"HICCUP!"

Before Hiccup could react, his arms were suddenly full of a very white human being, and he almost stumbled back with the force of it. When his mind caught up to what just happened, he wrapped his arms around Jack and held him close, laughing and burying his face into his boyfriend's neck. "Jack..." he breathed, grinning and inhaling his scent. He knew people were staring, since Jack had literally screamed his name and nearly knocked him down in the middle of the baggage claim, but he ignored them. All that mattered was he was back, and Jack was here waiting for him. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you, too, Hiccup..." Jack mumbled, pulling himself away from Hiccup's hold to take his face in his hands. They stared at each other for a long moment, before Jack leaned in and pressed their foreheads together, looking into his eyes. "I love you. I love you, Hiccup. I love you."

Jack had told Hiccup he loved him over the phone two months ago. It was September now, and Hiccup had just arrived at Philadelphia International, where Jack and his family had agreed to pick him up and take him back to Burgess. Jack had told him he wanted to say it face-to-face, not over the phone, and had promised Hiccup earnestly that as soon as he got a chance, he'd do just that.

Hiccup grinned, chuckling, and wrapped his arms tight around Jack's waist, holding him close and gazing right back into his beautiful eyes. "I love you, too, Jack. I love you so much... I thought about you all the time out there. Even with all the excitement, I just wanted to come home to you, or to have you there with me. I just wanted you. I love you."

They stood there for a long moment more, their foreheads pressed together, staring into each others' eyes, basking in the moment they had after four months apart, but it ended all too soon. Sarah and Emma had been waiting out in the car, but one of them had apparently gotten impatient. A black-clad, studded young teenager cleared her throat from behind Jack, arms crossed. "Come on you two, get Hiccup's bags already and get in the car. Mom's not gonna take us out for pizza if you don't hurry up!"

Jack and Hiccup looked at each other, an identical look of mischief in their eyes, before Jack pulled away and stepped aside as Hiccup darted forward and wrapped his arms around Emma, hugging her tight. "Awwww, squirt! I missed you, too!" he cooed, ruffling her hair up until it rivaled Jack's in terms of mess.

Jack laughed and ran off to baggage claim to look for Hiccup's bags, and Emma groaned and struggled in Hiccup's grasp. "Ugh, you're so weird, Hiccup! Let me go! I'm going back to the car and waiting with Mom!" As soon as Hiccup let go, Emma straightened out her clothes and huffed, stomping her way back to the exit where Sarah was waiting in the car, combat boots clomping all the way.

Jack returned to Hiccup's side, holding his duffel bag and rolling his suitcase behind him. "She totally missed you," Jack laughed. "I guarantee you she liked the hug, she's just too stubborn to admit it. Are these two bags all you had?"

Hiccup glanced once at Jack before taking the duffel off his shoulder, putting it over his own. "Yeah, just the two. C'mon, babe, your sister mentioned pizza and I'm absolutely starved."

Jack had been on bread duty at the bakery for the past few weeks, which means he was opening shift, instead of coming in for the afternoon shift and baking for the midday stragglers. It was a little harder now that Hiccup was back in the house, though. They were sharing a bed, after all, and Jack was getting up before dawn. He was up at 4 am and tried to sneakily get ready without waking Hiccup up, so he could be at work at 5 to start baking the bread for the day.

What Jack didn't know was that Hiccup had made it a point to try and wake up when he did. He pretended to sleep, waiting until Jack was out the door at 4:30, before getting up himself. He peeked out the window until Jack skated away, then turned on the lights.

Hiccup opened his suitcase - it was only his first morning back, and they had all stayed out kind of late eating pizza at Mr. Gatti's and playing games like children to celebrate his return, so Hiccup hadn't bothered to unpack, opting to crash instead. He dug into the case for the paper bag he'd hidden at the bottom and brought it to the work area Jack had set up for him, then got to work carefully unwrapping the contents within.

Three Woolly Howl scales.

Hiccup had done something illegal, stupid, and dangerous on his trip. It wasn't as illegal as stealing bones or something, but it was still kind of illegal. When his research partner wasn't looking, as Hiccup crouched in the trap with the dragon's remains, he had picked up some of the scales that had broken off the tail from the chains holding him down. There were tons more scales littering the floor near the points of bondage, so Hiccup thought he could get away with taking some of them.

