I'm so sorry for the wait! Thank you to those sticking with me, the support is great!
this chapter is kind of cruddy.. Next one will be better I promise, hang in there guys..
Various rhythms of constant ticking resounded about a dimly lit, cluttered room. You might be able to tell the monotone color of the walls if you moved aside one of thousands of clocks, all strung up and cramped together. Tables and shelves were shoved into the corners, piled high with assortments of stop watches, regular watches, digital clocks and hour glasses. Pendulums swung, and the 'tick-tocks' of the machines went off on there own beat, none following just one. The sound was enough to drive anyone mad in a matter of hours.
A tall, sharp looking red couch sat amidst the ticking room, in which a equally sharp looking man sat with a remote at his side. He stared up at the clock-shaped flat screen mounted on the crowded wall. His face was a difficult sight to define, old yet young all at once. His grey hair streaked with white, and wrinkles were obvious signs of age, yet he moved with grace and confidence, much more like a powerful young man than an old Keeper. Dull, cold eyes watched as the image of a particular spirit took up the screen, powers slowly draining into a vial on the floor. Chronos chuckled.
"Oh, Jack my boy." He shook his head slowly and used the remote to zoom into the winter sprite's face and pause the scene. "So careless. So driven. Why would you even think for minute that I would help you, after your friends had the nerve to steal from me? Oh, you stupid child. All of you, so very stupid."
Jack was ever so grateful Penda gave him the room with the small deck outside his large window. This gave him enough to climb up onto the roof. It was pretty dang hard not to jump off buildings anymore, and it was quite a bummer whenever he reminded himself he couldn't fly.
A frustrated groan escaped Jack's lips. How was he supposed to get Hiccup to like him (again)? Last time.. well last time he was 99.9% sure it was an accident..
"AUUGHHH!" Jackson yelled, desperately clinging onto the ice-blue Deadly Nadder practically doing somersaults in the sky. "ELSA, YOU LIZARD! STOP!" He screamed in the dragon's ear. In response, she bucked full force, sending Jack spiraling towards the water. He reached out for anything to grab onto, but there was nothing.
'Oh Gods..' He thought frantically, 'I'm gonna die..'
Just then he felt something snatch the back of his gear and pull him up and onto what he could only assume to e another dragon. He clung to the rider, taking in shallow, quick breaths.
"Oh Gods... Thank you.." He muttered weakly.
"No problem." Jack froze. "Just.. ah.." The voice chuckled, "Try not to upset your dragon too much next time. They don't take well to demands." Jack blinked several times before gathering up the nerve to look at the rider. Yep, just as he expected. He was holding on, very tightly, to none other then Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III himself. Well this was embarrassing.
After they landed, Jack helped Hiccup take of his Night Fury's riding gear, gulping a little when the dragon growled at him. "Don't worry about him." Hiccup placed a hand on the dragon's nose. "He's just over protective. Right, bud?" Toothless' mood changed immediately, tongue lolling out of his mouth and eyes lifted from a glare to playful and open. He pounced forward, pinning Jackson to the ground and licking at his face.
"Toothless!" Hiccup yelled, a hint of laughter in his voice. He eventually pushed the dragon off of the other boy.
"Ugh.." Jackson stood and tried his best to wipe all the dragon saliva from his face. "Does.. Does this wash out?"
"Nope." Stated hiccup, trying to hide his shaking laughter. "Sorry, Overland."
Jack hid his surprise that Hiccup actually knew his name, and glared, a smile playing at his lips. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
The other teen shook his head. "Nope, not at all. This is all completely serious, and absolutely not funny in the slightest."
"Are you always this sarcastic?"
"Are you always going to be an easy target?"
Jack blinked and resurfaced from the depths of his mind when he felt a cold blast of air hit his body. He sat up and looked around, eyes landing on the cause of it. A short, seemingly young boy with styled blonde hair and bright blue eyes now sat not too far from Jack.
