["He's Not Dangerous" Variation 3] Accepted
(rough draft)
A DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic by Raberba girl

40,000 FFN profile hits kiriban for SkyHighFan

Summary: An alternate scenario of Hiccup & Toothless finding other Night Furies. Toothless is reunited with his family.

A/N: Tooth's point of view.

o.o.o

Something feels familiar, but I don't care because flying is so fun.

Steep dive, rush rush rush, we're going to crash and die in the ocean ha ha ha ha ha it's funny, I'm so excited and the other half of me is so excited I forget and think we want to crash in the ocean wheeeeee fun!

But then half of our tail opens and I remember that crashing and drowning is bad, it's only pretending that's fun, so I open my fin to match His and whoosh, up! UP!

"Whoooooo hoo!" Half Of Me crows His human exhilaration joy love joy to the skies, and I shout it too and I love this and I love Him and I love everything so so so so so so so so much.

"Flying joy interesting strangers join us excitement!" someone cries. Not one, several.

I thought I was excited the most, but when I hear their voices I scream joy and loop in the air; Half Of Me barks in surprise and then gurgles His human laughter.

"Breedmates!" I shriek, so happy because I didn't know how much I missed nightwings, any nightwings, until now when I hear their voices again.

"Hey...wait a sec-"

We call out greetings to each other and I can see them now - I know them, I know them! Not just breedmates, mine! My birthflock, my family, Stubborn my clutchmate is rushing to meet us, Half Of Me is shrieking something excited on my back but before Stubborn reaches us someone else drops out of the sky screaming more excitement-joy than all the rest of us, it's Sister. She nearly knocks us out of the air she's so excited, we fall until we adjust our tail and catch the wind again.

"Sorry sorry sorry! Brother I see you you're not dead yay EXCITED love you missed you love you!"

"Missed you too, missed you all!"

They're swarming me, rubbing scales pawing nipping licking, all fouling each other's flights and falling out of the air and catching ourselves again and crowing with joy, my precious other half flattening to my back for protection, laughing laughing and babbling His human noises and so happy like I am.

"There's a human sticking to you, No Teeth; let me knock it away?" Stubborn asks, already angled to do it.

"No no no NO! MINE! My precious thing!"

They screech out their surprise and confusion but everyone's too happy to care, especially since of course Half Of Me isn't hurting me and is happy too. We fly and cry out our joy to everything we pass.

"Home, home, our lost dragonet is home~"

That makes me feel strange, torn, I have two homes, my birth home and my precious flock I love and share with my other half; but I don't want to think about that now, I just want to be happy with all these so many people I love.

We land on our island, the sun is up now and finally I remember that my family must be tired and were going home to sleep, but it's okay because no one cares. Sister gallops up to me as soon as we land and rubs her scent on me "Mine mine my beloved brother" and purrs, and I tell her and scent-mark her that she is my small sister I love and protect. She is not small anymore, even she's a little bigger than me and everyone else is a lot bigger than me, but she is still small in my memories and I can still protect her just like I protect everything else I love.

The others are greeting me and loving me and reading me and marking me, too. "Little runt clutchmate is an alpha now! What? What? So very much strange and amazing and funny!" Reckless laughs, nuzzling me. We fought and were angry at each other so long ago, but now for the first time I love him and Stubborn, my clutchmates, and they love me. It's a very good feeling, I like it very much, better than all the anger and hurt in our memories.

"Where have you been for so long, No Teeth? You never came home, lost lost lost!"

"Now you are back and you smell crazy and amazing! Humans?! Human flock, human half?! Crazy, crazy!"

I start to tell them nothing is crazy, it's just strange but it's still very true and very good, but I forget because- HALF OF ME IS NOT ON MY BACK LIKE HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE. I whirl, frantic, where did He go-?!

He is crouched up on a rock, delighted but a little nervous because three of my flockmates-who-were are sniffing Him and pawing at Him and trying to decide if they should kill Him or not.

"It's a human, must kill it, why isn't it being a monster? Why is it covered with No Teeth's love? He will be upset if we hurt it, what should we do?"

