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The first time Jack saw Hiccup in person, if he was perfectly honest, he was more interested in the young man’s dog. Toothless, it was called, black and shaggy and about half the size of Hiccup himself, and therefore just a little over half the size of Jack, who was a little less broad, though they were about the same height.“Toothless, behave,” Hiccup warned, too late, as Jack knelt down and opened his arms, inviting the big dog over.Toothless immediately accepted the invitation, leaping at Jack, front paws resting on his legs, shoving his big, sledgehammer face into Jack’s shoulder as Jack enthusiastically rubbed his ears and cooed.Hiccup dragged a disgruntled hand over his face. “I’m trying to train him not to do that, you know.”“Well, you and I will just have to undo all Hiccup’s good work, won’t we?” Jack said to the dog.Hiccup just groaned, and whistled. Toothless whuffled into Jack’s ear. Hiccup whistled again, and this time Toothless, with a little doggy groan, hopped off Jack and trotted back over to Hiccup, looking up and accepting a casual ear ruffle with his eyes closed.Jack put his hands on his knees and stood up. “Jack,” he said. “Overland.”“I know,” Hiccup said, accepting Jack’s hand. “You said so online.”He had a firm handshake, Jack noted, but a very quick one, not much more than a brief squeeze. Their hands had barely moved before Hiccup was letting go again and pulling his hand back, putting it on Toothless’s head.Jack had found Hiccup through the university’s online bulletin board, when he was looking for a replacement for his old housemate, Aster, who had finished his coursework and was on placement studying cave flora on an island somewhere near New Zealand.Hiccup was about the fifteenth person Jack had talked to about the room, and the second he’d actually let see the place. Among the assholes who tried to negotiate on the rent, as if he was the one who owned the house, and the party kids who left a little whisper in Jack’s head in their wake: You won’t get your bond back. He’d had real hopes for the last interviewee, but she’d ended up taking another place.‘Hiccup’ was apparently a nickname; some weird childhood pact with some friends he’d known since before he was toddling. It put Jack off at first, but he’d been pretty quickly won over when Hiccup asked his first question about the house.
Hey. Saw you need a new housemate. Are you still looking?
Hell yeah I’m still looking. Just turned someone down this morning. You don’t collect human bones or anything right?
Uh … no? No. But I have an important question.
Good, good. Go for it. I’m all ears.
Your landlord. Do they allow pets?
What kind of pet?
Dog. Big one.
My dude, that’s not an important question. I absolutely do not care about the landlord. Please let me meet your dog.
~~~Hiccup’s things had fit in the single room at the end of the hall. Toothless’s had not. There were chew toys all over the loungeroom, walking leashes by the door, a dog bed by the couch (that was about as big as the couch, Jack joked), packets of dog food and treats taking up the whole bottom shelf of the pantry. Jack had commented once about him being an apocalypse prepper or something. Hiccup had gone red and protested about how quickly Toothless would run out of food if he wasn’t careful. Jack had laughed it off and offered to take Toothless for a run, since he had some spare time, but he made a mental note not to joke about that again. He’d seen the way that Hiccup had looked down before he’d come back with a snarky response. Toothless was a strange animal, in a lot of ways. Sometimes, it seemed Hiccup barely had any control over the dog at all. Jack had heard him arguing with the big dog as Toothless eyed off Hiccup’s sandwich. No amount of instruction had prevented Toothless using his superior weight to put his front paws on Hiccup’s shoulders with not insignificant force, toppling the man over backwards into the couch, and letting Toothless swipe the scattered remains of the sandwich and bolt to the yard with his prize. Jack had about fallen over laughing himself, as Hiccup sighed, cursed resignedly, and went to get the vacuum for the bits of lettuce on the floor and make himself another lunch.Then again, Jack had never seen Toothless fail to come when Hiccup called. Never had he done real damage to Hiccup, never had he been aggressive with guests or other pets. When Hiccup was working on something, Jack could have mistaken him for a service dog, sitting quietly by Hiccup’s feet or with his head on Hiccup’s lap, quiet and obedient as if he’d never caused a day’s trouble in his life.Hiccup never took him to the park before ten in the morning, and he only invited Jack to come with them on weekends.