trans_9 | Worlds Apart [closed] [Set before moleplot and aliensplot]

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Worlds Apart [closed] [Set before moleplot and aliensplot]

After training with Zuko (and a shower), Hiccup had just wanted to relax. That meant a trip to Hydroponics, for fake sunshine on his face. At least until he got under the shade of a tree with bright pink leaves, anyway.

It also meant hanging out with his buddy.

There was outright giggling as Toothless nudged his side, rolling him over so that he could squeeze in under the shade, curled around his boy, and then Hiccup lay there against his dragon's side, one foot gleaming in the light, the toes of his other foot wiggling in the grass.

One hand idly reached up and over and scratched the dragon's neck so that his whole body rumbled as he purred.

The teenage Viking looked half-close to drifting off for a nap, but that wouldn't stop him from saying hello to anyone that passed by.

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"I, um, shot him down out of the sky. Instead of killing him, I let him go, and then instead of eating me, he let me go. Only it had hurt his tail so he couldn't fly away, and he was trapped in the grotto. I had to feed him and take care of him, at least until I made a harness with a false tail so he could fly again with my help. And we just--we just became friends."

I.E. he screwed up, hurt the poor beastie, and did all he could to fix it.

"Luckily, the ship grabbed us together."

Scritchy scritchy scritchy. The dragon's throat rumbled with purrs.

"Dragons are pretty common where I come from, although Toothless here is one of the rarer ones."

"Oh." Man, some people came from worlds with friendly dragons, and some people came from worlds with biological weapons that rotted people's faces off. The closest thing they had was Hunters... or maybe that ugly goddamn Gulp Worm.

Though nobody would want to befriend that thing.

"Well. That's cool," he murmured, not knowing what else to say.

Hiccup sat up.

"He's really cool," said Hiccup, "but the best thing about him is that now that he's here there's something I'm good at: flying." A pause.

"Not that Toothless and I can really compare with all the ships or anything, though," he added bitterly. "But it's better than nothing, I guess. It's hard finding a way to be useful around here. I still feel...well. Fairly useless."

Steve scoffed and managed a little sideways smirk, shaking his head. "Oh, don't even get me started on feeling useless, buddy. You're preaching to the choir," he said. "I've been here for a long time now and I've still got absolutely nothing to do but cause problems and get in the way."

"What's your name?"

A suspicious moment of silence.

"Steve," he said. "You?"

"Steve," he said, playing with the name. "Steeve. I will never get used to the weird names around here. I'm Hiccup, by the way--yes, I already know my name is weird, too, but it's pretty normal where I'm from."

"'Steve' is a pretty boring, ordinary name where I'm from."

He still wasn't quite sure if he wanted to be involved in this conversation or not, but Hiccup seemed all right... and the dragon still looked content and not like it was going to suddenly rear up and attack or anything.

"Where are you from that there's dragons, anyway?"

"Berk. It's an island. In the middle of nowhere. Noted primarily for it's cases of frostbite," he joked. "The dragons had a nest not far from us, but we couldn't find it to scatter them until very recently and then...we didn't do so much of the scattering as planned. Vikings have lived on Berk for seven generations--and fought dragons that entire time."

Scritchy scritchy.

Looked like they weren't fighting now.

"Man..." No matter who he talked to, it seemed, Steve could never find someone who didn't have a home world worth envying compared to his. Earth was boring and Steve's version, at times, horrible. Vikings and dragons sounded like something out of a fairytale in comparison.

"Doesn't seem that ferocious to me."

At the relative insult to his pride, and at that odd...smell, the dragon shook himself out of his lazy stupor and turned to face Steve, taking a few huffs through his nostrils and giving him a Look. The retractable teeth popped out, his ears laid back flat on his head, and Toothless let out a low and dangerous growl.

1) You do not insult a dragon or ever forget what they can do, Steve.

2) You smell like...like badness.

"I wouldn't, ah, I wouldn't provoke him," Hiccup said, and he tapped Toothless gently on the nose.

"No. We don't do that to possible new friends. Calm down."

