Has it been a week already? Wow. But here is the next chapter, as promised :)
And I would like to take this opportunity to thank the amazing, spectacular, wonderful Warrior Nun for volunteering to make the cover image for this story! It'll go up once it's ready.
OK, story time!
Not only did Hiccup go to bed uncharacteristically early, but he slept unusually late as well. It was almost 11am when Hiccup finally rolled out of bed. Immediately after getting up, his stomach grumbled quite painfully and it almost knocked Hiccup over. Hiccup figured that's what he got for skipping dinner the night before. He started walking to the kitchen without even bothering to throw on new clothes.
That was a bad choice, because when he got to the kitchen he almost fell over for the second time that day. Inconceivably, Stoick was home. It may have been Saturday, but Stoick always worked Saturdays. And on top of all of this, Stoick wasn't reading the paper or watching TV, he was just sitting there, as if waiting for Hiccup.
"Morning son. How'd you sleep?"
Ok, Hiccup had to think this through. Stoick was home, in the middle of the day, not doing anything, and was actually taking if interest in his son? The first thing that went through Hiccup's mind was, 'who are you and what have you done with Stoick?' Hiccup decided on the diplomatic approach over the confrontational one however.
"Uh, fine, thanks. How about you?"
"Fine."
For some reason, Hiccup's stomach decided that now would be the ideal time to give a less painful but much louder rumble than last time. Both Stoick and he glanced down to his stomach, with Stoick raising an eyebrow.
"Well, sounds like someone's hungry! Why don't you throw on some proper clothes and we'll go out for lunch, hm?"
Wait, now his father was inviting him to go out for lunch? Something was wrong. Was he failing a course? Did he do something that would put him in legal trouble? Hiccup couldn't think of anything, and he was fairly certain his father knew nothing about his "meeting" yesterday, so he did the only thing he really could in this situation: he turned around, went to his room, and got changed.
When father and son had finally made their way downstairs, Gobber was waiting for them in the car. Hiccup got into the back seat and crawled over to the other side while his father climbed in behind him.
"Katz's Deli, right Stoick?" Gobber asked from the front seat while glancing in the rear view.
"Yes Gobber, thank you."
As Gobber started to pull away, Hiccup only had one thing on his mind and he figured it was better to get it out of the way sooner rather than later.
"Dad, did I uh, did I do something wrong?" Hiccup clenched his eyes shut and waited for the possibly impending explosion from his father. The last thing he expected was a chuckle, but that's what he got. In retrospect, when was the last time he had heard his father come even remotely close to laughing? He couldn't recall.
"No son, unless there's something I don't know. There isn't anything I don't know, is there?"
"No, of course not," Hiccup replied, possibly a little too quickly. If he did his father didn't seem to notice. But there was a complete lie. He had witnessed a crime, been brought to a wanted man's hangout, and hadn't reported any of this. But Hiccup couldn't bring himself to do that to Toothless. Other than the kidnapping, which had been a little terrifying at first, Toothless had given him no reason to want to say anything. And also, that kidnapping was just to apologize.
"Alright then," was all he got as a reply. At least that confirmed Hiccup's hope that his father was still in the dark about his recent events.
Then came the awkward silence. What was it with Hiccup and awkward silences in cars recently? He looked into the rear-view from the back and hoped to catch Gobber's eyes with his 'help me' look. Fortunately Gobber was there for him.
"So, Stoick, I was actually hoping to ask…"
That was all Hiccup heard before he zoned out. Thank goodness for Gobber. It was almost as if Gobber could sense when he needed help. Hiccup wasn't sure he could have lasted the whole car ride with the awkward silence that might have occurred.
After a few minutes, they were still talking, and Hiccup had a feeling Gobber could keep the conversation going all the way to the deli, not that he minded. But it did give Hiccup's mind some time to wander once more. Why did Stoick suddenly want to have lunch with him? If he wasn't his trouble, and it definitely wasn't anyone's birthday, what could this possibly be about? Then it hit him.
It was only ten more minutes before Gobber pulled up in front of the small brick building on East Houston Street labelled Katz's Deli. Something told Hiccup this would be his best chance to test his theory, so he took advantage of the situation.
"Dad, you go in and get a table. My cell phone fell out of my pocket, so I'm just going to find it and then I'll come in."
"Alright, but be quick."
The moment the door was closed Hiccup turned to Gobber.
"Alright, what are you up to?" Hiccup demanded. "My father hasn't wanted to be friendly with me since before I told him I was gay. This has you written all over it."
"I assure you I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You're a terrible liar, you know that?"
"Alright fine! The other day I had a conversation with Stoick. I told him that he needs to let you get out there more and give you some more freedoms. All the rules he has on you aren't healthy. I told him that if he actually took an interest in you more and tried to get to know you he'd realize that it would be ok to loosen the leash. So to speak."
Hiccup couldn't help but smile. "Wow, Gobber, thank you. That means a lot to me that you would do that for me." And Hiccup really did feel grateful. It was nice to know someone was out there looking out for him. "But do you really think that this could work? I mean I don't think a lunch is enough to change his views of me."
"You won't know if you don't try Hiccup."
Well, there was no arguing with that logic. Maybe things would finally work out for him. Maybe he could have a normal relationship with his father. Maybe he could have a normal life. This lunch could be the best thing that ever happened for him, right?
