Firelight

(rough draft)

A DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon crossover fanfic by Raberba girl

Summary: Modern fantasy crossover AU. Fifteen-year-old Hiccup comes to live with his mother in the middle of nowhere, never dreaming that some of the residents of this small town hold secrets he could have never imagined. NO SLASH.

A/N: I'm not going to say what the crossover series is, but many of you can probably guess.

Chapter 1

I have never in my life managed to be on the same page as my father, but last week we had The Fight To End All Fights. I'd actually been hoarse the next day from shouting so much; Dad hadn't once looked me in the eye and had barely spoken to me since then. Our fury at each other was still simmering beneath the surface, sizzling in my glares and his mountainous silences, so I thought I'd be able to leave Berk without a second thought or backward glance.

That's why I was surprised to feel a twinge of heartache when Dad marched me up to the airport doors and then loomed glowering at me for what might very well be the last time in years.

I stared back up at him, trying to hold onto my anger but not quite succeeding. "...Well."

"Well," he said gruffly. "I suppose this is goodbye." He thrust out his hand, which was so large it encased the hands of ordinary-sized men and practically drowned my own. "Say hi to your mother for me."

As opposed to what? "Yeah." I shook his hand, trying not to wince at how hard he unintentionally squeezed. When he started to let go, I found myself holding on to his hand (well, his finger, since that was the only bit my own hand was big enough to grasp). He looked at me in surprise. "Dad...I'm sorry."

His expression immediately transformed from thundering anger to awkward discomfort. "...Me, too."

I let go, but we still stood there for several long seconds, staring at the ground. Finally I hitched my backpack a little higher over my shoulder. "Well...bye, I guess."

"Yes. ...See you at Snoggletog, perhaps."

"...Maybe," I hedged.

"Hmm."

It was about as close to making up as we were going to get, but I didn't regret my decision to leave home and go live with my mother for the remaining years I had before reaching legal adulthood. Dad and I did make up a lot, but we always ended up fighting again, and I was just so, so tired of it. I couldn't stand living any longer with someone who, no matter how hard he tried or how much he cared (and I know he did care, despite everything), seemed incapable of ever understanding or accepting me. It was a dismal prospect to exile myself to a remote corner of the country and a parent who didn't care - she and my father, though still technically married, had separated when I was a baby, and my mother had refused to take me with her. Yet I'd rather live with someone who'd tolerate my presence and stay out of my business than someone who constantly tried to break me down and remake me into the kind of son I can never, ever be.

I sighed. "Bye, Dad."

"Goodbye, son."

I turned and walked into the airport. I refused to look back, and refused to look back...but then at the last second, I stole a glance over my shoulder - and was shocked to see the brokenhearted expression on my father's face. Before I could look more closely to figure out whether the glint on his cheeks was from tears or just a trick of the light, he hastily ducked back into the car.

I watched until he'd driven away, then sighed again and moved on. I was starting my life over from scratch, leaving the harsh but familiar snow-battered city of Berk for a blazing hellhole in the middle of nowhere where the temperature rarely made it below 70 degrees Fahrenheit. There was no point in either mourning what I left behind or nursing hope for whatever might lie ahead.

'Less than three more years to suffer, Hiccup. Then you can choose your own life and be whoever you want to be.'

o.o.o.o.o

When I got off the plane, Mom, to my surprise and relief, was already waiting for me. She immediately surprised me again by smiling at me, though the expression was uncertain and a little awkward. I tried to smile back as I approached, and stiffened in yet more surprise when she put her arms around me and squeezed. "Hello, Hiccup," she greeted softly.

"H-Hey, Mom." Although we talked over the phone or live video every few months, I'd only ever seen her in person two, maybe three times, ever. My impression of a woman too wrapped up in her own life to care about her son in anything more than an obligatory way was starting to crumble when I realized how glad she actually was to see me. For the first time, I wondered if she kept her distance more because she didn't know how to be a good mother than because she didn't want to be.

She started backward and smoothed back a stray tendril of hair that was falling out of her messy ponytail. "I-I'm sorry; do you prefer Hadley now?"

