A/N: Holy shit, I'm so so so so sorry this is so late. But it's done now, so enjoy!

There's a sort of freeness that accompanies riding on a motorcycle, especially as the passenger. When you're driving, even if you've been doing so for so long that it's instinct more than effort, there's still a certain amount of focus that's required. Thought. There is power in controlling where you go, but true freedom is better found in the girl with her arms wrapped around him, chest pressed to his back. For her, it was all wind and air and every thought and fear and tired atom in her body was blown away. She couldn't breathe, but every single cell of her was pure adrenaline, and that was better, even, than breathing.

After an hour of riding, weaving in and out of streets and alleys, back ways that only Jack knew, he took her back to her home. He would have been perfectly happy to keep doing forever, but her small hands had tightened in his jacket and she had yelled over the wind, "I'm awake!"

Which was as good as take me home, anyway.

He dropped her off with a grin, a wave, as she took off his helmet and handed it to him. He moved to get off his bike and accompany her in, but the fairy of a girl shook her head.

"Sorry, Jack. I just…I need a little alone time. You…understand, right?"

He didn't.

"Yeah, sure, Tooth. No problem. Call me if you need anything, okay?"

She nodded, glancing back at the house. Then her eyes returned to his, searched them briefly for something, and she gave a small, awkward wave before hurrying into the house.

Jack didn't understand the sudden change in behavior; a before the incident with Pitch, she'd kissed his cheek. Hell, he'd been pretty sure they were dating. And yet now, every move she made seemed to be accompanied with a note of uncomfortable finality. He shrugged, deciding that she was probably just still shaken up about the Pitch thing.

He hoped so, anyway.

And with that, the racer was off.

"Girls!" Her voice wasn't impatient, but it was urgent. School had ended in the time that she and Jack had driven around, so she knew the girls were home. Baby was the exception, she remembered after a moment; she probably had work. Still, the rest of them came out of the woodwork within a minute, looking up at her expectantly.

This was where things got difficult. They were young, but most of them were old enough to understand. She hoped, anyway. "Girls, we…you know how when we moved here I said this might not be permanent?"

Evident by the wary tone in her voice, Indira had already guessed where this was going. "Yes…"

"Well, I…I was right."

"Don't you dare."

"Come on, Hiccup!"

"I'm still not over the fact that you sent me to babysit those kids!"

"Aren't they just adorable?"

"I had all of ten minutes of notice that you'd volunteered me to babysit your girlfriend's kids –"

"Sisters."

"– and you didn't tell me there were eight of them!"

Jack leaned his cheek against his palm, smiling across the table at his friend. Smirking, more precisely. Honestly, boys, you're grown adults.

Hiccup stared without amusement, expression almost comically serious. "I'm still not speaking to you."

"Just ranting, then?"

"Ugh."

Jack laughed once more, smile softening. "Look, Hic, I'm really sorry. I just really needed to see her. I mean…" He shrugged, trailing off. "Anyway, she's not my girlfriend." A few days ago, he might have said otherwise, but now? Yeah, it was pretty obvious that friends was about as good as he could do.

"Huh? I though you two were destined for each other or something."

"Same here."

"Did something happen?"

She's shaking and soaking wet and, oh, god, she's got to be freezing in this rain, it's almost winter, oh god. Her knuckles are torn and bloody and she rasps Pitch's name and her shirt is undone and oh god, oh god….

"Kinda." It was evasive, primarily. It wasn't as though it was his story to tell, and he wasn't sure he'd want to if it was.

Hiccup, not oblivious but knowing not to push, raised a brow. "You do something?"

"No, it's not me, it's just…I don't know." He sighed, laying his head on the table. "Let's talk about something else."

"Alright, alright. You got any races coming up?" There was a laugh in Hiccup's voice.

"Yeah, in a few weeks or so." There was also no attempt to lift his white-haired head from the table as he spoke, despite the excitement in his voice that always occurred when he talked about racing.

"Official or amateur?"

