Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

There wasn't much that happened in the cold, dark city of Berk. It snowed for much of the year and rained the rest, with only a few fleeting days of sunshine that broke up the near constant gloom that seemed to be paved into every stone of the town. But for every grey stone and tile, there was an even more colourful person that lived there. That's what made it home.

Hiccup considered himself lucky to be friends with some of the more infamous faces— or, as he preferred to put it, the most colourful faces— found here. Even if it brought him a lot of troubles and more than enough headaches for one lifetime.

Hiccup looked away from the window that gave him a pretty good vantage point over the heart of the city —something that had been very handy whenever his friends decided to liven Berk up with their own unique brands of chaos— and back to the fluttering in the corner of his eye.

He should really be getting ready, but there was a pit in his stomach that he wanted to ignore for just a little bit longer.

He sighed, and the blue butterfly behind the glass flapped its wings in response.

"I know, I know. Just... give me a bit," he mumbled as he glanced back down at his journal. It was his newest one; only a few pages had been filled so far, mostly with drawings of his friends or the rare and interesting things he'd occasionally be blessed with.

Like this butterfly, for example. Hiccup had spotted it late in the morning just outside of his house. He'd watched it dance through the streets for a bit before he decided to follow its path and —temporarily!— capture it so he could take a closer look.

It proved to be just as uncanny up close as it had felt from a distance when Hiccup observed it. The creature's wings seemed as if they were delicately constructed in shades of blue that could only be described as icy and… somewhat magical.

He raced home as soon as humanly possible after that to draw it.

The lines of the butterfly on the paper were pretty accurate, if Hiccup were to brag for a moment. His hands desperately itched to pull out the paints from his drawer in an attempt to memorialize those very same odd blue hues that had captured his attention to begin with.

But. If he stalled for any longer, his dad might actually have his head.

Hiccup sighed again, wistfully this time, and shut the journal that he had spent the last few hours nose deep in. It had been a good distraction. He longed for nothing more than to stay longer, filling countless more pages with drawings of the insect, but he'd already kept the thing trapped for much longer than he had intended. So with a heavy heart, he carefully lifted the glass dome housing the butterfly and watched as it flapped its wings.

Hiccup envied it as he watched it flutter through his room with a newfound freedom. What he wouldn't give to be able to fly away from it all, just for a bit.

Sometimes he dreamed about doing just that— packing his things and leaving town. Hell, he had tried to do exactly that, but there wasn't anywhere else for him to go. Not to mention, he had too many ties here now. He had his friends, his dad, and the burden of a family legacy that he was set to carry on whether he liked it or not.

A blurry burst of blue motion ripped Hiccup out of his thoughts. He blinked as the butterfly flew close to him. It stopped right in front of his face and Hiccup's mouth quirked upward for a moment as a small laugh escaped him. It was like the butterfly had sensed his moping and brought it upon itself to cheer him up.

"Thanks." Hiccup whispered to it quietly. The butterfly flapped its wings in response and followed him as he opened the window for it to leave. He watched it gracefully fly out. It felt like the tension in his shoulders loosened, if only briefly, as he followed the butterfly's dancing trail down the slightly busier than usual streets. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad afterall.

But of course, as most things went, the moment Hiccup dared to even think it, he was very swiftly proven wrong.

"Ten minutes to go 'til the Haddock and Hofferson wedding rehearsal!"

Hiccup groaned and scrubbed a hand down his face. His nearly ever-present tension headache, the likes of which he was far too familiar with, came back with a damn vengeance. So much for the little bit of peace he had found. It got worse when he both saw and heard his father and Gobber step out onto the street.

"Great day for a wedding, don't you think?" Gobber said cheerfully. Hiccup wasn't quite sure what Gobber meant by that since it was, as usual, grey and dreary out. Also, it was only the rehearsal.

It looked like Stoick agreed with Hiccup if the look that his dad gave Gobber was any indication.

Hiccup shut the window before he could hear Stoick's response, then adjusted the new suit he was all but forced to wear for today. It was stiff, made out of a dark fabric that Hiccup would rather lose another limb than have touching his skin for any longer than was strictly necessary.

Though he was grateful that it, at the very least, succeeded in keeping him warm, he could not begin to put into words how much he was looking forward to the moment he was let free from his duties —it felt a bit weird calling his marriage a duty, but given the circumstances, that's what it was— so he could rip the damn thing off of him.

Nightmarish fabric aside, he also just couldn't wait to be rid of the abomination as a whole. It had the rather unsettling ability to make him feel as though he was about to be the subject of the most depressing painting ever seen. He longed to get back into something more befitting of the somewhat awkward twenty year old he actually was.

“HICCUP!” He winced when his dad's thundering voice managed to pierce through the thick bricks of the Haddock manor. Judging by Stoick's tone, the man was quickly growing agitated by how close they were cutting it to the time that they were meant to be at the Hofferson's. Which, admittedly, was Hiccup's fault. He —according to his dad— had inherited his mom's tendency to get lost when it came to anything to do with being punctual.

Hiccup quickly made his way out of his room and down the steps and was only slightly off balance by the time the doors shut behind him with something that felt almost comically ominous.

Stoick furrowed his brow when he laid his eyes on Hiccup. It was a mix of worry and exasperation, an expression that was often on his dad’s face when it came to Hiccup. “There you are, we—”

“Sorry! Sorry, I, uh. Didn’t realize what time it was.” Hiccup dusted off the front of his suit and fiddled with the cuffs as he made his way down the front steps and toward the carriage his dad and Gobber were waiting by.

Stoick sighed heavily but didn't say anything else. Gobber ambled up to Hiccup and waved his hands away from himself. The man that was something like an uncle to him tugged at the front of Hiccup’s suit jacket to adjust it with a force that had Hiccup letting out a quiet “Oof”.

