A/N: Hiiii... so this is out early than last time, yay! Also, I think it's a bit longer than last time as well. It would've been out earlier, but I was in Germany for the month and didn't have a chance to write. Thanks so much for all the congratulations- this has been a dream come true.I feel incredibly blessed to have been given this chance! Also, thanks for being patient with me with uploads and typos, I really appreciate it! Here's chapter 5!

Fishlegs sighed in ecstasy as he and Hiccup closed the apartment door behind them.

'Tonight,' Fishlegs declared as he bent over with difficulty and tried to tug off his thick boots. 'Was the fourth greatest night of my life.'

Hiccup, who had followed in behind him, rolled his eyes but didn't need to ask what the first three greatest-nights-of-his-life were. He knew they were the night he found out he was accepted into MIT, the night he graduated from MIT, and the night he met Leonard Nimoy at ComiCon, not necessarily in that order. Hiccup had to admit, tonight had been pretty awesome. The movie lived up to his expectation, and he got quite a bit of attention (from fellow nerds, and not girls) about his Hobbit costume.

He also might have gotten a few tears in his eyes when the line of Durin ended, he wasn't ashamed to admit it.

Toothless appeared and gave a demanding meow as he hopped onto the arm of the couch. Hiccup patted him distractedly as he walked by, ignoring the indignant yowl as he continued towards the kitchen.

'Hey, Hiccup!' Fishlegs called out. 'Bring me an ale!'

There was no response from the kitchen for a moment and Fishlegs rubbed his fake beard, a habit he'd gotten into in the several hours he'd acquired it. He really loved this beard. He hoped his real one would come in as splendidly. Just as he was about to call out again, Hiccup appeared, a soda in one hand and a can of cheap ale in the other. 'I know, I know,' Hiccup muttered. 'What did you think I was doing?'

Fishlegs took the ale gratefully as Hiccup plopped himself on the sofa with a huff. He dropped his head back, letting out a long sigh of exhaustion. There was a tugging on his foot, and he looked down to see Toothless stubbornly gnawing on the fake hair plastered to his one good appendage. 'You're horrible,' He told the cat. Toothless didn't acknowledge him.

Fishlegs took a big swig of his ale and let out a deep groan of satisfaction. 'Now I just need to sleep.'

'Do it at your own house,' Hiccup grumbled. 'Gobber gave me the next two days off and I don't need you waking me up at six in the morning while you get ready for work.'

Fishlegs only shrugged, possibly because he knew Hiccup had a point, but more likely because he wanted to see his bulldog, Meatlug, and tell her all about his evening while he doted on her. The two fell into friendly silence as Hiccup sipped his soda (he was the first to admit he couldn't hold his liquor, and he was not in the mood for a hangover the next morning, thank you very much) while Fishlegs downed the rest of the ale.

'I'll just have another one and then I'll go,' Fishlegs said getting up and ambling towards the kitchen.

'Oh, no you don't!' Hiccup spluttered. 'It's three in the morning and you're tired, and besides, friends, don't let friends drink and drive.'

Fishlegs reappeared in the entrance to his living room, another can of ale already opened in his hand. 'Aw, c'mon Hiccup it's just one more. And it's already open!'

'Nope!' Hiccup heaved himself off of the couch and limped over to where Fishlegs was pouting. He tugged the can from his friend's grip—his lack of struggle only emphasised how tired he really was—and set it down on the counter. 'Let's go, Fish. You're exhausted and you have to work early, plus you still have to take off that costume when you get home. Get out of here.'

Fishlegs let himself be shoved off without further complaint. A brief tussle at the door, where Fish tried to convince Toothless to distract Hiccup and Toothless almost happily complied, ended with an exasperated Hiccup slamming the door in his friend's face, a fond grin still on his face.

Hiccup passed a hand over his face, green eyes meeting green as he stared his cat down. 'I'm going to bed now, bud.' He began forcefully. 'Don't wake me up tomorrow, okay? It's my day off and I'm tired. Or I'll put you up for adoption. I mean it this time.'

Toothless licked his paw dismissively.

The next day, Hiccup mumbled and blinked the sleep from his eyes. The sun was peering through his blinds, warming the blankets he'd tossed off during the night, and he reached his arms over his head in a stretch that made him release a groan. What a nice way to wake up. No alarm, no daunting schedule, no classes, and no—

Wait.

No Toothless?

Hiccup's eyes shot open in shock. Sure, he had said not to wake him up, but Toothless literally could not care less what he said—if he was hungry, Hiccup would be getting a face-full of fur no matter what. This could only mean a bad thing.

Hiccup scrambled out of his bed and for the first time in a very, very long time, tumbled to the floor after forgetting to attach his foot. 'Ow.' He mumbled into the carpet. Stupid cat.

