"You said he was going to be normal!"

"That was pretty normal, Astrid," Fishlegs glumly responds after hesitating for a moment.

"What, are you trying to say that I'm the asshole?"

The silence on the other end of the phone call does nothing to console a raging Astrid.

"I'm not the one that—that said that. I'm not the one that did that, all those years ago."

"Okay, to be honest, I still don't really know what that's all about. What happened in the past doesn't seem like it's as bad as you say it is. So what?"

"He brought it up though, Fish, that's why I'm annoyed."

"I can understand you being annoyed, but he seemed fine to me. He seemed cool, actually. And you know what? I even gave him my phone number."

"Looking for a new boyfriend?" Astrid sneers maliciously, completely lost in anger.

"Ouch, no, and does being this mad make you homophobic? Is Eret starting to rub off on you?"

Astrid huffs frustratedly. "No, he's not. Also, he's not homophobic! That was one comment. And for the record, I'm not either."

"It was a pretty bad comment," Fishlegs adds solemnly. "And if you have to say you're an ally—"

"Well, maybe you should've been less gay."

She stops herself from pacing around her small room cringing at the comment she just made and bites her lip, knowing it was not too great of a thing to say.

"Whoa, when did this become a sexuality piece? This is about you and Hiccup. And honestly, I could not care less about what your boyfriend says about me, even if I was gay."

There's a lull in the conversation, leaving both of them wondering how they even wound up on this topic.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Astrid starts. "That wasn't cool, but still, you want to be friends with Harley?"

"Look, again, he seems cool. Maybe give him a chance. Honestly, I never got a bad feeling about him the entire day, and even at the end it just seemed like he was trying to joke around with you."

"I'm not his friend, though. Why was he trying to joke around with me?" Astrid questions the universe in general, not really knowing who to be upset with. She only knows that this new 'Harley' guy is making her mind go crazy for reasons she can't place. It has to be all that shit in the past, it honestly can't be anything else.

"I will agree, it probably wasn't the best time to bring up your guys', eh, history."

"It's not even history, don't say it like that. You're making it sound like we knew each other or something."

"Well, you do remember him and obviously he remembers you."

"That doesn't mean anything."

"I'm just saying, if it's more than a fleeting thought, then—"

"Will you stop trying to analyze me?" Astrid barks, rather rudely.

The annoyed girl kicks an unfortunate dog toy with so much force that it hits the wall with a resounding thud. She plops herself down on the bed, phone still held to her ear. The silence from the other end is deafening and Astrid is about to ask if Fishlegs is still there when he finally speaks again.

"You just need to give him a chance. You trust me, right? Seriously, he doesn't seem like the weirdo he was in middle school. And even then, I didn't think he was that weird."

Astrid bites back the snide comment she was about to say and keeps silent.

"Astrid?"

"Yeah, yeah."

Astrid doesn't give Fishlegs a chance to add anything else to the conversation before abruptly ending the call. She gets up off the bed and goes to open the window. The chilly, summer night air breezes in and for the first time since this morning she feels relaxed.

She wonders how Eret, her UK-born boyfriend, is doing. She met him through an exchange student program, but he was a class above her, so when his class graduated, he ended up going back to the UK. She smiles to herself thinking about all those crazy, summer nights they had before he left.

Does she love him? She doesn't really know the answer to that question. She loves being with him. She loves not being alone, and she definitely loves their rather promiscuous nights, even though it's been a decent while since she's even seen him in person.

If she's completely honest with herself though, she had complete faith that he was going to break up with her before he left, or rather they were going to have an 'amicable' split. High school relationships aren't supposed to last, right? On top of that, the guy lives across an entire ocean.

Eret, however, had no such intentions. He went on and on about how they could make this work and how no distance would quell his love for her. Eventually with enough talking—on top of other things—Astrid's mind was changed and she decided to stick with it. Maybe it could work, who knows?

It was romantic, sure, but she sometimes feels like she's being held back, tethered to somebody that she quite literally cannot be with. It doesn't matter how it's sliced, she didn't want to uproot her life and move across the ocean, and she definitely didn't want to ask him to do that—not that he would, really.

