Archive of Our Own ^beta

THREE YEARS OLD

     Tuffnut didn’t remember much. All he knew was that there were two presences on either side of him and voices cooing over “Ruffnut”, “Tuffnut”, and “Buffnut”, and then suddenly, a cold space on one side and Mommy was sad. 

     She never told them what happened to their triplet.

EIGHT YEARS OLD

     “Mom?” Tuffnut called. All that answered was echoes. 

     Ruffnut rounded the corner, face pale. “It’s empty,” she said numbly. “They’re- they’re not here. Mom and Dad are gone.”

     Tuffnut felt tears brim in his eyes. While they weren’t the most attentive parents, they were still their parents. Where could they have gone?

     “I’ll check outside again.” Tuffnut volunteered. He hovered by the door for a moment, considering. “Can you-”

     “I’ll go with you.” Ruffnut interrupted. Tuffnut smiled shakily at her. He hadn’t wanted to go alone.

     The moment they stepped foot outside, however, they were halted by the vast presence of Chief Stoick. 

     “Town hall meeting.” He grunted in his usual no-nonsense way. “Come along, it’s important.”

     “But, our parents-” Ruffnut was cut off by Gobber, who happened to be hobbling past them at that moment. 

     “It’s about them, lassie. Go on, go with Stoick.”

—

     Once everyone was gathered in the Great Hall, Stoick cleared his throat and signaled the start of the meeting. 

     “Now, as some of you may already know, Hazelnut and Ingram Thorston have decided to travel the world. They took few belongings, most of which were food, and a longship and sailed off.”

     “Well? What about it?” Spitelout Jorgenson called out. “We should be celebrating! Those brat twins are finally out from underfoot!”

     Gobber glared at him. “You listen here, you-” 

     Stoick interrupted him before he could start a fight. “Well, Spitelout, we’re having this meeting because they didn’t take the twins. In fact, they specified in the note they left that they didn’t want the twins.”

     The Hall fell silent. Tuffnut felt Ruffnut trembling beside him. 

     “If anyone would be so kind as to take the twins in for the time being, we could get this all settled and get back to our individual days.”

     Again, silence reigned in the Hall. Tuffnut’s stomach turned uncomfortably. No one wanted them. He felt like he was going to throw up. 

     As if in a daze, he felt Ruffnut grab his arm, tugging him out the door and into fresh air. Stoick was still speaking, but they had heard enough. 

     “This is okay,” he said. He was more talking to himself than to Ruff. “This is fine. We’re very self-suf- sufficient.” He stumbled over the big word.

     “Yeah,” Ruffnut agreed softly. Her eyes seemed to be permanently widened. “We know how to make food, and wash our clothes. We don’t need any parents to do that.”

     “Exact-” Tuffnut cut himself off by vomiting into the bushes next to them. Ruffnut made a sympathetic noise and patted his back.

ELEVEN YEARS OLD

     Tuffnut stared at the destruction around him. 

     Why? He pleaded to the gods. I’m just a kid. Ruffnut is just a kid. Why? Why did they have to live like this? 

     Smoke curled from the debris of the Thorston’s ancestral home. Tuffnut and his sister were lucky to have gotten out in time. Already, the Hoffsersons and Chief Stoick were setting out to hunt down the dragon that did this. That destroyed the twin’s house. 

     It’s not like there were any other Thorstons to miss this place, Tuffnut thought bitterly. Just us. The annoying, always-in-the-way twins. 

     Some deep, dark part inside of him thought that maybe it would’ve been better if he and Ruff had died in that fire. 

     At least then they wouldn’t have to deal with the constant dragon attacks and fight for survival. Seriously, it was every single day. They never got a break to just breathe; they always had to have eyes in the back of their heads and weapons on hand.

     There was no one else who would protect them if a dragon attacked. All they had were each other. 

     And now, they didn’t even have a home.

     “What are we gonna do.” Tuffnut’s whisper sounded less like a question, and more like a defeated statement. It was a miracle they’d survived this long- even if they were thinner than that Haddock runt- and now they were homeless. 

     “We’ll survive.” Ruffnut said firmly. Tuffnut admired her certainty. 

     She continued, gripping his hand and pulling him to his feet. “We’ve done it before, and we’ll do it again.”

     “Uh, I hate to burst your bubble there, sis, but no one is going to reconstruct our house. It would just be a waste of their precious materials. It’s- it was just the Thorston twins’ hut.” Tuffnut’s voice was bitter and full of venom.

     “Then we’ll do it ourselves.” Ruffnut resolved. “We’ve seen the adults patch up their houses. All we need to do is copy them. On a much larger scale.” She mumbled that last part to herself as she began to pace the wreckage. “Oh, come on, Tuff. Don’t be such a baby. Do you want a place to sleep tonight?” She didn’t wait for him to respond before continuing. “Then I suggest you get to work!” 

THIRTEEN YEARS OLD

     Tuffnut jolted awake, the vision of ginormous teeth snapping inches from his face still behind his eyes. Ruffnut was already awake, sitting curled against the headboard of their shared bed in their tiny, run-down abode. Tears glistened on her cheeks.

     “Nightmare?” Tuffnut asked softly. His voice was scratchy from sleep. Ruffnut nodded silently, looking out the window.

     “Me too.”

     They sat in silence for a little while, neither willing to break the still quiet first.

