Unintentional Hero
Author: Nightstar Fury of Nightstar Productions
Rated: M for a variety of things that will happen
Pairing: Hiccup/Astrid
Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD
71; Strength Of Bond
Gerald, Gobber, and Valora had gone to their homes around 6:30pm-Hayden had been knocked out since around 3:30ish after his encounter with the Screaming Death. DS Ramirez and Amunsav had stayed though to hang out with the others for a while since it'd been so long. Around 7:15pm, Rachel and Ethan left, followed by Heather and Felix. Now it left TJ, Seth, Samantha, the two Drill Sergeants, Theo, Olivia-who was holding Alyssa now, Avery, Camille, and Dylan. Jasmine too but she lived there so she wouldn't be leaving. Since being home from the last tour, a lot of couples were living together now. Rachel and Ethan had their own one bedroom that was about ten minutes from the duplex where Hayden, Theo, Jasmine, and Olivia lived. Heather and Felix were working on getting their own if they could find one closer than twenty minutes away from everyone. Camille was living with Avery for now but after the wedding when Avery and Hayden got married-Dylan was making the choice to live with her so she didn't have to give up her place that she'd fallen in love with. Seth still lived with his parents but wasn't in a rush to change that. TJ and him considered getting a place but it was still undecided for right now since TJ was getting closer to Samantha but nothing official yet-they'd just gone on a few dates to get to know one another better.
"I can't believe he's still unconscious," Avery sighed heavily.
"Are you spending the night tonight, Avery?" Jasmine asked with a light smile.
Avery nodded, "Probably, Hayden asked me when he was in the shower if I wanted too."
"He'll be awake soon, it's been a long day for him after all. Long couple of years in the face of it-but today was probably the worst having to reveal it all to us. We shouldn't of made him talk about everything, maybe just the big stuff. He's emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted. Also he took on the Screaming Death while tipsy or buzzed. I can't say he was drunk because he was fully aware of what was going on around him-nor did he slur his words or stumble when moving," Theo shrugged.
"Hayden handles his alcohol pretty well," Jasmine offered slowly.
"We saw when we all went camping," Dylan snickered a bit.
"And you can thank Ritka and Lennox for that incredible tolerance to it too," came Hayden's voice from behind them, they all snapped their looks his way quickly. Avery was first to rush to him with worry as she wrapped her arms around his waist, "Hey, Sky Eyes..." Hayden hugged her back.
"Good to see ya up man," Theo smiled as he patted Hayden's back now, "Saved ya some pizza," he added.
"Thanks because I'm starving," he looked around now and saw who was left in the apartment, "Others went home?"
"Yeah but you higher ups are comin back-we...kind'a had to inform them about your...moments but we didn't mention you trying to kill yourself to them. I guess tomorrow they are going to give you a full eval," Dylan informed calmly.
"Figures, you could of told them. I wouldn't have cared," Hayden shrugged now.
"Hold on! He tried to kill himself!?" DS Amunsav stated quickly.
"Yeah...round noon time...I'm fine now, I've got good friends who have my back," Hayden stated to them.
"We didn't want you getting hauled off babe," Avery snuggled into his chest, "By the way, I'm spending the night..."
"That's fine, I told you that you could." Hayden kissed her forehead while she smiled. Jasmine brought him over a plate with three pieces of pizza-bacon, hamburger, and cheese which was his favorite. Theo brought over a cup of water. Hayden said down on the couch now while taking a bite.
"Feeling better now, how's your arm?" Camille asked him while sitting beside Dylan on the couch.
"Well, pretty sure I'm not drunk anymore-just have a massive headache and hungry," Hayden chuckled as he opened his laptop and then iTunes to get some music going since it was quiet as hell. Hayden finished his pizza and drink before leaning back on the couch to relax. "Honestly haven't felt this good in a while," he sighed out closing his eyes.
"Well we better be headed back-hour drive to Fort Dreki. Glad you're feeling better lad, ya need anything then let us know. We'll see ya in two months at the grand opening of," Amunsav paused now, "Well I guess it still doesn't have a name,"
"Beyond The Clouds," Hayden informed.
"Finally chose the name did ya?" DS Ramirez smiled, "What made you use that?"
"Because on the wings of a dragon, you can go beyond the clouds. Also," he looked towards a picture on the wall of his fallen friends, "for all the soldiers who paid the ultimate price of fighting the battle to keep others safe-the soldiers who earned their wings and get to fly forever," Hayden stated calmly. Avery held his hand as she leaned her head on his shoulder gently.
"Beautiful name and fits perfectly," Camille said lightly.
"That's why I chose it," Hayden found a small smile now as the two Drill Sergeants nodded as they shook his hand then headed out of the duplex. Now it was just TJ, Samantha, Seth, Theo, Avery, Camille, Dylan, Jasmine, Olivia-holding Alyssa, and himself.
