A/N Sorry for the delay! I've been busy lately with a couple of birthdays, friends and classes as well, so don't kill me T.T I know I said that this would be the last chapter, but... it's not! There's one more I want to write. Also, I didn't really put any lemon in this one, so it's going to be in the next one, I promise! Enjoy :)

Chapter 5: Caring Love!

Hiccup slowly regained consciousness. The very first thing he could feel again was his body, it was heavy and numb and he could barely move his fingers. Then he realized he was lying on something soft and that he was in a quiet, bright place. Although he hadn't opened his eyes yet he could perceive the light engulfing him. Was this heaven? He couldn't remember everything that had happened before he had passed out, but some memories started flashing before his eyes. The classroom door bursting open, two armed men getting in and threatening someone he holds so much dear… but he couldn't remember who it was. He felt like it was a boy and his name had something to do with J…esse or J…amie? No, he knew they weren't the right ones, but it seemed as his mind had gone blank all of a sudden. His head was too heavy and hot, using his brain was exhausting him. Then, a refreshing breeze came in out of nowhere "Did someone just open a window? Fresh air really is what I need right now, it makes me feel so light and…" Small, comfortable details flowed back to him: fresh pale skin, glacier blue eyes, white hair… As he suddenly remembered, he opened his eyes and pulled himself up screaming. "Jack!"

The white-haired boy was just about to sit down back on the chair beside Hiccup's bed when the young man before him had pulled himself up with a cat-like movement, catching him off guard and almost making him fall off the chair. Hiccup turned to him, his green eyes and candid smile warming up to him. Jack too felt warmth spreading from his heart, relief finally permeating his whole body. He slowly stood up to face his longtime friend and weakly smirked. Then, as if his body was moving on his own he approached the brown-haired male and hugged him tenderly, letting go of his tears. They talked at the same time "Hiccup…!" "Jack…!" They separated and stared at each other awkwardly, a little embarrassed because of the proximity. "You go first, Jack" said Hiccup, wanting to hear more of Jack's voice. The other boy paused only a moment before saying what he had prepared while Hiccup was lying unconscious in the hospital bed. "Hic, you know I'm quite the straight-forward guy, so I won't beat around the bush and I'll just say it: I love you… as deeply and earnestly as possible. I always did, but it took me a while to realize… I'm sorry."

Hiccup's eyes widened in an unprecedented way, Jack almost feared his beautiful eyes would pop out of their sockets. Jack kept silent, he wanted Hiccup to say something, to understand his feelings and, hopefully, to love him back. But nothing came out of the brave boy that had saved him just yesterday. After about a minute Hiccup recovered from the shock and his eyes pierced right through Jack's, as if he was trying to sense whether he was telling the truth. What he found there delighted him so much that he started crying and laughing at the same time. The shorter boy extended his hand to grab the front of Jack's shirt and pulled him near him. The white-haired boy allowed himself to be dragged by the other male so that he could lean closer and closer to his soft lips. Their mouths finally collided, tongues quickly invading each other's wet cave. They fought for dominance and as Jack won Hiccup gave a low moan. Jack hugged him once again but he held too tight and the brown-haired boy pulled back whimpering "Ouch, Jack! My body still hurts a lot, you know!" Jack apologized with a soft kiss on Hiccup's cheek and that made him redden out of embarrassment. That kind gesture made Hiccup realize something "Jack, what are we doing? You have a girlfriend… isn't this like you're bet..." "Actually, Tooth and I are no longer a couple. We broke up a week ago or so." Interrupted Jack with a light tone. Hiccup's eyes widened once again, then he asked "A…A week ago? What happened? I thought you two were… happy." Hiccup's tone got sad at the end and he lowered his gaze, but the other boy simply touched his chin and pulled Hiccup's face up to stare him in the eyes. "Listen well, Hic. We have been happy… but only for a short time, I soon found out I wasn't in love with her as strongly as I am with you. I didn't want to admit that, I didn't want to realize I had completely fallen for my best friend. I had no idea how you would react… I'm sorry it took that much time for me to accept that. Also, we did break up, but on friendly terms, neither of us wanted to hurt each other so we just went down different paths. We were both okay with that." Hiccup felt better but a little guilty nevertheless. Toothiana was a nice girl and she probably suffered a lot because of the break-up, but had tried to act tough before Jack. That or she thought Hiccup was the best option for the wonderful white-haired boy. "Thank you, Toothiana."

They spent the rest of the morning talking about what had happened after Hiccup had passed out. Jack explained to the brown-haired boy what the police had found out: the two men were brothers and they had lost everything they had because of the world financial crisis. The shortest, being also the elder of the two, had suffered more than the younger brother trying to sustain both of them and their own families as well. Because of the stress he had developed a serious depression case which was further worsened by schizophrenia. Because of that they had decided to take some hostages and get enough money to start back anew. "Luckily, the school buildings nowadays are full of cameras everywhere to avoid terroristic attempts as well as bullying. Thus, the school direction was able to contact the police the moment those two took out their weapons. They did an amazing job, you know. In just about 15 minutes they were ready to go, they really are something!" Said the white-haired boy enthusiastically. Hiccup was astonished to hear the whole background story, but when Jack got to the point where the younger brother had been killed Hiccup couldn't help but feel sorry for him and his family. And not just him, the other brother had been sent to an asylum in hopes of rehabilitating him, so his family had also been shuttered. The brown-haired male couldn't resist and a tear rolled down his cheek. "So now that that's over we sh… Hic, what's wrong?" Jack had stopped abruptly seeing his lover crying. "Jack…" muttered Hiccup in a weak voice "I can't help it, I feel sorry for them, even though they threatened you, me and everyone else in our classroom! Why do I feel like this? I should hate them, and partly I do, but…" Jack leaned in and give the other male a delicate, loving kiss on his lips, stopping his talking. "You know, Hic, this is exactly one of the many reason why I love you: you're always so compassionate and try to see the best in others, even the bad ones. That's just you, and you're perfect like this."

