The Edge

Pairing; Toothless X Hiccup

Setting; Modern AU

Rating; M for Mature

Disclaimer; I do not own the HTTYD or any of the music that is used. Everything belongs to its original creator/artist!

9: The Worst News

=Harvey's POV=

[September 10th, 2012-Harvey's Apartment]

It had been four months since the night of Logan's memorial at Dragon's Cove, and that long since I'd seen any of my friends. I hadn't meant to get upset with them, but Ashley's boyfriend pissed me off by saying what he did. For Odin's sake, he admitted that it wasn't his place, but said it anyway. The guy didn't know me or what was going on in my life. I could only assume that Ashley hadn't told him much about me since she formally introduced us to one another back in May. It was September now, and it was safe to say that my friends and I have lost contact. I had the sneaking suspicion that they were mad at me for telling them to leave the bar; what choice did I have? If they had come to see me, but drink, have some food, and all that, then I wouldn't have cared. However, they only came out because they hadn't heard from me in a couple months.

Well, I'd been in contact with my parents; they'd only been waiting two months. I hadn't talked to Ashley since the ending of our friends with benefits agreement; it was nothing personal, but because I did have some remnants of my crush on her remaining after we broke things off, I needed some time away. I didn't want to hear her talking about things with Zack, and I'm glad I made that choice because after meeting the guy in person, I didn't like him one bit. Moreover, because Zack is the reason, Ashley showed up to my apartment in December 2010 after walking from the University, alone, in the middle of a storm to the bar because she was locked out of her dorm room. Ashley told me that Zack tried to push her into having sex with him after one date, she said no, and he kept trying until she got angry.

I guess they worked things out seeing as they were a couple now and had been since February after Ashley got her period when we had the pregnancy scare. I would never tell Ashley that I had feelings for her while we had the sexual arrangement in place; I know I said I didn't, and that it faded away when we started having sex, but I guess things changed the more time we hooked up to get off whether by intercourse or foreplay. I'd always liked her since Freshman Year in High School, and I guess I never told her how I felt because we were friends and I didn't want to ruin that. I suppose that severely derailed in Senior Year when we decided to just have sex, so we both weren't leaving High School as virgins. Call it stupid, but at least we weren't doing it with strangers or someone we didn't care about. It was just us as friends, seems like a good way to lose your virginity.

Roslyn and Seth dated for a bit after High School according to Ashley when she stayed at my place for a week, and things didn't work out, so they agreed to stay friends, and now both were happy about that decision. Roslyn always had a crush on Seth, I was glad to hear they at least gave things a try. I know that Ford and Heather will eventually get engaged and married, they had been together since Junior Prom in May 2010. I didn't know how Seth, Roslyn, Daniel, and Travis were doing now, last I heard things were calm, and they were all happy with however things were; that was enough for me. Things for me were all over the place. I'm still working at Dragon's Cove; we've managed to keep it going this long, but Andrew still had his doubts. The staff and I tried to tell him that things would be all right because we weren't giving up on the place. And true to those words, we haven't. Feelings wise for me, my crush on Trayden was growing.

I didn't understand it, and part of me didn't want to either. Why should I question how I feel for someone? I didn't question it with Ashley, I just let things happen how they did. I formed a crush on Ashley, didn't ever find it in me to tell her how I felt, we ended up sleeping together and making a deal with be friends with benefits that lasted a while. We started September 2010, stopped January 2012. Nearly two years, and only stopped because she started liking Zack and wanted to pursue a relationship with him when he asked her out. As I'd said the day we ended things, I'd never get in the way of her happiness; just like she'd never get in the way of mine. I did like Trayden, Gods, I really did. However, I was nervous to ruin the friendship we had. I guess somethings about me will never change.

With it being September now, everyone was back in school. This is the time of year that I get busier because we lose a lot of the customers we got over Summer, so it's a struggle to keep business booming. Today was my off day, and it was 11 am. I'd woken up at 8:37 am, took my shower, then cleaned up my apartment after making myself breakfast at 9:40 am. I wasn't sure what to do with my day; maybe I'd just chill in the apartment? It would be a good day to rest since everything was done, including pay the bills and rent. I hadn't been feeling so great the night before at work. Yeah, relaxing today sounded like a perfect idea. I made an effort to contact my parents and Garrett at least once a week so they would know I was alright. I messaged the others and told them I was sorry Monday morning after things at the bar that night. I told them I was stressed out, and tired, plus it wasn't a fantastic night already with Logan's memorial. My friends said they understood, and that it was okay, but I've still barely gotten to speak to them all Summer.

