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Close Call

Back in the well-lit canteen, it had seemed like a sensible idea. He would have offered the same to anyone else, be it Fishlegs, Ruff or Gothi. But making their way back to his hut, with Toothless leading the way like an unlit shadow, doubts started to creep over the reasonable offer like vines.

What if she thought it was weird? The notion of her being too polite to say no crossed his mind, and he sidled a nervous glance over to the silent blonde. She was focusing on her feet with a closed expression and didn't seem to notice his hopefully surreptitious look. Then he remembered his smarting cheek and bit back a grin – she definitely didn't hold back the punches, literally or figuratively. She would have told him straight up no.

The hut looked small and cluttered with her standing somewhat awkwardly in the doorway. Toothless prowled to his corner and gambolled up to the deep set ledge Hiccup had installed, curling up in a manner reminiscent of a house cat. For his part, Hiccup snatched up the clothes littering the floor and threw them in the wash-bucket next to the chest of drawers, thanking for small miracles that he had actually made the bed that morning. He ignored the shyer part of his psyche that wondered what Astrid saw of the room; of his wistful drawings and hopeful sketches of past dreams and future imaginings. Not many saw them. Hiccup wondered absently if he would still have offered had she not already seen the hut. She hadn't brought up his missing foot since, and he preferred to keep it that way.

"I noticed your drawings last time." Astrid's voice was loud in the small space. "You're not half bad."

"Was that an actual compliment?" He began to flit about the room to gather his night-shift belongings, slotting them neatly into his specially designed suit. Astrid made her way further into the cabin and sat gently on the bed, still craning her pale neck to see the best of the sketches. Something about her curiosity made the hut seem brighter, cosier.

"Feel free to help yourself to a drink from the kitchen – it's outside in the other section of the cabin, but I'll leave it unlocked for you. The bathroom's there as well. If you need me, use the walkie talkie on the desk."

Hiccup hesitated by the door, unsure of what to say next. Astrid's unexpected smile caught and held his attention for the next few heartbeats. It entirely too eye-catching to miss.

"Thank you, Hiccup." Her lips showed the neat set of teeth behind as she breathed a small laugh. "I'll put in an extra shift to make up for it."

Hiccup cleared his throat and turned to leave, needing an excuse to tear his eyes away from her face to hide his warming cheeks. Toothless chirped and followed his master through the door and outside, where Hiccup closed the door with a snap.

Toothless whined after his master had stood for a couple moments longer than usual, still staring disbelievingly at his front door.

Astrid would have loved to have snooped more at the artwork on the walls, but her tiredness called her down to snuggle underneath the thick duvet, ten times warmer than her narrow bed back at the flat. She vaguely remembered someone turning off the light, and a heavy weight settling around her feet, but other than that she was dead to the world, sleeping deeper and more comfortably than she had in a while. Even upon waking she allowed herself to stretch luxuriously, her pointed toes hitting something squidgy and making it growl.

Cracking open an eye, she huffed her amusement at the sleeping Toothless curled around her feet, clearly in his prime night spot. Seeing the panther made her roll the other way to look for Hiccup, spying him through the dimly lit hut.

The boss was sprawled over his admittedly wide leather computer chair; clad in a faded t-shirt and those tapered pyjama shorts. He had taken off his boots but left a metal prosthetic in its place – an intricate design that curled gently at the base. Black framed glasses had fallen halfway down his nose and gave Astrid the sense he had fallen asleep reading. She instantly felt bad for stealing his bed after seeing the odd angle his neck was at.

Toothless woke as she slid out of the bed and awkwardly pulled on her trousers, cursing the uncomfortable bra she'd chickened out of removing the night before. He chirped and yawned with a whine, making Astrid spin and shush him equally as high. She didn't want to to wake Hiccup up.

Slipping a blank bit of paper from under a couple fencing sketches, she wrote out a concise note thanking him for helping her out, and offered to do an extra shift when needed. There. Nice and professional. No added feeling there.

