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"This Sickness" (ch.13)

       The air wrapped cool arms around him as he stepped out into the quiet of the night, his steps faltering and pausing as his eyes strained to adjust to the dark. He lingered in the warm glow of the door, gaze roving down beaten dirt paths and over grassy hillsides. The entire village had congregated inside the main hall behind him, leaving the rest of the town ghostly empty and silent as it spread out over the mountain. He frowned, knowing that his quarry couldn't have gotten far, but wondering why he couldn't seem to place him at the moment.

       The angry din of something crashing and collapsing to the ground beside him snapped his head towards the edge of the building. Peering through the darkness with squinted eyes he heard a groan, something stumbling amidst the mess it had just made. A silhouette danced into the moonlit line of his vision, then fell away again, stumbling back into the shadowed safety of the side of the hall. He smirked, dropping his hand to his side casually as he started through the grass, the leather and fur of his boots silencing his footsteps on the bending blades.

       He paused once more, touching the corner to the building with light fingers as he leaned around it, waiting to catch the boy doing something he wasn't supposed to be. He wondered if the brunette was hiding from his girlfriend out here. Retching sounds made him frown though, sending him stepping all the way around the building and into the full beam of moonlight. Hiccup was doubled over the ground, gripping onto his stomach as it caved with the force of his heave. The acidic bile poured from the little boy's mouth in a steady stream, only pausing enough for him to wipe his mouth with the back of a trembling hand and let out a pained sob. Tuffnut's features softened, his fingers sliding from the side of the building to drop at his side again as he started towards the ill viking.

      Hiccup sniffled, coughing loudly in vain effort to freeze the burn tearing up the back of his throat. He closed his eyes, dragging his hand over his mouth a second time with a muffled groan. He grimaced, falling onto his backside and dropping his head back again, open his mouth to let hitching pants escape it. He shouldn't of kept drinking. He should've listened to Astrid's advice. He should've tuned Tuffnut out another way. It wasn't fair to punish himself even more by making himself physically sick over the boy. His stomach wrenched, agony ripping across his features as his eyes shot wide, his intestines suddenly twisting into violent knots. "Fuck," He threw himself forward, dropping to lean heavily on his hands as he painted the grass with the last of what was in his stomach.

      "Hiccup..." He gagged, nothing left in his bowels for him to empty out, but his stomach unrelenting in its torture. His body tremored before rocking forward, fingers digging into the soft grass and soil beneath. Drool pattered onto his hand and the ground, blood rushing in his ears as he shut his eyes against another dry heave. "Hiccup...?" He frowned, gasping for air when he finally got another break. Did someone call him? He lifted his head, slowly turning it to blink away tears and see if he had indeed been hearing things. Tuffnut was looking down at him with an empty face, standing only a pace or so away, the wind blowing strands of his shimmering hair across his broad chest. Sympathy shone in his slate colored eyes, the only emotion betrayed on the towering boy in any way.

      Hiccup dropped his head again, groaning and shaking it slowly, ignoring the horrible dizziness the motion sent through him. He was hallucinating now. Stupid mead doing nothing but making his problems worse. He didn't know why anyone drank the stuff if it didn't do anything but make things even worse; he thought it was supposed to make everything better. He groaned again, lifting a hand in an attempt to wave the lithe viking off, almost falling onto his side as he did. "Ugh...I don't ne-need this shit right n-now..." He burped again, this time letting it resound through the air, moaning softly in the pain that followed it. "Just go away...Go back to whatever part of my mind you came fr-...Came fro-" He frowned, hiccuping twice before belching behind his lips again, his cheeks puffing with the sour air as he released it in a slow stream. He paused, waiting for the wave of sickness to pass, but yelped when it caught him full force in the stomach again, pitching him forward once more.

      Tuffnut smirked despite himself, putting a hand on his hip as he watched the brunette dry heave some more. He really had no idea what was going on; he had no idea Tuffnut even existed. He closed the distance between them, squatting beside the boy and draping a hand over his knee. The smile wouldn't let go of the corner of his mouth, even as he listened to the boy retch and sob again. He reached out, pushing fingers through soft, mahogany colored tresses, tucking them behind the small round of the viking's ear. "It hurts...!" Hiccup whined, ripping fistfuls of grass up as he dug deeper and deeper into the earth with white knuckles.

