Omphalos (Hiccelsa)

Chapter 10

Hiccup woke to Toothless' tongue languidly dragging across his entire body, and then when he was thoroughly coated, a nice little gummy grin in his face. And it was hardly sun break.

After Elsa had been on the ground a bit, Hiccup had deduced that it was probably cold and slightly muddy, so he pulled her up to sit on the hammock with him. She didn't say anything really of importance, nothing of the mind-shattering real reasons behind her tears, but instead just talked about her sister.

And her words were achingly beautiful.

Eventually, her words slurred and she fell asleep and Hiccup thought she looked childlike, and he had to remember he was three years her junior. Either way, he was still a gentleman and put her into her bed, where he assumed she had a restful sleep.

He did, because he was less and less worried about marrying this girl. And maybe tonight was the first night he didn't fall asleep thinking of Astrid, or dreaming of her. He didn't dream of anything, really, but it wasn't her and that was a start.

Well, it seemed like he'd been having a rather enjoyable dream when Toothless had decided to wake him.

"You know it-," He grumbled, and then shook his head, having preached this to his dragon a million times over, "Let's go." He grumbled sourly. He was sure Toothless had planned this.

Well, he couldn't walk back through his room to go down to wash off, because he'd wake Elsa and he wasn't going to do that. If she woke up, she may not fall back asleep again, and after the day she had…whew! She deserved it.

He sat up in his Hammock and had Toothless bring him to the window of his mother's room, where she was up with the day. He explained that his walking or awkward hobbling through the house would wake her, and to be quiet. He was pretty sure his mother could understand that something had happened, and she promised that no one would wake her without his command.

Huh; he forgot that as a chief, he could make orders as such.

It was difficult flying Toothless without his leg, as the saddle and his body had been designed to work together, binding him with his dragon even more. Toothless was cautious for once as they went down to the stream. Luckily, Hiccup only had been wearing a light shirt and a pair of leisure pants, although the salvia was horrid to work out of hair as well. He glared at his dragon from the stream, but he noticed Toothless looked…sad.

He made a point to see his dragon everyday, but it wasn't like before. He was a chief, going to be a husband, and maybe even a father by this time next year. He realized only now the carefree days in which he could sneak away and ride off into the sunset with Toothless were far gone, withered away and died right under his nose.

And it hurt.

His father and his former dragon had been close, but not as the Alpha Dragon and Chief now were. They both were responsible, but their positions went farther than that, they were brothers, in a way. The way that Elsa talked about Anna was the way that Hiccup would talk of Toothless. He wasn't just a dragon.

But then it wasn't all on his side either. Toothless had been going out lately without him fully realizing it. Being the Alpha meant keeping the babies in line, sorting out problems between his breeds, among other things. He was just as tied as Hiccup was, and both resented that.

"Toothless." Hiccup said softly, and his dragon came to the edge of the stream. He looked at the fish impatiently, and Hiccup gave a gentle laugh. He easily caught a fish with one of his tools, and threw it down for his dragon to eat.

"You like Elsa, right?" He asked, leaning on the bank. Toothless gave a nonchalant shrug, but underneath it, he could see that he liked her more than some of the other Vikings. That was good. He didn't hate her, which was all he needed.