Our Night On Valentine's Day

The Assignment

'Is the thing on or off?' Hiccup texted Astrid about the assignment that Proffesor Callaghan gave them. Everyone had to be paired up with whoever they wanted to and the Proffesor won't let anyone switch partners. They picked each other since before they broke up.

'Of course. I don't want to fail this.' Hiccup chuckled at this till he realised that they just fought so he reread the text in a sassy Astrid tone.

'I'm on my way.'

He was walking from school to Astrid's. When he arrived there, the first to greet him was her parrot. "Stormfly! Hey girl."

"Boyfriend. Boyfriend." Stormfly flew to Hiccup's shoulder.

"Uhhh... Stormfly, boyfriend, no more." He tried to teach the bird although he knew it was hopeless.

"Toothless. Toothless." Hiccup was glad that she changed the subject. "I'm sorry girl, he's not here."

He hasn't brought his cat there for a long time. He liked to see the two animals play together. He liked the fact that they were friendly with each other even though they were completely different.

"Hiccup." He heard a voice. He turned towards the voice and saw Astrid in a red floral dress.

"Come on." She went inside.

Hiccup put Stormfly gently back at her stand. "Stormfly lonely," she said.

"I promise I'll bring him next time." He rubbed her feathers.

Hiccup followed Astrid inside and saw her mother was baking some cookies, so he greeted her. "Hi Mrs Hofferson." He made the woman smile. "Hello, Hiccup. It's nice to see you again. It's been a long time hasn't it?" Mrs Hofferson abviously didn't know about their break up. And this made things more awkward.

"Mom, we're gonna head upstairs and finnish our assignment." Astrid walked up the stairs.

"Okay but don't lock the door! Last time was real awkward." She joked and smiled at Hiccup as he took one biscuit from the tray, reprising the memory.

"Seriously?" Astrid muttered under her breath.

****

45 minutes had passed. They both had their notebooks and were writing, almost done.

"Stormfly has been sad," said Hiccup, wanting answers. He had his elbow on one knee and the other holding a pen.

"Yeah well, she's sure missing Toothless." Astrid didn't bother to look at Hiccup. She wrote some stuffs in her notebook. Hiccup on the other hand, stopped writing.

"Your mom doesn't know.." He trailed off, talking about their relationship.

"No," she answered shortly, still writing. Her blonde fringe covering her eyes.

"And why is that?" Hiccup pushed the question a little deeper. He wanted to know. Or at least he wanted to bring up the 'us' discussion.

"Because." Astrid sounded angry, frustrated, stressed. She stopped writing.

"I don't want to talk about it." Their eyes finally met. Her eyes were sparkling with rage, anger, sadness. Something that couldn't be cured. Or at least she thought it couldn't.

"Well, I wanted to." Hiccup stared into her eyes. Into her soul, searching for some things. Answers to why she didn't want to talk about it? Why she kept avoiding him? Why were they like this? How did she feel about him now. Did she still like him?

"What's left there to talk about?" They were close to each other but still they didn't feel like kissing.

"Do you still like me?"

"I don't know," she admitted. The rage faded and the sadness increased. Her fringe came covering her teary eyes.

"Well, what do you think?" He tilted his head sideways, bored with his previous position.

"I think.." She gathered all her breath, the power that has left, the strength she had within her. "I hated it."

"I hated the fact that I still like you." She stood, facing the opposite direction, facing her dressing table.

Then she turned to Hiccup and registered in her head that he was already standing behind her, close. She could feel his breath. So warm.

"Hiccup. I still like you and I know deep down, you knew it." She stared into his green eyes.

"I like you too-"

"No. You don't." She stepped back. She wanted some space. And she definitely didn't want to be in the same space as him right now.

A drop of tear flowed down her cheek. She didn't try to cover it though. She wanted Hiccup to see it - how badly she had been hurt. So he would just drop it. Hiccup remained silent.

"I think it's about time you give Merida a chance," she stuttered. She was out of breath. She was hurt. She was weak.

"And why would I that?"

"Because you kept pushing her away! You don't realise that because you never give her a chance." She cried. She was weeping.

"Astrid-"

"Just go."

Astrid's mother appeared at the door. "Hey, what's going on?" She had a serious look on her face when she saw Astrid crying. What made Hiccup feel really guilty was the fact that she didn't even look at him.

So, he left.