Runaway reader x hiccup haddock

The confrontation

"Hey! Let us out!" Hiccup woke up to shouting and banging on metal bars. He slowly blinked to clear the blurriness in his eyes, before containing a yelp from escaping his throat when he look up. There they were, the person he had desperately wanted to get answers from was right in front of him, leaning against the metal bars of what seems to be a cell for him, brown eyes studying his every move.

Dressed in whole black, they would have blended perfectly into the shadows if it weren't for the light coming from between the bars that reflected meekly off of their black dragon-scale suit. They stood still, he would have mistaken them for being a statue if it wasn't for their eyes following his every movements, fixed in a cold glare, unbothered by the noise of protest from their other prisoners.

"You're finally awake." A female voice. It was quiet, just above a whisper, with no emotions whatsoever, but it echoed against the stone walls, silencing the group in the next cell.

Brown eyes: Check

Female: Check

Hiccup checked his mental list as he slowly stood up, maintaining eye contact in case the action displeases her. He has to confirm everything to make sure the person in front of him is Y/n.

"What happened?"

"Poison Darters. Carried you here and waited for you to wake up. Your other friends just woke up before you did." She summarized, her tone revealed no change, just the same emotionless tone.

"Where are our dragons? What did you do to them?" He asked, suddenly realizing that his loyal friend was nowhere to be found.

She dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "Relax, they're fine." If her words were meant to be reassuring, Hiccup certainly didn't felt it.

"Now," Hiccup was surprised at how sudden the rider's tone changed from emotionless to commanding, he could maybe detect slight anger behind it. "My turn." Her stance has changed too. She stood straight from her leaning position and crossed her arms.

"What are you doing on my island?"

Hiccup had to admit that her tone frightened him. Her tone was kept low and quiet, but clear and demanding. Hiccup felt like a prey, being backed into the corner by the predator, with only one chance of survival.

He clenched his fist to stop them from shaking. "We're here to offer an alliance" he managed to speak out firmly, being a stuttering mess can't help him here if he didn't want to annoy the person in front of him, and earn him a knife to his skull.

The Night rider seemed to raise an eyebrow under her helmet. "An alliance? From what people?"

"From Berk." That seemed to struck a nerve.

"Berk?" She asked in a questioning tone, like someone had ask something incredibly stupid and absurd. "And why would I want to form an alliance with a dragon killing tribe? Their motto is literally kill or be killed." Hiccup had noticed the edge in her voice and he knew if he doesn't calm her down, she may change her mind of keeping the gang alive.

"It's not like that anymore. Berk has changed and the people have learnt to live in peace with dragons now. Almost all of them have a dragon as companions." He rushed out, his hands instinctively reaching out in midair to calm the woman down, he does the same with Astrid and it works, mostly.

"And why is that?"

"We found out the dragons only raided us for food to feed their queen, so we killed the queen and they stopped. Most of them came to live with us."

At that, the Night Rider seemed to calm down, it's hard to know when she has her signature helmet on that concealed her facial expressions. All he could do was make intelligent guesses.

———

Truth be told, you were considering to make an alliance with them. From the rider's explanation and his sincere tone, you know he was telling the truth, but there was something he was definitely hiding too.

Being a lone dragon rider gets you a lot of enemies, so you can identify lies easily after years of observing, and you're rarely wrong. Another reason you're hesitant is because it's your old tribe, and you have some rather bad memories that you don't want recall. 

———

Finally, after some torturous minutes for Hiccup, she walked to the door of the cell. "You guys should be tired after traveling. For your alliance, I will inform you when I make a decision. For now, you may stay here as my guest." She offered as she opened the door.

"The door was unlocked the entire time?" Hiccup ask bewildered, he had thought that the Night Rider would be cautious enough to lock the door of the cell when interrogating her prisoners in case they're dangerous. But on the other hand, he knew she was more dangerous than anyone. The woman chuckled, revealing her emotions for the first time, confirming his suspicions.

"You wouldn't be able to get past me either way." She looked at him with a hint of amusement in her eyes.

"Fair enough."

———

Your other prisoners were silent when you unlocked the door, they must have heard your conversation. They looked at you with poorly concealed fear in their eyes as you calmly walked towards them. One of the blond girl viking was the most alert, stance already defensive. The more you looked at each of them, the more familiar they look.

"You may stay on my island as my guest for the time being. If you treat me as an acquaintance, I will be the same.  If you decide to attack me or any dragon on this island, I will return the favor ten times more than the damage you have caused. Do you understand me?" It may be the most basic threat anyone could give, but their faces told you that they treated it seriously, even the defensive blond viking widened her eyes slight. They quickly nodded their heads.

"Good." You said in satisfaction.

"Now," You took out a small dagger from your belt and twirled it around your fingers.

"There is another reason you're here, isn't there?" You asked no one in particular, eyes scanning over the group in front of you.

You observed them one by one. Four of them looked oblivious to what you were talking about, but the other two though...

You threw the dagger past the green eyed man's ear, landing it in the wall behind him, a whisk of his hair was snipped off and slowly descended onto the floor. They watched horrified as you took out another dagger.

"I will ask again, and if you don't give me the answer I want, I may not miss like the first time. Now, what is the other reason you're here?" You twirled the dagger between your fingers without taking your eyes off of the two.

"Ok, ok." The man complied.

"We do have another reason of coming here." He said hesitantly.

"Go on" you urged.

"I'm here to confirm my suspicions."

That peaked you interest. "And what are they?"

"There is only one person I know that has another night fury. And there is only one girl who has brown eyes that is passionate about dragons that would describe Berk like that. You're (Y/n), aren't you." He finished, gaining confidence as he spoke.

His group of dragon riders looked at each other in shock. (Y/n)? The girl that was bullied and teased by them? The girl that no one paid attention to? The girl that was push around by everyone? The girl that was killed by the night fury? Could she possibly be the deadly dragon rider?

You froze. After years of being careful with your identity, this was the first time someone had figured it out by themselves, mainly because you have avoided people from Berk like a plague. But you can't help to be impressed, and now you know exactly who the man is. That one person that knew you better than anyone.

You swiftly removed your helmet, a small smirk on your lips. "Hiccup." You greeted. After all these years, with his name always lingering at the back of your head, you finally said it again and you have missed it.

"Follow me."