This is just plain silly teenage stuff. XD There's actually a short (horror) story about something similar and the idea just simmered in my head, so... Poor Tuffnut.

Summary: Some ideas just weren't meant to see the light of day.

Experimenting

"You did what?" Hiccup couldn't believe his ears. The muffled smell in the Thorston household contrasted sharply with the crisp, clean air from outdoors.

"They said this was gonna feel good," Tuffnut replied, his voice croaked and tense, eyes brimming with tears. His ears, cheeks and nose were stained a deep shade of crimson, but the rest of his skin was paler than Hiccup had ever remembered. His breathing was laboured and hitched and he was hunched over, apparently unable to sit up straight. "But I'm very much in pain."

Unlike Snotlout, Hiccup didn't have the heart to laugh at his friend, whose dramatic demeanour certainly didn't feel like an exaggeration to him. And unlike Fishlegs, Hiccup felt he needed to do or say something, instead of sitting around looking squeamish. "How in Thor's name did you manage to do that?"

Snotlout picked up a burning candle and waved it in front of Hiccup's eyes. "He broke off a bit of this wax that drips down and rolled it between his hands until it was really thin, and then he shoved it – "

"Yeah, I think I get the mechanics of the rest of the tale, thanks." Hiccup waved his hand dismissively, then rubbed his temples in thought. "Who told you to do this, Tuff?" Who the Hel would suggest such a blatantly idiotic thing?

"Does it matter?" Tuffnut spat out, biting his lower lip. "Just help me."

Hiccup cocked his head sideways, brows furrowed. He squinted. "Does it always tilt that way, or is it - ?"

"WHO CARES. JUST HELP ME!"

"But I don't know how!" Hiccup groaned, throwing his hands up to the air as if he were begging the Gods to throw some divine providence his way.

"I guess you can't always have a solution for everything, huh, Hiccup?" Snotlout had a smug smirk on his face as he casually admired the nails on his right hand, his skin gleaming with a thin sheet of sweat as he'd refused to remove his fur cape – which he had stubbornly taken to wearing on a daily basis for the past two months, despite the increasing temperatures. People had already been complaining about the smell – more than usual, even when it came to the Jorgenson dragon rider.

"Have you come up with a plan, Snotlout? Pray tell," Hiccup deadpanned, giving his cousin a flat look. Even Tuffnut looked up, unconvinced.

Snotlout clicked his tongue impatiently. "Of course. Candle wax melts with heat, right? To make it faster, we get some fire and –"

The injured Thorston burst out immediately, "You are NOT burning my junk off!"

Snotlout shrugged. "Would be fun to try, though."

"Wait, Snotlout, you might actually be on to something! Let's take him to the hot springs," said Fishlegs, who actually still looked livid.

"Good idea," Hiccup agreed, swiping a closed fist into the opposite hand's palm, "maybe some hot water will help melt off the wax that's… stuck… in there." He gestured feebly toward Tuffnut's groin, nodding in an encouraging way to his pain-ridden, dim-witted friend.

"Good thing it's close by," Fishlegs said. "Jump into the hot water straight away. Don't even bother taking your clothes off…"

"Here, cover yourself with this. Not that there's much to see." Snotlout jeered as he flung an oversized wool cloak over a grimacing Tuffnut, to disguise the fact that his hand was solidly clutching at his incapacitated body part.

"And next time: don't experiment with shoving things where they're not supposed to go, no matter how fun it sounds." Hiccup all but scolded. Who would have thought that leaving a 17-year-old Thorston alone in his house for an extended period of time could be so dangerous? The twins clearly weren't meant to get creative; bad things would invariably happen. "Let's hope we won't need to get a healer."

"Oh no," Tuffnut wailed, limping across his house with visible effort, "anything but that."

"Or we could just cut it off ourselves, you know – "

"ANYTHING BUT THAT," Tuffnut growled, throwing Snotlout a dirty look.

"Let's just get this over with!" Honestly, Hiccup was just really extra glad he had his own, private bath house.

To this day, nobody but them understands why Tuffnut is so annoyed whenever one of his male peers waves a candle stick at him, or why he always looks at burning candles with cautious suspicion.

END

LOL I have zero excuses.

I'm super excited because I won a contest, so I get to watch HTTYD2 first thing tomorrow morning, a week before HTTYD2 premiers in my country. So yay! HELLA STOKED FOR THAT. YOU DON'T EVEN WANNA KNOW.

(I have like two packs of tissues ready in my bag though)