Chapter 1

I've been living in this house for as long as I can remember. In fact, I think my dad and I moved in right after this most of the neighborhood finished construction. It's just a regular suburban home: two stories, three bedrooms, a pretty spacious kitchen, a nice living room. I guess it could be considered small for the check of a big-time football coach like my dad, but then again, I guess you could say it's rather large for a family of two.

It was pretty lonely at first—we were the only people living in the neighborhood since it was so new. I used to wander around the neighborhood with my dad and look at all the houses that were done. They were all exactly the same on the outside: brown walls with white rims; black doors that sat atop clean, wide porches; large windows decorating the fronts of the houses; shrubs in one uniform row, only broken by the spaces between the houses. There was one thing that I noticed on the walks though, each house was separate from the other, separated by a large space and a seven-foot-tall fence, not even a single roof shingle of one house touching the shingle of another. Each one kept a uniform distance from the other, as if some invisible force was pushing the houses away from each other, absolutely forbidding any physical contact. Well, all but ours.

When I came back from a walk with my dad one day when I was five, I noticed that the roof between the first and second story of our house touched that of another. In fact, it looked as if the neighboring house was leaning into our house, making the roofs look as if they were conjoined. Upon closer inspection, I realized that one of the windows facing that part of the house was my bedroom window, and I figured that I could walk from one house to another on the roof if I wanted to, but I knew I would be too scared to try that. I asked my dad about it—he said that the builders made a mistake. I thought it was a silly mistake, but I didn't question it more. My dad doesn't like to question things too much, anyway.

It didn't really matter, since no one moved into that house for the longest time anyway. In fact, no one moved into the neighborhood for a long time, and when they did, there was no one my age for the first few months. When kids my age moved in, I was excited, but immediately disappointed when I realized that they weren't really interested in me beyond using me as a victim of their pranks and teasing, so I hid in the house most of the time, in my room, reading books about fairytales and magical creatures and mysterious animals from all over the world. I found myself absolutely fascinated by animals, and I guess I could say that most of the stray cats and dogs that I've come by have taken a liking to me as well.

My interests aside, eventually the construction stopped and eventually the houses were filled with people from all different backgrounds. Well, all of the houses, except the one next to ours. The people looking at it probably noticed the roof mishap and decided against moving in. After all, who wants their kid to have a room just a walk away from the weird little boy who sat in his room all day?

Eventually, someone did move into the house next door. I was six years old and it was two o'clock on a summer morning. I was huddled under a thin blanket, trying to get some sleep, when the loud sound of a truck woke me up from my slumber. I rubbed my eyes in irritation and glared at the light that flitted through the cracks between my curtains and filled my bedroom walls.

I threw my blanket off and tugged a large dragon stuffed animal towards my bedroom door. I had to stand on my toes to get a good grip on the knob and swing my entire body just to get it open. The door creaked open slightly and I released the doorknob and fell to the ground with a soft thud. I peaked around the door and felt a chill run down my spine when I realized how dark it was.

"Dad?" I called quietly. "Something's outside."

I was answered by a series of deep and loud snores. I didn't want to wake him up, so I closed the door. The lights from outside became brighter and I was always a pretty curious kid, so I dragged myself and my stuffed animal towards the window. I swung my leg over the top of my toy chest, my dragon slipping from my grasp as I hoisted myself up to peer over the windowsill. When I found that I still couldn't see what was happening, I mustered all the strength I could to lift myself onto the windowsill. I stood up and let the curtain fall behind me as I pressed my face against the glass.

From what I could see, there were about six people outside that were moving stuff into the house. There was a man and a woman standing together and talking to one of the movers. I could also see a shorter figure standing next to the woman. I squinted, but I couldn't really make out anything specific. I watched them for a while before they went inside the house, then I watched the movers bring in their stuff. They had endless boxes of possessions and nice furniture. I watched as they brought in nice couches and tables and a piano. Suddenly, a light even brighter than the truck's light surprised me and I ducked under the window with a nervous squeak, when I realized that I was being silly and no one would see me, I peeked over the windowsill. For the first time, the light in the room across from mine was turned on and there was a boy about my age running around the room, his face lit up with excitement despite it being so early in the morning.

"Hiccup?"

My dad's call surprised me so much that I fell onto the floor, my fall softened by my dragon stuffed animal. The door creaked open and I saw my dad look in. "Hiccup, why are you on the floor?"

"I fell," I answered simply as my dad came over and hoisted me up with one hand. He laid me into bed and handed me my stuffed animal as he tried to tuck me in messily. I pulled the blanket up to my neck and he pat my head before walking towards the door. Before he left, he looked out the window and noticed the light breaking through the curtains.

"We have some new neighbors, Hiccup," he said. "Why don't we introduce ourselves tomorrow?"

