Breaking Point 26

Berk was still recovering from the Hunters' attack when the Outcast entourage arrived. It had been over three years since the Hooligan – Outcast war and peace had been good for both tribes. The Outcast chief had teamed up with Hiccup to save Stoick and defeat Dagur and as a result not only imprisoned the young Berserker chief and his closest followers but took ownership of Berserk Island and the incredibly large tribe that resided there. For the last three years Alvin had served as chief for both tribes and Dagur had failed to take his tribe back since his escape. Alvin was not about to give up the power he had gained by conquering the Berserkers.

He was not a happy man that day. He had become accustomed to being treated with a certain amount of respect and having either Stoick or Hiccup meeting him at the docks not Spitelout and Gobber. He knew right then something was not right and a wee bit of fear that something may have happened to his old friend or the boy. He had heard stories of these Hunters and none of them were good. So he stormed past Spitelout and Gobber and headed straight for the Great Hall.

He expected many things when he pushed the duo grand doors open after seeing the state of the village. He expected to see homeless people camped in the corners or mulling around searching for a meal. Instead the hall was virtually empty with only a few torches lit near the raised dais where he spotted Stoick talking to his son and the boy's dragon pacing anxiously behind them. There was something different about Hiccup and the way he stood, like he was more nervous than usual. He didn't have that commanding presence that he had developed after years of training dragons. There was something definitely wrong with the boy and if that was true then it explained why neither of them had met Alvin at the docks. The Nightfury was certainly anxious.

"Stoick," Alvin said in way of greeting but his gaze remained on Hiccup trying to see what might be wrong and how he could exploit it if he needed to. "Hiccup?"

The Hooligans stopped their soft spoken conversation and turned toward Alvin at the same time. Stoick was immediately pleasant and grinned at his old friend and former enemy. "Sorry, Alvin. We've had a bit of a situation this morning that needed sorting. I'm sorry we couldn't greet you properly."

Alvin nodded but he kept an eye on Hiccup, noting how much older the boy looked and worn out. "No trouble. I can see the repairs going throughout the village. Were there any deaths?"

"Not on our end, thankfully," Stoick answered, a hand on his son's shoulder. "The Hunters won't be messing with us again. Not after my boy took down their dealer like the warrior he was born to be." He beamed brightly at his boy but Hiccup only flushed and he looked down at the ground, not meeting either man's eyes when normally he would be a little fidgety. He obviously took no pleasure in the kill but then the boy was no killer. A formable swordfighter and cunning you man but he was no warrior or killer.

Alvin watched him carefully. "Congratulations, lad," he said with a growing smile. Perhaps there was hope for the boy after all. Perhaps he could be made a true warrior if he finally had a taste for blood.

Behind Hiccup Toothless growled lowly, his claws digging into the stone floor as he glared at Alvin, the ever clear indication to be careful with what the man said or did near his boy. Alvin returned the glare with one of his own. That dragon was always so overprotective, more so than Stoick which seemed next to impossible. But perhaps the creature had reason to be so if rumors of what had happened to the boy were to be believed but Alvin's contacts weren't necessarily the most reliable.

Hiccup only bobbed his head in answer seeming unable to find his voice, another unusual occurrence since the boy was often fond of speaking his mind regardless of the situation.

Alvin took a deep breath. So this was how things were to be today. "As much as I would love to stay and discuss more about the battle I have two islands to run," he told Stoick. "I've come to collect Dagur."

Hiccup looked up then and the expression in his gaze was not one Alvin had ever seen before. Not anger or rage or defiance but something far darker and deeper, a challenge.

Stoick nodded but turned away from Alvin and gestured with his head to someone in the back of the hall. Alvin wasn't surprised when Dagur stepped forward with a series of Stoick's best guards flanking him. Alvin grinned widely. He had been waiting months to get his hands on the Berserker and remind him exactly where he belonged in the world and that was a deep dark pit where the world would finally forget him.

"There's been a bit of a development," Stoick explained as Dagur stepped next to Hiccup, his face void of any expression, even his usual bit upon, annoyed look. "There's appears to be another claim on Dagur that supersedes yours."

Alvin jerked back as if shocked and he looked at Stoick in disbelief. "Another claim? Who? That Peaceable tribe he took out? There's no one left alive to place such a claim."

Stoick's eyes narrowed. "There is in fact and no, she hasn't made the claim. Dagur owes a life debt…to Hiccup."

The Outcast chief turned from Stoick to Hiccup then back. "What? My claim is older. He attempted to kill me, took my tribe…we had an agreement, Stoick. He's to serve time for his crimes. Three years is not enough time."

"For a boy who was not yet a man three years can be a life time," Stoick countered. "Dagur is still young. He can learn from his mistakes. He will learn from his mistakes but only with proper guidance which he will receive here."

"This is outrageous!" Alvin snarled. He moved to grab Dagur but surprisingly Hiccup stepped in his way. Alvin went to shove the boy aside only to have Stoick grab his arm and yank him back.

"Never raise a hand to my boy," Stoick snarled making Dagur grin and place a protective arm around Hiccup's shoulders as Stoick got between his son and Alvin. "Dagur is staying here."

