Chapter 8
When they were on the first floor of the library Hiccup sputtered as he was still being led. "Guys, really. You didn't need to do that." Hiccup mumbled as the twins each looped an arm around him.
"Nonsense. She was way out of line." Ruffnut said while Tuffnut added "The knight who saved Chicken is definitely no stalker."
The trio was walking awkwardly. Well Hiccup was walking awkwardly. These two reminded him so much of Cami and Throk but they also seemed to be more....... Chaotic.
"Oh my Thor!" someone shouted and broke the silence of the library once more. "He's the guy that's in the hot seat!"
Hiccup turned his head to the left to see a shorter muscular man pointing towards him and the twins. "Snotlout behave!" a redhead at the table they were sitting chastised him. "It's impolite to stare."
"But.... But.... he's the hot seat guy!" Was Snotlout's only excuse.
"If you want to talk to him then go do it!" She muttered while rolling her eyes. The guy named Snotlout got up and then jogged to Hiccup and the twins, stopping them before they reached the exit.
"You are my hero!" He shouted as he looked at Hiccup. Hiccup who had no freaking clue what was going on only mumbled an "Excuse me?"
"You... hotseat... Prof. Queen.... Uhm," Snotlout babbled causing the twins to snigger.
"Hiccup I think there is a little hero worship going on here," Ruffnut laughed.
"What?! Why?!" Hiccup asked. "And what does Professor Queen have to do with it?"
"You don't know..... Oh lord, you don't know?!" Snotlout nearly shrieked and the librarian near them shushed him again. "I mean how can you not know?" The shorter man then turned towards his friends at the table. Another guy was also seated there that Hiccup just now noticed. "Atali, Eret.... He doesn't know!!"
"We already heard ya dingus," The woman, Atali, rolled her eyes. "Now come back here, we have assignments to work out."
"Uhm......" Hiccup mumbled. "Can anyone please explain this all to me?"
"Why don't you join us?" Snotlout then asked. "Or do you already have a study group? Did I mention you are my hero! I'm babbling again aren't I?"
"No... No study group at the moment," Hiccup told the shorter man who seemed very eager. He then turned to the twins. "What about you guys?"
"I like these guys already more than Heather," Tuffnut shrugged.
"I don't mind," Ruffnut said as well.
Once they sat at the table and introduced each other Hiccup asked again "Okay.... What is all this hot seat business?"
The redhead, Atali, leaned forward as if to gossip but they could all hear her. She had this wicked glint in her eye that told them she found this whole situation very amusing. "So..... Professor Queen's first row is called the hot seat. It's sort of a legend now."
"And why is that?" Hiccup asked. He assumed the stories had been told between old alumni before.
"She has a tendency to call more frequently on those sitting in that row. My sister who graduated last year told me that she made this macho dude cry on his first day there. And I'm talking tears and snot nosed."
"Ooooooh," The twins said. "I heard that story," Ruffnut laughed. "The guy confused the definition of litigation with mitigation."
"Professor Queen is pretty strict." The other guy who introduced himself as Eret muttered. "So people avoid that row just so they don't jinx their dreams."
Hiccup let out a gulp as he now fully understood why Snotlout was looking at him with starry eyes and why some of his classmates gave him the are-you-crazy-look after that class. But there wasn't anything he could do about that anymore. Prof. Queen had permanent seats assigned to them that first day and it looked like he was stuck in the front row.
"She doesn't seem so bad," Hiccup mumbled as he caught the rest of the table's attention. Sure the Professor had been strict but she had made her point about what type of responsibility a lawyer had.
The others gave him weird looks but then shrugged. They then set about going over their assignments and what should be prioritized. The evening dragged on and soon it was nearly nine o clock. The group left the library as one and headed towards the dorms. Atali and Eret were in another dorm room but close to the others. Snotlout was actually a floor below Hiccup and the twins. As they were walking towards the buildings Eret stopped to look at one of the ladies walking by.
