I wonder what would happen if you say what you wanna say and let the words fall out. Honestly, I wanna see you be brave.

It was five minutes before her shift officially started when Tooth finally appeared outside the café. She paused outside to check her reflection on the glass doors and found herself looking more disheveled than she did when she left her apartment. She absolutely hates sleeping in; it felt like she was wasting away a good part of the day which is why she wasn't exactly in the best of moods right now.

The soft chime of the bell alerted M.K of another presence and she diverted her attention from her textbook to see Tooth swiping her time card across the digital bandy clock looking uncharacteristically miserable. She trudged across the café with her shoulders slightly hunched and she appeared to be dragging her shoulder bag across the floor from where she was sitting. "So…I suppose you had a good weekend?" She jokingly inquires. Taking in her unkempt appearance, M.K could tell she hadn't gotten much sleep, although she chose not to address that and attempted to keep the mood light.

Tooth wasn't exactly upset about anything, although it wasn't exactly a good weekend for her either. It was already 11pm when she arrived at her apartment after baby-sitting Jamie and Sophie. For most part of the night she couldn't seem to get Jack out of her head and after a few moments of tossing and turning, she gave up and ended up staring blankly at the ceiling until her mind finally drifted off. She managed to get some sleep, though it was only for a few hours and before she knew it, the sun was already prying through her curtains. She spent one half of her Sunday on Face Time with her parents and the other half getting a handful of laundry done. When night finally came, Tooth was on the internet again, searching for any open-call auditions at the nearby theaters. It had become somewhat of a routine for her to check every night since the day she moved into her apartment, albeit this time Tooth was growing increasingly frustrated every time she clicked refresh and found nothing. It was until her frustration turned into somewhat of an addiction and she stayed online for hours until her eyes lids felt like lead. That was when she took a glance at the time on the corner of the screen and found out it was nearly midnight.

And it's why it all came to this. Tooth thought to herself but she was too distraught on eying the place where Jack sat the other day to answer M.K's question.

The younger girl immediately takes notice. She set her textbook away and slid off the countertop just as Tooth came up beside her and unceremoniously deposited her belongings onto a nearby chair. "Hey," M.K shouldered her gently and the sudden nudge seemed to have startled Tooth out of her thoughts. "What's going on with you? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Tooth greeted her with her usual smile first before she pulled out her apron from her bag and tied it around her waist with a careless knot. She sighed, pretending to rub her eyes wearily for the sake of keeping her gaze in place. "It's nothing really, just tired from baby-sitting that's all."

Tooth was well aware that her answer was vague enough to give rise to suspicion but much to her surprise, M.K did not press on, the brunette only slumped back against the counter and shot her textbook a tired glance. "So looks like I'm not the only one who had a bad weekend."

Now that Tooth finally got a proper look at her, M.K appeared to be as weary as she felt which made Tooth feel genuinely concerned for her. Before she got the chance to flood her with questions however, M.K stopped her immediately with an assuring smile. "No, it's nothing serious. It's just that it's almost finals week again and I just spent the whole weekend in another study group—and I guess I'm kind of worried about my dad too, his been growing too obsessed with his research lately…"

Tooth tore her eyes away from M.K for a moment as she thought of what to say, although she wasn't able to keep her gaze from flicking back to the two-seater round table by the window. The next moment she blinked, she saw M.K waving a palm in front of her face. Tooth tried to formulate another excuse again, but it was somewhere along the intelligent lines of "uh…."

"Okay, what is with that seat and why do you keep staring at it?"

Tooth could tell M.K already had her assumptions judging from how she crossed her arms at her with a slight smirk tugging her lips. She knew there was no chance she could shift them into another topic and there was no purpose with trying to come up with an excuse knowing M.K would wheedle the answer out of her eventually.

"Do you remember that guy Jack who sat there the other day?" Tooth was a little surprised at how she managed to keep her voice leveled, but that moment was short lived once M.K cocked an eyebrow at her and tilted her head towards the spot she was referring to.

