The Journey Into Us

Pairing: Hiccup X Toothless
Rating: M for Mature

Disclaimer:I do not own anything HTTYD-related.

Chapter 19

=Trayden's POV=
(Monday, 12/30/2019; 7:45 pm)
(Barbarchi City, Archipelago)
(Hunter's House)

I just knew that if I eventually learned what happened to Hunter after the day he was disowned and kicked out for being gay that my heart was going to go out to him. I think the two things that shocked me the most was that Hunter's parents immediately kicked him out and him falling into the depression, but I guess that second one didn't surprise me too much. Hunter's parents kicking him out and disowning, they didn't even ask where it started or anything, just gave Hunter ten minutes to pack and made him leave. It didn't appear from Hunter's story that either his mother or father cared about him if they were able to just boot Hunter out so easily, like they decided that plan a long time ago if Hunter ever came to them and revealed he was gay. I just couldn't believe how heartless they were and all this years pass, they don't wonder if their son is alright? My mom checks in with me every day, even if she knows I'm just relaxing at home.

So, right now, the room was just quiet. I could tell that after Hunter told his story, the others present were just taking it in. I suspected that maybe they hadn't been totally prepared to find out the truth. I knew bits and pieces prior to this evening, but only because it came up in conversation between Hunter and I.

"Questions, comments?" Hunter asked after the silence had lasted about five minutes.

"Just one," Shane spoke up.

"Why didn't you get in contact with us?" Addilyn finished for her older brother.

"I didn't have time to get your numbers out of the cell phone before it was taken. I didn't remember anyone's e-mails. We didn't use social media. Everything happened so fast, and then there was the depression I suffered and had to work through. Once I started working for the auto shop, I just never really slowed down. It was one of the things I learned in therapy, stay busy. Before working there and after Greg took me in, I was usually there by myself from 8 am to 5 pm. I wasn't going to school, wasn't working…All I had was time alone to let the pain of what my parents did consume me. And in therapy, the guy told me to stay busy. Keep my focus on other things so I wouldn't be thinking about it. I didn't forget what happened, I just found ways to not always be thinking about it," Hunter explained.

"Why didn't you just…Come to Berk and see us? You knew where we lived, or did you forget that too?" Alyssa inquired.

"You lived in the same neighborhood as my parents…Forgive my immense disdain of ever going anywhere near that house again. No, I didn't forget where you lived, but once I moved into Greg's apartment up here in the city, I said I'd never go to Berk again. Everyone knew me and given their lies, it would just cause a problem I didn't want or need. People would realize I wasn't sick or a runaway. People would report it to the police I'd be found. There'd end up being a huge investigation, possibly arrests and charges on them…And that was just a lot of stuff I didn't want to deal with, as I mentioned before beginning this story. And again, I was trying to put it behind me and just move on. Opening all that back up would have just affected me more and I chose to accept that if they didn't want me in their life, then that was that. I was out of there and it was done," Hunter informed.

"But we were your best friends," Rylee frowned.

"We're your family…" Fisher added.

"And what makes you think that I ever forgot about you?" Hunter looked at them as I noticed the surprise on their faces. Hunter got up and moved to the fireplace, where there were shelves on both sides of it. I recall from prior visits that Hunter kept all his pictures and albums of them. Hunter grabbed a couple of things and brought them over for us to see. They were pictures of Hunter's memories with Alyssa, Fisher, Shane, Addilyn, Rylee, and Tyler. "While I packed mainly clothes, bathroom stuff, and my art items…I made sure to grab our pictures," He enlightened. There were so many photos of them, and what Hunter told me about being his friend rang in my head. That if you were his friend, you were his friend no matter what unless you chose to leave.

