I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, I'm just a fan :)

Hand on my Heart

Chapter 6

Hiccup woke up early the following morning to find no sign of Toothless. He immediately panicked. He dressed and raced out the door in perhaps no more than a minute only to stand frozen half way out the door. The Chieftain's house overlooked the village in much the same way as it did in Berk and he could see the town square from where he stood. There in the middle of the square was Toothless... Showing off. He was playing with children; Camicazi nuzzled him as well as half of the other observers. It seemed the whole village was enjoying the Night Fury. Hiccup stood shocked. Toothless wasn't exactly an exhibitionist by nature, yet here he stood crooning and laughing with the crowd. Hiccup had another one of those moments where he was sure he was either dead or dreaming. That was until Toothless spotted him. The dragon leapt over the crowd and raced towards him, ending the same as usual... With Hiccup flattened on the ground, covered in saliva. The crowd cheered and laughed (light heartedly of course) and Hiccup felt oddly comfortable, if not a little shocked.

Once he was allowed to stand, he was met with Camicazi, who gave him a big affectionate hug as usual, and the blacksmith who was giving him an odd look while getting squeezed to death by his long time friend. Hiccup accompanied him to the Bogburglar forge where he spent the day going over ideas and making plans with him. The blacksmith, who was named Chum, showed him all the different legs that he had for himself. He had one for running, climbing, swimming, snow, mud, another that fitted into a boot and one for battle that went all the way up to cover his knee. He said that way if ever in battle, someone couldn't knock it off him. It was definitely something for Hiccup to consider. They spent all day working on legs for Hiccup. He decided it would be best to start with something sturdy enough to start his training. Camicazi had explained to him that the beginning of his training would consist of him building muscle. She reckoned there would be no point in beginning weapons training without the necessary skill or ability for wielding said weapons.

Hiccup spent several days in the forge with Chum, who he was quickly fond of, building the prosthetics. Camicazi was thrilled at having Hiccup in the village and threw him a party; he was also easily accepted with them. She changed his eating habits radically to allow for the optimum weight gain. Hiccup was after all ridiculously skinny and one measly meal a day was not going to cut it. She changed his routine to get him eating four times a day on meals that were heavy on the protein.

Once training began, Hiccup seriously contemplated fleeing the island and running home. It was horrendous. Every day he was running for two hours, doing floor exercises like hundreds of push ups, sit ups and pull ups. He was doing muscle training and agility and every night he slept like the dead. Several times a day he would be convinced beyond all reasonable doubt that Cami was attempting to kill him but every time, he noticed that she was doing the exact same routine as he was and it was easier for her because clearly she was used to it. So he kept going and he found although his muscles ached and most of the day he felt like would die – it was getting easier.

He was also tremendously happy with his new leg fitments. Especially the one made for running. It fit so well and was so well balanced that at times, he hardly noticed that he wasn't whole any longer. His favourite, however, was the one that clipped into a boot. It was shaped like a foot and it clicked into place in the new boots he had made for him. He noticed that his right foot had grown and was pressing uncomfortably against the material at the front of the boot. This was his favourite one because if he wore leggings and the boot, nobody could even tell that he was crippled. This excited him beyond belief and he had a second fitment as an exact replica to it made, just in case anything ever happened to it.

Bertha arrived after the fifth week of him being there. She was sceptical of Toothless at first but couldn't deny the sheer joy that he brought her village and once she gave him a chance, she was well and truly smitten. She informed Camicazi that there were several things she would be needed for in the following months, but she would be free to go after that for their adventure. Bertha also had no problem with Hiccup and Toothless taking up residence in her home, much to the confusion and joy of her daughter.

By the eighth week, Hiccup was well and truly muscled. His appetite had surpassed even Camicazi's expectations of him and he was soon eating almost half as much as Toothless. He also found the exercise regiment satisfying after eight weeks of doing it. It wasn't that difficult anymore and Hiccup found himself pushing himself harder than even Camicazi was. He was already so much stronger and faster than ever before. Camicazi was sure he'd also grown a couple of inches in height. He never used to notice things like that, but when you're detachable leg has had to be adjusted twice in eight weeks due to your rapid growth, it matters.

His slow transformation was essentially all thanks to Camicazi. When he left Berk, Hiccup was about 5 foot 6 inches tall and as skinny as a rake. After six months of living with the Bogburglers he was 5 foot 11 inches tall and had developed real muscles. Bertha had even stopped calling him fishbone! Camicazi and Hiccup were better friends than ever before and he had to admit, he was having fun. The training regiment was now second nature to him and he could lift and swing any weapon they had. He was ready for weapons training.

