A/N - I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, anything familiar does not belong to me.

'Are you sure this is a good idea?' I asked Hiccup, who was sat directly behind me, his arms wrapped loosely around my waist as we waited for Colossus to get used to the sensation of having someone riding on his back.

Colossus, clearly remembering his time in chains, was not too impressed with us when we had approached with the length of rope. The look of sheer panic on his face broke my heart as he attempted to scramble away from us, seeming to forget in his panic that he had wings that could help him get away a lot faster. I had thrown the rope back into Hiccup's hands and approached Colossus with my hands raised, palms flat, and attempting to speak to the dragon in soothing tones as I tried to explain as well as I could to him that we meant no harm, and that we were only trying to lead him somewhere safer.

He settled enough to let me approach him and rest a gentle hand against his snout, where, using my thumb, I rubbed small circles into his scarred scales as I tried not to startle him by moving too much.

Using slow, and precise movements, I began to guide Colossus over to where Hiccup stood eyeing the dragon carefully with the rope clutched loosely in his hands. Realising where I was leading him, Colossus hissed and opened his mouth in a snarl, the back of his throat glowing with flames, his teeth glinting dangerously in the red light.

It took a long time trying to calm Colossus down enough that he wouldn't try to incinerate Hiccup every time he looked at him, and I was beginning to think that the dragon had some kind of vendetta against Hiccup. It then took even longer for Hiccup and me to help Colossus see that we weren't going to use the rope to hurt him anytime soon, having to resort to miming what we wanted to do when Colossus didn't look as though he understood what was going on.

He had let me tie the rope loosely around his neck, and after making sure that the knot wouldn't be coming loose anytime soon, Hiccup and I let Colossus sulk around the clearing for several minutes, getting used to the make-shift reigns, which, Colossus ended up rolling along his neck several times like some child's hula-hoop trick.

I had managed to coax the gigantic, green dragon close enough to the ground so that there wouldn't be too much scrambling involved in trying to get into place at the base of his neck. And, somehow, from my perch, I had managed to keep him calm enough to allow Hiccup to climb up behind me with minimal fuss.

After enduring through Colossus shifting us from shoulder to shoulder, getting used to the unfamiliar weight on his back, and letting him wander through the clearing, Hiccup had suggested coaxing him into the air.

'He'll be fine.' Hiccup reassured me. 'His wings didn't take any lasting damage, and he always has plenty of energy whenever we stop by. We just need to move that energy into the air.'

'How exactly?' I snapped, my grip on the rope tightening as my nerves started to build to uncomfortable levels.

'Hey, you'll be fine.' Hiccup soothed. 'Just let him know you're ready.' I took deep breathes to try and calm myself down, and tried relaxing my grip on the rope slightly, but found I couldn't bring myself to detach my fingernails from the palms of my hand.

'Alright Colossus,' I cringed inwardly when my voice shook. 'Let's fly.'

My dragon turned his head to look back at us, tilting his head curiously as he studied me carefully, almost as though he was judging the validity of my words. I gave him a nervous smile, which made him croon in confusion, but must have convinced him enough to turn away from me and spread his wings, the tips of which were mere inches away from the trees on either side of the of the clearing.

'I'm not going to like this am I?' I sighed. I felt Hiccup's body shake with laughter.

'You're going to be fiiiiii – oh shi-!'

'Hiccup!' My grip on Colossus' reign growing to extreme levels, as I hunched forward in my seat pushing myself closer to his back as I dug my knees into his sides trying everything in my power to stop myself from falling off. Hiccup's arms around my waist tightened, and he had been forced closer to me during take-off so that he didn't go toppling off the side as well.

It turns out that Colossus' size wasn't the only thing that separated him from the other dragons.

Take off for Colossus meant breathing molten hot fire down at the ground, giving him more power to reach higher heights, as we flew in fast circles in the enclosed space, before shooting off at an incredible speed in whichever direction took his fancy.

'Get him to slow down!' Hiccup shouted in my ear, barely audible against the harsh wind buffeting us.

'How?' I screamed back, eyes welling up with tears in the cold wind. My hair escaping its ties and was whipping around our faces in a frenzy, catching me in the eyes several times When we landed I was going to cut it all off.

'He's your dragon!' I groaned at the reply.

