The Cautious Quill - you're not wrong! Especially when Taboo was meant to be shorter... I'm glad you enjoy Valcup so much, and they are the cutest thing ever! Taboo gets updated faster because... its easy to write and I want to finish it? Whereas Adopted is something I've been excited to write for a while.
MidwestMexican - I did quite enjoy RTTE 5! I've rewatched it too, a little less Hiccstrid focus and I'd have called it perfect!
-HTTYD-
"You don't have to stay at Heather's for my sake."
"Bro, you and Valka are getting to know each other. Honestly, staying at my hot girlfriends house more often is a bonus."
Hiccup frowned.
"I don't want you feeling pushed out. And I definitely don't want you thinking she's more important than you."
"I don't. I am not that insecure. But this woman is in the country for ten more days. I'm here forever."
Holding out his arms, Hiccup was rewarded by a hug from his sister.
"You're my whole world Astrid, I'd never do anything to hurt you."
Astrid squeezed him around the middle, beaming up at him happily.
"I know Hiccup. But what you can do for me is get to know this woman who obviously makes you smile."
"Why is this so important to you?"
"Because you've been so sad. Now you smile again."
"I haven't-"
"Hiccup, I know you better than anyone. Better than mom. Better than dad. Better than the woman you were surgically removed from. I know you're trying, and I know you've improved so much since mom and dad died. But... something that isn't me makes you happy. So you're going to spend time with Valka. Hofferson's orders."
Pretending to pout in order to wind Astrid up, Hiccup ruffled her hair. She growled in warning.
"I've always thought it odd that Hofferson orders apply to Hoffersons."
"Yeah, well. Hofferson rules. You'll always be a Hofferson Hiccup, no matter how much you and her bond. Don't hold back on that for mom and dads sake. They wouldn't want that. Or my sake. I don't want that."
He nodded.
"It's kinda weird becoming an adult, then making friends with the woman you came out of."
"Maybe you ought to talk to one of your therapists about this stuff? I mean you can talk to me if you want, but I figure you might want to keep it separate from me cus you're awkward like that."
"Blame Valka. She's as awkward as me."
Astrid grinned.
"So that's where you got it from."
"Yep."
"So... you making any cake soon?"
Astrid gave him her most hopeful look - if Hiccup wasn't planning on baking, he was now.
"Alright. I've made chocolate ones like three times in the last month. So... pick something else."
His sister pouted, then rooted through the bakery cupboard.
"How about plain jam sponge but we decorate it like when we were kids?"
"Colourful icing and half a jar of topping shaker?"
She nodded eagerly, already seeking the food colouring with a cheeky grin.
"If you aren't offended at the prospect, I'll colour this ready made icing."
"This is your cake but if you wait for the cake to go in the oven I'll help make the good stuff."
"Why do you even buy ready made?"
"Emergencies. Decorations."
Astrid rolled her eyes, chuckling at him as she pulled out things to make real icing instead.
"Cake related emergencies?"
"Yep."
Hiccup cracked an egg with surprising dexterity, knowing he probably couldn't do anything with similar levels of it if it didn't involve cooking or drawing. Astrid went on the hunt for buttercream and jam in the fridge for the filling, despite it being too early in the process. She was just that excitable about his cakes.
Once the cake was baking away merrily in the oven, Hiccup mixed up liquid icing for Astrid to fill with a multitude of colours. This cake was going to be an utter monstrosity, but Astrid was happy and it would probably taste pretty good.
"Careful, remember you only need a couple of drops to start with."
"Boring! I want the brightest rainbow ever!"
"I know but if you overdo it the icing will taste funny. Two or three drops at a time."
Sulking at the familiar warning, Astrid went more slowly with the colouring. Left with six little sets of bright colours - Astrid only liked yellow icing on lemon cakes - Hiccup insisted Astrid wait for the cake to cool - he needed to put the filling in before she slathered it in icing. They went through this frequently, but Astrid was oft impatient to get to the decorating and eating, since she couldn't cook.
