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Description
If there was one thing a viking hated, it was weakness. Vulnerability was death, through and through. This meant being strong in braving the cold, the winds, the rain and snow with no hesitation.

That did not mean, however, that Hiccup the Horrendous was immune to being grumpy when shivering wet and cold and nearly naked one autumn afternoon. The events leading up to this were nothing different or special, just the usual run of the mill flying adventure gone awry. It seemed even after months of flying together, there would still be the occasional hiccup to mess it up, leaving the viking Hiccup with the consequences.

Especially when then reptile got the bright idea to dive for the lake when it was almost winter. Usually, Hiccup might just shake it off and be grateful about the softer landing, but he had been having a very bad day. A very bad day.
First problem was that he had  woken up from a nightmare about That Day, and could not get back to sleep. Nothing so bad, but just made him restless and hungry, and a bad indicator for things to come.

Next was when a swarm of dragons raided and attacked the village. No one was hurt too badly, but the commotion had been enough damage to spend the morning cleaning up. Which meant no breakfast, which was just icing on the cake of a stomach that had been awake a few hours before sunrise.

And, wouldn't luck have it, today was Tuffnut and Ruffnut's birthday. While usually a happy occasion, he had completely forgotten, which meant he had not made them anything. This resulted in a fight the moment the twins found out about his carelessness, with the others torn between sides.

"Hey, come on, it's not that bad," Astrid shrugged and tried to play off. She brushed away one blond strand from her eyes and put a hand over her skull belt. "Those two over react, they'll get over it."

He huffed and limp-stomped away.

"Hey, where are you going?" she demanded.

"For a ride. Toothless needs the exercise."

She let him go, knowing he needed his space at the moment. Something rare for the usually mild-mannered viking. A rush of adrenaline and wind was just what he needed to turn this day around.

But, he had not been paying attention as much as he should have. His prosthetic slipped, the tail collapsed, and the pair was sent careening out of the sky. It took all of Toothless's will power and ingenuity to aim for the lake instead of the trees, creating an ebony missile that splashed the surrounding area and made it almost as soaked as the unwilling divers.

So now, the dragon was unsaddled, and the viking's fur vest, fur leg warmers, shirt and metal leg were laid out to dry next to the riding contraption. He remained by the lake edge in only his pants, knee curled to his chest and lame thigh plopped on the grass. His lanky arms crossed and his hands shoved under his armpits in a mixture of stubborn defiance and warmth. He breathed through his bulb nose, his round jaw clenched tight. Toothless sat next to him, wide green eyes glancing over occasionally to see the furious leer the teen sent across the lake, before darting back to the front before he could be caught, but Hiccup was not paying enough attention to catch him anyway.

The dragon was not entirely sure what to do. Before, playing had been enough to brighten the human's spirit, but as soon as he shed his clothes, the teen had plopped down at the edge, unhitched his dripping prosthetic, tossed it across the field, and proceeded to leer across the lake without a word. Toothless tried to entice him to play anyway, but he did not respond positively.  When he had been about to play-tackle him, Hiccup told him very firmly he was not in the mood and the motion would just get him more mad. So he tried a few antics that had cheered up the boy in the past, including chasing his own tail, but the teen just ignored him. Even licking him had not done anything. If anything it made it worse when Hiccup practically yelled at him to leave him alone.

So here he sat, with a very pissed off Hiccup worrying a very confused dragon. His thick tail curled around his paws, and his long bat-wings were folded behind him, remaining docile. He took another glance.

"You gonna stare at me all day?"

The perky ears went flat as the dragon lowered his wide head, bringing it level with the boy's shivering torso. He whined low in his throat, finally making Hiccup glare over to him. But at the sight of the wide, apologetic green eyes, the viking could not stay mad for so long, and sighed.

"I'm sorry, bud," he finally said, and reached over to scratch behind the spike plate of his head. "I'm not mad at you. It's just one of those days, you know?"
Toothless only paid half attention, tilting his head to allow the teen better access. His front paw started thumping the floor, and he growled in satisfaction.

"Look at the big, raging Night Fury," The teen brought his other hand up to increase his surface area, "Just a second of rubbing and you're about as ferocious as a kitten."

He did not even protest, just lowered his body completely to let the viking scratch all over his neck.

"You big baby," Hiccup teased, and smirked as he scratched the neck more vigorously, sending Toothless into nirvana.

The dragon wiggled his shoulders, and rolled his head from side to side, lashing the wide tail back and forth. Hiccup kept this up for a little while longer, until the cold bit into his skin with a vengeance, and he had to wrap his arms around himself again. Toothless stood back up, shaking off the bit of dust  on his scales and looked back at the teen looking back at him.

"Any better yet? I didn't mean to blow up at you like that."

Black lids dropped halfway to stare dryly at him.

"Not even close?"

One of the eyeridges raised.

