The Valcup has returned!

It's an unrelated (incest free!) Valcup, because... well, I've done two full related-Valcup stories (three if you count The Things We Do For Love) and now I wanna do this.

Soooo... pretty much everything will be explained in-story. Lets roll!

-HTTYD-

Trying to keep an eye on the excitable ten year old scurrying between boxes, Valka hunted for where she had absent-mindedly tossed the keys to their new home.

"I miss our old house mom!"

"I know son, but you'll come to love the new house. We can decorate your room any way you like."

Pushing his glasses back up his little button nose, Tyr smiled.

"Really? With dragons?"

"All the dragons we can squeeze in."

"Yay!"

Valka knew her son was struggling - his parents separation hadn't been easy, and 'staying together for their son' became a very necessary 'separating for their son' because they were so desperately unhappy, and that wasn't the environment either Valka or Sven wanted to raise their son in.

"But right now we need to let the moving men move everything in."

"Can I help?"

Tyr was a little small for his age, and not terribly strong but Valka knew he just took after her - an artistic soul who liked reading fantasy novels more than playing sports. But he was looking up at her so earnestly, eager to assist in the moving.

"You can keep me company making sure they don't break anything. Let them do the heavy lifting."

"Ok!"

Finally locating the keys, Valka took her sons hand and hurried along the quaint little garden path to the front door, unlocking it for the burly men - and one rather beefy lady - to start carrying in boxes and furniture in record time. Standing there watching grew boring for the little boy, who tugged at his mothers hand.

"Can I go in the garden? That box has my favourite dragon in to play with."

Tyr pointed, and Valka nodded since she could see the garden from where she was stood.

"Leave the door open so I can hear you."

"Thanks mom!"

He dug out his favourite dragon - named Loki, as he was apparently always playing tricks like sneaking into the cookie jar and framing Tyr for it - and charged to the door, only to frown when he found it locked. Shaking her head at her own absent minded behaviour, Valka let him out and little legs charged out into the garden with joyful squeals.

Valka smiled to herself at him having a little fun, then turned back to watching the men drop boxes in piles here, there and everywhere.

"Where do you want this?"

Was grunted at her by the two men holding her sofa, and Valka pointed to the far wall. The next were their dismantled beds, which she hoped they didn't mix up as she told them where to take. Soon she was left with mostly boxes and a few bits of furniture in their new homes, and decided to check on her son now the movers were gone.

He wasn't playing with Loki, instead standing near the fence where five adult heads were now floating above, looking down at Tyr as they chatted. When her son spotted her, he turned excited green eyes to her and pointed.

"Mom! Look! We have neighbours!"

Accepting that she wasn't going to get out of meeting them now, Valka walked over to her son, feeling very much scrutinised. Especially by the one with emerald eyes and a sort of messy, windswept look about his hair.

"Hey! We don't all live here, by the way. Just me and Astrid, for now. But this is Eret, that's Dagur, and that's Heather. They visit alot."

Emerald-eyes pointed to each individual he named, each giving Valka a smile and wave she awkwardly returned.

"I'm Tyr, and this is my mom. And this is Loki. He's a naughty dragon."

Rather than scoff at her imaginative son, they played along.

"I'll keep an eye out for him then, luckily I read alot about dragons so I can handle it."

Well, Tyr was already sold on their new neighbour if he liked dragons.

"Me too! Hey, have you read How To Train Your Dragon?"

"Read it? I'm nicknamed after it, and I even named my dog Toothless."

"Your name is Hiccup?"

Tyr looked enthralled; Valka wasn't even totally sure what they were talking about other than that it was a book series.

"That's what everyone calls me now, yeah. Anyway, your mom is probably busy so we'll let you get on. If you need anything, let us know! It was nice to meet you Tyr, and... sorry, didn't catch your name. I can't really call you mom."

Had Valka been so distracted by his eyes she hadn't introduced herself?

"Oh. I'm Valka. And yes, I do need to get on. Come on son, we need to sort the boxes."

"Ok mom. Bye everybody!"

Tyr - and Loki - waved, then scampered after Valka. As they went in, Valka had the distinct impression 'Hiccup' was watching her walk away.

"Find all your boxes so we can get them upstairs Ty, then we can start getting your bed ready for the night."

His boxes were distinctive, as Ty's handwriting was still rather sketchy at best while Valka had a looping, almost ostentatious script that she supposed came from all the time she spent drawing over and over. Her fingers were well suited to sculpting, to the finest details with tiny paintbrushes and the thinnest sketching pencil.

They were not designed for an IKEA disaster with no instructions, having been thrown out when the bed was first installed by her now-ex-husband. She'd sent Ty back out into the garden so he couldn't hear her swearing, and so she was surprised to hear the front door knocking. Throwing a screwdriver at the pile of puzzle pieces definitely designed to frustrate her to Hel and back, Valka headed down the stairs and opened her front door.

"Hiccup?"

"Hi. Your precocious little man said you were having some trouble putti g things together, after I told him I take stuff apart and put it back together for work. And the dragon made me promise. So... need some help?"

He wasn't leering, but Valka still felt like he was scrutinising her. She turned to see a sheepish son hiding behind a half-wall, but he was smiling a little too.

"Are you sure you wouldn't mind?"

Hiccup grinned.

"Happy to help."

