A/N: Holy hell. I'm finally back. For now. So sorry for my sporadic entries to this story. I haven't given up on it. I've just been so busy with movies scripts and other work that I haven't had any free time to work on this story. So today I put time aside and I plowed through a chapter. It's shorter than any of my others and its a bit short than I would have liked but there's a lot going on. I'm hoping to set another day aside soon to give you another chapter. I won't promise anything because I'd rather not have broken promises. Anyways. i hope you enjoy this chapter. Can't wait to hear from ya's.

LG


CHAPTER 29


Dagur sits on the hood of his car. He's parked out front of a coffee shop, car facing out to the road. He takes a long drag on his cigarette and blows a large puff of smoke. He looks at the butt of his cigarette. Smiling devilishly, he flicks the still lit but at a man passing by on a bicycle. Almost as if it were expertly aimed, it lands in the man's shirt causing him to yelp in surprise and mild pain as the butt burns him. He crashes his bicycle in to a half ton truck only two cars over from Dagur's Supra. Dagur laughs hysterically. The man doesn't find it as amusing and he does though as he jumps up from the ground screaming. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

He gets up in Dagur's face but stops mid shout when he sees the crazy look in Dagur's eyes.

"As you were saying?" Dagur asks tauntingly. He's raring for a fight.

"Nothing." The man says quickly as he rushes off, grabbing his biking and getting the hell out of there as quickly as possible.

"That's what I thought." Dagur says with a smile.

He checks the time. "Come on sis. Quit taking forever already."

Heather stalks out of the coffee shop.

"Finally!" Dagur says as if he had been waiting there for decades.

"Sorry Dagur. The boss made me clean up coffee that that klutz Janet spilled. What a dumb bitch she is. She should be fired already." Heather states angrily as she climbs in the car.

Dagur starts the engine. "Careful sis. You're starting to sound like me. HAHA"

"I'd never be able to sound that crazy." Heather scoffs.

Dagur shoves the car in first gear and punches it. The tires screech loudly as they fight for traction on the asphalt and the siblings blast off down the road.


Snotlout leans in the driver's seat of his car. The door is open, window down and his feet are propped on the door itself.

"Can we go now? This is stupid." Ruffnut whines.

"We can't go until I race someone." Snotlout says adamantly.

"But we've been here for three hours and no one has even driven by on this road let alone wanted to drag race." Ruffnut complains loudly.

Snotlout rolls his eyes. "I didn't take my free time to painstakingly paint those lines on the road at exactly the quarter mile mark just to drive away from them without getting the first race."

"Owww." Ruffnut smashes her head on the dash of the car. Rather hard at that. Her face must hurt.

"Woah!" Snotlout jumps up quickly and pulls her head back. "Easy on the car babe. There's no need of that kind of abuse."

Ruffnut's eyebrows shoot up so high that they nearly disappear in to her hair. "Are you for real right now?"

"Of course I'm for real." Snotlout states as he pats Hookfang's dash. "There there boy. She won't hurt you anymore."

"I'm starting to get worried about you." Ruffnut says with a concerned half smile.


Dagur spots Snotlout's Camaro parked on the side of the road. "I have something to do before we go home."

"Can't it wait?" Heather whines. "I have plans."

"No it can't wait. Opportunities like this are rare. We can't pass them up." Dagur says with a chuckle.

He slows down and lowers the passenger window. "Hey Snotman. You break down or something?"

Snotlout can't help but laugh at that. "Hookfang break down? Please."

"Then why are you parked on the side of the road if your bucket of bolts isn't broken." Dagur eggs him on.

"Bucket of bolts!" Snotlout is insulted. How dare this guy insult his car. "I'll have you know that this beast is one fast machine. And I'm here to take on any would be challengers on my new quarter mile road course."

New drag course that isn't at Bludvist airstrip. This intrigues him. "Where does the course end?"

Snotlout rolls his eyes. "Quarter mile down the road. Obviously."

"I meant is it marked." Dagur hisses.

"Of course it's marked. What do I look like? An idiot?" Snotlout asks.

"You kind of do actually." Ruffnut pipes up, earning her a glare from Snotlout.

