Hello all! I am still quite in love with How To Train Your Dragon 2, I think DreamWorks did a fantastic job on it.
One thing that stuck out to me was the Stalka (StoickxValka) moments. They were so adorable, if very few. I noticed that he said a certain phrase to her twice and couldn't resist the opportunity to give other examples when he might've said the phrase and that is what I give you!
That being said, I hope you enjoy! How To Train Your Dragon belongs to Cressida Cowell but the movies were made by DreamWorks.
For You, My Dear, Anything
It had been a couple weeks after he had started courting her that she heard those five words he seemed to have reserved for her. She had been on her way to the healer's home with supplies filling her arms. The weather had been quite dreadful the days previous and ice patches still littered the ground. With her arms full of things, she hadn't seen the patch of ice until she was slipping on it. The various supplies in her arms had scattered about her messily as her head had smacked into the frozen ground.
She had groaned and thrown an arm over her eyes, she was always so clumsy. It seemed to be her curse; to be very unlike a Viking and clumsy at that. The sound of someone clearing their throat broke her from her bout of self pity.
"Having some trouble there, Valka," Stoick questioned in a teasing voice, eyebrows raised slightly.
She couldn't help the small and embarrassed smile that came upon her face, "Seems so... but what is else is new?"
The robust man chuckled heartily and offered her a hand which she accepted easily. He pulled her up with little effort and soon after gathered the brunt of the supplies in his arms, "So where are we headed to deliver this… junk?"
Valka blushed at the unvoiced offer to help, "The healer's hut… you don't have to do this you know… I understand if you're busy with other things."
Stoick shrugged it off nonchalantly, "Not had much to do today, actually."
"Well… thank you," she murmured.
He smiled at her, "For you, my dear, anything."
She heard those five simple words many times throughout the course of their relationship together. Perhaps one of the instances that stuck out more so than the others was a time after Stoick had been named chief.
They always had tension between them whenever it came to the dragons. Valka felt that with some effort, the dragons could be reasoned with and perhaps even befriended. As anticipated, it was a highly unpopular belief. Stoick himself had a hard time believing such an outrageous idea but he didn't directly say it to his beloved Valka.
One morning, during a dragon raid, Stoick found himself glaring down at a captured dragon, sword in hand. He was ready to decapitate the cretin when a desperate cry and arms around his raised arm stopped him. He turned to reprimand whoever it was only to find Valka.
Her eyes held fear which he hated seeing there. He lowered his blade.
"Please don't Stoick," she begged, "please, I beg of you! This isn't the way, there has to be some other kind of solution… Just.. not this…"
He gave a heavy sigh and looked back towards the beast that was looking up at him hatefully. He growled to himself. "Tie this one up and put it in our dragon cage to help train the new dragon slayers," he shouted to a few nearby men.
They eyed him curiously but did as he requested, not being ones to defy the chief's orders.
"Thank you," a soft voice called.
Stoick grabbed her hands within his and offered her a weary smile, "For you, my dear, anything."
The third time those words held a great amount of meaning for her was whilst she was pregnant with their child; their Hiccup. If there was one thing Valka had learned throughout the course of their marriage, it was that Stoick hated dealing with any kind of sickness.
Now usually he was out and about in the village when she had her bouts of morning sickness, but one morning he hadn't gone out so early and was startled to find her shooting out of their bedroom to the small pail by the door to be sick.
Valka did her best to downplay her sudden sick and stood up straighter than she might have normally and proclaimed that it was a normal thing and that she felt better now that the moment had passed. However truthfully, she felt worse. It seemed that day's morning sickness was accompanied by a headache and sore muscles.
Stoick, however, seemed to accept her response and mentioned something about checking the village since he was up and about. He grasped her hand and planted a soft kiss on her forehead before leaving albeit a bit reluctantly.
She slumped against the nearby wall as he left, holding her head in one hand. With slow and weary movements, she headed back towards the bed. More sleep, she decided, was in order. Valka all but collapsed onto the bed, curling up on her side and tugging on the furs at the end of the bed. She wrapped an instinctive arm around her slightly rounded belly as she drifted once more into the depths of sleep.
When she awoke again, much later in the day, she was very surprised to find Stoick sitting at her bedside, dipping a cloth into a bowl of water he had nearby. "Stoick…" she murmured groggily, "w-what are you…?"
"Shh," he replied softly, wringing out the cloth and placing it softly on her forehead, "I'm home. That's all you need to worry about."
"Why," she asked just as quietly with a curious look.
Stoick cradled one of her hands in his own massive ones. "I'm taking care of you," he answered, "you needed me more than the village did today. So I'm here."
Valka could only gaze at him lovingly and give him a tired smile in response, feeling too touched by his actions to voice it out loud.
The quiet moment was broken when the urge to vomit once again reared its ugly head. Valka shot up in bed and covered her mouth with one hand. A pail was placed before her quickly and she emptied her stomach into it with a miserable groan.
He made sure her hair was back and then began rubbing her back gently, soothingly. When she had finished, he pulled away the soiled container and helped her lay back into the bed.
His final step was to replace the cloth once he had cleaned her face a bit. He felt anxious seeing his beloved Valka in such a state but apparently it was normal for a woman with child.
Valka looked over at him with feverish eyes after awhile and offered him a sweet smile, "Thank you.. Stoick…"
Right then, he knew he had made the right choice to stay by her that day. He stood and planted a kiss on her forehead as he had earlier that day. "For you, my dear," he whispered, "anything."
