Dragon Treasure, a DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic by Raberba girl
Chapter 10 - Family (rough draft)
A/N: THERE ARE 1,400 NEW WORDS IN THIS CHAPTER. Please scroll down a little until you can see the new material.
o.o.o
When the investigation into Hiccup's background had been completed, Stoick came home early and called him into the living room, looking serious. "Sit down, Hiccup."
"What happened? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, Hiccup. Or, at least, nothing that hasn't already been wrong for a long time. We found out all we could about your family," Stoick said quietly. "Hiccup...none of it is good news."
Hiccup waited, absently stroking Toothless.
"One of the things we were able to confirm is that you are indeed twelve years old, born on February 29th. The name on your birth certificate is Hadley Rendoun; the surname is your mother's. She wasn't married when she had you, she was only 15 years old. Your father has been in jail for the past several years on drug charges. He claims to have no recollection of your mother, and it's likely that he never knew you existed."
"As far as I'm concerned, he never existed, either," Hiccup muttered.
Stoick gave him a sympathetic look and continued. "Your mother became addicted to drugs as a teenager. Almost two years after you were born, her parents reported the two of you missing. There are no records of your mother after that time; she was never found."
"I told you, she's dead."
"That does seem very likely... As for the rest of it, your grandfather passed away two years ago. Your grandmother is currently living in a state-funded facility, suffering from late-stage Alzheimer's disease. ...That's all we were able to find." Stoick sighed deeply. "I'm afraid that none of your biological family will be able to take care of you. I'm so sorry, Hiccup."
"...Thank you for telling me," Hiccup said quietly. He nuzzled Toothless, who nuzzled him back and chirred softly.
"Hiccup, now that we know your real name - do you want us to start calling you 'Hadley'? Or do you want to continue using 'Hiccup,' or even choose a different name altogether?"
Hiccup gave him a startled look. "My name?"
"Yes. It's your choice, Hiccup. Some children choose to change their names, to put some distance between themselves and a name they associate with abuse. Is that what you want to do? 'Hiccup' is what they called you at the circus, isn't it?"
"It's my name." Hiccup's breath was starting to come a little short again, and Toothless went into his calming routine. "M-My name, it's Hiccup, my name is-"
"All right, all right, lad! We can keep calling you Hiccup, don't worry. I just wanted to ask, since it's a very important issue to some children."
"My name is Hiccup... Toothless knows people are talking about me when they say my name." Hiccup hugged the dragon tightly, who licked him.
Stoick took a deep breath. "By the way, Hiccup...there's something we've been meaning to speak to you about... How would you feel about the idea of changing your name from Hadley 'Hiccup' Rendoun to Hadley 'Hiccup' Vast?"
Hiccup said nothing, his only response being a small frown of confusion.
"Er...what I mean to say is- Ach, Val should be here for this; VALKA!" Stoick yelled as he got to his feet, nervously unable to meet the boy's eyes.
After a moment, his wife poked her head in from the garage. "What is it?"
"Val, please come here, I...er, we have a certain proposal for Hiccup that, er... I mean, we should ask him together."
Her eyes lit up. "Now, that, I'll gladly be interrupted for!" She tugged the kerchief off her hair, dropping it onto a countertop and her gloves along with it. She came to the boys smiling, kneeling down to caress Toothless with one hand as she grasped Hiccup's hand with the other. Seeing the wary expression on Hiccup's face, she asked, "What's wrong, love?"
"I don't want to change my name."
"You won't have to change your name, dear!" She glanced at Toothless and smiled. "Hiccup, Hiccup, I love you~" she sing-songed, bringing up his hand to give it a little lick as she smiled knowingly at Toothless. "Hiccup is a treasure~"
Hiccup smiled in relief to see that she understood. Toothless indicated his pleasure and approval to Valka, recognizing the human sound-name for his boy and the affection Valka was expressing to him.
"Ahem, anyway," Stoick said. "Hiccup, you, er, know that you're currently in foster care, right?"
Hiccup looked at him with an appropriate expression for one who had just been asked something stunningly obvious.
"What I mean is, you're eligible for adoption now that your birth family- I mean, not officially yet, but that'll get taken care of soon."
"Adoption?!"
Stoick's face softened. "Yes, Hiccup."
