Author's Note: This is my first chapter as the new author of The Feeling's Mutual, I hope I haven't deviated too far from Rumbling Night Cutter...

Surprise, Frustration and Confusion

Hiccup was surprised how much work he and Astrid were able to get done on their project that day after that awkward conversation, it was like 4PM, it was the noncooperation movement other nonviolent civil disobedience movements lead by Mahatma Gandhi, the scene they would skit was the release of Mahatma Gandhi after his arrest in 1922. It was something Hiccup knew about and after mentioning it and he commented that it would be a great way to throw a monkey wrench into the clearly violent personal of Mr. Treacherous, the poetic 'f... you' both wanted to say to their least favorite teacher. Astrid was sold on the idea messing with the teacher, and knowing that everyone else would do something violent and try to skit a pivotal battle. The idea was also appealing because of its simplicity, there weren't so many props and most of the props were already in the school's drama club.

"Okay, we got our revolution and our scene for the skit, now for props and such." Hiccup said, the two were at the table and had gone thorough a wide away of options until they reached the for-mentioned agreement to use Gandhi's 'revolution'. Hiccup didn't know why but Astrid looked... no this crush is stupid, so stupid, So. Very. Stupid. You look nice with glasses. He thought to himself concerning Astrid and her glasses.

"Excuse me?" Astrid said, Hiccup realized too late he thought out loud.

"Um... ah... nothing... not a thing, Not. A. Thing." Hiccup tried to hide what he said, giving one of his weak toothy smiles.

"You think I look good as a nerd." Astrid jabbed, her checks red with annoyance, the two may have agreed to try to work towards peace between the two but old habits die hard.

"I didn't say that." Hiccup said with a false blaster.

Astrid rolled her eyes as she rocked her head back unamused with Hiccup. "Whatev." and Astrid turned to her the notebook she had, and doted down a few notes that were in their textbooks on India from 1920 to 1947, her focus on the references, hopefully the school library will have those books. Hiccup returned to his laptop in shame, he too was looking for source material, and while he would have go through his results with a fine tooth comb, he got a lot of good material a lot faster.

"You look nice with glasses." she heard him say.

"Excuse me?" Astrid asked, she had spent so much time trying to hide that she needed these things that she never thought anyone would complement her, let alone Hiccup.

"Um...ah... nothing... not a thing. Not. ," Hiccup was trying to hide what he said, clearly he didn't think he was speaking.

"You think I look good as a nerd." Astrid jabbed, old habits die hard, but mostly she wanted Hiccup to step-up.

"I didn't say that." Hiccup was trying to be more than what he was.

"Whatev" Astrid replied and turned back to her notebook, she notice Hiccup hid his face in a sorta shame over stepping down, Astrid couldn't help but blush, it was short-lived, Astrid was no 'girly-girl', blushing at a dork's complement. After a while of silence. "You know, nerd was never intended as an insult." Astrid had no idea where that came from, maybe it was part of her attempt to make peace.

"What?" Hiccup asked

"Dr. Seuss' A Nerd at the Zoo, in it the 'Nerd' is a creature that was trying to become part of the zoo animal population." Astrid informed, how did she remember that, oh it was one of the few books her father read to her before her mother left.

"Sorry, I guess I am not familiar with all his books, I guess I only know The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Horton hears a Who. So what brought that up, the whole 'nerd' thing?" Hiccup asked, his eyes squinting in confusion.

Astrid had no answer at first. "I really don't know. I think it was kind of like the "You look good in glasses" thing, at least I owned up to it. So any results on the search?"

"I found a couple of biographies on Mahatma Gandhi, and a few articles on the Noncooperation movement with a couple of other first hand accounts, I'll print them out and maybe we can start writing the paper Monday. So what would you like for diner, take out or something in the fridge?" Hiccup asked a slight panic on his face and in his voice, he was not use to having guest... well not true Fishlegs and he would do gaming sessions every so often... but that was nothing like this.

