Hey all! Band camp's finally over, so for once I actually have some free time. That took long enough. So here I am! I hope you enjoy the chapter, and remember, reviews are always welcome! (Especially constructive criticism, for the record. I love constructive criticism.) Thank much to those who have been reviewing!

Jack stared as Hiccup fell asleep, watching his body slowly rise and fall with his breathing. Hiccup was facing away from him, towards the door. This didn't surprise Jack at all, though in a lot of ways he wished that he could see Hiccup's face. After everything that had occurred that day though, he wasn't going to complain. He was lucky that things were going as well as they were at this point.

When Jack noticed that Hiccup's breathing had deepened, he figured that the chances were that he was asleep. Finally feeling free from disturbing Hiccup, Jack sighed, deeply and audibly. He closed his eyes for a moment, before opening them again and staring straight ahead at the wall across from him. He smiled slightly.

Hiccup's short but forceful kiss came to mind. His smile broadened slightly as he thought about it. Angry and confused as it had been, there was so much more hiding within it. Potential. Jack did, in fact, have a chance with the boy. There was a lot of mending to go into the situation before any of that could be considered, and Jack had certainly taken the wrong course of action; but he had a chance. That was all that mattered to him.

Jack leaned his head into the pillow and closed his own eyes once more. He wasn't sure he necessarily wanted to fall asleep, but he didn't really have much to do anyways. He didn't want to snoop around Hiccup's room, not after the mistakes he had already made. After some time though, he too gradually fell under the spell of sleep.

A couple of hours passed before Hiccup awoke. He rubbed his eyes a little, and glanced out the window. The sun was beginning to set, casting a faint orange color over everything. He sighed slightly. His nap hadn't helped him work anything out, but he supposed that was to be suspected. Generally one doesn't consciously think about anything when asleep. Hiccup looked over at the bed to see Jack laying on his side, one arm splayed out across the bed, fast asleep.

Hiccup smiled a little bit, sitting up and crossing his legs, looking at the floor. He sighed again. What was he going to do? He was straight, last he had checked. Clearly that was not truly the case, not if he was beginning to feel things for Jack after something so small as a sleepy kiss. He put his head in his hand, wishing that things could only be simple for once. Things never seemed simple in his life. Always some difficulty, some challenge.

He heard Jack stir after a moment. At this, Hiccup looked up, to see only Jack turning and mumbling slightly in his sleep, little things that couldn't quite be made out. Hiccup stood and walked over to the bed, staring at Jack for a little while. As long as the two had known each other, Hiccup had never quite managed to really get a good look at Jack. Up until recently, the most he'd ever see of the white haired boy was generally just a faint blur or a second or two when Jack was staying in one place while playing pranks. But now that Hiccup could really look at him, he was entranced. From the sturdy, yet somehow graceful jaw, to the dark eyebrows that really didn't match his white hair, but still managed to work, to his slightly angular ears.

Hiccup was slightly surprised as to just how pale Jack really was. It made sense, considering the whole spirit of snow kind of thing going on, but Hiccup wanted to get a decent look nonetheless. He wasn't sure he had ever seen someone so pale before. Carefully, Hiccup leaned closer, telling himself that his only reasoning was to get a good look at Jack's skin. After a moment of inspecting it, he carefully lifted his hand, and nervously lowered it down to touch Jack's face. When nothing happened at the initial contact, Hiccup started to gently stroke his face.

I'm only seeing what his skin is like... Nothing else. Nothing else at all, he thought to himself. His hand continued to follow a generic path from the top of Jack's cheek bone to about halfway down his chin. Slowly, but somewhat sweetly, Hiccup became entranced, and lost himself within Jack's features.

He stayed like that until a voice brought him out of it. Hiccup wasn't entirely sure what the voice had said, all that he registered was someone speaking to him. When he looked back consciously to Jack, he realized that the icy blue eyes were open, if sleepy, and that his hand was still gently stroking Jack's face, which was very close to his own.

