Thanks for the support! It was one of those rough weeks for me and coming back here and seeing positive reviews absolutely made my day J so thank you guys so much! Here's the next:

Chapter 2: You Draw?

Thursday was the usual drag it had become. Seven to Seven at the shop and Hiccup was exhausted, no, he was beyond exhaustion. In the morning he wouldn't remembering climbing the stairs or opening his front door. Once inside his jittering apartment he crashed onto the air mattress and was out before he landed.

Friday morning brought a new sign of hope, or to Hiccup, a sound of hope. The upstairs apartment was silent for the first time since he'd moved in. He lay there, still in his work clothes, listening to the absence of the throbbing bass. Rolling over and off the bed, a horrible sting punched him in the neck. Thinking he'd slept on it wrong, he had before, he rubbed it as he made his short way to the shower.

Hiccup worked twelve hour shifts on Tuesday and Thursday and often put in as many extra hours as he could. It meant more misery but it also meant more money. And he could also use more of that. But he dreaded going to work.

With the lukewarm water running rivets down his face he thought back to that girl at the library. That lovely face and yellow hair had stung his dreams, too, with flashes here and there, like his own subconscious was mocking him. He rubbed his face and groaned into his hands.

She had probably been a cheerleader in high school. One of those girls, who dated team leaders with trophies and jerseys and cars without rust spots, who went out on the weekend and made friends without even trying. Yeah, he didn't have to hear anyone confirm it. She had been one of those girls, the flawlessly pretty and born for greatness, made for cameras and a husband with a triple digit income.

"I'm dreading the day he drags a girl home." He'd overheard his father say one night. He'd been whispering to an old family friend they'd always called Gobber. Hiccup didn't know what his real name was. It didn't matter.

"Why? You'd rather him move to California and never come home at all?" Gobber had joked. His brother had done that, he thought.

"No, but I've seen the types of girls he meets. They're…weird." Stoick, his father had whispered even lower, as if he had known that Hiccup had been listening in, and didn't want him to hear that part. Like it had made it any better.

"Oh, you brought home a different woman every weekend since puberty and look how that turned out." Gobber pointed out.

Stoick didn't like to be reminded of his marriage. Hiccup had asked him once. All he knew about his mother was that she had left when he was a baby and lived somewhere up north. Stoick wouldn't tell him exactly where but Hiccup could tell that he knew.

His father had mumbled something, and Gobber snapped back, "I'm just saying you can never tell how things will end up."

Hiccup tried to erase this from his mind by scrubbing his scalp with his nails. If only there was a way he could extract it altogether. And then he wouldn't have to be reminded how his father thought about him.

With the ceiling calm the apartment was almost livable. He sat in his empty living room, which also served as a dining room, kitchen, and guest room, and pulled the sketch book from his bag. Flipping to a new page he let his mind wander while his hands drew subconsciously.

That's what he thought happened, anyway. Sometimes, when he was lost in thought, he would come back and find drawings that he didn't remembering drawing. He would start thinking about something, and that lead to another, and the next thing he knew there was another set of mysterious doodles looking back at him and aches in his fingers.

He let the pencil move freely as he thought about his father, the disappointment, his mother's absence, the perfect people with their lives all in order, the girl from the coffee machine. Hiccup coughed and it brought him back to the real world. When he looked down he saw the very face he'd been thinking about. Hers.

There was no denying it. It was her heart shaped face smiling at him, her perfect teeth, smooth skin, intelligent eyes, and loose braid draped over her shoulder, strands falling around her face. But there wasn't just one. There were several of her, smiling, speaking, standing still. And in each one she looked perfect. She didn't have a bad angle.

Hiccup spent the day in the apartment, lounging in his boxes with his ancient computer and sketchbook, and he enjoyed it. But it all came to an abrupt halt when the apartment above slammed into motion as if someone had had the noise paused. Groaning, he knew his peace was gone.

The night came and Saturday morning crept up slowly but the vibrating ceiling hadn't stopped.

How the hell could someone sleep through that? Hiccup sure as hell couldn't.

He could have stayed home that day too but he didn't. He didn't want to. His head had enjoyed the sound vacation and wasn't eager to return. He left the apartment in a huff with only his sketchbook and set his destination as the university library. He didn't know why, maybe it was because it was a place he had been before, or maybe it was because of her. Hiccup tried not to think about it too hard. His brain couldn't take it at the moment.

But the library, which was a little busier on Saturday than it had been on Wednesday, had a peace that he wouldn't turn down. Maybe he'd just move in here. Sleep in a broom closet and wash in the bathroom.

He settled into the same chair from his previous visit and laid the sketchbook on his lap. His mind drifted to the noisy apartment, and what type of people they must be, what drugs they had to be doing, and the horrible people they surely were, when a sudden voice brought him out of it.

"That's really good."

The first thing he saw was the scene he'd been drawing. It was the vending machines. The pencil had paused on the curvature of a familiar heart shaped face and Hiccup inhaled a little too sharply. He looked up for the course of the disturbance and caught his breath as it tried to escape.

