The body always has a way of healing long before the mind. Months passed since the Grimborns left Hiccup yet still he waited, certain that Ryker would come back for him. Stoick watched over his son, his worry mounting everyday that today would be the day Hiccup did something foolish and would walk over the edge of the cliff to end the hurting inside, and everyday he thanks the gods when Hiccup returned home safe, if not disheartened. Night was the worse. Hiccup would fight the urge to sleep until it finally claimed him only to wake up a short time later, screaming and crying for the brothers. Most of the time it was just Ryker. Nothing seemed to ease his hurt, not even Toothless. Eventually his mental state improved as he began to realize he wasn't in some dream world, that he really was home with people who really did love him. He slowly began hanging out with the riders again without shying away from the amount of noise they made as a group. For their part, the riders, especially the twins, learned to quiet down a bit around Hiccup so that he wasn't overwhelmed by his surroundings. Toothless was always by his side, attached more now than ever before. It wasn't long before Hiccup began smiling again, even if only small ones.

The biggest change came in the form of Dagur. The young Berserker chief was still juggling being chief and a rider and since the war was over he was required to be on his island more often. This was solved by having Heather as he co-chief, a strange arrangement tat meant only one of them was usually home at a time while the other was more often than not on Berk. Dagur hated going home. He worried over Hiccup and when he was on Berk he became Hiccup's shadow. There was no place Hiccup could go with Dagur following. This worried Stoick to no end. Dagur obsession with Hiccup was well known and had only worsened since Hiccup's return. But it wasn't violent like before. Dagur helped Hiccup. If he saw the youth struggle he was right there to help. If Hiccup got mad and told him to go away, Dagur would back off a respectable distance yet still close at hand if needed, which turned out to be more often than either wanted to admit.

You see, Hiccup had a problem, one he knew how to take care while captive because it was what he was conditioned to do, but now that he was free he was lost on how to take care of it and who to turned to for help. On more than one occasion he almost started something with the wrong person and had Dagur not been there things could have gotten extremely awkward. Dagur seemed to notice the telltale signs when Hiccup was on edge and would swoop in, grab Hiccup's arm, and escort him either back to his hut or away from the village.

"You need to be more careful," Dagur would reprimand when they were far enough from the village it was unlikely anyone would hear or notice them. "You can't just approach a random guy and tell him to ram you. Last thing you want it to be known as Bell's whore. You have a nice village, Hic, but they'll still pass you around like a piece of meat if you do that. Then your Dad might go on a killing spree and as cool as that would be to watch, let's no go there."

"Dagur, I'm fine," Hiccup insisted, not enjoying the fact he was pretty much being dragged around by the older boy.

Dagur stopped and turned around. "How bad is it?" he demanded, looking Hiccup over, not happy with his friend's condition.

The youth frowned but after a moment sighed. "I haven't been touched in over a month," he grumbled. "My body hurts. It feels like it's on fire. I almost…"

"Almost what?"

Hiccup ran a hand through his hair that had grown at least an inch since returning to Berk and was a little shaggy looking. "I almost had Toothless breed me. I was desperate!"

"Fucking Drago."

"Yeah, well it's not nearly as bad as what I almost did to my Dad and Gobber."

Dagur raised his hand to stop Hiccup before remembering the youth couldn't see it. "I Don't even want to know." He took a deep breath. "You know how I feel, right?"

Hiccup nodded.

"You fon't have to feel the same, but if let me, I can help. I can fuck you whenever you want. Wherever you want," Dagur offered. "No one has to know. I'll do whatever you want. Call it Dagur Training. Whatever Ryker did to make you feel good, I'll do it. Suck your cock, eat your ass. Just tell me, I don't care what it is."

Hiccup's mouth opened but no words came out. It was the first time anyone asked him what he wanted and for permission to fuck him. He didn't know what to say or what to do. And that was how their relationship started, not with rough dominating kisses or being thrust up against something as someone slammed into him from behind. It was slow, with a lot of fumbling and confusion and even more laughter. Dagur knew the bare bone basics from their time as Drago's captives. He knew how to fuck but not how to please and so Hiccup taught him and by doing so taught himself to move past the pain and hurt caused by Ryker's departure. He learned to live again.

