There we go! A slightly faster chapter to make up for the false updates lately. :)

I had actually finished this chapter a week ago, but I never got around to giving it a read to fix any mistakes I might find. So it took longer than it should to finally upload it.

What Friendship Can Do: Chapter 6 - Cousins

Snotlout Jorgenson's day had started out swell enough, just like every other day in his glorious life.

He woke up from his long beauty sleep late in the morning as handsome as always, as expected of him. Proceeded to give his truly bulging muscles their daily good morning kisses for good luck as any healthy young man with a sane mind should do. Then dressed up accordingly for someone of his stature and left his household for a breakfast fit for a strong Viking like him to start the day off right.

Naturally, ladies both young and old swooned left and right at his mere appearance. His ego was at an all-time high.

He had plans to meet up with the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston, later after a good meal. Though for what exactly he wasn't so sure off. Not yet at least. They rarely really thought these things through. In fact, they probably never did.

But Snotlout had every intention on gorging himself in food like any Viking man would and should when he happened to be passing by the forge that morning and noticed that one certain Hooligan was already hard at work without a Gobber to be seen and only a Hofferson to keep him company.

And something did not seem right.

Simply put, he was curious to know what their conversation was going on about if it made Hiccup so easily annoyed with Astrid, of all people.

So he crept closer, his somewhat smaller stature giving him a benefit he would never openly admit to, and pressed himself against the wall beneath the large open window where blacksmith and customer would do business. He tried to focus his hearing on what was being said inside of the forge.

"That's a painful kind of sarcasm."

Snotlout didn't know what exactly Astrid was responding too, but even he could hear the chill and the venom in her voice.

It grew quiet for a little while as Hiccup surely heard this too.

"No, my dad hasn't mentioned anything like that to me." Mentioned what? Get to the point already!

For Snotlout this talk was going a little too slow for his liking.

They were talking about a meeting of sorts taking place at the current moment, which he didn't find especially topic worthy and so he found his interest in their talk waning. The chief held those so often just the very mention of such a gathering sounded dull to him.

"And what's so special about it?"

"Huh?"

"You're dad's been on other journeys to the Nest, but you're bothered by this one in particular. Why's that?"

Now that Astrid had made her point, Snotlout found his interest to be piqued again and he tried even harder to listen.

Why would Hiccup be so bothered by something that happens so often pretty much every year ever since Stoick became chief? Those born after his rise to chiefdom knew nothing else and the ones who grew up to be warriors were expected to one day join, even them.

So why would something so normal bother anyone?

"Yeah, Hiccup! What's so special about it?!" He had almost shouted, but he managed to quiet his tongue before those words escaped him. It was quite a feat for a Jorgenson, who were usually known to speak whatever was on their minds. Both the good and the bad.

"Hiccup... What is really bothering you? Tell me." Astrid spoke after hearing him give her an obvious dishonest answer and she said it with that kind of tone that sounded to everyone like 'and give me a straight answer this time or I'm getting my axe'.

To everyone except for Hiccup.

The work on the Hofferson family axe had stopped by now, which made eavesdropping on the two a lot easier for one short Viking.

"Astrid... I know it's frowned on to talk about feelings and fears and such in a Viking community, but I'm so sick and tired of letting this... this..."

"... Trauma?"

It was just the usual 'Hiccup is sensitive and very much in touch with his feminine side' type of talk that Vikings tended to laugh at and ignore, Snot and the twins included. At the very least when such talks were held out in the open like this.

The youngest Jorgenson knew this and yet, for some reason he can't quite explain, he finds any protests at their chosen topic of conversation quieten within himself and he leaned in closer with a frown to listen.

People were giving him odd looks as they passed by, but he honestly could not care less.

He needed to know what was being said.

And that is when the former heir of Berk started talking about his master plan, which missed the very detailed planning that would make this a 'master plan'.

"I need to face a dragon. Ah-a real dragon. I can only get rid of this fear by facing it head-on, the good old fashioned way."

Was that Hiccup's amazing plan?

Do the same thing he's been trying and failing to do during the raids over and over again for the past year or two?!

Snotlout couldn't fight the anger he felt welling up inside.

Does he not understand the lives he puts at risk every week by simply not staying put? His own included?!

