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Through the piercing cold, far high above the ground, the vision stretched beyond Hiccup's eyes was an endless, vast sea of white clouds, soft and tickling against his dangling feet.
He closed his eyes as he breathed in the fresh air, letting Toothless' sharp wings torn the blue skies, a black ink spilled between white and blue, carrying him through what felt like eternal space. There was nothing stopping him up here. Careless and free of his responsibilities.
Up here, he was just Hiccup, the boy born in fishbone-like limbs and the best friend of the last Night Fury alive. Not Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, a heritor of Berk. Not the son of the chief, with mountains of duty and worry strapped tight onto the bone of his skinny shoulders. He felt like he could finally breathe. Right now, the only thing that could keep him grounded, was not being on the ground.
“Oh, bud. I wish we could stay up here forever,” he whispered to his reptile best friend, eyes boring holes on the clouds above him as he lay himself on the solid line of Toothless’ back. The dragon grunted as an affirmation, sounded more annoyed than the last, considering it had been the fifth time since Hiccup said the exact sentence.
The auburn-haired man then abruptly straightened himself on Toothless. Although the night fury could barely see him from his place, Hiccup gave him a sheepish smile, his thin body folded as he leaned to hug the dragon's head. “Sorry, bud. You're probably had enough of my—what is it that Astrid said? ‘Squeaky, high-pitched’ whining voice?”
The dragon warbled delightedly at that, a sense of agreement lingered in his voice. He let out a soft laugh, then flicked Toothless' ear in slight annoyance. “Shut up, bud. I do not sound like that.”
Or did he? Maybe he did. Nevertheless, the purpose of him spending time up here in the sky wasn't to feel self conscious and worry about the constant crack of his voice. He came up here to not feel anything at all. Mostly to run away from his father's scolding, or the village’s incessant whining, or the twin and Snotlout’s tiresome nagging.
Flying with Toothless had supposed to be his utmost solution to neglect the fact that he was the second most responsible person on Berk. It helped, a little. But even the gentleness of the wind caressing his skin or the exquisiteness of the view couldn't fight the longingness he felt, nesting a place deeply inside his heart. Surrounded by only Toothless and the sky was causing him to be more cognizant of the absence of a certain white-haired, snark filled man-spirit.
Gods above, he really missed Jack Frost.
A sigh slipped his mouth at the thought of his other half once again. It had been one month and a week, but Jack's presence was significant enough to make it felt like he'd been gone for the whole year.
Running his hand through his messy hair, his mind screamed on how pathetic he was, a voice in the back of his mind nagging him to stop brooding around, Hiccup, and it sounded very akin to Astrid's voice, much to his chagrin. Deep down, he knew he couldn't blame Astrid for that. He'd been moping too much, and it was either her or Toothless that had to keep up with his neverending whining.
It seemed he needed much more effort to get the winter spirit out of his head. Despite doing every mission there was as a distraction, the passing weeks hadn't gotten much better. The hole in his chest was still gaping very much wide, fluttered in agony and in sorrow and in pathetic pine.
Hiccup missed those crystal blue eyes. Hiccup missed the stabbing cold Jack was always radiating. Hiccup missed Jack so much he could jump off of Toothless without having his flying gear on.
And he knew his loyal night fury would always try to catch his fall, but he had a feeling that Toothless was fed up by Hiccup’s tough pining thus he would wholeheartedly let Hiccup plunged into the deep sea.
He expressed those thoughts loudly at the dragon, and, although not seeing, he sensed the dragon rolled his huge green eyes tiredly at Hiccup.
“It’s just—he'd been gone for weeks, bud. I just need to know if he's alright. I mean—I know he's alright, he mentioned five times already in his letters. But I just—I just wish he would tell us where or why he's been playing the mysteriously disappearing game again. We're supposed to be way past that by now, don't you think, bud?”
