I should re-title this "Scarlet knows nothing about cars." Also, Hicclout bromance. I kind of like it. You see kind-of support of Snotlout and Hiccup in the second movie. I imagine that once Hiccup proves himself, especially if he became big in the field of street racing in this AU, Snotlout was all over being able to brag about how "it runs in the family" and "yeah, i'm pretty close with the guy who rides the Night Fury. C'mon babe, I'll introduce you." And Hiccup was like "ehhhhhh okay?" Pardon moi.
When Astrid finally arrived at the garage, she thought she had ended up at the wrong place. It was empty, except for the cheering on the small black TV in the corner. She walked in and out of the office three times and checked the front sign twice. She stormed into the office space for a fourth time, ringing the bell above the door. She heard something faint coming from the door ajar behind the counter that she hadn't noticed before. It was a growling noise; the sort of noise made by power tools.
"Hello?" Whoever was in the back space of the garage couldn't hear her, so she decided to take a chance and made her way behind the counter. The blonde found it difficult to make it through the cramped space without knocking things over. Even with her petite frame, she had to suck in her stomach to get in behind the counter. Sticky notes, crumpled paper, pens and empty energy drink bottles littered the counter space. She pushed open the door with caution.
The noise was louder one she entered the actual garage. It echoed between the concrete bricks on the walls and the cars that covered the floor space. A motorcycle sat against one of the two work desks. Papers and notes littered the entirety of the room, and Astrid wondered how any work got done here at all. She remembered that Hiccup was never one for keeping organized, and if it ran in the family, his uncle probably wasn't either. She let her eyes wander over the projects in the garage. None of them looked finished. Some cars were up on the lifts, other's were apart with their parts scattered across the floor. In the back behind the cars, she saw the shimmering black of a familiar vehicle. Two equally familiar lanky legs stuck out from underneath it. She smiled.
"Hiccup?" Astrid called out in the direction of the car. The drilling noise stopped and she heard Hiccup mutter to himself, too quiet for her to make out any of the words. Rock music played in the background faintly, and it made sense why he hadn't heard her until that point. She watched as more of the boy appeared from under the car.
"Huh?" He had a confused look on his face before he saw her and waved her over. "Oh. Hey, Astrid. Hi Astrid," He waved her over, running the back of his hand across his face. A line of grease smeared across the freckles on the bridge of his nose. He smiled sheepishly at her as she approached, completely unaware.
"I was starting to think you sent me the wrong address, Haddock," Her hand came to land on her hip. Hiccup chuckled and glanced down. His stained hand rubbed the back of his neck nervously, disheveling the auburn hair already sticking up there.
"Yeah, sorry," He scuffed the ground with the toe of his shoe, "I didn't hear you come in." He pulled himself to his feet with a grunt and wiped his hands off on the grubby denim of his pants. Hiccup glanced in the direction of the metal door at the front of the building. "Did you bring your car?"
"Mm," Astrid nodded, "She's parked in the front. I wasn't sure where you wanted her or how to get in here, so..." she trailed off. She felt the end of her ponytail tickle the back of her neck when she turned her head to follow his gaze. "It's obvious now, but I needed you to open that."
"Huh, yeah. It's pretty obvious," Hiccup's thin arms shrugged nonchalantly. He cleared his throat and pointed a slender finger in her direction. "You can drive your car in through there once I open the door."
"Alright," Astrid shot him a friendly smile as she turned to head to the door. In the light of day, Hiccup seemed to become more like a hiccup. In greased stained clothes and run down, faded converse, he was more relatable as the awkward pre-teen she used to know. She preferred Hiccup Haddock, gangly, freckled clutz, to Henderson Haddock, alcohol-influenced street racer.
Astrid climbed into her Nadder, watching the heavy door slowly disappear into the top of the building. Not that she minded drunk Hiccup. He was better than most. He didn't have grabby hands or a sloppy mouth that didn't know the meaning of no. There was something about sitting on the leather sofa with him; with him hanging on her every word that reminded her so much of their friendship before. It came naturally to her.
