The forge was farther from the arena then he remembered it being, but then again they were walking, well he was hopping beside Toothless, so really everything seemed farther. Toothless kept trying to push Hiccup's leg up over his back, telling him to just get on so that he could ride him to the forge. Night kept pushing his head away telling him that he would rather walk. They were slightly trailing behind the old smith. Toothless was keeping a close eye on the man. Hiccup seemed at ease around this man, but he couldn't take any chances in this village.
Everyone they passed shot them looks of disgust and Toothless could pick up some of the things they were saying. Many of them were just curious questions, such as 'who is this person?'. Where others had judgment in them calling him names like 'demon lover' or 'traitor to Vikings'. Toothless brushed them aside and focused on helping Hiccup make it to the forge without falling.
Gobber couldn't help but feel pride at the man the Hiccup had become. He glanced back at the pair walking just behind him. He could help, but question just how they had met, had he really shot down that dragon? Well, that answer was clear he had taken down that dragon but clearly didn't kill it. He decided that he was going to question him as soon as they go to the forge.
Nothing really seemed real he knew that his person was Hiccup after all said person confirmed it himself. In the beginning, Gobber had faith that his apprentice would come to his senses and return to the village, he refused to give up hope that Hiccup was out there somewhere. As months passed and slowly turned to years he found himself giving up hope. No matter how much he didn't want to believe it the thoughts would creep up, 'something had to have happened or they would have found him when they searched the whole island.' he never wanted to accept that he was gone. Gobber would go to the forge in the mornings hoping that he would see the face of his apprentice. Yet now it was clear that his hopes were real, that boy survived and clearly was doing great on his own.
Hiccup wasn't sure how to feel about all this at first he was curious as to how the village was doing, but as the day moved on he was just getting angry. First, they threw him in the arena to 'fight' a dragon. Then, his leg broke because of that and now he could feel all the eyes watching him as he walked behind Gobber. All the stares reminded him of when he lived here and how he was treated, all those emotions had slowly been replaced with anger. All he wanted to do right now was get to the forge and hide, from the feeling invading his system preferably. He sped up, only to trip and nearly fall. Toothless had caught him, but he had picked up on chuckles from the crowd. Before Hiccup could even react Toothless pushed him up onto his back. He decided that really he wouldn't fight him and just enjoy the ride.
When they reached the forge Hiccup slide off of Toothless and leaned on what used to be his work counter. He just stood there for a minute trying to calm down the anger and anxiety that was trying to boil to the surface. Lately, he had been struggling with anxiety more often than not he would end up having an attack, mostly when he was around people. It seemed to be even worse now that he was in the one place that brought back so many negative memories. All the times that Snotlout and the twins would corner him and beat the living hell out of him were coming back and flashing in his mind, they had knocked the wind out of him. This made him even angrier why was he letting these get to him now he was better than that, hell he could probably beat the living hell out of them now if he really wanted to.
Eventually, he managed to contain everything. He turned towards Gobber, he could see that Gobber had questions but clearly didn't know where to start.
"Um, could I use one of you wood pegs while I um, fix mine?" this was so weird he never really wanted to be back, but it was also nice to see Gobber again.
"Yeah we have some longer ones, so you can be somewhat even while you work. Do you need any help?" it was clear that Gobber was just as awkward as he was, it had been five years and Hiccup knew that he was a very different person from when he was in the village.
"Could you…" he really just wanted to have the forge closed, his helmet was just going to make it hard to see what he was doing and that meant more risk of injury. Gobber seemed to understand what he wanted because he moved towards the windows and the certain the slide in front of the open door.
Gobber knew that he wouldn't take that mask off if anyone could just see him, clearly, he didn't want that why else would he cover his face. Gobber wanted to see what he looks like, he had grown up in the last five years, now taller than all of his former classmates and though he was skinny he looked tone and stronger.
Once the forge was closed it was darker but with the light of a few well-placed torches and the huge lit forge they could see fine. Gobber wasn't really sure how he felt about have the most dangerous dragon in his forge, but you really couldn't tell he was the most fearsome dragon in the archipelago. After what looked like hand signals the dragon jumped into the rafters and watched both men from the ceiling. Gobber turned to the box that they kept the spare pegs and dug through it until he found one that looked about the length that would best fit Hiccup.
No one talked while Hiccup put on the new leg and tested the length. It was a little short, but really he couldn't be mad it was just going to be for a few hours while he fixed his other one. Now all he had to do was take off his mask, but he was having a hard time getting himself to do it. Gobber knew who he was so why was this so hard, he should trust him. Gobber was really the only person that he went to. Slowly he took his helmet off his shaggy hair falling over his eyes. He set down his helmet and looked up at Gobber.
