Healing Hearts

Rated; M for Mature

Pairing; HunterXAmy(HiccupXAstrid)

Author; Nightstar Fury

Disclaimer; I do not own anything HTTYD related-not the movies, shows, shorts, or series. I also don't own any of the songs that I may or may not use in the story. Everything belongs to it's original artist or creator!

10; Right Thing

{Hunter's POV}

After dropping Amy back off at the park so she could enjoy the warm weather Berk was having, I raced home-abiding the speed limits of course-and thankfully my mom was home. I parked the bike and shut it off, locking it to the front porch and rushed inside to see her jump in shock of how fast I came in.

"Good heavens, Hunter..." she put a hand over her heart as I laughed a little and moved towards her. "What on earth has you so excited?"

"I got a job today!" I exclaimed to her as her eyes widened.

"You did? Where? Doing what?" Vivian said to me now.

"At the gas station ten minutes from here, right next to The Cove diner. I went there to get gas for the bike and I caught sight of the hiring sign. Me and the manager started talking-he told me about it and said I could start on January 2nd at 4pm. It's second shift so I'll be home by 11pm. He said he'd give me a two week trial to see if I liked it, and if I do he'll hire me full time!" I explained joyously. How could I not be happy about it, finally I could be out doing something-making money instead of sitting at home and getting wasted most nights.

"That's wonderful, son! I'm so proud of you. It's the perfect job-just make sure you're home by midnight. You have to abide that until after graduation," Vivian reminded hugging me.

"I know, that's why I'm glad I get off at 11pm. Time to switch off with the third shift worker and get home in plenty of time," I said.

"And it won't interfere with your schooling and homework, right?" my mother asks.

"Nope. I get off school at 3pm. I'll have time to come home, get dressed for work, grab something to eat and get there by 4pm for work." I tell her happily, I hadn't felt this good in a long time-she knew I was excited and it would be good for me to not be home all the time moping about the past. Sure, it would always be there-but at least this could serve as a distraction for me.

"Well done, son. I'm happy for you, now come tell me the rest of your day until getting the job." my mother brings me over to the couch smiling as I sit with her and begin to tell her everything about going to the park with Toothless, then taking Amy out for her birthday-as soon as I said girl and out to lunch, my mother's eyes widened with joy. I instantly regretted telling her. "Oh! You took a girl to lunch for her birthday? Young man, I demand you tell me everything this instance!" Vivian stated. I sighed some and began telling her about Amy Hofferson and made sure to mention plenty of times we weren't dating, or even friends. Just that she looked upset about spending her birthday alone so I chose to do something nice for her to make her smile. Then went on about going to the gas station and getting the job from there.

"That's it really...and stop making a big deal over Amy, Mom. Geeze...she's just a classmate-in...every one of my classes..." I mumbled some.

"She sounds like such a sweet girl and it was very nice of you to take her out for her birthday, Hunter." my mother smiled.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't go spreading that around-pretty sure that the jerks who saw us in the diner are gonna tell everyone in school that the cold-hearted asshole, aka: me, has a heart after all." I rolled my eyes in sarcasm.

"Of course you have a heart, Hunter." my mother tells me lightly. "I don't understand why you don't make friends with this girl. Maybe you two could hit it off nicely and-" I alread saw where my mother was going with it and stood up quickly.

"No, Mom. No." I said firmly.

"But Hunter...it's been two years, you can't stay mourning over Chloe..." Vivian insisted gently.

"I can do whatever I want, Mom. You don't know how much that hurt me...to always be told 'I'm fine' or 'It's nothing, I'm okay'. And then one day I go over to check on her because I thought she was sick and found her hanging in her room...I had...just talked to her that morning and everything was okay, it was fine...and then just...a few hours later..." I clenched my hand to a fist now.

"I know, baby. I know...ssh, it's alright. I'm sorry...I shouldn't have said anything. I just want to see you be happy, and you...went out of your way to make this...Amy girl happy. I thought maybe-you might move on..." Vivian says softly.

"Maybe one day I will, Mom-but not right now. Okay? I loved Chloe with my everything, I did anything for her and her for me. We were so alike-right down to our fathers forcing us into a place we didn't want to be. I thought...us having each other was enough...In the end...I wasn't enough for her. It doesn't matter how much time passes...the pain will always be there, so will those horrid memories. Nothing can erase it..." I said as I backed away from my mother and went to my room, Toothless in tow as I closed my door and flipped the lock on. Toothless whimpered a bit as I sighed, I opened the mini fridge and got out my bottle of alcohol-I no longer cared that I had school tomorrow. I uncapped the bottle and took a long drink from it-thankfully my homework was done and I didn't have a worry in the world right now.

