Work Text:
In the weeks immediately after Hiccup’s leg has healed enough to walk on, there’s always someone at his side to help him out as he gets used to it. A lot of the time, that someone is Astrid.
She runs over to his house as soon as she’s finished her morning stretches and knocks on the door, then waits politely until Stoick opens it and lets her in. Then she waits some more, this time at the table, as Stoick helps Hiccup get up and get dressed. Then Stoick leaves to tend to his duties, and the two of them have breakfast together.
“What do you want to do today?” she asks when they’ve both finished eating. She collects the bowls and puts them in the kitchen, then returns, hovering with her hand near Hiccup’s elbow in case he stumbles as he stands.
“I don’t know,” he says. She’s found that he says that a lot when asked about his plans. “We could go to the dragon training arena? I’d like to see if anyone needs any help.”
“Okay,” she says, holding the door open for him and Toothless and then hurrying around to his left side so he can lean on her on the way down the stairs.
“Thanks,” he says when they reach the bottom, just like he always does.
“Of course,” she replies, just like she always does.
The walk across the village isn’t too bad, though Astrid does have to swoop in for a save when Hiccup’s metal foot slides in one of the many puddles left by last night’s rainstorm. He laughs a little sheepishly as she sets him back upright, this time leaving a preemptive arm around his waist. Then they reach the arena, and Hiccup is suddenly so in his element that he doesn’t even notice Astrid letting go of him.
She leans against the wall and just watches, smiling, as he wades into the throng of dragons and the people attempting to train them. After a while, an alarmed shout reaches her, and she surges forward, axe already in hand. The crowd scatters all at once, and Astrid sees Hiccup lying on the stone floor, a pale orange Nadder standing over him with fire glowing in its beak. He holds out a hand to her, indicating that she should stop. She does, though every fiber in her body remains tense, ready to jump in and rescue him if she needs to.
Then he sort of folds inward on himself, in a way she’s seen smaller dragons do in front of bigger dragons. Oh, she thinks as the Nadder damps its flame and leans over to sniff at him. It steps back, gives a chittering coo, and Hiccup slowly stands and makes his way back over to her, body language still distinctly nonthreatening. He waits until it flies off, then looks at her.
“I think that’s enough dragon training for today,” they say at the same time.
Stoick knows that his son is different now. Or, more accurately, that he’s always been different, and now the village is finally starting to accept that. He feels guilt for his part in that, certainly, but it’s not something that can be brushed away with just one conversation. There will have to be an ongoing effort on his part to do better.
Still. He didn’t expect that difference to extend to something as basic as eating.
Astrid drops Hiccup off at their hut just before dinner, waves at him, and then runs off toward her own home. Hiccup winces, limping and leaning on Toothless a little more heavily than usual as he crosses the room to sit down.
“Everything alright?” Stoick asks.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just overdid it a little with dragon training.”
Stoick nods his understanding and gestures to the food laid out on the table. “Well, eat, and then you can get to bed and rest.”
“Okay,” Hiccup says, then proceeds to grab an entire baked fish and take a bite, scales and all.
Stoick blinks, startled. “Would you like a fork, son?” he asks when he’s recovered from the shock. “Or at least a plate?”
Hiccup looks up at him and shakes his head and says, mouth still full of half-chewed fish, “No thanks, I’m good.”
Stoick looks at him for a moment more, eyes narrowed in scrutiny, then shakes it off. “Okay then.”
That flight suit is dumb. It’s so dumb. Hiccup’s going to jump off a cliff, like he always does, except this time he’s going to get hurt because he thinks the version of the suit that works isn’t good enough, and then Snotlout is going to have to be the one to send the letter to Stoick saying “yeah everything on the Edge is going great oh by the way your only kid got squashed against the rocks at the bottom of the canyon sorry” because Hiccup is his cousin and it would be against Viking custom to have someone else break the news.
So obviously, Snotlout isn’t the happiest he’s ever been when he draws the short straw for who gets to keep an eye on the test flight of the latest version of the Dragon Fly.
“Why can’t you ever just call it good enough?” he mutters rhetorically, positioning himself and Hookfang halfway down the cliff, and he knows the words don’t reach Hiccup before being carried away by the wind, but that’s fine with him.
“Ready?” Hiccup calls from above.
“Yeah, go for it,” Snotlout shouts back.
He hears the faint, distinctive thump-click, thump-click of Hiccup’s footsteps as he gets a running start, then he watches his cousin throw himself off a cliff with absolutely none of the instinctual terror that any sane person should have in that situation. He’s nearly reached Snotlout’s position when he pushes a button or pulls a cord or otherwise activates whatever mechanism it is this time to release the wings, and he only falls for a moment more before the updraft catches him and carries him higher again.
