(Author's notes: I love Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons but I strongly disagree that the Big Four become a random groups of teenage animated characters by adding every new hero/ine that comes out. There is a balance there, besides, the fandom name needn't sound more silly as it is. So, here was an idea that popped out in my head while I was watching Disney's Frozen. Insomnia and itchy crossover inspiration really does nag at me. Also I saw a video of this when I thought of searching up the idea. Well, nice to see that it came across others, didn't want to think I was too far-fetched.
Note: The setting's Frozen, the rest are up to the respective characters.)
The night was cold. As it always is in the North.
Not the deathly chill that would remind one of discomfort and sullen thoughts, no. The chill was calm and peaceful, welcomed, if anything. There was assurance in it. The sky was cloaked in shimmering black, draped with the bright hue of the auroras: dancing veils of iridescent light streaking the heavens.
Glimmering, pulsating as the hours ticked by, moving across the air, over the mountain-tops, illuminating the pale snow with pastel hues.
Even the layers draping the castle down below the foot of the mountain range. The stately abode was as silent as any home in the capital, warmth seeping through its walls in the breath of winter.
The moonlight fell heavily on the land, making the water of the lake glimmer in the night, falling through frosty windows of its good people.
And, through the window of a little prince.
His ornate room was cast in the soft blue light, making clear the young boy's pale features.
Fair skin and an odd shade of stark white for his locks, the young prince lay under his covers snugly, lost in dreams peppered by the sandman, as with any child in the realm.
Except one.
"…Jack…"
A little brown head popped up at the edge of the bed, wide green eyes gawking at the sleeping boy.
"Psst!" the toddler hissed, clambering up on to the bed and plopping on to Jack.
"Jack! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" the tiny little fellow squeaked, shaking his brother incessantly.
"Hiccup, go back to sleep…" the older boy replied drowsily, plunging back to his dreams, clutching his pillow
"I just can't!" Hiccup said, falling back on him as if Jack were a cushion, "The sky's awake, so I'm awake!" he moaned, casting a glance on the dancing auroras outside the tall glass window.
"So we have to play!" he proposed, freckled face dipped with excitement.
It never was fun to play alone. Jack was the epitome of fun. Everyone, thought so, too. He could make even the grumpiest person lighten up and laugh in the worst of times…
"Go play by yourself!" Jack chuckled, kicking him out of bed.
Little Hiccup fell on the carpeted floor with a small yelp, pouting.
How to get Jack out of bed? With little toes wiggling, a beam crossed his face.
He scrambled back on to the bed, tumbling back down clumsily but succeeded the second time, prying Jack's eye open with his tiny fingers. Jack shut them back quickly, holding on to his covers stubbornly. The night was cold and sleeping went well with such weather.
"Do you wanna build a snowman?" Hiccup cooed.
Jack opened his blue eyes, a spark of mischief in them as he grinned.
But that was a long, long time ago.
Hiccup honestly had no idea what had caused the rift between him and his brother.
Jack being the heir was one idea. But that didn't seem to answer much. It was as if something had been lost out of bonds of family. Was it something he did? Perhaps…
Though knowing Jack, he would say something if Hiccup did. But there was no word.
One day, he just moved out of their nursery.
Was it because Jack had to grow up?
Hiccup sat alone in the old room, now half-empty, cast in afternoon light. Growing up was that hard? He wished it wasn't. Apparently, growing up meant letting go of the things you enjoyed in childhood.
He cast an upwards glance at the mirror standing at the end of the room, reflecting his small form hunched over in the silence. My goodness, what was that white thing on his hair?
Was he growing up, as well? It's not that quick, is it? People grow white hair-what if he grows old too quickly!?
They always knew that Jack would one day be king. It was just…they had no idea what it truly meant.
But had hoped it just was a little change. Maybe Jack being a bit busier on his lessons?
Yes, indeed. He saw less and less of him around the castle. When he asked, they would say that Jack was at his classes or practicing something princely that Hiccup was not brought into yet.
Come the times when the weather was good or there was some new delight to see, Hiccup came running to Jack's door, expecting him to open it with that excited grin he always had. They've always had fun together.
"Jack?"
There he was, closing his door! Hiccup ran towards it, but it shut right before him. Huh, maybe he just didn't see…
Knocking on the ornate painted wood, he called out, "Do you wanna build a snowman?"
Nothing.
"Come on, let's go and play!" he invited cheerily, his neat green winter coat swishing about him as he teetered on his feet.
He doesn't see him, anymore, does he? It's like jack had gone away completely.
"Come out the door!" the toddler said, dropping on all fours and peeking under the gap on the door.
They used to be best friends, didn't they? Thick as thieves…but not anymore. He wished he'd tell him why.
"Do you wanna build a snowman!?" Hiccup called out again, banging at the door with his tiny fist, an uncomfortable feeling of creeping to his chest, "I-It doesn't have to be a snowman…"
"…go away, Hiccup."
Hiccup blinked, dropping his hand.
"Ok-Okay…bye."
Jack stared out the window, a bright beam on his face as the snow fell, covering nearly every surface to be seen with that wondrous chill of Yule. How he missed snowball fights…
His bright blue eyes scoured the wintry scene hungrily, pale hands pressed against the glass.
Suddenly, frost bloomed where his skin touched the surface, spreading out in the blink of an eye. He gasped, retracting from it.
That day, he was given gloves.
