#documentary au

Wings beat overhead, and Hiccup looked up past the canopy of trees to see a Timberjack coming in for a landing. That meant there was a clearing nearby where he’d be able to spot the dragon and possibly interact with it. From Toothless’ back, he quietly pointed the spot out to his dragon, who gave a very human-like nod. Then they were heading off through the trees.

It was quiet save for the chirping of birds and the crackle of leaves underfoot. There was a great big sound of air rushing and a thump as the Timberjack landed. Hiccup was feeling giddy. He hadn’t really been able to train one of these dragons before, and was hoping this was his chance.

As they neared the clearing, Hiccup got off of Toothless, being careful not to slip on the leaves with his prosthetic, as they were still wet with morning dew. He could see the large dragon through the trees. It appeared to be taking some time to groom itself. Good. Hiccup wouldn’t be interfering with hunting or taking care of young. That gave him a better chance.

With Toothless behind him, Hiccup approached the Timberjack. He didn’t want the dragon to think that Toothless was impeding on its territory.

“Looks to be female,” Hiccup said quietly. “Mature adult, possibly in her elder years.” He could tell by the size and coloring of the dragon, and the shape of her face. Most people couldn’t tell a dragon’s sex just by looking at it, but Hiccup was good at this.

Hiccup didn’t want to spook her too much. Her head shot up from under her large brown wing when Hiccup accidentally stepped on a twig. He looked down, let out a quiet curse, then looked back up at her. She was now staring at him with big, yellow eyes.

“Uh, hi,” Hiccup said a little awkwardly. “Didn’t mean to frighten you. Just wanted to come take a look.” He slowly stepped out into the clearing. The dragon hadn’t taken flight yet. This was good. This was very good. He’d never gotten so close to a Timberjack before, but this one seemed rather docile…

And curious, as she lowered her snout to give Hiccup a sniff from a few feet away. Hiccup let her do it, the force of her inhale tearing at his hair.

“Hey, there,” Hiccup said. “Curious one, huh?”

Then, he did what he was best known for. He held out his hand, and turned his head away. He was giving this dragon his trust. She would probably choose to fly away, he figured. A human reaching out to touch was scary for a dragon, and Hiccup could understand that.

But then he felt her breath draw closer, and scales touching his hand. He smiled widely, glanced at Toothless in shock and wonder. His dragon made a small murring sound.

The Timberjack heard that, and Hiccup drew his gaze back to her as she pulled her snout away and looked towards the forest, towards Toothless.

“Oh, um, that’s just my friend,” Hiccup said. “Please don’t get angry.”

She didn’t seem to get angry, but she did seem to think she needed a different spot to groom herself in. She took off with a powerful burst of wings, the air from it nearly sending Hiccup flat to the ground, his clothes whipping around him.

Hiccup sighed, looked back towards Toothless. “Bud, why’d you have to ruin that?”

Toothless came out into the now-abandoned clearing, looking apologetic. Hiccup couldn’t stay mad with him for long. He pet him on the head, then pressed his nose to his.

Then, Hiccup looked towards the camera crew, who Hiccup had told to always stay 20-30 feet back when he was interacting with a new dragon. It was for their safety, but also for the dragon’s comfort.

“Did you get that?” he asked them. He knew they couldn’t always get their best footage with trees blocking the way, but he was hoping someone had caught the memorable moment of him touching a Timberjack for the first time.

The camera crew were pulling in their equipment, giving Hiccup positive affirmations. So, they’d gotten it. Hiccup couldn’t wait to watch later, before they edited it in with other clips.

He lived on Berk Dragon Reserve with his friends, family, and well, dragon. They’d been avoided for quite some time, but now, people were curious, and there was a documentary that aired every week. Hiccup wasn’t in every episode, but when he was, he was apparently a fan favorite. People just loved the way he interacted with dragons. He hoped he was teaching others out in the world what kind of creatures dragons really were, that they could befriend them and live alongside them.

