Thank you to everyone who reviewed on the last chapter(s)! Thank you for seriously making my week!

This one took some time to perfect, but I think it's ready, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't proud of it... There's just something I really like about this one. Not to mention Mericup is definitely growing on me...

Read, relax, review!

~o0o~

15.

Merida knocked twice before entering, something she rarely, if ever, did. However, that didn't stop her from barging into the room before waiting for the occupant to let her in.

"Ow!" she cried out immediately upon entering the room. Hiccup's room was always a mess, with bits and pieces of trinkets and gadgets and tools and papers absolutely everywhere. She'd stepped on a... well, Merida really didn't know what it was. But she knew it hurt.

"Oh sure, come right on in why don't you?" Hiccup called to her from his workbench by a sunny window. He rolled his eyes and muttered, "Here comes trouble," and went back to work.

This wasn't the first time Merida had shown up in his room during their years as Guardians together. Hiccup had noticed that any time the girl was bored, she'd usually go for a ride or practice shooting, but when she grew tired of even those activities, she'd usually end up here with him, ruining his moments of peace and quiet. And why did she stumble into his room all of the time? She enjoyed playing with his toys.

Or rather, breaking my toys, Hiccup thought to himself in annoyance, and they aren't even toys! They are incredibly complex and dangerous ob-

"Agh!" Merida yelped, dropping another gadget on the floor when a puff of smoke spewed into her face.

Hiccup put the tools he was holding down with a sigh and looked up at the redhead.

"What do you want, Merida?" he asked. "If it's just to hang out and 'observe' as you've done in the past, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," he said, as apologetically as he could.

Merida bent down to pick up the metal contraption she had dropped, then gently placed it back on the table from which it had been resting. She brushed back a few of her tangled locks, a little embarrassed.

Ever since the previous night, Merida couldn't get thoughts of Hiccup out of her head. Suddenly things like Pitch and Compass seemed to be placed on the back burner of her mind, replaced by important things like Hiccup. She wanted to figure out Hiccup. And the feeling she got inside her whenever she thought about him. So here she was.

"Ah um..." she started, trying to quickly think of an excuse for her being here that wouldn't get her kicked out. Of course she hadn't properly thought this through.

Hiccup stared at her, arms crossed, waiting. His memory briefly flashed to the events of the night on the staircase, but he quickly pushed it aside. He'd already chalked the whole encounter up to the fact that it had been extremely late at night and they had both been tremendously tired. Hiccup sat waiting, very calm.

"Ah... Ah came ta see if ye needed help?" Merida asked weakly.

Hiccup blinked. Merida, who constantly nagged and teased, who had no care for his inventions unless they benefitted her, who always strove to make his life more difficult than it needed to be, wanted to help him. This was new.

"By help, do you mean damage my things and create more work for me?" Hiccup asked with a smirk, his eyebrow raised, trying to clarify her statement.

It was Merida's turn to roll her eyes. "No Hiccup, Ah mean actually help," she said. "Ah knowww Ah'm terrible with this sorta thin, but Ah thought maybe Ah could help ye with… somethin... Ah dunno... small or easy?"

Hiccup was stunned. There was no sarcasm in her voice. No mischievous grin. She seemed genuine in her offer.

"Yeah um, ok. Sure," Hiccup said after a moment, still a little surprised. He stood up and went to a corner of the room. "I'll get something for you."

Merida sighed in relief. She tiptoed her way over to Hiccup's workbench to see what the boy had been working on. She held in a laugh when she saw what it was. Out of everything Hiccup tinkered with, there was one thing he constantly was working on, finding ways to improve it, to make lighter, faster, or more advanced. Of course he had been working on Toothless's saddle and tail-wing.

"It's just never perfect is it?" Merida asked Hiccup with a nod to the saddle as he made his way back over to her.

Hiccup grinned. "Well, nothing is ever perfect. There's always room for improvement."

"Ye wise words never cease to amaze me, O Guardian of Knowledge and Wisdom" Merida said as she sat down on a stool beside the workbench.

