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.

Bragg's law – when the x–ray is incident onto a crystal surface, its angle of incidence – θ – will reflect back with a same angle of scattering – θ. And, when the path difference – d – is equal to a whole number – n – of wavelength, a constructive interference will occur.

Jack's embrace was warm. Their sides were pressed into each other as the boy was giving him a tight squeeze in the middle of the corridor. People passed them by, now barely paying them any mind.

And Hiccup felt like the places Jack touched were burning, were sizzling and vibrating and itching and he wanted to move away and inch closer both in the same time.

Gladly the embrace didn't last for long, because Jack was moving away and smiling proudly at him.

"You did great, Hic."

"But I didn't even win anything. I didn't even get an honorable mention." Hiccup mumbled, trying to decipher why Jack was smiling to him like Hiccup indeed had done something utterly amazing when in reality he hadn't done anything even close to being incredible. "Not to mention my project sucked."

Jack sighed, but the warm smile didn't leave his lips.

"But you did something new! And you finished it! So I'm still proud of you."

It wasn't much. A few people already had told him similar thing. Heck, even Hiccup was proud of himself that he had managed to finish the robot in time and present it. It wasn't much. Just a few words, vibrations moving through the air, a small tug of muscles on the face.

Yet for Hiccup it was a lot.

Jack had caught up with him, in the middle of Hiccup and Astrid going to another class, to congratulate him for the contest – even though he hadn't won anything.

"Thanks." Hiccup uttered finally, not sure what else to add.

Jack's grin grew wider.

Hiccup quickly looked away when he found out that his stupid heart couldn't make him look too long at the boy in front of him without suddenly exploding into thousand pieces.

(One breath – in and out – everything was going to be okay, no one knew anything, every secret was safe with Hiccup.)

Then there was a pat on his shoulders, a warm hand found a secure place near his neck and Hiccup quickly snapped his head up to look at the person.

Oh it was Aster, looking at him, straight into his eyes for a moment. The corner of his mouth twitched upwards a little, forming a few thin wrinkles around his eyes.

"Congratulations."

Hiccup nodded one more time, averting Aster's gaze at the end.

Why were people so nice to him even though he had done nothing? They should congratulate Dagur – he was the one who had won the second place, not him. And yet they were doing it, with honest grins and sparkling eyes.

Hiccup didn't deserve it.

"Thank you." He added, after a second, fiddling with the sleeve of his sweater.

Astrid gladly helped him as she sneaked her hand under his elbow and glanced at him.

"Well, I really would love to chat a little more, but I think we need to get to our classes." The girl said, moving her head to stare at Jack and Aster.

"We probably should get going too." Jack nodded.

Hiccup looked up at them, finally finding the courage inside of him. Plus the blush which had risen to his cheeks while talking with Jack finally died down, leaving only a small tingling sensation under the skin.

"Don't use me as an excuse for being late." Hiccup said.

"I wasn't thinking about it, but now when you mentioned it…" Jack quickly shot back, the mischievous smirk already starting to form on his lips before it disappeared due to a tug on his blouse as Aster grabbed the hoodie.

"Nope, not doing that."

Tooth who stood next to them, and who had been the first person to congratulate Hiccup on well… on something, giggled under her nose at both of her friends and turned to wrap her arms around Astrid one more time.

"See you later!" Jack shrieked, even though he was already two meters away from them, still being painfully dragged by Aster, who weirdly looked pretty pleased with being put in such a role.

"Bye!" Hiccup managed to say while lifting his hand and then waving it.

Well maybe it was kinda stupid, as by now Jack was barely seeing him, after Bunny had managed to put him back in more or less standing up position, but he still sent Hiccup a smile and a short wave in reply.

So yeah, maybe in the end Hiccup didn't make a goof out of himself anyway.

(Plus they still kinda had to act like a couple, right?)

A window appeared in his head with only one word written there.

'Excuses'

Hiccup quickly shook his head, trying to get rid of the lone thought that had popped into his mind. He wasn't making any excuses, right? Right?

Hiccup looked back, but caught a glimpse of Tooth sending him a warm smile.

"See you later, Hiccup."

"Oh uhm, sure." And yeah, the normal, awkward Hiccup was back.

The girl showed him her white teeth, then she was already twirling on her heel and running after her friends, a long mint dress fluttering after her with every step.

Hiccup turned to Astrid who shrugged in reply and then they both moved in the direction of the next classroom.

Okay, Hiccup could do it. He still wasn't sure how, but he could do it. Somehow. Magically. There was a slim part of probability where he wasn't making a total dumbass out of himself, but something told Hiccup that the chances were too low.

Actually, maybe he wouldn't make a total idiot out of himself, simply because he wasn't sure where the hell Dagur could be.

Asking random people seemed like an utterly weird idea, not to mention Hiccup didn't have enough courage and power inside of him to start snatching random students and asking them about the infamous bully of the school. Yeah, so that was one option crossed out.

He kinda wanted to maybe ask Heather about it, but he had seen only a glimpse of her and then she had been gone and hadn't even appeared in his line of vision for the rest of the day.

(Somewhere deep in his mind Hiccup kinda hoped that he would meet Heather, would be able to pass her this small gift and then he would be done eternally with the whole buzz around the contest. But some stupid part of his mind was telling him that he should do it himself, that it was only fair to do it and damn… he hated when this part of his brain was correct. Mostly he wished it wasn't.)

So here he was. After classes, searching for Dagur.

Heck, he never had thought such situation would happen.

But at this point Hiccup had checked half of the school and the tall teen was nowhere in sight. Did he already end his classes? Or maybe he simply decided not to attend the last few ones? That was a possibility. Or perhaps he already went out of school to get back home? That was also possible.

Shit.

Hiccup nervously looked around, but the corridor was empty.

If he knew Dagur's locker number he could wait for him there, but no. He didn't have this quite valid piece of information.

Hiccup was totally unprepared for a sudden search.

Well it wasn't that important that it had to be solved today, but Hiccup kinda prepared himself for this occasion so he would be glad if he could have it already behind himself. But apparently not.

His last chance was the library where they had been meeting during their sessions. A place Dagur often visited apparently, so it was as good shot as any, if not even better than some.

With a sigh, Hiccup directed his steps just there.

He walked around the library for a few minutes, searching for the familiar face, hairs, boots, anything that would show him that Dagur was still here, but he found nothing. Some people only shot him weird glances, but other than furrowing their eyebrows, they didn't comment his actions.

Well the librarian did. She finally called Hiccup to her and asked if he was searching for any book in particular. And boy, it was really weird to explain to her that he wasn't searching for a book but for a living human being.

At first the woman stared at him like he was an alien who suddenly decided to step into her domain – or like he told her that dihydrogen monoxide is toxic – but when Hiccup somehow managed to explain for whom he was looking for she only nodded.

"Well Dagur wasn't here today."

Finally some vital piece of information that didn't really help him at all.

Hiccup thanked her anyway and exited the library, feeling the embarrassment burning behind the skin on his cheeks.

When he was outside he exhaled slowly through his teeth and then glanced up. Well, it seemed like his plans for today were busted as he couldn't really find the teen. It was a shame, but he didn't really want to get the rest of his friends into a sudden search so he decided to try his luck next time.

Apparently he wouldn't have to do that anyway.

Because as soon as he crossed the school gates, his eyes landed on the familiar teen standing there, leaning on the wall and smoking a cigarette.

Well, that was pretty convenient and awkward both in the same time.

For a moment Hiccup wasn't sure how to react – the lagging sensation in his brain stretched and stretched and stretched – so he only stared at the teen.

Dagur for a moment stood simple there, with cigarette hanging from his lips and weirdly dazed look in his eyes. His head was darted upwards and eyes were staring at the sky, yet it felt like they weren't seeing it, like there was some kind of firewall in front of them. The smoke rose from the cigarette, circling in the air for a few seconds, only to dissipate completely after a while. The gray ash was getting bigger and bigger with every moment, but Dagur's hand still numbly hung near his sides. Only his foot tapped some kind of weird rhythm on the dirty pavement.

Hiccup definitely had been staring for too long time than necessary, trying to think how to approach this situation and Dagur.

The male finally lifted his hand and grabbed the cigarette to move it away from his mouth. Another thin trail of gray smoke swished past chapped lips, curling around his nose, ears, eyes, hairs and moving high in the air, disappearing quickly and not reaching the sky at all.

Dagur finally noticed Hiccup when he was brushing the ash on the ground.

"Oh hey."

Magically Dagur was still better at social interactions than Hiccup here.

"Hi." Hiccup sputtered, feeling the stress growing inside his bones one more time. Like foam made from polyurethane* – filling every space possible.

He knew he had prepared himself for meeting Dagur, but when he had accepted that this wasn't going to be the case today it was hard to get back in the mood once again.

For a moment Hiccup only stared, fingers moving, combining, intertwining with each other, only to start crumpling the hem of the sweater sticking out from under his jacket.

Dagur moved the cigarette to his mouth, inhaled, let the fire sizzle in front of his lips and then exhaled slowly, staring at the gray smoke that sneaked past his teeth.

"Are you going to stare till the evening?"

Oh shit. Fuck.

Hiccup knew Dagur smoked. Hell, he was an adult actually – as he had failed a grade – so it shouldn't surprise him as it did right now. But somehow when he saw Dagur in front of the school gates – and outside of the school grounds, so he actually could smoke – he couldn't stop himself from staring.

"No!' Hiccup quickly shouted back, letting go of his sweater.

Dagur chuckled at that and then brushed again the gray dust on the ground, but other than that didn't acknowledge that Hiccup was standing there.

Which would be all good, if Hiccup didn't want to do something.

Well, better to do it now and have it behind himself, than trying to do it in the future. So if life gave him this opportunity, he was going to use it.

To do that Hiccup slipped his backpack off his shoulders to put it on the ground. He unzipped it and rummaged through the contents for some time. He could feel that Dagur actually observed him, probably trying to understand what the hell was he doing right in front of him, but Hiccup focused on the task. The cortisol* swam through his veins, making his hands twitch hesitantly as the sweaty fingers tried to grasp the plastic wrapper at the very bottom.

But gladly after the third try he managed to get out the chocolate. He quickly zipped his backpack, threw it on his back and then he was stepping closer to Dagur to almost push the chocolate into his chest.

"What the fuck?" Dagur mumbled.

The hand holding the cigarette moved away from their bodies.

