Negative delta is the beginning of fun

by Lajt Hane

Hiccup thought that this day couldn't get any worse. And there he was, in the boy's bathroom, trapped with Dagur and the school's prankster and star - Jack - who was claiming to be Hiccup's boyfriend. And he only wanted to clean his sweater…

11. Chapter 11 - Fourier's law

Pairing: Jack x Hiccup

Genre: Romance, Drama + Angst

Warning: NC-17/T

Warning: only half beta-read

All characters belong to Cressida Cowell, William Joyce and DreamWorks Studio. May contain some OOCness.

---

Fourier's law – the law of heat conduction – the rate of time heat transfers through a material is proportional to the negative gradient in the temperature and to the area.

Hiccup dreaded and anticipated this Monday morning. He was scared of it due to the confrontation that was about to happen in a few minutes. Because in just approximately four hundred and eighty seconds there was a chance that Astrid would step out of her house to go to school. Ughh, such limited time!

Hiccup chose this point, this specific span of time to catch up and apologize to her. Okay, maybe it wasn't his plan per se, but it was the best that Jack could come up with, sooo... no! It had to work nonetheless.

So, he was sort of afraid of the consequences of their conversation. He was terrified of the outcome. But the fear wasn't the biggest emotion at play here. It was the anticipation, the urge, the need to make up with his friend and return to the former state of friendship they shared. Or simply to create a better one.

Hiccup couldn't understand those people who would and could stay mad at their friends or family for months at a time, or even longer. He wasn't able to talk with Astrid for a day and a half and it was devastating. It truly was detrimental for him.

But at least he had Jack – who had spent the entire Sunday talking with him, coming up with plans on how to apologize to the girl and more over lifting Hiccup's spirit up – and Aster, with whom he still talked to, but not as much as he had done during the previous days. Maybe it was the guilt still being there, inside his mind, or maybe because there were more important matters to deal with.

Astrid is the most important thing right now. Way more important than his dumb crush.

Hiccup counted the seconds down in his head, and when he got to the last hundred, his heart sped up. His brain delved into tons of calculations, running diagnostics, foreseeing all future possibilities, scenarios and outcomes. His imagination was overworking, suddenly giving him only the bad options to feed upon. Damn his mind. Hiccup knew he was a pessimistic guy, but maybe this time…

The front door of Astrid's house swung open, abruptly cutting Hiccup's deep state of though (it kinda saved him actually, from having a nervous breakdown, if not a mental one). The girl emerged through the doorframe, shouting to her parents; announcing that she was going out.

Damn it, she came out earlier than what Hiccup had foreseen and precisely calculated. She went out twenty seven seconds before the usual and designated time. But no, Hiccup had it covered. This small change in his plan wouldn't make a difference to him, not even by a micrometer!

Astrid closed the door and stepped down the stairs onto the pavement. With her hand she reached for her phone, always laying inside her pocket, but stopped midway and shook her head.

This was his chance, his redemption arc gloriously displayed and given to him by the Gods above.

"Astrid!" Hiccup shouted, jumping out from the bushes like some kind of psycho, or worse. Okay, maybe this part of Jack-co-Hiccup's plan was dumb, but well, it already happened. No need to cry over spilled milk now.

Plus, the startled look on Astrid's face was worth it. Maybe it would be more worth it, if the girl didn't suddenly swing her fist back with the intention to punch.

Okay, this was a bad plan. Red Alert! Raise shields, take evasive action. Retreat, retreat!

"Astrid, no!" Hiccup covered his face with his arms. He had seen Astrid in action, only he never expected to be on the receiving end of her fist. How the world works is still a mystery to him.

Yet the hit never came, gladly. Okay, lower shields. Status report – no breaches have been detected.

"Hiccup?! Fuck, you scared me. The hell are you doing here!?" Her voice didn't hold any hint of anger, only bewilderment, maybe even with a few percent of tension lingering in the last tone.

"I scared you!? You freaked me out here! I thought I was going to die!" Hiccup countered, putting his hands down and sighing in relief.

"Me? You started it." Astrid huffed, pointing at him with an accusing finger, almost drilling it into his chest. "I could hit you! I was about to!"

"I know, I just almost escaped death two seconds ago!" He retorted, now even louder, but his voice was still nothing in comparison to the girl's own.

"So why did you do that?" Astrid finally asked, looking right into his eyes.

Oh, the moment he dreaded. The main center of the plan, the very epitome of this day and this whole weekend.

Hiccup opened his mouth and closed it. He had replayed this figurative conversation over and over in his head, he had this scenario planned out and even though that there was a possibility of Astrid attacking him, Hiccup had pushed it at the almost last place. But here he was.

However he got it. He practiced it. He rehearsed it. There was nothing to worry about. No matter what different things his inner voices were telling him. Hiccup pushed those voices away. He muted the sounds that they were mumbling, until they were only miniscule vibrating whispers at the back of his neck.

No, he wanted to do it. He only needed some foothold.

With one tug, he took off his backpack and rummaged through it, sticking his tongue out. His hand maneuvered around notebooks, pencils, pens and loose sheets, only to grab the slick package which found its way at the very bottom. He took it out and pushed it into Astrid's chest. And yes, unfortunately, he did close his eyes, afraid of the reaction of his hoped-to-still-be friend.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry!" Hiccup said quickly. "I… I'm like... I acted like a jerk towards you. You asked me out and I spent the entire afternoon on my phone. It was my fault." He continued, taking small breaks to take in a little bit of oxygen into his lungs.

There was a movement near his hands, on her chest, where he was still pushing the package – a present, a small form of apology – into Astrid. Her hands brushed Hiccup's own gloved ones as she retrieved the package.

It wasn't much really, it was only a bar of chocolate in the end. But it was Astrid's favorite. White choco with strawberry yoghurt. A very rare one, which they only had seen maybe six times in normal shops.

Hiccup really had luck to find it, and only after visiting a fourth fresh market. The Gods were indeed merciful to him in this situation.

He waited, still with closed eyes, for the reaction – maybe some kind of sound, sentence, movement, anything that could tell him the secrets of Astrid's true feelings. The good and bad thoughts mixed inside his brain, fought for dominance, but there wasn't a winner in sight yet. Because only the girl could pick one.

Then there was a soft nudge to his shoulder, like a small, hesitant punch with only a hint of strength it could have had (considering the 'nudge' came from Astrid). But it felt familiar, warm, exothermic, lively and above all simply… simply amazing.

Hiccup opened his eyes, only to stare at the soft smile of his friend. Best-friend – a little bit edgy on the side, sometimes maybe too harsh to other people, a person with an iron, heavy fist, but with an even bigger heart….

Then all voices inside his head became silent.

Astrid looked down at the chocolate bar in her hands and maybe, just maybe, her smile grew a little bit bigger.

"I'm sorry too." She finally mumbled, pushing a lone lock of her hair behind her ear. "I overreacted too."

"No, no!" Hiccup quickly lifted his hands, waving them frantically. Astrid shouldn't be the one apologizing. She had a reason to be mad at him, he was the one who had messed up in this situation. "I'm the one at fault here. I… I guess I simply was too happy about the idea of Aster responding to my lame messages that I overlooked everything else in my life. Including you. Which shouldn't happen at all." His hand travelled to his nape, where it stayed for a second, scratching the skin beneath his hair. Shit, the stress was still hanging tightly onto his nerves – like the dendrites absorbed it.

"Yeah, it kind of sucked." Astrid confirmed, with no anger or resentment hanging at the last syllable.

It was good to hear her voice, to see that she wasn't as mad as Hiccup initially had thought. Or maybe she had been furious, but the negative emotions had decanted at the very bottom of her mind with time?

"So, yeah, sorry about that. I promise to not ignore you this way anymore." Hiccup crossed his heart, really meaning it.

Astrid had given him a fright two days ago and Hiccup didn't want a repeat of it like ever again. Never. This day and a half of not being able to talk freely with his best-friend was the worst moment of his High School life.

"Apology accepted." Astrid said, smiling and stepping away. "Now get out from those bushes, 'cause we still need to get to school and well… now we may be a little late."

Because of you, floated silently between them in zero gravity. Astrid knew Hiccup hated to be late, especially to school, but now… right now he didn't mind.

"I don't care. I'm glad even." Hiccup said, grinning to himself and getting out from the bushes behind which he had been hiding.

Astrid snorted and with free hand brushed away the snow and few leaves which found its miraculous way into his clothes.

Hiccup wouldn't mind if he lost a whole day at school. He wouldn't mind a lot of things, if this meant reconciling with Astrid. It wasn't like he would be all okay with going out of his comfort zone. But for her, Hiccup would try to do so, he would try desperately to get out and make things right.

He would be terrified, of course, but there are more important things in his life. Astrid was worth it.

---

He really did :o?

Yup, he was a mess

because of you, you

meanie (｡•́︿•̀｡)

I didn't mean to D:!

Jack smiled to himself as he stared at the message on his phone.

I know you didn't (.ω.)

And sent! Jack felt quite good with himself, because of that. He felt like they were sharing a secret – a hidden conspiracy between him and Astrid. And maybe, in the end, it was true.

Jack put the phone down and looked at the two lilacs still standing near the heater in his room. They were there since the day Hiccup had brought them. Wall, kind of not. Jack had taken them to the garage one day, but had brought them back fast. Not because it was cold there, but because simply he got used to their presence. He knew it was weird. Some people maybe would take him as a person out of his mind, a lunatic, but Jack really felt like every tree, every plant, every flower had its own soul. And Jack simply got easily attached to some of his friends. Few flowers and bushes in his back yard even had names. And these two lilacs were no exception.

It had taken him an hour or so of loneliness in his room to bring them back again.

The names had slipped past his lips one night when he had been talking about himself with them. The bigger one, with more leaves still hanging onto his branches was named Thorin* – because come on, Jack admired him. He was strong and caring and he was sure that the lilac will be too. And the smaller one, with only two or three leaves was given a name of Galadriel* - because Jack knew it will grow up to be a strong and beautiful tree. It just needed some time.

So now, unfortunately or not, he got even more attached to the siblings standing near the heater. The fictional characters weren't related, but Jack decided to not care about such trivial things. The names fitted and it was important.

His phone buzzed and Jack quickly read the reply.

But he apologized to me, so now everything's cool =D.

Was it your idea for him to hide in the bushes?

Jack snorted under his nose and tapped a response.

Yeah. Don't tell me he pulled that of? ∑(ﾟﾛﾟ〃)

Uh-huh. He did. And got almost punched by me ._.

Oooops, that wasn't scripted. But, to be honest, Jack didn't expect Hiccup to actually do that, so Astrid's surprise definitely had to be hilarious. Oh shame that he wasn't able to see it.

