How To (House)Train Your Dragon
Title: How To (House)Train Your Dragon
Author: janna_hawkins
Summary: Thinking back, Hiccup wondered if fighting the Green Death had actually been the easy part
Characters: Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid, Stoick
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to HTTYD except the first five books, a Hiccup action figure and a Night Fury figure
Author Notes: The idea for this came to me at 5am this morning as I was going to bed and it bothered me all day until I finally sat down and wrote it out. It was one of those weird fics where I got the title first and the story plot later. All in all I think it came out pretty well. Dedicated to Sweetbean882006 over on deviantART to say thanks for the awesome fanart she did for one of my fics as well as our awesome comment chains :)
~..~
Thinking back, Hiccup wondered if fighting the Green Death had actually been the easy part. Life in Berk was so different now, not to mention life in his own house. Sure his father was usually pretty understanding when it came to Toothless but after the dragon had coughed up the umpteenth fish onto the rug he was so proud of, even Stoick the Vast couldn't take it anymore.
"I'm sorry, Hiccup," the large Viking said as he attempted to scrub the smell of regurgitated halibut from the rug. "But that dragon is just not meant to be inside."
"It's not his fault, Dad! He's just...not housetrained yet. Let me have a few more days and I'm sure tha-"
"Hiccup, I've told you before," his father interrupted. "You just can't housetrain a dragon like you would say, a cat. It's just not in their nature to live indoors."
Hiccup scowled. "What about Snotlout? Fireworm lives inside the house and she's a lot bigger than Toothless."
"Fireworm doesn't hork up fish all over Spitelout's favorite rug."
"But..."
"Listen, I'll give you until tomorrow. If you can prove that Toothless can be trusted inside, he can stay. Otherwise, he's going to have to find somewhere else to sleep. Deal?"
"One day? That's not enough tim-"
"Hiccup."
"Deal," the teen muttered.
"Good. Now, see what you can do about that big greenish spot. I'll be back soon," the chief said, dumping the rug into his son's arm.
Hiccup staggered over to the table and dropped the pile of cloth as the door slammed behind Stoick. "Great, just great. How am I supposed to housetrain a Night Fury in one day?!"
Toothless looked up at Hiccup's muttering and whined softly.
"Oh, don't worry about it, Bud. I'll think of something."
~..~
"No! Bad Toothless! Get down!"
The dragon smiled and spat a piece of fish onto Hiccup's head.
Hiccup wiped a layer of slime from his hair and glared up at Toothless. "Oh, come on, Bud, please? There's some more fish for you if you do!"
Toothless leaped down from the rafters and sat looking at Hiccup expectantly.
"Good dragon. Now, see the rug?"
The dragon glanced over to where Hiccup was pointing and leaped for the rug, yanking it from the table.
"No! Drop it!"
Toothless grinned around the cloth and continued to tear at it.
Hiccup sighed and grabbed a piece of eel from a basket. "Fine then. You asked for it." He dangled the eel in front of
Toothless' eyes and was immediately shoved backwards by the startled dragon. Landing on his backside, he glared at his dragon. "You useless spawn of-"
"Hello, Hiccup."
The young Viking twisted around to see Astrid standing in the open doorway. "Oh, hi. Uh, how much of that did you see?" he asked, somewhat embarrassed.
"Enough, I think. What exactly are you trying to do?"
"Uh...housetrain Toothless?"
She motioned to the dark dragon hunched over in a corner hissing at the piece of eel in front of him. "Looks like it's going well."
Hiccup grimaced and pulled himself back to his feet. "Yeah, well, this is really just...stage one."
"Stage one, huh? What's stage two then?"
"We haven't actually gotten that far yet."
"Uh huh. Why are you even doing this in the first place?"
"Dad said either I train Toothless by tomorrow morning or he can't stay in the house anymore," Hiccup replied, walking over to retrieve the eel. "This is a lot harder than I thought it'd be."
"What's so bad about having Toothless live outside? My Nadder loves the shed we built her."
