10:33am

About an hour had passed since Astrid left. Hiccup woke up and reheated the food that she'd saved for him, holding the plate in his hand as he went into the bedroom to make the bed. He'd had to do this all the other times Astrid had stayed over, though he was sure that she couldn't possibly be the worst house guest when it came to what she left behind. Not that he had all that much experience, since Astrid was the only person who'd ever stayed over at his apartment.

When he flipped the covers over, a small metallic flash briefly caught his eye as something fell off of the bed and landed on the floor. He reached over the bed to grab whatever it was. "Wh... oh, man..."

It was a small purse, mainly being made of blue leather with yellow highlights. It was definitely Astrid's, since he had seen it taking it out a few times whenever she was cleaning out her handbag. He wasn't sure what it was for, or what was in it, but it was probably going to tear Astrid apart if she didn't know where it was.

"Aw, shit..."


Helheim's Kitchen - Kitchen Service

"For the eighth time! Can I have one fucking scallops, and a fucking beautifully cooked capellini?!" Astrid snapped as she arrived at the Red Team's appetiser station. The auburn-haired woman standing at the pan with the pasta in nodded nervously, saying "yes, Chef! I think it's right this time!"

Astrid sighed as she pinched a few strands of the still soft and squishy pasta and tasted it, a look of disgust visible on her face as she spat into the trash can next to the table, groaning "ugh... no. No, it's not... no, Atali, th... that's not ready at all..."

"Oh... sorry, Chef..." Atali stuttered as Astrid walked away, only for everyone to gasp as she tilted the pan sideways so that all the pasta went into the trash can. "OH MY GODS!"

"Uh... wh... Chef, what did I d..."

"What the Hel are you doing?!" Astrid turned back to her, though at first her voice didn't sound angry. In fact, it sounded more dumbfounded than anything. "Why did you throw all that away, Atali? If it's not cooked, just put it back on the stove, put the lid on, thirty seconds, boom! Ready! Oh, but not you, right, you... you just trash it all straight away! Ugh!"

Atali stepped out of the way as Astrid grabbed a pair of metal tongs and reached into the trash. "Wait a sec, wait a sec, wha... who... look at all this fucking... who's putting all this in the garbage? How ma... how many portions are you putting in here, Atali?"

Within a few seconds, Astrid had filled an entire plate with the long, raw strands of cappelini that Atali had dumped throughout the service, with Atali taking a few more nervous steps backwards as Astrid's temper got even worse.

"HOW MUCH IS IN THE BIN!?" Astrid's voice began to break as she got more and more furious and more and more wasted pasta filled the plate. "Look... LOOK! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!?"


ATALI: So, yeah... naturally, I've been, um... I've been kicked off the show... she seemed awfully angry about it, but... but I don't mind, really... ha ha...


8:30pm

Astrid still had fists clenched and nostrils flaring as she went to her changing room to get her coat and bag, finally being able to leave and go back home. She decided to turn on her phone to see if anything had happened while she was filming, and while it was turning on she was reaching into the handbag to get the purse she kept her keys in. It would be best for everyone if she just went back to her apartment before she could resort to throwing and smashing things to vent her anger.

Several incidents throughout the day's filming had occurred that threatened to push her further and further to the edge of a full-blown breakdown, and she was certain that the moment with Atali and the cappelini should have ended with her being checked into a mental hospital.

But at least the day of nonsense was over now. Or at least Astrid thought it was, until she started looking frantically through her handbag and realised the purse wasn't there. "Oh, come on, come on, come... no! Fuck, fuck, FUCK!"

PING! The phone finally announced a notification to get Astrid's attention. "Oh, what now?!"

Inbox: 1 unread message... you have... 1... new message from... Hiccup.

"Hiccup...?" she had an eyebrow raised as she saw this, with the small icon in the corner marking the time of receiving the message as 10:35am.


Hey, Astrid.
I'm really sorry, but you left your second purse here, and there's a key in it.
I don't know what it's for, but if you want I could drop it by at your place later or something.
I hope it's not for anything important, but just text me back ASAP.
Love, Hiccup.


"No, are you fucking kidding me?! UUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRAAAAAAGGGGHHHH! FUCK!" Astrid slammed her fist hard on the table, so hard in fact that she was certain if she had hit it any harder it would have completely flipped over. This was the one state she never wanted Hiccup to see her in, but now he'd have to see it if she had to go to his apartment to get the key that she was too stupid to remember picking up that morning. "Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!"


Dragon Island Apartment Block - 9:15pm

KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK! Hiccup jolted up slightly as a fist knocked quickly, frantically and impatiently on the other side of the door. "Hiccup! Come on!"