But it all did the trick. Astrid and Hiccup weren't in the argument anymore and Jack really preferred them to be this way.

Hiccup calling him while crying really did a number on Jack's heart – not in the nice way. And after Hiccup had explained the situation, the burden had evaporated away to this point that Jack had tried not once or twice, but multiple times to not snort at the situation. They had gotten into an argument and wanted to make amends few minutes later.

It was sweet, endearing how they both couldn't live without each other.

But no matter how much Jack had been tempted to simply tell his fake-boyfriend that Astrid wasn't mad at him anymore (or more even at herself now), he had stood strongly. He had promised Astrid this.

But it all turned okay in the end. Maybe a little bit more than okay. Jack had started to talk with the girl a little bit through messages. At first, when Astrid had proposed Jack to write to her whenever he was feeling down or had problems with his feelings for Hiccup, he had thought that it would, maybe not never, but rarely happen. Huh boy, was he wrong.

Sorry, not sorry :3!

Uh-huh, yeah, riiight xD. By the way

did he tell you that he was messaging Aster?

I'm simply curious…

Yeah, he did.

Hiccup could probably hide the fact that he had been speaking with Bunny, but he hadn't. Gladly.

But back when Hiccup had been explaining the situation to Jack, there had been a sudden pause, a slice of time filled with withered silence only for Hiccup to continue his story about him messaging Aster instead of spending time with Astrid.

Jack felt really glad that Hiccup had decided to tell the truth. And even though he had already knew that he had been talking with him, his heart still had made this weird squeezing backflip inside his chest. Jack should probably get used to it.

Maybe with time…

Or visit cardiologist in case he was actually dying.

Did he add something more ):?

No, I don't think so.

Jack wrote this sentence and sent it, but then quickly added an emoji to show that he was still okay. He didn't want Astrid to think she was some moppy love-struck teenager. Even though he kind of was. But talking with Astrid really was helping him. Who would expect it? Definitely not Jack. It was a nice surprise given to him by life.

Ouch :C

Jack actually snorted under his nose at this message. It was weird seeing Astrid actually root for him. Well, at least Jack had a feeling she was rooting for him. And it was nice, pretty darn nice of her even, but well… Jack had definitely small, tiny chances of Hiccup reciprocating his feelings. Especially now, when Hiccup was speaking so freely with his crush.

Jack sighed and lifted his head at the two lilacs huddled together.

"I feel like my chances have negative delta." He said to the trees.

And somewhere, in the back of his mind, he could almost see them glancing skeptically at him, maybe even asking what the heck was he babbling about.

"Oh you know." Jack started, tilting his head. "If the chance of me being with Hiccup could be in form of some square equation, then definitely the delta of this equation would be negative."

And even though neither Thorin nor Galadriel made a movement, in Jack's brain they were rolling their eyes at his ideas.

Maybe it was stupid or childish or dumb or foolish or all similar adverbs, but well, Jack preferred to have negative chances than have no chances at all.

It was always better to solve the equation and get a negative delta than leave an empty place under the exercise. Even though the answer was wrong and impossible. Just like Jack. At least there would be traces of trying instead of not trying at all and giving up. Even when the results were wrong.

"I think Hiccup's nerd's side has influenced me too much." Jack said, reaching and brushing his fingers on the thin trunk of Galadriel.

Her branches swayed, like she was agreeing with him.

Jack's phone vibrated, announcing new message. With the same hand he grabbed it and looked at Astrid's name blinking warmly at him.

How about Aster?

She hit right on the spot actually. Bunny still didn't really tell Jack that he was speaking with Hiccup. And well, it was okay to not share everything, Aster didn't have to tell Jack that he was writing with Hiccup, but…

It would be nice to know. Aster knew that Jack and Hiccup were just pretending, so there was nothing wrong in talking with Hiccup without Jack knowing it, but… But Jack still felt a little bit left out, maybe even betrayed.

"Why did friendship suddenly become so difficult…?" Jack mumbled, looking up at Thorin standing proudly next to his sister.

Jack never had these kind of problems with his close friends and nowadays his whole world was turned upside down. Like someone just flipped a switch which sent him to an alternate dimension where everything he knew was steady here, there was not.

He knew friendship wasn't something easy to gain. Jack was conscious of the fact that friendship sometimes was a hard work, was tiring, but he would do everything to help his best friends. He would give everything and more to make it all normal again.

But he had a feeling that this normalness disappeared long time ago, broke away from them or maybe was taken away, kidnapped and hidden from their world and sight.

At this point Jack had a feeling that the same world they had shared, the same relationship couldn't be brought back. That it was already gone without chances of getting it back.

However Jack didn't know where or when it had disappeared. Maybe it wasn't a sudden situation, maybe it was slowly corroding inside their hearts to finally fully dissipate in the solution?

It was a possibility, maybe it was even the truth, but Jack wouldn't simply give up on this. He would dig up the truth, even if he had to do it with his own hands. Because Aster was his friend and Jack had leaned on him too many times in the past to count, so Jack wanted to do something in return too.

If only Bunny would let him in.

However Jack didn't have to do it alone. He wasn't alone in this world. He had Tooth. With whom he didn't actually talk much about Aster lately. Maybe he should change it. Tooth was also a close friend of Bunny. Maybe he shared something with her, he didn't with Jack.

Yeah, this was a good start.

---

"Hiccup, do you mind waiting a second for me."

Hiccup lifted his face from the backpack he was currently packing to look into the blue eyes of his Professor.

"Sure, I don't mind." He nodded and finished packing.

Professor Robinson – who taught physics and science of mechanics – was one of Hiccup's favourite teachers. He was sort of a little bit crazy on the side, but not in the bad way. He just loved what he was doing and it was pretty visible.

He waited for all the students from Mechanic class to leave the hall and only when there was only the two of them left, Hiccup approached the wooden, half-destroyed desk at the front.

"So, what do you want to talk with me about, Professor?" Hiccup asked, correcting the hold of the backpack on his shoulder.

Professor Robinson turned from the blackboard, where he had drawn some type of metal connection for students.

"Ah, right!" He said, smiling broadly and clapping his hands together to get rid of the calcium carbonate residing on his skin. In the end he also brushed it on his dirty lab coat. "I wanted to talk with you about the Robotic Contest."

Oh, yeah, that… February was around the corner and he had nothing but blueprints to show. Shit, this didn't sound good. But Hiccup had told his Professor that he wasn't feeling so good in this field. He hadn't been really keen on participating in this contest, but Professor Robinson's pleading eyes had made him agree.

It was quite different from the Physics' Olympiad he had won some time ago.

"Yes?" Hiccup said, feeling his mouth getting dry. Oh god, he hoped the teacher wouldn't ask about where he was standing with his project, because Hiccup had a feeling he was currently being buried in his own grave. And Hiccup didn't want to disappoint his favourite teacher.

"I know you said that robotic is not your field of passion, so I know that it must be hard for you to fully get into it." The man said, brushing his unruly blonde locks away from his forehead. "I can assume it's not going so well, right…?"

Hiccup nodded, hanging his head down, not wanting to look into sad eyes of his Professor.

"Uhm…" What was else here to say than the truth? "Yeah…"

"Don't feel down! The important fact is that you're trying!" The man voice was chirpy, joyful and reassuring. It was accompanied by a soft pat on Hiccup's shoulder. "And as I can't help you, I asked the other participant to look at your blueprints. I hope you're not mad."

Other participant? Hiccup had no idea about whom the man was talking about, but well… maybe because Hiccup simply never was so interested in it.

"I also asked him to help you with some tweaks here and there." This time Hiccup did lift up his head to look at the teacher.

"Isn't it like… against the rules?" He asked, lifting his eyebrow.

"No, if you do all the work. I only asked him if he can give you few advices of where to buy parts and how to connect them." Mister Robinson said, correcting his square glasses and smiling at him.

Oh, this actually would be pretty neat, because, to be honest, Hiccup had no idea from where he should start with this project.

"It's not bad to learn from others." Professor added, after Hiccup didn't quite answer him.

Of course, it wasn't bad to learn from others. That's why teachers were here. Hiccup had nothing against learning from others. He had something against learning from others whom he didn't know, which meant meeting new people. Oh, joy.

The auburn haired boy swallowed and looked back at his teacher, who was looking at him with such proud and radiating smile that Hiccup felt he could get blind any second now. He didn't remember drinking any methanol really.

So even though his stomach made an uncomfortable flip and squeeze, Hiccup nodded and mumbled.

"Okay…"

"Great!" The blond haired teacher clasped his hands together. The sound of it echoed loudly in the empty hall. "He will come here after classes today. Do you have some free time then or do you have other labs?"

Hiccup quickly searched in his mind for any other plans he could have for today afternoon and found none. The fact which he didn't know whether was good or bad actually.

"No, I'm free." Hiccup said, trying to sound not too devastated in front of the Professor. The man looked totally enamored about the idea of someone helping Hiccup with his project. Just what exactly Professor saw in those blueprints that Hiccup couldn't? It felt like he had more hopes in it than the owner and creator of it did.

"Great, see you later then. Now shush, don't be late to the next class because of me." Professor Robinson clasped his hands together one more time and beamed at him like sun.

Augh, Hiccup's eyes suddenly hurt. Seriously, was he sending some kind of radiant energy by those eyes? Knowing his teacher love for science, it wouldn't surprise him if that was the truth actually.

---

Okay, after few hours it was still a bad idea. Hiccup really disliked meeting new people. He never knew what to say, his hands quickly were becoming sweaty and he was turning into a stuttering mess with the overwhelming coldness roaming around his body.

Yop, he had his small circle of friends and didn't feel a need to meet new ones. But there was a chance that this wouldn't be someone new. It definitely was someone from this school, so Hiccup had to see her or him on the corridor at least once. However he had bad memory of faces and names… but maybe this particular face would light up some bulb inside the library of his memories. Probably, maybe? There was a possibility of this happening?

Nevermind, he was already standing in front of the door for at least fifteen minutes now.

Okay, maybe sixteen even.

Hiccup put his hand on his chest and took a deep breath. Calm down, everything was going to be okay.

His pocket vibrated and he took out his phone. Two new messages. From two different people.

I'm sure it's someone nice

so, no stress! (｡•̀ᴗ-)

Hiccup grinned hesitantly to himself. Jack was always so supportive. Even when he wasn't responding as much as he did, it was still welcomed nevertheless.

Second message was from Aster, from actually… two hours ago.

After the whole fiasco with Astrid, Hiccup was controlling himself in terms of responding. Well, he still was messaging a lot with Aster in his own house, but at school and around Astrid he tried really hard to focus on her and not on him.

I unfortunately don't know about whom

Professor could be talking about. Sorry.

At this Hiccup sighed. Even Aster didn't know whom Hiccup could meet. He did propose few ideas, but they weren't that possible really.

