He Is… Understanding
Hiccup laid her heavy head on the angled desk in her work room. The threat of the neighboring tribe—the Bog Burglars—had been getting more and more serious, and it was becoming a nightmare for her and Gobber to keep up with the villagers' demands in preparation for the almost certain war that was coming. Sharpen that axe. Straighten this spear. Forge twenty new maces, hammers, and swords. All by tomorrow. Even Gobber had admitted that it was a lot of work. And if Gobber thought it was a lot of work to be done, then that said something.
Hiccup pushed her shoulders back, trying to crack her aching back, but it only hurt her more than she was already aching. She winced in pain and let her shoulders slump forward again, not bothering with fixing her posture, or even moving to go to her house to sleep. She closed her eyes, but sleep wouldn't come. Her mind kept projecting blue-prints of new designs, and ways to fix old design flaws. But her finger tips had stopped tingling with anticipation hours ago. The only sensation Hiccup felt now was pain. And she felt it all over.
"Hey, Hic!" A cheerful voice greeted from the doorway of her workstation. Hiccup could only muster the energy to moan in response. It was silent, but Hiccup could feel the coolness of Jack's presence. Honestly, it was a welcome relief from the blistering heat of the forge.
"I hurt everywhere!" she said, eyes still closed.
"I think I could help with that," Hiccup could practically feel the smile on Jack's lips. She desperately wished she wasn't too tired to kiss him. Unfortunately, she couldn't even open her eyelids. Kissing was not an option today. She mentally sighed in disappointment.
"What're you g'nna do?" Hiccup mumbled. Jack didn't say anything, but she felt his cool wind caress her, and she snuggled into her arms contently. Then, Jack's cold hands came to rest on her shoulders. He squeezed lightly, and Hiccup sighed in pleasure.
"Woah, Hiccup, you're so tense! What've you been doing all day?" Jack sounded concerned, and he didn't even try to crack a joke, which made Hiccup feel slightly worried. Jack had ways of showing he cared, but he wasn't a 'serious' type. He joked about everything. If he was seriously concerned about how tense she was… that was not a good thing.
"Working. Had to sharpen about twelve axes. Straightened a few javelins and spears. Made almost thirty axes, hammers, and swords," she said slowly, stumbling on a few words here and there due to her fatigue. Jack's hands kept slowly kneading her muscles, moving up and down her back, but mainly focusing around her shoulders. She could barely concentrate on talking. She just wanted to bask in the feeling of his talented hands on her aching muscles.
"So, I went to Switzerland today," Jack said, keeping his voice low. He started talking about how nice the spirits there were compared to the ones on Berk. If Hiccup wasn't so tired, she would've snorted and made some sort of comment about Jack's observations. But she was so exhausted that she was barely listening to what Jack was saying, and was instead just listening to the sound of his voice.
"Hiccup," Jack murmured lowly, probably realizing that she hadn't been listening. Hiccup was a bit too tired to feel as bad as she normally would have. "It's dark out and no one's out. Toothless is under house arrest by Stoic. I'm going to carry you to your room. Don't freak out, okay?"
Hiccup nodded blearily. Jack bent down and picked her up bridal style. Hiccup nuzzled her nose into Jack's neck, breathing in his crisp scent. She rested her on his shoulder and was asleep before they were halfway to her house.
Hiccup finally had two minutes to herself. She took the moments to collect her thoughts. She sighed and wondered where Jack was. She had seen him every night for the last two weeks, but hadn't had a real conversation with him in almost twenty days. She was getting lonely.
Of course, she always had Toothless. But, Toothless was different. Jack made her feel like something to be cherished and cared for. He made her feel as if she could do anything she wanted to. Toothless made her feel safe and protected, and she loved him, but she didn't get the same tingles in her lower belly whenever she spoke with him.
Knowing that Jack had a special place in her heart made it ache all that much more. She knew Jack was busy. He was a winter spirit. He was always flying around, dealing with temperamental spirits, and annoying kangaroos, and Hiccup was sure that he got tired all the time. But, he still made the effort and came back to Berk to be with her, and Hiccup couldn't even scrounge up the energy to properly spend time with him.
For the next hour Hiccup moped around Berk before giving up and hiding away in her and Toothless's special cove. She knew Jack would go there to find her if she wasn't in the forge. She had told Gobber that she was taking the day off, and surprisingly, her mentor hadn't argued with her…much. She just knew that she needed to do this. To show Jack that she cared enough to push aside her duties for him.
Toothless glided down into the cove a few minutes into her waiting for Jack, and the two of them played and fished and flew around a little. Just the two of them. Just like the good old days.
It wasn't until Toothless started nudging Hiccup's side to wake her that Hiccup realized she had fallen asleep. She blinked her eyes open, and was shocked to see it was dark out, and the starts were shining brightly at her.
