Okey dokes, here ye are. And I have a feeling you are all going to be happy with me for this one! Won't give too much away but sorry if there's any ooc moments here. It's late...

...

The next three or four hours went by rather uneventfully for Jack. He spent at least half an hour sitting completely dumbfounded on his bed, mouth gaping and closing again rhythmically as he tried to figure out how the hell Tuff could've known. It wasn't like Jack was a very flamboyant person, or ever made it clear to anyone that he wasn't interested in girls… In fact, he'd spent every moment he could trying to persuade everyone around him that he indeed as straight as straight could be. He'd spoken to the boys about girls before and been a part of the group when they'd all gone out to strip clubs and all that.

Apparently he wasn't a very good actor though.

If Tuff had figured it out… What about everyone else? Tuff wasn't famous for being the most perceptive person of the group, so if he knew… oh god, what if the girls already knew? No, if they did, surely they would've said something about it by now. Or at least asked him, right?

After getting dressed, and realising his head didn't thump quite as violently now, he plugged his phone into the wall to charge while he headed back to the kitchen to actually get something to eat. The chatting had died down about twenty minutes before so Jack assumed everyone had either gone to work, a 9am class or back to sleep. Jack didn't have any classes today, and he'd booked the entire weekend off work for the benefit of not having to make and serve coffees with a killer hangover.

Of all the guys living in the house, most of them attended the same university on the other side of the town. Those who did, along with Jack, were all in their second year and had spent their first year in accommodation together. Moving in together after that had been the easiest and most obvious thing to do, so they went for it. Jack was studying law.

Now don't jump to conclusions here, he didn't want to be a lawyer. It wasn't his ambition anyway… He just really enjoyed the subject and found it interesting so chose to study it for three years. Aster, North and Elsa were in most of his classes, doing the same course as him. It was great to have friends there with him, especially to help with the ridiculous piles of homework they were given every week.

Jack wondered for a moment whether Hiccup was a student too. Or in fact, if he was Jack's age even. He had a car, so he must be at least seventeen. And he had his own apartment… or was it shared with someone? Jack hadn't seen anyone else there, but then again, he'd been asleep for most of his stay, hadn't he?

Jack glanced to the kitchen door, thinking of his phone, still plugged in charging in his bedroom.

There was one way he could find out everything he wanted to know…

"Goddammit, just eat something." Jack scolded himself and began searching through cupboards for anything edible. Eating usually took his mind off stressful situations… That mouldy toast he'd shared with Merida felt like it had been eaten years ago. He managed to salvage a few thin slices of (not entirely blue) bread and some nutella scrapings from the jar. More toast it was then…

As Jack ate, he decided to check up on his social media. He opened Flynn's laptop, which had been left on the kitchen table and quickly signed in. Everyone knew Flynn's login, but Flynn himself wasn't aware that they did.

And they all hoped it would stay that way… Hacking Flynn's own twitter and poster random tweets that sounded like things he'd say was hilarious because he'd go a little more insane with every tweet, thinking he was doing it without thinking. Once he actually didn't use his phone or laptop for an entire week, determined to stop the 'phantom tweets'

Jack signed into his facebook (he'd be sure to delete his browsing history later) and went to his profile page. A notification caught his eye.

You've been tagged in 37 new posts.

Oh god…

Oh god no…

Really wishing he didn't have to, Jack clicked the message and was greeted by a photo album titled 'Vision Opening Night' popping up on screen.

The first photo wasn't too bad. In fact, it was a really nice picture. Jack remembered Honey snapping that one when the gang were walking from Yoji to Vision. They were all sat on a wall by the seafront grinning and looking relatively normal, in the face of what the night had in store for them. In the photo, Jack himself was squished in between Tuff and Astrid, with his arms around their shoulders.

As Jack clicked to the next picture, his silly smile faded into a frown. Next was a photo that had been taken inside the club. The whole group, bar Jack, were lounging on the sofas on the first floor, smiling like idiots at the camera.

That had been taken while Jack had been downstairs at the bar, wondering where his friends were. But he'd still been tagged in the photo.