The dragon settled again, giving Hiccup a baleful look, but otherwise calming down. He did however, shoot Steve a look that seemed very "I got my eye on you."

Well, if Steve didn't look apprehensive before, now he looked a few seconds from turning tail and bolting the hell out of hydroponics. "Hey, jeez, I didn't mean anything by it," he said quickly. "He just-- looked relaxed, is all--"

Jeez, who knew dragons were so touchy?

... or that they spoke English?

Understood bits of it at least. (Of course, Toothless was hearing it as Old Norse).

"They're pretty smart. And prideful. Definitely prideful."

Hiccup went back to rubbing the dragon's neck to calm him down again.

"He's not tame--he's just my friend. The only reason he doesn't eat people is because most of the time, they're not trying to hurt him or me, and because he likes fish better. But if you don't act threatening towards me, or towards him, he won't go after you. Might growl a little, but that's more bark than bite."

It's safe, Steve. Just be respectful.

"Who's threatening?" Steve asked a little drolly. Don't mind him, he's just defensive, and starting to feel the nervous heat that comes along with Veronica. He's used to it by now, but feeling your body head up a few degrees instantly isn't very pleasant either way.

"Easy there, guy. Sorry."

The dragon seemed content just to get scritchies now.

"So, back to what we were saying."

Because it meant he had a potential kindred spirit of uselessness here...

"Same trouble, huh?"

He went on, "The hard part is I'm trying to learn things, to get better and stop playing damsel in distress in every fight, but that doensn't happen overnight."

He made a bicep with a flimsy arm.

"I mean look at this," he patted his arm, and joked, "With these studly muscles, I can lift a sword with about five whole minutes of effort."

"You're ahead of me, then," Steve said with a mild sigh, crossing his arms and pleased to move away from the subject of how he failed at dragons. "It's not like I can't do anything-- but I'm not in the same league as everybody else. I can't compare."

He scowled a bit. "And there's a lot I can't do anyway."

Hiccup bit his lip.

"Why can't you do some things?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Let's just say I have a little condition." Probably shouldn't have spilled so much to a guy he barely knew, but who cared? It wasn't anything anybody who paid attention couldn't guess.

"So you're ill?" He rubbed his chin. That would make it hard for him to be helpful if he couldn't do some of the things to be helpful.

"Do you have anything to keep you busy?"

"Basically." Yeah. Basically.

"Aside from seeing my girlfriend or getting thrown in quarantine every other week? Not really."

"You know, I could use some help in the forge, if you're looking for something to do. There are people here with steel weapons. I don't know if you could do that with your condition, but the offer's there. There are other blacksmiths, but I'm trying to make it so the free forge can compete--and stay free, instead of ripping people of, of what little they have."

A pause.

"Which is why I should prolly be down there now, but I had practice with Zuko today, so I'm taking a break."

A forge? Steve raised an eyebrow. How... renaissance fair. "I don't know. I'm supposed to avoid getting injured if I can help it," he admitted. "Besides, I don't know the first thing about steel weapons. I'm more of a gun kind of guy."

He was going to say that it was cool and he understood, but found something to be excited about.

"I'm learning to use those! I love those!" Hiccup said, immediately excited. "My dad still doesn't get it. I've been trying to explain it's like a catapult. But small. That shoots faster. And in your hand."

Hiccup immediately froze.

"Wow, and I am must be coming off a giant non-futurey dork aren't I. Sorry."

Now he was embarrassed.

"But you know? Indoor plumbing? New concept for me. Great stuff. Wouldn't work in Berk because the pipes would freeze in winter, but still--very cool stuff. Same with cars. I'd kill to learn how those work."

That seemed to actually brighten Steve up-- a chance to be expert guy. "Guns are awesome," he agreed. "I'm pretty good at using them, so if you ever need any help, you should ask me."

"Cars too," he added. "Or motorcycles. I used to help out at my uncle's garage after school."

"Could I? Really?"

Yay! ~~New friend! Maybe!~~

"...What's a motorcycle?"

Worlds Apart [closed] [Set before moleplot and aliensplot]

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