Hiccup jumped backwards and lost his balance, swinging his arms a little before falling to the ground. Jack giggled a little bit. "Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to startle you."

Hiccup turned away in embarrassment, blushing slightly. "N-no, it's okay..." he said, trying to hide his face. Jack laughed a little again.

"So," Jack started, his voice slightly throaty with the effort he exerted as he sat up in the bed, "may I ask what that was about?" Hiccup was silent, still looking away and hoping that Jack couldn't see how red his face was. The room stayed silent. Jack smiled after a little while, allowing a slight chuckle to escape. "Alright, I see how it is. Don't worry yourself to pieces about it. Though I will admit that I am quite hungry at this point," Jack added in the end quickly, hoping that a subject change would help Hiccup feel a bit more normal about it all.

"O-oh... umm..." Hiccup started, still turned away. "C-can you stand? Maybe walk, do you think?" he asked, trying to swallow his embarrassment as he looked sideways at Jack.

"Well, only one way to find out," Jack said after a moment. Carefully, he turned, swinging one leg over the side of the bed, followed by the other. He gently lowered himself to the ground, and took one step gingerly. He winced slightly when he tried putting weight on his right leg, but it wasn't anything that he felt he couldn't handle. He glanced at the walls beside the bed, and once he noticed that Hiccup had in fact thought to bring his staff along, Jack reached out and grabbed it. "Good thing this fella can double as a walking stick," he said with a smirk.

Hiccup had turned to face Jack as he noticed that he was trying to get up. He smiled at the comment, glad to see that Jack at least still had his good humor about him. "Alright then," he said, standing up. "You want some help with the stairs or...?"

"I should be fine," Jack said. He casually limped over to the door, and was then met with the sight of the staircase. The steps were a bit taller than he had thought. He gulped slightly, but didn't back down on what he said. Carefully, he lifted his staff and placed it on the next step down, followed by one leg, then the other. He almost lost his balance a couple of times, but he thought he was doing well.

A couple steps down and a few nearly falling over episodes later, however, Hiccup grabbed Jack by the arm and carefully brought himself down beside the other. He looked over at the white haired boy, a slight smirk on his face. "You so sure you're going to make it down these steps alone?" he asked. Jack was silent for a moment, a touch embarrassed. "Come on," Hiccup said, carefully leading Jack down the steps, allowing him to use Hiccup's body as a brace.

When they reached the ground level, Hiccup pointed to a chair before the fire pit that lay nearly in the middle of the room, and quickly wandered down into the cellar to get some vegetables and dried fish to put into a soup. He emerged quickly, and after putting them on a surface low enough for him to cut them up on, he quickly grabbed a bucket and ran out to the communal well for some water.

When he returned, he quickly set to making the soup, lighting the fire and placing a pot that had since been filled with the water on a pole overtop, and then cutting everything else up and tossing it in. "Never would have thought you'd go to the trouble of making me a meal," Jack said absentmindedly.

"You said you were pretty hungry," Hiccup replied as he tossed in the last of the vegetables. "And you're not the only one eating here."

Jack moved his head quickly as if to say, "fair point," and stared into the fire a little. Meanwhile, Hiccup pulled over another chair, and sat perpendicular to Jack, within access of the pot so he could stir the soup easily when necessary. They were both silent, listening to the crackle of the fire, the bubbling of the soup, and their own thoughts.

When Hiccup deemed the soup ready, he got up and quickly grabbed a couple of bowls and spoons from the cupboard. He placed all but one bowl on the chair he had been sitting in previously, and took the ladle he had been using to stir with, pouring some soup into the bowl. He then grabbed one of the spoons, and handed it and the bowl to Jack.

It took a moment for Jack to notice. Hiccup cleared his throat, and at the sound Jack looked up, slightly surprised. "Oh, thanks," he said when he registered what was going on, outstretching his arms to take the bowl and spoon from Hiccup.

