Author's Note:

Hey guys, gals and non-binary pals! I'm writing this spur of the moment one-shot because it's the first day of June, I'm stuck in the mountains at work, and it's been snowing for over twenty four hours. So, hence the idea of writing a one-shot with characters stuck in the snow.

Consider supporting me by becoming a Patron. Patrons get early access to ALL my chapters and one-shots. Join for only $5 to get early access, sneak peeks and behind the scenes info!

Enjoy!

stuck in an old chevy on the side of the road in a snowstorm

The engine sputtered, the truck shook, and the headlights went out. The truck had died.

Lovely.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Henryk smacked the steering wheel, cursing every god above him. "It's dead!

"Don't lose hope just yet, Henry," Astrid said calmly, buttoning up her jacket. "This ol' girl dies all the time. Just give her some love and I'm sure she'll start right up. Come on, let's open the hood-"

"I'll check the engine." He told her, grabbing his knit hat and gloves off the dashboard. "It's cold as hell out there, you stay in here where it's warm."

"...Fine."

Usually, Astrid wasn't the type of girl to give up so easily, especially when she was trying to prove she could do anything she wanted, but, when it was like ten below freezing with snow coming in almost horizontally, she knew better than to argue and let her stubborn best friend freeze to death outside instead.

Closing the truck door as quickly as possible, Henryk waddled his way through knee-deep snow, fighting against winds strong enough to push their old chevy. Popping the hood, he was met with smoke. But with this old truck, it usually didn't mean anything too bad-

A burst of smoke shot to life in front of him, before dying out in the billowing winds.

Great.

He stood there for a minute trying to fight off the chill in his bones and figure out what to do. They had been driving out along some back roads in order to get to his family's old hunting cabin for a weekend of rest and relaxation, when the biggest snowstorm in the century had blown in. Since when did it snow in June! Only in Berk, he thought.

Originally, Henryk was nervous about asking Astrid if she wanted to spend the weekend with him in his family's cabin when his father had given him permission to use it for the weekend. She was his best friend, sure, she had been for almost a decade now, but he was worried she might be weirded out when he told her it would just be the two of them. Gods knew Astrid wouldn't willingly spend the weekend in a cabin hours away from civilization with any guy, realizing how it would sound. Or so he thought.

She had agreed easily, only asking what time he wanted to leave and what she should bring. Now he realized he spent too many days and nearly the entire drive out here worrying about doing something stupid or accidentally creepy and scare her off or something.

Don't tell anyone, but he liked Astrid. Like, liked Astrid, had for years, but never had the courage to say anything, not that he ever had the chance. She was beautiful, intelligent, brave and just about the nicest person he had ever met, but, she was also his best friend, and she was dating his cousin, Scott. Which almost made Henryk talk himself out of asking her to join him completely, since, if Scott heard about it, he'd get the wrong idea and probably try to beat him senseless again. He still couldn't believe Astrid was dating a bawbag like Scott, or that she agreed to spend a weekend with him alone in a cabin she had never even seen before.

Shaking his head to remove his rogue thoughts, Henryk tried fiddling with the engine again, before it shuttered and shot more smoke at him, as if in an attempt to prove to him it wasn't going anywhere.

Now, he and Astrid were stuck at least two hours from the cabin and more than four from the nearest hamlet pretending to be a town. Their old Chevy died and showed no sign of coming back to life, they were long out of phone service range, and the emergency radio was in the cabin, two hours away. By car.

Grumbling and cursing his rotten luck, Henryk wadded his way through the deepening snow and back into the drivers' seat. He shook off the two and a half inches of snow that had managed to accumulate on his head and shoulders in the short time he was outside.

"Any luck?" Astrid asked, hopefully.

"The gods hate me," he said, dropping his forehead to the steering wheel. "I must have insulted them all in a previous life or something."

He could practically hear her roll her eyes. "Don't be so overdramatic, Henry." She said, "We'll survive. We're Berkians, a little snow and cold won't kill us."

