Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The air is cold. It’s always cold on Berk, really, freezing most of the year, but right now, it’s enough to make him think, maybe he should have brought something extra, because it’s, well…

Something is tingly in the air. Hiccup pauses his tracks there, branches cracking beneath his feet. Behind him is a strange, flickering light. His first thought is, the reasonable, dragons, kicking off years of instincts despite all the time he’s spent with Toothless, and he ducks down beneath the brush, crouching against a tree, hoping the creature is behind him.

The light starts to fade after a few moments. For a heartbeat, he doesn’t hear anything. Hiccup just waits, tense.

A branch snaps ahead of him.

“Wow,” a girl’s voice says, “How did I get here?”

There’s people here? They weren’t here a moment ago. He would have seen them.

“I was just on a train,” another girl’s voice says, sounding confused. “I don’t know how I got here either.”

“Where are we?” the first one asks.

“I don’t know.” It’s a boy’s voice this time.

Hiccup leans forward, peeking out between the branches. He freezes when leaves crunch loudly beneath him. Oops. No moving. Stupid, he knows better than that. Hide, and don’t move. Works with every dragon. Even if these aren’t dragons.

“What was that?” the blonde-haired girl asks.

There’s three of them and they look around his age, maybe a little older. But what really sticks out to him is the strangeness of their clothes. No one in Berk dresses like that. Who are they?  How did they get here?

“Are we about to get attacked?” a dark brown haired girl asks, eyeing the bush he’s hiding behind.

Oh. Uh oh. He was trying not to get seen? Who are these people? Isn’t he the one who’s about to be attacked? Thor, if they do try to hurt him, he’s gonna have a very hard time running.

“I smell something,” the dark-brown haired boy observes.

…He smells something?

“I think it’s a person,” the blonde girl says.

The dark-haired girl starts walking slowly towards the bush Hiccup is crouched behind.

“Do you really want to walk toward the noise when you don’t know what it is?” the boy asks.

The girl pauses to pick up a stick and keeps walking.

“It’s a person,” the blonde girl says, voice radiation mild exasperation. “Hi,” she calls, approaching the bushes, too. “I’m Judith.”

Well, so much for hiding, if he already – somehow – gave away his hiding spot. That’s it, he’s dead. Hiccup slowly pops his head from behind the bush, picking himself up and slowly taking in the very strange trio. The boy’s hair is dark, and one of the girls is a brunette and the other a blonde, though what sticks out the worst is the strange clothes they’re wearing.

It’s… it doesn’t really look like wool, and they don’t have fur? How are they not freezing? No one would have come here like this in their right mind.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” Hiccup squeaks out warily.

“I don’t know,” the other boy replies, shrugging.

“We were on a train,” Judith says, “And then we just ended up here.”

 “What’s a train?” Hiccup asks, confused.

“It’s like a… form of transport,” she offers, frowning. “You don’t have those here?”

“No. You were shipwrecked?” he guesses. That’s all that explains their words, though their appearances and attire, not so much. 

“No. I don’t even know how I got here. I just suddenly was,” the dark-haired girl protests.

That doesn’t make sense. But he did see the flash of light, so… maybe she is telling the truth. “Who are you?” Hiccup asks, anyway.

“Hannibal,” the boy replies.

“Colette Brown,” the girl answers. “What about you?”

“Hiccup,” he replies with a wince, “Bad name, I know.”

“I think it’s… sort of cool?” Colette offers.

Hiccup blinks. That’s not normal. Most people laugh.

“I still don’t even know where we are,” Judith comments, looking around.

“You’re on Berk.”

“What’s Berk?” asks Colette.

What’s Berk? How can they not know what Berk is? “It’s an… island?” What else is he supposed to say? Home?

“We’re from the United States,” Judith offers.

“We’ve never heard of it out here,” he objects, frowning. It’s not the kind of name any island he’s ever heard of has. It sounds more like a group of islands than any one particular one, though he could be wrong.

“It’s in North America?” Judith tries again, as though that has any more meaning to him.

“Is it an island?”

“Uhh no,” Colette says, “It’s wayyyy too big for that. But I guess you could call it an island if you wanted to. Just a huge one.”

Oooookay, this is not normal. Thor, none of this is normal, and he has no idea where to go. Best if he could take it to Gobber – Stoick isn’t here, obviously, and Hiccup’s not too stupid to realize he might never come back. But something is definitely off about these people, something Hiccup can’t read. And it’s probably best if he can get them back to the village, anyway. They don’t look like fighters, but… their confusion about how they got here does seem genuine. Maybe.

“Maybe I can take you to the village,” Hiccup suggests finally. “My dad might know what to do when he gets back.” He doesn’t even know if he’s going to come back. And then he’d be gone, just like his mother. And then he’d… be an orphan. Like so many others. Except unlike them, a useless, unwanted one.

He’s not too stupid to miss how the only reason anyone ever looks his way is because he’s the chief’s son.

And besides, he needs them as far from Toothless’s cave as possible. No one is friendly to dragons. Or at least he’s never found anyone who is. He just needs to get them off his tail and get back to his dragon. Somehow.

He was trying to go check on Toothless when they showed up. He still needs to find a way to sneak back out there after he drops them off. Hopefully, it won’t be long.

“Where is your Dad?” Hannibal inquires, as they keep walking, branches crunching beneath their feet.

Wouldn’t hurt to tell him, would it? “He’s out hunting dragons.”

“Hunting dragons?” Colette yelps.

Hiccup doesn’t miss how the other two exchange a quick glance. They seem tense, no surprise. Everyone’s tense about dragons. They probably didn’t realize they were a problem here – or is it something else? Hiccup’s still tense when he thinks about dragons, though. Except Toothless. All the dragons have ever done is try to survive. Hiccup is the one who shot him down, but Toothless still spared his life.

Even though Night Furies never do.

He wishes someone else could see that, but he already knows what will happen if anyone ever finds out about it. He’s always done everything alone. It’s enough that he at least has Toothless now.

“Why do you hunt dragons?” Judith asks.

They really must not be from this area. But they still know about them. Still, the logicalness of the question throws him. Killing dragons is everything to Vikings. How does he answer that logically to someone who genuinely doesn’t know? “They attack us and our farms, and steal our food,” Hiccup explains.

“That sounds… unpleasant,” Hannibal says slowly, “Do you eat them?”

Eat them? Gross. Maybe Dagur would. But most normal people wouldn’t dream of it. “We don’t even know if they’re edible,” Hiccup protests. Not that he’s ever tried. No one has, to has knowledge, thankfully, or their chaos wouldn’t be nearly so much of a problem. 

“How do you know a dragon when you see one?” Judith wonders.

“It’s hard to miss when they fly in the sky above us and breathe fire.” That’s an odd question. Have these people just heard legends about dragons? It’s like they’re not… real. They really aren’t from around here. Hiccup bites back a comment about to slide off his tongue. He really doesn’t know if they’re safe.

“What about the ones that don’t breathe fire?” Hannibal asks.

“Well, there’s some that spit acid,” Hiccup shrugs, “Or boiling water.”

“Yikes,” Colette squeaks with a shudder. “Where do they stay?”

“In their nest.”

“I’ve never seen a dragon nest before,” Judtih supplies.

“It doesn’t sound like you know much about dragons,” Hiccup points out.

“Dragons where we’re from are… different,” Hannibal supplies. “And we’ve only heard legends.”

Hiccup can’t imagine that. “Different how?” he asks curiously.

“I’ve only heard of dragons, but they’re shapeshifters,” Collette shrugs.

They mean changewings?! Hiccup stumbles to a stop, head whipping to look at her, wide-eyed. Monstrous nightmares are bad enough. They do not need to… turn into things, too. Or whatever it is they’re saying. “They don’t do that here,” he promises. “Though there is this type that camouflages itself. I’ve never actually seen that kind. I’ve only heard of it.” Thankfully. He would never sleep again if he did.

He actually slept better before he read that page.

“Is your mother also out dragon hunting?” Collete asks.

Hiccup stumbles to a stop. No, Stoick had said. She was different. She was too kind. Hiccup understands that now. When he stood there over Toothless, knife in hand, he just couldn’t. But his Mom is… all Hiccup has left of her is distant, fleeting memories. He doesn’t know what’s real and what’s… what he was told anymore. “No,” Hiccup mutters, “She’s… she’s gone.”

“Oh,” Judith offers, wincing. “Sorry.”

“That sounds hard,” Hannibal murmurs quietly.

“We make do,” Hiccup shrugs, a flat lie once again. He doesn’t want to think about it, about how many times he cried when he was little, about how many he does now, wishing he had someone in this world other than Stoick and Gobber.

Just… anyone.

But instead, she’s gone because of this stupid war, because no one will ever stop and think with something other than weapons.

Mom didn’t have to die.

That just makes him even angrier now.

They’re finally back to Berk, though, and Hiccup dodges the passing Vikings, motioning the trio to follow him. “Are you Vikings?” Colette asks, awed.

“What else?” Hiccup asks rhetorically. He’s trailed by a series of awed and surprised remarks. So, they’ve heard of them, even if not Berk especially.

“Do you have any sweaters here?” Collete inquires.

S – what? “What’s that?” Hiccup asks, fully expecting to be laughed at, but it doesn’t come.

“It’s… like a coat, just a lot thinner,” she explains.

Oh. That makes sense. “…oh. I might be able to get you something,” Hiccup offers, hurrying their way through the village. He, probably, can’t, but there’s got to be some spare furs someone’s willing to offer.

He turns a corner sharply, dodging a cart, nearly smacking face-first into Snotlout. Hiccup jumps back with a squeak, mostly surprised when one of the visitors catches his arm to steady him.

“Are those your friends?” Snotlout asks, eyes lifting to the figures behind him. “Pretending you even have those.” His cousin’s eyes sweep past him to the others. “Who are you, and what are you wearing?”

Hiccup already wants to facepalm. This – is not a good way to drag them into the village. Wait for it – they’ll laugh or run off. Or both.

“These are clothes,” Judith offers, pointedly tugging on the front of her tunic.

“They don’t look like clothes.”

“Well they are, because we clearly aren’t walking around naked,” Judith snips.

Oh no. They are not going there.

“Well, I wouldn’t mind if you did,” Snotlout offers with a flirty smile that makes Hiccup want to smash his face into anything hard enough to see stars just to get the image out. Ughh. Colette’s face scrunches in disgust behind him, and Hiccup violently seconds it.

“Maybe you’ll find out someday,” Judith teases. She has a dark smirk, and Hiccup feels like he’s missing something, but he still really, really wants to run.

He could at least do without seeing his cousin’s twisted flirting in front of his face, please. Especially when… well, Hiccup’s only ever had eyes for one girl, and they all know where that’s going.

Nowhere.

It’s best if he forgets about Astrid.

“Please stop,” Hannibal begs, face scrunched in disgust.

