..

Next addition to their story!

Again, I have literally been making this up as I go along.

So...hopefully you're still liking it! *fingers crossed*

Wahrheit

As quietly as he could, Hiccup pulled the folded ladder down from the ceiling that led up to the attic. It had been a while since he had gone up there, mostly because he no longer had trouble finding solace.

Ever since Benedikt had brought Toothless back, Hiccup had barely seen him. He had shut himself away in Benedikt's room for almost a week, completely refusing to talk to any of them, and only leaving to go to his new job. And then he would come directly home and hide himself away again. Hiccup could feel the anxiety grow in his chest from not being able to see him, and it didn't help that Jack had taken to avoiding being home whenever possible. The whole situation royally sucked.

Which was why Hiccup had taken it upon himself to visit Toothless on his own. It had been several weeks by now and he was fraught with worry. Ever since a week ago, Toothless had moved out of his brother's room and opted instead for the attic right above it. To Hiccup, it seemed he wanted to put as much distance between them as possible despite living in the same apartment.

Climbing up the step ladder, Hiccup pulled himself onto the attic floor to see Toothless fast asleep under the window on the small bed he had brought up there. Hiccup slowly and quietly straightened up to walk over and see the raven-haired boy up close for the first time in what seemed like forever. After a moment, he noticed that Toothless had fallen asleep with his laptop open on his chest, his slow, even breaths causing the large device to rise and fall gently as the sunset streamed in through the small, oval window.

Despite his worry, Hiccup couldn't help but sigh after seeing how beautiful he was. His skin glowed in the golden light of sunset and his dark hair feathered messily around his face, which held a peaceful expression as he slept. Hiccup really did consider himself to be one of the luckiest people on the planet to be able to call someone like that his. He also really wished that he had brought his sketchbook up with him…

But anyway, he figured he could at least make his love more comfortable. Silently reaching out to lift the laptop from Toothless's chest, Hiccup wasn't prepared for Toothless's arm to snap forward and latch onto Hiccup's wrist with crushing strength, causing Hiccup to gasp and utter a strained grunt as he felt Toothless squeeze his bones together, causing him to release his previous prize.

Just as quickly as Toothless had grabbed him, he abruptly let go of Hiccup's wrist as he woke up and pushed himself into a seating position, resting his face in his hands and propping himself against his knees as reality groggily came into focus for him.

"Hic…what are you doing here?" he asked rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palms and his voice raspy from sleep, despite it only being early evening.

"I…just came up to see you," Hiccup answered honestly and nevertheless feeling defeated that Toothless didn't want him there. "I wanted to know if you were doing ok."

"I'm doing fine."

"Alright…" Hiccup trailed off hesitantly before shrugging forlornly and adding, "I guess I'm just worried about you. You know…you don't have to isolate yourself and-"

"Just let me do this, Hic," Toothless stated firmly, having laid his arms across his knees and watching Hiccup intently. "I fucked up," he added unwavering in his demeanor, "And regardless if you forgive me or not…I want to keep my distance until I know what's wrong with me."

Hiccup understood…to a point. But he wanted Toothless to rely on him and not be afraid to be near him. It didn't matter to Hiccup what Toothless did, he didn't like to see him punishing himself like this.

Taking his silence as hesitation, Toothless emphasized once again, "Just leave me be, Hic."

Hiccup exhaled in defeat, knowing that he could not do nor say anything to make the raven-haired boy change his mind once it was made up. He was resigned to his self-induced exile until he decided otherwise. Averting his eyes to the hardwood floor and nodding his head slightly, Hiccup then turned his body to go climb back down the ladder.

But as he knelt down, Toothless actually asked him a question, "How's Jack?"

A tendril of anger actually flared in Hiccup's gut after hearing that. Toothless never bothered to ask Hiccup how he was…

Without even turning around to face him, Hiccup answered, "I wouldn't know, he hasn't been around much." And then he descended the folding ladder to leave Toothless how he wished.

…

…

Jack groggily pressed his eyelids together as he was disturbed too early from his sleep from feather-soft kisses delicately dusting against his cheek. He groaned a little bit and frowned at the disruption, which only elicited an amused giggle from alongside him.

"You're so cute, Jack," Lucie whispered sweetly in his ear.

