A Changing World
Act 2
Chapter 22: Epilogue Three
A/N: Long delay in posting a chapter to this story, and for that I apologise to everyone who waited for this.
You may wait no more.
Enjoy.
…
"Ugh, I will never take for granted having my own room, ever again," muttered Yang, flopping down on the fur-covered bed in the room she had been assigned to, with a long sigh.
Hiccup, Astrid and Yang were now on Meathead Island, in a large hall built solely for guests that they had been led to by the locals.
The locals in question had approached the sudden visitors following three dragons landing in the village square, each armed to the teeth as a precaution, only for the expressions of justifiable distrust that were directed at the armed strangers to turn to baffled surprise when they recognized the supposedly dead wife of Chief Stoick, alive and well, sitting atop a dragon they couldn't identify, with a saddled Night Fury and Deadly Nadder in the vicinity.
Their expressions of surprise had turned to reluctant acceptance after the very same woman produced a sheet of parchment from the inside pocket of the fleece she was wearing, containing a message from and sporting Mogadon's chiefly seal at the bottom.
After verifying that the seal really did belong to their chief and reading over the message written on the parchment, the locals had relaxed fully and offered to lead them off, whisking them away to some guest lodging, while promising to locate Spitelout and Snotlout for them, as instructed by Mogadon in the message.
Anyone could tell that a sizable amount of planning had occurred between Valka and Mogadon before she sought Hiccup and his friends out.
The group separated then, with Gobber and Valka announcing their wish to go find the resident Jorgenson Patriarch and his son, led by some of the locals to their hall, while Hiccup, Astrid, Yang, and all three dragons headed for their guest lodging, as directed by what remained of the welcoming party.
"What's wrong? Living with the Thorstons got you stressed? They can be like that sometimes. I speak from experience of past bullying from them," commented Hiccup, in response to Yang's earlier question.
"No. Well actually yes, but not in the way you think. They walk around naked in the mornings and I have to share a room with Ruffnut. I have no idea how Jaune and Nora handle seeing them like that."
"I don't know about Nora, but regarding Jaune, I'd guess Pyrrha is most likely the reason. They had sex ages ago. Before even Astrid and Gobber came to Vale," Hiccup told her.
"Ah, right. Wait, really? That far back?" Yang smirked. "Now I think I know where she went all those days after class finished. Combat training indeed."
Hiccup shuddered. "…I'm going to have a talk with Jaune about keeping it in his pants when I get back, which is quite ironic considering what I've been up to lately. Remind me if I forget, Astrid."
"You better not, babe. I sure won't forget."
"Oh, no worries there, Astrid."
"Good. Now, I'm going to go lie down in our room until Valka and Gobber return with Snotlout and Spitelout."
Hiccup groaned at that. "Thanks for reminding me about that can of worms, Astrid."
She smirked at him. "Anytime babe."
As she left, Hiccup sat down at the foot of Yang's bed, positioning her feet on top of his lap. "Moving on from that disgusting revelation about Jaune's bedside activities, how are you enjoying my world, Yang? What do you think of Berk?"
"In a word… sturdy, I guess. Now, who said you could move my legs and put them there?" she added with a mock glare down at his lap. "Especially with what that thing has been up to this past week."
"Does that bother you?" Hiccup asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.
Yang wiggled her feet as they rested directly over his crotch before winking at him. "Just a little, mostly because of the noise that was involved."
"Don't do that Yang. I am reserved for one person and one person only and I'd like the bad boy to be in pristine condition."
Yang smirked, bemused. "Did you seriously call your cock, the 'bad boy'?"
"Actually, that was Astrid's idea."
"While we're on this topic, answer me this: how did you get so good at the horizontal tango, Hiccup?"
"That information will cost you, Yang. Besides, didn't you say you weren't sure if you're ready for that stuff yet, with Eret I mean."
"I'd like to be ready for when the time comes," was her response.
"I'll ask Astrid. If she says yes, then I'll tell you."
"Okay then."
"Moving on, do you think my prosthetic could be waterproof by any chance? Perhaps yours is."
"Might be. Haven't tried it out though. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, No reason."
Yang smiled and swung her legs off of his lap. Then she got up and sat beside him, staring intently into his face. "Oh, now that's suspicious, Hiccup. What are you planning?"
"Nothing you need to worry about. It's a matter between cousins."
"You've never mentioned this cousin of yours that much, or at all for that matter. What is he like?"
"Picture Cardin Winchester with black hair and in a shorter body. And I mean Cardin from before I went into that coma. Not whatever happened to him since then. I still don't get how you go from bullying someone to being that person's friend."
"It was a surprise for us all. So what, are you planning to go for a swim with him or something?" Yang asked with a soft laugh.
"I'm planning to push him into the nearest body of water for revenge. But if he manages to pull me in, I want to know I can still swim with my leg."
"Ah. I presume he did that to you in the past?"
Hiccup nodded. "Every time he saw me near the docks, yeah. He, Ruffnut and Tuffnut would gang up on me and drop me in whenever they could. It was cold."
"You'd think people would notice after a while."