Snotlout can hear his wild laughter even from so far below, blending together with Toothless’s, and he shakes his head, not quite able to stop a fond smile from twitching at his lips. He cups his hands around his mouth and yells, just for the sake of heckling, “People aren’t supposed to fly!” Not without dragons, anyway. Not on their own.
Hiccup’s only response is to bring his arms inward and stoop into a dive that has Snotlout’s heart dropping straight to his toes. He urges Hookfang forward to make a rescue, but of course there’s no need, because Hiccup spreads his arms out again and pulls upward just before he hits the water.
“Don’t do that!” Snotlout yells.
Hiccup just laughs some more.
Dagur sits against the log in his cave behind the waterfall, watching Hiccup coo softly to his dragon a few feet away. The small fire crackles and pops in between them, the only sound in the otherwise awkward silence. He tries to think of something to make it less awkward
“Oh!” he says, standing up, and he grimaces slightly when Hiccup flinches at the sudden movement. “Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. I was just going to ask if you’re hungry? I have food.”
There’s a moment of hesitation where he’s worried that his offer is going to be rebuffed, then Hiccup gives a small nod. Dagur grins, and walks over to the back of the cave where he keeps his supplies.
When he turns around again, holding a few strips of dried meat, he almost drops it in shock when he sees Hiccup crouched so close to the fire he may as well be in it.
“Why are you sitting there!” he exclaims in alarm, crossing the distance in two large steps and bodily dragging Hiccup back to a safe distance before dropping the jerky in his lap. “Fire is dangerous!”
Hiccup just tilts his head in what seems to be genuine bafflement at his reaction, and Dagur turns around, running his hands through his hair and looking skyward as he realizes that his little cousin's self-preservational instincts are apparently nil.
That's fine. Really. He’ll just add open flame to the list of things he needs to watch out for until he can get those two safely off this island, along with Dragon Hunters and Changewings and plants and the ground itself.
Viggo paces slowly, listening to the faint echo of his own footsteps off the curved wood of the ship’s hull as he waits for Hiccup to wake. The Dragon Rider is tied to a chair in the middle of the room, fully ready to be interrogated other than the fact that he’s unconscious.
“Ah, Hiccup, my boy,” Viggo says, ceasing in his pacing, when he begins to stir.
“Viggo,” he acknowledges, face scrunched up in a wince of pain.
Viggo brushes his fingertips over the bruise on Hiccup’s left temple, then tucks his hand behind his back once more. “I do apologise for the state you’re in. My brother can be such a brute.”
Hiccup says nothing, holding his gaze unflinchingly. Viggo clicks his tongue.
“You know, if you would just have a conversation with me, we could avoid further difficulties.”
“Oh, you want a conversation?” Hiccup says, then he growls, low and rolling and sounding much more like something that should be coming out of that Night Fury’s mouth than a human boy’s. Viggo feels distinctly wrong-footed as he listens to Hiccup make noises as though he is one of the beasts he flies around on, because it almost sounds as though there’s a real meaning there, one that Viggo doesn’t have the tools to decipher.
Then the ship rocks suddenly and all at once, and Viggo has to divert his attention to not tipping over right along with Hiccup’s chair as the sound of fighting fills the air. He ends up throwing himself to the floor anyway when the door comes flying off its hinges and slams into the opposite wall as the two on the Zippleback grab Hiccup and drag him away, chair and all, but he’s not as upset about that as he could be, because this has certainly been an interesting encounter.
A draconic language. Fascinating.
Hiccup whoops, leaning back to feel the wind as they climb higher and higher into the air. It’s not long before they reach a height where even the largest buildings on the Edge look small, and Toothless levels out.
“Okay, bud,” he says, grinning, “you ready?”
Toothless warbles smugly. Are you?
Hiccup’s grin stretches further, and he folds all the way forward over Toothless’s neck so they’re as aerodynamic as possible. “Let’s go.”
Toothless angles his nose downward, then he folds in his wings and Hiccup clicks the tail fin into position and they’re hurtling towards the ocean so far below. Faster, faster, faster they dive, then Hiccup feels the movement of muscle along Toothless’s neck as he opens his mouth and fires a blast to dispel the surface tension, and he takes in a breath and holds it.
They hit the water fast, and Hiccup feels Toothless just brush the bed of the lagoon before they’re breaking the surface once more, and Hiccup shakes the water out of his hair and grins.
“I think that might be a new record,” he says as they land on the shore where the rest of the Riders have been watching them take their turn practicing dives. Snotlout groans from where he’s sitting atop Hookfang.
“What?” Hiccup asks.
“Can’t you talk like a normal human person? I know this might be news to you but you’re not actually a dragon.”
Hiccup opens his mouth to say What are you talking about? but what comes out instead is a chirping coo, and he claps his hands over his mouth immediately. He can feel his face heating in mortification as he realizes what he’s been doing.
“He might as well be,” Astrid calls teasingly, then she and Stormfly are surging into the air to show off their diving skills.