Finding Balance 21

While it was still hard to think of Dagur as anything other than a threat, Hiccup tried sniffing that fear if only to be able to work together. Dagur kept to his word. He didn't touch Hiccup, even though the urge to was plan to see. He simply stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked away, sometimes becoming quiet and distant. Hiccup wasn't sure how to console him so simply stayed quiet and waited for the mood to past. It usually took between ten and twenty minutes but by the time Dagur came out of it he was in a much better mood.

The letters still came from home and Hiccup cherished each one. Dagur began getting letters from Heather within days of asking her to protect Johann. She couldn't right away. Things on Berserk were a little hectic with her homecoming. Even though she was proven to indeed be who she said, not everyone was accepting of her. She planned on going to Johann within the week but was in contact with him and assured he was okay.

Speaking of Johann, the trader had begun writing to Hiccup. He continued to urge Hiccup to leave the Hunters, claiming he was in danger and that Viggo was more than he seemed. That part was true but not in an altogether bad way.

Viggo was simply misunderstood. He was dedicated to his work and often super focused on it. Even Hiccup couldn't draw his attention away when he buried himself in his work. But Viggo was also extremely protective. You did not mess with what he viewed as his. The same could be said of Ryker. He was very protective of Dagur and seemed the only one able to calm him down, at least most of the time. The days he couldn't Dagur was a mess and Hiccup found himself being the one dealing with him. Oddly enough it only took a few kind words and a nuzzle from Toothless to calm him down completely. Then Dagur would spend the rest of the day meditating after apologizing endlessly.

Unfortunately Viggo found out about the letters from Johann. It was meant as a simple joke about the riders desperately missing Hiccup for thwm to start sending two Terrors a day. When Hiccup mentioned Johann the look on Viggo's face became dark and almost angry.

"What's wrong?" Hiccup asked, already knowing Viggo didn't like Johann and whoever he was working for.

The man shook his head, the frown never leaving his face. "I think we should talk," he said after a moment. "I private," he added when Dagur moved to join them.

Confused, Hiccup simply shrugged. If it was something that Dagur needed to know he'd tell him, regardless if Viggo said not to. Heather may need to know in order to better protect Johann.

He was actually happy when they went to the other end of the ship and not to Viggo's personal chambers. It seemed almost every time they went there they began making out. It didn't always lead to sex but Hiccup was having a harder and harder time remembering his mission.

Viggo sat at the table and folded his hands on top of it. "Please, sit down," he asked Hiccup, looking oddly grim.

"Viggo, what's going on. I know you have issues with Johann but..."

"You know nothing of my issues with Johann," the man said in an almost angry tone. He sighed and looked Hiccup over. "You don't know the man Johann truly is."

Hiccup raised a brow in confusion.

"He's not who you think he is, Hiccup."

A small laugh escaped Hiccup. "You're acting as if he's some great threat."

"He is," Viggo confirmed, his voice stern.

Hiccup shook his head in disbelief. "I've known Johann all my life. He was there when I took my first step. Hell, he knows more about me than just about everyone. I used to talk to him about everything and he told me stories of his adventures."

Viggo's eyes widened slightly. "What types of things have you told him?"

Hiccup sat across from him. "I don't know. I was pretty lonely as a kid. My mother died when I was baby and my father raised me pretty much on his own...well Gobber raised me while my father chiefed." He sighed. "I didn't really hang out with anyone when I was little but when Johann came he always doted on me. He'd show me his ship and all the fantastic stuff he had found or collected. He always made sure I had the best ink and parchment. I never had to worry about charcoal. He even brought toys from faraway places." His smile fell and guilt twisted his stomach. He felt bad for those times he had pulled rank or threatened sanctions to get information from the man, or all the times he had cut Johann short during one of stories. At some point he had outgrown Johann's stories and he wasn't exactly kind about it.

"Does he know about your gifts?" Viggo pressed.

"Yeah, of course. He learned the same day he learned Berk trained dragons.

Viggo nodded. That explained Johann's in-depth knowledge of Hiccup. He had probably been working Stoick for years using Hiccup and only now targeted Hiccup for potential profit.

"I'm afraid Johann may have been using that information for his own profit." He steepled his fingers as he stared over Hiccup's shoulder in thought. "I mentioned before I thought you were in danger now I know you are."

"From Johann?" Hiccup laughed. "Johann is harmless."

"He's anything but," Viggo insisted, becoming slightly annoyed by the youth's unwillingness to listen.