After safely attaching his prosthetic and getting up off the floor, he rushed into the living room and found it… strangely clean. Nothing out of place, no garbage strewn all over the floor only the empty can of soda he'd been too lazy and tired to throw away last night.

Suspicious, he took cautious steps back up the hall, peering into the kitchen. He flicked the light on. And there was his cat, in all his furry black glory, sprawled on his back in the middle of the kitchen floor. When the light came on, Toothless let out a low wail and writhed in distress.

'Toothless,' Hiccup sing-songed. 'What's the matter, bud?' The cat let out another yowl. Hiccup crouched next to the animal and pet him gently, then leapt back as Toothless hissed. It didn't really hold any aggression, of course. But it surprised him.

'What…' Hiccup suddenly noticed the can lying on the floor underneath the edge of the sink, and he leaned forward slightly to tap it out. He was quiet for a moment, staring at the label on the can. Then he erupted into laughter.

'Oh my gods!' He cackled. 'Oh my… Toothless.' He fell onto his butt, off balance and continued to guffaw. Toothless let out a pleading meow. 'Oh gods. Oh gods. I can't. You're the worst, Toothless. I can't breathe.'

A hiss came from the cat's general direction as Hiccup clutched at the stitch in his stomach, eyes prickling with tears. 'A h-hung-over cat. I never thought I'd see this. This is great.' His laughter doubled.

After several minutes, in which Toothless seemed to grow even more distressed and Hiccup continued to chortle the words, 'hung-over', 'unbelievable', and 'oh gods', his laughter finally slowed and he wiped the tears from his eyes. 'I'm sorry, bud. But this is what you get. I told you not to knock over stuff from the counter, but do you listen?' Toothless only peered at him with his big, green eyes, even bigger in unconcealed agony. 'Fine. I'll turn the light off.'

He grabbed the edge of the counter and tugged himself up off the floor. Once he had flicked the switch to off, he turned and faced his cat. 'So… how do I deal with this, exactly.'

Toothless mewled piteously.

Hiccup eyed his sickly pet in appraisal and seemed to reach a decision. 'I don't need you dying on me,' He decided, masking the concern in his voice with nonchalance, as he knew would offend his cat. More than anything, Toothless loved being the centre of attention. 'I just paid your pet deposit.'

An indignant yowl told him he did the job. Hiccup grinned and trotted out of the kitchen to change. Toothless needed a check up anyways, and what better way to kill two birds with one stone on his day off? To the vet's office it was.

Twenty minutes later, Hiccup and Toothless were in the car, Toothless in a crate for the first time in his spoiled-rotten life with Hiccup. The cat was displeased, but his irate meows were punctuated with pathetic howls of distress—Hiccup had imagined if the cat was as nauseous as he felt during a hangover, the crate would be the best idea.

Of course, his cat wouldn't be able to handle his alcohol either. Sometimes it frightened Hiccup how alike he and Toothless were. Especially since Toothless could be such a little shit sometimes.

While he waited in the vet's office for his name to be called out, his phone rang, the Dragon Age theme song blasting through the room. Toothless yowled again as he picked it up quickly.

'Hiccup! Guess what?'

'You captured a new Pokémon?'

'Yes, actually, I did! It's a ghost type—wait no, that's not what I'm talking about.'

Hiccup rolled his eyes fondly. 'What's up?'

'One of the guys at work loved the pictured of the prosthetics you made for the costumes last night, and he was wondering if you could make him some ears!'

'Fish…'

'He's cosplaying as Link next week and he doesn't want to have to buy some stupid costume ears that won't even look real! You should see him Hiccup, he looks just like Link, a good pair of ears would sell the costume completely.'

'Fish, you can't just offer me up to people at work whenever you feel like it,' Hiccup complained in exasperation.

'Well, I know that, it's just he's a really cool guy and I wanna do something nice for him, and I—'

'He offered you a spot in his League raid group, didn't he?'

The groan from the other end of the line made him grin. 'Gods, yes, Hiccup please, I've been trying to get into this raid for months just do this for me and—'

'Yeah, yeah,' Hiccup chuckled dismissively as one of the vet's waved at him from the door to the back. He picked up Toothless' crate, ignoring the mrow of annoyance, and followed the vet through the hall. 'You owe me. I'm gonna need to get more liquid latex for it.'

'I'll pay you back! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Hiccup, you're the best friend ever, you just gained at least 500 in my stats book—'

Hiccup laughed. 'Okay, thanks. Listen I gotta go. Something hilarious happened, but I don't have time to tell you now.' Hiccup wondered how Fishlegs was going to react to the fact that his abandoned can of ale was responsible for getting his cat drunk last night. He hoped he'd laugh as hard as Hiccup did.

