Chapter Text
Thunder cracks again. This is much closer and in Ruffnut’s personal opinion, significantly doomier. But the distantly clanking hail is glorious. The destruction and risks rolling in, in Ruff’s opinion, are a lot more fun.
“We’re gonna have a loooot of fun when that storm hits in,” Snotlout says over his shoulder, the clouds and wind
“Blowing in fast. It’s gonna be something out at sea,” Ruff agrees with glee. “Wish I could watch it all!”
“Astrid would lock us in her dungeon,” Snotlout points out, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to cover my S.”
The twins break instantly into cackling. She can’t help it – that S is so ridiculous, okay? Snotlout and his S’s. Alright, alright she ought to respect his ridiculousness, but there’s a line drawn at pure insanity.
Fishlegs has already taken off, though, gone to warn Hiccup and Astrid about the incoming storms. Which are gonna turn into something crazy by the time they hit land.
“Think we’ll get a tsunami again?” Tuff asks hopefully. “I could go for some massive waves.”
“Yeah, me too!” Ruffnut cheers, “What do you think a little lightning to the face would do?”
“Hard to say, Sister Nut.”
Astrid is flying around now, yelling out orders to everyone. Ruff, for her part, has absolutely no idea what she’s supposed to be doing. Can’t remember their part of the storm order at all, which is actually crazy when she thinks about it. They’re dragon riders.
“What do you want us to do?” Tuffnut calls, waving down their fellow blonde.
“Get to the clubhouse and don’t move,” comes the dead serious answer.
“What?!” Ruffnut shrieks. She takes a moment to be confused, then it’s actually hurt and a little insulted. All that time together, and Astrid still doesn’t trust them to do things right? “You expect us to sit out and do nothing in a storm?”
“No, actually, that’s why I’m sending you to the clubhouse,” she replies flatly, “At least you can’t blow something up in there.”
“And who put you in charge, exactly?” Ruffnut yells back.
“We all voted her “Storm Warden”,” Fishlegs squeaks as Meatlug flutters past.
“Well, I would like to rescind my vote. If that's the right word?” Tuff protests.
“Clubhouse!” Astrid yells, pointing. “Now!”
Ruff swallows her extreme frustration despite herself, and they fly down to the clubhouse, scrambling off Barf and Belch and miserably waving goodbye to their dragon as Fishlegs herds it off.
“What? My part’s done,” Snotlout shrugs, and he’s already safely sitting out there, “I even had time to cover my S.”
“Would you for get about your S?” Ruff yells irritably, and sits down to sulk and wait for everybody else to pile into the clubhouse. Storms themselves are boring, because they have to just sit out, and hailstorms are too dangerous and near-lethal to be outside in. So that’s a no-no, and for as curious as she is, she is also not suicidal enough to stand outside in a lightning storm on the tallest metal object around, unlike Hiccup.
She saw him go down and waited in terror for someone to say he was dead. Doesn’t want a repeat. Not even with Tuff. And everybody knows she wants him off a cliff.
“Hey, you can try to be nice,” Snotlout sulks.
The others are packing in now, Astrid double-checking jobs with everybody, except the twins, who she decides to make sit around and do nothing.
“I still can’t believe she doesn’t trust us,” Ruff mutters, irate.
“Yes, what will it take to show our flaxen-haired friend our obviously trustworthiness?” Tuffnut asks sulkily.
“Did you lock the main doors?” the said friend is asking Fishlegs.
“Of course. Who would forget something like that? I mean, I guess it is possible. But I would never. But then again, there's a first time for everything…”
“On it!” Ruffnut yells, racing for the door.
“I’m on it first!” Tuff yells right back, and they’re tripping into each other as they sprint out the door.
“Ruff, Tuff, wait!” Astrid is shouting, and she thinks there are a few other people yelling for them, but voices sort of blur together a little.
