A/N; thank you to everyone who left a review & told me how I can improve my writing skills, it helps a lot!
Much to Hiccup's surprise, after a few days he seemed to be able to get into the flow of things. He'd wake up before Toothless, head straight to the cafeteria as soon as he was allowed, and eat the half edible food that was served for breakfast.
Even though he attracted practically every look imaginable from the inmates, from leers and curious gazes, to downright frightening glares, he was glad he had made a friend in Jack, as unexpected as that friendship had been. Every morning he would sit with the white haired boy at their table, Toothless would leer at him occasionally from across the room and Jack would raise his eyebrows at the two of them before making a lewd comment.
It was on the fifth day that things changed.
Hiccup and Jack were sat at breakfast when a new inmate entered the cafeteria, the room hushing unusually silent when he appeared. Hiccup watched the new inmate curiously as he cut past the breakfast queue, everyone near him giving him a wide berth as he did so. He was a large guy, almost as wide as he was tall and with small beady eyes. He was wearing a dark blue outfit, and was completely covered in green tattoos, even on his face.
Hiccup watched silently, as did the rest of the room, as he intercepted a much taller inmate who was taking his food to a table. Stealing the other man's food he sat down at a nearby table, which was currently occupied by six other inmates. As soon as the new guy sat down, the other inmates immediately jumped up and moved to find another table, leaving their food behind.
Slowly, as the green tattooed inmate started eating, the tense atmosphere began to die down and the sound level quickly returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.
Hiccup shot an anxious glance around, and his eyes accidentally found Toothless. The normally relaxed man sat forward with his elbows balanced on the edge of the table, his fists clenched. From the hard line of his jaw Hiccup guessed that he had his teeth grit, and he was sending a murderous gaze the new inmate's way, although the big guy was otherwise oblivious to it, too engrossed in his food.
Hiccup watched as Toothless' brown haired friend put a hesitant hand on his arm, and slowly Toothless seemed to relax as he listened to the quiet murmurings that were being spoken to him.
'Who is that?' Hiccup whispered to Jack as he looked back to the new inmate.
'That's Green; he was in this section a few months ago but he got moved for fighting. It looks like he's been brought back in.' Even Jack looked unsure, which was a surprise for Hiccup. Jack always seemed to know what was happening.
Since they had both finished their food, Hiccup followed Jack to the bathrooms. The only showers in the prison were communal ones, and Hiccup hated them. It was embarrassing having to wash in front of other people (at least he thought so), and so unlike what he was used to back at home.
As Jack disappeared into the steamy area, Hiccup found an almost empty corner to take his shower in. He faced the wall as he scrubbed his hair clean, he definitely didn't want to attract anymore leers from the inmates; it was bad enough when he was dressed.
Knowing him, he was the one who was likely going get attacked in there for dropping the soap, or falling face first into some guy as he slipped on the wet floor and as it turned out; that's exactly what happened.
Halfway through his shower, Hiccup dropped the soap and was just turning around to try to see where it was when he accidentally stood on it and slipped backwards. He flailed his arms out in shock as he began to tumble backwards, but instead of hitting the cold hard tiles on the wet floor his fall was broken when he hit a firm chest instead. Pale arms wrapped around him to steady him, inadvertently pulling him backwards so he was flush against the body behind.
Hiccup bit his lip. This was it; he was going to be killed. With his luck he'd likely just fallen straight into some huge scary guy with a million tattoos and piercings who decided that they had a problem with him.
Hiccup was definitely beyond surprised when a dark haired head leaned slowly over his shoulder, and he turned to see who it was, only to find out his face was centimetres away from Toothless'.
'You should be more careful; we wouldn't want something bad happening to you, would we?' Toothless rumbled and Hiccup gulped in reply as the strong arms around his waist tightened their grip menacingly.
'Um.' Words escaped him and Hiccup blushed as Toothless… wait; did he just sniff his neck? Toothless smirked at Hiccup before pulling completely away and abruptly walking off in the opposite direction, his dark form quickly disappearing into the mist of the showers.
Well that wasn't creepy at all.
'Hey, why do you look so freaked out?' Jack laughed while towelling his damp hair dry as Hiccup finally caught up with him in the dressing area. 'Did you talk to Toothless or just gawk at him?'
Hiccup didn't bother to reply as Jack continued to snicker, instead just shooting him a glare which probably didn't look threatening to Jack in the slightest. He wasn't even going to ask how he knew that his cell mate had been in there as the same time as them.
'Come on,' Jack pulled him along once they were both dressed. 'Work time.'
By the time dinner rolled around, Hiccup was definitely nervous. He was unsure as to Toothless' intentions, and now having to eat dinner while he got leered at was not anything he was at all looking forward to.
Only Toothless wasn't there. Three quarters of the way into the meal and there still wasn't a sign of him. The seat he usually sat in was empty, although the rest of the table was occupied as normal.
Jack seemed to catch on to Hiccup's confusion and he spoke. 'Your boyfriend's not coming for dinner, from what I heard he got caught fighting.'
Fighting? 'Who was he fighting? And he's not my boyfriend!' Hiccup blushed and Jack raised an eyebrow.
Jack pointed his half-filled fork over to where the new inmate, Green, was sat. Hiccup noticed he was sporting a black eye as well as having bruised shoulders and bloody knuckles. 'That's my guess,' Jack answered.
'But why isn't he locked away instead?' Hiccup nodded his head in Green's direction. 'I thought you said Toothless always gets his way.' Maybe he wasn't as tough as he had thought.
'Oh, he does; but I suppose it's much easier to put the smaller guy in isolation, especially since Green's likely to flip out at anyone.' At Hiccup's slightly scared frown he continued. 'Don't stress, they normally take anyone in isolation back to their rooms once everyone's gone to bed.'
Nevertheless, that night, Hiccup found the empty cell was much duller than usual. Of course it meant he could loiter about before getting into bed without having to worry about his cell mate, but he found the unusual emptiness of the boring cell much more unsettling than he did when it was occupied by Toothless' presence.
Still, he crawled straight into bed and shut his eyes, hoping he could find a peaceful sleep in the quietness of the room.
