Looking at the cage gave him a headache.

Toothless was staring up at him sadly, and Hiccup put two fingers inside the cage to pet the cat, right behind the ears. What could possibly go wrong if the train just allowed passengers to keep their animals on board with them? Okay, a lot could go wrong, but when Toothless was upset, everything was wrong, dammit.

He carried the cage - the death cage, he called it - to where all the luggage was being placed, and winced when he saw the man working throw a bag over his shoulder without a care in the world. Toothless mewled at him.

"Don't look at me like that, bud," he protested, "Hopefully, in a year or so, I'll get a car, deal?"

This did not satisfy his cat, and he kept on mewing sadly, even when the man took it from him. "Gently, please, sir," Hiccup chided, already feeling bouts of guilt for putting his best friend through all this. The man gave him a nasty look, and muttered something under his breath, which Hiccup didn't quite catch, but the middle finger he gave with it didn't leave much to the imagination. He looked at the man's nametag. Ryker. Well, Ryker was unpleasant, that was for sure.

Someone bumped into him from behind, and he turned to see a blonde haired woman struggling with her suitcase. He was about to speak up, to ask if she wanted help, when, to his and Ryker's surprise, she lifted it up, grunting, and handed it to him. Besides that, she had on a backpack, which she held on to.

She brushed her hair out of her face, and then snapped, "What?" when she saw him gawking at her.

He frowned. That was rude. And uncalled for. They tended to go hand in hand. He stared at her. "Nothing. I just - nothing."

"Then stop staring," she responded haughtily, and then made her way inside. He stared at her retreating figure in disbelief. Someone obviously woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.

Women.

Even Ryker was a bit taken aback. Casting one last look at Toothless's pitiful face, he went inside the train.

His ticket said his seat was somewhere in the back, where exactly he didn't know, but he'd find it eventually. Trains and him did not get along, and not just because of their cruel stance on animals, but because he'd never had a good experience on one. Amtrak Corporation (1) was no different, if anything it was worse. He barely survived the subway and the regular train back in college, but a five-hour trip from Berk, which was on the outskirts of Sacramento, all the way to Los Angeles? No. He wanted to know why California had to be so big,

Hiccup jostled through people to get to his seat, stumbling more than once. F12, F13, F14...F20 came soon enough. His ticket said F20A, but then he noted confusedly, someone was already sitting there. For some reason, his stomach flip-flopped when he saw her familiar blonde hair.

It was the woman from earlier.

Astrid Hofferson had actually been having quite a good day. She'd woken up, excited, because she was going home today. It had been so long since she'd seen her mother, father, brother, and dog, Stormfly. Her apartment didn't allow animals, sadly, so her faithfully fierce dog had to stay with her family. And ever since she'd moved to Berk, all she'd thought about was going to visit. Not that she didn't like Berk, she liked it a lot, it was a place where she got to be independant. Astrid loved her family, but they could be the most overbearing people in the world.

Right now, her brother's wedding was coming up, and that was why she was coming back to Aurvandil to attend. It would be a two day ride, and she was contemplating getting off after one night and staying at a hotel, but rent was expensive, and it seemed she'd be spending all her time on the train.

Despite these minor setbacks, her day had been going nicely until she walked up to the door of the train station, and a bunch of guys had passed by her, wolf-whistling. She'd turned around, with a snarl, and thrown a few choice words at them, which of course made no difference to them; one of them had merely said, "Ooh, feisty."

Men.

The encounter had put her on edge, and that was why she had snapped at the brown haired guy near the luggage so fiercely. So it had come off as a bit harsh, that didn't matter, it was one guy, it wasn't like she was going to see him again.

The young woman had been so wound up that when she reached her seat number - F20 - she forgot to check if it was F20A or F20B and had just settled down on the closest one and buried her hands in her face.

She sat there in self pity, until someone tapped her shoulder and she looked up. It was the brown-haired guy from earlier. A scowl settled on her face.

"What do you want?"
"You're sitting in my seat," he said, and she could see that he was just as annoyed with her as she was with him. "I'd like you to move, please."

The please" did not make the request polite, and she furiously whipped out her ticket to show him that the ignorant pig was -

Right. Well, then. Apparently she was sitting in front of him. Well, he didn't need to be an asshole about it. Without saying a word, she got up, as dignified as ever and sat down on the seat opposite from that one. He sat down, and she swore there had been a light smirk plastered on his face. Oh, the git thought he was all that just because she had made a mistake? Well, he could go and shove his smirk up his -

"My name's Hiccup," he stated, holding out his hand to shake.

She gave him such a furious glare that he slowly retreated his hand, but he kept staring at her, and that was uncomfortable. She realized he was waiting for for her to introduce herself. He could go jump off a cliff, and then she'd introduce herself, alright.

But his stare didn't waver, and Astrid glared right back. He leaned back, whistling some tune, that sounded a lot like Demi Lovato's Give Your Heart a Break.

She'd give his arm a break. And his stupid face along with it.

"I'm only asking for your name, y'know?" he quipped, "Not asking to sleep with you or something. Trust me, I've got better things to do than hit on random stuck up girls like a creep."

"What did you call me?" she hissed.

"Apparently I can't call you anything," he grinned at her, and she wanted to slap him, "You don't seem to have a name. Isn't that funny? So," he straightened up, and if possible, his grin grew wider, "What should we call you? Blondie? Judgemental? The queen, able to kill men with a single look?"

"Astrid," she growled between clenched teeth, "My name is Astrid, and if you talk to me one more time, I will disassemble your molecules." She punctuated every syllable with a smack of the lips.

Even now, Astrid knew that he wasn't going to stop talking. She could only hope he wasn't getting off at the same place as she was, and figuring by how...chatty he was, she'd probably figure out soon.

Hiccup was definitely not making her day any better.

(1) Amtrak is "a partially government-funded American passenger railroad service." Basically, the train for long distance travelling in America.

This idea just popped in my head today and I was like YAS. PLEASE. YAS.

I obviously don't own HTTYD, our power couple, or any of the things I make references to, such as...lemme see, what did I make a reference to in this chapter? Gravity Falls, Thomas Sanders, and...er, Amtrak.

I've got finals coming in the next two weeks I should not be writing about these two dorks right now dammit.