"Whatever," Jack grunted, keeping his eyes closed in the stubborn struggle of trying to stay asleep even though he knew Lucie wouldn't let him. As predicted, he felt her lightly stroke his chest before leaning in to kiss him gently again, which caused him only to squint and frown in slight annoyance.

She laughed quietly again and Jack knew exactly what she was thinking. "What am I doing?" he asked, his voice still hoarse from drowsiness.

"Your facial expressions…they're adorable," her voice answered alongside him and Jack knew that she was smiling at him.

He opened one eye and looked sideways at her, which only caused her smile to grow wider.

"I'm not cute," he stated begrudgingly before turning on his side away from her. Jack had no idea why he was constantly being categorized as 'cute'. He didn't do anything for god's sake.

But his annoyance was washed away and a euphoric groan escaped him as he felt her gently scratch along his back. God he loved her nails…

After a couple minutes of bliss, he felt her pull herself against his back and nibble gently on his ear before whispering, "It's almost time for class, you know."

He ambiguously grunted an answer to convey that he did realize it, but wasn't happy about it. He felt as she sympathetically stroked his back before lightly patting his butt and exclaiming, "Come on, let's at least have something to eat before we go."

Jack felt as she got off the bed and left to go into the kitchen. He sighed, finally giving in and sat up on the edge of the bed. This was the third time in two weeks that he had spent the night with her. At first, he had just gone out with her after class a couple times and crashed on her couch after being too drunk to get home. But it turned out that she was interested in him, and their relationship grew from there. The thought had occurred to him that perhaps they were going too fast, but at the same time, he did enjoy her company.

Standing up and pulling on his jeans from the day before, he walked into her kitchen while lightly scratching his head. Her apartment was small, but it was clean. She was in Germany for school, but otherwise planned on returning to her family. She was currently in the kitchen cutting bread and wearing a very short nightgown… Unable to resist, he walked up behind her and pulled her dark hair off to the side before gently pressing his lips against her neck. He felt as she melted into him and paused in her food preparation.

"Mm…" she sighed quietly as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed himself against her. "We do have to be on time this time," she whispered as his lips had since roved down to her shoulder. "I won't let you stay here if you keep making me late."

Issuing a silent laugh, Jack conceded and pulled away from her to let her resume her previous endeavor. "Did you need me to go get anything?"

"No," she said glancing at him over her shoulder and smiling at his thoughtfulness, "But could you boil some water for coffee?"

Jack nodded in response and moved to help prepare the coffee. After eating brunch and cleaning up, Jack pulled on his shirt and sweatshirt from the day before, hoping no one would notice or care, and left with Lucie to head to class.

Which was as eventful as it always was.

And that wasn't to say that Jack's German hasn't improved. It definitely was helping him, but he just was never the type to enjoy studying. He only had about a month left before he could take the exam to either move on to the next level or drop the class. He wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to do yet…

On the one hand, he could take the next class and improve his language skills so that he could get into a better program and get a better job. On the other hand…he wasn't sure if he wanted to stay in Germany anymore. Toothless had locked himself away and Hiccup was such an ass to him that Jack couldn't just let it go. The dick didn't even apologize to him after Toothless came back, but instead seemed to continue blaming him for Toothless's choice to seclude himself. The whole situation was so unbearable that that was why Jack had avoided going home whenever possible.

But this time, he had to. He was out of clean clothes and desperately needed to shower and shave. So after class, he got on the metro to head to his neighborhood, quietly building up his resolve along the way.

…

…

After unlocking the front door and walking inside, he heard the television on in the dining room. Jack walked up to the doorway and peered inside to see Benedikt sitting alone and eating spaghetti. Benedikt looked sideways at him and nodded in greeting, as his mouth was full, before returning his attention to the news.

Jack pursed his lips and moved on to head upstairs. Benedikt didn't seem to be holding on to his anger with Jack as much as Hiccup was, but there was still tension between the two of them. Whatever anger was left seemed to be because of Jack's argument with Toothless in the woods. Jack knew that Benedikt was absurdly protective over Toothless, which Jack understood to a point, but too often Jack wished that he would just butt out and get laid. The guy had grown increasingly more uptight since Jack and Hiccup had gotten there.

Turning back to head upstairs, Jack walked nonchalantly into his bedroom to see Hiccup lounging on the bed reading a book that from the title Jack could see was in German. Jack hesitated for a moment once Hiccup's eyes met his, but then proceeded to walk over to the dresser and drop his bag on the floor before unpacking it and putting new clothes into it.

