Hiccup was not cheering inwardly. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

He wasn't.

Really.

That would be cheesy and ridiculous and lame, and he wasn't any of those things. Not really. Ahem. Anyways, he wasn't so excited he had to tap on the steering wheel because the only alternative to getting the stirring need to move out would be to yell. Loudly.

Even if he was, he was too happy to really worry about anything but the ache in his cheeks from smiling.

Like I said, not cheesy.

He really did have other things to worry about, though, and Astrid brought down his cloud by reminding him in a swift move to assumably crush his spirit. He made the thought known with a glare that ended up looking more like a toddler's pouting.

"If I was trying to crush your spirit, I wouldn't agree to go out with you." She scoffed, blunt as ever. Hiccup still frowned.

"I'm, like, 80% sure I can get above average." He informed her haughtily, pursing his lips.

"Sure, if you stop, like, using the word like wrong, like, seriously, man." She snickered when he rolled his eyes dramatically.

They bickered lightheartedly until they reached campus and Hiccup shied when the twins were already there with matching wicked grins.

Taylor punched him in the arm, claiming, "I totally knew it, man."

"I assume we don't have to tell you who's going to beat you up if you make her cry," Ray leaned against Astrid. "It's her, she will beat you up."

"Same goes for you, young lady." Taylor nodded, feigning complete seriousness. "Hiccup isn't really big enough to fend for himself-"

"Hey!"

"But we will be forced to take drastic measures if you upset him. He's delicate, you know." the blond whispered loudly as if Hiccup couldn't hear him. The trainer sulked.

"I'll be careful," Astrid assured him with a poorly hidden grin. She held her boyfriend(?)'s arm and tugged him along to their first class. "Come on, now, they're going to keep teasing until we leave."

"Don't think it'll stop then!" The twins chorused before heading to their own lectures.

Hiccup managed to not stare at and/or think about Astrid his first three classes, with varying degrees of success.

When Ray and Astrid met him in the library before his English class he was completely jittery, and had been for the past half hour.

"Chill," Ray commanded simply, as if his problems could all be solved if she said so.

"Thanks, I'm miraculously completely better now." He snapped.

"You're welcome." She returned, smirking at his apologetic look.

"You still have twenty minute's free time, right?" Astrid pointed out. "Just, um, try to calm your nerves." she pushed her tea towards him. "Talk about something to get your mind off it."

Hiccup stared at her offering of a drink before sipping it. "Yeah, but... what?"

"What does your dad do that he's so determined you inherent, or whatever?" Ray offered, and Hiccup blanched. Astrid gave her a look.

"I, uh, is that supposed to take my mind off... um, itself?" he stared at the table in front of him with a look like he was trying to do long division in his head. When Ray stared at him in a way he knew meant she wouldn't drop the subject, he sighed. "He's, uh... the director?"

"Of?"

"A school?"

"Which school?"

"This... one?"

Ray grinned widely and Astrid looked incredulous. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because I didn't really think I ever needed to." He shrugged.

"Is that even a job you can just pass on to your kid? What courses do you take for something like that?"

"A lot of them."

The girl snorted. "Are you serious, though?" she asked again, this time rhetorically. "You have to be the main character of something, your life is so... unreal."

"Yeah." He agreed.

Ray finally went silent, having run out of questions, and sipped her own warm drink as Astrid stole her tea back from Hiccup.

The trio sat in fairly comfortable silence for all of five minutes.

"So, I never really got the scoop, since Astrid whisked you away," Ray winked at the brunette across from her. "Are you guys, like, dating?"

The boy squinted thoughtfully. "Something like that? Maybe? I mean, I guess I haven't really been in an actual relationship before, so I don't exactly know how this works?" he gestured to himself and Astrid, who laughed.

Both girls looked at him like he was five and had just said something innocently adorable – which, in all honestly, he really was, and he really had. He nervously watched their expressions as they reigned in their emotions.

Astrid was the first to regain the ability to speak. "If you're okay with it, I think it's okay to say we're dating." her voice only cracked a little.

"Right, cool." he grinned. The clock above the librarian's desk read that he only had five minutes of free time left, and he shifted uncomfortably at the thought.

Ray followed his gaze to the clock and smirked. "Wow, it's almost time for you to get going, huh?"

He nodded.

She beckoned for Astrid so she could whisper in her ear and the blonde leaned across the table. "Ray!" Astrid exclaimed as she sat back down, cheeks flushed.

"What?" Hiccup furrowed his brow.

"What?" Ray echoed, smiling innocently. "It'll work, I swear. I've tested it myself. On Fisher."

The other girl rolled her eyes, but didn't look completely unconvinced.

"What's happening, what's wrong?" the boy frowned, but Astrid shook her head.

"It's nothing, you should probably get to your class." She stood, and he did too.

"Right, fun. Class."

"Uh, just... do your best." She muttered before swiftly kissing his cheek.