"…conceal it…you're gonna be...you're gonna be fine."
The empty rooms of the large castle loomed about him all the time, reminding Hiccup of the silent air hanging. At first it was quite bearable, he could keep himself entertained with his usual games. But there some games you just couldn't play alone.
So stopped playing, altogether.
Whether he found out that he was rather clumsy or he had grown to be, it didn't really matter. Books were good past-times, but somehow he found himself reading more and more everyday.
Not like he had anything better to do.
He still knocked at Jack's door from time to time, however, hoping he'd come out to come and just talk. But the intervals between those moments became longer and longer.
He wrote as much as soon as he learned how to write, noting down nearly everything he found to be interesting in the castle, from the old paintings down to the movement of the pendulum in a grandfather clock.
Even his speech was somehow impeded.
Interacting with their parents on the few occasions they were present didn't help much, nor the small phrases servants bothered to speak in-between chores. He often found himself stammering or mumbling, stumbling over his own words most of them time, even more when he got flustered. Not very becoming of a prince.
Hiccup had become quite the talker, despite that.
But he often talked to himself.
Sometimes he thought he was going mad.
He drew more and more into himself and his works that when he had grown to be a young lad (an quite a few inches), he often didn't stop to knock at Jack's door, anymore.
Some days, he would come across Jack in the halls or at some classes, though it seemed Jack often avoided him, finishing his work before Hiccup could even start.
But it seemed he could not walk away from him during swordplay lessons.
It was clear, however, that Jack did not want to have anything to do with him other than that. He was a skilled swordsman, with years more to his practice than his younger brother. The outcome was always a defeat on Hiccup's behalf.
And Jack would leave with nothing more than a small bow as he handed his sword to the servant attending them.
"One day…" Hiccup caught his breath as he wiped the small cut on his chin with his glove.
"…the royal ship has sunk! The royal couple never reached English soil!"
The words rang loud in the halls, casting a chill colder than any dead winter down everyone's back.
The kingdom fell in black mourning, no music nor merriment of any sort was celebrated in the proximity of the palace. They didn't even have anything to bury. The black coffins were empty. The ground under the tombstones is hollow.
Hiccup donned royal garments that day as he always did, only they were as black as everyone else's'. He stood there on the graveyard long after everyone gave him their condolences. Nodding to their small sentiments, he avoided the gaze of officials, advisers, servants and even the unseeing stare of the guards posted.
He thought it was impossible to have gotten the palace any more colder.
"…you promised you'll be back." he breathed, hands forming into fists.
Jack didn't even show up at the burial.
Hiccup found himself marching down the corridors, his dark cloak billowing about him, green eyes flaring. There was no clumsiness to his gait nor stumble to his speech, anymore. Rage brought a sudden straightforwardness in him.
"JACK!" he bellowed, banging his fists on the crown prince's door, anger boiling in him.
How dare he not pay the single respect they can pay!? Jack may be able to do away with his uncalled apathy towards him, but this…
Jack was lucky he did not have a sword in hand. And although Hiccupknew he would lose at that, he'd sure to give it a whack given the chance.
"COME OUT! COME OUT, YOU COWARD!" Hiccup yelled, voice ringing in the deserted halls.
"GET OUT, I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!" he heaved, anger ebbing away, replaced by a gushing desperation as he fell to his knees.
"…I know you're in there…" he breathed, head bowed against the door.
Hiccup felt his eyes water as he turned the other way and leaned back against it, staring blankly out the window dimming at twilight.
"People were asking where you've been," he managed to sputter, chest rising and falling shakily. He cleared his throat, he tried to string his sentences together as the uneasiness of talking fell on him again.
"They say 'have courage'…codswallop," he huffed, "All I could do is try…you bloody well know I'm out here, brother."
As always, nothing. It was as if he was talking to one of the paintings. Only there was no face to even see.
"There's only us now…what the hell are we gonna do?" he sighed hopelessly, closing his eyes.
On the other side of the door, Jack sat the same way. Hopeless, forlorn.
He gritted his teeth, shutting his eyes, not letting tears fall. Or was he unable to weep, now?
Jack kept his hood over his head, hugging his knees to his chest. Not that it made him feel any warmer.
He had nothing.
They were just…snatched away out of the blue. The sea swallowing them whole, leaving nothing behind but memories of embraces and true smiles all those years ago. He brought this on them.
If only he wasn't cursed, they'd have been happy. And perhaps they needn't leave.
He covered his ears as Hiccup banged on his door in desperation, feeling a stab at his chest at every bang.
The air was frozen in a dead chill in his room, everything frosted or iced over, snowflakes hanging in the air. But it wasn't as cold as how he felt now.
Tables were flipped over, chairs kicked aside in his fit of rage. A mirror laid on the floor, shattered, some jagged glass tipped in red blood, trailing back to where he sat. His hand twitched at the sting of the cold on his bloody knuckles.
Hiccup had fallen silent outside, mumbling things as he always did.
"...do you wanna build a snowman…?" his younger brother said under his breath.
The sentence was spoken out of habit. Or some distant nostalgia.
Jack bowed his head in his cold hands, wishing that his touch would freeze himself over, overtaking his head, turning him to ice so that he wouldn't have to wake up ever again.
Hiccup simply sat there, in his black clothes, thinking empty thoughts as the shadows fell about him, wearing the same shade of black.
(Please leave your reviews! Would you like to see this continued?)