Hooooooooly crap, friends, Growing Pains is OVER! My brainchild! MY BABY! So many ups and downs in writing this story. It literally has been a growing pain Lol NOW WE GET TO MOVE ON TO HICCUPSSSSS! Ermagersh... words cannot express the plans we have fo' you! XD IZ GONNA BE MADNESS!

OH before I forget to mention, there is a bit of a time gap between the end of GP and the beginning of Hiccups. Because of this, we'd end up missing all the fun of getting to know Zap and explore her new relationship with Finn as time progresses! There are so many fun, cute ideas to explore!

Therefore, I may or may not write a short story of ten chapters or less of Shenanigans with Finn and Zap stories because THEY ARE MY PRECIOUS AND I CAN'T SAY NO.

There might be a bit of a break before we can start Hiccups because it is a MONSTER. If you think GP was big, HAHAHAH oh boy. Hiccups is a Bewilderbeast like GP is the Red Death. Seriously, no joke. Please bear with us!

Thank you guys SO MUCH for all your love, support, kindness, reviews, and for sticking with us! You guys are the best fans we could ever ask for! Thank you also to everyone who has drawn various fan art. You guys are amazing!

I hope you guys have a fantabulous November! Hiccups is coming soon to a... webpage near you... hehe Love you guys!

-Em

Chapter Twenty-Six: Zap

Much like the mighty Night Fury, time had a tendency to move at extreme speeds. Finn could have sworn it hadn't been very long since he returned home. And yet the village moved on, many people accepting his heartfelt apologies and almost as many refusing to look in his direction as they walked by. The boy knew it would be a long time before he regained their trust. Before he knew it, a week had passed and things were just beginning to settle. Erick had been fitted with a prosthetic and was learning to walk again. Cale and Frey continued with their community service projects. Finn had returned to work alongside Brandyn, who he was surprised to find was almost as hard a worker as he was. His parents were more affectionate than ever. There was always a hot meal when he got home after a long day of work. Astrid had even drawn him a warm bath after his first day back. Hiccup had tidied up his room. The boy had warm welcome at home, even if a certain blonde still gave him the cold shoulder.

Finn awoke to hear his parents talking in hushed voices as they left the house for separate engagements. His head throbbed, mostly because he still wasn't completely caught up on sleep, but he sat up. His first instinct, as it had been every morning since he returned, was to seek out some fish to feed his hungry dragon. But then the sinking feeling enveloped him as he remembered that his dragon was Thor knew were in the archipelago. Probably much happier now that he was away from his errant owner. The thought made the Haddock boy want to curl into a ball and cry. He had felt much more emotionally vulnerable since returning, heck, since leaving.

Kicking off his blankets, he shivered as he changed into his day clothes. Hiccup was going to have to rig up his heating system soon or the Haddocks would freeze to death overnight. Finn padded down the stairs and was relieved to see a fire already crackling in the fireplace. It gave him the sudden urge to relax on the couch and fall asleep again. Adrianna would surely think he was crazy to crash on the couch until a reasonable hour.

Suddenly, he had an idea. He hurtled over and dug through the pantry as quietly as he could. He certainly didn't have anything more important to do this morning. He could put his excellent cooking skills to use and prepare breakfast for himself and his sister. He pulled out a mixing bowl, where he threw together the ingredients for Adrianna's favorite breakfast, usually reserved for special occasions. The house was filled with the pleasant aroma of frying bacon, scrambled eggs, and chocolate pancakes. If Hiccup had fixed up the heating system, Finn knew the scent would be pumped directly into Adrianna's room, which would definitely wake her up in a hurry.

It seemed like an eternity until she finally descended the staircase in her pink nightgown and fuzzy slippers. Her eyes widened as she watched Finn scoop copious amounts of scrambled eggs mixed with fresh bacon onto a plate already occupied with chocolate pancakes. Finn grinned.

"Morning, sleepyhead." he called, holding out a plate. "I made breakfast."

"I see that." Adrianna said shortly.

Finn almost laughed at the dilemma that must be going on inside her head right now. On the one hand, she loved food almost as much as he did and she almost never had a breakfast this good. On the other hand, she couldn't carry her food away from Finn without it getting cold quickly in the drafty upstairs or blustery day outside. She was going to have to eat in the main room and that meant talking to Finn.

"Come on, sis." Finn smirked and attempted to wave the pleasant aroma in Adrianna's direction. "You know you want it."

Adrianna bit her lip but finally conceded. She sauntered over to her brother and took the plate from his hands.

"There you go. And you're welcome for what may be the best breakfast you've ever had." Finn mock bowed to her.

Her mouth turned up in a half smile. "Don't push it, Finnegan."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Finn sat down on the hard chair closer to the fireplace and nodded to the couch. "Go on, sit down. I know you don't like dining alone."

"I..." Adrianna sighed. "I guess."

She slowly walked over to the couch, eyeing Finn like he might be an impostor. Finn gave her an exaggerated friendly smile. She rolled her eyes and sat down.

"The Fearless Finn I remember would sprawl out on the comfy seat and get irrationally annoyed when someone else wanted to sit down." she stated, staring at her food as if it was a fascinating book.

Finn let out a nervous laugh. "Yeah. Dumb kid, that Finn."

Adrianna suddenly looked up. "How do I know this repentance thing isn't just another ploy for attention?"

Finn's eyebrows jumped into his bangs. He hadn't expected her to ask the hard questions so soon. "I guess you can't know unless I prove it." he admitted.

"It's just..." she put down her fork and looked directly into his eyes. It was a bit intimidating. "A month ago, you were vandalizing the town and insulting dad to his face and everything. Now you're hugging him in public and crying in front of people and apologizing for everything." Finn rather thought she was answering her own question but he knew the consequences would be dire if he vocalized that particular thought. "How do I know you're not doing this to make it even more painful for them when you suddenly turn and are worse than before?"

