Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, and I never will. All rights go to DreamWorks, who made the movies and the series, and Cressida Cowell, the author of the books. In case you didn't read the summary properly, this is a modern AU fanfic. Enjoy!
The next day, Hiccup and Toothless took some time to properly think about all the things they found in the attic that their parents, oddly enough, hadn't told them about. The photo album, the box of CDs with home videos on them. Why weren't they told about this? They had a right to know, too!
"Uh, Mum? Dad?" Toothless asked on one fine day, bringing Hiccup for moral support, "Why didn't you tell us about the CDs and the photo album in the attic?"
"We thought we'd lost them at first," Stoick answered, looking the dark-haired boy in the eye. "And when we found them, we just couldn't bear the thought of losing them again, so we kept them in the attic."
"After that, I guess we simply . . . forgot," Valka sheepishly explained, her face going pink. "Why do you suddenly want to know?" Toothless and Hiccup looked at each other, and grinned.
"We never watched all of those videos, did we?" they chorused, thrusting the box of CDs in the faces of their surprised parents. Stoick and Valka looked to each other, and smiled.
"Come on, you silly muttonheads," Stoick smiled, taking the box and selecting a CD case that said I ATE ALL YOUR CANDY. "This one will be fun to watch, and I've forgotten what happened any-" There was a knock at the door. "Who could that be?"
"I'll get it!" Toothless shouted, rushing to the door. Stoick, Valka and Hiccup heard the sound of a door opening and later shutting in the faces of whoever had called at the Haddock house.
"Who knocked on the door, bud?" Hiccup asked.
"The cast of Dumb and Dumber did," Toothless answered.
"Hey, let us in!" a frantic voice recognized as Snotlout's yelled. Hiccup sighed and went to go the door himself.
"You'll need to think of an excuse that's better than 'the cast of Dumb and Dumber came to the door', Toothless," Hiccup reprimanded, as he let Snotlout and Hookfang into the house. Judging by the looks on their parents' faces, Toothless doubted that they were impressed.
"He said we were dumb and dumber?" Snotlout shrieked. "You shouldn't just call me dumb and him dumber! That's mean!" Hookfang glowered.
"How do you know that I'm the one that he called dumber?" Hookfang growled, jumping on Snotlout and initiating a fight. As the two rolled around on the floor, Stoick raised an eyebrow at Toothless.
"Hey, Toothless, if you could stop them fighting so we could watch this video of you and Hiccup when you were little, that would be great," Stoick said. At this, Hookfang and Snotlout stopped fighting and bagged themselves a place on the sofa, nearly pushing Hiccup off it in their haste.
"So that's why you wouldn't let us in the house, Toothless!" Snotlout laughed. He was already thinking of ways to blackmail Toothless and Hiccup. "You were worried about an embarrassing video! Well, tough luck, cause this is only between family, and since we're your cousins, we want in."
"How dare you hide this from us, Toothless!" Hookfang mocked. "Come on, Uncle Stoick, let us see the video!"
"I was getting to that!" Stoick grumbled as he slotted the CD into the CD player.
Start video
The video is set in the living room of the house, and Stoick and Valka are sitting on the sofa. The camera seems to be on the sofa, but one corner is covered by a cushion. Stoick and Valka face the camera and start to talk.
"This is a prank on our children where we tell them that we ate all their Halloween candy that they got from trick-or-treating. I've set up this camera to record their reactions and send it to Jimmy Kimmel's late-night TV show," Stoick grinned as he told the camera his plans.
"You are not sending the video to a late-night TV show!" Valka told him, her eyes blazing with anger. "The boys will never forgive us for it."
"I was joking!" Stoick yelped, composing himself just in time and turning away from the camera. "Henry! Thomas! Come downstairs!" A younger Hiccup and Toothless ran downstairs, hugging their father first, and then their mother. They seem to be about six or seven.
"Why do you need to talk to us?" Toothless asked.
"Well, we need you to sit down, kids," Stoick told them. Valka bit her tongue to stop herself from laughing at the confused faces of their sons. "We have something to tell you."
"Is there something wrong?" Toothless asked.
"Well, something's happened to your candy," Valka told them, doing a very good job of acting embarrassed. "We've eaten it all."
"All of it?" Hiccup asked, the smile on his face becoming a frown. "Why?"
"We were hungry," Stoick told them. Unlike his wife, Stoick didn't pretend to be ashamed about (supposedly) eating his children's candy. Toothless looked shocked, and Hiccup's face crumpled.
"But Daddy, that wasn't for you," Hiccup answered, his voice breaking a little with tears as one rolled down his cheek. "I was going to share it with Scott, Harris and Astrid tomorrow at school 'cause they were sick all Halloween and didn't have any candy 'cause they couldn't go trick-or-treating. I wanted to share some of my candy with them so they'd have some candy."
"I'm sorry, Henry, I didn't know," Stoick told him. Now he knew that his son only wanted his friends to be happy, he felt really guilty.
"Did you eat my candy too?" Toothless asked, as Hiccup hugged him and sobbed. "Easy, brother, easy," he soothed as Hiccup cried silent tears.
"Yes, we did," Valka and Stoick chorused.
"I think you need new clothes," Toothless said, surprising everyone. They thought he'd just be sad or angry, yet he seemed rather methodical and businesslike.
"Why do we need new clothes?" Stoick asked.
