11:53am - Grimborn And Grimborn, Attorneys At Law

The next morning, Hiccup was sitting opposite the twins on couches in an office on the middle floor of a 25-floor skyscraper. The desk at the front was simple enough, with a lizard skull on one side and a mahogany Maces and Talons set on the other.

Ruffnut attempted to break the tense silence by clearing her throat and saying "so, uh... I looked at Heather's phone when she was texting you last night, Hiccup... turns out you didn't change your number after you quit... cause, for a while, I thought you weren't returning my texts cause I just had the wrong number... ha ha... awkward, right...?"

Hiccup glared at her with a scowl on his face, exhaling in relief as the door opened and the attorney finally arrived. "Oh, thank gods..." he groaned under his breath.

The lawyer they had gotten, Viggo Grimborn, was well-known for his affable, calm and collected demeanour, even while insulting an opponent, as well as a blinded left eye and scarred, singed face he had suffered from a horrific car accident. He had a reputation for treating his cases as if they were a game of Maces and Talons, as evidenced by the board, and while his methods were hardly honourable or honest, he was nothing if not a good sport.

To employ him was not very expensive, as he was clearly drawn more to the quality of the challenge than to the size of the paycheck. It was because of this that Heather and Hiccup had agreed that Viggo would be the best man for the job.

"I'm sure you're aware already, Miss Thorston, but I'll restate the obvious... the piece of paper your brother had you sign was not a request for an extension of your tax returns..." Viggo explained as he entered, passing Ruffnut and Tuffnut a large document of information relating to the case. "It was a blanket power of attorney, in favour of your accountant."

"But Johann said that..." Tuffnut tried to object, but his sister put her hand up to silence him, having heard his excuse several times that morning alone.

"With Mr Haddock's help, we were able to find out that Johann, also known as Trader Johann, was a known associate of Krogan Killmonger, the accountant who previously represented the Dragon's Eye restaurant... coincidentally, your waitress, um... Heather, worked at both those places..."

"That little bitch... must have led them right to us..." Tuffnut grumbled under his breath as Hiccup rolled his eyes in annoyance. "You can put her in jail, right?"

Viggo was perplexed by this, shaking his head as he said "no, no, you... you misunderstand, Mr Thorston... from our investigation, I can confirm that your waitress has no prior connection to them besides having worked for both your restaurants... anyway... it turns out both Krogan and Johann were heavily involved with Bludvist Housing, a... less-than-legal, organisation which had assets in some very high-price, offshore commercial real estate."

Ruffnut glared at her brother, before looking back at Viggo as he said "they obviously thought they could flip it quick, take their profits and then have the money back in your accounts before you or the Dragon's Eye knew it was gone, but unfortunately for you and everyone else in this room, their deals in the real estate fell through because the market dried up... they, and both your businesses as a result, lost millions..."

"What are you saying, then?" Ruffnut was incredibly confused as she read through the dozens of pages in the document. "You're saying there's nothing we can do about this?"

"I can assure you, Miss Thorston, that we are doing as much as we can." Viggo said. "I have filed at least eight criminal acts against them on behalf of both you and the Dragon's Eye, but I'm afraid, in accordance with the Financial Fraud Investigation Law, Article A113, all of your assets that Johann has had access to will have to be frozen indefinitely by the police for security reasons... and that's not all..."

Grabbing another document from his desk, Viggo added "you've also got tremendous debt repayments on your property, which it seems were quite severe even before you hired Johann..."

"Uh-huh..." Hiccup snarked as he had his palm to his face.

"Prior to his disappearance, Johann hadn't filed any of your tax returns in the time he worked for you, and the monthly mortgage on your restaurant hasn't been paid since Mr Haddock resigned as your accountant two-and-a-half months ago..."

"Wait, what?" Tuffnut said. "Uh... we didn't have a mortgage, RBC was fully paid for..."

"I'm afraid not, Tuff..." Hiccup looked at the financial records on his laptop. "There's still a good 40,000 dollars still outstanding..."

"But you should be able to fix this problem within the next year or so..." Viggo said as he sat down at his desk. "Provided you can get your restaurant back up and running..."

"How do we do that, then?" Tuffnut asked.

"Oh boy... that's my cue..." Hiccup groaned under his breath as the twins both looked at him. Ruffnut froze for a second, saying "wait... cue for what?"

"After deliberations with Heather, Hiccup here has generously agreed to resume his employment as your accountant..." Viggo explained. "Mr Haddock will debrief the conditions that you, Miss Thorston, will have to meet in order for him to work for you again, but other than that, our time here is just about up..."

He cleared his throat and stood up from his desk, saying "if you have any other questions, talk to the secretary on your way out. Good day."

As Viggo left the office to attend to other business, Hiccup remained silent as Tuffnut said "alright, Dick-up. What is it you wanna leech off of us now? A pay-rise?"

"No, but I'm pretty sure Ruff knows the one thing she needs to not do anymore if I'm gonna work for you again..." Hiccup nonchalantly put his laptop back in his briefcase and tucked it under his arm as he added "and that's pretty much everything... I'll be around later this week... and I'm definitely looking forward to it..."

Ruffnut scoffed, glaring at Hiccup with her arms crossed as he stood up and left the twins alone in the office.

She kept pouting like a spoiled child as she and her brother got up and prepared to go, muttering "ungrateful little shit..." under her breath. "Come on, Tuff... let's get the Hel out of here... if Hiccup thinks he's... like... won something by doing this, he's got another fucking thing coming!"