At this point, the night fury he was riding on began to manoeuvre them into a series of turmoil, an attempt to knock him with some sense, as if telling him to just shut up and assuring him Jack is fine, and you're just being an overdramatic bonehead.
“I know. I know, bud. Sorry again,” he set his body down across Toothless' back again, both arms intertwined on his stomach.
Many things had happened since he decided to be involved with a world he never thought existed. Since he met Jack, the powerful yet reckless spirit with his body far too small to contain the endless heartwrenching stories inside him. Sometimes, as he wrapped his arms tightly around the skinnier torso before him, he marveled at how fragile, how young Jack was, masked by the truth of he’d been scurrying around Odin’s earth for over 300 years.
And, among those years, he'd only known Jack Frost for one and a half years. And just only four months of having his arms curled around the smaller man on the cramped space of Hiccup's bed, shielding him from the sharpness of the weather, as if his frigid, icy-cold skin wasn't the major cause of Hiccup's suppressed tremble.
His mind spiralled around countless possibilities. What if Jack was hurt? What if he was met and captured by those evil spirits he was always speaking ill about, just like two months prior to their reunion? His mind was only capable of providing wariness for the last few days, of missing Jack and his burning bright smile. Also mixed with brief anguish for leaving Hiccup (he scolded himself for the selfishness), but it all eventually spiralled to the biggest emotion he had for the younger man, to boundless worry of what misfortune that could possibly occur to Jack.
“Maybe we have to search after him, bud. His winds should've said something by now. Maybe he was hurt, and badly too, bad enough that he couldn't send us anything for help.”
The dragon didn't bother to respond, this time probably really had enough, and Hiccup stared vacantly at the sea of clouds again. He quickly lost in the land of his thoughts, now spiralling around the mess he'd left for his friends to sort (and also his friends had caused), just this morning. Not indifferent from the usual days, with Ruff and Tuff skirting around the whole island until they found something fascinating for them to be engrossed in it for the whole day. It wasn't hard to find something interesting with their resourceful, easily-inspired brains.
Twenty one years growing and almost every day attached to those two, Hiccup still hadn't and didn't want to know what kind of monsters slithered and lodged inside the twins’ heads.
And so, as far as Hiccup knew, today's trouble had involved acid. And also a fire. Also a long cave, with openings on both ends as the twins’ groundwork. Add a Snotlout, along with a couple of Berkian children, and it was enough recipe for a normal slash unhinged day on his forever home.
Hiccup had immediately skulked to Toothless' back the moment he heard Snotlout's screeching scream far away in the woods.
In his defense, earlier that day he'd been involved in a pretty nasty argument with his Dad, and he hadn't been sober enough to deal with anything Ruff and Tuff related after. So he simply ran away, throwing a guilty glance towards his mother’s call when she saw him scurrying away with Toothless.
Gods, he really wished he had Jack with him. He'd known a way to divert Hiccup's swarmed brain to something more fun, either it with his foxy grin or his icy frost magic or his… something else.
He fought his blush at the sudden thought. Whatever. Those were just worsening his situation now.
Apparently, throughout his recounting half-of-the day session, the night fury beneath him had lowered their height until they were no longer above the clouds. He then noticed the quickened speed of his flight. Hiccup straightened his position, then his eyes caught a sight of an island in front of him, which Toothless seemed to earmark for a place to land.
“Toothless, what’re you doing?” The dragon only gurgled at his question. Hiccup threw a glance towards him and frowned. He took scans of their surroundings, trying to find the cause of his dragon's agitation, but found nothing.
They have indeed flown for a couple of miles, and maybe Toothless’ wings were finally getting tired. He shrugged, complying with his dragon’s silent request, then adjusted Toothless’ tailfin to make a beeline towards the island. He just hoped Toothless’ sudden quirk wasn’t caused by another new problem.
The moment Toothless’ feet touched the ground, Hiccup unclasped himself from the saddle and bolted in front of the night fury, hands on the scales of his neck. “Hey, you’re sure you’re okay, bud?”