Hiccup swallowed hard.

"It's for you. I mean… I wanted to thank you for your help with the Robotic Contest and all the time you wasted on my project. I didn't know what to get you, so I bought a chocolate…" Then he bit his bottom lip and glanced up at the teen. "Shit, sorry if you don't eat or like sweets. I just didn't know what to buy you…"

Dagur threw the butt to the ground and stomped on it. Only after that he took the chocolate from Hiccup's palms.

It wasn't much, just a simple raspberry chocolate. At first Hiccup had wanted to buy a hazelnut one, but what if Dagur was allergic to nuts? So Hiccup had tried to play safe and had bought a different one.

Dagur stared at the chocolate for a moment, eyes moving from one side to another. Then after a few seconds he simply chuckled.

"You didn't have to do that."

"I know, but you also could simply not help me. Yet you did, you wasted so much time and I still didn't get any prize, so sorry." Hiccup quickly breathed out, letting his hands fall limp next to his sides.

Dagur glanced at him, then at the chocolate and – seriously – a soft smile suddenly appeared on his mouth.

"Thanks." He simply said and then hid the chocolate in the pocket of his trousers.

It was still sticking out a little bit.

Hiccup tried to smile, he really did, but the muscles weren't working as smoothly as he wanted them to, so whatever he had on his face was probably crooked and weird. He wanted to step away, but doing it suddenly right now would be kinda strange. However staying here didn't seem like a good idea either. The fight inside his head was a quick one – and he was about to turn on his heel and stomp away, when Dagur suddenly blurted.

"Will I see you at the prom with Jack?"

Actually Hiccup was in the middle of turning around, so he had to do it once again to face Dagur.

The teen wasn't really looking at him, but at the ground or maybe at the cigarettes littering the grass here. His military boot moved and then started to form a long trench in the soil.

"Ah, uhm, yeah, we are going together." Hiccup mumbled, the heart speeding rapidly in his chest like it expected something, some kind of action and it prepared the body for a reaction that… that never came.

"Cool, so I'll see you there."

And just like that it was done. Dagur didn't add anything more to the conversation, so Hiccup finally turned on his heel to move quickly back to his home, tossing to the wind a quick goodbye.

"Hiccup, what are you thinking about?"

He shook his head, trying to regain back his focus on the blonde haired girl who was looking at him with one eyebrow lifted high on her forehead.

"Nothing important." He quickly answered, lifting the cheeseburger he had put down to his mouth to bite into it.

"You were staring at the void for at least two minutes, so it didn't seem like nothing." Astrid pointed out, playing with the straw and rolling it around in her fingers.

Hiccup huffed under his nose as he munched slowly on the food in his mouth, determining the ideas for an answer over and over in his head, changing the arrangement of words and calculating the risks of stating some different options.

Because to be honest he hadn't been pondering over anything important, he simply had been thinking from where he could remember this dude from the Robotic Contest. At first he had forgotten about it for a few days after the contest. And because of that he didn't know why it resurfaced right now, when he was spending some quality time with Astrid.

(Aka Astrid had dragged him for some short shopping trip after classes.)

Hiccup lifted his eyes at his companion who was curiously eyeing him with a little bit tilted head.

Maybe Astrid would know him? To be honest she knew everyone around Hiccup, plus she was more socially open to other people, so there was a high probability she might give him the answer.

"Well, there is this –"

"Were you thinking about Jack?" Astrid quickly asked, not even allowing him to finish as her words cut right through his sentence.

And Hiccup was really glad he currently didn't have anything in his mouth, because he was sure he would start choking suddenly. If the sudden spasm of his body and heart going haywire inside his chest were any indications.

"N-no, I wasn't." Hiccup sputtered, the sudden warmness whirling under his cheeks, gears crackling together. "Why would you even assume I was thinking about Jack?"

"What about Jack?"

Hiccup blinked, trying to stop his overheating heart from exploding inside his chest and destroying everything. The fact that sudden voice appeared next to their table didn't exactly help.

(Especially as it had asked about Jack.)

He lifted his head, checking who had butted into the conversation and had saved his life (or had made it totally worse) and was met face to face with a waterfall of colorful hairs, cascading down the white shirt dotted with violet polka dots.

"Tooth!" Astrid said, the sudden mischievous smirk quickly replaced by warm, enthusiastic smile splitting her lips.

"Hey guys!" The girl said, waving her hand. "I saw you here and decided to say hi, though I hope I didn't interrupt anything?" She asked, eyes casting down to look apologetically at Hiccup.

"Nah, I was just grilling Hiccup."

"Thank you Astrid for this clarification." He deadpanned, the tension leaving his muscles as the conversation slowly started to roll onto different rails.

"About Jack?" Tooth inquired, looking back at Astrid.

Or not.

"Nah, Jack was only a part of the joke."

"Oh, okay."

Astrid grinned, then glanced for a moment at Hiccup, like she searched for some kind of confirmation, so Hiccup only nodded, not sure on what he was actually agreeing.

But as soon as Astrid spotted it she moved on the couch and allowed Tooth to sit down with them.

If this meant that Astrid would stop pestering him with innuendos – which sometimes were hitting way too close to home for comfort – then he was okay with that. He was more than okay with that. Plus he liked Tooth and didn't mind her presence here.

Tooth glanced at the new, vacant spot, grinned and then flopped down. She put her milkshake on the table and then put her bag on her lap.

"So what were you doing here, Tooth?" Astrid quickly asked.

"Oh I've been checking the prices of some decorations I want to use at the prom."

Hiccup blinked when a few memories flew in front of his eyes.

"I heard you are a part of Prom Committee. Congratulations." Hiccup quickly butted in, already seeing Astrid opening her mouth to add something to the conversation.

"Thanks!" Tooth turned to him, grinning from ear to ear. "I know we still have a few months before it, but I want to have everything ready before it."

"That's a good plan." Astrid nodded and then flopped her head on the table. "Man I wish I would be able to see it later on."

"I'm sure there will be some photos."

"School photos are the worst, they usually only show the King and the Queen of the prom. Lame as fuck."

"Hiccup could always make photos for you." Tooth suddenly said and then quickly clasped her mouth shut and hid it behind her palms with pink nails spread under her nose. "Oh my gosh, sorry. Was it a secret?"

It took Hiccup a second to understand what the girl meant, but then he quickly shook his head.

"No, not really. I mean I think people will find out anyway, so it's not like we are keeping it a secret." Hiccup admitted. "Actually I don't think we should keep it a secret if we want for our plan to work."

Astrid turned to him. There was something sparkling in her eyes, some kind of sorrow, or maybe remorse, or maybe simple a sad acceptance, surging, moving through it, like summer rain – one moment it was there and in the other it fully disappeared, leaving only wet traces on the concrete.

"Well, the important fact is that the closest people to you know about that." Tooth finally said, when there was a beat of silence between them.

The closest to him people. Hiccup had important people around him, but they still didn't know. He wasn't afraid of the twins and the rest – about what they would say – because he could preconstruct the situation in his head. He was afraid of how his father could react to that. Calm? Angry? Shocked? Hiccup wasn't sure.

He exhaled slowly. He had to tell Stoick at some point, right?

"Does the twins and Snotlout know?" Astrid suddenly asked.

"No, I didn't tell anyone beside you and Fishlegs." Hiccup admitted and then glanced at Tooth. "I suppose Jack has told you?"

The girl proudly puffed out her chest.

"He did, even on the same day."

Oh gosh, this was kinda embarrassing. The nervous warmness tried to claw its way to Hiccup's cheeks, but he occupied himself with eating the cheeseburger still being held in his hands.

"So who else knows from Jack?" Astrid inquired suddenly, fully focusing on Tooth, the main source of information right now.

The girl put the straw in her mouth and sipped on it, contemplating the answer in her head.

"To be honest I'm not sure he told that many people. I don't know if he even told his dad."

Telling parents was probably a conversation for another time, just between Jack and Hiccup. Alone, so no one else could hear the details of this plan. Totally not alone because Hiccup liked the idea of them being alone somewhere. Totally not.

"Oh." Astrid mumbled. "So you know I suppose Aster also knows?"

The girl then stopped moving and after a terrible long second pushed the cup away from her mouth. The milkshake level in the straw immediately dropped down as she blinked and then looked at Astrid.

"To be honest I'm not sure. We never brought up this topic in a conversation. But knowing Jack he would tell him."

But Hiccup wasn't sure if Jack actually had told him. Because Jack still believed that Hiccup had a crush on Aster. So he could think that saying Hiccup was going with Jack could minimize Hiccup's chances of being able to…

To exactly what?

Hiccup wasn't sure. He didn't have a crush on Aster anymore. His heart didn't skip a beat suddenly when Aster messaged him – even though they were still talking a lot via messages. His sweet dreams weren't filled with the gray haired teen. He didn't think about the future with the two of them.

There was no burning warmness inside his chest at the prospect of seeing Aster, of having a chance to exchange a few words with him, he wasn't anticipating it as hard as he had done before.

Everything simply calmed down.

Just like that his one crush went away, making place for another.

But having a crush on Jack was different than having a crush on Aster.

Aster's crush had been burning, had been heavy and hard, it had been a never–ending violent reaction inside his chest and brain, it had been making him lose all senses and logical ways of thinking. It had been a fire – a blazing one – inside his heart.

Jack's crush was calm, peaceful, like water, maybe not exactly dangerous like ocean or sea, but familiar like lake behind the house. It was there, rippling waves inside his chest, making him shiver with anticipation at every possibility, but he wasn't nervous. Well not as much as he had been with Aster.

It felt… okay, good to feel that. Feel the emotions, feelings slowly, but steadily moving through his body, not urging him to be fast, faster and faster, but asking him to slow down.

(It was a breeze, a kinda chilly one and hesitant drizzle tickling his skin on the cheeks. It was sunray reflected on the surface. It was a small shiver after a first touch of water with skin, followed by a slow acceptance and comfort after being there for a longer period of time. It was so much and so little, both in the same time. It was warm and cold, but never too much in any direction.)

Hiccup's mind couldn't comprehend it, but maybe he shouldn't do it anymore. He shouldn't try to decipher every short line of coding his brain was feeding him, he should stop disintegrating substances into basic particles, trying to see from what they were made of. Atoms of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen? Maybe sulphur, chlorine? Mixed aromatic and double bonds?

