Hi, you," Hiccup offers, smiling with a tentative hopeful excitement as Heather dismounts from Windshear. She looks... better than the last time he saw her, even if she's certainly not the girl she used to be, so long ago. "We thought you could use a couple of days to rest up."
"Thanks, Hiccup," she replies, returning the smile sincerely, "I really appreciate this."
Toothless bounds over to Windshear and they yip at each other in dragon noises, before Windshear leans past to sniff at Hiccup, maybe mostly at his wings – the wings he grew in after Red Death, years ago. They usually tend to calm dragons a lot.
He reaches up briefly to pet her snout.
"Fishlegs!" Heather exclaims, drawing Hiccup's attention back to the others as the boy approaches, grinning brightly and shyly at once. "Thank you so much for the letters."
Fishlegs knows Heather so much better now. He was the one there for her when she needed someone for months. When Hiccup wanted to be. But... he's already accepted by now that he's just not the one she's going to go to, even if he doesn't understand why. At least she had someone. That's what matters most. Even if it still hurts.
It's just... he thought Fishlegs was his best friend but he didn't even tell him something like this?
Tuffnut interjects to insist that he needs to sing the Dragon's Edge welcome song and Hiccup is so glad he doesn't get the chance because he doesn't even want to know what kind of song he'd come up with.
Astrid finally interrupts to pull Heather away to get settled in, and Hiccup's eyes follow her, Maybe... maybe he'll get a chance to talk to her later. He misses her. But he's never really stopped missing her since the day she crashed back into his life after years away.
He waits a little while before going out to find her. She's out looking around the Edge a little when he does.
"Hey," Hiccup offers, approaching, "Did Astrid get you settled in?"
"She did. Thanks, Hiccup. For... well, all of this."
"How have you been?" he asks, trying to bring it up... carefully.
"I've been okay," she says, face showing.
Probably not the right question to ask. "You know," Hiccup says, trying to sound casual, "You could have come back with us before."
Heather stills. "I thought you'd offer that but I... I had a lot going on that I needed to figure out. I'm sorry that I worried you but sometimes you need to be by yourself to figure things out."
"I get it," Hiccup says, softly. He does – sort of. Even if it still hurts. "Hey, how did you get out of there? I don't think it was any of us. At least, it wasn't me."
"Oh." Heather's face shadows further. Hiccup's really just saying all the wrong things today, isn't he? "Dagur... let me out."
Hiccup stills. "Dagur?"
"Yeah." Her face closes off.
Clearly not a topic she's eager to talk about, yet. He's not really surprised by that. But any tiny sliver of hope that he might have had about getting to talk to someone about his messy feelings about Dagur vanishes right there. "That's..."
"Doesn't make sense, I know," she agrees, "But let's not talk about Dagur right now."
"Yeah," Hiccup agrees, shuffling, "We, uh, you know, haven't really spent time together in a long time. I...Well, maybe we can try to catch up a little?"
"Sure," she agrees, smiling.
"But uh... we'll probably have to talk after I check on the Nadder groups passing for their migration." Even if he's really disappointed about that. But he's not letting all those dragons get captured so... talking anymore will have to wait.
**w**
Getting Heather to help with the redirecting the Nadders seemed like a good enough way of getting her used to working with the other riders as a team. Except, it doesn't go as planned. Windshear starts getting edgy, then nearly kills Tuffnut with spikes to the helmet, and Heather finally takes off back to the Edge alone.
"I just wish I knew what happened," Heather says with a sigh, when Hiccup comes back to check on them.
"Look, we've flown hundreds of missions," Hiccup offers, "This was Windshear's first one. You should've seen Snotlout when we first started. He couldn't fly ten feet without somehow setting himself on fire."
They both ignore Snotlout randomly flying by to ask Heather over to his hut. Ugh.
"We just need to get Windshear some training. Start with simple flying drills, formations. Get her used to what it's like to work with other dragons," Hiccup finishes.
"I don't know," Heather objects, sighing again, "I think I just need to keep her away from other dragons while we're here."
Rrrright, because he still hasn't told her about his offer. He's nervous too. But there's no better time than right now. "Well, now, that's gonna be kind of tough if you become a Dragon Rider."
Heather jerks, spinning around. "What? Why would I become – "
He has no idea how she's going to react to this, but he has to try. He knows what it's like to have no one and nowhere to belong. He doesn't want Heather to have to feel like that anymore. "Heather, that's part of why we asked you here. Just let me work with you guys," he requests.
And she actually agrees.
She wants it, clearly. She just can't imagine not being alone anymore. He... gets that. But he's tentatively hopeful this will work.
