumps onto the dragon's back, noticing that the trembles have stopped and opening the tailfin, allowing Haaken to glide.

 “Ok, Toothless. Let's go out slowly a little further.” He instructed and stood rewarded with the view of the sea below him. Once the cliff was behind them, he had the dragon level off. "Alright, Bud, we’ll take this nice and slow.” Hiccup said as Hakken wings flapped slowly.

 The black dragon looked behind and gave a low growl despite his love not understanding dragonese, “Please hold on, Hiccup; I don't want you to get hurt.” His eyes observed that the rope his human was using was securely tight.

 Hiccup looks behind him nervously after getting to a high enough altitude, ensuring everything is good. “All right, it's go time.” He mutters quietly as he leans down, directing Toothless to go down as they fly past the sea stacks. With a few mishaps of bumping into the stacks and Hakken smacking Hiccup with his ear plate, the duo quickly gained altitude, with Hiccup cheering and eyes that sparkled with joy and Hakken excited to be in the skies once again. However, it was short-lived, as time seemed to have stopped. Hiccup was one minute on the dragon’s back, and then the next, he fell very quickly with a flailing Hakken trying to save him. 

  ‘He's falling, and even if I catch him, there's a chance he won't survive still.’ Hakken’s thoughts scream in terror as he continues to try to get Hiccup to him.

 If Hiccup were to describe what had occurred next, he wouldn't have believed it himself. One moment, he was falling, and the next, it felt like an instinct had kicked in, and he latched onto the saddle and straightened out Hakken’s flight only to come face to face with large, very narrow sea stacks that were next to impossible to get through at the rate the duo was flying. Again, Hiccup felt an instinct, and he pressed on the pedal, threw the cheat sheet he had previously been using, and maneuvered the stacks like he'd been flying all his life. Once clear of the stacks, he throws his arms up, letting out a loud, joyous cheer while Hakken coos loudly and fires off a small plasma blast. 

Sea Stacks 

After landing on the ground, Hiccup slides off the dragon's back, still whooping and hollering about how amazing the flight was, his eyes still blazing with excitement about the situation. 

 As his particular human bounces all around the sea stack in excitement, Hakken goes over to the sea and grabs a mouthful of fish. He slowly cooks one of the fish and presents it to his beloved, "Oh, um, thanks, Toothless.” Hiccup stutters, blushing, his lips parting to take a bite until he hears wings flapping. 

 Just then, a flock of terrible terrors comes flying in and tries to take the fish from the night fury. “Fish, fish, my fish.” One of them growls as Hakken growls back, protecting his hoard.

  “Back off.” He growled possessively, baring his razor-sharp canines as one managed to sneak a fish away but then began to fight over it with another terror. He also sees another fish trying to move away, and Hakken quickly takes the food away. He smirked at seeing the terror building up a blast, but he beat it and fired off his tiny blast, causing the terror to smoke and become disoriented. 

 Hiccup watched everything with curiosity. "Huh, not so fireproof on the inside, are you? Is that true, Toothless?" he asked, glancing at his friend, who nodded in response. Hiccup sat down and leaned against Toothless's side, feeling the strong muscles beneath his scales. He offered the smaller dragon a fish and then looked down at the ground. "I lied to you earlier, Toothless; it wasn't an accident. I got beaten up by my peers again," he admitted, avoiding eye contact with the dragon's toxic green eyes and focusing instead on the loose gravel beneath him.

 Hakken's eyes slit, and a low growl finds its way to his throat, but his tail comes around and brushes under the human’s chin to soothe.

 Hiccup leans into the kind gesture, “It's always been this way, ever since I was born. According to Gobber and my father as well as Gothi, I was born two months too early, and then I died a few days later, but somehow the gods brought me back and blessed me with these abilities." He paused as a few whimpers came from his lips. "It's not my fault I was born this way; it's not my fault I'm an Ergi. I didn't ask for any of this, but I've been hurt so much for something I have no control over, and for what? Because I see that you guys,” he gestures to Toothless and the fleeing terrors, “aren't the monsters that everyone thinks you are. You could've ended me that day, but you didn't and haven't hurt me once. I'm tired of being called useless and not good enough for even my father to want me.” Hiccup confesses as he suddenly feels pushed into the dragon's chest. As he feels Toothless's tongue licking his face and hair, Hiccup’s eyes well up with tears until he lets loose years of suffering and torture by screaming and with waterfalls of tears unleashing as he is comforted like he's never been before.

 Hakken's thoughts run wild hearing how his potential mate suffered through his life, as he wants to go to the human village and rip every single human apart for harming his love. ‘How can humans be so cruel, and to one of their own no less? Yes, some dragons would do such harm to other dragons, but for the most part, we are peaceful creatures, and we care about our mates.’ He thinks as he holds his beloved in his forearms and uses a claw to lift Hiccup’s head. He purrs curiously as watery green eyes look up at him.

 Hiccup feels his chin lifted and is met with Toothless looking directly at him. Many emotions go through him as he stares through teary eyes into Hakken’s toxic green eyes, looking at the young heir as if he were the most precious of treasures, and a light blush comes over Hiccup’s cheeks. “Toothless, I, um, I love you, not as just a friend but more like in love with you, and I know that I’m not a dragon.” As Hiccup stands cut off, scaly lips meet his soft lips. 

Smut Scene

Both human and dragon kept the kiss going even though a small part of Hiccup believed he shouldn’t do this. He should wait until he marries, being a man or woman, but the way Toothless is kissing him, despite being much more potent and significant than the skinny human, feels like he’s kissing a lover. Hiccup’s body reacts on its own accord as his mouth opens to allow the dragon’s pink, wet tongue to plunge into his mouth and cover every inch of his lips in dragon saliva; he feels his eyes droop and himself lowering to the ground as his back meets the smooth dirt floor of the sea stacks, still locked with the Night Fury as the dragon’s body hovers over his as he tries to bring the dragon’s large head even closer. 

Hiccup feels something growing in his neither region as he tries to speak over the dragon's tongue, mapping out the inner parts of his mouth. Eventually, he moves away from the scaly lips, takes a breath, opens his eyes, and looks away towards the ground. “Toothless, I’ve never felt these feelings, nor have I ever done this. But I know that I love you more than words can express. I just don’t want to disappoint you because of my weak, plain body.” He whimpers with a few loose tears falling from his eyes, his lips quivering a little as he describes his body.

Hakken growls in the back of his throat at the self-negativity that his soon-to-be is spouting about his physique and moves his lips to Hiccup’s forehead and gives it a gentle lick and lingers there as a promise that no matter what, Hiccup will never be a disappointment to Hakken as he feels the little human slowly relax underneath his touch as he breathes in the scent that he forever wants to smell. He brings his snout down, sniffs at Hiccup’s fur skin, and lifts a claw to tear it into the fabric. He notices his beloved covering his eyes and makes whimpering noises as a sharp claw carefully tears the fabric of the human’s upper body. Hakken’s green eyes widen at the sight of the numerous scars that linger on the more petite body, some old and faded, some fresh, as well as the purple and blue bruises on his chest and stomach, most likely from those wretched humans that his beloved mentioned earlier. 

 The self-conscious Viking whimpers and goes to cover his body as best he can with his arms, trying to conceal the scars and bruises. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. It was the only way I could think to punish myself for being so useless and inconvenient, and I was too weak to fight them off.” He wails until he feels a warm snout pushing his arms away from his body and feels a warm tongue lick the bruises on his chest in a soothing motion, and Hiccup’s wails turn to quiet whimpers at the love radiating from the black dragon. “You love me, don’t you, not just as a friend but as an actual lover?” He questions as the dragon nods, and forest green eyes widen at the realization; his body completely relaxes as the tongue travels downward until it reaches his pants, and he feels them standing tugged off along with his underwear. He allows the dragon to undress the rest of him and see him wholly exposed as he closes his eyes, not wanting to see his pathetic excuse for a body as he hears Hakken coo lightly.

 The proud Night Fury stared at his soon-to-be mate with wide eyes full of love and amazement, “So beautiful, no dragon can compare to the beauty underneath me.” He cooed as he noticed Hiccup’s cunt was slowly becoming wet and his length was dripping pre. ‘He’s the perfect size; any other dragon would not know to be delicate with him.’ Hakken thinks as he uses his snout to spread his lover's legs apart, leans down, and pokes his tongue into the wetness collecting in Hiccup’s core, and he hears a low moan come from the human. He does it again, only this time he pokes his long tongue into Hiccup’s entrance, and he receives a loud gasp from the auburn hair. He proceeds to coat Hiccup’s entire entrance with saliva as he remembers that his soon-to-be has never had sex before, and he wants to ease the pain that will come when he takes Hiccup’s virginity. As he paints his lover’s entrance, a scent enters Hakken’s snout, and his eyes become dilated. The black in them become slits as the pheromones awaken his instincts to breed. Still, he shakes his head as the need to protect Hiccup overrides the need to breed; he also recalls his love saying he couldn’t get pregnant, which was fine with the Night Fury; the two of them were nowhere near ready to be parents. 

 Hiccup moans begin to grow in volume; the feeling of the dragon's tongue is amazing until he feels said tongue with a soft ‘pop’ leaves his core, and a low whine comes from his lips as he sits up and sees that Hakken has gotten quite excited himself as his cock is in full view for the adolescent to admire. Looking between the large, pulsing organ and the dragon, Hiccup gulps a little at the thought of the organ going into him. “Please, don't hurt me.” He begs desperately, his voice thick with panic and terror, fearing the worst pain possible as terror overcast his features until he feels scaly lips on his once again. He closes his eyes and leans into the kiss as he relaxes again. His body falls to the ground, and the midnight dragon hovers over him again. 

 Hakken licks his soon-to-be’s forehead as his length pokes into Hiccup's core, and the dragon begins to push into his soon-to-be submissive. He peeks down and sees many emotions appear on Hiccup’s face, from surprised confusion to pleasure, then to pain; as the strong dragon pushes more of his length into the fragile human, he sees his love grimace in pain as he leans down and licks his soon to be mate's lips, thankful that he lubed up Hiccup beforehand to help block some of the pain.  He continues to push inside until he's wholly embedded inside his lover and continues to lick away Hiccup’s tears. The scent of pheromones becomes more potent in the air, but Hakken buries the instincts to breed and focuses on comforting his love.

 The dragon’s lover focuses on the loving kisses of his love as he feels his entire hole pushed to the limit. He lifts his hand to his stomach and feels the bulge within him, and he blushes bright red at how big his dragon lover is. “You're a little big, Toothless.” He commented through clenched teeth after he took a breath of air as he waited for the pain to subside. After a few tense moments, Hiccup tested the pain, moved a little, and found pleasure in the motion. "Wow, there wasn't any pain.” He realizes he is doing the motion again, getting the same result as he moans a little afterward. 

 The black dragon takes that as a sign to go ahead and pulls out until his tip is the only part still embedded within Hiccup. Then, he proceeds to plunge back into his special one, creating a rhythm of pleasure. 

 The Heir of Berk turns into a mess of moans as his body responds to the thrust of his lover, his back arches off the dirt ground, and his cock continues to drip pre. Never before had he felt feelings like this; he had never felt so much intense love, and he wanted more. “Can you, um, maybe go faster Toothless, please?” He stutters out between pants and exists cited with even faster thrusts from the night fury.

 The dragon pulls out and thrusts back in even faster at the request of his beloved, having never mated to any dragon before because none had captured his attention or only wanted him for the power of being with the second in command of the nest. He tried to claim the little human underneath him as his, mark him as his submissive so that no dragon would dare touch him, and he would be protected and know what it feels like to be loved. He wanted Hiccup caked with the dragon’s scent;  for the human’s skin to reek of his dominant scent. Hakken thrusts even harder and faster at the thoughts, and it’s responded by loud, long moans from the squirming human. 

 All Hiccup touches stands the powerful thrusts of his soon-to-be dominant mate as scales meet flesh, and he begins to feel pressure within. ‘ What is this pressure building up, and why do I need to release it?’ He wonders as the pressure keeps getting bigger and bigger with each thrust Hakken delivers. His fingers dig into the ground as his body continues to respond to the powerful thrusts that enter his body as the pressure builds and builds, enough to cause pain as the dragon lover’s face scrunches up and a few whimpers come out of his lips.

 Hakken’s ears hear the whimpers, and his head looks down at his beloved. He leans down and licks Hiccup's collarbone soothingly as he pushes into his soon-to-be, his knot pushing against Hiccup’s core entrance, ready to tie the two of them together and unleash his seed.

 The first dragon rider leans into the kind gesture as he shuts his eyes, and he suddenly lets out a yell, the pressure too much to take. “TOOTHLESS!”  His lungs screech as his release comes quickly and all over his stomach, and some of it lands on Hakken’s chest.

 Hakken thrusts hard a few more times before he lets out a roar, and his knot flies into Hiccup so fast that Hakken has to dig his claws into the ground to hold himself as his seed stands to pour into his mate. Hakken leans towards Hiccup’s neck and licks between his shoulder and collarbone; once blanketed in saliva and his soon-to-be unconsciously tilted head to give the dragon more access, Hakken bites down onto the area, causing Hiccup’s forest green orbs to go wide with surprise as he unleashes another load of cum into the air from the experience. After a few minutes of filling his new mate full with his seed and marking him as his submissive, Hakken releases his hold on Hiccup’s skin and licks up the blood that drips down from the new mark as the dragon’s mate pants heavily with a glazed look on his freckled face. 

End of Smut Scene 

Hiccup pants heavily, his green orbs a bit glazed over with pleasure as his mind tries to process what had just transpired; he and Toothless just had sex. He thought he should be sad or distressed that he just gave his virginity to a dragon, but Hiccup felt anything but. He felt loved, cherished, and safe; the way Hakken was gentle and always made sure Hiccup was okay and comforted the teen when he needed it was something the boy had always needed in life but never got. He also wondered why Toothless bit him, but for now, he wanted to go another round. “That was, um, amazing; did I do okay?" He asks nervously and stands rewarded with a joyful coo and a quick peck on the lips. “I’ll take that as a yes.” 

As Hiccup goes to move from his spot, he unknowingly tugs on the knot inside him, and a whine comes from the dragon. Hearing the whine, Hiccup immediately halts his movement. “Are you alright, Toothless? Did I hurt you?” He panicked as Hakken nodded, and Hiccup quickly hugged the dragon's head to his chest, whispering soft apologies to his lover. “Are we connected by something other than your cock?” Hiccup asked after a few moments of making out with his dragon lover and the dragon nodded, and the human smiled, liking that he and his lover couldn’t be separated, the thought filling him with happiness, though Hiccup also thinks he doesn’t want to be a clingy mate. "So, um, when this something goes away, can we do that again, please?” he was almost pleading as he heard a low dragon laugh from Hakken.

Later that evening, after many more mating sessions, Hiccup was filled to the brim with Hakken’s seed, and his slight frame was covered entirely in the night fury's musky scent as well as the mating mark that stood also drenched in Hakken’s scent. Hiccup was lying on Hakken’s chest while the night fury was licking the human’s backside, his knot embedded deep in Hiccup’s ass. “So this is what it feels like to be loved and in love. Thank you, Toothless, for loving me, and I love you more than I could ever express.” He whispers, feeling content and, most of all, safe and loved. The gentle licks and the soft scratches of Hakken’s claws on his scalp lure him into a peaceful sleep, as the last thing he feels is his mate’s chest rising and falling and the powerful musky scent of the night fury filling his nose as sleep comes to claim him. 