"Wanna make it interesting?" Dagur asks holding up a folded hundred dollar bill.

That gets a grin out of Snotlout.


Ruffnut stands down the road at the finish line. Snotlout is lined up with Dagur at the starting line. Heather arms raised. "Ready?"

The two drivers rev their cars menacingly. "On your marks."

Snotlout raises the RPM's higher. Dagur glances towards him smirking. "Get set!"

Snotlout narrows his eyes, looking at the finish line.

"GO!" Heather shouts. Squealing tires and two puffs of smoke and the cars tear down the road.

Snotlout plows through first gear. He smiles as he starts to pull ahead of Dagur. "We got this buddy." He says to Hookfang.

Second gear. The small lead is getting smaller as Dagur starts to gain on him.

Third gear. They're neck and neck. It's anyone's race. "Don't let me down!" Snotlout shouts.

Fourth Gear. Dagur pulls ahead and they cross the finish line.

"No! Are you kidding me?!" Snotlout exclaims in disbelief.

The two drivers take their cars back and pick up their respective girlfriends. Snotlout pays Dagur his winnings and they leave.


"I can't believe you lost." Ruffnut cackles. "You were so sure that you were going to win."

"I messed up my shifting. I could take him any day." Snotlout makes up excuses.

"You definitely proved it today." Ruffnut picks.

Snotlout scowls at her. He is done of this conversation. "Okay. Let's just go to the movies."


Dagur laughs hysterically as he drives down the road. "Was that necessary?" Heather asks him.

"Necessary? No. Profitable. Yes." Dagur says as he holds up the two hundred bucks. "So where are you headed sis?"

"Hiccup's house. We're going to play darts." Heather responds.

"That little twerp has enough muscle in his arms to actually toss darts?" Dagur guffaws.

"Be nice. He's been through a lot." Heather scolds him.

"You're right. The wimp has been through more than anyone his age should go through." Dagur agrees.


The days turn into weeks and the weeks into months. Hiccup and Astrid have kind of just melded into just being. The spark was gone. The excitement flushed out as Hiccup continues to exhaust himself at work. Heather is still in the picture and Astrid hasn't liked it but the brunette hasn't done anything wrong. Truth be told, she's been a decent friend to both of them. She has even gone out with them to the beach, parties and other fun times with all the rest. Maybe she actually was trying to rid herself of her high school reputation.

Astrid wasn't about to let her guard down though. The trust still wasn't there. However, nor were her and Hiccup. She missed the days when their love was fierce and fresh. Now it was like they were a married old couple who stayed together for the sheer fact that they were too old to be bothered splitting up. How had they become such a shell of their former selves.

"Earth to Astrid." Hiccup says to her.

Astrid jumps in surprise. "Yeah?"

"We're here. You staying in the car?" Hiccup asks her.

She quickly realizes that they are at Hiccup's house and hops out of the car. She spots Toothless sticking out from under his tarp. Hiccup had moved him to the side of the garage. Astrid doesn't understand why Hiccup hasn't fixed him yet. It's not like he doesn't have any money.

"Hey babe. How come you don't fix Toothless? She asks him as she walks over to the covered car.

She starts to pull the tarp back but Hiccup grabs it out of her hands and makes sure that Toothless stays entirely covered. "That's none of your business." He snaps.

Wow. Not the response she was expecting. "It was just a question, Hiccup. You don't need to eat my head off." Astrid tells him.

"And what I do with my car is my concern. Not yours." Hiccup says with attitude as he walks towards the door to his house.

"What is your deal?!" Astrid asks. She is not having any of this attitude.

"Can we go inside and not do this out here?" Hiccup sighs.

"No. We are going to take care of this right now because I am sick and tired of this attitude." Astrid lays in to him. "You have been getting worse every single day and quite frankly I'm tired of it. I get it. Your dad died. And that sucks major ass. But if we are going to be together you need to stop shutting me out. I can't handle it."

Hiccup stays silent which catches Astrid a little off guard. She was expecting him to explode. "You need to live a little Hiccup. Stop being so bitter. Let the love back in your life."

