"WHAT THE HELL?!" She jumped up, covering part of her body with a pillow and sticking as close as she could to the bed backrest behind her. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?! WHO ARE YOU?!"

The stranger shrugged in his place, he had spent some time sitting quietly on the floor by now, leaning against the corner of the bed. Her bed.

He himself felt out of place, he was not sure what to do or what to say to the girl's reaction, and he was well aware that he could not blame her.

Still from the ground, he raised both palms to the level of his face, his eyes very wide open. "I-I'm not gonna hurt you!" he said, almost panicking as well "calm down!"

Astrid got up quickly from the bed and ran across the room to grab a pair of scissors from her desk, turning back to him and pointing them at him as an attempt of self-defense. "Who are you and what are you doing in my room?! Are you friends with Ruffnut?!" she questioned, scissors and phone in each hand. She was freaking out, she had never seen this boy in her life.

"Uh ... yeah, well..." The auburn-haired guy placed a hand behind his head, nervous "I guess we're friends now... or something like that... a-ah ... I-I can explain, I promise!"

"Then do it before I call the police!" little by little, Astrid was walking towards the bedroom door, not taking her eyes off him "MOM! RUFFNUT!"

"They're not home!" He said, getting even more tense as he heard her scream "I saw them leave a few hours ago".

"Alright" She picked up her phone, determined. If she was home alone with this strange guy, she had nothing else to wait for "Then I should just..."

"Don't call the police! there's no reason for it, I swear, I mean no harm!".

Astrid's stomach lurched, what on earth was happening? What exactly was this guy planning? She looked sideways, wondering for a second if perhaps she was still asleep and this was just a stupidly realistic dream. It seemed crazy. Just then, when she glanced at him again, she noticed that the boy was dressed completely in white.

"Astrid, please listen to me" He caught her attention again, attempting to stand up from the ground, where did he learn her name?, "I-i don't even know where to start explaining but…"

"No, you stop right there, I don't have to listen to you! you're a strange guy that I don't know how the hell got into my house and you're in my damn bedroom!" She pointed the scissors directly at him again, frantic. Dream or not, the fact that this strange dude somehow got into her room while no one else was home was impossible to take lightly. "Don't think I'm helpless, don't try anything weird or I swear you're going to regret it!"

"I already told you, I'm not gonna do anything to you!" He leaned back again to avoid the scissors. "You brought me here yourself! That's what was supposed to happen!"

Now it definitely sounded like a dream.

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Can you stop swearing like that?!" The guy was suddenly frustrated, he ran a hand through his hair "Just let me explain!"

Astrid stared at him, attentive and confused. Something really felt overly strange in this whole situation, not only because there was a strange guy in her room, not only because of the weird things he was saying, and not only because he was dressed in white from head to feet, shirt, sweater, pants and shoes; and not just because his big eyes and gaze seemed so familiar that it was giving her the creeps...

Something about him... Something in him was making this whole crazy situation not as scary as it SHOULD be.

She wondered for a moment if it was the fact that the guy looked so innocent… ridiculously innocent.

Maybe it was a dream after all...

A genuine feeling of curiosity to know what he had to say washed over her, and then he, taking a breath, began to speak.

"My name is Hiccup," he finally said, slowly, putting both hands on his own chest. "I've been here for the last five days... just... not in this form".

"What?" Astrid frowned, that didn't make any sense for her.

"We met five days ago... and you let me stay here. You said I shouldn't get too comfortable tho, because there was no way you were going to keep me." Hiccup smiled slightly. "R-remember?"

Astrid's eyes widened.

He...

He was...?

What the hell was he saying?!

Five days before.

It was impossible for her to concentrate.

She was just trying to work at the dining room table, attempting to do as much as possible of her final school project.

But not even his computer was cooperating.

On top of that, the loud music and the girl singing her lungs out in the room a few feet away from her was severely wearing off her patience.

"YOU AIN'T EVEN HERE TO PARTY."

One month.

"KEN IN THE CLUB TRYNA PIPE TO BARBIE."

It had been just one miserable month since Ruff came to live under the same roof as her.

"I DON'T WANNA GO GO GO WITH THE FLOW."

Astrid already felt like she wanted to run away from there herself.