Gobber didn't know what to think he looked older but that was to be expected. Other than that he looked like the same kid that Gobber knew. He had so many questions, suddenly a wave of anger or really more like frustration washed over him. Was it something that he had done that lead to Hiccup leaving. He was torn between hugging or punching him, how could he just leave with no more than that pathetic note he left his father.
Gobber started walking towards him, he looked relieved and not to mad. That was a relief to Hiccup, but he still found himself stepping backward as the Smith moved his way. He wasn't scared of Gobber he knew that he would never really hurt him, but his mind was racing and his body was panicking he didn't like being trapped in here was the man really it made him uncomfortable. Eventually, he backed into the table knocking himself off balance and landing with a thud on the floor. His hands went to protect his head and stop any possible attacks. A soft grip on his wrist pulled him out of his slight panic. Gobber had a hold of his hand as he slowly made his way closer to him. Soon Hiccup was in Gobber embrace, he was giving him a gentle hug as if he was afraid to really touch him.
"You have questions to answer mister." he let him go and gave his shoulder a lite punch. A smile crossed both of their faces.
They spend the rest of the day in the forge, it almost seemed to go back to the way that it was when Hiccup lived there. Gobber asked his questions, "Where have you been?".
Hiccup answered, "I have mainly been living on Dragon Island with Toothless, but we have been all around the world." then they would both just work enjoying the sounds of the forge and each others company.
Gobber asked almost all of his questions as they worked and Hiccup would answer them, he only had one more to ask, he wanted to ask but he wasn't sure if he would like the answer. In the late evening, Hiccup had finished fixing the leg and Gobber knew that he was out of time to stall that he needed to ask it now or he never would, so he cleared his throat. Hiccup looked up at him with curiosity.
"Why did you leave it wasn't something I did was it, lad?"
Hiccup looked shocked, "No no, Gobber it wasn't you, it wasn't even the village. Really it was something that I couldn't do." he shot Toothless a guilty glance. "I had to leave, you have to understand Gobber there was no way that I could have stayed." He sucked in a breath to calm himself as he continued. He was going to tell Gobber. "I couldn't kill that dragon, I had to leave, Toothless was the only thing that I really had. When I shot him down no one listened, then I worked with him in secret and I got better in class because of him then you said that I won 'the honor' of killing the monstrous nightmare and I panicked. We packed up what we needed and left."
Gobber was surprised by the story it was clear that Hiccup had been telling the truth about that dragon he had shot down because it was right above their heads. Now that he had heard some of Hiccups story he couldn't be mad at him he was just protecting his friend. He decided that he wasn't going to push the lad anymore, it always seemed to push him to shut down instead of telling more.
"So how about something to eat?" Gobber was hungry and tried.
Hiccup grabbed his helmet and put it back on his head once again covering his face and he nodded whistling towards toothless as they made their way out of the forge.
Everyone was still in the Great Hall when they got there. All eyes turned to them when they entered the hall. Stoick was sitting alone at a table and Gobber grabbed Hiccup by the arm and draged him over to where his father sat pushing him into a chair and then taking one himself.
This had been the first time that he had really taken a look at Stoick, everything about him seemed so much older than he was the last time that he had seen him. The slight glow in his eyes was no longer there. He looked angry and mean. This was not the same man that he had known. Food was brought to them and Gobber started to eat while Hiccup just picked at what they had brought him.
Once Gobber and Stoick had their meal they started talking. They were talking about what they needed to do with this new situation. Neither of them noticed that Hiccup had slowly been feeding his meal to Toothless who was sitting at his feet. Once his plate was empty he decided to join the conversation.
"May I suggest that we call a meeting in the morning and I would love to speak at it. But right now I ask that we rest, wait until morning to do anything more."
To his surprise Stoick was first to answer, "Yes, I think that that would be the best course of action. I would like to open my home to you and your dragon, I have an open room, it used to belong to my son but he is no longer with us. So I have plenty of room."
"Of course it is greatly appreciated." the three men left the hall and headed towards the house. Gobber turned off and headed to his house.
Stoick and Night entered the house and Stoick pointed up the stairs as he headed towards his own room. Slowly he headed up the stairs when they got to the top of the stairs, he saw his old room everything looked the same. Nothing had been moved but Stoick had kept the room clean. Hiccup was so tried but he couldn't bring himselves to sleep in his old bed, so he curled up on the floor with Toothless nd they drifed off to sleep.
Once Stoick heard snoring coming for the top floor he snuck up the stairs. The first place that Stoick looked was the bed, but he saw that the bed was empty. He scaned the room only to find Night and his dragon curled up together on the floor. They were an odd pair but clearly they trusted each other and maybe he is right, maybe they could become peaceful with the dragons.