Chapter Text
He can't get one good night of sleep during the time that he's training Toothless. He's convinced that from the moment he shot the dragon down right up until this moment, he's been having one long anxiety attack. Little panic attacks come in between every now and then, whether they be from his dad getting on his case about anything and everything or from the other vikings in training picking on him and Astrid getting angry with him all the time or the fact that he's visiting a freaking dragon behind all of their backs, they're happening and he doesn't have any idea what to do about them.
So on some nights when he couldn't sleep and he could feel his chest starting to ache and his breathing speeding up at just the mere thought of someone finding out about Toothless and taking him away - or worse, killing him - he would roll out of bed and dash quietly out of the village and through the forest back to the cove. Toothless would always wake up for him, especially if he could sense that something was wrong.
He'd done this a few times before. He'd come running to the cove on the verge of having a panic attack and do exactly what he's doing right now, stumbling in with blurry vision because of the tears that keep building up and how weak his knees have gotten. Toothless is there in a second, his large head bumping against Hiccup's midsection.
"Hey, bud," Hiccup says, scratching his nails up and down Toothless' neck and furrowing his brow and squeezing his eyes shut, ashamed by the pathetic sob that escapes his throat. "Sorry to wake you up." He croaks out the words and Toothless gently pulls back to look at him in confusion.
Hiccup gives a weak laugh and tells the Night Fury that he just couldn't sleep and that's all, and that maybe he's a little bit worried about this entire situation and okay yeah so he's freaking out and Toothless probably doesn't understand a word of this.
"I don't know, bud, I just- Toothless?" Hiccup sniffles, watching with a baffled expression as Toothless moves a few feet away from him and then plops down on the ground on his back with his wings stretched out beneath him. He turns his head in Hiccup's direction and makes a "come over here" gesture with it and this is another one of those times where Hiccup just cannot believe how smart dragons are.
"What do you want?" Hiccup wipes his face with his sleeves, swallowing thickly and trying to ignore the burning of his eyes thanks to his crying and the oncoming headache. He approaches Toothless with a furrowed brow and when he gets close enough, Toothless uses his wing to scoop him up and bring him in to his side. Hiccup gives a yelp of protest at being knocked off his feet so suddenly, but as soon as he realizes he's only being cuddled by his dragon friend, he relaxes and turns in to the warm, scaly body. He wonders why Toothless has decided to offer this as comfort when he hasn't the last times he's been here while having an attack. His breathing's evening out, his chest isn't hurting so much anymore, his eyelids are getting heavier and heavier and all he can think about is how comfortable this is.
It's much better than sleeping on a wooden platform for a bed.
It becomes a regular thing after that. Hiccup goes to the cove when he's having an attack as usual, but now, Toothless makes sure to offer comfort to the tired boy. His father thinks that he's simply up doing some early morning training when he finds his bed empty upon waking up. Even after they battle the Green Death and their village is united with dragons, Hiccup still finds himself rolling off his bed late at night and stumbling around for his best friend. And Toothless is always there. He's a constant in his life now, just like Astrid is and just like the other vikings in training are. It's not what he would have wanted at the beginning of all this, but it's so much better than he expected.