(Mid January)

Snoggletog had come and gone-it was decent to say the least. Got my Mom and Toothless a few things each-Mom got me some new clothes and shoes. My father tried to call-but we ignored it. I ended up missing that Monday at school after Amy's birthday. I got wasted and sick in the morning so I blew it off. It wasn't like one day would hurt my grades or nothing. Now it was halfway through January, I'd started my new job and I friggen loved it. I worked 4pm-11pm five nights a week. I switched off on weekends meaning if I worked Saturday one week, I'd work Sunday the next with Saturday off. As for during the week, I worked Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday-Andy always gave me Wednesday off. A mid week break he called it.

At my job, I ran all eight gas pumps right from the register, all it took was a button to turn them on. I handled small transactions too. The stocking was rare for me to do, most of first shift did that so I spent a lot of my work night doing my homework behind the counter. I kept up on the sweeping and moping through the night, I could eat on my shift too as long as I still took care of customers and paid for anything I grabbed off the shelf to eat. Mom sometimes came in to bring me a grinder and soda, or a small box of pizza for me. Loved my job and I got paid $9.50 an hour for my shifts. After taxes, I was bringing home a $232 and some change check. I normally just put the whole thing in the bank to save it, I only paid bike insurance and gas for bills.

Yeah, it was really good for me right about now. Having a job kept me pretty distracted over all, met a lot of interesting people working at the gas station. As for school, it was about the same. Midterms were this week-I wasn't worried. I had a lot of studying time at work. I couldn't believe there was only five months left until I graduated. Well, it was almost four when February hit. I was almost done and I'd be off that stupid parole with a clean record. Thankfully right now, it was sealed and no one could see it except a select few like cops, judge, mom, me. At school, I was different though. Colder, uncaring and that was because Vince and Randy went around telling everyone about what I did for Amy on her birthday-now everyone thought we had a secret relationship together.

I kept myself away from her, I'd sit on the opposite side of the room of wherever she was and not say a word. I knew it hurt her-but what could I do? I didn't need people thinking we were a couple and when I wasn't even over my ex who committed suicide two years ago. I had to distance myself from her, it was the only way to kill the rumors about us. And I was cold to my teachers because of them basically forcing me to tell them I'd been gang raped in juvenile detention back in September 2017. Thus since, they'd been leaving me alone unless they absolutely needed to talk to me. I really just avoided everyone, as I had said...I wasn't there to make friends. Just graduate and be done with school, parole, all of it. Maybe then I could move on in life-for right now: my past continued to hold me back.

Today was the day we were handing in our lyrics to our music teacher so she could grade them and then we'd be given them back in a week or two in order to start making it a song with music that we had to perform in June as our final exam. Also today, I was sure we were taking our History midterms, tomorrow would be Health, Wednesday would be Algebra, Thursday was Science and Friday was Language Arts. We'd have our grades in a week or so, I couldn't wait to see mine-I hoped I did good. Right now it was lunch, I was sitting at a table with Toothless at my feet and eating my food quietly-I had my headphones in to enjoy some music. I kept glancing at Amy, I saw how upset she looked sitting by herself. I wanted to go see her-but it would only start the rumors again.

It was weird, I didn't understand why I felt so bad about this. They knew in the beginning I wasn't here to make friends, so why did I feel bad? Was she hurt by me not talking to her? When I was talking to her, she always seemed to be smiling and now...she seemed miserable all the time now. Had I really made a difference in her life, being like a friend to her since the others weren't? Should I go talk to her? No, I couldn't. It wasn't my place to care about anyone in this school but myself. I closed my eyes, Gods, I needed a smoke break right now. I finished up my lunch-put the remainder away as I got up and Toothless stood as well. Together we exited the lunch room as I stood in the hallway area while lighting my cigarette and taking in a deep drag of it.

I stayed out there a good ten minutes to relax with my cigarette, I had the time so why not? When there was five minutes left until class, I sighed heavily. It was time for the history final, wonderful-and I had work tonight on top of it. I reached my locker and scanned my card for the lock as it beeped and opened for me, I grabbed what I would need the rest of the day and locked the locker once more.

"Please...leave me alone," I heard a familiar voice, it was Amy's. I glanced over again to see her surrounded by Vince, Sonny, Randy, and Travis.

"Where's our assignment for music. It's due today, Amy..." Randy stated to her.

"I-I didn't have time to finish it..." Amy told them.

"That's our midterm you bitch!" Vince scolded as I saw Amy flinch and close her eyes in fear. I was so going to regret this, I moved over to her and the guys and pushed them away from her gently.

"Hey, back off, Hunter..." Sonny stated.

"It's not her responsibility to do your work," I remarked coldly. "Leave her alone,"

"She's a friend, and friends help one another out..." Randy huffed to me.

"You're not her friend-none of you are. You're bullying her because she didn't do YOUR work. The only person she has to worry about is herself, not any of you. Back off her," I warned. Vince put his arm on my shoulder and shoved me out of the way and into the locker, I swear I saw red but controlled myself. If I got caught fighting, I was going to be in handcuffs within half an hour.

