I was playing league of legends (gods I love that game) when I checked my email and I had SO MANY reviews and favorites (Thank you!) that I decided another chapter needed to be posted ASAP, so here it is! Hope you like it.
Warning: Mentions of blood and some swear words. Tiny bit of spoiler for chapter 29 Defenders of Berk ("Zippleback Down")
Word Count: 1,8k aprox
Recap: Hiccup realizes he is in the past and tries to make sense of what is happening around him. But he is no longer the same boy he used to be and some people are noticing.
Chapter 03 – Twins
Train him too, we will make a proper Viking out of him
It took Hiccup most part of the day to find the elusive dragon, for a moment he even thought that Toothless managed to free himself. Hiccup easily ignored the hidden part of him that didn't want to lose that bond he had with his friend. One made of needing the other to function properly.
It was just when he was about to give up that he stumbled on uneven ground. With wide eyes he saw the trench made in the ground, obviously done by something big. His heart rate increased as he looked over the edge.
"Toothless" His breath caught in his throat as he admired the familiar slumbering form.
But then he looked past the powerful wings, and noticed the state of the dragon. The bola sling shot wasn't the same so the place it hit Toothless wasn't either. Obviously the dragon would end somewhere else but what Hiccup didn't account for was the difference in damage done to his friend.
Hiccup cursed himself and silently approached the dragon to inspect the deep gash on Toothless's side. Green eyes then looked down at the fin and blinked in surprise at what he saw.
It was injured, but not as badly as the first time. Toothless still had part of the left tailfin intact.
"No matter what I do I still hurt you" Hiccup mumbled and got to work. The sound of cloth ripping was the only thing heard in their small clearing for a while. Using straps he tore off his tunic and water from a nearby river, Hiccup cleaned Toothless's wound and then bandaged them, the dragon grunted and twitched a bit in the ropes but didn't wake.
"Don't worry bud, you will be up flying in no time" Hiccup would first need to make a new model for the fin.
The sound of laugher caught his attention when he was cutting the last rope. Hiccup stood and tried to pinpoint where it came from. It was uncomfortably close, Hiccup needed to make sure whoever it was wouldn't come this way.
"I will be back, take care Toothless"
Behind him, slit like eyes snapped open
"Oh I'm hurt! I'm very much hurt!"
Ruffnut grabbed her stomach and fell to the ground, laughing hard. Her twin brother just got caught in a net dragon trap of all things and was loudly complaining.
"This is priceless!"
"You…you…ugh" Tuffnut trailed off "I will think on an insult just you wait"
Ruffnut rolled her eyes and went to help her brother "This will be easy"
Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be, no matter what Ruffnut tried she couldn't break the damn thing, she even bit it! She was about to do so again when the sound of twigs snapping reached her ears.
"Hey I think I hear something"
"I don't hear anything!" Tuffnut replied and then went back to stare at the chains, in the hope they would break at the force of his glare.
"Shh. Shut it!"
Just then a nearby bush moved, and suddenly something came out of it. Both twins screamed bloody murder.
"Eh you alright guys?"
"Is a Hiccup!" Both twins looked at each other and burst out laughing "Wow that was awesome, for a moment there you really had me scared" Tuffnut said moving around the net trap "Hey why are you looking at us like that?"
Hiccup without meaning to was looking at both twins with fondness "Ah, is nothing" he said sheepishly and looked away from the twins so he missed their reaction to his next words "Is just I really like you guys and is a shame you are so unappreciated"
The people of Berk wouldn't realize that the twins were more than just trouble until far into the war, Tuffnut and Ruffnut would brighten everyone's days with their antics, making it easier to face another day. Not to mention the pair tended to completely obliterate their enemies.
"Do you need help with that?" Hiccup asked in the awkward silence that followed his words.
"Eh yeah" Tuffnut agreed unintelligently. Hiccup grinned and climbed up the trap, trying to get used to his shorter and weaker limbs.
"Engage the safety-pin, dislodge the trigger strut and…done!" It was when he jumped back from the falling net and felt slight pain in the sole of both of his feet that something really started to sink in.
"I have my left foot back" He looked down with wide eyes.
An arm was thrown over his shoulder. Hiccup looked up at the owner, Tuffnut who looked completely unruffled considering he just felt to the painfully to the ground. The blond had a peculiar expression on his face "You are weird. Of course you have a left foot. So do I! Look!" Tuffnut then showed Hiccup his right one and the brunet couldn't help but chuckle.
"That's your right, I think" Ruffnut said from Hiccup's other side after she copied her twin "Anyway, we like weird. Want to come for dinner at our house?"
Hiccup blinked in confusion, this never happened in the original timeline, what did he do different?
"I guess?"
