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At the age of seventeen in his junior year of high school, Hiccup had learned that you can end up associating yourself with loads of people you had never thought to talk to in your younger years. On one hand, Hiccup, the motion-picture-perfect image of the school nerd trope, was rather good friends with Fishlegs, who volunteered at the library constantly—this was already a given. He also found himself very close to Astrid, the running back of the football team—a definite surprise at first glance. Snotlout and the twins were even more of a surprise as they roared at their table during lunch and painted their faces a school-proud red, blue, and yellow combo during spirit week (Hiccup, in his unpatriotic green T-shirt made good use of his earplugs that day as he studied at the table with an exasperated look on his face).
However, in spite of these mismatches, as Hiccup walked to his usual lunch table that day, giving a young man dressed as the school’s dragon mascot a blank stare, he decided that maybe his oddest match during his high school career was his boyfriend.
“Jack, you know I can never take you seriously when you’re wearing that,” Hiccup said as he gave the mascot a judgmental look.
“Aw, Hic, you know you love it,” Jack countered, his voice muffled through the mascot head. “Besides, there’s a rally today—where’s your sense of school spirit?”
“Down the drain—which is where my calculus grade will go if you don’t let me study,” Hiccup said, rolling his eyes as he flipped his book open.
“Okay, okay, just---can you help me for a moment?” Jack asked, prodding Hiccup with a padded claw.
“I’m not letting you copy—“
“No, it’s not that,” Jack said, gesturing to the dragon head with a black paw. “Can you take off this mask for me? It’s hot as hell in here.”
Hiccup tried his best to frown in disapproval, but couldn’t help but smile at Jack’s sheer persistence (which was definitely aided by a bit of stubborn stupidity). The only reason Jack had auditioned for school mascot in the first place was because he made the oh-so bold declaration that he would be a much better mascot than Snotlout and set out to prove it. Of course, Jack could have quit at any time, and anyone who knew Jack knew that he complained about the sweltering costume all the time, but Hiccup also knew that Jack ended up enjoying the role.
“You’re absolutely hopeless,” he muttered as he stood up to pull the mask off of Jack’s head.
Jack emerged from the dragon head gasping for the fresh spring air, his face red and his white hair slightly matted with sweat. He fanned himself with his paw and gave Hiccup a grin. “Is it hot in here or is it just you?” he said with a broad wink that Hiccup could not help but laugh at.
“Uh huh, yeah, you’re lucky you’re cute,” Hiccup replied simply, tucking the mask under his arm and using his free hand to run a hand through Jack’s wet hair, ruffling it so that it was properly messy. “Oh gods, you smell disgusting.”
Jack leaned into Hiccup’s hand, letting out a euphoric sigh. “Why else would you love me?” Jack asked, looking at Hiccup through half-lidded blue eyes that made the poor boy’s heart skip a beat.
Hiccup looked sheepishly at his feet and let his hand trail down to the felt paw, taking the cheaply constructed costume’s hooked claw in his hand. “Hey, so, Jack,” he muttered as Jack leaned closer to him. “Erm, so… prom is—”
Another thing that Hiccup had learned in his three years at high school was that he had some horrible luck. He always found himself late to class by a second or stopped by a slippery puddle or a row of slow freshmen blocking the road. He ended up with the strictest teachers or always got to the front of the lunch line just when they ran out of food. Hiccup discovered, as the school bell rang, signaling the end of lunch, this was no exception.
The freckled teen almost tore out his hair in frustration—despite the fact that he and Jack were dating, Hiccup had found it oddly difficult to ask his boyfriend to prom, fearing that he was under selling the occasion or that prom was just not his style (his friends could laugh at the idea of Hiccup in a bowtie forever).
“I better run—gotta get ready for the rally,” Jack said, taking a deep breath of fresh air before Hiccup placed the dragon mask over his head. “You better not ditch this time.”
Hiccup gave Jack an exasperated look. “Of course, when would I ever miss out on a chance to show school spirit,” Hiccup said rolling his eyes.
“Cool,” Jack said, his voice muffled once again, nudging Hiccup’s forehead with the snout of his dragon costume. “Wave at me when you get there.”
“Wait, Jack—” Hiccup said as the boy took off, running around animatedly, high fiving random people and spooking a group of freshman girls. “Jack, I was kidding!”
The other boy didn’t seem to hear him and, if he did, he paid no heed. Hiccup shook his head and heaved his backpack over his shoulder, not being able to contain his smile as he saw the dragon mascot almost knock over a trash can, and headed off to class.
Hiccup had tried his best to ditch the spirit rally, he really did. However, when his painting class had gotten up to head to the bleachers, his flighty, brightly-colored art teacher had caught him sneaking away and insisted that he attend the rally.
“Now, Hiccup, I know I always let you off the hook, but I think it’s time for me to put my foot down,” she said firmly as Hiccup gawked at her in disbelief.
