Three days after Hiccup's introduction to Roman Politics he was scheduled to head to the training dome in the first legion's camp. Their site was just outside the Capitol on the southside, a big field used for war games between the site and the outer circles of the city.

Some of the legionnaires of the first legion had found some dragons and lured them in with fish. Hiccup was going to spend a good few hours teaching the lucky soldiers who'd gotten their names down first how to train them.

He had twenty soldiers. too many for his liking, he'd told them so many could spook the dragons. But a lot of people wanted to learn and they could only do so much to keep numbers cut back. at least these dragons were from Rome, they likely had no terrifying memories of people slaughtering their kind for years.

Hiccup had plenty of fun showing off and the soldiers also enjoyed the wonder of befriending beings so different to themselves. The whole experience was a real confidence boost.

As the soldiers were leaving and Hiccup was packing things up- saddles, rope, dragon-nip- Atticus walked in the gate.

"morning," Atticus greeted, taking the final coil of rope and hanging it up, "how'd it go?"

"pretty well actually," Hiccup smiled, "I mean, no one got eaten, that's a plus."

"oh, fun!" Atticus swung a bag off his back and took out two swords, made of wood, "I wanted to give you a crash course in Swordsmanship before you get thrown in with recruits in actual training. They can be... severe. And they expect even rookies to know the basics."

"oh, thanks," Hiccup blinked, "why are the swords wood?"

"it helps you build strength and control." He took one sword and threw it to Hiccup, keeping the other and walking to the middle of the dome.

Hiccup followed, awkwardly holding the wooden hunk that had been crudely shaped into a sword and sanded down. Atticus stood, feet shoulder width apart with his left slightly in front of the other. he placed the tip of his blade in front of his foot and rested his left arm behind his back.

"this is a form of parade rest used when your superior is inspecting your blade," he instructed, Hiccup copied the pose, "shoulders back."

Hiccup huffed but stood straight, "geez you gain like three inches when you stand properly," Atticus chuckled.

"swordplay isn't about fancy moves. It's about predicting your opponent's movement and strategizing at split-second speeds. You need to defend or attack whilst also investigating how the person you're fighting is doing so. It's all a form of ingrained multi-tasking."

Hiccup nodded, "how can you predict their moves?"

"their stance, where they look, how they grip their sword, etcetera." Atticus took the hilt with both hands and lifted the sword up so it floated in front of his body, he leaned forward slightly and twisted his back foot to the side, "this is the easiest, most used and- in my opinion- best stance."

Hiccup copied, "square your feet more and bend your elbows," Atticus corrected, "good, now defend yourself."

"what?"

Atticus moved faster than he thought possible. He brought the sword in a swipe for Hiccup's legs that set Hiccup scurrying then brought it down on his head. Hiccup barely managed to block it in time.

"good job,"

"aren't you going to teach me?" Hiccup asked, struggling to hold the sword up under Atticus' weight.

"learn by doing!" Atticus set off again, going slightly slower this time, swiping and stabbing at any place Hiccup left unprotected by his sword. But every time he blocked a hit he opened himself up somewhere else.

Eventually Hiccup blocked a hit that had too much momentum behind it and he lost balance, he tripped and let go of the blade on the way down.

"nice, you lasted pretty long there for a beginner."

"what, forty seconds?" Hiccup said drily.

"suggestion," Atticus said helping him up, "learn to hold in the sarcastic remarks now, any actual trainer will literally beat it out of you."

"oh, joy."

Hiccup retrieved his sword and the two stood apart in the stance. Then they started sparring.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Eventually when Hiccup noticed the sun dipping and Toothless shifted once more to be comfortably entirely in the shade he'd had enough.

"I'm sick of this!" he tossed the sword aside, "I just can't get it! I've tried for years on Berk nothing's different here!"

Atticus dropped his arm to his side and let the sword dangle, "come on hiccup you're only learning. You're doing really well, just-"

"look," He interjected, "I'm sure it's weird to you because you grew up being good at it, but I just can't use a sword. I just can't. I can make one, I can fix one, I cannot use one."

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair before heading to the bench in the shade where his waterskin was.

"Hiccup," Atticus put one hand on a hip, "Hiccup! come on! Quit being so stubborn."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow then chugged half his water in one go.

"just cause you're not a master in one session doesn't mean you won't ever be." Atticus picked up Hiccup's discarded blade and set them both against the wall, "you've got to start somewhere."

"yeah. But that doesn't mean I'll get somewhere." Hiccup rolled his eyes and sat on the bench. Atticus sighed and followed.

"how'd you learn to draw?"

Hiccup gave him a dry glare, "Is that a serious question?"

"yeah, tell me."

Hiccup sighed, "I got a book and a pencil. I sat in front of a tree. I drew the tree."

"was it good the first time?"

Hiccup snorted, "it looked like a bunch of triangles stacked on each other."

"exactly. You weren't good at it the first time."

