Mommy, Don't Leave
A/N: I was really bored and I felt like writing something for book!Hiccup. Originally, this idea was a lot different, but then I remembered in book ten when he's like, "...going away even when I begged you not to..." and I was like yess angst it beckons... So this was born.
"Where is it?!"
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, quite a small boy for such a long name, crouched lower behind his bed, hearing the 'it' in question clink and rattle beneath his bed. He refused to give away his position this time.
"Where's what, Val?" The unmistakable tones of Hiccup's fearsome father, Stoick the Vast, echoed through the house. The man was an impressive Viking, but he never quite seemed sure of anything that was going on around him.
"My sword!" Hiccup's mother, Valhallmara of the White Arms and Chunky Thighs, sounded aggrieved when she spoke. "I can't find it anywhere! I was supposed to leave much earlier than this!"
"Here, let me help you look..." Stoick offered, and the two of them lapsed into silence, save for the occasional bump or thump when they moved something to look for the sword.
Hiccup slid a hand under the bed, his grip on the sword hilt sweaty. But if this is what it took, then this is what it took. He wouldn't tell anyone.
At least until a knock came at the door and it opened slowly. "Hiccup?" Val called softly, entering the bedroom. "Have you seen my sword?"
Hiccup flew out from behind the bed and wrapped himself around his mother's knees. He shook his head no. "I haven't seen your sword," he told her solemnly, inwardly flinching at the lie, "but maybe, since you can't find it, you should just stay here." He gave her a hopeful look.
"Hiccup..." Val gently pried her son away from her legs. "I can't do that, sweetheart. Would you like to help me-?"
Hiccup supposed later that it was a trick of the light, but at the time, he was throwing every rude word he knew at the god Loki, whom he had prayed to very hard for this to work, when his mother stopped mid sentence, knelt down next to the bed and retrieved her sword. She didn't express surprise; she merely gazed at the beautiful weapon and sighed. "Hiccup, you're going to make me late."
"Mommy, please don't leave!" The little boy pleaded, following his mother out onto the landing. "Please stay here!"
"I can't," she responded simply, beginning to go downstairs.
So Hiccup followed her doggedly down the steps, too. "Mommy, please don't leave!" He begged, blue eyes filling with tears. He reached for her cloak and gripped it with everything he had, trying to pull her backward. "Please, Mommy, can't you stay here just once?"
"No." She batted him carelessly aside and shook off her cloak, not even seeming to care or notice that he was about to cry. "Let me go, Hiccup. And no more funny business when I'm trying to go on Quests, okay?" She turned to him with an angry glare. "You've got to stop hiding my things. You're much too old for that."
"But Mommy...I'll miss you..." Hiccup began to cry in earnest now, hugging his mother's knees.
"Oh." She sighed a little to herself, kneeling down next to him and giving him a quick pat on the head. "There, there, Hiccup."
"Why do you have to go?" Hiccup pulled away to gaze at his mother slightly accusingly through his tears.
"It's complicated," the woman replied simply, taking to her feet again and easily pushing him away. "You'll understand someday."