Hello Readers! It has been a tough week for me so far and I have been relentlessly busy, so I apologize for not having done more to reply to your kind reviews on chapter 3. I got them all and loved them, so thank you for that.

This chapter marks a time in this story that will challenge the boundaries of what is realistically possible in the world we live in, but please don't scoff at it just yet. Everything has a reason and an explanation, I promise. That being said, this is an exciting chapter for me, for Astrid, and hopefully for all you wonderful people who read it!

Consider this as tomorrows update. I won't have time in the morning to throw it up.

When the elevator stopped at the fortieth floor and the doors opened, Astrid literally thought she had gone through a portal into another dimension. When she thought the other floors were nice, this one really was from the future. The doors had no handles on them and hugged flush with the wall. The only indication that there was actually a door was the outline in the wall.

"Oh yes," Gobber remarked. "I should have mentioned that the higher you go in the building the more high tech it gets. Hiccup's brain is like a supercomputer; he's a robotics master." She could only nod and keep marveling at the things she was seeing. There were no televisions here, but instead holographic projections onto walls.

Then, shattering the technological wonderland that was this floor, Astrid heard a loud bark, or roar, or…something, along with heavy clicking. From around a corner, a huge mountain of black fur came sliding around, charging towards them with its tongue hanging out its mouth. Astrid froze in place, her inherent fear of dogs preventing her from moving. The giant dog came to a sliding stop in front of them, panting and slobbering everywhere.

"Toothless, you giant beast!" Gobber laughed, petting the dog as he walked by. "You be nice to Astrid, now!" Fishlegs did the same, leaning down to give the dog a more sustained scratch. However, when he walked by, the massive dog didn't go with. He sat there ten feet away, his head reaching up past her breast line at least, staring at her. She couldn't move or breath, her eyes set on this giant monster of an animal. She'd been attacked by a dog when she was a little girl, and ever since then had a terrifying fear of them. Especially one who very well might weigh more than she did.

Their stalemate continued, and to her dismay, neither Gobber nor Fishlegs realized that she was not with them anymore. The dog sat there, and she had no idea what to do. For whatever damn reason, there was nobody else on this floor who could help her with this crazed animal. She decided that maybe she could go around him. She took a slow step to the left.

Only to have the dog suddenly jump up and assume a stance that looked like he was stalking prey. She froze again, unsure of what to do, when a voice finally came up. "He thinks you're playing a game with him."

She carefully turned her head around to see a mirror image of Ruffnut standing there. This must be Trevor, or Tuffnut, her twin brother. He wore his hair in the same long dreadlocks that his sister did. As well as that, another half-moon necklace hung around his neck, and she quickly noted that it was the other half of the moon that Ruffnut wore.

He wore a yellow tank top and brown cargo shorts, along with similar Converse sneakers to his sister. While her arms were covered in many tattoos, he had a single large one covering his entire right arm. It was bright and colorful, with what looked like waves, fish and ships. On his left arm, there was a devilish looking skull tattooed onto his shoulder, but that was all for that arm. On the left side of his neck, it was tattooed to look like someone had pulled his skin back, and underneath were wires, circuits and gears. On his left leg, winding around his knee and calf, was a tattoo of a winged lizard that looked to have sparks coming from its fanged mouth.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked when she was moving so slowly. "Are you scared of dogs?" His blunt question was welcome as she nodded fiercely. He let a quick laugh go before running past her and tackling the dog. The two of them began to wrestle.

"Go on. Turn right at the end of this hall, then go to the end of that hall!" His voice reached her and she quickly went around the pair, scurrying down the hall. When she was finally clear, she reoriented herself. She reached the end of the hall and turned right, as instructed. At the end of the hall that was now on, she saw a room that was open. It was the only one, so she assumed that to be her destination.

When she poked her head in, Fishlegs and Gobber and another man turned to look at her. "Astrid! Enjoy playing with Toothless, did you? Come and sit down." Gobber said, gesturing to a seat next to himself. This table was unlike the other tables that she'd seen so far, because this one was round, whereas most of the others were long and rectangular.