"I keep all this stuff on display. It's how my other friends somewhat recognized you the night you followed Trayden here," Hunter continued. "Me leaving your lives wasn't my decision. Yes, I did decide not to come back to avoid what I mentioned before because all of that would have affected my recovery. It wouldn't have been so easy to just come back to Berk and tell you what happened. Your parents would want to know. There'd be backlash on my parents for what they did. And things would have just become a mess. I did want to find a way to reach out to you without going to Berk and Greg knew that, so did my therapist…But both of them told me I needed to focus on me because if I did contact you, it would have involved talking about what happened and I wasn't ready to tell others about being gay, that my parents kicked out and disowned me. Everything was still fresh pain, and I understood that I needed to get my life in order before anything else," He said.

"Then as you were doing better, you got busy..." Hailey said gently, knowing she wasn't part of all that, but saw Hunter's perspective.

"Yeah, it was in your story about after you started therapy and worked where Greg did," Ethan nodded. "You were focusing on you and things just picked up,"

"Basically. After I got my GED, I just worked and stayed busy. I did anything to just avoid sitting at the apartment alone, and then I got crazy busy after Greg made me the show manager for Wild Fantasies. And that's all I've really been doing since I was eighteen. I told you about buying this place, I figured to jump over getting an apartment and just get a house. Never intended on ending up with something so big, but again, it went for cheap and I said whatever. Works out with how often the others come over to hang and practice, sometimes Greg spends the night. I told him he could move in if he wanted, but he said he liked his little apartment," Hunter shrugged.

"So, people know you're not lost, right?" Tyler wondered.

"Those who need to know the truth are aware of it," Hunter stated. "Just so there's no panic in trying to track me down,"

"Makes sense," Addilyn said. "And you haven't heard from them at all?"

"Nope. Nothing at all. Haven't spoken or seen them since February 28th, 2011," Hunter replied.

"What would you do if they found you to talk, apolo-," Fisher started.

"I should slam the door and tell them to leave or I'll call the police for trespassing, while also adding that they had every opportunity to take back what was said, stop me from walking out the door, or hell, even go out to find me before Greg took me to his apartment, but it was too late now," Hunter remarked, cutting Fisher off, and then pausing. "However, I'm don't consider myself an asshole, so I maybe would agree to hear what they had to say and decide where to go from there. They'd have to start with a damn good reason why their immediate response was kicking out and disowning me, then another reason as to why it took so long to find me," He added.

"If you knew you were gay from that young age, why didn't you ever tell us?" Rylee asked.

"I felt my parents should know first, and not have to worry about anyone accidentally saying something to their parents and it getting back to mine before I got to tell them. Greg knew, but only because of that backstory I told you," Hunter admitted.

"So, wait…" Ethan sat forward a bit. "Greg is gay, right?" Hunter nodded. "And you, or maybe one of the others mentioned he was your parents' best friend?"

"Well, used to be, but yes," Hunter informed.

"Your parents knew Greg was gay?" Hailey wondered.

"Yep…" Hunter nodded.

"They're okay with their, now former, best friend being gay but not their son?" Ethan blinked.

"Fucked up, right?" Hunter shrugged.

"Would you ever let them back in your life, forgive them?" Hailey asked.

"As I said before, it would depend on what they had to say and if their reasons were acceptable enough for me and personally, I don't see any reason not to love and support your child just because they're gay. I see no reasons that could possibly be acceptable for them kicking out their fifteen-year-old son and not given a care in the world what happened beyond exiting the house," Hunter mentioned calmly. "I don't hate them. I hate what they did. I'll never forget it and I don't honestly know if I could forgive it. Maybe I could, but it would depend on their reasons, and also if they could accept the lifestyle I have of being a stripper. They'd have work to do in proving to me they're sorry,"

"But that's understandable, and I'd do the same," I stated. "It was wrong of them, and I'd personally worry if it would be genuine given how things went down. As you said, nothing else happened; they just told you to pack and leave. No yelling, no arguments, no discussion. It kind of seems like maybe they knew you could be and had a plan of action if it turned out that way. When I told my parents I was bisexual, they were stunned, but not angry, and just turned into questions about what brought it on, if I was happy, etc. Even them learning I was gay left them mostly stunned, but nothing drastic," I added. I felt bad for Hunter, I did.