"You guys are so gorgeous it hurts. Ow. Yeah, that hurts, too; um, Toothless...?"

"MINE!" I shriek, a little bit outraged but even though they want to hurt Precious Thing, I still can't stop being happy underneath.

They duck away and stare at me and wait for me to make them understand, but all I care about is my human, my Half Of Me, there is too much happiness to hold in just my one heart, I want to be close to Him so our hearts can hold it together.

I run to Him, He stands up quick. Up on the rock He is higher than me, I nudge Him in the stomach and He drapes over my head and neck to show human affection but I want Him down here closer so I pull away. He yelps as His hindpaws leave the rock and He clings, but I'm not going to let You get hurt, silly. I'm gentle when I shake Him off onto the grass, He play-attacks me to retaliate, so I push Him back and lick Him. He makes funny protesting noises.

I nuzzle more scent onto Him, then drape my foreleg over Him so He'll have to stay still for me to lie down and rest my head on Him and be happy breathing His scent. Usually I pretend to let Him win a little bit before I win for real, but now I'm too happy to pretend. Mine mine mine.

"Ooof...Odin's beard, you are heavy... Smug, overgrown lizard." He struggles free of my paw and then nuzzles His face against mine so I purr. Then He leans on me and takes His tiny blade, and the other dragons are surprised when He attacks His charcoal stick with it instead of me. He pulls out His bundle of not-leaves and opens it and starts making human marks on it.

I look at the other dragons, who are staring at me and the human who's lying right against my exposed belly and making happy noises as if we are clutchmates who love each other instead of enemies. "The other half of me," I say smugly.

"Brother is half of a human," Sister purrs wonderingly, and creeps close to sniff Half Of Me's head-fur. He smiles His human smile and caresses her jaw; she ducks away nervous and stares at Him.

"He won't hurt you. He's not dangerous, He loves us." He loves all dragons, even bad ones and stupid ones and foreign ones, but I don't tell them that.

"How can a human love?!" someone wonders.

"I don't know...but my human loves almost everyone, I don't know why."

"Everyone?!" They think this is funny. They haven't seen how Half Of Me loving everyone has saved lives and set hearts free and conquered enemies and kept our flock safe and happy for all this time. I wouldn't believe He could do it if I hadn't seen it. I didn't know he had an alpha's heart until we met the white sea-king who saw it in Him. I learned a lot how to be a good alpha because of Him.

"What happened to your tail, No Teeth?! I don't understand it." Two of them are looking at my tail and sniffing at His red fin, and now they are all looking. They see and smell that my old flesh fin is gone and this new one is a human not-fin. "How did you fly?!"

Half Of Me is huddled still and silent and sad close to me, I don't know why. I lick Him to comfort Him. "We will show you," I say smugly to the other dragons. "I was crippled and grounded, but Half Of Me made me not grounded anymore, and now together we fly. We will show you."

"How do you make yourself not-grounded?! It's impossible!"

"Half Of Me is very, very smart, He can do many impossible things." That makes them laugh again. They can't believe me, but I will show them and then they will be able to believe me.

Reckless bites the dead hide on my back and tries to pull it off me, but I tell him not to because it belongs to Half Of Me and helps Him fly with me.

"Does it hurt?" Sister asks.

"No." I'm so used to it, I always forget it's there. "Half Of Me wears things to help Him fly, too. And look, Half Of Me made Himself not-crippled too, He made a new good paw for Himself when He lost His real one." Now they are sniffing at Half Of Me's metal hindpaw. He thinks it's funny, and he pats Bear Brain's head.

Bear Brain licks Him. "I like your other half, No Teeth," Bear Brain says.

"A green Night Fury, heh...you're the same color as pine needles. Maybe I should call you Pine? Pinefury? Nah, that's dumb. Pinecone...?"

"Why is he making those strange noises?"

"That's how humans talk."

"What? That's not talking! It doesn't mean anything!"

"What did he say?" Sister asks me.

"Human talking is hard... I know He said 'nightwing.' He likes you too, Bear Brain. I think He was talking to Bear Brain and Himself at the same time."

"What? That's silly," they laugh.

