Abby here! As always, I'm looking for more people in my roleplay! Most of the cast of characters is still available! We are in desperate search for more people! /forum/HTTYD-Roleplay/146906/ Paste that at the end of the normal fanfic main site and it will take you right to it. Thanks to TheTripleThreat for joining us! If any of you have any questions about it you can always message me. I promise I'll get back to you within 24 hours and normally within 3 depending on my schedule. Enjoy this chapter!
You walked into your yard and Stormfly came up to you nudging you. You laughed, "I'm fine girl."
Astrid came into the yard, "(Name)!" You turned around to look at her. "Hiccup wants to talk to you."
You rolled your eyes, "Shouldn't he be resting? I mean, that arm and leg aren't going to heal if he's trying to use them."
She nodded, "Yeah, but he's determined. He just wants to make sure you're alright."
"Fine." You folded your arms and followed Astrid toward Hiccup's home, "But if he tries to defend himself by saying he was only trying to help, I think I might pummel him."
She laughed, "I'll help. He explained what happened on the way back to Berk, and I think the phrase 'I was just trying to help' might have come up."
"I guess we'll have to wait til he's healed up before we can beat him up though, huh?" you said between laughs.
"Yeah, I don't think his dad would be too happy if he was completely useless." She led you through the Haddock home up to Hiccup's room.
He smiled at the two of you as you walked into his room. He was laying on his bed wrapped in a blanket. As he sat up you could see his arm was properly bandaged.
"Looks like I was right about that arm, wasn't I?" you said with a cocky smile and folding your arms.
He rolled his eyes at you, "Yeah, you were, and the leg too. You definitely made the healer's job easier. She didn't have to set my leg."
You smiled proudly, "Of course, I wouldn't have done it if I wasn't sure. Oh, thought you might want this back." You dropped the rucksack on the floor next to the stairs.
"Oh, yeah, thanks," he said adjusting so he could see the two of you better.
"Well, I've still got chores. I'll see you back at home, (Name)." Astrid turned and walked down the stairs.
"Bye, Astrid," both you and Hiccup said at the same time. You both looked at each other and smiled.
Someone tackled you to the floor. You looked up to see Toothless staring at you. "Hey, you big demon! Glad you found your way back!" He licked your face a few times. "Stop! Eww!" You crawled out from under him wiping the sticky, slimy saliva off your face. "Toothless!" you whined. He laughed in his deep chested way as Hiccup nearly fell out of his bed with laughter.
You walked over and shoved a pillow over his face, "Now who's laughing, huh?"
He picked up another pillow and smacked you in the face with it knocking you on the floor, "Me! That's who!"
"You're worse than Astrid! At least she doesn't knock me on the floor," you chuckled as you stood up. "How's the leg?" you asked as you sat in the chair next to his bed.
Hiccup shrugged, "It would have been worse if you hadn't set it yesterday." He looked you in the eye with a sincere smile, "Thank you."
You shrugged, "You'd have done the same for me if the roles were reversed."
"I don't just mean for helping with my leg and arm. I mean for everything. Thank you for helping me, for giving me the chance to help you, for giving Toothless a chance," Toothless nudged you and you scratched his head before he went to lay down on his rock slab. Hiccup waited for you to look him in the eye, his look coming back caring and vulnerable, "And for opening up to me."
You pursed your lips. Now, you regretted opening your big mouth. If you didn't open up to him you would still feel safe here, but who knows who he's already told your secrets. You trusted him, but you'd been burned before too many times. Even if-
"(Name)?" He waved his hand in your face, "Are you alright?"
You shook your head clearing your thoughts before smiling at him, "Yeah, sorry. Just got lost in my head I guess." You nervously chuckled.
He gave you a warm smile, "You know, you can always talk to me or Astrid. We'll always listen if you need to talk. She's your sister and she always will be, and I'm your friend..."
You were starting to feel awkward. Family and friends were practically foreign topics to you. There weren't many kids in your old tribe who were your age, but the ones that were avoided you thinking you were a bad luck charm. "Her family left her to her grandparents. Don't get too close. Your family might abandon you too." That was common to hear from the other side of one of the buildings. During their dragon training they'd even been very careful to avoid getting hurt so they didn't have to spend time at the healers' with her. On several occasions when you were being trained to fight dragons, they'd said they'd be your friends. They'd tricked you into being the bait for the dragon so they could take it down. A nice stab wound in your back that still caused problems sometimes now, three years later, reminded you to never trust people or dragons because they'd always stab you in the back.