Hiccup stared at her for a second, bewildered, then a mischievous smile played on his lips. He pressed his lips against Astrid's quickly and pulled back with a delighted grin. "I'll try." he promised, green eyes twinkling.

Before she could respond, he was practically skipping away.

XxX

Hiccup chewed the inside of his cheek as he stepped out of the classroom, letting out a long breath.

That part was done.

The exams would be graded the next day, but it would be a Saturday, so he wouldn't actually see them for three whole days.

Hiccup groaned inwardly at the thought, dragging his backpack behind him as he proceeded to his next class.

XxX

Everyone in Hiccup's circle of friends (and the phrase seriously delighted him, he'd never had a circle of friends before) managed quite well to keep his mind of the exams over the weekend.

They ended up going to a water park - a trip was sponsored by Rayya and Taylor - and to a fair that had come into town, and between screaming himself hoarse on twisty water slides and his brain being plagued with, "Oh, God, she's holding my hand we're holding hands this is actually happening I'm dating Astrid Hofferson what's going on?" he managed to distract himself quite well.

And then Monday rolled around.

The weekend had actually seemed quite long, it being the first in a long time the six of them had had so much fun, but it also ended much too soon.

Hiccup stood with four of his friends (Scott was insanely busy cramming everything in his textbook for his own exam, with the help of his recently appointed girlfriend) in front of the bulletin board that held his test scores. He definitely didn't want to look.

Fisher gave him a helpful nudge and he stumbled forward, finally letting his eyes travel down the page in search for 'Haddock, Harold'.

He found the name quickly and knit his eyebrows, pressing his lips together before turning to face his friends, who immediately looked downcast.

Suddenly, he couldn't keep the act up any longer and he broke into a grin, throwing his arms up. "I got an A!"

Taylor gave Ray a five dollar bill with a sigh, Fisher let out a whoop, and Astrid dashed towards him.

He met her in the middle and caught his girlfriend (okay, but he just had to use that word, you know?) as she flung her arms around him and squealed silently.

"You did it!" She gasped, before rolling her eyes and plainly adding, "I knew you would."

"Of course you did." Hiccup arched an eyebrow and she laughed.

"Of course I did."

Without much warning, she pressed her lips to his.

Since the invention of the kiss, dear readers, there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. There have been a couple who even surpass that. The one he shared with Astrid that day would have fallen, probably, into the top twenty at most, but he wouldn't trade it for any of the others.

XxX

Five Months Later:

"Hiccup!" a voice roared from next to him, and Hiccup turned with a sigh to face his father, who held a small Yorkie – who the man had dubbed "Thornado", as it was obviously fitting. That said, the dog was known to be able to bark until your ears bled. - in his lap. The dog was struggling to get away, to stumble over its own little legs to get to the black cat who groomed himself across the room.

Hiccup rolled his eyes and knelt in front of Thornado, who stopped squirming long enough to lick Hiccup's nose.

"It's fine, Dad, just let him go. If he works off his energy before we start, maybe he'll be tired enough to sit down and be good for the actual class.

"Pushover." His dad grumbled before releasing the dog, who propelled across the floor to play with his friend.

A sudden weight fell on his head, and he poked the newcomer before lighting up and turning around.

"Astrid!" He called excitedly to the girl walking towards him, his arms spread out. Then he pointed a stern finger at her. "Stop telling Stormfly to do that." He motioned up to the bird perched proudly on his head.

Astrid rolled her eyes and called Stormfly back, then sat down in the chair next to Stoick, who found the scene quite amusing.

"Hey! Stop it, Scott!" A yell came from the corridor, and all three turned to see four new people loudly entering, as well as a turtle, who carried a little Siamese kitten on her back.

Scott was trying to topple over Fisher, who was already stumbling slightly, Rayya having jumped on his back. Taylor just cheered and laughed from beside them.

Fang darted past Taylor, after Belch, and the blond toppled over.

"Guys!" Hiccup called, and they all looked up as he motioned to the empty chairs with a sweeping gesture. "Class?"

The others still took their sweet time, but eventually they all filed in to sit in the circle around Hiccup, who surveyed his students for a moment.

They looked at him expectantly from chairs that actually matched. In a room that had been fixed up generously by his father, who offered to pay for the work in exchange for lessons for the little stray he had found.

Hiccup pressed his lips together and sighed inaudibly, "So, today we have a new student..."

~END~

Woah so that chapter took a while, huh? Well, now I get to work on my next story! It's a Homestuck fanfic I'm kinda excited! Um, Stoick's name is still that cause I was gonna call him Stanley, but I kept thinking about that and giggling, and I couldn't finish properly.

I wanted to fit it in somewhere, but I couldn't figure out where, so, um... When Stoick found out Hiccup's girlfriend was Astrid Hofferson he told him, "Well, you better marry her, maybe she can take up the family business." Unfortunately for Hiccup, Astrid was in the room (her immediate response was "Hell yes.")

I named Hiccup 'Harold', cause, since his name is Horrendous, I just got Harry out of that, and you know, it went from there?