Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, How to Train Your Dragons, or Rise of the Guardians.

Warning: mentions of past family issues (neglect, at least)

Enjoy!


"We can't wait, we need to recruit." Macao mused, once again going over the paperwork.

"Hold an Open House, then." Wakaba suggested.


"Hi!" a blonde girl with large brown eyes said, holding the door open for them. "Welcome to the Fairy Tail Open House! My name's Lucy."

'Her smile is nearly brighter than the sun.' Hiccup observed, surprised. 'No…that's not right. Brighter than the moon. I think that's more appropriate.'

"Jackson Overland." Jack introduced himself with a smile, shaking her hand. "This is my friend—who seems to be stuck in his own world."

Hiccup snapped out of it, shaking his head, before saying in embarrassment. "Um, sorry."

"Lost in thought?" Lucy asked knowingly. "It happens to the best of us. I'm a writer, so ideas are constantly going through my mind and distracting me."

"I'm an inventor." Hiccup offered.

"Woah, seriously?" Lucy asked, eyes wide. "That's actually really cool."

She noticed his leg. More specifically, his peg leg.

He saw her questioning gaze, and nodded awkwardly.

"You crafted this yourself?" Lucy asked, slightly in awe as she looked at Hiccup's prosthetic, though she was careful not to stare at it too long. How rude would that be?

"Yeah. I was an apprentice blacksmith." Hiccup said with a slight smile, remembering his memories of Gobber, the only one who Hiccup thought might have listened to him, if Stoick had given him the chance to explain. "Is it…going to stick out here?" he asked nervously.

"I sincerely doubt it. One of our guild members who disappeared, Gildarts, is missing some organs due to being attacked by a dragon." Lucy told him. "He was our Ace, the strongest in our guild. Erza, who is also missing, has a glass eye after a childhood…accident. All of us have scars, whether physical or emotional. If anything, we see them as nothing more than proof that we survived what we encountered and a motivation to get stronger." She trailed off. "Anyway, trust me, no one here is going to judge you, much less for something like that."

Jack smiled at the pair, glad that this girl seemed to be bringing Hiccup out of his shell a bit. He was pretty open with Jack and Toothless, but when it came to anyone else, he was practically mute.

It was encouraging to see that he could be brought out of that state.

He had to admit that he was slightly more reassured, too. He might not have any physical scars, but he sure did have emotional ones.

He had a feeling that this place would be good for them, if they were allowed to join, at least.

"And I've been ignoring you." Lucy realized, turning to Jack. "Sorry, it's been a long day. It's nice to meet the two of you. Were you interested in joining?"

"If we can." Jack admitted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Of course you can." Lucy said in bemusement. "That's what the open house is for: new members!"

Jack and Hiccup smiled at her.

"So, quick rundown." Lucy said. "Fairy Tail has mages of all different sorts, it doesn't matter what kind of magic you can do. We're expected not to cause too much trouble for the Magic Council, which we've had problems with in the past. Job requests are on the board over there—" here she pointed. "New members aren't supposed to go on solo jobs for the first week, but since you two seem close, I doubt you'll mind too much having to partner up. Top floor is for S-Class mages only. At the current time we don't have any, because they're among our missing members. S-Class promotion exams are at the end of May, and the participants are chosen based on who has shown themselves to be adept mages capable of handling the S-Class jobs. Only one mage per trial can be chosen, and sometimes no one passes."

She gasped for breath.

"Okay, I give up. We'll go over more of this later on." She said, taking a sip of water. "Anyway, I didn't catch your name."

She glanced at Hiccup.

He froze. Stoick might be looking for him, and if he was, it would be better that he use an alias.

"Ryder." He decided.

He could have sworn that there was a knowing look in Lucy's eyes, but she didn't comment. "Okay, where do you two want your guild marks, and in what color?"

For Jack, next to his belly button to the left, so that he could lift up his hoodie when he needed to show it to someone but could easily hide it if need be.

Ryder had a harder time deciding, but eventually went with a light green, the color of Toothless' eyes, on his left shoulder, also easy to hide if he needed to.

"There you go!" Lucy said with another bright smile. "You two are officially Fairy Tail mages!"

"You didn't ask what kind of magic we use." Jack realized.

Lucy smiled. "One of my closest friends is an Ice Make mage. I can tell that your magic has something to do with the cold."

Jack nodded with a smirk, slightly impressed.

"As for Ryder…" Lucy trailed off thoughtfully. "Yeah, I got nothing."

"I'm an empath." Ryder muttered, embarrassed.

"All the more power to you. That would probably give me a headache…" Lucy said. "I have a hard enough time dealing with my own emotions, let alone anyone else's."

Ryder smiled sadly, not disagreeing.

It had always been horrible knowing for a fact that your father didn't care for you in the slightest. Apathy was the only thing he had ever gotten from Stoick, besides more negative things like disappointment and anger.

"Anyway, I'll leave you to it." Lucy said, realizing that Ryder had something on his mind. "Feel free to explore, just keep in mind what I said about the top floor."

She began to walk away, before turning her head back.

"Oh, and your black reptilian companion is more than welcome to join you." She said with a slight smirk, before heading to greet some more people.

Jack smiled at her gratefully, waving goodbye.

Ryder stared at the beautiful blonde in shock and bemusement.

For one thing, he wasn't used to being treated so kindly, much less with genuine kindness!

Also, how had Lucy known that Toothless was nearby?

"Don't think too much on it." Jack advised, patting his shoulder. "Just be glad you don't have to hide him. Now come on, she said we could explore!"

His excited blue eyes caused Ryder to smile as well, so he followed his friend to check out the place where they would hopefully be spending a fair bit of time and making a living.

…Maybe they could make a home for themselves here.


Please review!

Don't worry, after the time skip Hiccup, or 'Ryder', will have become the confident young man we see in How to Train Your Dragon 2. I put his guild mark where it is because in the movie, his armor has shoulder-plates that have the symbol of his tribe painted on, and I figured that I would do something similar here. :)

And Hiccup DOESN'T have feelings for Lucy. He was just noticing what every other Fairy Tail mage has noticed by now. Even if I wasn't planning to get him with Jack, Lucy looks too much like Astrid, Hiccup's previous crush who participated in bullying him and the events that caused him to leave his village for him to be comfortable with that idea.

Lucy didn't freak out about Toothless looking like a dragon because she's smart. By Ryder's accent, she was able to guess where he was from, and knows that there are dragon-like creatures there, but not the same type of dragon Igneel and the others were. For one thing, they aren't capable of human speech.

Also, I never said in the original what Hiccup's magic was, but I did mention that I was considering some type of magic involving technology. Changed my mind. He'll be relying more on Toothless, his brains, and the combat skills he'll develop on more than his magic.