The vet seemed to find Toothless' predicament amusing, though it was probably because she'd known Hiccup for years and understood that he took excellent care of his pet. It wasn't his fault that Toothless was a horrible excuse for a cat.

'Just give him plenty of water and let him sleep it off,' She advised, stroking the cat's back. Toothless would normally purr, but it appeared purring would be far too painful for him to manage at the moment. 'Cat-hangovers, while uncommon, are much like human ones. He just needs time to recover.'

Hiccup started to laugh again at the sheer ridiculousness of it all, and the vet joined in. Toothless did not seem to be amused.

After a quick check up, the vet gave him some more flea and tick medicine for Toothless and told him he was free to go. Hiccup thanked her and picked up his cat, peering into his eyes in careful scrutiny. 'How you feelin', bud? Still too sick to ride outside of the crate?'

Toothless meowed indignantly, but Hiccup knew his cat and recognised the expression on his face, so he just laughed and put him back in the crate (after a small struggle of course. Never let it be said that Toothless allows hangovers to make him submissive).

Hiccup paid the bill, waved goodbye to the staff ('See you later, Hiccup!'; 'Feel better, Toothless!'; 'Whatever you do, Toothless, don't try the vodka!') set the crate in the passenger seat, and started his car. The last comment from one of the nurses had him in stitches again, and it took him a moment to get the car moving.

He hummed pleasantly to himself as he weaved the car through the late morning traffic of the city. Now he hoped to go home, watch some more Merlin, and maybe curl up with Toothless after he was feeling better. He didn't want to be startled with cat-vomit after all. Then he might get started on Fishlegs' friend's cosplay ears, and—

Oh, yeah.

He was almost out of liquid latex. Fishlegs' thick hand prosthetics had almost wiped him out, and he couldn't be sure how many attempts Link's ears would take. He looked up at the street sign of the stoplight he was at and sighed. He was about five minutes away from the only store he knew of. He might as well.

Putting his signal on, Hiccup turned when the light became green and started driving towards the adult store. In and out, he assured himself. I'll be in and out and then I'll never go back again.

He made it all the way into the parking lot and turned off the car before the thought occurred to him—what if she was there?

He thought of the pretty smile and scary blue eyes and cringed. Oh no. She'd probably wonder what he was doing there again so soon. She might think he was had a really active, and maybe kinky sex life. She'd definitely wonder how a nerd like him could be getting it.

Or…he thought with dread. She'd realise a nerd like him didn't have a girlfriend and think he was doing stuff on his own? Or maybe she'd think he was gay.

'Stop it!' Hiccup commanded himself out loud, sweat beading on his brow as he licked his lips nervously. He was totally psyching himself out. She sold stuff to tons of people every day, he reminded himself, stepping out of the car and closing the door. She probably didn't care, or, more likely, didn't remember.

He ambled up to the door and, taking a preparatory deep breath, shoved open the door, wincing when the little bell rang. He looked around immediately, but there was no sign of a blonde braid or piercing eyes, and he visibly relaxed. He could do this. He could totally do this.

He walked over to the shelf he remembered seeing the latex on, and scanned it for the one he was looking for. Aha. One hand was reaching up for the jar, a smaller size, considering he still had a bit in the previous jar, when a voice behind him said, 'Back again already?'

Hiccup swore and jumped in a mixture of terror and embarrassment, his outstretched hand hitting into two of the latex bottles and knocking them off the shelf. He quickly tried to stop their fall, but only succeeded in fumbling them as they fell to the floor. Fortunately, nothing broke and he stood there or a moment, red-faced, staring at them glaring up from the floor, before turning to face the voice with the air of a man going to the gallows.

'A-Astrid.' He squeaked.

Astrid raised a brow and seemed to fight a smile, opting to pretend to glare at him instead. 'You're a real klutz, aren't you?'

Hiccup's hand immediately went to the back of his neck. 'I—ah—yeah. I am. Sorry.' He offered her an apologetic smile, and Astrid's gaze softened. (She honestly couldn't help it—it was a cute crooked grin that simply screamed 'I'm an adorable lost puppy, please forgive me!' and besides, Astrid was never really angry. Not that she'd let him know. Either of those things).

'I'll get it later,' she waved his apology off, but he was already bending over to pick up the fallen jars. Once they were in his hands, he lifted them back on the shelf and turned to Astrid again, another apology on his lips, but he trailed off when he noticed her distracted expression. 'Um… is everything okay?'

