In Order To Survive

Rated; M for Mature
Pairing; Hiccup X Vera[OC]
Disclaimer; I do not own How To Train Your Dragon, movies or books. Everything belongs to Dreamworks or Cressida Cowell

Care For

=Normal POV=
[Friday, 3/30/2018-9:30 am]
[Dragor, Denmark; Haddock Home]

"So…Why'd he leave again?" Eret asked in the silence of the house. Brynjar was sitting on the couch on his phone.

"He had something to talk to Henrik about," Brynjar answered, not looking up. There was a thud, though, and Brynjar lifted his head and listened. "He's back," he pointed out. Seconds later, the back door opened and Hiccup walked in with Lightheart and Toothless on either side of him. Brynjar got up, slipping his phone away and smiling to greet Hiccup with his hand out. Hiccup connected his hand to Brynjar's as they pulled close and hugged.

"Thanks for sitting with them," Hiccup said.

"No problem. You, uh, get everything sorted out with your dad?" Brynjar wondered.

"Yep," Hiccup nodded.

"Am I getting an in-law soon?" Brynjar said quieter.

"Okay…Not that sorted out," Hiccup stated.

"But…Enough that you know where you stand with things?" Brynjar tried as they pulled from the hug and separated hands.

"Yeah," Hiccup replied.

"When you saying something?" Brynjar inquired.

"When the time is right, Bryn. Relax, alright? Still kind'a new it all despite having things figured out," Hiccup said.

"Got ya. I better head out; I promised to take Dagny for Kat today so she can rest," Brynjar chuckled.

"She okay?" Hiccup questioned.

"Yeah, just really tired; she's gonna be 27 weeks tomorrow. And you know how energetic Dag is," Brynjar informed.

"Ah, okay," Hiccup nodded to him. "See ya later, man," Brynjar smiled and left the house.

"So…Why'd you have to leave and not take us with you?" Vera inquired with a broad smile.

"I, uh, my dad had asked me to come in and help him with something. It was just faster to take Toothless into the city and fix the problem," Hiccup responded. "Alright, what's next? What do you guys wanna do?" he asked.

"Well, weather doesn't seem like its gonna cooperate much," Alvin pointed out.

"What do you do for fun on stormy days?" Vera decided to ask. "It's your house, after all; it shouldn't always be about what we want,"

"What do I do? Grab a book and read, clean the house with music, draw; anything to keep me busy really. I hate sitting around unless it's to watch a movie," Hiccup shrugged.

"What kinds of things do you draw?" Brenna questioned.

"Random. Sometimes I find inspiration, others; I just doodle or sketch and see what happens," Hiccup replied calmly.

"So what are you gonna do today?" Thuggory asked.

"Well, the house is clean, so that's out. I could organize the storage rooms, maybe get you guys set up in there, so you're not all sleeping in my family room. The living room is usually much bigger and spread out with a different arrangement. Well…At least that's what Olivia and I planned to do until you guys ended up here…" Hiccup trailed off.

"You mean this entire space plus over there where the cots are was gonna be the living/family room?" Signy pondered.

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, had the whole thing drawn out in my art room,"

"Can we see, laddie?" Gobber hoped. Hiccup moved off to the room where he kept his art things and brought it out, laying it on the table.

"It's not immensely different, but was going to offer more seating and a semi-open center for Toothless, and now Lightheart. Also, for Olivia to dance in; she loved to do that," Hiccup informed gently.

"Did you? Like dancing?" Stoick questioned. "Your mother did, but I only did it for her and to just one song,"

"Yes, I know. For The Dancing and The Dreaming," Hiccup stated as Stoick blinked. "Gobber told me a lot of stories when I was in the forge with him. That is a song I have on my phone and CD. For the answer to your question, though. Eh, sometimes. Guess you can say I'm the same way. I'm not a huge fan of dancing, but Olivia was the one to teach me how; the first time was at a town fair in August 2010," Hiccup admitted. "I've just picked up different styles over the years, though," he added.

"How many kinds are there?" Ruffnut inquired.

"There's fast, slow, and group. Before you ask…Group songs are where one song plays, and everyone dances to it the same way. I believe it's also called line-dancing," Hiccup answered. "Fast songs are for getting everyone pumped up and having a good time. Slow is for…Love, inspirational, uh, something you share with a partner, your mother or father," he added.