“Don’t you have places to be?” Hiccup asks pointedly, begging his cousin is on some lethal mission from his dad again. Anything to please get him out. This isn’t the first temporary friendship Hiccup has ever struck up, but he wants to keep it while he has it, and he really doesn’t want them to take such an unwelcoming meeting again.

“No, I think I’ll stay,” Snotlout decides, much to Hiccup’s horror.

“Could you get us coats?” Hannibal suggests.

Snotlout brightens, totally missing the hint, though Hiccup throws a grateful look at his newfound friend. “Of course!”

“Who’s that?” Colette asks, shuddering a little as Hiccup’s nosy cousin disappears between the houses.

“Uh, sorry about that,” Hiccup fumbles out awkwardly, “He’s Snotlout.”

The other three smother their laughter.

“I hope everyone here isn’t like that,” Hannibal mutters, sounding worried.

“They aren’t. I promise,” Hiccup is quick to assure him, though he’s not sure how happy here the three will be. They seem so… different. He makes a few more turns, finally safely arriving at the blacksmith shop.

The others pause behind him, taking in the sight wide-eyed. If he didn’t know better, he’d think this is the first they’ve ever seen a blacksmith shop. Where and how do they live if they haven’t? Hiccup shrugs it off – everything about them is weird.

“What is this place?” Hannibal asks, “Is something burning?”

“It’s the blacksmith shop,” Hiccup replies, wrapping his hand over the door handle and pushing it open. “Gobber and I work here.”

“Hey, Hiccup, nice of you to show up,” Gobber starts saying, hammer arm frozen lifted when he sees the eccentric figures behind him.

“I found them in the woods,” Hiccup says by way of explanation, gesturing to the trio. Hannibal and Judith obviously know each other, but he’s really getting the feeling Colette isn’t familiar with either of them.

Gobber looks them over, half curious, half frowning. “Who are you and where are you from?”

“We’re from a place called America,” Judith replies.

“It’s like very big,” Colette quickly adds.

“And they apparently don’t have dragons there,” Hiccup adds, because that’s the thing that really sticks out about them.

“They’re just legends,” Judith agrees, looking at Colette.

“They’re shapeshifters,” she offers.

“That’s a nice story,” Gobber replies, “But where are you really from?”

“Uhhh well if we got in a boat and sailed… west? We could probably point it out,” Colette offers.

“But we might be sailing for months,” Hannibal adds.

“But where is Berk?” Colette asks.

“It’s… twelve days north of Hopeless, a few degrees south of Freezing to Death, and solidly on the Meridian of Misery,” Hiccup replies, though the confusion on their faces don’t slide.

“Well, since you found them, why don’t you keep an eye on them until the chief comes back,” Gobber says, lifting the hammer again.

“Wait,” Hiccup starts protesting a little panickily – he has to get back to Toothless and he doesn’t know these people – but the hammer is crashing down over and over. He groans. Okay, no hope there.  “Alright,” he caves miserably, “I guess I’ll take you to my house.”

“What’s life like here?” Hannibal asks, as Hiccup leads them back outside and they walk through the village, dodging passing Vikings.

“Well, Berk is, in a word, sturdy,” Hiccup replies, dodging a cart. The other three are separated for a moment with a series of yelps as they nearly get run over. “We’ve been here for seven generations,” he continues without pause when they catch up. “But every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, farming, and a charming view of the sunsets.”

“That sounds nice,” Judith comments, “More simple than life where we’re from.”

“What is life like where you’re from?” Hiccup asks. He’s known them for an hour, but they’re still such mysteries to him. And what does he mean, complicated?

“We have technology. more things than I could probably explain properly,” Judith replies, “But there’s larger cities and we buy – trade for food and…”

“And we have to go to school,” Colette adds, “Do you have those here?”

Why does she say it like it’s bad? Hiccup loves reading. And learning new things. It’s so much easier than people. “Gobber taught me to read,” he offers.

“What we have is a little more… organized,” Judith replies.

He’s tempted to ask what she means by that, but right now, Hiccup thinks he’ll find it more confusing than anything else. He pushes the door to his house open, looking around. He’s probably gonna regret this later, but… “You can have my dad’s room while he’s away,” he offers, pointing to the doorway, “I sleep upstairs in the loft.”

“He won’t mind?” Hannibal asks.

“It’s fine,” Hiccup promises quickly, because they couldn’t be much worse company. He has his Toothless drawings on the table, though, and quickly sweeps them into a pile. He wasn’t planning on anyone coming over. He’ll have to be more careful in the future – which is annoying. “I never have people over here.” Hiccup tucks the sketches beneath his coat, brushing his hands off. “Uh…”

Hiccup’s eyes still, instinctively, dart around the room, mapping for a good place to run, mostly just something to say or do. Itching to be back out. He already misses Toothless.

He has no idea what to give them. What’s considered hospitable? People never come over to the Chief’s house. Except Gobber, and he’s every bit family as much as Stoick. Well, there’s Dagur, but he’s, uh…

Dagur.

Hiccup prefers not to go there. Or compare them.

“We’ll try not to get in the way,” Colette promises.

 “I just hope my dad isn’t upset about it,” he mutters. Someone knocks on the door, not a familiar knock, but still one he can guess the identity of all the same. He pushes the door open, welcomed with getting an armful of furs dropped into his arms. Hiccup yelps, stumbling at the unexpected weight.

“I didn’t know where you’d taken our guests, so I figured I’d track you down,” Snotlout offers brightly, hands on his hips. “I found a few spares.”

Hiccup hopes these aren’t his sister’s. “Thanks,” he offers, kicking the door shut in his cousin’s face. He ignores Snotlout’s yells from behind him, stumbling to the table and trying to spread them out a little.

“Here,” he says, “You can try to fit these on, I hope they’re enough.”

The hardest part, it turns out, is trying to find a way to keep them on. The belts the strange trio wear are not meant for furs, and they don’t hold them well.

Hiccup gets them situated as well as he can, and then… well, runs. He needs to get back to Toothless, after all.

***

The hut is tiny, but considering that they’re probably over one thousand years in the past, Colette still thinks it looks nice.

And she can think about her surroundings a little more now that she’s not freezingggg anymore. The wool pieces she has draped around her are fluffy and comfortable, at least.

“If you’re all fine here, I have somewhere to go,” Hiccup says, gaze darting between them.

“We are,” Judith replies.

Hiccup takes off out the door without another word, quickly disappearing from sight between the other houses.

“So much for baby-sitting us,” Hannibal remarks with a shrug.

She’s a bit curious, but it’s not really their business where Hiccup is going. Though he is the only person she knows from this place who can help them, so hopefully nothing happens while he’s gone.

“I’d still like to know how we got here,” Colette comments. “I was taking a walk through my woods and then I found myself here.”

Totally, completely out of her time. Possibly even reality because of the whole dragon-thing.

She’d reallyyy like to know what’s going on. She’s always wanted to get to do something interesting. Other than just the mindless normal it is at her home. Or maybe it’s that she just wishes she had somewhere that felt more like a home. Because where she’s always grown up just doesn’t. Never has.

But either way, she’s not complaining to have ended up here. Even if it’s kinda nerve-wracking at first, to just suddenly be somewhere else.  It still doesn’t feel very real and it really seems like the kind of stupid dream she’d have but the world seems a bit too real and sensible for that. Sort of. Maybe.

Non-shape shifting dragons and Vikings is actually pretty weird.

Then again, so are dragons and magic period.

And her sleeping brain is probably not creative enough to concoct Judith and Hannibal to have come along with her, if this wasn’t really real. Anyway.

“I don’t understand what happened either,” Judith says, blonde hair swinging at her shoulders as she looks around the hut again. “Hannibal and I were on a train together like I said and the next thing I knew, we were here.”

“You two know each other at least?” she guesses.

“We’re twins,” Judith replies.

“…oh. I wonder how I got here, then. Or how any of us did.”

“I don’t know,” Hannibal says, trading another glance with Judith.

“Maybe it was a reality glitch,” Colette offers.

“It was clearly something like that,” Judith says, “But the question is if there’s a way for it to be undone.”

She doesn’t know if she’s quite ready for that yet. This new place is interesting. But the others probably do because they probably have a family they want to go back to. She doesn’t. Not exactly, at least. Her parents only give her attention if it’s to yell about something she’s doing or not doing or to fuss about her grades in school. It’ll probably be a couple days before they realize she’s not coming home, anyway. Frankly, she doubts they’ll even miss her.

“But for now, we should probably get comfortable,” Judith advises, “Maybe have a look around if we’re going to be staying here.”

That, she definitely wants to do. She’s never seeing an ancient village before or an ancient house. She’d like to make the most of it while they’re here.

***

It’s after dark before Hiccup gets back. They’ve looked a bit around the rest of the house – while trying not to be too nosy about it – and are in the main room when the door opens. Hiccup shuffles awkwardly in the doorway, looking between them. “I don’t know if any of you are hungry but we can go to the great hall,” he says finally.

“Great Hall?” Judith asks, perking up, “I’m in.”

“What is that?” Colette asks, curiously.

“It’s where we go to eat common meals,” Hiccup explains.

“Sounds good to me,” she chirps, and so they start another long trek through the village, out to a towering, large structure. She can see the blaze of firelight inside. Still strange to see fire everywhere instead of lightbulbs.

Gobber and a group of five other teens she thinks are around Hiccup’s age, maybe older, are seated around the long tables inside. Snotlout is one of them and he waves cheerfully at them when they enter.

Colette is still weirded out about how strange he was being earlier, though so she just looks past him to the others. None of them really do more than glance at them, though. The other teens are already getting seated at a table together, so Hiccup leads them past to a table by himself.

She’s been to school enough to know what it means when someone’s sitting at a table all alone.

Well.

Maybe he doesn’t have any friends among these teens, but he’s starting to feel like hers already. A little, at least, even if they’ve only known each other for like an hour. Colette goes to claim the seat next to him but Hannibal and Judith get there first.

Oh, fine. She’ll sit at the end, then.

The others are chatting about dragons and other things that Colette doesn’t full follow but then one of the boys gets up, coming over to their table and sitting across from Hiccup. “I’ve never seen anyone do what you did with the Zippleback there,” the boy comments.

“I got lucky, I guess,” Hiccup replies.

“What’s a Zippleback?” Colette wonders.

“It’s a type of dragon with two heads. One that breathes poisonous gas and the other that breathes fire which ignites the gas,” the boy explains.

“Yikes,” she supplies, eyes widening.

“I’ve definitely never heard of a dragon that can do that,” Judith says.

“We have a whole book about dragons,” the boy replies, before he launches into a ramble about the different types that they primary see around Berk. Colette tries to follow it as best she can, trying to remember all the important names.

She knows all the Vikings act scared of dragons but she secretly really, really hopes she gets to see one. Even if they are actually dangerous. It just sounds cool.

