Silver Linings

A/N: Good news, everyone! I've decided to continue this series beyond what I simply wrote for Merricup and Jackunzel week, so that there will be more stories forthcoming. Perhaps set in universes already seen... perhaps in new universes. (And I'll be honest, there'll probably be more Merricup stories than Jackunzel when all's told. Sssshhh...)

In the meantime, enjoy this story, a little early, inspired by gifs done by dreamberk and timebenderss. Look 'em up on Tumblr!

It started with bravery, or a show of it. It started with Hiccup looking up at Pitch and saying, "I am not afraid of you."

"No, of course not… what does a big, scary Viking have to fear from little old me?" Pitch chuckled. "But you are afraid. And your fears walk around you, they look you in the eye and call you by name…"

"What are you talking about?" It was hard to focus, the shadows were swirling around him and Toothless so thick, no matter how fast they flew.

"Oh, I could mention how you're afraid that Jack is bored by you, that Rapunzel pities you… but the one you fear the most is Merida."

"What?"

"You're afraid of how much you want her – and how much power she has over you, without even realizing it. You're afraid of the truth. Why would a girl like her ever love you – why would she look at you – when she could have Jack Frost? What are YOU, compared to a Guardian?"

Images played before Hiccup's eyes – Merida turning away from him and scowling; Merida giving her bright smile to Jack Frost, who carelessly returned it; Jack soaring on the wind, free and powerful, practically a god. And what was Hiccup next to that…?

"I'd say you're just a Viking, but no, you're not even that. You are nothing."

Toothless fell, plummeting through the sky. Only Hiccup's encouragement and will let him level out. It didn't make sense; sure, Toothless knew when Hiccup was frightened, but it wasn't like Hiccup's despair could actually weaken his dragon…

Right?

Pitch was laughing again. "Finally he realizes, his second fear, the one that leaves him the most vulnerable of all… your precious dragon, your little 'Night Fury?' Such a cute name for the 'unholy offspring of lightning and death,' – Did you never once realize its connection to me?"

No, he never had, because there was no connection, there couldn't be. His heart was hammering and Toothless was starting to act strangely. The pupils in his eyes were dilated and they only continued to dilate, black swallowing up the green, and Toothless wasn't listening to Hiccup as he called out directions. "It was a wager between myself and Thor – that I could devise a better way to shoot lightning than he could. With a little help from his silver-tongued brother, I bettered the instruction, creating a creature that left terror in its wake. And how did you ever imagine that your nightmare dragon would not recognize its true master – Pitch?"

Toothless screamed in pain, and changed. The dragon beneath Hiccup dissolved into black, swirling sand. Hiccup fell, and fell, and fell, tumbling head over heels. The sand was screaming, as if it were full of ghosts – and below them was sky, and the wind was tearing them apart. The Guardians around him were reaching for him, calling his name – but he was frozen as he fell, couldn't think, because the unthinkable had happened – Toothless had abandoned him.

Hiccup started awake. He pulled himself out of bed – and fell, unbalanced by his mismatched legs. He rolled over and groped in the dark for his peg-leg, cursing all the while. Finally he was able to stand and hobble away from the nightmare – no, the memory – that had haunted him. He left the chamber where he and Jack slept, and sat down heavily on the edge of the platform.

Even by moonlight, the palace of the Tooth Fairy was a sight to behold. The light picked out hundreds of fairies at their never-ending task. The colors of the platforms and filigree were dimmed but still visible. The palace was so high that clouds drifted through without touching it, filling the air with silver. It was like something that he might have dreamed up as a child, full of intricate beauty that only existed to be beautiful. So few things like that could survive in the Viking world.

Hiccup looked down at himself. He wasn't beautiful. He was mismatched and scrawny and broken apart. He wasn't useful. He wasn't a hero.

"I'd call you a Viking, but you aren't even that. You're nothing…"

"Hiccup?"

He turned. Merida was standing a ways behind him "I heard you talking in your sleep," she said, stepping towards him. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," he answered, a bit too loudly. His heart was hammering and she was the last person – "how much power she has over you" – he wanted to see right now. "My best friend – my dragon defects to the incarnation of night terrors, but I'm feeling fresh as a daisy, can't you tell?"

"Nay," she answered, a bit confused. "I cannae read yer mind, Hiccup."

He gave an angry sigh. "I was just leaving." He pulled himself to his feet and marched past her.

"And goin' where, might I ask?"

"Isn't it obvious?" 'I can't stay here. No one wants me here.' "I'm going to find Toothless."

"And do what? Tempt him back with fish?"

"I – I don't know."

"Then wait, Hiccup. Sleep the rest of the night and – "

"Sleep? While my dragon is out there in the thrall of the Nightmare King? He could be flying to the other side of the world right now! I have to go after him!"

Merida seized his wrist. "Alone?"

"Yes, alone." Hiccup tried to pull away, but her grip was too strong. "This is something I have to do by myself."

