A/N: OMG! Totally forgot the castings part, I'll start now! Before that, thank you for all those who reviewed and even to those who read but didn't, nice to know there are still those reading this despite the story being asleep for quite a while. Just a heads up, I didn't watch HTTYD2 in the big screen because of the spoiler I saw so if you all would be so kind and not put a reference of the movie in your reviews, thank you! And of course, please review if you can spare the time. It helps motivate me to update soon.

Gobber - Darius

Mrs. Bennette - Hazelle

Convincing Fear

The President held up a hand. "Please, I have no wishes to hear what you have to say about the matter. I hardly believe all the things you said were based on fear, or did you forget the stunt you pulled with those mutts? What were your exact words again? You do remember, don't you?"

Hiccup paled, because he does remember. I'm not one of them, and neither are you. If that wasn't a message that can be read as defiance by the other districts, he didn't know what was.

"Your boyfriend has to go through a lot of trouble keeping you alive, making sure you don't say anything that could lead to an execution. Maybe at the risk of his own life." Pitchner smirked. "Such a gallant Knight, it'll be such a waste if it was for nothing, wouldn't you say?"

Hiccup felt a cold shiver down his spine at the implication, and he banged his palms to the table. "NO! Please, don't hurt Jack, dont't—!" He trailed off.

Then, there's a knock at the door, and the man from earlier sticks his head in, telling the President it was time for another appointment.

:::::

"Uhm, mother wants to know if you want tea, Mister President sir?"

Jack was paler than he really was when his sister poked her head inside. All he wanted to do was lie down on his bed, maybe think about Hiccup and a way around Stoick's demand, until Elsa and the cameras arrive. The last thing he needed was an unexpected visit from the Nightmare President himself. The idea that his beloved, innocent little sister was near the frightening man was enough to make him feel sick in the stomach, as if the fact that, before Emma interrupted, they were already talking about the probability of an Uprising the blame being mostly on Hiccup, wasn't enough do that.

"I would. I would like tea," says the president.

Emma scampers away, and a moment after, the door opens wider, and there stands Mrs. Overland, holding a tray with a china tea set Mr. Overland had brought to the Seam when they married.

"Set it here, please." Pitchner places his book on the corner of the desk and pats the center.

Jack's mother sets the tray on the desk. It holds a china teapot and cups, cream and sugar, and a plate of cookies. They are beautifully iced with softly colored flowers. The frosting work can only be by Hiccup, who gave it to them the night before. Jack didn't even get to taste one yet, and it vexes him that the President gets the privilege.

The man scrutinizes the preparation. "What a welcoming sight. You know, it's funny how often people forget that presidents need to eat, too," President Pitchner says charmingly.

Well, it seems to relax Jack's mother a bit, anyway. The Overland boy begins to wonder how much of two-faced man Pitchner really was. Does he always act kindly and sweet to those he was planning to kill?

"Can I get you anything else? I can cook something more substantial if you're hungry," she offers.

"No, this could not be more perfect. Thank you," he says, clearly dismissing her. Mrs. Overland nods, shoots her son a glance, and goes. President Pitchner pours tea for both of them and fills his with cream and sugar, then takes a long time stirring. "I think we'll make this whole situation a lot simpler by agreeing not to lie to each other," he says. "What do you think?" Pitchner asked.

I think my tongue has frozen and speaking will be freakin' impossible, The young man thought, so Jack surprises himself by answering back in a steady voice, "Yes, I think that would save time."

President Pitchner smiles "My advisors were concerned you would be difficult, but you're not planning on being difficult, are you?" he asks.

"No," Jack answers.

"That's what I told them. I said any boy who goes to such lengths to preserve his life isn't going to be interested in throwing it away with both hands. And then there's his lover to think of, not to mention his family. His mother, his sister, and all those... half-siblings." By the way he lingers on the word siblings, Jack can tell he knows that Jamie and he doesn't share a family tree.

Well, it's all on the table now.

Maybe that's better. He didn't do well with ambiguous threats. He'd much rather know the score. Jack senses the President has had his say and is waiting for him to respond.

