Hiccup had just clocked out of McDonalds and took off his hat. He walked over to his bike in the parking lot and got on. He put his helmet on and started the engine. He backed out of his spot and out of the parking lot and headed to his apartment. He hoped Merida had already left to hang out with Rapunzel for the night.

Truth was, he didn't hate Merida. He actually learned to like her over the past few years. They met in freshman year in high school. Both major athletes. She was better at baseball than him and he was better at basketball. Mainly cause he was taller than her and therefore longer legs made him move faster. Otherwise, she'd kick his ass. Merida didn't want to hang around a bunch of girls and always insisted on playing with they guys. So her and Hiccup were always on the same teams. They were on Baseball together, Basketball, the only difference was that she took up Tennis and he took up swim. Both their parents insisted they only be on two athletic teams in high school but Hiccup got good grades. Merida did too but she made him do her homework for her. They became really good friends at the end of Junior year. Best friends over senior year and decided to go to USC together for Athletics. They didn't even stay on campus. Both having rich parents, and Hiccup working shifts at McDonalds, they were able to afford an apartment together. When they got to USC, they met their best friends, Jack and Rapunzel, who came into college dating. They never broke up. Jack wanted to be a comedian and Rapunzel wanted to be an artist. And Merida didn't do relationships. Hiccup was dating Astrid from his Anatomy class. They were going onto two months. Merida wasn't sure what sport she wanted to go into. She thought about being a tennis star, a baseball player, or maybe a UFC fighter. Hiccup hadn't given much thought on what he was going to do after college. He thought about athletics but then he also wanted to be an animal trainer.

Now they were nearing the end of Sophomore year in college.

He parked the bike in the parking lot under his apartment. He took of his helmet and went inside. He climbed up the stairs and unlocked the door. He looked over to the couch to find Merida sitting on the couch, eating popcorn and watching some movie.

"Mer?" Hiccup asked. Merida looked up at him with half a handful of popcorn shoved into her mouth. she chewed it up and swallowed before she talked.

"Yeah?"

"What are you watching?"

"What does it look like?" He looked at the screen and tried to identify it. But it didn't take look when he saw the topless man and the completely nude girl with her hair in a braid.

"Seriously? Fifty Shades?"

"I've never seen it before!"

"Whatever it's better than the book." Merida laughed at him and a little popcorn flew out of the bag.

"You read the book? You know it's for girls, right?"

"I'm aware!" He took his leather jacket off and tossed it on the back of the couch. Merida looked back at the screen and frowned.

"This is stupid. Why is she so..."

"Dismissal?"

"Yeah! Can't she just fucking stand up to him? It's not like she signed the contract!"

"You're missing the point, Mer." He sat down next to her and Crazy In Love started in the film. "She wants it to happen. She's giving the whole BDSM thing a chance. Just to try it out. She stated her limits and he's respecting those."

"Well, it's ridiculous and demeaning to women. She's like Bella from Twilight."

"You do realize that this was originally a twilight fanfic, right?"

"Well, that explains why it's tacky as hell!" It got silent as they watched Christian Grey start his 'playing' on Anastasia Steele. Then it got awkward. Merida looked at Hiccup. "Hiccup talk to me, I don't wanna watch this. Distract me." Hiccup looked into her eyes although it was hard to look at them when her whole face was flushed red.

"Okay, why are you still here?"

"What do you mean?"

"I was expecting you to already be gone with Rapunzel."

"Oh, um...about that. I'm staying here tonight. Her and Jack are going out tonight instead of tomorrow."

"But me and Astrid were..."

"I know, and you can still do that but please be quiet in your room when that happens? I really don't wanna hear that."

"Alright, I'll let her know if it gets too good to bite down on a pillow." Merida giggled.

"Ha, as if you're that good. But you're okay with me being here then? I'll try to stay out of the way as much as possible."

"Yeah, it's fine. Just stay in your room on your laptop or something."

"I can live with that." When they looked back up at the screen, Christian was spanking her. Still going at it. Anastasia had her hands tied to one of the posts on the bed and he was taking her from behind.

"I have to admit though," Merida said, "it has a great soundtrack. I don't care what anyone says, this version of Crazy In Love is so much better than the twerking version." Hiccup chuckled under his breath.