Once he’s ensured that his new submissive is asleep, Hakken wraps Hiccup up in his forearms and gently walks on his hind legs towards the forest, where he finds a hollow tree to lay in. Laying down on his side and bringing his mate close to his chest, careful not to pull on his knot, Hakken ruffles his beloved’s auburn hair, his eyes full of love. “Sleep well, my sweet Hiccup; I love you too.” He coos as he drapes his wing over the little human, and he, too, enters the world of dreams. 

Neither human nor dragon notices a black spot appearing on Hiccup’s stomach as it begins to take the form of a tattoo of the Stryke class symbol or the bond that begins to form between the mates, one that not even the gods can break. 

Chapter Text

The early morning sun rose above Berk as a loud yell of "Ships to port!" They traveled all across the land. Gobber and the spouses, children, and some parents of the Vikings from the nest gathered at the docks with hopeful expressions. However, their faces slowly fell into sadness as only two boats could stand, seen rowing into the harbor with Stoick at the helm. When the ship reached the docks, Gobber offered a hand to Stoick, who took it. The one-legged blacksmith then helped his friend off the damaged vessel."I take it you weren't successful in your endeavor?" He guessed lightly, looking at the damage with a pitiful side glance. 

Stoick growled slowly as he roughly shoved the torn basket into Gobber's unexpected hands. "Not even close; it was an ambush from the moment we touched the fog bank, and all but two of our longboats were gone, as well as most of the brave men and women who went into battle. I hope you had better success than I did." He questioned gruffly. 

Gobber looked towards the crowd, seeing all the families standing reunited and the ones crying when their loved ones didn't come off the boat. His gaze softened, knowing the feeling of losing a loved one in battle. "Well, if by that you mean your parenting troubles are over, then yes." Gobber trailed off as a group of Vikings approached the chief, congratulating him; every comment was about Hiccup.

"What happened to Hiccup while I was gone, Gobber?" Stoick wondered quickly; his green orbs widened a little, showing a bit of fear in them as thoughts ran wild about his offspring.

"Eh, well, let's just say that Hiccup has this way with the beast; they're afraid to attack him or even go near him for that matter. I'm telling you, Stoick, it's like nothing I've ever seen in all my years of dragon training. I mean, I thought you and Valka were great even with Valka's 'philosophies',  but Hiccup is something else." Gobber explained with praise in his voice as Stoick's eyes went huge with excitement. 

"Ha ha, Thor Almighty. I knew he had it in him; I knew the Gods brought him back for a reason and not only that but blessed him with ways to finally end this war once and for all." Stoick cheered loudly. "Where is he?" he wondered, a little surprised his son wasn't at the docks.

Gobber shrugged absently, "Don't know he's gone most afternoons right after training, and sometimes he spends the night out in the forest; he says he's drawing the stars or something like that."

Stoick nods, accepting the answer, "Aye, he loves to draw ever since he could hold a piece of charcoal in his hand; he doesn't get that from either I or Valka." Well, I'll wait until he comes home; in the meantime, we should begin getting pyres ready to honor the brave souls lost in this recent battle." He suggests solemnly as Gobber nods, and the two men approach the grieving families to offer words of comfort. 

Forest

Hiccup stirred as he felt claws gently combing through his auburn hair, and he smiled as the musky scent of Hakken filled his nostrils. "Hmm, this is a great way to wake up, don't you think Toothless?" He murmured to the Night Fury as a low purr of agreement reached his ears. Hiccup reluctantly sat up and noticed he could move off the dragon. "I don't want to, but I have to return to the village; Gobber will send out a search party if I don't. I don't want anything to happen to you." Hiccup explained as he peeked through the clearing, saw the clear coast, ran, grabbed his discarded clothes, and returned to his lover. 

Hakken cooed sadly, "I wish you didn't have to go back as well." He spoke in a low, husky voice as he noticed Hiccup pause and turn to face him with a wide-eyed expression and a gaping mouth with only his torn shirt and brown fur vest on his skinny body.

Hiccup stared at the night fury in shock. "Toothless, did you just speak?" he asked tentatively, as the night fury nodded slowly, also in shock. "Can you understand me?" Another nod. Have you always been able to understand me?" Another nod. Hiccup began to stumble over his words until Hakken placed his tail under the boy's chin to calm him.

"Please calm down, my love. To answer your question, yes, I have been trying to understand you. The reason is the mating mark I gave you after we mated. It has created a bond and allowed you to understand our language.” Hakken explained in a calming tone. 

Hiccup lifted his hand to the spot where he remembered feeling the dragon's teeth and felt the shape of a mark between his shoulder and collarbone, and he moaned a little, touching it. "Woah, so does this mean we're officially mates, but I'm a human and can't produce offspring?" Hiccup gasped, his eyes drooping, remembering his life's biggest struggle. 

Hakken cooed and gently used his tail to push Hiccup to the dragon's chest. " Yes , this does mean you and I are officially mates; since I marked you, that makes you my submissive. As for the species difference, that does not matter to me if you're a human and I'm a dragon. The bond wouldn't have been forged if it wasn't meant to be. I believe you're my soulmate, Hiccup, and that's why we were able to have a successful mating and the bond being made. As for the subject of offspring, night furies often have a one in five chance of producing hatchlings; that is why we're so rare, because there's only a handful of us, and our ability to bear children is truly a rare blessing. And besides, don't you think we're a little too young to be parents? Although a lot of dragons have hatchlings this young, night furies, when they do have hatchlings, don't have them until they're fully grown." Hakken coos, licking his mate's cheek, earning a giggle from the human.

Hiccup nods, absorbing the information and finding all of it fascinating. "Yeah, we are a little too young to be parents." The corners of his mouth curve into a smile before he asks. Toothless, um, wait, what is your real name? I don't think you want to be called Toothless."

"Hakken. My name is Hakken. That's all I know; my past is a mystery to me, little one. All I know is the Queen's nest and that I'm her second in command, or at least I was when I was in the nest." Hakken growled, baring his sharp teeth. 

"Hakken." Hiccup repeated the name, deciding he liked it. So wait, you said I'm your submissive; what does that mean?" he wondered, suddenly nervous.

Hakken lifted his paw and brushed his claws through Hiccup's furs. "Don't be afraid, Hiccup; I would never do anything to harm you; your safety and happiness are my top priorities." So if we were in a flock of our beings, my submissive means that you belong to me and no other dragon can claim you; the mark is proof of that, but you'll still be able to live your life; I won't stop you. So, my responsibility as your dominant is to ensure that you're safe and well cared for. It's also my job to provide things such as hunting for my submissive and hatchlings." 

Hiccup nodded, feeling calmer, knowing that no other dragon could claim and take him away from his dominant mate. "So, um, what would happen if one of us... dies?" Hiccup mumbles the last part quietly as his eyes focus on the black dragon's muscular chest, the scent of the dragon giving him a sense of calmness. 

Hakken whimpers a little, "Because of the bond we're linked, and in most cases, if the dominant mate dies, then so does the submissive, and if the submissive were to perish, then the dominant mate would become a shell, simply existing, unable to take another mate. At least that's how it is for night furies." Night furies have a very long life expectancy; some even live well over thousands of years, though I don't know when you'll stop aging, but I'm guessing into your early twenties like me." 

Hiccup breathes a sigh of relief as his eyes light up with happiness that he'll have his beloved forever. "Thank you, Hakken, for telling me all this. You also said that your past is a mystery; what happened?" 

The nightfury looked into the sky and said, "I don't know; all I remember is the nest, often fighting to survive, climbing my way until I became the second in command. I remember a few other night furies being in the nest, but they were killed by a skrill years ago." The Queen forces us to gather food for her; if we don't, she will eat us. I stood tasked with leading the dragons to the Viking Islands and ensuring they all returned to the nest. I hated having to leave dragons behind to become victims to Vikings." 

Hiccup lifted his hand and rubbed the soft underside of his mate's chin; a sad look overcast his features. "I'm so sorry, Hakken; neither of us had an easy life." So that's why you guys raid us to protect yourselves, so everything we know about you is wrong. "Wait, so that's why the other dragons in the arena were reluctant to attack me, because I had your scent on me, and they must have recognized it." 

Hakken nodded. "Yes, in the hierarchy, the mates of higher-ranking dragons are considered off limits, and there are severe punishments for those who hurt those dragons' mates. Since I'm the prince of the nest, you are considered off limits, and any dragon that harms you would suffer consequences. And speaking of punishments, I should explain yours."

Hiccup gulped and trembled, "Me, punishments?" His voice betrayed his nervousness, and his forest-green eyes clouded with fear. 

"Yes, as your dominant mate, I give you a punishment; for example, you've been self-negative quite a lot, and I won't allow you to talk so lowly of yourself, so that would constitute a punishment." 

"And how would you punish me?" Hiccup stuttered, trembling as a few drops of sweat fell from his forehead. 

Hakken uses a claw to lift Hiccup's head to look deep into his toxic green eyes. "I would never harm you in a punishment, Hiccup; it would be a helpful punishment from having you list off reasons what you're good at to giving you pleasure during mating but not allowing you to orgasm until I give permission but never cause any pain." I would only do it if you're okay with it."

Hiccup relaxed at the explanation: "I'm good with it, Hakken; it's just the only time I've ever received a punishment involving pain." I know you'll never hurt me." They stayed where they were, simply enjoying each other's presence. "I have to go back to the village, Hakken." Hiccup finally admitted, not wanting to leave.

Hakken nods as Hiccup goes and puts his pants and boots back on. "I'll head back to the cove, and you'll come when you can, yes?" He questions curiously as Hiccup nods, planting a small peck on the dragon's snout, and Hakken watches as his little human returns to the human village. The night fury runs back towards the cove and leaps onto each ledge leading to the grassy bottom of the cove. He slaps a few fish out of the water and eats. After his breakfast, he burns the ground underneath him and lays down to await his submissive mate.

Berk

Hiccup made it back to the village square and immediately felt the heaviness in the air as he saw many villagers comforting one another; he walked to Gobber's shop and went to the back room. He sat down and observed all his drawings for Hakken's tailfin. "What if I made him an autotail where I didn't have to control the flight? Would he even want that?" He mutters as he lays his head on his work desk, and his mind travels back to the dragon's words from earlier about Hiccup being Nightfury's soulmate. 'Can it be true? Could he be the pull I've felt all these years, every time there was a raid, and I never stayed where I stood because I was standing pulled to find Hakken within all the chaos?' He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't even hear the backroom door being open and his father's large form approaching him, but as his father's large hand made contact with Hiccup's shoulder, he jumped in fright at the gentle touch.

"Oops, sorry, son. I didn't mean to startle you, but let's talk since I've got your attention." Stoick's voice quickly changed from concern to serious as his eyes narrowed on his son. "You've been keeping secrets from me." 

Hiccup slowly gets up, but his leg gives out, and his arm accidentally swats all the papers on his desk onto the floor. "I have?" He questioned, his green gaze darting back and forth between his father and the desk.

"Just how long did you think you could hide it from me? You know nothing happens on this island without me knowing." Stoick mentions as Hiccup flinches at the tone.

"Oh." Hiccup whispers, looking around the room now anxiously. 

Stoick moves closer to his son, invading Hiccup's space. "So, let's talk about that dragon." 

The blood drains from Hiccup's face as he fidgets with his hands. "Oh Gods, Dad, I don't know. I was going to tell you I just didn't know what or how." Hiccup stuttered as suddenly filled the room with Stoick's booming laugh, baffling Hiccup. "You're not upset?" He asked, confused by the quick change in tone. 

"What? I was hoping for this." Stoick declares, still overjoyed. And believe me, it only gets better; wait til you spill a Nadder's guts for the first time or mount your first gronkle on a spear. What a feeling!" Stoick celebrates as his hand connects with Hiccup's shoulder, sending the smaller Haddock into the wall, landing in a wooden bucket. All those years of the worst Viking ever, Odin, were rough. I almost gave up on you, but I knew there was a reason the gods brought you back to life, and all this time, you've been holding out on me, Ah Ha, Thor Almighty!" Stoick yells, not noticing Hiccup grimacing at the irony of his father's words. "With you doing so well in the arena, Stoick grabs a stool; we finally have something to discuss." He gives his son a look like a kid on Snoggletoung waiting for the most significant present. 

Hiccup averts his gaze anywhere except at his father as Stoick scoots closer to his offspring, the silence quickly becoming uncomfortable.

"Oh, um, before I forget, I found this under my bed." Stoick pulls out a small Viking helmet that looks like it's been well-kept. He hands it to Hiccup and smiles, "It belongs to your mother; it's half of her breastplate." He explains as Hiccup observes the gift until finding out about the breastplate part, and then he becomes a little weirded out. "Matching set, it keeps her close, and to keep you safe in the ring, Gobber mentioned that you had a few close calls in the early training days." Stoick lightly taps his helmet. "Wear it proudly; you kept up your end of the deal, and I'm proud of you, son." 

Hiccup doesn't know what to say; the only other gift he earned from his father is a stuffed toy, Night Fury, that Hiccup accidentally lost on a fishing boat trip when he was little, and the few precious moments that his father treated him like a son were also a gift. However, Hiccup also felt like he was betraying Hakken by going with the lie that he was Berk's new dragon killer like his father always wanted him to be, and that pierced his very soul and made him feel horrible. "Well, thank you for the gift, Dad. I should probably head to the Great Hall for dinner and then home for bed." Hiccup stretched as he faked a yawn.

"Oh, um, I was thinking we could have dinner together since I'm back, and I wanted to spend time with you, Hiccup." Stoick offers, averting his gaze toward the workbench. Oh, and can you officiate the funerals for the dead since Gothi will handle the injured?" 

Hiccup grimaces, not liking that he has to head the funerals and not liking that his dad thinks he has some pact with the gods, but he nods. "I would love to have dinner with you, Dad. I could make some soup with the vegetables I grew in the garden out back, and we still have some fish left, "Hiccup offers as both father and son exit the Blacksmith shop and head home to have dinner.

The next day Mid-afternoon

Meatlug flew around the arena as Astrid and Hiccup hid behind a barrier, with both teens holding an ax and Hiccup wearing his helmet. "The prince's scent is stronger than ever on the young boy. I smell the strongest scent between his collarbone and shoulder." As Meatlug flew overhead, she peered down and saw a black tattoo visible through Hiccup's clothing, and her eyes widened in amazement. "That's the mark of the night fury, and only night fury mates have those, so the prince did take Hiccup as his submissive." She growled to herself.

Astrid watched the gronkle hover overhead with laser-like focus and then glared daggers at Hiccup as he pressed his helmet over his eyes, "Stay out of my Haddock, I'm winning this." She declared arrogantly.

"Please, by all means, be my guest." Hiccup replied sarcastically as he turned to look up into the stands of cheering Vikings and saw his father and Gobber smiling; Hiccup gave a half smile and wave but sighed as he watched the gronkle avoid Astrid's attempt to attack it. "Keep evading her, and then come closer." He spoke in Dragonese so softly it looked like he was talking to himself. He observed Meatlug's ears perked up.

"Who said that?" Meatlug cooed, confused as she peered around the arena, careful to stay above the hiding shield maiden as her eyes landed on Hiccup.

"I did come closer." He made a small gesture with his ax, making it look like he lost ahold of it as Meatlug stayed overhead but pretended to spew lava at the young heir. "My name is Hiccup; I don't want to hurt you." 

Meatlug landed and pretended to ram the medium-sized barrier Hiccup was behind. She spit lava to the side to keep the angry shield maiden at bay while she conversed with the fragile human. "Why do you smell of Prince Hakken, and why do you have the Skrkye class symbol on your stomach?" She questioned. To onlookers, it looked like Hiccup was chanting a spell or a prayer to himself as he hid behind the battered barrier. 