Snotlout jumped up from hiding with his teeth gritting and a fury in his light blue narrowed eyes, ready to blow his cover in order to give that reckless idiot a piece of his mind.

"You?! Facing a dragon alone, are you serious?!"

Though Astrid had been stumped and speechless at first, she quickly recovered and went on a tirade, just narrowingly not noticing the shorter teen eavesdropping on their private conversation. She had eyes for only one Viking right now.

Snotlout was glad at least someone shared his thoughts on the matter.

"I know it's-it's a bit crazy, but-" But nothing! If he had sleeves, Snotlout would roll them up, clear his throat, grabbed his cousin by the collar, and told him 'No!'. Clearly someone hasn't done that yet.

But as one of Berk's best and youngest cornered the blacksmith with a newly sharpened weapon, Snotlout promptly decided staying hidden for a little while longer would probably be for the best.

Naturally, Astrid would never dare to use something as flimsy as an axe on his powerful muscles that could take on any dragon barehanded, but he thought it was wiser not to put that theory to the test.

His heart pounding at nearly being caught meant nothing.

"'A bit crazy'? Hiccup, you can barely step outside of your house during a raid without collapsing!" Finally someone said it! Probably should have mentioned all the people he endangers while doing said dangerous and stupid things.

"Now hold-hold on. 'Collapsing' isn't exactly what-" Shut up, Hiccup.

"You freeze up, turn yourself into an easy meal, can't fight back even when a Monstrous Nightmare comes diving down for you in a blaze. And you want to go out there and face them without help?! Are you insane!"

Couldn't have said it better himself! Though he probably would have also mentioned he had a hand in heroically chasing that dragon away when it came for his cousin.

Snotlout would have smirked the smug kind in a way he had perfected over the years upon hearing no response coming from Hiccup. That is, if it wasn't for Astrid's axe gleaming dangerously in her hand keeping him from blowing his cover completely.

At last someone was smacking some sense into him, though not in a literal sense, which is exactly what a Jorgenson would have done.

"I never said I would be alone, Astrid. I-I have been touchy about the next expedition because I want to join my father and the others." 'Well, tough, 'cause you're not going. Ever!' is what the huff leaving Snot seemed to say.

"I'd have dad right there to help me. And isn't making sure that I'm safe what you both want? I'll be surrounded by Vikings there to begrudgingly keep me from harm. Totally safe!" Everybody on Berk, and even some of the other tribes very familiar with one Hiccup Haddock, knew this young man's definition of 'safety' couldn't be entirely trusted. He could feel his head shaking as his arms crossed, completely into a discussion he wasn't even truly a part of.

"Astrid, please." Something seemed to change in Hiccup's voice just then. The broad shouldered boy recognized it as a plead.

Everybody knew that was something a Viking just didn't do. Even for Hiccup, a beg or a request of pity or compassion was unheard off. This was a first.

A Viking didn't plead. In that case, Hiccup had always been as much a Viking as any other Hooligan in their tribe. Until that morning apparently.

"I... I need this, Astrid. Maybe if I can have just one person to tell me that I'm not absolutely insane to think of such a plan... You know, someone to support this and help me convince my dad?" Astrid's only answer was silence and much like him, Snotlout guessed she wouldn't give in.

Yet, there was a part of him that strangely enough felt like he was being spoken too directly. Like that request wasn't only for Astrid to answer to.

Which is impossible. His hiding skills were far too perfect for him to ever be discovered by the likes of common men. There's no way Hiccup was supposed to know he was even there.

The Jorgenson stayed and continued to listen.

"Please... Let me have this. I need to redeem myself. I need control over my life back. Don't let them take everything from me for good."

Snotlout, for reasons unknown to him, found himself made speechless as he thought that last part over in his head and discovered hearing this was quite discomforting to him. He don't know why, it just did.

It was at this point that he decided to call it quits. As Hiccup tried to resume his work and Astrid attempted other topics to discuss, the hidden teen came out of hiding and left. Briefly had his steel blue eyes locked with Hiccup's, both the living green and the hauntingly lifeless one that still send chills down his spine even to this day.

He was angry as he stomped away. No, seething even!

At the dragons, at Hiccup for never listening and never giving up, at himself for feeling compelled by the broken young man's deepest desires and needs.

