BEEP BEEP…

There was an annoying beeping sound ringing in her ears. She lifted her head off the pillow for just a moment before letting it fall back again. Her sleep-clogged mind told her that whatever was beeping could wait.

BEEP BEEP…

...But it certainly seemed persistent enough to have some sort of purpose. She felt as though she should have been doing something because of the beeping...what did it mean? Was she supposed to…

BEEP BEEP…

She bolted into a sitting position, finally realizing that the persistent, on-going beeping sound was her alarm clock trying to rouse her. She turned it off with one hand, rubbing her eyes with the other one. She finally looked at the clock, and her eyes widened. The blue, neon letters read 8:40.

She was late.

Really late.

"Oh, darn!" she shouted at herself, springing out of bed and hurrying to her closet. She picked a light blue t-shirt, grabbed a pair of jeans, and quickly changed. She brushed her blonde hair hurriedly before tying it in a high ponytail with a too-long piece of thick ribbon and racing downstairs, grabbing her shoes as she went.

She slipped her shoes over her feet while hopping down the stairs on the opposite foot, doing her best not to trip. She was not in the mood to fall down the stairs and break her neck. She was in no way in the mood for that.

Her phone buzzed, and she picked it up. Seventeen missed messages. All of them were from her friend, Ruffnut, most of them saying the same things: Hey, where are you? or We did agree on meeting today, right? or OMGOSH, WHERE ARE YOU!?

All the more recent ones were like the latter. She unlocked her phone and texted back hurriedly: Sorry, overslept. I'll be there in a few. Without waiting for a reply, she grabbed an apple for a make-shift breakfast and headed out the door.

It only took a few moments before she got her response.

Oh good grief, Astrid! I've been waiting for you for nearly an hour now! the message read when she took out her phone to read it.

Astrid groaned to herself, not bothering to reply as she ran to her garage, grabbed her bike, and rode towards her friend's house as fast as the two wheels of her bicycle could carry her.

She parked her bike messily as soon as she stopped in front of the Thorston residence. She ran up the door and gave it three hard knocks.

Ruffnut answered the door almost instantly. The girl was nineteen, her blonde hair in a braid down her back. She was wearing a white t-shirt with an unbuttoned jean jacket, with a pair of shortened jeans. She crossed her arms. "Well," she said, "look who finally decided to get up."

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Hey, I'm sorry," she said, although she wasn't being sincere about it. "It's summer, and I'm going to enjoy sleeping in while it lasts if it's all the same to you."

Now it was Ruffnut's turn to roll her eyes. "Yeah, I get it," she said. "When I was in school, I always slept in at every chance I got. But you know, Astrid." Ruffnut stepped outside, shutting the door behind her. "If you could let me know you're going to be late next time, then it would be fantastic, got it?"

Astrid nodded. "Yeah, got it," she said. "Are we going or not? You know, if we don't hurry, then there's going to be a line."

"Yeah, I figured that," Ruffnut said, "but of course, it's already been a long time, so there's already a line. I don't get it. It seems that every time a new ice cream store opens, the whole town just has to go to it on opening day. Seriously. I mean, it's not like it's going to be any different if they don't go the day it opens."

She and Astrid walked towards the garage, where Ruffnut unlocked her SUV and climbed into the driver side, motioning for Astrid to take shotgun. As soon as they were both seated and buckled in, Ruffnut turned the car on, and the two of them headed off.

"It would have been better if you had gotten to my place sooner," Ruffnut said as they drove, her eyes glued to the road. "It would have been loads better."

"Well, I was late, and there isn't anything we can do about it," Astrid said simply. "Not unless you have some sort of time machine."

Ruffnut laughed. "Oh please," she said. "I wish I had a time machine for many different reasons, not just to get you up sooner. So, how's baseball going?"

"Alright," Astrid said. "We won a game last week. You should have seen it. It was brilliant. One of the best games the Berkians have ever won."

"I'm sure it was, with you playing on their team," Ruffnut said. "I bet you scare the fire out of those catchers."

"Not really," Astrid said. "Well, maybe I do, when I'm up to bat, but I really don't know. All our team kinda does a great job of it."

"In my opinion," Ruffnut said, "for a sixteen year old, you play baseball really well. Probably one of the best players this town has ever seen, if you ask me. And I'm not just saying that to be nice."