"Okay, fine, I was a jerk, you happy?"

The eyes brightened instantly, and he licked at his face.

"Ugh, that doesn't mean I want dragon spit all over me yet," he complained.
Toothless just smiled gummily at him, and Hiccup wiped at his face before smirking up at him.

"Useless reptile," he said affectionately, and  turned his attention back to the pond, keeping his arms around him, but obviously much more at ease.

Toothless watched him for a moment in approval, glad that he was not glaring at least. But he still was not in his usual mood. One thing was for certain, vikings were complicated. Dragons were usually easier to please. He found his eyes straying over Hiccup's lanky frame. It had been almost a shock, the first time he had seen the boy change. He knew Hiccup was skinnier  than the other humans, but it was still unusual to see him without his fur vest, and remind the dragon of how fragile he was to the elements. The stub of a leg dd not really help either. Granted, it was rare when any of the humans were without clothing. They even wore it when they slept, much to his confusion. So really, it was no wonder he was curious about how the natural human looked. He doubted many of the other dragons had spent that much time with the humans, and he himself already knew more about them then the others. Yet now that he thought about it, he knew all their characteristic quirks, but not their physical ones, like Hiccup had learned about him.

Maybe he had a special scratch spot too?

"Toothless?" Hiccup did not move his direction from the pond, keeping his face forward even as his wide eyes darted behind him. "You're starting to freak me out a little bit."

The dragon had started pacing around the back of the human,, half circling him like a predator. The viking  half expected him to pounce on him and attack him with his tongue like normal, but the dragon was being too quiet and too obvious about it. While he usually could understand the dragon easily, this particular behavior was unlike anything he had faced before.

"Uh... you want to go out now?" He tried hesitantly.

The dragon suddenly plopped down on his haunches, a little behind Hiccup's left shoulder. This made the teen finally decide to look behind him. The dragon lifted the front paw, and looked at it, and at the teens back. He stared at the thick black claws for a moment, before they retracted suddenly. Wide eyes looked at him for approval. The teen stared back from the paws to Toothless, a little in confusion.

"Uh, good job?"

Satisfied with the answer, Toohless reached the paw toward him. It touched his shoulder, and started moving against him, making the teen lean away.

"Toothless, what are you doing?"

As an answer, the dragon tapped his shoulder again, and looked at him.

"You want too..." his mouth exaggerated the movement to attempt to understand, "Touch me."

The dragon frowned briefly , before nudging him again.

"Push me?" he tried again.

The dragon huffed.

"Hug me."

The clawless paw rubbed up against the black scales of his other front leg, and he held it out in emphasis.

"Make me combust."

He jumped once in frustration.

"Do the mamba!"

He growled out in exasperation, before bringing out both claws in front of him, and scratching hard at the dirt, tearing up the grass a moment, before stomping the feet down and leering at him to get it right.

"You want to... scratch me," his face slowly brightened in understanding. "Because I've been feeling bad and you want to cheer me up."

The Night Fury nodded, glad to finally have gotten through. He held out a paw expectantly.  The teen looked between the foot, and the dragon's face and absentmindedly rubbed at his arms as he looked at him uncertainly. Humans did not quite work the same way as dragons.

"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt," he contended as he smirked at the wide eyed Toothless, "And I guess I owe it to you for being such a jerk today. All right," he chuckled, hardly believing he was agreeing to this and turned back to face the pond as Toothless neared him again. "You can scratch me. Just be careful, all right? The last thing I need is a bunch of claw marks to explain to the others."
Like he did not know. He plopped down on his haunches again, bringing his chest to level with Hiccup's head, and retracted his claws again to begin. He touched the right teen's shoulder, this time starting to rub in circles with the scaly bottom of his foot. He rubbed fast, trying to mimic Hiccup's scratching motion. It seemed to go fine for a little while, until Hiccup shrugged out and stopped him.

"Don't, you'll rub me raw," he protested. "It's too rough."

Toothless looked at his paw and at Hiccup in confusion.

"It's your scales," he explained. "You're a little rough. It was fine for a while, but when you start going over the same spot over and over, it kind of chafes it. You know?"

Not really, but he would have to trust Hiccup on this. So, he just had to go to different spots, right? He started from the left shoulder this time, going around in circles again, but this time moving lower, and side to side, zigzagging a little erratically. The pressure rocked the teen a bit, but he made no movement of protest, until he said:

"Hey, could you go slower?"

Compliant, but confused as to why on earth he would want that, Toothless slowed his circles, and soon found himself going up and down, a motion to easier maneuver on the lanky frame. Hiccup found he actually did not mind so much. The texture of the foot bottom stimulated his nerves, and heat from the friction warmed his back, in fairly pleasant experience. It was kind of like a scratching. The human seemed perfectly content with this, and was sooner breathing easier.