The annoyance wasn't one way. Hiccup's eyes narrowed and he glared at Viggo. Then he sudden pushed his chair up and stood. "I don't care if he's a business rival, you don't know anything about Johann." He turned to leave but froze at Viggo's next words.

"Then tell me, Hiccup, how did Dagur first hear Berk was training dragons? And how is it he knew where to find his long lost sister, a child who had been missing well over a decade and believed dead?" Viggo stood as well and placed his hands on the table as he leaned forward. "You may think Johann is your friend, Hiccup, but he is playing you. He knows what you are. And he knows what you're worth."

"And you?" Hiccup countered, turning to face Viggo once more. "What am worth to you?"

"More than a king's ransom in gold," Viggo answered smoothly. "But if you don't believe me...ask Dagur who feed him his intel in Berk all these years. And ask him who helped him escape prison."

"I will."

Hiccup stormed out, angrier than he had been in weeks. He wasn't sure what to think. It honestly made no sense. Why would Viggo say such things about Johann? Why would he try to turn Hiccup against the trader? How could it possibly benefit the Hunters? Did Viggo intend to start trading with Berk? That was possible. Johann could be seen as competition but still...

Hiccup leaned against the railing along the stern and stared out over the seas. Toothless rumbled next to him, his shoulder rubbing lovingly against him. He reached out and gently scratched behind his dragon's frills, taking comfort in Toothless's calming presense.

There were things that Viggo said that made him think. How did Dagur learn about Berk's dragons? How did Dagur escape after three years in prison? There was a lot of things that had happened that never made much sense, like missing pieces of a puzzle. And those pieces suddenly made a lot more sense if Johann was an informant and not who Hiccup originally thought. After all Mildew hadn't been heard from in years. The old Viking had gone missing shortly after Berk made peace with the Outcasts.

But Hiccup refused to believe Johann could possibly be ad dangerous as Viggo claimed. It seemed incredibly unlikely Johann would be conning Stoick for well over twenty years. Someone would have figured it out by now.

He felt Dagur before the Berserker even said anything. It was the hesitant footsteps, as if Dagur was no longer sure how to approach him. It had been like that since the older man admitted to raping him.

That was something only Johann knew of. Hiccup had told no one else. There was no one else he could have told. No one he would have told. He didn't even mean to tell Johann. He just broke down one night and Johann had found him, coaxed him onto his ship. They talked, Johann told a story, Hiccup cried and then everything came out. He told Johann everything as the man held him and offered comfort no one else could give him.

How could that same man be the one Viggo was describing?

"What do you know about Johann?" Hiccup finally asked Dagur as the red head stood to his left.

"Johann?" Dagur asked in surprise.

Hiccup nodded.

"I don't know. Nice guy, talks way too much. Always has a story for everything. Surprisingly good swimmer."

Hiccup was silent for a moment. "Who told you about Berk's training dragons?"

Dagur turned and leaned against the rail. He searched Hiccup's gaze for a long time. "Johann of course. I thought you knew."

The rider closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "What else did he tell you?"

"He gushed about the Red Death and how you had killed it...he didn't mention Toothless by name but said you had taken command of an army of dragons. He said Berk was training an army of dragons. He talked about your leg like a badge of honor. That's why I asked about it when Stoick insisted Berk had no dragons. I mean there's a lot of ways you could have lost it, ways that would have made a ton more sense, but he insisted it was while battling the Red Death."

"It was," Hiccup confirmed. "But it wasn't the Red Death that took it." He smiled lovingly at Toothless and petted him. "Toothless saved him but in doing so accidentally snapped my calf. It was so bad that Gobber amputated it to save my life."

Dagur glanced at Toothless in surprise. For a brief moment anger darkened his features but they softened when Hiccup saved the dragon saved him.

"Then I guess I owe you a thank you, Mr. Nightfury," he told Toothless, reaching over to place his hand on the dragon's snout.

Toothless stiffened for a moment then relaxed and gave a rumbling purr.

Hiccup's smile grew, but it fell soon after. "What else did he tell you...about me?"

Dagur frowned. "You don't want to know. Pretty much I was led to believe you felt the same for me as I did you. He said all I had to do was capture you and Toothless and separate you long enough for you to see we really do belong together. Then after you built the outpost on the Edge he told me about what you and your riders were doing...your little harem."

Hiccup inhaled sharply.

Dagur raised his hands. "No judgement. I mean if I had a tight knit group like that I'd happily bed all of them. You're lucky to have so many people who love you like that. I'll admit to being insanely jealous of them."

