Hey! and Happy Holidays Peoples! In the the spirit of the holidays and inspired my the array of Hallmark movies, I decided to start a one-shot series about our HTTYD OTP, Hiccstrid. For this waiting on my other stories, I'm currently working on it and have an updated Author's note at the end of each one. Now that that's out of the way, enjoy the one shot!

1st Meeting: Partner & Teacher (P&T)

- Summary - Hiccup confronts a crush.

- Disclaimer: I don't own How to Train Your Dragon, it belongs to Dreamworks. This is simply for fun NOT for profit.

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"Of all the stupidest things to do, that was probably the stupidest! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" I muttered as a face palmed myself and continued to drove.

You're probably wondering, 'why is this guy beating himself up so much?' Well it's quite simple.

Ever since I was 15 years old, I've been working out, to build up some muscle. It started out as an order from my father that felt like living hell. But as I continued to push through it, I notice that I was actually getting stronger and continued to work out since. Even now that I'm out of the house and on my own, I still go to the local gym twice a week to keep up with the training plan my dad and uncle Gobber had set for me.

For the last 5 years, I've been going to the local gym and notice a certain blonde girl there. She didn't seem to work there, but I would sometimes see her go around encouraging total strangers as they worked out. Heck, she had given me words of encouragement and had help spot me at the bench a few times. But every time that she interacted with me, I seem to lose my ability to speak, and she leaves to do something else.

However, Today was different. Not only did she help spot me on the bench, but she also did her cool down exercises on the treadmill right next to mine instead of going on the cycle like usual. The whole time that I was there she would glance at me, but not once was I able to start-up a conversation. The prime opportunity and I couldn't even make small talk. I had to wash the shame away in the shower. Now here I am, driving to the next thing on my agenda, and hoping that I forget my screw up.

After building up some muscle, Gobber suggested that I took some self-defense classes, so I enrolled in a dojo to learn martial arts. And I'm proud to say that I'm currently a purple belt with a strip in a class that was an assortment of green and purple belts. I pulled up to the dojo and changed into my gi and joined my class in meditation as we waited for our sensei (*1) arrive.

I was well into it, forgetting my worries when I heard footsteps and cracked an eye open. I didn't get a good look, just someone from the waist down with a black belt on and some others starting to stand up.

Must have been the sensei.

I stood up along with everyone else in a ready stance, but the person in front of us wasn't our sensei. It wasn't even a man. It was a woman with blonde hair in a thick braid. Then it hit me, this was the same girl that I saw at the gym all of the time. She was thin like me, but her stance seem to emit more strength than me. I wasn't the only one that thought so, because the other guys in my class either had confused faces like me or smug grins as they looked her up and down.

"Alright, Students. I am Astrid Hofferson. While you are in this dojo, you will address me as Sensei or Sensei Hofferson." She looked around to see if anyone objected and when no one wavered, she continued. "As for your former sensei, he has quit from this dojo to be a sensei at his grandchildren's dojo. If any of you have a problem with that, the door is over there." She waited again to see if anyone would object, but no one moved so she continued. "That's what I liked to see. All of you may be green and purple belts, but I want to get a read on everyone's individual style and detailed level." I slowly rose my hand in the air and Astrid paused with a strange look on her face, but let me speak. "Yes, you over there."

I bowed before I spoke. "Sensei Hofferson, our previous sensei kept a log of our individual progress and you can read that, if you want you know individual style and level."

"I'm aware of the log, deshi..." (*2)

"Henry. Henry Haddock."

"More like Hiccup Haddock" a guy immaturely blurted out.

"Well Haddock, I'll deal with you in a minute. You over there, the one that blurted out step forward."

Said guy smirked as he stepped up to Astrid and bowed, not even hinting at the fact that he was checking her out while doing so. He wasn't bulky, but was big enough to easily over power anyone around Astrid's size.

"What's your name?" Astrid asked

"Greg, sensei." He said with a wink.

"Okay, Greg. You'll be the first one."

" First for what?" He said with a raised brow.

"To be tested." She turned to the rest of us. "I'm giving to have each one of you to come forward for me to test myself. If you can throw me off my guard, you are free to go, but if you can't you'll have to run laps around the dojo until either I tell you to stop or when everyone that failed has run. And you..." she turned back to Greg. "Will be the first one." She had a stone face as she took a ready fighting stance. "Come at me with whatever you got."

"Oh, I'll come at you!" He smirked as he cracked his head and knuckles before charging at Astrid.