The silence was almost palatable as Jack continued to pack up his clothes. He was pretty sure that Hiccup was only pretending to read at this point, since he had no idea how one could concentrate with this much tension in the air.

But after another minute, Hiccup surprised him by asking, "How are you doing?"

Jack stopped packing and straightened up to look at the brunette. He was still holding his book up, but was watching Jack out of the corner of his eye.

"Fine," Jack answered simply. "Just been making friends."

Hiccup gave a half-hearted smile of approval before returning his attention to his book. Jack continued to stare at him for a moment, not knowing what to make of his behavior. Whether he was genuinely concerned about him or if he was just trying to not make the silence so awkward. But then he saw something that heightened his concern.

Striding over, forcing Hiccup's attention back to him, Jack reached out and grabbed Hiccup's arm to get a better look at it and saw red bruising oddly in the shape of fingers. Once Hiccup realized what he was doing, he wrenched his arm away from Jack and pulled his sleeve down to conceal it.

"Did he do that to you?!" Jack asked him angrily

In a rush of defense, Hiccup quickly clamored, "Yeah, but he told me to leave him alone and I startled him. It's my fault I-"

"No, Hic." Jack interrupted with such rigidity that Hiccup instantly stopped talking out of surprise. "It's never your fault if he hurts you, do you understand?!" he exclaimed, his volume rising in his anger.

Hiccup laid his book to the side and stood up in front of Jack, causing Jack to back up a couple steps.

"He's trying his best, Jack," he practically growled at him. "He told me to leave him alone and I didn't listen. Not to mention he was asleep. So yeah, this wasn't his fault." Then he laid back down and picked up his book while adding, "It's not as bad as it looks anyway."

Jack stared at him with his mouth hanging open. "Do you even hear yourself?!" he asked in utter dismay. He could not fucking believe the extent that Hic would go to defend Toothless.

But Hic seemed to have gone back to pretending not to hear Jack and be grossly engaged in his book.

"Fine," he said enraged, "I'm out." And with that, Jack grabbed his bag and stormed out of the room. If Hic would rather be with an unfaithful asshat that refused to interact with him, and whenever he did so ended up injuring him, then that was his fucking choice.

…

…

After Jack had left, it took Hiccup a while to determine what he had meant by the last thing he said. He wasn't sure whether he should interpret that as a pissed off farewell or if Jack wanted out of their lives entirely. And after almost a week of not seeing him, he regrettably assumed the latter.

And…it hurt. All of a sudden he felt like he had lost everything. He had no one to turn to. Everyone in his class was older and he unsurprisingly hadn't made friends with any of them. Benedikt only cared about his brother and Hiccup knew Toothless would only push him away again should he try to approach him. And what was worse, he had the horrifying suspicion that Toothless would be more concerned about Jack's welfare than Hiccup's. Since that was all he cared about last time… The emptiness in their apartment despite there being three people there most of the time was probably the most crushing of all.

The amassing of worry made him feel as though he had taken a bludgeon to the chest and often made him choke up. It took all of Hiccup's willpower not to cry. He was sick of feeling depressed. He didn't want to let himself slip back into the abyss with no one around to help him anymore…

At the end of the week, Jack finally came back. Hiccup was lying on his bed staring at the wall when Jack walked in with his bag. Hiccup immediately sat up and looked at him in surprise, but then his heart plummeted into his stomach when he saw Jack resume his ritual of taking the rest of his clothes with him.

"Jack…" Hiccup managed to croak out, prompting Jack to glance at him over his shoulder. Hiccup swallowed and struggled to continue, "Jack I'm—"

But a knock at the door interrupted him. After creaking open, Hiccup was surprised to see Benedikt poke half of his body in and say, "Hey, could you both actually come down into the living room to talk?" After posing the question, he quickly retreated again.

Hiccup was surprised that after barely speaking to him for a month, the older brother all of a sudden wanted to have a conversation, and with both him and Jack. Hiccup looked briefly at Jack, who made eye contact with him as well. In a silent exchange, they both agreed to head downstairs to see what Benedikt wanted.

After heading down the small hallway to the left of the staircase, they entered the living room to see Toothless lounging on the leather sofa with Benedikt in the chair alongside him. Benedikt's expression was somber, completely lacking the usual light he seemed to endlessly carry. In such a state, the similarities between the twins became ever more apparent. Toothless's arms were crossed in front of him and his eyes flickered up once Jack and Hiccup entered the room, pausing in the doorway unsure of how to proceed.