Gobber grinned widely at him. “Stop fretting, lad. You’re going to get your face stuck like that.”

Hiccup frowned deeper, which only earned him a smack to the arm with Gobber's prosthetic. “Ow! Okay.”

Hiccup rubbed his arm but forced his face to relax when Gobber gave him a pointed look. The blond grinned at him when the furrow in Hiccup's brow eased and ushered the three of them into the very unfortunately cramped carriage. His dad and Gobber were smushed together on the other side of the carriage. Even with them sitting opposite each other, Hiccup's knees still brushed against both men's when the carriage lurched into motion.

Hiccup shuffled about on the less-than comfortable seat when Stoick cleared his throat.

“Son,” Stoick tried, but Hiccup cut him off with a verbal flood before his dad could get more than a word out.

“Shouldn’t Astrid be marrying, I don’t know, someone she’s actually interested in? Why does it have to be me?” Stoick's brows furrowed for what felt like the hundredth time in the last minute and opened his mouth, but Hiccup barreled on. “I know it’s for politics or whatever but— you didn’t have to do this! Things are getting better! And you always said that you and mom got married even though neither of your families approved at first with everything going on, so why can’t—”

“Hiccup.” Stoick leaned across the carriage to grip his shoulders. Hiccup swallowed and forced his jaw shut with a near audible click when his dad’s hands squeezed him gently. It was almost comforting but stopped just short of it when Stoick frowned at him. “Times are different. You know this.”

“Could be worse though.” Gobber looked at Hiccup sympathetically before he cracked a grin at him. “Could be marrying that Thorston girl instead.”

Hiccup rolled his eyes and could practically feel the look that Stoick sent the blond before turning his focus back towards his son. “You and Astrid make a good pair, Hiccup.”

Hiccup grimaced. He knew that Stoick was right, in theory.

He and Astrid balanced each other out and made up for each other’s faults in ways that seemed almost perfect to someone that wasn't emotionally invested in it. Where Hiccup was naive at times, Astrid knew when to hold back her trust. Where Astrid was more ‘actions first consequences later’, Hiccup tended to think things over more. They were friends and confidants, as close as two people could be.

But it stopped at friends and Hiccup didn’t see a need for it to be anything more than that. That, and he saw the way Astrid looked at Heather... and the way Heather looked back at her when the blonde wasn't looking.

It should be Heather doing this, Hiccup thought to himself miserably as Stoick spoke at him, not me. “All you have to do is reel her in.”

Hiccup groaned. “I’m already reeling, dad.”

Stoick's heavy sigh forced Hiccup to look back at him. And not for the first time, Hiccup could see how tired he looked. There were heavy bags under his dad's eyes, the lines of his face looking deeper than they ever had before. It made Hiccup wilt a bit. They sat in silence after that, with not even Gobber daring to it, until Hiccup felt the carriage roll to a stop.

“Just follow the plan.” Stoick said as he opened the door of the carriage and stepped out. Hiccup watched as the man walked up the steps to the Hofferson estate. A weight settled heavy in his stomach. He swallowed down the nausea that threatened to creep its way up his throat and he followed after his dad and Gobber.

The Hofferson estate was, as the word implied, massive. It was imposing on a good day and it loomed over the three of them in the afternoon grey.

Hiccup shuffled awkwardly in front of the door before Gobber grabbed him and forcefully adjusted Hiccup’s suit once again, muttering something about “Stop standing like that,” and “You look like you’re about to meet a troll, boy!”

It went through one ear and out the other in the long, long minute that it took for the Hofferson's doors to swing open with a loud creak that grated on Hiccup’s ears.

Gobber's hands released him and Stoick gave Hiccup a pat on the back that had him stumbling as he was greeted by Mr. Hofferson himself. Hiccup sent Astrid's dad a smile that felt tense and weak around the edges and followed after his dad and Gobber in a haze.

Whatever conversation they were having with his soon-to-be father-in-law washed over him until, after what could've been either a minute or an hour, Stoick let him know that they’d be having drinks in one of the drawing rooms.

Hiccup nodded in lieu of a response. He barely registered the way his dad's eyes had been conflicted before they left. Hiccup watched as Stoick and Gobber followed after Mr. Hofferson. His shoulders dropped when he heard a door fall shut with an echo.

He’d been here countless times, and yet, Hiccup felt the most uncomfortable he’d ever felt in his life as he stood alone in his best friend’s house. Hiccup ran a hand through his somewhat tamed hair and began to pace. He could hear the way that the step-click, step-click of his gait echoed in the empty room. It was quickly devolving into a metronome for his rapidly spiraling thoughts.

The news of the arranged marriage had been dropped on him less than a month ago. It was after a long day that had made Hiccup wonder if his life would've been any easier if he had been successful running away a few years ago. He didn't think that often, but there were times where Hiccup couldn't help himself.

Stoick had knocked on Hiccup's door that day, and that had been the first indication that something was wrong.

Hiccup shot a look to his bedroom door. The only people in the house today were him and his dad. Usually, Stoick didn't bother. He would just swing open the door, startling Hiccup every time. Something in Hiccup sunk anxiously.

There was another knock at his door. Hiccup stood from where he had been hunched over his desk for the last hour… actually, make that two. It was much darker out that Hiccup thought it would be. He walked toward the door and whatever question had been about to leave his mouth died when he saw the look on his dad's face.

Stoick looked… nervous, along with something else that Hiccup couldn't quite identify at the time. (Later, he would think it was regret.)

"Dad?" Hiccup held onto the door handle like it would help him make sense of Stoick's face.

Stoick looked at him for a moment before speaking in a tone quieter than Hiccup had thought was possible for the man. "We have to talk."

