Chapter Text
“Gods, I hate it when people have their hoods up indoors.”
Hiccup halted.
“What? Why?”
“I don’t know just feels like they’re tryin’ ta hide something.”
That was Ben´s voice, talking to Fishlegs. Hiccup had been about to enter the room as well, but stopped dead in his tracks and instead silently leaned on the wall next to the doorframe.
After Ben came to the island and they met each other, they talked a lot at the beginning. Now, they still talked, but less – not that they grew that distant, they just talked at a normal rate, like with every other villager.
When they first met, Hiccup had his wings, his kind-of-claws, his eye and, of course, his scales. But not his horns.
His horns caused another change in his daily clothing – he added a hood. It was not because he was ashamed or anything like that, he actually kind of liked his horns, but he was also out and about and getting to know new people. His horns were out separately from the rest of his dragon part, meaning they were out much more often (as were his slit-pupils), even though the rest remained human. He quickly learned that, if he had either in too long, a slight but frequent headache would built up. When he wore his hood and his horns were out, it looked like he had a helmet under the hood, which was the whole reason for the hood to exist. A pleasant side effect was that it hid his eyes for everyone that didn´t step up close. Some just couldn´t adjust to them, it seemed.
He was flying around often and thus met knew people. They didn´t always react so well to Hiccup being not human. And at first, when he didn´t have the hood and they saw the horns, they went into attack-mode instantly. He learned that, if he explained things calmly, prepared them before showing and revealing what he really was, people reacted better.
So, in short: the hood was there to prevent unnecessary aggression. And it worked.
He grew accustomed to wear it all the time.
“Is this about Hiccup?” Fishlegs voice grew quiet, serious and maybe, if just a bit, threatening.
Hiccup, on the other side of the wall, bit his lip and dug his fingers into the soft but thick fabric around his head, around his horns.
“Hiccup?” Ben asked, then, he was quiet. Hiccups lip started bleeding from how hard he bit into it. It was okay. It would heal in a matter of seconds the moment his teeth left it. That moment wasn´t now.
“It´s… different with Hiccup.”
Green eyes went wide.
He didn´t have many insecurities. But with being not human, it brought the fear of being treated differently with it. He didn´t want to be treated differently, handled only with care, as if he would harm them any second. Behind actions like those lied fear.
He didn´t want the people he liked and loved to fear him.
“What do you mean? Hiccup wouldn´t hide stuff from us.” Fishlegs sounded so sure about that, it caused friendly warmth to spread through the young Halfa.
“Well, I don´t want to say he would hide anything…” Hiccup nearly breathed in relief “… but you never know what´s hidden in the shadow of a hood. I feel like they hide stuff, and you only hide stuff that you either don´t want people to know because it makes you uncomfortable, or it is bad news for other people and they aren´t supposed to know yet. Like plans-of-murder-bad.”
Hiccup felt the memory of a boiling wrath flash through him. Of fever and madness and dark thoughts and feelings.
It made him want to throw up.
There was a slam against wood. Like from a hand that slammed down on a table.
“Hiccup would never hurt us on purpose. He was sick last year – that happens. He was… utterly devastated when he heard what that sickness made him do. And he-“
Fishlegs was interrupted by the sound of scratching against wooden floor and a door being hastily slammed open.
When they looked out of the room and down the short corridor, all they saw was the four-winged silhouette of Hiccup flying away at high speed.
Fishlegs sighed heavily, but also with a streak of nervousness. “Oh Thor… look, he wears the hood so people who don´t know about him yet won´t freak out instantly – it´s kinda a touchy subject…”
Ben looked more than guilty. And saying he felt just guilty would be a giant understatement. “I gotta go talk to him…”
Hiccup just stared. He sat near the pond, hood in slightly clawed hands. He noticed they –and his foot- began to change a bit in structure and built when he transformed, the nails grew thicker, not just longer and pointier and black. The tugging at the end of his spine grew more permanent each day, it dawned on him what it meant a while ago. These things didn´t worry him that much though. He kind of just knew that there would be more changes the older he grew.
He sat just near enough to the pond to see his reflection in the water at the edge of his vision. His scaly, winged, horned reflection. He sighed.
He shouldn´t get that upset over something like that.
So Ben thought that constantly wearing a hood meant he hid things.
So they were friends and there was a little bit of distrust towards Hiccup.
So Hiccup was sitting here, staring at his hood like an idiot.
So what?
He knew from the start this whole Halfa-business wasn´t going to be easy. He knew there would be people that wouldn´t fully trust him at some point.
But… still… it bugged him. More than he thought. Maybe more than it should.
He stiffened and straightened up, however, when he heard the crunching of grass and the gnashing of dirt and little stones. Moments later, he saw Ben trying to find a way into the cave without breaking his neck, which, on the path he tried to take, would be inevitable.
Hiccup was quick to rush to him when Ben slipped and would have fallen quite the bit if it wasn´t for the Halfa catching him. He held one human arm in both his slightly clawed, scaly hands. His grip was tight, but gentle-natured - Hiccup made sure not to prick Ben with his claw-like nails. When Ben was gently set down on earth, he observed how Hiccup dropped the last meter in favor of drawing his wings in early. The former traveler noticed how his friend retracted his horns as well. “It´s okay, you can leave them out, it doesn´t bother me.” he got a tight smile in return. Hiccup let the horns stay in their tiny form.
Ben sighed. “How much did you… did you hear?”
“Pretty much everything.”
“Oh.” Hiccup´s brows drew together.
“Yeah, oh.”
“Look, Hiccup, I didn´t mean it like that. I didn´t know you wear it for protection.”
“Well, why else would I wear it?” Hiccup flopped to the ground.
Ben sighed deeply before he sat down as well. His knees were drawn to his chest and he slung his arms loosely around his legs.
“You know… where I come from… it´s so different. Dragons are free for hunt, they aren´t as tuff and dangerous as they´re here – where it´s harder to survive. And in the town I lived in? There were many dragons around, it was perfect for hunters. But selling certain parts of certain breeds isn´t allowed. A few breeds aren´t allowed to get hunted either, since they keep other, more aggressive and dangerous beasts away. Hunters were always armored, they were fit to travel and most of them were more than slightly suspicious. Not few were searched for selling and hunting dragons they weren´t allowed to. You never knew if you could trust a stranger, especially not if it was a hunter. And, well, they always hid their faces…”
“So you´re a bitten child?” Hiccup asked.
Ben blinked – “What?”
“A bitten child. Kids sometimes don´t listen to their parents and think they can handle a Terror – until they get bitten. It usually leaves just little scars, depends on the dragon and the situation, but you can be sure those won´t go near a dragon without being highly cautious again. Well, it doesn´t really apply here on Berk anymore, but still.” Hiccup chuckled. “I mean, look at me! I´m half dragon and not even I can go up to every dragon without a care in the world to pet it.”
Ben exhaled through his nose in a weak snort. His gaze was fixed on the ground in front of him. That was, until he felt a warm, leathery and smooth thing settle around his back. He didn´t need to look up to see that it was wing. He closed his eyes and appreciated the gesture.
That was one of the things Ben liked about Hiccup. He was so accepting and open, he listened even when hurt. He was so different from the people back home.