I'm soo sorry for taking so long! Here's what happened:

Me, two weeks ago: I should really get started on ch. 3. Nah, it can wait.

Me, a week ago: I really need to finish that bloody chapter! Nah, I don't feel good.

Me, yesterday: I really need to finish that blasted thing! Nah, it can wait a little lon-AHH! IT'S BEEN ALMOST THREE WEEKS! THEY'LL KILL ME IF I DON'T FINISH!

And, that's the end of How I am an expert at Procrastination. Anywho, yesterday was Valentine's Day, (Sorry, I wanted to get this out yesterday, but there's no libraries open on Sunday.) and I actually got a flower! From a Walmart employee, who was giving them out for free and insisted I take one. Yay, three cheers for Walmart employees! Seriously, that really made my day. That was the first time anyone's given me anything for Valentine's Day of free will (not the class exchange crap).

Well, please enjoy the chapter and have a happy and safe President's Day!


Chapter Three


Merida lay on her couch, wrapped in a blanket. A book lay in her hand, and she was almost finished with it. She was at the part where the boy and the girl were sort-of fighting. The boy was trying to avoid the girl, and the girl was trying to get the boy to talk. Kinda like Hiccup and her. She sighed, her mind running wild. The characters would no doubt be together in the end, because that was how it worked in books.

She wished her life were as simple as that. But no, she had to have an "interesting" love life. She had to have complications, and roadblocks. Hiccup had to be so darn stubborn, and she had to be so pushy. She had probably scared him away, she had probably chased him off. The desperate dash he made for the door after she had let him go, the way he resisted when she had dragged him to her house.

She groaned quietly to herself. Great. Just great. The only boy in the whole darn school who she liked, and she managed to frighten him away. Merida buried her head in her arms, her mane of red hair flying about in the sudden movement. Her brain whizzed, trying to figure things out. Why did her life have to be so confusing? She found this question repeating itself as her brain brought the same scene up, over and over. The one of Hiccup running away from her in such a haste.


Hiccup lay on his floor, having finished cleaning his room. He hated his room being a mess, and kept it hospital clean. His Algebra II textbook lay open, and he stared at it, tapping his pencil to his forehead. He became aware of a gnawing pain at his middle, his stomach growling sulkily at him. He slowly picked himself off the floor, heading down the staircase to the kitchen.

He opened the fridge, the dim light-bulb flickering on. The hum of it sort of reminded him of his mother, but in a nice way. But the empty shelves didn't. Those were new; his mother would never have allowed it. He closed it, the door snapping shut. Maybe there was something in the cupboards...

The door opened with a bang. "A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard" Hiccup quoted silently. The giant was Stoic. His tangled mess of a beard lay heaped upon his face, but his eyes held no kindness. They did not glitter, like Hagrid's.

In fact, they were glazed over. This, added to his alarmingly red nose, suggested that he had been drinking more than a little too much. He stumbled through the door, eyes training on Hiccup. For once in in seven years, they fixated on him. They widened in shock, then narrowed at the boy.

"Who are you?!" he bellowed at him. "Why the hell are you in my house?!" Hiccup practically cried in relief as he hugged his father. "I'm Hiccup, your son." Stoic looked at the small boy clutching him. Who was he? He wasn't sure he had a son. So why was he in his house?

Stoic pushed the small boy to the floor. Hiccup fell with a thump, tears threatening to fall again. "You are not my son." he said, voice cold with animosity. The small boy at his feet gasped, his heart crumbling like a old cookie. "I have no son." he finished, stomping away to his room.

Hiccup felt a small part of him die, some part of his being cracking into nothingness. The streaks the tears made shone slightly in the light. He slowly picked himself off the floor, wincing at the pain in his arms. Some of the cuts had opened up again, for the second time that day.

Slowly climbing the stairs, the tears that fell from his face splattered onto the wooden stairs. The stairs creaked as he plodded up them deliberately. He sat on his bed, it groaned in protest as it sunk down. Hiccip's eyes stung from the effort of repressing the tears, but he was fighting a losing battle trickling freely down his face.

His attention was caught by a flash of light. It came from the general direction of his desk, but his vision was too blurred to make anything out. He blinked several times, rubbing his eyes. Flash. There it was again. What was it? The razor, still on his desk form last night. Blood still stained the blade, dark against the glare.

He picked it up, turning it over in his fingers. Should he do it again? Merida would surely find out; it was best to play it safe. But the crushing feeling on his chest refused to budge, not relenting in its persistent weight.

