Chapter Text
Jack loved his dear little sister to bits. There was no doubt about that. Ever.
That said, it was hard to hold on to that feeling when his sleep was abruptly and almost violently interrupted by a 11 year-old ball of energy running into his room unannounced. It became even more difficult when said being bounced on his bed until he acknowledged her presence.
“Emmaaaaaa,” Jack groaned. “We talked about thiiiiiis. Go awaaaaaaay.”
“Nope, mom told me to go wake you guys up! I have permission!” Emma giggled happily, although she blissfully stopped jumping. Jack forced one eye open and realized why. She was sitting on Hiccup now, using her full body weight to shake his blanket cocoon back and forth. “Hiccuuuuuuup wake uuuuuup!”
“No.” The response was muffled. Only his brown hair poked out from the blanket cocoon.
“I think we’re awake,” said Jack. “Mission accomplished.”
“You’ll go back to sleep,” accused Emma. This was a fair assumption, to be honest. “I won’t leave until you’re up.” She stood solemnly and tried to give Jack her most stern look. Which wasn’t very stern at all, considering she was 11.
“Hiccup, tell her you’re up?”
“No.”
“He’s up.”
“He’s not!” accused Emma. She pushed against the blankets again. Suddenly they shot up and over her, covering her completely. Hiccup sat up and wrapped his arms around her.
“Om nom nom!” Hiccup yelled. “The blanket monster has you now!”
Giggles, tickles and general revenge for the rude wake-up ensued. Eventually Emma was saved by her mother, who came to check up on the ruckus. “Good, you’re awake,” she said all chipper as if this hadn’t been her evil plan.
“Not through my own volition,” deadpanned Hiccup.
“Boys, it’s almost noon, and I thought you might like to get ready so you can join us. Emma convinced her dear daddy to go to the new water park. If you get dressed now, you can come along?”
“Oh!” Jack’s face immediately lit up and he winked at Emma. “He finally caved, huh?”
“Emma, why don’t you go and grab your swimming bag, hmm?” said Tatiana. She seemed reluctant to let her brother(s) be, but the threat of another tickle got her going. Once she was gone, Tatiana turned to Hiccup.
“You’re of course invited too, if that wasn’t clear.”
“Oh, uh…” Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t have any swimwear with me?” He’d only grabbed some games, his Switch, and a change of clothes. He slept over at Jack’s so often they joked he should have his own drawer, but he didn’t actually have anything here.
“You can fit in his, I’m sure,” said Tatiana. Hiccup just had a slightly constipated expression. “Well, you guys think about what you want to do. Let me know, okay? We’re leaving in an hour.”
They nodded. As soon as Tatiana was gone, Jack said, “I don’t mind if you want to borrow some trunks. It’d fit.”
Hiccup shrugged. “It’s not just the trunks? I don’t have my crutches with me. That’s kind of a must for a water park.”
Oh. Jack hadn’t considered that. “Right. Hmm…” He stretched, lifting his arms as high as he could while popping some joints, giving himself some time to think. “Absolutely no bueno without crutches? You’re the boss, but I can pick up your leg and put it away when you take it off and stuff.”
“I dunno…”
“I can be a human crutch and help out? But you’re the boss. I’d offer to play games all day instead, but I really think this was my mom’s code for ‘we want you to help out with Emma in a water park’.”
Hiccup gave him a skeptical look. “You’d play games all day again, even after playing literally all night last night?”
“I still need revenge!”
“Face it, Frosti. You’re never going to beat me.” Hiccup grinned, and Jack was forced to admit he at least hadn’t won much last night. Whether that was from a definite lack in skill, he refused to comment on.
In all honestly, he was a little tired himself. When he did some quick mental math, he figured they’d slept four hours tops. Not great if he wanted to haul Emma through a water park all day. He’d probably have to go on all the slides more than once, too. But when her happy little face poked through the door again, he knew he couldn’t say no. She was positively beaming.
“Hiccup, are you coming too?” she loud-whispered.
Much to Jack’s relief, his friend nodded. “Yeah. Guess I am?”
“Yesssss!” She did a little fist-pump. “Awesome!” And then she was off again.
“Well, I better get dressed?” Hiccup rummaged through his backpack and got out his clean clothes. He bundled them up tightly and blushed a little, glancing at Jack.
“Oh, right!” Jack sprung up. Unlike Hiccup, who was in full pajama’s, he wore nothing but boxer briefs. But that was no weirder than picking up Hiccup’s leg and carrying it to the bathroom. He did that literally every time he slept over. Then he grabbed a towel from the top shelf in the cabinet, putting it on the bathroom counter. “There you go. I’ll see if I can find those trunks.”
He changed first, since Hiccup was in the bathroom anyway. Then he glanced through his closet exactly once before yelling at his mom. “Where are my trunks again?”
—
Judging from the sheer amount of cars, they weren’t the only ones paying the water park a visit. One glance was enough to know it would be swarming with people inside. Regardless, Emma’s enthusiasm was absolutely through the rough. Hiccup’s less so, Jack noted.
“Sharks can smell blood from up to miles away,” whispered Jack to Hiccup as they walked through the parking lot. Emma was bouncing ahead every ten seconds, and every time North called her back, until finally North and Tatiana each took a hand and didn’t let go.
“She’s like that,” Jack continued. “A tiny shark smelling fun instead of blood.” He sniffed the air and dropped his voice to an ominous tone. “I can smell it too.”
“That’s chlorine,” replied Hiccup. “Nothing fun about chlorine.”
Jack laughed. “Oh hush, mister science. Maybe I just equated chlorine to fun because of swimming pools? There! Scienced you right back.”
