A/N: To make the ages a bit closer together, Hiccup will look like the HTTYD2 teaser trailer.
Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD, RotG, Brave, or Tangled.
Failures
"I told you I wasn't cut out to be a Guardian!" The normally bustling North Pole was quiet now, only the sounds of the blizzard outside cutting through the silence. Four of the greatest legends in childhood tales stood off to the side, each nursing their own wounds. Feathers littered the area around the Tooth Fairy and in a rare instance; she was standing rather than hovering in the air. Bloody cuts and bruises covered the man known as Santa and the six-foot Easter Bunny beside him. Between them stood the Sandman who looked worse for wear despite the lack of obvious wounds.
"Jack, wai—"
"I nearly got you killed, Rapunzel!" A white haired male spun to face her, anger flushing his pale cheeks purple. His hand gripped his staff tightly and frost strangled the wood. The young woman known as Rapunzel took a pace back, dropping her outstretched hand to her side. Her once long blonde hair—brought back by the Man in the Moon—was a soft chocolate brown now. However it was cut at the neck in a diagonal angle, making one side far longer than the other. In a way, it looked as if someone had been trying to cut her head off and missed. Beside her another female put a hand on her shoulder, wild red curls bouncing as she snapped her head in Jack's direction to give him a vicious glare. It looked worse with the blood trickling down one side of her face.
"Doen't yell at her, Frost." He faltered under her sharp tone, blue eyes quickly glancing away from her own.
"Sorry, Punz…" He murmured, taking another step back towards the window he had been heading for to begin with. "I think though… that maybe you all would be better off without me. I'm just a failure of a Guardian…" The last bit was whispered under his breath and he shut his eyes tightly at the memory. All of them had been injured in the battle and he had let his arrogance get the better of him, nearly costing one of his new friends her life. He had started to allow the wind to sweep him upwards only to be yanked back by a tight grip on his sleeve.
"How could you say that?" A voice snapped at him. Jack, surprised at the anger, stared down at the brunette who glared up at him. The last of the occupants in the room was another male, probably close to his own physical age. His green eyes were narrowed sharply up at him and the winter spirit could hear his prosthetic leg creak at the sudden movement the male had made. Beside him was a giant, black reptile-like creature, its green eyes staring up at his rider with faint confusion.
"I—"
"Aren't you the one that helped get us all together? To actually work together? We all made mistakes in this last battle, not just you, Jack!" The winter spirit blinked down at the dragon rider, eyes widening ever so slightly.
"Yeah… but I mean—"
"Then how could you call yourself a failure when all of us failed?" The brunette glanced off to the side, fingers tightening on Jack's blue hoodie. "Of all of us, I should know how it is to be a failure…" Jack stiffened at the words.
When the four teens had first been gathered, Jack had convinced them to share their stories. Rapunzel, beautiful and bold, had escaped her "mother" in a search for adventure and along the way had met the love of her life and discovered her true role in the kingdom as the lost princess. Merida, reckless and brave, had tried to change her fate and only ended up rediscovering the bond she had lost between her and her mother, keeping hold of the freedom she cherished. And the brunette—Hiccup—had been a village screw-up since the day he was born, a fishbone in a world of buff Vikings, unable to kill the dragons that plagued his home for the respect and attention he craved. Yet he had been the first to train and fly one, eventually saving his village from a dragon unlike any other, losing his leg in the process. Of the three, he knew what it was like to be invisible as Jack had been yet while people had never walked through Hiccup perhaps that would have hurt less.
"Jack," The Guardian of Fun flickered back to attention, frowning at the serious expression Hiccup's features had acquired. "You're only a failure if you let what everyone says get to you." He released Jack from his hold and gestured to himself. "Look at me. I was told I was nothing as long as I can remember but I never stopped trying despite what they said. I might have changed, but I didn't accept being a failure just because I wasn't good at what everyone else was." He glanced back at the two female companions behind them, giving them both a faint smile before shifting his gaze onto the white-haired lad once more. "We were all 'failures' at something, Jack, but that doesn't mean that's all we are."
The winter spirit's frown deepened at the words and he flicked his eyes over to Rapunzel and Merida. The now brown-haired girl gave him an encouraging smile, clasping her hands in front of her and giving a nod. Beside her, the Scot had her arms crossed tightly across her chest but when her blue gaze met his, she gave him a sharp nod and faint smile—a rare thing considering the two could be called rivals. Slowly, Jack lowered himself until his bare feet touched the wood floors, fingers loosening on his staff. Suddenly he lunged forward, startling Hiccup as he wrapped his arms around the male's neck to hide his face against his chest.
Hiccup went stiff at the close proximity; Jack's cold beginning to seep through his clothes. Though he was used to the cold, being from Berk and all, he was still a Viking and they didn't have… touchy feely sorts of things. Hel, even Astrid's affection came often with some sort of abuse. He slowly forced himself to relax, awkwardly bringing his hands up to pat at the winter spirit's back as a light pink sprinkled his face. There was a brief moment of silence before it was shattered by a sound crossed between a sob and a squeal. Hiccup gave a soft grunt as Rapunzel joined them, glomping them on the side to wrap her arms around their waists and snuggle her head against the two of theirs. There was a sigh behind them and Merida came to the other side though unlike her female friend, she draped her arms around the boys' shoulders. Her wild curls brushed close to their cheeks as she leaned her head in with everyone else's.
"Aye hope ye know this be the strangest 'after-battle' ac'vity I've e'er seen," Merida huffed at them. Rapunzel giggled and tightened her hold around them, earning another faint grunt from the dragon rider.
"Well, we're not really a normal sort of bunch though either!" She chirped at her. Beside her, subtly, Jack snuggled closer to the three, ignoring the uncomfortable heat they were producing around him. The Guardians had transformed into his family after everything with Pitch had gone down but what he felt with his new companions was something different. It felt like… belonging.
Behind them, the older Guardians glanced at each other before giving the younger warriors wavering smiles. Sandy looked up at North and a stream of sand floated above his head, twisting into a checkmark with a question mark beside it. The large man gave a nod, leaning on one of his swords. He twisted his head to look up at them at a chorus of sharp cries. Hiccup's dragon had attempting to get closer to his rider and friends and had shoved his head roughly into the back of the brunette's legs. Sending him off balance, Hiccup toppled backwards with a yelp followed by the other three who each gave cries of their own. The four had crashed onto the dragon and onto each other. Hiccup was squished by Merida on one half and Jack on the other while Rapunzel added weight onto him by being squashed ontop of Jack. They all groaned with pain, reminded of their wounds.
"Ugh… Toothless…" Hiccup moaned, letting his head fall back to stare up at the dragon who offered a gummy smile, his long black tail swerving to wrap about the teens.
"Yes. They will be ok." North allowed a smile to make its way across his face before reaching down to pat at his stomach. "I feel it in my belly."
A/N: Yay, fluff~! A rare thing for me! -cough- But anyway. I always wanted to do a Big Four fanfiction since discovering it but never could think of a story. This one-shot, I could do though. For me, Hiccup and Jack would fit the best together. As friends or whatever. They both understand how it feels to be failures and not seen by those around them, but also have the strength to overcome it. I hope I didn't make Hiccup OOC but I love him and I wanted to show the strength he has. Also. I fail at accents. So. I tried.
Until we meet again~
- Zehava