"What on Earth . . . Hiccup!"
The six year old stood in front of the open door to the forge, soaking wet from head to toe, snow clinging to his clothing and what snow that had melted soaking through his clothes and biting into his skin. His hair was dripping and plastered to his forehead with water, and Gobber sighed.
He was just about to call it a night when he heard the tentative knocks on the door. He had half expected it to be someone else coming late to pick up or drop off a weapon.
But he hadn't expected it to be his newly appointed apprentice. Hiccup had only been working with him for two weeks, and yet, the young boy had already learned so much. Sure, he wasn't strong enough to pick up a sword on his own, but Gobber had already taught him most of the basics, and Hiccup was eager to learn. He was curious, and more than that, he was smart. He enjoyed learning more than people knew how to properly express.
And here he was, standing dripping wet in front of the open door, looking at his mentor with those big green eyes of his. He looked embarrassed and worried both at once, fiddling with the bottom of his shirt nervously.
"Hiccup?" Gobber said with confusion. "What are you doing here, lad? How late is it?" He looked behind Hiccup: the sky was black, and the moon was high up in the sky. He looked back down at his apprentice. "What are you doing here at this hour? I thought you were at Snotlout's."
Hiccup sniffled, wiping his nose with his sleeve. "I...I was at Snotlout's," he said. "But...but then I left."
Gobber's already wide eyes widened. It was Snotlout's birthday, and they were celebrating it, and, according to Spitelout, Snotlout's mother had insisted he invited Hiccup, since they were cousins. Although Hiccup wasn't acting very upbeat about going, Gobber never expected this of the boy.
"You left," he echoed, and Hiccup nodded. Gobber sighed. "But why?" He stepped away to let Hiccup in, and Hiccup accepted the invitation. Gobber shut the door behind him, and the silence was only broken by the dying embers of the hearth and the dripping of water against the wooden floorboards.
"Because," Hiccup said, and then fell silent. Only for a moment, mind you, because a second later, he burst into tears. "I'm sorry!" he cried. "I didn't know...I didn't know..."
Gobber was at a loss. He didn't know the first thing about children, honestly, he didn't. And even if he did know something about children and how to comfort them, he wouldn't know what to do when it came to Hiccup. Hiccup was a lot like his father: stoic, not one to openly display his emotions, instead bottling them up and storing them somewhere no one would ever find them…
But at the same time, he wasn't going to stand there and do nothing while Hiccup cried his eyes out. He patted the boy's head awkwardly with his one real hand, his other arm hanging limply at his side. Okay, what now?
"Ah, here, lad," Gobber said, gesturing to the side where a curtain was spread between the main forge and Hiccup's work place, "go on and change into some dry clothes, and I'll be with you in a second, alright?"
Hiccup nodded shakily and raced off. Ever since becoming Gobber's apprentice, he was spending more and more time in the forge to the point where he was practically living there, and Gobber didn't tell him that he had to leave even once. The boy didn't have any friends as it was, and Gobber didn't want to make the lad feel as though the blacksmith were turning on him, too.
He was quite fond of Hiccup, really, he was. He didn't want to do anything that would beak his trust with the young boy.
But really, though. He needed to learn a little bit more about children.
After a few minutes passed, Hiccup reappeared. His hair was damp, but had returned to its usual "stick-up-in-all-directions" feature. The only thing different was the fact that his clothes were dry, and his eyes were a little less...watery, for lack of better word. He wasn't smiling goofily like he normally was, and it worried the blacksmith more than he would wish to say out loud, possibly, because he cared for Hiccup.
The younger of the two looked at Gobber pleadingly, and Gobber sighed. "Alright, come here," he said, spreading his arms slowly. Hiccup slammed into him before Gobber was even fully prepared for it, but that didn't stop him from hugging Hiccup back in a calming gesture. Hiccup sobbed, big, salty tears running down his face, and any attempt to wipe them away was in vain. Gobber managed to sit down, Hiccup on his lap. "Alright, laddie. You want to tell me what happened?" he asked.
Hiccup pulled away briefly and wiped his eyes with another sniffle. He nodded his head, and Gobber waited for him to continue with patience. "Snot...Snotlout had us all over," Hiccup whimpered. "And...and they were arguing about how...how my Mom died."
Gobber groaned inwardly. He should have seen this coming, and he should have expected nothing less of Snotlout and the twins.
"They...they asked me what happened," Hiccup said, "but...but I...I told them I don't know. Dad...Dad doesn't like talking about it, and so...so...so he never told me. But...but Snotlout said I was lying. He...he said that my Mom hated me, and that she left because of that."
Gobber couldn't believe any of this. Now, he expected Snotlout to act like the idiot he was, but...but this was just taking it too far.
"And then they laughed at me for crying," Hiccup went on. "They told me that I need to buck up and grow a backbone, and….I just did what they said."
"What did you do?"
"I punched them."
"Hiccup…"
"But it wasn't hard!" Hiccup protested. "I didn't even hit them! They moved out of the way before I had the chance, but...then Snotlout pretended to cry and said I hit him because I didn't like him and I thought he was stupid. But I didn't do any of that!"
"So you left."
"Yes."
"And you found me."
"Yes."
"In the dark."
"Yes."
"While it's snowing and raining."
