Chapter 3

Astrid sat in a booth in the small pizzeria near her apartment building. It was run by the weirdest pair of twins and their pet chicken. She had texted Hiccup the address and was now just waiting for his arrival.

"Hey girl!" Someone said and Astrid looked up from her game of Candy Crush to see one of the twins near her table.

"Hey Tuffnut," Astrid greeted.

"You want your usual?" Tuffnut asked. "And sorry about last time, Chicken got into the anchovies...... why would a chicken eat anchovies.... Like... huh," the blond just shrugged, mostly pondering to himself.

Astrid laughed but shook her head. "Not right now. I'm waiting for someone."

"Oh, you got a hot date?" Tuffnut questioned.

"What? No! Just meeting a friend... or possible friend," Astrid admitted because really.... Just what would Hiccup become to her? She wasn't in the habit of inviting people out a lot. She really felt bad for puking on his shoes but deep down she knew that she'd invited him for another reason as well, a selfish reason, though it was hard to admit that.

The bell above the door jingled and Astrid looked that way to see Hiccup entering.

"Ah so that's lover boy," Tuffnut nodded in approval after checking Hiccup out.

"TUFF!" Astrid hissed. "I HAVE a boyfriend!"

"Sure, sure, but seriously even I would hit that," Tuffnut just shrugged as Hiccup spotted her, waved awkwardly, and then approached the table.

"I'll get the menus," Tuffnut said as he excused himself.

"H-Hi..." Hiccup greeted with an awkward wave as he sat down.

"Hi Hiccup..." Astrid returned, not really knowing what to say.

"Uhm... I hope I'm not stressing you like this," Hiccup then said.

"What?" Astrid wasn't sure what he meant.

"Uhm... like this..." Hiccup motioned around themselves. "I know a bit about social anxiety but not enough, I admit. And well.... What if you're out of your comfort zone meeting like this."

"No no, not at all!" Astrid quickly answered and then confessed. "It's mostly parties or large gatherings I'm uncomfortable with. Meeting one-on-one isn't that nerve-wracking."

"That's good to know," Hiccup sighed relieved, and then nearly screamed when Tuffnut showed up out of nowhere with the menus.

"TUFFNUT! Do not make me get Ruffnut!" Astrid admonished and then turned to Hiccup "I'm sorry, he likes to do that from time to time,"

"It's fine, it's fine," Hiccup chuckled as the pair were handed each a menu with two hugging cacti on the front. Hiccup looked around the room and then back at the menu. "You know when you told me to meet you at The Cuddly Cactus I was expecting....."

"A bar? Astrid finished the sentence with a smirk.

"No.... Uhm... just more cacti," Hiccup replied which caused Astrid to hold in her laughter.

"Oh believe me there were.... A lot of cacti I mean," Astrid tried to compose herself. She hadn't expected Hiccup to pick up on that. "It's just, Ruff and Tuff are now forbidden by the city from owning more than two cacti. Especially after the great pizza fight of Berk."

"That was here?!" Hiccup's eyes widened as Astrid nodded in affirmation. "Here... HERE?!"

"Yeah, the fight made the eight o'clock news," Astrid mentioned. "Nine people had cacti-related injuries, one of which was a judge."

"Oof..." Hiccup winced.

"Yeah, so the twins had to give away a lot of the cacti but they weren't given the fault for the fight since the guy that started it was harassing Ruffnut by groping her." Astrid explained as she then started looking over the menu. "I forgot why this place was so popular in the first place. They have pizzas from al over the world." Hiccup looked at his menu as well and his eyes widened in shock at the choices.

"I've never heard of some of these pizzas. Souvlaki? Langalló? Crudaiola?" Hiccup looked confused. "You know, why don't I defer to the expert on this," He then said as he looked at Astrid who blushed.

"I... I'm no expert," Astrid uttered quickly. "I usually just get the same thing each time when I'm here,"

"Which is?" Hiccup asked, interested in her choice of pizza.

"The Toscana," Astrid admitted. "I like anchovies a lot,"

"You sure?" She then asked as she motioned to Tuffnut behind the counter.

"I admit I haven't had anchovies in a while but I'd love to try it," Hiccup stated as Tuff came over to take their order.

They ended up ordering a large pizza and two Sprites. While waiting for their order it was Hiccup who asked first. "So I'm assuming you didn't just call me here for the shoes."

Astrid was shocked that Hiccup had caught on and a little embarrassed too as she hadn't planned this outing for the purest of reasons she'd given him over the phone. "You're right," She finally admitted. Saying it out loud felt as if a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders.

