Getting To Know You:

"Nobody's listening to you, you plankton-hearted, fish-legged, disaster area!" a boy with an awfully large nose, and tall muscley figure yelled as he held another boy with what appeared to be lenses on his face in Astrid's favorite move, twisting and holding the opponent's arm behind their back. Beside him was a third boy, larger than the others and wearing a nose ring. Standing on the other side was a much thinner boy who kind of reminded Hiccup of himself.

"Thanks to you and your sniveling, sneezing disability that whole military operation was nearly a total disaster", big nose continued, reminding him a bit of Snotlout. "When I'm Chief of this Tribe the first thing I'm going to do is boot anybody with a pathetic allergy like yours straight out into exile. You're not fit to be a Hooligan!"

'Definitely like Snotlout', Hiccup thought, when something struck him. "Wait. Did he say Hooligan?"

"But you are NOT going to be Chief of this Tribe", the boy with lenses said back, voice fearful, but strong. "HICCUP is going to be Chief of this Tribe."

Alarm bells rang in Hiccup's head again, eyes widening like saucers. He continued to watch, needing to know more. These names had to be a coincidence.

"Oh, he is, is he?" the Snotlout-like boy dropped the other, sauntering over to who Hiccup assumed was, well, Hiccup. "So, I'm not allowed that Monstrous Nightmare am I? Our Future Leader is keeping very quiet about it, isn't he? Come on, hiccup, I'm stealing your inheritance. What are you going to do about it, then, eh?"

A few tense moments passed before this Hiccup spoke. "I challenge you, snotface snotlout, for the dragon, Fireworm, who is mine by right."

It was all Hiccup needed to hear. A tribe also named Hooligan, a skinny boy named Hiccup who was also the next in line to be Chief, and now a bully who's name is Snotface Snotlout. It couldn't all be a coincidence.

Hiccup had heard of parallel universes before, particularly from the twins, but pretty much like everything else they said, he never believed it was true! "Two worlds collide…", Hiccup muttered. It wasn't a coincidence. He turned back to Toothless.

"Okay bud, don't panic, but I think we're in some alternate universe…or something, and our only way back is gone. Maybe?" Hiccup's hand went to his head with what felt like a headache coming on. "This is all so confusing." He had to remember the rest of that inscription…or, spell?

'One wrong', Hiccup thought. It said a wrong had to be righted before things returned to normal, but what wrong? Why here? Why him? That headache was coming, Hiccup could feel it.

Toothless warbled, and it brought Hiccup out. His dragon was gesturing out to one of the boys from before―hiccup, he remembered― walking off into the village.

"Good thinking, Toothless. Come on...carefully", Hiccup said, hushed as he started to move forward. "We don't want to attract any attention to ourselves."

Toothless huffed in what Hiccup could only assume meant, 'easier said than done', but with a dry smirk in his dragon's general direction, they went anyway.

000

After the scuffle with snotlout, hiccup made his way back home, unsure what exactly he'd be coming home to. toothless was being completely impossible. He'd tried everything: vanity, revenge, jokes, but no matter what, toothless would rather mess with him than listen to him. It was like some sort of game, one which he didn't care if hiccup flunked his Initiation Test and was cast out into exile for being a complete and utter failure. If he could yell properly, maybe it would be easier to get him to listen, but it was no use. His yell was more like a yowling cat than the roaring bear of other Vikings.

Turning a corner, he was suddenly stopped still by two very big and green draconic eyes. About to scream, hiccup barely got a peep out before a hand suddenly clamped over his mouth, and two more green eyes assaulted him, two human eyes. A boy he'd never seen before stood before him.

"Don't scream", the boy said. "Please?" he followed, before slowly removing his hand, speaking quietly, as if he were afraid to be heard or seen by anyone else. Whoever this boy was, he wasn't a Hooligan.

"I need your help. At least, I think I do."

hiccup was skeptical. For one, there was an invader on their shores, and for another, said invader had a dragon hiccup had never seen before standing behind him. Now he was asking for help, but help with what? And would he be able to say no if it was something that would hurt Berk? What if the stranger threatened him with his huge dragon? hiccup very much doubted any possibility of him making it out alive if he tried to escape. He decided on waiting for the boy to continue before saying anything.

"See, I'm not from around here", the stranger said, and hiccup couldn't help himself.

"You don't say", he blurted out. Fortunately for him, the boy only laughed awkwardly.

"Yeah, uh, see, I'm actually… a-and this is gonna sound completely unbelievable; I won't blame you if you think I'm crazy, but… What I meant was...I'm not from this world. My name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, and if I'm right, that's your name too."

hiccup was stunned, left looking at the boy in front of him completely different, suddenly noticing all the similarities between them. Yes, he didn't have a metal leg, and his hair was redder in color, and this boy was a bit taller than him, but it wasn't by much; to any other Viking, he'd be as much of a small nobody as he was.

