Healing Hearts

Rated; M for Mature

Pairing; HunterXAmy(HiccupXAstrid)

Author; Nightstar Fury

Disclaimer; I do not own anything HTTYD related-not the movies, shows, shorts, or series. I also don't own any of the songs that I may or may not use in the story. Everything belongs to it's original artist or creator!

3; Forget

{Normal POV}

Everyone who had seen Hunter was curious about him. There was so much to wonder about him: why was he attending Berk Isle High? Why'd he move to Berk with his mom? Why did he get cold whenever someone asked how he lost his leg. The guy barely said two words unless he absolutely had to talk to answer a teacher's question on something regarding the lesson being taught. His faithful wolf dog never left his side, for anything. Toothless-which a lot wondered why he'd name an animal that had very sharp teeth, would just sleep at Hunter's feet during classes. Most of the time if anyone looked over at him he was just sitting there facing the board, sometimes taking notes. It seemed he was there physically-but not mentally. Hunter seemed to be in his own little world and the people he'd been in class with since about 9:40am wanted to know why he could basically get away with not paying attention in class and still able to follow the lesson perfectly without being lost. Some thought it was cool, others were a little jealous.

For Hunter, he happened to notice that he had class with a lot of the same people. He recognized faces well, but didn't really know their names. The only person he knew because they introduced themselves to one another was Amy Hofferson: blond hair that sat in a braid hanging down her back between her shoulders and almost sky blue eyes. Hunter always seemed to be sitting close to her, even in study hall. In there they were pretty much allowed to do whatever they wanted as long as it didn't disrupt anyone else. Hunter decided to get an early start on his research paper regarding what career they wanted after high school was over in seven months. Basically, the assignment was to mention the job the person wanted, then research about it, and explain why they wanted to work in said career. While working on that, he was also talking to his mother-who was still at home unpacking a few more things into the apartment.

After an hour of that and his Language Art paper a page done, the bell rang signaling for lunch. Great, because he was actually really hungry for once-but needed a cigarette first. Perfect for him that he could eat outside on the senior field for lunch, smoke outside, and he could take Toothless out. Triple win for him. Hunter packed up his things and stood up slow, Toothless up beside him right afterwards as the two began making their way towards the main entrance doors to head outside.

"Hey! Hey, Hunter?" called a man's voice. Hunter paused a moment and looked back to see the boy from his Language Arts class who said that Toothless wasn't a dog-rather a wolf hurrying over with the young man who had long blond hair and blue eyes.

"What?" Hunter asked now.

"Where are you going, outside for lunch?" the young male asked.

"Yeah. Gotta take Toothless out too," Hunter replied.

"Why don't you come sit with my friends and I?" said Sonny, the one who said Toothless was a wolf.

"No thanks. I prefer to eat alone," Hunter answered before heading out the door the off to the left where the field was. Hunter could see that it had picnic tables and two garbage cans against the school building wall. Seemed a few others were out here too, not many because it was the middle of October and pretty cold outside-most appeared to be wearing sweaters of jackets. Once outside, Hunter unclipped the leash and pointed towards around the corner so Toothless would know not to do his business outside of the student's line of sight since they were eating. Toothless hurried off, Hunter had him on a pretty good schedule as far as bathroom and eating went.

Toothless would go first thing in the morning around 6:00am-then he'd eat breakfast which was normal canned wet food, then again around lunch time with normal dry food and water. Hunter would take him out around 5:30pm before dinner, and then he would go out one more time around 11pm just as Hunter was about to go to bed for the night. Right now was the lunch run, Hunter leaned against the wall with his eyes closed until he heard footsteps approaching. Opening his eyes he saw it to be Sonny and his friend, Amy seemed to be among them too-hiding in the back all shy-like.

"What do you want?" Hunter asked with a sigh.

"Well, class kind'a interfered with talking to you so we figured we would now." said Amy.

"If I had wanted to talk to anyone, I would have." Hunter remarked.

We just wanted to introduce ourselves," said the girl who looked to be a twin.

"Fine, make it quick then." Hunter said as got the cigarette from earlier that had been tucked behind his ear and placed it between his lips before lighting the tip and taking a drag while slipping his lighter back into his left pocket of his dark gray jeans.

"You're a smoker?" Amy inquired.

"Yeah, what of it?" Hunter stated holding it between his fingers.

"Oh, nothing. Don't see many students doing it is all..." Amy replied quietly. Hunter just shrugged some and took another drag.

"I'm Sonny Jorgenson," the male from before stated.

"Travis Thorston, and that's my twin sister, Roxanne-but everyone calls her Rox or Roxy..." said the male with blonde hair and blue eyes motioning to himself as Travis and then his sister.

"I'm Flynn Ingerman," said a large young man with short blond hair and green eyes.

"Vince and Randy Grimborn," said another voice belonging to a shorter male with brown hair and brown eyes, the brother appeared to be a little older and bald with brown eyes.

"And you...know me already," Amy smiled some.

