Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and I never will. All rights go to Dreamworks, who made the movies and the series, and Cressida Cowell, the author of the books. This particular fanfiction, unlike my other HTTYD fanfics so far, is set in the Race To The Edge series.

A/N: this is an alternate ending to Why, that sneaky Zippleback. You can read either this chapter or the chapter that came before it. Don't read both, or you'll be really confused. Hope you enjoy!

The next day, Toothless flew to the clubhouse like nothing weird had happened the night before (because in his mind, taking your rider back to his hut when they'd fallen asleep was normal), but when he got there, he saw Hookfang, Meatlug and Stormfly were staring at him. Hookfang looked like he was holding back laughter, while Meatlug and Stormfly were staring at him adoringly, like he was the cutest hatchling they'd ever seen. "Umm . . . are you all right?"

"We could ask you the same question. Was it hard opening a door with your tail?" Hookfang asked, before he burst out laughing. Toothless didn't know what Hookfang meant until he remembered last night. His eyes went wide with shock when he realized that they knew what he'd done for Hiccup, and he felt the room heating up.

"He was fast asleep, Hookfang," Toothless answered sternly, trying to hide how absolutely mortified he was. "I'm not letting him sleep in a forge. He could've hurt himself, and I'm not letting that happen."

"Aww, that's so cute," Stormfly and Meatlug cooed, making Toothless stick his head in his basket of fish so he didn't have to talk to them.

Stop, please, Toothless thought, turning red underneath his scales as Hookfang's hysterical laughter rang in his ears louder than any horn ever could. This is embarrassing. Fortunately, Toothless was saved by the Hofferson, who looked none too pleased that Stormfly hadn't finished her breakfast yet. The day she'd seen Stormfly raiding the storehouse and wrecking the roof, she took it upon herself to set it back to its former state, as well as adding a few improvements.

"Stormfly!" Astrid greeted, startling the Deadly Nadder enough for Astrid to duck as a few spines embedded themselves into the walls of the clubhouse. "Why haven't you finished eating? The storehouse still has repairs to be done! I'll wait for you to eat it all up, and then we'll go!"

"Not again!" Stormfly groaned. "I thought we'd finished last time." Sighing, she gulped down her chicken as fast as she could without choking and left with Astrid, wishing that she hadn't stolen so much or caused so much damage to the storehouse. Deep down, she knew she'd try this again, and was only saddened that Astrid was so strict about repairing it.

"Wow, Stormfly's got herself into some serious trouble now, hasn't she?" Hookfang snickered. "Good thing Snotlout's not as bossy." Just as he said this, Snotlout marched in.

"Hookfang!" Snotlout shouted, making Hookfang's eyes snap open. "We've got a hot tub to dig out, remember?" Instead of obediently eating and leaving the clubhouse when Snotlout asked for him, Hookfang picked him up with his tail, took his sweet time eating breakfast (it was purely to annoy Snotlout) and left, all while Snotlout was attached to his tail like a Snoggletog decoration. Eventually, that left only Toothless and Meatlug in the room.

"It's getting rather lonely in here," Meatlug moaned. "Barf and Belch are eating in the storehouse, Hookfang has to help Snotlout with his hot tub thing and Stormfly's helping Astrid repair the storehouse! It won't be long until you're gone, too, and then I'll be all on my own!"

"That's going to be so boring!" Toothless sympathized, before an idea took place in his mind. "Wait a minute. If Barf and Belch are in the storehouse, and that's where Astrid and Stormfly are headed right now, you don't think that-"

A feminine, high-pitched scream could be heard coming from the storehouse.

"They haven't-" Meatlug began.

"They have," Toothless answered.

Today had felt like a good day until Astrid walked in. The twins had got them two nets full of fish as a reward for doing such good work, and then left them in the storehouse 'to get their strength back' with all their favourites on display - cod, haddock, salmon, chicken, veal . . .

Naturally, once they'd finished the two catches of fish, they simply had to taste-test all the food they could see in the storehouse. The humans and their dragons would be eating this stuff, too, and neither Barf nor Belch would let their friends eat food that could make them vomit or anything, so they had to get rid of it the only way they knew how.

"Oh, that was soooo good," they moaned, slumping to the floor once their feast was over. Spying the emergency water Hiccup kept to put out fires, they used the last of their strength to gulp it all down, and collapsed into a food-induced stupor, happily sleeping their 'breakfast' away. They had no idea what was in store for them . . .