She took the seat, and quickly found herself on the end of a long stare from the man she didn't know. He was so damn big that she doubted there was anything to him at all except muscle. "Uh…hi. I'm Astrid…" She said hesitantly, not sure why his gaze was so insistent on her.

He held a hand up in a small wave, his face splitting into a far too pearly white smile. "Scott." She could see, when he parted his lips, that his teeth had been worked on by a dentist. They were serenely perfect in his mouth, all of them exactly the same length. Even his gums looked like they had been altered. His skin was almost orange at this point. She'd seen what people look like when they overuse tanning beds. He wore a polo shirt that looked two sizes too small for him, leaving admittedly large biceps exposed.

He must have detected her gaze and flexed his arm. "Like what you see?"

"Snot, stop staring at her like a piece of meat," Ruffnut barked as she walked in, her brother right behind her. Astrid tensed when Toothless the demon hound bounded in after them, but to her relief he didn't come near her. Instead, he ran over and flopped down on a big dog bed that sat in the room. The twins sat down at two more empty seats, Ruffnut to her left and Tuffnut on the other side of his sister. With those two seats taken, there was only one left.

"Whatever, Ruffnut. Don't butt in,"

"She's one of mine, so I will. Keep your slobbery paws off." Ruffnut snapped

All of them had a file in front of them, while she had nothing. "Alright!" Gobber exclaimed. "Formal introductions! Astrid, this is Scott, Trevor, Rachel, myself who is Gary, and Frank. Snotlout, Tuffnut, Ruffnut, Gobber and Fishlegs, respectively. We are the Board of Directors. Or heads. Or whatever you want to call it." She waved and said hi to all of them again, even though she had unofficially met them all already. They all returned her greeting with smiles, especially Snotlout, who actually winked at her.

As much as she was disgusted by him, she wouldn't allow that to show this early. She smiled at him weakly, not really wanting to upset one of her bosses already. Judging by the way his smile widened, she may have already made a vital mistake. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Fishlegs took out his phone and typed something into it.

Not three minutes later, she heard a voice echo from the door. "Sorry I'm late." She looked around to see who it was, and her mind stopped. He was so…different. It was still him, but he was different than when she'd first seen him. That time, it was so casual. Jeans, a shirt and Chinese food. This…this was really different.

When he came and sat down, directly across from her at the table, she couldn't hold herself back. "Harry!?" She blurted out, her mouth hanging open. Immediately, Gobber slammed a gloved hand on the desk, pointing at the auburn haired man with the opposite, a triumphant grin on his face.

"That's what your bloody name is! I thought it was Harold, but I wasn't far off!" He laughed loudly, almost like he was patting himself on the back. Harry, to his credit, gave a bored look.

"You forgot my name? Talk about loyalty on the board…" He grumbled. Ruffnut, who was sitting next to her, balled up a piece of paper and tossed it at him, bonking him on the forehead. She snickered along with her brother while Harry looked annoyed.

"Dude, nobody remembered what your name was. We all call you Hiccup, like twenty four seven. Speaking of which, how did you know his name?" Astrid heard Ruffnut's question, but she was still dumbstruck as to how the nice, average guy from the mall, who knocked her and their food over, had turned into this…this man.

He wore an obviously expensive black suit, with a single button done in the middle of his torso. It covered a purple button up shirt that had the top three buttons undone, revealing a startlingly muscled portion of upper chest. He wore a watch on his wrist that simply screamed expensive, with a thick golden frame. His stubble hadn't been shaved, but it had been trimmed, and the darker shade on his jawline made her mouth dry up.

Harry sat down, looking at her inquisitively. "We met at the mall a while back. The day that I snuck off." He said simply. The others seemed to accept this explanation and set about opening the files that were placed in front of them. Harry, who had left his closed, leaned back, clasping his hands behind his head.

"How do you like it so far, Astrid?" He asked. She shook her shock away and smiled graciously.