"Hakken is my dominant mate as of yesterday, and I'm his submissive; as for the symbol, I didn't know I had one, but I have a mating mark between my collarbone and shoulder. If you allow me to pretend to defeat you, then I promise that Astrid won't harm you, and I can heal any injuries you or any of the other dragons have." 

"The prince is alive! Thank you, Hiccup, and yes, I would be more than happy to see you win. My name is Meatlug, and I'm sure the other dragons would be thrilled to have this information." Meatlug suddenly felt the barrier burst on top of her, causing her to topple over.

"I'm sorry. I'll heal you soon." Hiccup apologized quietly, as Astrid could hear screeching streams of profanities. "Okay, so if you don't need me, I'll be." Hiccup started, only to be stopped as Astrid cornered him, pinning him to the arena wall with her ax. 

"How could you beat me? I'm the best Viking here since your father. You're nothing but a useless little runt." She growled, her ocean-blue orbs blazing with ferocious anger. Astrid is known as Gobber, pushed her away and separated the two.

"Congratulations, Hiccup, you get to kill the dragon!" He shouted as the crowd erupted into cheers. Gobber then ordered a few Vikings to place Meatlug back into her pen. 

"That's my boy!" Stoick roared in excitement, the green of his eyes shining brightly with pride and joy. 

Snotlout, Tuffnut, Ruffnut, and Fishlegs ran into the arena, picked Hiccup up, and planted him on their shoulders, cheering and fist-pumping. The village celebrated as Hiccup was carried back to his house and met by his father. "Everyone, the final test will be the day after tomorrow, where my son Hiccup Haddock will face the Monstrous Nightmare!" Stoick yelled as he placed his hand on Hiccup's shoulders, ignoring Hiccup's panicked, wide-eyed expression as his father's hand was close to his mating mark.

"Um yeah, Dad, this is all great, but I need to be alone for a while; all this attention is getting to me." Hiccup mentions slowly, trying to wiggle away from his father's grasp. As the crowd grew larger outside the chief's house, Hiccup began to hyperventilate and quickly ran inside the house, out the back door, and into the forest to the cove, his eyes watering with tears. He runs down the pathway until he lands at the grassy bottom. "HAKKEN!" He yelled for his dominant mate, his voice thick with sheer terror.

Hearing the distress in his submissive's voice, Hakken quickly emerged from the makeshift den he had made and ran up to Hiccup, his body tense, ready to defend his beloved. "My love, what is wrong?" he chirped, seeing Hiccup's tears slowly falling from his forest green gaze and trembling form and feeling the anxiety from the bond.

"I can't, I don't want to, and they think I'm a, no, no, no, I can't do it; I'm not them, I'm not like them." Hiccup blubbered as his entire form shook with tremors, and more tears fell like droplets from a faucet. His arms wrapped tightly around himself like a bola around a dragon as he paced back and forth across the grassy floor. His breath became soft wheezing brought on by the temples of his body until he suddenly felt the spot between his shoulder and collarbone standing bitten as a musky scent filled his nose, and he felt Hakken's warm body wrap around his tiny one.

Hakken bit down on the mating mark and wrapped himself comfortably around his mate. "Shh, relax my Hiccup; just breathe my scent and feel my body around yours. Bask in the love I have for you. Do you feel safe, Hiccup?" He asked softly and purred lightly as Hiccup nodded slowly, his posture relaxing in Hakken's embrace. Hakken also noticed that Hiccup's eyes appeared a bit glazed over. "What happened, Hiccup? What has caused you such distress?" 

"I beat Astrid in the final round of dragon training, so I get the honor of killing the final dragon: The Monstrous Nightmare. I can't kill a dragon; we're so much alike than different; I don't want to fight dragons anymore and kill when there's no reason to kill." Hiccup stuttered out. 

Hakken growled at the confession, and although he was proud of his mate for making it through the brutal training, he was angry that this was how children like Hiccup were standing up. "I'm grateful you weren't hurt during this process, but why must you kill a dragon?" Hakken cooed.

"It's a ritual that's been going on for generations; my father doesn't want to send us kids out to the front lines until we've had some training. Usually, the kids my age are just putting out fires or something to help with raids, but once in a while, my cousin or Astrid will strike a gronkle. I'm always placed somewhere safe." Hiccup replied. It's what my father did and what his father did before, ever since this war began.” 

Hakken hummed, changing the subject: " Climb up, Hiccup. I want to show you something which will help calm your senses.” Hakken bites the mating mark again. "AWAKEN!" he commands in his dominant voice as he sees Hiccup's glossed-over orbs return to normal.

Hiccup blinked slowly and noticed that Hakken was lowering to the ground. "What was that just now?" He questioned.

"I'll explain in a bit, but please hurry before we miss it." Hakken nudged Hiccup towards the saddle and waited for him to get situated. After looking back and seeing his mate ready and feeling the tailfin being open, does the night fury fly out of the cave and into the sky, high above Berk, where the sky is quickly becoming pink and orange. "Look, Hiccup." Hakken pointed towards the horizon with his head.

Hiccup looked, and his jaw nearly dropped in awe as he saw the sun slowly setting over the horizon, decorating Berk into an assortment of pink and orange and giving the ocean a new look of reddish-orange as Hiccup saw his reflection in it. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, as he felt the dragon fly higher until they were in the clouds. He felt the clouds around him and reached out and ran his hand through one, feeling the soft texture of it as he looked down and noticed it had begun to get dark on Berk, signaling they'd been flying for a long while. As Hakken flies down, wholly blended into the night sky, Hiccup sees Berk like he's never seen it before, with lanterns brightly burning and the Great Hall lit up with many candles. The guard posts stood lit with fires, and from the sky, Berk looked peaceful as all was calm. "Okay, I gotta admit this is amazing; thank you, Hakken." He leans down and kisses the dragon's head.

Hakken purred, "You're welcome, Hiccup. Now, regarding what happened earlier, I used my dominant voice. If I can't calm you with gentle nuzzles or soothing words, I resort to my dominant voice, which triggers you because you are my submissive mate. Don't worry; I won't use it unless it's absolutely necessary."

Hiccup nodded. "So it's like when my dad uses his chief voice, although most of the time it's hard to tell the difference between his regular voice and chief voice."

Hakken nods until he hears a chirping sound; he looks around and notices that he's flown out further than he intended. The noise becomes louder as Hakken feels his mind slowly becoming fuzzy. "Come, come back to my domain." He hears the Queen's voice, and he feels a force jolt him towards the direction of the nest.

Hiccup jolts with him and looks confused as the fog bank quickly approaches. "Hakken, what's going on?" He asked.

The control over Hakken slips away when Hiccup speaks, and Hakken shakes his head. "Hiccup, I'm so sorry, my love, but I wasn't paying attention to how far out we were, and unfortunately, we ventured into the Queen's waters, and she's trying to take over my mind again." He explained that the mates were suddenly joined by numerous dragons coming from different directions, with claws and paws full of hoards for their Queen.

"Prince Hakken, I see you brought something new for the Queen—not much of a treat, barely an appetizer." A blue and green Zippleback growled, looking at the tiny human as Hiccup leaned down, his chest touching the back of the nightfury's neck.

"Maintain your course, and once you drop your hoard into the pit, return to your nests; that's an order; the Queen will decide who served her and who didn't. " Hakken ordered the dragons, who all growled in agreement, though some grumbled at not being able to snack on the toothpick of a human. "Hiccup, I want you to stay as low as possible with no sudden movements, and if you feel the need to speak, use the bond." Hakken ordered his submissive, "Understood." He looks back and sees Hiccup nod slowly, and he growls. "Words, Hiccup." He commands firmly, leaving no room for argument. 

“I understand Hakken.” Hiccup replies through the bond as he lowers himself entirely to the dragon's neck, breathing in the musky scent of his dominant mate as Hakken leads the dragons up and then down into the volcano to hover over a massive fog pit with thousands of dragons swarming around and lingering on levels of rock and dirt. "So this is the nest; what my father wouldn't give to find this." Hiccup commented through the bond; his voice sounded amazed but also mixed with fear. 

Hakken watched as each dragon dropped their catch into the pit before he flew up and landed within his den, "Don't move Hiccup." He commanded as he felt Hiccup move. He noticed a gronckle flying over the pit and saw them spit out a tiny fish. 'That won't be enough.' His thoughts tell him as the sounds of growls reach his ear plates, and without any warning, the Queen snaps up, grabs the helpless dragon in one gulp, and swallows.

" What is that? " Hiccup asked through the bond, shocked, staring wide-eyed at the gigantic monster. Hiccup tries to make himself smaller as the massive head turns toward the mate after smelling an unfamiliar scent within her domain. 

"Well, my heir has returned, and it seems like he's brought a new meal." The Red Death declared with fake pride in her rough voice as she tried to take control of Hakken's mind.

" Hakken, we need to go now!" Hiccup yelled through the bond as his voice broke through the Queen's control again. Hakken shook his head and leaped into the air, the strength of his love for his beloved overpowering the Queen's voice. Hiccup looked around as he noticed many dragons trying to stop the Night Fury, and he pressed himself down again, urging his mate to go faster.

"STAND DOWN!" Hakken ordered authoritatively as the dragons backed off a little, his lower back split fin tips glowed blue a little. As the dragons saw this, they parted enough for him and Hiccup to quickly fly out of the opening and into the open sky. The pair soon flew to the cove, and Hakken landed on the grassy bottom. 

Hiccup slid off the dragon's back and hugged him tightly. "That was awful; she's forcing you guys to feed her and serve her like you're nothing more than servants, but you're not." He confesses as he rubs his mate's nubs in comfort while Hakken nuzzles Hiccup's neck, breathing in his submissive scent, a little shaken by what almost occurred. 

"Indeed, that is her will, and she rules with an iron fist. Even if we try to escape, she manages to lure us back and enslave us to her will. It appears that my love for you is stronger than her control." Hakken purred with a hint of a smirk as he heard Hiccup giggle a little.

The two mates bask in each other's presence, relief strong in the air. "I want to leave Hakken; Berk has so many bad memories for me, but despite everything, I still have family here. My dad, despite our rocky relationship, I still love him, and he's already lost so many family members, including my mom. I don't want to hurt him by leaving him alone, and Gobber is like a second father to me. I'm the heir of Berk; I can't even leave the island without the council's permission." Hiccup says. We also can't leave because that monster will take you away from me." 

Hakken licks Hiccup's cheek. "I'll abide by whatever decision you make, my love; I can see, despite there being some sharp edges, that you truly do care about this island and its people. I also see your deep love for our dragons, and you're conflicted about how to show your fellow Vikings that we're not the monsters they claim we are. We'll figure it out in time; for now, you best get back to your nest before your guardian comes and finds you." Hakken cooed as he walked with Hiccup until they reached the cove's entrance.

Hiccup quickly hugged the dragon's head, "I love you, Hakken; please never leave me." He whimpered.

Hakken licks the human's chin, "As I love you, my love, nothing will ever take me away from you." The two part and Hakken goes to his nest. As he lays his head down, he begins to feel something in his heart: 'Why do I feel like something bad is going to happen?' He thinks as he looks towards the sky. 

Chapter Text

After trying but failing to rest, Hakken paced back and forth on the grassy floor of the cove, growling softly. The black in his eyes slit then dilated as his instincts told him he needed to be with Hiccup, to not leave him unprotected in the human village. Every fiber of his being urged him not to let his little mate return. He could sense that they both still needed comfort after witnessing the horrific scene in the nest. However, he also feared that his human lover could be in danger if the other humans found him. Hakken looked up at the night sky, and a lone whine escaped his mouth as his eyes dilated slightly. "Please, my Hiccup, please be okay." He whispers.

Haddock Residence

Hiccup quietly sneaks up the hill, slowly opens the door to his house, and breathes a sigh of relief to find all the people cleared out, and his father is out for the time being. However, his relief is short-lived, as he sees a black robe with Nordic insignia sowed into the sides and a neck collar with a brown belt and black hood. The young teen signed heavily, looking at the attire with disdain, wishing for the millionth time his father didn't believe he had some pact with the gods. His thoughts are interrupted by the door opening and his father walking in with a bright smile on his pale-skinned face. 

"Ah ha, there he is, the Pride of Berk, the future dragon killer." Stoick laughs as he comes up and places a large hand on Hiccup's shoulder, unaware of his son's grimace. He looks over the funeral attire for his son with a nod of approval. "It's a perfect outfit to send the fallen to their eternal paradise where they'll feast and finally know peace." He explains. And then once that's complete, you can finally show those mindless beasts what it means to be a Viking." His light green eyes flashed with pride at the thought of any dragon dying by Viking hands. 

Hiccup bit his lip nervously and went cross-eyed, looking at anything but his father. "But are they really mindless? I mean, the nadder and gronkle hell, even the terrible terror seemed to know what they were doing during training." Hiccup counters, wishing he had stayed in the safety of the cove with his dominant mate, only to be startled by his dad's hand slamming down onto the table loudly.

"Of course, they're mindless and can never be trusted. That's the type of thinking that got your mother taken and killed by dragons, and underestimating them is what made your aunts' widows and your younger cousins fatherless! Stoick roared, his green eyes boiling with rage. He stalked closer to his offspring, his large shadow towering over the young boy. "And if I ever hear such nonsense from you again, I will give you a flogging you will never forget. Do I make myself clear, Hiccup?" He growled, leaving no room for argument as his eyes blazed with the fierce Viking anger that Hiccup grew up seeing. 

Now more than ever, he wishes he had stayed with his mate. Hiccup nods and quickly runs up the stairs into his room. Unbeknownst to Hiccup, Stoick sighs sadly, not liking that he has to be harsh with his son as he sits down in his wooden chair; his eyes soften to a calmer green, and he rubs his temple as he feels a headache forming. "Ah, Odin above, please don't let the seal be broken; I can't lose my son; he's all I've got." He whispers to himself softly. 

Hiccup stands later seen preparing for bed. Once he's changed into his nightclothes, he lies down and attempts to sleep. However, after several hours of tossing and turning in every conceivable position, he finds himself unable to doze off, unknowingly transmitting feelings of fear and anxiety through the bond. With a frustrated sigh, he finally lights a candle, making sure to peek down into the lower level to confirm that his dad is asleep—there's no point in risking another scolding or, worse, a flogging. He pulls out a piece of parchment and a charcoal pencil and draws aimlessly. 

Hakken's ears perk up, and he feels the turmoil within the bond, believing his mate is in trouble. The black dragon scurries up the rocky side of the cove, digging his claws into the top ground of the cove. He launches into the forest, and thinking back to when he was a hatchling, he remembers where Hiccup lives. Using the cover of night, Hakken leaps from roof to roof until he reaches the chief's house, as the scent of his beloved is vital in the upper part of the house. He uses his tail and knocks on the window. 

Hearing tapping on the wood of his escape hatch that acts as a window, Hiccup gulps a little and grabs the closest thing to a weapon, his cutting knife. He slowly goes over and pulls on the lever that allows the large piece of wood to move, and his eyes widen to see none other than Hakken.

"Hakken, what are you doing here?" He asked in a confused tone, keeping his voice down to not alert his dad as he tossed the weapon into the corner.  

The Night Fury's toxic eyes tried to look his submissive mate over to see if there were any new injuries on his body but couldn't. "You were overflowing our bond with overwhelming fear; please, my love, let me in so I can make sure you're okay." The dominant dragon asked politely, but there was an urgency in his voice. 

