Author's Note: This idea was so random, but I wrote it anyway. And I have no idea how it became so long. X)
Hello all you wonderful peoples! =D 'Tis Moon once again with another one-shot for "Sticks and Stones!" =D I don't really have much to say other than I hope you enjoy this one-shot, so...I hope you enjoy this one-shot! XD
Summary: To avoid getting hurt by Astrid after pulling a Loki, the twins declare that it's backwards day and the other Riders follow along. Soon, the day lengthens to a week due to the Riders' competitiveness, and Hiccup decides to bring an end to the backwardness before anything goes wrong. (ROB.)
Backwards Day
It was a slow, warm day on the Isle of Berk, which was rare considering that the Outcasts were still lurking out there, plotting whatever scheme they could use to steal dragon secrets from them. Hiccup was glad that things had settled down some, but things had settled down a little too much.
He was bored. Really bored. So bored, in fact, he didn't find the will to tell the twins to stop banging their heads into each other. To be frank, that was the only thing that was currently entertaining Hiccup. He considered drawing, but he couldn't find the will to do that either.
Hiccup leaned against Toothless' warm scales and let out a sigh. The Night Fury's eyes were darting back and forth between the twins, silently betting who was going to pass out first. Snotlout was trying to teach Hookfang how to do a backflip (even though he couldn't do one himself), and Fishlegs was entertaining himself by reading the Gronkle section of the Book of Dragons, randomly spitting out facts to the other Riders, although none of them were really listening.
"Hey, did you guys know that Gronkles can weigh over—" Fishlegs started, but he was cut off by an enraged scream that all of the Riders knew all too well. Hiccup sat up; eyes wide as he watched none other than Astrid Hofferson storm in with Stormfly in tow. She was covered head to toe in chicken feathers and honey, and she looked very, very upset. Her blue eyes flashed with pure rage as she glared at the twins. Her axe was clasped dangerously in her hand as she stomped toward them.
The twins stopped getting ready to bash into each other and turned to face Astrid. Grins spread on their faces, and they burst into laughter. Hiccup silently cringed as he watched Astrid's face turn as red as a strawberry, and he knew that it wouldn't be long until the Thorston twins found themselves begging for mercy.
Before any chaos ensued, Hiccup stood up and asked, "Astrid, what happened?"
The Hofferson girl sent him a hard, stony glare and Hiccup gulped. He could clearly read the message that reflected in her eyes: Don't ask.
Hiccup clamped his mouth shut and watched as Astrid began to approach the twins again. "You two have crossed the line. THE line!"
"Uh, what line?" asked Tuffnut dumbly. "I don't see a line anywhere. Do you, Ruffnut?"
Ruffnut looked around. "Nope. I don't see a line anywhere."
Astrid was fuming. "For the love of Thor, it's just an—UGH!" She raised her axe ferociously and said, "I'm going to end you two right here, right now!"
Astrid raised her axe to strike, and before Hiccup could run up to stop her, Tuffnut suddenly proclaimed, "You can't hurt us! It's backwards day!"
Astrid—extremely bemused by the sudden response—loosened her grip on her axe. "What?" she asked.
"It's backwards day!" exclaimed Ruffnut. She brought down her hands, which she was previously using to shield her face, and continued, "Since it's backwards day, you have to do everything backwards. So, you can't hurt us. You have to do the opposite."
Nice save, thought Hiccup. If Astrid had a brain like you guys'
Astrid flipped her braid and raised an eyebrow. "You two really expect me to buy that?"
Tuffnut nodded. "Yes. It's backwards day. So, instead of killing us, you have to do something nice."
"The opposite of hurting is healing," said Ruffnut. "But since we're not physically injured, you can just give us a hug, which is backwards from hitting us with your dangerously sharp axe."
Astrid blinked in total, utter bemusement. Hug the twins? Preposterous! Why in the world would she want to do that? After the Loki that they set up outside of her home? No way!
The blonde scrunched her nose and said, "There is no way I'm hugging you two. I'd rather punish you." Astrid let out a battle cry and was about to strike, but Hiccup—doing probably what was the craziest thing he had ever done in his life—stepped in.
"Wait! They're right!" Hiccup said suddenly. Astrid dropped her axe again and looked at Hiccup as if he was crazy. And considering that he actually agreed with the twins, he probably was.
