[HTTYD] Welcome To Our World: Play Date

Welcome To Our World: Play Date (rough draft)

A DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon fanfic by Raberba girl

 

Summary:  Modern AU where Hiccup & Max (Toothless) are special needs children. Hiccup's parents take him to Max's house for a play date so that Valka can show Stoick how well the boys get along. Sequel to "Gentle."

 

A/N:  For those who haven't read Gentle (which I recommend you do before reading this), Max is Toothless, Alfred is the Bewilderbeast king, and Jared (who's barely in this fic) is the dark Bewilderbeast.

 

o.o.o

 

Stoick stayed for a while after he took Hiccup to school, watching Max with a heavy, almost sad look on his face.  Finally he went away, half-heartedly thinking of more reasons to protest even as he knew that he'd probably already lost the war.  He could not say no to his beloved wife about things she really cared about, and he had a sinking feeling that the hyperactive little menace called "Max" would eventually become his son.

 

That day was still distant, though, and he hadn't completely given up in the meantime.  Not completely, but it wasn't like he'd won, either.  He found himself, on a sunny Saturday morning, driving his wife and son to the only neighborhood in town more upscale than his own.  Hiccup, every inch of his flesh covered with clothing except for his fingers and face, gazed out of the window, slowly twirling a leaf in his hand and occasionally touching it to his cheek.

 

When they pulled into the driveway, Hiccup ducked down to hide from the three girls shrieking as they raced in and out of the arcs of water shot by a sprinkler in the front yard.  Stoick let Valka reach Hiccup's car door first.  "Hiccup!" she said brightly, "we're here to see Max!"

 

He ducked away and hid his face.

 

"See, Val?" Stoick pointed out.  "He doesn't want to see Max."

 

"Of course he wants to see Max; there's something else wrong."  She crouched down and gently tugged at Hiccup, coaxing him until he reluctantly turned his face to her.  "Sweetie, it's Max!"  She held out a picture of his friend.  "See?  Max."

 

"No school today," Hiccup signed sharply.

 

"I know, sweetheart, but you don't have to see Max only at school.  We came to visit Max here at his house, remember?  Max's house.  We're here to play with Max."

 

A few tears dripped down Hiccup's expressionless face.  "No Teeth friend No Teeth friend no school friend?!"

 

"Yes, sweetheart.  It's all right.  Here, give me your hand."  She helped him out of the car.  Stoick felt gratified when Hiccup raised his arms to him, asking to be picked up.  Stoick obliged, and Hiccup clung tightly to him as they walked past the yelling, laughing girls and up to the front door.

 

It was a heavily pierced teenage girl with bright green hair who answered the door, giving the Vasts a disgusted look.

 

"Hello--" Valka started.

 

"AL, PEOPLE ARE HERE," the girl bellowed over her shoulder, then stalked away, leaving the door open.

 

"Hello?" Valka called.

 

"Shut up," shouted one of the two boys lounging in the living room, playing a video game on an enormous television.

 

Stoick raised an eyebrow at his wife, who gave him a quelling look.

 

Jared shuffled past, eyed the Vasts furtively, and continued on at a faster pace without pausing or speaking.

 

There were running footsteps, and Max burst into view.  "HICCUP HICCUP HICCUP HICCUP HICCUP HICCUP HICCUP!" he screamed joyfully at the top of his lungs.

 

Stoick barely registered Hiccup's trembling, because even as the same video game-playing boy shouted for Max to shut up, the other one dove silently over the back of the couch and tackled Max, trapping him in a headlock and starting to pummel him hard with the other fist.  Before Stoick and Valka, too stunned to react, could get their wits together enough to intervene, Max had managed to kick the boy in the groin.  As his attacker stumbled with a cry, Max whirled in his loosened grip and set upon the boy with astonishing speed, snarling and biting and clawing like an animal.

 

Alfred finally hurried into view, with a toddler in his arms and a protesting seven-year-old entirely covered with flour trailing in his wake.  "MAX," Alfred thundered.

 

Max immediately broke away from the boy, screaming in a horrified panic as he careened wildly around the room like a destructive pinball.

 

"Max, go to your room," Alfred ordered firmly.

 

"HICUUUUUUPPPPP, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

 

"First five-minute cooldown, then Hiccup."

 

Max immediately raced away.

 

"Alfreeeed," the other boy was wailing, pathetically holding out his scratched arms, "Max attacked meeeeee, look, I'm bleediiiing!"

 

"Did you provoke him, Xavier?" Alfred asked evenly.

 

"No!"

 

"He was hitting him," Valka said faintly.  Stoick was clutching Hiccup in a protective embrace.  Soothed by the pressure, Hiccup had gone still.

