Astrid didn't know exactly when it started.

She remembered lunch in the cafeteria, trying to squeeze in some homework, and a slightly nasal laugh when the math equations didn't make sense to her and she let that out in a menacing tirade under her breath. She remembered wondering why it had pleasantly filled her ears, why it had made her look up.

She remembered standing in the school's hallway shortly after last period, students jostling around, a cacophony of girly laughter, loud testosterone-filled exclamations and the general buzz of conversation surrounding her. She remembered turning away from her locker, ready to head out, and catching a glimpse of auburn hair in the crowd. She remembered smiling and waiting for him to catch up to her so they could walk out together.

She remembered her smile growing at every new text, remembered her sudden awareness of how much fun it was to hang out together.

But most of all, she remembered that one Saturday before finals.

It had been a busy couple of weeks, crammed with last-minute papers and presentations, long nights filled with caffeine and frustration. She was nothing but an ambitious student, always determined to ace every test coming her way, to prove herself and excel in every subject. Astrid Hofferson had goals, and she'd do everything in her power to reach those goals. That meant a very rigorous studying schedule, no distractions allowed. That again involved not being able to see her friends outside of school. She had no time for smoothies and movies, for afternoons in the park, the cove or on Heather's couch, and certainly no time for Hiccup Haddock. Which sucked, because he was her best friend – the best she's ever had, if anyone asked her.

She had first met him in kindergarten, but never really had had anything to do with him. Only when they got paired up for a project in freshman year – the classic way of getting to know people you never talked to – and after the initial rounds of awkward silence, did she have a real conversation with him. Up to that point, she had thought they couldn't be more different people and that she couldn't be less interested in the person that was Hiccup Haddock. But when he mentioned his dog with a missing tail and she told him stories about the parakeet she'd had as a kid and the puppy she had recently adopted, the conversation just kept flowing. Not always smoothly, but that didn't matter. She liked talking to him. She found out he had a strong passion for what he loved and what he thought was right. He deeply cared for the people in his life and would do anything for them. Besides, it turned out they shared a lot of interests, and that made becoming friends even easier. And being friends with Hiccup was just that – easy. It was as if they clicked on another level, able to read each other like a book. There was no one who Astrid rather spent time with. He always made her forget about her troubles, but unfortunately finals – and therefore studying – were her troubles at the time.

Astrid groaned and buried her face in her physics textbook. She was lying on her stomach on the ground in her room, every surface covered with binders, notepads, textbooks, post-its, and index cards – the aftermath of a whole Saturday morning filled to the brim with studying, right after a short few hours of sleep preceded by a Friday afternoon and night study session.

Her brain was overflowing with equations, bullet points, half-sentences and phrases that refused to fall into context. The more she read and reviewed the less sense everything made in her head. Astrid sighed. She needed a breather. Placing her textbook aside, careful so the post-its didn't shift out of place, she reached for her phone. She lay on her back and, holding her phone above her face, skimmed through various group chats. They all basically said the same; people were either studying or procrastinating, asking for help in several subjects, and the overall vibe screamed for salvation in the form of finals to be over already or a distraction of any shape or form.

Astrid was just grinning at a few memes sent by the twins when her phone suddenly buzzed several times from incoming texts, prompting her to drop it on her face.

Hiccup [11:48am]: your brain melted yet? i think i'm seeing smoke signals coming from your house

Hiccup [11:48am]: or did you try to make lunch and the house is burning down

Hiccup [11:48am]: do i need to call 911

Hiccup [11:49am]: where are your parents

Hiccup [11:49am]: omg did you finally snap from all the studying and killed them?

Rubbing her aching nose where her phone had met her face a moment ago, she typed back.

Astrid [11:50am]: Who do you think I'm cooking? ;)

Hiccup answered with a series of shocked emojis. Astrid grinned and imagined him placing a hand on his chest, pseudo-shocked look on his face. She rolled back onto her stomach, eyes set to the little dots indicating he was typing.

