His Inner Demons

by Megasniffles

In a cold, isolated village Hiccup feels all alone, his mother died under circumstances unknown to him, and his father is as distant as his memories of her. With an increasingly large amount of nightmares, will Hiccup be able to find solace in Jack, or will he lose himself to fear? AU modern day story, no powers, rated M for later chapters.

20. Jack's Parents

This chapter is actually based off a real thing that happened to my cousin and his boyfriend. Of course I improvised on some bits as he wouldn't tell me everything, but I imagine it was similar to this XD

Also, thank you to captaintahno for the new image for this story, I love it!

Well, I would like to say that the rest of the day went by peacefully, but unfortunately it did not. We were currently stuck in a traffic jam, and had been for the past two hours.

"Oh god!" Cried Jack, "It would be quicker if we just walked!"

I laughed as he slammed his head on the steering wheel, instantly regretting it, "If we walked then we'd never be able to get the car home. And as soon as we started the congestion would probably begin to ease out."

He leaned back in his seat, staring at the grey ceiling, "Yeah, you're right. But I'm still really tempted to drive on the path or something, anything, to get out of this."

I sat there and stared out the window, watching an old lady slowly pass us in those things that old people always ride around in. Seriously, when would this damn traffic start moving? If an old lady can pass us, then there is just no hope for anything in life, a snail might as well have sped past on a tortoise that had no legs.

My vision focused again on the people playing in the field opposite us, seeing that there were various families out on a daily trip, all looking as if they were having fun and enjoying each other's company, lucky them. I watched as a father lifted his son into the air, pretending that he was an airplane or some sort of air transportation. I found myself wondering what it was like to have your Dad do that, realising the time for that to happen to me was long gone.

I moved my eyes away from the display, scanning the rest of the field as the car moved forward about half an inch. My eyes caught onto the back of a black clad boy and a girl I presumed was his girl friend, they didn't look at all happy, arguing and shouting loudly. People who were walking past them were giving them worried, as well as annoyed, looks, but I felt it was mostly for the girls sake.

I couldn't see either of their faces, the girl was facing away from me and the boy was wearing a hoodie, but they seemed familiar, but I knew nobody who acted like that towards each other. My interest grew as the girl began to stick up for herself more, pointing an angry finger at the person in front of her, who looked taken aback by her sudden burst of rage. Hmph, if there's one thing everyone knows it's that you should never upset a quiet person; they have the absolute worst tempers, and can unleash it in sudden, fiery bursts.

I rested my head on my hand, watching intently. The boy seemed to be growing more and more frustrated with her, giving me a rather foreboding feeling. Which turned out to be truly justified, as when the girl turned to walk away, he grabbed her wrist and slapped her forcefully in the face. My eyes grew from shock, I expected him to retaliate, but not with violence. Then again, who am I to talk? I did head butt a girl square in the face, but she was a bitch. Well, that still doesn't make it right.

"Right, that's it! We are taking the long way home!" I heard Jack yell out, looking round to see him rapidly turn the wheel to lead us down a side road that he had barely come level with. I looked back, trying to see the rest of the situation, but houses soon blocked my view. I wonder who they were. Oh well, it's not like I'm ever going to see them again, or have anything to do with them if I did happen to come across them in the future.

The road that we went down was surprisingly quaint. Many luxuriously grandiose houses were lined up either side of the road, each being separated from each other by an extremely wide back garden. I ogled each and every house, but Jack seemed more interested in the various cars scattered on every drive way. This whole road was like it had come straight out of an American film, the road lined with green trees with sections of grass surrounding them. It looked very upper class indeed.

"Oh my god! They have a Bugatti Veyron, and a Cadillac Eldorado! They stopped those in two thousand and two!" as Jack wiggled in his seat excitedly, having no idea what house he was talking about; cars were never my area of expertise. As long as it can get me where I want to go, who cares what type it is?

"I'm guessing that's impressive then?"

"Huh, yeah! These people must be millionaires or something! I didn't know that people like this lived so near us."

Hm, neither did I actually, and I've lived here all my life. Boy, that was a depressing thought.