Hiccup was teaching her... she no longer burnt toast and she could boil an egg. Next he would teach her to cook pasta and rice.
Maybe he should check the batteries in the smoke alarm.
"Ok, now we can decorate it. Go easy, it'll set better."
"Yawn. That's boring. This cake is going to make you sickly sweet sick with a mouthful!"
Honestly, Hiccup frequently wondered how Astrid had such perfect teeth when she loved sugar so much. Their dentist always commended her oral health, while Hiccup cringed as she practically frowned the cake in chocolate curls, edible ball bearings and little sugar skulls. It was an interesting contrast to the vibrant rainbow she had painted on it.
"Ok, now it needs to be left to set."
"I know! But I can eat the leftover icing."
Astrid licked the mixing spoons happily, protesting loudly when Hiccup took them away to clean up the mess.
"You'll spoil your lunch. What do you wanna eat?"
"Cake!"
"Before that."
Frowning, Astrid stuck her head in the fridge. Eventually she resurfaced holding leftover lasagna and held it out to him.
"Alright. Can you let Toothless out? He's staring hopefully at the door."
Astrid nodded and skipped off to do so, then dragged Hiccup forcefully to the sofa and pulled off his prosthetic to give him his leg massage while the lasagna cooked. It was reaching a point where he didn't need it every day, two or three times a week sufficient unless he had spent a lot of time on his feet that day. But he still didn't like it and Astrid was still insistent.
"Doesn't it bother you?"
"You always ask me that. And the answer is always no."
She dug her thumb into a knot in the muscle above his knee, rubbing a firm circle until it loosened up. Hiccup couldn't deny his leg felt better for it, but their food was in danger of burning and he happily took the excuse to get up and replace his prosthetic, rather than look at the space left where his leg should have been.
"Ah, just perfectly done. Grab some plates sis?"
"You got it bro."
Astrid laid two plates next to the oven, which soon became filled with the re-heated lasagna and the obvious addition of garlic bread at Astrid's insistence. It was a heavy lunch, but at least he knew she'd eaten something he had packed full of vegetables before she went to Heather's that evening and probably ate pizza, sweets and popcorn washed down with fizzy drinks.
"Oh man that was good. I'm gonna go become one with the sofa until I'm ready to have a bash at that cake."
She did so, lazing on the sofa with a deep sigh that became a giggle when Toothless leapt up and curled up next to her. Hiccup smiled at them fondly, then sat down to let his food digest for a while. Toothless eventually shuffled over to nuzzle Hiccup's face, demanding affection from his owner.
"I know buddy, but we're going out for a you know what later promise. You get to meet my birth mother. Not that that means anything to you, you don't speak English."
Toothless huffed, licked his face and left a drooly-mess on Hiccup's cheek before curling up on his lap. Astrid laughed as Hiccup wiped at his face, scowling with absolutely no venom at the cute, dribbling pest on his lap.
"You know that doesn't wash out you little monster."
"He does, but he doesn't care."
Astrid continued to laugh as Hiccup tried to wipe his face clean, eventually lifting Toothless off his lap and heading to wash his face. His stubble rasped over the wash cloth, reminding Hiccup of his youthful features and the fact that stubble would literally grow no more than half an inch.
Clearly he hadn't inherited the bountiful beard growing skills of his biological father. Then again, he hadn't inherited much from that man it seemed beyond the very edges of his face. Even his height could be attributed to his biological mother, as she was still a couple of inches taller than him. Her eye colour, her face shape, even the slender build seemed to come from her. His hair colour, the thin lips and his narrow nose with the curve only at the very end.
All Valka.
After so long, Hiccup was still adjusting to this woman who looked just like him even existing. It had taken him a long time to come to grips with the circumstances that led him to his family, but now Hiccup had reached a place of acceptance there - he had never felt 'different' or excluded by them. Hiccup had never felt like he was any less their son than Astrid was their daughter. They picked him. They loved him. He loved his parents, and the fledgling irritation, maybe a hint of anger, at them not telling him was long gone.