Didn't he understand? Didn't he see all the lives he put at stake every single time he set foot outside of his home during a raid with the so-called intention to save his reputation and face in front of the village? Snotlout himself was still walking around with a burn on his thigh that could have been prevented if he hadn't needed to chase off that Nightmare!

It was only because Elder Gothi's knowledge of healing, an understanding that went far beyond the minds of mortal men, that the pain his unknown attempt at saving another's ass was bearable today! Not that the burn was severe enough to render him incapacitated for longer than a day or two, though it certainly could have been a lot worse!

"Hey, Snotman there you are!"

"We were just wondering why you weren't at breakfast. You know the Chief's gonna hog it all day for a meeting right?"

The near identical twins doomed up in the distance, having apparently not yet grown impatient and bored when their semi-friend took longer than expected to show up.

Snotlout's frown was etched deeply onto his facial features and even Ruff and Tuff shared a look as they watched him coming.

'Fine then.' He seemed to conclude in his mind.

If Hiccup wouldn't listen to Astrid or even their Chief, his own father, than Snotlout would have a stern talking with him.

It was about time that runt of a Viking knew his place.

Upon reaching the twins, Snotlout promptly punched one of them in the face to vent his own frustrations with a certain assistent of Gobber's, hoping it was the male one he hit.

He could still smell the pines of the trees all around him, could feel the light drizzle of rain gradually soaking through his clothes, was shivering from the chill of another cloudy day of this late Fall.

His heart pounded and loud, laboured breaths left. They were the only sounds he heard besides his hurried footsteps on the forest floor. His mind was wild with panic.

Through the woods of Ravenpoint he ran and ran, trees he dodged left and right, stumbling occasionally over a root, a rock, or even his own two feet.

He couldn't escape. It wouldn't let him. Each time he looked back, the monster was always there, ready to devour him.

He could only catch glimpses of the shadowy mass chasing him between the trees, could hear twigs snap and branches break under its weight, and felt the wind rushing in his face. Still running towards home as fast as his spindly limbs could manage, he felt surrounded.

It would never let him escape. Vikings weren't meant to meet this creature and live to tell the tale. But for him there wasn't even any time to hide and pray it wouldn't find him, because it always would.

And then it pounced.

He screeched a scream that didn't even sound human to him anymore as it tore into him and all he could see was that piercingly yellow glare amidst the darkest black.

"Hey... Hey!" A rude voice followed by the clattering of knives is what woke Hiccup up from another nightmare.

Still trembling, he took his gaze off the shield with the Night Fury's silhouette painted on top of its wooden surface, Hiccup's eyes came to settle on a familiar pair of blue and in an instance did he let out a mental groan.

"Snotlout." He simply acknowledged the other teen, not caring enough to hide his dissatisfaction.

The taller one of the Vikings took a look around himself and found that he was still standing in the forge and not the deep, dense woods outside of the village. It wasn't a particularly grey day either as the sun was shining.

It was late in the afternoon and technically Hiccup wasn't supposed to be here. Work was done for now and Gobber could be seen conversing with fellow Viking men. He had only briefly attended the meeting Chief Stoick held before returning here to aid his apprentice with the repairs. After all, it wasn't anything he hadn't heard before.

But work was done and that was the only reason why Hiccup had the time to take a look at some of his old work. His earlier talk with Astrid, though it had grown into an argument, had piqued his interest.

"Uhm, hello?! Your customer is right here! Just because you're all freakishly tall now doesn't mean you can go ahead and ignore me!" A certain cousin of his demanded his undivided attention.

"Freakishly?" Hiccup asked, none too amused at the comment.

At least his height was something noteworthy.

"Well, duh! You've outgrown everyone, even Fishlegs! And that while I was supposed to be the tall one!" He was, once upon a time, the tallest of their generation, save for the dragon-obsessed husky boy of the Ingermans, who's height matched his width.

What went wrong in his puberty is something not one member of House Jorgenson understood.

"Does your visit have a point or are you just here to rant about the one thing that did go well for me?" Hiccup asked with an exasperated sigh, evidently not in the mood to be toyed with.

When was he ever, really?