It took another hour, but we eventually arrived back home, our stomachs both growling relentlessly from hunger.

"I swear to you, I will buy one of those houses for us one day! And that will be us with all the fancy cars," Jack declared confidently as we entered the flat.

"Mhmm, and how are you going to do that?"

"Um, I'll become some ridiculously well paid person who does absolutely nothing all day!"

Yeah because that will work, I know for a fact that Jack is awful at singing, and is too tweedy for any major sports.

"Huh, and what would you do exactly?"

He threw himself down on the sofa, thinking hard about it, "I could become a YouTube celebrity, and then work my way up the social ranks from there!"

The thought of Jack making videos that get millions of views actually seemed plausible to me, but I just knew that they would mostly be of him pranking me.

He wiggled his eyes suggestively, "Or, you know, we could both become adult entertainers together."

"No."

A few hours later I was watching Jack play some incredibly violent game on the television, watching as he tried to find new ways of killing zombies, talking to his online friends about what they could do next.

"No, if they all chase the pipe bomb they won't go after the boomer bile!"

I picked up the case, wondering what the hell boomer bile was. Hmm Left for Dead Two? Never heard of it in my life, but it looked like a good way to relieve stress.

"Well, maybe I don't want to teabag a Spitter, have you ever thought about that?"

Okay, I may not be a gamer, but I know what tea bagging is, and that was just gross.

I continued to watch him blast the undead creature's brains out as my mind wondered elsewhere, back to my Dad, mostly those infected cuts and what to do next. I know for a fact that he won't stay on the prescribed medication for much longer, as soon as he feels that they aren't working he'll stop in a heartbeat, never voluntarily taking them again. He might even resort to picking at the wounds himself to get the infection out and make it worse. The thought of what the injuries could look like began to make me feel sick to my stomach, forcing me to get a drink.

I signalled to Jack if he wanted one, but he just shook his head, his headset wobbling slightly.

Walking over to the tap, I grabbed a glass and began to fill it with water, watching the liquid churn and swish around as I thought about what I could do next with my Dad. He had already apologised, so that was out of the way, although it's obvious that only time will completely eradicate his guilt. So what now? Am I supposed to try and open up more to him? But that would mean telling him about Jack and I, and I want to leave that for as long as possible. It's not that I'm ashamed or embarrassed, but I want to know that Dad will react calmly, as well as also properly meet Jack first.

Oh, that was going to go so swimmingly! I could just imagine him blurting out something that would make my Dad thoroughly uncomfortable, such as what my hair smells like or something like that. Urgh, I may not being looking forward to their first meeting, but it's something that needs to be done, and soon the better I suppose. I gulped the glass down in one large mouthful and returned to the sofa, seeing that Jack had just finished his level on the game.

"Okay, see you later than, bye." He looked a little down trodden that he had no-one to play with. Oh well, here goes nothing.

I set myself on the floor beside him, crossing my legs as if I was in infant school again. He took no notice of me at first, starting to close the game down.

He got to the main menu when I stopped him, grabbing the second controller, "So, um, how do you play this then?"

He raised his eyebrows at me, surprised that I had actually taken an interest in such a thing. To be honest, the game looked completely pointless to me, but Jack liked it enough, so that was a good enough reason in and of itself.

"Hmm, well the left stick is to move about and the right one controls your camera, but it's easier just to move the left forward and wiggle the right. This trigger is to shoot, this button reloads the gun, and this one jumps. Oh, and that one picks things up."

He pointed to various coloured buttons as he talked, but the information was not really sticking in my brain.

He began the game, telling me how to choose a character, but other than their appearance, they were all identical. To me that meant there was no point in choosing then, so I chose to randomise my character, ending up as someone called Rochelle, while he played as someone called Ellis. The names at present meant less than nothing to me, but Jack seemed to find my character rather funny for some reason unbeknownst to me.

The scene opened with a sweeping shot of the top of a hotel, with four people on a roof just missing an evacuation helicopter. They began spewing various profanities when the pilot did not turn back for them. The side of the screen that was dedicated for my character went into her view point, and I immediately felt lost already, not knowing what I was meant to be doing, instead watching Jack's character head straight for a table with various weapons on top of it.