Tuff actually beats her, even if he started out second, latching onto the nice slide-lines the twins strung up all over the Edge, kicking themselves off the pole and sliding down towards the stables, where Ruff can already hear the dragons yowling inside.
It’s raining. A little, but mostly hailing. Small hail stones. Right now. Hailstones always start small-ish, but then they pick up and get bigger and stronger, and those things can actually kill.
The doors aren’t locked.
“Whoa! I can’t believe our little Fishmeister forgot to lock a door?” Tuff muses, turning away, “Who forgets to lock a door? I’ll have to go back and tell him this.”
“You didn’t lock the door, you muttonhead!” Ruff snaps back, but pulls the door open just to double-check all the dragons are in their cages.
Lightning cracks. It splits the air with brilliance and one of the most deafening sounds Ruff has ever heard that leaves her head spinning and wears ringing, and it went through none other than the top of the stables, immediately torching some of the wood inside.
The dragons bolt forwards against the cage walls – which the riders never use, except in storms, because dragons will get spooked and run and get hurt. Sorta like how the riders hafta lock Ruff and Tuff up every storm for the same reason. But the dragons are already terrified as things start torching.
“Where do we go?” Tuff yells, panicked, “Take them to clubhouse?”
“There’s not even room!” Ruff yells back, fumbling with one of the cage locks.
Tuff comes, too, yanking and trying to get them open. They have to be faster.
But no matter what they do, they just aren’t fast enough. Ruff tears open the last cage door. She hears Barf and Belch screeching frantically, and Tuff is already running for the door as the entire building burns and crashes down around her, and then….
Something explodes. There’s something burning and agonizingly brilliant and sound cracks so loud it feels like her head splits in two, and then darkness.
***
Toothless crashes to the ground in front of the burning stables just as the lightning crashes down. Hiccup saw it coming barely fast enough to throw his arm up and shield his face. The roof is toppling inwards, caving. “Tuff! Ruff!”
“Whew. Do not get hit by lightning,” Tuffnut announces, picking himself up and brushing the soot off himself, “You wouldn’t know what that feels like, would you? Oh… uh, that’s right! You do.”
“Yes, Tuffnut, I do,” Hiccup says tiredly. Lightning crashes right nearby. Toothless yelps, and Hiccup flinches. And then, panickily as he sees only one blonde standing outside the flaming stables, “Where’s Ruff?”
“Uh.” Tuffnut pauses, looking around. “I don’t know. I thought I had a twin sister right before leaving the stables –”
He gasps the same time Hiccup does, realization slamming into him all at once, and they both fly for the stable. He has to shoo Tuff back – Toothless can do faster, more successful digging and tearing the fallen, broken poles away in a way that won’t bring the rest of it down far faster than Tuff, and he won’t start on fire. Tuff’s already blowing embers off his clothes in a few places.
His heart is racing and he feels dizzy and honestly outright frantic.
Tuffnut is crying. Hiccup wants to cry. But he doesn’t know if he’s actually crying, or if it’s actually honestly the soot and smoke in the air, because that’s definitely stinging his eyes a lot, too – they hurt.
Ruffnut is inside, caked with soot, but her chest is rising and falling in a sure promise she’s still alive.
Tuff hauls her onto Toothless’s back, lying her awkwardly across the dragon who takes off the moment they’re all aboard.
She looks –
He doesn’t want to think about it right now. He can’t think about it right now, but that’s Ruffnut, Ruff – chaotic, ridiculous, always moving, energetic Ruff, still as stone and coated in soot, after having been trapped beneath the collapsed stables.
Once they’re safely inside and Astrid’s slammed and bolted the doors, Hiccup carries Ruff from Toothless’s back and settles her onto one of the makeshift cots.
“What happened? Is she okay?” Fishlegs is asking already.
Snotlout looks torn between hugging Tuff and shoving him away altogether.
“I – I don’t know,” Hiccup fumbles out. “We found her like this. The place was collapsing. It took a lightning blast before she could get out.”
