Surprise!

AN: This is for a oneshot challenge issued by FriendOfNoOne.

Prompt and conditions:

Hero and Devil king, minimum of 4000 words, Toothfly, and the phrase 'What are you doing to that fish' has to appear in the story.

Once upon a time on the continent of Almera there lived three races. The humans who covered most of the continent were considered the weakest of the three races, but what they could not make up for in raw strength, they made up for with ingenuity. They spread far and wide across the continent and throughout history they had several conflicts over territory with the other two races. The second race was the Dragonkin, far fewer in numbers than the humans and they held territories to the south. The Dragonkin were humanoid with dragon-like features, scales littered parts of their bodies and they had wings and tails as well. They were considered the descendants of the fearsome dragons that once had held dominion over the entire continent. The third race was the smallest in number but they were the most feared, the Devilkin. Though only ruling over a small northern territory, this mysterious race was the most fearsome as they were led by strong and ruthless rulers that called themselves the Devil king. No one knew how many Devil kings there had been, just that the succession was decided by combat. It was not like anyone had tried to find out either, both human and Dragonkin avoided the Devilkin race as much as possible.

Then one day, at a conclave of the three races, it was announced that the fourth Princess of the Dragonkin, Stormfly, would wed the current Devil king to keep the peace between the races. There had been talk of the Devil king preparing troops to invade the other territories and enslave them all, so this arrangement didn't seem to come as a surprise. The fourth Princess was not a happy bride-to-be but a ransom instead.

Many were against this union but even then they did not speak up because the safety of the kingdoms was at risk. Stories were told by the peasants that when Princess Stormfly heard who she was going to wed she blew up, or rather she blew a hole in the castle wall because of her anger.

The Dragonkin Princess was fearsome and just. The story goes that she marched into the throne room after the destruction of the castle wall and demanded where the King got it into his mind to decide who she could marry. Those at court shrank back to avoid any of her ire. Yet in the end there was nothing she could. The marriage would continue, and soon she was being shipped off towards the Devilkin lands for her union.

"This isn't right." One of the knights said from upon the ramparts as he watched the Royal entourage depart.

"What isn't?" The guard next to him asked.

"This!" The Dragonkin now gestured towards the leaving carriages. "How can we stand here and let this happen?"

"It's not like we can do much Toothless." The other replied. "This marriage will stop the invasion. It's for the best."

Toothless gave the other man a glare. Another guard on the other side laughed then. "We all know you have a crush on the Princess. But if the knights did nothing to help Princess Stormfly then do you really think you can make a difference? We're not even knights, just guards."

Toothless blushed crimson behind his helm when someone brought up his very obvious crush on the princess. "Forget it Toothless. She's a princess, you're a guard. Two different worlds." Toothless frowned when he heard that. It was true however, the castle guards were nowhere near the skills of the legion of knights. They were commoners that were employed and Princesses didn't marry commoners. His black tail swished with agitation when another on the ramparts stated "I doubt the princess has anything to be mad about really. This is probably the closest she's been to the throne." A few others laughed at that and Toothless' head whipped in the direction of the one that said that. 'Hold your tongue!" He warned.

"It's true though." Another spoke up. "As the fourth Princess, Stormfly would never rule our kingdom." Toothless bristled at the comments and speculation that followed but kept his tongue. Now was not the time, he would show them. He would find a way to rescue the Princess from her terrible fate.

1 year later

It had been one year since Toothless had left the Dragonkin kingdom on his quest to save Princess Stormfly. Many had laughed when he proclaimed what he would do. Not even the other Princesses and Prince would take him seriously. When the rumors reached them, and yes castle gossip does travel fast, they went out of their way to rub it in his face. He still bristled about some of the comments.

"Oh poor little guard. You can't talk to your beloved Stormfly anymore."

"Who does he think he is? He'll be dead before reaching the border!"

"What can a commoner do?!"

"Toothless watch out for that….. Nevermind." The dry sarcastic voice behind Toothless sighed as the Dragonkin had just walked into a tree.

"You know, I thought Dragonkin had superior sight."