~~~Jack had stopped by the dog park one time after classes, just in case. Just in case. He’d brought Toothless there a few times, with and without Hiccup. But always when invited.It wasn’t like he hadn't made friends with his housemate. It wasn’t like he and Hiccup didn’t sit on the couch together during dinner watching stupid YouTube videos on the big TV before Hiccup went back to studying and Jack went back to surfing the net or whatever else before bed.It wasn’t that Hiccup didn’t make Jack laugh. Because oh god, he did -- humour so dry that sometimes it took Jack a moment to realise a joke had been made. Hiccup was clearly on the path to being some kind of academic, and Jack had several fond images of him at faculty meetings very calmly informing the rest of the members they were complete fucking idiots without a single one of them ever catching on, and he had to admit, it had made him giggle in front of his laptop sometimes while he was alone in his room.He knew Hiccup didn’t hate him. You didn’t have a scheduled weekly Smash Brothers game and pizza party with people you didn’t at least tolerate. But it was hard to tell about some things. Jack genuinely had no idea whether Hiccup would appreciate him stopping by the dog park unexpectedly. Not that there would be anything wrong with that, right?But there was something about Hiccup that made him think maybe there was. Jack just didn’t know about it yet.Jack adjusted the strap on his backpack and flicked open the latch on the gate to the dog park, slipping inside quickly, noticing a nearby Jack Russell eyeing off the gap between him and the fence.The dog park was pretty big, gently rolling, and actually pretty empty this time of day. There was the Jack Russell, someone with a pair of huskies (brave soul, in Jack’s opinion), and Hiccup.Jack stopped by the bench under the tree.Hiccup was beaming.Hiccup smiled a lot -- well, no. Hiccup grinned. Sometimes he smirked. Biting expressions with thin lips and quirked eyebrows. This was a full-on, eyes-bright, teeth-showing-to-the-gums beam. Toothless was bounding towards Hiccup with a toy in his mouth, and Hiccup bent at the knees. Toothless bowled him over, and the two of them rolled in the grass for a second, coming up with Toothless’s teeth on one end of the thick rope and Hiccup’s hand on the other. They struggled for a minute, Hiccup clearly putting most of his strength into the game just to keep even with the bulky dog, but finally, he let Toothless win. The dog leaped and pranced, running a circle around him as Hiccup laughed, making some comment to the dog. Toothless dropped the rope in front of him, and crouched, shoulders low and paws spread out, coiled to spring. Hiccup picked up the short rope and hurled it, sending it spinning across the dog park like a Frisbee. Toothess bolted after it, body curling and stretching as he ran.That was when Jack realised he’d been staring.He hesitated next to the tree as Hiccup took the moment to dash to his backpack, which was lying in the grass nearby. With his back towards Jack, he started to rummage through it.Toothless reached Hiccup, dropped the rope, and then while Hiccup’s back was still turned and Jack took a single step forward, one hand still resting on the trunk of the tree, the other on his backpack strap, still not quite sure if he should keep going.Then Toothless turned around. Jack froze, as the dog’s big, dark eyes met his own. The dog sat tall, staring holes into his soul from across the grass.Jack put his hands up and started to back away. Toothless kept staring.Jack could still feel the dog’s eyes boring into his spine as he turned and made his way back to the fence, past the other dogs, including the two huskies who suddenly seemed like far less of a handful.Close to the gate, Jack glanced back. Toothless and Hiccup were playing tug-of-war, apparently totally absorbed in the game.