An Understanding

In her approximately a century of life Tinker Bell had found herself on the end of a predator's hungry gaze several times. Hawks, feral rats, the occasional house cat. But none of those moments quite compared to this.

Tink stood back a good ten feet, body tense and rigid as an angry scot reached her hands out, clawing at the air like she wanted to tear into her. She watched as Hiccup struggled to hold his girlfriend back, keeping his arms secured around her waist as she kicked, squirmed, and spat curses at Tink in a thick scottish accent. Her blue eyes were blazing like wisp fire, her face was red and flushed, her lips twisted into a snarl, and her hair was tossing about wildly like her anger were igniting the air around her.

Tink swallowed nervously, wanting to explain but unsure if Merida would listen. She took a step forward and opened her mouth to attempt to speak to her.

"I'M GONNA TEAR YOUR BLOODY WINGS OFF!" Merida cried at her. Tink flinched before stepping back. The angry scot had walked in on Tink and Hiccup in an admittedly compromising situation. But there was an explanation.

"I'M GONNA BEAT YOU WITH A BUG ZAPPER!"

If they could get her to listen.

Hiccup struggled to stop his wildfire of a girlfriend from murdering his friend and employee. He was wide eyed as she struggled and fought in his grip with all she had. He knew he had to explain before she seriously hurt Tinker Bell.

"Merida stop!" Hiccup shouted. Merida ignored him as she continued to throw curses, accent thickening in her rage by the moment. Hiccup frowned at her state. With a grunt he pulled her back and away from Tink before placing his hands on her shoulders and forcing her to look into his eyes. "Merida enough!"

Merida stopped, face falling and body tensing at his sudden shout. But then her eyes narrowed into a seething glare.

"Look I know how that must have looked."

"Oh do you?!" Merida bit out. "You were on top of her."

Hiccup sighed but nodded in confirmation. "I know, but it wasn't what it looked like. Now will you please calm down enough to hear me out?" he asked imploringly. Merida stared at him, eyes still narrowed. But with a breath her shoulder relaxed. Hiccup slowly took his hands off her shoulder and took a small step back.

Tink came up behind him, peeking over his shoulder in fear. Merida narrowed her eyes, noting and hating how her hands were currently on his shoulder and Hiccup seemed to be doing nothing to discourage her touch.

"Ok, so here's what happened."

Flashback

"How does it do that?" Hiccup asked in wonder as he watched a glass beaker simply float in the air. It was coated in some of Tink's pixie dust as Tink was showing him it's unique gravity defying properties.

"No idea," Tink said with a shrug.

"This makes no sense. Why do you have wings if you need this dust to fly? That's just so nonsensical," Hiccup said shaking his head as he tried to wrap his head around it.

"You're thinking too much like a scientist Hiccup," Tink countered. "This is magic," she said as she gestured to the beaker. She placed a hand on herself. "I'm magic. It doesn't always make sense."

Hiccup pressed his lips together and cocked his head to the side. He shrugged as he let it go. If he thought on it too hard he'd give himself a headache, that was just magic for you. Hiccup grabbed the beaker and moved it so it could hover just above a countertop. Then he leaned back against it.

"So how come not all fairies need pixie dust?" he asked her.

Tink leaned back against a counter top. "Well some fairies are special, they have much more magic than normal and don't need it."

Hiccup hummed in interest. "Is it true some of the legends about fairies. You know, how they abduct children, women, and trick people and such?"

Tinker Bell flushed in embarrassment. "Yeah," she admitted with a nod. "Not all fairies though!" she added quickly. "But there are some of a darker nature who love messing with people. Best to avoid them," she advised. Hiccup gave a nod in understanding.

"Can fairies and humans..." Hiccup paused, flushing slightly at the bluntness of his own curiosity. "Copulate and have kids?" he asked awkwardly.

Tink couldn't help but blush as well. "Well I've never actually met a hybrid...but I've heard of them. So maybe?" she said unsure.

Hiccup rubbed his chin in thought as he stared at Tinker Bell. She couldn't help but blush and fidget under his curious gaze. His eyes traced her body and over her wings and pointed ears. Hiccup just couldn't help but be amazed and by how similar and yet different she was to a human. The magic world just continued to boggle his mind.

"So you said pixie dust can make anyone fly?"

"Yep," Tink said with a nod. Then she noticed Hiccup's lips turn upward into a smile, a mischievous gleam shone in his eyes, one that Tink knew all too well. It was probably the same gleam she got when she was about to do something to satisfy her curiosity.

Hiccup stood up and spread his arm out. "Hit me."

A few minutes later Hiccup was flying around his lab. Quite terribly at that. Tink watched and grimaced as he crashed over a a few counter, knocking the contents to the floor. Tink continued to watched as he wildly flew around the room before crashing into a wall.

"Having trouble Hiccup?" Tink asked with a small amused smile.

