After a while, Astrid was ready to throw herself off the train. Or better yet, throw Hiccup off the train, because although he had not said anything for the past five hours, he had whistled. And he wouldn't stop whistling. It wouldn't be so bad if he didn't keep whistling old songs, Beatles and Michael Jackson. If he had to hum, then couldn't he hum something recent? Taylor Swift, maybe? One Direction?
But no.
Oh, she'd tried tuning him out. Plugging her headphones in her ears had worked for the past two hours; even he had gone on his phone. But music blaring in your ear gave you a headache after a while, and when the songs became repetitive, they became boring too.
Astrid suspected he was trying to drive her mad. He would also drum his fingers on his knees, and tap his foot along with the music. At one point, he even sang the lyrics softly. She was ready to rip stomach spasm's mushroom hair apart, bit by bit. Her fists clenched every time he began something new. It was too much, and she decided to speak up.
"Hey, Hiccup?"
He looked up, seemingly surprise that she had even spoke to him, much less said his name. His cheeks colored slightly, and she noted the freckles on his face. "Yeah?"
"Shut the hell up."
Immediately, Hiccup took on an offensive face, and protested almost immediately. "I haven't said anything!" he protested, "What's your problem anyway?"
She crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat, scowling. "My problem? Are you serious? You haven't stopped your damn singing once! And don't get me started on how you keep looking at me like a stalker."
"There's nothing else to look at!" he argued back, "You're right in front of me! What else am I supposed to look at? And also," he took a deep breath before continuing on with his rebuttal. "I did stop when I was eating that granola bar."
"Granola bar?" She threw her hands in the air, before speaking, in a slightly hysterical voice, "Oh, thank God for the granola bar! What a relieving five fucking minutes!"
He glared at her, and she glared right back, because "I did stop when I was eating that granola bar" was the most pathetic excuse she had ever heard in all her life, and she would not apologize for her sarcasm. Hiccup sighed and stared down for a few moments before looking up and seeing that she was still glaring at him. He gaped at her.
"You have got to be the most cold person I've ever met."
There was no response to this, not because she couldn't think of one, but because a voice blared through the train at an annoyingly loud volume and cut off her remark (but it had been one of her best yet).
"We will be arriving at the Amtrak station in Las Vegas in one minute. Thank you for choosing Amtrak."
Hiccup grinned lazily at her, before saluting her and saying, "That's it, Miss Priss. You'll never see me again. Nice travelling with you. Actually," he refined, with a smirk settling in his features, "it wasn't. It was an actual nightmare, and, um, oh yes. You really shouldn't think you're all that, even though you have no respect for the people around you. You're rude, really rude, and, just like all girls, you think you're allowed to walk all over people, which is actually considered a bad trait, Amelia."
And before she could say anything, before she could correct him on her name, yell at him because who the hell did he think he was?, before anything, he saluted her again, and walked away, leaving her gaping.
It was a relief to see Toothless in a few minutes after, what seemed forever, only seeing scowling. Even if his cat was pretty much going on strike for the next couple of year. "C'mon, bud. Let me just get my - here it is - suitcase, and now we can -"
A finger tapped him sharply from behind, and Hiccup turned around to see the girl from the train, Astrid. He'd known what her name was, he'd just wanted to make her mad. Which had worked, and, in hindsight, he probably shouldn't have done.
The glare she was giving him now was scary, and for a second he considered making a run for it, but then deciding that might look cowardly, he stayed put.
"First off, loser," she began, and he knew he was in for it, "My name is Astrid, and you should know, since you practically begged for it. Secondly, I do respect people, and - don't interrupt -" she practically hissed at him, even though he was going to say something she probably wanted to hear, "And my friends and family all agree that I'm a generally nice person, so if I get pissed with you -"
"Er, Astrid?"
"Don't interrupt!" she all but screeched. "If I'm pissed at you, it means you probably deserved it. So now, I'd like to know, why are you such an asshole?"