Hiccup yanked his hand out of Valka's and shot to his feet, looking panicked; Toothless jerked into a surprised half-crouch, trying to figure out the source of the boy's alarm and dismay.
"Y-You can't get rid of us now, you could BEFORE, you should have done it BEFORE, but now you're, Toothless, he, you two and Marta and a little bit Will and Alen, you're, you belong to us!" His face twisted in sudden anger. "You don't have to belong to me, that's fine, I don't care; but you belong to TOOTHLESS," he was screaming now, ignoring all their attempts to calm him down, and Toothless was whining in wide-eyed distress, "you can't send us away, he thinks you're his, if you send us off he'll try to get back to you and he won't understand why he can't have you anymore and I can't explain it to him and he'll cry and I won't let you do that to him-!"
"You're OURS!" Valka finally managed to make herself heard. Hiccup broke off and stared at her. "You're ours, love. That's what we meant. We want to adopt you, Stoick and I want you to become our son."
Hiccup gave her that wary look again, still backed into a corner with his arms around the dragon. "Toothless stays."
"Yes, love, of course."
"Well," Stoick muttered, "we've managed to hold off those spiteful vultures so far, at least..."
"We're keeping Toothless," Valka said firmly. "No matter what we have to do or where we have to go, the four of us will always be a family. After all, we're flock now," she smiled a little mischievously at her husband, "with our beloved queen who will always take care of us."
Stoick grumbled. He'd been simultaneously touched and worried to learn months before that Toothless apparently now considered him and Valka and Marta to be his and Hiccup's flockmates. However, Stoick had not been thrilled that the specific scent on him marked him as the 'queen,' even when Valka explained that it just meant he was the flock leader.
Hiccup leaned on Toothless, looking unhappy. "You're gonna adopt me?"
"Do you have any objections?" Stoick asked roughly.
Hiccup fidgeted and didn't say anything.
"Hiccup," Valka asked gently, "what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Hiccup mumbled. Then he took a deep breath, came around Toothless, and settled down by the dragon's side, so that he was closer to the Vasts but still had a wing shielding him. "You're gonna make me your son?" he said guardedly. "I'll belong to you forever?"
"Yes, sweetheart. We want you. And Toothless," Valka added before he could say it.
"Do you want us?" Stoick hadn't meant to word it like that, but he couldn't unsay it now.
"Yeah," Hiccup mumbled, stroking the dragon's hide to soothe himself. Toothless nuzzled him, hoping that he felt better now and wouldn't suddenly spring into distress again. "Yeah, I...duh." He glanced up at them. "So we just...keep doing what we've been doing?"
"Well...I suppose so, at least until your part in the trials is over."
"Okay." Hiccup climbed to his feet, said "Come with me" to Toothless in dragon language, and started ambling toward the back door. "We're gonna go play outside."
"Hiccup," Valka prompted, "come give us a hug first. We just told you some news that makes all of us happy, we should celebrate together."
Hiccup cocked his head. "Can we make a cake?"
Valka laughed. "Yes, dear, we can make a cake."
Hiccup obligingly came over to exchange hugs with his parents-to-be, then scampered away to find Marta. "Martaaaa, we're baking a cake! Come help!"
"Very busy," the woman said as she continued to fold clean laundry without pausing. "Hiccup can bake cake, very smart boy, you and dragon bake cake with no me."
"Really?! I can make it all by myself this time?!"
Seeing his glee, Marta paused and wagged her finger in warning. "Careful! No break my good kitchen things, no waste good food, no sugar for dragon!"
Hiccup saluted. "Yes, ma'am." He galloped away, not seeming to notice Stoick and Valka as he passed but then pulling out three aprons when he reached the kitchen. "Wash your hands," he ordered, "no matter what you cook, that always comes first; wash your hands!"
Valka lovingly stroked a hand over his hair as she went over to the sink.
"So," Stoick said, almost anxiously, "we can start the adoption process as soon as possible, right? And you don't mind changing your surname to Vast?"
"I'm still Hiccup."
"Well, yes. Hiccup Vast."
"Yeah." Hiccup was standing on his toes on the stepstool, peering into a cupboard. "Hey, chocolate for sure, but I can't decide if I want cinnamon in it or not. What do you want?"