"No, it isn't. Hiccup, look around! Ye've got the Guardians, a healer, the spirit o' winter, an, an' ye have me, we're all here to help you! Ye have friends, Hiccup, ye don't have to do this alone."

"I – I don't – " he finally wrenched his hand away – "need friends! I mean, I don't deserve to have friends, if I can't – if I don't have Toothless –"

"Ye're not making any sense, Haddock, friends aren't something ye deserve or ye don't."

"Like you know! A princess who went all her life being petted and coddled – you haven't got a clue what it feels like to be an outcast and mocked and just – a pathetic weakling at everything you do!" She fell back, for once at a loss for words. "You can't possibly understand, Merida – without Toothless, I'm – I'm nothing."

She watched him walk away, shaken by what she had heard. So all of Hiccup's bravado and sarcasm was to hide this contempt for himself, that had never really gone away… she couldn't understand it. How could someone as clever and gentle and brave as Hiccup have ever…

It didn't matter. Hiccup had taken seven steps away from her and that was six too many. She said aloud, "You're not nothing." He didn't stop. She followed him as he headed towards the staircase to the mountain. "Could nothing have repaired North's sleigh? Could nothing have persuaded Rapunzel to leave that tower? Could nothing have held us together for this long?"

"And a fat lot of good that's done all of us! If North hadn't taken us out to that first fight, Sandman would still be here! If Rapunzel hadn't healed Toothless, he couldn't have left me! And the four of us are always at each other's throats all of the time anyway, so what difference does it make?"

He stopped. A cloud filled up the platform at that minute, obscuring his figure. He said in a choked voice, "It would have been better if none of us had met."

Merida could still see his outline, and before he could move away she stepped through the cloud and hugged him, tightly.

"Ye're not nothing, Hiccup," she said, propping her chin on his shoulder.

He struggled to get away. His heart was pounding almost as fast as hers. "You don't know what it's like – please, Merida, let me go."

"Ye think ye're the only one tha's been hurt?"

Hiccup stopped struggling.

"Ye remember the night Mother Gothel appeared and spoke to us?"

His voice was breathless. "Yes… of course I remember that."

"She tried to convince me… that I was nothing." Merida closed her eyes and remembered.

It was all too easy to summon up Gothel's pitying, overly kind face, and the honeyed tone of her voice. Who could argue with her – especially when she used paralyzing magic on Merida? The warrior princess was lying on the floor – she had never felt so weak and helpless in her life, and if it had been up to her anger, she would have leapt up and torn right through Gothel. But she was immobile and had to listen as she spoke…

"You poor, petulant child… look at how little you have become, without your toys to help you. Do you really think that Rapunzel trusts you? That Jack can stand you? That Hiccup admires you? Why would any of them want you near them? Look at yourself, Merida – a half-wild, ignorant, selfish, spoiled brat. You're a beast, plain and simple. The only thing you can do is kill. Just give it up, Princess Beast – no one will ever love you."

But that was where Gothel had made her mistake. In the depths of despair, Merida had remembered being held, and having her hair stroked, and her mother calling her "brave wee lassie," "my treasure," "little whirlwind." And she remembered that moment more clearly than she heard Gothel's words.

With that memory came others – Rapunzel's voice joining hers in song, Jack's raucous laughter at a joke she had made – and Hiccup's smile, that shyly proud look that he wore only when he looked at her. And these memories, touches, smiles, gave her the strength to resist the spell Gothel had put on her, to move again, and to crawl, arm over arm, away from him – until Hiccup and Toothless and Toothiana had arrived and taken her to safety.

She didn't know how to tell Hiccup all of this – words weren't her strong point, and they never had been. But dark magic had to be fought, and if words alone didn't work… Instead, she relaxed her hold on him, and began to sing: "A naoidhean bhig, cluinn mo ghuth…" She turned him towards her, so that as the clouds cleared away they were facing each other in the moonlight. "Mise ri d' thaobh, o mhaighdean bhan." Hiccup's face was scrunched up and looking like he was trying not to cry. She cupped her fingers around his face until he looked up at her. He gave a weak smile, and in the middle of a line, she stopped singing and kissed him. It was the first time she'd ever kissed a boy, and it was awkward and squishy and featured some unnecessary fumbling with noses – but it had the desired effect. When she broke away, Hiccup was staring in shock – and she was smiling like an idiot.

"Merida!" he whispered.

"Hiccup!" she replied.

There was a susurrus in the air, like a hundred tiny sighs.

Merida looked to one side and Hiccup looked to the other. Tiny tooth fairies were assembled around them, floating in midair like lovesick pollen. Some were swooning, most were simply smiling with a dopey look on their faces.

"What're you lot looking at?" Merida asked them, and Hiccup started to laugh. It was so infectious that Merida joined in, and then together they set out to find to a more private place.

There was still a war on – still a lost dragon to redeem, allies to cooperate with, and a kingdom or two to save – but for now, there was each other, and something beautiful and bright between them, and the silver-plated clouds rolling gently through the night air.