I don't know why Half Of Me does it, and I guess it is silly, but I like it anyway and it's annoying that they said that. "I like that He talks to me even though He can't talk for real."

"Papa, I'm sleepy," one of the younger ones finally says.

"No Teeth, come home!" Stubborn barks. "Rest, eat!"

"Yes, it's good." I nudge Half Of Me, and when He sees the other nightwings leaving, He climbs onto my back and we follow them.

We travel through the forest until we get to the chasm me and my clutchmates used to dare each other to fly across. Now that we are adults, flying is easy. They all cross over, then they turn back to look at me, wondering how I can come join them.

I laugh and spread my wings, and Half Of Me unfurls His fin to match mine and we fly over the chasm easy.

They are impressed. "Aahh! Ahh! You really did fly with only one tailfin!"

"I have two fins," I huff. "Mine and His. They work together."

"You taught a human how to fly, No Teeth! Amazing!"

I think...I think me and Half Of Me taught each other how to fly, but I don't know how to explain it.

Some of the troop fly ahead to tell everyone, and when we reach the nest, the whole flock is awake to greet us.

I know they are excited. They gather close, watching us and exclaiming to each other, and the ones who remember me are explaining to the younger ones.

But no one will come close yet, and when Stubborn and the rest of his troop see how angry the queen is, they droop and creep away. Bear Brain is the only one who just creeps a few steps and then sits down, and Sister is the only one who stays with me and supports me. "Brother our lost one came home," Sister tells the queen bravely. "We are all very happy."

I want to be angry, but I know my other half would try to love this angry queen, so I try to love her. "Hello. We are not a threat."

"Threat bad outraged, you bring a monster into our nest," she growls. "Kill it immediately."

"NO!" I scream, but before I can tell her that I'll kill her if she tries to hurt my precious thing, He tells me anxiously to be quiet and calm, and I try to obey because I love Him.

"No, Queen!" Sister is pleading. "No Teeth and the human are the same person, it would be wrong very bad wrong to hurt them!"

"No Teeth's Half is nice," Bear Brain says. "Not a monster. Look." He licks Half Of Me. Half Of Me was nervous but now He feels better as he caresses Bear Brain.

"You're letting it touch you," the queen roars, "you're letting it within reach of your throat, you are crazy...!"

"You are crazy for thinking my other half would hurt me!"

They are still being shocked at my disrespect to their queen when I roll onto my back and knock Half Of Me onto my belly, and now the ones who haven't seen Half Of Me before are even more shocked, and frightened.

But of course Half Of Me is not a threat. He only yelps in surprise and then clumsily stands on His hindlegs again as if He doesn't even see that I'm completely at His mercy. He crouches to look at me, and is a little worried as if He thinks I'm hurt. "You okay, bud?"

"See?! He's not a monster, He's not even dangerous."

"I think he is cute." Sister nuzzles Him. I roll back to my feet and press close to my Half Of Me and curl my wings around Him to shield Him.

"...It does not belong here," the queen says. "Neither do you, Foreign Alpha. Leave my territory, or we will drive you away."

I'm so angry I want to take my Half Of Me and fly far away from this queen's flock and never come back.

But...but the queen's consort has come to stand by her side, a dragon I love very much and missed so much that I made myself stop missing him because it hurt too much. He is looking at me with such love that I know he felt the same. He turns to his other half and nuzzles her and soothes her. "Half Of Me," he says to her, "you are seeing our pain-that-was, not what is here right now. Peace calm safe love..."

She can't help nuzzling him back just a little, because she loves him. Then she flares her wings to show that she is angry and feels threatened, and retreats to watch from a high perch to show that she will allow this even though she very much does not approve. All those most loyal to her slip away obediently to their aeries.

But not her consort, who loves her but loves me too, he comes to nuzzle his affection to me and reassert the claims he still has on me. "My small lost child that I love has come back safe..."

"My sire that I love, I missed you so much..."

He hears that he is no longer my most beloved one; he is curious and interested. "You are very brave to adore and give yourself to a human."

