Author's Note:

Hello everyone and welcome to my new story. I don't normally start a new plot driven story when I'm already doing one but this idea wouldn't leave me alone and it was too long to go in my one shot series. It's set in my 'Differently Similar' verse and it's during the ROB episode 'Thawfest' and will differ dramatically from that episode. I hope you enjoy the chapter.

I own nothing.


The Worries of Competition

Thawfest.

Hiccup both hated and loved this particular celebration. He hated it because it involved competing in three events of the Thawfest Games; the Sheep Lug, the Log Roll and the Axe Throwing all of which Hiccup failed miserably at which had only encouraged bullying and abuse from the other kids. However he also loved it because the same three events were things that Snotlout excelled at and his cousin always won the games earning some well-deserved recognition and that was hard to come by for the younger of the two cousins.

Even though Hiccup was considered weak and ill-suited to the role he was still the next in line to be chief which, for good or bad, meant he was usually taken note of. Snotlout was a different story, even though he lived in the chief's house a lot of people didn't really count him as a member of Stoick's family and since he was good friends with Hiccup he'd also been dubbed as 'different' causing most people to just ignore him. Things had obviously changed in recent months and Hiccup was now far more respected (ending a 300 year war would do that for you) but that made him overshadow Snotlout even more. This made Thawfest one of the few times Snotlout could enjoy some attention and respect from the rest of the village and Hiccup knew how much that meant to the other boy.


They were all in the arena training for the games when Gobber came up to the teens, a piece of parchment in his hand, "Dragons!" He announced, "They are now officially part of Thawfest. There will be three additional events. The fly and shoot, which will require you to fly straight and shoot straighter…HEY!"

He ducked as a ball of fire flew past his head and glared at the twins as Tuffnut called to him, "Sorry! We were on the wrong head."

Ruffnut spoke, "I knew something felt weird."

They swapped heads and Tuffnut sighed in relief, "Ahh, much better."

Shaking his head slightly Gobber continued, "Next, is the free-style. Where it's up to you to impress the judges with a trick of your choice."

"That's it, girl. Just like we practiced…"

Gobber left off his explanation briefly to admire Stormfly as she practiced her trick, "Ah! The Nadder Wing Walk. Impressive, Astrid."

Fishlegs spoke up nervously, "Um, excuse me." He stepped up in front of Gobber, "Meatlug and I were wondering if there were going to be any intellectual events." He paused as Gobber looked at him before finishing hopefully, "A puzzle perhaps?"

His face fell as Gobber answered, "I'll take that under advisement, Fishlegs." The blacksmith looked at the parchment before carrying on, "And let's not forget the hurdles! Where you'll be asked to…"

"Whoo-hoo-hoo-hooo!" Snotlout couldn't contain his excitement anymore and he spoke excitedly to his dragon, "This is gonna be awesome Hookfang! We can win this thing together."

"Not this year you're not!" They all looked to Astrid who had her arms folded confidently, "Me and Stormfly are going to win it this year, just watch."

Snotlout bristled, "Not gonna happen Astrid." He straightened proudly, "The Jorgenson clan has never lost a Thawfest Games and I am not gonna to be the first one to lose."

"You can kiss that claim goodbye, because this year it's going to be a Hofferson that claims the medal." Astrid strode over to her dragon, "C'mon Stormfly, let's go and train. We need to show Berk who the best Viking really is."

As she flew off Snotlout yelled after her, "Good luck with that cause me and Hookfang are gonna make sure that everyone knows it's not you!"

He got on Hookfang and also took to the air. As the other riders headed off, Hiccup remained where he was for a moment, though he'd heard rumours of it happening Gobber had confirmed that dragon events were indeed being added to the games, this left him with a problem.

The addition of dragon events meant that Hiccup now had a good chance to win the games for the first time, the flip side was that he'd have to take that victory from his cousin. The part of him that still needed to prove himself wanted to seize this chance and do everything to win, however there was another part that didn't want to steal his cousin's moment of triumph. It was the only time that Snotlout wasn't 'Stoick's nephew' or 'Hiccup's cousin', instead he was 'Snotlout Jorgenson, Thawfest's Reigning Champion' and wasn't simply dismissed as a spare person in the Haddock household, to take that from him just seemed…wrong.

Hiccup sighed and began heading off after the others, though still undecided about what he wanted he'd still have to prepare for the games which were due to start the day after next.


That night Hiccup lay awake in bed not really feeling sleepy, he'd been wrestling with the Thawfest problem for most of the day even as he designed a new tail fin for Toothless which was better suited for the dragon events. As he stared at the ceiling he continued to think about it, he didn't want to win only to lose his friendship with Snotlout in the process. A part of his mind was trying very hard to tell him that their friendship was too strong for something small like a tournament to break it but he was still worried. When Hiccup had been younger and his friends at the time began to turn away Snotlout had stayed firmly on his side leading to years when it had really just been the two of them and Hiccup didn't want to risk losing that, even if the risk was blown out of proportion by his admittedly highly cautious when it came to friendships, mind.

Seeing that just thinking about it wasn't going to get him anywhere, Hiccup sat up and he tentatively spoke, "Snotlout."

The lack of snoring from the other bed had told him his cousin was awake but even so there was a bit of shifting and a few sleepy growls before his cousin answered, "Yeah?"

Hiccup took a moment before speaking, "You know how they've added dragon events this year?"

"Yeah."

Snotlout sounded a bit more awake and, using the moonlight coming through the roof window, Hiccup could see him sitting up in bed staring at him as he continued, "Well those events might mean that I might actually win this year."

"I guess they do."

Snotlout sounded unsure why his cousin was mentioning this now and Hiccup took the plunge, "If I actually manage to win this year, are you going to be angry that I took the win that's always yours."

"No. Why would I be?"

Hiccup was thrown by the genuine confusion in his cousin's voice and he tried to explain, "I mean its…well it's always been…you know…it's you're…"

"Hiccup." Snotlout cut across him, "I have no problem with you trying to take the chance to win this year and I'm definitely not going to be angry if you do it. In fact," he leaned forward, "I think you should try and win this thing but don't expect me to make it easy for you, me and Hookfang are determined to claim this one as ours."

Grinning Hiccup answered the friendly challenge, "Well you two better watch out cause me and Toothless are going to fight till the end for this victory."

Hiccup could just about see Snotlout grinning back at him as the younger cousin answered, "May the best Viking win?"

"May the best Viking win." Hiccup confirmed.

Giving a satisfied nod Snotlout settled back down to sleep and Hiccup followed suite wondering why he had been worried in the first place.


PS-So there's chapter one and please let me know what you thought. I'll try and update soon but I don't want to shove my other story 'Of Fire and Warp Drives' to side so possibly see you soon.