So it was a surprise. Hiccup didn't really like that kind of surprises.

Eighteen minutes now. Great. He had to do it in the end.

After counting to ten in his head and taking few more deep breaths, Hiccup finally knocked on the door to the hall which he had visited few hours ago.

"Come in!" Said the enthusiastic voice of this teacher from the inside.

Okay… Hiccup got it. There was nothing to worry about. He got better in meeting new people. Gosh, he even accidentally had gotten into a fake-relationship with Jack – this counts as meeting new people. Quite bizarrely, but still.

Hiccup pushed the door, groaning under his breath at the weight he had to push.

There was Professor Robinson, leaning above his desk where a lot of pages filled with scribbles were scattered on the surface. His glasses were hanging barely at the end of his nose, but when Hiccup entered the hall, the man lifted his head so fast, that the glasses returned to their rightful place.

"Ah, Hiccup! So glad you could make it!" The blonde haired male started, but Hiccup couldn't heart the half of the things the teacher was babbling about. Because his eyes were directed at the person on the opposite side of Professor Robinson's desk. The same person that was supposed to give him some advices, help a little with his project.

Why, oh why? Hiccup had to be someone really bad in previous lives for the fate to kick him so hard in his ass! If reincarnation was even possible, that is. But if it was, then he definitely fucked up in his past lives. Really hard.

"-I'm sure you already know each other. This school isn't that big in the end-" A laugh left the male's lips, as he circled the desk and stopped in front of it.

Yeah, this school wasn't that big, that's why in Hiccup's mind there was a possibility of meeting a familiar face. Although this face was familiar, but not welcomed.

His frozen limbs and hammering heart were agreeing with him.

"-however, if you're not acquaintances, I'm very happy, Hiccup, to introduce you to Dagur!" Professor finished, smiling broadly while pointing at the teen who still was bending over the desk, but with his face directed at Hiccup.

If anything was good in this situation, it was the bewilderment clearly emanating from Dagur's face. It was the only good thing Hiccup could find in this situation. Other than that, he wanted to run away from here as far away as possible. Or disappear. He could dug up his grave in this very place and there wouldn't be difference in between that and stepping forward.

Dagur blinked and then shook his head.

"Yeah, we know each other." He said in the same nasal, harsh voice Hiccup remembered so well.

Please, kill him.

The atmosphere around them was dense, like the room was suddenly filled with liquid and not gas. It was morbid even – freezing cold and tense. Hiccup felt his hands shaking with sweat already forming on the insides. His breath was coming out in small, short gasps.

And Dagur was still looking at him with sudden curiosity beaming in those dark eyes. Since the moment Hiccup had stepped inside, he didn't turn around. It was unnerving.

However it looked like the tension, the atmosphere of incertitude didn't faze the Professor as he moved to Hiccup, put his hand on his back and walked together back to the desk.

Hiccup felt like he had to learn how to walk from the very beginning. What was he supposed to do again? Ah yes, bend knee, move your feet, put it down, repeated with the other.

Oh, he was already near the desk.

"That's good!" Professor Robinson said, leaving Hiccup standing one meter away from Dagur. Too close for comfort, definitely too close. "No need for more introduction. Ah, sorry for the mess. Me and Dagur were just talking about his project for the contest."

At this Dagur finally turned away and fixed his eyes on the messy blueprints smeared all over the desk. He lifted his hands and slowly started to gather the papers.

Hiccup stared with hitched breath as the teen's fingers moved around the surface, lifting and stocking small piles. His brain was a mushy mess, working slower and slower with every passing second he had to spend here. Maybe because of that the information he had heard only got registered now.

"Project?" Hiccup parroted, turning to the blonde haired Professor who, unsurprisingly, was still talking excitedly about something.

The male stopped his lecture about something and turned to Hiccup with passion glinting in his eyes.

"Yes, Dagur here is the second participant from our school."

Wait, what? Dagur? Dagur, of all people, took part in Robotic Contest? The same Dagur who drank every weekend with his friends? The same Dagur who shoved and fought people who just glanced at him the wrong way? The same Dagur who had been almost sexually harassing him two months ago?

This couldn't be true. It was just too… unfitting.

"Oh…" Hiccup mumbled at a loss of words or any rational ideas.

"And his project is really good! He should show you the blueprints, of course, if he ever wants!"

Dagur made some incoherent noise under his nose. Hiccup tensed at that, but Professor Robinson only waved his hand.

"Yeah, yeah, of course. It's up to you, I'm not pushing you to do it, don't worry." He said, smiling at the teen who finally gathered all pages and hid them in a worn out white folder.

Hiccup observed their exchange, trying to relax his frozen in place (and time) limbs. One, two, three, one, two, three. He wouldn't be able to do anything, if his body was solid. He had to relax.

Running away with frozen legs didn't work too, so that was the main reason here actually.

"You can work here today boys." The teacher said, reaching under his desk and taking out familiar pages of Hiccup's project. "I need to grade some last week's tests, so I'll be in my office. Shout if you need anything."

It could be worse. Hiccup really knew it could. Professor Robinson could ask them to go somewhere else where he would be forced to sit alone with Dagur of all people. So being in the quite big hall, with the teacher sitting in the office behind the wall should be quite comforting idea about forcibly spending time with Dagur.

Hiccup knew it could be much worse, but it didn't mean he was totally content with what he had.

He observed his teacher's form as he moved to the opened door to his office. He prayed in his mind for the man to reconsider and for him to stay with them, but Professor Robinson only turned around, showed them a thumbs-up and then… then he disappeared in the room.

Okay, okay, Hiccup can somehow live with it. Somehow. He didn't know how, but he needed to find a way quick.

If something happens, then he can still shout for help, so that was awfully nice. However he preferred to not actually be pushed to his limits. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad?

What was he babbling about? Of course, it couldn't be that good! He was doomed. Hiccup should already write his testament. Okay, most of this things could be given to Astrid. Fishlegs definitely would want his science related things. Maybe he should leave his laptop for Snotlout (he was always complaining about the one he currently had). And twins… twins could have… Hiccup didn't know what kind of things could interest them.

"So did you already start building it or…"

"What?"

Dagur was looking at him with one hand touching the desk. His fingers tapped some unsteady rhythm.

And he did say something. But what it was? Hiccup got lost in the list of things he had to give away after his death to hear when the teen had said.

"Umm…" Hiccup mumbled, rising his head and staring at the ceiling.

Was he already making threats? No, it didn't look like that. Since entering, Dagur made no movement toward Hiccup, however that could be because the teacher was in the room with them.

"So did you buy parts for it at least?" Dagur asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

Oh, for the project. He was talking about Hiccup's project. With this Hiccup could deal. About this he could talk. Only this and nothing else.

"No." Hiccup started, only to quickly correct himself, when his brain finally caught up with the whole situation. "I mean some of them I bought already, but to be honest I'm not that good in it…" He massaged his shoulder, looking to the side. Everywhere but at Dagur.

He knew it wasn't nice, but simply… he couldn't look at him.

The taller teen hummed under his nose and mumbled something, which Hiccup didn't catch. He wasn't keen on asking for repeat.

Dagur moved and Hiccup jumped in place. The teen either didn't notice it or did, but said nothing, as he circled the desk and grabbed the other folder. Then he took out the copies of blueprints of Hiccup's project he had given Professor Robinson. He spread the pages over the surface.

"Point to me which parts did you buy or from where you wanted to start…"

Oh boy. There was no turning back now, was it? No, definitely not.

Slowly Hiccup took off his backpack and put it on the floor near the desk. He stepped closer, but not close enough to be at arm reach of Dagur's hand, and glanced at the familiar scribbles and lines of his own drawing.

"Uhm, I think I wanted to start from here…"

---

"And she said that her sweater had too bright colors and I was like nu-huh I think it was swell like that! Can you believe her!? Pink goes good with gray, everyone knows that!"

Jack wasn't sure whether everyone knew that pink and gray were a good combination, but he did now.

"Yeah, totally." Not really. Even though Jack didn't understand half of the things Tooth was telling him, it was still nice to hear her acting so chirpy and lively.

"But the other girl thanked me for putting the first one in place and well, it was really nice." Tooth finished the story with a sip of a coffee from the cup.

"That's good. I'm sure the other girl just hates pink." Jack added.

"Probably. I don't know why pink is such hated color. It is so nice and gives your clothes a smudge of live. Gosh, I love pink!" She shouted the last part, making a movement with her hand, like she wanted to throw it in the air, but quickly stopped. "Darn, almost spilled the coffee." Oh, that's why.

Jack smiled under his nose, but hid it quickly behind his own cup.

"Personally, I prefer blue, but pink is okay too." He said, putting his cup down, but still holding it between his palms.

"Well mine fav is yellow, but pink is radical too!"

Jack wouldn't call pink radical, but well he did like pink. Usually on flowers, not on clothes.

They were sitting in Jack's room for at least an hour and a half now. Yesterday Jack had written to Tooth on Facebook, asking if she can come over to talk. Of course, after that she had immediately asked if something was wrong with Jack. Well, not with Jack, but he had wanted to ask few things.

After the story was told, Tooth calmed down, slumped down on the bed and took few sips of the probably now cold beverage inside her palms. Her eyes stared at the wall, but it didn't look like she was thinking about anything in particular. It looked like the silence that enveloped them wasn't fazing her either.

It was nice, really. For Jack to feel like nothing changed, even though it wasn't the truth. But Tooth was always a human lighthouse in his live, radiating warm light in dark times. A place where he could be safe.

"So okay, I said what I wanted to say, so now it's your turn. What is happening?"

And straightforward, but only with her close ones.

"Don't you think Aster is acting weird lately?" Jack asked, crossing his legs and resting his cup on his ankles.

Tooth fidgeted and furrowed her eyebrows. The coffee that was in the journey to her mouth stopped.

"Maybe. But I don't think he act so different around me, when we're alone actually." Well, that wasn't very reassuring to be honest. So he only had been acting different around Jack. Great. That actually kind of hurt. "But yeah… I do think he is acting a little bit off nowadays."

However Tooth also noticed this. This was good. So this meant that Jack wasn't delusional and wasn't reading too much into it. So that was making four people now who noticed it.

"I think has been happening for some time by now." Jack confessed.

Tooth blinked and turned to him with wider eyes than usual.

"What do you mean?"

So Jack told her about all the pieces he had gathered since he had started noticing their friends acting different. It wasn't unnatural long story, but it took Jack few minutes to collect his thoughts, segregate things he should and should not say and fill Tooth in on the subject from his point of view.

Tooth listened intently. She was staring back at him with cunning eyes, barely lifting the cup to her pink lips. Her usually bright face was now shadowed by dark thoughts and possibilities swirling around and above their heads like vultures.