Hiccup hadn't taken the news well at first. He had yelled and cursed, trying desperately to come up with another solution, all while his dad watched him as quietly as the man could manage.

Stoick had tried, but this was the best option. Especially for Astrid. He and the Hoffersons had done everything they could, but with things already shaky in Berk and tense with the only other city in a hundred miles, there wasn't much else they could do if they didn't want Astrid to be married off to someone else.

Astrid had been enraged. She'd taken a page from Hiccup's book and run off for a few days once the news was broken to her. Hiccup had found her at the edge of the forest with red eyes and a carpenter's axe next to her. She just about threw it at him, actually, when he found her, only to start crying when she realized it was him.

"It's not fair that I don't even have a say in this!" She had yelled. It took a while for Hiccup to coax her to come back home, but after speaking to her and going over everything that they could… they realized that their parents were right. This was the best of all the awful options they had.

It didn't make Hiccup feel any better, though. Astrid had come to somewhat reluctantly accept it, but something in Hiccup wasn't quite there yet even if he had accepted it from a logical standpoint.

(Hiccup supposed that it was thanks to the guilt of knowing that Astrid would be tied to him, instead the girl she loved, for the rest of their lives.)

God only knows how long he spent wearing a pit into the floor before someone grabbed him by the shoulders and forcefully turned him around.

“—Hiccup!” Astrid stared him down. Hiccup blinked at her. He hadn’t even noticed her make her way down, which was saying something; he and Astrid had been caught sneaking out more than a few times as kids thanks to how many creaks and groans the house made— especially when Hiccup was still getting used to his prosthetic. It was a both a miracle and a sad look into Hiccup's current state of mind that he hadn't heard Astrid.

Hiccup sent Astrid a tight-lipped smile when she raised her brows at him. “Sorry.”

(He felt like he was apologizing a lot today.)

Astrid sighed but smiled back at him, and Hiccup could tell that even though she didn't look as anxious as him, she was still tense as she tucked her hair behind her ear. “It’s fine.”

They stared at each other with an awkwardness that hadn’t been present for years before Astrid punched Hiccup in the shoulder. Hiccup snorted when Astrid bodily grabbed him by the arm —what was with everyone being so handsy with him today?— and dragged him up the steps and to her room.

Astrid only let go of his arm after the door shut behind her. “So?”

“So?” Hiccup echoed after a beat. Astrid tapped his forehead and he reflexively followed along with the movement before meeting her gaze. Her eyes bored into him, the look on her face making him feel like, if she stared hard enough, she'd be able to read his mind. Maybe she could, Hiccup thought a bit nonsensically. Astrid always told him that he wore his heart on his sleeve to a painful degree.

“What're you thinking about?" Astrid asked him with a mix of softness and assertiveness that only she could achieve. "I stood in front of you for, like, ten minutes while you walked in circles and you didn’t notice me. You didn't even flinch when I tried to get your attention.” Astrid tapped him again, harder this time. “So,” She repeated, “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, maybe the fact that we’re— y’know.” Hiccup cleared his throat. “Getting married.”

“Really?" Astrid said flatly. "Didn’t notice.”

Hiccup sent her a look. “Yeah. Not like it’s the only thing people are talking about.”

Astrid, thankfully, stopped her assault on his poor forehead and instead took a seat at her vanity. “That's not what I mean and you know it.”Hiccup fidgeted for a minute as he mulled it over.

Marrying Astrid wasn’t a death sentence, but as it stood, it also wasn’t something he was looking forward to. Call him a romantic (or an idiot), but Hiccup had always thought he’d have a love story to rival his parents’. Was it so wrong to want to marry someone he loved and not be stuck in an arranged thing that only added to the constant weight on Hiccup’s shoulders? Was it so wrong for him to want that for Astrid too?

A wave of guilt rolled over him at the thought. Even when he reminded himself that at least it was his best friend he'd be bound to for life, Hiccup still couldn't help but feel somewhat bitter about it.

Worst case scenarios kept playing in his head on repeat; constantly tormenting him with an endless barrage of images about what would happen if they didn't go through with this. Hiccup's mind sent him spiraling headfirst into a rabbit hole that was far deeper than he could've ever imagined. It would take multiple pages to even begin trying to list them all. Whether it be Astrid being married off to some stranger, to a man who turns out to be beyond despicable, and having something terrible happen to her as a result. Others would consist of Hiccup still getting inexplicably involved— all increasingly nonsensical ways he ends up getting dragged into the mess.

In the worst, worst case scenarios, it ended with one of them dead.

Or both.

The best case scenario was one that Hiccup wanted more and more with each passing hour; one where Hiccup would ask Astrid to leave town with him and just— start over. It didn't matter that Hiccup's one and only attempt at running away had ended in disaster. If they were gone, there'd be no legacies weighing them down and nothing stopping them from doing everything they wanted, even if it meant leaving everyone that they loved behind.

But it wouldn’t be fair to Astrid. It wouldn’t be fair to either of their families that had already tried to do what they could.

“Do you ever think about what it would be like if we didn’t have to do this?” Hiccup toyed with a loose thread on his cuffs. “You could be with Heather, and...” Hiccup swallowed. “And you could stay away from all of this political bullshit. You could live a normal life.”

“Hiccup,” Astrid pressed her lips into a thin line as she turned away from her own restless ministrations with her hair and to him. “I’m already involved. You know this. I don’t want to be a bystander. Berk is my home too.”

“I know! But what about—”

“Heather?” Astrid's eyes went soft for a moment with something longing and sad, before she shook her head and looked away. “It wouldn’t have worked out anyways. You know what her family is like. Things are already complicated enough as is.” Hiccup winced sympathetically. He knew all of that, yes, but he could still hold out hope for his friend.

“At least we already know each other, Hiccup." Astrid reminded him gently. "It’s not as bad as it could be.”