Add Ruffnut nearly died. It wasn’t even in battle, either, but somehow, this has shaken him even more, almost like a reminder of what Heather had told him for so long, of how life is so, so short and how he and Ruff need to act if they’re serious, and Hiccup is serious , it’s just that there’s a war going on and he’s only nineteen, and they’re dragon riders and – and he has no idea what it’ll mean if they seriously discuss courting.
Which almost sounds crazy. Him and… Ruffnut.
But it’s what they both want, and have wanted for years, they’ve just been waiting for – he has no idea.
“What about my Hookfang? Did you see him?” Snotlout’s voice breaks through the chaos.
“And Stormfly?” Astrid queries, “Did you see her?”
Hiccup looks up, trying desperately not to be annoyed. “Guys, they got spooked by the storm and took off. But I'm sure they're fine and they'll be back. Right now, I’m worried about Ruff.”
“Sure, Toothless is right here. Everything's peachy for you,” Snotlout mutters, stalking off. Which Hiccup knows is somewhat true, but he can’t worry about everyone – the dragons do know how to take care of themselves, and he can only hope they find good shelter before the hail gets heavy enough to hurt them – though it is nicely pounding away at the roof right now.
Right now, they – they just… need to wait for Ruff to wake up.
***
“Uh.” Ruffnut can’t see anything. “Am I in a dungeon?” She asks through the definite migraine she has, “Or did somebody cover my eyes?” She waves a hand in front of her face. Not even a shadow – she frowns. “Nope, not blindfolded, are we playing blackout?”
Hiccup, somewhere beside her through the pitch-blackness, lets out a little huff of relief. “You’re okay, Ruff, I’m right here. We’re all right here.” And he’s taking her hand, like he somehow knows where it is, but she can’t see it at all.
Which is something she’d expect from Tuff, but not Hiccup. “Uh, guys, somebody lost their fire-throwing stones? C’mon, that’s why we have dragons?”
“Uh, Ruff?” Tuffnut asks uncertainly, “There’s a fire going right beside me.”
A spike of panic rises up, immediately being shrouded with anger. “Yeah, right. Nice trick, Tuff.”
“It’s true,” Fishlegs intervenes quietly, “We’re in the clubhouse, sitting out the storm. It’s not that bright, but we have a lot of fires going.”
Ruff shoves everything away, scrambling to her feet, heart reaching, but no, all around is just black, nothing but black and then her panic is swelling up and she can’t – can’t – “What – what’s happening to me? Why can’t I –” She’s blind. She’s blind, and it’s so dark and she’s trapped inside her own head, and this is the worst nightmare in her life, she could be the only one in the world and wouldn’t even know. She doesn’t know anything, the room is just empty and she could be all alone in a world of total and complete darkness and – “Someone say something!”
“Your hair still stinks,” Tuffnut says, and being blind apparently does not stop Ruffnut Thorston from beating someone up.
***
She has no idea how long she’s been up, but all around is just dark and dark and more dark, and her heart is racing and even landing a few nice smacks to Tuff didn’t make her feel any better. And now he’s all wrapped around her like nothing happened at all. Chicken is clucking worriedly somewhere close enough to her feat Ruff could accidently step on one of those tiny, breakable feet without even realizing it, and she shouldn’t be so close, no one should be, what’s happening to her why is this happening why does her head hurt so much, why –
“I don’t know what’s happening,” Ruffnit admits finally, shaking and hating how scared she is so, so much.
“What’s happening,” Astrid snaps nearby, the girl’s sharp irritation very nicely audible as she comes forwards, “Is that you ran off outside to the stables when I told you to stay inside and out of trouble, and then nearly got hit with a lightning bolt. Big surprise.”
And Ruff bristles right back, just as angry. “You keep treating Tuff and I like we’re useless, but guess what? We’re not useless! We can help, and if it weren’t for us, we’d be having a very different conversation right now, and one of our dragons would’ve been dead!”
