Unharmonious Footsteps

Hiccup is annoyed when his friends ask him to make his walking a little quieter.

Step. Click. Step. Click.

Hiccup was used to the noise. It rarely occurred to him that the noise was even there. He only heard it when he was trying to be quiet, or when others decided to point it out to him. In this case, those others were the twins.

Everyone was gathered in the Clubhouse. Tuffnut was in the midst of telling a story to Chicken, and by her ruffled feathers it appeared to be an intense one. Ruffnut, Snotlout, and Heather were listening on the side and Astrid and Fishlegs were playing maces and talons. Hiccup snuck around to stand by Astrid, but apparently he didn't sneak hard enough.

"Hey, how about you take that high note somewhere else?" Ruffnut asked irritably, but seeing as her brother was currently demonstrating his yodeling no one thought much of it.

Tuffnut broke away from his story and shot her an offended look. "Hold on, little missy. Who's story is this anyway?"

"Not you, Tuff," Ruffnut rolled her eyes. "I'm talking to Hiccup."

Hiccup, who was watching Fishlegs and Astrid's game, looked at Ruffnut cluelessly. "What?"

Ruffnut explained shortly. "Your footsteps are not in harmony at all. How are we supposed to hear the story with all that squeaking!"

Hiccup stared at her and Snotlout started laughing. "Yeah, Hiccup. Jeez! Why do you have to be so disruptive?"

When no one said anything to his defense, Hiccup exhaled deeply and sat down. "Right, how rude of me."

A similar situation occurred when Hiccup was waiting for the forge to cool down sometime during the night. He paced the floorboards restlessly, pausing on occasion to check the heat, and was surprised to suddenly see Astrid and the others at the door.

"Hiccup, would you please go to bed." She said more than asked with a yawn. "I could hear you from the stables."

"I could hear him from the other side of the island," said Heather, who had just gotten back from patrol.

What was worse, Fishlegs agreed with them both. "Meatlug has a very sensitive sleep schedule, Hiccup. Could you please try to be quieter?"

Snotlout and the twins appeared beside him. "Alright, who's the wise Viking who keeps scaring Hookfang awake? If he can't get to sleep, he won't let me get to sleep."

"Hey, our dragon is frightened, too." Countered Ruffnut. "And it's all because someone among us is a workaholic!"

Hiccup had to raise his voice to be heard. "Oh, come on, you guys, I haven't been doing anything–"

Tuffnut cocked an eyebrow. "Have you been walking?"

Hiccup stopped with his mouth open as the six tipped their gazes to his leg. "Oh– sorry." Half-heartedly he leaned against the wall. Satisfied, the dragon riders went back to their respective huts and Hiccup groaned.

He could handle them asking for him to be quiet every once in a while, but when his friends started attaching the unavoidable creak of metal to Hiccup's behavior, that's when they really got on his nerves. The baby death song Garffiljorg, better known as Garf, had finally gotten to sleep after Heather serenaded him for the hundredth time, and Hiccup was just quietly walking out of the stables with everyone else when his leg made its incessant squeaking.

Garf's eyes shot open and he started screaming again. Everyone cringed and yelled out curses, and much to Hiccup's indignation they turned on him.

"Hiccup!" They all exclaimed.

"What!" Hiccup yelped.

"You woke the stupid thing up!" Snotlout snapped.

"Yeah, can't you grease that leg down or something?" Huffed Tuffnut.

"Grease always works on me when I squeak," added Ruffnut.

"Maybe if you took lighter steps–" said Fishlegs, though it wasn't as kind as he probably thought.

"–then maybe we all could have gotten some peace," Astrid finished for him, and while Heather didn't say anything her expression betrayed her agreement with the others.

Hiccup found their arguments so unfathomable he could barely even express his frustration. "That's not how– don't you even–" Wildly he threw his hands down to point at his metal leg. "I can't help it!"

He yelled even louder than Garf, and that was saying something. The others seemed to back off from the topic, though few (mainly Snotlout and the twins) held a bit of a glare in their eyes for the remainder of the day, to which Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"I can't help it," he grumbled, and Toothless appeared at his side with a consoling warble. Hiccup looked down at his dragon. "You understand, right, bud?"

Garf's shrieks could be heard from the distance and Toothless seemed to hesitate.

"Oh, come on." Hiccup turned and walked away despite Toothless's attempts. "You're supposed to be on my side."

Hiccup took a long walk around the island that evening. Usually he would be flying with Toothless, but due to the circumstances, that wasn't happening. Darkness fell like a shadowy veil and it started to get chilly. Hiccup rubbed his arms in a particularly cold wind.

