Chapter 4

I leaned on the table with my left arm, propping myself up. "Santa sure can cook, huh?" I asked, bringing the cinnamon roll back up for another bite. Hiccup chuckled, "Haha, I'll tell him you said so."

"Via letter?"

"Eh, close enough. I think a text would suffice, though."

I laughed a little at his comment as I chomped through another bite. The icing melted slowly, giving way to the sweet cinnamon flavor underneath. It was the best one I've ever eaten. After it was finished I wanted another, but didn't ask for one. Hiccup finished his own two bites behind me and leaned on the table beside me. "See, what did I tell you?" He asks, smirking. I rolled my eyes, giving in. "Alright, alr- YAAAAAAAAAH!"

I screamed as I felt something slither over my hand. I reeled backwards, almost slamming into the wall on my way. Hiccup jumped, scared by my sudden outburst. We both looked at the table at the exact same moment. I expected him to have my same sort of reaction I had when he saw what it was, a black frog-looking thing squatting upon the tabletop, but he laughed instead. "Toothless, what did you do?" He asked, picking up the small animal.

I stared at it, wondering what the heck it was and why Hiccup was holding it. Hiccup looked back at my face, noticing my confusion. "This is Toothless, my salamander." He said.

Ha ha, very funny.

"Hiccup… that is not a salamander. Salamanders have tails… and are small." He shook his head, waving my thought away. "He does have a tail. Well, I mean… he did. It was torn off in an accident last year and never really grew back. The size, though, I don't know about. Maybe I feed him too much?" He said, smiling sideways at me. I took another look at the slimy creature, focusing in on where a tail would be if there was one.

It was difficult to see, but there was definitely a small, raised line there. So it really was a salamander. Maybe. I still wasn't entirely convinced. "So… His name is Toothless?" I asked, before he could comment on my disbelieving face. He nodded. "Yupp… I'm not exactly good at names I guess." He said, a weak laugh following the words.

My eyes reluctantly shied away from the animal, finding their way back to the cinnamon roll, a more pleasant sight. "I'll be right back." Hiccup said, bounding off upstairs with the lizard-thing in hand. He was gone no more than a minute before reappearing downstairs alone. "I put him up so he wouldn't bother you anymore." He explained, walking over to the sink to wash his hands. He walked back over to my side on the edge of the table, flipping the towel he had dried his hands with casually over his shoulder. "So… where did you move here from?" He asked, twirling the end of the towel around his slender fingers.

I took a breath, preparing myself for the long story that would follow. I told him about my father and my uncle and how I was left with him in Sydney and how I had now found myself back in the states. "Wow." was his immediate reaction. I chuckled a little at the sight of his worried face. "Don't worry about it, I'm fine. I guess it kinda helps to tell the story sometimes too, you know? Keeps them close…" We fell into an awkward silence, one not even I could fix.

Glancing about for anything to make myself look less bothered, my eyes once again found the cinnamon roll. Hiccup soon found my gaze there. A small smirk climbed up the side of his mouth. "Here," he began, "I'll split the last one with you."

I looked away in surprise and embarrassment, thinking of how funny it was that a cinnamon roll could make me so greedy. Of course, these were no ordinary cinnamon rolls, as had been called to my attention. These were "Santa's" cinnamon rolls, and whether or not he actually made them was irrelevant, they were still the best thing I had ever tasted. Hiccup ripped the sticky roll into two crooked halves, giving me what seemed to be the larger of them.

We worked our way through the last few bites until there was nothing left. "Ah, thanks." I said, returning to my usual self, thankful for the distraction from the earlier awkwardness. "No prob." Hiccup said, crossing in front of me back into the living room. I licked the last remains of the roll off my fingertips and followed him. He grabbed an Xbox remote and flashed the cover of a game in my direction. "You play?" he asked, travelling to the other side of the couch and immediately flopping down into it.

Even on his own couch, his feet didn't hit the floor. Poor shorty.