I decided it was best to just follow by example, letting Jack lead would probably be the best thing right now. I walked over to said table and looked at all the weapons, including an axe, crowbar, shotgun and pistols.

"Um, Jack? What's the difference between these?"
"Hm, well, the axe has the farthest reach of melee weapons, but if you get that you can't have two pistols. The shotgun acts like a shotgun would, and pistols have infinite ammo. I usually choose the pistols in case a Boomer comes along."

"Boomer?"

"Oh, yeah. A Boomer is a really fat zombie that vomits all over you, and when it's killed you're covered as well. That stuff then attracts a horde of infected to you, so it's best not to get covered at any cost."
Urgh, this already sounded to complicated for me, oh well, I'll just shoot everything that moves. That what Jack seemed to do earlier.

I grabbed a second pistol and followed Jack down a flight of stairs, coming out in a hallway scattered with infected.

"So, basically, just shoot everything?"

"Yeah, pretty much," he declared with a grin on his face, looking as if he took pleasure in this.

"Okay then."

I aimed up my crosshair thingy and shot, hitting a zombie square in the head. I felt rather proud of myself and walked up to it, expecting it to fall down dead. Unfortunately for me it crouched and leaped onto me, ripping at my characters torso in a flurry of snarls and growls.

"Um Jack? What the hell, do they all do this?"
He looked over to my screen, seemingly a bit surprised, "Oh, a hunter already? Usually they don't pop up until later. When they stand normally they're silent and look like normal infected, but they can crouch and leap on you, but their noisy when they do that."

He rushed over and shot it square in the back of the head, the ragdoll like body flying away from me.

I continued to move my character down a few corridors, shooting poorly as I went, apparently my earlier head shot was a fluke. I came out onto a window ledge, and then I heard a strange squawking sound, and there was green slime on the floor.

"Is that a Boomer?" I asked, leaning over slightly.

"Nope, that's a Spitter, they spit corrosive acid at you, and turn into an acid puddle when they die.

There were way too many types of zombies in this game.

Sure enough, we came upon the aforementioned monstrosity, and Jack proceeded to hit it in the face with his gun. I looked over its body, noticing that its lower jaw and been corroded, and that it had incredibly saggy breasts.

When Jack finally shot it, he looked over at me and smiled, "You in love with it or something?"
"Huh, yeah, because she was such a beauty."

"Beauty is only skin deep."
"She hardly has any skin in the first place."

Time went on and I learnt the further I played through the levels, finding that I preferred the pistols to melee weapons, and machine guns to shotguns. I just hope that there were no more zombie types.

But apparently there were, for as soon as I began the second level, I was instantly charged by some hulking monster. Honestly it made me jump a little, especially the howling sound it made.

"Let me guess, this thing is called a charger?"
"Yeah, how's you guess?"
"Well, they all have such original names."

"Hey, can you guess what he spends all his time doing?"

I looked over the creature, straight away finding what Jack was referring to.

One arm was massive, an impressive display of hulking muscle.

I decided to tease him for earlier, "Heh, you would have looked like that soon if you hadn't met me."
He shot another zombie in the face, "yeah, probably would have!"
You aren't supposed to agree with me. (Yes, I did just try to make a masturbation joke, but that really happened!)

We played for another hour or two, finishing three campaigns in that time. I improved greatly from when I started, but was nowhere near as good as Jack, although on one level I did manage to kill more zombies than him, but that was only because I accidently pushed him off a cliff. He took it rather well, I imagined him getting angry like some gamers that I had saw, but he just scream happily as his character fell, making a splat noise as he landed on the spiky rocks below.

Although my original intention was only to play as I knew it would make Jack happy I ended up having more fun than I thought I would. Who knew that blasting the brains out of the undead would help you release built up frustration and worry? Actually, know that I think about it, everyone probably knew that anyway. Regardless, I wouldn't mind playing that again sometime in the future.