“So, bud, want to go grab some lunch with the others after we show the camera crew back?” Hiccup asked. It was still morning, but he was rather hungry, not having had a big breakfast because he’d been too excited to get out and see what he could find.

And what he’d found had been spectacular. He couldn’t wait to tell his friends what had happened.

Toothless gave a positive sound, and Hiccup pet him on the head again. Then, he was climbing onto his back, into the saddle he’d made himself. His clothes - a flannel, t-shirt, and jeans - were now crusted with dust from the way the Timberjack had stirred it up with her powerful wings.

“I’ll lead you guys back,” Hiccup said to the camera crew. It made sense, given that he was the one who had taken them out here in the first place in hope of finding anything. Berk’s forests could look the same everywhere if you didn’t know where you were going.

“That was amazing,” Dagur, one of the cameramen, said as Hiccup and Toothless approached. He still seemed a little nervous around Toothless, but that was alright. Toothless didn’t do anything to play with that or be mean about it. “How do you even do that?”

“Well, that was the first time I’ve done that with a Timberjack,” Hiccup told him honestly. “They’re more reclusive dragons than some others.”

“Yeah, but it was still cool.” Dagur took a spot beside him and Toothless as Hiccup began to lead the way out.

“It definitely was,” Hiccup agreed with a smile.

They fell into silence for the moment, the rest of the camera crew chatting away. Hiccup liked Dagur. A lot, actually. In fact, he was thinking of asking him out while the others weren’t paying attention to them. Now seemed like as good a time as any.

“So, uh, Dagur,” Hiccup began, rubbing nervously at the back of his neck. He hadn’t truly asked someone out before. The relationship he’d had with Astrid had been initiated by her. That had ended, but they were luckily still good friends. “I was wondering if, um, you wanted to come for a flight with me sometime.”

“A flight?” Dagur asked. “You mean on Toothless?”

“I do.” Hiccup flushed a little. Did Dagur understand his intentions?

“I’ve never flown on a dragon before…” Dagur said nervously, shouldering his camera.

“I mean, you can hold onto me,” Hiccup said with a wink and a smile. Maybe now Dagur would get it.

“Oh. Oh! You mean like that!” Dagur cried. He looked again to Toothless, who gave him his own version of a smile. Toothless liked Dagur, though he didn’t like cameras all that much. He could separate the camera from the person, luckily. “I guess I could do that.”

“We could start with something tamer if you’d like,” Hiccup said, not wanting to scare him off.

“No, no, that sounds fun,” Dagur responded. “I’ll get over my nerves once I’m in the air with you.”

Hiccup smiled warmly. “Excellent. So, sunset then?”

“If I’m not filming then, yeah,” Dagur said. “Meet you at your house?”

Hiccup nodded. They’d gotten to the dirt road outside the forest where the camera crew had parked their vehicle. It was an offroad Jeep, designed specifically for the harsh terrain of Berk. As Hiccup had said at some point in the documentary, Berk could be tough and tasteless, but there was a natural, rugged beauty to it. Hiccup loved his home.

Hiccup waved goodbye to Dagur, and then he and Toothless were taking off, heading back towards town. Toothless made a suggestive sound at Hiccup, and Hiccup laughed.

“It’s okay that he’ll be flying on you, right, bud?” Hiccup asked. He realized he should have checked if that was okay with Toothless first.

Toothless seemed to say “of course” in his own dragon tongue, and Hiccup laughed again. He loved Toothless and how he’d learned to communicate with him. He was such a smart dragon.

Hiccup landed outside the Mead Hall. It was a huge structure built into the side of the mountain, there since the Viking ages, and still not crumbling due to their upkeep of it. Berk had never been destroyed or raided by Christians thanks to the dragons, and so a lot of their monuments and architecture remained. That was definitely a perk of living here.

Hiccup went inside and found his favorite table. He and Toothless were the first ones there, and when he checked his phone, he saw that it was only 11 am. He texted his friends asking if they wanted lunch anyway. They’d know where to find him if they did.