Toothless gurgled and widened his mouth to a smile, showing Hiccup the pink of his gums. The dragon butted his head against Hiccup’s as a reassurance, his tail nestled protectively around him. Frown immediately left Hiccup’s face, and he giggled then closed his eyes when the night fury darted his tongue towards his face to give him an endless licks. “Ew, hey! What’s with the sudden affection, bud— uh-uh, okay that’s sweet, but this is getting gross, you know—”
Hiccup tried to open his eyes, emphasized on trying because the night fury seemed very determined to glue his eyelids together with his dragon saliva, as if he was trying to distract him from something— and he briefly caught Toothless’ eyes glancing frenziedly to his back.
“Toothless, will you— stop? What on earth are you glancing at—” he managed to free himself from Toothless’ grasp, barely turning his body around as a flash of blue tunic and lanky limbs suddenly filled his periphery. And the next thing his brain could muster, was the fact he was being tackled hard onto the ground, lying on his back with a mass of weight pooling on his stomach.
“Ow! What the—” he cut himself the moment he opened his eyes. On top of him, shielding his vision from the clouded sky, was no one but the blue eyed, bright white hair man-spirit, whom he'd been whining over the last few weeks.
“Jack?”
The said spirit grinned wide. “Hi there, buttercup.”
Fast as a thunder, Hiccup straightened himself and got up—nearly knocking his forehead against Jack’s in the process—as the man on his lap yelped in surprise.
“Jack! What are you— how are you— oh gods, where have you been?” Hiccup immediately fumbled his hands on Jack, touching everywhere his fingers could land on. Jack let out another startled sound the moment his hand pressed against his clothed ribs, his own hands tailing Hiccup's. Eventually, both their hands settled nicely on Jack’s face, Hiccup’s palm warm against his freezing cheeks while Jack’s cold against the back of his hands.
“Slow down, will you, Hic? You’re probably faster than Toothless right now,” a chuckle, deep and sultry, escaped from Jack’s lips, head leaning instinctively against Hiccup’s warmth. The piercing blue of his eyes disappeared the moment Jack closed his eyelids, as a quiet, appeased sigh slipped from his nose and— oh.
Hiccup missed this. Hiccup missed Jack’s self-driven, skin-hunger gesture, reacting to even the slightest of his touch.
As Jack re-opened his eyes, any of his prying questions died on his tongue. Snowflakes seemed to dance on Jack’s pupils, gleaming lively as if candlelight. He forgot everything around his senses as he surged forward, just the moment when Jack began to speak.
“I miss—” he swallowed whatever words Jack was trying to form with his lips, his hold on Jack's cheeks tightened, cradling the man even closer to his embrace. Jack melted, pressing and deepening their connected lips, emitting a soft noise Hiccup would kill to hear more, as his tongue slightly lapped at the seams of Jack's lips. He was intoxicated by the taste of Jack in his mouth, pushing firmly and drinking him in, as if he was a man desperate for drops of rain. Jack’s cold hands clasped around Hiccup’s wrist now, clutching not tight enough to bruise, but enough to hold him close.
When they parted, they didn’t part far, creating a small space between their mingled breaths, just enough for Hiccup to bump his nose to Jack’s, immersed by the contrasting feeling of their touching skin.
Jack blinked a few times before offering him a small smile. “I was gonna say I miss you, but I think someone’s been missing me much more.”
Hiccup snorted as he felt warmth splurged on his freckled cheeks. He sunk his teeth on the pale, smooth juncture of Jack’s neck in an attempt to swallow the words that threatened to jump from the tip of his tongue. Such as, missing you? I almost drowned myself three times at the thought of not seeing you.
Jack hissed, his breath hitched in shallow as Hiccup kept mapping the skin of his throat with his lips. He pressed a final kiss to the spot beneath Jack's sharp jaw. “Uh-uh. Miss you too. And where have you been, Mr. Always-mysteriously-disappearing?”