He spoke about his failed attempt for a date, about Aster's father, about Bunny being unnatural quiet during Sinbad's party and about finding out that his friend was messaging Hiccup. He only left for himself the matter of Astrid, because walls had ears and Jack was keen on living some more, thank you very much.

"And lately, when we are together it is so…" Jack made a weird, crooked circle with his hand. "So awkward. Like… I don't know. It's like back when we first started hanging out and we still didn't know what to talk about."

The rainbow haired girl hummed in approval, looking down at the navy quilt filled with constellations pattern beneath them.

"Yeah, it's really weird." She finally murmured after few seconds of silence. "But it sounds to me like it revolves a lot around you."

"That's what I thought. At first I even suspected he was mad at me for something I did, but I don't know what I could have done to anger him. Plus he isn't the type-"

"To get easily angry. Yop, this is our Aster." Tooth nodded, with tiny smile gracing her lips.

Our Aster still sounded nice inside Jack's ears. Like nothing changed. And maybe for Tooth it didn't change at all. Maybe it was only a disruption in their story, a small wave of a timeline.

"My first assumption is that he is stressed over exams." Tooth said, lifting her body a little (because she slumped down quite far during the story). "I mean, you know how he is. He cares about grades, unfortunately." She shrugged, pushing the violet lock of her hair behind her ear.

"But exams are almost whole semester away." Jack lifted his eyebrow.

"Well, he has ambitions to get into difficult Uni, so you know…" The girl smiled sheepishly, tilting her head while looking back at him.

"Gee, you wound me." He snorted, rolling his eyes.

"I just reminded you about it." She quickly retorted. "Coming to this, you should also think-"

"Going back to Aster's topic!" Jack didn't want to think about his future right now. Nu-huh, not now. Maybe not today. Maybe not during this week. He would prefer to not think about his future at all, but that was unfortunately impossible.

"Right…" Tooth put the cup away on the nightstand. "So being stressed over exams is my one option. Second is that something happened, outside our circle. Maybe he argued with some other friends or I don't know…" She looked up and licked her lips. "It's just a possibility. I doubt something happened in his house, because his father definitely would tell us about it."

"So we can scratch that." Jack said, leaning back and putting his own cup on the floor. He had to remember to pick it up later and not leave it there for two days. It had happened once in the past, but gladly only once.

"And the third option is you – Jack." Tooth said, looking back into his eyes. There was no accusation or nothing like that in her gaze. It was even a sad look, filled with concern for him, but it still made Jack want to shiver.

He expected the possibility, of course, but it still wasn't very nice to hear it.

"Only I don't know what I could have done." He sighed, putting his hands behind his back and leaning on them.

"Me neither." Tooth nodded to herself. "I mean, you're the usual self. The only thing that changed is that you started to fake-date Hiccup and that Heather left you more over alone."

Jack groaned in his own weird way of confirmation of his friend's words. Indeed he wasn't acting different lately. Well, he had been spending much more time with Hiccup than earlier – duh, because they hadn't known each other and then Hiccup had proposed to help him with studying. Maybe Aster was mad because Hiccup and not he was helping Jack? No, definitely it wasn't about this. Bunny always got way too frustrated while teaching Jack. Then maybe about Heather? But it made no sense. From what Jack knew, Aster maybe not hated the black haired girl, but clearly disliked her. Then what…

Hiccup?

But why?

Jack furrowed his eyebrows, but his line of thoughts was cut by Tooth's voice.

"Maybe it's not about what you did, but it's simply because of you?" She asked, hesitantly, not looking at him.

"Me?" Jack parroted. "What about me?"

Tooth lifted her hand and waved it - bracelets fell down, clattering against each other, like rocks on the waterfall. Even the light reflected on the metal looked like splashed drops. After that the girl lifted her hand further with pointing finger sticking out and started to paint some weird patter in the air.

"It's hard to describe." She murmured, hand still stretched out. Jack looked at what she was pointing. Snowflakes hanging near the ceiling, now swaying softly due to the tilted window. Now it kind of seemed like she was tracing their circling movement. "I mean, no offence or anything like that. But maybe Aster isn't troubled by anything you did, but simply by you."

Yeah, that made even less sense to Jack. Him – like as a person, as an image, as Aster's best-friend? About what aspect of Jack was Tooth talking about? If she even knew about which part was she talking about in the end.

Jack crossed his hands and lifted one eyebrow.

"Didn't you read too many psychology books lately?" He asked, just to be sure. Books had a giant influence on some parts of people's life. They make you realize signification of some facts and get you to think over and over about the reality. But you can't also believe you read and let books block your own working mind.

However, Jack knew the great power of books and how they can change your character after reading.

Tooth blushed. Her hand twitched and stopped in the middle of the air.

"Maybe…" She admitted, but then cleared her throat. "But you can't deny that there might be something to it, don't you?"

Jack, unfortunately, couldn't deny it. He couldn't deny the possibilities of that being the answer to the question simply because he didn't understand it. It was an unknown, but Jack couldn't be afraid of it, even though the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of unknown*. Wait, Jack felt like he read that somewhere before…

He finally sighed.

"Maybe you're right."

"Well, think about it as a possibility." Tooth said, shrugging and showing him a line of pearly white, perfect teeth. Then the sharp, focused façade returned to her face. "But I'll try to ask him about it. Not like directly, but with my feminine charm maybe I'll be able to get the truth out of him." She added, smiling softly at the end, reassuringly even.

Jack grinned back at her.

"That will be a great help."

She waved her hand in front of herself.

"He is also my close friend. If something is really troubling him, then I want to help too. Don't leave me out of the equation."

He rolled his eyes, hearing the last part. Seriously. Why Jack suddenly felt like he was only hanging around nerds, but of different types?

"You sound just like Hiccup, with his weird scientific comparisons." He noticed.

The girl chuckled at that. Tooth's laugh was always warm, a little bit hesitant, but filled with positive emotions. Just like the whole girl. She was always the one who was seeing a light of hope in a dark tunnel. Jack always admired her for finding something good in every bad thing, for being able to fish out the happy thoughts from the sea of indifference and negativity and for simply trying to remain strong and joyful when times weren't good.

"We are people of science!" She said, pumping her fist into the air. "Besides, you aren't better. We should record you when you talk about your garden sometimes. Even I don't understand half of the things you say and I love biology!"

Did Jack really was a gardening nerd? Gosh, that was kind of embarrassing. Well, gladly only his close friends and family knew about it, so it didn't matter. And he had to listen to their scientific mumbo-jumbo-whatever, so they can deal with him talking about flowers and plants!

"No worries, Jack. It's kind of charming to see you so invested in something." Tooth quickly continued, when he looked at her.

Was he blushing? Maybe?

"Gee thanks." But coming to this, he wondered if he see the snowdrops he had planted in his garden last fall. Maybe near March, because this year winter was quite chilly, so he doubted they would blossom out in February.

His gaze automatically travelled to the siblings standing under the window sill. It could be his imagination, but he had a feeling that Thorin grew up a little.

"Hey, what do you plan for Valentines' Day?"

The question shook him awake from the sudden maze of thoughts he had jumped into.

"Pardon?"

Tooth smiled, but rolled her eyes. She lifted her legs to her chest and rested the side of her face on her knees.

"Valentines' Days? It's like in two weeks? You and Hiccup – still technically dating. Ringing any bell inside your head?"

Valentine's Day? It did sound familiar, but what should it… Oh, shit. He totally forgot about Valentines' Day! Well, he had a valid reason for forgetting about Valentines, but still!

"Erm…" Jack started, only for Tooth to interrupt him.

"Does Hiccup even know you have birthday then?"

Good question. Probably not. Well, from where he could obtain such information? Facebook? They had become friends after their plan had started (which was, well, one of the facts that may had made people question their relationship). Twitter? No, Hiccup didn't have Twitter… There was a chance Hiccup could hear the date of Jack's birthday around the school, but the teen doubted his friend had paid any attention to that before.

But should Jack even tell him that his own birthday was coming up soon? Wouldn't it be a little bit weird to do so? Hey, you know, I have birthday in two weeks. I wanted to tell you because we're technically dating, so yeah, wouldn't it be weird if you didn't know this date. Haha by the way, when do you have birthday?!

Yop, cross that out. Nu huh, sounds dumb. And a little bit selfish. But it wasn't like Jack wanted anything for his birthday from Hiccup, so it wasn't that bad in the end?

That was confusing.

Wait, wait, wait. Rebooting, starting over, starting over! Tooth asked him a question.

"I… don't think so?" Jack said unsurely, lifting his hand and putting it on the nape of his neck. His fingers twitched nervously, but stayed in place.

Tooth groaned, like really loud, and rolled her eyes. Yep, Jack was kind of pathetic in this matter. But come on! It wasn't that important probably, right?

"I'll write to Astrid to tell her to hint it to Hiccup, so it wouldn't look suspicious." The girl was speaking while taking out her phone and probably already opening a tab to message Astrid.

Jack blinked at that, feeling sudden rush of relief washing over him, like a rain pouring down on a bad day.

"You don't have-" He started, to be once again interrupted.

"Shush now. Plus I'm sure Hiccup would be mad if he missed it. You are friends, right?"

Friends. This word sounded mesmerizing and harsh both in the same time and it kind of made Jack's heart skip a beat (like it was jumping over a log in a deep forest) both in a good and bad way.

"I think we are?"

"You think?" Tooth asked, rising her eyebrows, but with a hint of amusement echoing somewhere in her voice.

"I'm sure." Jack corrected himself, allowing for his hand to fall down onto the soft quilt with constellations' pattern.

"Good, because I already sent it. Plus, you still didn't answer my question. Valentine's Day. You must have something planned for your boyfriend!" Then Tooth started to clap her hands, like she was urging small kids to move faster because they were blocking the way. "You are slacking off!" She even punctuated every word with a clap. That was commitment!

"Me? Why!?" Jack asked, shaking his head.

"There wasn't even a New Year's kiss between you! Boo!"

Well, okay, Jack didn't know that Tooth was so much into it or that she was shipping them. Kind of weird. Maybe she was even coming up with names for their pairing during sleepless nights!? Oh no, that was terrifying.

"That's because…" Yeah, why? "That's because we agreed on no kissing unless we really have to." Almost true. Was there any other reason*?

"Still boo!"

"Stop it!"

Tooth giggled. Seriously, was she fangirling or what?

But to be honest, he kind of forgot about upcoming Valentine's Day. And even to be more honest, Jack wasn't a big fan of this holiday. Surprising, right? Always happy Jack didn't like Valentines. He never really liked getting pink hearts' cards with real feelings written at the bottom. He didn't like when girls made him chocolates. He didn't like when they were confessing to him, because… simply because Jack couldn't reciprocate it. And all these things made him feel like he was faking, faking something or someone who he was trying to be.

