HTTYD: You Don't Know the Meaning of "Nice"? (Hiccstrid)

Chapter 40

Hiccup's P.O.V.

"It's better than the knife," I told my self as I paced the living room, "It's better than the knife, it's better than the knife, it's better than the knife. But where is she?!" Suddenly, my phone went off and I snatched it up as I saw it was Snotlout. I had to call this off. I couldn't do it anymore.

H: What do you want?

S: Just checkin' up, how's it goin'?

H: I'm out.

S: What do you mean?

H: Exactly what I said: I'm dropping out.

S: If you do that, you'll never see her again.

H: What's that supposed to mean?

S: I'll tell her about the bet and then she'll move because she won't want to see you ever again.

H: Well, she was gonna find out anyway, so you'll be saving my breath.

S: You'll lose your title of King of the Bad Boys.

H: You think I haven't thought of that?

S: You're still dropping out? You love that title. It defines you. You said so yourself.

H: Listen, I don't care what I loose, I'm not going to falsely lead her on anymore. She's been through enough in her life without this added onto everything! Do you know what her friends are like? She got abuse from her parents, sure, but she hung out with her group every day and they are some of the worst people I've had the displeasure of meeting. I don't wanna be one of them.

S: Hiccup, you're not thinking clearly. You're bein' wimpy. Why don't you stop by my party tonight. You can get your old groove back and we can pretend like this never happened, okay?

H: Listen Snot. Someday, you're going to make a bet against some girl and you're going to fall in love. And when that happens, then you can make fun of me, but until then, you can just shut your yak hole about whether you think I'm a wimp or not. Because you don't know what it's like for the perfect girl to be sleeping in the room right next to yours, and not being able to tell her how you feel. And you can't tell her, because you're scared that you're just gonna scare her away. Scared that she's not gonna believe you worth two laps around the gym. Scared about her mental health. My point is, you don't know what it's like. It's tearing me up inside and I can't take it anymore! It started as a way to get an easy 300 bucks but then it turned into more. I got to know the girl that we actually went to school with! It wasn't an easy 300. She's terrified of being hurt again. And I don't blame her. Do you have any idea how hard it's been for me to get her to lower her walls? And then I get too close to scaring her into raising them again.

S: Hiccup-

I hang up before he can say anything.

Snotlout's P.O.V. (A/N: Were you expecting this?)

I smiled as I took the phone from my ear and looked at the group. "Well?" Heather asks, raising her eye brows.

"I think our work is almost done," I say, "We just need to make sure she looks at him alone. I'm pretty sure she hit it of with a guy called Eret or something."

"Ooh, I'm gonna kill him," Ruffnut growls. I then pull a picture of him up on my phone and show her. "Never mind!" She shouts as she rips it from my hand. Everyone rolls their eyes as she drools on the screen.

"Ruffnut!" I shout as I see the liquid fall from her lip. "Ew, you can keep it," I say as she tries to hand it back.

"So what did Hiccup say?" Heather asks.

"He went on and on about how much he didn't want to risk losing her or something. Here, I recorded it," I say and have Tuffnut play it, since I didn't want to touch the screen. When it's done playing, Heather's eyes are wide.

"Wow," Fishlegs says.

"Now, uh, I believe you three owe Heather and I 20 bucks each," I say, pointing at Fishlegs, Tuffnut, and Ruffnut. They groan and fork over the money. "Do I know my cousin or do I know my cousin?" I say as I count the money.

"I don't get it. He's never done anything like this before," Fishlegs says in confusion.

"He's never met a girl like Astrid before. No one challenged him. Since they met, I can't remember a time when he talked about her, and he didn't tell me about her going against him head-on. Guys want what they can't have," I say.

"I want a recount!" Tuff says, hitting the table top.

"The bet was that he drop out because he doesn't like deceiving her, not because she's too much of a challenge. That's what happened," Heather says. At that moment, Astrid walks into the Dragon Wing and is about to go to her apron, but Heather calls her over. She pauses, looks around, before hesitantly walking over.

"What's up, guys?" she asks.

"You show up to work like that?" I ask, looking at her. Hair was soaked, shirt was dripping and clinging to her body (while being transparent), shoes were caked in mud, dirt was streaked across her face, mixed with rain and sweat. Her shorts were as soaked as her shirt, she had a scrape on her knee that was dripping blood, and had leaves and twigs tangled in her hair as well.

"Uh...yea?" she says, looking herself up and down, as if just realizing her state. I couldn't take my eyes off the scrape on her knee. It was really bleeding.

"Heather, you're up," I groan as I turned back to the table, not able to look at Astrid anymore.

"M'yeah, c'mon, sweetie," she says as she stands up and takes Astrid to the bathroom.

Astrid's P.O.V.

Heather grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the bathroom after grabbing her bag. "Heather, it's not that-" I cut off as I see my reflection in a mirror, "Whoa..."

"Yeah," she says as she opens her bag and pulls out a mini first-aid kit.

"What's that for?" I ask as she digs around in it.

"You must be the only one who hasn't noticed the knee-cap poking out of your skin," she says casually as I sit on the counter and she starts dabbing something on it.

"Well, I saw my reflection in a puddle outside but I thought everything was just ripples or something," I say. She hands me a brush and I take my hair out of the pony tail before brushing the leaves and twigs out, along with all the knots. She finishes with my knee and digs through her bag again before pulling out a change of clothes. "How big is that bag?" I ask.

"Just put these on," she says, handing me the clothes. I go into a stall and change before she takes my wet clothes and I continue with my hair. I saw Heather smiling at me from the corner of her mouth as I brushed my hair to the other side of my part. I then put it in a pony tail before pulling my bangs so they waved over the corner of my forehead. Then, I braid it and let it drape over my shoulder. "I'll wash your clothes and give them back tomorrow," Heather says and I nod before going to my apron and putting it on. I turned to start waiting on tables but ram into a rock hard chest. Hiccup stared at me with relief shimmering in his eyes.

"Uh, hi, Hiccup. I forgot to tell you that I was on the way to work," I tell him as I duck under his arms as he reached for me.

"Astrid, can I talk to you?" he asks as he follows me.

"Can't talk now, I'm on the clock," I say as I get my notepad ready.

"No, you actually haven't punched in yet," Mark says from behind the counter. I slam my notepad on the nearest table and storm to the punch-in station. I snatch my card from its pocket and shove it into the slot before slapping it onto his chest.

"There, happy?" I ask in annoyance as I got back to work. When I pass Hiccup, he was holding up $200. "Not that kind of clock!" I snap and he groaned.