Regaining his composure, Jack blearily blinked, his smirk decorating his face. “Working, obviously. I'm a busy guy, Hiccup.” Hiccup was about to throw him dozens of questions again, but got interrupted by the winged reptile on his left, head hovered above Hiccup’s lap and knocking against Jack’s figure.
“Woah, hey there, my favorite fire-breathing creature. Thanks for creating the distraction earlier. We should team up more next time, don’t you think?” Jack muttered as Toothless began to lean almost his entire weight on the white haired man, already chewing and licking at Jack’s skin. Hiccup squinted his eyes questioningly, the gear on his head working around Jack’s sentence.
It all clicked the moment Jack sent him a knowing look. “Oh, that was you!”
Both green and blue orbs shot at him, just before Jack and Toothless broke into a series of giggles.
“Toothless! I was seriously worried you were sick or something, bud! Turns out you had just seen Jack somewhere in the sky, didn't you? And both of you immediately decided to trick me! Oh, you sly dragon!” He grumbled, breathless laughter escaped his throat as he pushed hard at Toothless’ snout. Warbling loudly, the dragon pushed back at Hiccup with his paws, the strength was enough to topple himself to the grass. Toothless then loomed above him, poking playfully at his face.
Jack, still positioned on top of Hiccup’s thighs, laughed louder witnessing his and Toothless’ brawl. He pulled at Toothless' body, attempting to free Hiccup from his abuse. “Alright, Toothless, give our boy a break, yeah? I’m afraid his fishbone limbs couldn’t take any more tackling.”
He scoffed lightly as the dragon gave him one last poke on his face, then took the hand Jack was offering to him.
“You’re a menace, Jack.”
“Aw, Hic. Don’t pretend you don’t love me,” he winded his arms around Hiccup’s shoulder, pushing himself forward to press his lips on Hiccup’s nose. Hiccup scrunched his nose, arms binding around the spirit’s middle.
“Fortunately for your annoying self, I do. And more if you tell me what you’ve been up to, considering you’ve been gone for more than a month now,” he whispered against Jack’s mouth, their lips not quite touching but just enough to tease. They were pressed tight against each other now, lines of bodies blurring as their temperatures rubbed on one another’s clothes.
Jack shrugged. “Not much. I told you in my letters, right? Just the usual winter business.”
Hiccup frowned, unsatisfied. “What do you mean, ‘not much’, you were gone for five weeks! Also, your letters were mostly drawings and sprinkle of frosts.”
“Hey, you know I can't spell or write. ‘Sides, has it really been five weeks? It felt so much shorter.”
“Jack…” Hiccup let out a disappointed sigh as he raised his eyebrows, scrutinizing Jack intently under his gaze. Then a palm of hand brushed at his face, a weak attempt to cover his eyes.
“Your big pleading eyes won’t work on me, Hiccup.”
He snorted. “Why are you covering them, then?”
From the gap of Jack’s fingers, he could see his boyfriend's smile turned into a purse of lips, a huff escaped from his lips. “Fine. You want a story, I’ll give you a story,” he stated, as all of a sudden he hauled himself away from Hiccup's lap, making an effort to scramble off of Hiccup’s embrace. Hiccup’s body wasn’t entirely too fond of that idea, thus he pulled and tightened his fingers on Jack’s waist, causing the man to tumble back to his arms.
“Hic—what are you doing?”
“What are you doing?”
“Didn’t you want to hear my story?”
“Yes, I do. Can’t you just tell me like this? In this position? Please don’t tell me you’re getting shy on me, Jack, you always loved sitting on my lap.”
Right away, white frost bloomed across Jack’s cheeks, adorning his pale skin mesmerizingly. Oh, how he missed making the usual snarky spirit blush.
“I was just going to pick my staff!”