But, alas, it's nice to have a hot boyfriend. Aside from a particular event involving a certain homophobic slur being drunkenly thrown around, Eret was a great guy. He certainly got an earful that night—even if it did turn into an intense, anger-fueled make-out session. As mad as the feisty girl got at him, he always seemed to have a way to turn it into something he wanted.

Astrid's stricken with the sudden urge to call him but it's quickly dismissed when she realizes that he's probably busy.

No different than the last fifteen times… Maybe I should break up with him.

She opens her phone to shoot her best friend a text.

9:55 PM - Me: u up?

She stares at her screen hoping for an immediate response, but when none comes she goes about her normal bedtime routine.

After giving Stormfly enough love to last a lifetime, Astrid reluctantly crawls into bed, wishing she didn't have to be alone with her thoughts.

The cold air stings the insides of her nostrils, making her feel alive. Too much thinking about Eret makes her depressed.

I mean, if I didn't love him, I wouldn't miss him, right?

She ponders on the nights where he rushed her out the back door as his uncle and aunt returned home for the night. Those nights usually went about the same each time; she would arrive, they'd fuck, and then she'd be ushered out the door.

She jams her eyes shut, not wanting to consider the fact that maybe this relationship isn't working; or worse, that it has never worked.

Her phone buzzes from the night-table. She snatches the device from the table and checks the notification, eyes squinting at the bright light in the otherwise dark room.

10:07 PM - Ruff: ya whats up?

10:07 PM - Me: he totally did some weird shit.

10:08 PM - Ruff: no way, did he like touch u or smth

10:09 PM - Me: what? No lol. He just said some shit about teh whole water thing i KNEW he remembered.

10:09 PM - Ruff: well if my memory serves correctly as it usually does then im pretty sure u made that a hard moment to forget. Poor little guy.

10:10 PM - Me: poor him? Do u remember what my nickname was amongst the nerd group for the rest of the year?

10:10 PM - Ruff: okay, but think about it, "pissbaby" is totally meme worthy nowadays. Total content farm.

10:11 PM - Me: stfu that shit was awful.

10:11 PM - Ruff: no youre right it was awful. But now its funny. And thats life right?

10:12 PM - Me: no. still not funny.

10:13 PM - Ruff: w/e. Its funny to me. Srsly though, i love u, but u gotta like. Idk. move on? also what does he look like now btw?

10:14 PM - Me: why is everyone telling me that. Does nobody like care that i was actually super fucked up by that? and he looks the same.

10:15 PM - Ruff: u know i care about your childhood traumas, i really do, but if hes not weird anymore hes not weird anymore. Its like you want him to be the same kid. And theres no way he looks the same. He didnt get any taller? Nothing?

10:15 PM - Me: hes totally still weird though. Like he was talking shit to me and everything.

10:16 PM - Ruff: well alright then ill take ur word for it. Anyway i gotta actually get some sleep tonight? Will i see u at school tmrw?

10:17 PM - Me: whatever. Im still actually pissed but yea i will see you tomorrow.

10:17 PM - Ruff: ok

Astrid sets her phone back down on the side-table and flips over onto her side, just wishing that she could snap her fingers and make the world as she saw fit.

What a wonderful, Haddock-free world that would be.

00000

Hiccup tentatively opens the front door to his house, putting an obscene amount of effort into being quiet as not to stir his dad from sleep. Much to his surprise, the inside of the house is lit and his father is still very much awake, sitting in the living room.

Stoick turns his head at the sound of the door closing and flashes a brief smile before returning to his laptop and resuming whatever he was working on.

Well, that's odd. Why's he up so late?

Hiccup slips his shoes off before going to race up the stairs to his bedroom.

"Wait," his dad calls from the sofa, not diverting his attention from the harsh light of the screen. "How did it go?"

"O-oh," Hiccup stammers. "It actually went pretty okay."

Hiccup purposely avoids the fact that at the very end of the night he possibly made somebody incredibly mad at him. Besides, it's not like Astrid liked him to begin with.