No, it didn't matter, the feeling was just there. Recognizable, but enigmatic. Familiar, yet different than whatever he had felt until now in his entire life.

"Yeah, I think you're right." Astrid mumbled, still glancing at Hiccup.

She was literally the least subtle of his friends. Okay, wait no, in comparison to twins she was a master at this.

(Snotlout didn't count, because he would do things just to embarrass him. And well, to be honest, Hiccup learned to do the same in return. Oh, the faces Snotlout's father had been making when Hiccup had exchanged with him a few of the juiciest memories he and his son had shared.)

But right now Hiccup would be happy if the girl stopped sending him those glances, like he –

Astrid still didn't know. Hiccup still didn't really tell anyone about the development in his feelings. At first he hadn't wanted to do that because he could be wrong, that it all could be an error inside his head and heart, a fake information.

But now, after some time, he was sure of his new feelings – of the sudden beats of his heart, of the redness on his cheeks, of the hesitant needs to be closer.

Enough time had passed and the symptoms weren't disappearing, no, they were getting stronger with every passing day.

Should he tell Astrid? She had been the first person to find out about his major crush on Aster – well, back then it had been a total mistake, because Hiccup so carelessly had left the Facebook page open on his laptop with Aster's profile – but she had been noticing something even way before that.

Plus Hiccup didn't really want to leave Astrid out of it.

However he was kinda afraid of the reaction. Or of her behavior after the revelation. Would it change? Would it be the same as she was with Aster, nudging him, proposing ideas, telling him to just ask Aster out on a date?

The situation with Jack was different. They were technically still dating, Astrid wouldn't have to force him to talk with Jack as he was already doing it every day (or almost every day). She wouldn't have to tell him to just go and meet up with him, because Hiccup had no problems with doing just that.

Maybe she would act different?

Gray was complicated. Hiccup definitely preferred white and black, simple zeros and ones, not something in between. But he couldn't now think like that. He never could, though hiding behind it seemed way easier than dealing with the real life and world.

But Hiccup wanted to tell Astrid. He didn't want to hide it from her.

Tooth quickly changed the topic and she and Astrid started to talk about some friend they both knew. Hiccup in the meantime finished his burger, answering with nods and shakes of his head when either of the girls turned to him to ask a question.

Learning for exams was way more difficult than Jack had anticipated it would be.

With Pitch's sudden tests here and there, Jack was forced to start learning regularly. Failing Math during the last semester would be terrible, so now not only he had to be up to date with current classes, he was trying to do a few exercises from previous years.

But with his… hmm… passion for this subject learning by himself was quite problematic sometimes.

So in the end Jack wasn't surprised that now, when he had to learn Math, he landed in Aster's house.

Actually this time Bunny had proposed learning at his house today for the test they had tomorrow. Jack had agreed, as he had to learn for it anyway and being able to do it with his friend sounded way more pleasing.

Plus Aster could explain a few things, so this way maybe he wouldn't get a second to last bad grade.

So here they were, in Aster's room, sitting on the floor with a coffee table between them and papers with numbers and letters spread around them like fish in the ocean, accumulating in one place, only to leave somewhere else wide open.

"What did you get in seventh question?" Aster asked, messing his hair and making a few gray hairs escape from the short pony tail he was having.

"Uhhh…" Jack's eyes wandered through the messy handwriting in search for the circled answer. "One hundred and seventy two."

"Okay, me too, so it should be okay." Aster mumbled and then circled the number several times.

Jack wasn't sure if his answer was a good confirmation whether the result was correct or not. Usually he was the one asking Aster if he got it right.

By now they were working on it for at least two hours. There were five cups around them – some sheets were stained with brown and orange circles – but most of the liquid inside was already cold.

(Jack's hand was fidgeting a little. Yep, he had too much coffee, but to be honest he was kinda stressed. He wanted to get a good grade from tomorrow tests and he wasn't really content with his knowledge at this point.)

Though now the longer he stared at the paper, the quicker he was getting lost in the endless lines of calculations. The dots started to move in front of his eyes, like they were ants, walking around on the paper.

Jack blinked.

"I need a break." He finally huffed, leaning his back on Aster's bed and lifting his hands above his head to stretch them.

Bunny glanced up at him, then down at the exercise he was making and sighed, only to move the paper away.

"Yeah, maybe it will be good."

Aster reached for the nearest cup, lifted it and then looked inside of it. He grimaced, then sighed one more time and took probably the last sip of the coffee he had there.

Jack massaged his temples. He felt like the information gathered in his head tried to move, to combine, to tidy themselves up, but it all was still swirling, a cloud of variables inside his mind. He felt like he tried to bite too much for such short span of time and now the knowledge was getting messed up inside his head.

Or maybe he was simply tired and stressed.

Aster was staring at the bottom of his cup for a second, then moved his gaze to the papers, only to brush them aside and rest his head on his folded hands there.

Jack looked up at the ceiling, hoping that his mind would stop working for a blissful second.

Time passed by, the tangled mess inside his head slowly, step after step, started to untangle, forming a thin lines of information, easy to grab when needed. Jack knew he still had some missing spots. The ends of the threads of knowledge were cut here and there, sometimes sharply, sometimes with precision, but he managed to more or less tie them up, so it was an ongoing thin string and not a broken one. It wasn't the best thing, but he was still quite proud of himself for being able to understand the topic with a few missing information.

After a few minutes, filled with ticking clock in the background, meows and barks of animals downstairs and a few shushed conversations, Jack finally looked at his friend.

Aster was still lying with his face hidden in the warm embrace of his arms.

"Are you alive?" Jack asked.

"Barely." Bunny answered, the voice muffled by the table probably sticking to his mouth.

"What are the chances of Pitch giving us easy questions?"

"Knowing him… probably pretty low."

"Shit."

Well there was always hope.

Jack didn't need the best grades, but he wanted to have good grades. Well maybe better than the ones he had been having until now.

His phone beeped on the stack of papers on the table. It had done it several times already during the last two hours, but Jack had ignored it in the name of knowledge.

And honestly it was a very difficult task, especially when he knew at least one of these messages was from Hiccup. Jack had informed him that he was going to learn and after that he hadn't picked up the device, which had been laying screen down there.

It was his motivation to move forward, so when the break happened he could check what was there.

Jack moved his hand and grasped his phone, turning it over.

Indeed he had a few messages. A few from his friends, one from North asking when he will be back home and one from Hiccup.

First he quickly replied to his father so he wouldn't be worrying too much and then, enjoying the sudden quick beat of his heart, Jack opened the message from Hiccup.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you ^o^!

Jack grinned, staring at the message. It wasn't much, but gosh, it still made him all warm inside, the fatigue disappearing for a second, overtaken by the sudden wave.

His fingers moved across the keys, forming a quick reply.

Thanks（⌒▽⌒ゞ

"Is it Hiccup?"

Jack lifted his head to spot Aster staring at him from behind his fringe, face barely lifted from the surface.

"Yeah, it is."

"How is it between you two?"

Jack blinked at that. His heart hammered for a moment in his chest, struggling to keep up with something as his brain suddenly turned black.

Did Aster know? Had he found out about Jack's feelings? No, that was impossible. Only he and Astrid knew. And Jack trusted Astrid in this matter. She wouldn't spill his secret to anybody, not even to her best-friend.

So Aster had to ask this question in totally normal, platonic way.

Jack worked himself up for nothing. Gladly.

"Well, normal I guess." He finally answered, taking minimum time to compose himself. "We talk, hang out, you know, the usual stuff." It was only Jack's fault that he wanted something more, something that was beyond his reach.

His chances seriously were in form of a negative delta. Math wasn't on his side – nor in school, nor in love.

"Why do you ask?" Jack inquired instead, tilting his head and locking the screen of his phone, only to start playing with it by swirling the device around.

Aster hummed and then finally sat straight on the pillow. His one hand moved to brush away the fringe from his forehead.

"No reason." He answered.

Jack hummed in reply.

Aster moved his hand farther on his head and grabbed the messy ponytail. He slipped the hairband off, but grasped his hairs. With the other palm he put the hair tie in his mouth and started gathering the strands back into the ponytail.

In just a few seconds he was done.

"Tooth has been asking me about prom. Did she also do it to you?"

"Yeah." Jack nodded. "Well, maybe not so much. She only bothered me until I finally asked Hiccup to prom."

Aster twitched while glancing right at Jack. There was a sudden hesitation, a sudden stillness, a short span of confusing time when they only stared at each other.

"I see." Bunny finally said and then cleared his throat. "I expected as much, but no one was telling me anything in this topic, so I wasn't sure if it happened or not."

"Sorry." Jack suddenly mumbled, exhaling slowly the air he was holding in his lungs.

Why was he doing it exactly?

"You have nothing to apologize for." Aster mumbled, leaning back and moving his legs to a more comfortable position – one bent and close to his chest, other one laying on the floor and papers scattered everywhere. "I was simply just curious."

Jack put his phone back on the table and crossed his legs.

"Yeah, I'm going with Hiccup to prom." He admitted, then a thought beeped inside his skull, blinked, memories flew through his head and for a moment his breath stilled in his throat.

Shit, Hiccup had a crush on Aster. Was Jack killing Hiccup's chances by going with him?

"I–I mean it's normal. We are still pretending to date. So I think it would be suspicious, if we didn't go together."

But the border was blurred and ragged in a few spots and places. It wasn't as clean as it had been before.

No matter how hard Jack wanted to go as something more than a fake-boyfriend or a friend, he couldn't. Hiccup didn't like him back, he liked someone else. And Jack had accepted this fact.

Or at least he thought he had done that.

But it still hurt. It was echoing painfully in his chest, raising the waves of the ocean that was moving inside his body. It hurt to know that the person you liked… liked someone else.

However it was okay. It was a part of life, of living, of breathing, of feeling. People didn't have to reciprocate each other's feelings. It was normal. There were crushes who turned into beautiful moments and there were the ones which were shadowed, more empty than others.

It hurt, but it was normal.

So Jack basked, swam in this normalcy, in the sense that it was okay to like someone, even when this someone didn't like him back. He inhaled shortly, calming his racing heart and sudden swirl of thoughts and picked the best one, the most optimistic one.

Maybe his story wouldn't have a happy ending in this case. But Jack could still help someone else have it.

