wow I didn't think I'd have time this weekend but here we are
Things that happened immediately following the Mistletoe Situation:
· Ruffnut following Astrid to the bathroom
· Astrid locking said friend out of bathroom
· The boys continued staring, slack-jawed for near fifteen minutes
· Hiccup excusing himself to "water the pool"
· See above, but remember that it is winter
· Very confused party guests mulling about the remaining slack-jawed male teens—they hadn't seen the spectacle, having been blocked by four of the six, and also because Astrid had been quick about it
· Astrid, still in the bathroom, arguing with herself in an effort to convince herself that she "felt nothing"
· The party disintegrating into nothing as 11:30 rolled by, and the friends slowly coming to and leaving for their separate homes
· See above: Astrid also managed to sneak away amongst the mass of drained partygoers, suddenly aware of what she had done, and regretting it immensely
Things that did not happen immediately following the Mistletoe Situation:
· A repetition of the Mistletoe Situation
· Any discussion in relation to both the Mistletoe Situation and The Call
Next to no one at Berk Academy had learned of the kiss, but next to everyone at Berk Academy had noticed a strong shift in Hiccup and Astrid's demeanor towards each other.
The two had barely interacted after the party, both to each other and to their respective families—which was extremely odd, considering the Haddocks' closeness and the Hoffersons' Christmas spirit. They spent more and more time in the confines of their rooms, debating everything they'd ever known about each other against the same to the express confusion of their beloved pets.
("Let me tell you something about Astrid Hofferson, okay? She speaks her mind, she will protect her friends at all costs, and she's the hardest worker I know—she's also confident-slash-borderline-vain, extremely pretty, and she never, and I mean never dates her friends," Hiccup had told Toothless with his most serious voice.
The cat had merely planted a paw on his owner's face, as if to say, "You are dumb. I will keep you.")
("I mean, is he good-looking? Sure, but so are a billion other people. And I guess he has a good heart, and he genuinely cares about his friends, and he's, y'know, the only person I can really trust—"
Stormfly squawked in protest.
"Person, girl, you're still my favorite," Astrid assured the parakeet.
Stormfly lifted her head proudly—a signal for the girl to continue.
"But I mean, he's Hiccup—he's my best friend—human friend, I mean—and, I don't know. I don't know if I want to risk that," she finished, slumping in her chair and letting out an agonized groan.)
Friend hangouts had taken a sharp turn, with one or the other or both cancelling last minute in an obvious effort at avoidance. The twins had debated dragging them "through the yellowest snow we can find and force them to talk"—a plan Fishlegs had concluded would win them nothing, especially because "that is disgusting".
So they waited for the return of classes and set schedules, where they knew the two couldn't run forever—they were in at least three classes together, and Hiccup was a default part of any of the student council-led decorating crews because of his artistic skill.
The four had anticipated an increased awkwardness between the two, but none of them had foreseen said awkwardness not losing it's momentum, and instead reaching a point of forced formality, with Astrid and Hiccup pointedly shaking hands if they had to make physical contact.
It was worse than the time that they had to clean up for Gobber—and that included horse dung.
On the second floor of his house.
"We need to do something about those two," Ruffnut groaned; it was the end of the school day on the first week of February, and Astrid had run off to work on some Valentine's Day event with the student council—Hiccup was at the helm of the decorations department as per usual, but he'd made some excuse about "working on it with Toothless".
What a cat would even vaguely know about decorations was beyond them, but the duo's separation had caused a flurry of questions to be thrown at the remaining four friends, who, with true loyalty, had declined to comment.
(Except Snotlout. He almost did, but the Fishlegs had—well, let's just say that he found some new uses for Meatlug and was considering joining some professional robot battles.)
"We've tried everything," Snotlout whined in reply, throwing up his hands. "Those two were always two steps ahead before, and now that they're avoiding each other, they're like, fifty steps ahead! It's—it's just—ughhhh."
"I know what you mean," Fishlegs said sadly. "Last week, Hiccup had me wake up thirty minutes earlier so he could skip giving Astrid a ride. This week, Astrid woke me up an hour earlier. I need my sleep, you guys. You know how cranky I get."
Tuffnut moved back. "You're not gonna go all… berserker on us again, are you?"
"Not if you can get them to stop this… this MADNESS," Fishlegs wailed, a mix of a sob and a growl escaping his lips. He was taking the whole deal the worst, being the advisor to both Hiccup and Astrid in a variety of things.
(In retrospect, it was like being a child of two parents who were having the most awkward divorce in all of existence.)
The twins pat their friend on the back, nodding encouragingly.
"We'll figure something out, 'legs," Ruffnut said.
"Or our names aren't 'Danger' and 'More Danger'," Tuffnut finished.
Snotlout scrunched up his face in confused. "They're not."
"Tell that to our birth certificates," Ruffnut countered, glaring at the black-haired boy.
"Whatever," Snotlout said, rolling his eyes. He stood up. "Just figure it out quick, because there's no way I'm going to deal with this—whatever it is, for the rest of my life, okay?"
