Disclaimer; I do not own How to train your dragon OR Raise of the guardians...I would be so happy if I did.
Rating; T 'cause I'm paranoid.
Warnings; M/M, meaning two adorable boys are together, not your cup of tea then don't bother reading.
The morning sun had gracefully reappeared on the greyish sky more sudden than anticipated after their 'fight', and Hiccup was in no doubt grateful to that since it meant both he and Jack wouldn't see each other until late evening.
That is, if Jack even decided to show up.
"I swear Astrid, Jack is such a bad liar! The worst of his kind even!" The young orthotic technician exclaimed while slamming his newly brewed black coffee against the hard wooden surface.
Said companion only sipped her herbal tea and nodded her head automatically."Mmhm."
This had been going on for a while now. Even since Hiccup appeared at the doors to their office, face scrunched in an obvious frown and eyes twitching in anger, Astrid immediately knew there was something wrong. Therefore, being the closest friend to the one legged man, she declared that a visit to the new café across the street would do them good.
However what she had not anticipated was to be overflown with declarations and hotly assumptions on why his boyfriend was behaving mysteriously.
"He even has the guts to say that there's nothing going on! Wha- does he think I'm blind?" Hiccup said and laughed skeptically.
"That's gotta be something; Jack being deaf and you being blind. What an interesting couple you two would make." She mumbled absentmindedly and dipped her already half eaten biscuit in the green tea, not even being faced by the fact that Hiccup was glaring daggers at her direction.
"This isn't a joke, Astrid." He deadpanned.
"Of course it isn't." she agreed, taking another sip of her tea while the auburn man sighed in frustration.
"You're not really helping."
Astrid raised a brow at him. "I'm not trying to." She said calmly and rolled up her sleeves. "I'm here as your supporter."
Hiccup scuffed. "Yeah well, you're doing a lousy job. I'm not feeling the support."
The blonde girl merely rolled her eyes at her friend. "That's because you're doing an even lousier job in filling me in on all the details."
The young man cocked his head and raised his brows in obvious confusion. "What? I've told you everything there is! Jack working far too many hours than necessary, Jack being gone for surely half of the day doing something, and Jack being oh-so mysterious and keeping stuff from me!"
"All I hear is Jack's name though."
"...What?"
She once again rolled her blue eyes and gave her friend a deadpanned look." Hiccup listen to yourself. You're only declaring stuff that Jack has done. Maybe you should take a step back and rethink a thing or two before jumping to conclusion." She suggested in a somewhat nonchalant manner, leaving Hiccup still to sit like a gaping fool.
"Come again?" he asks and Astrid gave out an exaggerated sigh.
"Have you ever thought that..." she stopped, rethinking her words and choosing them carefully as to not upset her friend further. "That there might be something deeper? Something planned?"
When all she received from the other was an utterly confused glare, Astrid almost—almost—groaned.
"Oh for the love of—Hiccup, there might be something behind as to why he's acting like he does."
Hiccup however wasn't faced by the obvious assumption made by her. "Of course there's something behind it all, Astrid. You'd think he'd do this just for fun? To mess with me?"
"You and I both know that Frost doesn't think stuff through. He's the typical 'act first and think later' kind of guy. So what if he just once, just this once, actually has something planned behind it all? Something that relates to you?"
When mentioning this Hiccup seemed to be looking awfully thoughtful all of sudden, as if something struck him.
"Why me, though?" he muttered thoughtfully.
Astrid shrugged nonchalantly and drank the remains of her herbal tea and fished her purse for some money to pay it. "You're his boyfriend; you'll figure it out eventually." She said simply and cleaned whatever she spilled on the table with a napkin.
"Astrid please." The young woman in question halted her actions and looked up at her friend, mentally noting the numbers of times she'd heard Hiccup plea for help; Six times so far, and additional to this one time, seven times in total.
Her expression softens as she sees the vulnerable and uncertain boy she once protected from the harsh reality in their younger days, also formally known as their school years, and even if the man seated in front of her was now living a life one would call perfect, she could still see the small and tiny boy that once needed her protection.
"I don't know what I should do, o-or what I can do." And there it was, the obnoxious and typical stammering Hiccup did once being nervous, extremely happy, or downright afraid of something. "I don't—can't— lose him..."
