Silly String is the Thing
As Astrid stood there, Hiccup came limping up behind her. "What in aviation?" he said, shocked.
He had good reason to be so. The whole expanse was coated in violently-colored silly string, with the twins, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and Camicazi in the middle of the mess. Hiccup's equipment had made it there, but is was tangled like Snoggletog lights in a heap that was being used as a blockade against the sticky string.
"You are all thick-headed tree trunks!" Astrid remonstrated, carefully picking her way across the platform and checking for ice.
"We're just having fun, Astrid," Camicazi complained, silly string woven throughout her hair. Astrid hoped she never got it out. "Don't you ever have fun?"
"Yeah!" the twins and Snotlout agreed.
"We're supposed to be preparing." Astrid snatched the silly string bottle out of Tuffnut's hand and glared at Camicazi. "This is not helping. I can't believe you joined them, Fishlegs."
Fishlegs avoided her gaze and muttered something incoherent.
"Lay off, Astrid." Camicazi crossed her arms. "Not all of us are workaholics like you."
Astrid's nostril's flared. She wasn't a workaholic – just dedicated! "At least I work hard!" she retaliated angrily.
"At least I'm not block-headed." Camicazi jutted out her chin, not backing down.
"Tell her, Camicazi!" Snotlout cheered.
Astrid rounded on him. "Be quiet! Just be quiet! You don't have a dragon in this fight." Her good mood vaporized. Why was everyone suddenly turning against her? Astrid marched as fast as she could across the silly string and got right in Camicazi's face. "At least you're a no good, lazy-"
"Whoa!" Hiccup interrupted, laying a hand on Astrid's arm and turning her around to face him. He stepped in between them. "Cut it out, you two."
"She started it!" Camicazi insisted, stomping her boot on the ground. "I don't know what her deal is, but she's got one and it isn't good."
Astrid snorted, sending steam into the crisp air.
"Astrid, please just let the mess go," Hiccup begged, his hand still on her arm. "Please. You can deal with it after tomorrow, okay?" His eyes pleaded with her, and Astrid remembered how tired he had looked the previous night.
"Fine. But for you, not her. But can we clean this up now?" she asked.
"I guess." Ruffnut yawned, causing her twin to also yawn, which caused Fishlegs, Snotlout and Camicazi to yawn.
"No." Hiccup removed his hand from her arm, leaving her feeling strangely empty, and clamped his yawn down. "Not going to."
Astrid snickered and faked a yawn. She kept an eye on him as she started dumping the silly string cans in a pile. The twins started scraping the string off every surface.
"Yawn, yawn, yawn," Camicazi chanted, handing his wallet to him.
Hiccup tried to hide it behind his fist, but he yawned.
"Aha!" Ruffnut cried. "You're one of us! You get into the club by yawning!"
"Where should we dump all of this silly string?" Fishlegs asked. "There's a lot of it."
Astrid thought for a second. "Down a chute we're not going to use." How about the one of the far left?"
Once the equipment was uncovered, Hiccup crouched down and sat cross-legged by the pile. A bunch of chains and straps were tangled together, and he began patiently picking them apart.
"You're talented," Astrid remarked, sitting down next to him. Camicazi wisely chose a spot on the opposite side of the mess, far away from Astrid
Hiccup smirked. "I've had tons of practice with apron ties."
"You don't cook," Astrid reminded him. "Since when do you own an apron?"
Hiccup didn't look up. "My mother was an avid cook and apron collector."
"Oh." Astrid gave him an awkward side hug, then pushed him away, blushing a little.
"Hey, Hiccup!" Camicazi shouted at him, thankfully diverting his attention. "Catch!"
Hiccup looked up just in time to be clobbered in the face with his leather wallet. He fell backwards. "Ow!" he groaned, lying there and staring up and the sky.
Astrid scowled at Camicazi and moved to help him up. "Are you trying to kill him?"
Camicazi just laughed.
Astrid hauled Hiccup to his feet and he held up the assault weapon while rubbing his forehead. "Wait a second. How did you get this?"
"A magician never reveals her secrets!" Camicazi quoted, slapping her thighs and grinning ear to ear. "Take a good guess. You're smart – for a boy, of course."
"ALL DONE, BABY!" Tuffnut hurrahed. He, Ruffnut, Fishlegs and Snotlout joined them at the pile. "Can we go home now? It's so cold."
"The silly string messed up my hair gel," Snotlout complained. "It's going to take weeks for me to get it perfect again. Do you know how hard it is to get the waves right?"
Ruffnut rolled her eyes. "No one cares about your hair, Snotlout."
"I do! Does anyone have a mirror?" Snotlout checked his pockets.
"I have one!" Fishlegs volunteered.
"We're not getting anything done," Astrid muttered under her breath as a fight ensued, irritated at the delays that kept popping up. How were they going to accomplish everything?
"They're relaxing," Hiccup said, wincing as an especially hard punch by Tuffnut was landed on Snotlout's face.
"Huh?" How was silly string and goofing off relaxing?
"Even though tomorrow is probably going to be fine, they're still nervous. This is how they blow steam off."
"No fair!" Snotlout howled. Camicazi had snuck up behind him and bonked him on the head. Poor Fishlegs was the only one trying to break up the fight.
"I thought this was how they always acted..." Astrid did, however, notice that Fishlegs was wringing his hands more than normal and the twins were on the same side of an argument for a once in a lifetime occurrence.
"Finally!" Hiccup and Astrid had resumed working on the tangled heap while they were talking, and now Hiccup pulled a harness, bolts, and blocks of metal out. "Let's get these bolted in!"
The fight had escalated and Snotlout and Ruffnut were wrestling on the ground, with Fishlegs unsuccessfully trying to pull off whomever was on top. Camicazi and Ruffnut were screaming at the top of their lungs for Tuffnut.
