What You Mean To Me
Pairing: HiccupXAstrid
Rating: M for Mature
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from HTTYD; not the movies, shorts, or series. I also don't own any of the songs I may or may not use. That being said, enjoy the story!
Chapter One: Back To Berk
Screaming fans, blaring lights, pyrotechnics, clapping, dancing, and cheering. All things he was used to when putting on shows for the very loyal and supportive fans of the band. Dragon's Roar. Made up of six people on stage performing and a handful of others behind stage, they were all really good friends-practically family. The room was hot with everyone bundled together in the arena where the concert was being held. Positions for on stage were: Stormfly Nadder, bass guitar player who occasionally played acoustic too. Zap Skriller, electric guitar player. Meatlug Boulders on piano, Hookfang Blaze running drums, Toothless Fury the lead guitarist-also uses an electric, and of course lead singer, Dusk Fury-but they all just used their first names. Backstage was crew and soundboard guys, Hisser and Sparky Boomblast-these two were brothers. So were Dusk and Toothless but it was through an unofficial adoption.
In truth though, those weren't just stage names-they were actual names. Except for Dusk, his real name was Hiccup Haddock-though he never used it anymore, hadn't since the band formed which was four years ago now and had been a hit ever since, they were known all over the Barbaric Archipelago and loved too. The night was slowly coming to an end, the tour was almost over-there was just one place left and then they'd get a little time off to relax. They'd been to every island in the Archipelago so far, the last one was Berk.
"Alright guys and girls, this will the final song of the night! Are you ready?!" the lead singer called out over the cheering. He chuckled a bit as he nodded to the others and they got ready as the music started and the crowd went crazy.
"How many times are you gonna try to shut me out? I told you once, told you twice, I ain't gonna turn back around. You can say whatever, try to mess with me. I don't care, I'm not scared. You don't have to say your sorry, save your sympathy. With a friend like you, I don't need an enemy. I would give you time if you were worth it-but guess what, you're not worth it..." he began as he pulled the microphone off the stand and took a breath.
"Whoa-oh, whoa-oh!" the band sang together.
"I'm always gonna be the last one standing!" Dusk sang out.
"Whoa-oh, whoa-oh!" the band repeated.
"'Cause I'm never gonna give up trying! And now I'm ready to go, I'm here, I'm waiting for you! And I'm gonna be, the last one standing. The last one standing!" Dusk smiled as the crowd was going wild with singing along to the song.
"Did you think that I would surrender easily? Just like that, you were getting rid of me. Is that the way you saw it all go down? I don't think, I don't think so. There's not a word you can say I haven't heard before. So give it up, give it up unless you want a little more. You think you're pretty tough, so let's throw down. It's alright, I'm alright." Dusk sang on his own with the others just smiled still playing.
"Whoa-oh, whoa-oh!" the band yelled out.
"I'm always gonna be the last one standing!" Dusk held the microphone out now as the crowd joined in with the band.
"Whoa-oh, whoa-oh!" they all sang.
"'Cause I'm never gonna give up trying. And now I'm ready to go, I'm here, I'm waiting for you. And I'm gonna be the last one standing!" the music softened a bit now. "I won't give up, I keep trying..."
"I'm always gonna be the last one standing..." came Toothless's voice beside Dusk now.
"It's not over, I keep fighting..." Dusk sang while Hookfang came in from the back by the drums along with Toothless.
"I'm always gonna be the last one standing..." Hookfang and Toothless did together in low tones.
"I won't give up, I keep trying." Dusk smiled.
"I'm always gonna be the last one standing..." Came Toothless, Hookfang, even Hisser and Sparky from back stage joined in.
"It's not over, I keep fighting. I keep fighting!" Dusk sang out hold the microphone with one hand and arching back some as then he came forward and they all started singing together for the end of the song. "Whoa-oh, whoa-oh, I'm always gonna be the last one standing! Whoa-oh, whoa-oh, 'cause I'm never gonna give up trying. And now I'm ready to go, I'm here, I'm waiting for you...And I'm gonna be the last one standing. And I'm gonna be the last one standing! Whoa-oh, whoa-oh, the last one standing! Whoa-oh, whoa-oh, the last one standing!" it echoed a few moments and then ended as the room uproared with excitement and screaming. Dusk panted some as the did the others while setting their instruments down and coming together at the front of the stage to take a bow.