Hiccup deserved the happiness. Okay, maybe sometimes he was snarky, sarcastic, could accidentally say too many words than necessary– some of which that weren't too nice. But he tried. He tried to get through the wall in front of him, the wall that blocked him from other people, preventing from fulfilling himself.

And he wanted to see Hiccup happy.

So even though now he couldn't suddenly change his mind –

(Not that he wanted to do it. To be honest he wanted to be a little bit selfish in this case. Because he could allow himself just a tiny piece of this. Just a touch, a feeling, a sensation. He was a little bit selfish and didn't want anyone else than him going with Hiccup to prom.)

– he could do something during the actual prom. Nudge Hiccup or Aster, maybe with the help of Tooth.

Of course, there were a few problems along the way. Both of which concerned his friend – Aster's mysterious crush and him actually going to the prom.

Jack looked at Aster.

"You are going to the prom, right?"

The teen glanced at him and then put his one hand on the knee to let it hang limply.

"I think I'll go. Well, other way Tooth will definitely kill me and I like being alive for now."

Okay, that was one problem almost solved. Which left one still on the plate. Or one and a half and this half could actually be connected to the other one.

"But are you planning on going with someone or alone?"

Jack really tried to sound normal, maybe even a little bit disinterested (even though he was very much interested), but he wanted for Aster to feel comfortable, not like he was interrogated.

So to seem even more like that he grabbed his phone and started to fiddle with it, only stealing a few glances in Bunny's direction.

Aster looked up at him, then casted his eyes down and one hand moved to play with the hem of his jeans.

There was a sudden pause, weirdly long one, unnatural one, even though Jack tried hard to sound normal, almost emotionless.

Aster furrowed his eyebrows, a sudden fight, storm moved through his eyes, numbers swirling around, forming longer lines, possibilities, roads and chances.

Jack looked up at his friend. The phone stopped swirling in his palm.

"I wanted to go with someone…" Aster finally said, hesitantly, slowly, like he was feeling the ground beneath his feet, checking if it didn't crumble in a second or so.

And then he stopped speaking. Just like that he closed his mouth, furrowed his gray eyebrows and glued his gaze to the floor.

Jack wasn't sure what to do in this situation. Nudge or don't nudge? Push a little or drop it?

(He felt like a character in one of those telltale games he loved to play. Like right now the player had the controller in their hands and was currently faced with a dilemma of picking the right option in the conversation. A or B? X or O? Every option was important to the plot, was either pushing it forward or halting it, locking some roads in the future.)

Jack desperately wanted to pick the right option now.

What to do, what to do?

In games he definitely had more time than a few seconds to come up with an idea of what to say, to pick the right option. Of course, sometimes the bar was getting smaller, dropping, urging him to decide faster, quicker, now, but usually he could ponder over the possibilities for a longer period of time.

But not now.

What would Hiccup do in this situation? He was always better at trying to decipher situations, understand them from logical point of view, looking at the world through the lab safety glasses, warily, but cautiously, calculating the best outcome.

Jack wished that he could do it right now.

(The player exhaled slowly and pushed the button, closing their eyes to not see how they were doing it.)

"But?" Jack nudged, looking up at Aster warmly, hoping that the smile he was wearing would help him open a little, crack the shell and peek outside.

Bunny glanced up, then down, then one more time up.

A pause spread between for a longer time than necessary, but Jack settled on waiting. If Aster decided that he wouldn't want to answer him, he would be okay with that. But if there was a chance of getting to know the reason, then Jack would definitely try to grab and hold it tightly.

"Because they are going with someone else."

"Oh…" Jack mumbled, not pretty eloquently. "Well… shit."

He didn't want to say exactly that per se, but it simply slipped past his lips.

But Aster surprisingly snorted with the frown smoothening a little bit on his forehead and eyes closing for a moment to inhale shortly.

"Yeah, shitty situation." Aster admitted.

"Agreed." Jack nodded and then bit his lip. "Are you okay?"

"It isn't the best situation, but I'm living, as you can see."

"And I want you to do it for as long as you can."

Another snort left Aster's lips.

This was fine, this kinda breezy atmosphere surrounding the dark topic was okay. He could work with that. Maybe Aster didn't open himself fully, but allowed Jack to take a sneak peek.

So moving on the wave Jack tried to test his luck a little bit.

"So are you planning to take someone else then?"

"Maybe." The teen said and the scratched the back of his head. "I thought about simply going with Tooth, but I doubt she will have the time to go with anyone actually."

"Oh yeah, fair point." Jack nodded. "Then maybe someone else?"

"Maybe…" Aster hummed, looking at Jack and then down. "I mean, I will probably go with someone. It's no fun going alone anyway."

"That's true."

Going alone would suck. Of course, there was some appeal to it – you wouldn't have to watch over anyone, you wouldn't have to worry if you looked good enough, you wouldn't have to drink responsibly.

But there were also a lot of good aspects to it – being able to have someone with whom you could always talk, someone with whom you could dance, the possibility to pick out clothes so you would look good together, enjoying together the last beautiful moments of school life before starting a totally new chapter of your life.

(Plus yeah, Tooth wouldn't let him hear the end of it.)

"Well, I still have some time to think." Aster suddenly said, tone unusually light. "Now we better get back to learning."

Jack whined and hit his forehead on the coffee table quite painfully. The slap resonated in the air for a moment.

"Can't we talk a little bit more?"

"We can talk afterwards." Aster answered and something in Jack told him that the small smile, kinda mischievous one, returned to his lips.

"But when we have time it's no fun."

"You know what is no fun?"

Jack rolled his head to the side, so now his temple rested on the sweet, cold surface.

"What?" He asked, already sensing that he wouldn't like the answer that soon would slip past Aster's lips.

And he was right.

"Failing Pitch's tests. So move your ass."

Jack was sure that even Aster's father could hear him groan.

"Do you know with whom you are going to the prom?"

Jack tried to look like he wasn't listening to the conversation happening next to him, but he couldn't. Come on, he was a curious guy! Not to mention it involved Aster, so this made him double interested in it.

Fortuna* – one of their classmates – was currently talking with Aster about the prom. She was even looking at the teen hopefully, with the sparks shimmering in her eyes and mouth twitching hesitantly. She looked like she wanted to bloom, to open her petals to the world, to show the colors to the sun and shiver, dance around, swirl with the wind, but something was preventing her, something was holding her down strongly.

Aster looked to his side at the girl and then shrugged. His whole body slumped further down on the chair.

Jack groaned internally. Come on, a girl was talking with him, he could act a little bit better, straighten his back, stop playing with the pencil or like actually hold the girl's gaze for longer than two seconds.

"Eh, I'm not sure yet." The gray haired teen mumbled.

The girl blinked, the grin on her lips twitched, crumpled for a moment, dissipated for shorter time than a millisecond, but then it came back, almost like nothing had happened.

"But you are planning on going with someone?"

Aster moved his head, glanced at the girl and then flipped open his notebook.

Jack wanted to smack his face on the desk in front of him. Or he wanted to turn around and strangle his friend. Both options seemed interesting.

Couldn't he see that the girl was definitely hinting at something? That she was looking so hopefully at him? That she tried to get as much information from him as possible?

Jack didn't know her well, however Aster and Fortuna were in the same club so they knew each other way better. Plus they had been to some parties together! And if Jack's memory was correct they had grabbed a few coffees together here and there.

(But Bunny always had told him that they had met randomly in the city and then had decided to drink something.)

"Yeah, I guess." Aster mumbled.

Jack screamed internally. Honestly, he just wanted to turn around, grab Aster's head, turn it to the girl next to him and made him focus solely on her. Maybe this way the poor girl wouldn't probably feel so awkward.

But she was already nervously playing with the rings on her fingers as Aster simply corrected his homework.

The girl was looking up and down intermittently, probably collecting the strength shattered inside her chest to try one more time to get something from the conversation.

Jack felt really sorry for her.

Maybe if he nudged Aster he would get the memo.

"Aster?"

"Hm?" Bunny mumbled, but didn't lift his face from his notes as he furiously scribbled something down, next to a long line of numbers.

The girl took a deep breath, put both her hands down on the counter and opened her mouth:

"Do you think we could –"

Jack honestly was a mere second away from jumping to his feet and throwing a paper ball at the teacher who just happened to step inside the classroom. Well, he wouldn't do that actually, he liked this teacher, but he really was so mad right now.

The girl looked surprised too at the interruption.

And of course Bunny had to make everything worse.

"Sorry, what were you talking about?"

"Nothing." She mumbled quickly.

Her cheeks were dusted with red and pink smudges as she hung her head down. She flipped open her own notebook and grabbed a pen.

Jack was screeching internally, but he felt bad for the girl. Rejected in the worst way.

Or Aster was simply that blind. That was also a possibility.

The class passed without any other interruptions. Only the girl stole a few glances at the teen next to her, but when the bell rang she quickly collected her stuff and then almost ran from the classroom.

Jack sighed.

"Are you ready?" Bunny asked, eyeing his unmoving hands as Jack's gaze was still focused on the entrance.

"Yeah, sure." Jack pushed haphazardly the rest of his stuff into the backpack and threw it then on his shoulder.

They moved through the corridor to the next class, swimming through the river of students going forward and back, mixing with the stream or running away, forming a new one when a corridor appeared in a line of sight.

"Why were you so… unkind to Fortuna back in the classroom?" Jack finaly asked, the curiosity in him gripping the steering wheel of his mind for a moment.

Aster looked down at him with quite surprised look on his face.

"What do you mean?" He inquired, gray eyebrows moving high on his forehead.

"I mean you are usually gruff like some kind of an old man, but today you were extra surly." Jack said, looking at his friend. "And she probably wanted to ask you out to prom! And you didn't even look at her!"

Aster opened his mouth, but then shut it tight and turned away, though his eyebrows moved closer to each other, forming a frown. A thin line appeared in the place of his mouth. Eyes hesitantly jumped from one corner to the other as fingers fiddled in the pockets of his blouse.

"Oh."

Jack wanted to whine. But doing it in the middle of the corridor, with a ton of people who knew him, seemed like a bad idea, so he only sighed loudly, terribly loud and then facepalmed himself. Though the smacking sound resonated in their surroundings and made a few faces look at him.

"Seriously. You told me you would go with someone and this was your chance." Jack mumbled, hand moving across his face to fall down. "I thought you liked her. You could go together as friends."

"I like her." Aster quickly said, this time something resembling a sadness and guilt overpowering the muscles on his face. "It's just…"

And then Bunny stopped speaking.

