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…

14. Chapter 14 - Wien's displacement 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.

---

Wien's displacement law – the black body radiation curve for different temperatures peaks at a wavelength inversely proportional to the temperature. Hotter objects emit most of their radiation at shorter wavelengths, hence they will appear to be bluer. Cooler objects emit most of their radiation at longer wavelengths, hence they will appear to be redder.

Jack sighed as he made a turn and drove into a parking lot in front of the mechanic. Their car had started to make strange noises from the back right wheel yesterday, so North had asked Jack to take it to the mechanic and have it checked. Hopefully it wasn't anything majorly big and it could be repaired in few hours.

Jack drove forward and parked near the main building. He'll have to drive inside to have it checked, but for now he had to see if they could take care of it.

He exited the car and locked it. He moved slowly to the familiar metal door which would allow him to walk into the main hall. He pushed it and stepped inside.

Two of three repair stations were occupied. On the second one a car was lifted up and two men and one woman were looking at the bottom part of it, talking with each other about something.

Jack stepped closer and cleared his throat loudly.

One man under the car twitched and stood up.

"Hello, mister Crood." Jack said, smiling after he recognized the chief of this place.

The man threw a wrench on the floor and clasped his gloved, dirty hands together. Actually, the gloves weren't the only thing dirty here, as the man's whole suit was marked with brown, black and gray stains. Jack preferred it that way. It showed that people who worked here really did that. Plus they were good at it.

North always came here to repair their car.

"Oh Jack, hey. North called us yesterday to tell you'll be coming." The man said and then stepped away from the car. "Think you can drive it to the third station?" He asked, scratching his beard and unconsciously smearing oil all over his chin.

"Sure can do, sir." Jack said, glad that he didn't have to go back home emptyhanded.

Mister Crood opened the giant door when Jack was outside and he drove slowly onto the rails. When he had first tried to do so, he had missed it greatly, but now he had learned how to do it.

Yet he still was stressed a little bit.

Jack exited the car and mister Crood stepped to him.

"So what is wrong?" He asked.

"There is weird sound coming from the back right wheel. Like something is rubbing against something else?" Jack said.

The man nodded and then moved to the back of the car. He kneeled and brushed something on the ground.

"Yeah, definitely something is grinding here. You even left a trail after yourself." The man stated and then stood up. "Eep, come here, pick this old fella up!" He shouted, tilting his head to the duo still doing something under the second car.

Quickly after that the female emerged from under the vehicle with an ocean of wild, fiery hair sticking in many directions. She smiled at Jack, waved and then moved to lift the car.

Her father hummed approvingly and then turned to Jack.

"Are you in a hurry?" He asked.

"Not really."

"Good. You can make yourself coffee and wait." Mister Crood stated.

Jack nodded in response and then moved away. He walked to the metal table standing in the further part of the hall, far away from the rest of machinery. On it stood an electric kettle, few plates – one had an unfinished sandwich on it – and two cups, both filled with coffee.

Jack grabbed a cup from a drier which stood on a small white fridge, just next to a sink. When he had been here for the first time he had been way too shy to make himself something to drink. Even now he didn't feel too comfortable, but well… He didn't know how long it could take, so he decided to accept the offer.

He turned on the kettle, poured some instant coffee in the cup and waited. He busied himself with observing the Crood family getting rid of his back wheel. Well, sayonara to that, he guessed.

Jack made the coffee, put one small cup of cream inside and then sat down. He took out his phone to check if he had any new messages.

He had – five in total. But there were few which he anticipated more than the others. He was a man in love, who could blame it?

Well, thinking it freely was definitely way better than trying to delude yourself in thinking otherwise. Besides now he could send some weird, in love, cheesy memes to Astrid, who had been groaning at him lately when they had been talking. No wonder actually.

Jack answered Hiccup and then moved to another message. From Fishlegs.

At first he hadn't been really that up for Hiccup's proposition. He had seen Fishlegs few times around the school and had talked a little bit with him during the New Year's Eve. Nothing more, nothing less. So it was normal for him to have his suspicions.

So he had decided to talk a little bit with the teen, check the grounds before he would determine his final decision.

Fishlegs actually had turned out to be a cool guy. Jack had asked him about few games he had played and he had found out that they had quite many similar titles in their libraries.

Astrid also had vouched for him. Aster, surprisingly, had done too.

So now Jack was almost one hundred percent sure he had picked the winner in the small lottery.

Jack occupied his time by messaging people while he drank the coffee. He heard workers talking with each other as they tried to repair what was wrong with Overland's car. It took them at least half an hour before Mister Crood approached him, brushing away the sweat from his forehead.

"Jack, unfortunately I don't think we can repair it today."

"What happened?"

"The suspension in the back wheel broke down. I need to buy some parts tomorrow to repair it."

Oh…

"Well, okay." Jack said, smiling at the man. He wasn't totally happy, but he knew the man tried. Plus it wasn't like it was unrepairable, it just needed some more time. "No worries."

"Do you need a lift home? I can asked Guy to take you." The man said, maybe even spat the name like it was an acid on his tongue.

A teen, maybe three years older than Jack emerged from under the second car. He waved his hand at Jack and he did it back.

"Don't worry, Mister Crood. I can walk home. I don't have anything better to do, plus it isn't that cold outside." He turned to the taller man.

"Are you sure?" The man asked, raising his eyebrow. He passed Jack and grabbed one half empty cup, only to drink the rest of the coffee from it in one big gulp. "It isn't a problem."

Jack grabbed his jacket and put it on.

"Nah, really, I don't mind." He said, covering his body with a warm layer of clothes. "Should I pay you?" North had given him some money.

The man waved his hand.

"No, payment after work is done." Then the man scratched his beard in thoughts. "I'll call North when the car will be done. Shouldn't take more than two or three days."

Jack thanked the man, said his goodbyes to him, the girl and guy, who still was under the second car, and then went out.

Well, North will have to use a bus once again.

---

Hiccup will probably never really understand why he had done that in a million years. It was pretty unlike him to start a random topic with Dagur. Well, maybe not random, but definitely off-topic? Yes, no, maybe? Okay, never mind.

He simply didn't know why he started to talk at all. Hiccup was fine with the stillness that appeared between him and Dagur whenever they worked during their tutoring sessions. It was like vacuum, with no movement inside of it. It was unavoidable. But earlier he had never really thought about trying to break through it. And even now he didn't know why he even started to do it.

But the question was out from his lips, before he could fully think it through.

"How is Heather?"

Dagur… Dagur definitely was taken aback by the question.

They were sitting in the library once again. It had started to happen a lot nowadays. Today Professor Robinson had some tutoring session for some students and they had decided on library once again. At this point they will probably move the sessions here.

It wasn't the safest space, but Hiccup didn't feel scared. Heh, he hadn't felt that terrified since this weird conversation he had had with Dagur.

That time he had seen something utterly… human in the teen. He really had noticed it way later, when he had been replaying the scene over and over in his head. Why had he done that? He hadn't known. But something in Dagur's behavior had been off, unnatural, and Hiccup hadn't been able to pinpoint it at first. Only he had done it later.

Maybe it was this realization that had made him ask this question.

The teen lifted his face from his phone as he waited for Hiccup to correct something in his project. His eyes were big, and there was a crease on his forehead which smoothened a little after a second.

"Fine… I think…" He said, slowly, unsurely. There was another few seconds of emptiness around them, when they could hear the librarian coughing behind the wall. "Why do you ask?"

"Uhm, I don't know. Once I saw her quite…" Hiccup looked up at the ceiling, but he didn't find an idea for a good word to use here. "…sad."

"Oh…" Dagur mumbled, returning his gaze to his phone, but hesitantly, like he wasn't sure where he should look there at all.

"But last week when I saw her in the city, she looked better." Hiccup quickly continued.

This topic was awkward. Even he could almost smell it, sense it. Awkward as doing some lab experiment alone for the very first time. But neither he nor Dagur were good in social interactions, especially with each other. Maybe he should just shut up and live through the silence till the tutoring session would be over.

The seconds ticked, slowly, but steadily, undisturbed by the events happening around the whole world. The time didn't care about anything – how people felt, whether they wanted it to stop or prolong some moment – it listened to no one.

It was almost terrifying.

"I think… she smiles more nowadays, if you're asking about that." Dagur finally mumbled, barely partying his lips to let the words out.

Maybe Hiccup was asking about that? He was surprised he got any answer in the end.

"I'm glad then." Hiccup said, smiling to himself.

Maybe he didn't know Heather that much, mostly heard about her from Jack and other people, but honestly she never had been unkind to him.

"Me too." Dagur added, after a while.

Hiccup looked up. Dagur wasn't staring at him, but at the screen of his phone which was illuminating his face. But damn, he could swear there was a ghost – an invisible force - of a pleased smile tugging – drawing it into its field – at the corners of his mouth.

"That's good." Hiccup added and that was the end of this topic.

---

"That's great." Hiccup murmured to his laptop as he wrote another equation in his notebook.

He maybe liked learning, but doing homework was definitely the worst. They should totally ban it. It would be better for everyone, plus he would have more time for himself. If he could he would throw all his homework (and maybe even the inventor of it too) into a black hole.

"Yeah, I can't believe this is really happening!" Fishlegs almost shouted excitedly. His voice came out in a rhythmic tempo of screeches. Damn, Hiccup's speakers weren't that good at withstanding such kind of frequencies.

Hiccup still smiled under his nose. He was happy for Fishlegs. Jack apparently had asked him yesterday if he was up to take care of his PS4. And Fishlegs, of course, almost immediately agreed. Hiccup wasn't so surprised actually. Fishlegs was one of those people who did something and thought later about the consequences. A trait that often had made them mess up an experiment during the labs.

"It is." Hiccup agreed. He grabbed his calculator and put few numbers in there to get a result. Okay, he only had to do like two more subsections and he would be free to do whatever he wanted today.

"I think I may die."

"If you die, you won't get to play."

"Oh, fair point." Fishlegs mused, nodding.

They were video chatting. It didn't happen too often with them, but from time to time, usually when one of them missed seeing the other's one face.

"But, honestly, and tell me the truth, there are no catches, right?"

Now Fishlegs was thinking about it? Kinda too late, buddy.

"From what I know, no." Hiccup added, not really looking up. Oh shit, he made a mistake. Well, he had to calculate the whole equation again. Great.

"Come on, you can tell me."

