44. Silent apologies
When Gobber left his house in the very early hours of the morning, he didn't expect to see the sky full of dragons. Seeing Hiccup walking towards the academy explained some things, but not everything.
"Hi-Hey!" Gobber shouted to get Hiccup's attention, stopping himself from shouting his name just in time.
Hiccup stopped and turned to look at the approaching man. Gobber's shout alerted some of the already awake vikings and they emerged from their homes to see what that was about. A lot of glares were directed at Hiccup, but he paid them no mind giving Gobber his full attention.
"Hello Gobber," he cheerfully greeted as the various dragons landed on the island. "What are you doing outside this early?"
"Going to the forge. What are you doing this early?" the smith questioned him with an amused shake of his head.
"What we promised to do," Hiccup explained as the gang landed behind him in the plaza, he noticed his father emerging from his house and sighed. Hiccup made his way to where the gang had landed, Storm came to stand next to him as he reached them.
Stoick was marching towards them with and angry from on his face, a lot more vikings exiting their homes. Storm took on a defensive stance, her arms crossed, body tense, she was ready to jump into action if needed. Hiccup fought himself to keep his semi-relaxed disposition, but he knew Stoick was not going to go down without a fight.
"You have some nerve-" the chief started before he completely reached them, his voice ringing out clear across the whole plaza.
"What's wrong?" Hiccup interrupted him, faking confusion. "Why are you angry? We're just doing what we promised to do."
"What's wrong?!" Stoick shouted. "You attack Berk and then come back like nothing happened and you're asking me what's wrong?"
"Excuse you?" Storm asked, she used the sickly sweet tone that annoyed the shit out of people. "We didn't attack anyone."
"Stop lying," Stoick growled.
"Oh, stop lying?" Storm stopped using that annoying tone, turning completely serious. "You accuse us of an attack we have nothing to do with and we are supposed to stop lying?"
"You disappeared right before the attack with some stupid excuse! You threatened one of my people just before doing that!" Stoick continued to try to prove his point.
"Stupid excuse!? Our allies were attacked! You know, the people we actually have reason to care for?" Storm yelled, her frustration taking over. "You have nothing but some bullshit reasoning that doesn't even make sense!"
"You think I don't see right through your plan to destroy Berk?" Stoick growled once again, threateningly leaning towards the pair.
"Stop!" Hiccup shouted in anger, he was done just standing there while Storm argued with his father. "Destroy Berk? Are you hearing yourself? If we wanted to destroy Berk, we would have done it by now. This-" He frantically gestured to the 'wild' dragons that had landed and were milling around. " – is what we can do. If we wanted to destroy Berk, you all would be dead by now."
"Your threats are meant to assure us of your innocence?" Stoick questioned with an angry frown.
"We have nothing to prove to you," Storm answered with a calm voice. "We're just saying that if we were your enemy, you would not stand a chance. And as much as you don't deserve it-"
"- we will continue working with the team. We are innocent and we have a mutual enemy, and –" Hiccup gestured to the gang, " – there are people who deserve our help. I'd advise you to stop making connections were there are none, and get your head back on your shoulders. We have some news to share, but we'll do it only with a clear-headed chief."
The pair left all of the people standing in the plaza, heading straight for the academy. Storm sent Shadow to Toothless without looking back, Stoick's protests falling on deaf ears. They have said their piece, albeit more harshly than intended, but the gang hadn't needed to become involved. All of it now rested on Stoick. With or without his permission, the pair would continue working with the gang, they were personally involved after all.
Stoick was still fuming. He was angry at the fact that the pair were right. His reasoning was nonsensical at best, he knew that, but admitting that meant that his distrust of the pair was completely unearned. The way Gobber was looking at him, he knew he was about to get a lecture he didn't want.
Stoick turned to go to the Meade hall, knowing full well that Gobber was following him. The multiple footfalls behind him alerted him that Gobber wasn't the only one. He didn't look back, he knew that if he did, Gobber would start the lecture without any privacy.
When he sat down and looked at Gobber, he didn't expect Astrid and the others to be behind him, he thought that Astrid would come, with her ever-growing trust for the demons, but the others were not expected.
"Got everything out of your system out there?" Gobber asked with a slight frown.
"Yes," Stoick answered and didn't say anything else. If the smith wanted an apology he would have to pry it out of his mouth.