Hiccup [11:51am]: tbh i'm not surprised

Hiccup [11:51am]: always knew it was just a matter of time until someone died at your hands

Hiccup [11:52am]: how did you do it? axe or feeding them your version of an edible meal?

She could easily picture him gesticulating, waving his hands around, never able to keep them still while talking. It was kind of charming.

Astrid [11:52am]: Axe, of course. My cooking might be basic, but it doesn't kill people.

Hiccup [11:53am]: biggest

Hiccup [11:53am]: lie

Hiccup [11:53am]: ever

Hiccup [11:53am]: hofferson

Astrid was about to reply when another text came in.

Hiccup [11:54am]: HOLY SHIT IS THAT WHY YOUR STEW WAS SO BAD? WHERE YOUR NEIGHBORS IN IT?!

She rolled her eyes. A few months ago, she had made dinner for her friends. She had tried to follow her mother's recipe but with her own twists, wanted to create something new, something originally Astrid – and, apparently, had succeeded. Only that her friends were rather spitting it back out on their plates than praising her cooking skills. The only one who at least tried and gulped down a few spoonfuls was Hiccup, and she loved him for it, despite the following teasing she had to endure.

Astrid [11:55am]: Shut up, Hiccup. I'm trying to study here.

Hiccup [11:55am]: how's that going

Hiccup [11:56am]: have you even eaten anything yet

Astrid sighed. At his mention of stew, her stomach had growled viciously. Aside from half a croissant early in the morning, she'd had nothing to eat yet. She'd been so absorbed in studying that she hadn't even noticed her parents leaving for their shopping day. Just one more chapter, she told herself while reopening her textbook, then she'd look for something to eat in the kitchen.

She put her phone away, not giving Hiccup the chance to further tease her on the subject of food. She would never admit this to him, but he was right. Astrid didn't know how to cook, no matter how many cookbooks and articles she read, no matter how often she tried even the simplest meals. She was a lost cause. This was the reason why her motivation to look for something edible wasn't necessarily high. She knew for sure there were no leftovers, and the fridge was likely mostly empty anyway; her parents would buy groceries at the end of their day at the mall.

Forcing herself back to her textbook, she pushed the notion of food to the back of her mind. Soon she was buried deep in her notes, trying desperately to press new information into her brain. When she stared at an equation and the numbers and symbols started dancing all over the page, she groaned in frustration. She needed to know this stuff by next Friday, and there was still so much more to revise.

She got up and went to the bathroom, filling the sink with cold water which she then dunked her head in several times. But it was of no use, it wasn't ice water, of course this wouldn't work. The only thing it did was to make her aware of how thirsty she was. While towel-drying her hair, she trudged down the stairs to grab herself a bottle of water. A quick check of the fridge confirmed her suspicion that there was basically no real food in this house. She found a few crackers in the cupboard and resigned herself to her dry excuse of a lunch when she heard the bell ring.

Bag of crackers in hand, she went to open the door and was greeted by a pair of familiar green eyes and a lopsided smile.

"Hey," Hiccup said. His hair was as tousled as always and she noticed he was wearing an old green sweater that he only dug out on lazy weekends. Astrid didn't have to ask if he had opened a textbook at all today.

"Hiccup, you're smart," she said in lieu of a greeting. "How do I restart my brain?"

Following her into the house and stealing a few of her crackers, which earned him a ferocious glare, he shrugged. "That's exactly why I'm here." He threw a cracker in his mouth and nearly missed. "I read the smoke signals."

Astrid gave him a punch on the arm. "That's for wasting my last food ration. Now I'm going to starve!"

Rubbing his arm, he motioned his head toward his car that was parked outside. "Then let's go get some food."

She crossed her arms, empty bag crinkling in her hand. "I can't. I have to study."

"We both know you're not going to come far like this. Come on, I know you need a break."

Astrid sighed. They both knew he was right.

