Chapter 7

The first meeting

"So if I angle this a bit more it should give Mr. Waters a better gait to run his marathons…" he mumbled a pencil between his teeth, his attention fully on the sketch in front of him as he walked to his class.

Hiccup had been interning at J prosthetics for almost 3 months now, the best 3 months of his life…at least his professional life, everything else was going to shit. His Mom had been calling non-stop since he left leaving tons of voicemails and texts, non of which that he could bear to listened to or read. He knew it was wrong but at this point he figured the damage was done. He was kind of surprised that none of his friends had called. They must have realized they were better off with out him around.

Why would they want such a screw up run away around anyway?

No, he had to focus on his dream, his passion. It was the only thing keeping him from folding and going home with his tail between his legs. Proving what they all thought him to be, that he couldn't do anything without their help…that he was useless.

Thankfully school had started a few weeks back so now he was getting some semblance of human interaction other than his boss. Though minimal it did help in lifting him from his negative thoughts. Dad, Mom, home…Heather.

No Hiccup stop right now. That door has been closed, burned, shredded and blown up.

Hiccup had been so focused on his sketchbook and inner thoughts that he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going. It was only when he felt a soft body collide with his that he was broken from his musings. Tumbling to the ground, his sketch pad and things scattering around him as he braced for impact. When he hit the ground he was surprised it wasn't hard like he thought but more soft and…squishy?

He was just walking on the concrete, right?

Opening his eyes he made the horrifying discovery as to why the ground felt so soft; he was currently laying on the chest of a very pretty blonde who was staring at him just as shocked.

Hiccup sprung off of the mystery blonde as if he had been electrocuted, flailing his arms and apologizing profusely.

"Oh-OH God I am so-so sorry! I-I was walking and sketchbook, looking down…gah I'm sorry!" Half way through his incoherent apology Hiccup dared to look at her face. Expecting to see anger filled eyes glaring holes into him instead he was pleasantly surprised to find an amused pair of ice blue eyes.

Locking eyes with him she raised her hand out to him, "are you just going to apologize all day or are you going to help me up?"

Oh man. Her voice.

"Um yes, of course-of course," he grasped her hand, carefully pulling her up as to not hurt her any further.

She brushed herself off and bent over to pick up her things which had scattered just like his own. Bending down next to her he quickly picked up the rest of his things it was then that he realized he didn't have his sketch book. Scanning the ground frantically for it only stopping when the sweet voice of the blonde spoke again.

"Are you looking for this?" She asked as she flipped through a few pages, some of different prosthetic designs others just whatever came to his mind. "You can draw really well. What's with these…are they fake legs and arms?"

Seeing that she was genuinely curious, "uh yeah, I-I'm interning at a prosthetics firm. So they're-uh-for work."

The blonde took a quick look down at his own prosthetic, "did you design your own?" He gave her a quick nod, "impressive."

Flipping another few pages she came across one of his personal drawings, "dragons?" Holding up the page for him to see.

His face instantly reddened, "hehe yeah um I-I draw t-those too."

Dragons Hiccup?! What are we 12?!

Still mentally berating himself he almost missed what she asked next, "what's this black one called?"

….what?...

"A-A Night F-Fury."

Looking over the page intensely, "it's really good Dragon Boy. Don't be embarrassed." She handed the book back with a smile.

Hiccup stared at her shocked, everyone he knew from home made fun of his drawings.

Everyone.

They said he needed to grow up; drawing dragons and Vikings -which were his other favorite- was a waste of time. Even Heather said he could spend that time better, like hanging out with the group instead of exiling himself to his room drawing.

"So what's your name Dragon Boy?" The blonde assertively questioned him.

"M-my name. Umm…"

"Yes, your name. You know the thing that people call you…parents gave it to you when you were born. Ringing any bells?" A smirk spreading across her face.

Hiccup gave her a deadpan stare, "yes I-I know what a name is. Thank you."

"So what is it then," placing a hand on her hip.

"…H-Henry…Henry Haddock…but my e-everyone calls me H-Hiccup."

Which is no one now.

"Hiccup….seriously?" Both her delicate eyebrows raised.

"Yeah w-where I come from everyone goes b-by nicknames."

"Hmm sounds like an interesting place," she stared at him expectantly hand still on her hip. "Astrid."

What?

Hiccup stared at her like she had just grown another head, "…Astrid?...w-who is…"

"Me, I'm Astrid. Thanks for asking dragon boy." Her grin widening seeing Hiccup become even more flustered.

"Are you going to class right now, Hiccup?" He nodded immediately, "ok meet me back here in an hour and we can head to dinner."

All he could do was stare at her beautifully confident face.

Dinner with Astrid. What the Hell is happening?!

"You're gonna buy me dinner for knocking me over and not even asking what my name was afterwards. See ya soon Dragon boy!" He watched her sprint off, shock still dripping from his features.