"Har di har har." Toothless growled as he rubbed his nose. His cheeks were aflame because his best friend and confidant on this journey was also a sassy inventor that would surely use this embarrassing instance as blackmail. "Shut it Hiccup!"

"You really have got to stop getting lost in thought so many times bud." The auburn-haired human named Hiccup laughed as he teased Toothless. "And you should really take that advice seriously."

"This is the first time it happened!" Toothless tried to reason as his tail curled around him.

"You nearly flew into a mountain last week." Hiccup stated. "And what about accidentally walking into the ladies' bath at the last inn. You got us nearly arrested. Oh, and let's not forget turning our dinner into ashes yesterday because you forgot to check how much flames you used."

"Okay first of all, the mountain should not have been there!" Hiccup gave Toothless an unimpressed look at that. "Granted I should have looked where I was going at the inn, but can you blame me if I was deep in thought about what we had just learned. Third, we've been arrested before." Toothless gave Hiccup a look that said 'and you know exactly why.'

"And?" Hiccup quirked an eyebrow.

"Alright, I admit that it might have been better if I didn't muse about stuff while cooking dinner." Toothless grimaced as he didn't like the taste of overcooked charred fish. "But you have to admit that you screaming 'What are you doing to that fish!' was pretty hilarious." Now it was Hiccup's turn to blush slightly. "And I was referring to it being the first time I walked into a tree."

"Suuuuureeee" Hiccup sounded quite unconvinced. "Well you can stop your musings. We're finally here." Hiccup said as he pointed to a city not so far in the distance. "The capital of the Devilkin. We should reach it before midday."

"You know, I never asked. How did your crush on the Princess develop." Hiccup asked as he elbowed Toothless. The Dragonkin's black armor clanged as he looked at his friend.

"It's rather embarrassing." Toothless mumbled as they continued walking towards the city. "We met when I was still a juvenile dragon." he began to tell hiccup. "My wings had developed late and everyone was making fun at me for having small wings for my age." Toothless instinctively flexed his now adult wings. "I couldn't even lift off the ground. No matter how much I fluttered those wings. After one case of bullying I ran away and climbed into a tree to cry and that's when I met her."

Hiccup noticed a fond look appear on Toothless' face. The small black scales that framed his eyes and part of his neck glistening in the sunlight as he was remembering. "She shouted at me to get my behind down from there." He told Hiccup. "Of course I wasn't listening and told her to go away."

"Did she go get your parents?"

"Heck no!" Toothless laughed. "She shot a fireball at me that broke the branch I was sitting on causing me to fall onto her."

"AHAHAHAHAHHA" Hiccup guffawed when he heard that. "She… HAHAH…. Didn't ….HAHAH-ppffft… think that true did she."

"We were friends ever since."

"Friendsssss" Hiccup said slyly. "You told me when we met that when you first laid eyes on her that you thought that she was the most beautiful Dragonkin in the world."

"Okay, I admit. When I first laid eyes on her up in the tree I thought that she's be annoying. I thought she was the most beautiful Dragonkin in the world when I ended up falling on her."

"Love at second sight huh bud." Hiccup laughed as he noticed that his friend was doing a very good impression of a tomato. "You certainly fell for her hard." His joke was interrupted by Toothless' tail whacking him from behind.

"We're here!" He said as they reached the city. The Royal Palace was a bit further in, in a more secluded and affluent part of the city. They pulled their brown hoods higher and Toothless was careful to hide his tail. It wouldn't do to be discovered so soon since there weren't many Dragonkin or humans in the city. The mysterious and reclusive Devilkin were often blamed for misfortunes by superstitious humans and Dragonking, causing them to be looked at with suspicion, often times loathing, and sometimes hatred. Only the brave merchants made their way through Devilkin lands and since neither Hiccup or Toothless had any wares to peddle they would stand out.

The most obvious reason that the Devilkin hadn't been conquered yet was because no one actually knew the full extent of their powers. There were whispers that this race could do grand feats of magic, wiping out armies in the blink of an eye. The fear had grown and taken hold through the years and it was ultimately what had caused Stormfly to be wedded off at the mere rumor of an invasion. Toothless still scowled when he remembered that. His scowl deepened when he thought about what he had learned on his journey. If Stormfly didn't know about it yet then another castle wall might be blown to bits once they tell her.