A server took his order, left him a soda, and then went to give his order to the chef.

“Hiccup!” Fishlegs called a few minutes later, coming into the Mead Hall with Meatlug, his Gronckle. Most buildings on Berk allowed dragons, and this one was big enough to have both them and people.

“Hey!” Hiccup called back with a wave. Fishlegs joined him at the table, and Meatlug and Toothless began playfully batting at each other. Hopefully it wouldn’t escalate into play that was too rambunctious. Hiccup didn’t want to have to pay for repairs. Again. His dad was the governor of Berk, but of course Hiccup still paid what he had to. He didn’t want to shirk his duties as a citizen.

“Fishlegs, you’ll never believe what happened this morning,” Hiccup said.

“Ooh, did they get it on camera?” Fishlegs scooted closer to him.

“Yeah,” Hiccup replied. “I touched a Timberjack.”

“You what?!”

“Yep!” Hiccup straightened proudly. “Finally did it.”

Fishlegs, instead of being jealous like Snotlout would have been, patted him on the back. “That’s great! And so cool that they could film it too!”

“What’d they film?” Astrid asked, having come over with Ruffnut and Tuffnut. Snotlout was the only one to not show up yet.

Hiccup gave the story of his morning encounter, and the twins were upset that they’d missed it, but glad it was on camera for them to see later. Snotlout joined them in the middle of it all, and once they all had their drinks and had given their orders, boasted that he’d done it already.

“No you haven’t,” Hiccup said flatly. He poked at his straw, making it swivel in his soda. He liked Snotlout for sure, but he didn’t want his achievement being overshadowed by him.

“Yes I did. Just because it wasn’t on camera doesn’t mean I didn’t do it!”

“We know you didn’t do it,” Fishlegs said with a roll of his eyes. “Come on, Snotlout. Let Hiccup have his moment.”

“Fine.” Snotlout sat down, having stood up to add height to himself - he wasn’t very tall. “Hiccup gets all the cool moments on camera.”

“You guys do too!” Hiccup put in. “Remember that Dragon Hunter ship we fought off last week? You guys looked spectacular in that.”

Everyone agreed, and that seemed to make Snotlout perk up. Good. Hiccup didn’t want his friend feeling down.

“Do you know what else they’re filming today?” Tuffnut asked. “I have some cool stunts to show them.”

“No idea,” Hiccup answered. He usually got all the details from Dagur, but had been busy asking him out instead. “I, um, got distracted.”

“By what?” Ruffnut asked. “Was it Dagur? You were ogling him, weren’t you?”

“What? How would you know that? I mean… why would I be doing that?”

“Because you like him,” Ruffnut retorted, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Okay, okay, fine, I do,” Hiccup ceded. He wasn’t going to win this argument. “I, um…” He blushed. “I asked him out, actually.”

All his friends started talking at once, and Hiccup had to raise his hands to quiet them down and placate them.

“Yeah. I asked him for a sunset ride on Toothless.”

“Oooh, romantic.” Fishlegs definitely seemed excited for Hiccup. They all did. Even Astrid. Their breakup had been around a year ago, anyway.

Their food arrived, and they all ate and talked and enjoyed themselves. Hiccup was glad he had his friends. And he was glad that he had a date later. He smiled and bit into a fry.

---

Hiccup opened the door to find Dagur standing outside, hands shoved in his jean pockets like he was trying to act casual. He wore a muscle shirt and a leather jacket, clothing that was a bit different from what he wore during filming.

“Just you and me?” Hiccup asked, peering out the door, looking for any cameras.

“Just you and me,” Dagur said.

“Oh, good.” Hiccup didn’t want his first date with Dagur, an outsider, being filmed. He would lose all his trust in him if that happened, as would his friends and Toothless.

The sun was close to setting; Dagur had arrived just at a good time. Hiccup wouldn’t admit it, but he’d been sitting by the door anxiously waiting for him, hoping he wouldn’t have to be filming anything that night.

Hiccup took his phone and his keys, and left the house with Toothless following.