"Cool, now explain to us what's with that?" At Hiccup's confused expression Ruffnut pointed at the ripped sleeves and lower part of his tunic.
"Ah well" Hiccup tried to come up with something but nothing came to mind, but he did start noticing the cold, he rubbed his arms trying to keep warm.
"It was to scare us right?" Tuffnut was jumping in place in his excitement. Maybe they could recreat it at the village!
"Awesome! You look pale like a corpse, cool stuff" Ruffnut grinned and pinched Hiccup's cheeks.
"Ow-""You are cold too!"
"You know, maybe we should warm him up. He did help us" Ruffnut commented and started to drag Hiccup back to Berk by his arm.
"Wait I need to-""And you will taste our awesome cooking skills!" Tuffnut took the other arm when Hiccup tried to escape.
"Yeah! Mom and dad are at the meeting so…"
Dinner at the Thorstons was a bizarre experience. The twins questioned Hiccup about all of his invention. They even wanted to try the mangler when Hiccup told them about it and were honestly disappointed when Hiccup told them that it was destroyed in the raid. Not that he would let the twins near any of them, at least not yet.
So much attention was overwhelming. Hiccup had rationalized during his search of Toothless that he would need to be prepared to face the disdain of his peers and village. So dinner was a nice surprise, overall hiccup wouldn't mind repeating the experience. They even gave him one of Tuffnut's clean tunics to wear.
Hiccup closed the door of his home softly behind him, a smile still on his face, it was small but after losing everything he knew, it really was something.
That's how Stoick found his son, leaning against the door with a relaxed expression. He hadn't seen Hiccup looking like that in such a long time. But when their eyes met Hiccup tensed again. Stoick felt a pang on his chest at the image of his son losing his smile in his presence.
"Hiccup"
"Dad"
"I need to talk to you, son" Stoick stated and gestured at Hiccup to take the other seat.
"I will stand thanks. Do we really have to do this now I'm kind of ti-" "I think it's time you learn to fight dragons" interrupted Stoick.
The older man raised an eyebrow when Hiccup didn't look all that surprised. His son was only looking at the dying flames of the hearth with darkened eyes. -Maybe Gobber told him?-
"Sorry, could you repeat that?"
"Dragon training. You start tomorrow."
"I don't think it's a good idea" Hiccup said with a sigh, passing a hand through his messy hair.
"You'll need this" Stoick said, easily ignoring his son and dropping a large axe into the weak arms. Hiccup struggled to hold it up.
"Dad, I won't kill dragons!"
"You will"
"Rephrase, I ref—"
"Hiccup, it's time" Stoick interrupted again.
"Clearly is not time for you to actually hear me" Hiccup snapped out, gripping the handle of the axe tightly.
"This is serious, son" said Stoick taking the axe away from his son with ease "When you carry this axe, you carry all of us. Which means you walk like us, you talk like us, you think like us" Stoick fortunately didn't hear Hiccup's snort at his words "No more of… this."
"You just gestured to all of me" Hiccup grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest, refusing to take the axe back. Stoick had to settle by putting it on the table.
"Deal?"
Hiccup stayed silent much to Stoick's frustration.
"Deal?" Stoick repeated, narrowing his eyes.
Hiccup sighed heavily and walked over to the stairs "You shouldn't look for the nest again, you will only lose more men"
Stoick startled and was distracted from their argument "Did Gobber…?"
"I'm weak, not stupid dad"
Stoick rubbed his eyes and slung his travel sack over his back "Just don't cause more trouble and train hard. I'll be back. Probably"
"And I'll be here" Hiccup added, climbing the stairs without looking back "Maybe"
The door slammed shut.
Hiccup sat on his bed with his head in his hands. It was all so messed up, his father's disappointed hurt more now that he knew what his approval felt like. But Hiccup couldn't bring himself to be something that he was not, the strong Viking his father wanted, not that he could anyway.
And his father refused to listen to him, Hiccup had expected it. Naively thought he was prepared to face it, but he was so wrong. It hurt.
He laid down on his back and stared at the ceiling lost in thought. When he went back to the clearing after dinning with the twins, Toothless was long gone. Now in the silence of the night he really missed the comforting presence of the dragon curled near his bed.
Hiccup tried to avoid worrying too much about it. He would find Toothless or the other way around sooner or later. Either way they would be reunited and everything would be alright again.
"Take care of yourself bud" Hiccup whispered and tried to fall asleep, the day had been a long one. And if his dad had anything to say about it, which he did, tomorrow Hiccup would start dragon training. –Joy-
Far in the forest, a black dragon sniffed the cloth that wrapped tightly around his wound and growled.
That's it! Love? Hate? I must say I'm getting addicted to reviews, that's not good, is it? Anyway tell me if you want to know about the dinner with twins, maybe I could write a oneshot about it?
