Sorry for the dreadful wait guys, but here's a chapter to satisfy you all (and clear my guilty conscience). I really wasn't very motivated to write this one, but I also really didn't want to make you wait any longer so here it is. Enjoy x

...

Hiccup

The sound of a metal teaspoon clinking against Hiccup's mug was all he could hear as he absentmindedly stirred his coffee, never taking his eyes off the bedroom door.

It was now 10:37 in the morning and Hiccup hadn't heard a peep from his unconscious guest for over five hours. Not since he'd jerked awake at about 4am completely shell-shocked from a bad dream.

Jack had passed out completely in Hiccup's car before he could give him any kind of directions or indications as to where he lived. Hiccup had checked Jack's phone, but found it pretty useless since almost every app was password protected. So, exhausting all the options his brain could conjure up at that ridiculous hour, he'd brought Jack back to his own house and let him rest in his bed.

Wow, that definitely sounded weird now that he phrased that in a sentence. It wasn't creepy, was it? No, of course not. What else could he have done anyway? Jack needed to rest, and he couldn't have stayed in the car, or gone back to that horrid club, where it was loud and bright and no one was willing to help him.

So now, Hiccup was perched on the edge of his sofa, drinking from his third cup of coffee that night (or would that be morning?) and waiting for something to happen.

Hiccup hadn't slept all night. He was too worried about Jack.

He was beginning to wonder if he should go in there and wake him up, but decided not to. Last time he'd checked, Jack had looked to be peacefully resting.

Hiccup's eyes drifted across to his phone. It was laying on the table next to Jack's, which Hiccup had removed from his trouser pocket before putting him to bed. He thought it'd be better if he kept the phone close to him in case one of his friends tried to contact him. But so far, neither of the phones had made any sort of noise or vibration. This was both worrying and strange.

Eventually, Hiccup couldn't handle just sitting there waiting and listening, so, putting down his coffee next to the phones, he rose and crossed over to the bedroom door, which he'd left slightly ajar.

"Jack?" He called out, before poking his head around the door and peering in. Jack was bundled up tightly in the green duvet like a caterpillar and his shocking white hair stuck out at odd angles, fanning out across the pillow in thick tufts. He was breathing deeply and with each inhale, he snorted a little. It was sort of like a snore, but not quite… Somehow, more elegant.

Well, Hiccup certainly hadn't left him in this cocoon-like state, which could only mean that at some point Jack had stirred and maneuvered his way into this more 'comfortable' position himself.

That was promising at least…

Hiccup stood in the doorway, torn between leaving him to snooze, and attempting to wake him up, when the ringing of a phone suddenly sounded from behind him. That definitely wasn't his ringtone though…

He gasped and dashed out of the bedroom towards the buzzing phone sliding its way around the coffee table. Jack's phone was ringing.

Hiccup grabbed it and looked at the caller ID. There was a photo of Jack (looking much more sober and capable of standing on his own two feet) with his arm slung around another man who looked slightly older with shoulder length grey, spiky hair. The contact name read 'Bunny'. Ah, this was the guy Jack had asked him to text last night.

Hopefully, he'd got the message and was calling to check up on Jack. Hiccup answered the call, realising he'd left it ringing for a worryingly long time.

"Hel-"

"Jack! Where the heck are ya, mate?" Hiccup was suddenly interrupted by an extremely loud, strong Australian voice shouting down the line. "Wait, you're not Jack. Who the heck's this?"

"Uh hello, Aster is it?" Hiccup tensed as he said the name, hoping it didn't sound too incredibly creepy that he knew this guys name. "My name is Hiccup. Your friend Jack's here with me. I found him in the bathroom of Vision early this morning and he was in a really bad state so I tried to take him home but he passed out before I could ask him where he lived." Hiccup, paused, hoping 'Bunny' would know where this story was going. When there was no reply, he continued. "So I uh, brought him to my place and let him rest here." He paused again. "I really wasn't sure what else to do."

"S'Jack alright though?" The voice asked, deep concern clearly coming through over the phone.

"Yeah, he's okay. He's probably got one hell of a hangover though. He's still asleep."

"Right." There was an awkward pause. "I- uh, I'm really not sober enough yet to come pick him up from wherever you are. W-where are you again?"

"Oh uh, it's two-nine-zero-two Berk apartments. It's a block of flats just opposite the pier." Hiccup took a second to think before suggesting, "I could always bring him to you. I mean, you do live with him, right? Or at least, know where he lives?"

"Yeah yeah, we live together." He stopped quickly. "But not in that way! Y'know, there's like seven of us in this flat. It's not like-"

"I get it, I get it. Are you at your flat now?"

"Yeah. Yer place is actually literally right around the corner from us. I'll come meet you at yers in about ten minutes, 'kay?"

"Oh right, yeah, okay. See you then-" The sound of the phone being hung up on the other end interrupted Hiccup mid-sentence.