“You didn’t listen to a word I said –”
“I’m not useless!” Ruffnut yells back finally, and the room is finally startled into tense silence. “You might have no respect for any of us, but Tuffnut and I are more than capable of locking stables and keeping our dragons safe, and we can handle responsibility. How do you think we got the zip-line up? That was me and Tuff! And if we hadn’t, I never would’ve gotten there fast enough to let our dragons out!”
Even if she is blind for life, a thought that has her heart hammering uncomfortably fast and a heavy tightness crushing over her chest, she refuses to sit around and play completely helpless. She doesn’t want to think about it, but she’d still gladly take a life of pertinent blindness over Barf and Belch being dead.
Astrid sighs. Knowing her, she’s still angry, probably still scowling, and Ruff turns her head away even if she can’t see, just to make the point. She doesn’t want to talk.
Hiccup scoots in, murmuring a few words to Astrid to get her to leave, and gently touches Ruff’s arm. “I’m sure it’s only temporary,” he tries weakly.
“It better be,” Ruff says miserably, “Although, if I do stay blind, at least I won’t have to worry about helping Tuff clean Macey.”
“And if you do stay blind,” Tuffnut agrees gleefully, “I can tell you to walk all the wrong directions until you walk off a cliff.”
He’s joking (somewhat), which is actually the relief of squabbling Ruffnut really needs and deeply appreciates right now. Still, she elbows him for good measure. “I wonder if I can still tie a netter trap over your side of the bed,” she says gleefully, and at least the levity lasts for a very short while.
At least until the hailstones on the roof start to feel more real, and Ruff remembers the falling stables and the dragons, and she’s not the only one worrying about Barf and Belch. Everyone is as tensely wound as they get.
“We have to find Barf and Belch,” she grumbles.
“No, you just have to find Barf,” Tuff complains, “I have to find Belh.”
“Same dragon, muttonheads,” Snotlout calls form the corner.
Ruff sticks her tongue out in what she thinks is vaguely Snotlout’s direction, but Hiccup is poking her to lie down again.
There’s not much they can do about her eyes until they can get her all the way back to Gothi on Berk, but Fishlegs wraps her eyes with some sort of cloth he says should help, and Hiccup makes her rest. Tuffnut curls around her, and they actually get some sleep.
***
“Okay. Thorston Blind Field Test, numero uno. Who is standing right in front of you?”
“You’re one of them,” Ruffnut says crankily. They took the cloth off, which was doing great at helping not strain her eyes too far, but now that it’s off, it feels like the migraine is all back now. “Can I have my cloth back? It felt much better.” She reaches out wildly and just hits air.
“She got it!” Tuff chirps.
“Give it back!” Ruff yells, and realizes a second later it sounds like they’re yelling about her sight, and she sounds like an idiot. But she can’t see, and it’s so much less terrifying when she can pretend she blindfolded herself as an epic prank on Tuff, but this isn’t a prank, it’s real and it’s terrifying, because she can hear them all around but can’t see a thing.
Someone hands the cloth back, and she doesn’t waste a second in re-tying the thing around her eyes. “Great, now can I have Barf back?” she asks moodily.
Toothless makes a little worried coo.
Hiccup sighs. “Ruff’s right. We need to get our dragons together before another storm comes through. We have no idea where they’ve been. Toothless and I will find Barf and Belch.” Ruffnut hears the clink-thump of him walking towards his dragon, and the shuffling of leather as he gets into the saddle. “Don’t worry.”
“Uh, no way,” Tuffnut interjects fiercely, “We are not gonna just stick around and sit out when our dragon’s in trouble.”
“We’re going,” Ruff agrees.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Astrid asks quietly, and Ruff whirls around to glower at the blonde as fiercely as she can with her eyes covered. “You can’t even see right now, Ruff.”
“Yeah, great, thanks for the reminder,” she snaps heatedly.