Hiccup was speechless, then he realized he still hadn't said that to his longtime friend "Jack, you know, I still haven't told you something very important…" "You mean when you told me to speak first?" asked Jack, curious. "Yeah, well… it really is hard to say… I've never done this before… Oh God…" Jack simply kept looking at him with a half curious, half smirking expression on his beautiful face. "Geez, I LOVE YOU!" screamed Hiccup. Then he realized what he had just said and blushed slightly, but looked straight at Jack, who was now smiling as wide as possible "At last you said that! I thought you had forgotten I had told you…" They stared a moment at each other, then they started laughing till they were out of breath. "What's the mess in here?" a loud voice came in from behind the door of the hospital room. Then a well-built, bearded man entered the chamber, followed by a doctor and a nurse. "Dad!" "Hiccup!" The tall muscular man soon was by his son, holding him tight. Once again that morning, Hiccup cursed and tried to break free from the painful hug, but unlike Jack his dad was quite a challenge. Luckily, both the white-haired boy and the doctor intervened to separate them. "Mr. Haddock, your son is quite weak because of the recent events and the surgical operation, too. Please, restrain yourself." Said the nurse in a reassuring tone, then she turned to her young patient smiling. But Hiccup was confused: why had he undergone surgery? Then he remembered he had been shot in his left leg and terrified he grabbed the sheet covering his body and pulled it to his side, just to reveal… he still had both his legs, although one was immobilized with a thick plaster cast. He slowly looked up to Jack and the others and asked "How…?" The doctor smiled and replied "Well, the wound was very bad, but we've got some top-notch surgeons here. The operation lasted some hours and at a certain point we actually feared we'd have to take it off, but in the end we managed to save it. I bet you're quite attached to it, aren't you?" Said the doctor, half laughing. Hiccup was still in a sort of shock, but he was definitely relieved. "Actually, you should thank your friend here as well. He was phenomenal." Continued the physician pointing at Jack "Instead of pressing down on the wound to stop the bleeding he pressed upwards on the main artery, thus he avoided greater damage and at the same time he successfully stopped the blood. You owe him his life, you know." Jack's face was a light shade of red because of the compliments, but looked at Hiccup and both grinned widely. "Still, your leg will take quite some time to heal fully, so I recommend you don't do any sports for a while."

"What?! But this is my last year in high school! I must play in the football team! Otherwise we'll…" "Stop it, Hic!" Jack had come closer to Hiccup and had grabbed his hand and was now holding it tight. His normally blue and cold eyes were now flaming as he looked at his beloved mate "You're not playing this year. I don't want you to get hurt any more than this, neither does your father, I'm sure of it." That said, he turned towards the tall man, challenging him to say otherwise. To be honest, Stoick was really happy that his son was a talented football player, just like he himself had been when he was younger. But he wasn't going to let his pride have the best of him in such a situation, so he nodded. "Dad…" "Please, Hiccup, you know full well you can't play like this. Also, I'm sure Jack will do his best to bring victory to your team. I'm sure you trust him a lot, just as much as I do…" Both Hiccup and Jack looked up at the bearded man, surprised. He had never said something like that, and they had known each other for 7 years. As Stoick averted his gaze, clearly embarrassed, a thought crossed both Jack and Hiccup's mind. Had the older man understood their relationship? Was he trying to say that he was ok with it? The two boys looked at each other, than back to Stoick, who was now turning a dark shade of red. "Well, I think I should leave now and let you rest some more!" Hiccup's dad turned his back at his son and left silently, the doctor and the nurse following suit soon after verifying Hiccup's health state.

Jack and Hiccup were once again alone in the room. They stared at each other, then Jack asked "Do you think your dad knows something?" Hiccup pondered it a little, than he replied "Yeah, I do. Actually, I think he always liked you for being my friend. You know, he usually doesn't show it, but I know full well he loves me a lot. So I think that he likes the people that like me… I guess." Both smiled once again, knowing that although their new relationship had just begun, it already had a supporter. Outside the room Stoick had been leaning on the door, listening to the whole conversation. A little smirk appeared on his mouth. "Valka, our son has found someone precious to him and it's none other than his little friend Jack… I think he'll be safe, but you keep watching over him from above, alright?" Hiccup's dad looked up, trying to communicate with his dead wife, reassuring her as he used to do when she was alive. She was actually very similar to their brown-haired son, while Stoick could see himself in Jack. "Such a nice couple they make" and with that he left down the hall chuckling lightly.

So, as you can see this chapter is quite longer than usual (about twice as long as the previous ones, I think) because I just had to put in some serious romance between these two! I had originally intended to make the hospital scene just a little part of the last chapter, but in the end it bacame a chapter on its own, that's why there's going to be one more! But next one really is going to be last one, I only have three little scenes I want to put in there to put an end to this nice fic. See you next time, then!