Chapter Text
Upon their arrival to the main base, they discovered that Toothless, who had caught wind of Hiccup’s distress somehow had broken out of the stables and had made his way to the clubhouse. The twins and Snotlout, who had cradled Hiccup the whole way there in an unusual display of affection, arrived to a pacing, restless Night Fury.
The scene that greeted them was Snotlout sitting on the floor, the twins by his side and Hiccup in his lap with Toothless sniffing the boy in obvious worry. Hiccup had calmed significantly, sniffing only occasionally and leaning against Snotlout, obviously craving familiarity. He leaned into the twins' hands as they almost frantically petted his hair.
“Hiccup..” Astrid sighed, leaping from Stormfly and racing forward.
Wordlessly Snotlout lifted Hiccup into her arms, she held him tightly, keeping him close. She buried her nose in his hair, inhaling his familiar scent that nowadays was tinted by that soothing baby smell everyone talked about.
“Is he ok?” Fishlegs asked breathlessly.
“Well he’s not hurt. The brat scared the living daylights out of me though.” Snotlout huffed, Tuffnut smacked his helmet but Fishlegs only nodded gratefully.
“Let me see him,” Dagur pleaded, Astrid reluctantly handed Hiccup over, still hovering close to Dagur.
Heather drifted over there as well, cooing at Hiccup who blinked his wide eyes up at them.
“You’re ok, yeah? You’re ok now, yes you are.” Dagur nodded almost frantically. Hiccup reached up and patted his cheek, scrunching his nose in concern.
Baby babble spilled from his lips, Hiccup was too worked up to form words. Apparently he had a lot to say though because he kept it up as he was passed to each member of the group who individually had to make sure he was ok for themselves.
Ever the angelic baby, he didn’t cry as Fishlegs and Heather each examined him medically, twice. Or when the twins basically argued over who got to hold him first. He didn’t complain either when Snotlout halfheartedly scolded him for wandering off.
Toothless, however, did complain. Loudly. He followed Hiccup around the room, whining and almost barking, impatient for his turn to watch over Hiccup. He hadn’t been there when he could have helped his brother, but he needed to be there now. To make sure he was ok.
Finally, when Astrid was done whispering sweet reassurances to Hiccup and Hiccup was finally starting to come out of his dazed pliancy, she let him down to crawl to Toothless. Toothless pounced, circling Hiccup and sniffing him everywhere. Growling when he found the scent of lingering fear and almost snarling when he found the scent of Viggo on Hiccup’s tunic.
Hiccup stroked Toothless’s scales, cooing and whining back. Happy to let Toothless check him over as well. He laughed and giggled as Toothless furiously set about rubbing his cheek all over him to cement his scent on his brother.
The two year old sat on the floor, with the Nightfury circling him with love and fondness, looking up at the dragon riders who were practically cooing at the adorable sight. Toothless glanced up at them smugly as if to say ‘see this? He’s mine.’
…
“It’s the last day you know,” Heather reminded them quietly.
The group was gathered together in the clubhouse, discussing the day's events quietly as Hiccup examined the Book of Dragons with Toothless and the other dragons gathered around him on the floor. He had become fascinated with the book, pleading to drag it everywhere and excitedly trying to explain the picture to each of them. It was adorable because he could barely lift the book on his own and he usually got so excited that his words became garbled until they were nonsensical baby babble.
“I know,” Astrid sighed, looking over at Hiccup who was giggling as Barf and Belch twisted their necks together.
“You don’t sound very happy about it. I thought you’d love to have your boyfriend back.” Snotlout scoffed, his eyes becoming round in confusion and slight concern.
“I am,” Astrid defended herself, “I miss him so much but it’s just..”
“We’re gonna miss the mini-version too.” Dagur finished for her.
“Well we could always just take him back to the Past-Blast and have him hit Hiccup again.” Tuffnut suggested, he was met with several unamused looks.
“What? It was just a suggestion.” Ruffnut shrugged her shoulders, offended on her brother's behalf
“Well someone should stay with him tonight, we had a sleepover when you guys turned back and it worked out pretty well.” Heather suggested.
“We can all stay in the clubhouse together!” Ruffnut announced with glee.
“Wait, all of us?” Fishlegs timidly tried to clarify.
“Hey, Mini-Hic! Wanna have a sleepover with us in the clubhouse tonight?” Snotlout asked Hiccup from across the room.
Hiccup perked up, grinning widely at Snotlout, “Yeah!” He shrieked, bouncing slightly in excitement, “Dwagons too?”
“Uhh..” Astrid was ready to draw the line right there. Would all the dragons even fit in the clubhouse with them? But Dagur cut her off.
“Of course, brother!” Astrid glared at him, Dagur sheepishly shrugged.
The resulting clapping hands and Hiccup toddling over to give Dagur a hug made Astrid’s heart melt. Though she was no less irritated at Dagur.
“You’re cleaning up any mess the dragons make,” She whispered to Dagur.
“Aw, lighten up. Look how happy he is,”
“Yeah, yeah. Come on, my little dragon boy, we’re going to make dinner with Heather and Fishlegs and if you’re nice Fishlegs will make you cookies.” Astrid took Hiccup from
Dagur, the little boy coming willingly at the mention of cookies.
