A/N:here's a new one for you! Still no more astrid/hiccup interaction, but at least I'm continuing the story. And if you haven't already, please check out my other HTTYD story, "As The Skies Open." I've put a lot of work into it, and I'd love for more readers/reviewers on that one!

Theodore strolled into the library at an ungodly hour of the morning. He rubbed his lime-green eyes groggily, plunking his head down unceremoniously onto the desk.

"Mmmph," he groaned, covering his eyes from the light of the library with one ice-white hand. With no sunlight to be had, his skin had reverted to the blanched hue it took indoors. The rare skin condition had been brought on by some genetic mutation – in sunlight, his skin was dark, dark blue, almost black. Luckily, there were no terrible side effects to his health. At birth, the doctors told his parents they were incredibly lucky. The specialist had seen this same mutation in a very small number of people scattered all over the world – and all of them had terrible medical conditions caused by the same mutation.

Theodore had been gifted by his curse. He was healthy as a horse – strong, tall, athletically built, intelligent. He should have considered himself lucky, blessed even, that he wasn't on the verge of having a terminal genetic mutation, like the other two dozen or so people with this condition.

But it was so hard to consider himself lucky while he was the freak everywhere he went. People never stopped staring. Perhaps that was why he got himself into trouble so much, why his parents struggled to deal with his cynicism and negativity and bad attitude. He hadn't done anything serious – no drugs or gangs or anything (Theodore didn't dare mess with drugs, not when he didn't know how the substance would mess with his body). But he did talk back, he fought with other kids, and he had a serious reputation of being a "bad boy" (all helped along by the insane rumors that spread, especially in a small high school like Berk).

He was pretty sure that everyone expected him to murder Hiccup at any moment.

The geeky boy, almost two full years younger than himself, was the last person anyone expected someone like Theodore to hang out with. Theodore was over six feet tall, muscular, and menacing – even when his skin went from black-blue to white, he still had his black hair and thick dark eyebrows, which were usually drawn in a frown over his yellow-green eyes. Hiccup, meanwhile, was probably the least threatening person anyone would ever meet. The boy was just over fifteen years old, and a scrawny as a fishbone. He had inquisitive green eyes, a mop of messy auburn hair, and freckles all over his face. Furthermore, the kid was rather short, barely passing five and a half feet. He was an actual genius, Theodore was certain of this, but doubted anyone else actually realized just how intelligent the younger boy was. Had they seen any of his inventions, or looked at some of the physics work the boy did in his spare time? It was early graduate-school level material!

And in addition to being a misunderstood genius, Hiccup was the only reason Theodore was awake so early. He never would have bothered for anyone else.

"Hey, Toothless!" the skinny boy greeted, his voice all too chipper.

Theodore grunted in misery, not bothering to open his eyes or raise his head from the table. It took a minute for his brain to function well enough to form words, but finally he managed to groan, "Toothless? Really?"

That elicited a laugh from his friend. "Hey, people here call you 'Fang' and such because you're oh-so-scary. But you're really not, so you get the name 'Toothless'," Hiccup responded. Theodore could hear the smile in his voice.

"You're insane," he grumbled.

"I know," Hiccup replied.

"Remind me again why I bothered to get up this early?" Theo groaned.

"Because you're bored without me," the redhead shot back.

"Mmmph."

"Good morning to you too, sunshine," Hiccup snorted sarcastically.

"I thought I was Toothless," Theo muttered.

"Well, you didn't seem to like that name so much, so I guess I'll be using sunshine form now on," the younger boy chuckled mischeviously.

"Pest."

"Lazybutt."

"Morning person."

"That's not an insult," Hiccup burst out, laughing loudly. Luckily, the librarian was in the back room, and didn't shush them.

"Yes it is," Theo groaned in response.

"Only for someone nocturnal like you," his friend retorted.

"Okay, okay, you win," Theo conceded. Another laugh, this time quieter, and he heard the click as Hiccup popped open his laptop. Finally, the older boy lifted his head, giving a half-hearted glare to his companion, who was still smiling. It was a rather endearing smile, with Hiccup's two front teeth being just a bit too big in comparison to the rest. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for that last physics problem I was working on. I wanted to try part C, it looked cool," Hiccup responded absentmindedly, already absorbed.

"Just so you know, you're weird."

"I know," the younger of the two replied with a smirk. Theo noticed that even though other people teased Hiccup about being different, he reacted differently to them than he did to Theo's lighthearted comments. Perhaps it was because Theo himself was so different from everyone else, or perhaps it was because Theo knew exactly which words ("geek" "dork" "freak") were hurtful, having been subjected to them himself. Either way, Hiccup never froze up around him like he did around other people, and for that Theo was grateful. It had been a year since he'd had a real friend – and Theo wondered if Hiccup had ever had a good friend. From the snippets he'd picked up over the last three weeks, it didn't sound likely.

And at the risk of sounding like a complete girl, Theo felt as if he'd known Hiccup his entire life. He cringed just thinking it, it was so...sentimental, but it was like they were always meant to be friends. Hiccup adapted effortlessly to his rather sudden mood swings, and never seemed to be scared when Theo reacted unpleasantly to some incident, despite his frail build (not that Theo ever actually hurt him, but when he was mad he did tend to look rather dangerous.). Furthermore, Theo never laughed at Hiccup's eccentricities, and was plenty happy to listen when the younger boy needed to gripe about something. It was as if, for a very long time, no one had ever listened to the kid, and now he couldn't manage to keep anything inside for long.

About an hour later, the bell rang. Theo packed up his homework, which he'd luckily just finished working on, and turned to Hiccup. The younger boy was asleep, slumped over on his computer with his thin arms for a pillow. Theo stood and walked over to his friend's chair, gripping the dozing boy's shoulder. His hand was massive in comparison to Hiccup's slight frame, wrapping easily over both sides of his friend's shoulder. He could even feel the thin bones through Hiccup's favorite green jacket.

"Hiccup. Hiccup, the bell rang. It's time for class," Theo said softly. His friend mumbled, much like he did an hour earlier.

"Okay, 'kay," Hiccup sat up slowly, rubbing at his eyes. A bit groggy, he stored his laptop in his backpack, standing and exiting the library with the taller Theo.

"And eat more, would you? You need to be able to fight off Snot and the other bullies," Theodore scolded.

"Yeah, yeah, you keep saying that," Hiccup rolled his eyes, but grinned regardless.

"That's because I mean it. And if they give you any more trouble, let me know," Theo responded, more seriously this time. "It's not okay, what they do to you."

Hiccup sobered up too. "I know it's not. But that doesn't change anything," he said, rubbing his ribs where they both knew a large bruise would be forming. Theo had found Hiccup on the ground two days ago, after school, bent in half and winded. When his lungs had refilled themselves, the small boy explained that his cousin and some other football players had beaten him up when he refused to do their chemistry project for them. Hiccup had begged Theo not to tell anyone, fearing the bullying would only worsen if that happened. Theo agreed reluctantly, and only because his friend looked so sad and pitiful already.

"I'm serious. I'll beat them up if they bother you again," Theo insisted.

"Thanks," Hiccup sighed, quirking a sad half-grin. They reached the end of one hallway, and the point at which their paths split. "See you later, Toothless."

Theo couldn't help but laugh at the bizarre name, but grinned and waved in parting. "See you at lunch," he called over his shoulder to his best friend.

I know, not much in terms of plot, but I thought it'd be cute just to show a more firmly established friendship here! :D PLEASE REVIEW (shamless begging)

ps: there may or may not be foreshadowing in this chapter. I'm interested to see if anyone spots it. ;D