"What are you doing in there, plotting a revolution?"
"Hilarious. No, I was scrubbing Toothless off my face."
Hiccup headed back out to find Astrid waiting for the bathroom. There were three in their home, but apparently she just had to use that one.
"All yours."
"Most kind of you."
Feeling a little less like he would explode from lunch, Hiccup braved going to check on the cake. It was set enough to eat, a fact Astrid seemed to sense when she saw he'd gone into the kitchen
"Is it ready?"
"Yep. Lets see how it tastes."
He cut them both small slices of the brightly iced and somewhat over-decorated cake, which barely reached the plate before Astrid was taking a hearty bite out of it.
"Mmm. This is great."
Hiccup almost cringed as sweetness exploded over his tongue, but once the overwhelming taste of sugar was adjusted to, he discovered the cake itself was pretty good. Astrid devoured hers happily, licking icing residue from her lips and picking a sugar skull from her t-shirt.
"Well? Verdict?"
"Little too sweet, but not the worst of your handiwork. There was that one even you couldn't stomach."
Astrid smiled sheepishly, remembering that incident well - Hiccup had been physically sick from it.
"Yeah. Didn't Dagur eat that?"
"Yeah but Dagur once ate a tin of dog food on a dare. Let's not use him as a yardstick for anything normal."
Astrid nodded.
"Fair point. When's Valka coming over?"
Hiccup glanced at his watch.
"She's due in half an hour, but please don't think you have to be gone then."
"I don't. Don't worry! Gods, you're acting like I don't know I'm your number one, like you haven't moved freaking mountains to make my life as good as possible and take the best care of me."
"You're my sister. I just never want you to doubt it."
Astrid hugged him. Carefully, knowing he was still full of food and now sugary cake.
"I know Hiccup. It'll always be the Hoffersons against the world, and I know nobody matters more to you than me. But you have to remember nobody matters more to me than you, and I want you to do things that make you happy."
She leant up and kissed his cheek, then turned and went off to start sorting out her overnight things to take to Heather's home.
"When's Dagur picking you up?"
"On his way back from work, so probably an hour or so. So I can break the awkward beginning of conversation by scaring Valka with my cake decorating skills."
"Why do you assume there will be awkwardness?"
Astrid quirked an eyebrow.
"Because I've known you all my life. And if she's as much like you in personality as looks, she's as awkward as you."
Well... she wasn't wrong.
"Yeah, she kind of is. It's kinda funny to see how you can inherit personality traits despite not being raised by someone."
"There's probably studies to prove that. I'm studying psychology, there's a whole section on adoption in my textbook. Could pass the time?"
Hiccup nodded, waiting for Astrid to pull a huge textbook out of her bag.
"Why is adoption so important to psychology?"
"It varies. Attachment to a parent needs to be done at a particular stage so children not adopted as babies often struggle to relate to people. Then there's the argument of nature versus nurture, theres Genetic Sexual Attraction and then of people who didn't know they were related until blood tests confirmed it back when that was standard procedure... it's basically a psychologists dream to study the psychology of attraction and attachment."
Hiccup blinked, trying to process.
"I... I have not retained a word of that."
He was lying.
"Anyway... here. There's a list of people who studied it, especially in twins where they paid women to let them seperate the kids until later on in life."
"Wait, they paid people to allow that?"
"Yeah. It was to try and determine the age old argument of biology versus environment, better known as nature versus nurture. Serial killers are abused as kids or mentally ill... except not all of them are."
"And the conclusion of that debate is?"
"Ongoing. Even today."
Hiccup scanned the pages Astrid pointed to with boggling amounts of information in.
"What do you think?"
Astrid tapped her chin in thought, looking quite deeply at Hiccup.
"I'm further on the nurture side, but there are exceptions to every rule and I don't rule out nature. We were raised exactly the same but we aren't the same people."
"Huh. Good point."
Any further conversation was halted as a tentative knock sounded from the door. Hiccup's heart fluttered nervously, but Astrid was the one who barreled toward the front door - she was much faster than Hiccup.
