"Tuffnut's been asking about where we go," Ruffnut mentioned as she spun a hammer in her hand.
Hiccup hummed absent-mindedly, but didn't look up from the saddle she was modifying. Hiccup had gotten Ruffnut to help her bring some tools to the cove, working here was easier in the day-light compared to working in the forge at night. It was easier for her to notice imperfections that she had missed previously.
They had the day off of dragon training. Hiccup had 'taken down' the Nadder the day before and Gobber decided to come up with harder tasks for the trainees. For three days Hiccup and Ruffnut had been going to the cove together. Toothless had warmed up to the female twin when he saw that Hiccup trusted her, the Night Fury didn't blink twice when Ruffnut came with Hiccup to the cove.
"Hiccup," Ruffnut said again, "He's suspicious."
"They all should be," she calmly answered and took the hammer from Ruffnut, "I would be concerned if they weren't."
"Hiccup," Ruffnut said in a serious tone, "He told me Arne was suspicious too and was considering following us."
"Ruffnut," Hiccup sighed and put down the saddle she had been working on, "I'm the best in dragon training, taking down dragons with just a wave of my hand. Of course they're suspicious that the worst viking is suddenly the best."
"So we're not going to do anything?"
"Tell Tuffnut we're training or something," Hiccup shrugged, "It's not like they will believe anything else."
"What about Arne?" Ruffnut questioned and handed Hiccup a piece of wire as the shorter girl went back to work, "He isn't going to give up, you have a genuine chance of beating him."
"I need to get everything back as it was," Hiccup mumbled and lifter her eyes to meet Ruffnut's, "He's going to be suspicious as long as I'm better than him."
"You're going to fail on purpose?" Ruffnut looked at her like she was crazy.
"Yes," Hiccup chuckled, "Then they'll think it was all a fluke. Either way, I don't deserve to win."
"Yes you do," Ruffnut argued.
Hiccup rolled her eyes and finished up with the saddle. She stood up and called Toothless to her, fitting the saddle back in place on the dragon's back. With a few pulls and tugs, the saddle was back in place and Hiccup told Toothless to go run around to see if everything was in place.
"I'm a fraud, Ruff," Hiccup finally explained as she gathered her equipment in a neat pile, "Everything I have achieved was not 'the viking way' to do things. I would not be able to complete the final test, no matter how hard I try, I just don't have it in me."
"But what if you win regardless?"
Hiccup shrugged and gestured in Toothless' general direction with the hammer she had in her hand.
"All I need to do now is stay in the air for long enough and I have an escape plan," she explained, still gesturing with the hammer.
"You would leave?" Ruffnut exclaimed in shock.
"Yes," Hiccup simply answered, "Without you, there's nothing really holding me here."
"What about your dad?" Ruffnut questioned.
"He wouldn't even notice I saw gone," Hiccup gave a weak chuckle as Toothless jumped right in front on her, making her yelp in surprise.
"What's up with your dragon?" Ruffnut wondered as he started looking around the cove.
Hiccup didn't answer, she looked at Toothless for a moment and started moving her hands again. Toothless started jumping around and Hiccup chuckled. Ruffnut looked at her in question.
"The light," Hiccup answered and Ruffnut finally noticed that the hammer Hiccup had in her hand managed to reflect a dot of light that had captured the dragon's attention.
The girls stayed like that for a while, all conversation forgotten. They handed each other the hammer once in a while, laughing at Toothless' antics, until the dragon figured out where the dot was coming from. Hiccup froze, as the hammer was back in her hands and Toothless slowly approached her. The Night Fury narrowed his eyes and hit the back of her head softly as she laughed.
Things winded down after that. The setting sun making it known that the girls would need to go back to the village soon. Normally, Hiccup would have no problem disappearing for the night, but with her new-found fame it was not an option.
Ruffnut couldn't stop laughing as she entered the cove, Hiccup was still hanging attached to Toothless without a chance of getting out on her own. Hiccup rolled her eyes as Ruffnut fell to the ground, clutching her stomach.
"Can you stop?" Hiccup asked and Ruffnut did her best to stop laughing, only stopping completely when an annoyed Toothless shot a small plasma blast next to her.
"What happened to you?" Ruffnut questioned as she stood up and picked out a twig from Hiccup's hair.
"A malfunction," Hiccup sighed, "The safety hook bent and now I'm stuck."
"I could run back to the village and get something from the forge," Ruffnut offered after a moment.
"That would be too suspicious," Hiccup sighed, "I saw Arne when I was coming to the cove and he tried to follow me, the fact that he didn't follow you is fortunate."
"Oh he would have liked to," Ruffnut laughed, "I told Tuffnut to go bother him before he could."
"Smart," Hiccup chuckled as Toothless laid down, letting Hiccup sit on the ground next to him, "I'll wait for night and figure something out then."
Ruffnut shrugged and sat down next to Hiccup. They had a lot more free time as the training was spaced out to happen every three days instead of every day as it had been. Gobber wanted the Chief to be there during the final fight before the final test could happen, and with the ships not getting back for at least two weeks, training had to happen less frequently.
"So what else did I miss?" Ruffnut asked as she leaned back to look at the clouds.
Hiccup told her about the progress she had made with the tail and showed Ruffnut her cheat-sheet. Even when Ruffnut didn't care about these types of things she did her best to listen, because she knew that Hiccup rarely had the chance to talk to anyone else about these types of things. Gobber was the one who listened to her ramblings in the forge, but she couldn't talk to him about Toothless, so Ruffnut filled that spot.
