Pairing: JackxHiccup
Genre: Romance, Drama
Rating: NC-17/M
Warning: not beta-read
All characters belong to Cressida Cowel, William Joyce and DreamWorks Studia. May contain some OOCness.
Stark-Einstein law - Every photon that is absorbed will cause a (primary) chemical or physical reaction.
Well, that went well… Awfully well…
Hiccup rushed past people standing in the corridor. Some of them glanced at him, but quickly turned their heads, because the image of some boy running to the toilet with palm clasped on his mouth was pretty normal on the infamous twins' parties. And this was exactly what Hiccup was doing.
He quickly climbed up the stairs, directing his fast steps to the familiar bathroom at the end of the corridor, the one without the lock, the one that not many people visited, the one secluded, his favourite spot to sit alone…
Until he saw a familiar lump of blonde hair sitting above the toilet, with her head hid inside the bowl. In one second, or maybe even less, his body totally forgot that it was about to throw up.
"Astrid?" He asked hoarsely.
It looked like she was dead to the world, as she wasn't responding for some time. Then she groaned heavily with her shoulders slumping down.
"Please kill me…" She burped and - uh oh – Hiccup had to look up. He knew that she was vomiting by the sound of it and definitely by the smell. Odin, it was even worse than a smell of ammonia.
Suddenly Hiccup felt this feeling one more time (the one he had when he was dancing not even few minutes ago with Jack) - that he really needed to find toilet now. But he compressed it, pushed down inside his stomach with his will and looked back at the girl. Now wasn't the good time to puke.
Yep, Astrid was down from the party. And - Hiccup quickly glanced at his wristwatch - it wasn't even midnight. They had a new record!
He pecked outside the door. Noticing that no one wanted to interrupt their not-so-peaceful moment with contents of Astrid's stomach, Hiccup closed the door and moved to his friend.
"Are you done flushing out your hydrochloric acid?" He asked, trying to sound comforting and kind. He never had seen Astrid like that (maybe once, but it was because she was ill), so he didn't quite know how to act. Pat on the back? Definitely no. Tell a joke? Hiccup was bad at that.
The girl lifted her head, turned it and glared at him. Her face was as white as magnesium hydroxide*, not counting her cheeks which were furiously red. Hiccup wasn't sure if this was because of embarrassment or the sudden blood rush due to hanging her head for too long.
"Shut up…" She growled. If looks could burn, he would be dead now.
"Okay, your bad side is back!" Hiccup kneeled next to her. "But seriously you look like…"
"Shit?" Astrid retorted, trying to sound cheerful, but it came out like a whine.
"I wanted to say like a dead person, but yeah… more over…" Hiccup sat there, not really knowing what to do, but not wanting to leave her friend to fend for herself. Especially now.
For few moments they sat there not doing particularly anything. Well, Hiccup was trying to come up with an idea of what to do. How he should care for people who were puking? He had never done that! Should he bring her water? But he didn't want to leave her. Maybe he should cover her somehow? It looked like she was freezing. Call the ambulance? No, it was probably too much.
In the meantime Astrid looked like she had a very hard decision of 'to throw up, or not to throw up'. And when the second option almost won, the first side suddenly attacked with brute force, making Astrid lean above to bowl and empty the stomach once again.
Hiccup yelped when he saw her blonde hair falling into the water.
"Oh no, no, no, no!" He knew how she loved them, so he jumped to her and caught the locks of faint blonde hair into his palm, lifting it on safe height.
Who knew he would be holding Astrid Hofferson's hair, while she was throwing up? Life really was bizarre.
Jack somehow got untangled from the mass of people surrounding him. He took a deep breath, feeling the sweaty, gross, but sweet, sweet air in his lungs. Only now he felt that the dance floor was a cooker and he was so-so away from being baked. And even though the sudden space around him, the greasy air and the low sound were amazing, he wasn't totally happy. Well who would be when your partner (fake on, but still) would suddenly disappear while covering his mouth?
Jack didn't feel too offended. He was concerned more.
Was he such a bad dancer? He thought that dancing was something he was good at. Was it the close proximity? But Hiccup looked like he was having fun (of course earlier Hiccup tried to put as much space as he could between then, but after he found out that it was almost impossible due to the mass pressed on them he stopped trying). Maybe Jack smelled? He took a long sniff of his blouse. Sweat, definitely sweat, but the crowd on the dance floor definitely smelled worse. Was it too much spinning? Maybe he crossed some boundary, some invisible line, without him knowing? But Jack was just so cheerful, so happy, was in such a bliss that he wanted to share this feeling, wanted to thank him somehow… But it looked like he even messed that thing up.
Whatever it was, it was probably his fault. Jack couldn't think about it any other way.
He walked slowly, suddenly feeling all this exhaustion weighing on his muscles, bones and joints. Jack was good at sports, he could say that he was even muscular, yet dancing was something that drained the power from his body in the fastest way possible, not to mention in one of the nicest ways. But now he wasn't in a bliss, in that happy lethargy…
Some people stared at him. He tried to smile back, because – hello!? - he was Jackson Overland, one of the most optimistic guys on the Earth. Just… not now.
"Hey Jack!"
He lifted his head to spot a teen with whom he was working last summer vacations at the beach shop. Jack definitely needed to catch up with him, so he walked to him.
Jack wanted to find Hiccup, but it looked like the boy needed some personal space now. And the white haired teen probably needed to give him just that
Almost an hour, two beers and seven met people later he finally spotted Aster:
"Hey, Frost, I've been looking all over for you!"
Aster was making his way very slowly towards him, even though he was towering above most of the people. Seeing familiar face, the really, truly familiar face somehow lifted a little bit up Jack's drowned mood.
"Could say the same." Jack said, when the gray haired teen somehow successfully maneuvered to him without bumping in too many people too much.
Jack knew many people that were here by name, he had phone numbers from some of them, he talked regularly in school or on Facebook with quite big part of the party people. But some faces were definitely new, not to mention they looked slightly older than them. Were those people twins' friends from work or college?
"Where have you been?" Jack asked as they both now moved in the direction of the kitchen, leaving the loud living room behind.
"I've been driving some drunk dude home…" Aster's mouth turned into a scowl when his hand cleaned the crease on his shirt. "He almost threw up on the back seat…" The teen shuddered just remembering it.
Jack smiled. He knew how Aster loved his car, no matter how it was bumped on almost every door, no matter how it was growling when he tried to turn it on, no matter how it was huffing when they were driving for too long - it would be always the precious Bunny's car. Jack couldn't blame him, he would be also overprotective of his car (if he would have one). Not to mention Jack got used to it, so he liked to sit in clean seats too.
"Uh, harsh."
"I know! Ugh, drunk people…"
Jack laughed, knowing very well that if Aster could he would drink something and now was simply jealous, because he couldn't do that. It's not like they both were drinking till they were out from this world, but hey, they enjoyed occasional beer or two from time to time.
The kitchen was statistically empty, which in Jack's opinion meant that there were more empty spaces than occupied ones. It looked like the fever of dancing got to many people who were now in the living room swishing their hips in the fast beat of the music.
Yet they found Tooth, the twins and Snotlout talking in the corner, sipping on something.
"Hey guys, long time no see." Aster moved to the group as he waved his hand without enthusiasm.
"Man, I didn't see you for like few hours!" Tuffnut yelled, too loud in the silence that wrapped them. "I thought that you went home already!"
"No, I was driving some dude home. Brinn? Bryan? Whatever his name was... He was drunk as hell, what did you guys give him?"
Ruffnut shrugged, flipping one of her braid on her back.
"I don't know. People keep bringing their own alcohol. We don't give our alcohol to everyone, you know… just… special ones." She grinned and the sudden spark in her eyes was something Jack didn't like. Or maybe she just had too much. Nevertheless he was kind of amazed by how much she could drink and still be with them.
Jack looked at Tooth that was glancing at them, but her eyes were dazzled, glossy, like she saw them and didn't in the same time. Her hair was now a mess, the previous pinned up bun was destroyed with rainbow locks falling onto her forehead and back. She was very pale, the usually red cheeks replaced with unhealthy green ones.
"Tooth are you okay?!" Jack asked, moving quickly to her and putting one arm over her shoulder, allowing her to lean on him.
She lifted her head and tried to smile, but it faltered pretty quickly.
"Do I look like I'm okay?" She asked, trying to sound cheerful or maybe even funny, but it looked just… bad.
"No, you look like shit." Aster added. Delicate as ever.
"Yeah, we saw it too, so we came to her." Snotlout finally spoke, crossing his arms on his chest. "But Ariel already went to the pharmacy to get something for her."
Jack doubted that whatever Ariel wanted to buy would help Tooth right now, but it was worth a try. She was shivering under his arm. For him it looked like some kind of poisoning. He took care for Emma for far too long to not know the symptoms in this case. They should probably find bathroom and then drive her home… somehow. But what about Hiccup and Astrid? They can't leave them here.
And suddenly, almost like Ruffnut could read minds, she asked:
"Hey, someone have seen Hiccup or Astrid?"
Tuffnut together with Snotlout shook their heads, mumbling that they didn't see them since the Drinking Jenga game. Tooth next to him shook slowly her head, quickly covering her mouth. Aster shrugged, putting his hands in his pocket saying that he didn't see them since the beginning of the party.
"I didn't see Astrid for few hours, but Hiccup disappeared somewhere after our dance." In the middle, Jack's mind added. He tried to say it as casually as he could, but he wasn't sure if he reached this goal.
Aster glanced at him. Maybe the taller teen felt the weird tone Jack unfortunately used?
Tuffnut, Ruffnut and Snotlout were totally different matter.
"You danced with Hiccup?" Snotlout asked, eyes wide as two plates that glinted with something amusing in it. "And no one told me? Why?"
Wait, what? What had dancing with Hiccup do to anything?
"Isn't it normal to dance with my boyfriend?" Jack asked a little bit astonished. Tooth next to him sighed heavily and he massaged her arm, trying to soothe the tightened muscles.
Snotlout opened his mouth, then closed and repeated it two more times. Jack lifted his eyebrow and glanced at Aster. His friend had the same disbelieved look.
"But it's Hiccup!" Snotlout finally shouted, throwing his hands in the air and spilling the beer from his can onto the twins who didn't look like they even noticed it.
"Yeah and he danced well." Too well actually. Jack would have never thought that someone like Hiccup could dance so… vigorously and lively.
"Really?" Ruffnut asked, looking astonished. "But you know, with his…"
But before Jack was able to hear the rest of what Ruffnut wanted to say, Tooth let the saddest and most miserable whine of her life. Jack saw her in many different situations, from the most joyful ones to the worst. He saw as she was ill, as she was crying, as she was laughing and smiling and cracking jokes. Now he could add another face to this collection.
"Jack… bathroom…"
He didn't remember the last time he moved so fast when he scoped her in his arms and literally flew out of the kitchen. He heard Tuffnut yelling something about the last door on the first floor. He more over followed his directions without really thinking what they meant. The people made place for the famous Jackson Overland holding his friend and running like there was no tomorrow in mighty search for the bathroom and he was very thankful for that. No one wanted to get vomits on their clothes anyway.
The first floor was empty, but the last door was opened and there was light coming from it. Jack only hoped that there wasn't any pair making out in the shower.
"We have a situation, move away!"
With few quick steps he defeated the distance. In this short span of time he was able to say that someone was indeed inside. One guest had her head leaning on the cupboard under the sink with someone else sitting next to her. Yet Jack had no time to actually look properly at the people who he interrupted as Tooth fell to her knees and threw up in the toilet.