"It's very impressive. I'm excited to start here…um…what am I actually doing here?" She asked. She was going to ask one of the others, but she never got the chance. She guessed that he would know, seeing as that nice average guy from the mall was actually the owner and CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. So far, she'd been too swept up in the magic of it all to actually question her presence here. She didn't even have a degree. How the hell was she sitting here?

"We have a large prosthetics division here, and we have patients who come in for new prostheses who need physical therapy. You told me that you focused in it while you were at school. Your resume reflected that as well. So, I have hired you on as a physical therapist." He explained. Astrid's smile widened on her face. So she would actually get to do what she had training in! Granted, it wasn't much training…but still.

"We'll get to the details of your job later on," He flipped open his file finally. "I assume everyone read this? All of it?" There were nodding heads and murmurs around the table. Harry, or rather, Hiccup as she would have to start calling him, set his elbows on the table, setting one hand in the palm of the other.

"Good. Suggestions."

"Sixty five." Snotlout said immediately. "College dropout." The words stung her deeply

"The reason for that isn't on here…" Fishlegs said absently, scanning one of the sheets. Astrid swallowed hard, her muscles tensing as that came up. Just her luck that it would be something that they focus on. As she was fighting her newfound anxiety, she met Hiccup's eyes.

"I know why," He said to the others. "It's a good reason. Not academic or effort related." She let a smile cross her lips, even if she felt like she could be a little mad. In a way, she felt like he had tricked her at the mall, but then again…she did have a resume out, and he couldn't have known that she would be there with Luke that day.

"What's the reason?" Snotlout asked, flipping through the pages. Hiccup looked at him sternly, his jaw clenching.

"One that is perfectly acceptable. Moving on." His voice hardened in that moment, and she almost shied into her chair at the officious, reprimanding tone. She was wondering where the nice guy from the mall was. The one who gave her a high five for even mentioning that she had done physical therapy classes.

"Ninety two." Tuffnut chimed in with a smile. "Still though, college dropout. Sorry Astrid," She blinked in surprise at the apologetic shrug he gave her, as well as how casual he sounded when addressing her. She thought that Boards of Directors were stuffy old men, condescending in everything they do and elitist in nature. Here though, it didn't appear to be that way. Apart from Snotlout, that is.

"I agree with Tuffnut." Fishlegs leaned back, folding his hands in his lap. Gobber shook his head at the two younger people.

"One hundred. Never owned a cell phone, doesn't own a TV." Astrid jerked in a twisted, cruel mixture of surprise and shame as the facts came out. She sounded so…shitty when they were saying these things. College dropout, doesn't own a TV, never had a cell phone…she sounded like a fucking homeless girl.

"One hundred ten. Only person working at home." Ruffnut interjected. Astrid again felt her shame rise as her faults were called into public knowledge. She shrank in her chair, wondering if they had purposefully ran her around to the different heads to find out about her.

It was a stupid thought. None of them had outright asked her what her home life was like. Apart from Ruffnut at least, but that was natural following of conversation when she had asked about her mom and brother.

"Let's do this," Hiccup suggested. "How about we talk about conditions, before salary." Astrid's eyes widened. They were talking about salary with those numbers!? Ruffnut wanted to pay her a hundred and ten thousand!? Shit, the lowest number she heard, sixty five, was far beyond what she had imagined!

"Astrid?" Her brain slammed back into place, and back to the conversation, her neck coloring red with embarrassment when all the heads were staring at her. Hiccup had spoken. Every time she looked at him, she still saw the average mall goer. It was…weird to see him in that chair.

"Yes?"

"Conditions for you employment. Do you agree to talk about them?" Hiccup prompted. She nodded wordlessly, unsure of what he was going to ask of her.

"Alright. Floors open. One at a time."

"Finish her degree." Fishlegs said immediately. "DragonTech can pay tuition costs, as well as incidentals."

"Astrid?" Hiccup posed. She looked around curiously. What did they want? Did they want her to decide? Did they want her input?