"Yo dude?" Snotlout called but Eret was a little lost in thought until the shorter man poked him in the side. He blinked.
"Aaah" Eret jumped and looked at the assembled group.
"Someone's got a crush!" Atali said in a sing-song voice. "Why don't you go talk to her?"
"Me... no....eh... I can't," Eret mumbled. No one expected him to be the shy one. He looked like a bodybuilder and the whole group had noticed Ruffnut eyeing him like he was a well done T-bone steak.
"Dude just go talk to her," Tuffnut said.
"I don't even know how to get her attention!" Eret retorted.
"Well that's easy," Snotlout boasted. "Just use the Bend and Snap!"
"The what now?!" Eret's brows shot up.
"Here I'll show you!" Snotlout said as he snatched a pen out of his binder. The group watched him as he started walking down the path where he 'accidentally' dropped his pen.
"Oh how clumsy of me," Snotlout said in such a fake voice that caused both Ruffnut and Atali to roll their eyes. The shorter man then bent down to pick up his pen, wiggling his behind a bit which caused Hiccup to facepalm, and then snapping back up lightning fast in a pose that he considered seductive......... but really it wasn't.
Eret couldn't help it, the muscular man broke down in laughter. Loud guffaws rang through the area as he tried to get himself under control. Atali muttered "Snot you look like a penguin that lost its fish," while rolling her eyes.
"It works! I TELL YOU IT WORKS!!" Snotlout told them. "I had many of the ladies looking at me."
"Did you date any of them?" Ruffnut then asked.
"Well no......"
"Well that answers that," Tuffnut stated as he clapped a hand on snotlout's shoulder. "Dude, let me introduce you to poetry. The ladies love poetry."
After that little awkward demonstration the group went to their respective rooms. Sighing, he dumped his bag and books onto the bed and walked to the window, seeing Toothless curled up on the windowsill.
"Hey, bud," he murmured, gently stroking the soft fur. The little black cat stretched, his small paws extending before he tiredly sat up, nudging Hiccup's hand as he gently fussed the little cat. His entire body vibrating with delight, he leaned against the hand and drooled slightly. "Please to see me, huh?" he smiled as Toothless stared at him and jumped down, sitting pointedly by his empty bowl. The young man chuckled.
"I see how it is," he sighed, heading to the plastic box and grabbing a pouch of cat food. "When they invent a cat pouch you can open, I guess I'll never see you, hmm?" Toothless gave an indignant meow and gave a neon green stare at him as he poured the food into the bowl. Staring for a moment longer, Toothless turned his attentions back to the food and tore into the food as Hiccup sighed and put the kettle on, pouring a packet of soup into his mug and sloshing hot water onto it. Wearily, he stirred it and stared at his books on the shelf. He had a lot of reading to do.
But he had been in his room for maybe only ten minutes when there was a knock on the door. Setting his soup down with an unenthusiastic sigh, he levered himself up and dragged himself to the door, past Toothless who was fastidiously licking his little paws and cleaning his face and whiskers. Grateful that the little black cat wasn't cleaning anywhere more personal, he opened it and came face to face with Finley.
He started and stared into the round face of the husky man. Close to, Fishlegs was looking self-conscious, his expensive clothes not hiding a person who was a little awkward about his large body and rather short legs. His eyes were actually a kindly green and his blonde hair was cut in an unflattering pudding bowl style. He shuffled his feet.
"Hiccup, could we...maybe, talk?" he asked.
For a moment, Hiccup considered slamming the door in his face, feeling sore and betrayed by Heather. It was clear from the fragments he had gleaned that Finlay and Heather had been seeing each other since April...while she was still nominally going out with Hiccup. Emphasis on nominally, he thought bitterly. But his innate manners and curiosity made him stand back and invite the other man into his room.
The first thing that he saw was Toothless, sitting pointedly in the exact centre of the floor, one back leg sticking vertically up in the air while the little cat unashamedly licked his ass very very carefully. There was a loud slap as Hiccup face-palmed.