Finn stared at her with wide eyes. He honestly hadn't even considered that line of thought. "Well, to be honest, I'm not smart enough to come up with a plan that underhanded or ingenious."

Adrianna breathed a laugh. "Apparently."

"I probably would have done it, come to think of it." Finn felt sick in the pit of his stomach at the thought. "Make it hurt more. Sounds like me."

"So how do I know you're not?" Adrianna pressed.

"I wish I had some kind of proof, Anna. I wish I could let you in my head so you could feel how sorry I am and how much I want to make it up to everyone." Finn said, his chest constricting. "And I wish you'd give me a chance."

Adrianna pursed her lips and stared down at her food. "I've been a really good sister, all things considered."

Finn didn't know how she was going to respond to that request but he certainly hadn't expected such an off topic statement. He raised an eyebrow. "Okay..."

"You were born first, you had the birthright. And did I ever, even once, get jealous of that? Did I ever complain that you got the attention and had the important job and I didn't? Did I get depressed because your name was going to go down in history and mine wasn't going to be more than a footnote?" Adrianna asked him.

"Uh... no." Finn shook his head. "But I thought you didn't want-"

"Too right I didn't!" Adrianna interrupted him. "And you're lucky for that. What if I had? What if it had been a power struggle from the beginning? What if I resented you for being born first? What if we'd both been boys and got into fistfights about it all the time? Did you ever think about that, Fearless Finn? Did it ever occur to you how lucky you are not to have to deal with that?"

Finn felt like he'd been punched in the chest. Of course it hadn't occurred to him. In all that time as the heir, as the child the villagers respected as their future chief, he'd never once considered that someone else might have been jealous of that title. That his own sister could have desired it too. That there would come a day when his parents would have to choose one over the other. How difficult would that situation have been? Twins, born mere minutes apart, vying for the most powerful position on Berk. It would have been a nightmare. He couldn't imagine his twin hating him for something he couldn't even control. Trista killed because of that power struggle and he could have had that same situation right in his own home.

"Wow, I..." Finn shook his head. "I didn't think about that."

"Maybe you should have before you left us." Adrianna said sharply. "Maybe you should have considered that I have my own hopes and dreams too, which I built up over a lifetime of not being the heir, and they were shattered because you almost didn't come back. And they might still be if this is all some stupid act." Finn opened his mouth but no sound came out. "Don't you get it? What you do affects everything for this village and this family. If you think mom and dad have all the power, you're not paying attention."

"Anna, I'm really sorry." Finn breathed, hit with sudden emotion again. "You're right. Benen used to say everything had a ripple effect, like a stone dropped into a pond, but I wasn't even paying attention when I was flying off and I didn't think that would affect you so much."

"No. You didn't." Adrianna shook her head. "And I'm upset with you. But..." she sighed. "I won't always be."

Finn perked up. "Wait so..."

"I want to forgive you, Finn." Adrianna told him earnestly. "And I sort of do now but I don't feel like I do. But I don't want to stay mad."

"So what do you want?"

"I want my brother back." she gave him a half smile as she thought about it. "I want to laugh out loud at the silly things you do and call you stupid names and do things normal siblings do."

"So you want to just... hang out?" Finn smiled. "I'm down with that."

"Not all the time." Adrianna continued. "But yeah. We were best friends when we were little. And I know we're really different now and we don't have to be super close but I... oh gods, I don't know, I just want something more than this."

"Me too." Finn said. "Mom and dad'll be shocked right out of their saddles if they come home to us loving on each other."

"Right?" Adrianna laughed. "We used to team up on them sometimes. I remember, I ran one way and you ran the other and our parents had to split up to catch us for our baths."

"And you'd scream when they caught you." Finn nearly spat out his orange juice at the memory. "You remember that time you tried to convince them we didn't have a bathtub?"

"Gods, I forgot about that. Do you remember when you got hyped up on sugar and ran around the living room like a maniac?"

"Yeah! I couldn't stop laughing. Mom started tickling me!"

"And then dad nearly ran into you and you wiped out." Adrianna sighed deeply, a genuine smile on her face. "Good times. What happened?"

"For you, Erick. For me, probably the realization that I could roughhouse a lot harder with the other boys."

"And Helga. She was tough."

"She was." Finn agreed. "But you used to cry when I tackled you and pulled your hair."

"It hurt." Adrianna rubbed her scalp. "But I wish we'd done more together."

"We can now." Finn tossed a piece of bacon at her.

"That was pathetic, Finnegan." Adrianna rolled her eyes and grabbed a piece of bacon off her plate. "Watch and learn." she tossed it at him and he caught it in his mouth. "Most impressive."

"You couldn't do it." Finn teased.

"I could!" Adrianna opened her mouth.

Finn tossed another piece of bacon at her, which bounced off her nose. She snorted with laughter and caught the second piece in her mouth.

"Guess we're tied." she announced.

"Yep." Finn picked up another piece of bacon. "Just how mad do you think mom would be if she saw us doing this?"

"Very." Adrianna giggled, suppressing a hiccup. "And dad would want to join us until he saw her glaring."

"Ha, yes!" Finn lurched forward but the bacon bounced off his chin. "He'd probably win too."

Lily sauntered into the main room, yawning and stretching. Adrianna tossed her a piece of bacon, which she easily caught. Finn suddenly let out a shout of laughter.

"You remember that time Lily set the drapes on fire?" he chortled.

Adrianna snickered. "Yeah, mom was chasing her around the house with a broom while dad put out the fire."

"She was freaking out too, wasn't she new then? Then they made her go outside."

"Yeah, then she wailed to be let back in but they wouldn't let her until she learned her lesson." Adrianna patted her dragon's nose affectionately. "But she learned it."

"That she did." Finn agreed.

"Are you ever going to get a new dragon?" Adrianna asked him.

