Midnight Hunt

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"Remind me again - why did I agree to this?"

Snotlout clutched his too-long coat closer to his wide chest. He stepped from one foot to the other, trying to warm himself up. The attempts turned out fruitless in the face of the traditional autumn freeze up in the city of Berk. His feet and fingers had long since gone numb, even as he shoved his hands inside his father's oversized coat. The scratchy material smelled strongly of his usual perfume, filling Snotlout's nose with Eau de Voyage he knew and hated so much.

The roads were empty at that hour of the night and all the lights in the shabby town houses had long since been turned off. The people of Berk attached much importance to being well-rested and town fell completely silent by a certain hour. Snotlout sighed dramatically, terrible feeling of loss hitting him at the thought of his comfortable, warm bed, waiting for him in the small apartment he and his friend shared. Snotlout valued his sleep, a lot, and he would most definitely be snuggled into his linty comforter, his mind miles away by now– oh, how he wished he could do that – but for his dear cousin who burst into his room at an ungodly hour and pulled him out into the freezing night.

The few street lanterns that stayed on provided little to no help when navigating the abandoned streets of his hometown. Having grown up here, he knew Berk like the back of his hand yet with the sun long since gone, the town transformed into something new and foreign in a way. The edges of the tall buildings became smudgy, endless street melted with the night sky and the dark void from the alleys on the sides caused something fairly unknown to stir up in his chest. It was not the same Berk anymore, not with the darkness that covered and loomed over the unfamiliar silence.

"Because you're the best cousin ever?" Hiccup replied from his crouching position, not looking up from the map of Berk he clutched in his hands. He used a torch of his own invention to shed some more light on the piece of old parchment.

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Snotlout rolled his eyes and directed his own, much simpler, flashlight towards one of the dark alleys. The unknown that seemed to be hiding in the utter darkness between the local bakery and a clothes' shop made him slightly uneasy. (Definitely not scared, Snotlout almost snorted out loud at the stupid thought – Jorgensons simply didn't get scared.)

"Mhm," Hiccup hummed to himself. In the dim light of his torch Snotlout could see the growing smirk on his cousin's face.

Thump.

"What was that?" The shorter of two cousins looked around apprehensively, flashing the torch around. Hiccup shielded his eyes with his free hand when the stream of light flitted over his face.

"Probably a rat or something," He folded up the map and stood up, dusting off his trousers. He tipped Snotlout's flashlight to the side, wincing at the bright light, and patted the shorter of the two on the back. "Ease up, Snot."

"Ease up? I don't- Hey, where are you going?" Snotlout shouted when he saw his cousin already a few feet away. He growled under his breath and trotted to catch up to Hiccup, his frozen muscles screaming in protest. The tall man was casually strolling down the street, flashing his torch to the sides from time to time. Snotlout shoved him in the arm.

"Ow – what was that for?" Hiccup's hand went to rub his arm as he looked down at his cousin.

"Oh, I don't know…" He pretended to ponder on that for a moment, rubbing his non-existent beard. (Not like he couldn't grow one, he most definitely could, he just… chose not to. He was too much of a competition for other guys already, no need to make it any harder for them.) Snotlout shuddered at the cold air, hugging himself and the coat. "Maybe…because you've left me there?!"

Hiccup paused and clamped a hand over his cousin's mouth as he looked around apprehensively.

"Shhhh, pipe down, would you… We don't exactly want people to know we're here, do we?" His shoulders relaxed as he kept his hand over Snotlout's mouth and continued. "Besides, there's nothing to be afraid of."

Knowing he struck the chord with this one, Hiccup chuckled to himself. Snotlout took the chance and licked the inner side of his cousin's hand. He grinned, satisfied, once the taller of the two jumped and pulled away in disgust.

"Eww, what in Thor's name?!" Hiccup began to energetically wipe his hand into his coat. Green, unamused eyes shot up to meet Snotlout's blue ones. "What are you? Five?"

"Who's being loud now, huh?"

Hiccup growled under his breath, still trying to clean his hand as much as possible. His flashlight dangled from the strip tied around his wrist and the unstable light flickered between the buildings and the pavement. A rat rushed right under their feet and Snotlout yelped, drawing his hands closer to his chest. The animal disappeared in a dark alley on the side with a faint sound of something falling to the ground. Hiccup didn't seem to have noticed, too busy with adjusting his torch again.