      Tuffnut nodded slowly, stroking through the boy's hair even farther, reaching over to smooth his hand out over the back of the boy's head. He slid it down, flattening his hand beneath the feathery hair and over the heat of the back of his neck, rubbing his fingers absently over the soft skin. "Yeah...but, it'll stop soon. Just hang in there." He murmured, watching the brunette shiver beneath his touch, listening to him groan through another broken sob. He smeared his sleeve over his mouth again, his hand failing to make it to the ground again before another spell snatched hold of him. "Why the hell did you push yourself to this, Hicca?" He furrowed his brow, sliding his hand down the back of the boy's woolen vest, rubbing big, lazy circles over it as he watched for an answer.

      "B-because of you, asshole!" He spat the words, hiccuping only once before releasing a god awful noise and dropping so close to the grass his nose almost brushed it. He sobbed again, tears rolling down his pale cheeks in fat tracks, pooling beneath his chin and soaking his neck. "Y-you fuckin'...ugh...fuckin' abandoned m-me after all that...that SHIT!" He managed to get something up this time. A cry of pain followed the liquid lava he heaved, his throat feeling like it was set on fire. Now he pushed his forehead to the ground, not caring what his nose or face came into contact with when he did. The cool of the sweet grass was so beautiful against the sweat of his burning forehead he started to cry again.

       "I just wanted you! I just wanted to BE with you!" He dropped onto his side, rolling onto his back as sucking in breaths of air, his arms flopping to either side of him on the ground. Tuffnut tilted his head, folding his arms over his knees as he watched the boy try to recuperate once again.

       "How can you say that though? You were in love with Astrid until the other day. One mistake of a sexual encounter is going to change your mind about that?" He shrugged, watching an emerald eye flutter open and roll towards him. The moonlight cast a white glow over the boy, illuminating him gently. Tuffnut felt the urge to eat his own words. To stop arguing with it and let the boy think and do as he pleased; as long as he was allowed to drape himself over the brunette's form every night and make him scream.

       "There's such a thing as true love, dunder head. People know it on sight." He grumbled this through a frown, rolling his eye before closing it again, looking as though this were the most obvious answer in the world. Tuffnut snorted softly, rolling his own eyes before looking away from the viking and taking to staring at the wood of the main hall.

       "Uh-huh, and you found true love by being forced to suck my dick. Sounds like a fairy tale come true." His words were bitter, betraying his feelings as he shoved thoughts of molestation out of his mind. He glared at the wood panels of the building beside them, wishing he could set it and the world on fire at the moment. This time Hiccup lifted his head off the ground to glare at him with both eyes open.

       "You ARE an asshole!" Tuffnut looked over in mild surprise, arching a brow as the boy gathered himself into leaning up on one arm. "It doesn't matter HOW you find true love, it just matters that you FIND it. It doesn't matter if I fell in love with you gathering shells on the beach as we walked together until the sun went down, or if I fell in love with you with my tongue wrapped around your dick. All that matters is that the feeling is there and it's eating me alive, and you don't seem to give a rat's ass!" He pointed at him with his free hand, swaying a little in effort to keep himself upright, then frowned and threw a hand towards the building.

       "All you seem to care about is playing around in there with every girl you can come into contact with and avoiding me like the fucking plague! I bet you're in there right now trying to figure out how you're going to get a girl to go home with you, not even THINKING about me lying out here in my own puke." With that he fell back into the grass, the earth sighing beneath him as he sniffled and swiped at his nose.

       Tuffnut blinked, running his tongue over his teeth as he tilted his head in regard of the boy one more time. He never failed to surprise him; at least a life with him would always be interesting. He rose to his feet, walking over to stand next to the brunette one more time, letting a smirk tug at the corner of his mouth as the viking opened his eyes to look up at him in confusion. He extended a hand, shaking his head and sighing. "I think about you every second of every day, Hicca." The brunette reached up with a shaky hand, grasping his and allowing him to pull him to his feet unsteadily.

