she has sunlight in her veins

chapter one: over work and under desk

Hiccup had just clocked in for his shift and he was already done with the day. He didn't care that there were five cars that needed to be fixed before lunch, or that his dad had given him a very stern warning that he needed to pick up the slack or there were going to be real consequences, reminding him that just because he came from a privileged position he wasn't allowed to coast through life. Coast through life. Ha! Anyone with the nickname Hiccup did not 'coast through life', even if their dad was the most powerful man in town.

Hiccup tried to dodge his boss's reproachful glare as he shuffled into the garage, slipping an apron over his head. "Sorry, Gobber."

His boss - real name Gavin - had a nickname that was possibly even worse than Hiccup; the difference being that he owned his with pride. Hiccup was a scrawny heap of hunched shoulders, twitching fingers and stumbling feet, over-compensating for his physical deficiencies with an unhealthy amount of scathing sarcasm. He could be called many things, but proud was not one of them.

Gobber hobbled around a shining silver hatchback, his prosthetic leg clunking against the concrete floor. "'Bout time you turned up," he growled. "Yer dad said you'd be in a bit earlier today."

Gobber and Hiccup's dad, Steven, were best friends, and had been for Hiccup's entire life - before, even, back in Scotland where they'd both grown up before moving to America together after Hiccup's mum had died. Steven had desperately needed a change, and Gobber had been up for a bit of an adventure, so here they were. To be brutally honest, sometimes he saw Gobber as more of a father figure than his own dad, who he couldn't help but see as this imposing, stoic, larger than life figure. He certainly spent more time with Gobber than his dad.

"Sorry, I got held up," Hiccup replied, picking up a wrench and idly tossing it from hand to hand. "Doing, you know, worthwhile things."

Gobber gave him a reproachful look. "And what could be more worthwhile than this?"

Hiccup sighed and waved an arm about hopelessly. "That's not what I meant, I know how important this place is. I just meant -"

"I know what yer meant, Hiccup. You can make it up to me by finishing off that paperwork from last week you never finished." Gobber's moustache twitched up in satisfaction at Hiccup's long groan.

"Desk duty? Really? I said I was sorry -"

He hated to admit it, but he thought Gobber maybe looked a little disappointed in him. He dropped the wrench back into its toolbox.

"And I said finish that paperwork! Yer capable of great things, Hiccup, but you need to stop..." Gobber gestured at him, waving his hand up and down. "This."

"But you just gestured to all of me," Hiccup said dejectedly.

"Exactly," Gobber said, waving him away.

Confused and more than a bit insulted, Hiccup turned to the office.

The small desk was cluttered with loose papers and manilla folders, a clunky old desktop computer taking up more than its fair share of space. Out of all the jobs he had to work at the mechanics, this was the one Hiccup hated. There was something stifling about how exposed the tiny office was - there was nowhere to hide with the half-walls topped by thin glass panels and the full glass door. The only space you could hide was under the desk, and good luck getting under there with your dignity intact.

Hiccup had just entered the space, resigning himself to a long day of draining paperwork, when the bell above the door chimed, and the love of his life walked in: Astrid Hofferson. Astrid was everything Hiccup wasn't; striking, confident, all long, lean muscle and astounding grace. She was top of their class, renowned athlete, perfect at everything and absurdly beautiful. The sun was shining behind her, creating a halo effect around her golden hair, and the way she was sauntering in set Hiccup's pulse racing.

He tried not to swallow his tongue as he rushed to greet her. "Astrid! Hey, hi, what are - what are you doing here?"

She looked surprised to see him there, standing awkwardly next to the desk, but she shouldn't have been. Everyone knew Hiccup worked at the garage because, unlike other teens, he didn't have extra curricular activities or friends to fill his time. Maybe she wasn't surprised to see him there - maybe she was just surprised to see him, period. Hiccup wouldn't be surprised if Astrid Hofferson frequently forgot about his existence.

"Hiccup," she said by way of greeting, voice totally devoid of emotion. "Is my car ready?"

"Your car?"

She raised one perfectly sculpted eyebrow, blue eyes narrowing. "This is the mechanics..."

"Oh, yeah! Yeah, sure, ah, which - which one's yours?" Hiccup leant awkwardly over the desk to grab the closest stack of papers. Astrid had just opened her mouth to respond when he found her sheet. "Silver audi. Right. Of course it is."

Her mouth twisted. He'd said something wrong. Nothing new there. "Is it ready?" she repeated.

Hiccup turned to look at the car. Gobber had his head inside the hood, still tweaking something. "It doesn't look like it's far away."

