White the Cursed

19 - Live again

Hi everyone !
I'm so sorry it took so long for updating this chapter, my new job is litterally eating away my writing time. But I promised I'd never abandon a fiction again so better late than never, I guess ? To make it up to you, I'll post two chapters today, and this time I made sure to complete all the translation before posting again, so here we go !

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Chapter 19
Live again

After their snowball fight, and even after the last remain of snow had melted and dried, none of Hiccup nore Jack thought about getting up from the ground. They were still laying there, next to each other, finding another activity as they watched the clouds, seraching for shapes in it. Jack was seeing a lot of twisted animals, trolls fighting for a fish, a bear wearing a hat and scarf, all kind of crazed shapes trying to fit the haphzardous clouds. As to Hiccup, 'surprisingly', he was only seeing dragons.

Most of them, Jack had never heard about, so he could actually compare the clouds to the real thing, still it didn't matter since the dragon names were just so funny. Hiccup told him it used to be a tradition among viking : giving stupid, ridiculous names to children to scare off trolls, fairies and spirits, detering them from kidnapping the kids, and it extended to dragons later on. They spent hours talking about dragons and Berk, and Jack learnt more about the place Hiccup was from.

He had troubles believing the part of the story in which Hiccup used to be a scrawny teenager, laughed at and rejected by pretty much everyone. It seemed so far away from the self-confident Hiccup he had next to him, thought he did recognized his friend's clumbsiness and nervous stutter.

With this new facette in mind, he realised where Hiccup's kindness and open-mind were coming from. It was coming from loneliness and wounds he had back then. It was said that the kindest people were the hurt ones, and that definitively applied to the dragon tamer. Jack felt a new kind of affection for him, sympathy forged in a shared story, a shared lonely path, thought it was not exactly the same one.

Despite what he had been through, Hiccup was still an optimist and was deeply convinced people could change for the better. Surely because he had seen blood-thirsty warriors make peace wih their enemy.

Trying to light up the mood, Jack asked more details about this name-tradition. Hiccup smirked before giving him a list of samples, picking the worst names even given to vikings and dragons. The boy swore he was going to have a stomach cramp with how much he was laughing. Hiccup joined too, until both noticed the change of colors in the sky, the greyish-blue getting tainted with pinkish hues. Evening was there, soon it would be time to head back to the castle of Broch.

''So...'' Hiccup suddenly asked. ''What did you think of this pause ?''

another smile crept on the pale lips.

''It was awesome.''

Jack turned his head on the side and met Hiccup's gaze, his face still adorned by that peculiar smile. Jack found himself unable to look away, a new group of butterflies set free in his belly, tickling his body from inside.

''That was the best birthday I had in a long time.'' He murmured.

Hiccup's smile vanished, wiped away by surprise, making him sit up in a jolt. ''What ? Today's your birthday ? But why didn't you say anything ? We could have thrown a party or something...''

''Don't worry, it's was great like this.'' The dyed-haired boy chuckled.

It had been perfect, actually. A whole day spent alone with the tamer, just the two of them with their dragons, and the auburnet kicking away Jack's demons and past haunting him. He couldn't have dreamt of a better birthday present. Just having Hiccup there during that special day would have been enough, but once again he had to surprise Jack for the better. Jack couldn't have had a beter gift, nor a better friend, even though he knew that Hiccup was not just a friend for him.