"Actually, could you do that some more, on my lower back?" He asked a bit hesitantly.
He decided there was no harm.  Of course, then Toothless actually saw where the lower back was for him, he realized it would be a bit of a challenge to reach there. He nudged the teen forward.

"What?"

He pushed at the shoulders a bit to bend him over, then he got the message.

"Ah, right, I guess it would be a bit harder to reach down there. All right, hold on, I'll lay down."

He rolled over, and looked around for a moment, before finding a patch of grass that looked comfortable enough, and crawled over to it. Well, crawled with an almost limping jump, but he made it. He plopped down, trying not to shiver from the cold and damp grass on his bare belly and torso. He crossed his arms under his head, laying his head down on the limb pillow. He closed his eyes to try to ignore the sudden chill. Toothless blinked and stared down at the body in concern, seeing the little bumps that sprung up in his skin. It was all over his arms and lower back, but curiously not along the lightly pinking skin where he had been rubbing Hiccup before. Ah, that must have been it, Hiccup wanted him to scratch away all of the bumps. He brought both paws up this time, and slid his paws back and forth over the lower back.

"Oh ye~e~e~e~ah," Hiccup sighed  in pleasure, and settled more into the grass, "that's more like it."

So Toothless worked, sure to change his back and forth motions so he did not "chafe", and keeping it slow. He even moved up to rub down the teen's arm's, which the human seemed happy about. Toothless had to admit this was a lot of work, and now had new found respect for the human's compliance with giving him a good scratching. He definitely was appreciating it more.

Hiccup sighed softly in contentment and let his eyes drift shut as he enjoyed the pampering. His body got more used to the chill, and the paws were warm, and he quietly delighted in the attention his sore and tense body was finally receiving. The idea of what was happening seemed so ridiculous that he might have laughed, but he had dealt with stranger things in the dragon's company. The human was practically dead to the world, not much more than a puddle of goo in the grass, which Toothless found interesting, especially as he experimented with different pressures to see what Hiccup liked. And he found, curiously enough, one side of Hiccup felt "harder" than the other. The muscles on the same side of his back as his missing leg were tenser than that of the other side. Upon this discovery, he pressed a little into the tough muscles and kneaded one particular. Hiccup smiled to himself and hummed.

"Mmm, harder," he requested, and when the dragon complied, he sighed in pleasure. "Do that more," he pleaded.

And Toothless did, effectively massaging all of the tension and bringing warmth back in the skinny boy. Hiccup, meanwhile, began to feel drowsy as the exhaustion from the day was creeping up on him, and was half dozing as Toothless worked. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly, until Toothless decided to be a little too thorough in his work. Seeing the back and arms effectively rubbed pink with warmth and circulation again, the dragon had taken to looking at the lanky body from every angle to be sure he did not miss a spot. Sensing the pause, Hiccup did not move, for even if Toothless was done, he was too tired and comfortable to want to move, and figured maybe he should just take a nap right there. The dragon stopped, and narrowed his eyes as he noted not one, but two areas that still were white and needed attention. He sat back once more, and lifted a paw in preparation. Then brought the  paw to his side and burrowed into his oblique. Hiccup fidgeted sleepily and squirmed away.

"Toothless, don't," he whined, "that tickles."

Toothless wondered what that meant, but understood the plea to change spots, and switched sides, though moved his paw up to rub along the base of his ribs instead. It just made the teen squeak and snort. He held down his snickers, (slightly) and clutched at his biceps to try to lessen the sensation.

"Thahat's just made it wohohorse," he complained, and tiredly elbowed at the paw to try to shake off the offender and give him a hint.

He did wonder briefly what the human found so funny. He must have been playing a game, now in a better mood. Well, Toothless could go along with it. This made it more fun anyway. He raised both paws. Hiccup, thinking that was the end of it, relaxed again, though was definitely awake now. He half-hoped the dragon would go back to rubbing like before. So he was defenseless when they touched down, and Toothless zigzagged over his sides and ribs for about a second before the shock of the sensation passed and the teen erupted into laughing. He clamped his arms down and pushed at the paws, trying to pull away. He half rolled over, and shoved one arm away with his leg and arms. This left the other paw free to knead into his side.

"Ack, nohohoho, Toothless, Toothless wait!" The teen pleaded through his laughter, especially as the paw migrated up toward his armpit. "Whahat are you doing?"

Toothless, a little confused but pleasantly surprised, decided to keep going along with the game. Hiccup was laughing now, which was a good thing.  He dropped one paw on the ground to steady himself, and started darting around the teen's arms. He started with his chest in the front, then swept down to wiggle along the belly. Hiccup's free leg dug into the soil to move away, and pushed at the paw, making the dragon push at his shoulder and roll the human onto his back to block the area, leaving him flat on his back.  Toothless went in for the "kill". It nudged and circled along his stomach, making the teen go into high pitched giggles. Then he moved up to his ribs, making him snort and laugh. Then he scratched at his sides, making him throw his head back and guffaw. The teen was forced to keep squirming and trying to wriggle away, even as he tried to smack at the paws to keep them away.

