It was so strange. Hiccup reflected on that as he sat up, absent-mindedly rubbing sleep from his eyes. A greeting warble sounded from somewhere slightly low and to the left. "Good morning Toothless."

That was part of it. His best friend, the one he had made so relatively recently. Before his, as he sometimes put it, 'involuntary winter hibernation', Toothless was Berkian enemy number one. He had beaten out Alvin and The Outcasts for that title, by virtue of being the most dangerous dragon no one had ever seen. Now he was... tolerated. Even revered at first. That level of exuberance had very quickly faded, from what Hiccup could tell. But Toothless was still the favorite dragon of the village.

Hiccup laboriously strapped his new prosthetic leg on, wincing at the pressure on his still uncalloused stump. "I'm fine." That was said to reassure Toothless, who had somehow managed to cross the small room and stick his head onto the bed next to Hiccup, whining softly. "It just hurts a little."

Toothless eyed the stump doubtfully. He opened his mouth and inched forward, clearly intent on licking it. That toothless expression was one Hiccup had seen quite often recently. He didn't even bother trying to avoid it. In truth, the wet pressure did sooth the aches, most of the time.

The stump was another part of the strangeness he felt now.

Hiccup eventually passed Toothless's worried inspection and was allowed to walk on his peg leg. He smiled at the still slightly concerned expression on his friend's face, wobbling only slightly as he stood. The trip down the stairs might have been tricky... if Toothless counted stairs as walking. He did not, so Hiccup was carried bodily down them. Anything his friend saw as a danger was swiftly dealt with. Stairs included.

It was a bit annoying at times, but Hiccup really couldn't begrudge his only real friend that.

That was another thing, Hiccup realized as he made his way through the village. Another piece of the answer as to why he couldn't shake the feeling hounding him. For fifteen years, no one cared. Which, while recently a blessing, had been the exact opposite for most of his life. It was a big part of why events had turned out the way they did. And now that he had one true friend, one who had actually stuck with him the entire time they had known each other, save for a few... incidents right when they met, now, when he had finally felt he didn't really need the approval of the village...

"Hey look, it's Hiccup!" The cheers of the villagers followed him through Berk. He knew that if he stayed, if he lingered, they'd drop whatever they were doing and make conversation. So he kept walking, avoiding eye contact.

Toothless bristled a tiny bit at every happy and inviting shout. He walked as if guarding Hiccup.

Hiccup reflected darkly that Toothless might have a bit of a problem. But in all honesty, he didn't really mind. Everyone seemed determined to put the past behind them. To pretend he had always been one of them.

He couldn't find it in himself yet to do the same. It had only been two weeks, for him. Two weeks since he woke up down a leg, up an overprotective friend, and apparently the village hero. As opposed to the village screw-up. Maybe it would feel right in time. But they had months to adjust. For him, this was new.

So he walked as he used to, head down, moving quickly. To avoid attention. The dragon by his side who had quickly gained a reputation for snarling at anyone who came close likely did more to dissuade a crowd of screaming fans than anything else.

The arena. Hiccup and Toothless both stopped just outside. Toothless was more uncomfortable here than anywhere else in the village. It showed very subtly, and no one could see it. Except for Hiccup. He could read that tenseness in Toothless's shoulders. The ears that were alert not out of curiosity but wariness. The nostrils dilated, smelling for danger. The way Toothless cast glances at Hiccup every five seconds. The arena was not a place of happy memories.

For either of them. Which was why they both stopped outside, waiting. The sounds of bickering from within were normal. The other teens, who had apparently taken on the task of dealing with the dragons peacefully, were rarely in agreement about anything.

Hiccup slumped against the stone wall. He wasn't tired, physically at least. That had mostly faded. But this place sucked all of the motivation out of him.

Toothless rumbled consolingly, wrapping himself around Hiccup, creating a living blockade from the rest of the world. His head faced outward, looking for danger, but care was clear in the way he had settled, intentionally avoiding trapping Hiccup too tightly against the stone.

