This Time For Sure

Summary: Astrid Hofferson is no coward. She has had her eye on the goofy auburn haired boy in her Norse Mythology class all semester. The last class before finals, Astrid finally makes her move. Modern AU. Hiccstrid.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the Viking lore referenced in this one-shot.

—

This time, this time for sure.

The lecture was over. Class was dismissed. All the other students had risen and were either chatting while gathering their things or silently filing out the classroom—yet Astrid Hofferson remained frozen in her seat. She could not believe it was over. It seemed like just yesterday she was taking her seat in the classroom for the very first time. Now, the semester was over, minus their final on Friday. Her intense blue gaze was locked on the head of auburn hair in front of her. His movements were leisurely as usual. Lucky for her, he was in no hurry to leave today.

Swallowing thickly, Astrid rose from her seat and silently willed her heart to stop pounding so hard. After weeks—no, months of chickening out—today she had to say something. It's not that difficult. All I have to do is say hello. It was now or never. Her time had all but ran out. This was her last chance to buck up and talk to him before they took their final.

Slinging her backpack over her shoulder, she mustered all the courage she could manage and stepped down to his row. He did not even look up. Her hand tightened nervously on the strap of her backpack. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled while repeating her mantra in her head. This time, this time for sure.

Then she opened her mouth to speak.

—

When Astrid signed up to take ENG385/Norse Mythology as an elective in the fall of her senior year of college, she did not expect much. How exciting could Viking lore be at nine in the morning anyhow? She anticipated fifty-minute-long boring lectures and hard-to-get-through readings. She envisioned procrastinating on the assignments until the very last minute, ultimately making her to her want to pull her hair out. It would be just another 9am class that she would have trouble staying awake in three days a week. All in all, a typical college course.

Gods, had she been so totally wrong.

The first day of class she took a seat in the in one of the middle rows on the right side of the room, the side closest to the door. She was ten minutes early so she got the pleasure of watching as various students made their way into the room and took their seats. Unsurprisingly, there were only about twenty students present in the massive forum sized classroom when their Jötnar [1]of a professor entered and began to address them in a booming Irish brogue. Professor Stojan Haddock was a vast man, made up of one-hundred percent muscle and stood proudly at nearly six and a half feet tall. Astrid could not tell if he was smiling and grimacing at them with the massive red beard covering his face. He was rather intimidating, embodying the very aspects of the Vikings that they were sure to learn about.

As her attention was focused solely on the professor that very first day, Astrid barely noticed when a gangly student with russet colored hair literally tripped into the seat in front of her, earning an exasperated glance from the professor. She did not even think anything of it when he turned around and passed her the attendance sheet, his lightly freckled face blooming a bright shade of red. In fact, it was a few classes in before she actually noticed him. One morning, he turned around and handed her the attendance sheet (as he always did), his face flushing (as it always did), but something just clicked when she absently looked up from her notes and met his wide green gaze directly for the first time. Before she could think much of it, he swiveled around in his chair and was facing the front again. She could see that the tips of his ears were crimson.

That was the first time Astrid truly noticed him.

After that, it was all she could do to not notice him.

She noticed that instead of taking detailed notes during lectures, he was always doodling dragons in his notebook. They were actually good, really good. Perhaps he was an art major and taking the class as an elective as she was.

She noticed when he awkwardly stumbled all over his words the morning that Professor Haddock unexpectedly called on him in class during a discussion. Henrik. His name was Henrik. Up until that point, she had not known his name and she had never heard him say a single word. His voice was slightly nasally but the tone was a low tenor. Somehow, it suited him in a way she could not quite explain.

She noticed that occasionally he would make sarcastic commentaries under his breath about parts of the lecture or something Professor Haddock said. He was able to imitate their professor's brogue perfectly. She wondered if he even knew how many times she had to clamp her hand over her mouth or bite on her fist to keep a snort of laughter from escaping when he made a particularly good comment.