Alvin gave a snort. "Fine. It changes nothing. Berserk and all Dagur's territories belong to me." His eyes narrowed as he looked past Stoick to Dagur. "You hear me, boy. You may be a chief but everything you own or thought you own is mine." He stopped dead when the Berserker began laughing hysterically.

Stoick groaned and rolled his eyes as Dagur stepped around him to face off with Alvin and of course Hiccup followed suit. With a sigh the Hooligan chief stepped back and pulled Hiccup a safe distance out of the way. This was likely to get ugly and after everything Hiccup had been through at the hands of the Hunters, Stoick didn't want the going getting pulled into another fight that could lead to someone getting hurt. Dagur, while still recovering, could handle himself in close combat.

"Al, I've missed you, have I told you that?" Dagur drawled with an overly wide grin.

Alvin's eyes narrowed to mere slits as he sized the boy up. Dagur had gained more muscle and his ragged, chopped up crop of red hair was braided back in tightly to his head in three rows. His clothing was new and clean. He looked like a new man and held himself with an air of self-confidence that Alvin had spent three years trying to beat out of him.

"Nothing to say? You haven't missed me at all…especially on those cold winter nights when you dragged me out of my cell for your own amusement?" Dagur continued with a mock pout. "No? Oh, well that really pulls at the heart strings."

"Speak your piece before I run you through, boy," Alvin sneered, his patience nearly at an end.

Dagur grinned and glanced at Hiccup. "That will be what..? Twice this week?"

Hiccup gave a nod. "Yeah, but it'll be a sword this time instead of an arrow. And if we get technical, an arrow isn't really classified under being run through." He gave a wide teasing grin, his emotions a little more open with the Berserker than ever before.

Dagur waved what he said off. "You and your technicalities. Next thing you'll be telling me is you can sing the alphabet in Dragonese."

"Not as good as a Terrible Terror," Hiccup shot back, confusing Stoick and Alvin.

"I'm sure I can help you hit those high notes."

"Dagur, focus!" Stoick snapped before the boys could take a downward spiral on whatever the Hel they were going on about. It would seem that they both had the attention span of sparrows. Hiccup had always been like that but he never noticed just how similar Dagur was in that aspect until the boy became chief of the Berserkers.

The Berserker rolled his eyes. "Geez, worse than my Dad was," he grumbled. He rolled his eyes and turned back to Alvin, all amusement fading from his face. "Point is, Al, all those territories you like to flaunt around because you managed to lock me up don't belong with you. They belong to the chief of the Berserkers."

"Unless incarcerated," Alvin reminded him. His voice lowered dangerously. "And once this little 'life debt' to Hiccup is over with you'll be back in my prison and I won't be so kind this time."

Dagur's leaned forward, his voice also low. "That may be but you'll never rule the Berserkers, not now that they have a NEW chief."

The older man stepped back in surprise. "That's impossible. You have no eligible heirs. Your sister is but a child."

"Cora is. Have you met my sister, Heather?"

Alvin's face paled and he stepped further back as the girl in question stepped from the shadows flanked by two Berserkers, one of which being Savage who grinned at Alvin, happy to throw his former chief off balance by standing next to the new Berserker chief.

"Everything that was once mine is now hers," Dagur explained as he stepped back to stand proudly next to his sister. "And according to Archipelago law when a chieftain dies or retires his heir receives everything free and clear for the betterment of the tribe and that the former chieftain's actions are not held against him or her."

"Hello, Alvin," Heather purred, menace in her voice at the sight of the man who had kidnapped her and her adopted parents years earlier.

Alvin looked from the siblings to Stoick. "This can't be true. Berserk and all its surrounding islands belong to me."

"It's an old law, Alvin, but as long as Dagur gives up all rights to his chiefdom and leaves the tribe then it cannot be revoked. Heather is the new chief of the Berserkers," Stoick tried to sooth, astonished by Dagur's quick thinking and ability to draw from an old law long forgotten. "And as such control of Berserk and all its surrounding islands are to be handed to her."

"We have developed colonies. Some of my men have married their women…" Alvin objected.

"I will handle that when I return to Berserk," Heather said regally, her back straight and eyes cold. "If they are consensual unions then they would be honored and given the choice to raise their families there or elsewhere. Otherwise you have one week to move your 'colonies' off MY islands."

Alvin fumed. His dark gaze went from Heather to Dagur to Hiccup, who was smiling pleasantly at his friend, to Stoick. "This isn't over. I have my rights!"

"As do I," Heather agreed. "Leave, Alvin. You may have won our territories when you captured my brother but we still outnumber you a hundred to one and if we have to go to war to take back our lands then so be it. Choose your battles carefully."

The Outcast had nothing else to say. He left, storming out of the Great Hall and down to the port as quickly as he had come. The moment Alvin was gone Dagur gave Heather a fierce hug, satisfied with his decision. As chief he would just bring endless war to his people and while the Berserkers were a warrior tribe, the largest in the Archipelago, he wasn't willing to continue endangering them with his personal pursuits. "You'll be great," he told Heather. And in his heart he knew he was right. Heather was a born leader and knew how to take care of herself. She didn't need him looking over her shoulder. Hell, she didn't need him to protect her but he would because that was his job. That's what he should have been doing from the day she was born.

