So…when updating this I accidentally posted the wrong chapter 6...luckily someone caught it and told me lol - Thanks so much, MegaShark!
Here's the real chapter 6, enjoy!
Chapter 6: I love a Rainy Night (Part 1)
Hiccup woke up on Sunday morning to a beeping that he didn't instantly recognize. It took a moment to realize it was his phone.
One new message from Astrid Hofferson.
Busy? Library 2?
In a panic, he looked at the time. Eleven thirty.
Sure. See you there.
Hiccup felt the little text bubble leave his finger tips and soar through the air, to wherever she was. His heart thumped and thumped again when her next reply came back almost instantaneously.
A smile face.
Hiccup pushed himself out of bed and hoped that the shower's hot water was working. It wasn't really but it was good enough. Kind of like everything else. Just good enough. He tried to scrub off the smell of the shop.
I kind of like it.
She'd said that. Astrid had said it, hadn't she? The more he played her words over in his head the more dreamlike it became. Maybe it hadn't happened at all.
At two, Hiccup was climbing the stairs into the library. It felt a little less cold but still frigid. Astrid met him at their usual spot, two coffees in hand, hair slung over her shoulder in a sloppy twist. They sat, they talked.
The next week went by with the same routine. They would text, back and forth, simple things, questions and answers. They had coffee together from the library's machine. Astrid was having difficulty with her Frankenstein paper. Hiccup had never read the book but offered to read her paper. He was at a loss when it came to what it all meant and they laughed over the vague study guide her professor had given them.
October came to an end and November came with a cold blast. Friday was the first of the month and Hiccup regrettably had overtime. Outside the sky was blue but he'd heard the weatherman call for rain. On the way out of his apartment he heard his phone beep. He reached for it, and saw Astrid's name briefly before the cold phone slipped from his grasp. It crashed onto the steps and tumbled down onto the floor's landing.
He stood there, aghast at his luck, and went down to get it. The screen had cracked. Little thin spider web lines darted every which way. He tried to unlock it to see her message, but the screen wouldn't respond.
"Great." Hiccup groaned. "Just…fucking great."
Outside he heard the distant rumble of thunder. His car coughed all the way to work. The shop, at least, was warm, but the evening cold was a bitter slap. He ran to he car as rain started to pit-pat on the pavement. He slammed the door and the rain came down harder and harder. He turned the key but the car groaned.
"Come on," Hiccup patted the dashboard, stroked it gently, wishing all well words. "Come on, you can do it."
It groaned again, coughed, but started. He pulled out onto the road and headed back to his place. It was loud and depressing but it was warm. He couldn't feel his fingers on the wheel and had to tightened his grip to turn. The rain and the dark made his view of anything nearly impossible. The street lights helped, other cars helped, but he had to go slow.
His car coughed, jerked, and coughed again. He felt the shutter than ran through the wheel.
"Oh, no, no, no, no," Hiccup said. He reached up to the dash and the car groaned with a dying wheeze. It gasped, and went silent. He managed to steer it to the roadside. He slammed his head against the steering wheel and shouted. With all the ran and sloshing of cars going around him no one would hear him.
He slumped in his seat. What now? It was a long walk back to his place. A very long walk. He'd get pneumonia and rust.
He was sunk in his sulking and didn't hear the gentle rapping on his window until it was a thudding. Hiccup gave it a sideways glance and jerked his head upward when he saw Astrid knocking on his passenger side window. Her hair was soaked and stuck to her face.
"What are you doing?" She yelled so he would hear him.
He shrugged and motioned to his now broken car. Hiccup got out and was soaked to the bone before he reached the sidewalk. He felt the water from the gutter sponge into his shoes.
"My place is close, why don't you just come over and out of the rain?" Astrid shouted through the downpour. "You'll get sick if you stay here."
She was holding a brown paper bag in her arm that was quickly disintegrating. Hiccup nodded and left his broken car on the roadside. He followed her the few block to her place in an awkward silence. He didn't know what to say and was glad when she filled in the gaps. She told him of her first car. It had been a hand-me-down from her parents. It had died on her more times that she could remember.
"But it never died in a convenient location or time, oh lord no, it was always on horrible weather days or when everyone else was busy and I was stuck on my own." Astrid was saying as they entered her building's tiny lobby.
They were both soaked and left little puddles on the elevator's floor. But it looked as though they weren't the first ones to come in from the rain. At her door she reached around with her free hand to the purse that hung from her shoulder.
"Let me hold that for you." Hiccup gestured toward the wet grocery bag. She gave him a short look of surprise but handed it to him. With her two hands she quickly found her keys and unlocked the door. He walked in after her.
The rain splattered against the living room window with such a rapid violence that it sounded like hail. There might have been sleet mixed in. It felt cold enough. Astrid shed her coat and draped it over a kitchen chair. She kicked off her boots and headed to the window.
"It's a mess out there, Hiccup. Just stay here for the night." Astrid suggested as she pulled the curtains closed.
Hiccup stood near the door, her rain-soaked grocery bag in his arms, pulled between accepting her offer and walking on in, or declining and calling a cab. Which reminded him that his phone was currently out of order. Astrid appeared beside him and shut the door, turning the lock and sliding the deadbolt.