At least they made it. Nice run Jack, he was thankful for his football trainings now more than ever.
Jack crouched next to her, caught locks that flew from the bun and pinned them together. The smell was definitely awful. He almost gagged on his own drinks and a little bit of food he got in his stomach, but he held strongly. Tooth was the most important now, he could live it.
He put his hand on her back and massaged it as best as he could, trying to soothe the tension away. Under his skin he felt the shudders of her spine as she emptied her stomach over and over again. They said that after vomiting you would feel better, right?
It feel like, maybe not eternity, but definitely some time until she stopped puking and turned her head a little, sending him the most dirty, miserable and sad excuse of a smile. Even in this kind of situation she tried to regain this small part of herself. Jack was amazed.
"Jack?"
He snapped his head up to finally stare at those two guest who he interrupted by barging inside.
Hiccup was sitting with his back leaning on the bathtub. He had his legs close to his chest with hands circled around them. Astrid – the second person – was laying on his side now, and not the cupboard, quite splattered there, snoring softly. Her face was also pale with small hints of green on her cheeks.
"Oh, hey…" What was he supposed to say? "Is Astrid… alright?"
The girl mumbled something under her nose and moved closer to her source of heat. Hiccup scrunched his nose. The overwhelming scent of pukes wasn't probably high on the Hiccup's list of the nicest smell form all around the world.
"I think now yes. Although she also threw up." Hiccup spoke very quietly. He nodded his head at Tooth that now rested with closed eyes on the toilet. "Probably from the same reason as Tooth."
Suddenly the girl lifted her face, moving her eyes to stare at the source of voice. Jack wasn't certain, but he was almost one hundred percent sure she tried to make that miserable excuse of a smile once again.
"Oh… hey Hiccup… sorry for… puking in front of you." That was a nice, almost all glued together sentence. Jack was proud of his friend.
Hiccup shrugged a little, but Astrid whined at that movement.
"I already saw Astrid. It couldn't get any worse than this."
Tooth giggled and when Jack though that it was over (weirdly too soon), Tooth leaned above the toilet and threw up once again.
"Jack, the hair!" Hiccup shouted.
"Ah yes!"
Seriously Jack never though he would be holding girl's hair while she was throwing up on the party, but here he was. Life was indeed strange…
Almost an hour later Tooth became drowsy. Her sickness got a little bit better. Her friend – Ariel – walked in to give her a medicine. She quickly left, telling that she had to take care of the rest of the party. Apparently, someone had to drive the drunk people home and the mighty group was formed.
After that, it became quite quiet. Even for Hiccup, who all this time sat in one place. He wanted to help Jack with Tooth, but it looked like he was doing a splendid job at nursing (better than Hiccup anyway). Not to mention Astrid was sleeping on his arm and he didn't want to wake her up.
Okay, so this party went from almost nice to disastrous in a pretty quick time. The wristwatch told him that it was already two a.m. Very early for the twins' party, but Hiccup felt totally drenched out from his energy.
Nor he, nor Jack really talked much. Only when Tooth started to snore quietly, Jack relaxed and fell to the floor.
"Finally…" He whispered.
Hiccup could totally understand him. He had the same problem with Astrid. When she had finally closed her eyes for longer than five minutes, he had felt as the rest of the energy flew away. Now he was unable to move, not that he really wanted to.
Jack brushed his fringe away together with sweat that had formed there. He must be very stressed over his friend. If there was something that Hiccup now definitely knew, was the fact that the famous Jackson Overland – the school's star – was caring very deeply for his friends and family.
Hiccup smiled under his nose, as Jack stared at Tooth leaning on the toilet, still with worried eyes. His hand fidgeted, like he wanted to move, pat her one more time, but in the end it didn't go to her, but landed on Jack's neck.
"Remind me to never come to twin's party… or at least don't do it for a month…" Jack murmured, massaging the muscles and breathing slowly in and out. His eyes wandered to the auburn haired teen. His lips twitched, even in this situation daring to form a small smile.
Hiccup felt his glasses slip down. Actually, he was quite uncomfortable. His back was touching the chilly tiles, making him cold. His hand, on which Astrid laid, became numb. He was smelling like vomits (because once Astrid didn't really hit the toilet) and he was overall exhausted. And now he was even unable to see properly.
The blonde girl snuggled closer. At least Astrid was more over okay now.
Jack stared for few seconds at the smaller girl, his arms hunched up when she twitched, but it was nothing. She was just changing her position.
Hiccup bit his lip.
"Jack, take her away from the toilet. I think she is done. Plus someone might want to… use it." It was a nice way to say that someone else might also want to throw up.
The white haired boy moved to her friend and put both hands under Tooth's arms. He moved her away a little. She mumbled something under her nose, but nevertheless didn't wake up. Jack looked around in search for some place to rest. His eyes landed on the spot between wall and Hiccup. Perfect for two people.
"Mind if I…?"
"Sure, go on."
They both waddled there very awkwardly. Jack sat down and placed Tooth next to him, but she quickly slid down. He tried to make her sleep in curled up, but sitting position like Astrid's one, but she was stubborn even in her sleep, so Jack threw in the sponge, allowing her to curl on the floor with her head on his legs.
Hiccup observed their work with tiny, amused smile. As the tension flew away he was simply enjoying the smallest things – such as Jack's struggle to make his friend steady.
Jack sighed heavily with his arms slumping down and brushing on Hiccup's side. There wasn't much space, not to mention Hiccup had literally enough of everything to care about such closeness. Additional bonus - it made him warmer a little.
They sat awkwardly for some minutes. Jack stared forward at the slightly ajar door. His hand found its way onto girl's head, combing through her colorful hair. Hiccup had his eyes downcast, staring at his hands. He listened to the muffled sound of music coming from the downstairs. It looked like the party was still going, although some of the chatters died down. He wondered if some people also got as sick as Astrid and Tooth.
The atmosphere between them was… dense. Hiccup felt out of place. He wasn't a social person, it always took light years for him to warm up to people, but Jack was totally different matter. An exception. It wasn't that Hiccup felt totally comfortable around him, but the barrier that often surrounded him when he was with other people was smaller. But not right now.
"Some night, right?" Jack finally asked. When Hiccup glanced at him, he wasn't staring back. Huh, weird.
"Definitely an odd one, I must say." Hiccup muttered, licking his dry lips. He wanted to drink something, but he had Astrid on one side and Jack on the other, so this was probably out of the question now. Maybe he should just focus on sleeping?
"Yeah…" Jack whispered.
Hiccup felt like that every time he was on a party. Small parties in their group? That was okay. Hiccup could almost say he liked them, even though twins always thought about doing something stupid. But with so many people around he felt… even smaller than he was. Out of this place. He wasn't like Jack, or even Astrid, he couldn't just walk to someone and talk. Just thinking about it made him freeze in place.
He couldn't understand how people could enjoy it.
The silence wrapped them up. It was unnaturally tense, thick, like all atoms in the air suddenly tried to get closer and closer to each other. Hiccup knew it couldn't happen of course, not without changing some parameter, but it felt like that. Maybe because Jack was unusually quiet. He almost always had something to say, something to add, some small remark to tell - to butt himself in the conversation. And now he was sitting silently next to the auburn haired teen. At first Hiccup thought it was because he was tired, but somehow it seemed wrong. Maybe because Jack glanced at him few times while opening his mouth once or twice. It reminded Hiccup of the first time they really talked, back at the Park when Jack wanted to ask if Hiccup would want to prolong their… fake-relationship. Back then he also was acting like that - unsure, unsteady, tense, uncomfortable, stiff.
He wanted to ask about something - this something was eating his mind. Hiccup was almost one hundred percent of it when Jack looked at him, but quickly averted his gaze as he saw Hiccup staring at him back intently.
How do you make people talk? He was never good at that. When his friends had problems they just told them without Hiccup forcing them to. Maybe they should just talk about something else and somehow move to what was bugging Jack?
Hiccup wasn't so sure if it would work, but he had to try.
"So… did you enjoy the party?"
Hiccup wanted to facepalm himself, really hard, maybe even with a silica plate*. He wanted to disappear. He just asked Jack if he had fun after he had spent almost an hour helping his sick friend. Good job, Hiccup! Seriously… His social game was just too bad. Maybe he should just left his mouth closed.
When he peeked at Jack, he was looking at him with wide eyes.
"Just.. forget I even asked…"
Hiccup expect Jack to laugh at him. And Jack indeed chuckled at that. Hiccup quickly hid his face between his knees. The movement made Astrid wiggle a little and whine angrily in her sleep.
Hiccup didn't expect Jack to answer him thought.
"I think that yes, I did… before all of this happened. Now I'm mostly concerned about Tooth and now also Astrid."
Hiccup still felt his cheeks being warmer than usual, so he didn't lift his head too much, only to be able to mumble without his voice being muffled by his clothes.
"Yeah, me too. I never saw her act like that on any party."
"Do you know what happened?"
Hiccup shrugged.
"It's look just like any typical poisoning if you ask me." He muttered, lifting his head as someone laughed heavily somewhere on the corridor. Hiccup listened if someone was coming in their direction, but the coast was clear. He moved and felt his shirt riding up a little, which made him shiver when the naked skin touched the cold tiles. He wanted to correct it, but it was hard while being crushed between two people.
"I didn't see her drink anything weird." Jack said, moving back a little when Hiccup tried to grip the end of his shirt and move it down.
"Well, me neither. I only saw her mix something with some girls in the kitchen." He bended his back, but, as he was not very stretched, his short fingers couldn't catch the hem of his shirt. "But it was some time ago."
"Come here, you klutz."
Jack turned to him. Tooth whined, not happy for being forced to move around. Somehow, in the small space between them, Jack was able to grasp onto the end of Hiccup's shirt and slowly tug it down. He accidentally brushed his fingers against Hiccup back's skin and the auburn haired teen yelped, feeling the sudden rush of coldness.
"Sorry, I told you my hands are always cold." Jack mumbled, as he moved away. Well as far away as he could, which was only a few centimeters away.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
And this was it. No funny remark, no stupid, dumb joke, no smile. Jack didn't even look at him. He was just this stiff robot that felt obliged to help. Maybe Hiccup was thinking too much about it. Maybe there wasn't anything wrong…?
Hiccup was probably just tired. First he was worried over Jack passing his test, then he was worrying over Dagur appearing on the party and after that Astrid got sick. He was now fully drained from power. He couldn't even keep his eyes open for too long, it was only logical that his assessments were foggy and wrong. What was this - 'The source of the biggest mistakes is the person who is doing the experiment'*? Yeah, something like that.
"How about Astrid?" Jack suddenly prolonged the topic, when Hiccup expected him not to.
"I'm not sure. I know she has drunk something." Hiccup also had drunk it. He remembered well the weird taste it left on his tongue, but back then he thought it was the whole stress. Now… he wasn't so sure about it.
He left Jack in the middle of their dance, because he thought he would throw up. But as soon as he had met Astrid his body fought the urges down.
Oh gosh, he had left Jack all alone in the middle of the dance floor! Without even explaining! But how he was supposed to explain it back then? By vomiting on his shoes? Uh oh, no, no way! That was out of the question!
"And how about y…"
"Oh my gosh! Jack, I'm so sorry!"
The sudden shout that left Hiccup's lips surprised even him. Astrid next to him lifted her hand and waved it, like she wanted to make that sound fly away. Tooth groaned angrily.