Hiccup forced a smile. "You know, you're acting like a mother hen." He tapped on the encircling black muscle and scale. "I'm not that fragile."

Toothless looked back, craning his neck to make eye contact. He snorted, looking away after a moment.

Hiccup sighed as Toothless relaxed ever so slightly. This really was a problem. Protective was fine, but he wasn't in any danger here. Toothless was probably picking up on his unsettled feelings. Whether or not Hiccup should feel unsettled.

Why couldn't he help it? That question was nagging at him today. This was home, it always had been. Sure, things were weird now, but in a good way. He should be excitedly embracing all of this, like he had done that first day, waking up to an exuberant Toothless, happy Stoick, and affectionate Astrid.

That feeling had faded shortly after whatever pain-reducing herbs Gothi had put him on wore off. Yeah, that had been fun. As it turned out, his stump had still been pretty raw. After flying around like a madman for a few hours? Even more so.

A half-hearted growl brought Hiccup back to the present. He was glad Toothless wasn't so tightly wound at the moment. Half-hearted was better than full-on threatening.

"Hey, just minding my own business here!" Hiccup could hear Snotlout, but he couldn't see him due to Toothless's now flared wings. "Hiccup, are you in there, or is your crazy bodyguard just messing with me?"

That aggravated Hiccup more than he could consciously express. He stood, staring at Snotlout. "He's not a bodyguard."

The entire group had come out of the arena. Tuffnut, who was at the back, shrugged. "He guards you."

"Bodily," Ruffnut smirked. "Bodyguard seems like an accurate description to me."

Hiccup shook his head. "No." He stepped over Toothless's tail, escaping his friend's protective blockade.

Toothless rumbled uncomfortably, quickly getting up to stand by Hiccup's side, eyeing the teens warily. Even Astrid, who was watching with an odd look on her face.

"Uhh... they've got a point." Fishlegs nervously shifted as Toothless's wary glare turned to him. "He doesn't really do anything else."

Hiccup groaned, exasperated. "He does, just not..." Not here. Not in the village, a place that he apparently hadn't warmed up to despite spending months in. "Not here."

Astrid seemed to decide the conversation was over. She rounded on Snotlout. "We have work to do."

Snotlout grinned. "Yeah! And as your second in command-"

"Nope." Astrid cut him off neutrally. "Fishlegs is. Anyway, you know what you're supposed to be doing, right?" That was addressed to everyone.

The twins grinned, headbutting each other. Snotlout grumbled before nodding. Fishlegs smiled and nodded enthusiastically.

"Good. Get to it. I'll catch up in a second." Astrid stood there until the four teens left. Then she turned to Hiccup. "I know you don't like to hear that. But they aren't... wrong."

"You too, Astrid?" Hiccup put a hand on Toothless's head. "You should know better." Although, upon reflection, she really hadn't gotten a chance to see Toothless doing anything else either. Still, he had thought she would understand.

Astrid frowned. "None of the other dragons act like this." She gestured to Toothless, who was alternating between surveying the village and watching her. It might have been subtle, but his ears kept flicking back and forth, signaling where his attention was at any given moment. "Stormfly isn't glued to me. None of the other dragons are."

Hiccup didn't answer. He had no real answer. She was right, it wasn't healthy. For either of them, really.

But Astrid interpreted his answer as stubborn refusal to concede. "You can't seriously think this is normal! You weren't really awake to see it, but he almost starved himself watching over you. If it wasn't for us bringing food..." She looked down for a moment, before continuing in a softer tone. "It's not-"

Hiccup cut her off with a sarcastic laugh. "No, not at all normal for someone to really care about me."

Astrid's jaw dropped, and she stared at him, a combination of hurt and anger visibly playing across her features.

In that moment, Hiccup knew he had gone too far. "I didn't mean it like that." Although a part of him did. "You care, Stoick cares, in his own way. It's a bit extreme, how Toothless is acting. I agree. But you need to give him time." That he was sure of.