I shrugged. "Don't call me Hiccup in front of other people, but it's fine if we're alone." I was used to the ridiculous nickname from my babyhood. I hated it when my classmates back home had used it to taunt me, but as long as there was no malice in it, like when Dad and Uncle Gobber called me that, it didn't bother me. I just didn't want the locals here in Helheim's Gate to get wind of it - one of the handful of perks about my self-imposed exile was that maybe I'd have a chance at not being the school reject this time.

Mom smiled at me again. Despite the complete absence of makeup, her slightly weathered face, the rumpled and stained clothes that looked suitable for a barnyard, and even the strong smell of animals she exuded, there was something warm and appealing about her. Something motherly, even though she'd never been a mother to me in anything but name. Maybe I'd feel more comfortable around her than I thought. "Hiccup, then. Let's go...home."

"Yeah." 'That's right,' I reminded myself. 'Helheim's Gate is home now.'

Mom drove with the windows open, obviously savoring the fresh air. I wished she wouldn't, because it made the air conditioning a lot less effective, but I didn't say anything, and she let me crank up the A/C as far as it would go. I was still sweating in minutes, though, and feeling a little nauseous and faint by the time we reached the house - I wasn't used to this heat. I don't sweat all that much, so it surprised me that the back and underarms of my T-shirt were drenched with perspiration when I stumbled out of the car. With my skinny limbs and almost unhealthy lack of body fat, I thought I hadn't handled Berk's infamous winters well, sometimes having to skip school during the coldest weeks so I could huddle in bed with heaps of blankets and a blasting heater - but compared to the suffocating heat here in Helheim's Gate, I'd take the bone-chilling cold any day. I wondered how long it would take my body to adjust, or if it ever would.

Mom finally noticed when we were hauling my luggage out of the trunk. "Are you all right, Hiccup?"

"Does your house have air conditioning?" I panted desperately.

"Of course!" she exclaimed, sounding surprised.

"A lot of houses in Berk don't," I explained.

"Oh." She smiled a little. "Well, you're in Helheim now. Air conditioning is a basic requirement in every building."

"Good...!"

When we got halfway across the yard, a sudden furious barking started up from behind the house. I was alarmed when the sounds rapidly approached, and I shamelessly dropped my luggage and ducked behind Mom when two large dogs came pelting around the house and barreled straight toward me, bellowing for all they were worth. One of them only had three legs, but that didn't seem to hinder him from racing almost alongside his four-footed companion.

"RUMPUS, LUMP," Mom bellowed, "DOWN."

The dogs stopped dead for a moment. Then they ducked their heads and whined and tip-toed diffidently toward us, their bright eyes fixed on me but their body language submissive to Mom's voice.

"Doooowwwnnn," Mom said in a firm, warning tone.

The three-legged dog reluctantly lay down; the other stopped and made indecisive dipping movements, apparently trying to decide whether to continue in her desire to investigate the intruder or obey her human pack leader.

Mom marched forward, and at the first step, the second dog flopped down beside the first. Mom loomed over them for a long minute, as they both looked up at her with wagging tails and chastenedly-positioned ears and hopeful doggy smiles. Then Mom finally relaxed and said in a chipper tone, "Good dogs!" They leaped up and pranced around her for a minute, then turned and went still to sniff at me intently.

"Hi, guys," I said, trying to keep the nervousness out of my voice. Not that it probably helped; dogs could smell fear, couldn't they?

"Hiccup is my son," Mom crooned, hugging me and even nuzzling me as if she was a dog herself. "My baby that I love."

The dogs looked up at us and cautiously wagged their tails.

"Be nice to him."

The unmaimed dog barked. The other one made a friendly sound and pressed his head against my knee. Feeling better, I leaned down to pet them, and they licked me enthusiastically in return.

"This one is Rumpus, and the one with three legs is Lump," Mom said. "Come on; let's get your stuff inside and I'll introduce you to the others."

I hoped 'others' didn't mean more territorial dogs.

The animals followed us eagerly as we brought my things inside. Mom's house was old, comfortable and creaky with a lot of character: lots of wood paneling and antique-looking appliances. I heard a birdlike cawing sound from another room, but couldn't see what had made the noise.