"Eventually." Finn felt a pang of sadness at the reminder but he shoved it down. "But I don't want to push it. I want him to trust me. And I want a fresh start."

"It's a good feeling." Adrianna said as she cooed and scratched Lily's chin. Lily flopped to the floor and rolled onto her back. "Careful, girl." she added as Lily's tail came extremely close to knocking over the hat stand.

"Please, wouldn't be the first time a dragon's knocked that over." Finn grinned. "Toothless puked on it once, remember?"

"That was gross." Adrianna nodded. "All four of us crammed into Benen's house that night because it reeked."

"That's when we found out he snored." Finn smiled but he felt tears brimming at his eyelids. "He never... he never believed us."

"Finn, are you crying?" Adrianna stopped rubbing Lily's belly to focus on him.

"Sorry, I... whenever I get to thinking about Benen lately, I can't help it." Finn sniffed and wiped his eyes. "I don't mean to, I just... I miss him."

Adrianna leaned forward and wiped his tears with a napkin. "I miss him too. I miss his treats and the way he used to laugh so hard, not caring what people thought."

"Yeah." Finn nodded. "He never did hold back."

Adrianna patted the couch next to her and Finn tentatively sat down. The twins stared wistfully into the fire, both thinking about their friend and how much he had meant to them. Finn wiped his eyes again as his tears finally subsided. A part of him was slightly frustrated that he was only now allowing himself to grieve over Benen. He had pushed it down for nearly two years but here it was, almost as raw as it had been just after it had happened. His heart ached horribly at the memories still surfacing in his mind but he was beginning to envy his sister. She had cried it out just after it had happened. He remembered hearing her sobbing in her room for weeks afterward. If only he had grieved too. Perhaps he would have it together by now the way she did.

"I used to think you were a dumb little weakling." Finn admitted after a while of reflective silence. "But you're not. You're one of the strongest people I know."

Adrianna breathed a laugh. "I doubt that."

"No, really." Finn nudged her, making her smile. "You've gone to hell and back and you still love and trust people. You still give them everything you've got."

"You get used to it." Adrianna shrugged. "When you've been hurt like that, you learn to see the best in people. Because most of them aren't out to get you."

"Yeah but you took it so well after Benen died. I mean you were sad, you cried, you locked yourself in your room with your books a few times, but then you just got over it." Finn gritted his teeth together so the tears wouldn't come back. "How did you do it? How come you figured out how to move on and I just... regressed?"

"Because you get angry about things." Adrianna stated. "And it was sudden and horrible and happened for no reason. And it hurt. I guess because I know that bad things happen to good people but you have it in your head that if you work hard enough, things like that won't happen at all."

"You were never angry?"

"Of course I was." Adrianna nodded. "I was furious. I was angry that it happened, I was angry that I didn't get any warning, that Benen died before I was even able to say goodbye... I went through that. I didn't lash out though. I wrote it down. Maybe you could too."

"Maybe." Finn put down his empty plate. "So what are you up to?"

"Babysitting Ava this evening. I was going to help Erick walk today. Shouldn't you be at the forge?"

"Half day." Finn shrugged. "Gobber wanted to show Brandyn something. Probably best that I'm not in the way."

"Want to come help Erick walk?" Adrianna asked. "We're all getting together to cheer him on. Mara thinks he might be able to walk without help today."

Truthfully, the last thing Finn felt like doing was watching Erick suffer through learning to walk again but he nodded. He was going to have to get used to this new reality.

"Cool. I'll get dressed and we'll head right over." Adrianna handed her plate to Finn. "I trust you know how to do the dishes."

"Very funny." Finn stuck his tongue out at her. "I might be able to figure it out with my pea sized brain."

Adrianna patted the top of his head. "Good boy."

She laughed at the withering look he gave her and pounded up the stairs. Finn grinned as he collected the dishes and scrubbed them off in the barrel of water near the back door. He hadn't thought it would be so easy to convince his sister to forgive him. He knew they would still bicker sometimes, all siblings did, but he couldn't help but hope that he would be able to make up for lost time. He truly was lucky to have a sister like her. He only hoped that she was just as lucky to have him as a brother.

Cliff didn't think he would have nearly as much fun with best friend who was forced to stay in one place as he did with Erick. The two of them played games together, got into ridiculous debates, and even bantered with Inga a fair few times when she was around. She usually won such silly bantering sessions with her quick wit and copious amounts of sass that could only come from the Jorgenson blood running through her veins. If he didn't know that Inga was Finn's future bride, Cliff might have been attracted to such a strong personality.

The Smedley boy had made a record three female friends in the short week since Finn's return home. Inga was the first, of course. Then there had been the much tamer Taryn, who was very sweet and always laughed at his jokes. He liked a girl who thought he was funny. Finally, he and Adrianna had gotten to know each other very well. She was almost as witty as Inga and sarcastic enough to do her Haddock heritage justice. Her dry humor was nearly lost on him but it was quite entertaining to watch her and Erick snark at each other. He had once thought her to be a melancholy, tragic heroine kind of person. He was pleasantly surprised to find that she enjoyed silly conversations and banter. And with Hiccup and Astrid showing up every few hours, Cliff had never had the opportunity to get to know such fascinating people.

Erick's walking had improved since he received his prosthetic. He winced when he put any weight on his stump but he had managed to walk across the room and back with minimal support. Today was the day Cliff had been looking forward to for the last few days. All of his friends had an open schedule so they were going to meet up to help Erick walk and cheer him on. Erick was truly blessed to have so many supportive friends. Cliff could only hope they would come to love him as much as they loved the youngest Larson.

"Up you go!" Cliff chirped as he helped Erick out of the wheeled chair. "Don't want to look lazy in front of your posse."

"I will get up if you stop calling them a posse." Erick smirked at him. "We're not out lassoing horses or getting ourselves locked in a poorly guarded prison."