“But it could be better.”

Astrid sighed and nodded. “But it could be better.”

The words hung in the air for a moment. Hiccup saw how Astrid gnawed on her lip in an uncharacteristic show of anxiety that had more guilt stirring in him than before. He fumbled for something that wasn’t related to the whole ‘arranged marriage that neither of us want to go through’ ordeal to try and soothe her at least a little when the door to Astrid's bedroom swung open. Hiccup startled, and almost tripped over his own feet (foot?) at the intrusion.

“Sneaking off together already?” Hiccup made a face and sent a brief glance over to Astrid, who was even more displeased than he was at Gobber's implication.

“I remember when Valka and Stoick would disappear at functions... young love…” Gobber wiped a fake tear from eye and grinned when Hiccup shot him a glare. “Aye, loosen up, lad! Just playing.”

Astrid stood from her vanity and narrowed her eyes at the man with a heat that was usually only reserved for Snotlout when he was being particularly aggravating. “Gobber.”

Gobber raised his hands defensively. “I’m going!" He stepped back when Astrid's glare failed to let up. "Rehearsal's at five, so finish up and join us, yeah?” Gobber turned, muttering something unintelligible under his breath, and shut the door as he left. Hiccup and Astrid were left lingering in the loaded silence once more.

It was Astrid that braved to break it first.

“We should go.” Astrid rolled her shoulders, and it was only now that Hiccup saw how she forced herself to stand straight. She sent Hiccup a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes before she made her leave, the door left open behind her so he could follow.

Hiccup watched her go and swallowed to himself. Here goes nothing, I guess.

Rehearsal was, to put it as simply as possible, going horribly.

It had been three hours and Hiccup still hadn't managed to get the vows right once. He either stumbled over his words in a way that had his dad praying under his breath, dropped something or just— didn't do it right.

It didn't help that every time he messed up, the pastor —some old man that the Hoffersons had hired for this— would send Hiccup a glare that had him nearly curling in on himself in shame every time.

“From the beginning. ‘With this hand, I will lift your sorrows. Your cup will never empty, for I will be your wine. With this candle, I will light your way in darkness. With this ring, I ask you to be mine.’" His eyes narrowed with disdain as he gestured at Hiccup pointedly. "Let’s try this again.”

Hiccup swallowed when he heard someone grumble behind him. "'With this candle,'" Hiccup titled his candle toward the lit one on the table, touching his wick to the flame, only for nothing to happen.

He tried again. The candle still went unlit.

God, this was even more embarrassing than the time he had stared blankly at Astrid when he was supposed to give his side of the vows.

"'This candle—'" He, somehow, managed fail at lighting the damn candle again. And again, and again before someone coughed pointedly behind him. He finally managed to light the thing after that, but the nervous chuckle Hiccup had let out extinguished the flame in only a fraction of the time it had taken him to light the thing.

Astrid snorted but conspicuously covered it up by clearing her throat. Hiccup shot her a silent look. She hadn't messed up even once, and it really felt like she found his continued fuck-ups hilarious. Was that rational? No, but they had been at this for hours because of him. On the bright side, at least their friends weren't here to witness this, Hiccup thought with a suppressed sigh.

"Continue." The pastor barked at him. Hiccup straightened his face and opened his mouth to try again— when the doorbell rang. Hiccup almost dropped his candle because of it.

"I'll get that." Mr. Hofferson said after a few beats of confused silence. Hiccup took the interruption for the small break that it was after the man left. He watched his dad and Gobber quietly talk to each other for a moment, then spared a glance at Mrs. Hofferson, who had her eyes trained on the door.

Hiccup leaned closer to Astrid while everyone was distracted. "Who do you think it is?"

"I don't know." Astrid glanced over her shoulder as she frowned. "I thought the rehearsal was immediate family only."

The reminder had Hiccup frowning with her. There'd be enough people attending the wedding tomorrow, so his dad and Astrid's parents had mercifully decided it'd be best for the rehearsal to be a small affair.

Hiccup didn't have much time to think it over, though. The doors to the room swung open again as Astrid's dad lead in a man that Hiccup couldn't quite recall seeing before. He shot another look to Astrid and furrowed his brows when he saw her gaze go completely blank for a moment before hardening again.

"This," Mr. Hofferson introduced with a polite smile, "is Mr. Black." Mr. Hofferson smiled at his wife who, unlike her daughter, didn't seem to recognize the man at all.

Hiccup took in what he could of Mr. Black.

He was tall, pale with a grey palour that rivaled the skies of Berk, and neatly groomed. His face was sharp and long with yellow eyes that gave Hiccup a sense of wrongness that, much like the nearly lifeless tone of the stranger's skin, he couldn't quite put into words. On top of all of that, he was dressed more like he was going to a funeral… not a wedding rehearsal.

The alarm bells already sounding in his mind immediately started blaring louder when Mr. Black, upon settling his gaze on Astrid, smiled in a way that could only be described as 'grimy'.

Hiccup shuffled a bit closer to her and saw how the man just barely held back a sneer before he turned his attention back to Astrid's parents.

"I apologize." Hiccup didn't bother to hold back the shiver that went down his spine when Mr. Black smiled. "I haven't a head for dates. Apparently, I'm a day early for the ceremony."

"What?" Astrid whispered to herself quietly.

Hiccup reluctantly tore his eyes away from the aptly named Mr. Black and looked at her in confusion. Astrid met his gaze and shook her head before he had the chance to ask. "I'll explain later."

Hiccup could've pleaded with her to just tell him now, but the pastor shut him up with another glare the second that someone had pulled up a chair for the intruder. "Again." Hiccup couldn't but help the glare back. The old man raised a brow at him in challenge. "Shall we, Mr. Haddock?"

