Disclaimer: The amazing world of HTTYD does not belong to me sadly.

"Come on, Hiccup! You're lagging behind!" Coach Gobber yelled as he blew into his whistle to get the smallest boy's attention.

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III tripped when the whistle blew, successfully knocking him to the ground and onto his face. He groaned and pushed himself up with his elbows. There was a hard force applied to the back of his head as it was shoved back into the dirt. His head lifted enough to see Snotlout jog off ahead oh him laughing.

Hiccup decided that the mouth full of dirt was better then running and dropped his head back down.

"Get up, boy. No time fer sleepin' on the job." Gobber hefted Hiccup up from his collar into a standing position.

"I'm sure there's plenty of time, so if you don't mind..." Hiccup trailed off.

"Oh don't be like that, kid."

"If you haven't noticed Gobber-" he was cut off by a look from the coach, he sighed. "Coach Gobber, I'm not exactly in the ring next match, or, you know, ever for that matter."

"Don't mean you can't do a little exercising in-between. When I was your age-" Gobber began and Hiccup spaced out. It was likely that he had already heard the story more than once before, but he gave some encouraging head nods and sounds of agreement when needed.

You see dear reader, Hiccup is on wrestling team at Berk High School. Well, if we're going to be accurate, you could say that he tags sadly behind the wrestling team by force. If he had a choice, it would be to stay in the comfort of his bedroom. But no-o-o, his father just had to be the Principal of the school alongside being the country's heavyweight champion when he was Hiccup's age. So naturally, he would expect his son to follow in his footsteps. Not that he ever asked Hiccup is he wanted to join the wrestling team. He was far too busy with faculty meetings and running one of the states most successful schools.

And don't take that in the "Poor Hiccup, the neglected child who's father doesn't care for him! Oh woe is he!" It's nothing like that. Stoick tries, he really does. He wouldn't be categorized under "Worst Father" but not under "Best Father", he would be the "Somewhere-in-between Father". Because that's what he was. He thought that what he was doing would be in Hiccup's best interest, but it was really in his own interest. He thought that Hiccup would of course love to be on the wrestling team. You know, bar the fact that he had virtually no muscles and flinched at everything. Let's ignore that.

So there Hiccup stood, on the doorway to the gym during the second week of school, for his first wrestling practice. One look up and Gobber, his god-father, sighed, "Seriously?"

"Hey there," Hiccup waved awkwardly. Gobber put down the weight he was supporting and it fell onto Tuffnut's chest. His twin sister, Ruffnut, rushed over and pulled it off.

"Hiccup! Er, what exactly are ya doin' here?" Gobber asked carefully.

"Uh, my dad... He kinda decided that the whole wrestling thing was for me." Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck. He would give anything not to be here.

"Oh, uh, did he now? That's... odd."

"Yup."

"Well, I suppose you should get... into... uniform then, eh?" Gobber said, "But I'm not sure if we have one small enough..." He trailed off as he shuffled into the back room, leaving Hiccup alone with the rest of the team.

Oh, joy.

"What do you think you're doing here?"

"Why don't you save sports for those able to run a yard at least."

"You wouldn't last a second in the ring."

"..."

Hiccup heaved a deep breath. "Well, it's nice to meet you all too. I see I'll be fitting in perfectly around here."

"Okay, I found somthin' in the back but I think the hem needs to be adjusted." Gobber came in holding a small uniform, likely to have been belonging to the women's clothing due to the lack of very... tiny men in wrestling. "Are you giving Hiccup here a hard time?"

"Not at all, Coach." Snotlout smiled obnoxiously. Hiccup wanted to gag, but smartly refrained from doing so.

"Right, well, Hiccup? Join the rest of the team in exercises. Astrid, catch him up."

A blond girl who had not yet spoken, Astrid apparently, sighed and forcefully pulled Hiccup by the arm without a glance and dragged him to the side of the school gym that held the equipment.

"So... what's up?" Hiccup tried.

"Those are weights. They are usually heavy. Don't drop them. On anyone. Better yet, don't touch them."