'That doesn't help!' I tried pulling back on the reigns, vaguely remembering the few horse riding lessons I had when I was younger, but got no response. I didn't think Colossus even remembered the rope was there anymore. 'Colossus please! Slow down!' I tried. But again, nothing. 'Colossus!'

I'm not sure whether he heard the panic in my scream, or if he only just remembered that Hiccup and I were still sat on his back, but Colossus managed to pull the dragon equivalent of an emergency stop mid-air, causing Hiccup and I to slide several inches out of our seat and down his neck. His giant, green wings flapped noiselessly in the air as we hovered, the dragon looking back towards us curiously.

'Next time, maybe try a bit slower, yeah?' I suggested, panting heavily as I looked at the puppy equivalent of dragons. I brushed aside several strands of hair from my face. 'Just to be on the safe side.' Colossus crooned in confusion and tilted his head as he watched us.

'Shall we try again?' Hiccup suggested. I turned my head slowly, looking incredulously at my best friend who just sat looking between me and my dragon with wide, excited eyes. 'Well?'

Hiccup got his wish, and we tried again.

Granted, we didn't have much of a choice. We were hovering over the ocean, several miles away from Berks nearest coast line, with no other option of where to go. Colossus however, did listen to my pleads of dropping his speed, and even let me direct him towards the cove, where Toothless was instantly on guard at seeing the humongous dragon. Hiccup basically fell from Colossus' back in his hurry to calm down the growling dragon, who, in turn, set Colossus on edge.

As I climbed down from his back, Colossus wrapped his tail around my legs and pulled me closer to his side, towering over me as he growled and hissed at the black dragon. It was a combined effort between me and Hiccup to try and calm the dragons down to introduce them properly.

It almost ended in complete disaster, when Colossus, with his never-ending issues with Hiccup, hissed in warning at him when Hiccup tried approaching my giant dragon in an attempt to show Toothless that he wouldn't cause any harm. Toothless, of course, hadn't liked this, and had instantly pulled my best friend behind him, plasma glowing at the back of his throat in warning as he prepared to fire at my dragon.

Thus starting Hiccup's lecture to the dragon's when he managed to pull himself away from Toothless to stand between the two grumpy dragons. I had to admit, Hiccup had some serious guts.

Hiccup's impromptu lecture resulted in a grudging truce between the dragons. The two kept a respectable distance from each other, never taking their eyes off of either Hiccup or myself whenever we moved too far away from them, making sure that neither of us got hurt by the other dragon.

When he was more relaxed, Toothless had decided that he was in desperate need of Hiccup's attention and had pushed himself between me and Hiccup while we had been sat talking, and rubbed himself all over his trainer to get him to scratch him. Laughing, Hiccup attempted to tackle the dragon, before finally giving into his demands and scratching along the dragon's head, causing him to purr in happiness. Toothless tilted his head to follow Hiccup's hand, refusing to let him drop his hand for even a second. I giggled at the look of contentment on his face.

Colossus crooned sadly from behind me, I rolled my eyes and turned to look at the sulking dragon, who was now looking between me and the other two as they had fun, his eyes wide and pleading.

'You're still in time out.' I warned, pointing a finger at him. His eyes widened further as he tried to up his begging game. 'That doesn't work on me.' I stated, crossing my arms to emphasise my point. He crooned again, and shuffled over to me on his belly. 'I will scratch you when you learn that it's wrong to try and cook my friends!'

Colossus huffed and turned away from me, using one of his wings to hide himself from me. I rolled my eyes again. He was such a drama queen. I turned back to Hiccup and Toothless just in time to see Toothless fall to the ground with a heavy thump, his eyes closed and a happy little smile on his face as he purred loudly. I looked at Hiccup in bewilderment as he smiled excitedly at me.

'You going to explain or do I have to guess?' I questioned, lifting a single eyebrow. Hiccup's smile widened.

The next day in dragon training, the Nadder had been brought back out, and Astrid was putting in 110% to be the one who brought the dragon down. The dragon however, was refusing to take things lying down, and was putting up a bigger fight that it had the last time it had been released. Clearly dragons were big on the whole grudge thing.

