Biology

Chapter 8

The next morning started off typical enough: breakfast with North, walking to school, going to his locker to get what he needed for his first class. The normalcy ended about then, though, because that was the point that Hiccup stalked down the hall, grabbed hold of his necktie on the way past, and dragged him along in the complete opposite direction he actually needed to go.

"Uh—hey—wha—"

"Shut up."

As usual when Hiccup was in a mood, students parted like the Red Sea in front of him. Jack caught more than one sympathetic look in his direction on the way past. He barely managed to keep up as Hiccup hurried him along, half-tripping over his own feet when they turned a corner—and the next thing he knew he was being shoved into a familiar closet.

"H-Hiccup, what—?!"

Hiccup followed him in and slammed the door shut, then spun around quickly. Both his hands came up and he made an animated gesture. "Okay, look, we need to talk."

"Al... alright...?" Jack answered tentatively, giving the other teen an unsure look.

"Because seriously, Jack," One of Hiccup's hands flew up to his temple and he took a bit of a breath. "You just—you can't fucking do that to me anymore, alright?" And when Jack just looked confused, he attempted to clarify: "you can't just—right, like last night! You can't kiss me like that and fucking move like that and then, shit, you tried to get me to stay? You—Jesus, Jack, you just can't do that! I'm absolutely—are you listening? I'm fucking serious here! Because I'm trying to take it slow and it's taking all my goddamn willpower not to just—"

Hiccup was rambling. He had clearly been working himself up to this, probably all night by the sound of it. Possibly longer. Jack had never seen him so flustered. But despite the rant the words were filtering through and Jack felt his face heat abruptly when he realized what Hiccup was saying.

"—and then you look at me like that and all I can think about is fucking you senseless and that's not okay! Because—shit—I wanna do the right thing, here, but God-fucking-dammit, Jack!" The torrent of words continued and the longer Hiccup went on the redder Jack's face became. Hiccup was still gesturing, eyes darting around but notably not settling anywhere near Jack himself. "And I know, I know, you don't even know you're doing it, but that makes it even more fucking frustrating! And then I have to fucking go home and take care of it my goddamn self and that is not the same and it's not—fucking—fair, okay?!"

Heaving now, Hiccup shook his head and finally let his arms drop back to his sides. He took a handful of deep breaths, huffing them out as he attempted to calm himself down again.

"Um," Jack offered weakly, not looking at him, "you could always... you know... go find someone else? If it's that... that bad?"

"...what." The word was whispered harshly and Jack had a split second to understand that he'd said the wrong thing before Hiccup's expression dropped into a scowl. Then he stepped forward and shoved Jack back into the wall—following after him quickly, pinning him there with his own body. He glared directly into Jack's eyes. "Are you fucking serious? You don't get it, do you? I don't want someone else, you stupid little shit!"

Then, before Jack fumble up a reply, Hiccup pushed even closer, tight against the other boy and kissed him hard. One hand grabbed tightly at a slim hip and the other came up to fist in icy hair. When he finally let go a few moments and several searing kisses later, he drew away just far enough to pant against Jack's lips. His glare faded slowly, then, until he finally let his forehead fall down onto the other's shoulder.

"Shit. Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout, I just—it's been really fucking hard for me lately."

Still shocked, Jack swallowed thickly, blue eyes a little wide as he stared down at the back of Hiccup's head. He licked his now-swollen lips self-consciously. "You, uh... I didn't..."