I flipped the TV on and started browsing the OnDemand movies, this seemed like a good way to relax today. Maybe I would invite my parents over for dinner later, who knows? However, I'd made my mind up that I wasn't leaving my apartment today.

[Thursday, February 28th, 2013]

Today is mine and Trayden's twenty-first birthday! Okay, it's actually the day before, but 2013 isn't a leap year, so there isn't a 29th day this time. Thank the Gods that it fell on a day that I got off, and Trayden too because we planned to celebrate turning twenty-one together. My parents and I were going to celebrate on Monday, March 4th since they decided to go on vacation and wouldn't be back until Saturday afternoon, which by then I'd been working, and then again on Sunday night. I was sure they'd like the extra time to recover from the trip anyway. As far as I knew, they went to the mainland. I knew Trayden didn't have anything going on since he and his parents weren't speaking, that's why I told him we'd celebrate together. I knew he was upset about it, but who wouldn't be? Trayden was neglected by his mother, abused by his father, and then disowned and kicked out for being bisexual.

The New Year had been fantastic. I rung it in with Trayden, my parents, and Garrett at my place. During the time of September 2012 to now, I had officially lost contact with Ford, Heather, Ashley, Roslyn, and Travis. I spoke to Seth now then, I couldn't lose contact with him; he was my cousin. However, I knew he was busy with work too, so we spoke every few weeks just to see how the other one was doing. Currently, it was 6:30 pm as Trayden and I were making our way into the bar because even though we weren't working, Andrew demanded we come down for a bit so they could do a birthday shot with us. I expected as much, Andy and Kevin had been talking about since February began when they realized Tray and I were turning twenty-one and could finally drink legally. Plus, Andrew already told me he was training me to be a bartender on Saturday night; not that I needed to learn much. I'd seen them make the drinks a thousand times over since I started working at the bar September 2010. I just had to work on making them myself on a busy night, shouldn't be too hard.

"Hey, hey! There are my two freshly turned twenty-one-year-old servers!" Andrew laughed as Trayden, and I came through the door.

"Hey, Andy," Trayden smiled.

"Come on over, take a seat at the bar!" Kevin motioned to the two empty spots on the end where the door leading upstairs to my apartment was. "We saved them for ya," he added.

"Happy Birthday to ya, lads," Andrew stated.

"Thanks, boss," I replied.

"So, what will it be? You get your first legal shot, and beer following that on me," Andrew chuckled a bit, so did Trayden, and I. Andrew used legit shot because of the one we all took during Logan's memorial when Tray and I were under the drinking age.

"What do you think, Harv?" Trayden asked me.

"Doesn't matter, you pick since you were born before me," I told him. It was true; Tray was born at 6:42 am on February 29th, 1992. I was born seven hours and eight minutes later at 1:47 pm. Imagine that, right?

"That hardly matters," Trayden laughed some, but nodded. "Uh, let's do a shot of Doctor, Andy," he said. Andrew beamed as he grabbed two double shot glasses, and set them up in front of Tray and me. Andrew picked up the Dr. Mcgillicuddy's bottle and poured it into the glasses to the top, leaving just a bit of room so it wouldn't spill over when they got lifted up.

"To the future?" I said lifting mine to up to Trayden.

"Wherever it may lead," Trayden finished as we tapped our glasses together and drank the double shot down, then place the glasses back on the bar top. I loved that Trayden and I could finish each other's sentences because we knew what the other one was thinking or going to say.

"What are ya having for beer?" Kevin wondered as he took the glasses away.

"Your pick, Harv," Trayden motioned.

"Carona Extra with lime," I told Kevin as he gave a thumbs up, then picked up two tall glasses, and filled both from the tap. After that, he topped both with limes and handed them to us. "Well, here's to us being friends and turning twenty-one," I smiled as Trayden nodded in agreement as we both took a drink, then set them down to look around at everything going on. The bar wasn't crazy, but steady and calm enough to keep Andrew happy as it was good for business.

"So, still haven't heard much from your friends?" Trayden asked curiously.

"Nah, they're busy with school and work. I guess that happens after High School, friends start drifting apart to live their own lives," I shrugged a bit.