It seemed that the universe or whatever higher being was in charge of controlling her life, had decided that today was going to be a really awful day.

"I CHOO CHOO CHOO CUZ THEY HOPE I CHU-"

Enough.

"RUFFNUT!" She stood up from her spot, slapping her hands on the table hard enough for the other girl to hear. "FOR GOD'S SAKE, CAN YOU LOWER THE VOLUME OF YOUR PARTY FOR A FUCKING SECOND? I AM TRYING TO WORK IN HERE."

She noticed that the music dropped almost immediately, but somehow Astrid knew that it didn't mean she would finally have peace, and she proved her theory right away when Ruff stormed out of her room and walked over to her.

"You don't have to scream like that!" He took a firm step, facing her younger cousin "Why do you have to interrupt at the best part of the song?"

"Don't scream? How were you supposed to hear what I said in such a fuss without me screaming, Ruff?!" Astrid said, she was really annoyed "I have asked you several times already, IN A KINDLY WAY, not to listen to your music so loud, and you don't seem to care!"

"It's Saturday! Won't you let me have fun for at least one day?! I held back for the whole week!"

"No, you didn't!" Astrid fisted her hands in front of her, frustrated "Every day since you arrived I've had to remind you to turn down the volume and you just ignore me every time!"

"Gosh, you can relax once in a while, you know?"

"I have things to do!" she replied, pointing to her computer. From her tone of voice, Ruffnut could easily tell that she was furious, yet she managed to talk again a bit down this time "I'm asking you, once again. Turn. Off. The music."

Ruff found the behavior of her new housemate really unfamiliar and exaggerated. Before moving here, her aunt, Mrs. Hofferson, told her that Astrid could be a bit moody sometimes, but she never thought that the girl would be truly a doll-faced ogre.

Not even her own mother was this fierce about loud music as her seventeen-year-old cousin right here.

She stared at the blonde for a few seconds, unsure again about if this idea of living at the Hofferson's and not in an apartment by herself would have been the best, since Astrid didn't exactly make her feel welcome at all from the beginning. Although she did not want to take it personally at first, she was getting tired of it and of her temper. But in the end, she was still trying to convince herself that living alone had too many drawbacks, she really wasn't cut out for that, and being alone just made her miss Tuffnut, her twin brother, even more. Maybe she would just need to come up with something to get Astrid to accept her.

"Don't look at me like that." Ruff didn't realize that the other girl had already sat down again, her voice brought her out off her thoughts. "At least lower the damn volume and do whatever you want, but I need to focus".

Astrid on the other hand was trying to control herself, Ruffnut had moved in with them just a month ago. She was nineteen and was now a college student. Her parents did not live in the city, and at first, the girl actually tried to live alone during the second half of her first semester, but for some reason, it didn't turn out as well as they planned. Ruffnut's twin brother, Tuffnut, got into a different college, plus he got a place in a shared apartment with his own friends. Astrid knew that Ruff tried living with them too, the first half of said semester, but the place was too far from her own school and she had to take two busses, it was really a bother, it made her lose a lot of time and she was always late to her classes, and besides, sharing a place with three men turned out to be too much for her.

But now having her here was too much for Astrid, and it was noticeable from a continent away.

"They're going to have a lot of fun together at home, it's a great idea!" Her mother had said when Ruffnut's mother told her about the plan "They will make each other good company, and they can even go to college together next year."

Neither thing applied to her daughter, since Astrid was sure she wanted to go to a different college next year, and besides, the idea of fun between Hoffersons and Thorthons was definitely very different as well.

And Astrid knew better than anyone, she was aware of the bad temper she had, it was not something new that people saw her with displeasure or annoyance after she raised her voice. She had a strong personality, no doubt about that, but that was her own problem. It was her house, too, Ruff was the guest and she had to be the one to adapt to the Hofferson's lifestyle after all, not the other way around. At least that was what she believed.

Besides, Hofferson's meant only her and her mother, who was absent practically all day long for work matters.

"If you're stressed out all the time, you're going to go bald," Ruff suddenly spoke from the kitchen, serving herself a bowl of cereal. Astrid hardly paid attention to what she said, something that actually happened quite frequently during the last month. "Why don't you go for a walk and forget about school for a bit? It is chill and cloudy, it could probably rain later, but right now it seems perfect for going outside and relax".

