Work Text:
"Why?" Hiccup asked the moon. "Why can’t I be like them? I’m not asking for much. Just to… fit in."
He got no answers from the shining orb, but it wasn’t like he had expected Máni, the god of the moon, to appear to him and tell him his destiny. He couldn’t barely even get the attention from the other vikings, so nevermind the gods.
Hiccup sighed. He supposed he had just drawn the short straw. Even at their age, the other children were showing their potential as viking warriors. As dragon slayers. One day, they would be covering themselves in glory. And Hiccup would be left in their shadow. The runt of the litter.
"There you are!" a voice called in front of him. A head of mussed brown hair poked from the edge of the rooftop where Hiccup had secluded himself. Jackson Overland, one of the older kids from Berk, hoisted himself up and sat next to him. "I thought I heard you talking."
"What do you want?"
"Your dad has everyone searching for you."
"Oh." So much for his wild hope that the older boy had decided to come looking for him simply because he cared.
The disappointment in his tone made Jack’s heart clench. He didn’t like seeing children unhappy. And this particular child so rarely had a smile on his face. “What’s eating you?”
"Oh, nothing," he mumbled. "Other than that no one in Berk ever takes me seriously, that is."
"Being taken seriously is overrated."
"Easy for you to say. No one is saying you’re a failure of a viking."
"Now, don’t you listen to them. You’re not a failure, just… unconventional. Embrace it!"
Hiccup wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean. He wasn’t even sure if Jack knew or if he was just saying this to comfort him. But he decided he would do just that. He would embrace it and show everyone he could be a viking in his own way.
"So, what are you building?"
"The Ultimate Dragon Destroyer."
"I hope it works better than last week’s Dragon Destroyer."
"I, uh, made some improvement. Fixed the ‘falling apart when you load it’ thing."
"When you’re done, wanna to go sledding?"
This, Hiccup knew, was his moment to shine. He had perfected his latest invention, the Dragon Netter, and he knew it would work. All he had to do was manage to get away from Gobber’s supervision for a moment to try it. With the chaos ruling over the smithy during the dragon attack, that wasn’t hard.
He set the Dragon Netter down in one relatively calm spot, aimed at a zippleback flying low over the roofs of Berk and sent the heavy, weighted net flying. He would bring the dragon down to the ground, where it would be helpless against the viking warriors. Maybe Hiccup wouldn’t be the one to land the finishing blow, but everyone would have to acknowledge his contribution.
He knew it wasn’t going to work almost right away. The net wasn’t rising high enough. It soared a good three feet under the two-headed dragon, who didn’t even notice it, and continued on its way. Hiccup’s heart sank when he saw a thin figure with a shepherd crook in it’s path.
"Jack!" he called.
The warning came too late. Jack turned back just in time to see the large net before it crashed into him and forced him down to the ground in a heap. He struggled against it wildly, needing to be free to move before a dragon noticed his plight. A panicked Hiccup ran to him.
"Oh gods, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It wasn’t supposed to do that."
Jack chuckled a little at that. “I think it needs some tweaks.”
Hiccup had to smile despite the situation. At least Jack had never tried to discourage him from contributing to the fights in his own way. Even if Hiccup had yet to do anything useful. And even when he was accidentally throwing nets at the older boy.
A nearby roar reminded him of the urgency of the situation. A dragon had spotted the two boys’s vulnerable position. Hiccup swallowed and frantically tried to move the knotted ropes around to get Jack out of it.
The gronckle was on them before he could make much headway. Its clawed feet pinned the net on either side of Jack, ruining Hiccup’s efforts. The freckled boy froze when the dragon opened its mouth, a heated glow filling it. It was over. They were both going to die and it was all his fault. He had killed Jack. That somehow hurt more than knowing he was about to die.
A narrow staff connected with the dragon’s jaw and threw its aim off before it could burn the two boys to crips. Hiccup breathed out in relief when he saw that, while he was staring at death helplessly, Jack had managed to work the end of his shepherd crook through the gaps and strike at the dragon. His cheeks burning with shame at not having been able to do anything, Hiccup wasted no more time in getting Jack free of the net.
Thankfully, the thing was meant to hold down a dragon, not a scrawny viking, and he managed to help Jack wiggle through one of the gaps just in time. The older boy struck the dragon again, then hooked the other end of the staff around its leg and pulled, tripping the beast up.
Jack didn’t stick around for more than that. He needed to get Hiccup to safety. As much as he really did believe that Hiccup could become a great viking one day, for now he was a frightened and helpless eleven years old boy in the middle of a dragon attack.
