Chapter Text
The flight back to Dragon’s Edge felt wrong from the moment they turned for home.
No one was joking. No one was racing ahead or doing those unnecessary little aerial stunts that usually annoyed Astrid and impressed nobody but the twins. Even the dragons seemed quieter than usual, wings beating steady and subdued as if they understood something had shifted.
Snotlout hated it.
The silence gave him too much room to think.
He replayed it over and over in his head. Every second of the training exercise. Every mistake. Every shouted correction he ignored too late. It should not have mattered this much. It was only practice. Nobody had gotten hurt. Nothing was destroyed beyond pride.
But his pride was exactly what was in pieces right now.
He could feel it in the way Astrid kept looking at him like she was deciding whether to say something sharp or just not bother. In the way Fishlegs kept his eyes locked on Meatlug’s saddle like it was suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. In the way Heather didn’t look angry so much as disappointed, which somehow felt worse.
And Hiccup.
Hiccup wasn’t even looking at him. That might have been the worst part.
Snotlout’s chest tightened as the wind picked up around them. It stung his eyes, and he told himself it was just the air. Not anything else. Definitely not anything else.
He’d messed up before. A lot before. But this felt different, like it finally proved something everyone else had been thinking and just hadn’t said out loud yet.
That he was the weak link.
That he didn’t belong here.
The thought settled in heavier and heavier until it was hard to breathe around it.
Up ahead, Dragon’s Edge grew larger against the horizon. Home. Or what was supposed to be home. Snotlout felt his stomach drop at the sight of it. Landing meant the end of it. The silence breaking. The looks getting worse. The words finally coming.
And then his father would hear about it.
That part hit harder than anything else.
Snotlout tightened his grip on Hookfang’s reins. His hands were shaking slightly. He hated that too.
Before anyone realized what he was doing, he pulled back hard.
Hookfang jolted midair. The others immediately turned.
“What are you doing?” Astrid called out.
“Snotlout, stop,” Fishlegs added, startled.
Hiccup finally looked at him.
But Snotlout had already made the decision before any of them spoke again.
“I’m done,” he shouted back, voice rougher than he intended. “You don’t need me anyway.”
Hookfang banked sharply, breaking formation. Snotlout didn’t look at them again, even as their voices rose behind him.
“Snotlout, come back.”
“Seriously, what are you doing?”
But he didn’t answer.
He just flew.
Away from them. Away from the landing. Away from whatever came next.
If they were going to leave him behind, he would not wait around for the moment it happened.
He would leave first.
And the worst part was how easy it felt once he started.
𓆩🐉𓆪 ─── ✧ ─── 𓆩🐉𓆪
It did not take long for Hiccup to find him.
Toothless landed softly near the edge of a rocky outcrop overlooking the sea. Snotlout was sitting with his back half-turned, knees drawn up, staring at nothing in particular. He didn’t look up when he heard the landing.
He didn’t want to see it on Hiccup’s face.
Concern. Frustration. Pity.
Any of it.
Hiccup stepped off Toothless and walked closer, slower than usual.
“Snotlout.”
“No,” Snotlout said immediately. “Whatever you’re about to say, just don’t. I already know. I get it. I messed up. I always mess up. You don’t have to explain it to me.”
Hiccup paused. “That is not what I was going to say.”
Snotlout let out a short, humorless laugh. “Right. Sure.”
He finally looked up, but only for a second. “Look, I’m saving you the trouble. I’ll head back to Berk. Or wherever. You can tell everyone I quit or got lost or whatever version sounds better for your perfect team.”
Hiccup frowned immediately. “Perfect team?”
“Yeah,” Snotlout snapped, then shook his head like he regretted it. “Never mind. Forget it.”
Hiccup stepped closer and crouched a little so they were at the same level. “You think I set you up out there?”
“I don’t know,” Snotlout muttered. “Feels like I did something wrong just by being in charge.”
“That is not what happened.”
“It always feels like that,” Snotlout said, voice lower now. “Like I’m just waiting to prove everyone right.”
Hiccup’s expression softened, but he didn’t interrupt.
Snotlout continued anyway, words spilling out faster now that they had started. “I’m not cut out for this. I keep screwing things up. And everyone just has to deal with it until they finally don’t want to anymore. So I’m just making it easier.”
“That is not true,” Hiccup said firmly.
Snotlout looked away again. “It feels true.”
A quiet stretch passed between them, filled only by distant waves and Toothless shifting his wings behind them.
Then Hiccup spoke more gently.
“You are not being kicked off this team. And you are not being replaced. You had a rough training run. That happens. To everyone.”
Snotlout scoffed. “Not like me.”
Hiccup ignored that. “You remember when I messed up that formation and nearly got all of us slammed into a cliff?”
“That was different.”
“How?”
Snotlout hesitated.
Hiccup nodded slightly like he had expected that. “Or when Fishlegs misread an entire map and we ended up stranded for half a day? Or when the twins accidentally set off a chain reaction that almost burned half the Edge?”
Snotlout’s jaw tightened. “Yeah, well, they didn’t get treated like they were useless.”
Hiccup leaned back slightly, thinking for a second. “Do you think anyone here actually thinks you are useless?”
Snotlout didn’t answer right away.
Because the truth was more complicated than that. It wasn’t that anyone had said it. It was just the way it felt sometimes when he messed up again and again.
Finally he muttered, “It sure doesn’t feel like they think I’m doing great.”
Hiccup exhaled. “We’re not here because we only succeed all the time. We’re here because we keep going after we mess up.”
Snotlout didn’t respond.
Hiccup shifted a little closer. “You do not have to decide right now that you are done. Just… don’t walk away in the middle of feeling like this.”
“I already did,” Snotlout said quietly.
Hiccup nodded slowly. “Then stay here for now. Just stay on the Edge. Don’t run off.”
Snotlout hesitated.
Finally, he gave a stiff nod.
“Fine.”
Hiccup stood again and gave him a small, reassuring look. “We will talk later. Properly.”
Snotlout rolled his eyes, but it lacked any real bite. “Yeah. Sure.”
Hiccup turned back toward Toothless.
Before leaving, he added, “You are still part of this team, Snotlout.”
Then he was gone.
And Snotlout was left sitting there again, the wind quieter than it had been before.