A/N: Super excited to get this out, this was also pretty fun to write. Hope you enjoy!
Harley Haddock's bony fingers clack away on his mechanical keyboard. He forces air through his teeth frustratedly as the game he was about to win slips through his fingers. He types some passive aggressive comments to his teammates in the game chat and closes the program immediately.
What a great waste of half an hour, he thinks to himself.
He leans back in his chair and puts his hands behind his head, exhaling fully while struggling to accept the ranking points he had lost. He stretches his legs out, curling and uncurling his toes before shifting his gaze through his bedroom window into the outside world. The early pre-sunrise light was just beginning to turn the sky that beautiful, light blue that he has become so acquainted with in the past few weeks. He's been on an almost nocturnal sleep schedule now that all of his academic work was over and the summer was nearing. No responsibilities, no worries. Well, there were some worries, such as the looming prospect of actually deciding what university he wants to attend.
The auburn-haired boy switches off the computer and gets up out of his desk chair. He reaches across his desk and groggily moves to close the blinds on his window when a black streak jumps up into the window sill.
"Whoa," Harley jumps. "You scared me, bud. You can't do that, you know." He gives the cat some scratches on the lower back and goes to close the blinds again.
The cat meows defiantly, staring back at Harley with bright, green eyes.
"Toothless… there's no way I'm gonna be able to sleep with that. Is that really what you want?" Harley playfully argues.
Toothless merely keeps staring, daring the boy to try again.
"Alright, alright, have it your way," Harley grumbles, stalking away toward the bed. Toothless turns his gaze outside, tail waving rhythmically behind him.
Useless feline. Sometimes I wonder who's really in charge here.
Harley laughs at himself for being such a pushover before crawling into bed and turning away from the ever-increasing sunlight beaming in through the window. He shuts his eyes to enjoy the soft sound of birds chirping.
He's halfway asleep when there's a light knocking on his door.
"Harley? Are you awake?" A voice with a thick, Scottish accent calls from behind the closed door.
Harley lays silent for a bit, hoping his father will just assume that he's sleeping. It's not that he doesn't like his father, but generally they only speak when he's made a mistake, or when something bad has happened. He's about to fall asleep again, when more knocks come.
"Harley, it's important." The response is curt, but not intimidating.
"Fine, yeah, what is it?" Harley says drearily, slurring his words on purpose to provide the illusion of having been asleep.
"May I come in?"
Harley props himself up on his elbows, facing the door. "Yeah, of course."
The door swings inward, revealing a man with a frighteningly large stature. Well, frightening to most, but to Harley this is just his dad. Funnily enough, this is probably the first time Harley's seen his dad enter his room with a smile.
"Whoa, what's wrong," Harley asks sarcastically. "You're happy about something."
"Oh, come on now, son, can't a father just be happy to spend time with his one and only child?" He beams at his one and only child.
"Not this one. Not usually, at least."
"Your sarcasm isn't going to ruin my mood today. Anyway, I know you love me." The massive man crosses the room in what seems like one step and takes a seat on the edge of the bed. Toothless hops down off the window sill, trots over to the newcomer, and begins rubbing on his legs. "I bought it."
"You bought what?"
"The restaurant! Well, it's a small chain, but I got it, I finally did." The red-bearded giant's smile is unwavering.
"Am I… supposed to be excited about that?" Harley tests the waters.
"Well, I'd be happy if you were happy for me. For us. This is good for us!"
"And owning, what, three companies isn't enough already for the great Stephen 'Stoick' Haddock?" He wildly gestures before laying back down flat on his back, closing his eyes.
"Ouch, I don't hear that nickname from you very often. Are you trying to hurt me?" Stoick feigns offense. "I'm serious, you can't ruin my mood today."
"Okay, you bought a restaurant—"
"It's a chain."
"Okay, you bought a chain. Why does that involve me?" Harley's eyes remain unopened. It's not that he doesn't care, but why is his father sharing this with him so early in the morning. Couldn't he have waited until tonight? Or tomorrow?