Hiccup clenched his jaw for a moment as he fought back the urge to point out that there were more important things they could be doing right now. Namely interrogating the stranger that the Hoffersons had, bewilderingly, let into the supposedly private wedding rehearsal. He picked the now suspiciously lit candle back up from the table and gripped it tightly. "Yes, sir."

"Right." The pastor glared back at him.

"'With this—'" Astrid nudged him with her elbow and lifted her right hand that was holding the candle. Hiccup stared at her for a moment when she raised her brows at him. After a long second, Hiccup jumped and, with as little coordination as possible, switched the candle over to the hand it was supposed to be in. He started again from the top and repeated the vows that were, at this point, going to haunt his dreams.

"'With this hand,'" Hiccup offered his hand to Astrid who took it with a small smile.

He took a step.

Then another.

And another—

—And walked them right into the table when he walked forward again. Hiccup cursed and just barely managed to catch the glass of wine on the table as it and the candle shook precariously.

"Three steps! Three!" The pastor's face reddened with rage. He looked like he was seconds away from jumping across the table and wringing Hiccup's neck. "Can you not count? Do you not wish to be married, Mr. Haddock?!"

"No! No—" Hiccup defended before he realized that it sounded too close to the truth. He quickly backpedaled. "I— I mean— I don't, not want to get married—"

"Pay attention!" The pastor shouted at him. Hiccup hissed when the elder hit him over the head with a heavy book that he hadn't spotted on the table. Hiccup rubbed his head at the sting that the hit had left. It only made his aching head throb more. "Did you even remember to bring the ring?"

Hiccup balked. "The ring?" He hadn't grabbed it before he left. He had been too distracted with the butterfly (and moping). Despite very much knowing that he'd forgotten it, he still found himself frantically patting the suit pocket for the ring that was… somehow there?

Gobber coughed behind him. Hiccup made a mental note to thank the man when this was all over. He was already making a fool of himself as it was, he didn't know what would've happened if he really didn't have the ring.

He brought it out with faux confidence. It flashed for a moment as he held it up between his fingers. "Of course I—"

And, as most things did for Hiccup, everything quickly went downhill from there. He could've blamed it on his sweating and shaking hands, but that didn't change much when you looked at the big picture.

He managed to not just drop the ring, but send it flying across the room. It hit the ground with a quiet thud and began its very rapid escape attempt as it rolled straight toward Astrid's mother. Hiccup cursed under his breath as he chased after it, missing it more than a few times, with all the grace of a freshly born foal that was down a leg.

"This boy doesn't want to get married!" The pastor accused.

Really? What made it obvious?! Hiccup bit back the halfway hysterical and sarcastic reply as he dove after the ring this time. He dutifully ignored the looks ranging from barely holding back a laugh (Astrid and Gobber) to what was likely some mix between enraged and disbelieving (his dad and the Hofferson parents).

"Disgraceful!"

Hiccup finally got his fingers around the stupid metal band and held it up triumphantly in his right hand. And for a minute, Hiccup thought he had managed to escape disaster when the smell of smoke wafted over him.

…Smoke?

That's when he realized that his hand was very much devoid of a candle. Shit.

Several gasps rang out and he whipped his head around. The bottom of Mrs. Hofferson's deep blue dress was now on fire. All because of the candle that was now laying on the hem like a left behind weapon at the scene of a murder. Hiccup's candle that he hadn't even noticed had dropped when he dove after the ring with it still in his hand. The room exploded with shouting and noise as a chair fell onto the ground as everyone moved toward Mrs. Hofferson.

"Mom!"

"Out of the way!" Someone's hand shoved out Hiccup of the way and made him fall flat on his ass. He quickly stood back up when Astrid's dad started stomping on the flames that were slowly but surely spreading on Mrs. Hofferson's dress. Hiccup scrambled for something— anything— that could put it out, only to find that he had nothing.

"Stop fanning it—" Someone shouted. Hiccup couldn't tell who it was as everyone's voices overlapped in panic."Get a bucket!"

Just as quickly as the fire started, it was put out.

Hiccup froze when he saw that it was the stranger that had put out the fire. Mr. Black stood with an irritating smugness and an empty glass of wine. For someone that just saved a woman's life, the guy sure continued to ooze with an energy that made Hiccup's skin crawl.

He knew he wasn't alone in that feeling when Astrid, despite the fact that the man had just rescued her mother, looked at him with unease written clearly across her face.

"Enough!" The pastor called out when no one spoke. The old man turned his wrathful gaze on Hiccup, and his heart dropped to his feet when everyone else in the room followed suit. Hiccup's throat tightened and he could feel his hands shaking at the realization.

"This wedding cannot take place until he is properly prepared." The pastor pushed past the smirking Mr. Black and jabbed a finger toward Hiccup.

"Young man…" Hiccup backed up like prey that was about to meet its end as the old man stalked toward him. He only stopped when his back hit the wall. "Learn your vows."

Hiccup forced himself to swallow and not lash out like a cornered animal when the old man's scowling face kept him pinned. It was like nothing had changed and he was still that mistake of a kid that only made things worse.

And that was the crux of the issue, wasn't it? Deep down, Hiccup was still that skinny little fishbone. He had screwed up so badly to the point where he had almost hurt someone. Again. Hiccup's stump ached where his prosthetic met skin as the memories that threatened to make him buckle under their weight flooded in. He felt fifteen again as everyone's eyes bored into him and left him raw.

Just like that night five years ago, Hiccup dared to spare a glance to his father.

Stoick looked at back him with disappointment and regret. It had Hiccup choking on his own breath. Hiccup looked away, and yet, the look on his dad's face had already seared itself into his mind like a brand, burning over old wounds that had never really healed right.

Hiccup's heart hammered in his chest as he, much like the kid he had been the last time he felt this way, did the only thing he knew how to do without completely screwing it up. He fled.

