Sixth Year's Snow (Hijack/Frostcup)

Chapter Seventeen

There was a pounding in my head. A pain that throbbed and banged in my skull. I stirred, groaning a bit. I didn't get very far though, every muscle and bone in my body felt sore.

"Hiccup?" I thought I heard someone say. My head was fuzzy and I was only now coming to my senses. "Hiccup?" The voice called again. I groaned. I felt something touch my arm. "Oh please wake up..." I recognized the voice at last. I slowly opened my eyes, meeting with a pair of icy blue eyes. "Jack..." I muttered through a weak smile.

He smiled as his eyes began to water. "I thought you would never wake up..." he slowly caressed the side of my face with his thumb. A loud bang startled me and turned my attemtion to the door. Toothless broke through and jumped on my bed, licking my face and tipping things over. "What are you doing in here?!"

Jack laughed, "Toothless down!"

The nightfury bounced a few more times before darting out the door again.

"Oh my god, I'm dead..." I gasped.

"What?"

"Toothless is in the house without my father trying to shoot him with arrows, you're here and you're not mad, I'm still alive- I must be in Fólkvangr or something!!"

Jack pats me on the back. "You're not dead! Things are just better now. You've been out for... a while. Everyone in Berk has fixed things up and started making things better."

"A while? And things are better?"

"Yeah, come on I'll show you! Do you think you can stand?"

"Maybe..."

He took me by the hand and helped me sit up. I took a death breath and hoisted myself up, but lost my balance. My left leg felt... nonexistent. I stared down and saw my foot. My new foot. I started to shake. I lost it...

My eyes stung a little as I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. The small prosthetic fit well, but it was hard to stand on. I tried to take a step, but wobbled a little. I was afraid to put too much weight on it. Jack held me up, letting me hold on to his arm as I limped towards the door. I slowly opened the door, peaking out the crack. A screach startled me and what looked like a few dragkns scuttled past the door. I slammed it and pressed my back on the wood. "You said everything was okay!"

"Everything is okay!" Jack reassured me, "just go outside!"

I took sucked in a breath and slowly opened the door. Everyone was walking around the town, carrying weapons to the armory, laughing and joking, and fixing things up. Amongst It all, were dragons. Nadders, gronkles, zipplebacks, garden dragons, all sorts!

"I knew it. I'm dead."

I heard the deep laugh of my father. "No, but you gave it your best shot!" He put his arm around me, steadying my balance. He pointed out to the transformed village, "So? What do you think?"

I just shrugged, amazed.

"Turns out we just needed a little more of..." he gestured to me, "this."

"Me?"

"Well, most of you!" Gobber shuffled through the crowd, beaming proudly, "but we got it covered." He looks to my new prosthetic, "that there is some of my own handiwork! You like it? Will it do?"

I look at it. It was a little rusty, a little squeaky, a little too small. "Eh, I might make a few adjustments."

Everyone around laughed. I caught Jack out of the corner of my eye. He was standing at the back of the group, leaning on his staff. He smiled a big white smile at me.

"So things have changed a lot?" I asked my Dad, he nodded, "then I think im going to have a look around with Toothless!"

"Well, alright. But no flying!"

I nodded and ran to Jack, nonchalantly grabbing his hand and dragging him off with me.

"Woah!" He laughed, "where are we going?"

I limped off with him as Tooth scurried behind. I found a perch on the cliffside of the town that was unoccupied.

"What? What is it?" Jack questioned. There was something in his eyes, some kind of expression I couldn't quite place my finger on.

"You're hiding something." I finally stated.

"What? No." Jack's thumb rubbed the bark on his staff. His eyes stayed on me, but something was off.

"You're lying aren't you?"

"Pft! No!"

"Yes you are!" I grabbed his hand to stop his nervous little habit. "I can tell. You're too excited. Are you planning something?" I gasped, "wait! No, you did something. What was it?"

"Nothing!"

I ruffled, "was it something before I fainted?"

"N-no. Well,- no!"

I fell silent. Jack stared down at the waters, his fingers were now linked with mine. He exhaled a long breathe. I came to a realization.  "You saved me..."

Jack only sighed, "Yes. Just, please, don't make it that big of a deal."

"A big deal?" I choked on my words for a moment, "Jack you saved my life!"

"It wasn't just me, I mean Toothless did too... you were falling and I saw you so I caught you and Tooth scooped the both of us up and we fell and almost everything turned out fine. It's all over now. You're safe and that's all I care about. Can we please move on?"

I tried to get him to look at me, but he only jerked his head away. "Jack, I thought you were mad at me. I thought you had left. Why did you come back? Especially at a time like that."

"I had never left. I helped in the fight because I didn't want you to get hurt. And I obviously failed at preventing that..."

"Thank you Jack..." my eyes were watering just a bit, knowing I was standing in front of the one who saved my life. He wasn't looking, so I quickly pecked the side of his face. His eyes almost immediately widened and his cheeks flooded with a light pink.

"Come on," I took him by the hand and pulled him back up into the village, "let's go celebrate with everyone else."

A/N: Hello everyone! I want to thank you all (again) for sticking around and reading! Seeing all the comments about how this is great and amazing makes me just beam with happiness. On another note, this weekend is my birthday! I am SO excited because I am going to dragoncon and I'm going to cosplay! I hope you all have as good of a labor day weekend as I do! Smooches for all! Until next week! ♥