“Guys,” Fishlegs intervenes, “I hate to say it, but either it’s we leave the twins in the aftermath of the storm, and alone at our base, with no dragons to catch anybody who inevitably walks off a platform and this time by accident, or we take them with us and hope Ruff doesn’t fall off Toothless.”
Hiccup sighs tiredly. “Okay. Ruff, Tuff, you’ll fly out with me.”
Ruff brightens – there is no way she was going to be sitting lazily out as their dragon was in trouble, and besides, she’s never good at sitting still. That’s not a great Thorston habit. “Thank you, Fishlegs! I’d hug you, but I have no idea where you are, and therefore cannot instigate a Thorston Sandwich.”
Fishlegs runs.
Oh come on, is she that scary?
Flying without being able to see is actually really hard. It’s like sleep-flying, except being fully conscious, and even then, she’d always hook her arms around Barf and trust the dragon not to tip to the side too much – Zipplebacks don’t really do that, anyway. They have two heads. Night Furies are different, and Toothless flies with an endless series of twirls and dips.
She knows he doesn’t mean to be annoying, but it’s still scaring her half to death whenever he tips to far to the side, and she has to cling to Hiccup and desperately hope she doesn’t fall.
She nearly does a few times, but Tuff is hanging onto her, so either it’ll drop them all, or make sure no one falls. Falling is usually fun, but Ruff doesn’t care to find out how it’d feel when she’s actually blind.
She feels so helpless it’s terrifying, the exact halfway useless, unable person Astrid likes to treat her as, and she hates it. She’s Ruffnut Thorston, she is not helpless just because all she sees is a vacuous swirl of pure black.
They finally land in the woods and start yelling. Honestly, Ruff is getting tired of screaming “Barf” at the top of her lungs, and there’s not even the slightest shuffle in answer. They finally get off Toothless and start trekking through the woods, but Ruff is unfortunately relying on two idiots how don’t have her superior sleuthing abilities, so she has no idea how long they’ll be tramping through the woods.
Toothless’s echolocation is only something that helps in the ocean or caves and stuff, not help finding one missing Barf and Belch… or is it two Barf and Belch? That is truly a mystery.
And everything’s great until she trips, goes flat on her face, Hiccup tries to catch her and goes down too, and they both land smack in the dirt.
And that’s still fine, if only annoying, until Tuff starts cooing and outright making kissing sounds.
Ruff is going to kill him.
Actually… no, she’s going to make a long list of ways to torment him whenever Heather returns.
***
Hiccup picks him Ruff, flushing furiously through Tuffnut’s giggles, and then he hears a branch crack. Something tramping their way. “You guys hear that?” Ruffnut asks, turning towards the trees and approaching sounds.
“Yeah,” Hiccup agrees.
“That’s not Barf and Belch,” Tuffnut bemoans. “They have a much lighter step.”
“It’s a different step,” Ruffnut corrects, which Hiccup thinks might be true. Barf and Belch always linger way more and creep around. They don’t tramp while simultaneously walking lightly. Not that Hiccup can tell dragons apart by their footsteps very well. “I think that would be one Deadly Nadder,” Ruff says, and then sure enough, through the trees comes a bright blue dragon.
“Stormfly!” Hiccup approaches her quickly, scratching the dragon’s neck to get her to calm down and stop fussing. “It’s okay, girl, you’re okay. Astrid’s fine. We’ll get you back to the Edge and find everyone else.”
Stormfly screeches, and then, out of nowhere, comes Sleuther.
Which is when the chaos really begins.
Neither of the twins have ever ridden Stormfly before – Astrid would honestly have killed them if they had – but Tuff, under the circumstances, scrambles onto the Nadder’s back, and Stormfly lets him. Ruff yells in irritation at being left behind with a ‘crazy, hostile dragon on the loose’ from the ground as they mount up and blast a few times, chasing Sleuther off.
Hiccup wishes he knew what to do for him, but right now, his only focus is helping Ruff and finding their dragons.