"If I knew there were some, I would tell you. Besides it isn't like he is giving it to you for free."

From what Hiccup knew – or from what Fishlegs and Jack had both told him, they were supposed to exchange PS4 for some Nintendo? Or maybe some games? Hiccup wasn't sure, he hadn't been listening too intently actually.

He was just happy both sides were content with the results of their deal.

"Oh, yeah, but still…"

Hiccup shook his head with a fond smile. Then he heard a sound coming from the corridor, like someone or something was retching. Definitely not a nice sound.

"Fish, wait a second." Hiccup said as he stood up from his chair.

He turned off the microphone and then moved to the door. He opened it and turned on the light in the corridor.

Oh, it was Toothless.

"Hey, what's up, buddy?" Hiccup asked, moving to the cat who was definitely vomiting on the floor. "Did you have some cat hair in your throat?"

It definitely looked like it could be the case here. The only problem was that it had happened for the third time today. One was normal, sometimes even two, but three times?

Hiccup started to worry. Maybe he should go to a vet? Just to be sure.

Hiccup cleaned the floor and then slowly picked Toothless up. Weirdly, he didn't even try to get out and run away. Something definitely was wrong with his buddy and he needed to find out what.

---

Jack whistled as he slowly walked through the city.

Mister Crood had called them earlier to say that the car had been fixed and they could come pick it up. And because North still had to return home from his work, Jack was picked to be the one to go on this mighty journey.

With music blasting in his ears it wasn't really that bad. His muscles hurt a little due to the fact they had started their football trainings. Gladly the volleyball team hadn't had practices in the morning, so they could do it in the Gym and not outside. Maybe it was March, so the spring should be around the corner, but the snow was still there.

Time was moving forward and Jack still didn't start learning for the final exams. Shit.

He knew he maybe should start reviewing old classes or something like that, but he couldn't find motivation in himself to do so. Aster wanted to go to a University. Tooth too. Most of Jack's friends already knew what they wanted to do after High School… But Jack… Jack wasn't sure.

He wasn't particularly good in anything. Maybe he was more or less okay at video games and football, but he didn't want to focus his future on one of those things. But except for that, he had unfortunately nothing. He wasn't that interested in physics or biology like Aster or Tooth. He wasn't good in geography like Sinbad. He didn't like astronomy like Jim. He was… mediocre at those at best.

There wasn't anything he particularly wanted to do. He just wanted to have a normal, happy life and he would be content with it.

Apparently it wasn't so easy to get.

He could always go into business and economy… just like North had done, but somehow he couldn't imagine himself sitting for the whole day behind a desk and putting numbers into a computer. That was so… inactive.

Plus the problem with Aster was still on his mind. Yet nowadays it had felt like… like Aster had started to open a little bit? Or maybe that was only Jack's imagination, but, damn, he hoped that wasn't the case. He had nowadays too many things to worry about, so if only one thing could be solved then he would be glad.

Jack walked into the parking lot in front of the mechanic and immediately moved to the familiar metal door. He opened them and then stepped inside.

Mister Crood was this time under the car on the first station. Or at least Jack supposed it was him, judging by the legs sticking out from beneath the vehicle and grumpy hums resembling music coming from under it.

"Hello?" Jack hesitantly started.

The man under the car twitched and then slowly moved out. It indeed was Mister Crood, although it was hard to say so at first, because his whole face was dark from soot, dirt and different types of oil.

"Oh Jack, good to see you." The man said and then stood up. Jack could literally hear the male's bones creaking. Damn, it had to hurt. "The car is ready to go."

"That's great."

"I actually asked my new recruit to take care of it. I hope you don't mind?"

New recruit? Did he mean that one guy who had been here two days ago?

Jack looked around, but it didn't look like besides Mister Crood anyone was here.

"I don't mind." Jack said. If the work was done, then that was okay with him.

Mister Crood nodded.

Maybe Jack should actually mind, because the next word the man shouted actually put him into a dazed mode.

"Dagur, Overland's here to pick up the car!"

At first Jack thought that maybe he misheard the man. But then the teen with his grumpy frown and exhausted eyes walked out from the door directing them to a storeroom.

Their gazes crossed and Jack had a feeling that the frown on the male's face deepened. Uh-oh.

Dagur approached them and passed Mister Crood a cloth which was hanging on his shoulder.

"Dagur this is…"

"We know each other, Mister Crood." Jack quickly interrupted the man politely, smiling to him at the end.

"Oh, that's good." The older man said and then turned to Dagur. "Will you explain him everything? I need to call the owner of this car." He patted the car on station one. "The repair will take a lot more time." At that Dagur only nodded, so the man continued. "I don't know what that guy did, but he definitely wasn't taking care of his car."

"I can imagine." Dagur said to Mister Crood and then looked back at Jack.

Oh, his mouth was dry.

Dagur showed with his head that Jack should follow him as they moved to the third station. Jack's car was still lifted up, but the tire was gladly secured in its rightful place.

Jack had to admit he was a little bit nervous. Maybe he wouldn't be so nervous, if this whole situation had happened before the whole fake-relationship had started. Back then Dagur had been simply a guy he had seen around the school and Heather's brother. Now… now Jack didn't feel like they were neutral to each other. He even had a feeling that Dagur hated him. And Jack couldn't really blame him for that. Or at least kinda understood him.

Jack not only had taken Hiccup away from Dagur, but he also had hurt Heather. So yeah, if Jack was in Dagur's shoes he maybe wouldn't dislike Jack, but… okay maybe he would hate him too.

So yeah, the stress pounding inside his temple was reasonable.

Jack cleared his throat:

"Was it bad?" He asked, hoping that his voice sounded as normal as he wanted it to sound.

Dagur glanced at him, but returned his gaze at the car. He moved to the back wheel and kneeled. Jack stopped next to him.

"You brought the car at a good time. Few more rides and the tire would snap and roll away." Dagur huffed and grabbed the wheel. He tried to move it. It spun a little in one direction, but gladly that was it.

"That is… not good."

"You think?" Dagur mumbled and frowned. He grabbed a wrench from his belt and then tightened a screw.

Jack stepped closer.

"So basically what was wrong…"

Jack more or less understood almost everything from what Dagur explained. There were few places when he was lost, simple because he didn't understood cars that much, but other than that he got it all.

All this time Dagur was pointing at places he was describing. At one point Jack had to crawl together with Dagur under the car, so the older teen could show him what they should check if something similar happen in the future.

After the explanation was done, Dagur turned to Jack:

"I'm going to lower the car. You need to drive for a sec around the parking lot, so I can check if everything is alright with it."

As the teen said, the car was then lowered slowly to the ground. Jack stepped in and then drove in reverse out into the cold world outside. He made few circles around the parking lot, listening if the car was making weird noises and checking if the tire was holding strongly. All this time Dagur stood outside with him, in his dirty suit, observing Jack's car.

After few minutes Jack returned and parked near the door directing them to the hall. He exited the car, locked it and patted softly the mask.

Dagur waited as Jack approached him.

"It looks like everything's alright." He stated. "Let's go inside, so we can finish the rest."

And with that the both of them returned inside the hall, not uttering any more words between each other.

Dagur walked to the man laying under the first car.

"Mister Crood, it seems everything is alright with the car."

The man moved with a groan from under the car and stood up.

"Okay. Good job, Dagur." Mister Crood said and patted the older teen on the shoulder. "Can you finish repairing the hydraulic system in this one?"

"No problem."

The man nodded at Jack to show him that he wanted Jack to follow. Dagur in the meantime got on the ground and then disappeared under the car. Just like that, without even saying anything more to Jack.

He couldn't really blame him.

Jack followed the man to the small room which contained table and three chairs. He sat on one and waited for Mister Crood to find needed papers. There were a lot of confusion around the insurance, but somehow Mister Crood managed to sort out the case. Jack honestly had no idea what should he do. If Mister Crood told him to pay in bananas, then he would probably did it too.

In the end Jack only had to pay one third amount of the normal payment. The rest would be covered by insurance. Or at least Jack supposed so?

Mister Crood hid the money in a small box and then turned to him.

"I hope everything will be alright with the car from now on." The man said. "I wasn't sure about leaving the work for him, but I guess I'm not getting any younger. Plus he really has talent in it."

Jack turned to the window which allowed them to see the inside of the hall. Unfortunately Dagur wasn't visible, as he still worked under the first car. Now Jack wasn't sure whether he wasn't doing it, so he could avoid looking at or talking with Jack.

"Has he been working here for a long time?" Jack found himself asking. But he couldn't remember even one time when Heather had told him about her brother working somewhere. Jack would know, because his sister had mentioned Dagur sometimes.

"Three months, I think?" Mister Crood said, looking up at the ceiling and scratching his chin.

So not long after he and Hiccup had started fake-dating. That's why he didn't know.

"At first I was unsure about him." The man said and then slumped down on the chair. "He had that everlasting pissed expression and I didn't hear quite good rumors about him, especially as he repeated some years in High School. But he turned out to be a really hard working person."

"I'm glad then." Jack said.

It was true. He never really wished people bad. Or at least he really tried to not wish that. Maybe he didn't like Dagur per se, but he still wanted him to have a decent life.

"Yeah, me too. It's good sometimes to give people a chance."

"That is true."

"You know each other from school?" Mister Crood asked, tearing his gaze away from the working teen.

Jack massaged the back of his leg with the shoe of his other one.

"Uh, yeah." Then he cleared his throat. "But we actually like never talked. Though I'm friends with his sister."

"Heather, right?" Mister Crood interrupted.

Jack was honestly surprised that the man knew her.

"Yeah, Heather."

"He talks about her sometimes. But God, it is hard to crack this boy open." The man said, hitting his knee with a hand and laughing heartily at the end. "But it's good. Not every person has to be open for everyone."

Jack nodded. It was nice to know that Dagur had been talking about his sister. From what Jack had seen, their relationship wasn't that good. Or actually, Jack rarely, really rarely, had seen the two of them talking normally.

And Jack was kinda curious what Dagur was talking about his sister. But somehow this didn't seem like a thing he should interfere in, so he only thanked the man and walked out of the small room. He thought about going straight to the door, but he didn't want to go without thanking the teen.

Even when it felt weird to do so.

Jack still approached Dagur hiding under the car and cleared his throat.

There was an audible sigh coming from beneath the vehicle and not soon after the dirty face of the teen emerged from it. He furrowed his eyebrows when he spotted Jack above him.