Jack blinked few times, but he looked at Hiccup:
"For what?"
"You know… for leaving you so suddenly on the dance floor."
The white haired boy shuffled weirdly, almost… nervously? Like suddenly his whole body was itching and sitting next to Hiccup was very uncomfortable.
"Don't mention it. Although you could say to me that I was a bad dancer and not run away…" The sentence was supposed to be funny. Or at least Hiccup thought that Jack was going for it. And it was accompanied by a smile, that small tug of the corners of Jack's pale lips. But his eyes, his often sparkling, shiny, glittering eyes now were dulled. There was no light, there was no warm radiation coming from those icy, blue orbs. They were just… empty.
Why being a good dancer was suddenly so important to Jack? It wasn't like he wanted to be a dancer in the future (or at least he didn't tell Hiccup about it). Did Hiccup hurt him somehow? Well, leaving wasn't nice, but still Hiccup didn't think Jack would be a person who would be sulking about something as minor as dancing on the party.
Maybe there was something much deeper behind it? Just like colors of some chemical compounds. Pretty simple at first glance, you add something and voila! Colorful substance! But in reality the process is much, much more complicated. Maybe it was similar here. Maybe Hiccup accidentally pushed the wrong button?
He didn't know. He was terrible at talking with people he barely knew! But something was definitely troubling Jack, making him act like it wasn't him and it was… odd.
For some time Hiccup wasn't sure how to answer. He wanted to help Jack somehow, because it felt that Jack was the only one that was doing something with their fake-relationship. Not to mention he already saved him thrice. And here was Hiccup, not doing anything.
So he braced himself, took deep breath and…
"You're not a bad dancer…"
Jack didn't move, he didn't even twitch. Nothing in his appearance showed that he was listening, yet after some seconds he answered:
"Thanks, but you don't have to try so hard…"
Ugh, why this guy was so dense!? It was now royally pissing him off.
"No, Jack, you are not a bad dancer! On the contrary, you were very, very good!" Hiccup huffed, turning his head to the other side to not scowl in front of him. "And I really, really mean it…"
The white hared teen next to him took deep breath and turned his head at Hiccup.
"Then why did you run away?"
Well, Jack deserved an honest answer or at least some of it. Hiccup looked back at him.
"Probably because of Astrid's drink. I told myself that I wouldn't drink, but when Dagur approached me, I just had to busy myself somehow and then…well… let's just say that I didn't want to throw up on your shoes."
Jack's eyes widened suddenly and then his lips transformed into that typical, oh-so-childish, but very kind grin. And suddenly it felt like all this exhaustion, tiredness, fatigue disappeared. The white haired boy threw his head back and laughed, covering his eyes with his hand.
Hiccup waited for his fake-boyfriend to calm down, smiling along the way. It looked like he somehow was able to lift the boy's mood up.
"Oh gosh now I feel so stupid." Jack finally breathed out. Then he returned his eyes at him and in a second the concern beamed from them. It was amazing how many feelings were Jack able to store in those eyes. "But are you feeling alright now?"
Hiccup nodded.
"Well I didn't throw up. I met Astrid here and she needed help, so somehow I was able to overcome it. Who would hold her hair if I would also be vomiting?"
Jack chuckled one more time. His whole body suddenly relaxed, almost slumping next to Hiccup. Actually, they both even moved a little bit down.
"Yeah, what have we become… friends that hold hair while they're vomiting. I can cross that off the bucket list."
And just like that the always light, happy atmosphere returned.
"I don't even want to know what you also have there." Hiccup said. He put his hand on Astrid's arm and lifted a little her body.
Jack in the same time moved Tooth's blue fringe away to check if everything was alright. But as he sighed in content Hiccup guessed that they had nothing to worry about. Right now, that is.
"Well dancing with the smartest guy in our school is also crossed off the bucket list."
Hiccup heard it many times, from his friends, from teachers, from other people that just found out about his grades or prizes in contests. But in reality, Hiccup never really felt that special. So he had good grades. It wasn't because he was really smart, but because he was able to sit and learn. Okay, maybe there were some exceptions like physics or chemistry, but still Hiccup didn't think about himself as some kind of genius. So whenever he heard someone praise him like that, he cringed inside. Because he didn't deserve it. Grades literally showed nothing about the human. He wasn't the smartest guy in the whole school. Nerd? Probably.
And this time was no different. Just hearing those words made him somehow drop inside.
"Heh, yeah…" His hand maneuvered above Astrid's head after he pushed the fringe away. "Glad to be any help."
The sudden drop of his voice was probably pretty audible. Or maybe Jack just got weird ability of sensing the sudden change in someone behavior and emotions, because not even a second later he was nudging Hiccup's side with his own elbow.
"But hey, you danced pretty good. Why aren't you dancing more often?"
"Well…" They were slowly moving in that territory. Territory called - total embarrassment/maximum awkwardness.
Hiccup bit his lip, feeling as his cheeks turn red when the sudden warmness spread over them. He was so glad that the light was switched off. Hiccup even turned his head, suddenly very interested in crooked tiles under the sink, but it was futile, as Jack suddenly poked his cheek.
"It must be really embarrassing to get you so flustered." Jack said, moving a little closer, when Hiccup tried to move away. When there was literally no space, Jack pinched his cheeks and cooed sweetly. "Awwww~"
"Stop it!" Hiccup pushed his hand away, but still his face was heated up like it was about to be calcinate.
"Tell me!"
"Nope!"
"Hiccup!" Jack whined. He moved an inch away with his smile not even faltering for a second. "You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention, so tell me!"
His brain processed quickly what Jack had just said. Hiccup stopped moving. Then he slowly turned to the taller teen.
"Did you just… memed me?" Hiccup asked.
Jack shrugged, looking like the most innocent puppy in the whole world.
"Maybe… So now, after I showed you my great knowledge in memes… Will you tell me?"
Hiccup sighed heavily. Was he seriously about to do it? But he could still gain a little from it, right?
"Okay, but in exchange you have to tell me something embarrassing about yourself too!" Hiccup looked him right in the eyes, trying to look as serious as he could be while sitting in the bathroom with drunk friends that were sleeping on them. "Deal?"
"Deal." Wow, there was literally no pause between those sentences. Almost like Jack expected it. And the weird glint in his shadowed eyes didn't really help. Jack showed him his hand to conceal their agreement. Hiccup shook their hands. "So what happened to make you so embarrassed?"
Was he really about to tell it? Well, now was no turning back, because they already shook on it. Plus, he was quite curious what Jack's most embarrassing story was.
"Okay, but you can't tell it to anyone. Especially the twins!" Hiccup started, as his hand moved to his head and pushed his glasses higher. "Promise me this!"
Jack grinned, but crossed his heart with the other hand raised in the air.
"Cross my heart! Now tell me. The curiosity is eating me!"
Hiccup took deep breath, which he then exhaled slowly through his teeth. His cheeks were still aflame. He patted them quickly. Here goes nothing!
"Were you on the twins' party four months ago? The one where… Marshall*… I guess it was Marshall… started a fight with some dude?"
"No, I mean I heard about it later, but I wasn't on this one." Jack shook his head while speaking.
"Good, okay. So it happened at this party. And I don't remember why, but I was in really bad mood… Maybe because of Dagur, but I'm not sure right now. But I actually got some drinks. Well… actually, I drank a lot." Hiccup glanced at Jack, who was staring at him, now with a little puzzled look. "And you know how drunk people act and I was no exception." Oh gosh, oh gosh… "I don't remember well what happened back then, but Astrid told me later that I was literally everywhere. " He started to play with his fringe. "But I'm going a little off topic. So the case was that I was… a little bit more social and then this one dude asked me to dance with him." Hiccup was glad that the image of the boy's face was a little bit fogged in his mind. "So we danced… And I might have enjoyed it too much… and…"
Jack moved an inch closer.
"And?"
Hiccup heard his heart in his ears. Now his face was literally burning, probably as red as methyl red or iron(III) thiocyanate. Maybe the second option was closer to the truth as blood rushed to his face*.
"I… gave… him… a… boner…"
He tried to say it really quiet. He even expected that someone would yell something from the living room, silencing the rest and end of the story. But nothing like this happened. His whisper was audible, even echoing a little around the walls.
"What? Really?!"
Hiccup hid his face in his hands.
"Really. I saw it. I felt it! Oh my gosh, this was so embarrassing and weird." He whined.
Jack next to him literally trembled. When Hiccup pecked at him from between his fingers he was biting his lip very hard with his cheeks puffed and also very, very red. His eyes were glossy, with small droplets of tears gathering in the corners.
"So…" Jack somehow gasped, without bursting into full laughter. "What… happened then?"
"He just left in the middle of the dance… for which I'm glad and I have never seen him again. Nor that I really remember his face too well." The smaller teen finally turned to his companion. "Jack, Jack don't die! Just laugh, don't hold it inside." Because seriously, he looked like he could explode any second when he tried to contain it.
Jack threw his head back, but before he was able to start laughing, he hit the tiles behind his head and he cursed loudly in exchange.
So now Hiccup chuckled. Karma worked nicely this day or night or evening or whatever.
Massaging his head, Jack turned to his fake-partner with pained look on his face, although his lips shivered, still trying to form a smile.
"Okay, that is… was… definitely embarrassing story. I don't know if I can beat that."
Hiccup shrugged, his lock which he was yanking until now was wet from sweat.
"You can always try."
Jack moved his hand from the back of his head to the front where he pushed his fringe away.
"Wait, I can't think so fast! I didn't even prepare my most…" Then his mouth stretched and he yawned wildly. "…embarrassing story."
"Well you don't have to do it right now, but some day definitely." Hiccup stared at Jack – the white haired teen was looking back at him, but with weirdly faraway look.
Hiccup quickly glanced at his wristwatch. It was half past three a.m. and the party downstairs was still going on. He wondered if some more people got sick, but if yes, then he wasn't curious how did the bottom floor looked like. Judging by Astrid and Tooth it could be very bad. And guess who would need to clean it tomorrow and help every drunk person! This guy!
"Jack, go to sleep, you look exhausted."
The boy's eyelids were now glued to each other. He tried to keep them open, but it looked like a lost fight from the very beginning.
"But how about… you?" Jack mumbled.
"I will probably fall asleep sooner or later." When he will finally find a comfortable position, that is. When Jack opened his mouth to add something, Hiccup spoke one more time. "Seriously, go to sleep. You look like a dead guy."
"If you say so…" Jack slurped a little and then brushed his mouth. He shook his head, like he wanted to clear his dazed mind. "Then, I'll take your offer…" His body slumped down a bit as he straightened his legs. His head was now near Hiccup's shoulder. "Can I?"
Hiccup looked down when Jack hesitantly put his head near his arm, but not exactly put it down. He was looking at the smaller teen from half-opened eyes. And who was Hiccup to refuse someone who was on the edge of falling asleep? He coped somehow with Astrid who was smelling of vomits, so he can live with Jack sleeping on him too.
"Go on."
With a happy smile, Jack put his head down and closed his eyes. His hair tickled Hiccup's neck a little and he was glad that Jack wasn't moving a lot. It was only one night, not to mention they both deserved a break.
Hiccup had all intentions of falling asleep too. He just wasn't used to do so in an uncomfortable positions and in unfamiliar places. Well, at least now he couldn't complain about feeling cold, as he was smashed between Jack and Astrid. He could almost say that it was too hot.