All Hiccup could do was stare at Dagur in disbelief. He blinked, looked away, then looked back at Dagur. "I..." He couldn't deny that he was in a relationship with his riders. He loved each of them. He had hoped Johann would be more discreet. Who else had Johann told? Alvin? His father? Oh gods, if his father knew then they were in so much trouble, especially if Spitelout ever found out about Snotlout being bisexual.

"Hey, it's okay," Dagur assured. He rolled his shoulders then leaned back on his elbows. "I guess he shouldn't have told me, but you know how Johann is. He just starts talking and then never shuts up until you're about to strangle him." He fell silent as he looked Hiccup over. "Why did he tell you about me?"

"Just when you developed a new weapon...or the time you gave him scrap metal for Gobber that hid a nest of Smokebreaths." He pursed his lips. "In fact he was the one who always gave us a heads up about where you were or what you were up to."

"Hmm...that explains why you guys always showed up when you did."

"And why you always seemed ready for us."

They both fell silent.

For several long seconds Fagur worried his lower lip. He stared at the deck, his shoulders tense and fingers twitching. Then, very slowly, very nervously, he reached out and placed one large hand over Hiccup's and gave a gentle squeeze. It was the first time he had actively touched Hiccup in weeks.

"Whatever his reasons, I can't be mad at him," he said softly, making Hiccup look up. "If it wasn't for him I never would have found Heather. He gave me my sister back. It may not have been the reunion I wanted but he gave her back to me."

Hiccup stared at their hands for a moment then met Dagur's eyes. He didn't pull his hand away. It seemed Dagur needed that little bit of physical contact. It wasn't permission for anything else.

"You knew Johann would tell her how to find you?" he asked, thinking back to that day when Heather was hunting down Dagur to kill him to avenge the death of her parents.

Dagur shrugged. "He told me where she was and said he'd send her to me."

"But you killed her tribe?"

Dagur sighed. "No, I did not kill her tribe. I was in prison when that happened," he said, as if he had repeated the same story a dozen times. "I have no clue who did that or why they blamed me but it wasn't my Berserkers."

He took a deep breath and let go of Hiccup's hand to grasp the rail. "If I ever find the bastards I'll kill them for her."

"Okay." Somehow Hiccup believed Dagur. It didn't make sense for him to randomly attack another tribe. Okay, Dagur had done it before but had it been before he was thrown in prison Heather would have come to Berk for help, wouldn't she? No. Heather didn't bother when it happened, she had gone into the wild and found Windshear then went on a revenge spree. Her only ally had been Johann.

"How old was she when she went missing?" Hiccup asked, clearing avoiding the fact Dagur had cast her adrift.

Dagur was silent as he thought. "Three or four. We were playing castaway when her raft got out of my reach. I stupidly thought I could swim after her but she got too far out. Then when I went for help my Dad insisted that the current must of carried her off and took the guard to rescue her." A sniffle escaped the Berserker and a shine of tears filled his green eyes. "But they went the wrong way. Her raft didn't follow the current. It went the wrong way."

"A dragon?"

Dagur nodded. "The raft must have got caught in its wake and got dragged along." He swallowed and tried to compose himself. "So I wrote to Johann, explained what happened and asked for his help. Took fifteen years but he finally found her."

"It all started with a letter from a little boy..." Johann's words rang through Hiccup's mind. Johann had been trying to tell him about Heather and Dagur when he had interupted and demanded to know what he had told Heather. Johann knew all along Heather and Dagur were siblings.

"What?" Dagur asked, Hiccup having repeated Johann's words out loud.

"Johann knew who Heather was all this time," Hiccup mused.

Dagur simply stared at him.

"Why did it take fifteen years for him to find her? How would he even recognize her as your sister? You two look nothing alike." A dangerous thought was rolling around in his mind. "What if he found her as a child and placed her with her adopted tribe to use against your father later on? Then when you became chief destroyed her village to make her into a weapon against you?"

"Why would he do that?"

Hiccup wasn't sure. It really seemed far fetched. But then so had everything Viggo had said and Dagur had just verified the Johann was the one giving him intel on Berk and Hiccup.

"I don't know...but we need to stop Heather from protecting him," he said, suddenly fearful for Heather.

Dagur gave a small laugh. "This is Heather we're talking about. If he tried anything she'd kick his ass. You're letting Viggo get in your head. Johann is harmless."

Maybe Dagur was right. Maybe he was reading too much into things. Nonetheless worry ate at his stomach. Was Heather in danger or was he worrying for nothing?