"You seem upset about it," Trayden pointed out.

"Eh, I guess I am a little. I've been friends with them since Kindergarten, well, not Heather and Daniel. We met them until 2008 in Sophomore Year; I want to say Heather started in November, little after the school year started," I explained.

"So, can I ask you something about one of them?" Trayden wondered, and I nodded to him. "That blond with the blue eyes; she had her hair in a braid going over her shoulder?"

"Ashley?" I arched a brow.

"Yeah, her. Why was she so…I don't know, nervous around you when her boyfriend was sitting right next to her?" Trayden inquired. "Does she like you and you don't return the feelings?"

I laughed a little while spinning the beer glass around in a circle slowly and stared at it. "Actually, it's the complete opposite. Well, used to be. I had a huge crush on her since Freshman Year, never said anything because I didn't want to ruin the friendship. I don't like her anymore, faded a while ago after we ended things," I informed.

"So you two dated?" Trayden asked.

I shook my head. "No. Ashley and I got tipsy during a party while talking about never being kissed, in a relationship, stuff like that, we decided to say fuck it and have sex at my house since my parents were out until later that night. Ashley and I figured it'd be better to lose it to one another rather than others. After that, though, we set up a friends with benefits agreement that stopped about a month after I met you because we had a pregnancy scare,"

"Wow. So, even though you had a crush on her, you two just hooked up to have sex? I thought friends with benefits meant no romantic feelings involved?" Trayden mentioned.

"Well, my crush faded by Junior Year when I realized I'd never get the balls to tell her I liked her as more than a friend. We didn't always have sex, sometimes it was just foreplay. Senior Year, we had sex during the party, then again on prom night in my car. After High School, we kept doing it, just not as much," I shrugged before taking another drink from the glass.

"What was the pregnancy scare? The condom broke?" Trayden wondered.

"I used condoms, and she had the IUD that goes in her arm. I had one condom break January 2012, we laughed about it at first, and then she went to the doctor and found out that her birth control expired that month. Ashley came over on Valentines Day of all days to tell me her period was a day late, that's when she said about the expired birth control, then we remembered the broken condom. I told her to relax, and if it didn't come by the next Monday, she could take a test, and we'd go from there. Ash showed up as I was leaving for work, she told me she got her period and wanted to break the arrangement because that guy you saw with her had asked her out. We agreed to keep it up until one of us had feelings for someone else and wanted to pursue them. So, that was where we ended things," I stated gently.

"Why was she nervous around you than if she broke it off?" Kevin asked. "Sorry, overheard," I laughed a little and smiled.

"It's cool. Ash got nervous because the others and my parents don't know. Our friends, her parents, my parents; none of them knew Ashley, and I were friends with benefits. Hell, my parents still think I'm a virgin," I looked down and chuckled some. "I'm almost positive she hasn't told them about it, or even her boyfriend," I added.

"And you don't care who knows?" Tray questioned.

"Not really. Ashley is the one who wanted to keep it a secret; I think it's because she was afraid to get judged by them. I don't care, it's just sex between friends. We only slept together twice, protected both times in High School; the rest was just foreplay," I said while taking another drink at the same time Trayden did. "I personally always felt it was wrong to keep it from our friends. My parents likely wouldn't give a damn because they are the ones who told me to start carrying condoms with me when I was sixteen. I assume that was probably because they knew it could happen one day being in High School," I shrugged.

"Does this guy know she ain't a virgin anymore?" Kevin arched a brow.

"I don't know, and I don't care; I'm not fond of him," I stated. I grumbled as they both looked at me. I sighed and explained the whole thing from when Ashley showed up Christmas of 2010 because he tried to push her to have sex with him in the parking lot of the University. Also, that she got locked out of her dorm room with Heather away with Daniel for the holidays.

"Wow, so that must have been a fun week for you two," Trayden chuckled.

"Oh yeah. We were doing something every night, wasn't always sex, though, as I said," I reminded while drinking again. "What about you, Tray? Any crushes or sexual experiences?" I decided to ask.

Trayden blushed a bit looking into his drink. "N-Not really. I found out I was bisexual because a friend of mine had kissed me, and I ended up really liking it, but never returned the guy's feelings," Trayden admitted. "As for crushes," he paused, looking nervously. "H-Hey, you want to go back upstairs? It's getting kind'a loud down here, and I can barely hear myself," he changed the subject. I glanced at him confused but shrugged and nodded as I finished the rest of my beer, then Tray did the same.