Astrid seem to be startled back into reality and she frowned, a light dusting of pink covering her cheeks. Hiccup, very confused but still not-so-mildly humiliated, said nothing, only grabbed the jar he had originally been reaching or and blinking sheepishly.

'I'm just going to…' He motioned awkwardly, and Astrid seemed to realise she was still behind him and obstructing the path to the cash register. She quickly turned and power walked to her position behind the counter, Hiccup left to follow in her wake.

Hiccup was replaying the disastrous accident again and again in his head, and barely noticed when Astrid spoke to him. 'Uh, sorry?'

Astrid smirked as he blushed again. IF this kept going he would permanently become the shade of a ripe tomato. That or his head would explode. 'I said, did you and your cat enjoy your Chinese the other night? He seemed excited to get it, after all.'

Hiccup snorted, remembering his horror at the way Astrid went flying to the ground, Styrofoam containers of fried rice and noodles flying everywhere. 'He was more excited to make my life miserable than he was for the actual food. It was for me and a friend anyways. Toothless isn't allowed to eat Chinese, it makes him gassy, but I honestly think Fishlegs gave him some anyways 'cause I couldn't sleep next to him for days.' After he finished he realised he had probably given way too much information and he felt himself redden in mortification. Oh my gods.

To his relief, Astrid started laughing. 'Oh gods,' She snickered. 'That sounds like my dog. It's how she gets with Indian food. But she loves it it anyways. It's terrible, I think she does it on purpose.'

Hiccup chuckled too. He could totally relate. 'No kidding,' He suddenly bit back a huge grin. 'You know where I was just now?'

Astrid raised a brow. She seemed to do that a lot. It was kind of sexy, to be honest. 'Where?'

'The vet's.' Hiccup answered solemnly, fighting to keep a serious expression on his face. He thought it was just so freaking funny. Astrid looked mildly confused at this piece of information, eyebrows knitting together, before Hiccup continued. 'Toothless had a killer hangover this morning.'

'What?' What her startled response.

Hiccup felt himself about to start laughing again. 'Toothless decided he'd have a one-man party and drink a full can of ale that was left on the counter. Poor bud's a lightweight.' Hiccup didn't mention that he was too. He didn't think it was that important.

Astrid snorted and covered her mouth him her hands. 'I-I'm sorry. This isn't—' Her apologies faded as she dissolved into laughter again. 'I'm just imagining that cat stumbling around all drunk at then waking up the next morning and not knowing what happened, and I just-' More laughter.

Hiccup cracked up at her face facial expression. 'He was so offended when I started laughing, but I couldn't help it.' They both giggled at the the image of the disgruntled cat. Suddenly Hiccup remembered that said cat, was still in the car and probably none too pleased to be left out in the cold. 'I'd better get back to him,' he said, with more calm, though he was still grinning. 'He'll be mad if I don't get him home, and he needs to hydrate.'

Astrid let her laughter fade. 'Yeah, sorry, I'll get this for you.' She quickly scanned the jar of latex and put it in the logo-less black bag for him. Hiccup turned slightly pink again, remember where he was exactly, but hey, it was for a totally innocent purpose, right? Not that she knew that of course. But she didn't really care.

Astrid handed him the bag and he took it with a small, sheepish grin. 'Um… see you later, I guess.' He stuttered, suddenly losing the confidence he had gained while talking to her about Toothless. She couldn't help but smile at his awkwardness.

'See you later,' she responded, laughter in her voice. He stumbled back, waving good-bye. And narrowly missing the gods-forsaken dildo stand right behind the counter.

Once he was safely outside, he took a deep breath of frigid air. Wow. Okay. He made it without destroying anything, and only mildly embarrassing himself. Actually, it could have been worse, but she seemed to think it was funny, and not in a stupid way. All in all, he was kind of proud of himself.

Once in his car, Toothless fixed him with a glare and Hiccup sighed. 'Alright, alright. We're going home. Sorry.'

He began the drive home, thinking that even though he was overwhelmingly relieved, part of him couldn't help but feel disappointed he'd probably never need to go back to the store—and consequently see Astrid—again.

A/N: Ahhh... another uneventful chapter. Don't worry I'm leading in. I hate to rush things after all. Also, they all seem to have a mind of their own and won't do what I want, which makes it difficult to follow any sort of plot, so now I'm just shooting free. I do wish I had more time to make the chapters longer. Maybe next time :) In other news, have you guys seen 'Haikyuu!'? Oh my gosh, I'm hooked on this anime. I'm obsessed, it;s so bad, ugh. It's about volleyball, soooo... you can imagine.

Anywho, I'll see you guys next time. I'll get the next chapter out before school starts, promise.

Review for faster chapters, I swear to you it motivates me like nothing else.

Hugs and cookies,

-VolleyballGoddess