Ok! Here we have the fic I'm writing for the winner of my Fandom Trumps Hate 2020 auction. (if you don't know what that is, you can find their blog on tumblr where they talk about it).

The winner requested... Valcup! (I know, I was pleasantly shocked and then thrilled myself).

Canon-verse, but also AU.

-HTTYD-

Staring dejectedly at the sketches on his desk, Hiccup rolled his charcoal stick back and forth a few times, wishing he had a better idea than just hiding Toothless in the cove and pretending he could kill a dragon.

He jumped when he heard movement, followed by his own name.

"Hiccup."

When had his father come back? Nobody had told him!

"Dad!" He scrambled to start hiding the sketches of Toothless' tail rig, which were a little damn obvious to his mind "you're back! Uh, uh, Gobber's not here!"

"I know. I came looking for you."

Oh gods, he was definitely in trouble. What had he heard? Did someone see him visiting Toothless? Was this where his father finally lost it with him and exiled Hiccup for being such a monumental failure of a Viking?

"You... you did?"

"Aye. You've been keeping secrets from me."

"I-I have?"

"Aye. Now" squeezing his bulk in to the small space, his dad pulled up a stool and sat down "let's talk about that dragon."

Hiccup felt his legs go numb, cold dread washing through him as he babbled out an answer.

"I... I was going to tell you! I just didn't know how! Without upsetting you!"

"Upset me? I was hoping for this!"

Hiccup blinked.

"Y-you were?"

"And believe me, it only gets better!" Hiccup was very confused by now "Just wait til you spill a Nadders guts for the first time!"

Feeling mildly sick, Hiccup scratched the back of his head nervously. His father had much too dreamy and romantic a look in his eye for talking about disembowelling a dragon.

"Uh... what?"

"You really had me going son! All these years of the worst viking Berk has ever seen! Odin, it was rough, I almost gave up on you!"

Hiccup frowned.

"You did?"

"Aye. And all this time you were holding out on me!"

"I was?"

Hiccup was starting to realise his father had gotten some mixed information, and had heard about his 'success' in the arena, using tricks he'd picked up from befriending Toothless to subdue dragons without hurting them.

"With you doing so well in the ring" yep, that was it "we'll finally have something to talk about."

And with that, his father perched on a stool that creaked under his weight, leaning in and showing Hiccup more attention and interest than he could ever remember - at least, when it wasn't also included with screaming at him for messing up somehow.

And it hurt. It made him equal parts sad and angry, because it was painfully, brutally clear right then that Hiccup was never going to be who his father wanted, and that unless he was suddenly able to kill a dragon, there was no point even trying any longer.

Part of him longed to scream at his dad, to tell him about Toothless, to tell him how he was nothing like the son a chief needed, and that he never, ever wanted to take over the island or kill dragons or even run village meetings. To show him the tailfin plans, tell him how he melted down valuable metal for weapons and shields to make something that helped a crippled dragon fly again, after failing to take the chance to end the 'devils' life when it was tied up, defenceless, and seemed prepared to face his death.

His hands still shook when he remembered the way Toothless seemed to accept it, closed his eyes and just... slumped. Even if the dragon had killed him, Hiccup wouldn't have regretted freeing Toothless.

Although, since he'd also torn Toothless' tail up, he'd have been leaving him to die eventually anyway, grounded and alone. Bonding with the dragon had saved them both, in a way, even if Hiccup was now realising he had to make a choice to save Toothless.

After the silence stretched out to an awkward level, Stoick cleared his throat, reaching in to a massive pocket of his massive cloak.

"I... I brought you something. To keep you safe. In the ring."

Bemused, Hiccup took the helmet. It was too big, and had big horns either side he really hoped hadn't been taken from a dragon.

"Uh. Thanks?"

"Ah, your mother would have wanted you to have it" Hiccup winced; his mother was a touchy subject, even now "it's half of her breastplate."

He almost dropped it.

"Oh."

"Matching set" Stoick tapped his own helmet "keeps her... keeps her close, yanno?"

Hiccup wasn't sure he wanted to place armour on his head that was reshaped from his mothers breastplate to keep her close, but he wasn't about to argue with his dad just then, mind starting to turn elsewhere.

"Well. Thanks."

Out of ideas and itching to escape, Hiccup feigned an overly large yawn.

"Well, I should get to bed!"

"Oh. Right, yes. Good talk! Enjoy the... the hat."

And that was it before his father squeezed out of the room, leaving Hiccup to slump in his seat again and sigh. He put the helmet aside, not sure he deserved the memento of his mother for faking his way through dragon training. After a minute or two of mournful sighing, Hiccup gathered up all his papers and books and shoved them in to a bag, then grabbed a big woven basket and started picking through the workshop.

If he was leaving, he'd need supplies. Spare parts for Toothless' tail rig, mostly, but he grabbed practical things like a tent, flint stones, a couple of daggers and something to sharpen them on. He'd dreamt of running away many times before Toothless, but never knew where he'd go, where he could fit in. Now that didn't matter; if he stayed, he'd be rumbled as a fake, and Toothless would be killed. Still, it meant he'd made mental lists of everything he would need to take over and over again.

It was coming in awful handy.