Mom helped me start to unpack in the spare bedroom upstairs, and as I turned to put an armful of socks in a drawer, I was startled by a gray cat who had soundlessly materialized on the windowsill next to the bureau. It started backward at my surprised yelp, then sniffed at the air and climbed, unexpectedly awkwardly for a cat, onto the bureau toward Mom.

"Hello, lovely," Mom crooned, presenting her fingers before the cat's nose for a moment before scratching its head. It pushed closer into her palm and purred. "This is Gruff," Mom said. "He's very friendly, but he's blind, so be careful when you approach him. He might scratch if he's startled."

I looked from the cat's clouded eyes to Lump's missing leg. "Are all your pets rescues?"

"Almost all, yes."

Most of my luggage consisted of my projects, which I preferred to unpack and find places for myself, so Mom and I finished with my clothes and stuff pretty quickly. We went downstairs so she could show me the rest of the house. There wasn't much - other than a bathroom and Mom's room down the hall from mine upstairs, on the first floor there was just the small kitchen with a washing machine squeezed into one corner (no dryer), and an only marginally bigger living room. Mom led me through it, pausing to sprinkle fish food into a large aquarium before stepping outside.

In the huge back yard was a set of clotheslines with some sheets pinned to them, as well as a large corral, inside which a black gelding was grazing. He lifted his head and trotted to the fence as we approached, stretching his nose toward Mom and whickering.

"Hello~ beautiful." Mom lovingly stroked the horse's forehead and then turned to me. "This is Sailback." She seemed so self-assured with all the animals in a way she wasn't with humans.

"Hi, Sailback." The horse butted his head into my chest and I obligingly stroked his face, relaxing when he closed his eyes in pleasure. He seemed nice, which was good because he was so big compared to me. "Anyone else I need to meet?"

"Just Thump. I think she's somewhere in the house right now - she pretty much comes and goes as she pleases, but it's dangerous for her to be out at night because she can't fly."

"Fly?"

"Yes, poor thing... I rescued her from a trap, but her wing was permanently damaged, so she lives with me now for the most part."

I saw what Mom meant when I went back up to my room. A crow with one normal wing and one sliced-short one was in my room, curiously tugging and poking at some of my things with her beak.

"Nah, ah, ah, leave those alone," I said, flapping my hands mildly at her.

She fluttered clumsily to the desk, looking startled, but then perched there at a safe distance and watched with interest as I rummaged around, looking for places to store my works in progress. I kept in mind the fact that I needed to keep my work out of reach of all the animals.

"Some of these are delicate," I explained as if the bird could understand. "You have to be careful with them."

She chirped in reply, and I found myself smiling even though I didn't speak crow.

Around six o'clock, Mom came up with a stack of worn pamphlets. "What would you like for dinner, Hiccup? You can choose anything you want, I like all of these places."

I stared at her for a minute, confused, then looked at the pamphlets she was offering me and realized what she meant. "We're ordering takeout tonight?"

There was a pause. "Er... Well, I'm not the best cook, so..." She fidgeted. It dawned on me that she wasn't ordering out because of the special occasion of my arrival; apparently she did this every night. Maybe even for every meal.

"Um... Yeah, sure. Takeout sounds great." I looked through the pamphlets and picked out something that looked appetizing. She looked relieved that I didn't comment on her lack of housewifely skills.

"All right, well, I'll go back down and call. Most places are good about delivering quickly, so you won't be hungry for long. We can watch TV while we eat, if you like- Er, well, I don't get many channels, but I have a few movies-? Well, probably not ones you'd be interested in..."

I tried to give her a reassuring smile. "It's fine, Mom."

I helped her feed the animals, and our own food delivery arrived when we were almost done. Mom was right - the only clear channels her ancient television received were the local news station and one that was currently playing a sitcom re-run; none of the handful of videos in her electronics cabinet looked remotely interesting to me. Still, I sat through an old black and white film, not sure who the characters were or what they were trying to do. I picked at my food and exchanged about three sentences total with Mom, occasionally petting or sneaking food to the dog lying on my feet or the bird that hopped back and forth between Mom and me. It wasn't the most enjoyable meal in the world, but it wasn't horrible, which about summed up my impression of Helheim's Gate so far.