He came out of class and she was waiting for him, sitting on a bench looking at her phone. During the last hour Hiccup was able to come out of his shock and calm his brain down a bit; so when he saw her he was finally able to take in her full appearance.

Her golden hair was pulled into a high pony tail, she had no makeup on that he could see and her clothes were plain shorts and a tank top that clung to her like a second skin. She carried herself with a confident air around her; nothing like himself.

She was nothing like him. She was way out of his league.

Better make this dinner count because something like this won't ever happen again.

Walking over to her, her head sprung up and a smile graced her face and those incredibly expressive blue eyes looked straight at him.

"There you are! Let's go I'm starving." Astrid grabbed his arm and they walked to a nearby pizza place. The walk was quick because not a single word was uttered between the two.

When they got to the pizza place they sat in a booth, picked up their menus and….continued the silence between them. For the life of him Hiccup could not think of anything to say and Astrid seemed to be more interested in her menu than him.

Shocking.

He could have kissed the waiter when he came to break him from the silent mental torture happening at the table.

"I-I'll just have two slices of pepperoni pizza." He said then looked over at Astrid who was still looking down at her menu.

Without even glancing up from her menu she gave him her order, "One -no no- two orders of the spaghetti dinner, a large Cesar salad and make sure to keep the bread sticks coming." Happily looking up, she gave the waiter a stunning smile as she handed her menu over; obviously very please with her choices.

Saying he was stunned by her dinner order, that could easily rival one his mountain of a Father would eat, was an understatement; how could such a small body eat so much? Like where the Hell did it go? Her grocery bill must be astronomical….

Wait how much was this going to cost him?!

Her sweet laughter brought him out of his panicked thoughts, "has anyone ever told you, you have very expressive eyes?" She set her elbows on the table and propped her head up with hands. "So if I was going to guess, I would say you're wondering how I can eat so much. Am I right?"

Nodding dumbly was his only response.

"Well generally I don't but you happened to run into me on a special day. You see I run track for the school and we have a meet tomorrow morning. Sooo tonight I'm carbo-loading." She finished with a wolffish grin on her face.

She…she…she…

"Y-you you played me!" Hiccup said pointing an accusatory finger in her direction.

"Hey you ran into me, Dragon Boy. You just happen to have the bad luck of it being before a track meet." Grabbing her napkin off her plate and resting it on her lap Astrid looked back at him. "You know, you should come to my meet tomorrow. Track doesn't get the big crowds like the other sports so it will be nice to have a fan cheering for me."

"No one cheering for you?" Hiccup couldn't bother to hide the shock on his face. How could this confident, beautiful girl not have anyone cheering for her. He would expect an entire cheering section; full of friends, family, her boyfriend and Hell ex boyfriends as well. She was that magnetic of a person.

"Nope, so do you think you'll come? You are sort of paying for my performance, you might as well actually see me run."

"So no boyfriend, friends or family to cheer for you," he was still slightly disturbed by her admission of having no one. There is no way she could a loner like me.

Cocking an eyebrow at him, "still stuck on that, huh? No, I don't have a boyfriend to cheer for me, all my friends are on the track team and I'm a orphan. So no family-family, though the kids at the Children's Home were like siblings." She shrugged

An orphan…

"Y-you don't…I-I mean…y-you're a-a..."

"An orphan? Yeah. Been that way since I was 12." Astrid said with a small smile, obviously seeing how uncomfortable he was with the topic.

He didn't know what to say. What do you say to someone, especially someone who seemed to have to all together like Astrid, when they tell you they have no family? He began to shift uncomfortably in his seat as he ran through possible scenarios but none seemed appropriate. Just when he thought he was about to start sweating under the pressure to do something, he felt a hand grab his own and squeeze gently bringing his thoughts to a screeching hault.

It wasn't so much that another hand had grabbed his that shook him of his thoughts but the electricity that coursed through him as it happened. Hiccup instantly snapped his gaze up to meet Astrid's, he wasn't sure what he was expecting to see but he never thought that her face would mirror his own in shock.

Quickly retracting her hand back and gently holding it against her chest she continued to stare at him in shock. Her icy blue eyes blinking more often than normal.

"Um…uh sorry, um I-I meant to say don't worry about what to say about me being an orphan. People tend to get tripped up when I tell them." She gave him a sweet smile.

Her words helped to calm him down a bit but nothing she said could stop him from thinking about the electricity he still felt pulsing through him. He had never felt anything like that.

Maybe it was a minor heart attack? No that can't be right.

No, I know she felt it too…

"So will you come tomorrow?" A hopeful look now crossing her face.

With no doubt in his mind Hiccup answered her, "what time?"

So that's the first meeting! I wanted to give you a little insight on Astrid's background and also some of the happenings right after Hiccup left.

I wonder why his friends might not be calling…hmm...might be because of a certain someone's actions….