Through The Ups & Downs

Couple; HarrisonXAddilyn

Rating; Mature

Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD or any songs I might use!

2) Explanations & Introductions

{Normal POV}

[4 pm; Haddock Household]

The Haddock family and Harrison's old school friends were sitting in the living room watching some TV and playing a board game with Nathaniel on the floor. Just as the last four months had been, it was a quiet and dull day. When Harrison went missing, it was a confusing day. The more they thought about it, Harrison had been acting a little weird since his eighteenth birthday and then finally, at the end of June, Harrison was gone. Spencer tried the usual methods to contact Harrison, but it appeared that his cell phone was off.

Spencer attempted to send small search teams out, but Harrison was nowhere to be found. Viviana always looked sad and gave drawn out sighs about missing Harrison. The friends wanted him to come back; no understood why Harrison would suddenly take off without a word, all they knew for sure was that he dropped out of High School and got his GED towards the end of March. As for knowing where he went; they had nothing. Harrison's 2014 lifted black with gray interior Chevy Silverado truck remained in the driveway, locked and untouched but Harrison obviously had the keys because the family couldn't find them.

"Mr. Haddock, have there been any leads on Harrison's whereabouts?" Addilyn decided to ask softly.

"Nothing at all. We've still got officers in the city and other towns on the look for if anyone spotted him, but nothing. And we don't have a cell phone to track either," Spencer sighed heavily.

"I just don't understand why he would take off without a word to anyone. Are you sure nothing was bothering him at school?" Viviana inquired.

"If there was, he didn't say anything to us. But he did start acting strangely after his birthday," Frankie mentioned. "Always kept telling us he was busy after school, and we know he worked, but I didn't think it was that much,"

"According to his former boss, Calvin Walker, Harrison put his two weeks in at the end of June, and all Harrison told him was that he was taking off for a while. Calvin said okay, and if Harrison came back and needed a job, he had it with him," Spencer stated. "I assume that means Harrison plans on returning, we just don't know when," he added.

"I miss him," Nathaniel frowned.

"We all do, Nate," Regina sighed.

"We just...have to hope he comes back soon and tells us why he left," Addilyn said sadly. Addilyn, also called Addy a lot as a nickname couldn't help but feel saddened by Harrison's abrupt departure. She and Harrison had been good friends since they were in fifth grade along with Syrus, Frankie, Regina, and TJ. It was during the school play in Freshman Year of High School that Addilyn began to form a crush on Harrison.

The play had been for the movie, The Princess Bride with Harrison and Addilyn holding the lead roles of Princess Buttercup and Wesley. However, Addilyn never told him how she felt about him, in fear it might ruin their friendship. Harrison had always been popular since Middle School when he started playing sports in the sixth grade. Harrison used to play Baseball in the Spring and Summer, Basketball through Fall and Winter. When Harrison started High School, he moved to just playing Basketball so he could free up his summer to work for Calvin, the manager of Berkys, one of the best places around.

Berkys offered both drive-thru and sit-down options for dining. Plus it served breakfast as early as 6 am but stopped for lunch at 12 pm. Berkys closed at 12 am, Harrison was known for working from 4 am to 6 am to get the place opened. Afterward, Harrison would go to school from 6:30 am to 2:10 pm, then return to work from 4 pm to 10 pm five days a week. Harrison's typical days off included Tuesdays and Thursdays unless he needed one off for another occasion or a Basketball game. The Tuesdays and Thursdays were for practices.

Harrison was a busy guy and made $11 an hour as a shift supervisor. It made no sense to anyone why he would drop out, get his GED, then bail when he had it made in life. The time was 4 pm now; the friends would be leaving around 4:30 as they usually did, it had become second nature for them to stay a while in case Spencer or Vivian had to work late. Suddenly, the back door opened as they stayed still and not more than a moment later they heard; 'I'm Home.'

