La Coordination

Act Fourteen

This heat wave was way unusual for Berk. Sure, it did get a bit warmer during the summer months but to have this kind of heat was a special kind of treat. Having a picnic on the beach was something special too, especially because everyone was together. How often did this happen? Not as much as it should, that was for sure. Having everyone around, relaxing was picture he could get used to, even if Dagur had come along.

Hiccup sat with his knees to his chest and both arms on the warm rock he sat above. With the picnic basket at his left and Dagur just beyond that, he glanced up to see his gang of buddies sitting feet away from him. While it was quiet for one rare moment, the others had their minds busy with something or other.

Rye sat beside Fishlegs and Snotlout with a ribbon clenched between her teeth. She worked her fingers through her long, wavy hair, taking it up into a ponytail. With it pulled back she took the necessary steps to fold her hair into a tight bun. Huh, must have been too hot to have her hair down. Not that he'd know that feeling.

Snotlout watched the oldest female with a stare that wouldn't let up. Almost like he'd snuck a sip of Gobber's famous ale, he watched her through a set of cloudy eyes. His cheeks flashed a shade of pink bright enough to notice under the midday sun.

Meanwhile Fishlegs had caught himself up in some sort of fishing lure project on the side. Was he planning on trying to catch more food or something? That was fine if he wanted to. The idea of using a stick and worm seemed so primitive compared to the new technique of using their dragons.

With the reptiles in mind, Hiccup lifted his chin and gazed to the far left to see the pack of dragons, all laying down and resting in the light. With both Dagur and Hea in the mix of the picnic, it was a better idea to keep them at a distance. All he needed was for Toothless to sneak a sandwich off of Dagur's plate; that would state the next war for sure.

"Hurry up! I want my hair done next!" The sound of Ruffnut's lower voice made the dragon tamer turn her way.

"Just a sec," Hea's voice caught his ears next. "I'm almost done here."

The baker sat behind Astrid, with her fingers strung through the blonde's beautiful locks. With a gentle touch, she pulled back on her hair, gathering it into a single handful just as Rye had done moments earlier. Ah, so all the girls wanted their hair up today, did they? Cute. It's nice to see them all getting along, seeing as girls fought worse than boys.

In the past Ruffnut and Astrid had some very heated arguments and although they were rare, they were intense. Girls seemed to be sneakier and meaner than guys when it came to fighting. It doesn't help knowing that females are almost always smarter than males. They could say some mean things when they had the ammo.

"Who's gonna do mine?" Ruff spoke out again, legs crossed and hands clenching her ankles.

"Whoever gets done first." Rye said, undoing her near-perfect bun and trying at it once again. "I can't get this right!" She muttered just under her breath, taking the ribbon between her teeth for a second time.

"What?" The female twin's jaw dropped. "That was fine, why'd you undo it?! I want my turn!"

A chuckle came from the right side of the over-sized rock. "You know, you look just like Bug when you beg." Hea continued to giggle through her words. "Big 'old eyes and pouty lip."

Just as the sheep herder finished her sentence, a loud pitched laughter made all the eyes in the area turn to the male twin. With his arms crossed behind his head as a makeshift pillow, he laid down to face the sun. The moment he began to laugh he tilted his head back, shut his eyes and let his chuckles loose, giving a snort every now and then.

"I do not!" His sister bit back. "Shut up over there!"

"But it's cute." Hea added, her extra comment only adding fuel to Tuffnut's fire.

At least those two could get along enough to make each other laugh. It wasn't very often that Hea and Tuff went without fighting but when they did they were thick as thieves. Especially when they were younger. As kids, he'd follow her lead most of the time but something happened somewhere down the line to where he'd pick fights with her constantly.

"You know you have the most beautiful and soft hair." Hea's voice again caught Hiccup's attention. "I would die to have hair like this." She moved her digits through the ends of Astrid's ponytail.

"Thanks," The blonde responded in a chipper tone. "I try to take special care of it."

"It's workin'."

Good to see you two are getting along too.

"If I had hair like this, I woulda kept my hair long." The herder swooned.

