Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There are a lot of arguments that take place as they build the Edge, it’s not just the layout that no one can seem to come to an agreement on. Hiccup is currently five minutes into listening to the others argue over who should be making the food for their meals.

“You wouldn’t know how long to keep a fish over the fire until it’s already burning to ashes—”

“Guys, guys, clearly I’d be the better the cook, because you all—”

“No, it’s me! I’m the only one with enough patience to—”

“You wouldn’t know what to season something with even if we threw the seasoning right at you—”

He can’t personally weigh in, having never tried any of the others’ cooking, but each of them are arguing that they’re the best cook of the group, and they should be allowed to handle the meals.

As the argument shows no sign of stopping and Hiccup can feel a headache growing already, he finally cuts in.

“Alright! Alright that’s enough. We’ll do a rotation, everyone gets a day to be the cook, and once everyone has taken their turn we’ll vote on who the best cooks are and who should never be allowed near our food again. Sound fair?” he doesn’t wait for an answer before continuing, “Great! Astrid, you can go first.”

“Oh why does she get to go first!” Snotlout complains.

“Because she’s the only one who hasn’t given me a headache with all this arguing,” Hiccup mutters as he walks away, Toothless trailing after him.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Hiccup manages to make it two bites into the meal Astrid made before he comes to the conclusion that under no circumstances is Astrid ever allowed to cook for them again. He doesn’t say it then and there, because that would be quite rude after the effort she put into this. It went horribly wrong and if he takes another bite he just may find himself sick in the morning, but she tried. Apparently cooking isn’t amongst Astrid’s numerous skills.

The others do not have any issues being rude, however, and they tell Astrid quite clearly that they never want her cooking for them again. She doesn’t seem torn up about it though, likely expecting this outcome.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Somehow, Snotlout’s turn goes even worse. Yeah he’s uh… he’s not gonna get into that one. Safe to say Snotlout is banned from cooking for good.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Both Ruff and Tuff are disgustingly heavy on the salt when it comes to their turns, and Fishlegs somehow manages to burn everything he tries to make. Ultimately they reach the conclusion that if one of them needs to be the cook, it should be Fishlegs on account of his food might be burned but at least they can all stomach it without throwing up. The twins however get banned along with Snotlout and Astrid.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Then, finally, it’s Hiccup’s turn to cook. There’s a lot of grumbling, especially from Snotlout, about there’s “no chance in Hel he’s going to be a better cook than me.”

“That’s a low bar, Snotlout. All of us are better cooks than you.” Astrid rolls her eyes.

“Well— but— Hiccup probably won’t be! Why would he know how to cook better than any of us?” Snotlout protests.

“Out! I’m not having your arguing distract me from cooking!” Hiccup shoos them away, not about to make a mistake because he got a headache from another loud argument between the group about cooking of all things. Seriously, aren’t there better things to argue about?

Now Hiccup knows for a fact he can make a better meal than if all of them tried to combine their skills. He wasn’t very welcome at the great hall, his mother is gone, and his father certainly doesn’t know much beyond roasting fish or meat. So, if he wanted a good or more complex meal, Hiccup had to teach himself. Through trial and error, he made it to the point where he could cook and bake just as well as any of the Vikings who made the meals for the great hall.

Did he share this fact with anyone? Hel no. He wasn’t about to give everyone more ammunition to call him odd, considering it wasn’t really something children his age learned to do. Another thing that would’ve made him stick out.

So, under different circumstances, Snotlout might have been right. But he’s actually incredibly wrong and Hiccup would be lying if he said he won’t take pleasure in proving Snotlout wrong.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

The look on Snotlout’s face when he brought out a perfectly cooked meal made every headache he got from their arguments about cooking absolutely worth it.

“Since when could you cook?!” Snotlout asks in surprise.

“About since I could tend a fire so… for a while.” Hiccup answers with a shrug.

“I didn’t know you could cook,” Astrid hums, and takes a bite off of her plate “This is really good though,”

“Thanks,” Hiccup smiles. “And hey, there’s a lot you don’t know about me,”

“There can’t be that much we don’t know, I mean, we grew up together,” Fishlegs points out.

“And remind me how long it took you to find out about my friendship with a dragon?” Hiccup shoots back wryly.

“Point taken,” Fishlegs concedes.

Hiccup turns to look at the unusually silent twins only to find them digging into the meal he made, clearly enjoying it.

“Well, I guess I’ll be handling the cooking most nights then. Fishlegs, you can help out from time to time. Everyone else, do not get near the kitchen please.” Hiccup sighs. “Your food is… hazardous.”

Chapter Text

Anyone who knew Hiccup well enough would know that he’s at his most comfortable surrounded by dangerous beings who could kill him in the blink of an eye if he wasn’t careful enough— dragons, that is, not vikings, though some of them could and have tried to kill him.

Some might think he’s entirely insane for being more comfortable around dragons than he is with even his fellow dragon riders, but his dragon riders themselves don’t take offense or find it odd— they know how they used to treat him. They’re all doing better now, but history like that isn’t just erased, and Hiccup’s first true friend was a dragon, so— it makes perfect sense to them.

