Negative delta is the beginning of fun Chapter 3 - Third Newton's law of motion, a How to Train Your Dragon + Rise of the Guardians Crossover fanfic

Pairing: JackxHiccup

Genre: Romance, Drama

Rating: NC-17/M

Warning: not beta-read

All characters belong to Cressida Cowel, William Joyce and DreamWorks Studia. May contain some OOCness.

Third Newton's law of motion - When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body.

„You're a real life savior!" Jack sighed as he stared at the ceiling.

Papers were scattered everywhere, almost all of them covered in signs, letters and numbers. There was also a lot of red circles marking the correct answers. It came to this that the percent of the correct ones was close to ninety two.

"Hey, don't lose your guard. We still have a lot to work on."

Jack groaned. That sound made Hiccup feel a little bit better.

It was already Sunday and it was the fifth hour of their small tutoring lessons that day. Emma – Jack's sister – only bugged them for half an hour by swinging on the opened door. Well, to tell the truth, she wasn't bugging Hiccup at all as she was only telling him the most embarrassing stories of Jack's childhood. So in the end Jack suffered the most.

She only walked away when the said boy bribed her with ice creams. Hiccup felt a little bit bad and amused in the end (well, he guessed that Jack didn't want anyone to know he was parading with a bra on his head and claiming that he was an alien when he was ten years old).

"But I actually feel like I'm starting to understand those things."

"Why did you even pick up such advanced math for your level?" Hiccup asked, moving away and grabbing the cup with now only warm coffee. The cup weirdly said 'Merry Christmas'. Somehow it looked like the Overland's household had only Christmas' cups.

The white haired boy shrugged. He wasn't wearing his typical baby blue blouse, but it hung on the back of the chair.

"I probably wanted to be in the same class with Tooth and Aster. Plus earlier we didn't have Professor Black for a teacher."

Hiccup nodded. Yep, Professor Black could be pretty demanding and strict, however he was never unjust to any student. Maybe a little bit mean and dark, but well… this is how he probably was. Not everyone had to like him. Hiccup felt weird form of respect towards him.

"Reasonable enough."

"And you, why you have such advanced math?" Jack asked the same question in return. He grabbed the pen with which he was writing and balanced it on his mouth.

"I just like it and without it, it is hard to understand some formulas and do some experiments. Even if you build something you have to make a lot of calculations."

"Like what?"

"Like when you rivet something you have to calculate the strength limit for the connection, so it doesn't snap suddenly."

"Seems complicated…" The pen rolled down from Jack's face onto the desk. He glared at it, looking like he was wounded that the pen rolled away from him.

"It isn't if you understand it."

Jack smiled under his nose, as he started to stock paper in nice piles.

"Let's just assume I don't understand. It will be easier that way." He said, looking through some sheets.

"You just did like a hundred examples of limits, I think you can understand a lot actually." Hiccup took a sip of his coffee. It was the only thing that helped him cope with Math on Sunday. He maybe liked science, but there were some boundaries. No pun intended with what they were doing just some minutes ago.

Jack stopped as he put away the piles.

"I don't know." Came the soft murmur.

That was unusual. Jack was always in the middle of attention, almost always seeking it, even if someone just glanced in his direction. It felt like he was an engine running on power of people noticing him. Always loud, always energetic, always happy.

"For someone who is almost always surrounded by people, you seem very… insecure about yourself?" Hiccup asked slowly, not really knowing if he wasn't stepping on some forbidden territory. But heck, if it was some inadequate topic then Jack would tell him about that, right?

"You think?" The taller boy turned to him, looking Hiccup right in the eyes.

Jack often did that. Whenever he was speaking, he was looking right at someone, right into someone's eyes. Hiccup often tried to hold the stare, because it was something that you should do in conversations. But there was something different in Jack looking at people… Or maybe it was only at him? (Wasn't it a little selfish to say that?) Hiccup couldn't quite put his mind on it.

Now, it felt like Jack wanted to send some kind of message through his blue irises. Like there wasn't enough words in his brain, or maybe even in every dictionary, to really tell what was bugging him. But this was just a hunch, because as soon as Hiccup saw this something different in his eyes, this encrypted password, this one unique in the world formula, it was gone. Maybe it was just a hologram in the end?

Hiccup didn't know how to answer, any reply was bad in his mind, so he decided to change the topic. They weren't even best friends, he shouldn't worry about it.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

Jack didn't comment this sudden change.

"Sure, go on."

Astrid couldn't stop bugging him yesterday, because of the fact that he still didn't ask Jack about the party, so now was his chance. There was a possibility Jack would say no. Hiccup really wanted for him to say no actually.

"My friends were bugging me to introduce you to them on their party this Friday. And I promised them that I will ask you…" He looked at the window. Oh, it was so interesting suddenly. "You don't have to say yes to going there with me." Hiccup really hoped it would happen. "But yeah, I just wanted to ask."

Jack hummed loudly.

"So when you said 'this Friday party', did you maybe mean the party at the twins?"

Hiccup turned around in Jack's chair.

"Um, yeah. You mean Ruffnut and Tuffnut, right?" Hiccup blinked. "I mean, parties aren't my thing, but they were whining on skype to bring you and yeah…"

Jack smiled at him. Seriously, how could he smile for so long. Wasn't his face hurt because of that?

"Sure I will go. It sounds like fun. I actually wanted to ask you the same thing."

"Really?" Hiccup was a little taken aback.

"Yeah, Heather also insisted to meet you there and I thought 'why not'." Jack scratched the back of his head. "We can always… pretend to look like we are in a relationship there and hope she will leave me behind."

Hiccup only knew who Heather was, he never met her face to face. Dagur was on his tail almost every day, so it was hard to not know with whom he was related. Now that Hiccup thought about it, it was kind of funny. Here was Hiccup having problem with Dagur and there was Jack having problem with Heather.

"Yeah, okay. Just you know…"

"To your limits, I know." Jack lifted his hands in protecting manner while sending him a small smirk.

"Thanks." Hiccup murmured and brushed one auburn lock behind his ear.

Yep, Hiccup was terrible with human interactions. It was almost amazing that he somehow accepted Astrid's hugs (that almost always crushed his lungs), but beside that, it was all a nope territory for him. Of course, he thought about holding hands or maybe even kissing with… you know… Aster, but this was totally different. Not to mention Dagur cured him well from all this touching business for definitely some time.

"We should think about some kind of signal." Jack suddenly proposed with the excitement accenting his voice.

"Signal?" Did Hiccup hear right?

The taller boy beamed. His eyes shone with some kind of pride.

"Yup, so I will know when to step away when I'll be too pushy."

Hiccup smirked at him.

"Hmm good to know you were planning that."

"Hey, just because you don't like touching other people and vice versa, it doesn't mean everyone else doesn't like it too." Jack pointed his finger at him, almost pinning it right into Hiccup's chest. This was supposed to be a scold, but with the happy tone it felt more like a whine. "I, for example, like it. But okay, never mind, this idea still stands, right?"

Hiccup nodded as he mulled over this concept in his head. It could be actually pretty useful. This way they can communicate without words.

"Yeah, I think it's cool actually. But this should be something simple." Gears in his head slowly started to move, circle around with a squeaking sound. "Yet something natural."

"And something that pairs would definitely do." Jack put his pen down and started to drum it on the desk. "Maybe something like a slight shove?"

"Maybe… but what if there will be a lot of people around? We will be shoving each other a lot then." There was a clanking sound inside his ears. "How about a small kick?"

Throwing his head back, Jack laughed heartily.

"This was supposed to be something pairs do…" He said, between gasps of air when he finally finished chuckling.

Ugh, Hiccup could feel his cheek getting warmer.

"They sometimes kick each other." He mumbled quietly. Gears stopped for brief second. They were only twitching, like they didn't know if they should move or not.

Jack brushed his eyes, hummed and tapped the desk three times.

"Okay, maybe they do it sometimes, but not without a reason. A visible reason, so this idea is out. Besides, I don't want you kicking me all the time."

Hiccup rolled his eyes, the machinery inside his head began moving again.

"How about ruffling hair?" Jack spoke again. "No wait, I often do that without reason, scratch that. Maybe some hand signal?"

"Yeah, because suddenly showing signs with your hand will not be suspicious." Clank, buzz, squeak and gears stopped again. "Maybe very loud sigh?"

"You're doing it too often, I won't know which is the correct one, so this is also out." Okay, yeah, Jack was right. "Let me think…"

For few second - maybe it was even a minute - Jack was contemplating. The silence was only interrupted by him mumbling something to himself. His eyes were closed, hands crossed on his chest as he swirled on his chair. He was doing it a lot. Good for Jack that he didn't have carpet in his room.

Suddenly Jack stopped moving. Then he turned around, pushed himself closer and with very excited voice shouted:

"I got it!"

"Go on." Hiccup was actually curious.

Jack rubbed his hands together, smiling to himself.

"How about a simple poke in the cheek? This is something that pairs would do without reason and, not to mention, it is simple enough for us."

Gears inside his head stopped. Somewhere he heard a clicking sound. Yeah, minimum of touching, yet it was simple to remember and do. This really could work.

"I like it." Hiccup finally said, feeling the corners of his lips twitching upwards. "We should do it then."

"See, I'm a genius!" Jack puffed his chest.

Hiccup groaned and chuckled in the same time, which sounded even weird for him. There was something enchanting in seeing Jack getting excited over simple, almost unimportant things. Seriously, this was a child locked inside teenager body.

"Yeah, yeah tell yourself that."

Jack sent him a grin, very beautiful one, even Hiccup had to admit. Now he understood why girls fawned over him. He definitely had something charming about him. But for now, Hiccup wasn't sure if this was because of this magical smile or shining eyes.

"I will, Hiccup, I will."

The auburn haired teen checked the time on his wristwatch. It was actually pretty late. Surprisingly, when he was spending time with Jack it was running weirdly fast, almost unnaturally. Like the velocity was doubled or maybe even tripled. But it was in his favor. They managed to get through a lot of exercises, even more than the day before. Jack was even able to make few tasks without Hiccup's help and not even with him beginning to explain. If Hiccup would have a candy then he definitely would give it to Jack, but this was an idea for another day. Maybe he should actually do it to motivate Jack even more…

The roaring voice around the house knocked him out of his dazed state.

"Boys, dinner's ready!"

It was Jack's father. They actually met yesterday (Jack introduced him when North returned home) and Hiccup had to say he came to liking that person. He was big, bulky and looked terrifying, but after a second he turned into the most joyful person on this side of Earth. And well… Hiccup will definitely feel the bruises after the bear hug that North gave him.

"We're going!" Jack shouted back, leaning on the chair. He then turned his head at Hiccup. "We better start moving, before he will come here to take us."

Hiccup nodded, gathered his things and stood up, flexing his hands above his head. He was sitting in one position for far too long and his muscles screamed for some kind of movement.

They both walked out of the room, then down the stairs. They could already hear a conversation going in the kitchen between North and Emma. When Hiccup and Jack stepped inside, they greeted the rest of residents with smiles. Two plates were already served, waiting patiently for them.

"So how is tutoring going, Hic'cup?" North asked, when boys sat down and grabbed the cutlery. "Jack is as hard as usually?"

"Hey, I'm not that hard to teach!" Jack yelled, putting his fork inside the pasta on the plate. He glanced at it with surprised and quite bewildered look, before he shrugged and lifted it up to his lips.

"Ha, we all know the truth. Don't try to hide it!" North slurped loudly on his spaghetti.

Emma giggled next to Hiccup, spatting the sauce everywhere on her plate. She even stained the tablecloth, but it felt like neither North nor Jack actually cared for that. So Hiccup decided to leave it too.

"First Bunny, now you. Why are you so mean to me?!" Jack waved his fork in the air. He actually managed to get some of his pasta into his hair now, because of that movement.

"Because you're easy to tease, that's why." Hiccup mumbled, feeling that he couldn't tear his gaze away from noodles on the teen's head. Because seriously… this looked ridiculous.

Dinners at Hiccup's house were almost always silent. Only in the last span of time Stoick actually tried to hold a proper conversation between them. And Hiccup was grateful for this, he really was, but he couldn't really imagine how long it will take them to be just like Overlands. They were so full of live, so energetic, like there was ongoing exothermic chemical reaction*. They wasn't even in the dining room for a minute and North and Jack were already bickering about something.