He tried a chop, but Astrid dodged. He went with a palm strike then a punch, but Astrid dodged and ducked. Frustrated, he did an array of punches and kicks, completely leaving himself open. With that, Astrid punched him in the throat and leg swept him to fall on his back. She turned him onto his stomach and bent his arm back enough for him to shout in pain.

"Let Greg here be an example." She addressed all of us. "There will be no blurting out anything in my dojo. You will treat me with respect like you would with any other sensei." She looked down at Greg's pain-clenched face. "Do I make my self clear?"

"Hai! Sensei!" (*3)

"Good." She released him and he flopped to the floor. "Now start running." He got up and started to jog the perimeter of the dojo. "And you can't have water until you start sweating." She shouted and he groaned as he started to actually run. "Now, who's next?" She took up a ready stance again. No one moved. Everyone shuffled around nervously. They guys that were smirking earlier were now avoid Astrid's eye contact at all costs. I spared a glance and she zeroed in on me. "You."

"Hai, Sensei" I stepped forward and bowed to her properly.

"Bring it on, Hiccup."

I started out with a chop like Greg, and Astrid rolled my eyes at me for trying the same thing as before. She grabbed my wrist to judo flip me, but I twisted my wrist at an odd angle to loosened her grip on me and turn her around.

I formed my hands into fists and extended my index and middle fingers slightly so that they jutted out by the knuckle. While her back was turned, I grabbed her arm to secure her as I gave a couple of swift punches to her shoulders before stepping back. When she turned around, her arms hung limply at her side.(*4)

"You know how to chi block?" Astrid asked with slight surprise.

"Yeah."

"But... that's a technique that only brown belts and above know how to do correctly."

I shrugged my shoulders. "It's not perfect. The block is supposed to last for hours at a time, but mine only last 15-20 minutes."

"Still, how did you learn to do this?"

"My old master taught it to me when I took started to struggle in my first few lessons and stuff." I glanced away for a second before I met her eyes again. Her surprise started to dissipate and a look of intrigue started to show through.

"Go."

"What?" I snapped out of the mini trace that I was in.

"You caught he off guard so, you are free to go."

Not wanting to push my luck, I didn't question her further. I bowed and went straight for the restroom to change and head home.

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It was a while before I saw her at the gym again. No much had changed about her but, there were a slight tint of pink in her eyes. I was spotting her after she just spotted me on the bench when I just couldn't help but ask her something.

"So, you okay?"

"Yeah. Why?" She said as she was lifting the bar up and down.

"No reason."

We didn't talk that much after that. It wasn't until we were both on the treadmill for the cool down when she spoke again.

"You were bullied?" She said it as more of a statement then a question.

I almost stumbled in my pace and looked at her for a second. There wasn't a stumble or pause in her jogging. She just kept going as if she didn't just speak. "Yeah, I guess. What made you ask?"

"Sensei's notes."

"His what?"

"His notes. His log never showed anyone else in you class learning chi blocking, so I gave his office an extra check. Along with his log, your sensei had personal notes stashed away about his students." She gave me a quick glance. "I've been reading them all night and your section had the most notes. It wasn't anything too descriptive, but it gave me a general idea of the stuff that his students confided in him. When I was looking through it, there was a passage saying that you learned chi block earlier in life to fight off people to defend those who couldn't defend themselves."

"It's true. I used to dabble in martial arts a few years back to hel keep bullies away. And that eventually developed into defending others, like the nerd styles or defenseless women. It wasn't until I started taking classes and first met my old sensei that I started using the proper technique."

There was a beat of silence.

"If you like, I could show you a few tricks and tweaks to make the paralysis from your chi blocking last longer." She offered.

I turned to look at her to see her smiling like she used, if not more so than before.

"Yeah, I'd like that."

We started to talk more during workouts after that day. In fact I think some of the other guys in there wished we shut up every now and then.

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(*1) sensei = teacher

(*2) deshi = student

(*3) hai = yes

(*4) Gotta love that chi blocking! I couldn't help but throw in an Avatar reference. And those who aren't familiar with Avatar, chi blocking is of like hitting pressure points to make certain parts of the body immobile or weaker. I'm not sure what level belt you would be to learn this in real life, but I'm just rolling with it.

There you are folks, my first one shot series. Now before anyone point out the inaccuracies of the dojo scenes and even the gym scenes, I've never took martial arts and know little to nothing about the techniques. Most of that info comes from google, however if I'm way off on something, point it out so that I can possibly fix it.

If you new to the story, please review and let me know what you think of the series so far. Constructive criticisms are accepted, but no flames please. And don't be afraid to check out the my other stories.