~~~Jack was in the kitchen, reheating something for lunch when he heard Hiccup’s phone ring from down the hall, where he was working in front of his computer.“Dad.” Hiccup said.Jack was about to open his mouth and shout something. He used to do it to Aster’s parents when they called. “Hi Mr Bunny!” (“Not my name or theirs, Underland!” Aster would snap, before slamming his door to prevent Jack interfering any further), or “Tell them hi from their favourite non-relative!”, or “Did you tell them about what you did on the weekend …?”. Whatever shit came to his head. He’d done it to Hiccup’s friends, too (and Hiccup still gave him shit about it. He said, he’d let Jack live it down when Tuffnut forgot about it, which would be never).But for once his mind worked faster than his mouth, and the words died in his throat. That one word hadn’t been a greeting.Jack left his food in the microwave and padded in his socks to the other side of the counter, making his way to the entrance to the hallway. Hiccup had left his door open, and Jack, despite himself, couldn’t help but listen in.“Fine,” Hiccup said. Short, flat.“No, fine, I’m just in the middle of something.”“Mm.”Jack put his hand on the wall next to the hallway entrance. Hiccup could be deadpan sometimes, and there was a hint of that in his voice now. Something hiding behind the plain words and noncommittal sounds.“Mm. Mm. Yeah.”Jack started to turn away from the hall and head back to the kitchen counter. He shouldn’t be listening to this. There was barely anything to listen to, but he knew he shouldn’t be listening to this.“Well, you know, I just thought,” Hiccup said, his voice suddenly so sour that Jack stopped and turned back again, “What’s the biggest inconvenience I could be to you, you know?”Then he was silent for quite a long time. Jack almost thought he’d hung up the phone after that last comment until he said, “Yeah. I know. Dad -- Yeah, I know.”Another pause.“Yeah, Dad. Love you too.” There was no emotion in the statement.Jack almost tripped over his feet hurrying back around the counter, quickly punching in another thirty seconds on the microwave and setting it going.In the reflection on the microwave door, as the little plastic container gently rotated, he saw Hiccup step around the hallway door, hesitate only for a fraction of a second, and then walk into the kitchen, pushing his hair back from his face.“You’re eating the rice?” he asked, pulling open the fridge. Normal voice. Casual.“Yeah,” Jack said, turning around as though he’d just noticed Hiccup arriving, resting his back on the bench and folding his arms. “Sorry.”“It’s fine, I’ll throw together a sandwich or something.” Hiccup started pulling pickles and cheese out of the fridge, and went to the pantry for bread.As he made his sandwich, he stopped for a moment and looked over at Jack. Jack’s heart leapt into his throat. Had Hiccup noticed him listening? Was he about to tell Jack about it? Did he need … did he need Jack to …?But what did Jack want to do? Comfort him? Hug him? Punch his Dad? Joke?“The microwave beeped, like, a minute ago,” Hiccup said.And Jack felt the hot flush rising up past his collar, right to the roots of his hair. “O-oh! Uh, yeah. Oops.”He grabbed the container out of the fridge, and a fork from the drawer, and hurried off back to his own room and the one-third of an essay he was supposed to be writing, and tried not to think too hard about the way that Hiccup’s eyebrow had raised at him as he hurried away.~~~The two boys were playing video games on the couch, pizza boxes empty in front of them. Hiccup was winning, by quite a significant margin, though Jack was pretty sure he’d start to catch up any moment now.Jack glanced sideways at Hiccup, hunched over the controller, tip of his tongue poking out from between his teeth. Not for too long -- Dry Dry Desert wasn’t a course that took kindly to losing one’s concentration.Well … Jack was about five places back anyway. Why didn’t he …?He lifted his leg and shoved Hiccup in the shoulder with a socked foot. The woolly fabric slipped off Hiccup’s shirt -- it was hard to aim and drive at the same time -- and Hiccup jerked upright, swatting at Jack’s foot.