“Okay, great,” Ruffnut scowls, crossing her arms, “You guys have all the fun, and I just stand here and be useless.”
With Sleuther gone, Hiccup pulls Toothless down to land beside his friend. It’s impressive how hard she can scowl even when he only sees about half her face. “Ruff, you are not useless,” he tries reassuringly, approaching her. He feels… so lost. He’s never had to deal with someone who’s blind before. Probably because back in the day, chances are, if you went blind, you’re also about to go.
Bucket went blind for a short time, but he got it back. Even if he’s also permanently injured from the lightning.
And Hiccup took a lightning bolt he recovered from, but that’s no guarantee Ruff will, and he’s so… so worried. And he feels so useless.
Toothless makes a worried little purr and goes to nudge Ruff’s side in efforts to get her to relax just a bit.
“Yeah, great, because I feel very useless,” she continues with a scowl, “Even Tuff gets to ride Stormfly, but if I try, I’ll probably just fall right off. What if I have to spend the rest of my life like this?!”
“Then we’ll deal with it,” Hiccup tries, coming closer and carefully touching her shoulder. Ruff twitches a bit, but leans into it once she’s accepted the touch. “I know, I can’t imagine what this is like for you, you’ve always been so strong, and… you’re good at making things seem light when they really aren’t. That’s what makes you Ruff. And – and even if it never gets better, we’ll figure it out, okay?”
“It feels kinda hard to figure anything out right now,” Ruff grumbles sullenly.
“Look,” Hiccup tries, squeezing her hand as gently as he can, “After everything we’ve been through together, if there’s one thing it proves, it’s that we can handle anything, okay? No matter what, you’ll always have me, and you’ll have Tuff and Barf and Belch whenever we find them, and we will find them. Okay? We are always going to be with you.”
His own chest does a little fluttery thing of hopefulness, but he’s going to let Ruff decide, whatever comes, for better or worse.
And of course that has to be the moment Sleuther attacks again. Hiccup has just about had it with him right now. He understands it’s really not the dragon’s fault, that he’s been hurt too much and been through enough he can’t help constantly attacking, but it’s getting really, really tiring, and dangerous.
He has Toothless send out a distress call, and the help is very much appreciated, even if Astrid is very crankily riding Meatlug and complaining she’s too slow, Snotlout is riding Barf and Belch’s backs and the heads are exploding things all wrong, and Tuffnut is screaming from Stormfly. Oh, and Fishlegs and Hookfang didn’t even bother showing up.
***
Ruff is getting really tired of listening to the fighting and being utterly useless about everything. She’s not terribly creative, but she’s still somewhat creative, and she’s gotta figure something out, since all the boys are too dumb.
And that’s when she really, really starts hearing the weird clicking sound. She keeps hearing that right before Sleuther starts doing the tail thing, and speaking of Sleuther, she’s literally one of the two muttonheads who named him, he shouldn’t be attacking her. That’s just rude.
The clicking seems important though, and since she’s gotten really tired of doing absolutely nothing and she’s fairly certain at least one of the riders are down – she thinks she heard Astrid swearing from somewhere, okay? He’s a reasonable assumption – she gets up from behind the stupid rock she was hiding behind and tries to find something clanky.
Hiccup’s so worried about protecting her that he’s not thinking clearly. He doesn’t know how to stop the dragon. Luckily, this isn’t like when she was faced by Scauldy and half paralyzed with unending fear. She learned a lot that day, and she knows how to deal with crazy, feral dragons now.
The only clanky things she can find are her knife and helmet, which are good enough, even if she feels bald without her helmet, but the knife and horn do the perfect click imitation.
Sleuther stops. The firing stops.
Ruffnut stands up and comes forwards. Sleuther hisses and starts shuffling. She tries the click-clank again, and he goes right back still, not hissing, just watching.
She wabbles forwards on thankfully relatively even ground until she gets closer, drops the metal stuff and reaches out, because Hiccup swore that worked, and it sure worked with Scauldy. It’s just a moment before a scaley head presses to her palm.
