Pretty short one today, but we have a whole lot of awkwardness in here!oOo

Chapter 6 - Maybe

Two days later, Hiccup sealed a big tupperware box and made his way out into the city. His shift didn't start until nine PM, so he still had plenty of time to spare.

The pet shop had never been hard to find; on his first walks through the city alone at night Hiccup had discovered it between a bakery and a bookshop.

A bell chimed as he opened the door and carefully looked around. An elderly woman stood behind the counter, smiling warmly at him.

"Hiccup, dear, hello!"

The young man smiled and stepped closer. "Gothi, hi. How are you?"

"Oh, the sign is new, yes."

"No, I - that's nice. How are you?" Hiccup repearted, louder this time.

"It's new! Yes!" She shouted back and Hiccup gave up.

"Is Astrid in the back?"

"What yak?"

"No, not a -" he sighed. "I'll check myself."

'The back' always promised to be a magical land of supplies and wonder; reality proved the back to only be a small room with a counter, a table and two chairs, a fridge and a locker. There was another door leading to what Hiccup presumed to be the bathroom and one with an old sign that read 'OFFICE' in pale capital letters. Carefully he peeked around the corner and felt his heart jump at the sight of Astrid sitting at the table, a mug in her hands, scanning over a newspaper.

He knocked against the doorframe and watched her raise her head -

Astrid's face lit up immediately at the sight of him.

"Hiccup!"

With a couple of steps she had already crossed the room and stood in front of him, laughing softly when he wrapped his arms around her and shortly spun her around.

"What're you doing here?"

"Oh, I just thought you might fancy some lunch." He grinned and pulled out the container, making her gasp.

"Thank you! That's ... don't you have to work too?"

He grinned lopsidedly at her and ran a hand through his hair. "Night shift," he explained. "Doesn't start until nine PM. I just wanted to drop this by and then I'm back to hitting the mattress for tonight."

He watched her place the container into the fridge and take out two glasses and a bottle of water, smiling up at him.

"But I guess I could make time for another ten minutes," he streched, already sitting down, making her laugh and almost spill his drink.

oOo

She had kissed him goodbye on the cheek, making every step he took after that feel like he was flying.

Granted, it was hard sleeping after that.

Toothless had curled up on his chest, purring loudly as Hiccup stared up at the ceiling of his dark room, silently wondering what it would be like having her next to him.

He closed his eyes, remembering the weight of her hands against his chest and imagined pulling her against him until not an inch was left between them.

He groaned, violently scrubbing his hands over his face.

"Face it, Haddock," he muttered to himself. "You can't even kiss her on the cheek. How exactly are you planning on having her lie next to you?"

Fact was, going as far as holding her hand sent sparks down his spine and the thought of doing anything more than that sent shudders across his skin.

That had never really happened before, he realised. He couldn't remember any time he had felt attracted to another person the way he was attracted to Astrid.

But how was this different?

Maybe it was her. Or he had simply got older.

Hiccup stared into the darkness and realised that it was probably (definitely) her.

oOo

His door bell rang at exactly 8:30 PM. Toothbrush between his teeth, still only clad in a big towel, Hiccup quickly skitted to a halt in front of the door.

Probably just another package falsely being dropped at his address.

He almost swallowed his toothpaste when it was, in fact, not the mailman.

Astrid.

Astrid, standing in the doorway, offering an empty container.

Astrid, slowly letting her eyes wander across the length of his body, then blushing furiously and almost dropping said container.

Astrid, still not averting her eyes. Instead, they were fixed on his chest.

"Uh." He cleared his throat as well as he could through the toothpaste and toothbrush.

"Shanksh." He pointed at the container.

"You're … welcome."

Awkward silence. More staring (Hiccup began thinking that maybe it was fully intentional) from her side.

"Myou wanna c'm in or," he mumbled and finally she shook herself out of her stupor.

"Oh, no, you - seem … busy. I'll, um. Get … going now. Yes. Good night."

And with that she turned on her heels, fled down the staircase and quickly slammed the door shut. Hiccup exhaled and shuffled back to the bathroom to finally get rid of the toothpaste.