"I can't do this." Hiccup says in a nearly inaudible whisper.

"What?" Astrid asks.

"I can't do this." Hiccup repeats in a louder voice.

"Do what? Have this talk? Because we really need it." Astrid explains.

"No… This… Us… I can't do this anymore." Hiccup tells her.

Astrid narrows her eyes at him. Her heart is pounding and it feels like its stuck in her throat. "What do you mean? Are you breaking up with me?"

"I'm sorry Astrid… I just… can't do it." Hiccup says pathetically.

Tears well up in her eyes. She can't say anything. She tries but no words come out. She turns and walks away. Down the driveway and up the street. Hiccup watches her go.

She waits till she's out of eye sight and then she takes off running.

Hiccup slowly opens the door to his house and shuts it behind him. He presses his back against it and slowly slides down to the floor placing his head in his hands.

"What have I done?" He whispers to himself.

He must be the biggest fool of all time. He just broke up with the most gorgeous girl on the face of the earth. How was he going to pull himself back together now? She was the only bright spot in his life.

"Son? Are you okay?" His mother's voice startles him.

"I didn't think you were home." He mumbles.

"I wasn't. I came in through the back door." Valka replies.

"Oh…" Hiccup chokes back his sadness. "I'll be fine."


Astrid throws a picture frame against the wall, smashing the glass in it. It was a picture of her and Hiccup. How did she allow him to hurt her like so? How did someone so full of love and so amazing become a jaded asshole.

"He'll come around you know." Helen tells her daughter.

Maybe I don't want him to come around." Astrid says with a huff.

Helen sits down on her daughter's bed. Astrid's eyes are red. A clear sign that she had been crying and Astrid never cried. It was a sign of weakness and she hated feeling weak.

"Did you want to talk about it?" Helen asks her.

"No… I want to forget about it." Astrid croaks.

Helen stands up. "Let me go make you my special hot chocolate. That'll take the edge off things."

She leaves the room and goes to the kitchen.

"She's pretty broke up about that boy, isn't she?" Karl asks as he sets down a new paper. The front page reads 'Drago Industries back in business?'

"You have no idea." Helen replies. "I've never seen her this way."

"Maybe one of us can go talk to Hiccup or Valka?" Karl suggests.

Helen shrugs. "It's hard to say. That might make things worse."

"We could take her on a trip. We haven't had a family trip in forever." Karl says.

"Let's go to the cabin. She used to love it there as a kid." Helen agrees.


A couple weeks go by and none of the gang has seen Hiccup since his and Astrid's split. The only person who had seen him was Heather at a gas station when he was fueling up his BMW. And he wouldn't even talk to her other than niceties.

The gang lies around a lake. The twins are fishing. Or what they call fishing. They are tossing firecrackers in to the water thinking that if they put enough of them together it'll be like a stick of dynamite.

"Where the hell is Hiccup anyways? Anyone ever see him?" Snotlout asks the crew.

"He doesn't return my calls." Fishlegs answers lamely.

"Who fucking cares?" Astrid hissing.

Snotlout raises his eyebrow and leans over to Fishlegs whispering. "Still a sore spot?"

"Clearly." Fishlegs responds.

BOOM! "Aww… We didn't catch anything." Ruffnut groans.

"More firecrackers." Tuffnut adds.

"Guys. They aren't dynamite." Fishlegs tells them.

"Well that's obvious." Tuffnut says as him and his twin sister roll their eyes simultaneously.

"Hey Fish. Where's Cami today?" Snotlout asks the bigger blonde.

"She had to work." Fishlegs says quickly.

They don't really discuss relationships around Astrid. Last time Snotlout had kissed Ruff around them, Astrid threw them in to the pool. Ruined their cellphones but they caught the message.

"And what about Heather?" Snotlout asks aloud.

"She'll be here soon. She had something going on earlier with her uncle." Astrid answers.

"And Eret?" Snotlout asks and everyone groans.

"Why don't you find out and let us know?" Astrid tells him with a fake smile.

"Let's go do something." Snotlout whines.

