Chapter 1: Another Same Old Morning

*Hiccup POV*

*BEEP...*BEEP...*BEEP*

I slowly opened my eyes; they almost seemed to refuse to open as if my brain was screaming at me to not get up and stay in bed. I mentally slapped myself to stop from giving into the wonderful temptations of bed. I gave a Monday morning sigh as I sat up and swung my legs over the side of my bed, firmly planting my feet on the ground as I finally stood on the hard wooden floor. I bent over as I popped my back like a 70 year old man and slowly shuffled towards the door like one, stopping as I remembered that my alarm was still beeping away. It was, or seemed, so loud that it sounded like a bloody air raid siren. I once again shuffled over to the alarm and smacked my fist on top, which seemed to do the trick. Satisfied, I made my way to the door, stopping to grab my slippers and lazily throw on my dressing gown.

I reached for the handle, turning it to open the door. As soon as I did, a black blur came hurtling through the doorway and I screamed as I was unexpectedly knocked backwards onto the floor. I smashed onto the hard wooden surface as Toothless started assaulting my face with kisses. Any normal dog would of sat and waited for their owner to come out and greet him or her themselves.

Toothless, to say the least, was not normal.

Toothless was a big ol' black border collie, and I loved him more than anything. He was named Toothless, oddly enough, because he had interestingly random gaps in his rows of teeth. It had been that way ever since we picked him up from the dog shelter. He was peculiar however, because Toothless seemed to understand humans, me in particular, more than most dogs. But hey, that's why I love him.

Toothless continued to toungeingly (is that a word?) assault me as I tried to shove the huge ball of fur off my chest. I succeeded and stood up, glaring at Toothless with one of those I-hate-you-but-I-still-love-you kinda looks. He just stared back at me with what looked like a smug smirk on his peculiarly adorable dog face.

Arrogant little-

I lifted an arm to wipe the dog spit off my face, momentarily disgusted by the amount of thick dog slobber that gathered on my sleeve. "Tooth, you know I hate that." He just continued to look at me, head slightly tilted to the side. There's just no point in trying. I decided it was time for breakfast, so I tapped my leg twice (something Toothless had come to understand as 'follow me') and made my way downstairs. Toothless followed suit.

I reached the bottom of the stairs and headed left towards the kitchen. I walked in through the door and saw my Dad, Stoick The Vast: Chief of Police, already sitting at the table. I gave him a casual 'Hi' and he grunted in response as I grabbed a bowl and proceeded to make myself some cereal. Toothless made his way over to his dog bed, my Dad giving him a casual pat on the head as he walked by, and sat down.

I poured myself a bowl of cornflakes and brought it over to the table to set it down. I then went to grab the milk from the fridge and added it to the bowl. I finally grabbed a spoon and sat down across from my Dad, who had started reading the paper. Our meals were often spent like this. A casual silence over food, me clearing the plates and then my Dad going up to his study to attend to his police files and the sort.

It had been like this ever since Mom died.

My Dad met her when he was still a rookie as a matter of fact. It was on a murder case, which was a horrible situation for them to have met in, and she was one of the witnesses. He had told me that he had to interview her, and the way she looked completely threw him off task. He said she was absolutely stunning. And by golly she was. Well, from the few pictures I've seen I definitely know she is.

Ever since the interview, they had been keeping in touch. Dad said that Mom thought she felt something between them on that first unusual encounter. And she was right about that too. They met up at cafes, went to the movies, even went ice skating once. But, they went to the library a lot, because of my mothers love of dragons. And hey, she gave it to me too. I had an entire sketch book filled with them.

He said she even had dragon decorations at her wedding. That was the funniest one to me. But, I don't really know too much because, of course, I never really knew my Mom. But even if I didn't, I could still miss her.

Anyway, sorry, getting side-tracked.

I took a break from eating to give a quick glance up at my Dad, who was still engrossed in the paper. I thought I might try and engage in conversation, even though god knows how many times that's failed. "*cough* So, Dad, you working late again?" He responded without even bothering to look at me. "Hiccup, you know I pretty much always work late. "Oh, y-yeah right."

That's another thing; my nickname. My real name is Henry but my Dad had always called me Hiccup, he said Mom did too. He had told me it was because I was such a small and fragile baby that they just thought the nickname suited me. And I guess it did.

The rest of the meal was eaten in a somewhat awkward silence before I cleaned up my bowl and Dad headed off to work without even saying goodbye. Typical. I went back up to my room, but when I reached the top of the stairs I heard Toothless whining and then remembered I forgot to feed him. Stupid.

I went back down, fed Toothless and then finally went upstairs to change. I just put on some casual jeans, a black undershirt and a leather jacket. People always told me it didn't suit me but I didn't care. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and pondered on whether or not to put on hair gel. I decided against it and headed back downstairs.

