14. Bets and realizations
A week had passed form the start of training. The pair's days were mostly spent in the village and their nights spent flying in the cover of darkness. Hiccup didn't want any of the Hooligans to see Toothless and connect the dots, they hadn't recognized his voice, but that didn't mean they wouldn't recognize Toothless.
Storm thought Hiccup's anxiety was a bit ridiculous, after all he didn't owe then anything. Hiccup left because they wanted everything to stay the same, they hadn't wanted to try, and the same was not something he could go back to, because he tried and succeeded with Toothless, not with them.
Hiccup didn't owe them anything, Storm had been telling him that every time that topic rose, but she knew the human mind was a fickle thing and no matter how much she persisted Hiccup had a sliver of doubt. So the night after the first day of training she made him a proposition.
"Why don't we make a bet?" She asked, Hiccup was intrigued as they didn't make bets without a reason. He raised an eyebrow motioning for her to continue. "A bet about who will be the first to figure that you're, well, you."
"Why?" he asked with clear doubt. When they made bets, they made sure that they won those bets, doing everything in their power to make the other lose. Really all Storm had to do to win would be going straight to the person she bet on and tell them he was Hiccup, and he wasn't ready to be found out.
"So you stop worrying chief. It as simple as that." Seeing the doubt still in his eyes she crouched next to where he was sitting and put a hand on his shoulder. "Look, we alter our rules a bit, no interference, what happens, happens. Plus," she continued, playfully nudging his shoulder, "you already have a lead. They think I'm your sister, and Berk's Hiccup never had a sister."
He thought about it for a moment, then nodded. He still wasn't ready for them to know, he may never be ready, and Storm knew that. But making a bet out of it? Making it a game? He could do that, it would certainly make him less nervous and less prone to making mistakes. Storm hugged him and that made him relax.
"Remember, if they find out, no matter how they react, I will always be with you." She whispered and the last bit of tension left him as he hugged her back. What he wouldn't have done to have had her beside him all those years ago when he had been shunned for simply existing. He considered himself so extremely lucky to have them now. Toothless, Storm and Shadow were his family, not because they were born into it, but because they chose to be. To Hiccup that was better than the biggest gold pile in the world.
After that night he felt better. He wasn't so tense and he started enjoying the training sessions at the academy. After the first day the pair started to judge their students characters, Hiccup mostly wanted to figure out if the gang changed too much that they wouldn't be compatible with their original dragons and Storm had the task of figuring out which kind of dragon would suit Eret best.
It was true that the dragon chose you as much as you chose them and Hiccup had been lucky, that the dragons that were in the arena before the Red Death battle, chose the gang. Right now Hiccup was trying to get more information from the trainees, he already knew that the dragons they had once bonded with would still accept the people before him, but he wanted to know if the people would be against it.
"I remember your chief said that you had experience with dragons before." He started, "I want to know what kind of experience that was, because the answers you gave to the test at the start of training were… minimal and very surface level."
"We rode dragons for a while," answered Astrid, who was a lot more comfortable addressing the two 'demons'. "We fought with them too, twice, then they… left us."
"Why?" He saw Storm lift her head, she was sitting in the corner going over their maps again, and give her full attention to Astrid's words.
"Wha-what do you mean 'why?'. They left because they wanted too, we had nothing to do with them leaving." Astrid forced out and the others gave agreeing mumbles. Hiccup sighed, clearly, they were in denial, he was about to tell them that when Storm spoke up.
"You had everything to do with it. Dragons don't just leave their riders if they are happy and appreciated. You did do something. The question is: what did you do?" Storm had her head bowed once again and she hadn't seen Astrid tense up and Snotlout glare at her. Hiccup knew that even if she had seen it she wouldn't had cared.
"They left after a battle with the Outcasts. We were victorious, but not even two hours later the dragons left. We didn't even have time to treat their wounds, we were okay but the dragons weren't and they left." Astrid barked, she was tense and her hands were clenched into tight fists as if ready for a fight. Storm snorted not lifting her head from her notebook. Hiccup hummed, raising his hand to get the attention back to him.
"Well, that's what you did. If what you told us now true, you didn't value them. They were injured, yet you didn't treat them immediately. But that alone wouldn't have drove them away. They weren't happy here before that, were they?" Silence followed, the gang didn't know what to say, they didn't know of the dragons were happy before leaving. Yet, the village was still hostile to their dragons even after the Red Death battle, even after… their Hiccup left.
The realization hit the gang at full force. They were the ones to blame for their dragons leaving. No one put their dragons first, they hadn't wanted to get the disdain of the village by putting their dragons first. At the time, the dragons hadn't proved their worth to the village and most of the people in the village had grown up killing dragons, so most people were happily ignoring the act that their Hiccup and his dragon saved them.
At the time the village was still full of hate for dragons and that rubbed off on the teens, the indifference they showed their dragons drove them away. And they couldn't blame anyone but themselves, because even when they had the path to greatness laid before them by their savior, they refused to see it in favor of fitting in.
The atmosphere was heavy. Eret was confused, not fully understanding what the others were talking about. Hiccup and Storm knew that the people in front of them were finally ready to see their dragons.
"You're right," whispered Fishlegs, his friends nodding along in agreement. The pair smiled, they were ready alright. The week after the first day was spent running circles around this realization and finally the time for their trainees to meet their dragons had come.
With the threat of Drago the week had dragged out. Both Hiccup and Storm knew that if the gang were reintroduced with their dragons without realizing why the dragons left, they would have made the same mistakes. Now they were ready, now they could reconnect with their dragons, which would take a long time. At least the realization came only after a week, now they had time to earn the dragons trust back.
Storm stood up, closed her notebook and headed for the exit, bumping into Hiccup as goodbye. Their trainees followed her with their eyes, confused as to where she was going as it was still early and their training wasn't done yet. Hiccup clapped gaining their attention, he knew where Storm was headed and that was enough.
"Okay! No more small talk," he stood tall, hands clasped behind his back. "Three laps around the academy without slowing down. You want to ride dragons? You have to have the stamina. Go!"
His order was met with confusion. The last week had been spent mostly answering questions and talking, and from the gangs perspective, trying to come up with names to call both of the 'demons' that wouldn't offend them. Hiccup ignored Eret's quiet question of 'What is happening?' and encouraged his students to do his given task.
"Go! Relaxation time is over!" He cheered with a smile on his face. Was he having fun ordering them around? Yes. Was that bad? Not really. He was once again happy while standing on the soil of Berk and that was quite the accomplishment.