“I’m Fishlegs,” the boy introduces himself, about at the end of the conversation.

Fishlegs?

Okay, their names are really weird here. She tries not to laugh about it though because that wouldn’t be very nice. And honestly, creativity is nice sometimes even if this is a bit much.

She’s beginning to like being here more and more. Hopefully they’re going to be here for a while.

“I can show you later,” Hiccup offers.

“Okay,” Colette chirps. She’s actually really looking forward to seeing this.

He does show them as soon as the meal is over with. There’s pictures for all of them except one.

The Night Fury.

Hiccup has an odd look on his face as he eyes the empty page, written only with speed, unknown. Size, unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. Your only chance: hide and pray it does not find you.

“Lightning and death?” Judith echoes, eyeing it. “We definitely don’t have this where we’re from.”

“I’ll make sure to keep this in mind,” Colette offers, “But without a picture, I guess I’d never know if I saw one.”

“Just make sure to hide,” Hannibal advises flatly.

“I would, cuz I don’t know how to fight any dragon.”

Hiccup’s still staring at the page and the odd look on his face doesn’t fade.

Chapter Text

It’s strange to be eating with people in the morning. Stoick is always gone, and Gobber never comes over for this. Actually, Hiccup can’t remember the last time this did happen. He’s gotta be fast, though. To training, and then to Toothless.

But he has to do something with these kids. What does he do? He has to tell him where he’s going. They… can’t have them wandering all around Berk. “I… uh, have dragon training in an hour,” Hiccup blurts out, still chomping breakfasts’ berries.

“What’s that?” Hannibal asks, lifting his head, the early morning sunlight spilling across his face through the windows. He and Judith have been eyeing Hiccup all morning, actually. It’s weird.

“It’s where we learn how to fight dragons.” And I hate it, Hiccup wants to say, but he will never, ever say that.

“Is there room for spectators?” Collette inquires.

“Yeah, there’s an overlooking viewing area if you want to come,” Hiccup replies. He’s really not sure about dragging more people in, but he… well, what could it hurt? He’s got dragon nip today. He might as well give that a try.

Hannibal looks at Judith, who shrugs. “We might as well,” she concedes, “We read about the dragons here, but we’ve never actually seen one.”

“Yeah, you probably should know the threat you’re up against,” Hiccup agrees, trying to drown the jitteriness and the dragons aren’t a threat! screaming in his head. He can keep this down. He always has.

Besides, he has to. For Toothless.

The trip to the arena is a while. Most of the time before, he spends just walking there, dodging all the chaos and trying to avoid the worst of the… well, people. Between the chaos and all. It’s always annoying, but he’s used to it. He runs late, and he’ll run into people – and they’re always cranky if he pushes. So. Early start with many twists and turns it is.

The dragon of the day – Gronckle.

Gobber is teaching them about using weapons not of choice today, trying to test their proficiency level with multiple weapon types. Hiccup really doesn’t get it – everyone already knows. Whatever weapon he touches, he breaks and manages to be a complete screw up.

Turns out he’s not the only one, when Snotlout throws a mace and the Gronkle still manages to dodge wildly. The handle hit its nose, Hiccup thinks, but either way, it sails cleanly away… and the spikes embed itself in the ground right beside Ruffnut’s boot.

“That’s my foot, you idiot!” Ruffnut yells, whirling on Snotlout.

The Gronckle spits molten lava, and everyone scrambles for cover. Astrid cleanly summersaults again, and Hiccup dodges against a hiding spot with his shield raised. Doesn’t stop the dragon from nicely blasting Astrid’s weapon and sending the top metal half skittering happily away. She throws it down with a yell and dives for her axe.

Fishlegs looses his shield again.

Hiccup… drops his.

He actually didn’t mean to this time, but he had to put down something to get the handful of dragon nip shoved beneath his furs. The Gronckle flies at him, snarling. Hiccup drops his weapon, raising his arms in the show of shielding himself. The dragon skids to a stop on the ground, breathing deeply at the scent.

He sees Astrid nearby, axe raised, and rubs the grass on the creature’s nose. The Gronckle purrs, toppling sideways and rolling on the ground.

“What was that?” Fishlegs asks,

Everyone is staring at him, until Gobber comes forwards with a loud “session over!” He waves to the others to help haul the dragon back inside it’s cage.

Hiccup sprints for the door. He’s made it a good way through the crowd, dodging people, when he needs to.

“Was that some kind of drug?” Judith asks, jogging to keep up with him, dodging a few people. He’s made his light sprint to crossing a nearby bridge, finally alone.

Oops. “What?” Hiccup replies quickly, feigning innocence.

“It looked like you had to have done something,” Hannibal points out. “What was that? It –”

“Hey Hiccup!” another voice yells behind him. He pauses in his tracks, glancing back to see the other trainers crowding up.

“How’d you do that?” Tuffnut appears at his side.

“It was really cool.” That’s Ruffnut. Fishlegs and Snotlout are crowding in.

Ruffnot shoves her brother aside to get her own line in. “I’ve never seen a Gronckle do that before!”

They’re gonna beg for answers until he gives them some, and Hiccup does what he’s best at. He runs. “I left my axe back in the ring. You guys go on ahead. I’ll catch up with you.” He spins and runs, trying to sprint down the bridge, only to smack into Astrid. He thinks she shoved him intentionally. She definitely saw him turning.

Not like it’s the first time that’s ever happened.

Hiccup runs.

***

When Colette thought she wanted to see a dragon, she didn’t quite mean like that. Well, she’s still glad she got to see one, but she feels awful for the poor thing. It’s stuck in a cage just so everyone can beat it up. And it’s just an animal that probably wants to live its life in peace and be left alone.

Not like humans in her time are any more civilized about that kind of thing, to be fair. But she’s still appalled. She’d still like to know what Hiccup even did.

She throws a glance after his retreating form and she can’t help wondering if there’s something he’s… hiding.

Astrid is eyeing him suspiciously.

“Why don’t you try drugging them?” Judith inquires.

“We don’t have any way of testing what works,” Fishlegs replies.

“But you have then locked in cages,” Judith argues.

“It would take a lot of researching,” the other boy points out.

“Boring,” Ruffnut interjects flatly.

“I’d much rather just blow something up,” Tuffnut agrees flippantly.

“Have you ever blown up a dragon before?” Judith asks, sounding morbidly curious.

“Never gotten to see that,” Ruffnut replies.

“Yeah,” Tuffnut agrees, sounding disappointed.

That’s actually relieving, though Colette holds her tongue. Considering that this seems to be their way of life, she doesn’t think they’d take well to her making comments about it.

Everyone’s starting to scatter now so she trails after Hannibal and Judith. They spend a few hours making their way through town, just looking around mostly, before she’s beginning to wonder what happened to Hiccup anyway. She keeps seeing the other teens wandering around – and Ruffnut and Tuffnut are fighting on a roof about something – but she hasn’t seen him anywhere.

No one seems to know where he is either. Or even to really care. Mostly, it just reminds her of… well, her. She’d rather not think about it.

“Maybe we can go to his house,” Judith suggests.

They already went past there but maybe it wouldn’t hurt to look again. “Sure,” Colette concedes, so they head off.

The house is quiet, as expected.

Judith goes up to his room, coming back after a few moments. She has an oddly focused look in her eyes, as she glances around.

Maybe she’s just lost in thought.

“He was in the woods when we came here yesterday. Why don’t we head that way?” she suggests, setting off in front.

Colette shrugs, following.

It’s not like they have anything else to do anyway.

***

The walk through the woods takes a long time. Colette’s also pretty sure they’re completely lost. “I’m certain he went this way,” Judith insists, as she keeps pushing her way through the brush.

“Why?” Colette asks, trying to keep up.

The other two don’t seem to have nearly as much of a problem being out of breath. Judith doesn’t answer her question, just keeps moving forwards.

They finally come to the edge of the treeline, coming to the edge of a cliff. “This better be the right way, after all this,” Colette pants.

“There,” Hannibal interjects, pointing.

She looks down.

Hiccup is standing in the valley below, near the edge of more trees. She’s almost certain she hears him saying “hide,” but there’s literally no one down there. “Uhh, hi,” Hiccup says, spinning around and looking up at them, as they climb the rest of the way down, standing in front of him, “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you,” Judith replies.

“I think I took a wrong turn somewhere,” he says cheerfully and something about that looks very fake. She’s almost certain there’s something he’s not saying. Even when he pulls out a notebook and starts flipping through it. “Just mapping out more points of Berk on my map.” He draws a mark on the page, staring at it and scribbling some more, then flipping it shut and slowly tucking it away again.

Okay, this is veryyyy suspicious.

“Is it your quiet spot to come too?” Hannibal inquires, “It’s not that strange. A lot of people have those.”

“Well, sometimes,” Hiccup concedes, glancing around, “We should get back to Berk.” He darts off for the cliff edge, the way they came.

He’s definitely avoiding this conversation.

Colette knows it’s none of her business, but she’s really curious.

She’s going to follow him into the forest, but the other two are lingering back.

“What do you think he’s really doing here?” Hannibal asks, looking between them.

“Not what he’s saying, I don’t think,” Judith replies, frowning.

“Something suspicious, definitely,” Colette agrees, “Maybe we can follow him out here tomorrow if he comes here again? But quietly this time.” Even if that’s going to be a challenge.

“Sounds good to me,” Judith agrees and they take off into the woods to catch up with Hiccup.

It feels like a nice mystery to solve. They’re probably just making a big mystery out of nothing important, but she really wants to find out what’s going on. Even if it’s not her business.

***

Today is the Deadly Nadder, once again. It goes better than the first, for Hiccup anyway – the twins start yelling at each other, of course. “That’s my shield!” Ruffnut yells.

“I told you to take the flower one!” Tuffnut throws back, and Ruff grabs another shield and outright smacks her brother. Tuff actually catches it with his… allegedly stolen shield, and the Nadder’s head whips towards them with a stream of fire that incinerates both the said shields and sends the twins flying.

Hiccup winces in sympathy.

Gobber laughs. “And I told you Nadder’s don’t have a deaf spot. Ruffnut, Tuffnut, out!”

Hiccup scrambles behind one of the cover shields, gripping his shield. Fishlegs rolls after while Snotlout and Astrid break off the other way. It keeps moving, and after last time, Hiccup learned his lesson to stay down and out of sight. He presses against the barrier, keeping hidden, but the dragon is stalking right towards them.

He doesn’t know how to get close to it with Fishlegs right here. That’ll throw off all his efforts.

The Nadder whips its tail, poison spikes flying at Snotlout. Astrid blocks them with her shield, but his cousin is flung back and pinned gracefully to the wall. That looks painful.

Astrid is trying to keep in the Nadder’s blind spot, sneaking up from behind with her axe.

Nope, not letting her get there.