What the dragon riders do find more than a little odd about Hiccup is the way he speaks to the dragons. He talks to them as if the warbles and croons and screeches and roars the dragons let out are words he can understand. But understanding dragons and speaking to them would be crazy, so there’s no way that’s what’s going on there.

The other riders all dismiss it as a habit of Hiccup’s from when a dragon was the only being he could speak his mind freely to out loud. They all know he has a habit of talking to himself, they don’t think this is actually that different.

But of course, as they would find out the longer they spend on the Edge with Hiccup and their dragons, it’s not just Hiccup thinking out loud after all.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Snotlout was, to no one’s surprise, complaining to Hiccup about the twins’ latest, uhm, ‘adventure’. Hiccup, having more patience than anyone would think possible, was listening to everything Snotlout said, though clearly wishing he wasn’t. Hookfang, too, looked incredibly done with his rider at the moment.

Snotlout notices the moment Hookfang lets out a grumbling hiss, followed by an exasperated huff. It’s easy enough for him to pick up on the fact that whatever Hookfang is thinking it’s surely an expression of annoyance, so Snotlout doesn’t give it any thought when Hiccup replies to Hookfang with a mumbled “Tell me about it…”

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“Fishlegs, just how long have you been awake?” Hiccup asks.

“Why are you asking me that? I’m fine. Totally fine. Don’t you have work to do?” Fishlegs asks, showing signs of the paranoia he’s known to get when he’s been awake too long.

“Oh hel… thanks for getting me, Meatlug, you’re right, he is… exhausted.”

Fishlegs can hear Meatlug let out a series of yips, followed by Hiccup responding with a “Yeah, sounds like a plan.” but that doesn’t make any sense, because Hiccup wouldn’t be saying yipping sounds like a plan.

When he wakes up the next morning after an enforced nap, Fishlegs will think back to what happened and dismiss it as just another symptom of the lack of sleep. There’s no way Hiccup understands dragons, that’s ridiculous.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Belch and Barf are an excellent help when the twins want to pull off a prank, especially one where they want to observe the results for themselves as it happens or want to have an alibi… not that it always works, people have begun to pick up on just what Ruffnut and Tuffnut without their dragon nearby means.

That doesn’t mean they don’t keep trying, of course. Today is one such occasion where Ruff and Tuff want a front row seat to the reaction their one legged leader is going to have when Barf and Belch follow through on dumping a bucket of water on top of him when he walks outside this morning.

Having a dragon to do that makes it so much easier than trying to balance a bucket of water on top of a door just right.

The strangest part of his reaction comes when he starts to scold Belch and Barf.

“Oh seriously you guys? This is ridiculous— what have I told you about helping Tuff and Ruff pull off their pranks?”

Belch and Barf let out a low croon and duck their heads.

“Yes, exactly. And yet—”

Barf interrupts with a string of chirps.

“I do not want excuses, I already told you—”

Huh. To the twins' amusement, it’s as if Hiccup knows what their dragon is saying. But nahhh, couldn’t be. He’s probably just giving the lecture he would’ve given them if they had been caught in action pulling off the prank. They’ve gotten a very similar scolding many times before.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Everything is hazy for Astrid as she fades in and out of consciousness after the latest battle with the hunters. She and Stormfly had separated from the group to rescue an injured dragon, and a hunter had attacked her by surprise, hitting her from behind. She had fought him off and successfully helped the injured dragon get away, but on her own way back to the Edge she had slipped into unconsciousness on Stormfly’s back.

Now, comfortable furs piled beneath her, eyes closed, she can hear Hiccup’s voice.

“What happened?” is he… asking her? Astrid isn’t able to give a response, but apparently she doesn’t need to.

She hears Stormfly let out a few chirps and growls, as if she’s explaining. And then she hears Hiccup curse, as if he understood the explanation.

But there’s no way that’s actually what’s going on… is there?

Puzzled, Astrid falls back into unconsciousness, thinking it a strange dream when she wakes for real, healed from her injuries.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

When Hiccup stays up late and wakes early, getting almost no sleep and working himself to the bone to try and get ahead of Viggo’s plans, their dragons take notice before the other riders do. Actually, it’s more like Toothless took notice immediately, because he and Hiccup are inseparable like that, and alerted the other dragons because Hiccup was being stubborn and not listening to him.

When he proceeded to not listen to any of the other dragons, nor all of them combined either, then the dragons went to get their respective riders to do something about it.

And that is how the riders walk into Hiccup’s hut to find him knocked to the floor, Toothless pinning him so he can’t get up and keep working on battle plans until he agrees to get a good night's sleep first, arguing with the Night Fury very intently, a back and forth of stubborn words and equally as stubborn sounding warbles and croons.

“Oh come on bud! I’m fine, would you just let me—” Hiccup tries to sit up, only to be nudged right back down.

Toothless lets out a series of exasperated sounding warbles, and stares pointedly at Hiccup’s bed.