And this felt nice. They were carefree, even with the guest in their house. Heck, they even acted like he was living with them for some time. Maybe because Hiccup was treated like that, he decided to speak.

Yet he was still a tini-tiny bit overthrown by this atmosphere.

It looked like everyone heard him, because Emma next to him snorted and North laughed so hard that his belly started to shake the table.

Jack looked at him with accusing eyes.

"You were supposed to be on my side, not theirs!"

He shrugged.

"I'm on the winning side." He stated.

And North laughed even harder, to this point where everyone had to grab plates to not let them fall down.

"I like you Hic'cup, you can put Jack in place. Something not everyone can do!" The big man looked at him.

Hiccup felt like the same blue eyes that Jack inherited were drilling right into his soul, gripping it, opening it and reading like an open book. Still it wasn't a bad feeling, maybe uncomfortable one, but not that bad. So he simply nodded.

"Someone has to."

Jack only hung his head and murmured:

"Traitor…"

"So everything went fine? No kissing, no touching?" Astrid nudged Hiccup hard. Even while wearing quite thick jacket, he felt it on his arm.

"No, Astrid, you know me. We're just friends with benefits!" He said, rolling his eyes and massaging his arm.

"You know that this term mean something totally different?" She looked at him with eyebrows raised high on her forehead.

Only when she had spoken that, Hiccup understood what he had actually said. He knew what this term mean! It was just a misuse of words. Well both he and Jack had benefits form their fake-relationship, but not like that!

"Shut up, it was a misuse of words…" The smaller teen mumbled, covering his mouth with his scarf. Yes, he took it out of the closet today. When he had seen the thermometer outside, he got scared and decided to take precautions to not get ill.

Astrid sent him a smile or more like a predatory grin, accompanied with her glinting eyes. She seriously was having so much fun nowadays.

"Oh, really?" She prolonged the last word, moving even closer. Maybe it was because someone wanted to get pass them.

"Yeah, I'm sure Astrid, and now shush before someone hear you!"

The girl rolled her eyes, then puffed out her cheeks. They were a little red, plus the air came out of her mouth in a small mist. Yep, the winter was definitely around the corner, just waiting to nip at their noses. It didn't help that Hiccup preferred warm temperature over freezing one. And here he was, in Burgess, where winters were always cold and snowy - very white and very freezing.

"Relax, short stack. Everyone is fuming about you and Jack, no one will care about such trivial things."

"Great, they could let it go after almost a week."

Astrid nodded.

"They could, but you know teenagers. We are hungry for hot topics and apparently Jack dating someone is in hot top."

"It could be anyone in the school, but no!" Hiccup threw his hands in the air. He almost face palmed someone. The man sent him an angry look and Hiccup quickly apologized while reverting his hands. He didn't want any more problems.

"Is really Jack such a bad choice?" Astrid asked, glaring at the man that passed them.

It was actually good she didn't look at Hiccup face, because it suddenly froze into confusion. He walked for few seconds looking at nothing, only the concrete beneath their feet.

Well, to tell the truth Jack wasn't such a bad deal. Okay, at first Hiccup was terrified about the idea of fake-dating Jack. They barely knew each other, not to mention Hiccup, back then, had only the bad image of the boy.

But nowadays, well now he was less against it than few days earlier. Of course he and Jack weren't best friends, yet… anyone could have stepped inside that bathroom few days ago and it had happened to be Jack. Jack who willingly saved him, badly, but still it counted. Jack who stuck with this lie, even if the whole school was buzzing about it. Jack who treated him normally, not like some kind of nerd. Jack who cared if he didn't actually push too far.

And Hiccup slowly started to think that he was glad it was Jack who walked in, not someone else.

Astrid turned to him, opened her mouth, maybe to repeat the question or even move to another topic, but she was interrupted by a voice from behind:

"Hey, Hiccup."

He could literally feel all his muscles tense.

"So did you really learn all weekend?" Aster asked as he put back on his shirt. His head popped up from the collar with a groan.

Jack was already in clothes and was only waiting for his friend to finish. Aster always took much more time than Jack, but he got used to it.

"Yes, it is so hard to believe?" Jack raised his eyebrow.

"Kind off." Aster said, but the small ghost of a smile told him that he thought otherwise. It was actually Aster who spent countless sleepless night with Jack before tests just to help him pass.

Jack punched his arm, when his friend finally put on his all clothes and tied his shoes. The rest of their team already went out, so they were the last there. It was still around twenty minutes before classes.

"So how it's going between you two?" Aster asked when he tried to push his shirt inside his bag while steeping down the stairs.

Some kids were already waiting for their first PE class, talking with each other. These ones didn't even glance at Jack and Aster, used to them always leaving the last.

"Good, I think. He actually helped me a lot, more than you." Jack put his hands inside pockets. "Not to mention, he is definitely better at teaching than you!"

Jack took pleasure in seeing Aster grumble something under his nose, probably something not so nice. Jack knew that his taller friend always felt a little bit bad, because he knew he was bad at teaching and well… Jack sometimes liked to rub the salt in his wounds. But only a little bit, not to fully overstep it.

"Plus my family like him. More than me I think."

At this the gray haired boy chuckled. Aster knew his father and sister too well.

"Oh yeah, they are a riot." He patted the white haired teen on the back. "But look at the bright side, you didn't come out naked from the bathroom!"

Jack shuddered. Yeah, this was awfully nice of his sister to actually call him and not let him wander around the house with only a towel around his waist (which he did too often).

"Yeah, yeah this would be a beautiful impression, wouldn't it?" He sighed.

But everything went well this weekend. Weirdly well. Of course his head hurt on the Sunday evening, but it was accompanied also by this fulfilling feeling swimming in his chest. He couldn't remember the last time he actually spent so much time over learning. And it was quite satisfying.

He couldn't wait to show Pitch what he got now!

Aster nudged him. When Jack looked at him, he was pointing at something in the distance.

"Isn't that Hiccup and…"

Jack looked at the point the finger was showing. He indeed saw a small figure standing there with… Astrid, Jack assumed (judging only by the blonde hair swishing in the air). Hiccup was staring at someone and speaking and… he looked kind of angry? Like really his face was pure red and Jack was sure there will soon be steam coming out of his ears.

So Jack looked at this someone the boy was angry at. He felt as his stomach churned and dropped down, like a ton of logs of wood from a very high cliff.

"Let's speed up…" He murmured as both he and Aster almost ran to them.

They could hear some kind of hyphae of words that were trailed by the wind, running around them like playful kids. Pointing at the taller boy's chest, Hiccup took a step forward. Astrid moved closer, like she wanted to stand between them. She said something while furrowing her eyebrows.

Dagur, because who else could it be, crossed his hands on his chest as he smirked. They were so close now that if Jack wanted to he could shout to get their attention. But well he decided for some kind of action.

Jack knew it would be too good for Dagur to just left them alone like that. Did that guy doesn't understand what word 'no' mean?

They were now so close, that they could hear what they, or to be more precise Hiccup, was yelling about.

"Don't you dare call her that! And why do you care what I do with other people?! It's my own business if I…"

But he wasn't able to end the sentence as Jack decided to tackle him in a half-hug. The white haired teen quickly put his hand around Hiccup's waist (trying to place it somewhere comfortable for him) and leaned down, brushing his mouth on his hair. Jack hoped it looked like a small kiss, even though he actually didn't even touch the skin.

Hiccup, who froze midsentence, stiffened and tried to turn around, but Jack held him steadily, so he was only able to turn his head. And to be honest, Jack felt kind of accomplishment when Hiccup's body relaxed a little.

It all happened in two or three seconds. Jack wanted it to look like a surprise boyfriend welcome.

"Hey, guys! What is this commotion about?" He really hoped his voice didn't crack or at least the disruption wasn't audible to anyone but him. He even graced them with a smile, fake one, but still it was a smile.

Hiccup closed his mouth, that until now hung open, like a fish on the shore. His eyes gaped at him, not sure if this was his imagination or Jack really was standing there.

Well, okay, Jack would also be surprised if he would be in the middle of shouting very angrily something and someone else would glomp him, so yeah, Jack couldn't really blame him.

So he looked at the girl standing next to them, but she also had that fazed look, staring at him, like he was a ghost. She wouldn't work with him either.

Unfortunately the only one left was Dagur, who was surprisingly also staring at him like he just spurted from the Earth in front of him.

"Okay…" Jack murmured, running his free hand through his white strands. "Someone will tell me what is going on?"

Hiccup shook his head. The auburn hair tickled Jack's chin while doing so. Viridian eyes focused on him.

"Nothing, let's go…" He finally mumbled.

Hiccup tried to turn around, but probably found that he was blocked by Jack's hand that still laid on his waist. He quickly glanced at Jack with one eyebrow lifted. Jack attempted to smile reassuringly.

They both made a circle - weird one, wonky, Jack felt like they both were baby deers, learning to walk – and walked away, away from Dagur and away from this weird commotion.

Aster and Astrid fell into steps with them and they all walked in silence to the front door. Hiccup wiggled few times, maybe because of the hand that Jack still left on his waist.

When they walked inside the school and turned into a corridor on the right, Jack let his hand hung near his body.

"Okay, so now someone will fill me in?"

Astrid behind him sighed.

"It was just Dagur being himself…" She spat, like only speaking his name would leave a sour taste on her tongue.

"Some more details?" Jack insisted, feeling that this simply couldn't be all. Seriously, Hiccup wouldn't just start suddenly shouting in the middle of a street for no important reason.

And from the way Astrid's eyes jumped from him to Hiccup he confirmed his theory. But as soon as girl opened her mouth, Hiccup spoke:

"He insulted Astrid. The rest isn't worth mentioning." He said, weirdly emotionless, as he glanced back at his friend.

Astrid shrugged – or more like nodded in the same time as she brushed the fringe away from her eyes. It looked like for a brief second there was a whole conversation between their looks, only understandable for them. Jack wondered if Aster felt so left out as he.

"Anyway thank you for… you know, helping…" Hiccup turned his head back at Jack and the corner of his lips rose a little bit higher. It wasn't a full smile, maybe a sad grin, but definitely there was a pinch of gratefulness and relaxation in it.

"Don't mention it. What kind of boyfriend I would be if I wouldn't help you." Jack said, trying to make his voice sound cheerful.

"Yeah, definitely a bad one."

Jack saw as Hiccup glanced back to where Aster was standing, still not saying a single thing. He saw it all as boy's emerald orbs shone for brief moment and then became dull, as his head moved down. Uh oh. Maybe he shouldn't mentions boyfriends and things like that near Aster now? Especially after he found out about Hiccup's small (giant?) crush on his friend.

Which was still beyond his comprehension, but hey… everyone had their own tastes right? And who was Jack to judge.

The small glance Hiccup did was almost unnoticeable. Well at least for people who didn't know anything. Yet now, it was different. Because for any person that would pass them by Hiccup would be maybe only looking back to check if someone was listening or anything like that. But now Jack understood that he turned around to glance at Aster. Why? He wasn't sure, yet some part of him inside would do the same. Did Hiccup had done that earlier? Was he stealing glances at Aster when they weren't looking?

Jack lifted his head. Astrid was staring at him with a mixture of surprise and confusion in her eyes. Jack immediately knew that she was assessing him to check if he knew.

The first bell rang above their heads putting everyone out from their daze. Hiccup coughed nervously as he moved to the girl.

"We'll be going then. Thank you one more time." He said, his voice and façade returned to his usual nervously-sarcastic one. With one hand he pushed the glasses higher and they reflected the light shining from the lamp. "Guess I'll see you after school?"

"Definitely."

Hiccup nodded and made a small, crooked wave at Aster. He murmured something that sounded like a farewell, but it was drowned by people shouts from the end of the corridor.

Yet Aster answered nevertheless:

"See ya later, Hiccup."

Hiccup quickly turned around. Maybe he tried to hide his embarrassed face that suddenly was colored in red paint? Astrid waved at them both, then patted Hiccup on the back. They both walked away, but Jack could swear he heard girl snickering from behind the corner. So he was probably right.

