Title: Cloud Watching
Summary: It was… nice.
Disclaimer: What part of FAN FICTION is hard to understand? I don't own Beauty and the Beast, and I don't own How to Train Your Dragon. They belong to whoever they do. I'm not here to make money; I'm just here to entertain.
Fishlegs knew a good thing when he saw it. He may not have had the perfect eyesight everyone else took for granted, but he when he saw something good, he tried to keep it if he could.
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third was one of those things. Hiccup didn't laugh at his glasses; he tried to make a pair for himself so he could see the world better too. He was the only one who didn't assume there was something wrong with Fishlegs.
Fishlegs wasn't a normal boy. He was allergic to reptiles, he couldn't swim… But Hiccup wasn't normal either, so it was okay.
On days like this, Fishlegs felt lucky. He was on his way to the Haddock house, to ask if Hiccup could come out and play. Ever since Hiccup and Snotlout had been almost lost the other day, Hiccup had been spending a lot of time with the Jorgenson boy. Not that Fishlegs disliked the boy. He was just… very far from what Fishlegs was used to. Fishlegs was used to his quiet, funny, freckled friend. Snotlout was loud, he smelled funny, and he sometimes pushed Fishlegs when no one was looking.
Fishlegs stood in front of Hiccup's door and knocked. Valhallarama opened the door, smiling down at him.
"Why, hello Fishlegs! How nice of you to drop by! Hiccup's at the table." And she moved back to let him pass, bustling away to do something else. Fishlegs walked to the dining area by himself. He's been in Hiccup's house plenty of times, enough to know where most things were. But today, there was something new. Today, Snotlout was there.
Fishlegs didn't know why that made him mad, but it did. He all but ran out the door, mumbling a goodbye to Hiccup's mom as he passed. And that would have been that, he'd have gone home and sulked, except Hiccup had seen him.
"Fishlegs, wait!" He called. Fishlegs knew Hiccup could run way faster than he could, so he just stopped and waited. Hiccup caught up soon enough, Snotlout on his heels, looking like he hadn't run at all.
"Fishlegs, this is Snotlout, my cousin. Snotlout, this is my friend Fishlegs." Hiccup said lamely. Even he could tell there was some kind of tension in the air.
"We've met." Fishlegs said coldly. To be honest, Hiccup knew that. Burk wasn't really a very big tribe, and they all lived in the same area.
"Well, hi." Snotlout said, not sounding like himself at all. Fishlegs thought there was something missing, but he couldn't tell what…
"He wants to go fishing with us." Hiccup said, cutting across the moment of silence. Normally, Fishlegs would rather eat sea slugs than do anything with Snotlout the bully, and he thought Hiccup felt the same way. But if Hiccup was willing to try, and when he put it that way,
"Fine," Fishlegs said grudgingly, pouting. They went to their respective houses and got their stuff before meeting at the village square. Then off they went.
Fishlegs thought the day would be awful, with Snotlout trying to tell them what to do and pushing them around, but he was surprisingly nice. And what's more, he seemed more nervous than Fishlegs himself was. Fishlegs knew quite a bit about being nervous, so he could tell.
They spent the day at the inland lake beside Raven's Peak, a spot Hiccup had discovered a few months ago. The two of them always went there to hang out, but it seemed like that was the first time Snotlout had seen it. Fishlegs quite enjoyed showing him the different types of bugs and trees that lived there, and he was surprised that Snotlout paid as much attention as he did (which still wasn't a lot, honestly).
Hiccup and Fishlegs both laughed at him when he wouldn't put the worms on his own hook because it felt gross, he said, and the two of them enjoyed learning how to climb trees properly (Snotlout told them they'd been doing it wrong all these years, which was a load of hogwash, but it was easier to climb his was so they stuck with it), and when they were tired, they took a dip in the lake, yelling at how cold it was.
When they laid down on a large flat rock to dry off in the Sun's last rays, they pointed up at the clouds, making fanciful shapes and marveling at their colors. It was then that Fishlegs decided he wasn't really mad at Hiccup anymore.
Hiccup was his friend. And now, it seemed, Snotlout would be too. Fishlegs found he didn't mind.
Because having friends… it was nice.
A/N: Kind of short, but I wanted to post something tonight because of the guilt. Yeah… not my best work, I'll be the first to admit.
As always, thank you for reading and I'd appreciate feedback! I may also accept prompts from time to time, so send them and I'll think about it.