Seven weeks

Hiccup smiled at Astrid as he held the door open for her. She took a cautious step inside his apartment, her eyes scanning the living room. He closed the door behind her and watched as she examined the Spider-Man comic that Fishlegs had left on the table. He rushed forward and grabbed it from her with a nervous laugh.

"Sorry, that's Frankie's. He's, uh, not the best about keeping them in his room. You know, I'm gonna go see what's taking them so long," he said. Astrid nodded. He went into Fishlegs' room and threw the comic at the boy, who was lying in his bed and reading a book. He looked up, startled by the sound of his door opening, and caught the comic.

"Hey, be careful with that! That is the new Maximum Carnage foil cover issue!" The blond boy said. He set his book down and placed the comic on a shelf that held hundreds already and looked close to falling. "Why day you so upset anyway?"

"She's here," Hiccup hissed. He looked back at Astrid and gave her a small smile. She waved.

"What? Already?! But I haven't even started to set everything up! There is no way we can put her character together with so little time, Hiccup!" Fish gasped.

"Well we don't really have a choice. Do you know where Scott and Tuff are?" Hiccup asked.

"They left with Ruff a while ago. I think Scott said something about heading to the park." Fishlegs started to move things around in his closet, finally pulling out a large cardboard box. He put it on his bed and startled look through it.

Hiccup sighed and went back into the living room. Astrid looked up at him from where she sat on the couch. "Great."

"What?" She asked.

"It's just going to be you, me, and Fish this time. But that shoulder be fine. What were you thinking of for your character?"

"Oh." Astrid handed him a piece of folded paper. "Here. I put my character sheet together last night."

He nodded as he unfolded the paper and read her neatly slanted handwriting. "Wow. This is amazing. And your dragon is a Deadly Nadder? Hmm. Protective, deadly and beautiful. Very fitting."

Astrid blushed. "Thanks. I based her off of Stormfly."

"Well you did a great job for someone so new to Dungeons & Dragons," Hiccup said.

He set her character sheet down on the table and sat down on the floor in front of the couch. He kept his eyes trained on his hands as he spoke, "But, there's something else that I really think we should talk about-"

"Who's ready for an amazing game of Dungeons & Dragons!" Fishlegs came into the living room, a large box in his arms. He set it down and sat next to Hiccup, who mumbled something under his breath as Fishlegs started to take things out of the box. "Because I know I am."

Astrid frowned. "Hiccup, what were you going to say?"

Fishlegs stopped what he was doing and looked between the two of them. "Did I interrupt something here…?"

Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck. "No, no nothing. I just, uh, wanted to show you some pictures I have of Toothless."

Astrid nodded. "Sure. Where are they?"

Hiccup stood and led her down the hall to his bedroom. He heard Fishlegs snicker as he shut the door behind them. Astrid looked around his room, her blue eyes lingering particularly long on one of the dragon sketches he had taped up. She traced the smooth pencil lines with a finger and smiled.

"Did you draw these?" She asked.

"Yeah. I did." Hiccup leaned against his desk as she turned around to look at him. She frowned when she saw his darkened features, and crossed her arms over her chest defensively.

"There aren't any pictures, are there?" Astrid asked quietly.

Hiccup shook his head. Her eyes fell to the floor and she took a step away from him, towards the door.

"Astrid, look, I think you're great and all. But there's something that we really need to talk about before we can try this whole friends thing, and I'm pretty sure you know what it is," Hiccup admitted.

Astrid kept her head lowered, her arms hugging her sides tightly like she was trying to keep herself from falling apart into a million pieces. "I don't know what you're talking about, Hiccup."

"Astrid, you never told me what made you sick when we got coffee that day."

She froze for a minute, then spoke calmly, "The girl working there was new."

"Heather told me that she saw you throw up in the woods when we went to the beach," he continued.

Astrid took another step toward the door. "Well Heather shouldn't be watching me so closely anyway. And neither should you. I'm fine. Fishlegs is waiting; we should get back to the game-"

Hiccup grabbed her shoulders and turned her so she faced him. She glared at him but kept her lips pursed. "Astrid, tell me what is going on. I promise that I will never bother you again if you just tell me."

Her eyes searched his face. Slowly her scowl faded and her eyes softened. "Promise me again."

"Promise you what?"

"That you won't leave me," she whispered. "I… I don't have anyone else to turn to."

It all clicked into place with her words. Hiccup let go of her and ran a hand through his hair. He backed into the edge of his desk and stared blankly at her. "How long?"

She was hesitant to reply. "Seven weeks."

Hiccup's eyes widened slightly. His fingernails dug into the wooden desk. "And you didn't think about telling me?! I am just as much a part of this as you are, Astrid!"

