Night Five: Fish
Hiccup was drenched. Completely entirely to-the-bone drenched and it was a state of being that had not changed during the surprisingly long journey home. He shoved open the door, set down his basket, and watched in mild fascination as a puddle of seawater—nay, an entire sea of it—formed around his feet. Oh, but his boots were going to smell something awful. Cursing his bad luck he lifted up a leg to pull off a boot and promptly fell over, making a distinct sloshing sound as he hit the ground.
He was never going to go fishing again. At least not in the daylight when people could see him. Were they still laughing at him out there? It was hard to be sure when the door was closed. He lay where he was, miserable. He stank and he was cold and wet and certainly very much miserable. So uncomfortable.
He continued the process of pulling off his boots, pausing after each one to watch the flood of water come pouring out of the boot as he tipped it upside down. Then he wiggled his toes. He did have nice feet, though he would rather have nice other qualities. Who cared about feet? Feet had to spend time in wet smelly boots made of fur that chafed against wet feet. So what if untold years before Astrid had once told him his feet were nice? He doubted she thought as much now.
Dragon training was no better. If anything, it was worse and he was going to go down in the annals of Berk as the worst Viking there ever was. As if he already didn't know that. In fact, that very day Astrid had told him quite plainly that he was holding his knife wrong to be fending off a dragon. There it was. There was nothing he could do. He was hopeless.
Well, his feet felt a little bit better and that in turn made him feel better. Maybe he should just take off all his clothes and let the fire dry him. Yeah, that sounded nice. He pulled off his clothing and made a show of wringing the seawater from them. He'd have to wash them now and get out all the horrible salt.
The basket still sat next to the door and he took a moment to take some pride in it. It was a pretty full basket and no one could say that it wasn't. Yes, sir, there were a lot of fish stuffed into that basket and now the whole house smelt like fish. Hmm. Was there no way to avoid nasty smells? Or maybe he was just whining again.
His stomach growled. Maybe he would let himself have fish for dinner.
Oh, who was he kidding? He had caught a grand total of three. Which for him was pretty good. In fact, he had been on quite the role before tripping fro the dock and right into the ocean where he had sputtered and nearly drowned until Fishlegs, of all people, had managed to yank him out. Fishlegs was pretty nice, it seemed. Had yet to say anything negative about Hiccup's performance in dragon training. Had yet to say anything positive.
He would take one fish. Just one. The other two would be special, be saved for… a little project.
He reached into the basket and pulled out the smallest fish he had caught. He wasn't even sure of its name. He had never really liked fishing all that much.
The fire felt wonderful against his bare skin and he sighed with pleasure. Nothing like good warmth after falling into the ocean.
The fish soon began to sizzle.
And then… a knock at the door.
And he was naked.
Hiccup stared at the door in horror. Who would be here at this time of night? Everyone knew his father wasn't home.
The knock came again. "Hiccup?"
The voice belonged to Tuffnut. Why was he here?
"Our mom was worried you weren't being fed properly by yourself," Ruff's voice chimed in. "So she sent us over with some food."
And he was sure they were happy to bring it, he thought sarcastically. Only there was no time for sarcasm. There were his clothes… right by the door in a messy pile.
"Hiccup, are you home?" Tuff called again. Then, in what he was sure were intended to be softer tones to his sister, "He's probably afraid of strangers."
"We're just going to open up and leave it here if you're not home!"
"Just a second!" Hiccup called, springing forward toward his clothes. Who cared if they were wet, he…
"Oh, he is home!" Tuff exclaimed.
The door opened just as Hiccup reached his clothes.
Ruffnut immediately screamed and covered her eyes. Tuffnut avoided his own gaze as he, laughing, handed over a small basket.
"Your… dinner… do… do you do this often?"
Hiccup shook his head. "I fell in the water and…"
Ruffnut, hands still over her eyes, began to laugh. "I am so telling everyone."