"Hiccup didn't mean to start any uprisings, neither of us did."

Pitchner sighed. "I believe you. But it doesn't matter. Your stylist turned out to be prophetic in her wardrobe choice. Jack Frost, the Living Frostbite, you have provided a bitter cold hail that, left unattended, may grow to a harsh blizzard that destroys Burgess and those in it," he says.

""Then just kill me now, but leave everyone else out of it."

"Publicly?" he asks. "That would only make the storm spread faster."

"Arrange an accident, then,"

"Who would buy it?" he asks. "Not your lover, who's aware and in more trouble than you are."

Jack clenched his fist. He didn't care how dangerous this man was, and how much he himself was afraid of him, if he even tried to lay a finger on his brunette—

"Look, just tell me what you want me to do. I'll do it, just leave Hiccup alone."

"If only it were that simple." He picks up one of the flowered cookies and examines it. "Lovely. Your mother made these?"

"Hiccup did."

"How thoughtful." Pitchner smirked. "Such a shame if he might not be able to do that more often in the future for you."

Jack clenched his jaw. "Don't. Touch. Him." he managed between gritted teeth.

"My, aren't we territorial?" Pitchner chuckled. "It's not like you have no more options for a marriage partner, I mean, how are both of your families taking the relationship? I've heard there's been a disagreement with Mr. Haddock."

Who tells him these things? Jack frowned. and who should I be strangling for it?

The President was just trying to get under his skin, make Jack more hostile and more obviously a threat that he could use as an excuse to punish him for. Attempted homicide to the president? That's sure to get it done. So the teen did his best to fight it, but it wasn't easy, especially with Pitchner pulling out the boyfriend card.

"Hiccup is the only one for me," Jack said firmly. "I believe I can make Mr. Haddock understand that and accept me."

Pitchner chuckles, dipping his cookie in his tea. "Can you?" he takes a bite. "Are you sure it's that easy?"

"It's not like there's any other options if I want to be with Hiccup. Don't you think I would do anything to earn him? He's my only choice. Period."

"Well," says the president. "I wouldn't be here if I were the only person who had doubts." Pitchner continued, with a sweet voice. "So, how is that the handsome half-brother of yours?"

Jack's blood ran cold. "I don't know... I don't..." His revulsion at this conversation, at discussing his feelings for two of the people he cared for the most about with President Pitchner, chokes him off.

"Speak, Mister Overland. Him I can easily kill off if we don't come to a happy resolution," Pitchner prodded. "Jamie, wasn't it? Last I remembered, you mentioned him being your best friend at the games."

Jack digged his nails into his palms while his hands remain clenched. "So? Can't family be your best friend?" he shot back.

"Hm, creative answer." Pitchner looked amused. "But you aren't doing him a favor by disappearing into the woods with him each Sunday."

If he knows this, what else does he know? Jack swallowed. And how does he know it?

Many people could tell him that Jamie and he spend their Sundays hunting. Because they show up together at the end of each one loaded down with game. The real question is what Pitchner thinks goes on in the woods beyond District 12.

Surely they haven't been tracking us in there.

Or have they? Could the boys have been followed? That seems impossible. At least by a person. Cameras? That never crossed Jack's mind until this moment. The woods have always been a place of safety, a place beyond the reach of Berk, where one was free to say what they feel, be who they are. It was the same for Jack... At least, before the Games. If they've been watched since who knows when, what have they seen? Two people hunting, one saying treasonous things against Berk, yes. But not two people in love, which seems to be President Pitchner's implication. Jack was safe on that charge. Even if he did mentioned to have confessed to Jamie once in the arena, he made it clear that he was shot down and Jamie was straight as a ruler.

Unless... unless...

It only happened once. It was fast and unexpected, but it did happen. Long before Jack had anything to do with Hiccup, and several weeks after Jack first confessed to his best friend. That time they got separated on that Lynx chase and the Overland boy had fallen off a cliff, Jamie was worried sick, so when he saw him, the brunette ran towards him and embraced Jack, causing them to fall back. And with the memory of the confession still fresh on his mind, Jack couldn't resist the urge to try and kiss him.