Cami started him off with sword fighting since that was the easiest and most efficient form of weapons training. Living with Cami and Bertha had given Hiccup a new confidence he had never had before and he gradually became less self-deprecating. For his seventeenth birthday, the tribe had come together to throw him a birthday bash, unlike anything he'd even had before and Bertha and Camicazi gifted him his own weapon collection. They had given him three daggers of different sizes that could be easily hidden, two swords, both ornately engraved, a beautiful axe which even Astrid would be jealous of, a hammer and a mace. Chum had fashioned them all exactly for him and his ever increasing abilities and had decorated them with images of Toothless. Everything he would ever need – not that he was planning on ever actually hurting anyone with any of them. The gesture though... He had to work to keep tears from welling in his eyes. He may look ridiculously different, but he was still the same Hiccup deep down. Their friendship had grown to the point where she was closer to him than anyone else. He felt like he could truly be himself with her. He never had to try to be anyone else, he could just be him.

Shortly after his birthday, Hiccup itched to try out the other weapons and Camicazi finally conceded. She taught him how to use the larger weapons, showing him battle techniques with each and he picked it up quickly. He had a logical brain after all, so giving him techniques to remember along with strategy and different scenarios ensured that he learned efficiently. He practiced constantly, even alone. He even continued his training on his flights with Toothless, learning how to use his arms to practice while still concentrating on his feet and Toothless' movements. The last thing Camicazi taught him was dagger throwing. He was terrible at it at first, hardly ever getting anywhere near the target, but Cami was patient with him while still being firm. After intensive training with the knives, he turned out to be better at it than Camicazi.

Toothless watched eagerly whenever Hiccup trained, joining in or helping whenever he could and he was pleased that his human was becoming so lethal. He had often worried about Hiccup, worried that maybe one day he would get there too late and Hiccup wouldn't be able to protect himself. He was also impressed with how much Hiccup was growing both in height and in build. Toothless noticed it particularly while flying. The boy must have doubled his body weight from all the training he was doing.

Because of one thing after another, Hiccup and Toothless had been with the Bogburglers for just over ten months before they could finally get on with their adventure. Neither had minded being there for so long because they seemed to just slot right into life in the village. Hiccup considered seriously just staying there. As much as he cared for Astrid, life in Berk had never been kind to Hiccup. He planned to use his 'adventure', as Cami put it, to think things over. Maybe Astrid could move there with him? Camicazi would be annoyed at that since she didn't like Astrid, but they could figure it out. He knew Cami would never want a husband, so he didn't think she would mind too much if he found himself a wife, even if it wasn't Astrid. It wasn't really common for males to live with the Bogburglars, nor was it common for people to be married in the village, but it wasn't forbidden or unheard of.

Hiccup stood in front of the mirror in the Chief's house for the first time since he arrived. He did this on purpose to be in a better position to notice the changes in his body. It was the night before they planned to take off and he decided when his training started that he wouldn't look in a mirror until the night before they left. He felt like he was looking at someone else. He now stood an impressive 6 foot 1 inches tall. If his growth spurt continued like this, maybe he'd one day stand nearly as tall as his father. He noticed his chest had gotten significantly wider; his back was almost twice as wide as it had been before and his hair had grown to almost two inches below his chin. His arms were now something to be proud of, lined with muscle and power that he had never possessed before.

He almost didn't recognise himself. He stared at the scars on his body; some had been from work in the forge, some had been from his battle with the red death but most of them, especially on his arms, back, neck and chest were from battling with Camicazi. At the start of weapons training she had never made contact, but once he mastered the initial skills, she had to begin making contact so that his brain would learn to hasten its battle pace. At first the gashes and stitches had been torture for Hiccup, he wasn't used to the pain of it, but after a few months, he hardly noticed anymore and he certainly didn't let it affect his fighting or stamina. He stared at his arms that were littered with scars. He looked like a real Viking teen finally. He even had some gashes on his face. One that went right through his right eyebrow and another scar, this one significantly larger, ran right across his left cheek stopping just before his ear. That gash had bled a lot. Hiccup found eating to be difficult for weeks after that. He got his revenge on Camicazi for that one though and laughed at the memory of it. He made sure to cut right through her favourite tattoo located on her shoulder and she was livid.