"You read too many weird books." Cliff commented as he helped Erick strap on the prosthetic. "You need to get out more."

"That's why I'm trying to walk again, Cliff." Erick narrowed his eyes at his friend. "So I can get out more."

"Yeah yeah, you keep saying that. But I'm getting antsy, bruh. I need my grand adventures." Cliff clapped Erick on the shoulder.

"I'm so sorry my foot being ground up like a slab of meat is cramping your style." Erick deadpanned. "I'll try to do better."

"Aw come on." Cliff rolled his eyes. "I'm not that selfish."

"I know you're not." Erick replied. "Still fun to mess with you."

"Yeah, let's see how much you can walk when I let you go for being a butt." Cliff nudged his friend, who stuck his tongue out at him.

"I'd like to see you try to walk on this." Erick lowered his prosthetic to the ground with a thunk reminiscent of Hiccup's walk.

"It's not easy." Hiccup said as he pulled back the curtain to reveal the rest of the healer's house. "But you get used to it. 'Til then, you have to challenge yourself to do a little more each day."

Cliff snatched a pencil off of Erick's nightstand and tossed it across the room.

"What was that for?" Erick yelped indignantly.

"Fetch!" Cliff pointed to the pencil, which was still rolling away. Erick blinked at him. "You need to exercise! Challenge yourself! You must be stable on two legs to propose to Anna one d-"

"Cliff. Pencil. Now." Erick's face reddened as he pointed to the pencil.

Cliff made a face. "Fine." he sulked, crossing the room and grabbing the pencil.

"For the record, that's not what I meant." Hiccup told him. "He's not a dragon, Cliff."

"I should hope not." Inga announced as she entered the room. "I've cleaned up after him enough. Last thing I need is to wipe fish goo and dragon drool off the bed."

"Speaking of, how's Charger?" Erick asked Hiccup. "Is he doing okay?"

"He's extremely antsy." Hiccup replied with a sigh. "He misses you. Cries at night sometimes. We take turns sleeping in the living room next to him when he gets upset but I think he's okay."

"Is Finn still flying with him?"

"Yeah but those two are not a good match. Charger snapped at him the other day." Hiccup snickered. "It was his own fault though."

"Oh? Was he showing off?" Inga asked with a smirk.

"No. He doesn't really show off anymore. I've kind of missed that, come to think of it. Anyway, Charger was eating something he shouldn't and Finn tried to wrestle it away. Stupid thing to do." Hiccup shook his head. "But it didn't even bleed. Bruised up pretty bad, good thing it was his left hand."

"Well Charger's my dragon. I'm the only one who can get him to stop eating furniture."

"He eats furniture?" Taryn made an appearance, smiling at the forming group within the healer's house.

"Not anymore." Erick shook his head. "Well I think I can get started trying to walk on this thing now."

He leaned heavily on Cliff and slowly stood. Cliff couldn't help but notice just how much pain Erick must be in. But before his best friend could take a single step, two more people entered the room.

"Sorry, did I miss anything?" Adrianna panted. "We got carried away."

Erick's face noticeably brightened at the sight of his closest friend. Cliff smiled knowingly. Here Erick was, suffering through agony but still grinning at her. And the flower she'd placed in her hair was certainly a blast from a much happier past. Of course, Finn's presence did add a tension to the room but Erick only had eyes for Adrianna.

"Hey." he breathed. "You look nice."

"You think so?" Adrianna touched the purple flower in her ponytail.

"Yeah. I like the flowers." And there were the dimples. Erick's face went slightly pink and he averted his eyes. "So what's the plan? Why are so many people here?"

"Well it was my idea." Hiccup explained. "I'll stand against this wall here. Inga and Cliff can stand on Erick's right while Taryn and Addie can stand to his left. If he needs help, there'll be someone close by on either to catch him."

"And you?" asked Inga. "What are you and Finn doing?"

"Finn is here to watch." Hiccup smiled at his son. "I didn't think he'd come today. And I'm here to be the end of the line and help turn Erick around when he gets to me."

"I feel like a toddler." Erick quipped. "You sure I can handle this, dad?"

Hiccup beamed. "I know you can. I was out for 2 weeks after my incident and it's been about 2 weeks for you too. But I'm not expecting anything groundbreaking. I'm a fast healer."

"You've got a good thing going, man." Cliff patted Erick on the back. "Three lovely ladies to catch you if you fall."

Erick laughed. "Yeah, ever guy dreams of having his foot decimated just to fall into the arms of the only three girls who can stand to be around me."

"You're lucky, mate." Finn called from across the room. "These three ladies would let me fall on my face."

"And then laugh at you." Inga added.

"Too true." Finn agreed.

"I get it." Erick smiled but the dimples didn't return.

"So let's stop talking and make this boy walk!" Cliff gave Erick a gentle push so that he stood, wobbling on his prosthetic.

"All right, small steps." Hiccup coached. "Hands out for balance, good, like that."

Cliff watched Erick slowly but surely walk across the room. But the journey wasn't without a stumble. Erick lost his balance and fell sideways onto Adrianna.

"Sorry!" he yelped, his face going scarlet. "I didn't mean to... I'm sorry, Annie."

"That's why I'm here." Adrianna smiled warmly at him and helped him stand up again. "You're doing great."

Adrianna wiped his forehead with a handkerchief before helping him regain his balance and continue walking toward Hiccup. When he finally reached the Hooligan chief, he smiled.

"See? Gets a little easier every day." Hiccup held his shoulders to keep him balanced. "You all right to walk back?"

"I think so." Erick panted.

Hiccup helped him turn around and gently pushed him toward his chair. Cliff couldn't help but notice the beads of sweat on his best friend's forehead. Erick's hands trembled as he slowly took each step closer to his goal. When he finally reached his chair, thankfully without running into everyone, he sighed in relief.

"Okay, I think that's about it for now." Hiccup said, grinning as he walked over to the youngest Larson. "We can try again this evening if you're feeling up to it."

