Here, have some more junk writing. Yeah, I know it's short. I just started college this week... So there's that...

Hiccup hadn't arrived in the woods alone. It didn't take long to spot his companion playfully terrorizing a few birds up a tree and coax him to glide back down to the forest floor. Toothless roaming freely never worried him; his dragon was still the most intelligent and loyal of any he'd observed. Most of the time he strayed off, it was just to chase small animals anyway, and he always returned as soon as he was called. The girl he'd just encountered, whom he'd decided to mentally file as "abrasive at best", was very wrong in assuming he was alone. Besides, he didn't see anyone with her.

On the other hand, she had a point in saying he didn't have any real reason to be wandering out in the rain. At least, none other than to find some peace quiet in a usually peaceful and quiet place. In previous years, when he couldn't have listed two friends at a time, the forest somehow just became a safe haven. Maybe it was its desertedness or the way it made one forget themselves, but it held a unique beauty. A year after befriending Toothless, changing the public stance on dragons, gaining friends, and losing a foot, that still hadn't changed.

Today, however, the forest air held flying arrows and the floor became a layer of mud. Crossing the clearing again, he hoped home would be more relaxing.

"I have a cousin?"

"Born just a couple years before you. I didn't expect you'd remember her." Gobber had conveniently left their house after dinner, but before Stoick began cleanup and dropped the news on Hiccup.

"Wait, why didn't I know about this?"

"Well, she went missing. Presumed kidnapped. Turns out now, they were right."

Hiccup gaped, "Are you trying to tell me police found her body chopped up in some lunatic's RV or something?"

"I said I had good news, didn't I? She's alive, healthy, safe. And home. Thomas said she wants to meet the rest of the family." This information was quite jarring. His aunt and uncle never had children, as far as he had known, but a distance had grown between their small families and he hadn't been in good contact with them for years. Still, to suddenly hear differently was too much to take in like this, and every question answered made Hiccup want to ask two more.

"But why didn't you ever tell me any of this? That they had a daughter, or the kidnapping thing? I feel like that should have come up in conversation at some point-when did all of this happen?"

Stoick started, "Hiccup,"

Yet the boy continued, "And Tom and Prim just... Lost a kid? And that's it? Did we stop seeing them because of that?"

"Now, hold on-"

"You're not going to actually answer any of this, are you?"

"Hiccup!" Stoick's unintentionally booming voice finally silenced him. "Just stop. For a second. I know you're confused. And no, there wasn't exactly a golden opportunity to bring up a family member we've all assumed was dead for the last decade. It's not easy to talk about people you'll never see again."

For once in the conversation, Hiccup stopped trying to interject. After an understood silence, he finally mumbled back, "I know."

Stoick sighed and said "I'm sorry, Hiccup. I can tell you more in the morning, if you'd like."

Toothless wandered into the nook to nudge his face into Hiccup's hand. He murmured, "Sure," petting black scales and getting up from his seat.

Following Toothless back out of the room, he retrieved the backpack he'd left by the front door. Once seeing that Stoick had turned back into the kitchen, he searched through the lowest bookshelf and silently collected an old photo album before heading back to his own room.

He was sure the album hadn't been opened in years for a number of reasons, some of which being:

1. Neither he nor Stoick were especially interested in reviewing younger versions of themselves.
2. It had been crammed besides dozens of other equally as uninteresting books: tattered dictionaries, outdated manuals...
3. The album had chiefly been started, maintained, and regarded as belonging to his mother.

The way the spine cracked when he opened it on his desk all but confirmed his guess that nobody else had done so since she last closed it. Although at sixteen he still didn't care much for how he looked, he was immediately very certain he did not like his baby pictures. However, if he weren't self-conscious about it, the way his wide eyes looked absolutely terrified nearly all of the time was a bit amusing.

A few pages in, he found what he was looking for. A photo showed a small blonde girl, looking to be about two years old, smiling at his infant self. Despite him being alarmingly frail and on a breathing tube, she was beaming with excitement. Toothless cooed, leaning in to sniff the pages.

"So, Rapunzel, was it? Hiding in plain sight, all this time."