Astrid sighed for the umpteenth time that day and carefully reached over to place a caring hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Be patient Hiccup. Jack will tell you once he's...done with whatever it is he's doing." She gave him a warm, reassuring smile. "I promise."
Hiccup offered a small uncertain smile of his own, although he was glad that his closest friend had tried to be of help even if her methods of 'being helpful' wasn't as effective as she thought them to be.
"Thanks Astrid."
Her smile was reflecting the pure content and pride she felt inside. "Don't sweat it fishbone. Like I said, Jack will talk with you when the time is right."
Hiccup snorted mentally at that, since Jack couldn't actually talk, but he resigned from speaking his thoughts aloud when the waitress came and asked if they were done with the meal.
Bidding a formal farewell to the waitress after paying, the duo walked out from the café in comfortable silence and passed the messy street of Burgess until they neared their destination.
"Hey..." Hiccup suddenly spoke, getting the attention of the blonde female beside him. "It's just a thought but ehm, stop me if I'm wrong."
"Don't worry, I most certainly will." She stated with a smirk, making the taller boy roll his eyes.
"At the café you...You seemed so certain that Jack would—" he started slowly but was rudely interrupted by Astrid 'shhh'-ing him while taking up her apparently ringing cellphone.
Was it just him, or did Astrid look awfully exhausted all of a sudden?
Shrugging, Hiccup brushed it off, thinking that the question could wait, and walked in to the tall office building, holding the thick glass door open for Astrid like a true gentleman and made his way to the elevator which would take them both to the 12th floor.
Then, while still standing in the elevator, after lots of cusses and heated arguments between Astrid and the other person at the other end of the phone, the 25 year old Astrid Hofferson ended the call with a bang; Quite literally so since there now lay broken glass shards and metallic pieces of her cellphone all over the fancy elevator floor.
Hiccup bit his lower lip, not daring to turn his head to see the obvious anger that would be shown on her face. She always had a problem controlling her anger...
"Hiccup." She started, startling said boy and caused him to jump when she placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "Next time your imbecilic to cousin decide it would be a good idea to call me, make sure not to tell him he'll be calling his own funeral."
Hiccup could do nothing more than to gulp and nod, fearing for his own life if he did otherwise, and the question from before was since long forgotten.
-W-
A few hours later it was near the end of Hiccups long and uneventful day at work and he was writing away on the few documents that he'd turn in before he would make his way home.
Home.
Hiccup cringed at the word, knowing that if he went home the chances of meeting Jack there were slim, but not nonexistent, and Hiccup didn't know whichever of those two were worse than the other.
True, he was anxious to see him again, to ask of Jack to trust him with whatever it was that he kept secret, but at the same time he wanted nothing more than to have a sleepover party in his own office and have Jack take the first step.
If Jack even considered doing so.
By the time Hiccup had gotten back to work after his and Astrids time at the café, his thoughts had wandered to the most awful possibilities as of why Jack was acting the way he do. It started off with the thought that perhaps Jack had gotten a second job, since he always complained on how low on money he was, but then it took a horrible turn and escalated into thoughts like 'he's sleeping with someone else' or 'he doesn't love me anymore'.
The thought that Jack was having an affair had struck him much earlier, but it was an option Hiccup so naïvely dejected before it even had the time to process itself in his mind.' There was no way Jack could do something so cruel' he'd told himself, but now with his confident almost reaching the bottom he was starting to doubts his guts and listen to his conflicted mind instead.
...This was often considered bad since the young orthotic technician thoughts tended to wander and exaggerate towards the worst scenarios ever.
The facts were that Jack was secretive, no doubts that he was lying the other night, so to be fair the possibility that he slept with someone else wasn't that highly unlikely, but it also didn't mean that the albino man hadn't taken on a second job.
Really, the possibilities were endless.
Groaning loudly, Hiccup discouraged the documents for a moment and rubbed away the sleep in his heavy eyes. It had been a long night and a fairly long day with lots of conflicts and emotional swings, it was a wonder that he'd yet to fall asleep right there on his desk.
There was suddenly a knock on his door and the young man, with much complains form his tired body, straightened up on his chair and fixed his wrinkled suit before announcing that the person could come in.
"Wow Mr. Haddock, you look truly terrible." Came the ever so sarcastic comment from Hiccup's lively secretary.