He exhaled slowly the air through his nose. Someone downstairs laughed violently, it sounded suspiciously familiar to Tuffnut. Maybe it was even him, they probably wouldn't go to sleep till the last guest was alive.
After few minutes Hiccup also felt his eyes fall down with the numb feeling overpowering his limbs. He felt as his mind slowly drifted away and he was almost on the verge of losing it, when he heard a whisper next to his ear.
"I'm glad that I didn't mess that up…"
Was Hiccup sleeping? The weird images danced, swirled under his eyelids, but the sound seemed like it came from the real life.
"Mess what?" The auburn haired boy managed to ask.
"Dancing. I thought that I was good at it…"
Hiccup opened his eyes, returning for a brief moment to the world of living.
"You are good at it…"
Jack smiled lopsidedly with his head moving a little to find more comfortable position. Hiccup wasn't even sure if he was aware of what he was saying or if it was only a gibberish of half-asleep person. Probably the second option.
"Yeah, thanks…" Came the reply from the taller teen.
For another minutes there was silence. Jack's breath evened as his arms started to move slowly up and down rhythmically, almost like a sine wave*. Hiccup stared at him for few seconds, checking if he would say anything more. But when it looked like it wouldn't happen, he tried one more time to make himself as comfortable as he could, which resulted in him only bringing his legs closer to his chest and wrapping his hands around them. Astrid next to him slumped a little down, but she still was holding nicely onto his one side.
Hiccup put his face on his knees and closed eyes, trying to bring back the same dizziness from before, allowing him to finally fall asleep and… relax. Because heck, he didn't remember the last time he felt so tired.
He was literally on the verge, with one leg already on the other side, the beautiful dream calling to him in its sweet voice when Jack one more time spoke:
"I didn't want… to mess another thing up…"
But Hiccup fell asleep before he could ask what Jack meant.
Waking up was definitely peculiar. Every bone, joint, muscle, nerve in his body literally ached from discomfort. Not to mention he smelled. Or maybe it wasn't him, but the whole room. Even thought that he could and would sleep another hour or two or maybe four in his bed, this wasn't his bed, so he had to wake up.
But well, he felt warm so that was a plus in this situation.
Jack somehow opened his eyes. It was quite dark in the bathroom. The only source of light was a thin streamlet of luminosity coming from the corridor. Very strong light. Jack could even bet that it was the Sun shining through some window in the corridor. So it was already morning, but which hour?
He blinked few times and yawned. Yep, definitely too less sleep. He still felt the tiredness swimming through his veins. If only he could burrow himself under some covers and sleep a little more…
His ears caught some mumble. He looked down at Tooth that was still surprisingly laying down with her head on his lap, but now curled completely. Her sweater laid on her arms. Did someone put it there? Was someone inside while they were sleeping? Jack didn't remember waking up.
He moved his head to the other side. Hiccup was sleeping softly, with partly opened mouth. His head was on his bended knees and whole body leaned on Jack. Astrid on his other side was also asleep with her head on Hiccup's arm, in similar way to Jack's one when he woke up.
He exhaled deeply. Was it really so early that everyone was still asleep?
"Jack… are you awake?"
Maybe not.
"Did I wake you up?" Jack put both his hands on the cold floor and hoisted himself up a bit.
Hiccup next to him lifted his head from his knees, as he also had to move with Jack. His glasses were twisted, hanging only by one end on his ear. The green orbs still were a little bit foggy. It took him few second to focus his gaze on Jack.
"Kind of." The auburn haired boy mumbled. His one hand moved to his face, where he corrected his glasses.
"What's the time?"
Hiccup glanced at his wristwatch. His arm was bended, so Jack wasn't able to see the clock face.
"Seven… twenty-four…" He finally said, studying the watch quite closely for few seconds.
"Oh…" That explained why he still wanted to go to sleep. He never wakes up so early on the weekends (with maybe few exceptions).
Jack stared at the slightly opened door. He took his sweet time for his body to fully wake up. If he could he would fall asleep any second, but they had things to do, like return homes, but most importantly help their friends get home.
"Should we wake them up?"
"Yeah, I think so."
Huh boy, this was definitely something new in his life. Jack always loved new experiences, but maybe he preferred a little bit more optimistic ones than waking up the sick and drunk friend. Well, she shouldn't be so drunk anymore.
He put his hand on Tooth's cold arm and slowly shook it. The girl only murmured something in response, swashing his hand away. Jack knew it wouldn't be so easy, so he did it one more time, but this time he added his voice.
"Tooth, wake up…"
This worked a little bit better, because the girl slowly lifted her head from his laps. Her glossy eyes wandered around the room to finally land on him. It took her some time to recognize her friend, but then she slowly started to get up. One of her red lock from the back got glued to her forehead.
"I'm up…" She stammered, brushing away the red hair from her face. She still looked out of this world. But Jack probably looked also like that few minutes ago.
"Now you are. How are you feeling?"
"Bad… Definitely bad." Tooth responded, touching her forehead with the back of her hand. "Like someone just drove over me. Or parked on me. Or hit me in the head… and stomach…"
"Well, that is normal, I guess…" Jack looked at Hiccup who was lifting Astrid from his arm. The girl's head rolled to the side and she snorted heavily. "We need to get you home. Can you stand up?"
Tooth nodded slowly. She put her hand on the ground and slowly started to stand up. In the middle she swayed heavily to one side, so Jack quickly jumped and helped her stand properly.
"I'm fine, I'm fine, just dizzy." Tooth smiled crookedly. She put her hand on his arm, steadying herself.
Astrid behind them groaned heavily.
"I feel like shit…"
They both turned around to spot Astrid also standing, but she was fully draped over Hiccup who looked like he could fall down any second under the additional weight. His legs literally trembled beneath him.
"You okay?" Jack asked very quietly, moving one step toward him.
Hiccup sent him a small grin.
"I'll survive…" He whispered back.
With one strong tug he put Astrid back on her feet. She swayed to the side quite quickly and both Jack and Hiccup threw their hands to stop her from crashing down, but she regained her stand-up position.
"Everything is under control." Astrid said, with a small awry smile.
They both exhaled loudly. Everyone was standing now. Jack, when he caught Hiccup's eyes, pointed with his head at the door. Time to see damages done to the house and find the rest of the people.
They moved awfully slowly, because as soon as they exited the sweet darkness of the bathroom Astrid started to get dizzy and she had to lean on Hiccup. They had to wait few second for the feeling to subside. She then thanked him and they returned to their journey.
The house was quiet…. terribly quiet. Jack could hear the birds chirping outside, well those birds that didn't move south for the winter. Even rustling of the leaves was audible in that atmosphere, giving it an almost deadly feeling. Ugh, he didn't like it.
They slowly moved down the stairs to find the living room in total destruction. Maybe not destruction, but a mess. Definitely a big one. The red cups were laying everywhere. Walls were decorated in weird stains, some more concentrated (like someone spilled something there) and some weirdly alone. Floor was almost invisible under trash and dried puddles of beverages. And not to mention there were even some people scattered around, sleeping in weird poses and in even odder places (like seriously, there was a girl sleeping under the table). Jack was suddenly very glad for his choice of bedroom for this one night.
"Oh, glad to see you alive."
Jack turned to the kitchen where Aster was making… tea? He was only throwing bags inside four cups that stood in a line.
"Well, most of us are alive." Jack said. He helped Tooth move and sit on one of the tools standing near the giant table.
She thanked him while slumping down. The gray haired boy looked at her, then glanced at Astrid and took another four cups from the cupboard above him. The electric kettle started to jump wildly next to him.
Hiccup put Astrid down next to Tooth. He himself sat on the chair next to it. Jack took his seat next to his rainbow haired friend.
Aster in the meantime poured boiling water inside the cups, added honey and then passed them around. Jack first moved the cup to Tooth. He nudged her to take a sip. She wrapped it in her palms and slowly started to blow on it.
Jack caught the ear of the cup and then he moved it closer to himself. He stared as Aster took one more cup and sit next to Hiccup, who, very surprisingly, didn't even notice it, as he was busy waking Astrid up.
"So that was fun night, that's for sure." Aster said. "My tank is almost empty, I hope I will be somehow able to drive home."
"Well, I think that many people can agree with you." Jack looked into the living room, when someone snorted heavily. "When they'll wake up, that is…"
Astrid finally took her own cup and took a sip, but quickly yelped, when she found out that it was made few seconds ago.
"Remind me to never drink on Ruff's and Tuff's parties…" She whined, her mouth formed a small 'o' as she started to puff on her drink.
"Where they are exactly anyway?" Hiccup asked reaching finally for his cup.
Jack observed as the small boy reached for the cup, but as it was a little bit too far away Aster moved his hand and pushed it closer. Well, the surprise suddenly beaming from the auburn haired teen was hilarious. However he quickly thanked the taller teen and returned to his slumping position on the chair.
"Well, they…" Aster started to be immediately stopped by Ruffnut walking inside the kitchen through the door leading to the small backyard. Why they had it in kitchen was a mystery for Jack.
"I'm alive, I'm alive!" She shouted. The door crashed into the opposite wall. Everyone flinched hearing this sound with Tooth and Astrid groaning loudly. She then moved to the counter and took one cup. She jumped on it and then took a small hesitant sip. "I see that everyone is as alive as the rest."
"Define alive?" Jack grinned at the girl.
She took another sip. With one hand she threw her braid behind her back.
"Well definitely more alive than Snotlout and my bro." She snickered suddenly and hid her mouth behind the cup.
"So where are they?" Hiccup asked, lifting his head at Ruffnut.
"Oh, in the bathroom…"
And in that exact moment they heard a sound of someone puking. Jack shuddered hearing it when it brought back bad memories from previous… this night.
"Okay, wait stop…" Jack lifted his hand. "Then why were you in the garden exactly?"
Ruffnut waved her legs. She put the cup down.
"You know, every bathroom was taken at night… Some more taken than the others." Here she wiggled her eyebrow at Hiccup who banged his head on the table seeing it. "And they got a little bit sick, so they decided that bushes were also good as a quick replacement for a bathroom. I had to see the damages they did to mom's roses."
"I assume she won't be too happy with how they look right now…" Hiccup mumbled with his face still glued to the surface. Astrid, who also laid in similar position, turned to him and giggled.
"You're right bud. She definitely won't be."
Then they all heard Tuffnut calling his sister from the bathroom. Ruffnut rolled her eyes, but jumped off the counter and took the remaining two cups in her hands.
"Well, it was nice to see you."
"Do you need help with cleaning?" Hiccup lifted his face and turned to her.
Jack blinked. Yeah, the house looked like a mess, almost like a tornado ran through it.
"Naah. I got Sinbad up for this job. I mean… he is responsible for bringing the bad alcohol , so he had to atone for his sins." She shrugged, smiling at them. "But anyway, I catch you all later. I have some dudes to take care of!" She then moved away, disappearing into the corridor directing her to the bathroom.
Jack looked at Hiccup and Aster who were following Ruffnut with their eyes.
"I guess that explains them well." Jack said as he pointed at Tooth and Astrid.
"I'm never drinking here anymore…" Astrid whined. She took another sip of her tea.
"Yeah, tell yourself that." Hiccup added which resulted in a smack from her to the back of his head. Guess she was starting to return to the land of living.
They all packed themselves in Aster's car and even though he said his tank was almost empty, he drove them all back home (maybe because they stopped to fill it up, but that was beside the point).
Tooth and Astrid looked definitely better. The rainbow haired girl even cracked a small joke when she was exiting the car in front of her house. Jack stared after her as she walked back home and only leaned back on the front seat when the door to her house closed after her.