Or maybe he didn't like that he couldn't be this perfect someone everyone thought he was.

Because he couldn't.

However now he forgot about it due to his mother. She had said that she was coming in February and she had written that she would call, but still there was no sign of life from her. And Jack wasn't sure whether he was relieved or more stressed than when he had seen the postcard for the first time.

Now, he didn't want to tell anyone about it. Emma and North knew that there was a possibility of Eris coming to their home. North even had looked a little bit happy about it, well as happy as he could be after what had happened between them. Emma, on the other side… yeah, to say that she was displeased would be an understatement. She never liked Jack's real mother and he couldn't really blame her, nor he actually minded.

So yeah, that and Hiccup and school and Aster were a lot on his mind recently. No wonder he forgot a little bit about Valentine's Day and his own birthday.

Jack groaned.

"I guess I need to talk about it with him."

Tooth tilted her head and her earrings swished softly, following her movement.

"Why?" She inquired, looking genuinely confused.

"Why?" Jack parroted after her. "Because we aren't dating. This is simply a plan to get some people off our heads. So every step had to be planned!" Jack said, trying to sound as calm and collected, even though his chest was getting tighter and tighter with every spoken word. But it was truth. It was just their plan, a deal they had made with each other.

It was only Jack's fault that he had started to develop feelings.

No, Jack couldn't think like that. It was like Astrid had said – this wasn't bad. He wasn't at fault, it was a totally normal thing that could happen. He had to relax. It was okay, it was okay, it was okay…

Somewhere, at the back of his head, his own voice mingled and transformed into Astrid's one. It was okay. There was nothing bad in Jack having feelings for Hiccup. It was okay. It was going to be okay. Okay, okay, okay.

"Well, but don't you want to surprise him a little?" Tooth asked.

One a little longer inhale and Jack was almost back to normal.

"I want to, but I'm not sure how he would react to that. So better not to do it. He himself said he didn't like surprises."

"Weird guy." Tooth said, not menacingly, but with a fond smile on her painted lips.

"He is." Jack confirmed with a small nod of his head in the rhythm of his phone coming to life on his desk.

The device chirped happily a song, turning around on the surface. A call. Who could call him now?

Jack stood up and walked to the desk. Okay more like he only put one foot on the floor and then reached for the device. He had to stretch pretty hard to even touch his phone, but well of course, standing up and getting there was too hard task.

The call was going for half a minute before Jack finally grabbed his phone and looked at the caller ID.

Hiccup. Okay, wow, weird. He called Jack twice this year. New record. He had done that only once in the last one. Which was pretty strange, because Jack was pretty sure Hiccup didn't really like to call anyone. Like pretty, pretty sure.

Not that he was mad or minded it. Of course not (his skipping heart agreed with him on this matter). But it just sent a weird, off vibe inside his ribcage.

He turned to Tooth who was eyeing him curiously.

"It's Hiccup-" Jack started, but was almost immediately interrupted by Tooth waving at him, almost shushing or urging to do something.

"Pick up then!"

Oh, right. That.

Jack brushed his finger on the screen and put the device near his ear, licking his bottom lip first.

"Hello?"

"Oh, hey Jack!" Definitely Hiccup, but his voice was very high and weirdly off-tune, almost unusual. Like he was faking it. "How-how are you?"

"Uhm… good." As good as Jack could get actually. But to be honest, he wasn't feeling terrible lately. Since the talk with Astrid, that was. "And you?"

"Great, totally great." Definitely not great judging by the high pitched tone of his voice. This didn't sound right. Jack glanced at Tooth, but she wasn't paying attention to him, and had her eyes glued to her own phone. "I mean it could be better, but I'm still fine. I have labs tomorrow. I will kill myself if I have to do the vacuum distillation one more time*."

"Is it so bad?" Jack continued the topic, even though he couldn't comprehend what was happening. Hiccup was talking really fast, like he wanted to get something off his chest. He definitely would get out of breath soon at this pace.

"I mean, it is effective, but I definitely prefer other types of distillation. Maybe not azeotropic that much. But still." A loud inhale. "It's still better than some of the other things I'm doing there. And you know…" And Hiccup jumped into too long explanation about something that Jack couldn't totally understand. He only caught singe words like infrared, wavelength, some kind of chart and a lot of numbers and organic names*.

Jack was humming and butting in single words to show that he was still there, even though he was lost. But it looked like Hiccup needed to talk, so Jack let him do it.

It was going on for at least four minutes, until there was a loud sigh coming from the other side, followed by definitely more normal voice of his friend.

"Okay, he is gone. Sorry about that…"

"No problem." Jack said quickly, using his happy tone to show that he wasn't mad. Because he wasn't. Only confused. "Do you want to fill me in on what happened?"

"Ugh. It was just Dagur."

"Dagur?" Jack repeated, sharpening his voice and mind after that. He thought that all this mumbo-jumbo had ended. Guess not.

"Yeah. Unfortunately…"

"Why were you with him?" He asked. His tone was a little bit low, maybe even too harsh and angry. But it wasn't directed at Hiccup. He was just a little bit… tini-tiny bit… overprotective of all his friends.

Plus the fact that he knew what Dagur was capable of wasn't helping him being calm and cool. Even the rainbow haired girl lifted her face at him, rising one eyebrow in the process. Jack waved at her.

"Hehe you know this is a funny story…"

The story Hiccup told him after that wasn't really funny. It was kind of opposite of funny. And Jack knew, because he was the Master of Pranks. He was the whole epitome of fun. So yeah, indeed the story was nerve-wracking and mildly had an undertone of black humor. And bad luck. A lot of it actually.

"And yeah… we went out together, but I kind of didn't feel comfortable around him alone. Like alone alone, so I panicked and I called you..." Hiccup finished, breathing heavily at the very end, like the whole story took him forever to tell. In reality it was more like five minutes in total. "I'm sorry if my call was a problem. I can actually finish it-"

"No, no, no, no don't worry!" Shit. Jack sounded almost desperate. But he was kind of happy. Totally happy. Super happy? "I'm actually glad you called me. Never know what could happen, right? So I'm glad. And I'm glad that everything went well." Was Jack repeating himself? Judging by the amused look on Tooth's pink lips he was.

"Thanks. I appreciate it." Then Hiccup cleared his throat. After that there were few heartbeats of silence, like the auburn haired teen didn't know whether he wanted to brush some topic or was simply searching for a new one. "Really. Anyway, I'm near the store, where I can buy parts, so…"

"Oh, okay. Write to me when you'll return home, okay?" Jack said, turning and glancing at Galadriel. Looking at her was always making him feel better.

"I will. And thanks one more time." And after that the beeping sound resonated in Jack's left ear, indicating the end of the call.

Jack sighed and slumped more comfortably on the bed. He was taunted like a string until now and wow, he didn't even notice it. But gosh, his back was aching right now.

"Well at least it's good that between you two it's brightening up."

Jack groaned. Okay, maybe he was fucking easy to read.

---

"You know that Valentine's Day is coming soon, right?"

Hiccup nodded and rummaged through a jar full of screws. He stole it from the garage. Well, technically he didn't steal it, as it was his father's jar. However he didn't ask for permission. But Stoick wasn't home and he didn't like to be interrupted while he was working, so yeah… technically stolen jar.

Astrid was sitting on his bad and playing with Toothless, with some magazine opened on her lap. It looked like it wasn't even her own, as it was too glittery. Maybe she lent it from Tooth? Probably.

"And you know what else is coming?"

"New Dragon Age game?" Hiccup guessed. With her and Fishlegs it was almost always about games.

There was a tired huff coming from behind his back. Hiccup lifted one smaller screw and checked if it fit. It could be perfect, or a little bit too small.

"That's too. But someone's very special birthday is coming up."

Birthday? Whose birthday is coming? Definitely not Neil deGrasse Tyson*. So about whom Astrid could be speaking about? Ruff and Tuff had birthday in March, but it was February which was around the corner.

"Uhm…" Hiccup hummed, putting the screw in the proper place and grabbing a tiny screwdriver. Man, drill-driver would be better at this very moment, but it ran out of the power. Or was broken. Both options seemed possible.

"And you know I think you should do something for him on this very special day." Astrid apparently was still talking, even though Hiccup was only half listening to her at this point.

"Sounds good." Fuck, his screw fell down and ran away. It kind of rolled in the direction of his laptop, but when Hiccup lifted it, it wasn't there. Did it fall down?

"I think it would be good. And I think he will be very happy if you do something special to him." Her tone was kind of weird, like it held something inside of it. A hidden undertone, or a secret message encoded in octaves and sounds. But Hiccup didn't pay it more attention than to simply point out the obvious observation.

"That's great." He nodded and moved away from the desk, together with his seat. He quickly caught it before it would fall down. He kneeled and started to search under the desk. This screw was pretty important. At least Dagur had said so? And he kind of looked like he knew more about building machines than Hiccup.

Although following his instructions, or 'friendly advices' as Professor Robinson called it, was kind of strange in Hiccup's opinion.

He maneuvered in dark, empty and dusty world of the place under his desk. Seriously, Hiccup didn't want to know what he was sometimes touching. But still no screw. His hands floated above the ground, almost touching it, but not really in the same time.

"You should think more about it." Astrid continued her monologue.

His hand touched something cold, but it was too big. Definitely not the thing he was looking for. Few inches to the left and there was a bile of Toothless' fur. Yuck. Okay, a little bit further and yes…

"You know I made out with Jim? He was so hot!"

"What!?" Hiccup shrieked and lifted his body to, of course, hit his head on the wooden desk above him. Shit, it hurt. But Astrid's sentence caught him off guard.

Hissing in paint and massaging the aching place, he scrambled out from the dark place and looked at her.

"Really? You two kissed!? Why didn't you tell me sooner!?" Okay, maybe his voice was way too high, but come on!

Astrid rolled her eyes with something similar to a relieved, yet evil smirk playing in the corners of her lips.

"No, it didn't happen. I wanted to check if you were listening to me."

"Oh my god, Astrid!" Hiccup groaned and stood up. He more over slumped down on his chair and swirled around to face her now. "You're terrible, you know that?"

"I know." She nodded playfully and then looked down at Toothless laying on the bed. She turned the cat around, so he was laying on his back, and grabbed his front paws. "I'm terrible, right? Yes, I'm terrible!" She cooed, waving the fluffy paws in different direction with every spoken word.

Hiccup lifted his eyebrow. And people were telling him that he was crazy over his cat. Apparently it was Astrid who had it worse.

"So about whose birthday you were talking about?" He asked instead, remembering the previous topic. Plus he honestly had no idea about whom she could be talking about.

The girl leaned and snuggled her nose into Toothless' soft black fur while giggling happily. Only when she was done with the torture put upon poor cat's body, she looked up.

