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Most of Hiccup’s plans go splendidly, perfectly and without a hitch – okay, that’s a lie. Most of his plans have an endless stream of hurdles, but he’d still like to say he pulls through… usually. It’s been a while since he was captured. Which is funny – there was the longest phase where Hiccup could swear somebody caged him every other weekend, but five winters of being on the run or so have done a lot to teach him outmaneuvering.
Voices come in. Human voices, a language he’s come so used to not hearing, though the words are still plain and clear in his mind.
Hiccup snarls at them, struggling to reach his knife, anything he can get his hands on to cut the rope free. If he could ignite his sword, that would burn through the ropes, but he can’t reach the handle.
No, for once, he’s trapped, no tricks, no outmaneuvering anymore.
He yells for Toothless, the Night Fury call echoing over the rigid landscape and shattered rocks – but there’s no answer.
And this is why his dragon hates it when he solo-flies.
“Yeah, what kind of dragon has hands, Fishlegs?” Snotlout’s voice sasses.
Snotlout… Snotlout?
Oh, gods, no.
These people are from Berk?
Hiccup screeches again, the Dragonese distress call far more fluent on his tongue now than any human language he knows, even his own. Nothing answers, not even a Terror.
“Many dragons have paws vaguely resembling humans,” Fishlegs is quick to volunteer.
Someone’s weight pins his wings to his back. Hiccup yowls, thrashing, but he has no leverage to pry free, and Toothless isn’t coming.
His dragon could be hurt or dead and Hiccup has no way to see him.
His bond with Toothless gave him wings, or maybe it was becoming the dragon’s queen, but nothing he can give Toothless is enough for his dragon to fly on his own again. He’ll be stuck here if Hiccup can’t get back to him. He could die, or the others will find him, and there will be no way out for him.
His side hurts. Dragon scale armor protects from fire quite nicely, but very little from lethal projectiles, just like your average dragon. Even though these are Toothless’s.
“It doesn’t sound very dragon,” Astrid’s voice grunts from somewhere. She sounds older now. Different. They all do.
“That’s because he’s not a dragon, duh,” Ruffnut offers. Hiccup twists his head to the side to see where she’s lounging against a tree, arms crossed carelessly as he rand Tuff watch the struggle like it’s some kind of game. He snarls angrily at her just for that. “He’s a human dressed as a dragon.”
“Uh, it has wings,” Fishlegs squeaks.
I don’t know, either, Hiccup tries to say, but all that comes out is a deep snarling growl. The words hold meaning to him, but only to him. They don’t know who he is. Maybe it’s best that they don’t.
“So,” Tuffnut asks followed by a thump as the weight on his back lifts – Tuff was sitting on him? Is the boy serious? He sprawls on the ground, a few uncomfortable inches from Hiccup’s face. “How do you di the wing thing, mister?”
Hiccup snarls wordlessly at him, jerking again with the weight off, but moving is starting to hurt even worse.
“Keep away from there,” Fishlegs warns.
Tuff pokes Hiccup’s helmet. He jerks away, hissing fiercely in the back of his throat. Can he at least keep his distance? “See?” he chirps. “Told you. Human pretending to be dragon.”
Not pretending, Hiccup snaps, and remembers the translation a minute later. He hasn’t spoken Norse in so long, he doesn’t know if he could even fi he tried. They aren’t going to kill him… are they?
“Ahhh!” Tuffnut shrieks, jumping backwards. “Okay, okay, it is a dragon!”
“Actually,” Fishlegs interrupts. “You might be right.”
“What?!”
“A dragon’s head wouldn’t clang to the touch.” Fishlegs comes in closer, pushing Tuffnut the rest of the way aside.
Where’s Toothless? Where is Toothless? He can’t escape on his own, and no one knows to find him here. This is Berk, they’re going to take him back and he’ll have to see Stoick again, and Hiccup has absolutely no idea how to handle ever seeing his dad again.
Panic gnaws at him, aching and desperate and helpless. Just this once, he’s trapped, with no way out. He’s thought that happened before, but he made it or talked his way out, but this time… it feels really certain.
“Sure,” Snotlout sasses. “Stick your fingers in there, Fishface. I’m sure you won’t need those.”
Fishlegs ignores him, working his fingers through the net to pull Hiccup’s helmet off. It unlatches easily if you touch the right spots, and leave it to Fishlegs to figure out with a glance.
“No way,” Tuffnut blurts out, enunciating every syllable with agonizing slowness. The others gape at him, and Hiccup hisses sharply for good measure, the sound Toothless would make as he bared his fangs and flapped his ears against his head, ready to strike. Except Hiccup is completely bluffing, and has no way to even try defending himself.
“Is that Hiccup?” Snotlout asks dubiously, crouching to look him over. “Aw, no way.”
