A/N Happy December everyone! I hope whatever holidays you may celebrate/have celebrated this month are/were full of love and laughter.

Please read and review!

Enjoy!

The Great (Christmas) Sweater Prank

"No Jack, not happening."

"Hiccup come on, everyone does it—"

"Jack, there is no way in hell I am wearing that sweater. You know perfectly well I'm not into the whole 'ugly Christmas sweater' thing, and even if I was, that is literally the most gods-awful sweater in existence." It really was the worst one that he'd seen anyway, at least as far as color-combinations went. The main design was a diamond pattern of gaudy green and red, which in itself wasn't so bad—except that for reasons Hiccup could not comprehend, instead of having white, every third section was bright yellow. Like Big Bird on Sesame Street bright yellow. Add in the tiny white bows at every junction, the super-imposed Santa face making kissy lips, plus the miniature silver bells spelling out "Merry Christmas" across the chest, and the auburnet would literally rather go to school in his boxers than wear it. Unfortunately, his playful, white-haired boyfriend felt differently.

Jack looked up at him with sad blue eyes and a world-class pout, holding up the sweater with feigned reverence like he'd knit it himself. "Not even for me, Hic? What's love if not sacrifice?" Hiccup struggled not to crack a smile as the younger man put a hand over his heart theatrically, voice getting more dramatic by the second. "I thought you'd do anything for me, even die?"

"I'll gladly die before wearing that sweater." Hiccup deadpanned, grabbing his keys and moving to put on his shoes. If this conversation lasted much longer he was going to be late for class.

"But—"

"Jack," the aspiring engineer interrupted kindly but firmly, cupping his sweetheart's face and bestowing a quick kiss before looking at him seriously. "For the last time, it's not going to happen. I have my nice green and white Icelandic sweater for the holidays, and I'm sticking with that. You can wear the infernal thing if you want, otherwise I'm putting it in the bag for the thrift store." Hiccup kissed him again. "I've gotta run, I'll see you for dinner."

By the time Hiccup got home to fulfill that promise, the disgraceful garment was completely forgotten, replaced by frenzied thoughts of studying and tests. Finals week had officially started, and this term had the toughest classes the auburnet had ever taken. He'd done a good job starting his studying early, but he was still a little nervous about doing well.

6am the next morning Hiccup was a man on a mission, barely paying attention as he left Jack snoring in bed—all online classes, lucky bastard—grabbing the top pullover from his drawer and hurriedly dressing; before going to sit at the kitchen table with a pot of coffee and a pile of books. Three hours later he was putting on his coat to go take his first final when he saw the bag of clothes for the thrift store near the door. I haven't seen that awful sweater anywhere, he thought briefly, I wonder if Jack put it in the bag? Just as he was about to look, his black cat sauntered over and wound himself around Hiccup's legs, meowing loudly. The green-eyed man face-palmed at the reminder, racing to feed Toothless before running out the door, hoping he wouldn't be late.

Unfortunately for Hiccup, Jack had not put the horrid garment in with the thrift store donations; and if Hiccup could have looked through the bedroom door as he was leaving he would have seen the most evilly mischievous grin ever to grace Jack's face. Knowing that clothes would be the last thing his boyfriend paid attention to during finals week, the white-haired prankster had snuck the holiday monstrosity in the very bottom of Hiccup's sweater drawer, with the plan to hide his normal sweaters one by one until the mechanic had no other options left—and so far the plan was going perfectly.

As the week simultaneously dragged and raced on, Hiccup was starting to feel like it was Groundhog Day, or at least a parallel universe where nothing really existed other than the next final looming in front of him. Get up too early, rummage through his clothes in the faint light from the bathroom, inhale coffee and books, feed the cat—okay, so he forgot twice and had to text Jack while speed-walking to class, but still—and on and on until he collapsed in bed at night, gratefully snuggling up to the white-haired man and accepting his kiss.