Whipping around from their positions, they saw Harrison standing there wearing a dark green, brown, and black camouflage uniform, and beret on the top of his head showing the crest of the Arc Isle Army, there was a pair of black boots on his feet. Over the left pocket of the uniform read; AI Army and over the right; Haddock. On Harrison's shoulder rested a long gray bag and black backpack on his back. Harrison removed the beret and set down his two bags by his feet against the wall.

"Harrison!" Viviana burst into tears as she got to her feet and rushed over to Harrison, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. Harrison smiled a little and hugged her back.

"Hey, Mom," Harrison greeted before the distraught woman pulled away and looked at him. By this point, his father, little brother, and friends were up as well, hurrying over to him.

"Where in the name of Odin have you been!" Spencer demanded after he took his turn to hug Harrison, thanking the Gods he was home safe and sound.

"Fort Fury Military Base for training," Harrison replied calmly as the group of people in the room blinked in surprise taking a step back. "I joined the army," he added motioning to the uniform.

"We've been searching for you for four months, and you've been in the city this whole time?" Addilyn asked as Harrison nodded to her.

"Why couldn't anyone contact you, Harrison? We looked everywhere!" Spencer emphasized on everywhere with his hands spread out.

"Well, my phone ended up breaking just as I got to the base and I never bothered replacing it because I was too busy," Harrison shrugged casually. "Look, if you promise to calm down I'll explain everything," he sighed knowing that's exactly what they wanted; an explanation for his joining the army and sudden disappearance.

"Don't leave anything out," Viviana directed firmly as Harrison nodded and the small group returned to their seats in the living room and Harrison moved closer as he grabbed the computer chair and dragged it over to the rest of them, then sat down slowly with his arms resting on his thighs.

"Alright, first of all, I need you not to freak out at what I tell you started all this. It was a couple of weeks after my eighteenth birthday; I bonded with a dragon. It was when everyone was busy, Nate was at a friend's house until you two left your banquet dinner for the police station. I was just sitting outside with soda and some chips, and the dragon crashed into the yard, hurt its wing," Harrison began.

"What dragon did you bond with?" Frankie inquired. Harrison took a breath.

"A Night Fury," Harrison stated as everyone's eyes widened and mouths hung open. "He's...in the backyard right now, I'll introduce you after," he added. "Anyway, it took a few tries to gain his trust, but I got it, and we just bonded. I knew he needed help, so I called the Dreki Heart Hospital, and they came to get him. I promised him that everything would be okay and not to give the workers any trouble. The injury was just a sprain, and he was fine after a few weeks. In that time, I started wondering what my life would be like when everyone found out I bonded with the rarest of dragons,"

Taking a breath, Harrison continued. "One of the days I was visiting Toothless, yes, that's what I named him because of his retractable teeth, I saw a couple of soldiers come in to inquire if the sanctuary side of Dreki Heart had any dragons they would be willing to donate to Fort Fury for bonding purposes with trainees. One of the soldiers saw me with Toothless and asked if he was mine so I said yes, and they made a suggestion I should join. At first, I thought no way, but towards the end March I started considering it and doing research to find out what I would be getting into if I did,"

"You guys know me and that I've always wanted to protect people and that was my reasoning for joining the army. I know I could have been police, like you, Dad. Possibly a firefighter or EMT but the military will allow me to protect on the largest scale there is. So, April 5th, I signed up at the recruitment office here in Berkville, then went to the military entrance processing station for the joining portion on April 26th, signed my contract and took the oath. I left for Reception Battalion June 21st, then after that on July 1st started at Fort Fury for Basic, Advanced, and Dragon Training. I...just graduated as Private First Class today, about an hour ago actually," Harrison finished.

"Harrison, why didn't you tell anyone about what you were doing? Do you know how worried we've been about you!?" Spencer scolded.

"I didn't tell anyone because of how you're right now. Yelling at me, I didn't want to deal with that before I left, so I kept it a secret, and Toothless too," Harrison replied. Spencer closed his eyes and sighed heavily in frustration of his son's decision. "I don't see why you're so against it. I dropped out of High School but also got my GED," he added.