"Mom doesn't, but you do," Toothless said nonchalantly. "I heard from Gobber that if you had too much Halloween candy, you'd rip all your clothes." Valka clapped a hand to her mouth in shock. Hiccup copied her.
"Don't say that!" Hiccup warned, too late. "Gobber said that if you told him what he'd said, he'd be in big trouble!"
"If Gobber can let things slip out of his mouth, then so can I," Toothless said matter-of-factly. Valka lost it. She giggled as she looked at her husband's shocked and slightly angry face, and her son's businesslike composure. "Mommy, what's so funny?"
"Thomas, Hiccup, we were playing a prank on you the entire time," Valka explained, as Stoick smiled at the boys. "We haven't eaten any of your candy!"
"Good. I licked mine," Toothless answered. Hiccup tackled him to the floor. "Hiccup, no!"
"You - will - not - lick - all - your - candy," Hiccup answered. "That - is - gross. Understand?"
"G-got it," Toothless answered, whimpering a little. "Let me go, please!"
"Fine," Hiccup answered, as he got off Toothless' back.
End video
"Aww, you were pretty sweet when you were little," Valka cooed, grabbing Hiccup's cheek and squeezing it.
"Ow!" Hiccup yelped, as he rubbed the side of his face that had been so roughly grabbed by his mother.
"I can't believe you cried over Halloween candy," Snotlout laughed, before being punched in the shoulder by Hookfang.
"He was going to give that to us, you prick," Hookfang told him.
"You boys want to watch something else?" Stoick asked.
"Yes!" all four boys cheered. Grabbing the box, they argued about which CD to watch until one was decided upon. It was simply titled FAVOURITE. They slotted it into the CD player and settled in to watch.
Start video
This video is also set in the living room, but Toothless is looking into the camera. He seems to be about three in this video, and with his dark hair and wide green eyes, he is absolutely adorable. Valka is also in the video, but isn't in view of the camera. "I'm going to ask you a couple of questions about all your favourite things? Is that OK with you?"
"Uh huh," Toothless answered.
"Thomas, what's your favourite colour?" Valka asked.
"Red," Toothless replied.
"Where's your favourite room in this house?"
"The wiving room 'cause dat's where da TV ith."
"Whatever you say, little man," Valka teased. "What's your favourite thing to play with?"
Toothless looked surprised and then happy. He ran out of the room and up the stairs as the camera followed him. Eventually, he came back, dragging Hiccup behind him by the wrist like a badly-treated stuffed toy. "Hiccup's my favourite thing to play with!" he exclaimed. Hiccup was utterly confused, but was ultimately happy to be with his brother.
"Toothless, can you stay with me and watch TV?" the brunette asked sheepishly.
"Yay!" Toothless cheered, as the boys went to watch the Cartoon Network and forgot completely about their mother, who was still holding the camera with a sense of surprise, but happy to see her boys playing so well with each other.
End video
Awws came from everyone, as Toothless and Hiccup blushed. "They were inseparable at that age," Stoick remembered, grinning at them.
"Those two had spots next to each other in playgroup for nap time!" Snotlout cried out.
"The only thing I remember about nap time was that you'd end up drinking everyone's apple juice and wet yourself in your sleep," Hiccup shot back.
"You still wore overalls with dinosaurs on them!" Snotlout shouted.
"And you wore diapers!" Hiccup yelled.
While Hiccup and Snotlout argued over preschool memories, Toothless turned to Hookfang and said, "We were adopted into one hell of a weird family."
"Agreed," Hookfang stated. At this, every sound in the room stopped. Stoick, Valka, Snotlout and Hiccup slowly turned their heads to look at the offending boys. Hookfang gulped, while Toothless grinned nervously.
"Hiccup, Snotlout," Valka said quietly, making Toothless and Hookfang's blood run cold in their veins, "they're yours."
Hiccup and Snotlout grabbed their respective brothers and dragged them upstairs, Hookfang putting up more resistance than Toothless, who just looked scared. "Oh, you two are dead, you hear me?" Snotlout hissed. "You don't ever talk about our family that way!"
"So, where's his worst spots?" Hiccup asked, referring to Hookfang.
"Sides, ribs, feet, tummy, backs of his knees, neck, armpits, basically everywhere," Snotlout answered. Hiccup nodded in understanding.
"Yeah, Toothless is the same way," Hiccup recalled, with a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "You know, maybe we should go easy on them."
"Really?" Hookfang and Toothless asked in disbelief.
"Nope!" Hiccup and Snotlout chorused, jumping on their brothers. Screams of laughter could be heard for hours, with only two breaks.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Hookfang screamed, struggling as much as possible as Snotlout let a finger swirl around his navel.
"Wow, and I thought I had it bad here," Snotlout marvelled, blowing raspberries on his navel and listening to Hookfang's girlish squeals and pleas for mercy.
"GYAHAHAHAHAHAHA! NOHOHOHOHOHO, PLEASE!" Toothless begged, as Hiccup started torturing him with the infamous 'rib-counting' technique that he was annoyingly good at.
"Shhh, it's okay, bud, it'll stop soon. Then again, maybe not," Hiccup teased. "You know, bud, this is really fun! I could do this alll day!"
Sorry about the wait, folks! I couldn't resist writing a third chapter to this; Hiccup and Toothless were adorable when they were little! And I know I'm a little late with the Halloween video (just over two weeks late!) but I saw a video of parents telling kids they ate all their Halloween candy and I wanted to make it into a fanfic! FoxtrotTango543 over and out!