Hiccup had tried out every position of the tail and knew what it did, the only thing she needed to do is fix the safety hook and she would be good to fly the next day. She was anxious about that, falling was a real possibility, but getting to see the sky up close won over any fear she had.
After telling Ruffnut everything, Hiccup asked about her day, to which Ruffnut happily told her what she did with her brother. Tuffnut had started to sulk because his sister had been hanging out with Hiccup more and Ruffnut dedicated that day to hand out with him so he would stop complaining and trying to follow Ruffnut when she went to hang out with Hiccup.
They talked about everyday things, Hiccup did her best not to think about the fact that she had, once again, failed to, well, fail. She had managed to get the Terrible Terror inside the cage in minutes and brought even more attention to herself by doing that.
"Tuff's been asking to hang out with us," Ruffnut quietly said.
Hiccup let her gaze fall to her friend from the orange sky. She stared at Ruffnut for a moment, confusion evident on her face.
"Tuff doesn't like me," Hiccup stated after a moment.
"Yeah," Ruffnut shrugged, "But you're cool now, and he wants to get to know you."
"No," Hiccup shook her head with a frown, "He didn't like me before and I don't want him to like me now. He had the chance to be my friend before and he didn't take it."
"Why don't you want him to be your friend?" Ruffnut asked sadly, she wanted her brother and her best friend to get along.
"Because I'm still the person he made fun of, I just have a few tricks up my sleeve," Hiccup shrugged, "If he comes to me himself and genuinely tells me he wants to be my friend, I'm not going to stop him. I just don't want him to be my friend because I'm suddenly not a failure anymore."
"Okay," Ruffnut nodded a sad smile on her face, "I'll let him know."
"It's nothing against your brother, Ruffnut," Hiccup assured, "Fishlegs and Snotlout tried to act like they were my friends too and I didn't let them."
"Not Arne?" Ruffnut asked with a tilt of her head.
"He hadn't tried to, no. He's been acting weird and… jealous, actually."
"I never thought I would see a day when Berk's 'golden boy' was jealous of you," Ruffnut laughed.
Hiccup joined in the laughter. Toothless had fallen asleep and the girls watched the sun set in comfortable silence. As night covered the island, Hiccup gently woke Toothless. The girl had told Ruffnut to go ahead a few minutes ago and Ruffnut had promised to occupy the other teens while Hiccup snuck into the forge.
They got to the village fast, Toothless maneuvered through the forest with no difficulty. Hiccup got off of the dragon when they needed to sneak into the village itself. Getting to the forge was easy, disregarding the moment when Hiccup thought her heart would leap out of her chest when they ran in to a night guard.
She was trying to pry open the safety hook when Toothless threw a bucket through the back door of the forge. Hiccup's eyes widened as she listened for anyone who could have heard what happened and unfortunately, someone had.
"Hiccup? Are you in there?" came Arne's voice from the outside.
Hiccup frantically looked around the forge, throwing on her leather apron before she jumped outside through the hatch, closing it behind her. She was greeted with Arne's suspicious face, she gave him an awkward smile.
"Hi, Arne. Hi," she quickly greeted him as she stood as close to the forge as possible, the safety cord straining behind her.
"What are you doing?" Arne questioned as he tried to get a glimpse into the forge through the barely opened forge.
"Some late-night projects," Hiccup chuckled as Toothless yanked onto the cord hard enough to jostle her.
"You haven't done that before," Arne said in an accusing tone.
"I didn't know you're an expert on my habits," Hiccup rolled her eyes as she felt her feet leave the ground, thankfully Arne was looking at her face.
"I'm not an expert, but you've been acting weird," he told her, "And Tuff tells me you have been going to the forest to train?"
"I don't see how's that any of your business," Hiccup said, "What I do doesn't concern you. So, please, leave me alo– "
She didn't get to finish her sentence as Toothless finally managed to pull her back into the forge. She managed to push the hatch closed somehow and in seconds she was on Toothless' back, the wrench she had been using to pry open the hook clutched in her hand.
Hiccup's heart was beating frantically as Toothless fled back into the cove. Prying the hook open was easy when she calmed down even to do so. She finally got down from the saddle, her legs shacking from the panic that had raced through her body.
"That was fun," she joked to herself.
[To the guest who said 'You know, something I really don't get is why EVERY fic that swaps Hiccup's gender ALWAYS does the same with Astrid. Like, why is everyone so opposed to the idea of them both being girls in the same story, or both being guys in the same story?' I have an answer.
I'm not opposed to it. I actually thought about leaving Astrid as she was, but then I started thinking and actually writing the story. The fact that Hiccup believed that Stoick always wanted a son, along with not really supporting Hiccup as he should have, became a part of the story. Snotlout was never going to be that character that Stoick favored, because Hiccup wouldn't have cared, because Snotlout was a bully. That was why I decided to go with male Astrid, because I wanted to keep Hiccup's and Astrid's relationship, and making Astrid male added a person who Hiccup would notice and care about being in Stoick's favor. I could've left Astrid as she was, but then I would be losing that part I wanted to add and Hiccup wouldn't have anyone to look at and think 'This is what my father really wants.' And thinking like that what was helped Hiccup make choices that will come later.]