Fishlegs moves again, leaving Hiccup standing alone. Hiccup peaks around the dragon to see Astrid running towards the Nadder, which is finally in touching distance.

He drops his weapon. That’s important for all dragons – a show of trust – and reaches up, scratching it’s neck like he did with Toothless yesterday while they were out before the others showed up. The Nadder falls to the ground, toppling sideways and dropping to sleep.

“That is not normal,” Astrid says flatly, slowly lowering her weapon. “What did you do?”

“Just got lucky,” Hiccup shrugs.

“Some help here?” Snotlout yells, waving.

“You look better there,” Tuffnut calls, laughing, and Ruffnut gleefully nods her agreement.

Hiccup brushes himself off, heading to his cousin while Gobber waves the others up to help move the Nadder back inside its cage. Hiccup sets about trying to peel the darts off his cousin’s clothes – he’s lucky he didn’t get hit. Fishlegs is occupied, and Hiccup knows none of the others would bother helping.

“Thanks,” Snotlout tells him, wide-eyed. He looks… awed?

It makes Hiccup want to run. He really wants to run. He just… isn’t for this. Nobody has ever cared about him his entire life, and that can’t suddenly just change because he started defeating dragons. This isn’t him. He’s not… this.  “I think Gobber needs help with the Nadder,” Hiccup blurts, and runs while his cousin looks the other way.

***

Hiccup has to swing by briefly at his house to grab a bag of tools and parts for the still-mid-construction saddle. He has a funny feeling on the way, mostly wary from yesterday’s encounter. That was close. He climbs through the narrow rocks, dropping into the grass with his bag.

“Toothless?” he calls. “I’m back.”

The dragon growls irritated, slowly creeping from his cave.

Hiccup sighs. “I know, I know. Sorry, I know I had to leave early yesterday. I don’t know what happened. They weren’t supposed to come here.”

Toothless grumbles, settling in the grass. Hiccup slowly lowers himself beside him. “Let’s just work on your tail a bit, hey?” he requests.

There are a few connections left that he can work on out here with the saddle. He’s working, muttering out loud to himself when Toothless suddenly growls. Hiccup’s head snaps up, expecting some sort of intruder, but instead, the dragon is pawing fiercely at the ground.

“What’s wrong, buddy?” he asks, scanning the area, eyes finally zeroing in on a small light.

Reflection. He traces it back to the hammer he’d mindlessly set, leaning on a rock.

Hiccup laughs. “Ohh.” He snatches the tool up, and Toothless’s whole body perks up. He growls again. Hiccup crouches by a rock, carefully bracing the hammer atop it to shine the reflected sunlight. Toothless chases it everywhere. They play for a while, Until Hiccup finally sets the tool aside. “Let’s try out the rest of this, hey?” he asks, lifting the saddle connections.

Toothless yips happily, ears perking up at the sight. That’s a definite, permanent yes to anything flying related. It must be terrifying for him not to be able to do it on his own. To be trapped here unless Hiccup is here.

He’s seen more of what humans can do to dragons than he needs to, to know there has to be another way about this.

Hiccup swings himself onto the saddle again, gripping the front edges. “Alright, let’s go!”

Toothless kicks them off the ground, but they only make it a few feet before his eyes land on three very familiar figures crouched and carefully hidden atop a ledge overlooking the valley. His heart leaps into his threat, head spinning dizzily. Hiccup brings them down, his pulse fast enough he swears he can feel it in his hands. It – okay. Okay, just breathe. Definitely don’t pass out.

“That’s it, we’re dead,” Hiccup manages, hands shaking. Come on. Come on. Breathe.

Toothless growls again.

The other three slowly, bit by bit scale their way down the wall onto the ground.

“How do you keep finding me?” Hiccup manages to get out, voice hitching embarrassingly with hysteria.

“Judith insisted this was the way to come,” Colette supplies, side-eyeing her friend.

“I thought you’d be out here since you were yesterday,” she offers.

“So… you have a pet dragon?” Hannibal asks.

Hiccup doesn’t know what terrifies him the most – that they’re here, that they’re just standing here talking in front of a Night Fury, or that Hannibal asks his question with genuine curiosity instead of anger or disgust or fear like any normal Viking would.

But these three… aren’t Vikings.

“You’re not… upset about this?” Hiccup manages. He’d never even considered they were different when he chose not to tell them. He just assumed that they were the same as everyone.

But they’re… not.

“Why would we be?” the other boy replies.

“I think having a pet one makes a lot more sense than killing them,” Colette shrugs.

“What’s his name?” Judith inquires, taking several steps closer.

Hiccup grips the saddle edge, considering, then slowly climbs off. He doesn’t see a reason to run right now. They’re not a threat. “Toothless,” he answers, stroking the dragon’s neck, who continues eyeing them warily.

“It’s an… interesting name,” Hannibal offers.

“Don’t dragons always have teeth?” Collette asks.

He had the same panicked, confused moment. “I thought he did,” Hiccup explains, “But then he didn’t. And then he did again – I think they’re retractable.”

“Yikes,” Colette says flatly.

Judith shrugs. “I think it’s cool. Hi.” She waves at the dragon, who growls softly, slowly pattering closer to her. “Can I pet him?” she asks softly, looking at Hiccup.

He nods. “Just hold out your hand, and let him come to you,” Hiccup replies. “Don’t look at him.”

Judith slowly extends her hand, slowly turning her head away. Toothless carefully sniffs, slowly edging forwards and pressing his nose to her hand with the same gentleness he did with Hiccup that first evening. It must be his imagination, but he could swear her eyes are silver instead of blue when she looks back at him. Toothless makes a small, quiet noise.

“Maybe we can go flying sometime,” she murmurs softly.

Toothless swivels around to look at Hiccup, which surprises him. Yeah, they’ve known each other for a few days, but he thought if Toothless wanted, he’d jump the chance. But he’s… not.

“I could take you out,” Hiccup offers, “Once I figure out how to get his tail working.”

“What happened to his tail?” she asks softly, a bit sympathetically.

Oh, this is a hard thing to answer. He hates the answer, mostly. He was trying so hard to make his life something that he never thought about what he was doing, and Toothless bore the cost for it. He tries to tell himself at least they have each other for it. But he doesn’t know if his dragon feels the same. It’s really not Hiccup’s choice to make. “I… shot him down. His tail got ripped off when he fell,” Hiccup explains quietly, fidgeting and looking downwards.

Colette winces. “Ouch.”

“And then what happened?” Hannibal asks, “How did…” He waves at the two of them. “This happen?”

Hiccup swallows nervously, remembering that moment in the woods when Toothless’s eyes peeled open and they saw each other for the first time. The sheer terror in his eyes as he laid there helplessly – the most powerful creature in the world. Saying it now, he’s not ashamed of what he did, but he is, because he still turned on their entire way of life. It was wrong. But his dad is going to be so angry. “I… couldn’t kill him,” Hiccup manages instead. “Instead, I… cut him free of the trap. He couldn’t fly away, or fly at all, so I made this.” He motions to the prosthetic.

Judith slowly crouches by the limb, and Hiccup drops to his knee beside her. It was such a pain to get that tail attached. Toothless was so jittery back then. It was… what? Last week? It feels like forever.

“I made it out of leather and wood, a bit of metal,” Hiccup explains. The others are leaning around to see. Not talking, but not ignoring him, and it’s so weird. No one does that. He takes the edge to demonstrate its movement – Toothless is circling around to watch now, too, head circling between Hiccup and Hannibal.

“It folds. Like this.” He demonstrates. “But… he can’t move it on his own. I have to do it manually. He can’t fly without me. Or a – a rider,” he quickly corrects. Toothless grunts quietly, nosing Hiccup’s shoulder. He lifts his hands to scratch the Fury’s neck again.

“He really can’t fly on his own?” Judith asks quietly.

“I’ve tried to think of a way, but… I haven’t figured it out yet.” Truth is, he probably won’t. Gobber lost his leg years ago, and he still walks with a limp. “I’m actually still working on flying at all. When he flies, his tail fins shift positions, and I need to figure out how to move this –” He points at the prosthetic again. “To let him fly without crashing. It shifts positions when he flies to propel and maneuver. But we can’t keep taking off and crashing. We need a way to fly without either of us dropping two hundred feet to the ground.”

“Any ideas?” Hannibal asks.

“I was thinking about tying him to a rock or tree or something and trying to sketch out his tail positions, but… I’d need a rope.” He bites his lip. “I wasn’t sure how to get one without you noticing.”

“We can help cover for you,” Judith promises immediately, like it’s not even something she needs to think about. He doesn’t understand. Why are they helping him? No one does that.

“And be scouts if you need it,” Colette adds.

“Thank you,” Hiccup tells them gratefully. He doesn’t, honestly, have any idea how to repay them. They’re so nice. “You can stay in Berk as long as you want.”

“I want to stay here forever,” the dark-haired girl says. She looks skyward, a smile on her lips. She’s telling the truth – wherever she’s from, she likes it here.

The twins shrug at each other. “I think it’s safer here, anyway,” Hannibal replies.

Colette stands, looking around the little area. Her eyes settle the drawings he and Toothless had made, which will no doubt sit here until it rains, but instead she asks. “What were you doing with that hammer?”

“Oh.” Hiccup laughs. “It turns out dragons like reflecting things. Maybe it’s just lights, I’m not sure. But I’m definitely gonna try that again.”

Tomorrow.

***

Astrid doesn’t usually nose around in other people’s business. She’s got enough to deal with herself, but when it comes to things like this, that these three mysterious visitors suddenly show up on Berk, everyone welcomes them or at least tolerates them, and Hiccup, of all people, starts suddenly winning every training session, she’s angry.

And when they sit down to eat, all the other teens she’s spent every night they come here with just up and over to Hiccup’s table. She glares at their backs, trying to return to her food in frustrated peace and trying to tamp down the urge to axe something in the middle of the great hall when Hannibal slides into the seat across from her.

Half the problem – oh, a fourth of the problem. Astrid lifts her head to glare at him.

“Is it alright if I sit here?” he asks.

No. She wants to kick him out, but she says nothing, and all things considered, she needs answers. Even if everyone else on Berk is willing to let it rest, Astrid isn’t. Not when it’s affecting her so personally. “What’s your goal?” she asks finally.

Hannibal considers it for a moment. “To get home,” he answers flippantly.

Yeah, she’s not buying that. “Maybe you think I haven’t noticed, but ever since you showed up, Hiccup is suddenly winning. I want to know how you’re teaching him this. And why.”

Hannibal blinks. He looks taken aback. He’s a good actor – she’ll give him that. “We’re not doing anything,” he argues.

Astrid scoffs, fists clenching with frustrated anger. “You can tell Hiccup that he’s not going to win the role of top winner.”

“You can tell him yourself,” Hannibal replies smoothly, though there’s a little heat in his dark eyes now.