Hiccup snapped his fingers in front of you. Apparently, waving wasn't working anymore. Again, you shook your head. He chuckled, "Welcome back to the land of the living."
You smiled awkwardly, "Sorry, I'm just a little-"
"Would you stop apologizing?" You looked at him confused. "You have something on your mind and you won't tell anyone. If you keep doing that to yourself you're just going to keep pushing everyone that tries to care about you away."
"Maybe that's for the better," you mumbled to yourself.
"How is that going to be better?"
Son of a troll, that boy heard you. He stared at you determined to get answers. "Fine, you want to know what's wrong? I'll tell you." You took a deep breath trying to organize your jumbled mind. "I'm not used to having people help me, or take care of me, or even so much as care about me. The last ten years of my life were spent with my grandparents. They were the only ones that cared and my grandfather was about as stubborn as my father was. He always thought I needed to toughen up. When my grandmother got me the chance to be the apprentice to the healers, I snapped it up because if people didn't care about me, at least I could care for them. Even the other kids avoided me saying I was bad luck, that their families would abandon them too if they got too close. I was more than an outcast. I was alone. No matter how quickly I learned, or how well I did, or even what great things I could do, no one cared enough to so much as thank me. I've been a bad luck charm to everyone for the last ten years. During a long drought, the entire village blamed me. They wanted to send me off in a small row boat and hope I found an enemy to torment." You sat back in the chair and took a few deep breaths feeling the tears in your eyes. "I wasn't anything to those people. That didn't change when my grandparents got sick either. I cared for them for weeks. I'd tended the house for weeks. When they were gone, I was all that was left. I still have to go back before long to sort all of what they owned. For now they just wanted to get me back here so I didn't cause anymore trouble there."
Hiccup reached up and wiped the tears from your eyes. "None of that, remember?" he joked with a small smile and soft chuckle.
You chuckled lightly and pushed his hand away, "You know, you're giving me mixed signals, right? None of that, but it's okay to cry." You smiled softly.
He laughed, "You win. I contradict myself."
You laughed lightly, "At least you don't contradict yourself in everything."
"If I did, I wouldn't be able to have taught you how to ride a dragon." He thought for a moment, "Speaking of which, what if I teach you how to ride Toothless?"
"And how do you intend to do that when you can't even leave?" you asked folding your arms.
"Well, if someone could help me down the stairs I could go where I wanted. I just need a stick to lean on." He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and sat up.
"Oh, no you don't. We don't want you getting worse. If you make that leg any worse you can kiss riding Toothless goodbye, because you won't be able to control that peddle anymore." You glared at him hoping he'd just drop the conversation.
"Toothless, come here." He leaned back on the bed and reached into the side table on the other side. He pulled out a peddle of some kind and a few tools. Toothless happily bounded over in front of him. "I can't ride for at least a few weeks. If I can teach you to ride him, you can take care of him while I'm stuck here. I don't want him to suffer with me." He went to work changing out the peddle.
"And how you intend to teach me, I have no idea." You slouched in the chair and leaned your head back. You'd slept better last night than before, but even though you probably slept on Hiccup's chest all night, you still didn't sleep very well.
"We'll figure something out." He tried to put his good arm on Toothless's back to stand up.
You practically jumped out of your seat, "Oh, no! I don't think so. Sit back down." You put your hands on his shoulders and pushed him back down on the edge of the bed.
He gave you a hurt look, "I can't believe you don't think I can handle this."
You rolled your eyes and shook your head, "I know you can handle it, but if you are the same clumsy kid I remember you used to be, then I don't think you should be risking it."
"You ma'am, you don't want to keep all of this," he paused for a second, "viking-ness contained."
You laughed, "I'm more of a viking than you'll ever be."
He put his hand to his chest dramatically, "That hurts. I never thought you'd kick a man while he was down."
"If you were really down, you'd be laying down." You walked around to the other side of the bed and pulled his shoulders down. You looked down on him, "Kind of like that."
"Nope, I think I'd rather sit up," he said as he did so.
Again, you pulled his shoulders down and held them there, "Don't even try to fight. I have better leverage from here."
He looked up at you with a smile, but it quickly faded into a curious look, "What's that?" He reached his hand up to touch the left side of your forehead.
Your eyes grew wide and you quickly stood up facing away from him, "It's nothing. Don't worry about it." He'd probably jump off a cliff if he knew you were the one that was pushed down the stairs when you were little and not Astrid.
Hiccup sat up and turned to look at you, putting his legs back up on the bed. "(Name)? Where did you get that scar?"