"It's been months-"

"Of watching me lie in bed and not move." Hiccup put a hand on Toothless's head. "I think a little overprotectiveness is understandable. I'm working on it."

Astrid shrugged, turning away. "Good. Because as it stands, he's going to hurt someone." She seemingly idly put a hand to her ax, eliciting a warning growl from Toothless. "See? Even I can't draw a weapon around you. We're Vikings, eventually someone is going to do something stupid."

Hiccup personally thought that Astrid might not be a good baseline for measuring Toothless's reactions. She had kind of slammed said ax's handle into his stomach in front of Toothless. She also had a habit of dealing out 'friendly' punches. Toothless was likely expecting violence from her more than most. He couldn't come up with a response before she was gone, disappearing between two houses.

"She's right, bud." Hiccup made eye contact with Toothless. "This isn't safe."

Bad choice of words. All Toothless heard was 'safe'. The result of that being that Hiccup was forced to wait as his friend quickly and frantically searched the area, looking for anything dangerous.

"Toothless!" Hiccup had to shout to get his attention. "Not what I meant."

Toothless returned to his side, staring at him inquisitively.

"What I mean is, there's nothing dangerous here." Hiccup reconsidered. "Well, nothing that dangerous. You don't need to be on alert all the time."

Toothless whined, clearly not agreeing.

Okay, reasoning was out. Hiccup began the trek into the village, searching his mind for a way to get Toothless to let up a little. It didn't help that, seen from the dragon's perspective, the village was a legitimately scary place. On that five minute walk, Hiccup noticed ten weapons carried at the ready, unsheathed and capable of being used in an instant. He also saw Toothless watch each one until it was entirely out of sight. Not to mention, to Toothless every Viking around must look colossal. Compared to Hiccup, anyway.

That might be part of the problem. Hiccup grimaced, changing destinations on a whim. Toothless, as well-meaning as he was, must see him as extremely vulnerable. Small, freshly missing a leg, no weapon or natural defenses. He couldn't help the first, the second would improve in time. The third, however...

"Come on in." Hiccup sarcastically held the door open for Toothless, ushering him in first. He tried not to laugh at the shocked bark that emanated from the armory a second later.

Upon entering, Hiccup saw what everyone did when going into the armory. Barrels, racks, shelves, and random piles of every weapon known to Vikings, and a few that weren't. All village property, for use in the raids. The building was deceptively small on the inside, thanks to the crowding of sharp and blunt metal objects in every corner.

Hiccup very deliberately moved around the room, putting a hand on each weapon. He was gauging Toothless's reaction. Mace? A deep-throated growl. Hammer? Same thing. Not that Hiccup liked those particular weapons anyway. All blunt and no tact.

Sword? Less anger in the growl, but still concerned. Hiccup began to lose hope as he rounded the room. Nothing met Toothless's approval. Though he wasn't sure if Toothless understood what he was getting at.

Then he put his hand on a long hunting knife, just short enough to not be considered a short sword. He almost dropped it at the croon of approval his action elicited from Toothless. "Seriously?" He picked it up again. "You don't mind?"

Toothless warbled curiously, tilting his head.

"Okay..." Hiccup needed to be sure Toothless got the point. He turned the blade to point at his own chest and shook his head. The snarl he was expecting was not late in coming. Good so far. Then he turned it to face outward, holding it defensively.

Toothless warbled, purring now.

"You do understand." Hiccup couldn't stop the smile spreading across his face. "So now I'm not defenseless." He picked up a sheath, and hooked it into his belt, sliding the knife in. "Maybe loosen up a bit?"

Toothless chuffed. Then he nodded his head towards the pile of knives Hiccup had gotten the long one from. There were a dozen or so, in various sizes.

Hiccup could remember forging a few of those knives, actually. "What? I can take it, the village doesn't need dragon-fighting reserve weapons anymore." Gobber had actually been talking about melting down some of the extra weapons now. Berk had a few human enemies, but fighting humans didn't require ten weapon replacements for every Viking, as dragon-fighting so often did over the course of a raid. The knife wouldn't be missed.

