17. The start of the truth
With Storm back at Berk the training schedule was back as before. The pair got to the academy just before sunrise and went about tidying it up, as it was quite a mess after the day before and all the dragons' panic. Today, they decided, would be split in two. The first part of training would be for Storm to see their trainees' progress in action (and to get the muttonheads up to speed), and the later part of the day would be spent with the dragons.
"So, helmets or no helmets?" Storm asked while putting some crates back in their place.
"Yes helmets, why'd you ask?" Hiccup asked back, raising his eyebrow. Ironically they were not wearing their helmets at the moment. Storm stopped, crossed her arms and turned to him.
"Oh, I thought that considering you want them to figure out who you are, we would make it easier by keeping the helmets off."
"Wh-what? I don't want them to figure anything out!" he said startled. Storm rolled her eyes and exhaled, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Chief, are you serious? You think I didn't see the disappointment on your face? Or the fact that you had a lengthy staring contest with Astrid?"
"I was happy they didn't notice! What? Should I have been disappointed that they didn't figure out who I am? I mean how could they do that? It's not like⦠I have the same colour hair, my voice is barely deeper, and it's not like I'm missing a leg!" Hiccup practically shouted in clear frustration. He thought that the leg thing would've tipped them off, surely. Storm let her arms fall down as she approached him and gripped his arm, gaining his attention.
"Hiccup, you're being stupid." She stated. "There are a lot of clues for you being their Hiccup, but we gave them information that doesn't add up. I mean come on, we told them I'm your sister, their Hiccup didn't have one. Plus, while your hair colour is the same, you've obviously grown up, your face changed and to be honest, if I hadn't grown up with you, I would've had a hard time connecting you now and you five years ago."
"Yeah," he gave a weak smile. "But I thought the leg you've tipped them off, at least a little bit."
"Thor dammit Hiccup!" She exclaimed annoyed at his stupidity. He jumped confused by her sudden outburst. "If you haven't noticed, I'm missing a leg too, the same one as you in fact. Again, the evidence against you being their Hiccup is just as abundant as you being him. Now stop acting like you don't want them to find out."
"I don't!" He cried desperately. She released his arm, anger burning in her eyes.
"No Hiccup. You don't want to be the one who tells them. You want them to come to you after figuring it out, you want them to accept you back, because this is your home. And now that they want dragons to fight beside them, now that we are getting the gang to bond with their dragons, you want your place more than ever, because they changed."
Hiccup let out a defeated sigh and slowly nodded. He picked up another crate, going back to work. They worked in silence for a few minutes when they heard the chatter of their trainees coming to the academy. Storm was about to put on her helmet when Hiccup stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"No helmets," he mumbled, not meeting her eyes. "I do want them to figure it out, you're right."
"Hey, if all of this goes up in flames, just know, we have dragons we can run as far away when we want to."
"No, I'm done running." He said, his eyes full of determination. Storm put her helmet down and quickly hugged him.
"I'm proud of you." She whispered, releasing him just as the gang entered the arena.
The pair turned to their trainees and went about telling them the plan for the day, the fact that they would need to do the exercises again earned some groans of displeasure, but those were ignored. They didn't waste a moment and started them straight away. Surprisingly four of the six students did well enough by the pair's standards. Ruffnut was the one no one expected to do so well, considering she slacked off with her brother while Hiccup was in charge of their training. When she was asked what made her change her mind and start taking the training seriously she looked at Storm and simply answered:
"You look like a person who is not above torturing to get us up to your standard."
Storm laughed, the proceeded to prove her right by making the two remaining slackers run circles until they dropped from exhaustion. After that the first part of the day went quickly, endurance was the most important thing the gang was training for, so the fact that the most they could do was three bullseyes in a row didn't matter as much. With a promise to train on their own time, and to make sure the others were training, they excitedly moved on to the second part of the day.