“What for? Your staff’s save with Toothless, right, bud?” Toothless grunted, and from the corner of his eyes, he could see the reptile circling around before unceremoniously dropping his body to the ground, eyelids drooping sleepily. Jack squirmed a little, and Hiccup locked his arms tightly around him, as he dragged both of them to the nearest boulder, resting his sore back against it.
“There we go, nice and comfy. Now speak, Jack Frost,” he stated, hands on Jack’s hips, grinning ear to ear at the man in front of him. See, Jack wasn't the only one in the relationship who could be a pain in the ass.
Jack's expression was bewildered at first, but then contorted to something fond. “Someone’s extra clingy today. Bad day, or do you just miss me that much?”
The spirit’s snark was a distraction, but Hiccup still reacted to the bait, as he pressed his lips into a thin line, head inclined down in an attempt to hide his warming cheeks as a reaction to Jack's call out. Relief washed over his consciousness at the thought of not being at Berk right now. His friends’ whistles and snickers already prickled on the back of his mind if they ever caught Hiccup being whiny and demanding like this.
His travelling thoughts were then pulled away by the hand on his chin, inquiring his eyes to meet Jack’s own. The spirit let out a titter when he swept his gaze on Hiccup's red tinted cheeks.
“Look at that, now you're the one getting shy. Alright, honey bunch, where to begin with? You gotta ask me what part you want to hear first.”
Hiccup couldn't help the snort that escaped. “‘Honey bunch’? That's new.”
“Yes, and you’ll have to get used to more of them if you're gonna be with me forever. Now, are we getting into the storytelling part or not? ‘Cause we've been going off track too many times now.”
Hiccup gave an unimpressed stare, that translates to and whose fault is that, but eventually cleared his throat and mind. Thinking, he swept his gaze through the spirit’s entire figure. He stopped when he caught a mid-sized, already fading scar on the spirit’s right inner wrist, the red conspicuous against the white milk of Jack's skin.
“Woah. How about we start here. What happened? You didn't mention getting hurt,” although, keeping everything closed to himself and pretending he wasn't physically or mentally in pain was a very much thing for Jack to do.
The white haired man grimaced, as if unpleasant memories slithered their way inside his head. “Oh, um. Heat sprites, ran into them by accident. Those guys weren't exactly happy. One of them managed to slit their—whatever their weapon was—to my wrist. Don't worry, it's mostly fine now.”
Hiccup's eyebrows scrunched together in worry. “Now? And what about then? Did it hurt?”
Jack grimaced further. “Yeah—badly.”
His mouth immediately parted to argue, but Jack beat him from vocalizing his concerns. “But hey! It's alright, I'm alright, Hic, I heal fast, remember? One day napping and ta-da, fresh as a newborn. Well, mostly—the scar’s still there, I'm not sure why—but seriously, the pain’s barely there anymore.”
A small, reassuring smile rose on Jack's face, and Hiccup sighed. He offered his own rising lips as a pretended relief, and brought Jack's scarred wrist to his lips, pressing soft against the puckered skin. “When was this?”
Jack squinted his eyes. “I think it was more than a week ago. Honestly, I'm not sure, kind of lost track of time.”
That caught him off guard. “You lost track— Jack, what exactly happened? You’re usually only away for two or three weeks!”
“And you said how long I was gone this time?”
“Five!”
“See? The gap’s not that big, Hiccup! Only missing, what, two weeks?”
He groaned, loud and frustrated, a mumble of I can't believe you were stifled by the spirit’s shoulder, his nose hidden in the crook of the spirit's neck. Jack, that devil, still had the nerve to laugh at Hiccup's concession. He desperately tried not to be too pleased by the way their body vibrated in tandem as the effect of Jack's titter.
“Sorry, sorry. You know, out of all things, I missed our little arguments like this,” Jack said as his laugh had subsided, his nimble fingers fiddled and rolled with the strands of Hiccup's auburn locks.
Hiccup only hummed a response. Jack's cold fingers were a miracle against his scalp, and it took a moment for him to pick the scraps of their conversation.
“And before that? What were you up to?”