At the start, he had been hesitant to hurt her but after about eight sets of stitches his manners wore off with her. He still loved her of course, but damn if that girl didn't drive him crazy. Her main trick was yelling insults at whoever she was combating to distract them, whereas Hiccup found that being ridiculously silent unnerved the people he fought far more. Once he was proficient, Camicazi had recruited several villagers to spar with him to give him experience outside of just Cami. He won regularly because, although he was by no means a mountain of muscle, the way he had sculpted his body was for speed and strength combined, so he managed to be seriously wily. He was certain that his father wouldn't even recognise him were he to run across him somewhere.

Another thing that had greatly improved from all his training was his missing limb. He felt no pain there any longer and he had several fitments for it now, including the clever battle one. It no longer bothered him that he was missing a limb, even if it was somewhat of a hassle. He was stronger than ever and Cami had even forced him to train one legged in case the need were ever to arise. She wouldn't want him to be unable to best someone just because his fitment was missing for whatever reason. That was the most difficult part for him. At first he was utterly ashamed and embarrassed because he was a cripple in every sense of the word. To his utter amazement, Cami whipped him into shape and told him that he had to work with what the Gods gave him and stop whining or she'd go really hard on him. He quickly shut up about it and focused and in a matter of weeks he could fight one legged and he was lethal. Then he no longer felt like a cripple. Camicazi had given him something that nobody ever had before – his dignity.

"Hiccup?" Cami called from the main room in the house.

"Coming." He called back. The village were throwing them a banquet dinner to see them off. He dressed in a nice black tunic that he had bought from the seamstress. His clothing had changed a lot over the past ten months as well. Once he had grown out of his browns and greens, he started wearing dark colours so that he would match better with Toothless should they ever need to blend into the background, especially the darkness. He walked down to where Camicazi was and smiled at her. She was wearing a beautiful mid calf length ice blue dress and Hiccup would have to be blind not to notice how beautiful she looked.

"Can I do your hair?" She grinned.

"Yeah, sure." He sat down in front of her. She loved braiding his long hair. Her favourite style on him was a braid down the middle of the back of his head. It was still loose on the sides but looked a bit like a Mohawk. She thought he looked bad ass like that. Her nimble fingers weaved in and out of his hair and when she was finished she tied it off at the bottom with some black string.

"Done. You look good, Haddock." She commented while sweeping her gaze over him.

"Thanks." He smiled. "You look beautiful, Cami." He poked her rib as he walked to the door. "Where's Toothless?"

"He's already in the hall I think. He was promised a large pile of his favourite fish." Cami laughed and Hiccup shook his head.

"You do realise he isn't going to want to leave tomorrow." Hiccup told her. "He really is such a spoiled, overgrown salamander." He muttered.

"Hey, now. Toothless is a celebrity in this village and I'm glad he loves it here. I hope you do too." She said sweetly.

"I do. More than I thought possible actually." Hiccup commented honestly.

"Good." She grinned. "I hope you'll stay when we come back. You're not bad for a boy, Haddock." She poked him, getting him back.

"Come on short stuff, let's go eat. I'm starving." He laughed and swung an arm over her shoulders and led her to the hall.

Hiccup, Camicazi, Bertha and Toothless celebrated with the village and had a banquet table that could only be described as a feast for the Gods and rivers of mead flowing freely. Hiccup wasn't much of a drinker but on this occasion he was more than happy to indulge. He'd worked hard continuously for the last ten months and he believed that he deserved some fun. Aside from Cami, he had also become quite close friends with Chum the blacksmith and Cami's best friend Axela. Axela had a similar personality to Ruffnut but looked more like Fishlegs. Axela wasn't fat though; she was just really tall, almost as tall as Hiccup and curvy, with dark brown hair and sky blue eyes. He'd grown close to Chum because of all the work in the forge. Hiccup had kept up his trade and happily worked there when Cami wasn't trying to kill him with training. Hiccup and Chum had also bonded over their disabilities. It was nice for Hiccup to be able to talk to someone about it. Gobber had never shown any emotion with regards to his missing limbs and Hiccup didn't think he would have been much help. He was very fond of his two new friends and was grateful for them. Even if he decided to live in Berk later in life, he would still visit this village regularly because he was fond of all of them. He could honestly say there was nobody here he disliked.

They partied through the night, telling silly stories, playing drinking games, challenging each other to do stupid things and Hiccup had a blast. This was the kind of interaction he had craved growing up. The simple pleasure of having real friends was something he would never take for granted having gone years without. Camicazi had always been his friend, but that hadn't made much of a difference in Berk since she was kind of a taboo subject amongst the people. She was always up to something and most people tired of her pranks easily. Hiccup never tired of her though.