“No, I do not need to sleep, what I need is to finish this plan. C’mon Toothless, it should only take me a few more hours. I need to get ahead of Viggo.” Hiccup tries to move Toothless’ paw off of him, to no avail.

He only notices the other riders when their own dragons join in the argument, adding in their own chirps, hisses, growls, and yips.

“Ah, heyyyyy guys. Do me a favor, tell them all I’m totally—” he interrupts himself with a yawn before continuing, “—totally fine to keep working. They keep telling me I need to go to sleep but I can stay up still and these plans need to get done.”

Toothless lets out an annoyed croon.

“Bud, no. I am fine and you know it, stop saying that—”

Astrid is the first to speak up, pulling herself together quicker than the other riders, all of whom are realizing there’s no way Hiccup doesn’t understand the dragons, if he’s able to have this long of a back and forth with them.

“Hiccup… do you… understand the dragons?” she asks.

“Uhm… yes?”

“Like, you know what they’re saying when they go all,” Ruffnut imitates the hissing noises she often hears from Barf and Belch.

“Yesssss… why wouldn’t I? Wait— is this— is this news to you all? Have you… not realized I can speak with them?” Hiccup tilts his head. “I’ve had conversations with them before in front of you all.”

“No we didn’t realize! What the hel man, you should have said something!” Snotlout shouts.

“Is it just some dragons or is it every dragon? What does it sound like for you when they’re speaking? Is it like a different language that you happen to understand and speak or do you hear it as if they’re speaking our language? How long have you been able to speak with them? Are dragons the only animals you can understand or—”

“Fishlegs, let him answer a question, yeesh.” Astrid cuts Fishlegs off.

“Right, sorry,” Fishlegs responds sheepishly.

“Uhm, it’s every dragon yeah. And it’s—” another yawn, “—it’s more like a different language I can understand and speak. I think I’ve always been able to understand them… dragons can understand us, so I speak to them in our language a lot, but I do know theirs as well. Apparently, when I was learning to talk, I’d randomly start speaking in chirps and warbles, so…” Hiccup trails off.

“That is… so cool!” Tuffnut exclaims.

“So, clearly they’re all telling you something now, and you aren’t listening to them.” Astrid stares at him pointedly.

“Ah, that, it’s no big deal… they just think I haven’t gotten enough sleep, but I’m alright! So like I said, if you all could just tell them to leave me be, then I’ll just convince Toothless to let me go back to my planning, and everything will be fine!”

“Nice try, Hiccup, but you look like you’re falling asleep as we speak. Go to bed.” Astrid insists.

“But Ast—”

“Bed. Now. Go to sleep, your plans will be there in the morning.”

Chapter Text

(A/N: Hey!! I know sometimes people skip over the notes at the beginning but this time the notes are really really important! Go read it if you haven’t please, and skip this chapter if needed!)

They had just gotten back to the Edge after a battle with the hunters, and none of them came out of it unscathed, though some weren’t too bad off and only had minor scrapes and bruises. Others, though…

“Ah, guys I don’t think this amount of blood is a good sign!” Snotlout says, holding a hand against a wound on his arm, a deep gash with a lot of blood flowing out of it.

“I’ll terror mail Gothi and—” Fishlegs starts to say.

“No, no, don’t worry— I can patch that up no problem.” Hiccup cuts in. “Toothless could you go get the kit from my hut?”

The dragon croons an affirmative and runs off to get what Hiccup asked for.

“Just— keep pressure on it for now until Toothless gets back with what I need to get you patched up. Anyone else need wounds tended to right now?” Hiccup asks.

“Uh, yeah, I think this’ll need patching up,” Ruffnut points to her side where a broken piece of wood is sticking out— shrapnel of a hunter ship that got blown up, it looks like. There’s blood sluggishly leaking around the edges of it, and Hiccup knows there’ll be a lot more blood once the wood is removed.

“Ok, well, leave that in for now, it’s keeping the blood in, and once I get Snotlout patched I can clean and patch that up for you.” Hiccup tells her.

Just then, Toothless gets back with the kit Hiccup asked him to grab, one full of various medical equipment.

“Thanks, bud,” Hiccup takes the kit from him and walks over to Snotlout, “Alright, move your hand and let me see?”

“Hm…” Hiccup inspects Snotlout’s wound. “I’ll need to clean it and close it. Fishlegs, can you go heat some water? Then let it cool and bring it to me. I’ll use it to clean this, and Ruff’s wound too.”

“Sure, Hiccup,” Fishlegs rushes off to go get the water.

“Close it? With what?” Snotlout’s voice raises towards the end, though he’ll deny it if anyone points it out.

“Well that’s, uh, the… tricky part. And I’ll leave it up to you… cauterization or stitches?” Hiccup tells Snotlout the options.

“Oh so either you get to burn it closed or stab it closed with a needle! Neither of those sound pleasant, Hiccup!”

“I know, I know— but this wound really needs to be closed, just wrapping it won’t work, it’s too deep.” Hiccup explains. “Trust me, if there were any other options I wouldn’t be asking you to choose one of these.”