He’s so good at question dodging. A good liar it is, then. “You think you’re his friend? Hiccup doesn’t have any friends. Until you three show up.” She throws a glare at the others crowding around him right beside her. “And suddenly, everyone wants to be around him.”

“If you’re his friend, shouldn’t you be grateful for him?”

Is he kidding? “He’s not my friend!” she snaps. “He’s clumsy, and he always nearly gets everyone killed every session. That’s the real Hiccup.”

“Then shouldn’t you be glad that he’s finally learning how to fight them, so he won’t nearly get you killed anymore?” Hannibal asks.

The way he twists logic on her is maddening. She thinks about throwing her bowl in his face and walking out.

She doesn’t.

But she doesn’t say anything else, either.

Chapter Text

It turns out, Terrible Terrors at least are very attracted to light. Hiccup’s lucky he escaped that time with everyone crowding in, but somehow, he and the newcomers manage to get safely out to the woods. Hannibal offers to carry the basket of Toothless’s meal for him, which is –

It’s…

So nice. Way too thoughtful.

It doesn’t feel real, and Hiccup is halfway terrified if he looks away, his friends will just disappear. He doesn’t know how to do this. He… doesn’t have friends. He doesn’t really have anyone, and he sees Ruff and Tuff and how they do everything together, and he tries really hard not to be envious. What he wouldn’t do to have that. Someone.

Nearly all Vikings have siblings. He… doesn’t. He can’t, because… his Mom is gone. And that really took down the last chance he’s ever had at a normal life. He really doesn’t know what it means to have these people. Friends. Who just… do things for him, without question. Nobody does that. It’s so…

Oh. Right, they’re going to give Toothless a meal, which means, uh… “Make sure to keep something to eat,” Hiccup warns.

“Why?” asks Collette.

“If Toothless thinks he ate it at all, he’ll spit some back out for you.”

Collette squeaks in disgust.

“I think that shows more sentience than most animals have,” Judith points out. She’s right about that.

“Can any of you draw?” Hiccup asks as a sudden thought occurs to him. If he’s gonna have help, he might as well start getting used to it.

“I’m pretty good at it,” Judith offers.

“Not really,” Hannibal answers.

“I prefer painting,” is Colette’s response – he should think of trying to get something for her. Painting is hard, and rare, but they do have that on Berk.

“I need a sketch of the tail positions,” Hiccup tells them as they walk, “So I can figure out how to move my foot to move his tail prosthetic.”

“I can do it,” Judith offers immediately,

***

The… rope idea works until it breaks, and he and Toothless careen backwards down the hillside, tumbling and rolling. Hiccup muffles a few yelp-shrieks on the way, landing painfully amidst Hannibal and Colette’s warmings.

“That looked painful,” Colette tells him with a wince of sympathy, hurrying to his side.

“Is anything broken?” Hannibal asks, offering a hand to help him to his feet, patting Toothless with his other. The dragon shudders and grumbles in answer.

He tries not to think about the last time someone did that. When it even was. “Nope, I’m great,” Hiccup lies flippantly, brushing himself off, only for the belt still tying him to Toothless to yank sharply. He looks down at the cord connection, trying to yank it free. “Ohh, greaat. I’ll need to take him to the shop to take this off.”

“You mean to take this to the shop?” Colette asks, frowning worriedly.

“Either that, or I’ll have to bring the shop out here.” This is gonna be risky. He’s wracked with nerves even thinking about it. “If it’s at night, and we keep Toothless behind us, he’ll blend right in.”

“I just don’t think this is a very good idea,” Judith worries, passing him the paper back. Hiccup tucks it back under his fur against this notebook.

“Yeah, I think something is going to go wrong but we don’t have much other choice,” Hannibal agrees.

He’s afraid something’s going to go wrong, too.

He’s taking Toothless right into the village and if anyone finds him, they’ll stop at nothing to kill him. He doesn’t want to think about how badly this could go wrong.

He looks around, worried. But while they’re out here… “I should take some dragon nip back with me,” he says, “If we’re put against the Zippleback tomorrow, I won’t be able to reach both heads at once.” Assuming the scratching thing works on Zipplebacks.

“Well, we won’t be able to head back to town until after dark so we have plenty of time,” Judith replies.

They head out through the woods, making their way to the dragon nip field. Toothless perks up eagerly as they approach. Hiccup’s not going to be able to get any closer without Toothless getting affected.

This would be a lot harder without help. It’s so strange to have help.

“I can get it for you,” Colette volunteers right off, and takes off into the field.

Hannibal and Judith exchange a glance and stay at the edge of the field, just watching. There’s something different about the two of them that Hiccup can’t figure out. But the way they react when people mention dragons sometimes seems a bit more… personal than the way Colette does. He’s been wondering for a while now, and there’s really only one guess he has. He knows they’re hiding something, and he respects that after everything they’ve done for him. He won’t push too far. “You knew dragons where you’re from, didn’t you?” he asks finally.

“I did,” Judith replies.

Hannibal looks away, not answering.

He’s kind of curious about it, but it doesn’t look like something they want to talk about. Yeah, definitely personal.

“Is this enough?” Colette calls cheerfully, running back over to them with a handful of the nip.

Hiccup nods, taking it from her.

Toothless leans closer to it, yipping eagerly. He looks so hopeful and Hiccup can’t bring himself to ignore it. “Just until sunset,” he concedes. It’s not as if they have anything else to do out here.

Toothless trots happily into the field and he’s rolling around in the grass within moments. Hiccup gets dragged along for the ride. Oh, fine, not so bad. Really not so bad – owww. At least the grass is soft. “This is actually comfortable,” he decides.

“Comfortable over here too,” Judith calls to him. Her and Hannibal are sitting a short distance from the edge of the field.

They do, in fact, stay in the dragon nip field until about sunset before they start the walk to the village. It’s dark by the time they reach the edge of the woods but the village isn’t fully quiet yet so they settle down a short distance within the edge of the tree line to wait.

Having Toothless this close has him tense and nervous. No one should be around but if someone did see them now…

“I miss my sisters,” Judith speaks up quietly, a distant look of longing in her eyes, “I haven’t thought about them much in a long time but right now… I really do.”

Siblings. Family. Somehow, it’s like everyone but him has one. But still. She lost hers. He can’t imagine that. “Do you want to talk about it?” Hiccup asks.

She sighs quietly. “Probably not right now. We need to focus on helping you two get separated.”

“Now’s a bad time to say this,” Colette interjects cheerfully, “But that sounded like they’re getting divorced.”

Hannibal and Judith laugh.

It’s an awful joke, but even Hiccup can’t help laughing. “Wow,” he supplies with a shrug, “Too early for that.”

Colette stifles a giggle.

The silence that falls over them is strangely comfortable. It’s so strange to have them here, to not have to do this all alone. To just have… other voices.

“I want to go home,” Judith murmurs at last, eyes fixated on the village sprawling in front of them. “But in some ways, it’s… nicer here.”

“How?” Hiccup asks softly. They rarely talk about their past. Whatever it is, he knows it holds something…. dark. Something about dragons that they never speak of. And honestly, he’s curious. They know so much about his life, and he knows nothing of theirs.

“More quiet,” Hannibal offers. “Less complicated.”

“But everything there isn’t all bad,” Judith muses, “We have a lot of technology. It’s hard to even explain.”

“Like what?” he wonders.

“We have machines that fly across the ocean, like metal dragons.” Judith offers. Toothless perks up a little at the word ‘dragons’.

“Except you sit inside of them, not on them,” Colette pipes up.

Yeah, ooookay, he was cool with this until right now. “…That’s the part that scares me.” Hiccup shudders. Yikes. He’s ridden on dragons. But inside? Inside? His eyes slowly move to Toothless, trying to envision the inside of a dragon.

Ugh.

Yuck.

Toothless’s wide, appalled eyes slowly roll back to look at Hiccup’s own.

“And the island we live on isn’t really an island,” Hannibal adds, “It’s big enough for millions of people. And there’s thousands who live in cities, with tall buildings.”

That sounds terrifying. He can hardly keep track of everyone on Berk. “How do you have tribes?” Hiccup objects.

“We don’t,” Colette replies, “Most people don’t even know each other.”

“Yeah,” Judith agrees, “Some do but it’s not really like here.”

That’s why they like it better here. He’s always been alone, always ignored, but everyone here still knows each other. Being in a place of complete strangers would be… even worse. “That sounds lonely,” Hiccup says quietly, “I’ve never fit in as a Viking, but I’m still part of this tribe and I know if something happened, everyone on Berk would protect me.” Or at least some of them would. Because… they’re his tribe. His people. He’s one of them, even if they don’t like him.

It sounds like a nightmare past all the ones Hiccup’s ever known.

He’s still getting over metal dragons.

Yuck.

Do they have eye holes? Like, can people see out of the eyes?

Goodbye, dinner. He’s glad he’s not eating tonight.

“I guess they’re nice in… some ways,” Colette comments, “You know, I still wonder if we’re back in the past or in a different reality entirely.”

He wonders that too. “I can’t imagine a world like the one you’re saying.”

“All I know is that in my time, the Vikings disappeared over a thousand years ago,” she offers.

Disappeared. Like they’re afraid of the dragons destroying them, but gone? Not just Berk. All the people he’s ever known? Just… wiped off the map? “My entire people is gone?” he breathes, flinching. Gone. Gone?

“I don’t think they were gone,” she quickly rephrases, “I think their way of life just changed over the centuries.”

That’s hard to imagine. He doesn’t want to think about it. Vikings are who they are. How could they be any other way? But it also means a world of peace is possible. That’s where the three of them are from. “Did anyone hunt dragons where you’re from?” he wonders.

Hannibal and Judith twitch a little at the comment. “Yes,” Judith replies stiffly, “There was a world war. And the dragons were blamed for it. Most don’t believe dragons exist anymore, but those who do hunt them ruthlessly.”

Not much different than here. “Somehow, dragons get blamed for everything. No one thinks about what we do to them.”

“I suppose it’s natural for people to fear things they don’t understand. Especially when they’re powerful,” Judith replies thoughtfully, but something in her eyes looks almost haunted. He wants to ask but he doesn’t really know how. If it’s something she wanted to talk about, she would.

“I used to be afraid of dragons. I still am, but Toothless made me realize there was a lot I didn’t know about them.” The dragon turns a small smile to him, gently nosing at him. Hiccup rubs his neck.

“I wish other people would see that,” Colette pipes up.

“I know.” He really, really wishes this wouldn’t have to be a secret forever, that they could stop the needless war between them and the dragons. But who would listen to him? Certainly not Stoick.

“Would it make a difference?” she asks, almost as though reading his thoughts, “If you tried talking to someone about it? I mean, I’m sure it wouldn’t, but…”

“I tried to tell me dad, but he wouldn’t listen.” Toothless gently rubs his nose on his shoulder when he sighs again. “I’m an embarrassment to him.”

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Colette objects, frowning.