"Official. It's looking to be a pretty good match." Jack's voice, of course, didn't include anything even close to defeat; he was still firm in his belief of being one of the best, nigh-unbeatable. He wasn't proud of much about himself, but he was proud of how he raced. Still, there was some admiration coloring his words. He was sure he could win, but he was also sure that the other racers were probably going to be damn good, too.

"Nice." Hiccup enjoyed racing, too, but unlike Jack, found it to be hobby rather than a way of living. Jack thought it was a damn shame, considering how good her was, but oh well. It wasn't his job to run lives.

Jack had been about to elaborate on the upcoming race, mention that some cool foreign racers were even going to be present, when the phone in his pocket rang. He glanced up at Hiccup, sitting as he dug it out. Hiccup waved at him as though to excuse him for taking the call in the middle of their conversation.

"Hello?" Jack muttered, winking at Hiccup and prompting the boy to make an exaggerated gagging motion.

"Hey, Jack."

Jack started at the familiar voice; oh, Tooth. They hadn't spoken since their bike ride three days earlier (actually, Jack had spent a good amount of time at home, mostly avoiding his father. But that's another story) and he was surprised she'd called. "Oh, hey, Tooth." Hiccup perked up at the name. "What's up?"

"Can you – Ai, Ai! Don't let Neha eat that…oh God…" There was a groan and much whining as Tooth presumably pulled the youngest sister away from whatever she'd been attempting to eat. She cleared her throat, and Jack smirked. "Sorry about that."

"No problem. Can't have the kiddies eating glue."

"Marker tips, to be exact."

"Wow, Tooth. D'ya feed your girls?"

"You know I do!" Her tone was light and teasing, closer to what they'd had before Pitch had ruined it. Jack let out a sigh of relief. Maybe things could just go back to normal. Maybe –

"Can you come over, Jack?"

Or not, judging by her suddenly distant tone.

He swallowed the lump in his throat. "I…guess. Sure." Blue eyes flickered up to find his companion, who was idly drawing something in his sketchbook. Sensing he'd need the strength that a friend could provide, he knocked on the table gently with his knuckles to get Hiccup's attention and asked, "Can I bring a friend?"

"Huh? Oh, sure, I guess…" Her reply was distracted, presumably because Neha was once again attempting to make edible the inedible.

"When should I come over?"

"Whenever you want, I – Neha, no!"

"We'll be over in twenty minutes," he offered, laughing under his breath.

"See ya then. Sounds great. Bye." She hung up before him, and he stared at the phone for a long moment. It was Hiccup who broke the silence.

"So. Where did you volunteer me to go this time?"

"Same place. Not alone this time, though." He tried to laugh. "Sorry, man. I just have a bad feeling that something bad is gonna happen. I want you along to suffer with me."

"True friendship." Nevertheless, he shrugged on his brown jacket as Jack did the same, both of them leaving the table and heading for the garage. Neither boy owned a car – why bother when you've got a bike? So it was those that the duo climbed onto, Jack onto Wind and Hiccup onto Toothless. Normally they would have raced, but Hiccup could see that Jack remained shaken up, and so he didn't suggest it. Jack would have accepted merely on principle, and the last thing Hiccup needed was a dead or injured Jack.

Jack overcompensated. Despite his nerves, almost frightened anticipation and the way it churned in his gut spurned him forward quickly. It only took then fifteen minutes to reach Tooth's house. He stared at it for a long moment until Hiccup got off his bike, whistled as though to a dog, and said, "C'mon, Jack."

It was also the brunette who knocked, only to be greeted with the faces of the triplets peering up at him. It turned out that inviting Hiccup was a grand idea; the girls remembered him from his impromptu baby-sitting and commenced to dragging him into the living room to join in a family night of The Lion King pretty much as soon as they got in the door, barely even sparing Jack a glance. Evidently, their favor was as temperamental and fickle as they were. Hiccup glared as he was pulled away, and Jack offered a sheepish chuckle by way of apology.