     “I mean, it wasn’t even me that the huge murderous dragon was after!” Tuffnut cried out at last. “I shouldn’t be having nightmares every night about this! Gods. I just need to toughen up.” He scrubbed his hands across his face.

     “Hey!” Ruffnut snapped. “That was a very scary dragon! You’re allowed to be scared sometimes, bro. It’s only natural.” She sighed, slumping down next to him. “I shouldn’t be having nightmares about that dragon. I mean, she wasn’t even after me!”

     “I- how does- that logic makes no sense!” Tuffnut kicked her softly. “If I’m allowed to have nightmares about her, so are you. Dumbass.”

     Ruffnut snorted wetly. “Thanks, bro. I guess.” She sighed wearily. “We should go back to sleep.”

     They sat in silence a little while longer.

     “I can’t-”

     “Me neither.” Ruffnut interrupted, again. She did that a lot. “Wanna go paint Silent Sven’s black sheep white and see how long it takes him to find the real black sheep?”

     “Hel yes. Thorston and Thorston, in action!” He gave a battle cry, jumping out of bed. Ruffnut shushed him quickly. 

NINETEEN YEARS OLD

     Tuffnut stared at the destruction around him, yet again. Only this time, instead of his ancestral home, it was the Edge. Hardened lava, still smoldering, surrounded their island.

     “Maybe I’m cursed. Maybe the gods hate me.” Tuffnut whispered to his dragon. Belch cooed in concern, butting his head against Tuffnut. Tuffnut petted him absentmindedly. 

     Ruffnut paced next to him. She threw her hands in the air. “I mean, we’re literally teenagers!” She exclaimed, enraged. “Krogan, Viggo, Johann- they’re adults! Why are they trying to murder children? They need to grow the fuck up.” She kicked a rock. Her face twisted in pain and she clutched her foot, hopping and swearing under her breath.

     Tuffnut couldn’t even find it in himself to laugh at her. He felt like everything he touched, everything he loved, broke. 

     He feared it would only be a matter of time before Ruffnut broke, too. If she was gone, he couldn’t live with himself. He couldn’t live if she wasn’t by his side. 

     “When will this end?” He burst out, startling Barf, Belch, and Ruffnut. “All- all this fighting, and destruction, and war and- and death!” His hands gripped his hair, pulling harshly. He barely noticed the sting. “It’s every day! I thought we’d left all this hiding and looking over our shoulders behind when we killed the Red Death! So why are we still doing this?” 

     Ruffnut grabbed his wrists, stopping him from hurting himself any further. His eyes were wide and wild, unseeing of the real world. 

     “I don’t want to live like this!” 

     His scream struck Ruffnut to her core. She tugged him to her chest, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tightly as he shook violently.

     “We’re supposed to be kids. We’re supposed to fool around, annoy people, do kid things! What- why- why did it have to be us?” He had quieted, and was now crying softly into Ruffnut’s hair. 

     Ruffnut held him through his episode, keeping his hands away from himself and humming soothingly against his ear. 

NINETEEN YEARS OLD (again)

     Hiccup’s cry of “No!” caught Tuffnut’s attention. The chaos around him seemed to come to a standstill as he saw Stoick’s body, burnt and bleeding, lifeless on the ground. 

     No.

     Not Stoick. Anyone but Stoick. Please. 

     Tuffnut was vaguely aware of Ruffnut next to him, hands covering her mouth in horrified shock. His own hands had come up to clutch his head. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. 

     Stoick was the only person who had ever genuinely cared about the twins. When they were caught in a dragon attack because their parents hadn’t bothered to keep them inside, Stoick was the one who saved them. When they were abandoned and left for dead in an empty house, Stoick was the one to leave meat and grain on their doorstep (he thought he was sneaky; the twins knew more about stealth at the tender age of eight than he did fully grown. After all, who would he ever need to hide from?). When their only place of shelter burnt down, who helped them haul the lumber needed to repair it back to the village? Stoick did. 

     Sure, maybe he was just doing his chiefly duties, but it was more than anyone else had ever done for them. 

     And now here he was. Dead. Murdered by a psychopath with a god complex- just because Toothless had fired the shot, didn’t mean that Drago wasn’t the true killer. 

     Yet another precious thing, taken from him.

TWENTY NINE YEARS OLD

     “Look at her go.” Ruffnut commented to Tuffnut. The two of them were fondly watching Zephyr bounce around the Haddock’s home, playing a rather intense game of tag with Snotlout. 

     “She reminds me of us.” Tuffnut didn’t think anything of his statement at first. It was only when Ruffnut slowly turned towards him when he realized how wrong he was. “Holy shi- shoot. Shoot. She doesn’t, really. We were never like that.”

     Ruffnut nodded, blue eyes tinged with sadness. “We were surviving. We never got the chance to just live, did we? Gods.” 

     “When was the last time we played a game- just to play? Not to train, or distract ourselves. I can’t-”

     “I can’t remember, either.” 

     The twins quieted as they watched Zephyr drag Nuffink by the hand, nimbly evading Snotlout. 

     “She’ll get childhood we never had. I swear it. I swear it to the gods.” 

     “That kind of promise is serious business, Tuff. Are you sure you can keep it?”

     “I’m sure, Ruff. She, and Nuffink, will never have to go through what we did.”