Okay, shit. Hiccup now had approximately nine and a half minutes to wake up Jack and then try to figure out a way to get him down the five flights of stairs to the front door. It'd been hard enough getting him up them last night. In the end, Hiccup had had to ask one of his neighbours, Wasabi, a pretty strong guy from the ground floor, to help carry Jack up to his flat.

Why this eight storey building didn't have an elevator, he'd never know.

Wasabi had been really helpful, considering all this happened at about three in the morning and he was known to be a bit of a control freak about everything, including his sleep schedule.

Hiccup had, however, failed to mention that Jack was a complete stranger, and instead decided to tell Wasabi that he was his cousin who'd gotten a little tipsy at a family reunion. That had seemed to satisfy him though, so no panicked nine-nine-nine calls had been made that night, thank goodness.

Hiccup slowly stepped back into the bedroom where Jack was bundled up in his burrito of blankets. He approached the bed and gently shook the mound, in a place he assumed was Jack's shoulder.

"Hey, Jack?"

Jack groaned slightly before pulling the duvet up and over his head.

"Jack, you need to wake up now. Your friend is coming to take you home." Hiccup tried to make his voice gentle and calming.

The mound of green fabric moaned louder, and Hiccup sighed, exasperated. "Look Jack, you can't stay hungover for the whole day. You've gotta get up." He reached out to pull the duvet off of him, but stopped himself short of doing so. Jack was probably still completely unaware of where he was or much of what had happened the night before. He'd most likely be incredibly confused if he were to be woken up in an unknown place by a random guy.

Hiccup was still debating what to do when the sound of the door buzzer screamed its presence throughout the flat.

He quickly went over to the intercom, built into the wall next to the front door and pressed the mic button. "Hello?"

"It's Aster. Did I get the right one this time?" The voice sounded annoyed. This time-? Had he just been pressing random doorbells at the main ground floor doors hoping to get the right one. There were well over twenty different apartments in this building…

"Yeah, it's Hiccup here. I'll just buzz you in. The apartment is two-nine-zero-two, okay?"

"Yeah I know, I know. I'll be up in a sec, thanks."

Hiccup pressed another button underneath the mic button and a beep signalled that he'd successfully unlocked the main front doors. He then went and stood with his face pressed against the peep-hole in the door, waiting for Aster.

Jack's snores could be heard again, louder this time.

About two minutes later, a tall, muscled man with the same spiky hair as in the contact photo, appeared on the corridor floor and Hiccup opened the door a crack.

"Aster?"

Hearing his name, the man turned and walked towards the door. He was much taller up close, at least a foot and a half taller than Hiccup, and much wider too.

"Where's Jack?" He said immediately, pressing a hand to the door frame. He had a sharp face, with bright green eyes and a strong jaw. He was wearing black jeans and a grey t-shirt. His bulky arms were covered in thick tribal tattoos and his hands were wrapped in a pair of black fingerless gloves.

Hiccup stepped back, and opened the door a little more. "He's in bed, asleep. I tried to wake him up, but he's being a bit stubborn." When Aster's face softened to a look of worry, Hiccup fully opened the door and got out of the way to let him in.

"What time did you find 'im last night?" He asked, as he entered Hiccup's flat.

"Um, must've been about half one… I tried to find someone to help, maybe you or one of his other friends you were there with, but I couldn't find anyone. So then I took him outside for some fresh air, but he really wasn't well so I tried to take him back to his, but he passed out before he could tell me where to go." Hiccup paused, realising he was telling this story for the second time. "And so I brought him here."

Aster raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't know what else to do so I- I mean, he wasn't- oh jeez…" Hiccup looked at the floor. Bringing Jack back to his apartment had been a dumb idea. He realised that now. He could've gone back in and asked the DJ to make an announcement or something to find his friends or just straight up taken him to the hospital, but he didn't, and now this man, who looked like he could punch him into next week, was staring at him like he'd committed a crime.

"Wow…" Aster said after an awkward few seconds. "You did all that for Jack, even though you didn't know 'im? Mate, that's amazing. The world needs more people like you." Suddenly he pulled Hiccup into a tight hug, and Hiccup, too stunned to move, tensed up, completely bewildered. Then Aster pulled away and nodded his head towards the bedroom. "I take it that's his snoring I can hear?"

Hiccup nodded as he closed the front door and led Aster to the bedroom.

Jack

Jack woke up slowly, feeling more comfortable than he ever thought he'd been in his life. He was wrapped up in something warm and soft, and everything was so calm and quiet..

For a moment.

And then Jack's poisoned body caught up with his blissful mind and a dull pain flooded through every inch of him.

His head felt like it'd been stuffed with cotton wool and his eyes, despite being closed, were aching like they were being squeezed. And his stomach was churning and pulsing horribly, making him want to throw up with each sick thump.

He tried to move, to get more comfortable, but found all he could do was roll onto his side and curl up, which alleviated the pain a tiny bit.

Just as Jack was beginning to drift off again, a sound penetrated the shouting silence around him.

"Jack?"