"Not brave." But I still love to hear him praise me. "It's so very easy to love my human." Half Of Me is distracted looking at and touching Sister's head plates. I pull Him away so that this dragon who was my sire and companion and is now my friend can look at Him and greet Him. "He is not dangerous, so it's not brave to love Him."

Friend still hesitates and is afraid, because I know he and his queen both have lost friends and offspring and precious flockmates to humans. But Half Of Me is so happy He smells wonderful, and even though the queen growls when He touches her other half, His soft thin blunt claws are so delicate and gentle, Friend isn't afraid anymore even when Half Of Me's paws stroke near his eyes and across his throat. "Wowwww, you look just like Toothless except bigger... I can totally die happy now. Night Furies~"

Half Of Me plays with Sister and Friend and Bear Brain for a long time, and a young orphan fledgling soon creeps close to investigate and play, too. Their flockmates get braver and so many come to be curious about and love my other half that I am jealous. I can't reach Him, I don't like it!

Friend has gone back to his other half. The queen is comforted by his presence and by watching Half Of Me making her flocklings happy and not hurting them. She sulks, but she is more relaxed now that she sees of course my gentle Half Of Me is not a threat.

I love Friend too, so I go to snuggle against his other side, and he curls his wing around me. "Lost child that I love..." He nuzzles me happily. "Missed you."

"Missed you, Not-Papa." I am too much old to have a papa anymore, but I feel safe and loved as if I am still a hatchling and he is still my papa who loves me and takes care of me.

"You are an adult, not a hatchling," the queen growls.

"Duh!" I growl back. "I love this dragon my friend even though he is not my papa anymore!"

Friend squeezes me tighter and licks his other half to comfort us both. "Hush peace hush. I am happy to have people I love close to me; don't make me unhappy!"

Me and that dragon who is not my mama anymore sulk and ignore each other.

Finally Half Of Me and those greedy dragons get tired of playing with each other, except Orphan who is annoying and Bear Brain who just likes to be close to gentle Half Of Me even if he's not playing. They both follow Him as He comes back to me, and the queen growls softly as He approaches.

"Heeeey there." Half Of Me croons and lies down, saying He is not a threat. "Hmm... Your head plates are shaped differently...I think maybe the girls look like that, and the boys look like Toothless, huh? Are you a girl Night Fury? Are you a lady~?"

The queen flattens her head plates in displeasure. Even she can see that Half Of Me is flirting with her, trying to win her favor, and she doesn't like it. Her other half is amused.

Half Of Me crawls closer. I know that my exasperating Half Of Me wants to touch her and caress her and make excited human noises and scribble silly human marks in his dead not-leaf bundle, ugh.

But the queen doesn't like it, she growls louder and faces Him down and arches her wings. Half Of Me freezes and hides His eyes, but still she won't let Him approach.

"Half Of Me, it's all right," Friend croons to her. He gets up and nuzzles Half Of Me, who smiles His human smile and nuzzles back a little.

"Get away from it!" the queen barks. "He is a threat!"

"That's not a threat," I say. "Human teeth are not challenge threat bad, human teeth are happy! He's happy, he will not hurt your other half!"

"Ohhhh," Bear Brain says. He understands now about human teeth.

The queen doesn't believe me, but Friend retracts his teeth and bites Half Of Me a little. When Half Of Me doesn't retaliate, he paws at Him and then pushes Him over and sets a paw on His belly. I don't protect Half Of Me because I love Friend and Friend loves me and Friend will not hurt my precious thing, but I still don't like it and am uneasy.

"Hey, man, go easy on me, okay?" Half Of Me reaches up and pats Friend's face, ignoring the claws against His belly. Friend leans down and bites Him, still without teeth but provoking Him, but of course Half Of Me still doesn't retaliate.

"See, Half Of Me?" Friend says. "I dominate him and provoke him, but he is still not a threat! He's safe. Come accept him."

The queen crouches and growls for a very long time, and we all wait and wait. Half Of Me tries to get up, but Friend won't let Him; He squirms and complains, but finally He waits, too. He takes out His bundle again to scribble on it some more; I know He's bored with being trapped and waiting.

Finally, slooowly, the queen gets up and paces close and licks "Maybe not a threat MAYBE" on Half Of Me's face.