"Oh yeah!" Snotlout broke out of his lovesick stupor to answer Hea's call. "I remember when you had long hair!"

"Hehe," Tuffnut piped in, "That old rat's nest? I wish I could forget it."

The object of teasing twitched hard, no doubt giving Astrid a tug on accident.

"Remember when you had long hair, Hea?" Snot continued, "That was back when you were a girl."

"If I recall correctly," Astrid stepped in, voice calm and cool as always. "You were both girls back then."

As if on cue, Tuffnut's laughter came back tenfold. This time the blond male sat up on his backside and grabbed at his sides. He rocked back and forth, snorting and choking on his giggles all the way. Snotlout shouted something in the background, nothing of which Hiccup could make out given how loud Tuff was chuckling.

"Okay, okay." He said, finally breaking into the conversation. "Come on, can we have a single picnic without name calling?"

"Yeah but it's less fun that way." Fishlegs replied, eyes and hands still busy on his lure.

"Yeah, yeah." Snotlout huffed, crossing his thick arms over his wide chest.

"I'm starving over here!" The unusual sound of Dagur's voice made Hiccup and the rest flinch. The rider turned left to see the Berserker pouting in the same way Snot was. "I don't care what you idiots plan on doing but I'm going to eat, now." The oldest male then made a mad dive for the basket barrier between them.

"Wait, wait."

Hea, finished with her work on Astrid, stood up from the stone and stepped over toward the madman. He turned up his nose at her almost in an instant and shot her the nastiest look. Even while presented with that glare and tone, she remained neutral. Huh, that was new.

"Don't you dare tell me to wait." Dagur growled, hands clenching the basket.

"I've made you your own food," Hea explained, being careful not giving the older male any positive/negative feedback. "That way you don't have to share."

Taken back by what looked like miles, Dagur retreated just for a second, releasing the basket from his grip and allowing the chef to work. She flipped open the woven container and reached down deep inside.

"He gets his own food?" Snotlout whined five feet away. "How is that fair by any means?"

Instead of arguing, the tired girl sighed through her nostrils and continued her search for the separated lunch. Wow, she wasn't going to answer? That was weird. Hea was always revving for a fight whether it be with Snotlout or Tuffnut. Then again, when it came to his cousin Hea sometimes got to the point when she just ignored him. Why? He wasn't sure why but maybe it had something to do with the fact that an argument with Snotlout never ended when you fought back.

But then whenever Tuffnut had something to say, she fought back almost one-hundred percent of the time. Why was that? Eh, he wasn't sure but maybe that was just the way their relationship went. They had been close as kids after all. Perhaps it was something left over since then? If she started ignoring Tuff's proposals to argue, then he had a real reason to worry. But until then…

"I bet you gave him all the food! There isn't gonna be enough for everyone now!" The shortest boy carried on his rant. "I call shenanigans!"

"It's only fair that I get all the food," Dagur answered Snot's call with one of his own. "I am the biggest, strongest alpha male in this pathetic group, of course I get the best of the best and the most."

"Then that must mean Fishlegs gets the leftovers." Tuffnut again threw in his bit with the added bonus of a giggle-snort.

"Keep me out of this." The larger blond fought back.

"Look, chill out." Hea said, standing up while her back faced the group. "I made Dagur his own lunch, separate from everyone else. You guys will eat. Relax."

"I bet he got the best dessert too." Snotlout narrowed his dark eyes and pouted.

"Keep talking and he just might." Rye sighed, finally finished with her hair.

Hiccup was certain that he heard a 'not fair' come from his cousin's side of the rock but the visual of Hea turning around caught his eye. He watched as she took a moment to stretch before letting her eyes roam the area. Was she looking for a place to sit? Of course she was more than welcome to sit beside him; his right side was looking a little bare.

Her brown eyes looked left, at him, right then left once again. Just when he was sure she would look at him for the second time, her eyes shifted away. Her legs then began to move to her left, away from him again. She strolled over to Dagur's left side and with all the grace of a full grown woman, took a seat. What? Why in the world would she…?

"I'll back off."

Oh…yeah.