That, however, was not the point Toothless had been trying to make. He made his position clear by very carefully grabbing a hilt that was poking out and pulling the knife, holding it for a moment before laying it at Hiccup's feet.

"Oh." Hiccup wasn't sure whether to feel insulted or flattered that Toothless wanted him to take another one. "Sure, I can do that." He grabbed it, and another sheath.

The problem became apparent when Toothless promptly pulled a third knife from the pile, grinning happily.

Hiccup looked at the pile, and then at his friend, who was relaxing even as he put his hand towards the third knife. Quite a change from when Toothless made him toss his only knife into the pond. "The things I do for you..."

O-O-O-O-O

"Eh, Hiccup?" Gobber was giving him a very confused look. "Is there somethin' I should know? Ye look like yer goin' off to fight a war. By yerself."

Hiccup sighed, going back to the leather he was working on. Toothless was nearby, watching from an unused corner of the blacksmith's shop. He knew he made quite the sight, ten knife sheaths arrayed in front of him, along with two subtly attached to his belt. "Not really."

"So why the sudden interest in pointy things for personal use?" Gobber smirked. "Ye seem like more o' a fire and claw guy." He gestured to Toothless.

"That's why, I think." Hiccup spoke absent-mindedly, sewing two pieces of leather together. "He seems to consider them my version of claws. And he has quite a few, so I should too, apparently." That was said wryly.

"Yer sayin'..?" Gobber waved his hook arm aimlessly, clearly lost. "What, exactly?"

Hiccup pointed at Toothless. "Notice anything odd about this?"

After a moment, Gobber nodded. "Aye, he's usually up and growling in my face by now. And always within two yards, usually." He looked at Toothless, who while clearly alert was only watching carefully. "What did ye do?"

"These", Hiccup gestured to the weapons in front of him, "are my claws, in his mind. I'm not defenseless anymore. So he doesn't feel quite the same need to threaten immediate bodily harm on my behalf, from what I can tell."

Gobber stared at the array of weapons. "Eh, wouldn't one or two be good?"

"Yes. But according to him, I need at least twelve." Hiccup groaned sarcastically. "So now I need a way to carry that many knives around. Hence all of this." He gestured to the assorted leather across the table.

"How does it all work?" Gobber picked up a piece of leather about two feet long and a foot wide, with a strange shape cut out of it. "What is this?"

Hiccup smirked. "A leftover piece." He stood, and grabbed a sheath. "I just finished. Watch this." He began strapping the leather on in various places. One sheath to either hip, making two total on both sides, four on his back, two down the outside of either leg, two small ones on his upper arms, and one slid into a new slot in his boot. He smiled as he held up the twelfth knife, the only one now without a place. "This one was fun."

Hiccup pulled aside a pile of parchment and revealed a new prosthetic foot, along with more leather. "This foot is pretty much the same..." Hiccup held it up, showing Gobber a subtly longer wooden base than necessary. One with a slightly elongated cup.

Gobber smiled as Hiccup slid the final knife into the slot, handle and all. "Clever." Hiccup proceeded to replace the prosthetic, standing on it. The knife was hilt-up in the actual wooden base of the leg, entirely invisible and inaccessible unless the foot was removed. "Not so easy ta get to."

"No, but it's a last resort kind of thing." Hiccup proceeded to pull on the last of the leather, which was apparently a simple set of leather armor, from chestpiece to pauldrons. "I've also added a few pockets, for things like needle and thread, in case Toothless's tailfin tears. And this so I don't look like a lunatic. What do you think?"

Gobber nodded after a moment. "Ye look like a scrawny Viking with leather armor. Certainly not one armed to the teeth." The various sheaths blended in well with the leather armor, and the hilts were subtle. "It's a bit disturbin' really."

Toothless barked, moving over to inspect Hiccup. After a moment, he warbled happily.

Hiccup smiled. "Maybe. But it works."