Hiccup, for that matter, asked Astrid ten times if she was okay or if she needed help with anything. She groaned, but with a warm smile told him that she will somehow survive this four meter walk to her door. Nevertheless, Hiccup also followed her posture until the door closed after her.
Hiccup's home was next. Aster parked somewhere on the curb.
"So this is your stop." He said as he turned on his seat, still with the car turned on.
Hiccup, who until now was slowly starting to fall back asleep, woke up, turned to the driver and nodded. He looked like he was taken out from some trance. Or maybe he was probably pretty tired.
Jack totally understood it. The cold floor of the bathroom wasn't the nicest bed in the whole universe, not to mention he remembered falling asleep still talking with the auburn haired boy. So he probably had less sleep than Jack did. Everyone would be tired in his shoes. But he seriously looked like he was on the edge of consciousness when he slowly tried to pry open the door. He did it after the third try.
"Thanks for the lift." He mumbled, as he leaned inside and looked at Aster, smiling a little.
Aster nodded in return, tapping the steering wheel with his finger.
"No problem."
Hiccup then turned to Jack.
"And Jack… thanks for you know… everything else. I guess I'll see you later?"
Jack showed him a thumb up, grinning broadly.
"You bet. Now go get some more sleep."
Hiccup rolled his eyes playfully.
"I'm planning too." He said, but still with a small beam closed the door and turned to walk to his home.
Both he and Aster observed as Hiccup moved slowly, step after step to the front door. Jack had his hand on the door's handle in case he had to quickly jump out of the car and catch the falling asleep boy (he knew it was futile, because Hiccup would already crash on the ground until Jack would be out of the vehicle, but it made him feel a little bit better). But it looked like it wasn't needed, as Hiccup stopped in front of the door and took out the keys.
Almost, because he tripped while walking inside.
"Ouch." Jack flinched seeing it. "But he was close."
"Very close." Aster mumbled and changed the gear.
The rest of the Saturday went fine. Well, as fine as you can call sleeping half of it, because after entering his house, Hiccup only had strength to wash himself (very thoroughly he had to say, even though his eyes were glued), throw his clothes into the washer, turn it on and give Toothless some food. Then he was out of this world for few hours.
He woke up in time for his dad coming home from work. For few minutes he tried to fall back asleep, but when he smelled the delicious scent of food he had to wake up. He was actually pretty hungry. Hiccup quickly jumped out of the bed (which received him a hiss from Toothless which got comfortable near his back) to run downstairs.
Indeed Stoick was cooking something. When Hiccup not so nicely burst into the living room, he lifted his face from the pot and greeted him with a nod.
"O hey Hiccup, I didn't expect you to be up so quick. But you made it on time for dinner then." The man smiled as he kneeled and took two plates from the cupboard.
"Gladly, because I'm starving." Hiccup whined. He moved to sit on the stool. Toothless followed after him and jumped on his lap.
"You know the fridge is full. You could always make something for yourself." Stoick muttered joyfully while pouring soup on two plates. He then distributed them on the table. He sat on the chair in front of Hiccup.
"Too tired for that." Hiccup stated, grabbing the spoon and starting to eat.
For few minutes they didn't talk, because they were busy eating. Stoick spread over the newspaper. His eyes were moving from one corner to the other, like a metronome, reading articles that only caught his interest. Which were often about something related to the economic. Being the boss of a big corporation made you learn new habits – like became interested in exchange rates. As a kid Hiccup totally couldn't understand his father interest in giant tables with numbers. He remembered that he also used to stare at them, nodding when Stoick was making comment, even though he didn't understand a single thing. Now it was different. Hiccup often found himself now looking at them while reading information too.
"So how was the party?" Lifting his head from the second page, the man suddenly asked.
Hiccup stopped moving his spoon when he had to shrug in response.
"It was…" Weird, odd, smelly, loud, crowded? "Fine…" Also could be.
"Good, good. I'm glad then."
Hiccup smiled as he returned to eating. When he was ending his portion, he looked up at his father. Stoick's eyebrows were furrowed, dangerously close to each other as he stared at the page. Yet it didn't look like he was actually reading, but thinking about something. His one hand brushed his beard.
"Something on your mind?" Hiccup asked. He slowly stood up from the stool and circled the table to put the dish into the sink.
The man sighed heavily.
"Just… the past…" Stoick muttered, his voice suddenly very different from the usually booming one - the one which often made Hiccup's ears hurt.
"The past?" Hiccup parroted, not really understanding what his father meant and also trying to show his father to continue this topic.
"I got a letter from an old friend asking for a meeting." Stoick turned the page of his newspaper.
"And you… plan to meet him or her?" Hiccup asked, glancing at his father and moving to the electric kettle. He switched the button on.
Hiccup rarely heard his father being unsure about anything. Stoick was always straightforward. He had strict rules that he followed. There wasn't many times when he wasn't sure about something. So seeing him like that was something new for Hiccup. But now he didn't know if this was a good experience.
"I don't know." Stoick took deep breath. "I mean, he made quite a mess some time ago…"
'I didn't want… to mess another thing up…'
Hiccup blinked when he heard a familiar voice inside his ears. It felt so vivid, so real, that he was almost sure Jack was standing next to him.
He moved to the cupboard and took out two cups. He also threw inside tea bags, just in time with the kettle turning off.
"Sooo… do I know him?" Hiccup tentatively asked, pouring water inside. After a second thought, he stood on his tiptoes and took a jar of honey from one cupboard.
"No, I don't think I ever told you about him. He was a part of quite… unpleasant past."
"So you kind of cut every tie with him. Is this what I'm supposed to think?"
They rarely talked like that. Of course, Hiccup knew a lot about his father's past (what was he doing when he was a teenager, where he was working before he became a boss… just, you know, typical stuff), but he never heard about any unpleasant parts. At least so unpleasant that made Stoick act like that. Okay, they may, may not have some wild rides with Gobber in their youth (Stoick always glared at his friend when he was starting talking about it), yet this was different. It was something on a different lever - it was a higher caliber of problem.
"I don't know. I guess time did that for us."
Hiccup hummed, not sure how he should answer that. He added one spoon of honey to each tea and then took both cups. He put one near Stoick's hand. There was still half of his meal on the plate. Weird. It must be really bugging him to not finish dinner.
"Here…" Hiccup mumbled, when Stoick turned to look at the cup with steaming tea. "I can't do much, but listen…"
Stoick smiled at him tiredly, but very sincerely. When was the last time Hiccup saw his father do that?
"Sometimes it's enough. Thanks…"
Hiccup smiled back. Or at least he tried to. He wasn't sure if he did it correctly.
"If you need something, I'll be up in my room."
"Okay. I need to work a little bit at home anyway."
Not knowing if he was able to do more, Hiccup took his tea and moved up the stairs to his room. He felt bad for leaving his father like that, but what could he do more? It didn't look like his father was up for talking much about it and Hiccup didn't want to pressure the man. Interacting was so hard. It wasn't like he didn't want to help. He did! But what more was he able to do?
For now, nothing.
Hiccup sighed as he waited with open door for Toothless to trudge inside. After that, he closed the door and moved to the desk. He turned on his laptop.
Toothless in this time moved to the window. Then he turned and stared at the auburn haired boy very, very expectantly.
"Okay, bud I got this, but be quick, it looks like it's going to start raining soon." Hiccup mumbled, standing up and opening the window for Toothless to go.
He left it a little bit pried open, so his cat could return home without making noise under his window. It had happened too many times in the past for Hiccup to not learn his lesson.
When his computer finished turning on, he quickly clicked the Skype's icon. He saw that Astrid was online, so he decided to write to her.
Ya alive?
And he waited. And waited and waited and waited, but she didn't respond. Hiccup groaned. Great, she probably was asleep with her computer turned on. What was he supposed to do now? He did his whole homework for this week (he liked his weekend to be free, thank you very much) and he needed to go to library for new books that he ordered. Maybe he should watch some movie? There was a pretty good movie Fishlegs suggested for Hiccup to watch (coming to this, he was also off the skype), but somehow he wasn't up for watching it. Maybe he should move on with his project for this robotic contest he was participating in?
To be honest he didn't know why he got himself into it. He liked to build small things and program, but he wasn't very good at it. He told his teacher about not being sure, yet Mister Robinson pressed Hiccup to participate and it looked like it paid off for him, because Hiccup agreed. He had nothing to lose, he could only gain from it. So now he was on the part of simply projecting and planning first sketches, however Hiccup wasn't very happy with the result. He had a feeling this wasn't it, that this was missing something.
The topic of the contest wasn't helping him much, as there wasn't any real theme of it. The only requirements were the size of the machine that participants need to build and that was all. Which for some people would be good, but for Hiccup… not so much. He need some kind of direction, some kind of solid ground to start working with, some first small spark of idea… And he got nothing.
So at first Hiccup wanted to make a small moving robot that would distribute cutlery around the table, because it was simple and programming it wouldn't be too hard (or at least he hoped so). But…
He took out the blueprint and stared at the first prototypes of the machine. He bit into the end of the pencil he found laying somewhere on his desk. Ha managed to get under the required measurements, so now he should only focus on which parts he should use – like what kind of metal, screw, gears, shafts should he use, but he couldn't put his mind on it.
Thankfully Astrid saved him with her reply.
Yes, yes I'm alive… somehow… but still feel like shit D:
Hiccup smirked under his nose and moved to reply. He quickly tapped the buttons on the keyboard and stared at the appearing sentence.
Yeah, you looked like one xP
And… sent! Yeah, he was such a good friend.
Ha ha very funny, mizzter smart pants. Like you smelled any better ;D
He pushed away the project and moved the laptop closer to him.
That because you were sleeping on me ._.
Yeah and you're a bad pillow, let me tell you that =3=
Good, because I wasn't mean to be a pillow D: Okaay, but seriously, everything's okay? For a second I thought I need to call an ambulance there.
Hiccup never really saw Astrid like that. He never really took care of a drunk person, well a drunk person that was throwing up every minute, so he was scared, terrified, frightened and he didn't know what to do. He could have run for help, but he didn't. He couldn't think properly back then. And now he was shivering while thinking about it.
Nah, everything okay. Just very bad poisoning. My stomach hurts, but I'll live :3
Hiccup sighed, relieved by reading it. He heard some sound coming from the window, but he didn't pay it any attention really.
That's good to her. Don't scare me anymore like that! D:
It wasn't my fault, it isn't like I wanted to get poisoned ._.
Toothless jumped through the window and shook his body. Staring at Hiccup, he trotted in his direction. He circled around the laptop, purring softly, trying to gain his owner attention.
Hiccup only petted him under his chin.
I know, just… really… I was scared D:
Awww you do care my little, baby Hiccup =DDDdd~
Don't call me small D:! You know… I'm only below average.
Its called 'being small' genius…
Toothless suddenly meowed and jumped on his lap. Hiccup bounced with a small yelp when he felt something sticky touching him. He looked down, just in time to see Toothless leaving few brow paw prints on his jeans.
"Toothless!"
The cat only looked at him and purred loudly.
Hiccup sighed as he looked at the window. Yes indeed, it was raining outside. The weird sound was the droplets of rain hitting the roof.
Hiccup liked rain. He loved to lay down in his bed and read book, while the storm was raging outside. But he definitely didn't like Toothless walking into his room with wet paws and stomping on… everything.
The boy glanced at his desk, or to be more precise his blueprints now covered in dark spots.