They also decided to finally go to their class.

"What do you think this was all about? Beside the case about Astrid." Aster asked when they shuffled their feet to their lockers to grab needed notebooks. Or at least Aster wanted to do it. Jack had one notebook for most of the subjects.

"I don't know." Jack looked under Aster's arm at his locker, but everything was tidy. Not a single speck of dust, not a single alone paper. Damn, he was such a perfectionist. He wondered if Hiccup's locker also looked like that.

"You both didn't talk about Dagur?" There was some doubt swimming in Aster's mumbled sentence. He finally took his giant notebook and put it in his bag pack.

"We kind of did… a little…" Jack shrugged while moving away, allowing his friend to lock the door. "He looks like he doesn't like to talk about Dagur, so you know…"

Aster coed sweetly. That sound made Jack cringe. Seriously, that was scary.

"Aww, baby Jack really cares about others. And I thought the only thing you care about are your small pranks."

"Do you want another chocolate on your seat?" Jack quickly asked. He enjoyed as the smile flowed away from his friend's face. "Didn't think so."

Jack couldn't count how many times people had told him that he was a worrywart. But he had to admit, each and every one spoke the truth.

Yet he answered honestly. Hiccup did look like he tried to avoid this topic as much as he could, almost like Dagur could sting him by only mentioning him. Jack guessed that was because it brought unwanted memories. But judging by today commotion, maybe the memories were worse than Jack at first thought. Maybe he should talk about it with him?

They were boyfriends, right? Fake ones, but still.

"He can go? Cool!" The voice on the other side yelled something that suspiciously sounded like 'Hiccup is taking him to our party!'. Ugh, he could have stayed silent about it and just show up with Jack at his side. But noooo, he had to say it. "Soo remember, the party starts at 8 p.m.!"

"I know, I know, you have sent like… ten messages to me already…" Hiccup kicked the rock that was laying on the ground as he walked near the entrance to the school. "Um hey, can I ask you who will be there?"

There was a long humming sound coming from the other end. Then after a second Tuffnut moved the phone away from his ear and repeated the question to his sister.

Hiccup sighed, took off his glasses and looked at the glass under different angles to see how dirty they were. Too dirty. He started to wipe them with the hem of his sweater, still holding onto his phone with his head and arm.

"She doesn't know." Tuffnut finally said.

"And you?"

"I also don't know."

So much for knowing it. Hiccup didn't actually expect to get a proper answer, but it would be very nice to know it.

"Never mind then."

"Hiccup!"

He looked up at the posture of the white haired boy waving at him. It was his cue to end this call.

"Was that Jackson Overland?" And everything literally crashed down. It looked like somehow Ruffnut get ahold of her brother's phone. "Hey, was it him? Say he…"

"I gotta go, bye!" Hiccup didn't know he was able to end calls as quick as he did it now. It was almost like he suddenly got the ability to move his fingers with a speed of light, even thought it was impossible.

He didn't want Jack to hear his friends yelling… well, definitely inappropriate comments. The time for that would be at the party. And huh boy, Hiccup could already feel the headache coming by just thinking about it.

He wasn't a party person, but somehow he was almost on every Ruffnut and Tuffnut's party, because they literally were often taking him there by force, so after the fifth time he learned to go there by himself. And it wasn't so bad after a while, he just had to take book and hid in some corner to read.

Not counting few… bad incidents that he wanted to forget about, but Snoutlout made a great job at reminding him whenever they met. It was like a badly counted measurement when you already gave the report to the teacher. You know you did something wrong, but can do nothing about it now.

Hiccup pocketed his phone as Jack stopped near him.

"You ready?"

"Sure…"

His phone actually buzzed six times when they were walking to Jack's home, but he ignored every try. But Jack didn't, as every time he heard it, he glanced suspiciously at his pants. Well, that didn't look weird at all.

"You can always pick it up." He finally said when they stopped and waited for the light to turn green. "I don't mind."

"It's just twins trying to call me to probably say something…" Perverted, he added in his mind.

Jack hummed, his hand playing with a shoelace hanging from his hoodie.

"My mind still can't comprehend that you are friends with the twins." He finally said, but his voice didn't hold any menace. He was clearly only surprised. "Don't get it wrong. But you and Astrid are so calm… and twins are…"

And Hiccup didn't blame him for that. Their friendship was also a mystery to him.

"Crazy? Loud? Literally everywhere?" Hiccup counted, his lips moved higher with every word leaving his mouth.

Hiccup had to agree with Jack nevertheless. They were literally like two different substances, like metal and nonmetal, like cation and anion, like substitution and elimination. It was surprising how well they… cooperated together.

"Yeah, definitely that. It just surprised me." They both started moving as the light turned green and cars stopped moving with a loud screeching sound. "How did you guys actually start to hang out?"

"I think it was… in the Middle School? Or actually during one holidays when we all went to the same camp and unfortunately were in the same cabin."

Jack snickered.

"Two weeks in the same room as twins? That must be harsh."

"It was." It really was. Hiccup even now shuddered just thinking about it, almost like he was drenched in carbon tetrachloride*. "But it would take me few hours to explain what happened there, but summa summarum we ended being friends." Weirdly, but it really happened.

"Wow wow such details, much information."

Hiccup snorted hearing Jack all too happy voice near his ear as they finally crossed the street. When Hiccup turned to him, he had that stupid grin molded to his face. At this point the auburn haired teen was almost sure it was permanently stuck there.

"This is all you need, unless you want to listen what twins did when they were in Middle School." Hiccup said it, feeling dread slowly climbing up his spine. Seriously, this was the worst and funniest time of his life. "And let me tell you that the half of it is disgusting and the rest inappropriate."

Jack blinked few times. It looked like some machine shutting off and switching on.

"You know, in the end, I don't want to know what you did back then." Jack finally said, playing with one white lock on his nape.

The less he knew the better for literally everyone.

Jack's house appeared in their line of vision. Hiccup welcome it with almost a sigh. The only thing he had to do today was teach Jack and then maybe finally do something with this project for the upcoming contest (because until now he only did small blueprints). And then he could finally return to his bed. Seriously, this was only the first day of the week, but earlier encounter with Dagur made it seven times worse. It was like a sudden reaction which wasn't supposed to happen. Hiccup really had to be cursed.

Jack took out keys and opened the door. There was no one home as Jack said earlier that day. His father still had to pick up Emma from school. It was really a shame. Hiccup started to like that mischievous little girl.

Hiccup took off his shoes and in the same time glanced at the boy, that was already bare feet and rummaging through kitchen like excited ion. He started to wonder if Jack also acted like that when he was a kid. Probably yes… judging by the rumors Hiccup heard about Jack's early pranks.

"Uh, want something quick to eat?" Jack asked. He had his head hidden in the fridge and was already taking out some ingredients.

Hiccup learned on the first visit here that even if he would refuse, he still would have a portion. So he decided to just agree. Plus, he was kind of hungry. The school food wasn't totally fulfilling nor was it really edible.

"Sure, why not, if this is not a problem." Hiccup murmured. He moved to the kitchen after Jack.

"Not a problem to a fishbone like you. Seriously, do they even give you food at your house?" Jack took out the frying pan and oil.

"Of course I have food at my house."

That got Hiccup thinking – he didn't really talk about his family, nor invited Jack to his house. It's just didn't happen. But in comparison to Jack's own, Hiccup's household was… plain and boring. There was literally nothing to do and his father… well, he was definitely not as amusing as North. They of course were talking more lately, with Stoick asking him about school, friends and hobbies, but still Overland's house was in a total different league.

"Do you mind making coffee?"

Hiccup moved to the electric kettle, poured water inside and then switched it on. He found out that Jack liked his coffee with a lot of milk, especially in the cup with a giant fluffy bunny with a Santa's hat on its head. For himself he took the very first cup that was in the cupboard.

Hiccup was sprinkling the coffee inside, when Jack spoke again:

"So what was that about Dagur?"

He was asking about it. Hiccup knew it was unavoidable. Well, some kind of program inside his head was telling him that Jack would definitely return to this topic. And the program guessed right.

"It was really nothing." Hiccup finally answered when the kettle switched off. He poured water inside cups.

And it was really nothing. Just few inappropriate sentences. Very inappropriate. It wasn't like Dagur said something really mean about Hiccup (which he never did actually), Hiccup could even say that it was a childish teasing. But then he mentioned something about Astrid and Hiccup suddenly burst out like a dynamite.

"Really? Because it didn't seem like nothing to me…" Jack mumbled as he turned arund something that he was frying now.

"It wasn't something really terrible. It was his usual provocation. And being a little mean to Astrid." Dagur could refrain from insulting his best-friend definitely.

"What do you call a usual provocation then?"

Hiccup moved to the fridge, took out milk and added it to the coffee.

"You know the typical bad pick-up lines, some of them with sexual context, so yeah." Now that Hiccup could think it over once again, it really wasn't much. "The usual."

"Dagur and pick-up lines? I would give everything to hear them." Jack chuckled. He moved and took out two plates for himself and his guest.

"Oh really? Because I would happily exchange them for totally different experience." Hiccup felt the corner of his mouth moving higher, like a function that suddenly decided to rise.

Jack moved to him with two plates with French toasts on them, sprinkled with… basil? Or at least it smelled like that. Hiccup didn't know a lot about cooking, so he wasn't sure. But there was one thing he was sure for one hundred percent and it was that Jack's food was delicious.

They sat in the dinner room and eat it in silence, because both of them were interested in eating. The food disappeared from their plates very quickly. After that they moved to Jack's room for another learning session.

"So I guess this is all, I don't think I will be able to teach you more from this topic." Hiccup said. His hands moved to gather all his books. He got quite the alarming collection in Jack's opinion.

"O-okay…"

Hiccup gave him a surprised look, but didn't say anything as he packed his things.

Jack was nervous. He knew why he was stressed, of course he knew. The last few days he had spent learning, making exercises, old test, reading and tomorrow was the final day. Thursday – the doomsday or the day of the test.

It was already Wednesday evening and the nervousness finally got to him and because of that he stuttered. He was stressed, like really stressed. Even though he knew that he got it, he made so many exercises without errors, there still was something inside of him filling him with doubt.

Because what if he will fail tomorrow? What if he will forget how to do special exercises? What if he will do them wrong? No, no, no, that was out of the question. He can't do that. He can't put North down, not to mention Aster, Tooth, Hiccup…

Jack took deep breath and looked at sheets of paper in front of him. He recognized his own handwriting, but suddenly the numbers seemed like a foreign language to him. Oh no, no, no, brain can't fail him now. He remembers it, right? Right?

He got it, he know it and tomorrow everything would be fine. At least he hoped. But what if… No? Maybe? Yes?

His hand moved to his hair where it got entangled with his white locks. It felt like he didn't brush them, but he did. Now it didn't matter as he nervously circled the lock on his finger.

What was he supposed to do when he got nervous? Breathe? Yes, take big, deep breathes! Then count in his head. One, two three, one, two, three, One…the limes from exponential function is… two…

"Jack, hey, Jack!"

He blinked confused at the sudden hand that appeared in his line of vision, like dolphin that emerged from water. It took Jack two seconds to fully comprehend it was Hiccup who was trying to get his attention.

"Y-yeah?"

Hiccup stared at him, his eyebrows furrowed and nose scrunched – the movement made the glasses slip a little bit from his button nose, but it looked like Hiccup didn't even notice it. The intense gaze was slowly drilling holes inside of Jack, almost like a woodpecker checking the trunk.

"Do you maybe… want to watch something?" Hiccup finally asked, very unsure. His voice wasn't very loud and words were somehow glued together.

Jack stared at him with bewildered look.

"What?" Oh, very smart, but the word just left his lips without thinking.

Hiccup looked abashed for a second. His cheeks turned pink and he finally pushed his glasses higher. His eyes wandered around the room for some time.

"I mean… you look nervous, so I thought that you need something to relax and so… movies…" He bit his lip as he started to mumble the last few words.

Jack felt as the jumping heart started to slow down, like it was stopping after crossing a finish line.

"But well never mind that…"

"No!" Jack almost shouted and it made Hiccup jump in his place. Jack's hand returned to his jeans , leaving his hair alone. "This is a good idea."