Astrid's day had been normal before she walked into the storehouse. Or, at least, she tried to walk into the storehouse, only to be stopped by a soft, squishy mass on the other side. Hiccup's new door-stop may be big and heavy, but it doesn't really work, she thought, as she pushed her way into the storehouse. Stormfly watched on curiously. What was holding her rider back?

Astrid sighed with relief as the door finally gave way, and massaged the life into her aching biceps as she strode in . . . and immediately tripped on something long and thick and bumpy. "Stormfly, give me some light," Astrid ordered, as Stormfly summoned a mouthful of sparks to light the blonde's way. The room became brighter, and Astrid could now see that the long, bumpy thing were two pieces of rope that seemed to be attached to a couple of lumpy, green barrels and two thick logs. Astrid cursed herself for not bringing a dagger, and pulled on the tail. Slowly, the twin logs moved, and with a sense of dawning realization, Astrid realized that she hadn't just pulled on a piece of rope, she'd pulled a dragon's tail. When she took a closer look at him, she realized that the dragon was actually Barf and Belch, the twins' Zippleback.

She screamed and rushed out of the storehouse, Stormfly in tow.

Everyone rushed to the storehouse when they heard the scream. Hookfang scooped up Snotlout and took off. Hiccup and Fishlegs rushed to get Toothless and Meatlug so they could see what had Astrid freaking out. The twins rushed to the storehouse on foot, blissfully unaware that it was their dragon that had, albeit unintentionally, caused Astrid to scream.

"Astrid, what happened?" Hiccup asked, holding Astrid by her shoulders to both keep her still and calm her down. "What happened?"

"In there," Astrid said, before she collapsed into Hiccup's arms.

"Astrid's all right, isn't she?" Snotlout asked.

"She's just fainted, but she should be fine once she wakes up," Fishlegs stated, as Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief.

"Astrid said 'In there' just before she fainted, so I'll go and look inside," Hiccup said. He was going to look for a stick to set on fire, but Toothless had already walked into the storehouse, retrieved a piece of shingle that Stormfly had missed while cleaning with Astrid and brought it to Hiccup. "Thanks, bud."

Hiccup took the piece of shingle, had Toothless light it, and walked into the storehouse. "What can you see in there, Hiccup?" Snotlout called. No reply came from either Hiccup or Toothless.

"Are you OK?" Fishlegs shouted. Once again, there was no reply.

"Ugggh, my head hurts," Astrid groaned, having finally woken up. "Where's Hiccup?"

"He went into the storehouse, searching for the thing that made you faint," Ruffnut grinned. "How sweet!"

"Glad I have your approval," Hiccup suddenly said, emerging from the normal-looking storehouse that suddenly, nobody wanted to go near any more. "Ruff, Tuff, I want a word. Why isn't there any food in the storehouse?"

"Why should we know that?" Ruffnut argued.

"It's not like we got rid of it or anything," Tuffnut backed up.

"You got rid of all the food in the storehouse?" Astrid yelled. "We've been storing that for three months!"

"Astrid, the twins didn't get rid of the food," Hiccup revealed, as he opened the storehouse door with a flourish, "their dragon did."

Everyone gasped when they saw Barf and Belch, and with good reason. Their once wiry necks had become as thick as tree branches, as little dimples dotted on their necks betrayed their weight gain. Their legs now they had long stretch marks, a massive increase in girth, and if you stood back far enough, it looked as if their claws were being swallowed up by their own legs. However, it seemed like most of the weight gain had gone to the dragon's stomach. Once flat, it now scraped the ground and actually made it harder for the dragon to walk, since they now had to suck their gut in every time they walked so it didn't scrape along the ground and slow them down. Toothless couldn't help but wonder if their claws were lifted off the ground every time they took a deep breath in.

"How much did you eat?" Meatlug asked.

"I think the words 'everything in sight' is a very good answer to that question," Hookfang joked.

"What were you thinking? That food wasn't put there just for you," Toothless scolded. This embarrassed Barf and Belch to no end, and they quickly found some interesting trees to look at. (Actually, they'd be happy to look just about anywhere if it meant they wouldn't see Toothless' green eyes.)

"Why did you scare my rider?" Stormfly asked, letting the spines on her tail stand on end. Barf and Belch winced when they realized how close they were to killing them.

"We couldn't see her!" they whined. "It's not our fault!"

"Shame you can't use that excuse when it comes to literally all the food we have," Toothless sarcastically pointed out, making Barf and Belch hide their faces in shame. "And it's not going to work with the twins, either." They wanted to ask what Toothless meant, but the angry voices of their riders made it scarily clear to them.