Turns out, he could. It was surprisingly easy to smuggle the dragon scales out of Norway and bring them back to the US. But it wasn't for profit... It was for Jack.

Jack had told him he had a connection with Woolly Howls... That poor creature deserved to be revered in death. What better way to do that than to give a piece of him to someone who loved Woolly Howls with their very soul? But the scales were sharp, which is why Hiccup handled them so carefully. He had more free time than he let on to Jack - he'd been working on his schoolwork between assignments on the excavation, communicating with his teacher online and chatting with his classmates via email to borrow their notes. It wouldn't be as much catchup as he anticipated, which meant he had the weekend to do what he wanted, instead of burying himself in his schoolwork. So, out of his toolbox, which Jack had kept in his room instead of putting it in storage, he got a few different files and a handheld drill, settling down to work on his boyfriend's gift.

Jack had to admit, while he wasn't a fan of getting up early to work opening shift, he definitely loved getting off work at 1 pm. He had the whole afternoon to do what he wanted (at least until his mom and Emma got home from work and school), and since Hiccup was up in his room studying, that meant occupying himself with baking and television. Jack had stopped at the store to get some cookie dough and a boxed cake mix. Yes, he was a baker, but after an 8-hour shift at a bakery, Jack wanted to take the easy way out and have some no-hassle cupcakes and cookies.

He wasn't expecting, when he walked in the front door, for Hiccup to be sitting on the couch, watching TV.

"Uh... Hic? What are you doing? Don't you have to study?" Jack asked, putting his keys on the hook by the door and stepping out of his shoes.

"Well, y'see, about that... No, not really. I've been cramming in Norway so I could spend the weekend with you. I wanted to surprise you when you got home, though, so I didn't tell you..."

Jack's heart swelled at that, and he came over, draping himself over the back of the couch and Hiccup's shoulders, giving him a kiss on the cheek. But before he could say anything, Hiccup was lifting a little wrapped box with a cute blue bow up to him. "...What's that?"

"It's a present," Hiccup hummed. "I brought a little something back from Norway for you, and I wanted to wait until we were alone to give it to you. A-also, I had to finish it first."

"...You made something for me?" Jack asked, hopping over the back of the couch, landing on the cushion beside Hiccup before carefully taking the box and looking at his boyfriend. He could feel his face heating up a little, and he smiled bashfully when Hiccup nodded. "Aw... Hiccup, that's so sweet..."

"Well, go on, open it," Hiccup said, putting an arm over his shoulders and pulling him into his side. Jack closed his eyes when Hiccup nosed into his hair, sighing contently, but he opened them again and carefully pulled apart the bow and unwrapped the box.

What was inside it made him gasp.

Bound together on a leather cord were three light purple scales with blue tinting the tips. They were filed down, but Jack couldn't see the tool marks at all, which was pretty consistent with Hiccup's craftmanship. He only knew they had to be filed because he knew exactly where they came from, and he knew they were insanely sharp. A finger ran over the scales - he wasn't an expert, but they felt real. "This is... These are Woolly Howl scales. A Titan Wing's, just like... H-Hiccup, how?"

Hiccup reached and carefully removed the scales by the cord, revealing that it was a necklace. Jack stared at it with wide eyes before he turned away to allow Hiccup to put it on him and clasp it in the back. "I was inspecting the traps on the battlefield and found one inside... I couldn't think of a better way to honor him than to pass on some of his scales to someone like you. Do you, uh... Do you like it?"

Jack spun around to face Hiccup, tears in his eyes. Tears mourning the dragon's loss, but also tears from how touched he was that Hiccup had done this for him. He wasn't stupid...he knew how hard it must have been to sneak off the site with scales like that. He threw himself at Hiccup, kissing him, and Hiccup caught him easily, wrapping his arms around his waist to hold him close. When Jack finally parted, he sniffed and grinned. "I love it...it's perfect."

AN: I made some small edits in previous chapters to fix the continuity issues. Nothing major has changed. The impact of each chapter and the direction the story's going are still the same. I just fixed my stupid mistakes, all of them pretty minor and insignificant, so if you choose not to go back and re-read it, it won't change anything.

Your kind comments and kudos never fail to make me smile. I always get excited to see the notifications in my email. It's really helped keep my mood up while struggling this semester, which I really needed. Thank you so much! 3