"That's great but I've just gotten used to him being in here. That and..." Hiccup hesitated, gesturing over to the wooden stairs running up the opposite side of the house. "I still sometimes need help with the stairs and it's easier if Toothless is there."
"Well, why didn't you tell your dad that? I'm sure he'd understand."
Hiccup stared. "Are you serious? Have you ever tried to explain something to him once he's made up his mind about it?"
"Well there has to be something you can do. Looks like this housetraining business is pretty much useless."
"Yeah, you're probably right," he replied, watching Toothless wrestle with the rug. "Trouble is, I don't know what else to do. He's not the most cooperative dragon."
Astrid nodded, frowning slightly as she thought. "Wait a minute...I think I know what you can do!"
"What?"
As the young woman quickly explained her plan, Hiccup began to smile.
~..~
"Hiccup! Where are you, son?" Stoick called as he pushed open the door of his home.
"Out back, Dad!"
"Out back?" the tall Viking muttered to himself as he made his way through the house, grimacing as he caught sight of his favorite rug thrown over a chair and in much worse condition than when he had left. "Hiccup, I thought I told you to clea- what in Thor's name is this?!" he cried as he pushed open the back door.
Set up in front of him was the most rickety, lopsided building he had ever seen. And he was certain that it hadn't been there the last time he had used the back door. "Hiccup?"
The curtain in front of the shack's doorway fell down and his son stumbled out of the tiny building. "Hi, Dad."
"Hiccup, what is...this?"
"My new house."
"Your what?!"
"Well, the housetraining wasn't working so I decided it might be better if I just moved out. That way I'll have Toothless with me and you won't have to worry about him messing up your house."
"But, this...thing. How were you planning to live in there? It looks like one strong breeze would collapse it."
"Oh, that's just the way I made it look. It's actually really sturdy."
"Really?" Stoick asked doubtfully.
Hiccup smiled. "Yeah. So, what do you think?"
"Well, I suppose it's up to you if you want to stay in that. You're sure though?"
"Pretty sure, Dad. I'll be fine."
"Yeah, until that overgrown lizard of yours has to sneeze," Stoick muttered as he headed back into the larger house.
Once he was gone, Hiccup began to reattach the curtain to the doorway, not seeing the piles of dark clouds accumulating on the horizon.
~..~
Later that night, Stoick was awoken by an unusually loud crack of thunder. He automatically looked upwards before remembering that his son was no longer in his room upstairs. Hearing the wind outside beginning to pick up, he climbed out of bed in order to check on Hiccup's new ‘home’.
As he reached for the door handle, he heard a loud crash followed by a dragon's howling and his son's shouts. Pulling the heavy door open, he was met by the sight of Hiccup and Toothless attempting to detangle themselves from the wreckage of the hut. After he was satisfied that there seemed to be no life-threatening injuries, he closed the door again and leaned against it with a wide smile.
A few minutes later a knock came, almost too quiet to hear above the pounding rain. Stoick pulled the door open and smiled down at his bedraggled son. "Yes?"
"Hi, Dad."
The chief held the door open to allow Hiccup and the Night Fury inside, the latter shaking like a dog and spraying water everywhere. "So...the house not as sturdy as you thought?"
"Apparently not," his son muttered as he squeezed rainwater from his hair.
"Ah well, live and learn, eh, Son?"
"Sure, whatever, Dad. Can we stay here tonight?"
"That depends. Will he try to eat my rug again?"
Hiccup glanced over at Toothless who was currently curled into a ball next to the fire. "I think the rug is safe...at least for tonight."
"Then yes, you can stay. Then tomorrow we can both try this housetraining thing. Now get up to bed and out of those wet clothes."
As his son carefully made his way up the stairs, Stoick's gaze was drawn to the dark ball of scales purring contentedly by the flames. "And you'd better behave if you know what's good for you."
Stoick could have sworn that the dragon stuck its tongue out at him before curling even more tightly together.