They emerged from the bigger crowd of students as they turned into another corridor, following the steps of some of their classmates.

"Just?" Jack repeated, looking up at Aster.

The teen shook his head.

"Nothing. I'll apologize to her later."

This sounded like a good idea. Well, a little awkward one, but it was still better to be awkward but remorseful than anything else.

Plus who knows, maybe not all hope was lost. Maybe they would still go there together.

Suddenly Jack felt something wrapping around his neck and tugging him down strongly. Next to him Aster let out a grunt as also something was binding itself around his chest.

Jack glanced to his side to spot colorful hair swishing from side to side as Tooth hung on them while also hugging tightly.

"Hey guys! Why such sulky faces?" She asked, looking back and forth between him and Bunny.

Jack looked up at his friend, but he only shrugged.

"No reason." He finally mumbled, turning his head in the direction of the classroom.

Aster freed himself from Tooth's grip.

Jack let the girl hold him as long as she wanted.

He liked hugs, he loved feeling the warmness seeping from his or other body, mixing and mingling together. He adored the familiar touch of a friend near his heart, he liked the nice smell and the sensation of comfort that came with it.

(The happiness and enthusiasm danced in his chest, swirled around, touching each other foreheads gently, delicately, grinning like beautiful madmen.)

After a long second Tooth moved away from Jack, looking forward at Bunny and then back at Jack.

"Yeah, not believing that." She murmured, which gave her a quick snort coming from Jack's lips. "So what happened really?"

He huffed, one hand moving to his fringe. At first he wanted to push it away from his forehead, but before he knew what was happening his fingers were moving through his locks, messing his hairstyle even more.

"I don't know. I mean I know what happened, but I don't know why he is acting so grumpy now."

Maybe it was the embarrassment. Maybe he was mourning over lost chances. But he didn't seem that sad that a chance just had slipped past his fingertips, dropping down on the floor with splattering sound.

"So what happened then?" Tooth asked, sneaking her hand under his arm and tugging him in the direction of the classroom, where Aster had disappeared at least a minute or so ago.

Jack sighed, the hand which combed (or not) his hair moved to drag itself down his face and then slump down.

Did they all just make a step back with Aster? Or even a leap? Or maybe it was just only one of those bad days?

"Fortuna tried to ask Aster out to prom today–" Jack started, and before he was even able to think about continuing this flow of thoughts, Tooth quickly interrupted him, head smacking in his direction and hairs flowing everywhere.

(Even in his mouth.)

"Oh gosh, I thought she could do that, but I wasn't sure!" She chirped happily, eyes gleaming softly in the yellow light as she looked at him with excited blush on her cheeks. "So what did Aster say!? Did he agree?! Or… said no?"

The last part was added more hesitantly, the nervousness and sudden disbelief clearly seeping into her voice.

Jack felt his fingers twitch.

"He just… didn't care. He didn't even notice her trying to do it actually." He finally murmured, voice getting lower and lower with every spoken word and syllable, turning in the end into a whisper.

Tooth leaned closer as they stopped in front of the door, but not stepped inside just yet. Aster probably already knew they were talking about him. Heck, he probably had known it the moment he had left them alone.

Tooth winced and closed her eyes, air leaving her body in a loud huff through her nose.

'That didn't sound nice."

"It didn't look nice either. I was this far away from strangling Aster right there." Jack said, lifting his hand and bringing his thumb and pointing finger close, even closer, to this point that the space between them was barely visible.

Only maybe an atom could pass through.

"Poor Fort…" Tooth mumbled after a second.

Jack still could clearly remember the sadness seeping from the usually burning eyes, the sudden spark getting lost somewhere in the void around them.

"Yeah."

For now they couldn't do much. Jack had talked about it with Aster and the teen had agreed that he had done something wrong. Now he could only hope that he would do something with it.

Because from what Jack knew Bunny wanted to attend prom, he just had problems with a plus one.

Hey do you think Aster is already
going with someone to the prom? ):

Jack glanced at his Facebook with a sad frown on his mouth. His hand hovered above the keyboard, eyes staring at the message from Fortuna he had received a few minutes ago. One he still didn't answer.

Because he wasn't sure how to reply. He probably should just tell the truth. But in the end he wasn't sure what was real right now.

Drowning in the gullible, messy tangle of ideas inside his head, he pushed his chair forward and simply wrote.

no i don't think so D:

Oh, okay ): Is
he mad at me?

Jack knew why people were asking him about that. Everyone knew they were best friends. Even his teammates sometimes asked him to pass some info to Bunny and vice versa, but it never hurt and made him confused like right now.

i doubt it (๑╹‸╹๑) he isin
bad mood nowadayzz

Which was kinda true, but not fully. Jack didn't know what was wrong with Aster. He was walking blindly just as the rest of them.

Aster had told him that he wanted to go with someone, but he hadn't seemed keen on going with the poor girl. Should he reduce the flame burning around or pour gasoline on it?

He didn't want to be the one to decide.

What should I do? ):

i'm sorry but i don't know

Jack sighed loudly and then grabbed his phone, trying to get other things off his mind and focus on the small fire going inside his heart.

"Who came up with this idea anyway?" Hiccup asked as he massaged his temples when a few voices immediately resonated in his skull.

Nope, he definitely had to turn down the volume.

"Oh come on, Hic, stop busting the fun. It's the only way we are able to hear and see each other nowadays." Astrid hummed in his right ear.

"Totally! Plus this way Fishlegs is not feeling left out!" Tuff in his left ear agreed quickly with voice filled with static for a moment before the audio cleared.

"That is actually true." Fishlegs said on his left side again.

Then there was a pause and his face appeared on Hiccup's laptop screen. The video wasn't perfect, it was blurred a little bit, but he could see the smile on his friend's face and it was all that mattered.

Tuffnut and Ruffnut were already sending video feed. On the screen they were sharing earbuds and miraculously not dropping them every five seconds. Probably years of training with one shared computer had taught them to cooperate at least in one aspect.

Snotlout's video suddenly appeared in the right corner, above Astrid who without interest stared at the screen, finger moving on her mouse. She definitely was scrolling through some sites. Probably tumblr.

She opened her mouth and then moved the mouse to click on something and then her bored look was back, together with the scrolling motion.

Yeah, definitely tumblr.

"Hiccup, why don't you turn on your camera?" Ruff suddenly said, moving closer to her own camera, like by doing it she could somehow see Hiccup.

"Why should I?"

"Because we also want to see your dumb face, asshole." Snotlout scoffed in his right earphone, crossing his hands on his chest and leaning back on the chair.

Hiccup sighed. He could understand that there was some logic behind that, but on the other hand… it meant he had to move forward and actually take off the cover from his laptop camera.

And Toothless was on his lap.

"Wow, I feel so appreciated here." Hiccup huffed into the air, knowing very well that everyone heard it.

The snort coming from Ruffnut definitely confirmed his suspicions.

"Just do it, Hic!" Tuffnut next to his sister glared at the camera, swirling on the chair a little but still managing somehow to keep the earphones in their ears.

"Is a reason that Toothless is currently laying on my lap enough for you?"

This time it was Astrid's turn to sigh heavily.

"Hiccup, I love Toothless with all my heart, but you see him every day and some of us don't."

Okay, yeah, that one made sense.

So with a loud groan and one hand holding Toothless, Hiccup moved up and pushed the safety away on the camera. Then his hand moved to the mouse and unclicked the button with the small camera logo.

In just a few seconds his own face appeared on the screen, getting weirdly happy responses. Well, not counting Snotlout of course.

"Wow, finally, dude." Ruffnut said, moving closer to the screen.

"I still would prefer for it to be shut."

"Bro, you barely even speak during our talks here, so at least we can see your face to know you are there and pretend that you are listening to us."

"Stop giving me arguments with which I can't fight!"

This made Fishlegs cackle loudly on the other side of the screen, hiding his mouth behind his hands.

But it was true, whenever they talked like that Hiccup usually became quiet quite quickly. It didn't mean he wasn't listening, because well, he did. At least most of the time. He simply felt content with the familiar voices swimming through his ears. He felt happy with the idea that they still wanted to talk with him, even if he didn't participate in the conversation that much.

And today wasn't any different. He added a few words of his own, but then kept his mouth shut as he surfed the internet and listened to Snotlout and Astrid suddenly bickering about something, with Tuffnut and Ruffnut rooting for the girl.

Hiccup absentmindedly stroked Toothless' back. The cat let out a few meows here and there, always getting a series of 'awwws' coming from his headphones in reply.

Actually there were a few things he wanted to talk about with his friends, but he didn't know with which he should start. Plus he wasn't exactly sure when was the perfect moment for him to butt into the conversation. After the end of one topic? But there was little time to do it. Maybe he should redirect the conversation somewhere? However he also wasn't this type of person that interrupted others.

So Hiccup waited.

Maybe in the end he was simply nervous about starting talking at all. That could be the case.

(Not to mention there were a lot of other conversations he wanted to have. With Astrid and Jack.)

Hiccup shook his head, furrowing his eyebrows.

Gladly Fishlegs saved him by simply asking:

"Is there something on your mind, Hiccup? You look troubled."

And just like that the conversation that was going on stilled to a halt immediately and everyone looked at his face.

Ugh, Hiccup hated to be in the center of attention. He could already feel his mouth getting dry, like there was calcium chloride" spread around, gathering all the moisture from its atmosphere.

"Hic?"

"I'm not troubled. I've been just curious." He quickly clarified, after Astrid's too warm voice had filled his ears.

"About what?"

"There was this guy I met during the Robotic Contest and he seemed really familiar. But I don't know from where, plus it was quite unlikely I could see him in Burgess." Hiccup finally mumbled, rolling the cable of his headphones around his finger.

Toothless darted his head up as the petting session had been stopped abruptly and now glared at him, demanding to be petted once again.

Hiccup had no other option than comb his fingers through the soft fur yet again.

"Wow, wow, much information." Snotlout scoffed, rolling around on his chair.

Yep, telling it near Snotlout wasn't maybe the brightest thing to do, but the trio was his best shot at trying to understand from where he could know this guy.

Also, Snotlout almost tripped while rolling on his chair and unplugged his earphones, so yeah, maybe it wasn't all that bad.

Tuff and Ruff started to laugh loudly as they observed Snotlout trying to gather himself. Astrid was giggling, but tried to hide it behind her hand. Fishlegs was simply smiling.