"Toothless watch out for the….. Nevermind." Hiccup groaned as Toothless was once again so deep in thought that he didn't notice the moat around the castle. There was a huge splash as Toothless fell in. The Dragonkin came up for air and nearly shouted "Who decided to put a damn moat here!"

"Well it is a castle." Hiccup shrugged and rummaged through his pack as Toothless dragged himself out of the moat. "But you got to admit, security is lax here." Hiccup frowned as he saw no castle guards standing…. well guard.

"All the better for us." Toothless grumbled as he was trying to shake the water out of his armor. Hiccup gave Toothless a grappling hook attached to a long rope. "I told you this would come in handy." Hiccup grinned. A cold gust of wind blew past them causing Toothless to shiver as he got ready to throw the grappling hook. It snagged the castle gate in one attempt and Toothless grinned as he gave the rope an experimental tug.

Hiccup nodded and thought that this part would be easy. He was so wrong. So very wrong. In the words of one of his other friend "That hurt, that very much hurt." Hiccup cringed as he watched Toothless.

Hiccup was still grinning like a loon when they finally did make it into the castle. "Not a word Hiccup. Not a word."

Hiccup made a motion of zipping his lips but he couldn't hide the mirth. Especially not after the events near the gate. They snuck into the castle and stayed in alcoves as guard patrols pass by. "This is it Hiccup." Toothless whispered as he gripped his sword. Hiccup had his hand on the hilt of his but hadn't drawn it. They were close to the throne room and Toothless motioned for Hiccup to follow him. "Stormfly will be free soon." He whispered before kicking open the heavy doors after knocking the two guards near it down. "Devil king! I have come to free my beloved!" Toothless shouted as he charged into the throne room. Hiccup was right behind him but what they found in there stopped them in their tracks.

"Stormfly?!" Toothless' eyes nearly popped out of his sockets when he saw Stormfly lounging on the large throne in the room. Several of the Devilkins that were giving her reports seemed to scatter.

"Well there is my knight in shining….." Stormfly stopped when she got a good look at Toothless. "Your armor is black, you're sopping wet, and you have a reed sticking out of your armor."

"Eh….. Stormfly?" Toothless was at a loss for words upon seeing her again.

"Yes Toothless?" Stormfly quirked a brow. Her blue and yellow scales near her eyebrow catching the light that shone into the room.

"What are you doing here?"

"Currently I'm talking to you. Previously I was in a very boring meeting that I'm glad got interrupted." Stormfly laughed as she winked at Toothless. "By the way you're late." She added and gave the Nightfury a smirk.

"I'm actually here to see the Devil king." Toothless mumbled.

"Well Ta-Da!" She laughed. "Here I am! Your one and only Devil king."

"Say what now!" Toothless was still in shock. You could see it in his tail that nearly stood straight up. "What happened to the guy you were going to marry?"

"It's a rather long story." Stormfly mused. "Why don't we discuss this over dinner. Then you can tell me what took you so long to get here."

"Dinner?" Toothless was still not all there as he didn't even blink when Hiccup waved a hand in front of his eyes. He was still looking at Princess, no, Devil king Stormfly with incredulity.

"I'm assuming that the lack of guards meant that you were expecting us?" Hiccup now asked as he still tried to get Toothless to respond.

"You can thank Astrid for that." Stormfly told Hiccup as she gestured to one of the Devilkin that was obviously her advisor. Hiccup's jaw dropped as a blonde beautiful woman came forward.

"Who….. what….. How?!" He finally settled on asking.

"It seems to be a rare Devilkin power." Stormfly stated. "Astrid can look into the future sometimes." Now it was Hiccup's turn to be shocked because he never thought that it was possible. 'Did the Devilkin really have tremendous powers like the rumors said.' He thought as Astrid approached Toothless and Hiccup with a curious gaze.

"I've never seen another Dragonkin before besides Stormfly." Astrid mused aloud as her gaze reached Toothless. Her gaze next turned to Hiccup and it felt predatory to him. Astrid smiled and leaned a bit closer causing Hiccup to gulp. "And this is my first time seeing a human up close."