She noticed that Henrik was actually quite attractive. She was positive that it was pathetic how often she zoned out in class, chin rested in hand, just gazing at him. Sure, he was tall and lanky, but he was not completely wimpy. He had firm muscles in his arms and broad shoulders that Astrid often found herself shamelessly daydreaming about during class. He had a wonderfully sharp jaw that could cut glass. She could not help imagining running her fingers along that perfect jawline. Then there was his hair—she really liked his perfectly messy, 'I-don't-give-a-shit, I-woke-up-like-this' auburn hair.

Before, Astrid had never been one to hang around after class. The first two weeks of class, she was the first one out the door when the class was over at 9:50am, immediately heading over to the library café to grab coffee and brunch with her roommate, Regina "Ruff" Thorston and Ruff's boyfriend, Fisher "Fish" Ingerman. However, as time went on, Astrid found herself lagging behind in class. Henrik usually took his time gathering his things together after class and sometimes he even stayed longer to speak with Professor Haddock. Astrid began taking her time packing up as well, all the while trying to muster the courage to say something to him. Yet every time the opportunity to talk to him arose, Astrid found herself with nothing to say, or nothing good anyway.

"Hey Henrik, I sit behind you in class and I noticed that you draw a lot of dragons. I think that's pretty cool. Oh, and by the way, you are ridiculously attractive. Would you want to go get coffee with me?"

It was not long before Ruff and Fish—well, mainly Ruff—began to notice something was going on.

"You're acting weird. Well, weirder, anyway," her roommate informed her.

Astrid had tried to deny it but eventually, she admitted (under the influence of very potent wine) that there was a cute guy in her Norse mythology class that had captured her attention. In retrospect, she should have known Ruff would be curious after that drunken admission. It was not every day that the Astrid Hofferson admitted to having a crush—especially on someone she had not even spoken to. What a horrifying day it was when she walked out of class, trailing unhurriedly after Henrik, only to find that her friends were waiting outside for her for a change. That day, Ruff had loudly and publicly called Astrid out on checking out Henrik's ass. She was pretty certain that Henrik heard Ruff's inappropriate remark too, considering his face turned six shades darker than normal and he scurried out of the hallway as if his pants were on fire.

He was not able to look her in the eye when he passed her the sign-in sheet after that.

She was mortified.

—

"This time, this time for sure."

"Really, Astrid?"

The already nervous enough blonde turned from the mirror to glower at her roommate who stood smirking at her from the doorway to their shared bathroom. After finding out about her crush on Henrik, Ruff had mercilessly teased her about it all semester and most recently, about how Astrid was too chicken to do anything about it. That was the last straw. Astrid was no coward. She was fearless Astrid Hofferson—perfectionist, straight-A student, record-setting sprinter—the kind of girl who would not think twice about beating someone to a pulp if they looked at her the wrong way. She was not easily scared or one to back down from a challenge. Yet there was something about Henrik and his goofy gap-toothed grin and too big green eyes that made her palms sweat and her mouth run dry.

"Gods Astrid, you look like you're about to throw up."

Astrid rolled her eyes, "Thanks, Ruff. That's exactly what I need to hear right now."

"Need a little liquid courage?" Her roommate suggested with a raised eyebrow. "There's some cheap vodka in the fridge that my brother left here last weekend."

"I'm not taking a shot before I go to class," Astrid replied, tossing her long braid over her shoulder with a dramatic huff. "Besides, you know I don't do vodka."

Ruff shrugged, clearly not bothered by the other blonde's snarky tone. "Suit yourself."

"I can do this," Astrid insisted.

"Yup."

"He's just a guy."

"Right."

"God. I'm really pathetic, aren't I?"

"You aren't pathetic," Ruff replied, her expression softening in a rare moment of empathy. "You just have a crush on the kid—that's completely normal. You just need to stop overthinking and just go for it. Woman up! Bat those eyelashes, push out those perky B-cup tits, and make that boy trip over his feet."

Before she could stop herself she muttered, "Foot."

"What?" Ruff was confused.

"He's an amputee. He wears a prosthetic on his left foot."

"Oh."

—

Slinging her backpack over her shoulder, she mustered all the courage she could manage and stepped down to his row. He did not even look up. Her hand tightened nervously on the strap of her backpack. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled while repeating her mantra in her head. This time, this time for sure.

Then she opened her mouth to speak.

"Uh, hi?"