Hiccup was honestly taken aback at how ignorant girls could be. He was an asshole? She could've won the Nicest Stranger of the Year Award with that attitude. For a second, he forgot what he wanted to tell her, got fired up, and yelled back; there were people looking at them now. "Oh, your friends say that, do they? Well, they're either stupid, delusional, or both -"
"Don't you dare insult -"
"Then shut up!"
Hiccup swore he heard "cute" "married", and "lovers spat" somewhere, and that did nothing to improve his rage. He did not get fired up easily, so it said loads that he had only spent a few hours with this girl, and she had already gotten under his skin in such a way.
And then they both heard a loud whir.
Astrid whipped around with wide eyes, to see the train pulling away, and shrieking in horror, began to run after it. Hiccup decided this was a good time to walk. Away. Quickly.
It wasn't his fault, but from what he knew about Astrid, which wasn't much, he knew she had a temper. So, with Toothless hissing at the cage rattling with him inside, Hiccup tried to make his way out.
Key word: tried.
All of a sudden, his shoulder was grabbed, and he was roughly turned around to face a fuming blonde, who raised her index finger at him. He smiled weakly.
"And we meet again?"
"This." She pointed to the empty track, her face getting redder by the second. "This is all your fault."
And then Hiccup made quite a stupid decision. He laughed, laughed right in her face. It was a small laugh. A chuckle. But he could have been rolling on the floor with tears in his eyes with the way she was looking at him. He averted his eyes and hastily turned the laugh into a cough, which he had no real reason to, she had already seen him.
Astrid exploded. "I missed my train because of you! You idiot, I missed my train! And I paid good money for that! Maybe if you hadn't decided to whistle stupid Beatles songs throughout the whole ride, I'd be on it, nice and simple! But no!" She took a deep breath, still very much riled up. "And now - now - you have...the nerve...to laugh at me!"
His mouth fell open again at this horrible accusation. "How is this my fault, Astrid?" He didn't know why he kept addressing her by her name, it just kept rolling off the tongue. "I didn't ask you to come scolding me, you know! Maybe if you were responsible and mature enough to - oh, I don't know - leave it alone, then you'd be on the train right now!"
She didn't seem to hear him. And then he was facing her back again, and she was groaning as she seemed to remember something else.
"My luggage! Oh gosh, my luggage is gone!"
"You can get it back," Hiccup said, annoyed that she had completely ignored his rant; she seemed far too used to walking all over people. She turned on him again, and then seemed to make a private decision before crossing her arms and giving him a cold glare.
"You're going to help me."
"Sorry?" He hadn't heard right, surely. She couldn't expect to be so rude, blame him for her own problems, and then expect him to help her.
"You're going to help me," she said again, "This is your fault, so you're going to take me home to Aurvandil."
"Aurvandil? No way. Sorry, get a taxi, or a few bus rides, or wait for the next train. I'm sorry to hear what happened, but Aurvandil is like two days from here! By train!"
"I don't have any money," she responded, her cheeks slightly coloring, "I don't have enough to afford any of these things. Only a bit of train food, and that's it."
Hiccup certainly had money. Being the son of Stoick and Valka Haddock did that. But was he actually going to help this girl? He did feel sorry for what happened, although it was in no way his fault. He looked down at Toothless, who looked back up, and Hiccup grimaced at him. Looked like it wasn't going to be just the two of them.
"Alright," he began, looking up at her, "I'll take you. But you need to chill out."
"I'll 'chill out' when I want to," she said haughtily, and started making her way towards the exit, not even looking back to see if he was following.
Hiccup swore under his breath. "I made the wrong choice, bud."
I think it's a lot of fun to write Hiccup when I have to write Astrid, and then when I have to write her, I'm in the mood to write Hiccup. Dammit.
Whelp. Hope you enjoyed (I am so hungry, fasting month has begun, so forgive me if this chapter and the following ones aren't the best).