"Do you think we should break it up?" Hiccup asked anxiously. "They're getting kinda chaotic."
Thinking of all the times Snotlout had tried to flirt with her, Astrid smirked. Maybe it wasn't a bad thing that he was losing. "There's nothing like a good fight, now that I think about it. Blowing off steam, eh?" But even she cringed as Ruffnut's fist met Snotlout's nose with an ugly crack.
…
Somehow, everything got set up and no one had to go to the hospital. The ambush system was pretty basic. The twins, Snotlout, and Fishlegs would be in the chutes (with safety harnesses so they wouldn't slide down), ready to just out and climb down camouflaged metal bars that served as ladders. Snotlout's push ups must have been doing him some good, because he had the fastest chute-exiting time. Camicazi, Astrid, and Hiccup would be on the platform to apprehend Excellinor. With Hiccup as their back up, what could go wrong?
Astrid dropped Hiccup off at his house. As he got out of her car, he absent-mindedly rubbed his leg.
"Are you trying to do too much?" Astrid asked, rolling down the window (which didn't stick halfway!) to talk to him.
"You're starting to sound like my dad," Hiccup complained. "I am twenty-one years old. I think I can take care of myself."
Astrid raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah? Are you going inside the house to sleep, or to tinker on something?" He needed to take better care of himself.
Hiccup hesitated, bracing himself against her car window frame. "Well..."
"I knew it! Admit it, Dragon Boy. You're worried about tomorrow just as much as everyone else." Hiccup was very good at hiding things; it was good that Astrid was getting very good at reading him.
"It's hard to sleep," Hiccup confessed. "The dragon thingy and all. And what if something does go wrong tomorrow?"
"Have you thought of every thing humanly possible?" Astrid asked. The cold air coming in through the window was starting to make her hands feel numb, but she didn't care.
Hands still on her car door window, Hiccup stared off into space. "I think so," he concluded finally. "I just can't wait until it's all done."
"Neither can I. I tell you what, when this is all over, I'll take you out for coffee."
"Coffee?" Hiccup perked up instantly, apparently as much as a coffee addict as she was. "You'd really pay?"
Astrid smirked. "No, Snotlout would."
"Oh, yeah. I forgot about your bet. Well, good night." Hiccup pushed himself away from the car. "See you tomorrow, Milady."
"Later, Dragon Boy." Astrid sat there in his driveway for three more minutes after he went inside, unusually giddy at her nickname, before driving home.
Astrid had a late night snack of yogurt and headed off to bed, successfully avoiding Camicazi for the rest of the evening. That night she dreamed she was trapped in a metal box while a dragon tried to burn her, woke up, and decided that sleep was overrated. Coffee never tasted better. She immensely enjoyed driving her new car to work early, and didn't get honked at or cut off once for a change.
The next day at the office and Sunday were two of the longest days in Astrid's life. She would have paid Ruffnut and Tuffnut big bucks to cause chaos, anything to get her mind off of what was going to happen. Of course, it also had to be two of the quietest days on Berk. Camicazi proceeded to be productive, which made Astrid steaming mad when Stoick went around the office proclaiming about "Berk's Newest Star". Not only was Camicazi trying to steal Hiccup from Astrid, but she was also trying to steal Astrid's job. Astrid vowed to fix the issue whenever Excellinor was caught.
Monday had to be the slowest of them all. The clock moved at precisely an hour a second, driving Astrid near up the wall. She needed action! She needed adrenaline pumping through her veins!
She was chewing her pen into an unrecognizable piece of her plastic around noon, when a hoarse voice whispered in her ear.
"Boo."
Astrid gave a coarse shout (Astrid Hofferson had never screamed in her life!) and rammed her elbow into the face of whoever was standing behind her. He or she flew back into the desk behind Astrid's, sending paper everywhere.
"Ah, ha ha!" Camicazi chortled. "You should have seen your face!"
"It's not funny!" Astrid huffed.
"I'll say," the occupant of the desk Camicazi had sprawled across muttered. Camicazi started helping him pick up his papers, chatting to him all the while about colored files. The man was laughing along with her in seconds, making Astrid wish she'd done more than elbow Camicazi.
"-and the next time you go to the store, be sure to buy red ones. Red ones are the best. Have a good 'un!" Camicazi chirped.
Astrid quickly discarded her chewed up pen and put a calm mask on her face. There was no reason to let Camicazi know that she was close to going mad.
"Was there a particular reason you decided to sneak up behind me and get yourself punched in the face? Or do you just do it for fun?" Astrid asked coolly, leaning back in her chair and clasping her fingers together her head to hide her chewed fingernails.
"Completely for fun!" Camicazi grinned. "You still should have seen your face. It was priceless."
Astrid ground her teeth together, making a mental note to visit her dentist soon. She would need new crowns after all the teeth grounding Camicazi had been driving her to lately.
"What do you want, Camicazi? I have work to get done." She drummed her fingers on a stack of paperwork for emphasis.
Camicazi flipped her hair over her shoulder and wagged her eyebrows. "Just wanted to know if you were on your toes."
"Oh?" Astrid tossed her own ponytail over her shoulder. "Well I am, for the record."
Camicazi showed her white teeth. "Glad to know! See you at twilight!" And with that, Camicazi flounced out of the office, leaving Astrid mad and with an even slower clock.
IMPORTANT: YOU MUST READ THIS TO CONTINUE THE STORY! **************
There are now going to be two versions to the ending of this; one of them (Version B) is a tragedy. From now on to the end, I will clearly label the chapter with a "B," and each chapter will have TWO VERSIONS. If you have any questions or are confused, asked.