Yeah, they definitely weren't on friendly grounds.

"What do you want?" Dagur snarled, quite displeased with Jack interrupting him. Or at least the white haired teen thought so, because Dagur really looked pissed.

"I just wanted to thank you? For repairing the car?" Jack slowly said, raising his hand and scratching the back of his nape. He knew he shouldn't do it, but damn, the scary gaze was unnerving.

Dagur eyed him for few more seconds, before he scoffed.

"No problem."

And with that he rolled back under the car.

That was a quick thanks. But what else did Jack expect? A small talk? Especially when Dagur was working?

Jack passed the teen and went out. With a small smile on his lips he got into his car. For a moment he wanted to take out his phone and message Hiccup about the discovery, but decided against it. Like not fully against it. He was going to do it. But after he will return home.

---

Hiccup checked the phone and then exhaled slowly through his nose. Conversations via phone were definitely horrible and he was terrible at them.

Today Toothless had looked very bad and unhealthy, so Hiccup had decided to call his vet to check if he had his clinic opened. Unfortunately the man had to go to a neighbor city to help with some kind of surgery and wouldn't be back in town for the next two or three days.

Hiccup had tried not to get overly scared by that information. He had been just about to end the conversation and search for some other vets in the neighborhood, when the man had given him an address of his friend.

Hiccup had wrote the address down and decided to pay him a visit.

So here was Hiccup, with Toothless in a carrier, walking quickly through the suburbs of Burgess, hoping that the man would help him.

The new vet was a little bit further away from his usual one, but he was still close enough that he could go there by foot. Gladly. Stoick wouldn't be back for two or three more hours and Hiccup didn't want to wait so long. Maybe he was overreacting, but Toothless had been with him for ten years or so and he couldn't stand seeing his best-bud in pain.

After almost half an hour or maybe more Hiccup was on the correct street. Or at least the phone was telling him so.

"We're almost there, bud." He said, lifting the carrier and looking at the cat inside.

Toothless glanced at him, opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Hiccup tried to smile reassuringly, blinked slowly to his companion and then resumed walking.

From few meters away he could see a white signboard with two pictures of adorable puppy and kitty. So he was on the correct street.

The name of the vet was covered by a thin layer of white, puffy snow.

Hiccup fastened his pace and in few minutes he was in front of the door. He opened it and walked in.

Inside, in a white, sterile room, there were a woman and a dog, sitting patiently beside her leg. When Hiccup entered, she lifted her face and welcomed him with a tired, yet kind smile. Hiccup nodded at her and then sat down on the other free chair.

He took out his phone and looked through his two new messages. He quickly answered Jack. He had informed him that he had planned to go to a vet with Toothless. Now Jack was asking if Hiccup knew what was wrong with Toothless.

Hiccup smiled under his nose, touched by the concern, even though Jack had never seen the cat, maybe only on photos Hiccup had showed him. That was sweet.

After that he answered Aster and pocketed his phone.

For few minutes there was silence, where Hiccup could hear a shushed talks coming from behind the door allowing people to walk further into the clinic. Few times he heard a barking sound, even few small meows and… a screech of a parrot? He wasn't sure, but it definitely sounded like some kind of a bird.

The woman patted her dog on the head.

After few minutes the door opened and an old man with a big dog on a leash went out. He thanked the vet (whom Hiccup couldn't see) and then turned to the woman.

"You can go inside."

The woman nodded, got up and with her pet walked inside the room.

The old man put on a coat, nodded at Hiccup and then went out too.

Hiccup was left all alone in a waiting room. He moved the carrier, so he could peek inside of it.

Toothless curled in the back of the cage. He lifted his eyelids, but then quickly closed them. Whiskers moved delicately.

Hiccup waited for almost twenty minutes, before the door opened again and the same woman went out. The dog trotted slowly next to her leg, but the female was smiling softly under her nose.

"You can go in." She said to him.

Hiccup stood up and corrected the hold on the carrier. He moved to the open door and walked inside the room.

Similar to the waiting room, this one also was pristine white. Almost in the middle stood a metal table with a giant lamp directed at it. The whole opposite side was covered with white shelves and cabins and rows of medicines. There was also another door, from which Hiccup could hear dogs barking and cat meowing. On the right from the entrance was a desk, a computer and a chair occupied by a man.

Hiccup blinked, taken aback.

The man lifted his head and two brilliant, curious, green as burning thallium* eyes stared at him. Mouth stretched in a tired, yet very kind smile.

"Hello, what seems to be the problem?" He asked, standing up and moving to the metal table. He grabbed a spray and a rag laying under it to clean it quickly.

Hiccup could swear he had seen the man somewhere.

"I got your address from Doctor Porter*. I wanted to visit him today with my cat Toothless…"

"Oh yeah, he told me he would be sending some patients to me." The vet said, patting the metal surface softly.

Hiccup put the carrier down, opened it and took out Toothless. The cat meowed at him and tried to turn around, but Hiccup held him strongly – not to hurt, but to this point Toothless couldn't run away.

"So what is the problem with this little guy?"

"He has been vomiting quite a lot nowadays and he doesn't eat much." Hiccup explained.

The man hummed and grabbed Toothless by the skin on his neck.

"He's quite dehydrated…" He murmured, more to himself than to Hiccup. "Was he throwing up his fur?"

"Maybe the first two times. Later not so much."

The man nodded. He moved and from one shelf took out a thermometer.

Toothless almost glared at Hiccup when his temperature was being checked. Hiccup wanted to say sorry to him, but held strongly. In few minutes it was done. Hiccup knew it wasn't a comfortable process.

He petted Toothless' head when the vet checked the thermometer.

"Oh, he has a slight fever." The man stated. He cleaned the thermometer, hid it and then moved to the desk. "I need to register you here, so I can send what I did to Toothless to Doctor Porter."

After that the man asked Hiccup typical questions like name, age of the cat, if he had any serious health problems in the past, if he was castrated. After that he also weighed Toothless and checked his gums.

"I think it's some kind of inflammation." The gray-haired man said, patting softly the cat. "When was the last time he ate?"

"Yesterday. Today he didn't even touch a thing."

"Okay, so I'm going to draw his blood."

They laid Toothless down. The vet took out a syringe and two small vials.

"I can do it from one of his back legs, so gladly we don't have to shave his fur." The man said, smiling to Hiccup who only nodded in reply.

The doctor stretched Toothless' leg and cleaned it with a swab soaked in alcohol. His little bud meowed at him and tried to move away, but Hiccup held him strongly in place.

"It's for your own good, Toothless." He whispered and kissed the top of cat's head.

The vet commented it with a smile.

Toothless definitely didn't like the process. When the needle pierced the skin, he meowed lowly, but gladly the doctor quickly managed to draw enough blood for two vials.

The man retrieved the needled and put a bandage around Toothless' leg.

"Wasn't so bad, right?" He asked as he stood up.

Toothless looked at him like the man just made the dumbest joke in the entire universe.

"I can make a quick test to see if he has any inflammation, but more detailed results will be tomorrow." The gray-haired man said and then swirled one vial in his hand.

He walked to the door directing them even further into the clinic – or maybe to the house that was next to it – and disappeared behind it. After few moments Hiccup could hear that he called someone, but the name was drowned by a loud bark. Then after that came quick shushed talk and then the vet was back.

"We need to wait a little bit."

"I don't mind." Hiccup answered.

While they waited the doctor searched through his office for some small pods filled with predicament. He explained to Hiccup that he should pour the inside of the capsule on food, on Toothless' paw or just do it directly into his mouth – for five days straight.

Hiccup listened intently, noting every word inside his brain.

He liked this man. He was kind and knew what he was doing – immediately moving straight to the topic. Methodical, but with a spark – that would be a good explanation here.

After a while they both heard the door open and someone walked inside.

"You got the results?" The man asked, grinning to the person.

Hiccup turned around and blinked.

Aster was standing in the doorway with a sheet of paper in his hand. When he spotted Hiccup, his eyes widened, forming two round, big watch-glasses*.

"Oh, hey." He finally said, in the usual kinda emotionless voice he so often used, but there was something friendly ringing at the end of this welcome.

"Hey to you too." Hiccup said, patting himself on the back in his mind that he didn't stutter. Good job him. He definitely had to get better at this.

The doctor looked between Hiccup and his son with a puzzled smile on his face and reaching out hand. Aster walked to him and placed the paper in his palm.

"You know each other?" He asked, not really directing this question to anyone specific in particular, just throwing it into aether*.

"Yeah, from school." The taller teen said, glancing at Hiccup like he was searching for confirmation.

This was as good as they could get. Definitely better than 'I'm fake-dating your son's best-friend' or 'I have a crush on your son'.

The doctor looked at the paper with one hand tapping his chin. He swirled around on his chair and moved to the computer to put the results in.

Aster approached Hiccup.

"I didn't know you were coming." He said.

Hiccup felt ashamed of it, but he had to say the truth.

"To be honest, I didn't know it was your dad's clinic."

Aster blinked and was just opening his mouth to comment it, but Hiccup was quicker:

"I only got an address from Doctor Porter and I didn't have the time to check it. And the snow was covering the signboard above your house!"

"To be fair, I also forgot to put on my plaque after a break." Aster's father added, glancing at them for a brief second.

Hiccup felt like he was on fire – shaming fire sizzling in his muscles. He was sure there were windows or tabs – covered with red patterns – alerting errors inside his head. Damn, but until now he didn't even really notice that he didn't know the name of the vet. He especially didn't think that he would met here Aster of all people.

Aster turned his head to his father. His shoulders slumped down and his mouth twitched, forming something similar to an amused grin. It was the most emotional façade Hiccup had seen on the taller teen's face.

It was… nice to see.

The doctor stood up and moved to them.

"He has a little bit high level of leukocytes. I will give him an antibiotic." After that the doctor moved and filled a syringe with translucent substance.

Toothless looked up at Hiccup with pleading eyes. Aster stepped closer – oh gosh, they were only around twenty centimeters away from each other – and patted Toothless' head softly, scratching him under his muzzle after that. The cat tried to hold strongly and not succumb under the pleasurable pats, but he tilted his head a bit in Aster's direction.

The vet walked to them and quickly injected the medicine into Toothless' body.

"It wasn't so bad, right?" He said, massaging the place he punctured few seconds ago. "You can put him back in his carrier."

