Chapter 10

Hiccup has to gather all of his mental strength while he waits for his father to pick up the phone. Talking with Stoick is not the easiest thing. Especially not if you're Hiccup, 'the walking fishbone', as he was called growing up. Probably the least decisive person you can meet, a total pushover. His dad however, is the complete opposite; he walks straight over everybody, that's why he makes such a good Chief. It doesn't make much sense that Hiccup is his son, and not many people believe it, Hiccup himself is not even sure he believes it.

But when Stoick finally picks up the phone after three calls, and Hiccup hears his booming voice, "Hiccup? What's wrong?" he demands, all the assertiveness Hiccup had managed to muster is blown away into thin air.

"Hi, dad… Uh, nothing's wrong I guess." he laughs nervously fiddling with his hair.

"How come you're not studying?" He asks sternly.

"It's not all I do in college dad. I have lunch." He reasons.

"Oh, I see." His dad loses his hard wall for only a moment. "Then why are you calling, what's wrong?" And the demanding tone is back once again. Hiccup rolls his eyes. Back to square one, I guess. This is how their conversations usually go about, in circles.

"Nothing is wrong dad. But I need your help."

"Why would you need my help if nothing was wrong?" Stoick argues.

But Hiccup isn't having it this time; he needs to push through, for Astrid. "Will you just listen to me please?!" He closes his eyes for a moment, trying to level the emotions that erupted at the thought of Astrid. He had managed to forget about what had happened between them for a fleeting moment in his quest not to decay under his father's wrath. He should talk to his father more often, he realises.

It seems Stoick has finally silenced enough to actually listen to what he has to say, so he begins to explain. "I have this friend," but we can't be friends, we can't talk anymore… Hiccup forces himself to continue speaking through the hurt now that he's finally, for once in his life, managed to get his fathers attention. "Who really wants to go to the midnight premiere of the Scorch Trials." He speaks the last part very clearly because his dad may own some of the cinemas in town, but he sure as hell does not know anything about any movie released after the 1980's. "But it's sold out and I was wondering if there is anything that you could do?" He cringes while he awaits his fathers response anxiously.

"I have your schedule here, and it says that you do have class. Right now."

Hiccup's heart sinks. Of course, of course he didn't really care; he was just checking Hiccup's schedule.

"I do, but I was sent out." He just simply doesn't care anymore.

"For what?!" Hiccup holds the phone away from his ear not to damage his hearing at his fathers shouting.

"For texting, but-"

"For texting?! What are you doing texting when you should be listening to what your teacher says?!"

"Dad will you please just do this for me, how often do I ask you for anything?!" This is the second time he raises his voice during their conversation, even though he's never done such a thing before in his life to his dad.

"You asked me if you could study engineering instead of joining me at the company, and look how well that turned out, skipping classes!"

"I didn't skip, I was sent out." He puts his forehead in his palm, very annoyed with this repetitive conversation.

"I don't like you living over there, I can't keep an eye on you and you're turning into some kind of thug, skipping classes for no—"

"Seriously dad, you're not listening—"

"No you're not listening! I didn't send you to that school so that you could go off with your friends instead of attending your classes!"

There is a moment of mutual silence. "Dad, it's for Astrid." He speaks softly.

"Astrid?" his dad asks, bewildered, but he seems to realise something when he goes quiet, a rarity for him.

The quiet continues for a couple of seconds and Hiccup doesn't know if he made his chances better or worse by mentioning some girl his father has never heard of. His dad finally lets out a big sigh and says,

"I'll see what I can do." And he actually sounds sympathetic for once.

Relief washes over Hiccup. "Thanks dad! It's the midnight premiere of the Scorch Trials, two tickets." He can barely contain his enthusiasm.

"Yeah, yeah, I've got it." His dad mutters before hanging up the phone.

And then Hiccup is suddenly all alone on the hill where Astrid left him. While he was talking with his dad he just wanted the conversation to be over, his father is a real mental challenge. But now that the conversation is over, he realises that it was much better than this.

I need to get back.

While Hiccup climbs down the hill, he tries desperately not to replay the conversation he'd had with Astrid in his mind, but it's extremely hard. Little things she said, little things he said keeps hitting him like the wind. He tries to focus on the actual wind instead, clearing his mind from the thoughts that are trying to force their way into his head, how the wind makes his overgrown hair dance.

That was probably the last time he'll ever be up on the lookout, a place he'd grown fond of. But as 'summer going on fall' is beginning to loose the summer part of the phrase and it gets colder and darker by the day, Hiccup doubts that he'll spend any of his autumn days up there without Astrid. It'll be too cold.

His dad finally calls him a couple of hours later, but there is another voice on the other line. The voice of Gobber, his father's colleague and friend, Hiccup's godfather and almost like an uncle to him, the master of telling funny stories involving his dad and crazy happenings. The fun brother of the two, but the less successful, the sidekick, you could say.

"You're in luck." Gobber says it almost like he's trying to make him feel guilty about it and Hiccup sits up on his bed, having completely disregarded the other lessons he was supposed to attend today.

"Hiccup are you there?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here, that is so great! How did you get them?"

"Some people rescheduled, our server tells us if anyone reschedules in any of the cinemas that we own, so we could easily book them for you and your friend."

"Oh, I'm not going, it's for two of my friends. Can I come and get the tickets now?"

"I see … you're a good boy Hiccup." He says in a very, uncle-esque way.

Hiccup ignores the statement; he doesn't exactly feel like one. "I'll be there in an hour."

He takes the phone off his ear but before he hangs up he hears a faint, "I hope she's worth it." from Gobber.

And then Hiccup is left alone to his thoughts once again.