Hiccup only beamed in return.

They decided on Finding Nemo. Jack had watched it few times already, so he didn't have to really think while watching it and Hiccup hadn't seen it (which made Jack touch his chest and in very astonished voice ask 'What?'). They made themselves tea and Jack made small snacks to crunch onto while watching.

And he had to say that… it was really a good idea. After fifteen minutes he slowly started to forget about the stress. The image of ultimate failure dissolved after half an hour. His muscles relaxed, the heart returned to normal beating rhythm, the natural smile reappeared on his face. Not to mention Hiccup's comments helped a lot.

They were sitting on chairs in front of the monitor where the movie was playing. Hiccup had his feet on the chair and now looked literally like a tiny ball. Even though he pointed out mistakes (he was mostly concerned how fish could talk underwater when the water was putting greater resistance to sound waves than air), he looked totally enthralled by the movie. Just like a small kid. He even almost cried when the supposedly death scene came, but Hiccup covered it by taking his glasses off and cleaning them.

And after an hour and a half Jack felt that all the tension flew away from his body. He took a deep breath – his lungs felt lighter than earlier when all this weight was taken away.

So when the movie finally ended, it was pretty late. Not so late that Jack couldn't spend few hours on the computer talking with friends that were bugging him on Facebook, but it was so late that it was already dark outside.

Hiccup started to collect the rest of his things. When he finished, he checked the phone and then looked out of the window with a sigh. They both went down, where Emma and North were doing homework in the living room.

"Oh, you're going already?" The man asked when Hiccup and Jack passed the opened door to the room where they were sitting.

"Um, yeah, it's pretty late." Hiccup mumbled, his eyes wandered from the mighty posture of Jack's father to Emma.

Jack saw that his sister pouted miserably, as she stood up from her chair slowly.

"Do you really need to go?" She whined, looking up at him.

Hiccup shuffled his weight to another leg. He looked like a newborn penguin that just started learning how to walk. He even wavered to one side. Weird.

"Yeah." He responded.

"I'm going to walk him home." Jack said, looking at his father.

North nodded, his face lightened up by his everlasting smile.

"Take care then!"

They moved to the front door where they both put on their shoes and jackets. Lately it was getting colder and colder, which made Jack happier and happier. He couldn't wait to finally see the first snow of this year. Jack opened door for Hiccup and they both went out.

They walked in silence, with street lamps lightening the road for them. He knew moreover where Hiccup lived, because they talked about it – or more like exchanged the basic information about themselves in case someone would ask - but he still allowed Hiccup to lead the way.

He was in the middle of avoiding every line on the pavement when Hiccup spoke:

"You don't have to walk me back…" He said, but for a second Jack almost thought it was only wind whispering those words, because the voice was very quiet.

Hiccup wasn't looking at him, he was intrigued by the ground beneath his feet.

"But I want to. You helped me a lot." And it was the truth. Not to mention he didn't want Hiccup walking alone in the dark. Dagur didn't live too far away and somehow the idea of them suddenly meeting (when Dagur was known for staying out late) wasn't too appealing.

They were boyfriends, right? Fake ones, but there was slowly the small sprout of friendship growing between them. Or at least this was how Jack felt. He was talking more freely with Hiccup now, it wasn't the typical robot dialogue between them, but a normal light conversation between friends. Of course, they didn't share some deep secrets, but maybe the time for this will come in some future.

"It was nothing."

It definitely wasn't nothing. He helped Jack a lot, not to mention he even proposed to watch movies to subside Jack's sudden nervousness. So this was definitely not nothing.

"For me it was definitely something." Jack glanced as Hiccup smiled under his nose, but still didn't lift his head.

They were alone, so Jack decided to brush this topic.

"About Friday party…" Jack started and when he heard a hum from his side he decided to continue. "We can pick you up with Aster and Tooth."

Just hearing this name made Hiccup jumpy. Jack could see literally as his arms suddenly tensed and they remained like that for few more seconds. He was seriously in this too deep if even just hearing Aster's name made him so fidgety. And Aster was totally not conscious of that. It was stupidly incredible. Maybe Jack should signal this somehow to Aster? But Hiccup said he didn't want any help, that this was some simple crush. But for Jack it looked like it was something much more heavier.

Hiccup was a decent guy, a nerd, but so was his best friend. They would make quite… good pair. Aster was always straightforward, intelligent, smart, the same as Hiccup. Not to mention they definitely had many common topics (as could be seen by their talk about… this tube with metal ball - whatever it was called).

"Okay, but I will definitely go with Astrid. You think you have room for two?"

Jack imagined Aster's car in his head. It would definitely hold all five of them together with no problem.

"Yeah, definitely. Should I send you the time on Friday?"

Hiccup nodded, his arms now fully relaxed, although his gaze was still jumping from place to place.

"Sure." Hiccup said, sending Jack a half smile shadowed by the lamps.

Jack grinned. He was actually pretty excited to go. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were known for throwing out the weirdest and craziest parties in the whole Burgess and because of that he was surprised to hear Hiccup asking him about this party. However Jack still couldn't imagine Hiccup drinking or dancing in the middle of the room. He was probably the type to hide in the corner and wait till the party would end. But not this time.

However, first he had to write tomorrow test. Then he can party all night long. Which reminded him that he still didn't thank properly Hiccup for what he had done. Should he buy him some box of chocolates? Book?

"Hey Hic…" He bit his tongue midway and Hiccup name was shortened. But it looked like the boy didn't even hear it or care as he only looked at him, allowing to continue. "Thanks."

"For what?" Hiccup blinked, looking weirdly surprised.

"You know… about teaching me and calming me when I got into that nervous zone." Jack moved his hand while he spoke, but they didn't help him to show what he really meant.

"Oh this?" Hiccup pushed his glasses higher. "Well… when I'm stressed I always watch something to get my mind off things and I thought it would work for you too. I understand how scary Professor Black can be." He said and sent him a reassuring smile.

Professor Black definitely could be terrifying when he wanted to. Sometimes it took only a glance to shut Jack and other people off. No wonder Math classes were the most silent ones. No one even dared to speak on them.

"Still thank you…" Jack scratched the back of his head. He looked up and noticed that they were already on the correct street. Now he only had to follow Hiccup to his home.

"Really… don't mention it…" And again Hiccup turned his head to the ground. He looked like he wasn't too comfortable with Jack's thanks. But now it was the only thing Jack could do in exchange.

Or could he…

Aster and Hiccup would make a really good pair. And Jack knew that Aster didn't really care for gender (just like Jack), so Hiccup definitely had chance. The only problem was that Aster never… showed interest in anyone. Or maybe he was very good at hiding it. Yet if Jack would play their cards right…

In that way he wouldn't be helping Hiccup, but he would he helping Aster, right? So it was a win-win situation for everyone. Now he only need to do it somehow without Hiccup noticing it, because Aster was blind for such things (he didn't even notice Hiccup obvious crush on him).

"I live here. Thank you for walking me back."

Jack snapped his head up to look at the one-family house standing proudly on the corner of the street they were currently passing. The lights coming from windows were dimmed by the curtain, but it looked like someone was home. Probably his father.

"No problem. It was a pleasure." Jack said. He put his hands inside his pocket.

The auburn haired boy pushed his backpack higher and sent him a skeptical look. They didn't talk too much during their small walk here, but it still wasn't bad. Jack enjoyed those small conversations.

Hiccup moved to the front door. Jack noticed that while walking up the stairs he was weirdly putting more weight on his right leg than left. Or maybe it was only Jack's imagination? He was already tired due to all learning and his eyes were probably exhausted too.

Jack was about to turn around, when he heard the boy's yell:

"Hey Jack!"

He turned around. Hiccup was looking at him with half opened door.

"Send me a message after tomorrow test."

"Sure do, Captain!"

Hiccup didn't know why, but he was nervous. Well that was wrong way of thinking. He knew why he was nervous, but he couldn't understand exactly why he was feeling like that. He was stressed over Jack's test. But this wasn't logical. They weren't so close friends for him to be so nervous over Jack. Or maybe they kind of were? Maybe Jack's nervousness was exchanged in some kind of weird, chemical reaction and now Hiccup got it?

But if this meant that Jack would pass his test then he could cope with it for few more minutes. He had Chemistry, so he didn't have to listen too much.

Hiccup stared at his wristwatch where the pendulum slowly moved down to rise up, a never ending cycle, but for him it felt like the time wasn't moving at all. The thin black lines circled around the clock face anyway. He only had to see them circle it at least… twenty nine more times. Ugh great…

So when finally (finally!) the hand of the clock finished the twenty-ninth lap and the ball rang above their heads, he welcomed the short break with a sigh. Even though he waited for it all this time, he packed himself slowly and waited till everyone would go out from the classroom. He wasn't the type to run to the door and push pass people. Too much contact and someone could crush him. No thank you.

When he finally left the classroom, Astrid was waiting for him with a scowl.

"You couldn't be slower?"

"I could. Next time I will." He quickly replied and stared at the roll of her eyes with amusement.

They walked to their next classroom that was on totally opposite side of the building. Astrid talked about her last lessons and how some dude just couldn't answer some question, when Hiccup finally felt vibrations in his pants.

He maybe looked too eager to just read a message as he was rummaging through his pants, but he was curious!

"You okay?" Astrid asked, but he paid her no mind. He fished the phone out and brushed the screen to read the message.

It was from Jack as he expected, but he could already heard the loud ringing sound inside his chest and head when he opened it.

I answered all of them ;D! Even Pitch was surprised when I gave it to him! xD

Something heavy fell from his heart, freeing his lungs that were finally able to breathe freely. Seriously, worrying over his own exams was one thing, but stressing over other people tests was totally different.

"Hey? Why are you grinning?" Astrid nudged his arm as she floated above him, trying to see the screen.

Hiccup showed his phone in her palm.

"It's Jack. He just finished the test."

The girl scanned the message quickly. She returned him his phone.

"The test for which you were 'teaching' Jack?" She asked, underlining that one word with her sweet voice. She even fluttered her eyes at him. Ugh, what were his friends thinking of him?

"Yes, I was only teaching him." He stated. Astrid still stared at him but now she was wiggling her eyebrows too. "Astrid! You know I'm not like that!"

Some people looked at them when his voice rose above the crowd. He quickly shut his mouth. More attention. This was what he really needed!

"You know, it is a reverse psychology. I hope that if I suggest something long enough you will finally do it." She said, returning to her normal walking position. She waved at some girl from her team that passed them. The girl nodded in response, then turned to her friend and whispered something in her ear. Both of them then burst into laughter.

"You know the catch was to probably not tell me about it." Hiccup lifted his eyebrow at his friend.

"Hush now!" She flipped her braid back. "It will work someday."

Hiccup shook his head. Not till he was living on this planet.

"I don't want to go…" Hiccup mumbled for the thirty-fourth time that afternoon as Astrid was combing his hair and tried to do… well, definitely something with them.

"Stop moaning and give me the hair spray!"

Hiccup reached with his hand and took the long bottle. Astrid grabbed it and sprayed unholy amount of it on his hair. He started to cough wildly. Seriously, how girls could live with it every day!?

"Why are you doing it to me, Astrid?" He asked, inhaling the sweet fresh oxygen when the particles of alcohol mixed with the air. "You never cared how I looked on those stupid parties earlier!"

"But now you're going with Jack and he always look nice. You can't just show with some scrawny t-shirt and used pants." Astrid rolled her eyes.

"Hey! I always do that!"

"Not today!" She yelled, literally into his ear as she straightened painfully one of his curled locks on the head. It looked like it was a final touch, because she hummed happily under her nose when she turned him around and looked at him. "I think you look presentable."

Hiccup reached and took glasses from the nightstand. Toothless, that until now laid on the bed next to them, bumped his arm, so Hiccup scratched the cat's head. The world became clearer when he put the glasses back on. Astrid took out the mirror from her pocket.

"See for yourself."

It was hard to see his own reflection in the tiny mirror, so he had to move it to see Astrid's work under different angle. And for him… he looked literally the same. Seriously. But he knew better not to insult her, plus he didn't really want to be mean to her. She was doing it for like half an hour now…

"It looks nice." He decided on the most neutral option which showed that he was conscious of some changes (even if he didn't see any). Sometimes you only have to nod when Professor show you the brown ring test*, even though you just don't see any ring.