I was about to make something for lunch when Jack's home phone randomly rang violently. I looked around for him, but he was nowhere, probably in the bathroom. Oh well, I'll answer it for him.

"Hello, this is Jack's phone, Hiccup speaking."

There was no reply, but I heard a woman talking in the distant background, moaning to someone about a door not opening.

"Oh, he's picked up now," I heard, "Jackie! It's your dear mother! Lets us in won't you, we keep knocking on the door, but no one's answering!"

I kept trying to say that I wasn't her son, and that you need to ring, not knock, to enter an apartment complex, but she wouldn't be quiet. I pressed the button to let her in as Jack came out the toilet, mouthing to me who was on the phone. When I replied, he seemed to suddenly get frantic.

Grabbing the phone out my hand, he hurriedly replied, "Hey mom! What brings you here?"
He turned and whispered for me not to let her in.

Too late.

I could only hear muffled voices on the other end, along with Jack feebly trying to object, but his mother was seemingly having none of it. Before long I could hear her on the other side of the door, allowing me to fill both sides of the conversation.

"But Jack, you have to let us come in! We have to meet your darling boyfriend, and we're already outside the door!"

He turned to me, annoyed that I had let them in. I thought he liked his parents? Sighing, he put the phone down and opened the door widely, letting me see the two other people who he so desperately wanted to keep out. I looked upon the two brunet people in front of me, seeing that the Dad greatly resembled his son, although he had a bit of a stronger jaw line, and his shoulders were broader. His eyes sparkled that same shade of sapphire blue that I had come to know. He was just standing there, giving the both of us a curt nod of his head.

Then there was his mother, a tall, slim woman, from who Jack definitely inherited his bone structure. Her hair was the same colour as her husband's, but her eyes were a dark shade of brown, with flecks of green. She had a phone clutched to her breast, and a hand on her hips, smiling brightly at the both of us.

"Jack!" She cried, walking straight in, "I see you haven't killed yourself doing some stupid stunt yet."

Her husband walked past his son, giving him a pat on the arm, but then joining his wife in advancing towards me slowly. I felt like they were going to devour me.

The husband towered over me, but the wife wasn't that much taller than me, probably an inch at most, making me feel taller than I usually do.

"So, you're the one that's caught my darling son's heart are you?" She placed her hands on both sides of my face, "Let me get a good look at you!"

Over her shoulder I could see Jack hitting his face with his hand, making his Dad chuckle lowly.

"Yes, you're certainly very cute! And from what I hear, a very good lover too!"
I blushed deeply, what has Jack told her?
Seemingly noticing my shame, she quickly explained, "Oh, wrong words, I mean as in your a reliable partner!"

Oh, well that was a better way of putting it.

"Um, well thank you, my names Hiccup, but I guess you already knew that."

They both grinned at me, but didn't reply with their own names. Slightly rude.

As Jack's mother walked over to the sofa, his Dad just stared at me, making me uncomfortable.

"Hello?"

He grinned, "You're a skinny little thing aren't you?" He placed his paw like hand on my head, ruffling my hair, "You need to come to a family barbeque, put some meat on your bones!"

The touch was warm, and felt safe. I wonder if this was how a father was meant to feel, like a protector?

"Heh, yeah. Sounds like fun."

He gave a satisfied grunt and walked over to join his wife on the sofa, talking about how the flat hadn't changed since the last time they were here. At the first chance he got, I dragged by Jack into the bedroom.

"Oh god! Why are they here now!" he lamented, throwing his hands in the air dramatically.

"What? I thought you liked your parents?"

He slouched childishly, "I do, but when they come here it means they plan to stay for ages, last time they stayed for five days straight."

Oh, I don't think I can last five days of such touchy-feely people.

"Okay, but it's not like you can do anything about it, they're your parents after all, they just want to look after you."
He laughed quietly so as to not attract attention, "No, parents want to protect, these people want to wrap me in bubble wrap and lock me in a cushion padded room!"

Hmm, sometimes I feel like you might be in need of that myself.

We walked back out to the other two, who were both staring at us intently. Jack sat on the floor, meaning I had to sit between the two of them. Most awkward thing ever.
"So then, how long have you been living here then Hiccup?"
Wow, already down to the questions, "Oh, hmm about three or four weeks now."