Toothless was never more glad to be back in the cage. Or at least he looked happy about going back inside.

"More detailed results we'll have tomorrow, so you can call me around 9 am." Then he lifted his face and probably noticed Hiccup's grimace, even though he desperately tried to hide it. "Or you can ask Aster to do it. He'll give you the results then."

"Okay, thank you." Hiccup nodded, stealing a short glance in Aster's direction who surprisingly stared back.

"I think he'll need another shot, but as I said more details will be known tomorrow. For now that is all."

"Thank you. How much do I owe you?" Hiccup asked, reaching to his pocket and taking out a wallet.

Doctor Bunnymund walked to a small cash register and started to put some numbers. All this time he was murmuring something under his breath. But in few moments the receipt was in front of Hiccup.

Okay, the amount was reasonable. Even a little bit smaller than he anticipated.

Hiccup took out the correct amount of bills from the wallet and gave it to the man.

"Thanks." The man said, accenting this word with high pitched, melodic tune. It kinda made Hiccup want to laugh, but he strongly only smiled in return. "I hope to never see this little bud and you again. I mean like not in the bad way, but in a good way. But if you ever want to visit then I'll be happy to see you!"

"We get it, Dad…" Aster said, pinching the bridge of his nose and exhaling loudly.

Hiccup chuckled at that.

"Good!"

He grabbed the carrier and moved to the door.

"Good bye."

"Bye!" The man waved at him. "Oh and call another person in, please!"

Hiccup nodded and went out. Surprisingly the door after him didn't immediately close, like he expected them to do. Maybe simply because Aster followed him.

Inside the waiting room there was an old lady with a carrier. When she spotted Hiccup exiting, she stood up. He moved from her way and Aster held the door open, so she could walk inside without any problems.

Hiccup smiled under his nose. He didn't take off his jacket, so he didn't have to put anything on.

Aster closed the door after the woman and then stopped next to him.

Should they talk about something? Do some small talk? Hiccup was bad at those. He never knew what he should say. He couldn't simply start talking about the weather! Ugh!

"You honestly didn't know it was my dad's clinic?" Aster suddenly asked.

Okay, yeah, great start, right away with embarrassment.

Hiccup hid his mouth in his scarf now hanging loosely on his neck.

"Really." He mumbled.

Aster chuckled under his nose.

"To be fair you never told me that your dad is a vet!"

"I didn't?"

Hiccup, of course knew Aster's father was a vet. Not from the primary source, but from Jack. He had mentioned it once when they had been talking about pets. But somehow today Hiccup hadn't connected the dots – because the chances of Doctor Porter giving him the address to Doctor Bunnymund weren't that high. Plus Hiccup was worried over Toothless. He still was, but the man calmed him a little bit.

"Huh…" Aster hummed, scratching the back of his head. "I'm not used to talking about myself, so yeah, that could happen."

"Me neither." Hiccup looked at the teen, hoping that the grin which was on his lips was comforting and understanding. "So it's okay."

He could understand not wanting to share every personal information with people. He rarely liked to talk about himself. Neutral topics were okay, but personal… not so much.

The people who knew the most about his personal life were Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruff and Tuff (but a little bit less than the rest) and now… surprisingly Jack? They had talked a lot about their families, insecurities and dreams. With Jack it was easy to open a little bit, to let the fresh breeze into the dusty room of his usually closed mind.

But with others Hiccup was careful and didn't particularly need to share his own story.

They walked to the exit. Hiccup was just about to open the door, but Aster was quicker and did it for him. To be honest, it was a little bit hard to open doors with Toothless' carrier. He often had hit it on doorframes or doors while doing so.

"Thanks." Hiccup said. He grimaced when he had seen and felt the outside world. Won't the spring just come already!? "I'll remind you tomorrow to call your Dad about Toothless."

"Sure." Aster nodded. His fingers tapped an uneven rhythm on the door's surface. Well, Hiccup wouldn't be surprised, if that was due to the coldness, as he now stood in fully opened doorway. "Keep safe."

"Maybe I won't fall in any pile of dirty snow, if that's what you mean."

"Not exactly, but when you mentioned it, keep safe from that too I guess?" Aster said, a ghost of amusement tugging on his cheeks.

Hiccup nodded.

"Bye." He said, turning for a brief moment to glance at the teen and send him a small grin.

"See you tomorrow."

And with that Hiccup went out to start the journey to his home with a little bit lighter heart than before.

Only after he was in the middle of the trip he noticed that something in today encounter had been off. Maybe not in the whole meeting – not words, tones, sentences, movements – but simply in Hiccup himself. Like there was one thing that had been missing and now he couldn't really pinpoint what it was.

---

Hiccup was cozily secured on his chair in front of his laptop, watching the newest episode of his serial, when Jack wrote to him on Skype.

Hey, hey, hey, guess who I met today at my mechanic!? :ooo

He frowned, but stopped the video. His fingers quickly moved on keyboard, forming a response.

I'll take a wild guess and say that a mechanic?

Hiccup only managed to watch maybe two more minutes from the episode.

Wow, Hiccup plz never do a stand-up :/

Rude ): …

So who did you meet?

Wait can I call? It'll be easier this way (´･ω･`)

Sure.

Hiccup was already reaching for his phone, expecting it to vibrate any second, only to look back at the monitor screen and find out that Jack called him on Skype.

That was new. However he clicked the green button.

For few seconds there were only static screeches coming from the headphones, but then after a while Jack's clear voice resonated in his ears.

"Sorry, had to correct the mic."

"No problem." Hiccup said. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah. And you?"

Hiccup hummed in reply and switched tabs. Something was telling him that the new episode had to wait. Or Hiccup had to wait to watch it.

"Good. First – how is Toothless feeling?"

Hiccup blinked, but then grinned under his nose with heart hammering warmly inside his chest.

"Better. He got some shot for his inflammation and the doctor drew his blood, but tomorrow there'll be more detailed information."

"Oh, poor he. I hope he'll be healthy quickly!" Jack moaned and Hiccup could really feel the emotions pouring from his mouth – that even thought he had never met Hiccup's best friend, he was feeling sad about the cat's bad well-being.

Maybe he should invite Jack's over to meet his cat. And to introduce Jack to his dad, because well… Jack kinda deserved it as Hiccup had been way too many times at Jack's house.

"Yeah, me too." Hiccup glanced at Toothless who was laying on his bed, sleeping peacefully. "Now why did you call me?"

"Okay listen, because you won't believe it!"

So Hiccup had to listen to the whole story about how Jack's car had broken down and how he had to leave it there for few days. He had no heart to tell the white haired teen that he had already heard about it – or maybe he simply didn't want to say it. Listening to Jack's enthusiastic voice was strangely calming. Plus he sounded so energetic while telling the story that Hiccup got easily captivated by it.

(Maybe he had it after his mother?)

Hiccup quickly shook his head, trying to forget about the dinner with Eris.

Jack was moving to the peak of the story:

"And then… you won't fucking believe me, Mister Crood called Dagur! Can you believe it? Did you know he has been working there?"

Hiccup blinked, processing the words.

"Wait, Dagur?"

"Yeah! And at first I was like 'Whaaaat?' and then I thought that I need to call you to tell you that, but I couldn't, then you weren't picking up and–"

"I got it, I got it. I was at vet with Toothless."

"Oh…" There was a sudden drop in Jack's tone, so Hiccup quickly tried to get him back on the tracks:

"And?"

"Oh yeah. So I saw him there and our eyes crossed, and I swear, I was afraid he would kill me! But no, he was pretty decent and kinda polite even?"

Okay, okay, okay Hiccup was still processing this. Dagur? Working as a mechanic? After he had found that Dagur was quite talented in Robotics, the information that he was repairing cars wasn't surprising that much. It sorta even fitted the older teen?

But, wow, the world was definitely small.

"Hiccup, are you there?"

He quickly shook his head.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here. I was… surprised a little bit and was processing this information."

"So you didn't know?" Jack asked.

"No, not really. We don't talk that much about our personal life… or like at all." Hiccup concluded. Only during the last few tutoring sessions they had talked a little bit about Heather. Does it even count as talking about personal life?

"But I must admit he did a good work. The car is driving very smoothly, so kudos to him!"

"That is… really nice to hear." Especially as Jack had told him, that when they had started fake-dating Dagur hadn't been acting quite nicely towards Jack – pushing him into lockers and sending a death glare every few seconds.

So the change was really nice. Amazing even.

"Yeah." Jack exhaled slowly through his nose. "Sorry, I had to tell you."

"No, no, don't apologize. I actually didn't expect it."

"Yeah, me too." Then there was a short, hesitant inhale and quiet rustle of hair. Was Jack scratching the back of his head? "How are things between you two actually?"

Hiccup blinked and then moved away from the laptop, crossing his hands on his chest. He tapped one finger on his arm.

"Hmm, I wouldn't call them good, but it's not bad either. I can't say for sure that Dagur stopped… hitting on me?" Could he even use this word like that? "But it kinda looks like that. Which is good! Really good!" Hiccup added quickly, smiling under his nose. He hoped that one problem was off his head.

"That's amazing."

Hiccup's mouth stretched into a wider grin, only for it to drop, when one question popped into his mind.

"And how about you…" Damn, why his mouth was suddenly so dry? He wanted to clear it, but decided against it. "… you and Heather?"

For few seconds, desperate and strangely long seconds, Jack didn't respond.

"We're… fine, I think? I mean we weren't really talking lately, only few small conversations on Facebook, but I think maybe we're clear?"

It sounded like Jack was weighing the words, judging them, checking if they were the correct ones to use here. Yet he sounded unsure, hesitant, like something was tugging him from behind while he was speaking. An unnamed force pulling him into its own field.

That was an astonishingly good information. The coast was clear for the both of them. They reached the goal they had wanted since the very beginning.

So why couldn't Hiccup force himself to ask this few words? Why was his heart beating so loudly inside his chest and ears, drowning all other sounds resonating and vibrating around him?

Because they should end it, right? They had kept the lie, the play long enough for them to gain what they wanted. So was it now the time to finish it? That should be the normal way to go.

This was what Hiccup had wanted since day one of this stupid plan.

So why thinking about it now was making Hiccup so uncomfortable? Why was his heart constricting and turning and pulling and twitching inside his chest? Was he afraid that if he break up with Jack, then Dagur will change again? That was a possibility.