Astrid lightened up like a burning magnesium ribbon. She even clasped her hands together.

"This is going to be a great party!"

Oh, it would be. Hiccup packed his favourite books and even got additional pens, because last time twins got a hold of them and used it to paint someone face. And they weren't great artists.

They both heard a loud honk resonating outside the window. For brief moment Hiccup was scared that the glass would shatter, but it gladly withstood the vibrations moving in the air.

"I guess our ride is here." Hiccup mumbled, gathering his things. He took his backpack very secretly, because he knew as soon as Astrid would see it, he would be forced to leave his baby here.

His Dad knew about the party and what was even worse… he encouraged him to go. Which was bad for Hiccup, because he sometimes wished he could have excuse to simply not go. But Stoick was adamant like a good alloy. He even talked with Astrid about going back late… very late.

So when they were on the first floor, he welcomed them with a smile.

"Have fun!" He shouted from the sofa in the living room.

Hiccup grumbled something under his nose, but Astrid grinned at the giant man.

"Will do, sir!"

Astrid punched him when Hiccup tried to put on his worn tramps and he had to take the new, red ones which he literally hated. He already wanted to be back home. They weren't even on the party yet!

The car was standing in front of their driveway. Jack was standing there, leaning near the front window and talking with Tooth. She laughed at something he said. She then turned around to repeat it to… Aster. Oh gosh… Hiccup knew he would be driving them, but still seeing only a glimpse of his face made him jittery inside.

Deep breath and here goes nothing!

Fortunately the white haired teenager noticed them as he waved his hand.

"Hey! Ready to go?" He asked when he moved to the back door and opened them.

Astrid literally jumped to the front. She quickly scrambled inside while greeting everyone in very cheerful voice. Her eyes wandered to Hiccup then, waiting expectantly.

Jack made a theatrical bow, smirking under his nose.

Hiccup scoffed, but sat in the middle, with Astrid on his left and Jack on his right.

"Hey Hiccup!" Tooth turned on her seat and smiled widely showing a perfect line of white teeth and… was it a rainbow brace? Hiccup didn't know she was wearing braces. "How are you? Are you as excited as me to go to the party?!" Her happy tone quickly filled the void around them.

Hiccup shifted nervously.

"I'm fine." As fine as he could be with this heavy lump on his head, aka a miserable excuse for made hair. "And about the party…" Hiccup felt memories of previous parties flow into his head. "Not really…" He preferred to sit in his room, read some book, maybe skype a little with Fishlegs, drink hot cocoa, make more detailed blueprints of his projects… Everything, just not go to the twins' party.

"I understand." Aster said suddenly, as he moved the rearview mirror and his eyes looked at Hiccup through it. "I prefer to be everywhere but here… but these two dragged me." He pointed with his thumb at giggling Tooth and then chuckling Jack next to Hiccup. "By the way, hey."

Something in Hiccup's chest clenched. He was so close - so close - to be on the party without Aster. Of course, he knew that nothing would happen between them, he knew that, but just the image of the tall boy sitting there, being there, maybe even talking with him was enough. So he was quite thankful Jack for dragging Aster here.

Hiccup looked at Jack sitting next to him. The white haired teen sent him a reassuring wink. Oh no, he did it…

"Nah, Hiccup is just scared that twins will give him alcohol and then he once again will…"

Oh no! Abort, abort, abort!

Hiccup didn't know he could be so fast. But here he was, jumping at his best-friend with lightning speed, covering her mouth with his both hands and yelling something that resembled 'Astrid, quiet, quiet, quiet!'.

He definitely scared everyone here, beside himself and Astrid.

"Okay… I don't even want to know what was that about." Muttered the gray haired teenager in front as he turned blinkers on. He even glanced at the smaller teen few times.

Hiccup never felt more embarrassed. Well, no, there was once a situation when he felt like he just wanted to hide under quilt and never come out. And it was because of the same situation Astrid just almost told everyone about. This was something that only three people in the world knew about - Hiccup, Astrid and the poor one another person.

"But I want. Astrid, hon, would you care to elaborate?" Jack and his oh-so-sweet-fake-tone ringed just near them.

Hiccup sent his best-friend the hardest death glare he could muster, yet the girl's still covered mouth only twitched in a smirk. However her eyes softened after a second. She was only teasing him, but there were some borders to that.

She slowly shook her head and Hiccup retreated his hands with a sigh.

"Nah, it was in the past." The blonde girl then sent him an evil stare. "Besides, you, as his boyfriend, might get jealous." And here came back the evil Astrid.

Jack looked at them confused.

Hiccup had to jump quickly into the conversation, as now even Tooth and Aster were staring at him expectantly. This was the part of his history that he wanted to destroy, probably detonate, pour some hydrofluoric acid on it, just… forget about it.

"Okay, moving away from that topic." Smooth as sandpaper, but everyone returned to their normal seating position, so hey, it worked.

Well, almost everyone, because Jack nudged his arm, trying to gain his attention.

"And about boyfriends' topic… did you think about how we should act on the party?" He asked.

Hiccup envied Jack a little that he could talk so easily about this stuff. Of course, there was hunch of pink on his pale cheeks, but it felt like Jack was totally okay with all of that. And maybe he was. But then another question appeared in Hiccup's head - how was he so okay with pretending to date someone? Especially someone like Hiccup.

"I don't know." Hiccup replied, leaning on the backseat while crossing his arms on his chest.

"Maybe we should walk inside while holding hands? And do some small hugs there?" Jack stared at him, eyes shining with more and more ideas rushing through them.

It was sudden and very odd, but Hiccup felt that for a moment time stopped when he looked at those sparkling eyes. They were so full of delight and bliss… not the happiness you feel when you see someone you love, but the clear happiness of helping someone. And it was exactly what it was to Jack. He was helping Hiccup.

So he has to do something in return.

"Sure, wouldn't hurt."

They turned into the too familiar street. Even from over a dozen meters away they could hear music blasting off and too cheerful voices of people. Hiccup's stomach twisted inside of him. Oh, what would he give to be back at his house.

But it was only few hours. Not to mention now he won't be alone with Astrid, Ruff, Tuff and Snoutlout. There will also be Jack, Aster and Tooth, which was lifting up his spirit a little bit.

Maybe this was a futile wish, but he hoped that Jack would stay by his side for at least some time, because… well, because Hiccup felt a little bit safer this way. Jack saved him already two times. The second time didn't need saving, but it was nice nevertheless.

In front of the twins' house were parked already around twenty cars. Few of them stood even on the pavement and there was exactly where Aster parked his own. They exited the vehicle.

Hiccup took deep breath, already smelling the cigarettes and beer. Few people stood on the porch and were laughing with each other while smoking. Ugh, here goes nothing.

"You ready?" Asked Jack next to him when Aster was locking the car.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

They smiled at each other warmly. Like friends that both were in deep mess. Very deep. And very messy.

Jack stepped forward and took Hiccup's palm. The first thing Hiccup felt was definitely the sudden rush of cold. Jack's palms were chilly, maybe even gelid, almost like just few seconds ago he was holding ice.

Hiccup must have looked surprised, because when he lifted his head he saw amused Jack.

"My hand are always cold." He said, like it was the simplest and most common truth.

"Good to know that after we touched."

The taller boy chuckled and they moved to the front door in a group.

Holding hands was definitely weird. Of course, Hiccup used to do that in kindergarten when he was a child, but now it was different. There wasn't any butterflies in his stomach, yet he was sweating. He wondered if Jack could feel it. Maybe because he was afraid about what could happen? Will everything work okay? Was Hiccup holding onto Jack's hand too strong or maybe too weak?

Yet the taller boy looked like it didn't faze him, like it was natural for him to just hold hands. He even had this small content smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Hiccup slowly started to think that even though it was odd, it wasn't so bad. After few seconds of nervousness and fear, his tensed muscles started to relax. He even noticed that he was holding onto Jack like he was his last salvation. With embarrassment Hiccup found out that his fingers were clenched tightly around Jack's palm, yet he said nothing to that.

Hiccup glanced down at their intertwined hands. He couldn't see if Jack's palm was red from the force Hiccup used.

"We're here." Astrid moved to him, smiling wildly.

"You know we can always turn around and go back?" Hiccup tried really hard to not sound hopeful.

"It's already too late, mate." Said Aster from the other side of Jack as he checked his phone probably for the time.

It's never too late, Hiccup wanted to add, but he found himself not opening his mouth.

The grip on his hand tightened for a brief second - atoms moved closer, warming each other with their small hits.

"Hey, everything will be alright. We're just going to have a little fun." Jack moved closer, so his whisper was only heard by Hiccup. His words were accompanied by a warm grin.

Hiccup tried to smile back, but something inside of him told him that this wasn't some typical party and they all were just going into a beast's mouth. But whatever twins do, it is also always signed with 'Danger ahead!', so Hiccup should get used to that. The key word is 'should' because you can't never guess what twins were thinking.

Tooth, with beaming smile, opened the door.

In an instant Hiccup's ears were hit with blasting music coming from the living room. They could already hear it outside, but inside it was an Armageddon. The air was in constant vibrations under the sound waves and he immediately felt as his heart started to beat faster. Blazing, colorful lights didn't quite help, blinding him with their sudden rays of beam directed everywhere, in the same time changing in the rhythm of the music. And if the music and lights weren't enough, then there were tons of people moving around, most of them, of course, from outside the school. And for that Hiccup was actually glad from the bottom of his heart and never more thankful for twins to moving to college. He recognized few faces that turned to them immediately after they passed the door, but that was all. Good, very good.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"Oh, shit, you weren't joking!"

And back to the reality!

The crowd standing in the corridor stepped aside, making place for hosts of the party.

Tuffnut was staring a little silly at them with one of his eyebrow raised high on his forehead. He quickly returned to the world of living though, as he shook his head. Ruffnut, on the other side, was smiling wildly. Both their cheeks were already red.

If only they knew they were so close to revealing the truth they wouldn't be so surprised.

"Why should I?" Hiccup asked, as he scrunched his nose. Tuffnut moved closer to him and threw his arm over his shoulders. "Ugh, move away, you stink of alcohol."

The boy started to laugh, throwing his head back, almost hitting Aster that stood behind him in that process. Ruffnut moved to them, stood on the other side of Jack and leaned on his shoulder with a can of beer in one hand.

"Our baby Hiccup is finally flying away from our nest. It's cute." She coed, smirking at them. Her eyes weren't able to focus on Hiccup, so it jumped from one guest to another.

"No Ruff, stop. You're not funny."

The girl giggled as she moved away.

Hiccup wasn't here even for fifteen minutes and he was already tired, sore, exhausted and angry. The heat spreading around the house was making him sweaty and unfortunately also dizzy. He wanted to move upstairs to hide in a bathroom at the end of corridor. The lock was busted there, but almost no one visited that place as it was very far away from the main center of a party.

"But anyway, I'm glad you could make it." The girl said, taking a big sip of her beer. "And that I could meet your boyfriend properly."

Hiccup nodded, not really knowing what to say or add, when suddenly Tuffnut yelled right into his ear. Like seriously, Hiccup could bear with them on normal daily basis, but mixing alcohol with their behavior wasn't a good idea.

"What was that for?" Hiccup asked pretty angrily, when Astrid only snickered, finally free from being crushed.

"I was just voicing my despair. Well, we already made you drink and you know…"

Oh no… No, no, no, no, no! This was the part of his history that he wanted to forget about. This was only one party mistake and that's all! So why everyone was reminding him about that?

"No, no, I'm not drinking!" Oh, he could already feel the fluster forming on his warm cheeks. Not to mention he sensed surprised looks directed at his back.

"Don't crash the party, Hiccup." Tuffnut tried to make a bad imitation of pleading eyes. Very bad ones. "We had fun back then"

"No, I didn't have fun back then." It was a disaster and Hiccup was glad that twins didn't actually know what really happened.

Hiccup never ever felt such shame and embarrassment than that day. It was poking his mind when he was in a bad mood, always there, whispering him about the events that occurred here, in this very house. Ugh, even now he wanted to curl inside and disappear.