Hiccup pales in fear as his forest green eyes swim with terror. "You can't; my dad is right down stairs!" He shrieks through the bond.

Hakken's eyes slit a little at the denial to check over his love's well-being. " Let me inside. Now," he commands, using his dominant voice.

Hearing the voice of his dominant, Hiccup's forest green eyes glaze over, and he moves out of the way, allowing the midnight dragon to sneak into the room. 

Once inside, Hakken curls around his beloved and sniffs around his mate. He smells a strong scent near the mating mark and nuzzles the spot, again covering the area with his musky scent. Once he deems his love unharmed, his defense posture relaxes, and he bites down on the clothed mark, " Awaken Hiccup." He commands once again.

Forest green eyes return to normal as Hiccup gets his bearings back. "Okay, you checked me over right; see no injuries." He whispers as his eyes frantically look towards the hole leading to the lower level, listening for any indication that his father is awake.

Continuing to feel the anxiety from his beloved, Hakken nuzzles under Hiccup's chin, "Would you like to come back to the cove and stay with me? I don't wish to leave you here in this unprotected place more than I have to." He offered, and Hiccup swore he heard a bit of pleading in his mate's voice. 

Hiccup bites his lip and looks at the ground as the temptation to do right what his love is offering is just what he wanted to do in the first place, but he shakes his head. "I can't; if my dad comes up here and sees I'm gone, he'll organize a search party, and then they'll find you and then take you away, or worse, and then I'll never see you again." He begins to panic; his breathing accelerates as the images of what might happen if Hakken lives are discovered flood his mind.

Looking towards the hole in his mate's den, Hakken begins walking towards it. " Then I'll make sure he can't ever harm you again , " he growls, his eyes slit. 

"NO!" Hiccup yelled as he went and clung to the dragon's neck, falling to his knees in the process. "Please, my dominant, I know he's not the nicest person to me and he's not the greatest dad either, but he's the only dad I have, and I still love him. Please don't kill him." Hiccup cries, his eyes flooded by the tears that threaten to fall. 

Hakken halts in his step, lowers to the floor, brings his crying submissive close to him, and licks his love's face to soothe. " Okay, Hiccup, I won't hurt him, but if he hurts you again, he will learn the consequences of hurting my most precious love ." The dragon coos, soothing his love, until both hear a loud crash downstairs and the sound of footsteps.

" Hakken, hide, please .” Hiccup pleads through the bond as the dragon nods, hops onto the rafters in the small den, and hides safely in the shadows. From his spot, he can see Hiccup. 

Stoick quickly approaches his son's room with his war axe in hand and sees Hiccup on his knees with a few tear streaks on his face. "Son, what's wrong? I heard you screaming. Who do I need to hang?" He asked, sounding worried, scanning the room for any intruders.

"Oh, um, I was just praying to Freya again, hoping this time she would open my womb so that someday I could birth the future of Berk." Hiccup lied with a hollow laugh. 

Buying the lie, Stoick nodded. "Yes, well, best get some sleep; you've got a big day tomorrow, and you can't kill a dragon when you're swaying on your feet from lack of sleep." As Stoick returned to the lower level, Hiccup waited until he heard the snoring before looking around the room.

" Hakken?" He called out through the bond and stood rewarded with the sight of his beloved dragon lover.

" I'm here, my love ." Hakken greeted, glaring at the hole where Stoick came in through. " Your sire is right though, you have been through a lot today and must sleep ." 

Hiccup grabbed the dragon's head. "Can you stay with me until I fall asleep?" he asked gently.

Hakken nuzzles his mate as he licks the exposed skin under Hiccup's chin, earning a small moan from the human. " Of course, my love, where is your nest ?" He wondered as Hiccup pointed towards a small rectangular bed with one pillow but no blanket. " Alright, go lay down, and I shall stand guard." He watches as his human lover gets comfortable and drapes his tail and wings over the boy but keeps his weight off the nest.

Hiccup tries to sleep and is almost there until he remembers something and giggles. "Remember when we first met Hakken, when you came to my house during that raid?" He wondered out of the blue.

Hakken peeks into the cocoon his wings made and chuckles a little. He also remembers the memory: " I remember thinking you were small, even for a human child, but very adorable. I didn't want to scare you." Now it's late, and you need rest; don't make me force you, " the night fury orders firmly.

Hiccup inherited his father's stubbornness by crossing his arms over his chest, but his eyes shined with confusion. "Really?" he challenged.

Hakken's eyes slit as he stares down his defiant submissive, " Ten ." He begins counting.

The confusion within the human's eyes deepens as he wonders why his love is counting.

" Nine, eight ." Hakken continues.

"Um Hakken, why are you counting backwards?" Hiccup asked, puzzled.

" Seven, six, five. I'm giving you a chance to take back your challenge ." The black dragon confesses as he sees in Hiccup's eyes that he's really, honestly tired but somehow still awake.

Hiccup's eyes droop a little, but he remains awake, the stubbornness still present though it begins to waver.

"Four, three, two, one. Times up." Hakken uncurls from his submissive position and stands beside the bed. "Stand, " he orders in his dominant voice.

Hiccup obeys silently, wondering what's going on. He begins to back up to the wall, and the night fury stalks towards him until there is only a little room between him and the wall, and his lover corners him.

"Lift your arms above your head. Hiccup so you can receive your punishment for defying me." Hakken commands.

The submissive human does as he's told, but his body trembles slightly, "Oh." All he can say at the thought of his first punishment is a mutter. 

" Yes, I did inform you after we mated that I, as your dominant, am allowed to punish you since you're my submissive. I gave a command for your health and well-being, but you challenged it, so now you must be punished. Does that make sense ?" Hakken explained that he noticed Hiccup nodding and the dragon stood on his hind legs. He used one paw to hold the human's hands above his head and against the wall. He then brought his tail around and roomed his human lover out into the opening a little more before swatting twice at Hiccup's backside, not hard enough to cause pain but enough to get the point across.

Hiccup's eyes widened; yes, he felt a little pain, but not nearly as much as he did whenever he got a flogging from his dad or beaten up by his fellow teens. After two more swats, he feels his hands be released.

“ I'm glad you understand, my love; I wouldn't say I like to punish you. Now, it is time for you to sleep, and I can see in your eyes and body that you are beyond exhausted." Hakken cooed as he began nudging Hiccup to his nest.

"Least I know you're punishing me out of love and protectiveness and not out of anger or spite and not to hurt me." Hiccup slurred his words, his body quickly giving in to sleep as the dragon's lover's vision slowly blurred.

"Hakken leans down as he kisses his lover's forehead. "Of course not, Hiccup; I would never hurt you with punishment or out of anger. Remember, these are helpful punishments, never harmful." 

Hiccup nods, thinking it'll be easier said than done to get rid of all the self-negativity he has dealt with his whole life but decides to think about it later as he enters the lands of dreams.

Hakken stays until the early morning when there's still enough darkness to hide in. After kissing his still-sleeping submissive, the black dragon pulls a black scale from his paw and gently lays it in Hiccup's open palm. He then goes out the window and hides in the shadows of the trees, not wanting to leave his submissive alone in a village of humans who have hurt his love until the sun shines directly into the trees. The rare dragon must retreat deep into the forest to avoid existing. 

Hiccup wakes up and sees he's alone in his bedroom. He remembers what happened today—the funeral and the final test. He stretches until he feels something in his palm and opens his fist to reveal a small black scale. " Hakken, did you leave this scale with me for a reason ?" he questions through the bond.

" Yes, I did, my love; use it during your final test. Show it to the nightmare, whose name is Hookfang, and he'll remember me and protect you from harm." Hakken responses.

Hiccup smiles, trusting that his dominant knows best. As he trots down the stairs, he notices his funeral attire still on the table. Hiccup removes his night clothes with a heavy sigh and replaces them with the black robe and pants. He goes to the mirror and looks at his reflection with an unfocused gaze. He's worn attire similar to this before, ever since he could walk, and his dad decided that since Hiccup had the god's powers, he should carry out the funerals for the fallen Vikings. So, at every funeral, Hiccup would dress up and then pray for the blessings of the fallen. He moves the collar of his robe to cover his mating mark. His thoughts were interrupted by his father coming into the house.

Stoick strolls over to his son and places a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "Aye, you look great, son, and when you are done sending our fallen to their eternal home, you can come back here and prepare for your big moment." He beamed with excitement before he became serious and kneeled to his son's level, "Hiccup, I know that I can be hard on you sometimes, but you're my only son, and I want to protect you from everything, including yourself sometimes. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm proud of you, son, and I love you." Stoick admits, looking directly into his son's forest-green eyes.

Hiccup's mind was in turmoil. For so long, he had wanted to hear those words from his dad, but now they twisted the knots in his stomach because he knew he was not what his father believed him to be. Instead, he smiled and replied, "Thanks, Dad. I'll try my best today." earned him a hearty laugh from his father as they both left the house and went to the shore, where the prayers floated alongside the bodies or ashes of fallen Vikings.

"Oh, so many funerals this island has seen, and yet we have a runt officiating them just because he can do a few party tricks." An elderly pale man with a skinny cane curved into himself at the top. It also had dragon teeth embedded within the top. His white hair stuck out under his helmet, and his sheep walked beside him.

"You know full well why Hiccup does these funerals, Mildew, so keep your opinions to yourself," Gobber remarked as he shoved a bow and arrow roughly into the elder Vikings' hands. 

Mildew grumbled and wobbled away just as Hiccup and Stoick arrived. Stoick ordered all the Vikings to take their positions and instructed Harok to fire the arrows. Once he had followed his orders, he signaled for Hiccup to begin.

After making his way to the shoreline, Hiccup sees all the funeral boats floating in the water and sighs sadly. ' So much death on both sides, and neither one knows they're more alike than different.' Taking one of the bows and placing it beside him, the black outfit teen lowers to the ground and prays, "Brave souls, may you be welcome in Valhalla, where your long journey has finally led you. May your souls be at peace as we bid farewell to your earthly vessels, and know that we carry your strength, determination, and courage inside us. May the Gods greet you and celebrate your weary journey, and know that one day we shall meet together again in the halls of Valhalla." He recites as he watches the prices preparers push the prices out to sea. Hiccup then lights the arrow from the fire that Hoark made. He then fires the arrow, which lands on one of the prices. "Send them off." He says to his dad. He then sees many more flaming arrows fly and land on the funeral vessels as they burn, some sinking.

"May they know peace." Stoick whispers, "Go and get ready, Hiccup." He orders his son, who nods, quietly escapes the scene, and returns home. Once inside, Hiccup lets out a frustrated yell. His feelings of terror and anger unknowingly transfer over the bond as Hiccup sighs and changes his clothes from a black robe to a long-sleeved green shirt, brown-furred vest, and brown boots. 

"I have to show them the truth; dragons aren't evil or dangerous like they think." He speaks to his reflection in the mirror as he runs his hand over the mating mark and begins to head out. He quickly returns to his room and grabs the helmet his dad gave him and the small black scale. He silently prays that his mother is watching and protecting him. Once he steps outside, his little cousins Sif and Melody tackle him.

"Good morning, Systrungr." They both say in childlike innocence that, unlike Snotlout, who picks on Hiccup regularly, Haddock's younger cousins treat him like a human being and are very polite to him.

"Um, guys, it's early afternoon." Hiccup corrects them but greets them with a smile nonetheless. 

"We just woke up; is it true, cousin Hiccup, that you're going to kill the big bad dragon?" Sif asked, pushing his oversized helmet up as it kept slipping over his eyes. 

Hiccup nods slowly. "That's what everyone wants me to do, and it's not like I have much say in the matter." He explains to the seven-year-old twins. 

"But has that dragon ever hurt you or anyone you know?" Melody countered with her hands on her hips, which reminded Hiccup so much of his aunt Ama.

"Well no, and that's what I'm trying to prove that dragons don't hurt unless it's necessary." Hiccup returned with a small smile.

"Well, if they haven't hurt you, then you shouldn't hurt them; it's not very nice." The seven-year-old twin girl commented.

"You're right, Melody; that's exactly what I've been thinking." Hiccup beams as he notices Sif looking at him funny. "Um, Sif, are you okay?" 

"Cousin Hiccup, why do you have that mark near your shoulder?" The seven-year-old twin boy asked as he tried to touch the mating mark, but Hiccup stopped him.

"It's a long story unsuitable for kids your age." Hiccup replies. "Now, why don't you guys head to the arena, find a good seat, and try not to get trampled?" He goes to shoo his younger cousins, only to be surprised when they both come up and hug him.

"Be safe, cousin Hiccup." They both say as they end the hug and race to the arena.

Smiling that someone in his family loves him, Hiccup makes his way to the arena.

The Arena

The arena seats were packed with Vikings cheering and shouting with Astrid, Snotlout, the twins, and Fishlegs all in the front rows, with Snotlout and the Thronston twins leaning on the metal bars of the arena. Dogsbreath and his goons were on the other side of the arena, seething with annoyance and anger at all the fuss about Hiccup. At last, Stoick makes his way to the stage where the chief's chair is. "Well, I can finally show my face in public again." He joked as the crowd roared with laughter. Stoick held his hand up, and the crowd instantly became silent. If someone had told me in a few weeks that Hiccup would go from being, well, Hiccup to placing first in dragon training, I would have tied him to a mast and shipped him off the island for fear he'd gone mad, and you know it." He announced as another roar of cheers and laughter came from the excited Vikings. "But here we are; no one is more surprised or proud than me; today, my boy becomes a man; today, he becomes one of us!" Stoick yells as the Vikings, twins, and Snotlout cheer loudly.

Hiccup stands in the tunnel connecting to the arena; the metal door separates him from the arena as he listens to his father's speech and runs his hand over the helmet he brings with him. He's so engrossed in his thoughts he doesn't see the shadow approaching him until he feels the hot breath of a dragon and his dominant mate's voice. He jumps in fright and nearly drops his helmet. " Hakken, what are you doing here?" He questions through the bond; his eyes dart to look behind the dragon to ensure no one is there. 

" Did you believe that I would leave you to deal with this alone? I'm here to ensure your safety and well-being." Hakken answered straight as he picked up another scent on his beloved one, but it smelled of innocence, " You've been sending terror and anger through the bond a lot today."

"I have to try and show everyone—show my dad that dragons aren't mindless killing tools and that you guys can be trusted." Hiccup responds as Hakken nuzzles his beloved's chest, and Hiccup responds by lifting the dragon's head so he can kiss scaly lips and breathe in the musky scent that is quickly becoming his favorite scent.

"Be safe, my love, and show those Vikings that we're better together than apart." Hakken cheered as Hiccup giggled when the night fury licked his exposed skin between his collarbone, giggles turning into small moans. 

Hiccup moves away from his dominance as Hakken jumps to the tunnel's roof and hangs upside down. The human puts on his helmet and moves into the arena once the door lifts. Once inside the roaring arena, Hiccup goes over and picks out a small knife and a shield.

"Hmm, I would've gone with the hammer," Stoick mutters as he and Gobber look at the scene curiously.

Once he's in the middle of the arena, Hiccup announces, "I'm ready." As the cage door opens, a giant dragon bursts out. Its body is completely engulfed in flames as it climbs on the metal surrounding the arena.

"Hey, runt, if you last five seconds, maybe it'll only burn half of you, the lower half." Dogsbreath sniggers as Hookfang circles around lower to the ground and snarls at Hiccup.

Hiccup drops the shield and knife, much to the confusion of his father and the spectators in the stands. " Hey, it's okay ." He whispers in dragonese to the monstrous nightmare.

