That Look (Hiccup x Reader)

96: Searching for Oswald...and Chicken

Snotlout, Astrid and I were walking together; not by choice, we were alerted to a bunch of crashing and banging coming from the twins' hut. Not that that is unusual, but the growing things out the door was.

"Are you spring cleaning?" Astrid asked them.

"Finally getting the mold out of your hut?" Snotlout commented but I didn't think the twins cared about mold.

"Oh, if we were spring cleaning, you'd know." Ruff told us and accidentally pushed a statue into the ocean. "We'd be getting rid of this stuff and our hut."

"I won't leave a single stone unturned, not a corner unscoured, not a rotisserie unrotated until my little egg-laying ingenue is found!" Tuff said determinedly while moving and lifting various items at top speed.

"Chicken's missing again." Ruff explained.

"Ooh. Mystery. Intrigue." Snotlout said dramatically while Tuff collapsed crying. "I love it."

"Maybe she just needed some alone time, Tuff." I told the twin and helped him up.

"Chicken hates alone time, unless it's with me." He sniffled. "Besides, she's been acting strange lately. She keeps disappearing, she's tired all the time, and she didn't show up to book club this week." He shoved a book in my face as if I wasn't at book club and read said book. "She never misses book club, especially when we're reading chick lit. Get it? Chick. Lit."

"Yeah, I know." I nodded and pushed the book away.

"Maybe Chicken just flew the coop?" Astrid suggested and Tuff continued crying.

"Oh, no! Really, Astrid? Terrible chicken puns at a time like this?" He sobbed. "You are better than that."

"But had Chicken really flown the coop, or was there something more sinister going on?" Snotlout began narrating in a deep voice. "Only time would tell. Or would it? Ooh." And then Dager flew in and landed Sleuther. "Dagster!"

"You know I hate nicknames, Snothat." Dagur said and shoved him against a wall.

"Nicknames are for buds. I thought we were buds." He whimpered. Dagur sighed and let him go.

"So, uh, Hiccup around?" Dagur asked and looked at me.

"What? So, because I'm his fiancé I must know his exact location, at all times, of every day?" I scoffed.

"..."

"He's in his hut." I sighed.

* * *

"If she keeps following this diary, she's gonna get killed." Dagur told me and Hiccup as he slammed a diary on Hiccup's desk. "She's become reckless. And I don't mean that in a cool, swashbuckle-y kind of way. I don't know if you've noticed, but people in my family can get a little fixated on things, like ruling an archipelago, controlling a Skrill, killing you."

"I hadn't noticed." I said monotonously.

"And you're afraid Heather's got the same obsessive nature." Hiccup picked up the diary and slid the focus away from my comment.

"We're Berserkers. It's in our blood!" Dagur yelled and ranted around the room. "Please, Hiccup, look through my dad's diary and see if there's anything in there. A clue, a sign, a harbinger of doom. Something!"

"Well, Oswald certainly didn't want anyone to know what he was working on." Hiccup replied and flipped through the pages.

"Exactly! So when you tell Heather there's nothing in it worth following, she'll listen to you!" He exclaimed. "She won't listen to me because she's a stubborn, headstrong, stress-inducing-"