What the hell? Clearly he wasn't in it so why had someone tagged him? As he continued to scroll through the album, he got annoyed. About fifteen more photos of the group came next, all without Jack present in them. In the eighteenth photo, he'd reappeared though.

Looking like a grumpy sod in the corner… Well, to be fair he was still sober at that point, and like Astrid had told him, nobody actually had fun at night clubs unless they were drunk.

Three or so photos later and things started kicking off again. There were pictures that Jack normally would've found embarrassing to see on his facebook wall. But there was something fantastic about them too. Something that made Jack's face split into a grin as he carried on clicking through.

Strobe lights lighting up Jack's laughing face as he danced with the group. Insane choreography from Tuff frozen in a snapshot. Astrid's hair and contents of her shot glass flying through the air as she swung her arms wildly. Rapunzel grinding up against Flynn, their mouths locked in a kiss. Aster and Merida squashing cheek to cheek to fit into a selfie. Gogo having an epic dance off against a guy with dark hair and converses.

And then, the short period where Jack had been included again, ended. The final ten photos of the album were similar to the ones before, but Jack was missing again.

That must've been when he'd been in the bathrooms, trying not to puke up his entire stomach.

Jack nearly choked on his toast when he flicked to the final photo in the gallery. It was a picture of him back on the dancefloor of the club with Astrid and Tuff. From the look of them, it was probably taken right after Jack and Astrid had downed those shots. But the reason for Jack now having a chunk of nutella'd toast stuck in his throat was because of what he and Astrid were doing.

Right in the centre of the shot, Jack and Astrid were dancing together so close, pressed against each other so tight, and their lips were only centimetres apart, and they were both grinning their faces off, eyes closed, as if something amazing had just happened…

Had anything amazing happened?

As Jack continued to scan the photo, he noticed Tuff and Aster in the background, also smiling like idiots, pointing to the too-close-for-comfort pair in centre stage.

Oh god, was that why Astrid had been acting weirdly flirty that morning? Jack didn't remember anything happening between them, but then, he didn't remember anything at all after the fourth shot. They hadn't, had they?

Jack sat back in his chair and really thought for a second. Astrid was awesome, yeah, he wouldn't deny that. She was probably up there with Tuff as one of his best friends. They spent a lot of time together, going to see new movies, going out for lunch, playing video games for entire afternoons on rainy days.

But… That's what friends do, right? It didn't mean they were anything more. No. Jack needed to stop stressing out about all of it. They were both drunk, completely drunk beyond comprehensive thinking. It was just an unfortunate accident… Maybe Astrid didn't realise it was him and just went for it.

But what if she didn't? Why else would she have been acting so weird that morning?

"Urgh, shut up brain…" Jack grumbled to himself and flopped his head down on the table. "Why don't you come up with a nice, simple, not-confusing idea for once?"

Call Hiccup.

"Anything but that…" Jack groaned, but after a second, he seemed to stiffen in the chair. "Fuck it. If I don't do it now, I never will!" And with that statement, he stood up so quickly the chair nearly fell over backwards and he was off, rushing down the hallway to grab his phone. It seemed that everyone had left now. Unless they'd just gone upstairs. The flat was empty, anyway. When he finally switched it on and actually looked at his notification bar, it was full. Missed texts and calls, facebook messages, heck, there were even a few tumblr messages on there from his friends. They'd obviously been desperate to get through to him somehow.

Jack took the phone off charge. It was now at 74%. He then fished the slip of paper out of his pocket and laid it flat on his bed. He began to dial the number with shaking fingers.

Damn, were phone numbers usually this long?

He guessed that it just felt longer because he was taking so long to type every single number, making sure he didn't make a single mistake.

Eventually, the whole thing was there, displaying on the screen. Below the number were two flashing icons. A call button and a text button.

He could text Hiccup? Would that be easier? Definitely for him… He could spend hours making sure the text was perfect before sending it. With a phone call, there was almost inevitably going to be some word vomit that Jack wouldn't be able to cover up in time.