Stoick puts the laptop down before turning his torso to actually face his son, who had his foot on the bottom stair, ready to escape this dreadful conversation.

"Did you see Gobber?" Stoick asks, a smile finally beginning to form on the normally straight-faced man. "Did you actually like it?"

"Yeah, dad, it was actually okay. And yeah, Gobber was great, you didn't tell me he was going to be there! Also, I'm sorry I was being a jerk this morning, I just—"

"Hey, no, it's alright. I know. I'm sorry about the text. I didn't mean—Well, I just didn't mean for it to come out that harshly. You know I'm proud of you, right?"

"Yeah…"

An awkward silence ensues. It feels like eons before Hiccup finally has something more to add.

"Oh, they uh, they gave me a nickname," the boy half grins, mildly proud of his social acceptance.

"A nickname? It's not like mine, is it?"

"Oh, it's much worse," Hiccup chuckles sarcastically.

"Hit me."

"It's, okay—don't laugh—it's Hiccup."

"Hiccup?"

Hiccup nods.

"I think it suits you just fine, son," the man laughs heartily, sitting back down to resume his work. "I've gotta bang out this proposal, so I'll be up for a little while longer."

With pleasantries exchanged, the two bid goodnight and Hiccup finally gets to rush up the stairs to his bedroom. He's not even through the door when a black streak lunges for his feet, meowing ferociously.

"Hey, bud," Hiccup bends to give the Toothless lower back scratches as he winds himself around and between Hiccup's legs. "Yeah, I missed you too, I'm home now, don't you worry." He shivers and crosses the room to close the open window. He wonders who in their right mind would want their room to be freezing.

His phone buzzes in his pocket and he finds a new message from his recently added contact Fishlegs.

10:04 PM - Fishlegs: Hey, what was your username again?

10:04 PM - Me: NightFury. Case sensitive.

10:05 PM - Fishlegs: Wow, so edgy, LOL.

10:06 PM - Me: I was 15, ok?

10:06 PM - Fishlegs: I'm just messing with you. Mine's no better…

Hiccup gets a notification from the voice chat app they both use. He exhales forcefully through his nose at the absurd username.

10:07 PM - Me: Wth is a Gronckle Lol

10:07 PM - Fishlegs: I don't know, honestly, I think it was some sort of animal. I made it up when I was like 8 or something xD

10:08 PM - Me: Right. Hey also you're friends with astrid or something, right?

10:09 PM - Fishlegs: Yeah. Hey do you want to hop in a call? It'll just be easier to talk in there.

10:10 PM - Me: Yeah ofc. One sec.

Inside the voice chat, Fishlegs is way too energetic for this time of night.

"Oh, Hiccup, this is so exciting! Did you see the new patch notes? I'm so happy that they're finally reworking the current meta because I really hated the direction that competitive play was taking, and—"

"Fishlegs!" Hiccup cuts him off, wanting to get him back on track. "Astrid?"

"Oh, right," Fishlegs clears his throat. "What did you want to know?"

"Honestly, I just wanted to know if you knew why she hates me. Or hated me, I don't know, it's one of those."

"She… she doesn't really know."

"What do you mean she doesn't know?" Hiccup laughs, absent-mindedly drawing boxes on the desktop screen of his computer.

"Okay, you cannot breathe a word of this, Hiccup. Do you promise?"

"Yes, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go right up to my new boss who just so happens to have a personal vendetta against me from god knows what in our past and tell her the deep dirt that I've got on her."

"Okay, okay! Sorry," Fishlegs deflates. "Seriously, don't say anything."

"I won't, I was joking?" Hiccup adds, hoping to reassure his new friend. Sometimes he worries that he's too sarcastic for his own good.

Do people just think I'm stupid or something? Actually, I don't really want that answered.

"She's totally pissed at you. Especially for bringing up the water bottle incident."

"Oh, god, I knew it." Hiccup gets out through gritted teeth. "Man, I shouldn't have said anything, I seriously was just trying to joke around."

"I know! I just don't think she saw it that way."