Mere seconds later it rang a second time.

Upon opening he already knew it was Astrid (yet, he had not done anything for his upper body's modesty), who presented the container to him with outstreched arms.

"I … forgot to give this to you," she mumbled and already made her way back to the staircase. Hiccup felt yet again like he had back then before asking her number; and again, he wasn't really thinking (was it just her?).

Quickly he caught her by the wrist and held her back, spun her around and searched her gaze.

"Where do you think you're going?"

His tone was light, disguising his jittery heart and his desperate attempt to gather all his courage - he quickly pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"Good night," he husked and stepped back, letting go of her hand. She bit back a grin, nodded and then stood on her tiptoes, leaned in and whispered into the darkness, "Don't you dare getting fried tonight."

oOo

It was the crack of dawn by the time Hiccup dragged himself through the door the next morning. Bathtub, cold water, diffuser, bed. Preferably in that exact order. He slumped upstairs after opening a can of cat food and unceremoneously dumping it into Toothless' bowl and slowly rid himself of his clothing on the way up.

He shivered as he stepped into the bathroom but stuck to a cold shower nontheless, not having the desire for more heat tonight that he'd already had.

People caused way too many fires, he thought hazily as he started scrubbing the sod and ash off of his skin.

At least everybody came out alive. That was the main goal. Get there in time and get everyone out alive. Tonight there had been three cases of smoke poisining and two minor degree burns but they'd driven them to the hospital nontheless.

Hiccup bit back a muffled grunt as he touched his stump. 'I'm helping people, I'm helping people, I'm helping people.' His daily mantra.

"Astrid was right," he groaned into his empty bathroom. "It's a death wish."

Astrid couldn't sleep. The image of a wet-haired, towel-clad Hiccup had burned itself into her mind. She groaned and turned onto her left side. Of course, he wasn't only considerate and funny and challenging, no, he also just had to have a body like this.

She absentmindedly wondered which kind of toothpaste he used.

The look on his face had been priceless, though. And there had been a second emotion the second time she'd been at his door, something … else. Determination? It had felt like more thab that, something she couldn't really put her finger on. All Astrid knew now was that the air between them had felt electrified, just like two days ago. She'd been daring, she knew that, as she'd initiated the conversation about his … behaviour. And her move with the collar bone had definitely been something that shouldn't even be allowed, especially not on a second date. But he'd let her. And she hadn't failed to notice him shudder lightly at her action.

Her mind once again provided her with towel-Hiccup. Sighing Astrid reached out to her phone. She hesitated for a few seconds, then typed, 'Sorry i stared at you.', deleted it, wrote it again, rephrased it and deleted it once more.

oOo

Hiccup was already at work when his phone buzzed the next day. His heart did a small somersault as he saw it was from Astrid.

'Sorry about yesterday night…'

He blushed involuntarily.

'don't worry, it's okay'

… 'unless you're repulsed by me now'

She typed. Stopped. Then, 'Remember our talk about your ... antics?'

'Yeah?'

'Add that to the list.'

Hiccup couldn't help but laugh quietly and hid his blush behind his phone.

'remind me to make a list for you too. we need to balance that out'

Suddenly his phone started ringing, Astrid's face all over the screen.

"Tired of texting already?"

She laughed. "Shut up. I just grew impatient and wanted to hear your voice now that I know you don't hate me."

Hiccup chuckled and leaned back into his chair. "Are you at work?"

She hummed. "Yeah, on my break. Today's been pretty sparse."

"My shift's in about two hours and I just remembered I ran out of cat litter."

"Did you?"

He imagined her raise an eyebrow at him to match her teasing tone.

"Oh yeah, it's very urgent."

The young woman hummed again, pretending to be deep-in thought. When she spoke again Hiccup could almost hear her grin.

"I'll pick you up at 3:30, we're trying out the café."

"Is that a threat?"

She laughed brightly. "That's an outlook on your future."

oOo

The next chapter might take me a bit longer, I'm spending time with my family over the holidays.Merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah to everyone who celebrates, and to those who don't really, happy weekend!