LOL THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE LONGER but I decided to split it because hEH I'm me

Sorry for the wait, I had a mega-busy weekend.

Anywho.

Here we gOOOO

February 13. 2:44 p.m.

They didn't know how they got here, exactly.

There was a whole tonna snow, for sure... And rocks? Trees? Miscellaneous broken snowboard pieces? And-

Ah, yes.

That's right.

An avalanche.

Now, Hiccup wasn't a full-blown genius or anything, but he could very well tell you that they-that is, he and Astrid-probably should've died by now.

...Or something to that effect.

He was very glad they did not die.

She was very glad all she hurt was her ankle.

Not so glad that her phone appeared to be missing.

"You think you can call someo-OUCH," Astrid yelped, trying to stand up, but failing.

Failing very, very hard.

Hiccup looked back and saw her struggling, and trudged through the snow (carefully) to get to her. "What happened?"

(Now, normally, he would be a lot less confident in approaching her, since, well, it was her, but who cares at this point, really? They literally almost got buried alive by frozen water.

His social awkwardness could take a hike-he was riding off adrenaline. And, er, fear.)

It took a gargantuan effort for Astrid to restrain herself from saying "Gee, I don't know, we seem to be at the base of the mountain, but not the side we know-oh, and look! Snow! Lots of it! More than there should be! I wonder how that happened?"

She settled for: "Gee, I don't know, avalanche, maybe?" before shaking her head at him and adding, "Did you get hit on the head or something?"

Hiccup frowned. "Maybe. But I still have my helmet, so maybe not?"

Why do I like this boy again? she thought.

Why is my mouth still saying things? he thought.

After a... brief period of awkwardness (which included many a squint and double take), the brunet returned to the task at hand: help the pretty girl stand up.

One thing he noticed: her hands were covered in gloves, but he could feel their warmth.

"Your hands are warm."

One thing he did not intend to do: say that.

Thankfully, carefully, she smiled-but in a confused sort of way, as if she didn't know whether to be giddy or annoyed at his apparent lack of a thought filter.

(Technically, she was both-giddy at him, but heavily annoyed at her ankle. Gosh dang was she annoyed at her ankle.)

With his help, she almost got up.

Almost.

"Yeaaaahhhh... This isn't gonna work," Astrid said with a grunt. "You're gonna have to call someone back at the lodge. I mean, I'd help, but my phone's M.I.A. at the moment."

Hiccup nodded silently, forcing his lips to stay closed before he said something extremely ridiculous. He pulled out his phone, calling a mess of numbers one after the other-Gobber (their emergency contact for the trip), Principal Mulch, Vice Principal Bucket, Fishlegs, and even his parents.

And one after another, the calls failed partly (he barely connected to his parents) or entirely (Gobber and the rest must've either been out of range, or in that one GIANT area at the lodge that had terrible service).

Hiccup slumped down onto the snow, throwing off his helmet in frustration. "Gaahhh... This sucks."

"Hurray for snow and free ice packs," Astrid muttered a few feet behind him; she'd resigned herself to trying to fix her rapidly swelling ankle as he went about making calls.

The two teens let out large sighs, creating miniature fog clouds and drawing on the snow to pass the time until their demise.

Hiccup watched her form a snowball and throw it down to... wherever that was, and decided on Plan B.

He hastily typed and sent a message (dont freak out, but im stuck on the far side of the mountain-i think-and need to call you), then proceeded to call.

The blonde did not see him execute said plan.

And she didn't really have to worry, sort of, technically, maybe, if she did lose her phone a ways back from where they'd landed. And if it didn't start, y'know, ringing from right beside where Hiccup was sitting. Because that meant he couldn't pick it up, either.

(And y'know, they both had the darndest luck at this point.)

Except the loud beeping noise was emanating from beside the boy was real, and he did pick it up against her sorry excuse for a protest-she barely got the "n" part of "no" out-and he did stare interchangeably at the phone (which read, in all caps, "NIGHT/HICCUP") then at her with a mix of pure embarrassment and "I acknowledge that this should be counted as betrayal, but hot dang you got me good and I respect that".

"Yeaaaahhh..." Astrid said finally, with the slightest hint of guilt. "You weren't supposed to, ahem, find that out. Yet. Also! That phone should have fallen out earlier! Ha... Ha ha..."

Hiccup pointed at her, then at himself. "But you..."

"Yeah, I kne-"

"-you won," Hiccup said incredulously. "And you didn't gloat, or anything."

Astrid squinted at him. "Priorities, hotshot."

"I am prioritizing that yOU KNEW AND YOU DIDN'T GLOAT ABOUT IT," Hiccup screeched, waving his arms around wildly. (He also tried to be a bit more dramatic by standing up, but slipped and ended his little spiel sloshing around on the snow.)

She crossed her arms. "Seriously, Hiccup?"
He tilted his head in aggravation. "I'm incredibly distressed."

"That's more like it," Astrid replied smugly.

"You want to me distressed?" Hiccup seethed, raising his eyebrows challengingly. "We're at Who-knows-where at the corner of Snow and Somewhere-hopefully-near-the-lodge, our friends are missing, and I just found out that the girl I've liked since first grade is also my best friend who, I have very recently realized, I have also begun falling fo-"

Idiot.

"Idiot," Astrid breathed. "Idiot."

"IamawareofwhatIam,Astrid," Hiccup said through clenched teeth.

"You're so-"

"Stupid, I know-"

She raised up her hand as a stop sign. "-Oh, shut up, don't interrupt. You're so blind."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "Uh?"

The blonde crossed her arms. "Why wouldn't I gloat, Nerd?"

"I dunno," he replied, shrugging. Astrid coaxed him on by leaning forward. "Uh, 'cause you... are... crazy?"

Astrid shut her eyes in annoyance. "Oh, I might be."

"Because you're actually really, really nice?"

"Sometimes, but no."

"Gee, I don't know, Astrid," Hiccup said with a huff. "I can't really think straight right now, and you being all beautiful is not exactly helping. What, what, like, 'cause you like me too? Or something? Because that is completely-"

The blonde had turned away.

The brunet opened and closed his mouth in a vain attempt at restarting his vocal chords.

The girl rocked back and forth in her seat.

The boy frowned, smiled, and started awkwardly moving around his arms and rolling his shoulders. "-completely cool, is what I was going to-uh-say-I think it's cool-we're cool, we are really cool-pun unintended-because snow-and-uh-we could, we-maybe-y'know, we could be-if they like, find us and we don't die here or anything-and you-your ankle gets fixed up, and stuff-we could maaaaybeee be... coooool... together? Maybe?"

Astrid smiled-it was freezing and her ankle hurt and she didn't know if or when they would be found, or if her friends were alright, or if anyone even knew who had been on the slopes when the avalanche hit, but she smiled.

Because there was this dingus in front of her who didn't know what to say or do, and she knew him so well, and that was great. He was great. And he thought she was great.

So being cool was cool with her.

"Maybe's good."

Explanations will follow in the next chap. Or two chaps. IDEK.

R&R!

(yo guys seriously, do not send me plots expecting me to actually use them, I personally find it rude as a writer because it feels like you're hijacking my work, when you could easily just write your own piece :| )