"Just Knowledge, thank you," Hiccup corrected from across the room. "I search for answers, I don't have them. Here," he said, returning and handing her strips of leather. "You can sew right?"

Merida narrowed her eyes. "On occasion..." she said, not liking where he was going. True, Merida could weave and embroider- she'd often helped her mother with many a tapestry- but that didn't mean she enjoyed doing it.

"You're the one who wanted to help, remember?" Hiccup grinned knowingly. "So this is how you can help," he said, handing her a cord and a needle. He explained to her how he wanted her to assemble the pieces, then picked up his hammer and got back to his own task, shaking his head at this new side of Merida.

...

When Merida finished her assignment, she dumped the leather on Hiccup's workbench and crossed her arms.

"Oh good!" Hiccup spoke cheerfully, "Ready for the next ones?"

"This is boring," Merida said firmly. She hated sitting still. Her feet were tingling from non-use.

"Hey, it was your idea, not mine," Hiccup shrugged, raising his hands up in the air.

"Let's do something else!" Merida pleaded.

"Let us?" Hiccup repeated. "Merida, I'm busy-"

"No yer not, ye are fiddlin with a perfectly good saddle tha doesn't need any more fixin," Merida argued stubbornly.

"Well, what do you suggest?" Hiccup said, crossing his arms.

"Ah want yew ta teach me ta fight with a sword," Merida said.

Hiccup looked at her, confused. "But… you can fight with a sword?"

"No Ah can't, not like yew do!" she quarreled. "Ah'm best with ma bow, but Ah need ta know that when Ah run out of arrows in a battle Ah can rely on ma sword fightin too."

Hiccup thought that over. "It's a valid argument," he reasoned, "but I'm really not a sword fighter either, Merida. I rely a lot on Toothless and my tech," he explained. "You'd have better luck asking North-"

"Then we're both flawed, an we can both learn!" Merida insisted. "Yew and Ah can learn together, from each other!" she excitedly grabbed Hiccup's hand, pulled him off his seat, and raced from the room and down the hall, dragging him behind her.

"I really didn't agree to this!" Hiccup half-heartedly argued as he was pulled through the palace hallways. But he started to grin at Merida's excitement. With the hand that wasn't attached to the arm being practically pulled out of its socket, Hiccup began to untie his work apron, tossing it to the ground as they ran.

Merida's stomach was a frenzy of nerves and excitement, and the hand that firmly grasped Hiccup's was tingling with warmth, making the sensation in her stomach stronger. But instead of dropping the boy's hand to ease the feeling in her chest, Merida just held on tighter.

...

It took a little while to track down dull blades that they were each comfortable sparring with. Shields- which Hiccup insisted they use despite Merida's protests- were much easier to find, as Corinthia's armory provided a wide selection ones that were ready-to-use, almost new. Merida's enthusiasm amused Hiccup, and he could barely keep up with her as she dashed through the large castle. He soon found himself trailing after her into one of the many palace courtyards, where the ground was blanketed in soft dirt and grass and there was ample space for maneuvering.

Hiccup stared at Merida, watching her movements closely as he gripped his sword firmly in his left hand. Merida seemed to mirror him as the two Guardians slowly circled each other in a wide arc in the open courtyard.

It wasn't that Hiccup was scared to fight Merida- he'd had enough practice wielding his flame-sword (even if it wasn't a proper sword) to trust his sparring skills. It was Merida's enthusiastic and driven competitive nature that made him nervous. For a moment he was reminded of a similar time not too long ago, standing feet away from another girl wearing a similar determined mask of concentration-

But all thoughts of his past immediately vanished as Merida jumped out of their circle, her silver blade flying through the air, barely giving him a chance to block her attack with his shield. And so the duel began- messy and awkward at first, but slowly growing into a rhythmic pattern of movements as the two Guardians tested both their own strengths and each others'.

"Ye don't give up easily, do ye?" Merida gasped between hits.

Hiccup ducked as her next swing aimed itself toward his head. "Easy Merida!" he cried out. He twisted to his left and regained his footing. "I thought you wanted me to be teaching you, not you trying to kill me!"