"Jack. Who else?" She said like it was the most obvious thing in the entire universe. She even cocked her eyebrow. Heh, weird. Why should this be obvious?

Oh, yeah the fake-relationship. Shit. Hiccup was bad at remembering dates. Especially anniversaries. They always somehow managed to evaporate from his head when the time to remember them was coming up. Apparently Hiccup's brain often decided to discard those numbers that apparently weren't that important. But they were.

"Jack's birthday is coming up?" He asked just to be sure.

She rolled her eyes and straightened her posture. Toothless rolled onto his belly and looked at her.

"Dude, do you even look sometimes through your Facebook?"

Erm…

"Not really?" Hiccup confessed, shrugging and then resting his palms on connected ankles he had put on the seat. "I mainly use it to talk with you guys or to check if someone from the Chemistry Club wants something…" And maybe sometimes he checks some weird scientific pages with lame science jokes and memes. But nobody beside Fishlegs need to know that!

"Then good you have me to remind you." Astrid huffed. "It would be weird if you did nothing for your boyfriend's birthday."

Well, yeah, it would be kind of weird. But hey, come on, he could always say that he was waiting to be alone to give Jack his present!

Wait, a second. No, wrong! That was so wrong. Oh my god. He was so glad Astrid told him about it! Hiccup would burst in flames of embarrassment if he dropped this bomb around other people. Gosh that would be scary. He just missed major fail. But something was telling him that Jack would be laughing his ass for eternities if he did that.

"You're right…" Hiccup nodded.

"Plus Valentine's Day. They are both on the same day. And you're are together so…"

That was a problem too. Dang it. He really should talk about it with Jack, right? Right. Well, lately the relationship between them wasn't as cold as it had been few days ago, but still. Plus he kind of wanted to spend some time with him. Alone. Like only the two of them. It felt like ages since they had done that. And maybe it even was.

Hiccup groaned and looked up at the ceiling.

"I think you should meet in person and talk about this!" Astrid suddenly proposed, looking at him with smile so bright and radiant that it was almost making him blind.

"Okay…" Hiccup said, after a while, unsure why she was insisting on it. "I mean I was planning to do it in person, but…"

"Then do it!" She said one more time, grinning wildly.

Okay, that was very strange. But it was Astrid. And he was glad she was back with him after their not-so-small-to-him quarrel.

"I will, sheesh, don't worry! But tomorrow! Now I need to finish at least the backbone of my project." Hiccup said, loudly, putting his hands in front of himself in defending manner. Seriously, what was up with Astrid lately? First she hadn't been as happy as Hiccup had thought she would be after discovering that he had been writing with Aster and now she was almost pushing him to make Valentines' plans?

Women, right?

The blonde haired girl scoffed, but smiled, which meant she accepted the terms and conditions.

"Okay, okay. But, of course, you need to tell me what you'll be planning!"

"I will tell you." Hiccup rolled his eyes. He couldn't force his mind to feel even one percent of the enthusiasm which was beaming from Astrid's body. She was more into it than Hiccup and Jack were.

Actually it felt like all his friends were more into their relationship than them. Yay…

"Good." Then she tilted her head and looked past him, probably at the parts of something… something that hopefully will become his project. Soon. "Hey, do you want me to wait for you when you'll be having another rendezvous with Dagur in Professor Robinson's lab?"

Hiccup internally gagged. No, wait, he did it in real life too.

"Please, don't call it that." He corrected his glasses, when they slipped down after Hiccup leaned down.

Astrid snorted, like she just made the best joke in the whole universe. Which wasn't true. Maybe she was just laughing at him trying not to throw up.

"The offer still stands."

It was very nice and to be honest greatly appreciated. And to tell the truth Hiccup would feel so much better if he had someone who could wait for him, so he wouldn't be left alone with Dagur of all people. But first, he didn't know how long his 'lessons' could be. Second, he knew Astrid had a lot of things on her shoulders – especially homework and trainings, which didn't end when winter had come. And third, Dagur had made no movements that would show that he had wanted to hurt Hiccup or anything like that. To be real, he had been kind of… far away during their last meeting. Like, he hadn't even tried to touch him or anything. Even when he had been pointing something at Hiccup's project, their skins hadn't touched. It was good for Hiccup. Really good. Astonishingly good. And because of that he decided to decline the offer.

It wasn't like he was totally trusting Dagur. Oh no, he was far away from it. But for now he will observe him, scrutinize him with his own gaze, look for any kind of signs of old Dagur retuning back.

"No, I think I'll manage for now." Hopefully, someone in his mind added, snickering at the end. Hiccup quickly brushed the negative thought away.

"If you say so. But remember to always message me after returning home. And if you need anything, just call me."

"Okay, mom!" Hiccup groaned, rising his head.

Seriously, he didn't need that much babysitting. He was independent human being. Almost an adult. Almost. Right?

Astrid giggled.

It looked that not so much.

---

Do you have some free time after

school to talk? In private?

Jack literally gaped at his phone. Well, to be honest, he didn't know what to expect. Well he also wanted to talk with Hiccup about Valentine's Day. Maybe this was what he wanted to talk about. Their plan required both participants in the end.

But well, the message had no emoticon, no smiling face, no weird sign. It kind of looked morbid. Jack also didn't use emojis when he wanted to show that he was serious. Was Hiccup serious now? Did something happen? Maybe? Maybe not? Did Astrid tell him about Jack feelings?

This idea made his heart skip a beat not in the real nice way. Like in that very bad way, however he quickly brushed that thought away – like snow from a windowsill. Astrid wasn't like that. She wouldn't sell his secrets, even to Hiccup. Or maybe especially to Hiccup.

Okie-dokie |((・▽・))/

And sent. Okay… okay…

After few minutes came a reply. Well, no wonder, they were in the middle of classes.

See you at the back door after classes?

And no emoticon one more time. Seriously…

Sure CC:

There was a cough from the front part of the classroom and Jack lifted his face to his teacher's scrutinizing look directed right at him. He swallowed, put on an innocent smile on his lips and pocketed his phone. The teacher nodded at Jack and returned to lecturing.

Oh boy. What could Hiccup want from him?

---

Okay. Jack wasn't nervous. Of course, he wasn't. He was Jackson Overland! He didn't fear a simple meeting with a friend. He was brave, young warrior! And he wouldn't be intimidated by it!

Only he was. Kind of… kind of really scared.

His heart was beating like crazy inside his ribcage, to this point Jack had to clench his shirt there. He was almost sure everyone around him could hear it, even though he knew it was probably impossible. Once or twice he had an urge to ask Tooth if she was hearing this weird beating sound, but decided otherwise in the end. That would be dumb.

Why was he so nervous about the idea of meeting up with Hiccup? Alone, just the two of them, without anyone else?

Okay, well, he kind of knew why he was nervous. It'll be the first time they'll be meeting alone after Jack's revelations. And even though he was sure, even one hundred percent sure, nothing will happen, he couldn't help the small stream of stress and fear from seeping into his heart.

He didn't feel such strong emotions in a long time.

But even though his heart was a beating mess, his mind was even worse, he was actually kind of happy? And terrified, because he still didn't know about what Hiccup wanted to talk about. But happy! About the idea of being able to spend more time with him.

Pushing him away won't help, Astrid had told him when he had been yet once again whining to her on the phone during one evening.

And she was right. In both things. First was the fact that Jack had been unconsciously (or not really) pushing Hiccup away. And the second - it didn't help. Like at all. Jack had a feeling it was even making everything way worse.

To this point he was super excited about the idea of simply hanging out with his friend. He was also terrified, but gosh darn it - he was so stupidly overjoyed about it. Like, honestly, that was probably dumb how much positive emotions he could fit into his heart right now. He kinda felt like a child.

But there wasn't anything bad about it, right?

So Jack almost skipped to the back exit after he said goodbyes to Tooth, humming some catchy song under his nose. He opened the door with too much force and stood there proudly for few seconds, only to notice that Hiccup wasn't there yet. Welp, so much for his grand entrance. Or exit, in this case. But at least he got some attention from few freshmen still hanging around. Jack simply waved at them.

Jack moved to the wall and leaned on it. He might as well wait here. It wasn't like he was cold outside or anything like that. Even though he had only long sleeved shirt and his blouse. This kind of clothing would give other people first degree frostbites. But not Jack. He was almost immune to it.

Maybe he was an Eskimo in the previous life? Who knew?

Plus, the cold weather was helping him calm his crazy, storming heart. It also weakened the blush which definitely was covering his cheeks. It wasn't big, or particularly strong, but Jack knew his skin there was hot. And he definitely didn't want Hiccup interrogating him about that. That would be awkward, especially because Jack was a bad liar.

And if there was one thing he couldn't do, it was telling Hiccup his real feelings. Not now, maybe in the future, or maybe never. For now Jack didn't want to worry about it. It was the problem for future Jack. The present Jack was going to enjoy spending some time with Hiccup.

Speaking of the devil.

"Hey, did you wait long?"

Jack turned to look at fully clothed Hiccup, who was staring at him and breathing heavily. Did he run here?

"Nah, just got there." Which technically was the truth. Jack maybe only waited one or two minutes. No biggie. "Did you run here?"

Hiccup nodded, catching big gulps of cold air. Jack wanted to say that it wasn't healthy to do so, but the teen quickly started speaking.

"Yeah. I went to check one thing in the lab and I chatted too long with the teacher." Hiccup said, pushing his hat higher.

Jack nodded while feeling his whole insides buzzing with joy after simply seeing the boy. Oh no, he had a feeling he was starting to have it bad. Like really bad. But he had to survive this afternoon, simply because he wanted to. Even if this meant keeping his emotions and feelings in check.

"No worries. We both were almost on time!" Jack added, moving away from the wall and standing next to Hiccup.

"Both?" Hiccup huffed, a hint of amusement at the end of this one word. It made Jack's stomach do a back-flip. Honestly. When did his organs learn to do that!?

"I never said that I'm a punctual guy!" Jack said, stepping in the direction of the school's gate with Hiccup quickly catching up.

"Some people may think it's a bad trait."

"I'm not one of those people!' Jack quickly added, lifting his head up to the sky, like it was something to be proud of. He knew it wasn't, but he wanted to show his point. And he wanted to hear the sigh coming from Hiccup's lips in approximately three, two, one-

"Ugh… you!"

There it was! In all its weird glory. It was way too long since Jack had heard it in person.

So he did the only logical thing. Jack simply snickered and threw his arm over Hiccup's shoulder, bringing him in for a warm half-hug.

"I missed you, Hic!"

Wait… wait, wait, wait, did these words really leave his lips. Shit, shit, shit, shit, abort mission. What mission?! Jack didn't know!