"And something to eat," he added when her stomach chimed in on the discussion. "See? Now let's go before you kill and eat me too."

Astrid bit her lip. She knew he wasn't going to drop this. And a short break from studying could surely recharge her concentration.

"Alright," she gave in with a sigh and put the bag in the trash, grabbed her jacket and followed Hiccup back outside. "But I lied, I didn't cook my parents. They're out shopping."

"In that case, I'm even more scared, in such proximity with you when you've clearly not yet let out your daily dose of violence."

"It's not violence," she protested, "it's communication!"

"If it is, people should even be more afraid of you. You have some strong opinions."

Astrid grinned and shut the car door. "Hell yeah, I do."

"So communicate with me then," Hiccup said while turning onto the street. "What do you want to eat?"

"Anything that's not a dry cracker."

"Or stew."

She punched his arm lightly and he glared at her. "I'm driving here, you insane muttonhead."

"You're the muttonhead," she retorted brightly before plugging his stereo cable in her phone and selecting their special car playlist. The songs that made it in were a bunch of shared favorite songs, songs they listened to on longer car rides together, songs that had a special meaning to them, or songs that were some sort of inside joke between them. They referred to it as their car playlist, but Astrid thought of it only as her Hiccup playlist. Whenever she felt down, she listened to it, finding comfort in the memories it held and the promise of their friendship that came with it.

While the music blasted through the speakers, Hiccup hummed along.

"How did you know?" Astrid asked as he turned onto the main road.

"Hm?"

"That I needed a break from studying."

Hiccup glanced at her before turning his eyes back on the road. "Like I said, I read the smoke signals from your brain. I call it," he made a grand gesture with one arm, "Astrintuition."

"That's not a thing, you dork."

"It is now, I just named it."

Astrid looked out the window to hide her smile. Of course he knew. He knew that she would spend her entire weekend preparing for finals and that she'd prioritize that over everything else. That's why he decided to come by and make sure she ate something and still saw the sun. A fond feeling spread in her chest.

They ended up at Pizza Hut where they shared their favorite pizza, a Cheesy Crust Chicken Supreme. Hiccup watched in awe as she devoured slice after slice and when he exclaimed that he was stuffed, she ate the rest of his half too. She might not look like it, he thought, but that girl could rival his father when it came to eating. Astrid was so busy with her pizza that she missed the affectionate look he gave her.

On the way back to her place, the sun came out. It hit Hiccup's hair at just the right angle to create a fiery halo around his head. Astrid rolled down her window to enjoy the warm breeze.

When their playlist jumped to a loud and fast song, Hiccup amped up the volume. He and Astrid automatically started duetting, jerking their heads along to the fast parts and swaying in sync to the slower ones. It had taken them a lot of tries to finally get all the lyrics right in the proper pace, and even now one of them sometimes fell out, provoking a snort from the other while they spluttered to jump back in.

Astrid loved moments like these. It was her and Hiccup, a team, enjoying each other's presence. When the song faded out, their last chuckle dying down with it, she propped up her elbow and leaned her head on her hand. She closed her eyes, felt the wind in her hair, on her skin. She smiled when she recognized the next song, her favorite from three summers ago. Silently mouthing the lyrics along, she got struck by a feeling of utter contentment, accompanied by a swelling in her chest while familiar, memory-laden streets around her where dipped in sunlight.

Forget about the trouble
Forget about the drama
Cause I ain't Casanova
Baby I can dance for days
This time with you
Is just amazing in so many ways

She looked over at Hiccup who slightly bobbed his head to the music, his eyes on the road, a small smile gracing his features, the sunlight dancing in his hair. She couldn't stop looking at him. It was as if she was suddenly seeing him with new eyes. She felt a swoop in her stomach. In the light, she could make out slight stubble on his chin. His fringe and thick eyebrows cast shadows over his face. She had never really noticed how handsome he was.

Feeling a blush heat up her cheeks, she averted her eyes. Well, this is new, she thought.