“Fine,” Snotlout grumbles, “You better know what you’re doing… stitch it, I guess.”

“Alright,” Hiccup nods, grabbing out what he’ll need to stitch it from his kit, “and I promise, Snotlout, I know how to stitch a wound. I’ll get it over with as quick as I can.” He turns to look at Ruffnut, “Yours will probably need closing too. You gonna want stitches or for me to cauterize it?”

Ruff doesn’t look happy about either option, but she picks one anyways, “Ah… go ahead and cauterize it… that should be over quickest…”

“It’ll probably hurt worse than the stitches will as it’s happening,” Hiccup warns.

“I’ll be able to handle it,” Ruffnut says.

“Alright, if you’re sure.” Hiccup nods.

Fishlegs gets back then with the boiled and cooled down water, “Here you go!”

“Thanks, Fishlegs.” Hiccup grabs a clean cloth and dips it into the water, pressing the cloth to Snotlout’s wound, cleaning it thoroughly.

“Alright,” he sets the cloth down and grabs the supplies for the stitches, “you ready?”

“Oh just get it over with already why don’t you— agh!” Snotlout yelps. “Hey! You could warn a guy y’know!”

Hiccup works quickly, muttering apologies each time a stitch causes Snotlout to let out a hiss of pain through gritted teeth. Finally, he finishes and cleans the freshly stitched wound again before wrapping it with clean bandages.

“There, all done.” Hiccup nods.

“Huh, you really did know what you were doing… thanks, Hiccup.” Snotlout says.

“Yeah, glad I could help.” Hiccup moves over to Ruffnut, “Okay, let’s get yours taken care of now.”

He pulls out the wood shard and sets about cleaning her wound with the water, wiping away blood. He hands her another clean cloth, “Here, hold this against that and keep pressure on it for a bit,” and then goes about cleaning off Inferno, figuring his dragon blade will work best to cauterize the wound. Once it’s cleaned, he activates the fire and lets the metal of the blade heat up.

Once he’s deemed it hot enough, he extinguishes the fire and hands Ruffnut a clean scrap of leather, “You’re… probably going to want to bite down on this. You ready?”

She takes the leather and sets it between her teeth, moving the cloth out of the way of her wound, and nods to Hiccup.

Quickly, he presses the hot metal against her wound, holding it there until the wound is surely sealed, whispering apologies as Ruffnut bites back a scream at the pain of it.

“There, all done,” he pulls a salve from his kid and gently applies it to the freshly sealed wound before he goes about wrapping it in clean bandages. “Keep it dry for a day or two if you can, alright?”

“Uh huh,” Ruffnut hisses out, the wound still stinging in pain, “Thanks, H.”

Hiccup just nods in acknowledgment. That’s when Astrid notices something wrong…

“Hiccup, is that blood seeping through on your shoulder?” she asks worriedly.

“Huh?” he turns his head to look at his shoulder, “Oh! I guess it is, yeah.”

“Why didn’t you say you got hurt!” she exclaims.

“I honestly didn’t notice it! Must still be on edge, or I’d’ve noticed it by now.”

“But doesn’t it hurt?” Fishlegs asks.

“I mean I thought it stung a little but I assumed it was a scrape! It’ll probably start hurting more once I’m less on edge, honestly. But hey, no big deal, I’ll just take care of it now,” he shrugs.

“What, you’re gonna tend to your own wound?” Tuffnut sounds a little disbelieving that Hiccup won’t be asking for help with it.

“Uh, yeah?” Hiccup says as if they’re the crazy ones for assuming he would be asking for help tending to it. “Not the first time I’ve patched my own wounds, won’t be the last either I bet.”

“Wha—” whatever Astrid was about to say is cut off as she goes silent watching Hiccup take his shirt off to access his wound, the sight of the scars littering his torso and his arms that none of the other riders have seen before surprising her.

It’s a lot of scarring, and definitely proves Hiccup’s statement about this not being the first time he’s treated his own wounds. There’s scars that clearly come from being cut by blades, others still that look like dragon bites, and some that are clearly burns— evidence of cauterizations, but also of enemies burning him in battle, or dragon fire having an impact.

The riders are no strangers to scarring, but the amount Hiccup has… they never expected their leader to have quite so many scars. He always seemed untouchable in a way, how he’d maneuver quickly while riding Toothless, the way he can hold his own expertly in a sword fight, the fact that apparently he’s been hiding injuries from them and taking care of them on his own!

Hiccup grabs a clean cloth and dips it in the water, cleaning the gash on his shoulder with a casualness that’s almost disturbing to see. He looks up, feeling the eyes on him, “What?”

“You have… a lot of scars, Hiccup. We didn’t…” Fishlegs isn’t sure how to continue, so he falls silent, trailing off.

“Oh! Yeah, uhm… hah… I guess I do have a lot…” he pulls out a clean needle and gets to work on stitching up his shoulder. Silence falls around the room again.

“...you can ask, you know? I don’t… mind that much if you do… I can tell you’re all wondering about them.” Hiccup says, not looking up from where he’s focused on his stitches.