"Example?" Camicazi asked. "I didn't know they had songs like that?"

"I told you they got music for everything," Hiccup chuckled. "I'll show you later,"

"So, this is how you want your main area to look?" Vera wondered with a smile.

"It flows better in my opinion," Hiccup replied.

"Why don't you do it then?" Soren inquired.

"It's not a one day, one man job," Hiccup remarked.

"Well…You're kind'a not living here by yourself, Hiccup; you got us. We can help," Dagur offered.

"I mean if that's how guys wanna spend your day; then sure, I'm down to move some stuff around," Hiccup agreed.

"Yeah, come on; let's do it!" Tuffnut and Snotlout said together.

"Where do we start?" Eret asked.

"Alright, uh…The first thing that needs to happen is the storage rooms have to get cleaned out. That way I can put your beds and stuff in there, then I can move stuff around out here. The big question is where the hell do I put everything in the storage rooms…?" Hiccup pondered, tapping his chin. "Could put it in the weight room? Or the outside shed. Don't feel like making trips back and forth in the downpour, so that leaves weight room closet; I'm pretty sure it's empty right now…" he said, thinking out loud. "Okay, let's get started. One room at a time,"

"Are we all going to get moved into one of the storage rooms?" Viggo questioned gently.

"Oh, Gods no. You wouldn't all fit in just one. There are…20 of you; I have 4 storage rooms, only 2 of them are being used for storage. The other 2 are…I think I made those into Katja and Dagny's rooms when they stayed here for a bit. So, we only have 2 rooms to do, but back to splitting you up…There are 20 of you, 4 spare rooms…That's 5 people per room. I also think there is one more bathroom too, but it's only a half one,"

"What's that mean?" Astrid blinked a little. How could a room only be half?

"Half bathroom means that it's just a sink and toilet, no shower or tub," Hiccup explained.

"Ah," Astrid nodded.

"Okay, let's do this," Vera giggled, clapping her hands.

"You know, this won't be exciting once we start. Moving things around sucks," Hiccup chuckled.

"But it's fun that we're getting to help you, Hiccup. You always have the others do it," Vera informed.

"Well, I wasn't going to expect you guys to help me. You're guests, and around here, guests don't get stuck doing this kind of stuff. I ask my friends because we have a blast moving shit around with music and a couple of beers," Hiccup smiled. "But hey, I guess we could make this fun," he shrugged.

. . .

[12:30 pm]

It took two and a half hours, but the 19 of them cleared out the 2 storage rooms on the far end of the hall on the left and right sides. And Hiccup had been right; there was a half bathroom all the way at the end; it was just behind a bunch of boxes. Everything had been moved across the living room and into the weight room closet, stacked neatly and labeled so Hiccup could find it if he needed it. Also, Hiccup deflated the air mattress in the one room Dagny and Katja used; he put that away in his bedroom closet. Now, all 4 rooms were ready for moving other things into.

"Alright…Lunch break," Hiccup informed with a smile.

"Wow, we got so much done," Heather stated.

"Out of curiosity, why do you have so many extra rooms, son?" Stoick wondered.

Hiccup's smile fell a bit as he was working on getting things to make lunch for everyone. "We wanted a big family," he finally said not looking at them. "Olivia and I started talking about getting our own place to live after the first time we made love, which is when we'd been together about 11 months, so September 2015. I insisted that it was big enough to house Toothless, that was the only thing I'd asked for," he started.

"A house or apartment would have been too small, so Henrik suggested buying an abandoned warehouse and converting it into a living space. By the time we found this place, it was already November 2015. Instantly; it needed a lot of work. I'll have to show you the pictures of before and after; I have them on my laptop in a folder. Anyway…My drawing skills made me the best person for the job of creating exactly what we wanted. I drew it out and gave it to the construction crew to start," Hiccup continued.