Astrid had found it hard the night before when confronted with Hiccup's drawing passion. Other than her determination to excel, her desires fell mainly to seeing things in perfect order and punching things when she got irritated. She read quite broadly, but not many customers at her old bar were interested in learning about historical romances, nor were they interested in brutal female characters aiming for bloody glory. Seeing the shy, pleased expression on his face made her admiration suddenly more pronounced, leading to her heartfelt thank you the night before. It made her feel less icy inside, somehow.

Throwing Toothless another warning look to stay quiet, she crept out of the door as silently as she could and winced when the heavy metal slammed loudly behind her.

Hiccup woke to an incessant ringing by his ear. Flopping awake and nearly falling off his chair, he lunged for the black phone practically screaming off its cradle and shouted a panicked greeting down the phone.

"Hello?!"

"Good morning to you too, son."

Hiccup let his body revert back to a boneless lump, slumping into the leather with a groan. "Hey, dad. How have you been?"

"Fantastic! I tracked the elephant we talked about last time; the one we fitted that prosthetic leg to? Worked like a charm! Needs a bit of work, though, I was hoping you got my diagrams?" Stoick enthused even as he roared orders on his side of the phone. "I scanned them in that printer scanner at the library here. Bit out of date, but I knew you could see what I was meaning."

"Saw them and made a few tweaks – you need to loosen the back ties and fit in that metal band I've pointed out in the drawing – should make it easier to release and hold the muscle." Hiccup smirked as he heard his father snap at someone for 'sloppy tracking'. "Caught any more yet?"

"On the trail of some punks as we speak. They've had an eye on our operation – I've been working with the safari guides here to pinpoint their attacks. But anyway! How's the park?"

"Fine, fine." The reply was automatic. Stoick's job was head of a unit that combined animal rescue and poacher tracking based in South Africa. He was known for ruthlessness alongside being a massive conservationist, following the steps of his late wife. Val passed away when Hiccup was very small – while he didn't have a single memory to remember her by, Stoick carried on her memory in the work he did; out in the wild, saving animals. It was a miracle he remembered to call Hiccup at all. But he still did every month, advising and praising Hiccup for his efforts. "We lost the latest office worker. But we got a new girl in. Astrid."

Something in Stoick's tone changed. "Astrid? Tall, beautiful, loves animals? We do have a type, eh, son?"

"Well, I wouldn't say she's overly tall...but wait, she's not my type! She's not my anything!"

"First female name you've told me since a couple years ago." Stoick's voice was smug. "She must be something."

"Dad, come on..."

"It's time, Hiccup."

"Are you not listening?"

"Tell me more about your girlfriend."

"Oh for the love of- look, she's not!"

"Giving you trouble, is she?"

"NO!"

A brief confusion of noises crackled over the phone, mingled with men calling for Stoick.

"Ah, son, I have to go." He sounded apologetic. "Duty calls! Let me know more during our next call!"

The phone clicked. Hiccup glared down at the black device in his hand, hearing the dial tone from where he sat. The cut short conversations did irritate him, but he still smiled fondly at the action-packed life Stoick led. He'd found his dream, and was living it.

Thoughts of dreams hovered in Hiccup's consciousness and made him sigh, both wistful and embarrassed, at the thought of Astrid as his girlfriend. She was too pretty. Too violent. He barely knew her.

That single stream of thought grabbed his attention. He actually didn't. He knew about her personality and appearance, as well as her capacity for glaring and punching when Hiccup was an ass. None of her current or past life was something she divulged, not to Hiccup at least. Instead of turning off his strange fixation it pivoted and turned on its head into an enigma; a puzzle. He liked those. He liked to crack them open and put them back together after seeing the working insides.

Hiccup winced at that particular line of thinking. No wonder he was single, with that as his opening line.

Hey, want to go for a drink? I want to break you apart and then reassemble you better than you were before.

A snort escaped Hiccup at that idea. He was tempted to try it just to see the results.

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