Hiccup pushed off the wall and tried swimming through the air. "Nope, I'm good," he said before he tried flying around again. Soon he was in the ceiling, breathing hard and body sore from crashing into wall and counters repeatedly. He looked down to see Tink trying to suppress a laugh. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" he called down.

Tink looked up and shrugged. She flapped her wings, hovering off the ground before she flew up to him. "How can you be this bad? You fly in your suit all the time."

"My suit, is a scientific marvel of engineering with a state of the art propulsion and flight system. This is magic," Hiccup said in his defense. Tink chuckled. She grabbed his hands and pulled him down and off the wall, she let him hover in the air as she kept her hands in his.

"Alright, now just lean forward to go forward, lean left to go left, and right to go right. Easy," she said with a smile. Hiccup nodded as he leaned his upper body forward. He began to drift forward, being guided forward by Tink as she led him around. They did a few lazy laps around the lab before Tink felt he could do it on his own.

She released his hands, watching and smiling as he flew around the room with whoops of laughter. She smiled at the sight of his smile, enjoying one of her most special gifts with him. It felt nice. He came to hover above her, smiling as he did a standing barrel roll.

"Ok, this is cool," he said grinning. Tink opened her mouth to speak when suddenly the sparkling gold dust around Hiccup's body disappeared and gravity took hold. He fell like a stone, crying out in surprise as he collided with Tink. Tink yelped as his body weight sent her and him to the floor.

Tink and Hiccup groaned, unfortunately Tink had hit the ground first, luckily she was tougher than she looked so there was no serious damage. But she froze as she felt a warm body flush against her and pinning her to the floor. Hiccup was parlyzed as his cheek rested on Tink's chest, the softness of her breasts tickling the side of his face through her thin T-shirt. Hiccup realized something he'd never noticed before.

Tink wasn't wearing a bra(they got in the way of her wings).

They both tried to part themselves, only to begin tangling themselves up in a mess of limbs. The both of them stuttered and mumbled apologies before Hiccup finally managed to get his hands on either side of her head and push himself off of her. He let out a breath in relief, glad to not be smothering her with his larger body.

And then the door slid open, he looked up quickly only for his eyes to widen as Merida stood in the doorway. And given the situation they were in he could guess what it looked like to her when he saw her body go rigid.

"And that's what happened. It was a complete accident. Ok?" he said to his girlfriend.

Merida absorbed the story, looking into Hiccup's eyes for any sign of deception. She found none. And she knew him to be an honest man. As Rapunzel had said Hiccup would never betray her. She took a breath before crossing her arms over her chest. She looked away, cheeks turning red as her anger fizzled out and became replaced by embarrassment. Her eyes flicked over to Tink, still standing behind Hiccup with her hands on his shoulder.

That made her scowl return. "Tinker Bell, do ye mind if I talk to Hiccup in private?" she asked. Tink nodded before taking a few steps back. Hiccup arched a brow in confusion, but did nothing to stop Merida from grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the room. She kept holding his hand as she led him up to the house and to the bedroom.

She pulled him into the room before shutting the door and turning to face him. It was time for them to talk.

"Hiccup I have to talk to ye," she began.

Hiccup cocked his head curiously. He walked to the bed and took a seat on the edge. "About what?"

"About the way you've been acting lately?"

"What way?"

Merida sighed. "You've been ignoring me, she stated like it were obvious.

"What? No I haven't," Hiccup said dismisively.

Merida closed her eyes and took a breath to stop herself from screaming at him. "Hiccup you have. You've been brushing me off and spending time with Tink."

"I've just been working on the Scauldron. I've just been occupied. It's for the team."

"I know. And I get that. But you've been spending all your time with another woman instead of me. You even ran out on sex to go off build something with her."

Hiccup furrowed his brows in confusion. "I did?"

"Yes! Remember, you went to go build that...beam thingy."

Hiccup thought back to the past few days. He remembered Tink coming to his room to propose building the tractor beam. What had he been doing before that? He though harder as he tried to recall what happened. His eyes widened in realization as he remebered that he and Merida had been getting intimate.

"Oh...yeah. I remeber that now," Hiccup said rubbing the back of his head.

"And it's not just that. You've hardly spent any time with me. The most I get out of you is a greeting. You don't even come to bed and sometimes you don't even acknowledge that I'm in the room. Do you know how that's been making me feel."

Hiccup stood up and approached her, he placed his hands on her arms, stroking them gently to comfort her. "I'm sorry Merida," Hiccup said sincerely. He sighed, closing his eyes as his actions began sinking in. "I haven't been meaning to. It's just..."

"It's ok Hiccup. I get it. You like spending time with Tink." Hiccup opened his mouth to argue but Merida rasied a hand to silence them. "And I don't mind that. I'm ok with you having a female friends. And I get that every so often you want to spend time with someone with similiar interests," she said in understanding. "I just don't want you to forget I exist just because she's there."

