a/n: The Tenth Doctor and Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third talk over a campfire, on the one important thing they have in common. A short drabble. I've always wanted to write a crossover for these two, I think the interaction would be absolutely fascinating.

Originally written October 6, 2013, and posted to Tumblr. I thought I'd post a couple of my one-shots to FF, as I slowly get back the muse for the webnovel. :)

The Doctor and Hiccup: I Was Lucky

"But don't you have someone, a friend or something?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do. Sometimes, not always. I had a dog once. K-9. He was remarkable, a brilliant thing." He paused, squinted, looked over at Toothless, his black shape a silhouette against the last light of the setting sun. "He's gone now."

The boy's voice remained quiet, as if still waiting for the answer, as if he hadn't answered it already. Only the sound of the fire before them, crackling in the growing darkness.

"But that was a long time ago," the Doctor said quickly. "They… they come and go like that. And it's fine!" He swallowed, kept his eyes away from the boy.

Hiccup cleared his throat, continued to poke at the fire in front of them, the steaming fish on the end of his stick. The Doctor raised his eyes, inhaled. "And you? How long…"

The boy looked at him suddenly, and those bright green eyes struck him, something in them. The boy didn't speak very much, did he? Hiccup looked down, shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sorry, Doctor."

"Sorry? …for what?" He put his hand out, cupped the small child's shoulder. The boy sighed, looked up at him. There it was again, that word in the boy's eyes. He could feel it, something close to his heart, both of theirs.

Hiccup swallowed, looked up into the fire, his face hard. "You've explored a lot of places, Doctor, more than I would ever get to, just a kid on a dragon." He sighed a smile. "But… you're still running, aren't you?"

The Doctor felt his pulse tense.

"I did it with tools, tried to make something someone would be proud of. I guess it's about being alone in the end. I was lucky." He looked over at Toothless, raised one corner of his lips, his eyes flashing with familiarity, warmth. He looked briefly into the Doctor's eyes. "You're a great man, a proper Hero." He paused, let the moment hang quietly. But the Doctor knew where it was going, the old theme he'd told himself a thousand times. "It's not right," the boy said, "…you shouldn't be running."

The Doctor's eyes grew sober, his face hard with sadness. He let his hand off Hiccup, looked off into the darkness, the immense darkness and the fire, the licking flames that ate up life and yet lived on, consuming everything that came in its way, destroying every life that touched its flames. He parted his lips slowly. "You don't know me, Hiccup."

"I know that it's wrong you're alone."

He looked at the boy, the hope in his young face, that hope which made him so happy, the hope he knew kept that young Viking alive in the years he longed for a companion, a friend. The Doctor's heart was unmoved, willfully closed. He didn't answer, looked into the heart of the fire and then up at the sky, and the boy's voice, a quiet voice not used to saying the things it was saying, but saying them anyway, because they were coming from the boy's heart, a heart that had seen so much in its short time, and had learned so much.

"It's never the end, Doctor. Toothless taught me that. There's always hope. In everything. And maybe we need someone to tell us that. When we give up on ourselves."

The Doctor looked back to the boy, his face lit by the orange of the flames. There was such humanity in those eyes, a noble attempt to heal a broken man. The Doctor smiled, patted the boy's back. "Yeah, Hiccup," he sighed. "Can't have that attitude, can we?" He laughed and looked up at the stars again, and they looked down on him, silent, yet telling. He bit his lip, looked down to Hiccup, serious, the smile gone from his lips. "Thank you," he said quietly, looked down and away into the stars again.

"Don't mention it."