"At least drink one beer with us!" Tuffnut nudged, his smile faltering for few seconds.

"No."

Tuffnut pouted, but quickly moved his eyes at Jack.

"But you will? Don't leave us hanging!"

Jack laughed, so both their intertwined hands moved up and down.

"Sure will do. Someone has to drink." He said heartily.

Tuffnut's mouth turned into wide grin. Hiccup only rolled his eyes seeing this

"Aw yeah! And I started to think that Hiccup has bad influence on you."

Hiccup snorted under his nose. With a delight he noticed that Aster behind him did the same. He couldn't help himself, so he stole a glance back, above Jack's arm.

Unfortunately the tall boy decided to do the same or maybe he felt that someone was looking at him, because their sights crossed for brief second. It felt like Hiccup's heart stopped beating for a second, the only thing left was loud beep resonating in his ears and the red light blinking furiously. It felt almost like ages - the dilation of time prolonged those few second - until Hiccup finally turned back.

Why didn't Aster move earlier than he? Was it just a coincidence? Probably. Hiccup couldn't think about any other proper answer to that. Maybe he was looking too much into it anyway?

"Ah, by the way, I saw Heather searching for you like… ten minutes ago?" Ruffnut said, moving to Astrid. They both hugged when she finished speaking.

Hiccup felt Jack tense. He sensed it through the sudden tighter grip of Jack's hand on Hiccup's own, he saw it in his sudden shudder and the falter of his everlasting grin. Yet, as soon as all those symptoms appeared, they were gone.

"Okay, where is she now?" He asked, calmly, but something told the auburn haired boy that he was far away from it.

"I think… in the kitchen?" Ruffnut shrugged.

He nodded and then tugged Hiccup in the direction of the kitchen. They had too move, dance, swirl around small groups of people to get to their destination point. Some of the people turned their heads at them, mostly at Jack, welcoming him, waving their hands or asking to drink something with them. And every time it happened Jack was saying that he would return later, because he had something to do. Once or twice they glanced at Hiccup, some of them were surprised and some of them didn't care. Few of them even smirked when they spotted their intertwined hands. Greaaaat…

The kitchen was weirdly less crowded than the hall and living room. Some girls were mixing some drinks in the corner, laughing about something while chattering wildly. Not too far away from them was the girl with black hair talking with some taller boy.

Hiccup only knew how Heather looks and that she was Dagur's sister. They never talked, maybe only exchanged glances few times in the corridor, so he wasn't sure what to think about this situation. Should he smile? Should he show that he knew Dagur? Should he anything at all?

"Let's get this over with…" Jack whispered to his ear.

Hiccup couldn't agree more.

"Hey Heather!"

The said girl jumped and turned around. Her eyes widened, mouth moved, forming a surprisingly warm and happy smile. Her emerald eyes glazed to Jack, then glided down at their intertwined hands and… huh boy, Hiccup almost shivered when they landed on him. The corners of her mouth twitched.

"Hey Jack!" She said cheerfully. "I'm glad you're here!"

Heather moved and threw her hands all over the white haired boy in a hug. Hiccup could see that Jack tried to return the movement, so he loosened his grip on his hand. Yet when their hands almost got disconnected, Jack's palm clenched tighter around Hiccup's palm.

Jack glanced at him. Don't let go, was what his eyes was sending him. Hiccup felt as his stomach lurched.

She moved away, her eyes were sparkling when she looked at Jack. Hiccup started to wonder if his eyes were shining as much as hers when he was staring at Aster. It was almost like a page, written all over with formulas and calculation, but Hiccup could see it, read it whole. It was clear as the day. She really felt something deep for Jack. Poor girl.

"Hey Heather." Jack mumbled. His free hand moved to his hair. "It's good to see you too." He then nudged Hiccup's arm with his own shoulder. "And now it's time for introductions! Heather this is Hiccup – my boyfriend." Hiccup reached his hand to her. "Hiccup, this is Heather – my friend."

Heather caught his palm. They both shook their hands, but it was definitely awkward and odd. Hiccup felt some tension in the girl's palm. The grin on her face was strained, yet it showed some kind of small happiness.

Weird. Hiccup couldn't understand it.

"It's nice to finally meet you." Heather said when their hands disconnected. "Well actually I heard a lot of you from Dagur."

Hiccup tried really hard to not suddenly show how his arms tensed. But they did. He could almost hear the creaking sound his spine made when it straightened suddenly. It was like a sudden thunder ran through his body.

"Oh, really?" He found himself speaking without even thinking about it. Only after he spoke, the words got registered by his brain.

She nodded. Her eyes were so warm and bright that it got Hiccup thinking that maybe… maybe she didn't know what was really happening between them. She probably had never seen how Dagur approached him, never had heard how Dagur was speaking in Hiccup's presence, never had seen where Dagur was touching him. She only knew Hiccup from her brother stories.

Then the problem was… what Dagur was actually telling Heather?

"Yeah, you seemed like a nice guy, so I'm glad to be able to finally meet you properly."

What? Hiccup hoped that his face looked normal, not totally confused or frozen with his mouth partly opened. But heck, he was dumbfounded. What was happening around him? What? What exactly was Dagur telling about him?

Jack nudged his arm, helping Hiccup regain his consciousness.

"O-okay…"

Heather tried to clasp her hands, but she giggled when she hit a can instead of her other hand.

"Oh, by the way he should be here today. He just has to finish his work!"

Oh no. No, no, no, no! Everything but that!

Yet, Hiccup's mouth twitched in a small imitation of smile. He didn't want to make a grimace in front of Heather. Maybe he hated Dagur, but Heather didn't need to know that. She looked so happy while speaking about him. They were siblings and she probably loved him. Hiccup didn't want to make her feel bad.

"Okay, we need to say hey to the rest of the guys. I guess I see you around." Jack suddenly spoke, unnaturally quickly, like he just waited to cut into their small conversation.

Heather nodded.

"Sure do." She turned around and returned to talking with her companion.

Jack pulled Hiccup out of the kitchen and back inside the hall. Aster and Tooth were talking with their football teammates. Astrid was nowhere in sight, but Hiccup guessed that she moved somewhere with the twins. Hiccup wasn't in the mood for introducing himself now, so he untangled his hand.

"I'm going to find Astrid." He explained, when Jack sent him a surprised look.

"Okay. I'll be around. Find me if you need something or you know… when…"

Hiccup nodded, immediately understanding what Jack meant. Something in his chest vibrated, clenched and compressed hearing it, yet he felt a slight prickle of happiness flowing in his stomach.

"Sure." He said, as he turned and walked into the living room.

Finding Astrid wasn't so hard, he only had to follow loud voices of Ruffnut and Tuffnut. They were sitting in the corner on some sofas. Snotlout was also with them with cup in one hand. They were all laughing about something.

Astrid spotted him first as she waved her hand, inviting to come closer.

"Where is Jack?" She asked, when he was in their range of hearing.

"Somewhere with his friends."

After hearing Hiccup's voice, the twins and Snotlout turned to him. Tuffnut and Ruffnut had weirdly happy and red faces and Snotlout… well, he looked surprised.

"Oh hey Hiccup. I have two questions for you." He said, his nose scrunched a little as he stepped closer.

"I'm all ears."

"For first – Are you seriously going out with Frost?"

Hiccup felt bad for lying to them. They definitely weren't like Astrid – the person with whom he could talk literally about everything, but they were still his friends. One day he will explain it all to them… but this day wasn't today.

So with heavy heart he answered:

"Yeah. And the second question is…" Hiccup already feared it.

Snotlout threw his hands in the air, almost knocking out some girl that passed them and spilling half of his beer on the floor. Ugh.

"How did you do that?!" And his voice rolled around the room. Gladly the music was so loud that it drowned the sound wave.

Well how did he do that? That was a good question! He actually didn't do anything. Like literally, he was only standing in the bathroom and then Jack popped out of nowhere and claimed to be his boyfriend to save him. When he thought about it like that… it really sounded weird. But it was the truth… Seriously, he felt like he was a protagonist in some weird novel.

"I don't know." He mumbled. "It just happened…" No details. That was okay, he didn't want to make up stories to remember.

Snotlout was opening his mouth to add another question - probably more narrow than the previous one, but definitely holding as much wonderment - when he was stopped by the twins pushing forward and putting something in Hiccup's hand.

"Hiccup, you have to drink with us!" Ruffnut whined next to him. "Come on, dude!"

Hiccup glanced at the cup in his hand. It looked like a beer, but knowing twins it was something far away from it. He didn't even like alcohol that much. He had drink it few times in his life, because seriously, who didn't? And okay, sometimes he could say that champagne or wine was good or fine or whatever people called alcohol, but he was never up for stronger drinks. Yet Ruffnut and Tuffnut loved them. And because of that Hiccup doubted that he had only beer here. Not to mention, memories from previous parties haunted him. Nu-huh.

"Like seriously, you need it if you want to live through this party…" This statement was spoken more quietly, almost like a whisper only to be heard by their circle.

And he understood why Ruffnut said it quietly when after few seconds Dagur waltzed into the room with some friends, laughing about something.

Hiccup tried to shrink few inches or even a meter and hide somewhere. Somewhere far away. Somewhere, where he could be left alone.

Maybe it was his imagination, some kind of figment of his mind, but he had a feeling that Ruffnut moved a little bit closer which resulted in blocking his line of sight. Or maybe it was supposed to block every line of sight directed at Hiccup? Never mind the real reason, he was still thankful for it.

Hiccup was tired. He really was and it wasn't even midnight. Muscles in his body were screaming from standing and walking around for too long, not even being able to really relax for brief second.

He wasn't a party person. He already knew that. So why his friends even dragged him here was still a mystery. Once he tried to run away and hide in the bathroom on the first floor - his sanctuary - but when he thought he was close enough, he was captured by Jack and introduced to everyone from his football team. Well it was one of the most awkward moments of his life. Hiccup just stood there and shook everyone hands, trying to look as pleased as he could be. But he wasn't. His body was as rigid as a steel bar.

Hiccup more over knew who was in the football team. Yet he was met with a nice surprise. They actually welcomed him with a warm smiles and a lot of laughs. Well they were already pretty drunk, but it was still a pleasant change. Hiccup spent with them almost half an hour with Jack standing near him (maybe it was because of the crowd that looked like it was getting bigger and bigger).

It looked like Jack was enjoying himself, so Hiccup was glad about that. He needed some stress relief after the last week.

When the auburn haired boy spotted Heather and Dagur walking into the corridor, he quickly excused himself to the kitchen. Jack looked like he wanted to say something, but his hand only brushed his arm and then Hiccup was gone.

There he met Tooth talking with some girls from the school. To be honest, he hoped to slip pass them without them noticing him and finally find some quiet corner, but Tooth unfortunately called him. Then she introduced him and Hiccup had to shake another hands (gladly girls weren't clenching his palm as tight as the football team members did). He found out that they were from the same club Tooth was in - Biology club. Hiccup wasn't so much into Biology, but he still enjoyed talking with them. But even he had to agree that they must have looked ridiculous talking about the Krebs cycle* in the middle of the party.

After that he bumped back into twins and Snotlout that tried to get him to play the Drinking Jenga with them. Hiccup had seen what this game had done to some people, so he refused them as kindly as he could.

And with that he made a full circle and returned to the living room where he met up with Astrid. They talked for brief moment, but she had to excuse herself to go to the toilet.

Hiccup was finally alone. And oddly… he felt a little bit lonely. He wasn't very fond of Tuffnut and Ruffnut's parties, yet today party wasn't all that bad. Of course he was totally exhausted, his ears hurt, his bones creaked under the weight of his body, but as surprisingly as it was, this wasn't so bad. It didn't mean that he didn't want to go back home. Oh, he did, he wanted to hide under covers, skype with Fishleg or just read something, but he wasn't checking the watch every five seconds, so that was a giant plus.

Hiccup looked at the cup in his hand with some alcohol inside. Astrid gave it to him when she walked to the toilet.

He took a deep breath, allowing his arms to relax. He looked around. Some people were dancing to the rumbling sound of music, some were chattering wildly, laughing and clinking each other cups and the rest was playing with the twins. From the sounds of it, it looked like someone just had to take a shot. Poor boy or girl…

Where was Astrid…? She left like… ten minutes ago already.

