(Lol remember a few chapters ago when I was like 'at least 6 more chapters' … good news guys I'm not even halfway through with the trajectory of my storyline soooo…..)

There's a slight content warning for this one – nothing too explicit, but if mentions of emotional abuse/a person getting kicked out are difficult for you, I'd recommend skipping the last part of the first paragraph (starting at 'Astrid closed her eyes, ending at 'yeah, probably')

Also, I've realised I literally published 5 chapters for almost the entire duration of my studies and like? proof uni was destroying my mental health lol good that I graduate in June (also pls don't tell anyone that I have to be technically writing 3 essays and my dissertation right now, let's just ignore that) OKAY RANT OVER have fun reading!

"Ah, f—" Astrid muffled a pained curse, biting down on her finger, hands clasped into a fist. She'd hit her knee on her chest of drawers as she'd tiptoed through the dark. She screwed her eyes shut and then quickly glanced behind her, her pained frown quickly melting into a soft smile, and she carefully closing the distance between the bed and the door of the small room, a sleeping Hiccup snoring lightly behind her, his auburn hair tousled between her pillows.

She was careful not to wake him, on the rare occasion he got to sleep in on a night shift day. Maybe he'd just get ready for work when she got back from school. He had followed her home that night a few weeks ago, and they had continued where they'd left off, their previous argument merely a drop in the ocean by now. Last night, they had filled their evening with laughter, slightly burnt garlic for their pasta, and dancing through Astrid's kitchen like there was no tomorrow.

And now, said tomorrow had arrived, and Astrid was buttoning up the blouse Hiccup had picked out for her yesterday night, and gathered her hair up into a ponytail.

I can't believe this is actually still happening, she thought and grabbed her toothbrush. Really, all of it – seemed so unbelievably wonderful it all seemed like some kind of dream, a separate reality perhaps where she'd died and gone to heaven.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. A text from Ruff. 'Good morning! Ready for dream job work week 3?'

Astrid grinned and typed back, 'yeah, just getting ready. Still can't believe this is really happening! Would have called you but I don't wanna wake Hiccup.'

'Ooh girl, look at you, dream job and a hot boyfriend in your bed, good job 😉'

Astrid chuckled, rolling her eyes. 'Thanks haha, trying my best. Real talk though, I'm so happy things are finally going in the right direction, you know?'

'Yeah true that. Angus can suck it! Bet he'd never believe it'

Astrid closed her eyes for a second, her heart barely feeling the stab of pain at the mention of her uncle's name by now. But the remnants of old pain were still there, and she thought they might actually never leave. Maybe there was some sort of comfort in that, to never lose the person she once was who had been hurt by him. And for a moment, she was eighteen again, coming home to her packed bags and her uncle's new girlfriend in the kitchen, looking at her like someone had died, whispering 'Sweetheart, I'm so sorry, I couldn't get him to—', her uncle walking in with that look on his face, and for a horrible moment, she felt like she might cry with old anger and bit her lip, fingers shaking as they typed a reply.

'yeah, probably.'

Hiccup's alarm unceremoniously jerked him awake. He groaned, haphazardly grabbing for his phone in an effort to shut it off. The alarm stopped and he fell back into the pillow, sighing. Hiccup closed his eyes and took a deep breath in, the smell of Astrid's shampoo still lingering on the pillows surrounding him. A slow smile crept on his lips. She'd probably already have had lunch by now, he thought, and scrubbed a hand over his face, rubbing the sleep out of his face, for a second wondering if he should go back to sleep, but then decided to get up and threw back the duvet.

On his way back from Astrid's kitchen, he was humming, his 'Staying at Astrid's' mug in hand and wondered how she was getting on so far. There was a warm sense of pride settled deeply in his chest, carefully cradling his heart as he drank his tea and looked out the window, watching the seagulls. I should surprise her, he thought. She'd been so busy with the first weeks of settling into the office and her new workload, even though it was only a twenty-hour position.

He took a bowl out of the cupboard above the hob and unceremoniously dumped some muesli and milk into it. His phone buzzed.

'Yo, when r u in today?' A text from Snotlout.

'4, I think – you?'

'Nice, 2! C u later!'

Hiccup smiled to himself and took another sip of his tea. Somehow, Snotlout was still texting like he had been when they were younger; he seemed to have a new-found energy about himself since he'd moved in with Stoick and Gobber. He'd introduced them to Keanu Reeves ('What do you mean you've never seen The Lake House?'), and now Hiccup's dad was texting him updates on every film on the actor's filmography every night.

"Oh, Astrid, do you have a minute?"

Astrid stopped in the middle of walking out the door of the teachers' common room and turned around to face Berk's headmistress, Camilla Bog.

"Of course, what's up?"

Camilla took her glasses off, absentmindedly wiping them on her jumper. "Say, your boyfriend's working at the fire station, isn't he?"

"Uh, yeah, he is."

"Do you think he'd be willing to come by and do a fire drill with us one of these days? I've been wanting to organise a little workshop for the kids for ages now and now that I finally know someone with connections to a firefighter, it's perfect timing!"

Astrid hesitated, her inner eye reminiscing about Hiccup, sitting in the common room, her legs sprawled across his, her hands on his chest and fisting themselves into the fabric of his fire station t-shirt – "Sounds great!" she said, quickly, and cleared her throat. "I'll, uh, ask him. So were you thinking an entire day for this, or just some demonstrations in class, or …?"

"I think we should group together 8, 9, and 10 for this, it's not like we've got lots of students anyway."

Astrid nodded. Camilla was right; really, Berk's high school was so sparsely populated she was sometimes doubtful it could even legally be called a school. It's not like Berk was a giant place, after all. Eventually, she did make her way through the hallway, grinning to herself.

Life was good.

Everything was so great, she didn't even want to jinx it.

Thanks so much to Mel for suggesting the fire lesson idea! :D