Hesitantly, Snotlout is the first to speak up, “...how about that burn on your back? What’s that one from?”

“Singetail. I didn’t manage to make it all the way out of the blast zone of one of Krogan’s fliers.” Hiccup answers.

“What about that one on your stomach?” Tuffnut points to a jagged scar.

“Got stabbed by one of Ryker’s swords, wasn’t quick enough to dodge it that time.”

“And… that one?” Fishlegs points to a scarred over bite mark on his arm.

“Angry Smothering Smokebreath,” Hiccup shrugs, finishing with his stitches.

“How about this one?” Ruffnut asks, pointing at a scar up towards his ribs.

“Got caught by a sword, the gash was pretty deep, I had to cauterize it then and there.” Hiccup explains.

“And… what about these ones?” Astrid asks, gesturing towards two matching scars on his wrists and forearms, ones that look like deep slashes.

“Uhm… those… uh…” Hiccup trails off, looking away, distinctly uncomfortable.

“Hiccup…” she starts softly, “did you… do that to yourself?”

By the gods she hopes she’s wrong, but when Hiccup just sighs and stares at the floor in front of him, head hung low, Astrid knows she isn’t wrong. The other riders reach the same conclusion, and no one seems to know what to say.

Astrid moves to sit next to Hiccup, pressed shoulder to shoulder in a silent show of support. “Do you… want to talk about it?”

“Not much to say…” Hiccup mutters. “I wasn’t… in a good place before I met Toothless. Things were… difficult to say the least and I guess I just— I just wanted the pain to go away, so I thought if I… well. It didn’t work, obviously. I passed out for a bit but then I woke up and just… I cleaned up, wrapped the cuts and— yeah…” his voice is shaky as he explains.

“But then, not too long after, I met Toothless and… he saved me, honestly. Kept things from feeling that painful, getting that difficult, again. And really, I’m better now! I haven’t— haven’t considered that in a long time!” Hiccup reassures them, and Astrid feels a little sick that he’s clearly worried about them, wanting to reassure them, when he’s the one who needs to be reassured right now.

“Hiccup, hey, don’t— we don’t think less of you for this,” Astrid says, and clearly she hit the nail on the head for what had Hiccup so anxious from the way he winces, but relaxes. “We’re… we’re really sorry that you were ever in that position,” the other riders nod sincerely, “but I’m… I’m glad you felt alright to share this with us. I’m glad you felt like you could trust us with this. Does— have you ever talked about this before?”

“I… told Toothless…” Hiccup says quietly, leaning against her a little more, and Astrid gently wraps an arm around him.

They fall into silence after that, with nothing more to say on the subject but no one willing to change the topic, not wanting to seem dismissive of what Hiccup went through in the past.

After a long moment, Hiccup sits up, “I uh… I should go make dinner… it’s been a long day and I’m— I’m sure we’re all hungry.” Quickly, he stands up and heads out for the kitchen, Toothless following him out.

The other riders glance at each other and come to the silent conclusion that no one really has an appetite right now, not after the revelation that Hiccup’s been taking care of his own wounds for a while now, all on his own. They quietly resolve to ask someone to teach them how to tend to wounds the next time they’re on Berk, wanting to be able to help Hiccup next time, to let him know he’s not on his own anymore.

Chapter Text

Snotlout and Fishlegs were— ahem, a little preoccupied with each other, having expected everyone else to be gone for the day, when they heard bickering voices approaching the clubhouse, and so, not quite in a uhm… presentable state at the moment, the two of them hid behind some boxes in the corner as the voices got closer. As the bickering gets even closer, they’re able to recognize it as Dagur and Hiccup’s voices.

And Hiccup does not sound pleased.

“Oh come on Hiccup! You’ve gotta teach me!”

“Yeah, no, I don’t— I don’t think so.” Though the two can’t see Hiccup’s face, they both know that his tone means he definitely has that look on his face that’s a perfect combination of being disappointed in your choices and unimpressed at your current suggestions.

“Hiccup! You and Toothless owe me one— I saved your lives!” Dagur says.

Hiccup snorts, “You’ve also tried to end our lives. Dagur, I’m not teaching you to ride a dragon.”

“Why not?!”

“Would you like a list?” Yeesh, Snotlout and Fishlegs are glad they aren’t the ones on the receiving end of such a harsh tone.

Dagur backtracks as if finally realizing that Hiccup is not amused right now, “Well I don’t think a list is necessary—”

“For starters, there’s that time you tried to drown me when we were kids— why should I teach someone who’s tried to drown me, huh? Oh and don’t forget using me as target practice as well! With the knives I made in the forge for you. If I teach you to ride dragons, how can I know you won’t try and use me as target practice with them, too? You seem to enjoy doing that,” Hiccup snarks.

“Ah but Hiccup surely we’re past that brother!”

“Oh sure, I’m totally over all that—” Snotlout and Fishlegs exchange a look. He certainly doesn’t sound over it. “—but you know what? I’m not quite sure I’m over all the times you tried to take Toothless from me, or hurt other dragons— or hurt my friends too.” Wow, low on the list much? Snotlout raises an eyebrow in amusement at how long it took for Hiccup to mention them.