"Uh…"

"Are you willing to go back to school and finish earning your degree?" Gobber simplified her task for her, and Astrid nodded eagerly. She liked school anyway, of course she would go back.

"Definitely!" She said happily.

"Agreed." The others chimed in. Hiccup stood up from his chair and went over to a side counter in the room. He dug through the drawers and pulled out a pad of paper, as well as a pen, and came back to the table. He wrote something down, then dropped the pen.

"Alright. Others?"

"What's this reason for dropping out of college?" Snotlout posed, his eyes searching her own when she looked up at him. Before anyone could even say anything, Hiccup spoke up.

"Optional. Astrid, your decision. You can say no, and I won't hold it against you." She met his eyes, and for the first time since he walked in here, she saw the average guy from the mall. His green eyes were soft on her, just like they had been when he knocked her over that day, and his smile was gentle. It made her feel good, but she still shook her head steadily.

"Condition rejected. However, I know the reason for it, and I will factor it in with the final decision." Hiccup said officiously, and suddenly, the CEO was back.

"Do you own a computer, Astrid?" Ruffnut asked. Astrid shook her head slightly, again feeling ashamed. With all the high tech stuff here, a computer must seem like a common teddy bear to these people.

The dreadlocked woman pointed a finger at a laptop in front of Gobber. "We supply her a laptop. She'll need one for correspondence and appointments." Ruffnut said. Hiccup didn't even ask for opinions, nodding and writing it down on the pad. Were these the kind of conditions this company thought of? She thought that conditions were usually stuff she had to do, but they were beginning to list stuff they were going to do.

She thought about it. Would they respond to her if she suggested anything? Did she even have a right to put anything forth? So far, Ruffnut and Hiccup were on her side, and Gobber seemed to like her well enough. "Uh…can I say something?" She hated how quiet and timid she sounded. Like a mouse whispering to lions.

"A condition?" Fishlegs asked, his eyes wide with surprise. Astrid nodded uncertainly. She could see around the table that faces were surprised, but she saw none that were really dismissive of her. Except for Snotlout. He looked really condescending over there.

"By all means. Fire away." Gobber offered. She was hesitant, but she noticed that Hiccup's mouth kept twitching into a small smile.

"I would…uh…like a guaranteed day off to spend with my mom and brother…" She said, her eyes flicking around to see who would shoot her down first. To her surprise and general elation, exactly the opposite happened.

"What day?" Ruffnut posed. Astrid thought for a moment, knowing that he had Saturday or Sunday off, so she should make it something where she could spend a lot of time with him consecutively. Luke was in school for half the day during the week, and she wanted to spend as much time as she could with him on the weekends, so…

"Friday?"

"I agree." Ruffnut said immediately. Tuffnut and Fishlegs both nodded as well, each of them giving her wide smiles. Tuffnut leaned over and presented a fist to her, and she happily bumped it with her own.

"I don't. How can a new hire make such a demand?" Snotlout growled, glaring at Ruffnut and her brother. Astrid tried sinking into her chair, scared that she had overstepped her bounds. To her relief, Ruffnut wasn't the only one batting for her.

"It's not unreasonable. Family is as important as work, and if we're going to send her back to school as well, that will only take more time away from being with her loved ones. I agree with Ruffnut." Fishlegs argued, leaning forward in his chair until his belly was squeezed between himself and the shiny wooden table.

"We're going to be paying for that school! As a new hire, she should be putting in more hours here to balance out the costs!" Snotlout shot back.

"Snotlout, when you finish taking three hour breaks to go to your stupid tanning booth, then you can talk about people putting in hours." Ruffnut said scathingly. Snotlout slammed his hand on the table, rising threateningly from his seat, a snarl on his face.

"Enough!" Hiccup yelled, his voice sounding more like a roar than a yell. "Rachel, keep things like that out of board meetings. Scott, get out of your chair like that again and this new hire will take your empty seat on this board, Understood?" His eyes were wide and fiery, and Snotlout sank back into his seat, looking like a kicked dog. He remained silent, clearly still fuming, and Harry's eyes narrowed.