But Jamie saw what was happening, only a light brush of lips, barely even counted as a kiss, and the brunette pushed him off.

Of course, Jamie was upset about it, and Jack was guilty. He thought that would be that for their friendship. That week Jack managed the snares and dropped off the meat with Mrs. Bennette. But he didn't see Jamie until a few Sundays later. Eventually, Jamie let it slide that day, making it clear that he didn't want that to happen again, and they put it behind them.

But now, the problem was, if there were cameras and they managed to record that one incident that now meant nothing to Jack... Wouldn't it be the perfect tool to use against him?

This all flashes through his head in an instant as President Pitchner's eyes bore into him on the heels of his threat to kill Jamie. Maybe he didn't know about the potential uprisings. But he knew they were angry with him. And if he gave even a vague hint that he would readily go for someone else if it didn't work out with Hiccup, then what happened to that passionate love and will to stay together? Now he endangered Jamie and his family and his own family and Hiccup, too, by his carelessness.

"Please don't hurt Jamie, he's just my friend. He's been my friend for years. That's all that's between us. Besides, everyone thinks we're half-brothers now."

"I'm only interested in how it affects your dynamic with Hamish, thereby affecting the mood in the districts," he says.

Jack looked at him seriously. "It will be the same on the tour. I am in love with him after all, because that's just how it is." he says.

"Only you'll have to do even better if the uprisings are to be averted," Pitchner says. "Don't make a mess of this, Mister Overland. This tour will be your only chance to turn things around."

Jack nodded. "I know. I will. I'll convince everyone in the districts that I wasn't defying Berk, because all I wanted was to come back home and have a future with my Hiccup," he said. He didn't like sharing his feelings to the man, but if it's the only way to protect those he loves and the one he loves the most, he had to suck it up.

President Pitcher rises and dabs his lips with a napkin. "Hmph, you should do well to aim higher in case you fall short."

"What do you mean? How can I aim higher?"

Pitchner stood up. "Convince me, that it really is Mister Hamish Haddock, or nothing." he says.

He drops the napkin and retrieves his book that he brought with him. Jack doesn't watch him as he heads for the door, so he flinches when the man whispers in his ear.

"By the way, I know about the kiss." Then the door clicks shut behind him.

~o~

The smell of blood... it was on his breath. What does he do? Drink it?

Jack imagined him sipping it from a teacup. Dipping a cookie into the stuff and pulling it out dripping red. Outside the window, a car comes to life, soft and quiet like the purr of a cat, then fades away into the distance. It slips off as it arrived, unnoticed. The room seems to be spinning in slow, lopsided circles, and Jack wonders if he might black out.

He leaned forward and clutch the desk with one hand. The other still holds Hiccup's beautiful cookie. Jack thinks it had an autumn leaf on it, but now it's been reduced to crumbs in his fist. He didn't even know he had been crushing it, but he guessed he had to hold on to something while his world veered out of control.

A visit from President Pitchner.

Districts on the verge of uprisings.

A direct death threat to Jamie, Hiccup, with others to follow.

Everyone he loves doomed. And who knows who else will pay for his actions? Unless he turned things around on this tour. Quiet the discontent and put the president's mind at rest. But how? What else did he have to do to prove that his heart was for Hiccup alone? Somehow, what he asked Hiccup earlier had an even more profound meaning now than it had then.

Haven't I given you my heart to prove that?

Then, the white-haired boy hears his mother's light, quick tread in the hall. She can't know, Jack thinks. Not about any of this.

He reaches his hands over the tray and quickly brush the bits of cookie from his palm and fingers. Jack takes a shaky sip of his tea.

"Is everything all right, Jackson?" she asks.

"It's fine." Jack attempted a careless shrug. "We never see it on television, but the president always visits the victors before the tour to wish them luck," he beamed brightly.

His mother's face floods with relief. "Oh. I thought there was some kind of trouble."

"No, not a chance," he says. "The trouble will start when my prep team sees how I've let my eyebrows grow back in."