"Okay, but yeah, I must agree with Snot here. That wasn't much information." Tuffnut said, when Snotlout managed to plug the earphones in and now was rolling closer to the screen.

Well yeah, his cousin interrupted him before he could give any more details, so that was understandable.

Hiccup stroked Toothless behind his ear so the cat lifted his head and then rested it on Hiccup's stomach.

"Well the only thing I know is that his name is Tadashi… Tadashi H… H something… and that he studies in San Francisco."

And after that there was silence, a weird, unnerving, tense silence. It seemed that for a moment everything stilled and only time was moving forward.

Well the twins and Snotlout definitely weren't moving. They were only gaping at the screen with mouth partially open and eyes big as filters before preparing them for filtration*.

Hiccup blinked, feeling as nervousness squeezed his chest. The hand stopped moving as he looked at the other participants of the conversation.

Fishlegs looked probably the same as Hiccup, lost in the whole conversation. But Astrid was staring at the screen with a small grin on her lips – if it was a conscious movement or not Hiccup wasn't sure, however it didn't seem like she knew she was doing that.

"Wait… When you say Tadashi, you mean Tadashi Hamada, right?" Ruffnut slowly asked, while her brother was shaking his head to get himself out from whatever dreamland he had moved into.

Hiccup nibbled on his bottom lip and then nodded.

"Yeah, I think yeah… it was him." He nodded. "So, you do know him?"

So there was some fickle of possibility that Hiccup could also know him.

But how? What someone from San Francisco would be doing here, in Burgess?

"Bruh…" Tuffnut mumbled, barely parting his lips.

Ruffnut slowly shook her head.

"I'm surprised you didn't recognize him." Snotlout finally said, though he also had to blink a few times, like he had to clear whatever cloudy veil had been thrown onto them. "I mean…"

"You looked like you quite enjoyed yourself back then." Tuffnut continued, moving closer to the screen.

What the fuck was happening? What were they talking about? Hiccup definitely couldn't remember this face! He only had a feeling that he knew him from somewhere.

"I… I met him?" Hiccup hesitantly asked, feeling like his processor was overheating, sizzling as it tried to understand, compile data and form some kind of coherent results.

But it couldn't, it was missing something – some memories, clear ones, weren't in the folder where they were supposed to be.

"Duh, obviously." Snotlout mumbled, mouth stretching and stopping for a moment. Only after a second the video unbugged, but the boy already moved away from the screen and now stared with amusement at it. "What, you don't remember him? Ouch."

"I mean, it's not that surprising, Hic was trashed back then." Ruffnut finally murmured, blonde eyebrows furrowing for a second.

Tuffnut snapped his fingers and turned to his sister with eyes becoming clear for a second.

"Oh yeah, you're right! He threw up for two hours later on."

Hiccup didn't like it more and more. He was glad his father, who was downstairs, couldn't hear this. Or maybe he would be actually happy to know that his son had been dead drunk once… a few times.

Hiccup definitely wasn't happy about that. He didn't like having empty spaces in his memories, blackouts here and there, darkness overpowering his mind and limbs. Nu–huh.

But the last party where he had had some empty spaces in his memory line had happened in… July. The one where Marshall had started a fight with some dude! Yes, that one.

Astrid and Fishlegs were looking back and forth between screens, mouths partially open and weird curiosity sparkling in their eyes.

(Actually Astrid looked more amused than anything else. And if the mischievous spark in the corner of her mouth was any indication, Hiccup had a feeling she was already putting the whole picture together.)

"Now that you remind me about it, I think I had some vomit stains on my jacket after that party." Snotlout mused, glancing at Hiccup.

"Yeah, no wonder, you were the one who dragged Hic to the bathroom."

Hiccup wanted to bury himself underground. It would be cold there, calm, quiet and people wouldn't be reminding him about his mistakes from so long time ago.

In overall the whole party hadn't been that bad. Or well… it had started pretty bad. From what Hiccup could remember he knew that he had had a terribly bad mood that day.

(Dagur had bugged him a lot during that day, so Hiccup had escaped to the nearest home that had been there, which had happened to be the twins' one.)

And of course his friends had tried to lift up his mood. But well… their methods maybe weren't working on everyone. Because they had decided to get him drunk, to loosen him up, make him forget about the rest of the world and just for one evening live in the moment, with them, with the music and sweet chatters of people around.

And well… it had worked for some time. Not long. Well as long as he had drunk kinda responsibly it had been okay. But he hadn't done that.

That day he simply had stopped worrying about responsibilities.

So he had drunk a lot. Like really a lot.

And the aftermath hadn't been so fun. Or like it had been totally opposite of fun.

(He couldn't look at any form of alcohol for two weeks.)

"Okay, okay, but will someone finally tell me what happened?" Fishlegs suddenly spoke up, shaking his head a little. "And how could Hiccup know this… Tadashi guy?"

Ruff and Tuff turned to each other and giggled, mouth stretching into heavy and mischievous smirks. The smirk that never brought anything good.

"Well… you could say that our Hiccup here was the reason of Tadashi's not that small problem."

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

At this point Astrid was fully laughing, shoulder twitching spasmodically as she tried to take a sweet, sweet breath. The twins weren't any better, only Snotlout was smirking to the camera.

Hiccup stared at the screen, trying to connect the dots, missing memories, stories from that night and form a coherent meaning.

Slowly it all clicked into place.

And he had to hide his face in his hands and whine loud and long, painfully reminding everyone that indeed it had been one of the most embarrassing situations of his entire life.

(He even had told Jack about this. How could he have forgotten about it? But actually he had been quite happy with not remembering about that part of his young life.)

Somehow his reaction made everyone laugh harder. But the only thing Hiccup wanted to do was to disappear.

He was so glad he hadn't connected the dots back at the contest, then the whole situation would have been even worse. But judging from Tadashi's face he had definitely remembered it clearly.

Hiccup hoped that he would never see this face ever again.

And somehow miraculously Fishlegs still couldn't understand what was happening, even though Hiccup knew he had been at this party. He had patted Hiccup on the back when Hiccup had been hugging the toilet like it had been his long lost friend.

"Will someone finally tell me what happened?"

This somehow made the twins and Astrid snort louder and Hiccup to slump further down on his chair, getting an annoyed look from Toothless who still persistently tried to get comfortable on his stomach.

Snotlout apparently took it on himself to explain the whole situation. He even cleared his throat, put his one elbow on the counter and then leaned towards the camera.

"Oh, dear Fishlegs. During that party our Hiccup here gave poor Tadashi a boner during their dance."

"Thank you Snot for that quite literal explanation." Hiccup whimpered from behind his hands, feeling as he was fuming with embarrassment.

"You're welcome."

Somehow the sudden smile that appeared on Fishlegs' face was even worse.

"Jack, do you have a moment?"

Jack stopped in his steps and looked around, noticing Astrid walking to him with a pretty irritated look on her face. There was a duo standing behind her, a good few meters away, and peeking at them from behind a corner.

What the heck was happening?

"For you always." Jack said with a smile splitting his lips.

"Aww, that's so gay." Astrid quickly snipped back, grin forming on her mouth in a split second, smoothening the wrinkles on the forehead.

Jack snorted, but didn't comment it. He preferred not to do it, plus he loved Astrid's humor. No matter how dark and not really on point it was.

"So what do you need?" He asked, tilting his head and looking at her.

The duo in the background tried to hide themselves by moving a step back, but Jack still could clearly see them.

"Well, I don't technically need anything, but my friends from club were kinda already pissing me off. They are curious if Aster is going with someone to the prom?"

Uh oh.

Of course, of course now suddenly everyone was asking about that.

Jack mulled the possibilities inside his head. How he should answer? Should he tell the truth? Had the girls heard something from Fortuna?

"You don't have to answer me. I can just tell them to piss off if you want." Astrid said, pointing with her thumb at the place where the girls were hiding.

The duo spotted it and then quickly ducked their heads behind the corner.

"No, um, I'm just not sure how I should answer." Or how much he could actually tell.

"You can give some vague answer, they'll take everything."

This also didn't sound nice.

"Tell them that he is still undecided on that aspect."

Which was kinda the closest to truth he could get without spilling anything. Yeah, that was a good answer.

"Sure, okay, thanks!" Astrid nodded, smiled at him, patted hard his shoulder and then she was running away to the duo hiding still behind the corner.

Jack waited for some time, observing the quick exchange happening not that far away from him. He observed the sudden drops of eyebrows, the hopeful smiles disappearing from the mouths, the movement of eyelids and hesitant brushes of hairs behind the ears.

Jack turned on his heel and stomped away.

"Hey, I have a question…" Hiccup finally mumbled when the pause in the conversation appeared and just waited to be nudged by this topic.

"Fire away." Jack quickly answered, the happiness in his voice not even disappearing for a second.

Hiccup furrowed his eyebrows, combining words inside his head before they would leave his mouth. This was on his mind for quite some time and when Jack had asked if he had some time to talk via Skype he had thought that it maybe was a good time to ask about it.

They weren't having their cameras turned on, but only talked. Maybe it was better in this situation.

"Do you think we should tell our parents that we are going together to the prom?"

The clicks on the other side stopped for a moment.

Hiccup stilled his breath, feeling his chest clenching as the sudden silence wrapped itself around them, patting their hairs softly and whispering into their ears.

Jack cleared his throat on the other side.

"I think at some point we should tell them. I mean, I can't imagine North not pestering me about my plus one to the prom."

Hiccup guessed Stoick wouldn't care that much. He would probably ask about it, but Hiccup could deflect answering this question for some time.

"Yeah, I thought so."

"Do you…" A sudden pause. "Have something against telling them?"

"No, no, not really." Hiccup quickly answered, even shaking his head to prove the point, though Jack couldn't see it. "I mean, I guess I'm just kinda nervous about that."

"About what exactly?"

This was hard to put into words.

Hiccup pushed his sleeves down and started to fiddle with them, wrinkling and meddling with the loose threads sticking from the material and hooking his fingers on the holes he had there.

"I'm not sure. I mean should we tell them about our plan too?"

"Do you want to?"

Did he want to do that? All this time he had tried to keep them out of it, far away from the things that had been happening at the school. How they had managed to do that for such a long time was beyond his mind comprehension.

