They headed to lunch before their home economics session in the afternoon. The menu today was particularly puke-worthy: a kind of meat in a sauce that wasn't clarified, some lumpy mashed potato and greyish peas that looked like any goodness they might ever have had was boiled out of them long ago. They decided to move on to dessert which wasn't fantastic but much better than the main course, some half melted ice cream and slightly runny jelly. The four of them decided that another midnight feast was in order.
They headed down to home economics, Rapunzel leading the way, giggling and excitable. The other three were less than happy.
"What d'you reckon?" Merida asked, "baking boulders for cupcakes or making a water bottle insulator like in year 3?"
"I'm betting water bottle." Jack raised his hand like he was voting.
"Cupcake boulders," Hiccup said dully. Merida sighed.
"What's the pointin this anyway?" Jack groaned, scuffing his shoes along the ground as he walked. Hiccup kicked a scrunched up piece of paper as far as he could - which wasn't far.
"Beats me." Merida let out a long sigh as Rapunzel looked back to see their bored faces.
"Come on! You'll really enjoy it once you try it!"
"You sound like my mother," Merida snorted as she imitated her mother's rather stronger Scottish accent. "'Hae do yeh knae if ye don' like it if yeh don' try it?'"
Rapunzel raised her eyebrows and sighed.
"Well, you've got no choice. It's on our timetable."
"Along with another group, apparently there weren't enough rooms available, who's in group five?" Merida frowned at her piece of paper.
"Oh gods," Hiccup's eyes went wide as he saw the other people waiting outside the room. It was Astrid Hofferson and her cronies.
"Hiccup!" Astrid smirked. "What a lovely surprise!"
"You back off," Merida glared her in the eye, "or I'll stab you with a French cook's knife. Clear?"
"Why doesn't your little boyfriend stand up for himself?" Astrid said rudely. "Why's he always relying on you?"
"I'm not," Hiccup walked forward, "you can shut it Astrid. No one likes you, just get over it."
Astrid merely smiled. The instructor had arrived; she couldn't say anything else now.
"Right, today we'll be making cupcakes," she said to the assorted group before letting them inside. Hiccup rose his eyebrows at Jack as if to say - told you so. They filed into the small room and saw that they had been placed into pairs which were already written on the board. They searched frantically for their names:
Rapunzel Corona - Tuffnut Thornston
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock - Astrid Hofferson
Merida Dunbroch - Snotlout Jorgenson
Jackson Overland - Ruffnut Thornston
Fishlegs Ingerman - working on individual project (not enough people)
"WHAT?" Hiccup shouted, earning a death glare from the instructor already.
"Excuse me Mr Haddock -"
"He can't go with her," Merida stepped forward, jumping into the conversation.
"Miss Dunbroch -"
"I can't go with her!"
"She's horrible to him -"
"It's not a good idea -"
"Anyone else, literally ANYONE..."
"Quiet!" The instructor slammed her clipboard down onto a work surface and glared at Hiccup and Merida. "Mr Haddock will go with Miss Hofferson whether he likes it or not. We will address issues accordingly as they unfold. Please go to your work stations."
Hiccup threw on an apron and washed his hands with excessive force before slamming his ingredients onto the table. He shoved all the ingredients into a bowl and whisked them so fiercely cake mix flew out of the bowl and into Astrid's braid.
"Watch it!" she snarled as she made a start with her ingredients. Hiccup only shrugged and mixed even faster, knocking over his flour bag. He cursed under his breath and went to get a dust pan and brush. On his way across the kitchen he heard Merida arguing with Snotlout:
"Get your hands off of my bowl!"
"Babe - you needed help!"
"You didn't even do it right."
"The sun was in my eyes Merida!"
"Just do your own cakes Snotlout."
"Well, what do you want me to do, block out the sun? I could do that Merida, I could do that..."
Hiccup went up to him and held a fist to Snotlout's face.
"Leave her alone. She didn't ask to be paired with you. Back off."
Snotlout stepped so far back he crashed into a sink. Hiccup murmured, "I'll talk to you after the hour's up Mer. Okay?" Merida nodded and looked over in disgust at her work partner, shaking her head.
Hiccup tidied up the spilled flour and binned it before slamming the cake mixture into the flimsy cake cases and shoving them into the oven. He wiped down his tabletop and waited for the cakes to finish cooking. Virtually everyone had finished their baking now and had put theirs into the oven, like Hiccup had. The session was drawing to a close and the instructor had left the room for another set of cake cases.
"What now?" Hiccup snarled. "Don't you think I'm fed up with your harassment?"
Astrid smiled, but this wasn't a horrible smirk that indicated she was going to humiliate him again. This was more of a girlish whimpering thing that made Hiccup's stomach churn.
"Hiccup," she whispered softly, "I never realised how much I missed you."
Hiccup's heart began racing.
"Astrid, what the fu -"
He couldn't speak anymore. Astrid had smashed her lips against his harshly, making a stark contrast with Merida's kisses. Astrid was rough as tree bark but Merida was soft as the touch of a petal. Astrid stayed there for a few seconds, just long enough to hear everyone else's reactions. And then that one that Astrid had aimed to hear.
"Hiccup?!"
The distinct cry of Merida's heart breaking could be heard across the kitchen as she ran out, flinging her apron onto the floor. Hiccup shoved Astrid away with a look of panic as she stood smirking, her job accomplished.
"Session is over!" The instructor called. "Time to head back to your dormitories before dinner this evening. Get changed into something decent please!"
Everyone nodded silently as Hiccup ran out of the kitchen as fast as he possibly could. Jack held Rapunzel back as she made signs of wanting to follow Merida.
"Punz -" he looked her in the eye, "we need to let them sort this out."
"Why would Hiccup do that?" Rapunzel said, shocked. Jack shook his head.
"It wasn't Hiccup. It was Astrid."
"What?"
"Yeah. She said something about missing him, then just - wham."
"Merida's going to kill him."
Jack nodded worryingly.
"Something tells me this isn't going to help this 'bond' we're supposed to be reinforcing."
"What if Astrid's working for Mordu? If we can get to her then Mordu should be easy!"
"It makes sense," Jack nodded, taking her hand and walking her to her dormitory. "where do you think Merida ran off to?"
"She always went into the forest with Angus whenever she was upset before," Rapunzel said, remembering their past life, "do you remember?"
"Yeah, shooting all those targets time and time again, when she wasn't turning people into bears that is."
Rapunzel smiled and looked into his eyes. Jack felt his heart melting as he looked at her, and hoped to God that Hiccup would be able to convince Merida it wasn't his fault. But for the moment it was Jack and Rapunzel that mattered. Jack leaned down and kissed her softly on her pink lips. She wrapped her arms around him until they heard noises and they drew away quickly.
"See you -" Jack mumbled, "er, see you this evening..."
"Yeah," Rapunzel kissed his cheek quickly, "please help Hiccup out with his moral support. I think he might need it."
"Will do," Jack promised, giving her one last hug, holding her tight. "See you."
A/N So sorry for the infrequent and annoying updates, I've got 3 stories on the go at the moment which I now know is a HUGE mistake - I will not be doing more than 2 at a time from now on! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and 1.7K?! Woah!!