thank you to reviewers - even the mad one - for responding to this! On we go with the Eret stuff.

I'm still new at this, so try to bear with me while I get the hang of writing something that's not hardcore smut or just super gay stuff.

-HTTYD-

This doesn't seem like the best idea.

Eret wasn't one to complain about a rough place to sleep... he had slept in thunderstorms before. The Dragon Academy, with it's limited damage being out of the way when Drago attacked, was rather pleasant actually. It was flat and didn't get too drafty.

However... with the Haddock house almost completely totalled, Eret was sharing the Academy with Chief Hiccup - that was fine - and his mother. His mother who would still clearly like it if Eret weren't so close to her late husbands dragon. Eret knew he had no right to dispute her concerns, but that didn't make it easier to relax around her.

Astrid meandered in about an hour after dark, smiling to herself fondly when she saw Cloudjumper and Toothless both curled around where Valka and Hiccup had fallen asleep next to each other, talking themselves to sleep. Eret was still awake, listening to Skullcrusher snore lightly and wondering, not for the first time, if he really had a place with the Hooligans.

Spying the ex-trapper with open eyes, Astrid plopped down next to him.

"Can't sleep?"

"Not a wink."

Astrid's eyes looked over at Valka, then back to Eret.

"She'll come around. Haddock's are stubborn, but fair. You prove yourself and she'll believe in you the way Hiccup does. Besides, Hiccup took you on. You're not getting out now."

"You think?"

Astrid bumped his shoulder with her own, then smiled.

"I do. Now I have to go wriggle in between Hiccup and Toothless, so I demand you get some sleep."

Astrid brushed her hand across Eret's hair, then crept over to where her fiance and his mother slumbered, managing to finagle her way in the small space. Eret felt a pang of loneliness, which was soothed by the huge dragon next to him who had clearly taken Eret on board despite his own loss.

He did manage to drop off eventually, waking before the sun rose to find he was the first up. Well, him and Skullcrusher, who was attempting to reach an itch just behind his head-scales. Eret didn't even hesitate to reach for him, scrubbing his nails over the thick skin and smiling as the Rumblehorn sighed happily.

"Fancy a flight?"

Never did Eret think he would be saying such things, but Skullcrusher nodded and followed him out of the arena for a better take-off point.

"Let's take this slow ok? Consider this a getting-to-know-you flight buddy."

Skullcrusher took his words to heart, the initial surge up into the air easing out into a gentle flight that let Eret see the sunrise as he never had before, seeing the sky up close as shades of orange and red split the dark, the faint purple of dawn becoming the soft blue of morning before they went back down.

"And here was me thinking Stormfly and I had the corner of early flying."

Astrid yawned into her hand, leaning against an equally sleepy Hiccup while Valka was stroking her dragon in morning greeting.

"We woke up early and went for a nice, quiet lap around the island. Is... is that ok?"

Hiccup smiled sleepily, rubbing a hand through his disheveled hair.

"He's your dragon Eret, you don't need my permission to fly him. Unless I tell you otherwise."

"Uh, thanks then."

"We'll start you on training once the ice and repairs are sorted, then you can start thinking about stuff like long distances or dragon racing. For now... breakfast!"

The dragons grumbled in agreement, Toothless offering Astrid a gummy grin when asked if he minded flying both Hiccup and herself to breakfast. They were some of the first in the Great Hall, sleepily chatting over yak milk, eggs and jerky while the dragons got stuck in to their fish.

Hiccup assigned Eret to work with Astrid and Fishlegs on home repairs, then sent the Zippleback twins and Snotlout to removing the larger chunks of ice from bigger structures.

"Try to only destroy what you're supposed to, there's not much left standing as it is."

"No promises!"

"What are you doing then babe?"

Eret shamelessly eavesdropped on Astrid and Hiccup, looking as though he were cleaning up after himself to keep his eyes downcast while Valka was around.