Anything change came when an envoy of dragon riders from the far East arrived, nearly two months after the Grimborns left. The people of Berk had never met such people before, their features and skin tone far different. They came with a message for Stoick, a letter of apology from Ryker for leaving rather than staying as agreed upon within the treaty. It explained who the men where and why they had come. Stoick was a little sceptical at first before calling for Hiccup. Ryker had paid the men to do a cover-up tattoo, one meant to hide the brand Drago had placed on Hiccup's chest. He sent a design for Stoick's approval which could be changed and tweaked with as necessary. Working with scar tissue was no easy task. The leader of the group explained this to Stoick in his poor Norse, his words often elongated as he spoke. The choice was Hiccup's and when he agreed upon it, he was heavily drugged to numb the pain while Stoick, Dagur and Toothless stood guard. It took far longer than the one on his back because it had to flow into the previous one in order to look good and meaningful but once it was done there was no trace of the brand and no one would ever have known Hiccup was once a thrall.

The tattoo was not the only get sent to Hiccup. It seemed every few weeks to a money something new was sent. After the tattoo a ship filled with expensive animal pelts arrive, then a ship with treasure, then Johann arrived, scratching his head and looking awkward, announcing everything on his ship had been paid for and he was to give Berk anything they wanted. The next shipment was freshly forged weapons made of Gronkle Iron, new clothes for Hiccup and saddle for Toothless. The gifts just kept coming and it wasn't long before Berk was one of the wealthiest islands in the Archipelago. There were often no messages with the gifts and those that did come were short, often to inform Stoick what percentage of the gifts were meant for Hiccup and what was for the tribe. The elder Grimborn had decided to follow one key section of the peace treaty to the letter by providing for Hiccup for life and took most of his earnings to do so. It took Stoick but surprise but did not excuse what the brothers had done.

By six months Hiccup had regained a little of his old spirit back. The pleasant mask he usually had when out and about fell and his sarcasm returned, sometimes as the worse possible time. He became fidgety and was always on the move. He began organizing things in his room, identifying them by touch and placing them where he could locate them easily. He hung up all his clothing, leaving only his undergarments in the chest so that know he could decide what to wear simply by touching the fabric. It was a small accomplishment that led him back to inventing things, all by touch. Of course, not everyone was so keen on the idea.

"No," Gobber said sternly, watching with a keen eye as Hiccup slowly maneuvered his way through the forge. "Absolutely not."

"Come on, Gobber," Hiccup half whined, half teased. "I'm bored and Dad won't let me go back to the Edge. I need to do something other than wander around town on day. Let me work in the forge again."

"You're blind and crippled," Gobber pointed out.

"You're crippled, too," Hiccup pointed out, determined to do something, anything productive.

"Yes, but I don't have a pre-existing history of being clumsy before losing a limp and I can see where I'm going. I don't want you stepping on something and losing your other leg."

"Don't make me stick a Berserker on you," The boy warned with a teasing grin.

Dagur gave a snort, half amused and half annoyed. He had been trying to talk Hiccup out of this idea for days. "Either let him try and figure out something else to keep him busy. I can only keep him pinned to as bed for so long."

Gobber nearly choked on the implications. He covered it with a cough. "Well…ah…I suppose you can have your old work shop back but I'll need to clear it out so you don't whack your head."

Hiccup grinned brightly. Stoick was not happy. The first few weeks Hiccup was getting hurt almost on an hourly basis and Gobber was pleading for the chief to find something safer for Hiccup to do. It was reminiscent of when Hiccup was a child and first apprenticing for Gobber. And just like all those year ago, Hiccup found his calling once more. With Gobber's help, he rearranged the forge so that he could get to, find, or build anything he wanted to. This soon led to another discovery, or an invention like no other at the time. Hiccup found a way to read and write without seeing the words or plans. He began punching holes in paper, creating small elevated bumps that he could run his fingers over. It made no sense to Stoick at first until he figured out the patterns were runes and the bumps were at the corners of each rune. It was a crude method of reading but it worked for Hiccup. Now he could read peace treaties and messages and keep up to date without someone having to read to him. And of course once that was accomplished, Hiccup was on a role. He was at home in the forge. It gave him a place to forget what had happened and try to restart his life.

It didn't stop the nightmares when he slept. It didn't stop the screams of terror when he relived his eyes being torn out, or Ryker leaving him, but now he had someone else to hold him at night and chance away the demons.

