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Heather isn’t an easy girl to shake.
Tuffnut figured that out pretty much right after they met, when she was spying on everybody and her parents’ lives were in danger, but still somehow stayed entirely focused and actually did her mission without being found and even if he sure wasn’t happy about that whole thing, she did it.
And oh, then losing her island and still playing with Dagur the Deranged and nearly actually killing him, not to mention her attempts at outing Viggo.
But Tuff is impressed, and that’s not just the madly in love part of him talking.
But Hiccup’s disappearance – thank you, Snotlout, for misplacing the one and only Hiccup Haddock, Tuff’s best friend or so, Ruff’s boyfriend, and the only son of Stoick the Vast who will slaughter them all if he doesn’t return – has shaken her a lot.
She doesn’t really show it. Obviously. But Tuff’s better at using his head than people give him credit for, and he yanks Belch up to fly next to Windshear as Ruff scowls ferally at the washing sea and lets his sister brood to herself for a while.
He’s kinda figured out the point of letting his sister beat down her own mental walls before poking.
“Hey.”
“Yes, Tuff?” she asks, ever polite. Always… terrifyingly polite. He still doesn’t know what to do with it sometimes… most of the time.
“On account of how Snotlout misplaced the one Hiccup Haddock and Toothless Night Fury… and also your one totally-should-have-been-but-isn’t brother, I thought I should check on your…”
“I’m okay, Tuff,” Heather promises, but the tightness in her expression and posture screams otherwise.
“Yeah, nuh-uh.” Ruffnut has Barf pulled up alongside Tuffnut and Windshear now. “Hiccup gets that face, I could swear, you’re basically twins. And he bottles up all this stuff like nobody else.”
But, Heather, being who she is, always tries to handle everything on her own. Often with way too little concern for how much she’s actually hurting everybody else, and Tuff really isn’t going to tell that to her like that, and Hiccup had a long, long talk about it once with all the do-not’s about things to say to Heather.
“You know we’re here, right?” Tuff tries instead.
“Yes, I know, Tuff.” She blows out a breath, face tight and strained as their dragons keep heading towards the area that Hiccup is maybe-hopefully being held, and will still be if they’re lucky, or they’ll have to call in Skullcrusher and try not to get killed. “It’s just that everywhere I go, someone else is being hurt.”
“What happened to Hiccup wasn’t your fault,” Ruffnut argues.
“Yeah, it was Snotlout’s,” Tuff offers.
“Heard that,” the boy says, loud and miserable.
“I know this once it wasn’t my fault,” Heather admits slowly, “But it’s so close, and… part of having people means I’ll always be afraid to lose them again.”
Tuff looks at Ruff, who mirrors his face perfectly with her own bit of concern and confusion. “Hiccy pretty much goes missing every other weekend,” Ruffnut offers, “We always find him.”
“Yeah,” Tuffnut agrees quickly, “He usually make sit halfway out by the time we show up and doesn’t even need our help. I mean, he has Toothless, and his own unending supply of magic powers. I mean, how does he even do all this stuff? He always has an unending supply of Terrible Terrors and whatever gadgets you could possibly need…” He takes a quick glance at Heather, just to make sure she’s following – she is.
Albeit dubiously.
“You follow me, right?” he asks weakly, “Hiccup’s gonna be fine.”
He is. Fine – mostly. Just with a few more nightmares added to an endless list of old.
Tuff’s pretty sure Heather still worries, though, and if Tuff got his sis captured by crazy dragon hunters, he’d be worried to death, too.
***
“Why does this have to be our first baby?” Tuffnut wails, holding the screeching Death Song at arms’ length. “I thought it would at least be something smaller, with more feathers and not half this loud! And most importantly, that didn’t try to eat Chicken!”
Garffiljorg just opens his mouth and starts screech-wailing again in a deafening cry no doubt so loud even the albino Terrors who live deep beneath the island could hear the screeching. His head hurts, and Tuff wants to drop the creature somewhere it won’t try to eat Chicken, please.
She actually could have died.
“It’s gonna be fine, Tuff,” Heather soothes, dodging a bit of Death Song amber.