"Obviously, you know the in-between parts; I asked Olivia to marry me in December on Christmas Eve, then we were married at the end of January, almost a month later on Saturday, January 30th, 2016. Olivia and I went away for our honeymoon, a little vacation for the newlyweds. We were gone from February 1st to February 15th. And then I got deployed on the 19th to Iraq for 8 months. My family and Olivia oversaw all the renovations to this place while I was away. But when I got home in October 2016, everything was done. I hadn't planned for us to have the extra rooms; Olivia did that and when I asked why; she said it's because she wanted a big family and make sure we could live here comfortably with 3 or 4 kids, watch them grow up, have lives of their own, and we could stay until we both died,"

The Vikings could instantly tell that it was one of those questions they shouldn't have asked. Talking about Olivia still upset Hiccup a lot. "I'm…Sorry, Hiccup. I shouldn't have asked," Stoick said quietly.

"Nah, don't worry about it, Dad," Hiccup stated while he kept working on lunch. "You're entitled to ask questions; I'm not very well going to refuse to answer just because the answer involves my ex-wife," he added.

"Do you still love her?" Snotlout asked. Signy and Vera socked him in the arms. Astrid hit him upside the head, Brenna stepped on his foot. "Ow! What? It was a valid question!" Heather, Ruffnut, and Camicazi just shook their heads in disappointment at him.

"Come on, dude…" Dagur mentioned as Thuggory and Soren agreed.

"Not cool," Tuffnut said as Eret nodded.

"Hiccup, you do not have to answer that," Stoick stated firmly.

"It's…Fine. No, I don't love her anymore, but part of me will always care. One day, I'll forgive her for what happened, but we'll never be together again. I'll never forget her, the good times we had before everything happened. What she did still bothers me, probably always will. That's just the kind of person I am, no matter who hurts me; I don't hate, and I don't return the negative feelings people have towards me back onto them. I just remove people who hurt me from my life; that's why I divorced her. But…If she ever called and desperately needed my help; I would," Hiccup enlightened.

"Even after how much pain she brought you?" Astrid arched a brow. "Hiccup, you cried for half an hour; she broke your heart,"

"So did the members of the Hooligan Tribe except for Gobber and Gothi," Hiccup mentioned while beginning to pass out lunches, which was grinder sandwiches. He set Astrid's down in front of her carefully, "Remember? I hurt so bad on Berk that I wanted to kill myself until I met Toothless and found a way to get away. However, despite how I was treated day in and day out since I was like 8; I still came back and helped when you were in trouble, didn't I?"

"W-Well, yes, but…You didn't want to come back; you said you only did because you were ordered," Heather jumped in.

"I was ordered to leave Afghanistan and return to the Archipelago, but nobody told me to step foot on the island," Hiccup informed calmly as they looked at him shocked. "That's right. I was on the ship, and I was told I could stay there if I wanted because everyone in Alpha Company knows I didn't want to go back. Even Askel knows. Nobody needed me to translate for you, Colden knows Norse. He could have handled the whole thing himself, and I never had to make myself known. I could have stayed hidden, and you would never have known I was there. But when I realized there was a raid, and enemies attacking; I chose to show you I was alive and well," he added.

"I chose to save the Hooligans, and the rest of you despite how I was treated over the years. And I continue to ensure that you're taken care of by allowing you in my home and teaching you everything you need to know to survive now and into the future as Henrik did the same for me. So don't get on my ass about helping people who've hurt me, because I did the very same for all of you when I didn't have to do anything. Always remember that; Olivia didn't hurt me half as bad as you did, but I chose to save and help you when you needed it; I was not made to do anything," Hiccup sat down and started eating his sandwich.

Sadly, nobody could say anything more to argue this point because Hiccup was absolutely right. Hiccup was treated terribly by his own Tribe, so much that he wanted to end his own life. Thankfully, he met Toothless and things changed because he had just one friend. Hiccup chose to leave because he felt like he wasn't wanted, but…Hiccup returned to the Archipelago after almost 8 years of being gone to help when they needed it. Nobody asked or ordered him to assist; Hiccup just did it because it was the right thing to do and he didn't let them suffer. Hiccup was not heartless or someone who held a grudge and extracted revenge. Hiccup helped them because despite how they all were to him; he still cares. Beneath the hard, cold exterior he put on sometimes or the snide comments about how they made him feel back then; Hiccup still cared about them, and he helped because he wanted to.

. . .