He rolled up his sleeves, wincing at the pain of the bloody fabric dragging along his cuts. Taking a towel, he wiped the blood away. Once he was finished, he took the blade once again, suspending it above his skin. He was about to plunge it down, to finish the job, when he was interrupted.

A loud, jangling sound echoed through the house. It sounded like bells, and was oddly familiar. Hiccup couldn't place it, but it reminded him of his mother. It reminded him of the times when she would have her friends over for tea on Saturdays, when she would welcome visitors into the house. Visitors…

That was it! It was the doorbell! Goodness, he hadn't heard that sound in over seven years. Not one person had stopped by for tea in Stoic's reign. Until now. Hiccup didn't know who on earth would be ringing the doorbell now, Hiccup had no friends to visit, and Stoic had very few.

Maybe it was Gobber, checking up on them. No, he would have called first. Who was it then? Only one way to find out. He trudged down the stairs, sleeves rolling themselves down his arms. A trickle of the blood made itself silently down his arm, dribbling onto his hand.

The smell of alcohol filled his nostrils as he passed Stoic's door, the man's loud snores echoing through the quiet house. The doorbell rang again, but he slept on. Once more it rang; whoever was outside really wanted to get a hold of them. Hiccup hurried to the door, really wishing that it had a peephole to check who it was. He still didn't know who it possibly could be. Why would any one want to would anyone ant to visit the two in this house? Neither was part of any organizations, nor were they very popular in the community... Both of them were essentially social outcasts among the town of Berk.

The door opened slowly, and the first thing Hiccup saw was a flash of fiery red hair. Merida stood on the doorstep, a book in hand. Why.." Hiccup muttered quietly to himself. Why must she always show up whenever he was most weak?

Hiccup may have been zoned out, but Merida wasn't. "Hiccup, you're bleeding!" she said, grabbing his hand. The pain that raced up his arm was enough to snap him out of his trance, yelping as he realized that Merida was holding his hand. "Hiccup, you are bleeding." she repeated, trying to get his attention.

He looked down at his hand, watching the blood trickle down his fingers. "So I am." he said, mostly to himself. Merida still had his hand in hers, and it was beginning to get sticky from the blood. "Here, let's get you cleaned up." she said, dragging him through his own house.

Merida ignored the bitter smell of beer emanating from the room on the left, instead asking where the bathroom was. "Upstairs on the left." She smiled at him, pushing him up the stairs. Turning to the bathroom, she pushed him down on the toilet seat. "Sit." she told him, rummaging through the medicine cabinet for bandages.

Hiccup suddenly realized what Merida was about to do. She would find out about the cutting, the depression; she would find out about everything. He jumped up, causing Merida to hit her head on the underside of the sink again. "Ouch!" she cried, her hair bouncing around as she got up.

She tried to grab him to push back on the toilet, but he wouldn't let her. "I'm fine!" he said, ducking her grabbing arms. "I can fix it myself. Please, just leave me alone." Merida stopped. She looked at Hiccup, her face falling. He didn't want her here? Of course he didn't. She was always too demanding, too pushy. She had forced him up here, trying to help him, but he didn't want her help. He wasn't incapacitated, she told herself. Why would he want her playing Mama Bear on him?

"Okay." she said, eyes tingling. She traveled slowly down the stairs, Hiccup following her. At the door, she paused. Merida turned toward him, eyes wet. "I guess I will see you tomorrow." she said quietly. Hiccup nodded, staring at the ground. She gave him a quick hug before turning down the garden path. At the end of the drive, she turned to face him one last time. He raised his hand and waved, and his sleeve fell down a little.

Red lines covered the exposed flesh.


Yay! I finally made a halfway-decent cliffhanger! Anywho, I'm really sorry this took so long to update, I was having some computer issues plus I had no idea what to write. But I got this written, and I hope you enjoyed it. Please, review. Click on the little box and let me know what you think.

Special thanks to asingha19, EraticMind, .90, .568, cam285 and Motonari9116 for your support. Welcome to the small club of supporters! And special thanks once again to Amaya-chan07. It is really nice to have such a great fan club. Thank You All!

Now, for the future of Such a Small Thing, I was thinking of making Hiccup suicidal. What do you think? Yes? No? Let me know! Now, I'm off to work on catching up on my sleep and getting rid of this atrocious headache. Happy late Valentine's Day everyone!

~Yours in Insanity, Joan McCreedy.

Posted: 1/15/16

Updated 2/18/16: Grammatical update.