"Great." Astrid rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest. There was a lengthy silence, where Hiccup shuffled and reshuffled the papers and tried not to lose himself in the depths of those glorious blue eyes. He was failing miserably when she coughed and said abruptly, "So I guess I'll just wait here then?"

Hiccup stashed the papers back on the desk and gestured at the wheely chair beside him. "Sorry, you can, uh, come sit over here if you'd like."

Astrid considered the offer for a second, and looked ready to turn it down when a bright red sports car came flying into the parking lot. The sound of screeching tires and blaring rock music drew their attention, and Astrid's eyes widened. Hiccup groaned at the arrival of his stupid cousin, Scott. Beefy, bulky and quicker to anger than he was to considering any rational thought, Scott was a pain in the arse. It was hard to believe that he and Hiccup were related at all, but their dads were brothers.

"Great," he muttered.

"Shit," Astrid growled at the same time, "Shit, shit."

Her panic kind of made Hiccup panic. "What's -?" Before he could finish his sentence she was charging at him, knocking him sideways and sending him sprawling into the chair. It wheeled back under his slight weight and he crashed into a filing cabinet, sending a rather heavy folder toppling into his lap. "Ow!"

Astrid totally ignored him. Her eyes were darting all over the place, scanning everything in the office, looking for - something. Hiccup had no idea what was happening. The door of the red car outside opened. With more agility than he'd thought possible from someone in a skirt that short, Astrid ducked and rolled under his desk.

His eyebrows were so high he was sure they'd disappeared into his hairline. "Wha - what are you doing?"

"Shut up and pretend I'm not here!" she hissed.

He still wasn't following. "But -"

"Do it!" Hiccup didn't want to risk the punishment that came with disobeying - she didn't even need to say a threat, it was evident from the set of her jaw and her clenched fist. Even crouched a little awkwardly beneath his work desk, Astrid managed to be intimidating. Hiccup swallowed nervously and nodded.

He scooted forward into a more natural position just as Scott entered. His cousin was strutting like an overgrown rooster, wearing a leather jacket and unnecessarily dark sunglasses.

"Hey, Snot - I mean, Scott." Hiccup waved unnaturally. Astrid made a strange noise under the desk and he instinctively coughed to try and cover it up.

Scott didn't notice. "Hiccup," he sneered.

"What brings you to the garage on such a fine day as this?"

"I'm not here to talk to you."

Hiccup sighed. "Yes, thanks for explaining that. I was so wishing we could have one of our in depth discussions about recent political events and world news."

"I'm here to talk to Gobber about lowering my car," Scott explained, lip curling up. "I've got a big race coming up in a few weeks."

"You mean those illegal and stupidly dangerous nights where you and your friends drag race down suburban streets?" Hiccup deadpanned.

It was then that Scott made his fatal mistake. He lowered his sunglasses, presumably in an attempt to stare Hiccup down and intimidate him. Instead, he revealed the fact that he had an epic black eye.

"Whoa, what happened to your face?!" Hiccup blurted. Astrid again made a weird little noise, but it was quieter this time. Hiccup felt her arm brush against his calf and tried not to faint.

Scott hurriedly shoved the glasses back on. "Shut up!"

"What happened?"

Scott mumbled something incoherent.

"What?"

"Astrid-" was all Hiccup caught before Scott trailed off into more mumbles. He gestured for him to speak up, and Scott exploded. "Astrid hit me! Okay, are you happy? Did you hear that? Astrid hit me."

Hiccup felt like Christmas had come early. The one thing he and Scott had in common was their crushes on Astrid. Hearing that she'd given his cousin a black eye made the fact that she was sitting between his knees even better. If only Scott knew where she was now...

"What? Why?" Hiccup asked.

"No idea. I was just being my usual charming self and she clocked me, right in the face. Stupid bitch," Scott grumbled.

Hiccup could swear that he could feel Astrid's tension radiating out from the under the desk. He had a sudden, horrific premonition of her launching herself out of her hiding place and hitting Scott again. As much as he wanted to see that, he was pretty sure that she'd regret it later. He had to say something, anything, to distract her. So Hiccup said the first thing that came to mind. "You let a girl hit you hard enough to give you a black eye?"

Astrid punched him, hard, in the shin. He winced and lifted his leg, reaching to cup the ache. That was going to bruise. "Ow!" Scott gave him a weird look. Hiccup floundered, trying to recover. "I mean, ow, boy, that must have really hurt. She looks like she has a mean punch."

Scott sniffed and nodded once. "Anyway, where's Gobber?"

Hiccup lowered his foot, trying not to step on Astrid. God knows what she'd do if he stepped on her. "He's fully booked today. It's really busy right now."