I bid a quick goodbye to Toothless, put on my shoes, grabbed my bag and headed out the front door. I stopped, remembering I had to grab some keys because, as dad said, he was going to be home late. I turned around and briskly walked back into the kitchen to grab my keys off the rack. I snatched them up and once again made my way back out the door. I stepped outside and turned to lock the door behind me. I turned around again and surprisingly, I saw Francis 'Fishlegs' Ingerman waiting there for me. He was really one of my only friends, because I didn't really talk to people too much. Usually I just like too keep myself to myself. I also have no idea why we I call him Fishlegs. Well, I suppose everybody does.

I gave him a quick smile and he gave one back with a little wave. "Hey Fish, didn't expect to see you. You don't normally come to my place." He just casually shrugged and said back, "Well, I just thought I'd walk with ya today. Nice jacket by the way." It felt nice knowing someone enjoyed my dress sense. "Thanks Fish."

So, we began our long and perilous journey to school, our road their being filled with dangerous monsters and unholy things no mere mortal could ever dream of encountering! None of that actually happened, but it made the journey more enjoyable to think about it that way.

Shut up, I'm mature.

We can always take the bus, but the time it takes to walk there is like ten minutes for both of us because Fishlegs lives right across the street. Plus, I like walking because it makes me feel like I'm less lazy than everyone on the bus. I also don't like public transport full of loud and annoying people. Not to mention all the big jocks and sports people who are just built to smash your face in. And I am a perfect punching bag.

But, we eventually arrived at school and me and Fishlegs parted ways with a pleasant goodbye. Fish had to go to the other side of school for Homeroom but luckily mine was fairly close to the school entrance.

I leisurely strolled up to the door and pushed it open, only to be greeted by a swarming mass of students. I carefully pushed my way through the vast raging ocean, only receiving a few 'hey!'s and 'watch it!'s on the way. By the time I made it to my locker the crowd had slightly dissipated, giving me some room to actually open it.

I twisted the dial to put in my number combination, which is my birthday, and then unthinkingly swung open the door. As I did so, I heard a noise like someone's face had just made contact with my locker. I swiftly shut closed my locker again, and turned to see who I'd hit. My breath hitched. It was her.

I had hit Astrid Hofferson in the face with my locker. And she wasn't happy about it.

Oh, I should probabaly explain who she is. I had known Astrid Hofferson since 3rd grade, and crushed on her since 3rd grade. We used to be firm friends back then and would always hang out together. But, ya know, opinions change. Unfortounately she had followed me all the way through school and I had to live knowing that there was no chance for me to be with her. I had always hoped, but everyone can hope and most of the time hoping isn't enough.

But, Astrid was currently murdering me with her eyes. I was about to apologise but she hardened her glare even more, so I shut my mouth before the words could spew out. "You should watch what the bloody hell you're doing Haddock!" I could feel the rage radiating off of her. I nodded vigorously and gave an attempted apology. "Yeah, sorry Astrid, just not really feeling to focused today. But hey, worse could happen."

She delivered a swift kick to my leg.

"You should be lucky it wasn't you on the receiving end of the door Hiccup. Because when you get hit in the face by my locker, it'll be on purpose". I clutched my leg in pain and sat down with my back against the wall. "Yeah, duly noted. I'll make sure to pay attention next time." She simply rolled her eyes and wiped at her nose, which had now started to bleed. "Just great. Thanks Hiccup now I have to go the nurse's office."

I perked up at this opportunity to escort her there and spend more time with her, then I realised that this wasn't the best of circumstances to be in her presence for longer than I already have. But hey, I tried anyway. "Astrid if you want I can walk you to the-". She cut me off with another deadly stare and I once again shut my mouth. She gave a low growl and then turned to walk off to the nurse's office.

I slowly stood up and watched as she disappeared down the hall. I ran a hand through my messy mop of auburn hair and let out a sigh. "Nice start to the day Hiccup. Nice start indeed."

Well, my locker interaction with Astrid wasn't the worst thing to happen today.

I was currently sitting down in the middle of the school hall, cradling my own broken nose after good ol' cousin Snotlout decided that for no apparent reason, he wanted to sock me in the face. And he bloody well did.

See, these were the only moments I shared with my cousin. He'd come over, ridicule me, I'd say something witty and then I'd end up with something broken, battered or bruised.

See, the funny thing is we used to get along.

Me and Snotlout used to hang out all the time when we were kids. We'd spend hours out in the woods doing hide and seek, playing fetch with Toothless, building forts and tree houses and just generally enjoying ourselves. Sometimes I'd go back to the woods to just sit and reminisce about all the good times we'd had. Because, in all honesty, I wish things were still that way. I wish we could still get along.