"Thank you! You've been an awesome crowd as always. That wraps it up for tonight, but you can be sure to catch us on TV in a week as we end our tour on the island of Berk! Goodnight, Berserker Isle!" Dusk announced as more clapping and cheering ensued while they all took another bow and headed off staged when the curtain started closing. Once back stage the crew passed them all water bottles and they plopped down in the main dressing room to relax. They all had separate ones but just off a show, they took a load off in a main one.
"Good show tonight lads and lasses," came the band manager's voice. Gobber Craigsen-he was actually Toothless's adoptive father and Hiccup's unofficial father. Gobber adopted Toothless legally when he was only eight years old, and kept his original last name of Fury-which Gobber hadn't minded at all. Hiccup joined the family unofficially when he was eighteen because he hated both of his parents. Toothless and Hiccup met when Toothless overheard Hiccup's singing at a bar-he was doing karaoke to make money and Toothless recorded it, showing it to Gobber who was a big music producer and had his own recording studio right at his house. Gobber had Toothless bring him over and that's how Hiccup got started with the band four years ago.
"Thanks, Gob," Hookfang, Hisser, Sparky, and Zap smiled and the girls just nodded in agreement while enjoying some of the snacks in the room. They had started the concert at 7pm, it was now almost 11pm and they were all ready to hit the road, sleep on the ride, and get to Berk to finish the tour.
"Alright, take some time to wind down then load up on the bus so we can head to Berk. Crew is loading things up for transport now," Gobber informed as he ruffled Hiccup's and Toothless's hair before leaving the room. Hiccup and Toothless were close as best friends and brothers, Hiccup wasn't looking forward to returning to Berk after so long that he'd been away-last time he'd been there.
"Not looking forward to going back, are ya?" Toothless asked him.
"Do you really have to ask me that?" Hiccup replied calmly.
"I still don't understand why you don't want to go back, it's just another island, Dusk." Stormfly stated softly.
"It's personal, Stormfly, we've been over this..." Hiccup sighed now as he finished his water bottle, "Alright, I'm gonna go change and get to the bus. Meet you guys and girls there?" he asked. They nodded with smiles as Hiccup got up and moved to his personal dressing room to clean up and change clothes. No one knew who he was, he only went by the name Dusk to fans, paparazzi, and basically anyone who wasn't in the band itself. Hiccup came from a place where he didn't want anyone to know who he really was because back between the ages of thirteen and eighteen-he was known as a loser in high school and he didn't really have parents. That wasn't to say he was an orphan-his parents just didn't care about him, as also, they were divorced and had been since Hiccup was about ten years old.
When Hiccup graduated high school, he left Berk. Ended up on the main island Archi. It was a name created from Barbaric Archipelago, Archi being the shortened version of Archipelago, the main island is where he met Toothless and the rest of the band members. The Archipelago was located in Iceland, and it was a group of many island surrounding one-which was Archi. Making it to Archi-meant you were hitting the big top careers, it's where you went to become well known or wanted to start a new life. That's exactly what Hiccup wanted to do when he was finally free to leave Berk at the new age of eighteen being a high school graduate. Hiccup had been working in music shop since he was fourteen, learning about the instruments-how to maintain, and fix them. He learned how to sing too, reading music, making it, writing it. He made good money too, and he saved it all. When it came time to leave Berk, he was ready.
But making it on Archi Island was hard, you needed money to survive there. And although Hiccup started out with close to $5,000.00-it wouldn't last him forever. Hiccup was living in a motel for $35 a night or $245 a week. It wasn't much but it gave him a place to sleep and keep a little food for himself. Mainly water or juice, then quick meals he could microwave in a few minutes. It wasn't fancy but it was enough until he started working for karaoke bar called Drake's Den. At first Hiccup was just seating people as a host, then two months after that, they taught him how to be a bartender when he jumped behind the bar to help out. Only reason he moved up into performing was because the boss heard him singing while he was cleaning up one night. After that, Hiccup was performing two hours every night and singing songs people requested him to sing. This is how Toothless found him-scouting possible singers for Gobber to turn into stars or join a band.
Hiccup was hesitant when Toothless offered him the position as lead singer for the band his father was trying to start-all they needed was lead singer and a couple songs to make a CD with and get a gig to get them off the ground. Hiccup felt like he had nothing left to lose so he agreed and sure enough-they went really far. They were a hit and news traveled fast about them. Dragon's Roar became one of the top bands in the whole of the Archipelago so they started doing concerts around seven months in to starting it all and then the last three years and four months had been all putting on shows, tours, and being friends. With the money Hiccup made from Dragon's Roar and what he'd saved when he worked at Drake's Den-he was able to get himself a better place to live although originally he'd been living at Gobber's with Toothless. Hiccup felt he should have his own place to live so when they were staying in Berk a while, he got himself an studio for $400 a month.