However something, at the back of his head, was telling him that this wasn't the case.

But if that wasn't the case, then what other logical reason could there be? This was the only one. Hiccup had to be afraid of repeating the story they had had before the plan. This had to be the truth.

"That is… good." Was the only thing Hiccup could force himself to say without stuttering too much and fearing of his chest failing him. Damn, maybe he was getting sick?

"Yeah…" Jack cleared his throat. And then it was like a change of frequencies – tuning the radio to different station. "Hey, do you know that girls' bathroom isn't as pretty as I thought?"

"What?"

"You know, girls always complain that our bathrooms smells, but actually theirs aren't that pretty either. And I just, you know… Was kinda surprised about this fact? They also have graffiti on the walls. Plus the sink looks yucky, so you know, that was kinda weird."

Hiccup blinked, shaking away the last particles of nervousness hanging onto his eyelashes. That was a very random way to change the topic. But it was Jack – and Hiccup decided that nothing about him could surprise him anymore.

"Jack, how do you know so much about the girls' bathroom?" He asked, rising his one eyebrow and correcting the headphones he had in his ears.

"Uhm…" Jack chuckled hesitantly after that and it looked like he swirled on his chair in front of the computer. "I kinda was in one?"

"Jack, why were you in the girls' bathroom!?"

"Eh, no reason?"

Hiccup sighed loudly.

---

Near 9 am Hiccup messaged Aster if he could call his dad later or message him. During the lunch break he and Astrid decided to ditch the school grounds to get to the fast food restaurant where Ruff, Tuff and Snotlout worked. Well maybe ditch wasn't a proper word to use here. They weren't creeping around in bushes, searching for a hole in a defense of the school to jump and escape this prison. They simply walked out through the main entrance.

In the past few times some teachers had stopped them, but Astrid had weird and amazing talent of convincing teachers to not give them detention. Gladly today no one paid them any mind as they walked past the gate.

Today was pretty warm, even above zero degree Celsius, so the ground was covered in puddles and small streams going from higher places and disappearing in sewage grates.

"I feel like we weren't there in forever." Astrid said, taking off her hat and combing the few lone strands that escaped her braid.

"I feel like I didn't see them in forever." Hiccup added.

"Oh, that's too."

Which was true. Hiccup still talked with the rest of the gang more or less regularly on their group chat on Facebook, but he hadn't seen them in like a month or so.

Gladly the fast food restaurant wasn't too far away, and soon enough they were both walking in.

Tuffnut was behind the counter and was currently attending to a woman, but when he lifted his face to check who entered the restaurant his mouth formed a wide grin.

"Dude, what!? Oh my god! Ruff, come here you lazy ass!" He shouted, making the poor woman in front of him flinch. "Oh, sorry ma'am, here is your order."

The woman thanked quickly and then exited the restaurant with head hanging low.

Hiccup and Astrid approached the counter.

"Hey to you too." Hiccup said as Astrid looked through the glowing menu above the counter.

"Aw dude. You could have said you were coming. I would put on a cleaner apron." The teen said, smiling giddily like he just received a Christmas present few days before actual Christmas.

It kinda made Hiccup really happy inside.

"You're wearing the more clean apron, bro." Ruffnut said, passing through the door leading to the kitchen.

She quickly walked around the counter and gathered Hiccup and Astrid in for a big, hard, painful and deadly hug.

"Aw I missed you so much, you stupid little shits!"

"Gee always welcomed here." Astrid said, after she was able to break free from the hug. Ruffnut commented it with a chuckle and shoved Astrid's shoulder, which the girl reciprocated.

"So what can I give you today? " Tuffnut asked.

"I will have fries." Hiccup said, glancing up at the menu. They were in the same price, gladly.

"And I'll have a cheeseburger." Astrid chirped next to him and then leaned conspiratorially to Tuffnut. "And add extra onions for an old friend of yours, will ya?"

The boy nodded.

"Snotlout is in the kitchen, so I think that can be done."

They both paid and then waved at the twins, who promised to talk with them a little bit more when they'll have a break.

When Astrid sat down and took off her jacket, she inhaled and exhaled loudly through her nose.

"Man I missed this place."

It wasn't the most perfect and tidy fast food restaurant in town. It wasn't the worst, but it wasn't the best either. The McDonald two streets away definitely had more customers than this one. However Hiccup still liked it. Maybe because his friends worked here, so this place got some kind of a domestic charm.

"Agreed."

He himself took off his jacket, but first put the phone on the table. As he was sitting down, the screen lit up with a new message from Aster.

Hiccup quickly grabbed it and opened, hoping that it would contain more information about Toothless.

Sorry for being late. The results are not

bad, but not good either. Toothless will

need a few shots. Should I tell dad that

you'll be coming today or are you going

back to your old vet?

Okay, so it wasn't totally bad. It definitely could be worse, but Hiccup's stomach still dropped, weighed down by something unpleasant – like it was suddenly covered or filled with cement or lime mixed with osmium or iridium (or both).

"What's wrong?" Astrid next to him asked, reaching her neck so she could glance at his screen.

He had nothing to hide. He showed her his phone, so she could read the message. Hiccup had told her what had happened and who he had met at the other vet.

The girl quickly scanned the message.

"But it's good, right? Few shots and Toothless will be healthy in no time." She said, rising her eyebrow.

"I definitely hope so." Hiccup said and then opened a tab to write a reply.

"Are you going back to Aster's dad or back to Doc Porter?"

"Hmm, I don't think Doctor Porter is back yet…"

"Are you saying that because you aren't sure or because you want to see Aster?"

"Astrid!" Hiccup shouted, lifting his gaze. "Don't think so little of me. Toothless is my main priority. I don't care where I have to go, I just want him cured and fine."

"Chill Hiccup, I'm just teasing you!" Astrid said, throwing her hand over his shoulder and bringing him in for a half, apologetic hug. His glasses moved, almost falling from the nose in the process.

"Food is coming right up!" Ruffnut shouted, exiting the door to the kitchen while holding two giant plates.

The aroma immediately hit Hiccup's nose and made his mouth water. Maybe the restaurant wasn't the best, but they got pretty darn good food.

The girl walked to them and put their food down. Astrid immediately reached for the cheeseburger, animalistic glint appearing in her eyes in the process to this point Ruffnut quickly retrieved her hands.

"Someone is hungry…" She stated with one eyebrow raised high onto her forehead.

"I didn't eat breakfast. Overslept." Astrid answered between monstrous bites.

"Okay. Understandable."

Hiccup grabbed few fries and dipped them in the ketchup. The taste was still as good as he remembered it. Then he wrote a quick reply to Aster, saying that he would be coming today to his dad for a shot for Toothless.

"So what have you guys been up to?" Ruffnut asked, turning the chair and sitting on it so she could lean on the backrest.

"Shouldn't you be working?" Hiccup asked, pushing the phone away and devouring another few fries. Damn, he was hungry. But Astrid already finished half of her cheeseburger.

"Tuff, I'm taking a break!" The girl shouted to her brother behind the counter.

"Hey not fair, I wanted to have one!" Her brother yelped, waving his fist at her and scaring some man who was ordering food.

"Too late!"

Ruffnut smiled, throwing one her braid on her back when they all heard Tuffnut loudly cursing under his nose. Yeah, how they still didn't kick the twins out, just due to their language, was a mystery for Hiccup. But he guessed they worked good, so maybe the boss was letting some things slip.

"So how are things between you and Jack, my lil Hic?" Ruffnut suddenly asked.

"I don't know, how are things between you and Eret?" Hiccup quickly shot back, smirking as he put food in his mouth and munched on it loudly.

Ruffnut's eyebrow twitched.

"I asked you first!"

"I asked you second?"

"That makes zero sense!"

"I know. So will you answer me?"

The girl huffed and Astrid commented it with a small laugh. Only she choked on her food and Hiccup had to help her by patting her hard on the back.

"Things are fine, I think? We still talk, also went out a few times, so yeah… things are going good." Ruffnut said, staring through the window of the fast food restaurant and absentmindedly playing with the second braid. She had a burnt spot on her palm, Hiccup noticed. Maybe she got it in the kitchen. "How about you and Jack? We didn't hear about your loverboy for a long time. Is he still alive?"

Ugh, Hiccup avoided this topic. Talking about their fake-relationship usually brought more lies that had to be remembered later and Hiccup didn't want that.

"Yes, he is. He is okay. We're fine." Hiccup said, almost robotically.

"Wow, so much emotions, so many feelings, wow, wow, wow!" Ruffnut said, waving her hands.

Hiccup lifted his eyebrow at that.

"What do you expect me to do? Fawn over him and squeak dreamily like a school girl?"

"Technically you're a school boy, but yeah, that could also work."

Hiccup and Astrid both lifted their heads at the new voice above their heads.

Snotlout was drying his hands on a cloth, which he then haphazardly threw over his shoulder. He made a scooting motion with his hands, then sat down next to Hiccup and stole a fry from his plate.

"Gee thanks. Still not gonna do it."

"Ugh shame. I would record it and send to everyone I know." The older teen said, smirking under his nose while eating Hiccup's food.

Why did he even bother with them?

"Did you do anything for Valentine's Day?" Ruffnut suddenly asked, looking at him.

Uh oh.

"Kinda?" Hiccup said, shrugging and quickly grabbing the fries Snotlout had been reaching for. He threw them into his mouth with a victorious smirk.

"Oh, so you fucked?"

And the fries were on the table, as Hiccup spluttered, stammered, coughed and desperately tried to take a deep breath when one fatal fry got into the tube in which it shouldn't have gone.

Why were his friends such big assholes!

Astrid next to him cackled loudly, throwing her head back. Ruffnut high-fived Snotlout, who puffed out his chest proudly.

And Hiccup was still dying, now with hitting his chest quite hard to dislocate the food away from his throat and be able to finally breathe.

The girl next to him made a quick karate chop between his shoulder blades which hurt a lot, but gladly and finally helped him take a sweet, delicious, blissful inhale of the most amazing oxygen he ever had. Ruffnut, in the meantime, stood up and went to Tuffnut to take a cloth and clean the table, still snorting under her nose.

After a minute or so, in which Snotlout dared to finish Hiccup's food without a care in the world, Hiccup was able to breathe more or less properly.

"So did you fuck or not?" The older teen repeated himself, smirking to him.