“How do you get all the awesome stuff?” Ruffnut whines. “Where did you get wings?”
He needs to talk. Hiccup’s spent five years with the dragons, learning their language, their ways, speaking their tongue instead of his own – but he never forgot Norse. It’s just… really, really hard to use. Dragons, even angry ones, are so easy to deal with. Humans are so complicated and in general, terrifying.
He’d rather deal with a Cavern Crasher than anyone from Berk.
He cannot see Stoick again. That’s the thing that scares him more than almost anything else, what he’s been running from since he ran from Berk. He can’t face his dad again. Hiccup left him, their way of life, everything about Berk. And to see Stoick will mean facing his disappointment, and that’s something he can’t do.
He’ll fight dragons of any size, shape and color, he’ll fight off armies of dragon hunters single-handedly with nothing but Toothless at his side – but he can’t face Berk again.
Where’s Toothless?
But his pleas go as they always do – unheard.
***
Hiccup hasn’t missed boats. He’s fine with sea, but it’s never something he’s liked, just mildly, loosely tolerated, because he never had much choice. Vikings and sea come hand-in-hand. Flying was always his thing, but now, hands bound, and caged below deck, his wings are entirely useless.
Hiccup’s still angry they took his helmet. The anonymity it provided was nice. It made him feel hidden, safe, more dragon than human, as he’s always been.
Where’s Toothless? Is he okay? Did they hurt him?
Hiccup hasn’t spoken Norse in… a long time. It takes a minute to collect himself, force his mind to work as a human when he’s been dragon so long, but he finally asks, voice low and angry though definitely shaking with muted, genuine terror “where’s my dragon?”
“I thought you were the dragon,” Snotlout offers, arms crossed as he leans against the wall, obviously bored. It makes Hiccup angry again to see the carelessness – Toothless is out there, and he could die. Anything could happen to him.
“I’m not,” Hiccup hisses, wings fluttering at his back in denial. “Alright, I am a dragon. But I’m not my dragon. So. Where is he?”
“We never saw any other dragon. Just you.”
Toothless… got away? Relief bubbles up inside him, but short-lived. He still needs to get back home to his dragon – the only creature he really has in his life. Toothless won’t last long without him. Honest. Alone in the wild, well… something could hurt him lethally pretty easily. It’s not a reality Hiccup wants to think about.
“Should we have?” Snotlout asks.
He forcibly suppresses the urge release a Dragonese snarl. Humans don’t understand that. He needs to get out, find Toothless and get his dragon to safety before he gets hurt. If Hiccup is taken back to Berk, he’ll see Stoick again, and if he sees his dad… well, he can’t see his dad.
“No,” Hiccup grits out, the Norse feeling entirely wrong on his tongue. “He already flew away.”
“Huh. Good to know. So, what kind of dragon do you ride?”
“You think I’d tell you that?”
“Uh, no. Worth a try, I’m bored.”
“Then you shouldn’t’ve come out dragon hunting,” Hiccup tells his cousin flatly, sitting against the wall.
Snotlout grumbles something, lingers for a minute with a backward glance, then leaves.
He can definitely wait to see Berk again.
***
Hard truth is, reality doesn’t care. Reality most definitely doesn’t care what Hiccup thinks, or Berk’s war would’ve ended years ago, and he would’ve been able to settle into a happy life with Toothless, among people, maybe actually pick up a few human friends.
Dragons are so much easier, but living among them and far away leaves his heart aching, empty sometimes.
Berk looks so much the same.
It’s just… the island he remembers from his childhood. It doesn’t feel like home.
His dad’s here. Stoick is here, and being on Berk means Hiccup will have to face him again, and the most he can do is curl in on himself, trying not to hiss and snarl like the dragon he’s becoming and wait for the inevitable disappointment and anger, see exactly what he did when he fled so long ago.
Stoick’s by the docks – and Hiccup makes out Gobber right beside him, immediately ducking his head. He doesn’t want to look at anybody. Norse sounds wrong to him now, words even harder to understand than Dragonese. That’s what five years does, apparently.
But he knows Astrid is talking to Stoick, and then she’s being pushed aside, and it’s just him and his dad.
The father he left here, behind, when he ran, to keep Toothless safe, when he fled from Berk and everything this cursed island came with for him. The dad who never really wanted him anyway – but was the only family member he’s ever had.
Except his mom. Because Valka is out there, but that’s a little secret Hiccup has no strength to confess to. He wishes his mom was here now. She isn’t. Which is – should be – good. At least she’s not on line for probable execution or something else of the like. That’s something Hiccup should be grateful for.
“Son.”
His father’s voice is the same, even if the man himself looks older, hair turning gray, definitely a little more worn. The years of Hiccup gone have taken their toll.