“Whoa, how’re you the only person who can dodge this stuff? Ruff and I were covered with it yesterday! Even Hiccup got it all over!”
“It’s part of being a mother, Tuffnut,” she says sweetly, probably jokingly.
“Chicken hatched him, and he tried to eat her! Don’t eat Heather, bad Death Song!” Garff only screeches louder when Tuff shakes him.
“Tuff, I know it’s scary,” Heather replies, “But we can’t just abandon him.”
“It’s going to eat Chicken!” Eat Chicken – Tuff refuses to live in constant fear through the rest of his life of somebody eating his pet. At least Barf and Belch only had Red Death big enough to eat, except – oh, Death Songs, because – “And he’ll grow up and eat us all1”
“Ugh!” Ruffnut grabs the little dragon away and stalks outside with him, humming the terrible lullaby their mom used to sing when they were young and still lived at home.
But Tuff is still completely spooked. He does not like that creature, at all. He knows they can’t just throw Garff into the ocean or anything, and he wouldn’t forgive himself if he did, but how are they supposed to know they’re safe by waiting into infinity and raising this thing? The last Death Song tried to eat them, and Tuffnut is very much not okay with this creature, as cute and innocent as he might look right now, eating him and all his friends, or Chicken.
“I know he’s scary,” Heather says, “Believe me, I do, but we can’t just abandon him.”
And she’s never seen an adult Death Song or how terrifying or dangerous they are. She really only heard about them second-hand. Mostly from Tuffnut’s screaming. “I know, but what about when he gets big and eats us?”
“I’m sure Hiccup can train him out of it. He trained Toothless.”
“Yeah, but Toothless is so cute!” Tuff protests.
Heather raises an eyebrow at him. “Garff’s cute, too.”
“Garff isn’t… Garff is maybe a little bit cute,” Tuffnut concedes, but all he sees Iin the little creature is a terrifying monster that is and will definitely become a threat to them all very, very soon. He already went after Chicken. The Night Terrors aren’t much bigger and then – then is their dragons, and them. “But that doesn’t mean he’s not still scary! And dangerous!”
“I spent so long alone on that island,” Heather replies quietly, “And before… I even met my Adopted parents. I don’t remember much, but I remember. Being alone for so long, I could do that to anyone.”
And Tuff doesn’t, really, because he’s never been alone. He’s always had Ruff even when they weren’t on speaking terms. He doesn’t really get the parents-thing, but he respects Heather does.
Because unlike… some people, he actually can respect.
“I have no idea how to be a parent,” Tuffnut concedes miserably.
Heather squeezes his shoulders gently. “Chicken might not be your human child, but you would be an amazing father, I’m sure of it.”
“Okay.” He appreciates the sentiment. But still. “But right now, all I wanna do is throw a nearly hatched baby into the ocean because it won’t shut up, and he’s scary.”
“We’ll figure this out, okay, Tuffnut?” Heather asks gently.
And it’s her turn to be all sweet and supportive now, and she’s so, so amazing. “Okay,” he concedes, “But I still have to keep him far away from Chicken.”
***
Dagur is… dead.
And Berk’s gold is… gone.
Which means they just gloriously finished the mission that was Dagur’s last request, and Tuffnut has no idea what they’re gonna do from here. Heather tried to shake of Dagur’s death like she does everything, but he knows her better.
She’s devastated, even if she picked up and kept moving, and Hiccup is just as much.
Now with Berk’s gold to add onto the list and a complete genuine failure – okay, they freed the dragons and that made a lot of this worth it, but Viggo still got the upper hand, and it barely even feels like a win. Oh, and Hiccup’s gonna be in serious trouble with his dad now, which really isn’t great.
“If Viggo’s thinking he’s getting us off his tail, he’s sorely mistaken,” Tuffnut says grumpily, scowling, breaking the silence as they land back on Dragon’s Edge under the dark, night sky.
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Hiccup replies weakly, climbing off his dragon’s back. Toothless’s eyes follow him with the same worry they always hold, but just as helpless as the next person.
Toothless, who about got sold off, because Viggo is an absolutely horrible human being. Tuff is fiercely and ferally wishing a violent, graphic death on the man. He hates him. More than Tuffnut ever remembers hating anybody, and he hated Dagur. Seeing him with his sword raised over Barf’s head was really final straw.