Laughing inwardly to myself, I slipped down beside him, grabbing a second remote. "You bet." I said, giving him a playful glare. He wiggled around, sitting Indian style as he propped his elbows up on his knees. "Good." He said, throwing his own challenge my way.

We played for a few good hours, and even though I could pride myself as the champion among my friends back in Sydney, this little runt beat me every single time. Finally, I gave in. "Dang it, Hiccup!" I bellowed as he slashed up my avatar for the 50th time. He laughed, letting his weight fall back into the couch cushions. "Sucks to suck." He replied, fully enjoying his victory. Crap.

Sunday came, and with it, more snow. Somehow, I had found myself back at hiccup's door.

*Ding Dong*

"Ughh…"

*Diiiiiiiiiiing Dong*

"Grrrr…"

*Ding Dong Ding Dong Ding Dong Ding Dong Ding-*

"Whaddaya Waaaant?!" I yelled, throwing the door open. I had fallen asleep on the couch after Jack left, too lazy to make the long trek up the stairs to my room. Cold air whooshed around me, ruffling and lifting my loose brown sweater around my waist. It spread like tickling fingers through the fabric, finding its way across my ribs and into my sleeves, giving me shivers. "Brrrrr…" I winced, wrapping my right arm around my left shoulder, rubbing slightly to warm it up.

I was greeted by Jack's lazy early morning smirk. "Hey Hiccup." He said, tilting his head. He reminded me of an owl in the way he always seemed to be looking forward yet far away. Resisting the urge to sigh loudly, I let my arm fall and swing back, inviting him in.

He shook his head, staying put. I shot him a questioning glance, wondering why he was forcing me to let all of my beautiful warm air out. "Hurry up and go get changed, I'm taking you for a ride." He demanded, twirling on his heel to walk back down the steps. I couldn't hold back the sigh this time, "I don't know if you forgot or what, Jack but there's a little problem with your plan." I said. He twisted his head back at me in curiosity. "I'm still grounded, remember?" I told him, shaking my head.

He pouted a little, but then came a glittering in his I eyes I knew could mean nothing but trouble. "Yes…. And?" He asked, throwing himself back towards my direction. "And that means I'm not allowed to leave the house, stupid. We covered this yesterday." I told him, a look of annoyance covering my face. This seemed to make him only laugh at me. "Geez, you're grumpy when you wake up, Hic." He said, winking. Usually I would cringe at the name, but when Jack said it… I don't know. It sounded… softer? "You know it's already two o'clock, right?"

I leaned into the doorway, giving up on being warm. "Oh yeah? Well you're the one who woke me up so you can blame yourself." I said, refusing to budge. He let out a small breath, and crossed in front of me into the house. He wiped his feet on the mat, making little pieces of snow ricochet onto the tops of my feet, giving me goosebumps. After he was all the way inside, I shut the door. He took off his coat, revealing the blue hoodie he seemed so fond of underneath. "What are you doing?" I asked, still too tired to think too much.

"I'm forcing you to come with me." He said, beckoning me forward, further into the living room. "Um… wouldn't you be leading me the wrong way, then?" I asked, confused. He laughed, "Well, you wouldn't be able to go out in nothing but your boxers and that sweater, now would you?" He returned, nodding in my direction. I felt a little blush make it up to my cheeks. "W-well, that won't be a problem, since I can't go anyway." I told him, staying put. He chuckled a little at my stubbornness, the same glint from earlier still in his eyes.

"Fine… I'll just have to rummage through your closet by myself, then." He said, and with that, went to bouncing his way up the stairs to my room. "Jack?!" I called out, unbelieving. When he didn't come down, I came up. I walked down the hallway to the door to my bedroom. "Ack! It's the thing!" He called out, scared by something. I assumed it was toothless, remembering the reaction Jack had to him yesterday. Jack stood by his tank with a look of disgust-slash-intrigue as he examined Toothless.

