Chapter 2 - I should've taken that ride

Hiccup groaned loudly as he slammed his hand heavily on his shrieking phone, loathing the loud melody sounding from its small speakers. He quickly turned off the alarm and glared at the bright screen cheerfully displaying the time in a deep red against a forest-covered background. His eyes adjusted to the onslaught of light from his bedroom window for him to see that the joyful clock was 7.00 am. Meaning he had an hour before school started.

He could hear his father experiencing the same morning as he in the next room, most likely a more severe case due to a hangover. A loud smash alerted Hiccup of his father breaking yet another alarm clock, followed shortly by a string of profanities and a deep, groggy chuckle from downstairs. Gobber must´ve stayed the night.

Hiccup sat up on his bed, his hand raking through his tangle mess of hair before sliding down over his eyes where he rubbed his eyelids with morning exhaustion. He heaved himself off his bed with a moan and stretched his back until he heard a satisfying crack from his more frail and unexercised bones made.

"I really need to work out more." He said to himself as he riffled through his closet for a decent outfit to wear to class. "Jumping out of a plane doesn´t exactly make me a muscle-man." He chuckled to himself while pulling out a clean green T-shirt and jeans.

"Hiccup!" His father´s loud, morning aggressive voice shouted from downstairs. "Hiccup! I can't find the blasted coffee!"

"It´s on the top shelf, dad."

"Ain´t there!"

"Did you look behind the tea boxes?"

A moment of silence followed, allowing Hiccup to dress himself quickly and run a brush through his untamable hair. He gave up once he noticed that his hair was simply made to be livid.

"Ah! There ya are, ya sleazy can o' caffeine! Thought ye can hide from Stoic the Vast, eh?!"

Hiccup chuckled as he walked down the stairs. There sat Gobber, barbarically digging into the left-over ham from the day before, and his father, victoriously mixing his coffee together. Gobber grunted in greeting while his father merely nodded his large head back in acknowledgement.

"Do ya need a ride to school?" He asked as he near-slammed the a cup of coffee in front of his closest friend before taking a long swig of his own.

Hiccup shrugged as he maneuvered around the 2 large men taking up their small kitchen, his main target was the loaf of bread sitting longingly on the counter, just waiting to be buttered and consumed. "You don't have to, I can handle going to school on my own."

Stoic eyed Hiccup cautiously. The young boy held back a sigh as he prepared himself for his overprotective father. Of course he wouldn't let Hiccup go out on his own after last night. He probably wasn't buying his usual "I´m just a clumsy fishbone" excuse.

"Hiccup…"

"Really, dad, I'm fine! Stumbling through roads is what I do." Hiccup joked as he untwisted the plastic wrapping and took out 2 slices of bread, popping them in the toaster.

"Listen ta 'im Stoic. He is a Haddock! Lay off da boy a bit." Gobber grumbled, sucking on his fingers for the traces of ham juice.

Stoic huffed as he took another swing from his cup, his eyes roaming his son with caution. "Are ye sure?"

Hiccup breathed heavily through his nose before nodding. "Yeah, I'm –"

"not sure. Oh, I'm not sure at all." Hiccup whispered harshly whilst hiding behind a tree, eyeing where the dark-haired stranger casually leaned against the wall of his school- right next to the entrance.

And to make matters worse, the stalker wasn't alone.

A large frame man with blazing red hair stood next to him, straight-back with arms crossed, glaring at the masses of students tiredly shuffling into the school building. They looked to be conversing, but the stalker didn´t seem to be listening at all, his eyes were scanning the crowd with apprehension.

Hiccup moaned lowly as he slammed his back against the trunk, his back-pack slid down his arm until it snagged on his fingers, it´s bottom skimming the green grass beneath. He looked up at the blue skies above and mouthed "Why?" with exasperation.

"Oh, what do we have here? Hiccup the lame!" An obnoxiously loud voice exclaimed accompanied by the sound of heavy footfalls.