"Tuffnut and Ruffnut are right," said Hiccup again. He heard Snotlout whisper "He's gone insane," and out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Fishlegs had dropped the Book of Dragon's in surprise. The young viking ignored their reactions and continued, "It's backwards day, meaning that we all have to do everything backwards. Instead of flying on Toothless, I'm going to walk."
Tuffnut sent Hiccup a "Thank you" and the Haddock shrugged. Hiccup turned back to Fishlegs and Snotlout, silently telling them to follow his example.
"Um…uh…yeah! Hiccup's right! It is backwards day!" Fishlegs agreed with Hiccup.
"Yep! Totally!" added Snotlout with a nervous smile.
Astrid had an unamused look on her face. "I know you guys are just trying to stop me from giving what Ruffnut and Tuffnut deserve," she said.
"But you can't hurt them for just a prank," said Hiccup. "Besides, you can always wash out the chicken feathers and honey, right?"
Astrid shook her head and turned back to the twins. "Fine. I won't hurt you guys. But if you try to pull something like this on me again," she made a slicing motion with her axe. "There will be serious repercussions."
The twins nodded, although Hiccup could tell that it wouldn't be long until they tried to prank Astrid again. They spread out their arms for an apologetic hug and Astrid only rolled her eyes and walked away. Once she was gone, the twins let out sighs of relief and turned to the others with impish grins on their faces.
"Okay! Backwards day has officially started," announced Tuffnut happily.
Snotlout snorted. "It isn't really backwards day you muttonheads. We just said that so Astrid wouldn't unleash her wrath on you."
"Yeah, backwards day isn't a thing," said Hiccup. "It's just an excuse so people don't have to do certain things." Or avoid getting maimed by an angry, axe wielding blonde, he added silently.
"But Astrid doesn't know that," said Ruffnut as if she had accomplished something extravagant.
"I'm pretty sure she does," stated Fishlegs.
"Or does she?" said Tuffnut mysteriously.
"She does," Fishelgs said.
Ruffnut clapped her hands. "Enough talking! We got a whole day to do everything backwards, and we're not going to waste it! And if we keep this whole backwards day thing up, Astrid won't hurt us!"
Hiccup shook his head. "You guys are completely insane. Backwards day isn't—"
"Hiccup, Hiccup, Hiccup," interrupted Tuffnut. "Did we think that dragons were able to be trained before you met Toothless?"
"Uh, no," replied Hiccup.
"And since we think backwards day isn't real, do you have proof that it isn't?" asked Tuffnut.
Hiccup opened his mouth to respond but then closed it. When it came to the twins and logic, things never made complete sense even if they sounded like they made sense. All in all, one could never tell when it came to the Thorston twins.
"Anyway, everyone has to pick one thing to do backwards," said Ruffnut.
"Why one?" asked Snotlout.
"Because doing everything backwards is exhausting," said Tuffnut simply. He turned to Hiccup. "Since you already said that you're not going to fly your dragon today, you'll do just that, Hiccup."
Hiccup blinked. "W-wait, we're actually doing this?"
"Uh, duh," said Tuffnut. He turned to Snotlout. "So, Snotman, what are you going to do backwards?"
"Ooh! Ooh! I have a suggestion!" said Ruffnut. "Snotlout, you're going to talk backwards."
"Talk backwards?" repeated Snotlout.
Tuffnut nodded. "It's perfect. You shall talk backwards the entire day."
"But I thought we were going to choose what we wanted to do!" exclaimed Fishlegs.
"He took too long to choose something," said Tuffnut.
Snotlout rolled his eyes, but it was too late to choose something else. And talking backwards didn't sound so bad. He would just have to avoid talking to people he knew…and pretty much everyone else on Berk.
"Fine, I'll talk backwards," said Snotlout.
"Great!" said Ruffnut. She turned to Fishlegs. "Now, coming up with something for you was extremely easy. Fishlegs, you're going to walk backwards."
"What?" said Fishlegs. "I can't walk backwards! That's humiliating!"
"Then you can just sit around in one spot all day if that sounds better," said Tuffnut with a shrug.
As much as Fishlegs would have loved to do that, he knew that it would get extremely boring just sitting in one spot all day. Besides, he was planning on stopping by the library with Meatlug to pick up some new books. Fishlegs sighed. Well, he would only have to walk around backwards for one day, so things shouldn't be so bad.