"Yeah." Erick panted, sitting down on and looking a lot more comfortable. "I can't wait to be able to look people in the eye with ease. I feel short."

"Tell me about it." Taryn said with a wink.

"Okay, shorter." Erick chortled. "No offense to the vertically challenged."

"None taken. For now." Taryn patted Erick's head. "But I do like looking down at you for once."

"It is fun." piped up Cliff. "Looking at the world from your perch above everyone's heads. By the way, your flower is lovely, Miss Anna Banana."

"Yeah, I thought you didn't wear them anymore." Erick added.

"Well I figured I might as well smell nice if you fell on me." Adrianna sat down in a seat next to Erick so she was more level with him. "What do you know, you did."

"Yeah." Erick breathed, his dimples coming back.

Taryn clapped her hands together. "Well you should wear them more often, Anna. I'm pretty good with hair, you should come over. I'd love to get my hands on it sometime."

Adrianna's eyebrows jumped in surprise. "Yeah. That sounds fun."

"Ooh, girl time! There's something you need more of!" Cliff cooed.

"I couldn't agree more." said Hiccup, playfully tugging his daughter's hair. "Someone needs to tame these pretty locks."

"Why did we go from talking about helping Erick walk to my hair?" Adrianna asked incredulously. "I think our rehabilitating friend is more important."

"It's okay, chat about whatever." Erick shrugged. "My agonizing journey across the room and back is complete for now." he exhaled slowly. "I'm just happy to have the company."

"I think Anna having a girlfriend for once is revolutionary." Inga chirped. She snorted with laughter. "Wait no, that's not how I meant it, I meant a girl who's a friend, she's not... you know what I meant."

Finn spat out a mouthful of water. "Yeah, Anna, I don't need another sister." he chortled.

"Shut it, lovebirds." Adrianna snapped at them, a smirk playing on her lips.

Both Finn and Inga rolled their eyes but avoided the accusation, as they knew provocation would result in more teasing.

"Why don't you and Taryn go paint your nails and talk about boys?" Hiccup suggested. "I think it'll be good for you."

"You should go too." Snotlout said as he sauntered in. "I think you'd look nice with green nails."

He clapped Hiccup on the back, grinning at Hiccup's withering gaze. The teens snickered.

"Ehh everyone knows red is his color." Tuffnut practically skipped into the room, his twin following closely behind.

"Okay, why is everyone crowding in here?" Erick asked, eyebrow raised.

"Well I'm here to pick up my child." Snotlout crossed his arms.

"I'm here because apparently Hiccup needs a makeover." Tuffnut stared intensely at his friend. "Yeah. I'm thinking blue tips on the hair. That'll look good."

"And rainbow nails!" Ruffnut added cheerfully.

Snotlout burst out laughing. "Yeah, that would look amazing."

"Ha ha. Very funny." Hiccup rolled his eyes. "You should go on tour with that act."

"Maybe dad can be your clown." Inga skipped over to her father. "I think he'd look good with curly pink hair."

"Or no hair at all." Finn piped up.

"Exactly." Inga agreed. "You should go with Anna and Taryn."

"Hey, we're not making fun of me right now, we're making fun of Hiccup." Snotlout protested.

"Oh I think we're making fun of you." Astrid said as she walked in. "I don't even need context to figure that out. You're an easy target."

The teens watched the adults bicker with some amount of fascination, moving their heads back and forth as if they were watching a game of high speed fetch. Cliff wondered if it had always been like that between them.

"Do you know what I do for your ungrateful people?" Snotlout asked indignantly. "I am the head hunter!"

"Sheesh, don't lob off mine." Cliff pulled his collar up over his neck as the others laughed.

"You know that's not what I meant! I meant I'm the hunter who is the head of all the other hunters! And I do a ton of security and armory jobs!" Snotlout continued, gesticulating wildly. "My role in this village is irreplaceable even if I'm not the chief! So I think I'm owed a bit of respec-"

SMACK!

Snotlout went flying backward and slammed into a table full of folded clothes. Hiccup stood triumphantly over him, shaking off his open palm.

"That's two."

"Two what?" Snotlout bellowed over everyone's cheers and applause. "Why the- oh gods, are you serious?"

"Oh yes."

"We made that bet five years ago!"

"I've been holding onto them."

"Five years!"

"Figured they might come in handy!" he snorted. "No pun intended."

"He got you good, daddy!" Inga giggled.

"And it was totally within the rules." Adrianna added. "As Slap Bet Commissioner, my word is law and I did say he could slap you any time."

"Yeah, the nice thing about slaps is that they never expire." Hiccup shrugged and blew into his palm. "I mean it's no picnic for me, Snotlout, not only does it hurt my hand, that unsightly hand print on your face is no picnic to look at."

"Not that your face isn't already unsightly enough." Astrid added.

Snotlout growled loudly, only making the others laugh harder.

"Ahh the slap bet. Perhaps the greatest invention mankind will ever know." Ruffnut said dramatically.

"Too true." Tuffnut wiped tears of joy out of his eyes.

"This changes everything." Cliff excitedly turned to Erick. "Don't you understand, this solves all of our wager related problems!"

"I wasn't aware we had any..." Erick raised an eyebrow.

"Well Anna and I were going to hang out, want to come, Inga?" Taryn asked the younger girl.

"Dad?"

"Ugh, fine." Snotlout stood up, massaging his cheek. "But don't let the Haddocks influence you too much."

The girls left the room, chatting about shorter hairstyles for Inga. Hiccup watched his daughter go with an affectionate smile.

"Now I can breathe a little easier." he said with a sigh. "My girl can actually be a girl."

"Well I came by to get you, Hiccup, you've got that thing at the Academy." Astrid put her arm around his waist.

"Oh yeah. Sorry folks, show's over." Hiccup allowed his wife to lead him out.