"I know your name, I don't know you, per say." Hunter replied, "Hunter Ostberg," he introduced. Toothless now returned to his side and Hunter rubbed his head a few times. "There ya are, bud. Ready to eat?" his friend seemed to pant happily as Hunter opened his backpack and pulled out two bowls, just plastic ones. Hunter grabbed a bag of dog food in a zip-lock bag and dumped it into one of the bows, and then beside he he poured a water bottle in to the other one. Toothless licked the side of his face and started eating contently.

"So...why'd you move from Arc Island to little old Berk?" Roxanne inquired.

"Needed a change," Hunter shrugged a bit as he took another drag and let it out after a second.

"Yeah-but isn't Archi Academy like, the best school in the Archipelago?" Flynn inquired.

"Not to me. Filled with a bunch of judgmental assholes as far as I'm concerned-which I'm not." Hunter said as he used his fingers to put out the cigarette and then toss it away. Hunter grabbed his lunch from his bag now and sat down on the edge of one of the picnic tables-but still near Toothless. Hunter pulled out his sandwich, drink, piece of fruit, and then last was bag of chips.

"That why you moved?" Ryker asked.

"Moved because I got sick of Arc Island. Been there all my life, hate it. And I got expelled from Archi Academy end of junior year." Hunter mentioned without caring who knew. Why should he, it was the truth after all.

"Expelled huh?" Viggo chuckled some, "What did ya do?"

"I beat the hell out of someone who wouldn't leave me alone when I warned him to do so. I hospitalized him," Hunter informed while closing his eyes and taking a bite of his food.

"What did he do to you?" Amy asked curiously.

"Tried to be a bully to me because I lost my leg. Warned him to stop, he didn't. I beat his ass and put him in the hospital for twenty four hours. Are you done asking question about me now? I just want to eat my lunch and relax before next class," Hunter stated. "It's cool you wanna hang out-but being brutally honest with ya...I'm not here to make friends. I could actually care less about it."

"Everyone needs friends," Roxanne frowned some.

"I have friends and they ain't you. My best friend is actually sitting right beside me," Hunter said motioning to Toothless as the wolf dog rubbed his face against Hunter's.

"So, where are your friends then?" Travis asked.

"Likely off doing something great with their lives while I'm stuck here. Don't know, lost contact a year ago." Hunter stated while finishing his sandwich and taking a sip of his soda.

"Well, then they wouldn't really be friends anymore, would they be?" Viggo remarked.

"Look. I tried asking nicely-that's obviously not working. Let me be more direct," he stated before narrowing his eyes, "Get the fuck lost and leave me alone. I just wanna finish my food in peace, finish off this day, go home, and sleep. Then repeat the same day over and over again until I graduate. Did ya understand me that time?" Hunter said coldly, a little harshly too. The area seemed to fall a little quiet after he said it too, everyone glancing over towards him.

"Wow, sorry then. Just thought you'd want some company or friends since you said you suffered from depression and shit..." Sonny replied.

"Yeah, and that's what my best friend is for. I don't need company or new friends, so just leave me alone." Hunter retorted. The others just began to move away from him as Hunter sighed putting his apple down, Toothless nuzzled against him gently, whining some to try and calm him down. "Ugh, I'm not even hungry anymore..." he sighed putting the remaining things away and finishing off the soda. He tossed the garbage and put the paper bag that had the rest of his lunch his his backpack. Hunter left Toothless's food and water out in case he got hungry again. "I'm so tired, Toothless..." he said softly. Toothless understood and moved against the building wall and laid down, using his head to motion for Hunter to come lay on him. Hunter smiled some as he got up and sat down in the grass-then laid against his friend gently.

First he set his cell phone alarm for five minutes before the bell and then after that he closed his eyes and let sleep take him. The others hadn't been sitting far away, they saw him now asleep against his wolf dog. "He's kind of an jerk-we were just being nice," Roxanne mentioned finally.

"Well, that's on him if he doesn't want any friends. Least we tried," Sonny stated shrugging a bit.

"I think there's more to it than that..." Amy said gently still looking Hunter's way.

"What do you mean?" Flynn inquired.

"I don't know. It's just a feeling...I think there's more to it. He's new here-but he's not shy or nervous in the slightest about it. It seems like he's here because he has to be. He said that to us, that he was stuck here." Amy replied now.

"It's not our problem. He made it pretty clear he didn't want friends," Travis stated now.

"I just think there's a lot more going on than we're seeing," Amy said while eating her orange slowly. For the remainder of lunch, they just talked among themselves and everyone left Hunter alone. Five minutes before the bell, his alarm had him awake. Hunter sat up slowly and yawned.

"Yeah, definitely needed that nap. Thanks, Toothless..." Hunter said gently. His wolf dog huffed a bit and got up to stretch his legs. Hunter cleaned up the food and water bowls-saving the food and dumping the water out. When all that was put away, the two made their way back inside and to history class. The bell rang two minutes later and it began again. Thankfully it was just this class and another one-then he could go home.