A couple times when he was blearily getting dressed in the mornings, Hiccup noticed his stack of sweaters seemed to be unusually low in the drawer, and wondered where the rest were. I'm probably just behind on laundry, he decided, that makes sense, can't keep track of everything. I still have at least one clean one I can wear, so today's covered. I'll do laundry and look for them tonight, I bet I put my hoodie on the coatrack… Laundry got pushed back to the weekend however, as the clock chimed 11 and the auburnet was still sitting at the kitchen table with Jack, both cramming for their last day of finals tomorrow. The blue-eyed man had one; Hiccup two. The latter paused from taking notes to rub his eyes and stifle a yawn. He was no stranger to busy schedules, but between being a tutor, studying for finals and working as a mechanic he was definitely starting to feel the exhaustion. Just one more day, he reminded himself, just one more day of getting up at o'dark thirty to study and then we'll be on break and I can finally catch up on sleep.

Hiccup shrugged off his coat gratefully as he entered the science building for his next-to-last final. He never understood people who could just wear the same layers inside as they did outside, did they tough out the cold when outdoors? Maybe it simply took longer for exertion to warm them up than for him. Shaking his head and mentally going over his notes, he walked through the classroom door and instantly heard a burst of smothered giggles. For a split-second he searched around for the source of the amusement, before realizing to his dismay that his snickering classmates were looking at him. Immediately his hands went to his face and hair—did I get food there?—but found nothing. Utterly perplexed, he walked over to sit by one of his friends, who grinned and pointed at his chest. "Nice Christmas sweater Hiccup." Said man glanced down, mouth hanging open in astonishment to see that yes, he was indeed wearing the awful pullover Jack had gotten. His cheeks turned slightly red, the embarrassment stemming not so much from the sweater itself but more that he didn't remember putting it on, that he was that unaware while getting ready this morning. No wonder his boyfriend had been smirking like crazy at the breakfast table—and his missing sweaters! Clearly Jack planned this all along, he realized. I got to hand it to him, that was a good prank, it's been awhile since he got the drop on me. Hiccup smiled fondly as he got out his notebook and pencil. HicchiiHe's still in major trouble though.

Jack was sitting at the kitchen table, enjoying a muffin and the knowledge that his finals were over, when he heard the door open behind him followed by familiar footsteps.

"So." One word, and Hiccup's tone had the white-haired man shaking with suppressed giggles, still keeping his back turned as his boyfriend continued. "I guess you think it's funny to take all my sweaters—knowing that I'm exhaustedly getting dressed in the dark each morning—so that I inevitably put on the Christmas atrocity without realizing it for the last day of finals?" Suddenly, Jack felt his chair get pulled back and spun around, and the second he saw that God-awful sweater on his pretending-to-be-annoyed boyfriend he couldn't hold it in anymore, and he positively howled with laughter. Struggling to maintain his feigned frown, Hiccup adopted a put out voice. "I see the initial humiliation of having my classmates all snickering at me wasn't enough for you."

The blue-eyed man was laughing so much he could hardly breathe. "I wish I could—have seen the look on your—on your face when you realized! Could—barely keep it together this morning, you were so clueless! He choked out between guffaws. Hiccup finally gave in and chuckled with him, kissing Jack's nose with a smile as the latter started to calm down, wiping at his eyes. Jack's mirth ended abruptly though when he looked up to see a roguish gleam in his boyfriend's green eyes. Uh oh.

"Now Jack," Hiccup smirked, hands on his hips. This can't be good, Jack thought. "Since you tricked me into wearing this sweater, it's only fair—" Before Jack could react, the freckled man swiftly yanked the sweater off and pulled it over his white-haired head, tying the sleeves tightly around his torso in a make-shift straight jacket. "—that you have to wear it too. At the grocery store."

"Hiccup!"

"What, you don't think that's fair?"

Jack sighed in defeat, lips curling up in a smile. "Fine. But I want a proper coming home kiss before we go shopping; you still didn't give me one yet."

Hiccup leaned down with an amused smile, lips just brushing Jack's. "I think I can manage that."