My laptop killed itself :)
The house was still and empty as he woke to the familiar sound of rain pattering on the roof, and a dragon breathing warm air onto his face. His father had probably already been out
attending to business for hours by then, none of this uncommon in their routine. No sooner than he was dressed did Jack call. Attempting to indicate that it was far too early for a conversation, or for Jack to be even conscious, he answered, "It's... morning."
"Do you undersell everyone you talk about? Am I getting lousy reviews from you too?"
Rubbing the sleep out of his face, Hiccup answered "Either you're making no sense or I'm not awake enough to talk right now."
"Tooth brought a friend called Rapunzel home yesterday."
"Congratulations, you've pronounced her name correctly."
"And she came over to your place last night?" Jack knowing about a casual family gathering without him ever mentioning it felt oddly intrusive. It made him wish Rapunzel wasn't as open, honest, and chatty as she was.
"Yeah, uh, she met Toothless and Gobber, then we all had dinner. She seems to have a high threshold for bizarreness, I think she already regards Gobber as another uncle."
"Yeah, Gobber's like another mom to you, everyone knows that. I just didn't expect someone like... her to be related to you." Toothless pawed at the door, growling his desire to be let out. On the other side, the living room was glazed in gray morning light.
"Like what?"
"I mean, she does seem like you. It's kind of weird to think of now. The same hair and nervous giggles. But she's a girl. And… actually very pretty." The feeling of a budding headache struck between his heavy, frowning eyes.
"Excuse me?"
"Okay, sorry. I didn't mean it like that, you're pretty too."
He cut in, "Don't call her pretty. Or me."
"You didn't mention her being powered."
"What, is that what you find interesting?"
Toothless' head tilted, as though he were carefully thinking, and trotted towards the front window. Normally he'd beg for breakfast, but Hiccup watched and let him be, trying to stretch a sore shoulder. "You know her powers are gone now, right?"
"What I find interesting is that you didn't tell me."
If Jack knew he didn't tell him about the healing hair on purpose, Hiccup wouldn't know how to explain it. There was already too large a path to pave with her before taking that delicate subject into account, and although Jack was entirely in his right to be excited to meet someone else like him, Hiccup didn't want to be a bridge for his best friend to walk across to her. "It didn't come to mind. You were distracting me with gross jokes."
"We both do gross jokes. That's what we do."
"I respond to them out of acceptance that it's your main form of communication."
Behind the shutters, Toothless scratched at the window, suggesting that a bird or squirrel was playing outside. Then a dull thud and light scuffle was heard from the other side of the front door, and he realized it couldn't be such a small creature. "Something's on the porch…" he mumbled, just to himself.
Opening the door, his eyes glanced from the blank area in front of his face down to somebody toppled on the rain-soaked porch. Their hand pulled the hood and puffy red hair from their face. From the forgotten phone in his hand, he scarcely heard a tinny question, "Did you say something about a Porsche?"
He abandoned Jack's call and looked down at Merida in confusion, stammering "What - what are you…?"
Noticing him for the first time, Merida sprang up onto her feet, nearly slipping again and said, "Shut it," She slammed something into his chest so that he barely caught it. "I wasn't here."
As if the exchange wasn't odd enough, it was the missing journal in his arms. Cool drops chilled his head and bare foot when he followed.
"And you're giving this back to me why?"
She turned halfway around and and shook her head, already halfway across the yard. "Cause it's yours, stupid."
"Why take it in the first place then?"
"You think I stole it off you?" She scoffed. "Why would I go through the trouble for that junk?"
"You're going through the trouble of bringing it to my house in the rain."
"I was hoping I'd just stick in the letter box without having to see your face again, but seems I was mistaken."
From behind him, Toothless noticed a new voice and hurtled out of the doorway. Hiccup jumped out into the grass and pushed him back inside, urging him to stay put.
"He's missing a tailfin, isn't he? You match. Cute." Her tone indicated that she did not, in fact, find this cute.
"I think the word you're looking for is coincidental."
From a crooked smile came her flippant reply, "Think the word you're looking for is 'thanks'."
In a voice quiet, yet heavy in contempt, he offered, "Thanks for the notebook. Thanks a lot."
"And you should try not to drag your hand over your writing. Ts'a leftie thing, I know, but makes it pretty hard to read." Her prideful grin sent him reeling to shut the door behind him as quickly as possible.
Distraught already, on an otherwise fairly peaceful morning, he grumbled all the way back into his room and threw the now tainted notebook onto the bed. Toothless resisted checking out the new scent and stood beside his friend, cautious and gentle around the newfound tension. Outstretching a hand to stroke his head, and another to wildly gesture to the empty room, Hiccup muttered, "I knew she took it. I knew it! And I knew she'd read it too, I told you that." The dragon cooed in compassionate reply. The air seemed to cool, they sat upon the bed, and Hiccup returned to groggy confusion.. "Should I write down her stats in here too, buddy? No known fangs, talons, or venom, but raging nonetheless. I'll just stick her in Mystery class. Because, well, who knows what her problem is?"
At least a dragon could be reasoned with, understood, tamed. Where there was no fight before, she found one. The very worst part is that he still fell right into the same trap. He sighed once more and added, "Favored tactic: run victims into a fit of insanity..."
Another call rang from his pocket. Suddenly remembering the conversation from just minutes before, he tried to answer. Instead of a call back from Jack, an 8:15 alarm told him that absurdity never sleeps.