It never felt fair to Hiccup, either, but it’s just how it is. They’re Vikings. “We’re Vikings,” he replies, “That’s how it is.”

“Because you don’t kill dragons?” Hannibal asks. He’s angry. It’s strange to see, for someone to be angry on Hiccup’s behalf.

“If you ever want to get out there to fight dragons, you need to stop all… this.”

“When you carry this axe, you carry all of us with you. Which means you walk like us, you talk like us, you think like us. No more of… this.”

“But you just gestured to all of me!”

“That’s it. Stop being all of you!”

“Because I’m this,” Hiccup answers with no small measure of bitterness, gesturing at himself. There are so many things he can say to that, things he wants to yell and scream and rage but no one will be here to listen. And – and two days isn’t enough to change it. a scream of years of frustration builds in his throat, but all that comes out is a small, bitter “I’m too small to do what everyone else can.”

“There are many ways to fight. Being small can be an advantage,” Judith objects.

“But I can’t kill anything,” Hiccup argues, “I’m too small. And even if I wasn’t, I couldn’t kill anyway.” He really did try with Toothless. He just couldn’t. And his dragon will be hurt forever because of him. He – he can’t. How can someone hurt another without thought? It’s part of their life, yeah. But it’s still not something Hiccup understands. Even if… he’s just the one who’s incapable of being one of them.

“Where I’m from, people would say that’s a good thing,” Colette says.

The place they’re from is so different. “It’s part of our society. We’re warriors,” Hiccup objects. And he knows it’s what he’s supposed to be. That’s what his Dad told him right before he left. That’s what he’s always told him. If he ever found out what Hiccup’s been doing instead, he… he doesn’t want to think about it.

“Well,” Colette says flatly, “Sometimes, parents just suck.”

“I suppose I can’t blame him,” Hiccup says quietly. Especially not when he thinks back to the little he remembers of his mother. “Gobber lost two of his limbs to them. Many of us have. And… my mother…she was taken by the dragons. They flew away with her one night. We never saw her again. “I don’t remember much of my Dad before, but I know he’s never been the same since.”

“No one would be,” Hannibal agrees solemnly.

He’s never talked about this to anyone before. He never really gets to talk to anyone about anything, but he wants to. “I don’t really remember her. But I remember that she was kind, and… laughed a lot.” And he can’t help wondering what it would have been like if she was still here. If she had been here when he was growing up, like she should have been if not for this conflict.

Colette leans closer abruptly, hugging him. Hiccup freezes, momentarily surprised by the touch, before lifting his arms to hug her back.

Hannibal and Judith crowd in a moment later to join the hug.

When was the last time someone even did this?

He and Stoick have hugged occasionally before, but it was never… Not like this.

Not so real, so free.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Hiccup murmurs finally.

“Me too,” Colette agrees.

“Yeah,” Judith seconds quietly.

Toothless, of course, just adds himself to the pile, dropping himself on top of them, and the moment of solemness is quickly broken into laughter as the dragon gleefully rolls on the ground with them.

By the time they pick themselves up again, it’s dark. Looking out at the village, he can see that’s it quiet now. It should be dark enough for them to go.

That doesn’t stop how scared he is the moment they’re clear of the woods and start walking through the village. The other three run ahead, looking around to make sure no one’s watching or following them before they gesture that it’s safe for him to keep moving. He still doesn’t dare to breathe out a sigh of relief until he and Toothless are safely inside the shop and temporarily out of anyone’s sight.

It’ll be bad enough if he and Toothless get caught. He wishes he didn’t have to drag the other three in, too.

***

Astrid doesn’t normally care what people do. It’s not her business, but when it comes to these three strangers, she has to keep an eye out on them. It’s even weirder that she hasn’t seen them all day.

They didn’t come over to eat in the Watch Tower where she and the other trainers ate, and the three have been following Hiccup everywhere. She doesn’t know who they are or where they’re really from, but that’s what worries her so much.

And when she spots Judith standing right outside the blacksmith shop.

The place where all the weapons are.

Astrid could almost roll her eyes – of course, they snuck here in the middle of the night when they thought no one was watching. Good time to steal weapons. What are they planning?

Astrid walks up to her, and she doesn’t miss the way the other girl stiffens and then straightens when she approaches. She’s very obviously standing guard and that only makes Astrid more suspicious. She can hear something inside the shop. Not the normal hammering, but definitely movement, which is a sign enough someone’s in there.

Honestly, right now, she doesn’t care if Hiccup’s in there.

She doesn’t trust them.

Or him.

“Okay,” she says flatly, hand on her hip. “Normally, I don’t care what people do, but you guys are acting weird. And since you’re here, I assume the other to aren’t far behind.”

“Not this time,” Judith replies flippantly.

“Then what’s all that pounding inside?” Astrid demands bluntly. If these people are a threat to Berk, she’s getting answers now. She’s tired of the waiting, all the lying.

“Have you ever tried to kill a dragon with magic before?” Judith asks.

Astrid’s eyes narrow. “Dragons don’t have magic.” She’s obviously trying to deflect attention.

“The best way to kill them would be with a weapon that’s also magical,” Judith offers.

“I don’t care,” Astrid retorts, “Unless you’re saying that you’re gutting dragons in there.”

“I mean, it makes sense, right?” Judith says, “You’d need a type of weapon a lot fancier if you were going to fight more powerful dragons.”

Enough of this nonsense. Astrid shoves past her, heading for the door.

“Because otherwise, what would you do if you did run into one?” Judith calls after her, voice rising.

The sounds on the other side of the door have stopped, but there’s still people in there.

Astrid throws the doors open, scanning the shop. She thinks she hears a door closing, but it’s too dark to see. Still, in the shadows of the outside torchlight, she sees the silhouettes of Hannibal and Colette standing in the shadows.

They’re definitely hiding something. Judith was lying again about how they weren’t here when they very obviously are.

“What are you doing in here?” she demands, looking between them. She doesn’t see any visible weapons on them but they could have been hiding, or assessing. Not stealing weapons, [probably, but still assessing Berk’s capability of making them.

“Late night walk around the village,” Collete replies, shrugging, “Is something wrong?”

“A late night walk to the weapon’s shop?” she demands, eyes narrowed.

“I’ve never seen a blacksmith’s shop before,” she defends.

Right. As though any village anywhere could survive without one. “What do you want with Hiccup?” she demands.

“He’s our friend,” Colette replies, “We don’t want anything with him.”

She totally believes that. “Is he your friend or your pawn?”

“Definitely friend,” Hannibal speaks up.

“What were you really doing here?” she presses again, even if she’s fairly certain by now that they’re just going to keep dodging the question.

“She already told you,” Hannibal replies. He looks around. “And it’s late. We should be getting back.”

She steps aside to let them pass but follows them out the door. They look to be heading for Hiccup’s house, but she follows them from a distance most of the way back, just to make sure.

It’s a nice blow in their cover, and since the Chief is away, she’s taking her issues to Gobber. Something needs to be done about it. Whatever plan they’ve got, it includes Hiccup, and she’s not letting it run to complete.

She needs to tell Gobber first thing in the morning.

***

Hiccup takes Toothless back to his cave, making sure he’s okay before he runs back to his house. Hannibal, Colette, and Judith are all awake and waiting for him. They look worried. “What happened?” Hiccup asks.

“Astrid’s suspicious,” Judith says, shrugging.

She might not be worried, but Hiccup is. He knows how dangerous that could be for them. He knows what it must have looked like. He doesn’t want to make all of Berk suspicious of them, just because they were trying to help him. And there’s no telling what will happen now. “I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” he tells them quietly.

“Technically,” Colette offers, “We’re the ones who decided to stalk you.”

“And we don’t regret helping you with Toothless,” Hannibal promises.

He doesn’t understand why they’re trying so hard to help. They don’t have to, but they’re still… choosing too. “Thank you,” Hiccup murmurs.

“We need to figure out what we’re going to say about where we’re from,” Judith says seriously, “I’ve been thinking about something to say but… I don’t know what’s best.”

“Maybe it would help if we said we were shipwrecked, instead of the truth,” Colette offers, “I mean, at least that makes sense.”

Except that people have already heard the other story and there’s no evidence of a shipwreck anyway. “I don’t think lying will get you out of this,” Hiccup objects.

“Probably not,” Colette agrees, deflating.

“Yeah,” Hannibal agrees, “I think that might just make things messier, especially if we got caught in a lie.”

“There’s really two options,” Hiccup says, mind whirling, “Either you maintain you don’t know how you got here or you say that you were sent here by the gods.” When he thinks about the flash in the woods, it’s like how the Bifrost is described so he really has to wonder too. There were brought here for some reason. It didn’t just happen.

“Oh,” Judith says, “I… didn’t forgot you were probably religious.”

“Aren’t you?” Hiccup asks. Everyone worships something. He never actually thought about whether they worshipped something… different.

“I don’t worship anything,” Judith says and she sounds so flippant about it.

Honestly.

Yikes.

How is that even possible? Not that it’s his concern, what they do or don’t believe, but still.

“I don’t know what I believe,” Colette says.

“That’s fine,” Hiccup offers, “As long as you don’t make Thor angry at you.”

The three of them sort of exchange a glance at the name but he can’t really tell what they’re thinking.

“I suppose we could say we had a meeting with the gods and they sent us here for something,” Hannibal suggests.

“Did you have a meeting with the gods?” Hiccup asks, just to make sure.

“No,” Colette is hasty to tell him.

He’s almost disappointed. He’ll have to think of something fast. Stoick is not just going to accept his word for it. “I just hope my dad is okay with you being here.” If not, they’re going to be in so much trouble.

“Hopefully,” Hannibal agrees solemnly.

“Yeah,” Colette says, looking worried, “And we still need to figure out an explanation for what we were doing at the blacksmith’s shop.”

“If anyone asks again, you can tell them I dropped my knife and you were there looking for it,” Hiccup offers. It’s the best excuse he can think of, that hopefully someone will buy.

“It sounds like a good excuse to me,” Colete offers.

They leave it at that, but the tension in the air doesn’t fade. 

Chapter Text

When a knock comes on the door, Hiccup already knows, with sinking suspicion, who it is. Not good, but of course Astrid spread the news. She really does have every right to be wary of them, so he can’t blame her for it, but it’s… going to drag his friends in trouble. The first ones he’s ever truly had.

“Just stay out of sight and let me handle this,” Hiccup advises. The other three quickly duck out of sight back into his father’s room as Hiccup swings the door open to Gobber’s familiar knocking. “Hi, Gobber!” he greets cheerfully with a smile and wave.

“There was an incident last night,” Gobber begins.

“At the weapons’ shop? They told me,” Hiccup quickly says – he already knows that’s what his friend is about to say. “I lost my knife, and they were going to find it for me. Or, you know, try to, because we actually didn’t find it.”

Nobody needs to know that he threw it into a lake for Toothless a week ago.

