Chapter 1

Hiccup smiled nervously from his place next to his father while the announcement of his betrothal was made. He knew this wasn't going to help his situation with the other boys in the village since all of them wanted his betrothed as their own, but he was willing to take a few extra lumps for the chance to finally be able to get to know Astrid. He's had random fantasies of being able to go to his father in a few years and asking him to arrange the match, but he'd never in his wildest imaginings thought that her father would be the one to petition his.

When Stoick finished speaking the great hall was silent, but then… everybody started to laugh. Everybody except the Hoffersons and Astrid. She was glaring at him. His face felt like the skin was literally being seared from the bones by the amount of hatred she was projecting at him. It struck him deeply that she could despise him so much when she barely knew him.

A few of Ingmar Hofferson's friends called out to him that this jest was in poor taste. Rather than joining their laughter and agreeing that the Chief and he had just fooled the entire village he stood and announced that the contracts were signed, and the wedding was set for when the pair turned twenty. With a flat look at Stoick, he told the crowd that he'd prefer it be done when they were eighteen, but apparently his new son would be learning governance at that time.

Hiccup had given up at trying to keep a smile on his face by this point. His thin shoulders were hunched, his eyes were downcast, and he was using every bit of will power he had to keep a neutral expression. Every male between the ages of twelve and twenty in the hall was sneering at him, whispering not so quietly (shouting and whispering were the same to Vikings) to their friends how unfair it was that Useless was the chief's son and could afford to outbid them. Several were offering to fight against him for her hand… of course they made sure to announce they were thinking to pit their own fists against any weapon that Useless might actually be able to lift because he was that little of a threat to them. But the worst was that un-nerving glare coming from his intended. Her beautiful face was drawn into a snarl and her normally clear blue eyes were clouded with rage.

When Stoick and Ingmar finally managed to regain control of the hall, Edrea Hofferson noticed the look on her daughter's face and who it was directed at. Even though she fully supported her husband's decision to tie their daughter to Stoick's heir, she felt bad for the young man who would be her son. She'd hoped to take a softer approach to this, but the men wanted all of the legalities tied up now so that nobody else could interfere. She understood that of course, they'd started receiving offers for Astrid well before she'd grown from child to maiden after all. But to her way of thinking, doing this before Hiccup had a chance to hit a growth spurt and while he was still so bullied by the other children was not doing favors to either of them, given the nasty look her daughter was bestowing on the poor lad. Edrea stood and with a sharp word to her recalcitrant offspring, took the girl home until such time as she managed to remember the basic manners she'd been taught.

After calmly wishing her daughter a good night…only to have a door slammed in her face Edrea retired to her chair before the hearth and got lost in her memories.

She'd known Valka and her brother all her life, and though most on Berk would scoff, she was not lying when she said that Hiccup was the image of his uncle. Oh he had Stoick's hair and Valka's eyes, obviously… but Koen Ahlberg had been a tiny, clumsy boy that grew to be a fit and strong man; a fierce warrior. Valka had been taller than any Berkian woman; lithe and lean. As young children, they'd been tiny… literally the hiccups of their own village in Lapland. It was genetic in the Ahlberg line, they had Southern blood.

Lars Ahlberg was a merchant prince like his father and his grandfather before him. Also like his father and grandfather before him, he'd returned from a trading voyage one summer married to a petite woman from the Southern lands… who was already carrying his twins. Neither Valka nor Koen had gained their height and strength until their seventeenth summers. By then, Valka had already been long-since promised to Stoick, and Koen had gone to Southern Gaul to secure his mother's estate following the death of his maternal grandfather. Edrea herself met Ingmar when Stoick came to collect his bride and had been married and moving to Berk within weeks.

When Hiccup was born, exactly three people on Berk believed the wee mite would survive the winter: Stoick, Valka, and Edrea. Stoick believed because this was his son and he couldn't bear to think differently. Valka and Edrea believed because the babe's mother and uncle were living proof. Everyone else on Berk had taken one look at the tiny babe when Stoick presented him to the village and had offered condolences rather than congratulations. Even mother Gothi had been shaking her head sadly after seeing the Hooligan heir for the first time.

If only Valka had lived. That was a refrain that ran through her head every time she saw someone treating Hiccup unkindly.

If only Valka had lived… Hiccup and Astrid would have been able to grow up together. Leaving his son's care to Spitelout and his sullen, beaten-down wife while he was busy overseeing the village wasn't Stoick's biggest failure as a father, but it wasn't his finest moment either. Gerda Jorgenson had no patience for the son of her half-brother and spoiled her own son terribly. The few times Edrea had brought Astrid over hoping the two babies could play together, the older toddler had caused problems and thrown tantrums until Gerda finally asked Edrea not to return.

If only Valka had lived… maybe Koen and Stoick wouldn't have ended their relationship with drawn swords and threats of death, their grief momentarily overtaking their common sense and pride slamming that final door. Having Koen visit would have been of immeasurable comfort and help to Hiccup because Koen understood the issues his nephew was facing due to his small stature and how to handle them.

If only Valka had lived… maybe Stoick would have some type of common ground with Hiccup. Stoick was a brave man and a great leader, but he wasn't possessed of the same quick cleverness and sly sarcasm of his son. Stoick was a warrior, Hiccup loved working in the forge with Gobber and inventing. Stoick had a seething hatred of dragons, Hiccup had shown little interest or talent in killing anything.

But Valka hadn't lived. Astrid and Hiccup weren't friends. Koen wasn't around to give guidance and affection to his nephew. Stoick couldn't relate to the small, clever, clumsy boy he'd sired who had no interest in being a warrior and so much talent in other areas. It was all too obvious to everyone in Berk that Stoick loved his son… but he didn't know how to deal with a young man that was so polar opposite of himself and all that he believed to be proper for a Viking. As time passed, Stoick's love couldn't hide his disappointment any longer. Father and son had very little to say to each other anymore.

Edrea heard Astrid stomping about in her room, muttering angrily. She could only entreat Thor and Freya that Astrid would calm down and give Hiccup a chance, but she feared that wouldn't happen. Her daughter could hold a grudge until it died of old age and had the uncontrollable temper that all women born of the Hofferson bloodlines possessed. It made them warrior women of unparalleled caliber, but it could also make them cold and hateful. Neither of Ingmar's sisters had married, because no man was willing to face their rage for daring to try. They'd been legendary shield maidens and died glorious deaths in battle. It terrified Edrea that Astrid idolized her aunts so much.

Across the village, Hiccup didn't even bother to pretend he wasn't listening to his father and Ingmar Hofferson talking. He hoped to hear something he could use as an ice breaker with Astrid, but all he was hearing was his father offering to dissolve the contract. Stoick hadn't noticed his own sons' reaction to the announcement, but he'd definitely noticed the anger and distress it was causing his prized student. Hiccup realized bitterly that his father only accepted the Hofferson's offer because he didn't expect any other family in the village to want his gawky son married to one of their girls.

Aside from Gobber, Ingmar and Edrea had been the only adults to give him any notice once he'd proven incompetent as a Viking and earned his title of Useless. Ingmar was the town's animal healer. He spent quite a bit of time at the forge every week getting his various instrument blades re-edged or sharpened. Because it was fine detail work, Gobber always left it to Hiccup. His hook was suitable for holding larger weapons but small implements were difficult for him. During these times, Ingmar would speak to him as if he had an opinion worth hearing, and even took his suggestions for improvements to some of his tools. He knew Edrea had been a friend of his mothers', and she went out of her way to stop the other children from treating him poorly whenever she could.

Before the announcement last night, Astrid hadn't been one of the teens that actively harassed him. In fact, he doubted he crossed her mind at all unless it was because he'd bollixed up another experiment and brought the wrath of Berk down on his head again. Now she probably hated him more than Snotlout did. He just didn't understand why that made him feel like he'd taken a spear to the chest.

**One Year Later**

Hiccup didn't understand what he was hearing at first. His head was fuzzy and his body was screaming in pain. Memories were wheeling through his head at a fast clip, but then he heard a voice that jolted all of the chaos in his head to a stop. It was her voice. Astrid. The girl who'd once been his dream come true, but now was the living embodiment of all of his nightmares.

Given her treatment of him for the past year, he didn't understand why she was even in his house. Unless she'd come to finish him off while he was too weak to escape her. Even in his own head the thought was bitter and resigned rather than sarcastic.

He'd held out hope for the first few months that she would talk to him and they could get to know each other better. He'd given all the obligatory good faith gestures of bringing her flowers, trying to walk her home from the great hall in the evenings, and he'd even made her a beautiful axe for her fifteenth birthday. She'd gone from silently glaring at him, to verbally berating him, to hitting him any time he was within her reach, and then to egging on other boys to physically attack him.

He'd finally taken the hint after she took the axe he'd made just for her and thrown it off the cliff into the harbor. It had taken him a months' worth of labor to earn the materials from Gobber and another two months to make with one month of that being the painstaking detail he'd put into decorating the blades with filigreed Celtic knots and runes of protection carefully woven through the design. Gobber told him it was the finest weapon he'd ever seen… and she'd thrown it away without even bothering to look at it. The last small, hopeful part of him had given up on having a good life with Astrid while he watched the carefully polished steel winking brightly in the sun as it hurtled towards the ocean and disappeared with a sickening plunking noise.

He never knew that after he nodded slowly and walked away silently that she felt remorse for her rash action. But her pride wouldn't let her apologize to Useless, and he was done fighting a losing battle.

He'd asked his father that very afternoon to dissolve the contracts, only to be told bluntly that he had no other marriage prospects, on Berk or amongst Stoick's allies. Since he was heir, and he had no other marriage prospects, there was nothing his father could or would do to extricate him from the situation. Only Astrid's father could dissolve the contracts at this point. Hiccup thought briefly of telling her father what she'd done and why he wanted out, but he respected the man and his wife too much to actually tell them the lows their beloved daughter was capable of sinking to. He figured that he wouldn't be the first leader's child bartered away into a loveless marriage. He was already hated by his entire village and disdained by his only blood relative; by his own estimation, if his life would never get any better at least it couldn't get any worse.

A tingling burn screamed down his left leg breaking him from his memories, and without stopping to think about what he was doing he sat up and grabbed for the offending limb only for his fingers to encounter … nothing. In horror he flung the covers off of his body and stared at the halfway healed mangled lump of flesh that used to be his lower leg. He managed to choke back his scream, but couldn't hold in the high-pitched keening whine that worked out of his throat. Seconds later, Toothless was bursting through his door puffed up in warning and checking every inch of Hiccup's room for invisible threats.

Once the Night Fury was satisfied that his human was safe, he sat and gave the boy a quizzical glance that Hiccup easily interpreted as the dragon wanting to know if he was alright. But he wasn't. He really wasn't alright this time. He felt his grip on sanity loosen for an instant, but hearing her voice again brought him back from the edge. He was found lacking enough by his intended, he refused to allow her to see him have a breakdown on top of everything else she put him through.

They stared at each other in silence for a moment, before she asked in a hesitant voice if she could bring him anything. He couldn't keep the baffled look off his face at what was almost a kind gesture from a decidedly unkind girl, but shook his head no and laid back down. He feigned sleep, hoping she would leave.

Another set of footsteps enter his room and a female voice he can't place asks if Useless had woken up or not. He listens as his betrothed explains that he'd seemed out of it, not really cognizant of what he was doing before he fell back to sleep. The rougher voice teases Astrid that she was going soft for Useless. The last thing Hiccup hears before he truly does lose consciousness again is her angry voice saying it would have been better for herself and all of Berk if he'd died fighting the Red Death.

**4 Months Later**

Hiccup stood passively, listening to Stoick rail and rant at him. Irresponsible. Childish. Selfish. He might be missing a few bullet points, but there is no mistaking Stoick is literally beside himself with rage. When the old man ran out of steam, Hiccup mounted Toothless and renewed his promise to send a monthly letter… and then he was gone.

He doesn't look back, so he doesn't see his father wiping a tear away as he fades from the older man's view.