It was a year to the day when Stoick came to realize his son was truly back. Yes, Hiccup had changed. The boy he was before he was captured and tortured was gone and would never be back. His innocence had died and it would be missed greatly, but what had emerged was someone far stronger, far more resilient, and with a knowledge few could ever possess and keep their sanity. In many ways he reclaimed what he had lost and made it better. He still tamed dragons but by skill and not in the perverse way Drago had tried to bind Hiccup to them. He still rode Toothless, the two working in utter sync so that Hiccup knew what to do just by the way his dragon shifted his body. He worked the forge and joked with his friends, and he learned what real love was about, what dedication and surrender really were when someone gave themselves to another the way Dagur gave himself to Hiccup.

"I don't think I'll ever understand how you do that," Dagur remarked as he wrapped his arms around Hiccup's middle and hugged him from behind. He kissed the side of his lover's neck and nuzzled his shaggy hair that was in that awkward stage where you either let it continue growing or cut it because it stuck out in the oddest angles. Dagur opted to let it grow.

Hiccup's long fingers felt over the tools carefully lined up in his bench until he found the one he wanted. "You always say that," Hiccup teased as he attached the wrench to the bolt he was tightening.

"What is that? Tail fin number 2010?"

"Haha, I thought I was the funny one." But the youth grinned as Dagur snuggled into him, just happy to hold him and not pushing for sex or anything but affection. It would take Hiccup a ling time to fully accept that, that people could want him without wanting sex. Sex with Dagur was amazing but it wasn't the focus of their relation like it had been with Ryker. Dagur was content just holding Hiccup and talking, sometimes a about the stupidest thing. If asked before being captured if he could ever see himself in a relationship with Dagur the Deranged, Hiccup would have called that person insane but now was different. Dagur wasn't the person he once was and neither was Hiccup. Now they fit together perfectly.

Hiccup all but forgot his short time as a thrall as he adjusted to being home. He was blind but he could still see the beauty of his home. He heard it in every cry of a passing bird, the roar of a dragon, the crashing of the sea…or the twins, depending what they were doing. He knew every smell and sound and with it his mind painted an image of home.

Perhaps that was why a strange yet familiar hit him so hard one morning as he sat on the buff about the docks. It was quiet and warm and Toothless was laying on the ground wrapped around him enjoying the sun. The dragon gave a little warning growl mad moved tighter around his human. Dagur was gone to Berserk for the week and this scent was not of him of his Gronkle. Hiccup raised his head as heavy foot steps neared him, the familiar scent growing stronger.

"Hello, Little Dragon," a voice said. It was gentle and warm and made Hiccup smile.

"Hello, Ryker," he answered, placing a calming hand in Toothless. "You took long enough."

"I know," the Hunter acknowledged but he kept his distance, not even daring to touch Hiccup. "I won t be staying long."

Hiccup nodded, he figured as much. His delusions these day never stayed long.

"Are you happy here?" Ryker asked and Hiccup could almost swear the man moved a little closer.

Hiccup didn't need to think of the answer. "Yes," he replied, smiling softly. He was happy. Happier than he had been in a very long time. He felt a hand cup his cheek and then warm lips to his forehead.

"That's all I needed to know," the voice said once more as the ma'am pulled away. "Good bye, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third."

Hiccup listened as the footsteps trailed away. "Good bye, Ryker Grimborn," he said, more to himself than the man. It would be his last delusion. Whether Ryker really came back to say good bye or not didn't matter to him. He found closure in that one sentence. A reason to longer think of the man that stole his innocence. He began to heal, as slow as it was. He healed. Hiccup was a survivor, he learned to adapt. And when the time came he learned to lead even without his sight, until he took his rightful place once more as Stoick's heir and future chief.

Because blind or not, Hiccup was a Haddock and he was fad from helpless.

Fin

Note: I hope this last chapter made sense, it was kind of rushed but I need to get back to editing my next novel so it can go out to my beta reader's and editor. With that being said, I'm on hiatus for the next month or two, maybe longer. I do have one or two story ideas kicking around if anyone wants to send me their thoughts.

1) This is a pairing I've never done and often turns my stomach but a small Mildew/young Hiccup (16) fic inspired by a few fans on Tumblr taking place after the dragons are sent away and Mildew catches Hiccup snooping around his farm. Stinky old men need love, too. Ewe…

2) A Summer Solstice or harvest fic where Berk takes the virginity of a teen so the gods will bless them with a good harvest. It just so happens that it's Hiccup's turn and Stoick is not so keen on the idea of his child being the sacrifice. Takes place just before or during rtte. Group sex.

So I'll leave this up for debate. Send me your thoughts. Yes, they can be fun and twisted.