She looked just as shock as she had been the night before when he proposed she take over leading the Berserkers. Her bright green eyes were wide as she stared at him and then it broke into a tiny smile and she hugged him. "Thank you."

He pressed their father's buckle into her hands. He had coveted it and treasured it for as long as he remembered but it wasn't his anymore. "You need me send a Terror and I'll be there," he promised.

Watching her leave was almost as hard as the day he freed her from Ryker and Viggo. He knew he was doing the right thing by surrendering his chiefdom to her. Their people were in good hands now and he was free to pursue what he wanted and that was the young man who stood silently by his side.

In public Dagur owed Hiccup a life debt and that was very true. He would serve of Hiccup protector and help train him to fight a little more productively in hand to hand combat while Hiccup tried to "civilize" him, but in private it was a different matter entirely. They were both still recovering and for the first few days they had to take things slow. Dagur insisted he didn't mind sharing Hiccup with Astrid if that was what Hiccup wanted but it didn't seem to be a problem. Hiccup and Astrid hadn't made it to that point in their relationship and the girl had pretty much stepped back in favor of simply supporting Hiccup regardless of his decision of partners.

Both Hiccup and Dagur had changed considerably since the day Hiccup had been captured. His mind had been broken and split into two only to slowly heal and become one again but it wasn't without consequences. He may have gone back to his sassy, sarcastic, know-it-all self but there was a darker edge to it now and he didn't seem so afraid to talk about things that he had once found taboo or embarrassing. He was no longer afraid to make the first move, speak his mind without rephrasing his words in his head beforehand. Tuffnut teased that Henryk had been the side of Hiccup that had fought to break loose and express himself and yeah he was hyper sexual but he had also been the part that had tried to protect Hiccup throughout his ordeal with the Grimborn brothers.

Dagur had finally come to the conclusion that he wasn't in control of his life as much as he wanted to believe and that he couldn't rely on himself and himself alone, he had to be open to those around him. Even though he had tried partnering up with people like Alvin the Treacherous and the Grimborn Brothers he had never truly allowed himself to rely on any of them. He didn't open up to trusting anyone until he got Heather back and even that took a while to adjust to. It was so new to him, so novel that it had frightened him at first and Dagur didn't like to be frightened but he didn't regret it or giving up his chiefdom to her. Now he was opening himself once more, not only to trust Hiccup, who he had had trust issues with since learning about his friendship with Toothless, but also Stoick and the riders.

When they made love that afternoon after Alvin the Treacherous angrily fled Berk and Heather flew off to the land of her birth to rule in Dagur's stead it was as free men. Yes, Dagur owed Hiccup a life debt but he was still free. Stoick could have imprisoned him for the rest of his life for the crimes he had committed against the Hooligans and Hiccup personally, for pretty much handing him over to the Grimborns as he had. Instead the Hooligan chief let him out to care to Hiccup's "special" needs and that was just what Dagur planned to do.

He and Hiccup had sex often. Often times it was quick and hard, done in risky places that someone was sure to find them. Hiccup was not exactly a quiet lover. The part of him that was still Henryk, even if the two personalities had merged back into one, was not afraid to make noise and let people know exactly how good he felt but he was Hiccup now with only the odd slip into the alternate being that was still him yet not quite him. He bounced on Dagur's lap, his usually blunt nails clawing deep gorges into the Berserker's back. Viggo and Ryker had made it so sexually sensitive that the simplest touch could set him off. Oddly enough that only worked with Dagur. Hiccup shied away from anyone else who tried to touch him as if he had been burnt and would immediately seek out Dagur if the older boy wasn't nearby which he often was. It was a strange relationship but one that was mutually beneficial.

Hiccup taught Dagur about dragons, how to befriend them, how to care for them and ride them until eventually Dagur became a dragon rider as well. And Dagur got his Skrill, the one thing next to Hiccup that he had wanted for so long. He learned basic Dragonese – it turned out Hiccup really was quite fluent in the language but Dagur was never going to admit that – simple commands and phrases that would help him guide the dragon as he discovered what a partnership between man and dragon really was.

In exchange Dagur taught Hiccup how to better defend himself and to not always rely on Toothless or other dragons to protect him. He showed Hiccup how to effectively hide multiply weapons on his person without even one being detected or hurting him or his dragon as the rode into battle. It was a weird relationship but one that worked for them. It was like finally getting to know each other, really know each other. And sure there was still the issue of Astrid who Hiccup would always love and one day may marry but that was still way off in the future. Their relationship was not without its challenges but it was worth it because in the end Dagur had won. He had gotten what he wanted. He had done what Viggo and Ryker could not. He had made Hiccup his and in the end the sacrifices he made meant nothing because Hiccup was his and that was all that ever mattered.

The End

NOTE: Sorry if the ending didn't make much sense, my head is still not where it should be but this is all I kept seeing in my head to wrap it up so I hope everyone enjoyed. I'm hoping to get back to My Hiccup soon but I may go on hiatus for a while as I start focusing on my next novel before my publisher decides to take my head.