The crowd watching today's lesson had grown even further, and I was almost certain that everyone left on the island had made the trek down to the arena to watch the proceedings. You feel the excitement in the air as the tribe came together to watch the teens fight their way through training. As I had made my way into position before the session had even started, I had passed a few of the older Vikings and had overheard them reminiscing of their times in dragon training, and were showing off old scars to anyone who were unfortunate to be sat close by.

Talk of the teens impending graduation also filled the air, with bets being placed as to who would be the one to make their first kill in front of the tribe. A pit formed in my stomach when I heard several Vikings betting that Hiccup would be the one to take on the Monstrous Nightmare, making me realise just how close graduation was, and that neither Hiccup nor I could come up with a plan to get him out of these training sessions. And with the way he was going, Hiccup was going to be the one to face off with the Nightmare.

Gothi had given me a stern look when I had shown up later than usual to the arena, only shaking her head when I stumbled over an excuse for being late. Hiccup and I had spent most of the night with the dragons, neither of us wanting to leave them alone for too long until they had gotten used to each other. We had finally taken the risk, and had decided to leave them be during the early hours of the morning when we realised we needed to have at least a few hours' sleep before dragon training. But of course, I ended up oversleeping by the tiniest amount, and of course Gothi was going to make sure that I would pay for it later on.

The Deadly Nadder screeching down on the arena floor brought me out of my musings. I turned back to the match down below just in time to see Astrid throw her axe at the Nadder. For one, heart stopping moment, I thought that she was going to cause some serious damage to the dragon, but thankfully the Nadder was able to use its head spikes to brush aside the axe like it was nothing. I managed to hold back my sigh of relief when the Nadder then took off after Astrid, not appreciating being almost killed, forcing the girl to dive out of the way before she could become dragon chow, and unfortunately leaving Hiccup to become the Nadder's next target.

I bit my tongue to make sure I didn't curse at my friend, when instead of running, he just dropped his mace and just stood there as the furious Nadder approached. My heart was beating wildly in my chest when the Nadder, clearly confused by the young Viking's decision to not attack, decided to cautiously sniff Hiccup. My heart started to slow down when I realised that the dragon wasn't putting up a fight, when of course, Astrid decided to come along and ruin it for everyone.

Shouting at the top of her lungs, Astrid came barrelling out of nowhere, her axe raised above her head as she charged at the dragon. The Nadder, instantly on guard, turned away from Hiccup, it's tail spikes standing outright as it prepared itself for the attack.

Thankfully, Hiccup was developing the ability to think quickly on his feet, and using his recently discovered knowledge, managed to bring the Nadder to the ground, just as he had done with Toothless the day before. The crowd erupted in cheers at the sight of the downed dragon, and I couldn't help but smirk when Astrid skidded to a stop above the dragon, axe frozen in mid-air as she looked between Hiccup and the dragon in horrified confusion.

'Is it wrong that I loved watching you humiliate Astrid?' I asked Hiccup when he had come to pick me up from after my shift, my fingers laced through his as we made our way from Gothi's hut to the Great Hall.

'I didn't humiliate her!' He protested, bumping his shoulder against mine.

'In Astrid's mind, you did.' I pointed out, pulling my hand from his as I flung my arms into the air and doing a little pirouette away from him as I grinned. 'And it was glorious!'

'You're in a good mood tonight.' Hiccup commented, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me back to his side.

'It's been a good day.' I shrugged, my own arm wrapping itself around Hiccup. 'Our dragons didn't kill each other, Gothi complimented me on my work, you didn't die in Dragon Training, and Astrid got humiliated! As far as I'm concerned, any day where the person who hurt my best friend gets hurt, is a good day regardless of what else happens.'

'Best friend?' Hiccup asked, pulling us to a stop and turning us both so that we could look each other in the eye.

'What's wrong with that?' I asked, lifting an eyebrow as I waited for his response.

'W-well I j-just thought – I-I mean that we – well we'

'Kissed?' I supplied for him, trying to bite back a smile as he stumbled over his words. He nodded clumsily. 'We did kiss, yes. But I don't remember making anything official.' I shrugged, stepping closer to him and looping my arms around his neck.

'Official?' Hiccup asked stupidly, his own arms automatically wrapping themselves around my waist. I nodded, allowing a small smile to grow.

'You haven't asked me out.' His eyes widened as he finally realised what I talking about.

'I-I-I haven't?' I shook my head. 'I thought it would have been obvious.'