He swallows thickly. “Dad,” he manages, quiet and strained.
“He’s not the son you knew,” Astrid cut in, “He’s more dragon than human.”
“It’s true,” Snotlout chimes in, “Look at him.”
“And it’s awesomeeee,” Tuffnut crows with glee.
Astrid elbows him.
He stands stiffly, heart beating and trying to find something to say when human words are so far away. “I – I’m sorry, dad, I know, you’re going to say I’m a coward for running, and I know I am. And the truth is that I am. I’m sorry, dad. I’m not the son you wanted. And I never will be.”
And just when he’s about to beg his dad to say something, please, something, anything – the man’s arms wrap tightly around him in a crushing, smothering embrace, wings and all.
He makes a quiet, little gasping, strangled sound of genuine shock, but this is his dad and no matter what’s happened, it’s been five years, so Hiccup slumps into his embrace, all fight draining away. Stoick’s happy to see him. That means something, right?
***
Oh, it did. It also mean a little too much, Hiccup thinks miserably, glaring at the literal cage door in front of him. It’s a prison door, technically, but it feels like a cage. But Hiccup’s a dragon now, more dragon than he’s ever had a shred of humanity, and that’s exactly what it feels like. Like he’s just a vicious, wild dragon that needs to be locked away so it won’t hurt anyone.
“I won’t let you leave again,” his dad promises him fiercely, “The dragons won’t get to you in here.”
Hiccup can just barely withhold a screech of sheer, raw frustration, pain and desperation bubbling to the surface in an angry dragonese snarl. “I have a place to go”, he snarls, viciously, “I have my pack, my mom, dragons who need me.”
But his dad doesn’t understand a word.
He wants him to be human again. he thinks he’s helping something, caging him here, keeping him away – but it makes every single dragon Hiccup’s seen caged and chained feel far, far more real.
His wings flutter, aching to stretch and fly, but right now, Hiccup will just count himself lucky that no one had them cut off.
I’m not just an animal I’m a person why does no one understand that –
“Whatever the dragons did to you, it’ll wear off here.”
“Dad!” Hiccup jolts forwards, that one, single word that comes easily, jolting forwards. “Dad – come on, you can’t be serious.”
“You’ll be fine,” Stoick promises, as if he could, and just leaves.
Hiccup yells after him, but all his dad hears is a dragon’s pleas for mercy – and does any Viking ever listen to that? At least he’s alone when he slumps down on the wall, wings curling around him in poor imitation of Toothless’s, But if his best friend were here, he’d already be dead.
At least he’s alone. He hates he wishes he weren’t – so desperate for comfort, for someone, anyone but the quiet of these walls.
***
Said company comes in, of all things, the form of his cousin, quiet and distant. Snotlout’s face is shadowed but vaguely sympathetic as he just stands there, hovering awkwardly.
Hiccup swallows thickly, uncomfortably. He’s thirsty, he’s hungry, he wants to fly, and mostly, he misses Toothless.
“Hey,” Snotlout says, and Hiccup stares back.
“What do you want?” he demands, when the Norse words finally come back a minute later.
And the entire situation insntantly feels even more uncomfortable, his cousin crossing his arms and leaning on the wall, like he can’t figure out where to put himself. “I’ve never managed being locked up before,” he offers finally.
“Thanks,” Hiccup mutters, dry and irked.
“I’m not insulting you,” Snotlout grumbles, “Though, of course, it technically an insult. Because you did manage to land yourself in prison.”
“Just say what you want,” Hiccup snaps, picking himself up, wings fluttering, angry. The dragon in him is hissing and snarling, begging to lash out, fully aware he’s entirely trapped and fighting is fruitless.
“Nothing,” his cousin says finally, turning away. And leaving.
He comes in now and then, later, not saying much, just watching, and the twins come… a lot. They’re curious, and they’re fun, and Hiccup’s fairly sure his dad does not allow them down here, but they keep sneaking back down.
At least…
At least it’s not just the walls.
Fishlegs comes, too. He asks about the wings, and Hiccup backs away and says nothing at first, and then the boy starts talking about Dragonese. And that’s something he can’t refrain from talking about, fumbling and trying to translate a few things.
Fishlegs still doesn’t have any real friends. Hiccup knows the feeling.
But all that’s around him is dark, underground, trapped, bars – he can’t get out.
Oh, his dad comes, but Hiccup pointedly turns away and says nothing. He doesn’t want to talk to Stoick. Or anyone. All he wants is Toothless. He aches to feel those warm wings curled around him, the safety and companionship that his dragon, and his dragon alone could bring him.
When Snotlout comes back one day, leaning his hand on the bars and murmurs a quiet “so, uh, because the twins are dumb and this is all their fault, we came to break you out”, he stops and thinks that, maybe, he’s made a friend of his own, too.