She pressed her foot down on the gas petal and navigated her sleek blue vehicle into the building. It was difficult, with the cars laying around in an unorganized fashion, to find a place to park. They eventually settled for a spot between the two desks, almost knocking over the motorcycle. He moved around the garage with practiced finesse, stepping over half-built car parts and ruined paper as he retrieved his toolbox from beside his Night Fury. Astrid slid out of the leather seats and held her keys out to him, only to move them away when he reached for them. She curled her lower lip at him in a small snarl.
"Be careful with her," she warned him, before she finally let him pry the keys out of her grasp. Her car was her and Fish's pride and glory, it would break both their hearts if she let Hiccup blow her up. He gave her a goofy grin, gapped teeth and everything.
"I wouldn't dare hurt the precious car of the mighty Astrid Hofferson, M'Lady. That would be suicide- ow!" She punched him hard in the shoulder with a satisfied nod.
"Just get to work," Astrid turned away from the spindly boy and scanned the room for a place to sit. She settled on the wooden desk closest to them. Ruffling through the blueprints and drawings of what looked like a cat she made room for herself to sit. She briefly checked for any oil and then she climbed up onto the desk.
"If you need reassurance, I could tell you what each tool does." He motioned jokingly to the box beside him, spilling over with metal. He ducked down and picked up a wrench, waving at at her with a pointed finger, "This here is a wrench, used for tightening things." Hiccup spoke like he was trying to sell her that particular wrench. His eyebrows wiggled animatedly on his forehead, disappearing at one point into the reddish-brown crop of hair on his head.
"You should write a book," Astrid suggested, with the hints of a smile played on her face. Hiccup grinned wide at her, puffing out his chest in a playful manner.
"Yeah? I'll call it 'Tool Usage for Dummies'." Astrid couldn't help but laugh, her arms finding their way behind her and knocking a couple of papers onto the floor.
"We'll make millions." Hiccup's face grew lightheartedly serious. He eyed her with curiosity. His green eyes were intense, even when he was being playful, and she found herself unable to look away.
"We?"
"Yeah, we. I expect part of the profit." Astrid placed her hand on her chest. "At least twenty percent for helping you come up with the idea, Haddock."
Hiccup chortled under his break and shook his head. "Twenty percent? That's a whole lot for just helping me come up with the idea," He clicked his tongue, widening his arms in an animated gesture, "How about ten?" Hiccup's grin was contagious; Astrid found her own smile had grown to show her teeth.
"Make it fifteen, and we have a deal. Plus you have to finish fixing my car." Hiccup turned away from her to study the car, his grin fading to a smile as he turned to the task at hand.
"Is there any problems you've noticed besides the cosmetic work?" He asked her, running a calloused hand over the nasty dent on her bumper. Astrid quieted for a moment as she racked her brain for any other problems.
"She's making a grinding noise," she said slowly, before she shrugged, "You could check out if you want. I was going to ask my mechanic about it when I went to see him Tuesday. You don't have to look at it."
"It could be important. I'll check it out anyway." Hiccup had already lowered himself under the car; his voice was muffled.
"To be honest, I didn't even notice it at first. I was on the phone with Eret and he brought it up before I hung up..."
"Eret?" Hiccup sounded perplexed. Astrid blinked a few times, and doubled back on her words from the party prior. She vividly remembered bringing up her boyfriend to Hiccup last night. They talked about him. He was a subject that she had brought up a few times.
"Yeah, Eret. I told you about him last night?" It came out like a question.
Hiccup laughed, foot tapping against the concrete floor while he worked. "I was pretty wasted last night, Astrid. It's all either black or blurry."
Oh, that made sense.
"Eret's my boyfriend-" Astrid found herself cut off by the sound of something dropping to the floor. Hiccup swore as the flashlight he was previous holding rolled out from under her car.
"Are you okay?" She sat straighter and forward, ready to help if it was necessary.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Sorry. Continue on." Under the casual tone of Hiccup's voice, Astrid could detect a hint of something abnormal that wasn't there before. He sounded almost bitter. She convinced herself she was reading to much into it. Hiccup usually had the harsh bite of nasally sarcasm under his words.