        He swayed on his feet, blinking rapidly before closing his eyes and touching his head with a light wince. "I'll never drink again..." He groaned, releasing Tuffnut's hand and turning to step away from him. Instead he fell, only saved from smashing his face in the ground by the strong hand that wrapped around his aching stomach. "Shit...!" His stomach flipped again, somehow managing to find liquid for him to throw on the ground. Tuffnut's arm stayed wrapped around his waist, holding his backside hard against his hips as he kept him standing through the whole thing. He didn't seem phased by the sickness at all.

       Hiccup's body relaxed in his hold, his head dropping back to roll on his chest with another tired groan, fresh tears making his cheeks glisten. Tuffnut strained to keep his lower half in control, closing his eyes and allowing a shudder to run throughout his entirety. He chewed his cheek, listening to the boy's soft pants of pain, interrupted only by sparse and quiet whimpers that begged relief. His hand was shaking again, his teeth grinding in his head as he continued to will his lower body to keep tame and calm, not wanting to scare the boy off; or, apparently, lead him on any more.

       "I just thought...if you could walk away from me so easily...if you could forget me so easily..." Tuffnut opened his eyes, looking down at the brunette in his grasp, catching a breath of his scent as he rolled his head languidly across his chest again. "I thought I could do it too...you know? But, even in drowning myself to forget you..." He opened his eyes, the big, rich emerald hues arresting Tuffnut with so much sincerity and genuine feeling his knees almost buckled beneath the guilt. "I STILL feel your hands on me...Even conjure you up like this..." He smiled, despite the pain of his words. Tuffnut watched him silently for a long moment, reaching up with his free hand to brush fingers over his soaked forehead, wanting to push his hand through the feathery tresses above it one more time.

       "Gods, there he is!" He fisted his hand at the sudden shrill voice shattering his moment. Hiccup frowned and lifted his head up, immediately scrunching his face in pain before covering it with his own hand.

        "I'm gonna be sick..." Hiccup doubled over the thick of Tuffnut's arm again, groaning with a wide mouth already. Tuffnut glanced up at Astrid as she stormed over, scowling at the brunette, hands fisted at her sides. He could feel Hiccup's body quivering and jerking as it attempted to empty itself again, but heard the horrible sounds of dry heaves as its search turned up nothing. Astrid paused next to them, her glare turning up to Tuffnut, his eyes fixing on the steel blue of her own.

        "How long have you been out here with him? Why didn't you come tell me what was going on?" She struck her hips with her fists, looking up at him with thinly pressed lips. He arched his brow, biting down on the inside of his cheek hard enough to spill blood onto his tongue. It took him a long, tense moment to respond to her in any manner of civility.

        "I just stumbled upon him a few minuets ago. I couldn't exactly leave his side to go running for you." The words were slow and painful, his need to drive her face into a rock straining them even further. He could almost feel the warmth of her blood cooling on his hands as her face broke open like a pumpkin.

        "Perfect. He's making an ass out of all of us and you sit out here with him and let him do it." She snatched for Hiccup, jerking at his sleeve as he rest over Tuffnut's arm, his chest rising and falling slowly through open mouth breaths. He grumbled, but stumbled into Astrid's grasp, Tuffnut reluctantly letting go for only the sake of saving the little boy more pain. The blonde slid a step back from the angrily muttering girl as she threw Hiccup's arm over her shoulder and forced him to stand. He needed more space between them, especially since they were alone out here.

        "I'm taking him home. Go inside and tell his dad that I'll be back and will speak for him when dinner's done." She started off, Hiccup dragging his feet alongside her until she snapped him straight again, refusing to let him completely lean on her. Tuffnut's knuckles cracked as his fingers curled deeper into his fist, his body trembling only once as he watched them go.

        He turned his head, forcing his eyes to remained trained on their backs until they disappeared up the road. He spat blood into the grass, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand as he started towards inside again, shaking his head bitterly. He strode past Hiccup's dad, failing to even make eye contact with him as he walked over to the gaint kegs lined against the wall, snatching a mug up off a table as he went. It was better to keep his distance from Hiccup, better to keep as much space between them as possible. No matter what he said in his drunken stupor.