La Coordination

Act Ten

His charcoal pencil grinded against the yellowed slip of notebook paper almost loud enough to make him twitch. Figures on the night he needed to distract himself the most with art, he couldn't think of a thing to draw or sketch. At this point he was just making random lines on the parchment in the hopes that they would come together to make something worthwhile. Hiccup forced the side of his face into his right palm as his left worked on the 'masterpiece' below.

What now?

What were they going to do about Dagur? As much as he wanted to tell the others he had a plan, he couldn't because he didn't have one. The treaty, at least at the moment, seemed pretty much flawless. And the fact that Hea had willingly agreed to it wasn't making things any easier. His sensible side knew exactly why she'd agreed but his heart couldn't seem to accept it. Life without Hea on the island, this time assuming it'd be permanent, wasn't something he wanted to do. She'd left once before sure, but the time it was understood that it was only temporary. Now? Hm, he wasn't sure.

"I got this."

He knew why she felt compelled to do this. That much was obvious, at least to him it was. She didn't care about a cooking career or the safety of Berk. This wasn't even about everyone else's dragons. This was about protecting Toothless. He'd seen the look on her face when it came time for her to make her choice. She didn't look to Rye or even Bug, the first living creature she looked at was Toothless. She'd said a million times before that she hated dragons, especially Phobos, Stormfly and Hookfang but all those times his Night Fury was the exception.

"I don't have to justify myself to you or anyone. I'm doing this."

His pencil fell from between his fingers, hitting the wooden desk below with an echo. He inhaled a large breath of air before moving his eyes from his work and up to the sleeping dragon who hung from the ceiling.

You're worth it.

He'd done the same thing. He'd risk anything for the only person in the world he considered to be his best friend. If there was one thing he couldn't use in an argument to keep Hea on Berk it was that Toothless was replaceable. No one, nothing could replace him. And that was what made this situation ten times harder.

What was she doing now? What was Dagur doing now? Sleeping probably but the thought of him threatening or blackmailing her didn't sit well with him. Was that the reason he wasn't asleep himself? Yeah, most likely. Even with the day he'd had feeling so long and tiring, sleep was the last thing on his mind.

She said she could protect herself but…

"Hiccup?"

He stiffened to the sound of his father's voice and sat up straight at his desk. Making sure to cover his latest drawings, or attempts at drawing first and foremost, he whirled around in his seat to see his dad standing in the doorway. Huh, had he left the door open or was he so distracted that he didn't hear him knock then enter? Ah well, he was here now might as well find out what he wanted.

"Yeah?" He asked, moving around in his chair enough to where his back felt comfortable while he spoke to his father.

"I wanted…" The older male hesitated only for a moment before clearing his throat and continuing. "To check on you. How are you?"

"I'm okay, I guess." His eyes fluttered away from the chief. "You know, as okay as I'm gonna get while Dagur's here."

"I understand."

"Uhh, so um…how are you?" The teen asked, vision flickering back to the doorframe.

"'Bout the same as you." He sighed through his nose. "Well, as long as you're alright, I'm off to bed." He released his grip on the wall.

So that was it? He wasn't going to have any emotion about this at all? True, Vikings weren't exactly 'touchy feely' about things but even a casual 'sorry 'bout this' would work very well right now. This did just happen to be one of his closest friends here, maybe even something more. Then again, did Stoick the Vast even take that sort of thing into consideration?

"Are you…I mean, have you thought of any way to…" He choked on his words. "Does Hea have to go? Isn't there…isn't there something we can do?"

The larger man paused, he paused for a longer period of time than the trainer could have expected. For the first second or two he looked shocked but after another silent period his facial features fell. What was he thinking? Why was he hesitating? Stoick the Vast was rarely at a loss for words; he'd only seen/heard his father hold back when he knew the next few words or sentences were going to be hard to digest.

"We aren't planning anything to stop this, Hiccup."

So there it was. The truth. But of course, it only led to more questions.

"What?" He leaned forward in his chair, left hand grasping the back of the wooden seat. "So the plan is that we don't have a plan."

"Yes, Hiccup."

What was with the sudden use of his name over and over?! He wasn't trying to plead with his dad to keep a stray dog, this was about a person. "We're going to let Hea leave with Dagur," He repeated in frank terms. "Just like that?"

"She's made her decision." Stoick's neutral face began to fade. "She wasn't forced into anything. We gave her a choice."

Was he really going on that factor? They both, they all knew why the female sheep herder was doing this. "It wasn't much of a choice, dad." He kept his voice calm, even while his heart pounded away in his chest. "She's not doing this because she wants to; she's doing it for our sake. We can't just ship her out for us."