For the rest of the day, she couldn't really concentrate on anything and fell asleep much later than usual, confusion and strange new revelations keeping her awake until early in the morning.

From then on, she noticed the little things. The small touches that were suddenly too much, the glances, the dragged-out goodbyes, the increasing frequency of hugs that tended to linger a moment too long. She wondered why she had never noticed how green his eyes were, how much taller than her he had grown, or how broad his shoulders had become only in the last year.

Every day, she noticed it, noticed him more. And it only got worse over time.

When he looked at her, her heart skipped a beat or two. He invaded her thoughts regularly and often in the most inconvenient moments, like when she wanted to sleep or needed to pay attention during class. Astrid was in no way a sappy romantic. But every time the topic of love or romance was brought up even in the slightest, her mind wandered to Hiccup, much to her chagrin. They were friends. She didn't want to ruin that with sudden, stupid feelings.

Eventually, she came to admit to herself that she had a crush on him (just a small one really, no big deal). It was when her grandmother asked for a nice photo of her and Astrid sorted through her pictures on her laptop. After an hour or so she suddenly noticed she had moved from looking at pictures of herself to staring at pictures of Hiccup instead.

It took her a while to come to terms with it, before she tried to block it out and hoped it went away on its own. When that didn't work, she changed tactics. Going out with someone else would certainly help her forget about her crush. But whenever she tried to find a guy she'd go on a date with, the qualities she looked for in them were traits she associated with Hiccup. In comparison to him, everyone else quickly faded into the background.

By the time she gave up changing targets, she could no longer deny to herself that this crush was indeed not small at all. And her plan to not tell anyone so that it couldn't become a bigger deal than it was – and it really was a big deal – failed spectacularly when Heather caught her staring at Hiccup from afar and asked her if she ever noticed how she wouldn't shut up about him. Astrid tried denying it at first, but there was no fooling Heather.

"Hiccup this, Hiccup that. Astrid, you couldn't be more obvious."

Sometimes, though, Astrid was glad that Heather knew. She would do her all kinds of little favors, like "accidentally" forgetting something in her locker when the three of them were on their way to class, saving Hiccup a seat that happened to be right next to Astrid, or cancelling at the last minute when they decided to go to the movies so Astrid and Hiccup were to themselves. Although Astrid loved her for doing that, it didn't help her frustration about her one-sided crush.

Heather, however, had a different opinion. She believed that Hiccup had feelings for her, too, based on the way he acted around Astrid. Despite her hopes that her friend was right, Astrid nevertheless argued that Hiccup had always been like that since the beginning of their friendship; Heather just hadn't been there to see it since she'd come to their school later. Besides, Hiccup was the one always stressing that they were friends (best friends, but still just friends). Heather would just look at her like she was missing something obvious.

Time went on like this, with Heather always trying to nudge Hiccup and Astrid in the right direction and telling her to just talk to him or make a move herself. And it's not like Astrid didn't try. She gave Hiccup signals all the time, like shuffling closer and leaning against him while they were watching a movie, dropping comments here and there about the two of them together, touching him on the arm or chest or hand whenever she got the chance to – not that she minded at all – and even going out for ice cream on Valentine's Day. But either he didn't notice the signs, like the dork that he was, or he read them wrong. And there was still the possibility that he wasn't into her at all – a notion Astrid hated but had to admit could be true.

Her frustration got especially bad when prom rolled around. While she normally wouldn't even think twice about the ridiculous need to find a prom date that other girls seemed to have, a part of her still hoped Hiccup would ask her while she tried to work up the nerve to ask him herself. But whenever she opened her mouth to bring up the topic, she chickened out. If she asked him and he said no, she didn't want that to affect their friendship, didn't want to jeopardize whatever it was that made their whole dynamic so easy and comfortable. And it wasn't like she needed a prom date to have a good time with him, anyway.