The pounding heartbeat in her ears and fluttery feeling in her stomach reminded her of how much she had missed him. Twenty years had changed them both so much. As she stood in his arms again, laughing breathlessly, she realized the dull ache that she had felt for so long had been missing him and Hiccup.
Stoick sighed happily as he held his wife in his arms again. Gods above, he had missed her. He felt young again, his spirit was light and his heart felt full. He gazed down at her lovingly. "I thought I'd have to die before I had that dance again," he confessed to her.
"No need for drastic measures," she teased with a slight laugh.
He knelt on one knee before her, cupping her hand in his own, "For you, my dear, anything."
She felt her heart flutter at those words. She lost any words that she had been aiming to say, she could only gaze back at him as he looked up imploringly to her.
"Will you come home, Val," he asked, "Will you be my wife once again?"
Valka felt an overwhelming flurry of emotion at his question. She had stayed away for twenty years because she had feared what they would think of her if she returned riding a dragon. Only now did she find out that her very own son had changed the course of Berk as she knew it. The guilt at having stayed away ate at her very core.
So how was it that Stoick was willing to overlook all of that and invite her to come home and be with him again? It baffled her. Time had certainly changed him. The mere thought of him riding a dragon seemed absolutely ludicrous but the proof sat nearby, his dragon Skullcrusher resting beside Cloudjumper. It all hit her so suddenly and she found herself looking at him dumbly.
Suddenly she was being bumped forward by something. Stoick caught her readily, both of them chuckling at the Night Fury's antics. Hiccup approached shyly from the side.
"We could be a family," Stoick proclaimed, bringing Hiccup into their little ring that had formed. He kept his hand on the both of them. "What do you say," he asked anxiously.
Her words yet failed her. She looked between the two loves of her life, the two men who held her heart. When Toothless raised his head to peer at her, she laughed and patted his head gently. Valka knew they were awaiting her say. It wasn't a hard decision to make at all, if only she could make her voice work. "Yes," she replied finally with a shy laugh afterwards.
Seeing their faces light up, especially Hiccup's made her feel so happy. It was what she had craved, to have the love of her family around her. She had had to wait twenty years but she had it once more. She wasn't soon to let it go either.
Drago had a Bewilderbeast. Her heart sunk as she saw the abused and shadowed creature rise from the depths, she knew the fight between the two would be decisive and only end with one of their deaths. As he ordered it to strike down the good Alpha, a swell of rage curled in the pit of her stomach and she struck out against him with her staff.
She wasn't anticipating his harsh rebuttal with his own staff. He swung and knocked her down. She lay there, momentarily dazed as he approached. The weight of his boot on her chest snapped her back to the present. He managed to pry off her helmet. She tried desperately to get his leg from pinning her.
He gave a roar as he readied his staff to strike her. She would surely die from the hit.
Another man's roar erupted from nearby and suddenly the weight and Drago were knocked away from her. She sat up in a slight dazed confusion. Valka raised her eyes and smiled despite herself. "Thank you," she said lovingly.
Stoick looked down to her and offered her a hand up, which she took gratefully. Their hands lingered together momentarily. The power and pride in his stance was undeniable. "For you, my dear," he replied, eyes peering over at Drago, "anything." He swung his axe about with experienced maneuvers. He and Drago began circling one another fiercely, like two predators.
Valka wished to say more, but it was not the time. Not during a battle. She backed away from the two slightly, towards Cloudjumper.
"Val," Stoick called as he kept his eyes on the massive man before him, "do you think you can stop them?"
Truthfully she had no idea. It wasn't easy to stop two feuding dragons regardless. But two Alphas? Despite that, she hardened her resolve, "I'll do my best!" She swung her staff and cut the bola lines that held Cloudjumper. "C'mon Cloudjumper," she cried as she rode off. Good luck, my love, she thought, be safe.
The battle had been won. Berk had been saved thanks to the combined power of the dragons and to the bravery that Hiccup had displayed. Seeing him be named Chief of Berk was a touching moment. Her chest felt as though it might burst with pride. The village had accepted her back with open arms, everyone thoroughly impressed with her vast knowledge of dragons.
Despite the celebrations and the general happiness surrounding the village, the ache of her heart remained.
She missed Stoick deeply and she knew Hiccup did as well. He put up a front when he was out in the village but when he returned home in the evenings he was quiet and a bit withdrawn. He was exhausted in all senses of the word but he wouldn't admit that either.
One night as she lay in bed, she felt tears prickling at her eyes as she thought of her late husband. She shut her eyes before coming to a decision. "Thor," she whispered to herself, "if Stoick is there with you, will you thank him for me? H-He gave me a chance to regain the lost time with our son, and even sacrificed himself for Hiccup... I just want to thank him for having given us this opportunity." She felt silly and yet a part of her felt fulfilled.
Sleep began to take her then, slowly but surely. Just as she was about to fall asleep, she felt like there was a presence there with her. A large hand lay on her cheek tenderly and a familiar voice spoke to her:
"For you, my dear… anything."
The next morning she found the wedding band that Stoick had given her so long ago sitting on the bed… right where Stoick would've lain beside her.
And there we go! I wish it didn't have to end so sadly. But alas it has ended there. STALKA IS A BEAUTIFUL PAIRING! See ya later!
~Ghosties