But Hiccup's body under his shoulder didn't twitch. It didn't fidget in that nervous way. It didn't suddenly become rigid. In reality, Jack had a feeling the auburn haired teen even slumped in this strange embrace. There was one moment – a skip, a leap, a spark in Jack's chest – when Hiccup's hand sneaked and patted his back. Kind of awkward, some may say that almost unnatural, but it was perfect in its beautiful and sloppy way.

And yeah, it kinda made Jack's legs feel like jelly, but he held strongly to not suddenly crumble down, like some Lovesick Maiden*.

Hiccup's palm rested there, on Jack's back, barely touching the blouse there. But it was there! Oh my god. Jack honestly felt like he could die any second.

The fact that the same freshmen Jack had seen previously turned to them and whistled loudly didn't really help. And the yell that followed actually made him almost trip.

"Aww love-birds!"

This time Hiccup twitched, but it was expected. And Jack was sure now Hiccup's cheeks were bright red, like poppies during warm summer. Jack's own ones probably also were hinted with rosy color. But he turned to the freshmen and stuck his tongue out.

So childish, but it was the only response Jack could think off. Plus, it was so him to do it, that the group only laughed and gladly left them alone, saying farewell with one last whistle.

That was… too much for his stomach definitely, which squirmed and jumped and twirled and danced and did all this weird things inside his body. The butterflies definitely had a party there. Wild things! Wish it didn't cost Jack so much stress and pain due to their parties down there.

Jack looked down at Hiccup who surprisingly was staring back at him.

"Guess we are a little bit out of practice."

A little bit was an understatement. Maybe even more than a little bit.

"Maybe… but you know, only maybe." Jack said, trying hard not to sound hoarse or out of breath, even though it was really hard to talk through his tightened throat.

And then Hiccup smiled this goofy grin and all Jack's inner walls shook in their bases. Shit.

"Yeah, totally."

He really got it hard?

No innuendo!

---

Jack's house was looking the same as Hiccup remembered it. Even the Christmas' decorations were still on, even though February was just around the corner. Or like in two days actually.

"Do you even plan to take those lights off?" Hiccup asked, when he stopped looking at the colorful bulbs and finally stepped into the Overland's household.

Jack hummed as he took his shoes off.

"I don't know. The next Christmas is only around three hundred and thirty days away." Oh, he even underlined that one word with a smirk on his lips, when he straightened his body and glanced back at Hiccup. "I don't know if it's even worth hiding them now."

"Such short time indeed." Hiccup nodded and took off his jacket to hang it on the hook. "Better be prepared for another Christmas."

"You understand me, bro!"

Hiccup shook his head.

Seriously, this was it. This was what had been missing. Just them being simply… them. Stupid, unimportant talks, but comfortable ones. Some a little bit crazy, some even dumb, some more important than others.

But with Jack next to Hiccup, looking at him like nothing in the whole world changed, Hiccup felt simply comfortable.

It honestly felt good to be back here, to have a little bit of the old, same Jack back.

"You hungry? I can fix something to eat pretty quickly." Jack asked, pointing with his head at the kitchen.

"No, right now I'm not starving. But coffee would be greatly appreciated."

"Two coffees coming right up!"

They worked together in the kitchen. Hiccup filled the kettle while Jack searched for two cups. Then Hiccup passed him a teaspoon, when the white haired teen finally found a jar with coffee. They talked about nothing in particular while waiting for the water to boil. Then Jack poured it into two cups and Hiccup went to get milk from the fridge.

It was nice.

With cup in one hand, they moved to Jack's room which didn't change at all. Maybe was even a bit messier than last year. But well Hiccup didn't actually give Jack time to clean up the mess. Plus it wasn't that bad.

The only difference was in form of two lilacs standing under the windowsill and Hiccup… Hiccup felt a pang of pride drumming in his chest at this sight. Because it was his present for Jack and it looked like the teen really treasured it.

"They're looking good!" The auburn haired boy said, stepping closer to the two trees.

Jack lifted his head from gathering his used shirts. He blinked twice.

"Yes, they are my little warriors."

Hiccup smiled at that, sensing something warm bubbling inside his chest. It was good that he had hit a jackpot with the present. But now there was another fight in front of his eyes. Jack's birthday. He still didn't really think about it.

"Thorin looks like he could grow pods soon."

Hiccup snickered at that.

"Thorin?" He repeated, glancing back at Jack – now with arms full of his shirts.

Ah damn, he blushed. He made Jack blush. That was so precious!

Jack frowned at Hiccup with that rosy hint adorning his cheeks. Almost like very faint phenolphthalein in barely alkali environment. Hiccup liked that color.

"W-what?" The white haired teen stammered, but maybe because two shirts just slipped away from his grasp and he tried to catch them in the same time.

Hiccup chuckled at the acrobatic display in front of him. Jack lifted his head with a small frown, maybe even with a hesitation hidden somewhere in the back of the bright blue eyes. The white haired teen opened his mouth and Hiccup was sure that there was some snarky comeback just waiting to be said, but… nothing happened. Like literally. Jack closed his mouth, furrowed his eyebrows more and then looked past Hiccup at the two trees.

There was something in his eyes – something Hiccup couldn't particularly name. Like this crumb of something unwanted swimming in a solution. This wasn't even technically this per se, but the feeling was pretty similar.

Hiccup had problems with naming his own emotions, but he knew that there was something sad in Jack's look? Yeah, sad. Sad was a very good word here. Maybe even hinted with some kind of yearning or… or longing? And if Hiccup's eyes weren't deceiving him then also mixed with… regret?

All in all, Hiccup didn't like this look. He definitely preferred maybe not the always happy Jack – because the never ending grin on Jack's mouth wasn't always honest, but something else. And it kind of felt like it was his fault.

"Is it bad?" Jack finally asked, glancing at Hiccup, only to quickly look away. "I mean me…" He cleared his throat. "…naming them?"

Wait, wait, wait. Did Jack seriously think that Hiccup was mad at Jack for naming Hiccup's present? Well, maybe not mad, but that Hiccup was making fun of him because of that? This… this was not what Hiccup intended to do. To be perfectly honest he was happy about it? Like there was this warm, fuzzy something starting to form inside his chest. He was almost one hundred percent sure it was happiness. This or he was dying right now due to some weird sickness spreading fast in his lungs.

No, that wasn't possible. So this definitely was joy.

Oh and he still didn't answer Jack who now glanced for the second time at him. Uh, shit.

"Uh… no…" Hiccup finally said and wanted to immediately face-palm himself. That didn't sound confident at all! He sounded like an asshole! No, no, no!

Jack now raised his eyebrow, but before he was able to utter any more words, Hiccup butted with his own explanation.

He had to make it right and try to show what he really meant.

"I-I mean…" Okay, Hiccup got it. He got it. But why was Jack suddenly staring so intently at him! It felt like today his gaze was more sharp and stronger than ever. No, that probably was his imagination. "Well, what I meant is that I don't think this is bad." Still didn't sound good! "Maybe some people would think this is childish… or… or inappropriate but-" Shit, Hiccup was digging his own grave with his words. Just let him rest here and die of embarrassment.

But Jack didn't look angry. Now both his eyebrows were raised up and there was a shadow of a smile in the corner of his lips.

"However you shouldn't care and listen to these people, because they aren't right! I mean maybe they think they are right, but they aren't. And there is nothing wrong with naming things you like!" Now Hiccup's voice was accompanied by his hands which moved from side to side. "I'm even doing it now. I mean, sometimes I'm naming some things I'm making during labs! Well… well I often forget later what this name was, but it's the idea that counts." Oh my god, he was a mess. "But I have a lot of plushies from childhood which names I still remember! Like… like my teddy bear which is named Mr. Honeynuts*!"

Hiccup wasn't sure why he raised his voice at the end. But he was totally sure his whole lecture made zero sense. He started with something, but didn't know where he wanted to go. So he just rambled about random things which popped into his mind.

God, he was a failure in social interactions and lifting people's spirits up.

But Jack… Jack was looking back at him and he was so… so bright and radiant and, god, could you actually stretch your mouth to such limits? Hiccup didn't know if that was possible. But here he was, with Jack who looked like the happiest person on Earth.

Ugh, Hiccup kinda wanted to close his eyes, because such brightness was hurting them.

Jack opened his mouth and Hiccup waited, anticipated the words that were soon to be spoken.

"You're a dork."

Well, that was very eloquent. But it was Jack, he kind of should have expected this. It didn't mean though that the fire under his cheeks was any smaller.

"Shut up." Hiccup mumbled and coughed. Wow, yeah, his throat was dry.

But the white haired teen only giggled at that response. Giggled! How dared he!? Fortunately, this movement made Jack lose hold on the clothes he was trying to gather and resulted in most of them scattering to the floor.

"Shit."

Karma worked well.

It took Jack around four minutes to finally collect all his dirty clothes again. He left Hiccup alone in his room, saying that he was going to be right back as he only needed to turn on the washing machine.

Hiccup had no heart to tell him that he missed one sock, so he only grabbed his coffee and turned to the lilacs. One sip of the warm drink soothed his throat and allowed the muscles to relax.

Hiccup sat down in front of the trees and smiled under his nose.

"Hey. You're looking good." He whispered quietly, so no one else in the house would hear him, but loud enough that it was actually spoken. "Jack is taking good care of you." There was no response from either of the siblings, but Hiccup didn't mind. Actually it would be kind of terrifying if he did receive a reply. So this was way better. "It's good. You look much better than when I first bought you." Hiccup tilted his head. "I'm sure you'll be happy here. Thorin, right?" His eyes jumped to the tree on the right. "And you are…"

"Galadriel."

Hiccup twitched and few droplets of coffee escaped from the cup, but gladly didn't fall on the floor.

"W-what?" Shit, did Jack hear him talking to his plants? Would he think it was weird?

Hiccup turned around and here he was, his friend, standing in the doorway without his dirty clothes.

"Galadriel." Jack repeated himself, even though Hiccup heard him the first time. "I named the second one Galadriel."

Maybe Hiccup should say something cool. Because, wow, that name actually sounded nice. Plus, he really loved the original characters from which these names came from, but the only thing his brain comprehended and allowed him to say was:

"And you call me a nerd."

Nailed it!

Jack blinked, only to snort in the end, while shaking his head. He moved closer to Hiccup and kneeled in front of the trees, first grabbing his own cup from the desk. Jack sighed heavily when he finally sat down next to him with their knees touching. Hiccup, surprisingly didn't mind. Or more like he didn't mind when it was Jack or some of his friends. He kind of got used to it by now.

Jack looked at the lilacs and smiled softly under his nose. Like really smiled. It was honest and pure and kind of childish, it was the whole epitome of Jack Hiccup hadn't seen during the last few weeks since Jack had started to avoid him.