" You shot down the Prince; where is he human? Tell me now!" Hookfang roared as he began to flame up, his tail lashing wildly behind him, only for the male nightmare to look in confusion as Hiccup held up the black scale from before.

"He's right in that tunnel, is also my dominant mate, and is very protective of me. I promise I'm truly sorry for what I did to him, but know I would never harm him or any dragon ." Hiccup pleaded vaguely and heard the dominant mate's low growls at the tone directed at his submissive from the monstrous nightmare.

Hookfang immediately ceased his flames and bowed his head to the auburn hair, " Forgive me, my Lord, for believing you to be a threat and for thinking you killed Prince Hakken. I will if you allow me to protect you from these humans." 

Hiccup nods as he sends calmness to his dominant. " But we have to make this look like an actual fight, and hopefully Hakken won't come bursting in here thinking you're actually trying to kill me ." He quips, knowing that said Night Fury would do precisely that. 

While all this was happening, Stoick looked at the scene with anger and fear. "Stop the fight." He ordered.

Hiccup places his hand on his dad, saying, "No, I need you all to see this." He begins to put his hand on Hookfang's snout. "They are not what we think they are; we don't have to kill them." His eyes show genuine trust in the massive dragon before him as Hookfang purrs. 

The entire arena was silent as Stoick fumed, pulled out his hammer, and yelled, "I SAID STOP THE FIGHT!" As his hammer slammed onto the metal, it caused a loud, echoing sound, and Hookfang jolted and protected Hiccup by pinning him down with his massive claws. 

"Oh no." Hiccup gasped as everything happened at once. Vikings began pouring into the arena, and Hookfang growled and tried to shield Hiccup from the onslaught of humans, but he was overpowered by metal nets and tied down, but not before he let Hiccup go and urged him to go back to the Prince. He stood then placed back into the cage. Hiccup tries to run out of the chaos in the arena, only to run into Hakken, who ran into the arena once the door lifted. The night fury curls around his submissive and inspects him for injuries. "Hakken, go; you must leave before they get you too." He urges the male night fury as he tries to push the dragon away.

Hakken growls and shakes his head, his toxic pupils flaring with fierce anger and protectiveness. " No, I won't leave you unprotected, my love; I knew this was a bad idea." Both mates suddenly hear a loud war roar as Stoick comes charging towards Hakken. He sees the night fury curling around his son, and he believes the dragon is hurting Hiccup. 

"NO HAKKEN!" Hiccup screamed as he saw his dominant lunge for his father. The two fought, tumbling over one another until Hakken eventually pinched The Chief to the ground hard and began to build up a plasma blast. 

"No, no, NO HAKKEN STOP!” Hiccup screams as Hakken ceases his attack. He looks over and sees his beloved with tears in his eyes, and the midnight-colored dragon's demeanor dramatically changes to one of concern and distress that his submissive is hurt and he's part of the reason why.

"My Hiccup, I'm sorry he was going to hurt me, and I didn't mean to cause you so much suffering, my submissive." Hakken apologized profusely through the bond, to which Hiccup nodded, knowing his mate was following his dominant instincts to protect the young heir. 

Stoick takes the moment and punches Hakken, which makes the dragon back up and off the chief of Berk. Ten Vikings tie the night fury down as Stoick swiftly and over grabs his son, who tries to run to the downed dragon. The elder Haddock looks between his son and the dragon and sees them struggling to get to one another as a sense of deja vu comes upon him. "Lock that dragon up with the others and bolt down its bindings." He begins to pull his struggling son out of the arena.

“No, no, no dad, please, Hakken. No, please don't take him away from me." Hiccup screeches as he suddenly feels something in his mind slip into place. A memory from long ago as a similar scene replays itself in his mind of when he was six years old and his father separated him and Hakken before he ordered Gothi to. 'No, it's impossible.' His thoughts begged it not to be accurate, but his memories didn't lie as he saw his father order Gothi to seal Hiccup's memories of Hakken. "HAKKEN!" Hiccup shouts in pure anguish, his heart breaking.

" HICCUP!" Hakken roared just as heartbroken. 

Hiccup is dragged to the Great Hall by his father and tossed into the room as his sire mutters to himself. "I should've known; the signs were all there. All this time it was a lie." Stoick mutters in anger, his prominent figure trembling with an intense fury that Hiccup rarely sees but terrifies him when he does. 

"It was you; you had my memories sealed away. Eight years of my life, I've been living with these holes in my memories, and I believed the lie for what? Tell me!" Hiccup shouted the last part, his eyes shining with tears as they begged for it not to be true. 

Stoick gave his offspring an icy glare, a dark shadow cast over his features, making him look more intimidating. "I did what I had to. Your destiny is Berk, not dragons, and I refuse to let you accept otherwise. Tomorrow, that Night Fury will die!" He declares.

Hiccup roars as he steps before his father, "I won't let you take him away from me again. I refuse to let you hurt my dominant mate." 

Stoick's eyes widened. "Dominant mate, what are you?" He pauses as his eyes narrow on Hiccup's collarbone and notices a bite mark. "You gave yourself to that dragon. You mated to that beast!" Stoick roared, red in the face from anger. 

"I gave myself to the love of my life. Hakken loves me and has treated me better in a month than I have been here for fourteen years. You don't understand them; the dragons are forced into slavery because of the Red Death. She makes them bring her food to the nest, including Hakken, because he's her second in command."  Hiccup reveals as Stoick's eyes widen.

"Nest, so you've been to the nest?" He exclaimed with a whisper that sounded more deadly than comforting. 

Hiccup begins to panic at the words as he sees the gears in his dad's mind conducting an idea. "Well, I didn't; Hakken did; only a dragon can." He stutters, his voice shaky as he sways back and forth, his eyes darting back and forth from the wall to his father as he observes his dad straightening up and walking towards the large doors. "Oh no, dad, you can't. No, Dad, please, for once in your life, listen to me!" Hiccup pleads as he clings to his father's arm, only to be tossed back onto the floor. He looks up and sees no love or warmth in his father's eyes, only disgust and anger. 

"They've killed hundreds of us, my father, my brothers, and your mother, yet you try to defend them," Stoick accuses his only child. 

"And we've killed thousands of them; they're not much different from us. They were just defending themselves. Please, dad, don't. I'm begging you; please don't go. Don't take Hakken away from me again." Hiccup begins to weep, his forest green orbs drowning with unshed tears, his tone brittle compared to what it was in the arena.  

Stoick glares down at his son and sees the six-year-old Hiccup begging his father not to take the black hatchling away; he also sees his son giving himself to the night fury. He sees his son leaving and never returning, only to hear that Hiccup died because of dragons. "You throw your lot in with them; you give your virginity to that night fury and allow yourself to stand defiled by it as well; you're not a Viking." You're not my son." With that, Stoick walks out of the Great Hall and yells for the fastest ships to stand, prepared to leave at first light.

The arena (Nightfall)

 Loud clanking could be heard, chains rattling as Hakken struggled desperately to get free and to his submissive. " Hiccup!" "HICCUP !" He roars through the bond, which has been sad and hurt since Hiccup stood taken away from the arena. " Please, my love, let me know you're okay. Please don't harm yourself, my Hiccup ." He begged, remembering his beloved's unhealthy coping style. 

" My prince, it's no use; our fire can't blast through metal no matter how hot ." Barf cooed but stood met with more struggles from the night fury. The dragons were grateful to see their Prince alive but knew not to ask him about the status of the nest, not with the night fury in distress wondering about his mate.

Suddenly a scent could stand smelled coming from the entrance of the arena, and every dragon peeked through the top of their cages, though Hakken smelled a familiar scent, and his eyes softened from their slit form. " Hiccup." He coos through the bond, but no response calls back to him, just silence. " Hiccup, please, my heart, talk to me; tell me you're okay, something, please ." Hakken pleads until his snout picks up another familiar scent, the scent of blood, and it's coming from Hiccup's wrists. " Oh, Hiccup ." The Fury coos, knowing why his love wasn't answering through the bond. He hears whimpers that turn into sniffles until the smell of tears reaches his snout. 

"It was him; he was the one who ordered my memories to be sealed eight years ago." Hiccup finally talked, his voice thick with sadness and pain. 

" Who did my love, you're father ?" the dragon asked, and the human answered with a choked sob, and that was all he needed to know. He growled despite the muzzle on his person until he saw a bloody hand reaching out for him under the cage door.

"Please, Hakken, please, I need to feel you." Hiccup begs and stands rewarded when a dry snout presses into his palm. "I punished myself; I just couldn't take it all. Please, Hakken, don't leave me again. I finally got you back, and now I will be alone again." Hiccup cried, leaning against the cold, steel door that separated him from his beloved.

Hakken wished he could comfort his love correctly. "You'll never lose me, Hiccup; your father is taking me to the nest so that I can direct them to the exact location to strike. Also, remember that if I pass then so will you. Although it may take a while for you to pass, perhaps a few months at least, but eventually we'll be together again and always."

Hiccup's anguished cries grew louder, his heart breaking at the thought of being separated from his love, even in death. The pain of knowing he would live for a few months while his dominance was gone overwhelmed him. He wept until his tears ran dry, refusing to leave his beloved's side because he couldn't bear the thought of being without Hakken. As exhaustion set in, he fought against sleep, feeling restless without Hakken curling around him.

Feeling his submissive's fatigue through the bond, the midnight-colored dragon tries to coax his beloved to rest. "Hiccup, please sleep; you're physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted." Hakken cooed firmly. He remembered a song Hiccup hummed to himself one night in the cove when it was raining and the mates took shelter in the small cave. Hakken began humming the tune, and he heard his beloved gasp and a small whimper before he heard Hiccup humming as well. While Hakken continued to hum, he soon heard tiny snores from outside the cage. He leans down and licks the hand clean of blood. "I love you, Hiccup Haddock; no matter what happens I'll never be separated again.

Chapter Text

Next Morning

The docks are bustling with final preparations for the journey to the nest. "Let's go get the beast and load it onto the boat," Stoick gruffly instructed as he, along with Gobber, Spitlout, and a few other Vikings, headed towards the arena. The chief opens the gate and sees Hiccup lying against the door to the cage containing the night fury; he notices the young teen sound asleep and hears the low growls of the awake black dragon. 

Haork and Sven grab Hiccup, pulling him awake and away from the door as it swings open. Hakken stands pushed out by Spitlout and the other Viking men who have arrived. "No, Hakken!" Hiccup cries in distress as he breaks from Haork and Sven's grip. He clings desperately to Hakken's neck, trying to hold on, with small tears forming in the corners of his eyes. 

The Viking men are shocked when the onyx-colored dragon ceases his thrashing and gently coos to his submissive with a gentle nuzzle as if the dragon was comforting the frantic teen until he sees Stoick walk up, and his gentle eyes turn to slits. A muffled growl emerges as Hiccup's father grabs the fretful teen and yanks him away. The black dragon begins struggling once more as he's led out of the arena, and he spares one more look at his love before he's gone from view.

Stoick then leads his now-disowned heir to the house, pulls the boy in, and drags him upstairs. "You are to stay here, and I'll deal with your punishment when I get back. This time, Gohti is erasing all of your memories." He threatens, his eyes glowering down at his now-disowned son as he moves back down the stairs. He ignores the choked sob from his offspring as he slams the door shut and barracks it.

Hiccup rushes down the stairs and tries to push the door open but finds it's bolted shut. "Damn it." He curses loudly as he presses his forehead against the cool, wooden door. He places his hand against the frame and debates using his power to break the door despite knowing using such a big spell would drain him, but then decides he doesn't care at the moment and presses his other hand against the door and closes his eyes and scrunches his brows in concentration, 'Hata , skid!' He yells as the door stands unexpectedly blown to pieces; the young healer raises his arms and speaks a spell, skald-borg, as a blue shield appears before the young Haddock and protects him. Ignoring the murmurs of the Vikings who have come to see what transpired at the chief's house as well as the weariness that comes with using spells, Hiccup runs out the now-destroyed door and rushes past his fellow surprised teens and heads towards the docks. Once he gets there, he sees about ten longboats, all armed to the teeth with catapults and piles upon piles of weapons. In the center of the fleet is the chief's ship, and he sees Vikings chaining a struggling Hakken to the boat and placing a large, round holder around his neck. 

"Set sail; we head for Helm's Gate!" The leader of Berk orders his fleet as he looks up and is shocked to see Hiccup on top of the hill overlooking the docks with a look of sadness and heartbreak; his forest green orbs that Stoick has known are now hollow and empty. 'He must have used his powers to break free.' The elder Haddock, The Berk Leader, thought as he noticed the Night Fury looking up at the boy as well, and he heard a muffled coo from the dragon. Shaking off the shock and the guilt rising in his chest, Stoick leans down and sneers at the trapped dragon, "I got rid of you once, and I can and will do it again." His voice aggressive, Hakken glares at the older Haddock as the fleet moves out of the waters of Berk and into the open ocean.

Hours fly by, and Hiccup remains where he stands long after the boats are gone. He feels the bond between him and his dominant go cold due to distance. "Why did you do that?" a voice asks him. He slowly turns and sees Fishlegs standing a few feet away, looking at him with wide-eyed curiosity. 

"Why do you care, and why are you even around me anyway? Aren't you worried that I'll be cursed or something?" The disbanded teen remarks as the husky Viking's eyes widen, "Yes, I knew that's why you avoided me, Fishlegs, and no, I'm not cursed or anything, just the first Viking in three hundred years to not kill a dragon." The green-eyed Haddock responded in a brittle tone. 

"But you did something with that Nightmare, and then there's that Night Fury; it's like he was protecting you, and the Monstrous Nightmare was helping." The younger Ingerman member responded, his eyes shining with sheer interest, thinking about what his peer had done with dragons. 

Hiccup begins walking away from the cliff as he shrugs absentmindedly, "That's what a dominant mate does to their submissive; they protect them. Yes, Hakken is my dominant mate, despite being a dragon, and he is the second in command of the nest, and soon he'll be dead unless I figure out a way to save him."

"Wait, where are you going?" Fishlegs wondered as he saw Hiccup begin to pick up speed and head towards the arena. 

"I can't save Hakken on my own; I need backup. What better way to save my dragon than with those who are loyal to him and, apparently, me now?" The retreating human yelled back as he rushed to the arena. Fishlegs came up with an idea and raced to find the others. Once at the arena, Hiccup stands before the remaining dragons' cages. "Um, can all of you hear me?" He calls out to the dragons, eyes darting back and forth, looking at each cage. 

"We're here, young one; we're terribly sorry for what happened to the prince." Stormfly squawked in sympathy. 

Hiccup whimpers a little at the mention of his mate and wraps his arms around himself as his eyes fill with tears. "I need to go save him, but I can't do it alone; I need your help, please." 

"How can we help you, my lord?" Hookfang asked quickly.

Before Hiccup could answer, he heard a familiar voice behind him, "If your plan is to get eaten, I'd definitely go for the gronkle." Fishlegs mentions, as he  Astrid, Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut all stand at the entrance. 

The Night Fury's submissive whips around and sees all his classmates inside the arena. "What do you guys want? Come here to see Hiccup, the screw-up, perform his latest failure. Well, I don't have time; I have to go save Hakken." He remarked sarcastically. 

"That's why we're here, useless. You can't go on this mission alone; it's suicide, and I'm not ready to tell Melody and Sif why you decided to go all crazy in your final hours." Snotlout chuckled with his arms folded over his chest. 

"Personally, I think it would be awesome to ride a dragon. Think of all the destruction we could cause, right, sis?" Tuff exclaims with eyes that light up like a Snoggletog tree. 