With nothing else really to do after I'd helped Mom clean up, I decided to go to bed early, but I couldn't sleep. I turned my bedside lamp back on and started writing and doodling in my journal, but it was hard to concentrate. I was hot. I could hear the air conditioner running, but it didn't seem to be doing much good. I'm the kind of guy who wears pajamas to bed, but I was so uncomfortable that I started shedding bits of clothing until I was sprawled on top of my sheets wearing nothing but boxers - yet I still felt sticky and miserable. "Never thought I'd see the day when I'd actually miss Berk's weather."

I must have managed to fall asleep at some point, because I suddenly opened my eyes to find my lamp still on and a lump of fur snuggled up against me, practically radiating heat. "Uuugghhh, Rumpus, you're a nice dog, but it is way too hot for cuddles..."

o.o.o.o.o

Mom was already gone by the time I got up the next morning. She'd left me a couple of boxes of cereal, some packaged muffins, and bread for toast on the kitchen table, along with a note. She'd apparently ridden Sailback and taken both dogs with her to the ranch where she worked, but Gruff and Thump were still around to beg tidbits from me even though the note said that they and the fish had already been fed. I didn't mind slipping them some treats. Thump pecked tidily at the pile of crumbs I sprinkled on the table for her, and Gruff purred in my lap after I had fed him a couple of blueberries from a muffin.

After a quick shower, I had a hard time deciding what to wear. It was too dang hot for jeans, but I was too skinny to look good in shorts. I puttered around, brushing my hair and teeth, packing my schoolbag, and shooing the inquisitive Thump away from my stuff, then at the last minute decided to go with jeans. First impressions were more important than comfort, and I had to do everything I could to avoid getting labeled as a loser from the start.

I took my time getting ready because I was dreading school. It would probably be different here in this small town than it was in Berk, but my unpleasant past experiences still made me feel nervous and unwell. "Maybe I can just skip... Not like Mom'll know the difference, if she'll be back home as late as she said she would." But no, everyone talked to everyone in small towns; she'd probably find out soon if I skipped school. I sighed, slung my backpack over my shoulder, locked the door with the spare key Mom had left for me, and set out for the bus stop where (Mom said) the dirt trail that led to her house met the nearest public road. It was a half-mile hike. There were no other kids there, so I really hoped I was in the right spot... Well, no, wait; if I was in the wrong spot to be picked up, then I'd have a legitimate reason for missing school.

Unfortunately, the bus arrived about ten minutes later and laboriously squealed to a halt in front of me. I climbed up the steps nervously and was glad to find that there were only two other kids on the bus, one sleeping and the other closed into her private world with earbuds. I choose a seat roughly equidistant between them, considered digging out a book to read, then decided I'd be too nervous to concentrate and that it'd be better to watch and evaluate people as they got on.

Things ended up being less dramatic than that. Because I was the new kid, several people clustered in the seats around me and asked me questions, but no one was rude or overly invasive. At one point, two guys a couple of seats away from me started up some kind of noisy game, and everyone else forgot about me as they started cheering and jeering and egging on either one or the other.

At school, the front office wasn't hard to find, and since Mom had already done the bulk of the enrollment paperwork for me, the rest didn't take long. I folded my class schedule in my hand so that my clueless newbie status hopefully wouldn't be more obvious than it had to be, and started searching for my first class.

I made it there before the first bell rang, but close enough that people didn't have time to get too interested in the new kid, which was the first hurdle cleared. The class itself wasn't intimidating - it looked like I'd already studied most of this stuff back in Berk - and afterward, a heavyset boy with blond hair leaned over to smile at me. "Hey. You're Hadley Vast, right? Valka's son?"

"Yeah," I said cautiously, but the guy had an open, earnest face, and his good will seemed genuine.

"I'm Lex Ingerman," he said, holding out a hand that was big enough to be comparable to my dad's. "You can call me Fish."

"Hi, um, Fish." His stylish real name seemed at odds with his nerdy looks - the nickname suited him better. Though I was grateful for his friendliness, I wondered if it was safe to allow him to befriend me. I'd learned the hard way in Berk that I'd suffer if I didn't make the right social connections.

"You need help finding your next class?"