"Yeah, my boyfriend. He's in London right now, checking out a college near his grandparents. He has a scholarship for soccer there," Astrid kicked her legs beneath her as she perched on the edge of his desk, "His parents moved here senior year, so I met him my last year of high school." They had made perfect sense. Eret was into forced captianhood of the soccer team, and she was fastest runner in track. Everything about them clicked into place.
Hiccup didn't respond. The garage was silent except for the sound of the radio DJ's raspy voice telling about the next song. Astrid felt the awkward silence settle over them. It was almost tangible in the air. She stared down at her sneakers, unsure of what to say next. It was the first time she could remember Hiccup not having something to say to her. She let out a quiet sigh, reaching up to brush her bangs away from her face and behind her ear.
A short, stubby man not much older than them who looked oddly familiar burst into the room. He had brown hair, which looked improperly cut into choppy layers down to his jaw. There was a baseball hat shoving the hair even further down in a ridiculous fashion. He struck Astrid as the kind of guy who would count higher than the amount of pushups he'd actually done at the gym to impress a girl. The door slamming echoed through the garage and the brunette started talking before he had seen them across the room.
"Yo, Cos. I need you to fix the breaks on my car. They're growling at me- am I interrupting something?" His thick, fuzzy eyebrows wiggled as he glanced between Astrid and the legs sticking out under the broken car.
"No, Snotlout," she could hear the annoyed expression on Hiccup's face just through his tone of voice, "I'm just fixing her car."
"Good," Snotlout winked in her direction and leaned against the desk beside her. His face closed the distance between them, far to close for her to be comfortable. As he leaned closer she noticed a purple mark on the left of his face, about roughly fist sized. It wasn't at all shocking. "More for me."
Astrid assumed this was the same Snotlout Ruffnut had brought up earlier, judging by the unusual nickname and the cocky personality. She held up a small hand and pushed her hand into his big head, shoving him away from her and rolling her eyes.
"Y'know, we could hang out. I live in my parents basement, it's totally awesome down there. We could work out. You look like you work out." He shot her an arrogant grin and she let out a frustrated huff. With a roll of her eyes Astrid slid out of his line of reach, over a couple of the tools that were laying around. She wasn't in the mood to deal with Mr. High and Mighty. She was never in the mood to deal with boys with big egos. She got enough of that at home.
"I think I should go, Hiccup," she turned to face her preferred companion, arms resting over her grey t-shirt. "I still have things to do."
Hiccup seemed to catch on and he nodded, pushing himself out from underneath her Nadder. Sitting up, he rested his arm against his knee. His hands didn't seem to know what to do as they flailed for a moment before coming to settle over each other. She missed how he avoided her eyes to stare at paper on the floor.
"It'll take me a few days to get her good as new. If you have to go, I guess I'll call you when it's done."
Snotlout butted his way back into their conversation, his canines glinting slightly as he nodded his head in her direction.
"If you want a ride, I could take you in my Nightmare," Snotlout asked her, his words laced with a hidden innuendo. A suggestive movement of his hips confirmed her suspicion, and provoked a disgusted noise from her mouth.
"Not interested. I'd rather walk," she told him with a scowl. She flicked her hair out of her eyes again and stalked back towards the front door. She waved a goodbye to Hiccup, ignoring Snotlout's disappointed face. He was attempting puppy dog eyes.
"But babe," For such a wide man, Snotlout had a had a high-pitched whine that grated on her ears. Hiccup snapped at him with a remark Astrid missed; she was already on her way out of the door.
0o0o0o0o
"She wants the Snot," his cousin said proudly, puffing his chest out and hitting it once with his fist. It was some kind of manly gesture Hiccup never understood. It just made his cousin look like a bigger monkey than he already was. "She totally wants the Snot."