"It's late, we should be headed back too..." Dylan mentioned to Camille who had yawned for the fifth time in an hour.
"We should get back to our side of the duplex too, Alyssa is getting fussy," Olivia said to Theo who nodded in agreement.
"You guys don't have to stay here and watch me, really. I'm okay and Avery is spending the night-so I'm not alone..." Hayden mentioned.
"Well we are coming back tomorrow-you should have all of us with you when you deal with the pains in the asses," Theo chuckled at him.
"Play nice-they are just doing their jobs. Have a good night guys," Hayden told them as they all left leaving just him, Jasmine, and Avery now. He closed his eyes and sighed out, "Man what a day..." he remarked now.
"We're sorry about earlier-we didn't even think about having you talk about everything and how it would affect you to have to do it in one day," Jasmine said softly.
"Don't sweat it-it...honestly helped a little, to just unload everything at once. I have been holding it in for years," Hayden shrugged softly as Avery leaned on him.
"Only a little?" Avery asked.
"Still got a long way to go yet babe-getting it out helped and I know I've got all of you to stand with me. I guess I just lost sight of that for a while, feeling like no one would understand what I was going through and if I'd told anyone it would just scare them to know how fucked up in the head I was. I kept it to myself and it was just too much for me to handle alone," Hayden admitted to her.
"You'll never have to feel that way again-we're all here for you, Hayden. Please don't ever forget that, I was...so scared earlier. I kept telling myself something was wrong with you but I didn't want to believe you'd keep anything from me, especially something like this," Avery gripped his shirt a bit as he put his arm around her.
"I'm sorry, you don't have to worry anymore. I'm not going anywhere," Hayden lifted her chin and kissed her deeply, she melted into it as Jasmine smiled while getting up.
"Well, I think I'm gonna go to bed. Night guys," Jasmine walked down the hall and went to her room-shutting the door leaving Avery and Hayden alone on the couch as the two were very much locked in their kiss. Hayden finally broke it after five minutes or so as Avery just blushed deeply laying on him still.
"Evans and the others say what time they were comin?" Hayden asked.
"Uh...1100? I think," Avery said unsure.
"11am then, least they didn't make it wicked early." he chuckled some as his fingers played with her braid a little.
"You going to be okay through that tomorrow?" Avery asked him.
"I will-because all of you will be there. Come on, let's go to bed," Hayden got up now and pulled her with him as he then locked the door-he held her hand as they moved to Hayden's room to get comfortable. Hayden took off his shirt and pants leaving him in just his boxers while Avery stripped down to just her bra and underwear-they climbed into bed with Avery laying against his chest and his arm around her.
"And we always will be. I love you, Hayden," Avery snuggled against him with her eyes closed.
"I love you too, Avery. Get some sleep," Hayden told her after kissing her forehead-then pulling the blanket over them. She closed her eyes with a single nod, after about fifteen minutes she was asleep. Hayden stared at the ceiling now-he just prayed he'd be able to sleep tonight. Tomorrow would suck-he already knew what he was going to do with the officers were there and giving him a full evaluation with his friends and family there. He sighed closing his eyes, the nightmares never bothered him with Avery there so he prayed that stayed the case. Hayden's heavy eyes began to close as soon he was asleep next holding his fiance close to him.
(The Next Morning;10:30am)
He must have been more tired than he thought because when he woke up-it was already 10:30am. The officers would be there in ten minutes-Hayden rushed out of bed, got on his jeans and pulling on black tee-shirt, finally his socks before walking out of the room to see everyone already there, including the officers. Great. "Well good morning to you, Lieutenant Colonel," Greeted Boggs.
"You try to eval me before I've had my coffee and I'll kick your asses out, we clear on that?" they nodded-Hayden was never a morning person. "Did you turn my alarm off babe?" Hayden asked as he grabbed a mug from the strainer, then milk from the fridge, the sugar bowl from the cupboard before setting it all down to pour himself a mug for the morning.
"Are you gonna be mad if I did?" Avery asked.
"No but you could have at least woken me up at 10am so I could shower and wake up a little," Hayden stated.
"You needed your sleep," Jasmine stated as Hayden walked with a roll of his eyes while sipping his coffee slowly.
"As true as that may be, still had shit to do before all this," Hayden motioned to Boggs, Evans, and Greenhalgh. "And I thought you were coming back at 11am?"
"Came a little early, that's not a problem is it?" Evans asked.
"Not to me-it's you who will be waiting. Not breaking my routine because you decided to be fashionably early," Hayden put the mug down as he went outside and gave a whistle to Toothless who rushed over. "Hey bud, let's see what ya got this morning!" Hayden told him while he jumped around happily, "Alright," Hayden smiled as he went into the closet and pulled out the saddle for Toothless-then walked back outside to get it on his dragon, he got on him afterwards.