"You're unbelievable, you know that, right?" Hiccup muttered as he briefly glanced at his cousin, something between a smirk and a grimace crossing his face. Snotlout snorted, his tense muscles easing up as the noises from the alley quietened. The dark clouds revealed the moon for a short moment, enfolding the streets and houses of Berk in cold, pale light. Hiccup turned off his torch, though Snotlout kept his on, gripping it tightly in his hand. He saw his cousin fishing out the map again as he moved further down the street.

"So," Snotlout inquired, trying to steal a glance at the map. "where to now, Dragon Master?"

"That's the only place I can think of," Ignoring the nickname given him, Hiccup pointed to a small building a few blocks away. Quirking an eyebrow, Snotlout read the roughly written caption underneath.

"If you get arrested again – I'm not bailing you out," Hiccup rolled his eyes and shoved the old piece of parchment into his cousin's hands.

"First of all, I'm not going to get arrested, Snotlout," He turned away to tinker with the strap of his old leather bag, his voice slightly muffled. Once he was done, he took the map back with a shrug. "And, second of all, how could I have known that baby Nadder was going to set that building on fire?"

"Common sense?" Snotlout only shrugged when Hiccup shot a glare his way. Enjoying his cousin's obvious frustration, he let himself relax more. Teasing Hiccup like that was familiar, he liked familiar. "You know Astrid is going to flip when she hears about that, right?"

"This is precisely why," He reached to scratch his scruffy chin the way he always did when he was nervous. "Astrid is not going to find out about it."

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Thick clouds covered the moon and Berk plunged into chilling darkness once more, leaving Snotlout glancing to the sides and behind him ever so often. A bedraggled rat or two zoomed past them and he had to fight the urge to kick them away. Lone lanterns stood tall by the raddled pavement, one of them flickering and buzzing continuously, as if it couldn't decide whether to work properly or not. The flashing light fell upon their destination.

Hiccup flipped on his torch and lit up the building before them. Letters from black metal gleamed in the darkness, familiar header of "Gobber's forge" now visible. Snotlout looked around and felt his heart surge to his throat once he spotted a pair of gleaming eyes staring right at him from one of the alleys. Once he blinked, the terrifying peepers were gone, though the unsettling feeling in his chest remained.

"Um, H-Hiccup, Smothering Smokebreaths are dragons that tend to travel in pack. There's a chance he came back while we were away," Snotlout paused. He saw their building, the Dragon's Edge as they liked to call it, at the end of the street, one of the windows bright with blinding light compared to the rest of the town house. Probably the twins. He noticed Hiccup looking at him with an unreadable expression on his face. Snotlout decided to ignore it, finding his chopped nails much more interesting. " Y'know… I'll better check it.

Just as he was about walk away, Hiccup took a hold of the collar of Snotlout's coat and pulled him back roughly.

"Oh, no, you don't. I need you." Snotlout huffed and slapped Hiccup's hand away, eyes worriedly flickering to the dark alley. His cousin placed his hands on his hips and eyed the building before him. "I have a feeling he's here."

Hiccup's hunch, as it turned out, was justified as a crashing sound came from the store. The two cousins glanced at each other quickly before rushing to the heavy glass door with a noticeably-sized hole separating them from the thing they came for. Hiccup, squinting his eyes, pressed his face to the doorframe and saw a lone Smothering Smokebreath sitting on a pile of metal tools, numerous objects strewn on the floor. Gobber's desk was tipped to the side and loose sheets of paper flew around the room in chaos.

"Oh, boy," he muttered as he gently pushed the door. It opened with a loud creak, noisily moving over the shattered glass and strewn objects on the floor. The small dragon flapped his wings impatiently once Hiccup got inside, the creature's long tail circling the pile protectively. Broken glass crunched under Snotlout's heavy boots. The Smothering Smokebreath hissed, a stream of dark mist coming from the dragon's grey skin. Hiccup held out a hand behind him. "Close the door, Snotlout."