"The twerking version? It's the original version."

"I don't care, this one is way better." The song started to come to a close. Christian was carrying Anastasia to her room. Merida stuck her hand in the bag to realize there was no popcorn left. She stood up and went to throw it away. Hiccup stood up as well and followed.

"So after all these years of hearing your energetic music around the place, you actually like slow and rhythmic songs?"

"I can like different genres you know. Like the other day I went from listening to Turn Me On to 96 Quite Bitter Beings. I have various tastes." Hiccup turned towards the TV on the wall and watched as Anastasia walked down the stairs with the pink dress on.

"Is Frank Sinatra one of your various tastes?" Merida looked up at him and then to the TV.

"Sometimes, if I'm feeling in a 40's or 50's mood." Merida smiled at him. Hiccup glanced to the screen and back at Merida.

"What are you looking at, Mer?"

"Nothing...remember when you were forced to take me to prom?"

"'Forced'? I asked and you said yes."

"On the 6th try. Besides, I didn't want to see you get completely ridiculed by the basketball team."

"They were pretty surprised that you actually let me take you. To be honest, a few of them wanted to ask you but were too afraid that you'd kill them."

"Conner asked me."

"Yeah, and he ended up in the nurse's office." They both laughed. Hiccup looked at The TV where Anastasia and Christian were dancing. He then looked at Merida again. Merida was still looking at him. Hiccup then half way bowed and held out his hand. She stared at him and smiled.

"No." She said blatantly. Hiccup looked at her.

"Okay, let me try this again." Hiccup grasped her waist and pulled her close. Merida's eyes widened at the closeness. But she still smiled. "Dance with me."

Merida chose not to answer. Although letting him take her right hand in his left was enough to let him know that it was ok. He started slowly dancing with her around the room. He smiled at her and lifted his hand. She twirled under his arm and spun out. He brought her back to him and she was pressed against his chest. They were still smiling and having fun. He dipped her and she hung her head back. Her eyes were closed and she couldn't keep the grin off her face. He pulled her back up and they continued to spin around in the room. She reached her left hand to hold onto his back closer. He ducked his head to lean it against hers. Then he spun her and Merida saw something she didn't want to.

Astrid in the doorway scowling.

Merida stopped where she was and her smile disappeared, Hiccup staring at her confused. Until he looked behind him seeing her there as well. Astrid turned to face away from them and walk away. Hiccup let go of Merida and went after her. Merida didn't want to cause trouble but she wanted to know what was going to happen. She walked out to the top of the staircase and stayed out of view.

"Astrid, wait, I can explain. It wasn't what it looked like."

"You know, I kinda knew eventually you were gonna cheat on me with that slut."

"She's not a slut!" Hiccup's voice got more serious than Merida had ever heard before. "Merida is a great person and don't ever let me catch you calling her anything like that again."

"She is a slut! And I'll gladly yell it to the whole USC Football team that's already had her." Merida didn't hear much after that. It got kinda quiet. "What is wrong with you, Hiccup? I'm your girlfriend! You can't do that to me!"

"Not anymore. Go ahead, charge me with battery assault but I have the best lawyers in Southern California."

"What did you say?"

"We're over, Astrid." Merida heard her scoff and the clicking of her heels as she walked down the stairs.

"Just so you know, you're gonna regret this Hiccup. Face it, I'm the best thing that happened to you!"

"Keep moving Astrid." Hiccup walked back up the rest of the staircase to see Merida sitting on the ground against the wall behind the staircase. "Mer, did you hear all of that?"

Merida looked up at him. "Yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ruin everything."

"Hey, it was her fault. She had it coming." Hiccup held out his hand and she accepted it and he helped her stand. "If anyone makes fun of you, they gotta go through me first." He smiled at her. Merida looked at the floor. Then she remembered something he said.

"Hiccup what did you mean, charge you with battery assault? What did you do?"

"Not much, I just pushed her into the wall."

"Hiccup! I didn't know you had it in you to actually push a girl."

"It was more of a nudge."

"Well that makes more sense." They stared at each other and Merida started feeling uncomfortable under his gaze. "Let's go back inside." Merida walked to the open apartment door. She walked inside and Hiccup followed close behind. She shut the door and looked at the TV. Christian had Anastasia on his shoulder and was yelling at her.