"Toothless," he groaned.
"Cat man, eh?" Fishlegs commented, regaining his composure quicker than Hiccup would have credited him. "My aunt has two Burmese and they do the exact same thing-always in the exact middle of the front yard..." Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously.
"Yeah-sorry about that," he apologised. "I think he saves it for when I have guests...or when my parents did. He also specialises in rubbing against people who are cat-allergic or who are wearing white clothing for maximum effect..."
Finlay chuckled and gestured to his cream slacks.
"Should I be worried?" he asked and Hiccup eyed the pants.
"Possibly," he warned as Toothless uncurled and looked up, then walked towards Finlay. He rubbed determinedly against one leg, leaving a smear of black fur and then he hissed and turned, walking off in a huff, his tail flicking irritably. Then Hiccup frowned.
"I guess he smelled Meatlug," the husky man suggested. Hiccup raised a quizzical eyebrow. "My Maine Coon," Finlay explained. "She's so sweet and loves other cats."
"Um...Toothless thinks the correct number of cats on the planet is approximately one-him," Hiccup explained. "Please take a seat..." But as Finlay settled in the small bucket chair Hiccup desperately tried to stop him. "Not that one...oh, too late..." he mumbled. Finlay frowned.
"Why...?" he asked.
"Furball," Hiccup said in an embarrassed voice. "I think you just sat on it." Finlay's expression got strained as he calculated the effects of a vomited hairball on his cream slacks.
"I really wore the wrong pants for this," he sighed and then he looked up at Hiccup, who perched on the edge of the desk. "And I wanted to ask what was going on between you and Heather?"
Hiccup grimaced and tried not to blurt out the first thing that came to his mind -"YOU!"-and frame a measured answer.
"Heather was my girlfriend since Junior Year and I was going to ask her to marry me," Hiccup said tightly. "She dumped me instead because I wasn't going to Harvard Law. Because I wasn't good enough for her." He took a deep breath. "Turns out she was already going out with you at the time, Finlay."
The husky guy grimaced.
"Please-call me Fishlegs," he said. "Only my father and my Great Aunt Hildegaard call me Finlay!" Hiccup stared at him. He desperately wanted to dislike Finlay-or Fishlegs-but there was something genuine and decent about him and he found himself unable to employ his full sarcasm.
"Why?" he asked.
"Well, you see, she's 97 and has never seen the point in nicknames...I mean she calls my Father Froggat which actually is his real name though everyone calls him Ribbet because that's the sound a frog makes but she never got that and..." Fishlegs rambled.
"No-why Fishlegs?" Hiccup asked, curious despite himself. He shrugged.
"Look, I know my legs are stupidly short," he explained. "I mean, when I was born, my Mom was told by the doctor that they looked about as useful as fish legs and it kind of stuck..." Then he looked at Hiccup.
"Okay...that sort of makes sense," Hiccup conceded.
"Why Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked. Rubbing the back of his neck, Hiccup gave a false laugh.
"Um...why not?" he asked in a slightly manic voice. "I mean, great traditional name, very typical...there must be hundreds of Hiccups out there, right?"
"Nope," Fishlegs pointed out.
"Well, my Dad is insanely proud of his Viking heritage and when I was born very small and early, I was like the runt of the litter which is always called a hiccup...so my Dad in his wisdom called me Hiccup. My Mom was mad...she hit him with the bassinet and banished him to the shed for two weeks...but it stuck." And then he shrugged. "Didn't help I remained small for years until I grew this way..." He gestured upwards and then gestured to his middle. "This way, not so much..." Fishlegs chuckled.
"I think I've got both of us covered in that department," he offered and they both laughed. The rest of the night was actually spent in good company and Hiccup felt that Fishlegs just wasn't a bad guy. In fact, the only thing wrong with him seemed to be that he was going out with Heather...but when the husky guy headed back to his own room, Hiccup realised perhaps, they could be friends after all.