"Toothless! You ruined my project!" Hiccup shouted, reaching for the white page that was now decorated with small brown points. He knew he didn't really like it, but it wasn't so bad!
Toothless only bumped his head on Hiccup's chin. Then he looked at him with the most innocent and pleading eyes Hiccup had ever seen.
The boy scoffed when he moved himself away from the desk.
"You're should be glad that I love you. And that it is raining outside."
He stood up and moved to the commode near his wardrobe where he often kept his weird stuff. He kneeled and pulled out one shelf. His Cartridge pad was laying peacefully there. Hiccup took it and opened, planning to take one page out and start from the beginning, but he found out… that there was no more free pages left.
Okay, this may be a problem then. Not to mention he wanted to start doing his project for physic and for it he also needed this paper. So this meant that he needed to visit some stationery shop, probably pretty fast. Monday seemed like a good day for small shopping. He needed to check what else he needs too.
Hiccup stood up and turned his head at the desk - it was fully covered in brown points scattered everywhere in chaotic pattern.
"What a mess…" The auburn haired teen mumbled to himself.
'I didn't want… to mess another thing up…'
Hiccup blinked and looked around, even though he knew he wouldn't see anyone here, beside him and Toothless of course. But the sudden voice seemed so real, like Jack was really standing next to him, in his half daze. This was ridiculous, bizarre, uncomfortable…
Hiccup sat in front of his computer.
And why was he even thinking about it? Wasn't it just some sleepy person talk?
Was Jack's life a mess? From Hiccup point of view – a typical bystander – Jack had everything. Friends, loving family, intelligence. He only didn't have good grades, but that wasn't the key to happiness. Not to mention he was handsome (which would definitely help him at some points in his life, or totally destroy it in others). But this was only the external evaluation. Something that every person that knew Jack a little could say.
Hiccup knew Jack only a little in the end, didn't he? He only knew the outside of Jack, he didn't really know the true Jack. But he had few glimpses of it. So, summing everything Jack's life couldn't be a mess…
Yet, he was saying that it was. Did Hiccup was overthinking it? More like, why it was bugging him so much? They weren't close friends. Should they be even called friends? Maybe? Well, this night definitely brought them a little bit closer, but were they friends? What would Jack do if Hiccup would simply ask him about it?
Does Hiccup want to be Jack's friend? Probably. Did they just suddenly step on some weird level of their relationship? Maybe because of that Hiccup was thinking about it so much.
Because it didn't seem right. Jack was always smiling, always grinning, always full of life, always optimistic. What was that? 'The loneliest people are the kindest. The saddest people smile the brightest. The most damaged people are the wisest. All because they do not wish to see anyone else suffer the way they do.'* Maybe Jack was like that. Outside all happy and inside a black hole?
Something deep inside Hiccup clenched thinking about it.
Should he ask Jack about it? But wasn't this kind of overstepping some boundaries? Hiccup wouldn't want for some people to ask him very personal questions. Was it a personal matter to Jack? Probably yes, maybe, kind of... Would Jack talk with him about it if Hiccup would ask? Ugh… why social interactions were so difficult! Why dealing with people was so hard? Why was he thinking so much about it?! Why he had more questions than answers! He felt like he barely had any answer at all!
Ya alive there?
Hiccup shook his head as he stared at the new message. He didn't respond the previous one.
Yeah, yeah. Btw. I met Heather.
Heather who? :o
Heather as you know, Dagur's sister?
Oh that one =D she was at the party?
Yeah. Jack introduced her to me. And you know what she said?
I definitely don't know. Free me from this miserable place of unawareness =D
Hiccup rolled his eyes.
She said that Dagur was talking with her about me. But not in the mean way, but… like in the nice way? I don't know, that was weird D:
Yeah weird ):
Indeed it was odd. Hiccup didn't really expect Heather to know about him. He was just a small nerd, usually hidden in the corner with Astrid. And Heather was… beautiful, popular and smart. But about what exactly was Dagur talking with her? It didn't look like she knew what her brother was doing. Hiccup was only a little bit curious about this.
Sighing heavily, he looked around the still dirty desk. He needed to clean this, probably fast if he didn't want to scrape the surface later.
Toothless only looked at him with content purr while laying on Hiccup's bed.
Jack sighed for the probably eight time in the last fifteen minutes. But why can't he not when he was tired, it was Monday and they had English (one of the most boring lessons for him). The teacher glanced at him, but ignored nevertheless for which Jack was very thankful. He had quite good grades from English, so this shouldn't be a problem.
"Frost, can't you just shut your mouth for at least five seconds? I'm trying to listen." Aster whispered angrily to him, but he didn't lift his head from his notebook.
"But I'm bored." Jack whined, laying his head on the small nest he made from his arms.
"Then send a message to someone."
"But I don't know with whom I want to talk."
Aster groaned and didn't reply. Jack expected it a little.
Jack tried to listen for few more minutes, hoping it would somehow magically gain his attention till the end of the classes, but it was no use. He looked at his knees, where his phone still laid down. He brushed his finger on the surface and stared as colors return to the screen. The happy faces of him, Tooth and Aster stared back at Jack. It was a photo they had taken when they were on small vacation last summer near the sea. Jack was totally against spending time anywhere under the bright Sun, especially the beach, but in the end he had a great time with both his friends.
Jack opened the contact list and rolled through it, searching for some name that would make him want to write and talk, but no one really caught his attention. Well, one person did. Dagur's number. Why he had it was a mystery. He probably just took it out of habit from some person, because you don't know when you're going to need some numbers, right? Right. Even though writing to Dagur of all people now sounded hilarious. What could he even write? Hey Dagur, it's Jack. I know you think I'm dating your crush, but I'm bored, so maybe talk with me. No matter how funny it's sounded, this was still a terrible idea, not to mention a little bit mean. Maybe Dagur wasn't the nicest person on the Earth, but it didn't mean that Jack needed to follow his rules. Although it made him chuckle.
Aster glanced at him with raised eyebrow, but quickly brushed it off.
Because this was what Hiccup was to Dagur, right? A crush. However it sounded odd. Crushes reminded Jack of people sighing secretively while staring at someone. Aster was Hiccup's crush and it sounded good thinking about it. But Dagur and Hiccup? Not so much. But it was probably what it was. Well, at least Jack couldn't find much more fitting word for this.
Jack leaned on his chair and stared at the lamp. He wondered what would life looked like if Dagur wouldn't act like… that. Like if he acted a little bit more… normal and not so aggressive? Maybe he would also be glancing at Hiccup while hiding behind the corner and sighing oh-so-girly when Hiccup would pass him by?
Jack puffed his cheek, trying really hard not to burst here laughing. No, this was over, he shouldn't be allowed to be bored at lessons. He should be even banned from this, because his mind started to think about bizarre things.
Jack quickly grabbed his phone, searched for Hiccup's number and opened the tab.
I just imagined Dagur sighing after you while you pass him by in the corridor. =D Like you know… in those romance anime with all those small hearts flying around!
He didn't even have to wait a minute before Hiccup replied.
Hilarious =P. Don't you have better things to do?
Jack really… didn't.
Hiccup put his hand on the handle, pushed it down and walked inside the stationery shop. The bell above his head ringed loudly, announcing the new, potential client. A woman standing near a cash register lifted her head and welcomed him with a happy, yet tired smile.
Hiccup greeted her too, although more quietly. After that he hung his head and moved to the isle he knew very well, so he didn't really have to watch where he was going. However he had to lift his face few times to not bump into other people. After he had make quite few pirouettes (because he always noticed someone too late), he was standing in front of the correct shelf. The pads were at the bottom shelf, so he had to kneel. He did exactly that. His eyes looked at the covers of some of the pads, but all of them had colored pages. Well, they had tough sheets, but Hiccup didn't want to show his Professor project drawn on a yellow page.
In the corner of his eyes he saw a familiar cover, but it was pushed to the very back of the shelf. With a loud huff, Hiccup reached his hand inside, trying to grasp even the corner of the block. He felt the smooth surface beneath his finger prints. He put out his tongue and moved closer. Now he was fully under the shelf. With a small tug he nearly grasped the pad between his pointing finger and thumb.
"Almost got it…"
"Got what?"
Hiccup yelped not so gracefully hearing the familiar voice. He tried to lift his head up, but he hit the upper shelf in that process, so the sudden yelp was followed by a small hiss of pain.
Why, oh, why he always had to do it?
"You alright?" Came the soft, yet a little amused question.
Hiccup cursed his luck as he moved from under the shelf, while massaging his aching head. He didn't hit himself very hard, but it wasn't welcomed nevertheless. Especially now.
"I'll live. No need to call ambulance." Hiccup murmured, cracking his one eye open.
There was a hand in front of him now. He stared at it for far too long definitely, before it was finally recognized in his mind and catalogued as hand that wanted to help him stand up. He caught it very quickly. His savior hoisted him up to his feet. With his wrist, Hiccup corrected his glasses and looked at the male in front of him.
He knew it was Aster, of course he recognized his voice, but still Hiccup hoped that he had guessed wrong. But, he didn't. Hiccup's wonky-embarrassed mode - activate.
"Good, I never called an ambulance and I like my record so far." Aster said, sending him an amused smile. And of course it was suddenly so hard to stand properly, without swaying from side to side.
His mouth was dry, but somehow he was able to force the voice to cut through his throat.
"I wouldn't want to go to hospital just because I hit my head on the shop's shelf so we're even." Okay, he needs to take a breath. His body needs oxygen to not suddenly faint. "By the way, thanks."
"No problem." Aster, put his hands in his pockets. "I guess you were searching for Cartridge pads, right?" Hiccup nodded, nibbling on his bottom lip. "They moved them to the back of the shop last month."
Oh, that would actually explain a lot as Hiccup didn't visit this place for like three months. He packed himself with supplies back then quite good, so he didn't have to do it for a long period of time.
"Oh, okay. Thanks."
"I'll show you."
Oh gosh… oh, gosh. Odin, Thor, Einstein, Edison, great Gauss* – help him! Was this really happening? Someone needs to pinch him on the arm, pretty quickly, because he must be dreaming. But please, don't wake him up!
Aster moved and Hiccup had to make a jump to fall into steps with him. But they were walking, together, side by side. Hiccup never thought that this day would happen.
Okay, but he needs to talk. They can't live in this silence. His brain was working on top speed, so it had to come up with some idea for a conversation. He just needs to direct the energy on the right tracks.
"So how are you feeling after Saturday party?" Hiccup asked, his voice wavering a little.
"Well my wallet is almost empty as I said earlier. I had to drive half of the people there home and tank my car, because of that, so yeah, could be better. How about you?"
"Sore from sleeping on the bathroom floor." Hiccup stared at his feet. Left, right, left, right, bend the knees. Move forward. Don't trip. Ugh, why was it suddenly so hard? Okay, Hiccup got it!
"Ah yeah, Jack told me about it. And about this poisoning thing. Harsh night, right?"
It was literally hell and Hiccup knew he won't be able to forget it for some darn long time.
"Yeah, never thought I would hold girls hair over a toilet. Life just keeps surprising me."
And Aster chuckled. His arms shook and the pencils that he was holding under his arm almost slipped away and crashed down. He gladly corrected the hold on them with his other hand.
Nevertheless Hiccup felt accomplished. He managed to make Aster laugh. This was a very good day.
"Well, this isn't something many guys did in their life."
"So I'm guessing you didn't do it?"
Aster shook his head. He suddenly stopped walking and pointed at something.