"Astrid doesn't travel much." Stormfly stated. "Astrid, why don't you show these two where they can stay. They shall join us for dinner." Both Toothless and Hiccup nodded as they were escorted out. Astrid happily giving them a small tour on their way to the guest chambers.

Later that night found Hiccup and Toothless seated opposite of Astrid and Stormfly.

"So… Devil king." Toothless mumbled. "How did that happen?"

"He's dead." Astrid said rather bluntly.

"Really now Astrid, take all the fun out of my story time." Stormfly groaned.

"Devilkin are blunt. It's efficient." Astrid spoke. "Besides it's really not much of a story. They just believe you're the Devil king because they think you killed the previous one."

"Say what now?!" Toothless asked surprised.

"It was all an accident really." Stormfly pursed her lips.

-Flashback-

Stormfly was escorted through the palace while in her wedding gown. Her blue spiky tail swished under her long veil that trailed behind her.

"The ceremony will be held within the hour." Astrid said from beside her. She was reading off a long scroll. "The king would like to speak with you now."

"It is considered bad luck for the bride and groom to meet before the wedding." Stormfly told her. If she had her way they would never meet.

"Well I can't actually tell him that now can I." Astrid quipped back. "I'd like to keep my head."

Stormfly frowned at what this woman said. "Astrid, was it? How would you describe him?"

"I unfortunately can't give you my honest opinion." Astrid stated while motioning to the guards that flanked them. Stormfly understood immediately. 'She must be worried about treason if she can't express her honest opinion.' The princess' mind put two and two together. 'The Devil king must be quite a tyrant if this was happening.' She had noticed some things as her carriage made its way towards the castle. The city wasn't bustling as much as a city of this size should have. The commoners looked despondent, the buildings looked neglected. Even the guards near the castle seemed jumpy as if not to tread on someone's toes.

They neared a large set of ornate wooden doors and Astrid indicated for Stormfly to enter. The Princess looked back at the servant that had been filling her in on all the details of the ceremony and customs. "I'm of too low a stature in the servant ranks to enter the King's chambers." Astrid answered as if knowing what she was going to ask next. Stormfly nodded when Astrid whispered "be careful" before stepping into the room.

The room was dimly lit. Stormfly held her dress up as she walked inside. There was one large window near the bed that was the only source of light. A figure sat with his back to her. The man turned and Stormfly scowled at his appearance. The Devil king was drunk.

"Your Highness." Stormfly addressed civilly. She could smell the strong alcohol from here. The took a step forward, one of his feet bumping against an empty bottle on the floor that she hadn't noticed at first.

"Now now. That's no way for you to address your future husband." The man slurred his speech a bit.

"And this is not the behaviour for said future husband on his wedding day." Stormfly quipped back.

"My you have a mouth on you woman." The King snarled. "You'll learn soon enough to hold your tongue."

"And you can learn to hold your liquor." Stormfly shot back. The Devil king huffed before continuing like he hadn't heard her. "You shall from this point onwards address me only as Dear beloved." He smiled at her as he walked, or wobbled closer. Stormfly scrunched up her nose as the stench of alcohol became stronger.

"And what will you call me?" She asked with disdain already coating her voice.

"Do you actually think you deserved to be addressed by me?" The man laughed at some inside joke. "You are nothing more than a ransom. You'll be my plaything and nothing more until I tire of you."

Stormfly's knuckles curled and she thought that she might have drawn blood.

-End Flashback-

"Sooooo?" Hiccup asked at the same time as Toothless asked "What happened."

"Don't worry Toothy. I'm not a widow. I didn't end up marrying the pompous jerk."

"Toothy?" Hiccup asked as he watched Toothless blush once more when he heard the nickname.

"I told you not to call me that!"

"And I told you to actually man up and kiss me!" Astrid let out a flustered cough at Stormfly's exclamation.

"It was a royal ball. I was on guard duty!" Toothless retorted.

"You were with me in the rose bushes!"

"Only because you dragged me into those bushes!" Toothless replied back.