(It still felt terrible. Like they were lying to their beloved ones, pushing them away from the truth, showing signs that were directing them to the fake road.)

"Not really." Hiccup finally mumbled, heart squeezing inside his chest for a painful second.

Will they be able to prolong it for much longer? Should they drop it? It all was bound to break and crash down one day, one moment.

"Then we won't tell them about the plan." Jack said, finalizing it with his own words.

But Hiccup still wasn't sure about all of this. When Jack had said it, it all had seemed so easy. It was just one thing to do, tell their parents. Well two things considering they would probably have to do it separately. But still… how Hiccup could explain it?

Should he tell Stoick the truth? That he had a crush on Jack? How his dad would react to that?

(Stoick knew about Hiccup's preferences, but there was always a veil of awkwardness surrounding this topic whenever they mentioned it.)

Or worse? Would he spill it out accidentally to Jack?!

No, Hiccup believed his dad. He knew him. If he asked him not to do it, then he wouldn't do it. He was sure of it.

But still the whole idea of having such conversation was scaring him. A lot of things scared Hiccup in life – talking with people, touching them, interacting with them in any form. New things terrified him, unnatural things, emotions. Everything that was spontaneous and couldn't be calculated fell under that category.

Showing his emotions, opening himself to the world scared him. But Hiccup loved his dad and he wanted to share this part of his life with him.

"So we are telling them?" Jack asked after a few seconds of silence.

"Yes."

"Oh, this is going to be terrible. I can already see North smirking at me."

Hiccup chuckled, hands moving back to the keyboard to push the keys and open another tab.

"You can do it very quick while going somewhere. This way you will be saved for some time."

"Debatable, but I'll think about it."

The smile didn't want to leave Hiccup's lips.

They didn't talk about anything big or important in particular, but the vibrations swam through his body like he was under an influence of some radiation, exciting all the atoms in his body.

Even after their call ended, Hiccup couldn't brush away the warmness from his fingertips, but he didn't really mind it either.

Okay if Jack though that situation with Aster was better, then it… definitely wasn't.

Bunny was grumpier than ever. Almost like there was a dark cloud looming above his head, thundering and roaring every few seconds or soaking his mood with drizzle or rain.

The mood had stayed for a few days.

Tooth also had noticed it. They even had talked about it for a moment, but the conversation had been fruitless. They couldn't come up with anything if Aster didn't tell them a single thing.

And it didn't seem like it could happen.

Aster had apologized to Fortuna, but everything had stopped right there. The girl didn't seem like she wanted to pursue that idea much longer. Or like she wanted to do it, but was afraid of even worse consequences, so she decided to let the topic drop, swim away, be taken away by the river of other things floating around them.

Several times Jack had seen or heard about other people approaching Aster, before and after that.

Jack wasn't surprised. Bunny was popular – he was handsome, kind, maybe a little bit harsh and hard on the edges, but polite and a good person in overall. Some girls stared at him when he passed through the corridors, the longing looks hanging on his posture.

(Well from what Jack knew some boys definitely also found him pleasing. Or like one specific teen had a crush on his best friend.)

But it seemed that with every question about the prom, about his plus one for it, Aster was getting more and more irritated.

Or maybe it had started a long time ago, but only now Jack was seeing the results, the outside image, silhouette that was oozing from Bunny's body.

It didn't look good. It looked the opposite of good.

Aster definitely was stressed. With the influence of prom and the sudden gush of exams and homework thrown at him it was hard to balance everything. The fact that season was starting and they needed more practices wasn't really working in his favor.

He was more snippy and brash. The tiredness rarely left his eyes nowadays. Mouth was usually pinched in a tight line. Fingers nervously tapped an uneven rhythm on the desk.

Even their teammates had noticed it, but whenever they had asked Jack about it, he couldn't give them any specific answer. Jack hated it, but for now he couldn't do much about it.

The last year was indeed stressful. Everyone felt the breath on their necks, reminding them about the moving, passing time and the responsibilities trampling on their heels. Everyone wanted to finish High School with good grades and remaining two months weren't really a long period of time.

And this was how much time they had before the end of the last semester. Before they would be ushered in nice clothes and forced to take exam after exam after exam with sweat rolling down their temples as the clock above them would tic and tock.

Jack was also nervous. He started to spend more time during the afternoons and evenings simply learning.

He had checked the cooking school a little bit and well maybe it didn't need students with top high grades, the threshold was still kinda high. Even for Jack.

(But he liked, heck even started to love this idea, and for now this was pushing him forward. His own choice, his own selfish idea that took his hand and let him into the unknown spreading in front of him.)

So he could understand being under stress. He himself could feel fear prickling his skin, the exhaustion behind his eyes as he spent sometimes a few hours catching up on the things he had missed during his whole High School.

It was a hard thing to do, but damn, he was going to try as hard as he could.

And Aster aimed for one of the best Universities, so his grades had to be at the top of the school.

Other people didn't exactly help with giving him a break.

So Jack kinda could understand Aster acting a little bit like not himself.

Well to some point that was. Because sometimes it was simply too much, even for him.

However this didn't exempt Aster from blame when he acted like an ass. And lately he was doing it more and more often. The atmosphere surrounding Aster was dense, tense, like a string pulled to the verge of breaking. One snap would be enough to let all the walls crumble down.

Apparently Aster couldn't focus even on the practices anymore. His passes were askew, barely hitting the point and he had already missed at least three goals.

And when captain mentioned it, Aster only grumped something in response. And of course, sometimes their captain was kinda crazy and maybe some of his decisions could be think through more thoroughly, but he was still a kind person. And Aster was even more so.

He wasn't this type of person who would do something like that. Usually he nodded, pinched his lips in a tight line and strived to do better, not matter what he was reprimanded about.

"Do you want to add something, Aster?" Their Captain stopped and looked at Aster.

It seemed that this snapped Bunny back from whatever dark land he had drifted to, or at least retrieved some part of his mind, because he simply shook his head.

"No, Captain."

"That's what I thought."

Jack lifted his body from his half bent position, ungluing his palms from his sweaty knees.

Till the end of the afternoon training the atmosphere in the team was off, unnatural. They could be goofy when they were off season and they could be stern and focused between important matches, but it rarely was like that.

(The last time had been probably when two of their teammates had started fighting in the middle of the field during one morning practices back in October.)

The end couldn't get any quicker.

Gladly after another hour of painful tricks, running back and forth, passing ball to other people and traumatizing the poor keeper the practice came to an end.

The team moved quickly to the changing room, talking loudly and laughing as their footsteps echoed in the empty hallway of the school.

Jack, even though he was usually walking with Aster, moved to the front after he had glanced at his friend.

He didn't look like he was in a good mood, if the dark aura surrounding his head was anything to go by.

They changed their clothes in accompaniment of other people talking about somethings – girlfriends, boyfriends, meetings, new games they had played, new movies they had watched, books they had read and then shared with each other and all that.

Jack mostly listened, but he butted in in a few conversations, cracking several jokes here and there and making people laugh.

(He really liked seeing people smile. It filled him with warmness.)

Aster changed his clothes on the side. He barely lifted his head after entering. His bottom lip was constantly under attack of his teeth.

Jack opened his mouth several times, maybe to ask something, anything that could break the tension clearly accommodating itself in Aster's body, but stopped every time.

"Aster, can you come with me for a second. I want to talk with you."

It was their Captain, standing close to Aster but not so close that he would be looming above Bunny. Nevertheless it still wasn't a nice experience. Captain usually wanted to talk face to face with people who had messed something up.

Was Aster on the bad side now?

"Okay."

Bunny finished changing and then followed their Captain outside, not even glancing back at them or even informing Jack whether he should wait for him or not.

The silence that empowered the locker room after that was so dense that everyone could probably hear a pin drop on the ground like some kind of earthquake.

"That was weird." One of his teammates spoke, pulling his head out of the shirt. "Aster lately is really moody. Something happened?"

Jack nibbled on his bottom lip, tying the shoelaces of his shoes.

"Nothing that I know of."

And it was the truth, no matter how hard it was to say.

Slowly the atmosphere dissipated and people started to talk normally once again.

Jack decided to wait for Aster, simply because it was kinda their tradition to get back home together. Not counting the fact that Bunny usually simply drove Jack back home.

(He could walk there on feet, no problem, but Aster had simply started to pick him up and well… it had stayed this way for a long time.)

Jack sat on the bench near the coach office, which was the place the Captain always brought players if he ever wanted to talk with them. He could hear shushed words spoken on the other side of the door, but they were messed up and Jack couldn't really catch the meaning of them.

Not that he liked eavesdropping. If maybe he glued his ear to the door he would hear about what they were talking, but he wasn't like that.

So he simply sat on the bench with his bag and backpack near his legs and played with his phone.

I just want to sleep D:!

cant you take a short nap now?（・^・；）

He sent the message and saw it appearing on the long chat. The small smile sneaked onto his lips, stretching the tight line into something definitely more comfortable.

But the happiness was short lived as the door to the office opened and the familiar figure walked out.

"Think about what we talked, okay?"

Oh, it was their Captain speaking.

"I will."

Jack stood up as the door closed and the sudden light was taken away, covering the corridor yet again with an uncomfortable shady presence.

Aster turned to him.

"You're still here?" He asked, simply as that.

But almost like he was reproaching Jack. Which was a stupid idea and even a stupider feeling to have inside his chest right now.

However it was there, clenching his chest.

"Where else would I be? We're always going back home together." Jack said, but the words scratched his throat and left an unpleasing feeling on his tongue.

He didn't like it, no, he hated it, the sudden awkwardness between them that rose like dust during the storm, that desperately clung to their bodies, covering their eyes and ears, spreading across the tongues.

"Let's go."

Jack gathered his things and followed his friend slowly in the direction of the exit, shining at the end of the corridor above the door.

Should he ask about it? On one hand pestering Aster about it didn't sound good, but Jack was his friend. His best-friend. He maybe deserved some explanations.

"What did the Captain want to talk about?"

For a moment Jack didn't expect Bunny to speak. There was a brief moment of silence they shared, a sudden hesitation in the air that sparkled like falling down rain in the lights of passing cars.

"About my presence in the team."

"What?" Okay, Jack almost shouted, but how could he not when he definitely didn't expect that. He had expected Captain to talk about Aster's behavior, not about… what, kicking him off the team?

No, that wasn't possible.