**w**
The flying drill with Windshear is going well enough, at least up until they start doing a little more complicated maneuvers and then Windshear goes at Toothless who instantly reacts aggressively too. And then that ends with Hiccup falling right off him.
Hiccup flaps his own wings, catching the air and diving down after Toothless. He catches up with him before he gets too far down in falling out of the sky but that was still close.
"Come on, bud. You gotta help me out here," Hiccup says with a sigh, patting Toothless' head, now that he's safely back on him, "Be the bigger dragon."
Toothless growls grumpily, what he could swear is a cranky 'fine'.
"Okay, so that didn't go quite as planned," Hiccup offers, circling back up to fly next to Heather, "But I promise that tomorrow – "
"There's not gonna be a tomorrow," Heather replies, looking away.
Hiccup freezes.
No, no, she can't just be about to –
"Oh, Heather – " he starts to protest.
"Clearly, this was a mistake. We just don't fit in here."
"What are you talking about? You fit in great," he argues. He can't just lose her again when she hasn't even been here for a day. Why does this keep happening? "Besides, do you really want to do that to Fishlegs?"
It feels like a low card to pull but it's a fair question anyway. Her and Fishlegs must be really close by now, with the number of letters they sent each other. Hiccup certainly doesn't want to see Fishlegs hurt like that either – even if he tries really hard to ignore the stinging... hurt and it's not quite jealousy, is it? that comes with it.
"No, of course not," she says, sighing, "But it's obvious that Windshear can't work with the other dragons and someone is gonna get hurt. I knew this wouldn't work. It's just better if we go."
but you're with us now. That's what's important now, right?"
"Maybe." She hesitates. "Yes. But... I could still get one of you hurt. I do almost anytime I'm with you. You lost the Dragon Eye because of me." He can't argue with that. He hates that he can't argue with that. "Maybe it's because of where I'm from, that there's just something wrong with me –that I'm better off alone so I don't hurt anyone else."
Hiccup stills. "You're not, Heather. No one's better off alone. You belong with us. Trust me."
"You're still so sweet," she tells him, her smile sincere even if it's heavy, "I don't know how you do it."
"Uh," Hiccup fumbles, awkwardly rubbing at the back of his neck, "I'm not that nice." What else is he supposed to say? Besides, for all that he might be seen as a hero by some now, it doesn't change that... Dagur came out of his worst mistakes.
Toothless purrs in obvious disagreement.
Heather laughs softly, stepping closer to unexpectedly hug him. Hiccup hugs her back, tightly.
"I do have... one question?" he offers, when they pull apart.
"Yes?"
"Uh... when you were with Dagur, what was he like?"
She stills, face instantly shadowing again.
Ugh. He probably shouldn't have brought it up.
He was glad to have me there," she speaks up after a pause, "I can't believe he thought it was actually real, like I could ever join him after what he did. But he wasn't that hard to fool." The words are laced with bitterness, a bitterness that he's pretty sure is about to turn into rage if she continues on this topic much longer. "He talked about you a lot. Like, he would never shut up about it."
"Uh, I'm not gonna ask."
"Don't," Heather says flatly, "And I'm sure you already know how he is about hunting dragons, even if he was fine with me having Windshear."
"He never wanted her skull?" Hiccup asks, and oh, maybe he shouldn't have mentioned that but he suddenly can't shake a sharp sting of jealousy. Dagur was fine with Heather having a dragon, but not Hiccup?
"What?" Her eyes darken. "That's what he wanted with Toothless?"
Toothless grumbles quietly, pressing a little closer to Hiccup's side.
"Uh, years ago. Maybe. I don't think he even knew what he wanted." And he really shouldn't have brought that up because that is not a good way of trying to approach the topic of well maybe Dagur wants a different life. He just... can really tell that that's not something Heather's gonna be ready to consider yet.
Maybe the only other one who will ever know is gonna be Toothless. He can't shake how disappointed he is about that.
"Sort of like how he could never seem to decide what he wanted with you, either," Heather mutters. Hiccup can see the fury in her eyes now and tries hard not to think about how much he can see her brother on her when she looks like this, "But that's enough about Dagur."
The sheer viciousness she says the name with scares him. Even if that's stupid.
"Yeah," Hiccup mutters, "Well, uh – You know, I'm glad you decided to stay."
And somehow, just like that, the anger is gone, replaced by an almost shaky smile. The mood flips really are as jarring as Dagur's in some ways, too. "So am I," Heather confesses, "It's nice here, really. I hope this works out."
"Me too," he murmurs.
Maybe, maybe, he isn't about to lose her again, after all.
**w**
It was supposed to be a simple dragon rescue mission so Hiccup has no idea how that ended with him and Toothless getting locked in a dragon cage and then Snotlout accidentally gasses them. The last Hiccup hears is his cousin frantically yelling that he's gonna find a way to get them out and then... nothing.