Hiccup glanced forward and saw his beloved cousin, Snotlout, smirking at him with his arms crossed over his puffed out gorilla chest. He shifted his sights to the sky once more and groaned audibly. "Are you kidding me?"

"Ehm, I can´t kid the truth, you are lame, you loser." Snotlout replied to his rhetoric question and leaned back on his heels with a satisfied grin.

"Good one, Snotlout. I'm impressed, you're come-backs are even worse than what they were before. Bravo." Hiccup deadpanned as he tossed his back-pack onto his back and patted down his T-shirt.

Snotlout scowled. "What´d you say, you-"

"Snotlout!" a deep voice roared followed by a rumble. "Snotlout! Snotlout!" Hiccup whirled around and saw the large red-head barreling his way through the throng of students. His eyes were wide with childish glee as he neared them at an alarming pace.

"Oi! Oi! Oi!" The wild man shrieked as he tackled the, by that point, blanched-faced Snotlout into the ground.

It took a moment until Snotlout understood that there was a strange and, most likely, dangerous man on top of him, straddling his hips and hugging his broad shoulders. With a delayed yelp of surprise he struggled against his heavy restraint. His bulging arms worked to shove the powerful man off of him.

"Hey, hey. Get off, dammit!" a string of profanities left the boy´s mouth until he caught sight of Hiccup. "Oi! Loser, help me!"

Hiccup shook himself out of his shock at seeing his large cousin be tackled by the companion of his stalker. He knew he wouldn´t be able to have the muscled man off of his cousin with his frail arms and instead scanned the struggling pair for another way.

There.

Quickly Hiccup shoved his hand beneath the man´s arm, where he saw what he knew for a fact was sensitive skin, and drilled his 2 fingers into the pit connecting his arm to his torso. The great man let out a feminine shriek as he quickly released the struggling boy.

Hiccup couldn´t help but give a silent cheer as his plan worked, but that cheer soon received a harsh turn for the worse when the man stood to his full height and glowered down at him.

Great, I save my cousin and I get beaten to death as a reward. I should've taken that ride with dad.

Hiccup backed away from the menacing man, gripping his bag tighter. "Ehm, let's not do anything… drastic now." Hiccup attempted to reason.

The red-head didn´t seem to hear him as a moment later, he charged. Hiccup ducked as the man came barreling at him with a battle cry, already bracing himself for a very painful impact. Experience from being bullied for years by his classmates came in handy at times like these.

Bodies collided and… nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing touched him, but he could´ve sworn he heard the dull thump of two bodies colliding in the air.

Slowly he opened his eyes and stood a little straighter. He didn't know whether to be terrified or grateful of the scene before him. His stalker had apparently been the body that the horrifying red-head had ruthlessly tried to maul.

His body tensed as he took in the events happening before his very eyes. The 2 men were wrestling each other on the ground with no clear winner in sight. Punches were thrown and heads were crashed onto one another.

Then he was whisked away from the scene by his collar. His clumsy feet stumbled and his knees trembled as he tried to gain his bearings while at the same time glancing back to see his kidnapper.

Snotlout.

Snotlout was grumbling as he dragged Hiccup across the grounds towards the school. He was walking as quickly as he could, mumbling under his breath as he shot worrisome looks towards the brawling men behind them.

And I thought he didn't care about me. Hiccup couldn´t stop the sarcastic thought as he was literally dragged across the school yard and shoved into the building. Once there, Snotlout's kind act turned vicious as he then lifted his cousin by the collar and pushed him up against the near-by lockers.

"That didn't happen." He snarled, his upper lip twitching back from his teeth as he spoke while his brow furrowed with annoyance. "I was not just saved by a… hiccup, like you."

Hiccup didn´t say anything in reply. How could he? His stalker followed him to school, buddy of said stalker tackles his cousin, he saves said cousin, gets himself into a life-and-death situation with said buddy and now saved by cousin who is currently threatening him.

I really, really should've taken that ride.