"Working with mom to sort out the dragon pens. They weren't damaged much but when that Alpha pulled them all to him, the dragons busted out. Toothless can keep them calm, Cloudjumper can do heavier lifting. I'll see you for lunch milady."

"You had better" Astrid leant in, kissed her lover and then turned to the awkward Eret "now you, with me."

Eret followed - with little choice as Astrid had grabbed his arm to pull him along - and Fishlegs wasn't far behind. The larger man eagerly chattered away to Eret about the specifics of why different Boulder Class dragons couldn't eat some rocks that others could, launching into a full rendition about the Catastrophic Quaken. He remembered Drago mentioning those from back when he had employed Viggo and Ryker Grimborn... they were excellent rock miners, but didn't have a real appetite for destruction.

Awaiting orders, Astrid gave him a bag of tools and set him chipping away ice fragments from the less damaged homes. It was painful work when he cut his hands repeatedly, but Eret didn't let a word of complaint out as he wrapped cloth over the cuts, kept working until Astrid said they could break for lunch.

When the chief saw his hands, he frowned deeply and led Eret over to the table full of various healing pastes and herbs, pushing him into a seat and peeling the makeshift bandages off.

"Mom, could you feed Toothless and the others for me? I'm just gonna patch Eret up."

Eret got the distinct feeling Valka wondered why he bothered, but she said nothing of the sort and headed to fill the fish bowls as Hiccup usually would. Hiccup's fingers were rough and well-worked, showing his time spent not only on dragons but in the forge. Still, his touch was gentle and careful as he cleaned, pasted and properly bandaged Eret's hands.

"You, mister, do not need to bleed everywhere on some personal mission to impress me. Alright?"

"I'm fine. I've had worse."

His hand twitched toward his chest, rubbing the scar that had phantom pains shoot through it when he let himself think too hard about the branding. Hiccup placed his hand over Eret's, tips of warm, slender fingers brushing one of the slightly raised lines of tissue.

"That's not what life here is about Eret. Please, don't burn yourself out."

"I'll try, but I'm still gonna work. I gotta kill time until the Terror comes back somehow or I'll start worrying too hard about my crew."

"Try not to get your bandages wet, but you should be fine so long as you don't touch anything sharp. Put some gloves on and take cart duty moving the ice away instead for the afternoon, rather than breaking shards of ice."

"You got it chief. And... thank you."

Hiccup's fingers flexed against his own, then pulled away and Eret wasn't sure whether or not he missed the gentle touch a little too much.

Trading with Seamus, Eret spent the afternoon hefting chunks of ice into wheeled carts and pushing them out of the way. Berk already looked a little less frozen, bits of green, soggy grass and dirt paths showing up. Some houses had even been completely rebuilt, meaning several Vikings could return to their own homes.

That evening, exhausted but feeling relatively accomplished as he crawled into his bedrolls that night, Eret felt just a tiny bit more hopeful. Even after hearing "outsider" muttered under Vikings breaths, felt the stares of many on him during mealtimes.

Even after Ruffnut said she was no longer in love with him. Especially after Ruffnut said she was no longer in love with him, in fact.

Rolling on his back, Eret stared up at the stars, smelt the damp air of an island surrounded by sea and covered in ice. It was homely in a way to the sailor, Berk smelling like open ocean even when it was on solid ground.

The words struck something in his chest, a tiny revelation rolling through him.

Berk felt like home already.

Eret hadn't had a home other than his ship for a long time, not since his parents were killed by dragons. After everything he had learnt about Drago, everything he had seen of his methods... he certainly didn't blame the reptiles anymore. Drago would definitely had smashed Eret's homeland to pieces, or anyone elses, then recruited the survivors under the guise of getting revenge on dragons, protecting people from going through what he had.

It took time, but Eret saw through it now. Hiccup's words when he first told the chief about his parents would stay with him a long time.

"Family isn't just something you're born into. It's the friends who stand with you, the ones who fight by your side."

He wanted to deserve a family again.

-HTTYD-

Eret-feels!

Next chapter will contain more about his cat, if you were wondering.