"Did he ask you out then? Is that why you are acting so out of depth today?"

The only answer she could offer to that was an incoherent stammer that sounded like 'what?'

"So he did then?"

"No! I sort of just ran into him again and we talked for a while…that's it.""Hang on, where did you meet him again?"

"That's the funny thing actually. He used to live next door to the kids I was baby-sitting and he happened to stop by and visit on that day." Tooth wanted to laugh at how insane it all sounded. The only time she saw heard of someone running into someone who can be considered as a total stranger again was when she was watching those cliché rom-com movies with her friends back in college. She never had a liking for those movies. She bets her friends would be absolutely thrilled when they hear about her situation.

"That seems like a good thing then." M.K said after she gave up on trying to read her thoughts. "Why do you look so…troubled?"

Truth be told, Tooth didn't exactly know how to answer that either. She had spent the other night shifting restlessly under her covers with an unexplainable guilt pestering her mind and yet she didn't exactly know what was wrong. "He seems like a really nice guy and I guess I kind of feel bad for not being entirely honest with him. " She mused aloud.

"Well what didn't you tell him?"

"Practically everything."

"And what do you mean by everything? Don't tell me you faked your name."

"No, of course I told him my name…I just skipped the part where I was striving to become an actor."

"And why is that?"

"It just seemed a bit silly, you know. He's my age and he's already got a secure job while I'm still…." Tooth threw her hands around in frustration as she tried to fish for the right word. "Well, you could say I'm still…floundering around and apparently I'm horrible at that too."

"First of all, what you are doing is not silly, okay?" Tooth looked like she wanted to protest but M.K only held up a hand to stop her. "Second, from what I saw the other day, Jack seems to be into you so it's obvious that you'll be seeing him again—and hey you've really got a big crush don't you? I've never seen you so upset about something like this."

"Hey, I'm not the only one with a crush. What's that guy's name, the one in your study group you keep ranting about? Ned? Nate?"

"It's Nod" M.K corrected and shoved her away playfully.

Clink!

The bell chimed for the second time today and it was soon followed by the soft chatter that belonged to a new group of diners. Tooth let out a silent groan and turned to grin at M.K when she heard her doing the same.

Another day of work…

Working together as a concept artist and a storyboard artist also meant being confined in the same room for hours, and out of all the conversations they had so far, Hiccup couldn't help but notice how the topic would always linger on the girl that Jack met at the diner. Of course it doesn't take a genius to notice his apparent attachment to her, though when Hiccup had pointed that out, Jack only gave him a dismissive shrug as a response and brought up a completely different subject just to stir the old topic elsewhere.

It was how they wound up here, with Hiccup sprawled across the leather couch in the middle of their studio, wearing the haughtiest (yet somewhat lopsided) grin he could muster and with Jack practically hunched over his desk as he scribbled fervently into his sketchbook, pretending to work on new concepts even though he wasn't exactly getting any ideas at all.

"So does it normally take you this long to ask someone out?" Hiccup spoke up again after a few minutes of silence, peering over the back rest of the couch and expecting Jack to be glaring daggers at him but was a little surprised to see him pretending to be distraught still.

"What?" Jack said, pausing mid-stroke on his sketch to crumple the slip of paper and toss it over his head. It's true that he was distraught, although he was more concerned of thinking up another way to lead Hiccup off the conversation rather than getting Tooth off his mind.

"It's obvious that you are getting attached to Tooth," the brunette clarified. "So why don't you just ask her out?"

"It's not like you did any better with Astrid," Jack countered deftly, smirking once he caught Hiccup shifting uncomfortably on his perch. "Seriously, how did you go through two proms with her without so much as inviting her out for coffee? Oh and don't get me started on the way you asked her to prom—she could barely understand you."

"Okay Jack, I already admitted I was a wimp before."

