Hiccup was in his back room in the forge lying against the desk and rolling his pencil when he heard someone come in.
"Dad you're back!" he says in surprise and shuffling the pictures and notes he had been writing to the side. "Err... Gobber's not here so..."
"I know," Stoick said being as intimidating as he always was. "I've come looking for you. You've been keeping secrets."
"I... I have?" Hiccup asked a scared look on his face, how did his dad find out about Will.
"Just how long did you think you can hide it from me?" Stoick asked.
"I... Don't know wha..." Hiccup said trying to make it realistic but failing.
"Nothing happens on the island without me hearing about it," Stoick said firmly cutting his son off. "So, let's talk. About that dragon."
"Oh gods," Hiccup said sighing "Dad I'm so sorry I... I was going to tell you but..."
He was cut off by Stoick laughing and his intimidating side now gone.
"You're... You're not upset?" Hiccup asked confused.
"What?!" Stoick asked loudly "I was hoping for this!"
"Err... You were?" Hiccup asked confused.
"And believe me it only gets better," Stoick says, beaming at his son "Just wait till you spill a Nadder's guts for the first time."
'Of course,' Hiccup thought sighing and looking away 'He's talking about the Dragon Training'
"And mount your first Gronckle's head on a spear... What a feeling!" he said shoving Hiccup over with a gently shove of appreciation "You really had me going there son. All those years of the worse Viking Berk has ever seen," Stoick continued too caught up in his joy to see that his words were hitting his son harder than his shove.
"Odin. It was rough, I almost gave up on you," Stoick admitted "While all the while you were holding back on me. Oh Thor almighty! Ah... With you doing so well in the ring... We've finally got something to talk about." he said pulling up a stool and coming to an end of his speech a big grin on his face.
But Hiccup didn't know what to say, setting an awkward silence.
"Oh I err... I brought you something," Stoick said bringing a helmet out and fixing the horns "To... To keep you safe. In the ring."
"Wow..." Hiccup said smiling never getting a gift from his dad like this before, or at least not one he remembered, the only one who remembers his birthday is Gobber and he normal just give him some supplies for black-smithing. "Thanks."
"Ah your mother would have wanted you to have it," Stoick said softly building up the moment with love and care. And then that moment ended when he added "It's half of her breast-plate."
At this Hiccup looked up to his dad and quickly lifted his hand off of the helmet.
"Matching set," Stoick said tapping his own helmet "Keeps her... Keeps her close you know? Wear it proudly. You diverse it. You held up your end of the deal."
Not knowing what to say, Hiccup set down the helmet and gave a fake yawn.
"I should really get to bed..." he said.
"Yes good," Stoick agreed
"Good talk, I'll see you at the house," "Yeah, yeah I'll... I'll see you back at the house. Thanks for stopping by," "I'm glad I stopped by. And I hope you like the..." "The breast hat." "The hat."
"Well um..." Stoick said clapping his hand and taking a breath "Good night."
Inside the arena the wooden hurdles were up scattered all around the ring and Astrid and Hiccup were told to walk to the centre and wait for the dragon.
"This test, between Astrid Hofferson, and Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III," Stoick's voice boomed out to the crowd as the gate crashed shut and cheers began "Is to determine which young warrior will be chosen to kill the Monstrous Nightmare tomorrow. Good luck and may the luck of Thor be with you." he spoke to the teenagers.
With that the door to the Gronckle's cage opened and it came flying out looking for what was disturbing her nap.
Right away Hiccup rushed to hide behind one of the hurdles and was joined by Astrid who took his axe and sternly looked him in the eye.
"Stay out of my way. I'm winning this thing," with that and a forward roll she went to another hurdle.
"Please," Hiccup said giving her room "By all means..." sighing Hiccup stood up and turned to look at his dad. At how proud he was at him...
The him that was not him, but the him Stoick wanted him to be.
As he was thinking this over sighing to himself Hiccup was not paying attention to the Gronkle who had spotted him and began flying over.
o0o
After Astrid told Hiccup to stay out of her way, she went off to hide behind another hurdle and then another, gripping her axe tightly.
"This time," She said determined "This time for sure..."
Getting up Astrid began running forward, yelling a battle cry, her axe ready to fire if need be, jumping over the hurdles when needed, was just coming up to the beast when...
She saw it was already down in front of Hiccup.
"NO!" she screamed swinging her axe "SON-OF-A-HALF-TROLL-RAT-EATING..."
As Hiccup watched Astrid swear at how she lost to the runt of the village, all he could do is look to the dragon before him, and listen to everyone's cheers.
"Wait..." Stoick called out "Wait..."