"Okay," said Fishlegs. "I'll walk backwards I guess."
"Perfect," Tuffnut said with a smile. "And Ruffnut and I are going to do the complete opposite of what we're told for the entire day!"
"It's going to be so fun," said Ruffnut.
Hiccup wondered if the twins realized that when they said that they're going to do the opposite of what they're told that it applied to everything that they were told to do. Meaning that if they were told to run off a cliff, would they walk off a cliff instead?
Hiccup hoped that no one would ask such a thing, and hoped that the day would go along as fast as possible so that backwards day would come to an end just as quickly.
"We'll do this for one day," said Hiccup. "Just so that Astrid doesn't do anything to you guys."
Tuffnut and Ruffnut smiled. "Then what are we waiting for?" they said in unison. "Let's get this started!"
…
Backwards day didn't go as bad as Hiccup thought it would. He had managed to do everything he wanted and needed to that day without any hindrances except when it came to traveling far distances. The walk to the Academy was a lot longer on foot than on dragonback, and when it came to walking all the way from there down to the forge, Hiccup wished that he had some ice to put on his feet.
Still, things were pretty normal despite the fact that he couldn't fly Toothless. Hiccup didn't mind not flying his dragon, but Toothless seemed to really want to go on a flight after the first few hours of just walking. The Night Fury grumbled and looked up toward the clouds and back at Hiccup, a pleading expression in his eyes.
Hiccup patted Toothless' head. "I know, buddy. I want to go flying too. I promise we'll go flying once this whole backwards day thing is over."
Toothless whined.
"Oh, come on, don't be a crybaby," said Hiccup with a jesting smile. "We can still find something fun to do to pass the time. Why don't we go and see what Fishlegs is up to?"
Even though that wasn't what Toothless wanted, he still followed his Rider all the way to the Great Hall. Inside was the library, where Fishlegs was currently sitting at a table and reading a rather long book. Hiccup guessed it was probably about dragons, and he approached Fishlegs.
"Hey, Fishlegs," greeted Hiccup. "How are things going?"
Fishlegs looked up from his book and smiled. "Hey, Hiccup! I'm just reading and trying to avoid moving around so much." The Ingemen stood up from his chair and turned around, walking backwards all the way to where Hiccup and Toothless were standing. The Night Fury let out a small snort, which was the dragon equivalent of a snicker.
Hiccup poked Toothless. "Hey, be nice."
Fishlegs shrugged. "Eh, it's fine. Meatlug was laughing at me too while I was trying to find books. I kept bumping into shelves and scrolls."
Hiccup looked around. The library did seem a little messier compared to the last time he had been there. Books were toppled on the floor and papers and scrolls litter the floor.
Fishlegs sighed. "Looks like I'll be doing some extra cleaning today."
"I'll stop by to help clean later," said Hiccup. Toothless gawked at him and Hiccup added "After Toothless and I come back from our flight once this whole backwards day thing is over."
Fishlegs nodded. "Thanks, Hiccup, but I think I'll be fine."
"If you say so," said Hiccup. He turned to leave and said, "I hope you enjoy your book!"
Fishlegs and Meatlug watched the Haddock leave. Fishlegs then turned to Meatlug and said, "So! What book should we read next, Meatlug?"
The Gronkle gestured to a shelf to the right, and Fishlegs walked over to it (backwards of course). He knocked a couple of books that were sitting on the floor, and the tower fell to the ground. The Ingerman sighed.
"I can't wait until Backwards day is over," he muttered. Meatlug grumbled in agreement.
…
After visiting Fishlegs, Hiccup went off to find Snotlout, who was trying to carry a conversation with Hookfang, who was staring at him in confusion. Hiccup walked up to his cousin and said, "Hi, Snotlout. What's up?"
"Yad sdrawkcab etah I," said Snotlout.
Hiccup blinked. "Wow, you're actually speaking backwards?"
"Sey," was Snotlout's reply.
Hiccup laughed but stopped once he saw Snotlout's glare. "Oh, sorry. It's just…this is kind of amusing."
"Siht ekil klat ot evah yllautca uoy fi ton," said Snotlout glumly.
"Don't worry, Snotlout," said Hiccup, trying to keep back his laughter. "This will be all over soon. The day's almost over."