So Hiccup was shepherded along with the other students into the bleachers, shoved from side to side until he saw Astrid waving at him, patting the empty seat next to her. He descended the steps, thankful (for once), for his lanky body and his ability to squeeze past people.
“Well, look who’s showing school spirit,” Astrid said, punching his arm a little too hard.
Hiccup winced and rubbed his arm. “Oh yeah, you know me—Mr. School Spirit. I have so much school paraphernalia I don’t even know what to do with it when I graduate.” He only had a class T-shirt and that was because he was the one who designed it.
Hiccup looked out to the field and watched as people ran about, setting up last minute balloons, practicing cheer routines, and so on. Out in front of the bleachers, standing on the track, downing a bottle of water like he hadn’t had it in years. Hiccup watched as the white-haired teen looked around the bleachers before meeting Hiccup’s gaze and waving frantically at him. Hiccup gave him a shy smile and a tiny wave in return.
“What a keeper,” Astrid said with a smirk as Jack jammed the dragon head back on. “Don’t swoon too hard, lover boy.”
“I’ll try not to,” Hiccup said, his eyebrows raised in amusement as Jack began hopping up and down in place.
The spirit rally was just as annoying as usual—there was loud cheering and huge guys thumping their chest like apes. Cheerleaders hopped around, making pyramids and getting the students to cheer (Astrid sent a silencing glare at an uppity freshman boy as he whistled and hooted). Horns were blown and Hiccup was pushed around by rowdy teenagers as he tried to read, cursing every moment he was there.
When the rally began to settle down and people began to grow bored, the cheer squad began their last routine with the help of the coveted school dragon. Hiccup couldn’t stop himself from watching this one, smiling as he watched Jack run around, his enthusiasm spreading to all the students and reanimating them once again.
Hiccup felt a surge of pride at the sight of Jack being such a positive force. Even before he became the school mascot, Hiccup had been well aware of Jack’s contagious attitude. Jack always had a way of making Hiccup smile even though he did not want to and to see him spreading his fun nature to everyone else made Hiccup’s heart swell.
However, all school spirit rallies come to an end (Hiccup thanked the gods for that) and he recognized the end of the song blasting on the stereo when he saw the cheerleaders line up, holding placards as Jack ran to the front. The music began to build up again and Jack pointed a paw at the first cheerleader, who flipped up her sign with a grin.
Will
Hiccup’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. “What’s he—“ Astrid slapped a hand over his mouth, a knowing grin on her face that confused him.
The next cheerleader flipped up her placard, bouncing up and down with excitement.
You
Hiccup squinted, his mind whirring and clicking slower than usual as he started to put the pieces together.
Go
Hiccup felt his heart skip a beat as he watched the rest of the signs go up.
To
Prom
With
Me
The mascot raised a sign that he had clutched between his paws, careful not to let it slip.
Hiccup
The crowd roared and cheered, but Hiccup barely noticed them as his jaw dropped. Heat rose to his face and his stomach was in knots. The world seemed to slow down for just that second and questions ran through his head like bullets. Should he get up? Should he stay sitting?
“Don’t just sit there,” Astrid said, her voice breaking through the murmur of noise around him as she tugged his arm. “Go!” She pushed him towards the stairs as he got up, stumbling over the feet of people as the cheering crowd watched him jog down the stairs. Butterflies fluttered in his stomach and his eyes fixed on Jack as he walked out onto the field.
Jack dropped his sign to the side and Hiccup reached up to pull the dragon mask off of his head once again. Hiccup took a moment just to look at Jack, his white hair still damp with sweat and his face red as a tomato. His blue eyes were wide with anticipation and hint of nervousness and in that moment, Hiccup thought about the fact that Jack could even fathom rejection.
Hiccup opened his mouth and the crowd miraculously went silent, but nothing came out. His breath was caught in his throat and himself freeze. His heart beat so quickly that he could barely breathe and so much adrenaline rushed through him that it took everything he could not to pounce on Jack right there and then.
So Hiccup nodded furiously, his lips pursed into a smile as he rocked back and forth on his feet.
“Y-yeah,” Hiccup finally managed to stammer.
The students roared once again and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the cheer squad jumping up and down in excitement. Jack’s pursed lips broke into a smile as he took Hiccup into his arms, the dragon head causing an awkward gap between them. Hiccup dropped it in the moment and grabbed Jack’s collar pulling him into a kiss.
Hiccup was sure someone whistled. He may have heard someone else tell him to ‘get it’ and a few shouts of protest from the teachers to keep it ‘school appropriate.’ However, Hiccup didn’t care, even though he was well aware that he was smooching a guy in a dragon costume and even though he knew that people were staring, as they broke their kiss, Hiccup saw Jack smiling at him like he had never been happier to see anyone else and Hiccup knew that he mirrored Jack’s gaze.
And so, in the years to come, when Hiccup looked back at his high school life and counted the things he had learned, all of his mistakes and the flaws of his education and all the things he had accomplished, he knew that, despite his lack of school spirit and his complaints, he was so very proud to be dating the school mascot.