A Chance Meeting

Chapter 13

"What?" Hiccup squirmed at his dumbfounded expression. He hated confrontations. Luckily for him, I had volunteered to tag along and show my support.

"I said that I'm quitting." His voice faltered at the end and the manager squinted his eyes.

"But we need you. We're understaffed and you're a valuable employee." He crossed his arms, "You can't quit."

"Well..." Hiccup trailed off and I could tell he was getting uncomfortable. I couldn't let him cave; it was time to step in.

"Valuable?" I laughed darkly, "You've been nothing but awful too him since the moment he was hired; it's no wonder that you're always understaffed."

"And who do you think you are? This is a private conversation. You'd best see your way out of here before things get ugly." The manager's glare could melt led, but it didn't phase me in the slightest.

I scoffed at him, "Are you threatening me? Do you want a lawsuit on your hands?" His eyes went wide and I smiled as he visibly backed away from me. "That's better. Now listen carefully to the words that are coming out of my mouth:

"Hiccup. Is. Quitting."

"He never handed in a letter of resignation." The nerve of that man! I couldn't believe that he was still trying to bully Hiccup into working for at least a few more days.

"Too bad. You lost any power you've ever had any of him." I grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards the exit.

"Good luck finding him a job then!" The manager called out. "No one will hire him after I tell them what happened here! I'll blacklist him! Come back he-"

Hiccup and I ignored him and let the doors close behind us, cutting off his rant. As soon as we were around the corner, I jumped with joy.

"That was amazing! You're finally free!" Hiccup didn't look free. He had one hand on the wall and was slouched over, shaking slightly.

"I think I'm gonna puke." Was all he got out before, you guessed it, he puked. It wasn't a lot, thankfully, because we hadn't had breakfast yet. Even so, there was a few chunks on the side of the building.

Pretty disgusting.

Even so, I rubbed his back in soothing circles while he recovered. I could tell that he was super embarrassed, especially with all the weird looks people were giving us when they walked by. Some guy snarkily muttered about how bad someone's life had to be to be drunk so early in the day. I ignored him because I knew it would only embarrass him more if I went and gave him a piece of my mind. I'd already tackled one bully today and had no problem taking down one more.

"How were you so brave?" Hiccup asked, "I mean, you where a total badass, and I was just standing there like a total loser." He was waving his arms back and forth between us wildly, as if it was obvious that he was inferior to me; which he wasn't.

"Hiccup," I grabbed his shoulders and his head drooped so that he wouldn't have to look me in the eyes, "You are not a loser. It takes a lot of guts to even think about quitting in that environment. You stood you're ground and I'm proud of you."

Hiccup gingerly looked up at me. "Really?" His words were raw and tender and it was hard to hear him be so hard on himself.

"Of course! I mean you even puked on his building. That's wild!" Hiccup did a double take at the wall.

"Oh no... I didn't even realize." I laughed at the look of horror on his face and slung my arm around his shoulder.

"Come on, Champ. Let's go get some ice cream to celebrate your liberation from that tyrant." Ice cream was the ultimate mood-fixer. One bite of rocky road and he was almost instantly in a better mood.