"Hear ye, hear ye! Rehearsal in ruins as Haddock boy causes chaos! Fishbone Fiancé could be canned! Hoffersons fired up as Haddock disaster ruins rehearsal!"

"They all think I'm an idiot." Hiccup despaired into his hands. "This day couldn't get any worse." He had, after his less than graceful exit, wandered aimlessly for a few hours until he ended up where he often did; the bridge just outside of Berk. He had always felt drawn to it, even if it lead to the forest that the Thorston twins swore was haunted.

"I totally heard someone else in there!" Tuffnut claimed when it came up. And when anyone with half a working rational mind, like Fishlegs, asked for details or would suggest it was anything normal, Ruffnut would always come in and defend her brother with a "It's like the forest is watching you!" Fishlegs had avoided the forest after that, not wanting to test it.

Hiccup had paid it little mind. He and Astrid were usually the two out of their group that wouldn't fall for the twins attempts at scaring them with a half-baked ghost story or prank.

Astrid. Hiccup groaned as he forced his face out of his hands. He didn't want to get married, sure, but setting her mother on fire really wasn't the way to go about it! And even before that, Hiccup had screwed up the vows so many times, even when they were repeated to him ad nauseam. Hiccup had a lot of embarrassing moments in his life, but the entire evening had been beyond mortifying. Never had he fumbled that poorly in the twenty years he had been alive.

Not to mention, the withering and disappointed look his dad shot him made him wonder if he should pitch himself off of a bridge and into a river. But then Astrid might have to get hitched to some other guy and—

“At least we already know each other, Hiccup. It’s not as bad as it could be.”

Hiccup wondered if Astrid was rethinking that now. Maybe she'd be better off marrying a stranger that wouldn't set her mother on fucking fire. It had been an accident, sure, but that didn't change much. Even when he knew that Astrid herself would say he was being a bit melodramatic. He told himself that this was still the best option— for both of them. They were friends and trusted each other implicitly. Astrid wouldn't have to run the risk of being tied to someone horrible if she married him, and she wouldn't have to be miserable with someone she didn't even know.

"Hear ye, hear ye!"

Hiccup glared back at Berk as the town crier started to repeat himself. It was like the world was mocking him when he was already moments away from maybe trying to off himself. "Just kick me while I'm down, right?" Hiccup grumbled before he forcefully pushed himself away from the bridge and rolled his eyes. He needed more air so he wouldn't actually go through trying to find some body of water that he could drown himself in.

Hiccup's feet brought him toward the forest before he knew it. The trees got thicker and the world got quieter as Hiccup walked without any real direction. It gave him the perfect opportunity to replay the disaster that the rehearsal had been.

Every single stumble of his words played on loop and taunted him with the sound of his own voice. Astrid hadn't messed up, not even once, despite being in the same damn situation as Hiccup. She had played her part perfectly, and all Hiccup had done was embarrass himself. Even if Hiccup wasn't exactly on the mark with all the motions of the ceremony, the least he could do was say the vows right.

“It’s really not that hard.” Hiccup stepped over a thick root, just barely aware of his surroundings as he walked deeper into the woods. “Just a few simple vows.”

“‘With this hand,’” He began reciting slowly, not that it did much as he immediately screwed it up, “I will take your w—” He grimaced and walked for a bit longer. It slowly got darker, but Hiccup couldn't find it in himself to care as he tried again.

“With this hand, I will cup your— No!“ Hiccup flushed with embarrassment. The night might've been more than a complete disaster, but thank god he hadn’t messed the vows up that badly in front of Astrid and her parents. Silver linings and all of that. He wouldn't have been able to live it down if he had.

With this hand, I will…

The words echoed in his skull as snow and twigs quietly crunched underfoot. He mentally repeated the vows over and over in his mind. How was it that he got the general gist of it when he thought about it, but the second he opened his mouth, it all left him?

Again.

“With this candle, I will…” Nothing. Hiccup's steps slowed as he narrowed his eyes at nothing. He took a breath, and tried again.

“I will…” Astrid's mother flashed in his mind, and the suffocating smell of smoke washed over him again like the feeling of a phantom limb.

“…Set your mom on fire. Damn it.” Hiccup rubbed a hand down his face and groaned. He had gotten lucky that Mrs. Hofferson was fine, if a bit startled… and down a dress. Hiccup groaned and sat down on some log. He buried his face in hands, again.

He would really, really love it if he could just get it together. Maybe not constantly replaying his brief foray into arson would be a great place to start. If only his brain would get the message.

He couldn’t even blame the countless mess ups on nerves or stage fright anymore. He was alone here and still managed to epically mess it up every time. Maybe everyone had been right about him before. Maybe, even after he had grown in more ways than one, he really was still just that fishbone of a kid deep down.

Hiccup sighed and looked at the twisted, dead tree that he had stopped in front of in an effort to make his mind reset. His brows furrowed as he stared at it, though. He had been through this forest more times than he could count but he had never seen it. Not even distantly.

The tree in question was much shorter than any of the ones that surrounded it, with dark, twisting branches that curled oddly at the ends. It looked like one wrong move would have one of it's coiling tendrils wrapped around your neck.

To top it off, a murder of crows stood upon its branches, their beady little eyes boring into him like a macabre imitation of Stoick's judgmental glare. Hiccup withered at the memory. His dad had told him to simply follow the plan and yet here he was! Alone in the cold after running away from his problems.

Hiccup forced himself out of his thoughts and looked at the tree again. His eyes trailed from the branches to the roots. Much like the rest of the tree, they twisted and turned in a bizarre and unnatural manner. Hiccup almost wished he had his journal right now so he could draw it, just to prove to himself that it was real.