(Last Period)

Finally it was time for last period, Hunter couldn't wait for the next hour to pass because he got to go home after this. He had already messaged his mother and made sure she'd be there on time since he didn't want to spend more time at the school than necessary. The last block of the day was music, Hunter made his way inside after using the bathroom and saw everyone else there as he'd seen before. He was going to safely assume that these people clearly had every class together and he was going to have them for his classes too. Great. The bell rang signaling the start of class as Hunter sat down in a spare seat, Toothless beside him and lying down at his feet. The teacher entered with a smile.

"Hello class. Hope your day has been well. Today, I thought we might just listen to music for the next hour." she began.

"What's the catch, Ms. Christy?" asked Roxanne now.

"You're going to be listening closely and try and find the emotions of the artist. You know, listen to the words, the beats, the mood of the music. I want you to be able understand how artists come up with their songs, try to find the inspiration for them writing it." Ms. Christy informed. There was a long heavy sigh that filled the room from the students. "It's part of your midterm and final for this year," she added.

"How so?" asked Amy next.

"For your midterm, you will be writing your own song. Just the lyrics to it, as well taking an exam regarding everything we cover from when you started in September to January when midterms are." Ms. Christy told them.

"And how is it part of our finals too?" another student inquired.

"The song lyrics you write for midterms are to be turned into a song with music and your own voice singing it. Your final is singing your own song in front of the class, and a small report on why you wrote it, what your inspiration was." the teacher smiled wide. Another class groan. "Well we could scratch the singing and just do a ten page exam if you prefer?" she asked now. Now it was quiet and she nodded, "Thought so." was the next remark from her mouth as she set up the CD player and began searching for the song to use first. Hunter already found this annoying, what kind of final exam was that? To write your own song and sing it? What sense did it even make? It didn't. The song began as everyone was listening to it, writing down their thoughts about what they felt the artist was saying, what inspired it.

This went on for almost the whole class, Hunter had yet to give any responses about songs. It seemed everyone was getting a turn after a song finished, he was likely going to end up going soon. The final song started and Hunter recognized it right away, all he wanted to do was runaway now. Listening to the lyrics just took him back, Toothless sensed it as he got up and nudged at Hunter's face slightly and whined. Others in the class began to look back and see him in another trance, his eyes closed and moving around rapidly while his hand on the desk kept tightening into a fist. Toothless moved from Hunter's side quickly and to the CD player, he used his paw to press stop before getting back to Hunter's side and barking at him loudly.

"Chloe..." he breathed out, Hunter's eyes opened quickly as he panted hard, blinking to look around and refocus on where he was. Toothless whined softly, concerned for his friend as he nuzzled against him. "Thanks Toothless..." Hunter said softly as he took a deep breath, "I'm okay now...I'm okay..." he added while pressing his forehead to Toothless's.

"Hunter, are you alright?" Ms. Christy inquired.

"I'm fine. Sorry," Hunter told her.

"What was all that? You just...blanked out for five minutes," Ms. Christy asked him.

"It was...nothing. I just...don't have fond memories of that song," Hunter answered.

"Define?" she said now.

"Someone very close to me died about two years ago. I'm the one who found her and the song playing on the CD was that one..." Hunter explained-it wasn't far from the truth either.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know or I wouldn't have chosen it...how did your friend pass?" Ms. Christy asked.

With the straightest face he could muster as he stood up with his bag over his shoulder now, "She killed herself, hung from the beam in her bedroom." Hunter said heading for the door with his hand on the handle, "And she wasn't my friend, she was my girlfriend. I went over to her house because she said she was sick and found her dead." with that the bell rang and he walked out without another word. Hunter wanted to get out of there, he got outside the main doors and went straight to his mother's SUV. Toothless got in the back door and Hunter sat back there with him.

"Hunter, what's wrong?" his mother asked.

"Just drive home, Mom...I don't want to talk about it," Hunter said. She nodded and pulled away from the school as Toothless laid his head on Hunter's lap while Hunter pet the top of his head softly. Hunter had his eyes closed and head on the seat, finally the day was over and he could maybe get some sleep before doing his homework. Getting to the house, Hunter got out pretty fast with Toothless and went straight to his room-shutting the door once inside and locking it. Toothless got on his bed after Hunter took the clip of the leash and laid down while Hunter opened his mini fridge and pulled out a small bottle of Fireball Whiskey. "I just want to forget..." he cracked the top open and took a long swig from the bottle, and then another afterwards.

He could do his homework later on, it's not like he was going to sleep tonight where the nightmares consumed him. Hunter set his phone alarm for 10pm, right now he just wanted to get wasted and forget all about that horrible day he found his girlfriend dead in her room. Hunter would wake up at 10pm, take a warm shower, and then do his homework. Likely fall asleep again around 3am, get up for 6:15am to get ready for school tomorrow. Five more drinks from the bottle and he was feeling pretty good, he finally capped it and put it away before falling on his bed and instantly blacking out drunk.