"Yes."
"But why? Snotlout's house is all the way on the other side of the island...why not find one of your friends that lives closer? Why come all the way to the forge?"
"Because you're my only friend."
Gobber sighed. He couldn't deny that fact; the things that made Hiccup Hiccup also made him outcasted. Sad thing, it was, a six year old being outcasted by his own people, but it was the truth nonetheless.
On the other hand, Gobber was glad Hiccup thought of him as a "friend" and not just a "mentor." "Well, I'm glad you came to find me, lad," he said, "but next time...maybe you should…" He let his voice trail off when he realized that Hiccup did the only thing the boy knew how to do: he found help. He was scared and alone, and he found help in the only person he felt comfortable around.
"Gobber?"
"Yes, lad?"
"Is...is it true?"
"Is what true?"
"The...the thing about my Mom. Did...did she really hate me? Did she really leave, Gobber?"
Gobber didn't dare hesitate. "No, Hiccup," he said firmly. "She loved you. She didn't leave you."
Hiccup blinked. "Then where is she? What happened to her?"
Gobber sighed. Hiccup was smart, and Gobber appreciated that, especially since most of the other youths Hiccup's age couldn't tell a yak from a dragon, but at the same time, Gobber often found himself wishing Hiccup wasn't so sharp.
Hiccup's mother, Valhallarama (more commonly known as Valka for the sakes of vikings who couldn't read or spell or even pronounce her name properly), was just like Hiccup in every way, shape, and form. You could tell, even from a distance, that they were no doubt mother and son. And not only did they look the same, but they had similar personalities. They were both creative, they were both smart - but not just facts smart. They were clever, too. They didn't want to kill, they wanted to learn.
"You see, Hiccup," Gobber said slowly. "Your mother...well…" He wasn't ready for this. He wasn't ready to tell Hiccup how his mother died. He wasn't ready. This wasn't his place, this was Stoick's place as Hiccup's father, but Stoick never talked about it. The wounds of losing Valka were too recent, even after six years. It was too painful for him to talk about...it was no surprise Hiccup didn't know anything about her. "She was taken by dragons, Hiccup. I'm sorry."
It took nearly five minutes before Hiccup spoke again. "Gobber?" he asked shyly.
"Yes?"
"Will she come back?"
Gobber's breath hitched, and he held his apprentice tighter. "I don't think so, Hiccup," he whispered. Oh, this was hard to say. This was beyond hard to say. "I don't think so."
"Oh," Hiccup said quietly.
There was a beat.
And then he flung his arms around his mentor's neck and cried. Gobber sucked in a breath. It always killed him to see Hiccup cry. It absolutely killed him.
But then again, he didn't know anything about children. He settled for hugging Hiccup tighter as the boy cried ardently, his sobs breaking the silence of the forge. Gobber had no idea what to do, so he did only what he could.
After what felt like hours, Hiccup quieted, and not only that, but he stilled. It took Gobber, who wasn't known for being the most sensitive person in the world, more than five minutes before he realized that Hiccup was sleeping. Gobber sighed, pitying the fearful, horrified child in his arms. At length, he stood up. He really didn't mind carrying Hiccup home...besides, that way, he could tell Stoick about what really happened, just in case Spitelout or Snotlout went and told Stoick Snotlout's lie and Stoick punished Hiccup for it.
The rain had stopped, and for that, Gobber was thankful. He stepped down the steps, trying not to wake Hiccup.
The boy shifted, his breathing serene. "Than...thanks, Gobber…" he whispered half consciously before promptly falling asleep once again.
Although Gobber knew the child was sleeping, he still whispered, "You're welcome, Hiccup," before continuing on to the Chief's house.
Author's Note:
Am I the only one who thinks Hiccup would be a really, really, really adorable six-year-old? I'm hoping for a flash-back scene in "Race to the Edge" where we see him when he was little. We got one of Astrid in "Defenders of Berk" (episode 6, "Fright of Passage" if you guys want to know).
And I just thought of something. I don't know, maybe it's totally random, but I wanted to spit it out to someone.
Alright, so, something I've realized is that Hiccup and Toothless are practically the same character. Night Furies were different than the other dragons because it never stole food and was never seen, and Hiccup was different than other Vikings because he was skinny and unnoticed. Hiccup had the chance to kill Toothless, as any Viking in his place would have done, but he didn't and later suffered the loss of his leg, and Toothless didn't kill Hiccup when he had the chance, either, which is what every other dragon would have done, and Toothless lost his tailfin. Later on in the film, Hiccup asks, "So why didn't you?" after being told that dragons will always go for the kill, and near the end, Astrid asks Hiccup "So why didn't you?" while asking him why he couldn't kill a dragon.
Neither Hiccup nor Toothless could kill, because they weren't killers, and I just find that...well...I thought that was cool. Opinions?
*silence*
Nobody? Alright, I'll just leave now. :D
THIS IS MY 76th STORY ON FANFICTION AND I JUST NEED TO SAY THANK YOU ALL FOR STICKING WITH ME! THANKS TO ALL MY LOYAL FOLLOWERS! FREE VIRTUAL WHATEVER-YOU-WANT! *throws whatever you want to crowd* YAY! :D
Until next story!
-BeyondTheClouds777