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“I do not fall for every pretty guy that comes around!” Hiccup returned to hammering away at his desk. This was not a conversation that he wanted to be having - not again. Ever since Erland had come around Toothless would not stop teasing him. It was bad enough when Hiccup had told Camicazi about it, Dagur and Heather had also poked some fun as well, but Toothless had the amazing opportunity to say whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, because nobody else could understand him.
It was like all the dragons that hung around was caught up in the loop of Hiccup’s Tragic Love Life™. It was completely insufferable.
Toothless padded over, smacking his tail against Hiccup’s chair, “Hey! What was that for?”
The dragon rolled his eyes, “Mess. You are a mess.” He strolled back over to his bed, wrapping his wings around himself, “So many interests over the years.”
Hiccup put down his hammer, crossed his arms, and sat back in his chair. “It hasn’t been that many.” Toothless looked at him, calling the man out. “Okay, maybe, just maybe, there’s been a lot of guys.”
“Told you so.”
Hiccup stood up from his desk; he closed the journal he had been referencing from, “None of them ended well though.” Hiccup plopped himself down next to Toothless, leaning against the dragon’s side. “Let’s see. There’s been the one that began ignoring me after the rest of Berk cast me aside,” he put up a finger, like he was counting his past crushes, “the one that I thought hated me, the one that turned out to be a complete moron,” he sighed. “He was a pretty idiot though.”
Hiccup continued on his rant, feeling more dejected as he continued, “Then there were a couple that I thought died, one got married, and then there’s a string of guys that I’ve never seen again because we headed off.” He ran a hand down Toothless’ wing, the scales feeling smooth under his fingertips.
All those years of hating himself when he was younger - it didn’t help that he was a runt - but he had to be a whole new sort of different on top of that. It wasn’t unheard of, Hiccup knew that Gobber held the same preference, but that didn’t mean that everyone had to agree with it. For the most part, Hiccup had kept that part of his life to himself. That was before he had told Astrid of course. Who must have told his father.
That was a horrific thought. Hiccup couldn’t tell if Stoick sent Erland because he accepted that part of Hiccup or because he was desperate to get the man back on Berk. The second option left a sour taste in his mouth. He hoped it was anything but that.
Erland seemed like such a nice guy - then again he had only met the other man once and people can fake many things through letters. Oh, right, they had been exchanging letters for a while. Hiccup felt bad sending a Terrible Terror, Sharpshot, to Berk but the dragon seemed happy to deliver the mail. Erland had expressed that he thought the idea of Terror Mail was ingenious; Hiccup had blushed a bit at that.
But Erland was stuck on Berk, it wasn’t like he was going to be visiting any time soon - not if his letters had anything to go by. There was also the thought that was itching in the back of Hiccup’s brain, one that made his stomach clench. What if Erland was only doing this because Stoick had put him up to it? What if he didn’t actually care about Hiccup at all? Was there some sort of payment that he was getting to continue conversing with the man?
Hiccup didn’t want to think about it, but he couldn’t help himself. It seemed to simply work its way to the front of his mind every once and a while. That wasn’t something he had encountered in his past before - there was always a first time for everyone though.
Toothless shuffled to wrap his wing around Hiccup; the man was obviously exhausted and needed to sleep more than anything. “Erland is nice though; he likes dragons, that’s good.”
Hiccup’s eyes started to droop, a smile on his face, “Yeah, it is.” Sleep came to him quickly after that, the warmth radiating from Toothless was enough to fight off the cold that came with the northern nights.
*****
Hiccup gripped the paper that was in his hand, the parchment had writing on it that he simply couldn’t process. It seemed completely impossible.
Erland was going to visit again.
He was visiting.
Hiccup had already gotten past the excitement and was now drowning in his own anxiety. There were a million thoughts running through his mind: all the things that could go wrong, everything that Erland could possibly say, so many things up in his mind. Hiccup didn’t know what he was going to do when the other man actually showed up.
That was why a week later when Hiccup was waiting down by the shoreline his heart was beating in what felt like his throat. It was beating hard, and Hiccup was completely losing it. The conversation was light and easy - for the most part. He felt a bit awkward like he did whenever he ended up falling for someone. Hiccup was definitely a fumbling mess at the start.
Night was coming in though; the stars were twinkling overhead. The night sky always looked better than it did on Berk, more open, grander, and of course, the freedom that it held.
Erland was flipping through one of Hiccup’s books, with the man’s permission of course, and was awestruck at the different inventions that he was coming across. “These are amazing; I’ve never seen anything like them.”
Hiccup blushed, praise was something he wasn’t all that used to yet, especially not coming from a guy like Erland. “Thank you,” An idea was coming up in his mind - partially inspired by when Astrid had taken her trip around here. He looked over to Toothless, “What do you think about taking a flight, bud?” Toothless’ pupils expanded in utter joy, and he hopped up and down a little. Hiccup moved to put on the dragon’s saddle, “Woah Toothless, I get it you’re excited,” he leaned down, despite knowing that Erland had no clue what he was saying, “No funny business this time though, we really need him to like us, okay?” The dragon rolled his eyes.
“How would you feel about flying on the back of a dragon?”
Erland quickly turned, eyes nearly shimmering with excitement. “Yes.”
*****
“This is amazing!” Erland was hugging tight to Hiccup as they bolted through the clouds; they had been flying for enough for the other to be comfortable and if Hiccup wanted to do anything it was to impress Erland.
He and Toothless moved as one, after so many years of being together it was hard to imagine they were ever apart. Hiccup could remember back to when he was stuck on the ground when reaching the stars seemed impossible, but Toothless had given him the opportunity to go farther than any viking had ever gone before. And Hiccup had returned the favor by helping Toothless: he still felt extremely guilty for being the cause of the dragon’s problem though.
“Oh you haven’t seen anything yet,” Hiccup maneuvered some, tonight Toothless had his solo tail, just in case anything went wrong he would still be safe to fly. Hiccup unlooped the rope and bolt that kept him tethered to Toothless. “You might want to hold onto the saddle.”
Erland’s brow furrowed, “Wait, what does that- Hiccup!”
The man in question was sliding off Toothless’ back, plunging down to the watery depths below. Toothless didn’t even seem phased though, he warbled at Erland to which the man could only assume meant for him to hold tight. So he did just that. Suddenly he was flying alone on the dragon - it was invigorating. Nothing in his life had ever prepared him for this. Dragons had become a rare occurrence in his childhood and since moving to Berk even more so. Toothless had been the first dragon he had seen in years and what a magnificent creature he was.
Erland flattened - imitating what he had seen Hiccup previously do - as Toothless dove down. In seconds though, his wings were unfurling and he was gliding steadily. Erland frantically looked to see where Hiccup had gone. If Toothless wasn’t searching after him he had to be okay, right?
“Looks like you’ve got the hang of it!” Erland turned to see Hiccup flying.
“How are you doing that!?”
Hiccup smirked, “One of my very own inventions!”
It was magical, not only had Hiccup been able to fly on the backs of dragons, but now he had conquered the feat himself - flying alone. It seemed impossible, then again, training a dragon had also seemed impossible to Erland but Hiccup had managed to do that as well. “You are amazing!”
Hiccup’s heart fluttered, “You’re pretty great yourself,” oh how he hoped that this went better than he thought it would.