"Hey Hiccup, enjoying yourself?"

He didn't know how or when Dagur managed to slip inside the room without him noticing him. Not to mention he literally appeared from nowhere just right next to him.

Uh oh and the tension in his muscles came back, but now the force was five times bigger. It felt like he was suddenly electrocuted with the electricity overpowering his nerves.

Hiccup turned his head.

Dagur was standing next to him, leaning on the wall with can of beer in one hand. He was looking at him, his dark, emerald eyes glinted in the colorful lights blinking from the reflectors. Hiccup didn't like how he towered above him. He cursed his height.

Maybe he could save himself from this somehow. Let's approach it as calmly as he could.

"H-hey… Dagur." He slowly said. "I'm quite enjoying myself." Or at least until you came here, but Hiccup decided not to add that. "How about you?" Ugh, he hoped his voice didn't sound so weak.

The taller boy lifted his can and twirled it in his palm, like he wanted to read the ingredients.

"Well..." He finally said, surprisingly not looking at Hiccup, but somewhere at the dance floor where two girls were swirling around. "I've been on better parties, but this one isn't so bad." He glanced back at Hiccup. "Even better that I managed to talk with you."

Uh oh, where was Astrid when he needed her? Or Jack, twins, even Snotlout?

Hiccup stared down at his cup. The smell of alcohol itched his nose and his throat clenched. He lifted it to his mouth and took a small sip to buy himself some time or just to do something. He almost gagged. What was she drinking? Ugh… it was too strong and just tasted… weird? And how was Astrid even able to drink already two cups of this?

"Not much for a drinker, aren't you?" It was more a statement, than a question.

Hiccup nevertheless nodded slowly while moving the cup away from his mouth.

"Nor really…"

And then Dagur chuckled. He really did. It wasn't the evil snort, it wasn't the dangerous laughter, it wasn't the terrifying chuckle, but normal amused one. It was the first time Hiccup heard him like that – so… natural.

Hiccup was taken a little bit aback.

"Is Frost here with you?"

The quick and sudden question took him by a surprise. He didn't expect hearing it from Dagur of all people.

"Yes… yes, he is." Hiccup answered, trying not to stutter or mumble, in case Dagur would want to lean and hear him more correctly.

"Shame." The taller teenager scoffed and took a sip of his beer, eyes darting from one corner to the other. "So, why isn't he with you?"

This was going nowhere good. Seriously where Dagur was, there were problems. And why was he asking so many questions?

Hiccup evaluated all the options he came up in his head.

"Because he is talking with his other friends…" No, that wasn't enough. "I don't want him to always be by my side. We all have our own lives too." A little bit better. Not to mention a little bit of it was true. He would never want for his boyfriend to by tied, glued to him so strictly, being unable to talk freely or hang out with his other friends.

"Maybe Frost would not want to be by your side all the time." Dagur whispered softly, unnaturally warm as he moved an inch closer. Their tights were almost now glued to each other. It took Hiccup a lot of power to not scatter around. "But I definitely would want to."

Hiccup could smell the stink of alcohol coming out from Dagur's mouth. It itched his nose, making him want to gag. What he had done in his previous life to suffer like that now?

The music on the dance floor ended. The person near the laptop, who was uncalled DJ, started to look through the list of songs for this party. Then with a smirk, he clicked some title. The quick, unsteady rhythm flowed from the speakers, drumming loudly. For second it felt like the whole house was vibrating, shaking under the loud sound.

Hiccup couldn't understand how this house was even standing now while being under such heavy force, but it looked like people didn't care about that. Many of them yelled in approbate. The dance floor, that until now was quite empty, filled with party people, swinging their hips to the music. Some girls shrieked, as they literally jumped in the middle of some group, spilling alcohol from their cups all over the floor. No one really cared.

The sudden commotion although helped Hiccup avoid the sudden uncomfortable atmosphere which appeared between them. Maybe the word 'avoid' was misused. 'Postpone' was a better one.

Where was Astrid? Did something happened to her? Hiccup needed to check on her…

"I need to go." Hiccup finally said, when the crowd on the dance floor started to get so big, that people were slowly invading his personal space. And maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Dagur wouldn't move to make place for some pair next to them. Ugh, they were too close now.

"Why?" Dagur asked.

Some girl pushed past him, giggling under her nose with his friend. The red haired teenager moved from the wall and stood in front of Hiccup.

"I really need to go." Hiccup said one more time, trying to sound as steady and convincingly as he could. Couldn't this guy take a hint or what?

Plus, he was now really worried about Astrid. Hiccup hoped that nothing had happened to her.

"Already? But we didn't even dance yet?" Dagur smirked and put his hand on the wall near the smaller boy's head. Hiccup didn't know if this was purposeful movement or someone pushed him from behind, but it made him cringe inside. Hiccup needed to calm himself. There were tons of people around. Dagur won't do anything.

Deep breaths - one, two, three…

"I… don't really dance…" Hiccup murmured under his nose, hiding his mouth behind the cup. He had an urge to take another sip, but he knew that he shouldn't drink. It ended badly last time - for him and for some people around.

"Oh really?" Dagur's voice was low, almost quiet, and even though the music was blasting around Hiccup heard him just fine.

The cup in his hand now suddenly felt like a rock that was making him sink, so in the end he drank the content of it. The warm feeling overpowered his throat. They did said that alcohol made you braver. And he… he need bravery right now.

"Doesn't really matter to me to be honest."

Hiccup's throat suddenly become dry by just imagining him and Dagur dancing together. No, no, that was out of the question. Nu huh. He preferred to learn every mechanism from organic chemistry than dance with Dagur. He knew it was terrible way of thinking, but how was he supposed to think otherwise when Dagur acted like that?

Hiccup wasn't responding for some time, simply because he didn't know what to say. What words should he use to make him go away?

Then Dagur's hand, that until now was on the wall, moved down and rested on his waist. He almost encircled Hiccup in a hug. It was suddenly so hot, so dizzy, like someone sucked all oxygen from his personal circle.

"It's just one dance…" Dagur murmured, standing next to him and ungluing Hiccup from the wall.

He tried to not move his legs. He really did. And because of that, Hiccup almost crashed in some boys dancing at the outside circle. But it looked like they didn't even care about that as they didn't turn their heads at them.

Hiccup really tried to pin his heels into the ground, to brake somehow, but the taller boy was stronger than him. Now he was literally dragging the smaller teen into the middle of the dance floor.

The people around him were pushing at him, were touching him accidentally, were not paying attention into whom they crashed. It was a blessing and a curse right now. Hiccup tried to wiggle to his freedom, to somehow move away, but there was literally no space.

The cup in his hand fell down, getting immediately lost under dancing feet. There was buzzing sound in his ears. What did the twins make for Astrid? He was so glad he only drank like… half a cup.

They both somehow found a little space in the middle.

Hiccup gulped down the sour saliva.

Jack took a sip from his cup as he moved to the living room in search for his friends. His cunning eyes wandered from one corner to the other, but the crowd was big, making it unable to recognize every person face. Gladly, he had no problems with pinpointing the hosts of the party. They were literally the loudest in this room. And they were playing… Drinking Jenga? Jack played it once and decided to never do it again. Maybe because he lost miserably and the morning after wasn't too good for him… or his organs.

"Hey guys!" He yelled as he approached them.

Some of the players waved at him, some were chanting something to Tuffnut who was now taking a drink of something… green. Jack didn't want to know.

Ruffnut, that literally sat in front of Jack, tilted her head back and grinned. She was drunk, but she held strongly. The twins' tolerance of alcohol was terrifying.

"What's up, Frost? Wanna play?" She screamed, trying to be heard over the booming music.

And wow, wow Jack's ears suddenly buzzed. Ugh.

"No, thanks. Did you see Aster or Hiccup?"

But it looked like his voice was too quiet (even though he almost shouted it), because the girl's eyes only widened.

"What?!"

"I'm asking if you had seen Bunny or Hiccup!?"

She opened her mouth, but after a second she shook her head.

"I didn't see Aster anywhere!" She shouted above the cheering crowd. Jack was almost sure her voice bounced of the wall, but it looked like no one beside him heard her. "But Hiccup was with Astrid near the dance floor few seconds ago!"

Jack cringed when other players shouted something, then started clapping when someone took one block and put it on the top without destroying the whole construction.

"Thanks!"

With this new information Jack moved away from them, not wanting to get dragged into playing anyway. He directed his steps to the 'dance floor' - or the empty center of the living room with reflectors hung around. From where Ruffnut and Tuffnut had this kind of devices was still an unsolved mystery to him.

He maneuvered around people, some of them were welcoming him, some of them didn't even glance at him. His eyes scanned the crowd, like a predator searching for a prey. He didn't drink too much, only maybe a beer or two, so he had no problems in seeing correctly, but the swarming wave of people going in and out was making it hard to find the small mop of auburn hair or a little bit taller blonde.

It looked like the DJ just played some very liked song, because suddenly people were jumping around, trying to get onto the dance floor.

Jack liked to dance. He could even say he was good at it. And maybe if he could hear what was on the list, he would jump into the crowd too. But now he wanted to take a small break, find some friends and loosen up for half an hour or so. Meeting with so many people were amazing, but every star need a break from shining too much.

His eyes stopped, when he saw some movements not really too far away from him. In the small gap between moving people he saw Hiccup's face. Jack raised his hand above the crown. He was just about to call his fake-boyfriend, when another face appeared in his line of vision.

Dagur – he was also with Hiccup. It even looked more like he was taking Hiccup somewhere. And only when Jack squinted his eyes, he was able to see some small sparks of terror in the boy's viridian eyes.

Jack quickly dove down into the ocean of people, slowly swimming to the moving pair.

Jack had seen and knew what Dagur was able to do. Not to mention he heard some rumors, some were darker and heavier than the bottom of the ocean. He didn't know if any of them were true, but he didn't want to find out right now… or like ever.

His heart hammered in his chest. His lungs felt like they were constricted for few seconds, unable to take a proper breath. Jack wasn't sure if this was because of the throng or the sudden rush of fear that hit his nerves in a giant wave.

For brief second he lost track of them.

Jack cared too much sometimes - many people have told him so. He also was told that he had a soft spot for his family and best-friends. And you know what? Jack was totally fine with that! Worrying over someone wasn't bad. Yet Hiccup wasn't his best-friend. Jack wasn't even sure if Hiccup called Jack a friend. But Jack did. In his mind he slowly started to call Hiccup his friend. And friends need to help each other.

It felt like light years, before he once again saw the pair, standing weirdly almost in the center of the dance party. He was now meter and a half… no, two meters away from them.

"Hiccup!" He shouted, waving his hand in the air.

But the said boy had his back on him. Add the overbearing music around them and it was almost impossible to hear Jack. He ducked one more time into the crowd, moving around, bending in weird positions, apologizing, pushing around, until he was only half a meter away.

Hiccup was standing, straight as a string. He wasn't even twitching, it felt like he turned suddenly into a cold stone. Was it his defense reflex? Just like a wild, but scared animal. Just freeze and hope that the predator won't see you. But it only works if you can blend into the background. Or if the predator isn't interested in you specifically…

Jack could already see Dagur's face, pleased, kind of excited (Happy? Weird, but his eyes really glinted with something pure). His both hands were on the smaller boy's waist.

Jack had to try it again.

"Hiccup!" Now his voice was louder, higher. It took the attention of some people around, but they brushed it off quickly.

But Jack sighed in content when he got the attention of the two people literally in front of him. Hiccup turned to him, slowly, unsure, but when he spotted Jack, his green eyes sparkled with some hidden, dark relief. Dagur on the other side… not so much. His eyes squinted, mouth scowled and his arms tensed, probably tightening his grip (judging by the sudden twitch of Hiccup's eye).

"H-hey Jack…" The smaller teen voice wavered, teeth bit into the bottom lip.

Jack tried to smile reassuringly, even though he was literally a mess inside with a storm running through his veins.

"I was looking all over for you!" Jack stood now next to them, very close to Hiccup. Even if he wanted to move away, there was no place to do so because of the dancing people around.