'What would have been obvious?' I asked, feigning confusion as I cocked my head to the side.

'That I want to be your boyfriend!' I grinned widely at his declaration, giggling when his eyes widened even further as he realised just how loudly he had announced this.

'Well then, it's a good thing I want to be your girlfriend.' I laughed when he reeled back, looking completely baffled by what had just escaped my mouth. I reached up and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, before pulling away from him completely and continued to make my way to the Great Hall. 'You coming?' I called back to Hiccup when I realised he hadn't moved.

I waited for him to catch up with me, quickly stepping out of reach from his hands when he reached out to tickle me in retaliation to my little trick. We managed to make our way to the Great Hall, despite Hiccup's attempts to tickle me into insanity, and my attempts to trip him up. We were still laughing and joking around when we entered the Great Hall, but fell silent when we realised that many of the Vikings already in the hall were sat watching us, including Snotlout, Astrid, Fishlegs and the Twins.

Chuckling nervously, Hiccup grabbed my hand and led us over to the empty table near the teens, where there were two meals already set out waiting for us. We had barely sat down, the two of us sitting across from each other at the far end of the table, when the Twins, Snotlout, and Fishlegs came barrelling over to us, along with half the hall, shouting questions at Hiccup about Dragon Training.

A thump from the table next to us drew my attention away from watching Hiccup get quickly overwhelmed by the horde of Vikings, none of them listening to either of our protests or our insisting that they leave us to finish our meals. I found Astrid glaring over at Hiccup and the fawning Vikings, her hand tightly clutching at her cup, and couldn't help the pleased smirk that crept onto my face when I realised she was jealous. My smirk grew into a full-blown grin when she realised I was watching her. I lifted my own cup up in a toast, ignoring the glare that hardened as she tried to stare me down.

I turned back to Hiccup who smiled sheepishly at me when he caught my eye. My smile softened. While I didn't like the reason behind Hiccup's sudden popularity, I was glad that people were no longer treating him as an outcast. Maybe things were looking up after all.

The next morning, Hiccup and I were once again spending time with our dragons in the cove. Colossus, as it turned out, loved getting his belly scratched, and tended to get huffy with me when I'd stop suddenly to talk to Hiccup, and would do everything he could to make sure that my attention returned to him so that I could continue rubbing his belly. Realising what he was doing, I eventually turned it into a game between the two of us, and when he least expected it, would stopped scratching his belly and would try to run away from him as far as I could before he pulled me back to his side. I usually got a face full of smoke every time I did it, but I couldn't help but laugh at his grumpy expression every time I pulled away from him.

Hiccup and I were pleased to discover that both Colossus and Toothless actually got along, despite their first meeting. Being close to a lake, Colossus had taken up hunting for his own food, which meant that I didn't need to bring as much fish with me whenever I came to visit. What surprised Hiccup and I however, was the fact that Colossus had also taken to bringing Toothless fish as well. While it didn't make them the best of friends, the fact that the two were willing to help each other was a massive improvement.

I gave up my little game when the need for air became too much to ignore. I sat down heavily next to Colossus, trying to even out my breathing, and regretting ever deciding to play with the dragon the size of Jupiter. I ignored the dragon's grumblings when I pushed his head away from my lap, wanting a moment to myself to cool down.

I watched as Hiccup and Toothless started up their own game, when Hiccup quickly realised that Toothless had developed some interest in the circle of light that reflected off of hammer that Hiccup had brought to fix Toothless' tail. I laughed as Toothless began chasing the spot of light that Hiccup directed around the cove, grumbling in confusion whenever the light seemed to escape from his grasp.

Watching Toothless' reminded me of the video's I'd watch of cats who'd chase lasers around their owner's room's. That brief memory of my old home caused my smile to fall, as I let my memories run wild over the happy memories that now felt painful.

I let my hand rest between Colossus' horns as he managed to worm his head onto my lap. I let myself look over at Hiccup, who looked so happy as he played with his dragon, that the pain from my memories seemed to slowly melt away.

For the rest of the morning, I was content to spend time with my best friend and our dragons.

That afternoon, I found myself down on the arena floor with my back against the wall as I tried to stay as close to Gobber as possible. The teens were being introduced to a new dragon today, but Gobber assured me that it was perfectly safe to join them on the main floor, instead of watching up above with the rest of the crowd and well out of the way of the fire breathing animal who would more than likely be very agitated at being stuck inside it's cage for so long.

