Chapter Text
Hiccup took a deep breath, he sat on his bed fidgeting his hands around anxiously. He was very nervous, his father had just finished a council meeting. And in that meeting, they were discussing Hiccup’s future as chief. He had heard whispers from Snotlout and Tuffnut earlier that Stoick was planning on marrying him off to some unfortunate girl from a faraway tribe.
He was only 18, he had no desire to be married nor any desire to become chief, and the village had no desire for him to become chief either. As it was, Hiccup was notorious for wreaking havoc upon the village; some of his disqualifications for being chief entailed, ‘Burning 5 huts down during water dragon raid’ ‘Missing his shot at a night fury’ and ‘Being publicly shamed, after said ordeal’.
His nickname was Hiccup the Useless for crying out loud. After several more of his let downs as a chief-to-be, his father finally had enough. The incessant, “When will you get married?” questions rolled in and ever since last year Hiccup had been haunted by them. The marriage was a plausible idea, his father firmly believed a wife would toughen him up, make him man enough, to stop being well, a hiccup.
Then suddenly his father came bursting into their home and called for Hiccup. “Hiccup! Son, where are you? I was told by yer friends you were here.” His father’s voice boomed through the house.
Hiccup heard the commotion from his father, and replied “In my room dad. I'm coming.”
Hiccup sprung from his bed and made his way to the room where his father was waiting. Stoick sat in his chair, apprehensively, in the living room. His father’s eyes held a disapproving gaze as he stared at Hiccup. He exhaled gruffly and stroked his beard, exasperated, as he gestured for Hiccup to sit across from him.
It was clear neither Stoick nor Hiccup felt inclined to converse at this moment, not with such high-strung tension. Hiccup and his father had a rocky relationship, primarily stemming from Hiccup’s tendency to pretty much screw anything, and everything up.
They sat still, for a few seconds before Stoick spoke.
“Listen lad, I'm sure you’ve heard by now I was in a council meeting today.” Stoick waited a few seconds, hands clasped, as Hiccup replied.
“Yeah I uh heard from Snotlout and Tuffnut that you’d called for an emergency meeting… So uhm how did it go? What did you guys talk about?” Hiccup, without realizing, started thumping his leg nervously on the floor.
Stoick looked at the candles that were scattered around the room then looked at his son's face then began again.
“The meeting went well. It wasn’t too bad considering we had a surprise visitor from Alden come…The king. We discussed the upcoming winter, our shortage of supplies due to the dragons and our ongoing war. But more importantly we found a solution to fix the shortage and the war.”
Hiccup suddenly stopped all his fidgeting, he knew what his father meant by a solution to ending the war and the supplies shortage. Hiccup had winced as he heard his father continue to speak.
Stoick's tone was sheepish “I know yer wondering what the solution we found was…During the meeting Spitelout and the rest of the members went on and on about yer er shortcomings and they mentioned that ye were of marrying age and more than old enough ta become chief, and I agreed with them.” Stoick said taking a deep breath before continuing. “Hiccup yer too old to still resort to the same slip ups you’d made when ye were 15, it was understandable then because you were young but yer an adult now Hiccup it’s time to start acting like one lad. We came to a decision that in order to stop the war and to provide us with more supplies for the upcoming winter, ye will be married off ta his daughter in less than a month's time.”
Hiccup hadn’t bothered to look at his father and he scoffed. He jumped out of his seat and practically yelled “Dad, are you crazy!? I can’t marry some random girl! I can name a million different reasons, for starters she’s our enemy and two I’m not ready to get married at all!”
His father got up from his seat and he had an exasperated expression.
“Hiccup, this is not about you! This is about tha safety and protection of our tribe. This will end the war and when they come to sign the treaty we will no longer be enemies with them, we will be allies. Ye will get married and I don't want ta hear any back talk. I am yer father and what I say goes, do you understand me?” Stoick spoke.
Hiccup didn't respond.
“Do ya understand me?“ His father repeated.
Hiccup finally replied with a mumble. “Yes dad I understand.”
“Good you may go back ta yer room or to tha forge.” Stoick finished and left the house frustratedly slamming the door on the way out.
Hiccup sat down defeatedly on the couch with his face in his palms and his mind racing. How could his father do this to him, surely his father must be crazy. If he were to get married his new wife would definitely try to kill him in his sleep.
He was raised to believe the people from Alden were frigid and ruthless, much like the icy lands they inhabited. There was no way he would ever get married to a woman from Alden, he just couldn’t.
But he understood why his father was doing this. He was under a lot of pressure from the village. Both men were constantly questioned on when Hiccup would settle down and become chief, but his father had offered him off to many ladies in the village before but they had always rejected him.
The truth was that the village was tired of Hiccup's constant screw ups which had been persistent problem since he was young.
When he was 15, during a dragon raid, he claimed to have nearly shot a Night Fury down but no one believed him and in that same night he burnt down the village accidentally with the help of a Monstrous Nightmare. Nearly everyone in the town put him down for that incident. No matter where he goes he always hears whispers and gossip about him.
Eventually Hiccup retired to his bedroom feeling defeated from the previous conversation with his dad. His room was pretty small with some candles to provide light. His bed was in the corner and he had a desk where he liked to draw in another corner. After bad days he liked to draw and write in his journal, Gobber likes to joke and say drawing and working in the forge are the only things Hiccups good at.
Hiccup picked up his journal, jumped on his bed and began to sketch dragons. He was always fascinated by the magnificent creatures, but being a Viking it was expected of him to learn how to kill them. He’d been in training to kill dragons when he was 15, his father had made him join but he soon dropped out to his father’s disappointment, he just couldn’t kill one. He failed the class and everyone taunted him for it, though the taunts didn’t deter him from continuing to like dragons.
He sketched a few Monstrous Nightmares, Gronckles, and a Deadly Nadder before deciding to put the book down and go to bed.
He had a hard time actually getting to sleep because he was so anxious.