Jack huffed. “You know, I’m starting to presume you didn't read any of my letters, Hiccy.”
“Well for my defense, like you said, there weren't any words to read. Besides, I just want to hear them with your own voice.”
The white haired man’s gaze softened at Hiccup’s confession. And after that, with hand still petting at his hair, Jack started speaking, chest rumbling in a deep vibration, sending a sensation to Hiccup’s pressed ear. He listened for a while, not yet responding, his mind automatically connecting each drawing Jack had sent before to the actual, fully narrated story.
He suddenly felt like a child, as his mind brought him to Valka. To the similar time when he rested his head on her chest, listening to her smooth voice around her stories. While her stories were mostly centered around the sanctuary and her journey with dragons, Jack’s were entirely different, with literal magic and supernatural creatures involved.
He tried to center himself around Jack’s voice once again. “—brought snow to some other places, tried to befriend children and brought them the most fun snowball fights in their lives. Oh, I also saved a man from freezing to death. That was weirdly fun. Also made a treaty with another winter spirit—who were new in her field but somehow annoyingly arrogant—”
His head tilted in interest. “A treaty? Why did you need to make a treaty?”
Jack stopped and stared down at him, as if he was forgetting his pair of ears weren't the only ones listening. Three hundred years of solitude seemed to still have the effect on him, not used to someone actually listening and jumping into his rambles.
“Dunno. She had just been born a few days before, but she already marked one of the islands as her land of conquest or something. I told her that we, spirits, don't work like that, but she got furious and yelled at me. She was a bit tough to handle, but fortunately, everything's settled without any blood shed, so, hurray,” Jack finished with a grin, a twinkle of mischief always permanent to his face. Hiccup smiled back.
“That's good. Though she shouldn't have yelled at you. Wouldn't want to upset the ‘most powerful spirit in the archipelago’ if I were her.”
Jack let out a chuckle. “That’s rich coming from you, ‘world’s greatest dragon conqueror.’”
“Shush, you. My title's no more popular than yours.”
“Seriously? Your name’s bigger than mine, sweet plum. Just listen to this—” Jack cleared his throat, his hand hovered between them as he continued—“‘Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, prince of Berk, world’s greatest dragon conqueror, standing tall with his fiery dragons on his sides. Oh, Prince Hiccup, spare me my life! Reprieve me from your fire-shooting beast, your highness, I beg you with all my soul!’” The spirit finished with a deliberately high-pitched voice, face crumpled in dramatic countenance, as he put his hand on his heart in an exaggerated manner.
He broke into a series of giggles at Jack’s ridiculous performance. “What was that—‘Prince Hiccup’? No one's ever called me that!” Witnessing Jack like this, he was reminded why Jack had been known to be good with children.
The spirit was cackling as well, his hands flailed at Hiccup's chest. “Uh-uh, but don't worry, Hic, you're already looking like one,” the spirit wiggled his brows suggestively at Hiccup.
Heat crawled up his face again. “Gods, Jack, just—shut up. We’re never getting close to the end if you keep laughing like that,” his fingers flicked at the man’s ear, trying to stop him from cackling. Even though he tried to put an end to Jack's mirth, he was acutely aware of his own foolish grin spreading widely on his face.
“Hey, s’not my fault that you interrupted me!”
“Fine, fine! Let me try to start this again. Uh… okay, what about the man you saved? Tell me about him. You sure you weren't the cause of him almost freezing to death?”
Jack gasped dramatically. “You’re doubting the truth of my benevolence, now, Hiccy? The blizzard nearly took his life because of nothing but his own fault. Imagine—who the hell thought it was a good idea to go for a camp in the middle of a devastating winter?”
“Aside from me and the riders? I have no idea.”
At the mention of their friends, Jack shook his head fondly. “Yeah, it turns out you and your eccentric friends aren't the only ones capable of making extremely stupid decisions.”