“Yeah, it does matter,” Tuffnut grumbles. The other riders are already heading off, mildly disheartened. Fishlegs gives Hiccup a hug before heading to his own hut.
“Not really,” Hiccup replies, “The gold’s gone, and Berk…”
“You can’t blame yourself,” Heather tries telling him, but Hiccup isn’t even present enough to listen to or believe her right now. “Viggo tricked all of us.”
“But it is my fault. I should’ve known,” Hiccup replies and tugs away, running a hand through his hair and heading into his hut. Tuff watches him, hating how useless and utterly helpless he feels as he watches his best friend disappear.
Hiccup’s nothing but been hurt since this dragon hunter war started, like Viggo somehow dismantled every last bit of growth Hiccup’s had and torn it right back to square one. Hiccup doesn’t go through these self-confidence battles anymore. He – he’s not supposed to, he always wins, is always perfect, but now, he’s just a mess.
If Tuff could, personally, track down Viggo and give him a nice piece of his mind, he’d be more than happy too. Ohhhh, he can think of a long list of things he’d like to do, actually.
Ruff is scowling. She drags a boot over the walkway, shuffling a little in her place and not stalking off, but it looks like a near thing.
“I have no idea what to say to him,” Tuffnut whines at the closed door.
“We need to give him some space,” Heather interrupts, pulling both twins away from the door. “And let Toothless take care of him for now.”
Is that how she feels about Windshear sometimes? They both rely on their dragons in a way Tuff can’t ever imagine relying on Belch. Yeah, he loves his dragon head, and the whole dragon, but seriously – he also doesn’t really get the clinginess. Probably a good thing, because having four clingy heads in the same house would get kind of…
“This war’s getting way out of hand,” Ruffnut grumbles as Heather tugs them along, even if no one wants to go to bed, really.
“Agreed,” Heather answers darkly, her voice tense with a note of unending grief.
Greif is sort of a major part of any Viking’s life. It’s no wonder the Thorston family doesn’t get too clingy with each other. It’s easier when things are funny, when you can joke instead of taking a word seriously.
“Uh, what do we do about Hiccup?” Tuffnut asks, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the red-painted house.
“For the first time in my life, I have no idea,” Ruffnut admits.
“Me either,” he agrees.
Heather sighs. “I don’t know,” she confesses, “For all that I wish I knew Hiccup as much as you two, I just don’t. And I don’t know what to give him that we haven’t already. I mean, he’s got to know this isn’t on him, and… whenever he has to face Stoick again, we’ll be with him. He knows that by now.”
“But dads never aren’t scary, are they/” Ruff asks.
“I wasn’t scared of my father,” Heather replies, “Not that I can ever remember.”
Huh. Lucky. “Hiccy spent his whole life scared to death of his dad,” Tuffnut points out, “Don’t think you can ever shake that one.” And also reason number fifteen why being a parent scares him.
“I’ll talk to him,” Heather agrees, “For now, I think we all need some rest, okay? We spent all last night up, and –”
“And can we sleep over here?” Tuff asks the door of Heather’s finally fully erected house. “Seeing as we’re seeing pretty eye-to-eye over here, if you know what I mean –”
“Yes, you can both sleep over.”
***
Heather’s been apologizing for the better part of an hour. The first few were appreciated, even if Tuff would mostly rather not think about this morning ever again, or the raging headache behind his eyes that a long mid-air fight did not do well helping, not to mention all the yelling.
“Alright, I get it, you’re sorry, everybody is sorry for not noticing the obvious difference in me and cousin Gruff,” he grumbles.
“I should have noticed. And I can’t believe not one of us found you down there.”
Uh, Tuffnut kind of can, because they only come to the stables twice a day, and Gruff let all their dragons go after smashing him over the head with something and stealing his clothes.
His clothes.
Seriously.
That was just creepy.
But his arm is in a sling thanks to a Gruffnut-caused dislocated shoulder, and he has bruises everywhere that mostly Heather spent the last hour trying to patch up. Hiccup and Ruffnut offered, and they’ve been lingering for a while, then gone to anxious pacing nearby. Nobody’s taking it well, really.