Hiccup turned and stared at the shelf filled with pads, drafting papers and tracing and carbon sheets.
"Here you go. And about your question, no I didn't have the honor of doing such memorable thing."
Hiccup looked at the covers of some pads and searched for his favourite one. He found five pads hidden under other A3 blocks. He stared at them, thinking deeply, then decided to take two of them. Never know when you need additional one, right?
"Yeah, very memorable, although I would exchange it for some happier experience." Hiccup put two pads under his arm. He straightened his body and turned to his companion. "Driving drunk people seem more fun."
"If they are buckled up, seated properly and act like a civilized people then yeah, sometimes it's amusing." Aster sighed and massaged him forehead, like thinking about it also brought some unwanted memories. The small smirk told Hiccup that there was an element of amusement in it. "But when they suddenly want to throw up in your car, or want to drive to the Park to make a bouquet from fallen leaves for their dog's birthday this is when it isn't fun."
Hiccup covered his mouth, trying hard to not snort suddenly.
"I don't know. The last story seems amusing for me."
"It was, until she decided to undo her seatbelts while I was driving. But everything went fine, I somehow managed to convince her that her dog would prefer something else for his… or her birthday."
This time Hiccup really chuckled, feeling the tension flowing away. This wasn't so… hard actually. They just needed to talk about something, even minor topics and everything would be okay. Not to mention it looked like Aster sometimes prolonged their conversation. Although this weird feeling inside his stomach could subside. What people called it? Butterflies? Scientifically impossible, but it really felt like that.
"So do you need something else? I need to grab few beads for Tooth."
"Oh." Hiccup quickly took out his phone and opened notes, where he wrote down the small list of needed things. He saw that he got new message from Jack. He could wait for few minutes, right? (Jack would understand it). "I need some French curves, pencils, kneaded rubber and… masking tape."
"Big shopping I see."
They both turned into a very colorful isle filled with sparkling beads. Hiccup rarely was there, because he never needed any of that thing. Yet it looked like Aster knew exactly what to take, as he looked quickly over the shelves and grabbed few packages, checking the brands name first.
"I just ran out of everything." Hiccup stated, shrugging slowly.
"Well, I'm an errand boy for my friends."
"Someone needs to be."
Aster rolled his eyes, but he was still wearing a small smile.
"But why me? Even Jack asked me if I can pick something for him even though I knew he wasn't doing anything today."
Hiccup mulled it over in his head.
"Because you have a car?" He finally said, looking at the taller boy.
Aster opened his mouth, like he wanted to add something, but then quickly shut it. Hiccup took it as a small win for himself.
"You win this round." The gray haired teen finally uttered, staring at him from half-closed eyes. The ghost of a smile told Hiccup that he wasn't mad, maybe a little entertained. "So what about you? Do you have a driving license?"
They stopped and Hiccup took French curves. He stared at them for few second from different sides, but then nodded to himself. This package lacked one of the smaller ones, but it wasn't expensive and Hiccup had few tiny ones hidden somewhere in his desk.
"No, I don't have. Nor I want to." He said, glancing at Aster. He was staring at Hiccup expectantly.
Talking was great, but Hiccup wanted for his blush to fly away. And his heart could slow down a little bit. Not to mention his stomach could untwist, but overall it wasn't so bad. His brain was working properly, he wasn't stuttering so much and he didn't even trip, so… yeah, it could be worse. Yet Hiccup hoped that Aster really didn't see his red cheeks. Or if he did he took it for natural reaction of Hiccup's organism after walking inside warm shop from the freezing outsides.
"What? Bad memories?" Aster nudged his arm playfully.
Ohmygosh, did this really happened? Did Aster seriously just do that? Hiccup was in a bliss!
"Kind of? I mean, my Dad tried to teach me and we almost crashed in a tree, so yeah, I decided to wait with it." Probably wait for all eternity. "How about you, did you have similar problems?"
Aster hummed as he looked up on the fluorescent lamps above their heads.
"I remember that on my first lesson I turned over all cones on the curve*" Then he chuckled. "You should have seen Jack's face when he was driving with me for the first time. His nails were dig into the upholstery so hard, that he left nails mark there. There are still there actually"
Hiccup laughed under his nose. That looked like a nice view to remember to lift up his mood at nights. But that reminded him that he never saw Jack driving. Did he have a driving license? Did he have a car? Hiccup saw only one car at Overland's, but he couldn't say for sure.
"How about Jack? Does he has a driving license?" Hiccup decided to ask, because who could answer his questions better than Aster, the white haired teen's best-friend.
"Jack? Of course he has. He is actually a very good driver." Then Aster scratched the back of his head. "Probably even better than me."
That was a surprise. Hiccup didn't know that Jack had license. He took him as a careless person even on the road.
"Really? I have never seen him driving…" He murmured.
'Have never seen' sounded odd, because it felt like they knew each other for years, even though in reality it was around… two weeks? Which was very short span of time in Hiccup's opinion.
"I guess if he would have his own car, he would drive around more often." Aster stated, stopping near some shelf. He reached for something and then handed it to Hiccup. It was the kneaded rubber.
"North wouldn't buy him one?"
"He wanted to, some time ago, but Jack refused. He said that he wanted to buy it with his very own money."
"That is… pretty cool in my opinion." Hiccup said, grabbing the pencils from the higher shelf on their next small stop.
"He can act maturely sometimes." Aster stated as they moved to the cash register.
Hiccup smirked under his nose as he took the masking tape standing near the cash.
"Is 'sometimes' the key word here?"
Aster sent him a grin - partly evil, partly amused - and Hiccup was glad that he could lean on the counter, because he could fall down right here, right there, under this gaze.
"Definitely."
Aster waved his hand, allowing Hiccup to be the first, but the smaller teen shook his head. He wasn't sure if he was able to trust his legs for the next minute. So when the woman behind the counter scanned Aster's items, he took few deep breaths, trying to collect himself. With a little trembling hands he put his items on the counter and waited for his turn.
The woman stared at him, but quickly scanned his items and put them in a plastic bag. Hiccup paid her and received small amount of change and receipt. Aster waited for him at the end of the counter. They both went out.
They weren't inside pretty long, but the sun was very near the horizon and the world was covered in dark colors. The street lamps were already lit. Hiccup corrected his scarf, that he loosened up while entering the shop as the cold wind pushed pass them. He wasn't living very far away, but somehow he wasn't up for walking. Maybe he should ride a bus there?
Hiccup turned his head to Aster to say some farewell, but he found him already moving to his car. Well, he did expect him to do that, but well… some kind of goodbye would be pretty nice. Guess their small conversation was the end of their meeting here.
He turned on his heels, planning to move to the bus stop, when he was stopped by Aster's voice.
"Hiccup, where are you going? I will drive you back!"
Is this the real life? Or just fantasy? Hiccup turned around one more time to stare at Aster. He was looking at him with playful smirk dancing on his lips and keys dangling in one hand.
"R-really?" And here was back the stuttering. He could almost blame the freezing temperature outside. "I don't want to be a burden to you."
The grey haired boy only tapped the roof of his green car.
"Hop on. I'm going in your house direction anyway."
Hiccup didn't need any more incentive, as he walked quickly to the front door, opened them and almost threw himself in. He fastened his seatbelts quickly. His plastic bag laid securely between his legs on the floor.
Okay, this was it. He was in a car, alone with his crush. If this wasn't the best thing that happened in his life, then Hiccup didn't know what could beat it. Well, winning the competition last month could fight with it for the first place.
Aster turned on the engine, just in time for Hiccup's pocket to suddenly vibrate. It was probably Jack's another message. He should answer him. With a small, delightful smile he took out the phone from his pocket and brushed the screen. Jack's two messages popped out immediately.
You didn't play Amnesia*!? You totally have to play =D!
Hiccup snorted under his nose, reading the first message.
How about Outlast*? xP
Hiccup rolled his eyes. Of course he knew both of those title, but he never had played them. PC or console games weren't his thing. He was very bad at acting fast, not to mention he could get easily scared, but he enjoyed watching other people play.
No, didn't play. I'm bad at games D:
"I'm taking a lucky shot and say that it is Jack you're talking with?" Aster suddenly asked when he stopped at the red light.
"You scored." Hiccup said and sent the message. He pocketed his phone. "He is budging me all day…" Well this wasn't the truth. Jack wasn't budging him at all. He was writing to him full day, but it wasn't very irritating. Hiccup could almost say he enjoyed it.
"Oh, so you were the poor victim." Aster smiled to himself, not lifting his eyes from the road. It was even better this way. Hiccup liked to be home whole.
"I'm always at the end of a lucky chain, so I'm used to it." His phone vibrated one more time and Hiccup took out his phone.
You can't be worse than Tooth. Come on, just try! They are pretty darn cool =D
Hiccup scoffed playfully while rolling his eyes. He turned his phone and tapped the response quickly.
I doubt it. You just want to see me getting scared, I know your mischievous plan, you won't fool me ._.
"Do you mind waiting here for five minutes? I need to grab something for Jack."
Hiccup snapped his head up from his phone and with a little pink cheeks nodded quickly. Aster turned off the engine, went out and closed the door. The key were left in the ignition. Was it a good movement from his side? Hiccup can't fight potential thieves. Now he could only hope no one will be interested too much in Aster's car.
He followed the driver from his seat to find Aster disappearing inside… a florist? Wait, what? What did he just say now? That he needed to grab something for Jack. What Jack could possibly need from the florist? It was a December, so there wasn't much flowers in front of Overland's house, but thinking about it right now… Hiccup couldn't remember actually the front yard of Jack's house. He didn't really see the back one though, only half of it through Jack's window.
Hiccup stared as the taller teen disappeared behind the golden letters glued to the window. He moved instantly to the counter.
Hiccup slumped down on the seat, so now only his hair were probably visible for the people passing him by. He wasn't sure what to think about today. Aster knew what was happening between him and Jack, so he definitely wasn't nice to Hiccup only because he was Jack's boyfriend (because he wasn't). Was he so nice to other people too? Probably yes. This idea was sweet and painful both in the same time. Sweet because it was so amazing to feel this kindness, this pure warmness of other people helping each other. And painful because it wasn't something special. And Hiccup understood it, that it shouldn't. Helping people should be something normal, but he couldn't help feeling that prickling sting inside his heart. Because he wanted it to be something special. That Aster did something special for Hiccup. Did it make him a bad person by thinking like that?
Crushes were illogical. Love was illogical. It was just a norepinephrine* being produced in his body, but why it was so hard to cope with it…
Hiccup sighed as he brushed the screen of his phone. Jack wrote him another message. For a second or two Hiccup felt an urge to tell Jack that he was currently in Aster's car and didn't know what to do, but he quickly brushed this idea away. What good could give him speaking about it?
Maybe… What, you're afraid that Big Brother will see you?~
Hiccup read it once. Then read it twice and thrice. His fingers quickly formed a response.
Was it a reference to 1984*?
And he hit send.
"Sorry it took so long…"
Hiccup looked at Aster, just in time to see him throwing some bags at the back seat. It looked like they were pretty heavy as they landed with a loud thumping sound.
"No problem." He stated, eyeing the bags with curiosity. Who could blame him? Not to mention he and Jack were technically dating and they both decided it would be good to know each other better in case someone would want to ask or talk about it. "May I know what Jack needed or is it a secret?"
Aster turned the keys.
"Even if this was a secret, it isn't now." He glanced at him with a playful smirk. "He just wanted for me to grab some flower fertilizer, so his flowers will live through the winter… But please don't ask me about details!"