I glanced nervously at Hiccup, who was looking more confident standing amongst his classmates, a complete change to how he had appeared during the first session. Seeing him look so determined that he would quite easily be able to subdue whatever was about to be released, without causing the dragon or anyone else, bodily harm, made me feel a little better about being down on the main floor with them. Not much mind you, I was still scared of the prospect of being barbequed alive.

'Meet, the Terrible Terror!' Gobber announced, opening the cage door.

The arena fell silent as the teens looked at the cage doors in confusion, it was only when they heard the confused chirps of perhaps the cutest looking dragon (excluding Colossus and Toothless) that I had ever seen. The tiny green dragon's eyes narrowed when the teens, minus Hiccup, scoffed and laughed at its size.

'It's like the size of my –' I, along with the gathered crowd, burst into fits of laughter when the Terrible Terror attached itself to Tuffnut's nose. Cutting off whatever vulgar comment he had been about to sprout, and causing him to let out a very girlish scream, one that I am sure he will deny ever making.

He somehow managed to get the feisty little dragon off his nose, giving himself enough time to run over to the other teens who had scattered when the tiny dragon attacked. I rolled my eyes, and followed after him, needing to make sure that he was alright lest I incur Gothi's wrath.

I had just finished placing a small white bandage across Tuffnut's nose, when the crowd erupted into cheers. When I turned from Tuffnut, Hiccup was stop by the large wooden gate, his foot propped up against the small door the Terrible Terror used, holding his shield in his hand awkwardly as he looked over us with a sheepish grin.

'C'mon, hurry!' Hiccup called back to me as we ran through the forest, dodging trees, rocks, and foliage as we went.

'Why are we rushing?' I questioned, panting heaving as I tried to keep up with him. Where that boy got his energy from, I had no idea.

'We can't be seen!' He protested, stopping briefly for me to catch up with him, before continuing at a fast walk. 'You never know who might see us.'

'Who, in their right mind, would be willing to spend time out here? We're not exactly in our right minds Hiccup.' I rushed out, interrupting whatever he had been about to say. 'We've both somehow managed to adopt dragons, which, I don't think you've noticed, isn't exactly the most normal thing to do around here. Especially when the whole island is devoted to killing them.'

'We could run into a hunting party.' He pointed out. I nodded thoughtfully.

'Usually, yes. But considering the islands remaining hunters went out this morning, and have already came back with their kill, it's highly unlikely we'll meet them again. Face it Hiccup, we're alone out here.'

The moment I finished speaking, a dull thud echoed through the forest, soon followed by a frustrated shout. Hiccup and I shared quick, cautious glance, before slowing right down and crept out of the brush, right into one of Astrid's training sessions. We held our breaths when we managed to go unnoticed, and tried remaining out of sight as we made our way to the cove's hidden path. But of course, remaining out of Astrid's sight was too much to ask, as I managed to stumble over a hidden ditch and crashed into Hiccup, who then stepped on several sticks as he tried to catch his balance.

Astrid turned to us, her axe raised high and poised to through at us. The murderous snarl she had on her face, quickly turned to a look of confusion as she looked between me, Hiccup, and Toothless' new prosthetic in Hiccup's arms. Thankfully he had, had the foresight to wrap it up tightly, so that you couldn't tell what he was carrying.

I waved awkwardly, attempting to seem as casual as possible, before grabbing a handful of Hiccup's vest, and yanking him away from Astrid's view, and back down the direction we were originally aiming for. Hearing Astrid beginning to take chase, we picked up the pace, and somehow managed to outrun her, and get to safety before she could discover our secret.

We fell against the wall of the cove, giggling in relief over what had just happened.

'I though you said we were alone out here?' Hiccup asked, still laughing.

'Oh, shut up.' I rolled my eyes, hitting him playfully on the arm and making my way over to Colossus, who, since we had entered the cove, hadn't stopped wagging his tail. His eye's wide with excitement as I approached.

Colossus and I lounged quite happily in the sun together, his head resting on my stomach, as I leant back against a boulder, dozing in the sun as Hiccup managed to wrestle the new prosthetic onto Toothless' tail.