"We are doing something. In case you haven't noticed." Ruff says then she leans in to her brother. "And they call us stupid."

"I mean something exciting." Snotlout counters

"What did you have in mind?" Fish asks.

"I was hoping one of you guys had an idea." Snotlout grumbles.

"Guess this is what we're doing." Astrid says.

"Thought you were going to the cabin with your parents?" Fishlegs inquires.

"I am. We're leaving tonight after dad gets off work. Apparently mom and dad don't care if we arrive at the cabin at 2AM." Astrid says with an eye roll.


The Hofferson's have their vehicle packed up and ready to go. Karl is standing outside by the car waiting patiently. "Come on. Let's go." He shouts. Just his luck to be in a house full of girls.

Kari shoves in to Astrid who shoves her back. "Brat."

They get in the car. "All aboard." Karl bellows enthusiastically. He definitely thinks he's funnier than he is, Astrid thinks to herself.

Hopefully this weekend would allow her to forget about Hiccup.


Hiccup snaps awake. His face hurts. The keyboard left an imprint on the side of it. He looks at his computer screen. He was asleep long enough that the computer went to sleep. He needed to get home, he checked the time. Holy hell. 3:57AM. He yawns and gets out of his chair.

He's walking down the hall towards the elevator and hears a crash. He stops. "Hello?"

No answer. He walks down the hallways searching for the cause of the noise. PHZ. The lights go out. Hiccup looks around. "Great."

He fishes his phone out of his pocket and starts the flashlight on it. A warning comes up saying 10% battery life. He heads towards the stairs. A moving shadow catches his eye. "Someone there?"

Hiccup looks around. No one. Alright Hiccup. One step after another and you'll make it to the stairs in no time. Loud footsteps, coming fast. Hiccup turns quickly but he's too late. A fist hits him in the face, knocking him clean off his feet.

He slams painfully on his back on the floor, groaning. "Young Haddock… You don't put up much of a fight."

He starts getting up. "I know that voice. Drago-" Hiccup is cut off by a painful kick to the face sends him back down.

Drago steps over Hiccup and leans down, grabbing Hiccup by the front of the shirt. He punches him in the face. Hiccup feels his nose break under the force of the blow.

He puts his arms up to try to defend himself but the next punch hits him and it knocks the senses out of him. He can't even function enough to put his arms in front of his face.

"You will forever regret the day that you insulted Drago Bludvist. Another punch to the face.

Hiccup loses count of the punches. His face is bloody.

"You're going to kill him." Alvin comes from the shadows, grabbing Drago's arm to prevent another punch.

"Back off." Drago wrenches free from him. He takes Hiccup's car keys and stalks off.

Alvin takes one last glance at Hiccup's barely conscious body and then follows the other big man.


Hiccup works at getting to his feet. The pain is crazy and he can't get the world to stop spinning. His phone was gone. Probably dead, otherwise he would have been able to see the light on it. He manages to support himself on a nearby desk. He reaches for the phone but gets dizzy, knocking it off the desk and falling to the floor. His world goes dark temporarily.

He dials his home number and manages to get the phone receiver near his ear. The line is dead.

He needs to get out of here. He struggles back up to his feet and heads for the stairs.


Finally outside. Hiccup uses the door for support. Now comes the hard part. There was nothing to hold on to. Nothing to keep him from falling when the pressure in his head became too much to bare but he needed to get out of here. He needed to get help. He takes his first struggling step. Then another.

Next thing he knows he's out in the middle of the parking lot. But where is his car. Drago's HUMVEE is parked at the far end. Hiccup breathing quickens. He looks around frantically. Where the hell was his car?

Two bright lights beam down on him. He shields his eyes. The headlights are blindingly bright. Tires squeal. Hiccup's eyes widen as he realizes that the car is aiming for him. He turns towards the building. He needed to get back inside. It was too far away but he had to try. He makes a pathetic attempt at a run. Hobbling, and nearly falling.

The bumper of his BMW slams into his legs, throwing him off his feet and sending him side on in to the windshield.

Smashing the windshield was painful but not as painful as flying away from the car when it slammed its brakes. He hits the ground, rolling and then darkness.