Author's Note:

Hello everyone and welcome. I've decided to re-write this story as I think I can now do a much better job with it than when I first wrote it. It'll have edited and extra scenes but will follow the same pattern as the original in that it will be the first film from Snotlout's perspective. It may end up more AU than it initially was but the main plot points should largely remain unchanged and I'll make sure it fits in with the other stories I have set in the 'Differently Similar' verse. In this verse Snotlout has lived with Stoick and Hiccup since he was five so his character is going to be very different from his canon self, I'll try and keep some aspects of his original character in but he will be very OOC. I hope you enjoy the chapter.

I do not own any aspect of How to Train Your Dragon.

Change

Snotlout dived between villagers with a bucket full of water to reach the latest burning building.

Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were ahead of him and he sighed when he saw the twins fight over their bucket. Reaching the fire he quickly threw the water over it and jumped aside as Astrid followed him and emptied hers as well. As they turned away he heard the sound of a dragon's blast and felt the heat as it exploded behind them. He then saw his cousin in the forge staring, star struck, at Astrid and felt a twinge of worry when he realised that Hiccup had to have gone through the village in the middle of a dragon attack to get there.

He felt his worry was well founded as he'd quickly discovered that his cousin was a magnet for trouble when Stoick had taken Snotlout in after he'd lost his parents when he was five. As such he decided it was his job to try and look out for Hiccup (even if Hiccup was several months older than him) as best as he could. A shout pulled his attention away from the other teen and soon he was running with the others to help combat another fire feeling secure with the thought that there was no way Gobber would let Hiccup out of the forge.

He was mentally kicking himself later when was standing watching his Uncle Stoick soundly lecture his cousin.

Hiccup had once again attempted to use one of his contraptions to try and kill a dragon which had then resulted in probably the biggest calamity that he'd caused yet. Even though he sympathised with both Hiccup and his Uncle in this situation, Snotlout couldn't help but be impressed by the scale of the devastation that had been caused, unfortunately the village had also lost a good portion of its sheep so it looked like fish for dinner for the next few months if the fishing remained good. Hiccup was now trying to convince his father that he'd shot down a Night Fury and even Snotlout, who had a bit more faith in his cousin than the others, was finding it hard to believe.

"That's enough Hiccup!"

Snotlout winced on behalf of his cousin at his uncle's tone; he'd been on the receiving end of it several times himself when he'd first been taken in as his uncle did not tolerate his original arrogant, selfish and bullying attitude.

"Go back to the house." Stoick gestured to Gobber, "Make sure he gets there."

"Way to go."

"I have never seen anyone muck up that badly."

The twins jeered from behind Snotlout and he resisted the urge to turn and punch them (it would only make the situation worse and add to his uncle's problems) and settled for giving Hiccup a sympathetic look as the older cousin answered sarcastically, "Yeah thank you, I tried."

Snotlout felt a twinge of satisfaction when Gobber shoved Tuffnut (especially as his foot just happened to be in the way causing the male twin to fall hard on his rear) and made to follow Hiccup but his uncle stopped him,

"Snotlout, I want you and the others to help with the clear up."

He looked up and saw his uncle giving him a look that said he'd brook no arguments and nodded, "Yes Uncle."

It was the afternoon before Snotlout finally got back home and he was unsurprised to find that Hiccup wasn't there and guessed that he'd gone to try and find the Night Fury he claimed he'd shot down.

He thought about going out and finding him but decided against it, the area around the village was pretty safe out with dragon raids and he was pretty sure Hiccup hadn't hit a Night Fury. He sighed at that thought knowing that he'd most likely have to deal with a disappointed Hiccup later and tried to think of something that would make his cousin feel better.

He started on the odd jobs he had to do around the house, with Stoick being chief and a single parent a lot of the housekeeping had to be done by Snotlout or Hiccup, and he was just finishing when his uncle returned.

The man looked around before his eyes settled on his nephew, "Is Hiccup here?"

Snotlout shook his head and Stoick sighed, "I should've known."

Snotlout resumed finishing his chores and watched as his uncle started shuffling around the kitchen area, packing food into a large sack.

"Are you going somewhere uncle?"

Stoick stopped his packing and turned to his nephew, "Another search for the nest before winter arrives."

Snotlout felt worry surge in him, any attempt to find the dragon nest had always ended badly, and tried to keep it from showing on his face but obviously failed when his uncle placed a hand on his shoulder,

"I'll be fine so don't worry about me, you'll have enough on your plate with dragon training."

Feeling a bit reassured he managed to produce a smile for his uncle and the man patted him once, "Good, now I have something for you."

The teen looked on curiously as the chief made his way over to a chest that he knew contained the man's personal belongings and began rummaging through it. Soon his uncle found what he was looking for and turned back to him holding a mace. It had a wooden handle about a foot long that was bound with leather as a hand hold, attached to this was a good sized metal spherical head with spikes coming from it. Stoick handed it to him and Snotlout twirled it experimentally, "It's great."