"Okay, those clouds do not look friendly." He noted through narrowed eyes. He pushed through the wind and the raindrops, the sky growing ever darker as he went. Soon the wind turned to gusts and the raindrops to a downpour, and Hiccup sprinted in the woods with both arms sheltering his head.

Meanwhile the other riders were in the Clubhouse again, watching the storm rage outside through the open door. "It looks pretty bad." Heather commented anxiously.

"Don't worry, our dragons will be safe in the stables." Astrid reassured. "It's had its fair share of bad weather."

She closed the door and they all got comfortable around the lit hearth. Astrid looked all around the group and instantly noticed a missing presence. "Where's Hiccup?"

Everyone blinked and looked around as if he was hiding somewhere. Ruffnut was the first to reply. "Last time I saw him, he was yelling at us about his leg."

"Yeah… that he can't help that it squeaks." Agreed Tuffnut.

Astrid frowned as she remembered their last encounter with Hiccup. "Do you think we were…?"

"Insensitive?" Fishlegs finished for her, looking equally guilty.

Heather nodded glumly. "We were kind of being jerks." She admitted.

They turned to Snotlout when he waved them off. "Don't be so hard on yourselves! Hiccup's fine. He's like, made of steel or something. He's probably already forgotten about it by now." However there was a hint of uncertainty in his eyes.

Heather stood up. "Either way, Hiccup could be caught in that storm right now. We have to make sure he's okay."

"You're right," said Astrid immediately. "Everyone– let's go."

Meanwhile, in the woods, Hiccup felt like he was making no progress as the outpost didn't look to be getting any closer. He was glad for the shelter of the trees, though it didn't stop him from getting soaked after about five minutes. Shivering violently, he brushed past a tangle of undergrowth and stumbled into a clearing, where just then the sky brightened in a flash of light.

"Great." Hiccup watched wearily as the fresh batch of lightning cast claw marks across the horizon. But the distraction cost him as he tripped over a root, and with no chance to save himself Hiccup tumbled down a hill and landed at the mouth of a cave opening. He shook his head, getting to his hands and knees, and shot his attention up at a group of wild boars, snorting viciously as they emerged from the shadows.

Hiccup reached instinctively for his side and found empty air. His stomach lurching, he remembered exactly where he left his dragon blade– on his desk in his hut.

"Uh…" He looked wildly around but saw nothing that could help serve as a weapon. He scrambled to his feet, slipping on the uneven mud, and flinched when the boars attacked.

Instead of feeling the sting of their tusks, Hiccup felt the air engulf him as he was swept off the ground. Squinting against the rain, Hiccup caught a glimpse of blue and realized he was being carried away in Stormfly's talons.

Stormfly took them to the base and carefully dropped Hiccup outside the Clubhouse. Astrid slid to the floorboards and directed her dragon to go back to the stables, all while she and Hiccup ran inside and forced the door shut.

"Are you okay?" Astrid asked at once, her eyes wide with worry.

"Yeah," Hiccup gasped, still catching his breath. "Your timing couldn't have been better."

Toothless shoved forward and butted Hiccup with his head. Hiccup chuckled, only slightly indignant. "Alright, alright– perhaps I deserved that."

He scratched his dragon's chin, sighing as he basked in the warmth. It took a moment for him to realize all the dragon riders were staring at him, and it took another moment for him to remember he wasn't exactly on the best terms with them.

Suddenly he felt rather silly for walking off. "Look, guys…" He started, a hefty apology on his tongue, but Astrid interrupted him.

"No, Hiccup." She sat him down by the table and looked at him seriously. "We should be the ones apologizing."

On her right side, Heather bit her lip. "It wasn't fair how we treated you. We're... I'm sorry."

"Yeah; it's not your fault you have a metal leg," Fishlegs added, but unfortunately Tuffnut added more.

"Exactly. It's Toothless's fault."

The group glowered at Tuffnut, especially Toothless. Tuffnut blinked. "What? Oh, don't tell me he couldn't have saved all of him!"

Toothless grumbled and went to sulk by his rider's side. Hiccup was unusually bashful. "Guys, you don't have to–"

"We know," said Astrid, sitting down beside him and smiling gently. "But we should. We're sorry."

Snotlout swooped in from seemingly nowhere. "Astrid's right, Hiccup… she is sorry." Astrid twisted his arm and he squawked, "And so am I! Ow, ow, ow…"

Hiccup laughed and finally met his friends' eyes. "Thank you," he said eventually, chuckling when Toothless licked his chin.

A/N: This has been sitting in my drafts for a few years. I touched it up a bit and am now throwing it out there, so let me know what you think! I have a few ideas for more chapters; we'll see how it goes.