Stoick simply sighs. "So," he pauses, struggling to find the correct way to phrase what he wants to say. "I think you need to get a job."
Harley scoffs. "What? Why?"
"Well, I think it's important to build character."
"What, you don't think I have enough character?" Harley sits up, reopening his eyes to look his father in the face.
"No, no, that's not at all what I meant. I just meant, well, it would get you out of the house. You don't want to live here forever, do you?"
I mean, that would be nice.
Stoick looks out the window, contemplating for a moment before returning his warm gaze to his son. "Look, I've made it easy for you. I've gotten you a job at the flagship location."
"You what?" Harley guffaws incredulously.
"It'll be good for you! It's what you need."
"Dad, I'm eighteen—"
"That's exactly why I think—no, I know you need this job!" Stoick cuts over him. He gets up, pinching the bridge of his nose. Toothless scampers under the bed to safety, startled by the sudden movement. "You're an adult and you've never had a job. Now, I know how hard it—"
"Okay, fine," Harley deadpans, knowing where this conversation was going. He lays down defeatedly and shuts his eyes. "Just, tell me where I need to go. If it'll make you happy."
Stoick blows air out of his mouth through puffed cheeks, slowly shaking his head.
"Harley—"
"Just tell me where I need to go and when," Harley repeats, equally as emotionless as the first time.
Without saying another word, Stoick goes to exit the generously sized bedroom. He pauses at the doorway and turns, opening his mouth to say something, but thinks better of it. The door closes softly and the room is silent once more. Minutes pass before Harley's phone buzzes on his night table. Thankful for something to distract him, He snatches the phone and opens the new message.
10:29 AM - Dad: Want to grab dinner tonight? My treat.
11:20 AM - Dad: Want to grab dinner tonight? My treat.
12:35 PM - Dad: Want to grab dinner tonight? My treat.
3:16 PM - Me: No, that's okay, thank you though.
3:17 PM - Dad: Ok son.
Today 6:13 AM - Dad: I'm off. You start at 3:00. Get some sleep, don't be late, and DON'T embarrass me.
Harley cringes a little at the final, unsavory addition to an already unwelcome text message. He tosses the phone across the room where it lands underneath the cat tower in the corner and groans.
I guess he shouldn't have been so confident in keeping his good mood.
Toothless hops up onto the bed, purring.
"Hey, bud," Harley whispers, running a hand down the cat. "Do you think I'm a jerk?"
Toothless does a 180, flicking Harley in the face with his tail before jumping off the bed and scaling the cat tree.
"Yeah," the boy sighs. He lays back down and shuts his eyes, hoping that finally he'll be able to rest. Soon, the birds chirping outside lull him to sleep.
Astrid is jolted awake by the jarring sound of her alarm clock going off. She groggily sits up and rubs her eyes, creating tiny stars in her vision. She slaps the alarm clock to quiet it and rolls out of bed, wishing she could sleep for five more days.
Stormfly happily bounds out of bed to give her mom some good morning kisses. Astrid kneels down to greet the rejoicing pup.
"Good morning! Oh, yes, I love you too. Shhh, yeah. There's my girl," Astrid coos, trying not to let dog slobber get on her lips. "Blegh. Ok, I gotta go get ready."
She begrudgingly leaves the company of her beloved pet and starts toward the bathroom. She's in the middle of brushing her teeth when she remembers that she has to meet Harley Haddock today. Not only meet, but interact with him for a prolonged period of time.
Why does that name sound so familiar? I mean, I barely talked to the guy. Yeah, I guess he was weird, but aren't we all weird in middle school? Well, I wasn't weird, but there was this year where—
She doesn't have time to finish the mental argument with herself when she's met with the first vivid memory of Harley Haddock:
A small, gangly boy with auburn hair approaches an almost equally tiny blonde girl in the hallway after class, staring at his shoes all the while.
"H-hey, Astrid," he stutters, still staring at the floor. "I just wanted to say—"
"What?" Astrid turns, a plastic water bottle in hand, completely unaware that someone was trying to talk to her. Harley Haddock had completely ignored the fact that she was in the middle of a conversation with one of her friends who is now taking this opportunity to escape.
