#i attempted writing the image description three times and it kept glitching me out so i gave up

[proship-angel]

i just want to make it so clear that youtube is the place where i found my both favorite and least favorite example of how shipcourse has breached containment

like bro you are on youtube, you're lucky if someone even wants to read your description bc it was in the description of a gacha react video.

[silverlysilence]

The Thief that Stole a Death

Inspired by @fabllama02 and @spyritevesta

For some reason, my brain took their Pirate!AU and thought, hey, pirates steal, thieves also steal, let’s roll.  This is what came out.

Hiccup stared down at the photograph.  There was nothing interesting about the composition or the lighting of it that should have held a person’s attention so fiercely.  Nothing like the beautiful winter landscape photographs blown up and proudly displayed in various frames around his office.  No, this was a plain picture of a white pedestal against a white background. The only splash of color was the black vase with gold inlay sitting on the pedestal.  It looked awful, just like a police photograph.

But that was what it was after all.  A police photograph of what could very well be the next target in a string of robberies. If his hunch turned out to be correct.  It was hard-pressed to be certain with the string of robberies spanning over five years at the least since they still weren’t certain if some of the thefts could be attributed to the thief or not.  Whoever they were, they left no calling cards or an identifiable pattern to follow.  They were a ghost for all intents and purposes.

Save for one blurry picture.

Glancing up, vivid green eyes stared at the 5x8 that hung dead center in the pegboard surrounded by far too many newspaper clippings and photographs. It was far more gruesome than the photo he held in his hand despite the grainy image.  Two bodies sprawled across the ground, blood pooling around each in what would be a death sentence if not for the hooded figure kneeling in front of the first body.  Even if the camera only caught the back of the figure, it was easy to see the person was applying pressure to the victim’s chest.

Subconsciously, Hiccup reached up and ran his hand over where the scars of the bullet wounds marred flesh beneath his shirt.  A phantom pain pulling a grimace across chapped lips.  He didn’t remember much about that night.  There were fragments. The sound of gunfire, followed by a canine yelp and the pain of armor-piercing rounds ripping through his flat jacket.  There was the heavy metallic smell of blood lingering as tires squealed and a sickening crunch as pure agony radiated from his left leg, causing him to blackout.

Then, there was the cussing and irate voice hissing at him to hold on as a weight settled on his chest. If he really thought about it, he swore he’d opened his eyes a sliver and saw a halo of white.  However, he couldn’t be sure if the pain hadn’t distorted his recollection, which was what he told his captain when he came to in the hospital, and only after the man assured him his K-9 partner made it through his own surgery as well.

At the time, he thought Captain Grimmel wanted a description of his savior to commend the good Samaritan. It was only months later he came to find out that the good Samaritan who had worked to save both his and Toothless’s lives just happened to have robbed a jeweler a street over at the same time the drug bust had gone down.  In their hast to flee when the ambulance finally showed up, the stolen Fabergé egg was found clenched in Hiccup’s bloody hands.

Hiccup could have just left it at that.  However, something was just a little off.  Why would a thief who’d just stolen a Fabergé egg worth a couple of million easily stop and help him?  A cop of all things.  A little digging into the stolen Fabergé egg turned up that it had been stolen three years prior. Moreover, the name on file as the owner of the Fabergé egg in jeweler’s ledger was fake and the information led to a dead end.

Hiccup had been given a commendation for the retrieval of the Fabergé egg when all of it had come out into the open.  He didn’t feel like he’d earn the commendation.  If things had ended there, he might have let it go.  However, on his first day back on the job��simple desk duty due to the loss of his foot—there was a box waiting in his new office with a clipping of the newspaper article showing him personally handing the Fabergé egg back to the rightful owner.

He hadn’t known what to think of it at the time.  Maybe a gift from his fellow cops as a welcome back present but once he opened it that was the last thing on his mind.  For there, inside the velvet-lined case, was a delicate crystal figurine with the famous missing cat-eye emeralds for eyes.  The first of many valuable lost treasures to appear in his mail, on his desk, and one memorable time, in his freezer.

“Hic, are you in here again?” a silvery voice had the lead detective of the white-collar department looking up to see concerned amber eyes staring at him.  Walking into the small office, the brunet paused to trail his fingers against the 5x8 photo, lingering for just a moment.  “Searching for your Guardian Ghost Thief again?”