"Er...it doesn't matter... Do you really-?!" Before Stoick could finish trying to get a more typical response from Hiccup concerning the adoption proposal, Valka laid a hand on his arm and gave him a meaningful look.
"He's happy," she said quietly, "look at him. He just doesn't see it the way an ordinary child would, you know? As far as he's concerned, we've been his flockmates for months; adoption won't change anything except some paperwork."
"Don't worry~" Hiccup was cooing down at Toothless, "I will make a fish treat for you~ so don't get jealous when we hog all the sugar for ourselves, okay?" He absently glanced over at Stoick and Valka, smiling.
Stoick smiled back, then murmured to Valka when Hiccup resumed collecting ingredients and cookware. "Things will change eventually."
"Then we'll just handle it when it does," Valka said soothingly. "We are flock. Er, family."
Hiccup glanced over his shoulder. "Why are you guys just standing around?! Come help! 'No help, no eat!'" he quoted Marta, from some of the early cooking lessons she had given him.
"Yes, sir!" Valka moved over to the boy and Stoick followed, standing on either side of Hiccup as Toothless poked his nose over the counter to sniff at the preparations. "What would you like us to do?"
Hiccup gave instructions, and they spent the rest of the afternoon baking and cleaning up and resting and eating together.
Stoick, watching his wife and their two wards thoughtfully, thought he understood what Valka had meant, that they had already been a family for some time now. Stoick set down his plate and gathered Valka and Hiccup into an embrace, leaving enough room for Toothless to lean into them. "I love you," Stoick said gruffly.
"Uh huh," Hiccup said casually, and Valka kissed her husband's cheek. Hiccup suddenly cocked his head. "Hey, so if you're going to adopt me, do I start...calling you 'Mom' and 'Dad'...?"
"Do you not want to?"
"I'll think about it." Hiccup wriggled free and tugged Stoick's plate closer. "Hey, Dad, Person Named Stoick Who I Might Or Might Not Call Dad, let me draw a fish on the rest of your cake, pleeeeaaase?"
Stoick smiled and handed over a tube of icing.
o.o.o
Author's Notes: I apparently royally screwed up without even realizing that I'd made a mistake (I can't even remember the last time that happened...), so here's the deal:
PLEASE DON'T THINK OF THIS FIC AS A MULTI-CHAPTER. It's an AU series that just happened to be introduced as a multi-chapter, which is now complete. (The previous series that I posted in this way were debuted as one-shots, which might be why readers didn't mind the atypical storytelling style as much.) FROM NOW ON, ANY "DRAGON TREAUSRE" STORIES THAT I WRITE AND POST WILL BE STANDALONE, NON-CHRONOLOGICAL ONE-SHOTS AND VIGNETTES. If you've read Stepsiblings, you'll know what I'm talking about; if you haven't, I guess you can try comparing it to my "Dragon Queen" stories.
I'm not sure what else to say, just that I was really taken aback by all the concrit on "Apology" and "Epilogue" (thank you, by the way!) because I'm used to at least recognizing when I've screwed up. But apparently, I did a terrible job of ending the main Dragon Treasure story, and it wasn't just a matter of one person's opinion, either; there were several people on both AO3 and FFN who all gave the same concrit, and I'm horrified because it blindsided me. I had no idea that the ending was a problem at all, much less that big of a problem, so now my confidence in my own editing skills has really been shaken.
Anyway, so I've done some re-arranging. I took the last scene of chapter 9, separated it into a new chapter, and continued it so that it now concludes the main Dragon Treasure story. "Apology" is now just a random vignette set in this AU, it's not part of the main story. The memoir thing that had been the epilogue is now just an outtake for anyone curious to see the loose ends tied up. Ideally, I'll eventually write enough one-shots/vignettes that take place in this universe for the memoir to become unnecessary, but at least you're not left wondering until then.
I'm really sorry, guys. I'd like to blame this on how horrible it's been trying to move, everything that's been going wrong and how frazzled and sleep-deprived and food-deprived I've been the last few days-
-but I can't, since I wrote "Apology" and the memoir at least a month ago, before the move. That's why I'm so upset with myself, because I usually NOTICE this kind of stuff! Up until now, whenever I posted crap, I always at least recognized it as crap; so I can't understand how I completely and totally missed this huge storytelling flaw ._.