"Dash?" The brunette asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Um, duh." The boy smirked, "You know how weird it is, not having you boss me around all the time?"
Jack rolled his eyes, "I do not boss you around."
"Bull." Dash snorted. "It's always 'wind do this,' 'wind go that way,' 'wind take me here.' Do I ever get a please?"
"Alright, please shut your mouth."
"Ouch, Frost. That cut me deep, bro."
"Right." Jack chuckled and shook his head. "Why are you here, anyways?"
"Weeelllll," Dash was at his side in a millisecond, "Word travels fast. I heard you were having some trouble with the ladayyys.. Well in your case a dude, but how different can it be."
Jack snorted. "What experience do you have? You're like ten."
"I am TECHNICALLY older than you, so shush."
"Alright, alright." Jack rolled his eyes again. "What do you got?"
Dash rubbed his hands together much like a mad scientist. Or a fly. "Thought you'd never ask."
"Penda, you totally don't have to.. I mean, this is sweet and all, but is it.. you know, necessary?"
"Completely!" The girl beamed at she strung up orange and black streamers throughout the large room. "Come on, Hic! No one's been recruited here for a long, long time. This requires a celebration!" She threw her arms out and almost lost balance on the ladder, "Plus, my parties are killer. People always try to make excuses for me to throw one, so it'll make everyone else happy. AND you're new in town. Might help you make some new friends, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess.." Mumbled Hiccup as he handed Penda a string of lights.
"Besides, I wasn't going to throw a Halloween Party this year, it was offending some... Friends of mine. Everyone was pretty bummed about it, but hey! If I make your party an October themed costume party, everybody wins! Don't worry about it." The ravenette climbed down and ruffled his hair, "You don't even have to stay the full time. If you do.." She shrugged, "You could always hang out with Jack."
Hiccup raised an eyebrow, "What are you implying?"
Penda shrugged again, this time with a smirk, "Implying? I wasn't implying anything."
The freckled teen was about to release one of his famous sarcastic remarks, when Jack burst through he front door. Instead, Hiccup clamped his mouth shut and looked away.
"Wow Pends, looks great in here." Jack plopped himself on the couch, sneaking peeks of Hiccup out of the corner of his eye.
"You know, it would probably look a lot better if more than two people were doing all of it."
"You're probably right. Want me to call Bunny?"
Penda shot a glare in his direction and sighed. "Actually, we're almost done here. All I have to do is set out the food and drinks. Why don't you two head upstairs and get ready." The boys were already half way up the stairs, when Penda called Jack's name.
"Whaat?" He groaned.
"There's only two bathrooms up there, and I'm gonna let Hic have the upstairs one to get ready. Use mine and take a shower."
Jack wrinkled his nose. "Why do I need a shower?"
"Well Jack, when humans do work in the hot sun, they get all gross and sweaty. You're all gross and sweaty."
Jack shivered as the steaming water hit his cool skin. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't nervous. He picked up a bottle of.. Shampoo? Ohh, right. Jack blushed deeply. He hadn't really used any products to clean himself, there wasn't any reason for it. However, he had gained some... knowledge over the years on how people wash in the shower. He shamefully flicked open the bottle, poured some of the goop into his hand, and ran it through his hair.
Shortly, Jack was stepping out of the shower and grabbing the towel he had set out on the sink counter to dry off. As he got to drying off the auburn swoops on his head, he started to worry. What if Dash's plan didn't work? now that he thought about it, it did sound pretty ridiculous. What other choice did he have, though? He had no knowledge of romance, he's always been terrible at it. Why Hiccup had chose to stay with him as long as he did, Jack had no idea. So, he had to go with the plan. He needed Hiccup back.
After a few minutes of digging through the drawers of his dresser, Jack slumped to the ground and sighed. He had absolutely no idea what to wear for a costume party. Just then, a knock was heard outside the door. The teen pushed himself up off the floorboards and went to answer it. Before he could turn the knob, Penda burst through, gabbed his arm, and sat him down on the bed.
