Request: 'Encouragement' (Toothcup)

Toothless ran his hand along the spines of the books on the shelf, searching for a certain book on Norse dragons. As he hunted he muttered a symphony of curses under his breath that would most likely have gotten him expelled from school if that had been where he was. Unfortunately for him the book had already been checked out of the school’s library and so he had needed to make a stop at the town’s public library on the way home.

He had been in the library for about ten minutes and that was already ten minutes too long in his opinion. He was starting to sweat under his leather jacket, the library unusually warm for some reason, and he felt extremely out of place with his hair spiked into a deep purple Mohawk. He had caught at least three people staring at him, each of which had quickly scrambled to look away when they were discovered.

Finally finding his book Toothless grabbed it and headed straight for the check-out counter. As he walked he reached for his wallet, pulling out a library card that was surprisingly tattered for how little it was used. He only had the thing because his mother had signed him up for it when he was a child. When he finally pulled the card out of the back of his wallet and looked up, he was stopped dead in his tracks. It wasn’t just the table that he had almost walked into, he had barely even noticed that, it was the person sitting at the table. They had long, brown hair (and Toothless swore he spotted a small braid or two near the back), they were as skinny as a stick, and they had large green eyes that were staring right at him.

Toothless didn’t have words to speak. He didn’t know what to say. He sputtered a few syllables, but when nothing coherent came out the green-eyed boy looked back to his book and Toothless moved on as quickly as possible. He only had time to notice that the boy had two other books beside him that he wasn’t reading, and by the colour of brown of one of them Toothless was fairly certain it was the other copy of the dragons book that he held in his hand.

Toothless tried to shrug the encounter off, but as he took the book and his library card back from the clerk he had a hard time getting the image of the boy out of his head. He was interrupted from his thoughts when he exited the library and was walking down the steps out front.

“You? At the library? Well now I’ve seen everything.”

Toothless’ head snapped to the origin of the voice, finding his best friend Stormfly at the bottom of the steps. Her ripped jeans, boots, leather jacket and rainbow dyed hair look just as out of place as Toothless did, and at the moment he appreciated not being the only focus of people’s attention. He smiled and walked closer, switching the book from his right hand to his left.

“So why exactly are you here Damian?” She asked, placing a hand on her hip.

“Toothless,” he corrected. Toothless was the persona he had worked so hard to create, and he didn’t want it broken by people knowing his real name. Stormfly knew because they were childhood friends, but she was the only one and Toothless wanted to keep it that way. No one else in town remembered him after his family had moved away for five years, especially because they had moved back right at the start of high school when he had changed his whole look. He did not want to be reminded of himself beforehand if he could help it.

“Whatever,” Stormfly shrugged. “Just answer the question.”

“They didn’t have a book I needed for the essay for history at school so I had to get it here,” Toothless explained before another thought hit him. “What are you doing here?”

“Nothing much,” Stormfly said with a smirk that made Toothless uneasy. “By the way he’s coming down the steps.”

Toothless turned around and the only person coming down the stairs was the boy from the table inside. He turned back to Stormfly and she couldn’t hold back a laugh. Toothless’ naturally tanned skin paled and a look of horror came over his face.

“How the hell…”

“I might have been inside,” Stormfly cackled, clearly enjoying herself. “You know, I’ve never seen you have quite that reaction around someone. You like him.”

“I’ve only even seen him once, and I’ve never spoken to him. How can I like him?”

“Well then you have a crush. Now come on loverboy, he had the only other copy of that book and I need it too. Looks like we’re sharing.”

...

Toothless finished the entire essay that night. He had never done it before, but between Stormfly’s presence and a not-so-subconscious desire to return to the library as soon as possible in hopes to see the boy again, he got it done. Of course he could never let Stormfly know that was why he had offered to return the book, otherwise he’d never hear the end of it.

He returned to the library at the same time after school that day, managing more successfully to ignore the stares he received from the other patrons. He returned the book on the way in and immediately made his way to a shelf that had a clear view of the table the boy had been at the day before.