"That's it, you two!" Tuffnut called. "Did you really think that you could take advantage of our kind, forgiving hearts for so long? I bet that you were only pretending to be tired so you got more fish out of us, didn't you?"

"We are very disappointed in you," Ruffnut glowered, sounding like a stern mother. Barf and Belch could've died on the spot, it was that embarrassing. "When I first realized what you'd done, I was willing to punish you so badly, you two would wish you'd never even looked at that storehouse." At this, the Zippleback was terrified. "But now I realize that you would be better off being helped instead of punished, so I won't do that. Instead, we'll focus on helping you shed all this weight by going on a flight."

"What?" Barf and Belch shrieked, as Hookfang collapsed to the floor laughing at their terrified faces. Toothless couldn't resist snickering too, as the scene was too funny not to laugh at. "We are not going on a flight we don't need, and you can't make us! No, no, no!" And with that, they took off, flying very, very slowly towards some islands inhabited exclusively by other Zipplebacks. They knew they could get lots of food there.

At sunset, they came back to the Edge only to find everyone working really hard to replace all the food they ate earlier. They felt really guilty, and they tried to get the attention of the other dragons, but they were ignored. They were very, very embarrassed that they had left when there was so much work to be done, so they tried to help out as much as they could. When they tried to take a cart of freshly picked forest fruits from Astrid, she batted them away, and made a show of being able to handle the cart on her own. They also tried to say hello to the other dragons, but they carried on like they weren't there at all. What was going on?

"Alright, guys, lets take all this to the storehouse; we'll continue tomorrow," Hiccup announced. There were shouts of "Finally!" and "Thought you'd never say that!" as everyone finished what they were doing and retired to their huts for the night. Eventually, there was nobody there except Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Barf and Belch. The twins still hadn't finished, and so were left behind by the others.

"We found the twins! Finally!" they cheered, nuzzling the twins happily. The twins smiled and hugged them back.

"We haven't seen you in a while!" Ruffnut cooed. "You must be tired, aren't you? Let's get you out of that horrible, tight, saddle before you go to sleep. Tuff, take these. They need to be repaired." (The saddles were perfectly fine.)

"Got it," Tuffnut replied, dutifully taking the saddles to Hiccup's forge . . . where Hiccup slipped lead weights into both of them. "Are you sure this will work?" he asked Hiccup. "We don't know what to do. Barf and Belch usually love flights, or at least Barf does. Belch isn't so keen."

"Positive. If Barf and Belch suddenly thought they couldn't fly because they were too heavy, they'd do anything to get rid of it, right?" Hiccup rationalized. "Although I've got to warn you, though, make sure they wear the lead bars in their saddles for about a week. They might suspect something if they can't fly one minute, but can fly later the same day." Tuffnut nodded and took the now heavier saddles.

Toothless and the other dragons, minus Barf and Belch, were a safe distance away from the forge, meaning they could see and hear everything, but Hiccup and Tuffnut had no clue they were there. "This is going to be good," Toothless grinned.

"Of course it will! It involves a forge!" Hookfang argued.

"How long will it take for Barf and Belch to completely freak out?" Stormfly asked.

"Not long," Meatlug answered. "Sometimes the shock tactic works best with cases like this, especially if they're in denial."

"Who are you, where do you come from and what have you done with Meatlug?" Toothless, Hookfang and Stormfly asked.

"Oh, stop whining," Meatlug said, nuzzling all three like they were hatchlings, which was a little embarrassing for them. They were lucky nobody else was there. "You can find out tomorrow, OK? Hookfang, Stormfly, I'm taking you back to your rider's huts. They'll be worried if they realize that you're missing."

"What?" they protested, as Toothless forced his laughter back down his throat. "Why aren't you taking Toothless with you?"

"Leave me out of this one," Toothless answered. "I'm supposed to be here waiting for Hiccup, so Hiccup and Tuffnut won't look twice. If you're here waiting for Hiccup and Tuffnut, they'll definitely look twice."

"Why, you smug little-" Hookfang growled, before he was restrained by Meatlug.

"Shut. Up." Meatlug hissed. Hookfang was so shocked at the tone of voice Meatlug used that he actually shut up, just in time to hear what Hiccup was about to say.

"So, we'll all get to see if your plan works, right?" Hiccup asked, as Tuffnut left the forge.