"Well, of course she didn't, she hates me."

"Will you stop saying that?"

"Does she not hate me?"

A brief moment of silence passes before Fishlegs responds. "She doesn't hate you, Hiccup. Honestly, she's been debating on it since we heard you were going to be working with us."

"Oh," Hiccup grumbles. "Can't she at least be nice to me?"

"For Astrid, that is being nice to you. You should've seen how she interacted with Tuffnut when she first met him. And don't get me started on Tuff's sister Rachael, er, well, we all just call her Ruffnut because she's Tuff's sister and her name starts with an R."

"That's original."

"Wasn't my idea, honestly, but yeah." Fishlegs laughs easily. "She and Astrid would get into actual fist fights. I'm talking hair pulling, name calling, literal punches being thrown."

"Mhm, sounds like I'm not the only arch nemesis she seems to have."

"Are you kidding?" Fishlegs chuckles. "Those two are like best friends now."

"No kidding?"

"Yup."

"Well, what do I do, then?"

"What, you want to be best friends with Astrid Hofferson?"

"No, I just want my work life to not be total garbage, Fishlegs. Seriously, that's all I want."

"My advice is to just do as she says."

"I'm already doing that, though. What am I supposed to do, just hope that maybe eventually she gets over it?" Hiccup asks incredulously. There's only so much he can put up with and waiting for a problem to just go away on its own is not one of his strong suits. He's a problem solver, and he gets jittery and anxious if something that he can change is left to fate to decide the outcome.

"All I'm saying is that she'll come around. She has to, honestly, because if she doesn't she might as well just quit, which I know for a fact she's not going to do."

"Alright," Hiccup gives in. "That's enough Astrid talk, I guess. I'm starting to lose hair over it."

The conversation drifts into conversions about patch notes, competitive metas, and weapon releases as the two begin their gaming session.

00000

Astrid yelps in pain as Hiccup accidentally drops a chicken breast onto the flat-top with a little too much force.

"Watch it, Haddock!" She rubs the back of her hand where the oil had burned her.

There it is again, that tone. The same tone that she's been using with him ever since he brought up that one unsavory event in the past.

"Sorry," Hiccup mumbles, not meeting her gaze and continuing to work on the tickets.

"If you're going to work in the middle you have to not burn me." Astrid's voice is curt and professional, void of any friendliness that the rest of the gang exudes.

Days have passed since the parking lot incident and the crew seems to have warmed up to the newly dubbed 'Hiccup.' Well, all except a certain, feisty blonde girl who always seems to have a stick up her ass.

Astrid steps off the line to go run her hand under cold water, leaving Hiccup and Snotlout to temporarily power through the tickets alone.

Hiccup shoots the boy on the other end of the line a look, silently asking him why she seems to hate him so much. Snotlout just shrugs, returning to his burners.

Astrid returns, glaring Snotlout down, almost admonishing him for interacting with Hiccup, and the three of them finish up the rush and retreat to the prep table.

"You're getting pretty good at this, big boy," Snotlout says in a playfully flirtatious voice, sipping cola out of a gigantic tub typically used to store sauces.

"Oh, thanks Snotlout." Hiccup grins, a little giddy from the compliment.

Astrid says nothing as she takes a long drink from her water bottle.

"Come on, A," Snotlout pesters her, "don't you think Hiccup's doing great? I mean, working in the middle after three days has to be a record or something."

"I mean, it's not difficult really—" Hiccup starts.

"No, it's not hard," Astrid cuts him off and takes another sip of water before promptly leaving to go back to the line. She elbows Snotlout in the arm as she passes him. "Back to work."

"Sorry, Hiccup, the warden is summoning me," Snotlout winks and follows her.

A raspy voice speaks directly in Hiccup's ear, startling him.

"You know, it's not so much what's on the outside she doesn't like. It's more of what's inside that she can't stand."

"What the hell," Hiccup physically shudders. "How long have you been there?"

"Oh, just on my way to put away this plate." Tuffnut smiles and flips a plate to show off, but drops it. The white glass hits the ground and shatters into large shards. The two of them just stare at the pieces on the ground.