"No, but it'll ruin our weekend plans. We were going to go hiking, canoe out into my dad's lake, just have fun!" He groaned. "Now we're stuck in the middle of nowhere, hours from anything, with no way to contact anyone for help. We'll probably have to walk all the way back to town in the morning and hope some old codger has a tow truck."

"At least we brought food, blankets and clothing for the weekend," Astrid said, still somehow optimistic. "We won't go hungry or get too cold tonight."

"Oh, yeah?" Henryk challenged. "Did you see the weather before we left? It's supposed to drop twenty-five more degrees tonight. This truck will become a freezer with no heat."

"Meh," she waved it off as if it was nothing. "We're in a vehicle, there's no windchill or snow, and we have camping gear, we'll live."

"I doubt it."

"Oh, shush, you." She swatted him on the arm, it only hurt a little. "Stop being so pessimistic."

"Sorry, it's all I know. It's my default emotion."

"I thought sarcasm was your default emotion?"

"No, it's my first language."

"Well, while you wallow in your self-pity, I'm gonna get some scran, I'm starving." She stated, before spinning around in her seat and half-climbing into the back to reach into a large cooler they brought, searching for food. As she did so, her arse was in his face, so close that if he turned his head, his nose would touch her.

He tried his best to ignore her arse as it shook as she dug though the cooler for some food, but it was a really nice-looking arse.

Ignoring the arse took all his willpower, but Henryk was able to push it out of his mind, instead intensely focusing on the ever-growing pile of snow on the hood of his truck. So much so he had started to space out-

"Want any fizzy juice?"

"What-" He turned his head in surprise- right into her arse. There were no two ways about it, his full face was in there. Completely. Nose in the crack and everything. He supposed he should have felt like he was dreaming, if all the blood wasn't rushing away from his face.

Astrid yelped. Jumping up and hitting her head on the ceiling of the truck, falling over into the backseat and into the cooler. Needless to say, this was the exact situation Henryk was worried about.

Pulling herself out of the cooler full of alcohol and food, she turned to face him. Absolutely pissed. "Did you just slap my bum?!"

Shit, now she was furious and Henryk saw himself sleeping out in the snow. Or just fileted alive. That was probably the preferred punishment, in all honesty. At least it would be quick, compared to a slow, agonizing end as he froze to death.

The remaining blood drained from his face. "N-n-n-n-no!" He stuttered out, sounding much like twelve year old him. "I-I-I-"

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Then care to explain why I felt someone slap it? If it wasn't you, who was it? A troll?"

"Trolls exist!" He said before he could stop himself, sounding a little too much like Gobber. She growled. "But that isn't the point-"

She let out a breath through her nose, climbing into her seat. She clenched her fist before letting out another breath and relaxing her fist. Her tone was still stressed, but much less angry this time. "Henry, we're both adults here, and we're best friends, so I hope you feel you can be honest-"

"I didn't slap your…" He tailed off at the word. "Honest."

She studied him for a moment, before sighing. "Yeah, I should've figured. You aren't that type of guy." She gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry about snapping at you…"

"It's fine." He said. "It was really sudden, I'm sure I surprised you-"

"It's not that, I-, well, you did surprise me, but that's not it, not really."

Henryk waited for her to elaborate further, but after half a minute, he figured she wasn't going to share.

"So," she said, sounding like her usual self again. "What happened?"

"I turned around to answer you and accidentally hit your… bum… with my face."

Astrid said nothing for several seconds, before bursting out laughing. "Gods, only you, Henry. Only you have that kind of luck."

Henryk laughed too, but inwardly shook his head at that being his 'kind of luck'. His luck was usually the exact opposite. Such as his truck breaking down in the middle of a blizzard.

Her laugh stopped, eyes widening for a second. "Oh, that means-, shite."

"What?"

"I've been sitting in this seat all day and it's hot as Helheim with the heat on," she explained, giving him a sympathetic look. "Sorry if you got a smell in, I'm sure I smell rank."

Henryk's brain couldn't even function, he had practically planted his face in her arse cheeks and she was worried about smelling bad? What were this girls' priorities?

As if the embarrassing moment between them never happened, Astrid opened a bottle, the carbonation fizzing. "Hey," Henryk said. "Did you grab me a fizzy juice?"