Astrid didn't bother to reply, though deep down, deep deep down... she appreciated Ruffnut's good intentions at offering her an idea to distract herself.

In the end, she had no choice but to get used to her presence.

Feeling ignored, Ruffnut took her dignity and bowl of cereal and returned to the privacy of her room, the one they both shared, actually. She turned down the volume of her music, but almost in no time, she was singing again, loud enough for Astrid to get frustrated once again.

She sighed, and dropped her head into the keyboard of her laptop.

It was always Ruffnut's fault when they ran out of milk.

And the last few weeks, the food was literally disappearing twice as fast too.

The supermarket was closer to her home than any other convenience store, so Astrid always preferred to go there. She was close to finishing her work and submitting the report, and as a reward, she decided to treat herself making coffee, perfect for the current weather, and buying some candy for herself.

But there was no milk.

She knew that if she hadn't craved a packet of M&M's at almost eight o'clock at night, she would have sent Ruffnut instead to buy the gallon of milk.

At first, she thought about sending a message to her mother so that she could buy these things for her on her way home, but she beat her with one before saying that she would not arrive until a few hours later. Again, Astrid was feeling fatigued, as Ruff said, it was Saturday, couldn't her mother stop working so much even on the weekend?

As the time passed, she just gave up asking, she didn't care as much anymore, her absence was becoming habitual.

In the midst of her cloud of tired thoughts, Astrid felt a hunch in her chest, some weird feeling that made her stop on her track, she was still halfway home, in the middle of the sidewalk. She couldn't tell if it was a good or bad feeling, and for a second she wondered if someone was following her, could it be a thief? or maybe someone she knew and who wanted to surprise her.

She looked around, confused, but everything seemed pretty normal to her, not a lot of people were near and the street was well illuminated, there was still traffic even and a young couple was walking on the other side of the street, chatting nicely. Nothing strange happening.

It took her a few seconds until she decided that it was best to continue on her way and get home, since thinking a lot about the sensation she just had begun to give her chills.

But, when she tried to continue on her way, a small creature leaped in front of her, meowing loudly.

"What the ...?!" She jumped, startled, she looked at it with a frown.

A cat.

A brown cat, it was blocking her way. Its eyes were wide open and it was standing in a defensive or maybe playful position, Astrid couldn't tell, with its front legs spread apart and its tail bristling, ears bent back.

She stared at it, very confused, realizing then that she had unconsciously placed the gallon of milk in front of her in an attempt of self-defense. She lowered it, suddenly taking the situation with humor.

"Wow, is this a robbery?" She breathed out, laughing slightly. "Listen, don't hurt me and I'll give you the milk".

The little animal tilted its head, which caught the girl's attention. It then changed its position to a more relaxed one, sitting on the floor and watching her curiously.

Astrid looked around to see if anyone had seen her, or if perhaps the owner of the cat was near them, she suddenly felt strange for having spoken so naturally to the animal.

She shook her head, realizing again that she had no time to waste and that she should be home as quickly as possible to make her oh-so-craved coffee and finish her report. So, without further ado, she stepped around the cat that was still sitting in front of her and continued on her way.

"Goodbye fluffball," she said, almost affectionately. Cats weren't her favorite animal at all, but it was a living thing anyway and she had found it a bit adorable.

She walked a few steps, and then the cat meowed.

So loud Astrid could swear it yelled at her.

She frowned, turning slightly to look at it over her shoulder.

The cat was still sitting up, staring at her with big green eyes flashing in the street lights.

"Excuse you?" She was doing it again, talking to it "Are you lost? You need something?"

The cat meowed again, this time more softly.

Astrid snorted, turning for the second time to walk again.

And the little animal followed her.

NOTES:

Thanks to the supportive people on Tumblr and FanFiction, here is my attempt on translating "Hey, Pretty!" to its English version. English is not my first language, but I will try my best. Remember you can see the illustrations I make for this and my other stories on Instagram and Tumblr!

This fanfiction was inspired by "Little crow" a manga story for the Haikyuu fandom created by bubunhanten! you can find her original work on PIXIV pixiv en/artworks/60492040 (Especially if you like kagehina, I highly recommend to go read it!) I got properly in contact with her for the making of this fanfic so no worries. I hope you enjoy!