"I'm pretty sure I got the hang of the building numbers. The school's not too big, so I don't think I'll get lost."

"Well, I'll walk you anyway; couldn't hurt."

"Uh...sure."

When we stepped outside, I was dismayed to feel how hot the sun already was, practically soaking into the bare skin of my arms even though it wasn't even quite midmorning yet. To try to take my mind off the heat, I paid extra attention to what Fish was talking about, which turned out to be a shared interest - robotics. I tried to keep my voice neutral without sounding outright bored, undecided yet about the befriending thing. If we did end up becoming friends, there'd be time enough later to geek out freely.

"So this is a lot different than where you're from, huh?" he said, finally changing the subject.

"Definitely. Winter's still going strong up there."

He laughed. "You're so skinny; how do you handle the blizzards and stuff?"

"Surprisingly well, in hindsight. Here, man... If it feels like this now, the flesh will probably be melting off my bones by lunchtime."

"Heh, you'll get used to it. Drink lots of water, okay? We've had visitors pass out before."

"I'll keep that in mind..."

Things went okay until the class right before lunch. Fish was there, but he sat across the room from me, and the guy in the seat next to mine grinned at me when I sat down with a gleam in his eyes that I recognized all too well. "So you're the new kid, huh?" His tone was challenging and a little eager, as if he was looking for a way to turn a simple introduction into a fight.

I tried to straighten my shoulders and speak confidently. "I'm Hadley Vast."

"Hadley? Haaaadley. Naw, man, I heard that Valka's cutsey-wootsey little runt's name is Hiccup."

I tried hard not to let my horror show on my face, but I don't think I succeeded.

He laughed in delight. "HICCUP, so great to meet you," he gushed with false enthusiasm, thumping my back so hard I was practically thrown across the surface of my desk and choked a bit trying to get my breath back.

Luckily, the bell rang just then and sort of put a pause on my torment (the guy, whose name turned out to be Scott, still managed some obnoxious whispers and painful pokes with a pencil). Unfortunately, when we were dismissed, he caught me before I could escape and pretty much dragged me to the cafeteria with his beefy arm painfully tight around my back, pinning my arms to my sides. I was a little taller than him, but he was way stronger than me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fish anxiously following us, but though Fish was a lot bigger and even stronger-looking than Scott, he seemed too timid to rescue me.

"Hey!" Scott hollered as he flung open the cafeteria doors, "Look at the fresh meat I caught!"

Most of the people in the cafeteria ignored him, but a few yelled and made catcalls. One table was particularly loud, and that was the one Scott hauled me over to. Most of the people gathered there were guys, at least as big and strong as Scott was. The only skinny people were a pair of similar-looking kids (siblings? Twins maybe, they looked so close in age) with long, greasy-looking fair hair, but their viciously sly expressions and tough, wiry bodies made them seem just as dangerous as their companions. Most of the group hooted loudly as Scott steered me to a chair and slammed me down into it. Since the guys on my right and immediately across from me were both sitting on the table, and the one on my left was on his feet, with Scott looming up behind my chair, I felt like I was drowning in thugs. I shot a desperate glance toward Fish, but while the blond quietly took a seat at the very end of the table, he seemed to otherwise be trying to make himself as unnoticeable as possible, and was doing surprisingly well for such a big guy.

"Ooohhh," the tough-looking girl twin sneered, leaning until she was practically in my face. "Looks like he should be with the little kiddies, not in high school."

"Little kids get snacks at the elementary school," her brother mused. His voice sounded surprisingly friendly when he addressed me, but there was something off about the quirk of his eyebrows. Unlike Fish's, this guy's friendliness was not something I could trust. "You got any snacks, toothpick-bro? They sell chips and stuff in the Extras line here, but they're always lame flavors or stale."

I miserably tried not to react as two or three pairs of hands searched all my pockets, dumping the meager pile of loot on the table. My pens and compass got immediately confiscated and squirreled away, never to be seen again.

"There's some gum," someone pointed out.

"Ooohh." The boy twin reached for it, but someone else grabbed it first, and he immediately made a theatrical-sounding call to war before flinging himself on the gum thief like an animal, with his sister cheering him on.

