Summary: Astrid sat on a large boulder by the pool while Hiccup and Toothless attempted to relearn how to fly again.

Set after Hiccup wakes up after battling the Green Death, and before the epilogue scene.

Written for grendelity and sarashina/cafecliche as a yuletide treat.

Relearn

By Dark Ice Dragon

"Whoa!" Hiccup and Toothless landed with a crash, Hiccup barely missing getting rolled on as Toothless tried to regain his balance as soon as he hit the ground. Well, that didn't go so well. Rubbing his head and sighing, Hiccup got up shakily, not fully adjusted to the peg-leg yet, before Toothless slid under his palm, helping him up.

"Thanks, buddy."

Toothless crooned, ears flicking back.

"Are you two all right?" Astrid called over. The three were currently in the cove that Hiccup and Toothless had begun to practice to fly in together, all those months ago, Astrid sitting on a large boulder by the pool while Hiccup and Toothless attempted to relearn how to fly again. She also had an assortment of bandages and all sorts of things that were useful for nasty wounds. Thankfully, they weren't needed. Not yet, anyway.

"Yeah," Hiccup called back, testing himself and making sure he was still in one piece and not bleeding, and then checked if Toothless was okay too. Apart from a few non-fatal scrapes they were still good, but he did notice that the leather was wearing a little where his left foot rested against it. Hmm… Hiccup peered at it, leaning closer. Toothless looked over his shoulder at him, glancing at what he was staring at and then back at Hiccup. Seeing that he wasn't hurt, Toothless turned away again.

So that was one thing he needed to change. The pedal was something else on the list too – his foot didn't sit right on it properly, and it had a tendency of slipping off, no matter how he tied it. That, and he had to figure out a way of moving the pedal because at the moment, all he could do was press down and not angle which part moved.

"You okay for one more try?" Hiccup asked Toothless, patting his neck.

Hiccup felt Toothless' muscles bunch together under his fingers before seeing him nod, and Toothless lowered himself so that Hiccup would find it easier to swing his leg over the saddle. Once in position, Toothless leaped into action, bounding forward effortlessly before jumping up, his wings snapping out. There was the usual feeling of stomach-dropping weightlessness as soon as they were in the air, but that settled as soon as they straightened out. Problem was, they didn't stay like that for long, and after a couple of seconds, they started gliding to the left, no matter what Hiccup did with the pedal.

Their landing was smoother this time at least, Toothless opting for a controlled dive before something went badly wrong again, rather than pushing it to see what would happen. It brought them right next to Astrid, who held out a hand to help him out of the saddle.

As soon as he was on the ground, she punched in the shoulder. "That's for falling too many times."

"Ow." He grimaced, rubbing the spot. "Do you have to do that all the time?"

"Hey," she shrugged, "you might actually learn if I keep doing that."

Hiccup sighed and shared a look with Toothless, who glanced between them but did nothing else, ears pricked towards them. "No, I don't think so."

He braced an arm around Toothless' neck, and they started to make their way slowly back home.

* * *
"So, what're you doing?"

Hiccup inspected Toothless' mechanical tail-fin in the light of the forge, testing its weight. "I think this might be a little too heavy – we kept going left when we were in the air." He'd either have to shave off a bit from the spines, or replace all of them; the difference between this version and the old version didn't seem that noticeable, so he'd probably take off some of the end. He liked the design on it too.

Astrid played around with one of the small hammers that hung from the wall, standing close enough that they could talk, but far enough that she wouldn't get in the way. "Won't that be hard to change?"

"Nah," he said, holding up the fin, "after designing this, making the adjustments is easy." It would take some fine-tuning and a whole lot of bruises as they worked them out, but they knew it did its main job -it helped Toothless to fly- and that was the main thing.

Hiccup busied himself with his task, getting completely absorbed in it. Some time later, he was aware of a snort, and he looked up to see Astrid watching him, Toothless sitting next to her. "What?" He rubbed his chin with the back of a hand, realising belatedly that he was trailing soot over his face.

"Just, never seen you working in here before."

His eyes slid away. "Oh, okay…" What did that mean?

Before he could ask, Toothless, eyelids lowered already, yawned widely and stretched. And hit just about every single instrument in the forge. The ones that he didn't ended up toppling over anyway as something fell either on top of it, or into it. There was a cacophony of metal screeching and crashing, and Hiccup winced at the mess that was surrounding him.