She kept going back and forth with her reasonings, caught between her idea of simply having fun with her friends without conforming to high school society norms, and the inevitable pull Hiccup had on her, creating her desire to be close to him, closer than she was now. And she just couldn't find a solution.

Astrid was sitting in the cafeteria, picking at her vegetables, while she glared daggers at the girl who was currently talking to Hiccup on the other side of the room. The girl was tall, blonde and pretty, and she had her hand on his arm while she threw her hair back laughing at something he said.

"I know cafeteria food is awful, but even those peas don't deserve what you're doing to them," Heather said next to her, watching as her friend tortured squashy peas and radiated jealousy like a miniature Chernobyl. When Astrid only grunted in response, Heather sighed. "Just ask him already. I don't know how much longer I can take this unnecessary pining." She snorted. "Or Snotlout."

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Don't remind me." She'd been asked to prom nine times by now, eight of those by Snotlout (the other one by an overachieving freshman named Gustav).

She cut into her steak, pretending she wasn't secretly watching Hiccup and that girl. Her plate made a horrible sound when she got through the steak and ran her knife over the cheap china. She and Heather cringed at the bloodcurdling noise and Astrid mumbled an apology.

When she looked up the next time, that girl was gone. Hiccup came towards their table with his food tray and sat down opposite them.

"That's the fifth time this week that I've been asked to prom," he said. "Is there some kind of prank going on?"

Astrid scowled. She only knew about three. "If there is, I'm going to kill the person responsible," she mumbled and chewed on her steak. Hiccup frowned at her sour mood but didn't comment on it.

"Hiccup, do you even know how popular you are?" Heather asked him. "And you're an eyecatcher. Girls notice you." Hiccup looked at her as if she'd grown a second head. "It's true, just ask Astrid."

Astrid almost choked on her (awful) steak and felt Hiccup's eyes burning through the side of her face. "Yeah well, kind of," she stammered, fighting the blush growing on her cheeks while she avoided his gaze, "I mean, everyone gets more handsome when they grow up, not specifically you, but everyone, you know, which doesn't mean that you didn't, I mean… You're fine, I guess." She shrugged and stuffed half her steak into her mouth so that she couldn't start rambling again like that.

"What Astrid's trying to say here is that I'm right."

A quick glance told Astrid that Hiccup was still frowning at her weird behavior. "Are you alright?"

She gave him a strained smile and swallowed the ball of dry meat in her mouth. "I'm fine." He didn't seem convinced but didn't question her further either. Instead, he went back to complaining.

"I just can't catch a break from turning down prom invitations. Which I most certainly never thought I'd ever even have to do in the first place."

Heather took from that that he'd immediately said no to all of them. A smile grew on her face as an idea crossed her mind. This was a perfect opportunity.

"Hey, why don't you guys go together?" she asked, looking back and forth between Astrid and Hiccup. Both of them simultaneously started to protest.

"It's not like that."

"We're not… It's not…"

"We don't date."

"Yeah, that'd be weird, because we're just–"

"We're just friends."

"Yes, exactly."

They were both blushing pretty hard, avoiding each other's gazes. Heather rolled her eyes.

"Then just go as friends. That means you," she pointed at Hiccup, "will be left alone by all those girls, and you," she pointed at Astrid, "will get Snotlout off your back."

Astrid pondered that for a moment and came to the conclusion that she liked that thought. She and Hiccup shared a look.

"Alright," he said and gave her a lopsided smile. "Wanna go to prom?"

She tried not to break into a wide smile while she felt the familiar tingle in her stomach. "Sure," she shrugged and went back to eating her cafeteria food which suddenly didn't taste so bad anymore. Hiccup did the same, suppressing a grin himself. Heather just shook her head at them and sighed. Hopeless dorks.

A/N: If anyone cares, for the song they're duetting to in the car I had System of a Down's "Chop Suey" in mind and the one after that, the one I quoted, is "Sway" by Blue October.

(The other two parts still need some editing, but they're gonna be up very soon.)