"You do know that I know what we-"

"Mats for practicing. You'll probably go nowhere near them."

"Hey-!"

"Exercise equipment. That's a door to the field."

"I know where the doo-"

"Before every practice we jog. Then we train. Then we spar."

"Okay the-"

"Also, try not to participate in matches." And with that the blonde girl left him. He stared at the back of her ponytail as she walked away and wondered what the hell that was.

He supposed it wasn't the best idea to converse with the locals after all.

–

Back in the present, a whistle was blown to signal the end of practice for the day and shower time. Hiccup could have kissed the shower stall, but... it was a shower stall. One simply does not kiss them. He showered quickly, dressed quickly, and exited at the same pace. He didn't exactly feel like staying there longer than he actually had to to please his father.

He sat on a bench in the front of the school building and opened his duffel bag to pull out a water bottle and a granola bar. He re-zipped his bag and took a gulp of the water. Hiccup was wasting time. He knew he was. He checked his watch, 4:25. The public bus didn't come for another ten minutes, so he might as well sit and wait. And it's not like he lagged enough to miss the first bus. Nope. One might assume that Hiccup was avoiding going home because the house would be empty. But that was okay. He's used to it. His father was a busy man.

Hiccup shook his head to dispel any extra thoughts tugging at his mind. No use dwelling on what you can't change. He checked his watch once more, five minutes. He closed his fist around the empty wrapper that once housed his granola bar and shoved it in his pocket. He placed the water bottle into the duffel bag and pulled out one school issued bus ticket. He stretched his legs as he stood to view the bus pushing itself up the hill.

Without a doubt in his mind, Hiccup could say that he hated the public transit. It was full of, not always but mostly, annoyingly obnoxious people who wouldn't be able to recognize common curtsey if it hit them over the head with a hammer.

He handed the ticket to the driver, who spared him not a glance, and went in search of an empty seat, one hopefully with an empty seat next to it so as to avoid sitting side to side with a stranger.

As luck would not have it, there was one empty seat. He could have stood the rest of the ride but he'd be damned if he wasn't exhausted. He awkwardly sat down and tucked his bag between his legs so that he wouldn't make anyone uncomfortable.

Glancing to his side, he saw the person who was sitting next to him. It was a boy who seemed to be about Hiccup's age if not a bit older. His black hair threatened to cover his eyes but fell just short for it seemed to naturally sweep slightly to one side and he had very faint freckles about his nose. Hiccup was sure he recognized this boy from his school. He looked extremely familiar, but Hiccup couldn't quite place it. Hiccup also then realized that he was staring, quite obviously, at this mysterious person and happened to be caught in the act.

A pair of green, very green, eyes looked at him curiously, an eyebrow cocked. Hiccup flushed with embarrassment and turned around, tugging on his hair slightly, as if making to hide his face. He heard a small cough from the other but wasn't sure if it was a real cough or him being laughed at. Or maybe it was the sound of Hiccup overreacting. I guess we'll never know.

Hiccup simply refused to look back over at the other person and contented himself by staring everywhere else. Sadly, the other boy had the window seat, so the only sight was the rest of the passengers. He wasn't sure if that was such a good thing.

A woman near the front cradled a crying baby, attempting to calm it down. A man was talking loudly on his phone. A group of older high school students laughed boorishly at the very back of the bus as they made fun of people. Hiccup wanted to pull his hair out. But instead he stuck with facing away from the passengers to look at the bar on the seat ahead of him.

The bus jostled over a particularly large bump and the commuters bumped around against each other. Hiccup found his head connecting painfully with the head of the mystery boy. Both of their hands flew to their heads to hold and rub the injured area. Hiccup glanced over, "Gosh, I'm so sorry."

The other looked momentarily surprised but then his face cleared. "You've nothing to apologize for. It wasn't your fault."

"Yeah. I know, but, uh..." Hiccup realized the point the black-haired boy made and suddenly felt very silly indeed. Wow Hiccup, twice in the same ride. It's like a new record, he thought to himself. Massaging the sore he slid down in his seat.