Toothless was a little concerned when he wasn’t already there, and he had to remind himself that it was a long shot. What were the odds that he would be there again today?

‘Apparently very good,’ Toothless thought to himself when the brown haired boy sat down in the same chair as the day before, this time carrying an impressive five books. Without hesitation he cracked the first one open and started reading.

Toothless just watched for a minute, watching the green eyes slide over every line at a rapid pace. He was impressed by how fast the boy could read, flipping the pages with a practiced ease. Shaking himself out of his trance he realized he needed a way to break the ice with the boy. It would seem odd if he just went over there and started talking, so he figured he should bring a book. He was about to grab the first one he could, but he realized that he might get asked a question about it. Scrambling down the shelf he finally found a book he’d had to read a few years back for a book report and grabbed it. He remembered just enough about it to be able to carry on a short conversation, and he figured that’d be enough. He made his way back towards the table, but he was stopped dead in his tracks before he rounded the corner.

Just as he could see the table again he saw a rather large teen sitting down across from the boy, and the boy greeted him with a smile and a laugh. He cursed inwardly, but managed to catch something the larger boy said: “Hey Hiccup.”

Hiccup. It may not have been an introduction, but at least now Toothless had a name. He put the book down in the nearest gap on the shelf and headed out, careful not to be noticed by Hiccup. What he didn’t see, however, was the pair of eyes watching him through the other shelf.

...

Toothless returned to the faithful spot the next day, and he was delighted to see that Hiccup had returned once more. He was in the same chair at the same table, today with four books. He must’ve gotten there earlier today because it appeared as if he had already finished one of them. What made him even happier, however, was that there was no sign of his blond friend today. Toothless had his book in hand, ready to put his plan into action, but he couldn’t move.

He tried to take a step, but his body wouldn’t let him. Toothless couldn’t recall a single time in his life when he was too nervous to do something, but for some reason the thought of talking to the boy was getting to him. He stood there for a solid three minutes, hoping no one would see him, before he thought he should give up for the day. Clearly it wasn’t going to happen right now, and he figured he might be more comfortable if he knew a few of Hiccup’s interests. How many Hiccup’s could there be on Facebook that lived in Berk?

Toothless turned around and had to hold in a startled yelp. Stormfly was so close behind him that they almost knocked heads; how she could be so sneaky as to get that close Toothless would never understand.

“What are you doing here?” He hissed, wanting to stay quiet in the library.

“I could ask you the same question,” she responded, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “Now just go over there and talk to him.”

“I can’t.”

“You can’t?” she asked, incredulous. “You’re Toothless for crying out loud, you do what you want no questions asked.”

“Exactly, and now I don’t want to talk to him at the moment.”

“Oh just go,” Stormfly said as he pushed him out of the aisle. Apparently she hadn’t realized there was a return cart sitting just on the other side of Toothless, and so she knocked him right into it. He maintained his balance, but unfortunately the cart did not. Toothless watched it fall in slow motion before it hit the ground with a loud, metallic clang, capturing the attention of most likely every soul in the building.

Toothless quickly picked it up, happy that there were no books on it or it would have been an even bigger cleanup. When he looked up he realized Hiccup was looking in his direction; he no longer had a choice. Hiccup’s eyes followed Toothless as he made his way up to the table.

“Uh, s-sorry about th-that,” Toothless stuttered, cursing the fact that his childhood linguistic quirk was returning at the most inopportune of moments. Grabbing the back of the chair directly across from Hiccup he asked, “Is anyone, uh, s-sitting here?”

Hiccup shook his head silently and returned to his book. Toothless cursed inwardly, wondering how he could manage to start a conversation now. He was sure that he had just ruined his chances, and he couldn’t just up and leave now or it’d look awkward – not to mention Stormfly might have some choice words for him. He thought back to the dragon book, but just before he opened his mouth he thought better. He needed this meeting to look spontaneous. Looking at the book in his hand he figured he could re-read a few chapters; he actually recalled rather liking the book.