Hiccup on the other hand wasn't up for Astrids unnatural cheerful demeanor, but instead leaned back on his costly and far too comfortable chair and let out a long groan.
"I feel terrible." Was all he said before stretching to wake up his somewhat numb limbs. He always did hate to sit still for too long...
"Why are you still here? I thought you went home about an hour ago." He asked, eying the woman that now stood next to his desk with his documents in hand.
She merely smirked. "I could ask you the same thing. Also, it's quite unprofessional for a secretary to end her day before her boss, don't you think?"
The man snorted lightly, but nodded nevertheless. "Sure is."
They both decided to stay for a while longer, due to the fact that some of the papers that Hiccup was about to turn in wasn't even halfway done. In the end they both ended up on the carpet floor with papers spread everywhere. Diagram and sketches of new prosthetic were re-drawn and different kinds of numbers related to sizes were displayed on more than one or ten papers.
"If I didn't know better I'd say you were afraid to go home and face Frost again." She suddenly stated, not wasting her time to turn and look at the obvious disbelieving and redden face of her boss.
He cleared his throat, breathing a small protest before going back to work, knowing it would do him no good to start a fight with the persuasive woman. "Good that you know better then."
"Sure is." Was all she answered, but Hiccup could clearly hear the mocking tone beneath all the formal tongue she preferred to use when working.
It was around 17:20 when the duo decided to end their abnormally long day, so they quickly cleaned up and placed the documents in an envelope that they later went with to the higher boss with.
With having that out of the way they both went to the parking lot where Hiccups white Audi A5 was awaiting him.
"Hey Hiccup, mind if I tag along to your house?" Astrid asked when they neared the white car, to which Hiccup simply raised a brow at.
"Sure, but why?" he scrunched his nose then, a thought hitting him and he pointed an accusing finger at her. "If this is about Jack I swear to the gods Astrid—"
"It has nothing to do with your lover boy, calm down." She laughed despite the judging glare she received from the other." I was meant to ask you sooner, but I simply forgot. You see I think my spare phone is at your place and as you remember my other phone kinda died earlier today." She explained, getting Hiccup to smirk knowingly.
"Kinda. Yeah, my memory does still serve me." He remarked, earning him a good punch to the arm.
"Smart ass. Don't think I won't hit you just because you're my boss." She declared hotly.
The brunette robbed at the sore part of his arm and shoot her a glare, but didn't dare to say otherwise than "Wouldn't dream of it."
The woman smiled, satisfied with the response and walked to the passenger seat and hopped in once Hiccup unlocked the car.
Once inside the car he ignited it after putting on his seatbelt and glancing at the rear view mirror for any other passing cars, then he pulled on reverse before driving off to the still busy streets. "What made you think your spare phone is at my place anyways?"
This only earned him another punch to the other arm and he groaned loudly once again at the pain.
"Don't question the woman Hiccup. We're always right." She stated as-a-matter-of-factly.
You sure you are a woman? He thought, but didn't dare say it aloud, for all the right reasons too. "Y'know, technically I could fire you..." he decided on instead, which only earned him a scuff and some humorous laughter.
"Yeah, but technically you won't."
Well, who could argue with such logic? Not Hiccup, that's for sure. That or he only preferred to have both of his arms still intact.
They were both fairly quite in around roughly five minutes before Astrid decided to speak up yet again.
"Do you know what day it is today Hiccup?" the question itself was rather confusing for the said boy, but he didn't dwell on it for too long and simply gave her an honest answer on what he thought was the day. Apparently it wasn't Wednesday, or Thursday...or Friday.
"Tuesday?" he wasn't really up for these silly games that Astrid seemed to be full of today.
The blonde grinned knowingly. "Yep, Today it's Tuesday. A wonderful Tuesday, don't you think?"
The brunette gave her an uncertain look. "Are you okay? You're behaving weirdly..." was all he said before he turned back to the road again, missing to notice the gleeful smile on Astrids lips as she fished out her spare phone from her purse and quickly typed in a massage while Hiccup weren't looking.
He's on his way. You better be there before we are, or I'll never hear the end of it!
Well well, hi there! This took a bit longer than I anticipated, and I'm sorry about that, and I'm also sorry for the lack of Jack in this chapter, but he'll make his appearance in the next chapter, don't worry!
Please feel free to leave a review as it will make most likely make my day 10 times better! c: