50. Slip-ups

Hiccup sighed for what he left was the hundredth time in the last few hours. He was in a bad mood. The conversation he had with Storm put him in a bad mood. Even while he was with the gang showing them simple tricks and how to do them, his mind stayed on the conversation. He would need to get back to the island soon, it was near evening, and he knew that Storm hadn't lied, she wasn't going to be at that meeting.

He still didn't understand why! She was just making saddles! He knew that the villagers didn't know how long it took to make the saddles so she could spare some time. Hiccup wanted to spend as much time as he could with his friends, and the full day training gave him that chance, his evenings before patrol were mostly spent with Astrid, he was getting to know her again.

But he wasn't just frolicking with his 'dear old friends' like Storm claimed. He was training! And he didn't like that Storm didn't see that. When she said those words her voice had a strange edge to it, like she was jealous. But she had no reason to be jealous, the gang liked her and had asked about her, considering they haven't seen her for a few days.

They… haven't seen her in a few days. It dawned on Hiccup. They haven't seen her in the last few days and Hiccup barely saw her. She was occupied by a project, the project she volunteered to do… the project that should have not taken more than two days.

She volunteered to work on the saddles for two days, not four. Hiccup didn't even ask if she wanted to work on them on the third day, he assumed she wanted to. And then, just this morning, when she showed she wanted to get back to training he suggested that she doesn't.

He suggested she doesn't… What were his exact words again?

"I think you should go to the forge."

The words weren't the problem, were they? The problem was that before he said that, he spent some time telling her how much fun he was having during training and then suggested she goes to the forge. He practically told her how much fun he was having without her. And then he got mad at her when she wanted him to take responsibility for his words and accused her of being jealous. She wasn't jealous, she was probably hurt that he has been pushing her away.

Oh Thor… he was such an asshole. He hadn't meant to push her away! But it doesn't change the fact that he had. And Storm wasn't thinking he was an asshole, oh no, he knew that she would never think that. She had a bad habit of blaming herself for anything bad that happened to her. He needed to find her and talk to her right now. He needed to apologize.

"Hey Hiccup! We need to head back so you can make it to the meeting!" He jolted out of his thought as he heard Astrid shout out.

"Shit," he cursed under his breath. He needed to find Storm right after the meeting.

They all headed back to the island. It didn't take long as they started racing each other, reaching the clearing where they had taken off. Hiccup dismounted Toothless and told him to stay with the other dragons, he was Shadow napping in the shade, which meant Storm hadn't taken off as he had feared.

He threw a goodbye to the gang over his shoulder and made his way back to the village and up to the Meade hall. He saw the forge was occupied and managed to glimpse Storm from the open hatch. He hoped the meeting wouldn't drag, because if it did, Storm had a high chance of disappearing until she decided to reappear and with how much he had fucked up, it could be a long time before she did.

He entered the hall and saw Stoick and his council already there. Gobber was also there and the smith looked at him with some strange look of disapprovement and pity, that probably meant that Storm had talked to him. It was good that she had, Hiccup didn't care if she had spoken ill about him as long as she didn't hold her feelings in.

"Ah, you're here! Where's your sister? We want to start the meeting," his father asked him.

"She won't be joining us today, we can get started," Hiccup answered before standing next to the table where everyone, except Stoick, were sitting. Stoick nodded at him, showing that he understood.

"First, we would like to know if you have any idea how long Drago will take before coming here," the Chief got right to business, giving Hiccup hope that the meeting wouldn't last.

"It's hard to say. Drago's whereabouts are always changing, but I think he was expecting Arrald back in a few weeks with news about Berk. When Arrald doesn't arrive, he will probably start moving towards Berk. So he should be here at about the two month mark Eret had given us." Hiccup confidently concluded. He had given this a lot of thought, his worries clouded his mind more often than not, so he had no choice but to think about these things.

"We'll take your word for it," Stoick settled after sharing a few whispers with his council. "We will begin preparations right away, in case he reaches Berk sooner."

"Yes, speaking of that," Hiccup spoke up, "When there's enough people interested in dragon riding we'll be able to give them simple lesson to get them by and even, if they feel like they're ready, they'll be able to fight on their dragons."

Hiccup saw a few faces twist at the mention of dragons, but he didn't care. The dragons around the village had been behaving better than he had expected, but the vikings hadn't been antagonizing them, so that was good.

"There was another thing we wanted to discuss," Stoick told him after a few minutes of silence.

"Yes?" he prompted with little interest, he had hoped to keep things very short.

"Arrald," his father simply stated, "Who was that man and why did your sister decide to kill him before we got any information from him?" he asked in an accusatory tone.

"Oh, you mean Arrald the Bloody?" Hiccup asked, irritated at the accusatory tone, "He was a stain on the world. He killed for no reason and took no hostages, destroyed entire islands for the sake of it. He thought he was an untouchable God, and I am glad he no longer breathes the same air as I do." He stated with anger.

The vikings looked at him with shock. His strong statement caught them of guard, but they didn't know what kind of person Arrald was, they didn't know what he had done. Hiccup knew and Hiccup hated the man.

"Well we wanted to try to get information out of him, but because of your sister we can't," Stoick rebutted with an angry frown.

"To me it seems like, your sister – " Spitelout interjected with a smirk, " – was covering your tracks."

"You're back on that bullshit!?" Hiccup yelled, his hatred of Arrald and irritation getting the better of him, the fact that they were, once again, insinuating that they – that Storm – was working with Drago, did nothing but make his anger grow. "Do you want to know why she killed Arrald?" He finally forced himself to ask.

"We would love to," Spitelout answered for all of them with a satisfied smirk.

"Storm killed Arrald because he deserved it," Hiccup growled as he leaned on the table, gripping the edge of it to hold himself back, "Because he destroyed the only island she called home, because he killed every last person from her tribe," He leaned over the table, getting Spitelout to lean back in fear, he growled the last words with all of the hatred he possessed, "Because he looked her in the eyes as he slit her mother's throat and told her she was next."

Once again, the vikings were shocked. Both by the outburst and the information he gave them. But once again, Spitelout was Spitelout and couldn't admit he was wrong.

"A nice story, but it's clearly all a part of your plan to take over Berk," Spitelout confidently stated. Hiccup noticed the others stunned looks directed at Spitelout, they hadn't know he was still thinking this, but it did nothing to clear his mind that was overtaken by anger.

"We do not want Berk!" Hiccup exclaimed throwing his arms up in anger, "Get that through your think, empty skull!"

"Well, you getting cozy with Astrid makes it seem like you're trying to get us to drop our guard and let you in," Spitelout smiled and that grated on Hiccup's nerves like nothing else. He didn't hate easily, Arrald was an exception, but right now, Spitelout was on his way to join that short list. His uncle was taking things way too far by mentioning the two most important women in his life.

"Leave her out of this," Hiccup ordered as he stood up straight.

"What are you talking about?" Stoick asked Spitelout, the man shrugged with a satisfied smirk. "You're making Astrid be with you?" the Chief angrily questioned Hiccup.

"I'm not making anyone do anything!" Hiccup exclaimed in anger, "And I told you to leave her out of this!"

"You try to make my people trust you and drop their guard to infiltrate my tribe," Stoick accused him, "And you're trying to tell us that you do not want power over Berk? I had started to believe you were telling the truth, but this makes me see that I was wrong." He finished with a snarl.

"You know what?" Hiccup yelled, not even thinking about anything, he only felt anger as he ripped off his helmet, "If I wanted to rule over Berk I would take back my God given right, dad!"

Hiccup's anger drained as what he just done hit him. He… he just told his father who he was. He just showed his father who he was. Panic. His anger was gone and it was replaced by panic.

"Hiccup…?" Stoick whispered in a daze.

His father's whisper spurred him into action. He fled. He didn't look back as his feet carried him to the only person he knew could help. Storm. He needed to find Storm. Luckily she was still in the forge as he barreled inside.

"He knows!" Hiccup told her in complete panic, he wasn't ready, he didn't want Stoick to know yet. "He knows who I am!"

"Who?" Storm immediately asked, no anger or disappointment on her face for what he had done to her.

"Stoick," Hiccup told her, his hands were shacking, he didn't know what to do, "I can't just leave without a reason, but I don't want to speak with him right now!"

"Let's go," Storm took his hand and pulled him outside, leaving her helmet on the workbench near the unfinished saddle. Hiccup herd Stoick shout his name from the top of the halls steps, Storm heard it too and started running.

They made it to the clearing where all of the dragons were, the gang was also there, not having left from the end of training. The pair's abrupt appearance startled them and they started throwing out questions, but the questioned went ignored as Storm pushed Hiccup to Toothless.

Hiccup went, he wasn't thinking, but he trusted Storm with his life. As he mounted Toothless his helmet fell out of his hand, he hadn't even realized he was still holding it. Storm picked up the helmet from the ground and gave it back to him. He took it without thinking about it as he watched Storm pull something from her breast pocket.

"I re-drew the map Atali gave me," she pushed the map into his vacant hand, "Take it. This is your reason to leave, take as long as you need. I'll find you if I need to." She promised.

Hiccup nodded and took off. The gang kept asking questions which Storm ignored. Not a moment after Hiccup took off, Stoick and a few other villagers reached the clearing. Stoick was still calling Hiccup and the gang finally understood what happened.

"Hiccup!" Stoick yelled as he watched the Night Fury fly away. Storm turned to him, her face was bare, her resemblance to Hiccup stunning Stoick once again. Her body was tense, ready for a fight, because she knew, physical or not, a fight was coming.