Hiccup sighed as he was, yet again, shoved into the lockers by the school´s popular jocks, the Dragons, dropping his unzipped bag in the process. His books spilled onto the tiled school floor as his pencils, pens and other school supplies clanked loudly and rolled around.

Quite frankly, Hiccup thought they were just a bunch of over-muscled meatheads who just love unnecessary violence. He had a theory that they train their brawn because they can't do the same with their brain.

"Watch it, Fishbone." Said their brainless leader, Leon Thunderdrum. He was a big-boned, brawny football quarterback and he had made it his mission in life to make everyone around him miserable, Hiccup being an exclusive deal.

As the brawns-for-brains group walked past he easily spotted out Tuffnut shooting him an apologetic glance and Snotlout glaring. Both followed the great Leon out of the building.

Hiccup heaved another sigh as he dropped to his knees and began to re-gather his materials; stashing his books back into his worn bag and shoving the pencils near him into the pockets.

A large shadow suddenly covered him. Hiccup stifled another sigh as he slowly glanced up. Black combat boots.

Who in this school has black combat boots?

"Uhm, you need any help?" An awkward voice said from above as the boots shuffled in their place.

Hiccup tensed. He recognized that voice.

Shutting his eyes tightly he moved his head upwards and breathed in deeply before his eyes slowly opened.

His stalker. Could this day get any worse?

Hiccup abandoned his bag as he stood up and patted his clothes clean from the dust that littered the floor. He looked the man in the eye and forced his fear back.

He was fed up.

Since that morning he'd been bullied and humiliated and now, stalked. No, he didn't need this new guy in his pathetic life. He didn't need yet another harasser. He may have been a hiccup, something his family and schoolmates has drilled into his mind for as long as he could remember, but he will not let this man scare him witless.

"Who are you and what do you want from me." It wasn't a question. It was a statement. He was done playing whatever messed up game this guy wanted him to join.

The dark-haired man stepped back. His green eyes shone with worry, something that confused Hiccup, but he had decided not to care.

"My… My name.. it's To-Tom, Tom Night, and I-I don't want anything from you." He stumbled and rushed as he twiddled his fingers.

Hiccup's eyes widened slightly before he stilled his facial expression to be blank. No, he couldn't let this stranger catch him off guard, which could be what he wants him to be.

"Then why do you keep following me?"

"Uhm, I just… It's…" The man trailed off and then looked towards the ground. Without warning he swept down and plucked one of Hiccup's books from the floor. Hiccup jumped back in surprise while bringing his hands up to shield his face. "This," The man eagerly pointed towards an open page of a book. "do you remember this?"

Hiccup eyed the man apprehensively before turning his gaze towards the book. His eyes widened upon recognizing his journal being held up by the man he was convinced was a stalker. It was a fresh charcoal drawing of a contraption designed to help a man soar through the air like a bird. It was a rough draft of the winged equipment with several side-notes with arrows pointing at various objects on the contraption.

Angrily, Hiccup tore his book away from the stranger's hands and shoved it into his book bag along with the few papers still littering the floor, crumbling them horribly.

"I don't know what kind of game you're playing, but I don't want to be some kind of a piece in it. Leave me alone." Hiccup grumbled as he pushed his way past the man and hurried down the corridors, running to catch the bus home.

I'm going to ride with dad tomorrow.

AN/ I have no excuse for my super long absence... I was away on vacation for the past 2 months and the weeks before that was crazy with school exams and reports and shit like that. So, writing was pretty much a no-go. I really appreciate everyone who has reviewed about my story, really. When I wrote the 1st chapter I was just screwing around with a story idea and it was you guys who pretty much gave me a clear and solid idea and will to stick to it. Hopefully, I´ll be able to write more, but until then, thank you all!

Please review!

PS/ I watched HTTYD2 and I couldn't help but add a little extra umph and tears in the prologue! If I still have any readers left on this fic please go back and read the last part on the prologue. I can promise you that it's worth the bother ^^