“You saddled him already?” Dagur asked, looking at the sleek leather.

“Uh, maybe. I was waiting for you.”

“Cute.” Hiccup blushed at the comment, but Dagur went on. “So, how do you get on a dragon?”

“Ever ridden a horse?” Hiccup asked.

“Nope.”

“Well, then we’re starting from square one, I guess.”

Hiccup demonstrated how he mounted Toothless, giving instructions the whole while. Then, he got off to help Dagur on. He wobbled a bit as he got into the saddle, but then seemed to find a good place on it and settled.

“There you go!” Hiccup exclaimed. “You’ll get the hang of it.” He hoped Dagur would, if this date went well, that is.

Shit, what would happen if it didn’t go well? Would filming become awkward? Would Hiccup not be featured in the documentary anymore?

Oh man, I should have thought this through.

Too late though, because Hiccup was climbing on Toothless’ back in front of Dagur. Dagur put his hands on his hips.

“Yeah, you’re going to want to hold on tighter than that,” Hiccup said, remembering his first flight with Astrid. He didn’t want Dagur falling off.

“Got it.” Dagur wrapped his burly arms around Hiccup’s waist. “Like that?”

“Just like that,” Hiccup breathed, liking the feeling of Dagur holding him. It was warm and comforting. Different, of course, as Hiccup had never dated a man before, but wonderful all the same. “Okay.” He bunched up his muscles in preparation for Toothless’ take off. “Here we go.”

With a leap and a flap of Toothless’ wings, they were in the air. Dagur screamed as they took off, and Hiccup was glad he had resilient eardrums that were used to the loud noises of dragons. His hold on him tightened, and he squeezed Toothless a little too hard with his thighs. Once they leveled out, Toothless gave Dagur a sharp look.

“What am I doing?” Dagur asked Hiccup.

“Holding onto him too tight,” Hiccup explained. “Don’t worry. We won’t let you fall.”

“And if I do, you’ll catch me, right?” Dagur had seen Hiccup’s ability to catch people on Toothless before, even mid-battle.

“Yes. We’ll catch you.”

“Okay.” Dagur loosened his hold on Toothless and Hiccup just a bit, and Hiccup could breathe slightly easier now that his ribs weren’t being crushed.

He flew high over Berk, but caught Dagur looking down rather worriedly.

“Just look at the sunset,” Hiccup told him. “It’ll relax you. I promise.”

Dagur did just that, and Hiccup felt his breath ease against him.

“It’s beautiful up here, Hiccup.”

“So you’re not afraid?”

“If I was, do you really think I’d admit it?”

Hiccup laughed and shook his head. “No. No I don’t.”

They swooped over mountains, over trees and rivers and waterfalls. They went up into the clouds, and Dagur carefully reached out an arm to let his fingers thread through the pocket of moisture in the air. He laughed, and it was a good sound.

Hiccup felt so good up here. He thought he would have been nervous having to watch out for one person who’d never ridden a dragon before, but it was fine. He was loving it.

The sun splayed bars of orange and red across the sky as it dipped into the cold sea, tinting the clouds into bronze. Hiccup had seen a million of Berk’s sunsets, and a thousand of them from dragon-back, but he would still never lose the novelty of it. It really was beautiful.

He and Dagur didn’t speak much during the flight. Dagur was just wide-eyed, taking everything in, reaching out to play with passing clouds. His foot slipped a little beside Hiccup’s though, and so he went back to holding him with both arms, clearly afraid of falling off.

They landed on Hiccup’s favorite cliff facing the town. He hadn’t shown this spot to the camera crew yet. It was just for him and Toothless. And now Dagur. He was letting him farther into his world than he’d ever been before, peeling back the small curtain that he’d hidden some things behind.

Dagur’s legs were a little shaky when he got off of Toothless, and Hiccup couldn’t help noticing that he rubbed at his rear end. One could definitely become sore from flying on a dragon. But then they went to sit on the edge of the cliff, their feet dangling off of it. Hiccup’s prosthetic was firmly attached and he wasn’t afraid of losing it. He’d sat here like this as many times as he’d viewed the sunsets.

