Restless Nights - Big Hero Six SI-OC

CHAPTER SIX: END OF AN ERA

It took some weeks to move her stuff to the new workshop.

The base wasn't really ready to host a hero-in-making, her workshop and an army yet. It needed repairs. So while that was being done, Felix took time to get to know her parents - something about forming a bond, Val half remembers him muttering. She doesn't mind the waiting. After all, planning is just as important as getting the job done.

So she thinks the days away.

She daydreams about how her new suit will look, how she'll relocate her stuff in the new base, which of her inventions to send in with her SFIT application. She writes for AO3, plays with Toothless in her attic, stares out the window in wonder at the sights below her. She rewatches childhood shows with Blackwell, follows Lucas on his day to day adventures around the house, toys and messes with the electronics in her home for the nth time.

And in no time at all, the day is there.

There's a truck outside her house, with a bunch of men helping pack all her machines inside it, and all of them team up to carry a box. When questioned on its contents, Val replied that it was some rare metal she wanted to work on, because Toothless definitely wasn't in that one, no sir.

Felix is there, too. He's in some casual wear, and he looks much more at ease now than he did the first time they met. He makes small talk with her dad as the men finally pack the last machine up, and bids him farewell as they get on his car to guide the truck to Berk.

Because of course Val named it that. There was no chance it got any other name.

Once there, she gets to play king and direct the workers on where to put her stuff. They're amused by her twelve-year-old fierceness, apparently. They smile the whole time through.

And once they leave...

God.

Machines both old and new sit neatly on the workshop warehouse's floor. The place no longer smells of dust, and all the walls are clean and strong. New lights are incrusted in the ceiling, and through the open windows Val can see the solar panels they're connected to. And yet, with all the space her machines take up, with all the tools and boxes and old inventions laying around, there's still a lot of open room. Not even a quarter of the workshop is occupied.

Val feels as though she's gonna cry. Or like she should, at least. But tears never rise to her eyes. So she just stares, a small grin on her face as a warm feeling grows deep on her chest.

This, she can tell, is the start.

Yes, it was Toothless, some weeks ago, when they went flying and went down.

And it was Blackwell, too, when she met him, tired eyes meeting the void.

And it was also that awful dragon movie, when she was a kid with an unreachable dream.

And, before all that, it was Hiro.

But this.

This is really the start. Like it was in the movies, like it was in the books, like it was in every retelling of Hiccup's adventures.

Berk.

...

...shit she's actually going to cry now-

"So?"

Val turns around, directing her honey-colored gaze to Felix. He's right behind her, hand half raised as if in greeting. He lets it fall down, then, and his smile turns more nervous. "How do you like it?"