You stared at the floor avoiding turning around. "It's not important."
You could hear the desperation in his voice, "(Name)," he paused, "please, tell me."
You felt the tears slide down your face. "I said don't worry about it," you said quietly.
He pat the side of the bed silently telling you to come over. You shook your head. "At least look at me. Please?"
You wiped your eyes and turned around, "Happy now?"
Hiccup shook his head, "No, I'm not. My friend won't tell me why she's upset."
"Get used to disappointment," you said folding your arms. You shook your head and walked toward the stairs.
He panicked, "Toothless!" The black demon jumped up from his slab again and cut you off.
"Toothless," you said with tear-filled eyes, "please move." Your voice was soft and even cracked.
Toothless laid down in front of you giving you large, round caring eyes. Hiccup again spoke, "(Name), you can tell me anything."
You closed your eyes shaking your head and unable to speak as more tears flowed down your face. You didn't want to disappoint him any more than you already did. That was all you seemed to do, disappoint people. It had been you all those years ago, but it was Astrid he had loved. It would only make things harder for him if he knew. After all, you weren't the strong, independent girl that he had grown to love.
A hand touched your shoulder. You'd been too wrapped in your own thoughts to notice Hiccup climb off his bed and use the back of the chair as crutch. You turned around and silently led him back. Once he was back where he belonged you turned to leave again, but he caught your wrist and pulled you down to sit beside him. He wrapped his arm around you and pulled you into a comforting hug. "You don't have to tell me. I just want you to know I'm here if you need someone to talk to."
You buried your face in his chest. How long you were there, you weren't sure. After a while you must have fallen asleep. When you opened your eyes it was dark out. Hiccup's arm was still wrapped around you, and he was fast asleep. Carefully, you moved his arm being sure not to wake him. It wasn't like you to leave without saying goodbye. You quickly walked to his desk, wrote him a note and left it on his side table. As you walked past Toothless, his head popped up. You scratched his nose and quietly made your way down the stairs. You breathed a sigh of relief as you got to the bottom of the stairs.
"Ah, (Name)!" Stoick said as he walked in the door, "I thought you had come by earlier."
You could feel your face getting red, "Yeah, I, um, never left. Hiccup fell asleep." You chuckled nervously, "I'd better be getting home before my dad gets worried. It's always a pleasure to see you, Stoick." Quickly, you skirted around him and out the door. Once you were sure the he couldn't see you anymore you ran to your house. You sneaked through the front door finding your dad wasn't home yet. You breathed a sigh of relief and made your way up to your room. It had been a long few days and curling up in your own bed sounded more than perfect.
Astrid stopped you on the stairs, "So, how was hanging out with the cripple?"
You smirked, "Pretty uneventful. He's trying to find a way to get around so he isn't stuck in bed all the time."
Astrid shook her head, "Same old Hiccup. Before long he's going to find a way to get from one place to another without so much as moving."
"Of course," you said laughing, "he wouldn't be Hiccup if he didn't."
"I guess not. Are you hungry? Let's eat and we can talk."
You nodded and followed Astrid back down the stairs.
This chapter was intended to end differently, but as the author that must keep you waiting for the real romance, you must get over that if you really want it to get good. I finished chapter 13 on 1/13/14 at 12:03am my time. I hope you guys stick around for upcoming chapters. I'm getting to the romance. I promise. You just have to wait a couple more chapters. I can see it all working out in my head. There are just a few important details I have to give you and work out before I can really get into the romance part.
Well, now for the shout outs!
A. D. S.: It's a good thing to keep surprising the audience. Funny thing is, most of the time the surprises I come up with are surprises to me when I'm writing. I have an overall plan, but different pieces like the "wrong twin" shock were last minute things. This one probably didn't shock you, but I hope it kept you interested in the story. Just a warning my 11 year old friend...I changed the rating on this story to T. If that is something that will stop you, let me know and I'll edit any chapter and I can e-mail it to you at one point. Just don't put your e-mail on a review unless you want me to delete the review as soon as I get it.
TheTripleThreat: So happy you approve. Most people I think were annoyed by that. I wasn't sure how well that was going to go over, but after all, you are her sister. She can't be too mad since she just got you back. Friends come and go, but sisters are forever.
Faustita: MOOOAARRR?! You want MOAR?! Well, there you go! Hahaha I hope to hear from you again.
Light to Shadow: Erm glerd yer lurved it! Er hurp yer lurved thers wern ter! (not sure I did that right. lol "I'm glad you loved it! I hope you loved this one too!")