"No- no!" He squealed as the paw went into his side. "Ack, Toothless, mercy!"

At one point Hiccup tried to grab at the barrel paw, and hold it in place to keep it from getting out and poking at him again. The dragon grinned in mischief, and play wrestled him for a bit, pushing and nudging him like he would a hatchling. Hiccup couldn't help but laugh from the high of the play, and kept his hands on the barrel paw.

"Oh no you don't!" He challenged and pushed against it as it tried to get through his defenses to his belly again.

He scooted back and sat up to get a better grip, and wrestled back the paw, amused at the sight of Toothless leaning down in a pounce and growling playfully at him. He had to work against the paw that kept trying to bowl him over back to the floor, hardly succeeding because of his genuine laughter weakening his resolve. In an act of desperation, the viking finally flung himself forward, throwing his arms around the paw to hold it in place. Toothless tried to gently shake him off with no such luck.

"Gotcha!" he called in triumph.

The triumph was short lived however, when Toothless's other paw burrowed into his now defenseless side again. He squawked into a snicker and tried to scoot away from the attack, but the effort was fruitless.

"No fair- no fair-" he snickered and dissolved into harder laughter.
He pushed at the paw to scramble back. He managed to crab walk awkwardly back before Toothless pounced, stomping his legs on either side and making him collapse from the after shock. Toothless growl-barked joyously, and dove in to nuzzle and lick at him. This time, his whole body was attacked, sending him into hysterics.

"Okay, you win, you win!"

The nose rubbed along his belly, and the tongue lapped up his sides, and chest. His arms went up to try to push away the stubborn head, rolling side to side to try to hide some area of sensitivity, only to expose more. All the while he begged for a respite, especially when the nose borrowed into his side right above his hip, but the dragon was deaf to his pleas, and his desperation increased. The only thing that got the dragon to stop was his leg flinging out in a fit of excitement. The good knee hit the dragon's sensitive nose. The Night Fury reared and jumped back.
"Toohoothless," he gasped as he rolled over and half sat up and the dragon flew off of him. He worked to bring his silly grin down, though his eyes were plenty regretful. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," he begged through his pants. "Are you okay? I was just getting tired, and you wouldn't listen, you know?"

Toothless blinked and shook it's head a moment, before needing to turn away. He sneezed, sending a lightning blast to the other side of the clearing that echoed through the woods and blinded the immediate surrounding area. Hiccup winced at the now black and smoky spot, peering at the dragon uncertainly.

"I... really am sorry," he repeated in defeat.

Toothless looked to him curiously, wondering what had the teen so upset. They were playing, it was an accident, it happened. Hiccup looked as though he was worried about it. He stepped closer, trying to convey non-verbally that it was fine. He looked over Hiccup's body. It looked like everything was fine here. And if he rubbed anymore, it might be more uncomfortable. In a gesture of comforting acceptance, Toothless plopped down in front of Hiccup, and rested his front paw across Hiccup's lone leg. The teen's eyes widened, and protested as he tried to pull back, but the dragon already brought his paw forward and rubbed up the bottom of his foot. He burst into laughter yet again, clutching at his now aching stomach.

"Darn it, Toothless, I said I give up already!" he screamed. "Stop tickling me! I'll doohoohoo anything you wahahahant, just please stop!"

The dragon paused. There was that word again. But Toothless was trying to scratch him, not "tickle" him.

The moment he thought that, Toothless connected the dots, as he saw the teen panting, and leaning over. He was not laughing on his own, this action was actually making him laugh. Certain points on his body actually made the human laugh when he did not necessarily find it funny. He tapped the foot, though besides it bouncing, there was no reaction. He swiped it briefly, making the foot flinch and the teen smirk. He rubbed it a little, making the leg try to pull out from his hold and make the teen go into high pitched giggles.

"Toohoohoothlehehehehess..." he begged.

The dragon got his answer, and released the teen, who promptly curled into a protective and grateful ball. He panted heavily, smiling from the after affects of the one sided tickle fight.

"I figured I'd outgrow this by now," he laughed. "You're worse than Mom was. I manage to tame the fiercest Dragon on the face of the earth, and he turns out to be a tickle monster."

The name had him giggling again, and Toothless cocked his head curiously. He was not even tickling him now. Humans were confusing.

"H-Hey," he sighed. "Can you help me up?"

Even as he assisted the poor, tired viking back to the pile of clothes and his prop leg, Toothless marveled that he had learned something interesting about humans. Actually, two things. He thought about sharing it with the others.

Then remembered how Hiccup had promised him "anything" if he stopped, and decided it was a little secret he would keep for future emergencies. Just in case.