"You were only putting away one plate?"

"Yeah, if I carry too many I drop 'em. I'm way better off going one at a time," Tuffnut grins maniacally and says nothing more, strolling off all too casually to the back room.

That guy is a lunatic.

"Haddock! What are you doing? Get over here," Astrid hollers from the line, using that same, passive-aggressive tone.

Hiccup despondently returns to his station, still in shock from the odd interaction with Tuffnut.

Astrid has reclaimed her position in the middle as head of the kitchen, barking out gruff orders as tickets start coming in again. Hiccup doesn't struggle to keep up as his skills have improved exponentially over the past couple days. Astrid may have been trying to be rude when she said it wasn't difficult to do this work, but at least she was correct.

What was she even trying to get at? Was she trying to downplay everything I'm doing here?

Hiccup has tackled far more mentally taxing tasks before, so putting some food together on a plate isn't that big of a deal. In fact, it's almost too easy.

"Hey, this was supposed to be dressing on the side," Astrid snaps, grabbing a salad from the window and smacking it down aggressively in front of Hiccup. The previously confident line cook frowns.

Almost too easy.

Astrid looks back at Hiccup's station after realizing that everything is completely different than how it's normally set up.

"Whoa, what's happening here?"

Hiccup looks up from the salad re-fire. "What?"

She points at his station.

"Oh it just works better this way," he mumbles, not really stoked about Astrid getting on his case about every little thing.

"Just put it back the way you found it when you're done," she huffs and turns back around.

Hiccup almost wants to ask what her deal is. Why does she seem to hate him so much? Okay, aside from the obvious.

Surely she's not expecting me to apologize first.

The two don't exchange another word for the rest of the rush. The rest of dinner service goes by in a flash with Astrid and Snotlout exchanging brief inside jokes about the food and some regular customers, but Hiccup is unceremoniously left out. Snotlout shares a look with Hiccup every time Astrid sets a ticket in front of Hiccup instead of just telling him what's on order; and Hiccup could not be happier when it's finally time to go home.

00000

With the restaurant closed, all bills finalized, and all equipment shut off, the small pod of battered kitchen mates depart the building. The night is clear and cold, a slight breeze whisking through the trees, adding an ominous ambience to the walk.

They arrive at the post-work hangout spot, and Astrid sits on the curb next to Snotlout and across from Tuff. Hiccup hesitantly takes a seat next to Tuff, not quite wanting to go home yet. Astrid doesn't so much as acknowledge him, and yet exchanges mild conversation with Snotlout and Tuff.

Hiccup debates taking his leave, as he finds he doesn't really have anyone to talk to with Fishlegs absent. Typically he and Hiccup would be engaged in some nerdy conversation about a computer game they both happened to play.

Tuff and Snotlout both puffed on cigarettes and looked up into the sky, taking in the stars that so rarely present themselves.

"This is so beautiful it's gonna make me cry," Tuff whispers, genuinely on the verge of tears.

Snotlout just looks at him peculiarly before taking another drag.

"Hey," Astrid speaks up, turning to Snotlout. "Can I bum one?"

Snotlout silently brings the pack of cigarettes out and pulls one out a little before holding the pack toward Astrid. She takes it and the complimentary lighter and ignites the tobacco, puffing generously.

The putrid smell of tobacco smoke tinges inside his nostrils, but he plays it cool, not wanting to jeopardize his standing with his now only friend group—even if Astrid did hate his guts.

Hiccup is so engrossed in staring at Astrid that he doesn't notice Snotlout offering a complimentary death-stick to him.

"Oh, no," he waves his hand. "I don't smoke. Thanks, though."

Snotlout grunts affirmation before putting the pack and returning to his stargazing.

Hiccup can't help but watch as Astrid takes drag after drag, sometimes holding the smoke in her mouth a little, causing the street lamp in the distance behind her to turn her into a mere silhouette in the early summer darkness.

"Can you stop staring at me?" Astrid says abruptly, shaking Hiccup out of his trance.