Then, before he could lament more, an oddly familiar flash of blue caught his eye, growing from a large gap between the roots. Hiccup blinked and looked closer, almost falling off of the log as he stared at it.

A blue flower stood proudly, despite the fact that it was winter and all the other foliage around it was very much dead. Blue, just like the butterfly from that morning. And just like when he saw that butterfly, he felt a burst of something in him when he got closer to it. Maybe I can fix this.

Hiccup reached into the pocket where the ring sat. Before, it had felt impossible to even think about the thing, with it weighing heavily in his pocket in the hours since the rehearsal. The golden band coldly glinted under the moonlight that just barely illuminated it. Hiccup looked away from it for a moment when memories from earlier flooded his mind. But he swallowed them down and forced himself to look back at it, even if it felt like the band was blinding him. He closed his hand around the band and glanced up at the canopy of branches covering the night sky.

He wasn't going to give in to his mind; he was going to do this. If not for himself, then for his friend. He wouldn't abandon her.

Hiccup opened his hand and glared at the ring for a moment before he steeled himself and lifted it into the air. This time, he didn’t flinch away. He rolled his shoulders and started, again.

“'With this hand, I will lift your sorrows. Your cup will never empty, for I will be your wine.'” Hiccup couldn’t hold back the almost proud tilt of his lips that made its way onto his face at that. He could've cheered at the fact that he managed to get through the first part of the vows. Instead, he stepped toward a nearby tree with a confidence that seemed impossible for the night and grasped one of the branches like a hand.

“Mrs. Hofferson,” Hiccup shook the branch-hand of the tree and bowed a bit. “You look… great this evening.” Maybe not the best idea to imagine the woman he'd recently set on fire while practicing vows with his newly acquired confidence boost.

Still, Hiccup let go of the branch and moved on as he snapped a dried off branch from another tree without so much as stumbling. “With this candle,” he tipped the thinnest end of the branch toward another, picturing the wick lighting immediately this time. “I will light your way in darkness.”

Hiccup tossed the branch aside and paused, only for a second. His eyes landed on a plant he hadn't noticed before. There, beside the blue flowers he had been so drawn to, was a small, odd looking sapling with only a few meager branches growing from it. They looked like they were frozen in a desperate attempt to reach the moon, as if the dim light that shone down would pull it from the ground and make it grow tall.

Hiccup felt a sense of kinship toward it, for he too had once hoped that there'd be someone who'd pull him away from the ground where his problems resided.

(He still carried that wish, just buried deep down.)

“With this ring…” Hiccup got down on his knee and presented the ring to it like an offering before carefully sliding it onto the tallest part of the sapling like it was a finger. “…I will ask you to be mine.”

Hiccup stared at the ring for a second as his words quietly echoed around him. Hiccup ran through the vows in his mind again, and a shaky laugh escaped him just as he realized he was grinning.

“I did it!” Hiccup raised an arm and cheered this time. No one celebrated with him, of course, but as Hiccup glanced up at the night sky once more, he could pretend that the stars were glinting in joy with him.

If he could do it once, he could do it again. Would do it again.

He stayed like that for a moment, basking in his newfound success before it went… quiet. The sound of the wind blowing past the dead trees around him stilled and the faint sounds of life around him halted. Not even the birds above him dared to make a sound. Hiccup's own breath felt too loud as his ears rang in the suffocating silence that pressed down around him. He swallowed nervously.

Things didn't go quiet like that for no reason. There was always something that followed a silence that loud. It was something that Hiccup had learned first hand.

The hairs on the back of Hiccups neck stood up, and the forest around him turned harshly frigid in a way that only happened during the darkest days of winter. Slowly, Hiccup turned to look around. There was nothing beyond the crows, which had stilled just like everything else around him. Hiccup's breath caught when he noticed that they all seemed to be staring in the same direction. Staring at him.

The shadows seemed to grow longer with every moment that passed, his ears ringing at a dizzying volume and—

Suddenly, like the life had been slammed back into the forest around him, the wind began to howl violently.

A cacophony of cawing violently pierced through his ears. Hiccup winced and went to cover his them but, strangely, he could only move one of his hands up to muffle the sound. Something cold and hard had his wrist in a grip that was growing tighter and more painful with every shaky breath he took.

Hiccup turned his head so fast it hurt and stared in quickly growing fear as the sapling wound around his wrist.

Not a sapling, Hiccup realized with sinking horror while he tried to wrench his wrist away, only for the the fingers on his wrist to squeeze so tight that he felt his bones scream in protest, a hand. He cried out in shock and pain when his arm was harshly tugged

down

down

down.

His head hit the ground with a force that made him seeing white and tasting iron in the back of his throat. The hand started pulling him down pulled harder like it was trying to drag him under.

Hiccup gritted his teeth and heard them creak as he pushed himself up. His free hand dug into the snow and dirt beneath him as he managed to get back up on a knee. The hand tightened around his wrist and pulled again.

He tore his arm away as bony fingers practically clawed into his skin and fell back with a startled shout when, with a harsh tug of his own, the resistance finally gave away for the most part.

For the most part?

Hiccup panted and lifted his shaking arm. His heart skipped a beat in his chest when he saw that the hand was still circled around his wrist. It squeezed him again. The ring on its finger, that Hiccup had so carefully slid on it, glinted at him mockingly before he shook the hand off frantically. He watched as it landed on the frozen ground beside him. Hiccup didn’t even get a moment to breathe before the ground where the hand had been sticking up from began to crack and shake.

Another hand —one with actual skin, he noted in dismay— clawed its way out and dug into the ground. Dirt and snow mixed together, and a head followed suit. Clumps of earth fell off as more and more of the body pulled itself up from the ground. Hiccup scrambled and cursed when his prosthetic leg slipped under him twice as he stood.