Hiccup was on the verge of choking Snotlout on the spot. With his own hands. Right there – dusting that stupid grin of his face and replacing it with a grimace of pain! Hiccup would be delighted to do all of that.

But instead he had to keep calm. Life was unfair.

"No, we did not." Hiccup slowly said, trying to calm his rapidly beating heart, that had to learn to work properly again, after it literally had escaped death.

"Really?" Snotlout continued, prolonging this one word, probably intending to sound seductively, but it turned out just… lame.

"Really."

"How can we know you're telling the truth?"

"Uh, excuse me? I'm his best-friend. Of course, he would tell me about it and I know no juicy details!" Astrid next to him pipped up, cleaning her hand with a napkin. After that she glared at him. "Right?"

Hiccup felt shiver run down his spine. Damn, did someone zap him?

"O-oh… yeah… totally!" Hiccup nodded vigorously. The look actually terrified him.

But to be honest he never really had thought about it. Both about sex and about telling Astrid if he ever… do something like that. Yet, that didn't mean he couldn't be embarrassed about the implications.

He wondered if Jack's friends were also teasing him about it. Man, it was shameful, but Jack definitely was dealing with it better than Hiccup. He was too awkward not to blush furiously even at the small mention of…

No, not thinking about that! Nu-huh. No, please no!

"Meh, lame." Ruffnut said and then yelped when she was whacked by her brother. "Ouch, why did you do that?"

"To get your attention. Now get back to work!" The teen said, crossing his hands on his chest.

"But I just got here."

"Move. Now it's my turn to spend some quality time with our friends."

"What if I don't move?"

"Then I'm going to accidentally kill your character in Tibia."

Ruffnut's eyes widened and muscles tensed.

"You wouldn't dare!"

But Tuffnut only smiled in reply.

"Try me…"

"I'll kill you."

Tuffnut still stared at her with that daring look and smug smirk projected on his lips. His one eyebrow moved high onto his forehead and somehow this riled Ruffnut even more. Her cheeks turned red, but she swirled around on the heel to move to the counter, where two people already stood, waiting to be served.

"I knew that would break her…" Tuffnut chuckled under his breath.

So that was this modern blackmail, huh?

---

"And that's a wrap. Didn't hurt so much, did it?" Said doctor Bunnymund, flicking Toothless' ear as he moved away on the chair with an empty syringe in one hand.

The cat looked like he wanted to disagree, but only leaned and licked the place which had been punctured few seconds ago.

The man threw the used syringe away and then moved to the computer to write the details down.

"Doctor Porter is coming back today, so tomorrow he should be in his clinic." He said, turning to Hiccup. "I will send him my file and notes about Toothless, so tomorrow you can go straight to him."

He nodded. Hiccup really started to like doctor Bunnymund, but he worked with Doctor Porter all his life. Plus his clinic was closer than this one.

"Thank you very much." Hiccup said, after he paid the man.

"No problem. I hope this little fella gets better. He already looks healthier in my opinion." The gray haired man said, looking into the carrier at the cat.

"He eats more too." Hiccup added with a small, fond smile.

"That is good!"

And with that Hiccup thanked the man one more time and exited the clinic. In the waiting room he checked his phone, replied to Jack and only then finally went out.

The snow on the roofs was melting and falling down in form of tiny droplets. One particular cold one fell behind Hiccup's scarf and he shivered at the yucky sensation. Only a month or so more of winter and then the spring will finally come.

He wondered if the lilacs he had given Jack will bloom. Galadriel and Thorin. To be honest, he was really surprised by the fact that Jack had come to like the trees so much. He had thought that maybe he would put them somewhere and wait till the spring to put them in the garden, but Jack had been taking really good care of them. Hiccup was really glad.

They both had hit jackpot with the presents. Hiccup also used Jack's lab glasses. They weren't the cheap one, so they weren't getting easily scratched. Usually after one or two months Hiccup had to throw an old lab glasses away, but Jack's one still looked brand new. Or almost brand new. Plus the little star on the side was making him smile whenever he looked at them.

"Hiccup!"

He blinked and lifted his head to look at Aster, who was standing in the doorway to his house.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Wait a second, I have to go to a pharmacy, so I'll walk a bit with you!"

"Okay!" Hiccup shouted back.

And after that Aster closed the door to probably put on a jacket and shoes.

Hiccup waited for few minutes in the driveway, observing a lone stream of melting snow moving through the street. He wondered how fast it was going… Maybe if he assumed that his one step was around one meter and the he would put something light on the water, he could check the time and –

"Okay, we can go."

Hiccup lifted his head and stared at the fully clothed Aster standing next to him. He smiled to the teen and then they both started to move in the direction of Hiccup's house.

"How is Toothless feeling?" Aster asked, fumbling a little bit with the scarf that hung crookedly on his neck.

"Definitely better. He ate today and didn't throw up, so that is a giant plus." Hiccup answered, glancing down at the carrier. He tried not to move it too much, so the cat could rest a little bit, but it was probably impossible. He could only hope that Toothless wouldn't feel cold.

"I'm glad then."

"Me too. But he still needs four more shots. And he doesn't look like he liked this one."

Aster huffed or laughed. Hiccup wasn't sure. The sound was disturbed by the thick scarf around the teen's neck. Why he wore it when outside wasn't so chilly was a mystery, but Hiccup decided not to ask. Maybe he liked to feel warm.

"I don't like injections either."

"They stopped being fun after they stopped giving us cool stickers." Hiccup quickly said.

This time the sound which left the gray haired boy was definitely a laughter. Or a small chuckle. Either way, Hiccup managed to make the teen laugh.

It was nice to do so. It was also lovely to see the tiny, short wrinkles appear in the corners of Aster's eyes, which closed down slowly after that.

"They almost never gave me stickers." Aster finally stated, glancing at Hiccup, who touched his chest with his free hand.

"You're joking? That was the best… or the only good part of being punctured."

"Yeah. They usually only said that I was a very brave and strong boy." Aster shook his head and a lone gray lock got glued to his forehead and nose. "I should have started crying. Maybe this way they would give me one."

"Oh, I almost always cried, so yeah, that could be the case." Hiccup said, remembering the times when he had been small and his big father had taken him to get vaccinated.

He remembered that he always had cried all the way to the clinic. Which was funny. Hiccup definitely had felt worse physical pains in his life afterwards, but back then it had felt terrible. Not to mention there was blood!

"So yeah, unfortunately no stickers for me. But my dad gave me lollipops afterward." Aster murmured and stopped to check if any car was coming. When he found none, they crossed the street.

"The healthy ones which taste like shit?"

"Hell no. Fortunately, the normal ones. He always had few in his pockets." Aster scratched his cheek. "He probably still has some with him. I once saw a cat steal one from him."

Hiccup chuckled at that. A lone breeze flew past them and tickled his cheeks. It felt comforting and he could sense this specific smell of arriving spring. Just few weeks and the ground will turn into lush green fields.

"Maybe it only wanted the wrapper. Toothless steals receipts whenever he hear them."

"That could also be true."

And so they talked, moving smoothly from one random topic to another. It was different from the usual talks Hiccup had with Aster. They didn't talk only about the topic which connected them – science – but about other unimportant things too.

It was similar to all the talks Hiccup had with Jack.

It was similar and yet it was totally different, both in the same time. And he felt that he was missing something, like there was one important small detail missing from his body, behavior or from the world, but he couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was.

Nevertheless Hiccup enjoyed himself and it looked like Aster also had fun.

When they were in front of Hiccup's house, they said their goodbyes and Hiccup moved to his home with Toothless still moving around the carrier.

When he stepped inside and got rid of all heavy clothes, he freed his cat from the cage.

"Wasn't so bad, right, Toothless?"

Toothless looked at him skeptically and meowed loudly.

"What? Doctor Bunnymund is a very nice man. Don't you say one bad word about him."

The cat swished his tail and then trotted to the kitchen.

Well…

Hiccup gave him food – a better one than usual, to treat him a little bit due to all the stress that had been put onto him. After that he moved to his room and flopped down on the bed, exhaling loudly through his nose.

Maybe he should sleep a little bit. Homework can wait.

His backpack vibrated loudly. Well, he could always ignore it, maybe it wasn't important. Or maybe it was very important. Maybe it was Astrid asking for help, because she was being attacked in a dark alley and couldn't make a call? Or one of his friends currently being robbed?

(Maybe it was Jack messaging him?)

Or maybe his favourite shop just sent him a message with coupons!

No, he had to check it.

Hiccup fumbled quickly with the backpack to fish out the phone from under a Geography book. Why did he bring it home in the first place? Ah yeah, test…

He unlocked the screen in a perfect synchronization with his heart jumping high in his ribcage, almost reaching the throat and –

– No, it was a message from Astrid. Gladly, she wasn't in any danger. She only sent him a picture of her laying down on a bed filled with notes and a crying emoticon.

It wasn't Jack. He still didn't respond to the last message from almost an hour ago.

The heart, which suddenly had leaped, started to slow down, returning to normal heart beat standards.

Hiccup answered Astrid and then moved the phone away. He took off his glasses, put them on a nightstand and then closed his eyes.

He was on the verge of dozing off for few minutes, when something clicked inside his head. Like two pieces of a puzzle. Like a button being pushed.

He had been calm, all his walk with Aster he hadn't stuttered or even felt that nervous. Well he still had been a little bit stressed, but it was the normal amount of stress his body produced while talking with someone Hiccup knew, but not knew that well.

That never had happened whenever he had been around Aster before. Was he finally getting used to it?

Or were there other reasons behind it?

---

"… Mister Overland…" Professor Pitch lifted his face from the sheet of paper with grades from last week homework and then directed his scrutinizing gaze immediately at him.

Jack stopped breathing for a second.

"…C–…"

Praise the sun!

He exhaled slowly through his partially opened mouth and then felt a sudden urge to lie down his head, which had started to hurt (probably from stress). The fingers relaxed slowly and Jack had found out he had been clenching his fists quite painfully.

But he got a C from his homework. Well yeah, it had the minus part there, but it was still C! A pretty good grade in Jack's case. Astonishing even. Well of course Aster got A and Tooth B–, but wow!

Jack's hand twitched. He wanted to write to Hiccup and tell him the good news, but he knew better not to do that, especially during Math. Almost every other subject was okay, but not Math. Especially with Professor Pitch's lustering gaze following Jack's every movement. Like seriously, Jack felt like he was his least favourite student.