"My psychiatrist gave me a diagnosis yesterday," he said very matter-of-fact.

Neither Hiccup nor Jack said a word as they continued to stare at Toothless, waiting for an answer.

But Benedikt interrupted their anticipation and said, "Why don't you both take a seat. He's not dangerous."

Hiccup heard Jack snort alongside him, which caused anger to suddenly flare in him once again at how completely unsympathetic he was being. In his own form of protest, Hiccup boldly strolled into the room and took a seat next to Toothless on the couch. Jack continued to stand in the doorway with his hands in his sweatshirt pocket.

After waiting a moment to see if Jack would consent to sitting, Toothless seemed to give up and carry on. He dropped his gaze into his lap and proceeded to drum his fingers against his arm before taking a deep breath and starting. "I'm sorry it's taken so long," he apologized first, "I just…couldn't face any of you until I knew what was wrong with me." He paused for a minute, his concentration still focused on his lap as he seemed to be gathering up the courage to admit his personal truth aloud, something Hiccup knew he always had trouble doing.

"It's taken so long," he continued, "because the doctor needed to see me several times and perform a few tests before feeling comfortable with the diagnosis. At first," he shrugged, "she thought it was schizophrenia or PTSD but…" he inhaled a couple times before finally confessing, "now she's fairly certain I have dissociative personality disorder."

A silence drifted like a shroud over the room as no one said anything. Hiccup wasn't even sure what to say…which question to ask first.

But Benedikt took the lead, "It explains why he has been forgetting a lot of things and acting unpredictably. And it is not uncommon among those who have undergone a lot of…trauma during childhood."

Toothless continued, "Except that she wasn't certain at first, since I wasn't a child when our mother died and I moved in with my father. But…she thinks it was a coping mechanism I developed to distance myself from abuse and emotionally stressful situations."

The silence continued after the both of them stopped speaking. Toothless continued to stare at his knees, and Benedikt watched Hiccup with such a scrutiny as if wordlessly pushing him to say something.

The first question out of Hiccup's mouth was, "So…you're going to be taking medicine for it now?"

Toothless shook his head slowly and said, "There's no cure. I'll be taking something for anxiety, but other than that it seems like I'll be in therapy for the rest of my life."

That fell like a stone in Hiccup's gut. That the boy he loved would be haunted forever by his ghosts… When he had first learned of his past, Hiccup had thought he was so strong to get past all of it and still be the beautiful person he was…but then Hic realized that no one could walk away from what Toothless had gone through.

"What does this mean?"

Everyone looked up in surprise when Jack finally said something. Hiccup looked back over at Toothless to see him actually hesitate as he looked imploringly at the white-haired boy. Then he averted his gaze again and answered, "Right now she wants to work with me to determine what triggers my alter. Benedikt knows more about it than I do actually…"

"You know it is his alter when he refuses to answer to the name Toothless," Benedikt stated firmly. "His expression is different too," he continued, "But that is harder to determine unless you know what to look for."

"Do you refuse to answer in English too?" Jack asked, his tone hard.

"He does typically, yeah," Toothless said quietly.

"What do you mean 'he does'?" Jack pressed as his eyes narrowed at the raven-haired boy.

"It's not me," Toothless said as he looked back up at Jack and Hiccup was surprised to see that his eyes were shining a little.

"Bullshit," Jack growled.

"Jack." Benedikt cut him off and threw him a glare that would rival even Toothless's. "Whatever happened in the woods was not him. You know what you said and it was your doing that triggered his alter to come out so rapidly."

That seemed to anger Jack again as he balled his fists at his side and started to argue, "Why the fuck do you keep—"

"What did you say to him in the woods?" Hiccup interrupted him and turned to watch Jack intensely as well. Jack had never given him a direct answer as to what happened exactly, which brought Hiccup to believe that either Jack didn't want to admit he was in the wrong, or that Toothless had said something to him that was actually true.

Before Jack could even decide to answer, Toothless held out both arms in front of Hiccup and Benedikt and insisted, "Stop…just…stop, alright?" Then he lowered his arms and looked back up at Jack, his expression pleading with him as he said, "I deserved everything you said to me that day—"

"Zahnlos…" Benedikt murmured in an attempt at interrupting his twin's degradation of himself.