Toothless cracked the book open to the fourth chapter, the beginning of his favourite part. He had only read two lines when he suddenly heard a slightly nasally but strangely calming voice. It took him a moment before he realized the voice was Hiccup’s, and another moment to realize he was the person being spoken to.

“Sorry?”

“I said that’s a really good book. You’re actually approaching my favourite part.” Toothless only had a second to celebrate the fact that Hiccup had actually given him the chance to start a conversation, and he did not intend to waste it.

“Yeah, this is actually my second time reading it. I really like it,” he replied, putting as much effort as possible to avoid stuttering again.

“You read a lot?”

“On occasion,” Toothless replied, but when Hiccup gave a slightly confused look he had to ask, “What?”

“Sorry, it’s just that you didn’t strike me as the reading type,” Hiccup said, giving Toothless the once over. The punk realized that his personality and style didn’t exactly scream reader, so he had to give Hiccup that one.

“I get that,” Toothless conceded, and Hiccup smiled. Toothless needed a moment then, wanting to talk but being unable to find the air. It was a crooked smile with a small gap between the front teeth, but Toothless wouldn’t be able to call it anything but perfect. When Hiccup started to look down Toothless realized he was losing him and needed to act quickly.

“So, um, uh,” he started once more, and while it got Hiccup to look back up the look he was giving the punk at the moment made it even harder to speak. Toothless finally spit a few words out that formed a coherent sentence, but he wasn’t able to control his stutter with those gorgeous, slightly confused eyes looking at him. “Why h-haven’t I seen you at s-school?”

“I go to Berk Prep,” Hiccup revealed, and Toothless had to hold his tongue. He knew Berk Prep quite well; it was the private school for all of the rich kids across town. BHS had a serious hatred of them, and it was well known that the feeling was mutual. Still, nothing would be able to mar Toothless’ image of the boy, even if they had just met. Toothless truly looked at the boy once more and another question came to mind.

“They let you have those braids in your hair there? I thought the uniform was really strict.” Having a serious question Toothless was distracted enough not to stutter, and he mentally patted himself on the back for the small victory.

Hiccup reached up and played with one of the braids as he said, “Yeah, teachers were mad at first but I guess they just got used to it since they aren’t very large. You know, I never caught your name.”

Toothless was temporarily stunned that the boy had asked. He had forgotten that he wasn’t supposed to know Hiccup’s name yet. Toothless didn’t realize just how long he had been silent and Hiccup laughed, “Have you forgotten?”

“No! N-no,” Toothless said, a little louder than he had intended. “Sorry, I’m Toothless.”

“Toothless?” Hiccup repeated. “Well, I guess the name goes with the look. I’m Hiccup.”

“I could say the same to you,” Toothless responded, and Hiccup shrugged. Just then Hiccup’s cell phone vibrated and he picked it up. Not wanting to stare, Toothless looked down at his own phone. He was looking down for about thirty seconds before he heard Hiccup speak once more.

“I actually have to run. It was nice meeting you though. My ride is here already, would you mind just putting these books on the return cart you knocked over earlier?”

“Yeah, sure,” Toothless agreed as Hiccup laughed gently at the memory. Hiccup waved goodbye as he ran, and as soon as he turned the corner Stormfly took his seat.

“Well that was weak,” Stormfly said, resting her chin on her fist.

“Well it’s hard to talk to him,” Toothless said, gathering all of the books. As he picked up the one Hiccup had been reading, a small piece of paper gently floated out from between the pages and onto the table. Toothless was going to brush it off, but he decided to look.

555-1613 – Hiccup

Thinking back he realized that Hiccup must not have been on the phone the entire time he thought he was. Toothless was amazed he had gotten the boy’s number, and he literally jumped for joy. Stormfly snatched the paper from him and when she read it she shook her head.

“If he was impressed by that, you two were made for each other,” she scoffed.

“Doesn’t matter,” Toothless said. Now he just needed to get his stutter under control before their first date.