“I’m different now! C’mon brother, didn’t I prove that already?”

Hiccup is silent for a moment.

“...fine. I’ll teach you to ride a dragon—”

“YES! Thank you Hiccup!”

“—BUT we’re doing this completely my way. You’ll be doing exactly what I tell you!”

Though Fishlegs and Snotlout can’t see him, they both know that tone of voice. It’s the same tone Hiccup uses when he has a plan to annoy Viggo while taking out half his business at the same time.

Later, when the two of them go sneaking around out of curiosity, they find Hiccup throwing fruit at Dagur, riding and struggling to control a Gronckle, to make him “practice dodging hunters’ arrows.” They’re pretty sure they see a rock or two in the pile of fruit.

Huh. Who knew Hiccup could hold a grudge.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

They’re all back on Berk for the day, everyone having gone their separate ways to do whatever thing with their families, and the twins, of course, are going around the village to find someone to try out a new prank on.

That’s when Ruff and Tuff come across Hiccup, chief Stoick, and a complaining Mildew. Hiccup looks very unimpressed.

If there’s one thing Tuffnut and Ruffnut know, it’s that if Mildew is on a complaint warpath, the two of them should stay out of sight so that he can’t blame anything on them. Oh if they’re accused of something they did they won’t avoid taking responsibility, but they don’t appreciate being blamed for what they had no part in.

So, the two of them make the decision to hide out behind some crates right by the trio, and oh are they glad they did— because their hiding spot puts them just in earshot of the quiet remarks Hiccup is making under his breath.

“They’re beasts, chief, beasts! Why are we letting them roam free—” Mildew’s annoying voice complains.

“Why are we letting you roam free?” Hiccup mutters.

“—to cause destruction? We should ship the beasts off before someone gets hurt!”

“The only person likely to get hurt is you if you keep talking.” Hiccup snorts quietly.

“They destroy our fields! Take our jobs! Soon they may as well run the place!”

“If that happens will you finally run away from this place?” Hiccup accidentally says it just a bit too loudly, and Mildew turns his beady gaze on him.

“What was that, boy?”

“Nothing, nothing at all Mildew.”

Mildew turns back to Stoick after giving Hiccup a glare, “Ye should teach your boy to respect his elders chief.”

“Should teach that elder to respect anyone at all,” Hiccup mumbles.

Later that afternoon, they see Hiccup pass by Mildew’s unattended cart of cabbages, and when he goes ahead and kicks the rock holding the wheels still out of the way, Ruff and Tuff have a hard time holding back their laughter.

As the cabbages roll, Hiccup picks one up out of the cart and tosses it to the nearest dragon, a grin on his face.

Who knew Hiccup with a grudge was so ready to cause trouble.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Astrid appreciates how much Hiccup cares about the lives of those around him. He gives second chances and tries to do things with as little death as possible, and it’s admirable of him.

Astrid does not, however, appreciate that he decided Viggo Grimborn of all people was worth a second chance. But apparently, the man bonded with a Skrill, changed his ways, and tried to sacrifice himself for Hiccup. Instead of allowing that, Hiccup got Viggo out of there with him, and tended to the man’s injuries from the arrows that had been sticking out of his back.

And now Viggo is here on the Edge recovering, and Hiccup has instructed them all to play nice.

Playing nice with Viggo is about the last thing Astrid wants to be doing, but Hiccup seems confident that the man has truly come to their side, and he’d probably be disappointed if Astrid tried to shove Viggo into another volcano, so she’ll play nice.

However, she’ll also play cautious, and so Astrid has made it a habit to keep an eye on Viggo. Right now, she’s watching from the rafters of the mostly empty clubhouse as Hiccup and Viggo—the only other two aside from her in the place right now—play a game of maces and talons.

“My dear Hiccup, I must ask—”

“Or you could stay quiet. You really don’t have to.”

“—you and I are both quite aware that the traitor always dies. I was a traitor, and yet, you made sure I would live. I know you are ruthless enough to leave me for dead, but you didn’t. Why?”

“Well I can tell you it’s not because I like you that’s for sure.” Hiccup snarks.

“Oh how painful to hear,” Viggo raises an eyebrow, unimpressed.

“...you changed. I couldn’t leave you there after I knew you changed.”

“You really are too kind, my dear.”

“Will you still be saying that after I tell you you must earn forgiveness? I kept you alive, Viggo, I haven’t forgiven you though.”

“No? I was under the impression that saving me was your forgiveness.”

“Oh not at all,” Hiccup grins, and it’s sharp, promising a world of difficulty, “You see, Viggo,” Hiccup leans closer to him, “you’ve caused a lot of harm, and you’ve tried to take Toothless from me, plus, you’ve hurt a lot of dragons. So you’re going to work for my forgiveness, and it won’t be easy.”