It was a voice Jack didn't recognise instantly, which confused him, but having a head full of cotton wool made it hard to come up with an action plan for what to do about the mystery voice. So he decided to just ignore it and stay still. Another noise like a phone ringing reached his ears quickly after that, but it was faint and he ignored that too. That same voice talking and another voice, incredibly quiet, but very familiar…

Sleep overcame him again before he could process anything else.

…

"Hey, Jack?"

This time, the voice was really close and something was shaking him, sending cool breezes into his fort of warmth. Jack groaned in annoyance and pulled his protective shield of fluffiness over his head.

"Jack, you need to wake up now. Your friend is coming to take you home."

Jack wanted to shout at whoever was talking, to tell them to be quiet and let him sleep, but only a weird kind of mumbled moan escaped his lips. The voice carried on talking anyway, but Jack didn't listen to it and instead focussed on falling back to sleep.

However, not even two minutes into his attempt, he suddenly heard something. A voice that he really didn't want to hear right now, when he was this ridiculously hungover.

Aster.

"I take it that's his snoring I can hear?"

No no no no no… Jack didn't want to see Aster right now. He always made fun of him when he was drunk, or trying to sleep off a hangover, like now. Just because his metabolism meant he could drink a pint and burn it off within an hour…

"Jack?"

No, go away…

"Jack, mate? Can ye' hear me?"

God, I wish I couldn't…

"Has 'e responded to ye' at all yet this morning?" Now Aster seemed to be talking to someone else. "Right…"

Jack's eyelids suddenly turned a warm shade of red as his shield was pulled away.

"Jesus, Jack." He heard Aster gasp. "I'm sorry. I shouldn'ta let you get so drunk and then leave you alone. I'm s'posed to be looking out for all o' you…"

Jack opened his eyes with difficulty and blinked hard a few times before he could sort out the blurry shapes before him. Half his vision was taken up by Aster's worried, and relieved face, and the other half…

"W-where am I-?" He whispered. Wow, talking hurt…

"Yer at Hiccup's place. He helped you last night when you were in serious trouble." Aster explained, and Jack felt hands pulling on his shoulders, helping him to sit up.

Like that was going to happen…

"Hic-cup?" Jack said the name. Why did that sound so familiar? A face suddenly appeared next to Aster's and Jack's stomach dropped to the floor, and his cheeks burned red.

"You okay, Jack?"

...

Okay, I'm not gonna lie. This chapter sucked... But I want to include Aster as a character a little more because jesus, i've been reading a hell of a lot of JackRabbit recently and I'm in the mindset for some bromance... Don't worry tho. HiJack is still the main priority...

Right, this chapter was pretty terrible so here's a funny anecdote from my life that'll entertain you in cas this chapter didn't. I went on holiday last weekend to a theme park and at this particular theme park, there was evening entertainment on every night and because I was allowed to bring a friend with me on this holiday, we spent most evenings in the entertainment hub rather than at the campsite, which was pretty boring. Now, every night we were there, we played bingo (sad, I know...) and then stayed for the cabaret performance, which lasted until about 10pm. STORY TANGENT. Earlier on in the day on the second to last day of our holiday, my friend and I had been walking to the ride section at the top end of the park when a guy dressed up as Jack Sparrow tried to get us to take part in a stage show going on on the main outdoor stage. We had to refuse the offer because we wanted to get onto the rollercoaster as soon as we could because the queue was super long. BACK TO THE MAIN STORY. So on the night of the second to last day of the holiday, we played bingo as usual, and then stayed for the cabaret. That night, it was a magician. And who was the magician? Only the same guy who'd been Jack Sparrow earlier! And this was one of those magic shows where he needed a volunteer for literally every trick. So he looked out into the audience and spotted my friend and I (bear in mind, we completely rejected him that day) and literally picked on us for the entirety of the show. To make a long story short, he 'smashed' my phone with a hammer and then made it appear fixed inside a sealed pringles tube :O. And then for my friend, he did that trick where you pick a random card out of the deck and somehow, it disappears and then appears inside a freaking apple. (I'll never understand how that happens...)

Okay, there ya go. I would go into more detail but if I do, this anecdote will be longer than the actual chapter... lol

Shoutouts:

Two of the broken masks: You guessed right! Hiccup's place it is... This setting is going to be a pretty important place in the upcoming chapters, trust me... And don't worry about me. I'm going at my own pace and I appreciate reviews, even if they're demanding. It only motivates me more.

mysterious critic: It's going places, don't you worry. It's just taking a bit of a weird detour on it's way there...

A Frozen Shadow: Here ya go another chapter for you. I'm pleased you're following this stroy and are enjoying it. I liked writing the dream scene, and linking it to the movie, y'know, when Jack falls in the lake *sobs*

pikianoa: I loved writing that scene. Writing drunk characters is so much fun!

Snowflakesandangels: For god's sake, I swear every time I go to write out your username I accidentally type angles instead of angels... Oh there's gonna be a lot of cute Hiccup and Jack moments coming up so stay tuned! And yep, that dream brought hella feels to me when I was writing it too. So sorry...