I just groaned stubbornly, pulling the blanket over my head. My dad didn't reply and a few seconds later, the door shut quietly and silence filled the room. I shut my eyelids tightly and soon I found myself in a deep slumber.

When I woke up in the morning, my curtains had been thrown open unceremoniously and my bedroom door was ajar. The bright sunlight that shone through the window hurt my eyes and I attempted to lull myself back to sleep by hiding under my blanket and pressing my face to my pillow, but to no avail. As I lay in bed and became adjusted to the light, the sound of the doorbell rang throughout the house, which shook as my father stomped towards the door downstairs.

" You must be Mr. and Mrs. Frost! Please come in," I heard my father say. "Hiccup! Get up and get dressed! We have guests!" he called to me. I groaned and mumbled complaints to no one in particular as I threw off my blanket and shut the door to change out of my pajamas into a suitable outfit- or at least, suitable for a five-year-old boy. Apparently, I figured a t-shirt and a poorly matched pair of shorts fit under this category. After putting on my clothes, I shuffled downstairs quietly and awkwardly peeked around the wall to catch a glimpse of our new neighbors.

Two adults sat opposite my father, drinking tea and making polite conversation. Even at my young age, I could plainly see how intimidated they were by my father—their feet were placed firmly on the ground and they were sitting as if they would have to get up and run for their lives at any minute. I was used to it though, so I didn't really give it to much attention.

However, what did gain my full attention was the boy sitting between his parents staring up at my father in awe. He looked about my age and was small, just like me. He had a shock of short brown hair, whose color was not unlike my own, and large brown eyes. Maybe the thing that drew me most to this boy was how he gazed up at my father with awe—something that I wasn't used to seeing when I was five and sort of grabbed my attention.

"Hiccup!" my father called me from my thoughts and I jumped in surprise..

I shuffled over to him and climbed onto the couch cushion next to my father, who pat my head as gently as he could, but still making me cringe as he unintentionally pushed me into the couch cushion like a nail being hammered to a piece of wood.

"A huge difference from his father isn't he?" my father smiled as the Frosts stared at me in utter bemusement. "Don't worry—one day he'll be big and strong just like his father, right, Hiccup?"

I found myself at a loss for words, searching my very small vocabulary for something to say as the Frosts sized me up (or, maybe, down). I stared at my feet in embarrassment and out of the corner of my eye, I could see the other boy trying to stifle his laughter and any ideas I had of trying to befriend the Frost boy in hopes that he would be different from the other kids were almost completely wiped from my mind.

So I sat there in agonizing awkwardness as the Frosts warmed up to my father and they talked jovially about the neighborhood and the town and what they had to offer young families such as theirs. My gaze wandered around and constantly dropped to the floor whenever I felt that someone was looking at me. As the conversation wore on, I found my eyes stuck on the boy, who sat in front of me, who was fidgeting between his parents restlessly and looking around the room in curiosity. His feet swung back and forth, almost kicking the coffee table a few times and his hair shook every time he moved his head to look at another piece of decorum that covered the walls. Within a few minutes his expression changed from one of curiosity to one of boredom as he rolled his eyes and leaned back on the couch cushions before pulling himself back into a straight position a few seconds after laying back. Suddenly his movements stopped and he turned his head towards me.

Our eyes met for a split second and I jumped in surprise before dropping my gaze towards the floor once again. The moment was so awkward I could feel his remain on me. I glanced up for a moment to see him looking at me, surprisingly, in curiosity rather than disdain. I lifted my head a bit to actually look at him and he opened his mouth to speak.

"Well, it was nice meeting you," the older Frosts rose from their seats and my father mimicked them, pushing me out of my seat so I could do the same.

"It was my pleasure," my father said as they walked towards the door. "Please feel free to come over whenever you like."

And with that, the Frosts shuffled out the door, their son following close behind them. I peeked at them from behind my father's leg and caught sight of them just as the boy took his first step out the door.

I was surprised to see him stop and turn to find me. "Bye, Hiccup!" he waved at me and smiled as his mother tugged his hand so they could leave.

I was too stunned to reply and, by the time I found the right thing to say, I was staring at the back of the door, words at the tip of my tongue, begging to be heard by the first child to look at me with such innocent curiosity and amusement:

"What's your name?"

A/N: And voila! That's it for the first chapter of my HiJack AU! For those of you wondering, at this point in the story, Hiccup is reflecting on the past, or more specifically, when he and Jack are about six years old. They'll grow up soon enough, so that's all good and cool.

The cover art was drawn by the amazing tumblr user yakfrost, who very kindly allowed me to use their art for this fic! Check out their blog for more amazing art!

Anyway, thanks again for reading! If you like it, please leave a review and I'll try to update the next chapter as soon as I can! UwU