"Oh, sorry."
"What?" She repeats, staring daggers into the poor kid, annoyed that he scared her friend off. "Spit it out, Haddock."
The boy's face goes pale while his ears turn bright red. "N-nothing, I was just gonna—"
Astrid huffs and goes to push past him, but trips as her untied shoelace catches itself. She wildly reaches out for something to support her as she stumbles, and ends up bringing both Harley and herself to the ground, spewing water out of the open plastic water bottle everywhere in the process. There they lay, Astrid almost on top of him, both with soaked fronts.
Astrid is silent in shock and quickly gets up, holding her arms out at her sides. She glowers intensely at the shaggy-haired boy.
"Your shoe was untied?" Harley peeps meekly, staying on the ground.
"Go fuck yourself, Haddock," Astrid spits before turning tail and speed walking in the opposite direction, as far away from that interaction as possible.
Present day Astrid is standing there, toothbrush still in mouth, staring at herself in the mirror.
Holy fuck. It was him.
As cliche as it was, Astrid still remembers the walk of shame she took on the way to the nearest bathroom where she spent a good 10 minutes dabbing herself with those useless, brown paper towels. She finishes up in the bathroom and races back to her phone in the bedroom. She flicks through her contacts until she finds Fishlegs and calls him. She paces the room as the ringing seems to go on forever. Eventually, somebody picks up.
"Hey?"
"Hey, Harley Haddock was the kid from the water thing. Like, in sixth grade or something."
"What? No way…"
"One hundred percent."
"Well, come on, it couldn't have been that awful if you'd forgotten about it until now." Fishlegs does his best to calm his frazzled friend down.
Astrid laughs bitterly. "I think I forgot about it because it was that awful. People thought I pissed myself for like a year!"
"Oh, no they didn't." They totally did, but you don't just say that.
"Yes, they totally did."
"Well, that was middle school. Who cares?"
"Doesn't mean it wasn't awful to live through. Are you telling me you were okay with being the nerd the popular kids kept around for diversity?" She recoiled from the venom in her own voice.
"Okay, ow, that's not very nice, but—"
"No, you're right, I'm sorry. I'm just—I'm freaking out, okay?"
"Why are you freaking out, Astrid? It was one thing a million years ago, you need to let it go."
The platinum blonde huffs and mindlessly fiddles with a dog toy on the ground, playing with it like one would a hacky-sack.
"Am I really crazy for feeling like this?"
Fishlegs hesitates on the other end of the line. "I wouldn't say, crazy, per se, but I do think you're overreacting. If you truly want my two cents. Seriously, you only have to work with him, it's not like you have to be friends."
"You're right, you're right. Thanks." She smooshes the phone between her shoulder and her ear so she can pack her school stuff into her small, blue backpack. "Oh fuck, I still haven't finished my essay for Bucket's class."
"Yikes. Alright, well, you have fun with that, but I have to get going. See you later."
"Later."
She hangs up and slides the phone into her back pocket, slinging the blue backpack over her shoulder. She heads down the stairs, Stormfly in hot pursuit, on a new mission to make today not completely suck.
Downstairs, Astrid opens the back door to let Stormfly out before pouring a bowl of cereal and scarfing it down at lightning speed, taking care not to choke.
These lucky charms better actually give me luck or I swear to god I'm calling corporate.
She smiles at her own ridiculousness.
Okay, maybe I am overreacting.
With her cereal finished and the dog back inside, the frazzled girl steps out for the day after giving Stormfly some goodbye pets, locking the front door behind her.
The weather outside is perfect, and it seems like the most unruinable day. A mildly reassuring thought enters Astrid's mind before she begins her walk to the bus stop,
Well, if today does suck, I know exactly who I'm going to blame.
A/N: Alright, I'm not TOO incredibly happy, but I wanna get a lot of exposition stuff out of the way before I write the good ideas I have. All in due time, my friends. :)
LMK what you think!