"Oh, the pranks! Think of the pranks." Ruffnut countered with just as much enthusiasm. 

"Point is, Hiccup, you can't go out by yourself, and what you did was stupid and reckless but kind of cool too." Astrid admitted as she flung her bangs back. 

Hiccup stares at all of his classmates in wide-eyed disbelief. "Look, even if I wanted to let you guys go, none of you know a single thing about riding a dragon, and I don't have the time to teach you. And I honestly don't trust you with these dragons or any dragon for that matter." 

"Look, Hiccup, I know that we aren't friends, but let us help you get your dragon back. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm actually a little bit curious about dragons, especially after witnessing what happened earlier." Fishlegs admitted nervously as his gaze drooped towards the dusty-covered arena floor.

Sighing heavily, Hiccup goes to protest, but Meatlug's voice stops him. "If I may, my lord, could I see the human you are conversing with?" He seems sincere, she adds.

Confused by the request but understanding that dragons are mysterious creatures, Hiccup abides by the gronkle's request and pulls the lever as the female gronkle slowly flies out. She cautiously approaches Fishlegs as the beefy teen tenses up, "Just relax, Fishlegs; let her come to you and make no sudden moves." Hiccup instructs. Meatlug circles around the younger Ingerman, sniffing him over until she stops. She chirps, her eyes becoming round and dilated. 

"He seems sincere. My Lord, with your permission, I would like the opportunity to see if he and I could bond." Meatlug warbles to Hiccup, who looks at the gronkle in shock before looking back at Fishlegs.

"Well, Fishlegs, she seems to have taken a liking to you; she'd like the chance to bond with you." Hiccup explains as he motions for the heavy teen to come closer. As Fishlegs comes closer, Hiccup takes the other teen's hand and brings it closer to Meatlug. "Relax and let her make the first move; turn your head to the side like this and close your eyes." He shows Fishlegs the same movements he did when he bonded with Hakken.

Fishlegs mimics the movements, and soon, he feels the rough texture of Meatlug's snout pressed into his palm. "Whoa, this is amazing." He gasps, completely stunned. What's her name?" He asks. 

"Meatlug," Hiccup replies, a small smile appearing on the slim teen's lips at the interaction, but his heart hurts when he remembers Hakken. 

"Um, my lord, may we try as well with those two, the ones who smell the same?" He hears Barf and Belch ask gently.

"You mean the twins?" He asked, looking at the cage containing the Zippleback with a wayward glance. 

"Yes. " They both say in unison.

Hiccup debated within his mind but thought it might be a good idea for a twin dragon to be with the twins. He goes over and pulls the lever as Barf and Belch come out. "Ruff, Tuff, Barf, and Belch would like to try bonding with you." 

Both Thornston siblings looked at each other with skepticism showing in their eyes and gulped before allowing the zippleback to circle them and sniff them before Hiccup told them to do the same thing Fishlegs did with Meatlug. Both tensed when they felt the two heads press into their palms, but then they relaxed. "Hey, this isn't so bad," Tuffnut admitted. His twin nodded in agreement. 

Hiccup smiled again, but this time, it was hollow as time was running out, and he began to feel anxious and worried about his dominant mate as he bit his lip to keep from whimpering. "I want one; which one do I get?" Snotlout shook his cousin roughly until Hookfang roared from the cage, causing the younger Jorgenson to freeze in fear. 

"It's okay, Hookfang, please calm down." Hiccup assured the flaming nightmare as he opened the cage door, and the red and orange dragon came flying out and stood in front of the tiny human, protecting the prince's mate, but he could see and smell the worry surrounding the prince's submissive quite clearly. "I think you and Snotlout would be a good pair together; you both are quick reactors and quick-tempered, um, no offense." Hiccup explained fast as he heard a low chuckle from the nightmare. 'Snotlout, come here." He ordered his cousin, but the Jorgenson boy remained in his spot. Rolling his eyes, Hiccup goes over to his cousin, but Hookfang beats him to it, sniffs over the younger Jorgenson, lifts his tail to lift Snotlout's hand, and presses his snout into the palm.

"Hey, that was impressive." He giggles lightly, with soft merit in his eyes, as he pets the dragon's head. All the other new riders get settled with their dragons.

Hiccup bites down on his lip harder as he begins to feel the panic spreading throughout him. As he begins to feel overwhelmed by the separation from his beloved, he hears Astrid attempting to bond with Stormfly, but she quickly becomes frustrated. "Come on, just hold still." The blue-eyed shield maiden growls, her ocean-blue eyes blazing with the well-known fiery spirit she's known for, as Stormfly also growls.

"Whoa, Stormfly, don't kill her; Astrid, back off!" Hiccup yells at both girls by getting in between them. "Astrid, she remembers you as the one who smashed a shield on her head in training, and she can smell your anger. I'm taking her with me, and you'll fly with me because Hakken needs me now, and you're wasting time-fighting with her." Hiccup scolded as he noticed the shield maiden glaring hard at him. He went over and tied together ropes and then went to each dragon, laced them over their heads, and pulled on them to ensure they were secure. "You guys are going to need something to hold onto. Now climb on, and dragons follow me!" Hiccup hollered as he hopped onto Stormfly and helped Astrid up as well. Once secure, he ushered the nadder into the sky. 'Hang on, Hakken, I'm coming.' H e thought. 

Helium's Gate

Stoick stood at the helm of his ship as it floated slowly through the fog bank. He would often glare at the Night Fury, whose head hung down, and the Viking chief could hear a few whimpers coming from the dragon. "Did you have to separate them so harshly?" Gobber asked, standing beside his best friend as he looked back at the chained dragon. 

"I just don't understand Gobber; he gave himself to that dragon, our mortal enemy, and even worse, the dragon in question is a night fury, the unholy offspring of lightning and death. I thought I got rid of that dragon years ago, but now not only has it returned, but it's taken Hiccup's virginity and has convinced him that it loves him." He growled, disgusted by the vivid possibilities of what the Night Fury might have done to Hiccup. His fists balled up so tightly the veins were bulging out. 

"Ye don't know that that's what happened, and need I remind you that Gothi told you that the spell could be temporary? And besides, as much as we don't know about night furies, if you're going to have a dragon protector, a night fury would be the best." Gobber countered.

"Hiccup doesn't need a dragon protector, and I refuse to acknowledge that beast as my son-in-law!" The enraged chief roared as he pointed angrily at Hakken.

The elder blacksmith went to respond, but before he could, Hakken's head perked up as he tilted his head, his ears pointing straight up. "Come home, my heir; lead those humans to their deaths." The midnight-colored dragon hears the honeyed voice command of his Queen, and without his love's presence to break through the control, Hakken's mind falls under the power of the Red Death as his eyes slit, and he tilts his head in the direction of the nest.

Stoick sees this and turns the ship in the direction the Night Fury points to. He does this each time Hakken points in a different direction, passing by the debris of sunken ships until the boat docks on the wet sand of Dragon Island. He vaguely sees Hakken struggling in his chains as the chief jumps off the boat and observes where he has been searching for a long time. A sense of accomplishment bubbles within his heart. "Alright, I want those catapults loaded and ready to fire on my signal." He ordered as several Vikings nodded and proceeded to carry out the orders. Many other Vikings began sharpening and placing parameters around the island as Stoick started to draw out a layout of an assault. "When we crack open this mountain, all hell's gonna break loose." He commented. Whatever happens, it ends today." He gives an overview of the process and sees all the catapults locked and loaded as the chief lifts his hand and silently motions for the catapults to launch. Several large boulders fly from the shoreline and the boats as they make contact with the side of the volcano, creating a massive hole in the side. After Stoick makes his way into the hole, he hears low growls and coos around the opening and sees dragons all crowded around one another. 'Why don't they attack?' He wondered.

Another boulder, this one on fire, is set off and travels down into the hole as it shows thousands upon thousands of dragons littering the ceiling of the impact zone. With a war cry and his axe raised, Stoick begins to head into the heart of the cave, only for all the dragons to suddenly fly out into the opening. Every Viking tries to swipe at the fleeing dragons, but the dragons are too fast, and all head up into the fog-filled sky as Hakken fights the control of the Red Death on the ship, still struggling within his chains.

"Is that it?" Gobber questions as he hears chains rattling and glances at the struggling Night Fury, and notices Hakken's eyes going from slits to dilated. As every Viking begins to cheer, believing the battle to be over, the peg-legged Viking goes over to his best friend, "Eh, Stoick, look at the Night Fury." 

Stoick looks at Hakken and sees the dragon fighting the chains, meaning he's trying to escape like the others. "This isn't over. Hold your ranks and stand strong!" He yells, turning back towards the entrance. A massive roar comes from deep within the volcano, and the ground shakes. Suddenly, the cave starts to collapse as Stoick leaps from his perch. The Red Death's massive head makes its way out and destroys the Rest of the volcano, allowing her gigantic body to stand seen and tower over the entire fleet. "Odin, help us." Very shocked, Stoick whispers in disbelief, his eyes soaking up every detail of the colossal beast as the massive dragon begins her counterattack by unleashing a wave of fire, destroying boats like they were nothing and sending Vikings to the ocean's depths. ' Hiccup was right; we can't beat this. ' Stoick's thoughts tell him as he yells orders to his soldiers, "I was a fool. I need to create a distraction so everyone can try to escape, Gobber. I need you to lead the troops back to the remaining boats and try to get off the island." He admits to his second in command. 

"Not going to happen, old friend. I'm not going to let you die when you still have to apologize to Hiccup, and besides, I can double the trouble for this beast." Gobber countered as the two friends smiled at one another and tried to distract the Queen by making themselves a target and using the spears as weapons. 

A nadder and zippleback notice the prince trying to escape. "Prince Hakken, don't worry; we'll save you!" The nadder cawed as Hakken regained enough control to see the Red Death lock eyes with him and the two dragons coming to help him.

"No! Stay back!" He tries to warn, but it's too late as a stream of fire blasts both dragons, reducing them to ashes.

"Thank you, my heir, for bringing these vermin to our home. Once we finish them, I'll have you take care of that little parasite you brought here a day ago." The Queen sneered as she took control of Hakken's mind once again despite his fight for power.

"Hiccup." Hakken whimpers worriedly as his mind becomes clouded by the Queen's control, and his pupils become slits once more. 

Once the Night Fury is under her control, the Red Death leans up and builds up gas in her mouth to unleash a large fireball until she's blasted off balance by a fireball from Hookfang. "Ruff, Tuff, watch your back; move, Fishlegs!" Hiccup orders as he leads the arena dragons around the battlefield on top of Stormfly.

Stoick and Gobber look on in amazement and shock, seeing Hiccup leading his fellow teens into battle on dragons. "Every boar-headed Viking you ever were, " the hook-armed Viking comments with amusement in his eyes as Stoick nods simply in too much shock. 

"Look at us! We're on a dragon! We're riding a dragon!" Tuffnut screamed excitedly as Fishlegs and Snotlout hung onto their dragons for dear life, and Astrid clung to Hiccup's hips, much to his discomfort.

"Fishlegs, break it down. What do you know about that dragon?" Hiccup asked as he pointed to the Red Death.

"Heavily armed skull, used for bashing, six eyes on either side of its head. Uses gas to build up its fire much like a terrible terror." The new dragon rider explains.

"Okay, Lout, Legs, I need you guys to see if you can find a blind spot, make lots of noise, and remember what Gobber said about your shields. He looks at Meatlug and Hookfang . I'm sorry there will be a lot of banging; bear it. " "Ruff, Tuff, I need you two to try and distract it while I look for Hakken." All the teens nod and go to complete their tasks as Hiccup looks through the smoke for his dominance. "Hakken, HAKKEN!" He shouts.

Astrid also looks until she sees a clearing in the smoke and sees the black dragon still chained to a flaming ship. "Hiccup, there he is." She points to the ship below them. 

Hiccup turns Stormfly around and levels her until he's above the black dragon. He jumps off and lands on the ship. "Stormfly, please allow Astrid to fly you and protect her." He asks the nadder, who nods. "Go help the others." He commands as Stormfly heads towards the battle, leaving Hiccup on the ship. The young heir turns and sees his beloved's eyes slit and unmoving, showing he's under the Red Death's control, Hakken!" He yells as he places his hand on the dragon's head, pulls off the muzzle, and brings his mate's head close to his chest.

The Queen's control falls from Hakken's mind as his senses pick up his submissive's presence. His eyes return to normal, and he sees Hiccup right before him. "Hiccup, what are you doing here? It's too dangerous for you to be here!" He roars, his voice petrified.

Hiccup hugs his mate's head tightly. "I'm sorry I couldn't stand by and pray that you would survive; I needed to come and save you." As he pulls on one of the chains, he closes his eyes and concentrates on building up a spell, but before he can, Hakken roars, telling him to watch out. As the Auburn teen moves out of the way, a stem from the ship falls right where the Auburn heir stands. Things go from bad to worse as the Red Death stomps on the boat the mates are on, causing Hakken to begin sinking into the ocean's depths. Hiccup swims down to his sinking mate and tries again to pull the chains, but they don't budge. He builds a blue light in his hands and speaks the spell ' slinta, brynja.' The chain around Hakken's left foreleg breaks as the spellcaster goes to break the others; however, the speaking of spells causes water to enter Hiccup's lungs, combined with overusing his abilities, causing the submissive human to begin losing consciousness.

" hiccup. Hiccup. Come on, my love, stay with me." H akken encourages Hiccup as his eyes close, and a large hand grabs Hiccup and takes him to the surface. "HICCUP! " Hakken roared with a sad, terrified expression as the dragon lowered his head. 'No Hiccup, please, my love, please be okay.' He coos sadly as he looks up and sees Stoick before him. The Berk chief breaks the neck holder off the dragon as well as the Rest of the chains, and Hakken decides to return the favor, much to his chagrin, because in his mind, this was Stoick's fault. He brings the chief to the surface and places him roughly on the ground as Hakken rushes over to his now-conscious mate. " Are you alright, my beloved ?" He curls around his human and checks him over by sniffing him.

Hiccup collapses into his dominant mate, wraps his arms around his night fury, and cries happy tears, relieved to have his mate back. Hakken breathes in Hiccup's scent; relief is also evident in his body. Their moment lives ruined when the Red Death's roar echoes from behind them.

"Let's end this demon queen, Hiccup. Together." Hakken snarls as he goes and roars at the Red Death while gesturing to Hiccup to get on his back. 

"You got it, bud." Hiccup answered as he climbed up, opened the tailfin, and prepared to leave, only to be stopped by Stoick.

"Hiccup, I'm sorry for everything. You don't have to go out there and prove anything." Stoick apologizes as he holds onto his son's arm, his eyes showing genuine concern for his son's life.

"Actions speak louder than words, although your words hurt too. Besides, I mostly did this for Hakken and the other dragons; maybe next time I say you can't handle something, you'll listen to me." Hiccup scolded his chief as he shook off his dad's hand and gave Hakken the okay to take off. Once in the air, the other dragons cleared out, and a loud shriek came with a yell of 'Night Fury.' Hakken let loose a plasma blast that knocked the Queen off balance.

"That little human turned my second in command against me and, even worse, injured me. I'll enjoy making Hakken rip him to shreds, and then I'll kill that lonely heir just like I did his parents. " She promised herself as she revealed her large wings and took to the skies for the first time in a long time. As the Red Death makes it into the sky and begins chasing the Night Fury, her path is blocked by the arena dragons as they begin to attack her.

"This is for my sire and dam !" Stormfly roared as she slammed into the Red Death's head.