"That’s it. I give up."
"What? Don’t say that!"
Hiccup stormed away from Jack. He wasn’t in the mood for his comforting words. They hadn’t gotten him anywhere so far. All he got for his efforts was disappointment after disappointment.
"I can’t do it, Jack. I’m not viking you think I am."
Jack ran to catch up to him. When he younger boy wouldn’t stop, he put a hand on his shoulder to try to force him to face him. “Hiccup, you can’t just give up like that!”
He whirled around and planted his eyes right into Jack’s warm brown ones. “Oh? And why not?”
"Because you’re Hiccup! You never give up. Even when things are not going your way at all, you just keep going. That’s what I always admired about you. Your determination." The lost look the younger boy sent him broke his heart. Jack placed both hands on Hiccup’s shoulders and leaned down to be eye-level with him. "You can prove to everyone how great a viking you are. But not if you give up now."
Hiccup felt his eyes mist up, but the last thing he wanted was to cry in front of Jack, so he straightened his back instead, raised his chin, and nodded.
The snowball hit Hiccup on the back of his neck. He shivered when snow slid into his shirt and down his back.
"Who threw that?"
A few feet away, Jack gave the most unconvincing look of innocence. “I don’t know, Hic. Must have been a troll.”
Hiccup smirked and gathered a snowball of his own. “You’re right. And I think I see one right there!”
He hurled the snowball at the cocky shepherd. From that point, a snow war was declared.
"I think I’m in love."
Jack rolled his eyes at Hiccup gooey smile. “With who?”
"Astrid."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Yes! She’s so…"
Hiccup made some wild gestured to illustrate it, but he could never find an actual word. Jack wondered if the thirteen years old boy wasn’t confusing love with lust. At his age, it could be hard to tell the difference. But he didn’t say anything.
Hiccup wasn’t sure when he started staring at Jack almost as much as Astrid when they fought. Probably since always. He always had a sort of admiration for the scrawny, goofy boy who danced around the battlefield, striking dragons with his slim staff. He wished he could be like him. Jack, while taller, was built much like him, but he made it work.
But Hiccup had to admit that his hero worship had progressively been turning into something more. He watched, breathless, as Jack moved so gracefully to duck a deadly nadder’s spines, cheered when he hooked his staff around the rampaging dragon’s horn to keep it from crashing into a house, and his heart stopped when the older viking met his eye and smiled. Jack had the prettiest smile Hiccup had ever seen.
It had probably started with the fact that Jack was the only one to believe in him, but Hiccup would be lying if he didn’t acknowledge that Jack was physically attractive and that he hadn’t ever thought of running his hands through that wild hair, or along that perfect jaw. It made his mouth go dry.
So, maybe he was a little in love with Jack after all.
"I think I want to travel, one day," Jack said one night when they sat on the edge of a cliff, watching the moon above them.
"You… you want to leave Berk?"
"Not forever. I just… want to see what’s out there, you know?"
Hiccup stared at the expense of sea ahead of them. He had never travelled very far from Berk, but he had heard tales. He looked up at Jack. “Will you take me with you when you go?”
"Why not? That would be good, for the chief’s son to see the world. We can travel together."
"Jack? Can I talk to you a moment?"
Judging from how he whirled around with a guilty look, the young man must have been doing something he shouldn’t have been. He relaxed and grinned when he saw who called him.
"Hiccup! Sure, I’m listening."
Hiccup tugged at the edge of his tunic. This had been a terrible idea. Whatever possessed him to come up to Jack and try to confess that he was more than a little in love with him? It wasn’t too late to not make a terrible mistake.
"I was just, uh, wondering if you wanted to go sledding tomorrow."
"Sorry, Hic. I promised my sister I’d take her ice skating, just the two of us. Another time?"
"Yeah. Another time is good. Okay, see ya."
Hiccup swirled around to leave. Jack’s voice stopped him before he had taken a step.
"Wait, Hic. That’s not what you wanted to tell me, is it? What’s on your mind?"
Hiccup reluctantly turned back. One look into Jack’s worried brown eyes and he knew he wasn’t walking away from this without telling him what he came here for. He sighed.
"I, er, wanted to tell you that… I like you a lot," he said lamely.
Jack frowned and tilted his head to the side in confusion. “I like you a lot too, Hic. Is that all you wanted to say?”
Hiccup tugged on his hair in frustration. He didn’t know how to go about this. Maybe he should just… show him.