“How was that?” Hiccup asked. He wasn’t nervous anymore. The flight had truly relaxed him.

“Incredible,” Dagur answered. He reached out a hand for Hiccup’s, and Hiccup let him take it. The warmth of another was nice on these cold, Berkian nights. They smiled at each other as the stars started to blink on.

“Would you like to do it again sometime?” Hiccup asked.

“Can I film it too?” Dagur asked. “Not with a big camera, obviously. Maybe my phone. It would be so cool seeing you from that perspective.”

Well, Dagur was a cameraman. He liked shooting and photography. It just made sense.

“As long as you don’t film one thing,” Hiccup said, feeling brave.

“What shouldn’t I film?”

“This.” Hiccup leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. He could feel Toothless watching curiously, but that didn’t bother him. Toothless knew all of his life, and this was no different.

Dagur pulled away from the kiss, looking a bit dazed by it, but in a good way. Hiccup liked that expression on him.

Then, he was smiling at him. “Deal.”

Courfeyrac would Hasan Minhaj the fuck out of immigration

Combeferre would do the most cutting read on the public education system you have ever seen, perhaps with follow-up episode later on on its embedded systemic racism and the school-to-prison pipeline

Musichetta would do a segment on discrimination within the health world against WoC (much like the existing John Oliver segment--Wanda Sykes would absolutely make an appearance, and off-camera there would be hugs and Musichetta would cry at least once)

Cosette would do a segment on fat-shaming and the targeting of vulnerable audiences in advertising (a la Dulce Sloan)

Joly would spend a whole minute of one episode saying nothing but "death is not worse than autism, and if you imply it is you are a terrible person" (this episode would be on vaccines specifically, but they'd show up frequently doing pieces on the predatory nature of Big Pharma, the ins and outs of Universal Healthcare and why it needs adopted yesterday, ableism, and they are featured as an expert on many other health-related episodes like Cosette's and Musichetta's)

Jehan does a thorough explanation and tear-down of gender and sexuality, the history behind it and the community and the terminology, and what safe spaces are for and why we need them; comparatively-speaking, it's much softer and less accusatory than most of the other episodes/topics, but every once in a while ey sweetly says something extremely straightforward that makes the viewer feel extremely guilty for everything they've ever thought wrong

Feuilly does a heartbreaking segment on the foster system as it currently is, how complicated adoption can be, and all of the difficulties that can arise for the kids, with the system and emotionally; the episode becomes standard viewing for uni students studying education to understand what some of their students are going through; he also does an episode on the care and treatment of the elderly (elder abuse)

Éponine takes forever to get enough anonymous sources willing to go on the record, but eventually she does an episode on corruption within the justice system, later coming back to do another on predatory sale practices/companies and also joining Feuilly in his on the foster system with the broken abuse reporting system

Marius does an episode on invisible disabilities with a focus on autism; the feedback is so overwhelmingly positive that he joins with Combeferre for an episode on disabilities in school and Feuilly and Joly on ADA and disability accomodation in public spaces

Bahorel does the most threatening tear-down on the modernday treatment of indigenous peoples you have ever seen, grinning the entire time

Bossuet's seems like it's a fun tour of Thailand, except all of the comments about the terrible effects of the tourist industry and sexpats

Grantaire is usually camerawork and editing, but once they get big enough to hire other people that he oversees he's convinced to do an episode and just shits all over Bolsonaro, most especially his absolute disregard for the Amazon and the indigenous peoples who live there

Gav isn't allowed to host it, but he plays a big role in writing/researching an episode on the NRA and the second amendment and is credited for it

Enjolras is the showrunner. People run ideas by him to get approved, he sets deadlines, and he does a lot of publicity stuff but mostly leaves the reporting itself to the experts on the matter. He did do the first episode, though: an exposé on the lives of the wealthy and how no one needs that much money a la Abigail Disney.