Hiccup didn't plan to. He actually didn't know a lot about gardening or plants in general. It wasn't that he didn't like them. He actually really loved flowers, but somehow they didn't like him back. So the only thing he was able to maintain living under his wings were cactuses and succulents. He didn't really mind, as he had a small collection of them on his windowsill.
But Jack? Hiccup didn't expect even in a tiniest bit for the popular boy to be interested in flowers or gardening. It didn't look like it was some deep secret or some mystery at all, but he never even heard the word 'flower' or 'plant' in the same sentence with 'Jack' around the school, so he could only guess that Jack didn't talk too much about it. Why? Was he ashamed of it?
"So Jack is a mysterious florist…"
"Yop." Aster popped the last letter loudly. "You should see their backyard in the spring and summer." He turned on the blinkers and glanced at Hiccup. "Bet you didn't expect that."
The smaller teen's phone vibrated one more time. He took it out.
"Of course, I didn't." He said, smiling a little as he opened the tab to respond to Jack.
To what? D:
Oh, so he didn't read it. Hiccup got worked up for nothing. Well, while being at Jack's house he only saw some fantasy books. But if maybe he would play his cards right then…
"Don't worry, mate. No one expects it."
Hiccup hummed, not really paying attention to what Aster just said. He more like heard him speaking something, but the words didn't get processed too well by his brain.
It's a novel written by Orwell. The name Big Brother comes from it. You need to read it, it's very good.
Devastating, added his mind, but Hiccup preferred to leave it for himself. At least for now on.
"I wonder how many secrets does Jack has under his sleeve…" Hiccup murmured, more to himself than actually to prolong the topic. It wasn't even supposed to come out from his mouth, but there was some short circuit on connectors in his head.
'I didn't want… to mess another thing up…'
Hiccup blinked and looked up when he heard the sound one more time. He stared around. His eyes landed on Aster. He was weirdly leaning on the steering wheel and looking at the road with his eyebrows furrowed and nibbling on his bottom lip.
What happened? Why was his brain reminding him of it? Why was he thinking about this one sentence over and over again? Wasn't it a drowsy person talk? Or not? Now Hiccup wasn't so sure.
"You never know what card he might pull out…" Aster chuckled, but his voice was vivid and just… empty? The loosen up, kind of happy, teasing atmosphere disappeared, replaced by something different – more thick and heavy. Hiccup didn't like it.
Should he ask about it? This one sentence was bugging him a lot recently and Hiccup was mad, because he couldn't find the reason why. It just… didn't add, like something was missing, some important piece. Was he keen on finding this? This one piece, this hidden x?
"Hey…" He took a deep breath, feeling the seatbelts tightening around his chest for a second or two. His eyes landed on his phone in his hands, but the screen was black. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, go on." Aster turned on his blinkers. He wasn't looking at him when he was turning left.
Okay, Hiccup got it. He was bad at explaining those personal emotions, but now there was no turning back. Just keep calm and don't lose your focus.
"So at the party…" He played with his phone, circling it around in his palm. "When we were in the bathroom and Jack was slowly falling asleep, he mumbled something…" No, this wasn't all. "I mean many drowsy or sleepy people mumble something, so at first I took it as that. A sleep talk. But somehow…" Okay, now he was rambling. He needed to think coherent and properly. "It seems that I can't forget about it… so I decided to ask about it…"
Aster looked like he wanted to look at him, but couldn't as he had to focus on the street, so he only glanced at him few times.
"So, what did Jack say?"
Hiccup brushed the fringe away. His phone now laid on his knee, still as blank as a minute or two ago.
"He said that he didn't want to mess another thing up…" Hiccup whispered. He wasn't sure why his voice was so quiet, like suddenly they were sharing a secret. And maybe in some weird, twisted way it was a secret. Some small communicate which was broadcasted on known only to few people's waves. Was Hiccup one of those people? "And somehow I can't understand why he has said that… I mean I know that no one life is perfect. I totally understand that. People have problems that I can't even imagine. I know that!" His hands became sweaty, so he brushed them on his trousers. His phone almost fell down. "But I think that he is talented in many things, so it's not like he is a weakling. He is always smiling and he always help people and he is overall a very good person." Unlike me, Hiccup added in his mind. "And I simply don't understand why he is thinking about himself like that, when he has so many advantages." This literally made no sense. Hiccup facepalmed himself, hitting his forehead with his glasses in this process. It kind of hurt a little. "Does this make any sense to you?"
Aster was smiling softly, but it wasn't the teasing smirk nor a totally full, one hundred percent happy beam. It was a small, soft movement of understatement.
"More over… Or at least I think I got it." He said.
Hiccup lifted his hands, but quickly moved them down.
"It's just… I feel lost. And I don't know if I'm not overstepping something. Some private border. I mean… I don't even know if we are friends right now…" Somehow Hiccup felt like he got more questions than answers.
Aster sighed and stopped his car.
Hiccup lifted himself from the slumped down position he had moved himself into. He noticed that they were already in front of his house. The windows were darkened, so it meant that his father still wasn't back.
He put his hand on the seatbelt lock to untie himself, when Aster spoke:
"I'm probably not in place to talk about such things." His voice was very low. "But as you said, everyone has problems. And even though Jack act like the happiest person in the world, he lived through some… worse moments. Even though they were in the past, they sometimes return to him." Aster brushed his hair, leaning on his seat with a heavy sigh.
Hiccup looked at him, opened his mouth to add something, but quickly closed it when he found that actually he had nothing more to add. He felt that he was balancing on something and knew that he shouldn't overstep it. It was Jack's private territory.
It wasn't the curiosity that bothered him, because Hiccup wasn't interested in other people stories. Because it was what it really was – a history – to some it was something pleasant to remember and to some not. Hiccup didn't like sharing his past, so he understood that other people might not like it too. So he wasn't curious. He was simply worried.
Yep, he was worrying over Jack. The truth was simple as that.
Hiccup nibbled on his bottom lip as he put his hand on the handlebar and opened the door. Grabbing the plastic bag from the floor and phone from his knees, he stood up and exited the car.
"Thanks for the lift." Hiccup leaned in the car. He even tried to smile. He didn't quite make it, as his lips only twitched a little. "And sorry for asking… I probably shouldn't do that."
Aster looked at him with wide eyes, like Hiccup's words surprised him. He slowly blinked and put his hands on the steering wheel.
"You shouldn't apologize. It was actually pretty nice of you to ask about this… Not many people care as much as you do."
"Being a worrywart is Jack's job." Hiccup said, brushing one lock of auburn hair behind his ear.
"Well, no one can beat his level at this point, but I think you can try." Aster said, tilting his head to the side.
"No thank you, I like my position as school's biggest nerd."
Aster chuckled one more time. His hand moved to the ignition, where still laid his keys.
"See you tomorrow."
"Bye."
Hiccup closed the door (trying to use not as much force as he usually do, to not make any harm to Aster's car) and turned around on his heels. He more like heard Aster driving away, than actually had seen it. But when he opened the door to his house and stopped in the doorway, he was able to glance back. Aster was turning around the corner. In a second he disappeared from Hiccup's sight, leaving him with weirdly empty feeling resonating inside of him.
He sighed as he stepped inside his house. His hand vibrated, signaling new message. Hiccup opened it while taking off his shoes and jacket.
Okay, so let's do it this way. I will read your book with weirdly boring title and you will play Outlast with me. Deal? ; D
He rolled his eyes, but the smile tugged the corners of his lips upwards.
Deal.
Yahoo! Here is the new chapter where literally nothing happens. I kind of like it… I mean, maybe it would sound weird, but the hangover scene was so fun to write =DDDD!
Now answers:
PheonixGrimLight - Here it is! =D Hope you enjoyed it and thanks :3.
Siôn - Argh that means a lot to me ;_;! Here is new chapter (where almost nothing happens, but I still hope you like it) =D
Yami-Taichi - I'm glad that you like long chapters! I totally agree, I love to make myself some tea and sit for hour or longer only reading fics :3! And nah, unfortunately I think it is too early for poor Hiccup to fall in love with Jack (especially with Aster on horizon)... Actually I want to write it so much right now, argh! xD
Anyway, here are some nerd facts:
* Magnesium hydroxide – an inorganic compound, often known as milk of magnesia, because of its milk-like appearance as a suspension.
* Silica plate – used in TLC (thin-layer chromatography). You put the sample at one end of plate, put the silica plate inside the glass beaker with eluent and wait, so the sample can extend on the plate. You can see the finished product on the internet =D.
* 'The source of the biggest mistakes is the person who is doing the experiment' – This is something we were thought on Analytical Chemistry and I decided to put it here, because well… it is right.
* Marshall – The male version of Marceline from Adventure Time.
* Iron(III) thiocyanate – it is compound that's looks like a blood. It is often used as a fake blood, although I wouldn't recommend to do it, because cyanates are poisonous.
* Sine wave – It is a wave that move up and down and never ends. You can see it on Google.
* 'The loneliest people are the kindest. The saddest people smile the brightest. The most damaged people are the wisest. All because they do not wish to see anyone else suffer the way they do.' – This is something I found on the internet, wrote by Anonymous and I totally agree with that.
* Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss - was a German mathematician who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, algebra, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, mechanics, electrostatics, astronomy, matrix theory, and optics. So as you can see he did many things, me and my friends were often surprised that we found his name related to different subjects.
* Cones on the curve – Okay, so this is something we do in Poland while learning to drive. You need to drive forward on the curve, park the car and then drive back on reverse gear. In this time you can't touch the cones nor cross the lines.
* Amnesia, Outlast – One of the best horror games. Seriously, play them or watch them. One is from Frictional Games and the second from Red Barrels
* Norepinephrine – as is clear from its other name Noradrenaline, stimulates the production of adrenaline, which makes our heart race, and the palms sweat. Phenylethylamine, norepinephrine and dopamine together are the cause of first attraction and falling in love.
* 1984 – Nineteen Eighty-Four is a dystopian novel written by English author George Orwell. I will put here some titles that I think are worth reading and… if you didn't read 1981 then seriously, go to the library and read it. Or even better go to the bookstore and buy it. Not to mention you will catch very important references, plus it is really good book. It left me devastated after reading it and from I know, it also did it to my friends. Just read it.
Uff, for now that's all!
And some small comment on plot from me:
*Hiccup being curious if Jack and he are friends – Hiccup likes to know where he stands. He doesn't have many friends and doesn't have an urge to gain more, but he is feeling that Jack is something more than a simple dude that is helping him – his ground isn't as steady as it used to, so he wants to know it.
*Hiccup who is a bad driver – I just wanted to add it, because I am a bad driver. Hiccup, feel my pain xD.
*Drinking – Okay, I hope that no one have problems with them not being adults and drinking. I'm not sure if I know a person who didn't drink before 18 (in Poland the age limit is 18 not 21), so I kind of don't have problem with it, that is if they don't get wasted.
*Messages – It is easier for Hiccup to talk via messages, so he is more talkative on them. Hiccup is just bad at talking face to face. Jack, on the other side, prefers to talk while looking at someone.
*Hiccup's embarrassing story – so okay, now I just wrote this part only for laughs. But at first I did plan for Hiccup to accidentally give Jack a boner xD. Actually I started to write this fic with this one scene in mind, but when I got there I thought that it just… don't add with the rest of the story and Hiccup's characters, so I deleted it, leaving only small part of it :3.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading! See ya!