Mrs. Overland laughs, and Jack thinks about how there was no going back after he took over caring for the family when he was eleven. How he would always have to protect his mother.

"Why don't I start your bath?" she asks.

"Great," he smiles, and Jack can see how pleased she is by his response.

Since he's been home he's been trying hard to mend his relationship with his mother. Asking her to do things for him instead of brushing aside any offer of help, as he did for years out of anger. Letting her handle all the money he won. Returning her hugs instead of tolerating them. His time in the arena, his time with his selfless boyfriend, made him realize how he needed to stop punishing her for something she couldn't help, specifically the crushing depression she fell into after his father's death. And he might even react the same, if he had lost Hiccup. Maybe even worse. Because sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them.

Like Jack, for instance. While he didn't regret pulling out those berries, because he figured that really was the only way to ascertain the survival of both himself and Hiccup, he wasn't prepared nor did he expect the consequences. But whatever course of action he was gonna take, he was going to keep his promise to Hiccup on the train ride back home, that they would get through it together.

Jack goes upstairs to the bathroom, where a steaming tub awaits. His mother has added a small bag of dried flowers that perfumes the air. None of them are used to the luxury of turning on a tap and having a limitless supply of hot water at their fingertips. They had only cold water at their home in the Seam, which Jack started to miss, and a bath meant boiling the rest over the fire.

The white-haired boy undresses and lowers himself into the silky water, his mother has poured in some kind of oil as well, and try to get a grip on things. The first question is who to tell, if anyone. Not his mother or Emma, obviously; they'd only become sick with worry. Not Jamie. Even if Jack could get word to him without anyone knowing, what would he do with the information, anyway? If Jamie were alone, Jack might try to persuade him to run away. Certainly he could survive in the woods. But he's not alone and he'd never leave his family. Or Jack.

When Jack gets home from the tour, he'll have to tell him something about how their Sundays are put on a hold for the mean time, but he can't think about that now. Only about his next move. Besides, Jamie's already so frustrated with Berk that Jack sometimes think he's going to help Hiccup's brother arrange their own uprising. The last thing those two needs is an incentive.

No, I can't tell anyone I'm leaving behind in District 12.

There are still four people Jack might confide in, starting with Elsa, his stylist. But his guess is Elsa might already be at risk, and he didn't want to pull her into any more trouble by closer association with him. There was Toothiana, but then again, she lived in Berk longer than she was Jack's chaperone. It wasn't that Jack didn't trust her, but he couldn't ask Tooth to hear his side and turn her back against what she knew as her home. Then there's Hiccup, who is his partner, his lover, the most important person to him in the world, but that would be a difficult conversation.

Hey, Hic, remember how you keep saying you don't deserve me? Well, I really need you to forget about that now because if I don't make you believe it, the President won't believe it either and he would kill Jamie as a last resort.

He couldn't force Hiccup to come to terms with his confidence. It was something the younger boy had to do himself. Plus, Jack knew his brunette. And the last thing he wanted was to give his lover more reasons to think he didn't deserve Jack, and Hiccup would just blame himself for the death threats.

That leaves Aster. Indifferent, grouchy, unsociable Aster, who Jack had just poured a basin of ice water on. As their mentor in the Games it was his duty to keep the boys alive. Jack only hoped he's still up for the job.

The white-haired boy slides down into the water, letting it block out the sounds around him. He wished the tub would expand so he could go swimming, like he used to on those Sundays in the woods with his father, the only place where summer can actually mean something. Because summer time inside District twelve just meant less snow.

Those days were a special treat. They would leave early in the morning and hike farther into the woods than usual to a small lake Mr. Overland found while hunting. Jack didn't even remember learning to swim, he was so young when his father taught him. Jack just remembered diving, turning somersaults, and paddling around. The muddy bottom of the lake beneath his toes. The smell of blossoms and greenery. Floating on his back, as he was now, staring at the blue sky while the chatter of the woods was muted by the water. Mr. Overland would've bag the waterfowl that nested around the shore, Jack would hunt for eggs in the grasses, and they'd both dig for edible roots. At night, when they got home, Mrs. Overland would pretend not to recognize Jack because he was so clean. Then she'd cook up an amazing dinner of roasted duck and baked root tubers with gravy.