He quickly got off of the couch, leaving the purse on the table in the kitchen area as he went to the door and opened it. "Uh... hey, Astrid... um... are you o..."

"I'm fine. Where's the purse?" she answered bluntly as she pushed back, still wearing her chef's jacket while having her coat hung over her arm. As she threw the coat impatiently on the floor, Hiccup closed the door quietly and slowly behind him as he grabbed the purse off of the kitchen counter and said "I have it here..."

She seemed to be holding her breath with all of her effort as she turned back to take the purse from him. She shoved it back into her bag, leaning one hand against the wall on her left while pressing her right fingers to her foreheads with her eyes shut. "Hoo... okay... okay... o... k..."

"Uh... Astrid..."

"AGH, FUCK IT!" Astrid suddenly burst like a balloon, tossing her purse like a rock as it hit one of the walls on the other side of the room. She was pulling at her own hair and biting her bottom lip to stop herself from shrieking out as she stormed towards the couch and started slamming her head angrily into it. "STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!"

She narrowly resisted the temptation to pick up the lamp next to the couch and throw it out the window before she turned back to look at Hiccup, her face dropping as she saw the utterly terrified expression on his frozen, nearly-catatonic state. She seemed to calm down, while the bubbling fury that was fighting it's way out began to be replaced with a regretful look of shame as she looked away. "Ugh... Hiccup, I... I'm sorry, I... I didn't want you to see me like this... at my worst, or whatever..."

"Astrid, it..." Hiccup managed to smile at her, slowly walking closer to her and putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's fine... look, I know you're easy to stress out... obviously, I can relate, but... but if this is your worst, then... then it's really not that bad... I've seen much worse..."

Astrid grinned gratefully in response, putting her hand over the one Hiccup had on her shoulder. She looked longingly at Hiccup's face, and in his eyes, as the love she felt for him in her heart combined with the amount of furious energy still burning in her head gave her the most sudden idea. And she immediately decided to put this idea into action.

"Hiccup, on a scale of one to ten, how horny are you right now?"

"Wait, what?" Hiccup barely had time to process what Astrid had said as she grabbed his collar and dragged him into a fierce, aggressive kiss, unbuttoning her chef's jacket with one hand while opening the bedroom door with the other and moving Hiccup and herself into it.


10:23pm

They both lay exhausted on the bed, with Astrid wearing the quilt to barely cover herself while Hiccup stared wide-eyed at the ceiling. Astrid cleared her throat as she turned herself to face Hiccup, propping her elbow and leaning her face on her hand as she used her other hand to turn his head to face her in return.

She had a relaxed grin on her face as she looked at him, prompting Hiccup to raise an eyebrow as he said "so... you're not gonna break any of my stuff now, are you? The stuff in the living room, I mean, obviously..."

They both chuckled at this, before Astrid brought her face closer to give him a soft peck on the lips. She then shuffled the rest of her body closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and tucking her head under his chin. She was still short of words, mumbling a bit at first before she said "Hiccup, that... just... just thank you, for that, it... it was fucking incredible..."

"What? Better than Ben Folds?"

"Y'know what... fuck it... yeah... yeah, it was... ha ha..." Astrid glanced up at him as she said this, prompting Hiccup to nod in response.

"Well, I gotta say, I can't disagree..." he managed to say as he kissed the top of Astrid's head gently before leaning his head back again. They stayed silently like this for a few more minutes, with Hiccup nearly nodding off before Astrid suddenly said "hey, Hiccup?"

"Yes, milady?"

"Hm... so, while we were just, uh... y'know... I was thinking. Maybe, um... maybe we should... y'know...?"

"What?"

"Well, I dunno... maybe we ought to move in together..."

"Wait, toget... together? What, y'mean like... like share an apartment...?"

"Well, yeah... I mean, I... I was thinking maybe we'd get one a little bigger than this. Like, for both of us, y'know..."

"Yeah, I guess, I... I had a little thought about doing something like this, Astrid, but... but are you really sure about that?"

Astrid pretended to sound offended as she looked up to face him with an eyebrow raised. "Hiccup Haddock... when have I ever not been sure about something involving you? Hm?"

Hiccup titled his head nervously, saying "well... I guess you have a point, ha ha..."

"Course I do..." Astrid confidently said before she kissed him deeper on the lips this time. When they separated, she kept her smug grin as she said "if I'm gonna keep my life and career going as it is, then I'm gonna need my supporting, loving boyfriend and... ahem... stress relief, available when needed... ah ha ha ha..."