Why? Hiccup still didn't know, nor he actually expect to ever know the answer. No matter how cheerful Jack was, he was keeping all his emotions, especially negative ones, under cover. Hiccup sort of wanted to know the truth, he wanted to ask and get a clear answer. But the chances of it happening were very low. Plus Hiccup was afraid that him inquiring would make things worse.

Somewhere in the back of Hiccup's mind he had a feeling that it was his fault. But why? What had he done?

However in this very moment, with Jack looking, staring, almost gazing so kindly at the lilacs, it felt like nothing happened. Like there wasn't weeks of him ignoring Hiccup, like the argument between him and Astrid didn't happen, like Aster's message wasn't waiting on his phone, like Dagur becoming his tutor didn't occurre in reality.

Hiccup loved Overland's household. The whole house had this atmosphere – this kind of disruption of reality, where you feel like you're dreaming a very nice dream. Everything seemed better here.

Or maybe that wasn't because of the house, but simply because of Jack? Spending time with him always made Hiccup feel better and more… more comfortable with himself. He hoped Jack could say the same about spending time with Hiccup, but… who was he joking…

"So about what do you need to talk about?" Jack's question fished him back to the real world.

It took him few seconds to collect thoughts, now scattered all over his consciousness. But when he gathered every idea and question, somehow he still didn't know how to start this really… really embarrassing topic.

They maybe were fake-dating for three or so months by now, but it still was too hard.

"So you know…" Hiccup cleared his throat and then took a sip. "That February is coming. I mean, it's in few days and well…"

"Valentine's Day, right?" Jack proposed, sending him a saucy grin, which didn't really help Hiccup all that much.

"Yeah that and… well, I was wondering if we should do something on that day?"

Jack… honestly looked confused. Like, seriously, his face and whole body just froze for a second, maybe even longer, but came back to life with him swallowing hard.

Then, painfully slow, he licked his bottom lip.

"We as…?"

Hiccup didn't know if this needed any more clarification. From what he knew they were still both into their arrangement. But what if something had changed? Did he miss something? Was he not informed about some details, or some kind of the end of the contract? They didn't even have contract in the first place!

"Erm… we as a fake pair?" Hiccup slowly mumbled, eyeing his partner curiously.

Jack's eyes widened for a second, maybe less, or maybe it wasn't even there and it all was just Hiccup's imagination, but he could swear it really happened. There was a short spasm of time when Jack's eyes softened, not in the reassured, but defeated way. Like he expected the answer and yet he was still disappointed by the outcome.

A quick spark of lighted match, only for it to die instantly due to the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere.

"Because we are still doing this?" Hiccup asked.

This shook Jack and brought him back to reality from whatever space he was occupying just a millisecond ago.

"Yes, yes, we are." He quickly cleared it, laughing shyly at the end. Right hand immediately moved to his nape which he scratched.

Not a good sign. Jack was nervous. But why? It was usually Hiccup who was stressed over this relationship's problems and fiascos. Why now it felt like they switched places? When did it happen?

"You know, if you don't want to do this, then we can simply sto-"

"No!" Jack shouted, moving closer, pushing, forcing himself into Hiccup's personal bubble. He leaned forward with desperate, but clear certainty evaporating from his bright blue irises.

It had to be a spun of moment, some lose wires connecting, creating a short-circuit somewhere inside Jack's body or maybe an error which occurred to human's operating system. No, that was wrong. People weren't machines. But it was so much easier for Hiccup to think it was some kind of a failure of a system, than Jack intentionally doing it.

He was close. Too close for comfort, yet there was something sad in the way Jack looked at him in this very short moment and in this one fast word he had shouted, that Hiccup didn't even move back.

Maybe he should, because now their noses were almost touching and it was so… so awkward…

And Jack wasn't even budging away!

"Uhm…" Okay, Hiccup didn't know what had happened, but he had to clear it somehow. "Okay, so we are still… a thing." He wanted to clear his throat, but then he would be coughing in Jack's too close face. Seriously… "A fake-thing that-"

"Jack!"

Oh, Emma was shouting from the downstairs.

Jack blinked and then finally, finally moved away from Hiccup's personal space.

"Yes!" He answered, also yelling loudly and darting his head upwards.

Hiccup brushed the fringe from his forehead with a trembling palm.

There were footsteps outside the room. A quick footsteps. Then the door swung open without even a sound of knocking.

Emma stood there with a wireless receiver of a landline phone in one hand. The other one was covering the mic, so less sounds would be heard on the other side. She immediately looked at Jack and oh, Hiccup had never seen her so… so distressed and… and angry? It wasn't clearly visible on her face, but her chocolate eyebrows were furrowed and palms turned pale from too much force she used on something. Probably the phone she was currently holding. How it didn't turn into bazillion particles by now was a miracle.

"What's the problem, Em?" Jack asked, immediately standing up when his sister stepped into the room.

"This call is for you." She said, maybe even stated robotically as she pushed the phone into his hand.

Jack glanced at the device and then took it away from her. There was a second or so of pause when Hiccup was honestly afraid that the girl would snatch the phone back, but she gave up and quickly loosened the strong grip she had on it.

"Okay." Jack said softly, looking at his little sister with warmness spreading over his lips. "I got it."

Emma wasn't looking at him, but at the phone in Jack's bigger hands. Her lips were pinched in thin, perfect line, almost like a linear function where gradient is zero.

Okay, definitely something was off here. Like majorly off.

Jack moved past Emma, patted her head in friendly, reassuring way and went out of the room. But before he stepped out, his smile dropped down. It looked like he knew who was on the other end of the call, even without asking.

"Hello?" Came a shushed response from Jack. The voice was followed by footsteps of him going down the stairs, away from them.

Emma was still in the room with arms hanging limply near her body, but palms clenched into tight fists. It took her three deep inhales and exhales to finally lift her face and notice Hiccup. She blinked, probably taken aback by his presence here, but the mischievous smirk quickly returned to her lips.

She looked better like that, Hiccup concluded.

"Oh, hey Hiccup. Didn't know you were here. Sorry."

Hiccup stood up from the ground too and brushed away the dust from his jeans.

"No problem." He didn't know Emma was home either, so that kind of made it even.

"How New Year has been treating you?" She asked immediately after his response. Wow, the chatty free spirit had to swim in the bloodline of Overlands. Seriously. Hiccup had problems with opening mouth when he had to order something or respond to the cashier, but neither Emma, Jack nor North had had problems with speaking to him on his first day here.

"Brutally. And how about you? How's school?" Hiccup might at least try. Beside, Emma looked like she needed distraction right now.

She laughed at his response, then put her hands behind her back and swung on her heels.

"Boring and demanding. The worst combination."

Hiccup chuckled at that.

"Too much homework?"

"And too much of irritating classmates!" Emma finished while cocking her head to the ceiling.

When Jack was social, Emma wasn't. It wasn't like she hated people, she just was easily pissed by some of them. She had a small group of friends, but usually she didn't hang a lot around other people than them.

When Jack had told him about it, Hiccup had been quite surprised, because Emma looked so vivid, lively and full of energy that he couldn't imagine this girl standing alone in the corner. In the end, it wasn't like that. Emma only had a case of disliking some people – or many of them.

But it kind of looked like she liked him (or at least tolerated), so Hiccup was glad.

"Ugh, definitely the worst. I know a thing or two about irritating people." Hiccup complied with small smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

Emma grinned broadly at that with compassion and understatement jumping in her chocolate eyes.

There was a pause filled with silence between them. Hiccup didn't know exactly what to say and Emma didn't look like she even wanted to say anything, content in being simply there. The shushed one-sided conversation was barely audible here. Hiccup could hear voice which sounded a lot like Jack, but was totally different in the same time.

Okay, Hiccup had to admit. The curiosity was eating him from inside. Or maybe it was like an acid which was dissolving his organs. Either way, he kind of wanted to know what this call was about. Jack looked so dejected about the simple idea of picking it up and it moved some string inside Hiccup's chest. And Emma… Emma didn't look any happier about her brother talking with whoever was on the other side. Maybe she looked even worse than Hiccup.

"Hey uhm…" Okay he was doing it. Gosh, here it goes. Total destruction. "I know I maybe shouldn't even ask about it, as it isn't my problem. But I'm just curious." He clasped his hands together and start to play with his fingers, bending them in different angles. "With whom is Jack talking?"

The girl lifted her head at him and blinked, clearly confused.

"You don't know?" She asked, even though it was kind of futile ask.

Hiccup laughed nervously and lifted his one eyebrow, which he hoped was enough for an answer.

Emma sighed and put her one hand behind her head, scratching the place here. She turned her head to the side and somehow she now was staring as the trees Hiccup had given Jack. She furrowed her eyebrows while nibbling on her cheek. Thin wrinkles appeared on her nose, but they softened when some resolve returned to her eyes.

"You don't need to tell me." Hiccup quickly said, lifting his hands.

"No, it's not that. It's not about telling you." She said, at much slower speed than she usually spoke. Then a loud heavy sigh left her lips. "It was… Jack's mother."

Hiccup stared at Emma. Wait, what? Did he hear correctly?

"What?" Even though he was almost sure he heard correctly, he needed to hear it one more time. Just for confirmation.

Emma turned to him and repeated herself.

"Jack is talking with his mother."

---

Author's note:

Finally done! Huff. Damn it took way too long to finish it. But on the bright side – I decided to have a deadline! So I'll try updating every two months (or maybe more often). Wish me luck!

And nerd facts:

*Thorin – character from The Hobbit.

*Galadriel – character from The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. I don't know why, but I really wanted to name one lilacs with this name.

*The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of unknown – H.P. Lovecraft

*Vacuum distillation – method of distillation whereby the pressure above the liquid mixture to be distilled is reduced to less than its vapor pressure (usually less than atmospheric pressure) causing evaporation of the most volatile liquid. I really, really hate this type of distillation. I mean, I know it is important and useful, but I have so many bad memories with it xD.

*Infrared, wavelength (…) – Hiccup was describing IR spectrum to Jack.

*Neil deGrasse Tyson – he has birthday on 5th of October.

Other facts:

*Not kissing during New Year's Eve – to all who were expecting this… I'm sorry… I totally forgot about the New Year's kiss… xD Missed a good opportunity.

*Lovesick Maiden – it is a painting by Jan Steen. It shows a young woman suffering from love-sickness surrounded by her doctor and a maid-servant.

*Mr. Honeynuts – character(?) from Camp Camp.

And answers!

Masks of JM and JS – Sorry, but I didn't catch what you meant ;_;

AnhiVann – Oh, no, no worries. I prefer when people point out my mistakes, because this way I can learn from them :3! I totally love writing friendship, sometimes I even think I write more of it, than actual romance haha xD. Oooo science bros sounds so good! Me to, bud, me too.

And thank you Reader for being here! Hope to see you soon!