So I splashed a little color onto this piece and decided to elaborate on how Hitchups crossed over with Inuyasha given enough people had asked :)
Centuries had passed since Hiccup had caught the attention of the gods, in which time he had travelled, and settled, and travelled, adapting as best as a reluctant human could. He still struggled with his odd shade of immortality---the punishment of “suffering Midgard”. It was always hardest after a period of settling ended.
Most recently he had finished a long stint in China, having travelled there to study the aspects of chakra and better control the energy he had been, rather carelessly, throwing into Framherja** (note: Toothless loved China where the humans showed “proper respect” to dragons). Japan was but a stone’s throw away in terms of flying and Hiccup couldn’t leave the land unexplored. Sure, the country was riddled with feudal wars, but there were also demons. Where Hiccup’s childhood had been terrorized with dragons, the children of the East dealt with demons. And while Hiccup first experienced demons in China, Japan was far worse. Most demons, Hiccup quickly realized, were unreasonable. Cruel forces of nature that offered plenty of guiltless target practice with his new-found control over Framherja. He hadn’t been in Japan long enough to encounter more intelligent demons--daiyōkai and the like--but he was slowly becoming aware of certain hierarchies that existed among the creatures.
It was on a sunny afternoon as Hiccup enjoyed a quiet lunch he had bartered (again with the raised voices and hand-gestures in leiu of a shared language) that he learned humans and demons could interbreed.
It began with Toothless on alert, sniffing and sniffing toward a niche at the base of a stony hill. Hiccup warned him not to corner whatever poor animal he had trapped in there and, sure enough, with one sniff-too-close Toothless had reared back with four deep gashes between his nostrils.
It was a demon, Toothless informed him. Before Hiccup could reach for his bow Toothless added: and a human. At first Hiccup thought that a demon had a human trapped in there, but Toothless, though still spitting from his stinging snout, elaborated that it was a single creature. Both human and demon.
Hiccup abandoned his meal to get a better look, careful to stay by Toothless. The alcove was shallow enough that Hiccup could just make out a small form. He tried calling out to it but only received growls in return. It was fearful. It perceived him as the threat.
Hiccup backed away, knocking Toothless on the side in a silent demand to give it space. He knelt back by his food, ripped off a chunk of bread, and tossed it at the cave. It fell just shy of the opening and sat, untouched, on yellowed grass. For a while, nothing happened.
Then a hand--tiny, young, and clawed--darted out and snatched the food. Hiccup was dimly aware that the creature was afraid and hungry, but more so focused on how human that hand had looked. It was a fearful, hungry child.
He tried speaking to it again, more gently. He tried coaxing it out into the sun with words he was sure it couldn’t understand but, hopefully, with a voice that promised safety. It was for naught.
As soon as Toothless laid down at his hip the creature darted out of the cave--so quickly Hiccup almost missed it. A flash of red and trailing white.
Hiccup stayed near the area for the following week, hoping to see the creature one more time. He would leave food at the mouth of that tiny alcove---whether it was occupied or not---and it would always disappear within hours. Always when Hiccup wasn’t looking. Toothless could tell when the child-creature was near; he could assure Hiccup it wasn’t wild animals eating the food but his new, pet part-demon. One time Hiccup saw the creature in a tree, impossibly high. The thing had been watching him splash around in a shoaly river, juggling fishing and kicking at an annoying, show-off dragon. He saw his face amidst the leaves, round and sweet, with naked envy and worried by wariness. Hiccup caught an extra fish, knowing he’d have an invisible dinner guest.
It was the seventh day when Hiccup sat directly next to the tiny alcove that the creature frequented and held out the last of his bread. He kept it in his hand, body turned, and waited.
He was rewarded for his patience by the shuffling appearance of blinding white hair... and a shocking pair of twitching dog ears. Hiccup did his best not to stare, his honest best. It was a very human looking child. Mostly human, in fact, save for some minor features. No more than a shy 8 year old boy that had been growling at him a week before. That had made Toothless bleed with those tiny, claw-tipped hands. Hiccup offered an easy grin, gave a soft word of encouragement, and watched as the not-quite-human gingerly took the offering with his own bashful, close-lipped smile. The boy didn’t fully retreat into the cave either; he ate the bread somewhat at Hiccup’s side, eyes pinned on the odd, human male.
Toothless returned from a romp in the forest and the boy was gone. Hiccup left the next day.
Hiccup’s interaction with Inuyasha was brief. Limited. Their hands only touched once. Hiccup would never know that Inuyasha had, in fact, been starving when he came upon him that time, nursing an injury from a bad encounter of the previous day. He would never know that he was the first human in months that spoke so gently to Inuyasha; not since the hanyou’s own mother. He would never know that he had given Inuyasha much needed reminder that there were other humans out there. That the world wasn’t full of just cruel demons and cruel humans.
Maybe if Hiccup had stuck around longer, Inuyasha would have shared more meals with him. Inuyasha might have even followed Hiccup out of Japan against his inborn fear of dragons.
But Hiccup was already running late for a date with three mermaids.
**It’s not long after that Hiccup will master Framherja and get quite the shock of what mastering a celestial weapon entails.