“Wow,” Tuffnut gasps somewhere, “Hiccy, I think Ruff just stole your move.”
“Uh, it’s not my move, Tuffnut,” Hiccup says, exasperated.
Sleuther seems all calmed right down and happy. “Okay, boy,” she says tiredly, “Maybe give me a ride back to the clubhouse, and we can get you something to eat. But no more frying us. I mean it.”
The dragon gurgles.
“How did you know how to do that?” Astrid asks somewhere nearby.
“Yeah, it was cool.” Even Snotlout sounds awed.
“I used my head,” Ruff offers with a tiny bit of pride. “Unlike some people think, the Thorston brains are the best brains.”
Tuffnut cackles.
Astrid groans.
And then there’s a violent, noisy crash announcing Fishleg’s approach. “This is not respect!” he’s wailing.
Snotlout breaks into wild cackling. “Welcome to my world, Fishface.”
Sleuther lets Ruff climb on his back, which is a first, and a bit fun. “Hey, someone mind pointing out the way to the clubhouse?”
“Sure,” Tuff offers.
There’s an awkward pause of nothing, and the fact that she can’t see is something that almost immediately reannounces itself depressingly in her brain.
“Here,” Hiccup says, “I’ve got an idea, follow the sound. We’ll keep talking.”
“Yeah, that’s not too hard,” Snotlout agrees, and she hears a lot of shuffling as everybody gets on the right dragons, and tries not to think too enviously about how much she misses Barf right now. Someone has to ride Sleuther, and she’s the one who bonded with him, so Ruff guesses it’ll be all that keeps him calm. Scauldy was really like that, but at least this time she doesn’t have to sing for an hour.
That was a lot.
Toothless takes off with a gust of air and fires a plasma shot. Ruff tugs Sleuther’s horns after the sound. Snotlout and Tuff start squabbling, and that lasts the whole way back to their homes.
Also, nobody pranks her and tries to make her land in the ocean. Sad, she would’ve done that to Tuff.
Somebody helps her unnecessarily off Sleuther’s back and gets her inside. It kind of makes her miss Heather – they never would’ve had a crisis like this if she was here. It’s really sad without her, but… oh. And Ruff won’t be able to write letters to her anymore if she can’t see, which is really, really sad.
Okay, yeah, she could have somebody else write them, but that’s not the same as doing your own glory little handwriting. It makes things feel a lot less close.
They make her sit down and somebody’s gone to get something for everybody to eat. Ruff is sullenly contemplating her present reinstated uselessness when Astrid sits beside her – oh, she thinks she’s starting to tell footsteps apart pretty well now.
Fishlegs’ are slow and deliberate. Hiccup’s always come with a slight clank no matter how light he walks. Snotlout pretty much stomps everywhere, and Tuff is always scurrying rapidly. And Astrid is just light.
“Ruff,” she murmurs finally, quiet and in that very rare to nearly unheard-of that says Astrid Hofferson is extremely uncomfortable. “I’m sorry about earlier. I know I often don’t judge you and Tuff fairly. You’re just so unpredictable.”
“’Unpredictable’ is what makes us fun,” Ruff scowls, even if she sort of accepts the apology.
“I was just worried,” she fumbles, “That something would go wrong, or someone would get hurt. What happened to you was partly my fault.”
She thinks distantly about how she and Tuff had run out to the stables because Astrid wouldn’t let them do anything and she was tired of feeling useless and has to agree. And she’s not gonna polish it all up. “Yep, it pretty much was.”
Astrid sighs. Ruff has no idea if she’s glaring at her, but on the bright side, she has a good excuse about being unable to read social cues now. Except she won’t see if someone’s trying to hit her, which isn’t too great, sadly. “I know, I misjudged you both, and I am sorry.”