But, as we got into our teenage years we started to hang less and less. He became good friends with Timothy 'Tuffnut' Thorston and they both got on like two peas in a pod. Meanwhile I was all on my lonesome. The only person I could even slightly consider a friend at the time was Fishlegs, and we didn't even really talk much back then.

It honestly pained me too see him start to ignore me more and more, because I really loved Snotlout and still wanted to spend time with him. It was worse of course when he did start to notice me again, but only for the reason of bullying. So, I'd sort of given up hope of us ever being friends again.

I silently cursed under my breath and took my hand away from my nose, only to see my hand had become crimson stained. I felt too lazy to go see the nurse, so I just grabbed a tissue I handily had in my pocket and wiped my hand. I tossed that one away and then grabbed another tissue to hold up against my dripping nose.

I looked up to see Fishlegs standing over me with his arms crossed like an odd disappointed parent. "Hiccup, you gotta learn to stop backtalking. It just makes it worse for yourself." I rolled my eyes and removed the tissue from my nose, which had now stopped bleeding. "Yeah, thanks Mom." Fishlegs, too, rolled his eyes and held out his hand, which I gladly accepted.

He hoisted me up onto my feet and I thanked him with a lopsided smile, and he gave me one back. The bell suddenly rang, signalling the end of the school day. We relaxed into a comfortable silence as we walked together, making our way to the school doors. After finally getting through all the other students, we walked through the door and down the steps.

We were about to start making our way home, when a voice suddenly called out. "Hey Useless!" I froze and slowly turned to see who it was, and my eyes became downcast. "Oh, god", I muttered.

Snotlout was standing there proudly, his friends the same behind him. The arrogant prick wore a smug smirk on his face as he called out once again, "Hey, get over here fishbone!" Fishlegs looked at me apologetically, and I gave a sad smile. Fishlegs stayed put as I slowly walked over, shoving my hands in my pockets like a shy child.

I finally reached Snot and his cronies and stood expectantly. "So. What? What do you want?" Snotlout's smirk grew even larger and I growled silently low in my throat. "Oh nothing Hiccup, I just wanted to introduce you to my friends." I scoffed and let out a little laugh, which made Snotlout's smile falter. "Snotlout, in all honesty, I couldn't give less of a shit about your friends and I couldn't give less of a shit about you."

Snotlout's face contorted into one of anger, and he growled at me. "God I hate you useless." I rolled my eyes once again and kicked some dirt on the ground. "Funny, we used to be friends you know Snotlout. Obviously you're to thick to remember.

That set him off.

Snotlout raised his fist and clenched his fist, and I braced myself for his punch. But suddenly I heard a very feminine but very loud voice. "STOP SNOTLOUT!" I turned my head to the right to see Astrid of all people, standing there with her arms crossed.

Snotlout lowered his fist, and suddenly switched to a flirtatious smile. "Oh hey babe!" Astrid shifted her weight to one leg and gave him an angry glare. "How many times have I told you Snotface NOT to call me babe!"

For some reason that made me snicker, and Snotlout responded by elbowing me in the stomach. "So anyway, what do you want Astrid babe?" Astrid glared even harded and shifted her weight to her other foot. "I want you to leave Hiccup alone."

Yeah, he should- wait what?

Astrid was standing up for me? I must honestly say I was surprised. I mean, we weren't friends but we weren't enemies either. I suppose she sort of had a neutral hate for me, but a neutral liking of me.

Snotlout let out an awkward laugh. "And why would I do that?" Astrid put on a sly smile. "Because I said so. Don't want me to kick your ass do you Snotface?" Snotlout gave an angry sigh, and stepped away from me.

Astrid stood up straight and smiled. "Thank you Snotlout. Now you and your 'friends' should get going." Snotlout looked at me and gave an angry frown. "You got lucky this time fishbone. Consider yourself lucky she's so persuasive. And hot."

And with that said, Snotlout turned and walked away. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and turned to face Astrid, who had begun walking towards me. She reached me and kinda just stood there. I was a little nervous, so I didn't want to speak first. But I did.

"So... thanks I guess." She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She walked on past me, gently bumping against my shoulder. I followed her with my eyes until she was out of sight. Fishlegs walked over to me and stood beside me with his hands on his hips. "So Hiccup, nice flirting skills dude."

"Shut up Fishlegs."

A/N: You read through the whole thing. Hooray! So thanks for reading the first chapter of my first ever HTTYD fanfic. I've been a fan of the series for a long time, so I thought I would write a fic on it. This idea just came to mind, so I thought I'd write it. Well thanks.

You can go away now.