“It’s nobody’s fault,” Tuffnut replies, honestly, “Except Gruffnut. Who’s got what he deserved.”
Heather shakes her head. “I should’ve been paying more attention.”
“Even if you spent most of the day down by the yak flocks. And in the kitchen. And the watchtower…” Alright, he’s pretty much out of excuses for everybody. His wrists ache, and he spent hours yelling and nobody heard. Somehow everybody hears when Hiccup yells. Real relieving.
But he also has the mind to not be mad at her, just moody. Really moody.
“Maybe we should introduce something…”
“Like a verification code!” Tuffnut offers brightly, “Like how I nearly crushed Hiccup to death with a bunch of logs, and he didn’t recognize me until I mentioned it.” Seriously, Hiccup? “Or how you and I are actually a thing…”
“Which is something everyone knows, so it would have to be a little less obvious,” Heather replies, “But it’s not a bad idea, Tuff. Especially if we have to slip in somewhere undercover.”
“Or disguised as Changewings!”
“Well, yes, but mostly if we’re going undercover.” Heather actually smiles, which is amazing. She’s still awesome. “Although Changewings work too.”
***
Poor Ruff hasn’t let go of Fluffers for even a second since Snotlout handed the stuffed sheep back over. Tuff is still not happy. You don’t steal somebody’s stuffed animal. That’s the one thing you simply do not do. Even Tuff knows that.
He definitely doesn’t have three stolen stuffed animals in his bedroom, by the way. If he did, they wouldn’t be stolen, they’d be… borrowed. Big difference.
And Snotlout hasn’t had a violent tantrums since the Berserker war, and that was over three years ago. And Tuffnut’s pretty sure this is another serious mental breakdown in the ‘my dad is a jerk’ form, but he’s also pretty lost in actually reading those strange things his other best friend should really tell him and also really doesn’t.
If Snotlout needs a hug or something, he can just ask, he doesn’t hafta make everyone else’s lives miserable – okay, he doesn’t need to –
“-almost got us all killed!” Heather rants as she paces, furious.
“Oh, he’s Snotlout, it’s what he’s best at,” Ruffnut offers.
The dark-haired girl turns to her, frowning.
“It’s true,” Tuffnut offers, “He’ll get you killed, then apologize, and we move on, end of story… mostly.”
“But how can we keep fighting if Snotlout’s going to go rogue? Eventually someone’s going to die. We might not even have a ‘next time’. Not with Viggo out there.”
And Heather’s right, obviously, but she wasn’t on the same team with the other boy for four years just having to deal with it. “He’s Snotlout,” Tuffnut offers, “It’s what he does. Cause chaos.” Okay, he’s not helping his own case very well right here. “Look, Snotlout’s gone rogue many times, and no one’s died.”
“Yet,” Heather objects, “But this is war, Tuffnut. We can’t afford to be so sloppy. Barf and Belch got hit, you and Ruff could’ve been hit. Stormfly, too. The dragons were hurt, and next time, that could be Windshear, that could be fatal.” Heather lets out a tired, exhausted sigh. “Sorry I yelled.”
“Snotlout is great at being annoying,” Ruffnut quickly volunteers.
“I’ve figured that out,” Heather grumbles. It’s strange to see her so… moody. It’s kind of scary.
“It’s probably his dad’s fault,” Tuffnut offers, and both girls’ heads snap towards him. he shrugs at the attention. “What? Everyone on and off Berk knows Spitelout is a total muttonhead who…”
“Alright, but what does that have to do with Snotlout?” Heather asks, “He’s not even with his dad.”
“But he was just over there,” Tuffnut reminds, “At the fancy warehouse inauguration or whatever? And then came all this. Seems like there’s a connection.”
“But none of that excuses nearly getting us killed!”
“Maybe,” Tuff agrees, which is kinda true, but he’s nearly died so many times he’s still a lot angrier about Fluffers. Rufffnut cried for hours over losing that stupid lamb. “But it doesn’t really bother me, I mean, we almost die every day…”
She does not like that response? Okay. Uh…
“Snotlout’s kind of my official best friend,” Tuffnut replies, “I don’t think we can just out that. I mean, nobody’s put up with us the entire time we were kids except for Snotlout.”