Description
If there was one thing a viking hated, it was weakness. Vulnerability was death, through and through. This meant being strong in braving the cold, the winds, the rain and snow with no hesitation.

That did not mean, however, that Hiccup the Horrendous was immune to being grumpy when shivering wet and cold and nearly naked one autumn afternoon. The events leading up to this were nothing different or special, just the usual run of the mill flying adventure gone awry. It seemed even after months of flying together, there would still be the occasional hiccup to mess it up, leaving the viking Hiccup with the consequences.

Especially when then reptile got the bright idea to dive for the lake when it was almost winter. Usually, Hiccup might just shake it off and be grateful about the softer landing, but he had been having a very bad day. A very bad day.
First problem was that he had  woken up from a nightmare about That Day, and could not get back to sleep. Nothing so bad, but just made him restless and hungry, and a bad indicator for things to come.

Next was when a swarm of dragons raided and attacked the village. No one was hurt too badly, but the commotion had been enough damage to spend the morning cleaning up. Which meant no breakfast, which was just icing on the cake of a stomach that had been awake a few hours before sunrise.

And, wouldn't luck have it, today was Tuffnut and Ruffnut's birthday. While usually a happy occasion, he had completely forgotten, which meant he had not made them anything. This resulted in a fight the moment the twins found out about his carelessness, with the others torn between sides.

"Hey, come on, it's not that bad," Astrid shrugged and tried to play off. She brushed away one blond strand from her eyes and put a hand over her skull belt. "Those two over react, they'll get over it."

He huffed and limp-stomped away.

"Hey, where are you going?" she demanded.

"For a ride. Toothless needs the exercise."

She let him go, knowing he needed his space at the moment. Something rare for the usually mild-mannered viking. A rush of adrenaline and wind was just what he needed to turn this day around.

But, he had not been paying attention as much as he should have. His prosthetic slipped, the tail collapsed, and the pair was sent careening out of the sky. It took all of Toothless's will power and ingenuity to aim for the lake instead of the trees, creating an ebony missile that splashed the surrounding area and made it almost as soaked as the unwilling divers.

So now, the dragon was unsaddled, and the viking's fur vest, fur leg warmers, shirt and metal leg were laid out to dry next to the riding contraption. He remained by the lake edge in only his pants, knee curled to his chest and lame thigh plopped on the grass. His lanky arms crossed and his hands shoved under his armpits in a mixture of stubborn defiance and warmth. He breathed through his bulb nose, his round jaw clenched tight. Toothless sat next to him, wide green eyes glancing over occasionally to see the furious leer the teen sent across the lake, before darting back to the front before he could be caught, but Hiccup was not paying enough attention to catch him anyway.

The dragon was not entirely sure what to do. Before, playing had been enough to brighten the human's spirit, but as soon as he shed his clothes, the teen had plopped down at the edge, unhitched his dripping prosthetic, tossed it across the field, and proceeded to leer across the lake without a word. Toothless tried to entice him to play anyway, but he did not respond positively.  When he had been about to play-tackle him, Hiccup told him very firmly he was not in the mood and the motion would just get him more mad. So he tried a few antics that had cheered up the boy in the past, including chasing his own tail, but the teen just ignored him. Even licking him had not done anything. If anything it made it worse when Hiccup practically yelled at him to leave him alone.

So here he sat, with a very pissed off Hiccup worrying a very confused dragon. His thick tail curled around his paws, and his long bat-wings were folded behind him, remaining docile. He took another glance.

"You gonna stare at me all day?"

The perky ears went flat as the dragon lowered his wide head, bringing it level with the boy's shivering torso. He whined low in his throat, finally making Hiccup glare over to him. But at the sight of the wide, apologetic green eyes, the viking could not stay mad for so long, and sighed.

"I'm sorry, bud," he finally said, and reached over to scratch behind the spike plate of his head. "I'm not mad at you. It's just one of those days, you know?"
Toothless only paid half attention, tilting his head to allow the teen better access. His front paw started thumping the floor, and he growled in satisfaction.

"Look at the big, raging Night Fury," The teen brought his other hand up to increase his surface area, "Just a second of rubbing and you're about as ferocious as a kitten."

He did not even protest, just lowered his body completely to let the viking scratch all over his neck.

"You big baby," Hiccup teased, and smirked as he scratched the neck more vigorously, sending Toothless into nirvana.

The dragon wiggled his shoulders, and rolled his head from side to side, lashing the wide tail back and forth. Hiccup kept this up for a little while longer, until the cold bit into his skin with a vengeance, and he had to wrap his arms around himself again. Toothless stood back up, shaking off the bit of dust  on his scales and looked back at the teen looking back at him.

"Any better yet? I didn't mean to blow up at you like that."

Black lids dropped halfway to stare dryly at him.

"Not even close?"

One of the eyeridges raised.

