In Another Lifetime

Chapter 8 - Neighbors

Jack opened the door of room 26, not expecting to find anyone in there. He was still thinking and smiling from the memories of meeting Rapunzel, but he wasn't going to admit to ANY feelings yet. That would be dangerous. Dangerous to his feelings anyway.

He was surprised to see a messy-haired boy sketching on his bed when he walked in, already unpacked.

"Are you Jack Overland?" the boy asked. Jack nodded.

"I guess you're Hiccup Haddock?" Jack asked. The boy shrugged sadly.

"That's me. No one else could have a worse name, right?"

"I don't think it's that bad," Jack said, and he meant it. "I know a girl, well, I don't know her very well, but I know who she is - anyway - she's called Toothiana."

"No way!" Hiccup grinned.

"Even worse, her last name is Fairy," Jack laughed.

"You're kidding right?" Hiccup said skeptically. "No one's called Tooth Fairy."

"Well, she is," Jack said. "I'm not even lying. You have no idea how much she gets teased at school."

"I'll bet," Hiccup sighed. "I know how she feels."

Jack changed topic and said, "Am I on this bed then?" He pointed to the only one available. Hiccup nodded.

"If you like. I just like sleeping by the window. I don't know why, I just do."

"I have weird things like that too," Jack said, reassuring him. "I mean, I can't go to sleep without a glass of milk in the evening."

"I thought everyone did that!" Hiccup grinned.

"Yeah, when you're little kids, to help you sleep," Jack explained, "I guess it just got wired into my system, you know?" Hiccup nodded.

"I could never sleep as a kid; I always thought there were dragons under my bed. I was obsessed with this idea of being a big brave viking and killing stuff, but I was wimpy and weedy. Still am to be fair," he grinned, "but it was weird. Like I wanted to be something I knew I couldn't be, because I just knew I was too scared."

"I know that feeling," Jack spoke whilst unpacking; he didn't need to do much, "I had this teacher called Mr Pitch who used to virtually verbally abuse the people he didn't like. Eventually the school saw what he was doing to the kid's confidence and got rid of him, but I've never really been the same since."

"How come?" Hiccup leant forwards. He seemed shocked by this new information.

"Well," Jack sighed, "I've never really been comfortable around people ever since that happened. It's made me pretty reclusive, which is why I have no friends."

"Oh come on -" Hiccup said, but was cut off when Jack said,

"No, really. I have no friends. This teacher just destroyed my self confidence; he completely wrecked it. You're the first person besides my dad I've talked to in months."

" ...Why me?" Hiccup stuttered.

That was a good point. Why did Jack trust him so much? What was so different about Hiccup?

"I don't know."

"Well," Hiccup said, smiling finally, "I'll be your friend. I mean, I don't have many at all back home, I mean, there's this guy called Fishlegs but -"

"Wait, Fishlegs did you say?!" Jack snorted, trying to hold in his laughter and failing miserably. "That's way worse than Hiccup! You got lucky!"

"I guess so," Hiccup laughed along with him. Something had happened today, something big. These two boys, normally friendzoned, lonely and depressed were here together, laughing and joking. They'd both made two new friends. And both couldn't get the girls off of their minds. It was like they'd known each other from another life or something...

A/N Sorry I took so long to update - I thought this chapter had been deleted on my tablet! Depression at it's highest level... Anyway, hopefully I'll update again tonight when I've finished my homework and if I have time, no promises though!

Also - I wrote a Jackunzel one shot called Wrapped Up, please go and check it out if you'd like!