Maybe because he once had put chocolate on a chair on which Professor had sat later on, which had resulted in quite eruptive laughter coming from everyone who had passed the teacher and had seen his back later.

The detention after that maybe would be worth it, if Professor Pitch didn't simply hate him since then. Well, it was a price that needed to be paid.

But lately the black haired man hadn't been so keen on destroying Jack. Maybe because Jack had started to learn a little bit for every class and had done his homework regularly. He still wasn't good in math, but some exercises had stopped being a torture. But he was still far away from enjoying them, if that was even possible.

After Professor Black destroyed some people's moods with the information about their grades the class went by normally. Jack tried to listen and understand what was happening around him (yet still questioning himself why was he here in the first place), but hey! he managed to answer one of Pitch's question. The fact that he couldn't answer the next two didn't matter, because he had never ever previously answered right during Professor Black's classes.

Even the teacher was surprised, but the man quickly shook his head and returned to teaching the class. But of course, when the lesson was almost finished, Professor Black magically pulled out three pages of homework from who know where.

Everyone groaned.

When the bell rang, Professor Black stood in the doorway to give everyone the papers.

Maybe if Jack was slow enough, he wouldn't get one? Maybe the man didn't make enough copies, so if he was the last one to leave then…

And, no, he still had one copy when Jack, the last one standing, was moving to the exit. Professor Black's mouth even stretched into a smirk when he saw Jack slowly shuffling to him, with the backpack thrown over his shoulder haphazardly.

"And here's your copy, mister Overland." The man said, pushing the paper into Jack's hands.

"Thank you, sir." Jack answered robotically.

His eyes moved over the first few questions. Okay, they didn't look that bad. Maybe he won't have so much problems with them.

"… it shouldn't be that big problem for you."

Jack lifted his head at the teacher, blinking to bring his mind back from the far away land of planning his free time.

"Pardon?" He asked. Shit, he wasn't listening and the man had said something to him.

"I said that your grades improved after you stopped making those childish pranks of yours." Professor Black repeated himself, but much slower – like he was explaining something to a child – with a mischievous and kinda evil glint flashing at Jack from behind those black eyes.

And Jack didn't know how the answer, but he felt a giant pang of hurt piercing right through his chest. W-what?

"See you in two days, Mister Overland." The man said, pushing Jack almost out of the classroom and closing the door after him to probably enjoy few minutes of calmness and tranquility without annoying students.

Jack looked at the door to the classroom and then back at the papers in his hands. That was true. He hadn't made a prank in like… forever (few months, give or take, added his brain). And it was true that his grades were a little bit better, but that wasn't because he had stopped doing pranks.

But they were the whole epitome of Jack. They were what had made Jack so likeable. They were what had made Jack so famous.

Without them was Jack really the Jack whole school knew and loved?

He knew it was stupid, maybe childish, or maybe even unreasonable, but that one sentence haunted him for the whole day. It was scratching messages of the same words over and over on the wall of his consciousness. It was replying the words on a transistor radio again and again in grumbly, static mess.

Jack needed to change that.

Even Tooth had said that Jack was getting old. Was he getting old? Well, of course he was, the time was moving and Jack was getting older and older with every passing second, minute, hour. But was he getting that old to not be able to prank someone?

Was he not able anymore to do what had made him the Jack?

---

"So what did you want to talk about?" Astrid asked, sprawled over on her stomach on Hiccup's bed and looking through the homework spread in front of her.

Shit, how did she know Hiccup wanted to talk about something?

"You can't hide anything from me Hiccup…" Astrid continued, looking at him with a victorious grin. She tapped her cheek with a pen, but Hiccup had a feeling she wanted to poke her temple. "I know you for too long!"

He groaned and pushed away the notebook. He turned around on his chair and faced her friend.

"Okay, I need to talk with you about something…" Well or about two things, but Hiccup still wasn't sure about the second one.

"Hit me with your best shot, bad boy." Astrid said, glancing down at her notes and scribbling something really quick.

Hiccup took a deep breath and then dropped the bomb.

"Do you think me and Jack should break up?"

"What!?"

Okay, the shriek leaving Astrid's lips was definitely too loud for his ears and for few seconds Hiccup could still hear a long beeping sound resonating inside them. Wow these frequencies really, really hurt him.

"Ouch, Astrid, a little bit quiet."

The girl scrambled to sit up on the bed and stare at him with wide eyes.

"Why would you want to do that?"

Okay, Astrid was taking it bad. Way worse than Hiccup had anticipated. But to be honest he hadn't thought she would act like that! Maybe surprised? Yeah, definitely that. Maybe even a little bit saddened by the information as it looked like she and Jack were on quite good terms, but definitely not like that. So… furiously.

To say that Hiccup was taken aback would be an understatement.

"'Cause you know… Dagur kinda left me alone and it looks like Jack and Heather are on good terms now, so you know I started thinking that it was time… to finish this… play?" Hiccup said, feeling that with every word the strength and certainty he had felt before was slipping away from his body. Or maybe it was just being crystalized in this sudden cold temperature inside Hiccup's body and washed away with the stream of his blood.

His hands moved, making weird maneuvers, circles, triangles, squares and even deltoids in the air, only to finally be clasped together while pointing at Astrid hesitantly.

Astrid stared at him with eyelids dropping slowly. She wasn't as surprised as she had been few second ago, but the bewilderment was still visible in the dimples near her mouth. But now her gaze was calculating – Hiccup had no doubts that there were tons of crazy thoughts, swirling and mingling, dancing, tangoing inside her brain – it felt like she was planning something, maybe future words or simply the future that was just around the corner.

Hiccup wasn't sure about this too. It was just a thought that had clung to him and hadn't wanted to leave him alone. Like a very irritating glue after a sticker was peeled off.

It was a logical way to solve their problems and end the plan. So why something in Hiccup didn't want that? What was his stomach squirming whenever he thought about finishing it? Why was he hesitant about ending it all?

Was he afraid of Dagur returning back? Was he scared that Jack would never talk with him again after that, if they end it? No, Jack wasn't like that. He definitely wouldn't cut all connections with Hiccup.

But Hiccup's breath still hitched.

"Are you sure this is the best solution here?" Astrid finally asked, arms slowly slumping down, relaxing the tensed muscles there.

Hiccup blinked. He should be honest with her. She definitely will know what to do in this situation.

However it was still kinda embarrassing.

"That is the case." He admitted. "I'm not really sure about it…" Astrid was opening her mouth to interrupt him, but Hiccup continued. "I just thought it was the logical thing to do here, when the situation around us is stable."

"Okay." Astrid finally huffed and then she mumbled something under her breath, something that strangely resembled 'this is no good', but Hiccup wasn't sure. "Okay, so this is the logical part of your brain that is telling you this." Astrid combed her hand through her blonde hair. "But tell me Hiccup… what do you want?"

Him?

"I don't think I should really think about myself right now. This plan include two people, so I shouldn't–"

Astrid groaned and swung back on the bed. She didn't fall down, but sprung back like a an oscillating molecule in a stretching vibration to look at him with this kinda annoyed gaze.

"So amuse me then, if that's easier for you. What do you want Hiccup?"

What did Hiccup want?

He wanted to have a peaceful life. He didn't want a life filled with adventures, he didn't want to be famous, he loved his small group of friends, he loved his family and this was what he wanted from life. To be able to live like that for as long as he could.

He felt calm right now. At first, when they had started dating (fake dating, added a reasonable part of his mind) Hiccup had been afraid – of everything – of the future, of how will they manage to play their roles in the play, of how will his close friends react. And yeah, the attention during the first few days had been terrible, nerve-wracking and impossible to live with. But with time the whole boom! around their secret relationship had smoothened out. People had stopped peeking at Hiccup curiously, searching for something in his face, or eyes or whole behavior – even now he could only speculate what it was. Maybe they had searched for this special something that had stolen Jackson's heart away. Little did they know.

Even Hiccup's friend had stopped their teasing. Or at least they had softened it. They had stopped mentioning it in every message, only now jokingly bringing it up from time to time.

Now, when the whole world around them stilled, came to a halt, calmed down the waves rippling through them, Hiccup simply felt… content. And… and happy. Yeah, it was the joy sparkling in his mind – balancing dopamine, oxytocin and above all, the most important here, serotonin.

So what did exactly Hiccup want?

If he had to be honest, like really, really honest, and also selfish (unfortunately it had to be added here, like some kind of constant of integration) then Hiccup had to admit one thing.

He didn't want to finish it.

(ba-dum)

But he couldn't look at what he wanted. They can't keep it up just because Hiccup felt comfortable. Maybe… Maybe Jack wanted to finish it… Maybe he found a girl or a boy whom he started to like and wanted to ask out!

(ba-dum)

That was a possibility! Even though if something like this happened, then Hiccup hoped Jack would tell him about it.

(bad-dum)

Jack definitely wouldn't hide something so important from Hiccup, right? He knew about Hiccup's crush! Accidentally, of course, but...

But…

"Hiccup?" Astrid asked, tilting her head.

How long was Hiccup roaming around the maze of his thoughts? Long enough that his friend got concerned apparently.

"I'm alive." He quickly answered, lifting his hand and massaging his eyes groggily and lifting his glasses in the process.

"Good, that is good to know." The girl nodded. "So?"

Ugh, there was no chance of Astrid dropping this topic. But yeah, Hiccup had asked her to come to his house, so he could talk about it with her. It would be stupid not to answer her right now.

"And be honest!" Astrid quickly added, seeing his inner struggle that apparently wasn't as inner as Hiccup wanted it to be.

He sighed slowly.

"But promise me you won't laugh okay?"

"I won't promise, but I'll definitely try." The blonde haired girl said, staring at him curiously and maybe even hopefully.

Good enough answer in Hiccup's opinion.

"Okay, so…" Hiccup started, only to grab the hem of his sweater and twist it in his hands. "Actually I don't really…" Okay, one deep breath to calm his staccating heart. "I don't want to finish it actually? Is… is it weird?"

"Not if you give me an explanation." Astrid concluded, crossing her legs in front of herself and swinging back and forth now. "Why don't you want to end this?"

Hiccup bent his one leg, put his chin on the knee and wrapped his hands around it.