Until he's waking up to see a chain tightly clamped on his human leg, the other end of which is attached to the wall of the dragon pen he's locked in.
He was captured by the hunters. Again.
And they –
This is bad. Really, really bad.
Toothless growls next to him, the noise muffled, and Hiccup's head jerks up to see that he's trapped in here too and muzzled.
There's a bunch of other dragons in here too, all slunk to the far corner of the space, away from each other and Hiccup, as though the wall behind them will protect them somehow.
Oh Thor.
Where is this place?
Hiccup scrambles to his feet, looking around. He yanks at the chain on his leg but it's not gonna come off that easily. They stuck him in here with dragons – not that he's complaining at being with Toothless – because that's how they see him, isn't it? Like last time, like –
At least they didn't brand him.
Yet. It could just be a yet for all he knows.
His heart is still hammering wildly as he tries to just breathe.
A dragon howls from the other side of the grate –where he can see two dragons fighting each other. It's hard to tell from here in the shadows, since the only light that comes in is through the grated bars, but it looks like some kind of arena. Where they're forcing dragons to fight each other.
He's going to be sick. How can they even – ?
"We've got to get out of here," Hiccup mutters, scrambling over to Toothless' side, about to take the muzzle off, though where they're going to go from here so they can get out, he has no idea.
Metal screeches behind him and Hiccup whirls around, to see the locked door in the far corner open, and two hunters walk in.
The other dragons growl a little but mostly just back away, cowering.
He is definitely gonna be sick.
"That's right, you smelly beasts! You know who the boss is," one of them mocks.
Hiccup glowers at them, fists clenched. Not as though there's anything he can do except glare. Attacking them would get him nowhere, even if he wasn't chained.
The hunters catch his gaze.
"What's that?" one of them asks, pointing at him.
Hiccup hates the way his wings instantly curl around him, as though he can do anything to hide them.
"It was with the Night Fury," the other offers.
"The dragon-human cross. I've heard of him," says the first.
"Well, either way, he'll be useful. They both will be." The second hunter moves towards Toothless. "I've got a special event planned for this dragon." He smirks as he catches Hiccup's glower. "Don't worry. I'll let you watch. Maybe we'll even let you participate in one of the next rounds."
They're gonna – what?
Toothless snarls as well as he can when he can hardly move his mouth, straining against the muzzle.
The hunters just laugh.
"Don't touch that muzzle," one of them warns as they walk back out.
Hiccup sinks to the floor next to Toothless, shaking. He can't make it stop.
They're gonna make Toothless fight out there? He's gonna get hurt. The other dragons he'll have to fight are gonna be scared and attack him, and –
How do people do things like this? And then just think it's funny?
Gods, they've got to get out of here. But as usual, that one time he needs an actual sensible plan, he can think of absolutely nothing. Try to jump the guards when they come back to get Toothless, maybe? But they've probably got dragon root and they'd never get far. They... What does he do?
Toothless whines softly, head nuzzling against Hiccup's chest. Hiccup wraps his arms around his neck, clinging.
It's all he can do right now.
**w**
The next morning comes. They don't bring the dragons anything to eat. Of course they don't. That's probably how they keep them so riled up when they finally let them out of their pens. Hiccup tries to ignore his own hunger and mostly just thirst – that's not what's important here.
He tries approaching the nearest Gronckle, slowly.
It snarls at him, backing away.
Toothless hisses, bristling.
"Hey, gotta back off, bud," Hiccup soothes, "That can't help it. They're starving, injured and scared."
He can see how covered in scars they all are. It's horrifying. And they're about to do the exact same thing to Toothless.
Hiccup turns to the rocky wall, using his foot to hammer off a tiny little rock and tries holding it out towards the Gronckle again.
It's mostly just gutting the way the dragon perks up happily, pattering forwards. That it's perfectly willing to come near him, even when it's still obviously terrified he's gonna hurt it, just so it can get a tiny pebble to eat? Hiccup holds his hand out, letting the dragon come close enough to snatch the rock and then hastily back away again.
"So... how about this?" Hiccup asks, holding his hand up towards its snout, and spreads his wings to make it obvious he's a dragon – not just a person.
Seeing this, he can say bluntly that he doesn't even want to be purely human if this awfulness is what they can do without a second thought.
The Gronckle sniffs at him warily but it finally creeps forwards, snout pressing against his hand.
Hiccup stays still for a moment, before he tries to reach up to pet it.
The Gronckle growls lowly, hastily backing away.
Oops.
He probably pushed that a little too far this time.
But still, that's progress. Better than he thought it would go.