 

"We'll talk in a minute, Xavier," Alfred said.  He handed the toddler to Valka.  "Will you hold her for a minute?  Make yourself comfortable anywhere; as soon as she finishes her bottle, you can take Hiccup up to see Max."

 

"I don't think we'll be staying," Stoick burst out.

 

Alfred gave him a cool look.  "That's your choice, but you'll hurt Hiccup if you leave now."

 

"Don't tell me how to raise my own son!  You can't even keep your own children under control!"

 

"Stoick," Valka murmured, rocking the wary-looking toddler, "they're all foster children.  He deliberately takes the ones who have trouble being placed anywhere else."

 

"Er...oh."

 

Valka turned to Alfred.  "Where's Tiff?"

 

"She couldn't come today, her daughter fell sick."  Then, for Stoick's benefit, "Two of the girls in the front are neighbors, they came to play with Sascia.  And this little one--" he indicated the toddler, "--was just an emergency overnighter.  They're coming to pick her up this afternoon."

 

After Alfred had led away the protesting boy who'd attacked Max and the whining flour-covered girl, Stoick and Valka awkwardly sat down on a sofa as far away from the TV as they could get.  Hiccup kept his hands tightly pressed over his ears, his fingers occasionally twitching as he tried to call for his friend but couldn't free his hands to do so.

 

Once the toddler had finished drinking her bottle, she wiggled to get down, heading unsteadily toward the kitchen.  Valka found Alfred to take charge of her again, then led the way upstairs, where she followed the sound of Max's sobbing until she found the bedroom where he was curled up tightly in a corner.  "Max?" she called.

 

He screamed.  "Hiccup no Hiccup no Hiccup noooooooooo, go awaaaaaaaaay, bad Max NO!"  He suddenly lunged for a magazine and violently ripped it up, his face a rictus of fury.

 

Valka stared at him, wondering in dismay if it was too dangerous and they'd have to leave early after all.  Then Hiccup whimpered.

 

Soft as the sound was, its effect on Max was electric.  He froze instantly, then raised his head and stared incredulously at Hiccup, who was stealing glances at him in between making soft distressed noises at the wall over Stoick's shoulder.  'He didn't know Hiccup was still here,' Valka realized.

 

Max dashed at Stoick and urgently reached for his friend, but Stoick, apparently thinking he was dodging an attack, moved sharply backward and waved his arm to fend off the boy.  Hiccup shrieked angrily.

 

"No, Stoick, it's all right," Valka said quickly.  "Put him down."

 

"Are you crazy?!"

 

"HICCUP!" Max shouted.

 

"GENTLE HANDS!" Hiccup Sign-shouted urgently back.

 

"Max, gentle hands," Valka translated.

 

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!"  Max raced around the room, almost as destructive in his joy as he was in his anger, but Valka was relieved to see that he at least had enough self-control to direct his excess of passion away from Hiccup.

 

"Stoick, put him down."

 

"No, Val!  We're leaving!"

 

"Stoick, please trust me."

 

Valka finally managed to convince Stoick to hand her their son.  She sat on the bed with Hiccup in her arms, watching Max as they waited for him to calm down.  He raced around and around and around the room, yelling happily, showing no sign of slowing.

 

"Friend my friend play together happy scary gentle hands No Teeth," Hiccup signed conversationally.  Then, as he started to get impatient, "Too fast STOP."

 

"Max," Valka said.

 

Max flung himself at her feet and tightly clutched her legs, which meant his face was practically pressed into Hiccup's knee.  "Gentle?" Hiccup wondered, then cautiously patted Max's hair.

 

Max burst into tears and climbed onto the bed and grabbed at Hiccup, moving his mouth toward the other boy but catching himself in time.  He held Hiccup's arm with both hands and shouted in frustration, "No bite, Max, NO BITE!"

 

"Are you very excited, Max?" Valka asked.

 

"EXCITED!"

 

"This is the first time you've seen Hiccup outside of school, huh."

 

"NO SCHOOOOOL!" Max scrambled down and started running circuits around the room again.

 

Hiccup squirmed to get down and crawled on all fours to reach a bucket of toys.  He took hold of the closest toy and threw it into the center of the room.  Then another.  Then another.

 

"I think that Hiccup is getting impatient," Valka said.

 

"Hiccup," Max said in a hoarse whisper.  He dropped to all fours and scuttled over to his friend, nuzzled him, then plopped down, lying right on top of him.  Both boys went completely still and silent for a solid two minutes.  The sudden calm was almost eerie.  Hiccup, looking perfectly relaxed and content, idly brushed his palm over the carpet.  Max looked almost asleep, except when he opened his eyes and sniffed at Hiccup's hair.  "My Hiccup that I love," Max whispered.