Wrong. There wasn't even enough time for anything to go right. The minute Hiccup walked inside, his father was just about to get shown to a table. As they went to the table they got, Hiccup's heart stopped. There were 2 tables side by side, and they were going to the one on the left. At the left side of the table on the right were two guys in odd green suits, and they looked so similar Hiccup would have assumed they were twins. On the right side of the table, looking directly at the table that he would soon be sitting at, was none other than Toothless.
Hiccup panicked. Toothless was going to see him here with his father, he would realize who he was, and who knows how mad he would be? And what would happen if his father saw Toothless? If Hiccup let that happen Toothless might blame him. This could be very bad. Hiccup decided he needed to act, but he couldn't just ask to leave, that would arise too much suspicion. He needed to act fast as his father was headed straight for the seat that would look straight at Toothless.
"Uh, dad, I'm actually a little chilly, can I sit on the left side? There's more sun light shining on that seat." Yeah, real brilliant.
"Uh, sure." Stoick said before heading for the other seat. Hiccup held his breath, but fortunately it seemed that Toothless hadn't seen Stoick or himself, nor had Stoick seen Toothless. That didn't stop Hiccup from being on edge though. He kept glancing over to Toothless every fifteen seconds or so, cursing himself every time he did so and silently hoping no one noticed.
He didn't have to worry about being distracted from his twitch by conversation, because his conversation with Stoick wore out within two minutes. The only thing Stoick ever did was work and go out, and both of those topics were off limits for their differing reasons. On the other side, Stoick had little interest in architecture other than being willing to say it was a respectable profession, and other than that Hiccup had no life or real interests to talk about because he had no life to speak of or it was a topic Hiccup had a feeling Stoick was fundamentally opposed to. That pretty much secured the failure of the lunch within the first few minutes.
As Stoick continued to focus solely on the menu, Hiccup kept glancing to Toothless, hoping he wouldn't notice him in return. Lunch may be disaster number one, but Hiccup was determined to avoid disaster number two.
Not a few seconds later did the waitress arrive and start to take their orders. She got through Stoick's order no problem, a roast beef sandwich, but as soon as the first syllable of Hiccup's chicken club order left his mouth, Toothless' head snapped up so fast he was surprised it didn't hurt his neck. Hiccup had been strategically timing what little talking he had been doing so he was talking at the same time as Toothless, hoping that Toothless would be too distracted to notice anyone else's voice over his own. However, when he started to order, he hadn't realized Toothless had stopped talking.
Hiccup faltered, but to avoid suspicion he finished his order and smiled at the waitress. It was a good thing he wasn't talking to his father right now, because his mind probably wouldn't have allowed him to form a coherent thought. Disaster number two had just occurred. This was officially the worst day of Hiccup's life.
Toothless stood and started to walk towards the table, a smile on his face like he was actually happy to see Hiccup. That lasted all of three seconds before Toothless realized who he was sitting with. It was a good thing he did notice or that could have become even more awkward. Toothless' smile instantly fell as his eyes widened. He mouthed something like "we'll talk later" and performed a quick about face. He immediately waved the waitress over and although Hiccup couldn't hear him, he was pretty sure he said something along the lines of 'check please!'
Toothless didn't even sit down. He stood until the waitress came back with the bill, whispered something to the other men, paid the bill, and then all three quickly exited the building.
Hiccup couldn't stop the possibilities of the consequences from spinning through his mind.
"Hiccup? Hiccup! What on earth are you looking at?" Stoick asked as he spun around to look at the table Toothless had just been occupying.
That snapped Hiccup out of his daze.
"Oh, nothing, sorry." Hiccup immediately turned his attention to the sandwich that was placed in front of him. Those were the last words that would be exchanged during the lunch.
As they finished up, Hiccup noticed Gobber pulling up outside, so he told his father he'd go tell Gobber they were coming while he paid.
Hiccup got into the car and closed the door behind himself. Gobber didn't even have a chance to get a word in before Hiccup started talking.
"Gods Gobber, that was just terrible. This may be the worst day of my life."
"What? Why? What happened?" Gobber asked, genuinely concerned with a frown creasing his face.
"Well first of all, we barely spoke at all. I think a total of three full sentences were exchanged. We spoke more this morning before this whole ordeal. Then, T…this guy who I think wants to be my friend was in there, and he almost came up to the table. There's no telling how dad would have reacted! It's a good think he had the sense to stay away. This was just awful," Hiccup moaned, burying his face in his palms.
"Oh," Gobber said sadly, eyes downcast, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have interfered. This is all my fault."
"What? No no no no, don't even think that Gobber! You made an effort to try and make my life a little better. Maybe it didn't work, but you tried, and for that I thank you. You know, sometimes I wish you were my father instead."
Hiccup cut himself off there as his father opened the car door to climb in himself. He didn't even say anything before Gobber took off to head up 1st Avenue. This time there was no awkward silence though as Gobber knew to start a conversation right away to keep Stoick away from the topic of the lunch. That was another great thing about Gobber, he always knew how to mediate the awkward father-son relationship that existed between Hiccup and Stoick.
With Hiccup's mind off of one disaster, that allowed the other to pop back up. What was Toothless going to think? Obviously now he knew that Hiccup was the son or at least close to the head detective on his case. Something told Hiccup that news would not be handled well.
Fortunately, even with the Saturday traffic, the car ride home was quick. Hiccup wanted nothing more than to go up to the condo, lock himself in his room, and not come out for at least the rest of the day. Hopefully that would give him enough time to think everything through a little better before he'd have to deal with it all.
Next chapter: On or before September 29
Ugh, Hiccup's life sucks right now with the predicament he is in. Why not cheer him up with a review?