Astrid smirked as she sipped her drink. "No."

"And why not?"

"Because someone decided to shove his face into my bum when I asked him."

Well, she had him there.

~Page Break~

"Okay, I've got to admit, it's cold in here." Astrid said, shivering under a blanket in her seat. She had tried to push through the dropping temperatures earlier, but now it was just becoming too much and she couldn't act unbothered. "You got that burner going yet?"

"Almost- there! Got it." Henryk had braved the arctic temperatures and pulled a bag of camping supplies from the back of the truck. One of which being their camping stove. It was small, and balanced precariously on the center console, and it probably wasn't a good idea to light the gas burner in a car with no ventilation, but he didn't care at the moment. It was cold as hell in here and the camping stove would help keep them warm overnight.

Astrid grabbed a bag, "I'll get the food started-"

"No," he cut her off, taking the bag from her hands. "I'll start the food."

She gave him a half-hearted glare. "Henry, this isn't a kitchen, I'm sure I can't mess it up that-"

"Considering this is our only food," he cut her off again. "I think it's best to let the guy who went to culinary school cook, instead of the lass who sets fire to everything she touches."

"That was one time." She defended.

"It was three times, and you know it." He countered, thinking back. "Oh, my poor Yule moose, I will forever miss you-"

"Oh, stop being over-dramatic." She punched him in the arm again. "It wasn't that bad."

"It literally crumbled into charred bits when I pulled it out of the oven."

"It was taking forever to cook, I thought that if I increased the temperature, it would cook faster."

"Your logic baffles me." He muttered, before handing her the bag. "Put this away?"

"Yeah." She took the bag and put it away with no further attempts to defend herself. "Smells good. What is it?"

"Just some elk sausages with tatties, pepper, onion and corn." He told her. "Simple camping food."

"I can't wait," she said. "I'm starving."

"You just ate an entire bag of crisps, how are you hungry again?"

"Hey, I'm a growing girl."

Henryk nearly snorted at that thought. She was twenty, far from a 'growing girl' anymore.

He opened his mouth to say something when she let out a shiver. "You cold?"

"No," she said sarcastically, something he knew she got from him. "I'm just shivering for kicks and giggles."

He handed her his blanket over the armrest. "Here you go."

"Henry, I can't take this." She started. "It's cold, you-"

"You're colder than me." He said. "You take it. I still have two shirts, a hoodie and a coat on, I'll be fine with the camp stove going."

She hesitated for a moment, before wrapping herself with his blanket. "Thanks."

"No problem."

It was dead silent between them for several minutes, the only sound was their cooking food.

"So…" Astrid said, letting it hang.

"So, what?"

"What do I do if I have to take a jobby?"

Henryk nearly knocked the stove over. "WHAT?"

She looked a little embarrassed. "...What do I do if I need to take a shit?"

Oh, how had his life ever gotten to this point?

"Um…" He said, trying his best to gather his thoughts. "You have two choices."

"Yes?"

"Either go outside in the snow-"

"Ha! Fat chance!" She cried. "I'd rather die than do that-"

"-Or you go in here."

"...I think I'll take my chances out there."

"Ast, you shouldn't go outside." He said, "it's too cold out there and-"

"It's better than going here next to you." She said, "No offense, Henry. We're close friends, but we're not that close."

He pointed a thumb behind him into the literal blizzard that was going on outside. "Well, be my guest. There's toilet paper and a shovel in the back."

All determination washed from her face before she let out a curse under her breath. "Shit." She let out a groan. "Alright, well, it couldn't be as bad going in here as I think, right?"

Henryk didn't give an answer.

She looked to him. "What do we have in here?"

"Well, I have a few camping toilets in that bag there," he told her, pointing. "They're essentially just plastic disks with ziplock bags on them, so they'll have to do."

With a determined expression, Astrid climbed into the backseat, grabbed the portable toilet bag, covered herself with a blanket, and mumbled, "Cover your ears, or I'll kill you."

Needless to say, the next few minutes of Henryk's life were some of the strangest, nerve racking and awkward of his life.