Around that point, a couple of teachers finally intervened, and I managed to escape while the gang loudly protested. Fish caught me before I'd gone a few steps and hustled me toward one of the food lines. "Sorry about that," he apologized. "Scott and his gang are real jerks."

"Thanks for all your help," I said.

He flushed, not missing the dry resentment in my voice. "Hey," he said defensively, "there's only one of me and, like, ten of them."

I sighed and let it go, figuring that I might have done the same in his place. Forgiving him was also easier when he paid for my meal along with his own, since Scott's gang had stolen my lunch money during the rifling of my pockets. By the time I'd gotten my food and was following Fish to some empty seats far away from the gang, I'd decided to just give in and be friends with Fish. Scott and the others would probably torment me regardless of who my friends were, and at least I'd have one ally if I stuck with Fish, even if he was useless in direct confrontations.

As I was calming down, just starting to register the tastes of the food I'd been eating, I looked around the cafeteria and happened to notice a group that stood out even more than Scott's did.

There were six of them, three boys and three girls sitting close together at a table in the farthest corner of the cafeteria. Unlike a lot of the other students, who kept glancing or staring at me and then whispering, this group didn't seem to have taken any notice of the new kid whatsoever. They were utterly absorbed in their own conversation, their bodies animated as they spoke, their laughter loud and their words, what little I caught of them over the noise of the cafeteria, not sounding like English.

The boy currently talking with accompanying expressive gestures was so big, tough-looking, and muscular that he looked like he could give Scott's gang a run for their money, perhaps even single-handedly. His skin, which was marked by scars big enough for me to see all the way from here, was a warm bronze color, his hair wildly styled and dyed red, orange, and yellow so that it looked like his head was on fire. He had multi-colored tattoos all over his body, a surprising number of them for such a young person.

Sitting next to him was a girl with gloriously beautiful honey-hued skin that literally sparkled - she must have glued rhinestones to herself or something similar. She had thick, long, shiny yellow hair that was exquisitely styled, and nails so bright with different colors and more rhinestones that I could see them flashing all the way on the other side of the cafeteria.

Next was a group of three - on either side, twins with neatly braided hair dyed green, the only fair-skinned ones in the group, looking even more similar to each other than the twins in Scott's gang did. These two sat strangely, almost creepily still, their gazes often fixated on various students in the cafeteria. They gave me an uneasy feeling, though I had no idea why. Their hands were clasped together behind the chair of the girl who sat between them, and their other hands grasped hers.

That girl, who nestled comfortably with the creepy twins like a mother hen with two edgy chicks, was heavyset but very shapely, and even more muscular and solid-looking than the flame-haired guy. She looked like she could easily hold her own in a boys' football game. Her skin was a rich, warm brown and her short hair was dark gold, tumbling around her head in fetching, artless curls. Her laugh, which was frequent and loud enough for me to hear clearly all the way over here, was very appealing and relaxing.

The third boy was so dark that his skin was almost literally black. That, combined with the decorative marks all over his body that looked like honest-to-God scarification, made me wonder if he was a foreigner or a recent immigrant rather than someone who'd been born and raised in this country. His hair was oddly styled in two braided clumps that looked almost like animal ears, and he seemed the most reserved of the group, almost sulky as he leaned against the rhinestone girl, who absently rested her arm around him.

Fish saw me looking. "Oh, them," he said knowingly. "Do yourself a favor and stay away from them."

"Rivals to Scott's gang?" I guessed.

"No - Scott and the others are jerks and you don't want to get caught by them, but at least they're normal, you know? The Wilder kids... They're just weird. Like, creepy weird, and dangerous. None of Scott's guys ever go near them, don't even say a word to them, except the Thorstons sometimes. Rumor has it the Wilder kids have actually killed people before."

"Seriously?" It sounded outrageous - after all, they were still only high school students - but somehow, I could believe it.

"I don't know. I mean, I've never heard it confirmed, but...look at them. Especially Max, the African guy."

"He's from Africa, and his name is Max?"