Hiccup squeezed his grasp on Jack’s hand, cheeks starting to get sore from all the smiling. “Well, I'm sure he had a considerable reason. And you're not in the place to talk about stupid decisions, Jack, since you're currently the biggest bad influence for the twins.”
“Nah, I think Ruff and Tuff can be blamed on their own. I am no more than a fuel to their fire.”
“You see, I'm not sure how that’s supposed to be better,” his voice dragged into a final chuckle. A small silence unfolded between them, both exhausted from their own jokes, and he simply stared at their joined hands for a while. Feeling the urge of affection, Hiccup brought their joined hands to his lips, gently pressing a feathery kiss one at a time on each of the spirit's fingertips.
The reaction was immediate. Jack wasn't always aware of it, but oftentimes, when the spirit felt more profound emotions—such as now—the temperature of his surroundings would suddenly plummet low, and anyone within a foot could sense the tingling cold radiated by the presence of Jack. It was as if the control of Jack's power inadvertently slipped off of his hold, his small body could no longer contain the intensity, letting the magic soared out of him and bursting off.
He felt the cold just in time he saw the ice, spreading slowly beneath Jack's feet, sleek against the roughness of the grass.
As he gazed directly into Jack's eyes, the layer of ice eventually reached the sleeping dragon on their front. The dragon jolted awake the moment it made contact with his foot, startling both men with his grunt.
Toothless’ eyes were wide open, and squinted in annoyance when he spotted Hiccup and Jack’s guilt-ridden faces. “Sorry, Toothless,” mumbled Jack.
The dragon scoffed, picking Jack's staff with his mouth, then scurried away to their left, distance wide to seclude himself from the pair. Hiccup didn't know why the dragon hadn't done that earlier, since he suspected Toothless wasn't getting any good shut-eye with his and Jack's noisy laughter in the background.
With his lips pressed together, Jack shrugged. “Well, he's getting more comfortable now—And I will too. I'm getting up, Hic—no, no whining. I know I'm flexible, but my feet are really folded in an uncomfortable way,” Jack ordered, as he abruptly rolled himself off of his lap, landing on Hiccup's left. But it seemed the spirit himself wasn’t too keen of the idea being too far from Hiccup, as he crowded his smaller body against his. Both their shoulders knocked together, his white strands tickled on Hiccup’s cheek.
Hiccup let his hand be pulled and blanketed by Jack’s own. “Now, enough about my boring life. C’mon, how about you? Is there something interesting with Berk that I missed?
From the back of his head, he could tell something was missing in Jack's story. But for now, he decided to take the bait Jack was offering.
“Oh, so much. I don't even know how we get into much more trouble without you.”
“Hey, I'm offended. Let's not forget those five times you guys almost went to die without my magical power here,” Jack smirked, sparkled a twinkle of blue magic with his fingers.
“And those five times that magic is also being the cause of our near death experiences?”
“Yeah, yeah, details are overrated, Hiccup. Seriously though, how’s today? What's gotten you into screaming and grumbling to the sky this time, buttercup?”
Sheepishly, he rubbed a palm over his spine. “Pretty sure you didn't need to ask to know. The answer’s never really went far from Berk and its chaosness.”
“Uh-huh. What did the Ruff and Tuff do this time?” Hiccup chuckled at Jack's immediate accusations on the twins. Well, he wasn't wrong.
“I'm not sure, actually, but I think they were experimenting on Barf and Belch’ explosions again. I'm guessing they want to see how far it goes, remembering the long tunnel involved,” he explained, as he recalled the sight he’d seen earlier, the rumble of rocks flying everywhere and Snotlout's fire lit butt running around the forest. Gods, they were idiots. They could've literally gotten the entire island to burn and drown.
Jack's eyes lit up at his story. “That sounds fun. Shameful I wasn't there.”
Hiccup sent Jack a scowl.
“What? I'm sure they could use some help with the fire extinguishing.”