Merida took a step away from him with a smirk, her chest rising and falling from the exercise. Hiccup took advantage of the short reprieve as well, taking a step back and wiping his forehead with his sleeve.

"Eh, ma dad taught me tha basics when Ah was a lass," Merida shrugged, tossing her shield aside. "Ah only told ye that ta get yew out of that claustrophobic mess yew call a bedroom."

"Clever, very clever," Hiccup told her with a sarcastic roll of his eyes. He too tossed his shield, regretfully, to the ground. "I guess that means I'll have to stop going easy on you." Then, ignoring the ache his muscles already felt from the bruises Merida's sword had landed him, he rolled his shoulders back, gripped his sword hilt with both hands, and assumed an offensive stance as the two resumed their battle.

Despite Hiccup's best efforts however, he was no match for Merida's swordsmanship. He'd been able to hold his own for respectable measure of time, but she was soon able to easily overtake him. The boy found himself sprawled on his back in the grass, looking up at Merida- her massive head of hair blocking out the sun.

She reached out her hand to Hiccup, smirking. "Let's go again! Yer not that bad, ye know."

Hiccup groaned, but took the girl's hand and allowed himself to be pulled up into another duel.

…

They sparred for a couple hours more, working up a sweat in the heat of the afternoon sun. When they were both too exhausted to continue, the two Guardians flopped down on the cool grassy lawn, breathing hard and starring at the sky.

"You fought well," Hiccup complimented Merida. In his gut, he felt he learned more from her than she'd probably learned from him. He'd never been the brute-force-fighting-type. He had always been the quick-minded-use-what-I-have-on-or-around-me-distraction-type. Though his muscles ached and his body tired, he couldn't complain- it was high time he had some practice with real fighting.

"Yew did well, yerself, 'specially at the end," Merida agreed with a grin, looking up at the sky. "Next time we see Pitch, that bastard won't know what hit him."

Hiccup frowned at her comment. "It all has to end, one way or another."

Merida rolled over to her side and looked at Hiccup, propping her head up with her hand.

"What do ye mean, 'one way or another'?" she asked.

"It's gotta end, Mer," Hiccup sighed, staring at the clouds. "Pitch has to be stopped. But we have no idea exactly what he's planning, and we don't have anything or any way to figure it out. And until we know what he's going to do, what can we do to stop him?" Hiccup shut his eyes, reached his hands up and sort of halfway ran them though his hair. "I promised Jack I would look into his mind if we hadn't progressed by the end of the week."

"He told us," Merida said softly.

"Yeah well," Hiccup said, opening his eyes and dropping his hands. "A few days have passed since, and we haven't really progressed. At all."

"Punzie found out about the relics," Merida offered.

"Yes, but that only potentially- potentially- solves the question about your powers. We still don't know what he's planning."

"Well, it's not really our fault," Merida countered, trying to make him feel better, "like ye said, we have nowhere ta start."

"But that's just it," Hiccup said, sitting up. "I can't help but feel that the only place to start is me looking into his mind. In that case, that would mean these next couple days will be an entire waste, and more people could and will get hurt. All because I'm a coward."

Merida felt a pain in her chest. "Yew are not a coward Hiccup," she said, sitting up as well. "Ah'm the Guardian of Courage. Ah'd know," she insisted, tilting her chin up and pretending to be 'high and mighty'. She grinned, but Hiccup didn't. He hadn't even looked at her. "It's not that yer a coward Hiccup," she said softer, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Yer just... noble," she said, liking the sound of the word. It seemed to suit the boy.

Hiccup shrugged, still obviously not convinced. He stood up and brushed the grass and dirt from his body. "Thanks for this afternoon, Merida. It was fun," he said, trying to sound cheerful and failing. His words just sounded flat.

Merida shrugged. "It was nothin. We should do it again."

"I have to go on patrol with Toothless now, so um..." he said, pointing with his thumb back at the castle.

"Ok," Merida said.

"Ok."

Hiccup stood there a few minutes more, awkwardly. Merida waited hopefully, thinking he wanted to say something else, but then the boy turned and jogged back to the doors leading out of the courtyard, whistling for Toothless.