“That might be true,” Heather concedes, “But I still don’t think it gives him a pass.”
“It doesn’t,” Tuff agrees, “But try to be a little bit patient, please? We can’t just throw him into the ocean. Although… that might be fun. He’d be nice Scauldron food.”
“Tuff!” Ruffnut yells.
“What?” he protests, “I just think Scauldy might like a taste.”
“We’re not feeding Snotlout to Scauldrons! …although you do have a good point.”
***
“Uh,” he says, still almost as awkward as day one with Heather, even if he’s finally grown enough to grow passed his incessant struggle to make her like him. Mostly because he’s finally stopped questioning and worrying – he knows without a doubt that Heather does love him. “Good luck with your dad.”
Heather’s smile is sorrowful, but just as sincere as she always manages to hold out. “Thanks, Tuff.”
“Yeah. Don’t thank me. Well…” he actually, honestly, did very little to nothing.
“I have to go,” Heather tells him finally, which Tuffnut already knew. Dagur is Heather’s brother, just like Ruffnut is Tuff’s sister, and if he were in her place, he would pick Ruff, too. It’s sad, but it’s life, and he can’t imagine a life without his twin, for all he wants to throttle her sometimes, even if it meant a life with Heather. And Dagur is alive again, and Tuff knows how much that means to her.
What Hiccup tried telling them so many years ago… he was right about. So, so right about. But that’s too emotional for Tuffnut to tell him to his face, so he won’t.
“I don’t want to,” she admits, “Sometimes, but… Dagur can’t do this without me. He needs me.”
“You have to pick your brother,” Tuff supplies, because for all he hates emotional-ness, this is the one time he’s being called to it, and Heather’s more important than his own bit of squeamishness. “Never tell Ruff I said this, but I’d pick Ruff, too.”
She smiles back, lips quirking upwards. “I won’t tell her,” she promises.
Goodbyes are hard, and Tuffnut, for spending a lifetime with no friends, has honestly no idea how to do it. “I’m really gonna miss you,” he fumbles out, “But I can’t imagine being separated from the Thorston family chaos. It’d be just like Toothless with no tail. And no Night Furies. And just a one-legged…”
Okay, Toothless is completely happy with his one-legged rider, so that’s obviously not the right comparison.
“It’d be really dull,” Tuff settles on, “You should go with your brother. Just… don’t forget about us.”
“I won’t,” Heather promises, and then she’s wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace. Tuff hugs her back, used to the act enough by now to immediately respond in kind. “I’ll still send you letters and everything. I’m goinna miss you, too.”
“Yeah, and I’m finally learning how to write!” Okay, some words are confusing, but reading Heather’s letters are a little more important than his great annoyance at the sitting-still part of learning. Should’ve done it when he was younger. Stupid Tuff.
“I’ll write,” Heather promises.
And Tuffnut does not want to go back to being long-distance pen-pals with Heather, but… “I’m pretty sure we can still work this out,” he promises.
“We will,” she agrees, giving his hands a tight squeeze, “Even if I’m with Dagur… we won’t be searching forever.”
“I hope you find him.” Tuffnut doesn’t care too much for his own parents, to be honest – the Thorston family isn’t too great in that way – but he knows Heather cares about Oswald very, very much. She’s always wanted to know, to understand who she really is and where she’s from. That’s important, even if it means leading her away from the riders, where she was never fully certain she fit in the first place.
Even if it’s really, really sad.
“Thank you,” she murmurs, softly, and kisses his cheek.
Ohh. That was nice.
“She’ll be safe with me,” Dagur promises, coming closer to them. Tuff doesn’t remember anyone telling him about their relationship, but Dagur’s not as dumb as everyone makes him out to be, just like Tuff isn’t as dumb as most people think he is. (Even if Ruff is the smarter twin, and no one ever dare tell her so.) He probably just figured out.
“Good,” Tuff says, fiercely, “She had better be.”