"Wait up!" Finn hopped to his feet and followed them out.

"All right, everyone, you've had your fun." Mara announced, bustling in and shooing them with a handkerchief in her hand. "But let's give this poor boy some air."

"All right, all right!" Ruffnut hightailed it out of there, Tuffnut at her heels.

"Looks like it's just you and me, buddy." Cliff turned to his friend and took a seat after Mara left again. "Which is good because we need to discuss a very important topic."

"Which is?"

"How you were looking at Anna." Cliff said unabashedly.

Erick's cheeks turned pink. "That's all right. I don't think that needs discussing."

"Oh please!" Cliff huffed impatiently. Why wouldn't this silly boy listen? "Everyone jokes about you two for a reason. You're perfect for each other! And don't tell me you don't feel it too. You can't even think about her without smiling."

Erick laughed nervously. "There's no point. She has a boyfriend. It's just a... a crush."

"Come on!" Cliff smacked Erick upside the head.

"Ow!" Erick rubbed his scalp indignantly. "What was that for?"

"Someone has to knock some sense into you! This, you and her, that's no crush. Gods, that's how Hiccup looks at Astrid! How my parents look at each other! That's mad, unending, devoted, passionate love right there and we're all going to explode if you don't do some grand romantic gesture to prove your love for her!" Cliff gasped when he was finished talking before he continued. "I don't want to hear any more excuses from you, Erick Larson! You love that girl, you should fight for her!"

"I don't want to talk about this." Erick tried to wheel away but Cliff grabbed his arm.

"Fine. Then look me in the eye and tell me it's over. You have no feelings for her whatsoever. That it doesn't make you sick to see her with Brandyn." Cliff demanded. "If you can say that with all honesty, I'll never bring it up again."

Erick took a deep breath and averted his eyes. Yanking his arm out of Cliff's grasp, he wheeled into the next room over and shut the door.

Finn held open the door for his parents and followed them outside. Hiccup squeezed his shoulder when he stepped onto the dirt path and looked around the village. "How you feeling?"

"'m okay," Finn murmured. In truth it had been a long week. He was exhausted. But he knew his hard work was just beginning, so he wouldn't complain or quit. He wouldn't run himself into the ground again either though. He had to quit both extremes.

Astrid kissed his cheek. "We're headed to the Academy to go through some stuff in storage. Want to come?"

Finn thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Sure."

"Great." Hiccup smiled, ushering his wife and son forward. "Tuffnut was telling me the other day about all the old stuff he found in the closets, so we figured we'd go through it and see what we could find."

Finn hid a smile as his dad continued to prattle. He caught his mom's look of amusement and continued forward, listening intently. He'd realized earlier in the week that his dad's tendency to ramble meant he was in a good mood and happy to be with his loved ones. He became easily excited about things that interested him, so he naturally wanted to tell them all about it. He'd felt guilty upon the realization that his former attitude problems and telling his father to shutup all the time had been a slap to the face. No wonder his dad had always been so depressed.

Apparently most of the stuff found in the storage closets was old equipment from his parents' day. Finn's interest was piqued when the words "dragon racing" were mentioned.

"Dragon racing? What's that?"

Hiccup smiled knowingly. "We'll show you everything-"

A few shouts of surprise erupted behind them. Finn felt his parents stiffen on either side of him, but before he could turn around a massive being collided with him from behind. The air was knocked out of his lungs as he was thrust forward and upward.

Finn gasped in shock when his vision cleared. The village was shrinking at an alarming pace. He realized in horror that a dragon had its clawed feet wrapped around his upper arms and was flying away from Berk! Looking back as best he could, he saw his parents tearing through the village after their dragons and a few other riders taking to the sky to rescue him.

Finn struggled against his captor's blue claws. "HEY! Put me down, you big-" A big blue and green head leaned down in front of his face and chortled loudly. Finn gasped in complete shock. "You!"

The beautiful dragon he'd rescued chortled again and twisted in the air excitedly, nearly yanking Finn's arms out of his sockets. Her wings rippled with unspent electricity. "Hey, STOP! You're going to- WAIT WAIT WAIT!"

Finn screamed when the dragon suddenly let go of his arms. He plummeted through the air at top speeds, the village looming closer and closer. He heard Toothless's sonar whistle above him. He desperately hoped his father would rescue him before he became a Not-so-Fearless Finn pancake.

The blue dragon suddenly swooped in from the side, colliding with him. Finn yelled indignantly, grappling with her large, slippery neck to get a handhold. They were flying too hard, too fast; if he fell now, he'd be seriously injured, if not dead on impact.

Finally, he slung a leg over her neck, yanked her horns toward the open square, and commanded her to land. "DOWN!"

The blue dragon screeched indignantly at her fun being cut off so short. She zipped into the square, landing hard on her front feet. Having no saddle, Finn flew off her back and landed in the dirt, doing his best to bend his knees and roll so he wouldn't break anything.

Finn lay in the dirt for a few seconds panting. He heard running footsteps before someone rolled him over. Adrianna's eyes were as wide as saucers, her half braided hair coming undone. "Oh my gods, are you okay?"

The Haddock teenager coughed painfully and tried to sit up. "I taste my spleen."

"FINN!" Astrid sprinted to his side, her face white with worry. "You were thrown! Don't move!"

"Nothing's broken, I'm fine." Finn carefully sat up and looked around. He wiped his face and ignored the worried crowd, his eyes focusing on the dragoness cowering twenty feet away, surrounded by numerous dragons and their riders. Hiccup stood in front of her with his flaming sword. "Wait! Dad, she's fine!"

"Finn, slow down!" Astrid ordered, but he struggled to his feet.

Hiccup warily watched his son. "Finn, are you okay?"

Finn nodded and gestured for everyone to put their weapons down. "She's fine, she was just playing." The female dragon's head popped up when she saw Finn. Her tail thumped against the ground excitedly. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"

"You know this dragon?" Snotlout asked from atop Hookfang.