“Your ruthlessness shows itself in strange ways, my dear Hiccup. Very well then,” Viggo, too, leans closer across the board, “I am sure I can handle whatever it takes to earn your forgiveness.”

Astrid watches as Hiccup smiles, eyes glinting with mischief, leaning back with his head titled and not another word. Hiccup moves a piece on the board, and wins their round of maces and talons.

Later, she sees Hiccup laying back against Toothless, the two of them having a conversation, and Viggo bringing Hiccup drinks and fanning him to keep him cool in the sun.

“This is demeaning,” Viggo grumbles.

“This is how you start to earn forgiveness,” Hiccup grins at him.

Huh, who would’ve guessed that Hiccup with a grudge would come up with some creative ways to make people earn forgiveness.

Chapter Text

“Hey, Hiccup?” Snotlout quietly catches his attention, clearly trying to not draw the attention of the other riders currently hanging out in the clubhouse, all of them there now after just grabbing dinner.

“Yeah?” Hiccup matches Snotlout’s volume, knowing that normally a quiet Snotlout is a serious, sincere Snotlout— who does not appreciate attention being drawn to him when he’s trying to be sincere about something.

“Thanks. For uh— for being crazy enough to befriend Toothless in the first place, and then for getting us to befriend our own dragons too. And for… giving us all a chance to change our ways. I know we weren’t exactly the— the greatest, back then, to you or to any dragons so— thank you.”

“Snotlout…” Hiccup isn’t quite sure what to do about being thanked. Honestly, he hadn’t ever expected to be. “...of course. Anytime. I’m glad you gave me the chance to give you all a chance. And I’m glad I stuck around long enough for it to happen,”

“Stuck around? What, were you gonna leave Berk or something?” Snotlout snorts like it’s a hilarious joke, but when Hiccup doesn’t laugh and instead just looks sheepish— “No. You were going to do what?! Hiccup!”

His yell catches the other riders’ attention, and they make their way closer to the two of them.

“What was Hiccup going to do that has you so shocked?” Astrid asks, eyebrow raised and arms crossed, but with an amused grin on her face.

“Oh it’s nothing, really—” Hiccup tries to say, before being cut off.

“He was going to leave Berk!” Snotlout shouts incredulously.

“What?!” “When!?” “Wait huh?!” “Hiccup, you were gonna—?!” The other riders all exclaim, voices overlapping as they yell at the same time.

“Okay okay!!” Hiccup cuts off their slew of questions, quieting the group and drawing their attention back to him so he can actually answer. “Look— it’s not that big of a deal, alright? I didn’t end up running away anyways so it doesn’t really matter now, but if you have to know, after I was chosen as the winner of dragon training, I was planning on leaving. I had stuff packed and ready to go, and I was going to take Toothless and leave— because I sure as Hel wasn’t going to be killing a dragon. But that ended up being the same day Astrid found the cove, and so… I ended up staying on Berk. That’s all, guys. It was just a… a thought that I didn’t end up going through with!”

“But you were going to.” Astrid says. “Weren’t you?”

“Well…” Hiccup trails off.

“If I hadn’t found the cove… that would’ve been it, wouldn’t it’ve been? You would have left, would’ve actually gone through with it. You wouldn’t be here right now if I had found the cove any later.”

“...yeah. If not for you finding the cove just before I could leave…” Hiccup doesn’t finish his sentence, but he doesn’t need to. All the riders know what he means; if not for Astrid finding the cove when she did, Hiccup would have been gone without a trace long ago.

“...well. I’m really glad you didn’t leave Berk.” Fishlegs says, the first to break the silence that had fallen over the group. “Things wouldn’t be the same without you— you’ve done a lot of good.”

“Yeah H, it’s great you stuck around,” Tuffnut agrees.

“Things would be so much more boring if you hadn’t!” Ruffnut adds.

“I’m glad I found the cove when I did,” Astrid says.

“Yeah, thanks for sticking around… even if that means you bossing us around all the time now,” Snotlout huffs.

“You know… I’m glad I stuck around too… it’s nice, having you all as friends now. I’m glad I didn’t miss out on this.” Hiccup smiles.

Chapter Text

Hiccup is decidedly not in a good mood right now. He cannot catch a break this week and he is entirely fed up with it— from dragon hunters to people trying to mess with Berk, Hiccup feels like he’s running on dying embers at this point, and if one more thing goes wrong this week he might just lose it.

So of course, because when has Hiccup ever had things go smoothly for him when he really really needs them to, something goes wrong.

Okay, let’s back up a little— Hiccup and the other riders are on Berk right now. Actually, they’re just getting ready to return to the Edge in fact. But they’re here now because one of their enemies made the mistake of thinking they could try and attack Berk without them finding out. Well, Hiccup and the other riders definitely found out, and to say they were displeased would be an understatement. So, they went to Berk to help… take care of the issue!

But now Hiccup is frustrated, fed up, and still tense from the fight on top of it all, and if he doesn’t get back to the Edge soon where he can disappear into his hut to remain unbothered while he unwinds from all this stress, he’s going to end up snapping at someone. The next person to get on his nerves may just end up getting yelled at, and he really doesn’t want to do that, so he’s hoping they can make it back to the Edge and he can just pass out for an entire night without any interruptions or any delays in making it back.