Astrid was sitting adjacent from him on the little sofa with her chin in her hands. She was looking at the drawn with those wide eyes.

"Oh…uh, thanks." Hiccup said. He felt his face get red. In his typical panic he shut the sketchbook. Lucky it had just been and outline of her, not a noticeable drawing of her.

"Do you know Heather?" Astrid asked. She rested her elbows on her knees.

"Who?" Hiccup asked.

"Heather. Oh, I don't know her last name. Dark hair, green eyes, tall." Astrid said.

"No." Hiccup shook his head.

"Are you in the art department?" Astrid asked.

Hiccup shook his head.

"Oh, sorry. I just assumed. She's an art major and I thought that maybe you guys had meet. Never mind, then." Astrid shrugged. "So if you aren't an art major what are you?"

"Oh," Hiccup stumbled over his words. What to say?

"It's cool, I won't make fun of you if you're a philosophy major." Astrid smiled.

God, her smile was beautiful. What had be been thinking?

"I-I don't have one." Hiccup said.

"Undeclared?"

"No, I don't go to school." Hiccup said it quickly.

"Oh!" Astrid said like made all the sense in the world. "That's okay."

"So…what's your major?" Hiccup asked. He wished that she would stop looking at him. His heart was beating all around in his chest. But he didn't want the conversation to end.

"I'm an English major." she shrugged.

"You want to teach?" Hiccup asked.

"No, but my parents said that if I wanted their financial help that I had to go straight into college after high school. I didn't know what I wanted to do so I picked English. Supposedly, it's evenly marketable." Astrid sighed. She looked around. For a moment Hiccup saw what he would label as discomfort on her face. She quickly pushed it aside with another question about him. "So, where are you from?"

"You've probably never heard of it." Hiccup shrugged.

"Try me." Astrid said.

"Berk."

"And that's…where?"

"It's a tiny little town in Maine. About a hundred people, tops." Hiccup shrugged.

"Berk," Astrid said it like she was memorizing the sound it make. Then her face exploded, "Berk! I knew it sounded familiar! My uncle lives there, Finn Hofferson."

"Really?" Hiccup said.

"I've never been there but he and my parents send Christmas cars every year." Astrid shrugged.

For the next two hours and a half they talked. They sat in the library and just talked. Hiccup had forgotten what it was like to have a normal conversation without the other person glaring down at him or sending him judgmental comments about something he'd done or said or hadn't done. Many of those talks, mostly with his father, had left him feeling run over. But talking with Astrid was different. It was like she was genuinely interested in what he was saying.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He slid his hand into his pocket and groaned at the number.

"I've got to take this." Hiccup said and quickly excused himself.

It was a short conversation. Jerry had called in and Hiccup had overtime. He turned back to say goodbye to Astrid but she was talking to someone else. He was tall, handsome, and wearing a shirt a size to small to make sure everyone noticed his muscular arms. Typical.

He was leaning on the back of the sofa while Astrid turned in her seat to look at him. He laughed avidly, a little too much so, at something she had said. Hiccup felt that pressure in his chest pop and deflate. He shouldn't even waste his time. He left them to their talking and heading back to his dumpy apartment.

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Astrid nodded when Hiccup left to answer his phone. He watched him walk away, a slight hitch in his step, admiring his narrow waist. She didn't have long to look. A familiar hand brushed against her shoulder. She turned to see Eret coming in to lean on the back of the couch.

"Studying hard? Are we?" Eret grinned, motioning his eyes toward Hiccup, that obnoxious mischief on his face.

"Shut up," Astrid shook her head. "I'm making friends, the normal way. You should try it sometime."

"What? And forgo my amazing charm for friendly conversation? Really, I don't care about other people's shitty lives and stupid problems. I like the people who are fun, and not complicated." Eret motioned with a finger to the group of girls sitting around a laptop, all in the sorority girl uniform of black yoga pants and Columbia jackets.

"Oh, right, you like the quick and sleazy ones." Astrid shook her head in mock disappointment.

Eret laughed. "What's wrong with that? I've got my type and I'm sticking to it."

"Right, I'm sure they are all very nice." Astrid laughed. Then she squinted. "I thought you had class on Fridays?"

"I do." Eret nodded. "But I was just feeling so horrible this morning, I didn't want to go and spread my sick germs to the other kids. That's just unfair."

Astrid shook her head. He wasn't going to make it to graduation. He grinned and waved a quick goodbye. Astrid turned back to Hiccup, opening her mouth to say something, but forgot it as soon as she saw the empty chair. She peered around to where he'd vanished to. He wasn't anywhere in sight.

Astrid sighed. Glancing back at the chair he'd occupied she saw the sketchbook that he'd shut so quickly. Looking around for him one last time, she picked up the book and tucked it into her bag. Maybe she'd see him again.

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LOL I honesty don't know what Astrid would have majored in, probably not English, because she's more logic and hands-on. But I have a plan for this, don't worry!