"Of course," Tuffnut replied, struggling slightly as he adjusted to the new weight of the saddles. He went scarily close to where the dragons were hiding, so they had to leave quickly, so they weren't noticed, except Toothless, who quickly fell to the ground and pretended to be asleep. Tuffnut walked about five yards away from the forge, before turning to look at Toothless' supposedly 'sleeping' form. "Toothless, were there any other dragons here? I could've sworn I heard three dragons flying away in a hurry." Toothless ignored him and continued to feign sleep. "Oh, yeah, if there were any other dragons, you'd be wide awake. See ya, T."

Once Tuffnut had left, Toothless opened one eye, then the other. "Time to stop pretending now," he muttered to himself, as he stretched out like a cat and walked into the forge.

"Hey, Toothless," Hiccup greeted. "How'd you sleep? Oh wait, I forgot, you didn't." Toothless' eyes went wide with realization as Hiccup grinned. "Oh yeah. I saw you, Stormfly, Hookfang and Meatlug outside the forge. Don't think I didn't see you."

The next day, everyone had an uneventful breakfast and (for some reason) was looking forward to finding out which jobs they were getting. "How'd you think they'll react?" Toothless whispered to Stormfly.

"How'd you think who'll react?" Barf asked. Toothless gulped when he realized who was talking. "Well?"

"I was wondering how the twins will react when they realize that Astrid can tell the difference between them and the dummies they put in the watchtower," Toothless quickly lied. He didn't want to tell Barf and Belch about the plan Hiccup and Tuffnut had made. "Just because they have the twins' helmets doesn't mean she'll think it's them, does it?"

"I know, right?" Belch cut in, while all the other dragons breathed a sigh of relief that they hadn't been outed. "Those dummies of theirs can't even move. Astrid will definitely notice." And with that, Barf and Belch left to find the twins. Toothless noticed that they had no saddles, but paid little attention to it, since that meant the twins had them. This was proven when they saw Ruffnut and Tuffnut struggling with a now considerably heavier saddle.

"How are you, misters!" Ruffnut cooed, rubbing Barf's jaw with one hand while attaching the saddle to their necks with the other. Tuffnut was doing the same thing to Belch, using their bliss to distract them from the saddles, which they didn't notice until they were wearing them.

"We're going on a flight today to look for some herbs that Fishlegs needs," Tuffnut explained, wearing the same deliriously happy expression on his face as his sister. "I hope you don't mind the adjustments we made to your saddles."

"That can be overlooked," Belch said, who was smiling happily.

"No harm done," Barf chirped happily.

"Well, you seem to be happy. How's about we go for a quick flight?" Tuffnut decided.

"Provided that they can get off the ground, of course," Hookfang snickered. Toothless tail-slapped him. "Ow!"

Barf and Belch, oblivious to Hookfang's comment, growled happily to signify that they wanted to go for a flight. "Then let's go!"

The twins mounted Barf and Belch's considerably thicker necks (which they struggled to fit their legs around) and Barf and Belch took off. Or at least, tried to. They attempted to take off four more times, before the twins sighed and dismounted.

"Sorry, buddy, but it seems you're unable to fly," Tuffnut said sadly. "I'm sorry. I just wish I'd taken you on more flights. Then this would never have happened to you."

"Now we'll have to fly with another dragon," Ruffnut sobbed.

Barf and Belch were horrified. They didn't want to lose the ability to fly. They checked the rocks around them, looked at the twins' distraught faces - and that was when they finally realized their own weight gain that they had denied for so long.

"Oh, no," Barf whispered to Belch, "we've become so fat, the twins can't go on flights with us any more because we can't get off the ground. What do we do?"

"We become skinnier, of course," Belch answered, firmly. "Let's do laps around the Edge until sunset."

"Great!" Barf answered optimistically. "We're starting right now!" And with that, they ran off . . . very, very slowly. Meatlug could've beaten them.

Once they were sure that Barf and Belch were gone, the twins ditched the we're-doomed appearance and straightened up. Hiccup grinned, and the dragons burst into howls of laughter. "Oh, this is priceless," Toothless laughed, collapsing to the floor with mirth. "I can't believe that worked."

"I told you shock tactics were effective!" Meatlug gloated.

"The looks on their faces!" Hookfang grinned.

"This is just too funny!" Stormfly giggled.

"Uh, Ruff, Tuff, what are you going to do now you have no dragon?" Hiccup asked.

