When in Rome

Correspondance

The gang's trip was wildly uneventful, rather relaxing and yet somehow not boring.

Hiccup was leaning against the front pole of his tent, feet out in front of him towards the fire and his sketch book in his lap. It was almost full, he was on the home stretch of pages, and he'd like to be finished by the time he was back in Rome. Whilst talking to local blacksmiths he'd been through the many marketplaces and there was a stall with some very nice leather sketchbooks he was itching to get his hands on.

Jael and Charlotte were off in the small forest nearby having some fun shooting tress, Atticus and Verlin- back from his trip with Johan, which he'd been so excited for, Hiccup still didn't understand why- were chatting round the fire, Toothless and Spike  were chasing each other down the shoreline and the rest of the dragons were curled up around the fire.

The sun was just hovering over the water, the orange reflections stark against the grey water. They'd crossed into the north, Viking territory. They were on course to visit his mother in a few days and he was genuinely excited. He hadn't gotten to stick around much thanks to the recent celebrations so this was a chance to really get to know each other. he was also interested in seeing how things worked at the dragon nest with the king.

And then, as he looked back down at his sketchbook, he heard the squawk of a terrible terror.

It dropped down by hiccup's prosthetic, plopped a metal canister on the sand and then cuddled up to his side with a purr.

He unscrewed the cap of the canister expecting a reply from Johan, which he got, as well as a surprise and a half.

He'd asked if he'd had any issues after crossing back into Viking territory, according to Johan he'd not only been just fine but also had had some interesting conversations with the inhabitants of Berk. And, just as Johan explained in his letter, one of those inhabitants had written something for him as well.

Hiccup was beyond nervous reading Astrid's letter. He kept expecting to read the next line and find 'HOW DARE YOU RUN AWAY YOU DUMBASS, YOU'RE NO VIKING AND I'M TELLING THE WHOLE VILLAGE YOUR SECRET' or something along those lines but it never came.

Instead what he read was a letter explaining Astrid's guilt about how she and the other teens had treated him and how they were stupid to ever let it get as far as it did. The letter explained that Astrid now understood the way they had treated him was immature, stupid, unfair and uncalled for and that she'd redo and change it all if she had the chance. It also said she wouldn't utter a word about her revelation to anyone as it was his secret to tell, but she hoped he'd one day come back to Berk as his 'death' had greatly affected his father and Gobber. She ended it with saying she hoped he was enjoying his new life and the people in it treated him better than those on Berk had.

Hiccup was genuinely shocked. He'd never expected contact with anyone from his past to happen again, let alone Astrid. And if it did happen he'd expected metaphorical pitchforks and torches. He'd never admit it kept him up at night, but there were times he wondered at the possibility of seeing someone from his past again and how badly it could go.

He was surprised to find Astrid's apology gave him some sense of... ease? Like one of the weights on his shoulders had been removed, and he hadn't noticed it was there till it was gone. It was like he'd exhaled slightly at the realisation that people changed over time and therefore may have understood their mistakes.

It was only Astrid, not his father, but the fact that someone from his old life no longer thought of him as a monumental screw up brought him a step closer to making amends with his past and acknowledging it existed. he still had quite a ways to go, though.