“You trust them in by weapons?”

“I know we can trust them. I promise.” He says it without even a thought – Hiccup knows them well enough. They told him the truth, even if he can’t tell it to anyone else. They’re the first people he really does trust.

“I know they’re your friends, but we don’t need to be prepared for a different threat,” Gobber warns.

“I know they aren’t,” he insists.

“Let’s hope not,” Gobber replies, patting his shoulder with his hook hand. It’s a little sharp and pokey, but considering he’s taken the trip all the way here because he’s worried about Hiccup – even unwarranted – he’ll take it gratefully. “Berk’s not gonna be the only one hurt if they aren’t. Training’s in an hour. See you there.”

“That went better than expected,” Hiccup breathes, sighing with relief when he shuts the door.

“Definitely,” Hannibal agrees wholeheartedly. But, as they quickly learn, whatever Astrid said, the damage is done. Walking through back to the arena is hard. They have eyes everywhere. There are very few people who aren’t looking at them. Hiccup gives up counting those who are, and starts counting the ones that aren’t.

It’s…. well, not great.

He tries to duck into the arena after the others when a hand grabs his tunic, yanking him back. That’s familiar, and Hiccup groans, mentally resigning himself to the beating-to-be. If he can wiggle himself into only a few insults, he’s doing good.

“Normally, I don’t care what people do,” Astrid says, face pinched in a tight scowl. “But your friends are acting weird. And don’t tell me it’s not my business when it’s about the fate of all of Berk.”

“Oh, come on,” Hiccup mutters, irritated, “They didn’t tell you? We were trying to find my knife, that’s all.”

“I know they’re teaching you whatever it is,” Astrid snaps, poking a finger at his chest. One wrong move, and she is definitely going to hit him. “I already know whatever I ask, you’re going to lie, and I’m sick of this. They can say what they want to you, but you aren’t making this win.”

Astrid thinks they are teaching him how to defeat dragons? Well, it’s – it’s a good reasonable assumption. Even if it’s totally false. Still, Hiccup shrugs. “Okay. Sure.”

Astrid doesn’t break her glower, but Gobber’s voice finally breaks it up.  “Lesson starting!” he calls from inside.

Hiccup takes that as a good chance to break away from Astrid and flee to the safety of indoors. She won’t hit him in public.

“Since someone so helpfully pointed out the one thing you all need to learn is still teamwork, here we are. Back to the Hideous Zippleback. Hiccup, you’re with Ruffnut.” Seriously?” “Astrid, you’re with Tuffnut. Fishlegs, Snotlout, team up.” Gobber yanks the bar down, the hatch lifts, and out comes the Zippleback.

Well… he’s got two options. And everyone knows he – “Hiccup can’t throw a bucket,” Snotlout points out loudly, right on cue.

He can’t, but he’s gonna try something else. He needs to know if this works. He doesn’t know if the water thing would hurt the dragon.

“Cool, we’re… on the same team,” Hiccup offers, looking up at the blonde. “And it’s teamwork, so… I guess I’m gonna need your help. You gonna offer?” She will, because he’s suddenly the center of everyone’s attention with how he’s had such a long dragon-defeating streak.

Ruffnut grins. “Only if it’s fun.”

“It’s gonna be fun.” He pulls half the dragon nip form beneath his furs. “Hold this in its face when it gets close.”

“Really? What will it do, blow it up?”

He tries not to wince at the thought. “Let’s try it and see.”

“Ohhhh.”

The dragon once again goes after Tuffnut’s team first. Astrid throws her bucket over the wrong head, and a puff of gas sends her scrambling backwards. Tuff stops to laugh at her until the second dragon head emerges from the steam and chomps him up, mouth closing over him halfway.

“Oh, I’m hurt!” Tuff shrieks, flailing, mouth no doubt full of dragon slobber. Eww. “I am very much hurt!” The dragon regurgitates him right as Hiccup is about to jump it and try the scratching-thing. It throws Tuffnut across the arena and into the wall. “Somebody do something!”

Ruffnut gleefully flings her water bucket over his head, cackling.

“Hey!” he yells, flapping his arms.

“Uh, you were supposed to use that for the dragon,” Fishlegs worries.

“I have this!” Ruffnut proclaims gleefully, displaying the dragon nip. Hiccup would facepalm if he had a free hand too.

“What’s that? A good luck charm?” Snotlout asks, instantly on board.

The dragon’s heads swivel towards him and Ruffnut, scuttling towards them. Hiccup carefully holds out the nip, while Ruffnut gleefully holds it out. “Explode, dragon!” she orders, rubbing the grass in the dragon’s face.

The Zippleback, sure enough, skids to a halt, purring.

Ruffnut gapes at it. “No explosions? Oh… well this is actually pretty cool, too!” She smears the grass all over the poor creature’s head as it flops and rolls on the ground. “Ohhhh, this is actually much better!”

Hiccup doesn’t miss Astrid’s glare. “What?” he protests, “I didn’t win!”

“How did you do that?!” Tuffnut demands, picking himself up.

“I told you, it’s a good luck charm,” Ruffnut smirks.

“Let me see that,” demands Snotlout.

“Nope. Only mine,” she insists and runs for her life. Tuffnut runs after. Snotlout follows, and after a moment, Fishlegs does to.

Gobber groans as he tries wrestling the dragon back into its cage. “Why is there a burned eel in here?” Hiccup hears him yelling somewhere far behind as he disappears into the crowd. Yep, time to run.

That was definitely not his fault.

He doesn’t get far through the crowd when Hannibal and Judith catch up. “Well, that was something,” Hannibal tells him with a light laugh. “Ruffnut? Never guessed.”

“She did it pretty good,” he shrugs.

Judith’s frowning, scanning the crowd, and Hiccup catches on a second later, alarm flickering up. “Where’s Colette?”

“I don’t know. I thought she was right behind us,” Judith replies, “I thought she got separated and would catch up, but I don’t think she’s nearby.”

His gut plummets. “Astrid,” Hiccup realizes, and they run.

***

Colette’s trying to slip through the crowd to catch up with Hiccup when a hand grabs her arm. She turns to see it’s Astrid, who pulls her aside from the people leaving the arena.

“How do you keep doing this?” Astrid demands sharply.

Her againnnn?

Colette really, really doesn’t want to deal with this and she doesn’t think she’s overly good at lying which really isn’t helping their situation. “I didn’t do anything,” she whines, contemplating taking off, but that probably wouldn’t help much right now.

“Stop lying,” she snaps back, “Are you the one who taught them how to do that?”

“Why don’t you ask Ruff what she did?” Colette throws back. Playing stupid’s probably best anyway.

“What’s your goal?” she presses, “I know you have something to do with this.”

“I wouldn’t know how to teach him to defeat a dragon even if I wanted too and I’m not a grassolist,” she sasses back. If Astrid’s gonna be annoying, she’s gonna be annoying back.

“Is Hiccup training you?” she asks, ignoring the made up word entirely, “Is that what you spend all day doing?”

Is she serious?

He hasn’t once defeated a dragon with a weapon and Astrid thinks he’d be training her how to fight with one? “I couldn’t hold a weapon even if I tried,” Colette protests. Which she has but she thinks she’d be really reallyyyy bad at it.

“Exactly,” Astrid retorts, “Ever since you showed up, Hiccup’s been constantly winning. What do you get out of seeing him win?”

Why does she need to get something out of it? Other than seeing him happier than he seemed to be when they first showed up? And less ignored? Though, she’s still not very happy that the others are only paying attention to him now, once he’s defeating dragons.

“Maybe I just want to see him win because he’s my friend,” Colette shoots back.

“Hiccup doesn’t have friends.”

And that couldn’t change because why? She’s actually getting reallyyy tired of how it feels like everyone’s of the belief that Hiccup’s never going to have friends because they aren’t interested in being friends with him. “I guess you learn something new every day.”

“I’m tired of all these lies,” Astrid snaps.

“Maybe it would make more sense to you if you didn’t have a stick up your back end.”

She doesn’t see the fist coming fast enough to duck – which was actually really dumb, looking back.

Astrid punches her in the nose. She thinks she hears something crunching, but she’s not sure.

Owww.

All she knows is oww.

“Hey,” Gobber’s voice calls and Astrid stills. “What’s going on here?”

“Astrid hit me because she’s jealous of Hiccup,” Colette says loudly.

“I’m tired of all these lies,” Astrid complains.

“If you have a problem with Colette, you take it to me or to Hiccup,” Gobber replies firmly.  She can’t help a small flare of gratitude. Gobber’s… well, a bit weird but he’s also about the nicest adult she’s run into.

He leads Astrid away who’s still arguing with him and Colette is hasty to start stumbling off. Her nose is still bleeding. Ugh. And it hurts.

She doesn’t know if it’s broken or just bruised but oww.

“What happened to you?” Hannibal asks, abruptly appearing next to her, Judith and Hiccup close behind.

“I guess I made Astrid angry?” Colette offers. She still doesn’t feel bad about that – it was kind of worth it.

Hiccup’s face is unreadable. He comes over, taking her arm. He doesn’t say anything the rest of the walk back to his house.

Once he’s back, he goes to get her some ice and Judith volunteers to help in fixing her nose.

Which apparently was broken. But it feels a little better after being pushed back into place. A little.

Hiccup’s hovering close by, still quiet. “I’m sorry got you dragged into this,” he says finally.

“Technically,” Colette corrects, trying to be cheerful, “Your gods did that.” Because it certainly wasn't his fault.

Judith laughs and the other two crack up too, even if it fades quickly on Hiccup. He’s still upset about the whole thing, she can tell.

“Besides, it’s not your fault Astrid is suspicious of us,” Hannibal agrees.

“But we do need to do something about her,” Judith says, arms crossed.

“Well,” Colette offers, “We could punch her back but that probably wouldn’t help deescalate.” And she kind of wants to hit her back but fighting isn’t really her thing. And they don’t need to make this worse. Even if she’s still sore. Literally.

“It wouldn’t help solve anything, no,” Hiccup agrees, subdued.

“I don’t think there’s much we can do right now,” Hannibal points out.

“Then we probably should pay Toothless a visit now?” Colette advises, looking between the others.

Hiccup nods.

“You up for a long walk?” Hannibal asks.

“My nose doesn’t affect my toes,” Colette replies cheerily, as much as she can manage.

“Let’s go,” Hiccup advises.

***

Tail fin positions are… very, very hard. Hiccup guessed that already. Still managed to nearly kill them at least three times on the flight, but it was a successful flight.

And he feels better. Flying is free. Terrifying, thrilling, but free.

Even if he can’t get his mind off what happened with Astrid. She hit Colette. She’s not a fighter. Everyone knows that. Hiccup’s heaviest bet is the girl’s never held a weapon in her hands except butter knives. She’s not scared of them, but she’s not fond of them.