"I can't do anything about it now." He remained rigid. "It doesn't matter what her reason is, she's already agreed. We should be respectful of her decision if she is just doing it for us."

He never liked her, another thing they both knew. For whatever reason it was, his father never took the same liking to Hea as he had with Rye. So what was this 'respect her decision' all of a sudden? Stoick the Vast didn't care with Hea the Sheep Herder did with her working life, let alone was respectful of it.

"Dad come on," Hiccup felt his fingernails dig deep into the wood beneath his hand. "Think about this, what if-"

"The girl doesn't like dragons, Hiccup." The depth and heaviness of his father's voice made the younger male pause mid-sentence. "Where she's going there won't be any. And she'll finally be able use all that learning she did two years ago there. She'll be doing what she wants."

"Funny seeing the minute I get back, with all my new skills, I have to go right back to sheep herding."

What was…what was that supposed to mean? That…

"Maybe it'd be better for her to be with someone her own age."

Wait, what?! "Did you?" Hiccup's right arm extended, his index finger loosely pointed in the chief's direction. "Wait, what are you talking about now? Her own age?"

"You know what I mean." He replied, face a hard as steel.

"Wha? No, dad." Both of the artist's hands shot up. "You can't use that argument; we're only two years apart! We're from the same generation! Besides you could say the same for Rye!"

"Rye is different, you know that." Stoick continued without so much of a twitch. Had he thought out his responses in advance? "Hea still acts like a teenager. She's at the age when she should be looking for a husband. She needs to become a woman, like her sister."

Whoa, that sentence could have many, many different disturbing meanings. Did he even want to get into this conversation at this point? This was the type of discussion that needed to be put off for a good decade or so! Whether Rye or any other female on this island had become a woman wasn't something anyone should know. That was kinda private information.

"Dad, really?" His arms dropped. "She…ugh… I can't even find words right now."

"You don't need to." His father pulled away from the doorframe. "Everything's already been settled."

"Have you even thought about what this would do to Rye?" Hiccup recovered. "She's gonna be a wreck if this happens. What about that?"

Stoick inhaled through his nose, almost like he needed a moment to think. "Rye can make up her own mind on what she needs to do. She's old enough and mature enough to handle this. She's been through worse."

She has?

"I don't think you really understand what's going to happen." A heavy sigh left the trainer's lips as his shoulders slumped forward.

"I'm doing the best I can at the moment, Hiccup." A similar sigh left the older Viking. "Everything will be just fine. Now, go to sleep." With that, Stoick turned away and began to step in to the hall.

"Dad?" The moment the boy's voice hit the air, the man paused. "I'm gonna get a quick breath of fresh air before bed, okay?"

"Sure," His father answered, his back stilled turned to his son. "Don't stay out too long. Good night Hiccup."

"Night."

The sound of footfalls faded almost as fast as the village chief himself. The teen waited a number of moments before he heard the sound of his father's bedroom door open and shut before stepping out of his chair. With another sigh, he balanced himself before stepping to the right, where he found his Night Fury watching him with a set of wide, curious eyes. Had he been listening the whole time? Hm, what would he say about all this? Hm.

"I'm gonna step out for a minute, you wanna come with?"

Faster than he could blink, the dragon released himself from his sleeping position and crawled to all fours on the wooden bedroom floor. So that was a yes? Good, if there was one thing he needed right now was alone time with his best bud. Then again, what dragon wouldn't give up the chance to go out for a walk at any spur of the moment?

"Okay, come on."

His frown turned into a small smile as he moved forward with Toothless on his heel. The two males made their way through the small home until they found themselves at the front door. Just as Hiccup reached forward to take hold of the doorknob, something in the dark caught his eye. The fist-sized hole near the entrance made him chuckle.

"What possessed you to punch my dad's wall? He is the village chief. That was pretty bold of you."

Ah, that felt like so long ago. Problems back then didn't seem so bad looking back now. Only if he had half of those issues now.

"I'm sorry; when I get mad…I just kinda lose it. I'll fix it, I promise."

Well, it'd been well over a year and she had yet to fix it just yet. Was she more embarrassed about coming over to patch it up or was it just that she didn't want to do it? Either way it wasn't like his dad really wanted her back in the house. In fact, he'd almost chewed his beard off the morning he found her in his bed. Ah, more problems he wished he had now.

Would…she be able to fix it before she left? Was there enough time? She promised, she had to fix it before she left.

No, he couldn't think that way. It wasn't certain that she was going, even if everyone else thought so. At this point he was pretty sure that only he and Rye had hopes or were thinking up ways to change this deal around. He wouldn't give up. Never.