Finn held out his hand, which the blue dragon accepted with gusto. "Easy! You've been alone too long, haven't you? You just wants love and attention!" The dragon bounced up and down in place, eagerly licking his face. Finn blushed at the witnessing crowd. "Yeah, I saved her from a trap somewhere."

"You didn't tell us you rescued a dragon." Hiccup commented as he stepped closer, looking her over. "She's beautiful."

"What is she?" Finn asked eagerly. "I've never seen a dragon like this before."

Hiccup held out a hand, which the dragon sniffed. She melted and nearly thrust her face into his arms. The chief laughed. "I could be mistaken, but I think she's a Shockjaw."

"Nah you're right," Finn snorted. "She definitely shocks."

Fishlegs stepped forward, nearly squealing in excitement. "A Shockjaw? We've never had one on Berk before!"

"Why not?" Finn asked, scratching her chin.

"They like warmer climates." Hiccup said, taking note of the small quills on her chin and throat. "Judging by her size and how easily excited she is, I'm going to say she's about… oh, eight or nine months old."

"That's it?" Finn asked in surprise. "She's pretty big for so young."

"She'll get bigger." Hiccup winked.

"Sweet…" Finn whispered. The Shockjaw sniffed his hair and clothes and he poked her nose. She stepped back and sneezed. "Ey, stop that." The dragon mewled and grabbed his sleeve, dragging him toward Hiccup. "Hey, seriously!"

"Yes, I know, this one's mine." Hiccup snickered, scratching her face.

"So what are we going to do with her?" Gustav Larson asked. "We can't trust a dragon that might carry someone off!"

"She won't hurt anyone," Finn said. "She was just excited to see me."

"Well if that's the case, you keep her!" piped up Adrianna, who the dragon was greeting next.

The dragon turned to face him, her large teal eyes meeting his. As he stared into them, he couldn't deny the connection he felt with her. She was wild, crazy, and wise. She was the only thing that gave him the final push to come home. She kept him on his toes and challenged him more than Thornado ever had. She'd have to be trained, which might take effort due to her age and wild persona. But the more he thought about it, the more his heart longed to keep her.

He looked up at Hiccup and Astrid, who had knowing smiles on their faces. Hiccup shrugged. "It's fine with us."

A smile wormed its way onto his face and the Shockjaw suddenly jumped up and down with so much excitement, she started knocking barrels over. Finn laughed. "Okay, okay, relax!"

Astrid reached out to scratch her neck. "What's her name?"

Without pause, Finn grinned. "Zap."

Gobber was pulling yet another box out of the old dragon cages at the Academy when he heard the telltale chatter that only the Haddocks could achieve. He turned around to find Hiccup, Adrianna, and Finn in stitches over a story Astrid was telling. Their dragons hopped around them like excited kittens, Toothless warbling happily at his human's cheer and Stormfly screeching with Lily. An unfamiliar dragon trailed them, attempting to join the females in their conversation but constantly bumping Finn on the back. Gobber smiled knowingly.

"Oy!" he called. "Just can't keep it down, can you?"

"Do we have to?" Hiccup snarked, still chortling at the story. "I don't see a sleeping baby. Why can't I YELL FOR NO REASON?" he suddenly bellowed.

Gobber cuffed him on the back of the head. Finn snorted in amusement. "Yeh always were a rebel but do yeh have to teach the kiddies such bad habits?"

"My offspring, my rules." Hiccup informed him almost seriously. "So what have you got?"

"What have you got?" Gobber nodded to Zap, who was attempting to sniff Stormfly's tail.

"Ahh. Gobber, meet Zap." Finn gestured grandly to the Shockjaw.

"A Shockjaw! Very impressive! Where'd you manage to find out of these on Berk?" Gobber asked, carefully approaching the baby dragon. Zap jumped in front of Finn and let out a warning growl. "Ohhhh stop." the elderly man waved his remaining hand. "I'm no threat to this chip off the ol' block."

"Yeah, he's okay, Zappy." Finn cooed to his dragon. Zap licked his face. "Eugh, let's keep the French kisses to a minimum."

"Well you have to practice with someone, Finnegan." Adrianna sassed. "So you can be an expert when you're snogging Inga."

"Shut up, you." Finn snipped, now rubbing Zap's belly.

"Well now, seeing you Haddocks so happy and cheerful is a rare sight these days." Gobber smiled widely. "Usually you're at each other's throats. What's changed?"

"I think we all have." Astrid told him.

"And that's enough sappy sentiments for this old coot." Gobber opened the nearest box. "Let's see what we've got here. Ooh, here's a blast from the past, Hiccup." he extracted a small, brown vest. "Remember this?"

"Woah." Adrianna skipped over and took the vest from him. She held it up. "You wore this? It's so... so..."

"Tiny." Finn finished. "You were a toothpick!"

"I was, wasn't I?" Hiccup snickered, holding the vest up to his chest. "Well here's definitive proof that I was appropriately named."

"You were smaller than I remember." Astrid pointed out. "I don't even think Adri could fit in that."

"Okay, it's a small vest, what's next?" Hiccup tossed the vest next to the box as Gobber got out a large net.

"Dragon trap?" Finn asked, grasping part of it. "It's got little bits of wool in it though."

"Sheep net." Astrid replied. "For dragon racing. Why'd we stop doing that, anyway?"

"I don't know. I think we took it down because we were getting married in the arena." Hiccup pulled the rest of the net out. "Yeah, then we had our honeymoon and when it would have been a good time to start again, a certain pair of twins complicated matters."

"Wait." Finn crossed his arms. "You're telling me you played sports and only stopped because you weren't careful enough with your tea drinking?"

"Isn't it sad? That should be a lesson to the both of you." Astrid eyed the twins. "When you're married, don't just go crazy and drink your tea to avoid surprises."