"I don't know, it's probably been anglicized or something. Anyway, like, Mila's actually pretty nice, and Stormy - the sparkly one - ignores everyone but her siblings, she's real stuck-up, and the twins are creepy but at least always stay out of the way. The other two are the ones you really have to watch out for. Fang gets into a lot of fights, he's even hit girls before, and he'd make mincemeat of you in two seconds - though Mila and Stormy always keep an eye on him; they're pretty good at getting him under control quick whenever he loses it. Max is...I mean, I've never actually seen him hurt anyone, but...well...those 'killed people before' rumors? They're really about him."

I swallowed, wondering if I dared risk another morbidly curious glance. "So they're called the Wilder kids?"

"They have their own surnames and stuff, but they're adopted by Alfred Wilder. He's a really nice guy, nothing like them - I mean, he's scary, too, but in a safe way, if that makes sense. Real friendly and all. Anyway, he has some kind of orphanage or something just outside town. Or a ranch, or...ranch/orphanage, or something."

I raised an eyebrow. "Ranch/orphanage?"

"Yeah. Anyway, he's weird, too, but he's cool, and he keeps them under control for the most part. But he doesn't actually come to school with them, you know, so... Yeah, just stay away from them."

I tried to watch the incredibly exotic, almost inhumanly beautiful Wilder group again without looking like I was. "I've already got enough on my plate with Scott."

After lunch, Fish showed me to my next class, which was science, before heading off to his own. I walked into the room lost in thought, so it took me a minute to realize that Max the Wilder boy, the one I was supposed to avoid at all costs, apparently had this class at the same time I did. He was gazing out the window with his head resting on his arms, looking bored. Even though he hadn't noticed me yet, that could change at any moment, so I tried to stop myself from staring in a way he might find offensive. My resulting panicked glance around the room showed me, to my growing dismay, that the only empty seat was the one next to him.

I tried to act normal as I resumed walking toward the teacher so he could sign my new student form. After all, it wasn't like Max could murder me in the middle of class or anything. I'd just keep my head down, be polite, and make sure not to linger after the bell.

A good plan, but it fell to pieces the next moment. I had no idea why, but when I passed by Max's desk, he suddenly bolted upright as if struck by lightning, and pinned me with such an intense emerald-eyed glare - an intense, exceedingly hostile emerald-eyed glare - that I froze in mid-step. I felt caught, like I couldn't move even if I tried, and something about the increasingly feral expression on his face was causing gut-wrenching terror to course through my entire body.

Just when I was genuinely convinced he was about to leap at me and rip out my throat with his teeth, he whirled, almost too fast for me to see the actual movement, and...crashed straight through the window he'd been gazing out of seconds before.

My whole body was shaking as I stared after his fleeing figure. He was so fast, he'd crossed the entire school in seconds and was starting to get too far away to see. My legs were threatening to collapse under me, and everyone was yelling in shock and excitement. The teacher's voice thundered over the rest, warning everyone to get away from the broken glass.

Numbly, I complied with directions, and the teacher at last managed to get everyone seated - some people on stools beside the counters that lined the perimeter of the room - and started on some sort of assignment while he called the front office.

My concentration was completely shot, so it was good that the first part of the assignment was simply copying down vocabulary words. I did so slowly, my handwriting shakier than usual, wondering what in the world had just happened. Surely Max didn't react like that to everyone? Why me? Was it just because I was new? Why would a new student showing up in the middle of the school year freak him out enough to prompt literal murderous intent and then an epically dramatic escape?

I hadn't come up with any answers by the time the vice principal and custodian showed up to assess the damage. Since we students were all too distracted to pay attention to a lesson, the teacher pretty much just patrolled our work stations, helping us individually and, more often, keeping us on task as best he could. Meanwhile, the vice principal left and the custodian began sweeping up glass and fetching a sheet of plywood to temporarily patch the broken window.

'He hates me,' I found myself thinking. 'I don't know how the heck I even ended up on his radar, but for some reason, the most dangerous boy in school loathes my guts. ...On top of Scott designating me his new punching bag.'

Yep, this was shaping up to be a fantastic first day.

In gym, Fish found me and breathlessly demanded, with a mixture of disapproval and amazement, what in the world I had done to Max Fury. Not surprisingly, the story had apparently made it all the way around school by now.

