-"Things are shaping up to be pretty odd..."-

"Ruffnut? Ruffnut, listen, I've got word from dad." At the sound of Hiccup's voice she relaxed and he tensed. He had ruined the little viking's life and would ruin it farther if he got any closer. He had to contain his sickness. Had to keep it from spreading like the disease it was. Had to keep from infecting the boy's innocence any farther.

"In here, Hiccup! Your stupid hero's up and cursing the bane of his existence again already." Ruffnut laughed, releasing his hand to stand and go to the door, offering Hiccup a slightly forced smile when he came in with a nervous one of his own. Quickly the freckled little brunette looked between the two of them, as if unsure of who to speak first, unsure of how to divide his attention between them. But, when he did a double take on Tuffnut's glowering form, he latched his emerald hues with his own slate gray, looking like he had found the lifeboat in a storm.

"T-Tuff...I-I talked to Dad...he...he..." Hiccup shook his head, blinking back glistening tears before pushing away from Ruffnut and rushing over to the bedside, hurling himself on it. The little viking threw himself at him, wrapping tight arms around his neck and pulling him closer, burying his face in his shoulder and smearing his skin with warm tears. "I'm sorry! Tuffnut, I'm sorry! You weren't su-supposed to do something like that! You weren't supposed to get in trouble like that! Gods, I'm sorry!" He sobbed loudly, Tuffnut taking in a measured breath before gently pushing the boy away.

He glanced off to the side, silently threatening Ruffnut as she smirked and leaned against the doorway with arms folded across her small chest. "Tuff...Y-you shouldn't of-" He put a hand against his forehead, making the brunette blink in confusion before he pulled his hand away and let it fall to their laps, his free hand wrapped around one of Hiccup's slender little arms.

"She was making you look like a fool in front of us all, Hicca. You were the little bitch. Someone had to do something." He grumbled, but the brunette smiled, watery emerald eyes glimmering with love and adoration.

"Y-yeah, but she-" He put his hand to his forehead again, flattening his palm over the warm skin, threading his fingers through his mahogany bangs with a sigh. He looked like he was checking the boy for a fever. "Why do you keep doing that?" He sniffled, swiping his wrist beneath his nose when Tuffnut pulled his hand away for a second time.

"It shuts you up for a minuet is why." Grim as his face was there was a smirking glint in the steel of his eyes that Hiccup recognized very well. It was one of the things that made Tuffnut himself.

"Hiccup, what's the news from your dad?" Hiccup whipped towards Ruffnut, fear tensing him for a second before he remembered the girl had been there the whole time. She knew most of everything now, and from the looks of her ear had let her twin know in no uncertain terms that she did, but Hiccup had failed to tell her a few details; what he hadn't he knew she had pieced together herself.

"He and Gobber decided to punish Tuffnut by keeping him in the house." He glanced between the twins, watching them frown in unison and glance at each other around him. Ruffnut slowly advanced on him, looking as though she'd pull a dagger to his throat at any second.

"What do you mean, "keeping him in the house"?" She snarled, Hiccup leaning back from her nervously with a small shake of his head. Tuffnut snatched at his arm instead, almost pulling him into his covered lap. Hiccup whipped to face him, heart stopping as the boy Thorston glowered at him for a second time.

"Yeah, Hiccup, what do you mean?" Hiccup held up his hands in surrender, once more looking between the two of them at a mile a minuet, Ruffnut now looming over the side of the bed with each hand fisted at her side.

"I-I mean Tuff has to stay in the house for two weeks. H-he can only leave to go to the stables, but he can't leave the property...and he can't have contact with any of us. I'm only allowed up here to bring the message." Ruffnut let out a screech, throwing her hands into the air and rolling her eyes towards the heavens as she stormed back towards the door.

"FUCK! I have to watch your ass for TWO WEEKS!" She spun on her heel, jamming a finger at Tuffnut, eyes narrowed in a death glare. "You'll be lucky if I don't skin you alive! You sorry asshole! You just HAD to "put Astrid in her place" meh, meh, meh!" She stomped a foot, mocking her twin with exaggerated facial expressions and nerve grating noises. "DAMMIT!" She swung a punch, Hiccup flinching as he watched it connect with the wall, something cracking in the pregnant silence of the room.

She pulled her fist away huffing, sucking in breaths of air as blood pattered to the floor from her knuckles in a thin line. She turned her glare back on the seemingly dazed Tuffnut, baring her teeth with a hiss of air, "YOU..." Her thin little form trembled for a moment, eyes closing and head canting as she ground her teeth behind her lips, injured fist quivering in the air before her. Without another word she stormed from the room, slamming the door shut hard enough to rattle Hiccup on the bed across from it.

For a second there was no sound other than their breath. Tuffnut's hand fell away from his arm, his body slumping beneath the weight of the punishment laid upon it. Hiccup dropped his head, staring hard at his lap and the fingers he was fiddling with in it. He bit his lip, wondering what to say to the boy he had just condemned to a fate he thought was worse than death. He himself couldn't stand to be in the house for longer than an hour or so, he couldn't imagine what a warrior like Tuffnut was going to do.

He slowly turned to face the boy Thorston, watching him fall back against the pillowed headboard with empty eyes and a slack form. "Tuff...listen, I'm sor-" Without looking at him the blonde reached up and pressed his hand to his forehead again, making Hiccup sigh tiredly at the motion. He sat patiently, toying with a pick in his breeches as he studied the boy's narrow face, watching the heavy features seem to gain weight right before his eyes. Eventually he couldn't wait. He didn't have much time. "Tuff..."

The hand slid from his forehead, dropping to wrap around the crook of his arm and slowly pull him closer. He blinked in surprise, allowing himself to be pulled into the warm, solid form of the blonde. Slowly Tuffnut managed a blink and rolled his eyes back towards him, blinking once more to bring him into focus. He dropped his hand to the mattress on one side of him, now straddling his torso with his arms. Tuffnut failed to release him, rather gave him a gentle squeeze, like he was trying to reassure him of something.