Author's Note:
Hello everyone and welcome to another chapter. This one is quite short and more of a scene than a proper chapter, it has more Hiccup/Snotlout family fluff and is set somewhere in the years before HTTYD 1. Thank you for your continued support and I hope you enjoy the chapter.
I own nothing.
Belong
At his age, Snotlout had lost quite a lot.
With both of his parents dead and his former friends long since turned away from him, he was now without most of what made up a child's world. He had his uncle and his cousin but there were times when he felt he didn't really belong with them either, that he was just an extra mouth to feed which the chief only kept around out of duty.
Especially at the moment.
Another chief was visiting Berk about some trade agreement or something, he was a nice enough man (for a Viking) but while he showed Stoick great respect and even took the time to speak to Hiccup, he barely noticed Snotlout when he was around. Of course, the man had been introduced to him when he arrived and initially he'd thought Snotlout was Stoick's son instead of Hiccup, when that slight misunderstanding had been sorted out, an odd look passed over the chief's face and he spoke to Hiccup with an edge to his tone neither of the boys really liked.
Ever since then, he'd treated Snotlout like he was invisible and more than one of the villagers seemed to want it to stay that way. A couple of them had already pulled the boy aside and told him, very nicely, that it would really help his uncle if he 'stayed quiet' and 'out of trouble' while the other chief was here. In short, they wanted him to stay invisible and silent so that he didn't somehow spoil things.
Because he wasn't supposed to be there.
It was this train of thought that had brought him to a very familiar cliff top that he'd frequented a number of times before.
As he stared out across the familiar view, he heard the sound of someone jogging his direction. He wasn't that worried since he was pretty certain who it was that was coming, Hiccup was the only person, besides his uncle, who'd come here to find him.
The older cousin was panting slightly and he grinned, "Hi Snotlout."
The younger boy gave a half-hearted smile, "Hey Hiccup."
Hiccup instantly noticed that something was up with his cousin and he walked over and plonked himself right behind Snotlout, facing the opposite direction, "What is it?"
Snotlout considered not answering, Hiccup would leave alone if he wanted him to, but if anyone would understand it would be his cousin, he always understood.
"Do I belong?"
He felt Hiccup shift his head, his voice confused, "What do you mean?"
"With you and Uncle Stoick, do I really belong there?"
He could imagine the older boy's frown as he answered with another question, "Why wouldn't you?"
"When I'm with you and Uncle Stoick, everyone just ignores me, they all shush me when the other chief is around and keep telling me to 'stay out of trouble'." He hugged his knees, "It's because I don't belong with you two, isn't it?"
Hiccup didn't answer for some time and Snotlout buried his face in his knees, "Thought so."
"Snotlout." Hiccup had moved beside him and put an arm round his shoulders, "You're both wrong and right."
The younger boy looked at him in confusion, not understanding, "What do you mean?"
Hiccup frowned, "I'm not really sure how to explain it but…in a way you don't belong with us." He looked him in the eye, "You belong with your parents and that is where you should be but that's not how it turned out." He smiled, "But we're your family as well so in this world, which your parents were taken from, you belong with us." He pulled the younger boy into a hug, "Regardless of what anyone else thinks."
Snotlout pulled away slightly, "You really think so?"
The older boy grinned, "Sure I do, and I'm sure Dad agrees." He stood up, "Now, let's get back to the village, there's supposed to be a feast tonight and I know you don't want to miss that."
The younger cousin returned the grin and joined him and the two cousins ran off back to the village together.
PS-A short sweet scene for you all. Please let me know what you thought and I'll hopefully update soon.