"I don't know. The situation between us makes me calm, I guess. I like what we have now. And I know, at first I thought that this was the worst decision of my life, but now I don't think so?" Gosh, Hiccup couldn't describe what he was feeling, even when he was speaking with Astrid. But he always had problems with trying to show what he was feeling. The words, sentences didn't come naturally to him as it did for some people. It took a lot of strength to at least, more or less clearly, show what his brain was thinking about. "I mean, I simply feel content now. No one is pestering me. Well of course twins and Snotlout could stop with their teasing, but it's not that bad. Plus…"

"How about Jack? What role does he play in it?"

"Jack?"

What about Jack?

"Yeah."

"I like him. He makes me… not stressed over every small thing?" Hiccup groaned and hid his mouth behind his knee. "I don't know, he simply makes me happy, I think?"

Astrid's mouth stretched in a wide smile.

"Happy like you know–"

"Not like that!" Hiccup quickly shouted, feeling heat raising to his cheek, painting it in red smudges, scattered all over his freckled cheeks.

The heart shuddered in his chest and then his stomach trembled. Hiccup didn't like Jack like that! He definitely didn't. Nu-huh… He didn't…

Like Jack that way…

Because if he did then that would be… disastrous. No, they hadn't agreed on no feelings per se, but no, Hiccup simply couldn't let that thought in. He had to hide it somewhere, lock it down in a dark place, so it could be wiped away with the flowing time.

"Ugh shame." Astrid said, but this something evil and kinda joyful didn't leave her façade. "So anyway, after you poured your heart out like a schoolgirl–"

"I didn't!"

"Yeah, yeah, drama queen." Astrid waved her hand. "But the answer is simple. If you don't want to finish it, then don't do it. Unless you have a valid reason."

Hiccup bit his bottom lip.

"But how about Jack? What if he does want to break this thing up?"

"Then he will definitely tell you about this." Astrid quickly said. "You know him more than me and I know that, so you should too."

Hiccup mulled the idea over in his brain for few seconds. He stared at it from different angles, he disassembled it and then put it back together in three different ways. But no matter how he did that, what kind of different lenses he put in his imaginary microscope, the results were always the same.

Jack definitely would tell him if he wanted to finish it.

"You're right…" Hiccup finally said.

"See? It wasn't so hard. You didn't even need my help, though I'm flattered you asked me about it. And talked with me."

Hiccup wasn't so sure about that. He needed Astrid. He himself couldn't connect all the dots, he couldn't combine all results in more or less coherent conclusions. Astrid was like a rudder, tilting Hiccup's way of thinking in the direction of the correct roads.

"You know that's not true. I'm miserable without your normal way of thinking."

Astrid shrugged, but Hiccup could see that she was happy after his compliment.

"Is that all?" The girl then asked, looking at him from a different angle. "Or do you want to talk about something more before we jump into this fascinating homework?"

There was one thing that Hiccup wanted to talk about. Astrid was in a good mood today, he kinda also was, so maybe it was be the best moment to nudge this topic with a glass rod.

Hiccup bent his fingers in different directions, hearing them snap and crack with small sparks of satisfaction bouncing like photons inside his mind.

"Actually, there is something else too…" He started, almost to be immediately interrupted by Astrid.

"I knew it. I can see it in your eyes! So what is it?"

Hiccup glanced at her.

"Are you procrastinating on your homework by talking with me about my problems?"

"Is that what has been bugging you?" Astrid shot back, rising her eyebrow.

"No, of course, not." Hiccup shook his head. "But it's a little bit concerning."

"Of course it is concerning for a person who never procrastinated."

"I procrastinate sometimes!"

The blonde haired girl looked at him emphatically.

Okay, come on, what was wrong with wanting to have everything done quickly? This way Hiccup didn't have to worry about it later – the day before, where most of the students only started to open the book or even started to consider doing it. Plus at this point he kinda had a timetable of his daily life and he knew what was happening around him! He liked the stability doing homework or learning methodically was giving him.

Hmm… yeah, that was kinda nerdy.

"Yeah, right." The girl prolonged this one word, curling her lips softly at the end. "But if you insist, I will make this homework while listening to you, so you won't accuse me of procrastination." Astrid continued, bringing the notebook onto her lap and grabbing a pen.

She started to write something down, but for Hiccup it looked like a bunch of random scribbles.

Okay, so Hiccup wasn't sure how to start this topic. It was kinda or almost totally embarrassing situation for him. But something had been bugging him since the last time he had seen Aster and it had been resonating in his mind after that. Some kind of doubt. Some kind of hesitation. And Hiccup needed someone who wouldn't sell his secrets away.

Fishlegs wouldn't help him here too as love problems didn't interest him. Well maybe only love problems in Mass Effect or Dragon Age interested him, so yeah, he had to be scratched off the list.

"How do you…"

"Hmm?"

"How do you know you don't like someone anymore?" Hiccup asked quietly, looking at the floor beneath his chair.

"You just don't like them then, I guess?"

Hiccup grimaced. Yeah, he could voice it out differently.

"No, Astrid. Not like like that." Well, this was getting them nowhere, so Hiccup collected the last rotating molecules of bravery he had in his heart and simply stated. "How do you know you don't have a crush on someone anymore?"

Astrid blinked, taken aback. It looked like she didn't expect that kind of a question. There was some hesitation sparkling in her eyes – like sudden burst of light during Grote and Krekeler method*.

"But not having a crush and starting to love them or not having a crush and not harboring any romantic feelings?" She then slowly asked, hand twitching around her ankles.

"Uhm, the second one." Hiccup mumbled, looking down at this knee.

Oh a loose thread. His fingers started to tug it, hoping that he could rip it off.

Hiccup knew that Astrid would connect the dots. Or maybe he simply wanted her to connect them, he wanted her to add the information in her head and come with the same conclusion as him.

Astrid stared at him and then asked:

"Is it about Aster?"

Bingo.

Hiccup hid his mouth behind knees and nodded.

For few moments there was silence between them, with Hiccup still trying to get the thread off, but only managing to break it in three. He scowled under his nose and turned around on his chair to grab the scissors form the desk only to catch a glimpse of Astrid's face.

She was smiling. A radiant grin was stretching over her pink lips and she looked totally overjoyed and enthusiastic about something. But when Hiccup looked at her one more time, the smile was gone, without a trace of it even being there. Did he just imagine it?

Was he getting delusional? Was he getting crazy?!

Hiccup cut the thread off and then looked back at Astrid, who cleared her throat and started speaking:

"Soooo… why are you thinking that?"

Hiccup collected all the information, memories, tics, movements (or the lack of them) from the previous few meetings and combined them all.

"I don't know… I don't feel so giddy around him anymore? I mean, I like spending time with him and I like him as a person, but all my emotions around him are so… dulled nowadays." He murmured. "And I don't know what to think about it…"

Astrid crossed her hands.

"I think you want to label too many things in your life."

"Pardon?"

"Yeah…" Astrid nodded, this time more to herself than actually to him. "You always need to have everything portrayed in black and white. Like either something is good or bad, or you are this or that. Even now you want to categorize it – either I like him or don't like him. But what if it isn't just white and black, but simply gray?"

"I don't think I get you…"

Astrid's mouth twitched.

"I just want you to… wait a little bit? Maybe you're simply now in the gray zone and you don't know what color will come from this gray scale." Astrid tilted her head. "Don't put labels on things you're not sure of yet, because you may hurt yourself later. Or better – don't put labels at all and let your heart do the rest."

"Are you the same Astrid that ate tar when we were kids?" Hiccup asked, actually impressed by her friend. And quite proud.

"Totally. I just happen to sometimes say something smart."

"You're the smartest person I know."

"My grades don't say so." Astrid quickly said, tilting her head.

Astrid's grades weren't bad actually, they were… probably mediocre. From some classes they were better and from some they were worse – and it was normal.

"Grades don't measure intelligence. They just measure how much you can learn by heart for an exam, which I think is pretty dumb, but hey, I can't change the education system now." Hiccup said, shrugging. "So I think you are very intelligent and smart and your grades have nothing to do with it."

"Aww it's the nicest thing you said to me in a pretty long while." Astrid cooed sweetly at him, grinning from ear to ear. There was a soft hint of pinkish smudge painted over her nose and cheeks. Was she embarrassed? "But thanks, I really… appreciate it." She added after a while, eyes jumping away to look at the quilt and scribbled notes in front of her.

Hiccup smiled under his nose, feeling happy with himself. He didn't compliment his friends that often. He always thought that they knew he liked and thought highly of them. But every person sometimes have doubts, they have good and bad times – when the voices inside their heads whisper dirty little lies behind their ears. And they know they aren't true, but sometimes it's really hard.

Hiccup had bad times. Astrid… the strong Astrid had them too.

Hiccup didn't say it often that he cared for his friends. That he thought they were amazing. But now, when the words so naturally had spilled from his mouth, he was happy that he had done that.

Because the smile stretching over his friend's lips and the happiness sparkling in her eyes were one of the most astonishing things he had seen in his entire life.

---

Author's note:

Finally publishing this one! You know what is coming, right? Omg, I don't like this chapter much, but meeeh… too tired to correct it! D:

And hey, tell your friend or a family member something nice. Who knows? Maybe you'll make their day :).

And some science and nerdy facts:

*Burning thallium – it burns with this very bright green color =D!

*Watch-glasses – it is a circular concave piece of glass used in chemistry as a surface to evaporate a liquid, to hold solids while being weighed and etc..

*Aether – it is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere.

*Burst of light during Grote and Krekeler method – I don't remember much from it, but I remember that this experiment was giving this bright light while being heated! =D

*Doctor Porter – a character from Tarzan.

And as always answers:

Lou-chan – OMG thank youuuu ;_;!

kisskisshug – Oh gosh, it made me so happy! Hohoho he will definitely realize it soon! (Well hopefully soon xD). Well Aster definitely has some problems D:! This really means a lot, especially as I think that my story is boring as nothing really happens in it D:! But I'm so happy to hear it!

Leonawhite3797 – Thank youuuuu ;_;!

AnhiVann – I think I focused on him too much lately. I need to change that, as I feel like I focus more on side characters than on the main ones xD! Huff puff, Hiccup having feelings for Jack, finally, right xD!?

pies'n'lies – Aw yasss! Drama and angst! Yass! =DDDD Finallyyyy haha xD! stare at the words count Hahaha…hahaha… cries haha… I honestly didn't mean for this story to be so long ;_;!

And see ya later! I hope you'll have an amazing day!