It wasn't much but it worked. He had a bathroom with a toilet, stand up shower, little storage, and small sink-there was a medicine cabinet above it. The other storage was something over the toilet for towels and toilet paper. The living room and kitchen were one big area. Three couches, a recliner, some tables and lamps. The kitchen side had a double sink, endless cabinets and drawers, stove, fridge and freezer combination. Towards the back was his bedroom, separated by two sliding doors. Gobber, Toothless, and the other band member were actually all from Berk originally. Wasn't that just awesome within itself. Stormfly and Meatlug lived together, Hookfang lived with Zap. Hiss and Spark lived on their own. Toothless still lived with Gobber and all of them were pretty close to one another. All work for the band was still done at Gobber's place, as this had become their permanent location.
For things related to the band, they all wore sweat proof but still washable face paint. The clothes were pretty simple though. Their face paint was all put on to make them appear to look like dragons. Toothless was black and neon blue marks on his forehead, nose, and around the mouth, Stormfly was teal around the face but orange around the eyes, Meatlug was green and orange dots and some lines. Hookfang decided to use red, yellow, and orange to make the appearance of fire, then Zap used purple with blue lightning strikes. Hiss and Sparky, though usually in the back during performances would use it too. Hiss had green smoke cloud, then Sparky had a yellow face with orange spark dots. Hiccup used black with red and gray lines on his cheeks. All their own designs for their personality.
Yep, everything was really good for Hiccup-he loved his new life and never wanted to go back to the old one again, the one where no one even knew who he was. It made him smile knowing he was away from it all finally, and he even had a girlfriend. Heather Lanvik, they'd been together for about two years but weren't doing so good because of this tour he'd been on for the last eight months or so. Heather lived in Berk so they'd get to see one another when the tour was over-Hiccup was just waiting for the inevitable fight to take place, another reason he was dreading going back to Berk. Heather loved being his girlfriend but half the time Hiccup felt like she only stayed with him for the celebrity lifestyle and maybe the sex. She loved being in the spotlight and it honestly bothered Hiccup to no end. Indeed, Hiccup was no virgin. He gave that up when he was nineteen years old, he was twenty two now.
"Hiccup, you ready?" Toothless asked while knocking on the door. Hiccup snapped out of his thoughts as he looked over himself. Face paint off, dressed in sneakers, gray jeans, red shirt. He was ready, he guessed at least.
"I'm comin', Tooth!" Hiccup replied to him as he made sure to get his phone and wallet before shutting off the light and exiting the room.
"What took ya?" Hookfang asked.
"Got lost in thoughts," Hicucp said softly as they all shrugged and headed to the bus, the one taking them to the airport for the five hour flight to Berk-this was sure to have at least one layover too. The drive to the airport was about forty-five minutes. Hiccup just wanted to sleep, he was tired and dreading the return but at least after this, the tour was over and he could relax a bit. All loading on the bus, Gobber made sure they had everything packed up before giving the driver the okay to leave, with that they were driving to the airport. Hiccup put his head against the headrest and closed his eyes, maybe he could catch a little sleep before they boarded the plane in roughly an hour.
"You think he's okay?" Gobber asked Toothless.
"Yeah-he's just not looking forward to going back to Berk. Sure Heather is gonna start a fight with him," Toothless sighed.
"I don't see why he's with her, she's kind of a bitch..." Zap remarked.
"Because he loves her and he's a good guy, but I think he's getting to the end of his rope with her though. I walked by during their last phone conversation-huge fight about him being gone too long again," Stormfly stated.
"Well, that's his call. We're just gonna be good friends and be there for him as much as we can," Meatlug added as the others nodded. They stayed quiet so Hiccup could sleep and the drive went on. Hiccup was awake when they were talking, he knew they were right. Heather was being unreasonable lately and Hiccup was sick of the fighting too. Maybe it was time for them to sit down and talk or he'd break up with her. Right now he wouldn't worry about it, he just wanted to get back to Berk and sleep before the next concert date in three weeks-then some much needed time off to recuperate. Forty five minutes later, they reached Berserker Airport and got off the bus. Following that they boarded the plane while the workers took care of their gear. By 1:15am-they were all relaxing and trying to catch some sleep because they were on their way back to Berk.