When the final echoes of the noise ended, Hiccup and Astrid scrambled to make sure something didn't catch on fire or something else didn't happen. Like the roof caving in.

* * *
Okay, the tail-fin moved smoothly to every press Hiccup made, and the newly modified pedal kept his foot in place pretty well. So far, it seemed to work, but now to see if they actually worked under real flying conditions.

Hiccup patted Toothless' neck, leaning forward at the same time, and Toothless trotted a few steps before leaping up, wings beating powerfully at the air. They stayed there for a few seconds, gliding and skimming the ground. So far, so good.

Toothless growled, the tone lilting up at the end, looking over his shoulder at Hiccup, one ear turned towards him.

"Yeah," Hiccup said, grinning, "let's do it."

At his words, Toothless grinned back at him before straightening out. Hiccup twisted his foot into the right position with no difficulty, and then they were soaring, up the walls, watching them flash under them. Yes. The wind blew in Hiccup's face, pulling at his hair, but he didn't care. They were flying again. His grin grew and he whooped, punching the air.

The flight ended soon after that, and they landed with no problems either. Hiccup's foot caught on the mechanism to keep it in place, and he tugged at it a couple of times before it came free. Hmm. He'd have to loosen it or change it slightly to make it easier to get out of.

Sliding off Toothless, Hiccup got his balance after a few seconds and then stared in confusion when Toothless moved away from him, Toothless watching him the entire time. Huh?

"Toothless…?" Why was he…? Hiccup took an unsteady step towards his friend, Toothless taking one back at the same time. Frowning, Hiccup took another step, and Toothless did the same. Toothless wasn't angry with him; his eyes weren't narrowed, his pupils weren't slitted either, and his ears were up, not flat, so what was he doing?

Hiccup tried one more time to reach Toothless, then groaned as he kept the distance between them. "Aw c'mon, buddy, this isn't funny."

"I think it is," Astrid said from somewhere on his left. Hiccup rolled his eyes and he tried to approach Toothless again.

Every step he took, Toothless mimicked it in the opposite direction. Nothing worked; he'd tried cajoling, offering fish, pleading, even threatening to throw an eel at him. While Toothless' ears had flattened at that, he was still determined to keep away. Even then, Toothless didn't stop grinning at him, like it was just a fun game they were playing together.

Hiccup was sweating, his legs aching, when he finally caught Toothless by surprise, lunging at him and grabbing him by the horns. "Gotch - whoa!" He lost his footing on the last step and ended up sprawled over Toothless' nose. And that was why he needed Toothless' help if he wanted to go anywhere. Toothless didn't try to worm his way out of his grasp at least.

Astrid was leaning on a boulder, her eyebrow raised when they eventually reached her. "So why were you chasing Toothless?"

She got an incredulous look as a reply. Hiccup gestured to his leg with a sweep of an arm. "Oh, I dunno, because I need his help to walk?"

The eyebrow didn't budge. If anything, it looked like she was battling a smile appearing on her face. "Really? Because it sure looked like you were walking just fine to me."

Hiccup opened his mouth, then let it hang there as he realised she was right. He glanced behind him, seeing the churned up earth that wasn't just from Toothless' landing, and he could feel how wet his breeches were from when Toothless had been splashing in the water, almost daring him to come in. He hadn't, feeling the unsteadiness of the ground below him, but that hadn't stopped him from half-chasing Toothless for a few steps, stumbling on the first one but continuing on without thinking about it, as soon as Toothless left the water.

"Huh." Hiccup looked at Toothless, who was still grinning and –

"Ow."

"That's for being slow on the uptake."

Hiccup rubbed his upper arm, still bruised from the last time, Toothless' wheezing laughter beside him.

Astrid then grabbed him by a handful of cloth and then yanked him forward. He stumbled into her, nearly making them both topple over, but Astrid didn't seem to mind, more intent on giving him a peck on the cheek. "And that's just for... being you," she said quietly.

They made their way back home, the sun setting behind them, lighting the sky in a mix of oranges, pinks and reds.

The flying hadn't been perfect, and neither had Hiccup's walking, but it was a start, and they had all the time in the world to relearn.