"Why haven't you dropped this idea?" the smith questioned.
"Because I thought I was right," Stoick answered shortly.
"Chief, with all due respect," Astrid started, "We have been trying to get you to see reason. If they wanted to destroy us, they wouldn't have wanted us to patrol at times we could catch them."
"Or give us dragons at all." Eret added, he crossed his arms and leaned back on a table. "I've been trying to tell you: on dragons? They're ruthless and they don't play games. That's not their style."
"Then why did they threaten Snotlout?" Stoick asked in a last ditch effort to give them a reason to doubt the pair.
"Because I was being stupid," Snotlout pipped up, "Because I questioned their stance in Berk. Storm only threatened me after I said that they were trying to get power on Berk, I know my father told you that," he crossed his arms and leaned on the table next to Eret, "But did he tell you that she didn't threaten me because of that?"
"What?" Stoick questioned, Spitelout had made it seem like the girl threatened Snotlout because the boy made allusions to knowing their 'plan'.
"I insulted the others," Snotlout answered immediately with a small shrug. "She told me to treat the others with respect, because my titles didn't matter. She was right. You have no purpose not to trust them."
"I still don't," Stoick answered stubbornly. "Fine, I'll go and make nice."
Stoick stood up and left immediately, leaving the others inside. Vikings were milling around, observing the 'wild' dragons with looks of fear and distrust. Stoick didn't know how many dragons were around, but he knew that he would not have the capability to deal both with the vikings and with the dragons without one side suffering.
Stoick reached the academy after ignoring the questioning looks from his people. A lot of vikings didn't know how to behave, and truth be told, neither did he. He found the pair inside, standing in the middle of the arena looking straight at him. They looked like they were expecting him, they probably did, taking into consideration everything they could do knowing that he was coming was easy for them.
He came to a stop before them. All of them stood in silence, clearly they weren't going to ask him what he wanted, the pair were waiting for him to talk, he knew that, but he couldn't find the right words. Stoick needed to find something to say that wasn't an apology, because he wasn't sorry for being cautious.
"The dragons…" he started, gesturing to a couple of Nadders outside the academy. He trailed off, but the pair made no move to help him with the conversation, if they weren't standing upright he would have thought they were asleep.
"The dragons will need to be looked after so they don't get into trouble," He finally said.
"Vikings are the ones who need to be controlled," Storm mercifully started talking, putting a stop to Stoick's nervousness. "Dragons are animals, they don't know right from wrong, some are more intelligent than others, but they're still, in their core, just animals."
"The dragons will need help getting acclimated then," Stoick corrected himself. "I would appreciate it if you stayed on my island." He finally said in lieu of an apology.
"Fine, but you'll need to tell your people to listen to us, no matter what we say," Hiccup told him and crossed his arms.
"If I give you that power then-" he cut himself off, he didn't want to launch into another tirade that would go nowhere. His distrust needed to be put to the back of his mind, their demand only extended to the situation with the dragons, nothing more. "Them, my people can ask you to teach them to ride dragons whenever."
"That's acceptable, but we won't train the dragons for them, they'll have to do it themselves," Hiccup told him.
"I'm guessing you'll have a meeting to discuss this?" Storm asked, Stoick nodded. "When?"
"Tonight," Stoick said after thinking for a moment. "The sooner the better."
"We'll be there," Hiccup promised and finally moved. He turned towards the cages in clear dismissal, Storm following him.
Stoick didn't try to argue with them, he knew he would just make things worse. As he was leaving Storm's voice stopped him in his tracks.
"Stoick," she called, he turned around to see both of hem looking at him. the chief tilted his head in question.
"Apology accepted," Hiccup continued for her.
Stoick turned around and left with a small huff. They were really irritating, but as much as Stoick didn't want to admit it, they were valuable. Valuable enough to keep them around, and valuable enough for Gobber and the other to trust them.
"We didn't lose out cool right now," Hiccup commented. "That's better than before."
"Before wasn't that bad either," Storm answered with a shrug. Hiccup looked at her, the disbelief at her words was easy for her to recognize.
"We both shouted at him in front of the entire tribe," Hiccup exclaimed with wide eyes.
"It worked, didn't it?" She asked with a smile, Hiccup chuckled.