Hiccup rolled his eyes dramatically, letting his huff dragged into a chuckle as he stared affectionately at the blue orbs in front of him. He squeezed the slender hand wrapped on his own, holding back the real answer behind Jack’s question in the back of his throat.
Through the side of his eyesight, he could catch Jack’s gaze softening. Both Jack’s cold hands were now covering his. “But hey, spill it out, Hiccy, I know it needs more than just the twins to make you run away like this.”
Gods, Hiccup felt like everything about him was made of a bare, transparent ice each time he was spending his time with the heedful winter spirit. Jack could read him like a book, unravel him like a tie, and he never failed to make Hiccup bloom as a flower under his delicate care. He brought the spirit’s palm to his lips.
“Just, y’know. Argument with Dad. Nothing new.”
Jack smiled sympathetically. “Usual dragon business?”
He grimaced. “Yeah. And I don’t want to sound like I’m keeping it from you, really, but I don’t want to talk about it just yet. Later, okay? I promise,” he uttered, locking his gaze to Jack’s.
Light as a feather, Jack smiled and shrugged, dropping one peck of a kiss to the center of his nose. “Sure, pumpkin pie. Anytime you want. I’m all ears.”
Hiccup chuckled, his heart throbbed in devotion. “You’re just calling me sweets now, you know. Gotta be more creative.”
Jack raised his brows as if accepting a challenge. “Oh, what, you want me to call you dragon names? Okay then, my dear gronckle, is that what you want? Or you’d rather be called my sweet, beautiful Typhoomerang? Oh— or you want it to be the terrifying one, what was it, the Screaming Death? Or—”
He huffed a quiet laugh, manhandling Jack to the space between his legs, pulling him into his embrace as an attempt to shut him up. “Alright, alright, Jack, you win. Let's stop before you start naming all of them, you lunatic.”
“Mmph. Maybe it was a tactic to make you drag me into your arms,” Jack’s voice was muffled against his chest, his body seconds away from melting all over his own.
“I’ll drag you into my arms without you having to rack your smart brain,” he mumbled it aggressively, against the soft locks of the spirit's snow-white hair, while pressing absent-minded kisses all over his skull.
“You make it sound like a threat, Hiccy. Oooh, how scary,” the man-spirit tilted his head upwards, scrunching his nose at Hiccup. Thor’s hammer, Jack was ridiculously adorable. Hiccup couldn’t resist smacking their small-separated lips together.
Once again that day, Hiccup got his time generously poured for kissing his snarky, almost-evil and beautiful boyfriend. With the dance of their lips and the involvements of their tongues, it was hard to keep things underheated, or, in Jack’s case, underfrozen. Hiccup forcefully drew himself back before they both did something that later on would make Hiccup red-faced and embarrassed.
Regaining his breath, Hiccup offered a question. “Let’s go home?”
Jack nodded, his hazy gaze dissolved and focus gradually recoiling. “Sure. Take me home, snuggle bug.”
He snorted once again at the pet name, before scooping Jack’s entire weight to his arms, carrying the spirit effortlessly to the spot where Toothless was napping, completely ignoring his boyfriend’s ability to float and fly.
Apparently, carrying the man-spirit had been an useless attempt, as Jack promptly spilled off of his arms in order to jump at the night fury. He watched as Jack tackled and threw snowballs at his dragon, who woke up in a flurry, throwing Jack an unimpressed stare and dropped himself on top of the skinny white haired man. Hiccup let out an overfond chuckle at the sight.
Thinking further, he didn’t want to go back sooner to Berk before, and he still didn’t want to go back now, especially with Jack and Toothless by his side. The thought of going away for a little bit longer brought a horrible reflection of Astrid’s incessant scolding, but he couldn’t help ignoring the ghost of her image as he drank in the sight of Jack at the moment. Well, Hiccup thought, certainly a little more adventure for today with only the three of them wouldn’t hurt a soul, right?
It seemed that Jack really had a way to corrupt every second of Hiccup’s ticking life, after all.