After gods only knew how much frustration and internal screaming for Valka, Hiccup barely even looked at the collection of parts before he was sat down fixing this bit to that.

"How did you do that?"

"Have you ever seen all the tiny bits that go in an engine? This is an ages 3 to 6 jigsaw puzzle by comparison. So, Tyr, how old are you?"

Valka hadn't even noticed that her son had snuck up to watch Hiccup work. He shuffled in, shy about his age and short stature all of a sudden.

"I'm eleven in three months."

"Is that all? I thought you were twelve at least!"

Tyr beamed, puffing up proudly. Valka couldn't help but smile at him, seeing the shyness melt away.

"Really?"

Already half done, Hiccup managed to nod over at Tyr.

"Yep. Hey big guy, can you hand me that little baggy of screws?"

"Ok!"

Tyr hastened over to help, leaning over curiously to watch Hiccup make use of them. She was about to admonish him for getting in Hiccup-the-helpful-neighbours way, but Hiccup had turned around to ask Tyr if he wanted a go at fitting the screw. That even got Tyr to put down Loki, who he had steadfastly clung to for security with the stranger in their house.

"There we go. One bedframe for you and Loki."

"Thanks Hiccup. Are you gonna help mom fix her bed now too?"

The two males looked up at Valka from their perch on the floor, Hiccup's face questioning.

"If its no trouble?"

"Not a bit. Shall we?"

"Hang on" Tyr moved Loki to the middle of the bedframe, smiling "he's guarding my bed."

Hiccup had her double beds frame set up in equally short order, with his tiny little helper who was all smiles, especially when Hiccup indulged his want to chat about that book series they both liked.

"We can't unpack properly yet because me and mom gotta do some painting in my room. I get dragons on my wall!"

"That is pretty cool. I wish I could have had a dragon room when I was your age."

Valka looked at the time on her watch, grimacing slightly.

"Ty, we need to call your father."

Hiccup stood with his own tension, favouring one sidr far more than the other as he got up.

"I'll leave you to it. Please feel free to ask if you need anything else."

"Thank you, truly."

"Truly, it was no trouble. Thanks for helping Tyr."

"You're welcome!"

Hiccup offered the boy a high-five, then took himself home and left a rather star-struck ten year old in his wake.

"Hiccups cool. Lets call dad."

Valka dialled the number, then handed her phone over to her son to talk to his dad. Her and Sven weren't on bad terms, but they were still adjusting to splitting and divorcing and that change after sixteen years of marriage.

"Our next door neighbour came over and helped mom with the beds. He's cool!"

Tyr mentioned to his dad, and Valka already knew what was coming when Tyr held up the phone to her.

"Dad wants to talk to you."

"Thanks Ty. Go make sure you have pyjamas for tonight, and find your messy clothes."

Tyr charged off, leaving Valka to deal with her ex

"Who's this neighbour man?"

"Relax Sven. He just offered to help put the beds together. The ones you got rid of the instructions for. He lives next door. With his girlfriend."

Well, Valka was fairly sure the very pretty blonde was his girlfriend, since they lived together. Sven gruffed, and they discussed their split custody of their son before Valka hung up with a sigh of relief. Sven was still in that halfway mode of knowing he and Valka were very much over, but he would consider it akin to adultery for her to see someone else.

Never mind that her neighbour was half her age, probably young enough to be her son anyway. Shaking her head, Valka got on with ensuring they had food and somewhere to sleep that night. Hiccup had helped there too, having passed local takeaway menus over the fence to Tyr while Valka wasn't looking.

The next few days would be inordinately hectic, getting their house to become a home so Valka could get back to work and her son back to school. They were supposed to have moved much sooner so she would have weeks over the summer holidays rather than days, but the previous owners delays in leaving meant late-July became late-August.

She laid in bed that night scarcely able to settle, knowing that was common in a new house and so she wasn't surprised when a timid knock at the door admitted her son to her room. He and Loki burrowed under the covers with a yawn, snuggling up to Valka with a sound of contentment. Her sons gentle breathing soothed her somewhat, even if Loki's tail occasionally poked her side as Valka looked at the shadows of boxes in the dark. Gods, moving was stressful.

Ty woke her at an ungodly hour, as usual. He was up with the dawn chorus, though thankfully happy to sit reading and eating toast - Valka had brought a bag of kitchen supplies, since their home came with the kitchen and appliances. As promised, and with the need to get his room ready before school so he could do homework and find his uniform, Valka dressed fo a trip to the local DIY store. One thing she could do was paint.

Hiccup was on his driveway, dressed in greasy overalls and buried in the front of a car hood even though the sun had barely cleared the horizon yet.

"Hi Hiccup!"

"Hey Tyr. Valka. Don't mind me, Eret's car gave out on him when he tried to go home last night so I'm just sorting it out."

"We're going to get paint! And maybe a rug."

Probably bored of them already, Hiccup smiled like he was as excited as Tyr.

"That's awesome. I hope you find the good stuff."

Valka chivvied her son into the car, earning a grumble that he had to sit in the back for legal safety reasons. As she slid into the front seat herself, Valka looked up and saw Hiccup was watching her again.

-HTTYD-

Short, awkward opener but y'all know I suck at openings by now surely. And endings. So if you think this sucks you had better stick it out for when I get into my stride. And now I'll stop babbling on.