Ruff offers Heather a shoulder punch, and then a hug. “Stay alive,” she says, “And if you’re gonna go on some big, fancy explosive or gruesome death, invite me along.”
“Noted,” Heather concedes with a laugh and smile, rubbing her shoulder, and then is pulled aside by Hiccup.
The two of them don’t talk much, mostly just hug. “Tell us if you find Oswald,” he requests.
“I will,” she promises.
“And stay safe,” he adds pointedly.
“You too. And remember what I told you, life is short.” She says it with a little smile and some sort of emphasis that loses Tuff entirely, but Hiccup must know what she means, because he flushes instantly and nods a little. “Thank you for everything, Hiccup. And… everyone.” Heather pulls back to give them all a smile, a goodbye smile, the one thing Tuff has been terrified of seeing on her since she joined. He really, really doesn’t want her to go.
But she has to. That’s… important. Tuffnut understands important stuff.
“I promise, brother, she’ll be fine.” But Dagur’s promises are kinda from Dagur, and he might stay pretty true to his word, but he’s not always the world’s most reliable source, either.
“I’ll just take your word for it,” Hiccup settles and very, very carefully scoots back to evade a smothering hug. Dagur and Heather mount up and take off, lifting into the sky, tinged gold from the setting sun.
“Until we meet again Dragon Riders!” Dagur calls, waving from Shattermaster’s back as he flies away.
Heather lets out a wild yell, the Berserker war cry or whatever ridiculous sound series that was, but Tuff loves it. She’s cool when she’s a bit unhinged. Just like Ruff likes Hiccup being slightly insane.
But, that’s still Heather, and she’s still flying away again, into the crazy unknown after Hiccup just nearly died – something Tuffnut still doesn’t have the heart or mind to think about, even if he’ll never stop remembering the moments of terror as he saw Hiccup go under, Toothless dive after, and then waited and waited and waited but nothing happened, because he was stuck on the bottom of the ocean and would have died if that nice dragon hadn’t pulled him out.
And still would have died if Tuff hadn’t gotten the hatch open with Barf and Belch.
Hiccup’s nearly died so many times. And… what if life stopped annoying him and went after Heather instead?
Beside him, he thinks Hiccup looks just as lonely.
Ruff slings her arm over his shoulders, and Tuff is too tired to argue or bite her, and decides to give into his probably-older sister for the day and just drops miserably against her, since she asked for it anyway. But Ruffnut says no protest and just lets him sulkily slump and rest his head on her shoulder and probably cry a little bit as he watches the green and silver dragons disappear through the light of the setting sun.
Hiccup and Ruff exchange soundless looks over his head, and Hiccup comes up to hug him, too.
“She’ll be okay, Tuff,” Hiccup tries reassuring, which is only somewhat reassuring when the idiot tried to walk right after getting his lungs full of sea water and he would have gone on his face if Fishlegs hadn’t been holding him so firmly. “And… we’ll be okay.”
“She’ll be back,” Astrid cuts in, patting his shoulder.
“We’re all gonna miss her,” Fishlegs ventures, “Heather was amazing to spend dragon-time with. But… we’ll be okay. And she’ll be back.”
“I have a long-distance relationship with Mom,” Snotlout volunteers.
“Um, Snotlout?” Astrid tries, freaked out, but Tuff doesn’t think the boy gets it at all.
“Okay, I’m gonna pretend that part of the conversation didn’t happen. Let’s head back to the Edge,” Hiccup says, “Viggo is gonna do something about the gold right away, I expect, so the sooner it’s safely back on Berk, the better. We’ll fly out first thing in the morning after we’ve gotten a bit of rest.”
Back in leader mode. They’re going back to Dragon’s Edge… but Heather won’t be there.
“Hey, don’t worry,” Ruffnut says, poking his arm, “You’re not dunking me off in the ocean just yet. I’m still around to bother you.”
“That’s true,” Tuff huffs. Even if he’s also kind of relieved.
Going back to the Edge, seeing the new hut that is now sitting empty does really hurt. Tuffnut just… mostly tries not to think about it. It’s just a little bit too sad for him. He could use a really, really nice distraction.
And that was the night he discovers Boar-Latin.