Snotlout only nodded, and then turned back to Hookfang, talking about something that Hiccup couldn't quite catch due to Snotlout flipping his words. The Haddock and Toothless continued on through Berk, keeping an eye out for the twins. Hiccup soon spotted the two troublemakers, who were laying down on their backs in the plaza. Hiccup and Toothless walked up to them; the twins looked exhausted.
"Uh, hey, guys," said Hiccup. "What's going on?"
"We've been doing the opposite of what people have been telling us to do," said Tuffnut. He grinned. "And it's been awesome."
"Instead of cleaning the dishes like our mom told us to, we made them even dirtier," said Ruffnut with a cackle.
"And when Silent Sven told us to get out of his sheep pen, we didn't!" said Tuffnut in glee. He high-fived his sister and they both burst into laughter.
"Okay," said Hiccup. "But why are you guys lying on the ground?"
"Stoick told us to sit down here until we calm down, and the opposite of sitting is lying down," said Tuffnut.
"Actually, it's standing," Hiccup corrected.
"Hey, who are the backwards day masters here?" asked Ruffnut. "We know what we're doing."
"If you say so," said Hiccup. And he and Toothless left the twins and headed back home. The sun was just beginning to dip in the horizon, and once it did, Hiccup smiled and said, "Backwards day is over, Toothless! We can go on a flight now!"
Toothless walked up to Hiccup with a gummy smile and nudged the saddle and tailfin in his direction. Hiccup saddled up Toothless, hopped onto his back, and took to the air. Oh, how he missed flying.
"Thank Thor that backwards day is only one day," said Hiccup. "Imagine if it was a week long."
Toothless snorted. "That would never happen."
"Yeah," said Hiccup. "Besides, we all agreed that this is just a one day, one-time thing. No more doing stuff backwards."
Toothless then carried them up above the clouds, leaving the thought of backwards day behind them.
…
It happened.
Backwards day…became backwards week.
How it happened, Hiccup didn't know, but he entered the Dragon Training Academy and greeted everyone like usual and noticed that Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins were still doing things the opposite. Astrid watched them all in pure bemusement, and she was quite relieved to see Hiccup when he walked in.
"Thank Thor you're here, Hiccup!" Astrid exclaimed as she walked up to him. "These four have been acting completely nuts! They're doing everything backwards and it's starting to get really aggravating!"
"I can see that," said Hiccup. He walked up to Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins and asked. "What are you guys doing? Backwards day is over now."
"Actually, it isn't," said Tuffnut. "Last night, Snotlout said that he could stay backwards longer than us."
Snotlout nodded, affirming what Tuffnut had said.
"And we said that we could be backwards longer than him," said Ruffnut. "So, we started a competition."
"We have to stay backwards for an entire week. Winner doesn't have to do chores for a whole week," said Fishlegs.
"The losers have to…well, be losers. They lost," said Tuffnut.
Hiccup shook his head. "Guys, you can't be backwards for an entire week!"
"Nac ew sey!" said Snotlout.
"I don't even know what you just said!" exclaimed Astrid.
Hiccup tried to convince the four to stop what they were planning, but it was no use. The four seemed adamant on doing backwards week, and Hiccup had no idea how to stop them.
The first few days weren't so bad; they seemed just like they had on the first backwards day. But as the week progressed, things became more…crazy.
For Snotlout, it was almost impossible to communicate. He couldn't carry an entire conversion, and people would give up after just a few attempts. Snotlout didn't mind, but he found it rather irritating that he was only limited to speaking unless he did so backwards. Hiccup thought that he would soon break, but he didn't. Snotlout continued to talk backwards.
Fishlegs' situation wasn't bad. He could only walk backwards, which compared to talking backwards was far more tolerable. Vikings would only stare as Fishlegs walked through town, facing the opposite direction of how one would usually walk. Although Fishlegs seemed to not mind walking backwards, Hiccup could tell that he would very much like to return to walking normally.
The twins' situation, it was both extremely dangerous and extremely exasperating. They did the opposite of what they were told to do. Hiccup had grown used to this as he spent more time with them. But for short-tempered vikings who had no patience, things were different. Tuffnut and Ruffnut were having the time of their lives, but for everyone else, they were just being annoying.
If the twins had to do the opposite of what they were told, Hiccup didn't know how long it would be until someone told them to do something that they didn't want to do the opposite of. It was then that the young viking decided to put an end to backwards week until things grew too chaotic. But whenever he tried to talk to them, they would simply say that they weren't backing down.