"Okay, fine, I was a jerk, you happy?"

The eyes brightened instantly, and he licked at his face.

"Ugh, that doesn't mean I want dragon spit all over me yet," he complained.
Toothless just smiled gummily at him, and Hiccup wiped at his face before smirking up at him.

"Useless reptile," he said affectionately, and  turned his attention back to the pond, keeping his arms around him, but obviously much more at ease.

Toothless watched him for a moment in approval, glad that he was not glaring at least. But he still was not in his usual mood. One thing was for certain, vikings were complicated. Dragons were usually easier to please. He found his eyes straying over Hiccup's lanky frame. It had been almost a shock, the first time he had seen the boy change. He knew Hiccup was skinnier  than the other humans, but it was still unusual to see him without his fur vest, and remind the dragon of how fragile he was to the elements. The stub of a leg dd not really help either. Granted, it was rare when any of the humans were without clothing. They even wore it when they slept, much to his confusion. So really, it was no wonder he was curious about how the natural human looked. He doubted many of the other dragons had spent that much time with the humans, and he himself already knew more about them then the others. Yet now that he thought about it, he knew all their characteristic quirks, but not their physical ones, like Hiccup had learned about him.

Maybe he had a special scratch spot too?

"Toothless?" Hiccup did not move his direction from the pond, keeping his face forward even as his wide eyes darted behind him. "You're starting to freak me out a little bit."

The dragon had started pacing around the back of the human,, half circling him like a predator. The viking  half expected him to pounce on him and attack him with his tongue like normal, but the dragon was being too quiet and too obvious about it. While he usually could understand the dragon easily, this particular behavior was unlike anything he had faced before.

"Uh... you want to go out now?" He tried hesitantly.

The dragon suddenly plopped down on his haunches, a little behind Hiccup's left shoulder. This made the teen finally decide to look behind him. The dragon lifted the front paw, and looked at it, and at the teens back. He stared at the thick black claws for a moment, before they retracted suddenly. Wide eyes looked at him for approval. The teen stared back from the paws to Toothless, a little in confusion.

"Uh, good job?"

Satisfied with the answer, Toohless reached the paw toward him. It touched his shoulder, and started moving against him, making the teen lean away.

"Toothless, what are you doing?"

As an answer, the dragon tapped his shoulder again, and looked at him.

"You want too..." his mouth exaggerated the movement to attempt to understand, "Touch me."

The dragon frowned briefly , before nudging him again.

"Push me?" he tried again.

The dragon huffed.

"Hug me."

The clawless paw rubbed up against the black scales of his other front leg, and he held it out in emphasis.

"Make me combust."

He jumped once in frustration.

"Do the mamba!"

He growled out in exasperation, before bringing out both claws in front of him, and scratching hard at the dirt, tearing up the grass a moment, before stomping the feet down and leering at him to get it right.

"You want to... scratch me," his face slowly brightened in understanding. "Because I've been feeling bad and you want to cheer me up."

The Night Fury nodded, glad to finally have gotten through. He held out a paw expectantly.  The teen looked between the foot, and the dragon's face and absentmindedly rubbed at his arms as he looked at him uncertainly. Humans did not quite work the same way as dragons.

"Well, I guess it couldn't hurt," he contended as he smirked at the wide eyed Toothless, "And I guess I owe it to you for being such a jerk today. All right," he chuckled, hardly believing he was agreeing to this and turned back to face the pond as Toothless neared him again. "You can scratch me. Just be careful, all right? The last thing I need is a bunch of claw marks to explain to the others."
Like he did not know. He plopped down on his haunches again, bringing his chest to level with Hiccup's head, and retracted his claws again to begin. He touched the right teen's shoulder, this time starting to rub in circles with the scaly bottom of his foot. He rubbed fast, trying to mimic Hiccup's scratching motion. It seemed to go fine for a little while, until Hiccup shrugged out and stopped him.

"Don't, you'll rub me raw," he protested. "It's too rough."

Toothless looked at his paw and at Hiccup in confusion.

"It's your scales," he explained. "You're a little rough. It was fine for a while, but when you start going over the same spot over and over, it kind of chafes it. You know?"

Not really, but he would have to trust Hiccup on this. So, he just had to go to different spots, right? He started from the left shoulder this time, going around in circles again, but this time moving lower, and side to side, zigzagging a little erratically. The pressure rocked the teen a bit, but he made no movement of protest, until he said:

"Hey, could you go slower?"

Compliant, but confused as to why on earth he would want that, Toothless slowed his circles, and soon found himself going up and down, a motion to easier maneuver on the lanky frame. Hiccup found he actually did not mind so much. The texture of the foot bottom stimulated his nerves, and heat from the friction warmed his back, in fairly pleasant experience. It was kind of like a scratching. The human seemed perfectly content with this, and was sooner breathing easier.