“Jackson, I wish you wouldn’t call him that,” Hiccup sighed as he set the photo down and began replacing the various documents back into the open file with the only picture they had of the Black Jade vase.

Feeling warm arms wrapped around his neck from behind, he relaxed back into the chair as Jackson propped his chin on top of auburn hair.  “What else am I supposed to call him? You’ve already nixed Guardian Angel, Swiper No Swiping, and my favorite, Cupid.”

“This is the reason you’re naming privileges have been revoked.”

“I still stand behind my reasoning. If this mysterious thief hadn’t saved you that night, you would have never accidentally photo-bombed by picture and we would have never met,” Jackson hummed, causing vivid green eyes to slid over towards said framed photo of him and Toothless walking through perfectly pristine snow.  It was breathtaking in its simplicity but that was probably more the sentimental value speaking.

“While true, we are still not calling him Cupid.  We don’t even know if he is a him anyways,” the detective sighed.

“Oh, all right, have it your way,” the brunet laughed, kissing him on the temple before pulling again. “I just came to tell you I’m heading out for my run and I should be back in an hour or so.  Depends where my legs take me or if I find some inspiration.  Don’t stay in here too much longer, Toothless will want his nightly walk soon.”

“Can’t you just take him on your run?  He likes you and I’d feel safer if you weren’t running around alone in the dark.”

“Ah, don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself,” Jackson grinned as he headed for the door. “Besides, I wasn’t going to stick to running, there’s this new parkour move I saw online I wanted to try for myself.”

Letting out a deep sigh, Hiccup relented.  “Fine, just be careful and take your phone with you.”

“Don’t I always?”

“No.”

“Lies!  I do too.”

“You just forget to charge it. That’s the same thing.”

“Why did I marry you again?”

“Because of my charming good looks?”

Jackson stopped at the door and looked at him with a critical eye.  “No, I’m pretty sure I married you out of love.  For Toothless. You two just came as a package deal.”

“Ouch, I know where I stand in this relationship,” Hiccup attempted to pout, but his lips kept twitching upwards in amusement.

“Well, I’m sure we can reevaluate your current standing after I’ve had my run. Maybe move it up a few notches.  Say, in bed?”

“I like the sound of that.”

“I can’t wait,” Jackson came back to leave a taste of what was to come later in the night, leaving Hiccup breathless as soft lips pulled away.  “Love ya, Hiccup.”

“Love you too; be safe.”

Jackson just laughed as he slipped through the door and headed for the front door, grabbing his phone and keys on the way out.  Humming, the brunet started at a slow pace, steadily increasing his speed so by the time he veered off into a dark alley, he had enough speed to make it a good five steps up the wall to grab the fire escape ladder.   Swinging himself up, he vaulted off the rail and grab hold of the drainpipe which he took to the roof.  

Heading for the HVAC system, he pulled a panel off the side and collected the duffel bag from within. From there, he quickly changed into the clothes waiting for him and made sure to place all his personal belongings, especially his phone, into the bag.  The blue-tinted contacts were a bit harder to put on without a mirror, but once they were in place, the darkness of the night vanished with the night-vision lenses.

Removing his Airpods, he replaced them with two odd-looking electronic pieces that wrapped around the shell of his ears and were virtually unnoticeable. Tapping the right one twice, he felt more than heard the pieces humming to life and knew his hair had lost all color as a few strands of white hair fell in his eyes.  It was a weird glitch in the system that had presented in the prototype when the prototype was nothing more than a bulky laurel crown. He hadn’t minded and, in fact, insisted the upgraded version did the same as a disguise.

“Hello, Guardians. I’ve got our new mission,” Jack Frost, elusive thief, head up the police photo of the Black Jade vase he’d slipped from Hiccup’s file while he was preoccupied with their goodbye kiss. Even though he couldn’t feel it, he knew the contacts were active and transmitting the video feed. “It’ll be the perfect anniversary present for my hubby.”

“I am pretty sure your anniversary isn’t for another three months,” the delicate, feminine tones of the Tooth Fairy, the notorious White Hat Hacker, chirped over the comms.

“That’s my wedding anniversary. I’m talking about the night we liberated one of the Easter Bunny’s lost eggs.”

I have a weakness for the Good Thief.  So yeah, this is what I did yet again instead of writing on HoaDS.  Opps.