"But it's fine. It's the thought, I guess." said the boy and Hiccup nodded. He really couldn't bring himself to speak for the fear that something else really unintelligent would escape. The boy turned back to his window and Hiccup turned back to the seat ahead.

Hiccup check the stop to see how long until he reached his. There were about two stops left so he adjusted his duffel under him and waited.

At his stop, Hiccup reached upwards to signal that he wished to get off but the other boy had beat him to it. He looked at the boy thoughtfully then got up and exited the bus, the other following. They headed in the same direction until there was a fork in the road and Hiccup went right and the boy went left, the giving Hiccup a short nod in farewell.

Hiccup shut the door and went up the staircase to his bedroom. It was interesting how there was a kid at school who lived so close to him and he'd never realized before. Shame thought, he never did get the boy's name. He figured that he might just find him at school one day and ask unless they met on the bus again tomorrow.

Hiccup wondered why he cared. He pushed the thought aside.

–

At Berk the next day, Hiccup shut the door to his locker after he extracted his lunch from it's depths. Or lack thereof. I mean, come one, it's a public school locker.

He wandered his way down the maze of hallways until he reached the door to the quad. It was packed with people, as usual since the weather had been kind. He debated on just eating in the cafeteria but it was even louder in there. Oh well. And thus began Hiccup's gallant search for a patch of grass to occupy.

Hiccup fixed the strap of his messenger bag as he walked through the quad. There was a nice tree in the shade at the far end that people don't normally go near. Not for any particular reason other than it was quite far away from everything else. Hiccup ate there once near the beginning of the year and had now decided he would again.

As he approached the tree, he could make out a silhouette of another person. At first he was disheartened, someone had already taken the seat for themselves. But as he neared, he saw that it was the boy from the bus. His heart rate quickened in anticipation. What were the odds?

But then Hiccup stopped short of the tree. Wouldn't it seem weird? Would he get told to leave? Get laughed at? Ask more hypothetical questions? He took a deep breath and sat down cross legged directly across from the boy, who had his nose buried deep into a book.

The boy started and cautiously peered over the top of his book. He took one look at Hiccup and his eyebrows raised and he snorted. Hiccup wasn't sure if it was in amusement or derisively. He fidgeted and tugged on his hair.

Hiccup unpacked his lunch and started on his sandwich. The boy was still reading. He didn't appear to have eaten anything as of yet, unless he had already ate before Hiccup arrived. Hiccup looked into his lunch bag, he had two brownies. Gobber made them for him because Gobber made the best sweets that Hiccup had ever tasted. So Hiccup took one of them and held it out to the boy.

The boy emerged from the book again. He looked at Hiccup. Then at the brownie. He reached out and gingerly picked up the brownie then quickly retreated behind the pages. Hiccup almost laughed. It was as if he was familiarizing himself with a cat or a puppy. He found it adorable. And in the most platonic of ways of course.

A "Thank you" was mumbled and Hiccup replied that it was no problem.

And that was all. Neither said a word for the rest of the period and when the bell rang, the boy gathered his things, nodded at Hiccup and left silently.

This boy puzzled Hiccup to say the least. But then again, many, many, things puzzled Hiccup. So there was no real surprise there. But there was something he couldn't quite put his metaphorical finger on.

Hiccup decided that he would sit here again tomorrow.

–

There was no practice after school today and no activities for Hiccup to do. So he took the first bus home.

The boy was not on the bus this time and Hiccup couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. At least with the other one there he wasn't alone there. Hiccup realized he sounded ridiculous and stopped himself from traveling on that train of thought.

He vaguely recalled that he did not get the boys name. He would try again tomorrow.

He got off the bus and made his way down his street, glancing at the road the other boy went down yesterday.

"Hullo Hiccup, welcome home."

"Dad? You're home early."

"Am I? Oh."

"Yeah..."

"So, son, anything new happen at school today?"

Hiccup debated on telling his father about the boy.

"Nothing out of the ordinary." he decided.

So what do you readers think? Reviews help shape the story :D