Half Of Me reaches up to caress her, but doesn't when she growls at Him; Friend reproaches her and then closes his mouth over Half Of Me's forepaw. "See? Safe."

FINALLY the queen reaches to lick Half Of Me's chest, her eye is rolled back to glare at Him but her throat is stretched out exposed to Him. He is looking at it happy, I know He wants to touch it, but of course NOW He heeds her warning-that-was and won't touch it even though He's allowed to now. I have to go pick up His paw and press it against her throat.

"Man, I have no idea what's going on here. Hey, Big Toothless, you think you can let me up any time in...you know, the next few hours...?"

The queen rolls her eyes at His nonsense chittering and turns away. She has accepted Him. He can walk among her flock and they won't hurt Him.

The flock will sleep now, they are very tired, but me and Half Of Me are wide awake because it's daytime and He is a day-creature and I am one now, too. He can't play with these nightwings He loves anymore, but He can investigate their nest, so He does. I get bored, so I go fishing and come back and eat my fish where I can watch Him. He investigates and chitters and scribbles, and we wait for night to come so He can play with these nightwings again.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: (Please vote in the new poll on my FFN profile! I'm gearing up to change my interpretation of the Hiccup/Astrid relationship, and would like some input from my readers about what they think of how I've written HiccStrid so far.)

I've actually had most of this written for months. SkyHighFan happened to request a fic at the same time I had a kiriban slot open, and he(?) basically asked for a fic where Toothless reunites with his birth family, so I prioritized this fic, typed it up, and finished it.

The thing is, SkyHigh asked for a fic where Tooth's family basically sees what he's become... They come to Berk, find out about the Red Death's demise, that Hiccup was queen for a while and Toothless is now alpha, etc... But I actually couldn't think of how to write that in a way that felt natural or storylike. Most of it they just don't care about, and the rest of it they wouldn't treat with more than momentary surprise. I hope that what I did write was okay instead...

This story was supposed to be my attempt to do a version of the reunion where dragons care about each other with more human-like relationships (such as automatic attachment to immediate family members), but it didn't turn out that way, since I realized that Tooth's relationships with his family wouldn't change much whether their bonds are human-like or animal-like. *sweatdrop* Either way, he adores his father, doesn't get along with his mother, has a complicated relationship with his brothers, and loves his little sister, so I ended up just using my regular dragon headcanon.

Speaking of headcanon, I have more than one for Tooth's backstory. One version is the one in stories like Scaring Away Monsters and Hunting For Trolls, where Tooth's father was absent while he was growing up and he never got a chance to meet his little sister. However, another version, which I think I've only managed to hint at in Hybrid and in an outtake of His Soul Reflects My Own so far, is that Toothless grew up with both parents and utterly adored his father, and that he was around for the hatching of his younger sister, whom he formed an attachment to.

Ftr, the Night Fury queen is indeed Tooth's mother. ;) (I have to fix it in the original He's Not Dangerous story! In my headcanon, dragon leaders are female queens by default, only Bewilderbeasts are male alphas, and Toothless is a weirdo exception. ^^; ) I enjoy the parallel of Toothless, like Hiccup, also being the offspring of a community leader whom he doesn't get along with. I'm under the impression that she became queen at some point after losing Toothless rather than having always been queen, but I guess it depends on the story.

For a long time, I was having Toothless call Hiccup "Hiccup" in his thoughts for the sake of simplicity, but I eventually decided not to be a lazy writer. Toothless almost never thinks of Hiccup as either the sound "Hiccup" or the word meaning "hiccup," he almost always thinks of him as "Half Of Me" or "Precious Thing." I decided that I have to be true to that, rather than sacrifice a bit of logic to make it easier for both me and the readers. ^^;; Yet another thing to fix in all those rough drafts...

I have at least one more "HiccTooth meet other Night Furies" scenario that I'll post here in the "He's Not Dangerous" series, another (part of a larger story involving Drago and Freefall) that'll probably be posted in "Two Worlds, One Family," and yet another (possibly more than one) which will be posted with His Soul Reflects My Own.