Horrifyingly, the person that had literally dug themself out of their grave rose with an unnatural grace at the same time.

Hiccup took a step back as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing. What was once a man, Hiccup guessed, stood before him. He was dressed in clothes that looked to have been white once, but have since been weathered by time and covered in dirt. There was a large tear at his ribs that all but melted into the bone which stood out starkly, exposed to the world in all their skeletal glory. Hiccup wasn't sure if the fact that he couldn’t see blood or even the slightest indication that the man was even breathing was more comforting or horrifying as he took another step back.

Blood rushed in Hiccup’s ears when he ripped his eyes away from the old wound to the figure's veil-covered head. The hand that was still attached to the body lifted it away like he was about to face his partner. What stared back at Hiccup almost made him freeze. It was the face of a man, someone that Gobber would've called a boy. He was young, despite the shock of white hair growing out of his head. He was likely around Hiccup's his age, maybe even a year younger. He was pale and gaunt, his sharp features made even sharper by decay. Hiccup could see how bits of his pale skin had had been scraped away by time in some places.

Distantly, Hiccup thought the boy would’ve been beautiful if it weren’t for the fact that he was dead.

The corpse made eye contact with him. And, for the third time today, Hiccup was struck by an unnaturally captivating shade of icy blue. They pinned him where he stood and regarded him with a sharpness that had Hiccup's heart skipping a beat in his chest again (Hiccup really hoped he wouldn't develop a condition after this). A slightly uneven smile graced the would-be dead person's blue-ish lips like it belonged there. It tugged at some of the more worn parts of his face in a way that Hiccup thought must've been painful.

Then, the boy opened his mouth, whispers spilling from them that felt like they were carried by the wind itself as he said the two words that Hiccup didn't think he'd hear until tomorrow:

”I do.”

‘I should’ve listened when the twins said the forest was haunted’, Hiccup hysterically thought to himself before snapping out of his trance and doing what any other mildly sane person with a fleeting will to live would do in this scenario.

He ran.

It didn't escape him that this was the second time tonight as he leapt over a thick root that threatened to trip him. He forced himself to watch where he was going, even when an icy fog began to drift over the ground and swirled around his ankles like it was trying to grab him.

Hiccup's legs burned as he slipped and rolled down a hill onto the frozen river that bisected the northern part of the forest from the south. He crashed to the ground and pain shot up his arm. It punched Hiccup's breath out from his chest causing him to grapple for it back while he pushed himself upright.

He faltered, though, when he heard something snap behind him and couldn't help but scream, even if it made his throat raw, when he saw that the dead man was following him with an almost besotted smile on his face.

Hiccup, somehow, managed to get up and off of the frozen water in record time. His lungs felt like they were on the verge of collapsing as he pushed himself to run even faster this time. He had never been as fast as he was before he had his prosthetic since it was clunky and stiff, but Hiccup figured that there was a first time for everything as he ran faster than he ever had in his life.

Further and further he ran, even when each step made his stomach lurch dangerously. He bobbed and weaved between trees like a mad man in a desperate attempt to throw the ghost or ghoul or whatever it was off his trail.

Hiccup didn't know how long he had been running for, but he barely even slowed all the while, only being forced to a stop when his suit got caught on a branch that he hadn't seen in his blind panic to get away. He was so close to escaping— he could see the bridge right there. It taunted him as he twisted only managing to tangle himself up more in the branches that caught him.

"God damn it!" Hiccup shouted as he ripped away from the branches. He cried out in pain when the crows swooped low, their talons scratching his face before he finally, finally freed himself from the thicket of trees that wanted to swallow him whole.

Hiccup threw himself out of the forest and gasped for air the moment he gripped the stone ledge of the bridge. His mind was a loop that was constantly switching from 'The twins were right' to 'I have to be dreaming right now'.

Hiccup turned back to look at the forest one last time… and saw nothing there. It stood tall and dark like something out of a novel, nothing so much as moved in the tree line no matter how much Hiccup stared. His hammering heart slowed in a way that had him wanting to throw up. Hiccup's body made its pain very known as he practically collapsed onto the ledge. He took a deep breath and laughed shakily to himself. He was going to have one hell of a time explaining this to Astrid.

Hands gripped his shoulders.

Hiccup froze. A wave of ice crashed over him as he forced himself to breathe, despite every animal instinct in him screaming to stay as still as possible. Slowly, he turned to look at the living dead groom in front of him.

The man's face inched closer, his lashes casting faint shadows that drew Hiccup's gaze to those blue eyes that threatened to pull him under. He swallowed thickly as the man's mouth titled elfishly. He thought, however briefly, that maybe this was a prank that the twins had somehow managed to orchestrate. He almost expected for one of them to burst forth from the treeline and laugh at how his hands shook with something that Hiccup couldn't name, even if he had the time. It had Hiccup's eyes darting away from the pale face in front of him before a cold hand cupped his cheek with an almost sickening tenderness. Goosebumps rose on Hiccup's skin at the touch in a way that nothing living had ever managed to do before.

Coldness seeped deep into his skin and settled there like the dirt under Hiccup's nails, but far more intoxicating as the man's nose brushed against his own.

"You may kiss the bride." The words were murmured with a lilt like the groom was telling a joke, but something about the quiet way they brushed against Hiccup's lips had his heart fluttering in his chest.

Cold but mind numbingly soft lips pressed against Hiccup's. His skin tingled as the soft press of those lips became ever so slightly firmer. The cold bit into him, gently, as the man tilted his head. Hiccup belatedly realized that for some reason, the fear that had held him in a vice grip just moments before had melted away completely and gave way to an inexplicable warmth in his chest.

Hiccup never knew that the kiss of death would be so literal or so sweet.

It didn't last for long, though, as the ground dropped out from under Hiccup's feet and the world went dark.