"We'll raid the fridge first. So... what does your dad do?" Astrid was trying to find something to talk about, at first her face revealed her nervousness but with Hiccup looking in the refrigerator for what to raid, she had time to be gain her pose. She was sure not why that topic but she went with it.

"While he owns Haddock Industry, he spends most of his time as the school district superintendent. Its easier for him to handle schools than his son. So what about your folks?" Hiccup asked, he was clearly taken a back by the sudden interest in his father, s

There was a brief moment of shock and terror for Astrid. "My dad's … in between jobs right now, my mom is... gone." She was not ready for this topic, her face however remained stoic. "Anyway, so what games do you play, on the X-box?"

Astrid could see the frustration on Hiccup's face for the rapid change in topics but he went along. "Recently its been a Halo 3 PVP binge, I has decent kill ratio if I may say so, you?"

"Mostly those free puzzle games on my phone, its all we can afford." yeah this topic was not much better,

"You want to play, how about we start with a co-op the story mode of original Halo, so you can get familiar with the mechanics." Hiccup suggested. Astrid glared at Hiccup. Was this talking fish-bone underestimating her?

Hiccup fell on his bed face first, he garbed his pillow and used to muffle a scream. His kill ratio, his record, his immortality, well in game, were … powned... and by a nearly legally blind noob... okay newbie... fine a surprisingly talented novice... but still. Actual that was a little... okay a very very very dramatic overstatement, but it took him weeks, months to get the skills he has and Astrid sniped his $$, okay it was a head shot but still, their first Vs. against each other after only a few hours of playing through the story mode and two man team play, no-one have every gotten close to even kill "Nóttmóðr" (Night Fury) his character even when he started... okay Fishlegs got close that one time but that was a trap Hiccup set-up for Fishlegs' character and it paid off. In the end one more reason he hated Astrid... okay he had to hate himself too; he was damn too good a teacher, but still. He was however thankful that the game that lead to his current aghast was not online and would not affect his record, but it didn't reduce his anger that much. When he look up he was looking right it Toothless' face.

The mutt was clearly confused, Hiccup noted, the dog witnessed all the effort and time Hiccup put into teaching Astrid and after passing what the dog understood to be the final exam shouldn't the teacher be happier. Another thing also confused the dog, Hiccup assumed correctly, if Hiccup wanted to keep his record why did he teach Astrid so well. "I am messed up, Bud. I have a crush on my bully. That's why." Hiccup informed the big black dog. Toothless just rolled his eyes as if he viewed the whole thing was stupidly made more complicated than it needs to be... which it was, Hiccup had to admit... well only to himself, he was not in the mode to give the dog the satisfaction of being right... well not at the moment.

"Hiccup, you okay?" came Astrid's voice, she was concern. Hiccup had to admit that Astrid didn't rub her victories in the face of her opponents, not that she hid her smug grin after besting anyone whom thought she was an easy victory, and it was one more reason he has this crush on her, but he doesn't like being on the receiving end of it, especially right now. She was in the door way with concern, real concern, on her face.

"Just fine. You did... well, Stormfly Deadly-Nadder." Hiccup said clearly not fine but he was calm as turned to lie on his back. He used her character's name... Deadly-Nadder... that should be... No Hiccup focus, he thought to himself hiding his face with his left arm. "Fishlegs must never know about that game. We maybe... friends... but if he finds out..." Hiccup couldn't finish the sentence, not that it was bad thing but he honestly didn't know how to finish it, he was pointing to Astrid with his right-arm, the gesture was clearly his attempt to at least show some dominance, this is his home and Astrid was a guest.

"Alright, as long as you take what you know to the grave. I am going to bed. Good-night." Astrid said, she was surprisingly mellow.