"For our entire family!" Hookfang and Meatlug roared as they got their shots in.

"You made us watch as you killed our friends!" Barf and Belch growled as they shot out gas and sparked onto the top of the Queen's head.

Hiccup looked back and saw the dragons distracting the Queen so the mates could plan an attack. The Red Death plowed through sea stacks, and the arena dragons still fired on her. "Alright, Hakken, time to disappear. Let's go! He yelled as he adjusted the tailfin and headed towards the clouds that were dark enough to hide a Night Fury.

As the Queen fought off the assault, she noticed Hakken disappear into the clouds. " No, you won't escape." She roared as she narrowed her eyes and fired at the dragons attacking her.

The arena dragons dodged the attacks as the Queen took off into the clouds, only to be halted by another assault led by Eragon with many other dragons behind him. "My love!" Stormfly screeched as she saw her mate lead the charge. 

The Red Death's multiple eyes widened as she stood pelted with fire from all sides, and she let loose a long stream of fire that hit the flock as some dragons fell. Seeing an opening, The Red Death launches into the clouds and looks and hears for the Night Fury. "Come, dear Hakken, you know you can't protect him and yourself, so why not give him up? He's a human anyway and not much of one at that. Humans and dragons are enemies. You don't want to stand tied down to a useless runt." She coos; however, all she's met with for an answer is plasma blast after plasma blast in her wings.

Hakken growled as he fired off each blast , "For all the night furies you had your servants killed, for all my friends you've slaughtered over the years. For making me do your bidding. " He would growl as he swiftly passed by.

Realizing how quickly she was losing, the Red Death spun in the air and fired a large, twisting stream of fire around the open sky.

Hiccup saw this and again adjusted the tailfin, "Watch out!" He warned, but it was too late as the tailfin stood burnt. “Hakken, your tailfin!” He yelled frantically as the black dragon growled. He began to fall with the queen inches away from him, from Hiccup.

"Hehe, time to die, little boy." The Queen sneered as she began building up a blast.

"Hold Hakken," Hiccup orders through the bond as he feels his mate's anger and the night's fury building up his blast. He closes his eyes and listens until he hears the last gas building up. "NOW!" he shouts as Hakken turns and faces the open jaw of the Red Death.

"This is for threatening my mate and for planning on using me to end him!" Hakken roared as he shot point-blank into the large maw of the massive dragon.

The Queen's maw is engulfed in smoke as she tries to open her wings, but her wings are full of holes from Hakken and the flock that attacked her . "No, I can't be beaten by that Night Fury and especially by a human!" She yelled as her body collided with the ground, causing a massive explosion and blowing the Vikings backward.

Hiccup tries to maneuver Hakken through the storm of fire. He tried to move the tailfin, but it was useless; the fin was gone. He looked in front of him and saw the Red Death's tail coming right for them. "No, no." He tries to get Hakken out of the way but fails as the tail smacks into the dragon and knocks Hiccup out of the saddle, unconscious.

Hakken twists around and sees Hiccup falling and rapidly approaching the fire. "No, I won't lose Hiccup again." He vows as he dives down and grabs at his mate with all his limbs. Once colliding with the sand, Hakken, before falling into the world of unconsciousness, checks over his beloved before his eyes close, dropping him into the world of unconsciousness.

Stoick combs through the smoke, yelling for his son, silently praying to the gods that Hiccup survived. He finally sees Hakken's body lying on the ground; his eyes are closed, and his tailfin is burnt, with only one tailfin remaining. Stoick stands before the downed dragon, wondering where his son is. If Hakken ended up like this, what would have become of Hiccup? Who is human?

Hakken's eyes flutter open as he sees Hiccup's sire right before him, and he glares at the older Haddock.

"Hiccup, is he?" Stoick whispers, unable to finish the sentence, his heart breaking at the thought of his son dead. "Please, let me see my son?" The chief slowly walks up to the downed dragon, only to be stopped by a small plasma blast to the ground by Hakken, a clear warning not to come closer.

Gobber tries to see if he can see Hiccup and is met with the same result as Hakken bares his sharp canines and keeps his submissive close to his body.

“Prince Hakken, is Hiccup ok? ” Barf cooed as he and the other dragons and the ones from the nest looked on.

"He's alive, but…" Hakken pauses as he looks under his wing and winces, " He needs the healer; his leg may need to be amputated." The black dragon looks around, not seeing the elderly human.

“She is back at Berk Prince Hakken. ” Meatlug warbled.

Fishlegs cautiously approaches the Night Fury. "Your name is Hakken, right? That's what Hiccup called you. Can we please see him?" He asks hopefully, but Hakken bares his teeth again at the fat boy and dares any humans to try to take his mate away. 

"Oh my Thor, just grab Hakken and let's get on the boat; it's obvious that Hiccup isn't here anymore; otherwise, why would the dragon want to stay here?" Snoulot yelled, but his eyes shined with a few tears at the idea his oldest cousin might be dead.

Hakken sees that Stoick still needs to move from his spot before him. Sighing, he inclines his head to show the human to push back.

"Eh, chief, I think he wants to step back." Gobber muses. 

Stoick slowly walked back to the crowd as he saw the dragon nod, and with very much reluctance, he uncurled an unconscious Hiccup. Not caring that he is approaching a dangerous dragon, Stoick the Vast takes a step to touch his offspring, only to be met with a snarling Hakken as he covers Hiccup's back up with his wing. 

Gobber approaches his best friend and tries to pull him back. "How about I try, and you go get a space set up for Hiccup, and I'll meet you there?" 

Stoick looks between Gobber and the Night Fury and sighs before nodding and ordering the Vikings back to the ships.

Gobber kneels and looks at Hiccup cradled in Hakken's forepaws, ignoring said dragon's growls. "It's okay; you can trust me. I'll make sure he's safe and taken care of." He assured the defensive dragon.

Hakken glares at the overweight Viking before sighing, leaning down, and nuzzling his beloved; he allows Gobber to take his Hiccup. "Meatlug, I want you always to protect my mate; don't you dare leave his side for anything." He orders the female gronkle, who is nuzzling her mate.

“Yes, Prince Hakken.” She responded as she followed the now-retreating Viking and the prince's mate. 

Once he knew his mate was well protected, Hakken began to feel dizzy and faint from the fall. "Hookfang, Barf, Belch, Stormfly, can you help me onto the boat with my mate?" He asked the remaining dragons.

"Of course, my prince," Stormfly says after finishing nuzzling her mate. She and the other arena dragons gently lift Hakken onto the boat, where they smell Hiccup's scent. " Smells like your mate is on this boat ." She cooed but noticed that Hakken had passed out from his injuries. The dragons followed the boat with their mates as Eargon approached his beloved. 

"You do know what this means, don't you? " He whispers to his mate.

"That Hakken is now the new Alpha, yes, I'm aware of that, but I also believe he knows that as well, but his main and only concern is his mate. " Stormfly responds. 

The other dragons nod and fly until they see a large flock following behind them. " Seems like quite a few dragons wanted Hakken to be Alpha. " Hookfang roared as the dragons heard the murmurs of the humans about the hoard of dragons in Berk.

Berk

Once the boats dock, Gobber and Stoick quickly run up to the village with Hiccup, yelling for Gothi. Meatlug quickly flies after the human males, not wanting to let the prince's mate out of her sight. Her flight halted as the door to the healer's hut stands slammed. "Oh no." She whimpers as she tries to open the door, with no success.

The dragons gently gather Hakken and carry him to a clearing in the forest. Once the night fury stands set down, a few terrible terrors in the area see the injuries on the prince, immediately chew on some grass, and then bring it over to place on each injury. After a few hours of waiting, the night fury groans and begins to awaken. "My Prince," Eragon whispers as he sees the Night Fury awake, and he bows his head. 

The tired Night Fury looks around and sees he's in the forest of Berk, surrounded by many dragons. He nudges at his side and remembers Hiccup and the injury his mate sustained. He stands on shaky legs until he rises to his full height and sees Meatlug flying into the clearing. " Meatlug, you better have a good explanation for why you're not with my submissive ." The injured Night Fury growled as his back fins glowed blue, as well as his head fins.

Seeing the blue glow on the Night Fury, the female Gronkle bowed her head. "Forgive me, my prince; I was with your submissive up until he was taken to the healer's hut and the door was slammed, and I couldn't break it down without bringing the human's nest down on your mate." She confesses in shame. 

Hakken snarled and moved to start walking towards the human village, the need and desire to be with and protect his vulnerable mate clawing at him, urging him on. 

"My prince, there's something we must discuss." A nightmare steps up but is quickly hushed by Hakken's growls and the blue glow on the Night Fury's back.

" Hiccup is more important than any discussion that needs to happen. Only make sure he's safe and healthy. Will I address any concerns that you all need?" Hakken addressed the flock as he continued towards the healer's hut, catching his mate's scent and following it. He arrives only to see the older woman standing outside the hut. Hakken sees her shake her head no and points towards the chief's house. Understanding what the elderly human is saying, the night fury nods and walks towards the house on the hill, ignoring the gasps and whispered murmurs of the surrounding humans. Once he reaches the house, he sees that the entire door frame and part of the roof have blown out. " Well, Hiccup certainly did a lot of damage." Hakken mused with a hint of pride as he walked through the damage and ran up the steps only to see Gobber at the foot of the bed and Stoick with his hand on Hiccup, who was still unconscious.

Gobber looks behind him and sees a furious Night Fury glaring at Stoick. "Eh, Stoick, ye might want to move away from Hiccup." The one-armed man whispers.

Stoick takes his eyes off his tiny son and sees Hakken in the doorway. Not wanting to see what a pissed-off Night Fury can do, the chief steps aside as Hakken quickly takes his spot. The older Haddock observes that as soon as the dragon is next to Hiccup, the beast's demeanor dramatically changes from anger to calm and peaceful. Still, he also hears the worried coos coming from the dragon. However, he becomes defensive when he sees the rare dragon uncover Hiccup's unconscious form and notices the dragon sniffing the bandage on the stump that is now Hiccup's leg. He also notices the dragon carefully unwrapping the wrappings with his teeth, and rage builds up in the Berk chief, "What do you think you're doing, demon?" He hollered and tried to push past Gobber to get to his son as Hakken began licking the oozing, bloody limb, cleaning the blood off and covering the entire area in night-fury saliva. Once he deems the limb covered entirely, he rubs his head over Hiccup's sides and arms, wishing he could scent mark Hiccup's bare flesh instead of his clothes. 

Gobber tentative steps towards Hiccup, but Hakken growls and covers the tiny human with his wing. The one-legged Viking checks on the leg, and his eyes widen, "Beard of Thor, the injuries are healing faster than ever." 

Stoick comes up and also sees the same thing. He looks at the dragon and then his son, then the wound. "It's not possible." He gasps.

Hakken's patience has stood pushed beyond the limit, and he growls at both adult males, motioning with his head for them to get out. His growls increase when Hiccup's sire again tries to get to Hiccup, but the protective night fury positions himself at the end of the bed, his tail carefully draped over the boy. He hears Gobber ask if he could rewrap Hiccup's stump, to which Hakken agrees, but he watches with sharp eyes for any indication that his mate is in pain. Once his mate's leg is secured, the dragon waits until Gobber removes himself and Stoick from the room to relax his posture. He moves back up and continues to cover his mate in his scent once more, " Rest , my little submissive. I'm here, and you're safe now. Please don't keep me waiting too long, my love; I need you." He coos as he nuzzles his mate's cheek and plants a delicate kiss on Hiccup's forehead. He curls around his human as much as possible and drapes a wing over his beloved as he faintly hears Hiccup's voice whisper the name that began their life together. 

"Toothless." Hiccup breathes as Hakken thinks about it and decides it's time for a change.

Chapter Text

The Night Fury, now going by the name Toothless, woke up, peeked under his wing, and nuzzled at his side only to find it empty. He quickly became defensive until he saw his submissive lying in his own nest, still unconscious but safe. Toothless walks over and softly nuzzles his beloved, "Please, my Hiccup, please wake up soon." He whimpers softly, sounding uneasy; his toxic green orbs shine with love but also sadness as he goes down and sniffs at the teen's amputated leg. He unwraps it and proceeds to clean the wound again. He finishes his work just as a head pops up from the hole within his mate's den, and Toothless growls, and his eyes slit as he stands protectively near his vulnerable mate until he sees the healer.

Stoick and Gobber follow Gohti, but all stand met with a snarling Night Fury. "It's ok; we just want to check over his injuries," Gobber explains calmly to the protective, dominant mate.

The snarling dragon eyes all of the humans with suspension and motions for Gothi and Gobber to begin taking care of his submissive but bares his sharp canines at Stoick, a warning of 'I won't have you hurt him anymore.' He approaches Hiccup's head and watches with sharp eyes as Gobber and Gothi undress his mate to tend to the less severe wounds. However, he hears Hiccup's sire take in a sharp breath, and an audible gasp comes from the older blacksmith as Toothless looks where the two grown men see Hiccup's entire frame riddled with scars from head to his leg, including the healed ones on his wrists. 

"Oh my Thor, when did all those happen?" Stoick gasped with wide-eyed pupils as he heard the dragon's growls grow in volume and watched as the healer applied ointment to the burns and wrapped up Hiccup's abdomen where a large bruise had formed from being slammed into the saddle before he fell. A small groan of pain escaped Hiccup's lips, and Toothless snarled at the elderly healer for hurting his love, but she held her hand out as a sign of 'no threat.'

Gothi finished the procedure and placed Hiccup's clothes back on him with help from Gobber for the pants, then wrote on the dust floor, "These scars are from all the times either you or anyone in the village belittled him and made him feel like the only escape was through self-harm. This has been going on since he was six years old. It began after you ordered his memories to be sealed, and he felt completely alone." Gobber recites as he sees the older woman glaring at Stoick but also hears the snarls of the dragon getting louder. 

"Oh, Hiccup, my son, what have I done?" Stoick weeps, his voice, which is usually harsh and authoritative, now apologetic and shaky as he remembers each scar on his son's bruised-up and scarred-up body. His eyes quickly fill with tears, and he recalls every time he made Hiccup feel that way as he felt the guilt pile in his gut.

Deciding that his mate has had enough attention, Toothless motions with his head for the humans to leave so he can be alone with his beloved. He wanted to be the first thing Hiccup saw when he woke. Gothi nods and leaves with Stoick, who is still quite upset, right behind her. Gobber follows suit but pauses; quite a few people would like to see Hiccup out here." He announced, and Toothless simply grunted in acknowledgment and draped his wing over his mate's comatose form. Nodding, the peg-legged Viking goes down the steps, understanding the message clearly: No. 

After Dark 

After spending the day watching over his beloved, Toothless gets ready to sleep only to see Meatlug and another gronkle, whom he can assume is her mate, hovering near the window. "My Alpha, how is the queen?" Her mate asked gently, with his head bowed.

"He's still unconscious but safe. Wait, Alpha, Queen? I'm not the Alpha, and Hiccup isn't a queen. What do you mean?" The confused dragon asked, entirely baffled by the titles. 

Meatlug came forward. "If you could come out here, we will explain everything."

Toothless looked at his love and sighed, not wanting to leave in case Hiccup woke up but knowing this was an important matter and, for the moment, Hiccup was safe. He carefully uncurls himself from his beloved and kisses his forehead, "I'll be right back, my love." He promises as he climbs out the window and drops onto the ground, only to be met with the entire flock that came to Berk as they all bow to him. " Ok, what is the reason why you have decided to start calling me Alpha and even more so my mate Queen?" He asked as his back fins glowed blue.