"You wanna continue your movie?" Hiccup asked. "I'll sit here and watch it with you if you'll feel better." Even though it was Hiccup that had just broken up with his girlfriend, he wanted to be there for Merida who just heard herself being called a slut multiple times by Astrid.

"Nah, you've read it, just tell me how it ends." She walked down the hallway. He followed her. She passed his bedroom door and stopped in front of it. She looked to the bottom of the door where green light was seeping through. "I forget sometimes that you have green light bulbs in your room." She reached for the doorknob but looked to Hiccup for permission. He nodded that it was okay and she opened it and walked in. She looked around at the candles on his bedside table. He had also set up a fog machine on low. She laughed. "Really, Hiccup? Were you going for mystical?"

"Maybe?" Hiccup said ending his statement a little higher than intended.

"Well, you succeeded in that regard, I guess." She looked around at the room. It had been painted to look like a forest. Merida remembered. It was Rapunzel's art. She remembered eating sandwiches with her when she took a break and had shades of green on her forehead, probably trying to find the right shade. And with the green light bulbs, the room felt even more calming. She sat on the end of his bed. She looked up at Hiccup. "Only you would go all out to get a fog machine for your first time with a new girlfriend." Hiccup tried to focus on the face that Merida was his best friend and not that he was planning to do things in this room tonight and that a beautiful woman was sitting on his bed looking up at him, expectant.

Get your mind out of the gutter, Hiccup. She's your best friend, Hiccup thought to himself. He smiled and sat next to her.

"Well, I like to make every moment count. You know me. I make things exceedingly special." Merida fell back onto the dark green sheets. She looked back at the wall behind his headboard. She looked at the picture above his bed upside down. Then she got up, crawled over to the head of the bed and stared at the picture. It was her, Hiccup, the baseball team in high school and Toothless dressed in one of the jerseys.

"I remember that day," she said softly. "It was the day we won the league championship. Then found out we were going to state."

"Yeah, it was a good day." Hiccup looked at the black lab in their old jersey. He was so little back then. "I didn't go see Toothless today." Merida looked at him.

"I did. I went over to your dad's house and played with him for awhile. I guess you can go see him tomorrow."

"We really need to find an animal-friendly apartment though. I'm pretty sure my dad is tired of taking care of Toothless for me."

"We'll find something. Eventually, Toothless will be able to live with us." She faced away from the wall. She laid down on the bed, facing the ceiling. "It's so serene in here." Hiccup got off the bed and pulled out his lighter. He lit the candles one by one. Merida looked over at him. She laid on her side, her hand resting on the other pillow.

"Well, it's about to get more serene in here with the scented candles." He put the lighter in one of his drawers. He turned off the lights and let the candles be the light in the room. Merida inhaled.

"Hey, I know that candle. I know that scent." She looked at him. "Where did you get that?" He faced her. "I've only ever smelled that once, when we took that weekend in Colorado with your mom. It was at that little candle shop in Old Colorado Springs. It's...it's the Dragon's Blood candle. It's the greatest scent in the world." He smiled. "How did you get them?"

"I had my mom go back and send me some." He took off his shirt and got into the bed. Merida didn't feel nervous. She knew he wan't going to try anything. He leaned over and turned off the fog machine. "I was originally going to give them to you for your birthday but then Astrid decided she wanted to...you know what? Let's not talk about that." Merida smiled and leaned against Hiccup.

"I'm gonna sleep in here tonight."

"Okay." She closed her eyes and inhaled the sweet scent.

"Tell me how Fifty Shades of Grey ends." He looked up at the ceiling as he held Merida in his arms.

"He takes her to the play room and he hits her with a belt. Six times. Each time, she gets more and more angry with him. When it's over, she runs to her room and he follows. She admits to him that she's in love with him but he tells her that she can't love him. The next morning, they break up and she leaves him. She goes home and cries after taking it all in." He looks down to see that Merida has already fallen asleep. He brushed her red hair out of her face and kissed her forehead. He leans over and blows out the candles. He spoons himself around her, his chin resting on her head. "Goodnight, Merida."