"Andy, we're heading back up. See to tomorrow night?" I said.

"I'll expect to see ya both at 4!" Andy called. I nodded and got off the bar stool and waited for Trayden to get off his, then we went to my apartment. After getting inside, I shut the door and locked it. Tray and I already decided that we'd both be wasted on our birthday at my place. I had a stash of alcohol thanks to my Godfather, Garrett; the man snuck it to me and made me promise to wait until my birthday to have it. There was a bottle Southern Comfort, couple Fireball Whiskey nips, then an eighteen pack of Carona Extra bottles. I put the bottles in the fridge this morning to get them cold, and I bought limes to go with them too.

[Harvey's Apartment; 7:15 pm]

=Normal POV=

Trayden got nervous about telling Harvey that he was his crush; there were a lot of people around, and Trayden wanted to reveal his feelings when it was just them. Harvey went out of his way to help Trayden; he lied to Andrew to get Tray a job. Harvey gave Trayden a place to stay for a bit, and had been an amazing friend, plus helped him through a lot of his depression. Harvey cracked open two nips and handed one to Trayden. They tapped the necks of the small bottles together, then sucked the liquid back. Afterward, both smiled and placed the bottles on the table. Harvey brought in two beers with limes in them, then finally sat down to relax.

"You know, out of all my birthdays; I think this one is the best," Harvey suddenly said, which took Trayden by surprise.

"Why is that?" Trayden inquired curiously. Harvey sat up, placed his beer bottle down on the coaster, and then he leaned in and kissed Trayden deeply. Trayden's eyes widened at first, and then he closed them; melting into the kiss. After what seemed like an eternity, Harvey pulled away opening his eyes at the same time as Trayden did.

"Because I'm spending it with someone I have feelings for," Harvey stated. "I like you, Trayden. I like you a lot," he admitted.

Trayden was shocked, yet he couldn't find it in himself to stay quiet. Harvey liked him, and he liked Harvey, this was perfect! "You know how you asked me downstairs if I had a crush?" Trayden smiled a bit as Harvey nodded to him. "You're who I'm crushing on, Harvey. I like you a lot too," he enlightened with a small blush on his cheeks.

"So, do you maybe, I don't know, want to be with me? In a relationship?" Harvey asked lightly as his fingers linked with Trayden's slowly.

"I'd like that, Harvey," Trayden replied smiling. "So we're dating now?" he asked.

"We are," Harvey nodded as he leaned in again and kissed Trayden lightly.

"Best birthday ever," Harvey and Trayden ended up saying at the same time, they laughed a bit and relaxed on the couch with their beers. Harvey and Trayden just drank light and talked all night about their lives, or whatever came to mind. One thing was for sure, it was a birthday neither of them would soon forget because they spoke their feelings and began a relationship with one another.

[September 2013; 9 am-Dragon's Cove]

Harvey and Trayden's relationship was going fantastically well. The two were able to maintain things between work and off time, and it helped that Andrew adjusted their schedules to be the same, so they got Mondays and Thursdays off, plus had all day on days they worked. Ten to one, Harvey still did the truck at 7:30 am on the days they delivered, and Harvey stayed through to help open if need be, sometimes Trayden would help too if it was a morning that he had slept over the night before. It happened now and then in the last seven months of their relationship. Harvey's parents knew about things; they were happy for their son. Garrett, Jaime, and Samuel knew as well, but not Seth. According to Harvey's aunt and uncle, Seth had moved out and worked almost all the time at his new job; some factory in the city that was twenty minutes away from Dragon's Cove, which is where the whole staff of the bar had been called together for a meeting by Andrew.

"I thank you all for coming on such short notice," Andrew started. "Now, I'll get right down to it. We did the best we could, and kept this place up and running for almost three years. However, there just isn't enough money in the budget anymore, and I've sunk almost all my saved cash into making the changes that we did. The bottom line, Dragonites, is that I have to close the bar and sell it. We'll probably keep things going while I finish setting things up with the realtor, but after that, the building will be locked up until it's sold. I'm sorry gang, we gave it all we could, but this is the end of Dragon's Cove," he closed his eyes looking away as the staff gasped in shock with sorrow and confusing filling them. After all they'd done, it wasn't enough, and now the place would be sold. By far, this was the worst news they had ever received.