Blowing a piece of hair from her face, she sighed and crossed her arms. "You have no idea what to wear, do you?"
Jack blinked and shook his head. Penda sighed a second time, "You're SO lucky I'm here," she grumbled. It took her less than a minute to shuffle through Jack's closet and dresser, pick a few things out, and throw them at his face. "Put that on and hurry up, then come into my room so I can do your hair. People are already on their way, and I want you and Hiccup to be there to greet them."
She left, and Jack began to get dressed. He walked over to the mirror hung up behind his door, and raised an eyebrow. Jeans, plain white t-shirt... Leather jacket? It was his turn to sigh as he recalled Pena's obsession with a certain musical. He shook his head and made his way to Penda's room.
Hiccup toyed with the hem of his shirt, feeling slightly ridiculous in the costume Penda had gotten him. He had made the mistake of mentioning his viking heritage, and now he was dressed in a raggedy green shirt, a fur vest and boots, and a viking helmet that kept falling in front of his eyes. Where did she even keep all this stuff?
Feet shuffled and clunked down the stairs, causing Hiccup to turn his head, expecting to see Penda beaming and proudly showing off her outfit. Instead, Hiccup had to keep his jaw from dropping. Jack bounded down the staircase in a pair of (probably borrowed form Penda), combat boots, and dressed head to toe in a total bad-boy outfit, complete with perfectly slicked back hair and unnameable amounts of gel. He looked... Hot. NO. Scratch that,
Hiccup clenched his cup of red punch, praying to every God he could think of that it hadn't been spiked by some dumb teenager.
It had taken a while to greet everyone, and people pinching his cheek, pulling his helmet down over his eyes and telling him how "absolutely adorable" he was, only made it seem longer. After most of the invited guests (and some not so invited), had arrived, Hiccup had scurried off to the quietest corner he could find. Fortunately enough (even though the "Welcome, Hiccup!" was strung up on a banner right under the "Happy Holidays!"), no one bothered him very much other than a few nods and smiles. Eventually he managed to strike up a conversation with a boy in a.. was it a gnome costume? He couldn't really tell, the hat looked like a santa hat with the white trim cut off, but Hiccup wasn't about to start critiquing costumes, considering the lameness of his own.
He glanced (admittedly not the first time), at Jack, starting to notice he was inching closer and closer to where Hiccup was standing. He pretended not to notice and averted his eyes, taking small sips from the cup of fruit punch. Eventually, he felt Jack's presence at a very close range. He sighed, and put on a blank face, turning to look at the boy.
"May I help you..? Cause personal space is kind of a thing and-" He stopped mid-sentence, noticing the mischievous expression Jack's angled face held. Oh god, did he know he was gay? Was he mocking him? "Urrr… Are you.. making fun of me?"
Jack's eyebrows raised and a sly smile played at his lips, "Nice costume. You know what would look way better on you? Me."
Hiccup rolled his eyes. 'Thor almighty, don't do this to me…' he thought, "Jack, what the hell."
"You better have a licence for driving me this crazy.."
Hiccup didn't respond, he held his tongue and looked away. Replaying sarcastically would only encourage him.
"Your room or mine?"
This guys was no different than the rest. It made Hiccup sick. "Both, you go to yours I'll go to mine." ...Well.
Jack looked slightly shocked, but recovered quickly, though Hiccup could tell he was reconsidering his actions, but only slightly. "Aww don't be a downer. Did you ever realize screw rhymes with me and you?
It was too much. Even if he wasn't mocking him, this wasn't what he needed right now. "Look. This ridiculous and stupid and insulting. I'm not an object you can mess with, okay? You obviously don't know how to act around people, so crawl back into what ever perverted hole you came from, and leave me alone." Hiccup slammed his cup on the table and stomped over to Penda. "I'm going to bed." He said irritably, and hurried his way up the stairs, leaving a very confused Penda, glancing over at a crestfallen Jackson near the punch bowl.