"it's not like that Atticus," Hiccup sighed, "I've been trying and failing with weapons and fighting my whole life. the first thing my dad had made for me was a tiny axe. I used it as a paper weight. I've been trying and failing for as long as I can remember. I'm just not cut out for it."

Atticus hummed, "okay. How was it taught to you?"

"what?"

"how did the people on Berk try to teach you sword skills?"

"uh..." Hiccup sucked a breath through his teeth, "they put a weapon in my hands and said 'go! Kill something!'"

"kinda like I did, okay." Atticus mumbled, "what did you do to get better with drawing?"

"uh... I studied things? closely. I spent time with them and learned how to communicate light and shadow and form with a pencil on paper."

"right..." Atticus smiled, "okay. I know how to do this."

"what?"

Atticus slapped the bench and heaved himself to his feet, collected the swords and walked back to the centre of the ring. "you coming?"

Hiccup sighed and rolled his eyes. But he got up and stood across from Atticus with his arms crossed. "so how are you going to teach me? What's the big breakthrough?"

"I realised I've been trying to teach you the way I was taught. But we're not the same. You're more like my dad," he smiled, "when he learned it was with a great master of the blade. And he was taught differently. I remember because that's how he tried to teach me and always failed. But he scoffed at the way my school teacher taught me."

"you learned sword skills in school?" Hiccup had learned what school was while he'd been in Rome, it was where kids went to learn things like the alphabet.

"it was an elective," he offered Hiccup his sword, "but whatever. I know how to teach you."

Hiccup rolled his eyes but accepted the sword.

"okay. This is how you block from a swipe like this." Atticus demonstrated the blow in the air, then demonstrated the block, "try it."

Hiccup did, Atticus corrected his stance. He told him to sit in the guard stance from the beginning and block when Atticus tried the hit. He did and Atticus swiped slowly but fluidly.

"get how you do it?"

"yeah."

"cool. Now this is how you block this kind of hit."

And they went on. He showed him three blocks this way then tried all three hits while hiccup blocked. Then Hiccup tried to make the swipe at Atticus. He taught three more and repeated the process, also going over the first three.

He went over every hit and block he could think of in threes, each time they practiced them on each other getting faster till they were barely slower than actual fighting.

They finished with another attempt at a spar, Hiccup held his own longer than any attempt before. He still lost, but he'd made headway.

He finished the rest of his water while Atticus put the swords back in the bag. The sun was lower, it was well into the afternoon.

"how'd you know that'd work?" Hiccup asked as Atticus drank from his own waterskin.

"like I said, you remind me of my dad."

"how so?"

"he's a senator," Atticus said with a barely hidden grimace, "but he's a real knowledge guy. Likes to discover knew things and try stuff. He's a... well, he's a real philanthropist."

"seems like a nice guy."

"yeah," Atticus smiled slightly, "it's thanks to his job that I know the twins. Their mum's a senator as well and their dad is one of the representatives from Egypt that Rome is visited by often."

"oh, cool," Hiccup said, "Egypt is that empire south of us, right?"

"yeah, that's the one," Atticus sat down, "either way, the way I'm teaching you is the way any master who genuinely enjoys the craft teaches. It's learning the forms so you have something to fall back on and a way to understand movement and how you can flow from one hit to another."

"why don't the trainers teach it like that?" Hiccup asked sitting next to Atticus.

He shrugged, "guess it took too long, or was difficult with a lot of students. Maybe both. Either way, my dad looks down on their decisions."

Hiccup noticed the crestfallen look on Atticus's face that only seemed to grow the more he talked about his dad, "are you and you father not on good terms?"

He looked up, "no, no. I love him, I really do. But he likes to make it known when he doesn't like things. one of those things is my decision to join the military. He thinks we're all a bunch of boneheaded jocks who can't think for ourselves. It's probably why I got along so well with Charlotte."

"oh."

"doesn't much help that we never talked much when I was little anyway, he was away a lot for work," he shrugged, "we don't know each other much, I always felt unappreciated, he always felt undermined. It wasn't that healthy of a relationship."

"yeah, I can relate to that," Hiccup sighed, "my dad's about the same."

"no mum?"

"no. she died when I was little, dragon attack."

"oh," Atticus seemed surprised by the answer. At first glance he probably couldn't see how Hiccup could make peace with dragons when they'd taken his mother, he couldn't blame him.

"yeah."

Atticus sighed and leaned back against the wall, "my mum left when I was five."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"it's okay," hiccup looked up into Atticus's eyes, they were startling with the orange light of the afternoon, "I never knew her anyway."

Hiccup sighed and leaned back against the wall as well, "what a depressing duo we are. The underappreciated sons club."

Atticus snorted, "hey, there are worse clubs to be in. besides," he smiled, "at least it all led to where we are now. I wouldn't trade it for the world."

Hiccup thought on that the rest of the night. Whether, if given the power, he'd turn back the clock and trade his experiences for a different life. As he lay in his bunk, Verlin softly snoring above him and toothless curled up next to him, feeling for the first time like he shouldn't be somewhere else he realised; he would not.