He must have been staring too long, because the boy… Hiccup, began fidgeting nervously. He seemed about to speak, but hiccup beat him to it. There was only one way he would know if this Hiccup was telling the truth.

"What's your dragon's name?" he asked. It was the only thing he could think of that wouldn't be a coincidence, nor something the boy could lie about if he wanted his dragon to follow his commands going forward.

With a smile, the boy did a half turn towards his dragon. "This is Toothless", he introduced, and Toothless followed with a strange form of Dragonese hiccup had never heard before. There was no doubt, then.

"My dragon's name is Toothless", hiccup said, unable to believe any of this, "Which means you're telling the truth!" he accepted anyway.

"Thank Thor, you believe me", Hiccup seemed to almost sigh in relief. "I don't fully understand how we got here, but I do know it has something to do with this cave in the forest. Or, a cave that was there, but isn't anymore. Look, all I know is, if I can fix some kind of wrong in this world, I might be able to get back to mine."

"And, you think I can help you with that?" hiccup asked slowly.

"You are me…sorta. Trouble usually has a way of finding me, so why not you? Also, I kind of saw you and your friend getting bullied by your world's Snotlout earlier", Hiccup shrugged sheepishly.

Deciding to ignore that fact, actually wanting to forget that entire encounter with his cousin, hiccup hummed in thought. It only lasted a moment, before it hit him.

"Maybe you're supposed to help me pass my Initiation test", he said.

"Initiation?" Hiccup asked, as if the word was foreign to him.

Voices began to gather in the distance, the two boys looking back into the village. "I'll explain later. First, we need to get you and your dragon out of sight. If they spot you, chances are you won't be making it home in one piece. That is, if you get the chance to make it home at all", hiccup added in a shrug, something Hiccup rightfully looked worried about.

When they made it back to his house, hiccup was thankful his mom and dad weren't home. If The Great Stoick the Vast and Valhallarama were home, it would have made it a lot harder to sneak Hiccup, and especially Toothless, inside. Luckily, that wasn't the case, and he was able to get the two up into his room where a certain dragon ambushed his face, clinging onto it like a barnacle on a ship. Why toothless did the things he did, hiccup was still left guessing, but he was pretty sure this was just another way for toothless to mess with and annoy him.

Once pried off his face, and everyone settled down, spare toothless bothering his counter, much bigger, scarier, and threatening self, hiccup explained what the Initiation test was to his own counter self. As he did, he couldn't help but glance back to Hiccup's metal leg, replacing a limb that should have been there. It wasn't that hiccup was a stranger to missing limbs; he'd seen his fair share around. It was more the fact that there was a version of him that lost one. He wondered how it happened, not to mention why the prosthetic was so unique to any other he'd ever seen. Was it just another difference between their two worlds, or was it just as unique in his? He wanted to ask, but also didn't want to bring up a sensitive subject if it was one. Each time the thought came up, he dismissed it.

"So, let me get this straight", Hiccup said, sitting on a chest across from him, "Your people are dragon trainers, not fighters, and in order to become part of the tribe, you have to train one for yourself, or else you're outcasted?"

"More or less."

"Wow. If my tribe was anything like yours, I never would have been the village screw up."

"And that's where you come in. I'm no good at training dragons, but from the looks of it, you are. If you can help me train toothless, I won't be thrown off the island, and you'll be able to get back home. It's a win-win."

000

The plan seemed sound enough to Hiccup's ears, and with any luck hiccup was right about this Initiation test being the wrong he had to right. It seemed as though hiccup was seen as much of a screw up as Hiccup himself before he met Toothless. Helping him to pass the test, to beat everyone else out of the water like he had done, would change everything.

The next morning, hiccup went down for breakfast, promising he would bring back something for him and Toothless. Apparently his parents never came up to his room, so as long as they stayed quiet, they wouldn't be spotted, which was good. Hiccup didn't want to find out how this world's Stoick the Vast handled uninvited guests. Still, Hiccup couldn't help but sneak a peak at the family.

hiccup had said 'parents', mentioning a mother when talking about their hiding situation. He wanted to see her. He…needed to see her. Peaking around the corner and down the stairs, he could see the family at the dining table, happily eating away. Well, sort of. hiccup was picking at his food, failing miserably at not looking nervous. It seemed as though his parents thought it was about dragon training, though.

"Don't worry so much, hiccup. I know you'll have your toothless trained in no time. You still have two months", hiccup's mother assured, and a longing gripped at Hiccup's heart.

Hiccup had never known his mother; he didn't know what she looked like, or sounded like, not even the things she liked. He was too young when she'd been taken during the war, and his dad rarely talked about her. All he knew was her name, Valka.

He wondered if she was anything like the mother before his eyes, or if they were completely different, and that wonder made Hiccup somewhat envy this world's hiccup. He never got the chance to meet his mother, yet hiccup still had her at age ten. It wasn't fair, but since when had Hiccup's life ever been fair? He supposed, with what hiccup had told him of his own life, they had that trait in common, even if in completely different areas. Yet another reason to help him pass.