His uncle nodded, "Your parents would've wanted you to have it. Your mother used it for her own dragon training."

Snotlout finished twirling it and smiled, "Thanks uncle."

Stoick returned the smile before clapping his hands together, "Now, train hard, keep an eye on your cousin and I'll see you soon."

"See you soon uncle."

There was a slightly awkward pause before Snotlout grinned and left to try out his new mace.

The weapon had proven to be well suited to him as Snotlout tested it on several training dummies and he was pleased that it was comfortable for him to use. The fact that it was once his mum's made it even better as the only things he had to remember her by was her harp and her songbooks so it was good to have something that indicated her warrior side.

The sound of footsteps behind him caused him to turn and he saw the twins approaching.

He and the twins did not get on very well at all though in all honesty he didn't get on with any of the other teens except Hiccup. Most of the adults considered Hiccup a nuisance and the other kids had seen that as an excuse to bully him, Snotlout was largely ignored by the village and was sort of treated as a random spare person in the chief's family but because he defended Hiccup the other kids bullied him too.

He glared as the twins approached and tightened his grip on his mother's mace. Tuffnut grinned and nudged his sister, "Look sis, there's a dummy hitting dummies."

Hiccup probably would have responded with some sarcastic comment but Snotlout wasn't so verbally agile and instead he opted for ignoring them and continued practicing. Ruffnut sniggered, "Well it's better than him trying to help Hiccup wreck the village, like when they completely demolished one of the catapult towers."

Snotlout bristled slightly at that, Hiccup had been trying to kill a dragon with one of his contraptions for a while and he'd helped him several times. The incident Ruffnut was referring to happened not that long ago when they'd attempted to use a sort of giant bow to shot a dragon down. It hadn't gone at all as planned and they'd ended up being chased by several Gronkles who'd gone on to decimate the catapult as they'd fired their lava blasts at them. They'd spent the better part of the following days fixing the catapult and the other kids had taken great pleasure at mocking them while they did it.

Tuffnut spoke again, "Yeah well that doesn't compare to what Hiccup did this time, I mean demolishing the half the village and losing most of our food stocks is pretty impressive."

"Not to mention the whole thing with saying he shot down a Night Fury."

Tuffnut began laughing, "Oh that was priceless. I mean just the thought of old 'useless' doing that just cracks me up."

Snotlout had been trying desperately to keep his short temper in check knowing that his uncle would not thank him for starting a fight but calling Hiccup 'useless' was too much. Hiccup was one of few people who'd stood by him through his parents death and the following years and he did not like anyone calling him 'useless'. He knew full well how much Hiccup wanted to be recognised as someone worthy of his father and how incredible his skills in the forge were, Hiccup was far from 'useless' and he hated how everyone seemed to think of him that way.

He'd been about to pounce on Tuffnut when a familiar voice sounded out, "What are you two muttonheads doing? Yer supposed to be at the farm righting all those yaks ye've tipped!"

The twins looked round and saw Gobber approaching and they quickly scurried away. Snotlout stood glaring fiercely after them and the blacksmith sighed, "Ye shouldn't let them get to ye lad. They're only trying to provoke ye into a fight."

Snotlout kicked the ground moodily, "I know but I hate just letting them mouth off like that. What does everyone have against me and Hiccup anyway?"

Gobber shook his head, "Beating them up isn't going to help and yer uncle doesn't want ye to let yerself be provoked."

Snotlout looked away from him sulkily and Gobber gave another sigh, "Look, forget about them. Yer uncle's ship is about to leave so ye might want to go and see it off. He's not going to be back fer a while."

Forgetting about his anger at the twins Snotlout shot off towards the docks to see his uncle's ship off.

Night was falling by the time Snotlout was heading back to the house.

Hiccup hadn't been at the docks and he was hoping his cousin had seen Stoick before the chief had left. When he entered the house he saw Hiccup sitting at the big table in the middle of the room and made his way over, "Hey."

Hiccup looked up from staring at the wooden surface before him, "Hey."

"Did you see uncle Stoick before he left?" Snotlout asked as he sat down.

"Yeah," he thought that was all he was going to get when Hiccup spoke again, "He put me into dragon training before he left."

The younger teen grinned, "That's great!" Soon you'll be killing dragons with the rest of us and we'll be the best dragon slayers in the village."

"Yay I'll be killing dragons, woo-hoo."

Though excited at the prospect of Hiccup being in dragon training as well Snotlout didn't miss the sarcasm in his cousin's voice. He was about to call him out on it when Hiccup suddenly got up,

"Well I'm going to get to bed; you know rest up for dragon training and all that."

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow Snotlout."

He watched as Hiccup headed up to their shared room and then sat at the table with a confused frown on his face, only this morning Hiccup had been desperate to prove that he could kill dragons but now he'd been given the chance he seemed really bothered by the notion.

What had changed?

PS-So that's chapter one re-written and hopefully it's better than the original. I've tried to add more depth with an additional scene and changes may get more drastic in later chapters. Please let me know what you thought and I'll try and update soon.