Wandering Hiccup - A HTTYD Drabble

It was amusing to Stoick at first. Hiccup would go off for a while, chasing whichever fancy had decided to come into his little head today, and then he'd come back; grinning and covered from head to toe in mud or pond slime or snow or sunburns or Odin-knows-what, (or there was that one memorable time that Stoick swears Hiccup must have stepped in dragon dung and the house had smelled for weeks) with scraped knees, chapped lips and twigs in his hair. Stoick always cautioned him to stay in the safe areas of the village, to do his playing there so he could imagine he was wrestling dragons or whatever he liked in peace and come back, smiling for Stoick to ask;

"So what was it this time lad? Dwarves? Habrok? Old Odin himself? Or perhaps Gobber was filling your head with stories of Trolls again." With a fond smile and a huge hand to ruffle the boy's hair and knock twigs asunder.

But gradually, as Hiccup began to get older, it became less amusing. He would ignore Stoick's word to stay close to the village and in the safe, dragon free areas. He'd wander into the forest, or up to the rocks, to down to the coast, and he'd come back with stories more and more ridiculous and elaborate and dangerous. Stoick would think of the vicious, merciless dragons that lurk in these places, and think of how small Hiccup was, and he'd think of her and then...

So Stoick forbids him to go, and of course, Hiccup goes out anyway. He's as stubborn headed as Stoick ever was and twice as reckless, and he doesn't exactly have the atypical Viking brawn Stoick had at his age to keep him safe. In fact Hiccup reminds him so much of Val it hurts. The lad becomes very sneaky at creeping out behind Stoick's back, and there's just no way to caution him or keep him in. So Stoick has to put him to work – to keep him out of the worst of the trouble that always inevitably finds him.

Gobber, with elaborate stories of his own, is the only person who will offer Hiccup any kind of work, and while Stoick would rather keep him out of hazardous places like the forge; it seems like the lesser of two evils. The plan works for the most part, keeping Hiccup busy and distracted with work and making things. Hiccup is very good at making things, and while Stoick has no clue what half of them even are or what they're supposed to do or if any of them even work, he's quietly proud of his son. Maybe Hiccup has finally found his place in the village.

He was quite wrong about that, but years later, as Stoick is sitting out on his front steps watching Hiccup and Toothless race past through the square, he realises not all that much has changed at all.

And all this time he's been just like his mother.

A/N: *Whispers* I am not dead I promise. Here have a drabble. More of 'Crevice' will be up asap! :)

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- Lenle G.