But Toothless continued despite his brother, "You don't even have to believe me if you don't want to. But I wasn't in control of myself. I didn't choose to cheat on you, I didn't mean anything I did in the woods, and I didn't mean to treat you like absolute shit. I don't even expect you to forgive me, I…I just don't want you to blame me."

Hiccup switched his view constantly between Jack and the raven-haired boy, who looked to be on the brink of tears Toothless never cried. There were only two times that Hiccup could remember seeing him like that, neither of which he liked to relive in his own memory. Hiccup looked back up at Jack, anxiously awaiting his answer as much as Toothless was.

And it was a long while before he said anything. Jack continued to stare Toothless down as if trying to discern whether he was lying or not.

"How do we make sure that you stay yourself?" he asked finally. "Because the other you is scary, Toothless."

"I know…" Toothless said as he looked down at his hands again. "So far alcohol seems to be a trigger for me, since even a couple drinks seems to make me black out, despite not being drunk. Other than that…she suggested I refrain from any sexual activity…not that that will be a problem," he added while smiling sardonically.

"That's….weird," Hiccup said wondering why the hell his therapist would suggest something like that.

"Not really," Toothless his eyes switching to look sideways at Hiccup. "I've got a lot to work through with her. I didn't develop normally…and she thinks I tend to use sex as a way to manipulate people. She wants to work with me to help me form emotional relationships in a healthy way…or whatever."

"Does she think our relationship isn't healthy?" Hiccup asked suddenly afraid that this doctor would push them away just like Jack's old therapist did.

"No…no…we can still have what we have, Hic. But…I fucked up. I'm fucked up. I have a lot to repent for…" he said solemnly.

Hiccup reached over to squeeze his hand encouragingly and reassured him, "It'll be alright. I'll help you in whatever way you want me to."

Hiccup felt as Toothless squeezed his hand back and nodded sadly before looking back up at Jack again.

And then Benedikt was the next one to speak. "Jack, would you please stay here tonight?" he requested even though Hiccup could tell he was asking for Toothless's sake.

Jack pursed his lips for a moment before replying, "Fine. But I'm sleeping down here on the couch."

Aw poor all of them D:

So who do you sympathize with?

I have trouble choosing...

because I think they all have a point.

Let me know in a review!

More reviews brings promptly posted chapters... xx

Special Thanks to:

martinezabelina18, pkimkeymint, and xxNam-niCxxx for your follows and favorites!

EmJx: Yeah...Hiccup's a little blind when it comes to Toothless. And of course Benedikt knows everything! I'd say he knows Toothless better than anyone. Comes with the territory. I'm glad you liked the flashback scene, I really liked writing it since baby Luka is adorable in my mind. Is your love still on Jack or are you moving to Hiccup yet? xP

violets fire: yess he needed that doctor. Hope you liked the chapter and thanks for the review!

Optomistic Emo Kleptomaniac: haha awesome! I hope you were equally excited when this popped up in your inbox, sorry it took so long... But I am feeling better. Moving in a new direction in life, but still want to keep writing. It's just a matter of finding the time.

Teddy: hahahahahaha I love reading your reviews so freaking much. And you know me, I gotta be suspenseful. And I honestly don't really know what's going to happen since I'm making this up as I go along. But I would let you borrow Toothless if I could magically make him real lol. I saw you got an AO3 account ;D I'll be posting this on there too when I have more time. There's more html stuff I have to pay attention to on there so it takes a little longer. But I hope you liked the chapter!

PeppermintCrazy: I don't think anything could get between Luka and Bene...or maybe I'm wrong. Who knows. But, haha, I didn't mean to make mad Hiccup adorable, but I guess that's just a part of his character. He's not really threatening at all. Thanks for the encouragement! And the review, I hope you liked the chapter.

Kigen Dawn: Definitely needs to happen...although that could obviously take a while. And Hiccup will learn...maybe. hahah I'm not trying to be mischievous, the story could literally take any direction. So we'll see...

Elder The 1st: I'm glad it intrigues you and yeah, you were totally right with your prediction. Good on ya' ;D Hope you liked the chapter.

martinezabelina18: awww no worries, those two will get time together...eventually. I have a good scene planned for them that might actually surprise you. Glad you like the story so much and thanks for the follow/fav/review! Your awesome :]