"Valka! Very glad to see you made it."
"Hello Astrid. I must confess I rather thought I had the wrong house for a moment."
Her voice made his belly quiver and Hiccup couldn't work out why.
"Oh, yeah, it's a big place. Come on in, Toothless is dying to salivate on your face."
"I beg your pardon?"
The two women became visible as they left the front foyer, finding Hiccup awkwardly standing in the kitchen. Toothless immediately tottered over to investigate the new human.
"Oh gods, aren't you just the cutest thing? Can I?"
Valka gestured to the dog, asking permission to touch him.
"Go ahead. Be warned, he drools."
She paid no mind as she knelt down, running her fingers through the mongrels scruffy black fur. Toothless eagerly lapped up the affection, rumbling happily as she scratched behind his ears, tickled under his chin and ignored that he was getting drool on her hands.
"I see why he makes a good therapy dog, oh he is absolutely precious!"
Astrid guided Valka to the sink to wash her hands as she cooed at Toothless, who immediately bobbed alongside her now he had made a new friend.
"He's also a pest. I do love him though."
He had feared it feeling awkward to have Valka in the Hofferson family home. That fear was already fading.
"Good gods, what is that?"
"That would be Astrid's cake decorating skills at work."
Astrid smiled proudly.
"Believe it or not, this isn't my worst."
"It's really not. She's made me ill before. That one's not half bad once you accept imminent diabetes."
Valka looked between the two in amusement as she dried her hands, observing the cake from a wary distance like it might jump out at her.
"Want to try it?"
Astrid quizzed, still grinning.
"I'm not sure I'm that brave."
Hiccup stood up, exceptionally glad for Astrid's leg massage since his stump didn't ache.
"Tea?"
Astrid checked her phone for the time.
"Sure, I have time."
Valka nodded too, prompting Hiccup to acquire a lesser used mug - both his and Astrid's bore stains on the porcelain insides from constant use despite the regular cleaning. Astrid boxed half the cake to take with her. If nobody else ate it, Dagur certainly wouldn't hesitate.
"So, Hiccup tells me you get arrested regularly?"
Valka chuckled, smiling over at Astrid.
"Only in defence of animals. I've never been convincted of anything."
"So you just trawled the planet rescuing animals and protecting endangered species?"
"Yes."
"Against men with guns and never carrying your own weapon?"
"Yes."
"Wow. You're like a secret superhero. For all things cute and fluffy."
Valka nodded, smiling.
"And big and scaly or strange and ugly. All animals are welcome in my heart."
"Ok, that's actually adorable. Consider yourself welcome back any time" Astrid downed the last half of her still-hot tea "but my ride is here. Have fun you two!"
After a squeezing hug, Astrid grabbed her things and dashed out of the door clutching a cake box full of an indecent amount of sugar.
Valka's stay at the Hofferson home that night was unremarkable in itself - they ate and talked and she finally braved the cake. They watched a movie - Valka was hugely behind on popular culture after so much time away. She joined he and Toothless out on their walk. She slept in their spare room.
As of yet, neither Hiccup or Astrid had managed to brave emptying out their parents room. It gathered dust like an aging shrine of grief.
There were a few events Hiccup wasn't sure he should have been remembering so keenly.
Such as the buzz on his skin when Valka took his hand as they sat together on the bench watching Toothless.
Or the way he could smell her scent on his clothes as he laid in bed even though they had only hugged for brief seconds.
The one Hiccup was denying the most was the way a tingle lingered on his face, where Valka had kissed his cheek goodbye when she left. Where she'd accidentally caught the very corner of his mouth. Where neither of them had mentioned it despite both noticing.
Nine more days. He might never see her again. Hiccup didn't have to think about anything peculiar yet. There was no rulebook for reconnecting with ones birth mother.
He didn't tell Astrid about any of it though.
-HTTYD-
Always a little awkward when your roommate catches you researching real cases of GSA to ensure a degree of realism to a fictional story...