Jack never took Jamie to the lake. He could have, if Jamie responded positively to the confession. It was a special place, and Jack promised himself he would only take the most special person in the world to him over there. Emma was special to him, but it still didn't feel right. Now, he had Hiccup, but haven't gotten the chance yet.

It's time-consuming to get there, but the waterfowl are such easy pickings anyone can make up for lost hunting time. For now, It's a place Jack never shared with anyone, a place that belonged only to his father and him. But maybe, after the tour, when Jack finally thinks of a solution around Mr. Haddock's disapproval, he could take Hiccup there to celebrate.

Since the Games, when he had little to occupy his days, and with Hiccup working his shift at the bakery and forge, Jack's gone there a couple of times. The swimming was still nice, but mostly the visits depressed him. Over the course of the last five years, the lake's remarkably unchanged and he's almost unrecognizable.

Even underwater he can hear the sounds of commotion. Honking car horns, shouts of greeting, doors banging shut. It can only mean his entourage has arrived. Jack just had time to towel off and slip into a robe before his prep team bursts into the bathroom. There's no question of privacy. When it comes to his body, they didn't care of secrets.

"Jackson, your eyebrows!" Flynn groaned, and even with the black cloud hanging over Jack, he had to stifle a laugh.

"Hey Flynn," Jack smirked. Then, took a moment to glare. "If you even dare to flirt with my mom, or my sister..."

Jack's mom was a bit too old for Flynn, Emma was way young, but the white-haired teen knew enough of the man that women were women.

Olaf comes up and pats Flynn's back soothingly, "There, there. You can fix those in no time. But what am I going to do with these nails?" He grabs Jack's hand and pins it flat between his. "Really, Jackson, you could have left me something to work with!" he sighs.

It's true. Jack's bitten his nails to stubs in the past couple of months. He thought about trying to break the habit but couldn't think of a good reason he should.

"Sorry," Jack mutters, not really wanting to give Olaf a hard time. The jolly Snowman-like man was always good for a laugh, so Jack had taken a liking to him.

Monty scrutinizes Jack's wet, dripping hair. He gives his head a disapproving shake, "Has anyone touched this since you last saw us?" he asks sternly. "Remember, we specifically asked you to leave your hair alone."

"Yes!" Jack says, grateful that he can show he hasn't totally taken them for granted. "I mean, no, no one's cut it. I did remember that." No, he didn' 's more like the issue never came up.

This seems to mollify them, and they all kiss him... Well, except Jack smacking Flynn when he tried to. That smolder still gave him bad dreams. Like, he was kissing Hiccup in one, then suddenly Hiccup pulls a smolder until his image dissolves to Flynn, and Jack wakes up screaming, scaring Emma and Buttercup out of their wits.

They set him on a chair in his bedroom, and, as usual, start talking nonstop without bothering to notice if Jack's listening. While Flynn reinvents his eyebrows and Olaf gives him fake nails and Monty massages goo into his hair, Jack hears all about Berk. What a hit the Games were, how dull things have been since, how no one can wait until Hiccup and Jack visits again at the end of the Victory Tour. After that, it won't be long before Berk begins gearing up for the Thawfest Quell.

"Isn't it thrilling? Don't you feel so lucky? In your very first year of being a victor, you get to be a mentor in a Thawfest Quell!"

Their words overlap in a blur of excitement.

Jack made a look. "Oh, yes," he says neutrally. It's the best he can do. "The Living Frostbite, THAWfest Quell. Good mix."

In a normal year, being a mentor to the Lights is the stuff of nightmares. Jack can't walk by the school now without wondering what kid he'll have to coach. Of course, he can't walk by the school without making sure the guys from Hiccup's year and a few from his own would stop hitting on his brunette whenever he wasn't with him, but that's beside the point.