"Just set that anywhere. Are you hungry or anything?" Astrid said. She motioned toward the small kitchen.
"Oh, um…no, I'm good, but thanks." Hiccup shrugged. He leaned over to the island counter and slid the paper bag onto it. He hadn't intended to but when he set it down he glanced inside, carrots, orange juice, eggs.
He copied her example and hung his wet jacket over a kitchen chair so it could drip onto the linoleum. He pulled off his boots and left them by the door. Astrid mumbled something about being soaked and vanished into another room.
He just felt…weird about staying here. They'd talked, hung out at the library, and shared a late night fast food dinner. And now he was standing along in her apartment. He just couldn't figure her out.
Her apartment was clean and organized, total opposite of his own, which was always littered with clothes and stuff. But Astrid had a place for everything.
He reached into his pocket for his phone. He pressed the screen button to check the time, fifteen past ten. Astrid came strolling back in, wet hair tied back, changed into sweat pants and a t-shirt, holding a blanket and pillow in her arms. She plopped them down onto the sofa.
"The bathroom's right through there. I've got some sweat pants if your want to change." Astrid said as she stood back up and poised her hands on her hips.
"Oh, you know, Astrid, I should probably go." Hiccup said. He tried to further reason his excuse but she stopped him.
"Hiccup, it's cold and rainy and late. Just stay here. It's totally fine." Astrid said. "Or do you just not want to stay here with me?"
"What? No, that's not it!" Hiccup said quickly. She had that look on her face, like she was hearing more than he thought he was saying. "I mean, it's just, well,"
"Hiccup, it's fine." Astrid said with a slight smile. She vanished again into the other room and reemerged with a pair of unisex sweats that bore the university's name in bold red letters down one leg.
He thanks her, and ducked into the bathroom. Dry clothes would be nice. He pulled off his wet pants and threw them into the tub. His shirt was damp but not terribly. In a quick decision, he left it on. He pulled on the dry pants and washed his face and hands. The hot water was refreshing on his chilled skin.
Even her bathroom was clean. Though the fixtures were aged she had kept them in good looks. Yellow and blue towels were folded and stacked neatly above the toilet. She kept scented soaps and oils on the rim of the bathtub.
Back in the living room, Astrid was standing in the kitchen, placing a red tea kettle on the stove. She pulled two mugs from the cabinet and readied them with bags. Hiccup didn't mean to notice, but he did, that she had left her bra in the bedroom. The cupped formation of her breasts was gone and they moved freely. He tore his eyes away from them before she could notice. He didn't want to get a mug to the temple.
"I'm not really tired." Astrid sighed. "Are you?"
"Not really, no." Hiccup shook his head.
"You want to watch a movie instead?" Astrid asked.
Hiccup shrugged, but said "Sure."
He felt silly for having to think about it. Saying 'no' would have been ridiculous. He sat on the sofa as Astrid thumbed through a binder full of discs.
"How do you feel about The Avengers?" Astrid asked, holding the DVD around her finger, looking at him over her shoulder.
"I like it." Hiccup nodded.
Astrid smiled and put it in the machine. She jogged to turn off the lights with a quick finger.
For a moment the room was bathed in darkness. Hiccup heard her bare feet pad across the floor, along the sofa in front of him, and the screen lit up with its blue-black glow as she turned the switch on the standing lamp.
She went back to the kitchen and brought the two mugs of tea to the little coffee table.
"I know it's not coffee, but he, why not switch thing up?"
It was warm in his hands and in his throat. "Thanks."
She plopped down beside him and left just a small space between them. A few strands of her golden hair toppled over her shoulder and grazed his arm. They watched the movie in the same manner. Hiccup was hyperaware of every movement she made. Several times he thought to slide his arm between her and the sofa, but each time he convinced himself not to, for some self-conscious reason or another.
What was the worst that could happen? She could push him away. She could kick him out. She could completely ignore it as if it didn't happen. Like the rain.
The movie ended and Astrid was yawning. Hiccup felt it, too. Astrid got up and he felt the immediate depression in the air from where she'd been. She turned off the TV without removing the disc. She lazily switched off the lamp and once again the room was purged into blackness.
Hiccup heard her bare footsteps cross to her bedroom door where she paused. As his eyes adjusted he could make out her silhouette in the rain-light.
"I'm sorry the couch isn't very big, or comfortable." Astrid said.
"It's fine. Don't worry about it." Hiccup shrugged. It was involuntary. Astrid couldn't see him in the darkness and somehow that fact gave him an odd inflation of confidence. He continued to sit on the couch, expecting her to vanish into her room, but she lingered in the doorway.
"Goodnight, then." Astrid said after a short pause.
"Goodnight." Hiccup answered. He reached to spread the blanket over the sofa but he caught the pale shadow of Astrid still in the doorway. It was making him nervous.
"You know, Hiccup, the bed is big enough for two." Astrid said.
X
This chapter ended up being a lot longer than the others so I broke it up into two parts, lol, I know, a cliff hanger, right?