O-O-O-O-O

If only. Hiccup groaned, sitting up. "Bud, I thought we had agreed." He very deliberately put a hand on one of the many hilts within reach. "I carry these, you stop threatening everyone within ten feet."

Toothless whined apologetically, before growling at the villager who had run up with an ax. He did seem to regret knocking Hiccup over in an attempt to shield him from the perceived attack, which Hiccup considered an improvement. A minor one, but still.

Hiccup turned to address the overworked villager. "Yes?" He gestured dramatically at Toothless, who was still eyeing the ax. "It must be pretty important to risk that."

The villager frowned, eyes narrowing. "But I thought dragons weren't gonna fight us anymore?"

"That doesn't mean run at them with an ax over your head."

"Eh, whatever." The villager turned and pointed at the docks. "Stoick wanted you."

Hiccup sighed. "Thanks." Stoick did tend to inspire that kind of blind enthusiasm. He turned to Toothless. "Think you can remember that I'm armed and dangerous?"

Toothless snorted before padding off towards the docks, which the villager had helpfully pointed out earlier. His nonchalant attitude was spoiled by the fact that he stopped and looked back after approximately three seconds, to make sure Hiccup was following.

As they walked, Hiccup considered what had just happened. Toothless was still too jumpy. It might be the village itself causing that. Thinking about it, Toothless was used to solitude. Definitely not random Vikings running around all the time.

With that thought, something clicked in Hiccup's head. Toothless needed to break from all of this. They could barely go flying as it was, Hiccup's stump still healing. So until his stump healed, Toothless was stuck in Berk.

Hiccup caught up to Toothless. "I'm sorry. It's my fault you're stuck here."

Toothless shook his head, growling softly.

"It is." Hiccup paused. "Tell you what. When we can fly again, we can take a break from all of this for a few days."

Toothless stopped mid-step, turning back to gawk at Hiccup, a hopeful expression on his face.

Hiccup laughed, overtaking his friend. "Not permanently. Just a vacation, of sorts." Hopefully, that would do them both good, upon further consideration. Time away from all of this...

"Ah, Hiccup!" Stoick smiled warmly. "Glad to see you could find time in your busy schedule to join us!"

Odd. Stoick knew very well that Hiccup had absolutely nothing to do, at least until his stump recovered enough for walking to be viable on a daily basis. The little he had done so far today was already causing quite a bit of pain. In fact... He subtly leaned on Toothless while taking in the surroundings.

The reason Stoick was being so enthusiastic was soon clear. Traders from another tribe had come to port, and several who were otherwise unoccupied had apparently decided to spend their time gawking. The stares of awe and fear were quite obvious. As were the whitened knuckles and hands on hilts of various weaponry. "Not that I don't love a situation that promises to explode into violence at any second, but was there a reason you wanted me here?"

Stoick frowned, before leaning in close, his voice lowering to what passed for a whisper among Vikings. "Not so much you, as you and your dragon. Intimidation is key to intertribal relations."

"Unless it makes them feel threatened." Hiccup gestured to Toothless. "And putting him in danger to intimidate them isn't a plan I like." A few of those Vikings were very clearly intent on Toothless now. It was obvious in the way they no longer occasionally glanced at other nearby dragons, focusing entirely on the Night Fury. The dragon every Viking in the archipelago would like nothing better than to kill.

Stoick scoffed, looking around. "Come on, it's not that dangerous. The way he's been acting recently, I'd think your dragon would like a chance to let off some steam, anyway."

Hiccup stared at him. "You can't be serious."

"Not entirely." Stoick was grinning. "But if anyone tried, they'd have to deal with the might of Berk. No one would dare."

"Really?" Hiccup eyed one Viking on particular, a somewhat weedy man with an oversized helmet and a crossbow. A loaded crossbow slowly being lifted to aim... "Some of them might dare. That guy's about to, I think." At odds with his calm words, Hiccup quickly moved in front of Toothless, who had not yet identified the crossbow as an immediate threat. In doing so, he blocked the man's line of sight.

