It was a bloody mess. Snotlout lay in the middle of the ring in a fetal position. His nose, mouth, ears, and a few cuts throughout his body were red.
"Please, no more, no more, no more! You win! You win!" He begged to the other man in the ring who was towering over him.
However, they were no use as Hiccup just kicked him in the stomach for the 50th time in a row. All the parents in the audience covered their children's eyes, or took them away from the scene, and everybody else gawked in shock and realization. This was Hiccup? Sure, he'd been gone for a long time, and had obviously changed in many ways, but this was overkill. And Stoick had had enough.
Hiccup reached down and lifted up his cousin by the collar of his shirt. "I gave you so many chances to stop, but you didn't listen." He bent his elbow back, and curled his hand in a fist, winding up for another punch to the face. "So now, you're learning the consequences." Snotlout flinched and prepared for the blow, but it never came.
Just inches from his face was a large hand, holding back the punch. "Stop this, now."
Father and Son glared at each other, neither willing to give up the fight. But then, Hiccup's eyes widened, and the deathly glare in them receded. "Oh no." He said to no one in particular. "N-not again. Not again." He released Snotlout, and backed away quickly. Looking at the bloodied Lout, moaning on the ground, Hiccup's face pulled into one of terror, and as he kept backing away, he tripped over a rock and fell on his back. But that didn't stop him from trying to scoot away.
"Not again." He kept repeating.
"Hiccup." Said man looked up at Stoick, who showed great worry on his face. "What were you thinking."
And suddenly, in just a couple minutes, time turned backward. Back to a time when Hiccup was an awkward teenager that everybody was angry at. Back to a time when Stoick was trying to stop his son from making mistakes, and later on scolding him for them.
Back to a time when he had nobody but himself.
And then, the memories of the past years filled his head, and it was too much. Getting up from the ground, he ran off from the arena, too fast for anyone to catch. Toothless didn't follow. He knew his rider needed time to himself. And since Toothless didn't follow, neither did the others.
They just stared. At the bloodied body, the chief who is known as 'stoic,' and the alpha's disappearing figure as he runs as quickly as possible. One question sprung up. What had happened?
The first one to snap out of the trance was the chief. "Alright everybody, let's get Snotlout to Gothi's hut!" He shouted. A few men from the crowd came down and began to carry Snotlout away. "And somebody…" He looked around at the blood all over the ground and walls. "... clean this mess up." Those who had a strong stomach stayed and cleaned up the remaining fluids. Little by little the audience began to thin out, either returning home or going to the mead hall to get a drink.
Because nobody was sleeping after that.
"Not again-nonononono." Hiccup whispered to himself as he was curled up in a ball. Where was he you might ask?
"I wasn't expecting a visitor." Stoick the Vast said, and entered the room. Hiccup's old room to be more exact.
Instead of responding, Hiccup just put his forehead to his knees, and continued whispering to himself. Dismayed, but determined, his father walked over and sat down next to him. "Hiccup." He tried to get the young man's attention. "Hiccup." Stoick said, slightly louder, but still no answer, only louder mumbling. "Hiccup!"
"What do you want!?" The alpha looked up. The wreck of a man that a couple hours ago was a strong, independent person almost made Stoick want to pull his son into his arms in a hug.
That's what Valka would've done.
"Well!?" His face was tear-stained, blotchy, and red. The scars that had been made over the years now stuck out more, and the messy hair that had grown longer stuck to his face because of sweat. Next to Hiccup was also a flask, and looking at it now Stoick realized the smell of alcohol was strong on him.
"When did you start drinking?" He asked.
Hiccup snorted. "That's what you came to ask me about? Drinking?"
"No, but it would be nice to know what you've been up to."
"Ohhh, I get it now." He shut his eyes tight, and rested his head backwards, getting a thunk on the back of his head from the wall.
"What?"
"Finally trying to uncover my secrets so you can try to fix them like you would as a father. So that all can be happy and well like you planned it to be when I was born."
"That's not it."
"So you don't want to be a good parent?"
"Ye- I mean uh, no. I want to be a father, but I don't know how." Hiccup groaned. "Your mother and I were young. We didn't know what to do with a son that might not survive his first winter. We didn't know how to cope with the fact that we were going to actually be parents. Indeed we were happy to have you. But then… she was carried off and…" he paused.
"And what?" His son looked at him with a face that said I don't really care.
"And, I just didn't know anymore. We said that she would take care of the emotional stuff and I'd train you to be a strong adult. It was like yin and yang, I think, and because my other half was gone…"
"Oh, bullsh*t!" Hiccup said, and furrowed his eyebrows.
"Excuse me!"
"You're explaining this to me! Do you not remember what's been going on lately? Astrid and I were teenage parents! We didn't know what to do either! I was on the run, and she was from the place I was running from! How could we cope with that? Remember, Pache grew up without having a physical mother as well! And besides, you had time, preparation, advice from others, and a family! I had a village I was unfamiliar with, a pregnant girlfriend who was so emotional she nearly killed me once, no family, people who resented me and gave me and Astrid many death threats, and an entire nest of dragons to take care of! Don't you dare try to say you had it harder!"
"Hiccu-"
"I'M NOT DONE YET! I didn't have any experience as a child to what a good father would be like. I only had what one shouldn't be like! You were never there! You weren't my dad, you were my chief, always keeping me from causing trouble and getting hurt! I got bullied constantly, and even tried to commit suicide at one point! I had nobody! NOBODY! Even during dragon training the only reason people liked me was because I was like them. A dragon killer! They didn't truly like me for me.
