Chapter Text
"Careful! You just got the splint off, you don't want to have to wear it again, do you?"
"Oh go mother a dragon like that or something," Dagur grumbled and rubbed over the sturdy bandage still on his arm. It had been nearly a month since he was first brought to Berk--or at least that's how long he thought it had been. For him the time passed weirdly while he was drinking and taking whatever Gothi gave him, either from her own knowledge or from instructions his sister, Nott, had left before she departed. He'd doze off and find out it was two days later when he'd finally wake up, or he'd go to sleep at night and be up in an hour while it was still dark outside. The poisons in his system had finally been flushed out, though, and his arm had healed enough to replace the splint with a wrapped bandage hardened with plaster. It was easier to move, lighter, but it itched worse and it felt like Dagur was so close to finally being healed fully that if he just got it off he'd be fine.
It wasn't true, he knew it wasn't true, but he still had the urge to rip it off anyway. He just had to try to smother it because it felt like any time he even thought about moving his arm or getting the plaster off Hiccup would be there and whining at him.
"Dragons can take care of themselves," Hiccup said and he just reached over to yank Dagur's hand off of his cast. "You can't."
"I'm fine!" Dagur snapped at him. At some point during his illness he'd lost the ability to make Hiccup flinch just by getting loud enough. Now the viking just gave him a dull I'm-waiting-for-you-to-settle-down look every time he tried.
"Of course you're fine. That's why we're out here, you're going to learn to do something other than stab things so you can earn your keep," Hiccup gestured around the empty land. "You live on farmland. You're going to at least learn how to weed."
"I didn't pick to live here," Dagur growled. It was true, he had just been put there, and as he healed it became apparent that the former berserker was staying and nobody had really thought of a better place to put him. Mildew's old hut was out of the way, far from the village, and while it was a hike--or a short flight--it wasn't so far that Dagur couldn't be checked up on now and then.
"Yeah, I know, but you live here now," Hiccup said. "Come on, this is land that hasn't really been farmed since Mildew left. It's too far away for someone to want to trek up here every day, but nobody can stay here since you're already here. Besides, if you start providing food for the village my dad might warm up to you. Maybe."
"No he won't," Dagur glared at Hiccup. After a moment Hiccup sighed.
"Alright, fine, he won't. But he won't be able to say you need to get out of Berk if you're doing something helpful," Hiccup offered, and when Dagur didn't immediately huff and growl he took it as a good sign. "So what do you want to grow? Cabbage does fairly well out here."
"Elgh," Dagur made a face. "I hate cabbage."
"How about onions?" Hiccup tried again, and he got another glare. "Well what do you like for food?"
"Meat."
Hiccup grumbled and buried his face in his hand, "You're just being difficult on purpose. I'm not letting you take care of something alive, mostly because I'm pretty sure you can't take care of something alive."
"Fine, then I'll butcher it. I don't have to take care of something to know how to cut it up," Dagur said.
"Did you miss the part about learning to do something other than stab things? Or are you just ignoring it?" Hiccup snapped at him.
"Ignoring it," Dagur shrugged. This wasn't a new argument. Hiccup had said that Dagur could hunt on the island, but only boar, and that had made Dagur determined to do nothing but that. The only problem with that plan was that nobody was going to let an injured person join their hunting party and Hiccup wasn't going to let Dagur go out alone. So for the past couple of days Hiccup had been trying to convince Dagur to tend to the land he lived on, either with a gentle nudge or suggestions or making plans and just waiting for Dagur to show some sign of interest. Since that hadn't happened Hiccup was being more direct this time, and he grabbed Dagur's uninjured wrist to try to haul him to the field.
"You're at least helping me get the weeds out," Hiccup said and he strained to keep pulling Dagur after him. After the first couple of steps Hiccup didn't have surprise on his side, Dagur had dug his boots into the ground and with most of his strength back he wasn't about to go anywhere he didn't want to go.
"I don't want to."
"Too bad! You owe me and this is what I want you to do!" Hiccup yelled back at him. The smaller boy paused after he said it, not quite wincing at the words but close to it. He hadn't brought up that he'd essentially bought Dagur from his sisters since, well, since it had happened. It didn't seem like the best way to keep Dagur relatively content to remind him he was either a pet or a slave depending on what Hiccup felt like treating him as. And Hiccup had the feeling that even if he did bring it up as often as he could it wouldn't have an impact on the other boy for long, so it was best to just not rely on it too much.
"Fine," Dagur growled and yanked his hand back from Hiccup. They went to the field with less arguing and pulling after that although Dagur was obviously sulking. Toothless had been roaming around in the field and looked up when they came. Even if it affected him badly he was still trying to find the Dragon Root when he could. The lack of aggression when the Night Fury trotted over to his rider and headbutted Hiccup's belly for attention meant that it hadn't grown back yet, though.
"Dragons can help with things like this sometimes, but Dragon Root's grown up here before," Hiccup explained as he looked over to Dagur. "We can't risk them finding it if it grows back and hurting someone or themselves."
Dagur just shrugged as he looked around the field. It was mostly intact even with the disuse, the rows weren't prominent but they were still there, and the boulders had been hauled out of the ground some time ago so it was mostly flat and even. It wasn't great, but it was a lot better than it could have been. After too long of Dagur just staring at the dirt and weeds around them Hiccup let out a loud, frustrated sound. "Look, I get it, you don't--"
"Which ones are weeds?"
Hiccup paused and looked at Dagur. He actually seemed... confused. He looked angry too, but Dagur always looked angry or insane.
"You really haven't done something like this before?" Hiccup asked. Dagur shook his head. "You never even watched someone else?"
"Nothing grew in Berserk. There wasn't anything to farm, or anywhere to farm it," Dagur said and he kicked at a greenish-yellowish clump of grass in the plot.
"Oh. Well, just watch me and do what I do," Hiccup said and he knelt down to start yanking up the plants. "Try to get all of it, even the root. Sometimes if you don't pull the root out it just grows back."
Dagur watched him for a little while, and right when Hiccup was ready to turn around and tell him to stop stalling the former berserker knelt down and starting pulling up whatever plant was closest to him. Hiccup smiled a little and looked back to his own work, digging some in the dirt to yank up a large, gnarled root. Toothless had sat down near them and as the boys tended to the field the dragon got up and started digging in the dirt with them. He didn't quite understand that Hiccup and Dagur were pulling out the plants they didn't want there but Hiccup still laughed.
"Looks like Toothless wants to help," Hiccup looked over to Dagur with a grin. Since Hiccup had relaxed around the bigger and more psychotic boy Toothless had too. The Night Fury might not trust Dagur for a long, long while, but without Hiccup acting like Dagur was a threat Toothless was more willing to just ignore him when he was around.
"What's this?" Dagur yanked up something that didn't really look like anything he or Hiccup had been pulling up before. Hiccup scooted closer and leaned in to look at it.
"Oh, it's a beet."
Dagur was quiet for a moment as he looked down to the round root, then moved to put it back where he had pulled it up from. He piled and patted the dirt back in place, and when he noticed Hiccup watched him he bristled, "I like beets."
"So you want to grow beets, then?"
"No."
"That sounded like a yes to me."
"That was the exact opposite of a yes."
Hiccup went back to his own digging with a grin, careful to put back any other beets he found along the way although there didn't seem to be many of them. After a moment Dagur let out a small chuckle and resumed his work too.