Before he passed out on the table in the hall like many of the other Vikings had, he decided to go home and go to bed. He would regret it severely tomorrow if he didn't get a good night's sleep so he bid the remaining villagers good night, hugging Axela and shaking hands with Chum. He left Camicazi sitting there as he staggered back to the Chief's house. Bertha had passed out on a table hours before and would no doubt have a terrible headache in the morning. Toothless had gotten into the mead out of curiosity and it had affected him strongly. He was falling about the place when Hiccup sent him home and when he entered the house he saw Toothless passed out across the floor, sprawled on his back with one of his hind legs in the air. If Hiccup hadn't been so drunk himself, he would have sketched the hilarious position the dragon was in, but he couldn't. It didn't stop him from having a good laugh though.

He decided to go and drink some water in an effort to dilute the inevitable hangover that would hit him like a ton of bricks in the morning. He heard the door slam shut and looked over his shoulder to find a dishevelled Camicazi staggering into the house.

"Want some water?" He called to her and she just nodded. He laughed. She was clearly much further gone than he was. He got two mugs and filled them from barrel in the pantry and handed one to Cami.

"Thanks." She murmured and made her way over to the couch. When she noticed the way Toothless was lying on the floor she giggled. "Hiccup? Have you seen this?" She asked pointing to the dragon and he grinned.

"Yeah, if I thought I could keep my hand steady I would draw it. I never want to forget this image." He laughed and plopped down next to her. She immediately rested her head on his shoulder.

"We are going to be paying for this tomorrow during our flight." She said sadly.

"Well we have all day to recover. We don't leave until dark." He told her.

"Oh. Really? I thought we were going in the morning." She commented.

"It wouldn't be safe for us to fly with him in the state we are all in." He laughed.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while just enjoying their water and thinking about the events of the evening.

"Do you like Axela?" Camicazi asked out of the blue.

"She's a great friend, Cami. I can see why you two are so close." He smiled at her. He knew that wasn't what she meant but he didn't want to get into that. Astrid had become somewhat of a no go area of conversation. Camicazi didn't like Astrid one bit and although Hiccup missed her, her absence didn't hurt him the way it once had.

"So why didn't you do it then?" She asked quietly.

"Do what?" He asked knowing already where the conversation was going.

"Chum dared you to kiss me and you took the penalty instead of just kissing me. Why?" She asked curiously.

"Cami, you are my best friend, aside from Toothless, and I didn't want us to wake up tomorrow feeling awkward." He explained, slinging an arm over her shoulder and holding her close.

"I never took you for a liar, Haddock." She snapped.

"I'm not lying. I care too much about you to take advantage of you." He said back to her.

"It's because of her isn't it?" She yanked his arm away from her shoulders and stood up. It would have been far more dramatic had she not wobbled on her feet.

"This has nothing to do with Astrid." He replied gently.

"Then what's it to do with, Hiccup? We've spent months together and you still only see me as a friend. I know I'm a Viking and I'm not supposed to say stuff like this but, how is that supposed to make me feel? I'm just the girl you use to get the girl you really want." Her words stung Hiccup to his very core and he visibly flinched. Camicazi's fierce expression wavered at the sight of him.

"If you felt that way, you could have just told me to leave. You didn't have to help me, Camicazi." He said sadly.

"So now the walls are back up again. You're shutting me out now of all times. I know the real you, Hiccup." She pushed and it set him off.

"Fine. You want the truth? I'll tell you the truth. You are by far the most aggravating, selfish, beautiful, terrifying and sexy woman I have ever come across. I would never use you as you put it. I thought you would enjoy training me since you used to always say you wanted to. You literally drive me insane most of the time. When training started, I was almost completely convinced that you were trying to kill me." He said angrily before his rage dissipated. He started walking towards the stairs before he turned back to face her. "I can't let myself feel more for you, Camicazi, because I wouldn't survive it. We want different things. I want a wife and a family and a nice little wonderful life, whereas, you want to be the Bogburglar goddess that you've always known you would someday be. I respect that. That's also why we can't be more than friends, because I can't be just some notch in your bedpost. I won't." He said to her seriously then turned on his heels and marched up the stairs to his bedroom, concentrating so he wouldn't stumble from being drunk and his general Hiccupness.

Camicazi watched him go, wide eyed. She hadn't meant to hurt him but obviously she had. Hiccup had clearly thought more about this than she had previously reckoned with and she didn't know what to do. The traditions of her tribe had been ingrained in her since she could speak and it was a difficult thought to ever let them go. But now she knew. If she wanted Hiccup, she would have to be committed to be with him forever, because he wasn't the type of boy you use for a night and never think of again. He was the type of boy that melted even the most ice encrusted of hearts and she knew that she had a lot to think about.