"Of course you aren't," Astrid said. "Thanks, Ruff."

Ruffnut shrugged. They continued on in silence until they came to the new ice cream parlor. The line was backed up nearly two blocks down. Ruffnut made a face. "I'm sorry," she said, "but I don't think I want to stay in a line this long right in the middle of summer if it's all the same to you. How long would you say the wait would be? Two hours? Maybe three? I don't think it's worth it."

Astrid nodded. "We could come back later and see if it's any better," she offered.

"Fine by me," Ruffnut said, "because I am not standing in this line until it's way shorter." She turned around, and headed down a narrow, barely-used road. There were a lot of underused, old roads in their town to the point where there were more of those roads than perfectly good, paved, well-used ones. In all honesty, Astrid liked the old roads, just because they were out of the way, without any buildings near them or other cars driving to destroy the scenery.

"We can drive for a while until the line isn't so long," Ruffnut said, turning down another narrow road. The pavement was a greyish black with a few cracks in it, just proving how old it really was. "And then we - OH MY GOSH."

Before Astrid could ask what she meant or even look to find out, Ruffnut slammed her foot down on the brake pedal. Astrid choked herself against the shoulder harness of her seatbelt, but she couldn't even think about that.

There was a sound of screeching rubber against the asphalt, followed by a sickening CRASH of metal against metal. The sound of glass shattering met Astrid's ears, and she almost jumped out of her seat.

Their car came to a fleeting halt, just barely in front of two other cars that had collided, leading to the road being blocked. Ruffnut leaned back against her seat, breathing heavily. "OH MY GOSH," she shrieked. "DID YOU SEE THAT!? THEY SLAMMED INTO EACH OTHER!"

Astrid didn't see it, and she was partially glad that she hadn't. Ruffnut opened her door, unbuckled her seatbelt and ran out of the car, and Astrid did the same after little hesitation.

"Call 911," Ruffnut said. "I'm going to look and see if they're any survivors." Astrid nodded shakily, her heart pounding in her ears as Ruffnut raced forward to look at the first car; the one that had seemed to take more of a hit.

After calling the emergency number and talking to the recipient, answering her questions and telling her where they were, she hung up and looked back at Ruffnut as the older girl raced back towards her.

"The two in that car are alive," Ruffnut said simply, "but I still need to go check the other car. Stay with them in case they wake up, alright?"

Astrid had no choice but to nod as she stepped forward. It felt wrong, seeing the smashed vehicles and knowing that there were people in them who may not survive. Astrid shook her head. No, she couldn't think about that at the time. She had to focus on making sure that if they were awake, they didn't panic.

Because in honesty, if she woke up in a wrecked car, she would have been pretty panicky herself.

The woman in the driver seat had taken less of a hit. The only sign of real injury was the fact that she was unconscious, along with an ugly looking gash on her head. The bleeding wasn't dangerous, at least, and that was the important thing.

She looked at the passenger seat and gasped. He was a boy, probably not much older than she was, with auburn hair and freckles nearly covering his cheeks. His skin was unnaturally pale, which made a bleeding cut on the side of his head stand out painfully. Drops of blood fell on his shirt.

Astrid felt the need to gag. The boy didn't even look like he was breathing…

She grabbed his hand and felt for his pulse. She didn't have medical training like Ruffnut had, but she knew enough to know how to find someone's pulse, what was healthy, and what was irregular.

The boy's pulse was weak, but at least it was there and regular for the most part. His hand was cold and clammy, though, and that didn't take anything off of Astrid's list of worries.

Her heart nearly leapt into her throat when the boy opened his eyes. His irises were a deep emerald green, and they would have been more beautiful if they weren't full of such terror along with a bleary look that would have put anyone on edge.

He looked at her. "Hi?" he whispered. "Where...what?"

"You were in an accident," Astrid said, "but don't worry, you're-"

"Am I dead?" he asked. His voice was weak and hardly distinguishable, yet Astrid still heard every word clearly.

"No," Astrid said. "No, you're not dead. Help is coming. Hold on." She didn't know hardly anything about medical and treating people who had been injured, but she knew from Ruffnut that she needed to try her best to keep him conscious. "Um...do you have a name?" she asked, hating how lame her voice sounded.

"Hiccup," the boy choked.