"I have no freaking idea. I just walked into class, I swear I didn't say a word to him, I don't think he even noticed me looking at him, but he just took one look at me and went crazy. I have no idea. I have no freaking clue, Fish."

When I went to the front office at the end of the day to turn in my new student form, I was shocked at first to see Dad there, of all people - surely he hadn't somehow learned about the incident in science and gotten so worried that he'd come all the way here to make sure I was all right?

In the next second, I felt stupid as I realized that of course it wasn't my dad. An understandable mistake, at least, since this guy was the first person I'd ever seen who was just as huge, just as tall and wide and ridiculously muscular, as my father. ...Maybe even a little more. When he turned around, though, his expression was entirely different. 'Friendly' wasn't quite the right word, because he seemed like a quiet, almost majestic person... Yet there was a deep compassion in his face that made me feel immediately accepted, almost embraced, when he laid eyes on me.

He smiled, and despite the unusually sharp teeth that peeked through his lips, that smile took my breath away with its warmth. His eyes were just as warm, despite being a striking, icy shade of aquamarine. It was a credit to the power of his smile that I only belatedly noticed his unusual skin. It was like he had vitiligo, but the patches were dark on his paper-white flesh instead of the other way around, and the markings, despite being skin pigmentation rather than ink, were a little too orderly to look natural.

"So," he said in a very deep voice, so commanding despite its warmth that it seized 100% of my attention. "You're young Hadley Vast?"

My mouth was almost too dry to answer audibly. "Y-Yes." I cleared my throat. "My mother is Valka."

"Ah." He inclined his head slightly. "Valka is an honored friend of my people. Son of Valka, I apologize on behalf of my son for frightening you."

"I-It's fine." I tried to smile, feeling like an idiot. "I just...I just wish I knew what made him so mad, so I can...not do it next time."

The man - Alfred Wilder, I gathered - moved toward me. Although he was halfway across the room, it only seemed to take him a step or two to reach me. He laid his huge hand on my head, and I automatically closed my eyes and relaxed so deeply under its pleasantly cool weight that I realized how tense I'd been before. I wanted to rest under his touch forever, like a dog lying content at its master's feet.

After an endless moment, Alfred Wilder made a soft "Ah" sound in his deep voice. He removed his hand, and I caught myself staring longingly after it. He graced me with another extraordinary smile. "You did nothing wrong. I'll need to have a careful talk with my son." He stepped back and inclined his head again. "Farewell, Hadley Vast." He moved back to the secretary he'd been talking to before I'd shown up. "As I was saying," he told her, "that won't be a problem. Just send me the bill and I'll see that it's taken care of." I crept up shyly beside him, just close enough to drop my form onto the secretary's desk, then turned and fled. Alfred Wilder had an amazing presence, but it seemed to be the kind one could only handle in small doses at first. Despite feeling weirdly elated, I also wanted to burst into tears, and the last thing I wanted to do was to start bawling where anyone could see me.

To be continued...

A/N: WHY AM I POSTING A NEW MULTICHAPTER WIP I'LL PROBABLY NEVER FINISH WHEN I HAVE SO MUCH OTHER STUFF TO WORK ON? Because I'm an idiot, that's why.

As always, the HiccTooth in this story will be of a "platonic soulmates" nature. (When I write "put one story's characters into another story's plot" fics like this, I really enjoy making the story work when the romantic relationship is replaced with a platonic one.) Astrid will be in this fic (if I make it that far), but I don't know yet if the HiccStrid will be romantic or platonic.

The name "Max" is what I call Toothless in modern AUs because of a spoiler about him in the HTTYD book series.

I think it's fairly safe to say now that my writing muse is finally back. It was easy to write this long chapter in one sitting, and I've got the third "Do Over" vignette outlined and ready to draft, which I'll hopefully do later today or tomorrow.

...I think this is the first time in my entire life that I've actually enjoyed describing characters' physical appearances. XD XD XD I wonder why. (Ftr, I commissioned Medli45 to design semi-human versions of Toothless's troop, originally for my HSRMO AU. In this fic, they masquerade as fully human rather than semi-human, and some of the details are different, but Medli's designs still give a good idea what they look like. You can check them out in her DeviantArt gallery.)