Stormfly stepped forward and lowered her head in submission. "It's because you defeated the Red Death and as such, earned her title as Alpha. And as for Hiccup being named Queen, because he's your mate, that's why he's named Queen. Your back fins are also glowing blue Hakken; sorry, I mean Alpha." 

The new Alpha looks behind him and notices the blue glow. "I believe it was a group effort that defeated The Red Death, but if you desire for me to be your Alpha, then I promise to be a fair but firm Alpha." He agrees, and growls of approval meet his ears. 

"Alpha, if I may ask, why does the queen stay in a human's den?" A blue Zippleback asks with curiosity, not knowing said Queen was a human.

Toothless eyes, the two-headed dragon in confusion before Hookfang leans down and whispers, "Not all of them know he isn't a dragon." The black dragon nods.

"My mate's name is Hiccup, and no, he's not a dragon; he's a human." The black dragon explains as he hears some of the dragon's growls.

"I don't want to follow a human; they're nothing but monsters who kill without cause. They're worse than the Red Death." A green nightmare snarled as he flamed up, his green eyes showing absolute hatred for the humans. 

The arena dragons growl at the insult and charge the Nightmare but cease when Toothless roars and his fins glow a bit brighter. "That's enough; stand down!" If you want me as your Alpha, you must have Hiccup as your Queen. I'm not going to discard my mate just to appeal to you; if you can't accept him, then you can't be a part of my flock." 

All the dragons exchanged glances, with many unsure of what Hiccup looked like or what kind of person he was. They felt curious about him, especially after hearing the prince speak in his defense. However, some dragons, like the Nightmare, who deeply hated humans, took to the skies without hesitation. They believed the prince had become soft and would endanger himself by being mated to a human. 

The Alpha dragon looks at the remaining dragons, the arena dragons, and those with mates. "Thank you. I know we haven't had great experiences with humans, but I can assure you that Hiccup isn't like any humans. He also looks at Hookfang sadly, "I'm sorry, my friend, but Fireclaw was one of the ones to leave. I remember she was a potential mate for you." 

The Red male Nightmare shook his head. "It's alright. Hakken, sorry, Alpha, I decided during my time here on Berk that she wasn't the one for me." He shrugs.

Toothless nods, sniffs the air, smells other scents in Hiccup's room, and growls. "Alpha, I believe it's in our best interest to stay in the forest until we become more familiar with humans, " a green and yellow Deadly Nadder suggests.

Toothless isn't paying attention as he tries to distinguish between whose scent he smells and whose growls increase as the slits in his eyes narrow. "Do what you wish, and by the way, my name isn't Hakken anymore; it's Toothless, and it's Alpha to you." He growled and quickly took off towards the chief's house.

Back in Hiccup's room, Stoick leads Astrid and Fishlegs up through the hole. They notice that the dragon is nowhere to be seen, but Hiccup is unmoving and knocked out. "Is he going to be ok?" Astrid asked as she grabbed one of Hiccup's hands.

"Gothi says he's just in a coma, and he'll come out of it on his own. Did either of you know about him cutting himself?" Stoick asked, holding back a choked sob as he brought out the knife he had found the day before. The one Hiccup had been using as a means of coping. His green eyes pooled with tears at the images of his offspring using this on his flesh. 

"No, " they both said as the chief lifted Hiccup's shirt, and the teens saw the scars. Astrid tries but fails to look at the precise muscles that have formed over the last few weeks, though Hiccup still looks scrawny as she gasps, looking through teary eyes at all the scars. Their observations stand halted when an angry, protective night fury jumps into the room via the window, snarling at them all and telling them to back off. 

Stoick holds his ground, "Hakken, right? They wanted to come see Hiccup, so please calm down." He says as if it's no big deal and stands met with a loud snarl. It was tense for a few moments before Gobber came up, panting.

"Stoick, dragons are coming from the forest, but they're not attacking."

"That must be our dragons. Metalug! Fishlegs yelled as he ran down the steps, out the door, and saw the brownish-reddish gronkle. "Meatlug!" He yelled as he rushed towards the gronkle, only to be stopped by a purple and blue male gronkle standing protectively in front of Meatlug. "Oh, um, hi." The husky Viking squeaked as he backed away slowly.

"Rocky, no, that's the human I was telling you about, the one I bonded with." Meatlug protested. 

"He was going to attack you." Rocky remarked back.

"No, I believe he was going to do something called a hug. According to the Alpha, it's when humans wrap their forearms around someone they care about. Apparently the Queen has done it a lot with the Alpha." Meatlug coos. 

With a warning glare thrown at the hefty Viking, Rocky allows Fishlegs access to his mate. He sees the teen give his mate a paw on the head and a hug, to which Meatlug responds in kind. 'Maybe one day I'll be close to human too.' He thinks to himself. 

Hookfang, Stormfly, her mate, and Barf and Belch also clear the forest, followed by the dragons that stayed as Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Snotlout all ran up and greeted their new dragons. Astrid also came down from the unconscious teen's room and tried to stand by Stormfly; however, Eargon growled and kept the shield maiden away, smelling her anger. "Odin's Ghosts Gobber, why are all these dragons here, and why are those allowing the twins and my nephew to pet them?" Stoick wondered as he was the last one down. 

"It's almost as if the dragons are waiting for something or they're here for someone, but they're not attacking us." Gobber marveled as he looked and noticed most of the dragons were tense but, for the most part, staying out of trouble. "It's almost peaceful."

In those words, Stoick remembers Gothi's prophecy: 'A boy shall die only to be revived with the soul of a dragon, and together with the 'True Alpha' shall peace come.' 'No, Hiccup,' Stoick thought as a lone tear fell from his eyes, not wanting it to be true.

A week later (mid-morning)

Toothless cooed as he lightly nuzzled his still-unconscious mate's collarbone. It's been a week since the battle of the Red Death, and Hiccup still shows no sign of waking up, and the worry is beginning to settle into the Night Fury. He observed that the color of Hiccup's skin looked more normal and stood not nearly covered in sweat like the first night. 

Over the past week, the new Alpha rarely left Hiccup's side, only doing so to handle his new Alpha duties as he realized that the dragons were beginning to get ready for the mating season; even a few dragons, such as Meatlug, were already pregnant with eggs. Food was often brought up to the black dragon, usually by either Gobber or, on the rare occasion, Hiccup's younger cousins. Toothless was curious about them but didn't allow the tiny humans near his mate.

Unfortunately, when Toothless had to deal with the dragons, he had to leave Hiccup alone, but the humans would often come by and stay until Toothless shooed them out. Unfortunately, Toothless didn't get a choice of who came to stay with his mate, and it was usually Stoick or Gobber. Sometimes, Snotlout or the twins, to which Toothless was quick to get rid of all of them as soon as he returned. Astrid came also, and Toothless would often smell her scent on Hiccup's head or shoulder, which would anger him to no end. Fishlegs was ok, but the Night Fury didn't particularly trust any of these humans with his little human.

As he goes down and checks over the missing limb, which now has a metal leg attached, curious about Gobber, Toothless looks at his missing limb and smiles. "We match now, my love; please wake up soon, my Hiccup. I miss you so much." He coos as his half-lidded eyes travel to his love's peaceful face. He walks back up and plants a delicate kiss on his lover's lips.

Unbeknownst to the Night Fury, Hiccup was waking up, not in the real world but in his subconscious. "Where am I?" he asks, looking around frantically. He sees nothing but darkness until a little ball of light flies around, followed by another. Eventually, the young boy is surrounded by multiple small white balls until they take shape as night furies. "Hakken?" he asks, confusion blossoming in his voice as relief danced in his eyes. 

"No, but we know of the prince." A disembodied voice sounded like a female. It spoke from the dragon spirit. "We were brought to the nest along with the prince, but unfortunately, we were killed by her servant, The Skrill." 

"A Skrill!" Hiccup gasped with a wide-eyed expression, surprised that a Skrill lived in the nest. "Wait, you're Night Furies, so are you related to Hakken somehow?" 

All the spirit dragons' heads shake no. "We were tasked with protecting the prince, and we did, but unfortunately we weren't able to stop the Red Death from sealing away the prince's memories." Another spirit growled that the human immediately picked out as male.

"What happened to Hakken? Where did he come from? Did he have parents?" Hiccup fired off each question, fascinated but also a little sad for what his mate endured.

"He did have a sire and dam, but unfortunately they too fell to the Red Death when the prince was just a hatchling. As for what happened to him or where his origins lie, all we are allowed to tell you is that The Red Death was fearful of Prince Hakken and tried to seal away his powers along with his memories." The first voice spoke vaguely. 

"He has grown into such a smart and powerful dragon, and he seems to have found himself an equally smart and powerful submissive as well." A female spirit spoke despite Hiccup's blushing at the comments. 

You should probably wake up now in the real world; he seems very worried about you. Take care, young Hiccup; I'm sure we'll meet again someday." The lead spirit cooed as she disappeared along with the other spirits, and a bright light enveloped Hiccup.

A lone groan catches Toothless's attention, and he looks down at his submissive's face as he sees a freckled face scrunch up. "Hiccup, my love?" He coos as he leans down, his hot breath covering Hiccup's face as forest-green eyes finally open. 

"Hey, Hakken." Hiccup whispered happily as the night fury became excited and began to nuzzle the auburn heir but accidentally stepped on the teen's abdomen. "Ow." The teen yelped, and the black dragon quickly calmed himself.

"I'm so sorry, my submissive I'm just so happy to have you awake and safe." Toothless apologized.

"I understand, Hakken; wait, you're at my house. Does Stoick know you're here? Quick, you need to hide Hakken!" Hiccup began to panic but stood soothed by his mate's body curling around him.

"Calm my submissive, Firstly, my name isn't Hakken anymore. I've decided the past is the past, and I decided to take the name you gave me. Second, yes, your sire knows I'm here, but don't worry, Hiccup; he has done no harm to me." 

Hiccup's calm features turn to resentment at the mention of his father. He tries to get up but feels something off with his leg. He pulls the cover off and gasps as he sees his left leg replaced with a prosthetic one. "What happened to my leg?" he asks in horror.

Toothless looks down in shame. "I'm truly sorry, my love, but it was the only way I could catch you and bring you close to me to save you from the fire." Believe me, Hiccup, I would have done it instantly if there had been another way.

The dragon's submissive looks at the leg and takes deep breaths before speaking, "Well, I guess we match; it might take a while to get used to, but I can live with it." He smiles as he tries to get out of bed, and Toothless is standing nearby now. With both feet on the floor, Hiccup stands up, holding the bed frame for support, and takes a tentative step and then another, only to start falling, but Toothless quickly gets underneath him and catches him using his head as a support.

"It will definitely take a good while for you to become used to this new leg; until then, I'll be happy to carry you, my love." Toothless offers. 

Hiccup blushed but nodded, feeling his best as he walked to the door with the human leaning on the dragon for support. Opening the door, he stood greeted by a monstrous nightmare outside. Quickly, he slammed the door shut. "Toothless, stay here," he instructed his mate, only for Toothless to grab him by the waist and place him on the dragon's back.

"You can walk later, but I'd rather not see you get hurt anymore, especially after I just got you back," Toothless explains gently as the black dragon motions for Hiccup to open the door again. As the human settles on the black dragon's back, he once again opens; the dragon walks out with the sunshine greeting them and many dragons littering the streets of Berk. Only Hookfang, Barf and Belch, and Meatlug had their riders on them. Some Vikings tolerated the dragons, but most didn't, and they stayed quiet and grumbled. 

"I knew it; I'm dead." Hiccup gasped, only for a large hand to land on his shoulders.

"Ha, ha, no, but you gave it your best shot." Stoick's booming voice came from beside the mates. It was a sight. He said before becoming serious, "Hiccup, I'm sorry." 

Hiccup roughly pushes the chief's hand off him and glares at his 'father, his normally peaceful face now twisted in an angry scowl.' "Sorry for not listening to me, sorry for taking my mate away twice. Sorry for disowning me, or sorry for sealing my memories away and then lying to me." He growls, which triggers Toothless's anger as well.

"I thought I was doing what was best for you then, son. And I was angry when I disowned you, but now I was wrong. Please, Hiccup, can you forgive me?" Stoick pleads, going to try and grab his son's hand, only for the Night Fury to snarl until he takes the hand back.

"Last time I checked, I wasn't your son, and it's going to take more than one apology for me to even think about forgiving you." Hiccup momentarily looks up at the sky as an idea comes to mind: "Since it's not a deadly winter yet, I'm staying in the Cove with Toothless until either you show me that you're willing to change or when bad winter comes." 

"What will you do for food or supplies? What about shelter?" Gobber asked, coming up beside his best friend, who was in a state of shock.

"There's a cave in the cove, and I'll come to town every once in a while for food and supplies." Hiccup responded as he noticed the large bundle in Gobber's hands. "What's in your hand, Gobber?" 

The elder blacksmith shifted the object as he revealed Toothless's saddle and tail. "I found your designs and decided to make you a new saddle and tail just like your leg. With a little Hiccup, flair added to it." How did you do walking with the new leg?" 

"Eh, I might make a few tweaks, and I took a step but almost fell, so that's why I'm on Toothless's back."

"Let's go meet our subjects. Hiccup, one of the big changes that happened while you were in your coma was that I was named the Alpha by my fellow dragon." Toothless says as he begins walking to the forest. Most of the dragons, including the ones with riders, follow their new leaders only after forcing the humans off their backs.

"You what!" You're the Alpha now!" Hiccup yelled in shock as he looked behind and saw all the dragons following them. He also looks around and sees various holes in caves or even some in the hills and mountainsides. "What are those holes for?" he asked.

"Those are dragon dens; our followers are building their new homes." Toothless explains as he reaches the same clearing he woke up in a week ago.

"My Alpha, my queen, you're awake, thank goodness." Hookfang acknowledged as he and the rest of the flock bowed to Hiccup and Toothless. 

"Queen, he doesn't mean me, right?" Hiccup points at himself, looking at his dominant mate with a hint of uncertainty. 

"Yes, he does my love; you're my mate, and as I'm the Alpha of the flock, that makes you the Queen. Are you ok with this Hiccup?" Toothless asked, looking back at his human.

"It's a lot to take in, but I don't know if I'll be a good queen." Hiccup admits looking down.

"My Alpha, if I may address the Queen?" Eragon squawked, looking at the black dragon.

Toothless nods as the nadder looks at Hiccup. "Greetings, my Queen. My name is Eragon, and my mate is Stormfly. First, I would like to thank you for treating her well, even with small gestures. Also, I can't speak for the flock, but you'll be a great queen for my mate and me and any future hatchlings we may have. You see us as beings, not killers, and you defeated the Red Death. And most importantly, you spared the Alpha, and it's evident that your love for one another is strong. We'll protect you and treat you with the respect you deserve.”

Hiccup sits on his mate's back in shock as the rest of the flock agrees with the male nadder. He feels his mate's tail brush against his side. "See, my love, you have the support of everyone here; there are even a few dragons with riders already. And most important, you have me, and I'll always be with you." 

Knowing which dragons have riders and looking around at all the dragons who have sworn their loyalty to him, Hiccup smiles, leans down, and kisses his dominant mate's head. "I need to show the village that you guys aren't what they think you are. It won't be easy, but I believe it's possible." While he doesn't know what the future holds, he knows he can accomplish his goals with his dragons and his dominant mate.

Standing outside, on the top of her hut, Gothi writes in the dirt on the floor, "Human and Alpha dragon have joined together; now is the time for them to begin their destiny." 

The End 

Chapter Text