Of the Northmost Winds and Skies

Chapter 17: The Moon is a wonderful conversation partner (this is sacarsm)

Like his sister, Jamie had always been quite a heavy sleeper. Not as heavy as his sister, but still heavy enough to sleep through his alarm every now and then. Probably a lot more often than his mom would like, but Jamie couldn't help that his dreams were exciting, and he just needed to know how they ended sometimes!

So why, he wondered, did Stoick's snoring feel more like an earthquake than something that could possibly come out of a human being's nose? Jamie woke with a start, looking around bewilderedly. He was lying on the fur by the hearth like Jack had four days earlier, except instead of being covered by multiple layers of blankets, Jamie was halfway covered in Hiccup's old notes on dragons. Not that he could understand much – he'd only learned a few runes so far – but at least the drawings were nice.

It was hard to say how early it was, but Jamie didn't doubt Stoick would wake up soon. He always woke up early to do whatever chiefs did. Jamie had tried asking him about it, but hearing about that wasn't nearly as exciting as hearing about his Viking adventures. But right now, Stoick was snoring like a storm in the other room, and Jamie knew he wouldn't be able to sleep anymore with that going on. So he got up.

Baby Tooth chirped softly, appearing from somewhere underneath the papers. She'd been sleeping a lot more after she and Jack came back, which was concerning to say the least. Jamie was pretty sure he'd never even seen her sleep before, and now... Well. At least she was awake during the day, and otherwise seemed to be acting the same... unlike Jack.

Jamie straightened his hair the best he could, flattening it at the back and brushing it out of his eyes. He waited to see if Baby Tooth would wake up, before quietly heading for the stairs to Hiccup's bedroom. Where was Hiccup anyway? He wasn't watching over Jack still, was he? It had been hours since Hiccup sent Jamie to bed.

Jamie stopped in his tracks at the top of the stairs. At first, he noticed Toothless, curled up on his slab by the window. And then... Oh... that's where Hiccup was. Made sense... but also not at all. Hiccup had offered his bed to Jack, he wouldn't have just climbed into it together with him like that. Not if Jack was still unconscious.

Which meant that Jack woken up sometime last night. That had to be it, right? Still, he was asleep again now, and Jamie wasn't planning on waking either of them. Had it been only Jack, maybe, but the two of them together? No way. Jamie felt like this was probably not something he was even supposed to see.

So with light footsteps, he climbed down the stairs again, holding in his laughter until he was sitting by the heart again. He was so relieved, he felt like he might cry.

A moment too late, he realized the snoring had stopped.

"Ah, Jamie," Stoick rumbled as he wobbled out of his bedroom, thankfully not noticing Jamie's barely contained yelp. "Morning. Did you..." He trailed off, looking around. "Where's Hiccup?"

"Uh. Watching... Watching Jack," Jamie replied.

"Still?" Stoick looked up the stairs, as if he could see through the floorboards. "He's not gonna wake up any faster by staring at him. I'll tell him to get some-"

"I did, already," Jamie said before he could stop himself. "He, um... he said he would be down soon. He's slept a little bit also."

That was a long lie, but Stoick seemed to buy it. He nodded and headed for the door.

"Right. I'll go, then. And Jamie-" Stoick turned around, and the wrinkles around his eyes loosened up a little. "I'm sure he'll wake up soon. If nothing else, he is resilient."

Jamie smiled brightly. "I know," he said, making Stoick raise a brow at his sudden optimism. Not that Jamie hadn't been optimistic the entire time, but probably not in such a spirited way.