He did as he was asked and slowly moved closer to his cousin, feeling the creature's eyes on him. He noticed the change of Hiccup's facial expression as his eyebrows lowered and eyes narrowed. His hand fished for something in his bag carefully.

"What now?" Snotlout asked quietly as the dragon used one of his paws to sweep more metal under himself.

"Give me the necklace," Hiccup murmured. Snotlout quickly rummaged through the big pockets of his coat, finding the object and placing it in his cousin's outstretched hand. With the shiny piece of jewellery hanging of his fingers, Hiccup tried to close the distance between him and the dragon. That, however, turned out to be more difficult than either of them anticipated.

While his partner in crime tried persuading the Smothering Smokebreath to leave the nest, dangling and showing off the shiny necklace, whispering sweet nothings, Snotlout furrowed his brow. There was something…something else. A cream-colored object caught his eye among all the shiny metal.

"Hiccup!" Startled, the tall man swung to the sides a little, eyebrows traveling high enough to disappear in the mop of tousled hair.

"Wh- Snotlout, what?"

"There's something in the nest. Like porcelain, or something." Snotlout pointed to the nest with his index finger, wincing when the dragon hissed aggressively from his spot a foot or so away.

"Porcelain?" Hiccup inquired, one of his eyebrows travelling high. He narrowed his eyes at the collection of shiny metal, a look of realization crossing his face after a second. "Snot – it's-it's an egg!"

"Mr. Fogfart is Mrs-?" He shot a quick look at the dragon and tapped his bare chin. "Huh."

"We can't move them," Hiccup stated, pacing around the shop, shaking his head.

"Well, we can't let them stay here either," Snotlout gestured the Mrs. Fogfart in her nest as the dragon observed them from the corner of her eye. His cousin halted and knelt on the ground, crunching some of the glass underneath. He went to furiously rummage through his bag, spilling all of its contents on the old panel floor.

"What are you-"

"Aha!" Hiccup pulled out a small plastic pouch and raised it into air triumphantly. Snotlout eyed the weird green-ish item inside.

"Dragon nip?" He quirked one of his eyebrows sceptically. "Isn't it illegal?"

"Uh," Hiccup reached to scratch his chin, his eyes shifting to the side, and shoved the leather bag in his younger cousin's barrelled chest. "No?"

"Dear Thor," Snotlout used his free hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. "We're getting arrested, aren't we?"

"No, we're not." Hiccup quickly stood up, brushing off the dust from his trousers. "We're just going to cheat a little."

Despite Snotlout's hum of disagreement, he positioned himself on one of the sides of the cluttered room while Hiccup carefully moved closer to . He reached into the little bag with the pulverised dragon nip, smearing a bit of it onto his fingers. The Smothering Smokebreath raised her head curiously, the new scent clearly gaining her attention.

"So," the torch in his hand almost fell to the ground when he heard her voice. "did you find the dragon?"

"Astrid! Hi Astrid, hi, hello Astri-" Hiccup rambled as he turned to face his fiancé. His hand went to prop himself on the shelf by the door only to slip away awkwardly, causing a huge mess, and he winced. Coughing into the wide collar of his coat, he started to fix the fallen books. A soft laugh from the side startled him.

"What do you find so funny, hm?" A smile tugged at his lips trying to imagine how it looked for her.

"Did you seriously think I wouldn't find out?" She questioned with a half-hearted roll of her eyes, walking up to help him up with the things on the shelf he accidentally messed up.

"Well, uhm," He bit his lip as he took a book from Astrid's hand and put in between two others. "Am I in trouble?"

"Of course." She nudged him with a wink. "But... Maybe tomorrow. Come on, you need some sleep – you look half-dead."

He breathed a laugh at the comment, shaking his head slightly. A yelp escaped him when a fist collided with his arm.

"Why would you do that? I thought you said tomorrow-"

"That was for leaving me out of the fun," Astrid shot him a quick look.

"I promise I'll take you with me next time," He squeezed her hand, happy to see a small smile forming on her face. Daring to be a little bit braver, he leaned down to his fiancé to steal a kiss. She stopped him with a finger on his lips and a smirk on her face. She patted his cheek gently and plopped on the bed with a soft laugh.

"Tomorrow."

A/N:

A loose idea that may or may not be continued. ;)

~InsertACreativeNameHere