"So later..." Hiccup said as he began to leave.
"Uh oh, not so fast," Gobber said hooking Hiccup back to the centre of the ring, the dragon being taken back to its cage.
"Well I'm... err... kinda late for..." Hiccup said trying to think up an excuse.
"WHAT?!" Astrid asked holding her axe up to the boys chin. "Late for what exactly?"
"Ok quiet down," Stoick told the crowd "The elder has decided."
In the ring the teenagers turned to Gothi, Hiccup rubbing his neck and looking worried, Astrid looking firm and determined, Gobber coming up behind them first pointing to Astrid.
Slowly Gothi shook her head, earning many gasps from the crowd as they realized what that meant.
Slowly Gobber pointed to Hiccup with a 'Are you sure?' look on his face.
This getting a nod and a smile from the elder, and cheers from everyone else.
"Oh you've done it," Gobber said to Hiccup smiling "You've done it Hiccup, you get to kill the dragon."
Trying to cheer with everyone else Hiccup didn't pay attention when the rest of the class came in and Fishlegs lifted him on to his shoulder, or when his dad said proudly "That's my boy" or when Astrid walked off in a huff.
"Oh yeah..." Hiccup said drearily "I can't wait. I am so...
o0o
"Leaving!" Hiccup called out as he got closer To Will's hole with a basket on his back and his riding helmet in his hand.
"We're leaving! Let's pack up. Looks like you and I are taking a little vacation... Forever."
After thinking that that would be enough to bring Will up out of the ground, Hiccup set the basket down to once again check he had everything.
Standing up when he heard the sound of footsteps and looked up to see Astrid sharpening her axe sitting on the boulder behind him.
"Wha?" he said jumping back "What the? Uh... uh... What are you doing here?" he asked looking around causally pretending to talk about the forest but was really looking for Will.
"I wanna know what's going on," Astrid said dropping the stone and getting down "No one just gets as good as you do. Especially you. Start talking."
o0o
Over by his hole, Will was staying in the shadows, spines moving at different rates trying to work out what was happening his teeth ready to come out, and ready to rip that second human to pieces if she does anything to hurt his human.
o0o
"Are you training with someone?" Astrid questioned ignoring 'The Whisper' thinking it was just the noises of the forest.
"Training?"
"It better not involve this..." she continued grabbing hold of Hiccup's flight suit.
"I know this looks really bad... You see there's this uh..." he said trying to get away from her.
Will moved forward slightly just so he could hear the two of them better a noise that caught Astrid's attention and she dropped Hiccup making him fall to the ground and began to walk over to it.
"Err... You're right, you're right," Hiccup said trying to get her attention again "I... I'm through with the lies. I... I've been making... Outfits," he said, this getting Will to roll his eyes at the excuse.
"So you got me," Hiccup said making sure he was blocking her view of the cave and his friend.
"It's time everyone knew. Drag me back go ahead. Here we go..."
While he was rambling on Astrid grabbed his hand and bent it back, with no care in her eyes when he said "Ow... Why would you do that?"
Then standing over him she said "That's for the lies. And that's..." she said dropping her axe's end on him so it bounced back up "For everything else."
Ok now she was on thin ice... Will thought as he made himself known to the girl. He may not be able to see, but he can her when his best friend is hurt. The next thing she did that would hurt Hiccup...
"Get down!" she said grabbing him and flooring the both of them.
'OK that's it!' Will thought as he came charging towards the girl.
"Run, run..." Astrid said as she got back up and readied her axe, only to be pushed back down by Hiccup and her axe pushed out of her reach.
"No, no," he said getting in between the two of them, tapping his foot like always "It's ok, it's ok... She's a friend..."
At that Will calmed down a bit, but was still ready to attack if need be.
"You scared him," Hiccup said placing a hand onto Will's nose and trying to hold him back.
"I scared him?!" Astrid asked loudly then seeing what was there asked. "Who... is him..?"
"Err... Astrid, Will," Hiccup said smiling while keeping his foot tapping "Will, Astrid."
All Astrid did was shake her head and began to turn and run back to the village to tell everyone that Hiccup's turned against them.
"Duh, duh, duh. We're dead," Hiccup said in a slightly uncaring voice.
Will just turned around and flew over to the basket.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," Hiccup said turning to the dragon "Where do you think you're going?"
Will was nudging the basket and then stretching his wings to say he was ready.
"We can't now bud we need to go after her and stop her from telling everyone what she saw..."
Not understanding why, but getting the feeling of worry from his human, Will gave a big sigh and came back over.
"Thanks bud," Hiccup said as he climbed on, putting his helmet on, just in case and they took off to hunt down Astrid.