"Actually, could you do that some more, on my lower back?" He asked a bit hesitantly.
He decided there was no harm.  Of course, then Toothless actually saw where the lower back was for him, he realized it would be a bit of a challenge to reach there. He nudged the teen forward.

"What?"

He pushed at the shoulders a bit to bend him over, then he got the message.

"Ah, right, I guess it would be a bit harder to reach down there. All right, hold on, I'll lay down."

He rolled over, and looked around for a moment, before finding a patch of grass that looked comfortable enough, and crawled over to it. Well, crawled with an almost limping jump, but he made it. He plopped down, trying not to shiver from the cold and damp grass on his bare belly and torso. He crossed his arms under his head, laying his head down on the limb pillow. He closed his eyes to try to ignore the sudden chill. Toothless blinked and stared down at the body in concern, seeing the little bumps that sprung up in his skin. It was all over his arms and lower back, but curiously not along the lightly pinking skin where he had been rubbing Hiccup before. Ah, that must have been it, Hiccup wanted him to scratch away all of the bumps. He brought both paws up this time, and slid his paws back and forth over the lower back.

"Oh ye~e~e~e~ah," Hiccup sighed  in pleasure, and settled more into the grass, "that's more like it."

So Toothless worked, sure to change his back and forth motions so he did not "chafe", and keeping it slow. He even moved up to rub down the teen's arm's, which the human seemed happy about. Toothless had to admit this was a lot of work, and now had new found respect for the human's compliance with giving him a good scratching. He definitely was appreciating it more.

Hiccup sighed softly in contentment and let his eyes drift shut as he enjoyed the pampering. His body got more used to the chill, and the paws were warm, and he quietly delighted in the attention his sore and tense body was finally receiving. The idea of what was happening seemed so ridiculous that he might have laughed, but he had dealt with stranger things in the dragon's company. The human was practically dead to the world, not much more than a puddle of goo in the grass, which Toothless found interesting, especially as he experimented with different pressures to see what Hiccup liked. And he found, curiously enough, one side of Hiccup felt "harder" than the other. The muscles on the same side of his back as his missing leg were tenser than that of the other side. Upon this discovery, he pressed a little into the tough muscles and kneaded one particular. Hiccup smiled to himself and hummed.

"Mmm, harder," he requested, and when the dragon complied, he sighed in pleasure. "Do that more," he pleaded.

And Toothless did, effectively massaging all of the tension and bringing warmth back in the skinny boy. Hiccup, meanwhile, began to feel drowsy as the exhaustion from the day was creeping up on him, and was half dozing as Toothless worked. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly, until Toothless decided to be a little too thorough in his work. Seeing the back and arms effectively rubbed pink with warmth and circulation again, the dragon had taken to looking at the lanky body from every angle to be sure he did not miss a spot. Sensing the pause, Hiccup did not move, for even if Toothless was done, he was too tired and comfortable to want to move, and figured maybe he should just take a nap right there. The dragon stopped, and narrowed his eyes as he noted not one, but two areas that still were white and needed attention. He sat back once more, and lifted a paw in preparation. Then brought the  paw to his side and burrowed into his oblique. Hiccup fidgeted sleepily and squirmed away.

"Toothless, don't," he whined, "that tickles."

Toothless wondered what that meant, but understood the plea to change spots, and switched sides, though moved his paw up to rub along the base of his ribs instead. It just made the teen squeak and snort. He held down his snickers, (slightly) and clutched at his biceps to try to lessen the sensation.

"Thahat's just made it wohohorse," he complained, and tiredly elbowed at the paw to try to shake off the offender and give him a hint.

He did wonder briefly what the human found so funny. He must have been playing a game, now in a better mood. Well, Toothless could go along with it. This made it more fun anyway. He raised both paws. Hiccup, thinking that was the end of it, relaxed again, though was definitely awake now. He half-hoped the dragon would go back to rubbing like before. So he was defenseless when they touched down, and Toothless zigzagged over his sides and ribs for about a second before the shock of the sensation passed and the teen erupted into laughing. He clamped his arms down and pushed at the paws, trying to pull away. He half rolled over, and shoved one arm away with his leg and arms. This left the other paw free to knead into his side.

"Ack, nohohoho, Toothless, Toothless wait!" The teen pleaded through his laughter, especially as the paw migrated up toward his armpit. "Whahat are you doing?"

Toothless, a little confused but pleasantly surprised, decided to keep going along with the game. Hiccup was laughing now, which was a good thing.  He dropped one paw on the ground to steady himself, and started darting around the teen's arms. He started with his chest in the front, then swept down to wiggle along the belly. Hiccup's free leg dug into the soil to move away, and pushed at the paw, making the dragon push at his shoulder and roll the human onto his back to block the area, leaving him flat on his back.  Toothless went in for the "kill". It nudged and circled along his stomach, making the teen go into high pitched giggles. Then he moved up to his ribs, making him snort and laugh. Then he scratched at his sides, making him throw his head back and guffaw. The teen was forced to keep squirming and trying to wriggle away, even as he tried to smack at the paws to keep them away.