Merida flopped back into the cool grass with a sigh, not sure how to feel, or what to think. Only one thought pulsed through her brain.

Somehow, Ah have ta help Hiccup.

Alrighty! I'm going to ATTEMPT to get back into my once-a-week update schedule. However, this week is AP tests, so I might have to push it back another week... *cringes*... but I'm getting there guys! The major parts of my editing and re-writing are finished! I'm just cleaning up some loose ends and fixing details... and of course working on the storyboard for the rest of the story! But I'm back on track, for sure!

See everyone soon! Promise!

Guest Reviews...

OrangeCat: So thrilled by your excitement for my update! And sorry I crushed your ideas! :/ But soooo glad you are still enjoying it! I have thought about becoming a writer... but idk. Writing is my hobby... I don't think it could be my job. Seeing your fangirl comments make my day so bright and happy and it honestly gives me chills that my little story can affect people that much! It makes me fangirl over YOU! And ohmygoodness GRAMMAR! HELLO FELLOW MEMBER OF THE GRAMMAR POLICE! There is nothing that kills me more than incorrect grammar! I seriously pride myself on my grammar, and am pleased that you find it to your satisfaction. Thank you for believing I am an awesome person, fellow awesome person! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!- iceprincess

Amethyst: No hard feelings! No worries! I do that too- I'll review the first chapter and then won't review again till I'm caught up.. XD... getting hooked on a story is the best feeling in the world, and I'm so happy you're hooked on mine! I hope I can continue to keep you entertained and coming back for more...You are in no way an arrogant egotistical person! You are a human being! I understand. I always respond to the best of my ability. How else can I thank you for your kind words and amazing support?! Plus I love talking to you all. Thank you for believing that I am witty hahaha. If only it were true! I do have my moments tho... I'm just not fluent in the language of wit and sarcasm, and I dread that my interpretation of Hiccup suffers because of it... :/ ...I appreciate that you think I have him down pat tho! I guess I fake it well haha... And yes, Jack and Hiccup's relationship I feel is a delicate one, but also well balanced, and I'm glad it seems to be working! Thank you again for all your wonderful kind words and your amazing support, from one witty person to another ;) -iceprincess

Wolf girl916: Oh man where do I even start with you? I am glad you enjoy my story so much to review as much as you did! I am truly thankful! You really put a smile to my face! Thank you- I feel honored that you think my story is one of the best! I suppose every author aims to make it the best, so I take your compliment as a huge success! And yes, I wanted to flip it- make Jack the new one... make it different from other stories. AND YES OHMYGOSH HICCUP IS A SON OF HEPHAESTUS THERE IS NO DOUBT IN MY MIND. OR AT LEAST A DESCENDENT. I MEAN COME ON. One of these days I will write a Camp Half Blood AU using only disney/dreamworks/ pixar characters... imagine the possibilities... And yes as far as Jack's reaction goes- I'm sure that was definitely what he was thinking on the inside. But you know that feeling when you are so shocked and freaked out you're completely dumbfounded and left speechless? Yup. That was Jack. At a loss for words. AND YES the "ok" thing from TFiOS... It did actually occur to me after I wrote it. I was tempted to change it once I realized what it sounded like, but I liked it too much and kept it. Besides, the connotation is slightly different in this story, but it still makes me happy to read it :) And I kinda did it again in this chapter... oops... haha... And WOW. You've really put a LOT of thought into those relics! I'm sorry, I can't promise anything. I will definitely take your ideas into consideration. I will say that I already have the Corona and Burgess relics decided, and those are not up for debate. I'm struggling with the DunBroch one however... we shall see. I might even take your ideas but mix them up a little bit... I'm not sure, I will think about it. BUT THANK YOU FOR OFFERING them! That is truly a wonderful gift. Thank you so much for your dedication and support! Hope this chapter satisfied your want for more Mericup... Jackunzel is still in the works... there will be PLENTY by the time the story is done, I promise. I have lots planned :) Thank you for everything!- Iceprincess

Pretty sure I got everybody...let me know if I missed anyone?

See you guys, and thanks for the love :)