"Wow, that's quite a while, have you moved in officially?"

I thought about it, realising that Toothless was the only thing that I had actually brought here, I bought new clothes instead of going back to my house.

"No, and soon I might have to go back to my house to take care of my Dad."
She raised her eyebrows, "He's ill?"
This woman is getting a bit nosy for my liking, but what can I say?
"Yes, and he's injured himself a bit, he's at the hospital at the moment."

My eyes flicked to Jack, catching his, and widening pleadingly all in the space of a second.

He seemed to get the hint, "So, Dad, how's the lawyer thing going for you?"
Hmm, I never knew that his Dad was a lawyer.

The man stretched, leaning back over the sofa. I could see his muscles through his top, they were quite impressive.

He returned to his normal position, "Well, I'm locked in an important case at the moment, which is obviously confidential, but I can tell you that I'm confident that I'm going to win it."

"Huh, just like you won the last one?"
He grumbled lowly, "That was a fluke, I didn't know that someone could hide a gun up there."

God, I don't even want to know where he meant.

The woman next to me burst out laughing, "I remember that, he spent a week trying to find out if it was actually possible!"
Please tell me he didn't try and hide a gun where I think they're talking about.

All three of them laughed around me while I just sat there with a plain expression, not understanding anything.

"Does anyone want a drink?" I asked, wanting to do something else, anything else.

All three of them put up their hands straight away, answering simultaneously, "Iced tea please."
Well, I guess something's always run in the family.

As I was making the assortment of drinks, they started talking about Jack's mother's profession as a doctor, I wandered if she worked at the hospital my Dad was at. They talked about a man who was brought in with his leg bone coming out of his knee, and another who had his shoulder blade completely cracked, honestly the images made me feel sick, I could never be a doctor, I would probably throw up on my patients.

I placed all the drinks on a tray and handed them out to the others, each of them thanking me politely. What is even so great about iced tea? Isn't it just tea that's gone cold, or am I being ignorant again? I sat back down, this time on the floor next to Jack, and just watched as the others talked around me, mostly about whether being a doctor or lawyer was more difficult.

Then, surprisingly, the Dad turned to me, "Say, Hiccup, what do you want to be when you're older?"
"Well, I would like to work at a zoo, but I'm not sure which position would be my favourite yet."
I heard Jack give out a small giggle at the last part, mumbling that he knew which it was, earning him a hidden pinch on the back of the forearm.

"Well, I think that's a great career choice, very rewarding, even if the hours are killer and you'll constantly smell of animal shit!"

Hah, yeah, because that didn't make it sound like a rubbish job in any way at all.

They ended up staying for hours, and as time went on I could see that Jack was getting more and more annoyed, while I was actually growing rather fond of the two, the father more than the mother but still.

"So then Hiccup, you must remember this, Jack is, for some reason, very lazy when it comes to... tidying up after himself, so if you find any... dirty messes around the bedroom, get him to do it. Or use a pencil to push it into the bin!"

His mother beamed as the two proceeded to walk out the door, I heard a dull thudding as they went, I presumed Jack was banging his head against the wall.

I waved them down the stairs, Jack just shouting them a goodbye. When they were finally out of sight, I returned to my very humiliated boyfriend. I walked up behind him as he hit his head on the wall yet again.

"It's okay, they're gone now, you can stop before you give yourself a concussion."
He sighed, but still didn't turn around, "Okay, they weren't as protective this time, but they were about five times more embarrassing!"

"Heh, well well, even you can get humiliated."
He didn't seem to share my amusement as the room went quiet again.

"So... Did you really used to run around your road in a snow white tutu?" I asked, recalling the tale of how he wanted to be a mystical, powerful princess when he was about five or six years old.

He proceeded to slam his head yet again.

Yeah, so not the most exciting of chapters, but no=one's life is always full of drama, that's just not realistic. But the next chapter will be, Finn's secret will finally be revealed! And of course Stoick and Hiccup will have another awkward conversation too.