Chapter Text
This is Berk. It's twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the meridian of misery. In a word? Sturdy. All new buildings, no new vikings as far as he could see, but it's been a while since he was here. And he wasn't here by coincidence either.
"Dragon Master."
His father, the great Stoick The Vast, looked older. More tired and haggard. He never thought he would see his father so tired. Granted, he never thought he would see his father again, not after he ran away like the coward he is. He took a deep breath, knowing he has to see this through; it's his fight. He caused Drago to target Berk, so he has to take responsibility.
"Chief Stoick," he nodded his head, glad his helmet hid his face even as it made him look a little creepy to most, "I got your letter. Obviously. But care to explain why we got this welcome?"
Hiccup gestured to the Vikings, who were holding their weapons up in an obvious threat, slowly placing his hand on Toothless to keep the dragon as calm as he could. Neither he nor Toothless expected to be here, having washed their hands (and paws) of the place long ago.
"I apologise, Dragon Master, but we unfortunately need to take precautions, you see. You do have a Night Fury in your grasp," his eyes turned cold when he looked at Toothless, and Hiccup stepped between them slightly. "And I lost my son to one of those beasts."
Hiccup almost rolled his eyes before stopping himself. Yes, his mask hid his face, but not his eyes, so he has to be at least a little careful with his expressions. He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry to hear that, but I assure you Toothless had nothing to do with it."
'Liar,' he thought to himself and smirked a little at everyone's reaction to the name. It was always a little funny seeing people confused. Toothless was only ever, well, toothless with Hiccup, and he would like to keep it that way. Toothless never liked Berk, and after hearing about the bullying, he liked them even less, and he made that no secret in the way he snarled at some Vikings who got a little too close to his rider. He made sure to keep his tail firmly around his legs.
Stoick cleared his throat and gestured Snotlout closer. After Hiccup basically up and disappeared, Stoick had to get a new heir and as Snotlout was his nephew, he was next in line. "This is Snotlout, heir to Berk; he'll show you to your quarters and I do hope you will join us for dinner—"
"No thanks." He almost flinched at the glare but held his ground. "I mean, I appreciate the thought, Chief, but I would like to patrol the island and map out any potential points of entry for Drago and his men. He may have a dragon army, but he has men he sends in as scouts."
Damn, even after ten years he's still a wuss. He faced the Red Death alone; he lost his leg; he survived the Grimborn brothers; and he still feels like a little kid under that hard stare. He cleared his throat and nodded his head respectfully. "Also, Toothless doesn't like crowded spaces, so we'll camp out in the forest."
'More like you don't like crowded spaces, you absolute wuss,' he frowned to himself as he stepped back and climbed onto Toothless's back, eyeing the various axes and hammers sceptically. He clicked his prosthetic leg into the pedal, and he saw Gobber frown at it, almost like he was trying to figure something out, before he shook his head and dismissed the thought.
Hiccup didn't bother with farewells; he didn't bother back then and gripped the handles of his saddle as Toothless shot up into the sky towards the cove. Their cove. Even after all this time, he still remembers the way; sure, the island may be different, and he would definitely need to make sure the points were secure—and he will, he promises—just not now. Now he just needs to panic at seeing his father, his tribe…
He has his work cut out for him, and he knows it.
***
Turns out the weak points were already monitored. Who knew Berk was actually smart? Guess he has nothing else to do besides talking to, well, everyone. By 'everyone', he means the teens—Gods, they weren't teens anymore, but he still remembers them as those young kids—who basically cornered him when he left the cove.
Toothless growled, pupils thinning into dangerous slits, and Hiccup placed a hand on his snout. "Easy, bud," he mumbled as he stared at everyone. Not much changed, except they look older, obviously. The Twins were still the same, although Tuffnut was using his hair as a beard. Fishlegs had grown a nice moustache which was braided; it suited him weirdly enough. Snotlout also has a small moustache going for him, which was… weird to Hiccup for some reason. And Astrid, well, she's definitely something with her normal braid, although she looked a lot tougher than he remembered.
"So, Dragon Master," Snotlout drawled out and stepped closer with his arms crossed, "I'm the heir of Berk, and I won't take kindly to disrespect, got it? You're only here to help us with Drago, and then we never want to see your face again."
"I mean, we already can't see his face, Snotface," Ruffnut remarked and grinned mischievously as she bounced forward to get a better look at his armour. "Cool armour, my dragon friend. Did you skin a dragon to get it?"
"Oh oh! I bet you did it with your bare hands!" Tuffnut interjected as he pushed Ruffnut to the side, who didn't take kindly to that and bit him. "Ow! That hurt! Do it again."
Hiccup just sighed. Okay so maybe things didn't change that much.
He glanced at Astrid and Fishlegs, who were staring at him with wariness and suspicion. Okay, Astrid was staring at him; Fishlegs was staring at Toothless and was writing down notes. Ever the studious note taker even at this age. Hiccup just raised an eyebrow. While he was still a little wary around his father, he really stopped caring about what these guys were thinking about him. It has been years after all. His father has always been a sore subject to him.
"Can I help you?" He asked almost sarcastically and rolled his eyes. Toothless huffed next to him and mimicked his rider. "Because you're staring at me awfully hard there. What? Never seen a dragon rider before?"
Astrid narrowed her eyes and was itching to grab her axe. "You try anything and my axe will meet your face."
Alright, wow, still angry. Some things really don't change.
"Yeah, yeah, got it." He rolled his eyes again and leaned against his dragon's head to look at everyone. "Anything else? Or am I just going to get threats?"
Fishlegs spoke up before everyone else. "Well! Um… we were wondering if you, that is, if you want, would join us for dinner? Well, I was wondering if I'm being honest and they just tagged along…"
Hiccup's eyebrows shot up in surprise; even Toothless was intrigued. "Um… I already said—"
"I know!" Fishlegs cut in before shrinking back to fiddle with his fingers. "Um… I mean, I know you already said, uh, Toothless didn't do well with crowded spaces, so… I, we, wanted to know if you'd be up for dinner on a cliff? It had a great view of the ocean!"
Hiccup just stared at him, half amused and half surprised by the invitation. He never expected Fishlegs, of all people, to be the one to suggest this, but he supposed it's because he's interested in observing Toothless. Speaking of the dragon, he gave a warble and nudged Hiccup's legs to get him back to the present; he would follow Hiccup anywhere and if that was a dinner with Vikings then so be it.
Hiccup looked down at Toothless for a moment before huffing, "Alright… I guess that could work…"
Fishlegs immediately brightened. "Yes! I mean..." He cleared his throat and tried to appear cool. "Yeah, that's cool. Come on." He immediately bolted, the others following him with different levels of enthusiasm.
This was going to be a long night.