Stoick, with all the subtlety of an avalanche, took matters into his own hands. Literally. In seconds, the man with a crossbow was no longer armed.

Hiccup watched as Stoick threatened the crossbowman with horrific death if he so much as pulled the trigger on it. Then, just to be sure, Stoick snapped the crossbow with his bare hands.

Toothless growled, backing up a few feet. He was still eyeing the other foreigners, who in turn were all splitting their attention between Stoick and Toothless.

"Yeah." Hiccup turned around, aware that his back was a perfect target if anyone cared enough to attack him. "We should probably go..."

They left the docks as casually as possible, to preserve Berk's image. That lasted until they were out of sight of the docks. Then they ran, to put some distance between them and the docks. Yeah, a vacation would be nice.

O-O-O-O-O

A week later, Hiccup decided his stump had healed. Enough, anyway. That night, he spoke to Stoick, Toothless as always at his side.

"Dad, I've been thinking..."

Stoick sighed. "Is this about those foreigners?" He was whittling at the table, shavings of wood flying off as he worked. "I taught them a lesson. And they left three days ago."

"No, not really." Hiccup shrugged uncomfortably. "But you were right, Toothless is a bit wound up. I was thinking about how to fix that."

"Ah, and you need my help?" Stoick grinned. "The great dragon trainer, coming to his old man for assistance."

Hiccup smirked. "No, actually. More your permission."

"For what?"

"I need to leave Berk for a while, so Toothless can unwind. I think not being able to leave the village is stressing him out, and my leg is finally good enough to do it."

Stoick didn't like that, as was evident by the increased rate at which wood shavings flew. "Why can't you just do whatever it is that got him this calm?"

Right. Hiccup realized that Stoick actually didn't know about all of that. "Because I don't know where I'd keep any more knives on me."

That was met with a stare. "What?"

Hiccup decided to explain, though that look of confusion was amusing. Instead of speaking, he proceeded to remove all of his knives and place them on the table, save for the one in his prosthetic. Stoick's jaw dropped a little at every knife past the third. "That's... excessive."

"Agreed." Hiccup began replacing them. "But they make me capable of protecting myself, at least in his eyes. That was part of it. Some time in the wilderness, alone, is the other, I think. Time away from crowds and Vikings who like to wave their weapons around."

"But you'll just come back soon anyway. So he'll have to deal with it again." Stoick frowned at Toothless, who returned the disapproving expression. "How will it fix anything?"

"I just think it will." Hiccup made eye contact, trying not to blink as an errant wood shaving hit him in the forehead. "So?"

"I don't think it'll help..." Stoick shifted. "But you can try. Be back within... say, three weeks."

Toothless chuffed, walking towards the door. He looked back hopefully at Hiccup.

Stoick laughed. "You should wait until morning, at least."

Hiccup shrugged. "This trip is for him. We might as well go now." With that, he and Toothless were out the door before Stoick could say anything. Off into the world.

Author's Note: Welcome readers, new and old, to Innocent Hopes, Twisted Realities. A few items of note.

- This story will update every Saturday. I am staggering updates so as to not dump three different updates at the same time, having three running stories.

- This story is complete. It will be posted on time come Hell or high water. It rounds out at just under 100,000 words, a total of twenty chapters and an epilogue.

- This story is Dark. Seriously, it is much darker than any of my previous works, bordering on psychological horror in some parts. Nothing above a strong T rating, but consider this fair warning. It is a story that is as twisted as the name implies.

- This is not a romance, and Hiccstrid simply doesn't exist. In this universe, Astrid kind of gets over her temporary crush on Hiccup in the days after his recovery. Before anyone accuses me of hating Astrid, let's just say that it's for the better in the long run of this story. If I hated or did not like Astrid, I'd leave her liking Hiccup, and let the plot... I can say no more.

- Finally, this is my first story with chapter names. They are indeed meaningful, though not always in the most literal way.