"Good-night." Hiccup replied still a little angry over his defeat, but he was starting to let it go. Astrid left the room, Toothless gave a whimper. The poor dog was so confused by the humans behaviors today, both Hiccup's and Astrid's. "We humans have an act to make things harder than they need to be." Hiccup informed the dog removing his arm still looking at the ceiling. Toothless only shook his head at Hiccup, clearly the answer was not good enough but it looked like he was not going to be a better one from Hiccup tonight.

Toothless knew he was surprising intelligent for a domestic dog, probably smarter than the average wolf, but his human charge was one baffling after another; first was the day Hiccup lost his lower left leg. If Toothless was anything other than he was he would be blaming himself for not pulling Hiccup along in the walk when Hiccup stopped, but Toothless was what he was and he knew Hiccup has only himself to blame for what happened... well the driver of the car was technically the one at fault do to the human's pedestrians have the right of way law thing... but still Hiccup shouldn't have stopped... Second was why Hiccup both hated and had a crush on Astrid, Toothless could understand the hate, Astrid was a near continuous threat to Hiccup's life, and Toothless could understand the crush... okay only in part; Hiccup was going through that stage of human development and Astrid seemed to be a suitable mate for any male human, but both... Third was Hiccup recent allowing of Astrid into their home, by 'their' Toothless was referring to Hiccup, himself and MountainMan (Stoick), out of the blue, the forth and most recent was Hiccup teaching this 'vid-di-o ga-aim' 'Hay-low' to Astrid and his anger over Astrid betting him... all these contradictions Toothless would be surprised that humans have survived as a species for as long as they had if it were not for the fact that they know how to cook pieces of cow so well. Cow...what was the cut called... 'Stake'... yum... maybe there is... Focus Toothless... You have to do something. The dog thought to himself as he exited the room. Normally he would sleep in the same room as Hiccup... okay on with Hiccup on the bed, but tonight he figured he would better serve his human by sleeping-out side. Thankfully MountainMan made Hiccup's bedroom door-knob something Toothless could use to open the door after Toothless was brought into the home. Toothless moved the dog-bed that he sleeps in/on when he was not sleeping with Hiccup and to half-way between Hiccup's room and the room Astrid was staying in. But before he went to sleep he went back into Hiccup's room.

Hiccup was sprawled out on his bed and his red 'fake ears' were on his nightstand. Clearly the human was not planning to hear anything until he got up. Toothless didn't like that. While their conversations were silent on Toothless' end... 99 out of 100 times, shouldn't Hiccup be getting as much out of his ears as he possibly can, maybe learn from his lack of use of his left leg. Toothless knew that if he was losing something he would get as much out of it as he could, like if he (Toothless) was told that his tail was going to fall off in three days, Toothless would wag and chase his tail until he couldn't, he was a little tempted to do that right now. Another reason Toothless hated when Hiccup took out his 'fake ears' was that if Toothless needed Hiccup to hear, Toothless would have to lick Hiccup's ear. Toothless didn't mind the licking, he liked licking Hiccup it was how Toothless showed his love to his human charge and as much as Hiccup said otherwise all his actions said he enjoyed being licked, but Hiccup would always whine, when Toothless liked his ears, "You're lucky that washes out." or something to that affect. Toothless was only doing his job, only giving what he, MountainMan and Hiccup agreed to be the sign from Toothless that Hiccup needs to put his 'fake ears' back in if Hiccup was asleep when Toothless needed to make sure Hiccup could hear (how Toothless was trained by Hiccup and Stoick) and Hiccup was always moaning about it. Well maybe tonight, like most nights, there would be no need to lick Hiccup's ear.

Author's note: I took the liberty to change the project slightly, when I took AP history classes, my project assignment was to focus on one particular thing.

The A Nerd at the Zoo reference comes from the second season of the H2 show America's Secret Slang, and I think I read the actual book once a long time ago.

There will be more of Toothless in the upcoming chapters, and maybe some of a few other characters...

Please Read and Review, critics are welcome

Foxmorgorth