"Can we watch?" Theo asked, Hayden just shrugged as he leaned forward and patted Toothless's neck now-the dragon almost grinned and took to the sky heading straight up while the others came out to watch him. Everything was fine, Hayden was having a blast doing a bunch of moves and tricks with Toothless-then it got confusing. Toothless seemed to slow down and Hayden looked like he was having trouble keeping control of Toothless.
"Something is wrong," Ethan stated-without warning Toothless reared back and threw Hayden off him, this was bad because they were incredibly high up right now. Hayden started falling as Toothless didn't respond to being called to by him. "Boomblast, rescue!" he called out, his Thunder Drum roared as he took off and got under Hayden to catch him-then land safely.
"What happened up there?" Avery asked quickly rushing over to check him.
"I don't know-Toothless just stopped responding to commands, it's like he's distracted..." Hayden stated rubbing the Thunder Drum's head, "Thanks for the save, Ethan..."
"No prob, I owed ya for Afghanistan when you got shot for me," Ethan gave a thumbs up to him.
"Toothless! Come down bud," Hayden called but the dragon didn't listen to him-Toothless glared at him with his eyes in thin slits. "Oh that can't be good," he mumbled as the dragon now landed and approached-snarling at Hayden. "Alright, take it easy bud...it's okay-it's just me, Hayden, your friend..." he tried to put his hand out but Toothless made a snap at him.
"What's wrong with him?..." Gerald asked.
"If I knew, I wouldn't be trying to figure it out..." Hayden said-Toothless charged a blast in his mouth, "Get inside," he ordered next.
"What about you?" Valora asked.
"I'll be fine-just go." Hayden told her, they nodded and went inside but still watched from the windows with worry. "Toothless, it's alright bud-whatever is wrong, we can figure it out." Toothless whined almost but held firm He didn't know what was wrong with Toothless-he'd never acted this way before so something had to be wrong with him. It was almost strange-his dragon was reacting as if they were still at war-Hayden just about froze realizing it. His dragon was suffering like he was-Hayden wasn't the only one who saw a lot of death. Doing all the moves that they were in the air-it triggered Toothless thinking they were back at war. Toothless lost dragons-he was suffering his own form of PTSD.
"Hayden, what's wrong?" Camille asked him.
"He's suffering PTSD like I am. All those moves-they were ones we did back in the wars. Toothless saw a lot of death too, lost his dragon friends. He's like...me. He doesn't know where he is right now," Hayden said softly. How did he help Toothless? How did he get him to wake up and realize where he was? If he got to close-Toothless would fire. Hayden slowly got to his knees with a hand out to his dragon's snout while taking a breath to calm down. "Toothless," he said now, "Hey, its me bud. It's me, I'm right here...come back to me." Hayden told him moving his hand closer while Toothless snarled more. "It wasn't your fault bud. They didn't die because of you. You'd never hurt anybody-you'd never hurt me..."
"Be careful, Hayden," Evans said, Hayden ignored him though and moved closer as Toothless's eyes dilated for a brief moment as he screeched in distress-this his eyes returned to slits with more growling.
"I won't...leave you-I won't let you go, Toothless. Hear me? I'm NOT letting you go too, I can't handle that. Please...come back to me, please? You are my best friend bud." Hayden said as tears almost formed in his eyes while the blast receded and Toothless shook his head a bit, "My Best Friend." Hayden's hand touched Toothless's snout now as the dragon warbled sadly while his eyes returned to normal and he saw Hayden before him-his teeth retracted as he gave a gummy smile to him. "Atta boy-that's it! I'm here," Hayden said as he lunged forward at his dragon and hugged him tightly around the neck-Toothless leaned into the hug, even raised a paw to hug him back.
"How did...you know how to break through him?" Avery asked.
"We saw the same things-felt the same pain. We're a lot alike in that sense," Hayden mentioned as Toothless licked his face after the hug. "He takes it personally because he's the alpha-and the alpha is meant to protect them all."
"Poor guy," Avery rubbed Toothless's head.
"He's been suffering all this time and I...wasn't even thinking about it since I was having my own problems coping. I'm sorry bud...guess we can work on it together now?" Toothless nuzzled his face. "By the way, Dad, what you just saw right there is the strength of the bond between dragon and rider. In case you still wanted to see why it's so powerful," Hayden chuckled a bit.
"Ready for your evaluation since you pretty much just admitted to have issues?" Evans asked.
"Ya know what," he paused with a glare almost-then smiled, "Yeah. Let's get it over with. I'm ready-I just hope you are." Hayden said as he got Toothless a barrel of fish and sent him to the backyard, then he entered the house sitting down. This was going to be a long day already but he didn't care. He was ready for this-he hoped they were too. He'd been planning this all night since he found out they were coming to evaluate them-and he couldn't wait to do the one thing they'd asked him to do before they were sent home from Iraq. Prove he was alright-he was going to enjoy this a lot more than he should be allowed to.