[1:30]

An hour after the break started; Hiccup was back to work with moving the Viking's cots into the rooms, 5 per each one. The Vikings were still eating because they felt like Hiccup was in a bad mood; it happened after the subject of everything 8 years ago got touched. Hiccup finished moving all the beds, foot of the bed trunks, and little end tables by 2 pm.

"Alright, you guys can rearrange who sleeps in what room as you see fit; I just moved them where they are to get them out of the way," Hiccup informed.

"Thanks, Hiccup," Signy, Brenna, and Vera said gently.

"No problem," Hiccup replied with a head nod. Hiccup grabbed the surround sound remote off the table and pressed a button as music started playing. "Oh, good song; I love the oldies,"

"Oldies?" Alvin arched a brow.

"Oldies or Classics are songs that are 25 years or older than the current year we're in. So…this song was released in 1977. That was 41 years ago," Hiccup explained. "Have I taught you nothing in the last almost 5 months?"

"But, you weren't born in that year, so how do you know them?" Viggo asked.

"Doesn't matter because they still exist. Some songs die out, but others live on and with the internet; you can find anything," Hiccup shrugged, picking up a chair and moving it to where he wanted it to be. "When I came here 8 years ago, Henrik showed me everything he could, so I've spent a lot of time catching up on everything I've missed since I was born, and even things that were before my time. I don't usually listen to anything past the 70's, that was 20 years before me; good music," he added.

"So, what's something from the 90's? That's…When we were all born, right?" Heather inquired.

"Or the 2000's, where we are now," Camicazi tried.

"Far too many choices in all that," Hiccup replied as his eye caught sight of Vera; she looked tired and miserable. Hiccup strolled over calmly and stood next to her, bending over with his arms on the table. "Why don't you go take a short nap, Vera?"

"Hm, why?" Vera asked softly.

"Because from way over there I can see that you are tired and don't look well," Hiccup pointed out gently.

"It's just my head bothering me, a-and my throat a little bit," Vera sniffed a bit.

"And that is the sound of a stuffy/runny nose. You, Milady, are developing a cold," Hiccup informed as he got up and moved to the bathroom, grabbing something and returning; then he got a water bottle before getting back to her side. "Here. This is something to keep the symptoms down, and this will soothe your throat. Colds get worse before they get better; this will ease things," he stated. "And then the best medicine aside from those helpers is to rest," he smiled.

"So how do I take these?" Vera asked, feeling stupid.

"Swallow these two with water; then suck on this one until it's gone." Hiccup instructed. Vera nodded, taking the orange pills with water. Afterward, she unwrapped the second one and set it in her mouth to suck on it.

"It tastes sweet, like cherries," Vera smiled some. "But every time I swallow; there's cold and numbing,"

"Then the lozenge is doing its job," Hiccup laughed a bit. "Let me know when it's gone; then you can go lay down in my room to rest,"

"Y-Your ro-room?" Vera blinked, blushing a little.

"Well, if you're sick; you need to be isolated, which means kept in one place. It's so the cold doesn't spread to anyone else. Colds usually only last a week, 5-7 days. So, you can stay in my room until you're better; I'll sleep on the couch," Hiccup stated while going back to moving objects around. 6 minutes later, Vera finished the throat lozenge.

"It's gone," Vera reported.

"Alright, come on. Grab that water bottle and follow me," Hiccup said. Vera got off the chair and started behind Hiccup's path into his room. With it just them now, even though the door was open; Hiccup pulled back the covers of his bed and invited Vera to get on and lay down. Nervously, Vera took off her shoes and laid in the bed slowly. "Now, just try to get some rest. You can use the bathroom back there if you need to, and I'm right in the next room if you require anything. Just give a holler,"

Vera nodded. "Okay…Thank you," she said.

"No problem," Hiccup replied with a smile. "You don't gotta worry; I'll take care of you," he added before covering her up and exiting the room, closing the door once stepping out. Vera looked around at first; she'd seen Hiccup's room before, but that was when they arrived, and it was just a quick peek. Now, she was in it and his bed! Hiccup was giving up his room for her to get better. Suddenly, Vera didn't think she liked Hiccup anymore; she was falling in love with him. Or maybe she had been all along with how strong her feelings were since February drill weekend. Vera pulled the covers up over her head and sighed; she needed to get some sleep. Vera turned over to her right side and closed her eyes, drifting to sleep within 10 minutes.