"So you're still scared of him?" I asked mockingly. He threw me a small scowl. "Shut up."

I laughed quietly to myself as he made his way to my closet door. "Jack, are you kidding me? Are you really going to get me in trouble just for your own fun?" I asked. "I'm nothing if not persistent." He said. "You got that right…" I muttered under my breath. He opened the door to find my surprisingly neat closet. He showed a look of surprise at the lack of stuff inside.

He silently flipped through hangers, probably noticing how almost every shirt I owned was either brown or green. After a few more seconds, he found one to his liking and pulled out a pair of jeans. He flopped them on the bed and nodded pointedly at them. "Change and meet me downstairs." He commanded, pushing past me back to the living room. He wasn't going to let me get out of this. Oh well, maybe if I hurried I could get back before Dad.

I turned to my bed to see what shirt he had picked. I chucked to myself as I saw that he had picked out the only blue shirt I owned. I slipped off the brown sweater and put on the blue shirt. It had a crew neck and was really plain… I had used it for a cosplay once and never wore it again. I slipped on the pants and walked over to Toothless' tank.

I dropped a few bits of store-bought salamander food inside so he wouldn't starve until I got back and could give him some regular food. He looked at it like it was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen in his life. Which, as far as food goes, it probably was. I had spoiled him since the day I found him, and only on a few rare occasions like this did I ever feed that stuff to him. I jogged back downstairs to find Jack leaning against the table.

He smirked a little at his accomplishment. "You ready?" He asked. I held up a finger. "Yes… on one condition. I have to be back before my Dad gets off work at eight or I will be royally screwed." I told him. He smiled really big, happy that I had finally agreed, and bounced up and down on his toes a couple times. He reminded me of kid waiting for their parent to take them to the zoo or something. I grabbed my coat, while he went to open the door. I followed him out and we made our way outside to his car, which was already running in front of his house. He never intended on letting me stay home today.

We jumped inside, taking shelter from the cold. The radio was set to a station playing Celtic rock. He must've noticed my small smile because he switched the channel to a pop station right after. "So where are we going anyway?" I asked him, just now thinking of the question. "To the mall in Merk. Remember I lived in Sydney? Yeah, so I don't have much winter wear." He said. Oh, ok. Well this shouldn't take too long, then.

"Jack? You've been in there for thirty minutes with five shirts… are you okay?" I asked through the dressing room stall's door. From inside came a rustling, and finally the door flew open. Jack's face had a determination of an Olympic racer. "I can't choose." He said, his brow wrinkling in discontent. I had to laugh a little at that. "Well they all looked fine when you showed me earlier, I don't see what your problem is." I told him and crossed my arms across my chest. He gave me a small sigh of disappointment. "This is serious, Hic. I pride myself in being a very well dressed person. I can't just buy something on a whim!" he said, the most serious look on his face I had ever seen.

I think I laughed for another thirty minutes afterward.

Then, five hours, three shirts, and a dark blue coat later, he called it quits for the day.

"God I'm starving!" Jack exclaimed as we flopped ourselves down into the seat of the car. We hadn't eaten dinner yet, and it was already…

"Gah! Jack! It's already 7:45!" I yelled, scaring him a little with my sudden outburst. He was confused for a second, but then he looked at the clock, just as shocked as me. "Dang it!" he quickly thrust his key into the ignition and turned it… only for us to be answered with a "Rrrrrr- tick tick tick tick tick! Brrrrbbb." He tried again. Same response. After about four more tries it was evident that we wouldn't be getting home on time, if at all.

We sat back in our chairs, pondering our next move. "Well crap." We both said in unison, and despite the situation, it ended up being a little funny. "Well, I'd rather not call my Dad, so do you think you could call your uncle?" I asked, a little bit of hope in my voice. Jack turned to me with an apologetic look… "My uncle's out of town, visiting a friend in New York until tomorrow night." He said. "What kind of person goes to New York for one day?!" I asked, panic starting to take its hold once again.