He immediately averts his eyes.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to stare," Hiccup apologizes promptly. "Smoke just… looks cool..."

"You—" She pauses and takes a deep breath, before continuing more softly. "You're fine."

Snotlout and Tuff exchange a look before they both get up and start the slow amble to their vehicles. Normally, this is when Astrid would follow suit, but tonight she stays and continues to puff on her cigarette.

The silence is near unbearable as Hiccup's palms sweat. He goes to get up and take his leave when the blue-eyed girl pipes up.

"We need to talk," Astrid begins.

"O-oh, okay," Hiccup stammers, sitting back down.

"I know that we may have gotten off on the wrong foot."

Hiccup is resolute in his silence.

"And," she continues. "I'm sorry."

Hiccup opens his mouth to say something before closing it, thinking better of his snap response. He goes over in his head about the best possible thing he could say. Sarcasm? Joke? These are his normal fallbacks, but that hasn't been working out super well for him as of late.

Astrid awkwardly rolls the still lit cigarette back and forth between her thumb and index finger, periodically glancing at Hiccup to gauge his response.

"Kids can be pretty shitty, right?" Hiccup finally replies, trying his best to smile.

Astrid chuckles slightly, taking another drag. "Mhm."

"You know, I never thought I'd ever hear those words come out of your mouth," Hiccup reveals.

"I've—" The blonde girl stops, laughing at herself. "I've been losing sleep over some stuff between us in the past. This whole time I've had it in my head that you were the asshole. That all of my problems back then were your fault. I guess it was just easy to pin them on you."

"I will admit, I was not quite the social butterfly I am today back then. I definitely probably did some things that I would say were quite questionable," Hiccup responds, pointedly putting on an exaggerated voice.

Astrid laughs for real this time.

"I feel stupid. I shouldn't have been hardcore grudging against you."

"It's cool, seriously, I was kind of doing the same to you."

"You were?"

"Okay, no, I wasn't. I was just trying to make you feel better," he grins at her before turning his eyes to the stars. "Aren't you cold?"

"Hm? Oh, no, I love the cold, actually. It makes me feel, I don't know, alive or something."

"Oh, right."

Another awkward silence ensues.

Astrid tosses her cigarette butt on the ground, stamping out the tiny ember. She gathers her things and stands up.

"I think I'm gonna head out," Astrid speaks softly, simply standing and watching Hiccup.

"Oh," Hiccup perks up, just getting the implied invitation. "Yeah, me too."

The two of them walk to the cars in what is for once a pleasant silence.

"I never hated you, you know," Hiccup reconciles. He leaves out the part that he really hates himself for letting it happen over and over, but that's a conversation for another time. What a strange thought, another conversation with Astrid Hofferson. He didn't ever think he would be having any conversation with Astrid Hofferson.

"I thought I hated you, honestly," she says softly. "I don't, though."

"Right."

They arrive at Astrid's car where she throws her work back in the trunk. She turns to face Hiccup and abruptly sticks out her hand.

"I want to start over, if that's okay."

"Oh," Hiccup's taken aback. He takes it, immediately becoming self conscious about palm sweat. "Yeah, that's—that sounds great."

"Alright," Astrid inhales deeply. "I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Three o' clock sharp," he grins.

"Goodnight, Hiccup," she reciprocates the smile briefly before getting in her car and driving away.

Hiccup watches her car drive away, red tail lights turning into crimson streaks as the car zooms off to the right on the main road.

He looks up at the stars, who seem much less malicious tonight.

00000

A/N okay I know that it might feel rushed, but honestly I didn't feel like the whole enemies dynamic was working. I hated writing it and it felt completely wrong for their characters. LMK what you think! All of the cutesy stuff I have planned is for when they're not enemies, but I know I wanted the premise to be that they didn't really know each other aside from negative events in the distant past. It's hard to characterize people as adults when they're squabbling about such juvenile issues, so I figured I might as well just start writing them like adults and later on introduce them to issues that more fall in line with where their mental maturities now lie.

Okay, that's enough from me, sorry for the long note, but I do hope you enjoyed it!