Scott scowled. "Are you telling me I'll have to come back?"

"Yes, that is generally what is meant by 'he's fully booked today'. He doesn't have time to talk about... lowering you car," Hiccup finished disdainfully.

Scott was not happy. He flipped the edge of a manilla folder up so it hit Hiccup in the chin. "Whatever. Tell him to call me. It's urgent."

Hiccup pushed the folder down. "Right, yeah. Urgent."

Scott left in a huff. Astrid didn't move until he'd peeled away with a horrific screech from his tires.

Hiccup bent down to look at her. "Are you alright?"

She put both hands on the seat of the chair and pushed back, hard. Hiccup sailed across the small space and she crawled out from under the desk, straightening and tossing her braid over her shoulder imperiously. "Fine," she snapped.

"Why did you... What was that all about?"

When she turned to him her eyes were like ice. "Did you see his face?" She advanced across the room, bearing down on him. Hiccup nodded. "If you breathe a word of this, to anyone -" She put an arm on his shoulder, pushing him back into the chair. He was slightly scared that it was going to topple over and he'd end up on his back. She leant right down, so that her face was mere centimetres from his. "-Anyone, at all, I will do worse to you. Do you understand?"

Hiccup had forgotten how to breathe. "Y-yes."

"Good." She pushed off, straightening up again.

Of course, to counterbalance that force, Hiccup was sent backwards. The chair tipped and he was lying on his back on the cement floor, slightly dazed. Astrid stood above him, and if he hadn't known any better he might have sworn that she looked almost apologetic. He awkwardly clambered to his feet. Astrid was still standing there. He was in a lot of pain, but he didn't want her to know that. "Girls dig scars, right?" he tried to joke.

"Did you hit your head?" she asked.

He rubbed the back of his head, which had thankfully landed on the headrest of the seat and not the ground. "No."

"Then you have no excuse for what you just said."

"Oh. Right."

"And that hit by a girl comment, what was that?" Astrid looked pretty riled up now.

"I didn't mean it! I was worried you were going to lose it when he called you a bitch so I just said that first thing that came to mind -"

She drew her shoulders back and considered him. "You do that a lot, don't you?"

He shrugged one shoulder. He thought that this might be the longest conversation they'd ever had. He didn't want it to end. "So why'd you hit him?"

"Because he's a dick."

Hiccup laughed, a genuine, hearty laugh. When she offered no further explanation, he agreed. "Yeah, yeah he is. Is that why you didn't want him to see you?"

"You know Scott, there are two ways he's going to deal with that - he's either going to sulk like a little cry baby, or he's going to become even more of a creepy jerk and double his efforts to hit on me." When Astrid sighed her fringe blew up slightly.

"Oh. Yeah. I can see why you'd want to avoid that."

"Normally I can handle it!" she assured him. "But today - well, not today."

Hiccup desperately wanted to ask why not today, but he restrained himself. "Well, I think you handled yourself very gracefully." Astrid regarded him closely. It looked like she was trying to figure out if he was making fun of her. He insisted, "I've never seen anyone move that quick, seriously, that was impressive. I can see why you excel at sports."

Astrid smiled. It made her round face look even rounder. He thought it was adorable. "Excel at sports?" she asked teasingly.

He blushed. Teasing, was that something that he and Astrid Hofferson did together now? "Yeah, well..."

A loud bang at the window startled them both. Astrid became immediately guarded, haughty attitude reappearing. Gobber was there, waving the keys to Astrid's car, grinning toothily.

"Looks like it's ready," Hiccup said.

"Yeah," Astrid said.

"You, ah, you just need to sign here." He gestured to the dotted line at the bottom of the contract, which had already been stamped as paid. Their hands touched as he passed her a pen. They said thanks at the same time as she handed it back.

Hiccup felt like his insides were melting when she ducked her head and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. For a moment he thought she was going to say something more, do something more, but she turned and rushed past him. He deflated as she practically ran from the office. But then he heard the squeak of her shoes against the cement, and he turned to see her poking her head in the doorway.

"Sorry. For pushing you," she offered a stilted apology.

"It's okay," he replied, but by the time he found the words she was already gone, collecting her keys from Gobber and driving away.

He watched her go, staring down the road long after the silver audi had vanished from view, and wondering what the hell had happened to Astrid Hofferson.

a.n. these two idiots are destroying my life. also i saw this au prompt on tumblr and immediately thought of them, with some tweaking: "You're a store clerk and oh shit I just spotted my ex please let me hide behind your desk-thing". let me know what you think so far!