Summary: Hiccup is having a happy life with newly born Zephyr and his family; now that he has a daughter, Valka worries he has a new perspective on the fact she had abandoned him for almost 20 years, after all, how could she have left her son?
Never Let You Go
Hiccup paced around the living room with little Zephyr in his arms; the three-months-old baby girl was finally drifting off.
The front door gently creaked open, making room for Valka to enter the house without making much noise.
"Hi." She whispered, looking at her granddaughter on Hiccup's arms. "I saw Astrid in the village and I thought you two exchanged the parenting duties. Do you need any help?"
"Thanks, but I got it covered. She really likes it when I hold her." He smiled proudly.
"Indeed she does; she always quiets down quickly. And how is Astrid doing?"
"She's fine, but I know she needs some free time from Zephyr. Even though we love her, she can still make us want to pull our hair out sometimes… I knew she needed a break after spending so much time with her, so I sent Astrid to take care of a few Vikings that were having an argument for hours…" he chuckled and joked: "She'd handle it better than I, anyway; they're more afraid of the general the chief, so she can stop them if they try to kill each other…"
"I can agree with it." She said remembering how Astrid could make people shut up and listen way easier than Hiccup could; they were truly perfect for each other.
Valka came closer, grabbing a small blanket on a chair on the way to them. She carefully put the blanket over Zephyr and he adjusted his hold on the baby girl with it. He kissed the top of her head.
"Are you sure you don't need any help here?" she asked again and now his eyes were drawn to the table between the living room and he kitchen. It was a mess with plates and cups on a corner and filled with papers in the middle.
"What about paperwork?"
"I'm pretty sure the chief is the one that needs to go through them, but I can help with the dishes." She grabbed them and took them to the counter and washbasin to clean them.
Hiccup's green orbs found the Toothless plushy he had made recently, so he could tell Zephyr the stories of the time when dragons and men lived together. It broke his heart to think that his future children – if they have more – would probably never get to meet his best friend.
He sighed and tightened his embrace on her. "I'll never let you go, Zephyr." He whispered more to himself than anyone else in the room. "I can't imagine my world without you in it."
His words were soft, but Valka heard them nonetheless. She stopped washing the plate and slowly turned to see him. He noticed the movement, yet it took a while to understand the guilt in her face. He widened and tried to fix the misinterpretation.
"It's not like that, mom… I didn't say it because of you… I…"
"But it's true." She cut him off. "I left you and your father when you were only a baby, not much older than Zephyr."
He shook his head. "I didn't mean it like that. "
"I know…" She gulped. "Still, I'm so sorry for it. And I know you don't understand me… And especially now that you have a daughter you must re-"
"I don't resent you, mom." It was his turn to cut her off before she could finish the sentence.
"I wouldn't blame you for it." Valka continued. "How could a mother abandon her own child? It's unforgivable."
"Mom, stop it. I can't understand how you did that because letting Toothless go was the hardest thing I ever had to do; so I know it'd be even harder to be separated from Zephyr now and she's only in our lives for the past three months." He sighed and tried to calm down when she stirred in his arms. "However, I know those 20 years were hard on you. Now I can have a bigger sense of how difficult it was on you. Yet I also know you believed it was the best for me."
"Yet, if I were here, I could have been there for you when you needed it."
"True, but you're here for me now. Of course I'd have wanted you to be closer to me when I was a kid, but I don't resent anything; it made the person I am today. You thought it was best and safer for me if you were away because of a mistake you made, I remember you telling me that. Besides, how could you come back? People could have attacked Cloudjumper and even if you managed to land unnoticed – which it's possible because I've done it –, how could you tell the people of Berk what happened? They wouldn't believe dragons were good anyway, we know how stubborn Vikings can be. Instead, you helped dragons the way you could and crippled Drago's forces multiple times. Who knows, without you doing it, maybe he could have attacked us before and killed us all."
She forced a smile. "That is a good point…"
"I only said that because I remembered Toothless… Gods, I miss him so much…"
"I know… I miss Cloudjumper, too. He was my sole companion for two decades." Her voice broke and tears streamed down her face.
"Yeah…" Hiccup also had some tears of his own. "I just miss them all so much; the dragons, Toothless and my dad. I wish they were here."
Valka left the counter and made her way to him to embrace her son, though a side-hug, so she wouldn't wake up Zephyr.
"Don't be like that Hiccup. Who knows, maybe you'll see Toothless again some day."
He slowly nodded. "Yeah, maybe…" Then he looked from his sleeping daughter to his mother. "But right now, I'm just glad to have you two and Astrid with me."
Valka wiped away her wet eyes, and smiled before she kissed his own wet cheeks. It was difficult for her to say goodbye to Cloudjumper, but she was also glad to have her family now and to be forgiven by her son for her past decisions.
This is just a cute mother-son (and father-daughter) moment that I had the idea by a post on instagram, though I don't remember from whom. The post said that Hiccup forgave his mother too quickly in HTTYD2, possibly because he didn't know what it was like to have a child and his perspective might change when Zephyr was born and that was my view of how Hiccup would react to it.
I hope you all liked it and please leave a review on your way out! :D