"This isn't your problem," Vince said. I forced myself to stand in front of Amy again.

"I'm making it my problem," I stated firmly to him. Randy punched me in the stomach as I cringed hard and panted hard, as I recovered from that I got an elbow to the face which took my to my knees, I felt a knee to my side next and I hissed in pain. Pretty sure something cracked that time as I held my side.

"Hunter!" Amy said with worry. Sonny and Travis held my arms against the locker, I struggled but didn't use full strength.

"Weakling..." Randy chuckled. I got punched again and took it, I wasn't going to fight back. I couldn't risk prison for anything-but at least Amy was safe. I don't know why I cared if she was or wasn't, I wasn't her friend either and here I was protecting her as if she were my girlfriend.

"Alright, break it up now!" came a loud voice, I instantly recognized it as my father's. Sonny and Travis released my arms as I fell to my knees coughing hard since Ryker's arm had been against my throat, Amy dropped beside me with worry resting in her blue eyes. "Hunter, are you alright son?" my father asked.

"I'm..." I cough hard again, "fine..." I forced out.

"What happened out here?" came Mr. Bludvist's voice now-demanding and angry of course.

"Vince, Randy, Sonny, and Travis were ganging up on me because I didn't do their homework for them...Hunter stepped in and protected me-then they started beating him up..." Amy said quickly as I tried to stand but fell down again, my ribs hurt and I cringed in pain.

"She's lying! Hunter attacked us first," Sonny tried.

"That's a lie. I watched the whole thing," Flynn said as he came over now.

"Me too," Roxanne nodded. "Hunter had them step back from her, Randy hit him first. Hunter never fought back, he took all the hits-but never raised his fists to fight back." she added.

"I have it on camera!" said another student who rushed over and showed it to the principal. Afterwards the man narrowed his eyes to the four boys and pointed to his office.

"My office, now." he demanded as the officer and Stewart escorted them to the main office over in A-Hall. "Hunter, are you alright?" Mr. Bludvist asked me.

"He took a knee to the side, sir..." Flynn reminded gently.

"And...I'll be fine..." I forced out as I used the locker to hold me weight and got myself up slowly, "I've taken worse damage than a cracked rib..."

"How do you know it's cracked?" Amy asked.

"I just know. I'll just get a pain killer and continue my day, Mr. Bludvist..." I tell him as Toothless came beside me and braced me so I wouldn't fall while walking to the nurse's office. I got myself an aspirin from her-then moved on to my history class. I found Amy and Flynn already in there, I slowly took my seat and after that-we were handed our exams to start. My rib was killing me right now-but I managed to make it through my exam within in forty five minutes. After turning it in-I just sat back in my chair trying to take my mind off the pain I felt. Only one class left after this...I might have to call out of work tonight and give this time to heal.

When the bell rang-I got up slow and moved towards the music room-I sat down and pulled out my phone as I pulled up the gas stations's number, yeah, I couldn't work tonight. It was a delivery night, I'd never be able to handle those boxes in this condition. I pressed send and put it to my ear to wait for an answer.

"Feul Stop, this is Andy." I hear my boss say.

"Hey boss, it's Hunter..." I stated gently.

"Hello, Hunter. To what to I owe the pleasure of the call?" he replied.

"Not pleasure I'm afraid. I can't come in tonight and maybe the rest of the week. Couple of douchebags at my school decided to use me as a punching bag because I didn't let them bully a girl in my class. I cracked one of my ribs, I'm going to Berk Urgent Care after school to get it checked out...I'll bring you a note when I get the diagnosis of what I can and can't do..." I informed him.

"Oh damn. Not to worry, I'll find someone to cover ya my friend. You take is easy and let me know, okay?" Andy says and I smile some.

"Thanks, Andy. See ya soon," I reply before hanging up and slipping my phone into my pocket when the bell rang, I saw Amy come stand before my desk.

"Hunter?" she asked, I looked up at her. "I just...wanted to thank you for what you did earlier. You got hurt because of me,"

"Don't worry about it. I've taken worse beatings for different reasons, I told you they were nothing without you." I tell her calmly.

"Why did you do it? You didn't even defend yourself, you should have!" Amy said quickly.

"When I got my second chance, I said I wouldn't fight back-no matter what. If I have to take a beating to help a friend, I will. I did it because it was the right thing to do, Amy and that is something I will live by until the day I die. Help friends, defend the weak, protect the innocent, love family." I stated as the teacher entered and people took their seats. It was a line I learned when I was fifteen and I'd always live by it. I know I called her a friend when I said I wasn't here to make them-but in truth, I guess I was her friend because she didn't have anyone watching her back like I was. Why did I protect Amy, because it was the right thing to do.