"Astrid is seriously mad at you two." Ruffnut walks in through the door and sits down next to himself and Fish in front of the TV. She's not the knocking type. Which is a fact Hiccup has been forced to come to terms with, being friends with her and all. "What are we watching?" she asks. This time however, he's glad she came, because she is exactly the one he needed to see right now.

"Netflix, and she's mad at you too you know." Hiccup counters knowingly.

Ruffnut faces Hiccup; "I should have guessed she'd tell you about that." He receives a disapproving look. "But it seems she's transferred all the anger she had toward me, onto you." She flashes him a wicked smile. "And Fish as well." She adds.

"She didn't tell me. I saw your messages with her this morning." It's pains him to tell her, but this is a piece of information Ruff has to know later, for her to understand why things have to work out the way they have to.

"Dude, did I tell you that you could look at my messages? You are seriously hung up on her." She gives him a judging look.

This causes a certain amount of anger to release inside Hiccup, and he glares at her, but he can't help a slight blush from forming on his cheeks, which makes him even more enraged with Ruff. Why does she always have to be so insensitive? It bothers him when she says things like that, especially with Fish in the room, who is awfully quiet during their conversation, he seems mostly interested in the show, but he glances at them now and again. Still, he probably heard what Ruffnut said and Hiccup doesn't want Fishlegs to think that Hiccup likes Astrid like anything more than a friend. He reaches into his pocket and hands Ruffnut the tickets to shut her up from saying anything else that'll make Hiccup uncomfortable.

"No waaay!" She says to the tickets, holding them as if they were a treasure. She looks up at Hiccup, "Explain."

Hiccup shrugs, "My dad owns Seattle film, and he helped me get them."

"Now I know why you can have a TV in your apartment." She says meaningfully. Hiccup holds back a sigh, again with the insensitivity.

"So that was what you were doing when you weren't in class?" Fish joins the conversation.

"Yeah." Hiccup had only told Fish that he 'had something he needed to do'. Not wanting to tell Fishlegs too much about what he was doing, he'd given him quite an ambiguous answer.

Ruffnut sits up on the arm of the couch, "Tell me exactly how you managed to get these." She holds the tickets like they're a deck of cards and she's showing him a magic trick.

He gives her a confused look, "I already told you."

"I need more detail." She argues, waving a hand in the air.

He sighs for what feels like the hundredth time today. "I made a call to my dad, asked him if there was anything he could do, got a call a couple of hours later saying that some people cancelled their tickets, and so I went to get them."

Ruffnut looks like she is considering something; she squints her eyes and purses her lips. "How long did it take for you to go and get them?" She asks.

"I don't know … it was about one and a half hour drive there and back again, because of traffic. Why do you ask?"

"I'm trying to get an idea of how much trouble you went through to get these." She explains. "Well, I guess I should thank you, although I doubt you did it for me." She teases, patting Hiccup on the shoulder lightly.

Hiccup gives her an irritated look, "Just go and give them to her already."

She jumps up excitedly, and she is about to leave the room when she stops in her tracks and turns around, she looks serious for once. "Right, I almost forgot, look at the date Hiccup." She hands him one of the tickets.

He looks in the corner of the movie ticket where the date is displayed. The 16th of September. This doesn't really tell Hiccup anything, but Ruff waits as he gets his phone from his pocket and looks at the calendar. It's the weekend that Astrid said she was going to her parents. "It's the date she is going to her parents, right?" He looks up to see Ruffnut nodding. "So? Maybe she meant that she was going there the day after."

"But she isn't. It doesn't matter what she meant. She only said that she couldn't that weekend so she could have the marathon with you last Friday." She tries a sympathetic smile.

Maybe Astrid did feel some of what Hiccup feels for her. For a moment this piece of information makes him happy, but it's soon replaced by -possibly stronger than ever- feelings of regret and hopelessness. What he would have felt about hearing this news earlier today doesn't matter now. So instead he steals a quick glance at Fishlegs to see his reaction, but he meets his eye.

"Honestly it's fine Hiccup." He immediately responds. "Ruff had already told me they were going that weekend, I knew she was lying."

"You knew this whole time?!" Now Hiccup is surprised for real, wide eyes and everything.

"Yeeeah, sort of…" Guilt enters his facial expression.

Just after Ruffnut leaves, Hiccup stands up rapidly, "Oh, shit I forgot…" He mumbles and raises his finger while he goes after Ruff, "Back in a moment."

He walks out in the corridor and Ruff is right there. "You probably shouldn't tell her it was me who got the tickets." He says.

She turns and looks at him slightly annoyed, "And why the hell not?"

He shakes his head, "It's a bad idea. She doesn't want anything to do with me; she's not going to accept that I gave them to her. Plus, you heard what I said before: I looked at your messages and that was how I found out, she'll probably just get even angrier with me. I'm telling you, it's a bad idea." He looks at the floor. "She said that I should leave her alone." He adds quietly, sadness clearly apparent in his voice.

Ruffnut looks at him with pity in her eyes. He hates it, hates being pitied. He was always pitied when he was bullied. Pitied by his father, by his sisters, and by his teachers. Now even by his friends.

"You can't tell her." He can see that he's won her over. "Tell her you got the tickets back from Eret or something."

"So you want to try and make things right by lying to her again? Great idea, Hiccup." She says sarcastically.

"I'm not trying to make things right, things will never be right, I've ruined it and it's going to stay ruined." He says angrily, mostly anger at himself, and partly at Ruffnut who keeps acting so at ease and like this is not a big deal when it feels like a huge deal to him.

"Fine. I don't care." She throws her hands up casually and starts walking backwards. "I'll lie and get the credit, all the better." She turns around and leaves; walking with purpose in every step she takes.

Authors note:

Anything you liked/disliked about this chapter?

July 21, 2015