After Astrid was finished, she tossed the bag out into the snowy tundra, before climbing back into the front seat and digging into a bag to find some hand sanitizer.

They ate, and soon after, were getting tired and ready for bed. The only issue was that they were in a small truck, and the front seats they had been sitting, talking and eating in wouldn't do. Henryk did his best to fold the backseats as much as possible with all their gear, and it wasn't perfect, but it was as good as it was going to get.

"Alright," Henryk said, climbing back into the front seat. It wasn't as easy for him as it was for Astrid, she was like half his size. "You take the backseat, I'll sleep up front."

"Are you sure, Henry?" She asked as she laid down in the back. "It can't be comfortable up there, and there's plenty of room back here."

He gave a wave. "Eh, don't worry about me, Ast. I sleep like a rock, I'll be fine." It was actually the exact opposite, but she didn't need to know that.

"If you're sure." She said, wrapping herself in their blankets like a cacoon of warmth.

"I'll be fine."

Henryk turned off the flashlight on his dying phone and settled into the drivers' seat. It was uncomfortable as hell, but it'd have to do. If only it wasn't so cold. He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep.

Thirty minutes must have passed and he still hadn't fallen asleep. The seat was really uncomfortable, it was hurting his back, and it was just so damn cold. He shivered, but tried his best to keep it down to not bother Astrid and possibly wake her if she managed to fall asleep.

He rolled over best he could, using his arm as a pillow. He was now regretting giving Astrid his, as well as his blanket. It was freezing. He shivered again.

More time passed, Henryk still hadn't fallen asleep, and the temperature was dropping ever still. He shivered, rubbing his chilled hands together.

"Oh, stop it." Astrid suddenly said. He turned and tried his best, but he couldn't see her at all in the darkness.

"Stop what?" He asked, both confused and mildly annoyed. Did she want him to stop shivering? How was he supposed to do that?

"Stop suffering over there," she said, sitting up. "And climb back here and get under the blankets. We can share the seat and blankets."

"No," he said quickly. "I'm fine, really-"

"You're shivering every five seconds and I can hear your teeth rattle," she cut him off. "You don't sound fine to me. Come on," she lifted the blanket in invitation to join her. "Grow up. We're both adults."

Normally Henryk wouldn't have caved so easily, but it was just so damn cold!

"Alright." He climbed into the backseat and, as best he could, pushed himself into the far corner, as far as he could get from Astrid.

She threw the blankets over him and settled back down without a word. He heard her roll over and felt her press up against him, almost cuddling him. His mind grinded to a halt, what was going on?

"A-Ast, what are you doing?"

"Shh, trying to sleep."

He tried pushing himself even farther into the corner, but she stopped him.

"Oh, grow up, Henry." She mumbled under her breath, tired. "We're best friends, we can sleep next to each other. The body heat will keep us warm." As if to prove her point, she pressed into him further.

"But aren't you worried about Scott getting mad?"

Her response was delayed. But whether it was from hesitation, confusion or tiredness, he didn't know. "...Why would I care about that?"

"Wouldn't your boyfriend be upset with you sleeping next to another guy?" He questioned. He knew Scott, if he so much as suspected anything between him and Astrid, he'd kick his ass again. "Scott won't be happy-"

She turned on the camping lantern, cutting him off. The soft glow illuminated her golden hair in the darkness. She gave him a confused look. "Scott and I broke up a few weeks ago." She said, tilting her head. "Didn't you hear? So why would I care what that bawbag thinks?"

Henryk was surprised, he hadn't heard anything about that. "You two broke up?"

"Yeah, just a few days after you asked me to come on this trip with you."

"...Can I ask what happened?"

"Scott was an arse, always has been, always will." She told him, shaking her head. "I caught him cheating a second time after he promised it'd never happen again, so I dumped him."

"Shit, really? I'm sorry."

"Nah," she gave a small shrug under the covers, bumping his shoulder with her own. "Don't be sorry, I'm better off without him. I just couldn't see it at the time."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I figured you knew," she said. "It was the talk of the town for a few days, but I knew you don't like talking about him, so I didn't mention it. I thought you knew."