"We'll stay at the watchtower and see if Viggo's approaching," Tuffnut asked, punching his sister in the ribs to get her on board. "I'm sure Astrid can't tell the difference between us and the Scareships we made," he whispered.

"It's genius!" Ruffnut quietly replied.

"That's great!" Astrid said. "But don't try to use the old dummy trick again. I can tell the difference very easily."

"What!" the twins yelped, groaning when they realized that they signed up for the most boring job they could get, and they didn't have an escape route. Astrid smirked, and Toothless nudged the other dragons as if to say 'I told you so'.

Later, a little while after lunch, Toothless, Hookfang, Stormfly and Meatlug watched as Barf and Belch did laps around the Edge. "How long will they keep this up?" Stormfly asked. "I'm getting dizzy just watching them."

"They said they'd do this until sunset," Hookfang answered. "And I'm going to stay here to see if they keep their word. This is just too funny!"

"Oh, now I'm worried about them," Meatlug fretted. "They don't show any signs of stopping and they haven't eaten all day. They didn't even stop for lunch. They love lunch!"

"Weren't you the one telling us that shock tactics worked best with cases like theirs?" Toothless reminded her, as Hookfang and Stormfly laughed. "This is your chance to prove yourself right. Use it wisely."

"You know, I still can't believe that Barf and Belch got caught in the storehouse," Stormfly mentioned. "I figured they'd be at least smart enough to get out in time."

"I said the same thing about you, Stormfly, you have no room to talk," Hookfang interjected, as Toothless grinned devilishly and the two of them touched wings. (Basically the dragon equivalent of a fist-bump).

"Shut up!" Stormfly moaned, hurling spikes at the pair and giggling as they yelped and ducked for cover. "Aw, you're so sweet when you're terrified out of your wits. In fact, you two look absolutely adorable! Awww!"

"Hookfang, are all females unpredictable and crazy, or does that just apply to dragon females?" Toothless whispered.

"All females, Toothless," Hookfang answered wisely, "all females."

Ten days passed, and over the course of those ten days, every human and dragon on the Edge got to see Barf and Belch diligently running laps around the Edge. Once those ten days were up, the dragons saw an improvement in them. Their stomach wasn't touching the ground anymore. Their necks were a lot thinner, causing the saddle to literally hang off them. True, they weren't as skinny as they were when they first started stealing extra portions of food, but they were getting there. On the eleventh day, Tuffnut paid a ridiculously early visit to the forge and had Hiccup remove the lead weights in their saddles and doctor the saddles so nobody could tell what they did to it. "It worked like a charm," Tuffnut gloated. "Thanks for the help, Hiccup."

"It's nothing," Hiccup downplayed. "It was your plan anyway."

"I still want to thank you for helping, though," Tuffnut answered. "Chicken and I have gotten a better night's sleep after this knowing that my dragon will soon be leading a better lifestyle. Anyway, I need to find Barf and Belch so we can go on a flight. Seen them anywhere?"

"You called?" Barf and Belch chorused, running over to the storehouse. They still didn't believe that they could fly after the 'revelation' they'd had a while back, so they didn't, just in case.

"Tuffnut!" Belch called, happily nuzzling his rider. Barf, however, was kind of disappointed.

"Where's Ruffnut?" Barf sulked, looking at the ground until Ruffnut walked in. "Ruffnut! You're here!"

"Happy to see you too," Ruffnut cooed, smiling as she mounted Barf for a flight. Tuffnut did the same with Belch. "Wanna go for a flight?"

"But what if we still can't fly?" Barf whispered to Belch. "I don't want to disappoint them again."

"It's the moment of truth," Belch muttered, secretly terrified out of his wits. Having absolutely no clue whether they'd be successful or not, they walked a decent way away from the forge, took off into the air . . . and stayed there.

"We're flying? We're flying!" they cheered, doing loop-the-loops with joy.

"You've lost weight! You really have!" Tuffnut cheered, rubbing Belch's head happily.

"We're so proud of you," Ruffnut purred. Barf and Belch couldn't help but feel happy and proud of themselves for doing what they set out to do. But they had to keep going if they wanted to get back to what they were like before they started sneaking food, so they weren't done. Not yet.

Barf and Belch got back to what they were like before they got fat, but they still had to deal with a lot of teasing from the other dragons for being able to clear out the entire storehouse. (Barf and Belch became very good at tail-slapping people, mostly Snotlout, and Hookfang if he was smug enough to bring it up.) Toothless still kept an eye on them, though, but that would end up being in vain, since Barf and Belch never stole food again.