His tools were already packed up, otherwise Gobber always lost them in the mess of metal bits laying around the place. It was amazing he'd only lost body parts to dragons, because the man was a bit of a hazard when it came to safety sometimes. He hesitated a few times before packing the helmet his dad gave him, tucking the small bag of drawings inside that. After checking it was sufficiently pitch black outside, Hiccup clambered up the hill to Raven Point, shoved the bag securely behind a rock and hastened down to the village again, legs burning but he had a newfound energy in him.

Hiccup knew how to bake bread and catch and cook fish, and Toothless was probably sufficient enough at hunting that he didn't need to raid the villages already thin food supplies, but he did pack up some jerky and fruit and bread amongst his spare clothes and pile of books. Just in case. He wasn't coming back, so Hiccup knew he needed to be prepared. The smaller cooking knives were his anyway - his dad would crush the thin handles between his massive hands if he tried to use them. A handful of healing supplies and some spare charcoal was all he could fit in the top of the pack before he had to close it up.

He hoped Toothless didn't mind the additional weight.

Strapping his riding harness on, Hiccup shouldered the bag and grabbed his little firewood axe, then crept along to the top of his bedroom stairs, where thankfully there was no sign of his father. He padded down the stairs, lifted his water canteen and slipped out of the house.

Carting the bags along was a bit of a drag, especially up the hill, but Hiccup soon caught sight of the cove with relief, heard Toothless snuffling about below as he heard Hiccup arrive.

"Quiet boy, I'm coming down."

The dragon sniffed hopefully at the bags, pouting when Hiccup shooed him away.

"Not for eating. We're leaving. Let me check your rig."

As he tested the stirrups and ropes, Hiccup wondered if he should have left a note, if it was a little selfish of him to leave them all behind with no reason or explanation. Toothless purred when Hiccup scratched his scales, managing to get one bag on his back before he climbed up on the saddle, wedging the other in front of him once he'd hooked himself on and got his feet in the stirrups.

"Right. First things first is just get out of here. We'll figure the rest out later... unless you have somewhere to go in mind?"

Toothless nodded his head, wriggling in warning he was about to take off.

"Be careful, I can't drop this bag or I won't be able to work on your tail."

Thankfully, his dragon opted to avoid the spinning and diving, levelling out once they were high enough. The Night Fury was the best dragon for escaping on - small, agile and invisible againt the night sky. Toothless seemed to know where he was going without issue or guidance, and though Hiccup's legs ached and his hands were numb by the time they landed, he was incredibly relieved to see the dark shadows of a cave entrance, just visible in the moonlight.

"Is it empty? Or at least safe?"

Toothless sniffed at the ground, making an agreeing noise before walking them in. It was pretty chilly, and Hiccup had nothing to use for firewood, but as soon as the bags were laid down, Toothless warmed the stone ground beneath him and used his wing to wrap Hiccup against his belly. The warm scales were enough for him, and with the weight of Berk lifted, Hiccup fell asleep surprisingly easily.

He woke to Toothless warbling, cracking a tired eye open and peering out from his spot against the dragons underbelly to see they had company. Scaly, dragon-shaped company.

"Oh. Ok. Hi. Do they want to eat me?"

His hands were a bit chilly when he left the warmth of Toothless, but when he reached out carefully to the Gronckle that was looking at them, he sighed in relief when the dragon nudged against his hand.

"Hi there."

As soon as that dragon visibly relaxed and entered the 'room' of the cave he was in, more dragons appeared behind it, several species he recognised and a couple he didn't. None of them showed him any ill will, a couple looking a bit suspicious at first but calming when Toothless seemed to vouch for him.

"Wow. Ok. Much as I'd love to stay here and get to know everything about you guys... if we don't go get some firewood, I'm gonna freeze to death."

Rather than turn to let Hiccup saddle up, Toothless rumbled at the other dragons, who shared looks before all turning and leaving. Hiccup blinked.

"Did you just ask them to get wood for me?"

Toothless nodded.

"And they said yes?"

Another nod.

"Huh."

Hiccup headed along to find the entrance/exit of their cave, and found they were effectively stranded in the ocean. There were little outcrops on the huge lump of rock the cave was embedded in, with a handful of trees on each one. Two of those trees were brought down to the cave by dragons, and Hiccup couldn't help laughing as he watched them try to get them in through a hole smaller than the length of the tree itself.

After much giggling, some clumsy axe work and Toothless' helpful paw snapping up some wood before setting it aflame, Hiccup was warming his hands over a lovely fire. With that immediate concern abated, he had a little more room to think.

Right away, he'd been shown that dragons weren't what Berk thought, that Toothless and those little Terrible Terrors hadn't been an exception. The dragons had let him sleep peacefully in their cave, and helped his frail human self to keep warm. A Deadly Nadder came in and dropped a beakful of fish down next to them, flapping their wings in Hiccup's direction (and almost putting out his fire in their exuberance).

"Oh. Are these for me?"

Each of the dragons seemed rather familiar with Toothless, who was definitely the only Night Fury he'd seen there so far. Perhaps this was where Toothless had... lived? Before ending up in the raids on Berk, before he was shot down by Hiccup.

"Well... I guess this is a good place to start over. If you guys don't mind me staying for a while?"

They'd move on in time, he was sure - they were less than a nights flight from Berk, and he wanted to get further away. But for now, with nothing but two bags and his dragon? He could do a whole lot worse.

-HTTYD-

This was just meant to be an intro, because we'll be jumping ahead a few years next chapter. Got kinda long.