He did look for him, so that was the truth. Maybe not all over, but still.

"Can't you see we're in the middle of a dance, Frost?" Dagur suddenly scoffed, directing his angry, cold eyes at Jack.

Even thought Dagur was almost half a head taller than Jack, he didn't feel scared with so many people around. Not to mention this two beers gave him a little bit of bravery.

"No, I can't see that. It looks for me more like a forced waddle." He hoped his words won't be the reason of some hard shoves later. "You're making my boyfriend uncomfortable, Dagur. Would you mind letting him go?" Wow, that was some smart words he just spoke. He was impressed with himself, that is if he won't die in the next few seconds.

The taller teen didn't say anything. Hiccup only stared back and forth between both of them and people danced around, not even caring a bit.

The music suddenly ended with a loud sigh of sadness coming from the people. Yet the sudden drop of enthusiasm was quickly back with some new song, getting even more cheers from the crowd than the previous one.

Jack knew this song. Typical club music, made for people to jump around. Some light bulb blinked in his brain.

Jack stepped closer and put his own palm on Hiccup's waist, pushing away Dagur's one. He maybe crossed a little bit the boundaries they put between them when he moved forward, almost gluing his side to Hiccup, but it had to be done.

"Let's dance. I know you love this song."

The smaller boy moved like a robot and Jack couldn't blame him. They walked few steps away, with Jack's eyes still pinned on Dagur, until they found a small patch of place for them. Only then Jack finally turned to Hiccup.

He was staring at him with weird awe, pinched with small relieved smile on his lips. His arms were still tensed, but step after step, they started to fell down. His hands twitched, then slowly he put his palms on Jack's arm. They were cold and sweaty, but Jack didn't feel disgusted. How could he when Hiccup was probably just freaked out.

"We better dance." He whispered, when Jack sent him a surprised, but welcomed glance.

Jack put his other hand on his waist, maybe even a little bit higher for Hiccup to feel more comfortable. Hiccup lifted the corner of his lips in thanking manner.

They moved slowly, awkwardly in a circle. Somewhere in the middle Hiccup put some space between them, but not for long, as Jack's teammate accidentally bumped into the smaller teen, sending Hiccup crashing into Jack's chest. The white haired teen only chuckled at this, which was accompanied by Hiccup's small glare.

The people around them were literally jumping, waving their hands, swishing around, hugging, brushing with each other, swirling, circling. The crowd was alive, it was bursting with energy. The loud, fast, unsteady rhythm was ringing in Jack's ear, it was making his heart speed up, it was making his blood boil.

Yet, he didn't mind the slow pace they had, but judging by the consistence in Hiccup's stomach and back muscles it looked like the boy was somehow… constricted. Few times, when they were too close, Hiccup would lift his hand and poke him in the cheek, at first very hesitantly, lightly, but then they turned into normal jabbing. For everyone around them it would look like some small bickering or tease. But Jack knew the signal and every time he tried to move back or put his hands higher, so they weren't laying on boy's waist. But he had to say that Hiccup was taking it nevertheless quite good. However, he felt that it wasn't the closure that was making Hiccup… edgy.

Jack leaned a little.

"You can relax if you want." He said, loud enough for the auburn haired boy to hear, but quiet so no one around them would hear them. Jack quickly scoped the surroundings, but Dagur them. Or he got lost in the crowd.

"I better not to…" Hiccup responded, not lifting his head. If he would move a step closer, he would bump his head on Jack's chest.

"Dagur is not here."

The music ended. The crowd followed it with a loud groan, many of the people stopped moving. Hiccup and Jack started to slow down.

"It's not about him…" Hiccup mumbled when they stopped, but not moved away.

Jack started to look around. Some people walked away, bored of waiting for another song to be played. The rest began to chatter between each other, waiting patiently, brushing away the sweat from their foreheads or checking if they had any bruises.

The white haired teen looked down and asked:

"Then what is this about?"

"I rather… not talk about it… like right now… or ever."

Jack had totally no idea what was budging Hiccup so much, but judging by the sudden blush that spread over the smaller teen freckled cheeks it was definitely something embarrassing. It got him a little curious, but Jack knew better not to nudge it. Not to mention Hiccup looked totally bothered by it and Jack didn't like that scowl and uncertainty look on his face. This was a party, they should have fun! Not think about whatever mistakes they had made in the past. So Jack leaned a little closer and spoke, quiet enough, so only Hiccup heard him:

"Hey, whatever it was, it was in the past. Don't let it prevent you from enjoying yourself. It doesn't have to happen again." No, that wasn't enough. There needed to be something more. "Just trust me and relax." Jack smiled reassuringly at the boy in front of him.

Hiccup stared at him. His green eyes looked right into his own, searching for something. Then, after some time, maybe a second or two, he nodded while puffing his cheeks and exhaled the air slowly through his nose.

"You're right…" He muttered.

"You bet I am."

Hiccup only chuckled at that.

The DJ called something above the crowd and the speakers came to live once again. This time also with some rush and fast tunes.

And when Jack expected Hiccup to move still in that monotone, slow, delicate way, Hiccup surprised him with a strong, yet a little bit hesitant swirl. Jack was so taken aback by that, that he almost lost his footing and crashed into the pair behind him. Fortunately Hiccup tugged on his shirt, saving him from the disgrace that would fall on his head. In the end Jack almost knocked his fake-boyfriend out with his chin.

Gladly the hit wasn't that bad, so Hiccup only yelped, but grinned. His one hand moved to his forehead to massage the bruise.

"Too much relaxation?" He yelled with weird, faint reflections in his eyes. Was it the lightning around them or maybe some drink he had?

"No, just perfect!" Jack shouted back, loosening a little his grip on boy's waist-or-almost-chest.

He took Hiccup's hand and spinned him few times. In the meantime, he almost stumbled on some girl next to him and bumped in some circle on the other side. But the laugh that followed after from the smaller teen's lips got Jack thinking that he didn't mind it.

If someone would tell Jack maybe a month ago that he would be dancing on the twins' party with the biggest nerd of the school, he would laugh heartily at the poor person. But here they were, Jackson Overland – the star of the school, who didn't deserve the title, and Hamish Haddock – the most intelligent person probably in the whole school, dancing together. Just two people who knew each other, swishing, jumping, bouncing like two small specks in the air.

They moved, bumped into each other, circled, stomped, jumped to the loud rhythm between them. It was energetic, alive, and full of power. The blood pumping in Jack's head, the sudden chuckle that came out of his mouth, the small smile from the teen next to him – it was all amazing. For those small moments Jack would do everything. He felt so alive, so… so important. Like a link in the chain, maybe a small one, but without it everything would crumble down. He was a part of something, even if this something was a dance floor.

Jack made a step forward, when the girl with whom he talked earlier bumped into him accidentally, just in time when Hiccup was making a spin. Which resulted in Jack hitting Hiccup's back.

He noticed that the crowd was getting tighter and tighter. His head was a mess. It was buzzing like it was working on top speed. And maybe it kind of did. There wasn't enough air around, so he was taking every gasp with relief and then starting to move once again.

He never wanted to stop.

They had to be close to each other due to people around them. It felt like everyone wanted to feel even a little bit of this happiness, to just taste the joy that danced, flowed between people. Everyone was almost glued to each other, but no one was mad. Many of people cheered and laughed. Must be all the alcohol.

That got him thinking if Hiccup also had drank something, because now he was simply dancing with his eyes closed and with small smile curled in the corner of his lips, not really paying attention to the sudden hotness and tightness around them. His body bended, curled, twirled, rolled, brushing often with Jack's body.

Who could have thought that Hiccup wasn't such a scaredy cat on the dance floor?

Jack laughed when Hiccup almost hit him with his elbow. The sound although made Hiccup finally open his eyes - his irises now glinted with tiny sparks, like a dew in the morning. The white haired teen liked that view.

Jack didn't remember when was the last time he felt so free. All those problems with Heather, school, him, was making him feel devastated, like his personality was crumbling down. It was amazing how one dance with someone he barely knew was renovating him like an old painting. Jack wanted to share the joy, bliss, felicity that spilled all over his body. So when Hiccup brushed his hand accidentally near Jack's chest he caught it. After Hiccup sent him a surprised glance, Jack started to swirl him around once again.

He wanted to share this happiness with someone and who was better than the small teen that helped him so much in this few days?

Yet the sudden stop of Hiccup's body made Jack think that he made some mistake. He really confirmed his suspicions, when the auburn haired teen suddenly covered his mouth with his palm and literally blasted through the crowd, disappearing from Jack's view and leaving him alone.

What?

Author's note:

I know it has been so long till the last chapter, but seriously, it took me pretty darn long to check this one (due to my exams and all this mumbo jumbo). But I hope you enjoyed it. I like the party part so much, I don't even know why =D. I caught up with my written chapter (I didn't finish the fourth one… I mean I did, but I didn't like the ending so I deleted it xD), so you need to wait a little bit longer for the next one.

Some answers:

CrystalGem18 - Oh, I'm glad to hear it, because I can't write short chapters now =D. And seriously, Dagur isn't a jerk, because he wants to... but... ugh I want to say so many things, but it will spoil the fun. The funny/sad thing is that the longer I think about Dagur's case/story, the more I pity him D:. And I have this one scene I really want to write with him, but it will be near the end of the story. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter :3.

Mini - Seriously, I had very bad mood this one day and you wrote your review and it just made me smile, so thank you :3! 3

And now some nerd's fact:

* Exothermic chemical reaction - is a chemical reaction that releases energy by light or heat.

* Be drenched in carbon tetrachloride – it had happened to me three times during one laboratory and let me tell you, this isn't a nice feeling. This substance is very cold and leave an unpleasant feeling, like some kind of goop running down your spine (or arm in my case).

* The brown ring test (Nitrate test) - can be performed by adding iron(II) sulfate to a solution of a nitrate, then slowly adding concentrated sulfuric acid such that the acid forms a layer below the aqueous solution. A brown ring will form at the junction of the two layers, indicating the presence of the nitrate ion. We also had to do it during one of our laboratory. I didn't manage to do it (my friends also didn't do it), but our teacher was showing it to me and saying 'Can you see it?' and I was like 'Yeah, yeah, sure', but really… I couldn't see it.

* The Krebs cycle (The citric acid cycle) – is a part of cellular respiration. It is a series of chemical reactions used by all aerobic organisms to generate energy. I'm not really so much into Biology, but I remember that when I saw it for the first time I was like 'What?'.

Some small comments from me:

*Dagur's behavior on the party – I hope that you have seen that he wasn't acting so badly on the party. Actually this moment I wrote two times. In the first one Dagur acted unnaturally sweet and it got Hiccup suspicious, but it didn't add to the end of this chapter, so I changed it. Dagur act a lot as a child, not as a teen. It will be explained later.

*Aged of characters – Okay, so I need to clear few things. So all characters were/are in 4-year High School. Hiccup and Astrid are in 11 Grade. Jack, Tooth, Aster and Heather are in 12 Grade. Snotlout, Tuffnut and Ruffnut already finished High School. They all are part-time students (I don't know if this is a correct name. The translator told me this is called extramural or part-time studies, but basically it is a college where you attend lectures in the evening during week days) and currently working in some fast-food restaurant to earn money for their full-time studies. Then there is Dagur who is also in 12 Grade, but he actually should have ended High School two years ago, but had to repeat two years/grades. Why he had to do it will be explained later.

*Chapter's title – So this is a very funny story for me xD. Before I decided to name chapters after laws this one was called 'Partying hard'. Why? Well, half of it will be explained in the next chapter (I wonder if you could guess why xD).

*Time of the story – Jack and Hiccup had met near the half of the November, so we're slowly moving to the December (they known each other for almost two weeks now). I know I didn't include Thanksgiving, but I'm not familiar with this holiday.

*Hiccup's behavior – I need to clear few things. Nothing bad happened to Hiccup or anything like that. He just doesn't like people touching him. He is similar to me in that way. I mean, small hug as greeting are okay, but I'm totally uncomfortable with hugging or touching someone too much or too long. I just don't like it, so yeah, no deep, hidden secrets or anything like that.

Anyway, this is all for now. Hope to see you soon!