"Uh yeah, my daggers need some work!" Snotlout picked the small weapons up from the counter to wave them in front of the apprentice, who took them from him and studied them both for anything that needed fixing without smothering his agitation.

"Any particular reason you have the old daggers from Ruffnut and Tuffnut? You do know they had these made with their initials because of that one argument years ago, right?" Hiccup eyed the other, not at all being subtle as he expressed his suspicions.

Sometime ago, the twins had gotten into a fight that went pretty far, even for them. Hiccup didn't know the details as he was still locked in the house at the time, but apparently the two had gotten sick having to share everything they owned with one another. They didn't have anything that they couldn't call 'mine'. Everything was 'ours' to them.

So Gobber, at the expenses of their parents who's perspective on life were looking bleaker and bleaker the longer their argument continued, had made them these two daggers.

"They... Uh.. You know... That's none of your business!" Was the final reply and Hiccup rolled his eyes.

He might aswell take a look. He might not have had a hand in making them, but he was qualified enough to repair them.

Except there was nothing wrong with either of them.

The steel wasn't bend or broken, the hilt was still okay, the blade wasn't dull enough to be sharpened.

So why had Snotlout come?

Giving the shorter man a stern look that spoke volumes of how he wasn't going to deal with Snot's bullying and taunting if that was what he had come for, Hiccup handed the weapons back and crossed his arms.

It wasn't often that he glared, but for him he made an exception.

"Now tell me the truth. Why did you really come here?" Haddock asked the Jorgenson and he didn't do it kindly.

Snotlout returned the glare at having the knives pushed harmlessly back into his hold and fumed.

Hiccup wanted the truth? Oh, he'll get it alright!

"You wanna know why I'm here? I'm here to tell you, you should just stop it already, Hiccup!" And so started the second outburst he would have to endure that day.

"Accept you're not the heir anymore and stop putting yourself in danger! You think people are gonna keep saving you for the rest of your life? Well, they're not! Someday they're gonna wake up and realize it's pointless to save someone with a death wish!" As soon as he brought up the currently unoccupied position of heir, Hiccup lost interest in this argument as he leant with his right hand on the wooden surface of the counter now next to him and the left on his hip.

He could only hope the other young man would soon finish so he could start tidying up here and go home for an enjoyable dinner in uncomfortable silence with his father.

"You think it's fun to save your sorry behind? That we like it when one of our own is so desperate to prove himself he'd willingly throw himself right at the dragons? Someday you're gonna get hurt! Other people are gonna get hurt! I got hurt!" It was at that moment Hiccup's eyes seemed to pop open at what Snot said last.

Now that was something he needed to know more about.

"Wait, what do you mean you got-"

"Screw your reputation, screw your birthright, you should be glad that Night Fury even let you live! Do you know how many people survive an attack from the most elusive and dangerous dragon of the Archipelago? None! That's how many!" Snotlout did not let him speak.

"Hold on, 'Lout, when did you get-" The rant continued without mercy.

"You should count yourself lucky! You should thank the Gods for favoring you that day!" Much like Astrid before him, Snotlout made sure to try and corner him, keep him from running from this confrontation.

As if Hiccup ever made a move to do so. He wasn't backing away even as his much stouter cousin came stalking closer.

"Snotlout, wait! Stop!" And much like earlier today, not a word Hiccup said could dissuade the other from speaking. The opportunity to speak of his concerns is something that he was denied.

"Who cares if you're the heir or not?! You're gonna be a full-time blacksmith now, deal with it!" As if he had a problem with that. Hiccup felt a bit of his worry dissipate when Snot's shouting continued and the want to make him stop took priority.

"Snotlout!" He called his cousin's name, but another thing Jorgensons were good at was not listening.

"Instead of getting all touchy and teary-eyed because your dad kicked you out of that position, you should do your job just like the rest of us!" Whatever Hiccup had to say, it was of no interest to him. He didn't dare let his words be silenced by this dangerous fool.

Honestly, this rant was doing a better job of angering arguebly one of the more patient people on Berk than it was urging him to reflect on his past actions. He could feel it bubbling at the back of his throat.

"'Lout!"

"You're not a dragon killer, you're not the heir, you're never gonna be chief! You have nothing to prove! So stop putting yourself and others at risk for something as shallow as-"

"SNOTLOUT!"