In this case, to make things even worse, it's the year of the Seventy-fifth Nightmare Games, and that means it's also a Thawfest Quell. They occur every twenty-five years, marking. The anniversary of the districts' defeat with over-the-top celebrations and, for extra fun, some miserable twist for the Lights. Jack's never been alive for one, of course. But in school he remembered hearing that for the second Thawfest Quell, Berk demanded that twice the number of Lights be provided for the arena. The teachers didn't go into much more detail, which is surprising, because that was the year District 12's very own E. Aster Bunnymund won the crown.

"Aster better be preparing himself for a lot of attention!" squeals Olaf.

Aster has never mentioned his personal experience in the arena to Jack or Hiccup. Not that that said much. And they would never ask. And if Jack ever saw Aster's Games televised in reruns, he must've been too young to remember it. But Berk won't let the man forget it this year. In a way, it's a good thing Hiccup and he will both be available as mentors during the Quell, because it's a sure bet that Aster will be wasted. Jack smiles a bit sadly, thinking about how many lives will be resting on their hands from now on even if they did get through the tour.

Well, we can't save everyone, he thought. but we'll save who we can.

~o~

After they've exhausted the topic of the Thawfest Quell, Hiccup's prep team launches into a whole lot of stuff about their incomprehensibly silly lives. Who said what about someone he's never heard of and what sort of shoes they just bought and a long story from Hans about what a mistake it was to have everyone wear feathers to his birthday party. Soon Hiccup's brows are stinging, his hair's smooth and silky, and his nails are ready to be filed. Apparently they've been given instruction to prepare only his hands and face, probably because everything else will be covered in the cold weather. Sven badly wants to use his own trademark spiky hairstyle but resigns and begins to do the nails. Kristoff leaves for a moment to check on Anna.

Hiccup can see by the palette Anna has assigned that they're going for boyish, not sexy. Good. I'll never convince anyone of anything if I'm trying to be provocative. Aster made that very clear when he was coaching the brunette for his interview for the Games.

Valka comes in, somewhat shyly, and says that Anna has asked her to show the preps how she did her son's hair the day of the reaping. They respond with enthusiasm and then watch, thoroughly engrossed, as she breaks down the process of the elaborate tiny-braids hairdo. In the mirror, Hiccup can see their earnest faces following her every move, their eagerness when it is their turn to try a step. In fact, all three are so readily respectful and nice to his mother that Hiccup felt at peace for some reasons.

Who knows who I would be or what I would talk about if I'd been raised in Berk? Maybe my biggest regret would be having feathered costumes at my birthday party, too.

When Hiccup's hair is done, he finds Anna downstairs in the living room, and just the sight of her makes the boy feel more hopeful. She looks the same as always, simple clothes, pig-tailed braided brown hair, just a hint of gold eyeliner. They embrace, and the boy can barely keep from spilling out the entire episode with President Pitchner. But no, he decided to tell either Jack or Aster first. They'll know best who else to open it with. It's so easy to talk to Anna, though, all the more when Kristoff comes back and gives them all cups of tea. Lately Anna and Hiccup had been speaking a lot on the telephone that came with the house. It's sort of a joke, because almost no one else they knew owns one.

There's Jack, but obviously Hiccup doesn't call him, not when he much preferred seeing Jack on person, and that his father could walk in any moment at their conversation.

Aster tore his out of the wall years ago.

His friend, Heather, the mayor's daughter, has a telephone in her house, but if they wanted to talk, they do it in person. Not to mention he didn't need to give Jack any more reasons to be jealous. The guys at school when they walk by it (cause they don't exactly go to school anymore) were bad enough.

At first, the thing barely ever got used. Then Anna started to call to work on Hiccup's talent. Every victor is supposed to have one.

"Your talent is the activity you take up since you don't have to work either in school or your district's industry." Anna had said. "It can be anything, really, anything that they can interview you about."

Hiccup, it turns out, actually has a talent, which is painting. He's been frosting those cakes and cookies for years in his family's bakery. But now that he's rich, he can afford to smear real paint on canvases.

Jack didn't think he had a talent, unless hunting illegally counted, which it doesn't. Or maybe singing, which he wouldn't do for Berk in a million years. Anna told him Elsa's been trying hard to work something out with him, and asked Mrs. Overland to try to interest him in a variety of suitable alternatives from a list she sent her.

