hijack time? hijack time.
college AU
Hiccup joined the military, lost his leg, got sent home. He's 25 now, finally going to college because the government's paying. He's doing an engineering degree because he likes machines and he wants to build things. Knows enough to fuck around with the design of his foot and modify his motorcycle to work with it.
Jack went to college straight from high school. Arts major, prefers painting. Working as a barista in the locally-owned coffee shop pays well enough that he actually has some amount of free time.
They meet for the first time in English.
Jack's almost late the first day, so he winds up sitting in the last open seat next to the kinda intimidating guy in a leather jacket with a motorcycle helmet clipped to his backpack. Except he's not really that intimidating when he looks at Jack and smiles.
They learn about each other over the semester, through small talk and analyzing short stories and writing poetry and reciting Shakespeare. Hiccup's enamored with this twink who sees so much light in the world. Jack falls in love with this man who saw, felt, destruction and wanted to build things instead.
They stick together even when they no longer have classes together, making time to meet up in the library, Hiccup picking Jack up from work and taking him home for a homecooked meal, making things and showing each other.
They fall into bed together, and Jack maps Hiccup's scars. Under his touch, everything that almost killed Hiccup becomes everything that failed to, everything that he survived. He's still not proud of his scars, but each one bears new, happier memories and so they don't trouble him as much.
Hiccup builds things. Little contraptions, ideas, prototypes. He wants the world to work better, wants things to last longer and be durable and more efficient. Jack sits beside him sometimes, leaning against him and sipping tea and being a sounding board as Hiccup talks his ideas through.
Jack paints. The home they soon share fills with art of all sizes, from little experimental things to large canvases of cities and nature and they all seem to shine, to say look here, there is beauty in everything. He paints Hiccup hard at work, and then he asks to paint Hiccup himself, covering his skin in sea life and wolves and dragons that ripple over his skin like they belong there. They fill photo albums with pictures of Hiccup covered in Jack's art.