Jack couldn't help but let out a chuckle. His earliest memory of Hiccup was an awkward, scrawny fifteen-year-old whom he had defended from Dagur the Deranged back when no one else wouldn't and he remembered they had been good friends ever since. They went to college together with Hiccup threatening to overtake him in height and was now a good three inches taller than him. Not that anyone could call him a wimp anymore but Jack chose to continue his pointless rant in hopes of getting rid of the previous topic for good.

"For all I've known, you've been crushing on Astrid ever since you were in middle school and you just started officially dating her this year. Hate to break it to you buddy, but you're almost twenty-four."

"So," Hiccup propped himself onto his elbows in order to face Jack. "You're going to wait ten years before you finally ask her out on a date too?"

Here they go again. Apparently Hiccup was keen on making him suffer this conversation for the rest of this day. Jack couldn't help but think about the irony of the situation since he's the one who normally gets the upper hand on arguments like this. He was tempted to leave it alone and ignore Hiccup until the end of the day but a part of him still felt the need to say more. "Of course I'm not going to wait that long—just give it a little time."

Hiccup left a short moment's pause—which he assumed to be a contemplative silence, before he spoke up again. "Hey, you said she wasn't from around here, didn't you?"

Jack finally drew his eyes away from his work and addressed his inquiry with a raised brow. "Yeah, why's that?"

"Well, I dunno but…" Hiccup got up from the couch, crossed the room in a few strides and plopped himself into the empty seat next to Jack. "There might be a possibility that she might be leaving soon, so maybe you should hurry up before you lose your chance."

Jack leaned back into his seat for a moment, somewhat dazed as he took the idea into consideration.

Jack could say Hiccup looked somewhat pleased with himself after he announced that he will be heading to the diner for lunch, though when he asked him If he wanted to tag along, the brunette had politely declined knowing that he'd eventually become the third wheel if he did.

Jack found himself wishing Hiccup had come along now that he was standing outside the café with nothing to say, at least it would be a lot less awkward if he was pretending to be in an idle conversation with someone.

Shoving his hands into the pockets of his wind breaker jacket, he pressed his shoulder against the glass door and pushed it open, making his way inside the café with a casual saunter. The first sight that greeted Jack was Tooth unknowingly dashing passed him with a tray full of pastry, only to skid into a halt and turn on her heels to give him a double take. "Oh! Jack, hey! Uh…I didn't know you were coming."

She tripped over herself as she stopped and the plates of parties would have slid off the tray if Jack hadn't reached out to steady it. "Woah! Hey be careful with that!"

"Oh! I'm sorry," The smile Tooth gave him was a little sheepish as she searched around her for an empty table to place the tray of pastries on, although she found none.

Taking in her flushed face, the slight sweat that visibly plastered her bangs to her forehead and the bustling café around them, Jack could tell she busy and for a moment he was tempted to just leave but Tooth made a gesture to take a seat, promising she'll get back to him once she has the orders sorted out.

Jack picked the roundtable situated at the center of the room since the one by the window was currently occupied. Once Tooth returned holding a notepad in hand, Jack was still staring blankly at the menu in thoughtful silence as he mulled over what to say.

"So what can I get you?" Tooth looked like she wanted to clear her throat but thought it would be rude to do so as she stood beside him with her fingers fiddling with the loose threads of her apron.

"I was wondering if you were free to get a drink with me later, maybe after your shift?" Jack asked, peering at her over the menu.

Oh Tooth mouthed to herself, holding the pen uncertainly over her notepad, as if uncertain of what to do next. Jack was almost sure that he'd get a no, or perhaps maybe a made up excuse but all the dubious thoughts that began to plague his mind eventually dissolved once a familiar smile lit his view.

"Yeah sure, I guess I'm free later."

Song: Brave by Sara Bareilles

Just a side note: I added another scene in the last chapter. Sorry if this chapter may have caused some confusion because of that, but I supposed it's perfectly understandable even if you hadn't read the additional scene.

As always, thank you for reading! Your feedback would be appreciate as well :D