"Son, it's not the fact you joined the military that we're upset. It's that you joined and didn't tell anyone. We were so worried that something had happened to you. I have every station on Arc Isle looking for you right now," Spencer enlightened.

"Well, I'm sorry. I meant to call you and let you know what was going on but as I said, my phone broke, and I just haven't had time to replace it the last four months. Also, as a heads up, I might be leaving again," Harrison warned lightly.

"Again?! Where to?" Viviana asked quickly.

"Unfortunately, I don't know. Typically after graduating from training, the soldiers get stationed anywhere they are needed or to carry out their job selected at MEPS, the Military Entrance Processing Station. I-I chose Infantry so I could go wherever and instructed to do anything," Harrison stated. "Our orders were still being worked on when I left; we'll receive a call from the platoon leader when it's finalized," he added.

"You mentioned a contract before, what does that mean?" Regina wondered.

"It's called a service contract, and it means that I serve however long the contract says and when it's up, I can resign or retire, possibly go part time instead of full," Harrison explained. "The minimal for Infantry is eight years active duty,"

"Active duty means you could get deployed into one of the wars for anywhere between six and eighteen months," Frankie informed.

"I'm aware what it means. I did agree to it," Harrison mentioned. "The bottom line is that I'm a soldier of the AI Army now and will be for the next eight years. Oh, and so is Syrus in case anyone didn't know that he joined too. We're in the same platoon, so is Hailey Bazirk's older brother. I know she goes to Berkville Academy, Dexter let me know that she is friends with you guys,"

"We knew he joined after bonding with Hookfang, but he's always said he would join when he turned eighteen. We just didn't he was in your group, which means he's known where you are every time we mentioned that you were missing," TJ said.

"That is because I asked him not to say anything. I wanted to avoid having to explain all this over the phone. Plus, we never had a lot of time to talk. After training most nights, we showered and went right to sleep. Again, I'm sorry. There was a lot going on, and I just wanted to wait until I got home to tell you everything in person. I know that you don't like it, but this is the way things are," Harrison said sternly.

The group sighed, unfortunately, none of them could argue with Harrison or make him quit. There was no 'quitting' the military while under contract. There were discharges, but none of that applied to Harrison unless he got severely wounded or broke military laws and Harrison was not that type of guy. As Harrison had said, this is the way things are, and they had just to accept his decision and support it.

"So, you bonded with a Night Fury?" Nathaniel asked, and Harrison nodded seeing the excited expression on his face.

"Would you all like to meet him?" Harrison questioned. The group nodded, and Harrison stood up, leading them to the sliding glass doors that would take them to the backyard. When everyone was on the patio, Harrison gave a whistle with his fingers as Toothless's head lifted, then he bounded over when Harrison was standing on the grass. "Everyone, this is Toothless, the Night Fury. Bud, say hello to the family and friends," Harrison introduced. Toothless gave a warbled 'hello' and gummy smile.

"He's so cool!" Nathaniel said excitedly.

"And I'm licensed to train, own, and ride him," Harrison chuckled. Spencer sighed as he then gave a smile and put his hand on Harrison's shoulder.

"Well, I'm not happy you did everything behind our backs and didn't find a way to tell us until now, son. However, I can see how much it means to you, so I won't fight about it. If this is what you want to do with your life, then I will support your decision. Just...promise to keep us in the loop from now on?" Spencer glanced at Harrison.

"I can only promise to try, Dad. Thanks," Harrison replied with a nod and smile.

"I'll accept that answer. Now, I think it's best we get back inside, and you tell us how the last four months have been after you unpack," Addilyn giggled as Spencer and Viviana agreed with her.

"I think I can manage that," Harrison responded to them. This was good; everyone was accepting it and supporting the fact that Harrison was in the army now. Harrison wondered where he might be stationed. However, for now, he was just glad to be home with them and enjoy the time he did have until those orders got finalized and announced.