"That's why I said they'd have a hell of a time proving to me they regret their decision and were sorry," Hunter smiled some. "If they really wanted to find me, it wouldn't be hard. They could contact Uncle Greg, he purposely didn't change his number or address for the sake of waiting for the day my parents could wake the hell up and have the balls to go to him asking where I was. I'm sure they know who I called, Uncle Greg would have been the last phone call I made before I surrendered the cell to them upon leaving," He added. "But hey, we're going on like…I'll be twenty-four this February, so 2020 minus 2011 is nine years? Yeah, so it hasn't even been seven like we kept saying. It's been nearly a decade and they haven't inquired about me once,"

"Would they have gone to police to try and start a search instead of going to Greg?" Fisher questioned.

"I'd have known if they did. I've got friends in the department," Hunter informed. "As I said…Everyone believes Hunter Haddock went off to study abroad at fifteen and returned at eighteen to secure a job and his own place. Nobody, except those who needed to know the truth, know that my parents kicked out and disowned me at fifteen, or that my godfather adopted me and I changed my name to Hunter Forger. Nobody recognizes me up here in the city as Hunter Haddock and at Wild Fantasies, I'm just Alpha Fury. Unless you're standing in a well-lit space or up close, nobody who knew me back then can make the connection," He shrugged.

"We recognized you the night you brought Tray here to fix his car…" Shane pointed out.

"I did mention in the small list of exceptions, that you had to be standing close and it was well-lit…" Hunter rolled his eyes.

"I believe the point Hunter is making is that we were sitting front row to the show on the 7th and while I knew who he was because I met him five days prior to return the wallet and saw him as he is now, you five didn't. It's been nine years since you saw Hunter and he looked different back then, plus, the lighting wasn't enough for you to recognize him," I explained.

"That makes sense," Addilyn nodded. "There was better lighting out in the garage and he was dressed more casually than when you saw him during the show, where I assume he was wearing something that wasn't the style we knew back then,"

"Exactly," Hunter agreed. "I recognized you right away, but obviously had show to put on so I couldn't just come chat and I don't believe that would have been the appropriate place to tell you everything that I did tonight. Also, thought it might be fun to see if you'd recognize me in better light," He smiled.

"Okay, can't argue with that," Tyler shrugged.

"So…Are we limited or restricted on asking things about your life as long as it isn't about your parents and what they did?" Rylee inquired.

"Not really. I'm a pretty open and forward guy," Hunter replied.

"Alright then, where'd you learn to sing?" Alyssa wondered.

"And why are you the only one of the dancers who do it?" Hailey asked.

"Where'd you learn to dance and strip?" Rylee pushed.

"In order…I didn't learn to sing, I was just naturally good at it according to Greg and several others who heard it one of the nights I was helping close. It was after I turned eighteen, but before I became show manager. I didn't start singing in shows until I was twenty or so and it was only because someone messed with my music system and accidentally removed the artist's voice, so it only played the song as music. That made it hard for the dancers to follow routines because we use lyrical queues for moves. I didn't have time to fix the system mid-performance, so I just grabbed one of the wireless microphones that go over your ear and as I recognized the music since I always work with it, on the first chorus to the song, I just sang it live and it became more and more requested, so I said fuck it and agreed to do a couple live songs in performance I was part of," Hunter stated calmly.

"The guys and girls said that Hunter is the only one who doesn't sing bad and doesn't have stage fright to sing in front of an audience, or that they can't focus on singing while dancing and stripping," Ethan informed for the second question that Hailey had asked.

"Basically. Some of them sing great, but can't multi-task beyond dancing and stripping. Others can sing good and won't sing in front of people. And then some who just admitted they can't sing for shit," Hunter chuckled. "It's whatever, I don't mind," He added. "For that last question…It was mostly watching the original strippers dance after I turned eighteen or videos. That and I'm just really good at letting the music move me if that makes sense,"

"And the pole dancing?" I decided to question. "Where did that come from?"

