A/N: Sorry for the late update darlings! It completely slipped my mind on updating with everything that happened. From now on it should be relatively smooth sailing, so expect an update soon! (well, sooner than it has been...)

Hiccup stared at Merida in astonishment at her outburst. Her loud statement had woken up Jack who had been sleeping next to him. He and Merida had both known about Rapunzel's feelings towards Jack. But Jack, as Merida described him, was indeed a "dense log" and couldn't pick up the hint. However, Jack's feelings towards Rapunzel had long since been unknown to Hiccup, but he had his suspicions. His suspicions had been confirmed with Jack's muttering of Punzie's name.

But the relief of the confirmation was put on hold as he stared at the two others in the room.

It was quiet. No one wanted to say anything due to the high levels of many emotions swirling through the room. Merida mainly in shock, Jack in surprise, and Hiccup in nervousness about what these recent events would take them.

"She likes me?" Jack whispered with a smile, moving his eyes from Merida to the floor, staring at the floor.

"No… I didn't say that. I was… rehearsin' for the play. The character I play, you know, for school? I was going over my lines."

Jack obviously wasn't listening, smiling and moving his lips to words only he could hear.

Merida gave Hiccup a disconcerting look, biting her lip. Sighing in defeat, she walked up to Jack. "Jack, listen," He continued to murmur to himself quietly. Rolling her eyes, she poked him in the forehead and forced his eyes to meet hers. "Listen here Frosty, you didn't hear anything from me. Not a word. Do not mention this to her. Got it?"

Jack stared wide eyed at her statements. "Wait why? If she likes me then-" A dark aura from Merida could be seen as she stared down Jack. He was stunned into silence.

She blinked out of her glare, sighing and running a hand through her curly hair. "I screwed up alright I wasn't s'pposed to say… that, and now I'm regretting it. Don't say a word to Punzie 'bout this."

"No but, if she likes me and I…" He trailed off. Hiccup and Merida both raised their eyebrows at his sudden drifting off, but Merida didn't say anything, and Hiccup wasn't wanting to get into the middle of this debate. He would rather be the neutral party in this topic, no matter how much he agreed with Merida.

The silence that came from Jack was assumed to be an agreement for keeping quiet, and so Merida left the two of the guys alone in the living room.

Hiccup felt it was too awkward to continue reading, so he silently closed the book and rested it on the couch arm. After a few moments of silence, Jack glanced over. "Did you know… she liked me?"

"For a while now, yeah."

Jack sighed, "Am I really that dense?"

"I wouldn't really say that. It's just that you never really notice unless you look for those kind of things." Hiccup chose his words carefully, not wanting to actually say that yes, Jack was thick at times.

He went silent for another while, staring at the ceiling. "How long have you known?"

Hiccup shrugged. "I don't know, since the start of school I guess. Merida saw it first though."

Another sigh from Jack. "Could I ask you something?"

"Okay."

"Do you have any relationship advice?"

Hiccup snorted with surprise and laughter. "Oh yeah. Let me just ask my nonexistent girlfriend about this. Jack, you of all people know I've never had a girlfriend before. I don't think I have any advice for you." After all the time he's been with the group, they should know that he has no life outside of them.

"Aww, I was hoping you'd tell me you've had a secret girlfriend or something." Jack smirked, leaning his elbows on his knees. "But I mean, you've known about… her for a while now. You're smart, you've probably read books about this kind of thing."

"They don't teach you about getting into relationships in books. You can always actually go ask someone with relationship experience you know."

"Like who?"

"I don't know. There are guys and girls at school who are in relationships. There's online stuff." Jack raised an eyebrow at Hiccup, clearly suggesting something. "What?" Hiccup then noticed his expression. He realised what the underlying context of that look. "No, it's not- No!" Jack barely stopped a giggle. "Screw you! I didn't mean that!" Hiccup took the book from the chair arm and threw it at a now laughing Jack.

"What's going on?" A clearly groggy Rapunzel stepped from the hallway and into the doorway, rubbing an eye and combing her hair with her fingers.

Jack and Hiccup both turned to look at her. At the first eye contact with her, Jack turned his head, his face flushing red.

"You should be resting, Punzie. We can get you water." Hiccup answered as calmly he could, but he looked at Jack with a tinge of panic. Did she hear us?

"I know, but I wanted to get up. Also, the water from the sink up there isn't cold enough."

"You're up?" Merida's voice sounded from the hallway, and Rapunzel turned towards her voice. With that chance, Hiccup kicked Jack in the lower leg to get his attention.

"You're being too obvious. She's going to think something's up." Hiccup whispered under Rapunzel's reply to Merida.

"What do I do then?" Jack replied, panic in his voice.

Hiccup looked back up to Rapunzel who moved from the doorway and back into the hall. He turned his attention back to Jack. "Don't react like that, she'll know something's up.

"Well then how am I supposed to act?" He looked over at the hall through the corner of his eye.

"Just like Merida said: forget what you heard. Just act like yourself before you heard it."

"Act like myself… got it." Sighing, Jack stood up and started to head towards the doorway when the sounds of Merida and Rapunzel grew near. Quickly, Jack turned right back around and rushed over to the couch again, grabbing the book Hiccup had thrown at him and hid his face behind the pages.

Rapunzel and Merida walked by, taking a quick glance in the room before heading back up the staircase.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Hiccup sighed inwardly. This is going to be harder than I thought...

A/N:The only thing I can really say is that I like sassy Hiccup and Merida just *long infatuated sigh*