"But that wasn't why I truly had a terrible past life. The terrible realization that you might not come home from dragon raids and that I would be kicked out like I should have been as a babe, or that if you got remarried and had a stronger heir that would be your pride and joy and could get me kicked out! That was what truly frightened me. I was your shadow! Stoick's disappointment! Hiccup the useless! Hiccup the runt! Spawn of Loki! Without you I was nobody! I had nobody, was nobody, and I thought I never would have anybody!
"And then Toothless came. Astrid truly saw me for who I was and loved me for it! I had an entire nest full of creatures who loved me more than my own species ever could! And most of all I had a daughter who I was scared I would screw up. But, I did all I could, and now she's gone! And Astrid's pregnant! And-"
"What?"
"Astrid's pregnant! Okay? Deal with it! It's out! I can't deal with so many things! But it's not just that I'm an alpha, have a lost daughter, have to balance out the peace with the other kingdom so I don't cause a war, and have another child on the way! It's the past that always pops up! It haunts me and in every nightmare I cry! Every day I have to keep my insane side chained up! It's so hard to the point where I just want to curl up and die! But I have people now. I've learned my lessons, and the future looks better than it ever has. Things still suck a lot, yeah, but-but…" He couldn't stop the constant streaming of water from his eyes. All the secrets he held in poured loose as he sobbed, and his voice cracked with almost every word.
But, he wasn't done yet. "I've seen so many people die in cold blood! By the hands of other people, by the claws of dragons, and even because of me. I've gone crazy before, just like I had with Snotlout! If you hadn't interfered I might have killed him, slowly and painfully! On the outside I try to hide it, I really do! But on the inside I'm just as merciless as Alvin! And when that side of me is released?
He sighed, and continued in a softer voice. "Yesterday was Pache's birthday. It killed me not having to be with her. Every time it gets close to her birthday she gains something new. Acid tears, visions, lightning powers, a dragon, dragon language, and extraordinary senses. I started drinking when she turned one. I'm not an alcoholic or anything, I drink about as much as any normal viking would."
There was a long silence before Stoick asked, "We can help you now. Everybody. Humans and dragons together."
Hiccup chuckled sadly. "You can't fix anything now. So many deaths, so many disasters. When you officially named me the Death Rider I thought it was a perfect example of my dark side. The good and bad side of me are needed as much as anybody needs them. My bad personality comes out when I need to get serious, like I did to earn the King of Ainstatia's alliance, but my good side keeps it in order. However, sometimes one of them overpowers the other, and I get carried away by either violence or softness.
"The Death Rider and Hiccup are the same being. Both dark and light. Both one in the same. And just like before, there's nothing that can be done about it. So, there. There's my secrets. Everything that needed to be let out. You know now why I'm troubled so go ahead and try your best to fix me. Like mom should have done."
"What do you mean 'should have done?' She was dead, don't blame her for something she had no control over." Stoick became slightly angry at his son now.
"Psht, yeah right. I've already distinguished this, dragons don't just go for the kill. Especially not mothers. "I know about Mom. That she's alive. Where? What she's doing? I don't know. But, she's out there, for sure."
"How? What makes you so positive?"
"Because this gift we share," He turned his head, and lifted up the hair covering the scale on his neck. "bonds us. And I can sense, as a son should a parent, that she's out there."
"No, she would've come back. Hiccup, she loved you so much."
"Was she treated like I was? Like a weirdo? A runt?"
"Well, she did go against the killing-"
"Enough said. She felt like she didn't belong, and of course wanted to leave you with, as you said, training me to be a good heir. Plus, she probably had dragons to take care of. After all, I didn't come back."
"You're here now."
"It was forced, and you know. You did in fact have a front row seat." Hiccup picked up the flask and took a swig.
"Would you have come back eventually?"
"Most likely, no. The war was over, as far as I knew, and there was no point in starting a new one. I figured you'd probably assume I was being mind controlled or had gone insane and would try to kill the nest again. Astrid was another deal altogether. I didn't want to ruin her life by revealing her relationship with me, and if I had I might've caused you guys to hate and try to get ride of her."
"You really thought we were that heartless, didn't you?"
"I hated any viking's guts." They sat there awkwardly for about five minutes, minds blank despite trying to think of a conversation after the previous one. Finally, Hiccup said, "I guess I also didn't realize that in doing so I hated a large part of myself." He turned and smiled at his dad, a true heart-felt smile. "And you're here now. So, I guess… in a way… you really are a good father."
Those words shattered the large man's heart with happiness and relief. All Hiccup wanted as a boy was his father's approval, but what he didn't know was that his father also wanted his son's approval. To hear that he was doing something right in his job as a dad. So, he did what he planned to do. Stoick took his son in his arms, and they had a nice hug. It wasn't bone-crushing like the usual, or awkward. It was nice. They stood there, soaking in the moment as silent tears ran down their cheeks.
And like usual, in those weird moments, a Hiccup Haddock idea is put into place. "Hey, dad?" He said, pulling away from the embrace.
"Yes, son?"
"I think I know where to look for Pache."
"Wha-how?"
"What type of dragon took mom?"
"I think it was a Stormcutter, very rare in these parts. They usually enjoy a colder climate. Why?"
They locked eyes, and there was a spark in the forest colors of Hiccup's. "Let's just say that a certain itch in the back of my mind is telling me to look in the past to find the future."