"No Jack, man up for god's sake!" He hoped scolding himself wasn't going to become a regular habit.

Before his brain could catch up in time and rethink the decision, he pressed the call button and brought the phone up to his ear.

Ring.

Shit, here we go.

Ring.

He might not pick up. He might be out…

Ring.

What if he doesn't pick up?

Ri-

"Hello?"

Jack froze. He had not thought this through at all. What was he even supposed to say now?

"Hello?" Hiccup's confused voice repeated.

"H-hi, it's uh, it's me, J-"

"Jack?" Hiccup interrupted, "I was beginning to wonder when you'd call. How're you holding up?"

"Uh…" Jack was speechless. Hiccup remembered him, and was asking how he was… How was he meant to respond to that? "Yeah, I-I'm good now, I think."

"That's great to hear. What are you doing right now?"

"Calling you." Jack immediately facepalmed at his stupid answer.

Hiccup chuckled a little. "No, I mean, were you planning on going out at all today?"

"Uh don't think so, no…" Jack's eyes widened as he tried to remember what day it even was.

"Okay, that's good." Hiccup paused for a second, as if thinking to himself. "You still need to rest. I kinda feel responsible for what happened, and I don't want you to get sick or anything so I just wanted to check you're taking care of yourself and all that…"

"It wasn't your fault." Jack said quickly. How could Hiccup ever think it was his fault that Jack got completely wasted and passed out in the bathroom?

"No I know, I just- y'know, as soon as you got in my car, you were my responsibility…"

"Thank you so much for all that. Oh my god, I completely forgot to thank you, or even say hello, or anything really… Sorry, thank you." Jack blurted out in a string of apologies.

"You could barely keep your eyes open, let alone be able to say thanks. Don't worry about it." He paused again. "Thanks for calling by the way, but oh man, please ignore the dumb message I left with it. I was feeling really wistful and hipster when I wrote it. Thought I could romanticise the moment, y'know? Uh god, that just sounds weird…"

"No no, I thought it was cool. Mysterious and all that…" Jack replied, trying to keep a smile off his face and failing. "Knew it was you straight away though. You should've made it more like a riddle."

"Would you have even been able to solve a riddle in your state?"

"Yeah, good point." Jack couldn't stop the laugh this time. "So what do I need to do now, mister doctor man? I don't think I could go to sleep and 'rest' even if I wanted to."

"Right. Well from the sounds of it, you're quite a bit better so d'you maybe come and meet me for brunch?"

Jack's mouth fell open, and it took a few seconds for him to realise he was creating an awkward silence.

"I'm sorry, that was way too sudden. Maybe some other time-"

"No no no, yes!" Jack said way too quickly, the words tumbling off his tongue. "I would like that a lot."

He paused and could tell from the not-so-awkward, warm silence that Hiccup was smiling.

"W-where were you thinking?" Jack asked, after what he counted as a reasonable length of time.

"Uh, well I work in a Japanese restaurant on the other side of town. Yoji, you heard of it-?"

"Yes." Jack replied, maybe slightly too quickly.

"Ah okay cool. Yeah well I work there but I've got a day off today so we could get some brunch there maybe? I mean, I can get us a killer discount, if not totally free meals."

"Sounds good. I love that place." Jack was still struggling to speak like a normal human through the impossibly big smile on his face.

"Okay then. Meet me by the pier in an hour? Is that enough time?"

"Yep, perfect. See you then."

"See you, Jack. And don't drive if you're still not one hundred percent."

"Okay. Bye for now, Hiccup." Jack chuckled.

"Bye for now, Jack." Hiccup chuckled back.

And the call ended there.

Jack immediately collapsed back onto his bed, giggling like an idiot and hugging his phone to his chest. He kicked his legs up in the air and tried to suppress a squeal of excitement. He was meeting Hiccup! And it had been so damn easy…

He was meeting Hiccup.

In an hour…

Jack quickly checked his phone for the time.

10:49am

Jack hadn't bothered to check himself in a mirror at all that morning, but he didn't need to be told that he looked like crap. He felt like crap, so he couldn't look much better, could he?