So all of his worry about asking her to join him on his trip when she had a boyfriend was for naught, was it? Great, if only he had known earlier. He could have, I don't know, done something? But who was he kidding? He wasn't going to just make a move or something.

"I had no idea." He finally said, not knowing what else to say. Suddenly, a thought popped into his head and he couldn't stop himself fast enough. "Hey, is that why you agreed to come with me out here?"

She looked up at him, face mere inches from his own. She looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, is the only reason why you agreed to come with me because you and Scott broke up?" He said before he could stop himself, but he was on a roll. "The whole time, I was thinking you wouldn't agree because you were dating him. I thought you wouldn't-"

"I wouldn't what?" She cut him off, giving him a confused look. "Not join my best friend since childhood on a camping trip? We do stuff together all the time."

"Yeah, but not alone together in the woods."

She stopped, eyes looking deep into his own. He couldn't tell if she was confused, angry or what. She looked at him with that blank face.

"Did you…" she started slowly. "Were you worried about how it looked? About us going away for a weekend without Scott?"

"Well, yeah." He admitted. "You know what everyone says around here about there only being one reason why young people go off into the woods together. Half of the town has done it before."

She gave him a level look. "But you asked me anyway?"

"Yeah, because I wanted to relax and have fun this weekend and you're my best friend-"

"That's right. We're best friends." She cut him off again. "Henry, didn't you think I know that? That I know what people would say when they found out you and I were going to your family's cabin? Especially so soon after I broke up with Scott? Henry, our town has two hundred people in it, it talks, everyone knows everything about everyone."

He deflated.

"But I don't care." She said matter of factly, like it was universally true. "Let the old housewives gossip about the mayor's son and his best female friend spending a weekend together in a cabin. I don't care what they think, we're best friends. If we want to hang out together in your cabin for a weekend, we can do it without running it by them."

That was one of the things he liked about Astrid, she didn't care what anyone said or thought, she lived her life her own way. It made Henryk slightly jealous. For his entire life, everything had been decided for him, and he always had to conform to what people expected of him, but Astrid, she just didn't care. It was refreshing.

"Yeah, but-"

"Do you have a problem with it?" She asked, suddenly, cutting him off. "Do you have a problem spending the weekend with me?"

"Of course not-"

"Then there's your answer," she told him."Henry, we're not kids anymore, you don't have to worry about what people think. So we're going to your cabin for a weekend, so what?"

"Yeah, I know." He admitted.

"Good," she said, turning the light off and pressing into him again. "Now, go to sleep, I'm tired. We're gonna have a fun day walking back to town in the morning with all this snow."

"How about we walk to the cabin instead?" Henryk asked. He felt Astrid shift next to him.

"Do you still want to?"

"Yeah, of course. I mean, when we get to the cabin, we can use the emergency radio phone and call into town to get someone to pick us up and get my truck." Henryk said. "We could still hang out at the cabin for the weekend, and call for help on Monday."

"Or Tuesday." Astrid suggested. "I have the whole week off work."

"Wednesday?"

She looked up to him, giving him a smile in the darkness. "Wednesday works for me."

She closed her eyes to go to sleep right when Henryk said, "How about we just stay through this week? Until next Sunday?"

She didn't open her eyes, seemingly on the verge of falling asleep, but she smiled. "Sounds perfect. Now, stop talking. I really am trying to fall asleep."

"Next Sunday." Henry said, watching as she literally drifted off before his eyes.

Yeah, spending just over a week with Astrid sounded nice. Alone. Maybe he'd finally tell her he's had a crush on her since the moment he laid eyes on her over a decade ago?

Maybe. We'll see.

FIN

Author's Note

Well, there you go. It's short, but nice. I literally didn't plan it at all, I was just sitting here in front of my computer stuck at work watching a blizzard move in on the first day of June and didn't want to work on other stories, so I wrote this.

No idea if I'll ever make a sequel for this, I have a pretty bad track record for one-shots like this. But let me know if you'd like a second part? I guess? We'll see what happens.

Let me know how you liked this one-shot with a Review!

Have a good one,

Heph