“Apology accepted,” Ruff concedes begrudgingly. “Only if you let us do whatever crazy, wild thing my brother and I have planned next with no complaint.” Because that’s not a form of blackmail she’s passing on. When you have a rare opportunity, who would be dumb enough to pass on it?
“Just don’t touch my house,” the blonde says flatly.
“Hm. I was actually thinking Tuff and I would build a five-story house with an island in the kitchen.”
“A what?!”
Barf and Belch finally barge in to snuggle her, and Ruff’s not complaining about that, either.
***
Hiccup brings everyone over to Berk. Everyone-everyone. He has an idea now, and it’s terrifying, but it’s long past time they make a serious move against Viggo, so he spreads out the maps and plans in his house and leaves them there to head over to Gothi’s.
It was a trip of double-necessity, really. Ruff needed to get checked over, and all they had to do was wait out the storm system before everyone gathered together and they seriously poured over this plan. But for now, it’s just Ruff.
When Gothi takes the fabric off her eyes and she finally blinks at the daylight, at him and Tuff, she lights up with the first real bit of pure delight since the stables fell down in the first place. She hugs him, and then Tuff, and they’re wrapped momentarily in a group hug, which feels really, really nice after the constant strain and chaos of the last few days.
They came so, so close to losing Ruff, and Hiccup can’t help fretting.
Barf and Belch are waiting right outside and practically jump her the moment she makes it out, Barf obsessively licking her until Ruff groans and shove his head away.
Hiccup turns to Toothless, who makes a happily little purr, and hugs him tightly, too, while the moments of relief are all up in the air. He’s just… relieved, and feels like he can finally breathe again, and somehow almost didn’t realize how tight things got.
Ruffnut is really, actually going to be okay. They won’t have to worry about her going blind, deal with the fallout of the violent chaos she would undoubtably cause. And she – she won’t have to deal with that. She’s okay. She’s really going to be okay.
Everything is gonna be okay. And if they have each other, they’ll work through anything.
And they go out for a flight together, now that they’re finally able to fly again, and Toothless tugs them sideways towards the cove he spent so long despite how many bad memories he has of the place. Hiccup lets him, of course, and they land in the grass amidst the sound of rushing water, overlooking the place where he and the twins first really bonded, the place where their lives changed forever.
Their dragons go to play, rolling in the grass and squabbling and chattering at each other. Tuff just takes off to join them, and on a normal day, Hiccup bets Ruff would, too.
“You’re not joining?” he asks dryly, deciding to take the moment to bask in his own feelings of… something light and uplifting.
“Think of all the things we could do to Snotlout with Sleuther,” Ruffnut says gleefully.
“I’d rather not,” he says with a weak laugh. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m great,” Ruff says with a wistful smile, “Almost enough to join the chaos. But I think I’d rather spend this moment with you.”
Hiccup scoots closer, almost subconsciously, but it still means everything to him. “I… I never realized how close we came to losing each other,” he confesses as coherently as he can. “Not until I found you buried in the stables.”
Ruff shrugs. “It’s as good a time as any,” she says, “Hey, remember when Tuff and I stalked you here? It was glorious. And our first ride on Toothless!”
Hiccup laughs. It’s not until now that he realizes how little he’s found himself doing that since the Dragon’s Eye, since everything changed and he started feeling so much more burdened. “I could never forget. I… I guess what I want to say, Ruff, is that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And Tuff, and… everyone, I guess, but…”
“Can we stop talking and just kiss?” Ruff asks with horrifying bluntness, “I’m not ready for marriage proposals yet.”
Hiccup laughs even if he finds himself blushing with near discomfort. But, hey, at least she’s being honest. Ruff’s arms wrap around his neck and kisses him, briefly, but still one of the most amazing moments in his life.
They get up to run in the grass with Tuff and the dragons, and one of the Thorstons trips the other into the water, who immediately drags the others in. It’s your average Thorston chaos, but Hiccup still – somehow – feels happier and lighter than he has in a long, long time.