"Okay!" Adrianna clapped her hands over her ears. "I don't need to know any more about old people love."

Hiccup immediately hopped over the box and put his arms around his wife. "You ain't seen nothin', not really." he said before dipping her for a passionate kiss.

"I'm with you two." Gobber rolled his eyes. "So while your parents are distracted, now might be a good time to rifle through their old rulebook."

He held up a loosely bound book with the title DRAGON RACING in the center. Finn snatched it out of his hand and turned to the first page.

"No changing the rules unless everyone agrees, that goes for you, Ruff and Tuff and Snotlout." he read out loud. "I mean it, don't change it."

"Thorough." Adrianna commented. "And you haven't even gotten to the rules yet."

"Well they had a habit of messing with our projects in the past." Hiccup explained, finally letting go of Astrid. "And we didn't want to go into a game of dragon racing only to find out they changed all the rules without us knowing."

"This game looks awesome." Finn exclaimed as he read through the rules. "Chasing sheep, running into each other, competing for points? Why didn't you tell us how cool you were?"

"I think there was a compliment in there somewhere." Astrid huffed.

"I think we should play it." Adrianna suggested as she read over Finn's shoulders. "You've got all the equipment here. And I bet we all could set it up in no time."

"Yeah, and that'd be a great way to blow off steam." Finn added with a grin. "A healthy way. What do you say?"

Astrid looked at Hiccup. "So what do you say?"

"I say the kids are onto something." Hiccup patted Toothless on his head. "What do you think, bud? Ready to get out the war paint?" Toothless warbled excitedly in response. "I thought so."

"War paint!" Finn yelped. "Even better! I call red and black!"

"Good because I call purple and blue."

"Ick, purple and blue? Those aren't war colors!"

"Are too!"

"When's the last time an army dressed in purple in blue struck fear in the hearts of their enemies?"

"Who says I can't be the first?"

"You're hopeless."

"Well as far as spats between those two go," Astrid said, putting her arm around Hiccup's waist, "I think we could do worse."

"We could." Hiccup agreed. "Welcome home, Haddocks."

As the twins bickered over their war paint, Zap knocked over an entire box of loose screws, and they all chattered about how to set up the village to start racing again, Hiccup and Astrid couldn't help but smile. Their son was home, their daughter was happy, and they had a brand new dragon in the family. Life on Berk was finally due to improve more than ever in the next few years.

Sure, things weren't perfect. Finn had a lot of work ahead of him to prove his repentance to the village. But if there was one thing all four Haddocks knew, it was that even though things may not be ideal right now, they would continue to improve as life went on. And there was no reason to believe that their troubles weren't finally over.

This is Berk.

It's an adaptable place, often battered and covered in ice, but it's home to the strong and to the weak among us. Fortunately, we know more than most what strength and weakness entails.

Strength cannot be measured in muscles or brawn but that doesn't mean the biggest among us cannot also be the strongest. We exhibit strength in our own ways, through our actions and through our convictions. The maturity to admit when we have wronged others and to make up for our mistakes often takes a tremendous amount of courage. Because to seek redemption, we must face the most terrifying parts of ourselves and conquer them before we can even think of trying to face off against the dangers of the world.

It takes real strength to fight our own demons. And even more to overcome them. But I think we face a brighter future when we know the true meaning of what it is to be strong and to continue to learn from the strongest among us.

THE END

We did it... WE DID IT! Eleven months of writing and updating and we finally finished this story! Through the ups and downs, we weren't sure if we were going to be able to get through it but we persevered. I could go into all the setbacks we faced, be it infighting between writers (at a record high during this fic) or simply the lack of time but the fact that we got through all that means we can do anything and so can you. Thanks for bearing with us!

It's time for the credits! Special thanks to the guest writers and editors, most notably night-fury-baby for her contributions. Special thanks also to those who submitted writing that ultimately got cut. We appreciate the time and effort.

Extra Special Thanks:

night-fury-baby For helping me with an early chapter

Sheena Kushiashi for being supportive and sweet, our chats mean a lot!

Alexander C. for offering to pay my rent when I was broke because that was amazing and sweet of you. Also for giving me some advice into how to write for my boys!

Jocelyn Z. for helping me shape the Brandyn character.

hiccstridforever for awesome reviews, suggestions, and lovely illustrations.

httydlover1991 for proofreading.

Kellen R. for your encouraging texts and being the ultimate fanboy about this whole thing.

Thanks everyone! You are the best! In addition, we would like to thank the following people for offering amazing encouragements:

Acia Granger

jack-frostitutes

imaginationflies

Beatrice Den

NFrana101

thetattooedrose

TheUltimateFangirl2020

EowynPevensie90

Lilith Jae

Sjmhorsegirl

httyd is the best

gust

Alysee

Izabell

Joan McCreedy

Fandom Freak 101

Caroline

A

Jesusfreak

Jenniilex3

ThatFlyingEagle

All the unnamed guests

I would like to reach out to a guest who has left only the initial A (or a) because your review to chapter 19 came at the perfect moment. I really hope I can talk to you and find out why you wrote what you wrote at that time. You gave me renewed hope in my abilities so thank you for that! I hope God continues to speak through you because I really needed to hear that at the time. Your review actually made me cry and it's the first time anyone has ever made me cry more than just little happy tears through a review.

There were a lot of outside media influences but I think Big Hero 6 has been the biggest one. I'd also like to shout out to How I Met Your Mother for the slap bet idea.

Even though this looks like a good place to end the series, it isn't. Nope, we've got plenty more to come. Next fic, Hiccups, will be the eighth story in this series and it's a good one! It will be rated M but hopefully the M rating won't be needed too much.

All right, enough with the thank yous and such. An Extras chapter is coming but until then, we would like to thank all of you for sticking with us.

Don't forget to review the chapter and the story itself! Can't wait to read them!

~KateMarie999