"Curiosity," Hunter shrugged. "Videos, practicing…When you become a stripper, male or female, you just start learning different things to keep it fresh. Things get boring when you do the same stuff all the time, so every year we try to change it up. Keeping a couple of the old favorites while giving new material," He said.

"And you seem to be everyone's favorite," I giggled.

"Because I'm the one that plays hard to get by not getting close enough for anyone to touch," Hunter smiled.

"Is that why Greg wants you on hot seats next year?" Ethan blinked.

"No, that's just because I usually don't go out there during them. I'm typically in the back making sure everything is set on the lineup for that night. Even if I do hot seats this year, I still play hard to get," Hunter informed.

"It's really hard not to get touched, I've seen the others struggle," Ethan remarked.

"Well, that's part of their acts to resist getting away. Mine is more find moves that let me restrain arms and reward if they behave, like a dominant/submissive thing. Part of the act, mind you. I never play that outside of work, unless I'm with a guy who is into that," Hunter enlightened. "You play hard to get, it keeps them coming back to continue trying. It's why I'm being asked to be a part of hot seats,"

"And if you're with a guy who is into that dominant/submissive thing? Which are you?" Shane arched a brow.

"Usually always dominant with someone new to it, but someone experienced, I might play submissive for shits and giggles. It's never a set in stone arrangement through contracts like some other people do. It's more of a…Roleplay for just that night, spice things up before sex. And that's being brutally honest with you," Hunter explained.

"How many guys have you been with?" Alyssa asked.

"Really hard to put an exact number on that and it's also an undefined question. Are you asking how many guys I've slept with, or how many I've dated?" Hunter looked at her.

"Can I push and ask both?" Alyssa shrugged.

"For relationships, I've been with a lot of guys. I couldn't really give you a number, it's been on and off since I was seventeen. I can tell you that I didn't sleep with anyone until after I was eighteen and I didn't sleep with every boyfriend I had. None of them were more than a like-level because most would learn I was a stripper and that would be the end of it. Some left due to not liking that I took my clothes off for strangers, some ran after seeing the hot seat act I put on and scared them despite my reassurance that it was only for work, and others didn't want strangers touching me. Oh, and then there were the few who didn't like learning that I've slept with my friends at random or got jealous during get-togethers and parties because we all dance close, smack each other's asses, and so on," Hunter revealed.

"So safe to say that relationships never lasted too long to make an impression?" Tyler blinked.

"Basically. I think the longest was six months, and that was one who I thought might be alright because he didn't mind me being a stripper, the hot seat act, or strangers touching me. He was totally fine with all my work-related things as he knew I wasn't sleeping with strangers. The thing that ended the relationship was learning that during parties, my friends and I are comfortable enough to dance, tease, and touch each other. And that I've slept with them, well, the gay and bi ones. The guy's reasoning was that he was fine with what was done at work, put on the show, but off the clock, he should have been the only one I did those things with. So he left and I shrugged it off because it wasn't the first time and things always seemed to end for one of the things I mentioned previously," Hunter chuckled.

"Did it hurt you?" Addilyn wondered. "All the relationships ending because of your job or how comfortable you were with friends?"

"Eh, not really. I mean, it sucks that it was always because of those things. But at the same time, it just made me remember Greg's words. If they all left over what I do for work, or because I've had hookups with friends while I was single, or even that we're comfortable with one another then it's someone who doesn't accept me as I am and wanted me to change for them, and those are the people who choose to walk out of my life. I've learned over the years that the people who are meant to be in your life, will be, no matter what. Even some people leave, or lose contact as we did…We ended up in each other's lives again. So no…It didn't hurt me, it just showed me that they weren't the ones for me. One day, I'll meet someone who doesn't give a damn about all that and understands that if I'm with you, then I'm with you," Hunter shrugged. "Until that happens, I'm just gonna keep living my life,"