"Hiccup?" Astrid repeated. "Is that...your real name, or-"

"It's a nickname," Hiccup corrected. "My...my real...real name is so...so stupid…" His eyelids fluttered, and Astrid put her hand on his shoulder, shaking him firmly yet gently.

"You have to stay awake," she said. "What's your real name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Stupid…" Hiccup muttered. "Doesn't matter…tired..."

"No," Astrid said, grabbing his other hand and holding them in both of her own. "Don't fall asleep, alright? Stay awake until help gets here. It'll get here soon."

"Hadley," Hiccup whispered. "My name's Hadley. But...it's stupid."

"It's not that stupid," Astrid said. "I've met people with names weirder than that. My name's Ashley, but most my friends call me Astrid."

"Pretty," Hiccup murmured. "Very...pretty…" His eyes threatened to close, and Astrid shook him once again.

"Hey, stay with me, alright?" Astrid said. She didn't even know the boy, and yet her heart was still breaking for him. He was probably terrified and in pain. She didn't even know how to help him.

"My leg hurts," he whimpered hoarsely. Astrid made the mistake of looking. The front of the car was smashed to the point where it crushed his leg. His right leg looked fine, aside for a decent sized cut that would heal with stitches, but his left leg was completely crushed beneath the wreckage. His pants leg was soaked with blood.

"Oh my gosh," Astrid couldn't stop herself gasping. "Oh my gosh."

The boy frowned. "Mmmh...thanks for the encouragement," he murmured. "I thought it was bad." He groaned, sagging against his seat. "I'm tired," he said quietly.

Astrid was too shocked to even utter a response otherwise. Instead, she looked over her shoulder at Ruffnut. "Ruff!" she shouted. "Get over here! He's hurt! Bad!"

Ruffnut ran up behind her hastily, horror etched on her face. "What-" Whatever Ruffnut was going to say was cut off by her gasp. "Oh, my gosh…" Ruffnut gasped.

"What do we do?" Astrid cried, hating how pathetic she sounded.

"Help will come soon," Ruffnut said, "but until then, we have to find some way to stop the bleeding...do you have anything on you?"

Astrid took the ribbon out of her hair and gave it to Ruffnut as quickly as possible. Her wavy blonde hair fell over her shoulders. "Here," she said, and Ruffnut was silent as she took the ribbon from Astrid and tied it tightly around Hiccup's leg, right beneath his knee. Hiccup winced, but made no other motion to signify he was in pain.

"That should hold for now," Ruffnut said, stepping back. "An ambulance is bound to be here any minute."

Astrid looked at the car over Ruffnut's shoulder and winced. "What about the passengers?" she asked. "A-are they-"

Ruffnut lowered her gaze, and Astrid let her voice trail off. "He's dead," Ruffnut said. "One person in the car - the driver - and he's dead. His chest was crushed. There's no possible way for anyone to survive an injury like that."

Astrid, instead of replying, turned her focus back to Hiccup. She grabbed his hands again in a silent comfort for him when he nearly passed out once again.

"Where's...where's my mom?" he asked.

"She's fine," Astrid promised, looking at the still-unconscious woman in the driver seat. "She's fine."

Hiccup closed his eyes. "Will you stay?" he asked weakly.

"Yeah," Astrid said. "I'm staying until the professionals get here." She couldn't help but look back down at his leg. He's going to lose it, she thought. The bone damage is going to be too much...he'll either lose it or be crippled for life.

She heard sirens out in the distance and couldn't help her sigh of relief. When she looked at Hiccup again, she saw that he had finally passed out, slumped forward, his chin against his chest.

"Come on, Astrid," Ruffnut said. "The professionals are here." In honesty, the older girl looked terrified, and beyond even that if possible. Astrid remained unmoved, her hands linked with Hiccup's. She stayed there as the ambulance arrived. She stayed there as Ruffnut told them what happened. At length, Ruffnut walked back towards Astrid and put her hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Come on, Astrid," Ruffnut said. "Let's go."

Despite her momentary reluctance, Astrid found herself nodding, letting go of Hiccup's hands and stepping backwards. She climbed into the passenger seat of Ruffnut's SUV, snapped herself in, and then she and Ruffnut headed away.

FOUR MONTHS LATER . . .

Astrid sat by herself in the coffee shop, a pencil in her hand and a coffee cup in the other, working on her homework. It was late in the evening. The clock in the coffee shop read 7:27. She was alone excluding the coffee shop employees, and even they were being quiet as if the silence of the shop was contagious.