On top of all that, I now had a headache.

Wonderful.

Oh, and Toothless would need to be fed.

I looked at Hiccup and the nervous wreck he was quickly becoming. "Calm down, Hic. It's okay." I assured him, patting his shoulder. "You need to call your Dad." His eyes showed the fear that sentence immediately brought him, but you could tell that he knew it too. After a while he finally sighed and pulled out his phone. He hovered over the call button for a moment, but finally found the courage to press it. It rang for a few seconds, Hiccup's free hand in a fist at his side.

"Hey… Dad?"

I took the moment to step out of the car and take a look at the engine to see if I could figure out what was wrong (even though I knew zip about cars). I popped the latch and lifted the hood to find a bunch of mechanical parts I didn't know the names of. I really should've paid better attention to my uncle when he was attempting to teach me about all this…

I fiddled around with a few things I thought were safe before finally giving up. Since there wasn't any smoke coming out of it I assumed it was safe, at least for now. I closed the hood and peered through the window at Hiccup, whose face was calmer than I expected it to be. I decided it was safe to climb back in, and as I did, Hiccup said his goodbyes and hung up. He looked over at me with relief written all over his face. "Well…?" I asked, wondering what had happened.

"Weeeell… he can't come pick us up because his trip is going to last later than it was supposed to, but I have a backup plan now." He said, a smile coming across his face. "You got enough for a night in a hotel?" he asked, the smile fading a little. "Well, yeah. I've got my debit on me." I said, deflating a little. He breathed out a sigh of relief. "I'll pay half when we get back, but I need to call someone real quick… You've got a smartphone, right? Wanna try finding us a cheap hotel room or something?" he asked, scrolling through his contacts to another person. I went to Google and typed in a search for hotels in Merk. The list popped up when I heard the faint sound of the person answering on Hiccup's phone. It was a girl's voice, that much I could tell, but the volume was set too low for me to pick out individual words.

"Hey, Astrid." He said, looking out the window.

"Yeah, I know… I kinda need you to do me a big favor…"

He then went on to explain our situation to whoever this Astrid girl was, finally taking a break when she interrupted him.

"Yes… I know I'm stupid. Astrid will you please, please, please pick us up tomorrow?... Yes… I know tomorrow's Monday… Yes… I know I'm extremely stupid."

Hiccup bit his lip a little at the direction the conversation was going. I found a decent looking hotel with a nice price.

"Asriiiiiiiiiiiid! Please?! I'll… take over your shift in football hell for a month!" he promised. I looked at the hotel's available rooms.

"Really?! ThankYouThankYouThankYou, I shall write sonnets in your honor! Many sonnets! I'll text you the name of the hotel later, kay?...Alright. Goodnight, Astrid."

Hiccup hung up with a little "Yes!" escaping his lips. I flipped my screen over to show him the motel.

"I take it we have a ride home, then?" I asked, inwardly laughing at Hiccup for the promise he had made her. He nodded his head, "Yupp, Astrid should be able to make it." He said, smiling. "This is the best one I could find within walking distance. It should be fine for one night." I told him. He nodded in approval. "Good job." He said, leaning back in his chair.

A little while later, after we had packed up everything in the car and locked it, we were heading down the road to the bed-and-breakfast I had found a couple streets down. We walked up to the check in counter and rented a room for the night. The lady looked at us a little funny, but didn't ask any questions. We were assigned a room on the second floor, the top floor. Even though we could've taken the stairs and made it faster, we took the elevator. Why? Because elevators are more fun than stairs.