Hiccup's mind reeled as he pushed away from the desk. He still had trouble with keeping his bedroom clean; there was no way he could care for another human being. He had no idea how to be a father, or how one should act, seeing as he never spoke to his own.

Astrid narrowed her eyes at him and reached for the doorknob. "I'm leaving."

Hiccup stepped in front of the door and put his full weight against it. "No. You don't get to just run off like that again. I need answers. This is our baby, and we should have an equal say in how it will be raised."

"Yeah, well I don't want this kid, so you can keep it!" Astrid pushed at him but he didn't move. "Get out of my way!"

"Do you have any idea how scared I was, Astrid? Or were you too busy worrying about raising our baby without me to care?" Hiccup asked. He watched her expression change to something closely resembling hurt. Her eyes glazed over with tears.

Her hand flashed out and connected with his cheek. "You bastard! You have no idea how hard this has been for me! I have been worried about telling you since I first found out! And I still have to tell my parents! How do you think they will feel when they find out that they paid for their only daughter to go to some fancy school and she ended up getting knocked up by a drunk stranger? How do you think they will view me after that, huh?" Astrid screamed. Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled in eyeliner-darkened rivers down her cheeks.

Hiccup rested a hand on her shoulder. His eyes took on a softer look. "Astrid, I'm sorry-"

She shrugged his hand off and turned away. "Did you ever stop and think that maybe I don't want this either? Because I don't. I was supposed to finish school and get my degree, maybe get married, but I can't do that now. You still can. In a few months, everyone is going to know about this, and I will never lose whatever title they decide to give me. That's why I didn't want to tell you. I don't want you to think that you're stuck with me now." A choked sob left Astrid's lips.

Hiccup took a step toward her, his eyes lowered. "I-I never thought that you would try to protect me like that. But Astrid, I'm not going to force you to go through this alone. We got ourselves into this situation together."

She shook her head but didn't turn around, her fists trembling at her sides. She wiped vigorously at her cheeks with the back of her hand. Hiccup took another step.

"Let me-"

"No! I-I'm perfectly capable of t-taking care of myself, Hiccup," Astrid said.

"Astrid, I don't want you to do this alone. I want to be there-"

She whirled around. Her icy blue eyes pierced him in a glare that made him shrink back against the door. "Just get out of my way, Hiccup. You can go back to your stupid nerd games and you'll never hear from me again. You should be glad that I'm even giving you that option."

She reached for the doorknob but he pushed her hand away. She paused for a moment before elbowing him in the ribs. Hiccup groaned and stumbled away from the door, watching as she threw it open and stalked down the hall. He heard Fishlegs squeak and scurry off to his room as he hurried after the blonde.

"Astrid, wait!" He called.

She ignored him and turned the corner into the living room, where her crisp character sheet still sat on the table, forgotten. She stepped over the large cardboard box and made her way to the door.

Hiccup's metal prosthetic caught on the corner of the couch and left him sprawling on the floor as the door slammed behind her. He grabbed a couch cushion and hauled himself to his feet, his bruised abdomen screaming in protest. He opened the door and scanned the hall, spotting her near the stairs. He jogged after her.

"Hey!"

Her eyes met his for a brief moment, then returned to the dark green carpet under feet.

"Please, just give me one minute. And then I swear that I will never talk to you again, if that's what you want."

Astrid stopped. She looked over at him with puffy red eyes, tears streaking down her cheeks. She waited for him at the top of the stairs as he ran over.

He gave her a small lopsided smile but she didn't return it. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Look, I'm sorry about what I said. I just... I-I'm scared, Astrid. I have no idea what I'm doing here," he admitted.

She nodded, her braid falling over her shoulder. "Me too. And I don't think you're a nerd. Geek, maybe."

Hiccup laughed and let his hand fall back to his side. His expression became serious again when his eyes met hers. "But I want you to know that I'll be there for you. I don't want you to go through this alone."

She gave him a weak smile. "T-Thanks. You're a great friend, Hiccup."

Astrid pulled him into a hug. Hiccup rested his head on top of hers and smiled at the wallpaper with it's plain floral print, his heart thrumming against his ribcage. He took a deep breath and tried to ignore the cold knife that her words drove into his chest.

Author's note: Yes, short chapter. But it will give you all something to read while I work on the next chapter, which is going to very important for the development of this story. And make sure that you vote in the poll on my profile for which gender you think the baby should be. I will be closing the poll in 1-2 weeks and revealing the gender, so time is running out.

Also, I will be taking names suggestions for both genders until further notice, so if you have an idea send me a PM or leave a review. After I have taken down the poll I will let readers vote on one name for both gender.