Gift or Curse?

Hiccup Haddock can't be sure whether his strange powers over winter are a gift...or just a terrible, terrible curse. Plot of Frozen (with a few changes) characters of HTTYD. Rated T for child abuse and a mentally unstable parent a.k.a, two of the changes.

Chapter 12: Listen

A/N: Um...I don't know about this chapter. Thank you guys for all the reviews, though :D 94 :D I'm a lucky person who did not expect this much of a response, let alone a positive one!

"Now come back."

Hiccup shuddered, but he tightened his lips and tried to be brave nonetheless. He hadn't just nearly hurt his father several times for nothing. "I'm not coming back."

"Yes. You. Will." Stoick spoke slowly, emphasizing each word, the threat in his voice even clearer than it had been two seconds ago.

Hiccup pulled his knees up to his chest, safe inside his icy defense mechanism. Stoick wouldn't rest, wouldn't leave him alone until he did stop the winter. But he didn't know how. He gritted his teeth, trying to blink back the tears of frustration that threatened. He didn't want his father to think he was sobbing in fear. He was upset because nobody was listening to him – again. But this was the time that they should listen to him, the time that it mattered the most. Why wasn't anyone listening now?

He couldn't stop the winter and he had said as much. What more did these people want? It wasn't like he was out-and-out trying to be useless about this.

"You're only making matters worse for yourself."

Hiccup glanced up fearfully, shaken out of his thoughts to see his father still there. He knew from experience that begging got him nowhere with this man, but still he sat up on his knees and tried to get his father to listen. No doubt about it, these past few days had been the strangest of his life. Although his father was threatening – no, wait, promising – a terrible beating when he did eventually get his hands on Hiccup, although these past few days had been wonderful as well as terrible, every one of them felt new and indescribable to Hiccup. He had been using his powers so much, he had had a real talk, however brief, with his childhood best friend again, after not speaking to her for so long. His own father was sitting a mere foot away from him and there was no physical violence involved as of yet. They were just talking – albeit Stoick's words were mostly threats, but it was still the longest conversation Hiccup had ever carried on with his father before, and this was another new and strange thing to him.

Hiccup pushed these thoughts away and tried to find the right words. "I'm…it's…you don't understand." He managed. He licked his lips in a nervous anxiety, pushed his hair out of his eyes and off his forehead and tried again. "The winter should go away on its own. That's what it does. Or, it's what it's supposed to do."

"Is that all you have to say?" Stoick sneered. "You're not making a very compelling case for yourself, Hiccup, and the fact is, it doesn't change anything whether the ice melts or not. The fact is that you used your powers at all, even after being reminded time and again that you should never do that."

"I'm not hurting anyone this time." Hiccup found tears in his eyes at his father's words and he blinked several times in a row. One tear did slip out and make its way down his cheek, but he used his sleeve to wipe it away before Stoick even noticed.

"People are dying!" Stoick thundered. "Everybody on that godforsaken island is getting frostbite! People are getting sicknesses they can't bounce back from! And it's not melting!"

And here, he did something a bit risky; he took a step forward, planting a foot firmly between two icicles that Hiccup had created, grabbed one of the boy's hands in his much larger one and physically jerked his son out by the boy's small arm. He clasped his hand over both of Hiccup's, pleased to find that he was just in time; the boy's palms had been growing colder, a sign that the power was about to be released.

The cold flickered a bit as Hiccup debated on using it or pushing his powers back; but, reluctantly, he decided pushing his powers back was the best option here, seeing as it would only cause trouble right now. Not even his ice could make this man keep his distance. What would he have to do to be truly free?

Go back to Berk. Go back to Berk, thaw the winter and flee back here.

There was only one little problem with that, Hiccup thought to himself sarcastically. He had no idea how to do the second one. Not to mention he was terrified of doing the first.

If he went back to Berk now, after revealing himself and his powers, what would they think of him? What would the people say? His stomach lurched as memories of that night came back to him.

"Sorcerer!"

"Monster!"

"Freak!"

"I always knew there was something wrong with you, boy!"

As his palm grew colder and colder in distress, Stoick glanced down at the boy in fury and used one hand to grab at his sword from its scabbard.

Hiccup gasped and tried to break free from Stoick's grip, but the man wasn't interested in using the blade; instead, he turned it so the hilt was brought down firmly on Hiccup's head and his knees buckled. He clutched at his head in agony, blurry darkness threatening his vision.

He always knew he was one day going to have to face this darkness, this evil he had been cursed with. But why…why did it have to be so hard?

Astrid was surprised to hear the shouts floating in through her window. Her mother jumped up, looking scandalized, before peering out. Her face hardened and she turned away from her daughter, heading for the door.

"What's going on?" Astrid tried to scoot off the bed and towards the window, but another blast of cold brought her to her knees.

"It's nothing that would interest you." Her mother replied curtly, going back to her daughter and tucking the blanket firmly around her shoulders.

"No, Mom, what's wrong?"

"The chief is back." Mrs. Hofferson admitted reluctantly. "He's brought the…the…" her face twisted in disgust as she tried to put a name on the boy. "…the thing with him." she settled on.

Astrid wasn't sure whether she ought to be angry that her mother had just called him a thing or not. She wasn't sure whether she ought to get angry on Hiccup's behalf of anything anymore. "I…Hiccup?" If he was powerful enough to freeze her heart, why wasn't he using that power on his father?

Her mother's lips tightened when she gave the name. "Yes, I suppose." she sniffed, as if the boy wasn't worthy of a name. "You stay right here. The chief is going to get him to bring back summer. And we'll get him to unfreeze your heart. You'll see."

Astrid put a hand over her chest, tugging the blankets closer to her, quaking with cold. Oddly enough, it wasn't like it was when she stood out in the snow too long and began going numb; each pang of cold just reminded her that she could still feel it.

"He can't." she whispered. The words hung in the air for a second, barely audible, barely there.

Mrs. Hofferson turned sharply around to stare at her daughter. "What?"

"It's a waste of time." Astrid pulled her knees up to her chest in an effort to lock in some body heat. "He's already told me himself that he can't stop the winter."

Mrs. Hofferson's blue eyes, so like her daughter's, hardened until they were like the ice coating everything outside Astrid's window. "And do you really believe him, sweetheart?"