"When are we even gonna start eating?! I'm boooooored." Snotlout yowled. "I say since Dagur's eating all the food and we're all bored that we get the dragons and do some fishing." The dark haired boy paused, looked down to Fishlegs' lure and rolled his eyes. "Some real fishing."

"I could catch something you don't know." Fishlegs protested, face tightening. "It's just might take some time, it's an art you know."

"You can't catch enough for everyone." Ruffnut huffed, her hair between Rye's delicate fingers. "I don't have all year to wait for dinner!"

"Yeah and that dragon idea is a really bad one." Hiccup felt his stomach drop. "We have company remember?" His green eyes then darted over to Dagur and Hea.

"Yeah! Ixnay on Dagur-ay." Tuffnut sat up and pointed his index finger in the Berserker's direction. So much for being subtle.

"But if Hookfang and I went out we could catch enough fish for the whole group in minutes. Trust me, it'll be awesome." Snotlout placed both of his palms to his chest while presenting a wide, cocky smirk.

"Just forget it, it's a bad idea." Astrid turned to group sporting her new hair style. "We can't just get the dragons when he's here. Besides, Hea packed enough food, right?"

Hiccup once again turned his attention to the female he cared for only to see her now laying on her back in the same fashion Tuffnut had minutes earlier. Wow, she had to be tired to stay out of this conversation.

"Yes." She answered after a moment or two of silence.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Tuffnut lifted himself out of his seat and strolled toward the picnic basket. "I'm starving."

The slender blond made quick work of the woven container, popping it open and searching through the whole thing until his eyes landed on something appetizing. With both hands he dug on in and pulled out two hardy sandwiches. He then plopped to the floor in front of the basket and began to munch down on his food.

In his usual way, the oldest twin made no effort to be polite about his eating process. Leaving his mouth open as he chewed and not caring about who or what was around him to judge his habits. Just the sound of the food moving through his mouth was enough to make anyone flinch but a strong twinge from the left caught Hiccup's eye.

"Do you mind?!" Dagur snapped, having waited until his mouth was clear in order to speak. "I can't STAND that! Eat like a human being you sorry excuse for a—"

"Knock that shit off, Tuff!" Hea shouted almost on cue with Dagur, now seated up right and glare directed toward said twin. "What the hell? That's disgusting!"

"You think his mother never taught him any manners!" The redheaded tribe leader added. "I can't stand it when people eat with their mouths open! It infuriates me!"

"Same here!" Hea barked, not missing a beat between Dagur's rants. "Makes my skin crawl! My dad used to do it all the time, it almost drove me nuts!"

"You too?" The tone in the Berserker's tone died down a bit, leaving him subdued than seconds before. "I cannot tell you how many times I nearly killed my father for eating like that! EVERY time at EVERY meal!"

"Gah!" The sheep herder grabbed at the roots of her hair and pulled. "I ended up leaving the room all together! I love that man but I can't stand that shit!"

"Did this just get really weird or what?" Tuffnut said just feet away, food still in his left side of his mouth.

"And the teeth sucking!" Dagur carried on in the background while Hea nodded with a little too much enthusiasm.

"Don't forget the sound of the knife against the plate! Why in the world do they need to cut their meat so hard?!"

"Are they bonding over what they hate?" Astrid cocked a single brow while folding her arms over her bust. "That's pretty strange."

"Yeah, I think so actually." Hiccup lifted his hand to his forehead and pushed back the stray hairs that fell in front of his face.

"Should we encourage that?" A look of concern and confusion washed over Fishlegs' face.

"Hey it could be worse, they could be at each other's throats, right?" Snotlout gave a single shrug of his heavy shoulders. "Beats having them argue all the time."

Where did that sudden burst of energy come from? Moments ago the sheep herder was too tired to even sit up and answer Astrid with eye contact but here she was now, upright and looking rather lively! It wasn't like the subject of Tuffnut's terrible table manners was the only thing that kept her 'alive'. In fact why had she come to life so easily just when Dagur starting talking? What he had to say wasn't that important, was it? Then again she did have someone to agree with, maybe that was it? That had to be it.

It's not like their friends or anything.

No, they would make a terrible pair of friends. Right?

Act End.