"She has a boyfriend," Hiccup shot a glare in Snotlout's direction, pulling himself off the dusty garage floor. Of course she had a boyfriend. Perfect Astrid Hofferson should have a perfect foreign boyfriend in London for soccer. One that scrawny Hiccup Haddock could never compete with. He didn't know why the feeling of disappointment settled into the pit of his stomach. He certainly didn't expect that he would fix her car and win her heart so they could ride off into the sunset. He didn't expect anything, if he was honest with himself. He felt lucky he even had the opportunity to rekindle their missing friendship. Even still, the fifteen year old who lived inside him -the one with the unrealistic infatuation with her- was crestfallen with the news that now there was no chance.
"That has to sting," Snotlout stared at him with pity. His large, meaty hand came to land on Hiccup's back. The look Hiccup shot back was dubious, eyebrows lifted, the corner of his mouth twitching downwards.
"What do you mean?"
"The girl you have a thing for has a boyfriend," the hand on his back patted him with more force than was necessary, sending Hiccup forward slightly. Hiccup shot him a glare and shook him off, ducking down to start to gather up papers Astrid had knocked to the floor. He didn't mind she abused his drawings and blueprints twenty minutes ago; now he was frustrated the little regard she had for his things.
"I don't have a thing for her," Hiccup grunted with annoyance.
"You do."
"I don't."
"You do," Snotlout pointed at the pile of papers with a brawny finger, before lifting it up to poke it against his shoulder. Peeking out from the hoard was a scrap of torn graphing paper, complete with a doodle of a familiar girl with a long braid that fell over her shoulder. Hiccup snatched the drawing and crumpled it in his hand, shoving it into his pocket. He was caught. He was screwed. Snotlout couldn't keep a secret for the life of him. "Besides, everyone could see the googly eyes you were making at her last night," a simple shrug added emphasis to his point.
Hiccup groaned and let his head fall against the concrete bricks. The force caused a small pain to shoot through his forehead. "Was it that obvious?" He silently kicked himself. He was hopeless. He thought he was over Astrid when she fell of the face of the earth. A part of him was sour that he had let her weasel her way back inside his heart.
Snotlout seemed to notice his cousins distress and let his hand fall onto his shoulder again. Hiccup couldn't seem to shake him off. "I think it's time for some of Snotlout's lady advice, Cos."
Hiccup let out a very dry laugh. "Oh, yeah, 'Lout. You have great luck with getting girls," the sarcasm flew right over his cousin's head.
Snotlout patted him on the shoulder. "Yeah, I do!"
"Weren't you telling Gobber earlier about how that blonde with the braids punched you in the face last night for trying to kiss her?"
"It was an act of love, Hiccup. You really don't know anything about girls," The brawnier man shook his head, "No wonder your having such a hard time with that blonde."
"Last time I checked, a punch in the face is not an act of love." And he was the one who knew nothing about girls, "Especially not one that leaves that nasty of a bruise." Hiccup waved his index finger towards the pale bruise on the side of his cousin's jaw.
"Shhhh, Cos," He he held his hand up to silence Hiccup, shaking his head and shutting his eyes. "The love guru here to help you," Snotlout wrapped his beefy arm around Hiccup's shoulders, shaking him. "You still have a chance. You just have too-"
"He's European."
"Okay," Snotlout gave him another pitying glance, "Maybe it's a very small chance-"
"And apparently amazing at soccer." Hiccup was doing his best to nip any of his cousins dangerous ideas in the butt. Preferably before Hiccup would have to become a hermit, away in a cave, to disguise the shame.
"Okay, with me as your wingman, you'll do fine." Snotlout's confidence was smothering.
Hiccup pushed his cousin off of himself, stepping away from him and dropping back down to the floor. "I don't need a wingman. I don't plan on trying to win Astrid."
Snotlout stared at him with blank, glazed over eyes before he continued talking. "Okay, Cos. Whatever floats your boat. Here's how this is going to go..."
Hiccup blocked out his cousin at that point, sliding himself back under Astrid's car. Snotlout never listened to him anyway, so it wasn't a surprise that those words flew right over his head. Hiccup hoped that his cousin's small attention span would cause him to forget all about whatever ludicrous ideas that surfaced in his dense skull. He used the busy work of figuring out how her particular model worked (he never worked on a Nadder before) to distract his wandering mind off of the beautiful blue eyes and blonde hair, his cousins voice fading into dull background noise.