 

Hiccup grunted and tried to get up.  Max rolled off and started petting him, purring, "Gentle hands."

 

Hiccup picked up a torn piece of magazine page and held it up to his face, inspecting it closely.  He neither looked up nor resisted as Max pushed him down to lie on his stomach, then started lining up cars on his back.  After the third or fourth car, Hiccup frowned and peered over his shoulder to look, causing the cars to drop to the floor.

 

"Stay still, Hiccup," Max ordered.  Hiccup lay back down, rested his head on his arm, and used his other hand to stim off the carpet again as Max resumed lining up cars.

 

"One, one little car, ha ha ha," Max chattered to himself as he worked.  "Two, two little cars, ha ha ha."  He giggled for real.  "One two three cars on Hiccup, more!"  He clapped his hands, then added another car.

 

Valka gave her husband a triumphant look.

 

"Did you just forget everything that came before this?" he pouted.

 

After a while, Max hopped to his feet and, at quite a normal pace, trotted out of the bedroom.  Hiccup hurriedly scrambled up to follow.  When he bumped into Max, Max whirled and hugged him tightly, then took his hand and tugged him toward the stairs.  A few steps away, Hiccup stopped dead, staring in wide-eyed alarm at the staircase, and gave a little grunt of protest when Max tried to pull him forward.

 

"Go downstairs Hiccup, eat healthy snacks for growing bodies!" Max announced.

 

Hiccup rushed back to his father, who didn't pick him up.  "Three steps, Hiccup," Stoick told him.  "Three steps first, and then I'll carry you."

 

Hiccup shrieked and collapsed, hiding his face.

 

"Oh, sweetheart," Valka started to say, kneeling, but Max reached the little boy first.

 

"Hiccup is scared?!  Hiccup doesn't like it?!"

 

"Hiccup is frightened of stairs," Valka told him.  "But he has to practice and learn."

 

"Practice and learn!  Oh no, Hiccup, oh no, Hiccup, oh no, Hiccup!"

 

"I'll be right here, baby," Valka said to her son.  "Mama and Daddy and Max will all be right here, we'll help."

 

"You'll get a treat if you make it down three steps, Hiccup.  Do you want a treat?"

 

They managed to coax the little boy back to his feet and forward, but he clutched hard at his parents and kept balking, his eyes wide with fear.

 

"Stairs, Hiccup, up the stairs down the stairs!"  Max thundered all the way down the staircase and then zoomed all the way back up just when Hiccup reached the top step.  "FLY, HICCUP!"  Max seized Hiccup tightly in his arms, set his back against the handrail for guidance, and, before Stoick or Valka could stop him, scuttled swiftly sideways, dragging Hiccup with him.  He didn't even pause until they'd reached the floor below.  "Ta da~!"

 

Hiccup slowly lifted his face out of Max's shoulder and stared beyond him in complete astonishment.

 

"Not scary," Max proclaimed in satisfaction.

 

Valka reached them.  "Max!" she exclaimed, trying to figure out which emotion she ought to express.

 

"Hiccup down the stairs!"

 

"Y...Yes, I...my goodness, Max...."

 

Max dragged Hiccup to the kitchen, where he opened the refrigerator and pulled out an already-prepared tray of ants-on-a-log.  "Healthy snacks for growing bodies!"

 

"Wait, Max, is that for you?  Let's ask Alfred--"

 

"HEALTHY SNACKS FOR GROWING BODIES!  SUGAR IS BAD FOR YOU!"

 

Once they had found Alfred and gotten assurance that, yes, the ants-on-a-log snacks were indeed for the children to eat whenever they liked, they offered the tray back to Max.  Max was awkwardly trying to sit down, because Hiccup had collapsed and curled up on the floor, clinging so tightly to Max's leg that Max could barely move.

 

"Hiccup is UPSET!  Cooldown!"

 

"Yes, Hiccup is not very happy right now...."

 

Max licked up all the peanut butter and raisins in two gulps, then made a face at the celery.  "Yucky!  Healthy snacks for growing bodies!"  He nibbled at the celery.  "YUCKY!"  Throwing the stalk aside, he snatched another snack off the tray and poked it at Hiccup's mouth.  "Healthy snacks, Hiccup."

 

After a minute, Hiccup grasped the piece of food and held it close to his face, but didn't eat it.  Max picked a third snack off the tray and licked away all the peanut butter again.

 

"Max, why don't you try eating the celery with the peanut butter still on it?" Valka suggested.

 

"STICKY!"

 

"...You mean stringy?" she guessed.

 

"LOOK!"  Max insistently indicated the veins in the stalk.

