Driving from school to Astrid's house used to be tedious, but with his brand new car, that he had dubbed Toothless after his cat, it was actually quite pleasant. The new car smell was nice, and it didn't make rickety sounds like the school bus did.

Going to Astrid's house was one of his favorite parts of the day. Not only did he get to see his favorite girl, they would often just talk and talk for hours. It wasn't often that they would actually do something romantic. The closest they got to it was watching movies on Astrid's couch and making unnecessary comments on them. But even that, Hiccup thought, was amazing. The way he could lie on her lap and she'd start braiding his hair without thinking twice, or when they were both under a large blanket, warm and snuggled up. That was all he really needed with Astrid.

Some kids at school called them the golden couple. Hiccup didn't agree - they were way beyond any type of substance, so no gold. Just bliss.

As he went in with the key under the stair rail (it was a very complicated hiding place), the first thing he saw was Astrid's dog, Stormfly. She rushed to him, barking loudly, and Hiccup picked up the poor thing right away. She seemed to be in huge distress, and then Hiccup heard it.

Screaming. From upstairs. It was more like a string of curses than anything really audible. But Astrid's parents were never home at this time - who was she screaming at?

Hiccup rushed upstairs, flinging open her door to find his girlfriend, already changed out of her school clothes into sweatpants and a hoodie, pulling her hair and crying and having a general...breakdown.

"Astrid - Astrid, whoa!" He took both her hands immediately, and she looked at him, her face tear streaked. "Ast, what happened?"

Astrid didn't answer, merely biting her lip and falling into his form with a huge sob. Her back heaved, and he rubbed it soothingly, slowly settling down on her bed.

"Astrid?"

"I can't do it anymore," she whispered, and then started crying again, with Hiccup at a lost for what he should do. It was at that point he realized there was something wet and sticky on her arm, and as soon as he removed his hand and saw red, his heartbeat rate went double.

"Astrid, what did you do?" He grabbed a tissue from the box on her desk and pressed it to her arm. On her bed, he saw the knife, and his stomach clenched. His Astrid wasn't someone to do this kind of thing.

He cupped her face and wiped a tear from her cheek. "Astrid? Astrid, please tell me what's wrong. Why would you do this?"

She seemed to be trying to get as close as possible to him, and Hiccup didn't mind, so he put one arm around her, the other one still pressing on her skin. "We got our midterm scores back today."

"Did you fail?" was his immediate question, even though he knew fully well that she never failed tests.

"No." She sniffed, with a wave of tears following, and she wiped them away before he could. "But they weren't good. One of them was below a ninety." She looked up, and his heart broke as he saw her tear streaked face clearly. It wasn't a joke. It wasn't something he was going to scoff at. Astrid's parents were strict, and she could rarely give herself a break. "Now Dad's gonna want to get me a tutor, and I don't have time for that, Hic. I - I can't. I'm supposed to be smart, I'm supposed to be good enough."

That was the breaking point for him. Hiccup hugged her tightly, and he felt his shirt get wet as she cried into his shoulder, murmuring reassurances into her ear.

"Oh gods, milady, you are good enough. You're more than that." He clutched her and frankly didn't want to let go. "You're amazing, Astrid. And I'm so thankful I've got you. I got you, it's okay. I'm proud of you."

Her sobbing increased. He'd done this before, because Astrid had these panic attacks often, but this was the first time she had ever raised something sharp against her skin. He felt a pang of guilt. If he had come a bit earlier, he might have been able to stop her. He knew she didn't believe him.

Her parents didn't know about this. Hell, Astrid didn't exactly accept that she had some sort of anxiety, and maybe depression. She just called herself over sensitive, but that...wasn't the case. She faced every school day with a brave expression. He knew she didn't hate school. Neither did he. But the difference between them was that Hiccup could get a bad grade (a rare occurrence) and shrug it off while Astrid could get a bad grade (another rare occurrence) and be upset about it the whole week. And she was upset at herself. That was the problem.

And then there was the fact that they both had a different definition on what a bad grade was. For him it was anything below say, an 82. For her it was anything below a 96.

Not healthy.

"You're amazing. You're the bravest person I know." He kissed her forehead. "I'm here with you, you can cry if you want and talk if you want, okay? No matter what, I got you."

Astrid's hands curled around his arms as she clung to him. Without moving their position too much, Hiccup lay down, pulling her down gently too. She buried her face in his chest and Hiccup sighed, kissing her cheek and continuing to hold her.

She would be okay. He'd stay with her until she was. She would be okay.

I'll be honest with you, this is just my way of relieving stress. I started crying in class today because I got below a 90 on one of my midterms. I'm sorry if any of you didn't like this. This is just the only way I can actually cope.