"You're right," Hiccup said with a nod. He leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. She kissed him back, glad to just be kissed by him once again. Hiccup pulled away, looking into her eyes apologetically. "I'm sorry Merida. I haven't been with anyone in a long time. I..." he paused to take a breath.

"Back before I met you I always avoided relationships. My lab, my suits, my base, I used them as a distraction to forget how lonely I was," he explained. "I guess I forgot that there are some things that just aren't ok, that relationships take continuous work." He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to him. "But that's not an excuse. I'm with you. And what we have, how I feel about you, that's something I'm willing to work for."

Merida smiled up at him. "Ok. I forgive you," she said with a nod. She stood on her toes and gave him a kiss. She pulled back and smiled at him. "Now I need to go apologize to Tink," she said as she made for the door. Hiccup tried to stop her but she was insistent. So he let her go.

She did have to apologize for trying to attack her. That had been wrong of her to assume what she had.

She went back down into the base and to Hiccup's lab. The door slid open, she looked to see Tink at a work bench, goggled on her face as she tinkered with something. Merida took a breath and approached. Tink soon notcied her. She set down her things and fidgeted awkwardly as Merida reached her.

The two of them both just stared at each other in silence. Merida went first.

"I'm sorry for trying to hurt you Tink. I was being an idiot," Merida said to apologize.

"It's ok Merida. That...well that probably looked bad," Tink said sheepishly.

Merida smiled kindly at her. "Well I'm glad you can forgive me. But there's also somethign else I need to speak to you about." Tink furrowed her brows. "I know you have feelings for Hiccup."

Tink's whole body went stiff and her eyes widened in surprise. Her reaction only confirmed Merida's suscpicions.

"What?" Tink said in fake confusion. "Me? Having feelings for Hiccup? That's just..." she paused, face growing red. She looked to Merida, finding her eyes holding no malice. She gave up playing dumb. Her shoulders sagged. "You're right," she said with a sigh.

Merida gave a chuckle as she patted her on the shoulder. "It's ok Tink I can't stop you from having feelings for him."

"I never tried to...it's just," her blush deepened. "Me and him are just so alike. I've never met someone with as many crazy ideas as me. He's like a human Tinker fairy." She paused to fiddle with her hands and blush some more. "I've never felt this way before."

"It's ok Tink. I just need you to understand that Hiccup and I are together. And until he, I, or both of us decided to no longer be together, he's mine," Merida said with more force than she intended.

"I understand Merida," Tink said with a nod.

Merida smiled at her warmly. "Ok. So now that I'm no longer being crazy," she pasued to extened a hand out. "Friends?"

Tink eyed her hand before smiling. She extended a hand and clasped hers. "Friends," she said with a nod.

Merida held her smile, glad to have come to an understanding. "Ok. So how about we, uh...get some dinner or something. I'll buy?" Merida offered.

Tink chuckled. "Alright. Sure."

With the Scauldron complete Tink left the next day. She flew back to Never City. Though she wouldn't have minded staying a few more days she felt she'd stolen enough of Hiccup's time from Merida. As she flew back home she thought of Hiccup and Merida. She thought they were nice together. And she definitely didn't want to get in the way of that. So she wouldn't.

But...

Her feelings weren't just going to dissapear. And she was a fairy. She'd basically live forever. Maybe one day Merida and Hiccup would break up. And if that day came and she still felt the same...

Well who knows what could happen?

"So you really don't think Tinker Bell is pretty?" Merida teased as she and Hiccup cuddled in bed. Merida smiled to herself as he nuzzled her neck and wrapped his arms around her waist. It felt like it'd been forever since they'd touched each other so affectionately.

Hiccup hummed in thought. "I guess," he said shrugging an arm.

"You 'guess'?"

"I never really thought about it. She was just someone I liked talking science with," Hiccup said. If he really thought about it...yeah, he supposed she was pretty objectively speaking. But it was in the same way he thought Rapunzel and Mavis were pretty.

"And she's got blonde hair and blue eyes," Merida pointed out.

"I've grown rather fond of red actually," Hiccup stated matter of factly.

Merida rolled her eyes. "She was also a fairy."

Hiccup swallowed. Admittedly his inner nerd had in the past invoked fantasies of him being with a girl of mystical origins. But he'd grown up. He realized that while fantasies were fun nothing was better than reality.

And the reality was that he was with a pretty amazing woman.

Merida turned around to suddenly stare sternly at him. "Oh, and by the way," she said seriously. She suddnely jabbed a finger into his chest, making him wince and jump in pain. "If you ever choose building something over sex with me again, you won't be having it unless you can figure out how build a time machine!"

Hiccup nodded vigiorously in understanding. Merida's stern stare dissipated into a loving one. She leaned in to kiss him, tangling her fingers in his hair as she began setting the mood. Hiccup kissed her back, hands trailing over her form.

Meanwhile, in his head...Note to self...build time machine.

END

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