"Exactly what you heard." The gray haired teen huffed, correcting the hold on his backpack which was slung over his one shoulder. "He thinks I should step down if I'm not planning to get my heart into playing."

On one hand Jack could understand that. Aster had a lot on his mind, learning, stressing over exams, fulfilling expectations that he had put on himself, on his shoulders that were weighing him down like anchors, stopping in place and preventing from moving forward.

But on the other hand the idea made him sad. He had spent amazing times with Aster and the rest of his teammates here, goofing around, playing, supporting each other, winning and losing, remaining on the field even with blood dripping from their knees.

However if this was what was best for the team then Jack wouldn't… wouldn't argue.

"Kinda sucks." Jack finally mumbled, pushing the front door to step into the world where the sun was lazily moving to the horizon line, bathing the sky with deeper colors, from orange hues to rosy smears.

"You think?" Aster asked as he stepped out after Jack.

Normally it would be said in a joking tone, hinted with amusement, maybe sprinkled with sarcasm or dipped in faked bewilderment. But no, this one was scoffed, spitted like the words were poison, terribly sour poison inside his mouth.

And it shouldn't really string anything inside of Jack. It shouldn't really disturb anything inside his mind.

But the storm was looming, growling at them, embracing them with coldness seeping into their minds, blocking all positive emotions.

So Jack simply burst. Burst like a dynamite, missing all the good times they had had before, the happy memories they had shared that now seemed like some far away album filled with gray photos.

"What is your problem?"

"My problem?"

Aster stopped moving and then turned on his heel to look at Jack, who clenched the fists at his sides.

"I don't have a problem."

"You clearly fucking do. Why do you act like an ass nowadays?!"

The thoughts were a mess, a tangled mess inside his head. He couldn't pick out a coherent, straight thought from the cauldron of his mind. Everything was mixed together, forming something chaotic, something that tore right through Jack's chest, clawed its way out, spreading into the world.

Jack hated it. He hated himself more because he couldn't stop the anger from pouring from his body.

"I have a lot on my mind."

"We all do!" Jack hissed, the boiling rage bubbling inside his veins. "We all fucking have a lot on our minds. And okay, maybe you have more than the rest of us, but it doesn't excuse you acting like a douchebag."

It was like a dam suddenly broke, leaving only splinters of wood, broken branches and destroyed logs in its wake. And the emotions poured, they spilled and stormed and waved and crashed, taking all coherent thinking with them.

Aster huffed. The redness spread over his cheeks and it seemed like he was seconds away… but away from what? It gnawed on Jack, it glared, it smirked evilly from somewhere behind Aster's burning eyes.

But Jack didn't care.

"Just… just drop it, okay?" The cold tone was back, freezing everything, covering it with a thin lay of sparkling, emotionless hoarfrost.

"No!" Jack shouted, before he could control his emotions. "I'm fucking done with you acting like that. I worry and ask what is wrong, but you only lock yourself away. You push everyone away and shut the door right in their faces. And I'm fucking done with it all." He moved forward, hands, fingers entangling themselves in the fabric of Aster's shirt. "And I'm simply worried about you! What happened to telling each other everything, leaning on each other when we needed this?"

What happened to being best friends?

Jack couldn't lift him, heck, he didn't plan to, he was just tired and mad and scared, so, so, so afraid of losing his best friend that he had acted on impulse.

His eyes met Bunny's ones.

"Do you always have to be so perfect?" Aster hissed back, eyelids dropping for a moment and not resisting Jack's grip on his jacket.

He probably could break free, he could probably grip Jack's hands and push them away. Heck, he was way taller than Jack, he probably could lift him up.

"What?" Jack asked, barely believing what he was hearing.

"Why do you always have to be like that? You worry about everyone else, but forget about yourself."

"Don't make it about me. I'm not the problem here."

"No, of course not, you never are." Aster said.

What did it even mean? What the hell was he babbling about?

"Aster… just tell me. At least one thing. Take your mind of one thing. Is it so hard? I'm not asking to spill all your secrets, I'm just asking for you to share only one thing."

One thing of probably many.

Was it so hard to share just a small piece of his mind? Was it so hard to crack open something that had been fully open some time ago for him?

Aster looked down at him with some kind of sad glint shimmering behind dark eyelashes. The hands he had clenched into fists near his sides relaxed for a moment, fingers losing the tension. But shoulders were still hunched, tensed, taunted, ready to break any second now.

"You won't like it though." He mumbled. "So maybe it's better to not say anything."

Jack tightened his grip, but stepped a little bit away, giving Aster a room to breathe, collect whatever parts of scattered thoughts he had.

"Maybe." There was a high probability that Jack wouldn't like what he would hear. Aster knew him best anyway. "But if it will make you feel better then I want to hear it."

But would it make Aster or Jack feel better? At this point he wasn't sure, he didn't know, he didn't really want to untangle the mess they had made in just a few minutes.

He just wanted to hear anything, whatever it could be, take the weight away from Aster's shoulders.

"I doubt it will make any of us feel any better." Aster said, looking right at him.

"Aster…" Jack sighed, feeling the exhaustion rippling through his bones, rattling, shaking them. "You'll never know until you'll try."

"There is so many things there that I'm not sure from which one I should start."

"Just say the very first thing that comes to your mind. That one thought which pops into your mind when you see me."

Kinda selfish of Jack, but if Aster could share just a pinch of his heart, just showed him a small puzzle piece of the whole image then maybe, just maybe, everything would slowly start to move into its rightful place.

Aster glanced at Jack, like he was directly following orders. His eyelashes fluttered a little, the wrinkles on the forehead smoothened for a moment and the lips which had been pinched in a thin line wavered, opening only to let the words out.

"I like Hiccup."

Jack blinked, slowly processing the words that had been spoken, almost mumbled, whispered, maybe thrown to the wind to be taken away to some distant place, far away from people's ears.

But Aster was right in front of Jack and he had heard it right.

And didn't know how to answer, so Bunny continued.

"But it doesn't matter."

Maybe if he had heard something similar a few months ago then Jack would be overjoyed, he maybe would jump and squeal and hug Aster and tell him to just confess, go there, ask his crush out on a date or just do something with his feelings.

But now he was frozen, stopped in place with time passing him by, tilting its hat in remorse.

It felt like an eternity passed before Jack finally managed to move his ice cold tongue and force his mouth to open.

"Why?"

The question sounded stupid in his mind, foolish, but it was the only thing that managed to leave his lips, spilling between his teeth to crash down on the pavement.

"Because I don't want to interrupt you two."

"What?"

Aster smiled at him and Jack's hands automatically loosened their grip on the jacket, slowly slipping away to finally hang near his sides.

"Because you clearly like him."

"Me? What! No, I don't. That's… You know, we are fake-dating and all that, and of course we are going to the prom together. And yeah you know, but then you could take into consideration –"

"Jack, I know you. You don't have to hide it from me."

Under Aster's gaze Jack felt like an open book, like his friend could turn the pages over and simply read what was written in Jack's mind, could read all his secrets, ideas, memories, needs, dreams and thoughts.

"I…"

"It's okay. This is the smallest of my problems anyway." Aster said and then shook his head. "I even wouldn't call it a problem."

"What is the big problem then?" Jack whispered, feeling that even though his voice was barely audible the words still sounded like they were too loud, buzzing inside his head, clashing together, ringing painfully in his ears.

Aster smiled sadly at him. It seemed that the lock was busted, crackling rapidly as it fell down, clattering loudly inside his head.

"We're moving away. Immediately after finals. I won't be here for holidays. Or at all."

What?

The information hit him right in the chest, right in his heart. It tore it in two, then three, then four.

Was this reality? It had to be. But Jack didn't want that. He didn't want that kind of reality. He barely could accept the idea that they were moving away for Universities, he thought they would maybe meet during holidays, summer and winter ones, to exchange stories. He barely could accept… that.

How could he accept this new future?

Jack didn't know what else to add. Every idea was messy inside his mind, unfocused, foggy. The sentences sounded fake in his head and his heart didn't allow his mouth to open to let them out, deciding on keeping them inside where they were safe and sound.

"Should we go home?"

Together? Like nothing had happened? But had anything happened actually? Jack got what he had wanted all along. He had a small piece of an answer, barely important in the whole picture. But it was something.

Yet the emotions were swirling in his chest, were howling and crashing on the shore, sputtering white foam everywhere.

It seemed like the ice beneath his feet cracked, dark thin lines ran along the surface, a cobweb painted on a transparent coat.

"Go, I… have something else to do…"

They both knew it was a lie. But Jack needed some time to fully process what just had happened. He needed time to think it all through.

He needed some time alone.

So they parted ways.

Author's note:

Okay, now in this chapter there was definitely more Jack… But also not much of Jack's and Hiccup's interactions, so sorry D: I'm working on it! But anyway I still hope you liked it =D!

And some nerdy fact:

*Polyurethane – polymer which is often used in buildings' isolations as it can be sprayed on surfaces and it forms a foam pretty quick =D.

*Cortisol – is a steroid hormone and is released in response to stress and low blood-glucose concentration.

*Filters before filtration – they are in form of circles and you need to fold them to prepare them for filtration. The folded filter you then put in the funnel.

*Fortuna – character from Spirit Riding Free.

And some answers:

Loulyss – Thank you for reading it =D.

kisskisshug – I actually wish they had more moments too. But I'm writing and suddenly I end chapters without them interacting much, sniff xD. I must admit, I love Dagur's development the most in this story… I know I'm terrible xDDD. Aww Jack's is rubbing a lot on different people here, but that is a part of his charm. I hope at least xDDDD. And heck yeah, I had to add Big Hero 6 somehow xD! Thank youuuu ^o^!

sonofHades7 – Oh shit, I hope you didn't have anything important during the day then D: Because if yes then I won't be happy about it D:! I mean part of me is like 'Yay, you liked my story!', but the other part of me is 'What have I done?!' xD Aw I hope you liked this chapter too… and the rest of the chapters =D. And I love putting all those facts and well… every inception is good haha xD. Yeah, I know there are some mistakes, I'm trying to fix them, but sometimes my mind just can't see all of them unfortunately D: But I hope it's at least readable =D. Oh hon, of course it wasn't rude, it actually helped me a lot! I definitely will look out for those from now on =D. Thank you, this really helped me =D! Thank you one more time and I totally loved your comment, it made my day =D! I hope to hear from you soon! =DDD

Hope to see you all soon :3!