Forevermore

(Warning: This chapter contains angst)

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III

The smell of sulfur filled his nose, meaning someone — in particular, the dragon that lived under his roof— had decided to liven thing up. Hiccup hadn't heard a boom, but, then again, he had been catching up on some long-needed sleep. Hiccup sighed and pulled off his sheets to go tend to the fire.

Hiccup raked his hand through his hair as he walked; his hand brushing one of his scales. Slowly, he felt the other scales around his face, then down his neck. Hiccup closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and sighed. 99 years, starting that day. He'd almost forgotten about it; almost. It was night too! He'd never been good at tracking the days, why oh why was he suddenly so...

Oh.

Wait.

The guest. Hiccup would take one look at her and feel resentment. She reminded Hiccup of humanity; both beautiful and harsh, but none more than what he had become.

Hiccup suddenly scowled. While his sob story was great, he had a fire to tend. He was not willing to find another place. This one was hard enough to find.

"Toothless!" Hiccup called out towards the smell of the sulfur. It startled Hiccup when Toothless came bounding from the other direction.

"H-hi, bud," Hiccup said with uncertainty.

Toothless cocked his head to the side, confused as to why he was summoned. Hiccup, however, was more confused as to where the fire...

Oh.

Wait.

"You can go back to whatever you were doing, I've got to go." Hiccup said, walking towards the fire.

He'd called it: Astrid was making a fire. The week before, Hiccup had agreed to let her go everywhere but two rooms: his room, and other room to use as decoy (although Hiccup was pretty sure Astrid had figured it out already). That included outside (it wasn't like she was going to get anywhere, at most, she would get lost), where she would have gotten the wood and dirt to burn the fire.

"What are you doing?" Hiccup asked, standing in the doorway to the very end hall, he noted, seemed to be Astrid's favorite room to go.

Astrid's head shot straight over to look at him. Her eyes widened in horror, and her mouth went agape.

Hiccup raised an eyebrow and prompted, "Well..."

Astrid shut her mouth, although her eyes were still wide.

"Is there something in my hair?" Hiccup asked, now irritated,

"Y-you're not wearing your mask," Astrid mustered out.

Hiccup blinked. Oh. Oh, he had forgotten. Hiccup suddenly felt nauseous. This day was not working out as planned. Hiccup rubbed at his palms, and inhaled deeply.

"I-I must have forgotten. Well, that still does not go for what you are doing with fire in a highly flammable cave."

Astrid's unlocked her eyes from Hiccup's face.

"I was cold," Astrid pulled on her composure, "Besides, the 'highly flammable' part is on you. You do realize you own a dragon." Suddenly, Astrid tensed.

Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"I am very well aware of the fact I possess a dragon. I live wherever I can. Now, if you're cold, I suggest you use the blanket in your room."

From there, Hiccup hightailed it out of there. When he returned to his room to do some management (both emotional and blacksmith related), he heard Toothless crooning.

Hiccup groaned. Why? Why did the gods hate him so?

Toothless's croon meant there was going to be a raid on Berk. Well, there wasn't really any defiance to it, but with the matter of raids in other islands, Berk was due for one. Not to mention that was where his luck was going anyways.

Hiccup suited up and pulled on his mask. He tapped at his Zippleback gas to make sure he had enough in the case of a bad mishap. Toothless trotted up to Hiccup, glad that he was allowed to fly again. It had been a while.

Hiccup walked over to Astrid's room and peeked in to see if she was there. Indeed she was wrapped up in a blanket looking down at something.

"I'm leaving. I'll go get you some clothes."

Astrid looked up and nodded.

Hiccup looked over at what she was holding.

"Is that stone interesting?" He asked.

Astrid wordlessly shrugged and fiddled with her stone.

"Not very talkative I see. Alright, well, try not to get eaten."

With that, Hiccup left to go get the gear and take off with Toothless. In truth, he really was worried about the girl getting into trouble that involved an Astrid-ka-bob. Hiccup chuckled at the thought and mounted Toothless and led them outside.

The cool-night air was refreshing. Hiccup would take the bet that it would feel even better in the air. He saddled himself in and clicked his foot in place to direct Toothless's tail.

And take off.

Hiccup left in the direction of Berk, savoring the quietness before the chaos.

.:.:.

Hiccup came back feeling like he had come from Hel's realm. He felt feverish, yet at the same time, cold. He had not only broken a promise; he'd killed someone.

There was no definite way to say that he had done so, but the villagers sure had made sure he thought had. It took him back, back before he'd been cursed. Back before he had found Toothless. When he screwed everything up. Well, more than he already had. But those times were over. His head went back to the raid.

There were various screams. Some declaring he was a murderer. Others screaming about broken promises. But one struck him. One stood out from the crowd.

"Freak!" Hollered someone anonymous.

Freak. Back when he was cursed, there would be a little voice inside him, telling him that. It was his fault they needed to build back homes that he'd burned. Freak. It was his fault that he destroyed a quarter of winter's savings. Freak. It was his fault Toothless relied on him to fly. Freak. It was his fault his father died. Freak. It was his fault he was covered in scales. Freak.

Saving lives from raided towns seemed to pacify him, but today, some had died.

And it was his entire fault.

Hiccup raked his hand through his hair and let out a frustrated scream.

"A-are you okay?" Came a voice.

Hiccup's head shot over to the noise. There, covered by the shadows, was Astrid. She shrank back at his gaze, and quickly retreated. She really did remind him of humanity. She reminded him of his humanity. Mercy. He remembered the night the deal had been struck. Hiccup had known it was a trick, but the child— she would have died. This Astrid had been nothing short of cold to him, but her humanity made her concerned. He wouldn't chase off humanity. He couldn't.

"Wait," Hiccup called out to retreating figure.

Astrid paused and turned around.

"Yes." No stutter. Something true about her seemed to be peaking out.

"Your clothes," Hiccup pulled out some things from his bag and walked over to hand it to her, "And some feminine high gene products." Astrid blushed as it was handed to her.

"Thank you." Astrid said and walked off.

Hiccup watched her go to her room and took out one last thing from his bag and looked at it. He couldn't have given it to her in person. There was one thing he wanted to do with it before he gave it to her.

.:.:.

Later that night, when both Astrid and Toothless were asleep, Hiccup placed a book on Astrid's bedside table. It wasn't much; just a book of fairy tales. He knew Astrid would appreciate it. It would probably be much more exciting than a rock. Hiccup would have given to her whilst he was giving her the essentials, but if you looked really closely at the pages, you would find them to be especially wrinkled around the pages of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

A/N: That actually turned out better than I had originally thought. As said at the top, this chapter was filled with angst. Well, it wasn't too bad, but... Well, anyways, I hope that, despite its dankness, this chapter made you happy (wow, look at how much sense that made. AKA none). I tried to go in a little deeper with Hiccup's past. I'm trying as hard as possible to make Hiccup's past similar to the one in the movie's. I sincerely hope I'm trying hard enough. Also, if you feel up to it or if you're just simply bored, I encourage listening to the chapter's song-title and re-read the chapter.

Read and review!

~ Sam