"What the…?" Hiccup muttered, confused.
"I think you got tired of village life," Jack's playful voice came from her right. Hiccup snapped her head that direction and saw Jack sitting casually on a boulder, hugging his staff to himself. "After all, you are a pretty extraordinary Viking, and they're so… not," Jack smirked at her before ballroom-whispering, "And by pretty extraordinary, I mean you're extraordinarily pretty,"
"Jack!" Hiccup blushed madly at his compliment. Even after the number of months they'd been together, Hiccup couldn't get over Jack's flirting. It just made her feel so… good. And she liked it.
She slowly stood up so that her prosthetic wouldn't buckled under her. She momentarily frowned at it. There were a lot of design flaws, and she knew she would have to make herself another, more sturdy one, but that would have to be later. Right now, she had to talk to Jack.
She walked over to him and hugged him. Jack immediately pulled her closer and onto his lap. Toothless growled at him lowly, but Jack ignored him.
"Hey there, Hiccup," Jack said, smiling at her happily.
"I got a day off today," Hiccup told him softly. She raised her hand and started running it through Jack's soft-as-snow hair. Jack hummed in pleasure, and Hiccup continued, "I came here so that we could have a day to ourselves, but then Toothless came, and you weren't back yet, and we hung out for a while, and…I guess I fell asleep," she finished sheepishly. She removed her hand from his hair and clasped her hands together. She couldn't look Jack in the eye, so she just stared at their legs.
"Okay, confession time, then," Jack sighed, "I got here right as your stupid demon lizard came. I've been hiding out in that tree all afternoon," Jack pointing behind himself at the tall pine Hiccup had hung Astrid from when she'd first discovered the truth about Toothless.
"Why didn't you come down?" Hiccup asked, slightly curious, but mostly hurt and afraid. Did he not want to spend time with her anymore? Was he afraid that she didn't want to spend time with him anymore? Was he sick of having such a tiresome girlfriend with so many problems?
"I can practically hear the insecure thoughts running through that beautiful mind of yours," Jack chuckled. He gently held Hiccup's chin and forced her to look into his chillingly handsome blue eyes. "Before you ask—no. I didn't not come down because I don't like you anymore, or think that you don't like me anymore or whatever. I just knew that you and Toothless haven't been spending that much time together recently, and I knew that you missed him. Today seemed like the perfect day for you guys to catch up and stuff,"
Hiccup stared at Jack with pure adoration. There was an easy grin on his face, and his eyes were deep with a longing to be with her. But he had given her free afternoon to Toothless. He understood how much Toothless meant to her. Oh, how she loved that boy!
Man… some deep part of her mind slyly whispered. Suddenly, Hiccup grew a lot more aware of exactly where she was sitting. She blushed deeply, and Jack noticed. He laughed.
"Oh, you're just too cute, Hiccup,"
He leaned down and kissed her. She immediately circled his neck with her arms and brought him closer. He smiled at her actions, and Hiccup hummed at the feeling of his lips against hers.
Oooooh yes. She loved him. But there was no way she was going to tell him that. She was just a little too shy. Instead, she pulled away. She smiled up at him and said,
"You're just a little too great, you know that, Jack?"
He just laughed and kissed her again.
"There were weeks I would go without talking to him, just because I was busy with a new project in the forge, or there was some new village crisis. By the time I would get to spend some time alone with Jack, I was too tired to actually appreciate that time. I ended up just needing him more as a shoulder to sleep on than a boyfriend to talk to and have fun with. But he was unbearably understanding—he would hug me and smile and take me home to sleep every day until I got more time or more energy. He understood when I needed space, and when I needed someone to just… be held by. He just understood me so well.
"But… what if—now that Jack's a guardian and all—what if he does that to all sad girl, because he remembered how well it used to calm me down? What if they got the wrong vibe from him? And since he hadn't seemed to want to be with me these past couple of weeks… what if he let them…" Hiccup's throat closed and tears pricked her eyes. She sucked in a few deep breaths to calm herself. She saw Bunny open his mouth, and she hurriedly cut him off before he could tell her what she feared he would say: that she should let him go. She let herself get lost in her happy memories again. "People don't really change that much. Not really. So, I'm sure he's still just as understanding as he used to be. Just like I'm sure he is…"
So... thoughts? Not really sure what I should write here... This chapter was okay, but I'm still getting back into my writing groove, so if it's not as good as you were expecting, I'm sorry. This chapter was written at like, 11 at night, so *shrugs* Next chapter, it's Jack being supportive. I love likes, follows, and reviews, so please, do at least one if not all three. Even if you just comment 'stop asking for likes, follows and reviews!' I'd be happy. Sorta. Any way, see y'all later, and thanks for reading :)