Astrid walked up to Hiccup side as the young viking watched the twins let loose an entire pen of baby yaks. The blonde crossed her arms and turned to Hiccup.
"You aren't really going to let them get away with this, are you?" she asked.
"No," said Hiccup. "In fact, I'm trying to come up with a way to stop this right now."
"What do you have in mind?" asked Astrid.
"Absolutely nothing," replied Hiccup.
Astrid lightly punched his shoulder. "That isn't very helpful."
Hiccup sighed. "I know, but—" Then, it hit him. Hiccup almost felt like slapping himself. Why didn't he think of this before? He smiled and said to Astrid, "I got an idea, but you have to get the others and bring them to the Dragon Training Academy right now."
"On it," grinned Astrid. Then, she ran off to grab the twins, Snotlout, and Fishlegs.
…
Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the twins weren't exactly pleased being interrupted with whatever they were doing by Astrid, and they weren't going to go along with her until she threatened them with her axe. They immediately followed the blonde to the Dragon Training Academy. Hiccup was waiting inside with a smile on his face.
"Hey, guys!" he greeted cheerfully. "So, how's backwards life?"
"Backwards," replied Tuffnut.
Hiccup nodded. "Thought so. Anyway, I wanted to make an announcement."
"Tnemecnuonna na?" said Snotlout.
"An announcement," repeated Hiccup. He really hoped that his plan would work. "Today is backwards backwards day," he proclaimed.
"Backwards backwards day?" parroted Ruffnut.
"Blasphemy!" exclaimed Tuffnut. He pointed an accusing finger at Hiccup. "There is no such thing!"
Astrid shook her head. "No, it's true," she said. "There is such a thing."
Hiccup nodded. "And it's today, meaning that all of the backwards stuff you're doing right now has to be done…well, backwards."
"So, you're technically saying that backwards backwards day reverses backwards day?" said Fishlegs.
"Yes," said Hiccup.
"And we're supposed to go back to normal?" asked Fishlegs.
"Yep!" said Astrid. "Oh, and backwards backwards day is forever, meaning that you can't do anymore backwards days."
Ruffnut and Tuffnut looked unconvinced. "Are you sure that this day is real?" asked Ruffnut.
"As real a Night Fury," replied Hiccup. Toothless warbled at his side.
Tuffnut was about to say something, but Snotlout beat him to it. "Thank goodness! I thought I would have to talk backwards forever!"
"And I don't have to walk backwards anymore!" said Fishelgs happily. "Yes!"
Ruffnut and Tuffnut looked at each other and shrugged. "Okay, fine. I guess it's backwards backwards day," said Tuffnut.
"Who's up for a dragon race in Raven Point?" asked Snotlout. Fishlegs and the twins immediately agreed, backwards day completely forgotten, and they headed off to get their dragons. Astrid walked up to Hiccup with a smile on her face.
"I'm so glad backwards week is over," she said. "I like it better when everyone acts normally."
"Me too," Hiccup agreed.
Suddenly, Astrid's face morphed into one of anger when she saw the twins messing with her axe outside. How they got their hands on it, Astrid didn't know, but she sure didn't want those two muttonheads messing with it.
"HEY!" she shouted as she ran out of the Academy. "Give me back my axe before I tell Stormfly to sic you two!"
Hiccup chuckled as he watched Astrid chase after the twins. Toothless sat down beside him and Hiccup had a realization.
"If it was really backwards day," he said. "Astrid wouldn't be so…Astrid. I'm pretty glad all this backwards stuff is over, or we'd all not be ourselves."
Toothless grumbled in agreement, and he wondered if Hiccup sounded somewhat dreamy when he said Astrid's name.
Author's Note: As always, I had a lot of fun writing this short story. The Dragon Riders are a funny bunch, and I love seeing them do something as humorous and silly like backwards day or dancing around singing: "This is our island, this is our island!" XD
Translations to Snotlout's backward speech:
Yad sdrawkcab etah I: I hate backwards day
Sey: Yes
Siht ekil klat ot evah yllautca uoy fi ton: Not if you actually have to talk like this
Nac ew sey!: Yes, we can!
Tnemecnuonna na?: An announcement?
I hope you guys enjoyed this short story! =D
Until the next chapter!
-BeyondTheMoon1203