Which, of course, means there ends up being a delay. And Hiccup does more than just yell at someone when he sees exactly what the reason for this delay in him and the other riders leaving to go back to the Edge is.

Spitelout fucking Jorgenson.

Listen, Hiccup gets having a complicated relationship with your father, but unlike Stoick, Spitelout never seems to actually be trying to have a good relationship with his son. Quite the opposite if you ask Hiccup. He’s overly tough on Snotlout, always pushing him to be the best at the threat of disownment if he ever isn’t, withholding his approval of Snotlout every time he does something good, and never withholding his scorn if Snotlout even slightly disappoints him.

Hiccup is, quite frankly, fucking tired of seeing Spitelout treat Snotlout the way he does. He’s held his tongue before, if only because he knows that despite how he acts, Snotlout would hate to have anyone cause a scene about how his father acts with him, and so Hiccup has refrained from doing so…

…but this time. This fucking time, with all the pent up frustration and the way he’s still on edge from the earlier fight, Hiccup just can’t keep on refraining from finally saying something about it as he listens to Spitelout degrade Snotlout for something he apparently, in Spitelout’s eyes, messed up during the fight.

“Oh by the gods, for once in your life could you be proud of your son?!” Hiccup interrupts whatever yakshit Spitelout is still spouting to Snotlout. “Hel, you’re always saying how you want him to be the best of everyone, but he’s already a better man than you’ll ever be and yet you’re still always treating him like a disappointment! Do you not know how to shut up? Just leave Snotlout alone for once. And he didn’t do anything wrong in that fight— but I’m pretty sure I saw you make a mistake back there, if you want to talk about messing up in battle.”

Well. Now he’s done it.

He doesn’t regret the words though, he meant every one of them. He’s just regretting that he totally just made this into a scene— Hel, half of Berk is watching right now, his own father included! Which… well, he just hopes he doesn’t get in trouble for yelling at Spitelout. And he really hopes that this doesn’t end up making things worse for Snotlout whenever he has to deal with Spitelout in the future.

“Oh?” Spitelout turns to him, his body language very obviously showcasing the scorn he’s feeling towards Hiccup right now. “And what gives ye the right to tell me how to handle things in my own family? He’s my son, and I’ll discipline ‘im how I see fit.”

“Why? Do you need that much control over Snotlout just to feel good about yourself? Because you know you’ll never even be half the man he is?” Hiccup taunts, stepping closer to Spitelout, but despite the taunt he is sincere in his compliment towards Snotlout.

“Careful with your words, ye runt,” Spitelout scoffs, practically getting right up in Hiccup’s personal space in a pathetic attempt to intimidate him. If the situation weren’t as tense as it was right now, Hiccup might laugh.

Instead, he lets himself go ahead and do something he only ever daydreamed about doing before, knowing that it would be something that could get him in trouble, but he doesn’t care about getting in trouble right now. No, he just cares about finally getting Spitelout to change his fucking attitude towards his son, and if words won’t work…

He pulls back his fist before lunging forward, slamming his knuckles against Spitelout’s jaw, resulting in a sickening crack as a few teeth definitely get knocked out. When he pulls his fist back, there’s blood on the back of it, and blood dripping from Spitelout’s face where the hit landed— and it landed hard.

…then maybe a punch will get the point across. Hiccup doesn’t like resorting to violence, but he will when needed. Or when pushed too far. And this felt like a little of both, so he’s not about to feel sorry for punching Spitelout, the slimy eel-faced yakshit-spouting man that he is.

“Leave Snotlout the Hel alone. Or maybe we’ll have to have another… talk like this in the future.” Hiccup turns on his heel and walks back over to Toothless, hopping in his saddle and getting ready to head back to the Edge, ignoring the shocked stares of everyone aside from the other riders.

“Alright guys! Let’s go!” Hiccup calls to the other riders, who all quickly mount their own dragons. “Gods I need a fucking nap…” Hiccup murmurs as he and Toothless take to the sky.

As they fly away from Berk, Hiccup in the lead as usual, Snotlout and Hookfang fly up beside him.

“Hey uh… what you did back there, that was— thank you, Hiccup.”

“Anytime, Snotlout. Anytime,” Hiccup nods at him with a small smile.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“So… were ye aware that yer son could throw a punch like that?” Gobber asks from where he’s standing next to Stoick, the two of them looking on as Gothi checks over Spitelout’s injury.

“Not in the slightest,” Stoick responds, sounding baffled, but maybe, just maybe, a little bit proud. He never quite liked it when Spitelout ran his mouth.

He still hasn’t the faintest idea where Hiccup could’ve gotten so strong and learned to throw such a sturdy punch, though. His son certainly doesn’t exactly look like he has it in him.

By now, though, he’s used to Hiccup surprising him.

“Always full of surprises, that one,” Gobber chuckles.

“That he is,” Stoick shakes his head fondly.