Hiccup smirked a little, then poured some soup into his own bowl, and sat down, setting the bowl gently in his lap as he waited for it to cool. He sighed a little, zoning out at the wall across from him. He still wasn't sure what to do about his feelings. And then there was Toothless to worry about, too. He had to make sure that the dragon was okay, and he still needed to work on the mechanism for his tail. He was pretty sure that he had the whole thing worked out at this point, he just needed to actually go through and make everything.

But those were all things for a different time. Right now he still had Jack to worry about. He glanced over at the boy beside him, who was now blowing on a spoonful of soup. Hiccup noticed that his breath slightly froze the top of it, and then the heat from the rest of the spoonful would melt the ice. Judging by how Jack didn't flinch when he brought it to his mouth, though, Hiccup got the impression that it did the job for cooling it down to the desired temperature.

Hiccup looked down at his own soup, before doing the same thing. He had to admit that he was a little disappointed when the soup didn't freeze for him, but he knew that it wouldn't from the beginning. Instead of being upset about it, he simply brought the soup to his mouth, chewed a little, and swallowed.

The two ate in silence. Neither quite knew what they should say, so instead they focused on the action of eating. Before long though, they had both finished. Jack asked for a second bowl, which Hiccup filled for him, but Hiccup found himself to be quite full from the one bowl that he had. He set his bowl aside, and sat quietly in his chair, twiddling his thumbs awkwardly.

"Hey," Jack said. Hiccup turned to look at him; he had a mischievous look on his face. "Open up," Jack said.

"What?" exclaimed Hiccup, very much confused.

"Open up," Jack repeated.

"Why in the world would I-"

"Just do it," Jack cut him off.

Hiccup was reluctant, but eventually found himself opening his mouth rather wide. Without warning, Jack flung some soup from his spoon into Hiccup's mouth. Hiccup panicked for a moment, expecting soup to go splattering all over him, but he was surprised when something cold hit his tongue. He closed his mouth, hoping to keep it from escaping, and before he knew it, it exploded, soup rushing through the now shattered- and mostly melted- frozen broth.

Jack laughed a bit. "What's so funny?" asked Hiccup.

"Nothing much. Just your face when you realized what it was," Jack said.

"You act like I would have reacted any other way," Hiccup said, turning away in a partially mock huff.

"Oh come on now, don't be like that. It was just a bit of fun," Jack said, leaning forward.

Hiccup smiled. "I suppose," he said. He glanced out the window. The sun had long past set at this point, and the moon was low on the horizon, amongst a few clouds. "I kinda wish we hadn't slept so long earlier," Hiccup said absentmindedly.

Jack followed his gaze out the window. "I guess. Though personally I quite like the nighttime. Especially when the sand man gets to work, but around here you people get to sleep rather late and I generally end up missing it," he said.

Hiccup gave Jack a sidelong glance, but shrugged off the comment, figuring that he'd find out what Jack was talking about at some point, one way or another.

They were silent for a minute or two again. "You wanna go sit outside?" Hiccup asked eventually.

Jack smiled a little and nodded. "Sure," he said. The two stood up, and Hiccup took Jack by the arm again, just to make sure that he'd make it out the door and properly onto the steps where he was thinking of sitting. Jack leaned against Hiccup gratefully. They made their way out the door, and sat down on the steps, both staring at the sky.

Once again, they were quiet for some time. Eventually, Hiccup yawned, still tired from his post-nap drowsiness. He closed his eyes, and without noticing, he leaned his head against Jack's shoulder.

Jack glanced down in surprise when he felt the new weight on his shoulder. He opened his mouth to ask, but thought better of it just as the words were about to come from his mouth. Instead, he looked back up at the sky for a little while, before slowly, gently, laying his own head against Hiccup's.

Hiccup's eyes shot open when he realized what was going on after Jack's head made contact with his own. He was just about to bolt straight upright, but instead he remained where he was. His head was screaming at him to get up, to get away, but at the same time, something was telling him to stay. Something about the situation felt right. After a moment of internal debate, he relaxed, and closed his eyes again, leaning ever so slightly more into Jack's shoulder.