I opened my eyes long enough to watch Hiccup attach one end of the length of rope we had left here after our flight with Colossus, to Toothless' saddle, while the other end he wrapped around a tree stump. One he had gotten Toothless used to flying in place, the wind being a big help to him keeping his balance, I settled back down for a nap.

Only a few minutes had past when I heard a crash, soon followed by a pained groan and a confused croon. Colossus and I lifted our heads to see what happened, and found that both Hiccup and Toothless had vanished. Jumping to my feet, I ran over to where I last saw them. The steady thumps behind me, indicated that Colossus was following along closely.

I hurried up the grass knoll, and found Toothless and Hiccup amongst the trees, several feet away from the tree stump, looking, thankfully, unharmed, with Hiccup pulling on the strap he used to keep himself in the saddle.

'Are you two okay?' I asked. Hiccup looked up, his face set in complete panic, while Toothless just looked on in confusion.

'We're fine.' He admitted, then seemed to think about it for a second longer, then shrugged. 'For now, anyway.'

'What do you mean?' I frowned in confusion, looking over the two carefully, but seeing nothing to worry about.

'I'm kinda stuck to Toothless.' My eyes went wide. Beside me Colossus huffed then walked away. Well, at least one of us was calm.

We had to wait until it had turned dark, before attempting to smuggle Toothless into the village. Colossus hadn't been too happy that we were taking Toothless out on a field trip, while he stayed behind and waited for us to return.

The path to the forge had mostly been clear, we only encountered one person, but that had thankfully been when we had just come out of the forest, and had rounded the corner of my house, so we were able to make it look like we were just chatting before turning in for the night, when patrol went past.

'Hiccup, Hazel.' The Viking had greeted. We nodded casually, and waited for him to walk out of sight before pulling the curious Toothless out from behind the barrels I kept beside my house. I made a mental note to remember to return them to Gobber sometime in the next week.

We managed to get to the forge without making too much noise, but once in the forge, Hiccup had been unable to stop any of the clanging as he tried to separate himself from the Toothless' saddle. This, unfortunately, brought the attention of Astrid, who had been just as confused to see me standing outside the forge so late, as she was to hear someone working inside.

'What are you doing here?' She asked suspiciously, trying to look behind me into the forge. 'Is that Hiccup?'

'Who?' I mentally slapped myself for panicking. She brought her eyes back to mine, looking just as confused as I'd just said. Thankfully, Hiccup chose that moment to jump through the window behind me and slam it shut.

A quick glance down told me that he was still attached to Toothless' saddle.

'H-hey, Astrid. Hey! How's it going? You doing alright?' I tried to smile pleasantly at the blonde, hoping that it looked like Hiccup's questions were perfectly normal, Hiccup doing the same by leaning back against the forge window and crossing his arms over his chest.

'I normally don't care what people do,' Astrid started, looking weirdly at me and Hiccup. 'But you two, are acting weird.' At that, Hiccup was jerked back into the window shutters, making them shudder violently from the force. 'Well, weirder. What's going on?'

Before either of us could answer, Hiccup was lifted off the ground, and up against the window shutters, before a violent tug pulled him through the window. I turned back to Astrid, knowing my eyes had gone abnormally wide as I tried to stay calm and not burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.

'What just happened?' She asked, looking startled as she looked between me and the place Hiccup had just been standing.

'Training.' I answered immediately, nodding as if that would make me sound more truthful.

Astrid scoffed and shoved me aside to open the shutters, getting a good look at the empty forge. She looked back at me in disbelief, but I just smiled.

'See, training.' I waited to see if she'd say anything else, but she just continued staring so I decided to take my leave. 'Good night!'

It took me walking away for her to say anything.

'I will find out what's going on.' She called out. I thought it best that I didn't reply.

A/N - I have finally gotten this chapter up, which is a massive relief! The next chapter will probably be a while again, I'm going away with my uni on the 27th for a sort of holiday/assignment thing, so will be gone for about a week with that. But I also have to get a presentation sorted out for it before we go, along with one other assignment which is due while away. And I also have several other assignments that are needing to be finished by the end of Easter, so I probably won't have time to start writing until about mid to late April, so I hope you all won't be too upset with me.

Let me know what you think of this chapter!

xxxWelshGirl4Lifexxx