“Hey! Asshole!”Jack cackled, then yelped as Hiccup stole his sock.“Oi! What the fuck?”“Payback!” Hiccup said, grinning, barely looking at the screen as he coasted around the final corner of the lap.“Fuck you,” Jack muttered, but not even his cart pinwheeling off the edge of the map as the game played the aggressive ‘Final Lap’ music for Hiccup could completely wipe the smile off his face. He yelped, and completely forgot to take his leg off Hiccup’s lap as he dodged the AI carts to win back his precious fifth place.Hiccup didn’t seem to have noticed, either, until the race ended and he looked down.“Uh,” Jack said, feeling his face flush.Maybe Hiccup’s was just a little pink as well, but his grin was as sarcastic as ever as he lifted Jack’s leg by his toes and shook it. “Want this back?” he asked.No, said Jack’s heart, as his back slid down the arm of the couch, but his mouth said, “Hey! Hey! Yes! Yes! Stop, I'll fall!”As the next race started, Hiccup threw Jack’s sock at him. On the cushion on the ground, Toothless whuffed disdainfully.Jack deliberately hung back in sixth place until he got a blue shell.~~~“House letter,” Hiccup said, waving the letter at Jack after having dumped the pile of junk mail catalogues on the table. “Addressed to you.”“They all are. Just open it,” Jack told him, adding milk to his cereal.The letter rustled, a brief pause, and then Hiccup said, “Ah, fuck.”Jack walked over to the table carrying his bowl of cereal, and read the letter over Hiccup’s shoulder.“Dear Mr Overland, this is to inform you, blah blah blah, therefore lease will not be renewed. Well, shit.”“Two months, is it? Til we have to be out?”Hiccup pulled his head away as Jack put another spoon of cereal in his mouth and said, through the crunching, “Yeah, ‘bout that.”Hiccup sighed. “Great. Just what I needed. Looking for another housemate this time of the semester.”Jack hesitated. “Uh,” he said. “Why … would you need a new housemate?”Hiccup’s fingers creased the letter. “Well,” he said, and hesitated. “Well, I mean. I’m kind of on a weird course load, so I’ll be finishing my degree in the middle of the year, not the end.”“I’m missing something.” Jack studied the side of Hiccup’s face. Hiccup’s eyes were still fixed on the letter.“It’s … complicated.”“Yeah?” Jack prompted quietly.Hiccup sighed. “Well. Dad kinda wants me to move home after my degree, so …” He turned fully to Jack now, mouth half turned up in a sardonic, crooked little grin. “I’ll just have to move out in the middle of the year. It’s probably more trouble than it’s worth trying to find a place together again.”Jack glanced away, masking the awkward little movement by putting his half-eaten bowl of cereal on the table. “Uh,” he said. “Awkward question, but … do you want to move back to your Dad?”Hiccup snorted. “No,” he said, a bitter laugh buried behind the word.Jack opened his mouth, and considered his next words very carefully. Was it presumptuous to say he wanted Hiccup to stay, then, screw what his Dad wanted? He’d listened in on a few of Hiccup’s phone conversations, though he and Hiccup had never talked about them, and he certainly wasn’t going to be the first to bring them up. But it wasn’t his place to tell Hiccup how to deal with his family problems … right?He stifled a noise as he felt something bump the back of his leg. He looked down.Two big, brown eyes in a furry face looked back up at him.“Toothless?” Jack asked. He put his hand down to pat the dog, and Toothless nudged him purposefully in the back of the knees.As Jack rubbed his head between the ears, he was reminded of the time he’d seen those piercing eyes across the dog park.“Uh, sorry if this is a bit … weird to say,” Jack said. “But you know … if we had a twelve month lease … you could tell your Dad you weren’t able to move home til the lease was up … you could even say we were having trouble finding a housemate to replace you if you like.”Hiccup blinked, and looked up at Jack again, meeting his eyes directly from the first time in the conversation.“Seriously,” Jack said. “I’ll back you up if you need. I’m good at lying to parents.” He gave Hiccup a nervous grin. “So … you wanna keep living together?”Hiccup grinned, and Jack thought that this one was almost a beam. “Yeah. Actually … I’d really, really like that.”