 

"Yes, it's stringy.  Let's see...."  She started rummaging around in the refrigerator.  "Would you like some carrots instead?"

 

"Carrots!  Little rabbit nibble nibble yum!"

 

Hiccup set his snack on the floor so that he could pick the raisins off it one by one.  He touched his tongue to the peanut butter and nibbled at the celery.

 

"Hiccup, sit up, please."

 

He obeyed silently, practically shifting into Max's lap as he did so.

 

"Heavy."  Max laughed and made a show of trying to escape, then grew distressed and shoved Hiccup away.

 

"Max!"

 

Once the boys had eaten, Hiccup started moving around the quieter areas of the downstairs floor, running both hands along the walls as if mapping the perimeter.  Max soon grew bored with this, but when Hiccup refused to be deterred, Max complained in his personal language and then resolved himself, placing small objects in Hiccup's path and laughing when they were kicked aside.

 

"Max, don't do that, Hiccup might fall."

 

"Max, don't do that!" he repeated.  "HICCUP."  He started imitating Hiccup's task, though the sliding very quickly turned to slapping his palms against the wall as if he was playing a musical instrument.  He started dashing back and forth between Hiccup and the corner, laughing whenever he misjudged his stops and bumped into Hiccup.  The third time this happened, Hiccup grunted loudly in annoyance when he stumbled.

 

"Hiccuuuup!" Max whined.

 

Hiccup said something very soft and unintelligible to him.

 

"IT'S OKAY, HICCUP.  I'm a dragon, rawr!"

 

Ten minutes later, they were playing with blocks, each boy taking turns contributing to the pile.  Max's offerings were swift, sloppy, and random; Hiccup's were deliberate, stacking blocks upward rather than simply tossing them onto the pile.  Alfred had come up beside the Vasts to watch.  "He's so calm," he noted in mild amazement.

 

"You mean Max?"

 

"Usually he's bouncing off the walls from the minute he wakes up to the minute he falls asleep.  This is...different.  Hiccup is good for him."

 

Stoick did not say aloud that it was the opposite that was in question here.

 

Hiccup's tower collapsed when it grew too tall.  Max laughed and remarked, "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down~"  Hiccup murmured something in response and set out a new block, starting to rebuild the tower.

 

"It's so amazing to see Hiccup play with someone," Valka said wistfully.  "I've never seen him respond to anyone the way he does to Max."

 

"At least the boy doesn't bite him anymore," Stoick grumbled.

 

Max mischievously poked at the tower to make it collapse again.  Hiccup abruptly seized his face in both hands.

 

"Sorry!  Bad Max!  Max is sorry!"  They didn't move for what seemed like a long time, Hiccup gripping Max and staring intently in a rare instance of direct eye contact, Max looking apprehensive and then sheepish and then happily submissive.  Neither of them spoke.  Then Hiccup let go of him and looked away dismissively and started building the tower again.  Max purred and leaned on him until Hiccup lost his balance and fell over.  After a moment, still lying there with Max sprawled on top of him, he reached out a hand to continue arranging blocks.

 

"Hiccup," Valka said, "five more minutes."

 

Hiccup abruptly propped himself up on his arms and stared at his mother, his mouth slightly open in dismay.

 

"Five more minutes, and then we're going home," Stoick confirmed.

 

Hiccup burst into tears.

 

"Hiccup?!" Max exclaimed.  "Hiccup is crying?!  Hiccup is upset?!"

 

Hiccup clutched him tightly.  Five minutes later, when his parents took hold of him, he went limp and didn't resist as he was pulled away from his friend, but he did lie bonelessly in the back seat of the car and kept up his demonstration of Utter Despair for hours.  Max, screaming, was picked up by Alfred and refused to be consoled.  "Max, you'll see Hiccup at school, okay?  Play time is over now, but it's all right, you'll see each other at school next week."

 

"Hiccuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!  Hiccuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup...!"

 

o.o.o

 

Author's Notes:  Writing this was a very random impulse. I've had a couple of other ideas for this AU for a while, but they both take place after Max is adopted, and I thought I ought to write at least one fic that takes place earlier.  Stoick isn't exactly thrilled about the idea of adding Toothless to the family, and this is pretty much the first time he's seen Hiccup & Toothless have sustained positive interaction in person.

 

Much thanks to nyarth lover, who anonymously reviewed Gentle!  I don't know if you ever saw my review reply on my FFN profile, but yeah, the armguards are a really good idea that I wish I'd thought of.  If/when I ever get around to editing Gentle, I'll mention why Hiccup wasn't wearing armguards that day.  As far as medication, I have more than one reason for wanting to avoid the issue in my writing, so I'm pretty much pretending that meds don't exist except when they're necessary for the plot.  Sorry about that...!