As the unfinished shield fell to the floor with a clatter and the yelling stopped with one angry shout, silence returned in the forge. Snotlout, panting, was left to stare at his relative, who was angrier than he had ever seen him before.

Life on Berk was slowing down as the remaining people who hadn't gone to the meeting were finishing up their work while the sun slowly set, but many of the onlookers had stopped to stare. Even Gobber took a peek inside the forge, the surprisingly loud voice of his usually more reserved apprentice startling him.

Hiccup hated how there was never any privacy in this village.

"How many more times do I have to tell you?" His voice broke even after that one loud yell.

Thor, wasn't there anything he could handle?

"I don't care if I'm the heir or not. I never even cared about being chief in the first place!" At least now he was being listened to in this tense silence, if anything ever managed to get through a Jorgenson's thick skull. Particularly this Jorgenson's.

"All I ever wanted was to prove to my father and the village that one stupid dragon didn't scar me for life!" Even though it clearly had.

Snotlout's brow knitted together in a furrowed frown.

"I love blacksmithing. Anyone who's ever handled my work knows this. I just can't stand the fact that everyone I know feels the need to protect and shelter me as if seeing a small Terror is enough to do me in. I'm more than this. I'm more than just something that needs to be fixed. That's all I want to prove." Besides the lack of privacy in Berk, Hiccup also could not stand how he was becoming so emotional. And that in front of the one person he didn't want to be caught by like this.

"I want to be worthy of my father, of Astrid, of my village. Heir or not, it doesn't matter so long as I can be a Viking they can be proud off. That's all. It's been my goal for years and once upon" Hiccup had a way of showing much emotion without shedding any actually tears and it was causing a knot to form in Snotlout's gut.

"It's been my goal for years and once upon a time I was so close. Until... that... happened. I can't even start from the very beginning anymore." Dragon Training. Snotlout knew immediately what Hiccup was talking about.

As he stared up to the lanky figure that would surely be taller if he didn't have such a hunched and introverted posture, it all suddenly made sense.

Pieces of some puzzle Snotlout wasn't even aware he was trying to solve fell into place and his grip on the daggers became tighter.

Hiccup never cared about regaining his birthright. Of course he never did, that much was clear now! This was all about a man trying to prove his worth his way and no one was letting him. Hiccup wanted to rub it in all their faces that he wasn't broken and that, even if he was, he could fix himself just fine.

He didn't need a bunch of overbearing people to collectively keep him sheltered and safe because they cared too much to lose him too.

He needed an opportunity. A chance.

The shorter man sneered as he let go of the daggers on the counter and turned to stomp away, abruptly cutting their verbal fight short and leaving behind a Hiccup now stunned and confused.

His feet were dragging him somewhere. Where he wasn't quite sure off, but he still kept on going. His 'stern talking' with Hiccup had only made him even angrier.

Angrier and somehow both determined and defeated.

Snotlout was still a painfully immature youth, but there was a part of him egging him on and pushing him towards what seemed to be the Great Hall. It was something inside himself he wasn't at all familiar with.

People were now leaving through the two long, great doors standing within the strong face of the mountain. The meeting seemed to have ended and clearly not in their favour. Some looked beaten, others a little peeved, while there were also those who looked resolute.

Once again no one had been able to sway Stoick the Vast's mind to decide against another search.

But light blue eyes were scanning the several different bearded and hairless faces of the crowd to find only one man.

And he found him soon.

"There you are, boy-o! Ya missed the entire meeting! I put in a good word for you with the Chief. You're gonna come with us on the search!" A taller and slightly broader man the near spitting image of Snotlout approached him, grinning from ear to ear at a job well done of whispering into the Chief's ear about how amazing his son was and what this perfect picture of pure Vikingness could mean to their expedition.

But Snotlout wasn't as happy as his father, Spitelout, thought he'd be upon hearing such good news and so his own excited grin waned. Instead it was replaced by a cautious frown.

"Dad, can we talk about the upcoming search for the Dragon's Nest?"

For some reason, this argument was a little harder to write than the one in the previous chapter. And I promise, this confrontation between Hiccup and Snot is for a reason!

Also, I have never written Snotlout before. How did you guys think my first attempt went? :D