Work Text:
There was a tension in the Haddock household, driven there by grief and misunderstanding. Hiccup was realizing that, unless it was the topic of dragons, he had no idea how to talk to his mother. Or she him, it would appear.
Hiccup pushed away his empty bowl of stew. Dinner had been terribly silent.
“Mom?” The word still felt foreign on Hiccup’s tongue. It hadn’t belonged there for a very long time. He was hurt by that, but he didn’t know how to bring it out into the open. Maybe he shouldn’t.
“Yes?” She looked up from her bowl. She almost looked like a skittish dragon that would flee at any second.
No, Hiccup wasn’t going to bring it up, then.
“What were those first few days like?” Hiccup asked. “With… with Cloudjumper?” He’d been going to say “without me or dad” but that felt wrong.
Valka sighed and set down her spoon, straightened in her seat.
“That’s not what you want to know.”
Oh, great, she can see right through me.
“Yeah, it’s not… at the moment,” Hiccup said. “I just… I could have had a life with you.”
Valka gave a sad smile. “I do regret certain decisions,” she told him. “And you haven’t forgiven me yet, but—”
“I have,” Hiccup said. “I forgive you.”
“You… have?” Valka asked tentatively.
Hiccup nodded. “We all make decisions we don’t like in life,” Hiccup said. “Or decisions that are not all black and white. I’ve had to make a fair few. I-I guess I’m just trying to say that, yeah, I forgive you. It might not be okay, or I might not feel okay, but that doesn’t mean forgiveness doesn’t belong.”
Valka’s smile turned warm. “And that is why you’re in the making of an excellent chief.”
Hiccup couldn’t help blushing a little. “Uh, thanks.”
Valka fiddled with her spoon in the slightly awkward silence that followed.
“You know, I don’t know much about you,” Valka said. “But I saw the art on your walls. A hobby of yours?”
Hiccup smiled. Art. This topic he knew how to talk about.