"I do very much want to make it up to you but..... At the same time...." Astrid muttered. "I'm wondering how Eret invited you all to the party,"

"Huh?" Here Hiccup raised a brow in confusion.

"I mean, it was my birthday surprise party but there weren't a lot of people I knew there," Astrid admitted. "I hadn't seen any of my co-workers. Just my family and Eret's neighbors. His parents also came... obviously but the rest.... They were people from his job." Here Astrid backtracked a little. "Not that I'm saying he couldn't invite people from his job.... What I mean is..." Astrid bit her lip and then added "And it looked like you wanted to say something in the car when you drove me home...."

"Right... uhm... so you are working?" Hiccup asked and then snapped his mouth shut. His eyes widened as if he had just blurted something out that he probably shouldn't have.

"Of course, I have a job. I'm an Accountant," Astrid blinked, shocked as to why Hiccup would assume she didn't have a job.

Before Hiccup could answer Tuffnut appeared with their order. "Here you two go. One large Toscana with Pecorino cheese, bell pepper, and anchovies." Astrid was just staring at Hiccup while Hiccup tried to look everywhere but at her, feeling somewhat guilty for having brought it up. "Hiccup....." Astrid's eyes now narrowed and Tuffnut made the wise decision to get out of the line of fire.

"Okay... okay!" Hiccup held his hands up as if to show his surrender. "Eret's on the same design team with me and some others and we usually eat lunch together. A lot of the guys were complimenting him when he would bring in a home-cooked meal, telling him he had such a lucky girlfriend that would cook for him and saying how they missed a home-cooked meal as they only brought in store-bought sandwiches."

"I don't see how that's bad," Astrid now frowned as she saw Hiccup nervously scratch the back of his head.

"Eret..... Well, he usually responded with At the least she should get better at cooking as she doesn't do much through the day," Hiccup explained as and then immediately felt bad as he saw Astrid wince.

"Don't do much... I don't do much?!" Astrid's eyes were red as she tried to blink back the tears. She then proceeded to take an angry bite out of a poor unfortunate pizza slice while resting her elbow on the table. Hiccup said nothing as he just realized he had awoken Pandora's box. "I don't do much he said....." Astrid grumbled more to herself right now. "I take the time out of my morning before going to work to make him lunch whenever I'm staying over and he has the gall to insult me?!" Another angry bite out of the pizza. "Why that no good mulch-faced maggot!"

"So... uhm...." Hiccup tried to interject. "I'm really sorry he said those things. Honestly, a lot of the guys in our Project team, myself included, end up looking somewhat uncomfortable when he says those things. He basically just brushes us off when we tell him to stop it,"

"I see...." Astrid said in a tone that promised bodily harm in at least twenty ways.

"And I'm sorry I assumed you stayed at home. The way he made it sound...."

"That's fine Hiccup," Astrid sighed, some of her anger subsiding but not forgotten. "Was that all you had wanted to tell me in the car?"

"No," Hiccup admitted as he took a sip of his drink. "Honestly, I don't know how you'll take this next part,"

"Just tell me..... I think I can handle it," Astrid muttered as she closed her eyes briefly, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Do you know that Eret is one of three people up for the promotion of Executive manager at the firm?" Hiccup asked. Astrid shook her head negatively. She hadn't known. Eret never told her and now she was wondering what other things Eret had kept from her. "He ended up inviting all of us with the excuse that you're shy and didn't have many friends but he wanted to make it a bash you'd enjoy."

"Wait Hiccup, why would you bring up Eret's possible promotion then?" Astrid frowned. "Are you suggesting that he...."

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, I think so. Some of the guys I work with told HR about Eret's insensitive remarks and our boss got wind of it. Next thing we know, we're all invited to this surprise birthday party Eret is throwing for his girlfriend."

Astrid was still for a moment trying to process it all. "I'll be honest with you, I only went to that party to try and warn you. Eret isn't the nice guy you think he is. He's good at his job but most in the office think he's a bit of a jerk at times. He'll do anything to land his contracts or a promotion in this case. That includes sucking up to his boss by showing how good a boyfriend he is to dispel any rumors,"

"Excuse me for a moment," Astrid said as she suddenly stood up from her seat and walked to the back of the pizzeria. Hiccup saw her turn a corner and disappear into what he assumed to be the ladies' room.

---------

AN:
Vala: "So does the Porg like cheese?"
(Porg meeps happily)
(Vala gets body-slammed by Harry): "DON'T YOU DARE FONDUE MY PORG!"