(He'd walked off without them realizing that he, Snotlout, had verbally confessed, in a way, to wanting to be a part of his current friends' life well into the future.)
It came to be that the twins did come up with a plan—something simple, for once, and utilizing both Snotlout's physical prowess and Fishlegs' mostly-dependent nature.
The plan went like this:
· On Valentine's Day, much like the years before, the boys and girls of the group would trade flowers for chocolate; they knew Astrid and Hiccup wouldn't opt out of it because of their dedication to their friends—
· —but just in case, Fishlegs was assigned to coax either or both parties to join in. Which he did.
· They would position themselves as follows: the twins on either side of Astrid, and Snotlout and Fishlegs on either side of, and slightly behind Hiccup.
· The group would trade gifts during lunch time to avoid drawing a crowd, and the exchange would take place in front of Snotlout's locker, which also happened to be situated directly across the janitor's closet.
· If all went smoothly (and it did, thank goodness), they'd have hauled and/or pushed their friends into the closet, locked the door (key courtesy of Ruffnut "More Danger" Thorston), and stated their demands.
"Listen up, numbskulls," Tuffnut pronounced from the other side of the door.
"The bell rings in twenty minutes, which means in twenty minutes, we're gonna have a lot more company out here."
"Now, you two can either work this whole thing out in twenty minutes—sorry, nineteen—or, y'know, we can always grab a few more chairs and bring on some popcorn," Fishlegs added.
"I'm going to kill all of you!" Astrid yelled through the door, furiously pounding the wood and glass.
"Ah-ah-ah," Snotlout chided.
"If you two complain three times, we're calling in the whole school via intercom," Ruffnut explained. "That's one. Your choice."
Astrid hoped they could feel her glaring from beyond the glass. "I will ruin—"
"Two," Snotlout said in a singsong voice. "Do you really want to try for three, Astrid?"
Silence.
"Didn't think so."
More silence. They could very much feel her glaring from beyond the glass.
"We're going to step away now," Fishlegs said calmly. "And you two can talk about whatever you want—preferably the Thing, but really, at this point, we just want you to talk."
And thus Haddock and Hofferson were once again caught in a predicament not of their choosing, turning to each other in the dimly lit closet with apprehension and so. much. awkwardness.
"So," Hiccup said finally, after Astrid's fuming had appeared to dissipate. "This is happening."
"I guess so," Astrid replied, finding a seat on one of the empty buckets.
Silence.
She twiddled with her thumbs, not looking up. He busied himself with reading labels and notes off of cleaning products—'Use for rats in cafeteria' was one he wasn't too fond of noticing—and knocked his arms on his side repeatedly.
More silence.
"I'm sorry," they said in unison, both turning to each other at the same time.
"Don't b—I mean, what for?" Hiccup asked in confusion.
Astrid shrugged. "Everything, I guess. I shouldn't have ignored you."
Hiccup swung his arms about, amazingly not hitting anything in the tight space. "I shouldn't have been weird about it."
"It was fair to be weird about it, Hiccup—"
"You did it to get them off our backs, I get it," Hiccup said, instinctively moving to sit down beside her and almost falling into a bin full of soapy water.
Astrid caught him. "That is a really bad idea."
He looked down, nodding and smiling sheepishly—then he noticed her hand on his arm, and he noticed a dozen other things, like her neat braid, and the different shades of blue in her eyes, and the fact that she was still holding his arm.
"Uh," he said dumbly, nodding to his arm. She let go and, unless he was hallucinating, blushed.
"Look," Astrid started after the brunet had resigned himself to leaning on the door. "What happened was a mistake, right?"
Hiccup nodded a little too enthusiastically, his arms and shoulders following the motion. "Absolutely! We don't like each other. I mean, we like each other, but we don't have, y'know, feelings aside from friendship for each other."
"Exactly," Astrid confirmed, a little more cheer in her voice than what was necessary. "We're not in love or anything. I mean, I love you, but not that way, you know?"
"I know exactly what you mean," Hiccup said; for added emphasis, he playfully nudged her on the shoulder, saying, "buddy."
"Pal," Astrid nudged back.
"Okay then," Hiccup said cheerfully. "I guess—I guess we're done here."
Astrid exhaled. "I guess so."
"With five minutes to spare," Hiccup announced, looking at his watch. He turned to the door. "Hey, guys? We made up!"
"We're okay now, guys!" Astrid called. "You can open the door!"
"Anytime time now, you guys!" Hiccup yelled, half-panicking.
Astrid joined him at the door, pushing at it in vain from the inside. Curse the well-maintained building structures. "This is so not funny, you guys! I have a class after this!"
"I have a quiz today! Ruff! Tuff!"
"You are all DEAD TO ME!"
(Of course something was bound to go wrong without either Hiccup or Astrid at the helm, and having the twins in charge was by far the worst decision they'd made in the matter. When the four had finally remembered—this being when Fishlegs had mentioned their names in passing over an after school meal—they found the two incredibly hungry, and—Astrid especially—determined to "wring their necks for every single minute of productive time" they'd missed.)
reviews have appeared to be fixed, so review away uwu