"Girls, come on, what are you…"

His head whipped up as Tooth walked out of the kitchen, hair up in a high, messy ponytail. Her dark skin was slicked with a faint layer of perspiration, and her eyes were darkened, expression long-suffering. He smiled weakly as she met his eyes and her words died on her lips.

"Hi, Tooth."

"Oh, hi, Jack!" she grinned, too realistic to be real, and nodded her head. "Wanna join me in the kitchen? We can talk while I make Dinner." She peered into the small living room. "Who's your friend?"

"His name's Hiccup," Jack replied as he shirked his coat and hung it up, following her back into the small kitchen. "He baby-sat the girls when I took you on our picnic or whatever."

"Ah." She turned back to focus on whatever it is she was cooking, and silence hung in the air between them for a long moment.

"So," Jack started, flopping back to sit in the chair. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"We're leaving."

The statement was so sudden that he couldn't even respond. His eyes widened, but that was all. That was it. He froze like a deer in the headlights and she didn't even turn around from the stove to face him.

"W-What?"

"We're leaving," she said again, and this time there was a note of finality in her voice. Hard and cold and rehearsed.

"I head you, I just – why? Where?"

"Why? Jack, I just…I just lost my job." Finally, she turned. "And trust me, I've looked, there's not a hell of a lot of other openings around here." She'd planned on getting another job, sure, but that was while she had the bar to keep her floating. She doesn't have the time now. Money was dwindling quickly. "The library isn't enough to hold all eight of us. If it was just me…but it's not."

Tooth was leaving. Leaving. "Where?"

"You know the person I told you we lived with before I got this place? I called him and he agreed to take us back in for however long it takes me to get back on my feet." She sighed, shoulders slumping, looking for the first time as though she wasn't half as strong as she wished she was.

"I remember. You also said you didn't like it."

"It wasn't like he hurt us," she muttered. "He was perfectly kind."

He bit the inside of his lip. "Do the girls know?"

"Yeah." Clearly not wanting to talk about how they'd taken it (with a lot of tears and much more screaming) she hurried on to the next topic. "It's only about an hour and a half away. We could still…we could still…" See each other? No, that wasn't right. They weren't dating. Were they?

"Hang out," she finished lamely.

There was a long, long moment of silence.

"How come you called me over to tell me in person?"

It was a good question. She'd told almost everyone else over the phone, and while most of them had rushed over to comfort or question, she hadn't invited them. She twiddled her fingers.

"Because we were…because you are…" A sigh. Out with it, then. "Because we were…I don't know what we were. Are. Whatever. But it just seemed like…I had to. You know?"

He nodded. He did know. To be honest, while this conversation had been anything but good, this bit was a bit comforting. To know she felt the say, or at least acknowledged their chemistry. Then again, of course she had. Hell, she'd kissed his cheek, hadn't she?

"When are you leaving?" He asked, voice subdued.

"About three weeks."

And without warning, Jack did something really, really, really stupid.

He kissed her.

He stood from his chair and gently grabbed the sides of her face and bent down so that his lips could reach hers and cut off her little gasp by kissing her. It wasn't hard or rough or demanding. It was gentle, soft, quick, though it felt, to him, very long. Her hands found his wrists and grasped them tightly, and he pulled away just in time for her recover from shock and…return it? He almost thought…

As he pulled away, his eyes refused to meet hers. Hell, he half-expected to get punched.

Instead, she murmured, a little breathlessly, "I take it that means you want to hang out?"

He let out a strangled, shocked laugh, wrapping his arms around her and spinning her around. It felt completely out of place here, now, after she just told him she was leaving. But goddammit he kissed her and she laughed and smiled and, now, even pressed a playful kiss to his jaw, and yes, yes, yes, he wants to hang out.

God.

"Toothiana, you're fucking incredible," he whispered into her mane of hair.

"Yeah, I know," she replied with a giddy, lovesick laugh. "And you're an idiot."

"But I'm your idiot."

And the kiss she pressed quickly to his lips was as good as an agreement.