The jingling of a bell let Astrid know that someone else had entered the coffee shop. She didn't look up from her work. She was busy. She heard the pattering of claws against the floor; whoever walked in must have had a dog of some sort.

"Hey," one of the coffee shop employees said, "no pets allowed."

"Oh," a voice replied. Astrid's hand froze in the middle of writing a number. Something about that voice was...familiar. "The sign said that service dogs were allowed."

Astrid turned around in her chair, looking at the speaker. He had auburn hair, green eyes, freckles, and a prosthetic leg.

It's him. Astrid remembered him. He was the boy she had met nearly four months earlier; the boy in the car crash, named Hadley (or Hiccup, as he said his nickname was).

There was a border collie standing at his side, his tongue flopping out of his mouth. The dog looked happy, yet at the same time, serious, with a harness around his back. Well, he is a service dog, after all.

"He's a service dog?" the cashier asked, leaning over the counter. "Oh, alright, he is. Okay, what will you have?"

"Hot chocolate."

"Alright. That'll be one dollar and seventy nine cents."

After just another moment, Astrid stood up and approached him. She wondered for a minute if he would remember her...either way, she supposed it didn't matter in the end.

He turned to look at her for a brief second, and a look of shock and recognition seized his face. He does remember me, then, Astrid realized.

"Hey," he said quietly, hesitating only for a moment before continuing. "I think I know you. Do I?"

Astrid nodded. "Yeah," she said. "I remember you."

Hiccup paused. "You were the girl I found after I was in the car accident," he said. "You...you have no idea…wow, this is awesome. I never thought I'd see you again."

Astrid smiled. "Why would you want to see me again, anyway?" she asked. "It's not like I'm anyone special-"

Hiccup's eyes widened. "Don't say that!" he said. "Are you kidding me? I don't think you realized what you did for me when I was hurt."

"All I did was hold your hand and tell you to stay awake," Astrid said simply.

"Well, yeah," Hiccup said, "but to me, that was...it was amazing, um...Astrid, right?"

Astrid nodded.

"I was scared out of my wits," Hiccup explained hastily, yet at the same time, hesitantly as if it was a subject he didn't like talking about. "You were the one who made me keep my cool."

"Your drink, sir," the coffee shop attendant said, putting a cup of hot cocoa down on the counter and rushing back to the kitchen to resume her chore. Hiccup took the cup off the counter, swirling its contents.

"Do you want to sit down?" Astrid offered, and Hiccup shrugged. In a few moments, they were sitting across from each other, Hiccup's dog laying under the table.

"What's his name?" Astrid asked, looking at the border collie.

"Toothless," Hiccup replied.

Astrid frowned. "Why's his name Toothless?" she asked.

Hiccup put up his finger, opened his mouth, and sighed. "I actually have no idea," he admitted. "My Mom got him for me after I lost my leg. I don't know. For some reason, I wanted to name him Toothless...don't ask why, because frankly, I have no idea."

Astrid nodded. "I have a dog named Stormfly," she said, "only she's not as cute. She's a weird looking yorkie with the strangest sounding bark you have ever heard. I'm serious, Hadley, you wouldn't believe it."

Hiccup nodded. "That's funny," he said. "And just Hiccup will do, please. I really don't like Hadley. It makes me sound stupid." He looked down at his cup briefly before meeting her eyes again. "You know," he said, "if I hadn't been in that crash, I never would have met you."

"Me neither," Astrid said. "Although I wish we could have met some other way, when the situation wasn't so serious…"

Hiccup shrugged. "Well," he said, "I suppose it isn't too late for another introduction." He extended his hand towards her. "Hello," he said. "I'm Hiccup."

Smiling, Astrid took his hand and gave it a firm shake. "Hello," she replied. "I'm Astrid."

Author's Notes:

This has been on my mind FOOOOOORRREEEEEEEEEEEEVVVVEEERRR and I just got around to writing it. I hope you all liked it as much as I enjoyed writing it...I know, I say that a lot, but hey, I mean it. :)

And of course it's just a one-shot, so don't be expecting anything else added on to this story. I hope you all enjoyed it. I've only wrote a modern story one other time, and this is my first modern day HTTYD one-shot. I think it turned out pretty well. :)

Until next story!

-BeyondTheClouds777