"He only did when nobody else was around to see them do it. It helped that his family built ships and went fishing; meant he knew when everyone at the docks would turn in for the night."
"Sounds like he's worse than Cardin then."
"I guess he is," agreed Hiccup before he and Yang looked to the door as it opened and Astrid entered.
"Alright, thanks to the blessing and curse that aura is, I've decided that I will deal with Snotlout, now. You just stay here, babe."
"Um… okay, but what about my promise to my mum from earlier? I agreed to talk to Snotlout, remember?"
"I'll talk to Valka about that. This comes first anyhow."
Hiccup shrugged. "Alright then."
Astrid smiled. "Great. Now, I'll see you later, Hiccup."
"Actually, I'll come along too," said Yang.
"Okay then. You ladies go have fun doing… whatever it is you have in mind for Snotlout."
When they left the guest hall, Yang tugged on Astrid's arm, forcing her to stop walking. "You want to explain what made you decide to do this all of a sudden?"
"Making up for past mistakes, Yang. I stood by and let my best friend get bullied for five years. It ends now."
Yang grinned and cracked her knuckles. "Count me in then."
"You decided to come along without having an idea what I would do to Snotlout?"
"Eh, I have an idea of my own. Bullies are universal after all," replied Yang with a shrug, her grin disappearing.
"What?"
Yang looked around before leaning close to whisper something to Astrid.
"Really? You too?"
"Yeah, having a strength based semblance and a quick temper doesn't make you popular. That said, Hiccup definitely got it worse than me, because my semblance meant nobody messed with me, but I didn't make many friends either. So it was the solution and cause of my problems back in signal. Funny how that works."
"Huh. We're more alike than I thought," Astrid murmured before smirking. "So, what do you have in mind? Tell me everything."
"You'll see," said Yang, her face adopting a devious grin.
…
When Valka and Gobber came within sight of their assigned housing with Snotlout in tow, they encountered Yang and Astrid.
"Welcome back Valka, Gobber." smiled Astrid.
"Hello lassies."
"Hello dears. Is Hiccup inside? I thought he would be with you."
"I wanted to take care of something for him," replied Astrid, nodding at Snotlout.
"Ah, I see," muttered Valka with a knowing look. "Come, Gobber. Let's leave them to it."
Gobber nodded and they passed by, heading for the house. "Good luck lass," he added, clapping her shoulder as he moved by.
"I don't think I'll need it. But thanks anyways Gobber," she returned.
"So I know Astrid, but who are you?" Snotlout asked, looking at her face for a moment before his eyes were drawn to Yang's chest.
"A friend of Hiccup," replied Yang, her smile faltering for a second as she noticed where his eyes were.
"Hiccup? Really?"
"Mhm. And I've heard a rumor about how you used to beat him up regularly. Is that true?"
"Yes. He was weak and pathetic back then. He's changed things since then. But who cares about that? Why don't we talk about how good you look?"
"Alright. Eyes up here, pal."
Snotlout did so and was surprised to see her eyes were now red.
Weren't they a different colour before? He mentally asked himself, even as he took in the sight of her now glowing hair, like long and narrow beams of sunlight.
"Now I do hope you're misremembering, pal, because Hiccup is someone I care about, and you having bullied him in the past couldn't possibly be true, right? Because that would be bad."
Yang stepped into his personal space before continuing, voice now at a whisper.
"Like, 'while they might one day find your body, they'd never be able to identify you from what's left' bad. So, that's just someone gossiping right?"
The memory of Hiccup looking like Thor himself in the Great Hall on Berk, flashed across Snotlout's mind as he stared into Yang's burning red eyes and saw the same raw fury there.
By Odin did he never want to see that again.
"Y-yes, I'm sure I don't remember if I beat him up before. Must have dreamed that up," Snotlout stammered, his voice suddenly an octave higher.
"Good, now you are going to head into that house back there, find Hiccup, tell him that if you ever did try to beat him up, then you were clearly out of your mind when it happened. Agreed?"
Snotlout nodded vigorously at once. "Good. Now go."
Bang!
Snotlout ran towards the hall behind her and Astrid like a fired bullet at the noise.
"Was that last part really necessary?" Wondered Astrid, as Yang released the spent shotgun-shell from the gauntlet on her right arm and turned to look her way.
"Not really," shrugged Yang. "But eh, no harm done, and it clearly didn't hurt the results."
Astrid glanced over at the fast-moving Jorgenson. "That's true enough. Let's head back now then, and see what Valka wants us to do next."
…
Toothless, Stormfly and Cloudjumper were once again in the air, flying side by side this time, while on their way northeast from Meathead Island as they traversed the skies.
"That wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I told you to make Snotlout apologise, you know," said Valka.
"Me neither," replied Hiccup. "That was Astrid and Yang's idea."
"It was actually just mine," responded Yang. "And it worked, so what's the problem?"
"The idea was for my son, my brother and my nephew to work out their differences by themselves, dear. Or at least try to do so. But as it did indeed work, I'll leave the matter be."
"Alright, so where are we going now?" Yang wondered.
"To meet some distant friends of mine who need help caring for a certain large flock of dragons, before we return to Berk." was the response Valka gave her.