A tap against his side made him shake his head. The rider turned away from the hole in the wall and glanced down to see his dragon nudging at his arm. Ah right, he wanted out. He was promised a walk after all.

"Sorry bud, let's get out of here for a while."

Hiccup moved his right arm back upward and latched his fingers around the doorknob. With a gentle twist and pull, the door opened. Being as careful and quiet as possible, he stepped out of the home before the reptile. After removing his body from the structure, he turned to Toothless and beckoned him forward without a word. The Night Fury submitted and followed in silence. Once the two were out, he pushed the door forward and closed it.

"Alright," Hiccup shot a smile to his partner, "A lap around the village good enough for you?"

A rumbling sound similar to a cat's chirrup was as close to a 'yes' as he was gonna get from him. So with a solid nod from both parties, the teen led the way. At least it was a nice night, hardly a cloud in the sky! Why couldn't it be nights like this that Hea was working? Nights where the sky was clear, crisp and sweet. Heh, usually the shifts she worked were too cold, windy or rainy to spend the whole time with her.

From out of the corner of his eye, he saw his Night Fury stiffen and come to a complete stop. What was this about? Hiccup turned to his partner to see that the dragon had lifted his neck into the air and his nostrils had begun to twitch. Huh, smelling something unusual at this time of night? What-

His wings only flapped a single time before he sped north on all fours. Whoa, must have been something important for him to dash off like that. Better follow after him, make sure he didn't get into any trouble. Hiccup braced himself before he took off after Toothless. With the black reptile still within eyeshot, he jogged for a good ten feet before seeing that the dragon had come to a stop.

Stopping just two feet or so shy of Toothless; he broke his run into a slower walk. He focused his eyes on the ground, where the Night Fury had his head dipped. A familiar blonde ball of fur came into view and made him smile.

"Bug?" He asked, closing the gap between the two animals. "What are you doing out here?"

Hiccup watched as dog and dragon met nose to nose. They both took a silent moment to sniff one another, no doubt gathering information. Toothless broke away first, his right ear lifting while his left remained flat. The dog tilted her head to one side in response before raising her chin and releasing a yap.

Ah so they were talking. Hm, that was interesting. So dogs and dragons could communicate with each other? Huh, he'd never seen this any time before then again maybe he just hadn't noticed. As long as they weren't fighting he didn't pay them much mind when they were together.

"So can I join this conversation anytime soon?" He asked aloud, his smirk growing.

A low grunt and rumble vibrated through Toothless, his attention still on the female dog at his feet. The pup stamped both front paws against the ground at this, shaking her nose back and forth. The moment her snout came to a stop, her ears fell flat against her head and she let out a whine.

"I'll take that as a no then." Hiccup pouted.

Just on the bridge of losing hope, Toothless turned around. His large yellow eyes locked with his and made him furrow his brows. What was that about? Was something wrong? Then again Hea was nowhere to be seen and her dog was outside alone. She wouldn't let Bug out to wander around by herself, would she? The time the ball of fluff went missing it almost caused a complete uproar! And knowing the determined sheep herder as well as he did, he knew she wouldn't let the pup out of her sight again.

"Did something bad happen?" He leaned forward, eyes moving to Bug. "Where's Hea? Is she hurt?"

The blonde canine nearly pouted at the sound of her owner's name. That was a good sign…maybe? At least the dog wasn't frantic or panicking. This mini wolf was known for barking her head off at the first sign of danger; or what she thought was danger anyway.

Maybe…

"I don't care what it is; it's not allowed to stay here when I'm here."

"Ah," He moved closer to the fluff ball. "Dagur kicked you out, didn't he?" An unexpected laugh left his lips as he carefully bent forward.

Her large almond-shaped eyes glossed over with what looked like tears. Could dogs even cry? He wouldn't put it passed this dog even if it were impossible either way. The cute-factor had always seemed to work for her in the past; she had perfected it at this point.

"Well, I can't let you just stay out here by yourself." He sighed, reaching his arm forward to touch the dog behind the ears. "You're used to the pampered life; this would be torture for you!"

Bug's small triangle-shaped ears bounced upright and the pout that seemed almost too human vanished.

"I'm guessing Hea has no idea you're out here?" He asked even if he already knew the logical answer. "Come on. You can stay with us until tomorrow." Hiccup gave the little girl a pat to the head before standing up. "I know it isn't perfect, but you've slept at our place before. You'll be fine."

The curled tail at the end of the dog began to wag back and forth. So that was a 'yes'? Good. If something happened to her during the night, he'd never forgive himself. After all, she was a young lady; she deserved to be treated with respect.

I'm a sucker for anything with four legs.

Act End.