“Pavlov would be proud.”
“Isn’t that a rice dish?”
“Wh- how!” Hiccup made an exasperated noise. “That’s pilaf! You fucking lamppost.”
Their laughter didn’t let up until they were well inside. Through the window they could see a part of the park unfold and Jack had been absolutely right. It was like an ants nest of sunburn and floaties.
Once inside, they had to wait for a cubicle to open up. Tatiana and Emma went first, together, followed by North. The wait was long enough for Jack to get some complaints in, echoed by Hiccupy grunts, along with another laughing fit about the fun-smell being sweaty feet instead of chlorine.
“Don’t tell me you’ve Pavloved yourself to like changing room smell. I don’t wanna know what you’ve been up to, sir.” Hiccup arched an eyebrow at him.
“Get your mind out of the gutter,” said Jack. “There is nothing sexy about your sweaty feet.”
“I wouldn’t know, I don’t have sweaty feet,” said Hiccup.
Jack rolled his eyes. “I really do need to put every foot joke in singular for you, don’t I? Sweat-leg isn’t better at all! Oh, an open spot. Come on.”
“You go first, I’ll wait,” said Hiccup.
“This is taking foreveeeeer,” whined Jack. “I promise not to peek. Now get your ass in here.” He held open the door, looking at Hiccup expectantly. Hiccup visibly swallowed and clutched the tote that held his borrowed stuff. He glanced back. There was a line forming, and when another cubicle near the beginning opened up, someone else promptly took it.
Finally, he caved.
Jack locked the door behind them and put his backpack on a bench only big enough for one butt cheek. He never understood those things.
He quickly got out of his shoes. With cold tile kissing his feet, he had to do a little shuffle to get out of his jeans. His shoulder bumped into Hiccup, who was apparently taking forever to pull trunks out of his tote bag.
“Sorry.”
It was severely cramped inside. Clearly not made for two guys at once, but now that they were in here, Jack was determined to just make it work. Bumping into each other might make Hiccup even more awkward, but walking back out was even worse. So he did his best to give his friend some room, too.
They never changed together, not even when they were sleeping over. Hiccup always wore pajamas and always changed fully in the bathroom. Jack had never questioned it. That’s just how his friend preferred it…
Ah damnit.
Maybe he should apologize. He should know that this was well outside Hiccup’s comfort zone. But apologizing might draw attention to it, and that’d be even more awkward, so maybe-
He couldn’t finish the thought. Hiccup had taken his pants off. His back was to Jack as he hung them on a peg, exposing his freckled legs, a colorful prosthetic, and the most hideous briefs Jack had ever laid his eyes upon.
“PFT!” Jack only barely held back a howl of laughter.
Hiccup looked back sharply, almost elbowing Jack in the process. He had his shirt halfway off, arms tangled in the fabric, and eyebrows furrowed.
“Sorry, those are just. Wow. Those are seriously dorky undies.” Jack let out a little giggle. Hiccup’s cheeks turned red faster than you could say ‘Christmas’. Which was the theme of his briefs. There were little pine trees and candy canes all over his butt.
Hiccup pulled off his shirt completely and held it in front of his crotch. “Yeah, I know. Thanks for pointing that out.”
“Where did you even find that?” Jack bit his knuckle to not laugh too hard.
“It was a joke, okay!” Hiccup hissed. “But everything else was in the laundry. I had to wear something.”
That’d explain why Hiccup was so hesitant to get into a cubicle with him. His mortification is not entirely unjustifiable. It wasn’t even remotely close to Christmas, for crying out loud! Jack was rapidly loosing the battle to keep in his giggles, but Hiccup’s constipated look and major blush made him feel a tiny bit sorry.
“Relax,” said Jack. He turned around and faced the door. “Who even gave them to you? Was it Ruff?” He heard some shuffling behind him, but kept his eyes on the door.
“Who else?” said Hiccup. “Although she never admit it. She said it was Santa Clause.”
This lead to a mildly amusing mental image of Ruff dressed up as Santa. Jack tried to prevent further awkwardness by sticking to some small talk. He dropped his pants, put on swimtrunks, and shoved all his clothes in his backpack.
Except talking casually, by default, caused him to try and make eye contact. He caught himself the first time, then got an eyeful when he wasn’t paying attention and turned to Hiccup. It was a side-view with mostly some freckled butt, but Hiccup noticed and blushed furiously. Jack felt his own cheeks heat up too and he quickly took intense interest in the contents of his backpack. Surely his clothes could be put away better.
For the first time Jack wished Hiccup would just change in the room with him when they were together. He never expected he’d like looking at his friend that much. Sure, he knew Hiccup was adorable, and his freckles were to die for, and his sharp snark was his best quality… but he’d never actually seen that much of him.
Now that he knew those freckles were everywhere, his interest was piqued.
“Okay, done,” said Hiccup.
Jack couldn’t stop himself and looked him over top to bottom. Holy heck he was cute in Jack’s trunks. They were both slim, and those were his smallest. They were great for Hic.
“Well, uh…” Jack cleared his throat. “Let’s put this away.”
As they dropped their stuff in the lockers, they discussed their battle-plan concerning Hiccup’s leg. A welcome occupation of Jack’s brain power. Hiccup would get as close as he could to the water and then take it off. Jack would carry the precious cargo to the nearest unoccupied chair, and when Hiccup was done, he’d get over there and put the leg back on. Rinse and repeat if they wanted to try different pools.
Hiccup seemed to have gained a little confidence this was actually going to work. He smiled at Jack and slung his towel over his shoulder.
“And Jack?”
“Hmm?”
“Try not to get yourself drowned by Emma. I need you for leg pickup.”