"No- no!" He squealed as the paw went into his side. "Ack, Toothless, mercy!"

At one point Hiccup tried to grab at the barrel paw, and hold it in place to keep it from getting out and poking at him again. The dragon grinned in mischief, and play wrestled him for a bit, pushing and nudging him like he would a hatchling. Hiccup couldn't help but laugh from the high of the play, and kept his hands on the barrel paw.

"Oh no you don't!" He challenged and pushed against it as it tried to get through his defenses to his belly again.

He scooted back and sat up to get a better grip, and wrestled back the paw, amused at the sight of Toothless leaning down in a pounce and growling playfully at him. He had to work against the paw that kept trying to bowl him over back to the floor, hardly succeeding because of his genuine laughter weakening his resolve. In an act of desperation, the viking finally flung himself forward, throwing his arms around the paw to hold it in place. Toothless tried to gently shake him off with no such luck.

"Gotcha!" he called in triumph.

The triumph was short lived however, when Toothless's other paw burrowed into his now defenseless side again. He squawked into a snicker and tried to scoot away from the attack, but the effort was fruitless.

"No fair- no fair-" he snickered and dissolved into harder laughter.
He pushed at the paw to scramble back. He managed to crab walk awkwardly back before Toothless pounced, stomping his legs on either side and making him collapse from the after shock. Toothless growl-barked joyously, and dove in to nuzzle and lick at him. This time, his whole body was attacked, sending him into hysterics.

"Okay, you win, you win!"

The nose rubbed along his belly, and the tongue lapped up his sides, and chest. His arms went up to try to push away the stubborn head, rolling side to side to try to hide some area of sensitivity, only to expose more. All the while he begged for a respite, especially when the nose borrowed into his side right above his hip, but the dragon was deaf to his pleas, and his desperation increased. The only thing that got the dragon to stop was his leg flinging out in a fit of excitement. The good knee hit the dragon's sensitive nose. The Night Fury reared and jumped back.
"Toohoothless," he gasped as he rolled over and half sat up and the dragon flew off of him. He worked to bring his silly grin down, though his eyes were plenty regretful. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," he begged through his pants. "Are you okay? I was just getting tired, and you wouldn't listen, you know?"

Toothless blinked and shook it's head a moment, before needing to turn away. He sneezed, sending a lightning blast to the other side of the clearing that echoed through the woods and blinded the immediate surrounding area. Hiccup winced at the now black and smoky spot, peering at the dragon uncertainly.

"I... really am sorry," he repeated in defeat.

Toothless looked to him curiously, wondering what had the teen so upset. They were playing, it was an accident, it happened. Hiccup looked as though he was worried about it. He stepped closer, trying to convey non-verbally that it was fine. He looked over Hiccup's body. It looked like everything was fine here. And if he rubbed anymore, it might be more uncomfortable. In a gesture of comforting acceptance, Toothless plopped down in front of Hiccup, and rested his front paw across Hiccup's lone leg. The teen's eyes widened, and protested as he tried to pull back, but the dragon already brought his paw forward and rubbed up the bottom of his foot. He burst into laughter yet again, clutching at his now aching stomach.

"Darn it, Toothless, I said I give up already!" he screamed. "Stop tickling me! I'll doohoohoo anything you wahahahant, just please stop!"

The dragon paused. There was that word again. But Toothless was trying to scratch him, not "tickle" him.

The moment he thought that, Toothless connected the dots, as he saw the teen panting, and leaning over. He was not laughing on his own, this action was actually making him laugh. Certain points on his body actually made the human laugh when he did not necessarily find it funny. He tapped the foot, though besides it bouncing, there was no reaction. He swiped it briefly, making the foot flinch and the teen smirk. He rubbed it a little, making the leg try to pull out from his hold and make the teen go into high pitched giggles.

"Toohoohoothlehehehehess..." he begged.

The dragon got his answer, and released the teen, who promptly curled into a protective and grateful ball. He panted heavily, smiling from the after affects of the one sided tickle fight.

"I figured I'd outgrow this by now," he laughed. "You're worse than Mom was. I manage to tame the fiercest Dragon on the face of the earth, and he turns out to be a tickle monster."

The name had him giggling again, and Toothless cocked his head curiously. He was not even tickling him now. Humans were confusing.

"H-Hey," he sighed. "Can you help me up?"

Even as he assisted the poor, tired viking back to the pile of clothes and his prop leg, Toothless marveled that he had learned something interesting about humans. Actually, two things. He thought about sharing it with the others.

Then remembered how Hiccup had promised him "anything" if he stopped, and decided it was a little secret he would keep for future emergencies. Just in case.