Swiftly slamming his phone on charge again, he ran out of the room to the bathroom. The sight that met him as he stood at the sink, looking in the mirror, was not a pretty one. His hair was greasy and stuck to the left side of his face, while the right side stuck up in tufts of greyish-white. He had reddish rings around his eyes and even biggers dark bags under them. He felt gross since he hadn't showered in a few days but other than that, he seemed okay.

But if he wanted to make a good first (or would that be second?) impression on Hiccup, he needed to make himself better than okay. Better than just presentable.

Giving his reflection a little half smile, Jack sighed. It seemed he was gonna have his work cut out for him...

...

IT FINALLY HAPPENED. Jack called Hiccup and the ship is getting ready to leave the harbour, fellas! Hope you enjoyed, and also I'd like to know what you thought about the whole university idea. Especially Jack doing law... I don't know, it just kinda made sense for no reason in my head. Jack would make an awesome law student, always arguing and being good at getting his own way. When he wants to, that is.

Shoutouts

A Frozen Shadow: Thank you. My mum's started to get her head around it. I don't think she really believes me (since I have a boyfriend) which is annoying, but I can't do anything about it so I can't complain. Thanks for your review and for keeping up with the story x

Snowflakesandangels: I feel like Jack is much more emotional and 'hysterical' in real life than he appears in RotG and I figured that came through last chapter too. Yep, that's the idea. Stan Lee is the owner. Fred is the son who just hangs out there all the time, eating free noodles. Tadashi works there because he's Fred's childhood friend and Hiccup got in through Tadashi and because Stan likes him. Hehe idk honestly... I wish I had a Tuff in my life right now tbh, but with reviews like these, who needs friends, eh? You're all so lovely and supportive anyway so thank you so much xx

Kevin4baconhugs: Just wanna say, your profile pic is adorable. It always makes me smile every time I see it. So cute! You might need to stop getting used to quick updates though... They've never been a strong point of mine. Sorry? Thank you for keeping up with, and reviewing on this story!

I am a Spoon not a Fork: Wow thank you for the capitalisd thank yous xxx I love reading your reviews so much so I figure it's only fair that I give them recognition for their fantastic support. I wish I had a friend like Tuff. He's not always been a character I liked that much, but as I started writing this fic, I started delving deeper into his character and I think he'd be an awesome parallel and partner in crime to Jack. They'd be awesome white-haired buddies! Thanks for your support and I hope to hear from you soon x

pikianoa: No no nothing too bad. My mum's just not sure how to react, I think. She's convinced it's a phase and I'm just confused, but there's nothing I can do to change her mind so whatever. It's my dad I'm worried about. He's super homophobic so I don't think I will tell him as long as me and my bf stay together. Pineashi could be a thing! EVERYONE PINEASHI IS THE NEXT HOT SHIP! Thanks for your review, it made me happy to know you care x

Two of the broken masks: I'm pretty sure most of the girls know, but maybe only the most attentive of the guys... I think Aster probably does 'cos he's a smart guy, but only time will tell... Hehe Hope you enjoyed the phone call in this chapter and next chapter they'll finally meet in person when Jack's not totally incoherent.

girlmixi: Both stories...? Oh god, now I feel guilty about not writing the next WYR chapter. I promise I'll get around to it and have it updated before next week. Thanks for your support too xx

HanyouExorcistAlchemist48: Damn... Sounds intense. Mine was kind of more of a "Hey, I think I don't care what gender they are, as long as I love them. That okay?" and my mum was just kinda speechless fora second and then I had to explain what bi means... Thanks for your review x hope you enjoyed this chapter.

...

Okey dokey so there we go! Hope you likeyed and I'm gonna go to bed now 'cos tomorrow night it's Festive Night (which is basically a giant festival my village throws with xmas trees and hog roasts and stalls and markets and fake snow and lights and it's the most fun anyone ever has all year, and this year I'm taking my bf with me so it'll be good) and I need to sleep now because it's gonna be a late night tomorrow...

Pls review if you liked and maybe shoot me some ideas for what could happen next...?