We entered our room and I noticed it was actually very clean and nice-smelling. Hiccup seemed to be thinking the same thing because he said "Nice pick." There was only one bed, but it was a king size, so I wasn't too bothered by it. Hiccup threw his portion of the stuff from the car onto his side of the bed and I mine. It was 7:30, and now that all of the major worries had been taken care of, my stomach was demanding attention. "I'm hungry." I said, flopping onto the bed. Hiccup nodded in agreement. "Me too… Wanna order pizza?" He asked. I looked over at the bedside table for a pamphlet telling us what the nearest delivery pizza place's number was. I ordered us a large supreme pizza and two cokes. Hiccup was laying on his stomach beside me, facing towards the TV at our feet instead of the headboard. He was flipping through the channels, settling on an old re-run of Family Guy. I honestly couldn't stand the show, but didn't say anything. "Hey, I'm going to get through the shower before the food gets here, I have a good amount of cash in my wallet if he comes before I get out." I told him, sliding off the bed.

He tilted his head over his shoulder to look at me. "Good idea." Hurry so I can get through too." He said, waving me off.

I heard the water through the thin walls as the shower turned on. I texted Astrid the details about the motel, throwing in a couple extra thank yous. I tossed and turned on the bed, bored without something to do. I looked back at the bedside table and found the courtesy paper pad. It was filled with perfectly square 5X5 in paper. I pulled the pad over to my side and tore a page off. I started by folding the paper in half, then at a diagonal…

I had just made the last fold in the paper crane when there was a knock at the door. I flicked Bob to the side, grabbing Jack's wallet. I opened the door, where a very scary-looking tattooed guy held our supreme pizza. "Thanks…" I mumbled, ever the awkward one. He handed me back my change, never saying even one word. I closed the door and slipped the pizza onto the small desk in the corner. "Hey, Jack! The pizza's here!" I told him through the door. "Kay, thanks!" He called back.

I flopped back on the bed, waiting on him. The water quieted a few minutes later. Jack came out a few seconds later in his boxers, lightly drying his hair with a towel. You know, the people in Berk were big and stout, but none of them would've had anything on Jack. He had a six pack. A nice one. Oh, and rock hard biceps. He made me look like a limp noodle.

His eyes fell on the box, still unopened on the table. "You waited?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, figured I'd better… since you're buying." I said, throwing him a sly look. "Hah… fine." He said, knowing that this whole thing was his idea anyway. He walked over and opened one of the cokes, handing me the other one, and flipped the box open. The smell that had already begun to spread around the room was now let out in full force and my mouth began to water.

I went into the bathroom and brought back a couple Kleenexes since we didn't have any plates. Before we knew it the entire pizza was demolished and the cokes drained. "Ah… that hit the spot." He said, patting his flat stomach. He really was insisting on making me as jealous as possible. I let out a loud sigh, "Welp, Imma go take a shower, then." I announced, heading in that direction. "Have fun with that." Jack said, laughing at me.

I stepped inside, the mirror still covered with a light mist from Jack's shower before. I stepped inside and twisted the knob to the hottest temp it had. I had never been one for cold showers, even when I was a kid. I let the water flood over me, rinsing away the last bit of my headache, letting me relax. It had been a long day… even though it had only started at two o'clock.

I stepped out of the shower about fifteen minutes feeling replenished and happy again. I dried off and threw my boxers back on. Flinging the towel around my neck, I exited the bathroom. The cold air of the room was in stark contrast with the warmth of the bathroom, and made me shiver a little. I looked over at Jack, who was quickly changing channels on the bed.

There was nothing to watch, seriously. I hadn't seen a sadder selection of shows since kindergarten.

The water from the shower turned off.

Click.

Golden Girls.

Rusting sounds and squeaks.

Click.

Blue's clues.

The bathroom door opened.

Click.

Local News.

Hiccup stepped out.

Click.

Bob Ross.

Hiccup in his boxers.

*tiny gasp*

Loooooooooooooooooong update.

Yes I know it has been forever... and you're all going to kill me when I say this... but I forgot I even started writing this...

BUT NO WORRIES!

I intend to stay back this time until the bitter end. Writer's block begone!

Hee Hee Hee Mr. Jack Frosty... we's about to make this story fun.

*****As always, it would be lovely if all you lovelies would comment or send me a review.*****

Much love and kawaii,

the-meeek.