Yeah, Astrid’s got a right to be angry at him, and suspicious of them.

But he somehow never, never thought she’d hit Colette.

Hiccup knows what he wanted.

He also knows it’s impossible.

Astrid is… Astrid. She’s a Viking, through and through. A warrior. Hiccup isn’t. His friends have shown him there is a different way, a way that he wants for himself. He doesn’t want to be a Viking. Not if it means this.

He wants his friends. Forever.

And if Astrid is going to hit Colette, well… that’s not something Hiccup is willing to forgive. Not if she hurts and threatens his friends. He’s gotta keep them safe. All of them. He saw her briefly in the forest earlier, and that’s not a good thing, either. She’s still angry, and she’s not letting this go.

And… Toothless. Especially Toothless. He has a choice of another rider. Hiccup’s got the most experience, but what does Toothless want? He doesn’t know how to ask.

He just knows that he crash-lands, pretty scorched and a bit shaken, but also finally relieved. They went flying together. And it was amazing. It’s pretty late in the day when he flies back, the sun slowly sinking and the sunlight turning orange.

And, of course, the other three are waiting, waving and crowding in as soon as he gets there. It’s so good to have friends. To have someone. Where he was cold and empty is vibrant with bright life.

“What happened to you?” Hannibal and Colette ask at once, then look at each other and laugh despite their worry. Colette’s face is still swollen and bruised from the punch, despite the ice Hiccup tried to keep on it. He tries not to wince when he sees her, guilt swelling up. He’d been so busy dodging Astrid himself he never thought about her.

How long is it gonna be before she gets one of them in serious danger?

“I dropped my cheat sheet somewhere in the woods,” Hiccup offers by way of explanation. He’s not making Toothless feel bad about the explosion thing. “Maybe I can take you flying next time.” Now that he knows what to do, it should be easier.

Maybe?

“Could you?” Colette looks hopeful about it. He is, too. It sounds nice – to get to go flying with his friends. But there’s only one problem.

“I don’t think Toothless could carry all of us at once, but he… probably could hold at least two.”

“Oh. Here, we found this,” Hannibal adds, tipping over another – partially full, but still a basket of fish. He’s gonna hope nobody misses those.

Hiccup stiffens at the sudden distant dragon screech, looking up to see a cloud of dragons approaching. Toothless snarls, paws over his pile of fish as the other little dragons land around them, chattering and trying to get to the food.

“Everyone, guard their noses,” Colette warns, and Hanibal snorts.

One of them tries to snatch a fish, and Toothless grabs it, yanking it away and swallowing it. He laughs as the Terror scowls fiercely at him. It pulls back, trying to blast him. Toothless fires a blast of his own just as it opens his mouth. The Terror topples to the ground, whining, body smoking.

Hiccup winces in sympathy. “Not so fireproof on the inside, are you?” he murmurs.

Hannibal leans forwards, offering it the remains of his own fish meal. The Terror snatches it up and scurries over to him. Hannibal picks it up, carefully, and the small dragon curls up in his lap, purring softly. Like a cat. His friend absently strokes it’s head as Hiccup watches.

Everything they know about dragons is wrong.

***

“I think something’s wrong,” cautions Judith as they head back for Hiccup’s house. They’ve been gone all day, but… he can’t deny something feels off. Well, Berk looks fine, and maybe it’s just that everything is too fine. That calm never lasts.

He doesn’t know how she knows, but he’s not discounting Judith’s insight, either. Between risk of a dragon attack, enemies attacking, or someone finding out about Toothless, or just trying to hurt his friends, he knows they’ve got good reason to be jittery. “Maybe you should stay in my room tonight.”

“Maybe,” Colette agrees.

Hiccup carefully looks around the house, but everything looks normal despite the almost odd quietness. They head back inside, settling in. Still odd to have friends over.

“Do you have any extra paper?” asks Hannibal.

“Sure.” Hiccup passes him some, watching as he sketches up a list of the things they’ve learned about dragons. Mostly Terrible Terrors, but Night Furies, too. Hiccup still wonders if Toothless is different. He thinks he did, until the moment he saw the Terror curled so calmly in Hannibal’s arms. No, they’re… they’re all different.

Mostly, they’re cute.

Anyone would think they were insane if they saw the list, but the four of them are laughing over it when the sudden sound of the door opening cuts through the chaos.

Hiccup is on his feet in a second, sweeping the papers behind him as fast as he can without looking too suspicious. Hannibal quickly hands his own page over, and Hiccup adds it to the pile, turning around to see none other than Stoick the Vast towering in the doorway.

For a moment, his brain shorts out.

He did not want to be caught off-guard. No wonder something seemed off. Is he gonna be angry Hiccup wasn’t there at the dock? He should have been. He was just out with Toothless, and… He’s in so much trouble. “Dad!” Hiccup fumbles out, “You’re back!” He trails off, at a loss for words, fingers drumming the table.

“I know. I was looking for you.”

Hiccup blinks. “You were?”

“And them,” Stoick replies, gesturing towards the three gathered behind him. “These are the…  travelers I was hearing about?” He heard about them? That’s not good. Astrid’s doing, probably. Or Gobber through Astrid. Either way, bad.

“Hi?” Colette offers uncertainly.

“Nice to meet you,” Judith nods. Hannibal’s eyes dart between then. He nods a little, but says nothing, though his tension is tangible.

“Dad, these are Hannibal, Judith, and Colette,” Hiccup introduces, gesturing to each of them in turn. “They came to Berk, like, right after you left.”

“Where are they from?” Stoick’s eyes are sharp and narrow. Hiccup tries to slow his wildly beating heart.

“They – they’re from far away,” he answers, “Like really far away – but it doesn’t matter. The gods sent them here.”

Stoick slowly looks back at them.

“No, I mean really,” Hiccup tries, though why is he bothering? His dad never listens. “You should have seen. They just appeared in a flash of light. I know. I was there.” He’s not buying this. “You can trust them, I promise,” he tries adding.

“Until we can confirm where they’re really from we can’t have them wandering free,” Stick replies. “Spying on us.”

“We were with Hiccup this whole time. We weren’t wandering free,” Judith argues.

“I don’t consent to being locked up unless you tell me how you’re going to confirm where we’re from,” Hannibal objects.

Hiccup looks between them, mind whirling and screaming with denial. He knew his dad would be suspicious but imprisoning them?! “Dad, you can’t do that! They’re my friends.” He’s panicking now, trying to put himself between them. He should have told them to run. Something. Anything. Take Toothless and go. At least they could all be safe.

“The safety of Berk comes first, son.”

No, this isn’t happening. “Dad, no!” Hiccup yells.

Stoick shoves him.

He hits the wall somewhere, halfway down to the floor, grunting at the sharp contact and trying to pick himself back up. When he lifts his head, panic coursing through him, Stoick is already dragging Judith for the room. Colette looks miserable, and Hannibal is just… vaguely annoyed. It’s unnerving how calm he is when Hiccup is terrified to the point of tears.

Outside, Gobber, Spitelout, and a group of over Vikings are herding the trio away.

“If you ever need our help, we’ll be there,” Judith calls over her shoulder as she’s lead away.

“I’m not the one who needs help,” Hiccup protests frantically. He watches them go, the first friends he’s ever had, completely helpless to stop this. Oh, gods, what does he do? “Dad, you can’t do this!” It must be insanity spiking up, because he tries to follow.

Stoick drags him back by the back of his shirt. “I didn’t just come here for them. I came here for you.”

What, you’re locking me in a cage, too? Hiccup’s mind wants to snark, but he says nothing, chest heaving with nothing but raw panic.

“You've been keeping secrets.”

Oh, here they go. Dead. He is so dead. “I… have?”

“Just how long did you think you could hide it from me?”

He doesn’t get it, and all Hiccup can do is fumble over it, trying to cover it up. Did Astrid say something? How…? “I don't know what you’re –”

“Nothing happens on this island without me hearing about it.”

“Oh?” he squeaks.

“So… let’s talk about that dragon.”

He sags. Toothless. “Oh, gods. Dad, I’m so sorry – I was going to tell you. I just didn’t know how to—” His panic tirade is cut short when Stoick laughs. Like there’s something funny about all this, and Hiccup just wants to cry and is fairly certain he’s about to pass out.

And his Dad is laughing?

He thought he was going to get stabbed.

Or – or something.

“You’re not upset?” Hiccup dares manage finally.

“What?! I was hoping for this!”

They are not on the same page. “Uh... you were?”

“And believe me, it only gets better! Just wait 'till you spill a Nadder's guts for the first time! And mount your first Gronckle head on a spear! What a feeling!”

Yeah, not the first he’s hit Hiccup in overexcitement, but it still hurts and leaves him overly frustrated when Stoick shoves him backwards, leaving him struggling to get off the stupid chair again. Also, oww. His ribs ache.

“You really had me going there, son. All those years of the worst Viking Berk has ever seen! Odin, it was rough! I almost gave up on you, and all the while, you were holding out on me! With you doing so well in the ring, we finally have something to talk about.”

What the – oh. Ughhh. He wants to run. He really, really wants to run. Stoick wanted to talk to him because, and only because he heard that Hiccup was defeating the dragons in the ring? Of course. Of course, that’s it.

Hannibal, Judith, Colette, Toothless – none of them matter to him.

Hiccup doesn’t really matter.

He says nothing.

“You still locked up the first friends I ever had,” Hiccup manages to supply at last.

“They’re not important, Hiccup. Berk is your future, not them.”

He wants to scream. This really changes nothing. Hannibal, Judith, and Colette are still locked up and he still can’t talk. He still can’t anything because all that matters is killing dragons. Hiccup says nothing.

“I brought you something,” Stoick says after a long moment where he finally realizes that this time, it’s Hiccup who has nothing to say. He’s tired of talking when he’s never heard. He gets the point now. That it can be different. That it should be – it is with them.

He doesn’t know what he expected, but a Viking helmet definitely wasn’t it. Hiccup’s wanted one of these, but he never really felt like one. It would mean more half an hour ago. “Thanks,” he says anyway, tonelessly, taking the helmet. It’s beautiful. It still looks like it’s mocking him.

“Your mother would've wanted you to have it. It's half of her breast plate.” Hiccup’s hands panickily freeze over the top of the helmet. “Matching set. Keeps her close, y'know?” Yeah. This… was his mothers. It was reshaped, maybe, probably made today, shaped like Stoick’s.

It makes him want to cry.

His dad and Gobber made this for him. It’s his mother’s.

But Hiccup really isn’t a Viking.

“Wear it proudly. You deserve it. You've held up your end of the deal.”

He could never. Not anymore. He needs to get out of here. So he… fake-yawns and stretches dramatically, mumbling a “I should get to bed”, grabs his papers, and run.

Stoick buys it – as usual.

When he curls in bed, the helmet sitting next to him, he tries not to think about how his friends promised to be in here tonight.