"Okay, as much fun as hearing about Toothless' past exploits are….. I think we are getting off topic." Hiccup intervened.

Stormfly mumbled something about dense Nightfuries before saying. "As I previously told you. It was an accident. The King, in his drunkenness, slipped and hit his head on the side of a table. The guards heard the thud, they charged in, saw the blood and the King unconscious and drew conclusions."

"And that's all that happened." Stormfly stated.

"And you didn't get into trouble?" Toothless asked as the death of a King would have been a big deal.

"The throne here is won by combat." Astrid interjected. "The Devil king has absolute power over his or her subjects. It was considered that Stormfly beat him in combat, hence why she is now our ruler."

"Seems a bit anticlimactic." Hiccup mused.

"Stormfly, there is something you should know as well." Toothless said. "During our travels we came upon some news. It seems your sister, the crown princess, was the one to start the rumor of the invasion. She was also the one who suggested that you be the bride-to-be."

"Well I figured." Stormfly huffed not at all surprised. "She's a vain one."

"You knew?" Toothless asked surprised.

"I suspected. She always thought that I would usurp her because the people loved me more." Stormfly sighed. "More fool her. She's still a princess while I'm queen… eh… King."

Both Hiccup and Toothless blinked before they finished processing the information they had just learned. "Now, how come you're so late Toothless. I expected you to come barging in within the month."

"We got sidetracked." Toothless grumbled.

"We got sidetracked a lot." Hiccup added.

"So that's how you two met?" Astrid now asked as she watched Hiccup more than Toothless. Hiccup gulped as he felt her predatory gaze upon him again.

"Yeah, he shot me down with one of his inventions." Toothless grumbled.

"Oh hush!" Hiccup replied. "You crushed that invention."

"Well who develops a bola launcher!"

"My inventions can be useful!" Hiccup told him. "Or did you forget when we were being chased through the desert because you lost the map!"

"That was one time." Toothless huffed. "We got captured by bandits, our clothes stolen in a harem town, we ended up walking in circles in the forest of lights, and let's not forget that we ended up in jail because one of your inventions was rampaging through the town!"

"My grappling hook helped with the moat!" Hiccup brought it up. "And don't you dare say it didn't. You just didn't use it right."

"Okay now I'm curious, what happened at the moat?" Stormfly asked as amusement danced in her eyes.

"Yes do tell us." Astrid was also eager to hear it.

Toothless groaned as Hiccup started explaining. "Well Toothless had the hook in the door and was checking the rope. He then decided to swing over to the other side and climb up." Both women nodded while Toothless was trying to make himself as small as possible, their dinner forgotten. "So Toothless swings but the rope was too long and he ended up face first in the moat again. This was after he walked into it when he wasn't looking where he was going."

"Yes he tends to do that." Stormfly agreed.

"Alright so Toothless over here comes back up out of the water, rope still in his hand and he reaches the other side and starts climbing. He's halfway to the top when the gate starts opening." The others could already tell what had happened as they tried to stifle their sniggers. Toothless shot Hiccup a look that promised retaliation. "Naturally I hid as the drawbridge opened. Toothless let out a squawk before being dumped back in the water."

"That was hilarious!" Stormfly laughed hard. "I wish I could have seen Toothy's face." Toothless scowled at his friend but Stormfly spoke up soon. "Oh my look at the time. Maybe we should continue this discussion later. Toothless why don't you join me. We have a lot of catching up to do." Stormfly's words held a hint of mischief.

"Oh yes of course. Catching up." Toothless tried to will any blush that threatened to come forward down.

"If you'll excuse us." Stormfly said as she and Toothless left arm in arm. Hiccup was left at the table with Astrid who cocked her head to the side while studying him.

"Do you want to go spy on them?" SHe asked with a smirk.

"Heck yeah." Hiccup said before adding "As long as it's not in rose bushes."

-THE END-

AN: Alrighty. I hope everyone enjoyed that. "How deep is your love" will probably get an update tonight or tomorrow. Followed by "HTTYD-Star Wars: Eclipse" which is nearing it's ending chapters.

I just found out that I have an extra project due for one of my course (TOTALLY NOT FUN) so writing might be slow for a week or two.