"Understood?" Astrid's blood ran cold at the pure power and command his voice seemed to carry. She couldn't imagine hearing him be angry with someone. That would probably be downright terrifying. She supposed that he needed that voice to be stern for the business world. To her credit, Ruffnut only smirked at the reprimand. Astrid had a feeling that there was something that she wasn't privy to going on here, but she didn't linger on it. It was clear that this company was very unique in its management, and it wouldn't do her any good to be stirring up fights with her bosses.

"Good. I agree. You have every Friday off, guaranteed." He wrote it down on the pad. When he was done, he ripped the page he had written on off the pad and started writing something else. When he was done, he slid the pad over to her, the weighted stack of paper gliding easily to sit in front of her.

Are you willing to talk about your medical bills?

The question was simple. It was straight forward. He wanted to know, and by the way things were going, it wasn't for anything malicious. She bit her lip, thinking about it. Would it be appropriate to talk about that? Was she even at liberty to say no, seeing as the owner of the entire company she would be working for was asking her?

She knew that he only knew because of Luke at the mall. While it embarrassed her that he did know about them, she knew that he wasn't looking down on her. The fact that he decided to write the question down instead of asking it out loud displayed his concern for her mental well-being. She gestured, and in a second the pen slid down to her as well.

She wrote down a quick answer and slid the pad back to him. All the heads on the table watched the pad slide, then stop under Hiccups firm hand. He read the answer, then looked up at her, his cocked eyebrow asking the question she knew was coming. She nodded slightly. He thought for another moment, then wrote something else down and slid the pad and pen back. When it passed, Snotlout cast an annoyed glance at his boss.

"What is this, pre-schoo-"

"Quiet." Hiccup snapped, glaring at the larger man. Astrid looked down at the pad.

How strapped for cash are you? Again, she figured that his concerns were wholly good natured. He knew that she and her family weren't so good in the money department. Luke had told him that they could afford much, and he had only found out more through the meeting. She scribbled on the pad and slid it back over.

Pretty tight. It wasn't a moment later before the pad came back.

I can give you an advance on your first paycheck. Give you some breathing room. She glanced up, meeting his emerald eyes. She saw only kindness there, and she gave a quick nod. He smiled for a bare second before his face hardened again.

"We're done talking conditions. Final decision time. Fishlegs?" Hiccup looked at the larger man. He nodded and took out his phone, setting it on the table in front of the CEO. Ruffnut leaned over to her.

"He's recording a statement detailing your employment; we use that recording for organizational purposes…well…Valka does at least…" She said quietly. Astrid nodded in understanding, excited to hear what her 'detailing' was.

"Conditions and details for the employment of Astrid Finn Hofferson have been discussed and decided upon in this meeting of the Board of Directors, on this tenth day of May in the year two thousand and fifteen and are as follows: Astrid Hofferson will attend the University of North Carolina at Charlotte as a full time student, and shall receive reduced salary until a four year degree is earned; the costs of attendance to the aforementioned University shall be covered by DragonTech Robotics; DragonTech Robotics shall supply Astrid Hofferson with a company issue laptop, as well as a company issue cell phone; Astrid Hofferson shall have every Friday of every week of every year off from duties at DragonTech Robotics for the purpose of valued time with family. Astrid Hofferson shall work a flexible schedule to be arranged at the immediate closure of this meeting; Astrid Hofferson shall work the aforementioned flexible schedule at a salary of no less than one hundred and twelve thousand dollars per year; the aforementioned salary shall increase upon the earning of a four year degree, as stated prior, and the percentage increase to be decided after the conclusion of a meeting of the Board of Directors. Dictated and validated by Hiccup Haddock, owner and CEO of DragonTech Robotics."

So, I hope you all enjoyed it!

Expect chapter 5 to come on Sunday, because it needs to come out sooner to balance out this chapter a bit.

Reviews are super appreciated!