His mind made up, he stepped closer to Jack, into his personal space. The older viking looked at him in surprise, but didn’t step away. Hiccup took a deep breath to gather his courage, grabbed Jack by his shirt, tugged him down to his level and pressed their lips together. He released Jack once he was sure he had made his point.
"Oh," the stunned viking said. "You meant that kind of ‘like’."
"Yeah. I did."
Jack sighed. Hiccup winced. “Hic… don’t get me wrong; I do like you a lot. But you’re, er, still pretty young.”
"I’m only three years younger than you!"
"I know, I know!" Jack lifted his hands to either sides of Hiccup’s face, pressed them against his cheeks and looked down into Hiccup’s frustrated green eyes. He leaned forward to press a kiss on his forehead. He felt Hiccup slump, like this was the end of his hopes. "I’m just asking you to give it a couple of years."
"I’m not a kid, Jack!"
"But you’re not an adult either." Jack could tell Hiccup was hurt by what he saw as a rejection. But, after so long of seeing him as a child in need of comfort and protection, it was hard for Jack to consider him as a potential mate. Yet. "Three years, Hic. If you still feel the same in three years, come back to see me."
"Three years," Hiccup repeated. "That’s a long time."
"What’s the hurry?"
What’s the hurry, he said. Hiccup could barely hold back his tears as he stood on the dock, watching the funeral boat burn away in the distance. It was merely a symbolic gesture; no body rested on the boat. You didn’t have three years left, Jack. You didn’t have three days.
On a rooftop above the gathered crowd, Jack Frost wondered what all these people were sad about. But he knew better than to go down and ask them. He had learned quickly that he didn’t exist to them.
Jack returned to Berk often. Even though no one could see him, it still beat being alone in the woods. And, without really knowing why, he loved that place and its people. It felt like home. So he did his best to make everyone smile, even if they didn’t know who was responsible for the snowball that started the war.
"Can you wait for me here, bud?"
The dragon must have understood that this was important, for he sat down on his haunches to wait for his return. Hiccup smiled and continued alone for the short distance left to his journey.
The small lake was frozen, this time of the year, but Hiccup didn’t thrust the ice. He stopped at the edge and stared across its surface with a renewed sense of loss. It was here that Jack’s smile had faded forever and Hiccup’s eyes swelled with tears when he thought of it. He wondered if he would see that smile again when he died. But that would have to wait. He was needed here.
"You were right, you know? I did manage to prove myself to the others, to find my own place in Berk. So much has changed since you left us, Jack. I just… I wished you could be there to see it."
Up in a nearby tree, the winter spirit barely dared hope. Who was this Jack the boy was talking about? It couldn’t be him, could it? He flew down from his tree and landed next to the young viking.
"Are you… are you talking to me?"
The boy, Hiccup, didn’t make any signs that he heard anything. He kept staring across the ice, tears streaming down his face. Jack sighed. He supposed that would have been too much to ask for. Most likely he was crying about the same dead Jack that Berk had been mourning a few months earlier.
He just wondered why he came to his lake to do that.
Hiccup didn’t return to the frozen lake until the third anniversary of Jack’s death. Once more, he walked to the edge without stepping on the ice.
"You told me to come back to you in three years if I still felt the same, Jack. I do. I really do. Even though you’re gone… I just can’t forget you. I can’t forget your laugh, I can’t forget your eyes… I know you didn’t really take me seriously, back then. And I know it’s useless to talk to a frozen lake. But… I needed to say it. I still love you."
Jack wondered what it was like to have someone love you that much. Or, really, love you at all. But one thing he knew was that this young man needed to have some fun. Whenever he came here, he was crying.
He gathered some snow in his hands, packed it tightly into a ball and blew some of his special brand of magic on it. He sent the ball flying at the man, hitting him on the back of his neck. He turned around and Jack was pleased to see a half-smile on his face.
"Toothless? Was that you, bud?"
But Hiccup realized the moment his finger closed around a clump of snow still on his neck that it couldn’t possibly have been Toothless. The dragon could send some snow at him, but not pack it into a snowball.
Another snowball hit the back of his neck, the snow sliding into his shirt. He didn’t turn away, this time. A crazy thought entered his mind, too crazy to be believed and yet, somehow, he did. But he worried that, if he turned, his fantasy would shatter.
"Jack? Is that you?"
"Of course it’s Jack," a familiar voice answered him.
Hiccup stopped breathing. Slowly, he turned around to see the boy he had lost here three years ago. Jack had… changed, but Hiccup would recognize that smile anywhere. It was him. It was really him.