Dagur pouted at the loss of his little brother, not mentioning Astrid’s slip up with his nickname.
After an almost food fight in the kitchen, a hearty dinner filled with laughter and coddling of Hiccup from all sides they settled down for bed. A warm nest of furs and blankets had been made, eight spots for them all, though Hiccup would probably end up in someone else's spot. The dragons curled around them, creating a wall of warm scales.
A lullaby of soft breathing and purrs from the dragons mixed with the quiet singing from Heather and a full belly of cookies and warm milk put Hiccup to sleep right away. There were quiet snickers at the discovery that the twins had fallen asleep as well.
One by one, the dragon riders drifted off, content in the knowledge that their leader was safe and sound. The little two year old was curled up between Heather and Astrid, with
Dagur stretched out at their feet and the Throstons, Fishlegs and Snotlout on either side of them.
Snotlout shifted, he was the last to fall asleep, still uneasy after the day they had just had. He sat up to look at Hiccup’s peaceful face, he softly smiled.
“Goodnight, baby cousin,” He whispered, quiet enough that nobody would have heard it even if they were awake.
…
Dagur woke up to the familiar sound of Hiccup’s exasperated voice, “What in Thors /name/?!”
For a split second he didn’t think anything of it. Then he remembered the past week and how just yesterday Hiccup had been a chubby faced laughing toddler. He shot straight up from where he was sleeping and stared at Hiccup.
Hiccup was wearing the pajamas he had fallen asleep in, which had somehow grown with the rest of him. His hair was mussed and he had blanket lines imprinted on his face. But most important of all he was the proper eighteen year old size, full vocabulary and no baby lisp included.
“Brother!” He yelled leaping forward to tackle Hiccup in joy, forgetting that Astrid and Heather were sleeping right there as well.
He landed short, just missing Hiccup and landing on Heather’s legs. Heather started awake, which woke Astrid, both of them emerging from the mess of blankets and drawing their weapons and sitting up while both half asleep. Groans of annoyance sounded as the rest of them woke and sat up as well.
Soon everyone was sitting up, rubbing their eyes and glaring at each other in the early morning annoyance. Hiccup still sat bewildered, slightly red faced, probably from waking up next to Astrid.
“Hiccup!” Fishlegs happily exclaimed.
“Hiccup!” The rest of them echoed, realizing the person in the middle of the whole mess was their leader.
“You’re back!” Tuffnut gasped.
Astrid leaned forward to hug Hiccup, who hesitantly returned it, “I missed you.” She said in a rare display of emotion.
“Uh..thanks? Where did I go?”
“You got hit by that dumb de-aging dragon, don’t you remember? We’ve been watching you for the past week and let me tell you, I’m never doing it again.” Snotlout declared.
Heather rolled her eyes, “Oh, don’t listen to him, you were a joy.”
“You were really small,” Ruffnut jumped in.
Hiccup was rubbing his temples by now, “Wait, wait, wait, slow down.”
It was at this moment that Toothless woke up and promptly leaped over the other people to get to Hiccup, who he promptly tackled with licks and excited coos.
“ARGH, Toothless! You know that doesn’t wash out! Yeah, yeah, yeah I’m happy to see you too.” Hiccup grinned at Toothless and then rolled out of the way and stood, the rest of the riders rising with him.
Toothless whined and continued circling Hiccup, sniffing him and bumping into him. Hiccup patted him absentmindedly, surveying the clubhouse.
“So..I spent a week as a child?”
“Yep, a little two year old toddling around the edge.” Asrtrid confirmed, watching carefully for Hiccup’s reaction.
They knew for a fact that you retained some of the memories and so it was a gamble as to what Hiccup would remember. It was unknown how he would react to certain things, like falling in the water or being in the hands of Viggo.
“Ok..just uh…” Hiccup’s face was getting all squinty now, “Wow, that’s crazy. Is this what you guys felt like? Cause it’s not fun at all.”
“What, the general confusion and a pounding headache? Yeah, it’s fun right?” Snotlout folded his arms sarcastically.
“I got lost,” Hiccup said, with the air of a man who had just made the revolution of the year.
“Which time?” Dagur asked playfully, Heather nudged him very unsubtly.
Hiccup’s eyes bugged out, “There was more than once?”
“You liked to wander off,” Fishlegs informed him.
“Oh man..sorry guys..” His face was a very interesting shade of red.
“You’re fine Hiccup, you were the cutest, most well behaved two year old I’ve ever known.” Astrid said, striding forward and grabbing Hiccup’s hand, “Let’s have breakfast,”
Hiccup spluttered at the comment, turning even more red and stuttering slightly. It was almost reminiscent of his baby babble.
“You can have some tea,” Heather decided for Hiccup, walking towards the kitchen.
“I was hunting for trolls,” Hiccup muttered, Snotlout’s face turned into a good natured frown, “I know!” Snotlout threw his hands up in the air, “Then you made friends with a Titan Monstrous Nightmare!”
“I what!?”
Laughter rang throughout the clubhouse as Hiccup frantically tried to recall that part of his adventures.
He was going to be just fine.