It's a mad mad world

Chapter 15

"Hiccup!!"

"Hiccup!!" Astrid yelled again as she knelt at his side. "Wake up!!" Toothless too was worried and began patting Hiccup with his paw. Hiccup let out a groan and his eyes snapped open.

"Why does my head hurt?" Hiccup asked as he sat up and rubbed the back of his head.

"Because you fainted and that rug of yours did nothing to break your fall." Astrid said dryly as she helped Hiccup up.

"Well it seems he's rubbing off on you." Dagur mentioned casually at Astrid's dry humor.

"Yes, rubbing off on you." Heather repeated and gave Astrid a wink. Astrid became so flustered at what Heather was suggesting that she let go of Hiccup's hand which caused him to fall back onto the floor.

"OH MY THOR HEATHER! YOU AND YOUR PERVERTED MIND!!" Astrid shouted as her cheeks turned rosy red. Hiccup meanwhile had managed to get up and was also looking at Heather incredulously.

"Hey, you were imagining it." Heather stated as she teased Astrid. "Wouldn't that make you equally perverted?"

"What! No! NOOO!" Astrid tried to defend as her face got redder and redder. "Let's just get back on topic." She grumbled.

"Right... eh." Snotlout mumbled. "Why all the secrecy? You could have just told us how we got our powers."

"You had forgotten. We didn't want to bring up old wounds." Stoick answered.

"And you wanted to hide the fact that human experimentation occurred." Hiccup added as he voiced what everyone was thinking. "I still have some questions."

"What more could you want to ask?" I already told you everything.

"Now that is something I don't believe." Hiccup muttered. "How about the real reason you and everybody, with the exception of Gobber and Fishlegs, treated me like crap?"

"I have a feeling I know why you never assigned Hiccup as a hero but I do like to know why you were being so mean to him." Astrid stated. "I overheard your conversation when you suspended him. That was just plain rude!"

"I was just trying to protect him!" Stoick shouted back and everyone in the room looked stunned.

"Protect me! Protect me!" Hiccup now shouted as his eyes slitted. "How in Thor's name is treating me like crap protecting me?! How could you even say that!!"

"BECAUSE YOU DON'T KNOW THE WHOLE STORY!!" Stoick now shouted back looking defeated. "You have no idea." He finally said as he hung his head in resignation.

"I already told you that we found you when we raided Drago's lair. What I didn't tell you was that we believe that those he had deemed failed experiments were abandoned in the lab for us to find. You, Hiccup, weren't among them."

Those in the room collectively held their breaths as Stoick continued. "We searched the lair but couldn't find you. It was then that a terrified scream was heard from the roof. We all rushed up the stairs and I couldn't believe my eyes. Drago was being thrown against the wall like a ragdoll and then you proceeded to claw at his face."

"What?!" Hiccup asked astonished. "I don't have claws."

"You don't now. Your nails could extend and retract at will. How do you think Drago got those scars on his face." Stoick sighed. "In fact you don't have a lot of powers you used to have."

"What we could only guess was that Drago was dragging you to the emergency helicopter on the roof and you just snapped. The kick you gave him was powerful enough to send him into the concrete wall. It took more than half the SWAT team to get you off of him." Stoick explained. "The original committee had you isolated because they thought that you were to dangerous and I even overheard them talk about terminating you." Stoick said sadly. "I couldn't let them do that to my boy. One of the scientists in the facility remarked that your powers seemed to manifest due to your emotions. He theorized that most would be inaccessible to you if you didn't have the confidence to use them."

Hiccup just stood there. He could not believe what he was hearing. His hands trembled as he wanted to hit his father for treating him like he was worthless. Those who saw it followed their Chief's example. He really wanted to hit Stoick for all those years but at the same time he just wanted to curl up, cry, and hope that all of this was only a bad dream. Hiccup's breathing had become ragged and he just turned around and walked into his bedroom. The slam of the door and click of the lock could be heard in the now silent living room.

Toothless ran to the door and scratched at it hoping that it would open, but to no avail. Toothless then began to whine in front of the door as Astrid came a knocked. "Hiccup babe, please open up." She asked sounding worried. Astrid muttered something under her breath when no reply came.

"Toothless come on." Astrid said with determination.

"Where are you going?" Ruffnut asked curiously.

"I'm gonna make sure that Hiccup is alright." Astrid stated as she and Toothless headed to the front door.

"Wait how are you gonna do that. The door is locked." Snotlout asked dumbly.

"There is more than one way to skin a cat." Astrid stated as she slammed the front door shut.

"You don't think that she would actually skin a cat do you?" Tuffnut now asked which earned him a head slap from both Snotlout and his sister while the others facepalmed.

"Hiccup open up!" Was yelled as Astrid now hovered on Toothless in front of Hiccup's bedroom window. She could see that he lay facedown on the bed. The giant Loki plushie that Alvin had given him as a housewarming present was shoved to the foot of the bed.

"Hiccup if you don't open up this instant I will have Toothless blast a hole through the wall!" Astrid now threatened.

Hiccup groaned but he knew that Astrid wasn't kidding. She would blow a hole to get into the room. Hiccup got off of the bed and kneeled on the windowseat before sliding the window open. Toothless hovered down a bit so that Astrid could climb inside. Toothless followed, once Astrid was safely inside, but the dragon whined when he couldn't fit through the window. Astrid grabbed Toothless' front paws and pulled while Hiccup rolled his eyes at their antics.

"Have you tried furling your wings bud?" Hiccup asked as he shook his head in amusement. Astrid, who still had a hold of Toothless' paws stopped pulling and blushed feeling sheepish. Toothless' earplates shot up and the dragon huffed before folding his wings and jumping through the window.

Once both were inside they looked at Hiccup. "I know what you are going to say." Hiccup sighed.

"You do?" Astrid raised a brow.

"I'm not going to easily forgive him. He really really hurt me even if he thought it would be for the best."

"Well that's good." Astrid said as she took a seat next to Hiccup on the bed. "Because I wasn't going to suggest that."

"You weren't?" Hiccup now asked.

"Oh Thor no." Astrid said. "I was gonna suggest you at least get the man back for what he did to you. I'm sure Dagur wouldn't mind giving you some of his hair dye."

Hiccup couldn't help it. The image alone of what Astrid suggested made him laugh so hard that he fell from the bed.