"Jack… how…"
"Wait, can you… can you see me?"
Hiccup ran across the ice, not even stopping to worry that it might break and swallow him, like it had swallowed Jack years ago. He was here! Alive! Or, at least, Hiccup thought he was alive. He threw his arms around the young man’s shoulder. Jack was only slightly taller than him, now. He hadn’t aged a day.
"Jack! I can’t believe you’re here! How can you… what…"
"Do I… know you?"
The words cut through Hiccup’s joy. His heart sank.
"So… you’re telling me that I used to be a viking and I lived in Berk, but then I died?"
"You really don’t remember any of it?"
"No. My earliest memory is from three years ago. All I know is that my name is Jack Frost."
The name fitted, Hiccup supposed. He raised a shaky hand to touch Jack’s snow white hair. His friend, if he could still call him that when he didn’t even remember him, didn’t protest. Jack stared up at him with a lost, desperate look, Hiccup’s heart clenched. Usually, it was the other way around. Jack had always been the strong, confident one.
"Hey, it’s gonna be alright. We’ll figure this out."
Hiccup thought the gods must be cruel, to bring Jack back but take away his memories. Now, the three years had passed, but he was a stranger to Jack. But he made sure to visit as often as he could. He wouldn’t remain a stranger for long.
"Ah, do you think that you can win just because you got a big lizard?"
"Toothless, I think we’re being challenged. Could you please knock him down? Gently."
"Say, Hiccup," Jack asked one evening when they were watching the Moon together.
"Yeah?"
"You said we used to be friends, when I was sill human."
"We were," Hiccup answered. He hoped that Jack wasn’t doubting his word. "You were one of the few friends I had at the time."
"But, when you visited my lake, you said different things…"
Hiccup swallowed. Why had he never considered that Jack would have heard this? “I… I did. We were friends, but… before you died… I told you… I told you that I would like us to be more than that.”
"And what did I say?"
"You asked me to wait three years and come back to you."
They were silent for a long time. Hiccup hoped that this wouldn’t drive Jack away. He had barely found him, he didn’t want to lose him already.
"And you did," Jack said, finally breaking the silence. "And now? I know I’m not really the same boy you knew. Do you… do you still…"
Jack looked at him with those unnatural blue eyes, with their pale snowflake shape surrounding the pupil and reminding him that this was Jack Frost, not Jackson Overland he was talking to.
"Yes," Hiccup said without hesitation.
Jack stared at him intently. Hiccup held his breath. Finally, Jack leaned forward. Hiccup’s eyes closed. Their lips met in a short, chaste kiss.
"I think I’m okay with that," Jack said.
Jack rubbed his cheek against Hiccup’s jaw. “That’s a nice stubble you got there.”
"Jealous?"
"Very."
Passionate kisses turned deeper. A freckled hand wandered under a white shirt. Pale fingers clutched chestnut hair. Hiccup pushed Jack down until he laid on the ground beneath him.
"Jack?" he asked between two kisses.
"Yes."
"Hey, Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"You’ve been… out there," Hiccup said, gesturing at the expense of water in front of them. "How is it?"
"It’s beautiful. And so big! There’s just so much to be seen."
"You once promised me you would take me with you. You said the chief’s son should see the world."
"Did I? Then I should keep my word, shouldn’t I? Tell your dragon to get ready, Hic. We’re going on an adventure."
"I can’t do this, Jack."
"Of course you can."
"I’m not ready."
"You’re more than ready." Jack placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hic, I know you were kind of expecting your father to live forever, but, believe me, you’re ready to take his place."
Hiccup took in a shuddering breath and looked into Jack’s reassuring eyes. At some point in the years since Hiccup had found him again, Jack had taken back his role of the strong, protective one. Even though he still looked like a seventeen years old boy and Hiccup was now twenty-five.
"You’ll stay at my side?"
"Always."
"Jack? Can I… can I ask you one last favor?"
Jack’s tears froze on his cheeks before they could fall down on Hiccup’s face resting in his lap. He nodded, not trusting his voice.
"Please… keep smiling. You have such a beautiful smile."
Jack smiled through his tears until the light had completely faded from Hiccup’s eyes. It was the last thing the viking chief ever saw.
Once more, Jack found himself standing apart from the mourning crowd as he watched the funeral boat burn. But this time, he cried with them.
What was most unfair, Jack decided, was that he only remembered his time with Hiccup as Jackson Overland centuries after he died. And now he had to mourn him all over again.