Interior designing, sculpting, playing the guitar. None of them took, although Hiccup's told, thanks to others things listed, Emma's been having a lot of self-discoveries about herself. Like she was real good at flower arranging, and crochet.

Finally, Elsa tried sending Jack some things to help him take a liking to them. A basketball was out, he had no one to play it with and Buttercup breaks the things in the house with it till he finally deflated it himself. The Overland boy didn't have much patience either in sitting down and try writing a novel. Then Jack discovered an Instant camera, and had an knack for capturing good angles. Like the light from the sunset when it basked Hiccup, and it appeared like he was glowing when he took the shot.

Needless to say, Jack already had a box of snapshots of Hiccup under his bed. There were some shots with his family in it, but the majority was either of Hiccup alone, or with Jack himself.

"You know, I think I show a lot of promise," Jack said one time. "and I got one cute and photogenic model to boot."

And Hiccup had proceeded by stuffing Jack's mouth with some cupcakes he baked.

The brunette didn't think he was a good model at all, but it made Jack happy. And he had to admit, there were really some good shots. Like Emma arranging flowers, Jack's and his own hand intertwined, both of them when they were lying on the bed, the view of the sunsets at the woods, Jack even managed to make a pile of dead leaves look beautiful.

Just then, Toothiana arrives to remind everyone, "We're on a schedule." She kisses Hiccup on both cheeks while waving in the camera crew, then shows Hiccup where to position. Anna gives Hiccup some cue cards he can read from.

Tooth's the only reason Hiccup and Jack got anywhere on time in Berk. Hiccup started bobbing around like a puppet, holding up the sketches he made for this moment and saying meaningless things like Don't you love it? The sound team records him reading from his cards in a chirpy voice so they can insert it later, then the brunette's tossed out of the room so they can film his art in peace. Snotlout got out early from work for the event. It took all Valka's begging to make sure he behaves. Now he stands in the kitchen, being interviewed by another crew. He looks actually quite charming in a chocolate brown coat that brings out his eyes, his hair pulled back and smoothed with gel. The scrawny brunette snorted, catching a glimpse of Toothless who Anna had dressed in his own coat, cat-sized. Then he wonders about Jack's cat, how they were going to make it seem ready for the cameras.

Hiccup realizes Anna's trying to put a coat on him, so he raise my arms. He feels fur, inside and out, encasing him. It's from no animal he ever seen. "Ermine," she tells the boy as he stroke the white sleeve. Leather gloves. The green cashmere scarf. Something furry covers Hiccup's ears. "You're bringing earmuffs back in style."

I hate earmuffs, Hiccup thinks.

Valka hurries up with something cupped in her hand. "For good luck," she says.

It's the pin Heather gave the brunette before he left for the Games. A Nightfury in a circle of onyx. Anna fixes it on the knot in the scarf. Tooth's nearby, clapping her hands. "Attention, everyone! We're about to do the first outdoor shot, where the victors greet each other at the beginning of their marvelous trip." she beams at the brunette. "All right, Hiccup, big smile, you're very excited, right?"

Then, Hiccup is shove out the door. For a moment he can't quite see right because of the snow, which is now coming down in earnest. Then he makes out Jack coming through his front door.

~o~

Jack was beginning to get restless.

After spending the half hour showing the cameras the photos he took (but leaving out special photos, he didn't want to show them to all of Berk), catching up with Elsa, holding back the urge to cry when he saw Emma being interviewed because the pink dress she wore reminded him of the gown Vanellope had worn so therefore reminding Jack of the poor District 11 girl he failed to save, and trying not to laugh hysterically at Buttercup wearing a dress which were for cats, the white-haired teen is heading out of his house. Jack catches sight of his lover as the brunette stumbles out of his own house. And in his head he hears President Pitchner's directive.

Convince me.

A/N: And that's it for this chapter. What did you guys think? I hope you don't think there'll be a love triangle thing. Maybe in Pitch's mind, but not really on the surface because that wasn't what I was going for. I hope I didn't fail miserably... R&R PLEASE!