She mentally cringed at how stupid the words sounded leaving her mouth. Fortunately, they had their desired effect because Henrik's head shot up. His vivid green eyes locked on her standing in front of him before widening comically in surprise. He glanced around as if to make sure she was actually talking to him and not someone else.

"Are you talking to me?" He finally asked in his usual nasally tone.

Astrid smiled nervously at him and nodded.

Henrik looked confused for several moments before he frowned, "Did I borrow a pencil from you or something?" Before she could answer, he continued babbling and smacked a hand to his forehead. "Oh geez! I did, didn't I? A couple weeks ago? I-I forgot. I'm sorry." Her brows furrowed in confusion as he rummaged around in his backpack for a moment before pulling out a blue ink pen. "I'm sorry, uh, I don't think I have your particular pencil on me. Wait! I have a pen, though! Do you like pens?"

"Uh yeah, pens are great."

Of all the ways she imagined this conversation going, this was certainly not one of them.

He awkwardly thrust the blue ballpoint pen out towards her, a look of childish guilt on his face. Astrid struggled to keep her laughter contained at the ridiculousness of the situation. Her nervous grip on her backpack strap loosened completely as she reached out to accept the pen he was offering her, tucking it into the back pocket of her jeans. She could not help but think he looked entirely too attractive, biting his bottom lip the way he was.

"Thank you…" Astrid trailed off, wanting him to introduce himself.

"Henrik, Henrik Haddock," he supplied. "But everyone calls me Hiccup."

Hiccup.

She liked the sound of that.

It sounded even more fitting than Henrik.

Hiccup Haddock.

Wait.

It finally registered with her. "Haddock? As in Professor Haddock?"

Hiccup began to laugh uneasily. "Yeah, uh, surprise? That's my dad. Don't we share a striking resemblance?"

He attempted to puff out his chest to make himself appear burlier, like the Professor. She supposed it made sense now that she actually thought about it. They had the same facial structure and dark auburn hair. It also explained how he was so good at copying the professor's accent. He undoubtedly had a lot of practice. A soft giggle escaped her lips. Surprised, she clamped a hand over her mouth. Astrid Hofferson did not giggle. She was too tough for that. If Ruff heard, she would never let her live it down. Yet Astrid could not find it within herself to be too upset about it considering it was Hiccup who caused it.

He had made her laugh.

He was funny.

Meanwhile, Hiccup's posture had returned to normal and he was smiling at her. A real smile, gap-toothed and all. Her heart melted. He was even more adorable than she originally thought. She subtly glanced over at the clock on the wall, noting that students from the next class would surely start coming in any minute, consequently breaking the spell that had settled over the two of them. Astrid was torn. Now that she finally was talking to him, she did not want to stop.

She needed more time.

She needed to see him smile like that again.

"You know, Hiccup…" Astrid started in a flirty tone that surprised even her. "I can think of a better way that you can make up for that stolen pencil."

Hiccup's eyes nearly bulged out of his head, unsure as to what she was implying. He immediately began sputtering incoherent nonsense, "I—uh, you, w-what?"

"How do you feel about coffee?" She asked innocently.

—

[1] The Jötnar are a race of beings in Norse mythology known for their large size and are sometimes referred to as giants.

.

Also, in case anyone is interested, Stojan, the name I chose to replace Stoick is the Macedonian/Serbian/Croatian/Slovene form of the name Stoyan. The name Stoyan is derived from the Bulgarian word стоя, or stoya, which means "to stand" or "to stay." As such, not only does Stojan just sound cool, but it is rather fitting for Stoick's character. Hiccup's name "Henrik" was chosen because it was the closest sounding name to "Hiccup" I could find while still maintaining that Northern European origin. Ruff and Fish's names were picked out at random by names that simply sounded similar to their canon names.

—

A/N:

I originally posted this one shot a few years ago, but I recently decided to go back in and do some editing. Not much has changed, it was mostly just grammatical changes. I did, however, take out the final scene. I had a few reviewers mention how it seemed odd to have something like that suddenly tacked on at the end and two years later, I find myself agreeing with you. Having the one-shot end where it does now leaves things open to the reader's imagination—something I find much more appealing. :)

— Mari.